ew representations of carriages appear. Such a conveyance is
depicted in an illustration of the Romance of the Rose, where Venus,
attired in the fashionable costume of the fifteenth century, is seated
in a _chare_, by courtesy a chariot, but in fact a clumsy covered wagon
without springs. Six doves are perched upon the shafts, and fastened by
mediaeval harness. The goddess of course possessed superhuman powers for
guiding this extraordinary equipage, but to mere mortals it must have
been a slow coach, and a horribly uncomfortable conveyance even when
horses were substituted for doves. An ordinance of Philip le Bel, in
1294, forbids any wheel carriages to be used by the wives of citizens,
as too great a luxury. As the date of the coach which Venus guides is
two hundred years later, it is difficult to imagine what style of
equipage belonged to those ladies over whom Philip le Bel tyrannized.

With so little means of going about, our sisters of the Middle Ages were
perforce domestic; no wonder they excelled in needle-work. To women of
any culture it was almost the only tangible form of creative art they
could command, and the love of the beautiful implanted in their souls
must find some expression. The great pattern-book of nature, filled with
graceful forms, in ever-varied arrangement, and illuminated by delicate
tints or gorgeous hues, suggested the beauty they endeavored to
represent. Whether religious devotion, human affection, or a taste for
dress prompted them, the needle was the instrument to effect their
purpose. The monogram of the blessed Mary's name, intertwined with pure
white lilies on the deep blue ground, was designed and embroidered with
holy reverence, and laid on the altar of the Lady-chapel by the
trembling hand of one whose sorrows had there found solace, or by
another in token of gratitude for joys which were heightened by a
conviction of celestial sympathy. The pennon of the knight--a silken
streamer affixed to the top of the lance--bore his crest, or an
emblematic allusion to some event in his career, embroidered, it was
supposed, by the hand of his lady-love. A yet more sacred gift was the
scarf worn across the shoulder, an indispensable appendage to a knight
fully equipped. The emotions of the human soul send an electric current
through the ages, and women who during four years of war toiled to aid
our soldiers in the great struggle of the nineteenth century felt their
hearts beat in unison with her