LA CITE
It is difficult to write of La Cite; it is indeed, impossible to write of
it with fulness, unless one were to devote a large volume--or many large
volumes--to it alone.
To the tourists it is mostly recalled as being the _berceau_ of Notre Dame
or the morgue. The latter, fortunately, is an entirely modern institution,
and, though it existed in Dumas' own time, did not when the scenes of the
D'Artagnan or Valois romances were laid.
Looking toward Notre Dame from the Pont du Carrousel, one feels a
veritable thrill of emotion as one regards this city of kings and
revolutions.
The very buildings on the Ile de la Cite mingle in a symphony of ashen
memories. The statue of the great Henri IV., bowered in trees; the two old
houses at the apex of the Place Dauphine, in one of which Madame Roland
was born; the massive Palais de Justice; the soaring Sainte Chapelle,
which St. Louis built for the Crown of Thorns, and "to the glory of God
and France," and the towers of the Conciergerie, whose floor is for ever
stained with the tears of Marie Antoinette.
Romance and history have both set their seal upon the locality, and no one
better than Dumas has told its story in romance.
* * * * *
Henri of Navarre being Protestant, the Church would not open its doors to
him, and thus his marriage to the talented but wicked Margot, sister of
Charles IX., took place on a platform erected before its doors.
In the opening chapter of "Marguerite de Valois," Dumas refers to it thus:
"The court was celebrating the marriage of Madame Marguerite de Valois,
daughter of Henri II. and sister of King Charles IX., with Henri de
Bourbon, King of Navarre; and that same morning the Cardinal de Bourbon
had united the young couple with the usual ceremonial observed at the
marriages of the royal daughters of France, on a stage erected at the
entrance to Notre Dame. This marriage had astonished everybody, and
occasioned much surmise to certain persons who saw clearer than others.
They could not comprehend the union of two parties who hated each other
so thoroughly as did, at this moment, the Protestant party and the
Catholic party; and they wondered how the young Prince de Conde could
forgive the Duke d'Anjou, the king's father, for the death of his father,
assassinated by Montesquieu at Jarnac. They asked how the young Duke de
Guise could pardon Admiral de Coligny for the death of his father,
assassinated at Orleans by Poltrot de Mere."
[Illustration: _La Cite_]
* * * * *
The Tour de Nesle is one of those bygones of the history of Paris, which
as a name is familiar to many, but which, after all, is a very vague
memory.
It perpetuates an event of bloodshed which is familiar enough, but there
are no tangible remains to mark the former site of the tower, and only the
name remains--now given to a short and unimportant _rue_.
The use of the title "La Tour de Nesle," by Dumas, for a sort of
second-hand article,--as he himself has said,--added little to his
reputation as an author, or, rather, as a dramatist.
In reality, he did no more than rebuild a romantic drama, such as he alone
knows how to build, out of the framework which had been unsuccessfully
put together by another--Gaillardet. However, it gives one other
historical title to add to the already long list of his productions.
* * * * *
The history of the Conciergerie is most lurid, and, withal, most emphatic,
with regard to the political history of France. For the most part, it is
more associated with political prisoners than with mere sordid crime, as,
indeed, to a great extent were many of the prisons of France.
The summer tourist connects it with Marie Antoinette; visits the "Cachot
de Marie Antoinette;" the great hall where the Girondists awaited their
fate; and passes on to the Palais des Beaux Arts, with never a thought as
to the great political part that the old prison played in the monarchial
history of France.
To know it more fully, one should read Nogaret's "Histoire des Prisons de
Paris." There will be found anecdotes and memoirs, "_rares et precieux_"
and above all truthful.
It has been eulogized, or, rather, anathematized in verse by Voltaire,--
"Exterminez, grandes Dieux, de la terre ou nous sommes
Quiconque avec plaisir repand le sang des hommes,"--
and historians and romancists have made profuse use of the recollections
which hang about its grim walls.
