◆Pertinax, a man of peasant birth, but who had carved out for himself a distinguished career as soldier and administrator, was elected Emperor by the Prætorian Guards on the murder of Commodus, A. D. 193. Himself murdered after a two months’ reign. [23] P. 32: ◆Septimius Severus, Emperor from A. D. 193 to 211. He was a great general and conducted successful campaigns in Britain, where he died,—at York. [24] P. 33: ◆Philippe Auguste, King of France 1180–1223. Philip Augustus repudiated Ingeburga after twenty-eight days of marriage, and married Agnes de Méranie. The censure of the church induced the king to discard the second marriage and return to Ingeburga (1201). The latter was reputed to have a secret vice which greatly angered the king. [25] P. 34: ◆Marguerite, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian, whom Charles VIII. rejected in order to marry Anne of Brittany (1491). Louis XII. turned away Jeanne in order to marry the widow of Charles VIII. ◆Charles VIII., 1483–1498, of the House of Valois. ◆Louis XII., successor of the last named, reigned 1498–1515, the immediate predecessor of Francis I. [26] P. 35: ◆Alfonso V., king of Aragon, who left maxims which were collected by Antonio Beccadelli, surnamed Panormita. ◆Twenty-second tale. M. de Bernage was equerry of King Charles VIII. and the lord of Civray, near Chenonceaux. [27] P. 36: ◆It is not Semiramis, but Thomyris, who, according to Justin (Bk. I.) and Herodotus (Bk. II.), thrust the head of Cyrus into a vat of blood. Xenophon says, on the contrary, that Cyrus died a natural death. [28] P. 40: ◆Albert de Gondy, Duke de Retz, was reputed as a practitioner of Aretino’s principles. His wife, Claudine Catherine de Clermont, deserved, perhaps wrongfully, to occupy a place in the pamphlet entitled: “Bibliothèque de Mme. de Montpensier.” [29] P. 41: ◆Elephantis is referred to by Martial and Suetonius as the writer of amatory works—“molles Elephantidos libelli,” but nothing is known of her otherwise. She was probably a Greek, not a Roman. ◆Heliogabalus, or Elagabalus, Emperor from A. D. 218 to 222. Born at Emesa, and originally high-priest of Elagabalus the Syrian Sun-god. After a very short reign marked by every sort of extravagant folly, he was succeeded by Alexander Severus. ◆The Cardinal de Lorraine, Cardinal du Perron, and others, had been already represented in the same way along with Catherine de Medici, Mary Stuart and the Duchesse de Guise, in two paintings mentioned in the _Légende du Cardinal de Lorraine_, fol. 24, and in the _Réveille-Matin des Français_, pp. 11 and 123. [30] P. 42: ◆I agree with Lalanne that this prince was no other than the Duke d’Alençon. As to the fable of the coupling of the lions, it came from an error of Aristotle, which was repeated by most naturalists until the eighteenth century. [31] P. 45: