quant il fut mort Le Roy Henry son successeur L'envoya a son oncle Le Duc
de Berry, auquel il est a present."_ This memorandum has the signature of
"Flamel," who was Secretary to Charles VI. On the opposite page, in the
same ancient Gothic character, we read: "_Lesquelz volumes mon dit Seigneur
a donnez a ma Dame Seur Marie de France. Ma niepce."_ Signed by the same.
The Abbé L'Epine informs me that Flamel was a very distinguished character
among the French: and that the royal library contains several books which
belonged to him.

BREVIARY OF JOHN DUKE OF BEDFORD. Pursuing what I imagine to be a tolerably
correct chronological order, I am now about to place before you this
far-famed _Breviary_: companion to the MISSAL which originally belonged to
the same eminent Possessor, and of which our countrymen[34] have had more
frequent opportunities of appreciating the splendour and beauty than the
Parisians; as it is not likely that the former will ever again become the
property of an Englishman. Doubtless, at the sale of the Duchess of
Portland's effects in 1786, some gallant French nobleman, if not Louis XVI.
himself, should have given an unlimited commission to purchase it, in order
that both _Missal_ and _Breviary_ might have resumed that close and
intimate acquaintance, which no doubt originally subsisted between them,
when they lay side by side upon the oaken shelves of their first
illustrious Owner. Of the _two_ performances, however, there can be no
question that the superiority lies decidedly with the _Missal_: on the
score of splendour, variety, and skilfulness of execution.

The last, and by much the most splendid illumination, is _that_ for which
the artists of the middle age, and especially the old illuminators, seem to
have reserved all their powers, and upon which they lavished all their
stock of gold, ultramarine, and carmine. You will readily anticipate that I
am about to add--the _Assumption of the Virgin_. One's memory is generally