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PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR 
 
 VOLUME 1 
 
Parts 
 
 IN ITS SPLENDOUR 
 
 E. A. REYNOLDS -BALL 
 
 Author of ' ' Cairo, the Cit^ of the Caliphs, ' ' etc 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 Volume I 
 
 3(U«0tratp& 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 iana IEsUb ntih Qlnrnpany 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, igoo 
 By Dana Estes & Company 
 
 3^37^ 
 
 
<< Imaoike a city like Paris, where the greatest intellects of a 
 great empire are collected together, and by this intercourse 
 and emulation are instructed and elevated, — a city where the 
 products of all the kingdoms of nature, where the riches of 
 the arts from every quarter of the globe, are accessible to the 
 student. Think of this universal city where each foot of ground 
 recalls a great past, and where each street unfolds a fragment of 
 history." — Goethe. 
 
"Paris, la Metropole de la Civilisation Moderne."— Lavall^e. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A CAPITAL is often described as the heart or brain of a 
 country, and the metaphor in the case of Paris conveys 
 more truth than such epigrams usually express. But 
 Paris is also more emphatically than some other Euro- 
 pean capitals its countenance as well. Paris, like Lon- 
 don and Rome, is not only the political, commercial, 
 social, and intellectual centre of Prance, but it is an 
 epitome and reflection of the national life and an illus- 
 tration of the past history. " In it," observes Mr. H. D. 
 Traill, " the genius and the temperament of the people 
 who built it and who inhabit it are almost always re- 
 flected ; it bears in many cases the indelible marks of 
 their historic experiences and the unbroken chronicle 
 of their growth ; it is the enduring monument of their 
 labours and achievements ; here and there it may reveal 
 to us, as by the lines of care on the faces of the aged, 
 the sombre vestiges of their calamities and crimes." 
 
 Anything like a full or adequate description of the 
 beautiful city of Paris in its various aspects — historic, 
 artistic, and social — would require a whole series of 
 volumes. In these two volumes no exhaustive treatment 
 of any of the various phases of the story of Paris has, of 
 course, been attempted. I have merely tried to give a 
 general impression of Paris p^st and present, and of the 
 more striking features of the social life of Paris of 
 
 vU 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 to-day. Though the subject, in the case of a city bo 
 much described as the French capital, necessarily lacks 
 novelty, yet I have aimed at a certain variety in the 
 treatment, and if those who take up " Paris in Its Splen- 
 dour" consider that I have succeeded in suggesting 
 fresh points of view, and have managed to throw new 
 lights on old facts, I shall be more than satisfied. At . 
 all events, some readers may find these pages of some 
 use as an introduction to a serious study of the fascinat- 
 ing city. 
 
 I have not hesitated to lay under contribution the 
 valuable and enormous amount of topographical and 
 historical material to be found in the works of English, 
 American, and foreign authors. A list of many of the 
 books consulted will be found in the bibliographical 
 chapter. E. A. R. B. 
 
 London, March 27, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Medieval Paris 3 
 
 II. Monarchical Paris 33 
 
 in. Revolutionary Paris 56 
 
 IV. Paris under Napoleon 73 
 
 V. Paris under the Bourbons . . . .91 
 
 VI. Paris under Louis Philippe .... 105 
 
 VII. Imperial Paris 119 
 
 VIII. Paris under the Third Republic . . . 136 
 
 IX. Museums and Picture Galleries . . . 173 
 
 X. Museums and Picture Galleries (continued') . 200 
 
 XI. Notre Dame Cathedral 227 
 
 XII. La Sainte Chapelle and St. Denis . . 247 
 
 XIII. Some Historic Churches 273 
 
 XIV. Monumental Paris 299 
 
 XV. Monumental Paris (continued) .... 330 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Bastile (Photogravure) Frontispiece 
 
 Statue of Etienne Marcel 22 
 
 Nave of the Chuech of the Madeleine ... 44 
 Chambre des Stances du S:^nat ; Luxembourg Palace 66 
 Fontaine de Mioicis, in the Garden of the Luxem- 
 bourg 132 
 
 Joan of Arc Monument (Place des Pyramides) . . 142 
 
 H6tel de Villb, Taken from the Pont St. Louis . 154 
 
 View of Paris from the Louvre 176 
 
 Tomb of Richelieu in the Sorbonne .... 220 
 
 Cathedral of Notre Dame 230 
 
 Grand Corridor, Oeera House 264 
 
 Place de la Concorde 286 
 
 H6tel des Invalides 298 
 
 Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel 308 
 
 La Place Vendome ........ 312 
 
 Avenue des Champs ;^lys^es 330 
 
 General View of the Seine 350 
 
 Paris, Tol. I. 
 
HISTORY 
 
PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MEDIiETAL PARIS. 
 
 Exceedingly rich and complete is the monumental 
 record of Paris, — in a sense one of the most " historic 
 cities" in Europe. From the importance and continuity 
 of its history, it is worthy to rank with Rome, Con- 
 stantinople, or London, which Mr. Frederick Harrison, 
 in a comparative survey of the great capitals of Europe, 
 places in the first rank of historic cities. London, no 
 doubt, has suffered least from violent shocks and breaks 
 in its history. It has not been, like Paris, the scene of 
 tremendous disturbances more varied and more revolu- 
 tionary than those of any other city in the world, with the 
 exception, perhaps, of Rome. London has never under- 
 gone a regular siege, while Paris has been subjected to at 
 least a dozen investments, culminating in 1870-71 in by 
 far the greatest siege in all modern history. London 
 again has never been the seat of a revolution which can 
 be compared at all with that of French history. On 
 the other hand, "rebellion, massacre, and revolution, 
 battles, sieges, and captures were familiar incidents in 
 the long history of Paris from the days of the Csesars 
 
4 PABI8 IN ITS 8PLEND0UB. 
 
 and of the Franks to the days of the German Empire 
 and of the Conmiune." 
 
 But modern transformation has done more to de- 
 stroy the historic aspect of Paris than of London, for 
 even the Great Fire has scarcely proved so destructive of 
 architectural antiquities as the Hausmannising of the 
 Second Empire and the incendiarism of the Commune. 
 If, however, sites are to be considered equally with 
 existing monuments, Paris is by no means a city of 
 inferior historic memories. Paris is at least a century 
 older than London, and indeed it can claim nearly two 
 thousand years of continuous historical record. In 
 Roman times Paris was a more important provincial 
 city than London, while the history of its great early 
 foundations, civil as well as religious, was more com- 
 plete and trustworthy than anything of the kind in the 
 English capital. 
 
 At the same time it must be admitted that historic 
 remains are more completely screened in Paris than in 
 London. The effort to recall Old Paris in the modern 
 city is one which demands a serious strain on the im- 
 agination, and demands the possession of the historic 
 sense. It is hard to realise that in this gay and splen- 
 did metropolis was shed the blood of some ten thousand 
 victims of the Revolution, from Louis XVI. and his 
 heroic consort to Madame Roland and Charlotte Corday, 
 " and that every bright terrace, every bridge, and every 
 tower had echoed with the roar of cannon and mus- 
 ketry, the shouts and screams of battle and massacre, 
 not once or twice, but back through the stormy times 
 of the Revolution and the Fronde and the League, St. 
 Bartholomew, the Civil Wars, the English conquests, 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 5 
 
 feudal faction fights, the Counts of Paris, the Franks, 
 Gauls, and Romans." 
 
 It is natural in the case of a great capital to inquire 
 into its origin, and to try and ascertain to what it owes 
 its structural development. Most great cities owe their 
 existence to certain natural advantages of site. Even 
 the least observant must have noticed the connection 
 between great cities and great rivers, even if cause and 
 effect are confounded, as in the case of the innocent 
 author who noted the strange geographical coincidence 
 that rivers always seemed to flow past great cities ! 
 
 The origin of Paris is like that of Madrid or Berlin, 
 mainly due more to artificial or administrative causes 
 than to its adaptability as a commercial centre, for, 
 though it stands upon an important navigable river, it 
 can hardly be said to command the Seine valley in the 
 same sense as Rouen, which in mediaeval times was the 
 real port of the Seine. " The modern city owes its 
 special development as a town, first to its Roman con- 
 querors, then to its bridges, next to its mediaeval counts, 
 last of all to the series of special accidents by which 
 those counts developed at last into kings of the nascent 
 kingdom of France, and inheritors of the traditions of 
 the Prankish sovereigns. It is thus in part a royal resi- 
 dential town, depending mainly for prosperity upon its 
 kings, its nobles, its courts of justice, its parliaments, 
 its university, its clergy, and its official classes; com- 
 paratively little, till quite recent times, upon the energy 
 and industry of its individual citizens. We say, as a 
 rule, that Paris is the capital of Prance ; it would be 
 truer to say that France is the country which has 
 grouped itself under the rulers of Paris." 
 
6 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The twofold character of the genesis of Paris — an 
 administrative centre as well as a commercial emporium 
 — is well symbolised in the arms of the city, which 
 consists of a ship under full sail, surmounted by the 
 lilies of the French kings, and bearing as a crest a 
 mural crown. 
 
 The germ, then, of modern Paris was but a small 
 stockaded island village which was conquered by the 
 Romans in the year 53 b. c. 
 
 It was originally known as Lutetia Parisiorum, but 
 gradually the first name was dropped and the town was 
 described as Parisii,i from the name of the tribe whose 
 stronghold it was. 
 
 Many derivations have been suggested for Lutetia and 
 Paris, some more ingenious than scientific. For in- 
 stance, one savant gives par (Celtic ship) and «/s 
 (man), but probably the mediasval coat of arms in- 
 spired this etymology. Spon goes to Ancient Greece 
 for his etymology, and claims a derivation from Par 
 and Isis. But to make this fit he attempts to show that 
 the ancient inhabitants practised the cult of Isis. 
 There seems more authority for the derivation pro- 
 posed by Carlyle, though it is not likely to be adopted 
 by the Parisians, viz., from the Latin lutum (mud), — 
 certainly rather appropriate for a city which sprung 
 from a marsh. 
 
 To resume the story of Paris. Early in 53 B. c, 
 Caesar had a conference in the Citd of Paris, then called 
 Lutetia, with the Gallic chiefs, who had headed a move- 
 ment to free Gaul from the power of Rome. At this 
 
 iThe first official record of this new name appears in a charter 
 of 360 A. D., convoking a Church council at Parisea Civitas. 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 7 
 
 meeting the clans seemed reconciled, but the rebellion 
 soon broke out again, and it was not till 51 b. c. that 
 Caesar, by the conquest of the Gallic chiefs under 
 Vercingetorix, finally pacified Gaul, — pacification being 
 the approved expression for conquest! According to 
 Plutarch, Caesar had to fight three millions, of which 
 one million perished, one million were made prisoners 
 of war, while only one million remained free. 
 
 Under Roman rule, the people to some extent pros- 
 pered, in spite of oppression. At the beginning of the 
 Roman conquest they possessed scarcely a town or road. 
 By the end of the fifth century there were several fine 
 cities and many excellent highroads, — some of these 
 highways are, indeed, in use at the present day. But 
 Provence naturally was more subject to Roman in- 
 fluence than Northern Gaul and Marseilles; Aix and 
 Narbonne were splendid cities in comparison when 
 Lutetia was but a swamp. "At one time," observes 
 Dean Kitchin, " it might well have been a question 
 whether Lyons or Paris should be the chief city of 
 Prance ; the northern influences, however, were the 
 stronger." 
 
 So Paris became the capital, only to lose this honour 
 under the next emperor, Augustus, who made Lyons 
 the capital of Gaul. 
 
 The conversion of Gaul to Christianity began some- 
 time in the third century, but at first the progress was 
 slow. About 250, the Roman Church sent a special 
 mission under Dionysius (St. Denis), who settled at 
 Lutetia and founded the church of Northern France 
 (see St. Denis chapter). From this time the Chris- 
 tian doctrines made great progress, and almost all Gaul 
 
8 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 had embraced the faith by the middle of the fourth 
 century. Indeed, "the final struggle between Chris- 
 tianity and paganism -was, in reality, fought out on 
 Gallic soil." 
 
 About the middle of the fourth century, the island 
 village of the Seine became famous in history, thanks to 
 the predilection of the Emperor Julian for Lutetia. 
 The Apostate Emperor lived during the winter of 357-8 
 in the palace (whose ruins can still be seen at the 
 Thermae) which the Emperor Constantino Chlorus had 
 built. 
 
 Julian is indeed the real founder of Paris. He loved 
 his " darling Lutetia " dearly, and praised its situation, 
 its pleasant sea-breeze, its vineyards and fig-trees. 
 
 The next hundred years marks the decay of the 
 Roman power in Gaul, the last shreds of the imperial 
 robe being figuratively shed by Odoacer, the Goth, in 
 476, when the seat of the empire was transferred to 
 Constantinople. 
 
 By the end of the fifth century the Franks (a German 
 race) had established their King Clovis (Louis), the 
 first of the Merovingian dynasty, and Gallia became 
 Francia (with Parisii for its capital). It comprised 
 about the third of modern France, being bounded on the 
 south by the Loire and by Burgundy, and on the west 
 by Armorice (Brittany). 
 
 The Franks were of course pagans, but Clovis had 
 become a Christian, and the Frankish nation, now that 
 Rome had perished, became the " Sword of the Church," 
 — a fit title for the nation which is still known as 
 " eldest son of the Church." King Clovis was baptised 
 in Rheims Cathedral, together with three thousand of 
 
MEDIu^VAL PARIS. 9 
 
 his warriors, the imposing ceremony being performed 
 with the greatest pomp and splendour. According to 
 Gregory of Tours, the Archbishop Remigius indulged 
 in a burst of rhetoric, exhorting the royal convert to 
 " bow the head ! Burn that thou hast adored, and adore 
 that thou hast burnt ! " 
 
 From the beginning of the sixth century to the end 
 of the seventh century, the history of France is mainly 
 made up of incessant struggles between the Merovingian 
 kings and their powerful chieftains, known as the 
 mayors of the palace, represented by the family of 
 Pippin. This perpetual war of factions ends in the 
 triumph of the great Caroling dynasty. 
 
 The first mention of Kings of Paris in history is in 
 connection with the partition of Clovis's dominions on his 
 death, one of his sons having Paris and the surrounding 
 country, with the title of " King of Paris." It is in the 
 reign of Sigebert (561-575), the husband of Brunhild, 
 that we first hear of this important functionary, — the 
 mayor of the palace. This was an officer elected by 
 the chieftains to watch their interests, and also to act 
 virtually as a kind of regent to the sovereign. The 
 power of the mayors soon began to eclipse that of 
 the kings. The office was Teutonic in origin, but the 
 derivation of the name has bafHed all philologists. The 
 mayor was at first named by the king; afterward 
 selected by the chiefs. The office was held for life, and 
 its holder had the command of the army as well as of 
 the royal household. 
 
 " Prom chamberlain to regent, from regent to duke, 
 from duke to king, from king to Emperor of the West, — 
 so rose the fortunes of the office with the great aristo- 
 
10 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 cratic family which held it, until it reached its highest 
 in the person of the great Charles, inheritor of the 
 imperial name and of almost more than imperial 
 power." 1 
 
 Dagobert, the first sole king of Francia since Clovis, 
 was a kind of mediaeval Louis XIV. He established a 
 magnificent court at Paris, which was again made the 
 seat of government, for in previous reigns Orleans, Sois- 
 sons, or Toulouse had taken the place of Paris as the 
 residence of the sovereigns. Under Dagobert the mon- 
 archy of the Pranks reached its highest splendour. The 
 Merovingian king was indeed the only king of note in 
 the West, and consequently the Emperor of the East 
 was eager to form an alliance with him. Dagobert was 
 the first Prankish king who seriously took in hand the 
 embellishment of his capital. He also founded and 
 buUt the magnificent Abbey of St. Denis. But there 
 was no element of stability or permanence in the Mero- 
 vingian throne, and on his death the power of the suc- 
 ceeding members of his dynasty faded away, and that 
 of the mayors of the palace increased. Finally, in 752, 
 Pippin the Short, son of Charles Martel, who was mayor 
 of the palace to the last Merovingian king, Chilp^ric, 
 deposed his nominal master, and thus began the great 
 dynasty of the Karlings. We have now, to quote Guizof s 
 aphorism, reached " the bridge between barbarism and 
 feudal life." 
 
 Charlemagne, son of Pippin, became King of the 
 
 Franks in 771. In 800 he was named Emperor of 
 
 the West, and in 814 he died. He was more a German 
 
 emperor than a Prankish sovereign, and more Teuton 
 
 iG. W. Kitchin. 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 11 
 
 than Fraak. Paris has indeed little to do with the 
 reign of Charlemagne. Aix-la-Chapelle, not Paris, was 
 the emperor's usual residence, and not one of his coun- 
 cils was held in the former capital. 
 
 At the time of Charlemagne, the only churches in 
 Paris were St. Germain I'Auxerrois, St. Vincent (St. 
 Germain-des-Pr(^s), Ste. Genevidve, and St. Laurent. 
 
 During the feeble reigns of the later Karlings, the 
 north of Prance was continually subjected to the raids 
 of the Northmen, or Danes, who in 885 beleaguered 
 Paris itself. The capital had shrunk back into the Cit^, 
 but Eudes (Odo), Count of Paris, carried out a brave 
 resistance for eighteen months. At last the feeble king 
 (Charles the Pat) came with an immense army, which 
 he camped on Montmartre. Prom here the king looked 
 down on the heroic defenders of Paris and the besieg- 
 ing hosts. " The hollow-eyed citizens rejoiced to think 
 that their pagan enemies would be scattered to the 
 winds ; nothing of the kind happened ; the feeble king 
 had no energy, and did but beg the Normans to name 
 their price; they were willing to retire for seven hun- 
 dred pounds of silver. The fierce citizens, with a cry 
 of disgust, refused to be parties to such shame ; they 
 rushed forth and drove the Northmen from the Seine, 
 compelling them to drag their boats across a neck of 
 land before they could embark." 
 
 The effete dynasty of the Karlings was under the 
 despicable Charles the Fat at its last gasp, and on his 
 death in 888 the barons chose Odo (Eudes), Count of 
 Paris, as their king. But the princes of the Karling 
 house were not yet done with, and the Clerical party 
 at Rheims, which was the religious centre of France, 
 
12 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 as Paris was its political centre, elected Charles III. 
 (Le Sot), a cousin of the late king, while the interests 
 of the chiefs were safeguarded by the appointment of 
 Robert, brother of Odo, as Duke of Prance, who acted 
 virtually as a mayor of the palace to the feeble king. 
 The one king who might have been able to stave o£E the 
 accession of the Capetian dynasty, Ludwig III., died, 
 after a short reign, in 954. With the death of his 
 grandson, Ludwig V., significantly termed le Faineant 
 (a title which was only too well deserved by all the 
 later Karlings except Ludwig III.), the succession of 
 the representatives of the dukedom of Prance, Hugh 
 Capet, followed as a matter of course. He was the 
 most influential, as well as the richest, of the great 
 barons of Northern Prance. 
 
 Nine hundred and eighty-seven, the year of the acces- 
 sion of Hugh Capet, is one of the most important land- 
 marks in the history of mediaeval Prance. In fact, most 
 historians, ignoring the Merovings and Karlings, make 
 this year the starting-point of Prench history. The 
 Karlings had been more Teuton princes than Prankish 
 kings. Their language was German, not Prench, and the 
 feeble later kings of this dynasty invariably took refuge 
 with the emperor when unable to maintain their authority 
 over the great chieftains. "Prom the days of Hugh 
 Capet all is changed. Hugh was a Prankish baron, 
 Count of Paris and Duke of the Pranks. This latter 
 title was not connected with a definite duchy, but 
 appears to have given its possessor a vague military 
 authority over the provinces surrounding his own county 
 of Paris. We must always remember that the names 
 Prance and Paris had not their modern significance; 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 13 
 
 Paris was but the chief town of a petty dukedom, 
 France the name of a narrow district, overshadowed by 
 greater lordships, and almost unknown across the Loire." 
 
 The accession, then, of the Capet family marks the 
 real beginning of the modern kingdom of Prance, and 
 the Duke of the French became King of the French. 
 Paris became the actual capital of the kingdom, and no 
 longer had to share this privilege with Laon or Rheims. 
 Paris itself enters very little into the history of France 
 until the reign of Philip Augustus (1180-1223), the 
 first of the great makers of Paris. 
 
 With this broad-minded monarch a new era dawned 
 for Paris. A new wall marked the first great stage in 
 the expansion of Paris. This new enceinte started from 
 the Louvre Donjon, which Philip had built for his 
 residence on the supposed site of Dagobert's hunting 
 lodge. 
 
 It is usually reckoned as. the second enceinte of the 
 eight which have girdled Paris, from the Gallo-Roman 
 wall to the fortifications of Louis Philippe, which still 
 form the barriers of Paris. Philippe's wall was a sub- 
 stantial piece of masonry, about ten feet thick and 
 twenty-eight feet in height. Its western boundary on 
 the south side of the Seine was the Tour de Nesle (the 
 eastern wing of the Institute marks the exact site), and 
 its eastern limit was exactly opposite the eastern end of 
 the He St. Louis. Southward the boundary is marked by 
 the Church of Ste. Genevieve, and includes the University 
 Quarter. On the north side (La Ville) the wall extended 
 from the Louvre was continued northward in a semi- 
 circle which ended at the Seine, near the spot where the 
 Bibliothdque de 1' Arsenal now stands. At that period 
 
14 PAEIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the walled portion of Paris comprised only a third of the 
 area of Paris within the walls at the time of Btienne 
 Marcel's ramparts, some 160 years later, showing the 
 enormous expansion of the city in the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth centuries. In fact, it occupied a space not 
 much larger than Hyde Park with Kensington Gardens. 
 The contour of the city at this period has been aptly and 
 picturesquely compared to a butterfly, the island of 
 La Cit^ representing the body, and the northern and 
 southern extension (La Ville and University) forming 
 the wings. 
 
 During this reign, aqueducts, fountains, and markets 
 were built, and the building of Notre Dame was con- 
 tinued. One improvement, which had an important 
 effect on the health of the city, was the paving of the 
 principal streets. Hitherto the streets of Paris had 
 been common sewers, dirty, dark, and malodorous. 
 
 The king was not, however, free from the bitter preju- 
 dices of that epoch against the Jews, and they were all 
 expelled from Paris, and most of the houses in the 
 Parisian " Ghetto" pulled down. 
 
 Among the churches and abbeys which were begun or 
 completed in Paris during Philip's reign, were the 
 Churches of St. Btienne-du-Mont and St. Sulpice, nearly 
 a dozen other churches of which no trace now remains, 
 the convents of the Jacobins and Cordeliers, and the 
 Abbey of St. Antonie des Champs. Considerable progress 
 was made, too, in the building of Notre Dame. 
 
 It is not known if Philip himself was a scholar, but 
 he at all events must have the principal credit for the 
 enlargement and improvement of the great Paris uni- 
 versity, which made Paris a great intellectual centre. 
 
MEDIAEVAL PABIS. 15 
 
 and did for France what the Universities of Bologna 
 and Salerno did for North and South Italy. 
 
 Early in the twelfth century Paris began to be recog- 
 nised, under the teachings of Abelard and his disciple, 
 Peter the Lombard (afterward Bishop of Paris), as the 
 leading school of the Church. This century was, indeed, 
 a period of great intellectual activity, and students 
 flocked to Paris, attracted by the fame of Ab^Iard, the 
 father of scholastic theology. Though Paris had become 
 a great teaching centre in the reign of Louis le Gros 
 (1108-37,) the first record of any distinct university 
 organisation dates from about 1170. 
 
 " The university was originally simply a guild formed 
 by the growing body of masters who, licensed by the 
 chancellor of Notre Dame, taught men in classes beneath 
 the shadow of the cathedral, or on the bridges "which 
 connect the Island Cit^ with the southern banks of the 
 Seine. In 1200 the Society of Masters received their 
 first charter of privileges from Philip Augustus, who 
 confirmed the traditional right of the scholars to be 
 treated as clerks, and tried by the ecclesiastical judges. 
 It is not till twenty years later, when the schools had 
 begun to extend on to the Mount of Ste. Genevieve, — ■ 
 the centre of what is still known as the ' Quartier 
 Latin,' — that we trace the first germs of the elaborate 
 organisation which was nearly complete by almost the 
 middle of the century." 
 
 The University Course was divided into four faculties, 
 Theology, Law, Medicine, and Arts, the three former 
 being considered Supreme Faculties, corresponding to the 
 Honour Schools of Oxford and Cambridge of the present 
 day, while, to complete the parallel, the inferior Faculty 
 
16 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 of Arts -was a kind of " pass school," the students only 
 proceeding to the three higher faculties after a course of 
 study in Arts. The School of Law was confined to canon 
 law, for the study of Roman law was forbidden by the 
 Pope, — it has been suggested from jealousy for the 
 claims of theology proper. The Faculty of Arts was 
 divided into the four nations (see sketch of College de 
 France in Monumental Paris chapter) , France, Normandy, 
 Picardy, and England, but the head of each nation (which 
 corresponded roughly to the college of an English uni- 
 versity) was a proctor, while the whole Faculty of Arts 
 was presided over by the rector, who eventually acquired 
 the position of head of the whole university. There is a 
 significant difference between the origin of the great 
 Bologna university and that of Paris. The former had 
 been founded by the scholars, while Paris was a univer- 
 sity of masters. The colleges were originally charitable 
 institutions founded to shelter the poorer classes of 
 students, but soon they accepted paying boarders or 
 commoners, and engaged lecturers and tutors. There 
 were about sixty of these colleges before 1500. The 
 best known and the most important among them was 
 the Sorbonne, established by the chaplain of Louis IX., 
 in 1257. Here the Faculty of Theology used to meet, 
 and hence the decisions of this faculty were commonly 
 called the Judgments of the Sorbonne. 
 
 The history of the University of Paris, down to the 
 last of the Valois kings, which marks the close of the 
 mediaeval period, may be briefly touched upon. Gradu- 
 ally this great educational institution exercised a great 
 influence, not only in scholastic and ecclesiastical affairs, 
 but in general politics. Just as the French nation was 
 
MEHIJEVAL PAMI8. 17 
 
 styled the eldest daughter of the Church, so the univer- 
 sity was proud of calling itself " the eldest daughter of 
 the king." Under the feeble rule of Charles VII., the 
 university reached the height of its political importance, 
 and at this period it was able to negotiate with Pope and 
 emperor as if it were a great European power. In 1430 
 the university covered itself with infamy by abetting the 
 persecution of Jeanne d'Arc, and voting for her being 
 handed over to the Inquisition. 
 
 The attitude of the university toward the revival of 
 learning, whose influence had reached Paris about the 
 middle of the fifteenth century, was that of apathetic 
 indifference. The governing body seemed infected at 
 this time by what, in comparison with the intellectual 
 activity of the Italian universities, was a kind of scho- 
 lastic torpor. 
 
 Charles XI. was a special patron of the Paris univer- 
 sity, true to his policy of supporting the towns and 
 checking the feudal instincts of the nobles. In the 
 reign of Francis I. the Renaissance influence had its 
 effect even on the cut and dried scholasticism of the 
 university, and especially of the Sorbonne. Regius 
 professors appointed directly by the Crown replaced the 
 regent masters. The new professors, the exponents of 
 the New Learning, were bitterly opposed by the pro- 
 fessors of the Sorbonne, and the king's scheme for 
 establishing some kind of higher education in his capi- 
 tal had little permanent result. 
 
 Louis IX. (1226-1270) proved an even greater bene- 
 factor of his capital than Philip Augustus. It had 
 supported him from the first, and made common cause 
 with him at the beginning of his reign in his struggle 
 
18 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 with the rebellious barons. Soon after the coronation 
 of Louis at Rheims, in 1226, the barons had mustered 
 their army at Corbeil, and threatened to cut off the 
 young king from his capital. " Thence the queen sent 
 messengers to Paris begging help. The citizens with 
 great willingness came forth in arms to bring them 
 on their way. From Montleheri to Paris, the road was 
 filled with folk, armed or unarmed, who cried to our 
 Lord to give the king long life, and to defend him from 
 his foes : and so did he. And thus the king came 
 safely to Paris, none daring to withstand him, and was 
 welcomed heartily by his devoted burghers, who, from 
 the time of their great benefactor, Philip Augustus, had 
 been warmly attached to the king's party." ^ 
 
 The usual residence of Louis was not the Louvre, but 
 the Palais de la Cit^. His greatest monument is, of 
 course, the beautiful Sainte Chapelle, which will be fully 
 described elsewhere. 
 
 Though Louis IX. was a benevolent despot, and, by 
 some historians, indeed, is regarded as the real founder of 
 French absolute monarchy, yet he did much to foster 
 the growth of civic liberties in Paris. One of his most 
 important works was the founding of the Parliament in 
 1250. In his reign it first held regular sessions in the 
 royal palace. The Parliament, though it still retained 
 some of its administrative powers as a department of 
 the court, — it supervised the water-supply, hospitals, 
 and colleges of Paris, — became more and more a court 
 of justice, and ultimately a kind of final court of appeal. 
 " It was more than a mere law court," observes Dean 
 Kitchin, "and less than an English Parliament." Its 
 1 La Vie de St. Louis. 
 
MEDIEVAL PAEIS. 19 
 
 original aim was not so much to provide justice and 
 check crime, but to act as a kind of judicial barrier 
 between the king and his aggrieved subjects, and, sec- 
 ondly, to defend the rights of the king's subjects against 
 all comers. But the scope of the Paris Parliament was 
 soon widened. "No law court in Europe has had a 
 greater or more honx)urable history than the parlement 
 of Paris ; none, since the time of the Romans, has de- 
 veloped a more complete and consistent body of law; 
 none has followed out the maxims of its original with 
 more effect, or accomplished more remarkable political 
 results. For the French monarchy of the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries is the true heir in spirit of the 
 Roman Empire, — ^not that effete and disunited polity 
 which claimed its name ; and the French monarchy, at 
 its height of power, is largely the work of the parlement 
 of Paris." i 
 
 The population of Paris at the end of the reign of the 
 " Saintly Louis " was about one hundred and twenty 
 thousand. 
 
 His son Philip's reign was uneventful, and it is not 
 till Philip the Pair (1285-1314) comes to the throne 
 that there is much to add to the story of Paris. Since 
 Philip Augustus the aspect of the city had changed con- 
 siderably. The churches, hospitals, and religious houses 
 built by Louis IX. had jBUed up the wide uninhabited 
 plots of ground included in Paris by Philip's new line 
 of fortifications, and new suburbs had been formed 
 around the abbeys outside the walls. 
 
 The Cit^, a labyrinth of dark, winding, and narrow 
 lanes, was connected with the Ville and the University 
 1 Professor Prothero, English Historical Review, 1898. 
 
20 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 (as the northern and southern portions of Paris were 
 called) by two bridges. The northern (called Pont au 
 Change) one was defended by the Grand Chatelet, then 
 the residence of the provost, while the southern bank was 
 linked to the Cit^ by the Petit Pont, where an Octroi 
 had been established. The citizens, encouraged, per- 
 haps, to some extent by the rapid^development of Paris, 
 and by their admission into the new States General, took 
 up an independent attitude with regard to the heavy 
 taxation imposed upon them by Philip IV., and in 1306 
 the city rose against their sovereign, who withdrew from 
 his palace in the city (the official residence) and en- 
 trenched himself in the Temple, which was then outside 
 the walls. The rising was, however, futile and easily 
 crushed. 
 
 A far more formidable revolt of the Paris burghers 
 broke out during the disastrous period which followed 
 the battle of Poitiers. This municipal revolution of 
 Etienne Marcel, which was prompted by a desire to 
 obtain the civic independence of Paris, is one of the most 
 important events in the history of the capital. Etienne 
 Marcel, the Provost of the Merchants, was the one great 
 statesman of his age in Prance, though his efforts to 
 reduce the absolutism of the royal power ended in 
 failure. During the captivity of King John in England, 
 the Dauphin (afterward Charles V.) acted as regent, 
 and was alternately on the side of and opposed to Paris 
 and the States General, of which Marcel was the chief 
 representative. In order to defend Paris, which had 
 outgrown the wall of Philip Augustus, Marcel raised a 
 new line of fortifications around Paris north of the river, 
 for the former ramparts were thought sufficient in the 
 
MEDIJEVAL PARIS. 21 
 
 University quarter. The new wall included the Louvre, 
 the Temple, and the Bastile, and extended northward 
 as far as the Fortes St. Denis and St. Martin. At first 
 Marcel attempted to reconcile the regent with the popu- 
 lar party and the States General, and for a time suc- 
 ceeded. The provost became the actual head of the 
 government in Paris, and established the headquarters 
 of himself and his council in a palace in the Place de 
 Gr^ve, — afterward the H6tel de Ville. But Marcel 
 was not well supported by the States General, who were 
 jealous of him, nor did the new movement for civic re- 
 form command the sympathies of the other great towns. 
 Finally the breach between the regent and the city 
 increased, and the former withdrew with his party from 
 Paris. It was now open war between the citizens and 
 the regent, who straightway besieged the capital. The 
 provost soon after fell by treachery, and with the death 
 of their leader the cause of the city was irretrievably 
 lost. Three days later the regent entered Paris and 
 took grim vengeance on his enemies. " This attempt 
 to govern Prance from Paris, in many of its features 
 so like the modern revolutions of that city, failed be- 
 cause there was no civic strength in France, nor any 
 yeoman-class in country places, nor any great patriotic 
 churchmen to keep alive the belief in the nation's life, 
 nor any popular party among the nobles, nor any true 
 germ of parliamentary government. Experience had 
 shown at Ghent, when Jacquemart Van Arteveld per- 
 ished, that the burgher-nature was not broad enough or 
 strong enough to rule over a nation, or indeed to rule 
 itself; and if it failed there, far less hope for it in 
 Paris. " 
 
22 FABIS m ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The Regent - Dauphin, who became king in 1364, 
 though he promised to be one of the worst and most 
 tyrannical of the Valois kings, not only proved himself 
 to be possessed of considerable ability for governing and 
 apt in statesmanship, but actually left France with 
 enlarged boundaries and at peace. It seems that the 
 character of the king was a little enigmatic. He un- 
 doubtedly possessed great force of character, though as 
 Dauphin he showed little promise as a ruler of men or 
 as a statesman. " The truth was, he was a shrewd 
 lawyer, patient, unscrupulous, sagacious; and he knew 
 his times. He saw that the day of chivalry was past, 
 that the old forces of the world were wearing themselves 
 out ; he knew that by waiting he could outstay them. " 
 
 Charles embellished and improved his capital, and 
 the chief monuments which Paris owes to the king's 
 love of architecture and engineering were the H6tel 
 St. Paul, which was to replace the royal castle in the 
 Cit^ (to be shortly given up to the Parliament), and the 
 Bastile. He also enlarged the Louvre and completed 
 Etienne Marcel's line of fortifications. His love of 
 learning was manifested by the foundation of a royal 
 library, the germ of the Bibliothdque Nationale. 
 
 His son Charles VI., who proved a deplorably weak 
 sovereign in spite of his early promise, and who 
 earned the title of Beloved (le Men aime) probably more 
 from force of contrast with his much dreaded father 
 than from his personal merits, continued this repressive 
 policy as regards the Paris municipality. In this reign, 
 we first hear of an ofiicial called the Provost of Paris, 
 whose function was apparently to act as a counterpoise 
 to the Provost of the Merchants. 
 

 STATUE OF ETIENNE MARCEL. 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 23 
 
 The leading event of Charles the Sixth's reign was 
 the internecine warfare between the two hostile parties 
 headed by the Count of Armagnac, who had the sup- 
 port of the burgesses of Paris as well as the nobles, 
 and the Duke of Burgundy, respectively. Though the 
 Burgundians were at first supported by the mob, the 
 other side afterward became (through its opposition to 
 the English, who were then allied with the Burgundians) 
 the National party. In 1420 the marriage of Catherine, 
 daughter of Charles VI. (two years before his death) to 
 Henry V. of England, in accordance with the terms of 
 the famous Treaty of Troyes, brought the English king 
 as regent (Charles VI. being hopelessly insane) to 
 Paris, where he was at first welcomed by the citizens 
 and the Burgundians. The two years' rule of Henry 
 V. was firm and tempered with justice. The death of 
 Henry, followed a few weeks later by that of the un- 
 fortunate demented Charles VI., encouraged the party 
 of the Dauphin, but Paris continued to be ruled by the 
 Duke of Bedford as regent for the minor Henry VI. of 
 England, until his death in 1435. In 1431 the young 
 Henry VI. was crowned at Notre Dame at the age of 
 ten. 
 
 " The English rule was a mild one, but it was not 
 signalised by the execution of any of those works of 
 utility or ornament so characteristic of the Kings of 
 Prance. The choir of St. Severin, however, shows a 
 style of architecture peculiarly English, and Sauval 
 relates that the Duke of Bedford erected in the Louvre 
 a fine gallery decorated with paintings. Without as- 
 suming the mission of delivering Paris, Joan of Arc, 
 remaining with Charles VII. after his coronation at 
 
24 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Rheims, led him toward the capital, but the badly con- 
 ducted and abortive enterprise almost proved fatal to 
 the Maid of Orleans, who was severely wounded at the 
 assault of the gate of St. Honor6 on the 7th September, 
 1429."! 
 
 Jeanne had been badly supported by the royal troops, 
 and was taken prisoner by the Burgundians, who had 
 been left to garrison the city while the Duke of Bedford 
 was holding Rouen. The Burgundians basely handed 
 over the Maid of Domrdmy to the English at Rouen, 
 where she was condemned as a witch, and burnt alive 
 at the stake as a " relapsed heretic " in 1431. 
 
 " Betrayed by the French court," writes Dean Kitchin, 
 " sold by the Burgundians, murdered by the English, 
 unrescued by the people of France, which she so much 
 loved, Jeanne Dare died the martyr's death, a pious, 
 simple soul, a heroine of the purest metal. She saved 
 her country, for the English power never recovered from 
 the shock. The churchmen who burnt her, the French- 
 men of the unpatriotic past, would have been amazed 
 could they have foreseen that nearly 450 years after- 
 ward churchmen would again glorify her name as the 
 saint of the Church, in opposition to both the religious 
 liberties and the national feelings of her country." 
 
 The death of the Duke of Bedford was the final blow 
 to the English arms, and on November 12, 1446, Paris 
 tardily opened her gates to her rightful sovereign, Charles 
 VII. The king, however, spent little time in Paris, but 
 when residing in his capital he usually made the H6tel St. 
 Paul or the Tournelles Palace, which had been acquired 
 by his father, his headquarters. It will be remembered 
 1 Anthyme St. Paul. 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 25 
 
 that the ancient royal residence in the Cit6 had for some 
 time been made over to the Parliament. 
 
 Louis XI., who succeeded to the throne in 1461, 
 though one of the greatest sovereigns of Prance, and 
 one who has left an indelible mark on French history 
 as the founder of absolute monarchy, did not do much 
 to develop his capital, and, indeed, during the last years 
 of his reign, he never visited Paris, living in gloomy 
 seclusion in the Castle of Plessis-les-Tours. Though 
 not a man of learning, he showed some favour to the 
 university, and it was during his reign that the first 
 printing-press in France was set up in the Sorbonne. 
 
 The reign of Charles VIII. inaugurates a new phase 
 of history, in which France begins to play a part in 
 international politics. But the more striking character- 
 istic of the early part of the sixteenth century is the 
 extraordinary influence of Italy on France. Up to this 
 period France had been rather outside the influence of 
 the Renaissance, but the Italian expeditions of Charles 
 VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I. gave a great impetus 
 to the spread of the Renaissance doctrines. " France 
 set forth on a kind of voyage of discovery, and lighted 
 on the new world of Italy, a paradise ablaze with all the 
 glories of intellect and art, and warm with the sunny 
 pleasures of sense. The effect was electrical ; she awoke 
 to a strong desire for culture, which showed itself first 
 of all in the royal family and the court." 
 
 From Charles V. to Francis I., Paris, though it had 
 not enlarged its boundaries, had made considerable prog- 
 ress architecturally. During this period several new 
 bridges were built, among them the Pont Notre Dame, 
 and portions of the river banks were lined with quays. 
 
26 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Charles V. had even attempted some system of drainage, 
 and sewers were built in the quarter of Paris known as 
 La Ville, where the Menilmontant torrent was utilised 
 for this purpose. These public works were rendered 
 still more necessary by the frequent epidemics of plague 
 which broke out in Paris during the first half of the six- 
 teenth century, — " la peste fut,pour ainsi dire, en perma- 
 nence" observes a chronicler of the time. Under Francis 
 I. the works for the improvement and adornment of 
 the capital were vigorously continued. The College de 
 Trance, an appropriate institution for the " king of cul- 
 ture " to interest himself in, was founded, and the 
 Churches of St. Germain I'Auxerrois, St. Gervais, and 
 St. Mdry were restored. Among the numerous great 
 architectural plans which Francis was only able to be- 
 gin was the rebuilding of the Louvre and the building 
 of the HStel de Ville. 
 
 Francis did much to foster the great intellectual and 
 artistic movement which is popularly known as the 
 Renaissance. 
 
 The printing-press of Paris was encouraged by the 
 king, and under the management of the famous biblio- 
 philes, the brothers Bstrenne, many valuable books were 
 produced. Urged by the Sorbonne, whose influence was 
 very great in all ecclesiastical and educational affairs, 
 the king was compelled, however, to act contrary to his 
 convictions, and " muzzle " the printing trade with a 
 censorship. 
 
 But though the artistic and literary progress of the 
 capital, under the earlier " Renaissance kings," is very 
 marked, its municipal and civic development was 
 crushed and repressed. During all this period no meet- 
 
MEBIJEVAL PARIS. 27 
 
 ings of the States General were summoned, and the royal 
 councils which replaced them were composed of nobles 
 nominated by the king. Taxation was arbitrary and 
 excessive, and occasionally levied by force. Men's 
 thoughts were no more free than their pockets, and any 
 attempt at overt expression of opinion was sternly 
 repressed by the Church and by the lawyers. 
 
 The impulse given by the Renaissance to the phys- 
 iognomy of the capital is very marked, and the in- 
 fluence of this artistic revival is seen in the new 
 churches and palaces which sprung up in Paris during 
 the sixteenth century. The Medician domination can 
 be clearly traced in the architecture of the Louvre and 
 the Luxembourg, in particular. The transition is very 
 abrupt, for of course in Prance the Renaissance was an 
 exotic growth and was introduced at its full develop- 
 ment, whereas in Italy it was a gradual growth. 
 
 Francis I., like his predecessors, did not reside much 
 in his capital, preferring his chS,teaux at Chambord, 
 Pontainebleau, or St. Germain ; but when he was in 
 his capital he lived chiefly at the palace of the Tour- 
 nelles in the Place Royale (now Place des Vosges), 
 which since Charles VII. had replaced the HStel St. Paul 
 as the official Paris residence of the sovereigns. 
 
 Francis's son, Henry II., who succeeded in 1547, " had 
 all the faults of his father, with a weaker mind." His 
 reign was short, and was put an end to through an 
 accident at a tournament. This entertainment took 
 place at the H6tel des Tournelles, and was given in 
 honour of the marriage of Elizabeth of France with 
 Philip II. of Spain. The king, who wore the colours of 
 his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, was tilting with Comte 
 
28 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 de Montgomery, the captain of the royal body-guard, 
 when his opponent's lance broke and a splinter lodged in 
 the king's eye, the wound proving mortal. After this 
 catastrophe the ill-omened palace was abandoned as a 
 royal residence, and was a few years later razed to the 
 ground by Charles IX. The unfinished Louvre became 
 afterward the royal palace, the Queen-mother Catherine 
 laying the foundation of the Tuileries, then outside the 
 walls, as a lodging for herself. 
 
 With the reign of Charles IX. began the long period 
 of civil strife and court factions, in which the odium 
 theologicum infused into the intrigues and disputes 
 between the court party and the Huguenots culminated 
 in the awful massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. 
 After the death of Charles IX., in 1574, Paris took an 
 active part in the civil war which the massacre of the 
 Huguenots had precipitated, and sided with the Duke 
 of Guise (who was fondly called the King of Paris by 
 the burghers) and the Catholic League. The ruling 
 spirits of the League were indeed known as the Sixteen 
 of Paris, one representative being chosen for each of 
 the sixteen districts into which Paris was then divided. 
 In 1588, Henry III., who throughout his short reign was 
 never more than king de jure, found himself compelled 
 to come to terms with the League, but soon after with- 
 drew to Chartres. Immediately after his escape he 
 broke with the League, had the Duke of Guise assassi- 
 nated, and marched on Paris, where he was himself 
 assassinated by a fanatical priest. " The king had 
 only time to commend Henry of Navarre to his courtiers 
 as his heir, and to exhort him to become a Catholic, 
 before he closed his eyes, and ended the long roll of his 
 
MEDIEVAL PARIS. 29 
 
 vices and his crimes. And thus in crime and shame the 
 house of Valois went down." 
 
 It will be convenient at this juncture to consider the 
 general aspect of Paris under the last Valois kings. 
 Its population in the time of Henry III. was between 
 half and three-quarters of a million. The principal 
 trading streets were the Rues St. Denis, St. Honor^, St. 
 Martin, and the Pont au Change and the Pont Notre 
 Dame. The former, like the Ponte Vecchio at Florence 
 at the present day, was mainly confined to goldsmiths' 
 shops, and here was collected an amount of rich treasure 
 in the shape of gold and silver ware, jewelry, etc., 
 which was not to be equalled in any other European 
 capital at that time. 
 
 The royal representative was the Pr^vQt de Paris, 
 who presided at the Grand Chatelet, facing the Pont au 
 Change, whose portal was still called the Gate of Paris 
 in spite of the expansion of the city, just as in the days 
 when justice was administered and taxes collected by 
 Roman provosts in the name of Csesar. 
 
 This great functionary, the " ears and eyes " of the 
 sovereign, was naturally in chronic conflict with the 
 representative of the civic power at the HStel de Ville, 
 the Provost of the Merchants, who was virtually the 
 Mayor of Paris. 
 
 The antagonism between the royal and civic magis- 
 trates has been perpetuated for centuries in Paris. 
 Indeed, the present rivalry between the representative 
 of the central power, the Prefect of the Seine, and 
 the municipal council — for the mayoralty of Paris is 
 virtually in commission (see chapter on Municipal 
 Paris) — seems a survival of the historic and tra- 
 
30 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ditionary antagonism between the sovereign and the 
 city. 
 
 The various religious foundations had also extensive 
 temporal jurisdictions under the Valois kings. They 
 had their prisons, judges, and courts of justice. The 
 most powerful and influential of all these ecclesiastical 
 foundations was that of Ste. Genevieve. Her ecclesi- 
 astical court was independent, not only of the Bishop of 
 Paris, but of the Primate. Even the Pope, whenever he 
 visited Paris, repaired to the shrine of Ste. Genevieve, 
 and swore to respect the privileges of her community. 
 
 The severe laws which regulated the consumption of 
 food during Lent and on Fridays and other fasts 
 were no doubt due to the influence of the Church. 
 Under Francis I. women were burnt alive for indulging 
 in meat on Fridays ! 
 
 Up till the sixteenth century the duty of succouring 
 the poor was performed by the Church and the nobles, 
 but under Francis I. a new system of state aid was 
 inaugurated. In 1544 the municipality of Paris started 
 a Bureau des Pauvres. This seems to have been the 
 germ of the modern poor laws, so that Francis I., and 
 not our Queen Elizabeth, should perhaps have the credit 
 of the initiation of state relief for the poor. Under the 
 regulation of the new bureau a commission of burghers 
 and ecclesiastics was appointed to collect alms, and to 
 act as relieving officers in the sixteen quartiers into 
 which Paris was divided for administrative purposes. 
 
 "With equal zeal," says the author of a history of 
 Paris published in 1725, " did the bureau attack their 
 supplementary task, the repression of mendicancy. 
 They rigidly struck off their lists unworthy claimants 
 
MEDIEVAL FABIS. 31 
 
 for aid, including those who neglected to wear on the 
 right shoulder the red and yellow cross that was the 
 pauper's badge. Strolling and penniless waifs were 
 returned to their own provinces, ' for Paris cannot sup- 
 port the poor of the whole kingdom.' Able-bodied, but 
 incorrigible, beggars were imprisoned at night, and by 
 day were chained together in couples and taken out to 
 work as scavengers." 
 
 Great changes in the social life of the Parisians had 
 taken place by the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 Little more than a score of years had converted Paris 
 from a town of wood and plaster houses into a substan- 
 tial stone-built city. The hStels of the richer bourgeois 
 were sometimes four and six stories in height, while the 
 windows were often glazed. The streets were lighted by 
 candles suspended from every first floor window. 
 
 Even in the houses of the rich tradesmen silver cups 
 and plates were in common use, while in the houses of 
 the nobles the buffet was loaded with gold and silver 
 utensils, and Turkey carpets in the principal salons re- 
 placed the straw and matting of mediaeval times. 
 
 But though Paris interiors were comparatively clean, 
 the streets were indescribably filthy. The sanitary con- 
 dition of Paris was, even at the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century, absolutely terrifying. Plagues and other 
 epidemics raged almost continuously. In spite of the 
 Sgouts (sewers), filth and mud lined the streets, and 
 were piled up in heaps against the gates of the 
 churches, and the bodies of criminals suspended from 
 the gateways and gibbets tainted the air. According 
 to the Paris chronicler, Felibien, the clergy would 
 refuse to bury the poor till satisfied that the interests 
 
32 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 of the Church had been remembered by the deceased 
 in his last testament. 
 
 In the heart of the town, near the Halles, was the 
 Cemetery of the Innocents, the mediaeval Pdre la Chaise. 
 " Here," says Corrozet, " la terre on dit estre si pourris- 
 sante qySwn corps humain y est consommS en neuf jours." 
 The burial-ground served as a kind of Alsatia for crimi- 
 nals and desperate characters. " The medical faculty 
 urged the need of closing a burial-ground which was at 
 once a scandal to decency and a danger to the public 
 health, but in vain. A prolongation of its existence 
 was ensured by a method of which the loathsomeness 
 could only be palliated on the score that it provided the 
 Parisians with tr^s belles et bonnes glaces d representer 
 la grandeur et Vimpertinence de nostre vanitS humaine. 
 The limited area of the cemetery was economised by the 
 erection of eighty arcades. Some of these were the gift 
 of munificent citizens, like Nicolas Flamel, and were 
 decorated in fresco with the legend of les trots morts et 
 les trois vifs, or other subjects of a kindred nature. 
 Sheltered by these cloisters, milliners exhibited their 
 wares, promenaders strolled, and women dictated love 
 letters to public scriveners, whilst around them labour- 
 ers pursued their task of interring and disinterring the 
 dead. Overhead, supported by the arches, rose, tier 
 upon tier, the galetas or open lofts. Thither the older 
 tenants of the tombs were removed in various stages of 
 decay in order to make room for newcomers." ^ 
 
 IE. Blanche Hamilton. Nineteenth Century, 1886. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 MONARCHICAL PARIS. 
 
 To find a common ancestor to Henry III. and his suc- 
 cessor, Henry, King of Navarre, the first of the Bourbon 
 dynasty, we have actually to go back some three hun- 
 dred and fifty years, to Louis IX. A younger son of 
 this canonised sovereign had married the heiress to the 
 lordship of Bourbon. " The whole pedigree," as Dean 
 Kitchin expresses it so picturesquely and vividly, "is 
 like an ancient oak which dies away bough after bough, 
 until the whole stands stark and bare against the sky 
 of time." 
 
 Though historians reckon the reign of Henry IV. 
 from the death of Henry III., the new king did not 
 actually gain possession of his capital till 1594, and, 
 indeed, modern historians are inclined to give the year 
 1598, when the long struggle with Spain ended, as the 
 commencement of the Bourbon period. If we accept 
 this latter date, it will be seen that the age of the Bour- 
 bons covers exactly two centuries. " The year 1598 
 closes the mediaeval history of France ; henceforth she 
 takes her part in modern history. The power of the 
 feudal noblesse has passed away ; the earlier rivalries 
 between France and Austria take a new character ; the 
 centralised absolutist monarchy begins. We are coming 
 to the days of the great ministers, — first Sully, then 
 
 33 
 
34 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 Richelieu, lastly Colbert, under whose rule France 
 becomes great, almost in spite of her kings." 
 
 On the death of Henry III., Paris and the Catholic 
 League, headed by the Duke of Mayenne, supported 
 the shadowy claim of the roi phantSme, Cardinal Bour- 
 bon, at that time actually a prisoner in the hands of 
 Henry IV. 
 
 The siege of Paris in 1590 was the most severe the 
 capital had ever suffered. Henry kept up a severe 
 blockade during all these weary summer months, and 
 Paris was at its last gasp, when an army sent in haste 
 by the King of Spain compelled the king to raise the 
 siege. It is said that over thirty thousand of the inhabi- 
 tants perished of hunger during the blockade. The misery 
 was extreme, so scarce was food of all kinds. Indeed, 
 I'Bstoile in his " M^moires " observed, with a touch of 
 grim humour, that the only cheap things in Paris were 
 sermons, for the priests of the League never ceased preach- 
 ing ! The starving population were reduced to such 
 straits that they actually resorted to the charnel-houses 
 and ossuaries of the Cemetery of the Innocents, and 
 attempted to make a kind of paste of the bones of their 
 ancestors, which they ground to powder ; but 
 
 " Ce detestable mets avance leur tr^pas, 
 Et ce repas pour eiix f ut le dernier repas." 
 
 Even these horrors of famine did not check the irrepres- 
 sible light-heartedness and frivolity of the Parisians, 
 who promptly nicknamed this horrible food, " Le pain de 
 Madame de Montpensier." 
 
 In 1593 the most momentous act of Henry's reign, 
 the abjuration of his Protestant faith, was mooted by the 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 35 
 
 king's advisers as the quickest means of gaining Paris 
 and, by that means, France. It has been cynically said 
 that a five hours' sermon from the Archbishop of Bourges 
 did more to bring about the conversion of the king than 
 all the arguments of his councillors and persuasions of 
 his court ! After this the king could hold out no longer ; 
 he declared himself convinced, and attended mass at St. 
 Denis in state. 
 
 No doubt the conversion was obviously insincere, and 
 prompted solely by motives of state, but the abjuration 
 ■was all the same a wise and successful policy. The 
 credit of the historical epigram attributed to Henry IV. 
 (^Paris vaut Men une messe), though it probably expressed 
 the opinion of the royal pervert, should be given to his 
 minister, De Rosny (afterward Due de Sully), who was 
 certainly a statesman first, and a churchman afterward. 
 Probably Henry was more indifferent than actually 
 skeptical in religious questions, and a broad spirit of 
 toleration is at the bottom of another saying attributed 
 to him, " that a man may be saved in either religion." 
 
 That statecraft, at all events, justified this change of 
 faith, is shown by the immediate results. City after 
 city opened their gates J;o the Catholic sovereign, and, a 
 month after the coronation at Chartres, Paris received 
 her king with the greatest enthusiasm, and, indeed, the 
 capital has always remained faithful to his memory. 
 Like our Henry VIII., the genial King of Navarre has 
 always been the favourite hero of the Parisians. 
 
 Under Henry IV. the rebuilding and embellishment 
 of the Louvre — the great hobby of so many French 
 sovereigns — was energetically prosecuted, and the 
 famous Galerie d'ApoUon was added to this immense 
 
36 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 palace. This monarch was, however, the last to use the 
 Louvre as a regular residence. To be accurate, it was 
 not so much the Louvre (which was practically finished) 
 with which Henry IV. occupied himself, but the gallery 
 connecting the Louvre and Catherine de Medici's un- 
 finished palace, the Tuileries, which was then just 
 outside the walls. It is supposed that the king built 
 this long gallery to enable him to escape, in the event of 
 the Louvre being attacked. He was not, however, 
 destined to test the efficacy of this means of retreat, as 
 he fell by the assassin's knife in 1610. 
 
 But the building by which Henry IV. will chiefly be 
 remembered is the famous Pont Neuf, now the oldest 
 bridge in Paris. The Pont Neuf is one of the best 
 known and most characteristic monuments of Paris, and, 
 at the time, it was thought one of the greatest engineer- 
 ing enterprises of the day. Though begun in 1578, it 
 was not completed till 1604. " Of late years, the noble 
 and beautiful proportions of the bridge have been con- 
 siderably injured by the lowering of the platform, and 
 new arches being constructed at a lower level than the 
 old ones. Still the bridge, with its twelve round-headed 
 arches and massive cornices, is most picturesque, and, 
 with the varied outline of the tall houses and the gray 
 cathedral behind it, and the feathery green of its island 
 trees glittering against the purple shadows in the more 
 distant windings of the river, it still forms the most 
 beautiful scene in the capital." ^ 
 
 Few thoroughfares in Paris were formerly more 
 frequented than this historic bridge. In fact, as an 
 artery of traffic, it corresponds to Charing Cross, Lon- 
 1 A. J. C. Haxe. 
 
MONARCmCAL PABIS. 37 
 
 don, and it used to be a saying with the Paris police 
 that if a man who was wanted was not seen after three 
 days' watching of the bridge, he must have left Paris. 
 
 Though it is these two great works which especially 
 justify the claim of the first of the Bourbons to be con- 
 sidered one of the makers of Paris, yet the most note- 
 worthy feature in the architectural development of the 
 capital during the sixteenth century was the number 
 of large mansions built by the great nobles and rich 
 burghers on the left bank of the river, while on the right 
 side (La Ville) the growth of commerce gave considerable 
 impetus to building, and the extra-mural suburbs (which 
 had sprung up outside the ramparts of Etienne Marcel) 
 were consequently enclosed within a new bastioned 
 enceinte. 
 
 It was on his way to visit his minister, Sully, at the 
 Arsenal, that the greatest king of the Bourbon dynasty 
 fell a victim to Ravaillac's dagger. 
 
 The commercial and economical results of his reign 
 are thus summed up by Voltaire : " Justice is reformed, 
 and — far harder task ! — the two religions live in peace 
 to all appearance. Agriculture is encouraged ; as Sully 
 said, ' Plough and cow, these are the breasts of France, 
 whereat she sucks ; they are the true mines and treasures 
 of Peru.' Commerce and the arts, which Sully cared 
 for less, were still honoured ; gold and silver stuffs en- 
 riched Lyons and Prance. Henry established manufac- 
 tures of tapestry ; French glass after the Venetian style 
 began to be made. To him alone France owes the silk- 
 worm and the mulberry, in spite of Sully. It was Henry 
 who dug the canal which joins the Seine and the Loire. 
 Under him Paris grew and grew fair ; he built the Place 
 
38 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Eoyale, he rebuilt the old bridges. Before his day the 
 St. Germain suburb was not connected with the town, 
 nor improved; he saw to that. He built that fine 
 bridge on which every Frenchman, as he passes, still 
 looks with emotion on his statue. St. Germain, Mon- 
 ceaux, Fontainebleau, above all the Louvre, were en- 
 larged, almost rebuilt by him. He established in his 
 long gallery in the Louvre artists of all kinds, and 
 encouraged them frequently with his presence as well 
 as his presents." 
 
 Louis XIII., who at the time of his father's death was 
 a child of nine, signalised his majority at the age of 
 thirteen by summoning the States General to meet at 
 Paris, — not to be convoked again till the eve of the 
 Revolution. This body was the nearest approach to 
 the English Parliament that France possessed. But the 
 word in France has always signified a law court, though 
 the Parliament of Paris — for there were provincial 
 parliaments — claimed a semblance of constitutional 
 power as the registrar of the royal edicts. Nothing 
 of national importance was effected by the States Gen- 
 eral, and after a short and disturbed session it was 
 dissolved, not to meet again till 1789. 
 
 Louis XIII. continued the construction of the Tuile- 
 ries, but none of the Bourbon sovereigns after Henry 
 IV. lived much in the capital. Other important archi- 
 tectural embellishments of the capital during the reign 
 of Louis XIII. were the Palais Royal (built by Riche- 
 lieu for his Paris hfitel), the churches Val de Gr§,ce, 
 St. Btienne du Mont, St. Eustache (completed), and St. 
 Paul et St. Louis. Then the magnificent Salle des Pas 
 Perdus was added to the Palais de Justice, and many 
 
MONABCBICAL PARIS. 39 
 
 fine streets and hotels were built on the Island of St. 
 Louis, hitherto occupied by gardens and meadows. 
 
 Owing to the expansion of Paris, which had long out- 
 grown Marcel's ramparts, the fortifications were ex- 
 tended and enlarged so as to enclose the Tuileries, and, 
 crossing the place now known as the Place de la Con- 
 corde to the Madeleine, followed the line of the actual 
 boulevards to the Bastile. The walls were fortified 
 with a regular system of curtains and bastions, and sur- 
 rounded by a moat, which was partially filled with water. 
 South of the river a new line of boulevards was built, 
 by which the quarters of the Luxembourg, St. Germain 
 des Pr^s, and the Invalides were now included in the 
 Paris boundaries, but it was not till the next reign that 
 these promenades were completed and lined with avenues 
 of trees. In 1702, the capital was divided into twenty 
 quartiers, later called arrondissements. 
 
 Though the king slighted Paris, and resided there as 
 little as possible, his absenteeism was fortunately not 
 followed by the nobility. Numerous magnificent town 
 houses (hStels) were built at this epoch, many of which 
 still remain to give the foreigner an idea of the progress 
 in the architectural development which Paris had made 
 under the Q-rand Monarque. The most noted of these 
 mansions were the H6tel de Richelieu, H8tel de 
 Bouillon, H8tel Mazarin (now BibliothSque Nationale), 
 HQtel de Rambouillet (famed for its salon), and the 
 H6tel Lambert. 
 
 Three important institutions were founded in this 
 reign, the Academic Fran§aise, the Jardin des Plantes, 
 and the Royal Printing Press. 
 
 The increasing importance of Paris as an ecclesiastical 
 
40 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUn. 
 
 centre is shown by the see being raised to an arch- 
 bishropic. It was formed under the jurisdiction of the 
 Archbishop of Sens. 
 
 The young King Louis XIV. was for the first few 
 years of his reign under the strict tutelage of the queen 
 mother (Anne of Austria) and Mazarin, and continued 
 to be more or less subservient to these joint rulers of 
 Prance for some years after his being formally pro- 
 claimed king in 1652 ; but it was not till the year follow- 
 ing that he took the reins of government into his own 
 hand. This was at the time of the curious civil war 
 known as the Fronde, which, entered upon with more 
 or less definite aims against the absolutism of the 
 throne, degenerated into an intricate series of faction 
 fights, in which the court party, the reactionist nobles, 
 with the burghers of Paris, took part. This burlesque 
 revolt, in which Cardinal de Eetz and the Due de Cond^ 
 were the chief leaders against the throne, — a sort of 
 revolution pour rire, — ended in the triumph of the 
 royal party, headed by Mazarin. The Paris Parliament 
 took an active part in the popular movement, which 
 indeed at first had its home in Paris alone. 
 
 Certainly the capital did not lack grievances against 
 Mazarin and his ministers. Mazarin's fiscal policy was 
 at all events simple and definite. It consisted in raising 
 the taxes all around, and when this did not produce a 
 Sufficient revenue, he invented new taxes. Thus, in 1648, 
 he levied a duty on all house-occupiers in Paris, and 
 even went so far as to tax the necessaries of life, a form 
 of taxation which has always excited the most strenuous 
 resistance in every country in Europe. 
 
 The Parliament, on behalf of the citizens, denied the 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 41 
 
 right of the king to levy such a tax. So universal was 
 the hatred of the new impost that half a hundred thou- 
 sand men, out of a population of not more than half a 
 million, flew to arms and raised barricades. 
 
 The coadjutor of the Archbishop of Paris (better known 
 by his title of Cardinal de Retz, to which dignity he was 
 subsequently raised) made common cause with the city, 
 and became the principal leader of the new movement. 
 
 The Parliament of Paris was not fitted for the part it 
 had to play, and lost the excellent opportunity this out- 
 break afforded it of obtaining some form of parliamen- 
 tary government for Paris, and, indeed, for France, 
 instead of the absolute monarchism to which the nation 
 was for a century and a half yet to be subjected. By 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century the Parliament 
 had passed almost completely under the rule of the 
 lawyers, the clergy having been prohibited from sit- 
 ting from the time of Philip V. It was, moreover, 
 now quite distinct from the king's Great Council. 
 Consequently, its influence and importance had greatly 
 declined. 
 
 It was, however, Louis XII., the Father of his Coun- 
 try, who unintentionally limited the efiiciency of the 
 Paris Parliament by insisting on its members being 
 learned. This necessarily excluded the nobles, who, 
 as a class, despised letters. From that time the Parlia- 
 ment became merely an assembly of lawyers, and the 
 registration of the royal decrees became its only non- 
 legal function. In short, as is well expressed by Dean 
 Kitchin, " It was a body dried up by narrow prejudices ; 
 it raised its voice in condemnation of every salutary 
 novelty; it loved all vested interests; in behalf of the 
 
42 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 scribes it objected vehemently to the introduction of 
 the printing-press in the fifteenth century ; it resisted 
 the establishment of the French Academy ; it pronounced 
 in favour of Aristotle against modern chemistry." 
 
 This body, hidebound in tradition, and instinctively 
 conservative, was scarcely fitted to pose as the champion 
 of French liberties, and it is not surprising that the con- 
 trol of this rebellion fell gradually into the hands of the 
 burghers of Paris, and the brilliant throng of nobles and 
 dames, who had taken up the popular cause more as a 
 distraction than a real desire for constitutional liberty. 
 Consequently, the war degenerated into a mere partisan 
 struggle against the court party. 
 
 Eventually the citizens of Paris made overtures to the 
 queen mother, and a treaty was signed in 1649, which 
 brought the first phase of the struggle to an end. 
 
 Soon after war broke out again, but its character 
 was changed. The new Fronde was little more than a 
 quarrel between Cond^ and Mazarin, of the noblesse and 
 court parties respectively, in which the Parliament and 
 Paris took little part at first. 
 
 The various intrigues and intricate schemings of this 
 second struggle between the Frondeurs and the court 
 are difiicult to follow, but, fortunately, they are not of 
 great historical significance. 
 
 There was now a change in the attitude of Paris. The 
 magistrates and leading citizens were disposed to resist 
 Cond6, who was being driven back on Paris by Turenne 
 and the royal troops. But as the mob was on his side, 
 the " party of order" had to give way. A terrible mas- 
 sacre of the latter now took place, the H6tel de Ville 
 being invaded by the populace, shouting " Mort aux 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 43 
 
 Mazarins!" in which some fifty of the magistrates 
 and leading burghers lost their lives. 
 
