American Indians, I believe,—that where the lightning strikes it melts into gold.
This ballad is also taken, with some slight change, from a legend in Russell's Germany.
Thoulouse, now the bright resort
Of beauty and the minstrel court.
For this time it is hers to set
The victor's brow with violet.
I have here given to an early age what in reality belongs to a later one; the Golden Violet was a prize given rather for the revival than the encouragement of the Troubadours. The following is Sismondi's account.
"A few versifiers of little note, had assumed, at Thoulouse, the name of Troubadours, and were accustomed to assemble together, in the gardens of the Augustine Monks, where they read their compositions to one another. In 1323, these persons resolved to form themselves into a species of academy del Gai Sabir, and they gave it the title of La Sobrigaza Companhia dels septs Trobudors de Tolosa. This "most gay society" was eagerly joined by the Capitouls, or venerable magistrates of Thoulouse, who wished, by some public festival, to reanimate the spirit of poetry. A circular letter was addressed to all the cities of Languedoc, to give notice that, on the first of May, 1324, a Golden Violet would
