[123] He contrived, by means of a Venetian priest, his spy, to obtain a copy of a letter from Philip to the Pope; a gentleman of the bedchamber taking the keys of the cabinet from the pockets of his holiness as he slept. Upon intelligence thus obtained, Walsingham got those Spanish bills protested at Genoa which should have supplied money for the preparations.
CHAPTER XX.
ON STITCHERY.
“Here have I cause in men just blame to find,
That in their proper praise too partial bee,
And not indifferent to womankind,
* * * * *
Scarse do they spare to one, or two, or three,
Rowme in their writtes; yet the same writing small
Does all their deedes deface, and dims their glories all.”
Faerie Queene.
“Christine, whiche understode these thynges of Dame Reason, replyed upon that in this manere. Madame Ise wel yt ye myght fynde ynowe & of grete nombre of women praysed in scyences and in crafte; but knowe ye ony that by ye vertue of their felynge & of subtylte of wytte haue founde of themselfe ony newe craftes and scyences necessary, good, & couenable that were neuer founde before nor knowne? for it is not so grete maystry to folowe and to lerne after ony other scyence founde and comune before, as it is to fynde of theymselfe some newe thynge not accustomed before.
“Answere.—Ne doubte ye not ye contrary my dere frende but many craftes and scyences ryght notable hathe ben founde by the wytte and subtylte of women, as moche by speculacyon of understandynge, the whiche sheweth them by wrytynge, as in craftes, yt sheweth theym in werkynge of handes & of laboure.”—The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes.
Again we must lament that the paucity of historical record lays us under the necessity of concluding, by inference, what we would fain have displayed by direct testimony. The respectable authority quoted above affirms that “many craftes and scyences ryght notable hathe ben founde by the wytte and subtylte of women,” and it specifies particularly “werkynge of handes,” by which we suppose the “talented” author means needlework. That the necessity for this pretty art was first created by woman, no one, we think, will disallow; and that it was first practised, as it has been subsequently perfected, by her, is a fact of which we feel the most perfect conviction.
This conviction has been forced upon us by a train of reasoning which will so readily suggest itself to the mind of all our readers, that we content ourselves with naming the result, assured that it is unnecessary to trouble them with the intervening steps. One only link in the chain of “circumstantial evidence” will we adduce, and that is afforded by the ancient engraving to which we have before alluded in our remarks upon Eve’s needle and thread. There whilst our “general mother” is stitching away at the fig-leaves in the most edifying manner possible, our “first father,” far from trying to “put in a stitch for himself,” is gazing upon her in the most utter amazement. And while she plies her busy task as if she had been born to stitchery, his eyes, not his fingers,
“Follow the nimble fingers of the fair,”