n." We hope,
however, that the dressmakers and tirewomen of the fair Sybilla, who had
expended so much time and invention, were handsomely rewarded by the
Prince, since they must have been most accomplished needle-women and
handmaids to have got up their young lady in so many costumes and in
such rapid succession.

A very odd fashion appears in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
of embroidering heraldic devices on the long gowns of the ladies of
rank. In one of the illuminations of a famous psalter, executed for Sir
Geoffery Loutterell, who died in 1345, that nobleman is represented
armed at all points, receiving from the ladies of his family his tilting
helmet, shield, and _pavon_. His coat of arms is repeated on every part
of his own dress, and is embroidered on that of his wife, who wears also
the crest of her own family.

Marie de Hainault, wife of the first Duke of Bourbon, 1354, appears in a
corsage and train of ermine, with a very fierce-looking lion rampant
embroidered twice on her long gown. Her jewels are magnificent. Anne,
Dauphine d'Auvergne, wife of Louis, second Duke of Bourbon, married in
1371, displays an heraldic dolphin of very sinister aspect upon one side
of her corsage, and on the skirt of her long gown,--which, divided in
the centre, seems to be composed of two different stuffs, that opposite
to the dolphin being powdered with _fleurs de lis_. Her circlet of
jewels is very elegant, and is worn just above her brow, while the hair
is braided close to the face. An attendant lady wears neither train nor
jewels, but her dress is likewise formed of different material, divided
like that of the Dauphine. Six little parrots are emblazoned on the
right side, one on her sleeve, two on her corsage, and three on her
skirt. The fashion of embroidering armorial bearings on ladies' dresses
must have given needle-women a vast deal of work. It died out in the
fifteenth century.

It was the custom in feudal times for knightly families to send their
daughters to the castles of their suzerain lords, to be trained to weave
and embroider. The young ladies on their return home instructed the more
intelligent of their female servants in these arts. Ladies of rank in
all countries prided themselves upon the number of these attendants, and
were in the habit of passing the morning surrounded by their workwomen,
singing the _chansons a toile_, as ballads composed for these hours were
called.

Estienne Jodelle, a Fre