BASTARDS are also an appellation given to a kind of faction or troop of banditti who rose in Guenne about the beginning of the fourteenth century, and joining with some English parties, ravaged the country, and set fire to the city of Xaintes.—Mezeray supposes them to have consisted of the natural sons of the nobility of Guenne, who being excluded the right of inheriting from their fathers, put themselves at the head of robbers and plunderers to maintain themselves.