 the
old man prisoner, and used him with the most brutal violence, proceeding, it is
said, even to the length of striking him with his hand. Arnold, in resentment of
this usage, disinherited the unprincipled wretch, and sold to Charles of
Burgundy whatever rights he had over the duchy of Gueldres and earldom of
Zutphen. Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles, restored these possessions to
the unnatural Adolphus, who was slain in 1477.
 
9 This part of Louis XIth's reign was much embarrassed by the intrigues of the
Constable Saint Paul, who affected independence, and carried on intrigues with
England, France, and Burgundy, at the same time. According to the usual fate of
such variable politicians, the Constable ended by drawing upon himself the
animosity of all the powerful neighbours whom he had in their turn amused and
deceived. He was delivered up by the Duke of Burgundy to the King of France,
tried, and hastily executed for treason, A.D. 1475.
 
10 It was by his possession of this town of Saint Quentin that the Constable vas
able to carry on those political intrigues, which finally cost him so dear.
 
11 It was a part of Louis's very unamiable character, and not the best part of
it, that he entertained a great contempt for the understanding, and not less for
the character, of the fair sex.
 
12 The crutches or stilts, which in Scotland are used to pass rivers. They are
employed by the peasantry of the country near Bordeaux, to traverse those
deserts of loose sand called Landes.
 
13 Better kind strangers than estranged kindred. The motto is engraved on a
dirk, belonging to a person who had but too much reason to choose such a device.
It was left by him to my father, and is connected with a strange course of
adventures, which may one day be told. The weapon is now in my possession.
 
14 Black knife; a species of knife without clasp or hinge, formerly much used by
the Highlanders, who seldom travelled without such an ugly weapon, though it is
now rarely used.
 
15 One of these two persons, I learned from the Chronique de Jean de Troyes, but
too late to avail myself of the information, might with more accuracy have been
called Petit-Jean, than Petit-André. This was actually the name of the son of
Henry de Cousin, master executioner of the High Court of Justice. The Constable
Saint Paul was executed by him with such dexterity, that the head, when struck
off, struck the ground at the same time with the body.
