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diff --git a/37937.txt b/37937.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84332fa --- /dev/null +++ b/37937.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10629 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Wanderer in Paris, by E. V. Lucas, +Illustrated by Walter Dexter + + +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: A Wanderer in Paris + + +Author: E. V. Lucas + + + +Release Date: November 6, 2011 [eBook #37937] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WANDERER IN PARIS*** + + +E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Melissa McDaniel, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 37937-h.htm or 37937-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37937/37937-h/37937-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37937/37937-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document + have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been + corrected. + + Text printed in italics in the original document is enclosed + here between underscores, as in _italics_. + + + + + +A WANDERER IN PARIS + + * * * * * + +OTHER WORKS BY E. V. LUCAS + + Mr. Ingleside + Over Bemerton's + Listener's Lure + London Lavender + One Day and Another + Fireside and Sunshine + Character and Comedy + Old Lamps for New + The Hambledon Men + The Open Road + The Friendly Town + Her Infinite Variety + Good Company + The Gentlest Art + The Second Post + A Little of Everything + A Swan and Her Friends + A Wanderer in Florence + A Wanderer in London + A Wanderer in Holland + The British School + Highways and Byways in Sussex + Anne's Terrible Good Nature + The Slowcoach + Sir Pulteney + The Life of Charles Lamb + and + The Pocket Edition of the Works of Charles + Lamb: I. Miscellaneous Prose; II. Elia; + III. Children's Books; IV. Poems and + Plays; V. and VI. Letters + + * * * * * + + + [Illustration: HOTEL DE SENS + THE RUE DE L'HOTEL DE VILLE] + + +A WANDERER IN PARIS + +by + +E. V. LUCAS + +With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour by Walter Dexter +and Thirty-Two Reproductions from Works of Art + + +"I'll go and chat with Paris" +_--Romeo and Juliet_ + +TENTH EDITION + + + + + + + +Methuen & Co. Ltd. +36 Essex Street W.C. +London + +_First Published (Crown 8vo)_ _August 5th 1909_ +_Second Edition ( " )_ _September 1909_ +_Third Edition ( " )_ _October 1909_ +_Fourth Edition ( " )_ _January 1910_ +_Fifth Edition ( " )_ _June 1910_ +_Sixth Edition ( " )_ _December 1910_ +_Seventh Edition, revised (Fcap. 8vo)_ _September 1911_ +_Eighth Edition (Crown 8vo)_ _October 1911_ +_Ninth Edition ( " )_ _March 1912_ +_Tenth Edition ( " )_ _February 1913_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +Although the reader will quickly make the discovery for himself, I +should like here to emphasise the fact that this is a book about Paris +and the Parisians written wholly from the outside, and containing only +so much of that city and its citizens as a foreigner who has no French +friends may observe on holiday visits. + +I express elsewhere my indebtedness to a few French authors. I have +also been greatly assisted in a variety of ways, but especially in the +study of the older Paris streets, by my friend Mr. Frank Holford. + + E. V. L. + + +NOTE + + Since this new edition was prepared for the press the + devastating theft of Leonardo da Vinci's "Monna Lisa" was + perpetrated. Pages 81-87 therefore--describing that picture + as one of the chief treasures of the Louvre--must change + their tense to the past. + + E. V. L. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I + THE ENGLISH GATES OF PARIS 1 + + CHAPTER II + THE ILE DE LA CITE 9 + + CHAPTER III + NOTRE DAME 31 + + CHAPTER IV + SAINT LOUIS AND HIS ISLAND 54 + + CHAPTER V + THE MARAIS 61 + + CHAPTER VI + THE LOUVRE: I. THE OLD MASTERS 78 + + CHAPTER VII + THE LOUVRE: II. MODERN PICTURES AND OTHER + TREASURES 97 + + CHAPTER VIII + THE TUILERIES 114 + + CHAPTER IX + THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, THE CHAMPS + ELYSEES AND THE INVALIDES 132 + + CHAPTER X + THE BOULEVARD ST. GERMAIN AND ITS + TRIBUTARIES 158 + + CHAPTER XI + THE LATIN QUARTER 170 + + CHAPTER XII + THE PANTHEON AND SAINTE GENEVIEVE 188 + + CHAPTER XIII + TWO ZOOS 199 + + CHAPTER XIV + THE GRANDS BOULEVARDS: I. THE + MADELEINE TO THE OPERA 214 + + CHAPTER XV + A CHAIR AT THE CAFE DE LA PAIX 227 + + CHAPTER XVI + THE GRANDS BOULEVARDS: II. THE OPERA TO THE + PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE 244 + + CHAPTER XVII + MONTMARTRE 260 + + CHAPTER XVIII + THE ELYSEE TO THE HOTEL DE VILLE 276 + + CHAPTER XIX + THE PLACE DES VOSGES AND HUGO'S HOUSE 299 + + CHAPTER XX + THE BASTILLE, PERE LACHAISE AND THE END 306 + + INDEX 321 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +IN COLOUR + + + THE RUE DE L'HOTEL DE VILLE _Frontispiece_ + + THE COURTYARD OF THE COMPAS D'OR _To face page_ 6 + + THE ILE DE LA CITE FROM THE PONT DES ARTS " 40 + + NOTRE DAME " 58 + + THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L'ETOILE " 74 + + THE PARC MONCEAU " 116 + + THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DU CARROUSEL " 124 + + THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE " 140 + + THE PONT ALEXANDRE III. " 160 + + THE FONTAINE DE MEDICIS " 180 + + THE MUSEE CLUNY " 200 + + THE RUE DE BIEVRE " 222 + + THE BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS " 240 + + THE PORTE ST. DENIS " 258 + + THE SACRE COEUR DE MONTMARTRE FROM THE + BUTTES-CHAUMONT " 280 + + THE PLACE DES VOSGES, SOUTHERN ENTRANCE " 300 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +IN BLACK AND WHITE + + + MAP. From a Drawing by B. C. Boulter _front Cover_ + + THE NATIVITY. Luini (louvre) _to face page_ 16 + From a Photograph by Mansell + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI AND THE CARDINAL + VIRTUES--Fresco from the Villa Lemmi. + Botticelli (Louvre) " 20 + + LA VIERGE AUX ROCHERS. Leonardo da Vinci + (Louvre) " 26 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + SAINTE ANNE, LA VIERGE, ET L'ENFANT JESUS. + Leonardo da Vinci. (Louvre) " 36 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA PENSEE. Rodin (Luxembourg) " 46 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + BALTHASAR CASTIGLIONE. Raphael (Louvre) " 52 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + L'HOMME AU GANT. Titian (Louvre) " 64 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + PORTRAIT DE JEUNE HOMME. Attributed to Bigio + (Louvre) " 70 + From a Photograph by Alinari + + THE WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE. (Louvre) " 80 + From a Photograph by Giraudon + + LA JOCONDE: MONNA LISA. Leonardo da Vinci + (Louvre) " 86 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + PORTRAIT D'UNE DAME ET SA FILLE. Van Dyck + (Louvre) " 94 + From a Photograph by Mansell + + LE VALLON. Corot (Louvre, Thomy-Thierret + Collection) " 106 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LE PRINTEMPS. Rousseau (Louvre, Thomy-Thierret + Collection) " 120 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + VIEUX HOMME ET ENFANT. Ghirlandaio (Louvre) " 136 + From a Photograph by Mansell + + VENUS ET L'AMOUR. Rembrandt (Louvre) " 146 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LES PELERINS D'EMMAUES. Rembrandt (Louvre) " 154 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA VIERGE AU DONATEUR. J. van Eyck (Louvre) " 166 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + PORTRAIT DE SA MERE. Whistler (Luxembourg) " 176 + + LA BOHEMIENNE. Franz Hals (Louvre) " 186 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + STE. GENEVIEVE. Puvis de Chavannes (Pantheon) " 190 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA LECON DE LECTURE. Terburg (Louvre) " 206 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA DENTELLIERE. Vermeer of Delft (Louvre) " 216 + From a Photograph by Woodbury + + GIRL'S HEAD. Ecole de Fabriano (Louvre) " 228 + From a Photograph by Mansell + + LE BENEDICITE. Chardin (Louvre) " 234 + From a Photograph by Giraudon + + MADAME LE BRUN ET SA FILLE. Madame Le Brun + (Louvre) " 246 + From a Photograph by Hanfstaengl + + LE PONT DE MANTES. Corot + (Louvre, Moreau Collection) " 252 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA PROVENDE DES POULES. Troyon (Louvre, + Thomy-Thierret Collection) " 266 + From a Photograph by Alinari + + THE WINDMILL. R. P. Bonington (Louvre) " 274 + + L'AMATEUR D'ESTAMPES. Daumier (Palais des + Beaux Arts) " 286 + + LE BAISER. Rodin (Luxembourg) " 294 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + LA BERGERE GARDANT SES MOUTONS. Millet + (Louvre, Chauchard Collection) " 308 + + LE MONUMENT AUX MORTS. A. Bartholome (Pere + la Chaise) " 316 + From a Photograph by Neurdein + + + + +A WANDERER IN PARIS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ENGLISH GATES OF PARIS + + The Gare du Nord and Gare St. Lazare--The Singing + Cabman--"Vivent les femmes!"--Characteristic Paris--The Next + Morning--A Choice of Delights--The Compas d'Or--The World of + Dumas--The First Lunch--Voisin wins. + + +Most travellers from London enter Paris in the evening, and I think +they are wise. I wish it were possible again and again to enter Paris +in the evening for the first time; but since it is not, let me hasten +to say that the pleasure of re-entering Paris in the evening is one +that custom has almost no power to stale. Every time that one emerges +from the Gare du Nord or the Gare St. Lazare one is taken afresh by +the variegated and vivid activity of it all--the myriad purposeful +self-contained bustling people, all moving on their unknown errands +exactly as they were moving when one was here last, no matter how long +ago. For Paris never changes: that is one of her most precious +secrets. + +The London which one had left seven or eight hours before was populous +enough and busy enough, Heaven knows, but London's pulse is slow and +fairly regular, and even at her gayest, even when greeting Royalty, +she seems to be advising caution and a careful demeanour. But +Paris--Paris smiles and Paris sings. There is an incredible vivacity +in her atmosphere. + +Sings! This reminds me that on the first occasion that I entered +Paris--in the evening, of course--my cabman sang. He sang all the way +from the Gare du Nord to the Rue Caumartin. This seemed to me +delightful and odd, although at first I felt in danger of attracting +more attention than one likes; but as we proceeded down the Rue +Lafayette--which nothing but song and the fact that it is the high +road into Paris from England can render tolerable--I discovered that +no one minded us. A singing cabman in London would bring out the Riot +Act and the military; but here he was in the picture: no one threw at +the jolly fellow any of the chilling deprecatory glances which are the +birthright of every light-hearted eccentric in my own land. And so we +proceeded to the hotel, often escaping collision by the breadth of a +single hair, the driver singing all the way. What he sang I knew not; +but I doubt if it was of battles long ago: rather, I should fancy, of +very present love and mischief. But how fitting a first entry into +Paris! + +An hour or so later--it was just twenty years ago, but I remember it +so clearly--I observed written up in chalk in large emotional letters +on a public wall the words "Vivent les femmes!" and they seemed to me +also so odd--it seemed to me so funny that the sentiment should be +recorded at all, since women were obviously going to live whatever +happened--that I laughed aloud. But it was not less characteristic of +Paris than the joyous baritone notes that had proceeded from beneath +the white tall hat of my cocher. It was as natural for one Parisian to +desire the continuance of his joy as a lover, even to expressing it in +chalk in the street, as to another to beguile with lyrical snatches +the tedium of cab-driving. + +I was among the Latin people, and, as I quickly began to discover, I +was myself, for the first time, a foreigner. That is a discovery which +one quickly makes in Paris. + +But I have not done yet with the joy of entering and re-entering Paris +in the evening--after the long smooth journey across the marshes of +Picardy or through the orchards of Normandy and the valley of the +Seine--whichever way one travels. But whether one travels by Calais, +Boulogne, Dieppe or Havre, whether one alights at the Gare du Nord or +St. Lazare, once outside the station one is in Paris instantly: there +is no debatable land between either of these termini and the city, as +there is, for example, between the Gare de Lyons and the city. Paris +washes up to the very platforms. A few steps and here are the foreign +tables on the pavements and the foreign waiters, so brisk and clean, +flitting among them; here are the vehicles meeting and passing on the +wrong or foreign side, and beyond that, knowing apparently no law at +all; here are the deep-voiced newsvendors shouting those magic words +_La Patrie!_ _La Patrie!_ which, should a musician ever write a Paris +symphony, would recur and recur continually beneath its surface +harmonies. And here, everywhere, are the foreign people in their +ordered haste and their countless numbers. + +The pleasure of entering and re-entering Paris in the evening is only +equalled by the pleasure of stepping forth into the street the next +morning in the sparkling Parisian air and smelling again the pungent +Parisian scent and gathering in the foreign look of the place. I know +of no such exuberance as one draws in with these first Parisian +inhalations on a fine morning in May or June--and in Paris in May and +June it is always fine, just as in Paris in January and February it is +always cold or wet. His would be a very sluggish or disenchanted +spirit who was not thus exhilarated; for here at his feet is the +holiday city of Europe and the clean sun over all. + +And then comes the question "What to do?" Shall we go at once to +"Monna Lisa"? But could there be a better morning for the children in +the Champs-Elysees? That beautiful head in the His de la Salle +collection--attributed to the school of Fabriano! How delightfully the +sun must be lighting up the red walls of the Place des Vosges! Rodin's +"Kiss" at the Luxembourg--we meant to go straight to that! The wheel +window in Notre Dame, in the north transept--I have been thinking of +that ever since we planned to come. + +So may others talk and act; but I have no hesitancies. My duty is +clear as crystal. On the first morning I pay a visit of reverence and +delight to the ancient auberge of the Compas d'Or at No. 64 Rue +Montorgeuil. And this I shall always do until it is razed to the +earth, as it seems likely to be under the gigantic scheme, beyond +Haussmann almost, which is to renovate the most picturesque if the +least sanitary portions of old Paris at a cost of over thirty millions +of pounds. Unhappy day--may it be long postponed! For some years now I +have always approached the Compas d'Or with trembling and foreboding. +Can it still be there? I ask myself. Can that wonderful wooden hanger +that covers half the courtyard have held so long? Will there be a +motor-car among the old diligences and waggons? But it is always the +same. + +From the street--and the Rue Montorgeuil is as a whole one of the most +picturesque and characteristic of the older streets of Paris, with its +high white houses, each containing fifty families, its narrowness, its +barrows of fruit and green stuff by both pavements, and its crowds of +people--from the street, the Compas d'Or is hardly noticeable, for a +butcher and a cutler occupy most of its facade; but the sign and the +old carvings over these shops give away the secret, and you pass +through one of the narrow archways on either side and are straightway +in a romance by the great Dumas. Into just such a courtyard would +D'Artagnan have dashed, and leaping from one sweating steed leap on +another and be off again amid a shower of sparks on the stones. Time +has stood still here. + +There is no other such old inn left. The coach to Dreux--now probably +a carrier's cart--still regularly runs from this spot, as it has done +ever since the beginning of the sixteenth century. Rows of horses +stand in its massive stables and fill the air with their warm and +friendly scent; a score of ancient carts huddle in the yard, in a +corner of which there will probably be a little group of women +shelling peas; beneath the enormous hanger are more vehicles, and +masses of hay on which the carters sleep. The ordinary noise of Paris +gives way, in this sanctuary of antiquity, to the scraping of hoofs, +the rattle of halter bolts, and the clatter of the wooden shoes of +ostlers. It is the past in actual being--Civilisation, like Time, has +stood still in the yard of the Compas d'Or. That is why I hasten to it +so eagerly and shall always do so until it disappears for ever. There +is nothing else in Paris like it. + +And after? Well, the next thing is to have lunch. And since this +lunch--being the first--will be the best lunch of the holiday and +therefore the best meal of the holiday (for every meal on a holiday in +Paris is a little better than that which follows it), it is an +enterprise not lightly to be undertaken. One must decide carefully, +for this is to be an extravagance: the search for the little +out-of-the-way restaurant will come later. To-day we are rich. + + [Illustration: THE COURTYARD OF THE COMPAS D'OR, RUE MONTORGEUIL] + +This book is not a guide for the gastronome and gourmet. How indeed +could it be, even although when heaven sends a cheerful hour one would +scorn to refrain? Yet none the less it would be pleasant in this +commentary upon a city illustrious for its culinary ingenuity and +genius to say something of restaurants. But what is one to say here on +such a theme? Volumes are needed. Every one has his own taste. For me +Voisin's remains, and will, I imagine, remain the most distinguished, +the most serene, restaurant in Paris, in its retired situation at the +corner of the Rue Saint-Honore and the Rue Cambon, with its simple +decoration, its unhastening order and despatch, its Napoleonic +head-waiter, its Bacchic wine-waiter (with a head that calls for vine +leaves) and its fastidious cuisine. To Voisin's I should always make +my way when I wished not only to be delicately nourished but to be +quiet and philosophic and retired. Only one other restaurant do I know +where the cooking gives me the satisfaction of Voisin's--where +excessive richness never intrudes--and that is a discovery of my own +and not lightly to be given away. Voisin's is a name known all over +the world: one can say nothing new about Voisin's; but the little +restaurant with which I propose to tantalise you, although the resort +of some of the most thoughtful eaters in Paris, has a reputation that +has not spread. It is not cheap, it is little less dear indeed than +the Cafe Anglais or Paillard's, to name the two restaurants of renown +which are nearest to it; its cellar is poor and limited to half a +dozen wines; its two rooms are minute and hot; but the idea of +gastronomy reigns--everything is subordinated to the food and the +cooking. If you order a trout, it is the best trout that France can +breed, and it is swimming in the kitchen at the time the solitary +waiter repeats your command; no such asparagus reaches any other Paris +restaurant, no such Pre Sale and no such wild strawberries. But I have +said enough; almost I fear I have said too much. These discoveries +must be kept sacred. + +And for lunch to-day? Shall it be chez Voisin, or chez Foyot, by the +Senat, or chez Laperouse (where the two Stevensons used to eat and +talk) on the Quai des Augustins? Or shall it be at my nameless +restaurant? + +Voisin's to-day, I think. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ILE DE LA CITE + + Paris Old and New--The Heart of France--Saint Louis--Old + Palaces--Henri IV.'s Statue--Ironical Changes--The Seine and + the Thames--The Quais and their Old Books--Diderot and the + Lady--Police and Red Tape--The Conciergerie--Marie + Antoinette--Paris and its Clocks--Meryon's Etchings--French + Advocates--A Hall of Babel--Sainte Chapelle--French + Newspapers Serious and Comic--The Only Joke--The English and + the French. + + +Where to begin? That is a problem in the writing of every book, but +peculiarly so with Paris; because, however one may try to be +chronological, the city is such a blend of old and new that that +design is frustrated at every turn. Nearly every building of +importance stands on the site of some other which instantly jerks us +back hundreds of years, while if we deal first with the original +structure, such as the remains of the Roman Thermes at the Cluny, +built about 300, straightway the Cluny itself intrudes, and we leap +from the third century to the nineteenth; or if we trace the line of +the wall of Philip Augustus we come swiftly to so modern an +institution as the Mont-de-Piete; or if we climb to such a recent +thoroughfare as the Boulevard de Clichy, with its palpitatingly novel +cabarets and allurements, we must in order to do so ascend a mountain +which takes its name from the martyrdom of St. Denis and his +companions in the third century. It is therefore well, since Paris is +such a tangle of past and present, to disregard order altogether and +to let these pages reflect her character. Expect then, dear reader, to +be twitched about the ages without mercy. + +Let us begin in earnest by leaving the mainland and adventuring upon +an island. For the heart of Paris is enisled: Notre Dame, Sainte +Chapelle, the Palais de Justice, the Hotel Dieu, the Prefecture de +Police, the Morgue--all are entirely surrounded by water. The history +of the Cite is the history of Paris, almost the history of France. + +Paris, the home of the Parisii, consisted of nothing but this island +when Julius Caesar arrived there with his conquering host. The Romans +built their palace here, and here Julian the Apostate loved to +sojourn. It was in Julian's reign that the name was changed from +Lutetia (which it is still called by picturesque writers) to Parisea +Civitas, from which Paris is an easy derivative. The Cite remained the +home of government when the Merovingians under Clovis expelled the +Romans, and again under the Carlovingians. The second Royal Palace was +begun by the first of the Capets, Hugh, in the tenth century, and it +was completed by Robert the Pious in the eleventh. Louis VII. decreed +Notre Dame; but it was Saint Louis, reigning from 1226 to 1270, who +was the father of the Cite as we now know it. He it was who built +Sainte Chapelle, and it was he who surrendered part of the Palace to +the Law. + +While it was the home of the Court and the Church the island naturally +had little enough room for ordinary residents, who therefore had to +live, whether aristocrats or tradespeople, on the mainland, either on +the north or south side of the river. The north side was for the most +part given to merchants, the south to scholars, for Saint Louis was +the builder not only of Sainte Chapelle but also of the Sorbonne. Very +few of the smaller buildings of that time now remain: the oldest Paris +that one now wanders in so delightedly, whether on the north bank or +the south, whether near the Sorbonne or the Hotel de Sens, dates, with +a few fortunate exceptions, from the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries. + +Nowhere may the growth of Paris be better observed and better +understood than on the highest point on this Island of the City--on +the summit of Notre Dame. Standing there you quickly comprehend the +Paris of the ages: from Caesar's Lutetia, occupying the island only and +surrounded by fields and wastes, to the Paris of this year of our +Lord, spreading over the neighbouring hills, such a hive of human +activity and energy as will hardly bear thinking of--a Paris which has +thrown off the yoke not only of the kings that once were all-powerful +but of the Church too. + +By the twelfth century the kings of France had begun to live in +smaller palaces more to their personal taste, such as the Hotel +Barbette, the Hotel de Sens (much of which still stands, as a glass +factory, at the corner of the Rue de l'Hotel de Ville and the Rue de +Figuier, one of the oldest of the Paris mansions), the Hotel de +Bourgogne (in the Rue Etienne Marcel: you may still see its tower of +Jean Sans Peur), the Hotel de Nevers (what remains of which is at the +corner of the Rue Colbert and Rue Richelieu), and, of course, the +Louvre. Charles VII. (1422-1461) was the first king to settle at the +Louvre permanently. + +To gain the Ile de la Cite we leave the mainland of Paris at the Quai +du Louvre, and make our crossing by the Pont Neuf. Neuf no longer, for +as a matter of historical fact it is now the oldest of all the Paris +bridges: that is, in its foundations, for the visible part of it has +been renovated quite recently. The first stone of it was laid by Henri +III. in 1578: it was not ready for many years, but in 1603 Henri IV. +(of Navarre) ventured across a plank of it on his way to the Louvre, +after several previous adventurers had broken their necks in the +attempt. "So much the less kings they," was his comment. He lived to +see the bridge finished. + +Behind the statue of this monarch, whom the French still adore, is the +garden that finishes off the west end of the Ile very prettily, +sending its branches up above the parapet. Here we may stop; for we +are now on the Island itself, midway between the two halves of the +bridge, and the statue has such a curious history, so typical of the +French character, that I should like to tell it. The original bronze +figure, erected by Louis XIII. in 1614, was taken down in 1792, a +time of stress, and melted into a commodity that was then of vastly +greater importance than the effigies of kings--namely cannon. (As we +shall see in the course of this book, Paris left the hands of the +Revolutionaries a totally different city from the Paris of 1791.) Then +came peace again, and then came Napoleon, and in the collection at +the Archives is to be seen a letter written by the Emperor from +Schoenbrunn, on August 15th, 1809, stating that he wishes an obelisk +to be erected on the site of the Henri IV. statue--an obelisk of +Cherbourg granite, 180 pieds d'elevation, with the inscription +"l'Empereur Napoleon au Peuple Francais". That, however, was not done. + +Time passed on, Napoleon fell, and Louis XVIII. returned from his +English home to the throne of France, and was not long in perpetrating +one of those symmetrical ironical jests which were then in vogue. +Taking from the Vendome column the bronze statue of Napoleon (who was +safely under the thumb of Sir Hudson Lowe at St. Helena, well out of +mischief), and to this adding a second bronze statue of the same +usurper intended for some other site, the monarch directed that they +should be melted into liquid from which a new statue of Henri IV.--the +very one at which we are at this moment gazing--should be cast. It was +done, and though to the Roentgen-rayed vision of the cynic it may +appear to be nothing more or less than a double Napoleon, it is to +the world at large Henri IV., the hero of Ivry. + +I have seen comparisons between the Seine and the Thames; but they are +pointless. You cannot compare them: one is a London river, and the +other is a Paris river. The Seine is a river of light; the Thames is a +river of twilight. The Seine is gay; the Thames is sombre. When dusk +falls in Paris the Seine is just a river in the evening; when dusk +falls in London the Thames becomes a wonderful mystery, an enchanted +stream in a land of old romance. The Thames is, I think, vastly more +beautiful; but on the other hand, the Thames has no merry passenger +steamers and no storied quais. The Seine has all the advantage when we +come to the consideration of what can be done with a river's banks in +a great city. For the Seine has a mile of old book and curiosity +stalls, whereas the Thames has nothing. + +And yet the coping of the Thames embankment is as suitable for such a +purpose as that of the Seine, and as many Londoners are fond of books. +How is it? Why should all the bookstalls and curiosity stalls of +London be in Whitechapel and Farringdon Street and the Cattle Market? +That is a mystery which I have never solved and never shall. Why are +the West Central and the West districts wholly debarred--save in +Charing Cross Road, and that I believe is suspect--from loitering at +such alluring street banquets? It is beyond understanding. + +The history of the stall-holders of the quais has been told very +engagingly by M. Octave Uzanne, whom one might describe as the Austin +Dobson and the Augustine Birrell of France, in his work _Bouquinistes +et Bouquineurs_. They established themselves first on the Pont Neuf, +but in 1650 were evicted. (The Paris bridges, I might say here, become +at the present time the resort of every kind of pedlar directly +anything occurs to suspend their traffic.) + +The parapets of the quais then took the place of those of the bridge, +and there the booksellers' cases have been ever since. But no longer +are they the gay resort that once they were. It was considered, says +M. Uzanne, writing of the eighteenth century, "quite the correct thing +for the promenaders to gossip round the bookstalls and discuss the wit +and fashionable writings of the day. At all hours of the day these +quarters were much frequented, above all by literary men, lawyers +clerks and foreigners. One historical fact, not generally known, +merits our attention, for it shows that not only the libraries and the +stall-keepers assisted in drawing men of letters to the vicinity of +the Hotel Mazarin, but there also existed a 'rendez-vous' for the sale +of English and French journals. It was, in fact, at the corner of the +Rue Dauphine and the Quai Conti that the first establishment known as +the Cafe Anglais was started. One read in big letters on the +signboard: Cafe Anglais--Becket, proprietaire. This was the meeting +place of the greater part of English writers visiting Paris who +wished to become acquainted with the literary men of the period, the +encyclopaedists and poets of the Court of Louis XV. This Cafe offered +to its habitues the best-known English papers of the day, the +_Westminster Gazette_, the _London Evening Post_, the _Daily +Advertiser_, and the various pamphlets published on the other side of +the Channel.... + +"You must know that the Quai Conti up to the year 1769 was only a +narrow passage leading down to a place for watering horses. Between +the Pont Neuf and the building known as the Chateau-Gaillard at the +opening of the Rue Guenegaud, were several small shops, and a small +fair continually going on. + +"This Chateau-Gaillard, which was a dependency of the old Porte de +Nesle, had been granted by Francis I. to Benvenuto Cellini. The famous +Florentine goldsmith received visits from the Sovereign protector of +arts and here executed the work he had been ordered to do, under his +Majesty's very eyes.... + +"One calls to mind that Sterne, in his delightful _Sentimental +Journey_, was set down in 1767 at the Hotel de Modene, in the Rue +Jacob, opposite the Rue des Deux-Anges, and one has not forgotten his +love for the quais and the adventure which befell him while chatting +to a bookseller on the Quai Conti, of whom he wished to buy a copy of +Shakespeare so that he might read once more Polonius' advice to his +son before starting on his travels. + +"Diderot, in his _Salon_ of 1761, relates his flirtation with the +pretty girl who served in one of these shops and afterwards became +the wife of Menze. 'She called herself Miss Babuti and kept a small +book shop on the Quai des Augustins, spruce and upright, white as a +lily and red as a rose. I would enter her shop, in my own brisk way: +"Mademoiselle, the 'Contes de la Fontaine' ... a 'Petronius' if you +please."--"Here you are, Sir. Do you want any other books?"--"Forgive +me, yes"--"What is it?"--"La 'Religieuse en Chemise.'"--"For shame, +Sir! Do you read such trash?"--"Trash, is it, Mademoiselle? I did not +know...."'" + + [Illustration: THE NATIVITY + LUINI + (_Louvre_)] + +M. Uzanne's pages are filled with such charming gossip and with +character-sketches of the most famous booksellers and book-hunters. +One pretty trait that would have pleased Mary Lamb (and perhaps did, +in 1822, when her brother took her to the "Boro' side of the Seine") +is mentioned by M. Uzanne: "The stall-keeper on the quais always has +an indulgent eye for the errand boy or the little bonne [slavey] who +stops in front of his stall and consults gratis 'La Clef des Songes' +or 'Le Secretaire des Dames'. Who would not commend him for this kind +toleration? In fact it is very rare to find the bookseller in such +cases not shutting his eyes--metaphorically--and refraining from +walking up to the reader, for fear of frightening her away. And then +the young girl moves off with a light step, repeating to herself the +style of letter or the explanation of a dream, rich in hope and +illusions for the rest of the day." + +But the best description of the book-hunter of the quais is that +given to Dumas by Charles Nodier. "This animal," he said, "has two +legs and is featherless, wanders usually up and down the quais and the +boulevards, stopping at all the old bookstalls, turning over every +book on them; he is habitually clad in a coat that is too long for him +and trousers that are too short; he always wears on his feet shoes +that are down at the heel, a dirty hat on his head, and, under his +coat and over his trousers, a waistcoat fastened together with string. +One of the signs by which he can be recognised is that he never washes +his hands." + +Henri IV.'s statue faces the Place Dauphine and the west facade of the +Palais de Justice. At No. 28 in the Place Dauphine Madame Roland was +born, little thinking she was destined one day to be imprisoned in the +neighbouring Conciergerie, which, to those who can face the +difficulties of obtaining a ticket of admission, is one of the most +interesting of the Island's many interesting buildings. But the +process is not easy, and there is only one day in the week on which +the prison is shown. + +The tickets are issued at the Prefecture of Police--the Scotland Yard +of Paris--which is the large building opposite Sainte Chapelle. One +may either write or call. I advise writing; for calling is not as +simple as it sounds: simplicity and sightseeing in Paris being indeed +not on the best terms. It was not until I had asked five several +officials that I found even the right door of the vast structure, and +then having passed a room full of agents (or policemen) smoking and +jesting, and having climbed to a third storey, I was in danger of +losing for ever the privilege of seeing what I had fixed my mind upon, +wholly because, although I knew the name and street of my hotel, I did +not know its number. Who ever dreamed that hotels have numbers? Has +the Savoy a number in the Strand? Is the Ritz numbered in Piccadilly? +Not that I was living in any such splendour, but still, on the face of +it, a hotel has a name because it has no number. "C'est egal," the +gentleman said at last, after a pantomime of impossibility and +reproach, and I took my ticket, bowed to the ground, replaced my hat +and was free to visit the Conciergerie on the morrow. Such are the +amenities of the tourist's life. + +Let me here say that the agents of Paris are by far its politest +citizens, and in appearance the healthiest. I have never met an +uncivil agent, and I once met one who refused a tip after he had been +of considerable service to me. Never did I attempt to tip another. +They have their defects, no doubt: they have not the authority that we +give our police: their management of traffic is pathetically +incompetent; but they are street gentlemen and the foreigner has no +better friend. + +The Conciergerie is the building on the Quai de l'Horloge with the +circular towers beneath extinguishers--an impressive sight from the +bridges and the other bank of the river. Most of its cells are now +used as rooms for soldiers (Andre Chenier's dungeon is one of their +kitchens); but a few rooms of the deepest historical interest have +been left as they were. These are displayed by a listless guide who +rises to animation only when the time comes to receive his benefice +and offer for sale a history of his preserves. + +One sees first the vaulted Salle Saint Louis, called the Salle des Pas +Perdus because it was through it that the victims of the Revolution +walked on their way to the Cour de Mai and execution. The terribly +significant name has since passed to the great lobby of the Palais de +Justice immediately above it, where it has less appropriateness. It is +of course the cell of Marie Antoinette that is the most poignant spot +in this grievous place. When the Queen was here the present room was +only about half its size, having a partition across it, behind which +two soldiers were continually on guard, day and night. The Queen was +kept here, suffering every kind of indignity and petty tyranny, from +early September, 1793, until October 16th. Her chair, in which she sat +most of the time, faced the window of the courtyard. + +A few acts of kindness reached her in spite of the vigilance of the +authorities; but very few. I quote the account of two from the +official guide, a poor thing, which I was weak enough to buy: "The +Queen had no complaint to make against the concierges Richard nor +their successors the Baults. It is told that one day Richard asked a +fruitseller in the neighbourhood to select him the best of her melons, +whatever it might cost. 'It is for a very important personage, +then?' said the seller disdainfully, looking at the concierge's +threadbare clothes. 'Yes,' said he, 'it is for some one who was once +very important; she is so no longer; it is for the Queen.' 'The +Queen,' exclaimed the tradeswoman, turning over all her melons, 'the +Queen! Oh, poor woman! Here, make her eat that, and I won't have you +pay for it....' + +"One of the gendarmes on duty having smoked during the night, learnt +the following day that the Queen, whom he noticed was very pale, had +suffered from the smell of the tobacco; he smashed his pipe, swearing +not to smoke any more. It was he also who said to those who came in +contact with Marie Antoinette: 'Whatever you do, don't say anything to +her about her children'." + +For her trial the Queen was taken to the Tribunal sitting in what is +now the First Circle Chamber of the Palais de Justice, and led back in +the evening to her cell. She was condemned to death on the fifteenth, +and that night wrote a letter to her sister-in-law Elizabeth which we +shall see in the Archives Nationales: it is firmly written. + + [Illustration: GIOVANNA TORNABUONI AND THE CARDINAL VIRTUES + BOTTICELLI. FRESCO FROM THE VILLA LEMMI + (_Louvre_)] + +The Conciergerie had many other prisoners, but none so illustrious. +Robespierre occupied for twenty-four hours the little cell adjoining +that of the Queen, now the vestry of the chapel. Madame Du Barry and +Madame Recamier had cells adjacent to that of Madame Roland. Later +Marechal Ney was imprisoned here. The oldest part of all--the kitchens +of Saint Louis--are not shown. + +The Pont au Change, the bridge which connects the Place du Chatelet +with the Boulevard du Palais, the main street of the Ile de la Cite, +was once (as the Ponte Vecchio at Florence still is) the headquarters +of goldsmiths and small bankers. Not the least of the losses that +civilisation and rebuilders have brought upon us is the disappearance +of the shops and houses from the bridges. Old London Bridge--how one +regrets that! + +At the corner of the Conciergerie is the Horloge that gives the Quai +its name--a floridly decorated clock which by no means conveys the +impression that it has kept time for over five hundred years and is +the oldest exposed time-piece in France. Paris, by the way, is very +poor in public clocks, and those that she has are not too trustworthy. +The one over the Gare St. Lazare has perhaps the best reputation; but +time in Paris is not of any great importance. For most Parisians there +is an inner clock which strikes with perfect regularity at about +twelve and seven, and no other hours really matter. And yet a certain +show of marking time is made in the hotels, where every room has an +elaborate ormolu clock, usually under a glass case and rarely going. +And in one hotel I remember a large clock on every landing, of which I +passed three on my way upstairs; and their testimony was so various +that it was two hours later by each, so that by the time I had reached +my room it was nearly time to get up. On asking the waiter the reason +he said it was because they were synchronised by electricity. + +There has been a Tour de l'Horloge at this corner of the Conciergerie +ever since it was ordained by Philippe le Bel in 1299; the present +clock, or at least its scheme of decoration, dates, however, from +Henri III.'s reign, about 1585. The last elaborate restoration was in +1852. In the tower above was a bell that was rung only on rare +occasions. The usual accounts of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew say +that the signal for that outrage was sounded by the bell of St. +Germain l'Auxerrois; but others give it to the bell of the Tour de +l'Horloge. As they are some distance from each other, perhaps both +were concerned; but since St. Germain l'Auxerrois is close to the +Louvre, where the King was waiting for the carnage to begin, it is +probable that it rang the first notes. + +One of Meryon's most impressive and powerful etchings represents the +Tour de l'Horloge and the facade of the Conciergerie. It is a typical +example of his strange and gloomy genius, for while it is nothing else +in the world but what it purports to be, it is also quite unlike the +Tour de l'Horloge and the facade of the Conciergerie as any ordinary +eyes have seen them. They are made terrible and sinister: they have +been passed through the dark crucible of Meryon's mind. To see Paris +as Meryon saw it needs a great effort of imagination, so swiftly and +instinctively do these people remove the traces of unhappiness or +disaster. It is the nature of Paris to smile and to forget; from any +lapse into woe she recovers with extraordinary rapidity. + +Meryon's Paris glowers and shudders; there is blood on her hands and +guilt in her heart. I will not say that his concept is untrue, because +I believe that the concept formed by a man of genius is always true, +although it may not contain all the truth, and indeed one has to +recall very little history to fall easily into Meryon's mood; but for +the visitor who has chosen Paris for his holiday--the typical reader, +for example, of this book--Mr. Dexter's concept of Paris is a more +natural one. (I wish, by the way, before it is too late, that Mr. +Muirhead Bone would devote some time to the older parts of the +city--particularly to the Marais. How it lies to his hand!) + +Since we are at the gates of the Palais de Justice let us spend a +little time among the advocates and their clients in the great +hall--the Salle des Pas Perdus. (In an interesting work, by the way, +on this building, with a preface by the younger Dumas, the amendment, +"La Salle du temps perdu" is recommended.) The French law courts, as a +whole, are little different from our own: they have the same +stuffiness, they give the same impression of being divided between the +initiated and the uninitiated, the little secret society of the Bar +and the great innocent world. But the Salle des Pas Perdus is another +thing altogether. There is nothing like that in the Strand. Our Strand +counsel are a dignified, clean-shaven, be-wigged race, striving to +appear old and inscrutable and important. They are careful of +appearances; they receive instructions only through solicitors; they +affect to weigh their words; sagacious reserve is their fetish. Hence +our law courts, although there are many consultations and incessant +passings to and fro, are yet subdued in tone and overawing to the +talkative. + +But the Palais de Justice!--Babel was inaudible beside it. In the +Palais de Justice everyone talks at once; no one cares a sou for +appearances or reticence; there are no wigs, no shorn lips, no +affectation of a superhuman knowledge of the world. The French +advocate comes into direct communication with his client--for the most +part here. The movement as well as the vociferation is incessant, for +out of this great hall open as many doors as there are in a French +farce, and every door is continually swinging. Indeed that is the +chief effect conveyed: that one is watching a farce, since there has +never been a farce yet without a legal gentleman in his robes and +black velvet cap. The chief difference is that here there are hundreds +of them. As a final touch of humour, or lack of gravity, I may add +that notices forbidding smoking are numerous, and every advocate and +every client is puffing hard at his cigarette. + +Victor Hugo's _Notre Dame_ begins, it will be remembered, in the great +Hall of the Palais de Justice, where Gringoire's neglected mystery +play was performed and Quasimodo won the prize for ugliness. The Hall, +as Hugo says, was burned in 1618: by a fire which, he tells us, was +made necessary by the presence in the archives of the Palais of the +documents in the case of the assassination of Henri IV. by Ravaillac. +Certain of Ravaillac's accomplices and instigators wishing these +papers to disappear, the fire followed as a matter of course, as +naturally as in China a house had to be burned down before there could +be roast pig. + +Sainte Chapelle, which, with the kitchens of Saint Louis under the +Conciergerie, is all that remains of the royal period of the Palais de +Justice, is, except on Mondays, always open during the reasonable +daylight hours and is wholly free from vexatious restrictions. +Sanctity having passed from it, the French sightseers do not even +remove their hats, although I have noticed that the English and +Americans still find the habit too strong. The Chapelle may easily +disappoint, for such is the dimness of its religious light that little +is visible save the dark coloured windows. One is, however, conscious +of perfect proportions and such ecclesiastical elegance as paint and +gold can convey. It is in fact exquisite, yet not with an +exquisiteness of simplicity but of design and elaboration. It is like +a jewel--almost a trinket--which Notre Dame might have once worn on +her breast and tired of. Its fleche is really beautiful; it darts into +the sky with only less assurance and joy than that of Notre Dame, and +I always look up with pleasure to the angel on the eastern point of +the roof. + + [Illustration: LA VIERGE AUX ROCHERS + LEONARDO DA VINCI + (_Louvre_)] + +What one has the greatest difficulty in believing is that Sainte +Chapelle is six hundred and fifty years old. It was built for the +relics brought from the Crusades by Saint Louis, which are now in the +Treasury of Notre Dame. The Chapel has, of course, known the +restorer's hand, but it is virtually the original structure, and some +of the original glass is still here preserved amid reconstructions. To +me Sainte Chapelle's glass makes little appeal; but many of my friends +talk of nothing else. Let us thank God for differences of taste. +During the Commune (as recently as 1871) an attempt was made to burn +Sainte Chapelle, together with the Palais de Justice, but it just +failed. That was the third fire it has survived. + +From Sainte Chapelle we pass through the Rue de Lutece, which is +opposite, across the Boulevard, because there is a statue here of some +interest--that of Renaudot, who lived in the first half of the +seventeenth century at No. 8 Quai du Marche Neuf, close by, and +founded in 1631 the first French newspaper, the _Gazette de France_. +Little could he have foreseen the consequences of his rash act! It is +amusing to stand here a while and meditate on the torrent that has +proceeded from that small spring. Other cities have as busy a +journalistic life as Paris, and in London the paper boys are more +numerous and insistent, while in London we have also the contents' +bills, which are unknown to France; and yet Paris seems to me to be +more a city of newspapers than even London is. Perhaps it is the +kiosques that convey the impression. + +The London papers and the Paris papers could not well be more +different. In the matter of size, Paris, I think, has all the +advantage, for one may read everything in a few minutes; but in the +matter of ingredients the advantage surely lies with us, for although +English papers tell far too much, and by their own over-curiousness +foster inquisitiveness and busy-bodydom, yet they have some sense of +what is important, and one can always find the significant news. In +Paris, if one excepts the best papers, the _Temps_ in particular, the +significant news is elusive. What one will find, however, is a short +story or a literary essay written with distinction, an anecdote of the +day by no means adapted for the young person, and a number of trumpery +tragedies of passion or excess, minutely told; and in the _Figaro_ +once or twice a week an excellent humorous or satirical drawing. The +signed articles are always good, and when critical usually fearless, +but the unsigned notices of a new play or spectacle credit it with +perfection in every detail; and here, at any rate, as in our best +reviews of books, we are in a position to feel some of the +satisfaction that proceeds from conscious superiority. + +But, it has to be remembered, in Paris people go to the theatre +automatically, whereas we pick and choose and have our reasons, and +even talk of one play being moral and another immoral, and therefore +in Paris an honest criticism of a play is of little importance. The +Paris _Daily Mail_ seems to have fallen into line very naturally, for +I find in it, on the morning on which I write these lines, a puff of +the Capucines revue, saying that it kept the house in continuous +laughter by its innocent fun, and will doubtless draw all Paris. As if +(i) the laughter in any Paris theatre was ever continuous, and as if +(ii) there was ever any innocent fun at the Capucines, and as if (iii) +all Paris would go near that theatre if there were! + +One reason, I imagine, for the diffuseness of the English paper and +the brevity of the French, is that the English have so little natural +conversation that they find it useful to acquire news on which to base +more; while the French need no such assistance. The English again are +interested in other nations, whereas the French care nothing for any +land but France. There is no space in which to continue this not +untempting analysis: it would require much room, for to understand +thoroughly the difference between, say, the _Daily Telegraph_ and the +_Journal_ is to understand the difference between England and France. + +The French comic papers one sees everywhere--except in people's hands. +I suppose they are bought, or they would not be published; but I have +hardly ever observed a Frenchman reading one that was his own +property. The fault of the French comic paper is monotony. Voltaire +accused the English of having seventy religions and only one sauce; my +quarrel with the French is that they have seventy sauces and only one +joke. This joke you meet everywhere. Artists of diabolical cleverness +illustrate it in colours every week; versifiers and musicians +introduce it into songs; comic singers sing it; playwrights dramatise +it; novelists and journalists weave it into prose. It is the oldest +joke and it is ever new. Nothing can prevent a Parisian laughing at it +as if it were as fresh as his roll, his journal or his petit Gervais. +For a people with a world-wide reputation for wit, this is very +strange; but in some directions the French are incorrigibly juvenile, +almost infantine. Personally I envy them for it. I think it must be +charming never to grow out of such an affection for indecency that +even a nursery mishap can still be always funny. + +One of the comic papers must, however, be exempted from these +generalisations. _Le Rire_, _Le Journal Amusant_, _La Vie Parisienne_ +and the scores of cheaper imitations may depend for their living on +the one joke; but _L'Assiette au Beurre_ is more serious. _L'Assiette +au Beurre_ is first and foremost a satirist. It chastises continually, +and its whip is often scorpions. Even its lighter numbers, chiefly +given to ridicule, contain streaks of savagery. + +At the end of the brief Rue de Lutece is the great Hotel Dieu, the +oldest hospital in Paris, having been founded in the seventh century; +and to the left of it is one of the Paris flower markets, where much +beautiful colour may be seen very formally and unintelligently +arranged. Gardens are among those things that we order (or shall I say +disorder?) better than the French do. + +And now we will enter Notre Dame. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +NOTRE DAME + + Pagan Origins and Christian Predecessors--The Beginnings of + Notre Dame--Victor Hugo--The Dangers of Renovation--Old + Glass and New--A Wedding--The Cathedral's Great Moment--The + Hundred Poor Girls and Louis XVI.--The Revolution--Mrs. + Momoro, Goddess of Reason--The Legend of Our Lady of the + Bird--Coronation of Napoleon--The Communards and the + Students--The Treasures of the Sacristy--Three Hundred and + Ninety-seven Steps--Quasimodo and Esmeralda--Paris at our + Feet--The Eiffel Tower--The Devils of Notre Dame--The + Precincts--Notre Dame from the Quai. + + +If the Ile de la Cite is the eye of Paris, then, to adapt one of +Oliver Wendell Holmes' metaphors, Notre Dame is its pupil. It stands +on ground that has been holy, or at least religious, for many +centuries, for part of its site was once occupied by the original +mother church of Paris, St. Etienne, built in the fourth century; and +close by, in the Place du Parvis, have been discovered the foundations +of another church, dating from the sixth century, dedicated to Sainte +Marie; while beneath that are the remains of a Temple of Apollo or +Jupiter, relics of which we shall see at the Cluny. The origin of +Notre Dame, the fusion of these two churches, is wrapped in darkness; +but Victor Hugo roundly states that the first stone of it was laid by +Charlemagne (who reigned from 768 to 814, and whose noble equestrian +statue stands just outside), and the last by Philip Augustus, who was +a friend of our Richard Coeur de Lion. The more usual account of the +older parts of the Notre Dame that one sees to-day is that the first +stone of it was laid in 1163, in the reign of Louis VII., by Pope +Alexander III., who chanced then to be in Paris engaged in the task of +avoiding his enemies, the Ghibellines, and that in almost exactly a +hundred years, in the reign of Saint Louis, it was completed. (I say +completed, but as a matter of fact it is not completed even yet, for +each of the square towers was designed to carry a spire, and I +remember seeing at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 a number of drawings +of the cathedral by young architects, with these spires added. It is, +however, very unlikely that they will ever sprout, and I, for one, +hope not.) + +Victor Hugo is, of course, if not the first authority on Notre Dame, +its most sympathetic poet, lover and eulogist; and it seems ridiculous +for me to attempt description when every book shop in Paris has a copy +of his rich and fantastic romance, Book III. of which is an interlude +in the story wholly given to the glory of the cathedral. You may read +there not only of what Notre Dame is, but of what it is not and should +be: the shortcomings of architects and the vandalism of mobs are alike +reported. Mobs! Paris is seared with cicatrices from the hands of her +matricidal children, and Notre Dame especially so. Attempts to set +her on fire were made not only by the revolutionaries but by the +Communards too. These she resisted, but much of her statuary went +during the Revolution, the assailants sparing the Last Judgment on the +facade, but accounting very swiftly for a series of kings of Israel +and Judah (who, however, have since been replaced) under the +impression that they were monarchs of native growth and therefore not +to be endured. + +The statue of the Virgin in the centre of the facade, with Adam and +Eve on each side, is not, I may say, the true Notre Dame of Paris: She +is within the church--much older and simpler, on a column to the right +of the altar as we face it. She is a sweeter and more winning figure +than that between our first parents on the facade. + +When I first knew Notre Dame it was, to the visitor from the open air, +all scented darkness. And then as one grew accustomed to the gloom the +cathedral opened slowly like a great flower--not so beautifully as +Chartres, but with its own grandeur and fascination. That was twenty +years ago. It is not the same since it has been scraped and lightened +within. That old clinging darkness has gone. There are times of day +now, when the sun spatters on the wall, when it might be almost any +church; but towards evening in the gloom it is Notre Dame de Paris +again, mysterious and a little sinister. A bright light not only +chases the shade from its aisles and recesses but also shows up the +garishness of its glass. For the glass of France, usually bad, is +here often almost at its worst. That glorious wheel window in the +north transept--whose upper wall has indeed more glass than stone in +it--could not well be more beautiful, and the rose window over the +organ is beautiful too. But for the rest, the glass is either too +pretty, as in the case of the window over the altar, so lovely in +shape, or utterly trumpery. + +The last time I was in Notre Dame I followed a wedding party through +the main and usually locked door, but although I was the first after +the bride and her father, I was not quick enough to set foot on the +ceremonial carpet, which a prudent verger rolled up literally upon +their heels. It was a fortunate moment on which to arrive, for it +meant a vista of the nave from the open air right up the central +aisle, and that, except in very hot weather, is rare, and probably +very rare indeed when the altar is fully lighted. + +The secret of Notre Dame, both within and without, is to be divined +only by loitering in it with a mind at rest. To enter intent upon +seeing it is useless. Outside, one can walk round it for ever and +still be surprised by the splendid vagaries, humours and resource of +its stone; while within, one can, by making oneself plastic, gradually +but surely attain to some of the adoration that was felt for this +sanctuary by Quasimodo himself. Let us sit down on one of these chairs +in the gloom and meditate on some of the scenes which its stones have +witnessed. + +While it was yet building Raymond VII., Count of Toulouse, was +scourged before the principal doorway for heresy, on a spot where the +pillory long stood. That was in 1229. In 1248 St. Louis, on his way to +the Holy Land, visited Notre Dame to receive his pilgrim's staff and +scrip from the Bishop. In 1270 the body of St. Louis lay in state +under this roof before it was carried to St. Denis for burial. Henry +VI. of England was crowned here as King of France--the first and last +English king to receive that honour. One Sunday in 1490, while Mass +was being celebrated, a man called Jean l'Anglais (as we should now +say, John Bull) snatched the Host from the priest's hand and profaned +it: for which crime he was burnt. In 1572 Henri IV. (then Henri of +Navarre) was married to Marguerite de Valois, but being a Protestant +he was not allowed within the church, and the ceremony was therefore +performed just outside. When, however, he entered Paris triumphantly +as a conqueror and a Catholic in 1594, he heard Mass and assisted at +the Te Deum in Notre Dame like a true Frenchman and ironist. In 1611 +his funeral service was celebrated here. + +Some very ugly events are in store for us; let something pretty +intervene. On February 9th, 1779 (in the narrative of Louise de +Grandpre, to whom the study of Notre Dame has been a veritable +passion), a large crowd pressed towards the cathedral; the ground was +strewed with fresh grass and flowers and leaves; the pillars were +decorated with many coloured banners. In the choir the vestments of +the saints were displayed: the burning tapers lit up the interior +with a dazzling brightness: the organ filled the church with joyful +harmony, and the bells rang out with all their might. The whole court +was present, the King himself assisting at the ceremony, and the +galleries were full to overflowing of ladies of distinction in the +gayest of dresses. + +Then slowly, through the door of St. Anne, entered a hundred young +girls dressed in white, covered with long veils and with orange +blossom on their heads. These were the hundred poor girls whom Louis +XVI. had dowered in memory of the birth of Marie-Therese-Charlotte of +France, afterwards Duchess of Angouleme, and it was his wish to assist +personally at their wedding and to seal their marriage licences with +his sword, which was ornamented on the handle or pommel with the +"fleur de lys". + +Through the door of the Virgin entered at the same time one hundred +young men, having each a sprig of orange blossom in his button-hole. +The two rows advanced together with measured steps, preceded by two +Swiss, who struck the pavement heavily with their halberds. They +advanced as far as the chancel rails, where each young man gave his +hand to a young girl, his fiancee, and marched slowly before the King, +bowing to him and receiving a bow in return. They were then married by +the Archbishop in person. + +A very charming incident, don't you think? Such a royal gift, adds +Louise de Grandpre, would be very welcome to-day, when there are so +many girls unmarried, for the want of a dot. Every rich young girl +who is married ought to include in her corbeille de noces the dot of +some poor girl. All women, remarks Louise de Grandpre, have a right to +this element of love, which is sanctified by marriage, honoured by men +and blessed by God. Christian marriage, says Louise de Grandpre, is a +nursery not only of good Catholics but still more of good citizens. It +is much to be wished, she concludes, that obstacles could be removed, +because one deplores the depopulation of France. + + [Illustration: SAINTE ANNE, LA VIERGE, ET L'ENFANT JESUS + LEONARDO DA VINCI + (_Louvre_)] + +The most fantastic and discreditable episode in the history of Notre +Dame occurred one hundred and fifteen years ago, when the Convention +decreed the Cult of Reason, and Notre Dame became its Temple. A ballet +dancer was throned on the high altar, Our Lady of Paris was taken +down, and statues of Voltaire and Rousseau stepped into the niches of +the saints. Carlyle was never more wonderful than in the three or four +pages that describe this cataclysm. He begins with the revolt of the +Curate Parens, followed by Bishop Gobel of Paris clamouring for an +honest calling since there was no religion but Liberty. + +"The French nation," Carlyle writes, "is of gregarious imitative +nature; it needed but a fugle-motion in this matter; and Goose Gobel, +driven by Municipality and force of circumstances, has given one. What +Cure will be behind him of Boissise; what Bishop behind him of Paris? +Bishop Gregoire, indeed, courageously declines; to the sound of 'We +force no one; let Gregoire consult his conscience'; but Protestant +and Romish by the hundred volunteer and assent. From far and near, all +through November into December, till the work is accomplished, come +letters of renegation, come Curates who 'are learning to be +Carpenters,' Curates with their new-wedded Nuns: has not the day of +Reason dawned, very swiftly, and become noon? From sequestered +Townships come Addresses, stating plainly, though in Patois dialect, +that 'they will have no more to do with the black animal called Curay, +_animal noir appele Curay_.' + +"Above all things, there come Patriotic Gifts, of Church-furniture. +The remnant of bells, except for tocsin, descend from their belfries, +into the National melting-pot to make cannon. Censers and all sacred +vessels are beaten broad; of silver, they are fit for the +poverty-stricken Mint; of pewter, let them become bullets, to shoot +the 'enemies _du genre humain_'. Dalmatics of plush make breeches for +him who had none; linen albs will clip into shirts for the Defenders +of the Country: old-clothesmen, Jew or Heathen, drive the briskest +trade. Chalier's Ass-Procession, at Lyons, was but a type of what went +on, in those same days, in all Towns. In all Towns and Townships as +quick as the guillotine may go, so quick goes the axe and the wrench: +sacristies, lutrins, altar-rails are pulled down; the Mass-Books torn +into cartridge-papers: men dance the Carmagnole all night about the +bonfire. All highways jingle with metallic Priest-tackle, beaten +broad; sent to the Convention, to the poverty-stricken Mint. Good +Sainte Genevieve's _Chasse_ is let down: alas, to be burst open, this +time, and burnt on the Place de Greve. Saint Louis's Shirt is +burnt;--might not a Defender of the Country have had it?... + +"For the same day, while this brave Carmagnole-dance has hardly jigged +itself out, there arrive Procureur Chaumette and Municipals and +Departmentals, and with them the strangest freightage: a New Religion! +Demoiselle Candeille, of the Opera; a woman fair to look upon, when +well rouged; she, borne on palanquin shoulder-high; with red woollen +nightcap; in azure mantle; garlanded with oak; holding in her hand the +Pike of the Jupiter-_Peuple_, sails in: heralded by white young women +girt in tricolor. Let the world consider it! This, O National +Convention wonder of the universe, is our New Divinity; _Goddess of +Reason_, worthy, and alone worthy of revering. Her henceforth we +adore. Nay were it too much to ask of an august National +Representation that it also went with us to the _ci-devant_ Cathedral +called of Notre-Dame, and executed a few strophes in worship of her? + +"President and Secretaries give Goddess Candeille, borne at due height +round their platform, successively the Fraternal kiss; whereupon she, +by decree, sails to the right-hand of the President and there alights. +And now, after due pause and flourishes of oratory, the Convention, +gathering its limbs, does get under way in the required procession +towards Notre-Dame;--Reason, again in her litter, sitting in the van +of them, borne, as one judges, by men in the Roman costume; escorted +by wind-music, red nightcaps, and the madness of the world.... + +"'The corresponding Festival in the Church of Saint-Eustache,' says +Mercier, 'offered the spectacle of a great tavern. The interior of the +choir represented a landscape decorated with cottages and boskets of +trees. Round the choir stood tables overloaded with bottles, with +sausages, pork-puddings, pastries and other meats. The guests flowed +in and out through all doors: whosoever presented himself took part of +the good things: children of eight, girls as well as boys, put hand to +plate, in sign of Liberty; they drank also of the bottles, and their +prompt intoxication created laughter. Reason sat in azure mantle +aloft, in a serene manner; Cannoneers, pipe in mouth, serving her as +acolytes. And out of doors,' continues the exaggerative man, 'were mad +multitudes dancing round the bonfire of Chapel-balustrades, of +Priests' and Canons' stalls; and the dancers,--I exaggerate +nothing,--the dancers nigh bare of breeches, neck and breast naked, +stockings down, went whirling and spinning, like those Dust-vortexes, +forerunners of Tempest and Destruction.' At Saint-Gervais Church, +again, there was a terrible 'smell of herrings'; Section or +Municipality having provided no food, no condiment, but left it to +chance. Other mysteries, seemingly of a Cabiric or even Paphian +character, we leave under the Veil, which appropriately stretches +itself 'along the pillars of the aisles,'--not to be lifted aside by +the hand of History. + + [Illustration: THE ILE DE LA CITE FROM THE PONT DES ARTS + TOUR ST. JACQUES + CONCIERGERIE + STE. CHAPELLE + NOTRE DAME] + +"But there is one thing we should like almost better to understand +than any other: what Reason herself thought of it, all the while. What +articulate words poor Mrs. Momoro, for example, uttered; when she had +become ungoddessed again, and the Bibliopolist and she sat quiet at +home, at supper? For he was an earnest man, Bookseller Momoro; and had +notions of Agrarian Law. Mrs. Momoro, it is admitted, made one of the +best Goddesses of Reason; though her teeth were a little +defective.