The States of Languedoc—A young French lady in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—Low dresses—Saying of a mercer—_Damoiselles_—_Garnaches_ and _garde-corps_—_Le Parement des dames_—Social distinctions—High character is worth more than gilded belt—Precious stones—The castles and other dwellings of the middle ages—Splendid furniture—Humble abodes of the poor—Evening assemblies. Notwithstanding the efforts of legislation, extravagant expenditure on dress continued as great as ever, while the large majority of the French nation was suffering from great poverty. In 1356 the States of Languedoc forbade the use of rich clothes until the release of King John, who was a prisoner of war in England. But noble lords and ladies insulted the nation in its hour of misfortune by their prodigality, and defied the regulations that forbade them to wear gold, silver, or fur on their garments or open hoods, or any other sort of ornamentation. As for widows, they found themselves unable to oppose the established custom. They therefore conformed to the regulation forbidding them to wear voilettes, crépines, and couvre-chefs. In like manner with nuns, they never appeared in public without a guimpe that entirely concealed the head, ears, chin, and throat. There seems, however, to have been no particular etiquette for the nobility as to mourning, before the reign of Charles V. We may endeavour to sketch the portrait of a lady as she existed in feudal times, by means of the scanty materials in our possession, for we have no paintings, and very few sculptures of the time, only a few learned writers who supply us with valuable hints. We know, however, that the gowns of the fourteenth century were of the same shape as those of the thirteenth; we also know that the Frenchwoman of the period began to discover the beauty of a small waist, and endeavoured to compress her own by means of lacing, and, finally, we know that, dating from the later years of the reign of Charles VI. a habit of uncovering the shoulders to an extent that at times became immodest was adopted. Their “couvre-chefs” of silk were made by a special class of workwomen, called “makers of couvre-chefs.” The couvre-chefs of Rheims were specially renowned. There were no milliners in Paris either in the thirteenth or the fourteenth centuries. The haberdashers, of whom I have already spoken, sold articles of dress, scents, and elegant finery. In the “Dit d’un Mercier” we find the following lines:— “J’ai les mignotes ceinturêtes, J’ai beaux ganz à damoiselêtes, J’ai ganz forrez, doubles et sangles, J’ai de bonnes boucles à angles; J’ai chaînêtes de fer bèles, J’ai bonnes cordes à vièles; J’ai les guimpes ensafranées, J’ai aiguilles encharnelées, J’ai escrins à mêtre joiax, J’ai borses de cuir à noiax,”[5] etc.