refinement or effeminacy in the cultivation of an
art which was the favourite amusement of such monarchs as Henry IV.
and his illustrious son.

[22] Ibid pp. 60, 61.

But during the leisure which was afforded by his tedious captivity, it
is certain that James applied himself to severer studies than either
his military exercises or his cultivation of music. He was acquainted
with the Latin language, as far, at least, as was permitted by the
rude and barbarous condition in which it existed previous to the
revival of letters. In theology, oratory, and grammar, in the civil
and the canon laws, he was instructed by the best masters; and an
acquaintance with Norman French was necessarily acquired at a court,
and amongst a people, where it was still currently spoken, and highly
cultivated. Devoted, however, as he was to these pursuits, James
appears to have given his mind with a still stronger bias to the study
of English poetry, choosing Chaucer and Gower for his masters in the
art, and entering with the utmost ardour into the great object of the
first of these illustrious men,--the improvement of the English
language, the production of easy and natural rhymes, and the
refinement of poetical numbers, from the rude compositions which had
preceded him.[23] In the concluding stanza of the King's Quair, a work
composed by the Scottish King shortly before his return to his
kingdom, he apostrophizes Gower and Chaucer as his dear masters, who
sat upon the highest steps of rhetoric, and whose genius as poets,
orators, and moralists, entitled them to receive the most exalted
honour.

[23] Ellis's Specimens, vol. i. p. 205.

Unto the hymis of my maisteris dere,
Gowere and Chaucere, that on steppis satt
Of rhetorick, quhill thai war lyvand here,
Superlative as poets laureate,
In moralitee and eloquence ornate,
I recommend my buik in lynis seven,
And eke their saulis unto the blisse of hevin.

* * * * *

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

(_From the Private Correspondence of a Woman of Fashion._)

Bruxelles, June 24, 1815.

On the first day we had so little idea of the vicinity of the
engagement, that I drove out with a Belgian family in an open carriage
towards the Bois de Soignies. But we were obliged to retreat
precipitately, and take another direction across the country, and pass
through a different _barriere_ through the town to my residence. They
wished me to a