prerogatives of sovereignty. They had a court of
justice of the highest jurisdiction, which issued
its decisions without appeal; in case of minority
they could not be enrolled in the noble guard of
the King of France; they were not required
to serve in the army, nor to pay fealty and
homage, nor any tax whatsoever; and, in a word,
they had no hierarchical superior.

A medal, still preserved from the old charterhouse
of Yvetot, represents Martin the first, son
of Jean the Fourth, sitting upon his throne—a
sort of four-legged stool—with a plain gold
crown upon his head, and dressed in a coat of
mail fastened tight round the waist. He has
long hair, like all the Merovingian kings, and is
represented affectionately embracing one of his
subjects named Bobé. Martin the First put into
circulation as money, notched bits of leather,
with the mark of a nail-head in the middle.
But as the circulation of this sort of coin was
restricted to his own state, when the king
fell into difficulties, he was compelled to sell his
kingdom to Pierre de Vilaines, the chamberlain
of the King of France.

Pierre Vilaines styled himself Pierre the
First, and had reigned but a few months over his
tiny kingdom when he was killed at the battle of
Azincourt. His son, who succeeded him as Pierre
the Second, died in the year 1418, after seeing
his capital burnt down during the occupation of
France by the English; and it was not until
after the invaders had been driven out of the
country that the kingdom of Yvetot was re-
established in "all its privileges," and Guillaume
Chenu ascended the four-legged stool under the
title of Guillaume the First. But he was not
permitted to enjoy it unmolested. The law
officers of France were jealous of the little court
of Yvetot, which, pronouncing and executing its
own sentences, would acknowledge no higher
power than its own. Yet the King of France,
after much litigation, by letters patent dated
1461 confirmed the independence of Yvetot.

The great event of the reign of Guillaume the
First, was the sinking of a well in the court-yard
of his château, for the benefit of those of his
subjects who could not obtain drinking water. This
well still exists; and the king commemorated his
achievement by a medal with a representation
of a well, a crank, a bucket, and a rope.

Guillaume was succeeded by his son Jacques,
who had two sons and one daughter. The
youngest son lost his rank by marrying a
daughter of a simple burgess of Rouen, while
the princess royal of Yvetot married a courtier
named Jean Baucher, who, on the death of
Jacques the First, took possession of the four-
legged stool, to the exclusion of the eldest son of
the late king. His wife, however, happening to die
soon afterwards, Jean Baucher saw in the
occurrence the hand of God, and in a fit of remorse
restored the crown to its rightful heir, Pierre
the First, familiarly nicknamed by his subjects
Pierrot, or clown.

Martin Dubellay, an ambassador of Francis
the First, and governor of Normandy, having
married Isabeau, the granddaughter of Pierrot,
became king of Yvetot, because in France the
septre cannot become a distaff.

During the reign of Henry the Second of France
the Norman parliament succeeded in wresting
from the court of Yvetot the power of pronouncing
decrees without appeal, and from this time
the kingdom sank into the condition of a fief.
Nevertheless, when the successor of Martin the
Second appeared at the coronation of Marie de
Médicis, the king, Henry the Fourth, perceiving
that no seat had been reserved for him, showed
him to one himself, saying, "I will have a seat
of honour given to my little king of Yvetot, in
accordance with his station and his rank."

The kingdom of Yvetot, in fact, no longer
existed after the Norman parliament had
obtained the right of control over its high court of
law; and from that time the lords of Yvetot,
ceasing to call themselves kings, took the title
of princes. The last prince of Yvetot, born in
1753, passed his life in travelling, writing books
of no permanent value, and corresponding with
Voltaire, and other eminent men of his time.
He endowed his kingdom with a market and a
church, and the inscriptions to the honour of
"Camillus the Third " are still to be seen
upon their façades. When this literary king
died, in 1789, the dynasty and kingdom of Yvetot
perished.

So, this is all that is known of BÉRANGER'S
delightful little king, who slept very well without
any glory, was crowned with a nightcap,
had a dog for his guard, and was a good little
king. Heaven send all the world as good kings!

A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THOUGH I was a few minutes late for dinner,
Miss Herbert did not chide me for delay. She
was charming in her reception of me; nor was
the fascination diminished to me by feeling
with what generous warmth she had defended
and upheld me.

There is a marvellous charm in the being
defended by one you love, and of whose kind
feeling towards you, you had never dared to assure
yourself till the very moment that confirmed it.
I don't know if I ever felt in such spirits in
my life. Not that I was gay or light-hearted
so much as happy—happy in the sense of a self-
esteem I had not known till then. And what a
spirit of cordial familiarity was there now
between us! She spoke to me of her daily life,
its habits and even of its trials; not complainingly
nor fretfully, far from it, but in a way to
imply that these were the burdens meted out to
all, and that none should arrogantly imagine he
was to escape the lot of his fellows. And then
we talked of the Croftons, of whom she was
curious to hear details—their ages, appearance,
manner, and so on—lastly, how I came to know
them, and thus imperceptibly led me to tell
of myself and of my story. I am sure that
we each of us had enough of care upon our
hearts, and yet none would have ever guessed it
to have seen how joyously and merrily we