 The magistracy soon, however, got the upper hand, 
 aided by De Eetz, and came to terms with the royalists, 
 and in October, 1653, the king returned to his capital. 
 
 On one or two occasions, during the extraordinarily 
 long reign of the Great Monarch, the Parliament appears 
 to have been roused to a sense of its uselessness. For 
 instance, during the terrible famine of 1709, the Parlia- 
 ment offered to assist in an inquiry as to the hoarding 
 of corn, but received an intimation from the king that 
 its proper business was hearing lawsuits. 
 
 For the greater part of this " burlesque war," as 
 Michelet calls it, in which more epigrams than balls 
 were fired off, the young king and the queen mother 
 lived chiefly at St. Germain. 
 
 But throughout the reign of Louis XIV. Paris was 
 seldom the residence of the court, the king preferring 
 St. Germain, Versailles, or Fontainebleau. 
 
 The colossal pile at Versailles, which was the chief 
 architectural hobby of Louis, as the Louvre was of his 
 immediate predecessors, was begun in 1661, the palace 
 at St. Germain being insufficient for the Grrand Mo- 
 narque's immense entourage. The site was notoriously 
 ill chosen for a royal palace, though perhaps it hardly 
 deserves the contemptuous epithets of Saint-Simon in 
 his famous diatribe against this chateau. 
 
 Versailles, indeed, became the one absorbing enterprise 
 of Louis, and most of the architectural plans for the 
 embellishment of his capital (including the Great 
 Gallery of the Louvre) were postponed or discontinued 
 altogether, in order that the attention of his architects 
 
44 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 and artists might be concentrated on the building and 
 embellishing of the largest palace in the world. Cer- 
 tainly the celerity with which this palace was con- 
 structed compares curiously with the building of the 
 Louvre. The cost from first to last was fabulous, and 
 though authorities differ widely in their estimates of the 
 expenditure, the most moderate is no less than nine 
 million pounds.^ Considering that an army of some 
 thirty-six thousand workmen and decorators were em- 
 ployed, the estimate does not seem excessive. There is 
 some colour for popular tradition that Louis had the 
 accounts destroyed for very shame ! 
 
 Colbert, who, on the death of Mazarin in 1661, had 
 become the chief adviser of Louis, — with Colbert, M. 
 Clement aptly remarks, the spirit of the great cardinal 
 (Richelieu) came back to power, — ventured a remon- 
 strance on the prodigal expenditure on the king's 
 favourite palace. " I entreat your Majesty to allow me 
 to say two words as to the reflections I often make on 
 this subject, and to be pleased to forgive my zeal. That 
 building is far more a question of your Majesty's amuse- 
 ment than of your Majesty's credit. . . . Yet if your 
 Majesty seeks where the five hundred thousand crowns 
 are gone, which have been spent there the last two years, 
 your Majesty will have great difficulty in finding them. 
 Whilst your Majesty has spent such great sums on this 
 building, the Louvre has been neglected. ..." 
 
 " Ah, what a pity that the greatest and most virtu- 
 ous king, of that true virtue which is the stuff of the 
 
 1 For purposes of comparison it may be noted that the building and 
 rebuilding of Eaton Hall, one of the largest nobleman's seats in 
 Gieat Britain, cost, in one century, two million pounds. 
 
NAVE OF CHURCH OF THE MADELEINE. 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 45 
 
 greatest princes, should be measured by the yards 
 of Versailles ! " 
 
 The social and economical condition of Paris at the 
 close of Louis the Fourteenth's reign was deplorable. 
 The general wretchedness of the mass of the popu- 
 lace, intensified by contrast with the external glories of 
 the capital, was mainly owing to the enormous taxation 
 to meet the prodigal expenditure of the court, and was 
 perhaps even greater than under Henry III. The bur- 
 den of taxation on the poor was indeed more oppressive, 
 owing to the enormous number of nobles and other privi- 
 leged persons exempt from taxation, — here, indeed, is 
 foreshadowed one of the primary causes of the national 
 discontent which ultimated in the Revolution. 
 
 A terrible famine decimated the city in 1654. At 
 this time the citizens were reduced to such straits for 
 food that even the animals in the Royal Menagerie at 
 the Jardin des Plantes were put on half rations, a 
 chronicler of the court is careful to observe ! 
 
 Louis XIIL had taken all political power from the 
 noblesse, and a withdrawal, also, of their most valued 
 privilege, exemption from taxation, would perhaps mean 
 organised opposition of the nobles, with whom even the 
 court might make common cause. Consequently, Paris, 
 outwardly brilliant and splendid with its magnificent 
 public monuments and palaces, was in reality but a 
 whited sepulchre. " The tax-gatherer and the privileged 
 consumers steadily ate out the vitals of France ; as one 
 has seen in insects, the wings and brilliant exterior 
 remained after the body was gone." 
 
 The Grand Si^cle is the age of great wars of con- 
 quest, and the munificent history of Paris is naturally 
 
46 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 in an age when the magistracies were intimidated, and 
 all civic life and individuality systematically repressed 
 under the despotic centralisation which was the ruling 
 principle of the state. 
 
 But though civic institutions stagnated, and the poorer 
 classes were in a most destitute condition, the commer- 
 cial and industrial development of the city was steadily 
 fostered by Colbert, who, for nearly twenty years, was 
 virtually the first minister of Louis. To Colbert, indeed, 
 is due the credit popularly given to Louis of being one 
 of the makers of Paris. 
 
 Among the monumental buildings which this reign 
 added to Paris are the H6tel des Invalides, the Observa- 
 tory, the famous Colonnade of the Louvre, Pont Royal, 
 the Place des Victoires, the Place du Carrousel, etc. 
 
 The remains of the old fortifications on the northern 
 side of the Seine were levelled, and on their site were 
 built the fine promenades from the Madeleine to the 
 Bastile, known as the Grand Boulevards, decorated with 
 triumphal arches at intervals, of which two remain, the 
 Porte St. Denis, and the Porte St. Martin. 
 
 It cannot be said that Colbert loved art and architec- 
 ture for its own sake. Like Richelieu, he encouraged 
 the liberal arts as a means of raising the prestige of 
 Prance. He built palaces and founded public institu- 
 tions in the interests of national industry. The Gobelins 
 and the Savonnerie were established in order that they 
 might be a unique source of advantage to the people. 
 
 " Glass workers were brought from Venice, and lace 
 makers from Flanders, that they might yield to Prance 
 the secrets of their skill. Palaces and public buildings 
 were to afford commissions for French artists, and a 
 
MONABCHICAL PA BIS. 47 
 
 means of technical and artistic education for all those 
 employed on them. The royal collections were but a 
 further instrument in educating the taste and increas- 
 ing the knowledge of the working classes. The costly 
 factories of the Savonnerie and the Gobelins were 
 practical schools, in which every detail of every branch 
 of all those industries which contribute to the furnish- 
 ing and decoration of houses was brought to perfection, 
 whilst a band of chosen apprentices was trained in the 
 adjoining schools." ^ 
 
 The Gobelins, whose name now suggests a state 
 manufactory of tapestry, was under Colbert a far more 
 important and comprehensive establishment. Its official 
 title — Manufacture des Meubles de la Couronne — suf- 
 ficiently indicates its scope during its most flourishing 
 period. " Here were manufactured the splendid services 
 of plate, of costly inlaid cabinets, of carven frames, and 
 of gilded couches. Here also were produced the storied 
 hangings, with which the name of the old h3tel is identi- 
 fied ; but the looms were never more merrily active than 
 when the sculptor's mallet and the hammer of the smith 
 were resounding under the same roof ; when the weaver 
 wove his costly web to the tune of the lapidary's file, whilst 
 the saw and chisel made constant chorus in his ears." 
 
 The death of Colbert, in 1683, was a crushing blow to 
 the industrial and commercial development of Paris, and 
 so was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, regarded 
 merely from an economical point of view. The Hugue- 
 nots comprised the flower of the trading and industrial 
 classes, and, by their expulsion. Prance lost nearly a 
 quarter of a million of its best citizens, out of a total 
 I Lady Dilke. " Art in the Modern State." 
 
48 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 population of not more than fourteen millions. Prob- 
 ably Colbert, had he lived, would have prevented this 
 measure. He, at all events, would have foreseen the 
 indirect result of so short-sighted and suicidal a policy, 
 which, in its way, did as much harm to the French 
 nation as the expulsion of the Moors from Spain by 
 Ferdinand. 
 
 Paris had become a great literary and intellectual 
 centre by the end of the seventeenth century. The 
 Golden Age of Literature does not, however, quite syn- 
 chronise with the Grand Sidcle of Louis XIV. In fact, 
 the great gulf between the two periods of the literary 
 activity in the seventeenth century lies between the age 
 of Richelieu and the period between the death of Mazarin 
 and the end of the century. The true Golden Age of 
 the seventeenth century is that of Richelieu. During 
 the second period, literature lacked fire and originality 
 and became cold and classical ; in short, it might almost 
 be said that matter gave way to manner. 
 
 It was, however, the most splendid period of the 
 French drama. " Prance has always been proud of 
 her stage, little as we may admire its pedantic limita- 
 tions, its unnatural heroics, and the frigidity of some of 
 its finest e£forts ; we feel that we are among those who 
 have thought Addison's ' Cato ' far superior to Shake- 
 speare. Still, in its own style, French tragedy produced 
 masterpieces. The great Corneille wrote the ' Cid ' in 
 1636, ' les Horaces ' and ' Cinna ' in 1639. MoliSre be- 
 longed to both ages ; his ' Pr^cieuses Ridicules ' appeared 
 in 1659, ' I'Ecole des Maris ' in 1661, while the ' M^decin 
 Malgr^ Lui' (1666) and 'Tartuffe' (1667) belong to 
 Louis XIY. Racine's earlier period and the best part of 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 49 
 
 him extends to 1677 ; after that he fell under royal influ- 
 ence, wrote nothing for some years, and afterward be- 
 came the quasi-religious poet of the court." ^ 
 
 Indeed the capital seems to have undergone at this 
 epoch a kind of aftermath of the Renaissance. Among 
 the great writers to whom Paris can boast of having 
 given birth are Molidre, Boileau, Scarron, Saint-Simon, 
 and RoUin, the historian. 
 
 In painting and architecture, few great names can be 
 reckoned, and when we mention Le Brun, Lafosse, Noel, 
 Mansard (whence Mansard roof), Claude Perrault, and 
 the famous landscape gardener, Le NStre, we have prac- 
 tically exhausted the list. 
 
 The population of Paris toward the end of the seven- 
 teenth century was about half a million, and a sort of 
 unofficial census, taken about that time, gave over twenty- 
 five thousand houses and some five hundred streets which 
 were classified as grandes rues. A foreign traveller, who 
 published his impressions of Paris during the Grand 
 Si^cle, gave a naive and amusing picture of the wealth 
 and luxury of the greatest Continental capital at that 
 time. " All Paris," he wrote, " is but one vast hStellerie ; 
 from early morning to night the kitchen fires are burning. 
 Inns and cabarets and cook-shops are seen on every side. 
 So great is the luxury that, were it necessary to destroy 
 Paris, its resources and supplies would feed and enrich 
 three hundred ordinary towns." The writer waxes in- 
 dignant at the enormous number of shops where only 
 luxuries are sold, by which we gather that even at that 
 period there was a large trafiic in what are loosely but 
 conveniently classed as articles de Paris. The curious 
 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
50 PARIS IN ITS SPLENBOUB. 
 
 on such matters will find in the pages of the chronicler 
 Sauval very elaborate statistics showing the commercial 
 importance and extent of trade in the capital, and, 
 though the figures may seem rather dry reading to some, 
 yet these statistics convey a good idea of the wealth and 
 commercial standing of Paris at the end of the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 " In the six corporations of merchants were 2,752 
 masters, and about 5,000 employes. In the 1,551 com- 
 panies of artisans were 17,080 masters, 38,000 work- 
 men, and 6,000 apprentices. Street porters and wood 
 and water carriers numbered 4,100. There were 4,000 
 hackney-coaches, and as many horses, and there were 
 482,400 men capable of bearing arms." Here it is to 
 be feared that our statistical chronicler has " nodded," 
 for most historians agree in fixing the total population 
 of Paris, at that time, at about half a million, so it is 
 obvious that it could not produce so large a fighting 
 force. He goes on to describe the total amount of food 
 consumed in a year by this great city, — 500 hogsheads of 
 salt, 800 casks of mackerel, the same amount of salmon 
 and of cod, 20,000 barrels of herrings, 19,000 hogsheads 
 of charcoal, 27,000 pigs, 50,000 oxen, 70,000 calves, 
 416,000 sheep, 80,200 hogsheads of barley ; while, for 
 the cattle and horses in the city, 16,000 hogsheads of 
 oats and six million trusses of hay would be required. 
 
 Caf^s were introduced in this reign, the famous Caf^ 
 Procope (described elsewhere) being the first of these 
 establishments, whose popularity was so decided from the 
 first that in a few years, it is said, there were more than 
 six hundred in Paris. Restaurants, however, did not 
 come into vogue till the Revolution. 
 
MONASCniCAL PARIS. 51 
 
 The next fifty years, under the unspeakably depraved 
 Louis XV., — in some respects perhaps the worst king 
 the nation ever had, — is a period of national decadence. 
 There is little to record in the history of Paris during 
 this dark period. All municipal life was as sternly 
 repressed as under Louis XIV. That effete body, the 
 Parliament of Paris, on only one occasion bore any 
 share in the political history of France, when, in 1762, 
 abetted, strange to say, by Madame de Pompadour, it 
 took the initiative in suppressing the Order of the 
 Jesuits. This, however, proved to be an expiring effort 
 of this moribund institution, for on the death of its 
 patron, Madame de Pompadour, and the rise to power 
 of Louis's new mistress, Madame du Barry, the Parlia- 
 ment lost its only support at court. In 1770 the king 
 dissolved it, and replaced the members with his own 
 nominees. 
 
 The topography of the capital during the eighteenth 
 century is not much changed. The sovereign, whose 
 residence in the capital was confined to a few occasional 
 visits to the Tuileries, which had become the official 
 seat of the monarchy, disliked his capital, and his regular 
 residence was Versailles. 
 
 The only important monuments built during this 
 reign are the Place Louis XV. (Place de la Concorde), 
 Palais de I'Blys^e, Palais Bourbon, the Mint, and the 
 Churches of St. Eoch and Ste. Genevieve, and during 
 the regency of the Duke of Orleans a considerable por- 
 tion of the Palais Royal was rebuilt. 
 
 By the middle of the eighteenth century a curious 
 change took place in the character of the Paris populace. 
 One result of the terrible destitution of the peasants and 
 
52 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 their oppression by the nobles and other privileged classes 
 had been a great influx of the country population to the 
 capital. " Paris was no longer a mere court-seat or city 
 of pleasure, she had gradually become a great manufactur- 
 ing centre, and into her flowed crowds of dissatisfied or 
 starving folk from all the country round. This immigra- 
 tion went on down to the great outbreak. It largely 
 increased the city population, provided the rough ma- 
 terial for the excesses of the Revolution, and helped 
 to stamp the mark of Paris on the whole republican 
 movement. It is hardly too much to say that the want 
 of money at court, combined with the want of food in 
 the cottage, brought about the explosion. These were 
 the social and physical conditions of ferment." 
 
 The first important act of Louis XVI., on his acces- 
 sion, was to recall the Parliament to Paris. But the 
 relations between the court and this anomalous insti- 
 tution soon became strained. The Parliament seems, 
 indeed, to have striven to take an active part in practi- 
 cal politics, and vigorously protested against the arbi- 
 trary measures of the king's ministers, especially the 
 lettre de cachet system, but without success, probably 
 because, owing to its pretensions, it had never been able 
 to obtain the support of the nation. Finally, the king 
 had recourse to an imitation of his grandfather's coup 
 d'Stat, and exiled the Parliament to Troyes. Here this 
 venerable body vegetated throughout all the troublous 
 times which preceded the summoning of the States 
 General. The convoking of this Assembly the Parlia- 
 ment, by a kind of self-denying ordinance, had indeed 
 done their best to bring about. 
 
 The Parliament continued en vacances, as it was offi- 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 53 
 
 cially termed, till March, 1790, when it was formally 
 abolished by a decree of that very Assembly which it 
 helped to create, on the unanswerable plea that the 
 nation had had no voice in the election of its members. 
 The view held by the Assembly was that, though the 
 Parliament had often in former times proved itself of 
 service to the state in resisting the encroachments of 
 the royal power and its attacks on the liberties of the 
 nation, now the existence of this body was ren- 
 dered unnecessary. It was also to some extent a dan- 
 ger to the state on account of the inevitable rivalry 
 which would arise between the National Assembly and 
 the Parliament, should this ancient institution be resus- 
 citated and its powers and privileges be restored. 
 
 The system of a continuous fortified rampart for the 
 defence of Paris, which ever since Philippe Auguste had 
 resulted in the successive enceintes already described, 
 was discontinued. Paris, it was thought, needed no such 
 defence, the frontiers of France being surrounded with a 
 triple belt of detached forts by Vauban, — a system, 
 which, so far as regards the outer enceinte, was reverted 
 to by the military engineers of Louis Philippe. In ac- 
 cordance with this new principle of defence, most of the 
 remains of the ancient walls were pulled down, and 
 the site built over. The new barrier was formed of 
 avenues of trees, which formed an enceinte pacifique of 
 the capital. 
 
 In 1782 the crying need of money induced Louis 
 XVI., on the urgent representation of his farmers-gen- 
 eral, who realised that the new scheme would result in 
 a larger return from the octroi duties on comestibles 
 entering the city, to enclose with a bastioned wall, the 
 
54 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 new faubourg which had sprung up outside the line of 
 exterior boulevards of Louis XIII. This wall, which 
 was pierced with over fifty gates (called larrieres) for 
 octroi purposes, remained till 1860. ^ 
 
 The material progress that Paris made under Louis 
 XVI. is apt to be overlooked during a period of such 
 intense historical and even dramatic interest. But the 
 following additions to the monumental history of the cap- 
 ital should be noted: The Churches of St. Philippe du 
 Roule and St. Louis d'Antin ; the Hospitals of St. M^ry 
 and La Rochefoucauld ; the Necker and Beaujon Insti- 
 tutions for the Blind and Deaf-mutes. The Schools of 
 Medicine, Surgery, Mines, and Music also date from 
 this reign. Some real steps toward a better sanitation 
 of Paris were taken by cleansing and draining the prisons, 
 and removing the bodies of those buried in the intra- 
 mural cemeteries, such as that of the Innocents, to the 
 cemeteries outside the walls. The Pont Louis XVI. 
 (Pont de la Concorde) was added to the Paris bridges, 
 and the Pont Neuf and other bridges were rendered 
 more useful, though certainly less picturesque, by pulling 
 down the shops and houses which lined them. 
 
 Louis XVI. tried to stem the current of the national 
 sentiment which was gradually veering toi^ard some 
 kind of popular representation by summoning an Assem- 
 bly of Notables. This timid half measure naturally did 
 not satisfy the nation, and finally the convocation of the 
 States General was forced upon the king. 
 
 The first meeting was on May 5, 1789, and, though 
 the formal abolition of the monarchy and the creation 
 
 1 The jeu de mot this gave rise to is often quoted : " Le mur murant 
 Paris rend Paris murmurant." 
 
MONARCHICAL PARIS. 55 
 
 of the Republic did not take place till September, 1793, 
 yet from the date of the king's flight to Varennes 
 (June 20, 1791) to join the army of the SmigrSs, 
 which was, of course, actually as well as technically an 
 act of treason toward the government, the monarchy 
 was doomed. 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 EEVOLUTIONAET PARIS. 
 
 The secession of the Third Estate from the States 
 General, and their assumption of the title of National 
 Assembly on June 17, 1789, forms, then, the starting- 
 point of the great social, political, and economical move- 
 ment known as the French Revolution. This great 
 national upheaval "surpasses all other revolutions the 
 world has seen, in its completeness, the largeness of its 
 theatre, the long preparation for it, the enunciation by it 
 of new points of view in politics, its swift degradation 
 into imperialism, and its influence on the modern his- 
 tory of Europe." 
 
 The date of the commencement of the Revolution 
 
 differs, however, according to the particular standpoint 
 
 of the inquirer, and must necessarily remain somewhat 
 
 arbitrary ; but the best modern authorities are inclined 
 
 to the view that either the 17th of June, 1789, when 
 
 the Third Estate formally declared itself the National 
 
 Assembly, or the date of the famous tennis-court oath, 
 
 three days later, when the Assembly, changing its name 
 
 to the more significant Constitutional Assembly, swore 
 
 that they would not separate till " the constitution of 
 
 the kingdom had been established and confirmed on 
 
 solid foundations," forms the best starting-point. As 
 
 for the date popularly, but erroneously, assigned for the 
 
 ss 
 
REVOLUTIONAUT PARIS. 57 
 
 genesis of the Revolution, the taking of the Bastile 
 (July 14, 1789), this has little historical significance, 
 the outbreak being merely a spasmodic and spontaneous 
 one which had no really important results, though it cer- 
 tainly put an end to all ideas of marching the army on 
 Paris, which had been entertained by the court. In fact, 
 its importance is mainly sentimental, as embodying the 
 overthrow of the ancient and effete institutions of a 
 tyrannical monarchy. 
 
 The fixing of any precise date as a chronological land- 
 mark has, however, its dangers. It is misleading, and is 
 apt to give one an absolutely erroneous impression of 
 the permanent character of the French Revolution. It 
 is important to remember that it was not a sudden 
 isolated and inexplicable social revolution, but the logi- 
 cal result of tendencies which had been influencing the 
 nation for centuries, and the natural outcome of the 
 national life, like the wars of religion under the last of 
 the Valois kings. It has been well said by Taine that 
 France had for centuries been preparing for the Revolu- 
 tion, and that for centuries she would feel the effects of 
 it. Possibly even Louis XV., with his '^ Apr is nous le 
 dSluge" had some vague prescience of the doom of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 Though we are here confined to a sketch of the his- 
 tory of Paris, and not that of Prance, yet it will be 
 necessary to deal rather more fully with the revolu- 
 tionary and Napoleonic epochs than with other periods, 
 for the history of Paris is now virtually that of France, 
 and Paris was both the fountain and the cradle of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to do more than give the 
 
58 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 merest outline sketch of the development of this na- 
 tional movement, of which each phase alone would 
 require several volumes if it were to be dealt with 
 at all adequately. All those who wish to study this 
 fascinating period of French history, who have not the 
 time to refer to the standard French authorities, such as 
 Sorel's " L'Europe et la Revolution Fran^aise," should, 
 however, not omit to read Mr. Morse Stephens's work, 
 which is perhaps the best and most reliable introduc- 
 tion to a period which of all periods in ancient and 
 modern history is the richest in bibliography. 
 
 In studying the Revolution, the first questions that 
 seem to demand an answer are what brought it about 
 and why did it break out at that particular time. It 
 is, of course, difficult to tabulate briefly the causes of 
 the French Revolution, they are so numerous and com- 
 plex. But the two principal political causes were cer- 
 tainly (1) the inequality of taxation, owing to the enor- 
 mous number of privileged classes, such as the noblesse 
 and the clergy, who were exempt from nearly all taxa- 
 tion, so that the chief burthen of taxation fell on those 
 least able to pay; (2) absence of any constitutional 
 check on the arbitrary rule of the sovereign. 
 
 These two abuses might indeed be summed up by the 
 phrase, lack of a constitution. It was this crying need 
 of a constitution that the Constitutional Assembly set 
 about attempting to remedy at its very first sitting. 
 The French " People's Charter," if definitely promul- 
 gated, would have included the following " points," — 
 to follow the English parallel in the great Chartist 
 agitation : 
 
 (1) Individual liberty. 
 
BEVOLUTIONARY PARIS. 59 
 
 (2) Inviolability of property. 
 
 (3) Equality of taxation. 
 
 (4) No taxation without consent of the nation. 
 
 In 1792 a fifth essential of the constitution was 
 added, — that the sovereignty should be vested in the 
 nation. 
 
 Then there were underlying motive powers not so 
 apparent, which may be summarised thus : 
 
 (1) The ferment of modern ideas of political liberty 
 in all civilised countries, as manifested more especially 
 by the American War of Independence. 
 
 (2) Then the influence of the great writers of the 
 eighteenth century, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montes- 
 quieu, etc., in impregnating France, and, through France, 
 the whole of Europe, must not be forgotten. The cardinal 
 maxim that government existed for the public good, 
 and the doctrine of the necessity of preserving man's 
 natural freedom in conjunction with public security and 
 well being, are vigorously upheld in their writings. 
 These works influenced the development of the Revolu- 
 tion and extended its principles, but it is thought by 
 some historians of the modern school that the influence 
 of these writers exerted on the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tion has been overrated. 
 
 " The causes of the movement were chiefly economical 
 and political, not philosophical or social ; its rapid devel- 
 opment was due to historical circumstances, and mainly 
 to the attitude of the rest of Europe." 
 
 To come to the more immediate causes of the fall of 
 the monarchy, which lie more on the surface, — the 
 widespread influence of the revolutionary clubs, such as 
 the Jacobins and Cordeliers, and the obstinacy, weakness, 
 
60 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 and general incapacity of Louis XVI. and the unpopu- 
 larity in Paris of his queen. 
 
 Then the fall of Louis XVI. was unquestionably pre- 
 cipitated by the death of Mirabeau, the ill-judged flight 
 to Varennes of the royal family, and the threatening 
 attitude of the Austrian government, which compelled 
 France to declare war. 
 
 In 1790 Paris asserted itself and became the seat of 
 government, the National Assembly withdrawing, on the 
 anniversary of the fall of the Bastile, from Versailles, 
 where the military and court influence endangered the 
 liberty of the people's representatives. Then, on October 
 5th, Paris became also the residence of the court, the 
 king having found it necessary to comply with the de- 
 mands of the Paris mob, who had marched out to Ver- 
 sailles, headed by the Dames of the Halles. " Thus Paris 
 at one blow gained the ascendant over both king and 
 Assembly, and the Revolution entered at once on a new 
 phase. Changes will become easier, the seat of govern- 
 ment and movement being narrowed to one city." 
 
 Louis XVI. was welcomed at the gates of Paris by 
 the mayor, Bailly, with the not altogether felicitous par- 
 allel between Louis XVI. and Henry IV., which has 
 become historic. It was to the effect that " Henry IV. 
 had reconquered Paris, but now Paris has reconquered its 
 king." Events showed that the parallel was even more 
 exact than the worthy mayor intended, for from the 
 date of the flight to Varennes (June 20, 1791), Louis's 
 position in his capital unpleasantly resembled that of a 
 state prisoner on parole. 
 
 At this time the exodus of the noble Emigres, headed 
 by some of the king's relatives, began. This naturally 
 
BMVOLUTIONABT PARIS. 61 
 
 exasperated the constitutionalists, who recognised that 
 this movement on the part of the noblesse, whose enmity 
 to the National Assembly was well known, was fraught 
 with the gravest danger to the throne. " The Revolu- 
 tion had been born only six months, yet already it had 
 entered upon a new phase. In the beginning political 
 and social merely, it had now assumed a national and 
 patriotic character, and, in the light of these new senti- 
 ments, the attitude of the king and nobles, by giving rise 
 to a suspicion, not merely of retrograde tendencies, but 
 also of high treason, intensified the popular irritation, 
 and drove the government into arbitrary acts of defence 
 against the rising peril from without. This was the 
 origin of the various repressive measures which culmi- 
 nated in the Reign of Terror. The idea of liberty, 
 growing ever fainter, was gradually superseded by a 
 dictatorship, and an excessive centralisation of authority 
 which, after serving the ends of the Committee of Pub- 
 lic Salvation, resulted in a military despotism." ^ 
 
 The attitude taken by the king toward the first 
 National Assembly was irritating and inconsistent. He 
 tried to trim between the moderate or constitutional 
 and the extreme parties, but it appears that the attack 
 on the spiritual liberties of the clergy by the decree of 
 the civil constitution of the clergy determined him to 
 depend more on Lafayette, Mirabeau, and the moderates. 
 Unfortunately, Mirabeau (who was perhaps the one man 
 who might have reconciled the court and the Assembly) 
 died early in 1791. 
 
 In insisting upon the civil constitution of the clergy, 
 the Assembly affronted the public sentiment, and the 
 1 Andr6 Lebon. 
 
62 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 measure is not easy to defend even from a political and 
 non-religious standpoint. To suppress the hated privi- 
 leges of the clergy along with those of the aristocracy 
 met with the approval of all except the court party, but, 
 by usurping the control of the spiritual powers and priv- 
 ileges, it provoked a resistance which was, in many parts, 
 followed by civil war. " Protestants," observes M. Andr^ 
 Lebon, " especially English Protestants, must have a 
 difificulty in realising the horror inspired in Roman 
 Catholics by the spectacle of a purely lay power inter- 
 fering in questions of ecclesiastical discipline and hier- 
 archy." 
 
 Soon after this measure had been voted, Louis deter- 
 mined upon taking flight and putting himself under the 
 protection of the army of the emigres. After this fatal 
 mistake, the breach between the king and the Assembly 
 was irreparable, but there was as yet no open attack on 
 the monarchy, and the royal veto was still occasionally 
 exercised. 
 
 In the new Assembly, known as the Legislative As- 
 sembly, which sat from October 1, 1791, to September 
 20, 1792, the Girondists were the most influential party. 
 The features of the campaign in Belgium against the 
 Austrian troops were the opportunity of the extreme 
 party, and the " Mountain " allied itself with the Paris 
 Municipality, and organised the insurrection of the 10th 
 August. The " Sections " attacked and sacked the 
 Tuileries, obliging the royal family to take shelter with 
 the Legislative Assembly, which refuge they left, not for 
 a palace, but a prison. 
 
 The Paris Commune, which had replaced the munici- 
 pal organisation of the capital, was now the sovereign 
 
REVOLUTIONASY PARIS. 63 
 
 power, and completely dominated the Assembly. The 
 terrible scenes of the September massacres, for which 
 Marat was responsible, were a fit prelude to the awful 
 reign of the Terror soon to be inaugurated. The 
 National Convention, in which the influence of the 
 revolutionary clubs was supreme, had replaced the Leg- 
 islative Assembly, and lost no time in constitution 
 making. It simply declared (September 21, 1792) 
 sans phrase, the abolition of royalty in France, and 
 as a necessary corollary it proclaimed the Republic. 
 
 Early in January the trial and conviction of Louis 
 XVI. absorbed all attention. The king was unani- 
 mously declared guilty of conspiring against the nation, 
 and his death was voted by 387 to 338 in favour of a 
 milder punishment. By this act the Republic " threw 
 down the glove to all Europe." The party of the 
 Girondists, who had tried in a half-hearted way to save, 
 at all events, the life of the king, gradually lost its influ- 
 ence, and the struggle between these timid constitution- 
 alists and Robespierre, supported by the clubs, was 
 brought to a head by their being innocently implicated 
 in Dumouriez's counter-revolutionary plots. Though 
 the Girondists had actually a majority in the Conven- 
 tion, the party of the Mountain nullified this by the 
 establishment of a Committee of Public Safety (a 
 creature of the clubs) for the trial of all enemies of the 
 Republic. The new municipality (Commune) of Paris 
 was gained over by Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, and 
 their following of the Mountain, and, rising against the 
 Convention, arrested the Girondists (May 31, 1793). 
 
 But soon the Mountain itself, the arbiter of the des- 
 tinies of France, was to split up into factions, and 
 
64 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 jealousy, combined with fear of Robespierre, the "pre- 
 dominant partner," brought about its destruction. After 
 the fall of the Girondists, Robespierre, whose influence 
 in the Committee of Public Safety was almost supreme 
 during the period known as the Terror, became practi- 
 cally dictator of Prance, having on his side not only the 
 Convention, but the clubs; while he had succeeded in 
 putting down the opposition of the Dantonists, who were 
 opposed to the sanguinary excesses of the Terror, and 
 sending Danton himself to the scaffold. 
 
 An apologist for the Terror is to be found in Mr. 
 Morse Stephens, who, as an advocatus diaholi, makes out 
 a tolerable case for its political necessity : " It was 
 neither so monstrous nor so admirable as it has been 
 painted ; great evils demand strong remedies ; and the 
 Terror was the only remedy the members of the Great 
 Committee could find for Prance, when torn by inter- 
 nal dissensions, and harassed by foreign war. It was a 
 drastic remedy, indeed, but a very necessary one, and 
 France became once more a mighty nation, able, owing 
 to internal peace and a strong administration, to drive 
 back all her enemies from her border." 
 
 Soon after a reaction set in. Robespierre had alienated 
 his former friends of the Mountain, and the revival of 
 the wholesale executions of the previous year aroused 
 the fears of all who were not of the inner ring of the 
 Jacobins. Pinally, the Convention ordered the arrest of 
 Robespierre and his principal supporters, Couthon and 
 St. Just, and though the Commune rose in arms in 
 defence of their hero, the Convention managed to main- 
 tain its authority. Thus ended the momentous day of 
 the ninth Thermidor (July 27, 1794). With the 
 
BBVOLUTIONABT PARIS. 65 
 
 execution of Robespierre the Revolution assumes a new 
 aspect. Now the only hope of the final success and 
 stability of the Republic seems to lie in the army, — the 
 ultima ratio of republics as well as of kings. The army 
 was thought republican in sentiment, and during the 
 campaign of 1794 had covered itself with glory by the 
 conquest of Holland, thus wiping out the stain of Louis 
 the Fourteenth's ignominious defeat about a century and 
 a quarter before. It was, indeed, the army which saved 
 the Convention. 
 
 " So ended the year 1794, which saw the reaction set 
 in at Paris, and saw, too, the Revolution triumphant in 
 every frontier, and the area of its influence extended 
 widely. The coalition against France showed signs of 
 breaking; the Dutch made peace, ceding Northern 
 Flanders, with other districts, to France ; the King of 
 Prussia also abandoned the coalition, ceding to France 
 the left bank of the Rhine ; the Bourbon King of Spain 
 next abandoned ' the cause of all kings ; ' the little 
 states of Germany followed ; Portugal made advances in 
 the same direction, as did Naples, the Papacy, and other 
 Italian powers. England and Austria alone stood firm 
 against the new ideas, and Pitt, though he could not 
 hope to direct, or have to pay, half Europe, still felt 
 strong enough to carry on the war." 
 
 During the months which followed the fall of Robes- 
 pierre, the capital was in a restless condition, and dis- 
 turbed by the contests between the moderate party 
 (called Thermidorians) and the Jacobins, which was 
 only put an end to by the suppression of the Jacobin 
 Club by the Convention. What added to the misery 
 and distress of Paris, was the exceptionally severe 
 
66 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 winter of 1794-95, aggravated by great scarcity of 
 food. 
 
 Early in 1795 the Convention, by another self-denying 
 ordination, dissolved itself in accordance with the new 
 constitution (constitution of the year HI.), and was 
 succeeded by a new and more complex form of govern- 
 ment, mainly the work of the restored Girondists. By 
 the new constitution the executive was entrusted to a 
 committee of five, called the Directory, while the legis- 
 lative functions were shared by two councils, composed 
 of a Senate, called Council of the Ancients, and a 
 National Assembly called Council of the Five Hundred. 
 This cumbrous and unwieldy piece of legislative ma- 
 chinery naturally resulted in an oligarchy, which seemed 
 to invite one great commanding personality to turn it 
 into a virtual dictatorship, and for this man, as we shall 
 see later. Prance had not long to wait. 
 
 The immediate result of the promulgation of the new 
 constitution was unexpected. The royalists made com- 
 mon cause with the Paris Commune or municipality, 
 who rose with the Sections and attacked the Convention 
 (which had not then resigned), then lodged in the 
 Tuileries. This insurrection was, however, promptly 
 crushed through the energy of Bonaparte, who had 
 already distinguished himself in the siege of Toulon. 
 The remarkable skill with which the young general ^ — • 
 he was only twenty-five — put down this formidable 
 insurrection ensured his success in the army, and he 
 was soon after made a general of division. Napoleon 
 " showed the world," observes one of his innumerable 
 biographers, Lanfrey, " what can be the weight of a 
 soldier's sword in the balance ; from this inauspicious 
 
REVOLUTIONARY PARIS. 67 
 
 day power learnt to reckon on the army, the army to 
 dispose of power ; the path toward a military govern- 
 ment was now open." 
 
 The Directory, having leisure to devote itself to the 
 domestic concerns of Prance, first devoted its attention 
 to the organisation of the capital. The character of the 
 municipality was changed and decentralised. Instead 
 of one municipality for the whole of Paris, it was divided 
 into twelve municipalities called arrondissements. The 
 proceeds of the octroi dues were henceforth to be de- 
 voted to local needs, and were not to be diverted to the 
 national treasury. Under the consulate, a retrograde 
 policy made itself felt. The first consul feared the wide- 
 reaching and deep-rooted revolutionary influence of 
 Paris over France, and took measures to check what 
 might easily prove a menace to the central power. The 
 ancient office of provost of the merchants was reestab- 
 lished, though there was an attempt to conceal its 
 significance and its origin by the title of Prefect of 
 the Seine, while the lieutenant of police was replaced 
 by a prefect of police, and the presidents of the 
 twelve arrondissements were called mayors. In the 
 reestablishment of the Church, Paris was again 
 made an archbishopric, and it was divided into twelve 
 parishes. 
 
 With the establishment of the Directory, which lasted 
 a little over four years (October, 1795, to November, 
 1799), a period of comparative stability was assured for 
 the government at home, while abroad the success of 
 French arms was due mainly to the generalship of Bona- 
 parte and the remarkable talent for military organisation 
 shown by Carnot, " the Organiser of Victory," who at 
 
68 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 one time directed simultaneously the operations of four- 
 teen armies. 
 
 An important change in the character of the foreign 
 policy of France begins with the Directory. Hitherto 
 the wars had been mainly defensive, and waged in behalf 
 of the Republic, whose very existence was endangered 
 by the attacks of the European powers, and even the 
 Austrian campaign of 1796 was in reality defensive 
 rather than offensive. But the wars of the Directory 
 were prompted to a large extent by the deficient re- 
 sources of France, and were closely bound up with the 
 internal policy of the Republic. The general situation 
 of the country was in a parlous state. Commerce and 
 industry had been destroyed through the high price of 
 provisions and the low ebb to which the national credit 
 had sunk, owing mainly to the oversupply of assignats 
 and the resultant depreciation. 
 
 The wars from 1796 to 1799 were, in short, due mainly 
 to economical reasons, foreign conquest qud conquest 
 being a secondary consideration. Not only were the 
 new campaigns self-supporting, but they afforded the 
 hard-pressed Directory with a means of replenishing 
 its treasury by indemnities wrung from the invaded 
 countries. In short, it is not easy to distinguish these 
 wars from brigandage on a large scale. After the 
 Treaty of Amiens, however, the Napoleonic wars assumed 
 a more political or dynastic character, — they were, in 
 short, more imperial than national. 
 
 The early years of the Directorate were critical ones 
 for France. The Directors, in the absence of the inspir- 
 ing force of Bonaparte, who was prosecuting his Italian 
 campaign, — a continuous series of victories, in the course 
 
BEVOLUTIONABT PARIS. 69 
 
 of which he had driven Austria from Italy, and subdued 
 the country from Piedmont to the Papal States, — found 
 themselves harassed on all sides by conspiracies, both on 
 the side of the royalists and the extreme republicans. 
 The royalist reaction early in 1797 made itself felt even 
 among the members of the Directory, and while Bar- 
 th^lemy was actually in favour of the restoration of the 
 Bourbons, Carnot was suspected of leaning in that 
 direction. Bonaparte, hastily appealed to, sent them 
 one of his generals, and a coup cCetat was determined 
 upon. Paris was occupied by the troops under Auge- 
 reau. The two I'eactionary members of the Directory, 
 Carnot and Barth^lemy, were arrested, and fifty-three 
 royalist deputies were seized in the Chamber, and 
 exiled. 
 
 In December, 1797, Bonaparte, with all the glamour 
 of his victory by pen and sword over Austria, — for the 
 negotiations for the Treaty of Campo-Pormio, by which 
 France gained Belgium, had been entrusted to Bonaparte 
 himself, — returned to Paris. The death of Hoche had 
 removed his only possible rival, and, as the Directory 
 had been saved by his intervention and the assistance of 
 his troops, Bonaparte had the Directors at his feet, and 
 was the master of the political situation. 
 
 The Treaty of Campo-Pormio was no doubt intended 
 as a menace to England, and at the beginning of 1798 
 Bonaparte and the Directory were planning an attack on 
 Great Britain. The original scheme was an invasion of 
 England, but Bonaparte conceived a more indirect 
 method of attacking his old enemy, which was, in short, 
 to conquer England on the plains of Egypt. His imagi- 
 nation was fired, too, at the notion of planting the tri- 
 
70 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 colour in the valley of the Nile, and gaining a splendid 
 field of colonisation for French enterprise. The conquest 
 of Egypt was an easy task, and the Mamelukes could 
 make no effective stand against the disciplined and 
 seasoned troops of the Republic. The victory, however, 
 proved a Pyrrhic one, for by the defeat of his fleet, by 
 Nelson, at the battle of the Nile (August 1, 1798), his 
 army was shut up in a hostile country. " Was the fate 
 of St. Louis in store for these new Crusaders, who, unlike 
 him, affected Mahometan ways and customs, and issued 
 proclamations which the pious Mussulman might have 
 thought written by a true believer?" 
 
 Turkey, irritated at the invasion of Egypt, and en- 
 couraged by the disaster to the French fleet, now joined 
 the Second Coalition against the Republic. Bonaparte, 
 with his retreat cut off, marched his army to Syria, with 
 a vain idea, it is said, of assisting his ally of Mysore to 
 drive out the English from India. However, the Syrian 
 campaign was Indecisive, and Bonaparte, leaving his ex- 
 hausted army in Egypt under Kl^ber, returned to France 
 (October 8, 1799), having received alarming news of 
 the affairs of the Directory. 
 
 The European campaigns had during his absence been 
 going badly, and the victories of 1797 seemed likely to 
 be nullified by the weakness of the French government. 
 The Directory had alternated, in its conduct of home and 
 foreign affairs, between arbitrary excesses and pusillan- 
 imity. The French arms had suffered serious reverses 
 in Italy under Scherer and in Alsace under Jourdan, 
 against the Austrians. The only important success to 
 counterbalance the loss of Italy was the defeat of the 
 Russians at Zurich, which compelled Russia to withdraw 
 
BEVOLUTIONABT PARIS. 71 
 
 from the Coalition. In short, the advantages gained by 
 the humiliating Treaty of Campo-Formio had been lost. 
 
 It was at this critical period that Bonaparte returned 
 to Paris. The Directory seemed utterly discredited in 
 the eyes of all parties, Jacobins, Moderates, and Royal- 
 ists. There was a universal wish for a stable govern- 
 ment under a strong man. Everything, in short, seemed 
 favourable for a dictatorship. It was a grave step that 
 Bonaparte was now invited to take, no less than a con- 
 spiracy against the constitution, but he did not hesitate 
 to employ force, and on November 9, 1799, he marched 
 his grenadiers to St. Cloud, where the Council of Five 
 Hundred was then sitting, and dissolved it by force. 
 
 " Thus the Revolution," writes Dean Kitchin, " passed 
 into its last stage. It had tried to live with a king, had 
 tried to govern by democratic severities, had also been 
 moderate ; it now became military. The despot, who, 
 according to Aristotle, haunts like a dark spectre the 
 steps of democracy, had now, at ten years' end, over- 
 taken and destroyed its forerunner." 
 
 The real significance of the French Revolution will be 
 missed, and the influence of the new principles it inau- 
 gurated on European nations will not be understood, 
 unless we consider the political and social ideas it 
 replaced. Mr. Morse Stephens, in his lucid and suggest- 
 ive summary of this period in " Revolutionary Europe," 
 points out that this age of transition (the revolutionary 
 epoch) is marked by the growth of the three modern 
 principles which are at the root of all modern constitu- 
 tional government, namely, (1) political liberty, mani- 
 fested by the assertion of the sovereignty of the people. 
 In other words, that government, while existing for the 
 
72 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 good of the people, must be administered by the people, 
 and not by an irresponsible monarch, albeit a " benevo- 
 lent despot." 
 
 (2) The second fundamental principle for which 
 modern Europe is mainly indebted to the French Revo- 
 lution is the idea of nationality as the basis of a state 
 and not a dynasty. 
 
 It may be objected that France seems to have stulti- 
 fied her teaching of this political maxim when Napoleon 
 created a new empire of the West, quite independent of 
 national boundaries and race limits, but it was in at- 
 tempting to establish this artificial and dynastic empire 
 that Napoleon was vanquished. 
 
 (3) The third political belief which has transformed 
 Europe, is the recognition of the principle of personal 
 and individual liberty. This implies, of course, the 
 destruction of feudalism, which denied all social freedom. 
 
 " Where personal and individual liberty had been 
 attained," observes Mr. Morse Stephens, "political lib- 
 erty became an object of ambition, and political liberty 
 led to the idea of the sovereignty of the people. The 
 last vestiges of feudalism were swept away during this 
 era of transition." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 
 
 The establishment of a dictatorship to replace the 
 oligarchy of the Directorate was disguised under the 
 form of a triumvirate of three consuls, although the first 
 consul, Bonaparte, was emphatically the controlling 
 spirit. This change of government was given legal 
 form by means of the famous Constitution of the year 
 VIII., which was mainly inspired by Sieyds. In his 
 original scheme, amazingly elaborate and intricate, the 
 famous philosopher had given full rein to his quaint 
 metaphysical theories of government, and even after it 
 had been revised and " edited " by Napoleon, who simply 
 retained such clauses as favoured his absolutist preten- 
 sions, and cut out the few guarantees of constitutional 
 liberty which Siey^s had inserted, the constitution was 
 exceedingly complex. This was, perhaps, intentional, 
 and designed to veil the uncompromising dictatorship 
 which this egregious system of government assured to 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 The elaborate process of exhaustion, by which all 
 power was virtually left to the first consul, is sufficiently 
 shown by the following summary. 
 
 The executive was entrusted to three consuls, ap- 
 pointed for ten years, but all authority was centred in 
 the first consul, his two colleagues (Cambac^rSs and 
 
 73 
 
74 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 Lebrun) having only a consultative voice. The laws 
 were to be proposed by a special body known as the 
 Council of State, which has survived to the present day. 
 There were three other legislative bodies, a tribunate of 
 one hundred members, to whom the laws were to be sub- 
 mitted for discussion or emendation, merely. This body 
 would then pass them on to a Legislative Assembly of 
 three hundred members, who were empowered to adopt 
 or reject them. Finally, there was a Senate, whose func- 
 tions were mainly those of a Grand Electoral College, 
 and its eighty members (appointed for life) were to be 
 nominated in the first instance by Bonaparte and SieySs, 
 and afterward to be recruited by cooptation. But the 
 most extraordinary feature of this extraordinarily com- 
 plex machinery of government was the elaborate process 
 of exhaustion and elimination by which the tribunate 
 and the legislative body were appointed. It was a kind 
 of " House that Jack built " system. The Senate was 
 to choose the members from a list of five thousand names. 
 These names were chosen by fifty thousand persons, and 
 these, in turn, were to be elected by five hundred thou- 
 sand electors, who in their turn were elected by universal 
 suffrage.^ 
 
 Such was the famous constitution of the year VIII., 
 which was probably meant to pave the way for the overt 
 dictatorship by which it was soon (August 2, 1802) to 
 be replaced. 
 
 Bonaparte's inherent love of system and centralisation, 
 which is a little disguised in SieySs' constitution, is 
 
 lA modified survival of this cumbrous triple form of election is to 
 be seen in the present day in the election of the Senate. (See Legal 
 and Municipal Paris chapter.) 
 
PABIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 75 
 
 much in evidence in the whole machinery of administra- 
 tion. "All sprang from one centre, the first consul; 
 a prefect was set bver each department, with sub-pre- 
 fects under him ; it was a more perfect development of 
 the intendant's office under the old regime ; the prefects 
 named the local mayors, and thus the whole machine 
 received all its impulses from the executive, and formed 
 a perfectly compact and easy-going government. 
 
 " The principle of the new government, in general 
 administration, in finance, in the Church, in the law, 
 was that of absolute subservience of all officials to the 
 head ; and the love of Prance for bureaucracy, which has 
 made her the chosen land of an official hierarchy, made 
 this organisation the most complete and successful that 
 the world had hitherto ever seen." 
 
 Bonaparte's extraordinary insight into the sentiment 
 of the nation, and capacity for gauging public opinion, 
 enabled him to perceive that France was weary of fac- 
 tional disputes and changes of parties ; and he was satis- 
 fied that with the support of his devoted army he could 
 in any case treat any factious opposition with contempt. 
 In his manifesto to the people, he did not hesitate to 
 declare, " There are no longer either Jacobins, or Mod- 
 erates, or Royalists. There are only Frenchmen, " — 
 a phrase which summed up in a nutshell, both the 
 situation and the aspirations of nine out of ten French 
 citizens. 
 
 The consolidation and pacification of France was felt 
 to be more imperatively demanded than foreign conquest, 
 and during the early part of 1800 Bonaparte's inexhaust- 
 ible energy busied itself with pressing internal reforms 
 and the restoration of public order. Every department 
 
76 PABIS IN JTS SPLENBOUM. 
 
 of the state, civil or military, lay or legal, ecclesiastical 
 or secular, was reorganised and controlled by this mas- 
 ter mind, who was destined to leave an ineffaceable 
 impression upon the country whose destinies he held in 
 the hollow of his hand. 
 
 His first care was to reform the provincial adminis- 
 tration, and bring it into touch with the central author- 
 ity, as Bonaparte considered it essential that he should 
 be the "fount of honour," and that all functionaries, 
 however obscure, should be the first consul's nominees. 
 But this policy of introducing the bureaucratic principles 
 into the government, although necessary for the accom- 
 plishment of Bonaparte's plans, was a retrograde one. 
 It was to some extent a reversion to the old monarchi- 
 cal principle which the government, in the early days 
 of the republic, had abolished by the substitution of 
 officials elected by the inhabitants of the particular 
 districts for the king's functionaries. The effect of this 
 scheme of provincial administration is well summarised 
 by Andr6 Lebon : " In short, the centralisation ob- 
 tained under Louis XIV. had been revived and even 
 increased, the network of government agents being 
 closer, and local autonomy more repressed, than in the 
 eighteenth century." 
 
 By means of this highly organised administrative 
 machinery (more fully described in the chapter on Legal 
 Paris, Vol. II.), Bonaparte was soon able to subdue any 
 opposition in the provinces, and to devote his energies to 
 the restoration of public security and order and the 
 reestablishment of the national credit. The finances 
 were reorganised and the Bank of Prance founded. The 
 labour market was relieved by the resumption of public 
 
PABIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 77 
 
 works, and great encouragement, material as well as 
 moral, was given to the development of French indus- 
 tries and commerce. Agriculture was stimulated by 
 the recent distribution of property in land, which under 
 the Directory could be acquired very cheaply, owing 
 to the great depreciation in the value of assignats. 
 
 With the aid of his Council of State, Bonaparte drew 
 up and promulgated those famous codes — one of the 
 most elaborate and yet most workable of any body of 
 laws — which were to give Prance the much needed 
 unity of legislation. The civil code is the most impor- 
 tant of them and is usually spoken of as the Code 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The first consul interested himself especially in the 
 question of education, and established Lyc^es in all the 
 great towns, — a kind of public school for education of 
 the middle classes, organised on a semi-monastic, semi- 
 military basis. Schools for higher education in law and 
 medicine were established in Paris, and a few years 
 later the keystone to the whole educational system of 
 France was added by the creation of a great national 
 university, called the University of France. The Order 
 of the Legion of Honour was also founded, — the avant- 
 courier of the new nobility to be created later. 
 
 This work of establishing order and system in French 
 institutions was crowned by a master-stroke of state- 
 craft. The first consul earned the support and good- 
 will of all Roman Catholics by abolishing the civil 
 constitution of the clergy, but in the treaty (known as 
 the Concordat) between the Pope and the first consul 
 Bonaparte reserved the right of the state to the nom- ' 
 ination of the bishops. It was agreed that Roman 
 
78 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Catholic public worship should be free and unfettered, 
 and that the priests' stipends should be paid by the state. 
 In return, the Vatican renounced all claim to the prop- 
 erty of the Church in Prance which had been sold during 
 the Revolution. 
 
 The conduct of the military campaigns and of all 
 foreign affairs was formally made over to the first 
 consul. In internal affairs a limited amount of initia- 
 tive was allowed by Bonaparte to his two colleagues, 
 Cambac^r^s and Lebrun. 
 
 The foreign wars of France are beyond the scope of 
 our sketch, but some reference to the progress of French 
 arms in Europe is necessary to preserve the thread of 
 the narrative. The year 1800 was a particularly favour- 
 able year to France. One of the most brilliant victories 
 in the long roll of Napoleonic battles, that of Marengo, 
 crippled Austria to such an extent that the humiliating 
 terms of the treaty of Lun^ville (1801) had to be 
 accepted. By this treaty the whole of Italy fell under 
 the domination of France. The only member of the 
 coalition still to be reckoned with was England, but by 
 the Treaty of Amiens (1802), which provided for the res- 
 toration of her colonies to France, this power was checked. 
 This treaty, however, proved little more than a truce, 
 for war broke out again about twelve months later. 
 
 The infamous arrest of the Cond4 prince, the Due 
 d'Enghien, accompanied by violations of neutral terri- 
 tories and his execution on suspicion of being implicated 
 in a royalist plot against the first consul, shocked all 
 Europe, and furnished England with a pretext for form- 
 ing a fresh coalition against the Republic. The Republic 
 was, however, even in name moribund, — in fact, it had 
 
PABIS UNDEB NAPOLEON. 79 
 
 perished in 1799, — as in March, 1804, Bonaparte 
 assumed the title of emperor. 
 
 Napoleon's determination to have himself crowned 
 mider the auspices of the Pope, not at Rheims, the his- 
 toric place of coronation of French sovereigns from 
 Clovis downwards, but at Paris, was no doubt intended 
 to mai'k the distinction between a King of France and the 
 Emperor of the West, which was to carry on the tradi- 
 tions or rather to incorporate the Holy Roman Em- 
 pire, — a title still claimed by the head of the Hapsburg 
 dynasty. The Pope, after considerable pressure, resigned 
 himself to the imperial will, which it would be difficult 
 and impolitic to resist, in view of the recently established 
 Concordat. 
 
 On December 2, 1804, — an eventful day in the Napol- 
 eonic calendar, — the splendid ceremony of the coronation 
 was performed at Notre Dame. The details of the cere- 
 mony, having been arranged by David, were somewhat 
 theatrical, and the varied costumes suggested an amal- 
 game bizarre du CSsar, de Charlemagne ou Henri IV. 
 But though to some of the participants the coronation 
 ceremonies seemed in doubtful taste, and gave an impres- 
 sion of a scene from an opera, yet it produced the grand 
 impression the emperor had counted upon, so far as 
 regards the populace. 
 
 It is one of the commonplaces of history that Napo- 
 leon shocked Pius VII. by seizing the crown from the 
 hand of his Holiness, and placing it on his own head, 
 meaning to show to all that he did not consider he was 
 indebted to the Church for his crown. The Pope had 
 the courage, at the close of the ceremony, to remonstrate 
 with the newly anointed emperor for this insult to the 
 
80 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUM. 
 
 Church, in the person of its representative. In conse- 
 quence, the Moniteur, the ofificial organ of the govern- 
 ment, omitted the significant detail in its description 
 of the coronation. 
 
 The ceremony is briefly, but graphically, described by 
 Thiers in his " Histoire de I'Empire." 
 
 " On the altar had been already placed the crown, the 
 sceptre, the sword, and the robes. The Pope anoints 
 the forehead of Napoleon with the holy oil, then blesses 
 the sword and sceptre, and draws near to place the 
 crown on his head. Napoleon, observing his intention, 
 decidedly, but without brusquerie, takes the crown from 
 the hands of the Pope and places it himseK on his 
 head. This act, whose significance was understood by 
 all taking part in the ceremony, produced an indescrib- 
 able effect. Then Napoleon, taking the crown of the 
 empress in his hands, approaches Josephine, who was 
 kneeling before the throne, and placed it with manifest 
 tenderness on the head of his consort, who at that 
 moment burst into tears. 
 
 " Then Napoleon ascended the imperial throne, his 
 brother holding the hem of his robes. The Pope, 
 according to usage, proceeds to the foot of the throne 
 to bless the newly crowned sovereign, and intoned 
 those lines which had resounded in Charlemagne's ears 
 in St. Peter's, when the clergy of Rome had suddenly 
 proclaimed him Emperor of the West, '■Vivat in (ster- 
 num semper Augustus P Thereupon cries of ' Vive 
 VMnpereur ! ' a thousand times repeated, rang through 
 the aisles of Notre Dame ; and at the same instant salvos 
 of artillery announced to all Paris the solemn moment 
 when Napoleon was consecrated." 
 
PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 81 
 
 The form of the coronation oath, although highly 
 displeasing to the Pope, was certainly creditable to 
 Napoleon, who in this one respect, at all events, showed 
 himself faithful to the cardinal principles of the Revolu- 
 tion. Instead of swearing to exterminate heresy, accord- 
 ing to the time-honoured oath of all French kings from 
 the time of Clovis, he not only swore to maintain relig- 
 ious as well as political and civil liberty, but solemnly 
 declared the irrevocability of the sale of the national 
 property which had once belonged to the Church. 
 
 In spite of the general enthusiasm, Paris itself, March 
 21, 1804, received the newly crowned emperor with 
 marked coldness. But during the early years of the 
 consulate, Paris had never shown itself very enthusi- 
 astically disposed to the first consul, and Napoleon, 
 like his immediate predecessors on the throne, was not 
 himself much attached to his capital. He feared its 
 republican sentiments and disliked its esprit fron- 
 deur. It was his dread of the republicanism of the 
 Parisians that led him to stake all at the coup d'etat 
 of the 18th Brumaire, in getting the Council of the 
 Five Hundred removed from Paris to St. Cloud. 
 
 To ensure Paris against stock-jobbing and famine, huge 
 reserve stores of grain were laid up, and the communi- 
 cations of the capital were made the object of special 
 attention. New streets were built, including the magnif- 
 icent thoroughfares. Rues de Rivoli and Castiglione, and 
 the old streets were paved with stone and drained. The 
 two great squares. Place de la Bastille and Place du 
 Ch§,telet, were built, and the Pont de la Cit^ and Pont 
 des Arts added to the bridges of the capital. 
 
 Napoleon at St. Helena was fond of expatiating upon 
 
82 PABIS IN ITS SPLMNDOUB. 
 
 his magnificent dreams for the embellishment and 
 aggrandisement of Paris. "I intended to make Paris 
 the real capital of Europe. Sometimes I even dreamed 
 of its becoming a city of two or even three or four 
 millions, a city truly colossal, almost fabulous, — and 
 with buildings and establishment worthy of its immense 
 population." 
 
 The imperial title, " Bmpereur des Pran§ais," which 
 on coins had the apparently contradictory obverse 
 inscription, " Republique Frangaise," was not in reality 
 inconsistent. It implied, indeed, a novel kind of im- 
 perialism, namely, that based on the sovereignty of the 
 people, manifested by a plebiscite. The constitution, 
 under the new form of government, was little altered in 
 form, and was substantially the same as that of the year 
 VIII. (modified by Bonaparte in 1802). The principal 
 changes were in the composition of the Senate, whose 
 members were now unlimited and appointed by the 
 emperor, and the Senate was expressly declared to be 
 the guardian of the constitution. In a few years, how- 
 ever, the last safeguards of a constitutional monarchy 
 were removed. The Tribune, for instance, was sup- 
 pressed in 1807, and replaced by committees appointed 
 by the legislative chambers, while in the following 
 year these members were nominated directly by the 
 emperor. As for the legislative chamber itself, its 
 powers were soon so curtailed that it eventually became 
 little more than a state department for giving legal form 
 to the edicts of Napoleon, and even within a year of the 
 commencement of the imperial regime the subservient 
 members were uncompromisingly told by Napoleon that 
 home and foreign policy were outside their province ! 
 
PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 83 
 
 The ultimate consequence of such a system, which 
 centred all power and authority and all initiative in the 
 hands of one man, was foreseen by the more thoughtful 
 observers. Roederer, for instance, wrote, in 1804 : " The 
 organisation of the powers of the state cannot work 
 effectually as it is at present. A Senate which has long 
 bent to an arbitrary will may one day well believe itself 
 entitled to a will of its own, for a body which has 
 allowed everything to another will, ends by thinking 
 everything allowed to itseK. After having been em- 
 ployed by a prince to destroy constitutional power, it 
 may conceive that it is entitled to destroy the prince in 
 person." 
 
 This ominous prophecy was literally fulfilled ten years 
 later. In 1814, Napoleon, fresh from his disaster on the 
 field, tried to galvanise the powers of the Legislative 
 Council he had persistently undermined and repressed. 
 " You are the natural exponents of the will of the 
 throne. You must give the example of energy," he 
 declared, in one of his moving speeches to the legis- 
 lative body. But it was too late, all energy had been 
 sapped, and his once servile Senators and Deputies were 
 the first to abandon the emperor. 
 
 But many years of continuous victories were to elapse 
 before this extremity was reached. The assumption of 
 the imperialism (which strictly means an overlordship 
 over nations) was regarded as a menace to the peace of 
 Europe, and soon Great Britain was able to form a third 
 coalition against France, composed of all the great 
 powers except Spain and Turkey. The military genius 
 of Napoleon, however, crushed these great powers in 
 turn, — Austria at Austerlitz (December 2, 1805), Prus- 
 
84 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 sia at Jena (October 14, 1806), and Russia at Friedland 
 (July 7, 1807), — so that in some eighteen months he 
 had reduced the great powers to impotence. The 
 Treaty of Tilsit, which followed, left Napoleon predomi- 
 nant in Europe. Indeed, some historians are inclined to 
 place the date of this treaty, and not that which followed 
 the triumph of Wagram, as marking the utmost height 
 of power attained by Napoleon I. 
 
 Indeed, the various treaties concluded by France, 
 from Amiens to that of Vienna, may be regarded as a 
 kind of national stock-taking of the possessions of 
 France. To press the metaphor home, each stock- 
 taking shows increased value up to the Treaty of 
 Vienna (1809). At subsequent stock-takings France 
 had to recognise a decided depreciation in the value 
 of its resources, till in 1815 she was reduced to what 
 she possessed in 1789. 
 
 The three great blunders of Napoleon's foreign policy 
 were, most historians agree, the Continental Blockade, 
 the Peninsular Campaign (which dragged on from 1808 
 to 1812), and the disastrous invasion of Russia, which 
 not only seriously reduced the material resources of 
 France, but proved a crushing blow to its prestige. 
 
 In 1810 pressing dynastic reasons counselled the 
 divorce from Josephine, for whom he still bore, how- 
 ever, the deepest affection. The empress was childless, 
 and it was, of course, essential for the establishment of 
 the Napoleon dynasty on a firm footing that the em- 
 peror should have a direct heir. 
 
 Napoleon's influence with the Pope facilitated this 
 divorce, which was granted on the extraordinary ground 
 that the religious marriage, which had taken place 
 
PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 85 
 
 the evening before the emperor's coronation, was not 
 valid because of the absence of witnesses ! This was, of 
 course, the merest pretext, for it is well known that Tal- 
 leyrand and Marshal Berthier were witnesses. However, 
 all obstacles to Napoleon's union with a princess of one 
 of the reigning houses of Europe were removed. Napo- 
 leon, who nourished a dream of sharing Europe with 
 his great admirer, the Emperor Alexander, wished for 
 a Russian princess, and when the influence of the 
 empress-mother caused the rejection of this proposal, 
 Napoleon was fain to content himself with Maria Louisa, 
 an Austrian archduchess, — a woman of cold and calcu- 
 lating character. 
 
 The marriage ceremony at Paris, though carried out 
 in accordance with that love of pomp so characteristic 
 of the emperor, was a tame affair compared to that at 
 the coronation in 1804. The actual religious ceremony 
 had taken place at Vienna, and this was merely a formal 
 renewal for the benefit of the Parisians. It took place 
 on April 2, 1810. Next year a son was born, who was 
 created, almost at his birth. King of Rome, and Napoleon 
 hoped that he had now finally cemented his power, not 
 only in Prance but also in Europe. 
 
 Napoleon's marriage, though prompted almost solely 
 by dynastic and political motives, had by no means the 
 effect hoped for in strengthening the alliance between 
 the French and Austrian Empires. In fact, not only 
 was the Emperor of Austria not won over by Napoleon's 
 marriage with Maria Louisa, but he took an early 
 opportunity of joining the next great coalition against 
 Prance fostered by Prussia and England. 
 
 As to Russia, Napoleon, perhaps partly out of resent- 
 
86 PASIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ment for his overtures for marriage with a daughter 
 of the Czar having been rejected, did not long delay 
 declaring war against his former ally. It was from 
 the Russian campaign that the downward course of the 
 empire is dated by most historians. Napoleon deter- 
 mined to crush Russia, and easily found a pretext by 
 rigorously enforcing the Continental Blockade. " As 
 he had entered Berlin, Madrid, and Vienna, so would 
 he enter Moscow, and thence at last dictate peace to all 
 the world. He seemed to think he had two things only 
 to do, ' conscrire et prescrire,' — to summon up and sac- 
 rifice the whole youth of Prance as conscripts, and then 
 to prescribe his own terms to Europe." 
 
 With a large army locked up in Spain, Napoleon had 
 to draw largely upon foreign levies ; but having collected 
 a grande armSe of six hundred thousand men, he set 
 out on his famous march to Moscow. It is said that 
 Napoleon actually cherished some wild scheme of mak- 
 ing Moscow merely one stage on his march to British 
 India. Napoleon was unable to bring on an engage- 
 ment with the Russian army till he reached (Sept. 7, 
 1812) Borodino. Here was fought a battle proverbial 
 in the annals of military history as an example of a 
 victory which was more damaging than a defeat. The 
 French troops were victorious, indeed, but after such 
 terrible losses that, with the Roman general. Napoleon 
 might have exclaimed, " Another such victory, and I am 
 undone ! " 
 
 Napoleon did not reach Moscow till the 15th of Sep- 
 tember. He found a great portion of the city in flames, 
 Alexander having adopted this heroic, if unmilitary 
 and unsportsmanlike, method of defeating his enemy. 
 
PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 87 
 
 After a month's stay in the ancient capital, the approach 
 of winter compelled Napoleon to retire. The awful 
 retreat from Moscow has passed into a legend. First 
 famine and disease, aided by continual skirmishing 
 attacks from the Russians who harassed his rear, liter- 
 ally decimated the army, and before the frontier was 
 reached the grand army, which left Moscow some eighty 
 thousand of all ranks, was reduced to less than twenty 
 thousand.^ The boast of Alexander that his best gen- 
 erals were Generals December and January was not 
 an idle one, and the rigour of the Russian climate 
 triumphed over the most determined courage and the 
 greatest military genius. 
 
 At Wilna, the news of the alarming conspiracy of 
 General Mallet gave Napoleon a decent excuse for leav- 
 ing the shattered remnants of his grand army, and 
 pushing on to Paris. 
 
 Here he learnt of the disasters to his armies in Spain. 
 But a more serious danger occupied all his energies. 
 All Europe, encouraged by the failure of the Russian 
 campaign, seemed arming against the devoted empire. 
 Prussia allied itself with Russia, and was soon joined 
 by Austria, who thought little of leaving the Empress 
 Maria Louisa to her fate. Hastily collecting a new 
 grande armSe, Napoleon flung his raw troops on the 
 allied forces at Liitzen, and managed to snatch a victory. 
 Now, as Napoleon admitted later, he should have ac- 
 cepted the offer of the Allies at Prague to treat. This, 
 as it proved, was a fatal error, with his exhausted troops. 
 Two more victories at Bautzen and Dresden certainly 
 
 1 Authorities differ widely as to the number of troops who actually 
 reached France. 
 
88 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 seemed to justify Napoleon's defiant attitude. But in 
 the sanguinary three days' battle at Leipsic (16th, 17th, 
 and 18th October), — one of the bloodiest as well as one 
 of the most decisive battles in the world's history, — the 
 French troops sustained a crushing reverse. Napoleon, 
 intent only on saving his dynasty, at once returned to 
 Paris, where he found public opinion much changed. 
 His conduct of the campaign was openly criticised by 
 the Corps L^gislatif, to the amazement and disgust of 
 the emperor. His reply was to remind his legislators 
 that to " attack him was to attack the nation," and 
 clinched the matter by closing the session. 
 
 He had now to face the invasion of France, and to 
 act on the defensive. The allies were advancing on 
 Paris with three separate armies, amounting together to 
 about two hundred thousand, — a force quite double that 
 of any Napoleon could hope to raise. However, Napo- 
 leon organised the defence with all his usual energy. 
 " He tried to galvanise the country by calling for a levy 
 en masse. But Prance had no longer any life of her 
 own, and when misfortune and invasion threatened, 
 Napoleon looked in vain for a trace of the heroic enthu- 
 siasm of 1792. The nation was weary and servile, with 
 only strength left to complain of the long and bitter 
 sacrifices it had been called upon to make."^ 
 
 Napoleon, with only sixty thousand men at his dis- 
 posal, determined to risk everything by one blow, by 
 attacking the communications of the allied armies. This 
 he succeeded in doing, but he had reckoned without his 
 host. The enemy, instead of falling back on their base, 
 as the emperor had expected, boldly pushed on to the 
 1 " Cent Ans d'Histoire Int^rieure." 
 
PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON. 89 
 
 defenceless capital. Paris suiTendered before Napoleon 
 could march to its defence. Before he reached the capi- 
 tal, the empire was doomed. A provisional Senate had 
 decided on the abdication of the emperor, as the only 
 means of saving the empire. Napoleon made a last 
 effort to save his dynasty by proposing to abdicate in 
 favour of his son, the infant King of Rome, but to no 
 purpose. The allied sovereigns allowed him to retain 
 his title of emperor, and granted him the island of Elba, 
 with a liberal civil list. In April, the titular emperor 
 retired to his island home, but the Allies had yet to 
 reckon with him, as we shall see in the next chapter. 
 Though, as is well known, Napoleon never manifested 
 any great liking for Paris, he devoted much atten- 
 tion to its embellishment. Most of the improvements 
 he effected are noticed, but not chronologically, in the 
 chapters on Monumental Paris, but it will be conven- 
 ient to summarise here the principal^buildings and monu- 
 ments restored or added to Paris under the First Empire. 
 The triumphal arches of the Etoile and Carrousel were 
 erected after Austerlitz, and were connected by a mag- 
 nificent avenue called the Rue Imperial, which Napoleon 
 intended to be the finest thoroughfare in Paris. This 
 magnificent highway is now known, of course, as the 
 Avenue des Champs Blys^es. Another famous monu- 
 mental ornament was the Vend6me Column. After Jena, 
 the splendid Pont de Jena was built. This still retains 
 its name, and helps to keep alive in the minds of Pari- 
 sians the Napoleonic legend. When the Allies occupied 
 Paris, the Austrians and Prussians were not satisfied 
 with changing the titles of these bridges, but were with 
 the greatest difficulty dissuaded by Louis XVIII., backed 
 
90 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 by Wellington, from blowing them up. In fact, some 
 historians declare that Louis XVIII. threatened that, if 
 the Pont de Jena were blown up, he would stand on the 
 bridge himself and perish in its ruin ! 
 
 The years 1810-14 mark a great development in 
 the topography and architecture of Paris. During this 
 period were built the Bourse, the front of the Palais 
 du Corps L^gislatif, the Palais du Quai d'Orsay, the 
 Temple and St. Martin markets, the Halle aux Vins, 
 the Quais Desaix, Catinat, Montebello, and de Billy, the 
 Cimeti^res de I'Bst and du Nord, the Canal St. Martin, 
 etc. On the heights now crowned by the Trocad^ro, the 
 emperor built the colossal palace for the King of Rome, 
 at the same time a palace and a fortress. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PARIS UNDER THE BOURBONS. 
 
 It was on the 20th of April that Napoleon left Fon- 
 tainebleau, after his famous farewell of the Old Guard, 
 for Elba, and four days after Louis XVIII., who had 
 been in exile since 1791, landed at Calais. Louis was 
 by nature and temperament not altogether unfitted for 
 the r81e of a constitutional monarch, but he was unfor- 
 tunately swayed by his entourage, who in exile had not 
 relaxed their absolutist notions of kingship. However, 
 in his first formal proclamation (promulgated at St. 
 Ouen on May 2d, the day before his formal entry into 
 Paris), the recognition of the new principles of national 
 and individual liberty, and the need of a representative 
 government, were prominent features of the manifesto. 
 These promises were on June 4th embodied in a char- 
 ter. The administrative appointments of Napoleon were 
 expressly maintained, and also the inviolability of all 
 property (including the estates of the Church) sold 
 during the Revolution. 
 
 The entry of the Bourbon sovereign into his capital 
 was characterised by general rejoicings, for the Parisians 
 seemed to have forgotten their oppression and misery 
 under their former kings, and remembered only the loss 
 of prestige to the nation caused by the failure of Na- 
 poleon's last campaign. The provisional government, 
 
92 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 which had compelled the abdication of the emperor, did 
 not take any official part in the reception of Louis, and 
 he took up his residence in the Tuileries without any 
 kind of agreement with the government. 
 
 The first duty of Louis was to sign the humiliating 
 treaty of peace with the allied powers, by which France 
 lost all her conquests under Napoleon, and had to return 
 to her boundaries of 1792. 
 
 In spite of the liberal promises made by Louis at St. 
 Ouen, his rule was never really popular, and civilians, as 
 well as the army, began to regret the imperial regime. 
 In the army, as was only natural, the loss of all the 
 hard-won conquests of Napoleon, and the crowning 
 insult of the occupation of Paris by the Allies, were felt 
 to be an indelible disgrace to French arms. There was, 
 besides, a general impression that Napoleon's defeat 
 was accidental, or, at all events, due to overwhelming 
 numbers. 
 
 Napoleon, who kept himself well-informed in his 
 island-retreat of the trend of public opinion in the 
 capital and the provinces, decided that the time was 
 ripe for action, and on the 1st of March he landed near 
 Cannes, with eight hundred of his guard. He was 
 received with wild enthusiasm by all classes, and his 
 journey to Paris was a veritable triumphal procession, — 
 indeed. Napoleon's electrifying proclamation to Prance, 
 in which he declared that the French eagle should fly 
 from steeple to steeple until it alighted on the towers 
 of Notre Dame, was converted from hyperbole to actual 
 fact. Even Marshal Ney, who had sworn to Louis 
 XVIII. himself to " bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron 
 cage," soon saw that the Bourbon cause was lost, and 
 
PARIS UNDER THE BOURBONS. 93 
 
 went over with all his troops to his old master. In less 
 than three weeks Napoleon reentered Paris and quar- 
 tered himself in the Tuileries, which Louis had left but 
 a few hours before. 
 
 Taught by experience, Napoleon recognised the neces- 
 sity of making some concession to the demands of the 
 people for liberal government, and in his charter known 
 as I'Aote Additionnel aux Constitution de V Empire, he made 
 promises as freely as the Bourbon king. By this new 
 constitution, freedom of the press and of public meeting, 
 and the representation of the nation by freely elected re- 
 sponsible ministers, were granted unhesitatingly by Napo- 
 leon. He was opposed, however, to a Senate of heredi- 
 tary peers, observing, with some justice, that in France 
 there was no real aristocracy of commanding political and 
 social influence ; " for thirty years from now," he de- 
 clared, " my mushroom nobles will be merely soldiers 
 or court chamberlains ; their place will be a camp or an 
 antechamber." On this point, however, he finally 
 judged it politic to give way. This Napoleonic charter 
 need not, however, be criticised or discussed, as it led, 
 of course, to nothing. Indeed, it was solemnly pro- 
 claimed only about a fortnight before the fall of the 
 empire at Waterloo. 
 
 As soon as the " invasion " of France was notified to 
 the plenipotentiaries of the powers, then sitting in 
 congress at Vienna for the purpose of definitely arrang- 
 ing the affairs of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, 
 Napoleon was formally proclaimed an outlaw and " an 
 enemy and disturber of the peace of the world," and 
 the Coalition was immediately reconstituted. 
 
 Napoleon decided upon his usual policy of striking the 
 
94 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 first blow, and entered Belgium with a hastily raised 
 army of some one hundred and twenty-two thousand 
 men to oppose the Allies, who had nearly twice that 
 number. The English and Belgian troops had their 
 headquarters at Brussels, while the Prussians were at 
 Liege. Napoleon's aim was to prevent their union, and 
 to engage them separately, one after the other. 
 
 " Of all the Napoleonic campaigns, this was by far the 
 most rapid and decisive," observes Sir J. R. Seeley. 
 " Everything concurred to make this short struggle the 
 most interesting military occurrence of modern history ; 
 its desperate intensity, its complete decisiveness, the pres- 
 ence for the first and last time of the English army in 
 the front of the European contest, and the presence 
 of the three most renowned commanders. Napoleon, 
 Wellington and Bliicher. Accordingly, it has been 
 debated with infinite curiosity, and misrepresented on 
 all sides with infinite partiality." The opening of the 
 three days' campaign was greatly in Napoleon's favour. 
 
 Thanks to the mobility of his troops, he was success- 
 ful in throwing himself between the two armies, and 
 defeating Bliicher at Ligny, on June 16th. Meanwhile, 
 Ney had been sent against the English at Quatre Bras, 
 with the idea of driving them from that position, and 
 then falling on the Prussians in their retreat. But Ney 
 failed, and consequently Bliicher was able to fall back 
 upon Wavre unmolested, and eventually to join Wel- 
 lington at Waterloo. Napoleon had detached Grouchy 
 with thirty-three thousand men to prevent their junction, 
 but was unable to come up with the Prussians. This 
 failure was the prime cause of Napoleon's defeat. 
 
 The battle of Waterloo has furnished a whole library 
 
PARIS UNDER TBE BOURBONS. 95 
 
 of polemical literature. In the following criticism by 
 Professor Seeley, it will be seen that Napoleon himself 
 is held responsible for the failure of Grouchy to acquaint 
 himself with the whereabouts of Bliicher's army, but it 
 is but fair to state that many military critics attribute 
 this bad generalship to Grouchy alone, who had allowed 
 himself to be detained by a single division of Bliicher. 
 Napoleon, as is only natural, always attributed his defeat 
 at Waterloo to Grouchy's remissness, lack of energy, 
 and utter want of judgment. 
 
 " Military critics point out several errors, some of 
 them considerable, committed by Wellington, but their 
 criticism of Napoleon, which begins by sweeping away 
 a mass of falsehood devised by himself and his admirers 
 in order to throw the blame upon others, is so crushing 
 that it seems to show us Napoleon, after his brilliant 
 commencement, acting as an indolent and inefficient 
 general. He first, through mere want of energy, allows 
 the Prussians to escape him after Ligny, and then sends 
 Marshal Grouchy, with thirty-three thousand men, in 
 the wrong direction in pursuit of them. Owing to this 
 mismanagement, Grouchy is at Wavre on the day of the 
 battle of Waterloo, fighting a useless battle against the 
 Prussian corps of Thielmann, while Bliicher is enabled 
 to keep his engagement to Wellington. Everywhere, 
 during these days. Napoleon appears negligent, inactive, 
 inaccessible, and rather a Darius than an Alexander, so 
 that it has been plausibly maintained that he was physi- 
 cally incapacitated by illness. The battle itself was one 
 of the most remarkable ever fought, but it was, per- 
 haps, on both sides, rather a soldiers' than a generals' 
 battle." 
 
96 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUE. 
 
 The battle of Waterloo is not a difficult one to follow. 
 It consisted of a series of frontal attacks on the English 
 position, Wellington's sole aim being to maintain his 
 ground till Bliicher arrived. Till the afternoon, when 
 the Prussians began to arrive, the issue seemed doubtful, 
 and, indeed, at one time, after Ney's successful attack 
 on La Haye Sainte, it looked as if Napoleon would gain 
 the day. But when Bliicher's troops arrived, and there 
 was no sign of Grouchy, Napoleon was compelled to 
 hazard everything on the charge of the Guard, which 
 was repulsed with great slaughter. This decided the 
 day, and Napoleon, leaving the demoralised remains of 
 his army to Soult, hurried off to the capital. 
 
 Waterloo is justly included in the great decisive 
 battles of the world. In its momentous results it un- 
 doubtedly deserves to be called decisive, but scarcely so 
 in the sense of the issue being practically assured from 
 the first. Waterloo might, in some respects, be con- 
 sidered the converse of Marengo, but the latter victory 
 was snatched from defeat by Desaix and Kellermann 
 almost by accident, while at Waterloo the absence of 
 Grouchy turned a probable victory into an irreparable 
 defeat. 
 
 At Paris the Chamber of Deputies soon gave Na- 
 poleon to understand that his abdication was imperative, 
 and they showed no inclination to defend Paris (then, it 
 must be remembered, without the fortified enceinte it 
 now possesses) or to make any further stand against the 
 Allies, who were marching upon the capital. 
 
 According to some authorities, if Napoleon had 
 known, before he fled from the field on the fateful even- 
 ing of Waterloo, that Grouchy, with thirty thousand 
 
PARIS UNDER THE BOURBONS. 97 
 
 men, was actually within a day's march, he would have 
 attempted to hold Paris against the Allies. This, how- 
 ever, is doubtful, for Napoleon seemed to have lost all 
 faith in his star, and his imperious spirit was broken. 
 Even when his brother Lucien urged him to " dare," and 
 make a final effort at dictatorship, he replied : " Dare ! 
 I have dared too much already." 
 
 Finally, seeing that all was lost, and that the 
 Chamber was not inclined to support him, he pro- 
 nounced his abdication in the following terms : " I 
 offer myself a sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies of 
 France. My public life is finished, and I proclaim my 
 son Emperor of the French." 
 
 The fallen emperor then left for Rochefort, intending 
 to fly to America, but English cruisers watched the 
 coast too narrowly to render this practicable, and finally 
 Napoleon surrendered himself to the captain of the 
 English frigate Bellerophon, whence he was transferred 
 to St. Helena to drag on an ignominious existence till 
 his death in 1821. 
 
 It is impossible, in the little space at our disposal, to 
 attempt any but the briefest and most superficial esti- 
 mate of the complex and intricate character of Napoleon. 
 That he was inordinately ambitious, in the highest 
 degree unscrupulous, and utterly lacking in a moral 
 sense is almost too obvious to be insisted upon. It 
 would be as unnecessary as to lay stress upon the ad- 
 mitted fact that he was the greatest general France has 
 ever produced. 
 
 But he was much more than a great soldier and 
 statesman. There is, no doubt, much to be said for the 
 oft-quoted observation that he could probably have 
 
98 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 attained the greatest distinctLon in any department of 
 human achievement or in any profession or calling he 
 might have adopted. That he was a great jurist and 
 administrator, his monumental serifes of codes which 
 form the Code Napoleon conclusively show. As an 
 orator he stands out prominently in an age of great 
 speakers, and his electrifying speeches to his soldiers 
 partly explain his remarkable ascendency over them, 
 and the extraordinary enthusiasm he evoked even after 
 the most crushing reverses to his arms. Then, even as 
 a mere phrase-maker and epigrammatist, none of his 
 contemporaries, except perhaps Talleyrand, can bear 
 comparison with Napoleon. What, for instance, can be 
 more graphic or vigorous than his oft-quoted reference 
 to the pyramids, when addressing his army at the begin- 
 ning of his Egyptian campaign, or his thrilling and in- 
 spiring metaphor already referred to, of the eagle flying 
 from steeple to steeple till it alighted on the towers of 
 Notre Dame, with which he encouraged his troops on 
 the eve of the Hundred Days ? No doubt the poetical 
 and emotional strain in Napoleon's complex character 
 had much to do with the perpetuation of the Napoleonic 
 legend. 
 
 It is indisputable that the Napoleonic wars of con- 
 quest proved, in the long run, in the highest degree 
 disastrous to France, and arrested its development as 
 a nation. But, at the same time, as a statesman and 
 administrator Napoleon might be said to have been a 
 great benefactor to France. Certainly his influence on 
 French institutions has proved permanent and, on the 
 whole, beneficial, as being suited to the French national 
 character. " Under every regime," says Mr. Bodley, 
 
PARIS UNDER THE BOURBONS. 99 
 
 " republican or monarchical, autocratic or parliamen- 
 tary, tlie civic life of the nation is regulated by the 
 durable machinery of the Napoleonic settlement." The 
 Napoleonic system is, in short, at the bottom of the 
 machinery of all French government of the present day. 
 Its permanence is considered, even by its detractors, 
 who disliked the centralised bureaucracy which is the 
 key-note of the French administration, as necessary, 
 because it is regarded as the one and only safeguard 
 for the stability of the nation. Abolish this system, 
 and " every institution in France would fall, and to 
 build up another France another Napoleon would be 
 needed." 
 
 This, then, is the work of Napoleon — modern France 
 is Napoleon's monument — - and this is his claim to 
 greatness. As Taine has observed, in his " Origines 
 de la Prance Contemporaine," Napoleon I. " displayed 
 the most colossal gifts of government and organisation 
 ever possessed by a human being." 
 . France, which, under the sixteenth century Bourbon 
 kings, served as a kind of " awful warning " to nations, 
 has done vast service to the civilised countries of the 
 world as an object-lesson in the great underlying princi- 
 ples of civilised rule, viz., the necessity of recognising 
 both political liberty — in other words, the right of the 
 ■people to govern through their representatives, whether 
 sovereign or President — and the principles of nation- 
 ality, in a state. In these respects, the work of the 
 French Revolution has been permanent. We cannot 
 better sum up the outcome of the great political and 
 social upheaval of a nation, known as the French Revo- 
 lution, than by quoting Mr. Morse Stephens's concise 
 
100 PAHIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 and admirably expressed conclusion to his study of 
 this period. 
 
 " The primary results of the French Revolution — the 
 recognition of individual liberty (which implied the 
 abolition of serfdom and of social privileges), the estab- 
 lishment of political liberty (which implied the aboli- 
 tion of despots, however benevolent, and of political 
 privileges), the maintenance of the doctrine of the sover- 
 eignty of the people — have also survived the Congress 
 of Vienna. When Europe tried to interfere, the French 
 people sacrificed these great gains to the spirit of 
 nationality, and bowed before the despotism of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety and of Napoleon ; they have 
 since regained them. The French taught these princi- 
 ples to the rest of Europe, and the history of Europe, 
 since 1815, has been the history of their growth, side by 
 side with the idea of nationality." 
 
 It cannot be said that the second restoration of Louis 
 XVIII. was acclaimed with enthusiasm by the Paris- 
 ians. The national amour propre was offended at their 
 sovereign having become the prot^g^ of the Allies, and 
 having been restored to his throne by English bayonets. 
 Then the national resentment was further aroused 
 by the harsh terms of the allied powers. Paris was 
 treated by them as a conquered capital and garrisoned 
 by foreign troops. The Chambers, however, were thor- 
 oughly royalist in sentiment, and heartily supported 
 the Bourbon sovereign, of whom it was scathingly but 
 not unfairly said, that he had " learnt nothing and for- 
 gotten nothing " during his long exile. 
 
 Louis, at the outset, had a difficult part to play in 
 order to retain his crown ; it was necessary to pacify 
 
PABIS UNDER THE B0USB0N8. 101 
 
 the liberal party, who had gradually rallied around 
 Napoleon on finding him disposed to govern constitu- 
 tionally, and, on the other hand, he had to restrain the 
 ultra-royalist party, " plus royaliste que le roi," who had 
 returned from their second undignified exile more implac- 
 able and unreconcilable than ever. His great aim was 
 to achieve the unity of the French nation and to bridge 
 over the gulf between the bourgeoisie and the noblesse. 
 To effect some kind of modus vivendi, in the atmosphere 
 of greed and partisan passion by which his court was 
 permeated, necessitated, at the outset, extreme measures 
 which were unpleasantly suggestive of the coup d'etat of 
 the Revolutionary regime. 
 
 From the very beginning, Louis XVIII. found himself 
 compelled to oppose the harsh repressive measures of 
 the royalist or reactionist party, who were in a major- 
 ity in the Chambers. Their implacable hatred and 
 jealousy of Napoleon's rule initiated so determined a 
 persecution of all those who had supported the deposed 
 emperor, that they established a state of things which 
 was not inaptly termed the White Terror, in contradis- 
 tinction to the Red Terror of 1793-94. An iniquitous 
 law empowered the tribunals to arrest all citizens who 
 might be overheard criticising the acts of the govern- 
 ment, and another provided for the summary arrest of 
 all persons even suspected of being antagonistic to the 
 Restoration, while a third, which was ironically de- 
 scribed as a law of amnesty, decreed perpetual banish- 
 ment against the members of the National Convention 
 who had voted in favour of the capital punishment of 
 Louis XVI. 
 
 These vindictive measures violated not only the king's 
 
102 PASIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 promises made in 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon, 
 but were quite contrary to the charter solemnly promul- 
 gated by Louis in the same year. 
 
 The king acted with praiseworthy vigour by issuing 
 a decree (September 5, 1816) dissolving the Chambers, 
 and reducing the number of deputies from 402 to 259. 
 Though this step was, no doubt, unconstitutional, it 
 was justified by the gravity of the situation. The 
 result of the new election was to place the government 
 in the hands of the liberal or moderate party, chiefly 
 composed of the middle classes, and some measure of 
 constitutional rule was enjoyed by France till the 
 assassination of the Due de Berri, eldest son of the 
 Comte d'Artois (afterward Charles X.), on February 
 13, 1820, caused an anti-liberal reaction, and Richelieu, 
 the most violent of the reactionists, returned to power. 
 From now till the beginning of 1828, the Right (royal- 
 ist and reactionary) party was supreme, and the whole 
 of the liberal edifice which had been carefully built up 
 from 1816 to 1820 was overturned. 
 
 Louis XVIII., old and worn out by his efforts to 
 reconcile the two opposing parties, had died in 1824, 
 and was succeeded by his brother, Comte d'Artois, 
 under the title of Charles X. 
 
 Charles X. was, perhaps, the worst of the Bourbons. 
 He had contributed, by his follies and excesses, more 
 than any one of Louis the Sixteenth's family in alienat- 
 ing the affections of the nation from the court. He was 
 bigoted, immoral, and stupid, and a handsome and kindly 
 presence and fine manner were, perhaps, the only quali- 
 fications for sovereignty he possessed. " From the scan- 
 dals of his early life to the devotion of his later days, 
 
PARIS UNDER THE BOURBONS. 103 
 
 there had been but a step ; the sublime is not so near 
 the ridiculous as superstition is to immorality. He was 
 regarded as a mere tool of the Jesuits, and his reign 
 was but a struggle against the more liberal instincts of 
 his country." 
 
 There is a certain resemblance between the tempera- 
 ment of Charles X. and his namesake of England, 
 though the latter lost his head as well as his throne. 
 Charles X. was equally imbued with the doctrine of 
 the divine right of kings, and the reign of each was 
 one long and ineffectual struggle against a nation 
 " struggling to be free." 
 
 In 1829 Charles was able to form a ministry after 
 his own heart, and found a willing adherent in the 
 mystical and ignorant Prince Polignac. This ministry 
 did not, however, command the confidence of the 
 Chamber, and Charles X. rushed on his fate with the 
 usual coup d'Stat, by which he dissolved the Chamber, 
 and by his five famous ordinances he hurried on the 
 final struggle between liberty and despotism, which 
 resulted in the loss of his crown. These ordinances, 
 which it was expressly stated were decreed to check 
 " the turbulent democracy which has invaded even 
 our laws, and tends to displace legitimate power," and 
 would have reduced the nation to the state of absolute 
 dependence on the will of the sovereign under which it 
 groaned in the days of Louis XV., were received with 
 amazement in Paris. A well-organised insurrection 
 broke out at once, and barricades appeared as if by 
 magic. Three days of fighting — the "Three Glori- 
 ous Days of July" — sufficed to defeat the king. A 
 tardy change of ministry, and the revocation of the 
 
104 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 obnoxious and fatal decrees, did not avail to save his 
 throne, or even his dynasty, for the king's formal abdi- 
 cation in favour of his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux 
 (generally known as the Comte de Chambord), was not 
 taken seriously. On August 2, 1830, Charles fled to 
 Rambouillet, and then to England. Such was the 
 ignoble end of the Bourbon dynasty in France. 
 
 During the period popularly known as the Restora- 
 tion, public works of considerable importance were 
 undertaken in Paris, especially during the reign of 
 Charles X., under M. de Chabrol (whose memory is 
 preserved in the Rue Chabrol, which has recently 
 earned such notoriety), the Prefect of the Seine. The 
 draining of the capital was carried on energetically, 
 over sixty streets and places were built, and the mar- 
 kets begun by Napoleon I. were finished. Three new 
 bridges were built, Pont des Invalides, Pont de I'Arch- 
 ev§ch^, and Pont d'Arcole. Among the churches and 
 public buildings added to the capital were Notre Dame 
 de Lorette, St. Vincent de Paul, Chapelle Expiatoire de 
 Louis XVI., S^minaire de St. Sulpice, Academic de 
 M^decine, and Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It was under 
 Charles X. that omnibuses were introduced, and the 
 streets first lighted by gas. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PARIS XJNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 Under the last two Bourbon kings, the prevalent note 
 of the period is the struggle of the public against the 
 absolutist tendencies of the sovereign and privileged 
 classes. In other words, under Louis XVIII. and 
 Charles X., democracy versus aristocracy, under Louis 
 Philippe, democracy versus plutocracy, is the dominant 
 note of the period. Under Louis Philippe, the struggle 
 for freedom on the part of the people is continued, but 
 is mainly directed against the pretensions of the bour- 
 geoisie, who had obtained the supreme power in the 
 government. 
 
 Compared to the romantic epoch of the Revolution 
 and the empire, the history of Prance from 1815 to 
 1848 is tame and colourless. Individual liberty was, 
 no doubt, crushed under the iron military despotism 
 of Napoleon, but it cannot be denied that its history 
 is intensely interesting. 
 
 To the student of politics, the political development 
 of Prance under Louis Philippe and the Second Re- 
 public is of supreme interest, but the growth of the 
 constitution is not, of course, to the ordinary reader, so 
 attractive or picturesque as the growth of empire, and 
 the story of the rise and fall of the French empire 
 abounds in " purple patches." With the rise of Louis 
 
106 PARIS IN ITS SPLENBOUE. 
 
 Napoleon, however, the romance of French history 
 recommences. 
 
 A majority of the Deputies on August 7,1830, offered 
 the crown of France to Louis Philippe, Due d'Orleans 
 (son of Philip Bgalit^), having rejected the proposal of a 
 regency during the minority of the little Due de Bor- 
 deaux, made by the unfortunate Charles X. The Duke 
 of Orleans had no hesitation in accepting the throne, 
 though he had written to Charles X., only a week before, 
 solemnly promising that he would decline such an offer, 
 if it were made to. him, and explained his presence in 
 Paris at the invitation of the Chamber by saying that 
 he had been brought there by force. 
 
 The history of this reign is now closely bound up with 
 the domestic history of Paris. Louis Philippe spent 
 much of his time in the capital, as might be expected in 
 the case of a sovereign who prided himself on the title 
 of " Citoyen King," and most of the events of importance 
 in this colourless reign took place in the metropolis. 
 
 The reign of Louis Philippe, whom one of his adher- 
 ents called la meilleure des repuhliques, was no doubt, in 
 theory, a parliamentary or constitutional monarchy, but 
 it can hardly be said that the king was sincere in his 
 profession of liberal opinions, and indeed, during the 
 latter part of his reign, the king's chief aim seemed to be 
 to evade the performance of the liberal promises of the 
 charter to which he had sworn. Louis Philippe never, 
 indeed, inspired any great policy, and the cardinal 
 principle of his government seems to have been to form 
 an absolute monarchy under the guise of a parliamentary 
 one, and his liberalism went no further than humouring 
 the people when necessary. In fact, Louis Philippe was 
 
PARIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 107 
 
 conservatist and absolutist by conviction, but liberal by 
 policy. 
 
 During the first two years of his reign several weak 
 ministries on a popular or democratic basis successively 
 ruled the destinies of France. But this concession to 
 the popular sentiment was in the nature of a feeler, and 
 in 1832 a strong government, distinctly anti-liberal in 
 tendency, was formed imder Soult, Thiers, and Guizot, 
 which managed to retain its authority till 1836. This 
 is perhaps the most brilliant period of Louis Philippe's 
 reign. Gradually the members of the more constitutional 
 party, whose motto was that " le roi rigne et ne gouveme 
 pas" were weeded out, and even Thiers was at length 
 dismissed as too independent. After the fall of Thiers, 
 in September, 1836, a succession of short-lived minis- 
 tries commenced, till Marshal Soult formed a ministry 
 which had in it some elements of stability, but this 
 ministry was overthrown, solely owing to the notorious 
 greed of the king. He had insisted on his ministry ask- 
 ing the Chambers for a large grant for his son, the Due 
 de Nemours. As it was notorious that the king's private 
 fortune was colossal, and as a civil list of twelve million 
 francs was already allotted him, this request was thought 
 exorbitant. This determined opposition compelled Soult 
 to resign office. Thiers then attempted to form a gov- 
 ernment, but his ministry lasted but a few months, and 
 he had to give way to his great political and literary 
 rival, Guizot. 
 
 Thiers's short-lived ministry is rendered memorable 
 by the state funeral of Napoleon I., whose ashes were 
 brought from St. Helena and solemnly reinterred in 
 the Invalides. 
 
108 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The public funeral of Napoleon was, indeed, the only 
 real public pageant which Paris had enjoyed throughout 
 this reign. 
 
 The body of the emperor had been brought from St. 
 Helena by the Prince de JoinviUe, and the funeral car 
 — an immense structure drawn by sixteen horses — 
 passed through the streets of the capital amidst scenes 
 of the wildest enthusiasm. Indeed, the transports of 
 joy with which " Vempereur de la guerre " was received by 
 the subjects of the " roi de la paix " indicated to some 
 extent the growing unpopularity of the latter. 
 
 Long and animated was the discussion in the Chamber 
 as to the monument in Paris which should have the 
 honour of sheltering Napoleon's ashes. The Made- 
 leine and the Place VendSme were at first proposed, 
 but finally the Invalides was chosen. Certainly it 
 would be difficult to choose a fitter spot for the last 
 resting-place of Napoleon than this sanctuary where 
 the Old Guard sleep their last sleep, under the tattered 
 standards that have been won from all the nations of 
 Europe. 
 
 The ceremony in the Invalides has been vividly 
 described by Thackeray in a little-known brochure. 
 
 " At last the real procession came. Then the drums 
 began to beat as formerly, the Nationals to get under 
 arms, the clergymen were sent for, and went, and 
 presently — yes, there was the tall cross-bearer at the 
 head of the procession, and they came back. 
 
 "While everybody's heart was thumping as hard as 
 possible. Napoleon's coffin passed. It was done in an 
 instant. A box, covered with a great red cross, — a 
 dingy-looking crown lying on the top of it, — seamen on 
 
PARIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 109 
 
 one side, and Invalides on the other ; they had passed in 
 an instant and were up the aisle. 
 
 " A faint, snuffling sound as before was heard from the 
 officiating priests, but we knew of nothing more. It is 
 said that old Louis Philippe was standing at the cata- 
 falque, whither the Prince de Joinville advanced, and 
 said, ' Sire, I bring you the body of the Emperor 
 Napoleon.' 
 
 " Louis Philippe answered, ' I receive it in the name of 
 France.' Bertrand put on the body the most glorious, 
 victorious sword that ever has been forged since the apt 
 descendants of the first murderer learned how to ham- 
 mer steel, and the coffin was placed in the temple 
 prepared for it." 
 
 The mausoleum of Napoleon is one of the most 
 impressive in Europe. The colossal sarcophagus of red 
 porphyry comes from Finland, which accounts for the 
 popular impression that it was the gift of Russia, and 
 M. Guizot has been blamed for having " begged the tomb 
 of Napoleon from the Czar." The true version of the 
 story is that the sculptor Visconti, finding that no 
 porphyry mine existed in France, ascertained that there 
 was a fine quarry of this stone on crown property in 
 Finland. When the Czar Nicholas heard that the 
 French government was negotiating for its purchase, he 
 remitted the tax, amounting to a few hundred francs 
 only, but the actual cost of the porphyry and transport 
 (200,000 frs.) was paid for out of the French treasury. 
 In spite of this, the legend remains, and in nearly all 
 the accounts of the Invalides in the guide-books, it is 
 stated that Russia made France a present of the tomb 
 of Napoleon. 
 
110 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 In October, 1840, Guizot became the real head of the 
 government, with Marshal Soult as premier. Guizot 
 managed to remain in power till the fall of the dynasty 
 in the spring of 1848. This seven years' government 
 proved throughout reactionary. Instead of the abso- 
 lutist rule of a sovereign, the liberal and constitutional 
 party had to fight against the despotism of the bour- 
 geoisie, who did their best to repress the aspirations 
 of the nation for political freedom. The agitation for 
 an extension of the franchise and parliamentary reform 
 went on spreading till it culminated in the popular 
 rising of 1848, which cost the Citizen King his throne. 
 
 Guizot's determined opposition to the party of reform 
 was severely criticised by Lamartine, who protested that 
 if the refusal of any measures of reform or political 
 amelioration were the only attitude a minister directing 
 a government need maintain, there was no need of a 
 minister at all. " A bar would suffice." 
 
 Though the ministry of M. Thiers lasted but a few 
 months, it is to be remembered for one important 
 measure of especial interest to Parisians, the scheme 
 for the construction of the present bastioned wall which 
 surrounds the capital. Though these fortifications were 
 not actually begun till the year following, the chief 
 credit of their construction belongs to M. Thiers. 
 
 The fortifying of Paris had long been a cherished 
 scheme of Thiers, but it was not till 1840 that the 
 Chambers authorised the enormous expenditure which 
 these military works would entail. The defencelessness 
 of Paris since the pulling down of the walls in the eight- 
 eenth century was felt to be a serious source of danger 
 to France. 
 
PABIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. Ill 
 
 The humiliating events of 1814 and 1815, when 
 Paris had been so easily taken possession of by the 
 allied armies, had long made the question of fortifying 
 the capital a burning one with ministers. As early as 
 1826 the Minister of War had impressed upon Charles 
 X. the imperative necessity of safeguarding Paris from any 
 sudden coup de main on the part of the enemy ; nothing 
 was done, however, till 1831, when some attempts were 
 made to fortify the heights arouiid Paris, but the works 
 were not prosecuted with vigour, and little had been 
 done by 1836, when they were discontinued. One 
 reason which contributed to the postponement of the 
 work of putting Paris in a state of defence' was the 
 opposition of the Parisians themselves. There was a 
 feeling that the proposed fortifications might easily be 
 converted into a series of bastiles, and used to crush 
 any aspirations of political or municipal freedom on the 
 part of the civic authorities. Thiers, in 1840, was, how- 
 ever, strong enough to disregard the popular disapproval 
 of the project, and the work was begun, without the 
 consent even of the Chambers, by royal decree, and 
 was vigorously prosecuted under the next ministry. 
 The centralisation argument was successfully pleaded 
 by the ministry in order to get the necessary grant for 
 the enormous cost of the new enceinte. 
 
 " Strike this centre (Paris)," argued M. Thiers, " and 
 France is like a man struck in the head. Paris, which 
 our enemies aim chiefly at striking, must be sheltered 
 from their blows. Take away this aim, and all their 
 combinations directed against Prance fall to the ground. 
 In a word, fortify the capital, and you will materially 
 modify the war tactics and the policy of our enemies ; 
 
112 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 you will render futile wars of invasion, in other words 
 wars of principle." 
 
 There were not wanting bitter opponents of the 
 scheme in the Chamber. It was argued that, far from 
 rendering the conquest of France impossible, and in- 
 vasion futile, it would facilitate the subjugation of the 
 country; for the enormous population confined within 
 the defences would soon be compelled by starvation to 
 capitulate to a beleaguering army, without any neces- 
 sity for storming the works. The force of this argu- 
 ment was, indeed, only too clearly shown some thirty 
 years later. One point raised, which in the light of 
 the siege* of 1870-71 is a little significant, was the dif- 
 ficulty of supplying Paris with fresh meat. It was, 
 however, contended, that a sixty days' supply of cattle 
 could easily be obtained, and that would be probably 
 the longest period to which a siege would be protracted ! 
 
 Finally the measure was carried, and a special grant 
 of the stupendous sum of 140 million francs for the 
 fortifications of Paris, — the most extensive works of 
 defence of modern times. The octroi barriers were at 
 first independent of the new bastioned wall, but in 1860 
 these were removed and made coterminous with the 
 fortified enceinte. 
 
 By the beginning of 1848 the agitation for electoral 
 reform had become universal, but the government re- 
 fused to give way. The climax was reached when cer- 
 tain banquets, which had been organised by the leaders 
 of the movement, were arbitrarily forbidden. Little 
 was wanted to fan the embers of the national feeling 
 of discontent with the government into a blaze, and 
 Paris was in an excited and restless condition. The 
 
PABIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 113 
 
 year opened badly for the moribund ministry of M. 
 Guizot. Many were the reasons which made observant 
 politicians feel that a national crisis was imminent. 
 
 " Irritation, want, the feeling that the government 
 had done little to lessen the commercial and agricul- 
 tural distress; the desire of a more popular and, per- 
 haps, more brilliant rule ; the distrust of Guizot's policy, 
 as shown in the risks of the Spanish marriages, by 
 which he had endangered the peace of France for the 
 sake of illusory dynastic advantages ; the consciousness 
 that the king's feelings were not friendly to the people, 
 that his government was selfish, and that he did not 
 hesitate to use corruption and influence in elections, — 
 these things all made affairs seem unsettled and pre- 
 carious." 
 
 Immediately Paris, always ready to settle political 
 differences by an appeal to force, broke out in open 
 rebellion ; the citizens of the disaffected quarter of the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine built barricades and defied the 
 troops (February 22d). The National Guard siding with 
 the insurgents, the king felt that all was lost, and ended 
 an inglorious reign by an inglorious flight in an or- 
 dinary hackney-cab. Louis had already made a last 
 effort to save his dynasty by abdicating in favour of his 
 infant grandson, the Oomte de Paris. It was, however, 
 too late. Paris wanted a republic, the Palais Bourbon 
 was invaded by a mob, and under its influence a pro- 
 visional government was proclaimed. Among the mem- 
 bers elected were Lamartine, Dupont, Ledru-Rollin, and, 
 subsequently, Louis Blanc. Escorted by the National 
 Guard, they at once proceeded to the H6tel de Ville, 
 the time-honoured rallying-place of all popular move- 
 
114 PARIS IN ITS 8PLMND0UB. 
 
 ments in Paris, and formally proclaimed the Republic. 
 It was to be based on the sovereignty of the people, with 
 the old watchwords, " liberty, equality, and fraternity," 
 indicating the return to the true principles of republi- 
 canism. At the same time the tricolour was reestab- 
 lished, with the addition of a red rosette. " This decree 
 indicated," observes Dean Kitchin, " as trifles often will 
 do, the position taken up by the new administration. 
 They could not accept the red flag of the Parisian Com- 
 munists, which Louis Blanc wished to take as a symbol 
 of a thorough republicanism ; they added the red rosette 
 to express a certain sympathy with that side ; they kept 
 the tricolour as the flag of the old Revolution." 
 
 Though the reign of Louis Philippe was tame and 
 somewhat inglorious, yet a great impetus was given to 
 the embellishment of the capital by the construction 
 and restoration of public buildings. In the chapters on 
 Monumental Paris, the architectural development of 
 Paris under Louis Philippe will be more fully described 
 when noticing the individual monuments, so it will not 
 be necessary here to do more than summarise the chief 
 improvements. The Arc de I'Etoile, the Madeleine, and 
 the Palais du Quai d'Orsay were completed, and the 
 H6tel de Ville enlarged. The Palais de Justice, the 
 Louvre, and Notre Dame were restored. A considerable 
 portion of the long neglected Place du Carrousel was 
 cleared, and converted into a public promenade. Then, 
 among the less showy but equally important civic im- 
 provements, were the widening of some streets and the 
 paving of others. 
 
 An appreciation of Paris of the Second Republic, a 
 little high-flown in tone, but containing the germs of 
 
PARIS UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE. 115 
 
 truth, by Lavall^e, the famous historian of Paris, may 
 appropriately be quoted here in the following free 
 translation : 
 
 " The capital of Prance is no more an ordinary city, 
 but the soul of the country (and the foster-mother 
 of all European revolutions), the metropolis of modern 
 civilisation, a city of many moods, passionate, intelligent, 
 and volatile, taking the initiative — the burthen as well 
 as the glory — in all human progress. It codifies, con- 
 centrates, and gives voice to the ideas, interests, and 
 mental forces of all nations. Paris, indeed, has become 
 a kind of epitome, not only of Prance, but of Western 
 nations. All Europe listens to its opinions, watches its 
 movements, and foretells from them their future lot. 
 
 "The city of Etienne Marcel, of the League, of the 
 Pronde, whose agitation had scarcely affected a single 
 Prench province, became the city of 1789, of 1830, of 
 1848, whose movements disturb all the civilised world." 
 
 Prance, as usual in times of great popular excite- 
 ment, took its cue from Paris, and the revolution was, 
 on the whole, cheerfully accepted in the provinces. But 
 in a few months the government had to deal with a far 
 more serious counter-revolution on the part of the work- 
 ing men of Paris, who were exasperated by the closing 
 of the national workshops. 
 
 These curious institutions — the pet scheme of Louis 
 Blanc — were in theory excellent, the idea being to pro- 
 vide work for every able-bodied man. It was, however, 
 particularly difficult in performance, as it obliged the 
 state to provide means of sustenance for every citizen in 
 inverse ratio to the prosperity of the labour market, and 
 the resources of the treasury. In short, this well-mean- 
 
116 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ing and essentially paternal government aimed at sus- 
 pending the primary laws of political economy on behalf 
 of the working man. The more sober-minded soon per- 
 ceived that this practical form of socialism would soon 
 prove too great a burden for the state, and that the 
 country generally would soon be tired of subsidising the 
 Parisian artisan and labouring man. Their forebodings 
 were only too soon realised. The workmen of Paris 
 applied in such numbers for employment at the national 
 workshops, that in a few weeks the government was con- 
 fronted with the impossible task of providing work for 
 more than one hundred thousand citizens. As the 
 government was pledged to maintain all who applied, 
 even those for whom no work could be found, it was 
 soon found necessary, from lack of funds, to close the 
 workshops. This caused great popular excitement, 
 and the mob, as usual, flew to arms. On the night 
 of the 23d June barricades were erected all over Paris. 
 The government declared the capital to be in a state 
 of siege, and entrusted the Minister of War with the 
 suppression of the revolt, with powers so ample that 
 he was virtually dictator. The fighting between the 
 troops and the insurgents was of a more formid- 
 able character than in the revolution of the preced- 
 ing February, and it was not till after four days 
 of sanguinary battle that the insurrection was finally 
 crushed. 
 
 Cavaignac has been blamed for causing unnecessary 
 slaughter, as, in order to stamp out the insurrection most 
 effectually and to get rid at one blow of as many as pos- 
 sible among the disaffected of the populace, — and, it 
 was also said, to increase his own importance as the sa- 
 
PABI8 UNDME LOUIS PHILIPPE. 117 
 
 viour of Paris, — he allowed barricades to be erected and 
 the mob to assemble in their thousands before setting his 
 troops in motion. It was on the first day of the insur- 
 rection that the Archbishop of Paris, the devoted Mon- 
 seigneur Affre, was accidentally killed by a shot from 
 one of the government soldiers, when he had mounted 
 the barricade of the Place de la Bastille in a desperate 
 attempt to induce the insurgents to lay down their arms. 
 In November, 1848, the constitution makers had com- 
 pleted their draft of a new constitution, for, since the fall 
 of the monarchy, the government had been avowedly 
 only provisional. The new constitution did not depart 
 very widely, as regards the composition of the legis- 
 lative chamber and the Council of State, from that of 
 1799. But an important innovation was the appoint- 
 ment of a single head of the state, with the title of 
 President, elected for four years only by universal 
 suffrage. This method of election would give over- 
 whelming power to a strong man with an enormous 
 electorate quite unaccustomed to the exercise of political 
 rights, and little checked by an Assembly which offered 
 no real counterpoise to his authority. As will be seen, 
 the man was ready to seize this dictatorship, which was 
 virtually offered, and Louis Napoleon took even less time 
 in showing his real colours than his uncle. Napoleon I. 
 Louis Napoleon had been barely a month in the new 
 Assembly (to which he had got himself elected at a by- 
 election), before he was elected President by the over- 
 whelming majority of five and a half million votes 
 against one and a ha;lf million votes given for the liberal 
 or Republican candidate, the late dictator. General 
 Cavaignac. 
 
118 PABIS m ITS 8PLEND0UB. 
 
 In this election the provinces, where the " Napoleonic 
 idea " was stronger than in the capital, provided most 
 votes for Louis Napoleon, for, contrary to the usual cus- 
 tom, Paris was outvoted hy the country. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPEEIAL PARIS. 
 
 The dramatic scene in the Assembly on December 20, 
 1848, when the result of the presidential election was 
 declared, has been described by Victor Hugo with all 
 his accustomed vigour and picturesqueness of style. 
 
 After General Cavaignac had formally resigned his 
 powers to the Assembly, the President, Marrast, pi'O- 
 claimed the result of the voting. Then there advanced 
 to the tribune " un petit homme pS,le en habit noir, 
 cravate blanche et gants blancs, portant sur son habit la 
 rosette de representant et la plaque de grand croix de 
 la Legion d'Honneur. C'^tait Louis Napoleon." Amid 
 a profound silence the President-elect repeats the oath to 
 the constitution, " En presence de Dieu et devant le 
 peuple Pran§ais, je jure de rester fiddle a la R^publique 
 d^mocratique, et de d^fendre la Constitution," and con- 
 cludes with this solemn affirmation, " Je prends Dieu a 
 t^moin du serment qui vient d'etre prSt^." Then, in 
 order to further reassure the democratic section of the 
 Chamber, he reads the following declaration. The most 
 significant passage may well be quoted here. "The vrill 
 of the nation and the oath which I have just sworn 
 shall influence all my conduct in the future. I should 
 regard as enemies of the country all those who should 
 attempt by illegitimate means to change the form of 
 
120 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 government which you have just established. Between 
 the Assembly and myself there is perfect agreement. 
 Our government will neither be Utopian nor reactionary. 
 We shall act for the good of the country, and we hope 
 that, by the help of God, if we do not effect great things, 
 we shall at least do what is right." 
 
 These are the words of a man who in less than three 
 years falsified his solemn oath, conspired against and 
 overthrew the Assembly, and betrayed his republic, at 
 the cost of the lives of hundreds of its devoted sup- 
 porters. 
 
 The events of these three years, in which Napoleon 
 was virtually feeling his way for the reestablishment 
 of monarchical rule, must be rapidly passed over. 
 
 Napoleon's home policy was mainly directed to con- 
 solidating his authority and forming a party which 
 would support him in his persistent efforts to undermine 
 the authority of the Legislature. In less than a year 
 from the date of his election as President, he had boldly 
 aflRrmed his views of government, which seem to fore- 
 shadow the despotic measures of December, 1851. " The 
 name of Napoleon," he did not hesitate to affirm, " is of 
 itself a programme signifying order, authority, religion, 
 and the prosperity of the people at home, with national 
 dignity abroad. This is the policy inaugurated by my 
 election which I wish to see triumph." 
 
 In 1851 the struggle began between the Prince-Presi- 
 dent and the Assembly, which was opposed to the re- 
 vision of the constitution, — a measure much desired 
 by Napoleon in order that the clause which forbade the 
 reelection of the President might be suppressed. This 
 revision was rejected by the Assembly, and from that 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 121 
 
 moment war between Louis Napoleon and the Legis- 
 lature was inevitable. Though the coup d'Stat was 
 not actually carried till six months later, it was prob- 
 ably at this juncture decided upon that, legitimate 
 means having failed, force alone could ensure the 
 authority and independence of the future emperor. 
 
 It was, however, essential to get the nation on his 
 side against the Assembly ; consequently a specious cause 
 of quarrel was found, in which the President should 
 pose as the friend of the people. 
 
 The Ministry, all creatures of the President, proposed 
 the abrogation of the franchise law of May 31, 1850, 
 which had reduced the franchise by over sixty per cent, 
 of the electorate. Such a proposal would have so en- 
 larged the electorate that it would almost mean uni- 
 versal suffrage. This democratic measure was stoutly 
 resisted by the Assembly. Louis Napoleon, recognising 
 that he could now pose as champion of the masses, 
 decided that the time was come for a repetition of his 
 great exemplar's eoup d'Stat of the 18th Brumaire, 1799. 
 Louis Napoleon's coup d^Stat was, however, far more 
 daring and comprehensive, and infinitely more brutal, 
 and aimed at sweeping away the whole fabric of the 
 constitution. But " Napoleon the Little " did not, like 
 his great predecessor, carry it out almost single-handed. 
 He had already nearly all the members of the Ministry, 
 including the prefect of police and the Minister of War, 
 gained over to his cause. 
 
 During the night of the 1st- 2d December, the 
 finishing touches to this great conspiracy against 
 the Republic were added. The prominent members 
 of the Assembly were arrested, Rnd taken away to 
 
122 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 separate prisons, while all Paris was placarded with 
 the President's manifesto, announcing the dissolution 
 of the Chamber and the repeal of the law of the 31st 
 May. 
 
 The two days following were devoted by Napoleon 
 and his advisers to crushing the armed resistance, 
 organised by the Kepublican Deputies of the expelled 
 Chamber in the streets, by wholesale fusilading. In 
 the course of this massacre it is incontestable that 
 large numbers of absolutely unoffending persons (in- 
 cluding many women and children) were pitilessly 
 shot down by the troops. In fact, these wholesale mas- 
 sacres recalled the worst days of the Red Terror, and 
 are an ineffaceable blot on the memory of Napoleon III. 
 Compared to these infamous "fusilades" the political 
 murder of the Condi prince, the Due d'Bnghien, by 
 Napoleon I. was a trifling misdemeanour. 
 
 In fact, the ferocity of the troops could scarcely have 
 been excused, if it were a question of stamping out the 
 remnant of maddened desperate communards who made 
 a last stand at P^re-la-Chaise in May, 1871. 
 
 The evidence of impartial historians seems to point 
 to the fact that this systematic and continuous shooting 
 down of harmless pedestrians in the boulevards was 
 in accordance with a deliberately organised policy of 
 intimidation. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that in crushing this 
 insurrection Napoleon's advisers showed consummate 
 generalship. On the night of the 3d December, the 
 troops were purposely withdrawn from the streets, and 
 the insurgents were allowed to build barricades almost 
 undisturbed. By this means there would be no danger 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 123 
 
 of the troops fraternising with the people, and they 
 would come fresh to the decisive conflict which was 
 arranged for the next afternoon. Then the most deter- 
 mined and the most dangerous of the bourgeoisie and of 
 those opposed to the coup d'etat would be collected in 
 force at the barricades ; and consequently, by the sudden 
 employment of an overwhelming mass of troops, the bar- 
 ricades could be simultaneously taken, all the leaders 
 shot or taken prisoners, Paris terrorised, and the insur- 
 rection be utterly and completely stamped out. Results 
 proved the wisdom of these brutal and pitiless tactics. 
 
 The argument usually brought forward in excuse for 
 the infamous measure, which has earned an unenviable 
 notoriety as the coup cCStat in a country whose history 
 is prolific in coups d^Stat, will not stand examination. 
 Some apologists declare that Napoleon's plot against 
 the Republic only anticipated a widespread conspiracy 
 against the person of the President, but facts in support 
 of this assertion are wanting. It is also asserted, but 
 also without proofs, that the sanguinary events of the 
 3d and 4th December were a political necessity, — 
 that, owing to the factious opposition of the National 
 Assembly, stable government was impossible. 
 
 A more plausible excuse for the coup d'Stat is that 
 Louis Napoleon, by this strong measure, saved France 
 from the horrors of a great Socialist revolution. But 
 granting the possibility of a serious Socialist rising, there 
 was no danger as long as the army remained faithful to 
 the government. 
 
 The judgment of posterity for the most part agrees 
 with that of contemporary opinion, that the coup d'Stat 
 was one of the gravest political crimes a ruler of a civil- 
 
124 PARIS IN IT8 SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ised state has ever been guilty of. An English author, 
 writing in 1852, makes this striking forecast of Louis 
 Napoleon's future : " Many think that Napoleon must 
 march forward in the fatal path of arbitrary power until 
 Prance rises to free herself from the yoke of bondage 
 by another revolution, perhaps more terrible than any 
 we have yet witnessed in that country of political 
 volcanoes." 
 
 With France as well as Paris terrorised by the new 
 tyranny, the plebiscite, which was to justify Napoleon 
 for his action on the 2d December, was, of course, 
 the merest farce. The control of all the voting was 
 in the hands of the agents of Napoleon, so it is not 
 surprising that the coup d'Stat might be considered by 
 Napoleon as having been ratified by the nation. It is 
 only fair to say, however, that, even making every allow- 
 ance for the compulsory nature of the voting, Napoleon 
 would in any case have almost certainly received a major- 
 ity of the suffrages of the nine million electors, though 
 not, of course, such an overwhelming one. 
 
 The new Ministry was composed of the leaders of the 
 coup d'Stat, Morny, who received the portfolio of the 
 Interior, and Saint-Arnaud, that of War, being the most 
 important members of the new government. 
 
 On the anniversary of the coup d'Stat, Napoleon, by 
 means of his favourite instrument for legalising the 
 successive stages of his policy for destroying the Re- 
 public, — a plebiscite, — got himself elected by an almost 
 unanimous vote (only a quarter of a million electors 
 out of an electorate of over nine millions voting ad- 
 versely) hereditary Emperor of the Prench under the 
 title of Napoleon III. 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 125 
 
 Thus, in little more than four years from the time of 
 Napoleon's election as a simple Deputy, he had realised 
 the ambition of his life, and the Second Empire was an 
 accomplished fact. " The conditions of its existence, 
 however, were totally different from those prevailing at 
 the beginning of the century. Between Napoleon III. 
 and Napoleon I. there was, to begin with, all the differ- 
 ence which can exist between a man of genius, imperious 
 and masterful, a great soldier and consummate adminis- 
 trator, and a man of mystical, dreamy temperament, tor- 
 tuous, elusive character, mediocre courage, and undefined 
 intelligence." ^ 
 
 Next year Napoleon, whose attempts to ally himself 
 by marriage with one of the reigning families of Europe 
 had met with rebuffs, married a Spanish lady. Mile. 
 Eugenie de Montijo, Comtesse de Teba. This marriage 
 was not altogether a popular one. Though all who came 
 into contact with the young empress were attracted by 
 her undeniable beauty and charm of manner, yet it was 
 generally felt that the marriage did not add to the 
 lustre of the imperial throne, and that the continuance 
 of the dynasty would have been better assured if the 
 emperor had been able to secure as his bride some royal 
 princess. 
 
 In spite of Napoleon's famous apophthegm, " l'. Empire 
 c'est la paix" the foreign policy of Napoleon was avow- 
 edly modelled on that of his illustrious uncle, and, from 
 1854 till the fall of the empire in 1870, Prance was 
 almost continually engaged in warfare. The Crimean 
 war and the war of Italian independence raised the 
 prestige of France among the nations to a higher degree 
 1 "Cent Ans d'Histoire Int^rieuie." 
 
126 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 than it had reached since the fall of Napoleon I. But 
 after 1860 the fortune of the empire, both at home and 
 abroad, waned till it culminated in the irreparable disas- 
 ter of Sedan. 
 
 During the first years of the empire France appeared 
 on the surface rich and prosperous, and the emperor 
 occupied himself unceasingly in developing her material 
 resources, her commerce, industry, etc. The emperor, 
 too, appreciating the importance of playing the part of 
 benevolent sovereign, laboured hard to ameliorate the 
 material well-being of the poorer classes, and great im- 
 petus was given to the building of asylums, hospitals, 
 creches, and other charitable institutions. The material 
 riches of the country were developed to an extraordinary 
 extent. Innumerable banks and financial establishments 
 (Credit Foncier the most important of these) were estab- 
 lished between 1853 and 1856. Communications were 
 extended, and in a few years France was sillonne with 
 railways. This increase of means of communication and 
 locomotion naturally fostered the development of com- 
 merce and trade, while new markets were made available 
 for agricultural produce. 
 
 But there is, of course, the reverse side of the medal. 
 The rapid acquisition of wealth by the middle classes, 
 the high rates of wages paid to the working classes, and 
 the love of speculation among all classes introduced a 
 universal love of luxury and pleasure, which tended to 
 demoralise the nation and weaken the national charac- 
 ter. 
 
 The results of this relaxing of the moral fibre of the 
 nation are well illustrated in the change in the character 
 of the capital. It came to be regarded more as a great 
 
IMPERIAL PABIS. 127 
 
 cosmopolitan ville de luxe, — a kind of refuge for all the 
 pleasure-seekers and rich idlers of Europe, — rather than 
 a great self-respecting and self-supporting metropolis, the 
 political centre of the empire, and a city of trade and 
 commerce. 
 
 At the same time, the transformation of Paris into the 
 great show-city of the world and the pleasure-capital of 
 Europe necessarily implies great structural and topo- 
 graphical improvements, and Napoleon III. left his sub- 
 jects a remodelled and renovated capital, the handsomest 
 and stateliest, if not the most artistic or picturesque, city 
 in Europe. 
 
 The rebuilding and construction of great streets and 
 magnificent places and parks cost enormous sums, and 
 threw into the shade everything previously achieved at 
 Paris, or perhaps in any city in the world. 
 
 Even a mere catalogue of the number of public build- 
 ings and monuments built or restored by Napoleon III. 
 would occupy a considerable amount of space, and the 
 list is rendered unnecessary by the chapter on " Monu- 
 mental Paris," in which the dates of the various edifices 
 are duly given. 
 
 When Napoleon began his magnificent scheme of re- 
 building Paris, the city, even after the renovation of 
 Louis Philippe, consisted in the main of a labyrinth of 
 narrow, dark, and ill-drained streets and alleys. In put- 
 ting an end to this state of things, Napoleon, or rather 
 Baron Haussmann and Monsieur Alphand, who inspired 
 and executed the improvements, completely eviscerated 
 his capital. Broad and straight avenues and boulevards 
 were driven through the midst of these streets, thousands 
 of houses being pulled down to make room for them. 
 
128 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 By a clean sweep of a large number of shops and resi- 
 dences, the Rue de Rivoli was extended from the Tuile- 
 ries to the H8tel de Ville, the Boulevard de S^bastopol, 
 running north and south, cut through some of the most 
 densely populated quarters of Paris, and an equally wide 
 boulevard opened on the other side of the river. Then 
 the great squares and places, especially those containing 
 any Napoleonic monuments, were connected with broad 
 avenues. An elaborate system of drainage was intro- 
 duced, and all streets lit with gas. But what did more 
 to improve the aesthetic attraction of Paris was the in- 
 troduction of a water-supply sufficient to supply the 
 fountains and groves of the numerous open spaces ; and 
 Paris, which formerly gave the stranger the impression 
 of being built on a wilderness of chalk, was converted 
 into one of the greenest and shadiest of the great cities 
 of Europe. 
 
 In 1855 an International Exhibition was held in 
 Paris. This was a great advance on the tentative in- 
 dustrial exhibitions which had been held at intervals 
 during the First Empire and the reign of Louis Philippe. 
 Besides, this was the first International Exhibition. The 
 exhibition was intended, at its inception three years 
 before, to inaugurate an era of peace, — the emperor, 
 indeed, in his opening speech, called it a Temple of 
 Peace, — but by the irony of fate its inauguration coin- 
 cided with a more sanguinary war (the Crimean cam- 
 paign) than Prance had been engaged in since the days 
 of Napoleon I. 
 
 It also served to emphasise the great strides France 
 had made in commerce and industry, due partly to the 
 years of comparative tranquillity ^hich paarked the firgt 
 
IMPERIAL PABIS. 129 
 
 years of the restored empire, and partly to the improve- 
 ments in communication by the railways which began to 
 spread all over Prance, and the increased facilities for 
 transacting business, owing to the numerous banks and 
 discount houses which were established in the fifties, 
 the introduction of cheques, and an improved postal 
 service. 
 
 This exhibition was especially noteworthy from the 
 visit of Queen Victoria to Paris. This state visit from 
 a sister sovereign did much to increase the prestige of the 
 resuscitated empire in the eyes of the great powers. 
 The visit was, too, pf peculiar historic significance, as her 
 Majesty was the first English sovereign to visit Paris 
 since the coronation in Notre Dame Cathedral of the 
 infant Henry VI., in 1422. 
 
 In January, 1858, Paris was again the scene of another 
 of the many attempts on the emperor's life, — that of 
 Orsini. Though the emperor himself was uninjured, 
 the bomb did even more damage than the infernal 
 machine of Fieschi (see Boulevards chapter), a hundred 
 and fifty persons being wounded. Orsini was an Italian 
 who had laboured all his life for the regeneration of 
 Italy, and he took this means of avenging himself on 
 Napoleon, who had in his early years taken some part in 
 the work of Italian independence, if he was not actually 
 a member of the Carbonari, but had recently neglected 
 the interests of that country. 
 
 The attempt took place on the evening of the 14th 
 January. Just as the emperor and empress were driv- 
 ing up to the Opera, three bombs were flung at the 
 imperial carriage, bursting under the horses' feet. This 
 dastardly attack naturally caused a temporary reaction 
 
130 PARIS IN ITS 8PLEND0TJB. 
 
 of popularity in favour of the court, and the govern- 
 ment was not slow to turn this to account by taking 
 severe measures to repress any recrudescence of repub- 
 lican sentiments in Prance. 
 
 The Orsini affair seemed at the time likely to bring 
 about a breach between England and Prance, owing to 
 the Prench government's high-handed action in demand- 
 ing a modification of the English law of extradition, 
 Orsini having at some time lived in England. The 
 weakness of Lord Palmerston, who had yielded to the 
 demands of the emperor in this matter, brought about 
 the fall of his Ministry. 
 
 It was less excusable for the English Poreign Minister 
 to allow himself to be bluffed by the emperor, as he 
 knew his character well ; " Napoleon lies, even when he 
 says nothing," Palmerston had once remarked. 
 
 Prom the time of the Treaty of Zurich (November 10, 
 1859), which brought to a close the Austrian War 
 (greatly to the disgust of Victor Emmanuel, who now 
 learnt that the famous promise of Napoleon to " free Italy 
 from the Alps to the Adriatic " was likely to remain little 
 more than a national aspiration), Prance was engaged 
 in various little wars in distant countries, in China, Syria, 
 and Mexico. The last expedition, in which Napoleon fool- 
 ishly tried to force an Austrian prince on the Mexicans, 
 ended disastrously and resulted in discredit to the im- 
 perial government. 
 
 The restless ambition of the emperor, and an evident 
 desire to play the r81e of an arbiter of nations, as evi- 
 denced by these unnecessary campaigns, gradually under- 
 mined the popularity of the imperial regime. In this 
 attitude Paris took the lead, and a strong parliamentary 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 131 
 
 opposition was firmly established after the general elec- 
 tion of May, 1863. 
 
 During the last few years of his reign, the emperor, 
 perhaps with a view of counteracting the influence of 
 the clerical party and the court, which was distinctly 
 anti-national, seemed desirous of reconciling the liberal 
 and constitutional party of M. Thiers, and aimed to con- 
 vert the government into what he called a " liberal 
 empire," — a phrase which in the opinion of the court 
 faction was meaningless or, at all events, contradictory. 
 
 In 1867 Paris was the seat of the second International 
 Exhibition, another of those world's fairs by which 
 France in vain tried to cloak her declining political and 
 commercial prestige, and the crushing burden of debt 
 under which the country was suffering. 
 
 The personal influence of the emperor with the nation 
 was at its lowest ebb in 1869, on the eve of the breach 
 with Prussia, and Napoleon was driven to a closer alli- 
 ance with the clerical party and the court. Broken in 
 health, and fancying that the success of French arms 
 could alone restore his personal influence, he was led by 
 the court party into the disastrous war with Prussia. It 
 is probable that he was to some extent correct in his 
 view that a successful campaign could alone save his 
 dynasty. Unfortunately, France could hardly have been 
 more unprepared for such a tremendous undertaking. 
 The war was declared (July 19, 1870) so hurriedly 
 that France had no time to find allies. Even the co- 
 operation of Austria could not be obtained, while as to 
 Italy, Napoleon had deeply offended that country by 
 sending troops to support the Pope in 1867 against the 
 Garibaldians. 
 
