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The genuine Provençal does not shrink from violence. Old inhabitants still tell tales of the savage brigandage of the Estérel, of the horrors of the Terreur blanche. Mild manners and social amenities have never been characteristic of fair Provence. Even now the peasant cannot disentangle his thoughts without a volley of oaths-harmless indeed, for the most part (except those which are borrowed from the franciots), but in sound terrific. Yet if it be true that the character of a nation is asserted in its songs, it must be owned that the songs of Provence speak favourably for the Provençal people. They say that they are a people who have a steady and abiding sympathy with honest men and virtuous women. They say further that rough and ruthless though they may be when their blood is stirred, yet have they a pitiful heart. The Provençal singer is slow to utterly condemn; he grasps the saving inconsistencies of human nature; he makes the murderer lay his victim "souto lou flour dou jaussemin:" under the white jessamine flower, cherished beyond all flowers in Provence, which has a strange passion for white things-white horses, white dogs, white sheep, white doves, and the fair white hand of woman. Many songs deal directly with almsgivings, the ritual of pity. To no part of the Bible is there more frequent reference than to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus ; no neocatholic legend has been more gladly accepted than the story in which some tattered beggar proves to be Christ-a story, by the by, that holds in it the essence of the Christian faith. If a Greek saw a beautiful unknown youth playing his pipe beside some babbling stream, he believed him to be a god; the Christian of the early ages recognised Christ in each mendicant in loathsome rags, in each leper succoured at the risk of mortal infection.

The Provençal tongue is not a mixture (as is too often said) of Italian and French; nor is physical Provence a less fair Italy or a fairer France. A land wildly convulsed in its storms, mysteriously breathless in its calms; a garden here, a desert there; a land of translucent inlets and red porphyry hills; before all, a land of the illimitable grey of olive and limestone-this is Provence. Anyone finding himself of a sudden where the Provençal olives raise their dwarf heads with a weary look of eternity to the rainless heaven, would say that the dominant feature in the landscape was its exceeding seriousness. Sometimes on the coast the prevailing note changes from grey to blue: the blanched rocks catch the colour of the sea, and not the sky only, but dry fine air close around seems of a blueness so intense as to make the senses swim, Better suited to a nature thus made up of crude discords and subtle harmonies is the old Provençal speech, howsoever corrupt, than the exquisite French of Parisian salons. But the language goes and the songs go too. Damase Arbaud relates how, when he went on a long journey to speak with a man reported to have cognisance of much traditional matter, he met, issuing from the house door, not the man, but his coffin. The fact is typical; the old order of things passes away; nouastei diou se'n van.

The Revolt of Sir Thomas Wyatt.

(A LEAF FROM OUR STATE PAPERS.)

In spite of all opposition and entreaties Mary, shortly after her accession to the throne, had resolved upon a marriage with her cousin Philip of Spain. It was in vain that the most trusted of her advisers implored her not to unite herself with the hated foreigner, but to share her crown with some English subject whose name and rank would appeal to and command the sympathies of her people. In vain France, through the delicate remonstrances of her polished envoy, De Noailles, hinted that such a match would inevitably tend to disturb the entente cordiale which then so happily existed between the courts of London and Paris. In vain the English nation, always moody and intolerant where its insular prejudices were concerned, loudly decried the alliance, and declared in sullen tones, boding future danger, that no Spaniard should meddle with their rule. Counsel and remonstrance were all futile to turn the stubborn middle-aged woman from her purpose, and the advisers of the crown, seeing that they were powerless to make her change her resolve, reluctantly gave their consent to the match. Mary had now arrived at a time of life when it was not probable that many offers of marriage from eligible suitors would fall to her lot. Thin, worn, with the yellow complexion of her mother, and painfully conscious of the lack of attrac tions her sickly face and lean angular figure displayed, she, like most women sur le retour, tenaciously clung to the lover whom State policy compelled to kneel at her feet, and who, she felt sure, would be the last of his fascinating tribe that the matrimonial market could command for her acceptance. The question had been narrowed to this issue: it was to be Philip or it was to be nobody. And so with the eager longings of an acrid and hysterical woman whose affections for years had been checked and pent up, she yielded all the treasures of her heart to the man whom political considerations had selected, and vowed that she would have none other. Then, like many women who late in life are about to link their fate with a husband younger than themselves, she idealised the man, and painted him in the glowing colours her fond imagination depicted. To those who knew him, Philip was a prince of a cold and calculating disposition, utterly wanting in principle, miserably mean where all expenditure was concerned, and, even in a lax age and among a loose people, was looked upon as notoriously immoral. To Mary he was, however, all that a loving woman could desire-a man of

