until the instrumental accompaniment stopped; then the gentleman made his bow to the lady, took her by the hand, thanked her, and led her to her seat.”  The tourdion was similar to the gaillarde, only faster, and was accompanied with more action.  Each province of France had its national dance, such as the bourree of Auvergne, the trioris of Brittany, the branles of Poitou, and the valses of Lorraine, which constituted a very agreeable pastime, and one in which the French excelled all other nations.  This art, “so ancient, so honourable, and so profitable,” to use the words of Jean Tabourot, was long in esteem in the highest social circles, and the old men liked to display their agility, and the dames and young ladies to find a temperate exercise calculated to contribute to their health as well as to their amusement.

The sixteenth century was the great era of dancing in all the courts of Europe; but under the Valois, the art had more charm and prestige at the court of France than anywhere else.  The Queen-mother, Catherine, surrounded by a crowd of pretty young ladies, who composed what she called her flying squadron, presided at these exciting dances.  A certain Balthazar de Beaujoyeux was master of her ballets, and they danced at the Castle of Blois the night before the Duc de Guise was assassinated under the eyes of Henry III., just as they had danced at the Chateau of the Tuileries the day after St. Bartholomew’s Day.

[Illustration:  Fig. 188.—­The Game of Bob Apple, or Swinging Apple.—­Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, in the British Museum.]

Commerce.

State of Commerce after the Fall of the Roman.  Empire.—­Its Revival under the Frankish Kings.—­Its Prosperity under Charlemagne.—­Its Decline down to the Time of the Crusaders.—­The Levant Trade of the East.—­Flourishing State of the Towns of Provence and Languedoc.—­Establishment of Fairs.—­Fairs of Landit, Champagne, Beaucaire, and Lyons.—­Weights and Measures.—­Commercial Flanders.  Laws of Maritime Commerce.—­Consular Laws.—­Banks and Bills of Exchange.—­French.  Settlements on the Coast of Africa.—­Consequences of the Discovery of America.

“Commerce in the Middle Ages,” says M. Charles Grandmaison, “differed but little from that of a more remote period.  It was essentially a local and limited traffic, rather inland than maritime, for long and perilous sea voyages only commenced towards the end of the fifteenth century, or about the time when Columbus discovered America.”

On the fall of the Roman Empire, commerce was rendered insecure, and, indeed, it was almost completely put a stop to by the barbarian invasions, and all facility of communication between different nations, and even between towns of the same country, was interrupted.  In those times of social confusion, there were periods of such poverty and distress, that for want of money commerce was reduced to the simple exchange of the