PRELIM.] ROYAL EQUITY. 367 man letters which declared he had given to the heirs of the countess of Boulogne, lately deceased, the county of Dammartin, which letters were disfigured and the seals broken. All that remained of the seals were one-half of the legs of the king's effigies and the chantel* on which the royal feet were placed. The king shewed these letters to ne who were of his council, to have our advice on the occasion. We wore unanimously of opinion that the king was not bounden to put these letters into execution, and that the persons mentioned in them ongbt not to enjoy that county. The king instantly called to him John Sarrazin, his chamberlain, and asked for the letter which he had commanded him to draw up. When he had examined it, he looked at the seal, and at the remains of that on the letters of Sir Reginald, and then said to us, "M y lords, this is the seal I made use of before I went to the Holy Land, and the remnant on these letters so much resembles the whole seal that I dare not, without sinning against God and reason, retain the county of Dammartin." He then called for the lord Reginald de Trie, and said, " My fair sir, I restore to you the county which you demand." SECOND PART. HER E begins the second part of this present book, in which, as I have before said, you shall hear of grand feats of chivalry. In the name of the all-powerful God, this good king, St. Louis, as I have frequently heard say, was bornt on the feast- Tbe countfsof Dammartin fell to the family of Trie, as being the nearest heirs on the side from whence that estate came. * Le chantel or chanteau was that side of the seal on which the footstool of the king was. Philippe» Mouskes, in the Life of Robert, king of France, says,— " La lance et l'escu en cantiel ;" that is to say, on the side shields and bucklers were commonly worn, namely, on the left side. The romance of Guerin uses other terms : — " Au col ly pendant un escu de cai tier." f St. Louis came into this world on the festival of Saint Mark, the 25th of April, in the year 1215, at Poissy, where is still to be seen, in the chapel called by the name of St. Louis, in the cathedral church, a large