shaded with lindens and plane trees. The daintiest of
marguerites fringe the meadows. Magpies beat up the
fresh odors of the grass, and the whirring flight of doves
fills the calm air with ripples. This is Grandselve; and
beside the brook Nadesse, beneath murmuring poplars,
the scanty remains of a monastery have been built into a
farmhouse. ²⁸

Here stood, in the days of the troubadours, a great

GRANDSELVE.

Cistercian abbey in the midst of a wide forest, and at this
abbey were celebrated with splendid pomp the obsequies
of Folquet. The candles burned resplendently. The
incense was fragrant. The chant was clear and sweet.
With sonorous eloquence the assembled prelates called
their departed brother "The Blessèd." The Church took
up the strain. As "The Blessèd" he passed into its tra-
ditions; and about a century later Dante, immortalizing
the tradition, placed him in Paradise as "a jewel costly
and lustrous." ²⁹

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