Old and New Paris Part 29

Universal exhibitions have been compared to small towns, but they bear a greater resemblance to small worlds; and this was particularly the case with the Paris Exhibition of 1889, which was a microcosm on rather a large scale. There was no part of the world unrepresented in its varied departments, especially in the departments consecrated to eating and drinking, where national dishes and beverages were served by attendants in national costume. Here, side by side with an Algerian or Turkish coffee-house, where Mocha of guaranteed authenticity was provided, with narghilis, chiboucks, and Oriental cigarettes as appropriate accompaniments, stood a Dutch tavern purveying genuine curacoa, or a Bavarian beerhouse. Vienna was in evidence by its so-called "cutlets"

of chopped meat, and Austria generally, together with Hungary, by rare and characteristic wines. The Spanish Cafe was as remarkable for the black mantillas, with eyes to match, of the waitresses, as for its Malaga and its Xeres. The Danish Cafe was distinguished by its k.u.mmel, and the Swedish Cafe by its punch, made in the Swedish style, and handed to the customer (also in the Swedish fas.h.i.+on) by fair-haired, fresh-complexioned Swedish maidens. The Russian traktir, taken in connection with specimens of Russian village huts, formed a compendium of Russian popular life, in a country where the popular and the aristocratic, often strangely opposed, are sometimes strangely intermingled. The wooden _isbas_, with their high roofs, curiously surmounted by semblances of horses' heads, which have not only a picturesque, but a mystical significance--true examples of Russian rural architecture--showed such artistic carving above the portico, and at other points, that many a dull cynic declined to regard them as authentic, and held them to be mere fabrications, intended to astonish and delude the foreigner, even as Catherine II. is supposed to have been deluded by the village panoramas got up for her benefit in desert tracts by the ingenious Potemkin.

In England and other countries which are supposed to have attained the highest point of civilisation, the humbler cla.s.ses know nothing of art work in connection with their daily life. But the Russian peasant, poor and uneducated, tasting meat once, perhaps, in a month, and living princ.i.p.ally on black bread, salt cuc.u.mbers, dried mushrooms, and porridge, wears a costume full of colour, a red s.h.i.+rt, or a blue kaftan with a scarlet sash; and he adorns in his own rough but picturesque fas.h.i.+on the house he lives in, and every article of its modest furniture. The Russian peasant, like the peasant in other countries, makes none too frequent a use of the towel; but every towel that he possesses is ornamented with an embroidered fringe, worked by women who have never studied in any sort of art school, but who have acquired certain arts by tradition, and possibly through inherited apt.i.tude. The Russian peasantry are still, for the most part, ignorant of reading and writing. But when the whole population of the Russian Empire is sent to school its native artistic faculties will, it is to be feared, disappear. At present the brain of the poor moujik must somehow occupy itself during his periods of leisure; and it works for the most part--and exclusively when he happens to be quite unlettered--through eye and hand.

At the Russian restaurant, or traktir, such national delicacies as caviar, dried salmon, pickled cuc.u.mbers, salt mushrooms, the ordinary components of the Russian zakouska or praeprandium, were tasted by the visitor to the great Exhibition with less avidity than curiosity. These excellent comestibles (only one has got to know them first) were, if the Russian mode was followed, washed down with a gla.s.s of _vodka_; not, it must be admitted, the ordinary _vodka_ of the Russian rural districts, but _vodka_ of a more refined description, as swallowed (at least by the men) at the simple preparatory lunches given immediately before dinner at the houses of the great.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW FROM THE FIRST PLATFORM OF THE EIFFEL TOWER.]

Those were wrong who, at the Russian restaurants of the Exhibition, confined themselves to making the acquaintance of the strange preparations offered at every well-ordered zakouska; for Russia has a cuisine of her own well worthy of practical study--a cuisine which, like Russian civilisation, consists partly of what is truly Russian, but largely of what has been adapted or simply borrowed from various foreign nations. The _stchee_, or cabbage soup, the _borsch_, or beetroot soup, the _oukha_, or fish soup, and the _batvinia_, or iced soup of Russia, are thoroughly national, and, except that the Poles have also an iced soup called _cholodiec_, are not to be found in any other country. The Russians have many solid dishes, too (such as boiled sucking-pig with horse-radish sauce) which are quite peculiar to Russia; but, on the other hand, they have adopted all kinds of entrees from the French, together with various dishes of German and of Viennese origin; while they have likewise, in the art of cookery, taken lessons from their eastern neighbours.

