The costumes of Blanche of Castille, and of Marguerite of Provence, are interesting examples of the fashions of their day. Feminine dress first became splendid in the thirteenth century, when great ladies and wealthy bourgeoises with their long tresses and with something in their carriage not unlike the Greek priestess, or the Roman matron, began to wear closely-fitting gowns, frequently ornamented with a belt of silk, or cloth of gold; the surcoat, and the fur-bordered mantle. A veil, fastened on the crown of the head, flowed over the shoulders. Occasionally the gown was open on the chest, and disclosed a sort of collar or chemisette artistically embroidered. The ladies of highest birth then began to emblazon these closely-fitting gowns, fastened high at the throat. On the right side they placed their husband’s coat of arms, on the left that of their own family. They cut open their sleeves in an extraordinary way, from elbow to wrist, whence hung a piece of the stuff. A gown was made “historical” by embroidering it with _fleurs-de-lis_, birds, fishes, and emblems of all sorts, and thus became a portable guide to genealogy. Let us here remark that materials for garments had greatly increased in number. There was “cendal” almost the same as our silk at the present day, and “samite” which apparently greatly resembled cendal. The latter was made in every colour, both plain, and striped in two or three shades. Samite, a thick silk of six strands, was, for the most part, white, green, or red. Then there was “pers,” or dark blue cloth; “camelin,” a fabric made from camels’ hair, of which “barracan” was only a variety. The warp of the barracan assumed the appearance of bars, whence many historians derive the name of the material itself. There was “isambrun” also, viz. cloth dyed brown; “molekin,” a linen material; “brunette,” a brown stuff; “bonnette,” a green cloth, and “galebrun,” a brown coloured cloth. There was also a material still coarser than camelin called “bureau,” there was “fustaine,” a strong stuff manufactured from cotton, and finally “serge,” woven of wool and occasionally mixed with thread. The arts of weaving and dyeing had made extraordinary progress; a taste for handsome materials had spread even among the lowest ranks of society. It would appear that the silk manufacturers of Rheims were not very scrupulous. They cheated their customers by introducing wool or thread into stuffs that they sold as pure silk; or they made use of silk badly dyed. At Rheims and many other places the saying, “He lies like a dyer,” passed into a proverb. [Illustration] CHAPTER V. THE INFLUENCE OF THE CRUSADES. 1270 TO 1350.