the _fleurs-de-lys_, while her head appears to great advantage with a short veil beneath her crown, her hair being braided over the ears and a small lawn band supporting her chin. The sleeve of this frock shows the fancy which obtained for the long scarf held above the elbow and falling with long ends edged with fur; and the little chemisette and the white cuffs give a winning suggestion of simplicity to an attire completely magnificent. [Illustration: THE QUEEN OF RICHARD II.] Her royal consort decked himself with dress no less elaborate, fur, gold, embroidery, and brocade and velvet all having the privilege of adorning His Majesty, whose courtiers wore robes emblazoned and embroidered with precious stones, and mantles sliced in pointed leaf or square indented edges. Parti-coloured garments were their delight, the dress often being divided in two, half in one colour and half in another, hose suffering like treatment; and their wide sleeves, known as "devil's receptacles," trailed along the ground, with many slashings to decorate them. The Troubadours gaily twanged the guitar and other instruments at the tournament, where the dames and matrons rode in parti-coloured tunics, with hoods and long tails to them, and bore small gold or silver swords or daggers in the girdle, which fell over the hips instead of encircling the waist. Ermine shed its soft influence on many of the stiffest of silks, and dresses were completely lined with ermine, which also bordered the _côte hardie_. A deep royal blue was a very favourite colour, and jewels obtained in abundance, girdles being encrusted with these, while no neck seemed complete without a necklace of four rows of jewels and a pendent cross. A good example of the dress worn by the middle class may be taken from Chaucer's Wife of Bath. He tells us she wore on her head on Sundays a fine cloth kerchief which weighed a pound, and scarlet stockings and fine new shoes; she travelled in a wimple and a very broad hat and cloak. The Miller's wife went abroad in a girdle, barred all of silk, and a white apron or barme cloth, as it was then called. Her shift had its collar embroidered in front and behind with black silk, and she covered her head with a white cap tied with strings, above a broad silk fillet. She had a leathern purse with metal buttons and silken tassels depending from her girdle.