The story history of France from the reign of Clovis, 481 , to the signing of the armistice, November, 1918 . anding these services to France the membersof the old nobility, who had emigrated when the republicwas declared, and who had since come creeping back topick up some remnant of their old estates, would not haveanything to say to him. They kept away from the court,and their wives and daughters would not call on the em-press, Napoleon laughed at them and their titles ; and,partly to spite them and partly to reward his old soldiers,he began to create dukes very fast indeed. Almost ever
The story history of France from the reign of Clovis, 481 , to the signing of the armistice, November, 1918 . anding these services to France the membersof the old nobility, who had emigrated when the republicwas declared, and who had since come creeping back topick up some remnant of their old estates, would not haveanything to say to him. They kept away from the court,and their wives and daughters would not call on the em-press, Napoleon laughed at them and their titles ; and,partly to spite them and partly to reward his old soldiers,he began to create dukes very fast indeed. Almost everygeneral who had done good service in the wars was madea duke or a prince, or at least a marshal of France, andhad a fat salary given him to enable him to sustain hisrank. These changes of titles were embarrassing. A man whohad been a marquis under Louis the Sixteenth became aplain citizen under the republic ; now any one who hap-pened to distinguish himself in the army ran risk of beingmade a duke. Most of the new dukes were of humblebirth and had won their titles by gallant deeds in warunder Napoleons ISOZ-ISOQ] 341 All these people had to dress splendidly in order to en-courage industry. The court dress for men was a coat ofred watered silk embroidered in gold ; the embroidery wasin imitation of branches of olive, oak, and laurel. Theywore black cravats and boots coming up to the knee. Theladies wore round their necks tulle ruffs, with gold orsilver points. The dress was embroidered in gold, but noone but a princess could wear embroidery all over herdress; on ordinary ladies dresses the embroidery was lim-ited to four inches at the bottom of the skirt. On com-mon occasions ladies wore dresses of cambric and muslin,which were then very expensive; white cambrics were notmade in France, but were smuggled from England, andthe emj)eror was angry when he saw one of the ladies ofhis court dressed in them. Much time was spent by ladiesin dressing their hair: on the day of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1919
