©n any day that lie would name ; but the king of England refufed the combat, and recroffed the fea to England, and the king of France returned to Paris.1 To thefe examples, I could add a great number of others* wherein he gives much praife, as well to the people as to the lords who fignalifed themfelves by their attachment to their country; and he neither fpares thofe who had declared themfelves againft the French, nor thofe who had abandoned them in a cowardly manner. In addition to what he fays of the fidelity of the Bretons and of the counts de Blois, their legitimate fovereigns, he praifes the zeal with which feveral lords in Scotland received the french fleet fent in 1385 to affift them againft the Englifh. The earl of Douglas, to whom he appears much attached, and in whofe caftle he fpent feveral days, in his travels into Scotland, feems to be of this number. At the fame time, he declaims againft thofe whofe bad faith and ingratitude rendered this armament fruitlefs*. He fpeaks in the ftrongeft terms of the prefumption of the duke of Gueldres, who dared to declare war againft the king of France (Charles VI.) in 1387, and of the infolence with which he exprefled himfelf in his declaration of war. He applauds thejuft indigpation. which induced this monarch to- march in perfen to chaftife the pride of this petty prince. In ftiert, of all the nations whom he mentions in his hiftory, there are but few whom he has not fometimes marked with odious epithets. According to him, the Portuguefe are paffionate and quarrelfome ; the Spaniards envious, haughty and uncleanly ; the Scots perfidious and ungrateful ; the Italians aflaflins and poifoners ; the Englifh vain-boafters, contemptuous and cruel. There is not one trait againft the French : on the contrary, this brave nation fupports itfelf,. according to Froiflart, by the vigour and ftrength of its chivalry, which was never fo totally overwhelmed, by its misfortunes as not in the end to find fome marvellous refources in its courage. The hiftorian alfo feems to have taken a pride in having been born a Frenchman, by telling us, that he owed to this title the good reception which a french efquke ga?e him when, he lodged with, him. afc Ortra*. 45