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diff --git a/30651-0.txt b/30651-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..372d6b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/30651-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7741 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris from the Earliest Period to the +Present Day; Volume 1, by William Walton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 + +Author: William Walton + +Release Date: December 11, 2009 [EBook #30651] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +PARIS + +FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY + +VOLUME I + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE SEINE AT BOUGIVAL + +PHOTOGRAVURE, AFTER THE PAINTING BY JULIUS L. STEWART] + + +_IL FLOTTE SANS ÊTRE SUBMERGÉ_ + +[Illustration] + +PARIS + +FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY + +[Illustration: WILLIAM WALTON] + +_VOLUME I_ + +PHILADELPHIA + +GEORGE BARRIE & SON, PUBLISHERS + +COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY GEORGE BARRIE & SON + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME I + + +INTRODUCTION + + +CHAPTER I + +GALLO-ROMAN AND PRE-MEDIÆVAL PERIODS + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COURT AND THE UPPER CLASSES + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BOURGEOIS AND THE LOWER CLASSES + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +[Illustration: THE MARTYR; MEROVINGIAN PERIOD. By F. Bac, from a +tapestry.] + + +If the capital of the French nation, situated on the river Seine, were +simply the most beautiful, the wittiest, wickedest, and most artistic of +towns, if--as has been so often asserted (and not exclusively by the +citizens thereof)--the most commonplace and the most brilliant of human +manifestations alike take on new qualities, texture, and interest the +moment they become Parisien, then, indeed, would this city be entitled +to be considered only with that mild offence which is the proper +intellectual attitude before all so-claimed earthly superlatives. But +Paris is by no means to be so disposed of. The very peccability of her +wit is demonstrated by the extravagant claims which it permits itself. +No God-given institution proclaims itself as such,--at least, noisily. +It is the shadings to this brilliant picture, the exceeding width and +depth and blackness of the sun-spots on this luminary of civilization, +which relieve us from any easy toleration and compel us to the liveliest +attention. One of her many qualities is that of representing and, too +often, of acting for the whole country,--indeed, _la centralisation_ is +one of the four great evils (the others being the abuse of _alcool_, _la +pornographic_, and the stationary birth-rate) which are recognized by +its own citizens as menacing the nation. So that, in a general way, for +both good and bad, Paris reads France. + +Well, the heights and depths which we are called upon to contemplate are +not unendurable, but they are certainly in many respects unexcelled. +"France," says one of her most eloquent and dignified historians, "has +justly been termed the soldier of God;" "Other continents have monkeys," +says a learned German philosopher; "Europe has the French." Any +community or locality which offers, or is considered by intelligent +observers to offer, such a range as this, is certainly worthy of high +renown and deep research, and it is not too much to say that Paris +justifies her fame. Within her walls the human mind has displayed its +loftiest development, and the human passions their most insane excesses; +her art and her literature have erected beacon-lights for all the ages +to come, and have but too frequently fallen into the depths of more than +swinish filth; her science of government has ranged from the Code +Napoléon to the statutes of Belial himself; her civilization has +attained an elegance of refinement unknown to the Greeks, and her cigars +and lucifer-matches are a disgrace to Christendom! + +Happily, as in several other human institutions, there is more of good +than of bad. The so-called "seamy side" of cities is not like that of +flour-bags,--equal in extent and importance to the fair outer surface +that meets the eye. Much as has been published of the depravity of +Paris, it is not that, but the splendid activity of her material and +intellectual civilization, the serious confronting of the heavy problems +of humanity, the intelligent accumulation of the treasures of the mind +and the hand, legislation, literature, art, science, that impress the +intelligent visitor. Moreover, it is the annals of unhappy nations only +that are said to be interesting, and it is impossible that a quick human +interest should not attach to the contemplation of this capital which +has attacked so many problems, maintained so many struggles, and endured +such crushing reverses. In the light of her most troubled history the +import becomes clear of the galley on her shield, and her motto: +"_Floats, but sinks not._" But few capitals have been more frequently, +apparently, on the point of being submerged. Even as these lines are +being written, it is agitated by the protracted and cumulating effects +of a military and social agitation which, in the language of the +President of the Cabinet of Ministers, "is deplorable, which paralyzes +all commerce and creates a situation intolerable to all." + +[Illustration] + +Indeed, it may be said that the present moment is the most critical, the +most dramatic, in the long history of the city and the nation, and that +an entirely new interest will henceforth attach itself to this crowned +capital which sees herself in the inevitable future forever uncrowned. +Never before has the pitiless march of events, the pitiless accumulation +of irrefutable evidence, the testimony of so many observers, at home and +abroad, so seemed to demonstrate that all the methods of government had +been exhausted, and that the nation had attained her summit of power and +was doomed to steady decline. Down to Louis XIV, her hope was thought to +lie in the consolidation of the royal authority and the suppression of +the feudal power of the nobles; down to 1789, in the _tiers état_ and +the States-General; after the Commune of 1871, in the maintenance of a +Republic supported by universal suffrage. The ideals of 1830 and of 1848 +have been practically attained; there are, finally, no new and more +liberal political expedients to hope for,--and never has France seen +herself so distanced by her neighbors. Her contemporary literature +groans with the accumulation of these facts--from the ineptitude of her +rulers, national and colonial, down to the dependence upon the +foreigner for wood for her street pavements and the canned provisions +for her army. Behind that "gap in the Vosges" upon which, as one of her +statesmen remarks, she cannot forever fix her gaze, she sees her great +and hated rival doubling in power. In 1860, Germany had the same +population as France; to-day, she has that of France and Spain combined. +"Never has such a displacement of power been so quickly produced between +two rival peoples. And no one among us seems to regard it, though not +one of the problems which torment us is as grave as this one. Our +agriculture, our industry, our commerce decline; we seem to be in +decadence! How could it be otherwise? There are, in the neighboring +hive, beyond the Rhine, sixteen millions of workers who were not there +forty years ago,--that is the explanation of the progress of our +neighbors as well as of the stagnation of our own activity. All the more +that the quality of the French tends to diminish with their quantity; +... we can foresee the day when there will be two Germans against one +Frenchman, and this prospect fills us with fear for the future of our +country, for we cannot comfort ourselves with illusions, we cannot +believe in the perpetual peace, we know that history is a _Vie Victis_ +continual." + +Therefore, let us hasten to contemplate this great and most admirable +Babylon before Cyrus comes. + +_Paris, Rue Boissonade._ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +GALLO-ROMAN AND PRE-MEDIÆVAL PERIODS + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING BREAD, TWELFTH CENTURY. + +Water-color by George Rochegrosse.] + + +Lucotocia, says that somewhat inexact geographer, Strabo, "is the city +of the _Parisii_, who dwell along the river Seine, and inhabit an island +formed by the river." Ptolemy, who has been thought to have been +somewhat better informed concerning the Parisii than with regard to any +of the other small tribes of Gaul, calls their capital LUCOTECIA; but +both they and their town appear for the first time in history +fifty-three years before the birth of Christ, when Cæsar, in his +_Commentaries_, relates, himself, that he summoned a general assembly of +the Gauls at LUTETIA, the capital of the Parisii. At this date, he was +already master of the greater part of the country now called France. +More than four hundred years later, Julian, surnamed the Apostate, +nephew of Constantine the Great, after having passed more than two years +in this city, which he called "his dear LEUCETIA," was proclaimed +emperor here by his soldiers, who refused to obey the orders of +Constantius and return to the East. It is surmised by the scholars that +the imperial author of the _Misopogon_ adopted this form of the name of +the town on the Seine through an affectation of deriving it from the +Greek, in which language he wrote, and, as is still evident in those of +his works which have survived, in a style remarkably pure. + +Lutetia, of which the modern French make Lutèce, is supposed to have +been derived from the Celtic _louk-teih_, which signified the place of +morasses; and the name of the Parisii from the Celtic _par_, a species +of boat, and _gwys_, in composition _ys_, man, whence _parys_, +boatmen,--these islanders being supposed to have been skilful +navigators. But they are said to have called themselves +_Loutouchezi_,--that is to say, a residence in the midst of the waters. +Other etymologists cast doubts upon all these deductions, and the matter +is not very important. The early Parisians were one of the smallest of +the Gaulish tribes, and preferred the islands to the mainland as a safer +place of residence; they were surrounded by the Carnutes, Senones, and +other, stronger people whose names have not been perpetuated. Of their +ten islands and sand-banks, which were preserved until late in the +Middle Ages, there are now only two remaining, the Ile Saint-Louis and +Ile de la Cité. The ancient town, like the modern one, lay in the centre +of a "tertiary" basin, about sixty-five mètres, or two hundred and ten +feet, above the level of the sea, broken here and there by low hills. +The modern historian, Duruy, quotes Strabo as finding a proof of divine +providence in the fortunate configuration of the soil of Gaul; and that +writer testifies that the whole country was inhabited, even in the +marshes and woods. "The cause of this is, however, rather a dense +population than the industry of the inhabitants. For the women there are +both very prolific and excellent nurses, while the men devote themselves +rather to war than to husbandry." + +The antiquity of the inhabitants of Gaul is now pushed back by the +learned far beyond the days of Cæsar. M. A. Thieullen, in two +communications addressed to the _Société d'anthropologie_ at Paris +(January and February, 1898), maintained that the chipped flint +arrow-heads found at Chelles and Saint-Acheul, which have been +considered as the earliest works of prehistoric man, are, in reality, in +common with the polished stone hatchets of the Neolithic age, the +products of an industry in a high state of development, the result of +successive essays by numberless generations. In this theory he is +supported by other scientists, among them the English geologist, +Prestwich; and in this insistence upon the artistic quality of the +chipped and polished flints and the prodigious number of rudimentary +utensils which have preceded and accompanied them is found another +argument in favor of the great antiquity of man and his existence in the +tertiary period. The soil of Paris has furnished many of these superior +flints, and the comparative state of civilization to which the locality +early attained is further testified to by the discovery, in the early +months of this year, 1898, by an enterprising proprietor on the edge of +the forest of Fontainebleau, of the site of a prehistoric pottery on his +grounds. This locality, opposite the village of Ecuelle, was already +noted for the menhir, or prehistoric upright stone, standing on the +right bank of the canal. The ancient potteries seem to have occupied a +space about five hundred mètres in length and two hundred in width; at +the depth of sixty-five or seventy centimètres below the surface there +is found "a black sand, burned, beaten down, trodden, which gives forth +a resonant sound when attacked by the pick-axe; this arises from the +fact that it has been, through a long series of centuries, tormented by +the incessant passage of men and the innumerable fires of the furnaces." +From the specimens of pottery extracted from this sand, it is concluded +that this manufactory had been maintained from the Neolithic age down to +the Gallo-Roman period. In the little village of La Mouthe, in the +department of the Dordogne, farther south, have been discovered within +the last few years, in a cavern, very curious and not unskilful outline +drawings on the rock, sometimes touched up with color, of now extinct +animals,--the extreme age of these works of art being demonstrated by +the fact that they are in many cases partially covered with stalactites. +The learned scientists who have uncovered and photographed these incised +drawings conclude, from their appearance and from the fragments of +animals' bones found in the cavern, that they are the work of men of the +Neolithic age and the Palæolithic, which preceded it. In short, there is +every reason to believe, on the strength of all the testimony which +modern science has wrested from the unwilling records of the past, that +the earliest inhabitants of the islands of the Seine were contemporary +with the mammoth, the cave-bear, the auroch, and the rhinoceros with +cleft nostrils. + +[Illustration: FRAGMENT OF ROMAN AQUEDUCT, STILL IN EXISTENCE, ON THE +PROPERTY OF M. RASPAIL, AT ARCUEIL.] + +It is not to be supposed, however, that these very ancient texts are +read without the necessary stumbling over obscure passages and much +upsetting of cherished historical truth. The finest presentations of +ancient records that we find in grave historians are now set aside by +learned archæologists in communications to the _Académie des Sciences à +Paris_ or the _Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_. Even the +original number of islands in the Seine and Cæsar's statements +concerning the Gauls and their manners and customs are now disputed. +When it comes to the origin of things and of peoples, the erudition is +profound. M. G. de Mortillet proposes for the epoch _quaternaire_ or +_pléistocène_ four successive divisions,--in their order of antiquity, +the _Chelléen_, the _Moustérien_, the _Solutréen_, and the +_Magdalénien_; M. Perrier du Carne thinks that the traces of the Solutré +and of the Madeleine show them to have been derived from two races long +contemporary on the same soil, of which the former were autochthonous +and the latter, immigrants, who came in with the reindeer and followed +him when he retreated northward. M. Piette objects to the word +_Magdalénien_, and proposes to replace it by _glyptique_, for, during +this period, man learned to carve bones with flint instruments; after +the _Solutré_ he places the epoch _Eburnéenne_, and after that, the +_Tarandienne_, characterized by instruments in reindeer's horns. After +the quaternary period, Professor Alexandre Bertrand, of the École du +Louvre, places the _Mégalithiques_, whom he thinks belonged to the great +ethnological family of the Touranians which preceded the Aryans in +Europe, and who erected the great stone monuments, dolmens, menhirs, +cromlechs, etc., formerly called druidical, found in various parts of +Europe. Several of these _monuments mégalithiques_ have been discovered +in Paris and its environs,--a street of the Faubourg du Temple owes its +name of Pierre-Levée (raised stone) to the fact that at its opening, in +1782, an enormous ancient rock was found artificially supported on two +others, the funerary tumulus, or mound, which formerly covered it having +disappeared. + +As it is impossible to attribute any longer these prehistoric monuments +to the "Celts," or to "their priests, the Druids," so do others of our +historical illusions vanish. M. Duruy, in his learned _Histoire de +France_, states that at the dawn of history the country known as Gaul +was "divided between three or four hundred tribes (_peuplades_) +belonging to the three great families,--the Celts, the Iberians, and the +Belgians." M. Guizot says that "in the south were Iberians or +Aquitanians, Phœnicians and Greeks; in the north and northwest, +Kymrians or Belgians; everywhere else, Gauls or Celts, the most numerous +settlers, who had the honor of giving their name to the country." M. +Salomon Reinach, in his detailed description of the monuments in the +Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, under the general title of _Antiquités +nationales_, declines to recognize the _race celtique_; in accord with +the science of anthropology he distinguishes various Gaulish types and +is aware that they nowhere present themselves in a pure state. Professor +Bertrand "superposes" upon his _Mégalithiques_, whose distinguishing +trait in Europe is their use of polished stone, another race, +numerically inferior and much less ancient; these are the "_tribus +celtiques_ or _celtisées_ of the Aryan race." When they arrived in Gaul, +they were already familiar with the use of metals, especially bronze, +beginning to be acquainted with iron; they were pastoral and +agricultural, and burned their dead. About the sixth century B.C. +appeared a third group, the _tribus galatiques_, Helvetians, Kymrians, +Belgians; they were wandering bands of warriors, who used iron +implements only and buried their dead. "From the superposition, rather +than from the fusion, of these divers elements has resulted that which +is called _la nation gauloise_ or _celtique_." + +Naturally, the religions of these varied nations were as diversified as +their origins. The Druids, according to Professor Bertrand, so far from +forming the priesthood of a practically homogeneous race, can be said to +have had no influence upon the religion of the people, who were alien to +them and who remained faithful to their own worship of the spirits or +powers in nature and to their superstitious practices. "Druidism was, +then, neither a dogma, nor a religion, nor a particular theogony, but a +social institution with an organization analogous to that of the great +abbeys of Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, or to the Lamaism of +Thibet. The Druids lived in communism, like the Lamas." Moreover, M. +Bertrand refuses the Druids all their fine old qualities,--human +sacrifices; worship of stones; solstitial ceremonies, such as the +Yule-log and fires on the eve of Saint John; the herbs of Saint John; +the worship of fountains; the worship of trees, and medical +prescriptions. Even more, what Guizot calls their "noblest +characteristic, a general and strong, but vague and incoherent, belief +in the immortality of the soul," was less a particular doctrine of their +own than a sentiment innate in the race; "they had only to develop ideas +the germ of which had not been imported by them." Nevertheless, so well +organized was their communal order that they were, before the Roman +epoch, the only central, definite power capable of consecutiveness in +its conceptions and of unity in its views, and their influence over a +gross and ignorant people was proportionally great. + +To the _chamanisme_, or belief in the spirits that pervade nature, and +in the power of man over them by magic arts, of the original Touranians, +the Celtic tribes brought the worship of natural forces,--the sun, fire, +torrents, tempests, mountains, etc.; but neither they nor the Druids had +any human figures or symbols in their pantheon. The invasions +_galatiques_ or _kimrobelge_, on the contrary, brought in from the +Orient a cult already strongly anthropomorphous, and with these symbols, +traditions, and divinities those of the Greeks and Romans became mingled +to a greater or lesser degree that it is impossible to determine, +because, as it appears, all that we really know of the Gaulish religion +before the Roman conquest is reduced to a few lines in Polybius, in +which can be found the name of _Perkunas_, the Perkun of the Slavs. +Cæsar identifies the gods of the Gauls with the Roman ones, Mercury, +Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva; and M. André Lefèvre, in the _Revue +mensuelle de l'École d'anthropologie_, asks, without being able to +answer: "How is it possible that such men as Cæsar and Tacitus were able +to confound with Mercury the supreme gods of the Gauls and the Germans; +but, still more, how is it that the Gaul should have adopted with +enthusiasm the Latin name and forgotten the Gaulish name of his supreme +god?" M. Reinach is considered to have proved beyond a doubt that the +god with the mallet, the Dispater of the Gallo-Roman period, was a sort +of copy, in Gaulish attire, of the Egyptian Serapis; and the +inscriptions of the imperial epoch testify to the diffusion of the +worship of the divinities of Alexandria from Arles and Nîmes, in the +extreme south, to Besançon, almost on the borders of Switzerland, and +Soissons, northeast of Paris. Nevertheless, those archæologists who have +thought they found traces of the art of Egypt and Babylon in that of the +original cave-dwellers are now considered to have been deceiving +themselves; and M. Reinach has modified the opinions he held a few years +ago on the early religious art of Gaul. "In short, what we know of +Gaulish mythology amounts to nothing, or practically nothing." + +Various rude images and fragments of altars found under the modern +pavements of Paris at different dates and localities--among others, +under the choir of Notre-Dame in 1710--have revealed the names, if not +the characters, of some of the ancient divinities of the soil, _Esus_, +_Jovis_, _Volcanus_, _Tarvos trigaramos_, _Cernunnos_. + +But if the scientists grope doubtingly in these twilights of history, +the romancers relate boldly. One of them, M. Henri Lavedan, has been +calling up the Parisienne of the Lacustrine age, "_gran' maman +archi-centennaire_" of her of the present day. This is how she was. +"Large, thick, and short, with a vigorous figure, shaking out coarse and +matted hair, the feet bare, the arms bare, the breast half bare and +unrestrained under her species of primitive corset. The body is that of +a handsome and robust decent human animal, a tanned skin, somewhat +hairy. The feet are large and powerful, like the hands, with cutting +nails, square and hard. The visage, high in color, with features that +are simple and elementary, is lit up by eyes grey or blue, eyes limpid +and tranquil, which regard without vivacity, without appearing and +disappearing lights, without surprise, the eyes of an animal under the +yoke and resigned to it, eyes only too well acquainted with the eternal +landscape which they have been reflecting ever since they were first +opened. The step is slow, sure, heavy, and majestic. Under her petticoat +of sombre color may be divined two great legs, the legs, almost, of a +man, two legs of labor and of endurance. She sings naturally, this +woman, when she is alone, vague songs, sort of fugues of savages, very +simple, which seem to have neither beginning nor end, but in the company +of others she is almost taciturn, replying by gestures, by signs, +accomplishing her task with a passive regularity. She scarcely knows the +lighter shades of sentiments and expressions. She laughs or she weeps. +No smiling. When she laughs, it is with a large display of the solid +white teeth of a carnivorous animal; when she weeps, it is with the deep +sobs of a beaten child. She is strong and patient like the ox, she runs +like the horse, she resists cold, heat, and fatigue; her sleep is +profound and without dreams. She is more mother than wife, in the animal +sense of the word; she is capable of courage, of rude goodness and of +devotion, but all of these naturally and by instinct. Her life may be +hard and long, she may retain until a very advanced age the plenitude of +her vigor, and die splitting wood or turning the mill. + +"Should the wife cease to please her husband, he sells her again; should +she commit a fault, he strips her (the garments will serve for the new +spouse); then he takes her by the hair and smothers her in the marsh. +Nevertheless, however miserable may be her condition of a domestic +animal, this creature has passions. Tacitus informs us that adultery was +not unknown to the purchased wife. The male children belonged to the +father, and always remained with him; as to the aged, the old relatives, +useless and cumbering, they were put 'in a place apart,' a sort of +hollow in the neighborhood of the hole for the hogs or the enclosure for +the cattle, and there was thrown to them the remnants of the meals. The +family sentiment, the voice of kindred blood, did not, as yet, make +itself heard very distinctly." + +[Illustration: THE BATHS OF THE EMPEROR JULIAN, CORNER BOULEVARDS ST. +MICHEL AND ST. GERMAIN. Restoration.] + +This information may be supplemented by various extracts from the +ancient historians, who give us the usual picture of early man in the +barbarous stage, bellicose, blood-thirsty, brutal, having the one virtue +of courage. Cæsar says that when a man of importance died, his wives +were tortured and put to death by fire if suspected of being +instrumental in his taking off; but a short time before his conquests it +was the custom to burn with the defunct his slaves and his favorite +clients. It was also said that the women were not constrained in their +choice of husbands, and that the latter were obliged to furnish an +equivalent for the dowry brought by the wife. Human sacrifices were +offered on certain great occasions, and it was thought possible that one +of the upper stones of the great sepulchre discovered at Meudon in 1845, +indicated one of the sites dedicated to these offerings. + +Of the many attempts that have been made to restore the primitive man in +his environments, one of the most learned and interesting is that shown +by M. Cormon, the painter, in his series of large decorations for the +_plafond_ and walls of some ethnological museum, exhibited in the Salon +of 1898. But an artist is an impossible archæologist; the more of an +artist he is, the more will he be unwilling to represent the merely +bestial, as the scientist finds it; and though the original inhabitant +of the valley of the Seine and other favored spots may have circulated +in some such early landscape, and have garbed himself and tattooed +himself somewhat as the painter here paints him, it is probable that +there was far less of the picturesque and presentable about him, of +grace of attitude and whiteness of skin in his women-folk, than in any +artist's presentation on a self-respecting canvas. + +The habitations of the early Parisian were equally unlike those familiar +to the Cook's tourist. On the pedestal of an antique statue of Melpomene +of heroic size in the Louvre is a relief representing the head of a +supposed Gaul defending his house against a Roman soldier, and this +sculpture, confirmed by others on the column of Antoninus at Rome of +those of the German barbarians, gives this dwelling as a species of +circular, upright hut, covered with a conical-shaped roof constructed of +branches and reeds, or thatch, or perhaps of a half-spherical piece of +wood. + +In the soil of the tertiary, or quaternary, basin in which Paris lies +are found traces of marine plants, oyster-shells, skeletons of fish, +etc., which indicate that it has risen from the bottom of the sea. As +every one knows, the Seine, flowing in a general direction from east to +west, curves toward the north to traverse the heart of the city, the +former Palais de l'Industrie, but just demolished, having occupied +nearly the centre of the upward curve of this bow. On the south, the +river receives the waters of the Bièvre, a feeble stream which flows +through a narrow valley, and, farther eastward, those of the river +Marne. Under the Roman domination and that of the first Merovingian +kings, that part of the city lying immediately south of the river seems +to have become the most populous and important almost as soon as the +narrow limits of the original islands became too confining. The pride of +the Faubourg Saint-Germain may date itself back for some fifteen +centuries. A central, principal street traversed the city from south to +north, entering it in the general direction of the Rue Saint-Jacques, +passing on the east side of the imperial palace whose ruins may still be +seen in the Musée des Thermes, at the corner of the Boulevard +Saint-Germain and Boulevard Saint-Michel. Under the Rue Saint-Jacques +remains of the ancient pavement have been found at a great depth, and a +fragment of it is preserved in the Musée de Cluny. The Roman street +crossed the small arm of the Seine on a wooden bridge, near where is now +the Petit-Pont, traversed the Ile de la Cité, at the western end of +what is to-day the Place du Parvis-Notre-Dame, and crossed the larger +branch of the river near the site of the present Pont Notre-Dame. On the +northern shore, it followed for some distance nearly the course of the +present Rue Saint-Denis, and then forked,--one branch continuing in a +general northerly direction toward Senlis, and the other turning off to +the northwest, in the direction of the Bourse, toward Clichy, +Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, and, finally, Rouen by the valley of the +Montmorency. + +Of the stately buildings erected by the Roman officers sent to govern +the city on the Seine and the province of which it was the capital, the +only remains now above ground are those preserved in the Musée des +Thermes, in somewhat curious juxtaposition with the late +fifteenth-century Hôtel de Cluny. These ruins represent the great Roman +baths of the palace, the _frigidarium_, the _piscine_, the _tepidarium_, +and, somewhat deeper, the _hypocaustum_, or furnace for heating. By +their size and importance, these ancient walls testify to the dignity of +the imperial palace which rose on this site, and, surrounded by its +gardens, extended along the southern bank of the Seine. Of the date of +the erection of this _Palatium Thermarum seu Thermæ Parisiaci_ nothing +definite is known; it is generally ascribed to Constantius, surnamed +Chlorus, "the pale," father of Constantine the Great, who died in 306 +A.D. It is considered certain that it was occupied by Julian, and by +Valentinian I, and Valens; after the expulsion of the Romans by the +Franks, it served as a residence for the kings of the first and second +race, and was still an important edifice in 1180 when Philippe-Auguste +presented it to his chamberlain, Henri. About 1340 it passed into the +possession of the Abbé of Cluny, Pierre de Chaslus. + +These very antique walls are preserved by the national authorities in a +manner that might be considered as more satisfactory to the lovers of +the picturesque than to the archæologists. They are exposed to all the +disintegrating influences of the sun and rain, much blackened by the +Parisian climate, which darkens everything exposed to it, and largely +overgrown with creeping vines. They are constructed of squared stones +interspersed with layers of brick, with rectangular and arched niches, +filled-up arches at the base of which may be seen still the remnants of +the prows of ships, and in the niches are still the remains of the +earthenware pipes that conveyed the water to the baths. The student of +architecture is interested to observe here that the Roman bricks were +much longer than ours, and only about an inch and a half thick. Their +original, cheerful red still shows occasionally through the Parisian +blackness. He will, however, probably be somewhat disturbed by the fine +indifference of the authorities to styles and chronologies. In the place +of the missing wall of the _piscine_ is set the arched porch of the +cloister of the Benedictines of Argenteuil; inside the enclosures are +tumulary stones, with inscriptions in Hebrew, found on the site of the +publishing house of Hachette. In the pleasant green garden in front of +these ruins, and in which the bare-legged Parisian children play at +soldiers or at digging gravel in the paths, are more incongruous +mediæval bits of architecture and sculpture,--placid Madonnas and +Annunciations, much defaced by time; gargoyles from the church of +Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, in what may be called the size of life, +agonizing and tormented by queer little beasts like weasels under their +throats or bellies, and, guarding the gateway at the angle of the +boulevards, three great, deformed figures of the animals of the +Evangelists, the Lion, the Eagle, and the Ox, from the tower of +Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, where they have been replaced by copies. + +For a number of centuries these ruins were forgotten, and were even +concealed until 1810 under hanging-gardens constructed above them. In +1819 it was proposed to establish in the Thermes a museum for the +Gaulish and Roman antiquities discovered in the soil of Paris; but this +project was not carried out until 1836, when, through the action of the +Prefect of the Seine and the Conseil Municipal, the remains of the Roman +palace became the property of the city. Seven years later, the State +having acquired the Hôtel de Cluny and the collection Sommerard, the +city offered the Palais des Thermes to the national government, and the +two museums were united in one national one. The project of M. E. du +Sommerard, of clearing away all the surrounding modern buildings, +opening the new streets and planting the garden, was finally put in the +way of being realized in 1856. + +The site of this palace, the ruins of which are among the most important +in France, was on the lower slopes of Mount Lucotitius, afterward the +mount of Sainte-Geneviève, overlooking both the city and the Roman road +to Genabum (Orléans). Its dependent buildings and enclosures seem to +have extended as far south as the Rue Soufflot, in front of the +Panthéon, ruins of foundation-walls having been located at various +periods in this quarter. Its magnificent baths were probably preserved +during the earlier Christian centuries, when the civilization of the +Romans had not entirely disappeared, until the siege of Paris by the +Normans in the ninth century. On this (southern) side of the river have +also been discovered the ruins of an amphitheatre, traces of a quarter +or barracks for soldiers, another establishment of baths, the aqueduct +of Arcueil, a great cemetery on the southern slopes of Mount Lucotitius, +secondary roads, and a port on the smaller arm of the Seine. In the +Luxembourg garden have been unearthed at various periods numerous +fragments of painted walls; seven hundred large Roman medals in bronze +and two hundred in silver, all enclosed in a species of chest of tiles, +and covered with a silver plate, and supposed to have been the treasury +of a rich Gallo-Roman country-house; a statuette of Mercury; a bust of +Cybele; pits to preserve grain, etc. + +Another of these important palaces or suburban villas was seated on the +northern slopes of the Butte Montmartre, which rises some hundred mètres +above the level of the Seine, on the other side of the river,--a site +which gave it an admirable extended view over the city and the +surrounding plains. The most important ruins which have been discovered +north of the river are the remnants of the aqueduct to convey water from +Passy, large basins on the site of the Palais-Royal, various highways +branching off to the north and east and extensive cemeteries near these +roads, and numerous Roman medals and coins in various +localities,--sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an extensive and +important population. Montmartre is supposed to have derived its name +from having been the site of a temple of Mars (_Mons Martis_); or from +having been the scene of the martyrdom of Saint Denis, the first bishop +of Paris, and his companions, A.D. 270 (_Mons Martyrum_). + +Buried under the modern pavement of the Ile de la Cité, the Gaulish +_Oppidum_, are many vestiges of the Roman occupation. In 1847 numerous +remains of the construction of houses during this period and of what +was considered to be a church dedicated to the Virgin were discovered +under the open place in front of Notre-Dame; of these, careful drawings +were made, engraved, and published in the _Statistique monumentale de +Paris_ and the structures then covered up again; in the following year, +excavations made in the course of enlarging the Palais de Justice +brought to light in the court of the Sainte-Chapelle and under the +houses to the south of it remains of walls of the ancient Roman palace. +The old historians of Paris, indeed, relying upon the testimony of +Ammianus Marcellinus, state that one of the two Roman palaces was +situated in the western end of the island which formed the ancient +Lutetia. In 1844 the laying out of a new street between the Palais de +Justice and the Hôtel-Dieu revealed two portions of edifices the use of +which was unknown, but which, by the thickness of their walls and the +nature of their construction, were supposed to have formed some part of +the public structures. It has been considered that these various +vestiges of important buildings situated in the centre of Lutetia +indicate that they surrounded an open market-place or commercial +exchange. + +But the discovery of one of the most important and interesting vestiges +of the Gallo-Roman city was reserved for the latter part of the year +1869, when, in laying out the Rue Monge, on the eastern slopes of Mont +Sainte-Geneviève, there was revealed the ancient amphitheatre, with +which no Roman city of importance could dispense. Although these +important vestiges lay only some twelve mètres below the surface, and +though at least two passages in mediæval chronicles were known which +alluded to the locality, this contribution to the history of the city +was delayed to this late date. Alexandre Neckham, a professor in Paris, +writing in 1180, mentions, in the course of four verses, the vast ruins +of a Roman amphitheatre, dedicated to Venus, which was situated near the +Abbey of Saint-Victor. Adrien de Valois cites a _cartulary_, or registry +of a monastery, dated in 1310, in which mention is made of three +sections of vineyards situated in the district known as _les Areinnes_. +A date for the construction of this amphitheatre was conjectured by M. +Adrien de Longpérier, from the bringing together of three of the broken +stones of the edifice--selected from the sixteen bearing inscriptions +now in the Musée Carnavelet and from twelve others bearing similar +inscriptions and evidently from the same source, but which were found in +1847 in the Parvis-Notre-Dame, having been taken in later days to +construct the wall of fortification of the city. By placing three of +these fragments in order, M. de Longpérier was enabled to decipher the +names of two of the Gaulish emperors who lived in the second half of the +third century of our era, from which he concluded that it was a portion +of the imperial inscription, and that the construction of the +amphitheatre accordingly dated from this period. The pride of the +Parisians, however, took offence at this interpretation, and it was +considered as highly improbable that the Romans "should have delayed for +more than two centuries and a half to construct, for the use of the +population of a city as important as Lutèce had become, a monument +similar to those the ruins of which have been enumerated in more than +fifty Gallo-Roman cities,--a figure which shows how much the diversions +of the amphitheatre and the theatre were relished by the Gauls." M. +Gourdon de Genouillac, in his history of Paris, decides that the +structure dates from the second century. + +[Illustration: REMAINS OF ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE, RUE MONGE, DISCOVERED IN +1869.] + +It may be observed that, in the third century, Roman Gaul became a +practically independent State,--from A.D. 258 to 273, from Posthumus to +Tetricus, its connections with Italy ceased, and it maintained its own +emperors and its own legions. This was in sympathy with the rising +spirit of nationalities, awakened throughout the empire by Septimus +Severus, but in this ephemeral empire of the Gauls the old Celtic +influence had but little part. "If there took place," said M. Camille +Jullian before the _Académie des Inscriptions_ in 1896, "as we would +willingly believe, a Celtic renaissance at the opening of the third +century, it was entirely superficial, and doubtless slightly factitious; +it resembled that reaction in the life, the language, the traditions of +the provinces which the French Romanticism brought about in 1815. Like +that, it in no way changed the ideas of the nation, it had no influence +upon the political and social destinies of Gaul." With regard to the +fondness of the ancient Gauls for histrionic and spectacular +performances, we may quote M. Reinach again: "The qualities and the +defects of the present inhabitants of France may all be found again +among the Gaulish contemporaries of Cato and Cæsar. The warlike humor, +the facility of elocution, the curiosity--often turbulent, have +remained, throughout the centuries, the portion, more or less enviable, +of the inhabitants of Gaul." + +An important publication in folio by Firmin-Didot, _Paris à travers les +Ages_, gives the following description of the amphitheatre of Lutetia. +"But few constructions are visible around the arena, elliptic in shape +and measuring fifty-four mètres on its long axis and forty-seven on the +short one. This was the space reserved for the combats of animals, for +the hunts and other spectacles. A podium, or enclosing wall, surrounded +this arena in its entire circuit, and the thickness of this wall was +such that it resisted the thrust of the sides of the Mount Lucotitius, +on the eastern slopes of which the edifice was constructed. The places +arranged for the spectators of the games, around the arena, were +evidently placed, on the west, on the slope of Mount Lucotitius, where +have been found walls converging toward the centre of the structure to +support the tiers of seats running in the contrary direction. The +benches may have been supported by constructions which have now +disappeared; the various fragments of architecture discovered in the +excavations must have formed part of the decoration of the edifice, as +well as the stones that were employed in the military wall of +fortification of Lutetia during the later period of decline." + +The discovery of these ruins caused much excitement among the savants of +Paris at the time. The Société de Numismatique visited the excavations +in a body, several archæological and antiquarian associations united in +drawing up a paper, which was presented to the Emperor, advocating the +preservation of this "antique theatre of the popular festivals of the +Gauls, the arena in which had perished for liberty of conscience the +ancestors of the French nation, the field in which sleep the martyrs of +Lutèce." A petition was likewise addressed to the Chamber of Deputies; +Napoleon III visited the locality in person; but the Municipal Council +hesitated before the expenditure of 300,000 francs for this purpose, and +the ground was actually purchased by the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus. + +This interesting excavation, but little known even to the Parisians, has +now been transformed into a public garden, in the quarter between the +Panthéon and the Jardin des Plantes, and is well worth visiting. The +ancient Mont Lucotitius still heaves itself under the modern Parisian +pavement, and the grades frequently become so steep that they have to +be abandoned, and terraces and retaining-walls substituted. Although +much less than a half of the oval of the original arena has been +uncovered, the explorations have reduced the houses on the Rue Monge to +but little more than tall façades. From under their rear walls emerge +the amphitheatre and some of the curving rows of seats in stone, the +latter much restored. In the walls of the arena are two rectangular, +barred entrances, and one lower, arched one, from which we may imagine +the gladiators or the wild beasts emerging. The floor of the arena is +left in a roughly gravelled condition; at present, nothing more +formidable is to be encountered there than three very little French boys +making mud-pies in the puddle formed by last night's rain. A fourth, +still smaller, is at some distance, absorbed in some dry engineering of +his own at the foot of the old wall. Seated in the steep little green +park which rises above the terraced seats, crowned with trees and +shrubberies, and vocal with a prodigious twittering of birds, are three +or four idle, bare-headed young women in "shirt-waists," one with a +lover, and an old gentleman with a red ribbon reading his morning +newspaper. The traveller can place himself on one of the benches in this +pleasant little greenery, look down on the infantile engineers below, +and make appropriate reflections. + +A still more important architectural feature of the ancient city was the +great aqueduct which supplied the baths of the palace on the river, its +fountains and those of the populous quarter around it. The waters of +three or four small streams to the south of the capital were united and +conveyed in a channel, lined with cement, 19,100 mètres in length, which +traversed the slopes of the hills on the eastern side of the Bièvre, and +remains of which have been found at various points. To cross the valley +and the stream, an aqueduct was constructed on arches at the locality +which took the name of Arcueil, and where some of the masonry is still +preserved in modern construction, "this aqueduct being some four hundred +mètres long and fifty (?) high." It is computed that a supply of +twenty-four cubic mètres of water was furnished every twenty-four hours. +Remains of other and smaller aqueducts have been discovered at various +points in the city. At Passy, surrounding the present Trocadéro, there +were springs of mineral waters, which were conveyed to the city by +terra-cotta pipes, passing along the banks of the Seine. In 1781, in the +gardens of the Palais-Royal, were discovered the remains of great basins +which are supposed to have been the piscines of the hygienic baths. +Remains of Roman aqueducts have been found at various other localities +in France, at Nîmes, at Lyons, at Metz, etc., and that over the Gard is +still standing in part. + +Among the bridges constructed by the Gauls, Cæsar mentions that of Melun +on the Seine; one on the Allier, near Vichy; that of Genabum (Orléans), +and that of Lutetia, over the larger arm of the Seine, on the site of +the present Pont Notre-Dame. Of that over the Allier and of the Parisian +one, some of the ancient piles have been found in the bed of the rivers. + +Remains of the ancient wall of fortification of the capital have also +been brought to light, at various localities and at different dates. The +excavations in the Parvis-Notre-Dame in 1847 discovered a section of the +Roman wall twenty-six mètres in length, as well as the substructure of +the porch and the front portion of the nave of the original basilica, +constructed by Childebert and dedicated to the Virgin. These latter +foundations, some thirty-two mètres in front of the present cathedral, +demonstrate by their position, and by the probable width of the +primitive edifice in proportion to its length, that they were +constructed to the west and inside of the enclosing wall of the city, a +portion of which had been found under the choir of the cathedral. The +basilica constructed by the son of Clovis probably rose on the site of +the altars consecrated to the Roman or Gaulish gods, Jupiter, Vulcan, +Esus, and others, and which, before the construction of the city wall, +were visible from all sides. The enclosing wall, on the contrary, fenced +in the basilica, since it was necessary to protect this part of the +city, as well as all others. The somewhat unimposing aspect of +Notre-Dame, which was founded in 1163, may be ascribed in part to the +raising of the level of all the surrounding soil, for, as the histories +tell us, so late as 1748, it was reached only by ascending a flight of +thirteen steps, whereas now it is on the ordinary street-level. + +This wall of defence was not commenced till about 406, when the +barbarians began to invade Gaul, and was apparently constructed in great +haste, if we may judge by the manner in which materials were borrowed +from surrounding buildings of all kinds. It is described as being +something over three and a half mètres in thickness at its base, which +was constructed in rough stone, frequently of small size, and sloping to +a height of two mètres. On this was erected a wall of dressed stones, +each successive layer set back, like a step, so that at the top it was +only some two mètres in width. It might be thought that this manner of +building offered considerable facilities to an escalading enemy. + +On the largest stone of those discovered in 1711 under the choir of +Notre-Dame was deciphered an inscription which recorded the erection of +this altar to Jupiter, "very great, very beneficent," in the reign of +Tiberius Cæsar, by the corporation of _nautæ_, or mariners, apparently +the most powerful in the city, and the prows of the ships at the foot of +the arches in the ancient palace of Thermes are supposed to have been +connected with the same guild, though this architectural ornament is by +no means uncommon in ancient art. It is from these _Nautæ Parisiaci_ +that the modern city derives its arms,--a vessel with distended sails. +(If any doubting tourist inquire concerning the maritime commerce of +Paris, he will be proudly referred to the barges which may be seen at +all the quais, and, even more, to the little steamers from London which +contrive to get under the bridges.) In some of the modern records this +ancient corporation is given great importance--with many _sans doutes_ +and _il paraîts_--in the history of the city, both before and during the +sway of the Romans. Cæsar found it "fully organized," though it was +founded on the Roman corporation of the _Nautæ Tyberis_, navigators of +the Tiber, composed of senators, magistrates, and knights, which +transported grain and other merchandise from the port of Ostia to the +capital; and it was the original of the later _maison de la marchandise +de l'eau, de l'hôtel de Ville et du conseil municipal_ of Paris. The +activity of the Lutetian shippers and navigators covered the territory +bathed by the Seine, the Marne, and the Oise, all of them quite +navigable. The ruins of the Gallo-Roman buildings discovered in the Cité +in 1844, at the opening of the Rue de Constantine, were the remains of a +market or forum for the sale of provisions; and the corporation had, +near the port, an office or bureau for the regulation of this river +commerce. Opposite the port, on the northern side of the Seine, they +controlled also another point of landing, at the Grève, where, later, +was established the _prévôté de l'eau_, which developed into the +Parisian municipality. The port on the Cité, on the larger arm of the +Seine, received in the Middle Ages the name of Saint Landri, this bishop +having had an oratory, and perhaps his residence, in the neighborhood. +Under the Later Empire, in the reign of Posthumus, the northern suburb +having increased in size and importance, a market was placed at the +Champeaux, on the site of the present Halles Centrales, and the port of +the Grève became, as it has remained ever since, a point of landing for +merchandise coming from the upper Seine. The port on the southern side +of the river, near the great road from Genabum, was established on the +site of the mediæval _Quai de la Tournelle_, the great tower which +replaced that of the southern wall of fortification of the city built by +Philippe-Auguste. This quai still serves at the present day as a +landing-place for the barges. + +[Illustration: FLIGHT OF LEUDASTE, A MEROVINGIAN. From a drawing by Jean +Paul Laurens] + +In the reigns of Louis the Fat and Louis VII, the successors of the +_Nautæ Parisiaci_ were known as _mercatores aquæ parisiaci_, and they +were the origin of the municipal body charged with the policing of the +river navigation and commerce. Later in the Middle Ages, this small +species of Hanseatic League had a commercial station at +Marsons-sur-Seine, and its maritime jurisdiction extended as far as the +city of Mantes, situated on the western limits of the territory of the +Parisii. The sources of the Seine, near the farm of the Vergerots in the +commune of Saint-Germain-la-Feuille, were held in great veneration in +Gallo-Roman times, and a temple, the remains of which have been found, +was erected in their honor. In 1867 the Municipal Council of Paris set +up a monument "to the sources of the river which has given its name to +the department of the Seine, and to which Paris owes its ancient +prosperity." + +The overrunning of Gaul by the barbarians, the latest historians tell +us, did not present the imposing spectacle of a great invasion in which +armed hosts of valiant and robust warriors trod down the effeminate and +corrupted civilization of the Romans, pillaged and ravaged the seats of +refinement and luxury in city and country, slew and carried into +captivity without respect for age or sex. + +Long before the invasions of the fifth century the Germans had been +established in the empire, both as colonists and as soldiers. The +legions composed of Germans are said to have been even more amenable to +discipline than the Roman ones. The first who established themselves in +Gaul were the Visigoths and the Burgundians; the former, flying before +the Huns, appeared as suppliants on the frontiers of the empire in the +closing years of the fourth century. Ataulf (Ataulphus), the successor +of the imperial puppet Attalus, set up by the conquering Alaric, came +into Gaul early in the fifth century, became the ally of the Emperor +Honorius, married his sister Placida, and marched to the conquest of +Spain. The Visigoths, being thus installed in Gaul, admitted the +Burgondes (Burgundii) in a neighborly manner; we are even told that they +considered themselves as honored by the friendship of the Romans, and +pretended that they had a common origin. Their kings proclaimed +themselves lieutenants of the emperors, and fed their vanity by the +Roman titles with which they invested themselves. The historian Orosius +says the Burgundii were a quiet people, with gentle manners, respecting +the civil authorities, and living in friendly relations with the Gauls. +Both Visigoths and Burgundii promptly abandoned their national religions +and traditions and adopted Christianity, but they followed the Aryan +sect,--"unfortunately," says Duruy. Some modern French historians, on +the contrary, attribute the greatness of France to this circumstance. +The Gallo-Romans were orthodox. + +When the Huns, driving the Germans before them or passing over their +bodies, appeared on the frontiers of Gaul in the year 451, they were met +by an army commanded by a Roman, Aëtius, but composed of Romans, +Burgundii, Visigoths, Franks, and Saxons, which defeated them at the +famous battle of the _champs catalauniques_, over the locality of which +the historians are still disputing. When the Franks appeared, at the end +of the fifth century, the army of Clovis contained a large number of +Romans, and from the time of the sons of Clotaire, the entire +population, without distinction of race, was called upon to do military +duty. It is even said that it was only the Gallo-Roman chiefs of the +armies who acquired military renown. Notwithstanding all this, there are +still historians of the present day who speak of "the catastrophe of 406 +breaking abruptly the bond which attached the barbarians to the Empire +of the West." Some of these latter are disposed to see in Clovis, after +his conversion, the founder of modern political society, a creator of a +nationality, a maker of civilization,--titles which are freely denied +him by others. His success was owing, it is said, not to his victories, +but to his conversion. He was baptized by the Bishop of Reims, Remi, on +Christmas Day, 496. "From that date, he had the alliance of the bishops +throughout all Gaul against the Visigoths and the Burgondes, and his +reign was assured." + +This conversion, it is said, had been earnestly desired by his wife +Clotilde, a niece of Gondebaud, King of the Burgondes, who had +stipulated with her royal spouse that her first-born should be +"consecrated to Christ by baptism." It also contributed greatly to his +final establishment in Paris, a capital which he had long coveted and +from which his predatory attacks had been constantly turned aside by the +efforts of a virgin, Sainte-Geneviève, whom the Parisians still honor as +their patron saint. The central position of this city, between the Rhine +and the Loire, enabled him to keep a watchful eye upon Brittany, +Aquitaine, the Burgondes, and the Frankish tribes of Belgium. + +At his death, his kingdom was divided among his four sons, Paris, with +Poitiers, Périgueux, Saintes, and Bordeaux, falling to the lot of +Childebert. From the confused records of these barbaric times the names +of two women issue, and have remained permanently engraven upon the +tablets of history,--one of them as that of a personification of +Christian and feminine virtues rare at any age and doubly so in these +dark ages, and the other that of a monstrous queen whose crimes have +made her immortal. Radegonde was a daughter of Bertaire, King of +Thuringe, killed by his brother Hermanfried at the instigation of the +wife of the latter; the murderer invited Thierry, King of Metz, and +Clotaire, King of Soissons, sons of Clovis, to invade the kingdom, and +in the partition of the booty, Radegonde fell to the share of Clotaire. +Charmed by her original beauty, the king had her educated with unusual +care, and, later, married her, but the queen sought only to forget her +earthly dignities in ministering to the poor, in pious meditation, and +in long conversations upon the Scriptures with some learned prelate. +"She is a nun," said Clotaire, "and not a queen;" and he ended by +killing her last surviving brother. Whereupon she fled to Noyon and +implored Saint Médard at the altar to give her the protection of the +Church; Clotaire threatened and protested, but finally permitted her to +found a church and a convent at Poitiers, in which she immured herself +till her death, in 587,--thirty-seven years. "During this long seclusion +she constantly mingled with good works and with the austerity of +religious exercises the culture of letters; constantly also did she +guard her cherished traditions of the domestic hearth, and we find her +living again in the awkward verses of the greatest poet of that time, +Fortunatus, who had himself ordained priest that he might never be +constrained to leave her." + +At the death of Clotaire, the monarchy was again divided into four +kingdoms, those of Paris, Soissons, Metz, and Burgundy,--soon reduced to +three by the death of Charibert, King of Paris. The Burgondes were under +the sway of Gontran, the Austrasien and Eastern Franks under Sigebert, +and the mingled population of Franks and Gallo-Romans which were called +Neustriens, or the Westerners, under Chilpéric. Aquitaine was divided +between the three, and Paris was already of so much importance that none +of them was willing to yield her to the others, and it was agreed that +no one should enter the city without the consent of the other two. The +royal authority was weaker in Austrasie, now Belgium and Lorraine, the +petty chiefs stronger, and the manners and customs more Germanic and +barbaric; in Neustrie, now Ile-de-France, Normandy, etc., there were +more ancient cities, mere remnants of the Roman civilization and +vestiges of imperial administration. To the political rivalry to which +this disparity gave rise was added the personal animosity of the two +queens, Frédégonde and Brunehaut. + +While Sigebert was fighting the Avars, barbarians from Asia, on the +eastern frontier, his two brothers amused themselves by pillaging his +western provinces. Chilpéric had taken, for a most unwilling bride, a +younger sister of Brunehaut, Galswinthe, daughter of a king of the +Visigoths, notwithstanding the fierce jealousy of his mistress, or his +first wife, Frédégonde; her empire was, however, soon regained, and +Galswinthe was strangled in her sleep. Brunehaut incited her husband, +Sigebert, to a war of vengeance; Paris was taken, and Chilpéric only +saved from ruin by his wife, who despatched two assassins against the +King of the Neustriens. The rights of inheritance of her son, Clotaire, +were impaired by the existence of two sons of Chilpéric by a former +marriage. One of them, Mérovée, imprudently married the widowed +Brunehaut, and his step-mother sent him to rejoin Sigebert. The Bishop +of Rouen, Prétextat, who had already narrowly escaped with his life, in +Paris, from the terrible queen, had blessed this marriage; he was killed +on the steps of the altar while celebrating mass. Clovis, the brother of +Mérovée, followed; then one of his sisters, and Audovère, the mother. +The king left Paris for Chelles one afternoon, for the chase; he had +previously entered his wife's apartment while she was occupied with her +toilette and struck her playfully on the shoulder with a light +wand,--the queen mistook him for another, and answered, without turning +round: "_Tout beau!