--And now if the Reader will represent to himself that such +visible Adoration of Reason went on 'all over the Republic,' through +these November and December weeks, till the Church woodwork was +burnt out, and the business otherwise completed, he will perhaps feel +sufficiently what an adoring Republic it was, and without reluctance +quit this part of the subject." + +I quote in the following pages freely from Carlyle, because the +Revolution is the most important event in the history of Paris and so +horribly recent (you may still see the traces of Bonaparte's whiff of +grape-shot on the facade of St. Roch), and also because when there is +such an historian to borrow from direct, paraphrase becomes a crime. +None the less, I feel it my duty to say that the attitude of this +self-protective contemptuous superior Scotchman towards the excitable +French and their hot-headed efforts for freedom often enrages me as +much as his vivid narrative fascinates and moves. + +In 1794, when the New Religion had died down, the Church became a +store for wine confiscated from the Royalists. In the year following, +after the whiff of grape-shot, the old religion was re-established. A +strange interregnum! How long ago was this?--only one hundred and +fifteen years--not four generations. Could it happen again? Will +it?... + +These revolutionaries, it may be remarked, were not the only +licentious rioters that Notre Dame had known, for in its early days it +was the scene every year of the Fete des Fous, an orgy of gluttony and +conviviality, in which, however, one who was a true believer on all +other days might partake. + +After these lurid saturnalia it is pleasant again to dip into the +gentle pages of Louise de Grandpre, where, among other legends of +Notre Dame, is the pretty story of a statue of the Virgin--now known +as the Virgin with the bird. In the Rue Chanoinesse there lived a +young woman, very devout, who came every day to pray. She brought with +her her son, a little fellow, very wide-awake and full of spirits: his +mother had taught him to say his prayers. Cyril would close his little +hands to say his "Ave Maria," and he would throw a kiss to the little +Jesus, his dear friend, complaining sometimes to his mother that the +little Jesus would not play with him. "You are not good enough yet," +said his mother; "Jesus plays only with the little children in +Paradise." + +A very severe winter fell and the young mother fell ill and no longer +came to church. Cyril never saw the little Jesus now, but he often +thought of him as he played at the foot of his mother's bed. On one of +those days when the sky was dull and leaden and the air heavy and +depressing, and the poor woman was rather worse and more hopeless than +usual, she became so weak they thought each moment would be her last. + +Cyril could not understand why his mother no longer smiled at him or +stroked his hair or called him to her. With his little heart almost +bursting and his eyes full of tears, he said, "I will go and tell the +little Jesus of my trouble." + +While they were attending to the poor mother the child disappeared. He +ran as fast as his little legs would carry him and entered the +cathedral by the cloister door, crossed the transept, and was soon at +the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary, where he was accustomed to +say his prayers with his mother. "Little Jesus," said he, "Thou art +very happy, Thou hast Thy Mother; mine, who was so good, is always +asleep now and I am alone. Little Jesus, wake my mother up, and I will +give you my best toys, morning and evening I will send you the +sweetest kiss and say my best prayer. And look, to begin with, I have +brought you my favourite bird: he is tame and will eat the golden +crumbs of Paradise out of your hand." At the same time he stretched +out his little closed hand towards Jesus. + +The divine child stretched out His hand and Cyril let his beloved +little bird escape. The bird, who had a lovely coloured plumage, flew +straight to the hand of the Infant Christ and has remained there to +this day. The Virgin smiled on the child, and her white stone robe at +that moment became the same colour as the bird's plumage. + +Cyril, with his heart very full, got up to go out, but before leaving +the church turned round to have one more look at his little bird he +loved so dearly: he was struck with delight and astonishment when he +heard the favoured bird singing one of its sweetest songs in honour of +the Virgin and her Child. + +When Cyril returned to his home he went into his mother's room without +making the least noise to see if she was still asleep. The young +mother was sitting upright in her bed, her head, still very bad, +resting on a pillow, but her wide-open eyes were looking for her +little one. + +"I was quite sure the little Jesus would wake you up," said Cyril, +climbing on to her bed. "I took Him my bird this morning to take care +of for me in the Garden of Paradise." + +Life once more returned to the poor woman and she kissed her boy. + +When you next go to Notre Dame, Louise de Grandpre adds, be sure to +visit the Vierge a l'oiseau, who always hears the prayers of the +little ones. + +It was in 1804 that Notre Dame enjoyed one of its most magnificent +moments--at the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine Beauharnais. The +Duchess d'Abrantes wrote an account of the ceremony which, in French, +is both picturesque and rapturous. "The pope was the first to arrive. +At the moment of his entering the cathedral, the clergy intoned Tu es +Petrus, and this solemn chant made a deep impression on all. Pius the +VII. advanced to the end of the cathedral with a majestic yet humble +grace.... The moment when all eyes were most drawn to the Altar steps +was when Josephine received the crown from the Emperor and was +solemnly consecrated by him Empress of the French. When it was time +for her to take an active part in the great ceremony, the Empress +descended from the throne and advanced towards the altar, where the +Emperor awaited her.... + +"I saw," the Duchess continues, "all that I have just told you, with +the eyes of Napoleon. He was radiant with joy as he watched the +Empress advancing towards him; and when she knelt ... and the tears +she could not restrain fell upon her clasped hands, raised more +towards him than towards God: at this moment, when Napoleon, or rather +Bonaparte, was for her her true providence, at this instant there was +between these two beings one of those fleeting moments of life, +unique, which fill up the void of years. + +"The Emperor invested with perfect grace every action of the ceremony +he had to perform: above all, at the moment of crowning the Empress. +This was to be done by the Emperor himself, who after receiving the +little closed crown surmounted by a cross, had to place it on his own +head first, and then place it on the Empress's head. He did this in +such a slow, gracious and courtly manner that it was noticed by all. +But at the supreme moment of crowning her who was to him his lucky +star, he was almost coquettish, if I may use the term. He placed the +little crown, which surmounted the diadem of brilliants, on her head, +first putting it on, then taking it off and putting it on again, as if +assuring himself that it should rest lightly and softly on her. + +"But Napoleon," the Duchess concludes, "when it came to his own crown, +hastily took it from the Pope's hands and placed it haughtily on his +own head--a proceeding which doubtless startled his Holiness." + +Ten years pass and we find Louis XVIII. and his family attending Mass +at the same altar. Twenty-six years later, in 1840, a service was held +to commemorate the restoration of the ashes of the Emperor to French +soil, and in 1853 Napoleon III. and Eugenie de Montijo were married +here, under circumstances of extraordinary splendour. And then we come +to plunder and lawlessness again. On Good Friday, 1871, while Pere +Olivier was preaching, a company of Communards entered and from +thenceforward for a while the cathedral was occupied by the soldiers. +For some labyrinthine reason the destruction of Notre Dame by fire was +decided upon, and a huge pile of chairs and other material soaked in +petrol was erected (this was only thirty-eight years ago), and no +doubt the building would have been seriously injured, if not +destroyed, had not the medical students from the Hotel Dieu, close by, +rushed in and saved it. + + [Illustration: LA PENSEE + RODIN + _(Luxembourg)_] + +Among the preachers of Notre Dame was St. Dominic, to whom in the +pulpit the Virgin appeared, bringing with her his sermon all to his +hand in an effulgent volume; here also preached Pere Hyacinthe, but +with less direct assistance. + +That the Treasury is an object of interest to English-speaking +visitors is proved by the notice at the door: "The Persons who desire +to visit the Tresor are kindly requested to wait the guide here for a +few minutes, himself charged of the visit"; but I see no good reason +why any one should enter it. Those, however, that do will see vessels +of gold, much paraphernalia of ecclesiastical pride and pomp, and +certain holy relics. The crown of thorns is here, given to St. Louis +by the King of Constantinople and carried to Notre Dame, on the 18th +of August, 1239, by the barefoot king. Here also are pieces of the +Cross, for the protection of which St. Louis built Sainte Chapelle, +the relics afterwards being transferred to Notre Dame; and here is a +nail from the Cross--one of the nails of which even an otherwise +sceptical Catholic can be sure, because it was given to Charlemagne by +Constantine. Charlemagne gave it to Aix la Chapelle, Charles the Bold +brought it from Aix to St. Denis, and from St. Denis it came to Notre +Dame, where it is enclosed in a crystal case. + +The menace of 397 spiral steps in a narrow, dark and almost airless +turret, is no light matter, but it is essential to see Paris from the +summit of Notre Dame. That view is the key to the city, and the +traveller who means to study this city as it deserves, penetrating +into the past as industriously and joyously as into the present, must +begin here. He will see it all beneath him and around him in its +varying ages, and he will be able to proceed methodically and +intelligently. Immediately below is the Parvis, the scene of the +interrupted execution of Esmeralda, and it was from one of the +galleries below that Quasimodo slung himself down to her rescue. Here, +where we are now standing, she must often have stood, looking for her +faithless Phoebus. Only one of the bells that Quasimodo rang is +still in the tower. + +Hugo draws attention to the shape of the island, like that of a ship +moored to the mainland by various bridges, and he suggests that the +ship on the Paris scutcheon (the ship that is to be seen in the design +of the lamps around the Opera) is derived from this resemblance. It +may be so. On each side of us, north and south, are the oldest parts +of Paris that still stand; in the north the Marais, behind the Tour +Saint-Jacques, and in the south the district between the Rue de Bievre +and the Boulevard St. Michel. On the south side of the river lived the +students, clerics and professors--Dante himself among them, in this +very Rue de Bievre, as we shall see; while in the Marais, as we shall +also see, dwelt the nobility. West of St. Eustache in the Middle Ages +was nothing but waste ground and woodland, a kind of Bois, at the edge +of which, where the Louvre now spreads itself, was a royal hunting +lodge, the germ of the present vast palace. + +When the Marais passed out of favour, the aristocracy crossed the +river to the St. Germain quarter, which clusters around the twin +spires of St. Clotilde that now rise in the south-west. And then the +Rue Saint-Honore and the Grands Boulevards were built, and so the city +grew and changed until the two culminating touches were put to it: by +M. Eiffel, who built the tower, and M. Abadie, architect of the +beautiful and unreal Basilique du Sacre-Coeur that crowns the heights +of Montmartre. + +The chief eminences that one sees are, near at hand, the needle-spire +of Sainte Chapelle, in the north the grey mass of St. Eustache, the +Chatelet Theatre (advertising at this moment "Les Pilules du Diable" +in enormous letters), the long roofs of the Halles, and the outline of +the medieval Tour Saint-Jacques. Farther west the bulky Opera; then, +right in front, the Trocadero's twin towers, with Mont Valerien +looming up immediately between them; and so round to the south--to the +Invalides and St. Clotilde, the Pantheon and the heights of Genevieve. +A wonderful panorama. + +Of all the views of Paris I think that from Notre Dame is the most +interesting, because the point is most central; but the views from +Montmartre, from the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Pantheon and the Arc de +Triomphe should be studied too. The Eiffel Tower has dwarfed all those +eminences; they lie far below it, mere ant-hills in the landscape, +although they seem high enough when one essays their steps; yet, +although it makes them so lowly, these older coigns of vantage should +not for a moment be considered as superseded, for each does for its +immediate vicinage what the Eiffel giant can never do. From the Arc de +Triomphe, for example, you command all the luxurious activity of the +Avenue du Bois de Boulogne and the wonderful prospect of the Champs +Elysees, ending with the Louvre; and from the Pantheon you may examine +the roofs of the Latin Quarter and see the children at play in the +gardens of the Luxembourg. + +The merit of the Eiffel Tower is that he shows you not only Paris to +the ultimate edges in every direction save on the northern slopes of +Montmartre, but he shows you (almost) France too. How long the Eiffel +Tower is to stand I cannot say, but I for one shall feel sorry and +bereft when he ceases to straddle over Paris. For though he is vulgar +he is great, and he has come to be a symbol. When he goes, he will +make a strange rent in the sky. This year (1909) is his twentieth: he +and I first came to Paris at the same time; but his life is serene +to-day compared with what it was in his infancy. At that time his +platforms were congested from morn to dusk; but few visitors now +ascend even to the first stage and hardly any to the top. No visitor, +however, who wants to synthesise Paris should omit this adventure. +Only in a balloon can one get a better view, but in no balloon adrift +from this green earth would I, for one, ever trust myself, although I +must confess that the procession of those aerial monsters that floated +serenely past the Eiffel Tower on the last occasion that I climbed it, +suggested nothing but content and security. They rose one by one from +the bosky depths of the Bois, five miles away, gradually disentangled +themselves from the surrounding verdure, assumed their independent +buoyant rotundity and came straight to my waiting eye. In an hour I +counted fifteen, and by the time the last was free of the earth the +first was away over Vincennes, with the afternoon sun turning its +mud-coloured silk to burnished gold. Paris has always one balloon +floating above her, but fifteen is exceptional. + +Notre Dame remains, however, the most important height to scale, for +Notre Dame is interesting in every particular, it is soaked in history +and mystery. Notre Dame is alone in the possession of its +devils--those strange stone fantasies that Meryon discovered. Although +every effort is made to familiarise us with them--although they sit +docilely as paper-weights on our tables--nothing can lessen the +monstrous diablerie of these figures, which look down on Paris with +such greed and cruelty, cunning and cynicism. The best known, the most +saturnine, of all, who leans on the parapet exactly by the door at the +head of the steps, fixes his inhuman gaze on the dome of the +Invalides. Is it to be wondered at that he wears that expression? + +A small family dwells in a room just behind this chimera, subsisting +by the sale of picture-postcards. It is a strange abode, and an +imaginative child would have a good start in life there. To him at any +rate the demons no doubt would soon lose their terrors and become as +friendly as the heavenly host that are posed so radiantly and +confidently on the ascent to the fleche--perhaps even more so. But to +the stranger they must remain cruel and horrible, creating a sense of +disquietude and alarm that it is surely the business of a cathedral to +allay. Curious anomaly! Let us descend. + +Before leaving the Ile de la Cite, the Rue Chanoinesse, to the north +of Notre Dame, leading out of the Rue d'Arcole (near a blackguard +pottery shop), should be looked at. The cloisters of Notre Dame once +extended to this street and covered the ground between it and the +cathedral. The canons, or chanoines, lived here, and there are still a +few attractive old houses; but the rebuilder is very busy just now. At +No. 10, Fulbert, the uncle of Heloise, is said to have lived; at No. +18 was the Tour Dagobert, a fifteenth-century building, by climbing +which one had an excellent view of Notre Dame, but in the past year it +has been demolished and business premises cover its site. At No. 26 +are (or were) the ruins of the twelfth-century chapel of St. Aignan, +where the faithful, evicted from Notre Dame by the Reign of Reason, +celebrated Mass in secret. Saint Bernard has preached here. The +adjacent streets--the Rue de Colombe, Rue Massillon, Rue des Ursins +and Rue du Cloitre-Notre-Dame--have also very old houses. + + [Illustration: BALTHASAR CASTIGLIONE + RAPHAEL + _(Louvre)_] + +For the best view of the exterior of Notre Dame one must take the Quai +de l'Archeveche, from which all its intricacies of masonry may be +studied--its buttresses solid and flying, its dependences, its massive +bulk, its grace and strength. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ST. LOUIS AND HIS ISLAND + + The Morgue--The Ile St. Louis--Old Residents--St. Louis, the + King--The Golden Legend--Religious Intolerance--Posthumous + Miracles--Statue of Barye--The Quai des Celestins. + + +On the way from Notre Dame to the Ile St. Louis we pass a small +official-looking building at the extreme east end of the Ile de la +Cite. It is the Morgue. + +But the Morgue is now closed to idle gazers, and you win your way to a +sight of that melancholy slab with the weary bodies on it and the +little jet of water playing on each, only by the extreme course of +having missed a relation whom you suspected of designs upon his own +life or whom you imagine has been the victim of foul play. No doubt +the authorities were well advised (as French municipal authorities +nearly always are) in closing the Morgue; but I think I regret it. The +impulse to drift into that low and sinister building behind Notre Dame +was partly morbid, no doubt; but the ordinary man sees not only too +little death, but is too seldom in the presence of such failure as for +the most part governs here: so that the opportunity it gave was good. + +I still recall very vividly, in spite of all the millions of living +faces that should, one feels, have blurred one's prosperous vision, +several of the dead faces that lay behind the glass of this forlorn +side-show of the great entertainment which we call Paris. An old man +with a white imperial; more than one woman of that dreadful middle-age +which the Seine has so often terminated; a young man who had been +stabbed.... Well, the Morgue is closed to the public now, and very +likely no one who reads this book will ever enter it. + +The Ile St. Louis, to put it bluntly, is just as commonplace as the +Ile de la Cite is imposing. It has a monotony very rare in the older +parts of Paris: it is all white houses that have become dingy: houses +that once were attractive and wealthy and are now squalid. One of the +largest of the old palaces is to-day a garage; there is not a single +house now occupied by the kind of tenant for which it was intended. +Such declensions are always rather melancholy, even when--as, for +example, at Villeneuve, near Avignon--there is the beauty of decay +too. But on the Ile St. Louis there is no beauty: it belongs to a dull +period of architecture and is now duller for its dirt. Standing on the +Quai d'Orleans, however, one catches Notre Dame against the evening +sky, across the river, as nowhere else, and it is necessary to seek +the Ile if only to appreciate the fitness of the Morgue's position. + +The island was first called L'Ile Notre Dame, and was uninhabited +until 1614. It was then developed and joined to the Ile de la Cite and +the mainland by bridges. The chief street is the Rue St. Louis, at +No. 3 in which lived Fenelon. The church of St. Louis is interesting +for a relic of the unfortunate Louise de la Valliere. At No. 17 on the +Quai d'Anjou is the Hotel Lauzun, which the city of Paris has now +acquired, and in which once lived together for a while the authors of +_Mademoiselle de Maupin_ and _Les Fleurs de Mal_. + +Of Saint Louis, or Louis IX., who gives his name to this island, and +whose hand is so visible in the Ile de la Cite, it is right to know +something, for he was the father of Paris. Louis was born in 1215, the +year of Magna Charta, and succeeded to the throne while still a boy. +The early years of his reign were restless by reason of civil strife +and war with England, in which he was victor (at Tailleburg, at +Saintes and at Blaize), and then came his departure for the Holy Land, +with 40,000 men, in fulfilment of a vow made rashly on a sick-bed. The +King was blessed at Notre Dame, as we have seen, and departed in 1248, +leaving his mother Blanche de Castile as regent. But the Crusade was a +failure, and he was glad to return (with only the ghost of his army) +and to settle down for the first time seriously to the cares of his +throne. + +He was a good if prejudiced king: he built wisely and well, not only +Sainte Chapelle, as we have seen, but the Sorbonne; he devised useful +statutes; he established police in Paris; and, more perhaps than all, +he made Frenchmen very proud of France. So much for his administrative +virtues. When we come to his saintliness I would stand aside, for is +he not in _The Golden Legend_? Listen to William Caxton: "He forced +himself to serve his spirit by diverse castigation or chastising, he +used the hair many times next his flesh, and when he left it for cause +of over feebleness of his body, at the instance of his own confessor, +he ordained the said confessor to give to the poor folk, as for +recompensation of every day that he failed of it, forty shillings. He +fasted always the Friday, and namely in time of lent and advent he +abstained him in those days from all manner of fish and from fruits, +and continually travailed and pained his body by watchings, orisons, +and other secret abstinences and disciplines. Humility, beauty of all +virtues, replenished so strong in him, that the more better he waxed, +so, as David, the more he showed himself meek and humble, and more +foul he reputed him before God. + +"For he was accustomed on every Saturday to wash with his own hands, +in a secret place, the feet of some poor folk, and after dried them +with a fair towel, and kissed much humbly and semblably their hands, +distributing or dealing to every one of them a certain sum of silver, +also to seven score poor men which daily came to his court, he +administered meat and drink with his own hands, and were fed +abundantly on the vigils solemn. And on some certain days in the year +to two hundred poor, before that he ate or drank, he with his own +hands administered and served them both of meat and drink. He ever +had, both at his dinner and supper, three ancient poor, which ate nigh +to him, to whom he charitably sent of such meats as were brought +before him, and sometimes the dishes and meats that the poor of our +Lord had touched with their hands, and special the sops of which he +fain ate, made their remnant or relief to be brought before him, to +the end that he should eat it; and yet again to honour and worship the +name of our Lord on the poor folk, he was not ashamed to eat their +relief." + +Qualities have their defects, and such a frame of mind as that can +lead, for all the good motive, to injustice and even cruelty. Christ's +lesson of the Roman coin is forgotten as quickly as any. Louis' +passion for holiness, which became a kind of self-indulgence, led him +into a hard and ugly intolerance and acts of severe oppression against +those whom he styled heretics. His short way with the Jews recalled +indeed those of our own King John, who was very nearly his +contemporary. I know not if he pulled out their teeth, but he once did +what must have been as bad, if not worse, for he published an +ordinance "for the good of his soul," remitting to his Christian +subjects the third of their debts to the Jews; and he also expressed +it as his opinion that "a layman ought not to dispute with an +unbeliever, but strike him with a good sword across the body," the +most practical expression of muscular sectarianism that I know. Louis' +religious fanaticism was, however, his end; for he was so ill-advised +as to undertake a new Crusade against the unbelievers of Morocco, and +there, while laying siege to Tunis, he died of the plague. That was +in 1270, when he was only fifty-five. + + [Illustration: NOTRE DAME: SOUTH FACADE + (FROM THE QUAI DE MONTEBELLO) + STE. CHAPELLE] + +Twenty-seven years later Pope Boniface the Eighth raised him to the +Calendar of Saints, his day being August 25th. But according to _The +Golden Legend_, which I for one implicitly believe (how can one help +it, written as it is?), the posthumous miracles of Louis did not wait +for Rome. They began at once. "On that day that S. Louis was buried," +we there read, "a woman of the diocese of Sens recovered her sight, +which she had lost and saw nothing, by the merits and prayers of the +said debonair and meedful king. Not long after, a young child of +Burgundy both dumb and deaf of kind, coming with others to the +sepulchre or grave of the saint, beseeching him of help, kneeling as +he saw that the others did, and after a little while that he thus +kneeled were his ears opened and heard, and his tongue redressed and +spake well. In the same year a woman blind was led to the said +sepulchre, and by the merits of the saint recovered her sight. Also +that same year two men and five women, beseeching S. Louis of help, +recovered the use of going, which they had lost by divers sickness and +languors. + +"In the year that S. Louis was put or written in the catalogue of the +holy confessors, many miracles worthy to be prized befell in divers +parts of the world at the invocation of him, by his merits and by his +prayers. Another time at Evreux a child fell under the wheel of a +water-mill. Great multitude of people came thither, and supposing to +have kept him from drowning, invoked God, our Lady and his saints to +help the said child, but our Lord willing his saint to be enhanced +among so great multitude of people, was there heard a voice saying +that the said child, named John, should be vowed unto S. Louis. He +then, taken out of the water, was by his mother borne to the grave of +the saint, and after her prayer done to S. Louis, her son began to +sigh and was raised on life." + +We leave the island by the Pont Sully, first looking at the statue of +Barye, the sculptor of Barbizon, many of whose best small bronzes are +in the Louvre (to say nothing of the shops of the dealers in the Rue +Laffitte) and several of his large groups in the public gardens of +Paris, one, for example, being near the Orangery in the Tuileries. +Barye's monument standing here at the east end of the Ile St. Louis +balances Henri IV. at the west end of the Ile de la Cite. + +Crossing to the mainland we ought to look at the old houses on the +Quai des Celestins, particularly the old Hotel de la Valette, now the +College Massillon, into whose courtyard one should boldly peep. At No. +32 we touch very interesting history, for here stood, two and a half +centuries ago, Moliere's Illustre Theatre, the stage entrance to which +may be seen at 15 Rue de l'Ave Marie. + +And now for the Marais. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE MARAIS + + A L32,000,000 Rebuilding Scheme--Romance and Intrigue--The + Temple--The Archives--Illustrious Handwriting--The "Uncle" + of Paris--The Wall of Philip Augustus--Old Palaces now + Rookeries--The Carnavalet--The Perfect + Museum--Latude--Napoleon--Madame de Sevigne--Chained + Streets--John Law--The Rue St. Martin. + + +The Marais is that district of old streets and palaces which is +bounded on the south by the Rue St. Antoine, on the east by the Rue du +Turenne, on the west by the Rue du Temple, and fades away in the north +somewhere below the Rue de Bretagne. The Rue des Francs Bourgeois is +its central highway east and west. + +It was my original intention to devote a large proportion of this book +to this fascinating area--to describe it minutely street by +street--and I have notes for that purpose which would fill half the +volume alone. But the publication of the L32,000,000 scheme for +renovating this and other of the older parts of Paris (one of the +principal points in which is the isolation of the Musee Carnavalet, +which is the heart of the Marais), coming just at that time, acted +like a douche of iced water, and I abandoned the project. Instead +therefore I merely say enough (I hope) to impress on every reader the +desirability, the necessity, of hastening to the Rue des Francs +Bourgeois and its dependencies, and refer them to the two French +writers whom I have found most useful in my own researches--the +Marquis de Rochegude, author of a _Guide Pratique a travers le Vieux +Paris_ (Hachette) and the Vicomte de Villebresme, author of _Ce que +reste du Vieux Paris_ (Flammarion). To these I would add M. Georges +Cain, the director of the Carnavalet, to whom I refer later. + +No matter where one enters the Marais, it offers the same alluring +prospect of narrow streets and high and ancient houses, once the abode +of the nobility and aristocracy, but now rookeries and factories--and, +over all, that sense of thorough insanitation which so often +accompanies architectural charm in France and Italy, and which seems +to matter so little to Latin people. Hence the additional wickedness +of destroying this district. The Municipality, however, having +acquired superfine foreign notions as to public health, will doubtless +have its way. + +Wherever one enters the Marais one finds the traces of splendour, +intrigue and romance; howsoever modern conditions may have robbed them +of their glory, to walk in these streets is, for any one with any +imagination, to recreate Dumas. For the most part one must make one's +own researches, but here and there a tablet may be found, such as that +over the entrance to a narrow and sinister passage at No. 38 Rue des +Francs Bourgeois, which reads thus: "Dans ce passage en sortant de +l'hotel Barbette le Duc Louis d'Orleans frere du Roi Charles VI. fut +assassine par Jean Sans Peur, Duc de Bourgogne, dans la nuit du 23 ou +24 Novembre, 1407". Five hundred years ago! That gives an idea of the +antiseptic properties of the air of Paris. The Duke of Orleans, I +might remark here, was symmetrically avenged, for his son assassinated +Jean Sans Peur on the bridge of Montereau all in due course. + +The Marais was at its prime from the middle of the fifteenth century +to the beginning of the eighteenth; at which period the Faubourg St. +Antoine was abandoned by fashion for the Faubourg St. Germain, as we +shall see when the time comes to wander in the Rue de Varenne and the +Rue de Grenelle on the other side of the river. + +Let us enter the Marais by the Rue du Temple at the Square du Temple, +a little south of the Place de la Republique. One must make a +beginning somewhere. The Temple, which has now disappeared, was the +head-quarters of the Knight Templars of France before their +suppression in 1307: it then became the property of the Order of St. +John of Jerusalem, who held it until the Revolution, when all property +seems to have changed hands. Rousseau found sanctuary here in 1765; +and here Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were imprisoned for a while +in 1792. More tragic by far, it was here that the little Dauphin died. +Napoleon pulled down the Tower: Louis XVIII. on his accession awarded +the property to the Princesse de Conde, and Louis-Philippe, on his, +took it back again. + +The Rue du Temple has many interesting old houses and associations. +Just north of the Square is the church of Elizabeth of Hungary, the +first stone of which was laid in 1628 by a less sainted monarch, Marie +de Medicis. It is worth entering to see its carved wood scenes from +Scripture history. At 193 once lived Madame du Barry; at 153 was, in +the reign of Louis XV., the barreau des vinaigrettes--the vinaigrette +being the forerunner of the cab, a kind of sedan chair and +jinrickshaw; at 62 died Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France, in +the Hotel de Montmorency. + + [Illustration: L'HOMME AU GANT + TITIAN + _(Louvre)_] + +From the Square du Temple we may also walk down the Rue des Archives, +parallel with the Rue du Temple on the east. This street now extends +to the Rue de Rivoli. It is rich in old palaces, some with very +beautiful relics of their grandeur still in existence, such as the +staircase at No. 78. The fountain at the corner of the Rue des +Haudriettes dates only from 1705. At No. 58 is the gateway, restored, +of the old palace of the Constable de Clisson, built in 1371. Later it +belonged to the Guise family and then to the Soubise. The Revolution +made it the property of the State, and Napoleon directed that the +Archives should be preserved here. The entrance is in the Rue des +Francs Bourgeois, across the green court; but do not go on a cold day, +because there is no heating process, owing to the age of the +building and the extraordinary value of the collections. The rooms in +themselves are of some interest for their Louis XV. decoration and +mural paintings, but one goes of course primarily to see the +handwriting of the great. Here is the Edict of Nantes signed by Henri +IV.; a quittance signed by Diana de Poictiers, very boldly; a letter +to Parliament from Louis XI., in his atrocious hand; a codicil added +by Saint Louis to his will on board a vessel on the coast of Sardinia, +exquisitely written. The scriveners have rather gone off than improved +since those days; look at the "Registre des enqueteurs royaux en +Normandie," 1248, for a work of delicate minuteness. Marie Therese, +wife of Louis XIV., wrote an attractive hand, but Louis XIV.'s own +signature is dull. Voltaire is discovered to have written very like +Swinburne. + +Relics of the Revolution abound. Here is Marie Antoinette's last +letter to the Princess Elizabeth, written the night before she was +executed; a letter of Petion, bidding his wife farewell, and of +Barbaroux to his mother, both stained with tears. Here also is the +journal of Louis XVI., 1766-1792, and the order for his inhumation (as +Louis Capet), 21st January, 1793. His will is here too; and so is +Napoleon's. I say no more because the collection is so vast, and also +because a franc buys a most admirable catalogue, with facsimiles, +beginning with the monogram of Charlemagne himself. + +On leaving the Archives we may take an easterly course along the Rue +des Francs Bourgeois, with the idea of making eventually for the +Carnavalet; but it is well to loiter, for this is the very heart of +the Marais. One's feet will always be straying down byways that call +for closer notice, and it is very likely that the Carnavalet will not +be reached till to-morrow after all. Indeed, let "Hasta manana" be +your Marais motto. + +One of the first buildings that one notices is the Mont de Piete, the +chief of the Paris pawnbroking establishments. I am told that the +system is an admirable one; but my own experience is against this +opinion, for I was unable on a day of unexpected stress at the end of +1907 to effect an entrance at the very reasonable hour of a quarter +past five. The closing of the English pawnbrokers at seven--the very +moment at which the ordinary man's financial troubles begin--is +sufficiently uncivilised; but to cease to lend money on excellent gold +watches at five o'clock in the afternoon (with the bank closed on the +morrow, too, being New Year's Day) is a scandal. My adventures in +search of relief among French tradesmen who had been at my feet as +recently as yesterday, before supplies had broken down, I shall never +forget, nor shall I relate them here. This aims at being an agreeable +book. + +It is interesting to note that one of the entrances to the Mont de +Piete is reserved for clients who wish to raise money on deeds, and I +have seen cabmen very busy in bringing to it people who quite +shamelessly hold their papers in their hands. And why on earth not? +And yet your English pawner seldom reaches the Three Brass Balls with +such publicity or by any other medium than his poor feet. Our Mont de +Piete for the respectable is the solicitor's office. A trace of the +wall, and one of its towers, built around Paris by Philip Augustus in +the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, may be seen in the courtyard of +the Mont de Piete; but the wall is better observed in the Rue des +Guillemites, at No. 14. + +All about here once stood a large convent of the Blancs-Manteaux, or +Servants of the Virgin Mary, an order which came into being in +Florence in the thirteenth century and of whom the doctor Benazzi was +the general. After the Blancs-Manteaux came the Hermits of St. +Guillaume, or Guillemites, and later the Benedictines took it over. +Next the Mont de Piete at the back is the church of the +Blancs-Manteaux in its modern form. It is plain and unattractive, but +it wears an air of some purpose, and one feels that it is much used in +this very popular and not too happy quarter. Just opposite, in a +doorway, I watched an old chiffonniere playing with a grey rabbit. +Every inch of this neighbourhood offers priceless material to the hand +of Mr. Muirhead Bone. + +One of the old tavern signs of Paris is to be seen close by, at the +corner of the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux and the Rue des Archives: a +soldier standing by a cannon, representing l'homme arme. It is a +comfortable little retreat and should be encouraged for such +antiquarian piety. + +The pretty turret at the corner of the Rue des Francs Bourgeois and +the Rue Vieille du Temple marks the site of the hotel of Jean de la +Balue. Turning to the left up the Rue Vieille du Temple we come at No. +87 to a very beautiful ancient mansion, with a spacious courtyard, +built in 1712 for the Cardinal de Rohan. It is now the national +printing works: hence the statue of Gutenberg in the midst. Visitors +are allowed to see the house itself once a week, but I have not done +so. You will probably not be interfered with if you just step to the +inside of the second courtyard to see the bas-relief of the steeds of +Apollo. Nos. 102 to 108 in the same street mark the remains of another +fine eighteenth-century hotel. There is also a house which one should +see in the lower part of the street, on the south side of the Francs +Bourgeois--No. 47, where by penetrating boldly one comes to a perfect +little courtyard with some beautiful carvings in it, and, above, a +green garden, tended, when I was there, by a Little Sister of the +Poor. The principal courtyard has a very interesting bas-relief of +Romulus and Remus at their usual meal, and also an old sundial. This +palace was built in 1638. + +Returning to the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, we find at No. 38 the +little impasse already referred to, where the Duc d'Orleans was +assassinated. At No. 30 is a very impressive red-brick palace with a +courtyard, now a nest of offices and factories, once the hotel of Jean +de Fourcy. A bust of Henri IV. has a place there. At No. 25 on the +other side (seen better from the Rue Pavee) is an even more splendid +abode--now also cut up into a rookery--the Hotel de Lamoignon, once +Hotel d'Angouleme, built for Diane, Duchess of Angouleme, daughter of +Henri II.: hence the symbols of the chase in the ornamentation. The +hotel passed to President de Lamoignon in 1655. + +And here is the Carnavalet--the spacious building, with a garden and +modern additions, on the left--once the Hotel des Ligneries, +afterwards the Hotel de Kernevenoy, afterwards the Hotel de Sevigne, +and now the museum of the city of Paris. The only way to understand +Paris is to make repeated visits to this treasure-house. You will find +new entertainment and instruction every time, because every time you +will carry thither impressions of new objects of interest whose past +you will want to explore. For in the Carnavalet every phase of the +life of the city, from the days of the Romans and the Merovingians to +our own, is illustrated in one way or another. The pictures of streets +alone are inexhaustible: the streets that one knows to-day as they +were yesterday and the day before yesterday and hundreds of years ago; +the streets one has just walked through on the way here, in their +stages of evolution: such, for example, as the picture of the wooden +Pont des Meuniers in 1380 with the Tour Saint-Jacques behind it; the +streets with dramas of the Revolution in progress, such as the picture +of the emblems of Royalty being burned before the statue of Liberty +(where the Luxor column now stands) in the Place de la Concorde on +August 10th, 1793; such as the picture of the famous "serment" being +taken in the court of the Jeu de Paume on June 20th, 1789; such as the +picture of the funeral of Marat. For the perfection of topographical +drawing look at the series by F. Hoffbauer. But it is impossible and +needless to particularise. The visitor with a topographical or +historical bent will find himself in a paradise and will return and +return. One visit is ridiculous. + +The catalogue, I may say, is not good, therein falling into line with +the sculpture catalogue at the Louvre. Everything may be in it, but +the arrangement is poor. In such a museum every article and every +picture should of course have a description attached, if only for the +benefit of the poor visitor, the humblest citizen of Paris whose +museum it is. + +There are a few works of art here too, as well as topographical +drawings. Georges Michel, for example, who looked on landscape much as +Meryon looked on architecture and preferred a threatening sky to a +sunny one, has a prospect from the Plaine St. Denis. Vollon paints the +Moulin de la Galette on Montmartre as it was in 1865; Troyon spreads +out St. Cloud. Here also are a charming portrait by Chardin of his +second wife; the well-known picture of David's Life School; drawings +by Watteau; an adorable unsigned "Marchand de Lingerie"; an enchanting +leg on a blue pillow by Boucher; a portrait by Prud'hon of an +unknown man, very striking; and some exquisite work by Louis Boilly. + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT DE JEUNE HOMME + ATTRIBUTED TO BIGIO + _(Louvre)_] + +The Musee is strong in Henri IV. and the later Louis, but it is of +course in relics of the Revolution and Napoleon that the interest +centres. A casquette of Liberty; the handle of Marat's bathroom; a +portrait of "La Veuve Capet" in the Conciergerie, in the room that we +have seen; a painted life-mask of Voltaire, very horrible, and the +armchair in which he died; a copy of the constitution of 1793 bound in +the skin of a man; Marat's snuff-box; Madame Roland as a sweet and +happy child,--these I remember in particular. + +Latude is, however, the popular figure--Latude the prisoner of the +Bastille who escaped by means of implements which he made secretly and +which are now preserved here, near a portrait of the enfranchised +gentleman, robust, portly and triumphant, pointing with one hand to +his late prison while the other grasps the rope ladder. Latude's +history is an odd one. He was born in 1725, the natural son of a poor +girl: after accompanying the army in Languedoc as a surgeon, or +surgeon's assistant, he reached Paris in 1748 and proceeded to starve. +In despair he hit upon an ingenious trick, which wanted nothing but +success to have made him. He prepared an infernal machine of +infinitesimal aptitude--a contrivance of practically harmless but +perhaps somewhat alarming explosives--and this he sent anonymously to +the Marquise de Pompadour, and then immediately after waited upon her +in person at Versailles to say that he had overheard some men plotting +to destroy her by means of this kind of a bomb, and he had come +post-haste to warn her and save her life. It was a good story, but +Latude seems to have lacked some necessary gifts as an impostor, for +his own share was detected and he was thrown into the Bastille on the +1st of May, 1749. A few weeks later he was transferred to the prison +at Vincennes, from which he escaped in 1750. A month later he was +retaken and again placed in the Bastille, from which he escaped six +years later. He got away to Holland, but was quickly recaptured; and +then again he escaped, after nine more years. He was then treated as a +lunatic and put into confinement at Charenton, but was discharged in +1777. His liberty, however, seems to have been of little use to him, +and he rapidly qualified for gaol again by breaking into a house and +threatening its owner, a woman, with a pistol, and he was imprisoned +once more. Altogether he was under lock and key for the greater part +of thirty-five years; but once he was free in 1784 he kept his head, +and not only remained free but became a popular hero, and did not a +little, by reason of a heightened account of his sufferings under +despotic prison rule, to inflame the revolutionaries. These memoirs, +by the way, in the preparation of which he was assisted by an advocate +named Thiery, were for the most part untruthful, and not least so in +those passages in which Latude described his own innocence and +ideals. Our own canonised prison-breaker, Jack Sheppard, was a better +hero than this man. + +The little room devoted to Napoleon is filled with an intimate +melancholy. Many personal relics are here--even to a toothbrush dipped +in a red powder. His necessaires de campagne so compactly arranged +illustrate the minute orderliness of his mind, and the workmanship of +the travelling cases that hold them proves once again his thoroughness +and taste. Everything had to be right. One of his maps of la campagne +de Prusse is here; others we shall see at the Invalides. + +The relics of Madame de Sevigne, who once lived in this beautiful +house, are not very numerous; but they exercise their spell. Her salon +is very much as she left it, except that the private staircase has +disappeared and a china closet takes its place. Within these walls +have La Rochefoucauld and Bossuet conversed; here she sat, pen in +hand, writing her immortal letters. "Lisons tout Madame de Sevigne" +was the advice of Sainte-Beuve, while her most illustrious English +admirer, Edward FitzGerald, often quotes her. He came to her late, not +till 1875, but she never loosened her hold. "I have this Summer," he +wrote to Mrs. W. H. Thompson, "made the Acquaintance of a great Lady, +with whom I have become perfectly intimate, through her Letters, +Madame de Sevigne. I had hitherto kept aloof from her, because of that +eternal Daughter of hers; but 'it's all Truth and Daylight,' as Kitty +Clive said of Mrs. Siddons. Her Letters from Brittany are best of all, +not those from Paris, for she loved the Country, dear Creature; and +now I want to go and visit her 'Rochers,' but never shall." "I +sometimes lament," he says (to Mrs. Cowell), "I did not know her +before; but perhaps such an acquaintance comes in best to cheer one +toward the end." With these pleasant praises in our ears let us leave +the Carnavalet. + +The Rue de Sevigne itself has many interesting houses, notably on the +south side of the Rue des Francs Bourgeois; No. 11, for example, was +once a theatre, built by Beaumarchais in 1790. That is nothing; the +interesting thing is that he built it of material from the destroyed +Bastille and the destroyed church of St. Paul. The fire station close +by was once the Hotel de Perron de Quincy. It was in this street, on +the day of the Fete Dieu in 1392, that the Constable de Clisson, whose +house we saw in the Rue des Archives, was attacked by Pierre de Craon. + +The Rue des Francs Bourgeois is the highway of the Marais, and the +Carnavalet is its greatest possession; but, as I have said, the Marais +is inexhaustible in architectural and historical riches. We may work +our way through it, back to the Rue du Temple by any of these ancient +streets; all will repay. The Rue du Temple extends to the Rue de +Rivoli, striking it just by the Hotel de Ville, but the lower portion, +south of the Rue Rambuteau, is not so interesting as the upper. There +is, however, to the west of it, just north of the Rue de Rivoli, a +system of old streets hardly less picturesque (and sometimes even +more so) than the Marais proper, in the centre of which is the church +of St. Merry, with one of the most wonderful west fronts anywhere--a +mass of rich and eccentric decoration. The Saint himself was Abbot of +Autun. He came to Paris in the seventh century to visit the shrines of +St. Denis and St. Germain. At that time the district which we are now +traversing was chiefly forest, in which the kings of France would +hunt, leaving their palace in the Ile de la Cite and crossing the +river to this wild district--wild though so near. St. Merry +established himself in his simple way near a little chapel in the +woods, dedicated to St. Peter, that stood on this spot, and there he +died. After his death his tomb in the chapel performed such miracles +that St. Peter was forgotten and St. Merry was exalted, and when the +time came to rebuild, St. Merry ousted St. Peter altogether. + + [Illustration: THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L'ETOILE + (APPROACHING FROM THE AVENUE DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE)] + +St. Merry's florid west front is in the Rue St. Martin, once the Roman +road from Paris to the north and to England, and by the Rue St. Martin +we may leave this district; but between it and the Rue du Temple there +is much to see--such as, for example, the Rue Verrerie, south of St. +Merry's, the head-quarters of the ancient glassworkers; the Rue +Brisemiche, quite one of the best of the old narrow Paris streets, +with iron staples and hooks still in the walls at Nos. 20, 23, 26 and +29, to which chains could be fastened so as to turn a street into an +impasse during times of stress and thus be sure of your man; the Rue +Taillepin, also leading out of the Rue du Cloitre St. Merry into the +Rue St. Merri, which has some fine old houses of its own, notably No. +36 and the quaint Impasse du Boeuf at No. 10. + +Parallel with the Rue St. Merry farther north is the Rue de Venise, +which the Vicomte de Villebresme boldly calls the most picturesque in +old Paris. Now a very low quarter, it was once literally the Lombard +Street of Paris, the chief abode of Lombardy moneylenders, while the +long and beautiful Rue Quincampoix, into which it runs on the west, +was also a financial centre, containing no less an establishment than +the famous Banque of John Law, the Scotchman who for a while early in +the eighteenth century controlled French finance. When Law had matured +his Mississippi scheme, he made the Rue Quincampoix his head-quarters, +and houses in it, we read, that had been let for L40 a year now +yielded L800 a month. In the winter of 1719-20 Paris was filled with +speculators besieging Law's offices for shares. But by May the crash +had come and Law had to fly. Many a house in the Rue Quincampoix, +which is now sufficiently innocent of high finance, dates from the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is a fine doorway at No. 34. + +We may regain the Rue St. Martin, just to the east, by the Rue des +Lombards, which brings us to the flamboyant front of St. Merry's once +more. The Rue St. Martin, which confesses its Roman origin in its +straightness, is still busy with traffic, but neither itself nor the +Rue St. Denis, two or three hundred yards to the west, is one-tenth +as busy as it was before the Boulevard Sebastopol was cut between them +to do all the real work. It is a fine thoroughfare and no doubt of the +highest use, but what beautiful narrow streets of old houses it must +have destroyed! We may note in the Rue St. Martin the pretty fountain +at No. 122, and the curious old house at No. 164, and leave it at the +church of St. Nicholas-des-Champs, no longer in the fields any more +than London's St. Martin's is. + +And now after so many houses let us see some pictures! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LOUVRE: I. THE OLD MASTERS + + The Winged Victory of Samothrace--Botticelli's + Fresco--Luini--Ingres--The Salon Carre--La Joconde--Leonardo + da Vinci--Pater, Lowell and Vasari--Early Collectors--Paul + Veronese--Copyists--The Salle des Primitifs--The Grande + Galerie--Landor's Pictorial Creed--The Great + Schools--Rembrandt--Van Dyck and Rubens--Amazing + Abundance--The Dutch Masters--The Drawings. + + +It is on the first landing of the Escalier Daru, at the end of the +Galerie Denon, that one of the most priceless treasures of the +Louvre--one of the most splendid things in the world--is to be found: +it has been before us all the way along the Galerie Denon, that avenue +of noble bronzes, the first thing that caught the eye: I mean the +"Winged Victory of Samothrace". Every one has seen photographs or +models of this majestic and exquisite figure, but it must be studied +here if one is to form a true estimate of the magical mastery of the +sculptor. The Victory is headless and armless and much mutilated; but +that matters little. She stands on the prow of a trireme, and for +every one who sees her with any imagination must for all time be the +symbol of triumphant and splendid onset. The figure no doubt weighs +more than a ton--and is as light as air. The "Meteor" in a strong +breeze with all her sails set and her prow foaming through the waves +does not convey a more exciting idea of commanding and buoyant +progress. But that comparison wholly omits the element of +conquest--for this is essential Victory as well. + +The statue dates from the fourth century B.C. It was not discovered +until 1863, in Samothrace. Paris is fortunate indeed to possess not +only the Venus of Milo but this wonder of art--both in the same +building. + +Before entering the picture galleries proper, let us look at two other +exceedingly beautiful things also on this staircase--the two frescoes +from the Villa Lemmi, but particularly No. 1297 on the left of the +entrance to Gallery XVI., which represents Giovanna Tornabuoni and the +Cardinal Virtues, and is by Sandro Filipepi, whom we call Botticelli. +For this exquisite work alone would I willingly cross the Channel even +in a gale, such is its charm. A reproduction of it will be found +opposite page 20, but it gives no impression of the soft delicacy of +colouring: its gentle pinks and greens and purples, its kindly reds +and chestnut browns. One should make a point of looking at these +frescoes whenever one is on the staircase, which will be often. + +The ordinary entrance to the picture galleries of the Louvre is +through the photographic vestibule on the right of the Winged Victory +as you face it, leading to the Salle Duchatel, notable for such +differing works as frescoes by Luini and two pictures by +Ingres--representing the beginning and end of his long and austere +career. The Luinis are delightful--very gay and, as always with this +tender master, sweet--especially "The Nativity," which is reproduced +opposite page 16. The Ingres' (which were bequeathed by the Comtesse +Duchatel after whom the room is named) are the "OEdipus solving the +riddle of the Sphinx," dated 1808, when the painter was twenty-eight, +and the "Spring," which some consider his masterpiece, painted in +1856. He lived to be eighty-six. English people have so few +opportunities of seeing the work of this master (we have in oils only +a little doubtful portrait of Malibran, very recently acquired, which +hangs in the National Gallery) that he comes as a totally new +craftsman to most of us; and his severity may not always please. But +as a draughtsman he almost takes the breath away, and no one should +miss the pencil heads, particularly a little saucy lady, from his hand +in the His de la Salle collection of drawings in another part of the +Louvre. + +In the Salle Duchatel is also a screen of drawings with a very +beautiful head by Botticelli in it--No. 48. From the rooms we then +pass to the Salon Carre (so called because it is square, and not, as I +heard one American explaining to another, after the celebrated +collector Carre who had left these pictures to the nation), and this +is, I suppose, for its size, the most valuable gallery in the world. +It is doubtful if any other combination of collections, each +contributing of its choicest, could compile as remarkable a room, for +the "Monna Lisa," or "La Joconde," Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of the +wife of his friend Francesco del Giocondo, which is its greatest glory +and perhaps the greatest glory of all Paris too, would necessarily be +missing. + + [Illustration: THE WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE + _(Louvre)_] + +Paris without this picture would not be the Paris that we know, or the +Paris that has been since 1793 when "La Joconde" first became the +nation's property--ever more to smile her inscrutable smile and exert +her quiet mysterious sway, not only for kings and courtiers but for +all. When all is said, it is Leonardo who gives the Louvre its special +distinction as a picture gallery. Without him it would still be +magnificent: with him it is priceless and sublime. For not only are +there the "Monna Lisa" and (also in the Salon Carre) the sweet and +beautiful "Madonna and Saint Anne," but in the next, the Grande +Galerie, are his "Virgin of the Rocks," a variant of the only Leonardo +in our National Gallery, and the "Bacchus" (so like the "John the +Baptist") and the "John the Baptist" (so like the "Bacchus") and the +portrait of the demure yet mischievous Italian lady who is supposed to +be Lucrezia Crivelli, and who (in spite of the yellowing ravages of +time) once seen is never forgotten. + +The Louvre has all these (together with many drawings), but above all +it has the Monna Lisa, of which what shall I say? I feel that I can +say nothing. But here are two descriptions of the picture, or rather +two descriptions of the emotions produced by the picture on two very +different minds. These I may quote as expressing, between them, all. I +will begin with that of Walter Pater: "As we have seen him using +incidents of sacred story, not for their own sake, or as mere subjects +for pictorial realisation, but as a cryptic language for fancies all +his own, so now he found a vent for his thought in taking one of these +languid women, and raising her, as Leda or Pomona, as Modesty or +Vanity, to the seventh heaven of symbolical expression. + +"_La Gioconda_ is, in the truest sense, Leonardo's masterpiece, the +revealing instance of his mode of thought and work. In suggestiveness, +only the _Melancholia_ of Duerer is comparable to it; and no crude +symbolism disturbs the effect of its subdued and graceful mystery. We +all know the face and hands of the figure, set in its marble chair, in +that circle of fantastic rocks, as in some faint light under sea. +Perhaps of all ancient pictures time has chilled it least.