CHAPTER I. THE BRIDAL OF THE WHITE AND BLACK



Small was the ring, and small in truth the finger:
What then? the faith was large that dropped it down.
Aubrey De Vere, INFANT BRIDAL


Setting aside the consideration of the risk, the baby-weddings of
the Middle Ages must have been very pretty sights.

So the Court of France thought the bridal of Henri Beranger
Eustache de Ribaumont and of Marie Eustacie Rosalie de Rebaumont du
Nid-de-Merle, when, amid the festivals that accompanied the
signature of the treaty of Cateau-Cabresis, good-natured King Henri
II. presided merrily at the union of the little pair, whose unite
ages did not reach ten years.

There they stood under the portal of Notre-Dame, the little
bridegroom in a white velvet coat, with puffed sleeves, slashed
with scarlet satin, as were the short, also puffed breeches meeting
his long white knitted silk stockings some way above the knee;
large scarlet rosettes were in his white shoes, a scarlet knot
adorned his little sword, and his velvet cap of the same colour
bore a long white plume, and was encircled by a row of pearls of
priceless value. They are no other than that garland of pearls
which, after a night of personal combat before the walls of Calais,
Edward III. of England took from his helmet and presented to Sir