t, six livres; for two new sleeves to the
king's old doublet, twenty sols; for a box of grease to grease the boots
of the king, fifteen deniers; a stable newly made to lodge the king's
black pigs, thirty livres parisis; many partitions, planks, and
trap-doors, for the safekeeping of the lions at Saint-Paul, twenty-two
livres."

"These be dear beasts," said Louis XI. "It matters not; it is a fine
magnificence in a king. There is a great red lion whom I love for his
pleasant ways. Have you seen him, Master Guillaume? Princes must have
these terrific animals; for we kings must have lions for our dogs and
tigers for our cats. The great befits a crown. In the days of the pagans
of Jupiter, when the people offered the temples a hundred oxen and a
hundred sheep, the emperors gave a hundred lions and a hundred eagles.
This was wild and very fine. The kings of France have always had
roarings round their throne. Nevertheless, people must do me this
justice, that I spend still less money on it than they did, and that I
possess a greater modesty of lions, bears, elephants, and leopards.--Go
on, Master Olivier. We wished to say thus much to our Flemish friends."

Guillaume Rym bowed low, while Coppenole, with his surly mien, had the
air of one of the bears of which his majesty was speaking. The king paid
no heed. He had just dipped his lips into the goblet, and he spat out
the beverage, saying: "Foh! what a disagreeable potion!" The man who was
reading continued:--

"For feeding a rascally footpad, locked up these six months in the
little cell of the flayer, until it should be determined what to do with
him, six livres, four sols."

"What's that?" interrupted the king; "feed what ought to be hanged!
_Pasque-Dieu_! I will give not a sou more for that nourishment. Olivier,
come to an understanding about the matter with Monsieur d'Estouteville,
and prepare me this very evening the wedding of the gallant and the
gallows. Resume."

Olivier made a mark with his thumb against the article of the "rascally
foot soldier," and passed on.

"To Henriet Cousin, master executor of the high works of justice in
Paris, the sum of sixty sols parisis, to him assessed and ordained by
monseigneur the provost of Paris, for having bought, by order of the
said sieur the provost, a great broad sword, serving to execute and
decapitate persons who are by justice condemned for their demerits,
and he hath caused the same to be garnished with a sheath and