_ Landry," and other words of great familiarity. Then +she perceived her error, and the king went out without a word; as he +dismounted, on his return, some one slipped a knife into his heart, "and +no one thought it worth while to run after the murderer." + +Charibert, the short-lived king of Paris, had in his royal palace a serf +named Leudaste, who, when a fellow-servant, Markowefe, attracted the +monarch's favor and was made queen, contrived to ingratiate himself with +her to such an extent that he was made grand equerry and, later, Comte +de Tours. In his administration he proved himself capable of every +outrage; but the death of Charibert compelled him to seek refuge with +Chilpéric, and he endeavored to win Frédégonde's favor as he had +Markowefe's. When Tours fell into the hands of Chilpéric, in 574, +Leudaste was re-established in his office and resumed his old practices; +two years later, upon a petition addressed to the king by the bishop, +Saint Grégoire de Tours, he was dismissed. Thereupon he hatched a plot +against the bishop and against the queen who had not interposed to save +him; he declared to the king that the former had conspired to deliver +Tours to the King of Austrasie, and that the queen had done him an even +greater wrong, and he offered to produce witnesses. But his case fell to +the ground; the king, threatened with excommunication by the clergy for +bringing false charges against the revered prelate, threw all the +responsibility upon Leudaste, and that individual, diligently sought +for, had prudently disappeared. + +He was accordingly solemnly excommunicated and declared anathema "from +the crown of his head to the sole of his feet." After some two years +passed in pillage and debauchery at the head of an organized band of +brigands in the domains of Gontran, he obtained permission to return to +Tours, and had the audacity to come and seek his pardon at the court of +Neustrie. Chilpéric tolerated his presence, but advised him to avoid the +queen. As the sovereigns were one day attending mass in the basilica of +Paris, Leudaste entered boldly, traversed the crowd, and knelt at the +feet of Frédégonde, imploring her forgiveness. The king had him expelled +from the church, but, instead of taking warning, he lingered in the +shops around the market-place in the Cité, selecting jewels and rich +stuffs with which to propitiate the queen; when she issued from the +church and saw him, she despatched her guards to arrest him; one of them +was wounded, and another gave him a sword-cut over the head; as he fled +across the Petit-Pont, he fell and broke his leg. The manner and quality +of a torture that should be appropriate for him were carefully discussed +by the royal pair; he was tended by eminent physicians that he might be +duly strengthened for it; but when Frédégonde learned that gangrene had +appeared in his wounds, she had him dragged from his bed, stretched on +the pavement with his neck on a great iron bar, and his head crushed by +another heavy bar in the hands of the executioner. + +After the murder of Chilpéric, the people began to murmur, and the +gentle King Gontran, according to Saint Grégoire of Tours, "in order to +put an end to the evil custom of killing kings, went one day to a church +where all the people were assembled for the mass, commanded silence +through a deacon, and said: 'I conjure you, men and women who are here +present, keep for me an assured fidelity, and do not kill me as you have +lately killed my brothers. Allow me to live at least two or three years, +that I may educate my young nephews, for fear that, after my death, it +should happen that you should perish with these children, since there +will remain of all my family no man strong enough to defend you.'" + +Nevertheless, he had the courage to raise doubts as to the legitimacy of +Frédégonde's son, Clotaire, and to postpone his baptism till she +produced three bishops and three hundred other witnesses in his favor. +Brunehaut's son, Childebert, was threatening the queen with an armed +force; he and Gontran agreed to be each the other's heir in case they +died without children, and on Gontran's death Childebert endeavored to +take possession of Clotaire's domains also. Frédégonde had him poisoned: +the dreary series of civil war and family murders began again; Clotaire +II became in the end sole king of the Franks, and his mother died in her +bed, "full of years." Her rival, Brunehaut, less fortunate, betrayed by +her own followers, was, by Clotaire's orders, tied naked to the tail of +a wild horse and dragged to death. + +Such were the manners and customs of the Mérovingians. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE. After the mural painting, in +the Panthéon, by J.-P. Laurens.] + +There are various accounts of the two patron saints of France and Paris. +It is to Grégoire de Tours that we owe our first knowledge of Saint +Denis, who, according to his statement, came to preach Christianity in +Lutetia in the year 245, with the friar Rustique and the deacon +Eleuthère. Dionysius, bishop of the Parisians, he says, full of zeal for +the name of Christ, suffered many persecutions, and finally martyrdom. +Other historians assign to Saint Martin, rather than to Saint Denis, the +glory of having converted the Gauls to Christianity; some place his +mission even before the year 100, and the Abbé Hilduin confounds him +with Saint Denis the Areopagite. But, according to Grégoire, Denis, +Rustique, and Eleuthère were beheaded in the year 272, by order of the +préfet Percennius, on a mountain situated near Paris, which accordingly +took the name of the Mont des Martyrs (Montmartre). The préfet had given +orders to have the bodies thrown into the Seine, but a Roman lady, named +Catulla, although not a Christian herself, caused them to be sought for +in the night and piously buried in a locality known as Catolocus. Grain +was sown over the graves, and when the fury of persecution was passed, +they were disinterred and deposited in a tomb. + +According to the popular legend (to which the municipal and national +authority has given a sort of official sanction by M. Bonnat's very +vigorous and realistic presentation on the walls of the Panthéon), after +having had his head struck off, the saint arose on his feet, picked it +up and walked away, carrying the severed organ in his hands, to the +great surprise of the spectators. In this manner he traversed the space +of a league, till he came to the spot where his church now stands, the +angels meanwhile chanting around him _Gloria tibi Domine_, and others +repeating three times the _Alleluia_. It was this unusual promenade that +gave rise to the well-known proverb that it is only the first step that +costs. + +In 286 the weight of the Roman yoke and the persecutions of the +Christians had become so cruel that there was a rebellion, headed by +Salvianus Amandus and Lucius Pomponius Ælianus, who put themselves at +the head of the slaves and the _colons_ of Paris and Meaux, were +elevated on bucklers, and proclaimed emperors near the site of the +present Hôtel de la Ville. To them were speedily joined the _bagaudes_ +(insurgents) of the surrounding country, and it required a very serious +effort on the part of the Roman troops, under the command of Maximien +Hercule, associated with Diocletian in the government of the empire, to +restore order. + +Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of the Parisians, also perpetuated +with her legend on the walls of the Panthéon, originally her church but +now dedicated to the _Grands Hommes_ of the nation, was born at +Nanterre, near Paris, in 422, and guarded in the fields the flocks of +her parents, Sévère and Gérontia. She is said to have known Saint +Germain d'Auxerre, and to have promised him to devote herself to the +service of God; her reputation for sanctity, confirmed by several +miracles accomplished, was such that when the city was thrown into a +panic by the approach of Attila and his terrible Huns (begotten, it was +asserted, in the deserts of Scythia by the union of sorceresses and +infernal spirits) her voice was listened to as that of one qualified +from on high. Nevertheless, there were certain obstinate ones who +doubted her assurances of safety; there was even question of stoning her +for false counsel; but she, mounting a little eminence, assured her +fellow-citizens that, though Attila was indeed advancing, he would not +attack their city; this she stated in the name of God. That was +convincing, and, indeed, the dreaded conqueror turned his march toward +Orléans, and was preparing to pillage it when he was vanquished by +Aëtius and Théodoric. + +A second time she came to the rescue of the capital when it was suddenly +attacked, in 476, by Childéric at the head of his Franks. His first +efforts were directed toward cutting off all supplies by the river, and +in this he was so successful that the Parisians speedily found +themselves reduced to a diet of fish and roots, with no bread at all. +Geneviève was touched by their sufferings, she embarked on a little +flotilla of fishermen's boats, and succeeded in escaping through the +enemy's lines in the most marvellous manner. Her return was anxiously +awaited; for nine days there was no news of her, and the famine grew +more cruel; finally, the lookouts on the towers perceived something in +the distance on the bosom of the river; it approached; it was she, with +eleven vessels filled with provisions of all kinds, of which she herself +superintended the distribution. Each one of the nine days had been +marked by some miracle, in the pursuance of her object. Monsieur Puvis +de Chavannes has recently devoted a large mural painting to this pious +legend. Nevertheless, Childéric took the city, in which he dwelt but +very little. + +Pagan though he was, he partook of the general veneration for the +saintly virgin, and could refuse nothing to her earnest entreaties. It +was during his reign that she conceived the idea of building a church to +Saint Denis on the site of his tomb; by her prayers and entreaties she +succeeded in inducing the clergy and the people of Paris to raise the +necessary funds, and she commissioned a priest by the name of Genès to +construct the edifice. Clovis, son and successor of Childéric, had no +less consideration for her, but the basilica which he erected, in +connection with his wife Clotilde, and in consequence of his vow made +during the war with the Visigoths, was originally dedicated to Saint +Peter and Saint Paul, and did not take the name of Sainte-Geneviève +until later. It was completed after his death by Clotilde, who caused to +be interred in it the bodies of her spouse and the saint. + +The famous _châsse_ (shrine or casket) of Sainte-Geneviève, preserved in +the abbey bearing her name which was completed in the reign of +Philippe-Auguste, and enriched by successive gifts of various +sovereigns, was constantly appealed to during many centuries, taken +down, solemnly carried in procession through the streets escorted by +barefooted clergy, whenever any of the innumerable evils from the hand +of God or man afflicted her good city of Paris. + +[Illustration: A MEROVINGIAN QUEEN. From water-color by F. Bac.] + + + + +THE COURT AND THE UPPER CLASSES + +FROM THE OPENING OF THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY + + +[Illustration] + +Any one traversing the handsome, formal garden which now occupies the +site of the ancient palace of the Tuileries, official residence of the +rulers of France after the red days of the Revolution, may perceive in +the midmost of the central alley, directly in the axis of the long vista +between Napoleon's two arches of triumph, that of the Carrousel and that +of the Place de l'Étoile, an important marble group by the sculptor +Mercié, set up on a high pedestal. This monument represents a vanquished +and wounded French infantry soldier, with bandaged feet, sinking and +clutching for support at the skirts of a robust peasant woman wearing +the typical head-dress of Alsace-Lorraine, who snatches the real +Chassepot, whitened to imitate marble (furnished by the courtesy of the +Minister of War), from his failing grasp. The whiting is wearing away +from the real Chassepot, the grime of the Parisian weather is settling +into corners of eyes, under noses, etc.; the pathos and sentiment of the +work suffer accordingly, and it may be doubted whether any pathetic, or +would-be pathetic, work of sculpture is ever really effective, even if +wrought by a very clever contemporary French artist. But it is to be +noticed that on this national and historic site, in what might be called +the physical centre of the nation, the most prominent monument +commemorates, not the national glories and triumphs, but a humiliating +and overwhelming national disaster. Facing the square of the Carrousel, +between the arch and the Louvre, is the much vaster monument of Gambetta +in marble and bronze, with long extracts from his orations in the evil +days of '71 engraved on the tall shaft which rises behind him,--a most +ostentatious commemoration of defeat. Farther west, the great Place de +la Concorde is surrounded by handsome pavilions and balustrades, with +eight stately, seated female figures of heroic size typifying the +principal cities of France. To one of these the traveller's attention is +at once directed by the funerary contributions in which she is half +smothered,--draped flags, great wreaths and disks of immortelles and +black bead-work, similar to those seen on the tombs in the cemeteries, +with commemorative inscriptions: "From the Societies of the Inhabitants +of Alsace-Lorraine;" "14th July, 1898" (the day of the national _fête_, +commemorative of the fall of the Bastile); "_France! Souviens toi!_" on +a huge yellow circle like a life-preserver, and, on a circular disk at +the feet of the statue: + +[Illustration QUI VIVE! FRANCE! L. D. P. QUAND MÊME] + +This curiously-garnished statue is that representing the city of +Strasbourg, which is no longer a French city; and of all the others, +which illustrate nothing particularly mortifying or mournful in the +national history, no proclamation whatever is made. In the centre of the +handsome court-yard of the new and imposing Hôtel de Ville, the statue +selected as the central jewel of this _écrin_, as it were, is Mercié's +_Gloria Victis_, the vanquished here being, again, France. (It should be +stated, however, that if any work of contemporary sculpture is worthy of +honor and of proud municipal recognition, it is this admirable bronze.) + +Many of the great public places in the city of Paris, moreover, +commemorate, more or less openly, what might be called the great stains +on the history of the nation. The Place de la Concorde is that of the +Guillotine, and the Luxor obelisk is the monument of the more than +twenty-eight hundred victims beheaded by that axe. The Place de l'Hôtel +de Ville was formerly the Place de Grève, famous in all hangmen's +annals,--burnings alive, tearings asunder by horses, breakings on the +wheel, decapitations, hangings,--from Catherine de Médicis' Huguenot +chiefs and the unlucky Comte de Montgomery; Lally-Tollendal, Governor of +the Indies; Foulon, _contrôleur-général_ of the finances and his +son-in-law, hanged to the street lanterns by the mob, down to the famous +regicides and the obscure and ignoble multitude of criminals of all +ages. The Place de la Bastile commemorates the fortress-jail of that +name,--one of the worst of all jails and one to be discreetly forgotten; +the column of July, in the centre of this place, was erected in memory +of the victims of the Revolution of 1830. The statue of Henri IV on the +Pont-Neuf marks the spot where the Grand Master of the Templars and one +of his officers were burned at the stake; on the _carrefour_ of the +Observatory, that of Marshal Ney, the locality where that brave soldier +was shot by order of the Chamber of Peers; from the little bell-tower at +the side of the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, back of the Louvre, +the signal was sounded for the Saint Bartholomew. The Châtelet and the +Conciergerie were famous prisons; the ruins of the palace on the Quai +d'Orsay have been but just removed, to make room for the new depot of +the Orléans railway, after having stood since 1871 a most eloquent +monument of the excesses of the Commune. It was even proposed to leave +the shattered walls of the Tuileries as a permanent record of the +follies of an unbridled democracy! + +[Illustration: ARMED PARISIANS MEETING THE KING, 1383. + +From an illuminated manuscript in the National Library, Paris.] + +This expansiveness, this frank parading of unseemly things, is +supplemented by other public demonstrations of the passion of the hour. +For some years after the fall of the Commune the national emotions found +solace in stencilling in big letters on every possible wall or _fronton_ +or pediment, public or private,--_Liberté._ _Egalité._ _Fraternité._ The +harassed citizen of the new republic looked up, or down, or sideways, at +this official assurance of the sentiments breathed by all, high or low, +and found comfort. Only, the wits of the agitated capital--who perceive +some, but by no means all, of the opportunities which their +fellow-citizens afford them--took occasion to read this text with the +punctuation-mark--(.) _point_--after each noble word. _Point_ is also +the strongest of negations, so that the official declaration of faith +was reduced to nullity,--"Liberty, none; Equality, none: Fraternity, not +the slightest!" + +All this seems to constitute a curious national trait, and in +literature, in the daily journals, the observing traveller is again +impressed with this unbosoming, which the Parisian himself would +probably brand as _naïveté_ if he could perceive it. It flourishes +perfectly side by side with his vanity; in fact, it probably has its +origin in his vanity. "The Causes of Our Defeat in 1870," under various +titles, have furnished and are still furnishing matter for interminable +publication. In municipal affairs, the unshakable conviction that Paris +is, simply, the only capital in the world does not in the least +interfere with frank admissions concerning its limitations, which the +least public-spirited villager in other climes would neither believe nor +admit. Here, the journalist, the romancer, the historian, find in the +most simple human demonstration, if it take place in the capital, +something peculiarly and most admirably _Parisien_. Balzac, _e.g._, in +the _Double Famille_, if we remember aright, brings two of his +characters together late at night in a dusky street; the younger man +thinks he recognizes the elder, but is not certain; he therefore +approaches him doubtfully "as a Parisian does when he is undecided." +This endless and childish delight in everything appertaining to his +town, and the accompanying frank indifference to everything, pretty +much, outside of it, is, in fact, so well known abroad that it has even +brought down upon the Parisian's unconscious head the epithet that he +would consider the uttermost of insults--"provincial!" He provincial! he +who has invented those two withering words, "the provinces" and +"bourgeois." + +Nevertheless, this capital of all possible civilizations does not +hesitate to admit that it must by all means do all in its power to +attract the wealthy tourist of other nations, on whom its prosperity is +so largely dependent, especially since it has no longer the attractions +of a royal or imperial court to offer. No presentation of the city of +Paris at the present day would be complete without documents giving the +opinions of its own cultured and intelligent classes on its general +characteristics and its most urgent needs. With regard to this question +of dependence upon strangers, endless quotations might be cited, and two +or three may well be printed here as more valuable contributions to this +contemporary history than any speculations by mere foreigners. The +_Revue Encyclopédique_, published weekly by the great house of Larousse, +has a column which it devotes to _ideas of general interest_, +underscored, and in this column appeared, in the issue of January 23, +1897, the following communication: "For some time past the Avenue de +L'Opéra, at Paris, has been lighted by electricity by means of +incandescent lamps placed along the central axis of this great +thoroughfare. This very handsome illumination serves only to accentuate +more strongly the monotonous melancholy of the double row of commercial +establishments the fronts of which are invariably closed at eight +o'clock in the evening.... And sorrowful reflections are awakened of the +brilliant evenings of thirty years ago, the movement of foreigners along +the boulevards, the crowd of promenaders constantly changing before the +dazzling show-windows of the end of the Second Empire. Why is not some +effort made to revive this brilliant past by creating attractions +capable of arousing the curiosity of the Parisians and, above all, of +the foreigners? Could not some arrangement be made among all the +shop-keepers of the grand boulevards and of the principal adjacent +streets (Rue de la Paix, Rue Royale, Avenue de l'Opéra, etc.), that one +evening a week be devoted to the exceptional adornment of their +establishments?" And the writer goes on to suggest, with Parisian +ingenuity, that a jury of artists might even be constituted to decide +which display was the most brilliant and the most worthy, and to award +suitable recompense. "By this means it is probable that the street and +the boulevard would resume their former animation, to the great profit +of the trade in articles of luxury, so profoundly affected by the +desertion of the foreigners." + +In the year of grace, 1898, the Parisian world was greatly agitated by +the fact that the Grand Prix de Paris was run at Longchamps on the 5th +of June, and that, consequently, the Parisian season was brought to an +ending most unreasonably early. These complaints were so insistent that +they found voice in the Municipal Council and were brought before the +Prefect of the Seine. It was contended that the treaty between the city +and the _Société d'encouragement_ of improvement of the equine breed, +its lessee at Longchamps, had been violated, inasmuch as the great event +had taken place before the middle of June. But the _Société +d'encouragement_ proved conclusively, by the terms of its lease from the +city, that the date and the regulations of the race were left to its own +judgment, and that, in point of fact, it had always taken place before +the 15th of June. "But that which it is above all important to observe +is, that the date of the Grand Prix is determined, not according to the +whim of the _Société d'encouragement_, but indeed by that of the English +Derby, which regulates also that of the French Derby. It is necessary, +in fact, that the same horses should take part in the three trials. The +English, having set the date of their Derby this year on the 26th of +May, the French Derby, which precedes it, had to be run on the 22d of +May, and the Grand Prix de Paris, which occurs regularly ten days after +the English Derby, could only be run on Sunday, the 5th of June. It is +impossible, moreover, in any way to postpone this date, for the reason +that the horses cannot be maintained in racing condition for any longer +period of time." + +Notwithstanding this conclusive reasoning, _Le Temps_, one of the most +eminent and dignified journals of the capital, devoted a long article in +its largest type, two days afterward, to the duty of the _Conseil +municipal_ in the matter. "This date is not, in fact, a matter of +indifference to the interests of the city. It is, or it is considered to +be, the moment selected for a general exodus of foreigners and even of +Parisians in comfortable circumstances toward the seaside and other +rural resorts. The shop-keepers therefore consider that they have cause +for complaint if this moment arrive too early. The municipal councillors +who have constituted themselves the spokesmen of their griefs have +demanded and obtained a vote on a resolution having for its object the +designation of the third Sunday in June, at the earliest, as the date of +this equine solemnity. + +[Illustration: TWO DAYS BEFORE SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S. + +Facsimile of a German copperplate engraving of the period. + +LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE LEGEND. + + _Here is to be seen what is set forth_ + _To lose their lives, young and old,_ + _At a wedding in Paris._ + _So that to judgment shall be sure,_ + _There were killed the Admiral_ + _With his nobles altogether._ + + _So, together with the servants, it is thought_ + _That three thousand were destroyed._ + _The King of Navarre, also Conde,_ + _Is taken likewise of nobles more._ + _The Huguenots, man, woman, child,_ + _Were rapidly disposed of._ + + _Of whom the total number was found to be five thousand._ + + _On the 22d day of August, in the year 1572._ +] + +"Whether this date may or may not be adopted, it seems to us that the +interest which it awakens is entitled to unqualified commendation. The +Municipal Council in no way goes outside of its proper sphere; on the +contrary, it is well within it, when it concerns itself with the general +interests of the city of Paris, when it seeks for means of retaining in +it and attracting to it the largest possible number of foreigners and of +very wealthy individuals whose presence and whose habits have for result +the circulation of a great deal of money and the constant vivifying of +the Parisian industries, which are, for the greater part, the +industries of luxury. The Municipal Council understands perfectly that +this question of the sojourn of strangers amongst us is in the highest +degree an economical question which concerns the labor and the wages of +the Parisian workmen, as it does also the general prosperity of the +finances of the city. Therefore, far from criticising it for +deliberating upon this question and others of a similar nature, we +should rather regret that it has not turned its attention upon them with +more constancy and consecutiveness. + +"It is not, in fact, a simple matter of detail like that which has +occupied the Municipal Council, which can ameliorate or even guarantee +the situation of Paris in so far as it is a rendezvous or a residence +for foreigners. These will not continue to come here and to remain here +unless their sojourn is made agreeable and peaceful for them. This is +something which should be considered, and it is a question which is +closely connected with the general functions of our ædiles. It is not to +be imagined that with a few indirect measures this foreign colony, so +essentially susceptible and flitting by nature, can be constrained to +remain among us and expend its money against its own will. These are not +birds that can be put in a cage, and, above all, retained there. Even +those whose passion for the races is well developed will easily find a +method of being present at the Grand Prix without domiciling themselves +among us. They will only pass through; we shall see them no more. The +essential point is, therefore, to watch with the utmost care, every day, +that Paris shall never lose in their eyes its prestige and its +attractions. From this will ensue, if we wish to deduce from it, +practical regulations for the administration of the great city." + +And the editor goes on to regret that the municipal authorities, so far +from occupying themselves exclusively with these details of public +hygiene, street lighting, facility of transport, etc., should so +frequently expend themselves upon "violent discussions of _politique +pure_." "Is it not true that in what concerns the general progress of +urban life, whether it be the question of transportation, or that of +gas, or that of electricity, we are behind, and very greatly behind, +the condition which has been attained in London, in New York, in Berlin, +and even in Geneva and in some of our cities of the provinces?" These +reflections appeared to be especially opportune on the evening of the +election which was to replace in the Municipal Council those members who +were about to leave it for the Chamber of Deputies. "The electors who +are interested in the aspect under which the city will present itself to +foreigners in 1900, at the moment of the Exposition Universelle, will +not allow to escape this opportunity of manifesting their sentiments +upon this subject.... All those who labor to augment its prosperity +accomplish much more--be it known--for the amelioration of the condition +of the work-people than the dreamers of national confiscations and of +obligatory collectivism, and their efforts, if they are in the majority, +will be otherwise efficacious in retaining the foreigners than by the +moving forward some fifteen days of the date of the Grand Prix. Although +it is not to be despised, a season of fifteen days' duration is, taking +it altogether, but a slight gain. The foreigners flock hither the whole +year round, and it is the whole year round that it is necessary to make +them find it safe and agreeable to visit here, visits to which they are +inclined and from which the entire city derives such great benefits." + +[Illustration: CHATELAINE; END OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. + +From a drawing by Adrien Moreau.] + +This exposition may be considered as an authentic, contemporary +document, and, as has been premised, these opinions are coeval and +coterminous with an admirable civic self-satisfaction. It is perhaps +scarcely necessary to stipulate that in these general observations it is +the frame of mind and the mode of speech of what are known everywhere as +the upper classes, the more intelligent and refined, which are taken +into account,--the Parisian workman, day-laborer, and semi-criminal, +though they figure very largely in the results of the general elections +(worse luck!), do not necessarily appear in the discussion of these +questions of high importance. It may be remembered that, at the period +of this much-discussed Grand Prix, there was much contradictory +testimony as to the existence of a general feeling of hostility toward +America and the Americans among the French because of the Spanish war. +Many depositions were made on both sides, but there was a general +consensus of opinion among the heads of the larger Parisian commercial +and manufacturing establishments as to that of their work-people. "Their +political views and manner of looking at things have no other horizon +than that of the newspaper they are in the habit of reading," said one +chief of an important house, "they take no notice of the effect which +such crises may have upon their work." "We believe them to be absolutely +indifferent," said another; "I can assure you that the workmen take not +the slightest interest in this question, and they probably would not +understand it if it were put to them," testified a third. "As to the +working-class," said a merchant in the Rue de Rivoli, "they occupy +themselves with their own affairs, and nothing beyond. Apart from the +social question, all they want is to earn as much money as possible, and +do the least work possible for it." One of these sons of toil +corroborated these statements very frankly. "I can assure you," said he, +"that neither my comrades nor myself side with one or the other. I +assure you that it matters nothing to us. We have something better to do +than to gossip about the war." + +Much the same conditions have obtained in the formation and development +of this superior intellectual and aristocratic Parisian society as in +that of other civilized nations. We are all more or less familiar with +the general demonstrations by which the historians demonstrate the +development of the wealthy classes, by the aid and support of which +alone the letters and the arts arise and flourish. In the earliest +stages of society, the struggle for life absorbs all possible energy; a +little comfort and security, and consequent leisure, bring in the arts. +The half-starved hunting-dog follows the game steadily, stealthily, +without a superfluous sign or motion; _after_ the chase, and the +subsequent feast and the subsequent luxurious slumber, he awakes to +indulge in unpractical gambols and barkings around his master,--it is +the dance; Art is invented! The three superior social classes, the king, +the clergy, and the nobles, which were definitely established in France +at the outbreak of the Revolution, were the legitimate development of +the feudal system, and had, apparently, legitimately conquered their +position. They had been the protectors of the people even before the +Carlovingian epoch, and when the people finally arose and overturned +them, it was only because they had completely forgotten their high +mission through a long course of years. + +To Stendhal's observation, that, in the tenth century, a man considered +himself lucky if he were not killed, and had a good leathern jacket for +winter, Taine adds, and a woman, if she were not violated by a whole +band of ruffians. In those truly Dark Ages the peasant accepted quite +willingly the hardest feudal obligations as a harbor of refuge from the +ills that menaced him on every side. The sixth and seventh centuries of +our era are considered to have been among the worst that the world has +seen; it was declared that it was not with water, but with His tears, +that God moistened the earth out of which He made man. After the fall of +the Romans, it was the Church alone that saved human society from "a +Mongol anarchy;" in the last years of the Empire, the cities, illy +defended by their natural protectors, gave to their bishops, with the +title of _defensor civitatis_, the principal municipal authority. The +Church alone retained any influence over the conquering barbarian; +before the shaven monk or the mitred abbot, the wolfish and ignorant +chief, long-haired, filthy, and half-clad in furs, hesitated, listened +to his words in the council, stooped before his altars,--"like Saint +Lupicin before the Burgonde king Chilpéric, Saint Karileff before the +king Childebert." In his moments of repose, after the chase, or the +battle, or the feast, the menaces of the prelate began to stir in his +guilty soul,--aided, perhaps, by the reproaches or the advice of his +wife or his concubine; he hesitated to violate the sanctuary lest he +should fall dead with a broken neck on the threshold; if he had been +carried away by his passions, and committed murder or robbery, he +repented and made reparation, sometimes a hundred-fold. The cloister +offered a refuge to those who fled aghast from the world and sought +meditation and solitude; the abbey was not only an asylum, but a haunt +of learning and practical industry, a seat of instruction for the +farmer, the workman, the student. "Thus the most evil centuries of the +Middle Ages," says Duruy, "were acquainted with virtues of which the +finest ages of paganism were ignorant; and thus, thanks to a few souls +of the elect, animated by the pure spirit of Christianity, humanity was +arrested on the edge of the abyss in which it seemed about to +precipitate itself." + +Nevertheless, this historian admits that Christianity, which had not +modified the manners of Roman society, was itself an element in the +dissolution of the Empire, and that the Church itself acquired some of +the rudeness of the barbarians with which it came into such intimate +contact. "Germans and Franks aspired to the honor of the episcopate, and +carried into the basilicas customs and manners which were strange there. +The great intellectual movement which had formerly animated religious +society slackened, then ceased; the shadows descended upon the Church +itself." + +[Illustration: CAROCHE, COVERED WITH LEATHER, STUDDED WITH GOLD-HEADED +NAILS, PERCHERONS; PERIOD, END OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. + +From a drawing by Adrien Moreau.] + +After Charlemagne's short-lived empire, the universal dissolution set in +again. Against the bands of brigands, four or five hundred strong each, +that traversed the country, any defender was welcome, and a second +upholder of society arose,--the stout warrior, skilled in arms, who +gathered retainers around him, secured a hold or a castle, and offered +protection in return for service rendered. His title or his lineage +mattered but little in the tenth century, his defence was much too +welcome for any carping about his arms or his ancestry,--he was an +ancestor himself. The original source of many noble houses is more than +doubtful,--Tertulle, the founder of the Plantagenets; Rollo, Duke of +Normandy; the ancestors of Robert le Fort; the Capétiens were said to +have been descended from a butcher of Paris. "'In these times,'" says +Taine, quoting the Spanish chronicle, "'the kings, counts, nobles, and +all the knights, in order to be ready at any moment, kept their horses +in the hall in which they slept with their wives.' The viscount in the +tower which defends the entrance to the valley, or the passage of the +ford, the marquis thrown as a forlorn hope on the devastated frontier, +sleeps on his arms, like the American lieutenant in a blockhouse in the +far West, among the Sioux. His house is only a camp and a refuge; some +straw and a pile of leaves are thrown on the pavement of the great hall; +it is there that he sleeps with his horsemen, unbuckling a spur when he +has a chance for repose; the loopholes scarcely allow the day-light to +enter,--it is important, above all, that the arrows do not. All +inclinations, all sentiments, are subordinated to the service; there are +posts on the European frontier where the boy of fourteen is called upon +to march, and where the widow, up to sixty years of age, is compelled to +marry again. Men in the ranks, to fill up the vacancies, men at the +posts, to mount guard,--this is the cry that issues at this moment from +all human institutions, like the call of a voice of bronze." Thanks to +these stout defenders, some form of society is again made possible. + +A later historian, M. Flach, in his _Origines de l'ancienne France_, +finds the germ from which sprang the whole feudal system in this +_patronage_, the system of defence of the serf and vassal by the landed +proprietor. In the great disorganization of the Roman Empire, a portion +of the public authority passed into the hands of individuals; when the +Frankish kings invaded Gaul, they found there a system of patronage +similar to their own. These great proprietors were maintained under the +first Merovingian kings, who kept them in due subjection; but as this +regulation gradually weakened under the growing power of the land-owner, +the private individual found himself ground between these two +millstones. A private patron then became his only defence, and thus was +hastened the strictly feudal system. With regard to the royal function, +which crowned this feudal system, the historian cites two quotations in +support of his thesis: "Under Louis d'Outre-mer, the legate of the Pope, +Marin, defined the royal authority,--he called it patronage +[_patrocinium_]. Forty years later the decisive argument of the +Archbishop of Reims, Adalbéron, in sustaining the claims of Hugues Capet +to the throne, was: 'You will have in him a father. No one, up to the +present time, has invoked in vain his patronage [_patrocinium_].'" + +Quite apart from these valid, historical reasons, the British "love of a +lord" is by no means confined to Great Britain. The Parisians, also, +have a certain fondness for titles and distinctions of all sorts. For +the English aristocracy they profess a genuine admiration, as affording +the best example of the success of a certain _élite_ in affecting the +social conscience. They quote approvingly John Bright when he admits +that his folk--trades-people and commoners--are quite willing to have +their public affairs managed by a superior class, specially trained, +enjoying an independent and commanding social station. Their titles and +their pride of ancestry give them robes and plumes, and a troop follows +its officers more readily when they are gorgeously uniformed. Only, it +is required that this privilege shall not be abused; no favor to +mediocrities, no nepotism. Victor Hugo was more proud of his title of +_vicomte Hugo_ than of his greatest work, and Balzac's obstinacy in +clinging to his particle of _de_ has lately been shown to have been +completely unfounded. To Sainte-Beuve, who infuriated him by constantly +speaking of him as _M. Honoré Balzac_, he wrote: "My name is on my +register of birth, as M. Fitz-James's is on his." So it is, but without +any _de_. In 1836, at the period of the legal process to which one of +his works, _Le Lys dans la vallée_, gave rise, he wrote: "If my name is +that of an _old Gaulish family_, it is not my fault; but my name, De +Balzac, is my name patronymic, an advantage which is not enjoyed by many +aristocratic families who called themselves Odet before they called +themselves Châtillon, Riquet before Caraman, Duplessis before Richelieu, +and which are none the less great families.... If my name resounds well +in some ears, if it is envied by some who are not content with their +own, I cannot therefore renounce it.... My father ... found in the +_Trésor des Chartres_ the concession of land made in the fifth century +by the De Balzacs to establish a monastery in the environs of the little +town of Balzac (department of La Charente), a copy of which, he told me, +was, by their action, enregistered by the Parliament of Paris." It +appears that there are existing no Merovingian records of any kind +dating earlier than the seventh century; and a keeper of archives, M. +Ch. Portal, in the department of Tarn, in which the death of the great +novelist's father, "Bernard-François Balzac, born at Nougaïris," is +recorded, having looked the matter up, discovered that his ancestors +were simple country-people, laborers, who had never dreamed of a _de_ +before their name, which, in fact, was really Balssa or Balsa! + +The French have no word in their language which exactly translates +"snob," so they adopt with enthusiasm the English syllable +(mispronouncing it fearfully); and this curious weakness in so great a +writer and so keen a student of humanity would be even more remarkable +if it were not so very common among other civilized people. M. Jules +Lemaître, a couple of years ago, read before the five Academies of the +Institute a careful study of this particular social class; there were +said to be a crowd of amateur playwrights besieging the managers with +plays with this title, and the pretentious claimer of things that are +not his in the great world, "the great nephew of Mascarille in the +_Précieuses ridicules_," was honored with more analysis, comment, and +reconstruction than he was probably entitled to. + +[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV, RUE DE LA FERRONNERIE, MAY 14, +1610. From a drawing by L. Marold.] + +In addition to the three great classes that have ruled over France, and +which, with the commons or serfs, have been known to almost every +European nation, a third class, the _tiers état_, still in process of +formation elsewhere on the Continent, but which arose in Paris and other +great cities in the thirteenth century, is claimed by the historians of +this nation as peculiarly French. + +Previous to Pepin and Charlemagne, Paris was generally recognized as the +capital, though the wandering and barbaric Frankish kings much preferred +as places of residence their great country-houses or _villas_, when they +were neither hunting nor fighting. The court of Charlemagne, in the +later years of his reign, was held at Aix-la-Chapelle, his favorite +abode. In 775 he was present at the dedication of the new church of +Saint-Denis, and the Parisians are said to have made a _fête_ of the +occasion. Louis le Débonnaire, his son, more monk than king, also +neglected the city, excepting in the matter of founding churches and +increasing the privileges of the clergy. But under the last of the +Carlovingian emperors, Charles le Gros, the capital redeemed its right +to that title by its gallant defence against the Northmen, or Normans, +and its valiant count, Eudes, having brought the sluggish emperor to the +heights of Montmartre only to see him conclude an unworthy peace with +the invaders, founded himself the first national dynasty when his fat +suzerain was deposed in the following year. "One of the greatest figures +of the Carlovingian decadence," says M. Faure, in a recent monograph, +"he continued the monarchy of Charlemagne without changing anything in +the institutions, and he gave a precise form to a power that before him +was still undecided, that of duke of the Franks." + +The royal authority waxed and waned, the turbulent nobles exhausted +themselves in war, in struggles amongst themselves and against the king, +but the wealth and power of the Church steadily increased. Occasionally +only, when its interference was too flagrantly unjust, its authority was +defied. The first Capétiens, like the first Carlovingians, whether from +motives of self-interest or sincere faith, were its faithful allies. +Hugues Capet liked better to wear his cope as Abbot of Saint-Martin de +Tours than his crown, and he restored to the Church several abbeys which +he possessed. His son, Robert the Pious, was almost a saint, and the +princes of this dynasty, on the whole, merited the title which Rome gave +them, of "eldest sons of the Church." Their piety was not altogether +without reward: the bishops of the Ile-de-France and the abbots, chiefs +of the abbeys founded by royal grace, brought more than once not only +earthly weapons but a spiritual one, that of excommunication, to the +defence of the sovereign. + +Robert's first care, after his accession to the throne in 996, was to +rebuild the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois and the monastery of +Saint-Germain-des-Près, which had been destroyed by the Northmen. He +also erected in his palace a chapel dedicated to Saint Nicolas, which, +in 1154, entirely restored, became the Sainte-Chapelle. He washed the +feet of the poor, he fed, it is said, sometimes a thousand of them a +day; nothing was too sacred for them, neither the silver ornaments of +his lance nor the gold fringe of his robe. He was constant in his +attendance on the church services, he composed hymns, himself, which +were long retained. Nevertheless, having espoused his cousin Berthe, he +found himself excommunicated by the Pope, Gregory V. Among the earliest +works of the painter Jean-Paul Laurens, long in the Luxembourg, is a +graphic presentation of this unhappy couple, clinging to each other in +the poor, bare splendor of the very early mediæval throne-room, the +overturned great tapers of the excommunication service on the floor +before them, the smoke rising like anathema, and the last of the +implacable ministers of the Church departing through the open doorway. +Every one deserted them, as though plague-stricken; only two poor +domestics remained to serve them, and they purified by fire every vessel +from which the unhappy monarch had taken food or drink. But Berthe was +_enceinte_, and the king loved her, and so clung to her and would not +obey. One morning as he went to pray, according to his custom, at the +door of the church of Saint-Barthélemy, into which he was forbidden to +enter, Abbon, Abbé de Fleury, followed by two women of the palace, +carrying a great silver-gilt plate covered with a linen cloth, +approached him, and announced that Berthe had been delivered. Then he +uncovered the plate: + +"See!" he exclaimed, "the effects of your disobedience to the decrees of +the Church, and the seal of anathema on the fruit of your guilty love!" + +And Robert recoiled in horror before a little monster with the head and +neck of a duck! (_Canard_, it may be noted, in French, signifies both a +duck and a highly improbable story.) + +So the poor queen was repudiated, and Robert married Constance, daughter +of the Comte de Toulouse, who made his life a burden to him. He hid +himself from her to say his prayers, and feared her so much that he did +not hesitate to deny his charities and good deeds to her,--though he had +such a horror of falsehood, that he had made a casket of crystal, +mounted with gold, but in which he was careful not to put any holy +relic, so that those who took their oaths on it before him might not +perjure themselves. + +His son Henri I, who succeeded him, married a daughter of the Grand Duke +of Russia, in order that he might be certain of not taking a wife within +the degrees of consanguinity prohibited by the Church. This princess, +Anne, claimed to descend through her mother, daughter of the Emperor +Romanus II, from Philip of Macedon. + +The queen Constance brought with her from the Midi some of those +troubadours whose romantic airs and graceful verses were so appreciated +in the little courts of the south of France and, later, in the gloomy +castles of the nobles of the north. Great was the prevalence of ennui in +these fortresses, in which there was but little sunshine and a great +dearth of all other refining and civilizing influences. It was +impossible to be engaged in warfare or the chase all the time, and the +wandering pilgrim, with his tales from afar, or, still more, the +wandering minstrel, _trouvère_, as he was called in the north of France, +was a welcome relief to the deadly monotony of the days of peace. +"Seated at the hearth of the seigneur, he sang, during long evenings, +the tragic adventures of the Dame de Fayel and of the Sire de Coucy, or +the marvellous exploits of the Knights of the Round Table, of Renaud, +and of Roland, of Charlemagne and his Twelve Peers; unless, indeed, his +audience, in a livelier mood, demanded of him some sarcastic _fabliau_, +or the fine tricks played upon Master Isengrin by his shrewd gossip, +Master Renard." + +[Illustration: Louis XIV, FOR THE FIRST TIME, RECEIVING HIS MINISTERS. +From a drawing by L. Marold.] + +But these Aquitains in the train of Queen Constance, when they first +appeared in the court of the good Robert, were singularly offensive to +the Parisians by their elegance, their luxurious habits, and their +light manners. "As soon as Constance appeared at the court," says Raoul +Glaber, "you could have seen France inundated by a species of folk the +most vain and the most frivolous of all possible men. Their fashion of +living, their garments, their armor, the harness of their horses, were +all equally fantastic. Their hair descended scarcely as low as the +middle of the head [the northern French still retained the long flowing +locks in the German fashion]: true theatricals, in whom the shaved chin, +the small-clothes, the ridiculous boots, ending in a curved beak, and +the whole outward appearance badly arranged, betrayed the disorder of +their minds. Men without faith, without law, without shame, whose +contagious example will corrupt the French nation, formerly so decent, +and precipitate it into all kinds of debauchery and wickedness." + +Notwithstanding Robert's piety, his reign was signalized by a cruel +persecution of the Jews, in revenge for the destruction of the church of +the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem by the Fatimite caliph of Egypt, and by +the first execution of heretics in France. Throughout the whole of the +Middle Ages, the Jews, forbidden to hold any landed property, were +constantly persecuted, plundered, and outraged, banished only to be +called back again at the price of further exactions. The first thirteen +heretics were burned at Orléans in 1022; one of them had been the +confessor of Queen Constance, and as he passed her on his way to the +stake, she put out one of his eyes with a long rod she held in her hand. +Nevertheless, the historian Duruy considers that this certain mental +movement, these deviations of the human intelligence from the beaten +track, demonstrated that the period in which all thought seemed dead had +passed, and that the first Renaissance began in this (eleventh) +century. + +A more recent writer distinguishes this century also by "that revolution +in feudal France," the development of the commune. The great social fact +was the disappearance of the three classes, serfs, semi-freemen, and +free men (_libres_), which had existed since the ninth century, and +their unity under subjection to the seigneur. This domination of the +seigneur, at first justified by the protection afforded, lost its +authority when it began to consult only its self-interest, and, toward +the close of the century, stirred up revolts which led to the +establishment of all kinds of popular associations, guilds, +confraternities, charities, communities, etc. + +The only church erected in Paris during the thirty years' reign of Henri +I was that of Sainte-Marine, founded about 1036, and whose patron, +according to the story, was a young virgin named Marine, who conceived a +strong desire to be a monk. So she disguised herself as a man, and +became Brother Marin in a convent. One of her duties was to go to the +city for provisions, with an ox-cart, and on her journeys she frequently +passed the night in the house of the Seigneur de Pandoche, whose +daughter was found to be with child. To screen her lover, a soldier, she +laid the blame on Brother Marin, and he was accordingly driven from his +monastery. However, he took the child, which was sent him, nourished it, +and the monks, touched by his meekness, finally received him back in +their fold. Not till his death was his secret discovered, when he was +interred with great religious pomp and canonized under his true name. +Consequently, in the church of Sainte-Marine were celebrated all the +forced marriages of couples found living together without the sanction +of law, the public authorities compelling them to appear before the curé +of Sainte-Marine, who wedded them with a ring of straw, slipped on the +bride's finger. + +[Illustration: BATH-ROOM OF A LADY OF QUALITY, SOFA OF SILVER; +SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. + +After an engraving by Saint-Jean.] + +Henri's son, Philippe I, contrived, like his grandfather, to get himself +excommunicated because of his marriage, but for the space of ten years +he seems to have concerned himself but little about the wrath of the +Church. He had repudiated his wife, Berthe, and taken Bertrade, whom he +had carried off from her husband, Foulque, Comte d'Angers. Finally, +wearied of her, he presented himself as a penitent, barefooted, before +the council of 1104, Bertrade doing the same; they protested their +horror of their past conduct, their resolve to sin no more, and were +accordingly absolved. It was this monarch who, by his unseemly jest +concerning William the Conqueror, of whom he was both jealous and +afraid, nearly brought down upon the Parisians again another Norman. +"When is that fat man going to be delivered?" inquired Philippe, with +the delicate humor of the Middle Ages. To which the Conqueror replied +that he was coming to Paris for his "churching," with ten thousand +lances instead of tapers. And, as was his fashion, he started to keep +his word: his advance guard was burning villages up to the gates of +Paris, when, according to the story, his horse stepped on some hot +cinders at Mantes and in his sudden recoil so injured the monarch that +he died soon after at Rouen. + +The great national assemblies which Charlemagne had so often consulted, +and even those convocations of the great lords and bishops which had +been so frequent in the tenth century, fell into disuse under the +Capétiens, in consequence of the rise of the feudal power and the +decline of the royal authority. The king, by his constant donations to +his _leudes_ or great vassals, had, in course of time, very nearly +stripped himself of domains, and these _bénéfices_ were retained by the +lords and made hereditary in their own families. It was the same with +the public charges and the titles of dukes, counts, etc., which carried +with them an authority delegated by the prince, and which ended by +passing entirely out of his hands. Charlemagne had been able to check +the greed and ambition of the feudal lords, but his feebler successors +were unable to do so. Even the right of coining money was claimed by the +great seigneurs, and in this century there were no less than a hundred +and fifty in France who exercised this privilege. Most of them refused +to receive any coinage but their own, and the confusion and difficulty +in conducting trade may be imagined. The nobles, solicitous to increase +their power, founded new towns and took them under their protection, +granting certain privileges to the inhabitants, even that of holding +land, and under the cover of these privileges, as under those of the +communes, the _tiers état_, or third estate, was gradually formed. +Similar grants were made to some of the ancient cities, including Paris +and Orléans, which seemed to have received all their franchises from the +Middle Ages and from the kings, excepting, in Paris, the corporation of +the Nantes, already referred to, whose privileges were confirmed by +Louis VII. + +This monarch, father of Philippe-Auguste, fixed the number of peers of +France, the great seigneurs who held directly from the crown, at +twelve,--six laic and six ecclesiastical. The first were the dukes of +Burgundy, Normandy, and Guyenne, the counts of Champagne, Flanders, and +Toulouse, and, to counterbalance these puissant lords, six +ecclesiastics, all the more attached to the king that they were without +landed property and consequently without much temporal power, the +Archbishop of Reims and the bishops of Laon, Noyon, Châlons, Beauvais, +and Langres. The Court of Peers was, however, not regularly organized +before the beginning of the thirteenth century. Notwithstanding the +weakness of the royal authority, it still retained elements of strength +and superiority which time eventually developed. The king was nominal +head of the whole feudal society, he was the chief suzerain, and all the +great lords were his vassals and owed him homage. He was the supreme +justice of the nation, and the vassals all were bound to appear before +the "Court of the King." This court was not only a great council, but +also a court of justice; the great vassals had the right to demand a +trial by their equals, or peers, and in this case the court became the +Court of Peers. The fief, held from the suzerain, could not be +diminished or impaired in any way--just as the modern tenant has no +right to damage his landlord's property; at the death of the vassal, the +suzerain inherited, and in case he left infant children, the suzerain +was the guardian. + +Two incidents recorded by the chroniclers of the reign of that very +capable monarch, Louis VI, called le Gros, or the Fat, will serve to +illustrate the manners and customs of the times from two points of view. +A short time before the marriage of the king with Adélaïde de Savoie, he +had, in the exercise of his royal authority, demolished part of a house, +the property of the Canon Duranci, in the Rue des Marmousets, because it +projected too far out into the street and obstructed the circulation. +But the chapter of Notre-Dame protested in the name of its privileges +and of its immunities; the king admitted his error, and agreed to pay an +indemnity of a denier of gold; the chapter insisted that this should be +done on the day of his marriage, before he could be permitted to receive +the nuptial benediction, and the crowned culprit was obliged to consent +that a formal record of the affair should be placed on the registers of +the chapter. It was recognized that he had no right to demolish any +house, except for the purpose of erecting a church on the site: this, +although the narrowness and crookedness of the streets, as well as +their foul and miasmatic condition owing to the lack of all paving and +sewerage, were the constant sources of epidemics. + +On the 13th of October, 1131, the king was riding with his son on the +hillock of Saint-Gervais (to-day the site of the Mairie of the IVth +Arrondissement, on the Rue de Rivoli, a little beyond the Hôtel de +Ville), when a wandering pig ran between the legs of the young man's +horse, causing him to bolt and throw his rider, who was so badly injured +that he died in a few hours. This led to the promulgation of a royal +ordinance forbidding the proprietors of swine in the city to allow them +to run at large, under penalty of confiscation for the benefit of the +executioner of Paris. This regulation was several times renewed,--in +1261 under Saint Louis, in 1331 under Philippe VI, and in 1369 under +Charles V, and extended to the faubourgs of Paris and the surrounding +districts. The decree of 1331 gave the sergeants of the city authority +to kill all those which they found wandering at liberty, to keep the +head for themselves provided they transported the body to the +Hôtel-Dieu. The pigs of the abbey of Saint-Antoine alone were exempted +from this regulation, and, that they might be recognized, they bore a +bell marked with a cross. + +Louis le Gros, already occupied with measures to repress the growing +power of the great nobles, commenced the fortifications of Paris, which +were not completed until during the reign of his son, with a view of +guarding his capital against any sudden attack. It is recorded that he +adopted the habit of the great Caliph of the _Arabian Nights_, of +traversing the streets at night in disguise and mingling familiarly with +the people,--but with the design of drawing from them their complaints +against their feudal lords and their knowledge of their machinations. +They were not without their grievances against the king himself, and it +was not till the reign of his son that was abolished the right of the +royal officers, when the king came to Paris, to enter the houses of the +bourgeoisie and carry off for their own use the bedding and the downy +pillows they found therein. + +During the long reign of Philippe-Auguste, which even the modern +historians call "glorious," the power of the nobles was seriously +impaired. The _Cour du Roi_ retained the organization it had received, +but its importance increased with that of the royal authority, and the +most powerful vassal of the king of France saw himself dispossessed of +his fiefs by its decree. The feudal power was attacked in one of its +most cherished rights, that of private warfare, by a royal ordinance +compelling the observance of a truce of forty days after any injury, so +that no one might be assailed without warning. Any seigneur might be at +once vassal and suzerain, but when Philippe acquired the fief of the +Amiénois, for which he was to render homage to the Bishop of Amiens, he +refused, saying that the king of France should be the vassal of no man. +"To the feudal contract, between man and man, symbolized by the homage +and the investiture, the thirteenth century saw succeed the democratic +contract between a man and a group, between seigneurs and subjects, +carrying an engagement written and public. Then began the conquest of +liberty,--liberty of the person, of the family, and of the property; +liberty administrative and political; economic liberty.... Of the total +sum of partial contracts intervening between the king and the provinces, +cities and corporations, has been formed the great national contract +tacitly concluded between him and the people." (M. Imbart de la Tour.) + +Notwithstanding war, famine, and pestilence, Paris had outgrown the +fortifications of Louis le Gros, and, before he departed for the +Crusade, Philippe-Auguste ordered the bourgeois of the city to construct +a new wall, solidly built of stone, with towers and gates. This was +commenced in 1190; the faubourgs were surrounded with a wall of more +than two mètres in thickness, faced with masonry, flanked by five +hundred towers and pierced with fifteen gates. Its course can be traced +on any good map of modern Paris, and the size of the mediæval city thus +compared with that of the present one. On the right bank of the river it +began with a tower that was called "the tower which makes the corner," +and which stood near the northern end of the present Pont des +Saints-Pères. Thence it passed to the Porte-Saint-Honoré, near the +present Oratoire and the statue of Coligny on the Rue de Rivoli, which +was defended by two towers, struck northerly to the site of the present +square formed by the intersection of the Rues Jean-Jacques-Rousseau and +Coquillière, just north of the Bourse, where was a gate called Bahaigne. +Here it turned eastward, cut off the commencements of the Rues +Montmartre and Montorgueil, traversed also the Rue Française, and, +following the direction of the little Rue Mauconseil, arrived at the Rue +Saint-Denis, where was another gate called Porte-Saint-Denis, or Porte +aux Peintres. Continuing in this direction, it traversed the Boulevard +Sébastopol and the Rue Saint-Martin, enclosing the Rue aux Ours, +followed the Rues Grenier-Saint-Lazare and Michel-le-Comte, traversed +the Rue du Temple, and came to a tower erected nearly on the site of the +Mont-de-Piété of to-day, between the Rues des Francs-Bourgeois and des +Blancs-Manteaux, opposite to the Palais des Archives. Remains of this +tower were discovered in 1878, in demolishing some old houses to make +way for the enlargement of the Mont-de-Piété; it served to enclose a +circular staircase. The wall continued to follow the Rue +Francs-Bourgeois to another gate, the Porte Barbette, at the +intersection of the Rue Vieille-du-Temple with the Rue des Rosiers; +then, beginning to trend south, it followed nearly the Rue Malher to the +Place Birague, not far from where the Rue de Rivoli becomes the Rue +Saint-Antoine. Here was another gate, the Porte Baudet or Baudoyer. +Thence the line of fortification, crossing the locality of the present +church Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, descended to the river in the direction +of the Rue des Barres, and ended on the quai, at the Porte +Barbel-sur-l'Yeau. Vestiges of this tower were also found in 1878. + +On the south side of the river the wall was not commenced till 1208, +when that on the northern side was completely terminated. Instead of +making a close junction with that on the other shore, it took its start +somewhat to the eastward of the "corner tower," at the famous Tour de +Nesle, on the locality now occupied by the right wing of the +Bibliothèque Mazarine and the Hôtel des Monnaies. It crossed the Rue +Dauphine and halted on the Rue Saint-André-des-Arts at the Porte Buci; +crossed the Boulevard Saint-Germain, where was another gate, the Porte +des Cordeliers, afterward Porte Saint-Germain; descended the Rue +Monsieur-le-Prince to the Boulevard Saint-Michel, where was the Porte de +Fert or d'Enfer, which became the Porte Saint-Michel under Charles VI. +From this gateway the wall continued southeasterly to that of +Notre-Dame-des-Champs, between the Rue Soufflot and the Rue des +Fossés-Saint-Jacques, just south of it, enclosed the Place du Panthéon, +crossed the Rue Descartes at the Porte Bordet or Bordel, crossed the Rue +Clovis, and traversed the locality at present occupied by the buildings +of the École Polytechnique. Continuing in a northerly direction, it +reached the Porte Saint-Victor near the present junction of the Rue +Saint-Victor and the Rue des Écoles, and finally arrived at the Quai de +la Tournelle by following a direction parallel to that of the Rue des +Fossés-Saint-Bernard. + +It was to Philippe-Auguste also that the city of Paris was indebted for +its first paved streets. In 1185, five years before the wall of +fortification was begun, he was in one of the great halls of his palace +in the Cité, and approached a window whence he was in the habit of +watching the traffic on the Seine. Some heavy wagons or carts were being +drawn through the streets at the time, says the historian Rigord, and +such an insupportable odor was stirred up from the mud and filth that +the king was obliged to leave the window, and was even pursued by it +into his palace. From this occurrence came his resolve to carry out a +work from which all his predecessors had shrunk because of the great +expense involved, and which, indeed, discouraged the bourgeois and the +prevost of the city when the royal commands were laid upon them. Instead +of carrying it out for all the streets and by-ways of the capital, they +appear to have contented themselves with paving the environs of the +palace, and the two streets which traversed the Cité from north to south +and from east to west, and which were called the _croisée de Paris_. +This paving was effected by means of square stones fifteen centimètres +long and fifteen to eighteen thick. The bourgeoisie found the expense so +heavy that under Louis XIII half of the streets of Paris were still +unpaved. + +In 1204, the king charged the _prévôté_ of Paris to pay to the prior and +the monks of Saint-Denis de la Chartre thirty sous parisis for the +privilege of building on their land, and he commenced the construction +of the Louvre. The site had long been occupied by a sort of suburban +house of entertainment, and the king resolved to erect a strong château, +commanding the Seine. This château was square, the thick walls pierced +with small windows and loopholes arranged without order, surrounded by +wide and deep ditches, and completed by a great tower rising in the +middle. Over the pointed roof floated the royal banner, and within were +confined the State prisoners, and the royal treasures, crown-jewels, and +_Trésor des Chartres_. In 1200, this indefatigable monarch conceived the +idea of uniting all the different schools established in Paris under one +head, but the corporation of the Université was not constituted until +twelve years later. + +The life and reign of Louis VIII, son of Philippe-Auguste and father of +Saint-Louis, have recently been made the subject of special research by +M. Petit-Dutaillis, whose history may serve to give his short reign of +three years a greater importance in the eyes of subsequent students than +it has received. He surrounded himself with the same political advisers +that had served his father, and was inspired by the same political and +administrative principles: the death of King John and the birth of the +infant Henry III caused his expedition to England, while still Dauphin, +to fail, and in his attempt to unite the crowns of Hugues Capet and of +William the Conqueror he had against him the influence of the Pope. His +energetic and persevering obstinacy won for him the surname of "the +Lion;" and, moreover, he was haunted "by those visions of sanctity and +of power to which the clerical and classical education gave birth, the +sole general ideas which enlightened and enlarged the darkened and +narrow brains of the men of the Middle Ages." The French historians are +of the opinion that it was to his father's victory of Bouvines that +England was indebted for her Magna Charta. + +His entry into Paris after his coronation at Reims is described +enthusiastically by the chroniclers of the times. "The whole city +turned out before him; the poets chanted odes in his praise, the +musicians filled the air with the sound of the vielle [hurdy-gurdy!], of +fifes, of tambours, of the psalterion and of the harp." Another admires +the richness of the garments: "It is a pleasure to see the embroideries +of gold and the coats of jewelled silk sparkle on all the public places, +in the streets, in the squares. Old age, the flower of life, petulant +youth, all stoop under the weight of the purple. The servitors and the +domestics abandon themselves to the joy of being covered with +adornments, and forget their condition of servitude on seeing the +splendid stuffs which they display on their persons. Those who had not +garments worthy of figuring in such a festival procured them by +borrowing." + +On the occasion of another procession which took place during this +reign, and in which, as in so many other mediæval demonstrations, the +devout participants walked barefoot, the religious zeal of these latter +was so great that they appeared, most of them, in their shirts, and very +many quite naked. This did not prevent the three queens, Isemberge, +widow of Philippe-Auguste; Blanche, wife of Louis VIII, and Bérengère, +Queen of Jerusalem, from watching the procession with great interest. +This chronicler, Guillaume Guiart, records another instance of the +manners and customs of the period, in which Queen Blanche again appears. +It was the custom, at mass, when the officiating priest pronounced the +words: "The peace of the Lord be with you!" for each worshipper to turn +to his neighbor on the left and give him the kiss of peace. On one +occasion, the queen, having received this chaste salutation, bestowed it +in her turn upon a girl of the town who was kneeling next her, but whose +dress was that of a respectable married woman. Greatly offended, she +procured from her royal husband an edict that, in future, these +_coureuses d'aiguillettes_ should be forbidden to appear in robes +with trains, in falling collars and gilded girdles. Saint-Louis, Queen +Blanche's son, for all his sanctity, appears to have been the first king +of France to introduce a royal falconer into his court. + +[Illustration: A LADY AT PLAY; EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + +From a water-color by F. Bac.] + +Concerning this monarch, "in whose grand figure," says M. Henri Martin, +"is summed up all that there is of pure and elevated in the Catholicism +of the Middle Ages," we have, fortunately, abundant information in the +chronicles of the Sire de Joinville, his secretary and intimate friend, +who, with Villehardouin, is one of the first in date and in merit of +these national historians. The piety of the king--like that of most +other truly sincere mortals--had about it something simple and ingenuous +which Joinville records with equal frankness. When they first embarked +on their voyage to the Crusade, the clerks and the seigneurs were +fearfully seasick and much repented themselves; when they had somewhat +recovered, the king would draw them into serious conversation. On one +day, says Joinville: + +"'Sénéchal,' said the king, 'what is it that is God?' 'Sire, it is so +sovereign and so good a thing that nothing could be better.' 'Truly, +that is very well replied, for this response is written in this little +book which I hold in my hand. Another question I will put to you, that +is to say: 'Which would you prefer, to be leprous and ugly, or to have +committed a mortal sin?' And I," says Joinville, "who never wished to +lie to him, I replied to him that I would rather have committed thirty +mortal sins than to be a leper. When the brothers had all departed from +where we were, he called me back alone and made me sit at his feet, and +said to me: 'How have you dared to say that which you said to me?' And I +reply to him that I would say so again. And then he says to me: '_Ha, +fou musart, musart_, you are deceived there, for you know that there is +no leprosy so ugly as that of being in mortal sin. And I pray you, for +the love of God in the first place, and for the love of me, that you +retain this in your heart.'" + +The king's piety did not prevent him from showing an unyielding front to +the turbulent nobles and duly strengthening the royal authority at their +expense. By enforcing the regulations of Philippe-Auguste, he well-nigh +put a stop to the private wars and the judicial duel; he decided that +the royal coinage alone should circulate in the kingdom; at his death, +"Royalty already appeared as the unique centre of jurisdiction and of +power, and the _tiers état_ amassed every day more science and more +riches--which always ends by giving also more influence." The French +language, disengaging itself from its Latin idioms, had become the +language of legislation; it was that of the _Assises_, or laws of the +kingdom of Jerusalem. The poetry of the troubadours had perished in the +atrocious crusade against the Albigeois, but, "north of the Loire, the +_trouvères_ were still composing the _chansons de geste_, veritable epic +poems which were translated or imitated by Italy, England, and Germany. +So that we are quite justified in saying that, from the twelfth century, +the intellectual domination of Europe appertained incontestably to +France." + +The formation of the collection of manuscripts known as the _Trésor des +Chartes_ is due to Saint-Louis. These archives he gathered together and +placed in the Sainte-Chapelle,--founded to receive the true Crown of +Thorns which he had received from Baldwin II, Emperor of Constantinople. +He restored and protected the great hospital of the Hôtel-Dieu; and when +his chaplain, Robert de Sorbon, in 1253, being at that time canon of +Paris, conceived the design of erecting a building devoted to the +instruction, by a certain number of secular ecclesiastics, doctors in +theology, of poor students, who, at that period, were frequently obliged +to live in the utmost poverty in order to pursue their studies, the king +purchased for the purpose a building situated in the Rue Coupe-Gueule +before the Palais des Thermes. The canonization of the monarch was +celebrated with great pomp in the spring of 1297, under Philippe IV; all +the nobles of the kingdom, clerical and laic, were invited to the +capital, the body was placed in a silver casket and carried in a +procession from Saint-Denis to Paris, where it was transferred to the +church of Saint-Denis. Some time afterward, one of the ribs was placed +in Notre-Dame and a part of the head in the Sainte-Chapelle. + +It was under very different circumstances that these earthly remains +were first carried from Paris to Saint-Denis. The king had died in his +second Crusade, under the walls of Tunis; his son and successor, +Philippe III, re-entered Paris in 1271, bringing with him five +coffins,--that of his father, of his brother, of his brother-in-law, of +his wife, and of his son. He insisted upon carrying, unaided, upon his +shoulders, the body of his father from Paris to Saint-Denis, and at the +localities upon the road where he was obliged to stop and rest, crosses +of stone were erected, and remained for several centuries. Fortunately, +this was the last of the Crusades. + +This filial piety did not save the young king from much tribulation. +Soon after his second marriage, with the princess Marie de Brabant +(during the rejoicings attending which the Parisians consumed an +inordinate quantity of wine, it is said, because the _cabaretiers_, in +revenge for the renewal of an old tax the year before, had put more +water than ever in their casks), his eldest son, the child of his first +wife, died. The king's chamberlain, the surgeon Pierre de Labrosse, +accused the young queen of having poisoned the prince. The queen +protested her innocence; the nobles of her train asserted, on the +contrary, that Labrosse was probably the murderer, as he was jealous of +the confidence which the king bestowed upon her, and which the +chamberlain had previously enjoyed. The king was unable to believe +either of them guilty; the medical science of the day was quite unequal +to the task of determining whether there had been any poisoning; the +queen demanded that Labrosse be put to the torture, and, to decide this +doubtful question, appeal was had to the judicial duel. The duke, Jean +de Brabant, arrived to maintain his sister's innocence in the lists; if +he were vanquished, she would be burned at the stake. While the unhappy +king was sending messengers to a celebrated _béguine_, a species of nun, +in Brabant, who was reported to have the gift of revelation, and +receiving only obscure replies, a certain man suddenly fell ill in a +convent in Melun, after having confided to a monk a sealed letter to be +sent to the king. The king received it, read it, showed it to his +council, which declared that the seal and the writing were undoubtedly +those of Labrosse. Whereupon the chamberlain was arrested, accused of +high treason, correspondence with the enemies of France, peculation, +everything except the real offence, and finally hung upon the celebrated +gibbet of Montfaucon,--the first mention of it in history, though it had +been long in existence. + +It was in the first year of the reign of this monarch that the first +Parisian was ennobled,--Raoul, "called the Goldsmith," the king's +silversmith. Philippe afterward extended this privilege to several other +worthy bourgeois who had distinguished themselves in the arts. +Restricted as the space enclosed within the wall of Philippe-Auguste +had been, it still contained many cultivated fields and other +unbuilt-upon tracts of land; the numerous religious edifices and +university establishments erected since that reign had occupied these +waste spaces, and the population had even over-flowed in several +directions and congregated around the abbeys that had been constructed +outside the walls. When Philippe IV, the Bel, succeeded his father in +1285, four principal streets were paved,--those leading to Saint-Denis +and to the Portes Baudet, Saint-Honoré, and Notre-Dame. The bourgeois +successfully resisted the demands of the _prévôt_ of Paris that they +should pave more. + +Under Philippe IV, the conditions regulating the acquisition of the +rights of bourgeoisie were definitely determined. Any free +_colon_--_i.e._, stranger, sojourner--could go before the _prévôt_ of +the city with two witnesses, engage himself to contribute to the +finances of the city, and to build or to purchase within the space of a +year a house of the value of, at least, sixty sous parisis; on these +conditions he was recognized as a bourgeois of Paris, and, in +consequence, was obliged to reside within its limits from the day of +Toussaint to that of Saint-Jean, in the summer, or at least to leave his +wife there, or his valet, if he were a bachelor. The population of Paris +was thus composed of the clergy, of the nobility,--of which the king was +the chief,--of the bourgeois or proprietors _roturiers_, of the +colons,--free or still _vilains_,--and of a few serfs of the soil whom +their owners had obstinately refused to emancipate. + +One of the strongest grievances which this population had against the +king was his repeated debasements of the royal coinage, and on one of +these occasions their discontent was so menacing that, notwithstanding +he had hastily caused some specie of legal weight and value to be +struck, he left his own palace and sought refuge with the Templars. The +establishment of this order had greatly increased since they had first +found an asylum in Paris under Louis VI; the ancient gate of the tower +of the Temple was demolished as late as 1810. Within their walls was +asylum for all, as in the churches, and the king was none too prompt, +for the angry multitude was soon at the gates. Before these frowning +walls, they hesitated, but a few of the more hardy pushed past the guard +at the portal and penetrated as far as the kitchens. "What do you want +here?" inquired the _mâitre-queux_, the chief cook. "To know what is +going on here," replied the boldest of the invaders. "Why, the dinner of +our dear lord, the king." "Where is this dinner?" "Here it is." And he +presented an appetizing dish to his interlocutor, who passed it on to +his comrades, saying: "Here, all of you, it is the King of France who +gives the feast." By this time the alarm had been given, and the +intruders would have paid dearly for their enterprise had not Philippe +ordered that they be allowed to depart unmolested. However, though they +went away very proud of having eaten the king's dinner, a few days later +the bodies of twenty-eight of their number were seen hanging in a row +along the ramparts of the town. It was rumored that the Templars had not +been altogether ignorant of the gathering of this popular tumult, and +that if the entrance to their fortress had been so easily forced it was +not altogether without their knowledge; their ruin is said by some +historians to have been determined in the king's mind from this date. On +Friday, the 13th (!) of October, 1307, the Parisian population were very +much surprised to learn that the grand-master of the order and all the +knights had been arrested, their entire property confiscated, and the +Temple occupied by the king and his court. In this nefarious enterprise +Philippe had taken care to secure the co-operation of the Pope, Clement +V; the wildest charges, of idolatry, magic practices, cruelty and +outrage, were brought against the order; fifty-six of the knights were +burned alive at a slow fire at Vincennes, and, finally, in 1313, the +grand-master and another dignitary, on the little Ile aux Vaches, to-day +the platform of the Pont-Neuf, in the presence of the king and all his +court. A popular legend asserts that as the figure of the grand-master, +Jacques de Molay, disappeared finally in the smoke and flame of his +pyre, he was heard, in a solemn voice, to summon his executioners to +meet him before the bar of God, the Pope within forty days and the king +within the year. Certain it is that both these potentates died within +the appointed time. + +The provincial synod which had condemned the fifty-six Templars had been +presided over by one of Philippe's confidants, the Archbishop of Sens, +brother of the king's minister of finances, Enguerrand de Marigny. It +was this latter who set the melancholy example of being hanged by his +royal master's successor, which was followed by other finance ministers +in two succeeding reigns. His innocence, however, was formally +recognized by the king, Louis X, before the end of his short reign of +eighteen months, a sum of ten thousand livres was granted to his +children, "in consideration of the great misfortune which has befallen +them," and his principal accuser, the Comte de Valois, stricken with +paralysis ten years later, made amends by a general distribution of alms +to the poor of Paris, with the request that they would "pray to God for +Monseigneur Enguerrand and for Monseigneur Charles de Valois." Much the +same fate awaited Gérard de la Guette, minister of Philippe V, le Long, +who reigned for six years after Louis X,--only, as he had expired under +the torture, this minister was hanged after death, and his innocence +duly acknowledged in course of time. Pierre Remy, successor of Gérard +de la Guette and treasurer of Charles le Bel, who succeeded Philippe le +Long, was arrested by Charles's successor, Philippe de Valois, even +before he had been crowned, and hanged on the gibbet of Montfaucon, like +his predecessors. He was at first intended for the little gibbet of +Montigny, reserved for the vulgar, but on his way there--whether moved +by sudden remorse, or by ambition for higher honors--he accused himself +of a multitude of new crimes, among others, of high treason against the +king and against the State. He was accordingly transferred to +Montfaucon, where he had the distinction of being hanged above all +others. This was in 1328. + +"The amount of his property which was confiscated," says the historian +Félibien, "was estimated at twelve hundred thousand livres, which was +the produce, as well as the proof, of his pillaging; but this example +and that of several others of a similar kind did not serve to render any +more moderate those who have since had charge of the finances,--as +witness Macé de Manches, treasurer-changer of the king's treasury, +executed, like Pierre Remy, in 1331; Réné de Siran, director of the +mint, treated in the same fashion in 1333, and some others." + +Louis X, Philippe V, and Charles IV, the three sons of Philippe le Bel +who reigned in succession after him, and who ended the elder branch of +the Capétiens, were even more unfortunate in their wives than in their +treasurers. These three Burgundian princesses, Marguerite, Jeanne, and +Blanche, were of an exceedingly dissolute character; the eldest and the +youngest resided in the abbey of Maubuisson and had for lovers two +Norman gentlemen, Philippe and Gaultier d'Aulnay. The king, Philippe le +Bel, being informed, caused the two Normans to be arrested, in 1314; +they confessed under torture, and were condemned to be flayed alive, +mutilated, decapitated, and hung up by the arm-pits. The two +princesses, after having had their heads shaved, were conducted to the +Château-Guillard, where they were most ingeniously persecuted. When the +husband of Marguerite ascended the throne, in 1315, as Louis le Hutin, +or the Quarreller, he disposed of his unworthy spouse by smothering her +between two mattresses, or, according to the local legend, strangling +her with her own long hair. + +Neither Brantôme nor Villon gives the name of the sanguinary princess +who is said to have inhabited the Tour de Nesle, attracted handsome +young men passing by, and in the morning had them strangled and thrown +into the Seine, but romance or popular report has ascribed these doings +to Marguerite de Bourgogne, though it is certain that she never lived in +the Tour de Nesle. Other romances have designated Jeanne, wife of +Philippe le Long, as the princess celebrated for her amours with +Buridan, rector of the University in 1347; but this story is equally +unfounded, as she died in the Hôtel de Nesle in 1329, leaving behind her +a great reputation for gallantry, royal widow though she was. The Hôtel +de Nesle occupied nearly the site of the present Mint, adjoining the +Institute. + +When the question of deciding upon a successor for Louis X arose, the +famous _Loi Salique_, by which at least one modern historian, M. Duruy, +thinks France has profited but little, was revived. Louis le Hutin left +but one child, a daughter; a posthumous son, Jean, lived but a week. +"Should his sister take the crown? A text of Scripture reads: 'The +lilies spin not, and yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like +one of these.' This evidently signifies that the kingdom of the lilies +shall not fall under the sway of a distaff. In the fourteenth century +this was a reason. There were others: it was not to be desired that a +foreigner should acquire France by a marriage; and the States-General, +applying to the Crown the rule of succession formerly established for +the Salic domains, excluded the daughter of Louis X from the throne. +Thus the right of inheritance recognized for daughters for the fiefs was +denied for the Crown." + +Philippe le Long, also, had only daughters, and their uncle, Charles IV, +accordingly succeeded, only to see the same fate befall his children. On +his death-bed he said to his barons: "If the queen give birth to a son, +he will be your king; if a daughter, the crown will belong to Philippe +de Valois, whom I declare your regent." Another branch of the Capétiens, +the Valois, thus assumed the sceptre. But this interpretation, thus +three times renewed in twelve years, was contested abroad. Philippe VI +of Valois was a cousin of Charles IV, nephew of Philippe le Bel and +grandson of Philippe III. Edward III, King of England, was a grandson of +Philippe IV by his mother Isabella, and he protested against this +decision and asserted his right to the throne of France, mildly in 1328, +on the accession of Philippe VI, and strongly eight years later. Thus +came about the Hundred Years' War, and, incidentally, the residence in +Paris, as if in his capital, of an English king. + +Unfortunately, the French nobility were divided in these evil days +coming upon the capital and the nation. In 1329, the Comtesse de Mahaut, +who held the comté d'Artois, died in Paris, poisoned. Robert d'Artois, a +prince of the blood, one of the _royaux de France_, claimed the +succession, but the king awarded it to the queen Jeanne, widow of +Philippe le Long; a month later, as she was about to take possession of +the comté, she also died suddenly, poisoned by one of the officers of +her table, in the hippocras, or medicated wine, which he handed her. +Whereupon Robert produced documents, duly signed and sealed by his +grandfather, Robert I, in which he was designated as the successor to +his title to the comté; these letters were recognized as forgeries, and +Robert was banished from the kingdom forever by the Court of Peers, and +his property confiscated. The false witnesses whom he had suborned were +arrested,--a demoiselle, Jeanne de Divion; his clerk, Perrot de Sanis; +his _fille de chambre_, Jeannette des Chaînes, and Pierre Tesson, +notary. All this made a tremendous sensation in Paris; a Jacobin, called +as one of the witnesses, refused to reveal the secrets of the +confessional; he was threatened with the rack by the Bishop of Paris; +the doctors in theology assembled and decided that he must testify, in +the interests of justice, which he did, and was accordingly confined in +prison for the rest of his days. The demoiselle La Divion was burned +alive on the Place of the Marché-aux-Pourceaux, in the presence of the +_prévôt_ of Paris and a great multitude of people; the same fate finally +befell Jeannette de Chaînes, after having concealed herself in various +localities, in 1334, on the same place; eight other false witnesses were +condemned to the pillory and other punishments, the notary to perpetual +imprisonment, and others to make _amende honorable_. + +This ceremony, so usual in the Middle Ages, consisted in the culprit +walking in his shirt, bareheaded and barefoot, conducted by the public +executioner, a rope around his neck, a candle of yellow wax in his hand, +a placard explaining his crime on his chest, another on his back, to +some public place, usually the Parvis-Notre-Dame, and there, in an +audible voice, avowing his crime and professing repentance. No rank of +society, not even the monarch himself, was exempt from this punishment, +which frequently was only the prelude to execution. The chief criminal, +in this case, took refuge in Brabant, and there, to revenge himself, +_envoulta_ the king's son. + +This was the familiar process in witchcraft by which an image of the +person attacked being made in wax, baptized, and the _voult_ duly +performed, with a mass said and religious consecration, it is then +melted before a fire, or in the sun, or pierced with a needle. This was +discovered. Robert, afraid of prosecution for sorcery, thought himself +too near France and escaped to England, where he urged Edward III to war +against his native country. + +Notwithstanding the national troubles, the court and the Parisians +seemed disposed to give themselves up to pleasure. The marriage of the +king's second son, Philippe, with Blanche, daughter of Charles le Bel, +was celebrated with great pomp, and with a tournament at which assisted +the most illustrious knights of France and many from abroad. Among these +was the Duc de Normandie, against whom the king pitted the Seigneur de +Saint-Venant, and the duke was overthrown, horse and man. The Comte +d'Eu, Constable of France, received a lance-thrust in the chest, from +which he died that night. These casualties were only too common in these +celebrations, which were constantly discouraged by the popes, and even +forbidden by some of the kings of France. At the close of these +particular exercises, Olivier de Clisson, the Baron d'Avangour, Geoffroi +and Georges de Malestroit, and other Breton chevaliers were arrested and +conducted to the prisons of the Châtelet on charges of high treason and +of conspiring with the king of England. + +The historian Mézeray declares that in the capital the sumptuousness of +apparel, the lascivious dances, the multiplication of entertainments, +were common both to the court and the citizens. Nothing was to be seen +but _jongleurs_, _farceurs_, and other actors and buffoons, +extravagance, debauchery, and constant change. "All the misfortunes of +the nation did not serve to correct them; the spectacles, the games, and +the tourneys constantly succeeded each other. The French danced, as it +were, on the bodies of their relatives. They seemed to rejoice at the +conflagration of their châteaux and their houses, and at the death of +their friends. Whilst some of them were having their throats cut in the +country, the others were feasting in the cities. The sound of the +violins was not interrupted by that of the trumpets, and there could be +heard at the same time the voices of those singing in the balls, and the +pitiful cries of those who perished in the flames or under the edge of +the sword." + +Another chronicler, Robert Gaguin, writing in the fifteenth century, +dilates on the constant changes in the Parisian fashions in 1346. "In +those times, the garments differed very much from each other. When you +saw the manner in which the French clothed themselves, you would have +taken them for mountebanks. Sometimes the vestments which they adopted +were too large, sometimes they were too narrow; at one period they were +too long, at another, too short. Always eager for novelties, they could +not retain for ten years the same style of apparel." + +[Illustration: LOUIS XVI ON THE LEADS OF THE TEMPLE. + +After an engraving of the period.] + +Jean II succeeded his father Philippe in 1350, and has preserved his +surname of le Bon, or the Good, though his reign was one of the most +disastrous in history. One of his very first acts was to cause the +arrest, in the Hôtel de Nesle, of Raoul, Comte d'Eu, Constable of +France, whom he accused of high treason, and, without any form of law, +had him beheaded at night in the presence of the Duc de Bourbon, the +Comte d'Armagnac, the Comte de Montfort, and several other high +personages of the court. All his property was confiscated, his comté was +given to the king's cousin, Jean d'Artois, and the king kept the rest. +In the following year he founded an order of knighthood, in imitation of +that of the Garter, established by Edward III in England, and which, in +its turn, served as a model for that of the _Toison d'Or_, the Golden +Fleece, instituted in 1439 by the Duke of Burgundy. King Jean gave to +his order the name of _Notre-Dame de la Noble maison_, but it was more +generally known as that of _l'Étoile_, the Star. According to +Froissart, it was "a company after the manner of the Round Table, which +should be constituted of three hundred of the most worthy chevaliers." +They took an oath never to flee in battle more than four arpents,--about +four hundred perches,--and there to die or to yield themselves +prisoners; the king gave them for a residence the royal lodging of +Saint-Ouen, near Paris. "True chivalry was departing, since the kings +endeavored to create an official chivalry." + +Ten days after the battle of Poitiers, in which the king and his +youngest son, Philippe le Hardi, were taken prisoners, the Dauphin +Charles, Duc de Normandie, returned to Paris, took the title of +lieutenant of the King of France, and convoked the estates, which +assembled in October. The bourgeoisie, irritated at the ineptitude of +the royal power, assumed the authority under the _prévôt_ of the +merchants, Etienne Marcel, and the civil war followed. On the side of +the dauphin were the nobility and all those attached to the court; on +that of the _prévôt_, the bourgeoisie, the shop-keepers, artisans, and +common people. The latter extended the fortifications, especially those +on the northern side of the city, so as to include all the buildings +erected outside the walls of Philippe-Auguste. The dauphin, with a force +of seven thousand lances, occupied alternately Meaux, Melun, Saint-Maur, +the bridge of Charenton, and shut off all the supplies coming from the +upper Seine and the Marne. The attempt of Marcel to deliver the city to +Charles le Mauvais, King of Navarre, was discovered, the _prévôt_ was +killed at the city gate, and the dauphin entered Paris triumphantly two +days later. + +In 1364, he succeeded to the throne, under the title of Charles V, and +by his wise administration, his prudent conduct of the war, and the +judicious management of the finances, secured for himself the surname +of "the Sage." He rendered the parliament permanent, instead of +occasional, and he gave it for its sittings in the Cité the ancient +palace of Saint-Louis, which became the Palais de Justice. A royal +ordinance, which remained in force till the Revolution, fixed the +majority of the kings of France at thirteen years of age, and provided +that the regent should _not_ be the guardian of the young prince; +another, dated in 1370, authorized the bourgeois of Paris to wear the +spurs of gold and other ornaments of the order of knighthood, and a +third, of 1377, awarded titles of nobility to the _prévôts_ and +_échevins_, or aldermen, of the city. In 1369, the authority of the +_prévôt_ of Paris was officially confirmed in regard to all offences and +misdemeanors committed within the city by any person whatsoever. + +Among the many important buildings which this king erected or commenced +was the Bastile, founded in 1370, to replace the old Porte +Saint-Antoine, and consisting at first of two towers, united by a +fortified gate; the Louvre, repaired and enlarged; the fortifications of +the city; the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the gardens of which descended to the +Seine; the chapelle of Vincennes, and several châteaux in the environs +of the city. Nevertheless, and in spite of the encouragement given by +Charles V to letters, the capital and the nation shared in the general +decadence of the century, in morals, in intellect, and even in physical +force. It has been estimated that while the average duration of human +life was thirty years during the Roman Empire, it had now diminished to +seventeen. The readers of Voltaire will remember that in _The Man with +the Forty Écus_ his "geometer" gives it as twenty-two or twenty-three +years for Paris, and contrives to reduce this brief span to practically +two or three years of active, enjoyable life,--ten years off the +twenty-three for the period of youthful immaturity, ten more for the +decline of old age, sleep, sickness, work, worry, etc.! + +Duruy cites two instances of feminine peers of France. In 1378, the +Duchesse d'Orléans writes to excuse herself from coming to take her seat +as a peer in the Parliament of Paris; the Duchesse d'Artois, Mahaut, had +been present at the coronation of Philippe V, and had supported, with +the other peers, the crown on the head of the king. + +The need of funds was so pressing at the very outset of the following +reign that the young king, Charles VI, under the tutelage of his uncles, +the dukes of Anjou, Burgundy, and Berry, entered into serious +negotiations with the bourgeoisie of the city of Paris with a view of +persuading them to accept a new tax on commodities. The people were +obstinate in their refusal; a statute forbade the imposition of any new +duties without previous public proclamation, and, in the actual +condition of affairs, this proclamation was likely to lead to a popular +outbreak. On the last day of April, 1382, however, a public crier +presented himself on horseback at the Halles, where these proclamations +were usually made, sounded his trumpet, and when he saw the people +assembled around him, lifted his voice and announced that the king's +silverware had been stolen and that a liberal reward would be paid for +the discovery of the thieves. Then, profiting by the general surprise +and commotion, he proceeded: "I have still another proclamation to make +to you; to-morrow the new tax on produce will begin to be levied." After +which he put spurs to his horse, and disappeared at full speed! + +Early the next morning the tax-collectors accordingly presented +themselves at the Halles; one of them claimed the percentage on a little +_cresson_ which an old woman had just sold, the old woman raised an +outcry, the unhappy collector was beaten and thrown in the gutter, +another was dragged from the very altar of the church of +Saint-Jacques-l'Hôpital and killed, and the mob rushed to the Hôtel de +Ville, where it was known that Charles V had caused to be deposited the +_maillets_ or mallets of lead which he had had made in anticipation of +an attack by the English, and armed themselves with these +weapons,--whence their name of Maillotins. But the new tax was +withdrawn, and the popular fury speedily subsided. + +When the young king attained his majority, in 1388, the former +councillors of his father, the petty nobles, or _marmousets_, as the +great seigneurs contemptuously called them, resumed the direction of +affairs, but, with all their prudence and ability, were quite unable to +restrain the prodigal wastefulness of the prince. The entry of the +queen, Isabeau de Bavière, whom he had married three years before, was +made the occasion of extravagant processions, pomps, diversions, and +mystery-plays in Paris, as was the marriage of his brother, the Duc +d'Orléans, with the beautiful Valentine Visconti, and the conferring of +the order of knighthood on the children of the Duc d'Anjou. When, +finally, worn out with dissipation, with the license of unlimited power +from the age of twelve, the king went mad, his uncles resumed the +regency and the marmouset ministry prudently sought safety in flight. +The Duc de Bourgogne, Philippe le Hardi, died in 1404; his son, Jean +sans Peur, wished to succeed to his father's authority in the State, but +found himself opposed at every turn by the Duc d'Orléans; the old Duc de +Berry interposed and effected a formal reconciliation; three days later +the Duc d'Orléans was assassinated in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple by the +bravos of Jean sans Peur, who did not fear to do murder on a prince of +the blood. + +[Illustration: LOUIS XVI, WITH HIS FAMILY, IN THE LOGOGRAPHIC BOX AT THE +ASSEMBLY, WITNESSING HIS DEPOSITION; AUGUST 11, 1792. From a drawing by +Georges Cain.] + +In the civil war which followed, the Parisians profited at first by the +concessions which were made to them in order to secure their +support,--open opposition to all new taxes, restoration of their old +free constitution, the right to elect their _prévôt_ and other officers, +to organize their bourgeois militia under officers elected by +themselves, even that of holding fiefs like the nobles, with the +accompanying privileges, provided they were well born, and of Paris. The +nobility, on the contrary, were even less disposed to pardon him for +thus seeking the aid of the populace than for having compromised the +seignorial inviolability by laying violent hands on a brother of the +king. The Comte d'Armagnac, father-in-law of one of the sons of the Duc +d'Orléans, placed himself at the head of the opposing party; both +parties made advances to the English to secure their aid on different +occasions, but it was the Armagnacs who fought Henry V at Azincourt and +sustained that disastrous defeat; the Duc de Bourgogne secured +possession of the queen and proclaimed her regent; negotiating first +with one and then with another, he finally ended by being assassinated +in his turn by Tanneguy Duchâtel, _prévôt_ of Paris, and other servants +of the dauphin, on the bridge of Montereau, at the confluence of the +Yonne and the Seine. + +"That which neither Crécy nor Poitiers nor Azincourt had accomplished, +the assassination on the bridge of Montereau did,--it gave the crown of +France to a king of England." In the following year, 1420, the treaty of +Troyes, concluded between Henry V, the Queen Isabeau, and the new Duc de +Bourgogne, Philippe le Bon, recognized the King of England as regent and +heir to the throne of France, he having married Isabeau's daughter, +Catherine of France. "All the provisions of this treaty were read +publicly, in a general assembly held by the Parliament on the 29th of +April. The governor of Paris, the chancellor, the _prévôt_, the +presidents, counsellors, _échevins_, merchants, and bourgeois, all were +unanimous in accepting this treaty." On the 30th of May it was formally +ratified in another general assembly, and on the 1st of December the +bourgeois turned out in great state and with much pomp to receive the +two kings, who entered, walking side by side, Charles VI on the right. +"The streets were richly decorated and tapestried from the Porte +Saint-Denis to Notre-Dame, 'and all the people cried _Noël!