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Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 1492-1549

"The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.)"

He found his mirror and candle on his table,(8) and looking at his
face, all bleeding from the lady's scratches and bites, whence the blood
was trickling over his fine shirt, which had now more blood than gold
(9) about it, he said--
8 It is not surprising that the mirror should have been
lying on the table. Mirrors were for a long time no larger
than our modern hand-glasses. That of Mary de' Medici,
offered to her by the Republic of Venice, and now in the
Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre, is extremely small, though
it has an elaborate frame enriched with precious cameos.
Even the mirrors placed by Louis XIV. in the celebrated
Galerie des Glaces at Versailles were no larger than
ordinary window-panes.--M.
9 Shirts were then adorned at the collar and in front with
gold-thread embroidery, such as is shown in some of Clouet's
portraits. In M. de Laborde's _Comptes des Batiments du Roi
au XVIeme Siecle_ (vol. ii.) mention is made of "a shirt
with gold work," "a shirt with white work," &c.


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