Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/291

 and Scnti?7ieJ2ts. 271 The ufual age for lending a boy to fofter appears to have been feven years. That was the age at which Fulke Fitz-Warine was fent to Joce de Dynan in Ludlow Caflle. "The lady," the narrative tells us, "became with child; when fhe was delivered, at the time ordained by God, they called the child Fulke. And when the child was feven years old, they fent it to Joce de Dynan to teach and nourifh ; for Joce was a knight of good accomplilhment. Joce received him with great honour and great atfeftion, and educated him in his chambers with his own children." Fulke the younger, in the next generation, was taken as his foller-child by the king (Henry II.), and was nourilhed and educated with the young princes, of whom John, in the fequel, proved a bad fofter- brother. The great barons fought to form alliances of this kind with the king, as well as with his great minifters and other men of power. In the romance of" Garin le Loherain" (vol. i. p. 62), king Pepin gives the two orphan fons of Hervis of Metz, Garin and Begon, as fofter-children to the count Hardres, and they thus become feverally the foiler-brothers, or, as they are termed in the old French, compains (companions), of his two fons, Begon being the fofter-brother of Guillaume of Montclin, and Garin of Fromont. Although they belong to rival families, and are each other's enemies through the turbulent fcenes which form the fubjed of the ftory, the fentiment of the relationfliip by foftering often fliows itfelf. This yearning after fomething beyond mere ordinary friendfliip feems to have been often felt in the middle ages, and led to various chara6teriftic pra6lices, among which one of the moft remarkable was that of fworn brotherhood. Two men — they are generally knights — who felt a lutfi- ciently ftrong fentiment towards each other, engaged, under the moft folemn oaths, in a bond of fraternity for life, implying a conftant and faithful friendlhip to each other. This pradice enters largely into the plot of feveral of the mediaeval romances, as in that of "Amis and Amiloun," and in the curious Englifh metrical romance of " King Athellten," printed in the " Reliquiae Antiquae." The defire for this true friendihip was not unnaturally increafed by the general prevalence of treacherous falfehood and hateful feuds. There is a beautiful palfage in the romance of " Garin," juft quoted, which illuftrates this fentiment, while