_ to show +their joy.'" The English king, with his two brothers, the dukes of +Clarence and of Bedford, were lodged at the Louvre; the poor French +king, at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, and the Duc de Bourgogne, in his Hôtel +d'Artois. + +The madness of Charles VI was intermittent, but apparently hopeless; it +had been greatly aggravated by all the tragic circumstances of his +reign, including the terrible _bal des ardents_, in which he had been +saved from being burned to death, with several other maskers disguised +as satyrs, by the coolness and courage of the Duchesse de Berry. The +queen, Isabeau, was openly dissolute; on one occasion, the king, +returning from visiting her at Vincennes, encountered her lover, the +chevalier Louis de Bois-Bourdon, had him arrested on the spot, put to +the question, sewed up in a sack, and thrown in the river. Probably with +a view to her own security, she had placed in the king's bed-chamber "a +fair young Burgundian," Odette de Champdivers, and it was this +demoiselle who, in his periods of frenzy, was alone able to soothe and +persuade him. It is related that they played cards together in his saner +moments, this amusement having recently been brought into fashion again. +Even the powers of magic were tried in vain to effect his cure. + +[Illustration: FEMME-DE-LA-COUR AND FOUNDLING; EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. From +a water-color by Maurice Leloir.] + +Nevertheless, few monarchs seem to have been so sincerely mourned. +"All the people who were in the streets and at the windows wept and +cried as if each one had seen the death of the one he loved the best. +'_Ah! très cher prince_, never shall we have another so good! Never +shall we see thee again! Cursed be Death! We shall have no longer +anything but war, since thou hast left us. Thou goest to repose, we +remain in tribulations and sorrow.'" + +Queen Isabeau, in addition to disinheriting her son in favor of her +daughter, was held responsible by her contemporaries for setting the +fashion in wasteful and absurd extravagance in dress. The ladies wore +the _houppelande_, the _cotte hardie_, tight around the girdle, and +looped up their sleeves _excessivement_ to show this _cotte hardie_; +they also had openings in the surcoat to show the girdle. These openings +the preachers called "windows of hell." "They made their stomachs +prominent, and seemed, all of them, _enceinte_: this mode they clung to +for forty years." "The more the misery increased, the more the luxury +augmented; at the Hôtel de Bohême, inhabited by Louis d'Orléans, there +were chambers hung with cloth of gold _à roses_, embroidered with +_velours vermeil_, of _satin vermeil_ embroidered with arbalists, of +cloth of gold embroidered with mills.... And, during this time, the +grass grew in the streets, say the historians of the period, the wolves +entered the city at night by the river; the imagination of the people, +exalted, saw already in Paris a new Babylon, the ruins of which would +presently become the repair of the beasts of prey." + +When the remains of what might well seem to be the last of the kings of +France were interred at Saint-Denis, a herald-at-arms recommended the +soul of the defunct to the prayers of the assembled multitude; then he +cried: "_Vive Henri de Lancastre, Roi de France et d'Angleterre!_" At +this cry, all the officers present reversed their maces, rods, and +swords, to signify that they considered themselves as no longer +exercising their offices. The English king was not crowned in Paris till +nine years later (1431), but his representative, the Duke of Bedford, +left his residence in the Hôtel de la Rivière, Rue de Paradis, and Rue +du Chaume (to-day the Rues des Francs-Bourgeois and des Archives), to +establish himself in the Palais de la Cité. On the 8th of September, +1429, Jeanne d'Arc, having brought about the crowning of the sluggish +Charles VII at Reims in the preceding July, presented herself at the +head of a French corps under the orders of the Duc d'Alençon before the +northern walls of Paris, and herself directed the assault on the Porte +Saint-Honoré. She surmounted the first entrenchment, constructed in +front of the pig market there established on the Butte des +Moulins,--afterward suppressed to make way for the opening of the Avenue +de l'Opéra,--drove in the English, sounded the depth of the moat with +the staff of her banner, and fell wounded with an arbalist shaft through +her thigh, in front of what is now the entrance to the Théâtre-Français. +The chronicles of the time differ as to whether the French chiefs failed +to support her through jealousy, or fought with _acharnement_ to save +her from falling into the hands of the besieged. The attempt was +abandoned, and the Maid was carried to Saint-Denis to have her wound +dressed. + +In Paris, opinions were very much divided, and even those who favored +the French king felt that they were too much compromised to open their +gates to him without some stipulations. Two years later, Jeanne having +been duly burned at Rouen, and the consecration of Charles VII, at +Reims, "to which he had been conducted by an agent of the demon, being +in itself and of its own nature null and void," the English monarch +entered his city of Paris to receive an orthodox and irreprehensible +coronation. As he rode by the Hôtel Saint-Pol, he perceived the Queen +Isabeau on the balcony; he doffed his hat to her and she returned his +salute, then burst into tears. On the 17th of December, he was anointed +and crowned in Notre-Dame by Cardinal Winchester--which gave great +offence to the Bishop of Paris--and surrounded entirely by English +lords; there was no liberation of prisoners, no largess to the people, +no removal of taxes. "A bourgeois who marries off his daughter would +have done the thing better," said the Parisians. However, he manifested +some desire to secure their good-will by confirming a number of their +minor privileges, their right to acquire titles of nobility, etc. + +The discontent grew among the citizens; no coronation of a king of +France could be as sacred as that celebrated according to the ancient +ceremonial at Reims; the English garrison felt constrained to take such +strong measures of precaution as to forbid any one to leave the city +without passports, or to mount upon the ramparts under penalty of being +hanged. It was not till the 29th of May, 1436, that six citizens, whose +names history has preserved, contrived to open the Porte Saint-Jacques, +in the quarter of the Halles, to their countrymen outside; the Constable +of France, Arthur de Bretagne, Comte de Richemont, with the Comte de +Dunois and some two thousand horsemen, were waiting for them; the first +twenty men introduced through a little postern gate opened the great +doors and let down the drawbridge, all the cavalry trooped in without +meeting the least resistance. "Then the Maréchal de l'Isle-Adam mounted +upon the wall, unfurled the banner of France, and cried '_Ville +gagnée!_' [City taken!]." + +Captain Willoughby, who commanded the English, finding the whole +populace rising against him, was compelled to take refuge in the +Bastile with some thousand or twelve hundred men, and soon after +capitulated and left the city by the Porte Saint-Antoine, pursued by the +hootings of the people. Charles VII made his triumphal entry in the +following November, and was received with abundant demonstrations of +welcome. It was, however, a city devastated by pestilence and famine and +with troops of wolves in all the suburbs. Bands of brigands, largely +made up of unpaid soldiers, and called, from their outrages, +_escorcheurs_, traversed the country and the environs and were more +feared even than the wolves. The universal demoralization caused by the +war had removed all bounds to the cruelty of the nobles, and the +chronicles of the time are replete with murder, open and secret. "The +Duc de Bretagne caused the death of his brother; the Duc de Gueldre, +that of his father; the Sire de Giac, that of his wife; the Comtesse de +Foix, that of her sister; the King of Aragon, that of his son." + +"Above this feudal aristocracy was placed another aristocracy, that of +the princes, which royalty had elevated with its own hands, in +constituting vast appanages for the _royaux de France_, the title given +to the sons, the brothers, the relatives of the king. Hence those +powerful houses of Bourgogne, of Orléans, of Anjou, of Bourbon, which +joined to the spirit of independence of the ancient feudality the pride +and the pretensions of a royal origin, and which said by one of its +members: 'I esteem so much the kingdom of France, that, in the place of +one king, I should like to see six.'" + +[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND MARIE LOUISE ENTERING THE GARDEN OF THE +TUILERIES ON THE DAY OF THEIR MARRIAGE, APRIL 2, 1810.] + +Valuing only that which was acquired by the sword, or professing to do +so, this feudal aristocracy affected to look down with disdain upon the +great merchants and bankers,--whose large fortunes, indeed, were not +always acquired with the strictest probity,--and they viewed with +indifference the king's infamous robbery of his minister, Jacques +Cœur, which, with his abandonment of Jeanne d'Arc, constitute the +blackest stains upon his character. The _gens de petit estat_, the +councillors of humble origin, with which the king surrounded himself, +and who served him so well, were also a source of offence to these proud +nobles. M. G. du Fresne de Beaucourt, in his exhaustive history of this +monarch, in six octavo volumes, dwells at length on the constantly +increasing influence in the grand council, during the period of national +reorganization in the latter part of the reign, of these humble +councillors. "And it was, above all, the people of France themselves," +says M. Funck-Brentano, "who, in the midst of all the secular struggles, +acquired, little by little, the sentiment of its unity, of the common +solidarity of the public welfare. The day on which they were found +grouped, admirable in their energy and devotion, around the royal throne +which, for them, was the concentrating point of these sentiments, the +cause of the foreign enemy was lost." + +Son though he was "of an imbecile father and a debauched mother," +Charles VII did not lack for intelligence, and in his diplomacy, +directed during the first part of his reign against a foreign enemy and, +in the latter part, against a domestic one, the Burgundians, he gave +proof of the highest qualities. He had a taste for letters, and +was--"unique, doubtless, in this among the kings of France"--a good +Latin scholar. His mistresses, of whom Agnès Sorel was only the first, +were imposed upon his wife, Marie d'Anjou, and upon his court with +unusual effrontery. The queen was even obliged to distribute gifts to +the "_filles joyeuses_ who followed the court in its peregrinations." +This moral depravation, naturally, extended downward to the whole court. +M. Brentano, who is one of the few French historians who venture to lay +disrespectful hands on the grand _Roi-soleil_, says: "Charles VII was +the original source of the crapulous debauchery of the last Valois; he +traced the way for the crimes of Louis XIV, and the turpitudes of Louis +XV." This, although the higher clergy of the reigns both of Charles and +of Louis Quatorze did not fail in their duty, and did denounce openly +from the pulpit the sins of these all-powerful monarchs. + +On his re-entry into Paris, Charles did not take up his residence in the +Hôtel Saint-Pol, the sorrowful lodging of his father, but in the +Tournelles, which he made a "delightful sojourn," and where his +successors installed themselves until François II, who established his +dwelling in the Louvre. In the time of Louis XI, however, the Tournelles +partook of the sordid and melancholy character of its master. "The king +lived there alone and stingily," says the historian Michelet. "He had +had the odd taste to retain some servitors whom he had brought from +Brabant; he lived there as if in exile.... As soon as he was king, he +assumed the pilgrim's habit, the cape of coarse gray cloth, with the +gaiters of a travelling costume, and he took them off only at his +death.... If he came out of the Tournelles, it was in the evening, like +an owl, in his melancholy gray cape. His gossip, companion, and friend +(he had a friend) was a certain Bische, whom he had formerly set as a +spy on his father, Charles VII, and whom afterward he kept near the +Comte de Charolais, to induce him to betray his father, the Duc de +Bourgogne." + +The king had, indeed been one of the worst of sons,--at the period of +his accession to the throne he was almost in open rebellion against his +father, and had sought refuge at the court of Burgundy. The great nobles +consequently looked with complacency upon his coming into power, and +were very far from foreseeing that through him their privileges and +authority throughout the kingdom were to be finally ruined. During his +reign, the capital prospered,--"the king made of it his refuge, his +citadel and his arsenal for all his enterprises against the feudality." +In one respect, he followed his father's example and even bettered +it,--his counsellors were chosen by preference among the _tiers état_, +and frequently even among men of base extraction. When occasion +required, he did not disdain any of the arts of the demagogue: on +entering Paris after the indecisive battle of Montlhéry, with the +Burgundians, almost under the walls of the capital, he took supper with +the principal ladies of the city in the house of Charles de Melun, and +so moved them with the recital of the dangers he had undergone that all +the dames bourgeoises wept. He was in the habit of visiting familiarly +the principal bourgeois, seating himself at their table or inviting them +to his own, and interesting himself in their private affairs. By this +means, he endeavored to ascertain their opinions concerning his +political measures, and the amount of obedience which they were likely +to render to them. In 1471, "he honored the city by starting the fire +with his own hand in the Place de Grève, the evening of Saint John the +Baptist." On a mast, twenty-five mètres in height and surrounded by +combustibles of all kinds, was hung a great basket containing a dozen +black cats and a fox, symbols of the devil. "The more the grilled cats +cried, the more the people laughed." + +For all his craftiness, "he had not reigned four years when all the +world was against him," says Duruy. "The people forced to provide, by +paying a great many imposts, for the necessities of the government which +they did not as yet comprehend, the bourgeoisie wounded in its +particular interests, which it did not know how to sacrifice to the +general interests, the clergy menaced in its property, the lesser +nobility in its rights and in its dearest habits, the higher aristocracy +in its pretensions to sovereignty,--all these classes, so widely +diverse, so often hostile one to another, found themselves for the +moment quite in accord upon one point,--the necessity of limiting the +royal authority." The _Ligue du Bien public_ was formed by the great +nobles through compassion for the miseries of the kingdom "under the +discord and piteous government of Louis XI." Thus threatened by the +aristocracy, it was a question of the utmost importance for the king to +retain his capital; he wrote to the Parisians in the most cajoling +phrases before Montlhéry, and after, hastened to arm the bourgeois and +accepted, as an aid and support, a council of six bourgeois, six members +of the Parliament, and six clerks of the University. + +The festivals and processions in the streets of Paris were not so +numerous in this reign as in many of the preceding ones, but some of +them have remained memorable. On his entry into the city on the occasion +of his accession to the throne, August 30, 1461, he was richly dressed +in white satin, and rode between the old Duc de Bourgogne and the Comte +de Charolais. Over the Porte Saint-Denis was the representation of a +ship, "emblem of the arms of Paris (which are, gules, a ship _équipé_, +argent, on a sea of the same; _au chef cousu d'argent_, sown with +_fleurs-de-lis d'or_). From this ship descended two little angels, who +placed a crown upon the head of the king. The fountain of Ponceau ran +wine; and at this fountain three beautiful maids, quite nude, +represented sirens; 'and this was a very pleasant thing,' adds the +chronicler, Jean de Troyes; 'they discoursed little _motets_ and +_bergerettes_.'" Other demonstrations, in the fashion of the time, were +given at other points of the route; all the streets through which the +king passed were hung with rich tapestries, and when he arrived at the +Pont-au-Change, the bird merchants of Paris launched in the air "more +than two hundred dozen birds of all kinds." + +[Illustration: GRAND SALON OF THE TUILERIES, 1810. After Percier and +Fontaine.] + +A very good painter, M. Tattegrain, in one of his recent _envois_ to the +annual Salon, has represented with great detail and much historical +accuracy the incident of the three pretty sirens, quite nude. According +to his story, they were only bared to the waist, and the king, very +gallantly, checked the procession and rode out from under his canopy to +hear their _motets_ and _bergerettes_. + +On the 15th of May, 1468, there was a fine tilting at the Hôtel des +Tournelles between the gentlemen of Paris and those of Normandy; "they +were valiant champions, superbly apparelled in hacquetons embossed with +gold." Of the four Norman chevaliers who came expressly for this +occasion, three were wounded, so that "all the honor of the jousts +remained with those of Paris." On the 19th of November, the conclusion +of the treaty of Péronne, between the king and the Duc de Bourgogne, was +announced by trumpets in all the public squares of the city, and popular +rejoicings ordered; as also for the birth of the dauphin, afterward +Charles VIII, June 30, 1470, and the victory of Henry of Lancaster, King +of England, over his competitor, Edward. These two events, the king +directed, should be celebrated by a cessation of work of all kind for +three days, and public prayers. Not long afterward, the queen of Henri +VI arrived in Paris with her son, the Prince of Wales, and was received, +by order of the king, with all the honors due her rank. + +Amidst all these splendors it was Louis XI himself who frequently +presented the reverse side of the medal. The registers of the Chambre +des Comptes mention, about the time of the English queen's visit, a +disbursement of twenty sols for the insertion of a pair of new sleeves +in an old pourpoint of the king's wearing. He was considered to have +gotten much the worse of the treaty of Péronne with Charles the Bold, +and he had a mistress named Perrette, so that the Parisians trained +their parrots, magpies, and other speaking birds to ask Perrette to give +them a drink, among other ribald phrases. Consequently, the king issued +a royal commission "to a young man of Paris named Henry Perdriel, in the +said city of Paris" to take and seize "all magpies, jays, and chevrettes +being in cages or otherwise, and being private property, in order to +bring them all before the king, and have written down and registered the +place where he had taken the aforesaid birds and also all that they knew +how to say, as: _larron_; _paillard_; _fils de p---- _; _va hors, va_; +_Perrette, donne-moi à boire_, and several other words which the said +birds know very well how to say and which have been taught them." In +this same year, 1468, he caused to be confiscated in Paris and brought +to him at Amboise all the deer, does, and cranes which the rich +bourgeois were in the habit of keeping in their gardens. "This dispensed +with the necessity of his buying them," adds the historian. + +A Bohemian periodical, the _Nation Czech_, has recently published a +condensation of the very curious journal kept by a certain Seigneur Léon +de Rozmital, brother of the queen Joan, wife of Georges Podiébrad, King +of Bohemia, during his travels in France in the year 1465. At +Meung-sur-Loire he met Louis XI, who received him with much honor, +though he appears to have quite declined to listen to the seigneur's +proposals of a treaty of alliance between the two nations; he +accompanied the king to _Kand_ (perhaps the château of Candes, +Indre-et-Loire), where he was presented to the queen and all her train. +Her Majesty received him cordially, "and every one kissed him on the +mouth. It was the king who had ordered it, and who wished it so. +Afterward, the queen gave her hand to every chevalier and was very +gracious with all." Louis invited his guest to come to visit him in +Paris, but the latter fails to record his doing so. + +In the year 1470, it may be mentioned, Ulric Gering, Michel Friburger, +and Martin Krantz set up the first printing-press, in the college of the +Sorbonne, and printed a book: _Epistolæ Gasparini Pargamensis_ (Letters +of Gasparin de Bergamo). Other works appeared, the first of which was a +Bible, offered to Louis XI in this same year. + +The universal demoralization of manners resulting from the long wars +against the English and between the Burgundians and Armagnacs, the +English occupation of the city, the presence in the capital of a +multitude of drunken and debauched soldiers, did not serve to check the +extravagance and license among the wealthier bourgeois against which the +clergy thundered in vain. One of the boldest of these preachers was a +Cordelier named Olivier Maillard, who appealed to the multitude by the +freedom of his language and his images too frequently borrowed from the +vernacular, and who--although he bore the title of _prédicateur du +roi_--did not hesitate to denounce the monarch himself. He accordingly +received an intimation that if these attacks did not cease very +promptly, he would be tied up in a sack and thrown in the river. "The +king is master," replied Maillard, "but go and say to him that I would +go quicker to paradise by water than he with his post-horses." A species +of crusade was organized by the mendicant friars against the +extravagance of the costumes and the indecency of the manners; the evil +had assumed such proportions that to be modestly and decently dressed +was to be, in the language of the people as well as in that of the +preachers, "clothed without sin." "To the ferocity, to the barbarity of +feudal times had succeeded the vices of a semi-civilization, whilst +waiting till manners and customs should refine themselves under the +action of the Renaissance." + +[Illustration: BONAPARTE AND THE GRENADIER.] + +One of the first acts of the new king, Charles VIII, was to hang Olivier +le Dain, _valet de chambre_, barber, counsellor, and, finally, +ambassador of his father. His property was confiscated and given to the +Duc d'Orléans. This act afforded a lively satisfaction to the Parisians +and to the nation at large. Another favorite of the late monarch, Jean +de Doyat, was somewhat more fortunate, though he was arrested, publicly +whipped in the streets, pilloried at the Halles, where his tongue was +pierced with a hot iron and one ear cut off, then sent down to Auvergne, +his native province, flogged again, robbed of the other ear, and all his +goods confiscated. Later, however, the king quashed the judgment and +restored him his property, if not his severed members. + +By his marriage with Anne de Bretagne, December 13, 1491, this monarch +united the last of the great fiefs of France to the crown, and +disappointed several powerful foreign suitors, English, German, and +Spanish. On the 9th of the following February the royal couple entered +the capital in state, and the stately and haughty carriage of the Breton +princess was greatly admired by the populace. The bourgeois and +merchants of various conditions who rode, two by two, to meet her had +all "magnificent costumes, robes of satin _cramoisi_, of damask _gris +cendre_, or of scarlet cloth on a violet ground. They had had made a +dais the canopy of which was of cloth of gold, embossed, sown with +lilies and roses. They carried it alternately from the Porte Saint-Denis +as far as Notre-Dame." + +When the king set off on his ill-advised expedition to conquer the +kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, he was very short of funds and wished to +borrow a hundred thousand écus from the Parisians, but met with a flat +refusal. Consequently, when a deputation of the notables of the city +took the liberty of remonstrating with him concerning this Italian war, +he received them very badly and requested them to keep their advice for +themselves, as he had no need of it. But, after having conquered the +Milanais and lost it very soon afterward, he applied again to his city +of Paris for a vessel of war; Jean de Ganay, president of the +Parliament, presented to the _prévôt_ of the merchants and to the +_échevins_ at the Hôtel de Ville the letter which the king had written +on this subject. In order to deliberate on it weightily, they assembled +all the councillors, and a resolution was adopted that the Messieurs of +the Parliament and of the Chambre des Comptes and the Bishop of Paris +meet in a general assembly at the Hôtel de Ville. But the progress of +political events having rendered this vessel unnecessary, nothing came +of all these deliberations. + +Louis XII, on his accession to the throne in 1498, resolved to cross +the Alps in his turn, and on his solemn entry into Paris after his +coronation an elaborate machine was contrived to delicately flatter his +pretensions to Genoa and Milan, and appear in the royal procession. This +consisted of an apparatus mounted on wheels, in the form of a terrace, +on which was seen a porcupine, moving all his quills at once, and a +young virgin, habited in Genoese fashion and throned on a seat of +cloth-of-gold _cramoisi_. But unluckily the machine would not function, +and after remaining immovable in one place, finally disappeared "in +great mortification." The Parisians seem never to have lost their +fondness for processions and displays, and were always ready to welcome +a new king with the firm belief that all their griefs would speedily be +remedied under the new régime. As there was a possibility of the widowed +queen, Anne de Bretagne, carrying her rich dower, now returned to her, +out of the kingdom, Louis XII secured a divorce from his wife Jeanne, +third child of Louis XI, and so very plain in countenance that her royal +father could not endure the sight of her. Thus it happened that _la +Bretonne_ made her second solemn entrance into Paris as a newly-wed +queen of France, in 1504; and at her death, ten years later, the king +"during a whole week did nothing but weep." + +Her obsequies, at Saint-Denis and Notre-Dame, gave rise to a scandalous +discussion over the possession of all the objects which had figured in +them. The abbot and the monks of Saint-Denis demanded the restitution of +the dais, of the effigy and of the garments of the queen, of the cloth +of gold, of the velvet which had served to decorate the chapel, and of +all the offerings made by the assistants. The nuns of La +Saussaye-lez-Villejuif wished that there should be given them all the +linen of the late queen, body linen and table linen, the ornaments of +gold and of silver, and all the mules, palfreys, horses of state and +others which had drawn the chariots, with all the harness and the +collars. The grand equerry of the queen, Louis de Hangest, pretended, +for his part, that the horses, the canopy, and the cloth of gold all +pertained to him in virtue of his office, and, whilst awaiting the +decision, he insisted that the horses, chariots, and harness should at +least be turned over to him provisionally in order that he might conduct +the ladies and the pages of the late queen. But it was feared that he +would keep them under any conditions. The king-at-arms and the heralds +wanted all the mouldings and all the stuffs of velvet and of silk which +were on the walls of the chapelle ardente; and the chaplains of the +cardinal, the sum of all the offerings made both at Notre-Dame and at +Saint-Denis. The Parliament devoted a week to endeavoring to bring the +disputants into accord, and in the meanwhile ordered an appraisement of +all the horses, carriages, etc., which were confided to the grand +equerry, and all the linen, ornaments, dais, etc., were sequestered and +placed in the hands of Jean du Val, receiver of pledges, and of Ragerin +Le Lieur, merchant bourgeois. + +In addition to his grief over his wife's death, the king found himself +very much embarrassed in his finances till his good city of Paris came +to his relief with a donation of twenty thousand livres. He had even +sold his vessels of gold and silver, for the sum of two hundred thousand +livres. Being thus relieved, with the inconstancy of men, he began to +think of another wife, and in September, 1514, the magistrates of the +city went out in state to meet the ambassadors of England who had +arrived to negotiate a match with the Princess Mary, daughter of their +sovereign. For this fickleness (which, however, was partially dictated +by political considerations) Louis XII was destined to pay dearly; he +was fifty-three years of age and his bride was eighteen; to please her, +he changed all his habits of life, and even the hours of his repasts. He +had been in the habit of "dining" at eight o'clock, and he now dined at +noon; he had been accustomed to go to bed at six o'clock in the evening, +and now it was often midnight when he retired. So that he died at the +Palais des Tournelles on the first of the following January, 1515, and +the death-criers, sounding their bells, paraded the streets, calling +aloud: "The good king Louis, father of the people, is dead!" + +It was the States-General of the nation, speaking through the +representative of Paris, which had given him this fine name, _Père du +peuple_, and which, by his care for their interests, his economy in the +general administration, his suppression of abuses, he had well deserved. +"The third part of the kingdom," says a contemporary, "was opened to +cultivation in twelve years, and for one important merchant that had +been known in Paris, in Lyons, or in Rouen, there could be found fifty +under Louis XII, who made it more easy to go to Rome, to Naples, or to +London than formerly to Lyons or Geneva." In this intelligent +administration, he was greatly aided by the cardinal, Georges +d'Amboises, who "for twenty-seven years remained less his minister than +his friend," and who shared with him the well-earned approval of the +people. "_Laissez faire à Georges_" (Let George alone and he'll do it) +marked the general appreciation. + +[Illustration: THE POMPEIIAN HOUSE, AVE. MONTAIGNE. BUILT IN 1866, FOR +PRINCE NAPOLEON. + +DEMOLISHED IN 1892.] + +That curious custom of the Middle Ages, which testifies so strongly to +the impotence and unjustness of the laws and the universal prevalence of +sudden outbreaks of passion and crime, the right of asylum, was greatly +modified in Paris by Louis XII. In the porches of the churches, or, if +they had none, within the space of thirty feet of their walls on all +sides, and in the cemeteries adjoining them, the hunted criminal was +safe. The king suppressed this privilege for the churches and convents +of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie, Saint-Merri, Notre-Dame, l'Hôtel-Dieu, +the Abbaye Saint-Antoine, the Carmelites of the Place Maubert, and the +Grands-Augustins. François I extended this reform still further; his +ordinance of 1539 abolished all places of immunity for debts or other +civil matters, and decreed that any person could be apprehended +anywhere, provided that, if his place of refuge should be justified, he +should be returned to it. This, however, never was done. In 1789, there +were in Paris a few privileged localities remaining,--the royal +residences, the hôtels of the ambassadors, and the hôtel of the grand +prior of Malta, the Temple. By an article of the _Code de procédure +civile_, it was forbidden to arrest debtors in the buildings +consecrated to worship and during the religious exercises; and under the +Second Empire a debtor could not be arrested in the garden of the +Tuileries. With the abolishment of imprisonment for debt, these +regulations repealed themselves. + +In an almost equally important matter, that of the hours of the three +meals of the day, a great change also took place during this reign. The +courtiers did not generally follow the king in his transferral of _le +dîner_ from eight o'clock in the morning (according to the custom +established at the beginning of the reign) to noon, but the people seem +to have adopted the new hour. The wars in Italy brought to the French +table for the first time the pâtes of that country, vermicelli, +macaroni, semoule, the lassagnes and others. For women in childbed and +for consumptives were reserved the _bouillons_ or "restaurants,"--these +were composed of meat, of animals or of chickens, cut up very fine and +distilled in an alembic with peeled barley, dried roses, cinnamon, +coriander, and Damascus raisins. One of the most succulent of these +bouillons was called _restaurant divin_. + +Under François I, the dinner-hour was established at nine o'clock in the +morning, and the supper-hour at five in the evening. It is true that the +hour of rising was also most unreasonably early according to modern +ideas. There was a popular rhyme: + + "_Lever à cinq, dîner à neuf, + Souper à cinq, coucher à neuf. + Fait vivre d'ans nonante-neuf._" + +(To rise at five, to dine at nine, to sup at five, to go to bed at nine, +will make you live to ninety-nine.) + +The national menu was further increased by contributions from Italy and +from domestic producers, pâtes, cheeses, and some new fruits, apricots +and plums; the latter, still a great favorite with the French, was +called _la reine Claude_ after the daughter of Louis XII. With the good +living came an increase in drunkenness among all, lower classes, +bourgeois, courtiers, and soldiers,--the latter, indeed, to such an +extent that the king felt constrained to issue edicts threatening this +growing vice with the severest penalties: for the first offence, +imprisonment; for the second, flogging in private; for the third, +flogging in public; and the hardened offender ran a great risk of losing +his ears and being banished from the kingdom. + +With the reign of François I began the _ancien régime_,--"that is to +say, a government in which the subjects have no guarantee against +oppression, even the most iniquitous, and the prince, no obstacle to his +will, even the most capricious." In 1527, the president of the +Parliament of Paris declared openly that the king was above the law, +though he added that his sovereign will should be regulated by equity +and reason. The nobility, reduced to a state merely of revenues and +titles, were no longer the great feudal powers of the Dark Ages, "and at +the sumptuous court which François opened to them they learned to ruin +themselves and to obey." In the middle of this century, there was only +one great feudal house remaining, that of Bourbon-Navarre, the head of +which, Antoine, was quite without influence. Below were the grand +seigneurs, the Montmorencys, the Guises, the La Trémouilles, the +Châtillons, and others, but deprived of all the rights of the powerful +feudal vassals of the king of former times; the clergy had been reduced +to a condition of dependence upon the king by the concordat of 1516, +which made him the unique dispenser of benefices; the _tiers +état_--which included "the men of letters, who are called men of the +long robe; the merchants, the artisans, the people, and the +peasants"--had long been accustomed to obedience. "There had formerly +been only manants (rustics, clowns), seigneurs, and fiefs; there is now +a people, a king, and a France." + +"If the accession of François I was a great occasion for the men," says +M. de Lescure, "it was still more so for the ladies. In fact, it might +be said that they ascended the throne with the new king. Admitted for +the first time to the banquets, to the tourneys of the Hôtel des +Tournelles, this hardy innovation gave the measure of their new +destinies and of the credit reserved by the most gallant of monarchs for +the fairest half of the human species." Unfortunately, the king was not +inclined to make any distinctions among these new ornaments to his +court, and while his predecessors had made strenuous efforts to reduce +the license of manners, we find him issuing such edicts as this: + +"François, by the grace of God, King of France, to our friend and loyal +treasurer of our exchequer, Maître Jehan Duval, salutation and +dilection. We desire, and we command you, that from the deniers of our +aforesaid exchequer you pay, give, and deliver ready-money to Cécile de +Viefville, dame des filles de joie, attending our court, the sum of +forty-five livres tournois, making the value of twenty écus of gold sol +at forty-five sols apiece, of which we have made and do make by these +presents donation, as much for her as for the other women and girls of +her vocation, to divide among themselves as they may advise, and this +for their right for the month of May passed...." + +The court of the French kings itself is dated by their historians from +this reign. Before François I, it did not exist. "Grave councillors only +surrounded Louis XII, and the chaste Anne de Bretagne authorized around +her only rare and tranquil pleasures. François I wished to be followed +always by a troop so numerous that there were counted around the royal +residence rarely less than six thousand and sometimes as many as +eighteen thousand horses." By the brilliancy of its fêtes, this court +attracted to itself the châtelaines, up to this time forgotten in the +depths of their feudal castles. "At the beginning," says Mézeray, "this +had an excellent effect, this amiable sex having introduced into the +court politeness and courtesy, and imparting lively impulses of +generosity to those whose souls were more nobly constituted. But the +manners and customs became speedily corrupted; the offices, the +benefices, were distributed according to the whims of the women, and +they were the cause of the adoption of very pernicious maxims by the +government." + +The revival of the arts brought about by the Renaissance, and which +François I had the intelligence to appreciate and encourage, and the +somewhat greater sense of security in the body politic, combined to give +to this court, and to the wealthy citizens of the capital, such +extravagant luxury of dress and ornament that even this pleasure-loving +monarch felt constrained to promulgate sumptuary laws on various +occasions, an example which was followed by his son and successor, Henry +II. The edict of 1538 proscribed chains of gold of too great weight for +financiers and men of affairs, and it was intimated to them that it +would be better not "to make their daughters too handsome and too rich +when they married them." In 1543, the tissues of gold and silver were +forbidden for men, with the exception of the relatives of the monarch, +and this edict was renewed, four years later, by Henri II, greatly +amended and amplified and extended to all, high and low, excepting the +ladies in the queen's suite and the king's sister. In 1549, it was +renewed, with still greater detail concerning the costumes of the two +sexes. + +The abuse of masks was of long standing, Charles VI having been addicted +to their use, and in 1514, under Louis XII, the Parlement directed that +all these false visages in the city, wherever found, should be collected +and burned, and that, by order of the king, no more should be worn. +During the captivity of François I in Madrid, the members of the +Parlement set the example of reducing their style of living, limiting +the number of their horses, etc.; and so great was the suspicion and +distrust at this time, that a special edict was directed against the +mysterious strangers who were seen in the streets of the city, all with +long beards and carrying heavy sticks. The use of the latter was +strictly forbidden, and the wearing of the former, "which seemed to +conceal some pernicious designs against the peace of the State." Among +the minor social revolutions which this monarch effected, in consequence +of a wound received on his head, was that in the manner of wearing the +hair and beard, which had prevailed since the time of Louis VII; +François I reversed the ancient custom, and cut his hair short, but not +his beard. + +Paris, which had celebrated his accession with even more than the usual +ceremonial, jousts, and tourneys, was greatly alarmed at the threat of +the Connétable de Bourbon to march upon it with the allied forces of the +King of England and of Charles V. The king, to reassure them, sent them +the Sire de Brion, who declared to them that their monarch "had so much +consideration for the city of Paris that he would sacrifice himself +rather than allow it to be taken, that he was willing to expose his life +in order to defend it, to live and to die with the Parisians, and that, +if he could not come to it in person, he would send to it his wife, his +children, and his mother, and all that he had and possessed, persuaded +as he was that when he had lost the rest of the kingdom, he would +readily recover all his losses if he could preserve Paris; that he had +the intention to bring to it ten thousand Swiss, that he was aware of +the attachment which the Parlement and the city bore to his person, that +he thanked them for it, and exhorted them to continue a fidelity which +was so useful to him." + +All these fine words gave great pleasure to the citizens, and they were +thrown into corresponding consternation when the news was received, on +the 7th of March, 1525, that he had been taken prisoner at Pavia. His +mother, Louise de Savoie, subordinated the evil traits of her character +to constitute herself an intelligent regent; and on the 14th of April, +1527, the king made a triumphal re-entry into his capital after his +release. Some doubts seem to have been entertained as to the genuineness +of the welcome, for, it is recorded, the _prévôt_ of the merchants, the +_échevins_, and the school-masters were ordered to station, at a dozen +points on the route of the procession, groups of eighty or a hundred +children, who were to cry enthusiastically: "_Vive le roi!_" The +quibbling by which François endeavored to justify his refusal to carry +out the provisions of the treaty of Madrid, for which he had left his +two sons as hostages, deceived no one; Charles V very justly proclaimed +him a traitor and perjured, to which the king had no better answer than +that the emperor "lied in his throat," and that he would meet him in the +lists in single combat whenever he liked. + +The ransom of the two young princes cost one million two hundred +thousand écus, a sum which both the king and his capital found it very +difficult to raise. After the treaty of Cambrai, in 1529, François +endeavored to strengthen his position by foreign alliances, without any +regard for his standing as eldest son of the Church and persecutor of +Protestants. He made terms with Henry VIII of England, who had just +broken with the Holy See; and he acquired the friendship of the Pope by +demanding for his son, afterward Henri II, the hand of Catherine de +Médicis, niece of the pontiff. He renewed the ancient friendship with +the Scotch by giving his eldest daughter, afterward Marie de Lorraine, +to their king for wife. He even concluded a commercial treaty, and one +of alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Sultan Soliman, who +promised to aid, with all his power, his good friend, "the Padishah of +France." + +The first of the followers of Luther to be executed in Paris was burned +alive on the Place de Grève in March, 1525, and from this beginning the +persecution went on, by direction of the king, and even during his +absence, with a cruelty only tempered by the occasional necessity of +conciliating the Protestant allies of the nation. The Sorbonne ordered +that all the writings of Luther should be publicly burned on the Place +du Parvis Notre-Dame; and the king decreed that all persons having in +their possession any of the aforesaid heretical books should deliver +them up, under penalty of banishment and confiscation of all their +property. For the dreary spectacle of a nation and a city divided into +hostile factions, struggling through barbarism and crime to a political +unity and a more beneficent civilization, we have now, just when these +goals seemed to be on the point of being attained, the spectacle of the +same city and nation rent by religious faction, and relapsing into an +even crueller barbarism under all the specious glitter of the +civilization of the Renaissance. + +It seemed at first, however, as though the doctrines of the Reform might +find as stable a footing in France as they did in Germany. Among the +lettered and cultivated classes their conquests were rapid; even in the +court, the king's mother, Louise de Savoie, was not apparently disposed +to oppose them; his sister, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, and his dear +friend the Duchesse d'Étampes, were more or less openly inclined in +their favor; Clément Marot, the court poet, translated the Psalms of +David into French, which the Reformers sang at the Pré-aux-Clercs. Two +scholars greatly esteemed by François I, Lefebvre d'Étaples, who had +begun six years before Luther, and Louis de Berquin, considered by his +contemporaries as "the wisest of the nobility," publicly supported the +Reform doctrines. But the king, fearing in them an organized movement +against all authority, sacred or secular, soon withdrew his support; +Berquin was burned at the stake in the Place de Grève, and the Sorbonne +even ventured to pursue, with open prosecution and denunciation, and +with hidden satire in a comedy represented at the Collége de Navarre, +the king's sister for having caused her brother to adopt a book of +prayers translated into French and for having caused to be printed a +work of her own in verse: _Le Miroir de l'Ame pécheresse_. The Parlement +formally forbade the scholars of the Université to translate any of the +sacred books in Hebrew or Greek into French, as being a work of heresy. +In 1546, Etienne Dolet, the printer, was hanged and then burned, for +impiety and atheism, on the Place Maubert where his statue now stands. +There was even invented, for the benefit of the heretics, a refinement +of cruelty on the ordinary horrors of the stake,--a pulley over the +victim's head to which he was suspended by chains, so that he could +alternately be raised out of the flames and lowered into them again. +This was called _l'estrapade_. + +[Illustration: COSTUME FOR YOUNG GIRL. PERIOD, 1821. + +From a sketch by F. Courboin.] + +This reign witnessed one of those unjust condemnations of the royal +treasurer which had become so common in French history. Jacques de +Beaune, Seigneur de Semblançay, had succeeded his father in this +important post; Louis XII and François I alike had found every reason to +repose the utmost confidence in their financial officer, but the latter +monarch, and his mother, set no bounds to their lavish expenditure. In +1521, Lautrec, François's general in Italy, drew on the royal treasury +for four hundred thousand écus to pay his Swiss mercenaries. Semblançay +was about to send him the money, when he was summoned, according to the +generally received story, by Louise de Savoie, to hand it over to her, +which he did. Owing to the defection of his unpaid Swiss, Lautrec was +defeated at the Bicoque and lost the Milanaise; when bitterly reproached +by the king for his ill-success, the facts in the case came out. The +queen-mother admitted having received the money and applied it to her +own use, but she declared that it was a portion of her private funds +which she had previously deposited with the treasurer-general. +Semblançay was accordingly brought to trial, but, though he demonstrated +that the king was in his debt to the amount of three hundred thousand +livres, he was condemned for peculation and hung on the gibbet at +Montfaucon, notwithstanding his blameless life and his seventy-two +years. "I have, indeed, deserved death," he said, "for having served men +more faithfully than God." Clément Marot, the court poet, wrote an +epigram on the _juge d'enfer_ who had condemned this worthy servant of +the king, and a popular tumult was averted with difficulty; two years +later, the clerks whom the queen-mother had employed to steal her +receipts from the treasurer's coffers confessed, he was declared +innocent, and his confiscated property restored to his grandson. + +Charles V, who more than once threatened Paris with his victorious +arms,--in 1544 he was at Château-Thierry, twenty-four leagues from the +capital, and the affrighted citizens had begun to transport themselves +and their worldly goods to Orléans,--visited the city in peace, on the +1st of January, 1540, on his way to Flanders to subdue the revolted +burghers of Ghent. François was strongly tempted to break his royal +promises, as he had done once before, and retain so valuable a prisoner, +but confined himself to hints as to what he might do, and displayed on +the part of his court and his capital an ostentation of luxury almost +equal to that of the Field of the Cloth of Gold twenty years before, +when he had met Henry VIII of England--"that spot of blood and grease on +the pages of history." The capital, indeed, was much embellished and +made more healthful under François I; the municipality were enjoined to +pave and to clean the streets, and the king caused to be drawn up minute +regulations concerning the administration of the city, the fountains, +markets, slaughter-houses, gutters, etc. Nevertheless, the pest +prevailed throughout the whole of his reign. + +This gay monarch, who aspired to excel in all the accomplishments of a +chevalier, wrote verses in his lighter moments, but the celebrated +"_Souvent femme varie; bien fol est qui s'y fie_," said to have been +written with the diamond of his finger-ring on a window in the Château +d'Amboise, has been resolved into the very commonplace phrase: "_Toute +femme varie_," which Brantôme saw written by the royal hand on the +window-casing. In like manner, the pretty verses ascribed to Mary Queen +of Scots, on leaving France,-- + + "_Adieu, plaisant pays de France, + O ma patrie, + La plus chèrie,_" etc., + +were really written by a journalist named Meunier de Querlon. What the +young queen did say, as she saw the French coast sink below the horizon, +was: "_Adieu, chère France! je ne vous verrai jamais plus!_" + +The son of François I, who succeeded him, had all his father's defects +and none of his good qualities; his short reign is made memorable +chiefly by his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and the unusual manner of +his death. The former, whom he made Duchesse de Valentinois, and who +exercised in the court an authority quite denied to the queen, +maintained over her royal lover,--she had been the mistress of his +father,--notwithstanding her forty-eight years of age, an ascendency, by +her beauty and her intelligence, which her contemporaries ascribed to an +enchanted ring. She was nearly sixty years of age, and the king was in +his forty-first year when he wore her colors, the black and white of +widows, in the fatal tourney which he had commanded to celebrate the +wedding of his eldest daughter, Elisabeth de France, to Philippe II, +King of Spain, already twice widowed. The lists were set up across the +Rue Saint-Antoine, from the Palais des Tournelles almost to the Bastile, +with great amphitheatres of seats on each side for the spectators. The +king, who excelled in bodily exercises, had distinguished himself during +the first two days; on the third, the jousting was completed, when he +happened to see two lances still unbroken, and commanded the captain of +his guards, Gabriel, Comte de Montgomery, to take one of them and tilt +with him "for the love of the ladies." Montgomery protested, but the +king insisted, and as they came together the former did not lower his +arm quickly enough, and the broken shaft of his lance, glancing up from +the king's breast-plate, lifted his visor and inflicted a mortal wound +over the right eye. Eleven days afterward, he died, and Montgomery paid +with his life for his inadvertence. + +[Illustration: LADY IN HOUSE-ROBE. PERIOD, 1816. + +From a sketch by F. Courboin.] + +Henry "was not yet dead when Catherine de Médicis sent to Diane de +Poitiers an order to restore the crown-jewels, and to retire to one of +her châteaux. 'What!' she exclaimed, 'is the king dead?' 'No, madame, +but he soon will be.' 