says Alienor, in conclusion, “are the points of etiquette which are observed in Germany, in France, in Naples, in Italy, and in all other civilised countries and kingdoms.”  We may here remark, that etiquette, after having originated in France, spread throughout all Christian nations, and when it had become naturalised, as it were, amongst the latter, it acquired a settled position, which it retained more firmly than it did in France.  In this latter country, it was only from the seventeenth century, and particularly under Louis XIV., that court etiquette really became a science, and almost a species of religions observance, whose minutiae were attended to as much as if they were sacramental rites, though they were not unfrequently of the most childish character, and whose pomp and precision often caused the most insufferable annoyance.  But notwithstanding the perpetual changes of times and customs, the French nation has always been distinguished for nobility and dignity, tempered with good sense and elegance.

If we now direct our attention to the tiers etat, that class which, to quote a celebrated expression, “was destined to become everything, after having for a long time been looked upon as nothing,” we shall notice that there, too, custom and tradition had much to do with ceremonies of all kinds.  The presence of the middle classes not only gave, as it were, a stamp of grandeur to fetes of an aristocratic and religions character, but, in addition, the people themselves had a number of ceremonies of every description, in which etiquette was not one whit less strict than in those of the court.  The variety of civic and popular ceremonies is so great, that it would require a large volume, illustrated with numerous engravings, to explain fully their characteristic features.  The simple enumeration of the various public fetes, each of which was necessarily accompanied by a distinct ceremonial, would take up much time were we to attempt to give it even in the shortest manner.

[Illustration:  Fig. 397.—­Entry of the Roi de l’Epinette at Lille, in the Sixteenth Century.—­From a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Library of Rouen.]

Besides the numerous ceremonies which were purely religious, namely, the procession of the Fete-Dieu, in Rogation week, and the fetes which were both of a superstitions and burlesque character, such as des Fous, de l’Ane, des Innocents, and others of the same kind, so much in vogue during the Middle Ages, and which we shall describe more in detail hereafter, we should like to mention the military or gymnastic fetes.  Amongst these were what were called the processions of the Confreres de l’Arquebuse, the Archers, the Papegaut, the roi de l’Epinette, at Lille (Fig. 397), and the Forestier at Bruges.  There were also what may be termed the fetes peculiar to certain places, such as those of Behors, of the Champs Galat at Epinal, of the Laboureurs at Montelimar,