132 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The army, too, was miserably equipped, and its effec- 
 tive force far short of its strength on paper, while the 
 military magazines were empty and many of the for- 
 tresses improvided with either ammunition or stores. In 
 the government offices nobody knew anything about the 
 German preparations for war, or the state of feeling in 
 that country. The French troops, undeniably brave and 
 enduring, were led by officers absolutely ignorant of 
 strategy or the art of war ; in short, " lions led by asses " 
 was not an altogether undeserved description of the 
 French armies. In the campaign, the shortest on record 
 in modern times in a war between first-class powers (for 
 the actual fighting lasted barely a month), the French 
 troops were outmanoeuvred and outgeneralled through- 
 out. 
 
 In August Bazaine's army was shut up in Metz, and 
 MacMahon and the emperor, with an army of some 
 eighty thousand men, were surrounded at Sedan by an 
 overwhelming force of the enemy, and after a day's des- 
 perate fighting the emperor surrendered with all his 
 troops to King William of Prussia (September 2, 1870). 
 Thus in less than six weeks after the declaration of 
 war, "France found herself without a ruler or means 
 of defence, a disaster, unparalleled in rapidity, continuity, 
 and extent, which left the country disabled, and a prey 
 to invasion." 
 
 A remarkably ominous and, as it proved, truthful fore- 
 cast of the great struggle, in the Pall Mall Grazette of 
 July 28, 1870, in the account of the emperor's departure 
 from St. Cloud for the seat of war, is worth transcribing. 
 
 " When they (the emperor and empress) meet again, 
 if indeed they ever do meet, what an eventful story will 
 
FONTAINE DE MliiDICIS, IN THE GARDEN OF THE LUXEMBOURG. 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 133 
 
 have been told, and each line written in letters of blood ! 
 To France, though the issues are great, the war is but 
 one chapter in her history ; but to the emperor and 
 empress it may be the last chapter in the record of their 
 career. For him, at least, there is no future but in 
 success ; in drawing the sword he has thrown away the 
 scabbard ; he has burned his ships. That gay and glori- 
 ous city, which as with an enchanter's wand he has 
 remodelled and rebuilt, will either close her gates to the 
 fugitive or welcome the return of a glorious leader. 
 Bold as the emperor may be to beard Bismarck in his 
 power, it will require more boldness still to reappear at 
 home without the army." 
 
 A more " intelligent anticipation of events " could 
 scarcely have been penned. 
 
 The reasons for the utter collapse of the French arms 
 and the series of continuous victories of Prussia in this 
 short but decisive campaign have been discussed ad 
 nauseam. That the French soldiers themselves were 
 excellent fighting material was most conclusively shown 
 by their behaviour in the campaign which followed 
 Sedan. Perhaps the causes which chiefly contributed 
 to the uninterrupted series of victories of Germany — 
 for it won every engagement of importance during the 
 month's campaign which was brought to an end by 
 the decisive victory of Sedan — might be summarised 
 thus: 
 
 1. The Prussians fought for the realisation of a great 
 national aspiration, the union of Germany. Then, too, 
 at first at all events, the troops were inspired by a feel- 
 ing that they were defending hearth and home, which 
 were being threatened by France. 
 
134 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 2. A universal feeling that their cause possessed 
 the moral support of Europe in their resistance to the 
 aggressive attitude of the empire. 
 
 3. The German armies were undoubtedly better 
 equipped and more prepared for war than those of 
 France, and their artillery was in every respect supe- 
 rior. Napoleon himself, in his historic interview at the 
 ChS,teau of Bellevue with King William, declared that it 
 was the Prussian artillery which won the battle. 
 
 4. The discipline was infinitely superior ; indeed, as 
 a rule, the German private soldier had as much trained 
 intelligence as the French subaltern officer. 
 
 5. Germany had a settled plan of campaign, which 
 was rigidly adhered to. 
 
 6. Among the Prussians there were none of the 
 jealousies among the generals which were so rife in 
 the French army, while political dissensions did not, as 
 in France, hamper the conduct of the war. 
 
 Though Napoleon, who, it is well known, was person- 
 ally opposed to the war, acted with humanity in not 
 prolonging an absolutely useless resistance, his pusillan- 
 imity in throwing all responsibility for the war on the 
 French nation has been justly blamed. The war was 
 purely a dynastic and court war. Did not the Empress 
 Eugenie always declare that the war was hers ? In 
 return for this betrayal of their country, the Provisional 
 Government in Paris not only decreed the abdication of 
 the emperor, but proclaimed the Republic at the HStel 
 de Ville (September 4th). Some months later, when the 
 National Assembly resumed its functions, its first work 
 was solemnly to declare, in the most uncompromising 
 terms, " the late emperor solely responsible for the ruin, 
 
IMPERIAL PARIS. 135 
 
 invasion, and dismemberment of France." But though 
 the empire had fallen, and her armies had been captured, 
 Prussia had yet to reckon with the levies of the Third 
 Republic. The heroic defence made by France after 
 Sedan may be better understood when it is remembered 
 that seven of her army corps were either prisoners of 
 war or shut up in Metz. There remained only the 
 13th and 14th corps, — the latter not even complete 
 on paper. Yet for nearly five months the raw levies of 
 Gambetta upheld the honour of France, and stemmed 
 the tide of the Prussian advance. These attempts, from 
 a purely military point of view, were futile and inde- 
 fensible, but the moral effect of this heroic resistance 
 was undoubtedly beneficent to France, and well worth 
 the additional war indemnity which this obstinate 
 defence brought about. 
 
 The principal events of the campaign may be con- 
 veniently tabulated here. Metz, by the treachery of 
 Marshal Bazaine, who capitulated with some 170,000 
 men, was occupied by the Prussians on October 27th. 
 Its fall was followed by that of all the other fortresses 
 on the Rhine frontier except Belfort, which withstood 
 successfully, with a garrison of only sixteen thousand men, 
 a continuous bombardment of seventy-nine days. The 
 army of the Loire was defeated at Orleans (December 
 3d), Le Mans (January 12th), while the army of the 
 North was worsted in the battle of Villers-Bretonneux 
 (November 27th), Pont-Noyelles (December 23d), St. 
 Quentin (January 19th), and the army of the Bast was 
 defeated with heavy loss at Dijon in the same month. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 
 
 The history of the Third Republic can be divided 
 into two distinct periods. During the first period (1870 
 to 1875) the government was solely concerned with 
 the rebuilding of the national fabric and repairing the 
 disasters caused by the fall of the empire. 
 
 The second period dates from the constitution of 
 1875 — the present constitution — to the present day. 
 During the stormy five years between Sedan and the 
 genesis of the new constitution, Gambetta and Thiers 
 were the saviours of their country. If its political re- 
 organisation is due to the former, its actual existence 
 as a first-class power is due to this great demagogue. 
 In the terrible crisis of September he displayed not 
 only extraordinary eloquence, — France is prolific in 
 mere orators, — but a genius for organisation unequalled 
 even by Carnot, and an extraordinary gift of inspiring 
 others with his enthusiasm and devoted patriotism. 
 During the last months of the year 1870, Gambetta 
 raised and equipped a force not many thousands short 
 of a million, and gave France half a dozen armies to 
 replace those betrayed to the Germans. He seems, 
 indeed, to have infected not only Paris, but pro- 
 vincial France, with the same extraordinary outburst 
 of patriotism which saved France in 1793, when all 
 
 136 
 
PABIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 137 
 
 Europe seemed on the point of crushing the new 
 republic. 
 
 The siege of Paris by the Germans, in the winter of 
 1870-71, is the fourth of the great blockades which Paris 
 has had to endure since the time of the Romans, and 
 it ranks among the greatest and most remarkable sieges 
 in the annals of modern warfare. 
 
 After the decisive victory of Sedan, the German 
 armies pushed forward to the capital, and soon Paris 
 was surrounded by a living girdle of some 230,000 
 armed men. Meanwhile, the measures for the defence 
 of Paris were pushed forward with unflagging zeal. 
 Fresh earthworks, redoubts, and rifle shelters were 
 rapidly constructed. The space between the walls and 
 the belt of forts was turned into a desert, — popularly 
 known as the zone des servitudes, — where the villas 
 were ruthlessly pulled down and the gardens turned 
 into potato-fields for the nourishment of the be- 
 leaguered citizens, and a great part of the Bois de Bou- 
 logne was cut down to provide fuel. 
 
 The defence at the Porte Neuilly will give a good 
 idea of the energy and ingenuity of General Trochu and 
 the Government of National Defence, and shows how 
 much was done to supplement the famous fortifications 
 of Louis Philippe. These works would now be put to 
 their first practical test. In addition to the enceinte 
 already described, sixteen detached forts, at distances 
 varying from one to four miles from the walls, had 
 been constructed, the circuit extending twenty-four 
 miles. According to a military critic, these fortifica- 
 tions had been admirably planned. "They are of the 
 utmost simplicity ; a plain enceinte of bastions without 
 
138 PARIS IJSr ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 even a demilune before the curtains. The forts are 
 mostly bastioned quadrangles or pentagons, without 
 any demilunes or other outworks, here and there a 
 horn-work or crown-work to cover an outlying space 
 of high ground. They are constructed not so much 
 for passive as for active defence. The garrison of Paris 
 expected to come out into the open, to use the forts as 
 supporting points for its flanks, and by constant sallies 
 on a large scale to render impossible a regular siege of 
 any two or three forts. Let us add that the distance of 
 the forts from the ramparts precludes the possibility 
 of an effective bombardment of the town until two or 
 three, at least, of the forts shall have been taken." 
 
 The following concise account of these additional 
 defences appeared in the Times (September, 1870) : 
 
 " Two substantial stone barricades, properly loopholed, 
 have been erected in the Avenue de la Grand Arm6e, 
 and the ' Octroi ' barriers are lined on the inside with 
 stout timber., pierced with loopholes for musketry, in 
 front of which is raised a wooden stage for the marks- 
 men to stand on. So that there are altogether no less 
 than three lines of defence behind the ramparts. In 
 advance are the drawbridges, clamped with iron rods 
 and bars, and raised with heavy chains, and flanked 
 with massive masonry, loopholed in thirty-eight places. 
 The side toward the Avenue de Neuilly, together with 
 the massive posts of drawbridges, are tinted green to 
 resemble the turf of the ramparts. A couple of 24- 
 pounders peep through the embrasures of the flanks 
 of the adjacent bastions. In advance of the draw- 
 bridges an extensive angular-shaped earthwork has been 
 thrown out, stretching some distance into the Avenue 
 
PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 139 
 
 de Neuilly, and diverting the narrow roadway lead- 
 ing thereto circuitously to the left. The earthwork is 
 strengthened behind with tall stockades, and has a 
 second row of stockades in the rear, converting it, as 
 it were, into a veritable redoubt." 
 
 By the beginning of September the brilliant capital 
 of France was shut out from its ordinary communica- 
 tions with the outer world. 
 
 On September 19th Paris was completely invested, and 
 from that day dates the famous siege of Paris, which, in 
 spite of all the efforts of the besieging armies, was des- 
 tined to continue for nearly four months and a half. The 
 aim of the besiegers was simply to reduce the city by 
 famine, — for even Bismarck did not at the beginning 
 contemplate inflicting upon a city of two million inhabi- 
 tants the horrors of a bombardment, — while the only 
 course left to the defenders of Paris was a successful 
 sortie en masse which should pierce the investing lines, 
 and enable the French troops to join forces with the 
 army of the Loire and the other corps d'armSe, which 
 Gambetta was raising with a view of harassing the 
 Germans in the rear. 
 
 During the months of September and October, several 
 ineffective sorties were made by the regular troops, but 
 on November 30th General Trochu and his second in 
 command, General Ducrot, decided on a sortie of all the 
 available troops. This was to be a supreme effort, and 
 General Ducrot took a solemn oath to reenter Paris 
 either dead or victorious. This characteristic piece of 
 braggadocio' was, to tell the truth, rather a cheap form 
 of heroism, for, having broken his parole after Metz, he 
 would certainly be shot if taken prisoner. 
 
140 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 This sortie, though it did not improve the situation 
 of the besieged army, included several engagements, and 
 the fighting lasted a number of days. In the end, the 
 French troops had to give up several positions they had 
 taken in the first day's fighting, and ultimately with- 
 drew within the walls on the 3d December, having lost 
 over ten thousand in killed and wounded. It appears 
 that the severe cold proved an even more formidable 
 enemy than the German troops ; at all events, its 
 effect on the ill-clad and badly fed soldiers was most 
 demoralising. 
 
 Christmas-tide at Paris was a heavy trial both to 
 besieged and besiegers. The frost was so exceptionally 
 severe that many sentries died at their posts. Count 
 Von Moltke at length decided that the siege must be 
 ended, and on the 27th December he ordered the bom- 
 bardment. According to the euphemistic official ver- 
 nacular the siege was now recognised as " active ! " One 
 day's bombardment of Fort Mont Avron made it un- 
 tenable, and the French evacuated it that same night. 
 Even General Trochu could scarcely refuse to recognise 
 that the final phase of the siege had been reached, and 
 that it was the beginning of the end. He still, however, 
 talked of his famous " plan " (now a stock joke of the 
 boulevards), which was to save Paris. 
 
 The new year was ushered in by the Parisians with a 
 defiant volley of their siege-guns, but this was a despair- 
 ing effort, for it was felt by all that the capitulation 
 could not be long delayed. 
 
 The wisdom or expediency of the policy of bombard- 
 ment was much questioned at the time in military and 
 diplomatic circles. Feelings of horror and disgust were 
 
PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 141 
 
 naturally aroused in the minds of most people at the 
 idea of bombarding a great capital with nearly two 
 million inhabitants. 
 
 By the middle of January most of the French forts 
 had been reduced, and the Germans were able to ad- 
 vance their guns sufficiently near the enceinte to rain 
 down shell in the actual streets of Paris. General 
 Trochu sent a formal remonstrance to Count Von 
 Moltke, complaining that the hospitals had been in- 
 jured. In reply, the Man of Iron explained that this 
 was accidental, and due to errors of marksmanship at 
 the great distance at which the cannon were fired, but 
 he added, with a cynicism a little brutal under the cir- 
 cumstances, that when the batteries approached nearer 
 it would be possible to use more discrimination. 
 
 The bombardment certainly aroused a strong feeling 
 that Germany was acting with undue severity. Public 
 opinion failed to see that the French nation had done 
 anything to deserve such ruthless treatment at the 
 hands of its conquerors. Indeed, the threatened destruc- 
 tion of the beautiful metropolis of France, the " glory 
 and the grace of civilisation," was almost regarded as a 
 challenge to the whole civilised world. At the same 
 time, the argument put forward by the German govern- 
 ment for this extreme measure had some show of reason 
 from a political and non-sentimental point of view. It 
 was contended that, owing to the unusually stubborn 
 resistance, not only of the capital, but of the armies 
 raised after Sedan, and the danger of the German armies 
 investing Paris being cut off from their communications 
 by the provincial levies en masse, it was of vital impor- 
 tance to bring the siege to an end. It must, too, be 
 
142 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 admitted that a simple blockade was all that Moltke 
 intended at first,i as it was confidently expected that 
 either famine or internal dissensions would soon wear 
 out the defensive powers of Paris. 
 
 A fortnight of this terrible bombardment showed the 
 authorities the utter hopelessness of further resistance, 
 though the more violent of the populace still affected to 
 consider the word capitulation as equivalent to treach- 
 ery. A final sortie — the last supreme effort of the 
 besieged — was, however, undertaken on January 19th 
 chiefly with a view of conciliating these irreconcilable 
 patriots of the pavement, but the troops (which this 
 time included the National Guard) were driven back 
 with immense loss after a few hours' fighting. Sur- 
 render was now but a question of days. The German 
 batteries had, as Moltke threatened, approached nearer 
 the walls, and a few more days of continuous bombard- 
 ing would mean the literal destruction of a great portion 
 of the city. Then the successive and decisive defeats 
 of the provincial armies at Le Mans, Belfort, and St. 
 Quentin removed the last hope of Paris being relieved 
 by Gambetta's levies. To add to their difficulties, the 
 last desperate sortie — a sortie en masse — had been re- 
 pulsed with great loss. The discontent of the Paris- 
 ians took the usual form of a serious rising of the Red 
 Republican party, which was put down with difiiculty. 
 
 This agitation had one important result ; it brought 
 about the resignation of the luckless governor. General 
 Trochu, the " Man of the Plan." Trochu appears to 
 have been a kind of military Hamlet, wise in speech, 
 
 '^ The Crown Prince Frederick was strongly opposed to the bom- 
 bardment even to the last. 
 
JOAN OF ARC MONUMENT (PLACE DES PYBAjriDES). 
 
PABIS VNBER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 143 
 
 but weak and hesitating in action. As a statesman he 
 was a decided failure. He was never master of the 
 situation, and had no power of initiative. He followed 
 rather than led public opinion. The resources and 
 supplies of Paris, too, were nearly exhausted, and by 
 holding out nearly four months and a half she had 
 already saved the honour of France. 
 
 Below is a specimen of one of the menus at a popular 
 restaurant in the Latin Quarter at the beginning of 
 January, which gives a good idea of the gastronomic 
 straits to which the light-hearted Parisians were re- 
 duced. 
 
 Potage. 
 Consominfi de Cheval au millet. 
 
 Releve. 
 
 Brochettes de foie de Chien a la maitre d'hStel. 
 Eminc6 de rable de Chat. Sauce mayonnaise. 
 
 Entrees. 
 
 Epaules et filets de Chien braises. Sauce aux tomates. 
 
 Civet de Chat aux Champignons. 
 
 C6telettes de Chien aux petits pels. 
 
 Salmis de Kats. Sauce Robert. 
 
 Roti. 
 Gigots de Chien flanqu6s de ratons. Sauce poivrade. 
 
 Legumes. 
 Begonias au jus. 
 
 Entremets. 
 Plum-pudding au rhum et a la Moelle de Cheval. 
 
144 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The critical condition of Paris is succinctly set forth 
 in the government proclamation published on February 
 4th, the preamble of which is as follows : 
 
 " Frenchmen, Paris has laid down its arms when on 
 the verge of starvation. It had been told, ' Hold out for 
 a few weeks and we will deliver you.' It resisted for 
 five months,^ and, despite heroic efforts, the Departments 
 have not been able to succour it. Paris resigned itself 
 to the most cruel privations ; it accepted ruin, disease, 
 and exhaustion. During a whole month shell have 
 poured into the city, slaying women and children. For 
 upwards of six weeks the few grammes of bad bread 
 distributed to each inhabitant have scarcely sufficed to 
 maintain life ; and when, thus vanquished by the most 
 inexorable necessity, the great city comes to a standstill, 
 in order not to condemn two million inhabitants to the 
 most horrible catastrophe; when, profiting by its rem- 
 nant of strength, it treats with the enemy, instead of 
 submitting to unconditional surrender, the Government 
 of the National Defence is accused elsewhere of culpable 
 indifference, is denounced and repudiated. When at the 
 end of January we resigned ourselves to making terms, 
 we had flour only for ten days, and we knew that the 
 devastation of the country rendered revictualling very 
 uncertain." 
 
 Sickness and starvation had, by the end of January, 
 raised the weekly death-rate to nearly 4,500. The 
 innumerable ambulances which had been established in 
 Paris could at last be of some use. At the commence- 
 ment of the siege there had been nearly two hundred 
 
 1 Really only some four and one-half months; to be exact, 131 
 days. 
 
PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 145 
 
 and fifty of these, and the supply so greatly exceeded the 
 demand that it is said that, after a sortie, those attached 
 to the ambulances (men often joining merely to avoid 
 service in the National Guard) used to offer bribes to 
 whoever brought in a wounded soldier. Many are the 
 amusing stories told of the methods employed by the 
 nurses to obtain patients. One lady went to the Mairie 
 of her arrondissement to ask for a hlessS to nurse. She 
 was offered a Zouave, but declined on the ground that, 
 being a brunette herself, she would prefer to nurse a 
 hlond soldier! 
 
 On January 23d M. Jules Favre was sent to treat 
 with the German Chancellor, Bismarck, at Versailles, 
 and finally a three weeks' armistice (ultimately ex- 
 tended to March 12th) was agreed upon, in order that 
 negotiations for a definite peace might be arranged. 
 
 But the armistice was conditional on Paris capitulat- 
 ing and allowing the German troops to occupy the 
 forts. A war contribution of two hundred million 
 francs was also levied on Paris, independently of the 
 national war indemnity of five milliards (£200,000,000). 
 
 The very day after the armistice was signed (Jan- 
 uary 28th) enormous stores of food were sent in by the 
 Germans, and also by the London Belief Committee, 
 and it was calculated that the famishing city received 
 between February 3d and 10th as much as 9,600 tons 
 of flour, 450 tons of rice, 900 tons of biscuits, 360 tons 
 of fish, 3,700 head of live stock. It seems curious that 
 the distress was not so much among the poorest classes, 
 but among the petite bourgeoisie, — the small shopkeepers 
 and employes. But this was owing to their being too 
 proud to avail themselves of the public rations. 
 
146 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 But there remained the bitterest and most humiliating 
 condition of the armistice, which Bismarck would not 
 forego. This was the occupation of a portion of Paris 
 for three days by the German troops as a sign and 
 symbol of triumph, and regarded perhaps by the un- 
 bending foe of France as the most effective reply to the 
 original war-cry of " A Berlin." 
 
 On March 1st, the entry of the German troops into 
 the conquered city took place. The morning broke dull 
 and cheerless as the first troops marched along the 
 Avenue de la Grande Arm^e, and passed (not through, 
 for that humiliation was spared Paris) the Arc de 
 Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, amidst the 
 morose silence of the populace. Three days later, to 
 the great relief of the city authorities, the invaders 
 marched back, but this time through, instead of around, 
 the Triumphal Arch. The discipline and forbearance 
 of the German troops on this occasion were beyond 
 praise. It was only when they left the Arch, and felt 
 that the war was really over, that they gave full vent to 
 their feelings by a ringing cheer, and by waving aloft 
 their helmets. " It was the only occasion," says an eye- 
 witness, " on which I have seen the Germans indulge 
 in military glorification. They fairly revelled in their 
 triumph." 
 
 The day before this triumphal entry of the German 
 army, the preliminaries of peace had been signed, by 
 which France had to give up the whole of Alsace, 
 except Belfort, and the fifth part of Lorraine, including 
 Metz and Thionville, and to pay an indemnity of 
 £200,000,000. 
 
 After the capitulation of Paris it was possible to 
 
PAEIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 147 
 
 hold a general election for a National Assembly to re- 
 place the provisional Government of National Defence, 
 for during the siege, owing to Bismarck's refusal — per- 
 haps not unnatural, under the circumstances — to grant 
 an armistice for this purpose, the election could not take 
 place. During this period, the members of the govern- 
 ment who had not remained in the beleaguered capital 
 had made Tours their headquarters. On the 18th of 
 February the newly elected Assembly made Bordeaux 
 the seat of government. M. Jules Grevy was elected 
 President of the Republic, and M. Thiers was appointed 
 prime minister, with the title of Chief of the Executive, 
 and a few months later (August) he was elected Pres- 
 ident of the Republic. The constitution of the new 
 Assembly (which consisted of 750 members) was anoma- 
 lous, for there were only 250 genuine Republicans, and 
 though there were only thirty or so Bonapartists, the 
 large number of Orleanists and Legitimists made up a 
 monarchical majority. This majority could not, how- 
 ever, " establish a monarchy, because it was divided into 
 three great rival groups, each with a pretender, while 
 the Republican Ministry, profiting by the divisions 
 among its adversaries, achieved the form of government 
 preferred by itself." It is curious that the general 
 opinion of politicians, at this juncture, was that a 
 moderate republic would be first tried, but that Prance 
 would soon gravitate into a constitutional monarchy. 
 
 Many events had contributed to disquiet Paris, which 
 had been greatly affronted by the choice of Versailles as 
 the political capital. The disbandment of the highly 
 paid National Guard was naturally much resented by 
 large numbers of citizens, who had no other means of 
 
148 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 livelihood, while M. Thiers had made the fatal mistake 
 of disbanding without at the same time disarming 
 them. 
 
 The demoralising effect of the long siege had also 
 much to do in unsettling the populace. During this 
 last few months all the usual social and economical 
 conditions of the capital had perforce been disturbed. 
 Machiavelli has observed in a well-known passage, that 
 almost all the great sieges known to history have ter- 
 minated with sedition, for the moral and physical suffer- 
 ings of the people render them peculiarly liable to be 
 influenced by agitators, while the arms with which they 
 are unavoidably provided furnish the weapons for a 
 rising. 
 
 In March, the affairs of the distracted country entered 
 upon a new phase, and the government was confronted 
 by an adversary which threatened to be more dangerous 
 to the Republic than even the foreign enemy. This new 
 enemy was the Committee of the Red Republican party, 
 popularly known as the Commune. The insurrection 
 might easily have been stamped out at the first symptom 
 of revolt, had the government acted with decision, or 
 possessed an ordinary amount of foresight. Under the 
 pretence of saving the artillery from the enemy, the 
 leaders of the extreme republican faction had removed 
 all the cannon from the fortifications to the heights 
 of Montmartre. Owing to the extraordinary ineptitude 
 of M. Thiers, in not insisting upon the disarming of 
 the National Guard, the insurgents had an army of a 
 hundred thousand men, to protect the four hundred 
 cannon they had become possessed of by this coup de 
 main. 
 
PABIS UNBMR TBE THIRD REPUBLIC. 149 
 
 Finally, when the position became critical, and the 
 government sent Generals Le Comte and Clement 
 Thomas to subdue the rising, the regular troops refused 
 to fire on the insurgents, who seized the two generals, 
 and summarily shot them. It was now, of course, open 
 war between the leaders of the Commune and the gov- 
 ernment at Versailles, and the few members of the 
 latter who had been installed in Paris during the siege 
 quitted the capital, now given up to disorder and rapine. 
 
 It is strange to find among the list of the revolution- 
 ary leaders none of the well-known Red Republicans 
 and Socialists, such as Blanqui, Flourens, Rochefort, 
 F^lix Pyat, or Louis Blanc. The names of the authors 
 of the revolution of March 18th were quite unfamiliar to 
 the public ear. 
 
 Owing to the popular name of this socialistic and 
 democratic party, — the Commune, — it might be sup- 
 posed that the desire for reform in the municipal organ- 
 isation of Paris was the mainspring of the revolutionists, 
 but, as a matter of fact, few cared much about it, and 
 the majority had very vague notions as to the meaning 
 of communal government. But the leaders thought it 
 politic to put forward the lack of municipal freedom in 
 Paris as the chief grievance of the insurgents. The 
 communal elections took place on March 26th, when the 
 Reds headed the poll in every arrondissement. There 
 was now a transfer of authority from the original cen- 
 tral committee to a committee of representatives of the 
 Paris communes. Prom this date only the Commune 
 officially commences. This delegation of authority was, 
 however, mainly formal and fictitious, as the majority of 
 the new revolutionary committee, the Commune, were 
 
150 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 members of the old committee. In the " Ministry " of 
 the Commune, the prominent members were Cluseret, 
 Minister of War, and the infamous Raoul Rigault, Min- 
 ister of General Safety (Minister of the Interior), F^lix 
 Pyat, and Delescluze. 
 
 Toward the end of March, there was a general exodus 
 of the bourgeois and the more respectable classes, and it 
 is computed that during the last ten days of that month 
 over 160,000 persons quitted the capital. With the first 
 days of April, the second stage in the history of the 
 Commune is reached. The government now recognised 
 that Paris must be subdued by force, and on April 2d 
 the second siege of Paris began. 
 
 In the first engagement (April 2d) the Communists 
 were worsted at Courbevoie, near the Bois de Boulogne, 
 and withdrew into Paris by the Pont de Neuilly. 
 
 A sortie of all the insurgent troops took place that 
 evening, and, at the end of four days' fighting, the Com- 
 munists were compelled from this date to confine their 
 energies to maintaining an obstinate resistance within 
 the walls of Paris. The government had from the com- 
 mencement of hostilities let it be understood that the 
 insurgents of Paris would not be granted the ordinary 
 privileges of belligerents, and that prisoners would be 
 summarily shot. In an order of the day, the following 
 uncompromising declaration was issued by General de 
 Galliffet (the present war minister) : " It is a war with- 
 out pity that I wage against these assassins. I do not 
 forget that the country and the law and, consequently, 
 right are with Versailles and the National Assembly, and 
 not with the grotesque assembly at Paris, which calls 
 itseK the Commune." 
 
PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC, 151 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, especially in view of the 
 state of feeling in the capital, that the Communists 
 threatened to take reprisals, and forthwith the arrest 
 of the Archbishop of Paris, the president of the Court 
 of Cassation, the cur^ of the Madeleine, and other nota- 
 bilities was ordered. These were to serve as hostages 
 for the good treatment of the Communist prisoners. 
 
 A new phase of this terrible internecine struggle now 
 began, and the horrors of a bombardment were to be 
 repeated, this time by Frenchmen on their own country- 
 men. The cautious policy of the Versailles govern- 
 ment (which was, virtually, M. Thiers) at this juncture 
 has been much blamed, and the wisdom gained by 
 events certainly showed that his action was wrong. As 
 the regulars had shown no disposition to fraternise with 
 the National Guards of the Commune, he should have 
 ordered an immediate assault on Paris, and brought the 
 contest to an end at all costs. As it was, he delayed 
 attacking Paris for a week, till he had collected an army 
 of 150,000 men, and thus gave the Commune time to 
 organise and strengthen their forces. In fact, he seemed 
 inclined to follow the policy of extermination of the ex- 
 emperor's coup d'Stat. Marshal MacMahon was now 
 to be opposed by the Communist General Cluseret, who 
 had replaced General Bergeret. By the beginning of 
 May Paris was completely invested, no less than 128 
 batteries raining down shell and shot on the capital. 
 
 Meanwhile, within the walls, the Commune was being 
 split up into various opposing parties, but still the Cen- 
 tral Committee wielded its mysterious authority behind 
 the ostensible leaders. The jealousy and distrust brought 
 about a continual change in the heads of departments, 
 
152 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 especially in the Ministry of War. The weak point in 
 the government was thoroughly understood by Henri 
 Rochefort, who wrote in his paper, named, apparently, 
 on the luom a non lucendo principle. Mot d' Ordre : " It 
 is neither dread of the Parisians nor of the shells of 
 M. Thiers which enervates Paris and kills our hopes. 
 It is gaunt suspicion that weighs us down. The HStel 
 de Ville distrusts the Minister of War, who distrusts 
 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Fort of Vanves 
 distrusts Bicetre; Rigault distrusts Rossel, and Rossel 
 distrusts Dombrowski." 
 
 On the 1st of May, Rossel, the one popular hero of 
 the Commune, and certainly the most enlightened, was 
 appointed War Minister in place of General Cluseret. 
 Rossel seems to have been the only general of any real 
 genius or organising capacity the Commune produced, 
 and, had he not been hampered by the system of divided 
 authority which the Central Committee, apprehensive of 
 a strong man who might become a dictator, insisted 
 upon, it is probable that the Versailles government 
 would have had a far harder task to subdue Paris. 
 The new War Minister, after two months' trial, finding 
 himself unsupported by the Committee in his attempts 
 to reorganise the National Guard, formally sent in his 
 resignation. In this letter he concludes, with a touch 
 of cynical humour, " I have the honour to demand a cell 
 at Mazas." It may be mentioned that the Committee, 
 perhaps willing to second the humourous mood of their 
 ex- War Minister, promptly acceded to his request, and 
 had him arrested and imprisoned. 
 
 The youthful genius Rossel was now succeeded by the 
 veteran Communist Delescluze, who seems to have known 
 
PARIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 153 
 
 that the insurrection was doomed, but had resolved to 
 perish with it. In a few days the besiegers effected an 
 entrance almost by accident, for MacMahon had been 
 prepared to devote at least a week more to sapping and 
 mining before ordering a general assault. The National 
 Guard, driven away from that part of the ramparts by 
 concentrated artillery fire, had left the Porte Point 
 du Jour^ near the St. Cloud gate undefended, and, on 
 the 21st May, the Versailles troops entered without 
 opposition. 
 
 A week's desperate fighting brought the sanguinary 
 civil war of the Commune to an end. During these six 
 days the streets and boulevards of Paris were the scenes 
 of countless tragedies and deeds of horror. Both the 
 government troops and the National Guard seem to have 
 fought in a delirium of rage and vindictiveness. 
 
 In the course of the 22d and 23d the regulars had 
 taken possession of the northern railway station and 
 the Butte Montmartre, one of the Communists' most 
 important strongholds. 
 
 The more desperate of the leaders of the Commune, 
 perceiving that the few bands of National Guards still 
 left to them could barely hold out more than two or 
 three days, determined to take terrible revenge on the 
 city which was to be snatched from them, by destroying 
 its great public monuments and government buildings. 
 Orders were given to fire all the public buildings, and 
 early on Wednesday morning the horrified troops from 
 Versailles beheld the Tuileries, the Louvre, the Palais 
 
 1 The ax!tual spot has iDeen a subject of much controYersy. What 
 actually happened was that a breach was made in the Point du Jour 
 gate, which had been previously walled up. 
 
154 PARIS IN ITS 8PLEND0UB. 
 
 Eoyal, and the HQtel de Ville in flames. But this night 
 far more horrible deeds have to be chronicled. Revenge 
 took a still more terrible form, and a spirit of massacre 
 was abroad. Rigault, the Marat or Robespierre of the 
 1871 " Terror," organised the massacre of the hostages. 
 The fate of the imprisoned Archbishop of Paris and his 
 fellow hostages had for long caused the deepest anxiety, 
 but it was hoped that the troops would rescue them in 
 time. Their hour was come, however, and, after a mock 
 trial, the venerable archbishop was shot on the 24th, — 
 it is said in the act of blessing his murderers. 
 
 The most brutal and ferocious of all the members of 
 the Central Committee was this Raoul Rigault, Minister 
 of the Interior and afterward Prefect of Police. Many 
 stories are told of his shameless cynicism, of which the 
 following is typical. 
 
 On one occasion an old cut6 over eighty years of 
 age was brought before him. Asked his profession, the 
 venerable priest replied that he was a servant of God. 
 "Where does he live?" " Svery where," replied the 
 old man. " Send this man, who calls himself le servi- 
 teur d'un nommS Dieu, to the Conciergerie," commanded 
 Rigault, " and issue a warrant for the arrest of his 
 master, le nommS Dieu, who appears to have no per- 
 manent residence, and is, in consequence, contrary to 
 law, living in a perpetual state of vagabondage." 
 
 In the meantime, the avenging troops were pressing 
 steadily on, and on Thursday M. Thiers was able to 
 telegraph to the prefects of the Departments : " We are 
 masters of Paris, with the exception of a very small 
 portion, which will be occupied this morning. The 
 Tuileries are in ashes ; the Louvre is saved. The 
 
PABIS UNDER TEE THIRD REPUBLIC. 155 
 
 Palais d'Orsay, the Court of Accounts, and a portion 
 of the Ministry of Finance have been burnt. Such is 
 the condition in which Paris is delivered to us by the 
 wretches who oppressed it. We have already in our 
 hands twelve thousand of the insurgents and shall cer- 
 tainly have eighteen to twenty thousand. The soil of 
 Paris is strewn with corpses of the insurgents. The 
 frightful spectacle will, it is hoped, serve as a lesson 
 to those insensate men who dared to declare themselves 
 partisans of the Commune." 
 
 The site of the final despairing struggle was, ominously 
 enough, the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise. The contest on 
 the side of the Communists, who showed the desperate 
 courage of rats caught in a trap, was obstinate and 
 savage, but of course hopeless. A fierce and certainly 
 unnecessary vengeance was taken on the populace of 
 Paris. To be caught with weapons, or even with pow- 
 der-stained hands, was at once a death-warrant. Even 
 women were shot as summarily as men, for the story 
 of the organised bands of petroleuses was firmly believed 
 in by the troops. The savage and wholesale nature of 
 the reprisals by the generals of the Versailles troops has 
 been deservedly blamed, and even as a political measure 
 merely it was to be deprecated, for the ferocity and 
 number of the military executions which characterised 
 the suppression of the revolt tended to lessen the public 
 impression of the horror that had occasioned them, and 
 roused a sentiment of disgust in Europe against the 
 government at Versailles. 
 
 Thus ended in blood and flame this awe-inspiring epi- 
 sode in the political history of modern Europe, — the 
 two months' Reign of Terror of the Paris Commune. 
 
156 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 But even the " Red Terror " has found an advocatug 
 diaholi in the vigorous polemical writer, Mr. Frederick 
 Harrison, who in the Fortnightly Review, 1871, lays 
 considerable stress on the lack of conclusive evidence 
 as to the alleged incendiarism of the Communists. No 
 doubt the accounts of the wholesale organised system 
 of destruction by bands of pStroleuses are grossly exag- 
 gerated, and the story of the Communards, disguised as 
 firemen, pumping petroleum on the flames may be dis- 
 missed as a wild fable, but as to the deliberate destruction 
 of public buildings from a malicious spirit of revenge, 
 few of those writers accustomed to sift historical evi- 
 dence will agree with Mr. Harrison in his attempt to 
 whitewash the leaders of the Commune. Then Mr. 
 Harrison spoUs his case by overemphasis and lack of 
 restraint, and his defence of the Commune is mainly an 
 attack on the undeniably ferocious methods of repression 
 adopted by the Versailles generals, which even the ter- 
 rible excesses of the more desperate of the Communist 
 leaders did not excuse, and certainly Mr. Harrison's 
 apologia would be more effective if he were not so 
 blinded by prejudice against his bete noire, M. Thiers. 
 But however unjust and unreasonable, his famous attack 
 on this statesman is worth quoting as a masterpiece of 
 sustained invective. 
 
 " Recent history records no more repulsive character. 
 In literature, the greatest living master of falsification ; 
 in politics, the greatest living adept in intrigue ; with- 
 out a scruple, a conviction, or a purpose ; as sanguinary 
 as Robespierre, without the excuse of his fanaticism ; as 
 Chauvinist as Napoleon, without the excuse of his 
 genius." 
 
PAUIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 157 
 
 " These lamentable and tragic events," observes M. 
 Andr6 Lebon, " were not of a nature to convert the 
 majority of the National Assembly to republican ideas. 
 For a long time a sombre memory brooded over the 
 Chamber and the country in general, and the parti- 
 sans of a monarchical restoration profited by this mood 
 to denounce the Eepublic as a permanent source of 
 disorder." 
 
 The national credit was, however, less shaken than 
 the most sanguine could have anticipated, and the suc- 
 cess of the loan which was issued in 1871, to defray 
 the war indemnity of j£200,000,000, showed how 
 strong was the vitality of France and how vast its re- 
 sources. This loan was subscribed in a few weeks 
 many times over, while the country uncomplainingly 
 bore the burden of 750 million francs of new annual 
 taxation, necessitated by paying the interest on the war 
 loan, and by building up afresh the material of war. 
 
 The personnel of the army also required to be reor- 
 ganised and increased, and, following the example of 
 Prussia after the battle of Jena, universal conscription 
 was decreed, making military service compulsory for all 
 citizens between twenty and forty years. 
 
 In order to ensure the maintenance of the Republic, 
 which Thiers, whatever his own personal wishes, was 
 satisfied was now the only form of government which 
 had any chance of stability, his great aim was to hold 
 the balance between the Republicans and the Monarch- 
 ists. The former he attempted to restrain by warning 
 them that if the Republic, "which has twice been 
 essayed without success, is this time to succeed, you will 
 owe it to order." To the Monarchists he said : « The 
 
158 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Republic exists. It is the legal government of the coun- 
 try ; to desire anything else is to desire a revolution of 
 the most formidable kind. Do not let us lose our time 
 in proclaiming the Republic, but let us employ our time 
 in giving it the necessary desirable form. Under no 
 other government than a conservative one can society 
 hold together." 
 
 The monarchical reaction was, nevertheless, too strong 
 for the President, and M. Thiers was replaced in the 
 presidential chair by Marshal MacMahon (May 24th, 
 1873), who was regarded, however, by the Orleanists 
 and Legitimists as little more than a warming-pan or 
 stop-gap. Indeed, in 1873, the Monarchical party had 
 a better chance of overthrowing the Republic in favour 
 of a Bourbon or Orleans sovereign than they have had at 
 any time between the fall of Napoleon III. and the present 
 day. It is, indeed, very likely that the Comte de Cham- 
 bord would have actually gained the throne but for his 
 uncompromising attitude. He refused to give any guar- 
 antee of constitutional liberty to his prospective subjects, 
 and would not even accept the tricolour flagl In short, 
 this dogmatic and intolerant prince would only reign as 
 an absolute sovereign by divine right. 
 
 The Republicans and Monarchists seemed now agreed 
 that a more definite and formal constitution than the 
 provisional one hastily adopted at Bordeaux in 1871 
 was now imperatively necessary for the new republic, 
 and in 1875 three important acts, regulating the organ- 
 isation of the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, and the 
 whole machinery of government, were passed. These 
 measures form what is known as the Constitution of 
 1875. This is, indeed, substantially the constitution 
 
PA BIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 159 
 
 of France to-day. Its chief provisions will be described 
 later in the chapter on Legal and Municipal Paris. 
 
 " To this constitution the world is indebted for a par- 
 liamentary republic, a conjunction until then unknown 
 to contemporary history. No abstract principle is em- 
 bodied in the constitution, which chiefly sets a legal 
 stamp upon the conditions prevailing at the moment of 
 its birth, and adapting these to the needs of the situa- 
 tion, it sought to give them the plasticity indispensable 
 for the satisfaction of future requirements. An experi- 
 mental constitution if one will, but which precisely, 
 because of this, differs from any other attempt of the 
 same nature in France." ^ 
 
 The political history of France during the next few 
 years, till the fall of Marshal MacMahon in 1879, is 
 uninteresting, and, with the death of Thiers in 1877, 
 the only strong man in France, with the exception, 
 perhaps, of Gambetta, is removed from the arena of 
 politics. 
 
 In 1878 the third International Exhibition was held, 
 which served, as indeed was its main object, to demon- 
 strate to the world the complete recovery of the Repub- 
 lic after the disasters of 1870. This universal fete 
 afforded a breathing-time to the political faction, and 
 there was a comparative lull in the political world. 
 
 Soon after the election of M. Jules Gr^vy to the 
 presidency of the Republic, the Republican party in 
 the Chamber was strong enough to get the seat of 
 government removed, in 1879, from Versailles to the 
 capital. Up to 1880 France had perforce to devote all 
 its energies to domestic concerns, but the feeling grew 
 1 " Cent Ans d'Histoire Int^rieure." 
 
160 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 that the Republic could not, without prejudice to its com- 
 mercial prosperity, or the loss of national prestige, remain 
 indifferent to the colonising influence which was leading 
 the other countries of Europe to new continents, where 
 the outlets for trade could be found. Prom this period 
 we may date the colonial expansion of France, and the 
 chief credit of this forward policy must be given to 
 M. Jules Ferry, though it ultimately brought about the 
 fall of this statesman. 
 
 Since 1870, it must be admitted that, even allowing 
 for the grave political blunders in the case of Egypt, in 
 1882 and 1898, France has shown that a democratic 
 republic is not unfitted for the control of a spirited and 
 " imperial " foreign and colonial policy. Baron de Cou- 
 bertin, in his able and dispassionate survey of the foreign 
 policy of France under the Third Republic (see Biblio- 
 graphical chapter), has shown clearly and convincingly 
 that, in spite of the crippling calamities of 1870-71, 
 which necessitated a temporary abstention from much 
 interference in international affairs, the Republic has 
 succeeded in taking a very prominent position among 
 the great powers. Prance has not, indeed, shrunk from 
 enormous pecuniary sacrifices in order to obtain this 
 commanding position in Europe, but she has cheerfully 
 borne the burdens of conscription — a kind of potential 
 blood tax which falls on every household — and a greatly 
 increased naval and military armament. The colonial 
 expansion of France has been carried out on a very large 
 scale. " We doubt if, at the most brilliant periods of 
 English history, when our command of the sea was un- 
 disputed, the British Empire ever received such vast and 
 varied accessions of territory within a like space of 
 
PABIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 161 
 
 time." ^ This view is, perhaps, a little too eulogistic, 
 and it is questionable, of course, if such additions to 
 French territory, granted their enormous area, are of 
 real economic value to the Republic, and likely to in- 
 crease her resources. But the growth of this colonial 
 empire, which includes Tunis, Madagascar, Tonquin, 
 and the whole of Northwest Africa from Morocco to 
 Tripoli, extending southwards to the hinterland of the 
 British Coast Settlements, must not, on the other hand, 
 be underrated. 
 
 In 1881, the most noteworthy event in the political 
 history of France was the short-lived ministry of Gam- 
 betta, who died after having held office for little more 
 than three months. 
 
 The years 1887 and 1888 were chiefly notable for 
 the sudden rise and meteoric career of the egregious 
 General Boulanger, who, at one time, seemed likely to 
 threaten France with a recrudescence of military dicta- 
 torship. Making capital out of the public discontent at 
 the failure of the colonial policy of the government, and 
 the growing spirit of militarism, aroused partly by the 
 Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, he man- 
 aged to compel the resignation of M. Gr^vy. M. Carnot, 
 grandson of the famous " Organiser of Victories," was 
 elected in his place. 
 
 But the activity of the Boulangist faction did not 
 abate, and finally the new Ministry, rightly judging the 
 bellicose ex-Minister of War to be a danger to the state, 
 and fearing a coup cfStat, had the resolution to summon 
 him for trial before the High Court of Justice, on a 
 charge of conspiring against the state. Boulanger now 
 1 Quarterly Review, January, 1899. 
 
162 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 revealed his real character; his courage failed him at 
 the supreme moment, and he fled the country, ending 
 his career, two years later, by suicide. 
 
 " A political convulsion of this nature, requiring such 
 strenuous efforts from the government, constituted a 
 grave warning to the Republican majority, while simul- 
 taneously testifying to the solidity and elasticity of the 
 institutions of 1875." 
 
 Though Prance was in the throes of this great politi- 
 cal crisis, it did not seem to affect the success of the 
 brilliant Universal Exhibition, which was held in Paris 
 in 1889, to celebrate the centenary of the Prench 
 Revolution. 
 
 The history of the Republic under Carnot is of little 
 external interest. It is mainly made up of political dis- 
 sensions and rivalries between the reactionaries, the 
 moderates, and the Socialists. The latter party gained 
 much ground during 1892 and 1893, and as a factor in 
 the Chamber they had now to be reckoned with, as no 
 less than fifty members of this faction were returned to 
 Parliament at the general election of 1893. It is, how- 
 ever, scarcely fair to suggest, as many writers do, any 
 close connection between the rise of this party and the 
 various Anarchist disturbances of 1892, and the assas- 
 sination of the President, at Lyons, in June, 1894. 
 
 The next President, M. Casimir-Perier, managed 
 to hold office only six months. It was afterward 
 maintained, in various quarters, that the famous Drey- 
 fus case was in some way, remotely and indirectly, 
 responsible for his sudden resignation of the reins of 
 office. The presidency of M. Paure was chiefly mem- 
 orable for the entente eordiale between the Republic and 
 
PABI8 UNDER THE TRIED REPUBLIC. 163 
 
 Russia, which ministers fondly hoped would tend to 
 " redress the balance of Europe," supposed to be 
 threatened by the Triple Alliance formed by Germany, 
 Austria, and Italy. 
 
 The most memorable event in the social history of 
 Paris, in 1895, was the state visit of the Lord Mayor 
 of London, Sir Joseph Renals, in September. He was 
 cordially received by the President, and splendidly en- 
 tertained by the municipality. 
 
 The year following, Paris entertained far more illus- 
 trious visitors, the Czar of all the Russias paying a 
 state visit in October. He was escorted to Cher- 
 bourg by the French fleet. The entry into Paris was 
 witnessed by nearly two million people, and formed a 
 scene of extraordinary enthusiasm. The President gave 
 a state banquet at the Blys^e in his honour. This 
 was followed by gala performances at the Op^ra. The 
 chief event was the laying of the corner-stone of the 
 Pont Alexandre III. A grand review of the troops 
 by the Czar, at Ch§,lons, concluded the state portion of 
 the visit, in which that monarch spoke of " the profound 
 sentiment of brotherhood in arms existing between 
 Prance and Russia." 
 
 The awful catastrophe of the Charity Bazaar fire in 
 May makes the year 1890 one of mournful memories 
 for Parisians. The loss of life was appalling, as many 
 as 124 persons being burnt alive, nearly as many as at 
 the Op^ra Comique fire just three years before. The 
 next day (May 5th) was observed as a day of national 
 mourning, and on May 8th a solemn requiem mass was 
 celebrated at Notre Dame. 
 
 The internal history of Prance for the years 1898 and 
 
164 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 1899 means virtually the history of the Dreyfus case, 
 just as the predominant note in the foreign relations 
 between Great Britain and the Republic since 1898 may 
 be summed up in the word Pashoda. 
 
 The history actually dates back to 1894, when Dreyfus, 
 a captain of artillery, was condemned (in the opinion 
 of many on faulty and insufficient evidence) to trans- 
 portation for life on a charge of treason, for having, 
 it was alleged, divulged military secrets to a foreign 
 power. The events of the famous Dreyfus agitation and 
 the subsequent second trial are so fresh in the minds 
 of all readers that it is unnecessary to recapitulate its 
 numerous and intricate phases. Certainly, recent events 
 have falsified the prediction of many who were of 
 opinion that this case would imperil the very existence 
 of the Republic. Apparently, however, in spite of the 
 lame and impotent and certainly illogical conclusion of 
 the trial, the " incident was closed." However inconsist- 
 ent and vexatious might be the presidential decree (after 
 the second court martial had found him guilty) pardon- 
 ing Dreyfus without rehabilitating him or reinstating him 
 in his rank, this measure was no doubt a politic one. 
 It pacified France, and had also the effect of destroying 
 the glamour which Dreyfus in the rfile of a political 
 martyr would certainly possess. 
 
 The various conspiracies against the government (in- 
 directly connected with the anti-Dreyfus agitation), 
 fostered by various associations, such as the Anti-Semite 
 League and the League of Patriots, subsidised by the 
 Orleanist faction, seemed to be rather an anticlimax 
 coming on the top of the momentous affaire Dreyfus, 
 and were without difficulty suppressed by the govern- 
 
PABI8 UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 165 
 
 ment. One of the melodramatic incidents of this agita- 
 tion, the Fort Chabrol revolt, amused Paris for several 
 weeks during August and September, 1899. 
 
 Paris must be allowed to have taken a prominent posi- 
 tion in the van of human progress so far as regards 
 great industrial engineering achievements. A few of 
 the more striking or important of these undertakings 
 within the last decade may be appropriately inserted 
 here in chronological order. 
 
 The much talked-of Paris ship canal, which aimed at 
 making the capital a seaport, never went beyond the 
 paper stage, the project having been unanimously rejected 
 in 1890 by the Council General of the Seine. It is not 
 likely, judging from a somewhat similar scheme (Man- 
 chester ship canal), that it would have ever proved 
 remunerative. 
 
 In 1893 the new water-supply works for Paris were 
 completed. For many years during dry summers the 
 Parisians had suffered from scarcity of water, but it was 
 supposed that the new supply, which is brought from the 
 junction of the Rivers Vigne and Avre by an aqueduct 
 sixty-three miles long, would meet all demands — at all 
 events for the remainder of the century. The daily 
 supply was nearly doubled, and the work has been 
 effected at a cost of thirty-two millions. The present 
 municipality is even more ambitious in its views, and 
 a scheme has recently been considered for utilising the 
 Lake of Geneva as a reservoir for Paris by an aqueduct 
 350 miles in length ! The cost is estimated to be 
 twenty-two million pounds. 
 
 The magnificent Alexander III. Bridge (see Exhibi- 
 tion chapter), of which the foundation stone was laid by 
 
166 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the Czar in 1896, is one of the most important of the 
 permanent improvements of Paris in connection with 
 the 1900 Exhibition. The total length is about 600 feet, 
 with a single span of 357 feet. Its width is exceptional, 
 being 130 feet from parapet to parapet, which allows 
 of a roadway of sixty-five feet, with two sidewalks of 
 thirty-two feet. 
 
 In the autumn of 1898 the great project of the Metro- 
 politan Electric Railway System was begun. There are 
 to be six distinct lines, as follows : Vincennes to Porte 
 Dauphine ; a circular line following the outer boule- 
 vard; Porte Maillot to M^nilmontant ; Clignancourt to 
 Porte d'Orl^ans ; Boulevard de Strasbourg to Pont 
 d'Austerlitz ; and Cours de Vincennes to Place d'ltalie. 
 The total length of these sections (which are chiefly 
 underground) will be twenty-four miles. The gauge is 
 to be the same as that of the state railways, and the 
 cost is estimated to amount to J5,000,000, but this 
 will almost certainly be exceeded. The Municipal Coun- 
 cil must deliver up to the company the first three sec- 
 tions within eight years, and the remainder within a 
 period of a further five years; if the additional three 
 lines are authorised they are to be handed over in an- 
 other period of five years. Certain portions are to be 
 ready for the Exhibition of 1900. The fares will be 
 twenty-five centimes first-class and fifteen centimes 
 second-class for any distance. The project was first 
 discussed by the Municipal Council in 1896, but the 
 " battle of the gauges " delayed the progress of the 
 scheme. Finally, instead of the original metre gauge, 
 it was decided to have a normal one. 
 
 The most important engineering enterprise completed 
 
PABIS UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 167 
 
 in 1899 was the new sewerage works at the Gennevil- 
 liers. By this means the half million cubic metres of 
 sewage, which had formerly found an outlet daily in the 
 Seine, are now utilised for agricultural purposes. Prom 
 a hygienic point of view this new means of disposing 
 of the sewage of the capital is undoubtedly superior to 
 the old-fashioned method ; but the practical effect is 
 that the Seine from Asni^res to Argenteuil is spoilt as 
 a stream of pleasure. 
 
 The splendid architectural embellishments of the 
 capital which have taken place in the last quarter of a 
 century almost eclipse those with which Napoleon III. 
 enriched and beautified Paris. What Baron Haussmann 
 was to the empire, Monsieur Alphand (to whom a statue 
 has this year been erected by the grateful citizens) was 
 to the Third Republic. The H8tel de Ville, the finest 
 municipal palace in Europe, the Trocad6ro Palace, the 
 Pont Alexandre III., can well compare as architectural 
 achievements with the new Louvre, the Pont de I'Alma, 
 and the Boulevard de S^bastopol. The Opdra House, 
 though not completed till 1875, belongs rather to impe- 
 rial than republican Paris. Most of these great build- 
 ings will be dealt with in the chapter on Monumental 
 Paris. 
 
 As to the part Paris has played in the history of 
 Europe, and its historic or social importance compared 
 with other great capitals, opinions necessarily vary. 
 Next to Athens and Rome, says one writer, Paris is the 
 city that has left the deepest impression on mankind, 
 while another goes farther, and unhesitatingly declares 
 that Paris has " carried the torch of life and civilisation 
 from century to century, and done most to spread cul- 
 
168 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ture and enlightenment throughout the globe." While 
 a third writer, disdaining generalities, asserts that the 
 Parisians are the best clad and the best fed and the 
 best educated of all city populations. 
 
 As might naturally be supposed, these are the views 
 most generally accepted in France. 
 
 On the other hand, some observers, noting the signif- 
 icance of the indisputable gradual decrease in the birth- 
 rate of Paris, are not misled by the fictitious increase of 
 the population, due partly to the influence of the ten- 
 dencies of the age attracting country population to the 
 great cities, and partly to the constantly increasing im- 
 migration of aliens (especially from Belgium, Switzer- 
 land, and Italy), and consider the pure Parisians a 
 decadent race. There is, of course, some truth in all 
 these different views, according to the period of the 
 history of Paris the writer has in view. But the 
 conventional view of foreigners, that Paris is a modern 
 Babylon and the centre of corruption for Europe, is, of 
 course, inherently absurd. Drunkenness, for instance, 
 is a rare vice in Paris, and among a large section of the 
 population the standard of morality and of domestic life 
 is at least as high as in London, Berlin, or Rome. 
 
 Regarded from a political point of view, Paris holds a 
 unique position among the capitals of Europe. London 
 is not to Great Britain, or Berlin to Germany, what 
 Paris is to France. In political influence, as well as 
 in historical prestige, Paris outweighs a score of 
 departments. 
 
 " No man," observes Mr. Frederick Harrison, " can 
 long judge truly French politics who does not feel 
 that in Paris is the head and heart of France. French 
 
PARIS UNDER THE TRIED REPUBLIC. 169 
 
 history is such that for generations Paris has exer- 
 cised over France that fascination which Rome had 
 over the West. Then socially the whole of the intel- 
 ligence and force of France has been concentrated into 
 that city." 
 
MUSEUMS 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 
 
 The average tourist is apt to treat the museums of 
 Paris rather perfunctorily, and does not take them so 
 seriously as those of Rome, Naples, Dresden, and other 
 great goals of travel. No doubt this comparative 
 neglect is partly due to the fact that the sights of 
 Paris are so numerous and important, and the more 
 popular ones are naturally the first to engage the 
 traveller's attention. 
 
 Of the numerous museums of the French capital, the 
 largest, as well as the most important, is certainly the 
 Louvre, but being undoubtedly of secondary interest to 
 the art-galleries, most sightseers are satisfied with a 
 hasty and superficial inspection after an exhausting day 
 in the latter. 
 
 Unless we can spare several days for the Louvre 
 Museum, as distinct from the picture-gallery, it is 
 essential to make up our minds as to what collections 
 can best be omitted. Some collections, the Renaissance 
 art objects, for instance, can well be ignored, as a better 
 collection is to be seen at the H6tel Cluny. Then, ex- 
 cept to the specialist, it would be a waste of time to 
 spend many hours in the ethnographical and Chinese 
 galleries, when there is the admirable Guimet Museum, 
 with a much better collection of these objects. 
 
 173 
 
174 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 A list of the principal departments will give some 
 idea of the wealth and scope of this vast treasure-house 
 of the arts. 
 
 1. Collections of Gems, enamels in Galerie d'ApoUon 
 and Salle des Bijoux. 
 
 2. Egyptian Antiquities. 
 
 3. Asiatic Antiquities. 
 
 4. Medieval and Renaissance Collections. 
 
 5. Antique Potteries (Mus^e de la Ceramique Antique 
 and Mus^e Campana). 
 
 6. Marine Museum. 
 
 7. Ethnographical Museum. 
 
 The most important are the Collections of Gems, the 
 Egyptian Museum, the Asiatic Antiquities, and the An- 
 cient Pottery; and those who are not prepared to give 
 more than a couple of days to this congeries of museums, 
 known as the Louvre Museums, are recommended to 
 devote most of their time to these four departments. 
 
 The Galerie d'Apollon (perhaps the finest and most 
 richly decorated Renaissance room in Paris) affords a 
 magnificent setting for the collection of jewels and 
 enamels, — the latter far superior to the South Kensing- 
 ton or British Museum collection. Jewelry, in this 
 connection, is, of course, used in a somewhat compre- 
 hensive sense, and here are to be seen some of the most 
 valuable and beautiful Renaissance plate and ornaments 
 in existence. It includes the Crown jewels, the jewelry 
 and enamels formerly in the Musde des Souverains, 
 excellent Cellini cups, and an incomparable collection 
 of Limoges enamel. Some objects are of considerable 
 antiquarian interest, such as the reliquary which en- 
 closes the arm of Charlemagne, several mediaeval 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 175 
 
 croziers, insignia of the French sovereigns, including 
 the sword, sceptre, and " Hand of Justice " used at the 
 coronation of Charlemagne, a ring and agraffe from the 
 mantle of St. Louis, helmet and shield of Charles IX., 
 etc. All visitors will probably be attracted by the 
 case containing the Crown jewels, which is not placed, 
 as one would expect, in the Salle des Bijoux, but in the 
 Galerie d'ApoUon with the other Renaissance objects of 
 art. 
 
 Here is to be seen the historical Regent diamond, 
 more valuable even than the Koh-i-noor (preserved at 
 Windsor Castle). It weighs 136 carats, and is said to 
 be worth over £600,000. To ensure its absolute 
 safety, the cabinet in which this diamond is placed is 
 so contrived that at night it is lowered by hydraulic 
 mechanism to a subterranean vault. The Mazarin 
 diamond is smaller, but of better quality. Here, also, 
 is to be seen the sword of honour of Napoleon I., richly 
 set with gems (said to be worth ten million francs), and 
 the crown of Napoleon, which was modelled on that of 
 Charlemagne. This can be compared with the crown 
 of Louis XV., but in this the jewels are paste. 
 
 The Egyptian Museum is the largest and the most 
 important in Europe. It is not surprising that the 
 collection here is far superior to that in the British 
 Museum, when we consider that the Department of 
 Antiquities in Egypt, from Mehemet Ali down to the 
 Arabi Rebellion of 1882, has been practically controlled 
 by Frenchmen, and that, in short, the French savants 
 might almost be said to have invented the science of 
 Egyptology. 
 
 The Egyptian sculpture has been placed on the ground 
 
176 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 floor in the Salle de Henri lY. and Salle d'Apis, while 
 the rest of the antiquities are shown in five large salons 
 on the first floor. The most valuable of the sphinxes, 
 steles (votive slabs of stone), statues, sarcophagi, etc., 
 were discovered by M. Mariette at Memphis. The most 
 striking objects in the collection of sculptures and 
 large antiquities may first be briefly referred to here, 
 but all interested in Egyptology will of course procure 
 the ofiicial catalogue. 
 
 Colossal statue of Seti II. in red sandstone. On the 
 head is carved the royal cap or " pschent." 
 
 Colossal sarcophagus of Rameses III. (20th dynasty). 
 This was discovered at Thebes and transported to 
 France with great difficulty. The mummy of the 
 king is at the Ghizeh Museum, while Cambridge Uni- 
 versity Museum possesses the lid of the sarcophagus. 
 
 The celebrated stele known as the Stele of Canopus is 
 not the original, but an ancient replica of this famous 
 stone, which, had not the Rosetta Stone (British Mu- 
 seum) been first found and deciphered, would probably 
 have proved the key to Egyptian hieroglyphics. The 
 Louvre once possessed another equally famous stele, 
 known as the Tablet of Abydos, a piece of petrified 
 history of the greatest historic value, containing a list 
 of the first seventy-seven kings of Egypt. This valu- 
 able tablet was, however, greatly to the disgust of 
 French savants, given to the British government by 
 Louis Philippe, and it is now in the British Museum. 
 
 The colossal bull in the Salle d'Apis was brought by 
 Mariette from the Serapeum of Memphis. It dates 
 from the fourth century B. c. This unique mauso- 
 leum of the sacred bulls was discovered by Mariette 
 
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MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. Ill 
 
 in 1860. The story of the discovery is very interesting. 
 The Temple of Serapis near Memphis, alluded to by 
 Strabo, had long been sought for by Egyptologists, 
 but in vain. The devoted savant determined to give 
 several winters to preliminary excavations on the sup- 
 posed site. Finally he was successful, and discovered, 
 some twenty feet under ground, a series of twenty-four 
 sepulchral chambers, each containing a colossal sar- 
 cophagus in which a sacred bull was buried. Mariette, 
 in his picturesque account of the discovery, describes 
 his astonishment on finding, on the layer of sand that 
 covered the floor, the actual footprints of the priests who, 
 over three thousand years ago, had laid the sacred 
 mummy in its tomb. 
 
 The remainder of the Egyptian Museum is on the 
 first floor, and contains the smaller antiquities, papyri, 
 mummies, scarabs, amulets, jewelry, funeral jars, etc. 
 
 To Egyptologists and artists one of the most striking 
 antiquities is a statue of an Egyptian priest or scribe, 
 which is not later than the sixth dynasty (some scholars 
 attribute it to the fifth dynasty), and is consequently 
 one of the earliest Egyptian statues yet discovered. It 
 is of wood, like the well-known " Village Sheik " of the 
 Ghizeh Museum, and is painted red. In the cabinets 
 and cases, which contain an extensive collection of small 
 objects of art, domestic utensils, weapons, implements, 
 games, musical instruments, and innumerable other ob- 
 jects illustrative of the domestic life of the ancient 
 Egyptians, are some glass goblets dating from about 
 2000 B. c. This seems to show that the popular view 
 which ascribes the invention of glass to the Phoenicians 
 is erroneous. That glass was manufactured in Egypt 
 
178 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 some four thousand years ago is conclusively proved by 
 some curious reliefs on the walls of one of the Beni- 
 Hassan Tombs, which represent the manufacture of glass 
 objects. Two glass-blowers are seen at work : they are 
 using the blowpipe, which they have dipped into a mass 
 lying between them, and by means of which they blow 
 out a vase. 
 
 The collection of papyri is better than that in the 
 Ghizeh Museum, where, indeed, this department of 
 Egyptian antiquities is poorly represented. The Louvre 
 can boast of the oldest papyrus roll extant. It is known 
 as the Priss^ papyrus, from the name of its discoverer. 
 It is of the fifth dynasty, so that it is nearly four thou- 
 sand years old. 
 
 The Asiatic Museum, which comprises the Assyrian, 
 Phoenician, Persian, and Jewish collections, is, like the 
 Egyptian Museum, so large that it has to be divided 
 among the ground floor galleries and those on the first 
 floor. 
 
 The Assyrian collection mainly consists of the results 
 of the excavations made on the site of the buried cities 
 of Nineveh and Babylon by Sir Henry Layard and 
 M. Botha in 1847-1850, which were divided between 
 the Louvre and the British Museum. On the whole, it 
 would appear that the English got a little the best of 
 it in the distribution of the antiquities. At all events, 
 in the opinion of experts, the British Museum collection 
 is superior to that of the Louvre, especially as far as 
 the bas-reliefs are concerned. The story of the dis- 
 covery of these buried cities reads like a romance. 
 It resulted in the restoration of the history of an 
 ancient and famous nation, so important for its rela- 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE QALLEBIE8. 179 
 
 tions with the history of ancient Egypt and ancient 
 Greece. 
 