'So long as he has a finger living,' she replied, +'I wish that my enemies should know that I do not fear them, and that I +will not obey them whilst he is alive. My courage is still invincible. +But when he is dead, I no longer wish to live after him.' + +"She did live, however, but she made haste to leave Paris, and withdrew +to her Château d'Anet." + +The king's death occurred in the midst of his plans to resume the +persecution of the heretics, plans which he had so much at heart that he +had not hesitated to conclude the unfortunate treaty of +Cateau-Cambrésis, in the same year, in order to be at liberty to engage +in this crusade against his own subjects. "Sire," said his generals, +Guise and Brissac, as the treaty was signed, "you are giving away in one +day what could not be taken from you in thirty years of reverses." But +Henri "was more religious than the Pope," for, the sovereign pontiff +having sent the Parisians a bull by which he granted them permission to +eat butter, cheese, and eggs during the approaching Lent, the king was +scandalized at this license; the Garde des Sceaux directed the +Lieutenant Criminel to publish, by the public criers, a decree +forbidding the printing and circulating of this bull, and the document +was even publicly burned by order of the king and the Parlement. + +Among the ceremonials of public rejoicing attending the wedding of Henri +with Catherine de Médicis was the illuminating, by the royal hand, of +the fire on the eve of Sainte-Jean, on the Place de Grève, in which the +lamentable cries of the cats confined in a basket, and thus consumed, +filled the populace with the wildest delight. Their appetite for cruelty +was soon to be much more fully gratified, for arrangements were made, +after high mass at Notre-Dame and the State banquet in the episcopal +palace, to burn as many Protestants at the stake at once, at several +places, as was possible. Among these unfortunates was a journeyman +tailor, who had been summoned before the king, and reproached by him for +listening to heretical doctrines; when Diane de Poitiers, who had been +instrumental in causing his arrest, also began to harangue him, the +tailor suddenly broke silence: "Madame," said he, "content yourself with +having infested France, and do not bring your ordure to mingle with +things as sacred as the truth of God." He was consequently given one of +the posts of honor among the victims, his stake being erected in the Rue +Saint-Antoine, nearest the window of the Hôtel de la Roche-Pot, from +which the king watched the executions, and it is related that, +notwithstanding his atrocious sufferings, he fixed upon the monarch, +from amidst the flames, so steadfast and terrible a look that Henri +withdrew from the window, declaring that he would never be present at +another _auto-da-fé_. This did not signify, however, that he would order +no more. + +Both François and Henri had formed, and partially carried out, various +enlightened measures for the embellishment of the capital and its +environs, the rebuilding of the Louvre, the completion of Fontainebleau, +the improvement of the navigation of the Seine, etc. Henri ordered the +demolition of the old royal residence, the Palais des Tournelles, and +its pestiferous moats were filled up. He is represented as being +inordinately fond of processions, and every event, of good or bad omen, +was made a pretence for one of these public displays. Catherine de +Médicis had brought with her from Tuscany a taste for luxury, letters, +and the arts; Philibert Delorme, whom the French consider the second of +their great architects, and who, under her orders, began, in 1564, the +construction of the Tuileries, testifies to "the exceeding pleasure +which she took in architecture, designing and sketching out the plans +and profiles of the edifices she intended to erect." + +Under the reign of Henri II began the rise in importance, and the +frequent appearance in the national councils, of the great families +afterward so prominent in the wars of the League. The Connétable de +Montmorency, the Maréchal de Saint-André, and the Guises, younger branch +of the ducal house of Lorraine, who at this period claimed to be only +the heirs of the house of Anjou, but who, later, asserted themselves to +be descendants of Charlemagne, monopolized the royal favors and the +royal authority. The eldest of Henri's sons, François II, during his +brief reign of seventeen months, confided the military administration of +his kingdom to François, Duc de Guise, who had retaken Calais from the +English, and defended Metz against Charles V, and the "civil affairs" to +his brother Charles, cardinal, and possessor of no less than a dozen +benefices in the Church. The house of Bourbon, which might have disputed +this ascendency with them, was temporarily in disgrace because of the +treason of the Connétable, under François I, and the Duc de Montmorency +had lost the important battle of Saint-Quentin against the Imperialists, +in 1557, and was advanced in years. To these malcontents was added the +Prince de Condé, and the higher nobility were all indignant at seeing +the domination of France in the hands of foreigners,--the queen-mother, +Italian; the young wife of François II, Scotch, and the Guises, +Lorrainers. To add to their ill-humor, these foreigners, as foreigners, +claimed the precedence in matters of etiquette, and the right to walk in +procession immediately after the princes of the blood, before the chiefs +of the most illustrious houses of France. + +[Illustration: COSTUME OF 1830. From a water-color by Maurice Leloir.] + +Catherine de Médicis had preserved, amidst the intrigues and debauchery +of the court, but one wholesome moral sentiment,--a passionate love for +her children. The long course of mortifications which she had had to +endure at the hands of Diane de Poitiers "had effaced in her all +distinctions between good and evil." To preserve the royal power in the +hands of her sons, three of whom succeeded to the throne in somewhat +rapid succession, she considered all means legitimate. For a brief space +of time she saw herself excluded from her ascendency over the king by +the young queen, Marie Stuart, daughter of James V of Scotland and Marie +de Lorraine, whom Henri II had married to his son to assure the alliance +of Scotland against England. The discontent against the Guises led to +the "conspiracy of Amboise," in 1560, easily suppressed and punished +with the utmost severity; the young king wept at the incessant +executions, but the pretty young queen, as seems to be proven by her +"Letters," secretly approved. The queen-mother, more intelligent, gave +the keeping of the seals to the Chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital, who +opposed the proposition of the Guises to set up the Inquisition in +France, and convoked the nobles at Fontainebleau to organize the +opposition. The civil wars were inaugurated. + +François II died on December 5, 1560; Mary of Scots went back to her +native land, weeping bitterly, and the queen-mother assumed the regency, +as her second son, Charles IX, was then only ten years and six months of +age. He was not without good parts, he had an inclination for _les +belles lettres_, fostered in him by his preceptor, Amyot, who had +translated Plutarch, and one of his favorites was the poet, Pierre de +Ronsard. The mutual outrages and exasperations, the changing fortunes of +the incessant wars between Catholics and Huguenots, gradually led up to +the calamity of the Saint-Bartholomew; in 1567, five years before, the +young king was nearly captured by the chiefs of the Reformed religion, +escaping with difficulty to his capital and to his palace of the Louvre. +To cement the peace of Saint-Germain, signed in 1570, and which granted +such favorable terms to the Protestants that the Catholic party +protested fiercely, a marriage was arranged between the son of Jeanne +d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, Henri de Béarn, and the king's sister, +Marguerite, the Reine Margot of the chroniclers. The Queen of Navarre +and her son, followed by the Admiral Coligny and a host of the leaders +among the Huguenots, came to Paris; the protestations of friendship with +which they were received by the king inflamed still more the passions of +the partisans of the Guises, and the sudden death of Jeanne d'Albret, +attributed to poison, but probably caused by a pulmonary affection, only +served to increase the universal apprehension and suspicion. + +The marriage was postponed, but celebrated a week later, on the 17th of +August, 1572, with great pomp; the bridegroom took up his lodgings in +the Louvre, but, five days later, Coligny, returning to his little hôtel +in the Rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, was fired at by an +assassin named Maurevert in the pay of the Guises, receiving one ball in +the left arm and losing the index finger of his right hand by another. +The excessive grief and concern manifested by the king seems to have +disarmed his suspicions; but Catherine, aided by the leaders of the +Catholic party, was incessantly urging her son to seize the opportunity +thus within his grasp, and, by exterminating all the enemies of the true +religion, at once avert from France the horrors of a fourth civil war. +"The king resisted; his mother quoted to him the Italian proverb that +mildness is often cruelty, and cruelty mildness; then she threatened to +leave the court with her other son, the Duc d'Anjou, so as not to +witness the ruin of her house, so as to no longer have before her eyes +such cowardice and imbecility. She had well calculated the effect of +this last taunt upon a violent spirit. Charles, until then motionless +and sombre, suddenly exclaimed, that, if it were found advisable to kill +the admiral, he wished that all the Huguenots in France might be killed, +'so that not one should be left to reproach him.'" It was agreed to +exempt from the massacre the King of Navarre, the new brother-in-law of +Charles, and the young Prince de Condé, but on the condition that both +of them returned to the Catholic religion. + +All the necessary measures had been taken by the Guises and by the +municipality of the city; the signal was to be given from the Palais de +Justice, by the first stroke of the tocsin after midnight, on the +morning of Sunday, the 24th of August, the day of Saint-Barthélemy, and +the Catholics were to be designated by white handkerchiefs on their arms +and white crosses in their hats. But the killing began under the walls +of the Louvre before the appointed hour, and Catherine sent hastily to +the neighboring church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois with orders to give +the signal. The Duc de Guise had reserved for himself the honor of +superintending the murder of Coligny, then helpless from his wounds, and +he immediately hastened to the Hôtel de Ponthieu, where the admiral was +lodged, burst in the doors, had the old man murdered and flung out of +the window and his head struck off. + +There are various authorities, among them D'Aubigné, for the story that +the king fired with a long arquebus from one of the windows of the +Louvre upon the fleeing Huguenots. "He took great pleasure," says +Brantôme, "in seeing from his windows more than four thousand corpses, +killed or drowned, floating down the river." The same chronicler relates +that when, on the 27th, in company with his mother and a number of +seigneurs, he visited the gibbet of Montfaucon to inspect the corpse of +the admiral, there hanging in chains, he did not, like all the others, +stop his nose, but said: "I do not as you all do, for the smell of an +enemy is always pleasant." He had, perhaps, borrowed the phrase from +Aulus Vitellius, visiting the battle-field of Bedriac. + +"Women who were enceinte were ripped open, that the little Huguenots +might be snatched from their wombs, to be thrown, to be devoured, to +pigs and dogs. In those houses in which none were left alive but +children, these infants were piled into large baskets, and then thrown +from the bridges into the river. There might be seen frightful little +boys, ten years of age, strangling the babies in the cradles, or +dragging them through the streets by a cord around their necks." + +The number of slain in the city of Paris was variously estimated at from +two thousand to ten. The murders did not cease entirely until the 17th +of September, and, with the exception of some districts, in which the +officials refused to carry out their orders, extended throughout France. +The victims were by no means all Huguenots; the opportunities offered to +private vengeance were too great, and rivals, debtors, thieves, and a +horde of criminals covered their crimes with the cloak of religion. Two +years later, the king died, at the age of twenty-four, tormented in his +last moments by remorse, and cared for only by his old Huguenot nurse. + +Even in this horrible business, there were not wanting reassuring +touches of human nature. The fine story which Dumas _père_ tells with so +much spirit in his _Reine Margot_, of the wounded gentleman, pursued by +the assassins, seeking refuge in the very bed-chamber of this queen, and +saved by her, is quite true, if we may believe the recital of the queen +herself (_Historic Memoirs: Margaret of Valois_). His name was Monsieur +de Nançay, and she was obliged to change her chemise, as he had bloodied +it in clinging to her! In the conspiracy to prevent the return of the +King of Poland, afterward Henri III, to France in the eventuality of the +death of Charles, of which conspiracy the youngest royal brother, the +Duc d'Alençon, was the head, there were two gentlemen, Joseph de +Boniface, Sieur de la Mole, who was Queen Marguerite's lover, and the +Comte de Coconas, an Italian, who was loved by the Duchesse de Nevers. +The story of the trial and execution of these two, and even the ghastly +incident of the preservation of the severed head of the lover, are also +founded on facts. + +The massacre of Saint-Bartholomew has found apologists, even at this +late day,--an historical work issued by the house of Firmin-Didot, in +1898, purporting to give an impartial résumé of the acts of the League +during the reigns of Henri III and Henri IV, declares that the people +took part in this tragedy because "their zeal had been misled," and they +believed that they were going, not to massacre, but to battle "against +enemies who menaced their faith and their liberty." The League, +according to this champion of the Church, M. V. de Chalambert, "was at +once legitimate in its principles, energetic and sagacious in its acts, +in its faith;" ... "if the family of Lorraine had the signal honor of +personifying, during a space of nearly fifty years, the Catholic cause +in France, it owed this honor to the faith, to the sincere zeal, and to +the great qualities of its princes, not to the schemes of ambition." A +more important work, the _History of the Princes of Condé_, by the Duc +d'Aumale, in seven volumes, is much more impartial, though the +distinguished author's sympathies are naturally enlisted in this +subject. He quotes with just appreciation the answer of the young Prince +of Condé, Henri de Bourbon, to Charles IX after the massacre, when the +king summoned him before him and curtly gave him his choice: "_Messe, +mort, ou Bastille?_" (the mass, death, or the Bastile.) "God will not +permit, my king and my seigneur, that I should select the first. As for +the other two, they are at your discretion, which may God temper with +His Providence." + +"The intellectual life of the people," says the author of the _Mémoires +du peuple français_, "had gained, rather than lost, amid the terrible +emotions of public affairs. In the interiors of the houses, everything +demonstrated that literature, the arts, the sciences, commerce, and +industry were far from having succumbed during the long crises of the +preceding reigns." It was during the reign of Charles IX that the +beginning of the year was fixed at the first of January, by an edict +issued in 1564. It had previously been considered as commencing at +Easter. + +Henri de Navarre and the young Duc d'Alençon were retained as prisoners +in the Louvre, where they amused themselves by flying quails in their +rooms and making love to the ladies. The young prince escaped first, on +the evening of the 15th of September, 1575, but the king did not succeed +in evading the vigilance of his keepers till the following February, +when he took advantage of a hunt in the forest of Senlis, to ride to +rejoin _Monsieur_, his young brother-in-law, and the Prince de Condé, +thus abjuring the vows of the Church, which he had taken under +compulsion. The _Paix de Monsieur_ which followed, signed on the 17th of +April, 1576, granted the followers of Luther and Calvin the free +exercise of their religion everywhere, "as much as they would have +acquired by gaining two battles against the court of France." To the +zealous Catholics this peace seemed like a betrayal of their cause, and +the _Sainte Ligue_, for the maintenance of the privileges of the Church +and the king, was organized throughout the country under the auspices of +Henri de Guise, who placed himself at the head of the movement. + +Henri III, who had fled from his throne of Poland to take that of +France as soon as he heard of the death of his brother, had not even the +few good qualities of the latter. Depraved, prodigal, effeminate, +capable only of the most puerile occupations, he excited the indignation +of the Parisians by his dissolute manners, by his travesty of feminine +apparel, his fine collars, his necklaces of pearls, his pourpoint opened +to show his throat. D'Aubigné declared that he could not decide whether +he saw "a woman-king or a man-queen." In his solemn entry into his +capital he scandalized the grave citizens by his appearance, "having +around him a great quantity of parakeets, monkeys, and little dogs." His +courtiers and favorites naturally followed his example, and shared the +popular disfavor; in 1576, the Parisians began to designate them as +_mignons du roi_. Their worthy master, whenever it arrived to one of +them to be killed in duel or ambuscade, contented himself with giving +him a fine tomb and a marble statue in the church of Saint-Paul, hence +called "the seraglio of the mignons," so that, says De Thou, "the usual +threat against one of these favorites was: 'I will have him carved in +marble like the others.'" + +[Illustration: STAIRCASE IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE VICOMTESSE ALIX DE +JANZÉ, RUE MARIGNAN. ABOUT TO BE PRESENTED, WITH ITS COLLECTION, TO THE +CITY.] + +To thwart the schemes of the Guises, who had begun to plot for the +succession to the throne, the king placed himself at the head of the +League, and created his Order of the Saint-Esprit in hopes of winning +partisans in both camps. His brother, now Duc d'Anjou, died in 1584, +after an unsuccessful expedition into the Low Countries; the Duc de +Guise concluded the treaty of Joinville with Philippe II of Spain, in +the same year, in which the high contracting parties agreed to extirpate +sects and heresies; to exclude from the throne of France heretic +princes, or those who promised public impunity to heretics, and to +assure the succession of the Valois to Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon. The +cardinal was put forward as a stalking-horse, to be discarded at the +right moment. And yet after the _eighth_ civil war, that "of the three +Henrys," the duke had the courage, or the assurance, to come to demand +an audience of the king at Blois, and was poniarded by the +Quarante-Cinq, the royal body-guard, in the antechamber. The next day, +his brother, the cardinal, was killed with halberds, and the two bodies +were burned that there might be no relics. + +Catherine de Médicis, if we may believe the historians, had an undoubted +talent for epigrams. When it was announced to her erroneously, as it +afterward proved, that the battle of Dreux, in 1562, had been won by the +Huguenots, she remarked, placidly: "Well, we shall have to pray God in +French." When her son hastened to inform her after this notable +assassination: "I have become, again, King of France, madame, having had +killed the King of Paris," she replied: "It is not enough to cut out, my +son; you must sew up." Henri did not know how to sew up; the League was +far from being killed, the city of Paris, filled with fury and +resentment at this murder, publicly disowned him and closed its gates +against him. In one of the many nocturnal processions in its streets, a +hundred thousand persons, it is said, carrying lighted torches, +extinguished them all at once at a signal, crying, with one voice: "God +extinguish thus the race of Valois!" He was obliged to seek an alliance +with the Béarnais; the two kings laid siege to the capital, and a +fanatical Dominican monk, Jacques Clément, having gained access to the +tent of Henri III by forged letters, buried a knife in his bowels. He +died in the night, having previously made his attendants swear to +recognize the King of Navarre as King of France. His mother had died six +months before, "despair in her soul." + +Of Henri IV, "manly and humane by natural gifts, as well as by worldly +experience," there are innumerable anecdotes related to illustrate his +somewhat contradictory character. He is even found apologizing for +Catherine de Médicis. One day, in 1600, the Président de Groulard was +recalling to the king the memory of the many ills that she had brought +upon France. "But," said the Béarnais, "I should like to ask you, what +could a poor woman do who had, by the death of her husband, been left +with five small children on her hands and two families who were +endeavoring to wrest the crown from them, ours and that of the Guises? +Was she not obliged to make use of strange personages to outwit both of +them, and yet to preserve, as she did, her children, who reigned +successively, thanks to the discreet conduct of so sagacious a woman? I +wonder that she did not do even worse!" His perpetual pecuniary +difficulties, so common to kings of France, developed in him other +qualities. L'Estoile relates that his fine horses were returned to him +in Paris because there were no funds with which to provide for them. The +king turned to M. d'O, the Governor of Paris, and asked him how this +came to be. "Sire," replied the latter, "there is no money." "My +condition," said the king, "is, indeed, deplorable! I shall presently be +obliged to go naked and on foot." Then, turning to a _valet de chambre_, +he asked him how many shirts he possessed. "A dozen, sire; some of them +are torn." "And handkerchiefs, have I not eight?" "At present, there are +only five." "One night, when D'Aubigné and La Force were sleeping near +the King of Navarre, the former complained bitterly to the second of +their master's stinginess. La Force, overwhelmed with fatigue, was not +listening. 'Do you not hear what I am saying?' asked D'Aubigné. La +Force, rousing himself, demanded the subject of his discourse. 'Eh! he +is telling thee,' said the king, who had heard it all, 'that I am a +skinflint [_un ladre vert_], and the most ungrateful mortal on the face +of the earth.' 'He did not manifest any resentment toward me,' adds +D'Aubigné; 'but neither did he give me a quarter of an écu the more.'" + +[Illustration: INVITATION TO THE FUNERAL OF A MAN. PERIOD OF CHARLES X. + +Fac-simile of a lithograph, by Perrin, printed by Girod. A companion +form exhibits a young man seated, in lieu of the young woman.] + +His second marriage, with Marie de Médicis, a niece of the Pope, was no +more happy than royal marriages usually were. The pontiff had granted +him a divorce from Marguerite de Valois, whose conduct was thought to be +too frivolous even for those times; and the royal nuptials were +solemnized at Florence in October, 1600, and greatly fêted in Paris the +following January. "A dull woman, who brought him neither heart nor +beauty nor wit, but the largest dot that could then be found (six +hundred thousand écus of gold, equivalent to eighteen or twenty millions +of francs to-day)." "His mistresses--less by their beauty than by +gaiety and good humor--held an influence over him which probably she +herself might have acquired, could she have curbed her violent temper. +But not only did she rave and rage, and assail him with angry words, it +was even necessary to restrain her from the too free use of her hands. +And her blows were far from being light ones, for, as Henri once +jestingly said, she was 'terribly robust.'" His conjugal inconstancy +was, indeed, flagrant. _La belle Gabrielle_, Madame de Liancourt, +afterward made Marquise de Mousseaux, the most celebrated of his +mistresses, was declared by him to be the only woman he ever really +loved, and, say the chronicles, "he used to caress her greatly and kiss +her before everybody," but she had plenty of successors. One of them, +the Marquise de Verneuil, was obliged to be present in the queen's train +on the day of her coronation, as was, also, the divorced Marguerite de +France; and on the very morning of his assassination, the king, now +grizzled and bent, went to pay a visit to a newer beauty to whom he was +paying court, Mlle. Angélique Paulet, daughter of the secretary of State +who originated the celebrated financial measure named, after him, _la +paulette_. + +Nevertheless, it is related that on the day of her coronation, in 1610, +when Marie de Médicis passed up the nave of the cathedral of +Saint-Denis, flushed with pride and triumph, and wearing regally the +royal mantle and jewels, Henri, who was present only as a spectator, +turned to Sully, his minister and friend, and said, with animation: +"_Ventre-saint-gris! Qu'elle est belle!_" It may be remarked that the +king's favorite oath was said to have been invented for him by the +churchmen, that he might not be guilty of blasphemy,--neither Saint-Gris +nor his stomach being known to the calendar. + +After having paid his visit to Mademoiselle Paulet, the king ordered his +carriage, to go and see how the preparations for the 16th of May--the +day of the public entrance into the capital of the newly-crowned Queen +of France--were progressing. It is said that he had a superstitious +presentiment concerning carriages, and but very seldom used them; there +were not wanting other warnings, one from the astrologers, and his heart +was unusually heavy. He had already escaped nineteen attempts at +assassination. The coaches of those days had no glass windows, and were +clumsy boxes, mounted on four immense wheels, and either set without +springs or suspended on broad leathern bands. The king, who was +accompanied by the ducs d'Épernon and de Montbazon and five other +gentlemen, ordered the leathern curtains at the sides to be rolled up; +at the corner of the Rue Saint-Honoré and the narrow Rue de la +Ferronnerie there was a temporary blockade caused by two wagons, one +laden with wine and the other with hay,--Ravaillac took advantage of the +halt to mount with one foot on one of the spokes of the hind wheel on +the side where the king was sitting and stabbed him three times, though +the second stroke was instantly mortal. + +The consternation was general and overwhelming, and with reason. "There +might be seen men, as if struck by lightning, suddenly fall unconscious +in the middle of the streets; several persons died very suddenly." + +Henri III was the first King of France who made use of a carriage, but +horses and mules long remained the favorite means of transportation for +those who did not go afoot. Sober personages, magistrates and burghers, +rode mules, and the ladies were loath to give up their hackneys for the +new machines. Sauval, in his _Antiquités de Paris_, relates that he had +been informed by a certain ancient dame--Madame Pilon--that there were +no coaches in Paris until after the time of the League, some sixteen +years before the death of Henri IV, and that the first person to appear +in one was a relative of her own, the daughter of a wealthy apothecary +of the Rue Saint-Antoine. Glass windows for them were not used till the +reign of Louis XIV, who sent a coach so furnished as a gift to Charles +II of England. The usage of tobacco began to be general under Henri IV, +and soon became so excessive that the strongest measures were taken +against those addicted to this habit. The beard of this monarch was also +considered an offensive innovation by his Catholic subjects, and is even +said to be responsible for more than one of the fanatical attempts on +his life. His Huguenot subjects, however, "drew a hope from his +continuance to wear it that their renegade chief might yet be of the +number of the predestined." + +"A hundred virtues of a valet, and not one virtue of a master," said +Tallemant des Réaux of Henri's son, Louis XIII, as he grew to manhood. +In two very recent publications on this historical period, M. Berthold +Zeller, drawing his details from the contemporary reports of the +Florentine and Venetian ambassadors at the court of France, presents a +striking picture of the feebleness and ineptitude of the young king, +even after the date of the official ending of his minority, October 2, +1614, and of the subtlety, quite Italian, with which the queen-mother +played her part amid the intrigues of her followers and her adversaries. +M. Louis Batiffol, in an article in the _Revue de Paris_, December, +1896, comments on a collection of manuscripts which he has found in the +Bibliothèque Nationale, communications furnished by Louis XIII to the +_Gazette_, published by Renaudot, on various military transactions. The +communications were all edited, and not printed from these originals, +because, although he was very fond of writing for the new art of +printing, the king was "absolutely destitute of orthography, and was +ignorant of the simplest rules of grammar. He wrote stiffly and with +great care, in letters thin and long, more than a centimètre in length, +he re-read, erased, and corrected in pencil the most awkward phrases, +but his style remained at the end that of a child." Before being sent to +the printer, these royal communications were corrected by one of his +secretaries, M. Lucas, and afterward went through the hands of +Richelieu. Nevertheless, M. Batiffol finds that these articles give "a +very favorable impression of a king who presents so unimportant a +figure in history and yet who did not lack for real qualities,"--an +impression of impassibility, of self-control under all circumstances, +and of a very serious application to the details of the affairs that +came before him. "He was a soldier devoted to his profession, a true +soldier, who loved the whistling of bullets, and would remain all night +on horseback under a beating rain if he expected an attack from the +enemy." + +[Illustration: AFTER THE COTILLION. + +After a water-color by Maurice Bonvoison; "Mars."] + +He was also a superior market-gardener, and prided himself on having the +earliest and finest spring vegetables, superintending all the details of +their cultivation himself. None of these early crops, however, appeared +on his own table, but were furnished, at fancy prices, to such luxurious +consumers as the wealthy Pierre de Puget, Seigneur de Montauron, +Conseiller du roi. One day, in 1628, being, as usual, at a loss for +occupation, and having successfully concocted a _fricandeau_ for dinner, +he amused himself by shaving all his courtiers, leaving them only a +little tuft on the chin. This, naturally, set the fashion for beards for +some time. + +It also became the custom for gentlemen to perfume themselves, to +disguise the odor of the pipe, which was now coming into general use. In +October, 1645, the King of Poland sent a magnificent embassy, with an +escort of four hundred cavaliers, to Paris to demand in marriage the +hand of Marie-Louise de Gonzague, daughter of Charles I, Duke of Mantua, +and Catherine de Lorraine; a formal entry into the city was arranged, +and the Parisians were much impressed with the grand costumes of the +Polish nobility,--"their stuffs were embossed with gold and silver, and +precious stones glittered from every portion of their adornment, whilst +the French nobility, which came out to meet them, displayed only plumes +and ribbons." Nevertheless, it appeared that the French nobles had +shaved themselves and washed their hands, which the Poles had forgotten +to do. This mediæval lack of cleanliness continued down to the time of +Louis XIV; Marguerite de Navarre, in a pretty, amorous dialogue of her +composition, makes the fair lady admit that she had not washed her hands +for a week. + +[Illustration: IN THE RUE BLANCHE.] + +The court of France was, at this period, the most depraved in morals, +the grossest and most unpolished in manners, of any in Europe. The women +of the bourgeoisie, envious of the great ladies, called them _dames à +gorge nue_; and the latter retaliated by designating the women of the +people as _grisettes_, because of their gray (_grises_) stockings,--a +name retained almost down to the present day. In the sittings of the +_États Généraux_, the President, Miron, complained bitterly of the +excesses of the nobility, the contempt for justice, the open violences, +the gambling, the extravagance, the constant duels, the "execrable oaths +with which they thought it proper to ornament their usual discourse." It +was from this general ignorance and corruption that the Marquise de +Rambouillet withdrew in disgust, and established in her own hôtel that +famous society of arts and letters and refinement--somewhat stilted and +artificial--which constituted it the true court of France. "Instituted +certainly before 1620," says M. Victor Cousin, "it sparkled with the +utmost brilliancy for thirty years." + +In 1612, the queen-mother, Marie de Médicis, then regent, arranged a +double Spanish marriage for two of her children: the Princess Elisabeth, +a child of twelve, was sent to Spain to wed the Prince of the Asturias, +afterward Philip IV, and Louis brought back to Paris "a fine tall girl, +a Spanish blonde, wanting yet two or three summers for the full +development of her beauty," Anne d'Autriche. Though he was as faithful +to his marriage vows as Saint-Louis, it is said, he seems to have always +maintained for his wife a profound contempt, and, when the little Louis +XIV was born, refused to take the infant in his arms, or to kiss it, +which wounded the mother more than all his previous neglect. His +treatment of his own mother in her later days was even more +reprehensible; she was banished, and left in indigence and humiliation +till her death, at Cologne, July 3, 1642. Her sole piece of jewelry, a +cross surrounded with diamonds, and containing a piece of the true +cross, she bequeathed to her daughter Henrietta, wife of Charles I of +England. It was through Marie de Médicis, whom he afterward opposed so +consistently, that the Bishop of Luçon, afterward Cardinal Richelieu, +first was called to court, and during the king's minority and tutelage +the government was administered by "the three robes," the queen-mother, +the Bishop of Luçon, and the wife of the Italian favorite Concini, the +Maréchal d'Ancre, killed on the drawbridge of the Louvre when he became +too overbearing and obnoxious. + +[Illustration: AFTER A MORNING MEETING IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE. From the +painting by Nicolas Sicard.] + +"The distinguishing characteristic of the _Siècle de Louis XIV_," says +M. Maxime Petit, in his review of the important work by Émile Bourgeois, +_Le Grand Siècle_, "that which Voltaire selected as the most important, +is not the history of the negotiations and the battles, but that of +the manners and customs, the ideas, the beliefs, the letters, and the +arts.... Never, perhaps, more than in the time of Louis XIV was there a +more complete harmony between the ideas and the life. The political +forces are thoroughly disciplined, and the principle of authority, which +Richelieu had developed to its fullest extent, reigns uncontested. +Polite society--the only one to be considered--believes itself to be in +possession of absolute rules, and, in the court as in the city, the +heart abdicates in favor of reason." "When one speaks of the seventeenth +century in France," says M. Louis Farges, "it appears, to those who are +neither historians nor professional scholars, as one of those rare +epochs in which all the forces of the nation concentrate and develop in +a serene and majestic unity. France seems, then, to be at the summit of +her political power, of her intellectual and artistic development, of +her religious and philosophical unity. Taken altogether, and in a very +general manner, this is a very just idea; ... it must be admitted that +at no other epoch has the genius of France manifested itself in the +divers branches of human activity in a manner so complete, so abundant, +and so united." "France was really," says M. Duruy, "at the head of +modern civilization, and, by the recognized superiority of her genius +and of her taste, she caused to be accepted by the whole of Europe the +pacific empire of her artists and of her writers." + +[Illustration: PARISIENNE. From a drawing by L. Marold.] + +Apparently, at least, the visible instrument that accomplished this +great result was the dogma of absolute power, the monarchical régime; +the king was the earthly image of God, divine, inviolable: _loyalisme_ +was a veritable religion, it had its symbols, its mysteries, and its +rites. "If the king were not afraid of the devil," said Saint-Simon, "he +would cause himself to be worshipped." This faith and this worship were +already manifested "in their incomparable splendor by the ceremonies +attending the opening of the _États Généraux_ in 1614, dominated, not, +as in 1789, by the august and abstract idea of the nation, but by the +pale and melancholy figure of a boy of thirteen." For the tremendous +and elaborate pomp of his court, the ceremonial ostentation which hedged +around his own redoubtable figure, the tedious and suffocating etiquette +which attended all approach to his person, Louis XIV himself had very +definite reasons, which he expressed with an appreciable logic in his +_Mémoires_. "Those who deem that these are only matters of ceremony +deceive themselves greatly. The people over whom we reign, not being +able to penetrate to the depths of things, form their judgments usually +on that which they see on the surface, and most frequently measure their +respect and their obedience by precedence and rank. As it is important +to the public to be governed by one only, it is also of importance to it +that he who fills this function should be elevated in such a manner +above the others that there should be no person who can be either +confounded or compared with him, and it is not possible, without injury +to the whole body of the State, to deprive its chief of the slightest +marks of superiority which distinguish him from all the other members." + +Hence, three conditions were imposed absolutely upon all those who +sought in any way to find favor with the head of the State,--to ask and +to obtain a residence at Versailles; to follow the court everywhere, +even when sick, even when dying, and to approve of everything. Of the +universal abasement of spirit which this régime brought about, the +memoirs of the time are full. La Bruyère said: "Whoever considers how +the happiness of the courtier lies wholly in the face of the prince, +that he makes it the one occupation of his life to look on it, and to be +seen by it, may, in some degree, comprehend how, in looking on the face +of God, consists all the glory and happiness of the saint." The Duc de +Richelieu wrote: "I pray the king on my knees that he will permit me to +come sometimes to pay my court to him, for I had rather die than be two +months without seeing him." A court-preacher, preaching one day before +the king on the familiar topic, dwelt upon it: "We shall all die, all, +all!" A sudden and involuntary movement of the monarch reminded him that +he had touched upon a theme displeasing to royalty. In his dismay and +confusion he hastened to qualify his assertion: "Yes, sire, almost all." +Louis XIV, it is said, looked forward to continuing his _rôle_ of Grand +Monarque, even in the next world. + +[Illustration: "AUX COURSES." By F. Fournery.] + +His education had been much neglected in his youth,--it was said, +designedly, by Mazarin, who wished to perpetuate his own powder. One of +the first of the royal preceptors, M. Le Vayer, discovered that Louis +was less intelligent than his younger brother, Philippe, and proposed to +devote himself to developing the character of the latter, but was +speedily checked by the astute cardinal. Like his mother, Anne of +Austria, the king had but little taste for literature. "Of what use is +reading?" he said one day to the Maréchal de Vivonne. His appetites, +however, were fully developed. The Duchesse d'Orléans relates that she +had very frequently seen him eat, at one sitting, four platefuls of +different soups, an entire pheasant, a partridge, a great dish of salad, +a dish of mutton with its gravy, garnished with garlic, two good pieces +of ham, a large plateful of pastry, and end with fruit and preserves. +However, he drank only water reddened with a little wine. The _état de +maîtresse en titre du roi_ was as formally recognized in his court as +that of confessor or chamberlain. Frequently there were two at once. The +"three queens" were legitimate objects of curiosity to all those who +were permitted to bask in the royal sunshine. Madame de la Vallière, +perceiving herself to be gradually superseded by Madame de Montespan, +fled to a convent three times, and was finally permitted to remain +there; M. de Montespan, having vainly attempted to remove his wife from +court, was sent to the Bastile, and on his release was ordered to his +estate. There he put on mourning, as though she were dead, which the +king considered a great affront. His wife graciously made use of her +influence at court to procure a renewal of the pension of the widow +Scarron, only to see her ultimately appointed guardian of the king's +children and succeed her in her position, as Madame de Maintenon. + +"Violating all laws, civil and religious," says Duruy, "the king placed +on a level with the princes of the blood the princes _legitimized_. He +forced the court to respect the one as equal to the other; and the +public morality received a blow from which it was very slow to recover." +These lessons were not lost, and the annals of the nobility are full of +scandalous examples. The ducs d'Orléans and Vendôme were addicted to +infamous debauchery; the Duc d'Antin was caught, _flagrante delicto_, in +theft; drunkenness and gambling were prevalent at court, the Grand +Prieur de Vendôme boasted that he had not gone to bed sober one night +in forty years. Pascal, discussing the privileges of the nobles and the +kings, said to them boldly: "You are kings only of concupiscence." This +great court, the most brilliant in Europe, "sweated hypocrisy," said +Saint-Simon. It may be remarked, that, in addition to the very frequent +disfigurement by small-pox, from which even the king was not entirely +free, there was a remarkable prevalence of deformity among the families +of the aristocracy. "There was scarcely one of which some member, male +or female, had not a curved spine, a distorted limb, or other +malformation; owing, most likely, to the common practice of closely +swathing the limbs of infants, and of confiding young children to the +charge of careless and ignorant nurses, for the first three or four +years of their lives." + +Two of the mysteries of this reign which have long furnished themes for +discussion have lately been solved by the ingenuity of modern research. +The "Man in the Iron Mask," guarded in the Bastile "for forty-two +years," treated with the utmost consideration and buried under a false +name, it now appears was confined there only five years, from September, +1698, to his death in November, 1703, shared his cell at different +periods with other prisoners, a police spy and a lackey, and was buried +without any attempt at mystery! The original register of his death, +reproduced before its destruction among other archives of the city of +Paris in 1871, gives his name as _Marchioly_, though it had been read +_Marchialy_ by all the commentators (the tail of the o being really a +trifle too high for an a), and it is now considered settled that this +signified Mattioli, in the uncertain orthography of the times, Count +Hercule-Antoine Mattioli, secretary of the Duke of Mantua, whom Louis +XIV had caused to be arrested on Italian soil, in defiance of +international law, for having betrayed the secrets of the negotiations +relative to the acquisition of Casal. + +The sudden and tragic death of _Madame_, Henriette d'Angleterre, wife of +the king's brother, Monsieur, le Duc d'Orléans, made famous by Bossuet's +funeral oration, long ascribed to poison, has been elucidated by Littré +in what has been designated as the finest example known of "a +retrospective medical demonstration." She had just returned from +England, bearing with her the treaty of Dover, signed by her brother, +Charles II, in which that monarch agreed to abandon the alliance with +Holland, and died suddenly in great agony after taking her usual glass +of chicory-water in the evening. The autopsy, which was performed by the +most celebrated surgeons of France, aided by two or three English +physicians, revealed a small perforation in the walls of the stomach, +which the doctors, knowing no other way of accounting for, agreed must +have been made accidentally by the point of their scissors. Littré +demonstrates that this accident was very improbable, and that the +perforation was evidently caused by an ulcer of the stomach,--a disease +unknown to the medical science of the time. + +[Illustration: END-OF-CENTURY TYPE. + +By F. Fournery.] + +Louis XIV was preceded to the tomb by his only son, the dauphin, in +April, 1711; by the Duc de Bourgogne, become dauphin in February, 1712, +his wife having died six days before; by the Duc de Bretagne, eldest of +the sons of the Duc de Bourgogne, three weeks after his parents; by the +Duc de Berry, grandson of the king, on the 4th of May, 1714. Such a +succession of calamities roused the gravest suspicions, and the Duc +d'Orléans, afterward regent, openly accused of the use of poison, +seriously contemplated demanding permission of the king to constitute +himself prisoner till these calumnies should be silenced. There remained +only a young prince, the Duc d'Anjou, son of the Duc de Bourgogne and +Marie-Adélaide de Savoie, five years old at this date, and so delicate +that his life was despaired of. He, however, lived to become Louis XV. +Louis XIV, after having declared his sons by the Marquise de Montespan, +the Duc du Maine and the Comte de Toulouse, heirs to the crown in +default of princes of the blood, and making them members of the Council +of the Regency, died September 1, 1715, at the age of seventy-seven. + +His testament, as he had foreseen, was set aside, much as his father's +had been. Philippe d'Orléans summoned the Parlement, which granted him +full power as regent, with freedom to compose the council as he liked, +and the government of the royal household was taken from the Duc du +Maine after a most unseemly altercation. All the solemn and pompous +traditions of the court were likewise abandoned. "What does it matter to +the State," said the regent, "whether it is I or my lackey who rides in +a carriage." He took for his minister and councillor the Abbé Dubois, "a +little, thin man, like a weasel," said Saint-Simon, "in whom _all_ the +vices, perfidiousness, avarice, debauchery, ambition, and base flattery, +struggled for the mastery." The general demoralization caused by the +collapse of the great financial schemes of John Law was only a feature +in the general abandonment of all restraint in the pursuit of +pleasure. In the midst of this luxury of effrontery, there suddenly +appeared the imposing and barbaric figure of Peter the Great of Russia, +who visited Paris in the spring of 1717, and dismayed the court and the +Parisians by the simplicity and directness of his character, his +disregard for their voluptuous frivolity, and his appreciation of the +things only that make for greatness in a State. He did not hesitate to +prophesy, from what he saw and learned, the approaching decadence and +ruin of the French monarchy and the French people. + +[Illustration: BEFORE THE ATTACK. After a water-color by J. Koppay.] + +At the age of thirteen, in February, 1723, Louis XV was declared to have +attained his majority and assumed the reins of government, nominally at +least, for the regent had taken care to give him Dubois for prime +minister. Both these illustrious personages, however, died in the course +of the year, and were succeeded by the Duc de Bourbon, "ugly and +one-eyed, low, mediocre, hypocritical, a man of little led by a woman of +nothing, Madame de Prie," and who renewed the persecution of the +Protestants and the Jansenists. The young king contented himself with +"showing at the council table his handsome and impassible countenance, +which nothing ever animated. When not thus engaged, when he was neither +gambling nor hunting, he occupied himself with tapestry-making, turning +snuff-boxes in wood, or reading either the secret correspondence with +his ambassadors, which he maintained unknown to his ministers, or the +scandalous recitals which the lieutenant of police sent him regularly +every day." In the latter part of his reign, these habits were succeeded +by even more ignoble ones, drunkenness and nameless vices. + +To maintain his own power, the Duc de Bourbon sent back to Spain the +Infanta, who had been brought to Paris, at the age of four, to fit her +for her future position as Queen of France, and married the king to +Marie Leczinska, daughter of the dethroned King of Poland, then living +at Wissembourg on the charity of the French government. One day, this +Stanislas Leczinski entered the chamber in which his wife and daughter +were sitting, and said to them in great excitement: "Let us get down on +our knees and thank God!" "Are you recalled to the throne of Poland?" +asked his daughter. "Much better; you are Queen of France." She was +seven years older than the king, very poor, without beauty, but gentle +and pious. The insult offered to the court of Spain was but one of the +many blunders and failures of the foreign diplomacy, while the +extravagance and debauchery at home kept pace with the growing disorder +in the national finances. The sum total of the funds disbursed during +"the nineteen years of the _reign_ of Madame de Pompadour, drawn up by +her orders, exceeds thirty-six millions of livres, equivalent to more +than sixty millions at the present day." In 1780, under Louis XVI, the +amount of pensions paid by the government reached the sum of +twenty-eight millions, and soon after rose to thirty-two. "I doubt," +said Necker, in his _Compte rendu_, "if all the sovereigns of Europe pay +in pensions the half of this sum." At the same time, the officers of the +household of Louis XV were frequently unpaid, and it was more than once +necessary, as it had been in the reign of his illustrious predecessor, +to appeal to bourgeois and nobles to bring their silverware to the +treasury to be melted down, that the national administration might not +be utterly bankrupt. "Never," said the Comte de Maistres, during the +Terror, "did a great crime have so many accomplices: there are doubtless +some innocent sufferers among the victims, but they are very much fewer +than is generally supposed." + +The marriage of the dauphin, afterward Louis XVI, with the Austrian +archduchess, Marie-Antoinette, in May, 1770, was attended with a +frightful catastrophe during the celebration of the event, on the +evening of the 30th, on the Place Louis XV, now Place de la +Concorde,--hundreds of persons being crushed to death, trampled under +foot, killed with swords, or with the fireworks which burst in their +midst. It was an ill omen for the future. The accession to the throne of +this youthful pair, in 1774, was hailed with pleasing anticipations by +the nation, wearied with the excesses of the late reign. "What joy," +said Michelet, "to see seated at last on the purified throne of Louis XV +this virtuous, this excellent young king and this charming queen! Who +would not have hoped for everything? A grand movement of art adorned +this coronation, illuminated the scene. And the queen was the centre of +all. One woman only seemed to exist." The graceful, youthful figure of +Marie-Antoinette, dauphine, has recently been made the subject of +special research by M. Pierre de Molhac, and the intimate relations +between court intrigues and the gravest measures of foreign diplomacy +are exemplified in the pressure put upon her by her mother, +Marie-Thérèse, to treat with more consideration the king's mistress, +Madame du Barry, who, the dauphine wrote to her mother, "is the silliest +and most impertinent creature imaginable." The consent of Louis XV to +the partition of Poland was purchased by the promise of his +daughter-in-law to assume the same attitude toward Madame du Barry that +her mother had formerly condescended to with respect to Madame du +Pompadour. "Louis XV was touched in the most sensitive part of his heart +by the tact of his old friend; his silence concerning Poland was paid +for in advance." + +Amid the general extravagance and corruption of the upper classes of +society some attempts were made to preserve the traditions of the famous +Hôtel de Rambouillet, _le berceau de la société polie_, where talent, +learning, and wit were the qualities that secured distinction, and not +pride of birth. Under Louis XIV, this _salon_ was renewed in the fine +hôtel of the Marquise de Lambert, in the Ile Saint-Louis,--in modern +times restored by Prince Czartoriski,--and in the "Saturdays" of +Mademoiselle de Scudéry, one of the greatest literary celebrities that +had frequented the receptions of the Marquise de Rambouillet. The +Saturdays were a great success, and the example thus set of "having a +day" was generally followed; the literary coteries of the +_précieuses_--later satirized by Molière--became numerous, and +Mademoiselle de Scudéry's receptions were maintained till 1695. Under +Louis XVI, in 1780, appeared no less than three social organizations +having widely different aims,--the _Société Philanthropique_, the +_Société Apollonienne_, which soon changed its title to that of the +_Musée_, and the more practical _Société des Mercredis_, which existed +for the purpose of encouraging good cooking. But the most distinguished +of these reunions, frequented by the higher classes of society, was the +_Société Dramatique_ de Madame de Montesson, the mistress of the Duc +d'Orléans, who had ended by marrying her with his left hand. In her +hôtel in the Rue Chaussée d'Antin, this lady had mounted a theatre, on +which she appeared with the prince, and which, from 1770 to 1780, quite +maintained the lead in the social diversions of the capital. + +[Illustration: FAINT-HEARTED. After a water-color by J. Koppay.] + +With the approach of the Revolution, about the commencement of the year +1785, there was a new movement, in the direction of the organization of +a great number of "clubs," a word then new to the Parisian ears, but +which was received with great favor. There was already in existence a +_Club Politique_, which the government tolerated on the express +condition that no discussions of politics or religion were to be +permitted,--a condition which was quite disregarded. The Duc d'Orléans, +who was very proud of being a member of the _Club Anglais_, founded the +_Club de Boston_ or _des Américains_; then there was the _Club des +Arcades_, the _Club des Étrangers_, the _Club de la Société Olympique_, +the _Club des Artistes_, and several others. The important part played +in the bloody drama of the Revolution by the various political clubs, is +matter of history. The earliest of these associations, of course, bore a +general resemblance to the social institutions which the Parisians now +know as _Cercles_; and it may be remarked that one of the most +celebrated of the many recent pessimistic publications of the day, the +_Grandeur et Décadence des Français_, by M. Gaston Routier, finds one of +the many signs of the social demoralization of his countrymen in the +number and importance of the cercles in the cities, and especially in +the high play that so many of them favor. + +To the extravagances and pretended miracles of the sect of the +_convulsionnaires_ and those wrought on the tomb of the deacon Paris in +the cemetery Saint-Médard in 1730 and 1731, succeeded the extraordinary +alleged cures of the German doctor Mesmer, who came to Paris in 1778 +with his theory of "animal magnetism,"--theory treated with more respect +by many of the _savants_ of the present day than by those of the +eighteenth century. The invention of the brothers Montgolfier, +practically tested in 1783, awakened an extraordinary interest both in +the scientific world and among the populace; and it is related that the +American, Benjamin Franklin, being asked what he thought of these new +aërial machines, replied: "It is the coming child." + +The times were ripe for change: Mademoiselle de Romans, walking in the +Tuileries gardens with a little son whom she had born to Louis XV, and +pressed by the crowd, exclaimed: "Eh! messieurs and mesdames, do not +crush so, and let your king's child breathe!" The Comte d'Artois, who +was devoted to the game of tennis, being one day in an ill humor, +ordered the court to be cleared of all the spectators, using epithets +which were habitual with him: "Drive them all out," he said, "_tous ces +b . . . et ces j . . . f . . . !_" No one was left but one officer. +"Well, did you not hear what I said?" demanded his Royal Highness. "Yes, +monseigneur, but as I am neither a b . . . , nor a j . . . f... , I +remained." "The respect for _la noblesse_ was singularly diminished, and +the whole audience, even the nobles themselves, applauded at the +theatre, in 1784, the bold epigrams of the 'Figaro' of Beaumarchais: +'Because you are a great seigneur, you think yourself a great genius! +You have given yourself the trouble to be born; that is all you have +done!'" + +On the 19th of June, 1789, the Assemblée Nationale, in a session which +Marat qualified as "glorious," decreed "that hereditary nobility is +forever abolished in France; that, consequently, the titles of marquis, +chevalier, écuyer, comte, vicomte, messire, prince, baron, vidame, +noble, duc, and all other similar titles cannot be borne by any person +whatsoever, nor given to any one; that no citizen shall bear other than +his true family name; that no one shall cause his domestics to wear a +livery nor have any coats-of-arms, and that incense shall be burned in +the temples only in honor of the Divinity." The Assemblée Legislative +held its first sitting on the 1st of October, 1792; on the 4th, the +deputation of sixty members sent to announce to the king that the body +was ready to begin its deliberations hesitated as to what phrases to +employ, and finally decided upon _Votre Majesté_. When the deputation +returned to give an account of its mission, much dissatisfaction was +expressed: "Let there be no more use of this title of 'Majesty,'" +exclaimed one member. + +"Let us repudiate the title of 'Sire,'" said another. + +"There is no longer any majesty here but that of the law and the +people," cried Couthon. + +It was accordingly decreed that the deputies should seat themselves and +cover themselves before the king, that there should be provided but two +similar arm-chairs, one for the king and one for the president, and, +finally, that the king should receive no other title but that of _Roi +des Français_. Louis XVI complained bitterly of this indignity, but it +was one of the least he was called upon to endure. + +When the royal family were brought into Paris from Versailles by the +armed mob, they arrived at the Tuileries at half-past ten in the morning +of the 6th of October, 1789. No attempt had been made to prepare for +their use this long uninhabited palace, and the little dauphin said to +his mother: "Mamma, everything here is very ugly." "My son," she +replied, "Louis XIV lived here, and found himself comfortable; we should +not be more difficult to please than he was." On the 20th of June, 1791, +they made an unsuccessful attempt to escape by flight, in disguise, from +the constantly increasing perils that menaced them, but were recognized +at Varennes and brought back in captivity. Nevertheless, the king was +restored to his executive functions on the 14th of the following +September, and it was not until after the attack on the Tuileries, on +the 10th of August, 1792, brought about largely by the intrigues of the +_émigré_ nobles who had fled over the frontier and by the manifesto of +the Duke of Brunswick, the general in command of the Prussian army, +announcing that he was coming, in the name of the allied kings, to +restore to Louis XVI his authority, that that hapless monarch finally +lost it. While his faithful Swiss guards were being massacred in the +hopeless defence of his palace, he was sitting, surrounded by his +family, in the _loge_ called that of the _logographe_, where he had +taken refuge with the Assemblée, watching through the open _grille_, or +iron railing, the tumultuous deliberations of that body while it enacted +that the chief of the executive power was temporarily suspended from the +exercise of his functions. Two days later, they were all conducted to +the Temple as prisoners, where the king was lodged on one floor of the +grand tower, while the queen, Madame Elisabeth, his sister, the young +dauphin and his sister, occupied that above him. + +On the 26th of October, the _Journal de Paris_ announced that the ladies +had taken possession of their new apartment on the third floor, which +consisted "of four rooms very well furnished, two of which had chimneys +and the other two, stoves. The son of Capet sleeps in his father's +chamber. On a clock in the chamber of Louis there was the inscription: +'Le Pautre, clockmaker to the king.' The name of the king has been +effaced and that of the Republic substituted." The "_ci-devant_ royal +family" were allowed to promenade in the garden, and the king sometimes +walked on the leads of the tower, all the openings of which had been +carefully closed so that he could not see below, nor be seen. During +five months this captivity was maintained under a constant and +frequently outrageous surveillance. + +The Bourbons were not without their familiar spectre, a very celebrated +one, who appeared to announce the approaching death of a member of the +royal family, and on the eve of his execution Louis XVI asked Monsieur +de Malesherbes if the White Lady were not walking in the corridors of +the Temple. This was the Dame Blanche of the popular saying, who takes +an interest in you when all other things cease to be of any concern to +you: _La Dame Blanche vous regarde, et les affaires des autres ne vous +regardent pas_. + +[Illustration: VANQUISHED! After a water-color by J. Koppay.] + +During the Revolution, the Directory, the Consulate, and even the early +days of the Empire, the fashions for both men and women were in many +respects extravagant. The very elegant young men were known as +_muscadins_ and _incroyables_ (incredibles) from their favorite +expression,--all the _r_'s being banished from their speech: "_En véité, +c'est incoyable!