[1] As often +happens with works in which invention seems to reach its limit, there +is an element in it given to, not invented by, the master. In that +inestimable folio of drawings, once in the possession of Vasari, were +certain designs by Verrocchio, faces of such impressive beauty that +Leonardo in his boyhood copied them many times. It is hard not to +connect with these designs of the elder, by-past master, as with its +germinal principle, the unfathomable smile, always with a touch of +something sinister on it, which plays over all Leonardo's work. +Besides, the picture is a portrait. From childhood we see this image +defining itself on the fabric of his dreams; and but for express +historical testimony, we might fancy that this was but his ideal lady, +embodied and beheld at last. What was the relationship of a living +Florentine to this creature of his thought? By what strange affinities +had the dream and the person grown up thus apart, and yet so closely +together? Present from the first incorporeally in Leonardo's brain, +dimly traced in the designs of Verrocchio, she is found present at +last in _Il Giocondo's_ house. That there is much of mere portraiture +in the picture is attested by the legend that by artificial means, the +presence of mimes and flute-players, that subtle expression was +protracted on the face. Again, was it in four years and by renewed +labour never really completed, or in four months and as by stroke of +magic, that the image was projected? + +"The presence that rose thus so strangely beside the waters, is +expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years men had come to +desire. Hers is the head upon which all 'the ends of the world are +come,' and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out +from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of +strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set it +for a moment beside one of those white Greek Goddesses or beautiful +women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this beauty, +into which the soul with all its maladies has passed! All the thoughts +and experience of the world have etched and moulded there, in that +which they have of power to refine and make expressive the outward +form, the animalism of Greece, the lust of Rome, the mysticism of the +middle age with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves, the +return of the Pagan world, the sins of the Borgias. She is older than +the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead +many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver +in deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for +strange webs with Eastern merchants; and, as Leda, was the mother of +Helen of Troy, and, as Saint Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this +has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only +in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and +tinged the eyelids and the hands. The fancy of a perpetual life, +sweeping together ten thousand experiences, is an old one; and modern +philosophy has conceived the idea of humanity as wrought upon by, and +summing up in itself, all modes of thought and life. Certainly Lady +Lisa might stand as the embodiment of the old fancy, the symbol of the +modern idea." + + [1] Yet for Vasari there was further magic of crimson in the + lips and cheeks, lost for us. _Pater's note._ + +This was what the picture meant for Pater; whether too much, is beside +the mark. Pater thought it and Pater wrote it, and that is enough. To +others, who are not as Pater, it says less, and possibly more. This, +for example, is what "Monna Lisa" suggested to one of the most +distinguished and civilised minds of our time--James Russell Lowell:-- + + She gave me all that woman can, + Nor her soul's nunnery forego, + A confidence that man to man + Without remorse can never show. + + Rare art, that can the sense refine + Till not a pulse rebellious stirs, + And, since she never can be mine, + Makes it seem sweeter to be hers! + +Finally, since we cannot (I believe) spend too much time upon this +picture, let me quote Vasari's account of it. "For Francesco del +Giocondo, Leonardo undertook to paint the portrait of Monna Lisa, his +wife, but, after loitering over it for four years, he finally left it +unfinished. This work is now in the possession of the King Francis of +France, and is at Fontainebleau. Whoever shall desire to see how far +art can imitate nature may do so to perfection in this head, wherein +every peculiarity that could be depicted by the utmost subtlety of the +pencil has been faithfully reproduced. The eyes have the lustrous +brightness and moisture which is seen in life, and around them are +those pale, red, and slightly livid circles, also proper to nature, +with the lashes, which can only be copied, as these are, with the +greatest difficulty; the eyebrows also are represented with the +closest exactitude, where fuller and where more thinly set, with the +separate hairs delineated as they issue from the skin, every turn +being followed, and all the pores exhibited in a manner that could +not be more natural than it is: the nose, with its beautiful and +delicately roseate nostrils, might be easily believed to be alive; the +mouth, admirable in its outline, has the lips uniting the rose-tints +of their colour with that of the face, in the utmost perfection, and +the carnation of the cheek does not appear to be painted, but truly of +flesh and blood; he who looks earnestly at the pit of the throat +cannot but believe that he sees the beating of the pulses, and it may +be truly said that this work is painted in a manner well calculated to +make the boldest master tremble, and astonishes all who behold it, +however well accustomed to the marvels of art. + +"Monna Lisa was exceedingly beautiful, and while Leonardo was painting +her portrait, he took the precaution of keeping some one constantly +near her, to sing or play on instruments, or to jest and otherwise +amuse her, to the end that she might continue cheerful, and so that +her face might not exhibit the melancholy expression often imparted by +painters to the likenesses they take. In this portrait of Leonardo's, +on the contrary, there is so pleasing an expression, and a smile so +sweet, that while looking at it one thinks it rather divine than +human, and it has ever been esteemed a wonderful work, since life +itself could exhibit no other appearance." + + [Illustration: LA JOCONDE: MONNA LISA + LEONARDO DA VINCI + _(Louvre)_] + +King Francis I. (who met our Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of +Gold) bought the picture of Monna Lisa from the artist for a sum of +money equal now to L20,000. It was on a visit to Francis that +Leonardo died. "Monna Lisa" was the most valuable picture in the +cabinet of Francis I. and was first hung there in 1545. It is very +interesting to think that this work, the peculiar glory of the +Gallery, should also be its nucleus, so to speak. The Venus of Milo +and the Winged Victory, which I have grouped with "Monna Lisa" as its +chief treasures, were not added until the last century. + +Among other pictures in the Louvre which date from the inception of a +royal collection in the brain of Francis I. are the "Virgin of the +Rocks" by Leonardo, Raphael's "Sainte Famille" (No. 1498) and "Saint +Michael," Andrea del Sarto's "Charite" and Piombo's "Visitation". +Louis XIII. began his reign with about fifty pictures and increased +them to two hundred, while under Louis XIV., the Louvre's most +conspicuous friend, the royal collection grew from these two hundred +to two thousand--assisted greatly by Colbert the financier, who bought +for the Crown not only much of the collection of the banker Jabach of +Cologne, the Pierpont Morgan of his day, who had acquired the art +treasures of our own Charles I., but also the Mazarin bibelots. Under +Louis XIV. and succeeding monarchs the pictures oscillated between the +Louvre, the Luxembourg and Versailles. The Revolution centralised them +in the Louvre, and on 8th November, 1793, the collection was made over +to the public. During the first Republic one hundred thousand francs a +year were set aside for the purchase of pictures. + +But we are in the Salon Carre. Close beside "La Joconde" is that +Raphael which gives me personally more pleasure than any of his +pictures--the portrait, beautiful in greys and blacks, of Count +Baldassare Castiglione, reproduced opposite page 52; here is a +Correggio (No. 1117) bathed in a glory of light; here is a golden +Giorgione; here is an allegory by Titian (No. 1589) not so +miraculously coloured as the Correggio but wonderfully rich and +beautiful; here is a little princess by Velasquez; and near it a +haunting portrait of a young man (No. 1644) which has been attributed +to many hands, but rests now as the work of Francia Bigio. I reproduce +it opposite page 70. And that is but a fraction of the treasures of +the Salon Carre. For there are other Titians, notably the portrait +(No. 1592) of a young man with a glove (reproduced opposite page 64) +marked by a beautiful gravity; other Raphaels, more characteristic, +including "La Belle Jardiniere" (No. 1496), filled with a rich deep +calm; the sweetest Luini that I remember (No. 1354), and the immense +"Marriage at Cana" by Paolo Veronese, which when I saw it recently was +being laboriously engraved on copper by a gentleman in the middle of +the room. It was odd to watch so careful a piece of translation in the +actual making--to see Veronese's vast scene with its rich colouring +and tremendous energy coming down into spider-like scratches on two +square feet of hard metal. I did not know that such patience was any +longer exercised. This picture, by the way, has a double +interest--the general and the particular. As Whistler said of +Switzerland, you may both admire the mountain and recognise the +tourist on the top. It is full of portraits. The bride at the end of +the table is Eleanor of Austria; at her side is Francis I. (who found +his way into as many pictures as most men); next to him, in yellow, is +Mary of England. The Sultan Suliman I. and the Emperor Charles V. are +not absent. The musicians are the artist and his friends--Paul himself +playing the 'cello, Tintoretto the piccolo, Titian the bass viol, and +Bassano the flute. The lady with a toothpick is (alas!) Vittoria +Colonna. + +It is, by the way, always student-day at the Louvre--at least I never +remember to have been there, except on Sundays, when copyists were not +at work. Many of the copies are being made to order as altar pieces in +new churches and for other definite purposes. Not all, however! A +newspaper paragraph lying before me states that the authorities of the +Louvre have five hundred unfinished copies on their hands, abandoned +by their authors so thoroughly as never to be inquired for again. I am +not surprised. + +From the Salle Carre we enter the Grande Galerie, which begins with +the Florentine School, and ends, a vast distance away, with Rembrandt. +But first it is well to turn into the little Salle des Primitifs +Italiens, a few steps on the right, for here are very rare and +beautiful things: Botticelli's "Madonna with a child and John the +Baptist" (No. 1296); Domenico Ghirlandaio's "Portrait of an old man +and a boy" (No. 1322), which I reproduce opposite page 136, that +triumph of early realism, and his "Visitation" (No. 1321), with its +joyful colouring, culminating in a glorious orange gown; Benedetto +Ghirlandaio's "Christ on the way to Golgotha" (No. 1323, on the +opposite wall), a fine hard red picture; two little Piero di Cosimos +(on each side of the door), very mellow and gay--representing scenes +in the marriage of Thetis and Peleus; Fra Filippo Lippi's "Madonna and +Child with two sainted abbots" (No. 1344), and the "Nativity" next it +(No. 1343); a sweet and lovely "Virgin and Child" (No. 1345) of the +Fra Filippo Lippi school; another, also very beautiful, by Mainardi +(No. 1367); a canvas of portraits, including Giotto and the painter +himself, by Paolo Uccello (No. 1272), the very picture described by +Vasari in the _Lives_; and Giotto's scenes in the life of St. Francis, +in the frame of which, as we shall see, I once, for historical +comparison, slipped the photograph of M. Henri Pol, charmeur des +oiseaux. These I name; but much remains that will appeal even more to +others. + +To walk along the Grande Galerie is practically to traverse the +history of art: Italian, Spanish, British, German, Flemish and Dutch +paintings all hang here. Nothing is missing but the French, which, +however, are very near at hand. Some lines of Landor which always come +to my mind in a picture gallery I may quote hereabouts with peculiar +fitness, and also with a desire to transfer the haunting--a very good +one even if one does not agree with the reference to Rembrandt, which +I do not:-- + + First bring me Raphael, who alone hath seen + In all her purity Heaven's Virgin Queen, + Alone hath felt true beauty; bring me then + Titian, ennobler of the noblest men; + And next the sweet Correggio, nor chastise + His little Cupids for those wicked eyes. + I want not Rubens's pink puffy bloom, + Nor Rembrandt's glimmer in a dirty room + With these, nor Poussin's nymph-frequented woods + His templed heights and long-drawn solitudes. + I am content, yet fain would look abroad + On one warm sunset of Ausonian Claude. + +It is no province of this book to take the place of a catalogue; but I +must mention a few pictures. The left wall is throughout, I may say, +except in the case of the British pictures, the better. Here, very +early, is the lovely "Holy Family" of Andrea del Sarto (No. 1515); +here hang the four Leonardos which I have mentioned and certain of his +derivatives; a beautiful Andrea Solario (No. 1530); a Lotto, very +modern in feeling (No. 1350); a very striking "Salome" by Luini +(1355), and the same painter's "Holy Family" (No. 1353); Mantegna; a +fine Palma; Bellini; Antonello da Messina; more Titians, including +"The Madonna with the rabbit" (No. 1578) and "Jupiter and Antiope" +(No. 1587); a new portrait of a man in armour by Tintoretto, lately +lent to the Louvre, one of his gravest and greatest; and so on to the +sweet Umbrians--to Perugino and to Raphael, among whose pictures are +two or three examples of his gay romantic manner, the most pleasing +of which (No. 1509), "Apollo and Marsyas," is only conjecturally +attributed to him. + +We pass then to Spain--to Murillo, who is represented here both in his +rapturous saccharine and his realistic moods, "La Naissance de la +Vierge" (No. 1710) and "Le Jeune Mendicant" (No. 1717); to Velasquez, +who, however, is no longer credited with the lively sketch of Spanish +gentlemen (No. 1734); and to Zurbaran, the strong and merciless. + +The British pictures are few but choice, including a very fine +Raeburn, and landscapes by Constable and Bonington, two painters whom +the French elevated to the rank of master and influence while we were +still debating their merits. Such a landscape as "Le Cottage" (No. +1806) by Constable, with its rich English simplicity, brings one up +with a kind of start in the midst of so much grandiosity and pomp. It +is out of place here, and yet one is very happy to see it. From +Britain we pass to the Flemish and Germans--to perfect Holbeins, +including an Erasmus and Duerer; to Rubens, who, however, comes later +in his full force, and to the gross and juicy Jordaens. + +Then sublimity again; for here is Rembrandt of the Rhine. After +Leonardo, Rembrandt is to me the glory of the Louvre, and especially +the glory of the Grande Galerie, the last section of which is now hung +with twenty-two of his works. Not one of them is perhaps superlative +Rembrandt: there is nothing quite so fine as the portrait of +Elizabeth Bas at the Ryks, or the "School of Anatomy" at the +Mauritshuis, or the "Unjust Steward" at Hertford House; but how +wonderful they are! Look at the miracle of the flying angel in the +picture of Tobias--how real it is and how light! Look closely at the +two little pictures of the philosopher in meditation. I have chosen +the beautiful "Venus et L'Amour" and the "Pelerins d'Emmaus" for +reproduction; but I might equally have taken others. They will be +found opposite pages 146 and 154. + +On the other wall are a few pictures by Rembrandt's pupils and +colleagues, such as Ferdinand Bol and Govaert Flinck, who were always +on the track of the master; and more particularly Gerard Dou: note the +old woman in his "Lecture de la Bible," for it is Rembrandt's mother, +and also look carefully at "La Femme Hydropique," one of his most +miraculously finished works--a Rembrandt through the small end of a +telescope. + +From these we pass to the sumptuous Salle Van Dyck, which in its turn +leads to the Salle Rubens, and one is again filled with wonder at the +productivity of the twain--pupil and master. Did he never tire, this +Peter Paul Rubens? Did a new canvas never deter or abash him? It seems +not. No sooner was it set up in his studio than at it he must have +gone like a charge of cavalry, magnificent in his courage, in his +skill and in his brio. What a record! Has Rubens' square mileage ever +been worked out, I wonder. He was very like a Frenchman: it is the +vigour and spirit of Dumas at work with the brush. In the Louvre +there are fifty-four attested works, besides many drawings; and it +seems to me that I must have seen as many in Vienna, and as many in +Dresden, and as many in Berlin, and as many in Antwerp, and as many in +Brussels, to say nothing of the glorious landscape in Trafalgar +Square. He is always overpowering; but for me the quieter, gentler +brushes. None the less the portrait of Helene Fourment and their two +children, in the Grande Galerie, although far from approaching that +exquisite picture in the Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna, when the +boys were a little older, is a beautiful and living thing which one +would not willingly miss. + +Van Dyck was, of course, more austere, less boisterous and abundant, +but his record is hardly less amazing, and he seems to have faced +life-size equestrian groups, such as the Charles the First here, +without a tremor. The Charles is superb in his distinction and +disdain; but for me, however, Van Dyck is the painter of single +portraits, of which, no matter where I go, none seems more noble and +satisfying than our own Cornelius Van Voorst in Trafalgar Square. But +the "Dame et sa Fille," which is reproduced on the opposite page, is +very beautiful. + + [Illustration: UNE DAME ET SA FILLE + VAN DYCK + _(Louvre)_] + +All round the Salle Rubens are arranged the little cabinets in which +the small Dutch pictures hang--the Jan Steens and the Terburgs, the +Hals' and the Metsus, the Ruisdaels and the Karel du Jardins, the +Ostades and the golden Poelenburghs. Of these what can I say? There +they are, in their hundreds, the least of them worth many minutes' +scrutiny. But a few may be picked out: the Jan van Eyck (No. 1986) "La +Vierge au Donateur," reproduced opposite page 166, in which the +Chancellor Rollin reveres the Virgin on the roof of a tower, and small +wild animals happily play around, and we see in the distance one of +those little fairy cities so dear to the Flemish painter's +imagination; David's "Noce de Cana"; Metsu's "Vierge et Enfant" the +Memling and the Rogier van der Weyden, close by; Franz Hals' +"Bohemienne," reproduced opposite page 186; Van der Heyden's lovely +"Plaine de Haarlem" (No. 2382); Paul Potter's "Bois de La Haye" (No. +2529), almost like a Diaz, and his little masterpiece No. 2526; the +Terburgs: the "Music Lesson" (No. 2588) and the charming "Reading +Lesson" (No. 2591) with the little touzled fair-haired boy in it, +reproduced opposite page 206; Ruisdael's "Paysage dit le Coup de +Soleil" (No. 2560); Hobbema's "Moulin a eau" (No. 2404); and, to my +eyes, almost first of all, Vermeer of Delft's "Lacemaker" (No. 2456), +reproduced opposite page 216. These are all I name. + +So much for the paintings by the masters of the world. The Louvre also +has drawings from the same hands, which hang in their thousands in a +series of rooms on the first floor, overlooking the Rue de Rivoli. +Here, as I have said, are other Leonardos (look particularly at No. +389), and here, too, are drawings by Raphael and Rembrandt, Correggio +and Rubens (a child's head in particular), Domenico Ghirlandaio and +Chardin, Mantegna and Watteau, Duerer and Ingres. I reproduce only +one, a study attributed to the school of Fabriano, opposite page 228. +Here one may spend a month in daily visits and wish never to break the +habit. We have in England hardly less valuable and interesting +drawings, but they are not to be seen in this way. One must visit the +Print Room of the British Museum and ask for them one by one in +portfolios. The Louvre, I think, manages it better. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LOUVRE: II. MODERN PICTURES + + The Early French Painters--Richard Parkes + Bonington--Chardin--Historical Paintings--Bonington + again--The Moreau Collection--The Thomy-Thierret + Collection--The Chauchard Collection. + + +French pictures early and late now await us. On our way down the +Grande Galerie we passed on the right two entrances to other rooms. +Taking that one which is nearer the British School, we find ourselves +in Salle IX., leading to Salle X. and so on to Galerie XVI., which +completes the series. In Salle X. the beginnings of French art may be +studied, and in particular the curious Japanese effects of the Ecole +d'Avignon. Here also is very interesting work by Le Maitre de Moulins +and a remarkable series of drawings in the case in the middle, +representing the Siege of Troy. Salle XI. is notable for its portraits +by Clouet and others; in Salle XII. we find Le Sueur, and in Salle +XIII. the curious brothers Le Nain, of whom there are very interesting +examples at the Ionides collection at South Kensington, but nothing +better than the haymaking scene here, No. 542. + +French painting of the seventeenth century bursts upon us in the great +Salle XIV. or Galerie Mollien, of which Nicolas Poussin and Ausonian +Claude are the giants, thus completing Landor's pleasant list with +which we entered the Grande Galerie in the last chapter. There are +wonderful things here, but so crowded are they that I always feel lost +and confused. There is, however, compensation and relief, for the room +also contains one minute masterpiece which perhaps not more than five +out of every thousand visitors have seen, and yet which can be studied +with perfect quietness and leisure. This is a tiny water-colour in the +revolving screen in the middle. There is much delicate work in this +screen, dainty aquatint effects by the Dutchmen Ostade and Van der +Heyden, Weenix and Borssom, and so forth; but finest of all (as so +often happens) is a little richly-coloured drawing of Nottingham by +Bonington, who, as we shall see, has a way of cropping up +unsuspectedly and graciously in this great collection--and very +rightly, since he owed so much to that Gallery. He was one of the +youngest students ever admitted, being allowed to copy there at the +age of fifteen, while at the Beaux Arts. That was in the year after +Waterloo. There may in the history of the Gallery have been copyists +equally young, but there can never have been one more distinguished or +who had deeper influence on French art. Paris not only made +Bonington's career but ended it, for it was while sketching in its +streets ten years or more later that he met with the sunstroke which +brought about his death when he was only twenty-seven, and stilled the +marvellous hand for ever. + +Salle XV. is given up to portraits, among them--and shall I say chief +of them, certainly chief of them in point of popularity--the adorable +portrait of Madame Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun and her daughter, +painted by herself, which is perhaps the best-known French picture, +and of which I give a reproduction opposite page 246. On a screen in +this room are placed the latest acquisitions. When last I was there +the more noticeable pictures were a portrait by Romney of himself, +rich and melancholy, recalling to the mind Tennyson's monologue, and a +sweet and ancient religieuse by Memling. There were also some Corot +drawings, not perhaps so good as those in the Moreau collection, but +very beautiful, and a charming old-world lady by Fragonard. These +probably are by this time distributed over the galleries, and other +new arrivals have taken their place. I hope so. + +Galerie XVI., which leads out of the Salle des Portraits, brings us to +French art of the eighteenth century--to Greuze and David, to +Fragonard and Watteau, to Lancret and Boucher, and, to my mind, most +charming, most pleasure-giving of all, to Jean Baptiste Simeon +Chardin, who is to be seen in perfection here and in the distant room +which contains the Collection La Caze. It is probable that no painter +ever had quite so much charm as this kindly Frenchman, whose loving +task it was to sweeten and refine homely Dutch art. Chardin is the +most winsome of all painters: his brush laid a bloom on domestic life. +The Louvre has twenty-eight of his canvases, mostly still-life, +distributed between the Salle La Caze and Salle No. XVI., where we now +are. The most charming of all, which is to be seen in the Salle La +Caze, is reproduced opposite page 234. + +Having walked down the left wall of the Salle, it is well to slip out +at the door at the end for a moment and refresh oneself with another +view of Botticelli's fresco, which is just outside, before returning +by the other wall, as we have to go back through the Salle des +Portraits in order to examine Salle VIII., a vast room wholly filled +with French paintings of the first half of the nineteenth century, +bringing the nation's art to the period more or less at which the +Luxembourg takes it up, though there is a certain amount of +overlapping. No room in the Louvre so wants weeding and re-hanging as +this, for it is a sad jumble. Search, however, for the magnificent +examples by the great _plein-airistes_. They are lost in this +wilderness; but there they are for those that seek--the two vast +Troyons; Corot's magic "Souvenir de Castel-Gondolfon"; a great +Daubigny, "Les Vendances de Bourgogne," very hard and fine, and the +same gigantic painter's large and lovely harvest scene, "Le Moisson"; +Rousseau's "Sortie de Foret," not unlike the Rousseau in the Wallace +Collection in London, with its natural archway of branches and rich +tenderness of colour; the sublime "La Vague," by Courbet; lastly +Millet's "Les Glaneuses," the three stooping women in the cornfield +who come to the inward eye almost as readily as the figures in the +"Angelus". The red, blue and yellow of their head-kerchiefs alone +would make this picture worth a millionaire's ransom. + +We leave the room by the door opposite that through which we came and +find ourselves again in the Grande Galerie. The way now is to the +left, through the Italian Schools, through the Salon Carre (why not +stay there and let French art go hang?) through the Galerie d'Apollon +(of which more anon), through the Rotunda and the Salle des Bijoux +(whither we shall return), to another crowded late eighteenth and +early nineteenth century French room chiefly notable for David's +Madame Recamier on her joyless little sofa. (Why didn't we stay in the +Salon Carre?) In this room also are two large Napoleonic pictures--one +by Gros representing General Bonaparte visiting the plague victims at +Jaffa in 1799; the other, by David, of the consecration service in +Notre Dame, described in an earlier chapter. To see this kind of +picture, at which the French have for many years been extremely apt, +one must of course go to Versailles, where the history of France is +spread lavishly over many square miles of canvas. + +From this room--La Salle des Sept Cheminees--we pass through a little +vestibule, with Courbet's great village funeral in it, to the very +pleasant Salle La Caze, containing the greater part of the collection +of the late Dr. La Caze, and notable chiefly for the Chardins of which +I have already spoken, and also, by the further door, for a haunting +"Buste de femme" attributed to the Milanese School. But there are +other admirable pictures here, including a Velasquez, and it repays +study. + +Leaving by the further door and walking for some distance, we come to +the His de la Salle collection of drawings, from which we gain the +Collection Thiers, which should perhaps be referred to here, although +there is not the slightest necessity to see it at all. The Thiers +collection, which occupies two rooms, is remarkable chiefly for its +water-colour copies of great paintings. The first President of the +Republic employed patient artists to make copies suitable for hanging +upon his walls of such inaccessible works as the "Last Judgment" of +Michael Angelo and Raphael's Dresden Madonna. The results are +certainly extraordinary, even if they are not precisely la guerre. The +Arundel Society perhaps found its inspiration in this collection. +Among the originals there is a fine Terburg. + +On leaving the Thiers collection, one comes to a narrow passage with a +little huddle of water-colours, very badly treated as to light and +space, and well worth more consideration. These pictures should not be +missed, for among them are two Boningtons, a windmill in a sombre +landscape, which I reproduce opposite page 274, and next to it a +masterly drawing of the statue of Bartolomme Colleoni at Venice, which +Ruskin called the finest equestrian group in the world. Bonington, who +had the special gift of painting great pictures in small compass (just +as there are men who can use a whole wall to paint a little picture +on), has made a drawing in which the original sculptor would have +rejoiced. It would do the Louvre authorities good if these Boningtons, +which they treat so carelessly, were stolen. Nothing could be easier; +I worked out the felony as I stood there. All that one would need +would be a few friends equally concerned to teach the Louvre a lesson, +behind whose broad backs one could ply the diamond and the knife. Were +I a company promoter this is how I should spend my leisure hours. Such +theft is very nigh virtue. + +Among other pictures in these bad little rooms--Nos. XVII. and +XVIII.--are some Millets and Decamps. + +Three more collections--and these really more interesting than +anything we saw in Galeries XIV. or XVI., or the Salle des Sept +Cheminees--await us; but two of them need considerable powers of +perambulation. Chronology having got us under his thumb we must make +the longer journey first--to the Collection Moreau. The Collection +Moreau is to be found at the top of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, the +entrance to which is in the Rue de Rivoli. In the lower part of this +building are held periodical exhibitions; but the upper parts are +likely at any rate for a long time to remain unchanged, and here are +wonderful collections of furniture, and here hang the few but select +canvases brought together by Adolphe Moreau and his son, and presented +to the nation by M. Etienne Moreau-Nelaton. + +In the Thomy-Thierret collection in another top storey of the same +inexhaustible palace (to which our fainting feet are bound) are Corots +of the late period; M. Moreau bought the earlier. Here, among nearly +forty others, you may see that portrait of Corot painted in 1825, just +before he left for Rome, which his parents exacted from him in return +for their consent to his new career and the abandonment of their rosy +dreams of his success as a draper. Here you may see "Un Moine," one of +the first pictures he was able to sell--for five hundred francs +(twenty pounds). Here is the charming marine "La Rochelle" painted in +1851 and given by Corot to Desbarolles and by Desbarolles to the +younger Dumas. Here is the very beautiful Pont de Mantes, reproduced +opposite page 252, belonging to his later manner, and here also is an +exceptionally merry little sketch, "Bateau de peche a maree basse". I +mention these only, since selection is necessary; but everything that +Corot painted becomes in time satisfying to the student and +indispensable to its owner. Among the pencil drawings we find this +exquisite lover of nature once more, with fifteen studies of his +Mistress. + +One of the most interesting of the Moreau pictures is Fantin-Latour's +"Hommage a Delacroix," with its figures of certain of the great and +more daring writers and painters of the day, 1864, the year after +Delacroix's death. They are grouped about his framed portrait--Manet, +red haired and red bearded, a little like Mr. Meredith in feature; +Whistler, with his white feather black and vigorous, and his hand on +the historical cane; Legros (the only member of the group who is still +living, and long may he live!) and Baudelaire, for all the world like +an innocent professor. Manet himself is represented here by his famous +"Dejeuner sur l'herbe," which the scandalised Salon of 1863 refused to +hang, and three smaller canvases. Among the remaining pictures which +gave me most pleasure are Couture's portrait of Adolphe Moreau the +younger; Daumier's "La Republique"; Carriere's "L'enfant a la +soupiere" (notice the white bowl); Decamps' "La Battue," curiously +like a Koninck; and Troyon's "Le Passage du Gue," so rich and sweet. + +From the Collection Moreau, with its early Barbizon pictures, one +ought to pass to the Chauchard with its middle period, and then to the +Collection Thomy-Thierret; but let us go to the Thomy-Thierret now. It +needs courage and endurance, for the room which contains these +exquisite pictures is only to be reached on foot after climbing many +stairs and walking for what seem to be many miles among models of +ships and other neglected curiosities on the Louvre's topmost floor. +But once the room is reached one is perfectly happy, for every picture +is a gem and there is no one there. M. Thomy-Thierret, who died quite +recently, was a collector who liked pictures to be small, to be rich +in colour, and to be painted by the Barbizon and Romantic Schools. +Here you may see twelve Corots, all of a much later period than those +bequeathed by M. Moreau, among them such masterpieces as "Le Vallon" +(No. 2801), reproduced opposite the next page, "Le Chemin de Sevres" +(No. 2803), "Entree de Village" (No. 2808), "Les Chaumieres" (No. +2809), and "La Route d'Arras" (No. 2810). Here are thirteen Daubignys, +including "Les Graves de Villerville" (No. 28,177), and one sombre and +haunting English scene--"La Tamise a Erith" (No. 2821). Here are ten +Diazes, most beautiful of which to my eyes is "L'Eploree" (No. 2863). +Here are ten Rousseaus, among them "Le Printemps" (No. 2903), with +its rapturous freshness, which I reproduce opposite page 120, and "Les +Chenes" (No. 2900), such a group of trees as Rousseau alone could +paint. Here are six Millets, my favourite being the "Precaution +Maternelle" (No. 2894), with its lovely blues, which again reappear in +"Le Vanneur" (No. 2893). Here are eleven Troyons, of which "La +Provende des poules" (No. 2907), with its bustle of turkeys and +chickens around the gay peasant girl beneath a burning sky, reproduced +opposite page 266, is one of the first pictures to which my feet carry +me on my visits to Paris. Here are twelve Dupres, most memorable of +which is "Les Landes" (No. 2871). And here also are Delacroix', +Isabeys and Meissoniers. + +The Chauchard pictures--140 in number--which are now hanging in five +rooms leading from the Salle Rubens, were bequeathed to the nation by +M. Alfred Chauchard, proprietor of the Magasins du Louvre (which some +visitors to Paris have considered the only Louvre). Among the pictures +are twenty-six by Corot, twenty-six by Meissonier, eight by Millet +(including "L'Angelus") and eight by Daubigny. + + [Illustration: LE VALLON + COROT + _(Louvre: Thomy-Thierret Collection)_] + +I may say at once that the Chauchard Collection does not compare with +the Thomy-Thierret in courage. M. Thomy-Thierret liked his pictures to +be small and exquisite and happy. Within the limits imposed the +Barbizon painters never did anything more delightful or indeed better. +The whole collection--and it is beyond price--is homogeneous: it +embodies the taste of one man. M. Moreau and his son had a robuster +taste, a bolder eye. They wanted strength as well as sweetness, or +strength alone. Their collection has not quite the homogeneity of the +Thomy-Thierret, but one feels here also that personality has honestly +been at work bringing together things of beauty and power that pleased +it, and nothing else. But M. Chauchard.... + +It is perfectly evident in a moment that M. Chauchard had neither +knowledge nor taste. He merely had acumen. At a certain moment in his +successful life, one feels, M. Chauchard extended himself before the +fire-place, stroked his spreading _favoris_ (so like those of our own +Whiteley), and announced "I must have some pictures". Other prosperous +men saying the same thing have forthwith taken their courage in their +hands and bought pictures; but M. Chauchard as I see him (both in his +dazzling marble bust and in the portrait by Benjamin Constant), was +not like that. "I must have some pictures," he announced, and then +quickly reverted to type and cast about as to the best means of +discovering whose pictures were most worth buying. That is how the +Chauchard Collection came about, if I am not mistaken: it was the +venture of an essentially commercial man--an investor-in-grain--who +also desired a reputation of virtuosity but did not want to lose money +over it. + +As it happens M. Chauchard was well advised. But wonderful as they +are, beautiful as they are, valuable as they are, there is not a +picture here which suggests to the visitor that it ever brought a real +gladness to the eyes of its owner in his own home. + +But I can convince you only too easily that M. Chauchard had no taste. +Do you remember when driving out to Longchamp, through the Bois, +either to the Races or to Suresnes, just after you pass the Cascade, +you come on the left to a windmill overlooking the course, and on the +right to a white villa, all alone and unreal? A club house, one +naturally thinks it, for the French Jockey Club, or something of that +kind. You may have forgotten the villa, but you will recall it when I +say that on the very trim vivid lawn in front of it, scattered about, +supposed to be counterfeiting life, are various animals in stone--a +stag, a doe, some dogs, all white and motionless, in the best mortuary +manner, and all, to you and me, outrageous. Well, that was one of M. +Chauchard's homes. M. Chauchard was the owner of that lawn and its +occupants. The man who looking out of his window could feast his eye +on these triumphs of the monumental mason was the same man who bought +for his walls sheep by Jacque and Millet, and cattle and dogs by +Troyon.... + +No matter. M. Chauchard acquired pictures and left them to the French +Nation, and they are now on view for ever (always excepting the fatal +Continental Mondays) for all to rejoice in. The first really +compellingly beautiful work as one enters--the first picture to touch +the emotions--is Rousseau's "La Charrette". It was painted in 1862, +five years before the painter's death, which left the villagers of +Barbizon the richer by a studio-chapel. It is a mere trifle and it is +as wonderful as a summer day: a forest glade, in the midst of which a +tiny wagon and white horse with blue trappings are seen beneath a +burning sky, such a picture as ought to have a wall if not a room to +itself: such a picture as I should like to see placed above an altar. +It is the same subject--a forest wagon--that provided what in some +ways is the best or most attractive Corot here. His "La Charrette" is +a large easy landscape lit by the gracious light of which he alone had +the secret. In the foreground is a deep sandy road with the charrette +labouring through it. But before we came to this we had stood before +one of the finest of the seven Daubignys, "La Seine a Bezons," a river +scene of almost terrible calm, with Mont Valerien in the distance and +geese and boats on the near shore, and implicit in it the sincerity, +strength and humility of this great man. + +At the end of the room hang two large and busy Troyons, one on each +side of M. Chauchard himself, the donor of the feast, whose bust in +the whitest Carrara, with the whiskers in full fig and the _croix de +grand officier du Legion d'honneur_ meticulously carved upon it, +stands here, as stipulated in the will. These two Troyons, of which +there are eighteen in all, are I think the largest. One represents +cows sauntering lazily down to drink; the other the return from the +market of a mixed herd of cattle and sheep, with a donkey in panniers, +being driven by a man on a white horse. As was his wont, Troyon chose +a road on the edge of a cliff with a very green border of turf and an +exquisite glimpse of sea to the left. None of the new Troyons perhaps +is as fine as those in Salle VIII. of the Louvre proper, but this is a +superb thing. The "Boeufs se rendant au labour" and the "Le Retour a +la ferme" in Salle VIII. should be visited after the Chauchards. + +And so we leave the first and largest room, in the midst of which are +two cases of Barye's bronzes--lions and tigers, bears and deer, snakes +and birds--and enter the first room on the left as we came in; and +here we begin to see for the first time pictures with special knots of +people before them. For the Meissoniers begin here. And of Meissonier +what am I to say? For Meissonier leaves me cold. He is marvellous; but +he leaves me cold. He painted with a fidelity and spirit that border +on the magical; but those qualities that I want in a picture, those +callings of deep to deep, one seeks in vain. Hence I say nothing of +Meissonier, except that he was a master, that there are twenty-six of +his masterpieces here, and that the crowd opposite his "1814" extends +to the opposite side. How can one spend time over "Le cheval de +l'ordonnance" and the "Petit Poste de Grand'-Garde" when Daubigny's +"Les Laveuses (effet de soleil couchant)" hangs so near--this great +placid green picture, so profoundly true as to be almost an act of +God? Corot's "Etang de Ville d'Avray" is here too, liquid and tender. + +The little room that leads out of this is usually almost unenterable +by reason of the press before Meissonier's "1814". This undoubtedly is +one of the little great pictures of the world, and I can understand +the enthusiasm of the French sightseer, whose blood is still stirrable +by the enduring personality of the saturnine man on the white horse. +Neighbouring pictures are a rich cattle piece by Diaz, immediately +over "1814"; Rousseau's "La Mare," which is not a little like the +Koninck in the Ionides Collection at South Kensington, and the same +painter's "La Mare au pied du coteau" with its lovely middle distance. +Here too is one of Corot's many _pecheurs_, who little knew as they +fished on so quietly in the still gentle light that they were being +rendered immortal by the quaint little bourgeois with the long pipe, +sketching on the bank. One of the finest of the Dupres is also +here--"La Vanne," a deep green scene of water. + +In the last room we come at last to that painter whose work, next +perhaps to Meissonier's, is the magnet which draws such a steady +stream of worshippers to this new shrine of art--to Jean Francois +Millet. M. Chauchard had eight Millets, including the "Angelus," but +though it is the "Angelus" which is considered of many to be the very +core of this collection, I find more pleasure in "La Bergere gardant +ses moutons" (reproduced opposite page 308), which I would call, I +think, the best picture of all. It has been remarked that no picture +containing sheep can ever be a bad picture; but when Millet paints +them, and when they are grazing beneath such a sky, and when one of +those grave sweet peasant women--a monument of patient acceptance and +the humility that comes from the soil--is their shepherdess, why then +it is almost too much; and the brave ardent Jacque, whose "Moutons au +Paturage" hangs close by, is half suspected of theatricalism. Millet +is so great, so full of large elemental simplicity and truth that one +regrets that his eight pictures have not a room to themselves. That +they should be elbowed by the neat dancing-master _chefs d'oeuvre_ +of Meissonier is something of a catastrophe. + +Thinking over the collection, I have very strongly the feeling already +expressed that it was wrongly assembled. The investor rather than the +enthusiast is too apparent. M. Chauchard, it is true, refrained from +making money by his acquisitions, since he gave them to the nation, +and this is eternally to his credit. None the less I find it difficult +to esteem him as perhaps one should even in the light of a generous +testator. One so wants pictures to be loved. And of all pictures that +are lovable and that long to pass into their owner's being--to +engentle his eyes and enrich his experience and deepen his +nature--none equal those that were painted by the little group of +friends who in the middle of the last century made the white-walled +village of Barbizon their head-quarters and the Forest of +Fontainebleau their happy hunting-ground and a Wordsworthian passion +for nature their creed. + +Such pictures deserve the most faithful owners and the most thoughtful +hospitality.... + +But if we cannot get all as we wish it, at least we must be grateful +for the next best thing, and to M. Chauchard and the Louvre +authorities we must all be supremely grateful. + +The Louvre is to-day the most wonderful museum in the world; but what +would one not give to be able to visit it as it was in 1814, when it +was in some respects more wonderful still. For then it was filled with +the spoils of Napoleon's armies, who had instructions always to bring +back from the conquered cities what they could see that was likely to +beautify and enrich France. It is a reason for war in itself. I would +support any war with Austria, for example, that would bring to London +Count Czernin's Vermeer and the Parmigianino in the Vienna National +Gallery; any war with Germany that would put the Berlin National +Gallery at our disposal. Napoleon had other things to fight for, but +that comprehensive brain forgot nothing, and as he deposed a king he +remembered a blank space in the Louvre that lacked a Raphael, an empty +niche waiting for its Phidias. The Revolution decreed the Museum, but +it was Napoleon who made it priceless and glorious. After the fall of +this man a trumpery era of restitution set in. Many of his noble +patriotic thefts were cancelled out. The world readjusted itself and +shrank into its old pettiness. Priceless pictures and statues were +carried again to Italy and Austria, Napoleon to St. Helena. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TUILERIES + + A Vanished Palace--The Most Magnificent Vista--Enter Louis + XVI. and Marie Antoinette--The Massacre of the Swiss + Guards--The Blood of Paris--A Series of Disasters--The + Growth of Paris--The Napoleonic Rebuilders--The Arc de + Triomphe du Carrousel--The Irony of History--A Frock Coat + Rampant--The Statuary of Paris--The Gardens of the + Tuileries--Monsieur Pol, Charmer of Birds--The Parisian + Sparrow--Hyde Park--The Drum. + + +Had we turned our back only thirty-eight years ago on Fremiet's statue +of Joan of Arc (which was not there then) in the Place de Rivoli, and +walked down what is now the Rue de Tuileries towards the Seine, we +should have had on our left hand a beautiful and imposing +building--the Palace of the Tuileries, which united the two wings of +the Louvre that now terminate in the Pavillon de Marsan just by the +Place de Rivoli and the Pavillon de Flore on the Quai des Tuileries. +The palace stretched right across this interval, thus interrupting the +wonderful vista of to-day from the old Louvre right away to the Arc de +Triomphe--probably the most extraordinary and beautiful civilised, or +artificial, vista in the world. The palace had, however, a +sufficiently fine if curtailed share of it from its own windows. + +All Parisians upwards of forty-five must remember the Palace +perfectly, for it was not destroyed until 1871, during the Commune, +and it was some years after that incendiary period before all traces +were removed and the gardens spread uninterruptedly from the Carrousel +to the Concorde. + +The Palace of the Tuileries (so called because it occupied a site +previously covered by tile kilns) was begun in 1564 and had therefore +lived for three centuries. Catherine de Medicis planned it, but, as we +shall read later, she lost interest in it very quickly owing to one of +those inconvenient prophecies which were wont in earlier times so to +embarrass rulers, but which to-day in civilised countries have +entirely gone out. The Tuileries was a happy enough palace, as palaces +go, until the Revolution: it then became for a while the very centre +of rebellion and carnage; for Louis XVI. and the Royal Family were +conveyed thither after the fatal oath had been sworn in the Versailles +tennis-court. Then came the critical 10th of August, when the King +consented to attend the conference in the Manege (now no more, but a +tablet opposite the Rue Castiglione marks the spot) and thus lost +everything. + +The massacre of the Swiss Guards followed: but here it is impossible, +or at least absurd, not to hear Carlyle. Mandal, Commander of the +National Guard, I would premise, has been assassinated by the crowd; +the Constitutional Assembly sits in the Manege, and the King, a +prisoner in the Tuileries, but still a hesitant and an optimist, is +ordered to attend it. At last he consents. "King Louis sits, his hands +leant on his knees, body bent forward; gazes for a space fixedly on +Syndic Roederer; then answers, looking over his shoulder to the +Queen: _Marchons!_ They march; King Louis, Queen, Sister Elizabeth, +the two royal children and governess: these, with Syndic Roederer, +and Officials of the Department; amid a double rank of National +Guards. The men with blunderbusses, the steady red Swiss gaze +mournfully, reproachfully; but hear only these words from Syndic +Roederer: 'The King is going to the Assembly; make way'. It has +struck eight, on all clocks, some minutes ago: the King has left the +Tuileries--forever. + + [Illustration: THE PARC MONCEAU] + +"O ye stanch Swiss, ye gallant gentlemen in black, for what a cause +are ye to spend and be spent! Look out from the western windows, ye +may see King Louis placidly hold on his way; the poor little Prince +Royal 'sportfully kicking the fallen leaves'. Fremescent multitude on +the Terrace of the Feuillants whirls parallel to him; one man in it, +very noisy, with a long pole: will they not obstruct the outer +Staircase, and back-entrance of the Salle, when it comes to that? +King's Guards can go no farther than the bottom step there. Lo, +Deputation of Legislators come out; he of the long pole is stilled by +oratory; Assembly's Guards join themselves to King's Guards, and all +may mount in this case of necessity; the outer Staircase is free, or +passable. See, Royalty ascends; a blue Grenadier lifts the poor +little Prince Royal from the press; Royalty has entered in. Royalty +has vanished for ever from your eyes.--And ye? Left standing there, +amid the yawning abysses, and earthquake of Insurrection; without +course; without command: if ye perish, it must be as more than +martyrs, as martyrs who are now without a cause! The black Courtiers +disappear mostly; through such issues as they can. The poor Swiss know +not how to act: one duty only is clear to them, that of standing by +their post; and they will perform that. + +"But the glittering steel tide has arrived; it beats now against the +Chateau barriers and eastern Courts; irresistible, loud-surging far +and wide;--breaks in, fills the Court of the Carrousel, blackbrowed +Marseillese in the van. King Louis gone, say you; over to the +Assembly! Well and good: but till the Assembly pronounce Forfeiture of +him, what boots it? Our post is in that Chateau or stronghold of his; +there till then must we continue. Think, ye stanch Swiss, whether it +were good that grim murder began, and brothers blasted one another in +pieces for a stone edifice?--Poor Swiss! they know not how to act: +from the southern windows, some fling cartridges, in sign of +brotherhood; on the eastern outer staircase, and within through long +stairs and corridors, they stand firm-ranked, peaceable and yet +refusing to stir. Westermann speaks to them in Alsatian German; +Marseillese plead, in hot Provencal speech and pantomime; stunning +hubbub pleads and threatens, infinite, around. The Swiss stand +fast, peaceable and yet immovable; red granite pier in that +waste-flashing sea of steel. + +"Who can help the inevitable issue; Marseillese and all France on this +side; granite Swiss on that? The pantomime grows hotter and hotter; +Marseillese sabres flourishing by way of action; the Swiss brow also +clouding itself, the Swiss thumb bringing its firelock to the cock. +And hark! high thundering above all the din, three Marseillese cannon +from the Carrousel, pointed by a gunner of bad aim, come rattling over +the roofs! Ye Swiss, therefore: _Fire!_ The Swiss fire; by volley, by +platoon, in rolling fire: Marseillese men not a few, and 'a tall man +that was louder than any,' lie silent, smashed upon the pavement;--not +a few Marseillese, after the long dusty march, have made halt _here_. +The Carrousel is void; the black tide recoiling; 'fugitives rushing as +far as Saint-Antoine before they stop'. The Cannoneers without +linstock have squatted invisible, and left their cannon; which the +Swiss seize.... + +"Behold, the fire slackens not; nor does the Swiss rolling-fire +slacken from within. Nay they clutched cannon, as we saw; and now, +from the other side, they clutch three pieces more; alas, cannon +without linstock; nor will the steel-and-flint answer, though they try +it. Had it chanced to answer! Patriot onlookers have their misgivings; +one strangest Patriot onlooker thinks that the Swiss, had they a +commander, would beat. He is a man not unqualified to judge; the name +of him Napoleon Buonaparte. And onlookers, and women, stand gazing, +and the witty Dr. Moore of Glasgow among them, on the other side of +the River: cannon rush rumbling past them; pause on the Pont Royal; +belch out their iron entrails there, against the Tuileries; and at +every new belch, the women and onlookers 'shout and clap hands'. +City of all the Devils! In remote streets, men are drinking +breakfast-coffee; following their affairs; with a start now and then, +as some dull echo reverberates a note louder. And here? Marseillese +fall wounded; but Barbaroux has surgeons; Barbaroux is close by, +managing, though underhand and under cover. Marseillese fall +death-struck; bequeath their firelock, specify in which pocket are the +cartridges; and die murmuring, 'Revenge me, Revenge thy country!' +Brest Federe Officers, galloping in red coats, are shot as Swiss. Lo +you, the Carrousel has burst into flame!--Paris Pandemonium! Nay the +poor City, as we said, is in fever-fit and convulsion: such crisis has +lasted for the space of some half hour. + +"But what is this that, with Legislative Insignia, ventures through +the hubbub and death-hail, from the back-entrance of the Manege? +Towards the Tuileries and Swiss: written Order from his Majesty to +cease firing! O ye hapless Swiss, why was there no order not to begin +it? Gladly would the Swiss cease firing: but who will bid mad +Insurrection cease firing? To Insurrection you cannot speak; neither +can it, hydra-headed, hear. The dead and dying, by the hundred, lie +all around; are borne bleeding through the streets, towards help; the +sight of them, like a torch of the Furies, kindling Madness. Patriot +Paris roars; as the bear bereaved of her whelps. On, ye Patriots: +Vengeance! Victory or death! There are men seen, who rush on, armed +only with walking-sticks. Terror and Fury rule the hour. + +"The Swiss, pressed on from without, paralysed from within, have +ceased to shoot; but not to be shot. What shall they do? Desperate is +the moment. Shelter or instant death: yet How, Where? One party flies +out by the Rue de l'Echelle; is destroyed utterly, '_en entier_'. A +second, by the other side, throws itself into the Garden; 'hurrying +across a keen fusillade'; rushes suppliant into the National Assembly; +finds pity and refuge in the back benches there. The third, and +largest, darts out in column, three hundred strong, towards the Champs +Elysees: 'Ah, could we but reach Courbevoye, where other Swiss are!' +Wo! see, in such fusillade the column 'soon breaks itself by diversity +of opinion,' into distracted segments, this way and that;--to escape +in holes, to die fighting from street to street. The firing and +murdering will not cease; not yet for long. The red Porters of Hotels +are shot at, be they _Suisse_ by nature, or _Suisse_ only in name.... + +"Surely few things in the history of carnage are painfuller. What +ineffaceable red streak, flickering so sad in the memory, is that, of +this poor column of red Swiss 'breaking itself in the confusion of +opinions'; dispersing, into blackness and death! Honour to you, +brave men; honourable pity, through long times! Not martyrs were ye; +and yet almost more. He was no King of yours, this Louis; and he +forsook you like a King of shreds and patches: ye were but sold to him +for some poor sixpence a-day; yet would ye work for your wages, keep +your plighted word. The work now was to die; and ye did it. Honour to +you, O Kinsmen." + + [Illustration: LE PRINTEMPS + ROUSSEAU + _(Louvre: Thomy-Thierret Collection)_] + +Is that too dreadful an association for this spot? It is terrible; but +to visit Paris without any historical interest is too materialistic a +proceeding, and to have the historical interest in Paris and be afraid +of a little blood is an untenable position. Paris is steeped in blood. + +The Tuileries had not seen all its riot yet; July 29th, 1830, was to +come, when, after another taste of monarchy, revived in 1814 after its +murder on that appalling 10th of August (which was virtually its death +day, although the date of the birth of the First Republic stands as +September 21st, 1793), the mob attacked the Palace, the last Bourbon +king, Charles X., fled from it and from France, and Louis-Philippe of +Orleans mounted the throne in his stead. But that was not all. Another +seventeen and a half years and revengeful time saw Louis-Philippe, +last of the Orleans kings, escaping in his turn from another besieging +crowd, and the establishment of the Second Republic. + +During the Second Empire some of the old splendour returned, and it +was here, at the Tuileries, that Napoleon III. drew up many of his +plans for the modern Paris that we now know; and then came the +Prussian war and the Third Republic, and then the terrible Communard +insurrection in the spring of 1871, in which the Tuileries disappeared +for ever. Napoleon III., as I have said, assisted by Baron Haussmann, +toiled in the great pacific task of renovating Paris, not with the +imaginative genius of his uncle, but with an undeniable largeness and +sagacity. He it was who added so greatly to the Louvre--all that part +in fact opposite the Place du Palais Royal and the Magasins du Louvre +as far west as the Rue de Rohan. A large portion of the corresponding +wing on the river side was his too. But here is a list, since we are +on the subject of modern Paris--which began with the great Napoleon's +reconstruction of the ravages (beneficial for the most part) of the +Revolutionaries--of the efforts made by each ruler since that epoch. I +borrow the table from the Marquis de Rochegude. + +"Napoleon I.--Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Vendome Column, Facade du +Corps Legislatif, Commencement of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, La +Bourse, the Bridges d'Austerlitz, d'Iena, des Arts, de la Cite, +several Markets, Quais d'Orsay, de Billy, du Louvre, Montebello, de la +Tournelle; the Eastern and Northern Cemeteries; numbering the houses +in 1806, begun without success in 1728; pavements in the streets and +doing away with the streams or flowing gutters in the middle of the +streets." (How like Napoleon to get the houses numbered on a clear +system! Throughout Paris the odd numbers occupy one side of the street +and the even the other. All are numbered from the Seine outwards.) + +"The Restoration.--Chapel Expiatoire, N.D. de Bonne-Nouvelle, N.D. de +Lorette, St. Vincent de Paul; Bridges of the Invalides, of the +Archbishopric, d'Arcole; Canals of St. Denis and St. Martin; +fifty-five new streets; lighting by gas." (It was about 1828 that cabs +came in. They were called fiacres from the circumstance that their +originator carried on his business at the sign of the Grand St. +Fiacre.) + +"Louis-Philippe, 1830-1848.--Finished the Madeleine, Arc de Triomphe, +erected the Obelisk (Place de la Concorde), Column of July; Bridges: +Louis-Philippe, Carrousel; Palace of the Quai d'Orsay; enlarged the +Palais de Justice; restored Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle; Fountains: +Louvois, Cuvier, St. Sulpice, Gaillon, Moliere; opened the Museums of +Cluny and the Thermes. In 1843--1,100 streets. + +"Napoleon III., 1852-1870.--Embellished Paris--execution of +Haussmann's plans, twenty-two new boulevards; Streets Lafayette, +Quatre-Septembre, de Turbigo; Bvd. St. Germain; Rues des Ecoles, de +Rivoli, the Champs Elysees Quarter, the Avenues Friedland, Hoche, +Kleber, the Marceau, de L'Imperatrice, many squares; a part of new +Louvre; Churches of St. Augustine, The Trinity, St. Ambroise, Ste. +Clotilde (finishing of); Theatres, Chatelet, Lyrique, du Vaudeville; +Tribunal of Commerce, Hotel Dieu, Barracks, Central Markets (also the +ceinture railway); finishing of the Laribosiere hospital, the Fountain +of St. Michel, the Bridges of Solferino, L'Alma, the Pont au Change. +In 1861, 1,667,841 inhabitants. + +"The Commune.