A “devanteau,” or apron, was sometimes “pretintaillé” to such an extent, that the biggest piece was no larger than the palm of the hand. Falbalas were “pretintaillés,” for instance, by putting on first a red, then a green, then a yellow one, and then alternating the above colours. Flounces were “pretintaillés” in four or five colours: first, a green one, then yellow, red, blue, and white successively. When the fashion of “pretintailles” first came in, Mme. Bonnet’s dressmaker brought an action against her for the sum of 800 livres, the cost of making a “pretintaille” skirt, and gained her cause. Mme. Bonnet was condemned in costs. The bargain had been made at one denier for every yard of sewing. After the rage for “pretintailles” had passed away, materials with large brocaded patterns in gold or colours came into fashion, and gowns resembled window-curtains. Knots of ribbon were fixed on the tucked-up skirts; but these again were succeeded by “andriennes,” or long, loose, open dresses, like those worn by the actress Marie Carton Dancourt in Terence’s “Andrienne.” For a long time past women who wished to show off a slender waist had been wearing “criardes,” or dress-improvers of stiffened linen. In 1711 the vertugadins came again into fashion under the name of “hoops” and “paniers.” Certain authors contend that hoops first made their appearance in Germany, whence they found their way to England, and then returned to the Continent by way of France. Paniers were but revived vertugadins, of exaggerated size. The noise made by the stiffened linen, when pressed against ever so lightly, obtained for them the expressive name of “criardes.” “Paniers” were so called because they resembled cages, or poultry-baskets. Their framework was open, and the hoops of straw, cord, cane, or whalebone were fastened together by tapes. Small women, with these paniers on them, were as broad as they were long, and looked at a distance like moving balls. At the concert in the grand reception-room, Mdlle. du Maine, who was wearing enormous paniers, placed herself too near the queen, and incommoded her so much that her majesty could not bear it in silence. In order to prevent the recurrence of such inconvenience, it was ordered that thenceforth the princesses should not draw their seats so near the queen, nor on the same line with her armchair. Coopers and basket-makers undertook the manufacture of dress-improvers. In vain were these articles railed against; they prevailed over satire of every kind. Paniers were the ruin of homes, the dread of husbands, and the misery of passers-by. Paniers for morning wear were called “considérations.” If we may believe M. Emile de la Bédollière, a writer on fashions in France, one Panier, a “maître des requêtes,” was drowned on the passage from Martinique to Hâvre. His name became a catch-word; and ladies amused themselves by asking each other as they displayed their dress,— “How do you like my ‘maître des requêtes’?”