There was still another use to which the _tenso_ was occasionally put. When two troubadours owed each other a grudge, instead of fighting it out with the sword, they frequently challenged each other to a song of combat. Like most polemical poems in the _langue d’oc_ these personal _tensos_, for so they may conveniently be called, are full of the grossest slander. The wonder is that, with all this spite and rage, the poet always preserves sufficient equanimity to adhere to the strictest rules of the art, and even to reproduce the exact metre and rhyme chosen by his adversary as the medium for his abuse. Uc de St. Cyr, of whom we have just heard, appears amongst the chief representatives of this branch of literature, in a manner more creditable to his eloquence than to his personal character. He was the younger son of an impoverished family, and depended for his maintenance on the liberality of his protectors. His lasting friendship with Savaric de Mauleon has been already mentioned, but unfortunately, in other cases, relations of a similar kind seem to have ended in unkindness and open enmity. How far the responsibility may have lain with the poet, it is impossible to say, but the fact of his appearing twice as the declared antagonist of a former benefactor throws grave doubts on his gratitude. The first instance alluded to is a quarrel with the Viscount of Turenne, in whose service the poet seems to have been for some time. ‘Viscount,’ he exclaims, ‘how can I endure the hardships you impose upon me? Night and day you make me ride from one place to another without rest or sleep. Truly, in the company of Martin d’Algai,[16] I could not be worse off; even my food appears scanty.’ ‘You know, Uc de St. Cyr,’ is the Viscount’s answer, ‘if you do not want to tell a lie, that I did not send for you from Quercy to show you my lands; on the contrary, I was much annoyed when I saw you coming. May God punish me if I do not wish, with all my heart, that you had gone to Spain instead!’ In another _tenso_, of the same kind, Uc’s position is still more precarious from a moral point of view—at least if we believe the charge implied in his antagonist’s answer. From this it would appear that the poet was capable of taunting with poverty a man to whose bounty he owed his own wealth. ‘Count,’ he says, ‘you need not be afraid or anxious on my account. I have not come to ask or demand anything from you; for I have all I want. But I perceive that money is a scarce article with you; therefore I have not the heart to ask you anything; on the contrary, it would be a great mercy if I made you a present.’ ‘Uc de St. Cyr,’ Count Rodez replies, ‘I am sorry for having dismissed wealthy you, who came to me poor, naked, and miserable. You have cost me more than two bowmen or horsemen; truly, if I had offered you a horse you would not have refused it.’ In a second _tenso_ by the same poets, grievous bodily harm is threatened on one and boldly defied on the other side.