--Burning of the Tuileries, the Ministry of Finance, the +Louvre Library, the Hotel de Ville, the Palace of the Legion of +Honour, the Palace of the Quai d'Orsay, the Lyric, the Chatelet and +the Porte St. Martin theatres, etc. + +"The Republic.--Reconstruction of the buildings burnt by the Commune; +Avenue de l'Opera, the Opera House; Streets: Etienne Marcel, Reaumur, +Avenue de la Republique, etc. In 1892, 4,090 streets, in 1902 there +were 4,261 streets. The Exhibition 1878 left the Trocadero, and that +of 1889 the Eiffel Tower, and that of 1900 the two Palaces of the +Champs-Elysees and the bridge Alexander III." (To this one should add +the Metro, still uncompleted, which has the advantage over London's +Tubes of being only just below the surface, so that no lift is +needed.) + + [Illustration: THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DU CARROUSEL (WEST FACADE)] + +The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, at the east end of the gardens, is a +mere child compared with the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, which stands +there, so serenely and magnificently, at the end of the vista in the +west, nearly two amazing miles away; it could be placed easily, with +many feet to spare, under that greater monument's arch (as Victor +Hugo's coffin was); but it is more beautiful. Both were the work of +Napoleon, both celebrate the victories of 1805-06. The Carrousel is +surmounted by a triumphal car and four horses; but here again, as in +the case of the statue of Henri IV. on the Pont Neuf, there have been +ironical changes. Napoleon, when he ordained the arch, which was +intended largely to reproduce that of Severus at Rome, ravished for +its crowning the quadriga from St. Mark's at Venice: those glorious +gleaming horses over the door. That was as it should be: he was a +conqueror and entitled to the spoils of conquest. But after his fall +came, as we have seen, a pedantic disgorgement of such treasure; the +golden team trotted back to the Adriatic, and a new decoration had to +be provided for the Carrousel. Hence the present one, which +represents--what? It is almost inconceivable; but, Louis XVIII. having +commissioned it, it represents the triumph no longer of Napoleon but +of the Restoration! Amusing to remember this under the Third Republic, +as one looks up at it and then at the bas-reliefs of the battle of +Austerlitz, the peace of Tilsit, the capitulation of Ulm, the entry +into Munich, the entry into Vienna and the peace of Pressburg. Time's +revenges indeed. + +Standing under the Arc du Carrousel one makes the interesting but +disappointing discovery that the Arc de Triomphe, the column of Luxor +in the Place de la Concorde, the fountain, the Arc du Carrousel, the +Gambetta monument and the Pavillon Sully of the Louvre do not form a +straight line, as by all the laws of French architectural symmetry +they should--especially here, where compasses and rulers seem to have +been at work on every inch of the ground, and, as I have ascertained, +general opinion considers them to do. All is well, from the west, +until the Arc du Carrousel; it is the Gambetta and the Pavilion Sully +that throw it out. + +The Gambetta! This monument fascinates me, not by its beauty nor +because I have any especial reverence for the statesman; but simply by +the vigour of his clothes, the frock coat and the light overcoat of +the flamboyant orator, holding forth for evermore (or until his hour +strikes), urgent and impetuous and French. To the frock coat in +sculpture we in London are no strangers, for have we not Parliament +Square? but our frock coats are quiescent, dead even, things of stone. +Gambetta's, on the contrary, is tempestuous--surely the most heroic +frock coat that ever emerged from the quarries of Carrara. It might +have been cut by the Great Mel himself. + +I have never seen a computation of the stone and bronze population of +Paris, but the statues must be thousands strong. A Pied Piper leading +them out of the city would be worth seeing, although I for one would +regret their loss. Paris, I suppose, was Paris no less than now in the +days before Gambetta masqueraded as a Frock Coated Victory almost +within hail of the Winged Victory of Samothrace; but Paris certainly +would not be Paris any more were some new turn of the wheel to whisk +him away and leave the Place du Carrousel forlorn and tepid. The loss +even of the smug figure of Jules Simon, just outside Durand's, would +be something like a bereavement. I once, by the way, saw this statue +wearing, after a snowstorm, a white fur cap and cape that gave him a +character--something almost Siberian--beyond anything dreamed of by +the sculptor. + +It is not until one has walked through the gardens of the Tuileries +that the wealth of statuary in Paris begins to impress the mind. For +there must be almost as many statues as flowers. They shine or glimmer +everywhere, as in the Athenian groves--allegorical, symbolical, +mythological, naked. The Luxembourg Gardens, as we shall see, are +hardly less rich, but there one finds the statues of real persons. +Here, as becomes a formal garden projected by a king, realism is +excluded. Formal it is in the extreme; the trees are sternly +pollarded, the beds are mathematically laid out, the paths are +straight and not to be deviated from. None the less on a hot summer's +day there are few more delightful spots, with the placid bonnes +sitting so solidly, as only French women can sit, over their +needlework, and their charges flitting like discreet butterflies all +around them; and here are two old philosophers--another Bouvard and +Pecuchet--discussing some problem of conduct or science, and there a +family party lunching heartily, without shame. Pleasant groves, +pleasant people! + +But the best thing in the Tuileries is M. Pol. Who is M. Pol? Well, he +may not be the most famous man in Paris, but he is certainly the most +engaging. M. Pol is the charmer of birds--"Le Charmeur d'oiseaux au +Jardin des Tuileries," to give him his full title. There may be other +charmers too at their pretty labours; but M. Pol comes easily first: +his personality is so attractive, his terms of intercourse with the +birds so intimate. His oiseaux are chiefly sparrows, whom he knows by +name--La Princesse, Le Loustic, Garibaldi, La Baronne, l'Anglais, and +so forth. They come one by one at his call, and he pets them and +praises them; talks pretty ironical talk; uses them (particularly the +little brown l'Anglais) for sly satirical purposes, for there are +usually a few English spectators; affects to admonish and even +chastise them, shuffling minatory feet with all the noise but none of +the illusion of seriousness; and never ceases the while to scatter his +crumbs or seeds of comfort. It is a very charming little drama, and +although carried on every day, and for some hours every day, it has no +suggestion of routine; one feels that the springs of it are sweetness +and benevolence. + +He is a typical elderly Latin, this M. Pol, a little unmindful as to +his dress, a little inclined to shamble: humorous, careless, gentle. +When I first saw him, years ago, he fed his birds and went his way: +but he now makes a little money by it too, now and then offering, very +reluctantly, postcards bearing pictures of himself with all his birds +about him and a distich or so from his pen. For M. Pol is a poet in +words as well as deeds: "De nos petits oiseaux," he writes on one +card:-- + + "De nos petits oiseaux, je suis le bienfaiteur, + Et je vais tous les jours leur donner la pature, + Mais suivant un contrat dicte par la nature + Quand je donne mon pain, ils me donnent leur coeur." + +I think this true. It is a little more than cupboard love that +inspires these tiny creatures, or they would never settle on M. Pol's +hands and shoulders as they do. He has charmed the pigeons also; but +here he admits to a lower motive:-- + + "Ils savent, les malins, que leur couvert est mis, + C'est en faisant du bien qu'on se fait des amis." + +It amused me one day at the Louvre to fix one of these photographs in +the frame of Giotto's picture of St. Francis (in Salle VII.), one of +the scenes of which shows him preaching to the birds, thus bridging +the gulf between the centuries and making for the moment the Assisi of +the Saint and the Paris of M. Briand one. + +London has its noticeable lovers of animals too--you may see in St. +Paul's churchyard in the dinner hour isolated figures surrounded and +covered by pigeons: the British Museum courtyard also knows one or +two, and the Guildhall: quite like Venice, both of them, save that no +one is excited about it; while in St. James's Square may be seen at +all hours of every day the mysterious cat woman with her pensioners +all about her on their little mats. Every city has these +humorists--shall I say? using the word as it was wont to be used long +ago. But M. Pol--M. Pol stands alone. It is not merely that he charms +the birds but that he is so charming with them. The pigeon feeders of +London whom I have watched bring their maize, distribute it and go. M. +Pol is more of a St. Francis than that: as I have shown, he converses, +jokes and exchanges moods with his friends. + +Although he is acquainted with pigeons, his real friends are the +gamins of the air, the sparrows, true Parisians, who have the best +news. Pigeons, one can conceive, pick up a fact here and there, but it +would have a foreign or provincial flavour. Now if there is one thing +which bores a true Parisian it is talk of what is happening outside +Paris. The Parisian's horizons do not extend beyond his city. The sun +for him rises out of the Bois de Vincennes, and evening comes because +it has sunk into the Bois de Boulogne. Hence M. Pol's wisdom in +choosing the sparrow for his companion, his oiseau intime. + +So far had I written when I chanced to walk into London by way of Hyde +Park, and there, just by the Achilles statue, was a charming gentleman +in a tall white hat whistling a low whistle to a little band of +sparrows who followed him and surrounded him and fluttered up, one by +one, to his hand. We talked a little together, and he told me that the +birds never forget him, though he is absent for eight months each +year. His whistle brings them at once. So London is all right after +all. And I have been told delightful things about the friends of the +grey squirrels in Central Park; so New York perhaps is all right too. + +The Round Pond of Paris is at the Tuileries--not so vast as the _mare +clausum_ of Kensington Gardens, but capable of accommodating many +argosies. Leaving this Pond behind us and making for the Place de la +Concorde, we have on the right the remains of a monastery of the +Cistercians, one of the many religious houses which stood all about +the north of the Gardens at the time of the Revolution and were first +discredited and emptied by the votaries of Reason and then swept away +by Napoleon when he made the Rue de Rivoli. The building on the left +is the Orangery. It is in this part that the temporary pavilions are +erected for the banquets to provincial mayors and such pleasant +ceremonies, while in the summer some little exhibition is usually in +progress. + +But what is that sound? The beating of a drum. We must hasten to the +gates, for that means closing time. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--THE CHAMPS-ELYSEES AND THE INVALIDES + + A Dangerous Crossing--An Ill-omened Place--Louis the XVI. in + Prosperity and Adversity--January 21st, 1793--The End of + Robespierre--The Luxor Column--The Congress of + Wheels--England and France--The Champs Elysees--The Parc + Monceau--A Terrestrial Paradise--Oriental Museums--The + Etoile's Tributaries--The Arc de Triomphe--The Avenue du + Bois de Boulogne--A Vast Pleasure-ground--Happy + Sundays--Longchamp--The Pari-mutuel--Spotting a Winner--Two + Crowded Corners--The Rival Salons--The Palais des + Beaux-Arts--Dutch Masters--Modern French Painters--Superb + Drawing--Fairies among the Statues--The Pont Alexandre + III.--The Fairs of Paris--A Vast Alms-house--A Model + Museum--Relics of Napoleon--The Second Funeral of + Napoleon--The Tomb of Napoleon. + + +The Place de la Concorde by day is vast rather than beautiful, and by +night it is a congress of lamps. By both it is dangerous, and in bad +weather as exposed as the open sea. But it is sacred ground and Paris +is unthinkable without it. The interest of the Place is summed up in +the Luxor column, which may perhaps be said to mark what is perhaps +the most critical site in modern history; for where the obelisk now +stands stood not so very long ago the guillotine. + +The Place's name has been Concorde only since 1830 It began in 1763, +when a bronze statue of Louis XV. on horseback was erected there, +surrounded by emblematic figures, from the chisel of Pigalle, of +Prudence, Justice, Force and Peace. Hence the characteristic French +epigram:-- + + "O la belle statue, O le beau piedestal! + Les Vertus sont a pied, le Vice est a cheval." + +Before this time the Place had been an open and uncultivated space; it +was now enclosed, surrounded with fosses, made trim, and called La +Place Louis Quinze. In 1770, however, came tragedy; for on the +occasion of the marriage of the Dauphin, afterwards the luckless Louis +XVI., with the equally luckless Marie Antoinette, a display of +fireworks was given, during which one of the rockets (as one always +dreads at every display) declined the sky and rushed horizontally into +the crowd, and in the resulting stampede thousands of persons fell +into the ditches, twelve hundred being killed outright and two +thousand injured. + +Twenty-two years later, kings having suddenly become cheap, the +National Convention ordered the statue of Louis XV. to be melted down +and recast into cannon, a clay figure of Liberte to be set up in its +stead, and the name to be changed to the Place de la Revolution. This +was done, and a little later the guillotine was erected a few yards +west of the spot where the Luxor column now stands, primarily for the +removal of the head of Louis XVI., in whose honour those unfortunate +fireworks had been ignited. The day was January 21st, 1793. + +"King Louis," says Carlyle, "slept sound, till five in the morning, +when Clery, as he had been ordered, awoke him. Clery dressed his hair: +while this went forward, Louis took a ring from his watch, and kept +trying it on his finger; it was his wedding-ring, which he is now to +return to the Queen as a mute farewell. At half-past six, he took the +Sacrament; and continued in devotion, and conference with Abbe +Edgeworth. He will not see his Family: it were too hard to bear. + +"At eight, the Municipals enter: the King gives them his Will, and +messages and effects; which they, at first, brutally refuse to take +charge of: he gives them a roll of gold pieces, a hundred and +twenty-five louis; these are to be returned to Malesherbes, who had +lent them. At nine, Santerre says the hour is come. The King begs yet +to retire for three minutes. At the end of three minutes, Santerre +again says the hour is come. 'Stamping on the ground with his +right-foot, Louis answers: "_Partons_, Let us go."'--How the rolling +of those drums comes in, through the Temple bastions and bulwarks, on +the heart of a queenly wife; soon to be a widow! He is gone, then, and +has not seen us? A Queen weeps bitterly; a King's Sister and Children. +Over all these Four does Death also hover: all shall perish miserably +save one; she, as Duchesse d'Angouleme, will live,--not happily. + +"At the Temple Gate were some faint cries, perhaps from voices of +pitiful women: '_Grace! Grace!_' Through the rest of the streets there +is silence as of the grave. No man not armed is allowed to be there: +the armed, did any even pity, dare not express it, each man overawed +by all his neighbours. All windows are down, none seen looking through +them. All shops are shut. No wheel-carriage rolls, this morning, in +these streets but one only. Eighty thousand armed men stand ranked, +like armed statues of men; cannons bristle, cannoneers with match +burning, but no word or movement: it is as a city enchanted into +silence and stone: one carriage with its escort, slowly rumbling, is +the only sound. Louis reads, in his Book of Devotion, the Prayers of +the Dying: clatter of this death-march falls sharp on the ear, in the +great silence; but the thought would fain struggle heavenward, and +forget the Earth. + +"As the clocks strike ten, behold the Place de la Revolution, once +Place de Louis Quinze: the Guillotine, mounted near the old Pedestal +where once stood the Statue of that Louis! Far round, all bristles +with cannons and armed men: spectators crowding in the rear; D'Orleans +Egalite there in cabriolet. Swift messengers, _hoquetons_, speed to +the Townhall, every three minutes: near by is the Convention +sitting,--vengeful for Lepelletier. Heedless of all, Louis reads his +Prayers of the Dying; not till five minutes yet has he finished; then +the Carriage opens. What temper he is in? Ten different witnesses will +give ten different accounts of it. He is in the collision of all +tempers; arrived now at the black Maelstrom and descent of Death: in +sorrow, in indignation, in resignation struggling to be resigned. +'Take care of M. Edgeworth,' he straitly charges the Lieutenant who is +sitting with them: then they two descend. + +"The drums are beating: '_Taisez-vous_, Silence!' he cries 'in a +terrible voice, _d'une voix terrible_'. He mounts the scaffold, not +without delay; he is in puce coat, breeches of gray, white stockings. +He strips off the coat; stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of +white flannel. The Executioners approach to bind him: he spurns, +resists; Abbe Edgeworth has to remind him how the Saviour, in whom men +trust, submitted to be bound. His hands are tied, his head bare, the +fatal moment is come. He advances to the edge of the Scaffold, 'his +face very red,' and says: 'Frenchmen, I die innocent: it is from the +Scaffold and near appearing before God that I tell you so. I pardon my +enemies: I desire that France----' A General on horseback, Santerre or +another, prances out, with uplifted hand: '_Tambours!_' The drums +drown the voice. Executioners, do your duty!' The Executioners, +desperate lest themselves be murdered (for Santerre and his Armed +Ranks will strike, if they do not), seize the hapless Louis: six of +them desperate, him singly desperate, struggling there; and bind him +to their plank. Abbe Edgeworth, stooping, bespeaks him: 'Son of Saint +Louis, ascend to Heaven'. The Axe clanks down; a King's Life is shorn +away. It is Monday the 21st of January, 1793. He was aged Thirty-eight +years, four months and twenty-eight days. + + [Illustration: VIEUX HOMME ET ENFANT + GHIRLANDAIO + _(Louvre)_] + +"Executioner Samson shows the Head: fierce shout of _Vive la +Republique_ rises, and swells; caps raised on bayonets, hats waving; +students of the College of Four Nations take it up, on the far Quais; +fling it over Paris. D'Orleans drives off in his cabriolet: the +Townhall Councillors rub their hands, saying, 'It is done, It is +done'. There is dipping of handkerchiefs, of pike-points in the blood. +Headsman Samson, though he afterwards denied it, sells locks of the +hair: fractions of the puce coat are long after worn in rings.--And +so, in some half-hour it is done; and the multitude has all departed. +Pastry-cooks, coffee-sellers, milkmen sing out their trivial quotidian +cries: the world wags on, as if this were a common day. In the +coffee-houses that evening, says Prudhomme, Patriot shook hands with +Patriot in a more cordial manner than usual. Not till some days after, +according to Mercier, did public men see what a grave thing it was." + +The guillotine for more ordinary purposes worked in the Place du +Carrousel, not far from Gambetta's statue to-day; but from May, 1793, +until June, 1794, it was back in the Place de la Concorde (then Place +de la Revolution) again, accounting during that time for no fewer than +1,235 offenders, including Charlotte Corday, Madame Roland and Marie +Antoinette. The blood flowed daily, while the tricoteuses looked on +over their knitting and the mob howled. + +Another removal, to the Place de la Bastille, and then on 28th July, +1794, the engine of justice or vengeance was back again to end a life +and the Reign of Terror in one blow. What life? But listen: +"Robespierre," lay in an anteroom of the Convention Hall, while his +Prison-escort was getting ready; the mangled jaw bound up rudely with +bloody linen: a spectacle to men. He lies stretched on a table, a +deal-box his pillow; the sheath of the pistol is still clenched +convulsively in his hand. Men bully him, insult him: his eyes still +indicate intelligence; he speaks no word. 'He had on the sky-blue coat +he had got made for the Feast of the _Etre Supreme_'--O Reader, can +thy hard heart hold out against that? His trousers were nankeen; the +stockings had fallen down over the ankles. He spake no word more in +this world. + +"And so, at six in the morning, a victorious Convention adjourns. +Report flies over Paris as on golden wings; penetrates the Prisons; +irradiates the faces of those that were ready to perish: turnkeys and +_moutons_, fallen from their high estate, look mute and blue. It is +the 28th day of July, called 10th of Thermidor, year 1794. + +"Fouquier had but to identify; his Prisoners being already Out of Law. +At four in the afternoon, never before were the streets of Paris seen +so crowded. From the Palais de Justice to the Place de la Revolution, +for _thither_ again go the Tumbrils this time, it is one dense +stirring mass; all windows crammed; the very roofs and ridge-tiles +budding forth human Curiosity, in strange gladness. The +Death-tumbrils, with their motley Batch of Outlaws, some twenty-three +or so, from Maximilien to Mayor Fleuriot and Simon the Cordwainer, +roll on. All eyes are on Robespierre's Tumbril, where he, his jaw +bound in dirty linen, with his half-dead Brother and half-dead +Henriot, lie shattered; their 'seventeen hours' of agony about to end. +The Gendarmes point their swords at him, to show the people which is +he. A woman springs on the Tumbril; clutching the side of it with one +hand, waving the other Sibyl-like; and exclaims: 'The death of thee +gladdens my very heart, _m'enivre de joie_'; Robespierre opened his +eyes; '_Scelerat_, go down to Hell, with the curses of all wives and +mothers!'--At the foot of the scaffold, they stretched him on the +ground till his turn came. Lifted aloft, his eyes again opened; caught +the bloody axe. Samson wrenched the coat off him; wrenched the dirty +linen from his jaw: the jaw fell powerless, there burst from him a +cry;--hideous to hear and see. Samson, thou canst not be too quick! + +"Samson's work done, there bursts forth shout on shout of applause. +Shout, which prolongs itself not only over Paris, but over France, but +over Europe, and down to this generation. Deservedly, and also +undeservedly. O unhappiest Advocate of Arras, wert thou worse than +other Advocates? Stricter man, according to his Formula, to his Credo +and his Cant, of probities, benevolences, pleasures-of-virtue, and +suchlike, lived not in that age. A man fitted, in some luckier settled +age, to have become one of those incorruptible barren Pattern-Figures, +and have had marble-tablets and funeral-sermons. His poor landlord, +the Cabinet-maker in the Rue Saint-Honore, loved him; his Brother died +for him. May God be merciful to him and to us! + +"This is the end of the Reign of Terror." + +In 1799 the Place won its name Concorde. The next untoward sight that +it was to see was Prussian and Russian soldiers encamping there in +1814 and 1815, and in 1815 the British. By this time it had been +renamed Place Louis Quinze, which in 1826 was changed to Place Louis +Seize, and a project was afoot for raising a monument to that +monarch's memory on the spot where he fell. But the Revolution of 1830 +intervened, and "Concorde" resumed its sway, and in 1836 +Louis-Philippe, the new king (whose father, Philippe Egalite, had +perished on the guillotine here), erected the Luxor column, which had +been given to him by Mohammed Ali, and had once stood before the great +temple of Thebes commemorating on its sides the achievements of +Rameses II. Since then certain symbolic statues of the great French +cities (including unhappy Strassburg) have been set up, and the Place +is a model of symmetry; and at the time that I write (1909) a great +part of it is enclosed within hoardings for I know not what purpose, +but I hope a subway for the saving of the lives of pedestrians, for it +must be the most perilous crossing in the world. One has but to set +foot in the roadway and straightway motor-cars and cabs spring out of +the earth and converge upon one from every point of the compass, in +the amazing French way. Concorde, indeed! + + [Illustration: THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE + (LOOKING NORTH) + AUTOMOBILE CLUB + THE MADELEINE + MINISTERE DE LA MARINE] + +If the Place de la Concorde may be called at night a congress of +lamps, the Champs-Elysees in the afternoon may be said to be a +congress of wheels. Wheels in such numbers and revolving at such a +pace are never seen in England, not even on the Epsom road on Derby +Day. For there is no speed limit for the French motor-car. Nor have we +in England anything like this superb roadway, so wide and open, +climbing so confidently to the Arc de Triomphe, with its groves on +either side at the foot, and the prosperous white mansions afterwards. +It is not our way. We English, with our ambition to conquer and +administer the world, have neglected our own home; the French, with no +ambition any longer to wander beyond their own borders, have made +their home beautiful. The energy which we as a nation put into greater +Britain, they have put into buildings, into statues, into roads. The +result is that we have the Transvaal, Australia, New Zealand, Canada +and India, but it is the French, foregoing such possessions and all +their anxieties, who have the Champs-Elysees. + +The Champs-Elysees were planned and laid out by Marie de Medicis in +1616, and the Cours la Reine, her triple avenue of trees, still +exists; but Napoleon is the father of the scheme which culminates so +magnificently in the Arc de Triomphe. The particular children's +paradise of Paris is in the gardens between the main road and the +Elysee, where they bowl their hoops and spin their Diabolo spools, and +ride on the horses of minute round-abouts turned by hand, and watch +the marionettes, with the tired eyes of Alphonse Daudet, who sits for +ever, close by, in very white stone, watching them. Here also are the +open-air cafes, the Ambassadeurs and the Alcazar, while on the other, +the river, side are the Jardin de Paris, a curiously Lutetian haunt, +and Ledoyen's, one of the pleasantest of restaurants in summer. + +Just above this point we ought to turn to the left to visit the Petit +Palais and cross the Pont Alexandre III., but since we are on the way +let us now climb to the Etoile, and on to the Bois, first, however, +just turning off the Rond-Point for a moment to look at No. 3 Avenue +Matignon, where Heine (beside whose grave we are to stand on +Montmartre) suffered and died. + +The Place de l'Etoile might be called a kind of gilt-edged Seven +Dials, since so many roads lead from it. Aristocratic Paris comes to a +head here. On the right runs from it the Avenue de Friedland, leading +to the Boulevard Haussmann, which meets with so inglorious an end at +the Rue Taitbout, but is perhaps to be cut through to join the +Boulevard Montmartre. Next on the right is the Avenue Hoche, running +directly into the Parc Monceau, a terrestrial paradise to which good +mondaines certainly go when they die. A little appartement overlooking +the Parc Monceau--there is tangible heaven, if you like! + +The Parc itself is small but perfect, elegant and expensive and +verdant. The children (one feels) are all titled, the bonnes are +visibly miracles of distinction and the babies masses of point lace; +the ladies on the chairs must be Comtesses or Baronnes, and the air +is carefully scented. That is the Parc Monceau. It needed but one +detail to make it complete, and that was supplied a few years ago: a +statue of Guy de Maupassant, consisting of a block of the most radiant +marble to be procured, with the novelist as its apex, and at the base +a Parisienne reading one of his stories. Other statues there are: of +Ambroise Thomas the composer, to whom Mignon offers a floral tribute; +of Pailleron the dramatist, attended by an actress; of Gounod +surrounded by Marguerite, Juliet, Sappho and a little Love; and of +Chopin seated at the piano, with the figures of Night and Harmony to +inspire him. These are only a few; but they are typical. Every statue +in the Parc has a damsel or two, according to his desire. It is the +mode. There is also a minute lake, on the edge of which have been set +up a number of Corinthian columns; and before you have been seated a +minute, an old woman appears from nowhere and demands twopence for +what she poetically calls an armchair, the extra penny being added as +a compliment to the two uncomfortable wires at the side which you had +been wishing you could break off. Such is the Parc Monceau, the like +of which exists not in London: the ideal pleasaunce of the wealthy. +Through it, I might add, you may drive; but only at a walking +pace--_au pas_. If the horse were to trot he might shake some petals +off. + +At the western gate is the Musee Cernuschi, containing a collection of +oriental pottery and bronzes. I am no connoisseur of these beautiful +things, but I advise all readers of this book to visit both this +museum and the Guimet in the Place d'Iena, which is a treasury of +Japanese and Chinese art. + +Returning to the Etoile, the next avenue is the Avenue de Wagram, +running north to the Porte d'Asnieres, while that which continues the +Avenue des Champs-Elysees in a straight line west by north is the +Avenue de la Grande Armee, running to the Porte Maillot and Neuilly. +On the left the first avenue is the Avenue Marceau, which leads to the +Place de l'Alma; the next the Avenue d'Iena, leading to the Place +d'Iena; the next, the Avenue Kleber, running straight to the Trocadero +(into which I have never penetrated) and Passy, where the English +live; the next, the Avenue Victor Hugo, which never stops; and finally +the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, the most beautiful roadway in new +Paris, along which we shall fare when we have examined the Arc de +Triomphe. + +This trophy of success was begun, as I have said, by Napoleon to +celebrate the victories of 1805 and 1806; Louis-Philippe finished it +in 1836. Why Louis XVIII. did not destroy it or complete it as a +further memorial of the Restoration, I cannot say. Napoleon's original +idea was, however, tampered with by his successors, who allowed a +bas-relief representing the Blessings of Peace in 1815 to be included. +The sculptures are otherwise wholly devoted to the glorification of +war, Napoleon and the French army; but they are not to be studied +without serious inconvenience. My advice to the conscientious student +would be to buy photographs or picture postcards, and examine them at +home: the Arc de Triomphe is too great and splendid for such detail. +From the top one can see all round Paris, and though one cannot look +down on it all as from the Eiffel Tower, or see, beneath one, such an +interesting district as from Notre Dame, it is yet a wonderfully +interesting view. + +The Avenue du Bois de Boulogne has the finest road in what is, so to +speak, the Marais of the present day; that is to say, in the modern +quarter of the aristocratic and wealthy. We have seen riches and rank +moving from the Marais to the Faubourg St. Germain and from the +Faubourg St. Germain to the Faubourg St. Honore, and now we find them +here, and here they seem likely to remain. And indeed to move farther +would be foolish, for surely there never was, and could not be, a more +beautiful city site than this anywhere in the world--with its wide +cool lawns on either side, and its gay colouring, and the Bois so +near. Here too, on the heads of the comfortable complacent bonnes, are +the most radiant caps you ever saw. + +The Bois de Boulogne, which takes its name from the little town of +Boulogne to the south of it, now a suburb of Paris, began its life as +a Paris park in the eighteen-fifties. Before that it was a forest of +great trees, which indeed remained until the Franco-Prussian war, when +they were cut down in order that they might not give cover to the +enemy. That is why the present groves are all of a size. I cannot +describe the Bois better than by saying that it is as if Hyde Park, +Sandown Park, Kempton Park, and Epping Forest were all thrown together +between Shepherd's Bush, Acton and the river. London would then have +something like the Bois; and yet it would not be like the Bois at all, +because it would rapidly become a desert of newspapers and empty +bottles, whereas, although in the summer populous with picnic parties, +the Bois is always clean and fresh. + +There are several gates to the Bois, but the principal ones are the +Porte Maillot at the end of the Avenue de la Grande Armee, and the +Porte Dauphine at the end of the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, and it is +through the latter that the thousands of vehicles pass on their way to +the races on happy Sundays in the spring and autumn. Most English +people visiting the Bois merely drive to the races and back again; it +is quite the exception to find any one who really knows the Bois--who +has walked round the two lakes, Lac Inferieur, which feeds the cascade +under which one may walk (as at Niagara), and Lac Superieur; who has +seen a play in the Theatre de Verdure, or an exhibition at Bagatelle, +the villa of the late Sir Richard Wallace, who gave the Champs-Elysees +its drinking fountains and London the Wallace Collection. Bagatelle +now belongs to Paris. Every English visitor, however, remembers the +stone animals, dogs and deer, in the lawn of the Villa de Longchamp on +the right as one approaches the race-course, and the windmill on the +left, one of the several inoperative windmills of Paris, which +marks the site of the old Abbey of Longchamp, founded by Isabella, the +sister of Saint Louis. + + [Illustration: VENUS ET L'AMOUR + REMBRANDT + _(Louvre)_] + +The Bois has two restaurants of the highest quality and +price--Armenonville, close to the Porte Maillot, a favourite +dining-place when the Fete de Neuilly is in progress, in the summer, +and the Pre Catelan, near Lac Inferieur and close to the point where +the Allee de la Reine-Marguerite and the Allee de Longchamp cross. In +the summer it is quite the thing for the young bloods who frequent the +night cafes on Montmartre to drive into the Bois in the early morning +and drink a glass of milk in the Pre Catelan's dairy, perhaps bringing +the milkmaids with them. + +The Bois has two race-courses, but it is at Longchamp that the +principal races are run--the Grand Prix and the Conseil Municipal. +Racing men tell me that the defect of the pari-mutuel system is that +one cannot arrange one's book, since the odds are always more or less +of a surprise; but to one who does not bet on horses anywhere but in +Paris, and who views an English bookmaker with alarm, if not positive +terror, the pari-mutuel seems perfect in its easy and silent workings +and the dramatic unfolding of its surprises. For first you have the +fun of picking out your horse; then quietly putting your money on him, +to win or for a place; and then, after the race is run and your horse +is a winner, you have those five to ten delightfully anxious minutes +while the actuaries are working out the odds. + +An experience of my own will illustrate not only the method of the +system but the haphazard principles on which a stranger's modest +gambling can be done. On the morning of the races I had visited the +Louvre with Mr. Dexter, the artist of this book. We had not much time, +and were therefore proposing to look only at the Leonardos and the +Rembrandts, which are separated by a considerable stretch of gallery +hung with other pictures. On leaving the Leonardos we walked briskly +towards the Dutch end; Mr. Dexter, however, loitered here and there, +and I was some distance ahead when he called me back to see a Holbein. +It was worth going back for. In the afternoon at Longchamp, when the +time came before the race to pick out the horses who were to have the +honour of carrying my money, I noticed that one of them was named +Holbein. Having already that day been pleased with a Holbein, I +accepted the circumstance as a line of guidance, and placed a +five-franc piece on the brave animal. He came in first, and being an +outsider his price was 185.50. + +The Longchamp course is perfectly managed. There are three places +where one may go--to the pesage, which costs twenty francs for a +cavalier and ten francs for a dame; to the pavillon, which is half +that price; or to the pelouse, where the people congregate, which +costs a franc. Perfect order reigns everywhere. + +For the wanderer who has no carriage awaiting him and no appointments +to hurry him there are two entertaining things to do when the races +are over on a fine Sunday afternoon. One is to cross the Seine to +Suresnes by the adjacent bridge and sitting at the cafe that faces it, +watch the crowd and the traffic, for this is on a main road from Paris +to the country; or walking the other way, one may enjoy a similar +spectacle at the Cafe du Sport outside the Porte Maillot and study at +one's ease the happy French in holiday mood--the husbands with their +wives and their two children, and the Sunday lovers arm in arm. + +And now we return to the Champs-Elysees in order to look at some +pictures and admire a beautiful bridge. For the Avenue Alexandre III., +as for the Pont Alexandre III., Paris is indebted to the 1900 +Exhibition. These are her permanent gains, and very valuable they are. +Of the two white palaces on either side of this green and spacious +Avenue, that on the right, as we face the golden dome of the +Invalides, is the home of the Salon and of various exhibitions. I say +Salon, but Paris now has many Salons, two of which, in more or less +amicable rivalry, occupy this building at the same time. In one, the +Salon proper, the Salon of the old guard, the Royal Academicians of +France, there are miles of paint but few experiments; in the other, +where the more independent spirits--the New Englishers, so to +speak--hang their works in personal groups, there are fewer miles but +more outrages. For outrages, however, pure and simple (or even impure +and complex), I recommend the Salon that is now held in the early +spring in some of the old Exhibition buildings on the banks of the +river, close to the Pont d'Alexandre III. I have seen pictures +there--nudities, in the manner of Aztec decorations, by the youngest +French artists of the moment--which made one want to scream. It was +said once that the French knew how to paint but not what to paint, and +the English what to paint but not how to paint it. Since then there +has been such a fusing of nationalities, such increased and humble +appreciation on the part of the English painters of the best French +methods, that one can no longer talk in that kind of cast-iron +epigram; but it is impossible to see some of the crude innovating work +now being done without the reflection that France is rapidly and +successfully creating a school of artists who not only know not what +to paint but how to paint too. + +The Palais des Beaux-Arts, which was built for the collection of +pictures at the Exhibition of 1900, is now a permanent gallery for the +preservation of the various works of art acquired from time to time by +the municipality of Paris, thus differing from the Luxembourg +collections, which are national. The Palais has become a kind of +brother of the Carnavalet, the one being the historical museum of +Paris and the other--the Palais--the artistic museum of Paris. The +Palais undoubtedly contains much that is not of the highest quality, +but no one who is interested in modern French painting and drawing can +afford to neglect it, while the recent acquisition of the Collection +Dutuit, consisting chiefly of small but choice pictures of the Dutch +masters, including a picture of Rembrandt with his dog, from his own +hand, has added a rather necessary touch of antiquity. + +One of the special rooms is devoted to pictures of the opulent Felix +Ziem, painter of Venetian sunsets and the sky at its most golden, +wherever it may be found, who is still (1909) living in honourable +state on those slopes of the mountain of fame which are reserved for +the few rare spirits that become old masters before they die, and who +presented his pictures to Paris a few years ago; another room is +filled with the works of the late Jean Jacques Henner, whose pallid +nudities, emerging from voluptuous gloom, still look yearningly at one +from the windows of so many Paris picture dealers. Henner, I must +confess, is not a painter whom I greatly esteem; but few modern French +artists were more popular in their day. He died in 1905, and this gift +of his work was made by his son. Other French artists to have rooms of +their own in the Palais are Jean Carries the sculptor, who died in +1894 at the age of thirty-nine, after an active career in the +modelling of quaint and grotesque and realistic figures, one of the +best known and most charming of his many works being "La Fillette au +Pantin" (No. 1338 in the collection); and Jules Dalou (1838-1902), +also a sculptor, a man of more vigour although of less charm than his +neighbour in the Palais. That strange gift of untiring abundant +creativeness which the French have so notably, Dalou also shared, his +busy fingers having added thousands of new figures to those that +already congest life, while he modelled also many a well-known head. +I think that I like best his "Esquisses de Travailleurs". Nothing +here, however, is so fascinating as Dalou's own head by Rodin in the +Luxembourg. + +Of the picture collection proper I am saying but little, for it is in +a fluid state, and even in the catalogue before me, the latest +edition, there is no mention of several of its finest treasures: among +them Manet's portrait of Theodore Duret, a sketch of an old peasant +woman's hand by Madame David, a Rip Van Winkle by that modern master +of the grotesque and Rabelaisian, Jean Veber, and one of Mr. Sargent's +Venetian sketches--the racing gondoliers. For the most part it is like +revisiting the past few Salons, except that the pictures are more +choice and less numerous; but one sees many old friends, and all the +expected painters are here. It is of course the surprises that one +remembers--the three Daumiers, for example, particularly "L'Amateur +d'Estampes," reproduced opposite page 286, and "Les Joueurs d'Echecs," +and the fine collection of the drawings of Puvis de Chavannes and +Daniel Vierge. I was also much taken with some topographical drawings +by Adrian Karbowski--No. 494 in the catalogue. Other pictures and +drawings which should be seen are those by Cazin (a sunset), +Pointelin, Steinlen (some work-girls), Sisley, Lebourg, and +Harpignies, who exhibits water-colours separated in time by fifty-nine +years, 1849 to 1908. The drawings on a whole are far better than the +paintings. + +In the collection Dutuit look at Ruisdael's "Environs de Haarlem," +Terburg's "La Fiancee," Hobbema's "Les Moulins" and a woodland scene, +Pot's "Portrait of a Man," Van de Velde's landscape sketches, and the +Rembrandt. The rooms downstairs are not worth visiting. + +Among the statuary, some of which is very good, particularly a new +unsigned and uncatalogued Joan of Arc, is a naked Victor Hugo holding +a MS. in his hand; while Fremiet of course confronts the door, this +time with a really fine George and the Dragon, George having a spear +worthy of the occasion, and not the short and useless broadsword which +he brandishes on the English sovereign. + +On my last visit to this thinly populated gallery I was for some time +one of three visitors, until suddenly the vast spaces were humanised +by the gracious and winsome presence of a band of Isidora Duncan's gay +little dancers, with a kindly companion to tell them about the +pictures, and--what interested them more--the statues. These tiny +lissome creatures flitting among the cold rigid marbles I shall not +soon forget. + +And so we come to the Pont Alexandre III., the bridge whose width and +radiance are an ever fresh surprise and joy, and make our way to the +Invalides, at the end of the prospect, across the great Esplanade des +Invalides, so quiet to-day, but for a month of every year, so noisy +and variegated with round-abouts and booths. It is, by the way, well +worth while, whenever one is in Paris, to find out what fair is being +held. For somewhere or other a fair is always being held. You can get +the particulars from the invaluable _Bottin_ or _Bottin Mondain_, +which every restaurant keeps, and which is even exposed to public +scrutiny on a table at the Gare du Nord, and for all I know to the +contrary, at the other stations too. This is one of the lessons which +might be learned from Paris by London, where you ask in vain for a +_Post Office Directory_ in all but the General Post Office. _Bottin_, +who knows all, will give you the time and place of every fair. The +best is the Fete de Neuilly, which is held in the summer, just outside +the Porte Maillot, but all the arrondissements have their own. They +are crowded scenes of noisy life; but they are amusing too, and their +popularity shows you how juvenile is the Frenchman's heart. + +One should enter the Invalides from the great Place and round off the +inspection of the Musee de l'Armee by a visit to Napoleon's tomb; +that, at least, is the symmetrical order. The Hotel des Invalides +proper, which set the fashion in military hospitals, was built by +Louis XIV., who may be seen on his horse in bas-relief on the +principal facade. The building once sheltered and tended 7,000 wounded +soldiers; but there are now only fifty. From its original function as +a military hospital for any kind of disablement it has dwindled to a +home for a few incurables; while the greater portion of the building +is now given up to collections and to civic offices. There could be no +greater contrast than that between the imposing architecture of the +main structure and the charming domestic facade in the Boulevard des +Invalides, which is one of the pleasantest of the old Paris +buildings and has some of the simplicity of an English almshouse. + + [Illustration: LES PELERINS D'EMMAUES + REMBRANDT + _(Louvre)_] + +It is not until we enter the great Court of Honour that we catch sight +of Napoleon, whose figure dominates the opposite wall. Thereafter one +thinks of little else. Louis XIV. disappears. + +Passing some dingy frescoes which the weather has treated vilely, we +enter the Musee Historique on the left--unless one has an overwhelming +passion for artillery, armour and the weapons of savages, in which +case one turns to the right. I mention the alternative because there +is far too much to see on one visit, and it is well to concentrate on +the more interesting. For me guns and armour and the weapons of +savages are without any magic while there are to be seen such human +relics as have been brought together in the Musee Historique on the +opposite side of the Court. The whole place, by the way, is a model +for the Carnavalet, in that everything is precisely and clearly +labelled. This, since it is a favourite resort of simple +folk--soldiers and their parents and sweethearts--is a thoughtful +provision. + +The Musee Historique has at every turn something profoundly +interesting, and incidentally it tells something of the men from whom +numbers of Paris streets take their names; but the real and poignant +interest is Napoleon. The Longwood room is to me too painful. The +project of the admirable administrator has been to illustrate the +whole pageant of French arms; but the Man of Destiny quickly becomes +all-powerful, and one finds oneself looking only for signs and tokens +of his personality. So it should be, under the shadow of the Dome +which covers his ashes. I would personally go farther and collect at +the Invalides all the Napoleonic relics that one now must visit so +many places to see--the Carnavalet, Fontainebleau, the Musee Grevin, +our own United Service Museum in Whitehall (as if we had the right to +a single article from St. Helena!), Madame Tussaud's, and Versailles. +There is even a room at the Arts Decoratifs devoted nominally to +Napoleon, but it has few articles of personal interest and none of any +intimacy--merely splendid costumes for occasions and ceremonials of +State, with a few of Josephine's lace caps among them. Its purpose is +to illustrate the Empire rather than the Emperor, but the Invalides +should have what there is. + +At the Invalides you may, I suppose, see in three or four rooms more +Napoleonic relics of a personal character than anywhere else. In +Whitehall is the chair he died in; but here is his garden-seat from +St. Helena, one bar of which was removed to allow him as he sat to +pass his arm through and be more at his ease as he looked out to the +ocean that was to do nothing for him. At Whitehall is the skeleton of +his horse Marengo; here is the saddle. Here are his grey redingote and +more than one of his hats. Among the relics in the special Napoleonic +rooms those of his triumph and his fall are mixed. Here is the bullet +that wounded him at Ratisbon; here are his telescopes and his maps, +his travelling desks and his pistols; here are the toys of the little +Duke of Reichstadt; here is the walking stick on which Napoleon +leaned at St. Helena, his dressing-gown, his bed, his armchair and his +death-mask. Here are the railings of the tomb at St. Helena, and a +case of leaves and stones and pieces of wood and other natural +surroundings of the same spot. Here also is the pall that covered his +coffin on the way to its final burial under the Dome close by. + +It is a fitting end to the study of these storied corridors to pass to +the tomb of the protagonist of the drama we have been contemplating. +The Emperor's remains were brought to Paris in 1840, nineteen years +after his death at St. Helena. Thackeray, in his _Second Funeral of +Napoleon_, wrote a vivid, although to my mind hateful, description of +the ceremonial: a piece of complacent flippancy, marked by the worst +kind of French irreverence, which shows him in his least admirable +mood, particularly when he is pleased to be amusing over the +difference between the features of the Emperor dead and living. None +the less it is an absorbing narrative. + +One looks down upon the sarcophagus, which lies in a marble well. It +is simple, solemn and severe, and to a few persons, not Titmarshes, +inexpressibly melancholy. The Emperor's words from his will, "Je +desire que mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu +de ce peuple francais que j'ai tant aime," are placed at the entrance +to the crypt. He had not the Invalides in mind when he wrote them; but +one feels that the Invalides is as right a spot for him as any in this +land of short memories and light mockeries. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BOULEVARD ST. GERMAIN AND ITS TRIBUTARIES + + An Aristocratic Quarter--Adrienne Lecouvreur--A Grisly + Museum--A Changeless City--The Pasteur Institute--The Golden + Key--The Stoppeur--Sterne--The Beaux Arts--A Wilderness of + Copies--Voltaire Clad and Naked--The Mint--An Inquisitive + Visitor--Bad Money. + + +From the Invalides the Boulevard St. Germain, the west to east highway +of the Surrey side of Paris, is easily gained; but it is not in itself +very interesting. The interesting streets either cross it or run more +or less parallel with it, such as the old and winding Rue de Grenelle, +which we come to at once, the home of the Parisian aristocracy after +its removal from the Marais. The houses are little changed: merely the +tenants; and certain Embassies are now here. No. 18 was once the Hotel +de Beauharnais, the home of the fair Josephine; at the Russian +Embassy, No. 79, the Duchesse d'Estrees lived. In an outhouse at No. +115 was buried in unconsecrated ground Adrienne Lecouvreur, the +tragedienne who made tragedy, the beloved of Marechal Saxe. Scribe's +drama has made her story known--how her heart was too much for her, +and how Christian burial was refused her by a Christian priest. + +The Rue St. Dominique, parallel with the Rue de Grenelle nearer the +river, is equally old and august. At No. 13 lived Madame de Genlis, +the monitress of French youth. Still nearer the river runs the long +Rue de l'Universite, which also has an illustrious past and a +picturesque present, some great French noble having built nearly every +house. + +One of the first old streets to cross the Boulevard St. Germain is the +Rue du Bac, a roadway made when the Palace of the Tuileries was +building, to convey materials from Vaugiraud to the _bac_ (or ferry +boat) which crossed the Seine where the Pont Royal now stands. This +street also is full of ancient palaces and convents. Chateaubriand +died at 118-120. At 128 is the Seminaires des Missions Etrangeres, +with a terrible little museum called the Chambre des Martyrs, very +French in character, displaying instruments of torture which have been +used upon missionaries in China and other countries inimical (like +poor Adrienne's priest) to Christianity. The Rue des Saints-Peres +resembles the Rue du Bac, but is more attractive to the loiterer +because it has perhaps the greatest number of old curiosity shops of +any street in Paris. They touch each other: perhaps they take in each +other's dusting. I never saw a customer enter; but that of course +means nothing. One might be sure of finding a case made of peau de +chagrin here and be equally sure that Balzac had trodden this +pavement before you. You will see, however, nothing or very little +that is beautiful, because Paris does not care much for sheer beauty. + +The Rue des Saints-Peres runs upwards into the Rue de Sevres, where +old convents cluster and the Bon Marche raises its successful modern +bulk. It was in the Abbaye-aux-Bois, once at the corner of the Rue de +Sevres and the Rue de la Chaise, but now buried beneath a gigantic +block of new flats, that Madame Recamier lived from 1814 until her +death in 1849, visited latterly every day by the faithful +Chateaubriand. M. Georges Cain has a charming chapter on this +friendship and its scene in his _Promenades dans Paris_, of which an +English translation, entitled _Walks in Paris_, has recently been +published. + +Returning to the Boulevard St. Germain, which we leave as often as we +touch it, I remember that, on the south side, between the Invalides +end and the statue of the inventor of the semaphore, used to be a +little shop devoted to the sale of trophies of Joan of Arc. And since +it used to be there, it follows that it is there still, for nothing in +Paris ever changes. One of the great charms of Paris is that it is +always the same. I can think of hardly any shop that has changed in +the last ten years. This means, I suppose, that the French rarely die. +How can they, disliking as they do to leave Paris? It is the English +and the Scotch, born to forsake their homes and live uncomfortably +foreign lives, who die. + + [Illustration: THE PONT ALEXANDRE III + (FROM THE EAST) + EIFFEL TOWER + TROCADERO] + +If one is interested in seeing the Pasteur Institute, now is the +time, for it is not far from the Rue de Sevres, in the Rue Falguiere, +named after Falguiere the sculptor of the memorial to Pasteur in the +Place Breteuil: one of the best examples of recent Paris statuary, +with a charming shepherd boy playing his pipe to his flock on one side +of the pediment, and grimmer scenes of disease on the others. This +monument, however, is some distance from the Institute, the Place +Breteuil being the first carrefour in that vast and endless avenue +which leads southwards from Napoleon's tomb. The Institute itself has +a spirited statue of Jupille the shepherd, one of its first patients, +in his struggle with the wolf that bit him. Pasteur's tomb is here, +but I have not seen it, as I arrived on the wrong day. + +One of the most attractive of the Boulevard St. Germain's byways is +entered just round the corner of the Rue de Rennes. This is the Cour +du Dragon, which is not only a relic of old Paris, but old Paris is +still visible hard at work in it. The Cour du Dragon is a narrow court +gained by an archway over which a red dragon perches, holding up the +balcony with his vigorous pinions. It was the Hotel Taranne in the +reigns of Charles VI. and VII. and Louis XI.; later it became a famous +riding and fencing school. It is now a cheerful nest of +artisans--coppersmiths, locksmiths, coal merchants and the like, who +fill it with brisk hammerings, while at the windows above, with their +green shutters, the songs of caged birds mingle in the symphony. + +As in all Parisian streets or courts where signs are hung, the golden +key is prominent. (There is one in Mr. Dexter's picture of the Rue de +l'Hotel de Ville.) What the proportion of locksmiths is to the +population of Paris I cannot say; but their pretty symbol is to be +seen everywhere. The reason of their numbers is not very mysterious +when we recollect that practically every one that one meets in this +city, and certainly all the people of the middling and working +classes, live in flats, and all want keys. The streets and streets of +the small houses with which East London is covered are unknown in +Paris, where every facade is but the mask which hides vast tenements +packed with families. No wonder then that the serrurier is so busy. + +Another sign which probably puzzles many English people is that of the +stoppeur. Bellows' dictionary does not recognise the word. What is a +stoppeur and what does he stop? I discovered the answer in the most +practical way possible; for a Frenchman, in a crowd, helped me to it +by pushing his lighted cigar into my back and burning a hole in it, +right in the middle of the coat, where a patch would necessarily show. +I was in despair until the femme de chambre reassured me. It was +nothing, she said: all that was needed was a stoppeur. She would take +the coat herself. It seems that the stoppeur's craft is that of +mending holes so deftly that you would not know there had been any. He +ascertains the pattern by means of a magnifying glass, and then +extracts threads from some part of the garment that does not show and +weaves them in. I paid three francs and have been looking for the +injured spot ever since, but cannot find it. It is a modern miracle. + +Diagonally opposite the Court of the Dragon is the Church of St. +Germain--not the St. Germain who owns the church at the east end of +the Louvre, but St. Germain des Pres, a lesser luminary. It has no +particular beauty, but a number of frescoes by Flandrin, the pupil of +Ingres, give it a cachet. Flandrin's bust is to be observed on the +north wall. The frescoes cannot be seen except under very favourable +conditions, and therefore for me the greatness of Flandrin has to be +sought in his drawings at the Luxembourg and the Louvre--sufficient +proof of his exquisite hand. + +Before descending the Rue Bonaparte to the river, let us ascend it to +see the great church of St. Sulpice and its paintings by Delacroix in +the Chapel of the Holy Angels. Under the Convention St. Sulpice was +the Temple of Victory, and here General Bonaparte was feasted in 1799. +The church is famous for its music and an organ second only to that of +St. Eustache. And now let us descend the Rue Bonaparte to the quais, +where several buildings await us, beginning with the Beaux-Arts at the +foot of the street; but first the Rue Jacob, which bisects the Rue +Bonaparte, should be looked at, for it has had many illustrious +inhabitants, including our own Laurence Sterne, who lodged here, at +No. 46, in the Hotel of his friend Madame Rambouillet (of the easy +manners) when he was studying the French for _A Sentimental Journey_. +It was here perhaps that he penned the famous opening sentence: "'They +order,' said I, 'these things better in France'"--which no other +writer on Paris has succeeded in forgetting. At No. 20 lived Adrienne +Lecouvreur, and hither Voltaire must often have come, for he greatly +admired her. At No. 7 is a fine old staircase and an old well in the +court. + +The Palais des Beaux-Arts, where the Royal Academy Schools of Paris +are situated, is an unexhilarating building containing a great number +of unexciting paintings. Indeed, I think that no public edifice of +Paris is so dreary: within and without one has a sense not exactly of +decay but certainly of neglect. This is not the less odd when one +thinks of the purpose of the institution, which is to foster the arts, +and when one thinks also of the spotless perfection in which the Petit +Palais, the latest of the Parisian picture galleries, is maintained. +The spirit, however, is willing, if the flesh is weak, for in the +first and second courts are examples of the best French architecture, +and a bust of Jean Goujon is let into the wall of the Musee des +Antiques. The building contains a number of casts of the best +sculptures and an amphitheatre with Delaroche's pageant of painters on +the hemicycle and Ingres' Victory of Romulus over the Sabines opposite +it; but there is not always enough light to see either well. For the +best view of Delaroche's great work one must go upstairs to the +Gallery. The library also is upstairs, with many thousand of valuable +works on art and a collection of drawings by the masters, access to +which is made easy to genuine students. + +By returning to the first court we come to the Musee de la +Renaissance, which now occupies an old chapel of the Couvent des +Petits-Augustins, on the site of which the Palais de Beaux-Arts was +built. Here are more casts and copies, and there are still more in the +adjoining Cour du Murier, where stands the memorial of Henri Regnault, +the painter, and the students who died with him during the defence of +Paris in 1870-71. + +We then enter the Salle de Melpomene, so called from the dominating +cast of the Melpomene at the Louvre, and are straightway among what +seem at the first glance to be old friends from all the best galleries +of the world but too quickly are revealed as counterfeits. Rembrandt's +School of Anatomy and the Syndics, our own National Gallery Correggio, +the Dresden Raphael, the Wallace Collection Velasquez (the Lady with a +Fan), one of Hals' groups of arquebusiers, and Paul Potter's Bull: all +are here, together with countless others, all the work of Beaux-Arts +students, and some exceedingly good, but also (like most copies) +exceedingly depressing. + +In other rooms almost pitch dark are modelled studies of expression +and paintings which have won the Grand Prix of Rome during the past +two hundred years. It is odd to notice how few names one recognises: +it is as though, like the Newdigate, this prize were an end in itself. + +Having contemplated the statue of Voltaire in his robes outside the +Institut, the next building of importance after the Beaux Arts, you +may, if you so desire, gaze upon the same philosopher in a state of +nature by entering the Institut itself, and ascending to its +Bibliotheque. There he sits, the skinny cynic, among the books which +he wrote and the books which he read and the books which would not +have been written but for him. I was glad to see him thus, for it +showed me where our own Arouet, Mr. Bernard Shaw, found his +inspiration when he too subjected recently his economical frame to the +maker of portraits. Mr. Shaw sat, however, only to a photographer +(although a very good one, Mr. Coburn); when he visited Rodin it was +for the head, a replica of which may be seen at the Luxembourg. +Speaking of heads, the Institut is a wilderness of them: heads line +the stairs; heads line the walls not only of its own Bibliotheque but +of the Bibliotheque de Mazarin, which also is here, a haven for every +student that cares to seek it: heads of the great Frenchmen of all +time and of the Caesars too. + +The Pont des Arts, which leads direct from the old Louvre to the +Institut (a connection, if ever, no longer of any importance), is for +foot passengers only. One is therefore more at ease there in observing +the river than on the noisy bridge of stone. But it is inexcusably +ugly and leaves one continually wondering what Napoleon was about to +allow it to be built--and of iron too--in his day of good taste. +Looking up stream, the Pont Neuf is close by with the thin green end +of the Cite's wedge protruding under it and, in winter, Henri IV. +riding proudly above. In summer, as Mr. Dexter's drawing shows, he is +hidden by leaves. A basin has been constructed at this point from +which the tide is excluded, and here are washing houses and swimming +baths; for Parisians, having a river, use it. + + [Illustration: LA VIERGE AU DONATEUR + J. VAN EYCK + _(Louvre)_] + +The Hotel des Monnaies, close by the Beaux Arts, is another surprise. +One would expect in such a country as France, with its meticulously +exact control of its public offices, that its Mint, the institution in +which its money was made, would be a miracle of precision and +efficiency. Efficiency it may have; but its proceedings are casual +beyond belief: the workmen in the furnaces loaf and smoke and stare at +the visitors and exchange comments on them; the floors are cluttered +up with lumber; the walls are dirty; the doors do not fit. A very +considerable amount of work seems to be accomplished--there are +machines constantly in movement which turn out scores of coins a +minute, not only for France but for her few and dispiriting colonies +and for other countries; and yet the feeling which one has is that +France here is noticeably below herself. + +I was shown round by a very charming attendant, who handled the new +coins as though he loved them and took precisely that pride in the +place that the Government seems to lack. The design on the French +franc, although it ought to be cut, I think, a little deeper, a little +more boldly, is very attractive, both obverse and reverse, and it is a +pleasant sight to see the bright creatures tumbling out of the +machine as fast as one can count. Pleasanter still is it to the frail +human eye when the same process is repeated with golden +Louis'--baskets full of which stand negligently about as though it +were the cave of the Forty Thieves. + +An Englishman's perhaps indiscreet questions as to what precautions +were taken to prevent leakage amused the guide beyond all reason. "It +is impossible," he said; "the coins are weighed. They must correspond +to the prescribed weight." "But who," my countryman went on, in the +relentless English way, "checks the weigher?" "Another," said the +guide. "But a time must come," continued the Briton, who probably had +a business of his own and had suffered, "when there is no one left to +check--when the last man of all is officiating: how then?" Our guide +laughed very happily, and repeated that there were no thieves there; +and I daresay he is right. "Perhaps," I said, to the English +inquisitor, "perhaps, like assistants in sweet shops, they are allowed +at first to help themselves so much that they acquire a disgust for +money." He looked at me with eyes of stone. I think he had Scotch +blood. "Perhaps," he said at last. + +My own contribution to the guide's entertainment was the production, +before a machine that was shooting five-franc pieces into a bowl at +the rate of one a second, of the four bad (demonetise) coins of the +same value which had been forced upon me during the few days I had +then been in Paris. They gave immense delight. Several mintners (or +whatever they are called) stopped working in order to join in the +inspection. It was the general opinion that I had been badly treated: +although, of course, I ought to have known. Three of the coins were +simply those of other nations no longer current in France, and for +them I could get from two to three francs each at an exchange. Unless, +of course, a man of the world put in, I liked to sell them to a +waiter, and then I should get perhaps a slightly better price. "Be +careful, however," said he, "that he does not give them back to you in +the next change." The fourth coin was frankly base metal and ought not +to have taken in a child. That, by the way, was given to me at a Post +Office, the one under the Bourse, and I find that Post Offices are +notorious for this habit with foreigners. The mintners generally +agreed that it was a scandal, but they did so without heat--bearing +indeed this misfortune (not their own) very much as their countryman +La Rochefoucauld had observed men to do. + +After the coins we saw the medal-stampers at work, each seated in a +little hole in the ground before his press. The French have a natural +gift for the designing of medals, and they are interested in them as +souvenirs not only of public but of private events--such as silver +weddings, birthdays and other anniversaries. Upstairs there is a +collection of medals by the best designers--such as Roty, Patey, +Carial, Chaplain, Dupuis, Dupre--many of them charming. Here also are +collections of the world's coinage and of historical French medals. