The wine of Ay, from an early date, has found equal favour in the eyes of poets and princes. Eustache Deschamps sang its praises in the fourteenth century, and was echoed a hundred years later by the anonymous author of the _Eglogue sur le Retour de Bacchus_.[456] Sigismund of Bohemia, the betrayer of John Huss, on visiting France in 1410, desired to pass through Ay in order to taste the wine at the place of its production.[457] Leo X., Charles V., Francis III., and our own Henry VIII., each had a house in or near Ay; 'for amongst all the great affairs of state which these princes had to unravel, supplying themselves with this vintage was not the least of their cares.'[458] Malicious tongues have asserted that they were somewhat suspicious of the honesty of the wine-growers of the district, and, in order to secure a genuine article, deemed it needful to have a commissioner or agent resident on the spot, to superintend the making of the wine set apart for their own consumption.[459] Tradition still points out, on the right of the road from Dizy to Ay, a vineyard called Le Léon, as the one whence the Pope derived his wine, though no traces remain of the vendangeoir built by the Emperor in a coppice above Ay during the siege of Epernay in 1544, and still standing in 1727.[460] The president Bertin du Rocheret has celebrated the partiality of a couple of these potentates for the wine of Ay in some triolets addressed to M. de Senécé, and published in the _Mercure_ in 1728: 'Ay produces the best wine-- I call the world to witness this; Though you may for Reims opine, Ay produces the best wine. It ranks the first, and the most fine St. Evremond has said it is. Ay produces the best wine-- I call the world to witness this. Charles the Fifth was well aware Of this--far better than his friend Adrian in the papal chair; Charles the Fifth was well aware Of this, and so, to get his share, Sought in France his days to end. Charles the Fifth was well aware Of this--far better than his friend. Lest some fraud the juice should mix, And his table thus disgrace, He would his own vintage fix, Lest some fraud the juice should mix. Leo, fearing the like tricks, Bought in Ay a pressing-place, Lest some fraud the juice should mix, And his table thus disgrace.'[461] The wine of Ay ranked at the court of Charles IX. as 'a very pleasant and noble wine;'[462] and even that bigoted uprooter of vines and heresy had a vendangeoir in this stronghold of Protestantism,[463] which the Catholics of the Champagne marched against, singing-- 'Parpaillot d'Ay, T'es bien misérable, T'as quitté ton Di Pour servir le diable; Tu n'auras ni chien, ni chat, Pour te chanter Libera, Et tu mourras mau-chrétien, Toi qu'a maudit Saint Trézain.'[464] [Illustration: HENRI III. (From a painting of the period).]