quendy bewailed bis fituation with wonder ; for' he was fprung from the nobleft biood in the world, the advantages of which he had been long de-prived of; for he had been thirty-five years in the power of his enemies, and, as he perceived no appearance of help coming to him from any quar-ter, he would rather have died than thus have exifted. His relations and friends kept at a diftance, and the fum he was pledged for was fo great, that he could never have procured it, without a miracle; for the duke of Anjou, in all his profperity, though -the perfon who had married his fifter-german, by whom he had two fine font, Lewis and Charles, never once thought of him. I will now relate how John of Brittany ob-tained his liberty/ You have before read of the èarl of Buckingham's expedition, through France, to Brittany, whither the duke had fent for him, becaufe the country would not acknowledge him . for its lord. The earl and his army remained the enfuing winter, in great diftrefs, before Nantes and Vannes, until the month of May, when he ' returned to England. During the time the earl of Buckingham was at Vannes, you may remember, there were fome tilts between the. knights and fquires of France and thofe of England, and that the conftable of France was prefent. There was much converfation kept up by him and the englifh knights ; for he was acquainted with them all, from his childhood, having been educated in England. He behaved very politely to many of them, as men at arms nfually 146