'Despite the tongue of malice, No poison in thy chalice Was ever found, Champagne! Simplicity most loyal Was e'er thy boast right royal, And this thy wines retain. No harm lurks in the fire That helps thee to inspire The heart and spur the brain.'[150] [Illustration] So far from causing inconvenience, he claims for Champagne the property of keeping off both gout and gravel, neither of which, he says, is known in Reims and its neighbourhood, and continues: 'When on the fruit-piled board, Thy cups, with nectar stored, Commence their genial reign, The wisest, sternest faces Of mirth display the traces, And to rejoice are fain. As laughter's silv'ry ripple Greets every glass we tipple. Away fly grief and pain.'[151] The jovial old rector with the sepulchral appellation then proceeds, according to the most approved method of warfare, to carry the campaign into the enemy's territory. He admits the nutritive and strengthening properties of Burgundy, but demands what it possesses beyond these, which are shared in common with it by many other vintages. He then prophesies, with the return of peace,[152] the advent of the English to buy the wine of Reims; and concludes by wishing that all who dispute the merits of Champagne may find nothing to drink but the sour cider of Normandy or the acrid vintage of Ivri. The citizens of Reims, thoroughly alive to the importance of the controversy, were enchanted with this production; they did not, however, crown the poet with laurel, but more wisely and appropriately despatched to him four dozen of their best red and gray wines, by the aid of which he continued to tipple and to sing. Grenan, resuming the offensive in turn, at once addressed an epistle in Latin verse, in favour of Burgundy against Champagne, to Fagon, the King's physician.[153] Complaining that the latter wine lays claim unjustly to the first rank, he allows it certain qualities--brilliancy, purity, limpidity, a subtle savour that touches the most blunted palate, and an aroma so delicious that it is impossible to resist its attractions. But he objects to its pretensions. 'Its vinous flood, with swelling pride In foaming wavelets welling up, Pours forth its bright and sparkling tide, Bubbling and glittering in the cup.'[154]