and that she gave herself to
the king in order to obtain the pardon of her father, who had been
condemned to death as an accomplice of the constable de Bourbon. This
rumour, however, has no serious foundation. Men vied with each other in
celebrating Diane's beauty, which, if we may judge from her portraits,
has been slightly exaggerated. She was a healthy, vigorous woman, and,
by dint of great pains, succeeded in retaining her beauty late into
life. It is said that even on the coldest mornings she would wash her
face with well water. Diane was a patroness of the arts. She entrusted
to Philibert de l'Orme the building of her chateau at Anet, and it was
for her that Jean Goujon executed his masterpiece, the statue of Diana,
now in the Louvre.

See G. Guiffrey, _Lettres inedites de Diane de Poytiers_ (Paris, 1866)
and _Proces criminel de Jehan de Poytiers_ (Paris, 1867); Capefigue,
_Diane de Poitiers_ (Paris, 1860); Hay, _Madame Dianne de Poytiers_
(London, 1900).

DIAPASON (Gr. [Greek: dia pason], through all), a term in music,
originally for an interval of an octave. The Greek is an abbreviation of
[Greek: he dia pason chordon symphonia], a consonance through all the
tones of the scale. In this sense it is only used now, loosely, for the
compass of an instrument or voice, or for a harmonious melody. The name
is given to the two foundation stops of an organ, the open and the
stopped diapason (see ORGAN), and to a standard of musical pitch, as in
the French _diapason normal_ (see PITCH, MUSICAL).

DIAPER (derived through the Fr, from the Gr. [Greek: dia], through, and
[Greek: aspros], white; the derivation from the town of Ypres,
"d'Ypres," in Belgium is unhistorical, as diapers were known for
centuries before its existence), the name given to a textile fabric,
formerly of a rich and costly nature with embroidered ornament, but now
of linen or cotton, with a simple woven pattern; and particularly
restricted to small napkins. In architecture, the term "diaper" is given
to any small pattern of a conventional nature repeated continuously and
uniformly over a surface; the designs may be purely geometrical, or
based on floral forms, and in early examples were regulated by the
process of their textile origin. Subsequently, similar patterns were
employed in the middle ages for the surface decoration of stone, as in
Westminster Abbey and Bayeux cathedral in the spandrils of the arcades
of the choir and nave