ccupied by monks of
the Premontre Order, who were under the patronage of St.
Mary. An apparition of the Virgin having been reported in
the vicinity, pilgrimages were made to Sarrances on the
feasts of her nativity (Sept. 8) and her assumption (Aug.
15). In 1385 Gaston de Foix, who greatly enriched the abbey,
built a residence in the neighbourhood, his example being
followed by the Gramonts, the Miollens, and other nobles.
The pilgrimages had become very celebrated in the fifteenth
century, when Louis XI. repaired to Sarrances, accompanied
by Coictier, his physician. In 1569, however, the
Huguenots pillaged and burned down the abbey, together with
the royal and other residences. The monks who escaped the
flames were put to the sword.--M. & Ed.

She was not, indeed, so superstitious as to think that the glorious
Virgin would leave her seat at her Son's right hand to come and dwell
in a desolate country, but she was desirous to see the hallowed spot
of which she had so often heard, and further she was sure that if there
were a means of escaping from a danger, the monks would certainly find
it out. At last she arrived, after passing through places so strange,
and so difficult in the going up and coming down, that, in spite of her
years and weight, she had perforce gone most of the way on foot But the
most piteous thing was, that the greater part of her servants and horses
were left dead on the way, and she had but one man and one woman with
her on arriving at Serrance, where she was charitably received by the
monks.

There were also among the French two gentlemen who had gone to the baths
rather that they might be in the company of the ladies whose lovers
they were, than because of any failure in their health. These gentlemen,
seeing that the company was departing and that the husbands of their
ladies were taking them away, resolved to follow them at a distance
without making their design known to any one. But one evening, while the
two married gentlemen and their wives were in the house of one who was
more of a robber than a peasant, the two lovers, who were lodged in a
farmhouse hard by, heard about midnight a great uproar. They got up,
together with their serving-men, and inquired what this tumult meant.
The poor man, in great fear, told them that it was caused by certain
evil-doers who were come to share the spoil which was in the house of
their fello