upon with the utmost horror by the infidels, who dreaded more
their savage ferocity than the valour of the Crusaders. The latter even,
who had these hordes of Tafurs under their command, were not without
considerable mistrust of them, and when, during their march through
Hungary, under the protection of the cross, these miscreants committed
depredations, Godefroy de Bouillion was obliged to ask pardon for them
from the king of that country.

An ancient poet has handed down to us a story in verse setting forth the
exploits of Eustace the monk, who, after having thrown aside his frock,
embraced the life of a robber, and only abandoned it to become Admiral of
France under Philip Augustus. He was killed before Sandwich, in 1217. We
have satisfactory proof that as early as the thirteenth century sharpers
were very expert masters of their trade, for the ingenious and amusing
tricks of which they were guilty are quite equal to the most skilled of
those now recorded in our police reports. In the two following centuries
the science of the _pince_ and of the _croc_ (pincers and hook), as it was
then called, alone made progress, and Pathelin (a character in comedy, and
an incomparable type of craft and dishonesty) never lacked disciples any
more than Villon did imitators. We know that this charming poet, who was
at the same time a most expert thief, narrowly escaped hanging on two
occasions. His contemporaries attributed to him a poem of twelve hundred
verses, entitled "Les Repues Franches," in which are described the methods
in use among his companions for procuring wine, bread, meat, and fish,
without having to pay for them. They form a series of interesting
stories, the moral of which is to be gathered from the following lines:--

"C'est bien, disne, quand on eschappe
Sans desbourcer pas ung denier,
Et dire adieu an tavernier,
En torchant son nez a la nappe."

The meaning of this doggrel, which is somewhat broad, may be rendered--"He
dines well who escapes without paying a penny, and who bids farewell to
the innkeeper by wiping his nose on the tablecloth."

Side by side with this poem of Yillon we ought to cite one of a later
period--"La Legende de Maitre Faifeu," versified by Charles Boudigne. This
Faifeu was a kind of Villon of Anjou, who excelled in all kinds of
rascality, and who might possibly have taught it even to the gipsies
themselves. The character of Panurge, in the "Pantagruel," is no other
than the typ