vagabond, however, for the
balls, banquets, tournaments, masques, ballets, and wedding-feasts which
he describes so vividly were occasions for the display of sumptuous
costumes; and Messire Pierre de Bourdeille doubtless appeared as elegant
as any other gallant in silken hose, jeweled doublet, flowing cape, and
long rapier. What we value most are his paintings of these festive
scenes, and the vivid portraits which he has left of the Valois women,
who were largely responsible for the luxuries and the crimes of the
period: women who could step without a tremor from a court-masque to a
massacre; who could toy with a gallant's ribbons and direct the blow of
an assassin; and who could poison a rival with a delicately perfumed
gift. Such a court Brantome calls the "true paradise of the world,
school of all honesty and virtue, ornament of France." We like to hear
about Catherine de' Medici riding with her famous "squadron of Venus":
"You should have seen forty or fifty dames and demoiselles following
her, mounted on beautifully accoutred hackneys, their hats adorned with
feathers which increased their charm, so well did the flying plumes
represent the demand for love or war. Virgil, who undertook to describe
the fine apparel of Queen Dido when she went out hunting, has by no
means equaled that of our Queen and her ladies."

Charming, too, are such descriptions as "the most beautiful ballet that
ever was, composed of sixteen of the fairest and best-trained dames and
demoiselles, who appeared in a silvered rock where they were seated in
niches, shut in on every side. The sixteen ladies represented the
sixteen provinces of France. After having made the round of the hall for
parade as in a camp, they all descended, and ranging themselves in the
form of a little oddly contrived battalion, some thirty violins began a
very pleasant warlike air, to which they danced their ballet." After an
hour the ladies presented the King, the Queen-Mother, and others with
golden plaques, on which were engraved "the fruits and singularities of
each province," the wheat of Champagne, the vines of Burgundy, the
lemons and oranges of Provence, etc. He shows us Catherine de' Medici,
the elegant, cunning Florentine; her beautiful daughters, Elizabeth of
Spain and Marguerite de Valois; Diana of Poitiers, the woman of eternal
youth and beauty; Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry IV.; Louise de
Vaudemont; the Duchesse d'Etampes; Marie Touchet; and all their