vests, and that the noblemen of France will do the like; which, if true,
is the greatest indignity ever done by one Prince to another, and would
incite a stone to be revenged; and I hope our King will, if it be so, as
he tells me it is:

[Planche throws some doubt on this story in his "Cyclopaedia of
Costume" (vol. ii., p. 240), and asks the question, "Was Mr.
Batelier hoaxing the inquisitive secretary, or was it the idle
gossip of the day, as untrustworthy as such gossip is in general?"
But the same statement was made by the author of the "Character of a
Trimmer," who wrote from actual knowledge of the Court: "About this
time a general humour, in opposition to France, had made us throw
off their fashion, and put on vests, that we might look more like a
distinct people, and not be under the servility of imitation, which
ever pays a greater deference to the original than is consistent
with the equality all independent nations should pretend to. France
did not like this small beginning of ill humours, at least of
emulation; and wisely considering, that it is a natural
introduction, first to make the world their apes, that they may be
afterwards their slaves. It was thought, that one of the
instructions Madame [Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans] brought along
with her, was to laugh us out of these vests; which she performed so
effectually, that in a moment, like so many footmen who had quitted
their master's livery, we all took it again, and returned to our old
service; so that the very time of doing it gave a very critical
advantage to France, since it looked like an evidence of our
returning to her interest, as well as to their fashion. "The
Character of a Trimmer" ("Miscellanies by the Marquis of Halifax,"
1704, p. 164). Evelyn reports that when the king expressed his
intention never to alter this fashion, "divers courtiers and