“Talking one night at supper with a number of bold companions as to the means we should take for restoring our wasted fortunes, some said in jest that the best plan would be for one of us to marry the beauty of Dauphiny.  I at once said that I would be the man to do it; the idea was a wild one, and a roar of laughter greeted my words.  Her father was known to be a stern and rigid man, and it was certain that he would not consent to give his daughter to a spendthrift young noble like myself.  When the laughter had subsided I repeated my intention gravely, and offered to wager large sums with all around the table that I would succeed.

“On the morrow I packed up a few of my belongings, put in my valise the dress of a wandering troubadour, and taking with me only a trusty servant, started for Dauphiny.  It would be tedious to tell you the means I resorted to to obtain the affections of the heiress.  I had been well instructed in music and could play on the lute, and knew by heart large numbers of ballads, and could myself, in case of necessity, string verses together with tolerable ease.  As a troubadour I arrived at the castle gate, and craved permission to enter to amuse its occupants.  Troubadours then, as now, were in high esteem in the south, and I was at once made a welcome guest.

“Days passed, and weeks; still I lingered at the castle, my heart being now as much interested as my pride in the wager which I had undertaken.  Suffice it to say that my songs, and perhaps my appearance—­for I cannot be accused of vanity now in saying nature had been bountiful to me—­won my way to her heart.  Troubadours were licensed folk, and even in her father’s presence there was naught unseemly in my singing songs of love.  While he took them as the mere compliments of a troubadour, the lady, I saw, read them as serious effusions of my heart.

“It was only occasionally that we met alone; but ere long she confessed that she loved me.  Without telling her my real name, I disclosed to her that I was of her own rank and that I had entered upon the disguise I wore in order to win her love.  She was romantic, and was flattered by my devotion.  I owned to her that hitherto I had been wild and reckless; and she told me at once that her father destined her for the son of an old friend of his, to whom it appeared she had been affianced while still a baby.  She was positive that nothing would move her father.  For the man she was to marry she entertained no kind of affection, and indeed had never seen him, as she had been brought up in a convent to the age of fifteen; and just before she had returned thence he had gone to finish his education at Padua.

“She trembled when I proposed flight; but I assured her that I was certain of the protection of the king, and that he would, I was sure, when the marriage was once celebrated, use his influence with her father to obtain his forgiveness.