PRKL1M.] ON POMP IN DRESS. 353 which create bloodshed, and are the means of the deaths of thousands. He also said, that every one should dress and equip himself according to his rank in life, and his fortune, in order that the prudent and elders of this world may not reproach him, by saying such a one has done too much, and that the youth may not remark, that such a one has done too little, and dishonours his station in society. On this subject, I remember once the good lord king, father to the king now on the throne, speaking of the pomp of dress, and the embroidered coats of arms that are now daily common in the armies. I said to the present king, that when I was in the Holy Land with his father, and in his army, I never saw one single embroidered coat or ornamented saddle in the possession of the king his father, or of any other lord. He answered, that he had done wrong in embroidering his arms ; and that he had some coats that had cost him eight hundred Parisian livres. I replied, that he would have acted better if he had given them in charity, and had his dress made of good sendal,* lined and strengthened with his arms, like as the king, his father, had done. The good king, once calling me to him, said he wanted to talk with me, on account of the quickness of understanding be knew I possessed. In the presence of several, he added, " I have called these two monks, and before them ask you this question respecting God :" " Seneschal, what is God ?" " Sire," replied I, " he is so supremely good, nothing can exceed him." ** In truth," answered the king, " that is well said, for your answer is written in the little book I have in my hand. I will put another question to you, whether you had rather be 'mezeau et ladre,'t or have committed, or be about to commit, * Sendal or cenciai, ia what we call taffety. In the account of Stephen de la Fontaine, who waa silversmith to the king, in the year 1351, which is in the Chamber of Accounts at Paris, there is a charge " For two bundles of scarlet cendal, 120 crowns. For one bundle of yellow cendal, 52 crowns/' Sec. f These two words are synonymous, and signify lepers, of whom, at that period, there were numbers, more especially in the Holy Land. Philippes de Beanmanoir, chap. 62, says,—" When lepers call to them a holy man, or a holy man calls to a leper, the leper may put himself in a state of defence, because he is out of the protection of the law." In an old manuscript law-book of Normandy, it is declared, " that the mesel 2 A