_" But it was not always safe to laugh at them; in 1795, +the black collar which the aristocrats substituted for the former green +one, in sign of mourning, gave rise to many difficulties and +altercations. In the midst of the Palais-Royal a republican received a +bullet point-blank in his chest in return for an insult. Another, +meeting one of these _collets noirs_, said to him: "B . . . of a Chouan, +for whom dost thou wear mourning?" "For thee!" replied the other, and +blew out his brains. When Napoleon came into power, there arose that +misdirected imitation of the antique known as the style of the Empire, +with a great display of jewelry on the costumes of both men and women; +"the aristocracy of the French Empire presented a revival of the +ostentatious patricians of Rome under the Cæsars. The toilettes +displayed were rich and magnificent, but it must be said that they were +in bad taste." + +The contempt which the members of the somewhat effete aristocracy of the +_ancien régime_ manifested, even down to the period of the Second +Empire, for the virile and fire-new nobility of Napoleon's family, +generals and marshals, was generally as puerile as it was unpatriotic, +but the latter only too frequently presented subject for sarcasm. In one +of the most recent of the many Napoleonic memoirs, those of the Comtesse +Potocka, this lively Polish lady describes the great personages who +surrounded the Emperor in the winter of 1806-1807, at Warsaw: Murat, +parading himself in the salons "with the majestic air of a comedian +assuming the rôle of a king;" the young Prince Borghèse, "who, in the +brief intervals when the conversation became _a little_ serious, went +off to get some chairs, arranged them in pairs in the middle of the +salon, and amused himself by dancing contra-dances with these silent +partners, humming to himself." Three years later, in Paris, Madame +Potocka saw the new Empress, Marie-Louise, whose dull countenance and +German accent sufficiently accounted for her personal unpopularity. + +Napoleon, who did not hesitate to qualify contemptuously the public +opinion of Paris when it was adverse to him, was not above the ancient +"bread and circus" methods of the Roman emperors at times. On the +occasion of the celebration of his coronation, there were distributed to +the populace thirteen thousand poultry, bread, and wine ran freely in +the public squares, so that the streets echoed to this cheerful refrain: + + "_Vive, vive Napoléon, + Qui nous bâille + D' la volaille, + Du pain et du vin à foison. + Vive, vive Napoléon!_" + +(who gives us chickens, bread, and wine in abundance.) + +As for Joséphine, her pretty legend has quite disappeared in the light +of these recent memoirs, and the historians and commentators no longer +attempt to defend her against even the abominable stories which Barras +tells of her. "It would be Don-quixotism to deny them," says M. Gustave +Larroumet, among others; "the Joséphines prefer the Barras to the +Bonapartes." + +The marriage with Joséphine was declared null, in virtue of an order of +the Council of Trent on the 14th of January, 1810, and Napoleon was +condemned by the municipality of Paris to a fine of six francs for the +benefit of the poor. The curious engraving, reproduced on page 123, +illustrates the brilliant ceremony of the arrival of the new Empress at +the Tuileries on the 2d of April following. A tremendous storm broke +over the city the night before, but at one o'clock in the afternoon, +when the Imperial couple arrived at the Arch of Triumph, then incomplete +but represented by a temporary _maquette_, the sun was shining brightly. +The cavalry of the Guard and the heralds-at-arms preceded the gorgeous +coronation carriage in which they were seated; the procession descended +the avenue of the Champs-Élysées, traversed the gardens of the +Tuileries, and halted before the Pavillon de l'Horloge. Then the Empress +assumed the coronation robe, the cortége ascended the grand stairway, +traversed the grand gallery of the Louvre between a double row of +invited guests, and entered the Salon Carré, which had been transformed +into a chapel, and where the nuptial altar had been erected. After the +mass, there was a _Te Deum_, and in the evening a grand banquet in the +Tuileries. The musicians sang the chorus of the _Iphigénie_ of Gluck: +_Que d'attraits, que de majesté!_ to the accompaniment of thousands of +voices. + +_La Femme_ has always played a most important role in France; nowhere is +she so much discussed, nowhere is she so much respected as Mother, and +nowhere, it may be said, is she so little respected as Woman. The women +of the eighteenth century enjoy a species of popular renown as somewhat +more _piquant_, brilliant, and peculiarly feminine, as it were,--thanks +largely to the chroniclers and the romancers in literature and art; +there is a very general idea that they were all, more or less, of the +type of Madame de Pompadour, we will say, as set forth by one of her +most recent biographers: "It would seem that the grace and the good +taste of all the things of her time appertained to Madame de Pompadour. +She marked with her _cachet_, it might almost be said with her arms, all +that world of matter which seems to be animated from one end to the +other by the ideal of the habits of a people, and the needs of a +society. The whole century is like a great relic of the royal +favorite.... She presides over that variety and that wide range of +objects, so diverse in the universality of their type, that the +eighteenth century created in her image to surround her existence, to +serve her and to adorn her." This graceful and pleasing picture, +however, was largely superficial in the case of her less favored +sisters. The inevitable limitations of the life and of the times, the +ignorance, the social prejudices, the inexplicable dissatisfaction which +really haunted all things, all combined to undermine this brilliant +social life, and there was a general consciousness of its hollowness. + +"Under all this fever of fashion and customs, under all these +dissipations of the imagination and the life, there remains something +unappeased, unsatisfied, and empty in the heart of the woman of the +eighteenth century. Her vivacity, her affectation, her eagerness to run +after fancies, seem to be a disquietude; and a sickly impatience appears +in this continual search for attraction, in this furious thirst for +pleasure. She searches in every direction, as if she wished to expand +herself outside of herself. But it is vainly that she displays her +activity, that she seeks all around her a species of deliverance;--she +may plunge herself, drown herself, in that which the fashion of the +times designates as an 'ocean of worlds,' run after distractions, new +faces, those passing liaisons, those accidental friends, for whom the +century invents the word _connaissances_; dinners, suppers, fêtes, +voyages of pleasure, tables always filled, salons always crowded, a +continual passage of personages, variety of news, visages, masks, +toilettes, absurdities, all this spectacle ceaselessly changing cannot +entirely satisfy her with its distractions. Though all her nights are +brilliant with candles, though she summon--as she grows older--more +movement still around her, she ends always by falling back upon herself; +she finds herself again in wishing to flee from herself, and she admits +to herself secretly the suffering which devours her. She recognizes in +herself the secret evil, the incurable evil which this century carries +in itself and which it drags with it everywhere smiling,--_ennui_." (_La +Femme au XVIIIe siècle._) + +The very original methods employed by one of these clever ladies at the +very beginning of the century to avoid this all-pervading weariness of +the spirit furnished Théophile Gautier with the title and the theme of +one of his best romances. _Mademoiselle de Maupin_ lived in the flesh of +Mademoiselle d'Aubigny, offspring of a good family, who ran away from +the paternal mansion at the age of fourteen and fell in love with a +fencing-master who made of her a fighter of the very first order. +Nothing that the most successful romancer could desire was wanting in +her life,--abductions, disguises, duels, convents forced and set on +fire: "Don Juan was only a commonplace fop in comparison with the +incredible good fortunes of this terrible virago who changed her costume +as she did her visage, courted, indifferently and always with the same +success, one sex or the other, according as she was in an impulsive or a +sentimental vein." She had a fine voice, became a member of the Opéra +troupe under the name of _la Maupin_, and sang with success in the +_Psyche_, the _Armide_, and the _Atys_ of Lully. One of her most famous +duels ensued from her too assiduous attentions to a young lady one night +at a ball at the Palais-Royal, in the last days of the reign of Louis +XIV. The husband, the brother, and the lover all took up the quarrel, +and were all three neatly run through the body, one after the other, in +the snowy court-yard below. Then the victor, calm and smiling, returned +to offer _his_ arm to the beauty. + +Another of these epicene sworders, diplomat, publicist, and captain of +dragoons, reader for the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, in the suite of +Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, preserved the secret of his sex until +his death. This was the adventurer D'Éon de Beaumont, whose career +excited such a lively interest in both England and France, and who +signed himself, in a letter addressed to Madame de Staël during the +Revolution, _citoyenne de la nouvelle République française, citoyenne de +l'ancienne République des lettres_. + +On the 3d of May, 1814, a Bourbon king was again in the Tuileries. All +the tremendous work of the Revolution and the Empire seemed undone. +"Brusquely, without any transitions," says M. Henri Noël, "the standard +of men and things was lowered many degrees. To the epopee succeeds the +bourgeois drama, not to say the comedy. It would have been thought that +France, satiated with glory and misfortunes, France, which, on the +whole, seemed to have accepted without enthusiasm, but with a sort of +resigned indifference, the new régime, was about to breathe again, to +relax herself, to repose. She is wearied with herself. She is nervous, +discontented. It might be said that she endured with less patience the +blunders, the littleness, the errors of the royalty, than she had the +tragic massacres, and the ruins, and the invasions, and the bloodshed, +and the tears. Everywhere, anxiety and disquietude, the royalists not +completely satisfied, the generals humiliated, the army without glory +and its best officers retired on half-pay, the liberal bourgeoisie +suspicious and disposed to join the opposition, the small land-owners +anxious for their property which they had received from the +Revolution...." + +Louis XVIII, with all his inherent faults, was a prudent and moderate +ruler in comparison with his brother, the Comte d'Artois, who succeeded +him as Charles X in September, 1824, and in six years brought the +Bourbon dynasty to an end. M. Ernest Daudet, in the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_, has recently been publishing some letters in connection with +the ministry of the Duc Decazes, in one of which we find the king +remonstrating with his brother, already the chief of the _ultras_: ... +"You have notified me that, if you do not succeed in persuading me, you +will make your opinions known publicly, and, which unfortunately will +inevitably follow, that you will no longer see me.... There is no doubt +that this resolution will seriously embarrass the government. But, with +consistency and firmness, this obstacle may be overcome, and I hope +that, during my lifetime, there will be no troubles. But I cannot, +without a shudder, look forward to the moment when my eyes will be +closed. You will then find yourself between two parties, one of which +believes itself to be already oppressed by me, and the second of which +will apprehend being so treated by you. (Conclusion: there will be civil +war, and a whole future of divisions, of troubles, and of calamities.)" + +This prophecy was but too well realized. The liberal ideas, which were +made responsible, though without any proof, for the assassination of +the Duc de Berri, at the door of the Opéra-house on the evening of the +13th of February, 1820, attained a great development in the ensuing +reign. Paris was unanimous in its opposition. Decamps's absurd cartoon +of Charles X hunting, which we have reproduced, is a not unfaithful +presentation of the state of public opinion concerning this purblind +monarch. + +All these revolutions in the political world were, of course, followed +in the, perhaps, minor world of fashion. _Souvent femme varie_, and +_Toute passe, tout casse, tout lasse._ "Paris, in its revulsion from the +severity of the earlier Revolution," says an unsympathetic English +writer, "took refuge in the primitive license of the Greeks. 'It was a +beautiful dress,' says a lady in a popular modern comedietta; 'I used to +keep it in a glove-box.' The costume of a _belle_ of the _Directoire_ +was equally portable.... With the triumph of the Empire, a more martial +and masculine tone prevailed. So the _Parisienne_ cast off her Grecian +robes--a comparatively easy process--and put on the whole armor of the +tailor-made. She wore cloth instead of diaphanous gauze, and her gowns +were cut with a more austere simplicity. Then came the Restoration and +the Romantic movement, and the great days of 1830. Woman read her +Chateaubriand and her Victor Hugo and her Byron, and became sentimental. +It was _bon-ton_ to languish a good deal, and the dressmakers were +required to find a suitable costume for the occupation. They proved +equal to the demand.... In England, these vestments are called Early +Victorian, and are scoffed at, together with the horse-hair sofas and +glass lustres of the period. + +"At any rate, it did not last. Nothing lasts in feminine fashions.... +Romanticism and sentiment died out or became _bourgeois_. Gay Paris grew +alert, lively, animated, dashing. The lady who used to be called a +_lionne_ when people were reading Murger and De Musset, displaced the +_femme incomprise_. The 'lioness' was not unlike the vigorous young +person of a later epoch. She was distinctly loud in her manners and free +and easy in her conversation.... At any rate, she was a healthier type +than the pleasure-loving matron of the Second Empire, whose life was one +whirl of unwholesome excitement. The vulgarity of thought and conduct, +the destruction of all standards of dignity, which characterized the +régime of Louis Napoleon's stock-jobbing adventurers, were reflected in +the dress of the women. Never was female attire more extravagantly +absurd.... Man, with all his tolerance, could not really like the Paris +fashions of the Second Empire, and he might have found consolation for +the tragedies of 1870, if he had known, as has been asserted, that they +portended deliverance from the thraldom. France, so we are told, purged +and purified by the baptism of fire, shook off its tasteless frippery, +and sought a chaster and purer mode.... Thus elevated and touched to +higher issues, the _modistes_ of France, when once the Third Republic +had settled down, made quite nice and simple dresses for a few years, +and were imitated by the slavish islanders across the Channel, who had +no such lofty motives to inspire them. The latest developments of this +philosophy of clothes are not yet worked out in detail...." + +A multitude of the _emigré_ nobles returned with Louis XVIII, bringing +with them the manners and customs of the _ancien régime_, which the +Parisians found singularly antiquated and absurd, and gave these +reactionaries the title of _Voltigeurs de Louis XVI_. The science of +good cooking, however, which had been somewhat neglected by society +during the Empire, suddenly took on a much greater importance--as was +its due. The lady of the higher aristocracy, taking her déjeuner so +comfortably with her lapdog, in the plate which we have reproduced from +the _Bon Genre_, is supposed to be the Princesse de Vaudémont. A curious +detail of the social life of the Romantic period of the Restoration was +the fashion of _keepsakes_ and _annuaires illustrés_, which came from +England, and which flourished from 1825 to 1845. These costly little +books intended for presentation, richly bound, and illustrated with +small steel engravings, generally taken from the English "keepsakes," +bore various titles: _L'Album brittanique_, _L'Amaranthe, Annales +romantiques_, _Le Camée_, _La Corbeille d'or_, _L'Eglantine_, _L'Élite_, +_Livre des salons_, etc. The greatest names among the writers of the +_Romantisme_ may be found among the contributors to these +publications,--Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, +A. de Vigny, Méry, Gozlan, and others. + +The _bourgeois_ monarchy of Louis-Philippe was made the object of a +storm of ridicule on the part of the Parisian wits and caricaturists +from which it has never entirely recovered. The "umbrella" of the +Orléans family, which the ribald press of that day made the emblem of +their royalty, still figures in the lampoons addressed to the present +pretender. The caricature of the royal physiognomy as a pear is one of +the most famous in history. Louis-Philippe wore his hair piled in a +species of pyramid over his forehead, which lent plausibility to this +defamation; this pyramid was known as the _toupet_, and was naturally +largely imitated; those whose locks were not sufficient in quantity for +the purpose, purchased false ones. Whiskers were also in fashion, but +not moustaches, and no official functionary was permitted to wear hair +under his nose. The _Saint-Simoniens_ and those who entitled themselves +_Jeune France_ alone wore the hair long and pendant, and the toupet +gradually lowered its altitude and finally disappeared, to give place to +hair smoothed down and parted strongly on one side, generally the left. + +After the Revolution of 1830, the Tuileries gardens were thrown open to +all decently-dressed people, but not to those in blouses; it required +another revolution, that of 1848, to bring about sufficient toleration +to recognize the privilege of smoking under these ci-devant royal +horse-chestnuts. A Legitimist journal, regretting the good old days, +before the populace were accorded the privilege of entry, "which gives +to this locality much the appearance of Noah's ark, in which both the +clean and the unclean beasts were admitted," related the following +anecdote of the days of the monarchy. A young man of the _suprême bon +ton_, carefully arrayed in the very latest modes, a _petit-maître_ +[dandy, fop, exquisite], presented himself at one of the entrances of +the garden and was much surprised to see the sentry on duty lower his +bayonet and forbid his passing. "How! no admittance?" exclaimed the +beau. "I have precise orders," replied the soldier. "Precise orders ... +to refuse me?" "Precise orders to refuse any one whom I consider to be +badly dressed [_mal mis_]; ... now, I consider you to be _bien mal +mis_." And the young man was compelled to retire before this new censor +of manners armed with authority. + +In 1845, the _prestidigitateur_, Robert-Houdin, appeared at the +Palais-Royal with his new species of entertainment, and for a number of +years continued to delight numerous audiences with his mystifying skill +in sleight of hand, his example being followed by minor practitioners +who gave performances in private salons. The theatre bearing his name on +the Boulevard des Italiens still maintains this class of popular +amusement. + +On the 13th of July, 1842, the Duc d'Orléans, the heir to the throne, +and a prince deservedly popular, was thrown from his carriage on the Rue +de la Révolte, while on his way to Neuilly, and so badly injured that he +died five hours later, universally lamented. The right of succession +passed to his son, the Comte de Paris, then a child of four; and both +Legitimists and Republicans began to look forward to the inevitable +feebleness and uncertainty of a regency as favorable to the triumph of +their ideas. The opposition of the king's minister, Guizot, the +historian, to the electoral reforms is generally considered as having +brought about the Revolution of 1848, though it is somewhat doubtful if +the monarchy could have successfully weathered the storms of this year +of liberal ideas and universal unrest. + +Nevertheless, the Republic came too soon, as the French historians now +seem disposed to admit. The political education of the nation was not +yet sufficiently advanced, and "it returned to the Empire as to a +solution that best conformed with its condition of _esprit simpliste_. +This movement was accelerated by the combinations of men of all shades +of political beliefs,--Berryer, Montalembert, Molé, Thiers, Odilon +Barrot, and others, who counted on 'the pretended incapacity' of the +future emperor for sliding into power themselves. But their hopes were +disappointed by the taciturn pretender." One of the latest apologists +for the Emperor, M. Thirria, in his _Napoléon III avant l'Empire_, +claims, and no intelligent commentator can disprove the claim: "If he +reigned, it was because France was willing, and very willing, and his +fatal politics of nationalities, she approved of it, sanctioned it, the +republican party first of all." M. Thirria is willing to admit, however, +that "he was not made to be the chief of a State, and his reign was a +great misfortune for France." + +[Illustration: THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BIRTH OF A GIRL. From a drawing +by Adolphe Willette.] + +Having the courage of his convictions, M. Thirria does not hesitate to +take up all the charges against the Emperor, beginning with the first of +all, chronologically, that he was not the son of his alleged father. By +a number of letters which he quotes from Louis-Napoleon, King of +Holland, he endeavors to demonstrate that the latter considered himself +to be, without doubt, the parent of Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. +The story of the Dutch Admiral Verhuel is, however, corroborated by +other documents of equal authenticity. The future emperor, it appears, +did at one time officiate as an English police officer, but it was only +for the space of two months, and then as special constable at some +Chartist meetings. After the affair at Strasbourg, he did accept fifteen +thousand francs from the government of Louis-Philippe, which he had just +attempted to overthrow, on condition that he should go to America. + +A franker chronicler gives us further details. Under the title, _Madame +Cornu et Napoléon III_, M. Eugène d'Eichthal published, in 1897, a +number of fragments translated from a posthumous work, _Conservation_, +by the English economist, Nassau Senior, who had been brought into +contact with a large number of distinguished men of different countries. +In 1854, he first met in a salon the wife of the French painter +Sébastien Cornu, who was a goddaughter of Queen Hortense and had been a +friend from childhood of Louis-Napoleon. She had been able to render him +many services when he was a prisoner at Ham, and they had maintained a +confidential correspondence even after the _Coup d'État_, which almost +interrupted their friendship, Madame Cornu being a good republican. In +the course of her acquaintance with the English gentleman, she gave him +much information concerning the then ruler of the French nation, which +he carefully set down, and which M. d'Eichthal translated for the +benefit of his countrymen. On one occasion she said: "The mental +faculties of Louis-Napoleon present many great superiorities and great +deficiencies. He has neither originality nor invention. He neither knows +how to reason nor to discuss. He has very few fixed or general +principles, but he is a very keen observer, noting quickly the +weaknesses and the stupidities of those around him. In the company of +some persons with whom he feels at ease, his wit and his gaiety are +delicious. + +"There is an equal want of accord in his moral qualities. He is +extremely mild and amiable; his friendships are durable, but his +passions are not so. He has, in a high degree, decision, obstinacy, +dissimulation, patience, and confidence in himself. He is not arrested +by any scruples. That which we call a sense of good and evil, he calls +prejudices...." + +Installed in the Élysée as Prince-President in 1849, he began to prepare +the way for the _Coup d'État_ and the zealous republicans saw with alarm +the species of informal court which he was already gathering around him. +To attract the members of the higher society, he instituted a series of +weekly receptions; all the ground-floor of the palace, including three +salons and a gallery, was thrown open, and there was added a light +edifice connecting the main façade with the wall of the garden, facing +on the Avenue de Marigny. A decree of the 4th of January, 1850, elevated +the ex-king Jérôme, then governor of the Invalides, to the rank of +marshal of France, by a mere exercise of the presidential authority. His +term of office and that of the Assemblée both expired in 1852, with an +interval of three months between them, but the violent measures of the +2d of December, 1851, made him president for a term of three years, and +the constitution which he had proposed was ratified by the nation by a +tremendous majority. + +In the Tuileries, he re-established the etiquette of the First Empire, +but the ceremonial of his court did not equal the state maintained under +the Bourbons. The palace itself, at first, was a very uncomfortable +residence. All the modern conveniences of a dwelling were wanting; +Louis-Philippe, who had a numerous family, had divided several galleries +into apartments, separated by corridors without windows, lit only by +lamps which vitiated the air. The various floors of the building were +connected by narrow, winding stairways, also lit only by lamps; one +story had been made into two, each with low ceilings and with very +little day-light, and in the garrets, where the domestics were lodged, +the air was pestilential. There was no running-water in the various +apartments, and it was necessary to carry it in every day in pitchers. + +In the Musée Carnavelet may be seen an interesting collection of +water-colors by Baron, portraits of ladies and important personages of +the Imperial court in costumes of fancy-dress balls and tableaux +vivants. There may be seen the Emperor in black coat and trousers, the +Empress _en bohémienne_, the Princesse de Metternich _en diable noir_, +Madame de Gortschakoff as Salammbô, the Marquise de Galliffet as an +angel, the Comtesse Walewska as Diana, the Comtesse de Pourtales as a +bayadère, the Marquis de Galliffet as a cock, the Baron de Heeckeren as +a doge, etc. + +A retrospective exhibition, a _Salon de la Mode_, was opened in Paris, +in the Palais du Champ-de-Mars, in the spring and early summer of 1896, +and furnished a very good compendium in little, not only of the changing +manners and customs of the last century or two, the vicissitudes of the +artistic spirit of the nation, but also of the varying fortunes with +which the capital ruled in matters of taste, of fashion, and of luxury. +Subject-matter for grave historians might be found in the various +indications, direct and suggested, of the points of contact between the +daily life of the eighteenth century and our own, as well as of the many +divergences. Long before 1789, the Parisians of the _ancien régime_ were +in the enjoyment of many of the modes, the whims, and the absurdities +which constitute so large a part of the existence of their successors. +They were even, almost, supplied with fashion magazines, the first of +these very important publications to appear, the _Courrier de la Mode_, +under Louis XV, in 1768, not being appreciated, and coming to an early +end. In 1785, however, appeared the _Cabinet des Modes_, transformed in +the following year into _Magasin des modes nouvelles françaises et +anglaises_, for English fashions disputed the sovereignty with Parisian +ones, and journals published on the banks of the Thames spoke with equal +authority. Among these latter was the _Gallery of Fashion_, founded in +1794. The Germans, on the other hand, originated nothing, and the _Moden +Zeitung_ of Berlin reproduced slavishly only that which had already been +approved in Paris and London. + +[Illustration: CARD. Design by Guillaume.] + +Much as in the present day, English tastes were followed in many things, +not all of them feminine. The _Tableau de Paris_, published by Sébastien +Mercier, lamented that "it is to-day the fashion among the youth to copy +the English in their clothes." The large stores, the _magasins_, called +themselves _anglais_; and the sport of horse-racing, which was beginning +to be popular, and which was largely a matter of importation, naturally +brought in alien words to shock the purists. The _jockei_ was sweated +down to his proper weight to mount the _bête de sang_ [blooded animal]; +_cheval de race_ was antiquated, and bad form. In the present day, +there is a _Ligue d'honnêtes gens préoccupés de maintenir le bon +français_, and who quote Béranger: + + "_Redoutons l'Anglomanie, + Elle a déjà gâté tout._" + +[Beware of Anglomania, it has already spoiled everything.] These "worthy +people" admit that for such words as "jockey," "lawn-tennis," and +"sport," for which there are no equivalents in the French language, +there is some excuse, but why, they ask, is "turf" better than +_pelouse_; "flirter," meaning "to flirt," than _fleureter_ (_conter +fleurette_, to say pretty, gallant things); "garden-party" than _une +partie de jardin_; "five o'clock" than _cinq heures_? Is +"boarding-house" any more euphonious than _hôtel meublé_, or "tub" than +_bassin_? Scarcely! Nevertheless, the English fashions, especially in +men's garments, continue to enjoy great favor in Paris; and it may be +noted, for the gratification of our national pride, that in some minor +matters, such as shoes and ladies' stockings, the American articles are +to be preferred to the Parisian ones. + +All these futile and minor things, _toilettes_, _brimborions_, take on, +a hundred years later, the importance of historic documents. "One would +not go so far as to say," observes M. Bouchot, "that Napoleon was +dethroned because it was found that the _fleur-de-lis_ made an adorable +ornament for a _parure_ of crape, but is it such an absurd idea?" Under +the reign of Louis XVI, it was proposed, more than once, to establish an +_Académie de la Mode_, and an _Académie de la Coiffure_. A certain +_citoyen amateur de sexe_, Lucas Rochemont, invented a concours, or +competition, of new modes among the real _élégantes_ of France. It was +the custom then to put forth small jokes against the Académie, just as +it is now; it was declared that men of letters should renounce it and +all its works, and that it preserved no better the purity of the +language than it did that of taste. Nevertheless, it retained a certain +respect, and the title, _Académie de Coiffure_, with which certain +hair-dressers and wig-makers provided themselves, was forbidden. + +The capital had long enjoyed the reputation, says the _Tableau de +Paris_, of being "the paradise of women, the purgatory of men, the +inferno of horses." The purgatory seems to have changed in two respects +at least;--one could live in it then "comfortably enough at small +expense," and the city was "highly indifferent concerning its political +position." The horses were treated cruelly, even more so than at +present, and the familiar jests concerning the fiacres were already +invented. By this name was designated both the driver and his vehicle +drawn "by an expiring horse." The _cochers_ enjoyed the same bad +reputation they do at present--probably somewhat more justly, and they +even went on strike, as in the nineteenth century. On one occasion, +eighteen hundred of them drove out to Choisy, where the king was +residing, to set their griefs before him. The streets were narrow and +without sidewalks; the driver was held responsible only for the +fore-wheels of his vehicle; and he naturally scattered terror as he +went. The bicyclist and the automobile were not then invented to torment +him in his turn. These two modern innovations have added very greatly to +the danger and inconvenience of the streets of Paris of to-day; there +are already complaints from the owners of private carriages that the +Bois and the principal drives are becoming impossible because of the +latter, and that the city will have to take measures to preserve its +attractions for this class of inhabitants and for the wealthy stranger +whose presence is so much desired within its walls. + +Also, as at present, the washwomen were the despair of careful +housekeepers. "There is no city where so much linen is used as at Paris, +and none where it is so badly washed," says our authority. There was a +legend of some _gommeux_ [dandies] from Bordeaux who sent theirs to +Saint-Domingo, naturally, by sailing vessel, to have it whitened. _Homme +à bonne fortune_ and _petit-maître_ were no longer in favor, _élégant_ +was the proper appellation. The Seine water was drunk freely, but it had +already begun to be analyzed and doubted; cremation was advocated and +vivisection denounced; the classic education and Latin were derided, +just as by M. Jules Lemaître; the evolution of the species was +discussed, and the sorrowfulness of the Carnival lamented,--the police +were even obliged to hire the maskers; the _claque_ was offensively in +evidence at the theatres. The _grippe_ arrived periodically in the month +of November, to the great surprise of every one,--but it was then called +_la coquette_ and not _l'influenza_. The ladies pommaded their faces, +and drank vinegar to preserve their figures; marriages were effected +only in hopes of pecuniary advantages. The honest bourgeoisie complained +bitterly of the display of licentious prints on the walls and the fronts +of the bookstalls; "the young men in the cafés discussed matters which +were beyond their comprehension and which they had never studied." There +was a surprising number of points of resemblance. + +Among the minor observances of social life which have come down to the +present day with only some modification of details are the _billets de +décès_ and the _invitations aux funérailles_. It is only since 1760 that +the names of members of the mourning families have appeared on these +invitations. In the matter of _avis de naissance_, in which the birth of +a baby is announced, the moderns have made great improvements, some of +the designs by the cleverest Parisian artists--as that by Willette +reproduced on page 211--being quite charming. In the much more important +matter of _Menus_, the prodigal display of invention is worthy of the +most artistic of capitals. The luxury of the toilette is maintained with +somewhat more discretion and less ostentation; many of the modern +refinements, as that of the manicure, are but intelligent developments +or modifications of the arts of the last century. Some of the social +vices, as gambling and intoxication, have greatly decreased, +notwithstanding the lamentations of such prophets of evil as M. Gaston +Routier, and many of the more graceful forms of exercise, such as +fencing--consult M. Koppay's spirited sketches--have grown greatly in +favor. + +The Second Empire contributed a very commendable example of luxury +lending itself to the interests of history in the case of the +restoration of a Pompeian house, erected by Prince Jérôme Napoleon in +the Rue Montaigne, and formally opened with a reception at which the +Emperor and Empress were present, February 14, 1860. + +Max Nordau, in his _Paradoxes psychologiques_, thus disposes of the +Parisian woman: "The _Parisienne_ is entirely the work of the French +romancers and journalists. They make of her, literally, whatever they +wish, physically and intellectually. She speaks, she thinks, she feels, +she acts, she dresses herself even, assumes attitudes, walks and stands +upright, according to rules which the writers _à la mode_ impose upon +her. She is in their hands a doll furnished with springs and obeys with +docility all their suggestions," etc. On the contrary, it is probably +safe to say, speaking generally, that the French romancers +systematically defame their compatriots, and that even Parisian society +is not the institution it is represented to be in novels, on the stage, +and by many of the essayists. It has been reserved, for example, for a +very recent writer, M. Jules Bois, to portray, _for the first time in +France_, the indignation of the fiancée at the fact, almost constant, +that her future husband comes to her without that freshness of soul and +body which is required in her case. It would not have required very +accurate social observers, it would seem, to have discovered earlier +this phenomenon. M. Bois counsels the wives not to compromise themselves +by weak forgiveness of the egotistical and adulterous spouses. + +The frightful conflagration of the Bazar de la Charité, in the Rue +Jean-Goujon, on the 4th of May, 1897,--the most terrible catastrophe of +this nature that had been seen in Paris since the fire at the ball given +by the Austrian ambassador on the 1st of July, 1810, in honor of the +marriage of Napoleon I and Marie-Louise, and the burning of the +Opéra-Comique in 1887,--offered, in the long list of its victims, a most +tragic demonstration of the fact that the women of Paris of the highest +society knew how to occupy themselves in works of practical benevolence. +Of the hundred and seventeen victims, all but six were ladies and young +girls; and the roll of illustrious names was headed by that of the +Duchesse d'Alençon. This philanthropic institution was founded in 1885 +by M. Henri Blount, its honorary president; its annual bazaars, for the +benefit of the poor, were held at first in the Salle Albert-le-Grand, +then in the hôtel of the Comtesse Branicka in 1888, in the following +year in that of M. Henry Say, and from 1890 to 1896 in two houses in the +Rue de la Boëtie. In 1897, M. Michel Heine placed at the disposition of +the managers, gratuitously, a large open space in the Rue Jean-Goujon. +The new bazaar was here inaugurated on the 3d of May, and the receipts +exceeded forty-five thousand francs. On the day after the catastrophe, +some charitable person donated, anonymously, to the Œuvre de la +Charité the sum of nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand francs, +representing the amount of the sales of the preceding year, that the +poor, also, might not suffer by this catastrophe. A subscription opened +by the _Figaro_ for the same charitable purpose, and for those who had +distinguished themselves, at the risk of their lives, in saving victims +from the flames, realized the sum of one million two hundred and +eighteen thousand and fifteen francs, and another, by the _Rappel_, more +than fifteen thousand francs. And, finally, the Comtesse de Castellane, +who had been the American Miss Gould, gave a million of francs for the +purchase of another site and the construction of another edifice for the +work of the organized charity of Paris. + +Among the lighter details of information concerning this illustrious +society may be mentioned an article by the Vicomte A. de Royer in a +recent number of the _Revue des Revues_ (October, 1898), which +undertakes to demonstrate, by means of documents, that, of the +forty-five thousand "noble" families in France, only four hundred and +fifty are in a position to substantiate a claim to ancient lineage, and +that, of the three hundred and forty-six princely families of France, +which are all that are left, not one has the right to wear the closed +coronet. All the titles of the latter are usurped, and are purely +fanciful. No fewer than twenty-five thousand families put the particle +_de_ in front of their names without a shadow of right; and it appears +that the Republic manufactures another forty of such families every +year. When official permission to thus distinguish the family name is +refused, it is simply dispensed with. In addition, the Pope gives or +sells, on an average, sixty titles of "count" or "prince" every year, +and though these are not current, the possessors wear them, just the +same. The Paris _Journal_ demanded, indignantly, if M. de Royer thought +he was doing a patriotic work in thus closing the French market to +American heiresses. + +To conclude: we quote what M. Henri Lavedan, in his recent work: _Les +Jeunes, ou L'Espoir de la France_, gives as a typical conversation +between three young men of the highest society in Paris, "the hope of +France." The scene is laid in the apartments of D'Allarège, about five +o'clock in the afternoon. All three are smoking. The day is declining; +they comprehend each other in silence. At intervals, they alternately +allow a monosyllable to fall, which is as the affirmation of their +absence of thought: + +BRIOUZE.--"Yes...." (_Puff of smoke._) + +MONTOIS.--"Yes...." + +(_Then a black hole of silence. Puffs. Spirals. Sound of carriages. +Paris continues its murmur._) + +MONTOIS.--"Ah! la, la!" + +D'ALLARÈGE.--"Is it not?" + +BRIOUZE.--"To whom do you say it?" + +(_Blue smoke through the nose. Ashes fall from the cigar. And time +passes._) + +D'ALLARÈGE (to Montois).--"And besides that?" + +MONTOIS.--"Not much." + + + + +THE BOURGEOIS AND THE LOWER CLASSES + +FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY + +[Illustration: TWO SANS-CULOTTES. PERIOD, 1792.] + + +If the history of a city were written with anything like a due exactness +of proportion, much of it would be but a weary record of human misery, +and through even the most decorous and conventional of chronicles there +appear constantly unpleasant glimpses of the terrible under-strata that +sometimes upheave and make ruin. So long as this apparently inevitable +and irremediable discord does not appear to affect the general march of +events, it is glozed over. The condition of the middle and lower classes +in Paris through the Middle Ages was that common to all mediæval cities, +and would seem to modern ideas all but unendurable. To the absence of +law, municipal, protective, or sanitary, the disregard of life and +property, the pestiferous condition of houses and streets, to famine, +war, pestilence, and constant internal discords, were added the +intemperances of the seasons--apparently much more severe than at +present--and the ravages of wild beasts. The Seine--quite regardless of +the praise the Emperor Julian had bestowed upon its moderation and +uniform flow--was constantly bursting its bonds and devastating with +inundation the Cité and the adjoining shores; the excessive cold of the +winters is a constant source of complaint in the local annals. That of +1433-1434 was heralded by a "formidable wind" which, on the 7th of +October, raged for nine consecutive hours, demolishing many houses and +uprooting many trees,--three hundred of the latter in the wood of +Vincennes alone. The frost commenced on the 31st of December and +continued uninterruptedly for eighty days; for forty days the snow fell +continuously, night and day; toward the end of March, freezing weather +returned, and lasted till Easter, the 17th of April. In one tree alone +there were found a hundred and forty birds dead with cold. In 1437 and +1438 the wolves penetrated into the city, by way of the river, and +devoured women and children, in the last week of September, 1437, while +the king was in the city, "fourteen persons, big and little, between +Montmartre and the Porte Saint-Antoine." There was one most monstrous +beast, called Courtaud, because he had no tail, that was an object of +special terror. "But the wolves, for the Parisians, were less to be +feared than the seigneurs and the brigands called _escorcheurs_, which +followed in their train." + +In 1348, the Black Plague, coming from Egypt and Syria, reached Paris +and destroyed eighty thousand inhabitants. At the Hôtel-Dieu, the dead +numbered five hundred a day, and the nuns who served as nurses perished +so rapidly that they had to be constantly renewed. Charles V, _le +Sage_, died on the 16th of September, 1380, "after a reign of sixteen +years, during which the people, although they had been crushed by such +taxation that 'many were forced to sell their beds in order to pay,' had +yet had much less to complain of than during the preceding reign, and, +still more, than they would have during that which was to follow,--the +most wretched of all!" + +The historians quote from the _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_ for the +years 1419-1421: "You would have heard through all Paris pitiable +lamentations, little children crying: 'I am dying with hunger!' There +were to be seen on a dunghill twenty, thirty children, boys and girls, +who yielded up their souls through famine and cold. Death cut down so +many and so fast that it was necessary to excavate in the cemeteries +great ditches in which were put thirty or forty, packed close together, +and scarcely powdered over with earth. Those who dug the graves asserted +that they had buried more than a hundred thousand persons. The +shoe-makers counted up, on the day of their trade reunion, those that +had died among them, and found that they numbered some eighteen hundred, +masters and apprentices, in these two months. Troops of wolves traversed +the country and entered Paris during the night to carry off the dead +bodies.... The working people said to each other: 'Let us fly to the +woods with the wild beasts.... Farewell to wives and children.... Let us +do the worst we can.... Let us place ourselves again in the hands of the +devil.'" + +To multiply these historical incidents would be but dreary +iteration,--we will rather give one or two presentations in full of some +details of what may be called the subterranean aspect of the great city, +sombre and rather unpleasant presentations that are not to be found in +the dignified histories or in the guide-books, and that remain unknown +to the usual decorous tourist and reader. That the first one may not be +too sombre, we will select it, not in the gloom of the Dark Ages, but in +full French Renaissance, under François I. Readers of Victor Hugo's +_Notre-Dame de Paris_ will doubtless remember his very picturesque +description of the famous Cour des Miracles as it existed in the reign +of Louis XI,--more sober historians do not hesitate to corroborate these +fantastic details in many particulars. M. Gourdon de Genouillac, +Officier d'Académie, in his learned work, _Paris à travers les siècles_, +gives a description which we condense. "Everything had been done in +order to oppose an effective defence to the attacks of enemies outside +the walls; but it was much more difficult to guard against the +enterprises of those within; the assemblings of the malcontents which +were held nightly, and those of the gentry of sack and cord who, as soon +as the gates were opened, set off eagerly to ravage the suburbs of +Paris, returning in the evening to conceal themselves in the quarters +where no one scarcely ventured to go in search of them. The Cour des +Miracles was the usual refuge of all those wretches who came to conceal +in this corner of Paris, sombre, dirty, muddy, and tortuous, their +pretended infirmities and their criminal pollution. + +"The Cour des Miracles extended between the Impasse de la Corderie (on +the site of which a part of the Rue Thévenot was opened) and the Rues de +Damiette and des Forges; its entrance was in the Rue Saint-Sauveur. It +had been in existence since the thirteenth century.... + +"Several other haunts of the same kind existed in Paris, and Dulaure +asserts that under Louis XIV there were still to be seen, the Cour des +Miracles, of which we have just spoken; the Cour du Roi-François, +situated in the Rue Saint-Denis; the Cour Sainte-Catherine, in the same +street; the Cour Brisset, Rue de la Mortellerie; the Cour Gentien, Rue +des Coquilles; the Cour de la Jussienne, in the street of the same name; +the Cour Saint-Honoré, between the Rues Saint-Nicaise, Saint-Honoré, and +de l'Echelle; the Cour des Miracles, Rue du Bac; the Cour des Miracles, +Rue de Reuilly, and still another Cour des Miracles, Rue Jean Beausire. + +"But that which, in the sixteenth century, formed a veritable quarter of +the city, was the Cour des Miracles of the Rue Saint-Sauveur, which +served as a refuge for beggars and vagabonds. + +"'It consisted,' as we read in Sauval's _Antiquités_, 'of an open place +of very considerable size and of a very large _cul-de-sac_, +evil-smelling, miry, and irregular, which had no pavement whatever. +Formerly, it was confined to one of the farthest extremities of Paris. +At present, it is situated in that one of the quarters of the city which +is the worst built, the most filthy, and the most out of the way, +between the Rue Montorgueil, the convent of the Filles-Dieu, and the Rue +Neuve-Saint-Sauveur, as if it were in another world. To get to it, it is +necessary to go astray in little streets, villainous, stinking, crooked; +to enter it, it is necessary to descend a sufficiently long slope, +tortuous, rugged, uneven. I have seen there a house of dirt, half +buried, tumbling to pieces with old age and rottenness, which did not +cover a space of four square fathoms, and in which were lodged, +nevertheless, more than fifty households, having in charge an infinite +number of little children, legitimate, natural, or stolen. I was assured +that in this little dwelling and in the others dwelt more than five +hundred large families, piled one upon the other. Large as is this +court, it was formerly much more so. On every side it has been +encroached upon by lodgings, low, sunken, dark, and deformed, +constructed of earth and of mud, and all of them crowded with the evil +poor.' + +"In fact, under François I the Cour des Miracles had a physiognomy much +more strongly marked than under Louis XIV. The narrow and miry streets, +insinuating themselves between the hovels in wood, halting and crippled, +turned and returned upon themselves, to end finally in a repulsive +sewer. Neither air nor sunshine ever penetrated into these infamous +alleys, from which escaped, at all seasons of the year, nauseating +odors, and too often, also, pestilential miasmas. There vegetated in the +most sordid uncleanliness the subjects of the kingdom of beggary. All +that Paris illegally received in the way of mendicants, false cripples, +false blind, false lepers horrible to see, covered with ulcers, there +wallowed in orgies, in frantic feasting, in gambling.... + +". . . All these _truands_ recognized a veritable hierarchy; there were to +be distinguished among them three distinct classes,--the _capons_, or +_voleurs_ (thieves); the _francs-mitous_, or _mendiants_ (beggars), and +the _rifodes_, or _vagabonds_. All together formed a kingdom, the chief +of which was called the grand Coësre; he carried a banner on which was +depicted a dead dog, and, quite like his colleague, the King of France, +he had a court and courtiers. + +"It was the kingdom of _Argot_ (cant, slang), the code or the formula of +which prescribed theft and plunder. + +"Its enclosure, restricted to the Cour des Miracles, was place of refuge +[legal asylum]; all the historians have repeated it, but we do not think +that this right had ever been officially recognized, and it existed +rather through force of circumstances; in this sense, that when a thief +or an assassin had taken refuge in one of the dens of which we have +spoken, it was found more convenient to leave him there in peace than +to run the risk of taking him out of it. However this may be, the +_argotiers_ were quite masters in their own house, and enjoyed in +complete liberty the right of living as seemed good to them. In order +that it might not be permitted that they should be accused of wanting +for religion, they had stolen a statue of the Father Eternal from the +church of Saint Pierre aux Bœufs and had placed it in a niche, before +which they willingly made the sign of the cross. + +"Moreover, it should be remarked that the monks and the gentry of the +Cour des Miracles lived on sufficiently good terms with each other, and +it would not be impossible that the name given to this enclosure came +from the zeal with which the argotiers cried 'Miracle!' every time that +one was manifested in the streets of Paris, and we may say, _en +passant_, that the miracles were frequently performed in their favor. +Whenever the monks made some solemn procession, promenading through the +streets the relics of some saint, it was not uncommon to see a +franc-mitou, paralyzed, crippled or epileptic, endeavoring to touch the +sacred casket; in vain would the attempt be made to keep him at a +distance; he redoubled his efforts, and scarcely had he succeeded in +gluing his lips to the sacred coffer when immediately the cripple threw +away his crutch, the epileptic ceased to foam at the mouth, and the +astonished people cried: 'Miracle!' + +"It was even said that the monks had been seen on several occasions to +penetrate at night into the famous court, and come out again without +having received the slightest ill treatment. + +"During very many years, this society of begging thieves existed and its +importance constantly augmented. Under Louis XIV, its numerous members +were divided into _cagoux_, _orphelins_, _marcandiers_, _rifodes_, +_malingreux_ and _capons_, _piètres_, _polissons_, _francs-mitous_, +_callots_, _saboleux_, _hubains_, _coquillards_, _courtaux de boutange_, +and _drilles_. + +"The _cagoux_, who occupied the highest rank in this singular +association of malefactors, were, it might be said, the professors of +the newly-admitted; they gave instructions in the art of cutting purses, +the proper recipes for procuring factitious wounds, in a word, all the +methods necessary for appealing to the charity of the public, and, if +need be, of obliging individuals to exercise it unknown to themselves. + +"The _orphelins_ (orphans) were young boys who assumed the rôle of +abandoned children, and who slipped into houses for the purpose of +carrying off whatever fell into their hands. + +"The _marcandiers_ gave themselves out for merchants ruined by the wars +and asked for alms, which they exacted when, after nightfall, some good +bourgeois fell into their hands. + +"The _rifodes_ begged by means of forged certificates. + +"The _malingreux_ counterfeited maladies, simulating the most disgusting +afflictions; they frequented the churches by preference, and implored +aid that they might go on pilgrimages. + +"The _capons_ begged in the streets and the cabarets. + +"The _piètres_ were counterfeit cripples, walking with the aid of +crutches, or pretending to be deprived of their legs. + +"The _polissons_ were a variety of capons, and effected their purposes +through intimidation. + +"The _francs-mitous_ gave themselves out as dying of hunger, they fell +fainting with weakness in the middle of the streets, and succeeded by +this means in gathering in abundant receipts. + +"The _callots_ pretended to be recently cured of the scurf, and to have +just arrived from Sainte-Reine, where they had been miraculously +delivered of their ailment. + +[Illustration: NEWSDEALER. PORTION OF THE "L'ALMANACH NATIONAL" OF 1791. +Re-engraved by Pannemaker, after the original by Debucourt.] + +"The _hubains_ exhibited a certificate setting forth that, having been +bitten by a mad dog, they had been cured by the intercession of +Saint-Hubert. + +"The _saboleux_ were false epileptics who were enabled to simulate +convulsions by means of a piece of soap placed between their lips, which +made a froth. + +"The _coquillards_ represented pilgrims returning from Saint-Jacques or +some other pilgrim shrine. + +"The _courtaux de boutange_, beggars in winter, shivered with cold under +their rags. + +"The _drilles_, or _narquois_, begged in military uniform, and said that +they had received wounds which prevented them from working. + +"The total number of these wretches had become so great, and their +depredations in the city were so frequent, that it was resolved to use +vigorous measures; in 1656, a veritable army of archers and of officers +invaded the Cour des Miracles under the lead of several commissioners. +The beggars and the truands endeavored to make their escape, but the +quarter was surrounded. + +"Thieves, beggars, and vagabonds were all arrested; then a selection was +made; some were released, and the others remained in prison or were sent +to the hospitals.... + +"But under François I, and especially at the period when the chevalier +king was expiating at Madrid the loss of the battle of Pavia, the Cour +des Miracles was in all its splendor, and those who inhabited it were a +sufficiently lively cause of anxiety to the _prévôt_ of the merchants +and to the bishop-governor. + +"On the 22d of May, 1525, the Assemblée des Vingt adopted a resolution +to arrest a certain number of fraudulent beggars who were strongly +suspected of being marauders of the worst kind, but, having been +notified in time, they decamped.... The enterprises of the vagabonds, +the thieves, and the _mauvais garçons_ became more and more audacious; +they had for chiefs three bandits, Esclaireau, Barbiton, and Jean de +Mets, who spread such terror that the archers who were sent against them +preferred to advise them to fly, through fear of being killed by them; +however, the salt barges having been robbed on the 7th of June, near the +Célestins, the _prévôt_ of the merchants sent the night-watch against +them; they defended themselves with arquebuses, drove the watch back as +far as the Port Saint-Landry, and all but killed the _prévôt_. + +"On the 14th, a troop of these rogues traversed the city, crying: '_Vive +Bourgogne! À sac! à sac!