THE HISTORY
OF
VALENTINE AND ORSON.
CHAP. I.
The Banishment of the Lady Bellisant, who was delivered of two fine Sons at a Birth, viz. Valentine and Orson, in a wood.
It is recorded that Pepin, King of France, had a fair sister called Bellisant, who was married to Alexander, Emperor of Greece, and by him carried to his capital city, Constantinople; from whence, after having lived with great virtue, she was banished through the means of a false traitorous accusation of the arch-priest, whom she had severely reprimanded for his imprudence in making lovo to her; and though at that time she was great with child, yet was she compelled to leave her husband’s empire to the great regret of his people, being attended only with a ’squire, named Blandiman, who had served her as a faithful servant in her brother Pepin’s court of France.
Now, after great fatigue and travel, she arrived in the forest of Orleans, where finding her pains