Roumania, Servia, and what remains of Turkey were represented by dishes, drinks, and graceful female figures, all intensely national. Even such unpicturesque countries as England and America had their characteristic refreshment places. The English bars, served by much admired English barmaids, practised in the wiles and stratagems of casual flirtation, had many frequenters; while the American bars, typical of a country where women and liquor are becomingly kept apart, attracted amateurs of all cla.s.ses and from all countries. Nor must Italy be forgotten; the land which gave to France not only its music and its drama, but also its ices and its pastry. It is believed that in some of the cafes whose appearance was most strikingly foreign, France was secretly represented; for numbers of young women attired in garments of Oriental make, while perfectly ignorant of Eastern languages, talked fluently, and often very agreeably, in French.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TROCADeRO.]

"Trocadero" is the name of one of the forts which the army of the Duke of Angouleme, operating in Spain, found it necessary to take before advancing upon Cadiz. The stronghold in question was constructed on an island of the same name, which, apart from walls, bastions, and batteries, was defended against a.s.sailants by a broad ca.n.a.l, in which, even at low tide, the water was four feet deep. The French approached the Trocadero by regular siege works, and, after completing their second parallel, prepared to take the place by a.s.sault. The attack was made on the 15th of August, 1823, at three o'clock in the morning, just before daybreak, that is to say, when the Spanish garrison, trusting overmuch to the supposed efficiency of the water defences, were by no means on the alert. The French troops pa.s.sed the water without firing a shot, scaled the walls, turned the guns and wall-pieces against the Spaniards, and, acting with great rapidity, were soon in possession of the fort.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE HoTEL DE VILLE AND CENTRAL PARIS.

The Hotel de Ville--Its History--In 1848--The Communards.

If the Place de la Concorde, with the line of the Champs elysees leading from it in one direction, and that of the Rue Royale and the line of boulevards in another, may be regarded as one of the most central points of Paris, the administrative centre is to be found in the Hotel de Ville on the east side of that Place de l'Hotel de Ville which was the heart of ancient Paris, or at least of so much of ancient Paris as stood on the right bank of the Seine.

The Hotel de Ville, burnt by the Communards in 1871 as part of their general plan of incendiarism, was historically, as well as architecturally, one of the most interesting buildings in Paris. In spite of the modifications and restorations which it had undergone during the last two centuries of its existence, it never lost its original character. The Hotel de Ville was the palace of the burgesses and merchants of the city, and there was a certain significance in its situation, just opposite the palace of the kings, with whom the representatives of the city were often, so far as they dared, in conflict. It had witnessed, moreover, many interesting scenes. It was always the head-quarters of insurrection so long as the struggle took place only between the monarchy and the middle cla.s.ses. It perished in a struggle between the middle cla.s.ses and the working men.

The first important part played by the Hotel de Ville in its communal character dates from the time of etienne Marcel--most ambitious of Paris mayors--in the fourteenth century. Long, however, before the pretensions of etienne Marcel, under the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, privileged corporations existed in Paris under the name of Nautae Parisiaci, who did a nautical business on the banks of the Seine. The Maison aux Piliers, where etienne Marcel presided over the Munic.i.p.ality of the period, stood on the site afterwards occupied by the Hotel de Ville, of which the first stone was laid by Francis I. on the 15th of July, 1533. "While the stone was being laid," says the annalist Du Breuil, "fifes, drums, trumpets, and clarions were sounded, together with artillery and fifty sack-b.u.t.ts of the town of Paris. At the same time were rung the chimes of Saint-Jean-en-Greve, of Saint-Esprit, and of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. In the middle of the Greve wine was running, and tables were furnished with bread and wine for all comers, while cries were uttered in a loud voice by the common people: 'Vive le Roy et messieurs de la ville!'" An account of the before-mentioned ceremony has been left by Boccadoro.

In spite of the pompous proceedings by which the laying of the foundation-stone was accompanied, the building of the Hotel de Ville was proceeded with very slowly, and during various foreign and civil wars interrupted altogether. The south wing had been erected under Henri II. The north wing was not completed until the reign of Louis XIII. The building was finished during the reign of Henri IV., whose equestrian statue by Pierre Biard marked, until the Revolution, the princ.i.p.al entrance. After suffering various injuries during the wars of the Fronde, the figure of the once popular king was, in 1793, overturned and destroyed, to be afterwards replaced by a statue in bronze.

