Of the articles of household furniture during the period of which we are now writing, we cannot give many examples. We have every reason to believe that they were anything but numerous. A board laid upon tressels formed the usual dining table, and an ordinary bench or form the seat. In the French Carlovingian romances, the earlier of which may be considered as representing society in the twelfth century, even princes and great barons sit ordinarily upon benches. Thus, in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux (pp. 33, 36), Charlemagne invites the young chieftain, Huon, who had come to visit him in his palace, to sit on the bench and drink his wine; and in the same romance (p. 263), when Huon was received in the abbey of St. Maurice, near Bordeaux, he and the abbot sit together on a bench. Chairs belonged to great people. Our cut No. 66, taken from the Trinity College Psalter, represents a chair of state, with its covering of drapery thrown over it. In some instances the cushion appears placed upon the drapery. This seat was the _faldestol_, a word which has been transformed in modern French to _fauteuil_ (translated in English by elbow-chair). We read in the Chanson de Roland of the _faldestol_ which was placed for princes, and of the covering of white “_palie_” (a rich stuff) which was spread over it. That of Charlemagne was of gold-- _Un faldestoed i unt fait tut d’or mer:_ _Là siet li reis qui dulce France tient._ --Chanson de Roland, p. 5. The _faldestol_ of the Saracen king of Spain was covered with a “palie” of Alexandrian manufacture,-- _Un faldestoet out suz l’umbre d’un pin,_ _Envolupet fut d’un palie Alexandrin;_ _Là fut li reis ki tute Espaigne tint._ --Ib. p. 17. The infidel emir from Egypt, when he arrives in Spain, is seated in the midst of his host, on a _faldestol_ of ivory. _Sur l’erbe verte getent un palie blanc,_ _Un faldestoed i unt mis d’olifan;_ _Desuz s’asiet li paien Baligant._ --Ib. p. 102. The _faldestol_ was not always made of such rich materials. In the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, Charlemagne is represented as sitting in a _faldestol_ made of elm. _Karles monta ens el palais plenier;_ _Il est asis u faudestuef d’ormier._ Huon de Bordeaux, p. 286. [Illustration: _No. 67. Two Chiefs Seated._]