Besides this proposition, the historian would have done well to tell us that La Palice was of noble race, for his grandfather, an earlier Jacques de Chabannes, after valiantly defending Castillon against Talbot, the English Achilles, died of his wounds at the siege of this city, which, two years afterwards (17th July, 1453), cost the life of his illustrious enemy. ‘La Palice but little wealth To his renown could bring; And when abundance was his lot, He lacked no single thing.’ Abundance of glory, of honours, of treasures, of war on battle fields; this was surely what the poet meant to say. He ought to have been rich indeed, when three sovereigns successively invested him with the titles of marshal of France, governor of Bourbonnais, of Auvergne, of Forez and the Lyonnais. ‘He was versed in all the games Played at the academy; And never was unfortunate When he won the victory.’ Those which he gained are faithfully chronicled in history. First, stands Marignan in 1515, next Fontarabia, in 1521; then Bicocca, in Lombardy, where La Palice, being second in command, made incredible exertions to recover the fortunes of the day; and last, Marseilles, which went to sleep one night Spanish, and woke up French the next morning, because a great Captain, Chabannes de la Palice, had scaled her walls, and effaced by dint of courage the shame with which the desertion of Bourbon had tarnished the name of French gentlemen. ‘To do and dare in his career, He readily inclined; And when he stood before the king, He was not, sure, behind. Fate dealt to him a cruel blow. And stretched him on the ground; And ’tis believed that since he died, It was a mortal wound. His death was sore and terrible, Upon a stone his head; He would have died more easily Upon a feather bed.’ Chabannes made a sortie with a handful of brave fellows from the fort which he defended against the Spanish army, and saw all those who followed fall around him. A Spanish soldier climbs over the barrier of corpses piled before him, aims a tremendous blow at his head, beneath which the brave La Palice fell senseless to the earth, ‘Deplored and envied by his braves, He shut his eyes to strife; And we are told his day of death Was the last of his life.’ ――――:o:―――― THE RIGHT AND MARVELLOUS HISTORY OF JOHN SMITH. John Smith he was a guardsman bold, A stouter never fought; He would have been a grenadier, But he was one foot short.