at could answer His Majesty's intentions; and the
legate, having an inclination to see St. Germain-en-Laye, I sent
orders to Momier, the keeper of the castle, to hang the halls and
chambers with the finest tapestry of the Crown. Momier executed my
orders with great punctuality, but with so little judgment, that for
the legate's chamber he chose a suit of hangings made by the Queen of
Navarre; very rich, indeed, but which represented nothing but emblems
and mottos against the Pope and the Roman Court, as satirical as they
were ingenious. The prelate endeavoured to prevail upon me to accept a
place in the coach that was to carry him to St. Germain, which I
refused, being desirous of getting there before him, that I might see
whether everything was in order; with which I was very well pleased. I
saw the blunder of the keeper, and reformed it immediately. The
legate would not have failed to look upon such a mistake as a formed
design to insult him, and to have represented it as such to the Pope.
Reflecting afterwards, that no difference in religion could authorise
such sarcasms, I caused all those mottos to be effaced."[78]

In the sixteenth century[79] a sort of hanging was introduced, which,
partaking of the nature both of tapestry and painting on the walls,
was a formidable rival to the former. Shakspeare frequently alludes to
these "painted cloths." For instance, when Falstaff persuades Hostess
Quickly, not only to withdraw her arrest, but also to make him a
further loan: she says--

"By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my
plate and the _tapestry_ of my dining chambers!"

Falstaff answers--

"Glasses, glasses is the only drinking, and for thy walls a pretty
slight drollery, or the story of the Prodigal, or a German Hunting in
water-work, is worth a thousand of these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it
be ten pounds if thou canst. If it were not for thy humours, there is
not a better wench in England! Go wash thy face and draw thy action."

In another passage of the play he says that his troops are "as ragged
as Lazarus in the _painted cloth_."

There are now at Hampton Court eight large pieces or hangings of this
description; being "The Triumphs of Julius Caesar," in water-colours,
on cloth, and in good preservation. They are by Andrea Mantegna, and
were valued at 1000_l._ at the time, when, by some strange
circumstance, the Cartoons of Raphael were estimated only at 300_l._

Tapestry was c