The Parasol of the Jacobins for a time made a show of severity, in opposition to the knotty sticks and coquettish Parasols of the Muscadins (dandies) and Incroyables (beaux); the Merveilleuses (feminine exquisites), on the other hand, hoisted vaporous Sunshades like their vestments of nymphs. Then it was that fashion gave their due to the rights even of this frail protector of the Graces; every kind of extravagance was allowed, every stuff accepted, however dazzling and however precious. In the public gardens of Paris, all the fashionable beauties displayed unusual luxury in the decoration of their Sunshades; there were tender greens, figured gold stuffs, flesh-coloured tints with scarlet fretworks, tender blues trimmed with silver, Indian cashmeres or tissues, the whole mounted on handles of affected roughness or of exquisitely delicate work. /Ma paole supême/, as the exquisite used to say, it must be seen to be believed. Nothing could be more coquettish than these Parasols, streaked, striped, pied, fretted, as the complement of a dress /à l'Omphale/, /à la Flore/, /à la Diane/, appearing in a swiftly driven carriage, above a jacket /à la Galatée/, or a tunic /au Lever de l'aurore/, amidst egrets, plumes, tufts of ribbons, and every kind of feminine adornment. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the Sunshade was always covered with the most fashionable tints and with stuff of the latest taste of the time. Parasols were to be seen dressed in /stifled sighs/, and garnished with /useless regrets/, others adorned with ribbons /aux soupirs de Vénus/ (Venus' sighs), whilst the fashion exacted by turns such colours as /coxcombs' bowels/, /Paris mud/, /Carmelite/, /flea's thigh/, /king's eye/, /queen's hair/, /goose dung/, /dauphin's dirt/, /opera flame/, /agitated nymph's thigh/, and other names which were the singular qualificatives of particular shades, the rage and infatuation of the hour. The young priests carried a light violet or lilac Parasol, to remain in the tone of their general dress--perhaps by episcopal orders. In the same way, the Roman Cardinals are still followed in their walks by a deacon, carrying a red Parasol, which makes part--like the hat--of the ordinary luggage of the "Monsignori."