Why spend pounds to bind a book which cost but a few shillings? Why put costly clothing on a child having 999 brothers, all so exactly similar that the father and mother, author and printer, could not discriminate between them? As the book was bought so it generally remained, or, as an especial honour, it might perhaps be put into half calf. _Exit_ whole morocco, with arms elaborately emblazoned on the sides, and monograms in dainty tooling on the back. _Enter_ modern book-plate. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE CHEVALIER DE BELLEHACHE, 1771.] Under the Bourbon Kings the government of France was an absolute monarchy tempered by epigrams, and regulated chiefly by priests, soldiers, and the ladies of the Court. The system was vicious and corrupt, but very simple, and eminently satisfactory to the privileged classes. It ruined France, but, whilst it lasted, the kings and their mistresses, the nobility, and the clergy, enjoyed most of the pleasures, and all the vices, this life could afford. Of the military men who acquired power few appear to have indulged in literary tastes, or to have formed libraries. Many handsome ex-libris exist, carrying warlike trophies,--cannons, drums, tents, and flags,--such, for instance, as that of Claude Martin, but few indeed of these plates bear the names of any of the more famous French commanders. Even the plate of Murat (of later date) is doubtful, for what time had _le beau sabreur_ for books? [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF J. G. R. BOSCHERON, 1777.] [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF A. F. A. BOULA DE NANTEUIL, 1777.] Of the famous Court beauties who held influence over the kings, some possessed, and others affected, a taste for books, and volumes from their collections are eagerly sought for, partly for their associations, and partly on account of the elegance of their bindings. To name three or four of the most beautiful and most famous of these fair bibliophiles will suffice. First comes Diane de Poitiers, whose monogram, interlaced with that of her royal lover, Henri II., is to be found (along with the crescent of the chaste goddess Diana) on many books exquisitely bound by Le Faucheux. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF JEAN FRANÇOIS-GILLET, 1778.] The Marquise de Maintenon, widow of the deformed jester Scarron, who became the wife, if not the queen, of Louis XIV., was a woman of great tact and intelligence. She formed a valuable library; her books were handsomely bound, and stamped with her arms,--a lion rampant between two palm leaves.