subjects, that, having a particular taste for such beautiful works of art, he stopped to examine them; but he could not comprehend their import, for they represented scenes in stories which had been forgotten for many ages. One thing, however, struck him, which was, that there was a man in them so closely resembling himself that it appeared like his own portrait. This man was represented in the keep of the tower, examining the wall, in which he found a golden ramrod,[1] with which he opened a cabinet. There were many other subjects which took his attention, and in the greater portion of the windows he saw everywhere his portrait. "By what accident," said he, "have I been made to figure in these scenes; I, who was not born at the time they are supposed to have occurred: and by what fatal idea did it occur to the painter to amuse himself by designing a man like me?" He saw painted on the same glass the figure of a lovely young girl, whose features were so regular, and their expression so intellectual, that he could not take his eyes off it. In short, there were a thousand various subjects, and all the passions were so well expressed, that he seemed absolutely a witness of the events in action, which were only represented by a mixture of colours.
He did not quit the gallery till it was too dark to distinguish anything in the painted glass. On his return to his room he took up the first old manuscript that came to his hand. The leaves were of vellum with illuminated borders, and the binding of gold enamelled with blue, so as to form cyphers. He was much surprised to find in the paintings the same subjects as those depicted on the windows in the gallery. He tried to read the manuscripts, but could not succeed. All on a sudden he observed that in one of the pages where there was an illumination representing musicians, the figures began to sing, and in another page, where there appeared players at at Basset and Tric-trac, the cards and dice were in motion. He turned over leaf, and saw people dancing at a ball; all the ladies in full dress, and of marvellous beauty. He turned
- ↑ "Tire-bourre." At the period these stories were written, the ramrod was called "the scouring-stick of a piece," and a "tire-bourre" signified the worm or screw by which the charge was drawn of a gun or cannon. (Vide Cotgrave.) I have used the word ramrod, as the nearest to the original that was comprehensible to the modern reader; the combination of the two instruments at the present day being, I trust, a sufficient apology for the anachronism, if one be necessary.
