3 John Perreal, called “Jehan de Paris,” was one of the most famous painters of the reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XII.  At the end of 1496 we find him resident at Lyons, and there enjoying considerable celebrity.  From October 1498 to November 1499 he figures in the roll of officers of the royal household, as valet of the wardrobe, with a salary of 240 livres.  In the royal stable accounts for 1508 he appears as receiving ten livres to defray the expense of keeping a horse during June and July that year.  He is known to have painted the portrait and planned the obsequies of Philibert of Savoy in 1509; to have been sent to England in 1514 to paint a portrait of the Princess Mary, sister of Henry VIII., who married Louis XII.; and in 1515 to have had charge of all the decorative work connected with Louis XII.’s obsequies.  In his Legende des Venitiens (1509) John Le Maire de Belges praises Perreal’s skill both in landscape and portrait painting, and describes him as a most painstaking and hardworking artist.  He had previously referred to him in his Temple d’Honneur et de Vertu (1504) as being already at that period painter to the King.  In the roll of the officers of Francis I.’s household (1522) Perreal’s name takes precedence of that of the better known Jehannet Clouet, but it does not appear in that of 1529, about which time he would appear to have died.  Shortly before that date he had designed some curious initial letters for the famous Parisian printer and bookseller, Tory.  The Claud Perreal, “Lyonnese,” whom Clement Marot commemorates in his 36th Rondeau would appear to have been a relative, possibly the son, of “Jehan de Paris.”—­See Leon de La Borde’s Renaissance des Arts, vol. i., Pericaud aine’s Notice sur Jean de Paris, Lyons, 1858, and more particularly E. M. Bancel’s Jehan Perreal dit Jean de Paris, peintre et valet-de-chambre des rois Charles VIII.  Louis XII., &c.  Paris, Launette, 1884.—­L. and M.

     4 Brantome refers to this tale, as an example of marital
     cruelty, in his Vies des Dames Galantes, Lalanne’s
     edition, vol. ix. p. 38.—­L.

“If, ladies, all those whom a like adventure has befallen, were to drink out of similar vessels, I greatly fear that many a gilt cup would be turned into a death’s head.  May God keep us from such a fortune, for if His goodness do not restrain us, there is none among us but might do even worse; but if we trust in Him He will protect those who confess that they are not able to protect themselves.  Those who confide in their own strength are in great danger of being tempted so far as to be constrained to acknowledge their frailty.  Many have stumbled through pride in this way, while those who were reputed less discreet have been saved with honour.  The old proverb says truly, ’Whatsoever God keeps is well kept.’”

“The punishment,” said Parlamente, “was in my opinion a most reasonable one, for, just as the offence was more than death, so ought the punishment to have been.”