Early in the eighteenth century the Hotel de Ville had been found too small; and in 1749 it was proposed to reconstruct it on the other side of the Seine, on the site of the Hotel Conti, where now stands the Mint.

This project, however, met with a lively opposition on the part of Parisians generally; and in 1770 it was decided to enlarge the existing structure. Funds, however, were not forthcoming; and when, nineteen years afterwards, the Revolution broke out, the Hospital, or rather Hospice of the Holy Ghost, and the Church of Saint-Jean, suppressed as religious establishments, were, as buildings, annexed to the Hotel de Ville, which they adjoined.

After the Hotel de Ville had been destroyed in 1871 by the incendiaries of the Commune, the statues of Charlemagne, of Francis I., and of Louis XIV. were found in the ashes. They had shared the fate of the equestrian figure of Henri IV. at the time of the Revolution; and they were afterwards replaced by groups of sculpture which have no sort of connection with the building.

The Hotel de Ville has an interesting history of its own. In 1411 Charles VI. restored to the Paris munic.i.p.ality, in acknowledgment of the courage shown by the Parisians against the English, several privileges which had been abolished or had fallen into abeyance. Then, during the troubles of the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, the Paris Munic.i.p.ality broke into two hostile factions; but at length, from hatred of the Armagnac party, the munic.i.p.ality accepted the English domination. After the return, however, of Charles VII. and during the whole of the second half of the fifteenth century the magistrates of the capital showed themselves thoroughly loyal and absolutely devoted to the interests of the monarchy.

Louis XII. and Francis I. respected and even augmented the privileges of the Hotel de Ville. But during the religious wars the munic.i.p.ality again split up into two factions. It took part, as a whole, in the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew, believing that it was thus helping to suppress conspiracy directed against the life of the king; but it made every effort to stop bloodshed when it understood the true character of the infamous attack upon the Huguenots. Towards the end of the sixteenth century the munic.i.p.al officers were chosen from among the most determined supporters of the Catholic League; in spite of which the Hotel de Ville made every effort to bring Henri IV. to Paris. In his grat.i.tude, this monarch made lavish promises to the burgesses; and he kept them. In 1589 Henri III. had revoked all the privileges granted by his predecessors to the burgesses of Paris. The day after his entry into the capital Henri IV. re-established the munic.i.p.al body, and gave back to it the whole of its ancient liberties. Then it was that the munic.i.p.ality resolved to place the king's statue before the princ.i.p.al gate of the Hotel de Ville.

During the reign of Louis XIII. Richelieu abolished the principle of election which const.i.tuted the very basis of the munic.i.p.al authority of Paris. Various important offices, instead of being elective, were now made permanent appointments under the control of the king; and from this epoch dates the decline of the Paris munic.i.p.al body. Under the ancient _regime_ Louis XIV. deprived the Town Council of all power; and communal liberty had disappeared in Paris when the great Revolution broke out.

Then, however, the Hotel de Ville became once more a centre of political activity; and it was at the Hotel de Ville, on the eve of the taking of the Bastille, that the discussions were held which led immediately to the attack on the fortress-prison. The so-called "electors" of Paris, themselves chosen the moment before from among the Paris population, had a.s.sembled under the presidency of M. de Flesselles, provost of the merchants, when a report was spread that he had concealed several barrels of gunpowder in the cellars of the Hotel de Ville. This was looked upon as a reactionary measure intended to prevent the meditated attack on the hated stronghold; and people rushed to the Hotel de Ville to distribute the powder at once and with their own hands. The Bastille had scarcely been taken when the captors, returning to the Hotel de Ville, called out, "Down with De Flesselles," who, attacked in the Hall of a.s.sembly, escaped by a convenient door. He had scarcely, however, got outside when he was recognised and shot dead. With the death of the Provost de Flesselles the ancient corporation of the burgesses of Paris, with their privileges of holding courts, commercial, civil, and even criminal, came to an end. On its ruins was raised the Commune of Paris, which played so terrible a part in the Revolution, and especially during the Reign of Terror. The Hotel de Ville has been called the "palace of revolution," and during the last hundred years, ever since the era of revolutions set in, it has well deserved its name. The Hotel de Ville served as headquarters to the Commune of Paris, and to the Committee of Public Safety. The registers of the Commune are still preserved in the Archives, and furnish the only authentic materials relating to the history of the most sanguinary period of the French Revolution. Under the Consulate and the Empire the munic.i.p.al power, like the legislative power, was abolished; and the Hotel de Ville was now only known as the scene from time to time of public entertainments. Crowds were in the habit of a.s.sembling before the Hotel de Ville to hear the victories of Napoleon proclaimed. On the occasion of the Emperor's marriage to Marie Louise the City of Paris revived the entertainments which it had been in the habit of giving to the ancient kings. Napoleon expressed a desire to present his wife to the burgesses of Paris a.s.sembled in the rooms of the Hotel de Ville, which from this time, as long as the Empire lasted, gave an annual ball on the 15th of August.