_' + +"Immediately the watch turned out, there was a fight, and some thirty +men were killed or wounded on both sides. Presently, the disbanded +soldiers and the _routiers_, coming from no one knew where, joined +forces with the truands and spread terror among the inhabitants. One of +the officers of the quarters, charged to take proceedings against them, +asserted that there were eighty of them who frequented the hostelry de +la Coquille, situated in the Rue Saint-Martin, and that there was a +still greater number in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Every one was quite +convinced that these were soldiers who had not been paid their hire, and +it was resolved that some sixty persons, honorable and of divers +conditions (one of them was a president of the court), with twenty +sergeants, should be sent against them, to seize all these adventurers +and bring them to justice. + +[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE BASTILLE, JULY 14, 1789. + +After a contemporary engraving by Duplessis-Bertaux.] + +"This was a mission sufficiently disagreeable to fulfil, and one which +was not exempt from danger; the vagabonds, forewarned, joined the +Italian and Corsican bands commanded by the Comte de Belle Joyeuse, who +had been authorized by the regent 'to live upon the people,' and who +gave themselves up to all the excesses which were compatible with such +an authorization, quite in consonance with the manners of the times; +when it was desired to raise soldiers for a campaign and there was no +money with which to pay them, they were permitted to live upon the +people, that is to say, to exact from the unhappy inhabitants of the +town or the country whatever they pleased, to ransom them, to rob them, +to pillage them, free to beat them unmercifully or to spit them like +chickens, if they took it into their heads to complain. This was what +was called the necessities of the troops. + +"Presently, these adventurers, French or foreign, formed an effective +force of four thousand men. + +"If one imagine these four thousand armed bandits falling unexpectedly +upon the inhabitants of Saint-Cloud, of Sèvres, of Montreuil, ravaging, +destroying, robbing all, ransoming the nuns of Longchamps, threatening +to pillage Le Landit, it can readily be believed that the merchants were +so uneasy that they hastened to place their goods upon carts and to flee +with them. + +"There was certainly sufficient here to frighten the Parisians...." + +All this took place in a period of general prosperity, of unexampled +ease and comfort compared with what had gone before. "Bodin assures us," +says Duruy, "that, from 1516 to 1560, there was more gold in France than +had ever been collected there before in two hundred years. 'The +bourgeois,' as the Venetian ambassador so well said, 'have become the +masters of wealth.' Ango had amassed, like Jacques Cœur in another +century, the fortune of a prince," And this was in full Renaissance. "It +is the radiant awakening of human reason, the spring-time of the mind. +After a long and rude winter, now behold the earth reanimating under +the sunshine of the new birth! A generous sap circulates in her bosom; +she adorns herself with a vegetation capricious, yet fruitful, which +re-covers and conceals the old soil, while sustaining itself by it, like +those vigorous plants which, born at the foot of an antique oak, embrace +it and kill it in the clasp of their younger tendrils. Everything is +renewed, art, science, philosophy; and the world, arrested for two +centuries in the lower levels which it had found at the end of its +passage through the Middle Ages, resumed its progress that it might +mount into the light and the purer air. 'Oh! age!' exclaims Ulrich von +Hutten, 'letters flourish, minds awaken;--it is a joy to live!' Even the +least philosophical experience the sentiment of this renaissance of the +mind. 'The world laughs at the world,' said Marot;--'therefore is it in +its youth!'" + +The question of the social evil had been taken up in this city as early +as the time of Charlemagne. That great lawmaker had endeavored to banish +from his capital all public women, but they defied even his imperial +authority. He ordained that they should be punished with the lash, and +that all those who had lodged them, or had been found in their company, +should carry them around their necks to the place of execution. But the +number of these whippings, and of these singular processions, was so +great that a policy of toleration was, perforce, substituted. +Philippe-Auguste also undertook to regulate this disorder, as the number +was constantly increasing of these _femmes amoureuses_, or _filles +folles_, as they were called; they were grouped in a corporation, +honored with a special tax, and with special judges to consider their +delinquencies; they were given the liberty of certain streets, the names +of which have been preserved, in each of which they were furnished with +a building (_clapier_, a sort of hutch, or retreat), which they were to +keep clean and "render agreeable and comfortable." Here they were to +confine themselves from ten o'clock in the morning till curfew--six +o'clock in the evening in winter, and between eight and nine in summer, +and nowhere else whatever. Every year they walked in solemn procession +on the day of Saint Mary Magdalen. "Those of them who followed the +Court were obliged during the month of May to furnish the bed of the +_roi des ribauds_." + +[Illustration: THE CRYING EVIL. WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE CARRYING THE CHURCH +AND THE STATE. + +Reproduction of one of many contemporary engravings issued to excite the +people against the clergy and nobility.] + +This functionary had been established by Philippe-Auguste for the double +purpose of policing these offenders, and of forming a body-guard of +resolute men for the monarch himself. "The ribauds were armed with +maces, and watched night and day over the person of the king, who feared +the assassins of the Old Man of the Mountain and the bravoes of Richard +of England. The _roi des ribauds_ was an important personage, in the +enjoyment of very considerable prerogatives and privileges. He mounted +guard at the sovereign's door, and saw that no one entered without +authority. He was the judge for crimes committed within the enclosure of +the royal residence, and carried out himself the sentences which he +pronounced; he was thus at once judge and executioner. We find him in +the exercise of his office as late as the fifteenth century." + +Under Saint Louis, there was further legislation against these women, +_les ribaudes_, and renewal of the edicts forbidding any citizen to let +his house to them under penalty of confiscation. Thus early do we find +in use one of the least ineffective of modern measures for correcting +this evil. This king, who had a weakness for cruel and excessive +punishments, notwithstanding (or, perhaps, because of) his sanctity, +also commanded that these disturbers of public morals should be stripped +of all their property, wherever found, and imprisoned at hard labor. +This being found impracticable, he modified his ordinance, and directed +that they should be restricted to certain streets, that they should not +be allowed to wear embroideries, or silver or other ornaments +appertaining to honest women. Three of these streets being in turn +denied them under Charles VI, in 1387, the proprietors appealed to +Parliament, which by a decree restored to them the Rue de Baillehoé. In +1367, in 1379, in 1386, and in 1395, there were further ordinances +forbidding them numerous other streets; in 1446, the week before +Ascension, proclamation was made by the public crier of the furs, silver +girdles, reversed collars, and other articles of feminine adornment +which were forbidden them. There were at this date between five and six +thousand of them in Paris, and all classes of society, ecclesiastics, +monks, magistrates, openly paraded their immoral mode of life. The very +churches and bath-houses were used as rendezvous. Henry VI, King of +England and France, had, in 1424, forbidden the sergeants and the +archers of the municipality to confiscate to their own use the girdles, +jewelry, or vestments of the _fillettes et femmes amoureuses ou +dissolues_, but this regulation seems to have been no better enforced +than all the others. + +Under Louis XI, we find the same bold Cordelier, Olivier Maillard, who +had not hesitated to preach against the king himself, denouncing all the +sins of the Parisians at once from his pulpit. He reproached them with +their games of chance, their playing cards, their taking the name of God +in vain in their oaths, their turning their houses into dens of +prostitution, their selling their daughters to the seigneurs; he accused +their wives of deceiving their husbands for the sake of fine gowns, +embroidered and furred. "Is it not true, mesdemoiselles," he cried, +"that there are to be found among you, here in Paris, more debauched +women than honest women? Is it not fine to see the wife of an advocate +who has bought his office, and who has not ten francs of income, dress +herself like a princess, display the gold on her neck, on her head, on +her girdle? She is dressed according to her station in life, she says. +Let her go to all the devils, she and her station! And you, Monsieur +Jacques, you give her absolution? Doubtless she will say: 'It is not my +husband who has given me such fine clothes, but I have earned them with +the labor of my body!' To thirty thousand devils with such labor!" + +In the following reign, the Court and Parliament took extraordinary +measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease which was +called _le mal de Naples_, because it was said to have been first +brought into France by the soldiers of Charles VIII on their return from +the Italian campaigns. This statement, however, is very doubtful. An +ordinance was drawn up, with the approval of the _prévôts_ of Paris, the +merchants and the _échevins_, by which all those affected with this +malady, and having no regular residence in the city, were directed to +leave it within twenty-four hours under penalty of the halter, and in +order to facilitate their return to their own homes, they were directed +to rendezvous at the Portes Saint-Denis or Saint-Jacques, where they +would give their names in writing to an official stationed there for +that purpose and receive each four sous parisis. Those who possessed +houses in the city were requested to immediately shut themselves up in +them and remain in them; the curés and churchwardens of their parishes +were to see that they were furnished with food. The homeless poor were +to congregate in the Faubourg Saint-Germain-des-Près, where they would +be lodged, fed, and cared for; they were expressly forbidden to leave +until they were cured. The _prévôt_ of Paris gave orders that those +affected with disease were not to be suffered to go about the city, but +were to be driven from it, or put in prison; the _prévôt_ of the +merchants and the _échevins_ put guards at the city gates to prevent any +of these persons entering the capital. + +In 1560, during the short reign of François II, the States-General +issued a positive prohibition of all prostitution,--which was as +ineffective as all the preceding regulations had been. Under Charles IX +and Henri III, the evil constantly increased,--the example offered by +the corrupt court not being conducive to the growth of a sound public +opinion. Those persons who were convicted of bigamy were condemned to be +publicly flogged, and, sometimes, to be afterward hanged,--in the latter +case, they were executed between two distaffs. Those convicted of the +crime of bestiality were usually burned at the stake, the animal +undergoing the same penalty. The _filles de mauvaise vie_ were more +numerous than ever, and all the streets formerly assigned to them were +still occupied by them. In 1619, a new decree of the Parliament against +them forbade all persons to let them houses or lodgings, under penalty +of confiscation of their property for the benefit of the poor, and +directed all _vagabonds_ and _filles débauchées_ to quit _la ville et +faulxbourgs de Paris_ within twenty-four hours, under pain of +imprisonment. Every bourgeois and citizen of Paris was required to aid +the first huissier, or sergeant of the Châtelet, or any other officer of +justice, who called upon him to do so, in enforcing this regulation, +under penalty of a fine of a hundred livres parisis. + +All these legal penalties, necessarily inefficient in themselves, were +rendered doubly so by the dissolute code of morals, _les mœurs +Italiennes_, as they were called under Mazarin, that obtained in all +classes of society. Under Louis XIV, an ordinance of 1684, drawn up by +Colbert, was especially directed against those unfortunate women who +were afflicted with disease: on entering the hospital they were first +whipped, and then subjected to hard labor and the most rigorous +confinement. Under the Regency, in 1720, Paris was greatly outraged by +the tragic death of the Comtesse de Roncy, a very pretty young wife, +who, justly suspicious of her husband, courageously went to seek him one +day at the house of a certain charmer whom he was in the habit of +visiting. On this occasion, he was not there, but the unhappy wife +recognized his portrait on the bracelet which her rival was wearing; the +controversy soon became heated, the neighbors of this Rue Gît-le-Cœur +flocked in and took sides against the intruder, who, in the end, was +thrown out the window and died on the following day. The murderesses +were all sent to the Châtelet. Under Louis XV, the prodigal luxury +displayed by the actresses and opera-dancers, the _femmes à la mode_, +who were called _des impures_, and the effrontery of the grand seigneurs +and rich bankers who maintained them in this state, became, if possible, +more scandalous than ever; it was said, for example, that the minister +Bertin, who had lived for fifteen years with Mlle. Hus, of the Comédie +Française, had given her a set of furniture that was valued at five +hundred thousand livres. + +"Mlle. Grandi, of the Opéra, a dancer of mediocre talent and with a very +commonplace face, was complaining one evening at the theatre of having +lost the good graces of a protector who had given her a thousand louis +in five weeks; one of those present said to her that she would readily +find some one to take his place. Mlle. Grandi replied that it was not so +easy as might be supposed, but that, in any case, she was firmly decided +not to accept any new liaison excepting on the condition that she +received a carriage and two good horses, with at least a hundred louis +of income assured to maintain this equipage. The conversation then +ended, but the next day there arrived at Mlle. Grandi's lodging a +magnificent carriage drawn by two horses and followed by three others +led behind it, and in the carriage was found one hundred and thirty +thousand livres in specie." + +Sometimes these scandalous chronicles took another turn. Mlle. Guimard, +also of the Opéra, "a celebrated dancer, who was openly protected by +the Maréchal de Soubise, did not shine by any excessive faithfulness to +her protector; she accepted a rendezvous in one of the faubourgs of +Paris, and saw that there was so much misery in this quarter that she +distributed a portion of the two thousand écus which she had received as +the price of her complaisance among the poor people whom she encountered +and carried the rest to the curé of Saint-Roch, requesting him to have +the goodness to distribute it among the poor." + +The gardens of the Palais-Royal figure largely in the history of Paris +as the scene of many of the more important incidents of the constantly +changing social life of the capital. In the latter part of the +eighteenth century, this locality was so much the favorite resort of the +_femmes galantes_ that the honest bourgeois and their wives were finally +compelled to abandon it altogether; in the latter part of 1771, the +former were accordingly all expelled, but by the summer of 1772 they had +all returned. It is related that the Duc de Chartres, walking here one +day, passed one of these ladies and was so much struck by her appearance +that he turned to the gentlemen accompanying him and said: "Ah! how ugly +she is!" To which the offended fair promptly replied: "You have much +uglier ones in your seraglio." The prince did not judge it expedient to +discuss the subject, but he related the incident to the lieutenant of +police, and the next day these promenaders were more rigorously expelled +than ever. In consequence, "to-day," relates a chronicler of the period, +"excepting on days of the opera, the Palais-Royal is nothing but a vast +solitude." In 1784, the streets back of it, inhabited by a dissolute and +degraded population of both sexes, had become "veritable cloacæ." On the +evening of the 31st of October, 1785, at a moment when the evening +promenade was more crowded even than usual, a dragoon, having one of +these _filles_ on his arm, pushed by the throng, happened to step on the +foot of the Abbé de Lubersac, walking near him; the latter made use of a +strong expression, to which the soldier replied in kind; the young woman +endeavored to make peace by saying: "After all, it is only an abbé, who +is not worth stopping for." The churchman, still further forgetting +himself, permitted himself to kick the young woman quite as if she were +a man; the dragoon took him by the collar; the _Suisses_ of the palace +hastened to quell the riot, but their numbers were quite insufficient; +the Duc de Chartres, seeing the tumult, but not daring to show himself +because of his great unpopularity, summoned the city guard to what by +this time had become a "regular field of battle," and the disturbance +was finally quelled. Among the wounded who were carried off was a +Chevalier de Saint-Louis, "disemboweled;" and thereafter the Suisses +prohibited the entrance of the gardens to all women of doubtful virtue. + +It may be remembered that, in the celebrated affair of the diamond +necklace, the young person who was persuaded by the adventuress, Madame +de la Motte, to personify the queen, Marie Antoinette, and to meet the +duped Cardinal Rohan in the park of Versailles at ten o'clock in the +evening for the purpose of giving him the fictitious authority to +purchase the necklace, was a _fille du monde_ who lived in the Rue du +Jour at Paris, and was known as "la d'Oliva." For playing this part, the +young woman was promised fifteen thousand livres. The _mémoire_ that was +afterward drawn up by the avocat of Madame de la Motte "excited the +interest of all sensitive souls by relating that the demoiselle, +enceinte at the moment of her arrest, had been delivered in the Bastile, +and was nursing her infant herself." + +[Illustration: PILLAGE OF THE ARCHBISHOP'S DWELLING, FEBRUARY 15, 1831. +Engraved from an unpublished drawing by Raffet.] + +One of the most celebrated resorts of the ladies of the monde and the +demi-monde, the cabaret of Ramponneau at Belleville, was closed a few +years before the outbreak of the Revolution of 1789. Its renown seems to +have been established, in the early days of the Regency, by the fact +that wine was there sold at three sous six deniers the pint, that is to +say, at one sou less than the usual price. "It was so crowded that there +were as many persons outside, waiting their turn to enter, as inside, +although the accommodations were very considerable in size. This crowd +excited the curiosity of persons of distinction, who wished to see for +themselves this prodigy." It is described as a species of cellar, +decorated on the exterior with a vine painted on the wall, and with a +sign bearing the legend, "_Au Tambour Royal_," and a picture of the +proprietor astride of a cask. It was furnished in the interior with +wooden benches and crippled tables, around which crowded a multitude +drawn from all classes of society, high and low. + +The fame of the proprietor became so great that he was offered by the +two managers, Gaudon and Nestre, of a theatrical establishment on the +Boulevard du Temple, in 1758, ten livres a day if he would consent to +show himself on their stage daily for the space of three months. The +contracts were all signed, the songs prepared for him, when Ramponneau, +worked upon by the Jansenists, suddenly refused to appear. In a +statement drawn up before a notary, we read: "To-day appeared before me, +the Sieur Jean Ramponneau, cabaretier, living in the basse Courtille, +who has of his own free will and volition declared that the serious +reflections which he has made upon the dangers and the obstacles to the +salvation of those persons who appear upon the stage of a theatre, and +upon the justness of the censures which the Church has pronounced upon +these individuals, have determined him to renounce, as in these +presents, through scruples of conscience and for the purpose of so +contributing, on his part, to the purity of manners which it becomes a +Christian to maintain, and in which he prays God always to maintain him, +he renounces appearing, and promises to God never to appear, on any +stage, nor to perform any function, profession, or act which is in the +nature of those performed by those individuals who appear on the +theatrical stage, whoever they may be," etc. The case was conducted on +both sides by the most eminent avocats, and finally compromised by +Ramponneau paying a large sum to have the agreement cancelled. He still +had left one hundred thousand livres, with which he established himself +at the Porcherons, and purchased from the Sieur Magny the cabaret de la +Grande-Pinte, on which he expended sixty thousand livres more, and where +he had the same success as at the Courtille. The court and the city +thronged his establishment, which became the restaurant _à la mode_. + +A very celebrated wine-shop, known as the Petit-Ramponneau, was +established, in 1859, at Montmartre, and was the last in which wine was +served in little crocks or jugs. The proprietors, MM. Lallemand, made a +fortune in thus dispensing _vin bleu_ and portions at six sous the +plate. + +"It had long been said that the third estate paid with its property, the +nobility with its blood, the clergy with its prayers. Now, the clergy of +the court and of the salon prayed but very little, the nobility no +longer constituted in itself the royal army; but the third estate, +remaining faithful to its functions in the State, still paid, and each +year more. Since its purse was the common treasury, it was inevitable +that the more the monarchy expended, the more would it place itself in +a condition of dependency upon the bourgeoisie, and that a day would +arrive when the latter, weary of paying, would demand its accounts. That +day is called the Revolution of 1789." + +[Illustration: A MAID'S DUTY IN FRANCE.] + +The engraving on page 245 is a reproduction of one of the many that +appear at this day of settlement, with the object of exciting the people +against the clergy and the nobility, and of illustrating forcibly the +two principal vices of society as then constituted,--the privileges and +the inequality of taxation. To suppress these privileges, and to make +this inequality disappear,--this was the task of the Revolution. In the +engraving, from the collection of M. le Baron de Vinck d'Orp, of +Brussels, we see a woman of the people bending under the double burden +of a nun and a lady of the nobility; the title is "_Le Grand Abus_." + +As to the origin of the famous phrase, the sans-culottes, the following +statement is made by some historians. Two ladies of the nobility, but +favorably inclined toward the new ideas, were one day present at a +session of the Assembly, and were commenting very audibly and very +critically upon a speech which the Abbé Maury was delivering. The +orator, finally losing his patience, interrupted his discourse, and, +indicating his unappreciative hearers with his forefinger, turned to the +presiding officer: + +"Monsieur le President," he said, "make these two +_sans-culottes_--unbreeched, trouserless--keep quiet." + +This appellation, applied to the two ladies, naturally turned the laugh +against them, and the phrase, repeated from mouth to mouth, was adopted +by the people of the faubourgs as a title glorifying their miserable +condition and their aspirations. + +Another of these Revolutionary prints, from the _National Almanac_ for +1791, engraved by Debucourt, and preserved in the collection of M. +Muhlbacher of Paris, gives an ingenious and picturesque presentation of +one of the numberless sources of supply of that literature of journals +and pamphlets on which the Revolution was so largely fed. This +_marchande de journaux_, who adorns a page in the calendar, sits between +two benches covered with papers and pamphlets, and set off with ribbons, +flowers, and patriotic emblems mounted on rods; her costume and her +attitude are also patriotic and a trifle dishevelled, and she is shrilly +proclaiming the new decree concerning the value of the assignat which +she holds out. Behind her, a couple of elderly aristocrats are about to +come into collision with two younger citizens, representatives of the +newer ideas, and absorbed in reading some catechism for patriots. On the +sidewalk are two boys in the costumes of their elders, one of whom is +supposed to be pointing to the date of July 14th in the calendar. This +plate is referred to in the _Art du 18e siècle_, by Edmond and Jules +de Goncourt. + +[Illustration: CHEZ LES HÉTAIRES. + +Caricature from _La Journée du Poëte Décadent_.] + +It is worthy of remark that even this sacred date of the 14th of July, +that of the national fête, is nowadays not exempt from that curious +self-criticism which in every tone of mockery, semi-seriousness, and +grave apprehension occupies so considerable a proportion of contemporary +French literature, from the _Siècle_ to the _Bulletin de la Société +d'Economie Sociale et des Unions de la Paix Sociale_. So persistent had +this criticism become that the national authorities this year (1898) in +the capital thought it fit to tack on to the national and municipal +celebration of a great political event, in order to give it greater +weight and dignity, the commemoration of the birth of a not very +important literary man! M. Gaston Deschamps, in the usually ribald +_Figaro_, claimed much of the credit of this innovation for himself. In +a long leading editorial on the _Sanctification du 14 Juillet_, he thus +lays sacrilegious hands on the taking of the Bastile itself: "Last year, +I demonstrated, very readily, that our fête of the 14th of July, already +discredited by the desertion of the wealthy classes, by the scepticism +of the public functionaries, and by the frivolousness of the populace, +was destitute of that character, national, republican, and humanitarian, +which should be in a democracy, the characteristic of every solemnity. + +[Illustration: AN ADMIRER OF "L'INTRANSIGEANT."] + +"This fête seems to have been instituted for the special aggravation of +those Frenchmen who believe that the history of France did not begin +with the 14th of July, 1789. It is no longer, to employ the energetic +expression of Gambetta, anything but 'a rag of the civil war.' It +glorifies an event which, according to the testimony of contemporaries +the least suspected of moderation in politics (Marat, Saint-Just), had +not the importance nor, above all, the beauty which our present system +of primary instruction attributes to it. Historical research has +verified the opinion of these witnesses. It is impossible to relate the +taking of the Bastile Saint-Antoine without recognizing the silliness or +the unworthiness of the citizens who were the principal actors in this +enterprise. This old prison had just been put out of commission by a +royal ordinance which decreed its demolition. Very many of the +'conquerors of the Bastile' cried '_Vive le Roi!_' as they went down the +Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The number of prisoners at that time confined in +this jail reduced itself to seven, to wit: four forgers, two lunatics, +and a crapulous old gentleman. The Bastile was garrisoned by the French +_invalides_ and by the Swiss guards. The assailants swore to injure no +one if they were permitted to enter. The gates were opened. The French +_invalides_, who had trusted in the promise given, were massacred +without being able to defend themselves. The Swiss guards were taken for +'captives' (because of their uniform). They were carried off in triumph. +The brewer Santerre (at that time demagogue, and later monopolist in +national property) proposed to set the edifice on fire with poppy oil. +His friends preferred the demolition pure and simple, which had the +effect of turning out in the street the poor devils whose shops were +built against the walls of the 'monument of tyranny.'" And he cites the +works of a number of modern historical writers to prove the truth of his +statements. + +"The taking of the Bastile was an act of anarchy, which, if it were +repeated to-day, would be immediately suppressed by our Minister of the +Interior, Monsieur Brisson. The Republican police no longer permits, God +be thanked, this particular form of diversion. This was very evident the +other day when several hundred gentry, intoxicated, perhaps, by the +approach of this untoward anniversary, wished to sack Mazas prison. + +"No, I cannot bring myself to consider this killing of Frenchmen as the +most glorious event of the French Revolution. There is too much of +fratricidal murder in this affair. I cannot rejoice to thus see the +blood of our nation flow. Every time that it is wished to make an +apology for this excess of contagious folly, we find ourselves reduced +to invoking the approbation of foreigners. It appears that Kant was so +well satisfied with this outbreak that he forgot, for the first time in +his life, the hour of his luncheon. The English ambassador wrote to his +Gracious Majesty that he was very well pleased. The Venetian ambassador +judged it to be a 'noble revolt.' So be it. But neither the Prussian +Kant, nor this Englishman, nor that Venetian, had the same reasons that +we have for grieving over an incident that divided France against +herself.... + +"Last year I succeeded in stirring up a very sufficient number of +protestations for having ventured to deduce, from a collection of +self-evident facts, a judgment which I still maintain. It may well be +believed, moreover, that I was not wrong, since the Government and the +Municipal Council have, this year, taken the initiative of adding to the +ceremonies and to the diversions usual on the 14th of July, the +celebration of an illustrious memory, which will heighten the dignity of +the official fête, and which should give to the French people the +opportunity to reunite in the unanimity truly national of a common +admiration. + +"On the white posters which the administration has just placarded I read +as follows: + + "'FÊTE NATIONALE,' + +and underneath: + + "'_Fêtes du centenaire de Michelet._' + +"This coincidence is intentional. It is significative. + +"Michelet was born on the 21st of August, 1798; the date of his +centennial therefore falls regularly in the coming month. It has been +decided to celebrate to-morrow the commemoration of his birth. It has +been desired, by means of this addition, to purify, to sanctify the 14th +of July by a sort of pious eve.... If these fêtes contribute toward +fixing in the souvenirs of the populace an idea of the life and of the +work of Michelet, this 14th of July, ennobled, embellished, will not +have been misplaced. A hateful date will justly have been transformed +into a fête of union and of fraternity." + +Lamartine says of the murder of M. de Launey, Governor of the Bastile, +hacked to pieces by the crowd in the street after he had surrendered: "A +victim of duty, he yielded only with his last breath the sword which had +been confided to him by his master. The court, the army, the royalists, +the people, basely endeavored to throw upon him the responsibility for +their want of forethought, their cowardice, their blood shedding." + +The _vainqueurs de la Bastille_ took upon themselves such airs of +superiority and claimed so many privileges over their fellow-citizens +that the municipal authorities finally, wearied with their arrogance, +issued a proclamation in the latter part of December, forbidding them to +assemble and to deliberate, and directing the procureur of the commune +to prosecute any author, printer, or distributor of decrees which the +aforesaid "conquerors" issued without any legal authority. + +[Illustration: VERY'S RESTAURANT, BOULEVARD MAGENTA, DYNAMITED BY +ANARCHISTS IN 1892.] + +Michelet gives some details of one of the most celebrated of the +innumerable murders of the Terror, that of the pretty Princesse de +Lamballe, which may serve to illustrate the quality of the populace. +She was confined in the prison de la Force, where during the night of +the 2d of September, 1792, a Revolutionary tribunal condemned the +prisoners to death after a mock trial. In the morning, two of the +National Guards came to tell her that she was to be transferred to the +Abbaye, to which she replied that she would as soon stay where she was. +Taken before the tribunal, she was ordered to take the oath of liberty +and equality, of hatred of the king, the queen, and royalty. "I will +willingly take the first two oaths," she said; "I cannot take the last, +it is not in my heart." A voice cried to her: "Swear; if you do not +swear, you are dead." "Cry '_Vive la Nation!_'" said several others, +"and no harm will be done thee." "At that moment, she perceived at the +corner of the little Rue Saint-Antoine something frightful, a soft and +bloody mass upon which one of the participants in the massacres was +trampling with his iron-pegged shoes. It was a heap of corpses, +stripped, quite white, quite naked, which they had piled up there. It +was upon this pile that she was required to lay her hand and take the +oath;--this trial was too much. She turned around and uttered a cry: +'_Fi! l'horreur!_'" + +"Release madame," said the president of the improvised tribunal. This +was the signal for her execution. A little peruke-maker, Charlat, a +drummer of the volunteers, struck off her cap with a blow of his pike, +but in doing so he wounded her in the forehead; the sight of the flowing +blood produced its usual effect upon the mob; they precipitated +themselves upon her, "her breasts were cut off with a knife, she was +stripped quite naked, Charlat opened her chest and took out her heart, +then he mutilated her in the most secret part of her body." A certain +Sieur Grison cut off her head; then the two wretches, taking on the ends +of their pikes, one her head and the other her heart, set off down the +Rue Saint-Antoine in the direction of the Temple, followed by an immense +crowd, "dumb with astonishment." They carried the head into the shop of +a coiffeur, who washed, combed, and powdered the blond hair. "Now," he +said, "Antoinette will be able to recognize her." Then the procession +proceeded in the direction of the Temple again; but by this time it +began to be feared that, carried away by their excitement, the +cut-throats might inflict the same fate upon the royal family confined +there, and the Commune sent hastily some commissioners, girded with +large tricolored sashes. When Grison and Charlat arrived, they demanded +permission to promenade under the windows of the apartments occupied by +the king and queen, which was immediately granted them, and the king was +even requested to go to the window at the moment when the livid head of +the princess was elevated in front of him. "The march was continued +throughout Paris, without any one interposing any obstacle. The head was +carried to the Palais-Royal, and the Duc d'Orléans, who was then at +table, was obliged to rise, to go to the balcony, and to salute the +assassins." + +The only relief to be found in the perusal of these chronicles is in +some incident in which the executioners turn on each other. Among the +most vociferous of the "citizenesses" was the _belle Liégeoise_, called +also la belle Théroigne de Méricourt, and the _première amazone de la +Liberté_. From the garden of the Tuileries, the usual scene of her +orations, she one day ascended to the terrace of the Feuillants, where +she fell into the hands of the women of the party of the Montagne, who +surrounded her, trussed up her petticoats, and gave her a public +whipping. The "first amazon of Liberty" screamed, shrieked, but no one +came to her rescue, and when her persecutors finally released her, it +was found that she had lost her reason, and it was necessary to +conduct her to an insane asylum in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau. + +[Illustration: A CONCIERGE. From a drawing by Ludovico Marchetti.] + +All the chronicles of the times devote a paragraph to the "Furies of the +Guillotine," the terrible women who habitually occupied the front places +among the spectators at all the executions, and who interrupted their +knitting only to hurl insults at the victims who mounted the scaffold. +These _tricoteuses_ affected an exalted Revolutionary sentiment, they +wore the red cap of liberty, and one day presented themselves at the +Convention with an address in which they offered to mount guard while +the men went off to combat in the armies on the frontier. + +At the great gate of the Tuileries, between the two marble horses of +Coustou, was a café-restaurant, painted a lively red, and which bore the +sign: "_À la Guillotine._" "Needless to say, that the establishment was +always full of customers." During the two years in which the instrument +of public executions stood permanently on the Place de la Revolution, on +the site of the present obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, so much +blood was shed there that, it is said, a herd of cattle refused to cross +the Seine on the bridge, terrified at the stale odor of slaughter. By +the side of the scaffold was a hole destined to receive the blood of the +victims, but this diffused such an infection through the air that "the +citizen Coffinet thought it would be advantageous to establish, on a +little two-wheeled barrow, a casket lined with lead to receive the +blood, which might then be transported to the _fosse commune_." + +On the 16th of September, 1797, the Central Bureau, "justly indignant at +the debauchery and at the offences constantly committed against the +public morality, whether by the impudent exhibition of books and +pictures the most obscene, or by the prodigious multiplicity of women +and girl prostitutes, or by the indecent masquerading of a great number +of women in men's garments," issued a rigorous decree against all women +who were found disguised as men, and very many arrests were made in +consequence. + +When Louis XVIII made his solemn entry into Paris on the 3d of May, +1814, it was in the midst of the popular acclamations; a numerous and +very enthusiastic crowd swarmed in the Carrousel, the court of the +château, the garden and the terraces, "this same crowd which, on the +10th of August, 1792, filled the air with its imprecations against +Capet, which, on the 2d of December, 1804, acclaimed the Emperor and the +Empress, and which, on this occasion, welcomed with cries of joy the +orphan of the Temple after having applauded the decapitation of his +father and his mother." When this same populace, turned Republican +again, thronged along the boulevards and into the Place Vendôme in 1831, +singing the _Marseillaise_, Maréchal Lobau, unwilling to fire on them, +contented himself by ordering the hose of the fire-pumps turned on them, +and deluging indiscriminately conspirators, orators on the public place, +and spectators. "The Republicans had demonstrated on many occasions that +they did not fear fire. But, like all Parisians, they detested water. +Surprised at these unexpected douches, they fled in every direction, and +the Place Vendôme was immediately cleared." + +Well might Napoleon declare, repeating Rabelais's word, on one of the +many occasions of popular manifestation: "This is not the first time +that I have had occasion to remark that the population of Paris is only +a _ramas de badauds_." + +The _poissardes_, or fish-women of the Halles, those "_commères fortes +en gueule_" (shrill-voiced gossips), appear almost as frequently in +these police and scandalous chronicles as the courtesans. They are +frequently mentioned in the mediæval records; under Louis XIII, they and +their resort were considered worthy of the following description: "You +will see at the Halles a multitude of rascals who amuse themselves only +by pillaging and robbing each other, sellers as well as buyers, by +cutting their purses, searching in their _hottes_ and baskets; others, +in order to better secure their prey, will sing dishonest songs and +dirty ones, sometimes one and sometimes the other, without any regard +for either Sundays or fête days,--things deplorable in a city of Paris! +In the Halles and other usual markets, you may see women who sell +provisions; if you offer them less than they want, were you the most +renowned person in France, there you will be immediately blazoned with +every possible insult, imprecation, malediction, dishonor, and the whole +with an accompaniment of oaths and blasphemies." + +(The same author, speaking of the shop-keepers of Paris at this epoch, +says: "They will damn themselves for a liard, gaining on their +merchandise the double of what it has cost them, selling bad goods, and +blaspheming and swearing by God and the Devil that they are excellent.") + +In 1716, Jean-François Gruet, inspector of police and mounted _huissier_ +of the Châtelet, was condemned to the pillory of the Halles for +malversation of funds, and the _poissardes_ manifested themselves on +this occasion in front of him in great shape: "_Huissier du diable! +Gueule de chien! jardin à poux, grenier à puces, sac à vin, mousquetaire +de Piquepuce, aumônier du cheval de bronze, poulet dinde de la Râpée_," +etc., until they were too hoarse to continue. In 1784, the winter began +by heavy frosts, which were followed by a sudden thaw which flooded the +city. "Paris has become a sewer; communication has been absolutely +interrupted between the inhabitants, and for several days past there +have been on foot only those who were compelled to it by necessity, by +their occupation, or by their duty. Arms and legs broken, and many other +accidents, have been the results of this intemperance of the season. In +the midst of this species of public calamity, there are those who find +entertainment in it, occasion for mirth, and much laughter. In the first +place, there have been unlimited opportunities for sled races, and, +also, there has been offered to the amateurs a more novel and more +piquant spectacle. You went to the Halles to see the _poissardes_ in +boots, in breeches, their under-petticoats trussed up to their navels, +and exercising their trade in this species of masquerade while +redoubling their quirks and their scandalous jests." + +Nevertheless, so important was their corporation, that, on the birth of +the dauphin, in 1781, they were admitted in a body to compliment the +king, to whom they were formally presented by the Duc de Cossé, Governor +of Paris. The spokeswoman had her discourse written out on her fan, and +read it to his Majesty. They were all dressed in black, and they were +all, to the number of a hundred and fifty, invited by him to dinner and +to present their compliments also to the queen. They had at first +manifested some reluctance to accepting these royal hospitalities; the +last time they had been to Versailles on a similar mission, some +evilly-disposed person had inserted in the tarts and pâtés some +indigestible substances "and dishonest things." The lieutenant of +police, however, assured them that this time nothing of the kind would +occur, and they were, in fact, treated sumptuously. + +But, "the _émeute_ had established itself permanently in Paris, and its +effects were disastrous. This condition of intermittent political fever +which threatened to become continuous, paralyzed business, ruined +commerce, and filled all minds with keen anxiety." "The people became +accustomed to substituting sudden overturnings for the regular action of +institutions," says another historian, "...a habit which has cost us +twenty revolutions in eighty years. England has proceeded differently. +Since 1688, she has had, instead of bloody revolutions, only changes in +the ministry;--everyone, high as well as low, has, with her, manifested +respect for the law, and everything has been left to free +discussion,--force is never used." And a later student of the _Mouvement +Social_, M. Jules Roche, quoted in the issue of _La Réforme Sociale_ for +May 16, 1898: "Every country well governed develops from an economical, +industrial, commercial, financial, and political point of view. All +those projects necessary to the grandeur and the prosperity of the +nation are conceived, decided upon, carried out. At this time, France, +so munificently endowed, enriched by all the favors of nature, inhabited +by the race the most intelligent, the richest in resources of the mind +and the imagination, is delivered over to hazards the most unforeseen +and the most dangerous. No one knows in the evening what will happen the +next morning, nor in the morning how the day will finish. There is no +doctrine, no method whatever, in the direction of public affairs. A +Chamber possessed by the electoral epilepsy; charlatans without shame +abandoning themselves before the electors to every contortion, to the +grossest declamations, to the most shameful manœuvres, in order to +lead public opinion still further astray, instead of enlightening +it,--this is the spectacle she presents to the universe. And there is no +one to speak out aloud, frankly, and clearly! Silence, envy, cowardice, +imbecility, where there should be courage, living reason, and action!" +It might be thought that this gloomy presentation lacked in +consistency,--this method of government could scarcely be practised by +"the most intelligent race." + +The street revolutions of 1831 and 1848, which finally expelled from +power the royal houses of Bourbon and Orléans, presented the usual +characteristics of these popular uprisings in the capital, in the result +of which the nation always acquiesced meekly. One of the most senseless +of the acts of excess in the former is illustrated in our engraving of +the pillage of the archbishop's house, February 15, 1831, from an +unpublished design by Raffet, in the possession of M. Cain, the +sculptor. The mob had, the evening before, sacked the church and the +presbytère of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, and on this day, incited to +higher game, they broke into the residence of the archbishop, adjoining +Notre-Dame. Everything was broken, overturned, flung out of the windows +and into the Seine, rare books, precious manuscripts, rich crucifixes, +missals, chasubles,--"that which was, on this day of folly, lost for art +and science is incalculable." The heart of Louis XVI, which the doctor +Pelletan had placed in a leaden box, sealed with his own seal, and +presented to Monseigneur Quélen, was thrown into the river. Louis Blanc, +in his _Histoire de dix ans_, relates that Monsieur Thiers, +sous-sécretaire d'État in the ministry of finance, was seen walking +about amidst this ruin with a satisfied countenance and a smile upon his +lips. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE, RUE DE NORVINS. + +From a photograph.] + +The bodies of the first victims of the revolution of February, 1848, +killed in a collision with a detachment of the 14th regiment of the +line, were placed in an open car and paraded through the streets at +night by the light of torches, to excite the fury of the populace. "They +are assassins who have struck us down; we will avenge ourselves! Arms! +give us arms!" The death-chariot, escorted by the crowd, proceeded to +the office of the _National_, where the procession was harangued by +M. Garnier-Pagès, and then to the Rue Montmartre, to the office of +another liberal journal, _La Réforme_. "A man standing in the cart, his +feet in the blood, lifted from time to time in his arms the body of a +woman, showed it to the people, and then deposited it again on the heap +of dead which made for it a gory couch." About two o'clock in the +morning, this funeral cortége deposited the corpses at the Mairie of the +IVth Arrondissement, and the rest of the night was spent in preparation +for the combat of the morrow. + +After the revolution of 1831 came the cholera, and as though the +pestilence in itself was not a sufficient evil, the ignorant populace, +surprised by its sudden outbreak and not comprehending the possibility +of such an epidemic, conceived the idea that it was a fiction concocted +to cover a system of wholesale poisonings by the police. The préfet de +police, Gisquet, in his _Mémoires_, gives a detailed account of the +various methods employed by organized bands of from fifty to a hundred +men to scatter perfectly harmless substances in the wells, in the +streets, in articles of food and drink, in order to increase this panic. +"A young child was accosted on the Pont-Neuf by an individual who handed +to her a vial containing some liquid and gave her twenty sous to go and +empty it into the fountain of the Place de l'École, recommending her to +use every precaution to avoid being seen doing so. The child, instead of +executing this commission, went and related the story to her mother. +Immediately the whole quarter was in an uproar. Crowds assembled in the +streets, but some good citizens succeeded in calming the excitement. The +flask was carried to the préfecture de police, and it was discovered +that its contents were nothing but melissa." In eighteen days, more than +twenty thousand persons had been attacked by the malady and more than +seven thousand had perished; every one that could, fled the city; there +were not enough coffins, not enough hearses, not enough grave-diggers +for the dead. The streets were filled with the dying and with corpses; +riots broke out, and "the authorities, on the 5th of May, massacred the +youths who had crowned with immortelles the Imperial eagles of the Place +Vendôme. The police, for their part, instigated an _émeute_ and +smothered it in blood." Among the more illustrious victims of the plague +were the Minister Casimir-Périer and General Lamarque; the funeral of +the latter was made the occasion of a formidable popular manifestation +and insurrection which was only put down after hard fighting and the +declaration of a state of siege at the instigation of M. Thiers. + +Even in the very first days of the new Republic of 1848 the popular +discontent broke out afresh. Clubs were formed all over the city; the +most violent harangues were made against the bourgeoisie; the words +"communism" and "socialism" began to replace "fraternity"; numerous +failures occurred in all the business quarters, and all the strangers +left the city. Crowds paraded the streets crying, "_À bas les aristos!