is the Christian, while the heroine is a Saracen captive baptized in her early years.  The general outline of the plot also resembles indistinctly the plot of Floire and Blanchefleur, though its topography is somewhat indefinite, and a certain amount of absurd adventure in strange lands is interwoven with it.  With these exceptions, however, few literary productions of the Middle Ages can rival ‘Aucassin and Nicolette’ in graceful sentiment and sympathetic description.

The Paris manuscript gives the music for the poetical parts,—­music that is little more than a modulation.  There is a different notation for the first two lines, but for the other lines this notation is repeated in couplets, except that the last line of each song or laisse—­being a half-line—­has a cadence of its own.  The lines are all seven syllables in length, save the final half-lines, and the assonance, which all but the half-lines observe, tends somewhat towards rhyme.

The story begins with a song which serves as prologue; and then its prose takes up the narrative, telling how Aucassin, son of Garin, Count of Beaucaire, so loved Nicolette, a Saracen maiden, who had been sold to the Viscount of Beaucaire, baptized and adopted by him, that he had forsaken knighthood and chivalry and even refused to defend his father’s territories against Count Bougart of Valence.  Accordingly his father ordered the Viscount to send away Nicolette, and he walled her up in a tower of his palace.  Later, Aucassin is imprisoned by his father.  But Nicolette escapes, hears him lamenting in his cell, and comforts him until the warden on the tower warns her of the approach of the town watch.  She flees to the forest outside the gates, and there, in order to test Aucassin’s fidelity, builds a rustic tower.  When he is released from prison, Aucassin hears from shepherd lads of Nicolette’s hiding-place, and seeks her bower.  The lovers, united, resolve to leave the country.  They take ship and are driven to the kingdom of Torelore, whose queen they find in child-bed, while the king is with the army.  After a three years’ stay in Torelore they are captured by Saracen pirates and separated.  Contrary winds blow Aucassin’s boat to Beaucaire, where he succeeds to Garin’s estate, while Nicolette is carried to Carthage.  The sight of the city reminds her that she is the daughter of its king, and a royal marriage is planned for her.  But she avoids this by assuming a minstrel’s garb, and setting sail for Beaucaire.  There, before Aucassin, she sings of her own adventures, and in due time makes herself known to him.  Now in one last strain our story-teller celebrates the lovers’ meeting, concluding with—­

     “Our song-story comes to an end,
     I know no more to tell.”

And thus he takes leave of the gentle and courageous maiden.