recognised by the lady, that he descended in all haste through his
trap-door; his despair at returning in such an evil plight being no less
than his desire and assurance of a gracious reception had previously
been. He found his mirror and candle on his table,(8) and looking at his
face, all bleeding from the lady's scratches and bites, whence the blood
was trickling over his fine shirt, which had now more blood than gold
(9) about it, he said--

8 It is not surprising that the mirror should have been
lying on the table. Mirrors were for a long time no larger
than our modern hand-glasses. That of Mary de' Medici,
offered to her by the Republic of Venice, and now in the
Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre, is extremely small, though
it has an elaborate frame enriched with precious cameos.
Even the mirrors placed by Louis XIV. in the celebrated
Galerie des Glaces at Versailles were no larger than
ordinary window-panes.--M.

9 Shirts were then adorned at the collar and in front with
gold-thread embroidery, such as is shown in some of Clouet's
portraits. In M. de Laborde's _Comptes des Batiments du Roi
au XVIeme Siecle_ (vol. ii.) mention is made of "a shirt
with gold work," "a shirt with white work," &c.; and also of
two beautiful women's chemises in Holland linen "richly
worked with gold thread and silk, at the price of six crowns
apiece."--M.

"Beauty! now hast thou been rewarded according to thy deserts. By reason
of thy vain promises I attempted an impossible undertaking, and one
that, instead of increasing my happiness, will perchance double my
misfortune. I feel sure that if she knows I made this foolish attempt
contrary to the promise I gave her, I shall lose the honourable and
accustomed companionship which more than any other I have had with her.
And my folly has well deserved this, for if I was to turn my good
looks and grace to any account, I ought not to have hidden them in the
darkness. I should not have sought to take that chaste body by force,
but should have waited in long service and humble patience till love
had conquered her. Without love, all man's merits and might are of no
avail."

Thus he passed the night in tears, regrets, and sorrowings such as I
cannot describe; and in the morning, finding his face greatly torn, he
feigned grievous sickness and to be unable to endure the light, until
the company had left his ho