he said he wished might not be enrolled in the bond, for they were barren tasks and too hard to keep.

The king made answer that Biron's oath was already passed, but the reluctant lord replied that he had sworn to no conditions, saving only to study and stay three years in the court.

Then the others in chorus vowed that he had sworn to all the conditions, but he held that it was only in jest. "What, after all, is the end of study?" asked Biron. "To know that which else you should not know," answered the king.

At this the gay Lord Biron turned the subject, which was growing serious, with a jest, and said he would study, then, the things he was forbidden to know, as where he might dine well when he was expressly bidden to fast; or where to meet some lady when he was denied her company; or, having sworn to a crabbed oath, study how to break it. "Swear me to this," quoth he, "and

I will never say no."

He would not listen to the chiding of the king, but railed on pleasantly, like the merry-hearted gentleman he was. "Study," he said, "is like the heaven's glorious sun, that will not be searched by saucy glances; and, moreover, continual plodders have won little enough from their books saving base authority. The earthly godfathers that give the names to the stars have no more profit from their shining than common folk that do not know what they are. To know too much is to get

nothing but fame, which is cheap enough, since every godfather can give it.”

Hereupon the three others began to rally Biron for his show of the very knowledge he mocked at; but he held his own in the passage of wit, and at last the king was forced to cry, "Well, go home, then, Biron, if you will. Adieu!" and was for bowing him out of the compact. But here the true-heartedness of Biron showed itself through his gaiety, for he said, "No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you, and, though I have spoken more for barbarism than you can say for the angel knowledge, yet I'll keep my oath and bide the penance." He took the paper and began to read it aloud:

"Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court, on pain of losing her tongue.

"Item, If any man be seen to walk with a woman within the term of three years he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court shall possibly devise."

Here, looking up, Biron said to the king, "My liege, you must break this article yourself, for well you know that the French king's daughter comes here in embassy to speak with you about the surrender of Aquitain to her bed-ridden father."

Biron now enjoyed a merry triumph, for the king was in dismay. The visit of the princess had been forgotten, but her mission was of too much importance to be put aside. The king was for dispensing with his decree and entertaining her

within his court on the plea of necessity; but Biron took advantage of his weakness, quickly signed the bond, and proclaimed, mockingly, that if he were ever forsworn it would be purely from necessity.

While all this was happening the princess approached the court of Navarre and sent forward her courtier, Boyet, to tell the king of her arrivale She had in her train, besides this gallant gentleman, the ladies Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, -all light of heart and nimble of wit,-and with these and the other lords of her household she gossiped of the king of Navarre and his friends until Boyet's return. He came back presently with the information that the king had received notice of her approach and was well addressed to meet her, but that he meant to lodge her in the fields rather than seek a dispensation of his oath.

As Boyet was telling this to his mistress, the king drew near and welcomed her warmly to his court of Navarre. She haughtily gave him back his fair words, and, as for welcome, she said she had yet found none, for the roof of the court of open air under which they stood was too high to be his, and welcome to the wide fields too base to be hers. This twinged the king shrewdly, and he hastened to offer her welcome to his proper court; upon which she asked him to conduct her thither. Then he told her of his oath, which she pretended to be ignorant of, and she fell to rallying him and was much vexed, asking that he suddenly give his decision in her suit and let her go.

While the king was reading the paper which the princess now gave him, his friends mingled with the ladies, and each found his match in wit; but when Navarre had finished the paper, he hushed their banter by some grave words to the princess. "Madam," he said, "your father here intimates the payment of a hundred thousand crowns, which is but the one-half of an entire sum disbursed by my father in his wars. But say that we have received that amount, though we have not, there yet remains unpaid another hundred thousand, in surety of which one part of Aquitain is bound to us, although it is not valued at the money's worth. If, then, your father, the king, will restore a half of what is unsatisfied, we will give up our right in Aquitain, and hold fair friendship with him. But it seems he does not purpose even this, for here he demands to have a hundred thousand pounds repaid, and to leave Aquitain in our possession, which we had much rather give up and have back the money lent by our father."

Following this, the king said some courtly words to the princess; but she resented his words about her father and insisted that the sum he demanded had been paid. This Navarre professed never to have heard of, but he said if she could prove it he would pay it back or yield up Aquitain.

The princess quickly took him at his word and appealed to Boyet to produce acquittances from the king's father for such a sum. Boyet told her that the package wherein that and other specialties

were bound had not come, but that to-morrow she should have a sight of it. Hereupon the king said he would wait, and in the mean time offered such welcome as he could, without breach of honour, tender to her. "You may not come within my gates, fair princess," said he, "but here without you shall be so received as you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart." Then the king and his attendants bade the ladies farewell and parted for the court, but not without a passage of wit between the ladies attendant on the princess and the gay courtiers of Navarre.

He

Now, there was one other who had taken the king's oath of a three years' studious life. had been chosen because of his droll and fantastic humours. He was described by the king as a refined traveller from Spain, a man planted in the world's newest fashion, who had a mint of phrases in his brain. He was, in truth, one who was ravished by the music of his own vain tongue. This was Don Adriano de Armado, and he was welcomed into the fellowship of study because, as the king said, he might relate the worth of many a knight from tawny Spain, and thus he with Costard the swain could make them sport when they desired it in their solitude.

It happened that Armado had by the king's command placed Costard in durance because of his unlawful conduct with Jaquenetta, a country wench. But Don Armado, in his turn, had also become enamoured of Jaquenetta and he deter