THE TROUBADOUTURS.,

employment, and often in midwinter they ap-
- peared before the castle gates at nightfall, a group
of crimson, and violet, and velvet-black, relieved
against the shadowed snow.

The richer class of Troubadours did not travel
at this season. They remained at home during

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well pounded. It is related of one that while
returning from a visit to a certain lord, having
reached a deep and dangerous forest, he was sud-
denly set upon by thieves who haunted these gloomy
shades. They took from him his horse, his
money, and even his clothing, and were about te

 

THE TROUBADOUR SINGING TO THE THIEVES.

the winter and composed, or learned new verses,
and thus prepared themselves for a fresh cam-
paign; and with the first upspringing of the grass
they came forth like song birds, flocking joyously
from city to city, from castle to castle, with their
flutes and rebecs, their wonderful stories of Ar-
thur’s Round Table, of wild horses of the forest
bearing fair maidens lashed to their backs forever,
of towers dragon-guarded.

The life of the wandering Troubadour must
needs have been one of romance and adventure.
Not infrequently did he picture to the life in his
lyric some well-known character of the day and
the neighborhood ; and it followed that if the hero
of the song or recital was of a revengeful nature,
the Troubadour was frequently waylaid and

kill him, when the captive Troubadour begged to
be allowed to sing one more song before he died.
Obtaining consent, he began to sing most melodi-
ously in praise of thievery and of these particular
thieves, whom he so delighted with his sweet
compliments and admiration that they “ returned
him his horse, his money, and everything they
had taken from him!”

But there were often pleasanter scenes “under
the greenwood tree.” Picture to yourself a com-
pany of the merry singers, in fantastic array,
halted beneath the broad and protecting boughs.
Can you not hear the jest go round, the free
laugh ring out, and echoing in the old woodland, as
these Troubadours, those human songsters, revel in
the joy of their out-of-door life, and breathing the