 The colossal winged bulls used to stand at the 
 entrance of temples and royal buildings, and were the 
 counterpart of the Egyptian sphinxes. It will be no- 
 ticed that these gigantic bulls have five legs. This was 
 done with the view of improving upon or correcting the 
 natural limitations of the law of perspective, so that, 
 whether viewed from the front or the side, four legs 
 should be visible ! The colossal human-headed winged 
 lions are even more striking than the bulls. Layard's 
 description of these wonderful figures is very suggestive. 
 " I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious em- 
 blems, and to muse over their real end and history. 
 What more noble forms could have ushered the people 
 into the temple of their gods ? What more sublime 
 images could have been borrowed from nature by men 
 who sought, unaided by the light of revealed religion, 
 to embody their conception of the wisdom, power, and 
 antiquity of a Supreme Being ? They could find no 
 better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of 
 a man ; of ubiquity than the wings of a bird ; of strength 
 than the body of a lion. These winged human-headed 
 lions had for twenty-five centuries been hidden from the 
 eye of man, and they now stood forth once more in 
 their ancient majesty." 
 
 The Salle Judaique (Palestine Antiquities) should 
 be visited on account of the famous Moabite stone, 
 with an inscription describing the battles of the Moab- 
 ites with the Jews in b. c. 896. This is the earliest 
 specimen of alphabetic as opposed to hieroglyphic 
 writing. The sculptured sarcophagus from Jerusa- 
 
180 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 leva., known as the "Tomb of David," is of doubtful 
 authenticity. 
 
 To see the rest of the Asiatic collection we mount 
 the esoalier Asiatique to the first floor. 
 
 The most interesting collection here is the Dieulafoy 
 collection of Persian Antiquities. On the entrance 
 wall is the famous " Frieze of Archers of the Immortal 
 Guard" of Darius in encaustic tiles. "This splendid 
 work, mere fragment though it is of the original, gives 
 in its colour and decorative detail some idea of the 
 splendours of the palace of the Persian monarchs. The 
 colours are those still so prevalent in Persian art, show- 
 ing a strong predominance of blues and greens, with 
 faint tones of yellow." 
 
 The visitor should not overlook the capital and base 
 of a colossal column, one of the thirty-six columns 
 nearly seventy feet high, which supported the throne- 
 room of Artaxerxes Mnemon (404. B. c). In the next 
 salon is an admirable architectural model of this throne- 
 room (which covered an area of eleven thousand square 
 yards), showing the position of these columns, and the 
 manner in which they supported the roof of this Titanic 
 hall, which must have eclipsed in size and magnificence 
 even the Temple of Karnak. The juxtaposition of the 
 fragments of one of these huge columns in the adjoin- 
 ing hall will enable visitors to form some conception of 
 the colossal proportions of the building of which it was 
 one of the supports. 
 
 Mr. Grant Allen, in his " Historical Guide to Paris," 
 observes that this collection is unique in Europe, and 
 should help to correct the somewhat biassed description 
 of these architectural splendours of the Greek historians. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTUBM GALLMBIES. 181 
 
 The collection of ancient pottery is, perhaps, the 
 largest and most complete of that in any European 
 museum. It includes collections of Greek, Egyptian, and 
 Etruscan specimens. 
 
 The Etruscan pottery illustrates the high degree of 
 civilisation which this ancient race possessed, the 
 artistic ancestors of Italy. " Though entirely based 
 upon Greek models, the Etruscan productions betray 
 high artistic faculty and great receptive powers of 
 intellect." 
 
 Artists should not overlook the beautiful Tanagra 
 terra-cotta figures in the Second Salle. There is a very 
 fine collection of these charming little works. " These 
 ' figurines ' as they are called, were produced in immense 
 quantities, chiefly in Boeotia, both for household decora- 
 tion and to be buried with the dead. They were first 
 moulded or cast in clay, but they were afterward fin- 
 ished by hand, with the addition of such accessories or 
 modifications as we have seen to obtain in the case of 
 the statues in the antique gallery. Finally, they were 
 gracefully and tastefully coloured. Nothing better in- 
 dicates the universality of high art feeling amongst the 
 ancient Greeks than the extraordinary variety, fancy, 
 and beauty of these cheap objects of every-day deco- 
 ration ; while the unexpected novelty given by the 
 slightest additions or alterations, in what (being 
 moulded) is essentially the same figure, throws a flood 
 of light upon the methods of plastic art in higher 
 departments. Almost every visitor is equally impressed 
 and charmed by their extremely modern tone of feel- 
 ing. They are alive and human. In particular, the 
 playfulness of Greek art is here admirably exempli- 
 
182 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 fied. Many of them have touches of the most grace- 
 ful humour." ^ 
 
 " These little figures," writes Mr. E. T. Cook, « are 
 much sought after by museums and private collections 
 for their graceful ingenuity, lively fancy, and unex- 
 pectedly modern spirit. They mostly represent ordi- 
 nary life and daily occupations. Archaeologists are 
 much divided as to the meaning of these graceful and 
 dainty little figures, with their piquant air, their gait, 
 now rapid and agile, now indolent and languishing, and 
 their exquisitely graceful air. ' Suspended between the 
 ideal and the real world,' says a French critic, ' many 
 of the figures remain in an uncertainty which forms 
 part of their grace.' The figures will repay attentive 
 study, for the light they throw on the costume and occu- 
 pations of the Greeks." 
 
 The average visitor will, perhaps, find the collection 
 of Mediaeval and Renaissance art objects somewhat con- 
 fusing and tiresome, owing to the great number of speci- 
 mens, but if a visit to the still better collection at the 
 Cluuy Museum is not contemplated, it is well to devote 
 an hour or so to a superficial inspection of the principal 
 curiosities. The enamels should not in any case be over- 
 looked, for this collection is (teste Baedeker) " the most 
 extensive and valuable in the world." 
 
 There is a collection here hidden away in a room 
 opening off the Renaissance sculpture galleries which 
 is rarely visited, partly, no doubt, because Baedeker 
 dismisses it in a couple of lines. It is known as the 
 Salle des Antiquit^s Chr^tiennes. Quite apart from its 
 religious interest, this unique collection should appeal 
 1 Grant Allen. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 183 
 
 specially to those iuterested in art, as it affords an 
 opportunity (not to be obtained at any other Continental 
 museum except at Rome) for tracing the transition 
 stage of art when it passes from the crude paganism 
 of the early Christian period to the classical style, and 
 finally declines from classical freedom to Byzantine 
 stiffness and Gothic barbarism. 
 
 Those who care for the fascinating study of Christian 
 symbolism — the precursor of Mediaeval heraldry — will 
 find this collection of Christian sculpture particularly 
 attractive. 
 
 The symbol known as the Labarum is constantly 
 repeated on the sarcophagi. It consists of the mono- 
 gram X. P. (or X), the first two letters of the name of 
 Christ in Greek (XPI5T0S), surrounded by the true 
 vine, and having the A and Q on either side of it. Some- 
 times two birds are represented pecking at the vine. 
 
 It will be noticed how frequent are Old Testament 
 subjects, which are seldom seen in the paintings of the 
 great Italian masters, while saints and Madonnas are 
 rarely represented. 
 
 The sarcophagus representing Christ with the twelve 
 apostles should be carefully inspected. It will be 
 noticed that the treatment is more classical than Orien- 
 tal. Above this sarcophagus hangs an exquisite piece 
 of carving, taken from the altar of St. Denis, which is 
 very rich in Christian symbols. Another common early 
 Christian symbol is a fish. The signification and origin 
 of this emblem seems rather far-fetched. It was adopted 
 because the Greek word for fish ( ix©YS ) formed the 
 initials of the sacred title of Jesus Christ ( 'Irja-ovs Xpto-ros 
 ®£ov Yids SojTijs). Another interesting sarcophagus, next 
 
184 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the one described above, is that which has the Good 
 Shepherd as the central figure, in which the treatment 
 shows a marked Oriental influence. 
 
 On the second floor of the Louvre, what may be 
 regarded as the supplementary or "overflow" col- 
 lections are installed. 
 
 The ethnographical and Chinese museums are very 
 inadequate. The new Grandidier collection, however, of 
 Chinese and Japanese porcelain, is thought very highly 
 of by collectors and experts, though the ordinary visitor 
 need not spend much time over it. 
 
 The Mus^e de la Marine forms a pendant to the Mili- 
 tary Museum (see below) at the Invalides, and is as 
 interesting as it is instructive. 
 
 This museum was formed by Charles X., and it has 
 recently been enlarged by two additional rooms. The 
 most important historical collections here are the models 
 of French men-of-war from the Revolution to Charles X. 
 and the companion series of models illustrating French 
 sailing-vessels from the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century to the present day. 
 
 The most interesting curiosity here is an elaborate 
 series of models showing the method of transporting 
 from Luxor, and erecting in the Place de la Concorde, 
 the famous obelisk. 
 
 The historical museum of the Ville de Paris, gener- 
 ally called the Mus^e Carnavalet from the h8tel where 
 it has been installed, will be found more interesting than 
 the vast Renaissance collections of the Louvre or the 
 H8tel Cluny. It consists of a collection of objects and 
 relics illustrative of the history of the city. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 185 
 
 Owing to the preponderance of Revolutionary sou- 
 venirs and relics, many of them, no doubt, of more sen- 
 timental than historic interest, superior persons are 
 inclined to regard this museum with contemptuous tol- 
 erance, as a kind of official Madame Tussaud's. But 
 there is no doubt that, with most of us, the " personal 
 equation" cannot be eliminated. Besides, this large 
 and unique collection of relics connected with the most 
 stirring period of French history has a distinct educa- 
 tional value, as an impressive object-lesson on an epoch 
 which has had a permanent influence on the French 
 national character. 
 
 Then the Revolutionary souvenirs form a small por- 
 tion of the museum, occupying only a few rooms out of 
 the forty salles of which the museum consists, and there 
 are a large number of objects of real artistic importance. 
 
 The building itself is one of the finest Renaissance 
 houses still remaining in Paris. It is situated in the 
 Rue de S^vign^, not far from the Place de la Bastille. 
 
 The following outline of its history, from " Murray's 
 Guide to Paris," is well summarised, and tells us all the 
 important facts : 
 
 "It was began in 1544 by Jean BuUant, after the 
 designs of Lescot, continued by Androuet du Cerceau, 
 and finished by Mansard and Germain Pilon. The 
 trophies, lions, and Fame of the fa9ade, and the Four 
 Seasons in the court, are by Jean Goujon. It derives 
 its name from the widow of the Sire de Kernevenoy 
 (corrupted into Carnavalet), whose property it was. It 
 became celebrated as the residence of Madame de S^vign^ 
 (1677-96), and was for many years the centre of wit 
 and literature in Paris. Much of the gajrgl§a anii the 
 
186 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 interior remains unaltered. It was for many years the 
 Ecole des Ponts-et-Chauss^es, or College for Civil Engi- 
 neers, but was purchased, through the efforts of M. 
 Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine (1866), by the city of 
 Paris, and has been enlarged in the same style in order 
 to be converted into a civic museum (Mus^e Municipal), 
 in which interesting fragments of sculpture and archi- 
 tecture resulting from the demolitions, and such antiq- 
 uities as are laid bare in digging new foundations, can 
 be collected, so as to illustrate the history of Paris, and 
 the manners, usages, etc., of its inhabitants." 
 
 The H8tel Carnavalet is also connected with a ce- 
 lebrity of a somewhat different character, — Ninon de 
 L'Bnclos. This celebrated personage occupied a suite of 
 rooms in this house for several years. It was here that 
 she died, in 1703, at the age of eighty-nine, preserving, 
 if the tradition is to be credited, her remarkable beauty 
 to the last. Voltaire, when a boy, was presented to her 
 in this house ; and she left him in her will two thousand 
 francs for the purchase of books. 
 
 The first six rooms (which contain a very complete 
 collection of maps, drawings, pamphlets, plans, etc., 
 dealing with the ancient and modern topography of 
 Paris) concern historical students only. The relics of 
 Paris of the Revolution and the First Empire are to 
 be found in Rooms IX. to XIV. Only a few of the more 
 striking souvenirs can here be noticed. 
 
 Room IX. On the wall is a veritable picture-gallery 
 of notabilities of the Revolution (Lafayette, the poet 
 Andr^ Ch^nier, Marat, Danton, Robespierre, etc.). In 
 the cabinets which line the walls is a valuable collection 
 of coins and medals of the Republic. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 187 
 
 Room XI. Here is an even better collection of por- 
 traits, including Philippe Bgalit^ by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 and Marat by David. Some interesting documents, with 
 autographs, and the dossier — to use the modem term — 
 of the execution of Louis XVI., are collected in one of 
 the cabinets. 
 
 Room XII. (Salle de la Bastille). The principal 
 curiosity here is a copy of the Bastile made out of one 
 of the stones of that noted fortress. A lugubrious relic 
 is a copy of the constitution of 1793, bound in human 
 skin. The rope-ladder by which Latude effected his 
 escape from the Bastile, after thirty-six years' confine- 
 ment, will attract the notice of visitors. Several swords 
 of honour are preserved here, including one given to 
 Garibaldi. 
 
 Room XV. (Salle de S^vign^) is devoted to a small 
 but valuable collection of souvenirs and relics of Madame 
 de Sevign^. 
 
 Here a particularly characteristic letter of this famous 
 writer has been preserved. It contains a piece of a bro- 
 caded pink silk she had ordered for a dress. It is as stiff 
 as a board, and seems to have been made to last for ever. 
 The flowers are red carnations, cornflowers, forget-me- 
 nots, and yellow laburnums, on a gay pink ground. From 
 the letter we learn that the dress was intended as a 
 present. Somebody had lent her a small box in one of 
 her journeys from Brittany to Paris. She did not seek 
 an early opportunity to send it back, and was reminded 
 that she ought. How gracefully she explains why she 
 delayed, a paragraph of the letter shows : " Since you 
 absolutely require the box, here it is ; and I conjure you 
 to open it yourself, and receive as tenderly as I present 
 
188 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 it a little present I have long intended for you. You 
 will like, I think, the colours." 
 
 Madame de Sevigne came to live in the H8tel Cama- 
 valet in October, 1677. Her rooms were on the first 
 floor of the main building, now occupied by the officials 
 of the library. It was from this house that many of the 
 famous letters to her eldest daughter, the Comtesse de 
 Grignan, were written. 
 
 The other rooms (XXI.-XXV.) are interesting to the 
 specialist only, and we may pass on to Room XXVI., in 
 which are collected a large number of relics of the War 
 of 1870 and the Commune ; and some of these grim sou- 
 venirs are of thrilling interest, and, indeed, " palpitate 
 with actuality." To many this room will prove the most 
 fascinating of all in this remarkable museum. 
 
 The garden of the h6tel has been converted into a 
 kind of architectural museum of Medieval and Renais- 
 sance Paris, and, like that of the HStel de Cluny, should 
 prove particularly attractive to those who take an interest 
 in the archaeology of Paris. Note especially a beautiful 
 specimen of late Renaissance architecture in the fa9ade 
 of the hall of the Drapers' Guild, and a curious old 
 gateway, removed from the Cite, known as the Arc de 
 Nazareth. 
 
 Adjoining the Carnavalet Museum is the Biblioth^que 
 Historique de la Ville de Paris, which, though founded 
 only some twenty-five years ago, already contains about 
 one hundred thousand volumes and eighty thousand en- 
 gravings and maps, dealing chiefly with the topography 
 of Paris. It replaces the municipal library of the H8tel 
 de Ville, which was destroyed in 1871, when the Com- 
 munards set fire to that building. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE) GALLEBIES. 189 
 
 The Cluny Museum, near the Sorbonne, has been called 
 the South Kensington Museum of Paris, but the resem- 
 blance is but superficial. Like the London museum, it 
 contains an enormous collection of specimens of Mediaeval 
 and Renaissance decorative art in almost every medium, 
 — gold, silver, copper, iron, ivory, porcelain, enamel; 
 but the museum as a whole is far more complete, and the 
 arrangement and classification far more scientific. The 
 Cluny Museum has not, indeed, been used, as is notori- 
 ously the case with South Kensington, as a kind of 
 overflow receptacle for all sorts of incongruous and 
 miscellaneous collections from the other museums of 
 London and the various international exhibitions. " The 
 Cretan labyrinth of military ironmongery, advertisements 
 of spring blinds, model fish-farms, and plaster bathing 
 nymphs," which aroused the ire of Ruskin, has no 
 counterpart in Paris. Consequently, a visit to the 
 Cluny Museum is not nearly so tiring and tedious, and a 
 couple of days' intelligent sightseeing will leave the 
 tourist with a very good idea of all the more important 
 objects of this great treasure-house of art. 
 
 The actual building of the Mus^e de Cluny is itself 
 a museum, and is a delightful specimen of late Mediaeval 
 French mansions. " It is a happy system that exists in 
 Prance," observes Mr. Sieverts Drewett, " of placing 
 objects of antiquity in buildings that are of historic 
 renown. Thus the H6tel Carnavalet is utilised as a 
 museum, so is the Louvre Palace, and part of that of 
 the Luxembourg. Thus surrounding these precious 
 relics with a halo of appropriate environments, a double 
 interest is engendered. The H6tel de Cluny is in real- 
 ity an old mansion, built at the end of the fourteenth 
 
190 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 century by the Benedictine monks of Cluny, near Macon, 
 and lent by them to the Kings of France, commencing 
 with the residence there in 1515 of Mary, widow of 
 Louis XII. of France, and sister of Henry VIII. of 
 England. For a couple of centuries it was used by 
 royalty, occasionally by religious orders and various 
 other occupants, until the Revolution, when it was de- 
 clared national property. It was then untenanted, and 
 presented a very forlorn appearance. But its Gothic 
 architecture was unrestored, or injured by later styles 
 incongruously introduced, and it remains to this day 
 a fine specimen of fourteenth and fifteenth century 
 work." 
 
 At the Revolution, when all monastic property was 
 confiscated, the hfitel changed owners several times, till 
 in 1833 it fortunately came into the possession of a 
 certain M. du Sommerard, a zealous antiquary, who 
 began this priceless collection of archseological remains 
 and objects of art. On his death in 1842, the govern- 
 ment bought the museum and the historic house in 
 which it was stored for five hundred thousand francs, 
 and united it with the remains of the ancient Roman 
 palace and baths which had been incorporated with the 
 garden of the h8tel. 
 
 Since then the collection has been considerably in- 
 creased by private donations and grants of antiquities 
 by the state and the Paris municipality, who sent to the 
 Mus^e de Cluny the valuable results of the excavations 
 in Paris; and now the catalogue contains a list of 
 nearly ten thousand antiquities and works of art. 
 Numerically, no doubt, this is quite eclipsed by the fifty 
 thousand objects in the ofiicial catalogue of the South 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 191 
 
 Kensington Museum, but, as has been already suggested, 
 a considerable number of these exhibits are of no historic 
 or artistic importance. 
 
 The entrance of the h8tel, with its Gothic gateway, 
 bears a striking resemblance • to that of an Oxford 
 college. Some of the rooms on the ground floor 
 (Rooms I. to IX.) have been little altered, and the fine 
 wooden ceilings should be noticed. 
 
 In Room II. is a fine stone chimneypiece, dated 1562, 
 by Hugues Lallement, representing Christ and the woman 
 of Samaria. Notice the quaint Italian marriage- chests 
 of the sixteenth century. There is a curious collection 
 of shoes here from different countries, which might 
 interest some visitors. 
 
 The most valuable object in Room IV. is a beautifully 
 carved Renaissance chimneypiece by Hugues Lallement, 
 representing Actseon transformed into a stag by Diana, 
 as a punishment for having surprised the goddess while 
 bathing. It will be noticed that episodes from the 
 mythical history of Diana are favourite subjects of the 
 courtly artists of the sixteenth century, out of compli- 
 ment to Diane de Poitiers, the reigning favourite. 
 
 The Audeoud Collection, which was acquired in 1885, 
 is placed in Room V. It consists of works of art of 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and does not 
 repay much study. The quaint Neapolitan Presipio, 
 though of a debased style of art, is interesting. Speci- 
 mens of these Ober-Ammergaus in miniature, as they 
 might almost be called, are to be seen in most museums 
 in Italy, — a very characteristic one at the S. Martino 
 Museum, Naples. The motive is the Nativity, but ac- 
 cessory scenes from the life of Christ are often added. 
 
192 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 This custom of giving these curious sacred wax-work 
 exhibitions at Christmas is still kept up at many churches 
 in Roman Catholic countries. There is nothing likely 
 to attract the ordinary visitor in the next three rooms, 
 which contain pictures, sculptures, church furniture, 
 tapestries, etc., except a portion of the original relief of 
 the Last Judgment, formerly on the fa9ade of Notre 
 Dame, and below it a very fine stone reredos illustrat- 
 ing the history of St. Eustace, from the Abbey Church 
 of St. Denis, in Room VI. Then a fine marble statue 
 of Ariadne, attributed to Germain Pilon, should not be 
 overlooked. 
 
 The first two rooms on the first floor contain an un- 
 rivalled collection of French and Italian Faience (from 
 the city Faenza in Italy, where this porcelain originated), 
 of the greatest interest to collectors and connoisseurs, 
 but decidedly caviare to the general. 
 
 The Palissy ware here is very good, and enthusiasts 
 in china can profitably spend a whole morning in 
 these two rooms. Palissy's devotion to art is well 
 known, but to his wife, not equally buoyed up by the 
 self-sacrificing enthusiasm of the artist, his life must 
 have seemed one long martyrdom. Prom the artist's 
 standpoint, no doubt, nothing could have been nobler 
 than to sacrifice the household furniture for his furnace 
 when ordinary fuel was lacking, but to Madame Palissy 
 it must have been indescribably galling. 
 
 In this room some magnificent specimens of Delia 
 Robbia ware should not be overlooked. The best is 
 the martyrdom of St. Catherine, in which angels are 
 represented breaking the spokea of her instrument of 
 torture. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 193 
 
 The next room is noteworthy both for the tapestries 
 and the splendid collection of enamels. The tapestry- 
 consists of a set of six pieces, illustrating the legend of 
 the Lady and the Unicorn (the symbol of chastity). 
 They were originally in the Ch&teau of Boussac, and 
 are considered the finest specimens Icnown of fifteenth 
 century tapestry. Another fine Renaissance chimney- 
 piece — in which this museum is so rich — is placed 
 in this room. It was brought from Rouen, and repre- 
 sents the history of the Santa Casa of Loretto. 
 
 The collection of enamels is one of the finest in 
 Europe, and contains specimens of every country and 
 age. The series of nine enamelled plates from the 
 Ch&teau de Madrid (see Bois de Boulogne) of Francis 
 I. are said to be the largest enamels in existence. The 
 figures are supposed to represent the cardinal virtues. 
 
 In the next room (IV.) is a small but choice collec- 
 tion of Arabic pottery, which is worth studying by all 
 who have not had the opportunity of visiting the Arabic 
 Museum at Cairo, the largest and best collection of 
 Mohammedan art in the world. 
 
 The collection of ivories in Room IX. should be care- 
 fully studied by all tourists. The Cluny ivories and 
 ebonies are perhaps unsurpassed. In the centre of the 
 room are placed some of the earliest known specimens, 
 dating from the fourth and fifth centuries. One of 
 these, a quaint statuette of 9, woman crowned by genii, 
 was discovered in a tomb near Rouen. Other panthe- 
 istic figures are shown here, whose " style recalls at once 
 classical art and the art of Byzantium." Two exceed- 
 ingly beautiful fourteenth century triptychs, one repre- 
 senting the Annunciation, and the other the Madonna 
 
194 PASIS IN ITS BPLJENBOUR. 
 
 and Child, with four saints, are among the most valu- 
 able treasures of art in this room. Notice also an 
 eleventh century cross found in the tomb of St. M^rard, 
 in the Church of St. Germain-des-Pr^s. 
 
 Other beautiful specimens are a reliquary of St. Yved 
 (twelfth century), from the Abbey of Braisne. " Of 
 the same epoch, or still earlier, are the sheets of ivory 
 used for the binding of the Gospels, on which are painted 
 admirable pictures in illustration of the divine books. 
 The ivory looking-glass frame, representing two figures, 
 ■which are supposed to be those of St. Louis and 
 Blanche of Castille, comes from the treasure of St. 
 Denis. The pastoral staff, which, twice ennobled, be- 
 longed first to the famous Debruges-Dumesnil collec- 
 tion, and afterward to the collection of Prince Soltikoff, 
 dates from the thirteenth century. The rod of ivory is 
 crowned with a lion in boxwood, enriched with precious 
 stones." 
 
 Probably the most attractive room in the whole 
 museum, to the generality of visitors, is Room XI., de- 
 voted to objects of art in the precious metals, and the 
 work of goldsmiths and silversmiths. In a central case 
 are the nine massive gold crowns (seventh century) be- 
 longing to the Visigoth sovereigns of Spain, found near 
 Toledo in 1858 and 1860. These relics have long served 
 as a bone of contention to antiquaries and archaeologists. 
 One of the crowns, which is inscribed to an unknown 
 sovereign. Queen Sonnica, has in particular baffled the 
 cognoscenti. It bears a striking resemblance to the 
 crown of Queen Theodelinda at Monza, near Milan. 
 The crowns are probably votive ones, and were not worn. 
 The workmanship is somewhat heavy and Byzantine in 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 195 
 
 character. The discovery excited considerable interest 
 in archaeological and antiquarian circles, as it was not 
 supposed that gold work was known in Spain under 
 the Visigothic kings. It is supposed that these treas- 
 ures were buried by the Christians at the time of the 
 Moorish invasion. 
 
 Most of the other objects in this room are reliquaries, 
 shrines, crucifixes, monstrances, and other articles of 
 church furniture. Notice a gold shrine (eleventh cen- 
 tury) of the rarest workmanship, which was given by the 
 Emperor Henry II. to- Basle Cathedral. Then there is 
 a beautiful specimen of a Golden Rose (still presented 
 annually by the Pope to some notable Romanist), given 
 to the Bishop of Basle at the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century. 
 
 Placed somewhat incongruously among all these eccle- 
 siastical ornaments and curios is a remarkable piece of 
 mechanism in the form of a ship. It is, in short, an 
 elaborate toy of sixteenth century workmanship, more 
 ingenious and quaint, perhaps, than beautiful or artistic. 
 Grouped around the stern of the vessel are figures of 
 Charles Y. (in gold) and his courtiers. Inside the ship 
 a hidden mechanism can be set in motion, which makes 
 the figures move, the band play, and the cannons roar 
 out a salute. This remarkable curiosity is naturally as 
 popular with the less serious-minded English tourists as 
 Tippoo Sahib's organ at the South Kensington Museum, 
 decorated with a tiger devouring a British officer, which, 
 when set in motion, is made to growl while the unfortu- 
 nate officer screams ! 
 
 The pictures in the Cluny Museum are artistically of 
 slight importance, and even the authenticity of a few 
 
196 PARIS IN ITS SPLENBOUB. 
 
 by the old masters is doubted. For instance, most 
 critics are now agreed that Christ in the Garden of 
 Gethsemane, attributed in the catalogue to Gentile da 
 Fabriano, is not by that painter. There are, however, 
 a few good pictures by fifteenth century Flemish painters. 
 There was formerly a good collection of Renaissance 
 armour in this room, but it has been very properly 
 transferred to the State Collection at the Invalides. 
 
 An extraordinary relic was once exhibited here, viz., 
 a portion of the lower jaw of Molidre, but this was 
 transferred in 1899 to the theatrical museum of the 
 Comedie Frangaise. 
 
 " The furniture is particularly fine, and is as historical 
 as it is artistically beautiful. Remarkable among the 
 examples of church furniture is the great sideboard of 
 the Cathedral of St. Paul, carved by a Cellini in the 
 fifteenth century. He must have spent his whole life 
 at the work. Nor is the house furniture less magnifi- 
 cent. Witness the delicate sculpture of the benches, 
 the high chairs with emblazoned backs, the chests for 
 marriage-gifts, the bed which is said to have belonged 
 to Francis I., the cabinets of all times and of every 
 shape, the harpsichords, the spinets, the gala carriages, 
 covered with gilding, the sledges, the sedan-chairs, and 
 a hundred other objects of luxury, — reminiscences of a 
 time when between the workman and the artist there 
 was scarcely any distinction, and when objects destined 
 for the most common use were fashioned and adorned 
 with an elegance and grace which told of true artistic 
 feeling." 
 
 The small chapel whose groined roof (as in the case 
 of the Chapter House of Westminster) is supported by 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 197 
 
 a single octagonal pillar in the centre is a good example 
 of Gothic architecture. The chapel is but dimly lighted 
 by the painted windows. The church furniture is 
 medieval. Notice the fine fifteenth century wooden 
 altar-piece of Flemish workmanship, and a quaint twelfth 
 century crucifix. Underneath is a crypt of the same 
 size and design as the chapel. 
 
 In the garden of the museum are the remains of the 
 old Roman palace known as Les Thermes, which was sup- 
 posed to have been built by the Emperor Julian, till the 
 discovery of a Roman altar with an inscription,^ showing 
 that the palace with its baths (thermoB) was built by 
 Constantius, who inhabited Lutetia from 287 to 292 a. d. 
 
 In 360 Julian the Apostate was proclaimed emperor 
 in this very palace, for which reason, perhaps, this city 
 was often spoken of by him as " dear Lutetia." 
 
 The history of Gallo-Roman and mediaeval Paris cen- 
 tres around these venerable remains. It is occasionally 
 referred to in the chronicles of Gregory of Tours, and 
 in an old deed of 1138 it goes under the name it still 
 bears. The palace was sacked by the Normans, and 
 was still in a ruinous condition when Philippe Auguste 
 made over the property to his chamberlain in 1218. 
 When the Revolution broke out the buildings belonged 
 to the Abbey of Cluny, and were sold with other 
 monastic estates to private persons, who built dwelling- 
 houses and shops on and around the old Roman ruins. 
 " Louis, as a lettered monarch, endeavoured to save 
 the ruins from these profanities of the infidels, and he 
 seems even to have entertained the thought of turning 
 
 1 " Hoc quod erexit atrium virtus Constantii, D. Solis ornav. alt. 
 B. yirius Juliani Csesaris." 
 
198 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 the remains of the ancient edifice into a sort of museum, 
 but he did not carry out his idea ; it was not until the 
 reign of Louis Philippe that the town of Paris regained 
 possession of the Palais des Thermes. It ceded the 
 relic to the state in 1843. 
 
 " After the lapse of so many centuries, the astonishing 
 thing is that one stone of the ancient Roman edifice 
 should now remain. The part of the original edifice 
 which time has spared is that which enclosed the baths. 
 The large hall, with its highly interesting vaulted roof, 
 was the Hall of the Cold Baths : the so-called frigidarium. 
 The place occupied by the fish tank can still be recog- 
 nised, and the remains can be seen of the cascade which 
 brought the water into the baths. Bricks and stones 
 have been alternately employed in the walls, whose 
 surface has been blackened by ' Sluttish Time,' and 
 impaired in all sorts of ways. This hall has had the 
 most varied fortunes, and for a long time it served as 
 depot to a cooper, who here stowed away his casks and 
 barrels." ^ 
 
 The frigidarium is a hall of magnificent proportions, 
 being sixty-six feet long, thirty-eight feet wide, and 
 about sixty feet high. The masonry is extraordinarily 
 massive, and has withstood not only the ordinary ravages 
 of time, but does not seem to have been materially 
 injured by the weight and moisture of a garden which for 
 many years concealed the roof. Some remains of the 
 leaden pipes which brought water from Rungis beyond 
 Arcueil may still be seen. In this hall and the adjoin- 
 ing garden have been placed most of the Roman and 
 mediaval remains which have been brought to light 
 "I Old and New Paris." 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 199 
 
 during excavations in Paris. The most interesting are 
 two Roman altars of the time of Tiberius, dedicated 
 to Jupiter, found in 1711, when excavating beneath the 
 crypt of Notre Dame. 
 
 In the garden some fragments of mediaeval and Re- 
 naissance architecture have been preserved, such as the 
 Romanesque portal of the Church of Argenteuil, a portion 
 of the facade of the College of Bayeux, and some curious 
 tenth century statues from the old Abbey of St. Magloire 
 in the Rue St. Denis. These were found during some 
 excavations which were undertaken on the site in the 
 reign of Louis Philippe. 
 
 Among the architectural curiosities to be seen here is 
 the iron cross from the Church of St. Vladimir at Sebas- 
 topol, a war trophy presented to the museum by Marshal 
 P61issier. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 
 ( Continued.") 
 
 The great industrial museum of France, known as the 
 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, close to the Ga£et^ 
 Th^Rtre, is seldom included in the traveller's itinerary. 
 The frequent comparison with the London Patent Office 
 museum is absurdly inadequate ; in fact, such a collection 
 is only one of the many departments of this great insti- 
 tution. Besides being an important technical university, 
 including schools of mines, agriculture, engineering, etc., 
 it is an " arts and crafts " museum on an enormous 
 scale. Only those keenly interested in the mechanical 
 and industrial arts would care, however, to devote much 
 time to the Arts and Metiers, but a few of the objects and 
 curiosities which are likely to appeal to the ordinary 
 visitor may be briefly described. 
 
 In Salle 2 are many specimens and models of armour, 
 turret-forts, etc., from the famous ironworks at Le Creu- 
 sot, of particular interest at the present juncture, when 
 these big guns are being extensively used by the Boers 
 against the British troops in the Transvaal war. 
 
 In the Gallery of Machines (formerly the church of 
 the abbey) is a primitive locomotive, designed by Cugnot 
 in 1770. 
 
 200 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 201 
 
 In the engineering galleries are some interesting 
 models of various big engineering enterprises, such as 
 the Paris sewers and the famous Garabit Viaduct, — the 
 highest and longest railway bridge in France. On the 
 first floor in the central room (Salle d'Honneur) are 
 some curious electrical appliances, including a natural 
 magnet with an attractive power of 110 pounds, the 
 original Voltaic pile, etc. 
 
 In the textile fabric department is exhibited the origi- 
 nal Vaucanson's loom. It was in this gallery that the 
 members of the extreme Republican section of the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies assembled on the 13th of June, 1849, 
 when the demonstration against the expedition to Rome 
 was dispersed by General Changarnier in the Rue de la 
 Paix. Their consultations were soon interrupted by the 
 arrival of a detachment of soldiers, leaving them no 
 other alternative but flight. Some, including Ledru- 
 RoUin and Boichot, made their escape through one of 
 the windows of this gallery which look upon the 
 garden. 
 
 It might not be supposed that this great industrial 
 museum would be particularly attractive to those fond 
 of art and archeology, but, as so often happens in the 
 case of the public institutions of Paris, it is located in 
 a building of considerable artistic and historical interest, 
 — in fact, the church, though of course much altered 
 and restored, is one of the most perfect of the early 
 Gothic churches in Paris. The Conservatoire occupies 
 the site of the wealthy Benedictine priory of St. Martin- 
 des-Champs, and a considerable portion of the ancient 
 building has been incorporated in the museum fabric. 
 
 It was founded in 1060 by Henri I., and was fortified 
 
202 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 in the thirteenth century. One of the ancient towers, 
 known as the Tour Vertbois, still exists, having been 
 preserved in 1877 during certain improvements under- 
 taken in this region, through the efforts of Victor Hugo 
 and some influential archaeologists. 
 
 "Toward the end of the fourteenth century it stood 
 within the walls of Paris, but covered about sixteen 
 acres, a great part of which was occupied by fields or 
 gardens. Here judicial combats took place: one very 
 celebrated in 1385, between La Tr^mouille, a French- 
 man, and Courtenay, an Englishman. Here the bodies 
 of the Constable d'Armagnac and his friends were thrown 
 in 1418. The priory was dissolved in 1789, the fortifica- 
 tions levelled, and the immense estates of the monks 
 sold, except the conventual buildings, which remained 
 national property. In the year 1798 the Conservatoire 
 des Arts et Metiers was established here, and in 1802 
 the collection of models, etc., originally begun in 1775 by 
 Vaucanson, was transferred to this building; in 1806 
 schools for workmen, children, and adults were added. 
 Since the accession of Emperor Napoleon III. J vast 
 additions have been made to this institution, the build- 
 ings have been entirely restored and remodelled, and the 
 collections largely increased. It has a regular staff of 
 professors, and is under the management of a council, 
 with a director at its head; besides the collections, 
 there are lecture-rooms, laboratories, schools, etc., all 
 gratuitous." 
 
 The chapel of the priory, which has been converted 
 into a hall of machinery, has still a portion of the twelfth 
 century choir. The building was in a very ruinous con- 
 dition when it was taken in hand by the government 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLEBIES. 203 
 
 architect in 1854. The refectory of the abbey has been 
 turned into a library. The architect is said to have 
 been Pierre de Montereau, who built the Sainte Chapelle. 
 It is in a tolerable state of preservation, and, though 
 little known to strangers, one of the finest relics of 
 Gothic architecture still remaining in Paris. 
 
 "The interior is very fine, both for the original 
 design and execution. It, is one hundred and thirty- 
 eight feet long, twenty-three feet wide, divided longi- 
 tudinally by seven slender pillars, supporting the 
 double-vaulted roof. The windows are of the same 
 early pointed, being composed of two lancet-headed 
 apertures, with a circular one above. They are now 
 filled with very indifferent modern painted glass. The 
 whole building was restored in 1850 under the direction 
 of M. Vaudoyer. The pillars and walls have been deco- 
 rated in true Parisian caf^ style. The painting on the 
 west wall represents St. Martin ; those on the east the 
 arts and sciences. On the north projects the ancient 
 pulpit, from which prayers were read during the mon- 
 astic meals, with a staircase in the depth of the wall 
 leading to it. This is of the same date as the rest of 
 the building, and is one of the oldest and best examples 
 in France." ^ 
 
 Many visitors to Paris do not even know of the 
 existence of the valuable collection of armour and 
 weapons of war at the Invalides. To them the In- 
 valides means Napoleon's tomb, and if the armory 
 is visited at all, the inspection is short and perfunctory. 
 Yet the Mus^e d'Artillerie is one of the largest and 
 most important in Europe. If the collection of histori- 
 1 Murray's "Handbook to Paris." 
 
204 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 cal armour is inferior to that of Madrid, Malta, or Turin, 
 yet the museum taken as a whole is unsurpassed in 
 Europe. There is much to interest the ordinary tourist 
 here, while military men, as well as those fond of archse- 
 ological research, will not find a whole day too much for 
 the inspection of this complete and comprehensive col- 
 lection of arms of all ages. 
 
 The present collection dates from the Revolution, 
 though Louis XIV. had formed a small museum of 
 arms (chiefly models of artillery then in use) in the 
 Bastile, and on the destruction of that fortress a few of 
 the models and weapons were saved and placed tempo- 
 rarily in the Convent of St. Thomas Aquinas; and 
 these formed the nucleus of the present museum. Con- 
 siderable additions were made under the National 
 Convention and the Directory, as the most valuable 
 weapons and war trophies in the various royal resi- 
 dences and the chS.teaux of the imigrSs were brought 
 to Paris, and by this legalised plunder the national 
 collection was considerably augmented. Under Napo- 
 leon I. the museum was greatly enriched by speci- 
 mens from foreign collections, taken as spoils of war, 
 but a large number of these trophies were restored by 
 the Allies in 1815. According to one historian, the 
 Prussian troops carried away five hundred and eighty 
 chests of weapons! 
 
 The foregoing is a brief outline of the history of this 
 remarkable museum, which " contains specimens of every 
 arms known, from the primitive flint hatchet to the 
 weapons actually in use. It offers many gaps, entire 
 centuries are unrepresented, but these gaps are unavoid- 
 able : they exist everywhere ; and the historical char- 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 205 
 
 acter of the collection is as complete as the present 
 condition of archaeological research permits." 
 
 A first impression is that the various collections are 
 distributed haphazard about the galleries. But a care- 
 ful inspection will show that most of the ten thousand 
 objects of which the museum consists are carefully classi- 
 fied and arranged on a scientific and logical basis, either 
 according to chronology or to the class of weapons. The 
 museum is divided into five sections : (1) Ancient arms ; 
 (2) defensive armour, helmets, shields, coats of mail, 
 etc. ; (3) arms of offence. These three departments 
 are, of course, more of archaeological than military in- 
 terest. (4) Firearms, manual and portable guns, 
 BJstols, etc. ; (5) artillery. ^ 
 
 In the first gallery, known as the Galerie des Armes 
 Blanches, is a collection of considerable historical value 
 of weapons and firearms from the earliest ages to the 
 present day. It begins, of course, with the flint hatchets 
 and javelins of the stone age. Then there are a few 
 specimens of Frankish armour and weapons. The tenth 
 and eleventh centuries are very inadequately represented. 
 In fact, there is only one specimen of the armour of the 
 epoch which is historically represented by the Bayeux 
 tapestry, a long sword having a point like those of the 
 time of Nero, that is, not gradually tapering, but sud- 
 denly by a sharpened end. The twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries make also a poor show in this armory. 
 
 There are some good specimens of thirteenth century 
 coats of mail. This defensive armour was, however, 
 soon replaced by steel, as it was found that the effect of 
 
 1 The great size of the collection may he gathered from the fact 
 that the catalogue is in five volumes (price, five francs). 
 
206 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the shock of lances and other thrusting weapons was 
 lessened by steel plates. By the end of the seventeenth 
 century plate armour disappears altogether. The col- 
 lection of armour in Galleries I. and II. des Armures 
 shows very clearly the changes in this armour from the 
 fifteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. 
 The most interesting series is a very complete set of 
 armour belonging to the Kings of France from Henri II. 
 to Louis XIV. 
 
 On the second floor are the collections of thrusting 
 weapons and firearms. The musketry collection is one 
 of the best in Europe, and contains specimens of every 
 kind of musket, from the flintlocks and arquebuses of 
 the sixteenth century to the latest patterns of rifles now 
 in use. 
 
 The models of artillery — used in warfare for some 
 time before portable firearms — are particularly interest- 
 ing. A fourteenth century cannon shows that, contrary 
 to what is generally supposed, breech-loaders (though 
 of course of a primitive kind) preceded muzzle-loaders. 
 " The earliest firearms were loaded at the breech by 
 means of a box which was received in a strong stirrup 
 and fastened with a key." The development of artillery 
 in the French army is shown very clearly in chrono- 
 logical order, from the heavy and clumsy piece adapted 
 for stone cannon-balls down to the latest pattern of 
 breech-loading rifled Creusot cannon. But this section 
 of the museum can be properly appreciated only by 
 those possessing some technical knowledge. There are, 
 however, many historical curiosities and warlike relics 
 which appeal to the civilian visitor. Among these are 
 the huge cannon known as the " Grifiin," a heavy piece 
 
MUSEUltS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 207 
 
 of ordnance weighing thirteen tons, cast in the sixteenth 
 century, which was brought here from Ehrenbreitstein 
 on the Rhine, in 1797, and a huge chain nearly two 
 hundred yards long, and weighing three tons and a half, 
 which was used by the Turks in constructing a bridge 
 of boats over the Danube, at the siege of Vienna in 
 1683. Other interesting curiosities are the battle-axe 
 of Edward IV. of England, and a magnificent suit of 
 Oriental armour worn by an Emperor of China, part 
 of the booty of the Summer Palace, near Pekin, taken 
 in 1861. 
 
 Certain portions of the museum are only shown to 
 strangers with tickets obtained from the Ministry of 
 War. Among these is the Gallery of Plans of For- 
 tresses. This is a collection of plans in relief of the 
 fortresses of France. Here may be seen, in the propor- 
 tion of one to six hundred, the models of Perpignan, 
 Cherbourg, Antibes, Strasbourg, Bayonne, Belle Isle, 
 Oleron, Saint-Martin-de-R^, Ham, Villefranche in the 
 Pyrenees, Dunkerque, Mont-Saint-Michel, Besan9on, etc. 
 Several of them occupy a space of from 220 to 240 
 square feet. There are also models of the battle of 
 Lodi, the last siege of Rome, and that of Sebastopol. 
 
 A recent addition to the departments of the Invalides 
 Museum is the so-called Mus6e d'Arm6e, though it 
 might more appropriately be called the Mus^e Napoleon, 
 as the numerous relics and souvenirs of the great 
 emperor, formerly scattered throughout the various 
 museums of Paris, are now all collected here, and 
 naturally form the principal feature in this supple- 
 mentary museum. Here is to be seen the actual over- 
 coat worn by Napoleon at Marengo, his camp bedstead 
 
208 PAUlS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 (brought from St. Helena), the bridle of the charger he 
 rode at the battle of Waterloo, his pistols, etc. 
 
 An extraordinary collection, which is absolutely 
 unique, has recently (1899) been added to the Mus^e 
 d'Arm^e, which should prove highly attractive to 
 juvenile visitors. It consists of no less than seventeen 
 thousand wooden soldiers dressed in all the variety of 
 uniforms of the Napoleonic period. Infantry, cavalry, 
 artillery, all are correctly represented there, down to 
 the minutest details, so that the Grand Army as a 
 whole, and each individual member of it as regards 
 uniform and equipment, is accurately reproduced in 
 miniature. The donor is a certain M. Wartz, an Alsa- 
 tian who devoted a good many years to forming this 
 remarkable Lilliputian army. 
 
 The H6tel des Invalides — the French Chelsea Hos- 
 pital — is an establishment capable of accommodating 
 over five thousand pensioners, but at present there are 
 not more than a hundred and seventy or so, and the 
 number is constantly diminishing. In 1880 there were 
 about four hundred. The pension of a private is twenty- 
 four francs a year, with board. It is expressly provided 
 in the regulations of the institution that a pensioner who 
 has lost a leg in the service of his country shall receive 
 an extra allowance in lieu of shoes ! 
 
 In addition to the five large museums described above, 
 there are several minor ones, which could be visited by 
 those with plenty of leisure. Of these the most interest- 
 ing is the Guimet Museum of Religions, which has been 
 founded only recently, and the Comparative Museum of 
 Sculpture at the Trocaddro. As they are within a few 
 
MUSMUM8 AND PICTUMM GALLEMIES. 209 
 
 hundred yards of each other, both can be conveniently 
 visited in the same morning. 
 
 Some of the finest specimens of modern French sculp- 
 ture decorate the Trocad^ro Palace itself and its terraces 
 and fountains. The central dome of this Moorish- 
 looking palace is crowned by Mercie's statue of Fame, 
 one of his finest colossal works. The principal facade 
 is decorated with magnificent groups of statuary, repre- 
 senting the five continents. Of these the best are Asia, 
 by Falguiere, and Africa, by Delaplanche, though the 
 latter sculptor is not usually seen at his best in large 
 sculptures. 
 
 The famous cascade, one of the finest ornamental 
 water-works of the kind in Europe, descends from the 
 balcony to the Seine, filling on its course eight enormous 
 basins, with groups of statuary arranged along the banks. 
 Among the finest groups of animal statuary ever chiselled 
 by Fremiet (on whom the mantle of Barye has fallen) 
 are the elephant, stag, and turtle groups around the 
 largest basin. Other splendidly modelled bronzes are a 
 bull by Cam, a horse by Rouillard, and a rhinoceros 
 by Jacquemart. 
 
 The musemn of casts of the great masterpieces of 
 mediaeval and Renaissance sculptors is very complete, 
 and art students would find a visit to this collection a 
 useful introduction to the collections of ancient and 
 modern sculpture at the Louvre and the Luxembourg. 
 The museum is mainly confined to French sculptures 
 of every period, but for the sake of comparison some 
 casts of ancient chefs-d'oeuvre are also included. 
 
 The collection is due to the famous architect, VioUet- 
 le-Duc, and in its formation the municipality has 
 
210 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 strictly followed the principles of selection which he 
 recommended. 
 
 It is divided into four departments: (1) Examples 
 showing the relations that exist between the various 
 styles of sculpture, at different epochs of civilisation. 
 (2) Mouldings of French sculpture, classed in schools 
 and epochs, only the best examples being chosen. (3) 
 Mouldings of other nations, parallel with the same 
 periods as those selected for France. (4) Relief work 
 in buildings from historical monuments, showing the 
 place occupied by sculpture in architecture. 
 
 " These casts of mouldings have been executed under 
 the able superintendence of M. Geoffrey Dechaume, 
 and a very valuable collection for the student it has 
 become. For students of architecture in its highest 
 forms, and for sculptors who apply their art exclusively 
 to the decoration of buildings, and particularly for the 
 mason who combines art and knowledge with his chisel, 
 hours may be profitably spent here. Copies of the finest 
 mouldings in the French cathedral porches, fa9ades, 
 choirs, and tombs ; of some of the richest examples of 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii; of Michael Angelo and 
 Benvenuto Cellini, — all are most valuable for the pur- 
 poses of study." 1 
 
 The new Guimet Museum consists of the valuable 
 collections illustrating the religions of the East, which 
 M. Guimet of Lyons presented to the nation in 1886. 
 Though of course a specialised museum, and appeal- 
 ing principally to the clergy, missionaries, teachers, 
 etc., laymen will find much to interest them in this re- 
 markable collection, especially those who have travelled 
 1 Sieverts-Brewett. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 211 
 
 in the East. Those, too, who are fond of anthropological 
 studies will find this museum unusually instructive. 
 
 The religions of India and China : Buddhism, Brah- 
 manism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc., are well represented 
 by a rich and varied collection of idols, statuettes, 
 models, temple fittings, votive offerings, jewelry, and 
 relics of all kinds, and there are a few objects connected 
 with the special form of Buddhism prevalent in Thibet. 
 In a separate room is a particularly good collection of 
 jade ornaments, the fruits of the loot of the Summer 
 Palace in Pekin. 
 
 It is unfortunate that the donor was unable to form a 
 collection of objects relating to Islamism, Judaism, and 
 other leading faiths of the East, so that the museum 
 might be fully representative of Oriental religions. 
 
 The Japanese collection will interest artists as much 
 as antiquarians, as many of the objects here are as 
 beautiful as they are curious. 
 
 In the Galerie Boissiere is a small collection of 
 Egyptian antiquities of no great value as regards 
 archaeological importance. It would be more appropri- 
 ately placed in the Egyptian Museum, at the Louvre. 
 
 The Bibliothdque Nationale, which occupies a large 
 isolated block of buildings (in which portions of Cardinal 
 Mazarin's palace have been incorporated), is the largest 
 public library in Europe. It is not, however, generally 
 known that in this vast building are several distinct 
 museums of the highest importance, and there are several 
 collections of objects of art which one would naturally 
 expect to find housed, instead, in the galleries of the 
 Louvre, or the Cluny Museum. Among these is an 
 
212 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 admirable collection of cameos, — perhaps the most 
 complete in Paris. Then there is a large collection of 
 medals and coins, recently much enlarged by the transfer 
 of a large portion of the collection from the H8tel des 
 Monnaies (mint). The geographical collection is small, 
 but very valuable. 
 
 In addition to these somewhat extraneous collec- 
 tions, the Museum of Manuscripts includes the richest 
 collection of French historical autographs in exist- 
 ence and an enormous collection of engravings (said 
 to exceed two millions). These facts will show the 
 stranger that, quite apart from the library proper, there 
 is enough to interest the ordinary tourist for a whole 
 day. 
 
 The origin of the Royal Library, the germ of the 
 present National Library, though generally attributed to 
 Francis I., can be traced back to mediaeval times. It is 
 known that Charles V., in 1373, possessed a small col- 
 lection of about nine hundred books at the Louvre, and 
 a catalogue of these volumes still exists, though the 
 books themselves were dispersed at his death. Louis 
 XII. formed a library at Blois, which contained valuable 
 works of Visconti, Sforza, and Petrarch. This library 
 was removed by Francis I. to Fontainebleau. This 
 monarch, owing to his detestation of the new art of 
 printing, hardly seems an appropriate subject for the 
 title " Father of Letters," by which he was known ! It 
 has been supposed that his hostility to the mechanical 
 production of books was really prompted by a desire to 
 raise the value of manuscripts which he particularly 
 prized. The royal collection of manuscripts numbered 
 some four hundred and fifty, many of them being 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 213 
 
 original, while most of the rest were transcribed from 
 rare Greek texts. 
 
 Henri IV. removed the king's library to the CoUdge 
 de Clermont, then unoccupied owing to the expulsion 
 of the Jesuits. In the reign of Louis XIII. the royal 
 library consisted of nearly seventeen thousand volumes, 
 which were lodged in a mansion in the Rue de la Harpe. 
 Louis XIV. did much to augment the royal collection 
 of books, and at his death the catalogue included over 
 seventy thousand volumes. But the Grand Monarque 
 did much, also, to ensure the permanent prosperity of 
 this library by reviving an obsolete law of Henri II., by 
 which all booksellers (the only publishers of those days) 
 were compelled to send copies of new books issued by 
 them to the royal library. Louis XV. bought the famous 
 library of Cardinal Mazarin from his heirs, and added 
 it to the royal collection, which was also transferred to 
 the mansion of the late cardinal in the Rue Richelieu. 
 
 At the beginning of the Revolution, the library was 
 in imminent danger of incurring the same fate as the 
 famous Alexandrian library at the hands of the Caliph 
 Omar. However, the proposals of the extreme fanatical 
 party of the Republic, who wished to destroy an insti- 
 tution so intimately connected with the sovereigns of 
 France, were overborne, and the library as the Biblio- 
 thSque Nationale was carefully administered under the 
 various governments of the First Republic. Enormous 
 additions were made from the libraries of the suppressed 
 religious houses and sequestrated chateaux of the imigrSs, 
 and later on the National Library was enriched by 
 the. acquisitions from countries conquered by France. 
 Most of these works of literature had, however, to be 
 
214 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 given back, along with the objects of art, to the original 
 owners at the Restoration. The Bibliothdque Nationale 
 is now thought to be the largest, if not the richest and 
 rarest, collection in the world. In the number of 
 printed books it is certainly superior to the British 
 Museum, as it is said to consist of between 2,600,000 
 and 2,700,000 books, while it contains over 150,000 
 volumes of MSS., nearly 15,000 volumes and port- 
 folios of engravings, and 300,000 maps and charts. 
 
 There is much to interest the ordinary visitor as well 
 as the historical student in the MSS. department on 
 the first floor, which is also a museum of historical 
 curios and relics. Among the more remarkable objects 
 exhibited here are a set of bindings by Grolier, the 
 prayer-book of St. Louis, two ivory tablets which be- 
 longed to Philippe le Bel, with notes of his journeys 
 in 1301-2 and the expenses incurred, and a number of 
 objects from the suppressed Mus^e des Souverains at 
 the Louvre. 
 
 The library is very rich in autographs, and here may 
 be seen the original MSS. of " T^l^maque," a Sophocles 
 annotated by Racine, a Hippocrates with the autograph 
 of Rabelais, autograph letters of Turenne, Madame de 
 Maintenon, Madame de S^vign^, Racine, Corneille, etc., 
 and a series of autographs of most of the Kings of 
 France, including those of Henri IV. to Gabrielle 
 d'Estr^es. 
 
 The department of medals includes not only a very 
 large collection of ancient and mediaeval medals and 
 coins, but a rich collection of cameos, a unique collec- 
 tion of works of art in gold and precious stones, and a 
 portion of the ancient treasuries of St. Denis and the 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 215 
 
 Ste. Chapelle. It is unfortunate that these are not 
 placed for purposes of comparison in the Cluny Museum, 
 their natural home. 
 
 A judiciously selected summary of the richest treas- 
 ures in this division will be found below, borrowed from 
 Murray's excellent little guide. The agate goblet, known 
 as the Cup of Ptolemy, was formerly in the treasury of 
 St. Denis. 
 
 " Here also are placed some of the most valuable 
 objects in the museum, — the gem of the collection, the 
 cameo of the Apotheosis of Augustus, one of the largest 
 known ; a bust in chalcedony of Constantine ; a beau- 
 tiful gold patera or flat cup, with gold coins of the 
 family of the Antonimes set around it ; a finely carved 
 agate cup of the Ptolemies; a vase and tray in gold 
 called the Trisor de Gourdon, of the sixth century ; and 
 a curious tasse in coloured glass, known as the Cup of 
 Chosroes. In an adjoining case are numerous silver 
 vases, with a statue of Mercury, found near Bernay, in 
 Normandy. The series of smaller cameos is magnificent, 
 one of the largest and finest representing Germanicus 
 carried off by an eagle. With the intaglios are placed 
 a series of stone and agate cylinders from Nineveh, on 
 which are engraved cuneiform inscriptions. Around the 
 walls of this room are numerous Etruscan vases, — a 
 rich series of Greek and Roman glass and enamels; 
 some silver vessels, — amongst others a large silver 
 plate found in the Rhone, vulgarly called the Shield 
 of Scipio, representing in low relief Briseis and 
 Achilles; and numerous Etruscan Greek and Roman 
 bronzes. The magnificent collection of the Due de 
 Luynes, occupying the second hall, is particularly rich 
 
216 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 in coins and medals of the Greek colonies in Italy and 
 Asia Minor. Many of them bear Phoenician and 
 Cypriote legends. There are many cameos and in- 
 taglios, Greek and Etruscan bronzes, arms and 
 armour, which are also very remarkable. A fine 
 colossal torso of Venus in marble is probably of Greek 
 sculpture, although purchased in Rome. Here also is 
 kept the chair of Dagobert." 
 
 In the vestibule at the foot of the staircase leading 
 to the Cabinet des M^dailles is an antique which seems 
 to have strayed from the Egyptian Museum at the 
 Louvre. This is the famous zodiac from the Temple 
 of Denderah in upper Egypt. At one time it was sup- 
 posed by antiquarians that this astronomical tablet dated 
 from the Pharaonic period, but a more advanced knowl- 
 edge of Egyptology proves conclusively that it belongs 
 to a late Ptolemaic period. 
 
 There is a very valuable and interesting collection of 
 autographs and letters of Napoleon I., and of his prin- 
 cipal generals at the D^pSt de la Guerre, 231 Faubourg 
 St. Germain, which collectors and, indeed, all those 
 interested in the career of the great emperor should 
 take an opportunity of inspecting. It is hardly known 
 at all to strangers, and is not mentioned in the standard 
 guide-books, which probably accounts for the neglect of 
 travellers. It should be mentioned that foreigners must 
 apply in writing to M. le Directeur, but, in view of the 
 unique interest of the collection, the trouble is well worth 
 taking. The correspondence of Napoleon is extremely 
 voluminous and fills three hundred drawers. In a 
 separate volume are preserved his certificates of baptism 
 and nobility and the order transmitted to him by the 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 217 
 
 Directory regarding the conduct of his earlier campaigns. 
 Here also are preserved autograph letters of Louis XIV. 
 to his grandson, Philip V. of Spain. 
 
 From this collection of purely military archives, the 
 transition is natural to the Collection of National Ar- 
 chives. This is situated in the HQtel de Soubise, next the 
 Imprimerie Nationale in the Temple Quarter, and is not 
 far from the Mus^e Carnavalet. Indeed, so rich is this 
 museum of archives in Revolutionary documents and 
 relics, that the historical student will find a visit here 
 even more entertaining and instructive than one to the 
 Carnavalet Museum. Until Napoleon I. bought the 
 H6tel de Soubise for the purpose of lodging the state 
 archives, they had been preserved by the particular de- 
 partments, ^ — political, legal, administrative or ecclesiasti- 
 cal, — to which they belonged, not only in the capital but 
 in the chief towns of the Departments to which they be- 
 longed. In fact, so far was the principle of decen- 
 tralisation carried out in the custody of state documents, 
 that it is said there were, in 1782, over a thousand 
 different places where papers of national importance 
 were preserved. 
 
 This immense mass of historical, administrative, 
 and judicial matter, which fills over half a million 
 portfolios or volumes, and occupies one hundred and 
 thirty rooms, is divided into four sections. (1) Minis- 
 terial (^Secretariat), in which are preserved all state 
 papers from Louis XVI. to the fall of Napoleon I. 
 (2) Historical, which includes old charters and records 
 from the seventh century. Many of these are placed 
 for public inspection in the museum. (3) Adminis- 
 
218 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 trative, relating to topography and the state domains. 
 (4) Legislative. 
 
 The most interesting portion of the museum to ordi- 
 nary sightseers consists of the collections in the four 
 rooms of the first floor. The rooms of the ground floor, 
 containing the mediaeval documents, are more of histori- 
 cal and antiquarian interest. In Salle II. is the most 
 valuable document, from an antiquarian point of view, in 
 the whole museum. It is a papyrus deed of the Mer- 
 ovingian king, Clotaire II., granting certain lands to 
 the Abbey of St. Denis. The deed (the oldest record 
 in the museum) is dated 625 a. d., and was deciphered 
 for the first time in 1852. Here, also, is preserved the 
 famous Roll of Vital, a funereal scroll, thirty-five feet 
 long, of Vital, Abb6 de Savigny. It is popularly attract- 
 ive as containing Latin verses said to be by Helo'ise, 
 when Abbess of Argenteuil. Then there are also some 
 curious wooden tablets overlaid with wax, containing 
 the household accounts of Louis IX., and the celebrated 
 Edict of Nantes, with the signature of Henri IV. The 
 revocation of this decree is preserved in Salle II. on the 
 first floor. 
 
 The next room (Salle III.) contains a series of repro- 
 ductions from seals, including all the seals of French 
 sovereigns from Child^ric I. (a. d. 457) to Louis Phi- 
 lippe. But as they are merely casts they are of little 
 archaeological value, though, of course, of great interest 
 to historians. 
 
 The remaining two rooms on the ground floor are 
 filled with treaties and foreign documents containing 
 treaties, protocols, and other state documents from the 
 twelfth to the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLEBIE8. 219 
 
 Since this date, in spite of the government decree 
 which requires all important public documents of the 
 various departments of state to be kept at the Archives 
 Nationales, those of the Minist^re des Affaires Etran- 
 gdres from the eighteenth century to the present time 
 have been retained there. Then, as we have seen, many 
 of the state papers of the Directory, the Consulate, 
 and the First Empire are preserved at the Dep8t de la 
 Guerre. 
 
 In Salle II. on the first floor are exhibited relics and 
 souvenirs of more popular interest, and, indeed, some of 
 the objects seem a little out of place in an important 
 government institution, and would be more appropriately 
 lodged in the Mus^e Carnavalet. Of these is the actual 
 table upon which Robespierre was carried, after his 
 attempt to shoot himself at the HStel de Ville, before the 
 Committee of Public Safety at the Tuileries. On this 
 table the fallen dictator lay in his homibly mangled state 
 for several hours before his wounds were dressed and he 
 was removed to the Conciergerie and (a few hours 
 afterward) to the guillotine. This lugubrious relic 
 was formerly in the Louvre. 
 
 A large number of valuable relics of the Revolution 
 are kept here. In one cabinet are the Constitutions of 
 1791, 1793, An III., and An VIII. The armoire de fer, 
 which is a prominent object here, was made by order of 
 the National Assembly to hold the plate for printing 
 assignats. There are several MSS. of the greatest his- 
 torical importance connected with the imprisonment 
 and trials of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, includ- 
 ing the journal of the king and a speech delivered by 
 him before the National Convention. Som^ doubta 
 
220 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 have, however, been cast by experts on the authen- 
 ticity of the will of Louis XVI. and of the last letter 
 of Marie Antoinette, which are exhibited in this room. 
 The signature of the queen is, at all events, wanting. 
 
 The will of Napoleon I. was formerly shown to the 
 public, but can now be seen only by special permission. 
 There are, however, several documents in his writing. 
 But those who are interested in Napoleon's autograph 
 must go to the Ddp8t de la Guerre, which is supposed to 
 have the largest authentic collection in existence. 
 
 Visitors who examine the Revolutionary relics col- 
 lected in Salle II. will look in vain for many which are 
 mentioned in some of the guide-books and books of ref- 
 erence. For instance, the model of the Bastile cut out 
 of one of the actual stones, is at the Carnavalet Museum, 
 and the key of the fortress is preserved in the Washing- 
 ton museum at Mount Vernon, United States of Amer- 
 ica. Another interesting relic which should not be 
 overlooked is the famous Idvre Rouge found at Ver- 
 sailles. The next two rooms are of secondary interest. 
 
 In France the calling of archivist has been elevated to a 
 regular profession. The rules for qualification are severe. 
 The student has to attend a course of lectures for three 
 years at the Ecole des Chartes. This was formerly estab- 
 lished at the Archives Nationales, but is now attached to 
 the Sorbonne. After passing the examination, the student 
 has to write an essay on some department of palaeog- 
 raphy, and if successful he is employed at the archives 
 or at one of the public libraries. 
 
 The Imprimerie Nationale is established in another 
 large block immediately behind the Archives Nationales. 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 221 
 
 This is the government printing-office, one of the de- 
 partments of the Ministry of Justice. It was established 
 in the hStel of the Cardinal de Rohan in 1808 (notori- 
 ous for his complicity in the affair of the diamond 
 necklace, which brought Marie Antoinette into such 
 bad odour with the Parisians at the eve of the Revolu- 
 tion). The original palace forms, however, but a small 
 portion of this large establishment, in which over 1,200 
 work-people are employed. The bedroom of the cardi- 
 nal, and one of the reception-rooms, now used as a 
 library and popularly termed the Hall of Monkeys from 
 the paintings on the walls, can be seen by visitors. 
 
 The government printing-office dates from the reign 
 of Louis XIII., though Francis I. had already in 1552 
 established a private press in the Louvre. The National 
 Convention transferred the printing-office to the H6tel 
 de Toulouse, afterward occupied by the Banque de 
 Prance, and Napoleon finally established it in the hStel 
 of the Rohan family. 
 
 The national printing-office has remained there ever 
 since, the changes of dynasty being marked merely by 
 the change in the title of the establishment. It would 
 not, however, be accurate to say that the government 
 printing-office had remained altogether undisturbed 
 during this long period, for in the July Revolution of 
 1830 it was sacked by the mob, and the printing- 
 presses smashed. Then on the night preceding the 
 coup cPStat (December 2, 1851), the building was 
 taken possession of by gendarmes, and the national 
 printing-presses were used as instruments of Louis 
 Napoleon's treacherous attack on the Republic, and the 
 printers were compelled to spend the night striking off 
 
222 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 enormous quantities of the President's decree dissolving 
 the Assembly. 
 
 Though the Imprimerie is a national institution, it 
 does not receive any direct subsidy from the state, but 
 it has a monopoly of the government printing. It has 
 also the monopoly of printing playing-cards, and over 
 twelve thousand sets are printed daily on an average. 
 For some reaaon, only the court cards and the ace of 
 spades are printed here, the remaining cards being 
 printed by the card-makers. 
 
