While England had been thus busy in preparing for the pageant, France
had been no less active. Arde, a town near the English pale, had been
selected as the dwelling-place of Francis and his train. As for the
splendor of adornment of those who followed him, there seems to have
been almost nothing worn but silks, velvets, cloth of gold and silver,
jewels and precious stones, such being the costliness of the display
that a writer who saw it humorously says, "Many of the nobles carried
their castles, woods, and farms upon their backs."
Magnificent as was the palace built for Henry and his train, the
arrangements for the French king and his train were still more imposing.
The artistic taste of the French was contrasted with the English love
for solid grandeur. Francis had proposed that both parties should lodge
in tents erected on the field, and in pursuance of this idea there had
been prepared "numerous pavilions, fitted up with halls, galleries, and
chambers ornamented within and without with gold and silver tissue.
Amidst golden balls and quaint devices glittering in the sun, rose a
gilt figure of St. Michael, conspicuous for his blue mantle powdered
with golden _fleurs-de-lis_, and crowning a royal pavilion of vast
dimensions supported by a single mast.
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