The Restoration did nothing for the Hotel de Ville. In 1830, during the Revolution which placed Louis Philippe on the throne in lieu of Charles X., the Hotel de Ville was the chief object of contention between the two parties; and it was in the Place de Greve, or Place de l'Hotel de Ville, as it was afterwards to be called, that the most terrible conflict of the "three days" occurred. Taken and re-taken, the Hotel de Ville at last remained in the power of the insurgents; and the tricolour flag, which for the previous fifteen years had been looked upon as an emblem of sedition, now floated once more above its walls. The provisional government, established there under the inspiration of La Fayette, offered a crown to Louis Philippe. "A throne surrounded by Republican inst.i.tutions," such, in a few words, was the celebrated "programme of the Hotel de Ville." The throne remained, but the Republican inst.i.tutions disappeared; and Louis Philippe made no step towards re-establis.h.i.+ng the very inst.i.tution--the Munic.i.p.al Council--which had made him king.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HoTEL DE VILLE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

(_From an Engraving by Rigaud._)]

Eighteen years later another revolution was to take place; and after the flight of Louis Philippe a provisional government was again proclaimed--proclaimed itself, that is to say. Lamartine was at the head of it, and without showing any apt.i.tude for exercising power, the celebrated writer, whose popularity had been much increased by his recently published "History of the Girondists," delivered a number of remarkable speeches at the Hotel de Ville. Hating all government, a portion of the populace forced its way into the pa.s.sages and approached the room where Lamartine was engaged with laws and proclamations, when the hero of the hour laid down his pen, rushed towards the invading crowd and called upon it to retire. No less than seven times did he repeat his adjurations to the mob, till, at last, some "man of the people," foreseeing that the republic about to be established would not be of the "red" hue desired by the extreme Revolutionists, called him a traitor and demanded his head.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATTACK ON THE HoTEL DE VILLE, 1830.]

"My head!" replied Lamartine. "Would to heaven that every one of you had it on his shoulders. You would then be calmer and more reasonable, and the Revolution would be accomplished with less difficulty." The day had been won, but the battle was to begin again on the morrow; and now once more Lamartine stilled the troubled waters by a few eloquent phrases. The question had been raised whether the tricolour flag, or the red flag of the Reign of Terror, should be adopted. Lamartine traced the history 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 Empire had been gained.

It will be remembered that when, in 1789, a leaf torn from a tree of the Palais Royal by Camille Desmoulins was made a sign of recognition, green was on the point of being adopted for the new national flag. It was rejected, however, when someone pointed out that green was the colour of the Artois family; and thereupon blue and red, the colours of the town of Paris, were a.s.sumed, 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 of government, it was equally the flag of the Consulate and the Empire. At the Restoration the Monarchy committed the grave fault of re-introducing the white flag of the ancient _regime_, which Louis Philippe had the good sense to replace by the Republican and Imperial tricolour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUE OF eTIENNE MARCEL ON THE QUAI HoTEL DE VILLE.]

When in June, 1848, the insurrection of unemployed workmen broke out, demanding, in the words of certain insurgents at Lyons, "bread or bullets," the Hotel de Ville became once more an object of contest between the opposing forces; but the supporters of the Democratic and Socialistic Republic were to be defeated, and the Hotel de Ville did not, during the terrible days of June, change hands. As long as the Republic lasted--less than four years--the munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions showed signs of vitality, which, however, were to disappear on the _coup d'etat_ of December 2nd, 1851; and throughout the second Empire the Hotel de Ville was occupied, in lieu of an independent Munic.i.p.al Council, by a sort of consultative commission without mandate and without authority, attached to the Prefect in order to verify his accounts with closed eyes. By way of compensation, however, the Hotel de Ville was encouraged to give b.a.l.l.s, to which the chief of the State accorded his gracious patronage. It was at the Hotel de Ville that the Prefect of the Seine, M. Berger, entertained Queen Victoria, and that his successor, Baron Haussman, received in like manner the Emperor of Russia, while proposing to extend his hospitality to the Sultan. The reception of the Emperor Alexander II. did not pa.s.s off without an incident which caused a very painful impression at the time, and which the French would, now more than ever, gladly forget; for as the Tsar was about to enter the Hotel de Ville he was saluted with cries of "Vive la Pologne!"

