[The following extract from Taylor's _Glory of Regality_, pp. 74. _et
seq._, will give our Correspondent the legend referred to.
"The ring with which our kings are invested, called by some writers
'the wedding ring of England,' is illustrated, like the Ampulla, by a
miraculous history, of which the following are the leading particulars:
from the 'Golden Legende' (_Julyan Notary_, 1503), p. 187.:--'Edward
the Confessor being one day askt for alms by a certain 'fayre olde
man,' the king found nothing to give him except his ring, with which
the poor man thankfully departed. Some time after, two English pilgrims
in the Holy Land having lost their road, as they travelled at the close
of the day, 'there came to them a fayre auncyent man wyth whyte heer
for age.' Then the old man axed them what they were and of what regyon.
And they answerde that they were Pylgryms of Englond, and hadde lost
their felyshyp and way also. Then this old man comforted theym goodly,
and brought theym into a fayre cytee; and whan they had well refresshyd
them, and rested theym alle nyght; on the morne, this fayre olde man
wente with theym and brought theym in the ryght waye agayne. And he was
gladde to hear theym talke of the welfare and holynesse of theyr Kynge
Saynt Edward. And whan he shold departe fro theym thenne he told theym
what he was, and sayd I am Johan Theuangelyst, and saye ye unto Edward
your king, that I grete hym well by the token that he gaaf to me thys
rynge with his one hondes, whych rynge ye shalle {16} delyuer to hym
agayne: and whan he had delyuerde to theym the ringe, he departed from
theym sodenly.'
"This command, as may be supposed, was punctually obeyed by the
messengers, who were furnisht with ample powers for authenticating
their mission. The ring was received by the Royal Confessor, and in
after times was preserved with due care at his shrine in the Abbey of
Westminster."]
_The Bourbons._--What was the origin of the Bourbon family? How did Henry
IV. come to be the next heir to the throne on the extinction of the line of
Valois?