blameless life, a devoted son of the Church, endowed with talents which made his judgment conspicuous whenever it was exercised, brave, handsome, noble, generous. To Renard, the Spanish ambassador, who knew the full value of an alliance between England and Spain, and who had essayed all his arts to promote the match, she said, placing in his hand a small vellum parcel, "I have signed this parchment, by which I affiance myself in marriage to Philip, Prince of Spain, son of his Imperial Majesty, Charles V. And I further give you, as representative of the Prince, my irrevocable promise that I will marry him and none else."

If the course of true love seldom runs smooth, that of marriages of convenience rarely encounters much opposition from the immediate contracting parties. Philip, who was only anxious to avail himself of the revenues of England, would have married Mary had she been twice her age, and twice as plain. Once the ring placed upon her long, bony finger-how different from the beautiful hand of her sister Elizabeth !— and himself controller of the receipts of the exchequer, it would be a matter of no great difficulty to invent some excuse which by placing the Pyrenees between him and the charms of his sour-visaged bride, would allow him to exchange the gloom and opposition of the London he hated for the gaiety of his beloved Madrid. Therefore when the marriage settlements were being drawn up he gave his assent to all the conditions demanded of him, and empowered Renard to comply with such requests as the advisers of Mary suggested. The clauses to which the bride and bridegroom put their hands and seals were just and reasonable. abstract of the agreement was as follows:

The

First. He to be intituled King during the matrimony, but she to have the disposition of all benefices, &c.

Second. She to be intituled to his dominions during the marriage.

Third. Her dowry, if she survives him, to be three score thousand pounds, after the value of forty groats, Flemish money.

Fourth. The issue of her body, male or female, shall succeed in her kingdoms according to the laws of the same.

Fifth. The Prince to leave to his eldest son, the Lord Charles [Don Carlos], and his heirs all his right; his land notwithstanding to be liable to the Queen's dowry. And for want of issue in the Lord Charles, then the eldest son of this matrimony should succeed also in all his grandfather's titles.

Sixth. If the Lord Charles should have issue, yet the Low Countries and Burgundy are reserved for the heir of this marriage, and to the other children convenient portions to be allotted out of this kingdom.

When the necessary preliminaries had been agreed upon the treaty was despatched to Brussels for ratification, and the conclusion of the proceedings was celebrated by high mass in the exquisite Norman chapel in the Tower. When the Host had been returned to its sacred repository Mary stood up, then walked to the altar and, kneeling down, declared before all assembled:

* "Abstract of the Treaty of Marriage," State Papers. Foreign. Mary. Jan,— Mar. 1554. No. 123.

"I take God to witness that I have not consented to wed the Prince of Spain from any desire of aggrandisement, or carnal affection; but solely for the honour and profit of my kingdom, and the repose and tranquillity of my subjects. Nor shall my marriage prevent me from keeping inviolably the oath I have made to the crown on the day of my coronation."

