2 This is John de la Barre, already alluded to in Tale I. The _Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris_ tells us that he was born in Paris of poor parents, and became a favourite of Francis I., who appointed him Bailiff of the capital, without requiring him to pay any of the dues attaching to the office. From the roll of the royal household for 1522, we also find that he was then a gentleman of the bed chamber with 1200 _livres_ salary, master of the wardrobe (a post worth 200 _livres_) and governor of the pages, for the board and clothing of whom he received 5000 _livres_ annually. In 1526 he became Provost as well as Bailiff of Paris, the two offices then being amalgamated. He was further created Count of Etampes, and acquired the lordship of Veretz, best remembered by its associations with the murder of Paul Louis Courier. La Barre fought at Pavia, was taken prisoner with the King, and remained his constant companion during his captivity. Several letters of his, dating from this period and of great historical interest, are still extant; some of them have been published by Champollion-Figeac (_Captivité de François Ier_) and Génin (_Lettres de Marguerite, &c_). Under date 1533 (o. s.) the “Bourgeois de Paris” writes in his _Journal_: “At the beginning of March there died in Paris, at the house of Monsieur Poncher, Monsieur le Prévost de Paris, named de La Barre.... The King was then in Paris, at his chateau of the Louvre, and there was great pomp at the obsequies; and he was borne to his lordship of Veretz, near Tours, that he might be buried there.” Numerous particulars concerning La Barre will also be found in M. de Laborde’s _Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi au XVIeme Siècle_.-- L. and Ed. He told the latter his plan, which was approved both by the Prince and by two other great personages of the Court, all three agreeing together to share in the spoil. While they were looking for a fourth comrade, there arrived a handsome and honourable lord who was ten years younger than the others. He was invited to the banquet, but although he accepted with a cheerful countenance, in his heart he had no desire for it. For on the one part he had a wife who was the mother of handsome children, and with whom he lived in great happiness, and in such peacefulness that on no account would he have had her suspect evil of him. And on the other hand he was the lover of one of the handsomest ladies of her time in France, whom he loved and esteemed so greatly that all other women seemed to him ugly beside her. In his early youth, before he was married, he had found it impossible to gaze upon and associate with other women, however beautiful they might be; for he took more delight in gazing upon his sweetheart, and in perfectly loving her, than in having all that another might have given him.