DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 17 ) “Yes, he answered. ‘That is a very dry “ Yes.” Does not this head-dress suit me?’ ‘Well, if you wish me to speak frankly,’ he replied, ‘I think it rather light to bear a crown. The ladies of the court improved on the example of the queen, and invented a head-dress which was called a senti- mental pouf: This consisted of a structure a yard high, and ornamented with a collection of objects intended to remind the wearer of the person she liked best. The wife of a sailor carried on her head a frigate in full sail; the wife of a soldier a miniature fortification ; a lady who had five children adorned her hat with five dolls. The Duchesse de Lauzun appeared one day with a head-dress representing a whole landscape, showing a rough lake with ducks swimming on it, a sportsman lying in ambush with a gun in his hand; on the top a windmill, with the miller’s wife flirting with an abbé, while the miller himself, lower down, was driving a donkey. For these absurdities the queen was made responsible. When she grew tired of dancing, she became absorbed in private theatricals, and the court enjoyed the rare spectacle of its queen acting the part of maid- servant in a play of a revolutionary character, in which the nobles were satirised. With the same thoughtlessness Marie Antoinette rebelled against the restrictions of the etiquette of the French court, B