ourning, the various reception rooms of a house were hung
with black. In deep mourning, such as that for a husband or a father, a
lady wore neither gloves, jewels, nor silk. The head was covered with a
low black head-dress, with trailing lappets, called _chaperons,
barbettes, couvre-chefs_, and _tourets_. A duchess and the wife of a
knight or a banneret, on going into mourning, stayed in their apartments
for six weeks; the former, during the whole of this time, when in deep
mourning, remained lying down all day on a bed covered with a white sheet;
whereas the latter, at the end of nine days, got up, and until the six
weeks were over, remained sitting in front of the bed on a black sheet.
Ladies did not attend the funerals of their husbands, though it was usual
for them to be present at those of their fathers and mothers. For an elder
brother, they wore the same mourning as for a father, but they did not lie
down as above described.

[Illustration: Fig. 396.--"How the King-at-Arms presents the Sword to the
Duke of Bourbon."--From a Miniature in "Tournois du Roi Rene," Manuscript
of the Fifteenth Century (Imperial Library of Paris).]

In their everyday intercourse with one another, kings, princes, dukes, and
duchesses called one another _monsieur_ and _madame_, adding the Christian
name or that of the estate. A superior speaking or writing to an inferior,
might prefix to his or her title of relationship _beau_ or _belle_; for
instance, _mon bel oncle, ma belle cousine_. People in a lower sphere of
life, on being introduced to one another, did not say, "Monsieur Jean, ma
belle tante"--"Mr. John, allow me to introduce you to my aunt"--but
simply, "Jean, ma tante." The head of a house had his seat under a canopy
or _dosseret_ (Fig. 396), which he only relinquished to his sovereign,
when he had the honour of entertaining him. "Such," says Alienor, in
conclusion, "are the points of etiquette which are observed in Germany, in
France, in Naples, in Italy, and in all other civilised countries and
kingdoms." We may here remark, that etiquette, after having originated in
France, spread throughout all Christian nations, and when it had become
naturalised, as it were, amongst the latter, it acquired a settled
position, which it retained more firmly than it did in France. In this
latter country, it was only from the seventeenth century, and particularly
under Louis XIV., that court etiquette really became a science, and almost
a speci