t as the Triumphs of Petrarch were copied
from tapestries that might well have decorated the town of Ardres on
the occasion of the royal meeting, so these window decorations, which
betray their origin even more than the carvings on the other wing,
were taken direct from tapestries which may have been at Ardres in
June 1520, and certainly might have been seen in any great chateau of
the period. Their very position on these walls is very like what
tapestries were so frequently used for in the lavish mural decoration
of the time. Every house hung out its best embroideries and tapestries
and gaily coloured cloths; and the way in which these windows break
into the background of each design represents the very probable result
of draping a long piece of tapestry round the window of a house. The
Chateau of Blois is known to have contained just such "bergeries" in
the rooms of Anne of Brittany; at another chateau in Touraine, the
Chaumont of Georges d'Amboise (the friend of the builder of this house
in Rouen), may be still seen needlework, in pink and old rose, of
country scenes, in the rooms used by Catherine de Medicis. Finally, in
the inventory of the tapestries of Philip the Bold of Burgundy, drawn
up soon after his death, you may read such entries as the following:--

"Ung autre petiz tapiz de bergerie, sur champ vert, seme de
bergiers et de bergieres ... ung autre vielz tapiz de haulte
lice ouvre de jeunes hommes et femmes jouans de plusieurs
jeux ... arbres, herbaiges, ciel fait a faucons."

This might really represent the original needlework from which Abbe
Leroux chose the subjects for his carving, and that the origin was
some tapestry of this fashionable kind I see no reason to doubt,
especially in the town which preserves in the Church of St. Vincent
some of the finest sixteenth-century tapestries in France.

[Illustration: INNER FACADE OF THE MAISON BOURGTHEROULDE.]

The flat _textile_ kind of carving all over the house, which rises to
excellence of workmanship in relief only in the meeting of the two
kings, lends itself irresistibly to the same conclusion. And for this
reason I have not that extravagant admiration of it, viewed purely as
work of art, which may be better reserved for conceptions that are
more original in the mind of the sculptor, and of more local interest
in the town for which the work was done. As an example of the passion
for processions and decoration, however, few better c