ion of the English provinces in France, and particularly with
the celebrated sir John Fastolfe, knight of the Garter, whom the writer in
several places mentions as "myne autor."

Sir John Fastolfe had survived the losses of his countrymen in France, and
died at an advanced age in the year 1460. It seems not at all improbable
that the substance of this book was written during his life-time, and that
it was merely revised and augmented on the eve of Edward the Fourth's
invasion of France. All the historical events which are mentioned in it
date at least some five-and-twenty years before that expedition.

The author commences his composition by an acknowledgment, how necessary it
is in the beginning of every good work, to implore the grace of God: and
then {ii} introduces a definition of true nobility or Noblesse, in the
words of "Kayus' son," as he designates the younger Pliny.

He next states that his work was suggested by the disgrace which the realm
had sustained from the grievous loss of the kingdom of France, the duchies
of Normandy, Gascony, and Guienne, and the counties of Maine and Ponthieu;
which had been recovered by the French party, headed by Charles the
Seventh, in the course of fifteen months, and chiefly during the year 1450.
To inspire a just indignation of such a reverse, he recalls all the
ancestral glories of the English nation, from their first original in the
ancient blood of Troy, and through all the triumphs of the Saxons, Danes,
Normans, and Angevyns. Of the Romans in England he says nothing, though in
his subsequent pages he draws much from Roman history.

The next chapter sets forth how every man of worship in arms should
resemble the lion in disposition, being eager, fierce, and courageous. In
illustration of this it may be remarked, that Froissart, when describing
the battle of Poictiers, says of the Black Prince, "The Prince of Wales,
who was _as courageous and cruel as a lion_, took great pleasure this day
in fighting and chasing his enemies." So our first Richard is still
popularly known by his martial epithet of Coeur de Lyon: and that the lion
was generally considered the fit emblem of knightly valour is testified by
its general adoption on the heraldic shields of the highest ranks of feudal
chivalry. The royal house of England displayed three lions, and the king of
beasts was supposed to be peculiarly symbolic of their race--

Your brother Kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all exp