If the ball given in honour of the Emperor Alexander was marred by a mere exclamation, the one which it had been proposed to offer to the Sultan of Turkey was stopped by a tragic event. News had suddenly arrived of the execution of the Emperor Maximilian. Thus was marked the failure of the Emperor Napoleon's Mexican policy; and thus disappeared for ever his fantastic dreams of a confederation of Latin, or Latinised, or Latin-influenced nations, under the patronage of France. Up to this time Napoleon III. had been marching from one success to another.

The turning point in his career had been reached, and the failure in Mexico was to be followed by failures in every direction. The ball in honour of the Sultan having been abandoned, it was nevertheless thought necessary to give him some idea of what it would have been had it really taken place. Accordingly the Hotel de Ville was lighted up, and the Commander of the Faithful was escorted through the deserted ball-rooms and saloons, the officer appointed to accompany him explaining, as he pa.s.sed from one apartment to another, "Here you would have seen the high functionaries of State in their uniforms with full decorations; here most of the dancing would have taken place, and you would have been enraptured by the sight of beautiful women in the most charming dresses; here would have been the orchestra, the best in Paris, and probably in the whole world." This strange jest must have reminded the Sultan of one of the most famous books in the Mahometan world, that "Thousand and One Nights," with its tale of an honoured guest to whom a dinner without viands was offered.

Some months later the Hotel de Ville was the scene of a grand dinner given in honour of the Emperor of Austria, brother of the unfortunate Maximilian. Here, for the first time in modern history, privileged guests were admitted by invitation cards to galleries, from which the spectacle of two sovereigns dining together could be enjoyed. Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," recommends the sight of two kings engaged in single combat as a cure for atrabiliousness. It was probably as an improvement on Burton's remedy, so difficult to procure, that a private view of two Emperors sitting together at table was offered to a favoured few.

After the breakdown of the Second Empire and the flight of the Empress from Paris, the Government of National Defence, consisting of all the Paris Deputies, had its head-quarters at the Hotel de Ville; and here, when the so-called government had given place to the Central Committee, and the Central Committee to the Commune, the last-named body held its deliberations. In 1875 the Hotel de Ville was reconstructed, with certain modifications and amplifications, on the lines of the ancient one, burned down by the Communards. The new edifice contains either in niches, or on external pinnacles, rather more than 100 statues, reproducing the features of all kinds of celebrities, the whole of them belonging to France, with the single exception of Cortone, born in Italy. The collection includes the architects of the original building, some of the most famous merchant-provosts, mayors of Paris, prefects of the Seine, and munic.i.p.al councillors, among whom may be mentioned Michel Lallier, who delivered Paris from the English, Francois Miron, and Pierre Viole. Literature, the stage, and music are largely represented in the effigies of Beaumarchais, Beranger, Boileau, F. Halevy, Herold, Marivaux, Moliere, Picard, Alfred de Musset, Charles Perrault, Quinault, Regnard, George Sand, Scribe, etc.; nor have architecture, sculpture, painting, and the industrial arts been forgotten in this s.p.a.cious Walhalla, where are found the statues of Boucher, Boulle (known among Englishmen, in connection with various kinds of inlaid work, as "Buhl,") Chardin, Corot, Daubigny, Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, Decamps, Firmin Didot, the well-known printer, Jean Goujon, Gros, Lancret, Le Brun, Le Notre, Pierre Lescot, Lesueur, Mansard, Germain Pilon, Henri Regnault, Theodore Rousseau, Horace Vernet, etc. Mingled with the writers, composers, painters, sculptors, and architects, are statesmen and historians such as Cardinal de Richelieu, the Marquis d'Argenson, the Duke de Saint-Simon, De Thou, Pierre de l'Estoile, and Michelet. Two ill.u.s.trious tragedians figure in this chosen company, Lekain and Talma.