_" +the last being a new word invented to designate the bourgeoisie, and the +latter, strengthened by the workmen in blouses, to the number of a +hundred thousand men, made a counter-demonstration, singing the +_Marseillaise_. In 1850, on the eve of the _Coup d'État_, "a profound +discouragement prevailed among the bourgeoisie. The sudden fall in +public securities, the rise in the premium on gold, the significant +increase in the purchase of foreign bonds, the departure of the numerous +strangers who had come to Paris to pass the season, the diminution, more +marked even than in the preceding month, in all industrial and +commercial transactions,--such were the symptoms of that confidence +which was to effect the conciliation of the electors." + +The events of the first three or four days of December, 1851, justified +only too well these apprehensions, and have been but too frequently +related by indignant historians. "It was a sinister and inexpressible +moment," says the author of _Napoléon le Petit_,--"cries, arms lifted +toward Heaven, the surprise, the terror, the crowd flying in every +direction, a hail of bullets, from the pavements even to the roofs, and +in a minute the dead strewing the street, young men falling, their +cigars still in their mouths, ladies in velvet dresses killed by the +musketry, two booksellers shot on the threshold of their shops without +even knowing what was wanted of them, bullets fired into cellar-windows +and killing no matter whom, the _Bazar de l'Industrie_ riddled with +shell and balls, the Hôtel Sallandrouze bombarded, the _Maison-d'Or_ +mitrailleused, Tortoni taken by assault, hundreds of corpses on the +Boulevard, a stream of blood in the Rue Richelieu!" + +Under the new Empire, Paris saw itself almost transformed by the opening +of wide and direct avenues of communication, the suppression of gloomy +and insalubrious quarters, the completion of the Louvre, the +construction of the Halles, the erection of churches, schools, mairies, +and the laying out of public gardens and promenades. Six hundred +kilomètres of sewers were provided for the drainage of the capital, and +the Bois de Boulogne and de Vincennes greatly embellished. The +working-classes were still disturbed by vague discussions over social +questions, and by souvenirs of the Republic; but the bourgeoisie, +enriched by the public security and liberty of trade, desired only the +continuance of order and a somewhat more liberal administration of +public affairs. The condition of many parts of the city, as revealed by +a number of official investigations after the Revolution of 1848, was +indeed deplorable. "A third only of the working-classes live under +conditions approaching hygienic ones, the remainder are in a frightful +state; forty thousand men and six thousand women are lodged in Paris in +furnished houses which are for the greater part nothing but damp hovels, +scarcely ventilated, badly kept, containing chambers in which are eight +or ten beds pressed one against another, and in which several persons +sleep together in the same bed." The immediate effects of the opening of +Baron Haussmann's magnificent new boulevards were in many cases +disastrous for the workmen and for the poorer classes, who found +themselves compelled, by the destruction of their old lodgings, and the +increase in rents and daily expenses, to seek shelter in the suburbs, +and in the _quartiers eccentriques_; the Expositions Universelles also +served to increase permanently the cost of living, as they have always +done since, and in other cities than Paris. On the other hand, the cost +of clothing was considerably diminished, and the workingman was never so +well arrayed as in the first years of the Second Empire. + +The dubious antecedents of the third Napoleon exposed him to even more +than the usual hatreds and perils of crowned heads, and the number of +plots against his life rivalled even those of the attempted +assassinations of Louis-Philippe, one of the most unlucky of sovereigns +in this respect. The Emperor has been accused of having been a member of +the Italian secret society of the Carbonari in his youth; the Italian +war of 1859 has been said to have been rendered imperative by his former +oaths, and the frightful affair of the Opera-house on the evening of +January 14, 1858, appears to have been the work of this political and +revolutionary society. On this gala night, Massol was to bid adieu to +the stage, and Madame Ristori was to appear in three acts of _Marie +Tudor_, followed by an act of _Guillaume Tell_ and a scene from the +_Muette_. The house was brilliantly illuminated, both the exterior and +the interior, and thronged by an eager audience waiting for the arrival +of the Emperor and the Empress; at half-past eight the Imperial cortége +appeared, descending the boulevards at a trot and turning into the Rue +Le Peletier. In the first two carriages were seated the chamberlains and +officers of the crown, and in the third the Imperial couple, escorted by +a _peloton_ of lancers of the Guard, the lieutenant commanding which +rode close by the right side of the coach, while a maréchal des logis +chef rode on the left side. The three vehicles slackened their speed to +turn into the vaulted passage, under the marquise, which conducted to +the stairway newly constructed for the use of the sovereign, and at this +instant a bomb fell in the midst of the cortége and exploded. All the +lights were extinguished by the concussion, the glass of the marquise of +the theatre and that of the windows of the neighboring houses, from the +cellars to the mansards, flew in splinters, the street was covered with +the dead and wounded, and the terrified horses of the lancers, bolting +in every direction, added to the confusion and terror. A few seconds +later, a second bomb fell under the horses of the Imperial carriage, +killing them, and a third, directly under the carriage itself. + +At the first explosion, the Emperor had attempted to leave his carriage +by the door on the right, on the side of the peristyle of the Opéra, but +this door, jammed in its frame by the terrible shock, refused to open. +While he was hesitating to attempt to descend by the other door, which +opened on the street in which the assassins were probably stationed, a +haggard and bloody countenance presented itself at the opening. It +proved to be that of a brigadier of the secret police, Alessandri, one +of the most devoted of the Imperial agents; beside it presently showed +themselves the faces of M. Lanet, commissaire of the section of the +Opéra, a police officer, Hébert, MM. Royer and Vaëz, directors of the +Opéra, and General Roguet. The latter, who had been seated on the box of +the Imperial carriage, had received a violent contusion on the neck, +from which an enormous quantity of blood escaped. The lieutenant +commanding the escort hastily assembled those of his men whom the flying +projectiles had spared, and behind this friendly human wall the Emperor +and the Empress finally ventured to leave their vehicle, and hastened +into the Opera-house. Neither of them were injured, though the former +had a hole through his hat, and his forehead was lightly cut by a piece +of flying glass. His carriage was riddled by seventy-six projectiles, +and he owed his life only to the fact that the panels were all lined +with iron. + +A hundred and fifty-six persons were killed and wounded by the three +bombs; the pavement, the sidewalks, and the front of the Opera-house +were pitted with holes and splashed with blood. All the issues of the +Rue Le Peletier were closed almost immediately after the explosions, and +a prompt descent was made on the restaurant and little garden, +immediately opposite the Opera-house, which was kept by an Italian named +Broggi. Here those of his companions who were at odds with fortune were +in the habit of assembling, and here a waiter named Diot found on a +table a pistol and beside it a man who was ostentatiously weeping. When +questioned, he gave his name as Swiney, declared he was the servant of +an Englishman named Allsop, a brewer, who lived at No. 10, Rue du +Mont-Thabor, and that he wept because he feared his master had been +killed. The real name of Swiney was Gomez, and that of his master, +Allsop, was Orsini; the latter, who had been wounded by his own bomb, +was arrested as he was walking peacefully away. He had the assurance to +write a long letter to the Emperor from Mazas prison, after his trial, +in which, while making no appeal for his own life, he interceded for the +independence of Italy, without which, he asserted, "the tranquillity of +Europe and that of your Majesty will be but chimeras." He admitted +having brought the bombs from England and charged them with fulminating +powder, but denied having thrown any of them; he was guillotined on the +13th of March, with his accomplice, Pieri,--Orsini crying with his last +breath: "_Vive l'Italie! Vive la France!_" Gomez was condemned to hard +labor for life. + +[Illustration: TYPE OF BOURGEOISE. From a drawing by L. Marold.] + +"In 1867," says a historian, "France believed herself invincible. The +capital of capitals surpassed the splendors of all other cities, ancient +and modern. It was a bedazzlement, a fairy spectacle. But a time was +approaching when a bloody and funereal vail was to be suddenly thrown +over so many more than Babylonian magnificences, and in which the great +city, so proud of her riches and her glory, was to have no other +ceremonial than the overthrow of the Vendôme column by French hands in +the face of the Prussians." + +By the 18th of September, 1870, the siege of Paris by the Germans was +formally opened, and yet, on that date, the author of the _Journal du +Siège_ declares the capital to be "the most strange and the most +marvellous city. On the eve of combat she still preserves her +unalterable gaiety, still sings, and strews flowers in front of the +soldiers. It is because her resolution is firmly taken, and that she +awaits the attack with a firm stand and a valiant heart. To-day, it is a +festival Sunday indeed;--on every side is animation, enthusiasm, life. +We have made the tour of the boulevards; we have traversed the +Champs-Élysées, the Rue de Rivoli, the quais. Everywhere there are +tranquil countenances, and everywhere the Sunday crowd, gay, in no way +impressed, nowise dejected, as the despatches to foreign journals +assert.... The little street industries have not ceased; the tight-rope +dancers continue their performances tranquilly in the midst of the +military groups. If the Prussian spies were there, they could have +heard, as we did, the converse of this valiant and joyous population, +which waits only for a signal to hasten to the ramparts, and which has +lost nothing of its complete self-assurance of the great days." + +[Illustration: YOUNG BOURGEOISE AT TOILETTE. + +From a drawing, in colors, by Maurice Bonvoison, called "Mars."] + +Two months later, the picture had become somewhat more sombre. M. +Edouard Dangin writes: "Paris has become a veritable city of war. At +seven o'clock in the morning, before all the gates of the city, the +guard is under arms, the drum beats _aux champs_, the portcullis is +lowered. It is the opening of the gates. At eight o'clock, in all the +quarters of the city, the rappel is beaten, all the citizen soldiers who +are to relieve the guard on the ramparts and on the minor posts are +called to arms. Others are called out for the drill; there are, however, +some quarters in which there is no drill in the mornings. The crowd +commences to form in line before the butcher-shops in which beef and +horse-flesh are sold, even before the doors are opened, then it becomes +more numerous; the housekeepers press against each other, crowd and +jostle. The men hasten to the different kiosques and purchase the +newspapers, to learn the news of the morning. At noon, the distributions +are all made; calm reigns, Paris is taking its déjeuner.... Toward +half-past three the rappel is heard again in various quarters,--it is +the evening drill. From all the houses issue the national guards, their +muskets on their shoulders. At five o'clock, the drums beat _aux champs_ +again before all the gates and the portcullis is raised. Paris is +closed. The Parisians return home for dinner. The greater number of them +go to bed early. Some of them go in the evening to take a little +promenade, whilst others, who have not lost their café habits, commence, +by the light of gas, games of dominoes which they finish by +candle-light. In the streets, there are no cries, no drunkards, almost +no more _petites dames_, nor others who lodge in houses and accost the +passer-by too much preoccupied to reply to them. After eleven o'clock, +silence prevails in the streets and the darkness deepens, because it is +necessary to save gas." + +Finally, the Germans entered the capital, and the population became more +patriotic than ever. "The vanquishers, enclosed in their restricted +zone, looked with astonishment at the grand city indomitable, whose +superb monuments were seen in profile against the horizon. Those who +showed themselves at the windows were hooted.... Women accused of having +smiled on the enemy were whipped. Those unfortunate honest women who +were wrong enough to inhabit the quarters occupied, or, perhaps, to be +curious, were subjected to the same fate as the street-walkers. The +ferocity of the populace began to manifest itself." + +"It was much remarked that the German officers had all new uniforms, and +that they all held in their hands plans of Paris. Their soldiers, +frightfully dirty, prepared their meals in the open air, whilst the +noisy fanfares of their military music were greeted by the hootings and +hissings of the spectators. The stone statues of the Place de la +Concorde, veiled in black by unknown hands, did not see the soiling of +Paris. The Arch of Triumph of the Place de l'Étoile had been barricaded +and obstructed in such a manner that the Germans could not pass under +it. The triumphal monument remained virgin of this defilement. In the +evening, Paris assumed the aspect, strange and prodigious, of a city +asleep. Nowhere were there any lights, rare pedestrians, no omnibuses, +no carriages. The footsteps of a patrol which resounded rhythmical and +sonorous in the distance, and the _qui vive?_ of the sentinels, alone +came to break the mournful silence which hung over the capital. The long +line of boulevards, black and sombre, displayed the mourning of the +city. Paris was superb in her suffering." + +[Illustration: A "LOGE" AT THE PALAIS-ROYAL THEATRE. + +From a drawing, in colors, by L. Sabattier.] + +[Illustration: LADY AT TOILETTE.] + +It may be remembered that the number of German troops admitted into the +city was restricted by the terms of the capitulation to thirty thousand, +the entrance to be made at ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of +March, 1871, and the district occupied by them to be limited to the +space between the Seine and the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, from the +Place de la Concorde to the Quartier des Ternes. The evacuation was to +take place immediately after the ratification of the preliminaries of +the treaty of peace by the Assemblée Nationale. On the appointed morning +all the public edifices, even the Bourse, were closed, as well as the +great majority of the cafés and restaurants. All the battalions of the +National Guard were under arms in their various quarters, their +standards draped in crape, in the streets and on the various mairies +black flags were displayed, and on many shutters might be read +inscriptions: "Closed on account of the national mourning," or, "because +of the public grief." On the boulevards, opposite the new Opera-house, +and on all the streets leading down to the Place de la Concorde and the +Champs-Élysées, detachments of the National Guard were stationed who +prevented from passing any person wearing a uniform, or even a képi or +pantaloons with a red stripe. The Rue Royale, from the Madeleine to the +Place de la Concorde, was barred in the middle of its length by +artillery caissons, and the Rue and the Faubourg Saint-Honoré were +patrolled by strong detachments of the Chasseurs d'Afrique and mounted +gendarmes. But in the afternoon the sun came out, and, according to M. +Claretie, "the appearance of Paris, alas! became quite different from +that of the morning. The population, carried away by an unwholesome +curiosity, and aware that the entrance of the enemy had occasioned no +disorder, decided to come out in the streets." The next day the Germans +wished to visit the Louvre and the Invalides, but the sight of Prussian +uniforms under the colonnade of the Louvre produced such an effect on +the populace, it is said, that the French general Vinoy informed the +German general von Kammecke that if his soldiers entered the Invalides +he would not be responsible for the public peace,--and the Prussian +officer abandoned the attempt. + +If the Prussians had remained in Paris, the public peace would have been +much better preserved. On the heels of their withdrawal came the +Commune, and within three weeks the condition of the city had become +such that the following is the official report of a quiet night, made to +the Comité Central by "a Sieur Garnier d'Aubin, 'général de brigade, +commandant de place du 18e arrondissement'": + + "REPORT OF THE 20TH AND 21ST OF MARCH. + +"Nothing new. + +"I have received the reports of the different chiefs of the posts. The +night has been calm and without incident. + +"At five minutes past ten, two sergents de ville, disguised as +bourgeois, were brought in by the francs-tireurs and immediately shot. + +"At twenty minutes past midnight, a police officer, accused of having +fired his revolver, was shot. + +"At seven o'clock, a gendarme, brought in by the guard of the 28th, was +shot." + +"'The night was calm and without incidents,'" comments M. Gourdon de +Genouillac, from whom we borrow many of these details, "and only four +men were shot!" + +The quality of the officers of this inchoate government may be judged +from another contemporary document, inserted in _L'Officiel_ of the 18th +of May: + +"Those officers of the general staff of the National Guard who have +neglected their duties to banquet with _filles de mauvaise vie_, at the +restaurant Peters, were arrested yesterday by order of the Committee of +Public Safety. They have been sent to the Bicêtre, with spades and +picks, to work in the trenches. The women have been sent to Saint-Lazare +to make sacks for containing earth." + +One of the strongest characteristics of the Commune was its hatred and +persecution of the clergy, manifested in a hundred acts, and culminating +in the murder of the archbishop and the hostages. On the morning after +the arrest of all the clergy of Montmartre, the following notice was +posted on the doors of the church of Saint-Pierre: + +"_Whereas_, the priests are bandits, and the haunts in which they have +morally assassinated the masses, by bowing France under the claws of the +infamous Bonaparte, Favre, and Trochu, are the churches, + +"The civil delegate of the Carrières of the ex-prefecture of police +orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (Montmartre) shall be closed and +decrees the arrest of the priests and the Ignorantins." + +On the preceding day, the cathedral and the church of Saint-Laurent had +been closed, and in the crypt of the latter were found a great number of +human bones; some of these were arranged so as to constitute the +skeletons of fourteen women which, it was asserted, had been sequestered +by the priests of the church, outraged, and murdered. Great was the +virtuous indignation, the bones were officially photographed by the +photographer Carjat, all Paris went to see them, and the affair made +such a noise that after the capture of the city by the Versailles troops +and the restoration of order, it was officially investigated by a +scientific commission, which reported through its chairman, M. Tardieu, +that the bones were those of persons who had been buried for at least a +hundred and fifty years. + +Of the women of the Commune, M. Maxime du Camp draws the following +unflattering picture: "They were wicked and cowardly. Utilized by the +police of the Rigaults and the Ferrés, they were pitiless in the search +for refractory citizens who hid themselves that they might not have the +shame of serving the Commune.... From the heights of the pulpits of the +churches, converted into clubs, they poured out all the corruption of +which their ignorance was full; with their shrill and yelping voices, in +the midst of the smoke of pipes, to the accompaniment of vinous +hiccoughs, they demanded 'their place in the sun, their rights as +citizens, the equality which was refused them,' and other vague claims +which concealed, perhaps, the secret dream which they put into practice +shamelessly,--the plurality of husbands. + +"They disguised themselves as soldiers; ... they 'manifested'; they +assembled in bands, and, like the Tricoteuses, their grandmothers, they +wished to go to Versailles '_chambarder la parlotte_ and hang Foutriquet +the first.' They were all there, rushing about and squalling, the +boarders of Saint-Lazare in vacation, the natives of the little Pologne +and the great Bohemia, the sellers of tripe _à la mode de Caen_, the +seamstresses for messieurs, the shirt-makers for men, the instructors +for elder students, the maids of all work, the vestals of the temple of +Mercury, and the virgins of Lourcine. That which was the most profoundly +comic was that those escaped from the Dispensaire delighted in alluding +to Joan of Arc and in comparing themselves to her. + +[Illustration: IN THE LATIN QUARTER. AU CINQUIÈME. From a drawing by +Lucien Simon.] + +"The Commune, without concerning itself about it, aided in this feminine +uprising which emptied the houses with big street-numbers [houses of +ill-fame] to the detriment of the public health and to the profit of +the civil war. It knew how to resolve--this good Commune, composed of +the sensible men that we know--it knew how to resolve, with one sole +blow, the social problem which had troubled, for so many years, the +administrators, the economists, the moralists, the philosophers, the +doctors, and the legislators. It caused a paper to be pasted on the +walls of Paris, and the great difficulty was solved forever. By a +poster, well and duly stamped, it forbade prostitution. It was not any +more difficult than that! The poor creatures liberated from all +administrative regulation, from all sanitary control, did not wait to +have it repeated; they spread themselves like a leprosy through the +city, and when, reduced to poverty by the men who exploited them, they +no longer had anything to eat, they donned the great-coat of the +foot-soldier and went to the advance posts, where they were as +formidable to their friends as to their adversaries. + +"In the last days, all these belligerent viragoes fired from behind the +barricades longer than did the men; very many of them were arrested, +their hands black with powder, their shoulders bruised by the recoil of +the musket, all excited still with the fever of battle. A thousand and +fifty-one of them were conducted to Versailles, among whom were to be +counted, according to the euphemism of the statistics, 'two hundred and +forty-six celibataires under police surveillance.' As in the case of +children, no undue severity was exercised, and eight hundred and fifty +decisions of _non-lieu_ were rendered in their favor; among the female +prisoners, four were sent to insane asylums,--that was very little! For +any student of _possession_, there is scarcely any room for doubt; +nearly all the unfortunates who combatted for the Commune were that +which science calls 'patients.'" + +The last stand of the insurgents before the constantly advancing forces +of Marshal MacMahon was made in the last days of May in the quarters +Ménilmontant and Popincourt and in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise. The +Buttes Chaumont were taken on the evening of the 27th; through the +cemetery, around the tombstones, in the rain, the combat was waged with +the bayonet, and without quarter. The marine infantry pursued the +Communards into the vaults and killed every one they found. On the gray +stones of the tombs could be seen for days afterwards the imprint of +hands blackened with gunpowder and red with blood. In the quarries of +Amérique, many of the last survivors killed themselves in despair. "The +Seine for many days was filled with corpses, and the streets of Paris +were only a slaughter-house." Two hundred and thirty-four buildings were +destroyed, and the losses in property were estimated at a hundred and +fourteen million francs. + +The hideous virgins of the Commune are no longer in evidence, but they +have been succeeded by a variety of their sex, in the idle and +fashionable society of the present day, which, if we may believe a +modern romancer, is sufficiently numerous to constitute a still more +formidable menace. His story is put forth as a serious psychological +study of Parisian manners and customs in certain walks of life; the +interest, if not the approval, with which it has been received has been +very marked, and the volume from which we quote is of the hundred and +sixty-first edition. It is in much such a salon as M. Montzaigle has +endeavored to paint that the explanation of these _demi-vierges_ is +furnished to his friend from the provinces by the critical Parisian man +of the world:--"There have happened in Paris, within the last fifteen +years, two grave events,--two _kracks_, as my brother the banker would +say.... Firstly, the krack of modesty. Our epoch may be compared to the +Latin decadence or to the Renaissance, in the matter of love. Our young +girls (I refer to those of the idle world of pleasure) no longer serve +naked at the table of the Médicis; they do not wear necklaces of +representations of the generative organs; but they are as knowing in +matters of love as those Florentines and those Roman women. Who troubles +himself to refrain from speaking before them of the last scandal? To +what theatrical representations are they not taken? What romances have +they not read? And yet conversation, books, the theatre, these are only +words.... There are at Paris, in the world of society, professors of +defloration, men on the hunt for innocence: ... the first lesson is given +to young girls on the evening of their first ball; the course is +continued through the season; when the summer comes, the promiscuousness +of the watering-places or the sea-beach will permit the professional +deflorator to put the finishing touch to his work.... + +"The second krack is that of the _dot_, as pernicious for the modern +virgin as that of modesty. There are no longer any innocent young girls, +but there are, also, no more rich young girls. The millionaire gives two +hundred thousand francs of dot to his daughter, that is to say, six +thousand francs of income, that is to say, nothing, not even enough to +hire a coupé by the month. Hence, in this respect, the young girl has +never been dependent upon the man, and as she has but one weapon with +which to conquer him--love--the mothers allow them to learn love as soon +as possible, through maternal devotion.... Yes, through maternal +devotion. In my opinion, the universal alteration in the type of the +young girl of former times may be imputed, first of all, to the mothers +of the present generation." ...M. Marcel Prevost justifies his +unpleasant discourse on the plea that modern education tends more and +more to develop the type "_demi-vierge_," and that, if the education of +the young girl be not greatly modified, "Christian marriage will +perish." + +There has been no successful street revolution in Paris since the days +of the Commune, but the terrible under-strata ever and anon break +through the thin upper crust of society with some such outburst as that +of the dynamite explosions of 1892 in the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in +the caserne Lobau, and in the Rue de Clichy. On this occasion, the Paris +_Matin_ published the result of the official researches as to the +locality of the various groups of anarchists in the city, from which it +appeared that they were to be found in associations of greater or lesser +numbers in the quartiers of the Bourse, of the Temple, of the Panthéon, +of the fashionable Champs-Élysées, among the _valets de chambre_, the +cooks, and the coachmen, and in the fourth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, +twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth +arrondissements. In the quartiers of the Louvre, of the Luxembourg, and +in the seventh, sixteenth, and seventeenth arrondissements, no organized +groups existed. Their titles varied: _L'Avant-garde cosmopolite_, _Le +Réveil du quinzième_ (arrondissement), _La Bibliothèque socialiste_, _La +Jeunesse anarchiste du vingtième_ (arrondissement), _La Jeunesse +révolutionnaire_ and _La Ligue des antipatriotes_; their publications +ranged from _Le drapeau rouge_ [the red flag] to _La Révolte_ and Henri +Rocheforte's _Intransigeant_. The arrest of the chief dynamiter, +Ravachol, was effected through the intelligence of a waiter named Lhérot +in the restaurant Véry, on the Boulevard Magenta, of which we give a +view, on Victor Hugo's authority that it is always interesting to look +at a wall behind which we think something is happening. + +[Illustration: COCOTTES IN A BRASSERIE. PERIOD OF THE SECOND EMPIRE. +From a water-color by Constantin Guys.] + +Their haunts, or those of the desperate poverty and misery which tend to +swell their ranks, may be represented by the _Cabaret_ or _Buvette du +Père Lunette_ or the _Château Rouge_, both of them threatened with +demolishment for the last nine years, but still standing. The first, +situated in one of the worst streets of old Paris, the Rue des Anglais, +in the quartier of the Place Maubert, has been famous for forty years, +having succeeded, as it were, to the evil renown of the _Lapin blanc_, +in the Rue aux Fèves, celebrated by Eugène Sue and believed to have +dated from the reign of Pepin le Bref, and the cabaret of Paul Niquet, +in the Rue aux Fers. The founder of the Père Lunette, a Sieur Lefebvre, +is said to have made a fortune by it. Its name is derived from a +gigantic pair of spectacles (_lunettes_) hanging over the entrance-door, +and another painted on the small window beside it. The whole small front +of the establishment is of a deep red. Our illustration represents the +inner sanctuary, to which the visitor attained by passing through an +antechamber only slightly less characteristic. The walls are decorated +by ignoble frescoes; on the disbursal of a franc for several litres of a +species of wine, the stranger is admitted to the honors of the +establishment, and there are duly unrolled for him six canvases hanging +on the wall on which are figured various personages, Gambetta, +Cassagnac, Prince Napoleon, and even the Pope, in various situations. +The Rue des Anglais, at the present day, very short and narrow and +irregular, is very clean and proper. + +A large porte-cochère, surrounded by a red border, near the middle of +the Rue Galande, opens under an arched passage-way into a small court, +badly paved, at the bottom of which a few steps lead up to an entrance +in a wall also painted red, and a glass door opens into the first +apartment of the Château Rouge. This visit should be made between +midnight and two o'clock in the morning, the hours at which the +establishment is in its fullest activity. The first two rooms on the +ground-floor are merely low drinking-places, crowded with both men and +women; the second floor, reached by a narrow staircase, was formerly +known familiarly to the inmates as the _Salle des Morts_ or the +_Bataille de Champigny_; at these hours it is strewn with motionless +bodies, in various attitudes of uneasy slumber, and in various stages of +squalid undress. As the visitor turns to descend, he will find the +stairway blocked by the recumbent forms of late arrivals for whom no +space has been left in this wretched dormitory. At two o'clock in the +morning the establishment closes, and all the sleepers are aroused and +turned out into the street. For this transient hospitality each of them +pays two sous. + +Curiously enough, the building seen at the left of the Château Rouge, +with its balustraded stairway under the arch and its arched windows +filled with innumerable little panes, was the residence of Gabrielle +d'Estrées, the _belle amie_ of Henri IV. It may still be seen, but the +railing of the stairway at the present day is a simple iron one. + +The Place Maubert, now forming part of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and +ornamented by a statue of Étienne Dolet, was at the period shown in our +illustration, in 1889, a rendezvous for the professionals of that +peculiar street industry who are known as _ramasseux de mégots_,--those +highly unpleasant individuals who slouch about the cafés on the +boulevards and pick up the butts of cigars and cigarettes. They claim to +be several thousand in number, and they have definite hours for the +exercise of their profession, hours in which their harvest is the +greatest and just before the street-sweepers come along, at two o'clock +in the morning, when the establishments close, at noon, and at nine +o'clock in the evening. An industrious man, who has pretty good +eyesight, may pick up a hundred to a hundred and fifty grammes of +tobacco on each round. A good day's work will bring in as much as fifty +sous; a rainy day, not more than twelve or fifteen. The best localities, +which it is, of course, very important to know, are the surroundings of +the Halle aux blés, the Bourse, the Louvre, the cafés on the boulevards, +and in summer the public gardens and the crowds around the military +bands. This tobacco which is thus saved from the street sweepings is--it +is painful to relate--dried, assorted, made over again, and sold to +other smokers. When one reflects on the quality of ordinary French +tobacco at its best, this consideration tends to add another ease to +death. And yet an ingenious chronicler, who extracted these details from +a professional, declares that upon examining, with his eyes and his +nose, a package of the best of this resuscitated weed, a package of +"_théâtre_," these faithful organs gave him no reason to suspect its +origin. The _théâtre_ is made from _londrès_ exclusively, no cigarettes +and no _tabac de chique_ are allowed to enter in its composition; the +two cheaper brands manufactured are _le petit_ and _le gros_. There are +special clients for this merchandise, ranging from the inmates of +asylums for old men and the insane patients at Charenton to military men +on insufficient pensions who make their purchases hurriedly and with +anxious glances around. When the fine season opens, the _ramasseur de +mégots_ who has collected a good winter harvest will issue from the city +to sell his merchandise in the suburbs. In this irregular commerce he +runs the risks of denunciation by the authorized _bureaux de tabac_, and +of six months in prison, although his tobacco has once paid the _régie_, +or tax. + +All this world of the people, which ranges from M. Brispot's comfortable +and respectable _Bon Bourgeois_, taking his summer ease in his +court-yard, down to almost unknown depths, has its moments of leisure +and takes its relaxation as well as its betters. Two of M. Vierge's +characteristic sketches may serve to illustrate two of the more popular +and more innocent methods,--the informal manner in which the frequenters +of the Parc de Montsouris, on the line of the southern fortifications, +dispose themselves on the grass, around the kiosque of the military +band, to listen to the music, and a very characteristic feature of the +popular observance of the fête of the 14th of July, the balls in the +open street. At almost every important crossing or open space, not only +in the so-called _quartiers excentriques_, but in such official +neighborhoods as those of the Louvre and the Hôtel de Ville, temporary +bandstands are set up, and around them the people dance cheerfully, +mostly in ungraceful waltzes, all the evening, and frequently all night. +In front of the cafés in the popular quarters, the music of a violin or +a hurdy-gurdy, or even of the dreadful organ of the "merry-go-rounds," +or _chevaux de bois_, will furnish inspiration enough to perspiring +couples who will repeatedly leave their beer or their _sirop_ to revolve +giddily on the pavement till, quite breathless, they return to their +seats. All this is done with such frank simplicity and good nature, such +a characteristically cheerful French appropriation of the public street +for domestic purposes, that the foreigner, sitting looking on somewhat +scornfully at first, gradually veers round to their point of view, and, +if he be young enough, probably ends by being quite willing to get up +and dance, himself, with some of these slim-waisted, pretty French +maids. + +[Illustration: A POCHARD BETWEEN GARDIENS-DE-LA-PAIX. + +From a drawing, in colors, by Pierre Vidal.] + +As the official fête of 1898 had a new feature added to it, the +celebration of the centennial of Michelet, it naturally took on still +another diversion, that of the election of a Muse of Paris, selected +from among the most beautiful young working-girls of the capital. Her +official functions consisted in being crowned, in presiding at the +ceremony before Michelet's bust, set up in front of the Hôtel de Ville, +and in strewing flowers before it. Then there was chanted before her: +"Good people, Rich and poor, Hasten hither! Come all to admire, The Muse +of Paris! She is a nice little working-girl, Whom the poet-kings of +poverty, Have anointed queen of their chimeras," etc. The election of a +queen of the washerwomen, or, rather, of a _reine des blanchisseuses_, +has long been one of the important ceremonials of the Mi-carême +festivities, and grotesque accounts are given of the intrigues, the +rivalries, the heart-burnings, which this choice entails, of the +adventures of the sovereign and her attendant ladies in assuming their +somewhat unwonted toilettes for this great occasion, and of the still +greater efforts of the _garçons_ of the _lavoirs_ to accoutre themselves +as d'Artagnans and Henri III's. However, everything passes off for the +best; and it is a dull lane that has no turning. + +Among the less praiseworthy diversions, neither rat-baiting nor +cock-fighting have much favor in Paris. A pair of game-cocks were +imported from England in 1772, but the "sport" was not appreciated. In +the country parts of France it is more practised; and one of the most +important of the establishments, affected by the Parisians, devoted to +the murderous combats of dogs and rodents, is the Ratier Club of +Roubaix, whose modest wooden façade, rising at the back of a court which +is entered through a sufficiently common-place cabaret, is shown in the +illustration. On the left is a great lantern to light the dingy +approach, and on the right, full of noise and tumult, the office and the +weighing-stand. In the interior, the arrangements are those usually +adopted,--the wooden benches are ranged around the _parc_, or pit, a +large wire cage nearly five mètres long and two and a quarter high, +elevated on a platform about a mètre from the floor. It has no top, but +the upper portions of the walls present a smooth band of metal up which +the rats cannot climb. The dog is introduced through a sliding door on +the floor, and his antagonists are emptied from a box over the top. They +are of three kinds, water-rats, sewer-rats, and granary-rats; the first +are of a placid disposition and are rarely used; the last, in black, are +the fiercest, and consequently the most desirable. The dogs are usually +bull-dogs, fox-terriers, or a species with a scanty hair, called +_griffons_; they are usually pitted against four rats at a time, and +their prowess is according to the brevity of the time in which they +dispose of them. There is a legend that one champion despatched a +hundred rats in seventeen minutes, thirty seconds. A good dog will +finish the four rats in ten or twelve seconds, notwithstanding their +doublings and turnings, the speed with which they climb the wire +trellis, and the fierceness with which they turn on him and fasten on +his jaw. There are various methods of conducting these contests; the +_chasse à excitations_, in which the proprietor of the dog is permitted +to run around the cage and excite his animal by voice and gesture; that +_à la muette_, in which he is strictly forbidden to make a sound or a +sign; that _à obstacles_, in which the rodents are concealed under every +second or third of a number of flower-pots reversed on the floor, or in +which they are furnished with bundles of straw in which to seek refuge, +or favored by an arrangement of partitions about a foot high, arranged +in the manner of a Saint Andrew's cross, and over which the dog has to +leap while they traverse them through small semicircular openings on a +level with the floor. The dogs are classified by weight; the price of +entry varies according to the variety of the _chasse_, and the sum of +the prizes distributed sometimes amounts to as much as fifteen hundred +francs. + +[Illustration: A LOW-CLASS BRASSERIE ADVERTISEMENT DURING MI-CARÊME. + +From a drawing, in colors, by Pierre Vidal.] + +As to the more aristocratic sport of horse-racing, we have already seen +that the annually-recurring _Grand Prix de Paris_ has been elevated to +the dignity of a capital municipal institution. But it was early +recognized that this diversion, which has attained such extraordinary +development in the capital within the last twenty years, owed a very +considerable proportion of its popularity to the facilities which it +offered for gambling. The true sportsman's interest in the improvement +of the equine race was by no means sufficiently widely diffused to +maintain the hippodromes of the Sociétés de Course. This was abundantly +demonstrated when, in the spring of 1887, the government forbade all +betting on the race-course; the indifference of the public was promptly +manifested by the great falling off in the attendance. At the end of a +few weeks, it was found necessary to remove the restriction, but it was +wished at the same time not to encourage the spirit of gambling, which +threatened to affect all classes of society. The _Pari Mutuel_ [mutual +betting], which was accordingly authorized, offers to-day the only legal +method of betting on the race-courses. It consists of a series of +offices established on the tracks, where the public makes its bets on +the horses running. It registers the bets, receives the money, and +divides the winnings among those entitled to them. "A bettor wishes to +stake fifty francs upon a horse which, we will say, is number six on the +list; he goes to one of the five-franc bureaux, and asks for ten tickets +on number six winning, or ten on number six 'placed.' He pays his fifty +francs, receives ten tickets bearing the required number, and with the +stipulation 'winning' or 'placed,' and he has no more to do but to wait +the result of the race. If he win, as soon as the division is made he +has only to present himself at the treasurer's office of the bureau +where he made his bet, and he receives his winnings in exchange for his +ten tickets." On all the operations there is deducted a tax of seven per +cent. in the Parisian Sociétés de Courses,--one per cent. for breeding +purposes, two for local charities, and four for the Sociétés themselves. +The latter portion, which is six, eight, or ten per cent. in the +provinces, is added to the sums gained from the entrance fees, and +employed for the expenses, and to increase the prizes offered the +following year. + +[Illustration: PLACE MAUBERT, AS IT APPEARED IN 1889.] + +At Longchamp there are about one hundred and fifty bureaux of the Pari +Mutuel, and nearly twice as many on the day of the Grand-Prix. No bet +is accepted under five francs, and there are special bureaux for ten, +twenty, fifty, and even one hundred, and five hundred francs at the +weighing-stand; the bets are of two kinds,--first, for the winning +horse, and, second, for the horses "placed" one and two, when there are +at least four horses running; one, two, and three, when there are at +least eight. When two or more horses belong to the same proprietor and +run in the same race, the Pari Mutuel gives the whole stable, that is to +say, that if one of the horses of the stable wins the race the bets made +upon the other horses of the stable, one or several, are paid as though +laid upon the winning animal himself. This rule applies only to bets +made upon _one_ winner; for the places, it is not a question of the +whole stable, and each horse is paid according to his order in arriving +at the winning-post. When all the tickets are collected, the sum total +of the bets is ascertained, the seven per cent. tax is deducted, and the +sum remaining is divided among the winning tickets. For the _placés_, +there are four operations to be performed after the deduction of the +seven per cent.,--first, to subtract from the sum to be divided the sum +total of the bets upon the places. This operation has for its object to +save the stake of the bettor and to guarantee him against the risks of +receiving a sum less than he wagered; second, to divide the new sum thus +obtained by two or by three, according as there are two or three +_placés_; third, to divide each half or each third proportionally to the +number of bets on each _placé_; fourth, to add the amount of the bet +previously subtracted. All the employés of the Pari Mutuel are strictly +forbidden to bet, themselves, under penalty of losing their situations; +and the whole is under the control of the Minister of Agriculture and +the inspectors of finances. + +The establishment of this official regulation was speedily followed by +the opening of unauthorized "pool-rooms" all over Paris, in cheap +cabarets, tobacco-shops, coiffeurs' salons, anywhere, in which the +general public were invited to come in and bet on any horse they chose, +without any further concern about attending the races, and with the +deduction of the smallest possible commission for the bureau, in some +cases fifty or twenty-five centimes. These improvised agencies, in a +great majority of cases, hold no communication whatever with the +Sociétés, thus depriving them of their commissions, and offer their +clients only the slightest guarantees of good faith. This abuse became +so flagrant that the law had to be invoked. + +The popular cafés, cabarets, buvettes, brasseries, châteaux, moulins, +etc., are so numerous as to be entitled to a special chapter. One of the +most famous, the Moulin de la Galette, of the Montmartre quarter, is +here illustrated, with a touch of the picturesque. It may be reached by +the Rue Lepic, more circuitous and possibly more safe than the acrobatic +ladders which lead directly to its door. Its usual customers vary from +workmen's families through many varieties of painters, strangers, +_filles_, and _marlous_. Its dances are not of a kind to recommend +themselves to the conventional. It is even customary, before each one, +for each couple to pay four sous, and it is usually the lady who pays +for her cavalier. The beer-shops, or _brasseries_,--"more properly +_embrasseries_,"--were invented in the Latin Quarter, but have since +multiplied more on the lower boulevards. It is asserted that they were +better at the beginning; M. Maurice Barres declared at one time: "The +_brasserie à femmes_ is quite truly a salon." He appreciated them for +the severe discipline maintained in them by the proprietor, or, at +least, for the restraint imposed upon the more enterprising clients +and servitors by the example of the others. "There was coquetry and +flirtage, without much more." He considered this institution necessary; +its influence was, in his opinion, beneficent. These superficial +endearments, this amiable tone, this care to please which was there +displayed, "relaxed the mind and restored the neglected faculties of our +sensitiveness." Since then, he has asked himself whether the +_brasseries_ have changed or whether he has grown older. Certainly, the +qualities which he discovered in them no longer exist. The institution +does not seem necessary; the salon is usually a hole; the attendants +appear to be the refuse of those places of entertainment the character +of which is revealed by the unusual size of the house number over the +entrance. Even the Parisian gilding of vice sometimes wears off. + +[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF HOT SOUPS BY THE SOCIETY OF THE "BOUCHÉR +DE PAIN."] + +More of these unfortunates, of various shades, may be seen displaying +themselves in the open streets, in the public fiacres as in their +salons, during the Carnival, and especially on the day of Mardi +Gras,--arrayed as Pierrettes, clownesses, _rosières_ [winners of the +prize of virtue], and avocats with very open robes, their bared arms and +shoulders defying the weather. Their proper establishments are known by +a great variety of appellations, the old word _bordel_ being now +considered gross. More commonly they are designated discreetly as +_Tolérances_ or _Gros Numéros_; in the popular slang they are _claques_ +or _boxons_. Many of them have special designations, as the celebrated +_Botte de paille_ mentioned by Edmond de Goncourt in his _Fille Elisa_; +one of the noisiest was known as the _Perroquet gris_; and another, from +its specialty, _Au Télescope_. "But at Paris all these _maisons +chaudes_," says an expert in these matters, Rodolphe Darzens, "have a +special physiognomy,--they are not, as in the provinces, discreet +localities, with an atmosphere of familiar conventionality, in which the +father brings his eldest son to pass the evening with the notary of the +quarter and the pharmacien of the public square, in an interminable game +of billiards or of _piquet voleur_. Houses very _comme il faut_, in +which no incongruity would be tolerated, from which a Parisian was even +chased one day for having pronounced a gross word. Neither do they +resemble those vast establishments in the seaports or in the commercial +cities, in which the rutting assumes a character of savage eagerness and +of primitive fury. + +"Excepting in the houses of the exterior quarters of the city which are +frequented by soldiers and by coarse peasants, who quickly recover from +their first bedazzlement at the fine salons ornamented with mirrors and +gilding, illuminated by gas or by electricity, and in which the usual +visitors are composed almost exclusively of workmen, which constitutes +them rather a species of brasserie, the prostitution in Paris has been +refined by luxury. The _viveurs_ enter them, no longer to finish the +night in them, but to pass a few minutes, to yawn and to drink champagne +in the company of some young women lightly clad, indifferent and +passive, pretty sometimes, bestial almost always. You can rarely avoid +hearing confidentially from one of them her story, the eternal story of +love betrayed. There are sometimes to be found among them some who have +received a real education,--these speedily acquire an influence over +their comrades, who listen to them, admire them, ask their advice. They +are the queens of the household, and _Madame_ treats with them on a +footing of equality. + +"Frequently an inmate of one of these convents of the Devil will seat +herself at the piano, and then some revery of Chopin will rise, +melancholy, through the air, while the tears will appear in the eyes of +her hearers. + +[Illustration: RAMESSEUR DE MÉGOTS. From the painting by Eugène +Girardin.] + +"When, 'finally alone,' to fill up their long leisure of waiting, they +play never-ending games of _écarté_, or, indeed, tell each other's +fortunes by the cards, in the hope that the promises they read in them +may be speedily realized, promises of a better life, outside of the +cursed house, of meeting a monsieur very rich, of country parties, +carriages, a little hôtel, who knows? To see, perhaps,--a marriage. + +"But a voice, interrupting these dreams, that of the imperious matron, +orders curtly: 'To the salon, ladies!'" + +The Parisian winter is an institution of which no good can be said. The +tremendous, arctic cold of the United States is almost unknown, as is +also the beautiful, clear, frosty weather; in their stead come an almost +endless succession of gray, misty, unutterably damp days, with a +searching, raw cold that penetrates even to the dividing asunder of bone +and marrow. The dearness of fuel, and the totally inadequate heating +arrangements in most houses, add to the cruel discomfort of this season, +in which the poor always suffer greatly. The number of unemployed is +always large, and among them are frequently to be found those accustomed +to the comforts and refinements of life. A recent article in a Parisian +journal describing the charitable distribution of hot soups by the +organization of the _Bouchée de pain_ [mouthful of bread] cites the +instance of a lady among these applicants, so well dressed that the +attendant thought it right to say to her: "Have you come through simple +curiosity, madame? In that case, you should not diminish the portion of +those who are hungry." The lady answered simply: "_I_ am hungry." It +appeared that she was an artist, had exhibited twice in the Salon, and +yet was reduced to this necessity. This charitable organization is +distinguished from most others by the fact that it asks no questions and +imposes no conditions on those who come to it for aid. Consequently, its +various points of distribution are crowded with long lines of the +shivering and famished, and the smallest offering from the charitable is +thankfully received. + +On the suppression of the recent general strike among the workmen of +Paris, in the month of October, 1898, there appeared, in a number of the +_Matin_, a serious article giving some important details concerning the +wages and the manner of spending them, and presented from the point of +view of a friend of the laboring classes. The writer, M. Manini, had +interviewed one of his friends, an important contractor, whose six +hundred workmen had followed the example of their comrades, gone on +strike, and been compelled to abandon it by the prudent action of the +civil and military authorities in protecting all those who were willing +to labor. "I expressed to my friend my surprise that workmen earning, at +a minimum, six francs, and some of them, masons and rough-casters, eight +and ten francs a day, should have ceased work under pretence of +insufficient pay. I showed him the instructive table published by an +evening journal, and according to which the rough-casters earned from +eleven to twelve francs a day; the stone-cutters, eight francs; the +journeymen masons, eight francs; the apprentice masons, five and a half +francs; the bricklayers, eight francs; the stone-sawyers, nine to eleven +francs,--in a word, as much as a lieutenant in garrison in Paris, and +more than a lieutenant in garrison in the provinces. + +[Illustration: QUEEN OF THE WASHERWOMEN AND HER CORTÉGE, DURING +MI-CARÊME. + +From a drawing by A. Lozos.] + +"'All that is perfectly true,' replied my friend. 'Never have the +workmen on buildings had such a fête. Since Paris has become a vast +ant-hill in which the work of preparation for 1900 goes on without +ceasing, the workmen make magnificent working-days and have no fear of +being "laid off." They have before them three magnificent years. But you +are not aware of the conditions of a workman's life in Paris. They bear +no resemblance to those of the life in the provinces, where similar +wages would insure a comfortable living. In Paris, you see, the workman +lives at a great disadvantage, and, in reality, it may be said that he +is obliged to meet the expenses of two establishments.... Paris is an +immense city, in which the distances are very great. The laborers, the +diggers, and shovellers live, nearly all of them, on the heights of +Clignancourt and of Belleville; the masons, for I know not what reason, +prefer the quarter of the Gobelins. Well, work is carried on in all +parts of Paris, is it not? The laborer from Belleville, the workman +hired by me or by my overseer, arrives at his field of labor at six +o'clock in the morning. This spot is at Auteuil, at the Trocadéro, at +Passy, anywhere. It will be absolutely impossible for him to return to +Belleville for his meals. He will have to eat on the spot, there where +he works. + +"'Well, arrived at the _chantier_ at half-past six, and hard at work at +seven, the workmen go at nine o'clock to get some soup and a piece of +cheese. It is to some little eating-house in the neighborhood that they +betake themselves. The cost of this _casse-croûte_ [bread-crust], as +they call it, fifty centimes at the least. At eleven o'clock, the +déjeuner, always at the wine-shop or the little restaurant. When one +works in the open air, and when one propels, by the strength of his +arms, shovelfuls of earth weighing five kilos each a height of two +mètres into the cart, one is hungry. Notwithstanding the utmost +frugality, the déjeuner amounts to thirty sous, thirty-five sous at the +least. We have now expended two francs, twenty-five centimes. About +four o'clock, another mouthful and a glass of wine,--say ten sous, +about. We have now reached fifty-five sous, have we not? In case the +workman should be fatigued, or that the distance home should be too +great,--observe that from Auteuil to Clignancourt there are nine good +kilomètres, that is more than two leagues,--he dines on the spot, say +twenty-five sous more. + +"'If the workman earns eight francs, here are his wages reduced more +than one-half. And you will remember that the wife and the brats eat at +home; also, that it is necessary to clothe yourself and to clothe the +little ones, that it is necessary to pay the rent, that, sometimes, +there is an old infirm mother at home, that an illness is readily +contracted.... In fact, the workman, at Paris, who labors at a distance +is obliged to eat away from his own house, and he expends for himself +alone as much as would be required to support the whole family. It may +therefore be said, that he has to provide for two households,--the +outside establishment, himself, and the inside establishment, the wife +and the children.'" + +It does not seem to have occurred to the author of this interesting +exposé, or to his interlocutor, that there was a very simple and +well-known remedy for this idiotic and extravagant mode of living,--the +dinner-pail. The contractor cited to his friend the case of the masons +from the provinces, the Creusois and the Limousins, who are enabled to +save money by leaving their families in the country, and that of the +London workman who commences his day's labor at nine o'clock in the +morning and who ends it at five,--but without any interruption. "At one +o'clock in the afternoon he breaks a piece of bread, which he generally +brings in his work-bag; and at six o'clock, thanks to the +'Metropolitan,' he is again with his family, comfortably seated at +table." The workman's dinner-pail, or its equivalent, is not altogether +unknown to the Parisian _ouvrier_, and picturesque groups may sometimes +be seen, sometimes with the wife's presence to cheer and adorn, eating +and drinking comfortably _al fresco_, on the sidewalks, or on the steps +of some monument. To the sojourner in the land, the facts appear to be +that the workmen frequent the _gargotes_ much more to drink than to eat, +that they spend a very important fraction of the day congregated around, +or in, the cheap wine-shops of the neighborhood, and that they consume a +highly unnecessary quantity of variously and fearfully colored cheap +combinations of _alcool_. + +In the strike referred to, the _terrassiers_, or diggers, who commenced +it, had enough influence in the Conseil Municipal of Paris to get the +increased wages for which they quit work, awarded them; but the other +workmen, who struck for the cause of _solidarité_, were unsuccessful, +and the great strike of all the railway employés throughout the nation, +ostentatiously ordered by the _Syndicat Guérard_, and promptly met by +the military occupation of all the stations and points of danger, was a +complete failure. + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris from the Earliest Period to the +Present Day; Volume 1, by William Walton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS *** + +***** This file should be named 30651-0.txt or 30651-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/5/30651/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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