 In the museum may be found an interesting collection 
 of bindings and specimens of typography. The principal 
 curiosity is the Grec du Roi, which consists of a com- 
 plete set of Greek characters made by order of Francis 
 I., for his Louvre press. So well engraved were they 
 that in 1692 the Cambridge University Press applied for 
 a complete font of them. Another curiosity is a copy of 
 the Lord's Prayer, printed in one hundred and fifty differ- 
 ent languages, a reminiscence of a visit of Pope Pius VII. 
 The collection of fonts of Oriental and foreign type in 
 non-Arabic character, even including Chinese, is the 
 most complete on the Continent. 
 
 The Library of Ste. Genevieve, close to the Pantheon, 
 in spite of the media3val suggestion of its title, is the 
 newest public library in Paris, the present building 
 having been erected in 1850, on the site of the ancient 
 Abbey of Ste. Genevieve. The library itself was founded 
 in 1624, by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld. At the 
 Revolution it became national property, and up till the 
 time of Napoleon III. the institution was not only a 
 good deal neglected, but it was stripped of many of its 
 
MUSEUMS AND PICTURE GALLERIES. 223 
 
 richest treasures for the benefit of the BibliothSque 
 Nationale. Among these was a unique series of 
 sketches and portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries. There still remain, however, many objects 
 which will interest the literary and artistic sightseer. 
 The collection of precious bindings, in particular, is the 
 admiration of all bibliophiles. It includes an almost 
 faultless collection of Aldines and Elzevirs. The col- 
 lection of manuscripts is far inferior to that at the 
 National Library. 
 
 Among the non-literary objects of interest to be seen 
 here, is a remarkably fine specimen of Gobelin tapes- 
 try, representing " Study Surprised by Night," a subject 
 peculiarly appropriate, as Ste. Genevidve is the only 
 public library in Paris open at night. A large and 
 very elaborate model of the city of Eome, and a death 
 mask, in plaster, of Henri IV., taken in 1790, when the 
 tombs of the kings at St. Denis were sacked by the 
 mob, are among the most notable of the miscellaneous 
 curiosities. 
 
 The Arsenal Library, near the Place de la Bastille, is 
 not, as might naturally be supposed, a technical library 
 of military works. The nomenclature is due to the fact 
 that the libraries of the Marquis de Paulmy d'Argenson, 
 the Due de Valli^re, and other famous bibliophiles, 
 were lodged in this huge building, which served from 
 the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries as the 
 Arsenal of Paris, and under Napoleon I. as a reserve 
 granary. The library is the richest in Paris in the 
 early French poets, Italian authors, and dramatic litera- 
 ture. In the collection of state documents are included 
 
224 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 some of the archives of the Bastile, a few of which have 
 recently been published. Many distinguished men of 
 letters have held the post of librarian of the Arsenal, 
 including Charles Nodier, Hippolyte Lucas, Edouard 
 Thierry, Ancelot, and Paul Lacroix, the well-known 
 bibliophile. 
 
 The Arsenal, under Louis Philippe and Napoleon III., 
 served as a well-known rendezvous for men of letters, 
 and it was at a great literary gathering here that 
 Victor Hugo recited his first poems, shortly afterward 
 published under the title of " Odes et Ballades." 
 
HISTORIC CHURCHES 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 NOTES DAME CATHEDRAL. 
 
 " The architect 
 Built his great heart into those sculptured stones, 
 And with him toiled his children, and their lives 
 Were builded, with his own, into the walls, 
 As Offerings unto God." 
 
 The little island of La Cite contains in its circum- 
 scribed area two of the finest churches in France : the 
 magnificent metropolitan church of Notre Dame, one of 
 the earliest examples of Gothic architecture in the coun- 
 try, though to a certain extent a tentative work ; and 
 the noble shrine of La Sainte Chapelle, in which the 
 pointed style is seen at its highest perfection. This 
 insignificant islet is, indeed, the germ of the French 
 capital. In mediaeval times it comprised all Paris, and 
 was a labyrinth of narrow winding streets and alleys. 
 Now, in spite of the expansion of Paris, both topographi- 
 cally and as regards population, the He de la Cite prob- 
 ably contains fewer residents than in the middle ages, 
 for the tortuous streets are replaced by huge public 
 buildings. 
 
 For tourists, however, the He de la Cit6 is the elou 
 of the sightseer's Paris. Besides Notre Dame and La 
 Sainte Chapelle — a cathedral in miniature — there is 
 the huge congeries of buUdings known as the Palais 
 
 227 
 
228 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 de Justice and the H6tel Dieu, — as hospitals in France 
 are piously termed, — not to mention the vulgar but 
 essentially popular sight, the morgue, with its gruesome 
 associations. 
 
 In any description of the churches of Paris, Notre 
 Dame naturally demands attention first. As has been 
 well said by Mr. W. Lonergan, one of the best authori- 
 ties on the historic churches of the French capital, the 
 three churches of Notre Dame, the Sainte Chapelle, 
 and St. Denis stand out with special prominence among 
 the numerous ecclesiastical buildings of Paris, partly 
 because they are the only churches in which the average 
 visitor seems to take any real interest, and, secondly, 
 " because they are the three great legacies of Gothic 
 genius in the possession of the inhabitants of the French 
 Mother City. Rouen, Beauvais, and Chartres have their 
 own monuments to show the skill of the early French 
 architects and sculptors, but in Paris, the cathedral, 
 the Chapel of the Law Courts, and, to a large extent, 
 the elegant edifice of St. Denis, are the only structures 
 produced by the genius of the soil, untrammelled by the 
 necessity of imitating Greek temples or Roman basilicas 
 at the bidding or command of royal or imperial patrons." 
 
 Notre Dame is a church of twofold significance. It is 
 the cathedral church of Paris, — its mother church, — 
 and is to Paris what St. John Lateran (and not St. 
 Peter's) is to Rome. It is also the royal church of 
 France, though in this aspect it is rivalled by the famous 
 basilica of St. Denis, the Westminster Abbey of Paris. 
 Perhaps the relationship of the two churches to Paris 
 may be best understood by saying that St. Denis and 
 Notre Dame are to Paris what Westminster Abbey 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 229 
 
 and St. Paul's are to London, respectively, but the 
 analogy is not quite perfect. 
 
 Little is known of the early history of the Cathedral 
 Church of Notre Dame. In 1711 a Roman altar dedi- 
 cated to Jupiter was discovered on its site. These and 
 other remains (now at the Palais des Thermes) indicate 
 that a still earlier temple once existed here. Childebert, 
 in 528, built a church on its site to Our Lady, in grati- 
 tude for recovery from a severe illness. Under the 
 Frankish kings a church which occupied part of the site 
 of Notre Dame was dedicated to St. Stephen (St. 
 Etienne), and in the early part of the twelfth century 
 another church, also, was erected on this spot dedicated 
 to the Blessed Virgin. In the reign of Louis VII. these 
 two early churches were razed and the present cathedral 
 erected on the site by Bishop de Sully, the first stone 
 being laid by the Pope in person. 
 
 The new church was dedicated not to St. Stephen but 
 to the Virgin Mary, whose cult had been recently making 
 considerable progress. The veneration of the Mother of 
 God had recently received a great impetus in Prance. 
 " God changed sex, so to speak. The Virgin became 
 the God of the world. She invaded nearly all the 
 churches, and occupied all the altars." ^ The devotion 
 to the Virgin in France, even in these materialistic 
 times, is extraordinarily prevalent, and it is probable 
 that, if Notre Dame Cathedral had been actually destroyed 
 by the Commune in 1871, funds would have been pro- 
 vided for the rebuilding of the church in an even more 
 magnificent and sumptuous scale than the present build- 
 ing. The devotion to the cult of Our Lady is startlingly 
 I Michelet. ' ' History of France. ' ' 
 
230 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 shown by the fact that at the present day almost every 
 second girl in Trance, Italy, and Spain is named after 
 the Blessed Virgin, and in the more orthodox families 
 one of the names of every male child is Marie. 
 
 The relics of the deposed saint were conveyed to 
 Ste. Genevieve (see St. Etienne du Mont, in the chapter 
 on historic churches). 
 
 The present Cathedral of Notre Dame is an historical 
 no less than an ecclesiastical landmark, and in this 
 respect it is as historically interesting as Westminster 
 Abbey. In short, this grand Gothic pile epitomises the 
 whole history of France from the twelfth century to 
 the Second Empire, and its famous restorer, YioUet-le- 
 Duc, hardly exaggerates when he observes that, if the 
 pillars of Notre Dame had a voice, they could recount 
 the annals of Prance from the days of Philip Augustus 
 to our own. This historic continuity of Victor Hugo's 
 " Symphony in Stone " is, indeed, one of the chief 
 charms of Notre Dame. 
 
 The following chronological outline gives the history 
 of the building of the present cathedral. It was begun 
 under Bishop Maurice de Sully, the seventy-second suc- 
 cessor of St. Denis in the see of Paris, and the Pope, 
 Alexander III., himself laid the first stone in 1163. In 
 1185 the choir was finished, and in this year He radius, 
 the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had visited Europe to 
 excite enthusiasm for the Third Crusade, preached in 
 Notre Dame. About 1218 the west front was begun, 
 and in 1235 the west towers and connecting gallery. 
 Toward the end of the thirteenth century the choir 
 chapels and apse were added. 
 
 Dates are wanting for the exact period of the com- 
 
NOTRE DAME GATHEBBAL. 23 1 
 
 pletion of the cathedral, but it was certainly finished 
 early in the fourteenth century, during the reign of St. 
 Louis. The somewhat squat towers were meant to have 
 been covered with spires as at Chartres, but want 
 of funds prevented the original scheme of the architect 
 (which would have made Notre Dame the finest Gothic 
 church in France) being carried out. 
 
 The cathedral was, fortunately, left unrestored till the 
 reign of Louis XIV., when this monarch thought it 
 incumbent on him to improve it, in fulfilment of the 
 vow of his father, Louis XIII., who had formally dedi- 
 cated himself and his kingdom to Our Lady. The 
 inartistic restoration under this king has been vig- 
 orously attacked by Victor Hugo. During the Revo- 
 lution Notre Dame was saved from destruction through 
 the efforts of some of the leaders of the Terror, who 
 still retained some artistic instincts. They could not, 
 however, prevent the destruction of the statues of the 
 Kings of Judah which adorned the west front. Since 
 the stormy days of the Terror there have been many 
 attempts at the restoration and improvement of the 
 metropolitan cathedral, but " the ignorance which pre- 
 vailed at the commencement of the present century 
 with regard to Gothic architecture rather added to 
 the destruction than mended it; and it was not until 
 the Christian-art, liberal Catholic revival, led by Mon- 
 talembert and his friends, that a thorough and rational 
 restoration of the church was commenced by the emi- 
 nent architects, Viollet-le-Duc and Lassus." 
 
 Little damage was actually done to the sacred fabric 
 by the Commune, though a determined attempt at de- 
 stroying the cathedral by fire was made in the last days 
 
232 PABIS m ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 of the fighting between the Communists and the Ver- 
 sailles troops, but it was fortunately frustrated. The 
 insurgents had actually piled up all the chairs around 
 the high altar and set fire to them, but the flames were 
 extinguished by the government troops before much 
 damage was done to the building. 
 
 The most striking view of this magnificent building is 
 to be had from the Place du Parvis, the open space in 
 front of the west front ; but for the most beautiful view 
 we should cross the Pont Sully, which intersects the 
 eastern end of the He St. Louis. Here the architec- 
 tural defects are not apparent, and the delicately 
 modelled central spire is seen to best advantage. 
 
 The west front is, of course, like that of Peterborough 
 and York Cathedrals, the great glory of Notre Dame. 
 Formerly the view of this grand facade was more 
 impressive, as the ground in front has gradually be- 
 come raised. Once a series of thirteen steps — the 
 usual number in French churches of this period, imi- 
 tated from the Temple of Jerusalem — led to the 
 western portals. 
 
 For the best description of this magnificent Gothic 
 portico we must go to Victor Hugo, who has immortal- 
 ised in prose this " Epic in Stone." 
 
 " There are, assuredly, few finer architectural pages 
 than that front of that cathedral, in which, successively 
 and at once, the three receding pointed gateways ; the 
 decorated and indented band of the twenty-eight royal 
 niches ; the vast central circular window, flanked by 
 the two lateral ones, like the priest by the deacon and 
 subdeacon ; the lofty and slender gallery of trifoliated 
 arcades, supporting a heavy platform upon its light and 
 
NOTBE DAME CATHEDRAL. 233 
 
 delicate columns ; and the two dark and massive towers, 
 with their eaves of slate, — harmonious parts of one 
 magnificent whole, — rising one above another in five 
 gigantic stories, — unfold themselves to the eye, in com- 
 bination unconfused — with their innumerable details of 
 statuary, sculpture, and carving, in powerful alliance with 
 the tranquil grandeur of the whole, — a vast symphony 
 in stone, if we may so express it — the colossal work of 
 a man and of a nation in which, upon every stone, is 
 seen displayed, in a hundred varieties, the fancy of the 
 workman controlled by the genius of the artist — a sort 
 of human Creation, in short, mighty and prolific as the 
 Divine Creation, of which it seems to have caught the 
 double character — variety and eternity." 
 
 Technically, Notre Dame, though usually described 
 as a Gothic cathedral, is a building of the transition 
 period from the Romanesque to the early Gothic. 
 " "With the cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, Amiens, and 
 Bourges, it forms a link in the chain of the great archi- 
 tectural constructions raised by the mediaeval builders, 
 and decorated by those able sculptors who were called 
 Magistri de vivis lapidibus." ^ 
 
 The sculptures in the west front constitute a whole 
 volume of hagiology in stone, but we can find space 
 for only a few of the monkish legends there depicted. 
 This fa§ade in many respects resembles that of Rheims 
 Cathedral, though the decoration is not so rich. A 
 detailed description of the beauties of the fa§ade, which 
 has been imitated in many other French cathedrals, must 
 be looked for in VioUet-le-Duc's monograph, but the 
 more salient features may be given here. 
 1 W. F. Lonergan. 
 
234 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 It consists of two stories only, for the third story of 
 the guide-books is merely open screen-work continued 
 from the flanking towers in order to conceal the fea- 
 tureless roof of the nave. The first story consists of 
 three portals. The central one (generally known as the 
 Porte du Jugement) is the Door of the Redeemer, the 
 Son of the Blessed Virgin, the other two portals being 
 that of the Virgin herself on the north, and the southern, 
 the Mother of the Blessed Virgin, Ste. Anne, forming a 
 trilogy in stone. The mass of sculpture in the design 
 of the Last Judgment, the Virtues and Vices (the 
 former being portrayed as women), and the Wise and 
 Foolish Virgins, is almost bewildering, and a description 
 without some plan would be of little use. There is 
 grim humour in the mass of sculpture in the tympanum 
 (triangular area) representing the Resurrection, where 
 we see the souls being weighed, and under one scale is 
 a cheating little demon pulling it down with a hook. 
 
 The whole of this faQade is, in short, an Ober-Am- 
 mergau in stone, and the statuary is worth the closest 
 inspection. We are all familiar — at all events from 
 photographs — with the Bible of Amiens, and here we 
 have a Bible in stone, of almost equal interest. 
 
 The numerous statues of the Porte de la Vierge are by 
 some judges thought to be the best specimens, for com- 
 position and modelling, extant of the thirteenth century 
 French school of statuary. This door, which is at the 
 base of the northern tower, is distinguished from the 
 other two portals by the curious triangular formation 
 over the archway. As this is the special gateway of the 
 Virgin, the Holy Mother and Child occupy the central 
 place. Here are five curious bas-reliefs, representing 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 235 
 
 the creation of Eve, who is seen emerging from the left 
 rib of Adam, represented asleep under the shelter of a 
 rock, and the temptation. The serpent, with the head 
 and breasts of a woman, offers the apple to Eve, who 
 bites it, and hands it to Adam. This series of Old 
 Testament pictures is completed by the expulsion of our 
 first parents from Paradise. On the lintel of the portal 
 are graven prophets and kings, the former being in- 
 tended to symbolise the advent of the Messiah, while 
 the kings are represented to show the Virgin's royal 
 descent. These figures are perhaps the best modelled 
 of any in the west front, and are remarkable for their 
 expression and life-like vigour. 
 
 On the sides and pillars are a strikingly excellent 
 series of figures, representing the signs of the zodiac. 
 These almanacs in stone are very common in French 
 churches. The twelve signs are quaintly illustrated by 
 representatives of the agricultural operations, recrea- 
 tions, etc., of each year. Under April is a fawn-like 
 figure, with one side of his body warmly clad, and the 
 other naked. No doubt our Gallic friends would de- 
 clare that this is typical of the English spring climate ! 
 
 May is represented by a man wearing some kind of 
 airy costume which suggests the nineteenth century 
 pyjamas, while June is symbolised by a nude bather. 
 
 The further portal (Porte Ste. Anne) is dedicated to 
 the mother of the Virgin. It is of earlier date than 
 the other two doors, which are more Gothic than Roman- 
 esque, and was in a large measure built from fragments 
 of the old Church of Notre Dame. The Romanesque 
 style of this portal gives it a close resemblance to part 
 of the fa§ade of the Church of St. Denis. 
 
236 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 The central figure here is St. Marcel, ninth bishop 
 (died 436 a. d.), who is represented as a kind of 
 Parisian St. Patrick, expelling a huge serpent. This 
 commemorates the following legend : This monster had 
 devoured a certain rich and frail woman as a punish- 
 ment for her vices. St. Marcel seems to have pitied this 
 sinner, and went forth to the forest to admonish her 
 destroyer. The serpent showed repentance, which was 
 manifested by his bending his head and flopping after 
 the saint for some three miles, wagging his taU like a 
 dog ! But the holy man declined to forgive the reptile. 
 " Go forth," said the saint, " and inhabit the deserts, or 
 plunge thyself into the sea." He was presumably obeyed, 
 for no more was heard of the serpent from that day 
 forth. 
 
 The wonderful ironwork of the three portals is 
 attributed to supernatural agency, though as a matter 
 of fact it probably came from the old Church of St. 
 Stephen, which was built on the site of Notre Dame. 
 The legend, which is, of course, common to many other 
 mediaeval churches, runs, that the original artificer, the 
 smith Biscornette, to whom the ironwork of the three 
 doors had been entrusted, being behindhand with his 
 task, called in the assistance of the devil, who agreed 
 to help him on the conventional Satanic condition, viz., 
 in return for his soul. The devil donned the smith's 
 apron and worked so vigorously that in one night two 
 of the doors were finished. But the central door, through 
 which the blessed sacrament was carried, was beyond 
 the devil's power. Consequently, Biscornette was able 
 to retain his soul, as his Satanic Majesty was unable to 
 keep his contract. The origin of this legend is probably 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 237 
 
 to be found in a curious design in the iron tracerj of 
 a little man with horns and tail sitting upon a branch 
 of a tree. 
 
 The best time to see Notre Dame fa9ade is at sunset, 
 when the noble front is seen in its full glory, and each 
 statue stands out in full relief from the beautiful stone 
 tracery. 
 
 No visitor should neglect to climb the western tower, 
 not only for the sake of the view, but in order to see 
 the famous gargoyles, popularly known as the Devils of 
 Notre Dame, which constitute a veritable nightmare in 
 stone. 
 
 Arrived at the summit, Paris of the twentieth century 
 lies mapped out at our feet with its new and interesting 
 modern buildings, relieved here and there by the domes 
 and towers of those which have escaped destruction. 
 
 " The view may not be so picturesque as in the old 
 times, but it is deeply interesting, and the city, when 
 bathed in spring or autumn sunshine, fascinates by the 
 brightness and cheerfulness of its general effect, so differ- 
 ent from the darker and duller shades of other North- 
 ern cities." ^ 
 
 The grotesque monsters which stand out so obtru- 
 sively from the towers and galleries of Notre Dame 
 should not be considered merely as an embodiment of 
 a waggish design or passing whim on the part of the 
 architect. These monsters, however grotesquely horri- 
 ble they appear to the casual sightseer, must be taken 
 seriously. A careful study of this remarkable form of 
 animal statuary in the early Gothic churches of North 
 France shows that there are distinct and definite stages 
 1 W. F. Lonergan. 
 
238 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 in the development of what is really a kind of monstrous 
 symbolism in stone. These strange figures were meant, 
 in short, as a moral or religious object-lesson, — a literal 
 sermon in stone. In the primary stage, these grotesque 
 creations may be traced to the study of the apocalypse, 
 the dragon 1 typifying the enemy of mankind. Later 
 on, the chief aim of the sculptor seems to be to symbolise 
 the devil in as many hideous, monstrous, and varied 
 forms as possible. 
 
 " The evil one is depicted either as an active agent or 
 a crafty counsellor ; in the former capacity he is given 
 more or less human form, with wings, and possibly 
 a tail, ending with a serpent's head ; the naked limbs 
 are lean and emaciated, the hands and feet are abnor- 
 mally huge, the hair wildly disordered, and the mouth 
 a gaping cavity. In the r81e of counsellor he is more 
 often represented as a grotesque animal, or a dog with 
 a man's head." 
 
 In the next stage we find animals real or mythical 
 employed to typify the principal virtues and vices. The 
 lion stood for courage, strength, and watchfulness ; the 
 mermaid, pleasures of the flesh, — the " pleasant vices ; " 
 the pelican, charity ; while the devil had innumerable 
 types, the serpent, basilisk, griffin, and dragon being 
 the favourite symbols. 
 
 In succeeding centuries we find the art of the 
 sculptors of these chimeras in stone degenerates, the 
 monsters becoming more grotesque and fantastic, and 
 inspiring ridicule rather than dread. But in Notre 
 Dame there are few examples of this later development, 
 
 1 Some derive the word gargoyle from Gargouille, the fabulous 
 dragon which was supposed to infest Rouen, till slain by St. Romanus. 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 239 
 
 for even in the nineteenth century devils, which are the 
 work of VioUet-le-Duc, the architect has carefully fol- 
 lowed the treatment of the twelfth century sculptors. 
 This later series of demons is chiefly on the galleries 
 of the great western fa§ade. Some of the larger mon- 
 sters are represented crushing the life out of some 
 weak, defenceless creatures. One of them, an amorphous 
 harpy, tears a hare limb from limb, another is seizing 
 a frog, while another devil has seized a smaller devil 
 with its teeth, and the victim tries to defend itself by 
 fixing its fangs in its captor's leg. 
 
 One particularly bizarre-looking monster Mr. Joseph 
 Pennell describes as " an obscene and bald bird crouch- 
 ing over a bunch of grapes, possibly representing habitual 
 and debased drunkenness." 
 
 Miss Beale, in her description of Notre Dame, gives a 
 graphic impression of this Inferno in stone which is 
 worth quoting: 
 
 " The monsters stand, as they did centuries ago, gaz- 
 ing down upon Paris, and its doings for good or for evil. 
 Think of the events they have witnessed, — from the 
 burning of fifty-four Templars in a slow fire by Philippe 
 IV., to the horrors of the Commune. They must have 
 seen the flaming villages and ch§,teaux during the Jacque- 
 rie, and witnessed those useless sorties during the last 
 war, when the Parisians vainly endeavoured to escape 
 from the city and gain one of the outside army corps. 
 They seem to look down in scorn upon humanity, 
 whether in the form of the coronation of Henry VI. 
 of England, so mean an affair that ' un bourgeois qui 
 marierait ses enfants ferait mieux les choses,' or the 
 misery of the famine of 1419-21. 'Vous auriez en- 
 
240 ' PAJIIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 tendu dans tout Paris des lamentations pitoyables, des 
 petits enfants qui criaient " Je meurs de faim." On 
 enterrait 100,000 personnes. Des bandes des loups 
 courraient les campagnes, et entraient mSme la nuit 
 dans Paris pour enlever les cadavres.' And all the 
 ages through, the brutes have had the same expression 
 of scorn, of spite, of diabolical ugliness, that one feels it 
 to be a comfort that they are fixed safely to the gal- 
 lery of the towers, out of the way of working mischief." 
 
 But as the setting of Victor Hugo's immortal romance, 
 one feels an additional interest in these towers, with their 
 grim guardians. These monstrosities in stone irresist- 
 ibly suggest the pathetic figure of " the misshapen 
 hunchback Quasimodo, whose whole life was bound up 
 in the cathedral, and who was regarded with super- 
 stitious fear and hatred by those who deemed them- 
 selves the victims of his sorcery. 
 
 " Quasimodo loved the most hideous of the monsters 
 with a grim fellow feeling. He was drawn to them by 
 a common tie of repulsiveness, and yet, at the risk of 
 his life, he destroyed one of his stone comrades when 
 he found that it frightened Esmeralda. It was from 
 behind these devils that he rained down the stones, and 
 through two of the gargoyles on the west fa9ade that he 
 poured the molten lead upon the seething rabble that 
 had come, as he thought, to drag his darling from the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 " The other figure that suggests itself is that of Claude 
 FroUo, the renegade priest, rdme damne'e, who watched 
 Esmeralda's dying throes from the north tower, unmind- 
 ful of the presence of his slave the hunchback, till, when 
 the tragedy was consummated, he uttered the demonia- 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 241 
 
 cal laugh which quenched the lifelong flame of grateful 
 love in the heart of his prot^g^. Then we see him after 
 Quasimodo has hurled him from the battlements, cling- 
 ing convulsively to one of the monster-headed gargoyles, 
 quivering, cursing, gasping between earth and heaven. 
 He raises his dying eyes to the graven figures above 
 him, hanging in like manner over the abyss ; but their 
 passions are impassive in their petrifaction; they feel 
 neither terror for themselves nor pity for him." ^ 
 
 On the northern side of Notre Dame is the famous 
 Porte Rouge, by which the canons enter. This is a late 
 addition. It was built in 1407 by John, Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, in expiation of a murder. The principal motif is 
 the " Coronation of the Virgin," and on either side are 
 kneeling the donor and his wife. The other door in 
 this transept, the Portail de Cloltre (so called because 
 this was the entrance to the cloister long ago demol- 
 ished), contains a fine antique statue of the Virgin, and 
 in the tympanum is an almost undecipherable group of 
 figures which represent the legend of St. Theophilus sell- 
 ing his soul to the devil. St. Theophilus was a monk 
 who lived in the third century, who is said to have 
 abjured his faith, and he is here represented prostrate 
 before the devil. He was saved by the intervention of 
 the Virgin Mary, who tore up the infernal contract, and 
 the enraged demon is sculptured seizing the Virgin's 
 garment. 
 
 Continuing the tour of the exterior, it is worth while 
 stopping in the little plot east of the garden to ob- 
 serve the beautiful effect of the flying buttresses of the 
 choir and apse. 
 
 1 Miss Mary Fermor. 
 
242 PASIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 The interior of the cathedral is apt to oppress most 
 visitors, partly owing to the darkness, which is as ex- 
 treme as in Florence Cathedral. The general effect is 
 heavy, owing, no doubt, to the forest of huge pillars in 
 the nave, which detracts from the height. The principal 
 architectural details may be summed up as follows: 
 The plan of the church is that of a Latin cross. The 
 nave is nearly 225 feet long, and the width of the church 
 at the transepts is not far short of 150 feet. The height 
 of the nave is over one hundred feet. The side aisles 
 are continued around the choir so that some reckon them 
 as five in number. Above the inner aisles is a tri- 
 forium, and above this tower the high clerestory windows. 
 
 The interior contains singularly few objects of interest, 
 for the chief beauties are outside. The chapels are 
 poor and little in harmony with the rest of the fabric. 
 Most have been restored and decorated by VioUet-le- 
 Duc. 
 
 Near the west gallery entrance is the horribly real- 
 istic monument of Etienne Yver, a statue meretricious 
 in treatment and decidedly gruesome, but which the 
 guides will not allow one to miss. This repulsive 
 statuary represents the body of Yver being devoured 
 by worms, from whose attack two saints are repre- 
 sented as attempting to rescue him ! 
 
 Thanks to the improving zeal of the eighteenth century 
 restorers, notably an artist called Levieil, there is very 
 little good glass painting in Notre Dame. But the 
 beautiful rose-windows here were fortunately left alone 
 by the soi-disant artist in glass. The painting is here 
 exquisite. The windows are " masterpieces of the art ; 
 equal to the windows of Metz and Strasburg, and con- 
 
NOTBE DAME CATHEDRAL. 243 
 
 temporaneous with the stone walls which surround 
 them." 
 
 Most of the side chapels, as we have said, are not 
 worth close inspection, but those dedicated to St. Made- 
 leine, St. George, and St. Denis should be visited, on 
 account of the strikingly dramatic monuments to the 
 three murdered Archbishops of Paris. 
 
 In the Madeleine Chapel is the kneeling statue of 
 Archbishop Sibour, who was murdered by a fanatical 
 priest in St. Etienne, in 1857. In the Chapel of St. Denis 
 is the famous statue of the saintly Archbishop Affre, 
 who was killed when attempting to make peace between 
 the insurgents and the government troops, in the 1848 
 revolution. The archbishop is represented on the barri- 
 cade, falling, struck by a bullet. A crucifix is slipping 
 from his left hand, while in his right he holds an olive- 
 branch. The epitaph is peculiarly appropriate, " Le bon 
 pasteur donne sa vie pour ses brebis." 
 
 In the Chapelle St. George is a statue of another 
 martyred archbishop, the liberal-minded Monseigneur 
 Darboy, who was one of the hostages murdered by the 
 Communists, at La Roquette, in May, 1871. The heroic 
 priest is represented, with strict historical accuracy, in 
 the act of blessing his murderers. 
 
 Tragic, indeed, has been the fate of the last three 
 Archbishops of Paris. To them, indeed, the pregnant 
 phrase, " The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church," 
 applies with especial significance. 
 
 Near the choir entrance, on the right, is the large 
 statue of the Virgin, holding the Infant in her arms, 
 which is said to be the identical wonder-working medie- 
 val statue referred to below. 
 
244 PABIS IW ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 "After the battle of Poitiers, the citizens of Paris, 
 with a view of inducing the Virgin to succour France, 
 made a solemn vow to offer annually a candle to Notre 
 Dame, as long as the city of Paris. When Paris in- 
 creased in dimensions, and the vow became difficult 
 of fulfillment literally, they substituted in 1605 a silver 
 lamp, which is still kept continually burning." 
 
 Of more artistic interest are the famous scenes from 
 the life of Christ, carved in stone in high relief around 
 the ambulatory by Jean Ravy, in 1351. 
 
 " Though inferior in merit to those in the same posi- 
 tion in Amiens Cathedral, they are admirable examples 
 of animated and vigorous French sculpture of their 
 period. The series begins on the north side of the 
 choir. The subjects which remain (for some, like the 
 Annunciation, are destroyed) comprise the Visitation ; 
 Adoration of the Shepherds ; Nativity ; Adoration of the 
 Magi (note the three kings, representing the three ages 
 of man ; the oldest, as usual, has removed his crown, 
 and is offering his gift) ; the Massacre of the Innocents ; 
 the Flight into Egypt (where a grotesque little temple, 
 containing two odd, small gods, quaintly represents the 
 prevalence of idolatry) ; the Presentation in the Temple ; 
 Christ among the Doctors ; the Baptism in Jordan (with 
 attendant angel holding a towel) ; the Miracle at Cana ; 
 the Entry into Jerusalem (with Zacchaeus in the tree, 
 and the gate of the city) ; the Last Supper ; the Washing 
 of the Apostles' Feet; and the Agony in the Garden. 
 The tourist should examine carefully all these subjects, 
 the treatment of which strikes a key-note. Similar 
 scenes, almost identical in their figures, will be found in 
 abundance at Cluny and elsewhere. Note, for example, 
 
NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. 245 
 
 the symbolical Jordan in the Baptism, with St. John 
 pouring water from a cup, and the attendant angel, all 
 of which we shall often recognise elsewhere." ^ 
 
 On the south side the series is continued. The subjects 
 represent the various apparitions of Christ : Christ ap- 
 pearing to Mary Magdalen (" Noli me tangere ") ; Christ 
 appearing to the Holy Women ; Christ appearing to the 
 Disciples at Bmmaus, with the disciples dressed as me- 
 diaeval pilgrims ; the Conversion of St. Thomas, etc. 
 The sculptures are painted and gilt. There is a good 
 cast of them in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 
 
 Few will care to leave the cathedral without visiting 
 the treasury, but unfortunately most of the relics are 
 mere imitations, replicas of those which were formerly in 
 the Sainte Chapelle, and even the one precious relic 
 which is said to be well authenticated, the nail of the 
 true cross, is shown only on Fridays in Lent. This and 
 the other sacred relics (the reputed crown of thorns, 
 the scourge of St. Louis, St. Vincent de Paul's crucifix, 
 and a portion of the holy cross) are lodged in a secure 
 resting place for safe custody, viz., the huge ball below 
 the cross of the central spire. The sacred or historic 
 souvenirs which are usually shown to the tourist are a gold 
 cross of St. Thomas k Becket, the twelfth century gold 
 cross of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus, which survived 
 the sack of the treasury during the Revolution, Napoleon 
 the Great's coronation robes, and the melancholy relics 
 of the three murdered archbishops, Affre, Sibour, and 
 Darboy, — the actual robes in which they died. 
 
 The high festival services are very imposing and are 
 celebrated on a grand scale, — notably that of the Feast 
 1 Grant Allen. "Historical Guide to Paris." 
 
246 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 of the Assumption. " The myriads of lights, the gorgeous 
 vestments of prelates and priests, the high, overarching 
 pillars, the organ music, the voices of choristers, and 
 the deep rich colours flung over all by the great rose- 
 windows, combine to bring home to the worshipper or 
 spectator the Gothic conception of heaven." 
 
 The Lenten sermons at Notre Dame are historical in 
 interest, inasmuch as they were begun by Lacordaire, the 
 Dominican, who was called " le Romantique de la Claire." 
 It was the period of Romanticism in Prance, and the 
 eloquent friar, who had thrown off the lawyer's robes 
 for the black and white habit of the sons of St. Dominic, 
 was supposed, rather irreverently, to represent in the 
 pulpit what Hugo, Gauthier, and De Banville represented 
 in literature, and Delacroix, Scheffer, Horace Vernet, 
 Ingres, and Paul Delaroche represented in painting. 
 
 " Another famous preacher at Notre Dame was Pere 
 Ravignan, a Jesuit of noble family, and in later years 
 the pulpit has been occupied by P^re Hyacinthe (now M. 
 Hyacinthe Loyson), P^re Monsabr6, and Monseigneur 
 d'Hulst, rector of the Paris Catholic University." ^ 
 
 1 W. F. Lonergan. 
 
CHAPTER XIT. 
 
 LA SAINTB CHAPELLB AND ST. DENIS. 
 
 The environment of the Sainte Chapelle prevents the 
 exterior view from being very impressive. It is much 
 shut in by the buildings of the Palais de Justice, which 
 is, unfortunately, a criminal as well as a civil court. Con- 
 sequently, the surroundings are painfully incongruous. 
 The Holy Chapel faces the Tribunal of Correctional 
 Police, and almost touching this noble monument of 
 medieval architecture is the DepSt, or " Bow Street 
 of Paris, where all the drunkards, demireps, thieves, 
 murderers, tramps, swindlers, pickpockets and garotters, 
 arrested overnight by the police, are interned, while 
 awaiting examination before a magistrate, or trial and 
 imprisonment. Close by, in the Rue de la Sainte Chapelle, 
 may be seen every day rows of black prison vans dis- 
 gorging candidates for jail, or receiving those who have 
 been condemned. The noise of the cursing, swearing, 
 and coarse jokes of hardened criminals frequently 
 reaches the sanctuary where St. Louis sought seclusion 
 and prayed." 
 
 The Holy Chapel was built by Louis IX. for a twofold 
 purpose. It was meant to serve both as the chapel of 
 the royal palace, and to be a shrine for the sacred 
 relics acquired by St. Louis. This beautiful church 
 symbolises, in short, the religious mysticism of the 
 
248 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 saintly king. Then it was also intended to be a royal 
 oratory, just as the gloomy Escurial served as the 
 oratory of another royal dSvot, Philippe II. of Spain. 
 The contrast between these two famous buildings, one 
 " an ashy pile looming like the Palace of Death," and 
 the other an incomparable gem of mediasval architec- 
 ture, " the brilliant harmonies and translucent colours 
 of whose windows reminded Louis of the splendours of 
 that heaven for which he sighed," is as striking as that 
 between the characters of the two sovereigns, Philip of 
 Spain, a morose and selfish ascetic, bigoted and intolerant, 
 intent only on the saving of his own miserable soul, and 
 Louis of France, equally pious and zealous, but warm- 
 hearted and liberal-minded, imbued with that wide en- 
 thusiasm for humanity which was so rare among the 
 self-centred saints and fanatics of mediaeval times. 
 
 It must then be constantly borne in mind, when visit- 
 ing the Sainte Chapelle, that it is above all the shrine 
 of the crown of thorns, — it is, in short, a colossal 
 reliquary. The whole history of the acquisition of this 
 sacred relic is recorded at great length in Canon Mo- 
 rand's history of this church. It is too long to quote, 
 but Gibbon's description is sufficient for our purpose. 
 
 " But another relic of the Passion was preserved in 
 the Imperial Chapel of Constantinople ; and the crown 
 of thorns which had been placed on the head of Christ 
 was equally precious and authentic. 
 
 " In the absence of the emperor, the barons of Rou- 
 mania borrowed the sum of 130,134 pieces of gold on 
 the credit of the holy crown ; they failed in the per- 
 formance of their contract; and a rich Venetian, 
 Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy their impatient 
 
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 249 
 
 creditors, on condition that the relic should be lodged 
 at Venice, to become his absolute property if it were not 
 redeemed within a short and definite term. The barons 
 apprised their sovereign of the hard treaty and impend- 
 ing loss ; and, as the empire could not afford a ransom 
 of seven thousand pounds sterling, Baldwin was anxious 
 to snatch the prize from the "Venetians, and to vest it 
 with more honour and emolument in the hands of the 
 most Christian king. His ambassadors, two Dominicans, 
 were despatched to Venice, to redeem and receive the 
 holy crown, which had escaped the dangers of the sea 
 and the galleys of Vataces. On opening a wooden box, 
 they recognised the seals of the doge and barons, which 
 were applied on a shrine of silver ; and within this shrine 
 the monument of the Passion was enclosed in a golden 
 vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to justice and 
 power ; the Emperor Frederic granted a free and hon- 
 ourable passage ; the court of Prance advanced as far 
 as Troyes, in Champagne, to meet with devotion this 
 inestimable relic ; it was borne in triumph through Paris 
 by the king himself, barefoot and in his shirt; and a 
 free gift of ten thousand marks of silver reconciled 
 Baldwin to his loss. The success of this transaction 
 tempted the Latin emperor to offer with the same gen- 
 erosity the remaining furniture of his chapel : a large 
 and authentic portion of the true cross ; the baby-linen 
 of the Son of God ; the lance, the sponge, and the chain 
 of the Passion ; the rod of Moses, and part of the skull of 
 St. John the Baptist. For the reception of these spirit- 
 ual treasures, twenty thousand marks were expended by 
 Louis on a stately foundation, the Holy Chapel of Paris." 
 Louis, having set his heart on building a shrine 
 
250 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 worthy of the relics, issued a proclamation calling upon 
 the master-builders of Europe to give in plans, or, as we 
 should describe the transaction to-day, invited tenders 
 for the building. The architect selected was Pierre de 
 Monte reau. 
 
 A curious legend is related in connection with the 
 actual design which was accepted for the Holy Chapel. 
 Two of the candidates for the work met on their way to 
 Paris, at an Alpine inn, and the younger, an enthusiastic 
 and confiding artificer, showed his plan to his fellow 
 traveller, who preserved silence about his own plan. 
 That night the elder of the two attempted to murder 
 his rival, stole the plan, and set off for Paris early the 
 next morning. King Louis was delighted with the de- 
 sign, and entrusted this unknown artist with the task 
 of building the chapel. When it was finished, the archi- 
 tect retired secretly to a monastery, in order to expiate 
 his heinous crime. The actual designer became mad, 
 and, some years afterward, wandered to Paris ; where- 
 upon, seeing the realisation of his plan in stone, he 
 suddenly recovered his reason. It was, however, too 
 late, his story was discredited, and the unfortunate 
 architect died in obscurity. 
 
 Probably the legend owes its origin to the fact that, 
 as frequently happened in the middle ages, the actual 
 builder of the Sainte Chapelle had adapted and used as 
 his own work the design of some poor craftsman. This 
 is common enough in our own days among artists and 
 architects, as well as among inventors. For instance, 
 the original idea of the Eiffel Tower is said to have been 
 suggested to the able engineer and organiser, whose 
 name is always associated with it, by a young and 
 
LA SAINTE CHAPMLLE AND ST. DENIS. 251 
 
 obscure artisan ; and in the middle ages many famous 
 painters had their " ghosts." 
 
 The Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248. The 
 Upper Chapel, for the church is a double one, was ex- 
 pressly dedicated to the Holy Crown of Thorns, and 
 the Lower Chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. 
 
 The church has had many brilliant pageants and 
 splendid ceremonies celebrated within its walls. The 
 wives of Philip III., Charles IV. (le Bel), and Charles 
 VI. were crowned here, and in this chapel was cele- 
 brated the marriage of the Emperor Henry VII. with 
 Margaret of Brabant. The betrothal of our King Rich- 
 ard II. to Isabella of France was also solemnised here. 
 
 In short, almost as many important historic ceremo- 
 nies have taken place in the Sainte Chapelle as in Notre 
 Dame Cathedral and St. Denis, and the history of these 
 three churches is, in a great measure, the history of 
 France. 
 
 But the most striking ceremonies of all these royal 
 pageants were those in connection with the canonisation 
 of St. Louis and the translation of his bones from St. 
 Denis in 1306. The formal bull of canonisation had 
 indeed been issued nine years previous to this by Pope 
 Boniface, after a most searching inquiry into the claims 
 of the defunct sovereign, and the veracity of the fifty- 
 seven alleged miracles attributed to his relics. 
 
 The procedure in the inquiry into a saint's claims to 
 canonisation is curious. They are submitted to as 
 searching an examination and scrutiny as are those 
 of a claimant to a lapsed peerage in the English House 
 of Lords. In the first instance, commissioners are 
 appointed by the Pope to institute preliminary inquiries. 
 
252 PARIS m ITS 8PLENDOUB. 
 
 Their report is submitted to a special tribunal of clerics, 
 who decide if the candidate is worthy of the first degree 
 of hierarchical rank, which is called beatification. A 
 second tribunal, after a considerable interval, then con- 
 siders the question of the admittance of the saint to full 
 canonisation. At this trial, the candidate's interests 
 are looked after by an ofiicial who is styled the Dei 
 advocatus, who is opposed by the diaholi advoeatus. It is 
 from this that the familiar expression, " devil's advocate," 
 is derived. 
 
 After the decision of this tribunal in the candidate's 
 favour, the final ratification by the Pope is alone required 
 for the admittance of the saint into the Roman Catholic 
 calendar. In this calendar, St. Louis (August 25th) 
 has taken high rank, and is perhaps the greatest lai/ 
 saint of mediaeval times who has been thought worthy of 
 canonisation. 
 
 Since the Reformation the admittance of fresh saints 
 into the calendar is comparatively rare. One reason for 
 the paucity of claimants for canonisation is said to be 
 the enormous cost of the procedure. A curious example 
 of this is to be found in the history of the Borromeo 
 family of Milan. It was found that the cost of obtain- 
 ing the bull of canonisation for the famous saint, 
 Charles Borromeo, was so great, that the family 
 refrained from pressing the claims of another saintly 
 personage, a cousin of St. Charles, on account of the 
 expense ! Then it must be remembered that in a less 
 credulous and superstitious age a more searching exam- 
 ination into the antecedents and alleged miracles of 
 saints is now insisted upon. It is also said that the can- 
 onisations which have been granted by the Vatican 
 
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 253 
 
 have, to some extent, been influenced by motives of pub- 
 lic interest and Church policy. The canonisation of the 
 Jesuit martyrs in Japan, in the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century, for instance, was said to be prompted by 
 a desire to encourage the zeal of the Church at a time 
 when the temporal power was threatened. 
 
 The remains of the monarch, who was now a duly 
 accredited saint, at once became of immense value as 
 relics, and the bones of St. Louis were scrambled for by 
 sovereigns, the great abbeys, and cathedrals in a most 
 indecent fashion. The first distribution of the relics 
 resulted in a part of the skull of St. Louis being appor- 
 tioned to the Sainte Chapelle, and another to the Abbey 
 of Poissy, while Notre Dame had to be satisfied with 
 a rib. Then the Church of Montjoie venerates a relic 
 which is said to be one of the bones of the sainted 
 king's hand. As for the heart, though several churches 
 claim to possess this, the balance of evidence is in 
 favour of the relic enshrined at the Cathedral of Mon- 
 reale, near Palermo. What remain of the personal 
 relics of St. Louis, as well as the crown of thorns and 
 other alleged relics to which the Holy Chapel owes its 
 existence, are now in Notre Dame. 
 
 A remarkable discovery in the course of the restora- 
 tion of the Sainte Chapelle in 1843, threw, however, 
 seme doubt on the alleged genuineness of the saint's 
 heart enshrined at Monreale Cathedral. On the death 
 of St. Louis at Tunis, in 1270, his heart was carefully 
 preserved in the chapel which he founded, and a casket 
 containing what was apparently a heart was discovered 
 in the course of the restorations mentioned above. A 
 formal commission was appointed to " sit on " the relic 
 
254 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 and decide on its authenticity. Their verdict was unfa- 
 vourable, but, notwithstanding this official disclaimer, 
 the relic is still held in strong veneration by devout 
 Catholics. 
 
 In 1790, when all the abbeys and other religious 
 foundations in France were laicised, the Holy Chapel 
 was closed, and its relics removed to St. Denis. The 
 sacred building was profaned to various uses till the 
 Restoration, — at one time it served as a club-house, at 
 another time a warehouse, and finally as a kind of 
 record office, in connection with the Palais de Justice. 
 In the reign of Louis Philippe the government under- 
 took its complete restoration, and spent enormous sums 
 on the work. VioUet-le-Duc and Lassus were the archi- 
 tects entrusted with the restoration, and they carried out 
 the difficult task with remarkable skill. " The windows 
 in especial were admirably restored by MM. Steinheil 
 and Lusson. So well have these artists matched the 
 colours, that it is not easy to distinguish between the mod- 
 ern glass and the little that still remains of the thir- 
 teenth century." No less an authority than Mr. Ruskin 
 speaks very appreciatively of the manner in which the 
 work has been carried out. This triumph of window 
 restoration compares very favourably with the work at 
 St. Denis (see next chapter), where the restorers seem 
 to have eliminated all the beauty of the original 
 twelfth century glass. 
 
 A visitor might profitably devote a whole morning 
 to these wonderful windows, where the whole history of 
 the Bible is written, to quote Pergusson's expressive 
 phrase, "in the hues of the rainbow, by the earnest 
 hands of faith." 
 
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 255 
 
 These windows, indeed, comprise a sacred picture-gal- 
 lery embodying all the religious symbolism of the mystic 
 king, and in these thousand panels of fragile and pre- 
 cious paintings a whole Christian East is to be found. 
 
 Let us now proceed to examine the architectural and 
 decorative features of this unique church. It is a twin 
 or double church, consisting of a lower and upper chapel. 
 The crypt-like Lower Chapel is a comparatively feature- 
 less building, containing the tombs of canons of the 
 Sainte Chapelle. Boileau was once buried here, but his 
 remains were taken to St. Germain-des-Pr^s after the 
 Revolution. 
 
 The beautiful porch of the Lower Chapel has a curious 
 statue of the Virgin with bowed head. This is a replica 
 of the famous statue which had the reputation of work- 
 ing miracles, and of which many legends are told. 
 The significance of the bowed head is explained by the 
 story of the famous theologian, Jean Duns Scotus, who 
 was one of the first to preach the doctrine of the Immac- 
 ulate Conception, which, it may be remarked, had to 
 wait some six hundred years for its formal recognition 
 by the Vatican. When strenuously defending this doc- 
 trine in the Holy Chapel, in 1304, the statue, out of 
 gratitude, bowed its head. 
 
 The portal is very richly decorated, and has been most 
 conscientiously restored. The Last Judgment in the 
 tympanum is modelled upon the famous sculpture on 
 the Notre Dame central portal, and " each figure was 
 fitted into its place upon the lines of the original, when- 
 ever any trace of the old sculpture had been preserved." 
 
 The magnificent rose window is of fifteenth century 
 work. Here is represented the Vision of the Apoca- 
 
256 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 lypse. " Perhaps the slight variation in this window," 
 observes Mr. Sieverts Drewett, " which is in the flam- 
 boyant style, is to critical eyes somewhat out of place, 
 but it is Gothic, nevertheless, and does not appear incon- 
 gruous by reason of its more florid character." 
 
 The beautifully proportioned spire is comparatively 
 modern, and on the whole it must be admitted to be a 
 successful restoration. Over the apse stands a colossal 
 angel holding a processional cross. It was originally 
 intended that the angel should turn around mechanically 
 upon a pivot during the twenty-four hours, and thus pre- 
 sent the emblem of salvation to each quarter of Paris in 
 turn. But the idea was never carried out. 
 
 The Upper Chapel is reached by a small spiral stair- 
 case. On entering, what strikes the visitor most, next 
 to the brilliant colouring and the richness of the deco- 
 rative work, is the great height of the windows. Like 
 the Royal Chapel of St. George, and King's College 
 Chapel, Cambridge, it is merely a choir, not a complete 
 church. Judged from the strictest canons of art, its pro- 
 portions are faulty, but, says Fergusson, the " noble sim- 
 plicity of its design, the majesty of its tall windows, 
 and the beauty of all its details, render it one of the most 
 perfect examples of the Gothic style." 
 
 The beauty of the interior and the rich scheme of 
 colour is a good deal enhanced by the approach from the 
 semi-darkness of the Lower Chapel and the gloomy, tun- 
 nel-like stairs. " Add to the beauty of the chapel all the 
 associations which crowd upon the memory, — St. Louis's 
 beautiful faith and noble life, his enthusiasm for God's 
 work and man's welfare ; all the ceremonies and the 
 processions which have taken place there, with the 
 
LA 8AINTE CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 257 
 
 lights, the flowers, and the incense, and our imagination 
 forms a picture that no hand could adequately paint." ^ 
 
 But, after all, the windows constitute the great glory 
 of the Sainte Chapelle. If Rheims is remembered by its 
 porch, Rouen by its west front, Chartres by its spire, 
 Beauvais by its choir, so will the Holy Chapel of Paris 
 always be recalled to mind by its exquisite stained glass. 
 
 If one visits the chapel alone in the early morning, 
 one can better understand the pretty story told of a 
 child entering for the first time a cathedral in France, 
 and sitting awed by the great rose -window facing him, 
 when all at once the organ burst into music, and it 
 seemed to the child " as if the window spoke." 
 
 The interior, consisting as it does almost entirely of 
 lofty windows, is a good illustration of the architectural 
 principle so predominant in the thirteenth century, which 
 demanded the greatest possible space and the best 
 arranged localities for the display of painted glass. The 
 style and arrangement of the windows resemble very 
 closely those in the chapter-house in Salisbury Cathe- 
 dral. There are fifteen windows altogether, each some 
 fifty feet in height. Most of the glass, as we have seen, 
 is of later date than the thirteenth century ; indeed, some of 
 the best of the original glass is to be seen in South Ken- 
 sington Museum. 
 
 Most of the windows are filled with subjects taken 
 from the Old and New Testaments, but one which is of 
 considerable historic as well as artistic interest deals 
 with the finding and translation of the sacred relics. 
 
 At the foot of the piers, which divide the windows 
 and form the sole support of the roof, are statues of 
 1 S. S. Beale. 
 
258 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the twelve apostles, each with his proper symbol. In the 
 quatrefoils between the arches are beautful enamelled 
 mosaics representing the lives and deaths (chiefly 
 deaths) of martyrs. " Each wears his own crown of 
 thorns : a pretty conceit wholly in accord with St. Louis's 
 ecstatic type of piety," observes Mr. Grant Allen in 
 his well-informed " Historical Guide." Among them 
 we notice St. Denis carrying his head in his hand, St. 
 Sebastian pierced with arrows, St. Lawrence and his 
 gridiron, St. Stephen being stoned, etc. 
 
 The sacred reliquary, which was melted down in 
 1793, used to stand where now a wooden baldachin 
 has been erected. 
 
 A good description of this church, as it appeared in 
 the fifteenth century, will be found in Victor Hugo's 
 " Notre Dame : " 
 
 "This chapel, which was still quite new, having 
 scarcely been built six years, was all in that charming 
 taste of delicate architecture, miraculous sculpture, and 
 bold and exquisite carving, which characterises the close 
 of the Gothic era, and which we find perpetuated 
 through the first half of the sixteenth century in the fan- 
 tastic fairy work of the period of the revival. The 
 little pierced rosace or rose-shaped window above the 
 entrance of the chapel was, in particular, a masterpiece 
 of grace and lightness ; it had almost the airiness of 
 lace." 
 
 The Sainte Chapelle is now little more than a 
 museum, for divine service is solemnised only once 
 a year, at the opening of the Law Courts in the autumn. 
 This service, known as the Messe Rouge, still takes place 
 annually (^pace the guide-books, which, for some reason, 
 
LA SAINTS CHAPSLLE AND ST. DENIS. 259 
 
 insist that it has been discontinued). Tourists should 
 make a point of visiting the chapel for this impressive 
 service, which takes place on the 3d of November. The 
 Archbishop of Paris presides, with judges and advocates 
 in their robes. Prom the Tribunal of Commerce come 
 the judges and counsel of that court dressed in their 
 sombre robes of black silk, while from the Appeal 
 Court is formed the procession of judges and advocates 
 in robes of red merino trimmed with black fur. Next 
 comes the procession from the Tribunal Civil and other 
 courts. From another part of the palace defiles the 
 Council of the Order of Advocates with the quaintly 
 garbed b§,tonnier at the head of the procession. When 
 all are seated, the interior of the chapel is one blaze of 
 colour, which harmonises well with its rich decorations 
 and gorgeous windows. 
 
 English visitors are no doubt tempted to compare this 
 beautiful church with the royal chapels at Windsor, 
 Westminster, and Cambridge. In beauty of decoration 
 and richness of detail these three royal chapels need not 
 fear comparison with the French chapel, but for dignity 
 of design and correctness of proportion, St. George's 
 Chapel at Windsor can alone approach it. In short, 
 the royal chapels of Louis IX. at Paris, and of Henry 
 VII. at Windsor, are, indisputably, the most beautiful 
 miniature cathedrals of the pointed style in existence. 
 
 "Thanks to the restorers, the interior of the chapel 
 once more produces the effect of harmonious splendour 
 which belonged to it in the days of St. Louis. Of all 
 the Gothic edifices I have ever visited, this one seems 
 to me the most preeminently a visible poem. It 
 is hardly of this world, it hardly belongs to the dull 
 
260 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 realities of life. Most buildings are successful ones in 
 parts, so that we say to ourselves, ' Ah, if all had 
 been equal to this ! ' or else we meet with some shock- 
 ing incongruity which spoils everything; but here the 
 motive, which is that of perfect splendour, is main- 
 tained without flaw or failure anywhere. The architect 
 made his windows as large and lofty as he could (there 
 is hardly any wall, its work is done by the buttresses) ; 
 and he took care that the stone-work should be as light 
 and elegant as possible, after which he filled it with a 
 vast jewelry of painted glass. Every inch of wall is 
 illuminated like a missal, and so delicately that some 
 of the illuminations are repeated of the real size in Guil- 
 hermy's monograph. When we become somewhat accus- 
 tomed to the universal splendour (which from the 
 subdued light is by no means crude or painful), we 
 begin to perceive that the windows are full of little 
 pictorial compositions ; and if we have time to examine 
 them there is occupation for us, as the windows contain 
 more than a thousand of these pictures." ^ 
 
 I have given considerable space to the survey of this 
 noble building, as, next to Notre Dame, it is probably the 
 most popular church from the sightseer's point of view 
 in Paris. La Sainte Chapelle holds a unique position 
 among the historic churches of Paris in that it im- 
 presses the ordinary tourist equally with the artist 
 and the architectural expert. The ordinary unses- 
 thetic sightseer cannot help being attracted by the 
 rich colouring of the stained glass and the gorgeous- 
 ness of the decorations, while the artist is entranced 
 with its perfect symmetry of form and its perfect pro- 
 ^ p. G. Hamerton. 
 
LA 8AINTE CHAPELLH AND ST. DENIS. 261 
 
 portions, and the architectural student is struck with 
 the technical merits and the academic correctness of 
 this incomparable gem of Gothic architecture. 
 
 In addition to Notre Dame and La Sainte Chapelle, 
 there are at least a score of famous historic churches 
 which deserve to be treated at some length. Considera- 
 tion of space will, however, prevent my doing more than 
 to give a brief description of the principal ones. 
 
 Of these, St. Denis may be considered to rank as the 
 first in importance. It is, in a sense, the mother church 
 of Paris, and is the oldest of any. This being so, one 
 is naturally prepared for a certain elementary character 
 in its architectural style. In some respects it has formed 
 a model for other thirteenth century churches in Paris, 
 and it offers a striking object-lesson to the architectural 
 student, as it illustrates the strides the master builders 
 of Prance had made in the century which divides St. 
 Denis from the Sainte Chapelle; for, as Fergusson 
 aptly observes, during this period the " French had 
 jumped from the tentative example of St. Denia to the 
 perfection of the Sainte Chapelle." 
 
 In mediaeval times St. Denis, as the shrine of the 
 great Apostle of the Gauls, was one of the most sacred 
 spots in Western Europe, a kind of Christian Mecca. 
 
 St. Denis is the patron saint of France, and, as is 
 natural, the legendary lore connected with him is very 
 voluminous, and it is difficult to extract from the mass 
 of legend and tradition many authentic details. But it 
 is tolerably certain that St. Denis was the first Christian 
 missionary in Paris and that he was beheaded on the 
 hill of Montmartre (Mons Martyrum). It was there 
 that the miracle always associated with St. Denis is 
 
262 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 supposed to have taken place. According to the legend, 
 the saint walked from the place of martyrdom to the 
 spot where the church now stands, carrying his head in 
 his hand. Here a certain pious lady named Catulla 
 gave the saint burial. Some years afterward a small 
 chapel was built over the grave, and in 630 King Dago- 
 bert built a basilica in place of the chapel, but of this 
 no trace, of course, remains. 
 
 There are many variants of the story of the saint's 
 martyrdom and burial, but the incident of the miracu- 
 lous transport of the head is common to all of them, 
 and it is believed by many devout Catholics. It gave 
 rise to a clever bon mot of Voltaire, who remarked that 
 he did not see anything so very incredible in the story 
 of the saint's expedition from Montmartre, for " en pa- 
 reille cireonstance il rCy a que le premier pas qui eoUte ! " 
 
 Not much is known of the history of the church 
 between the seventh and twelfth centuries, when the 
 building of the present basilica was begun by the great 
 Minister Suger in 1121. " The earliest part of the 
 church is in the Romanesque style ; it still retains the 
 round Roman arch and many other Roman construc- 
 tive features. During the course of the fifty years 
 occupied in building the basilica, however, the Gothic 
 style was developed ; the existing church therefore ex- 
 hibits both Romanesque and Gothic work, with tran- 
 sitional features between the two which add to its 
 interest." ^ 
 
 Though the main body of the building is due to 
 Suger, the nave chapels were built in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. A beautiful circular chapel built in the sixteenth 
 1 " Historical Guide to Paris." 
 
LA SAINTS CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 263 
 
 century was destroyed early in the eighteenth. Only a 
 colonnade (set up as a sham ruin in the Pare Monceaux) 
 now remains. 
 
 The fa9ade is irregular and lacks the dignity and 
 impressiveness of the west front of Notre Dame, though 
 in its main features there is a strong resemblance. The 
 beautiful rose window has been converted into a clock- 
 face, and the general effect of the f a§ade is spoiled by the 
 coarse and heavy battlements, for the church was forti- 
 fied in the fourteenth century. 
 
 The three Romanesque portals are worth inspection, 
 though much of the sculpture is modern, and the really 
 old stone-work betrays the somewhat heavy and rude 
 style of the thirteenth century. The subject of the 
 central tympanum is, of course, the last judgment, 
 and the treatment is as conventional as it is in the 
 Notre Dame facade. 
 
 We are reminded by Mr. Grant Allen that this cen- 
 tral door formed the model on which those of Notre 
 Dame, the Sainte Chapelle, St. Germain I'Auxerrois, 
 and many others in Paris of later date were originally 
 based. On the other two doors are represented scenes 
 from the life of St. Denis. The southern one commem- 
 orates his martyrdom. The bas-reliefs have been so 
 much restored by VioUet-le-Duc that they may be con- 
 sidered modern. The architect took for his model in 
 the composition of the groups the French picture of the 
 same subject in the Louvre. The portal of the north 
 transept is adorned with highly interesting mediaeval 
 statues representing the ancestors of Christ. They are 
 a counterpart of the famous series of Notre Dame, and 
 are equally mistaken for statues of French kings. They 
 
264 _ PABIS IN ITS 8PLEND0VR. 
 
 are curious examples, says Miss Beale in her charming 
 monograph on the ancient churches of Paris, of the 
 amusing manner in which archffiological frauds hare 
 been unwittingly perpetrated in France by VioUet-le- 
 Duc's restorers. Casts of these statues may be seen 
 at Versailles, where they figure as portrait-statues of 
 the Capetian sovereigns ! 
 
 Unfortunately, this transept cannot be seen except by 
 special permission, as the south side of the church is 
 shut in by the college for daughters of officers of the 
 Legion of Honour. 
 
 Until the church was taken in hand by Viollet-le-Duc, 
 attempts at restoration in the vilest taste were made by 
 the royal architects in the reigns of Louis XVIII. and 
 Charles X., and from an aesthetic point of view the 
 church suffered more at the hands of the royal archi- 
 tects than from its spoliation and desecration by the 
 Revolutionists. 
 
 " Perhaps few churches have seen more changes than 
 the silent walls of St. Denis have witnessed. The burial- 
 place of most of the Kings of France, it was also upon 
 its high altar that Louis le Gros deposited the oriflamme, 
 the famous standard of Prance, while some seven centu- 
 ries later its tombs were only preserved from utter ruin 
 by the wit of Alexandre Lenoir. Even the church itself 
 was threatened with destruction, and was only saved by 
 an architect seriously suggesting that it should be turned 
 into a market, the side chapels forming shops. By 
 turns a Temple of Reason, a d^p8t of artillery, a theatre 
 of acrobats, a flour warehouse and a granary, its dese- 
 cration was not consummated until the glass was removed 
 and the leaden covering of its roof converted into 
 
LA SAINTS CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 265 
 
 bullets. Napoleon saved what remained, and began 
 restoring it as a resting-place, for the defunct members 
 of his dynasty. The Concordat granted it a chapter, 
 and religious services were restored. But the nineteenth 
 century proved as disastrous as wars and revolutions. 
 Still, through the talent and learning of VioUet-le-Duc, 
 it is one of the finest of thirteenth century churches, and, 
 now that the tombs have all been replaced in their for- 
 mer positions, one of the most interesting." 
 
 A modern replica of the famous oriflamme here 
 alluded to hangs over the high altar. This banner was 
 removed only when the sovereign himself took command 
 of the army in the field. It was last used at Agincourt. 
 It derived its name from being made of red silk covered 
 with golden flames. It is curious to think that the red 
 flag, once the emblem of loyalty and chivalry, should 
 nowadays symbolise all that is revolutionary and 
 an9,rchistic. 
 
 The view of the interior, entering from the vestibule 
 (which recalls the galilee of Durham Cathedral), is 
 beautiful and impressive. Owing to the peculiar arrange- 
 ment of the choir, which is raised above the nave as at 
 San Miniato in Florence, the high altar, with the beauti- 
 ful background of lofty windows and columns, has a very 
 striking aspect. 
 
 The proportions of the nave are very pleasing, and the 
 architecture is of the purest early Gothic, more than a cen- 
 tury older than Suger's vestibule. The contrast between 
 this older portion and the nave and choir, with their light 
 and lofty arches and columns, is striking. Most of the 
 stained glass is modern and of poor design and work- 
 manship. The only genuine thirteenth century glass is 
 
266 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 to be seen in the windows of the apse. The painted 
 windows of St. Denis were once as famous as those of 
 the Sainte Chapelle, whereas now the church contains 
 perhaps the worst specimens of stained glass in Paris. 
 In short, the one eyesore in the whole glorious east end 
 of the church is formed by the hideous stained windows 
 representing scenes in the life of Louis Philippe, in 
 which the personages are represented in blue swallow- 
 tail coats and white trousers ! 
 
 But it is as the mausoleum of the French kings rather 
 than as the shrine of St. Denis that this church is chiefly 
 visited. St. Denis is, in short, to Paris what Westminster 
 Abbey or St. George's Chapel is to London. Though 
 few of the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings are 
 buried at St. Denis, the remains of nearly all the French 
 kings from Hugues Capet to Louis XVIII. have found 
 sepulchre here. France has not shared its defunct sov- 
 ereigns between two churches, as has been done on the 
 other side of the channel, where the twin Valhallas of 
 Westminster and Windsor have claimed the ashes of the 
 English kings. 
 
 The best monuments are those of the Renaissance 
 period, while the tombs of the early kings are merely 
 late copies. 
 
 The reduplication of memorial tombs to a sovereign 
 or saint strikes observant visitors to French cathedrals 
 and abbeys as curious. It is due to the strange custom, 
 frequently practised in the thirteenth century, of dividing 
 the bodies of royal and saintly personages, and burying 
 the portions in different churches. For instance, the 
 tomb at St. Denis contains only the trunk of Charles V., 
 while his heart is at Rouen, and the less honourable por- 
 
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 267 
 
 tions of the defunct sovereign are at Maubuisson. The 
 Benedictines of St. Denis naturally protested against the 
 division of the most valuable assets of their abbey, but 
 other orders disputed their claims, and later on even the 
 convents demanded a share of the holy spoil. Thus 
 the nuns of Val de Gr&ce managed to obtain the hearts 
 of most of the royal princesses, from Anne of Austria, 
 the mother of Louis XIV., downwards. 
 
 This custom of dividing bodies of saints and kings, 
 says the historian of St. Denis, M. de Guilhermy, is of 
 very ancient date. It was sanctioned by the Church in 
 order that the remains and relics might benefit, by their 
 miraculous power, as many places as possible. In fact, 
 there was a kind of relic exchange instituted by the 
 leading monasteries, and we read of " a rib " of one 
 saint being exchanged for a bone a cubit long of another, 
 a tooth for a tooth, etc. ! 
 
