had no other resource but to shut up a particular kind of apple in their wardrobes in order to impregnate their dresses with its odor. Sumptuary laws regulated the meals. By the edict of January, 1563, Charles IX. forbade more than three courses, no course to consist of more than six dishes, each containing one kind of viand. The entertainer who infringed this impracticable law was fined 200 livres for the first offense, and 400 for the second; the guests who did not turn informers against their hosts were fined forty livres; while the unfortunate cook, who merely obeyed his master’s orders, was fined ten livres and imprisoned for a fortnight with only bread and water for his fare. For a second offense the penalty was doubled; and if he transgressed a third time, he was scourged and banished from the town. Experience has shown legislators the impossibility of restraining luxury by sumptuary laws; yet the statesmen of the fifteenth century may be excused for attempting thus clumsily to check the extravagant fashions of the day. Brantome describes, with all the minuteness of a modern reporter at a city dinner, the particulars of a banquet given by the Vidame of Chartres. The ceiling of the dining-hall, which was painted to represent the sky, suddenly opened, and clouds laden with dishes descended upon the tables. The same contrivance was used to remove the dishes. During the dessert an artificial storm poured down for half an hour a rain of perfumed water and a hail of sugar-plums. One great social change took place about this period. “The women,” writes L’Hopital to De Thou, “are _now_ seen boldly sitting down at table with the men.” Before that time, it was the custom for the husband only to sit with his guests, while the mistress of the house attended to the manner in which the table was served. Christopher de Thou, father of the historian, was the first person, not of royal or noble blood, who rode in a carriage in Paris. Until then there were only two in use at the court--the queen’s and that belonging to Diana, natural daughter of Henry II. Carriages were rarely employed for traveling purposes: the roads were, for the most part, too bad for vehicles much less rude than the country wains that bore the produce of the farm to market. Those who could not afford the pomp of litters rode on horseback: the ladies sometimes on a pillion behind a servant,[175] but frequently astride, like the men. Catherine de Medicis introduced the side-saddle. In 1571 a royal permission was granted for “coches à la mode d’Italie” to go from Paris to Orleans--a privilege soon extended to other cities of France “pour le soulagement de personnes.”[176] In 1562 forty-six post-horses were registered in Paris, the hire seems to have been twenty sols each a day.