the son of Nicolas. Without going so
far, it must be owned that the approximation of names is significant. As
we go on to see the part played by each of these persons in the sordid
melodrama of the poet's life, we shall come to regard it as even more
notable. Is it not Clough who has remarked that, after all, everything
lies in juxtaposition? Many a man's destiny has been settled by nothing
apparently more grave than a pretty face on the opposite side of the
street and a couple of bad companions round the corner.

Catherine de Vausselles (or de Vaucel--the change is within the limits
of Villon's licence) had plainly delighted in the poet's conversation;
near neighbours or not, they were much together; and Villon made no
secret of his court, and suffered himself to believe that his feeling
was repaid in kind. This may have been an error from the first, or he
may have estranged her by subsequent misconduct or temerity. One can
easily imagine Villon an impatient wooer. One thing, at least, is sure:
that the affair terminated in a manner bitterly humiliating to Master
Francis. In presence of his lady-love, perhaps under her window, and
certainly with her connivance, he was unmercifully thrashed by one Noe
le Joly--beaten, as he says himself, like dirty linen on the
washing-board. It is characteristic that his malice had notably
increased between the time when he wrote the "Small Testament"
immediately on the back of the occurrence, and the time when he wrote
the "Large Testament" five years after. On the latter occasion nothing
is too bad for his "damsel with the twisted nose," as he calls her. She
is spared neither hint nor accusation, and he tells his messenger to
accost her with the vilest insults. Villon, it is thought, was out of
Paris when these amenities escaped his pen; or perhaps the strong arm of
Noe le Joly would have been again in requisition. So ends the
love-story, if love-story it may properly be called. Poets are not
necessarily fortunate in love; but they usually fall among more romantic
circumstances, and bear their disappointment with a better grace.

The neighbourhood of Regnier de Montigny and Colin de Cayeux was
probably more influential on his after life than the contempt of
Catherine. For a man who is greedy of all pleasures, and provided with
little money and less dignity of character, we may prophesy a safe and
speedy voyage downward. Humble or even truckling virtue may walk
unspotted in this lif