 The monuments now occupy the same positions that 
 they did before they were removed by the Convention in 
 1793. " If we stand upon the raised platform of the 
 apse behind the high altar, we can gaze down upon what 
 may be called the history of France, from the artistic 
 point of view, during four or five centuries." 
 
 The most beautiful monuments in St. Denis are the 
 Renaissance tombs of the royal family of St. Louis, 
 from Louis XII. to Charles II. Though the later 
 sovereigns down to Louis XVIII. are buried here, or 
 at all events their reputed remains are, none of these 
 later kings have any separate memorial. The tombs 
 erected in memory of Louis XII., Francis I., and 
 Henry 11. belong to the same period, and are evidently 
 copied from the famous Visconti tomb in the Certosa 
 
268 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 of Pavia. Unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to 
 approach near to some of the monuments, though a 
 judicious vail to the attendant might induce him to 
 relax the rule. For instance, the shrii>e of Dagobert, 
 which is on the right of the high altar, can be seen 
 only from the farther end of the choir. This monu- 
 ment was erected by St. Louis, and, though it has been 
 almost entirely restored, the original quaint design has 
 been faithfully copied. It is intended to portray the 
 legendary history of this monarch. It is a significant 
 story, which seems to point the moral of the spiritual 
 advantage of founding a monastery. The history is told 
 in three tableaux in stone, one above the other. In the 
 first is represented a monk asleep, who dreams that 
 King Dagobert's soul is in danger. To the right, the 
 king stands in a little boat and is attacked by demons. 
 In the second bas-relief we have Sts. Martin, Denis, 
 and Maurice attended by two angels coming to the 
 king's rescue, St. Maurice putting to flight the devils, 
 while the two angels succour the tortured soul of the 
 king. In the third we have a kind of apotheosis of 
 Dagobert, who stands on a sheet which is borne heaven- 
 wards by the saints and angels. 
 
 The magnificent Renaissance tombs of the kings of 
 the Valois dynasty already referred to should be care- 
 fully examined. The tomb of Louis XII. and the twin 
 monuments of Henry II. and his wife, Catherine de 
 M^dicis, are in the north transept, while the tomb of 
 Francis I. is south of the choir over the crypt. 
 
 In the tomb of Louis XII. and his wife, Anne of 
 Brittany, the king and his wife are represented kneeling 
 on the tomb. The cardinal virtues are at the corners, 
 
LA SAINTE CBAPMLLE AND ST. DENIS. 269 
 
 and the twelve apostles in the arcaded niches of the 
 monument. The treatment is, of course, conventional in 
 the extreme, hut the monument is decidedly beautiful. 
 In the interior of the tomb the king and queen are 
 strangely represented lying on a mattress in the death 
 agony. In order to heighten the religious symbolism, 
 they are entirely nude. It will be seen that the motive 
 of this and the tombs of Henry II. and Francis I. is 
 precisely similar. This tomb is the work of Jean Juste 
 of Tours, the author of the beautiful monument to the 
 children of Charles VIII. in the cathedral of that city. 
 The workmanship of the tomb of Henry II. and Cath- 
 erine de M^dicis is equally good, but the realism is 
 unpleasantly intrusive. In this tomb the cardinal vir- 
 tue which represents Temperance carried two cups, 
 but the precise signification of the two cups is not 
 evident. This tomb has been much admired by sculp- 
 tors, and Bernini declared it was the finest monument 
 of the kind in France. The recumbent figures of the 
 two sovereigns are wonderfully executed, and the artist 
 has — fortunately for the sensitive sightseer — avoided 
 the horribly materialistic treatment of the expression so 
 repulsive in the Louis XII. tomb, and shown us the 
 peaceful and ideal side of the last sleep. Close by is 
 a replica of this monument, but in this the recumbent 
 figures are not undraped. It is said that this copy was 
 made because Queen Catherine, in her devouter old age, 
 was displeased with the nudity of the figures in the 
 original monument. 
 
 The magnificent mausoleum of Francis I. is the 
 largest and the costliest of all these splendid tombs. 
 The decorative design around the base and sides of the 
 
270 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 tomb is more ambitious than that of those already 
 described. The tomb was designed and built by Phili- 
 bert Delorme about 1552, but many sculptors assisted 
 him in the work. The kneeling figures on the top of 
 the monument represent Francis, his wife Claude, and 
 their three children. Then, as in the other Valois 
 tombs in the interior of the monument, these figures 
 are represented sleeping. These recumbent statues, 
 owing to their exceptional beauty and delicacy of treat- 
 ment, have been attributed to Jean Goujon. The bas- 
 reliefs on the sides of the tomb represent the battles of 
 Marignano and Consoles. This tomb, though undoubt- 
 edly modelled on the Certosa monument, " exhibits," 
 says Mr. Grant Allen, " a much later and more refined 
 development of French Renaissance sculpture than its 
 predecessor." 
 
 In the apse beyond the sacristy is a very curious 
 monument which should not be overlooked. It is a 
 kind of mosaic statue of Fr^d^gonde of mediaeval work- 
 manship. This was originally in the Church of St. 
 Germain-des-Pr^s. 
 
 The crypt is the oldest portion of the building as it 
 now exists, and the architecture, with the curious 
 Romanesque capitals, is very interesting. The crypt 
 was built by Suger to contain the bones of St. Denis 
 and his two fellow martyrs. It was originally more of a 
 sanctuary than a burial-place, but was soon utilised as 
 the burial-place of the royal family of France. With 
 the Bourbons began the horrible practice of using a 
 portion of the crypt as an open vault or mausoleum, the 
 coffins containing the bodies of the kings remaining 
 above ground in this huge chamber. When the royal 
 
LA SAINTS CBAPELLE AND ST. DENIS. 271 
 
 tomba were sacked by the Convention there were " fifty- 
 four bodies arranged upon iron trestles, side by side, 
 Henry IV. heading the list." Louis XVIII. restored the 
 bones of his ancestors to their former place of sepulchre, 
 and also added the reputed remains of Louis XVI. and his 
 family, which had been buried near the Madeleine in 
 the spot now commemorated by a memorial chapel (see 
 Madeleine chapter). 
 
 Louis XVIII. and the Duke of Berry, father of the 
 Comte de Chambord, are the only members of the Bour- 
 bon dynasty buried in the course of this century at St. 
 Denis. Charles X. and his grandson, the Comte de 
 Chambord, are buried with several other Bourbons at 
 Goritz. Of later occupants of the French throne, Louis 
 Philippe is buried at Claremont near Bsher, and Napoleon 
 III. at Chiselhurst ; while Napoleon I., of course, rests 
 under the dome of the Invalides, and the Orleanist " Pre- 
 tender," the Comte de Paris, is buried at Weybridge. 
 
 The view of the mausoleum where the Bourbon kings 
 are buried will probably impress the least imaginative 
 visitor as he looks through the iron gratings upon the 
 charnel-house of the French kings — full of " souvenirs 
 de hanmssement, de meurtre, et d'Schafaud." 
 
 Opposite the vaults, in the small chapels built into the 
 walls of the crypt, are some moderji statues of inferior 
 merit. The most noticeable and the most striking, owing 
 to its incongruity, is a statue of Marie Antoinette, kneel- 
 ing and dressed in a ball costume. 
 
 In 1793, the Abbey Church of St. Denis, along with 
 the other sacred establishments, was "laicised," — in 
 other words desecrated, and pillaged by the authority of 
 the National Convention, and the remains of the kings, 
 
272 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 from Henry IV. to those of the eighteenth century, were 
 dug up and thrown into a huge/osse. The tombs and mon- 
 uments were also removed, but even the Convention had 
 retained some sense of artistic decency, and the tombs 
 and monuments were spared. They were collected by 
 Lenoir, and placed in the Museum of the Petits Augus- 
 tins, whence they were returned to St. Denis at the Res- 
 toration. Unfortunately, in order to make statues fit 
 certain niches, etc., a procrustean principle had been 
 adopted by the curator, and as the statues were restored 
 in haste and carelessly, many were matched indiscrim- 
 inately. The great object was to provide each king with 
 a queen, whether his own or another's consort. This 
 naturally resulted in absurd anachronisms, and also, as 
 Guilhermy observes in a burst of somewhat Rabelaisian 
 humour, " singulieres incestes de pierre et des adultires de 
 marhre de le pire espeae." However, these archaeolog- 
 ical immoralities concern chiefly experts and connois- 
 seurs. 
 
 We have now seen the principal features of interest in 
 St. Denis, a church of which almost every stone seems 
 incorporated with the fabric of the national history of 
 Prance. 
 
CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 
 
 There are many other historic churches in Paris 
 which deserve being described almost as fully as St. 
 Denis or Notre Dame, but we must perforce be content 
 with a briefer survey of these. If topographical sequence 
 were aimed at, the next church noticed would natu- 
 rally be St. Vincent de Paul, in the Montmartre quarter, 
 which would be conveniently reached by or from St. 
 Denis. But as this is a modern structure, it is more suit- 
 ably included in the account of the modern churches of 
 Paris, in a separate chapter. 
 
 After the three churches described above, the Church 
 of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois is perhaps the most historic- 
 ally interesting of any Paris church. The surroundings 
 of the church (which faces the Louvre) are curious. 
 With the well-meant intention of harmonising the sacred 
 building with the adjoining Mairie, the latter has been 
 " built to match," and an imposing flamboyant bell- 
 tower connects the church and the municipal building. 
 Unfortunately, the effect is not happy, as the result is 
 that the modern buUding rather " kills " the old one. 
 
 This church is one of the oldest portions of the Louvre, 
 to which it served as the chapel. Consequently, as a 
 royal church, its historical associations are numerous 
 and important. The present church (or rather the 
 
 273 
 
274 PARIS m ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 tower, the oldest portion) was built in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, but, like Notre Dame and St. Denis, most of the 
 fabric has been subjected to numerous reconstructions 
 and restorations, the last important restoration being 
 undertaken by Lassus in 1837. This church replaced 
 an earlier one dedicated to St. Germain, Bishop of Aux- 
 erre, in the sixth century. This saint is chiefly known 
 for his success in crushing out the Pelagian heresy, which 
 was making headway in Britain in the fifth century. 
 Though the spire is twelfth century, and the choir and 
 apse belong to the thirteenth century, the greater part 
 of the fa§ade and the porch (the principal feature of the 
 church from the sightseer's point of view) was built in 
 the fifteenth century. The porch is the work of Jean 
 Gaussel, and is embellished with numerous statues of 
 royal and local saints. A very curious one is that rep- 
 resenting Ste. Genevieve holding a candle, which a demon 
 tries to extinguish, and is frustrated by an angel holding 
 a chandelier with which to relight the taper. On the 
 tympanum of the fa§ade is the usual Last Judgment, but 
 the frescoes are so decayed that it is diificult to distin- 
 guish the subject. Careful inspection will show the 
 quaint realism by which the Jaws of Death, and Abra- 
 ham's Bosom are illustrated: On one side sits Abraham 
 holding a napkin containing three souls ; while upon the 
 other is a boiling cauldron containing three lost souls 
 (one of which the artist has slyly represented with a 
 mitre !) tormented by two demons. 
 
 The whole of the exterior of the portico is " richly 
 and capriciously carved by the stone-workers of the 
 fifteenth century ; and near the pierced terraces or 
 galleries are gables, gargoyles, crochets, cornices, 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 275 
 
 brackets, corbels, muUioned windows, and pinnacled 
 flying buttresses." 
 
 The gargoyles which fill every available projection are 
 as grotesque and hideous as the famous Notre Dame 
 devils. Among them are a grinning savage vomited 
 from the jaws of a monster which is perhaps meant 
 for a hippopotamus, a man making a monkey dance, 
 while another, a more ambitious design, is a kind of 
 allegory, illustrating the crime and punishment of the 
 wicked. A globe is gnawed by rata, symbolising the 
 wicked who devastate the earth, while a demon cat is 
 represented as being ready to pounce on them. 
 
 The stained glass windows of this church were once 
 famous, but the eighteenth century restorers did not 
 spare the glass. They considered the church too dark, 
 and ruthlessly destroyed the fourteenth century windows 
 of the nave. But the north and south aisle windows and 
 the beautiful rose windows of the transept were fortu- 
 nately not disturbed. " They give the interior of the 
 church the appearance of an immense illuminated 
 missal. The eye meets deep, rich, and mellow colours 
 at every corner, and the place is well worthy of a visit 
 if only for its pictured panes." ^ 
 
 This church, which was at one time a museum of tombs 
 of persons once famous in history, is rich in historical 
 associations. It is, of course, chiefly identified with the 
 religious wars of the sixteenth century. It was the bell 
 of this church (now preserved in the ThdS,tre Fran§ais) 
 that gave the signal for the massacre of the Huguenots on 
 St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572. It was within bow-shot 
 of this church that Admiral Coligny was assassinated. 
 iW. F. Lonergan. 
 
276 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 As St. Germain was the parish church of the Louvre, 
 it was usually attended by the sovereign when residing 
 there for important festivals. On the F§te-Dieu (May 
 23, 1790) Louis XVI. and his family formally at- 
 tended service along with the virtual rulers of France, 
 — the Constituent Assembly. In the revolution of 
 July, 1830, the church was turned into a hospital, and 
 the dead were buried in a trench dug at the entrance. 
 " It was here that the dog of one of the victims," ob- 
 serves Mr. Augustus Hare, " le chien du Louvre, as 
 Casimir Delavigne calls him, lay for weeks refusing all 
 food, and died upon the grave of the master he had 
 followed through the combat." 
 
 In less than a year after, at the anniversary service 
 to commemorate the death of the Due de Berry, the mob 
 broke into the church (whose clergy were noted for their 
 attachment to the Legitimist cause) and sacked it. For 
 six years there was no attempt at restoration, and the 
 church remained closed. In 1837, as we have seen, 
 the great work of restoration was at length put in 
 hand. 
 
 On the left bank of the Seine are three of the oldest 
 churches of Paris, St. Germain-des-Pr^s, St. S^verin, and 
 St. Etienne du Mont. St. Germain in the Fields, to 
 give it its English equivalent, can be most appropriately 
 visited after its namesake of Auxerre. The connection 
 between the two is very close. They belong to the same 
 period, and while St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, formally 
 dedicated St. Germain I'Auxerrois to the famous saint 
 of Auxerre, the other church, though originally built 
 by King Childebert and St. Germain in honour of 
 St. Vincent, and to serve as a shrine for his relics, 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 277 
 
 was eventually popularly dedicated to the local saint 
 and bishop. 
 
 Many of the early Merovingian kings were buried here, 
 just as the later kings were in St. Denis, and many of 
 their sarcophagi may be seen in the Cluny Museum. 
 As in the case of most of the mediaeval churches in 
 Paris, Ste. Genevidve, St. Denis, St. Severin, La Sainte 
 Chapelle, etc., St. Germain-des-Pres owes its origin to 
 a sacred relic, — the tunic of St. Vincent. When King 
 Childebert (son of Clovis), in the course of his campaign 
 in Spain against the Visigoths, was besieging Saragossa, 
 the inhabitants, instead of resisting, were satisfied with 
 a solemn procession around the walls, headed by the 
 famous tunic of St. Vincent. The king, impressed by 
 the miraculous properties of the saintly garment, 
 promised to raise the siege in return for the relic, and 
 just as St. Louis some seven centuries later built La 
 Sainte Chapelle as a shrine for the sacrosanct relic, 
 the crown of thorns, so Childebert built the great 
 church and abbey of St. Germain-des-Pr^s for the 
 reception of the sacred garment. 
 
 Such was the origin of one of the richest and most 
 powerful monasteries in Europe, whose history was for 
 centuries bound up with that of the greatest names in 
 France. Like most of the mediaeval churches of North- 
 ern France, St. Germain was destroyed by the Normans. 
 The present church was dedicated by Pope Alexander III. 
 in 1163, so that it is older than Notre Dame and the 
 Saint Chapelle, and consequently it is of great interest 
 to antiquaries and archaeologists. " It exhibits through- 
 out," says Mr. Grant Allen in his " Historic Paris," 
 " the earlier Romanesque style which formed the transi- 
 
278 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 tional term between classical architecture and the pointed 
 arches of the Gothic period. The upper part of the 
 building is, however, pure pointed." 
 
 Some traces of the original church of Childebert are 
 to be found in certain columns built into the walls of the 
 apse, the oldest part of the church. The sculpture on 
 some of the capitals is very quaint, the subjects ranging 
 from conventional Bible scenes to fanciful allegories. 
 Some of these columns have been removed to the Cluny 
 Museum. 
 
 The most popular feature of St. Germain is the 
 magnificent series of frescoes by Hippolyte Flandrin, 
 which may be compared with his more finished work in 
 the Church of St. Vincent de Paul (see the next chap- 
 ter). An admirable and appreciative account of these 
 famous paintings is given by Miss S. S. Beale in her 
 " Churches of Paris," which will be found of great value 
 in supplementing the bald lists given in Baedeker and 
 other standard guides. Flandrin stands perhaps alone, 
 among nineteenth century religious artists, in combining 
 the devotional sentiment of the early Florentine painters 
 with the superior technical skill of modern painters. 
 He seems, indeed, the Fra Angelico of the nineteenth 
 century. " Like the great Dominican artist, Flandrin, 
 too, was pious. His was no skin-deep Christianity, fla- 
 voured with the aestheticism so much in favour with 
 the cultured admirers of the traditions of Rome." Hip- 
 polyte Flandrin won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1832, 
 and died at Rome in 1864. His best works in St. Ger- 
 main are the two large compositions in the choir, the 
 Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and the Via Crucis, 
 both full of intense religious feeling. Flandrin's won- 
 
SOME BISTOmC CHVRCHHa. 279 
 
 derful Adam and Eve also repays careful study. " The 
 treatment is at once almost classic in its simplicity and 
 realistic in its naturalism." 
 
 The most striking exterior view of the church is 
 from the south side, and even now one can easily under- 
 stand, from the massive proportions of the church, the 
 importance of this great monastic stronghold in medi- 
 aeval times, for the church was only a small portion of 
 the original abbey, as one can see from Guilhermy'a 
 engraving. New streets, such as the Rue de I'Abbaye 
 and Rue de Rennes, destroyed the last remains of the 
 old abbey. 
 
 The fine Gothic church of St. S^verin is near the Cluny 
 Museum, and, though not reckoned by the local guides 
 as one of the great show churches, should not be 
 omitted from the sightseer's programme. The church 
 is especially interesting as an object-lesson of the devel- 
 opment of the various architectural styles from the thir- 
 teenth to the sixteenth centuries, for the church has 
 been subject to numerous restorations and enlargements 
 for nearly four hundred years. It is said to occupy the 
 site of a hermitage in which St. Severin lived, though 
 the church is dedicated to a later and better known 
 saint of the same name, who founded the Abbey de Cha- 
 teau-Landon, and received Prince Clodoaldus, grandson of 
 Queen Clo tilde (afterward canonised as St. Cloud), into 
 the Benedictine Order, but whose chief claim to distinc- 
 tion, according to the early French chroniclers, is that 
 he cured King Clovis of some malady by covering him 
 with a chasuble. The early church on the site of St. 
 Severin's hermitage was, as usual, sacked by the Nor- 
 mans, and a new church built on its site in the eleventh 
 
280 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 century, but the oldest portion of the present church only 
 dates from the thirteenth century. 
 
 There is a large number of chapels, the walls of which 
 are covered with modern paintings, some of which are 
 of fair merit, but to artists the most attractive features 
 are the painted windows, a good deal of the stained 
 glass of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries having es- 
 caped the ravages of the revolutionists. 
 
 Most of the subjects deal with the usual Biblical epi- 
 sodes, but a few are out of the beaten track, among them 
 being St. Anthony with his staff and bed and holy fire 
 under his feet, at which reclines his faithful pig, and — 
 an unusual subject for a foreign church — the martyrdom 
 of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
 
 The door of St. Martin's Chapel used to be covered 
 with ex-voto offerings, in the shape of horse-shoes, for the 
 saintly Bishop of Tours, when he divided his cloak with 
 the beggar, was on horseback, and was thus adopted as 
 a patron saint by travellers. It is said that " travel- 
 lers about to ride a great distance would brand their 
 horses' hoofs with the church key, made red-hot for that 
 purpose ! " 
 
 Notice the two sculptured lions on each side of the prin- 
 cipal portal. These lions are thought to explain the legal 
 formula which is often found at the end of mediaeval 
 ecclesiastical judgments, — " Datum inter duos hones." 
 
 A portion of the western fa9ade is of the fifteenth 
 century, but these sculptures are foreign, having been 
 brought from a church in the Cit6 which was pulled 
 down in 1837. The interior is rather bare, but the pro- 
 portions of the nave are fine. The triforium resembles 
 that of Westminster Abbey. 
 
SOME HISTOBIG CHURCBES. 281 
 
 While in this region a visit to the famous tomb of 
 Richelieu, in the Church of La Sorbonne, the university 
 which owes its foundation to St. Louis, may be conve- 
 niently made. The church itself, which appears to be 
 modelled on St. Peter's, is a good example of the Re- 
 naissance classic style of the PaUadian school. The 
 tomb of the great cardinal, though considered meretri- 
 cious and theatrical in design by severe critics, is a fine 
 and effective composition. Girardon was the sculptor 
 who built the monument from Lebrun's design. 
 
 The cardinal, dressed in his robes, is supported by 
 Religion, while at his feet is a weeping woman, sup- 
 posed to represent Science. These are portrait statues, 
 and are meant for the cardinal's nieces, Duchesse de 
 Gruyon and Duchesse de Fronsac. 
 
 The attitude of the recumbent cardinal is graceful, 
 and the spectator feels that, if the cardinal could rise, 
 " he would move about vrith the same grace as that 
 portrayed in the noble portrait of the great statesman 
 by Philippe de Champagne in the Louvre. It has not 
 the feeling of the Renaissance sculpture, and, although 
 Religion forms a principal part of the composition, it is 
 puny and small, a pagan design, and it would be just 
 as appropriate in a town hall, a garden, or a theatre." 
 
 The tomb was rifled during the Revolution, and the 
 head was carried off and paraded through the streets 
 at the end of a pike. After passing through many 
 hands, it was formally reinterred in the year 1866, with 
 an impressive ceremony in the presence of some mem- 
 bers of the Ministry and Archbishop Darboy. A funeral 
 oration was preached by the Bishop of Autun. It is, 
 however, a disputed question whether the actual head of 
 
282 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the cardinal was then reinterred. It was stated that 
 the head and body of the cardinal were actually seen 
 by M. Hanotaux, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, by 
 M. Duruy, Minister of Public Instruction, and other 
 high functionaries, in the coffin when it was opened. 
 There is a curious conflict of evidence about the head 
 of the cardinal, which, according to some historians, 
 must have undergone as many vicissitudes as the head 
 of the regicide Cromwell. M. Hanotaux's account of 
 the opening of the coffin in 1867 is, however, very exact 
 and circumstantial. He asserts that the excellent state 
 of preservation of the cardinal's corpse surprised the 
 spectators, and describes the neck being surrounded by 
 a lace ruffle, and the moustache and beard being in per- 
 fect condition. The latter was cut square, which is 
 explained by the fact that, during the last illness of 
 Eichelieu, he was annoyed by the dripping on his peaked 
 beard of the various syrups and tisanes he had to drink, 
 and accordingly he directed that the beard should be 
 cut square. 
 
 Besides this famous mausoleum, which in its time was 
 regarded as " the finest modern funeral monument in 
 the world," there is nothing to notice in the interior 
 of the church. The stately dome, the earliest in Paris, 
 is a magnificent piece of work, though palpably too large 
 for the church. One can conveniently compare this 
 dome with the other famous domes on this side of the 
 river, viz., those of the Pantheon, Invalides, Institute, 
 and Val de Gr&ce. 
 
 Standing on the summit of the hill behind the Pan- 
 theon is the highly picturesque church of St. Etienne du 
 Mont (St. Stephen on the Hill), " that fine et dSlicate 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 283 
 
 merveille de l' art franpais." Architecturally this church 
 is one of the most interesting in Paris, and is especially 
 attractive to students of ecclesiastical architecture, as 
 " every school of architecture prevailing through the 
 early and middle ages is represented, and proves for 
 once that all styles contain within them elements of 
 great beauty." ^ 
 
 Though St. Btienne is admittedly an architectural 
 amalgam of late Gothic and Renaissance classic, — "a 
 Gothic church disguised in the trappings of classic 
 details," — yet this incongruity here does not detract 
 from the general beauty of the structure. " Irr^guli^re 
 et capricieuse dans sa structure, mais pleine de coquet- 
 terie et de mouvement, I'^glise de St. Btienne du Mont 
 a I'heureux privilege de charmer les yeux et de seduire 
 les esprits de tous ceux qui pr^f^rent la vari^t^ a le 
 monotonie, la gr&ce h la correction," observes that high 
 authority. Baron M. F. de Guilhermy. 
 
 As so often happens in these historic churches of 
 Paris, several successive churches have been built on 
 the site of the present one, which was commenced 
 in 1517, but not completed till 1626. The curious 
 Renaissance gabled fagade was built by Margaret of 
 Valois, the first wife of, Henry IV., that queen "who 
 prances about Paris upon a white palfrey at dead of 
 night in the popular but controversial opera." 
 
 Like the Pantheon, the church is closely connected 
 with the patroness saint of Paris, Ste. Genevieve (see 
 the description of the Pantheon below). The original 
 Church of St. Etienne was a kind of oratory or chapel 
 of the Cpnveiit of Ste. Genevieve, founded by Qhim, 
 I Sieverts-DreweM. 
 
284 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 After three hundred years the church was found to be 
 too small for its congregation, and the greater portion 
 of the fabric was pulled down early in the sixteenth 
 century to make room for the present building. In 
 1802 the remains of the tomb and relics of the saint, 
 which had survived the destruction of the shrine in 
 1793, were removed from the crypt of the Abbey 
 Church of Ste. Genevieve (the few remains of which 
 were demolished to make room for the Rue Clovis). 
 
 The shrine of Ste. Genevieve is the chief attraction 
 of the church. According to the official record of the 
 Moniteur, only some of the saint's bones were burnt by 
 the revolutionists in the Place de Grdve in 1793, and 
 certain bones, which had been distributed to different 
 monasteries, were restored when the saint's coffin was 
 removed to St. Btienne. At all events, pious Catholics 
 regard this shrine as the imique treasure of St. Etienne. 
 The decorations of the tomb are late Gothic in style, but 
 of modern workmanship. Near the shrine is a monu- 
 ment containing the heart of Monseigneur Sibour, Arch- 
 bishop of Paris (whose monument we have seen in 
 Notre Dame), assassinated during the FSte of Ste. Gen- 
 evieve at the principal altar of the church in 1857. 
 
 "During the octave of this fSte (January 8d to 
 11th) the church is visited by thousands of worshippers 
 bringing rosaries, handkerchiefs, crosses, towels, etc., to 
 place on the shrine. Many, of course, come prompted by 
 idle curiosity, and all around the church are to be 
 seen the same class of itinerant vendors of goods as at 
 the various fetes and fairs. At some they sell ginger- 
 bread, pop-guns, and penny trumpets; at others, and 
 particularly at St. Etienne, their merchandise consists 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 285 
 
 of rosaries, pious books, medals, and the like ; it is a 
 curious combination of the world and heaven: 'Vous 
 avez regu le bon Dieu, madame ? ' ' Mais oui, mademoi- 
 selle ; et aprds, nous sommes all^s, mon fils et moi, 
 dejeuner au restaurant Voltaire,' is the edifying con- 
 versation one hears in the omnibus." ^ 
 
 The curious religious ceremony of washing the feet 
 on Holy Thursday is performed at St. Btienne in a real- 
 istic but impressive manner. At most churches in Paris, 
 where this service is kept up, it is performed as perfunc- 
 torily as at St. Peter's in Rome, but at St. Etienne it is 
 a very real ceremony, which has of course its quaint and 
 almost ludicrous aspect to a Protestant. A portion 
 of the nave is railed off, and within sit the boys whose 
 feet are to be washed. The cur6 gravely goes to each 
 in turn and thoroughly and deliberately washes and 
 wipes the feet of each, afterward distributing the bread 
 and wine. 
 
 The interior of St. Btienne is singular, but unusually 
 picturesque. The aisles are nearly as high as the nave, 
 and the bays are of the same elevation as the side aisles. 
 " In order to diminish the enormous height of the bays, 
 the architect conceived a curious device. At about 
 one-third of the height of the shafts he has thrown a 
 depressed arch from pillar to pillar, which forms an 
 elevated passage around the choir." This sham trifo- 
 rium or gallery is called a tourn^e. The curious old 
 rood-screen (the only one in Paris) is connected with 
 the tourn^e by a spiral staircase. 
 
 There is a curious " fault " in the perspective of the 
 church which is very noticeable. The choir and high 
 1 S. S. Beale. 
 
286 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 altar incline to the right. This deviation is, however, 
 not uncommon in mediaeval churches, and is probably 
 due to irregularities of the site or other difficulties of 
 construction. It is attributed, however, by the devout 
 chroniclers, too ready to read religious symbolism into 
 all portions of the holy fabric, to the desire of the 
 mediaeval architects to typify the position of Christ at 
 the moment of his death on the cross. 
 
 Visitors should not fail to inspect the magnificent 
 stained glass of St. Btienne, which, after the shrine of 
 Ste. Genevieve, is its crowning glory. The oldest glass 
 windows are in the apse. Here is the famous painting 
 of the mystic wine-press, a curious if rather painful 
 example of artistic imagery in which the materialism of 
 treatment is apt to shock a sensitive spectator. Christ 
 lies upon the press, in the presence of the Father and 
 the Holy Spirit, while from his hands and side blood 
 pours down into a large cask. Prelates and kings carry 
 away the casks filled with the sacred blood, while under 
 a classic portico we see the faithful collected to receive 
 the Holy Sacrament. In the distance the patriarchs are 
 represented pruning the vines, while the apostles gather 
 the grapes. In another part of the window we see St. 
 Peter throwing the grapes into a vat, and a chariot 
 guided by St. Matthew carries the divine vintage to the 
 four quarters of the earth. In this manner has Nicolas 
 Pinaigrier attempted to illustrate the verse in Isaiah, " I 
 have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people 
 there was none with me." 
 
 The imposing domed temple, known indifferently as 
 the Pantheon and Ste. Genevieve, would naturally be 
 visited next. In the survey, however, of the chijrc}i§g 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 287 
 
 of Paris it is sometimes more convenient to ignore topo- 
 graphical order, and the Pantheon will be described 
 later, in a chapter devoted to the three most impor- 
 tant modern churches, — Pantheon, Madeleine, and the 
 Invalides. 
 
 Not far from the Pantheon is the magnificent late 
 Renaissance church of Val de GrS,ce. This was built by 
 Anne of Austria as a thank-offering for the birth of her 
 son, afterward Louis Quatorze (le roi SoleW). The 
 church was built, like St. Roch, in the face of peculiar 
 difficulties as to site. At St. Roch the space available 
 was small and uneven, while here, owing to the Cata- 
 combs being below, the church has been constructed 
 on huge stone piers. The chief architectural features 
 are the elegant dome and the ornate fagade. Both 
 are fine specimens of Mansard's work, though Moli^re's 
 praise is absurdly extravagant. The artistic judg- 
 ment of the great dramatist may be gauged by the 
 fact that by way of giving the highest praise to the 
 painted dome he compares it to an " amply furnished 
 theatre ! " 
 
 The ambitious, richly decorated fa9ade possesses the 
 usual features of what has been happily termed Jesuit's 
 Gothic, a mass of rich but unmeaning decoration and 
 detail, — ornamented pillars, niches, and statues, and, 
 what is perhaps the most characteristic feature of all, 
 the huge stone scrolls which flank the upper story. 
 
 This church has some historical interest as the burial- 
 place of Queen Henrietta of England, and also as having 
 served for centuries as the reliquary for the hearts — 
 the bodies reposing at St. Denis — of many members of 
 the reigning family from Louis XIV. downwards. These 
 
288 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 emphatically royal relics were of course objects of pecul- 
 iar detestation to the sans culottes of 1793, and not a 
 single heart was spared. 
 
 St. Sulpice, near the Luxembourg, is another church 
 built by the mother of Louis the Great. Its proportions 
 are magnificent, — in fact, after Notre Dame and St. 
 Eustache, it is the largest church in Paris. It is no 
 doubt imposing, but it is a handsome rather than a beau- 
 tiful building, and the general effect is hardly pleasing. 
 Its most important architectural feature is the great 
 western fa§ade, but concerning this there are many 
 opinions among experts, one authority going so far as 
 to claim for it that it represents " the most vigorous 
 effort yet made to apply classical architecture in the 
 building of Christian churches." A severer criticism, 
 however, urges with some justice that this imposing 
 front offends the first canons of architectural construc- 
 tion, because it is meaningless, and does not harmonise 
 with the rest of the building. It is not, in fact, a real 
 integral portion of the fabric, but merely a gigantic 
 screen. Still, the same defect is to be found in many 
 famous cathedrals, — in the Florence Duomo, for instance. 
 " Architecture of this kind," remarks that sound critic, 
 Mr. Hamerton, " may excite admiration by majesty and 
 grandeur, but, unlike the work of the elegant Renais- 
 sance, it can never charm or delight." This much criti- 
 cised fa§ade consists of a Doric portico with an Ionic 
 loggia or colonnade forming the second story. Two lofty 
 ornate towers crown the fa§ade. They are actually 
 higher than those of Notre Dame, but lack their dignity 
 and impressiveness. Mere height alone is not an ele- 
 ment of beauty. A good instance of this is afforded by 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 289 
 
 the Spire of Amiens. This is some twenty feet higher 
 than that of Salisbury, yet " the latter is among the 
 most imposing objects of which Gothic architecture can 
 boast, while the Amiens spire is an insignificant pinnacle 
 that hardly serves to relieve the monotony of the roof on 
 which it is placed." These towers were meant to be 
 crowned with spires, but it was found they were not 
 strong enough to support them. 
 
 By the light of modern criticism, which finds this 
 grandiose pile full of artistic defects, it is curious to 
 notice how extravagantly the writers who formed the 
 taste of our grandfathers praise this church. This is 
 how Dibdin describes it : 
 
 " Yonder majestic portico forms the west front of the 
 church called St. Sulpice. It is at once airy and grand. 
 There are two tiers of pillars, of which this front is 
 composed ; the lower is Doric, the upper Ionic ; and each 
 row, as I am told, is nearly forty French feet in height. 
 We have nothing like this, certainly, as the front of a 
 parish church in London. When I except St. Paul's, 
 such exception is made in reference to the most majestic 
 piece of architectural composition which, to my eye, the 
 wit of man hath yet ever devised. . . . Behind the choir 
 is the Chapel of Our Lady, which is certainly most 
 splendid and imposing. Upon the ceiling is represented 
 the assumption of the Virgin, and the walls are covered 
 with a profusion of gilt ornament, which, upon the whole, 
 has a very striking effect." 
 
 No historical events of importance seem associated 
 with this church, except that the Eepublicans tempo- 
 rarily secularised it in 1799 by converting it into a 
 "Temple of Victory." A grand banquet which was 
 
290 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 given in the church to General Bonaparte afforded the 
 excuse for this sacrilege. 
 
 The interior would be hardly worth visiting were it 
 not for the famous frescoes of Eugene Delacroix, in the 
 Chapel of the Holy Angels. These paintings, which 
 were finished in 1861, show great mastery of colour 
 and composition, but the action is almost too vigorous 
 for the walls of a church, and the " feverish energy of 
 Delacroix seems out of harmony with the stately and 
 massive architecture of St. Sulpice." 
 
 The subjects are the Expulsion of Heliodorus from 
 the Temple, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, and, on the 
 ceiling, St. Michael Triumphing over Lucifer. 
 
 In the Chapel of the Virgin, behind the high altar, 
 is a very fine Assumption by Lemoine. 
 
 A historic souvenir of some sentimental interest is 
 preserved in the church, viz., a harpsichord which once 
 belonged to Marie Antoinette. It is not known how this 
 curio, which would be more suitably placed among the 
 collection of royal souvenirs in the Carnavalet Musexmi, 
 came to be preserved here. 
 
 On leaving the church, the visitor will notice on the 
 south side of the Place St. Sulpice a plain long building. 
 This is the Seminary of St. Sulpice, which once included 
 Ernest Renan among its pupils. 
 
 Behind the general post office and the Halles Cen- 
 trales is the fine Church of St. Eustache, of the flam- 
 boyant Renaissance type. It is a church which is not 
 easy to classify, being in the main a magnificent archi- 
 tectural blend, or amalgam of various styles. The 
 guide-book description — a Gothic church with classical 
 modifications — is a little misleading. One feels inclined 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 291 
 
 to say, more Hibemico, that it would be a Gothic church 
 did it not lack the most typical Gothic features. How- 
 ever, there is no doubt that the exterior, if not attractive, 
 is imposing, and to a certain extent stately. Its pro- 
 portions are fine, and the nave exceeds in height that of 
 any other church in Paris, while the area it covers 
 is only exceeded by that of Notre Dame. St. Eustache 
 was begun in 1532, and not completed till the middle of 
 the next century. In plan this church is somewhat simi- 
 lar to the Metropolitan Cathedral, though the resem- 
 blance would not strike a casual spectator. It has the 
 same short transepts, which extend only to the external 
 walls of the chapels, a similar apse and ambulatory, and 
 double aisles fringed with a series of chapels. Then, 
 both Notre Dame and St. Eustache have flying buttresses 
 and a spire at the intersection of the roof of the nave 
 and transepts. The St. Eustache spire has, however, 
 been shortened within the last few years to make a stand 
 for a telegraph semaphore. 
 
 The artistic interest, such as it is, of St. Eustache 
 consists in this, " that the designer, whoever he may have 
 been, attempted to combine the general impressiveness 
 of a Gothic edifice with the spirit of the Renaissance in 
 every detail. He must have admired Gothic architecture 
 in a certain fashion, and he must have appreciated its 
 influence on the mind, yet, at the same time, he did not 
 admire it enough to follow it slavishly in anything. . . . 
 On the whole, we must come to the conclusion that the 
 interesting experiment of combining Gothic effects with 
 classical details and finish could not have been made 
 more intelligently than here. It is not at all an unrea- 
 soned decadence of Gothic, it is a combination at once 
 
292 PAMIS IN ITS BPLENBOUB. 
 
 logical and imaginative. The unknown architect was 
 an artist, and a great artist; he could rise to the 
 sublime, and enjoy the exercise of a delicate and dis- 
 criminating taste. Yet, in spite of his rare power of 
 combination, he founded nothing. The style of St. Eus- 
 tache might have become the modern style, but it did 
 not." 
 
 Such are the views held by Mr. P. G. Hamerton, an 
 undoubted authority on church architecture, but the fact 
 remains that the beauty of St. Bustache is not appre- 
 ciated by nine out of ten visitors. The church is pop- 
 ular in the sense that it is ranked among the show 
 churches of Paris, but the avowedly hybrid style of 
 architecture is not generally admired. 
 
 There is not much to attract the visitor inside the 
 church except the frescoes and mural paintings. Many 
 of the most valuable were removed or destroyed during 
 the Revolution, but a very large number of pictures and 
 frescoes by such artists as Delorme, Pichon, Barrias, 
 Pils, Damery, and other well-known French artists stUl 
 remain. In fact, the numerous chapels of St. Eustache, 
 like those of St. Roch and St. Sulpice, constitute a 
 sacred art gallery in which many of the best French 
 artists are represented. 
 
 In the Rue St. Honor^ is the well-known Church of 
 St. Roch, which is one of the most popular churches of 
 Paris to tourists, though this, perhaps, is due more to 
 its convenient position near the chief places of tourist 
 resort — the Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Tuileries 
 Gardens — than to its historical associations or its archi- 
 tectural merits. 
 
 The church, like St. Sulpice, is of the Louis Quatorze 
 
SOME HISTORIC CHURCHES. 293 
 
 period, and its building — much interrupted for want of 
 funds — also occupied nearly a century. It is a de- 
 cidedly rococo building of the debased Renaissance type, 
 and has been much criticised for its excess of ornament. 
 It is, however, of special interest to architects, owing to 
 the extraordinary skill by which the difficulties of the 
 site have been overcome by the designer Lemercier. 
 
 M. VioUet-le-Duc lays special stress upon the re- 
 markable constructive skill of its architect. " The 
 arrangement of the interior of St. Roch is perhaps the 
 happiest conception of any church in Paris, that is, so 
 far as the purpose for which a church of to-day is de- 
 voted. On an irregular patch of ground, with consid- 
 erable variation of surface levels, the architect has 
 composed an excellent plan, and, if the architecture 
 adopted were not heavy and cold, we should consider 
 this monument a chef-d'oeuvre." 
 
 The most noticeable feature of the interior is the 
 wealth of allegorical statuary, pictures, ornaments, and 
 accessories of every description ; the general effect is 
 somewhat bewildering to the senses. But there are 
 few really good paintings, and the rococo statuary is 
 in doubtful taste, to say the least. The famous groups 
 of statuary in three tiers behind the high altar, repre- 
 senting the Passion, contain good work, no doubt, but 
 the general effect is theatrical and meretricious (owing 
 partly, no doubt, to the " tricky " arrangement of the 
 light) and utterly unsuited to the solemnity of the 
 subject. 
 
 St. Roch is famed for its music and its generally 
 ornate ritual, and the chief festivals are celebrated 
 with great pomp and magnificence. It seems that the 
 
294 PABIS IN. ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 congregation do not always refrain from applauding, as 
 if in a concert hall, any particularly fine rendering ! 
 
 " The writer remembers on one occasion being pres- 
 ent at St. Roch to hear a new mass by Gounod per- 
 formed. It was a Sunday evening, and the great com- 
 poser himself conducted. After the performance — 
 which was a grand one indeed — M. Gounod was led 
 down the central aisle by a procession of priests and the 
 choir, amid enthusiasm that could not be suppressed, 
 and which, strangely enough, did not at the time seem 
 out of place." ^ 
 
 In the choir arrangements, the mediaeval custom still 
 obtains of the choristers grouping themselves irregu- 
 larly round the huge lectern which stands in the middle 
 of the chancel, instead of standing in their stalls. In 
 this respect I believe St. Roch is unique among Paris 
 churches. 
 
 " The grouping of the men and boys, in their pictur- 
 esque costumes of red cassocks, white albs, and blue or 
 red sashes, grouped around the lectern, gives the whole 
 affair such a delightful old-world appearance that it 
 is most refreshing, and the effect of the huge service- 
 book, with its plain song notation up above the heads of 
 the boys, takes one back hundreds of years." 
 
 Several historic events of interest are connected with 
 this church, and every tourist who has read that won- 
 derfully dramatic chapter, " The Whiff of Grape-shot," 
 of Carlyle, will remember that the steps of the portico 
 were the scene of the sanguinary conflict between the 
 counter-revolutionists, headed by Lepelletier and the 
 Sections, and the Republican troops under Napoleon, on 
 1 Sieverts-Drewett. 
 
80MM HISTORIC CHUBCHE8. 295 
 
 the 5th October, 1795 (13th Vend^miaire). On these 
 steps the insurgents made a last stand, to be mowed 
 down in " swaths " by the " bronze artillery officer." 
 Up to within a few years ago faint traces of this cannon- 
 ading could be seen on the portico. 
 
 Sad memories of the martyred Marie Antoinette are 
 associated with this spot. It was in front of St. Roch 
 that the tumbril which was taking the hapless queen to 
 the guillotine made one of its stoppages. 
 
 " Devant Saint-Roch la charrette de Marie Antoinette 
 fait une station, au milieu des hu^es et des hurlements. 
 Mille injures se Idvent des degr^s de I'^glise comme une 
 seule injure, saluant d' ordure cette reine qui va mourir. 
 Bile pourtant, sereine et majestueuse, pardonnait aux in- 
 jures en ne lea entendant pas." ^ 
 
 I have now attempted to describe as fully as space 
 permits the most interesting of the historic churches of 
 Paris. But there are many others which should be 
 visited by those interested in church architecture and 
 church lore. Of these the ancient churches of St. Julien 
 le Pauvre (near Notre Dame), St. Pierre de Mont- 
 martre (near the huge modern Basilica of the Sacr^ 
 Cceur), and St. Merri (near the old tower of St. 
 Jacques), are especially attractive to antiquarians ; 
 while St. Gervais has some magnificent sixteenth 
 century stained glass, and St. Nicolas des Champs 
 is worth seeing on account of its numerous historical 
 and quaint epitaphs. 
 
 * De Goncovirt. 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS 
 
HOTEL DES INVALIDES. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MONUMENTAL PARIS. 
 
 * ' Numerous in citizens, superb in monuments, marvellous in amuse- 
 ments." — Ecole des Femmes, MolUre. 
 
 Monumental Paris is here understood in a somewhat 
 limited sense ; its churches, palaces, museums, etc., are 
 not included, as they form the subjects of separate chap- 
 ters. But in these chapters I propose to confine myself 
 to what may conveniently be called public or street 
 monuments — fountains, statues, triumphal arches, 
 bridges, etc. — and the great public buildings, such 
 as the H8tel de Ville, with whose exterior the tourist 
 is chiefly concerned. 
 
 Those who intend " doing " Paris thoroughly and 
 exhaustively would find it a useful preliminary to a 
 systematic course of sightseeing to devote two or three 
 days to a general topographical study of Paris, and 
 view the city from the top of a bus — in London, as we 
 well know, the tourist pure and simple cannot afford to 
 neglect this coign of advantage, if he wishes to get a 
 general idea of the topography of the British metropo- 
 lis — and also from the deck of one of the little Seine 
 steamers, " Mouches," as they are popularly termed. 
 Then, too, the bird's-eye view to be obtained from the 
 Arc de Triomphe, the Invalides' dome, or the towers of 
 
300 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Notre i)ame, would prove instructive as well as enter- 
 taining. It would, at all events, be the only way to get 
 a general impression of the great buildings and monu- 
 ments of Paris, and their relative proportions and topog- 
 raphy. In fact, a couple of days devoted to a close 
 imitation of Martin Chuzzlewit's famous system of sight- 
 seeing — readers of Dickens will, of course, remember 
 that Chuzzlewit attached great importance to London 
 exteriors and monuments that could be seen gratis, and 
 strongly deprecated the value of those sights to which 
 there was a charge for admission — is not at all a bad 
 preparation for one ambitious of " knowing his Paris." 
 Those bitten with this laudable ambition might perhaps 
 attain their object more agreeably and conveniently if 
 they interspersed their hard-working days at museums 
 and picture galleries with days devoted solely to these 
 topographical excursions. Even the most devoted art- 
 lover derives little benefit from two consecutive days 
 spent wholly in picture galleries. 
 
 In these omnibus explorations, Baedeker would be a 
 particularly appropriate guide, for the topographical 
 basis of sightseeing (often so tiresome), on which these 
 guides rely, would, of course, be especially convenient 
 for these out-door trips. 
 
 In no other way can one get a better general idea of 
 the architectural beauties of Paris. Paris in its histori- 
 cal and antiquarian aspects has been already dealt with 
 as fully as space permitted. We have now to do with 
 the Twentieth Century Paris, — the Paris of to-day en 
 plein air. 
 
 We will begin our pilgrimage with the Arc de Tri- 
 omphe in the Place de I'Etoile, perhaps the finest modern 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 301 
 
 monument of the kind in the world, and situated, too, on 
 what is certainly the most magnificent modern street of 
 all European capitals. The Rond Point de I'Etoile, as 
 the Place de I'Etoile is officially termed, is like the hub 
 of a colossal wheel, whose spokes are the twelve mag- 
 nificent avenues, along which the black streams of the 
 crowds are lost in the distance. 
 
 To the west, straight as a die as far as the Seine, 
 at Neuilly, extends the Avenue de la Grande Armc^e, 
 which did not, indeed, require that high-sounding title to 
 remind us that this thoroughfare has been the path of 
 empire as well as of revolution. Then eastwards we 
 have the beautiful vista of the Champs Elys^es Avenue, 
 more like an elongated park than an avenue. 
 
 This part of Paris has certainly been nobly planned. 
 The alignment of these magnificent avenues and their 
 monuments has been so accurately measured, that if a 
 cannon were fired from the extreme western extremity, 
 from the middle of the Pont de Neuilly, the projectile in 
 its flight would go through the archway of the Arc de 
 Triomphe, through the Avenue of the Champs Blys^es, 
 through the Place de la Concorde, and then (unless 
 stopped by the Luxor Obelisk) through the Golden 
 Gates of the Tuileries Gardens, through the middle of 
 the Arc du Carrousel, till it lodged in the Pavilion de 
 I'Horloge of the Old Louvre, some four miles distant. 
 
 The Triumphal Arch was planned and commenced by 
 Napoleon I., in 1806, and completed by Louis Philippe. 
 It is covered with bas-reliefs which commemorate the 
 chief campaigns of the Revolution, the Consulate, and 
 the Empire. The bas-reliefs by Rude, on the eastern side, 
 show the Republican troops leaving for the frontier in 
 
302 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 1792, while those on the Champs Elysees side, by Cortot, 
 commemorate the triumphant return of the Imperial 
 armies after the defeat of Austria in 1810. Under the 
 main arch are inscribed the titles of nearly a hundred 
 victories. Some of them, to tell the truth, are some- 
 what equivocal victories ; for instance, among them is 
 the battle of Toulouse, which impartial historians claim 
 for the British. 
 
 The doubtful character of this alleged French victory 
 is indirectly admitted in the following bon mot of 
 Madame E. de Girardin, who observed that " when Mar- 
 shal Soult is in opposition, he is acknowledged to have 
 won the battle of Toulouse; when he belongs to the 
 government, he is accused of having lost it ! " 
 
 The arch is some 150 feet high, and the cost, from 
 first to last, was not less than £400,000. It is said that 
 the arch is intended to be crowned by a group of statu- 
 ary, but this would certainly destroy the grand and 
 severe simplicity of this fine monument. One can better 
 realise the colossal size of this structure by comparing 
 it with the Porte St. Denis Arch or the Marble Arch, 
 London, it being more than twice the size bf either of 
 these monuments. Certainly this triumphal arch is 
 the most characteristic, if not actually the greatest, of the 
 Napoleonic monuments in Paris. From the platform on 
 the top is one of the most striking views in Paris. 
 
 The Champs Elysees was, up to the Revolution, the 
 property of the Crown, but since 1792 it has belonged 
 to the nation, and is now under the control of the Paris 
 municipality. It has been called the Hyde Park of 
 Paris, a term which would, however, be more appropri- 
 ately applied to the Bois de Boulogne. The Tuileries 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 303 
 
 Gardens, at all events, may be considered to take the 
 place of Kensington Gardens. 
 
 The Palais de I'Elys^e, whose gardens extend to the 
 Champs Elys^es, is well worth taking the trouble of 
 getting permission to visit it (application should be 
 made through the British and American embassies, or 
 through an officer of the President's household). But 
 when the President is not in residence, it is sometimes 
 possible to obtain admittance to the state rooms by pre- 
 senting a visiting card. 
 
 Though the Elys^e Palace is comparatively modern 
 (dating only from the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century) among the old historic hfitels of Paris, no 
 mansion in Paris has been the temporary home of so 
 many royal and distinguished guests. It has, indeed, 
 since the fall of Napoleon I., serVed as the Buckingham 
 Palace of Paris, and, in addition to its various official oc- 
 cupants, Alexander I., Mehemet Ali, Queen Christina 
 of Spain, the Sultan Abdul Aziz, Queen Victoria, and 
 Alexander II. of Russia have in turn been received here. 
 
 The palace has passed through many hands, and few 
 historic buildings have in so short a time gone through 
 so many vicissitudes. It was originally the hfitel of the 
 Comte d'Evreux, and in 1745 came into the possession 
 of Madame de Pompadour. On her death, it was pur- 
 chased by the government as a residence for foreign 
 ambassadors. A few years previous to the Revolution 
 it became the property of the Duchesse de Bourbon. 
 Its new designation, Blys^e Bourbon, rendered the 
 palace particularly obnoxious to the Republican gov- 
 ernment, so it is not surprising that it was confiscated 
 by the state and sold by public auction. Murat resided 
 
304 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 there from 1805 to 1808, and, on his leaving Paris to 
 assume the throne of Naples, he made a gift of it to the 
 emperor, who often resided there. At the Restoration, 
 the Duchesse de Bourbon made a successful claim for 
 her property, but agreed to accept instead the H8tel 
 Monaco in the Rue de Varennes. Louis XVIII. gave 
 the palace to the Duke and Duchess of Berry, and there 
 they resided till the assassination of the duke in 1820, 
 when his widow gave it up to her son, the Duke of Bor- 
 deaux, as a residence, but in 1850 it again reverted to 
 the state. The palace was, at this time, in such a de- 
 plorably dilapidated condition that it was estimated that 
 no less than £80,000 would be required to restore and 
 refurnish it. 
 
 When Louis Napoleon was elected President of the 
 Republic he occupied the Palais Blys^e, as his official 
 residence, and it was here on the night of December 1, 
 1851, that the President, with the assistance of his de- 
 voted adherents, De Morny and General Saint-Arnaud, 
 planned the " Great Betrayal " usually known as the 
 coup d'Stat. 
 
 When Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor on the 
 first anniversary of the coup d'Stat, considering that 
 the Blys^e palace did not accord with the dignity of his 
 imperial rank, he removed to the Tuileries palace. The 
 Elys^e was again set apart for the accommodation of for- 
 eign potentates and other great personages visiting Paris. 
 
 Since the establishment of the Third Republic the 
 Elys^e, as everybody knows, has been made the official 
 residence of the President of the Republic. 
 
 Such, in brief, is an outline of the history of this, in 
 some respects, remarkable building, which will show 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 305 
 
 that the comparatively modern palace is well entitled to 
 rank as historic. 
 
 To reach the state apartments we cross the road. 
 " A broad flight of steps, overspread by a veranda, 
 gives access to a vestibule opening into the suite of 
 apartments on the ground floor. The walls are painted 
 by Dunouy with landscapes, some of the figures of which 
 are by Vernet, and were executed for Murat. The views 
 represented are the Pyramids of Egypt, the Crossing of 
 the Tiber, the ChS.teau de Benrath on the Rhine, near 
 Diisseldorf, once occupied by Murat (the carriage in the 
 foreground contains Murat's children), and a view of 
 the Ch&teau de Neuilly, at that time also Murat's 
 property. This room gives access to a ballroom of 
 recent erection, in the new wing of the palace, to- 
 ward the Avenue de Marigny. 
 
 Returning to the dining-room, a door to the left leads 
 to the state apartments. The Salle de Reception was 
 used by Napoleon I. as a council-chamber. This room 
 is now adorned with portraits of the Pope, Victor 
 Emmanuel, the Queens of England and Spain, the 
 Emperor of Austria, etc. There is also a beautiful 
 mosaic representing the map of France in 1684. Ad- 
 joining is the Chambre de Napoleon I. This was his 
 favourite bedroom, where he last slept in Paris after the 
 battle of Waterloo. Next comes the Salle des Souve- 
 rains, formerly the Salon de Travail, where Napoleon I. 
 signed his last abdication. Here her Majesty, Queen 
 Victoria, partook of a splendid collation on the 20th 
 August, 1855. It is furnished in Louis XV. style with 
 Beauvais tapestry." ^ 
 
 1 Galignani's "Paris Guide." 
 
306 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 We now come to the square of awful memories. Its 
 resuscitated title of Place de la Concorde, — could there 
 be a greater irony of nomenclature ? — given to it under 
 Louis Philippe, scarcely serves to obscure the terrible 
 associations of this Golgotha of France from the most 
 frivolous of visitors. Who can forget that here was 
 shed the blood of some three thousand victims of the 
 Revolution, from Louis XVI. and Queen Marie Antoinette 
 downwards, in the short space of two years? At the 
 Champs Elys^es entrance to the Place de la Concorde 
 stand the famous Chevaux de Marly, generally known 
 to English visitors as " The Horse Tamers." This group 
 was carved by Coustou, and was formerly in the park of 
 the royal ch&teau of Marly-le-Roi, near St. Germain. 
 Few equestrian groups have been more often reproduced 
 in small replicas than this. This group forms a suitable 
 pendant to the winged steeds of Coyzevox on the opposite 
 side of the place. 
 
 This magnificent place is generally admitted to be the 
 finest site in Europe, and the patriotism of the British 
 visitor need not blind him to the undeniable fact that 
 Sir Robert Peel might with far more justice have ap- 
 plied this epithet to the French square than to Tra- 
 falgar Square. Not only does its size and its adornment, 
 but the magnificent views which it commands from every 
 point, fully entitle it to rank as the finest square in 
 Europe. 
 
 The monumental views one gets from every point of 
 this famous place are particularly striking. Southward 
 are the Pont de la Concorde (of some historical interest 
 as the stones from the Bastile furnished the building 
 material) and the Chamber of Deputies (Palais Bour- 
 
MONUMENTAL PABI8. 307 
 
 bon), with its handsome Corinthian facade which 
 forms the river front, while to the right and left the 
 noble gilded domes of the Invalides and the elegant twin 
 spires of Ste. Clotilde make an effective background. 
 Looking to the north, there is a curious repetition of the 
 southern view, the beautiful fagade of the Madeleine 
 (suggesting at this distance the classical fa§ade of the 
 Palais Bourbon), flanked on the left by the Corinthian 
 fagade of the Ministry of Marine, whilst to the right 
 rises the magnificent Opera House. Looking up the Rue 
 Royale, one may notice a curious architectural delusion, 
 — the government offices, with their Corinthian fagade, 
 which stand on either side the street, appear as wings 
 of the Madeleine. Then east and west we have the 
 pleasing vistas of park and gardens and avenues backed 
 by the Arcs de Triomphe of the Place du Carrousel and 
 Place de I'Etoile respectively. No capital of Europe 
 can boast of such an architectural scheme as is afforded 
 by the Place de la Concorde and its surroundings. 
 
 The embellishments of the place are on a commen- 
 surately large scale. In the middle towers the great 
 Obelisk of Luxor, brought from the Temple of Luxor 
 (where its fellow may still be seen erect), a magnificent 
 monolith seventy-six feet high. The transport and erection 
 of this stupendous mass of masonry, weighing 240 tons 
 (fifty tons more than the London obelisk known as Cleopa- 
 tra's Needle), was a far greater feat of engineering than the 
 removal of the Alexandria Obelisk, which lay prone 
 on the Egyptian coast, only a few hundred yards from the 
 sea, to London, and it is not surprising that three years 
 were occupied in the task. It is difficult to exaggerate 
 the magnitude of the work. The obelisk had first to be 
 
308 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 removed to the Nile ; then carried down the river (a voy- 
 age of some six hundred miles) to Alexandria, then 
 towed through the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic to 
 Cherbourg, and thence taken by road across Normandy 
 to Paris. Some statistics of the monolith may be of in- 
 terest. Its height is 76 feet, 6 inches (some eight feet 
 taller than Cleopatra's Needle), its width at the base is 
 7 feet, 6 inches, and its weight, as we have seen, is 240 
 tons. A painstaking statistician has made the curious 
 calculation that the cost of the obelisk to France has 
 been at the rate of four francs per pound ! An interest- 
 ing model, showing the ingenious mechanism employed 
 for the transport and erection of this monument, is to 
 be seen in the Louvre. The two fountains at the foot 
 of the obelisk are dedicated to the rivers and seas 
 of France, respectively. The fine allegorical groups of 
 statuary at the corners of the place, representing the 
 eight great cities of France, are splendid specimens of 
 plastic art on a large scale. Visitors will notice that 
 Strasburg is included in the great cities, but its loss is 
 symbolised by garlands of crape. 
 
 The obelisk is said to be on the exact site of the 
 scaffold erected for the execution of King Louis XVI. 
 No memorial, indeed, marks the actual spot (which was 
 exactly midway between the entrance to the Champs 
 Elys^es and the obelisk). At the restoration of the 
 monarchy it was, indeed, proposed that a fountain should 
 be erected on the historic site, which would seem a fairly 
 appropriate memorial. Chateaubriand's rhetorical ob- 
 jection to the proposal, that all the water in the world 
 could not wash away the stains of blood shed there, 
 however, carried the day, and the project was aban- 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 30d 
 
 doned. The scaffold for another illustrious victim, 
 Queen Marie Antoinette, was not erected here, but on 
 a spot (also unmarked by any memorial) half-way be- 
 tween the obelisk and the gate of the Tuileries. 
 
 Continuing our walk down the Tuileries Gardens 
 (elsewhere described), we reach Napoleon's reduced 
 copy of the Arch of Severus at Rome, which is known 
 as the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The arch, ow- 
 ing to the height of the surrounding buildings and the 
 extent of the square, looks somewhat insignificant, 
 though it is actually not less than fifty feet in height. 
 It is historically interesting, as it was once crowned with 
 the famous bronze horses which Napoleon brought from 
 Venice. These famous horses, artistically known as a 
 quadriga (copies of which are to be seen in most Euro- 
 pean capitals), have travelled extensively. They were 
 originally erected in front of the Temple of the Sun, at 
 Corinth, whence they were taken by the Emperor Theo- 
 dosius to Constantinople. The Doge secured them as 
 war trophies, and brought them to Venice. France was 
 scarcely ten years in possession of this valuable relic of 
 antiquity ; for the Allies, in 1815, in their work of break- 
 ing up and dispersing Napoleon's magnificent collection 
 of antiquities and fine arts, the fruit of many a victory, 
 ordered the restoration of this monument to Venice. 
 The removal was virtually effected under arms, for 
 naturally the Parisians did not regard with equanimity 
 the loss of this historic monument, and battalions from 
 the allied armies, among them a regiment of Highland- 
 ers, lined the Place du Carrousel. It was a work of 
 weeks to dislodge the horses from the Car of Victory to 
 which they had been harnessed by Napoleon. On the 
 
SlO pahis in itis splendous. 
 
 day when the horses were at length taken down, the 
 place presented a strange scene : the arch all shrouded 
 with scaffolding, ladders, and gear of ropes ; near the 
 arch a group of ofiBcers, privileged foreign sightseers, 
 among them one of Napoleon's best-known chron- 
 iclers, Sir Walter Scott; at a little distance a large 
 gathering of Parisians, many gesticulating and mutter- 
 ing curses. " Disbanded officers, fiercely whiskered, in 
 long frock coats and huge cocked hats ; workingmen, 
 pale with anger; women of the people, with difficulty 
 kept from shrieking forth exhortations to the mob to 
 rise in riot. They must needs be quiet; so they weep 
 piteously, and gesticulate, and point derisively at the 
 abhorred foreigners." In the evening the four colossal 
 steeds — amorphous masses shrouded in canvas and 
 bands of hay — were safely secured in four large wagons, 
 and, escorted by a squadron of Austrian Uhlans, were 
 slowly dragged through the streets of Paris on their 
 way to the coast, to be replaced ultimately on the portal 
 of St. Mark's, Venice. But not yet to their proper 
 owners, for the Austrians retained possession of the 
 ancient quadriga for forty years longer. Mr. G. A. 
 Sala gives a picturesque account of the scene in the 
 piazza of St. Mark when Austria had to yield her Vene- 
 tian territories, along with these unique trophies, to 
 Italy. 
 
 " It was on a gray autumnal morning, in the year 
 1866, that, happening to be standing in St. Mark's Place, 
 Venice, in front of the three great gonfalons, — poles 
 which aforetime bore the banners of Venice, Cyprus, 
 and the Morea, — I noticed on the pavement of the 
 piazza certain spheroid bundles of bunting, connected 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 311 
 
 by cord with the flagstaffs. It was not time to hoist 
 them yet. Napoleon the Third's general, Leboeuf, was 
 signing a certain document at the HStel de Ville. Aus- 
 tria had sullenly yielded Venetia to France, and France 
 was politely handing over the rare gift to the Podesta 
 of Venice. The Baron d'Alemann, for a long time 
 Austrian governor of the Queen of the Adriatic, had 
 gone away quietly at early morn in a gunboat to Trieste. 
 So the time wears on. By nine o'clock there are thirty 
 thousand people in St. Mark's Place, agitated, trembling, 
 panting with excitement. A cannon booms from Fort 
 Haynau. There, the deed is done, the instrument is 
 signed, the cession is complete. The bales of bunting 
 take unto themselves wings, and, flying right up to the 
 summits of the flagstaffs, stream out in three colours, — 
 the Cross of Savoy in the middle banner, — while with one 
 throat the thirty thousand Venetians are shouting their 
 JSvvivas! Another, and another, and another cannon 
 booms forth from the Campo di Marzo. Then do more 
 thousands, gathered in gondolas on each side of the 
 Canalazzo, or crowding every window of every house 
 of its length, watch a procession of huge barges and 
 lighters, slowly towed by tiny steam-tugs, from the rail- 
 way station toward the Molo. These barges and light- 
 ers are all alive with soldiers. They are clad in blue 
 and green, and are sparkling with steel and silver. 
 These barges bear the carabinieri and the Bersaglieri of 
 Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, and the Horses of St. 
 Mark have come to their right owners at last." 
 
 The famous Winged Lion of the Piazzetta was also 
 restored to Venice by the Allies in 1815. The Venetians, 
 however, received their precious relic back in a some- 
 
312 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 what mutilated state, the tail having been lost en route ! 
 The present quadriga on the Arc du Carrousel, to which 
 is attached Napoleon's Car of Victory, is a fairly success- 
 ful modern work by Bosio. 
 
 Before leaving the Place du Carrousel, we may glance 
 at the huge and hideous Gambetta monument, which 
 might serve as an " awful warning " to contemporary 
 sculptors. It is particularly unfortunate that Paris, 
 whose outdoor statues and monumental sculpture, taken 
 collectively, are unsurpassed in any European capital, 
 should be saddled in so prominent a position with such 
 an inartistic monument. This statue is heavy and mass- 
 ive, without being dignified or powerful, and is altogether 
 the worst example of colossal statuary in Paris. 
 
 Retracing our steps through the Tuileries, we cross 
 the Rue de Rivoli, and walk up the Rue Castiglione 
 to the Place Vendfime. The huge HStel Continental, at 
 the corner of these two streets, occupies the site of the 
 Ministry of Finance, which was destroyed by the Com- 
 munards. 
 
