During the reign of Henri IV. the gigantic size of the vertugadin, in spite of satire and sarcasm, was not lessened by one inch. In vain was its absurdity manifest. The ladies nearly all looked “like church bells,” to make use of a metaphor for which other historians are responsible. Their bodices were usually buttoned in front, and were cut square at the waist; but they often wore long pointed bodices partially opened in front, and disclosing a white chemisette elegantly trimmed with embroidery or lace. Lace was lavished on every part of the gown—on the wrists, sleeves, and back. Frenchwomen wore colours, and great was their number—from “rat-colour” to that called “widow’s joy,” or “envenomed monkey,” or “chimney-sweep,” according to D’Aubigné. Gabrielle d’Estrées, who wore her hair frizzed and drawn back in the shape of a heart, had a “cotillon” of the colour of “gold-dust of Turkey.” Her black satin gown, slashed with white, is mentioned by some writers. She paid 1900 crowns for the embroidered handkerchief she carried at a ballet. Some court ladies loaded themselves with such a weight of pearls and jewels that they were unable to move. At the baptism of the king’s children, on September 14, 1606, the queen’s gown, covered with “thirty-two thousand pearls and three thousand diamonds, was beyond rivalry, and priceless.” Before that, in 1594, Gabrielle d’Estrées “was so loaded with pearls and sparkling gems that she outshone the light of the torches.” She possessed a “cotte of Turkish cloth of gold, with flowers embroidered in carnation, white, and green,” and a “gown of flowered green velvet, lined with cloth of silver, and trimmed with gold and silver braid, and pipings of carnation satin.” The display of diamonds was destined to increase as time went on. The reign of the vertugadin, which Mme. de Motteville described as “a round and monstrous machine,” came to an end in 1630. But red silk stockings, called “bas de fiammette,” costing more than seventy-five francs a pair, shoes with flaps fastened by a love-knot “à la Choisy” in blue or red satin, and crimson velvet, pattens with high cork soles, survived the vertugadin, as did likewise velvet, miniver, and ermine muffs in winter. Marguerite de France, the daughter of Henri II. and wife of Henri IV., is depicted wearing the following costume: Pearl necklace and earrings, open-work fan, kid gloves completely covering the hands and wrists, where they were drawn under white cuffs, a cap, since known as the Marie Stuart cap, her hair frizzed and drawn up symmetrically over the forehead, an under-dress of black satin, the upper one trimmed with gimp, an open fluted collerette, and an immense ruff reaching to the nape of the neck.