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LATIN QUARTER + + Old Prints--Procope, Tortoni, and Le Pere Lunette--The + Luxembourg Palace--Rodin--Modern Paintings--A Sinister + Crypt--A Garden of Sculpture--The Students of the Latin + Quarter--The Sorbonne--A Beautiful Museum--The Cluny's + Treasures--Marat and Danton--Old Streets and Dirty--The + River Bievre--Inspired Topography--Dante in Paris. + + +The high road from the centre of Paris to the Latin Quarter is across +the Pont du Carrousel and up the narrow Rue Mazarine, which skirts the +Institut. We have seen on the Quai des Celestins the site of one of +Moliere's theatres: here, at Nos. 12-14, is the house in which he +established his first theatre, on the last day of 1643. The Rue +Mazarin runs into the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie Francaise, at No. 14 +in which was that theatre, whose successor stands at the foot of the +Rue Richelieu. Parallel with the Rue Mazarin is the Rue de Seine, +interesting for its old print shops, not the least interesting +department of which is the portfolios containing students' sketches, +some of them very good. (I might equally have said some of them very +bad.) + +Crossing the Boulevard St. Germain we climb what is now the Rue de +l'Odeon to the Place and theatre of that name, with the statue of +Augier the dramatist before it. The Place de l'Odeon demands some +attention, for at No. 1, now the Cafe Voltaire, was once the famous +Cafe Procope, very significant in the eighteenth century, the resort +of Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists, and later of the Revolutionaries. +Camille Desmoulins indeed made it his home. You may see within +portraits of these old famous habitues. Procopio, a Sicilian who +founded his establishment for the shelter of poor actors and students +(whom Paris then loathed in private life), was the father of all the +Paris cafes. + +The Cafe Procope was to men of intellect what some few years later +Tortoni's was to men of fashion. The Cafe Tortoni was in the Boulevard +des Italiens. Let Captain Gronow tell its history: "About the +commencement of the present [nineteenth] century, Tortoni's, the +centre of pleasure, gallantry, and entertainment, was opened by a +Neapolitan, who came to Paris to supply the Parisians with good ice. +The founder of this celebrated cafe was by name Veloni, an Italian, +whose father lived with Napoleon from the period he invaded Italy, +when First Consul, down to his fall. Young Veloni brought with him his +friend Tortoni, an industrious and intelligent man. Veloni died of an +affection of the lungs, shortly after the cafe was opened, and left +the business to Tortoni; who, by dint of care, economy, and +perseverance, made his cafe renowned all over Europe. Towards the end +of the first Empire, and during the return of the Bourbons, and Louis +Philippe's reign, this establishment was so much in vogue that it was +difficult to get an ice there; after the opera and theatres were over, +the Boulevards were literally choked up by the carriages of the great +people of the court and the Faubourg St. Germain bringing guests to +Tortoni's. + +"In those days clubs did not exist in Paris, consequently the gay +world met there. The Duchess of Berri, with her suite, came nearly +every night incognito; the most beautiful women Paris could boast of, +old maids, dowagers, and old and young men, pouring out their +sentimental twaddle, and holding up to scorn their betters, +congregated here. In fact, Tortoni's became a sort of club for +fashionable people; the saloons were completely monopolised by them, +and became the rendez-vous of all that was gay, and I regret to add, +immoral. + +"Gunter, the eldest son of the founder of the house in Berkeley +Square, arrived in Paris about this period, to learn the art of making +ice; for prior to the peace, our London ices and creams were +acknowledged, by the English as well as foreigners, to be detestable. +In the early part of the day, Tortoni's became the rendez-vous of +duellists and retired officers, who congregated in great numbers to +breakfast; which consisted of cold pates, game, fowl, fish, eggs, +broiled kidneys, iced champagne, and liqueurs from every part of the +globe. + +"Though Tortoni succeeded in amassing a large fortune, he suddenly +became morose, and showed evident signs of insanity: in fact, he was +the most unhappy man on earth. On going to bed one night, he said to +the lady who superintended the management of his cafe, 'It is time for +me to have done with the world'. The lady thought lightly of what he +said, but upon quitting her apartment on the following morning, she +was told by one of the waiters that Tortoni had hanged himself." + +Some one should write a book--but perhaps it has been done--on the +great restaurateurs. Paris would, of course, provide the lion's share; +but there would be plenty of material to collect in other capitals. +The life of our own Nicol of the Cafe Royal, for example, would not be +without interest; and what of Sherry and Delmonico? + +While on the subject of meeting-places of remarkable persons, I might +say that a latter-day resort of intellectuals who have allowed the +world and its temptations to be too much for them is not so very far +away from us at this point--the cabaret of Le Pere Lunette at No. 4 +Rue des Anglais. I do not say that this is a modern Procope, but it +has some of the same characteristics: men of genius have met here and +illustrious portraits are on the wall; but they are not frescoes such +as could be included in this book, for old Father Spectacles puts +satire before propriety. + +In the colonnade round the Odeon theatre are bookstalls, chiefly +offering new books at very low rates. We emerge on the south side in +the Rue Vaugiraud, with the Medicis fountain of the Luxembourg just +across the road. The Luxembourg Palace was built by Marie de Medicis, +the widow of Henri IV., and it fulfilled the functions of a palace +until the Revolution, when, prisons being more important than palaces, +it became a prison. Among those conveyed hither were the Vicomte de +Beauharnais and his wife Josephine, who was destined one day to be +anything but a prisoner. After the Revolution the Luxembourg became +the Palace of the Directoire and then the Palace of the First Consul. +In 1800 Napoleon moved to the Tuileries, and a little while afterwards +he established the Senate here, and here it is still. I cannot +describe the Palace, for I have never been in it, but the Musee I know +well. + +The Luxembourg galleries are dedicated to modern art. They have +nothing earlier than the nineteenth century, and may be said to carry +on the history of French painting from the point where it is left in +Room VIII. at the Louvre, while little is quite so modern as the +permanent portion of the Petit Palais. One plunges from the street +directly into a hall of very white sculpture, which for the moment +affects the sight almost like the beating wings of gulls. The +difference between French and English sculpture, which is largely the +difference between nakedness and nudity, literally assaults the eye +for the moment; and then the more beautiful work quietly begins to +assert itself--Rodin's "Pensee," on the left, holding the attention +first and gently soothing the bewildered vision. Rodin indeed +dominates this room, for here are not only his "Pensee" (the "Penseur" +is not so very far away, two hundred yards or so, at the Pantheon), +but his "John the Baptist," gaunt and urgent in the wilderness (with +Dubois' "John the Baptist as a boy" near by, to show from what +material prophets are evolved) and the exquisite "Danaides" and the +"Age d'Airain," and the giant heads of Hugo and Rochefort, and the +little delicate sensitive Don Quixotic head of Dalou the sculptor, +which has just been added, and the George Wyndham and the G.B.S. and +other recent portraits; while through the doorway to the next room one +sees the "Baiser," immense and passionate. I reproduce both the +"Baiser," opposite page 294, and the "Pensee," opposite page 46. + +Other work here that one recalls is the charming group by Fremiet, +"Pan and the Bear Cubs," Dubois' fascinating "Florentine Singing-boy +of the Fifteenth Century," a peasant by Dalou, a Great Dane and +puppies by Le Courtier, and the very beautiful head in the doorway to +Room I.--"Femme de Marin," by Cazin the painter. But other visitors, +other tastes, of course. + +Before entering Room I. there are two small rooms on the right of the +sculpture gallery which should be entered, one given up to the more +famous Impressionists and one to foreign work. The chief +Impressionists are Degas, Renoir, Monet, Sisley and their companions, +almost all of whom seem to me to have painted better elsewhere than +here. Monet's "Yachts in the River" rise before me, as I write, with +the warm sun upon them, and I still see in the mind's eye the torso of +a young woman by Legros: but this room always depresses me, the effect +largely I believe of the antipathetic Renoir. The other room has a +floating population. Recently the painters have been Belgian: but at +another time they may be German or English, when the Belgians will +recede to the cellars or be lent to provincial galleries. + +The pictures in the Luxembourg are many, but the arresting hand is too +seldom extended. Cleverness, the bane of French art, dominates. In the +first room Rodin's "Baiser" is greater than any painting; but +Harpignies' "Lever de Lune" is here, and here also is one of +Pointelin's sombre desolate moorlands. In a glass case some delicate +bowls by Dammouse are worth attention; but I think his work at the +Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre is better. The second room is notable +for the Fantin-Latour drawings in the middle, with others by Flandrin +and Meissonier; the third for Carolus-Duran's "Vieux Lithographe" and +a case of drawings by modern black and white masters, including Legros +and Steinlen; here also is another Pointelin. In Room IV. is a coast +scene--"Les Falaises de Sotteville," in a lovely evening light, by +Bouland, which falls short of perfection but is very grateful to the +eyes. In Room V. is a portrait group by Fantin-Latour recalling the +"Hommage a Delacroix," which we saw in the Collection Moreau, but less +interesting. The studio is that of Manet at Batignolles. Here also is +a beautiful snow scene by Cazin--an oasis indeed. In Room VI. we find +Cazin again with "Ishmael," and two sweet and misty Carrieres, a +powerful if hard Legros, Carolus-Duran's portrait of the ruddy Papa +Francais the painter, Blanche's vivid group of the Thaulow family, +with the gigantic Fritz bringing the strength of a bull-fighter to the +execution of one of his tender landscapes, and finally Whistler's +portrait of his mother, which I reproduce on the opposite page--one of +the most restful and gentlest deeds of his restless, irritable life. + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT DE SA MERE + WHISTLER + _(Luxembourg)_] + +Room VII. is remarkable for Rodin's "Bellona" and Tissot's curious +exercises in the genre of W. P. Frith--the story of the Prodigal Son. +But the picture which I remember most clearly and with most pleasure +is Victor Mottez's "Portrait of Madame M.," which has a deep quiet +beauty that is very rare in this gallery. In the same room, placed +opposite each other, although probably not with any conscious ironical +intention, are a large scene in the Franco-Prussian War by De +Neuville, and Carriere's "Christ on the Cross". In Room VIII. are a +number of meretricious Moreaus, Caro-Delvalle's light and, to me, +oddly attractive, group, "Ma Femme et ses Soeurs," and the portrait +of Mlle. Moreno of the Comedie Francaise by Granie, which is +reproduced opposite page 308, a picture with fascination rather than +genius. + +In the doorway between Room VIII. and Room IX. hangs a small +water-colour by Harpignies, but in Room IX. itself is nothing that I +can recollect. Room X. has Picard's charming "Femme qui passe," +Harpignies' Coliseum, very like a Moreau Corot, and a Flandrin; and in +Room XI. are Bastien Lepage's "Portrait of M. Franck," Le Sidaner's +"Dessert," Vollon's "Port of Antwerp," very beautiful, and +Carolus-Duran's famous portrait of "Madame G. F. and her children". + +On leaving the Musee it is worth while to take a few steps more to the +left, for they bring us to another sinister souvenir of the Reign of +Terror--to St. Joseph des Carmes, the Chapel of the Carmelite +monastery in which, in September, 1792, the Abbe Sicard and other +priests who had refused to take the oath of the Constitution were +imprisoned and massacred, as described by Carlyle in Book I., Chapters +IV. and V. of "The Guillotine," with the assistance of the narrative +of one of the survivors, _Mon Agonie de Trente-Huit Heures_, by +Jourgniac Saint-Meard. In the crypt one is shown not only the tombs +but traces of the massacre. + +A walk in the Luxembourg gardens would, if one had been nowhere else, +quickly satisfy the stranger as to the interest of the French in the +more remarkable children of their country. In these gardens alone are +statues, among many others, in honour of Chopin, Watteau, Delacroix, +Sainte-Beuve, Le Play the economist, Fabre the poet, George Sand, +Henri Murger, the novelist of the adjacent Latin Quarter, and Theodore +de Banville, the modern maker of ballades and prime instigator of some +of the most charming work in French form by Mr. Lang and Mr. Dobson +and W. E. Henley. There are countless other statues of mythological +and allegorical figures, some of them very striking. One of the most +interesting of all is the "Marchand de Masques" by Astruc, among the +masks offered for sale being those of Corot, Dumas, Berlioz and +Balzac. + +The Luxembourg gardens lead to the Avenue de l'Observatoire, a broad +and verdant pleasaunce with a noble fountain at the head, in the midst +of which an armillary sphere is held up by four undraped female +figures representing the four quarters of the globe, at whom a circle +of tortoises spout water from the surface of the basin. Beneath the +upholders of the sphere are eight spirited sea horses by Fremiet, the +sculptor who designed "Pan and the Bear Cubs" in the Luxembourg. + +A few yards to the west of this fountain is one of the simplest and +most satisfying of Parisian sculptured memorials, at the corner of the +Rue d'Assas and the Boulevard de l'Observatoire--the bas-relief on the +Tarnier maternity hospital, representing the benevolent Tarnier in his +merciful work. + +Let us now descend the Boulevard St. Michel to the Sorbonne, which is +the heart of the Latin Quarter (or perhaps the brain would be the +better word), disregarding for the moment the Pantheon, and turning +our backs on the Observatoire and the Lion de Belfort, in the streets +around which, every September, the noisiest of the Parisian fairs +rages, and on the Bal Bullier, where the shop assistants of this +neighbourhood grasp each other in the dance every Thursday and Sunday +night. Not that this high southern district of Paris is not +interesting; but it is far less interesting than certain parts nearer +the Seine, and this book may not be too long. + +The Sorbonne is not exciting, but it is not unamusing to watch young +France gaining knowledge. I have called it the heart of the Latin +Quarter, although when one thinks of the necessitous, irresponsible +youthful populace of these slopes, it is rather in a studio than in a +lecture centre that one would fix its cardiac energy. That, however, +is the fault of Du Maurier and Murger; for I suppose that for every +artist that the Latin Quarter fosters it has scores of other students. +But here I am in unknown territory. This book, which describes (as I +warned you) Paris wholly from without, is never so external as among +the young bloods who are to be met at night in the Cafe Harcourt, or +who dance at the annual ball of the Quatz'-Arts, or plunge themselves +into congenial riots when unpopular professors mount the platform. I +know them not; I merely rejoice in their existence, admire their long +hair and high spirits and happy indigence, and wish I could join them +among Jullien's models, or in the disreputable cabaret of Le Pere +Lunette, or at a solemn disputation, such as that famous one in which +the sophist Buridan, after being thrown into the Seine in a sack and +rescued, "maintained for a whole day the thesis that it was lawful to +slay a Queen of France". + +The Sorbonne takes its name from Robert de Sorbon, the confessor of +St. Louis, who had suffered much as a theological student and wished +others to suffer less; for students in his day existed absolutely on +charity. St. Louis threw himself into his confessor's scheme, and the +Sorbonne, richly endowed, was opened in 1253, in its original form +occupying a site in a street with the depressing name of Coupe-Gueule. +From a hostel it soon became the Church's intellect, and for five +and a half centuries it thus existed, almost continually, I regret to +say, pursuing what Gibbon calls "the exquisite rancour of theological +hatred". Its hostility to Joan of Arc and the Reformation were alike +intense. Richelieu built the second Sorbonne, on the site of the +present one. The Revolution in its short sharp way put an end to it as +a defender of the faith, and in 1808, under Napoleon, it sprang to +life again with a broader and humaner programme as the Universite de +France. + + [Illustration: THE FONTAINE DE MEDICIS + (GARDEN OF THE LUXEMBOURG)] + +Although arriving on the wrong day (a very easy thing to do in Paris) +I induced the concierge to show me Puvis de Chavannes' vast and +beautiful fresco in the Sorbonne's amphitheatre, entitled "La +Source"--which is, I take it, the spring of wisdom. Thursday is the +right day. In the chapel is the tomb of Richelieu, a florid monument +with the dying cardinal and some very ostentatious grief upon it. Near +by stands an elderly gentleman who charges twice as much for postcards +as the dealers outside; but one must not mind that. The church is not +impressive, nor has a recent meretricious work by Weerts, representing +the Love of Humanity and the Love of Country--the crucified Christ and +a dead soldier--done it much good. Before it is a monument to Auguste +Comte. + +And now let us descend the hill and cheer and enrich our eyes in one +of the most remarkable museums in the world--the Cluny. Paris is too +fortunate. To have the Louvre were enough for any city, but Paris also +has the Carnavalet. To have the Carnavalet were enough, but Paris +also has the Cluny. The Musee de Cluny is devoted chiefly to applied +art, and is a treasury of mediaeval taste. It is an ancient building, +standing on the site of a Roman palace, the ruins of whose baths still +remain. The present mansion was built by a Benedictine abbot in the +fifteenth century: it became a storehouse of beautiful and rare +objects in 1833, when the collector Alphonse du Sommerard bought it; +and on his death the nation acquired both the house and its treasures, +which have been steadily increasing ever since. Without, the Cluny is +a romantic blend of late Gothic and Renaissance architecture: within, +it is like the heaven of a good arts-and-craftsman; or, to put it +another way, like an old curiosity shop carried out to the highest +power. I do not say that we have not as good collections at South +Kensington; but it is beyond doubt that the Cluny has a more +attractive setting for them. + +To particularise would merely be to convert these pages into an +incomplete catalogue (and what is duller than that?), but I may say +that one passes among sculpture and painting, altar-pieces and +knockers, pottery and tapestry, Spanish leather and lace, gold work +and glass, enamel and musical instruments, furniture (the state bed of +Francis I.) and ivories (note those by Van Opstal), ironwork and +jewels, fireplaces and exquisite slippers. The old keys alone are +worth hours: some of them might almost be called jewels; be sure to +look at Nos. 6001 and 6022. Everything is remarkable. Writing in +London, in a thick fog, at some distance of time since I saw the +Cluny last, I remember most vividly those keys and a banc d'orfevre +near them; a chimney-piece, beautiful and vast, from an old house at +Chalons-sur-Marne; certain carvings in wood in the great room next the +Thermes: the "Quatre Pleurants" of Claus de Worde; a dainty Marie +Madeleine by a Fleming, about 1500 (there is another Marie Madeleine, +in stone, in an adjacent room, kneeling with her alabaster box of +ointment, but by no means penitent); and the Jesus on the Mount of +Olives with the sleeping disciples. I remember also, in one of the +faience galleries, two delightful groups by Clodion--a "Satyre male" +with two baby goat-feet playing by him, and a "Satyre femelle," very +charming, also with two little shaggy mites at her knees. The "Fils de +Rubens," in his little chair, is also a pleasant memory; and there is +one of those remarkable Neapolitan reconstructions of the Nativity, of +which the museum at Munich has such an amazing collection--perhaps the +prettiest toys ever made. + +But as I have said, the Cluny is wonderful throughout, and it is +almost ridiculous to particularise. It is also too small for every +taste. For the lover of the hues that burn in Rhodian ware it is most +memorable for its pottery; while of the many Parisians who visit it in +holiday mood a large percentage make first for the glass case that +contains its two famous ceintures. + +The Curator of the Carnavalet, as we have seen, is a topographer and +antiquary of distinction; the Director of the Cluny, M. Haraucourt, is +a poet, one of whose ballads will be found in English form in a later +chapter. He is in a happy environment, although his Muse does not +look back quite as, say, Mr. Dobson's loves to do. The singer of the +"Pompadour's Fan" and the "Old Sedan Chair" would be continually +inspired at the Cluny. + +In the Gardens of the Musee we can feel ourselves in very early times; +for the baths are the ruins of a Roman palace built in 306, the home +for a while of Julian the Apostate; a temple of Mercury stood on the +hill where the Pantheon now is; and a Roman road ran on the site of +the Rue St. Jacques, just at the east of the Cluny, leading out of +Paris southwards to Italy. + +On leaving the Cluny let us take a few steps westward along the Rue de +l'Ecole de Medicine, and stop at No. 15, where the Cordeliers' Club +was held, whither Marat's body was brought to lie in state. His house, +in which Charlotte Corday stabbed him, was close by, where the statue +of Broca now stands. In the Boulevard St. Germain, at the end of the +street, we come to Danton's statue and more memories of the +Revolution. "What souvenirs of the past," says Sardou, "does the +statue of Danton cast his shadow upon. At No. 87 Boulevard St. +Germain--where the woman Simon keeps house! it was there 31st March, +1793--at six o'clock in the morning, the rattling of the butt ends of +muskets was heard on the pavement in the midst of wild cries and +protestations of the crowd, they had dared to arrest Danton, the Titan +of the Revolution, the man of the 10th of August!--at the same time on +the Place de l'Odeon, at the corner of the Rue Crebillon, Camille +Desmoulins had been arrested. An hour later they were both in the +Luxembourg prison, and it was there Camille heard of the death of his +mother. + +"The Passage du Commerce still exists. It is a most picturesque old +quarter, rarely visited by Parisians. At No. 9 is Durel's library, +where Guillotin in 1790 practised cutting off sheep's heads with 'his +philanthropic beheading machine'. It is generally given out that he +was guillotined himself, but 'Lempriere' says he died quietly in his +bed, of grief at the infamous abuse his instrument was put to. In the +shop close by was the printing office of the _l'Ami du Peuple_, and +Marat in his dressing-gown (lined with imitation panther skin) used to +come and correct the proofs of his bloody journal." + +Between the Cluny and the river is a network of very old, squalid and +interesting streets. Here the students of the middle ages found both +their schools and their lodgings: among them Dante himself, who refers +to the Rue de Fouarre (or straw, on which, following the instructions +of Pope Urban V., the students sat) as the Vico degli Strami. It has +now been demolished. The two churches here are worth a visit--St. +Severin and St. Julien-le-Pauvre, but the reader is warned that the +surroundings are not too agreeable. In the court adjoining St Julien's +are traces of the wall of Philip Augustus, of which we saw something +at the Mont de Piete. + +All these streets, as I say, are picturesque and dirty, but I think +the best is the Rue de Bievre, which runs up the hill of St. Etienne +from the Quai de Montebello, opposite the Morgue, and can be gained +from St. Julien's by the dirty Rue de la Boucherie, of which this +street and its westward continuation, the Rue de la Huchette, +Huysmans, the French novelist and mystic, writes--as of all this +curious district--in his book, _La Bievre et Saint Severin_, one of +the best examples of imaginative topography that I know. Let us see +what he says of the Bievre, the little river which gives the street +its name and which once tumbled down into the Seine at this point, but +is now buried underground like the New River at Islington. + +"The Bievre," he writes, "represents to-day one of the most perfect +symbols of feminine misery exploited by a big city. Originating in the +lake or pond of St. Quentin near Trappes, it runs quietly and slowly +through the valley that bears its name. Like many young girls from the +country, directly it arrives in Paris the Bievre falls a victim to the +cunning wide-awake industry of a catcher of men.... To follow all her +windings, it is necessary to ascend the Rue du Moulin des Pres and +enter the Rue de Gentilly, and then the most extraordinary and +unsuspected journey begins." + +Inspired by the passage of which these are the opening words, I set +out one day to trace the Bievre to daylight, but it was a cheerless +enterprise, for the Rue Monge is a dreary street, and the new +Boulevards hereabouts are even drearier because they are wider. I +found her at last, by peeping through a hoarding in the Boulevard +Arago, with tanneries on each side of her; and then I gave it up. + + [Illustration: LA BOHEMIENNE + FRANZ HALS + _(Louvre)_] + +At the Cluny we saw the Thermes, a visible sign of Roman occupation; +just off the Rue Monge is another, the amphitheatre, still in very +good condition, with the grass growing between the crevices of the +great stone seats. You will find it in the Place des Arenes, a vestige +of Roman manners and pleasures now converted into an open space for +children and _bonnes_ and surrounded by flats. But save for the +desertion that the ages have brought it, the arena is not so very +different, and standing there, one may easily reconstruct the +spectators and see again the wild beasts emerging from the underground +passages, which still remain. + +And now for the Pantheon, which rises above us. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PANTHEON AND ST. GENEVIEVE + + A Church's Vicissitudes--St. Genevieve--A Guardian of + Paris--Illustrious Converts--_The Golden Legend_--A + Sabbath-breaker--Genevieve's Sacred Body--Her Tomb--The + Pantheon Frescoes--Joan of Arc--The Pantheon Tombs--Mirabeau + and Marat--Voltaire's Funeral--The Thoughts of the + Thinker--From the Dome--St. Etienne-du-Mont--The Fate of St. + Genevieve--The Relic-hunters--The Mystery of the Wine-press. + + +The Pantheon, like the Madeleine, has had its vicissitudes. The new +Madeleine, as we shall see, was begun by Napoleon as a splendid Temple +of military glory and became a church; the new Pantheon was begun by +Louis XV. as a splendid cathedral and became a Temple of Glory, not, +however, military but civil. Louis XV., when he designed its erection +on the site of the old church, intended it to be the church of St. +Genevieve, whose tomb was its proudest possession; when the Revolution +altered all that, it was made secular and dedicated "aux grands hommes +la patrie reconnaissante," and the first grand homme to be buried +there was Mirabeau (destined, however, not to remain a grand homme +very long, as we shall see), and the next Voltaire. In 1806 Napoleon +made it a church again; in 1830 the Revolutionaries again secularised +it; in 1851 it was consecrated again, and in 1885 once more it became +secular, to receive the body of Victor Hugo, and secular it has +remained; and considering everything, secular it is likely to be, for +whatever of change and surprise the future holds for France, an excess +of ecclesiastical ecstasy is hardly probable. + +So much of Louis XV.'s idea remains, in spite of the perversion of his +purpose, that scenes from the life of St. Genevieve are painted on the +Pantheon's walls and sculptured on its facade; while in its last +sacred days the church was known again as St. Genevieve's. Possibly +there are old people in the neighbourhood who still call it that. I +hope so. + +The life of St. Genevieve, as told in _The Golden Legend_, is rather a +series of facile miracles than a human document, as we say. She was +born in the fifth century at Nanterre, and early became a protegee of +St. Germain, who vowed her to chastity and holiness, from which she +never departed. Her calling, like that of her new companion on the +canon, St. Joan, was that of shepherdess, and one of Puvis de +Chavannes' most charming frescoes in the Pantheon represents her as a +shadowy slip of a girl kneeling to a crucifix while her sheep graze +about her. I reproduce it opposite the next page. Her mother, who had, +like most mothers, a desire that her daughter should marry and have +children, once so far lost her temper as to strike Genevieve on the +cheek; for which offence she became blind. (A very comfortable corner +of heaven is, one feels, the due of the mothers of saints.) She +remained blind for a long time, until remembering that St. Germain had +promised for her daughter miraculous gifts, she sent for Genevieve and +was magnanimously cured. After the death of her parent, Genevieve +moved to Paris, and there she lived with an old woman, dividing the +neighbourhood into believers and unbelievers in her sanctity, as is +ever the way with saints. Here the Devil persecuted and attacked her +with much persistence and ingenuity, but wholly without effect. + +During her long life she made Paris her principal home, and on more +than one occasion saved it: hence her importance not only to the +Parisians, who set her above St. Denis (whom she reverenced), but to +this book. Her power of prayer was gigantic; she literally prayed +Attila the Hun out of his siege of Paris, and later, when Childeric +was the besieger and Paris was starving, she brought victuals into the +city by boat in a miraculous way: another scene chosen by Puvis de +Chavannes in his Pantheon series. Childeric, however, conquered, in +spite of Genevieve, but he treated her with respect and made it easy +for her to approach Clovis and Clotilde and convert them to +Christianity--hence the convent of St. Genevieve, which Clovis +founded, remains of which are still to be seen by the church of St. +Etienne-du-Mont, in the two streets named after those early +Christians--the Rue Clovis and the Rue Clotilde. Christianity had been +introduced into Paris by Saint Denis, Genevieve's hero, in the +third century; but then came a reaction and the new faith lost ground. +It was St. Genevieve's conversion of Clovis that re-established it on +a much firmer basis, for he made it the national religion. + + [Illustration: STE. GENEVIEVE + PUVIS DE CHAVANNES + (_Pantheon_)] + +"This holy maid," says Caxton, "did great penance in tormenting her +body all her life, and became lean for to give good example. For sith +she was of the age of fifteen years, unto fifty, she fasted every day +save Sunday and Thursday. In her refection she had nothing but barley +bread, and sometime beans, the which, sodden after fourteen days or +three weeks, she ate for all delices. Always she was in prayers in +wakings and in penances, she drank never wine ne other liquor, that +might make her drunk, in all her life. When she had lived and used +this life fifty years, the bishops that were that time, saw and beheld +that she was over feeble by abstinence as for her age, and warned her +to increase a little her fare. The holy woman durst not gainsay them, +for our Lord saith of the prelates: Who heareth you heareth me, and +who despiseth you despiseth me, and so she began by obedience to eat +with her bread, fish and milk, and how well that, she so did, she +beheld the heaven and wept, whereof it is to believe that she saw +appertly our Lord Jesus Christ after the promise of the gospel that +saith that, Blessed be they that be clean of heart for they shall see +God; she had her heart and body pure and clean." + +Caxton also tells quaintly the story of one of the first miracles +performed by Genevieve's tomb: "Another man came thither that gladly +wrought on the Sunday, wherefor our Lord punished him, for his hands +were so benumbed and lame that he might not work on other days. He +repented him and confessed his sin, and came to the tomb of the said +virgin, and there honoured and prayed devoutly, and on the morn he +returned all whole, praising and thanking our Lord, that by the worthy +merits and prayers of the holy virgin, grant and give us pardon, +grace, and joy perdurable." + +To St. Genevieve's tomb we shall come on leaving the Pantheon, but +here after so much about her adventures when alive I might say +something about her adventures when dead. She was buried in 511 in the +Abbey church of the Holy Apostles, on the site of which the Pantheon +stands. Driven out by the Normans, the monks removed the saint's body +and carried it away in a box; and thereafter her remains were destined +to rove, for when the monks returned to the Abbey they did not again +place them in the tomb but kept them in a casket for use in +processions whenever Paris was in trouble and needed supernatural +help. Meanwhile her tomb, although empty, continued to work miracles +also. + +Early in the seventeenth century her bones were restored to her tomb, +which was made more splendid, and there they remained until the +Revolution. The Revolutionists, having no use for saints, opened +Genevieve's tomb, burned its contents on the Place de Greve, and +melted the gold of the canopy into money. They also desecrated the +church of St. Etienne-du-Mont (which we are about to visit) and made +it a Temple of Theophilanthropy. A few years later the stone coffer +was removed to St. Etienne-du-Mont, where it now is, gorgeously +covered with Gothic splendours; but as to how minute are the fragments +of the saint that it contains which must have been overlooked by the +incendiary Revolutionaries, I cannot say. They are sufficient, +however, still to cure the halt and the lame and enable them to leave +their crutches behind. + +The Pantheon is a vast and dreary building, sadly in need of a little +music and incense to humanise it. The frescoes are interesting--those +of Puvis de Chavannes in particular, although a trifle too wan--but +one cannot shake off depression and chill. The Joan of Arc paintings +by Lenepveu are the least satisfactory, the Maid of this artist +carrying no conviction with her. But when it comes to that, it is +difficult to say which of the Parisian Maids of art is satisfactory: +certainly not the audacious golden Amazon of Fremiet in the Place de +Rivoli. Dubois' figure opposite St. Augustin's is more earnest and +spiritual, but it does not quite realise one's wishes. I think that I +like best the Joan in the Boulevard Saint-Marcel, behind the Jardin +des Plantes. + +The vault of the Pantheon may be seen only in the company of a guide, +and there is a charge. To be quite sure that Rousseau is in his grave +is perhaps worth the money; but one resents the fee none the less. +Great Frenchmen's graves--especially Victor Hugo's--should be free to +all. There is no charge at the Invalides. You may stand beside Heine's +tomb in the Cimetiere de Montmartre without money and without a guide, +but not by Voltaire's in the Pantheon; Balzac's grave in Pere Lachaise +is free, Zola's in the Pantheon costs seventy-five centimes. + +The guide hurries his flock from one vault to another, at one point +stopping for a while to exchange badinage with an echo. Rousseau, as I +have said, is here; Voltaire is here; here are General Carnot, +President Carnot with a mass of faded wreaths, Soufflot--who designed +the Pantheon, thinking his work was for St. Genevieve, and who died of +anxiety owing to a subsidence of the walls; Victor Hugo, and, lately +moved hither, not without turmoil and even pistol shots, the historian +of the Rougon-Macquart family and the author of a letter of accusation +famous in history. + +Not without turmoil! which reminds one that the Pantheon's funerals +have been more than a little grotesque. I said, for example, that +Mirabeau was the first prophet of reason to be buried here, amid a +concourse of four hundred thousand mourners; yet you may look in vain +for his tomb. And there is a record of the funeral of Marat, in a car +designed by David; yet you may look in vain for Marat's sarcophagus +also. The explanation (once more) is that we are in France, the land +of the fickle mob. For within three years of the state burial of +Mirabeau, with the National Guard on duty, the Convention directed +that he should be exhumed and Marat laid in his place. Mirabeau's +body therefore was removed at night and thrown into the earth in the +cemetery of Clamart. Enter Marat. Marat, however, lay beneath this +imposing dome only three poor months, and then off went he, a +discredited corpse, to the graveyard of St. Etienne-du-Mont close by. +Voltaire, however, and Rousseau held their own, and here they are +still, as we have seen. + +Voltaire came hither under circumstances at once tragic and comic. The +cortege started from the site of the Bastille, led by the dead +philosopher in a cart drawn by twelve horses, in which his figure was +being crowned by a young girl. Opposite the Opera house of that +day--by the Porte St. Martin--a pause was made for the singing of +suitable hymns (from the Ferney Hymnal!) and on it came again. +Surrounding the car were fifty girls dressed by David for the part; in +the procession were other damsels in the costumes of Voltaire's +characters. Children scattered roses before the horses. What could be +prettier for Voltaire? But it needed fine weather, and instead came +the most appalling storm, which frightened all the young women +(including Fame, from the car) into doorways, and washed all the +colour from the great man's effigy. + +Remembering all these things, one realises that Rodin's _Penseur_, who +was placed before the Pantheon in 1906, has something to brood over +and break his mind upon. + +I noticed also among the graves that of one Ignace Jacqueminot, and +wondering if it were he who gave his name to the rose, I was so +conscious of gloom and mortality that I hastened to the regions of +light--to the sweet air of the Mont du Paris and the blue sky over +all. And later I climbed to the lantern--a trifle of some four hundred +steps--and looked down on Paris and its river and away to the hills, +and realised how much better it was to be a live dog than a dead lion. + +For the tomb of St. Genevieve we have only a few steps to take, since +it stands, containing all of her that was not burned, in the church of +St. Etienne-du-Mont. The first martyr, although he gives his name to +the church and is seen suffering the stone-throwers in the relief over +the door, is, however, as nothing. St. Genevieve is the true patron. + +St. Etienne's is one of the most interesting churches in Paris, +without and within. The facade is bizarre and attractive, with its +jumble of styles, its lofty tower and Renaissance trimmings, and the +sacristan's prophet's-house high up, on the northern side of the odd +little extinguisher. You see this best, and his tiny watchdog +trotting up and down his tiny garden, by descending the hill a little +way and then turning. Within, the church is fascinating. The pillars +of the very lofty nave and aisles are slender and sure, the vaulting +is delicate and has a unique carved marble rood-loft to divide the +nave from the choir, stretching right along the church, with a rampe +of great beauty. The pulpit is held up by Samson seated upon his lion +and grasping the jawbone of an ass. + +The last time I saw this pulpit was during the Fete of St. Genevieve, +which is held early in January, when it contained a fluent nasal +preacher to whom a congregation that filled every seat was listening +with rapt attention. At the same time a moving procession of other +worshippers was steadily passing the tomb, which was a blaze of light +and heat from some hundreds of candles of every size. The man in front +of me in the queue, a stout bourgeois, with his wife and two small +daughters, bought four candles at a franc each. He was all nervousness +and anxiety before then, but having watched them lighted and placed in +position, his face became tranquil and gay, and they passed quickly +out, re-entered their motor-cab and returned to the normal life. + +Outside the church was a row of stalls wholly given up to the sale of +tokens of the saint--little biographies, medals, rosaries, and all the +other pretty apparatus of the long-memoried Roman Catholic Church. I +bought a silver pendant, a brief biography, and a tiny metal statue. I +feel now that had I also bought a candle, as I was minded to, I should +have escaped the cold that, developing two or three days later, kept +me in bed for nearly a fortnight. One must be thorough. + +The church not only has agreeable architectural features and the tomb +of this good woman, it has also some admirable glass, not exactly +beautiful but very quaint and interesting, including a famous window +by the Pinaigriers, representing the mystery of the wine-press, as +drawn from Isaiah: "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the +people there was none with me". The colouring is very rich and +satisfying, even if the design itself offends by its literalism and +want of imagination--Christianity being figured by the blood of Christ +as it gushes forth into barrels pressed from his body as relentlessly +as ever was juice of the grape. All this is horrible, but one need not +study it minutely. There are other windows less remarkable but not +less rich and glowing. + +Other illustrious dust that lies beneath this church is that of Racine +and Pascal. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TWO ZOOS + + The Tour d'Argent--Frederic's Homage to America--A Marquis + Poet--The Halle des Vins--A Free Zoo--Peacocks in Love--A + Reminiscence--The Museums of the Jardin des Plantes--A + Lifeless Zoo--Babies in Bottles--The Jardin + d'Acclimatation--The Cheerful Gallas--A Pretty Stable--Dogs + on Velvet--A Canine Pere Lachaise--The Sunday + Sportsmen--Panic at the Zoos--The Besieged Resident--The + Humours of Famine. + + +On the day of one of my visits to the Jardin des Plantes I lunched at +the Tour d'Argent, a restaurant on the Quai de la Tournelle, famous +among many dishes for its delicious canard a la presse. No bird on +this occasion passed through that luxurious mill for me: but the +engines were at work all around distilling essential duck with which +to enrich those slices from the breast that are all that the epicure +eats. Over a simpler repast I studied a bewildering catalogue of the +"Creations of Frederic"--Frederic being M. Frederic Delair, a +venerable chef with a head like that of a culinary Ibsen, stored with +strange lore of sauces. + +By what means one commends oneself to Frederic I cannot say, but +certain it is that if he loves you he will immortalise you in a dish. +Americans would seem to have a short cut to his heart, for I find the +Canape Clarence Mackay, the Filet de Sole Loie Fuller, the Filet de +Sole Gibbs, the Fondu de Merlan Peploe, the Poulet de Madame J. W. +Mackay, and the Poire Wanamaker. None of these joys tempted me, but I +am sorry now that I did not partake of the Potage Georges Cain, +because M. Georges Cain knows more about old Paris than any man +living; and who knows but that a few spoonfuls of his Potage might not +have immensely enriched this book! The Noisette de Pre-Sale Bodley +again should have been nourishing, for Mr. Bodley is the author of one +of the best of all the many studies of France. Instead, however, I ate +very simply, of ordinary dishes--foundlings, so to speak, named after +no one--and amused myself over my coffee in examining the Marquis +Lauzieres de Themines' poesie sur les Creations de Frederic (to the +air of "la Corde Sensible"). Two stanzas and two choruses will +illustrate the noble poet's range:-- + + Que de filets de sole on y consomme! + Sole Neron, Cardinal, Maruka. + Dosamentes, Edson ... d'autres qu'on nomme + Victor Renault, Saintgall, Heredia. + La liste est longue! rognons, cotelettes, + Poulet Sigaud et Canard Mac-Arthur, + Filets de lievre Arnold White et Noisettes + De Pre-sale, Langouste Wintherthur. + + Ce que je fais n'est pas une reclame, + Je vous le dis pour etre obligeant. + Je m'en voudrais d'encourir votre blame + Pour avoir trop vante LA TOUR D'ARGENT. + Les noms des OEufs de cent facons s'etalent, + OEufs Bucheron, oeufs Claude Lowther. + OEufs Tuck, Rathbone, oeufs Mackay que n'egalent + Que les chaud-froids de volaille Henniker. + Que d'entremets ont nom de "la Tournelle"! + Et plus souvent, le vocable engageant + Du restaurant, car plus d'un plat s'appelle + (Gibier, beignets, salade) "Tour d'Argent". + + Ami lecteur, pour faire bonne chere, + Ecoute-moi, ne sois pas negligent, + Va-t-en diner, si ta sante t'est chere, + Au Restaurant nomme LA TOUR D'ARGENT. + +(Odd work for Marquises!) + + [Illustration: THE MUSEE CLUNY (COURTYARD)] + +On the way to the Jardin des Plantes from this restaurant it is not +unamusing to turn aside to the Halles des Vins and loiter a while in +these genial catacombs. Here you may see barrels as the sands of the +sea-shore for multitude, and raw wine of a colour that never yet +astonished in a bottle, and I hope, so far as I am concerned, never +will: unearthly aniline juices that are to pass through many dark +processes before they emerge smilingly as vins, to lend cheerfulness +to the windows of the epicier and gaiety to the French heart. + +Even with the most elementary knowledge of French one would take the +Jardin des Plantes to be the Parisian Kew, and so to some small extent +it is; but ninety-nine per cent. of its visitors go not to see the +flora but the fauna. It is in reality the Zoo of the Paris +proletariat. Paris, unlike London, has two Zoos, both of which hide +beneath names that easily conceal their zoological character from the +foreigner--the Jardin des Plantes, where we now find ourselves, which +is free to all, and the Jardin d'Acclimatation, on the edge of the +Bois de Boulogne, near the Porte Maillot, which costs money--a franc +to enter and a ridiculous supplement to your cabman for the privilege +of passing the fortifications in his vehicle: one of Paris's little +mistakes. To the Jardin d'Acclimatation we shall come anon: just now +let us loiter among the wild animals of the Jardin des Plantes, which +is as a matter of fact a far more thorough Zoo than that selecter +other, where frivolity ranks before zoology. Our own Zoo contains a +finer collection than either, and our animals are better housed and +ordered, but this Parisian people's Zoo has a great advantage over +ours in that it is free. All zoological gardens should of course be +free. + +The Jardin des Plantes has another and a dazzling superiority in the +matter of peacocks. I never saw so many. They occur wonderfully in the +most unexpected places, not only in the enclosures of all the other +open-air animals, but in trees and on roofs and amid the +bushes--burning with their deep and lustrous blue. But on the warm day +of spring on which I saw them first they were not so quiescent. +Regardless of the proprieties they were most of them engaged in +recommending themselves to the notice of their ladies. On all sides +were spreading tails bearing down upon the beloved with the steady +determination of a three-masted schooner, and now and then caught like +that vessel in a shattering breeze (of emotion) which stirred every +sail. In England one might feel uncomfortable in the midst of so naked +a display of the old Adam, but in Paris one becomes more reconciled to +facts, and (like the new cat in the adage) ceases to allow "I am +ashamed" to wait upon "I would". The peahens, however, behaved with a +stolid circumspection that was beyond praise. These vestals never +lifted their heads from the ground, but pecked on and on, mistresses +of the scene and incidentally the best friends of the crowds of +ouvriers and ouvrieres ("V'la le paon! Vite! Vite!") at every railing. +But the Parisian peacock is not easily daunted. In spite of these +rebuffs the batteries of glorious eyes continued firing, and wider and +wider the tails spread, with a corresponding increase of disreputable +deshabille behind; and so I left them, recalling as I walked away a +comic occurrence at school too many years ago, when a travelling +elocutionist, who had induced our headmaster to allow him to recite to +the boys, was noticed to be discharging all his guns of tragedy and +humour (some of which I remember distinctly at the moment) with a +broadside effect that, while it assisted the ear, had a limiting +influence on gesture and by-play, and completely eliminated many of +the nuances of conversational give and take. Never throughout the +evening did we lose sight of the full expanse of his shirt front; +never did he turn round. Never, do I say? But I am wrong. Better for +him had it been never: for the poor fellow, his task over and his +badly needed guinea earned, forgot under our salvoes of applause the +need of caution, and turning from one side of the platform to the +other in stooping acknowledgment, disclosed a rent precisely where no +man would have a rent to be. + +My advice to the visitor to the Jardin des Plantes is to be satisfied +with the living animals--with the seals and sea-lions, the bears and +peacocks, the storks and tigers; and, in fair weather, with the +flowers, although the conditions under which these are to be observed +are not ideal, so formally arranged on the flat as they are, with +traffic so visibly adjacent. But to the glutton for museums such +advice is idle. Here, however, even he is like to have his fill. + +Let him then ask at the Administration for a ticket, which will be +handed to him with the most charming smile by an official who is +probably of all the bureaucrats of Paris the least deserving of a tip, +since zoological and botanical gardens exist for the people, and these +tickets (the need for which is, by the way, non-existent) are free and +are never withheld--but who is also of all the bureaucrats of Paris +the most determined to get one, even, as I observed, from his own +countrymen. Thus supplied you must walk some quarter of a mile to a +huge building in which are collected all the creatures of the earth in +their skins as God made them, but lifeless and staring from the hands +of taxidermic man. It is as though the ark had been overwhelmed by +some such fine dust as fell from Vesuvius, and was now exhumed. One +does not get the same effect from the Natural History Museum in the +Cromwell Road; it is, I suppose, the massing that does it here. + +Having walked several furlongs amid this travesty of wild and +dangerous life, one passes to the next museum, which is devoted to +mineralogy and botany, and here again are endless avenues of joy for +the museephile and tedium for others. Lastly, after another quarter of +a mile's walk, the palatial museum of anatomy is reached, the +ingenious art of the late M. Fremiet once more providing a hors +d'oeuvre. At the Arts Decoratifs we find on the threshold a man +dragging a bear cub into captivity; at the Petit Palais, St. George is +killing the dragon just inside the turnstile; and here, near the +umbrella-stand, is a man being strangled by an orang-outang. Thus +cheered, we enter, and are at once amid a very grove of babies in +bottles: babies unready for the world, babies with two heads, babies +with no heads at all, babies, in short, without any merit save for the +biologist, the distiller, and the sightseer with strong nerves. From +the babies we pass to cases containing examples of every organ of the +human form divine, and such approximations as have been accomplished +by elephants and mice and monkeys--all either genuine, in spirits, or +counterfeited with horrible minuteness in wax. Also there are +skeletons of every known creature, from whales to frogs, and I noticed +a case illustrating the daily progress of the chicken in the egg. + +And now for the other Zoo, the Zoo of the classes. Perhaps the best +description is to call it a playground with animals in it. For there +are children everywhere, and everything is done for their +amusement--as is only natural in a land where children persist through +life and no one ever tires. In the centre of the gardens is an +enclosure in which in the summer of 1908 were encamped a colony of +Gallas, an intelligent and attractive black people from the border of +Abyssinia, who flung spears at a target, and fought duels, and danced +dances of joy and sorrow, and rounded up zebras, and in the intervals +sold curiosities and photographs of themselves with ingratiating +tenacity. It was a strange bizarre entertainment, with greedy +ostriches darting their beaks among the spectators, and these +shock-headed savages screaming through their diversions, and now and +again a refined slip of a black girl imploring one mutely to give a +franc for a five centimes picture postcard, or murmuring incoherent +rhapsodies over the texture of a European dress. + +All around the enclosure the Parisian children were playing, some +riding elephants, others camels, some driving an ostrich cart, and all +happy. But the gem of the Jardin is the Ecurie, on one side for +ponies--scores of little ponies, all named--the other for horses; on +one side a riding school for children, on the other side a riding +school for grown-up pupils, perhaps the cavalry officers of the +future. The ponies are charming: Bibiche, landaise, Volubilite, cheval +landais, Ceramon, cheval finlandais, Farceur, from the same country, +Columbine, nee de Ratibor, and so forth. There they wait, alert and +patient too, in the manner of small ponies, and by-and-by one is led +off to the Petit manege for a little Monsieur Paul or Etienne to +bestride. The Ecurie is a model of its kind, with its central +courtyard and offices for the various servants, sellier, piqueur and +so forth. + + [Illustration: LA LECON DE LECTURE + TERBURG + (_Louvre_)] + +Near by is a castellated fortress which might belong to a dwarf of +blood but is really a rabbit house. Every kind of rabbit is here, with +this difference from the rabbit house in our Zoo, that the animals are +for sale; and there is a fragrant vacherie where you may learn to +milk; and in another part is a collection of dogs--tou-tous and +lou-lous and all the rest of it--and these are for sale too. This is +as popular a department as any in the Jardin. The expressions of +delight and even ecstasy which were being uttered before some of the +cages I seem still to hear. + +The Parisians may be kind fathers and devoted mothers: I am sure that +they are; but to the observer in the streets and restaurants their +finest shades of protective affection would seem to be reserved for +dogs. One sees their children with bonnes; their dogs are their own +care. The ibis of Egypt is hardly more sacred. An English friend who +has lived in the heart of Paris for some time in the company of a fox +terrier tells me that on their walks abroad in the evening the number +of strangers who stop him to pass friendly remarks upon his pet or ask +to be allowed to pat it--or who make overtures to it without +permission--is beyond belief. No pink baby in Kensington Gardens is +more admired. Dogs in English restaurants are a rarity: but in Paris +they are so much a matter of course that a little patee is always +ready for them. + +It was of course a French tongue that first gave utterance to the +sentiment, "The more I see of men the more I like dogs"; but I cannot +pretend to have observed that the Frenchman suffers any loss in +prestige or power from this attention to the tou-tou and the lou-lou. +Nothing, I believe, will ever diminish the confidence or success of +that lord of creation. He may to the insular eye be too conscious of +his charms; he may suggest the boudoir rather than the field of battle +or the field of sport; he may amuse by his hat, astonish by his beard, +and perplex by his boots; but the fact remains that he is master of +Paris, and Paris is the centre of civilisation. + +The Parisians not only adore their dogs in life: they give them very +honourable burial. We have in London, by Lancaster Gate, a tiny +cemetery for these friendly creatures; but that is nothing as compared +with the cemetery at St. Ouen, on an island in the Seine. Here are +monuments of the most elaborate description, and fresh wreaths +everywhere. The most striking tomb is that of a Saint Bernard who +saved forty persons but was killed by the forty-first--a hero of whose +history one would like to know more, but the gate-keeper is curiously +uninstructed.