No sooner had the outside public ascertained that the marriage between Philip and Mary had been definitively settled than loud and ominous. were the murmurs of the people. In every county and at every markettown the subject was angrily discussed, and it was evident from the comments on these occasions which fell from the lips of both speakers and bystanders, that there only wanted opportunity and organisation for the agitation to break out in open rebellion. These soon presented themselves. The leaders of the disaffected formed themselves into a confederacy, the object of which was to create a revolt throughout the country, depose the unpopular Mary, and place in her stead the popular Princess Elizabeth. The Earl of Courtenay, who was to wed Elizabeth, was to travel west, where his name and influence were all-potent, and rally the counties of Cornwall and Devonshire to the cause of Protestantism, and England for the English. The Duke of Suffolk, with his three brothers, Lord Thomas, Lord John, and Lord Leonard Grey, were to sow sedition in the midland counties. Sir James Crofts, who had been Deputy of Ireland, and was accustomed to the ways of agitation, was to stimulate revolt in the district of the Severn. Lastly, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the son of the poet, a bold soldier, who had seen much service in the recent wars with France, but whose courage and ability were severely handicapped by his rash and headstrong disposition, was to raise Kent. These arrangements completed, the forces assembled at Exeter, Bristol, Warwick, and Maidstone were to march upon London, then as disaffected as the other parts of the country; the citizens and soldiery would declare for the good cause, the Tower would fall an easy prey to the invaders, and Mary would either fly the realm, or of her own will transfer the crown to the head of her sister. "It would be," said Wyatt,

Such was the plan on paper. When it began to be put into execution obstacles occurred which, as is always the case, had not been anticipated. Courtenay was a craven, and at the last moment declined to go west to raise the standard of rebellion. Deprived of his inspiring presence, Devonshire and Cornwall, though sullen and seditious, yet refused to move or to take any active steps without orders from their acknowledged leader. The Duke of Suffolk had ridden down into Warwickshire, and had met with a reception which, if not enthusiastic, was at least encouraging; but the midland farmers and their hinds were prudent men ; they would take part in a general insurrection when it once openly declared itself, but they would not be the first to revolt and lead the van of rebellion. Sir James Crofts, busy in Wales, met with the same difficulty. The only man who had boldly shown his hand, who had

permitted no timorous resistance, who had suffered no delay, and who was resolved if the country was only waiting for a leader to come himself to the front, was the impetuous Wyatt. Dealing with an excitable and impulsive people he had unfurled his standard at Maidstone, and the inflammable Kentish men had come up from their farms in hundreds, crying, "A Wyatt! a Wyatt!" "Down with the Spaniard!", "No foreigner!" and "Long life to the Princess Elizabeth!" Quitting Maidstone with some two thousand men, Wyatt marched to Rochester, where, through his ranks being swelled by deserters from the Royal cause, the Castle easily fell into his hands, and he at once made himself master of the Medway.

!.. Meanwhile Mary had not been idle. Lack of courage had never been attributed to those in whose veins ran the hot, arrogant Tudor blood, and the Queen, whatever her faults, did not belie the bold race from which she sprang. Foiled in her attempt to obtain regular troops by her suspicious advisers, who did not know to what end she might apply the services of a trained soldiery, she appealed to the City of London, which answered her prayer by sending five hundred men, under the command of one Captain Bret, to her assistance. These levies were at once marched to Rochester by the Duke of Norfolk, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of his sovereign, and who had been appointed generalissimo of the forces to resist the rebels. On arriving at Gravesend the duke resolved not to delay his attack, but forthwith to lay siege to Rochester Castle, and deal out to its traitorous defenders the punishment they so richly deserved. Limbering up his artillery, he gave orders for the city bands to advance upon the bridge. No sooner had the word of command issued from his lips than Captain Bret, drew his sword, and placing himself in front of the London volunteers, cried out, "Masters, we go about to fight against our native countrymen of England and our friends in a quarrel unrightful and partly wicked, for they, considering the great and manifold mysteries which are like to fall upon us if we shall be under the rule of the proud Spaniards or strangers, are here assembled to make resistance of the coming in of him or his favourers; and for that they know right well that if we should be under their subjection they would, as slaves and villains, spoil us of our goods and lands, ravish our wives before our faces, and deflower our daughters in our presence, have now for the avoiding of so great mischiefs and inconveniences likely to light not only upon themselves but on every of us and the whole realm, taken upon them now, in time before his coming, this their enterprise, against which I think no English heart ought to say, much less by fighting to withstand them. Wherefore I and these [his troops] will spend our blood in the quarrel of this worthy captain Master Wyatt and other gentlemen here assembled." *

*The Chronicle of Queen Jane, edited by J. G. Nichols, F.S.A. Camden Society.