At the revolution, all that ages had accumulated was dispersed, but much has since been recollected, and amongst the twenty-five thousand volumes there are many very precious.
There are more than fifteen hundred works relative to the history of Poitou, and it has, within a few years, been enriched by a present from the British government of a fine collection of historical and legal documents connected with this part of the country.
That which, however, interested me most, was a beautiful manuscript, said to have been executed by no other hand than the royal one of the good King Rene.

I have no doubt it was done by a very skilful artist whom his munificence protected; but if, as is probable, he painted the work on chivalry now in the King's library at Paris, he did _not_ paint the beautiful leaves of the Psalter which is attributed to him; there is too much knowledge of art in the latter to permit one to imagine that the same person could do both; for though the work on chivalry has great merit, it is of an inferior kind to this.

The birds, the flowers, the foliage, and the miniatures, are in perfection, and betray an Italian touch; true it is that the celebrated partridges, which King Rene loved so well to paint, are frequently repeated, and the legend is told while the manuscript is being looked at, of his occupation in depicting his favourite bird, when he was informed of the loss of his kingdom, and so interested was he in his work that he never laid down his pencil, but proceeded to finish it off as if nothing had happened.
Still, I think, whoever painted this book was the royal amateur's master in the art; it appears certain that the beautiful volume was presented by him to Jeanne de Laval, his wife: it is decorated with the arms of Anjou, Sicily, and Laval, and the gold and azure are brilliant beyond description, the doves and other birds are of glittering plumage, and the flowers charming.

Another psalter, of still more exquisite execution, is of later date, 1510; and though the gold is far less dazzling than that which adorns Rene's book, nothing can exceed the beauty of the birds and flowers introduced on the margins.

One leaf, _all owls_, has a peculiarly _feathered_ appearance; the solemn birds sit on wreaths in the most elegant attitudes, and at the top of the page one _Grand Duke_, larger and more dignified than the rest, seems to look down on his people with satisfaction.