Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

MEN AND BOOKS
those days a well-served chapel was something
like a good vinery in our own, — an opportunity for
display and the source of mild enjoyments. There
was probably something of his rooted dehght in
pageantry, as well as a good deal of gentle piety,
in the feelings with which Charles gave dinner
every Friday to thirteen poor people, served them
himself, and washed their feet with his own hands. ^
Solemn affairs would interest Charles and his courtiers
from their trivial side. The duke perhaps cared
less for the deliverance of Guyenne and Normandy
than for his own verses on the occasion ; just as
Dr. Russell's correspondence in The Times was
among the most material parts of the Crimean
War for that talented correspondent. And I think
it scarcely cynical to suppose that religion as well
as patriotism was principally cultivated as a means
of filling up the day.
It was not only messengers fiery red with haste
and charged with the destiny of nations who were
made welcome at the gates of Blois. If any man
of accompKshment came that way, he was sure of
an audience, and something for his pocket. The
courtiers would have received Ben Jonson like
Drummond of Hawthornden, and a good pugilist
like Captain Barclay. They were catholic, as none
but the entirely idle can be catholic. It might be
Pierre, called Dieu d'amours, the juggler, or it
might be three high English minstrels ; or the two
men, players of ghitterns, from the kingdom of
^ D'Hericault's Memoir, xlv.
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