The new Hotel de Ville has been furnished with magnificence and good taste. The staircases are very fine, but the essentially modern character of the internal arrangements is sufficiently shown by the lifts which work between the bas.e.m.e.nt and the upper storeys.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MUNIc.i.p.aL COUNCIL CHAMBER, HoTEL DE VILLE.]

On the side of the Hotel de Ville looking towards the river are the private apartments of the Prefect of the Seine, who performs the functions of Mayor of Paris. In the left wing sit the clerks, engaged in duties as complicated as those of a Ministerial bureau, and here also is the hall in which the sittings of the Munic.i.p.al Council are held. The prefectorial functions are divided between two prefects: the Prefect of the Seine, whose duties are exclusively administrative; and the Prefect of Police, who attends not only to the Police of Paris, but, in a general way, to Police matters throughout the country. The finances of the city or town of Paris ("ville de Paris" is its traditional, historic name) are regulated, under the authority of the Prefect of the Seine, by a Munic.i.p.al Council composed of eighty members elected on universal suffrage, four members for each _arrondiss.e.m.e.nt_, or one for each _quartier_. These eighty councillors form the Council-General of the Seine, whose princ.i.p.al duty it is to prepare the budget of the department. They are forbidden to occupy themselves in any manner with politics. Though the prefects of the various departments are not supposed in France to exercise political functions, they are really political officers--that is to say, they are appointed by the Central Government, and frequently, though in many cases secretly, do the work of political agents. During the invasion of 1870 they were regarded as political officers, and everywhere retired as the invaders advanced; the mayors meanwhile, as munic.i.p.al officers, everywhere remaining. It has been said that the duties of the Prefecture of Paris are shared by the Prefect of the Seine and the Prefect of Police, and that the former conducts his business at the Hotel de Ville. His a.s.sociate, though connected with the Hotel de Ville, has his establishment, with its various bureaux, at the Palais de Justice in the "Cite."

The island of the Cite, the ancient Lutetia, the cradle of modern Paris, has possessed from time immemorial, and certainly from the first years of the Roman conquest, a religious edifice, first a Pagan temple and afterwards a Christian church, on the western extremity of the Parisian island; while the eastern extremity has been always occupied by a palace reserved for the Government, and for the administration of justice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: iLE ST. LOUIS.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE.

The _Palais de Justice_--Its Historical a.s.sociations--Disturbances in Paris--Successive Fires--During the Revolution--The Administration of Justice--The _Sainte-Chapelle_.

Next to Notre-Dame the most interesting edifice in the island of the City, at the corner of the Quai de l'Horloge, is the Palais de Justice, which dates from the time of the Romans. So much at least has been inferred, apart from the tradition on the subject, from the fact that when some years ago the building was reconstructed, Roman remains were discovered in the foundations. All, however, that can be affirmed with historical certainty as to the origin of the Palace is that towards the end of the ninth century it existed in the form of a fortress, and was the residence of the Frankish kings of the second race. It played an important part in the defence of Paris against the Normans invading the city by water from Rouen and the lower Seine. At the Palais de Justice lived the Counts of Paris, and afterwards the kings of the line which came to an end with the unfortunate "Louis Capet" (as in Revolutionary parlance he was called) who lost his head beneath the guillotine.

Louis le Gros, the protector of the Communes, died at the Palace in 1137. Philip Augustus, while undertaking the entire reconstruction of the Chateau du Louvre, made the Palace his habitual residence, and it was there that he married Ingelburga, sister of Canute, King of Denmark.

Under the reign of this monarch, the court or tribunal of the King received for the first time the name of Parliament, its functions being to discuss and decide questions submitted to it by the Sovereign, and to p.r.o.nounce on the illegality or legality of certain acts. In these days the royal residence was not luxuriously furnished, hay doing duty for carpet during the winter, and a matting of weeds during the summer.

These primitive coverings of the palatial floors were given by Philip Augustus to the hospital known as the Hotel-Dieu whenever the Court left Paris.

The King's Palace was called the Palace of Justice from the fact that here the Sovereign held Court, and decided the cases submitted to him by his subjects, sometimes with, sometimes without, the a.s.sistance of the before-mentioned Parliament. Here, too, St. Louis formed in a hall adjoining the Holy Chapel a library, in which he collected copies of all valuable ma.n.u.scripts placed at his disposal. This library was open to learned and studious men, with whom the king loved to converse.