_Father._ Your questions on this subject are not so unwise that one may not very well answer them; for many have need to make such inquiries, if they mean to have their suits brought up before lords and to have them planned as carefully as need be. Now I shall try to clear up these matters that you have asked about, stating what seems most truthful and advisable. When you come, then, to where the king resides, intending to become his man, you should inquire carefully who the men are in the king’s company that are best able to present men’s business to the king in such a way that their speeches please him the most. As soon as you have learned who they are, you must first make their acquaintance and cultivate their friendship; after that make your errand known and ask them to undertake your suit. If they undertake your business, they can best find time and occasion for audience and speech with the king, as they often have speech with him. If you are to present your request at a time when the king is at the table, get sure information whether he is in good spirits and pleasant humor. If you should observe that his disposition is somewhat irritable, or that he is displeased about something, or that he has such important affairs to consider that you think your business for that reason cannot be taken up, then let your suit rest for the time being and seek to find the king in better humor some other day. But if you find that he is in merry mood and has no business to take up of such importance that you may not very well state your errand, wait, nevertheless, till he has nearly finished his meal. Your costume you should plan beforehand in such a way that you come fully dressed in good apparel, the smartest that you have, and wearing fine trousers and shoes. You must not come without your coat; and also wear a mantle, the best that you have. For trousers always select cloth of a brown dye. It seems quite proper also to wear trousers of black fur, but not of any other sort of cloth, unless it be scarlet. Your coat should be of brown color or green or red, and all such clothes are good and proper. Your linen should be made of good linen stuff, but with little cloth used; your shirt should be short, and all your linen rather light. Your shirt should be cut somewhat shorter than your coat; for no man of taste can deck himself out in flax or hemp. Before you enter the royal presence be sure to have your hair and beard carefully trimmed according to the fashions of the court when you join the same. When I was at court it was fashionable to have the hair trimmed short just above the earlaps and then combed down as each hair would naturally lie; but later it was cut shorter in front above the eyebrows. It was the style at that time to wear a short beard and a small moustache; but later the cheeks were shaved according to the German mode;[245] and I doubt that any style will ever come which is more becoming or more suitable in warfare. Footnote 245: