residence. This castle was situated on the Dyle, midway between Brussels
and Louvain, and about eight miles from either city. The river, or a
deep moat, surrounded the castle on every side. There was a drawbridge
which was drawn up at night, so Louis felt himself quite safe from any
attack.

Here he remained five years (1456-1461) until the death of his father
placed him on the throne of France.

It was during these five years that these stories were told to amuse his
leisure. Probably there were many more than a hundred narrated--perhaps
several hundreds--but the literary man who afterwards "edited" the
stories only selected those which he deemed best, or, perhaps, those he
heard recounted. The narrators were the nobles who formed the Dauphin's
Court. Much ink has been spilled over the question whether Louis himself
had any share in the production. In nearly every case the author's name
is given, and ten of them (Nos. 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 29, 33, 69, 70 and
71) are described in the original edition as being by "Monseigneur."
Publishers of subsequent editions brought out at the close of the 15th,
or the beginning of the 16th, Century, jumped to the conclusion that
"Monseigneur" was really the Dauphin, who not only contributed largely
to the book, but after he became King personally supervised the
publication of the collected stories.

For four centuries Louis XI was credited with the authorship of the
tales mentioned. The first person--so far as I am aware--to throw any
doubt on his claim was the late Mr. Thomas Wright, who edited an edition
of the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, published by Jannet, Paris, 1858. He
maintained, with some show of reason, that as the stories were told in
Burgundy, by Burgundians, and the collected tales were "edited" by a