Catherine de Medicis made a vow, that if some concerns which she had
undertaken terminated successfully, she would send a pilgrim on foot to
Jerusalem, and that at every three steps he advanced, he should go one
step back.
It was doubtful whether there could be found a man sufficiently strong
and patient to walk, and go back one step at every third. A citizen of
Verberie, who was a merchant, offered to accomplish the queen’s vow most
scrupulously, and her majesty promised him an adequate recompense. The
queen was well assured by constant inquiries that he fulfilled his
engagement with exactness, and on his return, he received a considerable
sum of money, and was ennobled. His coat of arms were a cross and a
branch of palm-tree. His descendants preserved the arms; but they
degenerated from their nobility, by resuming the commerce which their
ancestor quitted.[107]
[107] Nouv. Hist. de Duch. de Valois.
* * * * *
~Street Circulars.~
No. I.
_For the Table Book._