did, by contrast, the affected coarseness of the dress. There was no
doubt as to the meaning of the hood, but they who saw in the symbol more
resemblance to the jester's cap, recalled certain biting expressions
which Granvelle had been accustomed to use. He had been wont, in the
days of his greatest insolence, to speak of the most eminent nobles as
zanies, lunatics, and buffoons. The embroidered fool's cap was supposed
to typify the gibe, and to remind the arrogant priest that a Brutus, as
in the olden time, might be found lurking in the costume of the fool.
However witty or appropriate the invention, the livery had an immense
success. According to agreement, the nobles who had dined with the
treasurer ordered it for all their servants. Never did a new dress
become so soon the fashion. The unpopularity of the minister assisted
the quaintness of the device. The fool's-cap livery became the rage.
Never was such a run upon the haberdashers, mercers, and tailors, since
Brussels had been a city. All the frieze-cloth in Brabant was exhausted.
All the serge in Flanders was clipped into monastic cowls. The Duchess
at first laughed with the rest, but the Cardinal took care that the king
should be at once informed upon the subject. The Regent was, perhaps,
not extremely sorry to see the man ridiculed whom she so cordially
disliked, and, she accepted the careless excuses made on the subject by
Egmont and by Orange without severe criticism. She wrote to her brother
that, although the gentlemen had been influenced by no evil intention,
she had thought it best to exhort them not to push the jest too far.
Already, however, she found that two thousand pairs, of sleeves had been
made, and the most she could obtain was that the fools' caps, or monks'
hoods, should in future be omitted from the livery. A change was
accordingly made in the costume, at about the time of the cardinal's
departure.

A bundle of arrows, or in some instances a wheat-sheaf, was substituted