In the reign of Henri III. the wines of Ay--'claret and yellowish, subtile, fine, and in taste very pleasing to the palate, ... yet therewithal such wines as the Greeks call Oligophora, and as will not admit the mixture of much water'[465]--were 'eagerly sought after for the use of kings, princes, and great lords.'[466] At a time when the bulk of the vintage of Burgundy was denounced as rough, sour, and harsh; and that of Bordeaux stigmatised as thick and black; and when good and bad years were allowed to have a considerable influence upon the growths of the Isle of France, the Orleannais, and Anjou, it was admitted that 'the wines of Ay do, for the most part, hold the first and principal place, ... and are, in all good and evil years, found better than any others.'[467] The kings and princes of the day made the wines of Ay their ordinary drink.[468] They flowed freely in the scandalous orgies with which the French Heliogabalus and his _mignons_ alternated their pious flagellations and solemn processions, and mantled in the beakers over which the chiefs of the League sat in dark and solemn conclave; they were quaffed by the Béarnais to the bright eyes of the fair De Saulve, and cheered the nightly vigils of Catherine de Medicis and Ruggieri; they sharpened the biting wit of Chicot, and spurred the plotting spirit of Francis of Anjou. Guise and Crillon, Joyeuse and D'Epernon, Mayenne and D'Aubigné made common cause in recognising their merits; Quelus and Maugiron may have quaffed a goblet before setting forth on their fatal journey to the Barrière Saint Antoine; and a cup, filled by the fair hands of the Duchess de Montpensier, may have fired the brain and nerved the arm of the regicide Jacques Clément. [Illustration: OLD HOUSE AT AY, KNOWN AS THE VENDANGEOIR OF HENRI QUATRE.]