124 HISTORY OF LACE. CHAPTER IX. LOUIS XIY. The courtiers of the regency under Anne of Austria vied with the Frondeurs in extravagance. The latter, however, had the best of it. “La Fronde,” writes Joly, “devint tellement a la mode qu’il n’y avoit rien de bien fait qu’on ne dist etre de la Fronde. Les etoffes, les dentelles etc., jusqu’au pain,—rien n’estoit ni bon, ni bien si n’estoit a la Fronde.” 1 Nor was the queen regent herself less profuse in her indul gence in lace. She is represented in her portraits with a berthe of rich point, her beautiful hand encircled by a double-scalloDed cuff (Fig. 62). The boot-tops had now reached an extravagant size. One writer compares them to the farthingales of the ladies, another to an inverted torch. The lords of the regent’s court filled up the apertures with two or three rows of Genoa point (Fig. 63). In 16o3, we find Mazarin, while engaged in the siege of a city, holding a grave correspondence with his secretary Colbert con cerning the purchase of some points from Flanders, Venice, and Genoa. He considers it advisable to advance thirty or forty thousand livres “ a ces achapts,” adding that by making the purchases in time he will derive great advantage in the price, but as he hopes the siege will soon be at an end, they may wait his arrival at Paris for his final decision. 2 Colbert again writes, November 25, pressing his eminence on account of the “ quan tity de mariages qui se feront l’hyver.” A passage in Tallemant des Keaux would lead one to suppose these laces were destined as patterns for the improvement of <le G ” y JOly ’” fmm ^ “ M1 l, y C °mtc <lo' Labonle , n “' , „ T . “ Le J>alais Mazarin,” Paris, 1845.