Parisians, who were certainly accustomed to exhibitions of this
kind. The mere description of some of them is enough to dazzle
one--the superb horses with their bridles and stirrups of massive
silver, and their caparisons and saddles embroidered with golden
flowers; and the not less superb men with their rich garments of
satin or gold cloth, adorned with rare furs, their bonnets
surmounted by bright plumes, and their weapons of artistic
workmanship, the silver scabbards inlaid with rubies. We hear
also of ambassadors riding through towns on horses loosely shod
with gold or silver, so that the horse-shoes lost on their
passage might testify to their wealth and grandeur. I shall quote
some lines from a Polish poem in which the author describes in
detail the costume of an eminent nobleman in the early part of
this century:--

He was clad in the uniform of the palatinate: a doublet
embroidered with gold, an overcoat of Tours silk ornamented
with fringes, a belt of brocade from which hung a sword with
a hilt of morocco. At his neck glittered a clasp with
diamonds. His square white cap was surmounted by a
magnificent plume, composed of tufts of herons' feathers. It
is only on festive occasions that such a rich bouquet, of
which each feather costs a ducat, is put on.

The belt above mentioned was one of the most essential parts and
the chief ornament of the old Polish national dress, and those
manufactured at Sluck had especially a high reputation. A
description of a belt of Sluck, "with thick fringes like tufts,"
glows on another page of the poem from which I took my last
quotation:--