In much the same way did princes and dignitaries of the land single out some swearing cognizance that might befriend them in the everlasting conflict between lies and honesty. Edward I. sanctified his oaths by the mention of a brace of milk-white swans, and whoever will consult St. Palaye will find that the peacock and the pheasant entered largely into the codes of chivalry as bearing witness to the truth of a statement. Edward III. followed the lead of his grandsire in the selection of his gage of testimony. At the festival held in 1349 to celebrate the creation of the Order of the Garter, his cognizance was the swan, adorned, moreover, with the swearing motto: "Haye! Haye! the Whyte Swan! by Godde's soule I am thy man." The tradition that St. Paul was the saint that Richard III. was wont to conjure with, has found expression in the tragedy of Shakespeare. Faithful to the popular notions of the usurper's characteristic, this form of oath has been placed upon Gloucester's lips at each impassioned outburst. Henry V., in his wooing of Katherine, gallantly invokes St. Denis to aid him in his attempts at love-making. But the chronicler who seems positively to have had an affection for the oaths the memory of which he is recalling, is the historian Brantome. Upon this unimpeachable testimony we learn that the oath of Louis XI. was _par la Paque Dieu_, an affirmation that Scott avails himself of in his portraiture of that monarch in 'Quentin Durward.' This was succeeded by the _jour de Dieu_ of Charles VIII.; by the _diable m'emporte_ of Louis XII., and the _foi de gentilhomme_ of Francis I. Among the Gascon oaths of Henry IV. the most usual was _ventre Saint Gris_. As for Charles IX., adds Brantome, he swore in all fashions, and always like a sergeant who was leading a man to be hanged.[26] The question has frequently been asked who was intended by the cognomen Saint Gris? The answer accorded by Le Duchat, a savant learned in such matters, is that Saint Francis d'Assise was the person indicated. It is true that Saint Francis was _ceint_ by a hempen girdle, and, moreover, was clad in a habit of _gris_. But there nevertheless seems no reason to suppose that any individual personage was suggested, or, indeed, as has been stated, that the oath was of a Huguenot character. Says M. Charles Rozan,[27] who has had occasion to refer to this subject, Saint Gris is purely a creature of fancy, and was constituted a patron of drinkers, as St. Lache was a patron of idlers and St. Nitouche of hypocrites.