fortune-tellers, who, by looking into people’s hands, told them what had happened or what was to happen to them, and by this means often did a good deal to sow discord in families.  What was worse, either by magic, by Satanic agency, or by sleight of hand, they managed to empty people’s purses whilst talking to them....  So, at least, every one said.  At last accounts respecting them reached the ears of the Bishop of Paris.  He went to them with a Franciscan friar, called Le Petit Jacobin, who, by the bishop’s order, delivered an earnest address to them, and excommunicated all those who had anything to do with them, or who had their fortunes told.  He further advised the gipsies to go away, and, on the festival of Notre-Dame, they departed for Pontoise.”

[Illustration:  Fig. 371.—­A Gipsy Family.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the “Cosmographie Universelle” of Munster:  in folio, Basle, 1552.]

Here, again, the gipsies somewhat varied their story.  They said that they were originally Christians; but that, in consequence of an invasion by the Saracens, they had been forced to renounce their religion; that, at a subsequent period, powerful monarchs had come to free them from the yoke of the infidels, and had decreed that, as a punishment to them for having renounced the Christian faith, they should not be allowed to return to their country before they had obtained permission from the Pope.  They stated that the Holy Father, to whom they had gone to confess their sins, had then ordered them to wander about the world for seven years, without sleeping in beds, at the same time giving direction to every bishop and every priest whom they met to offer them ten livres; a direction which the abbots and bishops were in no hurry to obey.  These strange pilgrims stated that they had been only five years on the road when they arrived in Paris.

Enough has been said to show that, although the object of their long pilgrimage was ostensibly a pious one, the Egyptians or gipsies were not very slow in giving to the people whom they visited a true estimate of their questionable honesty, and we do not think it would be particularly interesting to follow step by step the track of this odious band, which from this period made its appearance sometimes in one country and sometimes in another, not only in the north but in the south, and especially in the centre of Europe.  Suffice it to say that their quarrels with the authorities, or the inhabitants of the countries which had the misfortune to be periodically visited by them, have left numerous traces in history.

On the 7th of November, 1453, from sixty to eighty gipsies, coming from Courtisolles, arrived at the entrance of the town of Cheppe, near Chalons-sur-Marne.  The strangers, many of whom carried “javelins, darts, and other implements of war,” having asked for hospitality, the mayor of the town informed them “that it was not long since some of the same company, or others very like them, had been lodged in the town, and had been guilty of various acts of theft.”  The gipsies persisted in their demands, the indignation of the people was aroused, and they were soon obliged to resume their journey.  During their unwilling retreat, they were pursued by many of the inhabitants of the town, one of whom killed a gipsy named Martin de la Barre:  the murderer, however, obtained the King’s pardon.