nd whoso will keep a
pig, let him keep it in his own house." Even this privilege was
withdrawn a little later, so elegant were manners becoming.[451]

In this laborious city, among sailors and merchants, acquiring a taste
for adventure and for tales of distant lands, hearing his father
describe the beautiful things to be seen at Court, Geoffrey grew up,
from a child became a youth, and, thanks to his family's acquaintances,
was appointed, at seventeen, page to Elizabeth, wife of Lionel, son of
Edward III.[452] In his turn, and not as a merchant, he had access to
the Court and belonged to it. He dressed in the fashion, and spent seven
shillings for a short cloak or paltock, shoes, and a pair of red and
black breeches.

In 1359 he took part in the expedition to France, led by the king. It
seemed as if it must be a death-blow to the French: the disaster of
Poictiers was not yet repaired; the Jacquerie had just taken place, as
well as the Parisian riots and the betrayal and death of Marcel; the
king of France was a prisoner in London, and the kingdom had for its
leader a youth of twenty-two, frail, learned, pious, unskilled in war.
It looked as though one had but to take; but once more the saying of
Froissart was verified; in the fragile breast of the dauphin beat the
heart of a great citizen, and the event proved that the kingdom was not
"so discomfited but that one always found therein some one against whom
to fight." The campaign was a happy one neither for Edward nor for
Chaucer. The king of England met with nothing but failures: he failed
before Reims, failed before Paris, and was only too pleased to sign the
treaty of Bretigny. Chaucer was taken by the French,[453] and his fate
would not have been an enviable one if the king had not paid his ransom.
Edward gave sixteen pounds to recover his daughter-in-law's page.
Everything has its value: the same Edward had spent fifty pounds over a
horse called Bayard, and seventy for another called Labryt, which was
dapple-grey.

After his return Chaucer was attached to the person of Edward in the
capacity of valet of the chamber, "valettus camerae regis"; this is
exactly the title that Moliere was later to honour in his turn. His
functions consisted in making the royal bed, holding torches, and
carrying messages. A little later he was squire, _armiger_, _scutifer_,
and as such served the prince at table, and rode after him in his
journeys.[454] His duties do not seem to have a