Quant elle voit qe neant iert, o ses dous poinz granz cous se fiert, fier duel demaine e fier martire, ses cheveus trait e ront e tire. bien resemble feme desvee: tote enragiee, eschevelee, e trestote fors de son sen court pour son fil Asternaten. des eux plore molt tendrement, entre ses braz l'encharge e prent. vint el pales atot arieres, o il chaucoit ses genoillieres. as piez li met e si li dit 'sire, por cest enfant petit qe tu engendras de ta char te pri nel tiegnes a eschar ce qe je t'ai dit e nuncie. aies de cest enfant pitie: james des euz ne te verra. s'ui assembles a ceux de la, hui est ta mort, hui est ta fins. de toi remandra orfenins. cruelz de cuer, lous enragiez, par qoi ne vos en prent pitiez? par qoi volez si tost morir? par qoi volez si tost guerpir et moi e li e vostre pere e voz serors e vostre mere? par qoi nos laisseroiz perir? coment porrons sens vos gerir? lasse, com male destinee!' a icest not chai pasmee a cas desus le paviment. celle l'en lieve isnelement qi estrange duel en demeine: c'est sa seroge, dame Heleine. [Sidenote: Other Romances on Classical subjects.] The poems of the Cycle of Antiquity have hitherto been less diligently studied and reprinted than those of the other two. Few of them, with the exception of _Alixandre_ and _Troie_, are to be read even in fragments, save in manuscript. _Le Roman d'Eneas_, which is attributed to Benoist, is much shorter than the _Roman de Troie_, and, with some omissions, follows Virgil pretty closely. Like many other French poems, it was adapted in German by a Minnesinger, Heinrich von Veldeke. _Le Roman de Thebes_, of which there is some chance of an edition, stands to Statius in the same relation as _Eneas_ to Virgil. And _Le Roman de Jules Cesar_ paraphrases, though not directly, Lucan. To these must be added _Athis et Prophilias_ (Porphyrias), or the Siege of Athens, a work which has been assigned to many authors, and the origin of which is not clear, though it enjoyed great popularity in the middle ages. The _Protesilaus_ of Hugues de Rotelande is the only other poem of this series worth the mentioning. Neither of these two classes of poems possesses the value of the Chansons as documents for social history. The picture of manners in them is much more artificial. But the Arthurian romances disclose partially and at intervals a state of society decidedly more advanced than that of the Chansons. The _bourgeois_, the country gentleman who is not of full baronial rank, and other novel personages appear. * * * * *