[2] + + [2] I have since learned that this is the same dog, Barry by + name, who has a monument on the St. Bernard Pass, and is stuffed + in the Natural History Museum at Berne. But I know nothing of + his connexion with Paris. + +I walked among these myriad graves, all very recent in date, and was +not a little touched by the affection that had gone to their making. I +noted a few names: Petit Bob, Esperance (whose portrait is in +bas-relief accompanied by that of its master), Peggie, Fan, Pincke, +Manon, Dick, Siko, Leonette (aged 17 years and 4 months), Toby, Kiki, +Ben-Ben ("toujours gai, fidele et caressant"--what an epitaph to +strive for!), Javotte, Nana, Lili, Dedjaz, Trinquefort, Teddy and +Prince (whose mausoleum is superb), Fifi (who saved lives), Colette, +Dash (a spaniel, with a little bronze sparrow perching on his tomb), +Boy, Bizon (who saved his owner's life and therefore has this +souvenir), and Mosque ("regrette et fidele ami"). There must be +hundreds and hundreds altogether, and it will not be long before +another "Dog's Acre" is required. + +Standing amid all the little graves I felt that the one thing I wanted +to see was a dog's funeral. For surely there must be impressive +obsequies as a preparation to such thoughtful burial. But I did not. +No melancholy cortege came that way that afternoon; Fido's pompes +funebres are still a mystery to me. + +But to my mind the best dogs in Paris are not such toy pets as for the +most part are here kept in sacred memory, but those eager pointers +that one sees on Sunday morning at the Gare du Nord, and indeed at all +the big stations, following brisk, plump sportsmen with all the opera +bouffe insignia of the chase--the leggings and the belt and the great +satchel and the gun. For the Frenchman who is going to shoot likes the +world to know what a lucky devil he is: he has none of our furtive +English unwillingness to be known for what we are. I have seen them +start, and I have waited about in the station towards dinner time just +to see them return, with their bags bulging, and their steps springing +with the pride and elation of success, and the faithful pointers +trotting behind. + +Everything is happy at the Jardins des Plantes and d'Acclimatation +to-day: but it was not always so. During a critical period of 1870 and +1871 the cages were in a state of panic over the regular arrival of +the butcher--not to bring food but to make it. Mr. Labouchere, the +"Besieged Resident," writing on December 5th, 1870, says: "Almost all +the animals in the Jardin d'Acclimatation have been eaten. They have +averaged about 7 f. a lb. Kangaroo has been sold for 12 f. the lb. +Yesterday I dined with the correspondent of a London paper. He had +managed to get a large piece of mufflon, and nothing else, an animal +which is, I believe, only found in Corsica. I can only describe it by +saying that it tasted of mufflon, and nothing else. Without being +absolutely bad, I do not think that I shall take up my residence in +Corsica, in order habitually to feed upon it." + +On December 18th Mr. Labouchere was at Voisin's. The bill of fare, he +says, was ass, horse and English wolf from the Zoological Gardens. +According to a Scotch friend, the English wolf was Scotch fox. Mr. +Labouchere could not manage it and fell back on the patient ass. +Voisin's, by the way, was the only restaurant which never failed to +supply its patrons with a meal. If you ask Paul, the head waiter, he +will give you one of the siege menus as a souvenir. + +Mr. Labouchere's description of typical life during the siege may be +quoted here as offering material for reflection as we loiter about +this city so notable to-day for pleasure and plenty. "Here is my day. +In the morning the boots comes to call me. He announces the number of +deaths which have taken place in the hotel during the night. If there +are many he is pleased, as he considers it creditable to the +establishment. He then relieves his feelings by shaking his fist in +the direction of Versailles, and exits growling 'Canaille de +Bismarck'. I get up. I have breakfast--horse, _cafe au lait_--the +_lait_ chalk and water--the portion of horse about two square inches +of the noble quadruped. Then I buy a dozen newspapers, and after +having read them discover that they contain nothing new. This brings +me to about eleven o'clock. Friends drop in, or I drop in on friends. +We discuss how long it is to last--if friends are French we agree that +we are sublime. At one o'clock get into the circular railroad, and go +to one or other of the city gates. After a discussion with the +National Guards on duty, pass through. Potter about for a couple of +hours at the outposts; try with glass to make out Prussians; look at +bombs bursting; creep along the trenches; and wade knee-deep in mud +through the fields. The Prussians, who have grown of late malevolent +even towards civilians, occasionally send a ball far over one's head. +They always fire too high. French soldiers are generally cooking food. +They are anxious for news, and know nothing about what is going on. As +a rule they relate the episode of some _combat d'avant-poste_ which +took place the day before. The episodes never vary. 5 P.M.--Get back +home; talk to doctors about interesting surgical operations; then drop +in upon some official to interview him about what he is doing. +Official usually first mysterious, then communicative, not to say +loquacious, and abuses most people except himself. 7 P.M.--Dinner at a +restaurant; conversation general; almost every one in uniform. Still +the old subjects--How long will it last? Why does not Gambetta write +more clearly? How sublime we are; what a fool every one else is. Food +scanty, but peculiar.... After dinner, potter on the Boulevards under +the dispiriting gloom of petroleum; go home and read a book. 12 +P.M.--Bed. They nail up the coffins in the room just over mine every +night, and the tap, tap, tap, as they drive in the nails, is the +pleasing music which lulls me to sleep." + +Here is another extract illustrating the pass to which a hungry city +had come: "Until the weather set in so bitter cold, elderly sportsmen, +who did not care to stalk the human game outside, were to be seen from +morning to night pursuing the exciting sport of gudgeon fishing along +the banks of the Seine. Each one was always surrounded by a crowd +deeply interested in the chase. Whenever a fish was hooked, there was +as much excitement as when a whale is harpooned in more northern +latitudes. The fisherman would play it for some five minutes, and +then, in the midst of the solemn silence of the lookers-on, the +precious capture would be landed. Once safe on the bank, the happy +possessor would be patted on the back, and there would be cries of +'Bravo!' The times being out of joint for fishing in the Seine, the +disciples of Izaak Walton have fallen back on the sewers. The _Paris +Journal_ gives them the following directions how to pursue their new +game: 'Take a long strong line, and a large hook, bait with tallow, +and gently agitate the rod. In a few minutes a rat will come and smell +the savoury morsel. It will be some time before he decides to swallow +it, for his nature is cunning. When he does, leave him five minutes to +meditate over it; then pull strongly and steadily. He will make +convulsive jumps; but be calm, and do not let his excitement gain on +you, draw him up, _et voila votre diner_.'" + +There is still hardly less excitement when a fish is landed by a quai +fisherman, but the emotion is now purely artistic. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE GRANDS BOULEVARDS: I. THE MADELEINE TO THE OPERA + + From Temple to Church--Napoleon the Christian--The Chapelle + Expiatoire--More Irony of History--Mi-Careme--The Art of + Insolence--Spacious Streets--The Champions of + France--Marius--Letter-boxes and Stamps--The Facteur at the + Bed--Killing a Guide no Murder--The Largest Theatre in the + World--A Theatrical Museum. + + +The Madeleine has had a curious history. The great Napoleon built it, +on the site of a small eighteenth-century church, as a Temple of +Glory, a gift to his soldiers, where every year on the anniversaries +of Austerlitz and Jena a concert was to be held, odes read, and +orations delivered on the duties and privileges of the warrior, any +mention of the Emperor's own name being expressly forbidden. That was +in 1806. The building was still in progress when 1815 came, with +another and more momentous battle in it, and Napoleon and his proposal +disappeared. The building of the Temple of Glory was continued as a +church, and a church it still is; and the memory of Jena and +Austerlitz is kept alive in Paris by other means (they have, for +example, each a bridge), no official orations are delivered on the +soldier's calling, no official odes recited. It was a noble idea of +the Emperor's, and however perfunctorily carried out, could not have +left one with a less satisfied feeling than some of the present +ceremonials in the Madeleine, which has become the most fashionable +Paris church. Napoleon, however, is not wholly forgotten, for in the +apse, I understand, is a fresco representing Christ reviewing the +chief champions of Christianity and felicitating with them upon their +services, the great Emperor being by no means absent. Herr Baedeker +says that the fresco is there, but I have not succeeded in seeing it, +for the church is lit only by three small cupolas and is dark with +religious dusk. + +Within, the Madeleine is a surprise, for it does not conform to its +fine outward design. One expects a classic severity and simplicity, +and instead it is paint and Italianate curves. The wisest course for +the visitor is to avoid the steps and the importunate mendicants at +the railings, and slip in by the little portal on the west side where +the discreet closed carriages wait. + +Louis XVIII., with his passion--a very natural one--to obliterate +Napoleon and the revolutionaries and resume monarchical continuity, +wished to complete the Madeleine as a monument to Louis XVI. and Marie +Antoinette; but he did not persevere with the idea. He built instead, +on the site of the old cemetery of the Madeleine, where Louis XVI. and +the Queen had been buried, the Chapelle Expiatoire. It is their memory +only which is preserved here, for, after Waterloo, their bones were +carried to St. Denis, where the other French kings lie. Their +statues, however, are enshrined in the building (which is just off the +Boulevard Haussmann, isolated solemnly and impressively among chestnut +trees and playing children), the king being solaced by an angel who +remarks to him in the words used by Father Edgeworth on the scaffold, +"Fils de St. Louis, montez au ciel!" and the queen by religion, +personified by her sister-in-law, Madame Elizabeth. The door-keeper, +who conducted me as guide, was in raptures over Louis XVI.'s lace and +the circumstance that he was hewn from a single block of marble. I +liked his enthusiasm: these unfortunate monarchs deserve the utmost +that sculptor and door-keeper can give them. + +Paris has changed its mind more completely and frequently than any +city in the world--and no illustration of that foible is better than +this before us. Consider the sequence: first the king; then the +prisoner; then the execution--the body and head being carried to the +nearest cemetery, the Madeleine, where the guillotine's victims were +naturally flung, and carelessly buried. Ten months later the queen's +body and head follow. (It is said that the records of the Madeleine +contain an entry by a sexton, which runs in English, "Paid seven +francs for a coffin for the Widow Capet".) That was in 1793. Not until +1815 do they find sepulture befitting them, and then this chapel rises +in their honour and they become saints. + + [Illustration: LA DENTELLIERE + JAN VERMEER OF DELFT + (_Louvre_)] + +Among other bodies buried here was that of Charlotte Corday. Also the +Swiss Guards, whom we saw meeting death at the Tuileries. A strange +place, and to-day, in a Paris that cares nothing for Capets, a perfect +example of what might paradoxically be called well-kept neglect. + +To me the Madeleine has always a spurious air: nothing in it seems +quite true. Externally, its Roman proportions carry no hint of the +Christian religion; within, there is a noticeable lack of reverence. +Every one walks about, and the Suisses are of the world peculiarly and +offensively worldly. Standing before the altar with its representation +of the Magdalen, who gives the church its name, being carried to +Heaven, it is difficult to realise that only thirty-eight years ago +this very spot was running red with the blood of massacred Communards. + +I remember the Madeleine most naturally as I saw it once at Mi-Careme, +from an upper window at Durand's, after lunch. It was a dull day and +the Madeleine frowned on the human sea beneath it; for the Place +before it and the Rue Royale were black with people. The portico is +always impressive, but I had never before had so much time or such +excellent opportunity to study it and its relief of the Last Judgment, +an improbable contingency to which few of us were giving much thought +just then. Not only were the steps crowded, but two men had climbed to +the green roof and were sitting on the very apex of the building. + +The Mi-Careme carnival in Paris, I may say at once, is not worth +crossing the Channel for. It is tawdry and stupid; the life of the +city is dislocated; the Grands Boulevards are quickly some inches deep +in confetti, all of which has been discharged into faces and even eyes +before reaching the ground; the air is full of dust; and the places of +amusement are uncomfortably crowded. The Lutetian humours of the Latin +Quarter students and of Montmartre are not without interest for a +short time, but they become tedious with extraordinary swiftness and +certainty as the morning grows grey. + +Each side of the Madeleine has its flower markets, and they share the +week between them. Round and about Christmas a forest of fir-trees +springs up. At the back of the Madeleine omnibuses and trams converge +as at the Elephant. + +For a walk along the Grands Boulevards this temple is the best +starting-point; but I do not suggest that the whole round shall be +made. By the Grands Boulevards the precisian would mean the half +circle from the Madeleine to the Place de la Republique and thence to +the Place de la Bastille; or even the whole circle, crossing the river +by the Pont Sully to the Boulevard St. Antoine, which cuts right +through the Surrey side and crosses the river by the Pont de la +Concorde and so comes to the Rue Royale and the Madeleine again. Those +are the Grands Boulevards; but when the term is conversationally used +it means nothing whatever but the stretch of broad road and pavement, +of vivid kiosques and green branches, between the Madeleine and the +Rue Richelieu: that is the Grands Boulevards for the flaneur and the +foreigner. All the best cafes to sit at, all the prettiest women to +stare at, all the most entertaining shop windows, are found between +these points. + +The prettiest women to stare at! Here I touch on a weakness in the +life of Paris which there is no doubt the Boulevards have fostered. +Staring--more than staring, a cool cynical appraisement--is one of the +privileges which the Boulevardier most prizes. I have heard it said +that he carries staring to a fine art; but it is not an art at all, +and certainly not fine; it is just a coarse and disgusting liberty. It +is nothing to him that the object of his interest is accompanied by a +man; his code ignores that detail; he is out to see and to make an +impression and nothing will stop him. One must not, however, let this +ugly practice offend one's sensibility too much. Foreigners need not +necessarily do as the Romans do, but it is not their right to be too +critical of Rome; and liberty is the very air of the Boulevards. Live +and let live. If one is going to be annoyed by Paris, one had better +stay at home. + +The Grands Boulevards might be called the show-rooms of Paris: it is +here that one sees the Parisians. In London one may live for years and +never see a Londoner; not because Londoners do not exist, but because +London has no show-rooms for their display. There is no Boulevard in +London; the only streets that have a pavement capable of accommodating +both spectators and a real procession of types are deserted, such as +Portland Place and Kingsway. The English, who conquer and administer +the world, dislike space; the French, a people at whose alleged want +of inches we used to mock, rejoice in space. Think of the +Champs-Elysees and the Bois, and then think of Constitution Hill and +Hyde Park, and you realise the difference. Take a mental drive by any +of the principal Boulevards--from the Madeleine eastward to the Place +de la Republique and back to the Madeleine again by way of the +Boulevards de Magenta and Clichy and down the Boulevard Malesherbes, +and then take a mental drive from Hyde Park Corner by way of +Piccadilly, the Strand, Fleet Street, Cannon Street, Lombard Street, +Cheapside, Holborn, Oxford Street and Park Lane to Hyde Park Corner +again and you realise the difference. In wet weather in Paris it is +possible to walk all day and not be splashed. Think of our most +fashionable thoroughfare, just by Long's Hotel, when it is +raining--our Rue de la Paix. The only street in London of which a +Frenchman would not be ashamed is the Mile End Road. + +At the Taverne Olympia--just past the old houses standing back from +the pavement, on the left, which are built on the wall of the old +moat, when this Boulevard really was a bulwark or fortification--at +the Taverne Olympia, upstairs, is one of the few billiard saloons in +Paris in which exhibition games are continually in progress, and in +which one can fill many amusing half-hours and perhaps win a few +louis. Years ago I used to frequent the saloon in a basement under the +Grand Cafe, a few doors east of the Olympia, but it has lost some of +its prestige. The best play now is at Olympia and at Cure's place in +the Rue Vivienne. Every day of the year, for ever and ever, a billiard +match is in progress. So you may say is, in the winter, the case in +London at Burroughs and Watts', or Thurston's, but these are very +different. In London the match is for a large number of points and it +may last a week or a fortnight. Here there are scores of matches every +afternoon and evening and the price of admission is a consommation. By +virtue of one glass of coffee you may sit for hours and watch champion +of France after champion of France lose and win, win and lose. + +The usual game is played by three champions of France and is for ten +cannons off the red. The names of the players, on cards, are first +flung on the table, and the amateur of sport advances from his seat +and stakes five francs on that champion of France whom he favours. +Five francs is the unit. On my first visit, years ago, the champion +whom I, very unsoundly but not perhaps unnaturally, supported, was one +Lucas. Poor fellow, on that afternoon he did his best, but he never +got home. The great Marius was too much for him. Marius in those days +was a very fine player and the hero of the saloon at the Grand Cafe. A +Southerner I should guess; for I have seen his doubles by the score in +the cafes of Avignon and Nimes. He was short and thick, with a bald +head and a large sagacious nose and a saturnine smile and a heavy +moustache. Winning and losing were all one to him, although it is +understood that fifty centimes are contributed by each of his backers +to a champion of France when he brings it off. Marius looked down his +nose in the same way whatever happened. He was no Roberts; he had none +of the Caesarian masterfulness, none of the Napoleonic decision, of +that king of men. The modern French game does not lend itself to such +commanding excellence, such Alpine distinction. The cannon is all: +there is no longer any of the quiet and magical disappearance of the +ball into a pocket which makes the English game so fascinating. + +Such was Marius when I first saw him, and quite lately I descended to +his cellar again and found him unaltered, except that he was no longer +a master except very occasionally, and that he had grown more +sardonic. I do not wonder at it. It may not be, in Paris, "a lonely +thing to be champion," as Cashel Byron says, but it must be a +melancholy thing to be no longer the champion that you were. A home of +rest for ex-champions would draw my guinea at once. + +The ten or eight cannons off the red, I might add, are varied now and +then. Sometimes there is a match between two players for a hundred +points. Sometimes three players will see which can first make eight +cannons, each involving three cushions (trois bandes). This is a very +interesting game to watch, although it may be a concession to +decadence. + + [Illustration: THE RUE DE BIEVRE + (FROM THE QUAI DE MONTEBELLO) + PANTHEON] + +We come next to the Rue Scribe, and crossing it, are at "Old England," +a shop where the homesick may buy such a peculiarly English delicacy +as marmalade, beneath the shadow of the gigantic Grand Hotel, +notable not only for its million bedrooms but for marking the position +of one of the few post offices of Paris, and also the only shop in the +centre of the city which keeps a large and civilised stock of Havana +cigars. One can live without Havana cigars, but post offices are a +necessity, and in Paris they conceal themselves with great success; +while, as for letter-boxes, it has been described as a city without +one. To a Londoner accustomed to the frequent and vivid occurrence at +street corners of our scarlet obelisks, it is so. Quite recently I +heard of a young Englishman, shy and incorrigibly one-languaged, who, +during a week in Paris, entrusted all his correspondence to a +fire-alarm. But, as a matter of fact, Paris has letter-boxes in great +number, only for the most part they are so concealed as to be solely +for the initiated. Directly one learns that every tobacconist also +sells stamps and either secretes a letter-box somewhere beneath his +window, or marks the propinquity of one, life becomes simple. + +Although normally one never has, in France, even in the official +receptacle of one of the chief of the Bureaux des Postes, any of that +confidence that one reposes in the smallest wall-box in England; yet +one must perforce overcome this distrust or use only pneumatiques. The +French do not carry ordinary letters very well, but if you register +them nothing can keep the postman from you. A knock like thunder +crashes into your dreams, and behold he is at your bedside, alert and +important, be-ribboned with red tape, tendering for your signature a +pen dipped in an inkstand concealed about his person. Every one who +goes to France for amusement should arrange to receive one registered +letter. + +Its letter-boxes may be a trifle farcical, but in its facilities given +to purchasers of stamps France makes England look an uncivilised +country. Why it should be illegal for any one but a postal official to +supply stamps in my own land, I have never been informed, nor have any +of the objections to the system ever been explained away. In France +you may get your stamps anywhere--from tobacconists for certain; from +waiters for certain; from the newspaper kiosques for certain; and from +all tradespeople almost for certain: hence one is relieved of the +tiresome delays in post offices that are incident to English life. But +I am inclined to think that when it comes to the post office proper, +England has the advantage. The French post office (when you have found +it) is always crowded and always overheated; and you remember what I +told the men in the Mint. + +To return to the Grand Hotel, I am minded to express the wish that +something could be done to rid its pavement of the sly leering +detrimental with an umbrella who comes up to the foreigner and offers +his services as a guide to the night side of Paris. Not until an +Englishman has killed one of these pests will this part of Paris be +endurable. But from what I have observed I should say that few murders +are less likely to occur.... + +And so we come to the Cafe de la Paix, and turning to the left, the +Opera is before us. The Opera is one of the buildings of Paris that +are taken for granted. We do not look at it much: we think of it as +occupying the central position, adjacent to Cook's, useful as a place +of meeting; we buy a seat there occasionally, and that is all. And yet +it is the largest theatre in the world (the work of that Charles +Garnier whose statue is just outside), and although it is not exactly +beautiful, its proportions are agreeable; it does not obtrude its size +(and yet it covers three acres); it sits very comfortably on the +ground, and an incredible amount of patient labour and thought went to +its achievement, as any one may see by walking round it and studying +the ornamentation and the statuary, among which is Carpeaux's famous +lively group "La Danse". One very pleasant characteristic of the Opera +is the modesty with which it announces its performances: nothing but a +minute poster in a frame, three or four times repeated, giving the +information to the passer-by. Larger posters would impair its superb +reserve. + +The Opera has a little museum, the entrance to which is in the Rue +Auber corner, by the statue of the architect (with his plan of the +building traced in bronze below his bust). This museum is a model of +its kind--small but very pertinent and personal in character. Here are +one of Paganini's bows and his rosin box; souvenirs of Malibran +presented to her by some Venetian admirers in 1835; Berlioz' season +ticket for the Opera in 1838, and a page of one of his scores; Rossini +in a marble statuette, asleep on his sofa, wearing that variety of +whisker which we call a Newgate fringe; Rossini on his death-bed, +drawn by L. Roux, and a page of a score and a cup and saucer used by +him; a match box of Gounod's, a page of a score, and his marble bust; +Meyerbeer on his death-bed, drawn by Mousseaux, a decoration worn by +that composer, and a page of his score; two of Cherubini's tobacco +boxes and a page of his score; Danton's clay caricature of Liszt--all +hair and legs--at the piano, and a caricature of Liszt playing the +piano while Lablache sings and Habeneck conducts; a bust of Fanny +Cerrito, danseuse, in 1821--with a mischievous pretty face--that +Cerrito of whom Thomas Ingoldsby rhymed; and a bust of Emma Livry, a +danseuse of a later day, who died aged twenty-three from injuries +received from fire during the repetition generale of the "Muette de +Portici" on November 15th, 1862. In a little coffer near by are the +remains of the clothes the poor creature was wearing at the time. What +else is there? Many busts, among them Delibes the composer of +"Coppelia," whose grave we shall see in the Cimetiere de Montmartre: +here bearded and immortal; autograph scores by Verdi, Donizetti, +Victor Masse, Auber, Spontini (whose very early piano also is here), +and Herold; a caricature by Isabey of young Vestris bounding in +mid-air, models of scenes of famous operas, and a host of other things +all displayed easily in a small but sufficient room. If all museums +were as compact and single-minded! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A CHAIR AT THE CAFE DE LA PAIX + + The Green Hour--In the Stalls of Life--National Contrasts + and the Futility of Drawing Them--The Concierge--The + Benefice Hunters--The Claque--The Paris Theatre--The Paris + Music Hall--The Everlasting Joke--The Real French--A Country + of Energy--A City of Waiters--Ridicule--Women--Cabmen--The + Levelling of the Tourist--French Intelligence--The + Chauffeurs--The Paris Spectacle. + + +And now since it is the "green hour"--since it is five o'clock--let us +take a chair outside the Cafe de la Paix and watch the people pass, +and meditate, here, in the centre of the civilised world, on this +wonderful city of Paris and this wonderful country of France. + +I am not sure but that when all is said it is not these outdoor cafe +chairs of Paris that give it its highest charm and divide it from +London with the greatest emphasis. There are three reasons why one +cannot sit out in this way in London: the city is too dirty; the air +is rarely warm enough; and the pavements are too narrow. But in Paris, +which enjoys the steadier climate of a continent and understands the +aesthetic uses of a pavement, and burns wood, charcoal or anthracite, +it is, when dry, always possible; and I, for one, rejoice in the +privilege. This "green hour"--this quiet recess between five and six +in which to sip an aperitif, and talk, and watch the world, and +anticipate a good dinner--is as characteristically French as the +absence of it is characteristically English. The English can sip their +beverages too, but how different is the bar at which they stand from +the comfortable stalls (so to speak) in the open-air theatres of the +Boulevards in which the French take their ease. + +At every turn one is reminded that these people live as if the +happiness of this life were the only important thing; while if we +subtract a frivolous fringe, it may be said of the English that +(without any noticeable gain in such advantages as spirituality +confers) they are always preparing to be happy but have not yet enough +money or are not yet quite ready to begin. The Frenchman is happy now: +the Englishman will be happy to-morrow. (That is, at home; yet I have +seen Englishmen in Paris gathering honey while they might, with both +hands.) + +But the French and English, London and Paris, are not really to be +compared. London and Paris indeed are different in almost every +respect, as the capitals of two totally and almost inimically +different nations must be. For a few days the Englishman is apt to +think that Paris has all the advantages: but that is because he is on +a holiday; he soon comes to realise that London is his home, London +knows his needs and supplies them. Much as I delight in Paris I would +make almost any sacrifice rather than be forced to live there; yet so +long as inclination is one's only master how pleasant are her vivacity +and charm. But comparisons between nations are idle. For a +Frenchman there is no country like France and no city like Paris; for +an Englishman England is the best country and London the most +desirable city. For a short holiday for an Englishman, Paris is a +little paradise; for a short holiday for a Frenchman, London is a +little inferno. + + [Illustration: GIRL'S HEAD + ECOLE DE FABRIANO + (_Louvre_)] + +Each country is the best; each country has advantages over the other, +each country has limitations. The French may have wide streets and +spacious vistas, but their matches are costly and won't light; the +English, even in the heart of London, may be contented with narrow and +muddy and congested lanes, but their sugar at least is sweet. + +The French may have abolished bookmakers from their race-courses and +may give even a cabman a clean napkin to his meals, but their tobacco +is a monopoly. The English may fill their streets with newspaper +posters advertising horrors and scandals, but they are permitted now +and then to forget their vile bodies. The French may piously and +prettily erect statues of every illustrious child of the State, but +their billiard tables are now without pockets. London may have a +cleaner Tube railway system than Paris, but Paris has the advantage of +no lifts and a correspondence ticket at a trifling cost which will +take you everywhere, whereas London's Tubes belonging to different +companies the correspondence is expensive. Again with omnibuses, +London may have more and better, but here again the useful +correspondence system is to be found only in Paris. + +London may be in darkness for most of the winter and be rained upon by +soot all the year round; but at any rate the Londoner is master in his +own house or flat and not the cringing victim of a concierge, as every +Parisian is. That is something to remember and be thankful for. Paris +has an atmosphere, and a climate, and good food, and attentive +waiters, and a cab to every six yards of the kerb, and no petty +licensing tyrannies, and the Champs-Elysees, and immunity from lurid +newspaper posters, and good coffee, and the Winged Victory, and Monna +Lisa; but it also has the concierge. At the entrance to every house is +this inquisitive censorious janitor--a blend in human shape of +Cerberus and the Recording Angel. The concierge knows the time you go +out and (more serious) the time you come in; what letters and parcels +you receive; what visitors, and how long they stay. The concierge +knows how much rent you pay and what you eat and drink. And the worst +of it is that since the concierge keeps the door and dominates the +house you must put a good face on it or you will lose very heavily. +Scowl at the concierge and your life will become a harassment: letters +will be lost; parcels will be delayed; visitors will be told you are +at home; a thousand little vexations will occur. The concierge in +short is a rod which, you will observe, it is well to kiss. The wise +Parisian therefore is always amiable, and generous too, although in +his heart he wishes the whole system at the devil. + +And here I ought to say that although one is thus conscious of +certain of the defects and virtues of each nation, I have no belief +whatever in any large interchange of characteristics being possible. +Nations I think can borrow very little from each other. What is sauce +for the goose is by no means necessarily sauce for the oie, and the +meat of an homme can easily be the poison of a man. + +The French and the English base life on such different premises. To +put the case in a nutshell, we may say that the French welcome facts +and the English avoid them. The French make the most of facts; the +English persuade themselves that facts are not there. The French write +books and plays about facts, and read and go to the theatre to see +facts; the English write books and plays about sentimental unreality, +and read and go to the theatre in order to be diverted from facts. The +French live quietly and resignedly at home among facts; the English +exhaust themselves in games and travel and frivolity and social +inquisitiveness, in order to forget that they have facts in their +midst. + +One always used to think that the English were the most willing +endurers of impositions and monopolies; but I have come to the +conclusion that a people that can continue to burn French matches and +use French ink and blotting-paper, bend before the concierge and +suffer the claque and the French theatre attendant, must be even +weaker. Only a people in love with slavery would continue to endure +the black bombazined harpies who turn the French theatres into +infernos, first by their very presence and secondly by their clamour +for a benefice. They do nothing and they levy a tax on it. So far from +exterminating them, this absurd lenient French people has even allowed +them to dominate the cinematoscope halls which are now so numerous all +over Paris. I sit and watch them and wonder what they do all day: in +what dark corner of the city they hang like bats till the evening +arrives and they are free to poison the air of the theatres and exact +their iniquitous secret commission. The habit of London managers to +charge sixpence for a programme--an advertisement of his wares such as +every decent and courteous tradesman is proud to give away--is +sufficiently monstrous; but I can never enough honour them for +excluding these benefice hunters. + +Whatever may be said of French acting and French plays there is no +doubt that our theatres are more comfortable and better managed. A +Frenchman visiting a theatre in London has no difficulties: he buys +his seat at the office, is shown to it and the matter ends. An +Englishman visiting a theatre in Paris has no such ease. He must first +buy his ticket (and let him scrutinise the change with some care and +despatch); this ticket, however, does not, as in London, carry the +number of his seat: it is merely a card of introduction to the three +gentlemen in evening dress and tall hats who sit side by side in a +kind of pulpit in the lobby. One of them takes his ticket, another +consults a plan and writes a number on it, and the third hands it +back. Another difficulty has yet to come, for now begins the turn of +the harpies. Why the English custom is not followed, and a clean sweep +made of both the men in the pulpit and the women inside, one has no +notion; for in addition to being a nuisance they must reduce the +profits. + +I mentioned the claque just now. That is another of the Frenchman's +darling bugbears which the English would never stand. Every Frenchman +to whom I have spoken about it shares my view that it is an +abomination, but when I ask why it is not abolished he merely shrugs +his shoulders: "Why should it be?--one can endure it," is the +attitude; and that indeed is the Frenchman's attitude to most of the +things that he finds objectionable. They are, after all, only +trimmings; the real fabric of his life is not injured by them; +therefore let them go on. Yet while one can understand the persistence +of certain Parisian defects, the long life of the claque remains a +mystery. Upon me the periodical and mechanical explosions of this body +of hirelings have an effect little short of infuriation. One is told +that the actors are responsible rather than the managers, and this +makes its continuance the more unreasonable, for the result has been +that in their efforts to acquire the illusion of applause, they have +lost the real thing. French audiences rarely clap any more. + +When it comes to the consideration of the French stage, there is again +no point in making comparisons. It is again a conflict of fact and +sentiment. The French are intensely interested in the manifestations +of the sexual emotion, and they have no objection to see the +calamities and embarrassments and humours to which it may lead worked +out frankly on the boards or in literature: hence a certain sameness +in their plays and novels. The majority of the English still think +that physical matters should be hidden: hence our dramatists and +novelists having had to find other themes, adventure, eccentricity and +character have won their predominant place. That is all there is to +it. The French stage is the best--to a Frenchman or a gallicised +Englishman; the English stage is the best--to the English. The English +go rather to see; the French to hear. In other words a blind Frenchman +would be better pleased with his national stage than a blind +Englishman with his. The blind Frenchman would at any rate not miss +the jokes, which, though he knew them all before, he could not resist; +whereas the Englishman would be deprived of the visible touches of +which the personae of our drama are largely built up. In a drama of +passion, whether treated seriously or lightly, words necessarily are +more than idiosyncrasies. + + [Illustration: LE BENEDICITE + CHARDIN + _(Louvre)_] + +In the Paris music halls the comic singers merely sing--they have +little but words to give. London music hall audiences may have an +undue affection for red noses and sordid domestic details; but they do +expect a little character, even if it is coarse character, during the +evening, and they get it. There is little in the French hall. +Personality is discouraged here; richness, quaintness, unction, +irresponsibility, eccentricity--such gifts as once pleased us in +Dan Leno and now are to be found in a lesser degree but very agreeably +in Wilkie Bard--these are superfluities to a French comic singer. All +that is asked of him is that he shall be active, shall have a resonant +voice, and shall commit to memory a sufficient number of cynical +reflections on life. A gramophone producing any rapid indecent song +would please the French more than a hundred Harry Lauders. (And yet +when all is said it must be far easier to live in a country where +decency, as we understand and painfully cultivate it, has not +everywhere to be considered. The life at any rate of the French +author, publisher, editor and magistrate, to name no others, is +immensely simplified.) + +But from my point of view the worst characteristic of the French music +hall and variety stage is the revue. The revue is indeed a standing +proof of the incontrovertible fact that however the hotel proprietors +may feel about it, the Parisian does not want English people in his +midst. (Why should he?) The revue in its quiddity is a device for +excluding foreigners from theatres; for it is not only dull and +monotonous, but being for the most part a satire on Parisian politics +is incomprehensible too. I am not here to defend the English +pantomime, but not all its agonies (as Ruskin called them) reach such +a height of tedium as a revue can achieve. A Frenchman ignorant of +English at Drury Lane on Boxing Night might be bewildered and even +stunned; but he would at any rate know something of what was happening +and his eyes would be kept busy. An Englishman at a revue knows +nothing, for there is no story, and very little money is spent on the +stage picture: it is just a steady cataract of topical talk. I have +endured many revues, always hoping against hope that some one would be +witty or funny, that some ingenious satirical device would occur. But +I have never been rewarded. No matter what the nominal subject, the +jokes have been the same: the old old mots a double entente, the old +old outspoken indecency.... + +The stream of people continues to be incessant and of incredible +density--all walking at the same pace, all talking as only the French +can talk, rich and poor equally owners of the pavement. Now and then a +camelot offers a toy or a picture postcard; boys bring _La Patrie_ or +_La Presse_; a performer bends and twists a piece of felt into every +shape of hat, culminating in Napoleon's famous chapeau a cornes.... + +One thing that one notices is the absence of laughter. The French +laugh aloud very seldom. Even in their theatres, at the richest French +jokes, their approval is expressed rather in a rippling murmur +counterfeiting surprise than a laugh. Animation one sees, but on these +Boulevards behind that is often a suggestion of anxiety. The dominant +type of face seen from a chair at the Cafe de la Paix is not a happy +one.... + +It is when one watches this restless moving crowd, or the complacent +audiences at the farces, or the diners in restaurants eating as if it +were the last meal, and when one looks week after week at the comic +papers of Paris, with their deadly insistence on the one and +apparently only concern of Parisian life, that one has most of all to +remind oneself that these people are not the French, and that one is a +superficial tourist in danger of acquiring very wrong impressions. +This is the fringe, the froth. One has only to remember a very few of +the things we have seen in Paris to realise the truth of this. Never +was a harder working people. Look at the early hours that Paris keeps: +contrast them with London's slovenly awakening. Look at the amazing +productivity of a notoriously idle and careless set--the artists: the +old Salon with its miles of pictures twice a year, and the other +Salons, hardly less crowded, and the minor exhibitions too. Look at +the industry of the Paris stage: the new plays that are produced every +week, involving endless rehearsals day and night. Look at the energy +of the French authors, dramatic as well as narrative, of the +journalists and printers. Think of the engineers, the motor-car +manufacturers, the gardeners and the vintners. Think of the +bottle-makers. (But one cannot: such a thought causes the head to reel +in this city of bottles.) No, we are not seeing France, we foreign +visitors to "the gay capital". Don't let us labour under any such +mistake. The industrious, level-headed, cheerful French people do not +exhibit themselves to the scrutinising eyes of the Cafe de la Paix, do +not spend all their time as _Le Rire_ would have us believe, do not +over eat and over drink. + +Around and about one all the time, as one watches this panorama, the +swift and capable waiters are busy. Every one carries away from Paris +one mastering impression upon the inward eye: I am not sure that mine +is not a blur of waiters in their long white aprons. At the Paris +Exhibition of 1900, over the principal entrance at the south-west +corner of the Place de la Concorde, was the gigantic figure of a young +and fashionable woman in the very heyday of her vivacity, allurement +and smartness. She personified Paris. But not so would I symbolise +that city. In any coat of arms of Paris that I designed would +certainly be a capable young woman, but also a waiter, sleek, +attentive and sympathetic. + +Paris may be a city of feminine charm and domination; but to the +ordinary foreigner, and especially the Englishman, it is far more a +city of waiters. Women we have in England too: but waiters we have +not. There are waiters in London, no doubt, but that is the end of +them: there are, to all intents and purposes, no waiters in the +provinces, where we eat exclusively in our own houses. And even in +London we must brace ourselves to find such waiters as there are: we +must indulge in heroic feats of patience, and, once the waiter comes +into view, exercise most of the vocal organs to attract his notice and +obtain his suffrages. In other words, there is in London perhaps one +waiter to every five thousand persons; whereas in Paris there are five +thousand waiters, more or less, to every one person. Or so it seems. +It is a city of waiters; it is _the_ city of waiters. + +Still the people stream by, and one wonders whence the idea comes that +the French are a particularly small race. It is not true. Look at +that tall boulevardier with some one else's hat (why do so many +Frenchmen seem to be wearing other men's hats?) and the immense beard. +Look at those two long-haired artists from the Latin Quarter, in +velvet clothes and black sombreros. In England they would be stared at +and laughed at; but here no one is laughed at at all, and only the +women are stared at. It is interesting to note how little street +ridicule there is in France. The Frenchman mocks, but he does not, as +I think so many of the English do, search for the ridiculous; or at +any rate it is not the same kind of ridiculousness that we pillory. In +England we bring such sandpaper of prejudice and public opinion to +bear upon eccentricity that every one becomes smooth and +ordinary--like every one else. But in France--to the superficial +observer, at any rate--individuality is encouraged and nourished; in +France either no one is ridiculous or every one is. + +Some one once remarked to me that never in Paris do you see a woman +with any touch of the woods. It is true. The Parisian women suggest +the boudoir, the theatre, the salon, the sewing-room, the kitchen, and +now and then even the fields; but never the woods.... + +One misses also in Paris the boy of from fifteen to eighteen. Younger +boys there are, and young men abound, but youths of that age one does +not much see, and very rarely indeed a father and son together. In +fact the generations seem to mix very little: in the restaurants men +of the same age are usually together: beards lunch with beards.... + +And the road is dense too. There is a block every few minutes, while +the agents in the centre of the carrefour do their best to control the +four streams of traffic. It is odd that a people with so much sense of +order and red tape should fail so signally to produce an organiser of +traffic. Certain it is that the stupidest Kentish giant who joins the +Metropolitan police force has a better idea of such a duty than any of +these polished gentlemen in caps. Partly perhaps because in London the +police are feared and obeyed, and in Paris the drivers, particularly +the cabmen, care for no one. The words Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite +are not stencilled all over our churches and public buildings, you +see. + +The cabmen! My impression now is, writing here in England, that the +Paris cochers are all exactly alike. They have white hats and blue +coats and bad horses and black moustaches, and their backs entirely +fill the landscape. They beat their horses and shout at them all the +time. One seldom sees an accident, although they never look as if they +were going to avoid one. That is partly because they are a weary and +cynical folk, and partly because in France the roads belong to +vehicles, and not, as in England, to foot-passengers. In England if +you are run over, you can prosecute the driver and get damages; in +France if you are run over, the driver (one has always heard) can +prosecute you for being in the way. + + [Illustration: THE BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS + (LOOKING EAST)] + +No matter with what fervour is the entente fostered and nourished, the +Parisian cabman will see to it that the hatchet is never too deeply +interred, that the racial excrescences are not too smoothly planed. +Polite hotel managers, obsequious restaurateurs, smiling sommeliers +and irradiated shopkeepers may do their best to assure the Anglo-Saxon +that he is among a people that exist merely to do him honour and adore +his personality; but directly he hails a cab he knows better. The +truth is then his. Not that the Parisian cocher hates a foreigner. +Nothing so crude as that. He merely is possessed by a devil of +contempt that prompts him to humiliate and confound us. To begin with +he will not appear to want you as a fare; he will make it a favour to +drive you at all. He will then begin his policy of humorous +pin-pricks. Though you speak with the accent of Mounet-Sully himself +he will force you to pronounce the name of your destination not once +but many times, and then very likely he will drive you somewhere else +first. You may step into his cab with a feeling that Paris is becoming +a native city: you will emerge wishing it at the bottom of the sea. +That is the cocher's special mission in life--subtly and insidiously +to humiliate the tourist. He does it like an artist and as an +artist--for his own pleasure. It is the only compensation that his +dreary life carries. + +The French, I fancy, are not less capable of stupidity than any other +people. There is an idea current that they are the most intelligent of +races, but I believe this to be a fallacy, proceeding from the fact +that the French language lends itself to epigrammatic expression, and +that every French child dips his cup into the common reservoir of +engaging idioms and adroit phrases. This means that French +conversation, even among the humblest, is better than English +conversation under similar and far more favourable conditions; but it +means no more. It gives no real intelligence. The incapacity of the +ordinary Frenchman to get enough imagination into his ear (so fine +that it can distinguish between the most delicate vowel sounds in his +own language) to enable it to understand a foreign pronunciation is +partly a proof of this. But take him at any time off his regular +lines, present a new idea to him, and he can be as stupid as a Sussex +farm labourer. It is the same with America. Just as the French +language imposes wit on its user, so is every American, man or woman, +fitted at birth with the mechanism of humour. Yet how few are +humorous! + +But the cocher is not the only cabman of Paris: there remains the +driver of the auto. The motor cab has not elbowed out the horse cab in +Paris as it has in London, nor probably will it, for the Parisians are +not in a hurry; but for Longchamp and such excursions the auto is +indispensable, and the motor cabman becomes more and more a +characteristic of the streets. Our London chauffeurs are sufficiently +implacable, blunt and churlish, but the Parisian chauffeur is like +fate. There is no escape if you enter his car: he lights his +cigarette, sinks his back into his seat, and his shoulders into his +back, and his head into his shoulders, and drives like the devil. He +seems to have no life of his own at all: he exists merely to urge his +car wherever he is told. The foreigner has no hold whatever upon the +chauffeur; he arranges the meter to whatever tariff he pleases, and +before you can examine the dial at the end of the journey he has +jerked up the flag. When you keep him waiting his meter devours your +substance. Always terrible, he is worst in winter, when he is dressed +entirely in hearth-rugs. The old cocher for me. + +But it grows chilly and it is dinner time. Let us go. Yet first I +would remind you that we chose the Cafe de la Paix for our reverie +only because it is the centre, and we were intent upon the centre. But +the pavement chairs of all the cafes of Paris are interesting, and it +is equally good to sit in any populous bourgeois quarter where one can +watch the daily indigenous life of this city, which the visitor who +remains for the most part in the visitors' districts can so easily +miss. The busy, capable girls and women shopping--their pretty +uncovered heads all so neatly and deftly arranged, and their bags and +baskets in their hands; the chair mender blowing his horn; the teams +of white horses, six or eight in single file, with high collars and +bells, drawing blocks of stone or barrels of wine; the tondeur de +chiens, with his mournful pipe and box of scissors; the brisk errand +boys; the neat little milliners with their band-boxes; now and then a +slovenly soldier and a well-groomed erect agent. Paris as a spectacle +is perpetually new and amusing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GRANDS BOULEVARDS: II. THE OPERA TO THE PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE + + The Christmas Baraques--The Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin--The + Rue Laffitte--La Musee Grevin--The Bibliotheque + Nationale--The Roar of Finance--Tailors as Cartoonists--A + Bee-hive Street--Cities within the City--Pompes + Funebres--The Church as Advertiser--The Great + Marguery--Gates which are not Gates--The Life of St. + Denis--Highways from Paris--The First Theatre--St. Martin's + Act of Charity--The Arts et Metiers; a Modern Cluny--Statues + of the Republic. + + +From the Place de l'Opera to the Place de la Republique is an +interesting and instructive walk, but at no time of the day a very +easy one; and between five o'clock and half-past six, and eight and +ten, on the north pavement, it is always almost a struggle; but when +the baraques are in full swing around Christmas and the New Year, it +is a struggle in earnest, at any rate as far as the Rue Drouot. Indeed +Christmas and New Year, but especially Christmas Eve and New Year's +Eve, are great times in France, and presents are exchanged as +furiously as with us. + +On Christmas Eve--Reveillon as it is called--no one would do anything +so banal as to go to bed. The restaurants obtain a special permission +to remain open, and tables are reserved months in advance. +Montmartre, never very sleepy, takes on a double share of wakefulness. + +The first street on our left, the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin, is one +of the busiest in Paris, with excellent shops and many interesting +associations. Madame Recamier lived at No. 7, the site of the Hotel +d'Antin. So also did Madame Necker and Madame Roland, and for a while +Edward Gibbon. Chopin lived at No. 5. This street, by the way, has +suffered almost more than any other from the Parisian fickleness in +nomenclature. It began as the Rue de la Chaussee Gaillon, then Rue de +l'Hotel Dieu, then Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin, from Richelieu's Hotel +d'Antin, then the Rue Mirabeau, from the revolutionary who lodged and +died at No. 42, then, when Mirabeau's body was removed ignominiously +from the Pantheon, the Rue Mont Blanc, and in 1815 it became once +again the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. + +At the foot of the Rue Laffitte one should stop, because one gets +there a glimpse of Montmartre's white and oriental cathedral, hanging +in mid-air, high above Paris and the church of Notre Dame de Lorette. +This street is, to me, one of the most entertaining in the city, for +almost every other shop is a picture-dealer's, and to loaf along it, +on either side, is practically to visit a gallery. Two or three of +these shops keep as a continual sign the words "Bronzes de Barye". The +Rue Laffitte was named after the banker Jacques Laffitte, whose bank +was in the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. Cerutti, who delivered +Mirabeau's funeral oration, set up his revolutionary journal _La +Feuille Villageoise_ here. At the Hotel Thelusson at the end of the +street the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses assembled. Among the +guests was General Buonaparte, and it was here that he first met +Josephine Beauharnais. + +The Musee Grevin, to which we soon come on the left, is the Parisian +Tussaud's; and it is as much better than Tussaud's as one would expect +it to be. Tussaud's is vast and brilliant; the Musee Grevin is small +and mysterious. There is so little light that every one seems wax, and +one has to look very narrowly and anxiously at all motionless figures. +The particular boast of the Grevin is its groups: not so much the Pope +and his pontifical cortege, the coulisses of the Opera (a scene of +coryphees and men about town), and the Fete d'Artistes, as the +admirable tableaux of the Revolution. To the untutored eye of one who, +like myself, avoids waxworks, the Grevin figures and grouping are good +and, what is perhaps more important, intelligent. Pains have been +taken to make costumes and accessories historically accurate, and in +many cases the actual articles have been employed, notably in the +largest tableau of all--"Une Soiree a Malmaison"--which was arranged +under the supervision of Frederic Masson, the historian, an effigy of +whom stands near by. Among these scenes the historical sense of the +French child can be really quickened. There are also tableaux of Rome +in the time of the early Christians--very clever and painful. + + [Illustration: MADAME LE BRUN ET SA FILLE + MADAME LE BRUN + _(Louvre)_] + +At the Rue Drouot, at the conjunction of the Boulevards des +Italiens and de Montmartre, there is an angle. Hitherto we have been +walking west by north; we now shall walk west by south. From this +point we shall also observe a difference in the character of the +street, which will become steadily more bourgeois. At this corner, +where the traffic is always so congested, owing largely to the +omnibuses with the three white horses abreast that cross to and from +the Rue Richelieu, all the best cafes are behind us. + +If that L32,000,000 reconstruction scheme of which I have already +spoken comes to pass, this point will be unrecognisable, for among the +items in that programme is the uniting of the Boulevard Haussmann, +which now comes to an abrupt end at the Rue Taitbout, with the +Boulevard de Montmartre, which, as a glance at the map will show, is +in a line with it. But my hope is that the improvement will be long +deferred. + +It is in the Rue Richelieu that the Bibliotheque Nationale stands, +where the foreign resident in Paris may read every day, precisely as +at the British Museum, provided always that he is certified by his +Consul to be worthy of a ticket, and the visitor may on certain days +examine priceless books and autographs, prints and maps and cameos and +wonderful antiquities. Here once lived Cardinal Mazarin, and it is in +the galerie that bears his name that the rarest bindings are to be +seen--some from Grolier's own shelves. Among the MSS. is that of +Pascal's _Pensees_. The library, which is now perhaps the finest in +existence, has been built up steadily by the kings of France, even +from Charlemagne, but Louis XII. was the first of them who may really +be called a bibliophile, to be worthily followed by Francois I. It was +not until 1724, in the reign of Louis XV., that the royal collection +was removed to this building. The Revolution greatly added to its +wealth by transferring hither the libraries of the destroyed convents +and monasteries. The treasures in the Cabinet de Medailles I cannot +describe; all I can say is that they ought not to be missed. They may +be called an extension of the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre. + +Before leaving the Bibliotheque I should add that in certain of its +rooms, with an entrance in the Rue Vivienne, exhibitions are +periodically held, and it is worth while to ascertain if one is in +progress. In the spring of 1908 I saw there a most satisfying display +of Rembrandt's etchings. + +It was in one of the old book-shops in the neighbourhood of the +Bibliotheque that I received my first impression of the Paris Bourse. +I was turning over little pocket editions of Voltaire's _Pucelle_ and +naughty Crebillons and such ancient boudoir fare, when I began to be +conscious of a sound as of a thousand boys' schools in deadly rivalry. +On hurrying out to learn the cause I found Paris in its usual +condition of self-containment and intent progress; no one showed any +sign of inquisitiveness or excitement; but on the steps of the Bourse +I observed a shouting, gesticulating mob of men who must, I thought, +be planning a new Reign of Terror. But no; they were merely financiers +engaged in the ordinary work of life. The Bourse is free, and I +climbed the steps, pushed through the money-makers, and entered. Never +again. I have seen men engaged in the unlovely task of acquiring lucre +by more or less improper means in various countries, but I never saw +anything so horrible as the rapacity expressed upon the faces of this +heated Bourse populace. + +Capel Court is not indifferent to the advantages of a successful coup, +but Capel Court differs from the Bourse not only in a comparative +retention of its head, but also in a certain superficial appearance of +careless aristocracy. Capel Court dresses well and keeps time for a +practical joke now and then. The Bourse is shabby and in the grip of +avarice. Wall Street and the Chicago pit, I am told, are worse: I have +not seen them; but no race-course scramble for odds could exceed the +horrors of that day in the Bourse. The home, by the way, of this daily +vociferous service of Mammon, was built on the site of the old convent +of the Filles de St. Thomas. During the Revolution the connection +between the Bourse and Heaven was even closer, for the church of the +Petits Peres was then set apart for Exchange purposes. + +Returning to the point where we left the Boulevard--at the Rue +Richelieu--I am moved to ask what would happen in London if Messrs. +Baker in the Tottenham Court Road or Messrs. Gardiner in Knightsbridge +were suddenly to break out into caricature and embellish their windows +with scarifying cartoons of Kings, Kaisers, Presidents and Premiers? +The question may sound odd, but it is simple enough if you visit the +High Life tailor at the corner of the Rue Richelieu, or, farther east, +a similar establishment at the corner of the Rue de Rougemont, for it +then becomes obvious that it is quite part of the duties of the large +Parisian clothier to do his part in forming public opinion. These +cartoons are always bold and clever, although often too municipal for +the foreigner's apprehension. + +I have said somewhere that one of my favourite streets in Paris is the +Rue Montorgeuil. That is largely, as I have explained, because it is +old and narrow, and the people swarm in it, and the stalls are so +many, and the houses are high and white and take the sun so bravely, +and it smells of Paris; and also, of course, because the Compas d'Or +is here, bringing the middle ages so nigh. Another favourite is the +Rue du Faubourg Montmartre (which is now the next on the left +eastward) for its busy happy shops and its moving multitudes. In its +own narrow way it is almost as crowded as the Grands Boulevards. + +A little way up this street, on the right, is a gateway leading into a +very curious backwater, as noticeably quiet as the highways are noisy +and restless: the Cite Bergere, the largest of those cites within a +cite of which Paris has several, to be compared in London only with +St. Helen's Place in Bishopsgate or Park Row at Knightsbridge. The +Cite Bergere is practically nothing but hotels--high and narrow, with +dirty white walls and dirty green shutters--very cheap, and very +incurious as to the occupations of their guests, whether male or +female. It has a gate at each end which is closed at night and +penetrated thereafter only at the goodwill of the concierge, whom it +is well to placate. The Cite Bergere leads into the Cite Rougemont +(hence offering an opportunity to an innkeeper between the two to hang +out the imposing sign of the Hotel des Deux Cites), and from the Cite +Rougemont you gain that district of Paris where the woollen merchants +congregate. + +Returning to the Grands Boulevards, the next street on the left is the +Rue Rougemont, and if we take this we come in a few moments to the +Conservatoire, where so many famous musicians have been taught, and +where Coquelin and Sarah Bernhardt learned the art of elocution. There +is a little museum at the Conservatoire in which every variety of +musical instrument is preserved, together with a few personal relics, +such as a cast of Paganini's nervous magical hand, with its long +sharply pointed fingers, and the death-mask of Chopin. + +Close to the Conservatoire is the darkest church in Paris--Saint +Eugene, a favourite spot for funeral services. I chanced once to +stay in a room overlooking this church, until the smell of mortality +became too constant. There was a funeral every day: every morning +the undertakers' men were busy in the preparations for the +ceremony--draping the facade with heavy curtains of a blackness that +seemed to darken the circumambient air: every afternoon removing it, +together with the other trappings of the ritual--the candlesticks and +furniture. It is not without reason that the French undertaker +ambushes beneath the imposing style of Pompes Funebres. + +It was, by the way, on the walls of Saint Eugene, each side of the +door, that I first saw any of those curious affiches, made, I suppose, +necessary, or at any rate prudent, by recent events in France, +directing notice to--advertising, I almost wrote, and indeed why +not?