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HISTORY OF LACE.

It is difficult to reconcile this with the previous statement;still, in the “Colbert Correspondence” and in the ordinances,there is no mention of Dame Gilbert and the chateau of Lonray; 2and, in a letter from Catherine de Marcq, one of the “ entre-preneurs,” August 26, 1665, she asks leave to present to him theperson she desires to send to Alenqon, and her name is MarieFillesac.

The “ entrepreneurs ” had found the lace industry flourishingat the time of the establishment of the point de France.

Point d’Alenfon is mentioned in the “ Kevolte des Passemens,”1661, evidently as an advanced manufacture, but the monopolyof the privileged workmen—the new comers—displeased the oldworkwomen, and Colbert was too despotic in his orders prohibit-ing to make any kind of point except that of the royal manu-factory, 3 and made the people so indignant that they revolted.The intendant, Dubourlay Favier, writes to Colbert, August 1665,that one named Le Prevost, of this town, having given suspicionto the people that he was about to form an establishment pf“ ouvrages de fil,” the women to the number of above 1000assembled and pursued him so that if he had not managed toescape their fury, he would assuredly have suffered from theirviolence. “ He took refuge with me,” he continues, “ and j Iwith difficulty appeased the multitude by assuring them thatthey would not be deprived of the liberty of working. It is afact that for many years the town of Alenjon subsists only bymeans of these small works of lace. That the same people makeand sell, and in years of scarcity they subsist only by this littleindustry, and that wishing to take away their liberty, they wereso incensed I had great difficulty in pacifying them.”

The act, it appears, had come from the parliament of Paris,but as Alenfon is in Normandy, it is necessary to have the assentof the parliament of Rouen.

“ Point coupe,” he adds, “ has been long made lieTe, which hasa sale during its time, but a woman named Laperriere, skilled inthese works, found some years since the means of imitating pointde Venise in such perfection that she sold each collar she madeat 1500 to 2000 francs. She has taught several girls this pointbecause the work was very tedious, and she could not execute it

2 Lonray belonged to Colbert’s son, the Marquis de Seignolay, by his marriage(1(571) with Mademoiselle Mutignon. * p 1*28.