Great as is the beauty of the workmanship of Alençon, it was never able to compete with Brussels in one respect: its designs were seldom copied from nature, while the fabric of Brabant sent forth roses and honeysuckles of a correctness worthy of a Dutch painter. {200}This defect is now altered. The designs of the lace are admirable copies of natural flowers, intermixed with grasses and ferns, which give a variety to the form of the leaves. [Illustration: Fig. 90. ALENÇON POINT, À PETITES BRIDES.--Louis XVI.] [Illustration: Fig. 91. POINT D'ALENÇON.--Louis XV. period. _To face page 200._] {201}Alençon point is now successfully made at Burano near Venice, in Brussels, at Alençon itself, and at Bayeux, where the fabric was introduced, in 1855, by M. Auguste Lefébure, a manufacturer of that town. Departing from the old custom of assigning to each lace-maker a special branch of the work, the lace is here executed through all its stages by the same worker. Perhaps the finest example of point d'Alençon exhibited in 1867 was the produce of the Bayeux fabric; a dress consisting of two flounces, the pattern, flowers, and foliage of most artistic and harmonious design, relieved by the new introduction of shaded tints, giving to the lace the relief of a picture.[567] The ground (point à l'aiguille) was worked with the greatest smoothness and regularity, one of the great technical difficulties when such small pieces have to be joined together. The price of the dress was 85,000 francs (£3,400). It took forty women seven years to complete. In the Exhibition of 1889 in Paris, Alençon itself showed the best piece of lace that had taken 16,500 working days to make. {202}CHAPTER XIV. ARGENTAN (DÉP. ORNE). "Vous qui voulez d'Argentan faire conte, A sa grandeur arrêter ne faut; Petite elle est, mais en beauté surmonte Maintes cités, car rien ne lui defaut; Elle est assise en lieu plaisant et haut, De tout côtè à prairie, à campaigne, Un fleuve aussi, où maint poisson se baigne, Des bois épais, suffisans pour nourrir Biches et cerfs qui sont prompts à courir; Plus y trouvez, tant elle est bien garnie, Plus au besoin nature secourir Bon air, bon vin, et bonne compagnie!" --_Des Maisons._ 1517. The name of the little town of Argentan, whose points long rivalled those of Alençon, is familiar to English ears as connected with our Norman kings. Argentan is mentioned by old Robert Wace as sending its sons to the conquest of England.[568] It was here the mother of Henry II. retired in 1130; and the imperial eagle borne as the arms of the town is said to be a memorial of her long sojourn. Here the first Plantagenet held the "cour plénière," in which the invasion of Ireland was arranged; and it was here he uttered those rash words which prompted his adherents to leave Argentan to assassinate Thomas à Becket.[569]