--the advantages of religion. Religion (this is what the notice +came to in essence), religion has its points after all. When President +Fallieres' daughter was married, it remarked, where was the ceremony +performed? In a church. (Ha, Ha!) Who, it asked, is called to visit a +man on his death-bed, no matter how wicked he has been? A priest. +(Touche!) And so forth. Surely a strange document. + +In the same street is an old book-stall whose shelves are fastened to +the wall, giving the appearance of an open-air library for all--the +Carnegie idea at its best. There used to be one on the side of the +Hotel Chatham in the Rue Volney (opposite Henry's excellent American +Bar) but it has now gone. + +We may regain the Boulevards by turning down the long Rue du Faubourg +Poissoniere, which leads direct, through the Rue Montorgeuil, to the +Halles and the Pont Neuf--a very good walk. Passing Marguery's great +restaurant on the left, famous for its filet de sole in a special +sauce, which every one should eat once if only to see the great +Marguery on his triumphant progress through the rooms, bending his +white mane over honoured guests, we come to a strange thing--a +massive archway in the road, parallel with the pavements, which I +think needs a little explanation. It will take us far from the Grands +Boulevards: as far, in fact, as _The Golden Legend_; for the arch is +the Porte St. Denis, and St. Denis is the patron saint of Paris. + + [Illustration: LE PONT DE MANTES + COROT + _(Louvre: Moreau Collection)_] + +St. Denis was not a Frenchman but an Athenian, who was converted by +St. Paul in person, after considerable discussion. Indeed, discussion +was not enough: it needed a miracle to win him wholly. "And as," wrote +Caxton, "S. Denis disputed yet with S. Paul, there passed by adventure +by that way a blind man tofore them, and anon Denis said to Paul: If +thou say to this blind man in the name of thy God: See, and then he +seeth, I shall anon believe in him, but thou shalt use no words of +enchantment, for thou mayst haply know some words that have such might +and virtue. And S. Paul said: I shall write tofore the form of the +words, which be these: In the name of Jesu Christ, born of the virgin, +crucified and dead, which arose again and ascended into heaven, and +from thence shall come for to judge the world: See. And because that +all suspicion be taken away, Paul said to Denis that he himself should +pronounce the words. And when Denis had said those words in the same +manner to the blind man, anon the blind man recovered his sight. And +then Denis was baptized and Damaris his wife and all his meiny, and +was a true Christian man and was instructed and taught by S. Paul +three years, and was ordained bishop of Athens, and there was in +predication, and converted that city, and great part of the region, to +christian faith." + +Denis was sent to France by Pope Clement, and he converted many +Parisians and built many churches, until the hostile strategy of the +Emperor Domitian prevailed and he was tortured, the scene of the +tragedy being Montmartre. "The day following," says Caxton, "Denis was +laid upon a gridiron, and stretched all naked upon the coals of fire, +and there he sang to our Lord saying: Lord thy word is vehemently +fiery, and thy servant is embraced in the love thereof. And after that +he was put among cruel beasts, which were excited by great hunger and +famine by long fasting, and as soon as they came running upon him he +made the sign of the cross against them, and anon they were made most +meek and tame. And after that he was cast into a furnace of fire, and +the fire anon quenched, and he had neither pain ne harm. And after +that he was put on the cross, and thereon he was long tormented, and +after, he was taken down and put into a dark prison with his fellows +and many other Christian men. + +"And as he sang there the mass and communed the people, our Lord +appeared to him with great light, and delivered to him bread, saying: +Take this, my dear friend, for thy reward is most great with me. After +this they were presented to the judge and were put again to new +torments, and then he did do smite off the heads of the three fellows, +that is to say, Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, in confessing the +name of the holy Trinity. And this was done by the temple of Mercury, +and they were beheaded with three axes. And anon the body of S. Denis +raised himself up, and bare his head between his arms, as the angel +led him two leagues from the place, which is said the hill of the +martyrs, unto the place where he now resteth, by his election, and by +the purveyance of God. And there was heard so great and sweet a melody +of angels that many of them that heard it believed in our Lord." + +Any one making the pilgrimage from, say, Notre Dame to the town of St. +Denis to-day, can follow the saint's footsteps, for the Rue St. Denis +at the foot of Montmartre leads out into the Rue du Faubourg St. +Denis, and that street right over Montmartre, Caxton's hill of the +martyrs, to St. Denis itself. I do not pretend that the legend as it +is thus given has not been subjected to severe criticism; but when one +has no certain knowledge, the best story can be considered the best +evidence, and I like Caxton better than the others, even though it +conflicts a little with the legend of St. Genevieve. It is she, I +might add, who is credited with having inaugurated the pilgrimage to +St. Denis's bones. + +The Rue St. Denis was more than the road to the saint's remains: it +was the great north road out of Paris to the sea. Just as the old +Londoners bound for the north left by the City Road and passed through +the village of Highgate, so did the French traveller leave by the Rue +St. Denis and pass through the village of St. Denis. Similarly the Rue +St. Martin was the high-road to Germany. In the old days, when this +street was a highway, the Porte St. Denis had some meaning, for it +stood as a gateway between the city and the country; but to-day, when +the course of traffic is east and west, it stands (like the Porte St. +Martin) merely as an obstruction in the Grand Boulevard--not quite so +foolish as our own revised Marble Arch, but nearly so. The Porte St. +Denis dates from 1673 and celebrates, as the bas-reliefs indicate, the +triumphs of Louis XIV. in Germany and Holland; the Porte St. Martin +(to which we are just coming) belongs to the same period and +commemorates other successes of the same monarch. + +The Rue St. Denis is one of the most entertaining of the old streets +of Paris, although adulterated a little by omnibuses and a sense of +commerce. But to have boundless time before one, and no cares, and no +fatigue, and starting at the Porte St. Denis to loiter along it +prepared to penetrate every inviting court and alluring +by-street--that is a great luxury. The first theatre in Paris, and +indeed in France, was in the Hospital of the Trinity in the Rue St. +Denis. That was early in the fifteenth century, and it was designed +for the performance of Mystery plays in which the protagonist was, of +course, Jesus Christ. Paris has now many theatres, with other ideals; +but whatever their programmes may be, they proceed from that early and +pious spring. + +We come next to the Boulevard de Strasbourg, running north to the Gare +de l'Est, and the Boulevard de Sebastopol, running south to the Ile de +la Cite; and then to the second archway, the Porte St. Martin. St. +Martin (who was Bishop of Tours) lived in Paris for a while, and it +was here that he performed the miracle of healing a leper by embracing +him--an act commemorated by Henri I. in the founding of the Priory of +St. Martin, which stood a little way down the Rue St. Martin on the +left, on a site on which the Musee des Arts et Metiers now stands. But +it was at Amiens that the saint's most beautiful act--the gift of his +cloak to a beggar--was performed, and perhaps I may be allowed to +quote here, from another book of mine, the translation of a poem by M. +Haraucourt, the curator of the Cluny museum, celebrating that deed:-- + + CHARITY + + Because so bitter was the rain, + Saint Martin cut his cloak in twain, + And gave the beggar half of it + To cover him and ease his pain. + + But being now himself ill clad, + The Saint's own case was no less sad. + So piteously cold the night; + Though glad at heart he was, right glad. + + Thus, singing, on his way he passed, + While Satan, grim and overcast, + Vowing the Saint should rue his deed, + Released the cruel Northern blast. + + Away it sprang with shriek and roar, + And buffeted the Saint full sore, + Yet never wished he for his cloak; + So Satan bade the deluge pour. + + Huge hail-stones joined in the attack, + And dealt Saint Martin many a thwack, + "My poor old head!" he smiling said, + Yet never wished his cape were back. + + "He must, he shall," cried Satan, "know + Regret for such an act," and lo, + E'en as he spoke the world was dark + With fog and frost and whirling snow. + + Saint Martin, struggling toward his goal, + Mused thoughtfully, "Poor soul! poor soul! + What use to him was half a cloak? + I should have given him the whole." + + The cold grew terrible to bear, + The birds fell frozen in the air: + "Fall thou," said Satan, "on the ice + Fall thou asleep, and perish there." + + He fell, and slept, despite the storm, + And dreamed he saw the Christ Child's form + Wrapped in the half the beggar took, + And seeing Him, was warm, so warm. + +The Arts et Metiers is a museum devoted to the progress of mechanics +and the useful crafts: a kind of industrial exhibition, a modern +utilitarian Cluny. It is a memorial of the world's ingenuity and the +ingenuity of France in particular, and one cannot have a much better +reminder that the frivolity of the Grands Boulevards is not all. +Apropos, however, of the frivolity of the Grands Boulevards, I may say +that the case that was attracting most interest on the Sunday that I +was here contained a collection of all the best mechanical toys of the +past dozen years, with their dates affixed. The only article in the +vast building which seemed to serve no useful purpose was a mirror +cracked during the Commune by a bullet, with the bullet still in it. +In the square opposite the Musee is the statue of Beranger, who for +many years made the ballads of the French nation. + + [Illustration: THE PORTE ST. DENIS + (SOUTH FACADE)] + +Returning to the Grands Boulevards once more, we pass first the Porte +St. Martin theatre, where the great Coquelin played Cyrano, and where +he was rehearsing _Chantecler_ when he died, and then the Ambigu, home +of sensational melodrama, and come very shortly to the Place de la +Republique, with its great central monument. The Republic thus +celebrated is not merely the Third and present Republic, but all the +efforts in that direction which the French have made, as the twelve +reliefs round the base will show, for they begin with the scene in the +Jeu de Paume in 1789, and end with the National Fete on July 14th, +1880. Paris would still have statues of the Republique if this were to +go, for there is one by Dalou, the sculptor of these bas-reliefs, in +the Place de la Nation, and another by Soitoux at the Institut. Dalou +(whose work we saw in such profusion at the Little Palace in the +Champs-Elysees) made a very spirited and characteristic group, with +the Republic standing high on a chariot being drawn by lions and urged +forward by an ouvrier and an ouvriere. + +There is another and hardly less direct walk eastward to the Place de +la Republique, which, taken slowly and amusedly, instructs one as +fully in the manners of the busy small Parisian as the Boulevards in +those of the flaneur. This route is by the Rue de Provence, the Rue +Richer, the Rue des Petites-Ecuries and the Rue Chateau +d'Eau--practically a straight line, and in the old days a highway. You +see the small Parisian at his busiest--at her busiest--this way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MONTMARTRE + + Steep Streets--The Musee Moreau--The + Sacre-Coeur--Francoise-Marguerite--Paris and Her + Beggars--A Ferocious Cripple--The Communard + Insurrection--The Maison Dufayel--Heinrich Heine--The + Cimetiere de Montmartre--The Boulevard de Clichy--Cabarets + Good and Bad--An Aged Statesman is Entertained--Three + Bals--Paris and Late Hours--The Night Cafes--The Tireless + Dancers--A Coat-tail--The Dead Maitre d'Hotel. + + +One may gain Montmartre by every street that runs off the Grands +Boulevards on the left, between the Opera and the Place de la +Republique; but when the night falls and the tide begins to turn that +way, it is the Rue Blanche and the Rue Pigalle that do most of the +work. All are very steep. To the wayfarer climbing the hill in no +hurry, I recommend for its interest the Rue des Martyrs (Balzac once +lived at No. 47), leading out of the Rue Laffitte; or, starting from +the Boulevards at a more easterly point, one may gain it by the Rue du +Faubourg Montmartre, which runs into the Rue des Martyrs at Notre Dame +de Lorette and is full of activity and variety. + +By taking the Rue de la Rochefoucauld one may spend a few minutes in a +little white building there which was once the home and studio of the +painter Gustave Moreau and is now left to the nation as a permanent +memorial of his labours. In industry the man must have approached +Rubens and Rembrandt, for this, though a large house, is literally +filled with paintings and drawings and studies, which not only cover +the walls but cover screens built into the walls, and screens within +screens, and screens within those. The menuisier and Moreau together +have contrived to make No. 14 Rue de la Rochefoucauld the most tiring +house in Paris--at least to me, who do not admire the work of this +painter, or at any rate do not want to see more of it than is in the +Luxembourg, where may be seen several of his pictures, including the +most famous of all, the Salome. Herr Baedeker considers that Moreau's +works have a charm of their own, but I do not find it. I find a +striving after the grandiose and startling, with only occasional +lapses into sincerity and good colour. It is better than Wiertz, no +doubt; but less entertaining, because less shocking. + +Montmartre's life may for our purpose be divided into three distinct +periods: day, evening, and the small hours. By day one may roam its +streets of living and of dead and study Paris from its summit; in the +evening its cabarets are in full swing; and then comes midnight when +its supper cafes open, not to close or cease their melodies until the +shops are doing business again. + +Montmartre (so called because it was here that St. Denis and his +associates were put to death) really is a mountain, as any one who +has climbed to the Sacre-Coeur can tell. The last two hundred yards +are indeed nearly as steep as the Brecon Beacons; but the climb is +worth it if only for the view of Paris. (There is, however, a +funicular railway.) As for the cathedral, that seems to me to be +better seen and appreciated from the distance: from the train as one +enters Paris in the late afternoon, with the level sun lighting its +pure walls; from the heights on the south side of the river; from the +Boulevard des Italiens up the Rue Laffitte; and from the +Buttes-Chaumont, as in Mr. Dexter's exquisite drawing. For the +cathedral itself is not particularly attractive near at hand, and +within it is cold and dull and still awaiting its glass. It was, +however, one of the happiest thoughts that has come to Rome in our +time to set this fascinating bizarre Oriental building here. It gave +Paris a new note that it will now never lose. + +Before leaving, one ought perhaps to have a peep at +Francoise-Marguerite, for one is not likely to see her equal again. +Francoise-Marguerite, otherwise known as La Savoyarde de Montmartre, +is the great bell given to the cathedral by the province of Savoy. She +weighs nineteen tons, is nine feet tall, and her voice has remarkable +timbre. + +Behind the new cathedral lies the old church of St. +Pierre-de-Montmartre, on the side of which, it is said, once stood a +temple of Mars. (Hence, for some lexicographers, Mont-Mars and +Montmartre; but I prefer to think of St. Denis wandering here without +his head.) It was in the crypt of this church, I have somewhere read, +that Ignatius Loyola, with Xavier and Laine, founded the order of +Jesuits. + +I attended early mass at the Sacre-Coeur church on January 1st, +1908. It was snowing lightly and very cold, and as I came away, at +about eight, and descended the hill towards Paris, I was struck by the +spectacle of the lame and blind and miserable men and women who were +appearing mysteriously from nowhere to descend the hill too, groping +and hobbling down the slippery steepnesses. Such folk are an uncommon +sight in Paris, where every one seems to be, if not robust, at any +rate active and capable, and where, although it eminently belongs to +the poor as much as to the rich, extreme poverty is rarely seen. In +London, where the poor convey no possessive impression, but, except in +their own quarters, suggest that they are here on sufferance, one sees +much distress. In Paris none, except on this day, the first of the +year--and on one or two others, such as July 14th--when beggars are +allowed to ask alms in the streets. For the rest of the year they must +hide their misery and their want, although I still tremble a little as +I remember the importunities of the Montmartre cripple of ferocious +aspect and no legs at all, fixed into a packing-case on wheels, who, +having demanded alms in vain, hurls himself night after night along +the pavement after the hard-hearted, urging his torso's chariot by +powerful strokes of his huge hands on the pavement, as though he +rowed against Leander, with such menacing fury that I for one have +literally taken to my heels. He is the only beggar I recollect meeting +except on the permitted days, and then Paris swarms with them. + +Standing on the dome of the cathedral one has the city at one's feet, +not as wonderfully as on the Eiffel Tower, but nearly so. From the +Buttes-Chaumont we see Montmartre: here we see the Buttes-Chaumont, +which, before it was a park, shared with Montmartre the gypsum +quarries from which plaster of Paris is made. Beyond the +Buttes-Chaumont is Pere Lachaise, a hill strangely mottled by its +grave-stones, while immediately below us is the Cimetiere du Nord, +which we are about to visit for the sake of certain very interesting +tombs. + +One realises quickly the strategical value of this mountain. Paris has +indeed been bombarded from it twice--by Henri IV., and again, only +thirty-eight years ago. It was indeed on Montmartre that the Communard +insurrection began, for it was the cannon on these heights that the +rebel soldiers at once made for after the assassination of their +officers. They held them for a while, but were then overpowered and +forced to take up their quarters in the Buttes-Chaumont and Pere +Lachaise, which were shelled by the National Guard from Montmartre +until the brief but terrible mutiny was over. + +The great dome, close by us on the left, which might be another +Pantheon, crowns the Maison Dufayel. Who is Dufayel? you ask. Well, +who is Wanamaker, who was Whiteley? M. Dufayel is the head of the +gigantic business in the Boulevard Barbes, a northern continuation of +the Boulevard de Magenta. His advertisements are on every hoarding. I +think the Maison Dufayel is well worth a visit, especially as there is +no need to buy anything: you may instead sip an aperitif, listen to +the band or watch the cinematoscope. One also need have none of that +fear of what would happen were there to be a sudden panic which always +keeps me nervous if ever I am lured into the Magasins du Louvre or the +Galeries Lafayette; for at Dufayel's there is space, whereas at those +vast shopping centres there is a congestion that, in a time of stress +would lead to perfectly awful results. The Maison Dufayel is not so +varied a repository as Wanamaker's or Whiteley's: but in its way it is +hardly less remarkable. Its principal line is furniture, and I never +saw so many beds in my life. It was M. Dufayel who brought to +perfection the deposit system of payment, and his agents continually +range the otherwise pleasant land of France, collecting instalments. + +Since I had wandered into this monstrous establishment, which may not +be as large as Harrod's Stores but feels infinitely vaster, I +determined to buy something, and decided at last upon a French +picture-book for an English child. Buying it was a simple operation, +but I then made the mistake of asking that it might be sent to England +direct. One should never do that in a bureaucratic country. The lady +led me for what seemed several miles through various departments +until we came late in the day to rows and rows of Frenchmen and +Frenchwomen each in a little glass box. These boxes were numbered and +ran to hundreds. We stopped at last before, say, 157, where my guide +left me. The Frenchman in the box denied at once that the book could +go by post. It was too large. It must go by rail. For myself, I did +not then care how it went or if it went at all: I was tired out. But +feeling that such an act as to abandon the parcel and run would be +misconstrued and resented in a home of such perfect mechanical order, +I waited until he had written for a quarter of an hour in a fine +flowing hand with a pen sharper than a serpent's tooth, and then I +paid the required number of francs and set out on the desperate errand +of finding the street again. The book was a week on its journey. Go to +Dufayel's, I say, most certainly, for it is quite amusing; but go when +you are young and strong. + +To me the most interesting thing on Montmartre is the grave of +Heinrich Heine in the Cimetiere du Nord, a strange irregular city of +dead Parisians all tidily laid away in their homes in its many +streets, over which a busy rumbling thoroughfare has been carried on a +viaduct. I had Heine's _Salon_ with me when I was last in Paris, and I +sought his grave again one afternoon with an increased sense of +intimacy. A medallion portrait of the mournful face is cut in the +marble, and on the grave itself are wistful echoes of the _Buch der +Lieder_. A little tin receptacle is fixed to the stone, and I looked +at the cards which in the pretty German way visitors had left upon +the poet and his wife; for Frau Heine lies too here. All were German +and all rain-soaked (or was it tears?) + + [Illustration: LA PROVENDE DES POULES + TROYON + _(Louvre: Thomy-Thierret Collection)_] + +Matthew Arnold in his poem called Heine's grave black: the present one +is white. How do the lines run? + + "_Henri Heine_"----'tis here! + That black tombstone, the name + Carved there--no more! and the smooth, + Swarded alleys, the limes + Touch'd with yellow by hot + Summer, but under them still, + In September's bright afternoon, + Shadow, and verdure, and cool. + Trim Montmartre! the faint + Murmur of Paris outside; + Crisp everlasting-flowers, + Yellow and black, on the graves. + + Half blind, palsied, in pain, + Hither to come, from the streets' + Uproar, surely not loath + Wast thou, Heine!--to lie + Quiet, to ask for closed + Shutters, and darken'd room, + And cool drinks, and an eased + Posture, and opium, no more; + Hither to come, and to sleep + Under the wings of Renown. + + Ah! not little, when pain + Is most quelling, and man + Easily quell'd, and the fine + Temper of genius so soon + Thrills at each smart, is the praise, + Not to have yielded to pain + No small boast, for a weak + Son of mankind, to the earth + Pinn'd by the thunder, to rear + His bolt-scathed front to the stars; + And, undaunted, retort + 'Gainst thick-crashing, insane, + Tyrannous tempests of bale, + Arrowy lightnings of soul + + * * * * * + + Ah! as of old, from the pomp + Of Italian Milan, the fair + Flower of marble of white + Southern palaces--steps + Border'd by statues, and walks + Terraced, and orange-bowers + Heavy with fragrance--the blond + German Kaiser full oft + Long'd himself back to the fields, + Rivers, and high-roof'd towns + Of his native Germany; so, + So, how often! from hot + Paris drawing-rooms, and lamps + Blazing, and brilliant crowds, + Starr'd and jewell'd, of men + Famous, of women the queens + Of dazzling converse--from fumes + Of praise, hot, heady fumes, to the poor brain + That mount, that madden--how oft + Heine's spirit outworn + Long'd itself out of the din, + Back to the tranquil, the cool + Far German home of his youth + + See! in the May-afternoon, + O'er the fresh, short turf of the Hartz, + A youth, with the foot of youth, + Heine! thou climbest again. + + * * * * * + + But something prompts me: Not thus + Take leave of Heine! not thus + Speak the last word at his grave! + Not in pity, and not + With half censure--with awe + Hail, as it passes from earth + Scattering lightnings, that soul! + + The Spirit of the world, + Beholding the absurdity of men-- + Their vaunts, their feats--let a sardonic smile, + For one short moment wander o'er his lips. + _That smile was Heine!_--for its earthly hour + The strange guest sparkled; now 'tis passed away. + + That was Heine! and we, + Myriads who live, who have lived, + What are we all, but a mood, + A single mood, of the life + Of the Spirit in whom we exist, + Who alone is all things in one? + Spirit, who fillest us all! + Spirit, who utterest in each + New-coming son of mankind + Such of thy thoughts as thou wilt! + O thou, one of whose moods, + Bitter and strange, was the life + Of Heine--his strange, alas, + His bitter life!--may a life + Other and milder be mine! + May'st thou a mood more serene, + Happier, have utter'd in mine! + May'st thou the rapture of peace + Deep have embreathed at its core; + Made it a ray of thy thought, + Made it a beat of thy joy! + +Heine has many illustrious companions. If you would stand by the grave +of Berlioz and Ambroise Thomas, of Offenbach, who set all Europe +humming, of Delibes the composer of Genee's "Coppelia," of the +brothers Goncourt, of Renan, who wrote the _Life of Christ_, or of +Henri Murger, who discovered Bohemia, of De Neuville, painter of +battles, of Halevy and Meilhac the playwrights, or of Theophile +Gautier the poet, you must seek the Cimetiere du Nord. + +Montmartre in the evening centres in the Boulevard de Clichy--a +high-spirited thoroughfare. Many foreigners visit it only then, and +the Boulevard spreads its wares accordingly, and very tawdry some of +them are. Here, for example, is a garish facade labelled "Ciel," in +which a number of grubby blackguards dressed as saints and angels +first bring refreshments at a franc a glass, and then offer the +visitor a "preche humoristique" followed by variations of Pepper's +ghost in what are called "scenes paradisiaques," the whole performance +being cold, tawdry and very stupid. Next door is "Enfer," where +similar delights are offered, save that here the suggestion is not of +heaven but hell. Instead therefore of grubby blackguards as saints we +have grubby blackguards as devils. On the opposite side of the road is +the Cabaret du Neant, where you are received with a mass for the dead +sung by the staff, and sit at tables made of coffins. + +It is hardly necessary to say that very few Parisians enter these +places. The singing cabarets, however, are different: they are +genuine, and one needs to be not only a Parisian but a very +well-informed Parisian to appreciate them, for the songs are +palpitatingly topical and political. The Quatz'-Arts, the Lune-Rousse +and the Chat-Noir (once so famous, but now lacking in the genius +either of Salis, its founder, or of Caran d'Ache, Steinlen or +Willette, who helped to make it renowned) are all in the Boulevard de +Clichy. So also is Aristide Bruant's cabaret, where an organised shout +of welcome awaits every visitor, and Aristide--in costume a cross +between a poet and a cowboy--sings his realistic ballads of Parisian +street life. Here also is the Moulin-Rouge, which in the old days of +the elephant was in its spurious way amusing, but is now rebuilt and +redecorated out of knowledge, and for all the words you hear might be +on Broadway. + +Here also, at the extreme western end of the Boulevard, is the +Hippodrome, now a hippodrome only in name and given up to the popular +cinematoscope. I regret the loss of the real Paris Hippodrome. Paris +still has her permanent circuses, but the Hippodrome is gone. It was +there that, one night, in 1889, I chanced to sit very near the royal +box, into which, with much bowing and scraping of managers, a +white-haired old gentleman with the features of a lion and an eagle +harmoniously blended was ushered. He was only seventy-nine, this old +gentleman, and he was in the thick of such duties as fall to the +Leader of the Opposition and promoter of Home Rule for Ireland; but he +followed every step of the performance like a schoolboy, and now and +then he sent for an official to have something explained to him, such +as, on one occasion, the workings of the artificial snow-storm which +overwhelmed Skobeleff's army. That ill-fated Russian general was the +hero of the spectacle, a remarkable one in its way; but to me the +restless animation and whole-hearted enjoyment of Mr. Gladstone was +the finer entertainment. + +Montmartre has also three dancing halls, two of which are genuine and +one a show-place. The genuine halls are the Moulin-de-la-Galette, high +on the hill on the steepest part of it above the Moulin-Rouge, and the +Elysee in the Boulevard de Rochechouart, which are open only two or +three times a week and which are thronged by the shop-assistants and +young people of the neighbourhood. The spurious hall is the Bal +Tabarin, which is open every evening and is a spectacle. It is, +however, by no means unamusing, and I have spent many pleasant idle +hours there. Willette's famous fresco of the apotheosis of the +Parisian leg decorates a wall-space over the bar with peculiar +fitness. At all the bals the men who dance retain their hats and often +their overcoats, and for the most part leave their partners with +amazing abruptness at the last step. Some of the measures are +conspicuous for a lack of restraint that would decimate an English +ballroom; but one must not take such displays "at the foot of the +letter": they do not mean among these Latin romps and frolics what +they would mean with us, whose emotions are less facile and sense of +fun less physical. + +And so we come to midnight, when Montmartre enters its third, and, to +a Londoner exasperated by the grandmotherly legislation of his own +city, its most entertaining phase. The idea that Paris is a late city +is an illusion. Paris is not a late city: it is a city with a few late +streets. Paris as a whole goes to bed as early as London, if not +earlier, as a walk in the residential quarters will prove. Montmartre +is late, and the Boulevards des Capucines and des Italiens are late, +although less so; and that is about all. When it is remembered that +Paris rises and opens its shops some hours earlier than London, and +that the Parisians value their health, it will be recognised that +Paris could not be a late city. One must remember also that the number +of all-night cafes is very small, so small that by frequenting them +with any diligence one may soon come to know by sight most of the late +fringe of this city, both amateurs and professionals. One is indeed +quickly struck by their numerical weakness. + +There is a fashion in night cafes as in hats; change is made as +suddenly and as inexplicably. One month every one is crowding into, +let us say, the Chat Vivant, and the next the Chat Vivant kindles its +lamps and tweaks its mandolins in vain: all the world passes its doors +on the way to the Nid de Nuit. What is the reason? No one knows +exactly; but we must probably once again seek the woman. A new dancer +(or shall I say attachee?) has appeared, or an old dancer or attachee +transferred her allegiance. And so for a while the Nid has not a free +table after one o'clock, and on a special night--such as Mi-Careme, or +Reveillon, or New Year's Eve--it is the head-waiter and the +door-keeper of the Nid into whose hands are pressed the gold coins +and bank notes to influence them to admit the bloods and their parties +and find them a table. A year ago the douceur (often fruitless) would +have gone to the officials of the Chat Vivant. + +They remain, when all has been said against them, simple and +well-mannered places, these half-dozen famous cafes on which the sun +always rises. To think so one must perhaps graduate on the Boulevards, +but once they are accepted they can become an agreeable habit. +Sleepiness is as unknown there as the writings of Thomas a Kempis. Not +only the dancers de la maison but the visitors too are tireless. There +may be ways of getting ennui into a Parisian girl, but certainly it is +not by dancing. Nor does the band tire either, one excellent rule at +all of them being that there should be no pause whatever between the +tunes, from the hour of opening until day. + + [Illustration: THE WINDMILL + R. P. BONINGTON + (_Louvre_)] + +There lies before me as I write an amusing memorial of the innocent +high spirits that can prevail on such a special all-night sitting as +Reveillon: one of the tails of a dress coat, lined with white satin on +which a skilful hand has traced with a fountain pen (my own) two very +intimate scenes of French life. These drawings were made between five +and six in the morning in the intervals of the dance, the artist, +lacking paper, having without a word taken a table knife and shorn off +his coat-tails for the purpose. His coat, I may say, was already being +worn inside out, with one of the leather buckles of his braces as a +button-hole. A tall burly man, with a long red Boulevard beard, he had +thrown out signs of friendliness to me at once, and we became as +brothers. He drew my portrait on the table-cloth; I affected to draw +his. He showed me where I was wrong and drew it right. He then left +me, in order to walk for a while on an imaginary tight-rope across the +floor, and having safely made the journey and turned again, with +infinite skill in his recoveries from falling and the most dexterous +managing of a balancing-pole that did not exist, he leaped lightly to +earth again, kissed his hand to the company, and again sat by me and +resumed his work; finally, after other diversions, completing the chef +d'oeuvre that is now lying on my desk and lending abandon to what is +otherwise a stronghold of British decorum. We parted at seven. I have +never seen him since, but I find his name often in the French comic +papers illustrating yet other phases of their favourite pleasantry for +the entertainment of this simple and tireless people. + +Another incident I recall that is equally characteristic of +Montmartre. "Ca ne fait rien," said a head-waiter when we had +expressed regret on hearing of the death of the maitre d'hotel, for +whom (an old acquaintance) we had been asking. "Ca ne fait rien: it is +necessary to order supper just the same." True. True indeed +everywhere, but particularly true on Montmartre. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ELYSEE TO THE HOTEL DE VILLE + + The Most Interesting Streets--Pet Aversions--The Rue de la + Paix--The Vendome Column--A Populous Church--The Whiff of + Grapeshot--Alfred de Musset--The Moliere Quarter--A Green + and White Oasis--Camille Desmoulins at the Cafe de + Foy--Charles Lamb in Paris--The Cloitre de St. Honore--The + Massacre of St. Bartholomew--St. Germain of Auxerre--A + Satisfied Corpse--Catherine de Medicis' Observatory--St. + Eustache--A Wonderful Organ-The Halles--French Economy and + English Want of It--The Goat-herd--The Assassination of + Henri IV.--The Tour St. Jacques-Pascal, Theologian and + Inventor of Omnibuses--A Sinister Spot--The Paris + Town-hall--A Riot of Frescoes--Etienne Marcel--The Hotel de + Ville and Politesse--An Ancient Palace--Old Streets--Madame + de Beauvais' Mansion--A Quiet Courtyard--The Church of St. + Paul and St. Louis--Rabelais' Grave. + + +The Elysee, the official home of the French president--Paris's White +House and Buckingham Palace--is situated in the Rue du Faubourg +Saint-Honore, which is one of the most entertaining streets in the +whole city in which to loiter; that is, if you like, as I do, the +windows of curiosity dealers and jewellers and print shops. Not that +bargains are to be obtained here: far from it: it is not like the Rue +des Saints Peres or the Rue Mazarine across the river; but merely as a +series of windows it is fascinating. I like it as much as I dislike +the Rue Lafayette, which has always been my aversion, not only because +it is interminable and commercial and noisy, but because it leads back +to England and work; yet since, however, when one arrives in Paris it +leads from England and work, I must be a little lenient, and there is +also a cafe in it where the diamond merchants compare gems quite +openly. + +Remembering these extenuating circumstances I unhesitatingly award the +palm for undesirability in a Paris street to the Rue du +Quatre-Septembre and the Rue Reaumur, which are sheer Shaftesbury +Avenue, and, as in Shaftesbury Avenue, cause one to regret the older +streets and houses whose place they have usurped. The Rue de Rivoli I +dislike too: that strange mixture of very good hotels (the Meurice, +for instance, is here) and rubbishy shops full of tawdry jewellery to +catch the excursionist. How it happened that such a site should have +been allowed to fall into such hands is a mystery. An additional +objection to the Rue de Rivoli is that the one English acquaintance +whom one least wishes to meet is always there. + +The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore becomes the Rue Saint-Honore at the +Rue Royale. The Rue Saint-Honore is also a good street for shop +windows, but not the equal of its more aristocratic half; just as that +is surpassed here by the Rue de la Paix, to which we now come on the +left, and which contains more things that I can do without, made to +perfection, than any street I ever saw. At its foot is the Place +Vendome, with the beautiful column in the midst on which Napoleon's +campaign of 1805 is illustrated in a bronze spiral that constitutes at +once, I suppose, the most durable and the longest picture in the +world. The bronze came very properly from the melted Russian and +Austrian cannons. Napoleon stands at the top, imperially splendid; but +as we saw in the chapter on the "Ile de la Cite," it was not always +so: for his first statue was removed by Louis XVIII. to be used for +the new Henri IV. In its stead a fleur-de-lys surmounted the column. +Then came Louis-Philippe, who erected a new statue of the Emperor, +not, however, imperially clad; and then Napoleon III., who substituted +the present figure. But in 1870 the Communards succeeded in bringing +the column down, and it has only been vertical again since 1875. Thus +it is to be a Paris monument! + +Returning to the Rue Saint-Honore, in which, by the way, are several +old and interesting houses, such as No. 271, the Cabaret du +Saint-Esprit, a great resort in the Reign of Terror of spectators +wishing to see the tumbrils pass, and No. 398, where Robespierre +lodged, we come to St. Roch's church, on the left, interesting both in +itself and in history. It has been called the noisiest church in +Paris, and certainly it is difficult to find a time when feet are +silent there. The attraction is St. Roch's wealth of shrines, of a +rather theatrical character, such as the wise poor love: an +entombment, a calvary and a nativity, all very effective if not +beautiful. Beauty does not matter, for on Good Friday the entombment +holds thousands silent before it. The church, which is in the baroque +style that it is so easy to dislike, is too florid throughout. Among +the many monuments are memorials of Corneille and Diderot, both of +whom are buried here. The music of St. Roch is, I am told, second only +to that of the Madeleine. + +So much for St. Roch within. Historically it chances to be of immense +importance, for it was here, and in the streets around and about the +church, that the whiff of grapeshot blew which dispersed the French +Revolution into the air. That was on October 5th, 1795, and it was not +only the death of the Revolution but it was the birth of the +conquering Buonaparte. Carlyle is superb: "Some call for Barras to be +made Commandant; he conquered in Thermidor. Some, what is more to the +purpose, bethink them of the Citizen Buonaparte, unemployed +Artillery-Officer, who took Toulon. A man of head, a man of action: +Barras is named Commandant's-Cloak; this young Artillery-Officer is +named Commandant. He was in the Gallery at the moment, and heard it; +he withdrew, some half-hour, to consider with himself: after a +half-hour of grim compressed considering, to be or not to be, he +answers _Yea_. + +"And now, a man of head being at the centre of it, the whole matter +gets vital. Swift, to Camp of Sablons; to secure the Artillery, there +are not twenty men guarding it! A swift Adjutant, Murat is the name of +him, gallops; gets thither some minutes within time, for Lepelletier +was also on march that way: the Cannon are ours. And now beset this +post, and beset that; rapid and firm: at Wicket of the Louvre, in +Cul-de-sac Dauphin, in Rue Saint-Honore, from Pont-Neuf all along the +north Quays, southward to Pont _ci-devant_ Royal,--rank round the +Sanctuary of the Tuileries, a ring of steel discipline; let every +gunner have his match burning, and all men stand to their arms! + +"Lepelletier has seized the Church of Saint-Roch; has seized the +Pont-Neuf, our piquet there retreating without fire. Stray shots fall +from Lepelletier; rattle down on the very Tuileries Staircase. On the +other hand, women advance dishevelled, shrieking, Peace; Lepelletier +behind them waving his hat in sign that we shall fraternise. Steady! +The Artillery-Officer is steady as bronze; can, if need were, be quick +as lightning. He sends eight-hundred muskets with ball-cartridges to +the Convention itself; honourable Members shall act with these in case +of extremity: whereat they look grave enough. Four of the afternoon is +struck. Lepelletier, making nothing by messengers, by fraternity or +hat-waving, bursts out, along the Southern Quai Voltaire, along +streets and passages, treble-quick, in huge veritable onslaught! +Whereupon, thou bronze Artillery-Officer--? 'Fire!' say the bronze +lips. And roar and thunder, roar and again roar, continual, +volcano-like, goes his great gun, in the Cul-de-sac Dauphin against +the Church of Saint-Roch; go his great guns on the Pont-Royal; go all +his great guns;--blow to air some two-hundred men, mainly about the +Church of Saint-Roch! Lepelletier cannot stand such horse-play; no +Sectioner can stand it; the Forty-thousand yield on all sides, scour +towards covert. 'Some hundred or so of them gathered about the Theatre +de la Republique; but,' says he, 'a few shells dislodged them. It was +all finished at six.' + + [Illustration: THE SACRE-COEUR DE MONTMARTRE, FROM THE + BUTTES-CHAUMONT] + +"The Ship is _over_ the bar, then; free she bounds shoreward,--amid +shouting and vivats! Citoyen Buonaparte is 'named General of the +Interior, by acclamation'; quelled Sections have to disarm in such +humour as they may; sacred right of Insurrection is gone forever! The +Sieyes Constitution can disembark itself, and begin marching. The +miraculous Convention Ship has got to land;--and is there, shall we +figuratively say, changed, as Epic Ships are wont, into a kind of _Sea +Nymph_, never to sail more; to roam the waste Azure, a Miracle in +History! + +"'It is false,' says Napoleon, 'that we fired first with blank charge; +it had been a waste of life to do that.' Most false: the firing was +with sharp and sharpest shot: to all men it was plain that here was no +sport; the rabbets and plinths of Saint-Roch Church show splintered by +it to this hour.--Singular: in old Broglie's time, six years ago, this +Whiff of Grapeshot was promised; but it could not be given then; could +not have profited then. Now, however, the time is come for it, and the +man; and behold, you have it; and the thing we specifically call +_French Revolution_ is blown into space by it, and become a thing that +was!--" + +Crossing the Place du Theatre-Francais we come to that historic home +of the best French drama, where Moliere is still played frequently, +and one has some respite from the theme of facile promiscuity which +dominates most of the other theatres of Paris. A new statue of Alfred +de Musset has lately been set up under the Comedie Francaise. I copy +from a writer very unlike him a passage of criticism to remember as +one stands by this monument: "Give a look, if you can, at a Memoir of +Alfred de Musset written by his Brother. Making allowance for French +morals, and Absinthe (which latter is not mentioned in the Book), +Alfred appears to me a fine Fellow, very un-French in some respects. +He did not at all relish the new Romantic School, beginning with V. +Hugo, and now alive in ---- and Co.--(what I call the Gargoyle School +of Art, whether in Poetry, Painting, or Music)--he detested the modern +'feuilleton' Novel, and read Clarissa!... Many years before A. de M. +died he had a bad, long, illness, and was attended by a Sister of +Charity. When she left she gave him a Pen with 'Pensez a vos +promesses' worked about in coloured silks: as also a little worsted +'Amphore' she had knitted at his bedside. When he came to die, some +seventeen years after, he had these two little things put with him in +his Coffin." That, by Edward FitzGerald, no natural friend to the de +Mussets of the world, is very pretty. + +The Rue de Richelieu runs up beside the Comedie Francaise. We have +already been in this street to see the Bibliotheque Nationale, +entering it from the Boulevard, but let us now walk up it, first to +see the Moliere monument, so appropriate just here, and also to glance +at No. 50, a house still unchanged, where once lived an insignificant +couple named Poisson, whose daughter Jeanne Antoinette Poisson lived +to become famous as Madame La Pompadour. In souvenirs of Moliere Paris +is still rich. We are coming soon to No. 92 Rue Saint-Honore, where he +was born; we are coming to the church of St. Eustache, where he was +christened on January 15th, 1622, and where his second son was +christened too. We are coming also to the church of St. Germain +l'Auxerrois, where he was married and where his first son was +baptised. In St. Roch he once stood as a godfather; and close to us +now, at the corner of the Rue Saint-Honore and the Rue Valois, was one +of his theatres. And he died close to his monument, at No. 40 Rue de +Richelieu. This then is the Moliere quarter. + +We now enter the Palais Royal, that strange white and green oasis into +which it is so simple never to stray. When I first knew Paris the +Palais Royal was filled with cheap restaurants and shops to allure the +excursionist and the connoisseur of those books which an inspired +catalogue once described as very curious and disgusting. It is now +practically deserted; the restaurants have gone and few shops remain; +but in the summer the band plays to happy crowds, and children frolic +here all day. I have, however, never succeeded in shaking off a +feeling of depression. + +The original palace was built by Richelieu and was then the Palais +Cardinal. After his death it became the Palais Royal and was enlarged, +and was the scene of notorious orgies. Camille Desmoulins made it more +serious, for it was here that he enflamed the people by his words on +July 12th, 1789, and started them on their destroying career. That +was in the Cafe de Foy. Carlyle thus describes the scene: "But see +Camille Desmoulins, from the Cafe de Foy, rushing out, sibylline in +face; his hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! He springs to a +table: the Police satellites are eyeing him; alive they shall not +take him, not they alive him alive. This time he speaks without +stammering:--Friends! shall we die like hunted hares? Like sheep +hounded into their pinfold; bleating for mercy, where is no mercy, but +only a whetted knife? The hour is come; the supreme hour of Frenchman +and Man; when Oppressors are to try conclusions with Oppressed; and +the word is, swift Death, or Deliverance forever. Let such hour be +_well_-come! Us, meseems, one cry only befits: To Arms! Let universal +Paris, universal France, as with the throat of the whirlwind, sound +only: To arms--To arms! yell responsive the innumerable voices; like +one great voice, as of a Demon yelling from the air: for all faces +wax fire-eyed, all hearts burn up into madness. In such, or fitter +words, does Camille evoke the Elemental Powers, in this great +moment.--Friends, continues Camille, some rallying sign! Cockades; +green ones;--the colour of Hope!--As with the flight of locusts, these +green tree-leaves; green ribands from the neighbouring shops; all +green things are snatched, and made cockades of. Camille descends from +his table, 'stifled with embraces, wetted with tears'; has a bit of +green riband handed him; sticks it in his hat. And now to Curtius' +Image-shop there; to the Boulevards; to the four winds; and rest not +till France be on fire!" + +Desmoulins in bronze now stands in the garden, near this spot. It is +an interesting statue by Boverie, who showed great courage in his use +of a common chair, dignified here into a worthy adjunct of liberation. + +Under Napoleon the Tribunate sat in the Palais Royal, and after +Napoleon the Orleans family made it their home. The Communards, always +thorough, burned a good deal of it in 1871, and it is now a desert and +the seat of the Conseil d'Etat. Let us leave it by the gateway leading +to the Rue de Valois and be happier again. + +The Rue de Valois is an interesting and picturesque street, but its +greatest attraction to me is its association with Charles Lamb. His +hotel--the Europe, just opposite the gateway--has recently been +rebuilt and is now called the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal et de +l'Europe, and the polished staircase on which his infinitesimal legs +slipped about so comically on his late and not too steady returnings +(and how could he be steady when Providence ordained that the waiter +of whom in his best stammering French he ordered an egg, on his first +visit to a restaurant, should have so misunderstood the order as to +bring in its place a glass of eau de vie--an error, we are told, +which gave Lamb much pleasure?) the polished staircase has now gone; +but the hotel stands exactly where it did, and every thing else is the +same--the Boeuf a la Mode is still close by and still one of the +best restaurants in Paris, and the Place de Valois is untouched, with +its most attractive archway leading to the Rue des Bons-Enfants and +giving on to the vista of the Rue Montesquieu, with its hundred signs +hanging out exactly as in 1823. + +We now return to the Rue Saint-Honore. The three old houses, 180, 182 +and 184, opposite the Magasins du Louvre, belonged before the +Revolution to the Canons of Saint-Honore. The courtyard here--the +Cloitre du Saint-Honore--is one of the most characteristic examples of +dirty Paris that remain, but very picturesque too. To peep in here is +almost certainly to be rewarded by some Hogarthian touch, and to walk +up the Rue des Bons-Enfants yields similar experiences and some very +pleasant glimpses of old Paris. + +Still going east we turn down past the Oratoire on the right, with +Coligny's monument on its south side, into the Rue de Rivoli, and +across the Rue du Louvre obliquely to the old church we see there, +opposite the east end of the Louvre and Napoleon's iron gates. This +church is that of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, not to be confounded with +the St. Germain of St. Germain des Pres across the river. St. Germain +l'Auxerrois is historically one of the most interesting of the Paris +churches, for it was St. Germain's bell that gave the signal for +the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. Charles IX. is said to have +fired at the Huguenots (doubtless with Catherine de Medicis at his +shoulder, anxious for the success of his aim) from one of the windows +in the Louvre overlooking this space. + + [Illustration: L'AMATEUR D'ESTAMPES + DAUMIER + (_Palais des Beaux Arts_)] + +St. Germain of Auxerre began as a layman--the ruler of Burgundy. +Divine revelation, however, indicated that the Church was his true +calling, and he therefore succeeded Saint Amadour as Bishop, "gave," +in Caxton's words, "all his riches to poor people, and changed his +wife into his sister". He took to the new life very thoroughly. He +fasted every day till evening and then ate coarse bread and drank +water and used no pottage and no salt. "In winter ne summer he had but +one clothing, and that was the hair next his body, a coat and a gown, +and if it happed so that he gave not his vesture to some poor body, he +would wear it till it were broken and torn. His bed was environed with +ashes, hair, and sackcloth, and his head lay no higher than his +shoulders, but all day wept, and bare about his neck divers relics of +saints. He ware none other clothing, and he went oft barefoot and +seldom ware any girdle. The life that he led was above man's power. +His life was so straight and hard that it was marvel and pity to see +his flesh, and was like a thing not credible, and he did so many +miracles that, if his merits had not gone before, they should have +been trowed phantasms." + +St. Germain's miracles were more interesting than those of, say, his +convert Sainte Genevieve. He conjured devils; he forbade fire to burn +him; having fed his companions on the only calf of a friendly +cow-herd, he put the bones and the skins together and life returned to +it; he also raised one of his own disciples from the dead and +conversed with him through the walls of his tomb, but on the disciple +saying that in his late condition "he was well and all things were to +him soft and sweet," he permitted him to remain dead. He also found +his miraculous gifts very useful in the war; but his principal +interest to us is that he is supposed to have visited England and +organised the Establishment here. St. Germain's church has a little +old glass that is charming and much bad new. The south transept +window, although sheer kaleidoscope, is gay and attractive. + +At the back of the church runs the narrow and medieval Rue de +l'Arbre-Sec, extending to the Rue Saint-Honore. At No. 4 is, or was, +the Hotel des Mousquetaires, where, when it was the Belle Etoile, +d'Artagnan drank and swaggered. Let us take this street and come to +St. Eustache by way of another and less terrible souvenir of Catherine +de Medicis. The Rue de l'Arbre-Sec leads to the Rue Sauval and to the +circular Rue de Viarmes surrounding the Bourse de Commerce. Here we +see a remarkable Doric column, all that remains of the palace which +Catherine built in order to avoid the fate predicted for her by a +soothsayer--that she would perish in the ruins of a house near St. +Germain's. The Tuileries, which she was then building, being far too +near St. Germain's to be comfortable after such a remark, she erected +the Hotel de la Reine, the tower being designed for astrological study +in the company of her Italian familiar, Ruggieri. All else has gone: +the tower and the stars remain. + +A few steps down the Rue Oblin and we are at St. Eustache, which has +to my eyes the most fascinating roof of any church in Paris and a very +attractive nave. The interior, however, is marred by the presence of +what might be called a church within a church, destroying all vistas, +and it is only with great difficulty that one can see the exquisite +rose window over the organ. It is a church much used by the poor--who +even call it Notre Dame des Halles--but its music on festival days +brings the rich too. Like most other Paris churches of any importance, +St. Eustache had its secular period. The Feast of Reason was held here +in 1793; in 1795 it was the Temple of Agriculture. In 1791 Mirabeau, +the first of the illustrious, as we saw, to be buried in the Pantheon, +was carried here in his coffin for a funeral service, at which guns +were fired that brought down some of the plaster. Voiture the poet was +buried here. The church has always been famous for the splendour of +its festivals and for its music, its present organ, once much injured +by Communard bombs, being one of the finest in the world. No reader of +this book who cares for solemn music should fail to ascertain the St. +Eustache festivals. On St. Cecilia's day entrance is very difficult, +but an effort should be made. + +Eustache, or Eustace, the Saint, had no direct association with Paris, +as had our friends St Germain and St. Genevieve and St. Denis and St. +Martin and St. Merry; but he had an indirect one, having been a Roman +soldier under the Emperor Trajan, whose column was the model for the +Vendome column. In the Sacristy, however, are preserved some of the +bones not only of himself but of his wife and family, brought hither +from St. Denis. One of his teeth is here too, and one special bone, +the gift of Pope Alexander VII. to an influential Catholic. + +Why our London markets should be so dull and unattractive and the +Halles so entertaining is a problem which would perhaps require an +ethnological essay of many pages to elucidate. But so it is. +Smithfield, Billingsgate, Leadenhall, Covent Garden--one has little +temptation or encouragement to loiter in any of them; but the Halles +spread welcoming arms. I have spent hours there, and would spend more. +In the very early morning it is not too agreeable a neighbourhood for +the idle spectator, nor is he desired, although if he is prepared to +endure a little rough usage with tongue and elbow he will be vastly +amused by what he sees; but later, when all the world is up, the +Halles entreat his company. Their phases are three: the first is the +arrival of the market carts with their merchandise, very much as in +our own Covent Garden, but multiplied many times and infinitely more +vocal and shattering to the nerves. (I once occupied a bedroom within +range of this pandemonium.) The second phase, a few hours later, sees +the descent upon the market of the large caterers--buyers for the +restaurants, great and small, the hotels and pensions. That is between +half-past five and half-past seven. And then come the small buyers, +the neat servants, the stout housewives, all with their baskets or +string bags. This is our time; we may now loiter at our ease secure +from the swift and scorching sarcasms of the crowded dawn. + +The Halles furnish another proof of the quiet efficiency of +Frenchwomen. At every fruit and vegetable stall--and to me they are +the most interesting of all--sits one or more of these watchful +creatures, cheerful, capable and always busy either with the affairs +of the stall or with knitting or sewing. The Halles afford also very +practical proof of the place that economy is permitted to hold in the +French cuisine: as much being done for the small purse as for the +large one. + +In England we are ashamed of economy; by avoiding it we hope to give +the impression that we are not mean. The wise French either care less +for their neighbour's opinions or have agreed together to dispense +with such insincerities; and the result is that if a pennyworth of +carrots is all that your soup requires you need not buy two +pennyworth, and so forth. Little portions of vegetables for one, two +or more persons, all ready for the pot, can be bought, involving no +waste whatever, and with no faltering or excuse on the part of the +purchaser to explain so small an order. In France a customer is a +customer. There are no distinctions; although I do not deny that in +the West End of Paris, where the Americans and English spend their +money, subtle shades of