“What! amongst dried peas and preserved plums?”

“Precisely; but the house of Herbelot might then have been one of the most commodious buildings in all Paris.  Alphonso was afterwards conducted to the palace, where he pleaded his cause before the king.  Next day he was entertained at the archiepiscopal residence, where he witnessed the induction of a doctor in theology.  The day after that a procession to the university was organized, which passed under the grocer’s windows.”

“These were singular marvels to entertain a king withal,” said Jack.

“Such were the amusements peculiar to the epoch.  It must be observed that the Louis in question was somewhat close-fisted, and rarely drew his purse-strings unless he was certain of a good interest for his money.  But courts in those days were very simple and frugal.  The sumptuary laws of Philip le Bel (1285) had fixed supper at three dishes and a lard soup.  The king’s own dinner was likewise limited to three dishes.”

“These three dishes might, however, have yielded a better repast than the fifty-two saucers of the Chinese,” remarked Jack.

“No one could obtain permission to give his wife four dresses a year, unless he had an income of six thousand francs.”

“What business had the laws to interfere with these things, I should like to know?” inquired Mrs. Wolston.

“Those who possessed two thousand francs income were only allowed to wear one dress a year, the cloth for which was not permitted to exceed tenpence a yard; but ladies of rank could go as high as fifteen pence.”

“Philip le Bel must have been an old woman,” insisted Mrs. Wolston.

“No private citizen was permitted to use a carriage, and such persons were likewise interdicted the use of flambeaux.”

“They were permitted to break their necks at all events, that is something.”

“In England, the same primitive simplicity prevailed; Queen Elizabeth is said to have breakfasted on a gallon of ale, her dining-room floor was strewn every day with fresh straw or rushes, and she had only one pair of silk stockings in her entire wardrobe.”

“At the same time,” observed Ernest, “these usages stand in singular contradiction to those that prevailed at an earlier age.  The supper of Lucullus rarely cost him less than thirty thousand francs, and he could entertain five and twenty thousand guests.  Six citizens of Rome possessed a great part of Africa.  Domitius had an estate in France of eighty thousand acres.”

“Poor fellow!”

“When Nero went to Baize he was accompanied by a thousand chariots and two thousand mules caparisoned with silver.  Poppaea followed him with five hundred she asses to furnish milk for her bath.  Cicero purchased a dining-room table that cost him a million sesterces, or about two hundred thousand francs.  I can understand the progress of civilization, and I can also understand civilization remaining stationary for a given period; but I cannot understand why a citizen of ancient Rome should be able to lodge twenty-five thousand men, whilst a king of France could scarcely keep the ducks from waddling about his apartments, and a queen of England could fare no better than a ploughman.”