CHASTELAIN, Georges (1403-1475), called L ’ Adventureux, the celebrated Burgundian chronicler, was born at Alost in Flanders. When only seven years old be began the study of letters. This, however, he abandoned to become a soldier, serving first of all as a squire. Particularly favoured by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, he quitted the career of arms towards 1443, and devoted himself to the service of that prince, who made him successively pantier, orator, and finally grand chronicler of the house of Burgundy. In addition to such duties as these offices entailed upon their holder, Chastelain was often employed diplomatically, and was also accustomed to direct the dramatic entertainments designed for the amusement of the ducal court. A heavy but insolent opuscule in verse, published by him in 1455, had nearly compromised his safety, as it was held to contain reflections injurious to the honour of the king and nobility of F rance; Chastelain, however, extricated himself from the difficulty by issuing a sort of reply (in prose) to his own libel. About this time, too, at the request of Philip, he began his most important work, the Grande Chronique. Philip’s son, Charles the Bold, continued to confide in and favour Chastelain as his father had done, and conferred on him the order of the Golden Fleece, with the title of Indiciaire— a designation intended as descriptive of one who “démonstroit par escripture authentique lee admirables gestes des chevaliers et confrères de l’ordre.” At the beginning of the new reign, however, Chastelain retired to Valenciennes, where he busied himself till his death in the production of his Chronique (in which he was assisted by Jean Molinet, his disciple and continuator) and of other works, imaginative aud historical....

CHASTELARD, PierreBoscobel de (1540-1563), a French poet whose name is inseparably connected with that of Mary Queen of Scots, was born in Dauphiné, and was a scion of the house of Bayard. From the service of the Constable Montmorency, Chastelard, then a page, passed to the household of Marshal Damville, whom he accompanied in his journey to Scotland in escort of Mary (1561). He returned to Paris in the marshal’s train, but left for Scotland again shortly afterward, bearing letters of recommendation to Mary from his old protector, Montmorency, and the Regrets addressed to the ex-queen of France by Pierre Ronsard, his master in the art of song. He is also understood to have undertaken the charge, for transmission to the poet, of the service of plate with which Mary rewarded him. But he had fallen in love with the queen, who is said to have encouraged his passion. Copie» of verse passed between them; she lost no occasion of showing herself partial to his person and conversation. The young man hid himself under her bed, where he was discovered by her maids of honour. Mary pardoned the offence, and the old familiar terms between them were resumed. Chastelard was so rash as again to violate her privacy. He was discovered a second time, seized, sentenced, and hanged the next morning. He met his fate valiantly and consistently, reading, on his way to the scaffold, his master’s noble Hymne de la Mort — u Très-bien fait et propre pour ne point faire abhorer la mort”—and turning at the instant of doom towards the palace of Holyrood, to address to his unseen mistress the famous farewell—“Adieu, toi si belle et si cruelle, qui me tues et que je ne puis cesser d’aimer.” This at least is the version of Brantôme, who is, however, as notoriously untrustworthy as ...