courtesy (or want of it) have crept in. I have +been treated like a prince in a small comestible shop where I wanted +only a pennyworth of butter, a pennyworth of cheese and a pennyworth +of milk. It is pennies that make the French rich; no one can be in any +doubt of that who has taken notice of the thousands of small shops not +only in Paris but in the provinces. + +Any one making an early morning visit to the Halles should complete it +by seeing my goat-herd, who leads his flocks thereabouts and eastward. +He is the prettiest sight I ever saw in Paris. There are several +goat-herds--even Passy knows them--but my goat-herd is here. By eight +o'clock he has done; his flock is dry. He wears a blue cloth +tam-o'-shanter (if there can be such a thing: it is really the cap of +the romantic mountaineer of comic opera) and he saunters carelessly +along, piping melancholy notes on a shepherd's pipe--not unlike the +lovely wailing that desolates the soul in the last act of _Tristan und +Isolde_. When a customer arrives he calls one of his goats, sits down +on the nearest doorstep--it may be a seventeenth-century palace--and +milks a cupful; and then he is off again, with his scrannel to his +lips, the very type of the urban Strephon. + +We may leave les Halles (pronounced lay al, and not, as one would +think, lays all: one of the pitfalls for the English in Paris) by the +Rue Berger, and enter the Square des Innocents to look at its +decorative fountain. The next street below the Rue des Innocents is +the Rue de la Ferronnerie, where, on May 14th, 1610, Henri IV. was +assassinated by Ravaillac before the door of No. 3. And so by the Rue +St. Denis, which one is always glad to enter again, and the Rue de +Rivoli, we come to Saint-Jacques, that grey aged isolated tower which +we have seen so often from the heights and in the distance. It is a +beautiful Gothic building, at the summit of which is the figure of St. +James with his emblems, the originals of which are at the Cluny. The +tower belonged to the church of St. Jacques-la-Boucherie, but that +being in the way when Napoleon planned the Rue de Rivoli, it had to +go. + +The tower has not lately been open to the climbers, and I have never +seen Paris from St. James's side, but I hope to. Blaise Pascal +experimented here in the density of air; hence the presence of his +statue below. It was also to Pascal, of whom we now think only as an +ironist and wistful theologian, that Paris owes her omnibuses, for it +was he that devised the first, which began to run on March 18th, 1662, +from the Luxembourg to the Bastille. Pascal owed his conversion to his +escape from a carriage accident on the Pont Neuf. His grave we saw at +St. Etienne-du-Mont. + +In crossing the Place de l'Hotel de Ville one must not forget that +this was once the terrible Place de Greve, the site of public +executions for five centuries. Here we meet Catherine de Medicis +again, for it was by her order that after the Massacre of St. +Bartholomew the Huguenots Briquemont and Cavagnes were hanged here, +and here also was executed Captain Montgomery, whom we are to meet in +the next chapter. The foster-sister of Marie de Medicis was burned +alive in the Place de Greve as a sorcerer; and Ravaillac, after +assassinating Henri IV., here met his end. Among later victims was the +famous Cartouche, of whom Thackeray wrote so entertainingly. + +The Hotel de Ville is not a building that I for one should choose to +revisit, nor do I indeed advise others to bother about it at all; but +externally at any rate it is fine, with its golden sentinels on high. +Its chief merit is bulk; but there is a certain interest in observing +a Republican palace of our own time, if only to see how near it can +come to the real thing. A saturnine guide displays a series of +spacious apartments, the principal attraction of which is their mural +painting. All the best French Royal Academicians (so to speak) of +twenty years ago had a finger in this pie, and their fantasies sprawl +over ceilings and walls. With the exception of one room, the history +of Paris is practically ignored, allegory being the master vogue. +Poetry, Song, Inspiration, Fame, Ambition, Despair--all these undraped +ladies may be seen, and many others. Also Electricity and Steam, +Science and Art, distinguishable from their sisters only by the happy +chance that although they forgot their clothes they did not forget +their symbols. + + [Illustration: LE BAISER + RODIN + (_Luxembourg_)] + +One beautiful thing only did I see, and that was a large design, +perhaps the largest there, of Winter, by Puvis de Chavannes. But to +say that I saw it is an exaggeration: rather, I was conscious of it. +For the architect of the salon in which Puvis was permitted to work +forgot to light it. + +In the historical room there are crowded scenes by Laurens of the past +of Paris--the hero of which is Etienne Marcel, whose equestrian statue +may be seen from the windows, under the river facade of the building. +Etienne Marcel, Merchant Provost, controlled Paris after the +disastrous battle of Poictiers, where the King and the Dauphin were +both taken prisoners. Power, however, made him headstrong, and he was +killed by an assassin. + +It is from the Hotel de Ville that the city of Paris is administered, +with the assistance of the Prefecture de Police on the island +opposite. The Hotel de Ville contains, so to speak, the Paris County +Council, and I have been told that no building is so absurdly +over-staffed. That may or may not be true. The high officials do not +at any rate allow business to exclude the finer graces of life, for in +the great hall in which I waited for the cicerone were long tables on +which were some twenty or thirty baskets containing visiting cards, +and open books containing signatures, and before each basket was a +card bearing the name of an important functionary of the Hotel de +Ville--such as the Prefet de la Seine, and the Sous-Prefet, and their +principal secretaries, and so forth. Every minute or so some one came +in, found the basket to which he wished to contribute, and dropped a +card in it. I wondered to what extent the social machinery of Paris +bureaucracy would be disorganised if I were to change a few baskets, +but I did not embark upon an experiment the results of which I should +have had no means of contemplating and enjoying. + +After leaving the Hotel de Ville and its modern splendours, we may +walk eastward along the Rue de l'Hotel de Ville, one of the narrowest +and dirtiest relics of old Paris, and so come to the Hotel de Sens. +But first notice, at the corner of the Rue des Nonnains-d'Hyeres, at +the point at which Mr. Dexter made his drawing, the very ancient stone +sign of the knife-grinder. The Hotel de Sens, in the Place de l'Ave +Maria, at the end of the Rue de l'Hotel de Ville, is almost if not +quite the most attractive of the old palaces. Although it has been +allowed to fall into neglect, it is still a wonderfully preserved +specimen of fifteenth-century building. The turrets are absolutely +beautiful. The Archbishop of Sens built it, and for nearly three +centuries it remained the home of power and wealth, among its tenants +being Marguerite of Valois. Then came the Revolution and its decline +into a coach office, from which it is said the Lyons mail, made +familiar to us by the Irvings, started. During a later revolution, +1830, a cannon ball found a billet in the wall, and it may still be +seen there, I am told, although these eyes missed it. The Hotel is now +a glass factory. The city of Paris ought to acquire it before it sinks +any lower. + +It is at the foot of the Rue de l'Ave Maria, hard by, that Moliere's +theatre, which we saw from the Quai des Celestins in an earlier +chapter, is found. Here Moliere was arrested at the instance of the +unpaid tallow chandler. Our way now is by the Rue Figuier, of which +the Hotel de Sens is No. 1, to the Rue Francois-Miron, all among the +most fascinating old architecture and association. At No. 8 Rue +Figuier, for instance, Rabelais is said to have lived, and what could +be better than that? At No. 17, we have what the Vicomte de +Villebresme calls a "jolie niche du XVe siecle". This street leads +into the Rue de Jouy, also exceedingly old, with notable buildings, +such as No. 7, the work of Mansard pere, and No. 9, and on the left of +the Impasse Guepine, which existed in the reign of Saint Louis. + +In the Rue Francois-Miron, if you do not mind exhibiting a little +inquisitiveness, enter the doorway of No. 68, and look at the +courtyard and the staircase. Here you get an excellent idea of past +glories, while the outer doors or gates give an excellent idea of past +danger too. For life in Paris in the days in which this street was +built must have been very cheap after dark. It is not dear even now in +certain parts. This was an historic mansion. It was built for Madame +de Beaumaris, femme de chambre of Anne of Austria, and on its balcony, +now removed, on August 20th, 1660, Anne stood with Mazarin and others +when Louis XIV. entered Paris. No. 82 still retains a balcony of great +charm. + +We now enter the very busy Rue St. Antoine at its junction with the +Rue de Rivoli. Almost immediately on our right is a gateway leading +into a very charming courtyard, which is not open to the public, but +into which one may gently trespass; it is the school of the Freres +Chretiens, founded by Frere Joseph, the good priest with the sweet and +sad old face whose bust is on the wall. A few steps farther bring us +to the church of St. Paul and St. Louis, a florid and imposing fane, +to which Victor Hugo (to whose house we are now making our way) +carried his first child to be christened, and presented to the church +two holy water stoops in commemoration. Here also Richelieu celebrated +his first mass. One of Delacroix's best early works (we saw the +picture called "Hommage a Delacroix," you will remember, in the Moreau +collection at the Louvre) is in the left transept, "Christ in the +Garden of Gethsemane". On no account miss the Passage Charlemagne +(close to the St. Paul Station on the Metro) for it is a curious, busy +and very French by-way, and it possesses the remains of a palace of +the fourteenth century. In the Passage de St. Pierre is the site of +the old cemetery of St. Paul's in which Rabelais was buried. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PLACE DES VOSGES AND HUGO'S HOUSE + + A Beautiful Square--The Palais des Tournelles--Revolutionary + Changes--Madame de Sevigne and Rachel--Hugo's Crowded + Life--A Riot of Relics--Victorious Versatility--Dumas' + Pen--The Age of Giants--Dickens--"Les Trois Dumas". + + +Were we to walk a little farther along the busy Rue St. Antoine +towards the Place de la Bastille, we should come, on the left, a few +yards past the church of St. Louis, to the Rue de Birague, at the head +of which is the beautiful red gateway of which Mr. Dexter has made +such a charming picture. This is the southern gateway of the Place des +Vosges, a spacious green square enclosed by massive red and white +houses of brick and stone which once were the abode, when the Place +des Vosges was the Place Royale, of the aristocracy of France. + +Before that time the courtyard of the old Palais des Tournelles was +here, where Henri II. was killed in a tournament in 1559, through an +accident for which Captain Montgomery of the Scotch Guard, whose fault +Catherine de Medicis deemed it to be, was executed, as we have just +seen, in the Place de l'Hotel-de-Ville. Catherine de Medicis, not +content with thus avenging her husband's death, demolished the Palais +des Tournelles, and a few years later Henri IV., to whom old Paris +owes so much, built the Place Royale, just as it is now. His own +pavilion was the centre building on the south side, comprising the +gateway which Mr. Dexter has drawn; the Queen's was the corresponding +building on the north side. + +Around dwelt the nobles of the Court--such at any rate as were not +living in the adjoining Marais. Richelieu's hotel embraced Nos. 21-23 +as they now are. It was in front of that mansion that the famous duel +between Montmorency-Bouteville and Des Chapelles against Bussy and +Beuvron was fought. The spirit of the great Dumas, one feels, must +haunt this Place: for it is peopled with ghosts from his brave +romances. + +The decay of the Place des Vosges began, of course, when the +aristocracy moved over to the Faubourg St. Germain, although it never +sank low. The Revolution then took it in hand, and naturally began by +destroying the statue of Louis XIII. in the centre, which Richelieu +had set up, while its name was changed from Place Royale to its +present style in honour of the Department of the Vosges, the first to +contribute funds to the new order. In 1825, under Charles X., Louis +XIII. in a new stone dress returned to his honoured position in the +midst of the square, and all was as it should be once more, save that +no longer did lords and ladies ruffle it here or in the Marais. + + [Illustration: THE PLACE DES VOSGES + (SOUTHERN ENTRANCE, IN THE RUE BIRAGUE)] + +The most picturesque associations of the Place des Vosges are +historical; but it has at any rate three houses which have an artistic +interest. At No. 1 was born that gifted and delightful lady in whose +home in later years we have spent such pleasant hours--Madame de +Sevigne, or as she was in those early days (she was born in 1626) +Marie de Rabutin-Chantal. At No. 13 lived for a while Rachel the +tragedienne. According to Herr Baedeker, who is not often wrong, she +died here too: but other authorities place her death at Carmet, near +Toulon. I like to think that this rare wayward and terrible creature +of emotion was once an inhabitant of these walls. The third house is +No. 6, in the south-eastern corner, the second floor of which, from +1833 to 1848, was the home of Victor Hugo. It is now a Hugo museum. +Although Hugo occupied only a small portion, the whole house is now +dedicated to his spreading memory. Let us enter. + +There is nothing in England like the Hugo museum. I have been to +Carlyle's house in Cheyne Row; to Johnson's house at Lichfield; to +Wordsworth's house at Grasmere; to Milton's house at Chalfont St. +Giles; to Leighton's House at Kensington; and the impression left by +all is that their owners lived very thin lives. The rooms convey a +sense of bareness: one is struck not by the wealth of relics but by +the poverty of them; while for any suggestion that these men were +pulsating creatures of friendship one seeks in vain. But Hugo--Hugo's +house throbs with life and energy and warm prosperous amities. Every +inch is crowded with mementoes of his vigour and his triumphs, yes, +and his failures too. + +Here are portraits of him by the hundred, at all ages, caricatures, +lampoons, play bills, first editions, popular editions, furniture by +Hugo, decorations by Hugo, drawings by Hugo, scenes in Hugo's life in +exile, wreaths, busts, portraits of his grandchildren (who taught him +the exquisite art of being a grandfather), his death-bed, his +death-mask, the cast of his hands. Hugo, Hugo, everywhere, always +tremendous and splendid and passionate and French. + +Among the more valuable possessions of this museum are +Bastien-Lepage's charcoal drawing of the master; Besnard's picture of +the first night of Hernani with the young romantic on the stage taking +his call and hurling defiance at the gods; Steinlen's oil painting +(there are not many oil paintings by this great draughtsman and great +Parisian) "Les Pauvres Gens"; Daumier's cartoon "Les Chatiments"; +Henner's "Sarah la Baigneuse" from _Les Orientales_; allegories by +Chifflart; beautiful canvases by Carriere and Fantin-Latour; and +Devambez's "Jean Valjean before the tribunal of Arras," in which Jean +is curiously like Gladstone in a bad coat; Vierge's drawing of the +funeral of Georges Hugo, during the siege; and Yama Motto's curious +scene of Hugo's own funeral, of which there are many photographs, +including one of the coffin as it lay in state for two days under the +Arc de Triomphe. There are also a number of Hugo relics which the +camelots of that day were selling to the crowds. + +Hugo, it is well known, nursed a private ambition to be a great +artist, and in my opinion he was a great artist. There are on these +walls drawings from his hand which are magnificent--mysterious and +sombre fortresses on impregnable cliffs, scenes in enchanted lands +with more imagination than ever Dore compassed, and some of the +sinister cruelty and power of Meryon. Hugo was ingenious too: he +decorated a room with coloured carvings in the Chinese manner and he +made the neatest folding table I ever saw--hinged into the wall so +that when not in use it takes up no floor-space whatever. + +It is amusing to follow Hugo's physiognomy through the ages, at first +beardless, looking when young rather like Bruant, the chansonnier of +to-day; then the coming of the beard, and the progress of it until the +final stage in which the mental eye now always sees the old +poet--white and strong and benevolent--the Hugo, in short, of Bonnat's +famous portrait. + +On a table is a collection of literary souvenirs of intense interest: +Hugo's pen and inkstand, and the great Dumas' pen presented to Hugo in +1860 after writing with it his last "15 or 20" volumes (fifteen _or_ +twenty--how like him!); Lamartine's inkstand, offered "to the master +of the pen"; George Sand's match-box for those endless cigarettes, and +with it her travelling inkstand. In another room upstairs are the six +pens used by Hugo in writing _Les Humbles_. Dumas' pen is not by any +means the only Dumas relic here; portraits of him are to be seen, one +of them astonishingly negroid. Had he too worked for liberty and +carried in his breast or even on his sleeve a great heart that, like +Hugo's, responded to every call and beat furiously at the very whisper +of the word injustice, he too would have his museum to-day not less +remarkable than this. But to write romances was not enough: there must +be toil and suffering too. + +Dumas and Hugo were born in the same year, 1802: Balzac was then +three. In 1809 came Tennyson and Gladstone; in 1811 Thackeray and in +1812 Browning and Dickens. What was the secret of that astounding +period? Why did the first twelve years of the last century know such +energy and abundance? To walk through the rooms of this Hugo museum, +however casually, is to be amazed before the vitality and exuberance +not only of this man but of the French genius. It is truly only the +busy who have time. I wish none the less that there was a museum for +Alexandre the Great. I would love to visit it: I would love to see his +kitchen utensils alone. The generous glorious creature, "the seven and +seventy times to be forgiven"! As it was, no one being about, I kissed +the pen with which he had written his last "15 or 20" novels (the +splendid liar!). + +I wish too that we had a permanent Dickens' museum in London--say at +his house in Devonshire Terrace, which is now a lawyer's office. What +a fascinating memorial of Merry England it might become, and what a +reminder to this attenuated specialising day of the vigour and +versatility and variety and inconquerable vivacity of that giant! Just +as no one can leave Hugo's house without a quickening of imagination +and ambition, so no one could leave that of Charles Dickens. + +In addition to this museum Hugo has his monument in the Place Victor +Hugo, far away in a residential desert in the north-west of Paris, a +bronze figure of the poet as a young man seated on a rock, with +Satire, Lyric Poetry and Fame attending him; while on the facade of +the house where he died, No. 124 Avenue Victor Hugo, is a medallion +portrait. He figures also in a fresco in the Hotel de Ville. Dumas' +monument is in the garden of the Place Malesherbes in the Avenue de +Villiers. Dore designed it, as was perhaps fitting. The sturdy +Alexandre sits, pen in hand, on the summit, his West Indian hair +curling vigorously into the sky, with d'Artagnan and three engrossed +readers at the base. It is not quite what one would have wished; but +it is good to visit. His son, the dramatist, the author of that +adorable joke against his father's vanity--that he was capable of +riding behind his own carriage to persuade people that he kept a black +servant--has a monument close by; and the gallant general of whom one +reads such brave stories in the first volume of the _Memoires_ is to +be set there too, and then the Place, I am told, will be re-named the +Place des Trois Dumas. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE BASTILLE, PERE LACHAISE AND THE END + + A Thoughtful Municipality--The Fall of the Bastille--Revolt + and Revolution--The Column of July--A Paris + Canal--Deliberate Building--The Buttes-Chaumont--A City of + the Dead--Pere la Chaise--Bartholome's Monument--The + Cimetiere de Mont Parnasse--The Country round Paris--What we + have Missed--Conclusion. + + +The Place des Vosges is close to the Place de la Bastille, which lies +to the east of it along the Rue St. Antoine. The prison has gone for +ever, but one is assisted by a thoughtful municipality to reconstruct +it, a task of no difficulty at all if one remembers with any vividness +the models in the Carnavalet or the Archives, or buys a pictorial +postcard at any neighbouring shop. The contribution of the pious city +fathers is a map on the facade of No. 36 Place de la Bastille, and a +permanent outline of the walls of the dreadful building inlaid in the +road and pavement, which one may follow step by step to the +satisfaction of one's imagination and the derangement of the traffic +until it disappears into cafes and shops. One has to remember, +however, that the surface of the ground was much lower, the prison +being surrounded by a moat and gained only by bridges. For the actual +stones one must go to the Pont de la Concorde, the upper part of which +was built of them in 1790. + +The Bastille's end came in 1789, at the beginning of the Revolution, +on the day after the National Guard was established, when the people +of Paris rose under Camille Desmoulins and captured it, thus not only +displaying but discovering their strength. Carlyle was never more +scornful, never more cruelly vivid, than in his description of this +event. I must quote a little, it is so horribly splendid: "To describe +this Siege of the Bastille (thought to be one of the most important in +History) perhaps transcends the talent of mortals. Could one but, +after infinite reading, get to understand so much as the plan of the +building! But there is open Esplanade, at the end of the Rue +Saint-Antoine; there are such Forecourts, _Cour Avancee, Cour de +l'Orme_, arched Gateway (where Louis Tournay now fights); then new +drawbridges, dormant-bridges, rampart-bastions, and the grim Eight +Towers: a labyrinthic Mass, high-frowning there, of all ages from +twenty years to four hundred and twenty;--beleaguered, in this its +last hour, as we said, by mere Chaos come again! Ordnance of all +calibres; throats of all capacities; men of all plans, every man his +own engineer: seldom since the war of Pygmies and Cranes was there +seen so anomalous a thing. Half-pay Elie is home for a suit of +regimentals; no one would heed him in coloured clothes: half-pay Hulin +is haranguing Gardes Francaises in the Place de Greve. Frantic +Patriots pick up the grapeshots; bear them, still hot (or seemingly +so), to the Hotel-de-Ville:--Paris, you perceive, is to be burnt! +Flesselles is 'pale to the very lips'; for the roar of the multitude +grows deep. Paris wholly has got to the acme of its frenzy; whirled, +all ways, by panic madness. At every street-barricade, there whirls +simmering a minor whirlpool,--strengthening the barricade, since God +knows what is coming; and all minor whirlpools play distractedly into +that grand Fire-Maelstrom which is lashing round the Bastille. + +"And so it lashes and it roars. Cholat the wine-merchant has become an +impromptu cannoneer. See Georget, of the Marine Service, fresh from +Brest, ply the King of Siam's cannon. Singular (if we were not used to +the like): Georget lay, last night, taking his ease at his inn; the +King of Siam's cannon also lay, knowing nothing of _him_, for a +hundred years. Yet now, at the right instant, they have got together, +and discourse eloquent music. For, hearing what was toward, Georget +sprang from the Brest Diligence, and ran. Gardes Francaises also will +be here, with real artillery: were not the walls so thick!--Upwards +from the Esplanade, horizontally from all neighbouring roofs and +windows, flashes one irregular deluge of musketry, without effect. The +Invalides lie flat, firing comparatively at their ease from behind +stone; hardly through portholes show the tip of a nose. We fall, shot; +and make no impression! + + [Illustration: LA BERGERE GARDANT SES MOUTONS + MILLET + (_Louvre, Chauchard Collection_)] + +"Let conflagration rage; of whatsoever is combustible! Guard-rooms are +burnt, Invalides mess-rooms. A distracted 'Perukemaker with two fiery +torches' is for burning 'the saltpetres of the Arsenal';--had not a +woman run screaming; had not a Patriot, with some tincture of Natural +Philosophy, instantly struck the wind out of him (butt of musket on +pit of stomach), overturned barrels, and stayed the devouring element. +A young beautiful lady, seized escaping in these Outer Courts, and +thought falsely to be De Launay's daughter, shall be burnt in De +Launay's sight; she lies swooned on a paillasse: but again a Patriot, +it is brave Aubin Bonnemere the old soldier, dashes in, and rescues +her. Straw is burnt; three cartloads of it, hauled thither, go up in +white smoke: almost to the choking of Patriotism itself; so that Elie +had, with singed brows, to drag back one cart; and Reole the 'gigantic +haberdasher' another. Smoke as of Tophet; confusion as of Babel; noise +as of the Crack of Doom! + +"Blood flows; the aliment of new madness. The wounded are carried into +houses of the Rue Cerisaie; the dying leave their last mandate not to +yield till the accursed Stronghold fall. And yet, alas, how fall? The +walls are so thick! Deputations, three in number, arrive from the +Hotel-de-Ville; Abbe Fauchet (who was of one) can say, with what +almost superhuman courage of benevolence. These wave their Town-flag +in the arched Gateway; and stand, rolling their drum; but to no +purpose. In such Crack of Doom De Launay cannot hear them, dare not +believe them: they return, with justified rage, the whew of lead still +singing in their ears. What to do? The Firemen are here, squirting +with their fire-pumps on the Invalides cannon, to wet the touchholes; +they unfortunately cannot squirt so high; but produce only clouds of +spray. Individuals of classical knowledge propose _catapults_. +Santerre, the sonorous Brewer of the Suburb Saint-Antoine, advises +rather that the place be fired, by a 'mixture of phosphorus and +of oil-of-turpentine spouted up through forcing-pumps': O +Spinola-Santerre, hast thou the mixture _ready_? Every man his own +engineer! And still the fire-deluge abates not: even women are firing, +and Turks; at least one woman (with her sweetheart), and one Turk. +Gardes Francaises have come: real cannon, real cannoneers. Usher +Maillard is busy; half-pay Elie, half-pay Hulin rage in the midst of +thousands. + +"How the great Bastille Clock ticks (inaudible) in its Inner Court +there, at its ease, hour after hour; as if nothing special, for it or +the world, were passing! It tolled One when the firing began; and is +now pointing towards Five, and still the firing slakes not.--Far down, +in their vaults, the seven Prisoners hear muffled din as of +earthquakes; their Turnkeys answer vaguely. + +"Wo to thee, De Launay, with thy poor hundred Invalides! Broglie is +distant, and his ears heavy: Besenval hears, but can send no help. One +poor troop of Hussars has crept, reconnoitering, cautiously along the +Quais, as far as the Pont Neuf. 'We are come to join you,' said the +Captain; for the crowd seem shoreless. A large-headed dwarfish +individual, of smoke-bleared aspect, shambles forward, opening his +blue lips, for there is sense in him; and croaks: 'Alight then, and +give up your arms!' The Hussar-Captain is too happy to be escorted to +the Barriers, and dismissed on parole. Who the squat individual was? +Men answer, It is M. Marat, author of the excellent pacific _Avis au +Peuple_! Great truly, O thou remarkable Dogleech, is this thy day of +emergence and new-birth: and yet this same day come four years--!--But +let the curtains of the Future hang." + +After some hours the deed is done and Paris re-echoes to the cries "La +Bastille est prise!" "In the Court, all is mystery, not without +whisperings of terror; though ye dream of lemonade and epaulettes, ye +foolish women! His Majesty, kept in happy ignorance, perhaps dreams of +double-barrels and the Woods of Meudon. Late at night, the Duke de +Liancourt, having official right of entrance, gains access to the +Royal Apartments; unfolds, with earnest clearness, in his +constitutional way, the Job's-news. '_Mais_,' said poor Louis, '_c'est +une revolte_, Why, that is a revolt!'--'Sire,' answered Liancourt, 'it +is not a revolt,--it is a revolution.'" + +That was July 14th, 1789; but it is not the July that the Colonne de +Juillet in the centre of the Place celebrates. That July was forty-one +years later, not so late but that many Parisians could remember both +events. July 27th to 29th, 1830, the Second Revolution, which +overturned the Bourbons and set Louis-Philippe of Orleans in the siege +perilleux of France. Louis-Philippe himself erected this monument in +memory of the six hundred and fifteen citizens who fell in his +interests and who are buried beneath. Their names are cut in the +bronze of the column, on the summit of which is the beautiful winged +figure of Liberty. + +Beneath the vault of the Colonne, and immediately beneath the Colonne +itself, runs the great canal which brings merchandise into Paris from +the east, entering the Seine between the Pont Sully and the Pont +d'Austerlitz. At this point it is not very interesting, but from the +Avenue de la Republique, where it re-emerges again into the light of +day, and thence right away to the Abattoirs de Villette, it is very +amusing to stroll by. The Paris _Daily Mail_, which in its eager +paternal way has taken English and American visitors completely under +its wing, is diurnally anxious that its readers should make a tour of +these abattoirs. But not I. That a holiday in Paris should include the +examination of a slaughter-house strikes me as a joyless proposition, +putting thoroughness far before pleasure. But the _Daily Mail_ is like +that; it also does its best on the second and fourth Wednesdays in +every month to get its compatriots down the Paris sewers. And I +suppose they go. Strange heart of the tourist! We never think of +penetrating either to the sewers or the slaughter-houses of our native +land; we have no theories of sewers, no data for comparison; we love +the upper air and the sun. But being in a foreign city we cheerfully +give the second or fourth Wednesday to such delights. + +Having taken the _Daily Mail's_ advice and visited the abattoirs +(which I have not done), one cannot do better than return to Paris by +way of the canal, sauntering beside it all the way to the Rue Faubourg +du Temple, where one passes into the Place de la Republique and the +stir of the city once more. The canal descends from the heights of La +Villette in a series of long steps, as it were (or, to take the most +dissonant simile possible to devise, like the lakes at Wootton), built +up by locks. Idling by this canal one sees many agreeable phases of +human toil. Many commodities and materials reach Paris by barge, and +it is on these quais and in the Villette basin that the unloading is +done; while the barges themselves are pleasant spectacles--so long and +clean and broad--very Mauretanias beside the barges of Holland--with +spacious deck-houses that are often perfect villas, the wife and +children watering the flowers at the door. + +One quai is given up wholly to lime. This arrives in thousands of +little solid sacks which stevedores whiter than millers transfer to +the carts, that, in their turn, creak off to disorganise the traffic +of a hundred streets and provoke the contempt of a thousand drivers +before they reach their destined building, on which the workmen have +already been engaged for two years and will be engaged for two years +more. There is no hurry in constructional work in Paris--except of +course on Exhibitions, which spring up in a night. The same piece of +road that was up in the Rue Lafayette for some surface trouble in a +recent April, I found still up in October. But they have the grace, +when rebuilding a house in the city, to hide their deliberate +processes behind a wooden screen--such a screen as was opposite the +Cafe de la Paix, at the south-east corner of the Boulevard des +Capucines, for, it seems to me, years. + +If, however, one is walking beside the canal in the other direction, +up the hill instead of down, one will soon be nearer the Victoria Park +of Paris, the park of the east end, than at any other time, and this +should be visited as surely as the abattoirs should be avoided: +unless, of course, one is a well-informed or thoughtful butcher. We +have seen the Parc Monceau; well, the antithesis of the Parc Monceau, +which has no counter-part in London, is the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. +Both are children's paradises, the only difference in the children +being social position. The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is sixty acres of +trees and walks and perpendicular rocks and water, the special charm +of which is its diversified character, rising in the midst to an +immense height made easy for carriages and perambulators by a winding +road. It has a deep gorge crossed by a suspension bridge, a lake for +boats, a cascade, and thousands of chairs side by side, touching, +lining the roads, on which the maids and matrons of La Villette and +Belleville sew and gossip, while the children play around. The parc +was made in the sixties: before then it had been a waste ground and +gypsum quarry--hence its attractive irregularities. How wonderful the +heights and cathedral of Montmartre can appear from one of the peaks +of the Buttes-Chaumont, Mr. Dexter's drawing shows. + +The Buttes-Chaumont is the most easterly point we have yet reached; +but there is another parc more easterly still awaiting us, not unlike +the Buttes-Chaumont in its acclivities, but unlike it in this +particular, that it is a parc not of the living but the dead. I mean +Pere Lachaise. Pere Lachaise! What kind of an old man do you think +gave his name to this cemetery? Most persons, I imagine, see him as +white-haired and venerable: not twinkling, like Papa Gontier, but +serene and noble and sad. As a matter of fact he was a pere only by +profession and courtesy. Pere Lachaise was Louis XIV.'s fashionable +confessor (Landor has a diverting imaginary conversation between these +two), and the cemetery took its name from his house, which chanced to +occupy the site of the present chapel. The ground was enclosed as a +burial ground as recently as 1804, which means of course that the +famous tomb of Abelard and Heloise, to which all travellers find their +way, is a modern reconstruction. The remains of La Fontaine and +Moliere and other illustrious men who died before 1804 were +transferred here, just as Zola's were recently transferred from the +cemetery of Montmartre to the Pantheon, but with less excitement. + +Pere Lachaise cannot be taken lightly. The French live very +thoroughly, but when they die they die thoroughly too, and their +cemeteries confess the scythe. There may be, to our thinking, too much +architecture; but it is serious. There is no mountebanking (as at +Genoa), nor is there any whining, as in some of our own churchyards. +Death to a Frenchman is a fact and a mystery, to be faced when the +time comes, if not before, and to be honoured. On certain festivals of +the year there are a thousand mourners to every acre of Pere Lachaise. + +The natural entrance is by the Rue de la Roquette, but it is less +fatiguing to enter at the top, at the new gate in the Avenue du Pere +Lachaise, and walk downhill; for the paths are steep and the cemetery +covers a hundred acres and more. The objection to this course is that +one loses some of the sublimity of Bartholome's _Monument aux Morts_ +at the foot of the mountain on which the chapel stands. This monument +faces the principal entrance with the careful design of impressing the +visitor, and its impact can be tremendous. We approach it by the +Avenue Principale, in which lies Alfred de Musset, with the willow +waving over his tomb and his own lines upon it. + +And then one enters seriously upon this strange pilgrimage among names +and memories. Chopin lies here, his music stilled, and Talma the +tragedian; Beaumarchais and Marechal Ney; Cherubini and Alphonse +Daudet; Balzac, his pen for ever idle, and Delacroix; Beranger, who +made the nation's ballads, and Brillat-Savarin, all his dinners eaten; +Michelet, the historian, and Planquette, the composer of _Les Cloches +de Corneville_; Daumier, the great artist who saw to the heart of +things, and Corot, who befriended Daumier's last years; Daubigny and +Rosa Bonheur, Thiers and Scribe; Rachel, once so very living, and many +Rothschilds now poorer than I. + + [Illustration: LE MONUMENT AUX MORTS + A. BARTHOLOME + (_Pere la Chaise_)] + +Paris has other cemeteries, as we know, for we have walked through +that of Montmartre; but there is also the Cimetiere de Montparnasse, +where lie Sainte-Beuve and Leconte de Lisle, Theodore de Banville, +master of _vers de societe_, and Fantin-Latour, Baudelaire (lying +beneath a figure of the Genius of Evil), and Barbey d'Aurevilly, the +dandy-novelist. There are also the cemeteries of Passy and Picpus, but +into these I have never wandered. Lafayette lies at Picpus, which is +behind a convent in the Rue de Picpus, and costs fifty centimes to +see, and there also were buried many victims of the guillotine besides +those whose bodies were flung into the earth behind the Madeleine. + + * * * * * + +All the space at my disposal has been required by Paris itself; and +such is the human interest that at any rate in the older parts clings +to every stone and saturates the soil, that I do not know that I +have had any temptation to rove beyond the fortifications. But that +of course is not right. No one really knows the Parisians until he +sees them in happy summer mood in one of the pleasure resorts on the +Seine, or winning money at Enghien, or lunching in one of the +tree-top restaurants at Robinson. We have indeed been curiously +unenterprising, and it is all owing to the fascination of Paris +herself and the narrow dimensions of this book. We have not even been +to St. Denis, to stand among the ashes of the French kings; we have +not descended the formal slopes of St. Cloud; we have not peeped into +Corot's little chapel at Ville d'Avray; we have not seen the home of +Sevres porcelain; we have not scaled Mont-Valerien; we have not taken +boat for Marly-le-Roi; we have not wandered marvelling but weary amid +the battle scenes of Versailles, or smiled at the pretty fopperies of +the hamlet of the Petit Trianon. We have not known the groves either +of the Bois de Vincennes or the Bois de Meudon. + +Much less have we fed those guzzling gourmands, the carp of Chantilly, +or lost ourselves before the little Raphael there, or the curious +Leonardo sketch for La Joconde, or the sweet simplicities of the +pretty Jean Fouquet illuminations, particularly the domestic +solicitude of the ladies attending upon the birth of John the Baptist; +less still have we forgotten the restlessness and urgency of Paris +amid the allees and rochers of the Forest of Fontainebleau, and the +still white streets of Barbizon, or even on the steps of the chateau +where the Great Emperor, thoughts of whom are never very distant--are +indeed too near--bade farewell to his Old Guard in 1814. + +Greater Paris, it will be gathered, is hardly less interesting than +Paris herself; and indeed how pleasant it would be to write about it! +But not here. + +Of Paris within the fortifications have I, I wonder, conveyed any of +the fascination, the variety, the colour, the self-containment. I hope +so. I hope too that at any rate these pages have implanted in a few +readers the desire to see this beautiful and efficient city for +themselves, and even more should I value the knowledge that they had +excited in others who are not strangers to Paris the wish to be there +again. To do justice to such a city, with such a history, is of course +an impossibility. What, however, should not be impossible is to create +a gout. + + + + +INDEX + + + ABATTOIRS, the, 312. + + Abbaye-aux-Bois, 160. + + Abelard, 315. + + Advocates and barristers, 24. + + Alvantes, Duchesse d', 45. + + Angelo, Michael, 102. + + Anne of Austria, 297. + + Antoinette, Marie, 20, 21, 71, 215, 216. + + Apollon, Galerie d', 248. + + Arbre-Sec, Rue de l', 288. + + Arc de Triomphe, 114, 142-45, 302. + + Archives, the, 64, 65. + + Arenes, the, 187. + + Aristocratic homes, 62, 145, 158. + + Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 267-69. + + Artagnan, D', 288. + + Arts et Metiers, Musee de, 258. + + Astruc, 178. + + Attila the Hun, 190. + + Aurevilly, B. d', 317. + + Austerlitz, 214. + + Ave-Maria, Rue de l', 297. + + + BAEDEKER, 215, 261, 301. + + "Bagatelle," 146. + + Bal Bullier, 179. + + Balloons, 51. + + Balzac, 159, 178, 194, 260, 304, 316. + + Banville, T. de, 178, 317. + + Barbizon School, 100, 103-6. + + Bard, Wilkie, 235. + + Barristers and advocates, 24. + + Barry, the St. Bernard dog, 208. + + Bartholome, 316. + + Bartholomew, St., Massacre of, 23, 286. + + Barye, the sculptor, 60, 245. + + Bassano, 89. + + Bastien-Lepage, 177. + + Bastille, the, 72, 306-12. + + Baudelaire, Charles, 56, 104, 317. + + Beauharnais, Josephine, 45, 158, 174. + + Beaumarchais, 316. + + Beaumaris, Madame de, 297. + + Beaux-Arts, Palais des, 150. + + Beggars in Paris, 263. + + Bellini, 91. + + Benefices, 231, 232. + + Beranger, 258. + + Bergere, Cite, 250. + + Berlioz, 178, 225, 269. + + Bernard, Saint, 52. + + Bernhardt, 251. + + _Besieged Resident, the_, 210-13. + + Besnard, 302. + + Bibliotheque de Mazarin, 166. + + ---- Nationale, 247. + + Bievre, the river, 186, 187. + + Bigio, 88. + + Billiards in Paris, 220-22. + + Birague, Rue de, 299. + + Birds, the charmer of, 127-30. + + Birrell, Mr. Augustine, 15. + + Blanche, 177. + + ---- Rue, 260. + + Bodley, Mr., 200. + + Boilly, 71. + + Bois de Boulogne, the, 145-49. + + Bol, 93. + + Bone, Mr. Muirhead, 24, 67. + + Bonheur, Rosa, 317. + + Bonington, 92, 98, 102. + + Bonnat, 303. + + Bons Enfants, Rue des, 286. + + Bookhunters, 17, 18. + + Bookstalls in Paris and London, 14-18. + + Borssom, 98. + + Botticelli, 79, 80, 89. + + Bottin, 154. + + Boucher, 70, 99. + + Bouland, 176. + + Boulevardiers, 219, 239. + + Boulevards, Grands, 218, 219. + + Bourse, the, 248, 249. + + Boverie, 285. + + Brillat-Savarin, 316. + + Brisemiche, Rue, 75. + + Browning, 304. + + Bruant, Aristide, 271, 303. + + Building in Paris, 313. + + Buridan, 180. + + Buttes-Chaumont, Parc, 264, 314. + + + CABARETS artistiques, 270, 271. + + Cabman, the singing, 2. + + Cabmen in Paris, 240-42. + + Cafe de la Paix, 227-43. + + Cafes, 227, 228. + + ---- night, 273-75. + + Cain, M. Georges, 160, 200. + + Canals, 313. + + Capel Court, 249. + + Capucines, Boulevard des, 220-24, 273. + + Caran d'Ache, 271. + + Carlyle, 178. + + ---- quoted, 37-41, 116-21, 134-37, 138-40, 279-81, 284, 285, + 307-11. + + Carnavalet, Musee, 61, 69-74. + + Caro-Delvalle, 177. + + Carolus-Duran, 176, 178. + + Carpeaux, 110, 225. + + Carriere, 105, 176, 177, 302. + + Carries, 151. + + Carrousel, Arc de, 117-21. + + Cartoons in the street, 249. + + Cartouche, 294. + + Caxton, William, quoted, 57, 59, 189-91, 253-55, 289. + + Cazin, 152, 175, 176. + + Cemeteries in Paris, 315-17. + + Cerrito, 226. + + Cerutti, 245. + + Champions of France, 221. + + Champs-Elysees, 141, 142. + + Chanoinesse, Rue, 52. + + Chantilly, 318. + + Chardin, 70, 95, 99. + + Charlemagne, Passage, 298. + + Charles X., 300. + + Charmer of birds, the, 127-30. + + Chateaubriand, 159, 160. + + Chauchard Collection, 106. + + Chaudet, 110. + + Chauffeurs in Paris, 242, 243. + + Chaussee d'Antin, Rue de la, 245. + + Chavannes, Puvis de, 152, 181, 190, 193, 295. + + Cherubini, 226. + + Chifflart, 302. + + Childeric, 190. + + Chopin, 143, 178, 245, 251, 316. + + Christianity in Paris, 190. + + Church music, 289. + + Churches-- + + Blancs-Manteaux, 67. + + Madeleine, 188. + + Pantheon, 188-96. + + Petits Peres, 249. + + Sacre-Coeur, 262. + + St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 64. + + ---- Etienne-du-Mont, 193, 196-98. + + ---- Eugene, 251. + + ---- Eustache, 40, 289. + + ---- Germain du Pre, 163. + + ---- ---- l'Auxerrois, 286-88. + + ---- Jacques-la-Boucherie, 293. + + ---- Joseph de Carmes, 178. + + ---- Julien le Pauvre, 185. + + ---- Merry, 76. + + ---- Nicholas-des-Champs, 77. + + ---- Paul and St. Louis, 298. + + ---- Roch, 278-81, 283. + + ---- Severin, 185. + + ---- Sorbonne, 181. + + ---- Sulpice, 163. + + "Ciel," 270. + + Cigars in Paris, 223. + + Cimetieres in Paris, 264, 266-70. + + ---- du Nord, 266-70. + + Claque, the, 233. + + Clarac collection, 110. + + Claude, 91, 98. + + Clichy, Boulevard, 270. + + Clocks in Paris, 22. + + Clotilde, 190. + + Clouet, 97. + + Clovis, 190. + + Cluny, Musee de, 181-84. + + Coligny, 286. + + Colonna, Vittoria, 89. + + Colonne de Juillet, 311, 312. + + Commune, the, 27, 115, 124, 217, 258, 264, 278, 285. + + Compas d'Or, the, 5, 6. + + Comte, 181. + + Concierge, the, 230. + + Conciergerie, the, 19-23. + + Concorde, the Place de La, 132-40. + + ---- Pont de la, 307. + + Conservatoire, the, 251. + + Constable, 92. + + Coquelin, 251, 259. + + Corday, Charlotte, 216. + + Corot, 99, 103, 105, 178, 317. + + Correggio, 88, 91, 95. + + Cosimo, Piero di, 90. + + Cour du Dragon, 161. + + Coustou, 110. + + Couture, 105. + + Coyzevox, 110. + + Curiosity shops, 159. + + + _DAILY MAIL_ in Paris, 312. + + Dalou, 151, 175, 259. + + Dammouse, 176. + + Dancing halls, 272. + + Dante, 185, 187. + + Daubigny, 105, 317. + + Daudet, Alphonse, 142, 316. + + Daumier, 152, 302, 317. + + David, 99, 101, 194, 195. + + ---- Madame, 152. + + ---- G., 95. + + Da Vinci, Leonardo, 81-87, 318. + + Death and the French, 95, 315. + + Decamps, 103, 105. + + Degas, 175. + + Delacroix, 100, 104, 106, 178, 298, 316. + + Delair, Frederic, 199-201. + + Delaroche, 164. + + Delibes, 226, 269. + + De Musset, 56, 282, 316. + + De Neuville, 177, 270. + + Denis, Saint, 253. + + Desmoulins, Camille, 171, 284, 285. + + Devils of Notre Dame, 51, 52. + + Dexter, Mr., as a tipster, 148. + + ---- ---- his conception of Paris, 24. + + Diaz, 105. + + Dickens, Charles, 304. + + Diderot and the pretty bookseller, 17. + + Dobson, Mr. Austin, 15, 178, 184. + + Dogs in Paris, 207-9. + + ---- cemetery, the, 208, 209. + + Donizetti, 226. + + Dore, 303. + + Dou, 93. + + Drouot, Rue, 246, 247. + + Dubois, 175, 193. + + Duel, a famous, 300. + + Dufayel, Maison, 264-66. + + Dumas, Alexandre, 62, 93, 178, 300, 303, 304, 305. + + ---- ---- fils, 24, 104. + + Duncan, Isidora, 153. + + Dupre, 106. + + Duerer, 95. + + Dutch School, the, 94, 95, 153. + + Dutuit collection, 150, 153. + + + ECONOMY in Paris, 291, 292. + + Eiffel Tower, the, 50. + + Elizabeth, Madame, 216. + + Elocutionist, the, 203. + + Elysee, the, 276. + + ---- de Montmartre, 272. + + "Enfer," 270. + + Enghien, 318. + + English and French, 141, 227-40. + + Estrees, Duchesse d', 158. + + Etoile, Place de l', 142-45. + + Eustache, Saint, 290. + + Execution of Louis XVI., 134-37. + + ---- ---- Robespierre, 138-40. + + Eyck, J. van, 95. + + + FABRIANO, 96. + + Fairs in Paris, 147, 153. + + Falguiere, 161. + + Fallieres, President, 252. + + Fantin-Latour, 104, 176, 302, 317. + + Faubourg Saint-Honore, Rue du, 276. + + ---- Poissoniere, Rue du, 252. + + Ferronnerie, Rue de la, 293. + + Fete de St. Genevieve, 197. + + Figuier, Rue, 297. + + FitzGerald, Edward, quoted, 73, 282. + + Flandrin, 163, 176. + + Flinck, 93. + + Flower markets, 218. + + Fontainebleau, 318. + + Fouquet, Jean, 318. + + Fragonard, 99. + + Francois I., 86, 87, 89, 248. + + Francois-Miron, Rue, 297. + + Francoise-Marguerite, 262. + + Francs-Bourgeois, Rue des, 61, 68, 74. + + Fremiet, 114, 153, 175, 179, 193, 205. + + French, the, 29. + + ---- and English, 141, 227-40. + + ---- Revolution, 37-41, 116-21, 134-37, 138-40, 279-81, 284, 285, + 307-11. + + + GALLAS, the, 206. + + Gambetta monument, 126. + + Gare de Lyon, 3. + + ---- du Nord, 3, 209. + + ---- St. Lazare, 3. + + Garnier, Charles, 225. + + Gautier, 270. + + Genee, 270. + + Genevieve, St., 188-92, 196, 197, 255. + + Genlis, Madame de, 159. + + Germain, Saint, 286-88. + + Ghirlandaios, the, 90, 95. + + Gibbon, 245. + + Giotto, 90, 129. + + Gladstone, 271, 302, 304. + + Goat-herd, the, 292. + + Gold and silver, 111. + + _Golden Legend, The_, 57, 59, 189-91, 253-55, 289. + + Goncourts, 270. + + Goujon, Jean, 110. + + Gounod, 143, 226. + + Grand Cafe, 220. + + Grandpre, Louise de, quoted, 35-37, 42-44. + + Grands Boulevards, 218, 219. + + Granie, 177. + + Grenelle, Rue de, 158. + + Greuze, 99. + + Greve, Place de, 293. + + Grevin, the Musee, 246. + + Grolier, 247. + + Gronow, Captain, quoted, 171-73. + + Guides, 224. + + Guillotine, the, 133-40. + + + HABENECK, 226. + + Halevy, 270. + + Halles, the, 290-92. + + ---- des Vins, the, 201. + + Hals, 95. + + Haraucourt, M. Edmond, 183. + + ---- ---- translated, 257. + + Harpignies, 152, 176, 177. + + Haussmann, Boulevard, 216, 247. + + ---- Baron, 122, 123. + + Heine, Henrich, 142, 194, 266-69. + + Heloise, 52, 315. + + Henley, W. E., 178. + + Henner, 151, 302. + + Henri II., 299. + + ---- IV., 12, 13, 35, 112, 264, 278, 293, 294, 300. + + Herold, 226. + + Heyden, van der, 95, 98. + + Hippodrome, 271. + + His de la Salle collection, 80, 95, 101. + + Hobbema, 95, 153. + + Hoffbauer, 70. + + Horloge, the, 22. + + Hospital of the Trinity, 256. + + Hotel de Ville, 294-96. + + ---- ---- ---- Rue de l', 296. + + ---- ---- Sens, 296. + + ---- des Monnaies, 167-69. + + Houdon, 110. + + Hugo, Victor, 25, 32, 48, 124, 153, 189, 298, 300-5. + + ---- Georges, 302. + + Huysmanns, quoted, 187. + + Hyacinthe, Pere, 47. + + + ILE de la Cite, 9-30. + + ---- St. Louis, the, 54-60. + + Imprimerie Nationale, 68. + + Ingres, 80, 95, 100, 163, 164. + + Innocents, Square des, 293. + + Institut, the, 166. + + Invalides, Hotel des, 154-57. + + Isabey, 106, 226. + + Italiens, Boulevard des, 245, 273. + + + JABACH, 87. + + Jacqueminot, Ignace, 195. + + Jardin d'Acclimatation, 202, 205-7. + + ---- des Plantes, 201-5. + + Jena, 214. + + Jeraud, 110. + + Joan of Arc, 114, 153, 160, 193. + + "Joconde, La," 81-87, 318. + + Joke, the one, 29, 238, 275. + + Joseph, Frere, 298. + + Josephine, the Empress, 45, 158, 174. + + Jouy, Rue de, 297. + + + KARBOWSKI, 152. + + Key, sign of the, 162. + + + LABLACHE, 226. + + Labouchere, Mr., quoted, 210-13. + + Lachaise, Pere, 315-17. + + Lafayette, 317. + + ---- Rue, 277, 314. + + Laffitte, Jacques, 245. + + ---- Rue, 245. + + La Fontaine, 315. + + Lamartine, 303. + + Lamb, Charles, 285, 286. + + ---- Mary, 17. + + Lancret, 99. + + Landor quoted, 91. + + Lang, Mr. Andrew, 178. + + Latin Quarter, 179-81. + + Latude, 71-73. + + Lauder, Harry, 235. + + Laurens, 295. + + Law, John, 76. + + Le Brun, 99. + + Le Courtier, 175. + + Lecouvreur, Adrienne, 158, 164. + + Legros, 104, 175, 176. + + Le Nain, 97. + + Leno, Dan, 235. + + Lepage, Bastien, 302. + + Le Sidaner, 177. + + Letter-boxes, 223. + + Lippi, Fra Filippo, 90. + + Lisle, Leconte de, 317. + + Livry, Emma, 226. + + Liszt, 226. + + London and bookstalls, 14. + + ---- ---- Paris, 14, 24, 27, 129, 146, 154, 201, 219, 227-40, 238, + 249, 273, 290-92. + + Longchamp, 146-49. + + Lotto, 91. + + Louis-Philippe, 121, 123, 140, 144, 312. + + Louis, Saint, 10, 27, 35, 47, 56-60, 65, 180. + + ---- XII., 248. + + ---- XIII., 87, 300. + + ---- XIV., 87, 297, 315. + + ---- XV., 133, 188, 248. + + ---- XVI., 36, 65, 115, 133, 215, 311. + + ---- XVIII., 46, 125, 215. + + Louvre, Musee du, 78-113. + + Lowell, J. R., quoted, 85. + + Loyola, 263. + + Lucas the failure, 221. + + Luini, 80, 88, 91. + + Luxembourg, the, 173-79. + + Luxor column, the, 132, 140. + + Lyons mail, the, 296. + + + MADELEINE, the, 188, 214-18. + + Mainardi, 90. + + Malibran, 225. + + Manet, 100, 104, 152, 176. + + Mantegna, 91, 95. + + Marais, the, 61-77. + + Marat, 71, 195. + + Marcel, Etienne, 295. + + Marguery, 252. + + Marie Antoinette, 20, 21, 71, 215, 216. + + Marius, 221. + + Marly le Roi, 318. + + Martin, Saint, 257, 258. + + Martyrs, Chambre de, 159. + + ---- Rue des, 260. + + Massacre of Swiss Guards, 115-21. + + Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 23, 286. + + Masse, Victor, 226. + + Masson, Frederic, 246. + + Maupassant, Guy de, 143. + + Mazarin, 247, 297. + + ---- Rue, 276. + + Medals and their designers, 169. + + Medicis, Catherine de, 115, 287, 288, 293, 299. + + ---- fountain, the, 173. + + ---- Marie de, 141, 294. + + Meilhac, 270. + + Meissonier, 106, 176. + + Memling, 95, 99. + + Meryon, Charles, 23, 24, 51, 303. + + Messina, Antonello di, 91. + + Metsu, 95. + + Meudon, 318. + + Meyerbeer, 226. + + Mi-Careme, 217, 218, 273. + + Michel, Georges, 70. + + Michelet, 316. + + Millet, 100, 103, 106. + + Mint, the Paris, 167-69. + + Mirabeau, 194, 245, 289. + + Moliere, 60, 170, 282, 283, 297, 315. + + Monceau, Parc, 142, 143, 314. + + Monet, 175. + + Money, bad, in Paris, 168. + + Monnaies, Hotel de, 167-69. + + "Monna Lisa," 81-87, 318. + + Mont de Piete, the, 66. + + ---- Parnasse, Cimetiere, 317. + + ---- Valerien, 318. + + Montesquieu, Rue, 286. + + Montgomery, Captain, 294, 299. + + Montmartre, 245, 254, 260-75. + + Montorgeuil, Rue, 5, 250. + + Moreau collection, 103. + + ---- Musee, 261. + + Morgue, the, 54, 55. + + Mottez, 177. + + Motto, Yama, 302. + + Moulin-de-la-Galette, 272. + + ---- Rouge, 271. + + Moulins, Le Maitre de, 97. + + Mousseaux, 226. + + Murger, Henri, 178, 180, 270. + + Murillo, 92. + + Musee de l'Armee, 154-57. + + ---- ---- Arts et Metiers, 258. + + ---- Carnavalet, 61, 69-74. + + ---- Cernuschi, 143. + + ---- de Cluny, 181-84. + + ---- du Conservatoire, 251. + + ---- Grevin, 246. + + ---- Guimet, 144. + + ---- du Louvre, 78-113. + + ---- de Luxembourg, 174-79. + + ---- Moreau, 261. + + ---- de l'Opera, 225, 226. + + Musees des Jardin des Plantes, 204, 205. + + Music in Paris, 289. + + ---- Hall, the, in Paris, 234, 235. + + Musical trophies, 225, 226, 251. + + Musset, Alfred de, 56, 282, 316. + + Mystery plays, 256. + + + NAPOLEON and the Arc de Triomphe, 144. + + ---- ---- ---- end of the Revolution, 279-81. + + ---- ---- ---- Madeleine, 214. + + ---- ---- ---- Old Guard, 318. + + ---- ---- ---- Pantheon, 188. + + ---- ---- ---- statue of Henri IV., 13. + + ---- ---- ---- Vendome column, 278. + + ---- at St. Sulpice, 163. + + ---- his coronation, 44-46. + + ---- ---- early palaces, 174. + + ---- ---- interest in art, 112, 113. + + ---- ---- iron bridge, 166. + + ---- ---- relics, 154-57. + + ---- ---- second funeral, 157. + + ---- ---- tomb, 157. + + ---- ---- two Arcs, 124, 125, 126. + + ---- in two pictures, 101. + + ---- meets Josephine, 246. + + ---- relics at the Carnavalet, 73. + + ---- III., 46, 122, 123. + + ---- ---- rebuilds Paris, 122. + + Neant, Cabaret de, 270. + + Necker, 245. + + Newspapers in France, 27-30. + + New Year's Eve, 273. + + New York, 129. + + Ney, 316. + + Night cafes, 273-75. + + Nodier, Charles, on the book-hunter, 18. + + Notre Dame, 11, 26, 31-53. + + + OFFENBACH, 269. + + Olivier, Pere, 46. + + Olympia Taverne, 220. + + Opera, the, 48, 225. + + Ostade, 98. + + + PAGANINI, 225, 251. + + Pailleron, 143. + + Painting, modern, 149. + + Paix, Cafe de la, 227-43. + + ---- Rue de la, 277. + + Palais de Justice, the, 24-26. + + ---- des Beaux-Arts, 150, 164, 165. + + ---- Royal, the, 283. + + Palma, 91. + + Pantheon, the, 188-96. + + Pari-Mutuel, the, 147, 148. + + Paris and balloons, 51. + + ---- ---- beggars, 263. + + ---- ---- Christianity, 190. + + ---- ---- economy, 291, 292. + + ---- ---- its aristocratic quarters, 62, 158. + + ---- ---- ---- billiard saloons, 220-22. + + ---- ---- ---- bird's-eye views, 145. + + ---- ---- ---- cemeteries, 315-17. + + ---- ---- ---- civic museums, 69-74. + + ---- ---- ---- clocks, 22. + + ---- ---- ---- dogs, 207-9. + + ---- ---- ---- early history, 9, 10. + + ---- ---- ---- fickleness, 216, 245. + + ---- ---- ---- flats, 162. + + ---- ---- ---- Mint, 167-69. + + ---- ---- ---- mobs, 32. + + ---- ---- ---- newspapers, 27-30. + + ---- ---- ---- restaurants, 7. + + ---- ---- ---- Royal Academy Schools, 164, 165. + + ---- ---- ---- royal palaces, 11. + + ---- ---- ---- Salons, 149. + + ---- ---- ---- sculpture, 126, 127. + + ---- ---- ---- stations, 1, 2. + + ---- ---- ---- statuary, 178. + + ---- ---- ---- two Zoos, 201. + + ---- ---- ---- views, 196, 264. + + ---- ---- ---- waiters, 238. + + ---- ---- late hours, 273. + + ---- ---- London, 14, 24, 27, 154, 201, 219, 227-40, 238, 249, + 273, 290-92. + + ---- ---- the play, 28. + + ---- ---- ---- post, 223, 224. + + ---- ---- ---- ship, 48. + + ---- as Meryon saw it, 23, 24. + + ---- fairs, 153. + + ---- from Notre Dame, 11, 48, 49. + + ---- ---- the Eiffel Tower, 50, 51. + + ---- in the small hours, 273-75. + + ---- pleasure of entering, 1-4. + + ---- under siege, 209-13. + + Parisian, the, his provinciality, 130. + + Pascal, 198, 247, 293. + + Passy, Cimetiere de, 317. + + Pasteur, 160. + + Pater, Walter, quoted, 82-84. + + Pawning in Paris, 66. + + Peacocks, the, 202-4. + + Pere Lachaise, 264, 315-17. + + ---- Lunette, Le, 173. + + Perugino, 91. + + Picard, 177. + + Picpus, Cimetiere de, 317. + + Pigalle, Rue, 110, 260. + + Pinaigriers, the, 198. + + Planquette, 316. + + Pointelin, 152. + + Pol, Henri, 90, 127-30. + + Police of Paris, the, 19, 240. + + Pompadour, Madame la, 283. + + Pompeii, treasures of, 110, 111. + + Pompes Funebres, 251. + + Pont au Change, the, 22. + + ---- Alexandre III., 153. + + ---- de la Concorde, 307. + + ---- Neuf, 12. + + Porte Maillot, 149. + + ---- St. Denis, 253-56. + + ---- St. Martin, 256. + + Post, the, in Paris, 223, 224. + + Pot, 153. + + Potter, 95. + + Poussin, 91, 98. + + Prefecture de Police, the, 18. + + Print shops, 170. + + Procope, Cafe, 171. + + Prud'hon, 70 + + Puget, 110. + + + QUAI des Celestins, 60. + + Quasimodo, 25, 48. + + Quatre-Septembre, Rue du, 277. + + + RABELAIS, 297, 298. + + Rachel, 301, 317. + + Racine, 198. + + Raeburn, 92. + + Ramly, 110. + + Raphael, 87, 88, 91, 92, 102, 318. + + Ravaillac, 293, 294. + + Reason, Goddess of, 39, 41. + + ---- the Cult of, 37-41. + + Reaumur, Rue, 277. + + Recamier, Madame, 101, 159, 160,245. + + Religion advertised, 252. + + Rembrandt, 91, 92, 93, 151, 248. + + Renan, 270. + + Renaudon, 27. + + Renoir, 175. + + Republic, Third, 124. + + Republican palace, a, 294. + + Republics in statuary, 259. + + Republique, Place de la, 259. + + Restaurants, 6-8, 147, 173, 199-201, 244, 252, 286. + + Restoration, the, 123-25. + + Reveillon, 244, 273. + + Revolution, the, 33, 65, 71, 87, 113, 133-39, 178, 246, 259, + 279, 281, 284, 285, 289, 300, 307-11. + + ---- of 1830, 296, 311, 312. + + Revue, the, 235, 236. + + Richelieu, 181, 284, 298, 300. + + ---- Rue de, 247, 282, 283. + + Riding schools, 206. + + Rivoli, Rue de, 277. + + Robespierre, 138-40, 278. + + Robinson, 318. + + Rochefoucauld, Rue, 260. + + Rodin, 174, 175, 177, 195. + + Roland, Madame, 18, 71, 245. + + Roman remains in Paris, 8, 31, 182, 187. + + Romney, 99. + + Rossini, 225, 226. + + Rothschild collection, 111. + + Rougemont, Cite, 251. + + Rousseau, J. J., 106, 193. + + Rubens, 91, 93, 94, 95. + + Rude, 110. + + Ruggieri, 289. + + Ruisdael, 95, 152. + + + SACRE-COEUR, the, 245, 262. + + St. Antoine, Rue, 297-99. + + ---- Bartholomew, Massacre of, 23, 286. + + ---- Cloud, 318. + + ---- Denis, 189, 215, 318. + + ---- ---- Rue, 255, 256. + + ---- Dominic, 47. + + ---- Francis, 129. + + ---- Genevieve, 188-92, 196, 197, 255. + + ---- Germain, 189. + + ---- Honore, Rue, 277-86. + + ---- Martin Priory, 257. + + ---- ---- Rue, 76, 257. + + ---- Merry, 75. + + ---- Peter, 75. + + Sainte-Beuve, 317. + + ---- Chapelle, 26, 27. + + Saints-Peres, Rue, 159, 276. + + ---- the mothers of, 190. + + Salis, Rodolphe, 271. + + Salons, the, 149. + + Samson, the headman, 137, 139. + + Sand, George, 178, 303. + + Sargent, 152. + + Sarto, Andrea del, 91. + + Scheffer, 100. + + Scribe, 317. + + Sculpture in Paris, 78, 106-10, 126, 127, 178, 259. + + Seine, the, 14. + + Sens, Hotel de, 296. + + Sevigne, Madame de, 73, 301. + + Sevres, 318. + + Sewers, the, 312. + + Shaftesbury Avenue, 277. + + Shaw, Mr. Bernard, 166. + + Sicard, the Abbe, 178. + + Siege of 1870, the, 210-13. + + Sisley, 152, 175. + + Soitoux, 259. + + Solario, 91. + + Sorbonne, the, 179-81. + + Steinlen, 152, 176, 271, 302. + + Sterne, Laurence, 16, 163. + + Stockbrokers in Paris, 249. + + Stoppeur, the, 162. + + Street life in Paris, 236-43. + + Streets, favourite, 250, 276, 277. + + Student life, 180. + + Suresnes, 149. + + Swiss Guards, 115-21, 216. + + + TABARIN, Bal, 272. + + Tailors, political, 249. + + Talma, 316. + + Temple, the, 63. + + Tennyson, 304. + + Terburg, 95, 102, 153. + + Terra-cottas, 110. + + Thackeray, 157, 294, 304. + + Thames, the, 14. + + Thaulow, 177. + + Theatre, the first, 256. + + ---- the, in Paris, 232-34. + + Theatres, 28, 282. + + Themines, the Marquis de, 200. + + Thiers, 317. + + ---- collection, 102. + + Thomas, Ambroise, 143, 269. + + Thomy-Thierret collection, 105, 106. + + Tiber, the, 109. + + Tintoretto, 89, 91. + + Tissot, 177. + + Titian, 88, 89, 91. + + Tortoni, Cafe, 171-73. + + Tour d'Argent, the, 199-201. + + ---- Saint-Jacques, 293. + + Traffic, 240. + + Trajan, 290. + + Triomphe, Arc de, 114, 142-45, 302. + + _Tristan und Isolde_, 292. + + Troyon, 70, 105, 106. + + Tuileries, the, 114-31. + + + UCCELLO, 90. + + Uzanne, Octave, on the booksellers, 15, 16. + + + VALOIS, Rue, 285. + + Van de Velde, 153. + + ---- Dyck, 94. + + Vasari, quoted, 85, 86. + + Veber, 152. + + Velasquez, 88, 101. + + Vendome, Place, 277, 278. + + Venus of Milo, 107. + + Verdi, 226. + + Vermeer, 95. + + Veronese, 88, 89. + + Versailles, 318. + + Vestris, 226. + + Viarmes, Rue de, 288. + + Victor Hugo, Avenue de, 305. + + Vierge, 152, 302. + + Views in Paris, 11, 48-50, 145, 196, 262. + + Villebresme, Vicomte de, 297. + + Ville d'Avray, 318. + + ---- Hotel de, 294-96. + + ---- ---- ---- Rue de l', 296. + + Vincennes, 318. + + Vinci, 81-87, 95, 318. + + Virgin, the, and the Bird, 42-44. + + Voisin's, 7. + + Vollon, 70, 177. + + Volney, Rue, 252. + + Voltaire, 71, 166, 194, 195. + + Vosges, Place des, 299. + + + WAITERS, 238. + + Wallace, Sir Richard, 146. + + Watteau, 70, 95, 99, 178. + + Waxworks in Paris, 246. + + Weenix, 98. + + Weerts, 181. + + Weyden, Roger van der, 95. + + Whiff of Grapeshot, the, 279-81. + + Whistler, 104, 177. + + Wiertz, 261. + + Willette, 271, 272. + + Winged Victory, 78, 79, 87. + + Women in Paris, 219, 239, 291. + + + ZIEM, 151. + + Zola, 194, 315. + + Zurbaran, 92. + + + + +ABERDEEN: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WANDERER IN PARIS*** + + +******* This file should be named 37937.txt or 37937.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/9/3/37937 + + + +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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