 " The Place VendSme has seen so much political strife 
 that it is entitled to a first place in French history, and 
 for that reason a few words more expended on it than 
 on most of the other squares will not be thrown away. 
 Its name is taken from a house erected on the present 
 site by a son of Henri IV., C6sar de VendSme. This 
 was purchased and pulled down by the ever insatiable 
 Louis XIV., by whose command its site was made into 
 an open space, with — as usual — his own statue in 
 bronze as the centrepiece. The Revolution — also as 
 usual — melted this brazen image into cannon, along 
 with several other effigies of the monarch. The name 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 313 
 
 of the place, too, was changed from Place des ConquStes 
 to Place de Louis le Grand, and after a few short years 
 again to that of Place des Piques." ^ 
 
 The Vendfime Column, a magnificently executed 
 replica of Trajan's Column at Rome, is 142 feet high. 
 The column is not, as is sometimes supposed, made of 
 gun-metal, — a moment's reflection will show that the 
 cost of such a monument would be stupendous, — but is 
 of stone with a casing of metal plates, cast from cannon 
 taken in the Austrian campaign. The official designa- 
 tion was Colonne d'Austerlitz, but popular custom was 
 too much even for Napoleon, and it was called after the 
 place in which it stands. Completed only in 1810, the 
 statue of Napoleon was taken down by royalists four 
 years afterward, and was replaced by a colossal fleur-de- 
 lys, — a decidedly feeble decorative device for such a 
 monument. Louis Philippe, a year after his accession, 
 was sufficiently magnanimous to restore the statue of the 
 emperor, but this time in a military overcoat and three- 
 cornered hat. This somewhat incongruous statue was 
 replaced by Napoleon III. — who certainly possessed more 
 artistic instinct than the Citizen King — with a statue 
 by Dumont, after the model of the original Roman em- 
 peror statue. The old statue is now in the Rond Pont 
 of Courbevoie. 
 
 During the Commune, as every one knows, the column 
 was pulled down, but reerected in 1878, with Dumont's 
 statue (patched up) of the emperor once more in Roman 
 garb, and this is the statue we now see. 
 
 There is nothing further to delay us in the Place 
 VendSme, and proceeding along the Rue de la Paix, the 
 1 Sieverts-Drewett. 
 
314 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Bond Street of Paris, we cross the Place de I'Op^ra, and 
 follow the Rue du Quatre-Septetnbre, to the Place de la 
 Bourse, the great business centre of Paris, corresponding 
 with the space in front of the London Royal Exchange. 
 
 The Bourse is a fine building in the Greek style, sur- 
 rounded by a peristyle of sixty-six handsome Corinthian 
 columns, and a stranger to Paris might be forgiven for 
 mistaking it for the Madeleine. It has been closely 
 modelled on the Temple of Vespasian at Rome. This 
 inappropriate style for a building devoted to commerce 
 has been much criticised, and it is due to the craze for a 
 classic revival in architecture, with which French archi- 
 tects were bitten at the beginning of this century. At 
 each corner are finely sculptured allegorical groups treat- 
 ing of the various branches of commerce, by Dumont, 
 Duret, Pradier, and Seurre, sculptors of the old school, 
 whose works are now somewhat at a discount. Pradier's 
 symbolical figure of Industry is perhaps the best. 
 
 The Bourse is one of the costliest modern structures 
 in Paris, the amount spent on it exceeding eight million 
 francs. 
 
 The Bourse is a close and highly privileged corpora- 
 tion of agents de change (stock-brokers), strictly limited 
 to sixty. These brokers are the official government 
 agents, and they earn enormous profits ; in fact, even to 
 be a partner to the extent of one-eighth share of the 
 business means usually a fortune. These privileged bro- 
 kers stand within the circular cage, known as the 
 Qorheille, but the greater number of the operators 
 belong to what is called the coulisse. They approximate 
 pretty closely to the outside brokers of the London Stock 
 Exchange, and equally with these brokers they have no 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 315 
 
 official recognition, and there is no limit to their number. 
 They do most of their business in the galleries of the 
 building, and deal principally in stocks not officially 
 quoted. Many of them do business in the unofficial 
 Petite Bourse held after regular hours in the spacious 
 vestibule of the Credit Lyonnais. These outside brokers 
 were " much opposed at one time by the parquet or regu- 
 lars, but both have now come to a good understanding 
 on the principle of a division of the spoil." 
 
 Should it be early in the afternoon, it is worth while 
 to enter the building, in order to see one of the recog- 
 nised sights of Paris, the Bourse from the galleries. A 
 tourist is accustomed to the deafening din and uproar of 
 the Exchange of London, New York, or Hamburg, but 
 here, in addition to the ordinary roar and hullabaloo 
 of some thousand of excited " operators " common to all 
 public exchanges, we have the frantic gesticulations, the 
 yells and shrieks with which the distracted courtiers and 
 agents de change of Paris transact their dealings in 
 obligations. 
 
 In pursuance of our monumental programme, we might 
 perhaps visit the Banque de France and the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, near at hand, but there is nothing of interest 
 in the exterior (with which we are now chiefly con- 
 cerned) of the bank, and the National Library is de- 
 scribed in the Museums chapter. 
 
 Prom the Place de la Bourse, the Rue Montmartre 
 should be followed till we reach the Halles Centrales, 
 which no visitor should neglect. A whole morning 
 might profitably be spent here by the student of manner. 
 Continental markets are strikingly different from those 
 of England or America, and therefore the market is one 
 
316 FABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 of the most important sites that the tourist in a foreign 
 capital can visit. " Probably in no place where men 
 meet are the little differences of race and custom more 
 apparent than in the market-place." In our itinerary 
 we place the visit to the Halles Centrales after the 
 Bourse according to topographical sequence. But it is a 
 much better plan to begin a day's sightseeing with a visit 
 to the Halles as early in the morning as possible. These 
 markets, a vast structure of iron and glass, were built by 
 Baltard, in the reign of Napoleon III., and it is probable 
 that the architect was to some extent indebted to Sir 
 Joseph Paxton's Exhibition Building (now the Crystal 
 Palace) for the design of this huge building. The mar- 
 ket is designed on an enormous scale, so that, com- 
 pared to the Paris Central Market, London Covent 
 Garden looks mean and insignificant. But then, the 
 Halles is not only a flower market. It is, in fact, an 
 Exposition Universelle of victuals, and might more aptly 
 be compared to Covent Garden, Billingsgate, and Leaden- 
 hall combined. The Halles are divided into ten sections 
 (called pavilions, each containing 250 stalls), intersected 
 by covered streets, of which the central one (uncovered) 
 is as wide as the Avenue de I'Op^ra. The whole market 
 covers an area of over twenty acres, and the cost of con- 
 struction exceeded one and a half million pounds. 
 
 The vast vaults underneath the Halles can be visited. 
 The various railway termini are in direct communica- 
 tion, by means of special tramways, so that the produce 
 can be brought to the market almost direct from the 
 producer with as little delay as possible. 
 
 In the Halles almost everything eatable can be ob- 
 tained, and, indeed, many articles of consumption, such 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 317 
 
 as cuttlefish, escargots (edible snails), and horse-flesh, 
 which to the British palate are decidedly uneatable. The 
 fish can be bought actually alive as they swim about in 
 huge tanks of water until they find a purchaser. 
 
 A unique and instructive feature in the Paris central 
 market is what is popularly termed " Le Section de la 
 Bijouterie." This is the department where all kinds of 
 ready-cooked table delicacies — the leavings of the 
 fashionable restaurants and hotels, or of public ban- 
 quets — are re-arranged and tastefully redressed in 
 small portions for the individual consumer, at ridicu- 
 lously cheap prices. G. A. Sala, in his " Paris Her- 
 self Again," gives a diverting picture of this peculiarly 
 Parisian institution : 
 
 " Here is the ' jewelry ' at last. "We pass between a 
 double line of stalls heaped high with the most astonish- 
 ing array of cooked food that I have ever set eyes upon. 
 Fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, fruit, pastry, confectionery, 
 and cheese are all represented here, ready cooked, but 
 cold, and arranged, not on plates or dishes, but on 
 quarter-sheets of old newspapers. Imagine one pile, 
 consisting of the leg of a partridge, the remnants of an 
 omelette, the tail of a fried sole, two ribs of a jugged 
 hare, a spoonful of haricot beans, a scrap of filet, a cut 
 pear, a handful of salad, a slice of tomato, and a dab of 
 jelly. It is the microcosm of a good dinner, abating the 
 soup. The pile constitutes a portion, and is to be bought 
 for five sous, or twopence-halfpenny. There are por- 
 tions as low as two sous ; indeed, the scale of prices is 
 most elastic in ascending and descending. There are 
 piles here to suit all pockets. Are your funds at a very 
 low ebb, indeed ? On that scrap of a back number of 
 
318 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 the Figaro you will find a hard-boiled egg, the gizzard 
 of a fowl, two pickled gherkins, and a macaroon. A 
 breakfast for a prince, if his Highness be impecunious. 
 Are you somewhat in cash ? Behold outspread on a 
 trenchant leading article from the RSpuhlique Fran- 
 paise, a whole veal chop, a golden store of cold fried 
 potatoes, an artichoke, d la harigoule, a sumptuous piece 
 of Roquefort, some barhe de capudn salad, and the re- 
 mains of a Charlotte russe. A luncheon for a king, if 
 his Majesty's civil list be a restricted one. But there 
 are loftier luxuries to be had. Behold an entire fowl. 
 See at least the moiety of a Chdteauhriand aux cham- 
 pignons. Yonder are the magnificent relics of a demie- 
 selle de prS salS, the remains of a sole d la Nbrmande, 
 the ruins of a huisson d'iorevisses, half a dozen smelts, 
 the backbone of a pheasant, and, upon my word, some 
 truffles ; yes, positively, truffles. It is true that they 
 are mingled with bits of cheese and beetroot, with a 
 dash of meringue d la creme, and a suspicion of sauce 
 Robert. All this is gathered together on a front page 
 of the Pays. A dinner for an emperor, when imperial- 
 ism is at a discount, and Caesar does not find it con- 
 venient to dine at the Caf6 Riche or the Maison Dor6e. 
 " The fragments which form the ' jewelry ' of the 
 Halles Centrales are brought down in big baskets, be- 
 tween seven and eight every morning, by the garpons of 
 the great boulevard restaurants, or by the larbins from 
 the hStels of the ministers and the foreign ambassa- 
 dors. If there has been overnight a dinner at the 
 Ministry of the Interior or at the Baratarian Embassy, 
 the show of ' jewelry ' in the morning will be superb. 
 Whole turkeys and capons, all but entire hams and 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 319 
 
 hures de sanglier scarcely impinged upon, pieces montees, 
 the majestic vestiges of a poulet a la Marengo or a sau- 
 mon d la Ohamhord, will decorate the deal boards of the 
 stalls in the Halles. Out of the fashionable season the 
 supply comes principally from the leading restaurants, 
 where the ' leavings ' are the perquisites of the gargons." 
 
 " But, probably," writes a close observer of Parisian 
 life in all its phases, " the most interesting features in 
 the market are the ways and manners of the market 
 women, they are such a happy contrast to the miserable 
 creatures that eke out a bare existence at the corners of 
 London streets. Muscular, well-fed amazons, the very 
 type of the class who fought so desperately during the 
 Commune, they seem to have lived all their days in the 
 heart of the country, and not within the fortifications of 
 a great and gay city." These Dames de la Halle have 
 indeed made their mark in history, as every one who has 
 read Carlyle's vigorous prose epic of the Kevolution will 
 remember. To say nothing of the historic expedition 
 to Versailles in order to petition Louis XVI. to reduce 
 the price of bread, this privileged body in pre-Revolu- 
 tionary times occasionally waited upon their sovereign 
 on certain festivals to offer him their loyal congratula- 
 tions. Then, like their sisters, the blanchisseuses of 
 Paris, the Dames de la Salle have found their way to 
 the stage, for was not the celebrated Madame Angot a 
 member of this famous corporation ? 
 
 But the Samsons of the market, the Forts de la Halle, 
 must not be forgotten. These men form a close cor- 
 poration of some five hundred in number, and to these 
 official porters all the internal service of the market is 
 entrusted. They are admitted by the municipal author- 
 
320 PABIS IN- ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 ities only after a searching examination, both physical 
 and moral. The pay is extremely high for Paris, the 
 average earning of these strong men being £80 or £90 
 a year. Compare this with the wages of English dock 
 labourers ! 
 
 Close to the Halles, off the Rue Berger, is the Square 
 des Innocents, containing one of the most beautiful Re- 
 naissance monuments in Paris. It was built from designs 
 by Lescot and Goujon. The fountain originally stood 
 with its back to the Church of the Innocents, demolished 
 in 1783. It has been altered and enlarged with a base 
 and cupola, but in spite of this its beauty has been little 
 affected. " It still remains a beautiful and typical ex- 
 ample of French Renaissance architecture and sculp- 
 ture. The coquettish reliefs, indeed, are not perhaps 
 more lovely than those which adorn Jean Goujon's por- 
 tion of the Louvre ; but they are nearer to the eye, and 
 the scale enables one to judge of the entire effect more 
 truthfully." 
 
 The Square des Innocents was, for some six cen- 
 turies, the principal burying-place of Paris. In 1784 
 the cemetery was closed, owing to the necessity of en- 
 larging the space for the March^ des Innocents. The 
 millions of crumbling bones were removed to the Cata- 
 combs with a considerable amount of ceremony. The 
 removal was effected at night, by torchlight, and must 
 have proved a strikingly picturesque spectacle, the 
 hundreds of mortuary wagons being escorted by troops 
 and headed by processions of priests and monks chant- 
 ing the office for the dead. 
 
 The March6 des Innocents served as the principal 
 Paris market till the present magnificent Halles were 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 321 
 
 built. Its connection with the new market was curi- 
 ously commemorated on the inauguration of the Halles 
 Centrales in 1858, when the fountain ran with Bur- 
 gundy for some three-quarters of an hour ; — ostensibly 
 for the use of the public, actually, however, the surging 
 Ma9on was enjoyed only by the Dames de la Salle and 
 their champions, the above-mentioned Forts de la Halle ; 
 but this was only natural. 
 
 These sights are probaWy all that can be comfortably 
 accomplished in the first day's peregrination. 
 
 The second day's exploration of monumental Paris 
 may conveniently be begun with a ride on the top of a 
 'bus along the grand boulevards, which extend from the 
 Madeleine to the Place de la Republique and the Bastile. 
 The boulevards are, indeed, an epitome of the French 
 capital, and to see them is to see Paris. 
 
 At present we may confine ourselves to a bare enu- 
 meration of the principal monuments and objects to 
 be seen during the ride, and it is assumed that the 
 traveller is satisfied with merely keeping his eyes open, 
 and noting the manifold phases of street life from his 
 elevated coign of vantage till the Place de la Repub- 
 lique is reached. On arrival at this goal, more system- 
 atic sightseeing might be undertaken. 
 
 The crowds on the more fashionable boulevards, ex- 
 tending from the Madeleine to the Boulevard des Ita- 
 liens, even to a casual observer, will be seen to differ 
 considerably in character from those in Broadway, 
 New York, or the Strand, London. Nine out of ten 
 of the pedestrians appear to be strolling for stroUing's 
 sake, while in the above-mentioned thoroughfares al- 
 most every passer-by seems bound on some serious 
 
322 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 errand. This is perhaps the most distinctive note of 
 the Paris boulevards. In short, they are promenades 
 more than highways, and are to the Parisian what Bond 
 Street or the Row are to the Londoner. But we are 
 speaking, of course, of the boulevards, for in the ver- 
 nacular of the Parisian Jldneur the only boulevards are 
 the Boulevards des Capucines and des Italiens. Bach 
 boulevard, however, has a strong individuality of its 
 own, and for variety of phases and aspects our morning 
 rides might be compared to a London 'bus journey from 
 Hyde Park Corner to the Mansion House. In fact, the 
 parallel is more exact than might be supposed, for 
 certainly ' the Place de la Bastille is the nearest ap- 
 proach to the unique centre of traffic opposite the Man- 
 sion House, that Paris can show. 
 
 However, the boulevards of Paris and their character- 
 istic features and aspects are more fully described in 
 another chapter. 
 
 Starting, then, along the broad but short Boulevard 
 de la Madeleine, we soon reach the magnificent Boule- 
 vard des Capucines, and pass the Grand Hotel (after the 
 London Cecil the largest in Europe) on the left. Here 
 we cross the nobly planned Place de I'Opera, which may 
 dispute with the Place de I'Etoile the title of the finest 
 site in Europe. Here we can realise the grand scheme 
 of Baron Haussmann, who seems to have remodelled 
 Paris on a scale for a city with as large a population 
 as London, while London, on the other hand, seems to 
 have been planned for a city with the relatively small 
 population of Paris. 
 
 Notice the surging crowds of promenaders of all 
 nationalities at the Caf6 de la Paix. According to 
 
MONUMENTAL PABI8. 323 
 
 Rudyard Kipling, there are two places on the earth's 
 surface where, if only we wait long enough, a missing 
 friend is pretty sure to be found, viz., Charing Cross 
 Station and Port Said. We might certainly add a third, 
 — the Cafe de la Paix, Paris. 
 
 Passing the Place de I'Opera, we have a good view of 
 the finest opera house in the world on the left, while to 
 our right is the noble Avenue de I'Opera, the latest and 
 the most striking example of modern street architecture 
 in Paris. It was finished as recently as 1878, and is more 
 than one hundred feet broad. Looking to the right, we 
 get a fleeting glimpse of the Vend6me Column at the 
 end of the Rue de la Paix. 
 
 The next great boulevard, Des Italiens, called after 
 the Theatre des Italiens, which formerly occupied the 
 site of the Opera Comique, is the gayest of all, though 
 the houses have not quite the spick and span appearance 
 which is so striking a feature of the trim and uniform 
 mansions of the Boulevard des Capucines. On the left 
 are the Vaudeville and Nouveaut^s The3.tres, while a 
 little farther on the right is the Opera Comique, the 
 scene of the terrible fire in 1887. Right and left are 
 magnificent caf^s and restaurants, including the Caf^ 
 Riche, though its great rival and neighbour, the historic 
 Maison Dor^e, no longer exists. 
 
 Now the boulevards make a sweep and we reach the 
 Boulevard Montmartre, and on the right is the TheS,tre 
 des Varietes, while on the opposite side is the Mus^e 
 Gr^vin, the Paris Madame Tussaud's. Just here the 
 boulevards seem almost as animated as those farther 
 west. 
 
 The Boulevards Poissonnidre and Bonne-Nouvelle come 
 
324 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 next, and now the more ornamental shops begin to be 
 replaced by those of less interest from a spectator's point 
 of view, and the boulevard has a more business aspect. 
 Paris of the fldneur is now left behind. There is little 
 of interest to be seen during the rest of the journey 
 till we reach the picturesque triumphal arch known as 
 the Porte St. Denis. This arch was built in 1672, at the 
 expense of Paris, to commemorate the remarkable cam- 
 paign of Louis XIV. of that year, in which some forty 
 fortresses were taken in a space of two months. A few 
 hundred yards farther, and there is another triumphal 
 arch, Porte St. Martin. This gate is of the same period 
 as the Porte St. Denis, but must yield to it in boldness 
 of design and richness of sculpture. Both were restored 
 in 1887, for the bullets of the Commune had done con- 
 siderable damage to the bas-reliefs. 
 
 Both these arches face north and south, fronting the 
 Faubourg St. Denis and Faubourg St. Martin respectively, 
 for of course they have no connection with the modern 
 line of boulevards. 
 
 The southern portion of the Faubourg St. Denis, 
 known as the Rue St. Denis, is one of the oldest main 
 thoroughfares of Paris, and is still one of the most charac- 
 teristic. 
 
 Exactly half-way between the Portes St. Denis and St. 
 Martin the magnificent Boulevard de Sebastopol (its 
 southern continuation is called Boulevard de Strasbourg) 
 is crossed. This handsome street, which runs in a per- 
 fectly straight line from the Gare de I'Bst to the Rue de 
 Rivoli, is one of Baron Haussmann's greatest achieve- 
 ments in street architecture. The street, which was 
 constructed in 1855, is as wide as the Avenue de I'Op^ra, 
 
MONUMENTAL PA BIS. 325 
 
 and is in one respect even more pleasing to the spectator 
 than that famous highway, as it is bordered with trees. 
 The Avenue de I'Opera was not embellished in this way, 
 as it was thought that the trees would obstruct the view 
 of the Opdra facade. 
 
 The boulevard has been cut through the nest of rook- 
 eries which in mediaeval times served as the beggars' 
 Alsatia, including the Cour des Miracles described in 
 " Notre Dame de Paris." 
 
 The view from the 'bus-top at the point of intersection 
 of this great boulevard with the Boulevard St. Denis is 
 very striking, and offers one of the most interesting 
 street views in Paris. 
 
 At the Porte St. Martin we reach a great theatre 
 quarter, and the northern side of the Boulevard St. Mar- 
 tin is lined with no less than four theatres, Porte St. 
 Martin, Renaissance, Ambigu, and Polies Dramatiques. 
 
 At the end of the Boulevard St. Martin is the fine 
 Place de la Republique (called, till 1879, Place du 
 ChS.teau d'Eau), one of the largest squares of Paris. In 
 the centre is the colossal bronze statue, " La Republique 
 Frangaise," a really fine work of art, and superior to the 
 other well-known statue near the Institute. The height 
 of the monument (erected in 1883), from the stone ped- 
 estal to the top of the olive branch which the female 
 figure (symbolising the Republic) holds in her right 
 hand, is over eighty feet. Bronze bas-reliefs decorate 
 the pedestal, while in front is a lion guarding an urn 
 which is meant to typify universal suffrage. 
 
 From the Place de la Republique a wide boulevard, 
 called Boulevard Voltaire, leads straight as an arrow to 
 the Place de la Nation (formerly Place du Tr8ne), which 
 
326 PABIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 in a few years* time will be one of the busiest places in 
 Paris, as many as a dozen streets radiating from it. At 
 present, however, the place has rather a suburban appear- 
 ance for Paris, and this vast open space, evidently in- 
 tended for an enormous amount of traffic, seems a little 
 in advance of the expansion of Paris. It is designed to 
 form the eastern goal of the magnificent series of grand 
 boulevards which commence, at the Place de I'Etoile, 
 some four and a half miles distant. 
 
 Our object, though, in visiting this place is to inspect 
 the most recent of the magnificent groups (by Dalou) 
 of statuary representing the Republique of Prance, which 
 has only just (1899) been placed here. The monument 
 is a particularly fine piece of sculpture, and is certainly 
 worthy of the subject, " The Triumph of the Republic." 
 
 This monument has had an interesting history. In the 
 year 1878, just at the close of the Universal Exhibition, 
 the first under the Third Republic of France, the city of 
 Paris decided to erect a monument in one of the Parisian 
 squares, to strengthen the republican principles that, in 
 order to ensure the success of the exhibition, seemed to 
 have been professed even by those who, like President 
 MacMahon, were considered to be somewhat imperialistic 
 in their sympathies, and had accepted the actual form 
 of government only while waiting for better times. 
 
 A competition was then opened, and the successful 
 competitor was the celebrated sculptor, Dalou, then an 
 exile in London, where he was expiating the crime of 
 having foolishly accepted under the Commune the place 
 of Director of the Louvre Museum. 
 
 The monument consists of an allegorical bronze 
 group. In the centre stands a vigorously modelled figure 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 327 
 
 of a matron wearing the cap of liberty, who represents 
 the triumphant republic. At her feet are two large 
 lions and other symbolical figures. It is an excellent 
 specimen of the sculptor's naturalistic style. Dalou, who, 
 it is said, had devoted nearly twenty years to the model- 
 ling and carving of this colossal monument, is believed 
 to regard it as his greatest work. 
 
 Continuing our tour of the grand boulevards toward 
 our goal, the Place de la Bastille, we go down the hand- 
 some Boulevard du Temple, historically of little interest, 
 though it abuts on the Temple Quartier, which still 
 offers in its curious old streets and alleys, especially 
 those aroimd the Rue Brise Marche (not marked in 
 many maps), attractions to those with artistic or anti- 
 quarian tastes. However, if space permits, I hope to be 
 able to describe these bits of old Paris in a separate 
 chapter. 
 
 Notice the house now numbered 42 Boulevard du 
 Temple, almost exactly opposite the Brasserie which 
 occupies the site of the historic Caf^ Turc, for from one 
 of the windows of the third floor of this house Pieschi 
 discharged his infernal machine in his diabolic attempt 
 on the life of Louis Philippe on 28th July, 1835. It 
 was on this day that the Citizen King made a royal prog- 
 ress through Paris. The boulevards were lined with 
 forty thousand regular troops, and as many National 
 Guards. These precautions were thought necessary, as 
 it was generally expected among the entourage of Louis 
 Philippe that some attempt on the life of the king would 
 be made. Curiously enough, it was the Boulevard du 
 Temple that had been pointed out by rumour as the 
 probable locale for the contemplated attack on the sov- 
 
328 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 ereign, and the police had orders to watch all the 
 windows carefully. Opposite Number 42, just as the 
 king was leaning forward from his horse to receive a 
 petition, the crowds heard a loud sound like a volley of 
 musketry. In an instant the group of mounted officers 
 who surrounded the king were thrown to the ground, 
 which was strewn with dead and dying. Marshal Mor- 
 tier fell wounded mortally in the head. " A young cap- 
 tain of artillery, M. de Villat^, slid from his horse, his 
 arms extended at full length, as though they had been 
 nailed to a cross; he had been shot in the head, and 
 expired ere he touched the ground." There were several 
 other victims, but the king was unwounded, and, so far, 
 the odious attempt failed in its object. Louis Philippe 
 behaved with remarkable courage and coolness. In fact, 
 it is even related (on the authority of Marshal Maison) 
 that immediately after the explosion, while all around were 
 overwhelmed with dismay and consternation, the king was 
 rapidly turning over in his mind all the possible advan- 
 tages which might accrue from the fatal occurrence, and 
 exclaimed, " Ah, now we are sure to get the appanages ! " 
 Immediately after the explosion Fieschi attempted to 
 escape in the confusion by a rope which he had let down 
 from the window, but was instantly arrested. The 
 infernal machine which had done such fearful execution 
 was merely a primitive kind of mitrailleuse. Twenty- 
 five musket-barrels were fastened at the breech to a 
 stout piece of oak planking, while the ends of the bar- 
 rels were placed on another piece of wood notched to 
 receive them. The clumsy machine, joined by oak cross- 
 pieces, stood on four legs, and was trained so that the 
 projectiles would strike slantingly. 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 329 
 
 An exact copy of this infernal machine, if not the 
 actual one, is to be seen at Madame Tussaud's, in 
 London. Fieschi and his accomplices were tried and 
 duly guillotined, and were the first regicides or would-be 
 regicides in France who escaped torture. The remark- 
 able nerve and courage shown by Louis Philippe in the 
 face of this real danger was certainly lacking some 
 thirteen years later, when the king tamely resigned his 
 throne without making the faintest effort to retain it. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MONUMENTAL PAEIS. 
 (^Continued.') 
 
 From the Place de la R^publique the boUlevardS run 
 almost due south, and, after passing the crowded Boule- 
 vards du Temple and des Filles du Calvaire, we reach the 
 Boulevard Beaumarchais, which leads into the Place de la 
 Bastille. This street was the scene of many of the revolu- 
 tionary outbreaks during the disturbed times of 1848. 
 
 Very marked has been our descent in the social scale, 
 as evidenced by the physiognomy of the various boule- 
 vards traversed in our journey eastward, and we have 
 now arrived at, in the Boulevard Beaumarchais, the low- 
 est residential scale of the grand boulevards. Indeed, 
 what the Faubourg St. Antoine used to be among the 
 well-known streets of Paris, so is the Boulevard Beau- 
 marchais among the great boulevards ; in fact, till Louis 
 Philippe thought it well to honour the author of the 
 " Barber of Seville," who lived for some time here, by 
 naming the street after him, this boulevard was called 
 the Boulevard St. Antoine. 
 
 Socially or residentially, the great boulevards may be 
 divided into three zones. There are the upper boulevards, 
 those of the Madeleine, the Capucines, and the Italiens, 
 which represent fashionable Paris ; the boulevards from 
 Boulevard Montmartre and the Porte St. Martin, the Paris 
 
 330 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 331 
 
 of commerce ; while the Boulevards du Temple, des Filles 
 du Calvaire, and Beaumarchais comprise the Paris of la 
 petite Industrie, the artisans, and what are sometimes 
 loosely termed the working classes. 
 
 The difference in character between the upper and 
 lower boulevards was strikingly shown under the Second 
 Empire, in the regulations for the National Guards. 
 Neither the eastern boulevards nor those of the western 
 district were allowed to furnish the usual contingents. 
 The artisans and workmen were thought too turbulent 
 to be entrusted with arms, while the rich tradespeople 
 were of little use as citizen soldiers, as in time of 
 popular disturbances they allowed, from timidity, their 
 arms to be taken from them. 
 
 The Place de la Bastille is the goal of our boulevard 
 excursion. This historic square, the terminus of innu- 
 merable omnibuses and tram services, is, partly on that 
 account, the Mecca of all Paris sightseers. 
 
 The celebrated prison-fortress of the Bastile^ occupied 
 the southern side of this great square, in fact its moat 
 was utilised in the construction of the Arsenal dock. This 
 fort was built by Charles le Sage, toward the end of the 
 fourteenth century, and was built to protect or overawe 
 the east of Paris, as the ancient castle of the Louvre was 
 constructed to guard the west. There is, probably, no 
 historic building in Paris so well-known to foreigners by 
 illustrations and descriptions as the Bastile, and the 
 famous eight towers — its most characteristic architec- 
 tural features — are familiar to every one. 
 
 1 American visitors need not, perhaps, be reminded that the key of 
 this famous prison is preserved among other historical relics in the 
 Washington Museum, Mount Vernon, near Washington, D. C, 
 
332 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 But it was less as a fortress than as a state prison 
 that this stronghold was known and execrated by 
 Parisians; and the Bastile, during the reigns of Louis 
 XIV. and Louis XV. in particular, was the favourite place 
 of confinement for all those who had rendered them- 
 selves obnoxious in any way to the sovereign, who were 
 consigned to this living tomb by the simple process of a 
 lettre de cachet. It cannot be said, however, that the 
 Bastile has played so important a part in the history 
 of France as its counterpart, the Tower of London, 
 has in English history, which fortunately remains as a 
 museum of mediaeval antiquities of the greatest historical 
 value. 
 
 The capture of the Bastile was one of the most 
 dramatic and picturesque episodes in the whole history 
 of the French Revolution, but, considering this event 
 from a purely historical standpoint, there can be no 
 doubt that it has earned a factitious importance owing 
 to its popular but erroneous adoption as a great historical 
 landmark, from which the commencement of the French 
 Revolution is dated, and it was the centenary of this 
 Revolutionary episode that the last Paris exhibition 
 was supposed to commemorate. The destruction of the 
 Bastile was little more than an isolated and premature 
 manifestation on the part of the Parisians of their hatred 
 of royal tyranny, of which the Bastile was regarded as 
 the most conspicuous embodiment, and the political sig- 
 nificance of its capture has been much overrated. It 
 would be more historically accurate to date the Revolu- 
 tion either from the popular manifestation headed by 
 Camille Desmoulins, in the Palais Royal (see below), 
 two days before the taking of the Bastile, or from Sep- 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 333 
 
 tember 21, 1792, when monarchy was formally abolished 
 and the R^publique proclaimed by the National Assembly. 
 
 At Number 232, in the Rue St. Antoine, at the corner 
 of a new street called Jacques Cceur, is a marble slab 
 commemorating the taking of the Bastile. The house 
 itself is built on the site of i the outlying buildings which 
 the mob destroyed before taking by assault the actual 
 fortress itself. 
 
 The Place de la Bastille, as we see it, was formed by 
 Napoleon I., in the early days of the First Empire, and 
 he intended that its principal adornment should be a 
 triumphal arch to the glory of the Grande Arm^e. 
 But on the suggestion of the Academy, the arch was 
 placed instead at the top of the Champs Elys^es, 
 certainly a far more appropriate site. 
 
 The magnificent column, knows as the Colonne de 
 Juillet, is the most graceful and artistic monument of its 
 kind in Paris. It was built by Louis Philippe, in honour 
 of the patriots of the famous Three Days' Revolution of 
 July, 1830, as the following inscription records : " A la 
 gloire des Citoyens Fran9ais, qui s'armdrent et com- 
 battirent pour la defense des liberies publiques dans les 
 mdmorables journees des 27, 28, 29 Juillet 1830." 
 
 The foundation-stone was laid by King Louis Philippe 
 himself. In this ceremony the irony of fate is strikingly 
 shown, for it was within a few yards of this spot that the 
 riots of 1848 broke out, which cost the Citizen King his 
 throne, and the remains of the insurgents who fell then 
 were actually buried in the vaults at the foot of this 
 monument. 
 
 The column, which is over 150 feet high, is made 
 entirely of bronze (not merely a bronze casing like the 
 
334 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 Vendfime Column). On the pedestal is a colossal bronze 
 lion (astronomical symbol for July) in bold relief, by 
 Barye, — perhaps the best animal sculptor of his time. 
 On the column are the names of 615 patriots who fell 
 during the Three Days of 1830. Surmounting the 
 Corinthian capital is a gilt globe, and lightly poised on 
 it is a colossal figure, gilt also, representing the " Genius 
 of Liberty." In its right hand is a torch, in its left a 
 broken chain ; it stands on one foot, with wings expanded, 
 as if in the act of taking flight. 
 
 At the Place de la Bastille the long procession of 
 Grands Boulevards ends, and the Faubourg St. Antoine 
 begins. It was here that the insurgents from the work- 
 men's quarters raised an enormous barricade during the 
 1848 revolution. It was on this barricade that the 
 devoted Monseigneur Denis Affre, Archbishop of Paris, 
 met his death in attempting to persuade the insurgents 
 to desist from their fratricidal struggle. He had obtained 
 permission from General Cavaignac to parley with the 
 revolutionists, but was almost immediately shot down, 
 not, however, intentionally, by a stray bullet from the 
 troops, his last words being, " Puisse mon sang Stre le 
 dernier veraS! " 
 
 In the cluster of narrow streets (few marked in the 
 maps) surrounding the old-world Place des Vosges, will 
 be found some of the most interesting bits of old Paris. 
 This quarter and the transpontine region afford the best 
 haunts in Paris for those interested in antiquarian studies. 
 They hardly, however, enter into the scheme of monu- 
 mental Paris, but will be described elsewhere. 
 
 Afi the Place de la Bastille we will resume our ex- 
 ploration on foot, and for the rest of the excursion devote 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 335 
 
 ourselves to the architectural objects on or near the Rue 
 St. Antoine and the Rue de Rivoli, which extend from 
 the Bastile to the Place de la Concorde. The Rue de 
 Rivoli, though by no means the most interesting, is one 
 of the best known streets in Paris. It is named after 
 the battle in 179T, by which Napoleon drove the 
 Austrians from North Italy, and perhaps this victory, 
 which, from its momentous results, is almost worthy to 
 be classed among the "fifteen decisive battles" of France, 
 was the one which " le Petit Caporal " most prized out of 
 all his victories. 
 
 Napoleon I. built the Rue de Rivoli as far as the 
 Louvre, and it was continued by Napoleon III. to join 
 the Rue St. Antoine, and thus form a broad continuous 
 highway from the Place de la Concorde to the Bastile. 
 
 The Rue St. Antoine offers little to attract the sight- 
 seer, with the exception of the interesting mediaeval 
 palace known indifferently as the HStel de B^thune or 
 H6tel de Sully at Number 142. It is worth entering 
 (gratuity to concierge) to see the rich Renaissance 
 sculpture which adorns the court. 
 
 Just before reaching the HStel de Ville we might 
 turn aside to the right to stroll along this picturesque 
 old street, — one of the most interesting of all the old 
 streets of Paris, — as far as the Church of St. Merri. It 
 has preserved in a remarkable manner, in spite of its 
 proximity to a great trunk highway, its physiognomy 
 of two centuries ago. This narrow street was, previous 
 to 1671, even narrower than now. It was enlarged 
 in that year, as it was the route usually chosen by Louis 
 XIV. in his journeys between the Louvre and his castle 
 at Vincennes. 
 
336 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 The HStel de Ville, now the administrative centre of 
 Paris, was once the heart of La Ville, the Paris of the 
 merchants, just as the He de la Cit^ was in mediaeval 
 times the royal, ecclesiastical, and legal centre. 
 
 " In the matter of police administration and of civic 
 government generally," writes Mr. Sutherland Edwards, 
 " the H8tel de Ville is to the whole of Paris what the 
 Mansion House and the Guildhall are to that part of 
 London known specially as the City. The H6tel de 
 Ville has charge, moreover, of all the Paris hospitals 
 and benevolent institutions." 
 
 The new H8tel de Ville (which was nine years in 
 building) was completed in 1882, at a cost of not much 
 less than £2,000,000. The architect followed in the 
 main the plan of the old HStel de Ville, which was 
 destroyed by the Commune in 1871. This building, 
 which had been enlarged in 1841 to four times the 
 dimension of the original sixteenth century H8tel de 
 Ville, had retained the original Renaissance style, and 
 the present building also retains these leading architec- 
 tural features. The new structure is certainly, next to 
 the Op^ra, the finest modern public building in Paris. 
 Its style is best described as Decorated French Renais- 
 sance. The magnificent fa9ade is flanked by domed 
 pavilions like those of the Louvre, and a lofty tower 
 crowns the structure. 
 
 A striking feature of the exterior is that of the portrait 
 statues, nearly two hundred in number, of famous French- 
 men, which are studded over the fa§ade in niches. In 
 this Valhalla in stone are commemorated the greatest 
 French names in literature, music, the stage, and the 
 fine arts generally. Among these celebrities are Be- 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 337 
 
 ranger, Boileau, HaMvy, Alfred de Musset, Moli^re, 
 Charles Perrault, George Sand, Scribe, David, Dela- 
 croix, Corot, Firmin Didot (the famous printer), Jean 
 Goujon, Pierre Lescot, Germain Pilon, Henri Regnault, 
 Horace Vernet, Michelet, Saint-Simon, and Talma. One 
 of the most noticeable features of the fa§ade is the clock 
 and its ornamentation. The design has been closely 
 copied from that of the original. The two winged 
 figures supporting the upper part of the dial are by M. 
 Charles Garnier, architect of the Op^ra House. The 
 seated figure immediately below, representing the H8tel 
 de Yille, is by M. Gautherin, and the two recumbent 
 figures on either side of the clock are by M. Aim^ Millet. 
 
 The interior is well worth visiting, if only on account 
 of the excellent works of modern French sculptors with 
 which the grand staircase and Salles de Reception are 
 decorated. The building is of enormous extent, and in 
 this respect it may be compared to the Vatican, there 
 being as many rooms as there are days in the year, but 
 only the Salles des Pgtes, as the reception-rooms are 
 ofificially termed, are shown to visitors, the greater por- 
 tion of the building consisting of municipal offices. 
 Do not forget to examine the famous group of Merci^, 
 « Gloria Victis," in the courtyard. The best sculpture 
 is to be seen in the Salle a Manger, where are six 
 statues representing subjects more or less appropriate to 
 a banqueting-hall. The best are Hunting, by Barrias, 
 and The Toast, by Idrac. On the Escalier d'Honneur 
 are some fine groups of statuary by B. Barrias, Merci^, 
 and Premiet. 
 
 The HQtel de Ville is historically one of the most 
 interesting buildings in Paris, and played a very impor- 
 
338 PAMI8 IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 tant part in the story of the city. Its history can be 
 traced hack to mediaeval times, for the H8tel de Ville 
 begun by Francis I. and completed by Henry IV. occu- 
 pied the site of a " H8tel de Ville " built in the four- 
 teenth century by Etienne Marcel, who may be considered 
 the founder of the Paris municipality. A magnijficent 
 bronze statue of this public-spirited citizen, the first 
 Mayor of Paris, has been erected near the southern 
 fa§ade of the H6tel de Ville. There is a certain signif- 
 icance in the position of this palace of the burgesses and 
 merchants of Paris, as it faces the palace of the kings 
 (now the Palais de Justice), with whom the representa- 
 tives of the city were so frequently in conflict. 
 
 Among the important historic episodes connected 
 with the old H8tel de Ville are the marriages of 
 Louis XIV. to Maria Theresa in 1660, of the daughter 
 of Louis XV. to the Duke of Parma in 1759, and the 
 Dauphin to Marie Antoinette in 1765. 
 
 At the outset of the Revolution the HQtel de Ville 
 became the great centre of political activity. In fact, it 
 has been termed the Palace of Revolution, and certainly 
 during the last hundred years it has well deserved its 
 name. After the capture of the Bastile the victorious 
 mob took possession of the HStel de Ville, and paved 
 the way for the establishment of the Commune of Paris, 
 which played so terrible a part in the Revolution, espe- 
 cially during the Reign of Terror. It was here that 
 the fallen Robespierre and his small band of adherents 
 took refuge on the 9th Thermidor, and here at the 
 entrance to the Cabinet Vert, when the hastily sum- 
 moned national guards entered the buildings, he was 
 found bleeding and with his jaw dislocated after a half- 
 
MONUMENTAL PABIS. 339 
 
 hearted attempt at blowing out his brains, whence he was 
 taken with a score of his partisans to the guillotine ; and 
 thus the Reign of Terror ended in blood as it had begun. 
 
 Under the Consulate and the First Empire the 
 municipal priyileges and powers were practically 
 abolished, and the HQtel de Villa was known only as the 
 scene of great civic pageants or entertainments. On 
 the occasion of the Emperor Napoleon's marriage to 
 Maria Louisa of Austria a magnificent reception was 
 given here by the city of Paris. 
 
 No attempt was made under the Restoration to restore 
 the municipal privileges of the Parisians, who were as 
 much repressed as under the First Empire. 
 
 In July, 1830, the arbitrary decrees of Charles X., 
 restricting the franchise and gagging the press, brought 
 about the " Glorious Three Days' Revolution," and 
 during the conflict between the parties of the opposition 
 and the court the possession of the H8tel de Ville was 
 the great object of both. Finally, after a very san- 
 guinary and determined engagement between the royal 
 troops and the insurgents, the H6tel de Ville remained 
 in the power of the latter, and the tricolour flag, which 
 during the reign of Charles X. was regarded as an 
 emblem of sedition, floated once more above the wall 
 of the municipal palace, now converted into a fortress. 
 The provisional government established there was vir- 
 tually the power which, under the inspiration of Lafay- 
 ette, offered the crown of France to Louis Philippe, 
 though ostensibly this was done by the parliamentary 
 commission of the two chambers. Protected by the 
 famous charter, France fondly imagined that it had 
 at last obtained a sovereign surrounded and limited by 
 
340 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 republican institutions. " The sovereign remained, 
 but the republican institutions disappeared," to quote 
 Mr. Sutherland Edwards, " and Louis Philippe made 
 no step toward reestablishing the very institution — 
 the Municipal Council — which had made him king." 
 
 In 1848 another revolution broke out. The agitation 
 for electoral reform spread to the Faubourg St. Antoine, 
 — a notoriously disaffected quarter, — which rose against 
 the king, and, taking possession of the HQtel de Ville, 
 was instrumental in forming a provisional government, 
 which, duly installed in the Palace of Revolution, pro- 
 claimed the Republique. 
 
 The exciting events of this momentous day and the 
 genesis of the Second Republic are described in a re- 
 markably graphic word picture by Victor Hugo in his 
 recently published memoirs (see Bibliographical chap- 
 ter). I cannot forbear quoting the picturesque de- 
 scription which shows at what lightning speed the 
 programme of the new provisional government was 
 drawn up. Victor Hugo describes the scene when 
 the hastily elected government were in session at the 
 H8tel de Ville, with the excited mob surging around 
 the building and thronging the outer halls and corridors. 
 
 " Under the dictation of terrible shouts outside, La- 
 martine traced this phrase : 
 
 " ' The provisional government declares that the pro- 
 visional government of France is the republican govern- 
 ment, and that the nation shall be immediately called 
 upon to ratify the resolution of the provisional govern- 
 ment and of the people of Paris.' 
 
 " I had this paper, this sheet smeared and blotted with 
 ink, in my hands. It was still stamped, still palpitating, 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 341 
 
 SO to speak, with the fever of the moment. The words 
 hurriedly scribbled were scarcely formed. AppeUe was 
 written appelUe. 
 
 " When these half-dozen lines had been written, 
 Lamartine handed the sheet to Ledru-EoUin. 
 
 " Ledru-RoUin read aloud the phrase : ' The provisional 
 government declares that the provisional government of 
 Prance is the republican government — ' 
 
 " ' The word " provisional " occurs twice,' he com- 
 mented. 
 
 " ' That is so,' said the others. 
 
 " ' One of them at least must be effaced,' added Ledru- 
 Rollin. 
 
 " Lamartine understood the significance of this gram- 
 matical observation, which was simply a political 
 revolution. 
 
 " ' But we must await the sanction of Trance,' he 
 said. 
 
 " ' I can do without the sanction of Prance,' cried 
 Ledru-RoUin, ' when I have the sanction of the 
 people.' 
 
 " ' Of the people of Paris. But who knows at present 
 what is the will of the people of Prance ? ' observed 
 Lamartine. 
 
 " There was an interval of silence. The noise of the 
 multitude without sounded like the murmuring of the 
 ocean. Ledru-Rollin went on : 
 
 " ' What the people want is the republic at once, the 
 republic without waiting.' 
 
 " ' The republic without any delay ? ' said Lamartine, 
 covering an objection in this interpretation of Ledru- 
 Rollin's words. 
 
342 PABI8 IN ITS SPLENBOUB. 
 
 " ' We are provisional,' returned Ledru-Rollin, ' but 
 the republic is not ! ' 
 
 " M. Cremieux took the pen from Lamartine's hands, 
 scratched out the word 'provisional' at the end of the 
 third line, and wrote beside it ' actual.' 
 
 " ' The actual government ? Very well ! ' said Ledru- 
 Rollin, with a sUght shrug of the shoulder." 
 
 The following picturesque incident is one which a less 
 minute observer would have failed to record. Some 
 food with diflBculty had been brought into the building 
 for Lamartine, but there were no knives or forks procur- 
 able. 
 
 " ' Pshaw,' said Lamartine, ' one must take things as 
 they come ! ' 
 
 " He broke the bread, took a cutlet by the bone, and 
 tore the meat with his teeth. When he had finished, he 
 threw the bone into the fireplace. In this way he dis- 
 posed of three cutlets, and drank two glasses of wine. 
 
 "'You will agree with me that this is a primitive 
 repast,' he said ; ' but it is an improvement on our 
 supper last night. We had only bread and cheese 
 among us, and we all drank water from the same 
 chipped sugar-bowl — which didn't, it appears, prevent 
 a newspaper this morning from denouncing the great 
 orgy of the provisional government ! ' " 
 
 It was from one of the balconies of the H8tel de Ville 
 that Lamartine, the ruling spirit of the provisional 
 government, made his historic speeches to the mob. 
 While he was haranguing the turbulent crowds from 
 St. Antoine, who were attempting to make their way 
 into the council-chamber, one of the mob, probably fear- 
 ing that the new republic would not be of the "red" 
 
MONUMENTAL PABI8. 343 
 
 hue desired by the extreme revolutionists, called Lamar- 
 tine a traitor, and demanded his head. 
 
 " My head ! " replied Lamartine. " "Would to heavens 
 that every one of you had it on his shoulders ! You 
 would then be more reasonable, and the revolution 
 would be accomplished with less difficulty." This sally 
 effectively stilled the passions of the mob. 
 
 What might be called " The Battle for the Standard" 
 broke out, however, the next day, and once more the 
 Mirabeau of the Second Republic kept the revolutionary 
 mob in check by a few eloquent phrases. The question 
 was whether the new republic should resume the historic 
 tricolour, or adopt the red flag of the Reign of Terror. 
 Lamartine in a few pregnant phrases sketched the evo- 
 lution of both, and the crowd, " carried away by the 
 warmth of his oratory, decided with acclamation that 
 the flag of the new republic must be the flag of the 
 early days of the great Revolution, the flag under 
 which the great battles of the Consulate and the Em- 
 pire had been gained. 
 
 "It will be remembered that when, in 1789, a leaf 
 torn from a tree of the Palais Royal by Camille Des- 
 moulins was made a sign of recognition, green was on 
 the point of being adopted for the new national flag. 
 It was rejected, however, when some one pointed out 
 that green was the colour of the Artois family ; and 
 therefore blue and red, the colours of the town of 
 Paris, were assumed, to which, out of compliment to 
 the monarchy, favourable in the first instance to the 
 claims of the people, white, the colour of the French 
 kings, was added. Thus the tricolour flag became the 
 flag of the Revolution, as, during successive changes 
 
344 PAniS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 of government, it was equally the flag of the Consulate 
 and the Empire. At the Restoration the monarchy 
 committed the great fault of reintroducing the •white 
 flag of the ancient regime, which Louis Philippe had 
 the good sense to replace by the republican and im- 
 perial tricolour." ^ 
 
 During the short time (four years) that the Second 
 Republic lasted, the municipal institutions showed signs 
 of vitality, but the rise of Louis Napoleon and the coup 
 d'Stat of December 3, 1851, was as fatal to the de- 
 velopment of municipal and local as it was to national 
 independence. Throughout the Second Empire, the Paris 
 municipal council was little more than a deliberative 
 assembly, with scarcely any administrative functions, 
 whose duties were practically limited to registering and 
 auditing the accounts of the Prefect of the Seine. But 
 the council was encouraged to exercise its ornamental 
 functions, and to represent the city in the capacity of 
 host to distinguished visitors. In the exercise of these 
 functions the HQtel de Ville entertained with balls and 
 receptions several European sovereigns, among them 
 being Queen Victoria, the Emperor of Russia, and the 
 Sultan. 
 
 The ball which was to be given in honour of this 
 latter potentate had, however, to be suddenly abandoned, 
 owing to the news of the execution of Napoleon's pro- 
 t6g6, the Emperor Maximilian, in Mexico. Yet, with a 
 curious lack of humour, the authorities thought it nec- 
 essary to give the Sultan some idea of the splendours 
 which he had unfortunately missed. Accordingly, the 
 deserted salons and ballrooms were brilliantly lighted up, 
 1 H. Sutherland Edwards. 
 
MONUMENTAL PABIS. 345 
 
 and the Commander of the Faithful was gravely escorted 
 through the deserted halls by a high functionary, ex- 
 plaining as they passed from one salon to another, " Here 
 your Majesty would have seen the high officers of state 
 in their uniforms and decorations; here most of the 
 dancing would have taken place, and you would have' 
 been enraptured by the sight of beautiful women most 
 exquisitely dressed ; here would have been the orchestra, 
 the best in Paris," and so forth. This strange sight 
 perhaps recalled to the Sultan the story in the " Arabian 
 Nights," where an honoured guest was offered a magnifi- 
 cent banquet without viands. 
 
 At the fall of the Empire and the flight of the em- 
 peror from Paris, the hastily appointed government of 
 national defence had its headquarters at the H8tel de 
 Ville, and throughout the siege the various bodies who 
 usurped in turn the government of the city installed 
 themselves here, and, as we have seen, the extreme 
 revolutionists, known as the Commune, made their last 
 desperate stand here against the government troops. 
 When order was restored, the government hesitated to 
 allow any real power to the municipal council, which 
 still remains little more than a consultative commission 
 attached to the Prefect of the Seine. The grievances 
 of the Paris municipality and the anomalous nature of 
 their constitution will, however, be more fully described 
 later in the " Municipal Paris " chapter. 
 
 Sinister are the associations connected with the large 
 square facing the H8tel de Ville, now known as the 
 Place de I'HStel de Ville, which was formerly, under 
 the name of Place de Grdve, the recognised execution 
 ground of Paris. After the 1830 revolution, when the 
 
346 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUB. 
 
 H8tel de Ville became a place of great political impor* 
 tance, the place was thought unworthy to serve as a 
 slaughter-ground for criminals, and the guillotine was 
 transferred to the Place de la Roquette. It was here 
 that Ravaillac, the assassin of Henry IV., was tor- 
 tured and torn to pieces, and here, in the next century, 
 the same horrible punishment was inflicted upon the 
 would-be regicide Damiens, who had attacked Louis XV. 
 with a penknife and slightly scratched his sacred person. 
 " La journSe sera rude " tranquilly observed Damiens, 
 when he learned that he was to be torn to pieces by 
 four horses, " and ' rough ' indeed have been the days 
 passed by the unhappy wretches brought to punishment 
 on the Place de Gr^ve." 
 
 Readers of " Notre Dame " will remember that it was 
 here that Victor Hugo's fascinating heroine, Esmeralda, 
 was put to death, while from the tower of the cathedral, 
 her lover, Claude FroUo, who, maddened by jealousy, 
 had delivered her up to the authorities, was gloating 
 over her sufferings, when Quasimodo seized him in his 
 powerful arms and hurled him down headlong to the 
 flags, at the foot of the cathedral. 
 
 Among other famous criminals who have suffered on 
 the Place de Greve are the Marquise de Brinvilliers, the 
 notorious poisoner, who was burned alive here in 1676, 
 and Cartouche, the highwayman, who was broken on 
 the wheel in 1721. Political offenders were also oc- 
 casionally put to death here. One of the most illustri- 
 ous was Lally Tollendal, who was dragged to execution 
 with a gag on his mouth. Not many victims of the 
 Revolution suffered here, as the guillotine was removed 
 to the Place de la Concorde early in 1793. 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 347 
 
 Nothing but the site now remains of the old Place de 
 Gr^ve since the destruction of the quaint old houses, 
 which formed its north and northwest sides. They 
 were pulled down to be replaced by subsidiary offices to 
 those of the H8tel de Ville, as this building, in spite of 
 its great size, was not large enough for the huge staff 
 of clerks attached to the Prefecture of the Seine and the 
 municipal council. 
 
 A comparatively new street, the Avenue Victoria 
 (named in honour of the Queen of England's visit to 
 Paris in 1865), leads to the Place du ChS.telet. This 
 place is named after an ancient castle of Gallo-Roman 
 origin, which served to defend the entrance to the city 
 (that is, of course, what is now the He de la Cit^). 
 Here are situated the two theatres, the Ch§,telet (famous 
 for its spectacular plays) and the Op^ra Comique. The 
 establishment of the old Opira Comique, which was 
 burnt down in 1887, was transferred here till the new 
 theatre should be completed. The new Op6ra Comique, 
 on the site of the destroyed theatre. Place Boieldieu, 
 will probably be opened to the public in 1900. 
 
 The Fontaine de la Victoire in the middle of the 
 square is an imposing monument designed by Bosio. 
 It commemorates the early victories of Napoleon I. The 
 four huge statues at the base are intended to symbolise 
 Fidelity, Vigilance, Justice, and Power. A gilded figure 
 of Victory crowns the summit of the monument. " The 
 monument," says Baedeker, " originally stood farther 
 from the Seine, but was removed entire on the con- 
 struction of the Boulevard de Sebastopol in 1855, 
 and reerected here on a pedestal adorned with four 
 sphinxes." 
 
348 PARIS IN ITS SPLEJSrnOUB. 
 
 Immediately opposite the Op^ra Comique is the loftj 
 Tour St. Jacques. 
 
 This tower is one of the most beautiful and best pre- 
 served early Renaissance monuments in Paris, and is 
 also one of the purest relics of Gothic architecture 
 extant. It is all that remains of the ancient Church 
 of St. Jacques de la Boucherie, which was destroyed 
 in 1789. 
 
 The history of this church is full of interest. " The 
 earliest record we have of any building on this site was 
 in 1119, when the name of the Church of St. Jacques 
 appears in a bull of the then Pope, Calixtus II. Soon 
 after we find that a qualifying affix is added, and for 
 many centuries to come the church is known as St. 
 Jacques de la Boucherie. This was to distinguish it 
 from another St. Jacques, the distinction being appro- 
 priated from some neighbouring shambles. In 1418 one 
 Nicolas Plamel died, and was buried in the church. He 
 wrote his own epitaph, which is now preserved in the 
 Mus^e de Clnny. He was a noble-hearted man, risen 
 from humble life, who amassed a fortune, which he lived 
 to see spent on suffering humanity ; for he founded and 
 endowed fourteen hospitals, besides building churches 
 and making cemeteries. This man's name will ever be 
 associated with St. Jacques. At this time there was no 
 tower, but in 1607 a Master of Arts, named Jacques 
 Thoyne, offered two houses or their value if some ar- 
 rangement could be made for the erection of a tower. 
 Louis XII. — Le Pere du Peuple — and his counsellors 
 accepted the offer, and the present tower, but in all ways 
 plainer, was built. It contained a peal of bells, described 
 at the time by a contemporary authority as ' harmonieiise 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 349 
 
 et son carillon fort musical.' On the summit was a 
 carved statue, almost colossal, of 'Jacques le Majeur,' 
 the fisher apostle of Gennesareth. And so all remained 
 until one unhappy day in 1793, when the church — 
 which had been in 1790 suppressed and become so-called 
 public property — was entered by rioters, the tower as- 
 cended, and the innocent figure of St. James hurled to the 
 pavement beneath. Soon after this, in order to raise 
 money, the municipality sold the property to a specu- 
 lator, who in his turn resold it to a person named 
 Dubois. In an old guide to Paris, dated 1834, written 
 in amusing English by a French editor, the present 
 writer found these remarks : ' The tower of St. 
 Jacques Boucherie is now converted into a foundery 
 of hunting-lead.' The enterprising Dubois had, it 
 seems, turned these lovely ecclesiastical remains into a 
 shot tower ! " ^ 
 
 In 1836 the Paris municipality bought the tower for 
 preservation as a national monument for £10,000, but 
 being surrounded by crowded streets of mean houses, it 
 did not show to advantage. When Napoleon III. extended 
 the Rue de Rivoli, the houses were pulled down, the 
 ground levelled, and the present pretty garden planted. 
 It was even proposed to pull down this beautiful mon- 
 ument. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed, and the 
 tower was spared. Victor Hugo, on hearing of the proj- 
 ect, is said to have exclaimed, " Demolish the tower ? 
 No ! Demolish the architect ? Yes ! " 
 
 In 1853 it was completely restored at a cost of no 
 less than a million francs. This work was fortimately 
 entrusted to the first architects and sculptors of the day. 
 1 Sieverts-Drewett. 
 
350 PARIS IN ITS SPLENDOUR. 
 
 "Lovingly they set to work, seeking out old models 
 of capitals, bases, finials, and crosses, crockets, corbels, 
 bosses, and mouldings, all in keeping with the flamboyant 
 manner of the sixteenth century, the decorated style of 
 France." Perhaps no Renaissance building in Paris has 
 been so skilfully and artistically restored as the Tour 
 St. Jacques, and it deserves the closest study. 
 
 The tower, which was formerly surmounted by a spire 
 thirty feet high, is square, with a turret at the north- 
 western angle, graceful pointed windows, elaborate 
 tracery, niches with statues of saints, and a perforated 
 balustrade at the summit, adorned with the statue of St. 
 James and the four animals symbolically associated with 
 the evangelists. To bring the foot of this tower to a level 
 with the Rue de Rivoli, the soil had to be lowered three 
 metres, which brought to light several curious relics, 
 besides bones, the ground having formerly been a church- 
 yard. Under the arch of the ground floor stands the 
 statue of Pascal, who here performed his experiments 
 to ascertain the weight of the atmosphere. 
 
 The tower is 187 feet high, and from the top one of 
 the most interesting views of the city is to be obtained. 
 The effect of the tortuous old streets, " twisting about 
 among the houses like cracks in a dried soil," is very 
 striking. A seventeenth century historian, describing 
 the appearance of the streets from the top of this tower, 
 employs a striking simile : " One sees as one looks over 
 the town the distribution and course of the streets like 
 the veins of the human body." 
 
 Continuing along the Rue de Rivoli, we soon reach the 
 beautiful statue raised in 1889 to the memory of the 
 noble leader of the Huguenots, Admiral de Coligny, 
 
MONUMENTAL PARIS. 351 
 
 the first and the most illustrious victim of the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew, 1572. The site chosen for this 
 monument could not be more appropriate. It Ls imme- 
 diately in front of the Protestant church known as the 
 Oratoire, and is nearly opposite the historic Church of 
 St. Germain I'Auxerrois, whence, according to popu- 
 lar tradition, the great bell gave the signal for the mas- 
 sacre. Then the statue is within a short distance of 
 the site of Coligny's house, where he suffered martyrdom. 
 The statue is a powerful and impressive work of art, and 
 is a notable addition to the numerous national monu- 
 ments commemorating famous Frenchmen, with which 
 Paris is so lavishly supplied. The sculptor (Crauk) 
 has represented the Huguenot leader standing between 
 Eeligion and his Country. 
 
 " Coligny is attired in the picturesque doublet and 
 hose of the period ; his attitude — thoughtful and digni- 
 fied. The emblematical surroundings consist of the 
 martyr's palm-branches, surmounted by the armorial 
 bearings of his noble family. Beneath is an open Bible, 
 on one page the words from Psalm cxii., 6th verse, ' La 
 mSmoire de VJiomme juste subsiste d perpetuitS; ' and on 
 the other page, from Hebrews xi., 27th verse ' 11 tint 
 ferme eomme s'il eut vu celui qui est invisible ; ' while on 
 the base of the pedestal is an extract from the admiral's 
 last will and testament, in which his noble character is 
 exemplified in a few touching words of generosity toward 
 his enemies. The statue has been erected by national 
 subscription, and is most happily conceived. 
 
 " Probably no act of a national character has been of 
 late years so characteristic of French tolerance toward 
 Protestantism as this. To-day — just two hundred years 
 
352 PARIS IN ITS SPLESTDOUB. 
 
 since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes — an open 
 Bible lies on the tables of any house, where desired, and 
 Protestants meet and hold their meetings with a free- 
 dom from molestation as complete as in Great Britain. 
 And yet here is a strange fact. Notwithstanding the 
 greater liberty enjoyed by Protestants, and the part 
 payment by the state of the salaries of the pastors of 
 the Reformed Church, its adherents have never been so 
 few. Out of a population of some thirty-eight millions, 
 the Protestants number less than one million; and, by 
 comparison with the times of Henry IV., Coligny, and 
 Cond^, is a reduction of some thirteen per cent." ^ 
 
 To what extent Protestantism may be regarded as a 
 religious, intellectual, and social force in France may 
 be gathered from the fact that at the present day some 
 eight hundred French towns possess Protestant churches, 
 exclusive of English places of worship. Most of these 
 belong to the Reformed Church (Calvinistic), with some 
 nine hundred pastors, while the Lutheran Church 
 counts between ninety and one hundred ministers. 
 These churches are, no doubt, somewhat narrow in their 
 teaching, but apart from this the Reformed Church in 
 France illustrates in practice and doctrine the wise saying 
 of Goethe uttered shortly before his death : " We scarcely 
 know what we owe to Luther and the Reformation. We 
 are freed from the fetters of spiritual narrow-minded- 
 ness ; we have, in consequence of our increasing culture, 
 become capable of turning back to the fountainhead, and 
 of comprehending Christianity in its purity." 
 
 The murder of the aged admiral was peculiarly brutal 
 in character, and so eager was the Duke of Guise for its 
 1 Sieverts-Drewett. 
 
MONUMENTAL PASI8. 353 
 
 consummation that he did not even wait for the signal 
 which was to set loose the hired bands of assassins upon 
 the Protestants. The duke waited in the courtyard of 
 Coligny's house while the actual murder was being per- 
 petrated by his agents, Petrucci, Siennois, and Besme. 
 Rushing up the staircase, shouting, " Mart ! Mort ! " they 
 broke into the room of the admiral, who was engaged 
 in prayer. Besme advanced toward him. "Are you 
 Coligny ? " he asked, with his sword at the old man's 
 throat. " I am," was the reply, " but do you not respect 
 my old age ? " For all answer Besme plunged his sword 
 into the admiral's body, who fell mortally wounded. 
 Besme, rushing to the window, called out to the Duke 
 of Guise and his partisans, who were waiting in the 
 .courtyard, " 0' est fait!" " Monsieurd' AngoulSme will 
 not believe it till he sees the corpse at his feet," replied 
 the duke. Whereupon, the body was flung out into the 
 courtyard at Guise's feet. " C'est Men lui," observed 
 the duke, grimly, and then, kicking the body with 
 ferocious glee, he leaped into the saddle, exclaiming, 
 " Courage, soldiers ! we have begun well ; let us now 
 see to the others. By order of the king." 
 
 Scarcely had this awful crime been committed when 
 the bell of St. Germain I'Auxerrois sounded the signal 
 for the massacre, which soon became general. The 
 massacre of the Huguenots was not confined to the 
 capital, but was carried out in nearly all the large 
 towns. In Lyons alone there were some four thousand 
 victims. In fact, the victims of these religious mas- 
 sacres far outnumbered those of the Terror, some three 
 centuries later, it being computed that throughout aU 
 Prance the number was between fifty and sixty thousand. 
 
354 PABia IN ITS BPLENDOUB. 
 
 One is apt to assume that this massacre of French 
 Calvinists lasted but a few days, and that it was a 
 popular impulse, fostered to a great extent for this 
 end by the Duke of Guise and the court, partly for 
 political and private motives. But, as a matter of fact, 
 the massacre continued in Paris, though with diminish- 
 ing fury, for nearly a month. Some historians have 
 attempted to whitewash the memory of Charles IX. by 
 maintaining that the massacres were planned and carried 
 out against the wishes of the king. It is, however, dif- 
 ficult to reconcile this view with the undeniable fact 
 that, on the third day of the massacre, Charles IX. 
 avowed before his Parliament that the slaughter of 
 the Huguenots had taken place by his orders in order to 
 anticipate and prevent a rising of the Calvinistic party 
 organised by Admiral de Coligny. 
 
 The Parliament accepted this announcement with 
 approval; and, despite the absence of all evidence 
 against the admiral, it was declared that his body 
 should be dragged through the streets on a hurdle, then 
 exhibited in the Place de Grdve, and ultimately hung by 
 the heels on a gibbet at Montfau9on. His house was 
 at the same time to be destroyed, and the members of 
 his family reduced to the condition of plebeians, or rotu- 
 riers, and declared unable to hold any public ofiice ; which, 
 however, did not prevent Coligny's daughter from becom- 
 ing, soon afterward, the wife of the Prince of Orange. 
 
 Our first day's exploration of Monumental Paris ends 
 with the Louvre. The next excursion will be to the 
 He de la Cit6 and the southern side, which represents 
 legal, literary, scientific, and educational Paris. 
 
 BNP OP VOLUME I.