We now come to the Ludovican period, the early part of which coincides with that of Charles II. of England, a period whose extreme frivolity and heartlessness are well expressed in its costume. What can be more tasteless than the specimens (6, 7, 8) we have engraved of the fashion of Louis XIV., with their hard shapes, their crude glaring colours, and the recrudescence of the peaked toe? The heels have again risen enormously, and turn the foot into the cloven hoof of the early Valois period. The first is of damask, embroidered with white, blue, and silver, and fastened with narrow straps: it is elevated on a very high narrow heel, widening out at the base. The second somewhat reproduces the shoe of Henri II.: the wearer must have stood on her toes. The material is of yellow silk, embroidered from top to instep with a tasteless covering of silver lace; the very high heel is in red morocco; it is fastened just below the ankle with a strap and buckle. If these two shoes show how the art of the Renaissance had declined in France, the specimen from Italy of the same period (8) is even worse. One can hardly believe that such a shoe was made for anything but a goat. Thus shod, it is difficult to imagine how any creature less sure-footed could maintain its balance. The toe is ornamented with rosettes in cerise and yellow ribbons. The Regency (1715–1723) is represented by a boot (9) which, apart from its high heel, shaped like a barber’s wig-stand, would not be very ugly. The front is even graceful in its lines, the flying flaps giving it a floral appearance. The next series, belonging to the reign of Louis XV., cannot be denied a certain piquant grace. Later on I shall have to remark the singular resemblance between the typical form (10) of this reign and that prevalent in Mohammedan countries and in Japan. Only, the beauty observable in Oriental and African specimens, due to innate harmony, is here destroyed by the elevation of the shoe on pegs to a height which gives it the appearance of springing from the middle of the foot. In one example, the whole form of the shoe, even to the treading down of the heel, is Oriental; but, perched on its stand, it has exactly the form of an old coal-scuttle (11). These pegs, it would seem, were helpful in dancing, for Gay writes in his “Trivia,”-- “The wooden heel may raise the dancer’s bound.” The slippers of this period are also quite Oriental in character, being merely a sole covered luxuriously at the toes.