Ruff, edged with Lace.—In the Musée de Cluny, Paris.
To face page 142.
In the inventory[[413]] made at the death of Madame Gabrielle, the fair Duchesse de Beaufort, we find entered sleeves and towels of point couppé, with fine handkerchiefs, gifts of the King to be worn at court, of such an extraordinary value that Henry requires them to be straightway restored to him. In the same list appears the duchess's bed of ivory,[[414]] with hangings for the room of rézeuil.[[415]]
The Chancellor Herault,[[416]] who died at the same period, was equally extravagant in his habits; while the shirts of the combatants in the duel between M. de Crequy and Don Philippe de Savoie are specially vaunted as "toutes garnies du plus fin et du plus riche point coupé qu'on eust pu trouver dans ce temps là, auquel le point de Gennes et de Flandres n'estoient pas en usage."[[417]]
The enormous collarette, rising behind her head like a fan, of Mary de Médicis, with its edgings of fine lace, are well known to the admirers of Rubens:—
"Cinq colets de dentelle haute de demy-piè
L'un sur l'autre montez, qui ne vont qu'a moitié
De celuys de dessus, car elle n'est pas leste,
Si le premier ne passe une paulme la teste."[[418]]