emoiselle de Luxembourg, "another small golden sacred image, surrounded
with pearls;" and lastly, in an account of 1394, headed, "Portion of gold
and silver jewels bought by Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans as a New Year's
gift," we find "a clasp of gold, studded with one large ruby and six large
pearls, given to the King; three paternosters for the King's daughters,
and two large diamonds for the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry."

[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Styli used in writing in the Fourteenth Century.]

Such were the habits in private life of the royal princes under Charles
VI.; and it can easily be shown that the example of royalty was followed
not only by the court, but also in the remotest provinces. The great
tenants or vassals of the crown each possessed several splendid mansions
in their fiefs; the Dukes of Burgundy, at Souvigny, at Moulins, and at
Bourbon l'Archambault; the Counts of Champagne, at Troyes; the Dukes of
Burgundy, at Dijon; and all the smaller nobles made a point of imitating
their superiors. From the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the
provinces which now compose France were studded with castles, which were
as remarkable for their interior, architecture as for the richness of
their furniture; and it may be asserted that the luxury which was
displayed in the dwellings of the nobility was the evidence, if not the
resuit, of a great social revolution in the manners and customs of private
life.

At the end of the fourteenth century there lived a much-respected noble of
Anjou, named Geoffroy de Latour-Landry, who had three daughters. In his
old age, he resolved that, considering the dangers which might surround
them in consequence of their inexperience and beauty, he would compose for
their use a code of admonitions which might guide them in the various
circumstances of life.

[Illustration: A Young Mother's Retinue

Representing the Parisian costumes at the end of the fourteenth century.
Fac-simile of a miniature from the latin _Terence_ of King Charles VI.
From a manuscript in the Bibl. de l'Arsenal.]

This book of domestic maxims is most curious and instructive, from the
details which it contains respecting the manners and customs, mode of
conduct, and fashions of the nobility of the period (Fig. 54). The author
mostly illustrates each of his precepts by examples from the life of
contemporary personages.

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Dress of Noble Ladies and Children in the
Fourteenth Century.--