THE DECMXE AND PAIL

78

chap, pleasures of the banquet and the ehace, were in-

JL*^£VI 1

^ gemously varied hy the politeness of the French ,to display their magnificence and amuse hisgrief: he was indulged in the liberty of his cha-pel; and the doctors of the Sorbonue were as-tonished, and possibly scandalised, by the lan-guage, the rites, and the vestments, of his Greekclergy. But the slightest glance on the state ofthe kingdom must teach him to despair of anyeffectual assistance. The unfortunate Charles,though he enjoyed some lucid intervals, con-tinually relapsed into furious or stupid insanity:the reins of government were alternately seizedhy his brother and uncle, the dukes of Orleansand Burgundy, whose factious competition pre-pared the miseries of civil war. The former wasa gay youth, dissolved in luxury and love: thelatter was the father of John count of Nevers,who had so lately been ransomed from Turkish captivity; and, if the fearless son was ardent torevenge his defeat, the more prudent Burgundywas content with the cost and peril of the firstexperiment. When Manuel had satiated the cu-riosity, and perhaps fatigued the patience, of theFrench , he resolved on a visit to the adjacent, . island. In his progress from Dover he was en-

ofEngland, . 18 .

a. d.i4oo, tertained at Canterbury with due reverence by

December. p r j or and monks of St Austin; and, on

Blackheath, king Henry the fourth, with theEnglish court, saluted the Greek hero (I copyour old historian), who, during many days, waslodged and treated in London as emperor of the