Marguerite de France, whom courtiers called “the goddess,” was extraordinarily beautiful, and was graceful, lively, and fascinating in the highest degree. Her “carrures” (shoulder-breadths) and skirts were made by her orders, it is said, much wider than was necessary. She was enormously stout, and by way of improving her figure applied steel bands to each side of her waist. There were, it seems, not a few doors through which the fair princess could not pass. Gowns were made not only of satin but of velvet, damask, and silk of every colour. There were dresses “à collets débordés,” or with collars falling over the shoulders and upper part of the arm; there were ruffs “à grands godrons,” so cut out and open-worked that the skin was easily discernible behind them; there were belts of exorbitant price, to which were suspended needle-cases, gold-handled scissors, and gold-braided velvet purses. By degrees, through the fatal effect of bad example, the passion for low-cut bodices assumed a boundless sway. Innocent XI., who was at enmity with France, rebuked this craze from the chair of St. Peter, and showed no greater favour to the weaker sex than to the politicians of France. He issued a bull by which he “enjoined on all women, married and single, to cover their bosoms, shoulders, and arms down to the wrist, with non-transparent materials, on pain of excommunication.” But the thunderbolts of the Church were hurled in vain, and light, transparent, and low-cut gowns enjoyed a long career. The Vatican and the French Parliament might speak if they chose, but they could not prevail against the customs of the day. Dating from the year 1587, one of the last years of the troubled reign of Henri III., women had taken a violent fancy to wearing hair only as a head-dress, surmounted by a feather. They wore false hair or wigs powdered with violet powder for brunettes, and with iris for fair women. A sort of gum or mucilage kept the hair in its place; their heads seemed to be pasted. The women of the people made use of the dust of rotten oak, and the peasants of flour for the same purpose. There were four different styles of head-dresses of the period:—First, the “coiffure à boucles frisées,” or curled ringlets, the style of which is sufficiently indicated by its name; secondly, that “à passe filions;” thirdly, that “à oreillettes,” a hat with a high crown, the material of which being crumpled of itself (naturellement chiffonnée) fell into a quantity of little folds; and, fourthly, the “coiffure à l’espagnole,” or Spanish head-dress.