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 their faithful historian, "it was pretended that this putting off of the hat was but a small thing, which none ought to scruple; yet it was a wonderful thing to see what great disturbance this pretended small matter caused among people of all sorts; so that even such that would be looked upon as those that practised humility and meekness, soon shewed what spirit they were of, when this worldly honour was denied them. It is almost unspeakable," he says elsewhere, "what rage and fury arose, what blows, pinchings, beatings, and imprisonments they underwent, besides the danger they were sometimes in of losing their lives for these matters."

A Frenchman attached to the embassy in Spain in the year 1659, who published an account of his travels in that country ten years afterwards, says that at the Queen's levee, every lady might have two gallants attending her, who were permitted, or rather expected, to