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Incessant in the games your strength display; Contest, ye brave! the honours of the day." Odyssey.

was a boast of Napoleon, that the very weather owned the influence of his auspicious star—his triumphal entry, his procession, or his fête, were always marked by sunshine. The clouds were equally complimentary to Louis XIV.; no sky could be brighter than that of the morning which ushered in the festival; and when Francesca took her place on a temporary gallery erected for the occasion, the coup d'œil more than realised the descriptions in the old romances. The ground appointed for the course was the open space between the Palais Royal and the dwelling of the English Queen; a palisade marked the career; and at one end, just below the gallery where Francesca sat, hung the ring, suspended from an arch ornamented with laurel, and in the centre