liave already faid, about the year 1360; and we have feen that it was completed in 1361, and that he had only begun it about the year 1357, it is therefore evident that Froiffart fcarcely employed more than three or four years in the compofition of this part of his work ; which neverthelefc appears to me one of thofe with which he has taken the moil pains. A fort of connexion, which I find between feveral chapters of the remainder of this firil volume, of which the firft announces others at a great diftance, convinces me that this remainder has been compofed off hand, and without interruption $ and that, confequently, the author only began to write, it towards the year 1379, fince he clofes it with the account of the events of this year. In truth, I believe that, during the time he paffed in the fervice of queen Philippa from 1361 to 1369, he was more occupied in writing, by her orders, poems on gallantry and love, than in labouring at his hiilory ; and that, although in his different travels, feveral of which were after the cleath of this princefs, he were anxious to gain every informatioa of the hiftory of his own time, he had not, in the midft of an agitated life, either fufficient leifure, or a mind enough difengaged from the anxieties or pleafures of the world, to write it. He employed three* or four years in compofing the laft half of his firft volume ; for we (hall fee, that the following volume, which he did not immediately begin upon, was written frpm 1385 to 1388. Not*