They lik’d him much――so it appears, Most plainly――who preferred him; And those did never want their ears, Who any time had heard him. He was not always right, ’tis true, And then he must be wrong; But none had found it out, he knew, If he had held his tongue. Whene’er a tender tear he shed, T’was certain that he wept; And he would lay awake in bed, Unless, indeed, he slept. In tilting everybody knew His very high renown; Yet no opponents he o’er-threw, But those that he knocked down. At last they smote him in the head―― What hero e’re fought all? And when they saw that he was dead, They knew the wound was mortal. And when at last he lost his breath, It closed his every strife; For that sad day that sealed his death, Deprived him of his life. ―――― Ménage introduces _Le Chanson de la Galisse_ without any other explanation than that it relates to the adventures of an imaginary character, he does not mention the Author’s name, nor does he refer to any other poem having any resemblance to it. Yet there was a “Chanson” written in exactly the same style and metre, recording (in burlesque it is true) the adventures of a brave French officer, named La Palice. And what makes it more remarkable is, that this poem was written by a friend of M. Gilles de Ménage, the grave and religious Bernard de la Monnoye, who conceived the idea of personifying nonsensical truths in his _Complaint upon the Life and Death of La Palice_; careless of attaching popular ridicule to a name which should excite only recollections of heroic and military virtue. Concerning this _Chanson de la Palice_ there was a long article in _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_, as far back as July, 1845, from which the following notes are extracted:―― “Thanks to this strange production, we know that the famous La Palice died in losing his life, and that he would not have had his equal had he been alone in the world. Doubtless it is satisfactory to know that he could never make up his mind to load his pistols when he had no powder; and that when he wrote verse he did not write prose; or that while drinking he never spoke a word. These are certainly notable details concerning the habits and character of this great man, but it is also certain that La Palice had greater claims to admiration which may be brought to light in illustrating some stanzas of the biographical ballad. The song begins thus:―― ‘Please you, gentlemen, to hear The song of La Palice; It surely will delight you all, Provided that it please,’