ess. The shortness, too (it has less than three
thousand lines), is undoubtedly in its favour, for these pieces are
apt to be rather too long than too short. And if the pusillanimity and
_faineantise_ of Louis seem at first sight exaggerated, it must be
remembered that, very awkward as was the position of a Henry III. of
England in the thirteenth century, and a James III. of Scotland in the
fifteenth, kings of similar character must have cut even worse figures
in the tenth or eleventh, when the story was probably first
elaborated, and worse still in the days of the supposed occurrence of
its facts. Indeed, one of the best passages as poetry, and one of the
most valuable as matter, is that in which the old king warns his
trembling son how he must not only do judgment and justice, must not
only avoid luxury and avarice, protect the orphan and do the widow no
wrong, but must be ready at any moment to cross the water of Gironde
with a hundred thousand men in order to _craventer et confondre_ the
pagan host,--how he must be towards his own proud vassals "like a
man-eating leopard," and if any dare levy war against him, must summon
his knights, besiege the traitor's castle, waste and spoil all his
land, and when he is taken show him no mercy, but lop him limb from
limb, burn him in fire, or drown him in the sea.[36] It is not
precisely an amiable spirit, this spirit of the _chansons_: but there
is this to be said in its favour, there is no mistake about it.

[Footnote 36: _C.L._, ll. 72-79, 172-196.]

[Sidenote: _William of Orange._]

It may be perhaps expected that before, in the second place, summing
the other branches of the saga of this William of Orange, it should be
said who he was. But it is better to refer to the authorities already
given on this, after all, not strictly literary point. Enormous pains
have been spent on the identification or distinction of William
Short-nose, Saint William of Gellona, William Tow-head of Poitiers,
William Longsword of Normandy, as well as several other Williams. It
may not be superfluous, and is certainly not improper, for those who
undertake the elaborate editing of a particular poem to enter into
such details. But for us, who are considering the literary development
of Europe, it would be scarcely germane. It is enough that certain
_trouveres_ found in tradition, in history freely treated, or in their
own imaginations, the material which they worked into this great
series of poem