Poor maligned Eleanor was too gay a butterfly for the gloomy court of Louis VII. She wanted the bright sun of her own province in which to float, and the incense of admiring voices to waft her along. She herself was a composer of _chansons_, and is reckoned among the authors of France. She dearly loved Bordeaux, her capital, and was adored by its people. Here she was married with great pomp to Louis, after which the Duke of Aquitaine laid aside his insignia of power, and, assuming the garb of a hermit, went on a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, and devoted the remainder of his life to prayer and penance in hermitage on Montserrat, by way of preparation for death. It is well to pause awhile before plunging into the great ocean of eternity. These pilgrimages to Compostella were exceedingly popular in that age, and hospices for the pilgrims to that shrine were to be found in all the large cities and towns. There was one at Auch, and another at Paris in the Rue du Temple, which was particularly celebrated and served by Augustinian nuns. And here at Bordeaux was the Hospice of St. André for the reception of the weary votary of St. Jago. "Here comes a pilgrim," says one of Shakespeare's characters. "God save you, pilgrim. Where are you bound?" "To St. Jacques le Grand. Where do the palmers lodge, I beseech you?" "Eftsoones unto an holy hospitall That was forby the way, she did him bring, In which seven bead-men that had vowed all Their life to service of high heaven's King, Did spend their daies in doing godly thing; Their gates to all were open evermore, That by the wearie way were travelling, And one sate wayting ever them before To call in comers-by, that needy were and pore." Digby says the hospitality and charity of these hospices had their origin in the bishops' houses. Fortunatus thus speaks of Leontius II., Archbishop of Bordeaux, who, in accordance with the apostle's injunction, was given to hospitality: "Susceptor peregrum distribuendo cibum. Longius extremo si quis properasset ab orbe, Advena mox vidit, hunc ait esse patrem."