DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0044
18
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
heyday of the world. Everything is fresh to them. Here
again they are like children—on a fine day—who leap be-
cause they cannot keep still: their emotions are no more
than an outlet for their superfluous energy. It found many
others in which they indulged as keenly—riding, shooting,
practical jokes, or hunting, nothing came amiss to them.
If we are to believe Brantome, a poor nobleman died of a
broken heart because, whenever he tried to speak of his
passion, his lady-love would only talk of the chase. She
never thought of anything but stags and hounds; and at
last, after many futile wishes to turn into a dog, as his only
chance of happiness, he gave up the game and expired.
Soldiering was another vent for their forces. Among the
poorer classes it was followed as a lucrative profession. In
the wars against the Emperor Maximilian, in Guienne, a
certain Captain Dunois, pressed for time and money, formed
a brigade of 350 girls to construct fortifications; he paid
them at the rate of 1 franc 80 centimes a day—hardly more
than half the wages of the cheapest workman. At another
place he used the same means to get the towers pierced
with cannon-holes, and the walls and drawbridges repaired,
all in one short month. If the lowly pursued arms for gain,
the rich pursued them for glory. A contemporary writer
tells us that ladies had been made both Captains and Gen-
erals ; and in his wars in Picardy Francis thanked the women
for the military service they had given them. One day,
during the siege of La Rochelle, in his son’s reign, the dis-
couraged enemy lifted their eyes to the fort so successfully
held against them, and saw emerging on the battlements a
regiment of white-robed ladies. This was the Protestant gar-
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
heyday of the world. Everything is fresh to them. Here
again they are like children—on a fine day—who leap be-
cause they cannot keep still: their emotions are no more
than an outlet for their superfluous energy. It found many
others in which they indulged as keenly—riding, shooting,
practical jokes, or hunting, nothing came amiss to them.
If we are to believe Brantome, a poor nobleman died of a
broken heart because, whenever he tried to speak of his
passion, his lady-love would only talk of the chase. She
never thought of anything but stags and hounds; and at
last, after many futile wishes to turn into a dog, as his only
chance of happiness, he gave up the game and expired.
Soldiering was another vent for their forces. Among the
poorer classes it was followed as a lucrative profession. In
the wars against the Emperor Maximilian, in Guienne, a
certain Captain Dunois, pressed for time and money, formed
a brigade of 350 girls to construct fortifications; he paid
them at the rate of 1 franc 80 centimes a day—hardly more
than half the wages of the cheapest workman. At another
place he used the same means to get the towers pierced
with cannon-holes, and the walls and drawbridges repaired,
all in one short month. If the lowly pursued arms for gain,
the rich pursued them for glory. A contemporary writer
tells us that ladies had been made both Captains and Gen-
erals ; and in his wars in Picardy Francis thanked the women
for the military service they had given them. One day,
during the siege of La Rochelle, in his son’s reign, the dis-
couraged enemy lifted their eyes to the fort so successfully
held against them, and saw emerging on the battlements a
regiment of white-robed ladies. This was the Protestant gar-