of its monuments, an additional human interest. Take, for instance, the idea of love as reflected in the poetry of the troubadours. It is true that many of their songs breathe the purest and most ardent spirit of romantic veneration; one chief division of Provençal poetry, the _canzo_, or song proper, is exclusively devoted to this loving worship. But the bold natural common sense of the French character always acted as a wholesome antidote to the tendency of purely spiritual sublimation. We have already observed the essentially realistic view which Count William took of the _grande passion_, and we shall hear before long that the weaknesses of their fair idols were a favourite butt of the satiric iconoclasm of more than one of the troubadours. This leaven of scepticism is observable even amongst the effusions of religious enthusiasm. I am not alluding to the active part taken by many of the troubadours in the struggle of Count Raimond of Toulouse, the protector of the Albigeois, against the ravaging hordes of Simon de Montfort, the champion of Papal supremacy. This part was rather of a national than of a religious kind;[17] for it must be remembered that the crusade against the Provençal heretics implied at the same time an onslaught of Northern centralisation on Southern independence, the success of which finally resulted in the abrupt and total decline of Provençal literature. What I was referring to is a curious and most charming poem by Marcabrun, in which that celebrated troubadour seems to oppose the excessive passion of the age for crusading expeditions. This was a somewhat ticklish subject, and apt to bring a peaceful poet into unpleasant collision with hierarchical powers. To cautious considerations of this kind we probably owe one of the sweetest conceptions of Provençal poetry; one of the rare instances, moreover, in which a description of beautiful scenery has been successfully attempted. For, as a rule, the troubadours show little _rapport_ with outward nature, and their occasional allusions to flowers and blue skies are generally of a conventional character.