of the furniture of state apartments, we have very few authenticated
accounts of the way in which such domestic chambers as the one occupied by
"a knight and his lady" were arranged. The prie dieu chair was generally
at the bedside, and had a seat which lifted up, the lower part forming a
box-like receptacle for devotional books then so regularly used by a lady
of the time.

[Illustration: Bedstead and Chair in Carved Oak. _From Miniatures in the
Royal Library, Brussels._ Period: XIV. Century.]

Towards the end of the fourteenth century there was in high quarters a
taste for bright and rich colouring; we have the testimony of an old
writer who describes the interior of the Hotel de Bohême, which after
having been the residence of several great personages was given by Charles
VI. of France in 1388 to his brother the Duke of Orleans. "In this palace
was a room used by the duke, hung with cloth of gold, bordered with
vermilion velvet embroidered with roses; the duchess had a room hung with
vermilion satin embroidered with crossbows, which were on her coat of
arms; that of the Duke of Burgundy was hung with cloth of gold embroidered
with windmills. There were besides eight carpets of glossy texture with
gold flowers, one representing 'the seven virtues and seven vices,'
another the history of Charlemagne, another that of Saint Louis. There
were also cushions of cloth of gold, twenty-four pieces of vermilion
leather of Aragon, and four carpets of Aragon leather, 'to be placed on
the floor of rooms in summer.' The favourite arm-chair of the Princess is
thus described in an inventory--'a chamber chair with four supports,
painted in fine vermilion, the seat and arms of which are covered in
vermilion morocco, or cordovan, worked and stamped with designs
representing the sun, birds, and other devices bordered with fringes of
silk and studded with nails.'"