One custom continued to prevail during the whole of this period,--that of sleeping in bed entirely naked. So many allusions to this practice occur in the old writers, that it is hardly necessary to say more than state the fact. Not unfrequently this custom is still more strongly expressed by stating that people went to bed as naked as they were born; as in some moral lines in the “Reliquiæ Antiquæ” (ii. 15), against the pride of the ladies, who are told that, however gay may be their clothing during the day, they will lie in bed at night as naked as they were born. It is true that in some instances in the illuminations persons are seen in bed with some kind of clothing on, but this was certainly an exception to the rule, and there is generally some particular reason for it. Thus, in the “Roman de la Violette” (p. 31), the lady Oriant excites the surprise of her dueña by going to bed in a _chemise_, and is obliged to explain her reason for so singular a practice, namely, her desire to conceal a mark on her body. Our cut No. 182, taken from the romance of the St. Graal, in the British Museum (MS. Addit. No. 10,292, fol. 21, v^o), represents a king and queen in bed, both naked. The crowns on their heads are a mere conventional method of stating their rank: kings and queens were not in the habit of sleeping in bed with their crowns on their heads. In the next cut (No. 183), taken from a manuscript of the romance of the “Quatre Fils d’Aymon,” of the latter part of the fourteenth century, in the National Library in Paris (No. 6970), there is still less room left for doubt on the subject. The people seem to be sleeping in a public hostelry, where the beds are made in recesses, not unlike the berths in a modern steamer; the man on horseback is supposed to be outside, and his arrival has given alarm to a man who was in bed, and who is escaping without any kind of clothing. In the English romance of “Sir Isumbras,” the castle of Isumbras is burnt to the ground in the night, and his lady and three children escaped from their beds; when he hurried to the spot, he found them without clothing or shelter-- _A dolefulle syghte the knyghte gane see_ _Of his wyfe and his childir three,_ _That fro the fyre were flede;_ _Alle als nakede als thay were borne_ _Stode togedir undir a thorne,_ _Braydede owte of thaire bedd._ Curiously enough, while so little care was taken to cover the body, the head was carefully covered at night, not with a nightcap, but with a kerchief (_couvrechief_), which was wrapped round it. [Illustration: _No. 182. King and Queen in Bed._] [Illustration: _No. 183. Night Scene in a Hostelry._] [Illustration: _No. 184. A Lady Bathing._]