The family was ancient and noble; the elder branch of our historian existed after the year 1400, the younger, which acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of Savoy, (Ducange, p.
235--245.)] [Footnote 31: This office was held by his father and his descendants; but Ducange has not hunted it with his usual sagacity.

I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the family of Conflans; but these provincial have been long since eclipsed by the national marshals of France.] [Footnote 32: This language, of which I shall produce some specimens, is explained by Vigenere and Ducange, in a version and glossary.

The president Des Brosses (Mechanisme des Langues, tom.ii.p.

83) gives it as the example of a language which has ceased to be French, and is understood only by grammarians.] [Footnote 33: His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste uvre _dicta_, (No.

62, &c.,) may justify the suspicion (more probable than Mr.Wood's on Homer) that he could neither read nor write.