and cap of my wife, and as they do not suit you, I shall take care in future that they are changed; but I shall be careful not to choose them similar to yours....  Understand, madam, that I wish her to be dressed according to the fashion of the good ladies of France and this country, and not like those of England.  It was these last who first introduced into Brittany the large borders, the bodices opened on the hips, and the hanging sleeves.  I remember the time, and saw it myself, and I have little respect for women who adopt these fashions.’”

Respecting the high head-dresses “which cause women to resemble stags who are obliged to lower their heads to enter a wood,” the knight relates what took place in 1392 at the fete of St. Marguerite.  “There was a young and pretty woman there, quite differently dressed from the others; every one stared at her as if she had been a wild beast.  One respectable lady approached her and said, ‘My friend, what do you call that fashion?’ She answered, ‘It is called the “gibbet dress."’ ’Indeed; but that is not a fine name!’ answered the old lady.  Very soon the name of ‘gibbet dress’ got known all round the room, and every one laughed at the foolish creature who was thus bedecked.”  This head-dress did in fact owe its name to its summit, which resembled a gibbet.

These extracts from the work of this honest knight, suffice to prove that the customs of French society had, as early as the end of the fourteenth century, taken a decided character which was to remain subject only to modifications introduced at various historical periods.

Amongst the customs which contributed most to the softening and elegance of the feudal class, we must cite that of sending into the service of the sovereign for some years all the youths of both sexes, under the names of varlets, pages, squires, and maids of honour.  No noble, of whatever wealth or power, ever thought of depriving his family of this apprenticeship and its accompanying chivalric education.

Up to the end of the twelfth century, the number of domestic officers attached to a castle was very limited; we have seen, for instance, that Philip Augustus contented himself with a few servants, and his queen with two or three maids of honour.  Under Louis IX. this household was much increased, and under Philippe le Bel and his sons the royal household had become so considerable as to constitute quite a large assemblage of young men and women.  Under Charles VI., the household of Queen Isabella of Bavaria alone amounted to forty-five persons, without counting the almoner, the chaplains, and clerks of the chapel, who must have been very numerous, since the sums paid to them amounted to the large amount of four hundred and sixty francs of gold per annum.

[Illustration:  Fig. 56.—­Court of the Ladies of Queen Anne of Brittany, Miniature representing this lady weeping on account of the absence of her husband during the Italian war.—­Manuscript of the “Epistres Envoyees au Roi” (Sixteenth Century), obtained by the Coislin Fund for the Library of St. Germain des Pres in Paris, now in the Library of St. Petersburg.]