tched Gaston suspended by the neck, by his own girdle, to
an iron ring in the side of his prison. He had clambered to it by means
of the table on which his food had been placed; and in the agonies of
shame and disappointed malice, had adopted this mode of ridding himself
of a wretched life. He was found yet warm, but totally lifeless. A proper
account of the manner of his death was drawn up and certified. He was
buried that evening in the chapel of the castle, out of respect to his
high birth; and the chaplain of Fitzallen of Marden, who said the service
upon the occasion, preached, the next Sunday, an excellent sermon upon
the text, "Radix malorum est cupiditas," which we have here transcribed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[Here the manuscript from which we have painfully transcribed, and
frequently, as it were, translated this tale, for the reader's
edification, is so indistinct and defaced that, excepting certain
"howbeits," "nathlesses," "lo ye's!" etc. we can pick out little that is
intelligible, saving that avarice is defined "a likourishness of heart
after earthly things."] A little farther there seems to have been a gay
account of Margery's wedding with Ralph the Tasker, the running at the
quintain, and other rural games practised on the occasion. There are also
fragments of a mock sermon preached by Gregory upon that occasion, as for
example:--

"Mv dear cursed caitiffs, there was once a king, and he wedded a young
old queen, and she had a child; and this child was sent to Solomon the
Sage, praying he would give it the same blessing which he got from the
witch of Endor when she bit him by the heel. Hereof speaks the worthy Dr.
Radigundus Potator. Why should not Mass be said for all the roasted shoe
souls served up in the king's dish on Saturday? For true it is that Saint
Peter asked father Adam, as they journeyed to Camelot, an high, great,
and doubtful question: 'Adam, Adam, why eated'st thou the apple without
paring?'"

[This tirade of gibberish is literally taken or selected from a mock
discourse pronounced by a professed jester, which occurs in an ancient
manuscript in the Advocates' Library, the same from which the late
ingenious Mr. Weber published the curious comic romance of the "Limiting
of the Hare." It was introduced in compliance with Mr. Strutt's plan of
rendering his tale an illustration of ancient manners. A similar
burlesque sermon is pronounced by the Fool in Sir David Lindesay's satir