To-day it stands for much that it formerly represented, but without the
terrible inquisitorial methods. In fact, in the Palais de Justice, which
now entirely surrounds all but the turreted facade of tourelles, which
fronts the Quai de l'Horloge, has so tempered its mercies that within the
past year it has taken down that wonderful crucifix and triptych, so that
those who may finally call upon the court of last appeal may not be unduly
or superstitiously affected.
The Place de la Greve opposite was famous for something more than its
commercial reputation, as readers of the Valois romances of Dumas, and of
Hugo's "Dernier Jour d'un Condamne" will recall. It was a veritable
Gehenna, a sort of Tower Hill, where a series of events as dark and bloody
as those of any spot in Europe held forth, from 1310, when a poor
unfortunate, Marguerite Porette, was burned as a heretic, until
1830,--well within the scope of this book,--when the headsmen, stakesmen,
and hangmen, who had plied their trade here for five centuries, were
abolished in favour of a less public _barriere_ on the outskirts, or else
the platform of the prison near the Cimetiere du Pere la Chaise.
It was in 1830 that a low thief and murderer, Lacenaire, who was brought
to the scaffold for his crimes, published in one of the Parisian papers
some verses which were intended to extract sympathy for him as _un homme
de lettres_. In reality they were the work of a barrister, Lemarquier by
name, and failed utterly of their purpose, though their graphic lines
might well have evoked sympathy, had the hoax carried:
"Slow wanes the long night, when the criminal wakes;
And he curses the morn that his slumber breaks;
For he dream'd of other days.
"His eyes he may close,--but the cold icy touch
Of a frozen hand, and a corpse on his couch,
Still comes to wither his soul.
"And the headsman's voice, and hammer'd blows
Of nails that the jointed gibbet close,
And the solemn chant of the dead!"
La Conciergerie was perhaps one of the greatest show-places of the city
for the morbidly inclined, and permission _a visiter_ was at that time
granted _avec toutes facilites_, being something more than is allowed
to-day.
The associations connected with this doleful building are great indeed, as
all histories of France and the guide-books tell. It was in the chapel of
this edifice that the victims of the Terror foregathered, to hear the
names read out for execution, till all should have been made away.
Mueller's painting in the Louvre depicts, with singular graphicness, this
dreadful place of detention, where princes and princesses, counts,
marquises, bishops, and all ranks were herded amid an excruciating agony.
In "The Queen's Necklace" we read of the Conciergerie--as we do of the
Bastille. When that gang of conspirators, headed by Madame de la
Motte,--Jeanne de St. Remy de Valois,--appeared for trial, they were
brought from the Bastille to the Conciergerie.
After the trial all the prisoners were locked for the night in the
Conciergerie, sentence not being pronounced till the following day.
The public whipping and branding of Madame de la Motte in the Cour du
Justice,--still the _cour_ where throngs pass and repass to the various
court-rooms of the Palais de Justice,--as given by Dumas, is most
realistically told, if briefly. It runs thus:
"'Who is this man?' cried Jeanne, in a fright.
"'The executioner, M. de Paris,' replied the registrar.
"The two men then took hold of her to lead her out. They took her thus
into the court called Cour de Justice, where was a scaffold, and which was
crowded with spectators. On a platform, raised about eight feet, was a
post garnished with iron rings, and with a ladder to mount to it. This
place was surrounded with soldiers....
"Numbers of the partisans of M. de Rohan had assembled to hoot her, and
cries of '_A bas la Motte_, the forger!' were heard on every side, and
those who tried to express pity for her were soon silenced. Then she cried
in a loud voice, 'Do you know who I am? I am the blood of your kings. They
strike in me, not a criminal, but a rival; not only a rival, but an
accomplice. Yes,' repeated she, as the people kept silence to listen, 'an
accomplice. They punish one who knows the secrets of--'
"'Take care,' interrupted the executioner.
"She turned and saw the executioner with the whip in his hand. At this
sight she forgot her desire to captivate the multitude, and even her
hatred, and, sinking on her knees, she said, 'Have pity!' and seized his
hand; but he raised the other, and let the whip fall lightly on her
shoulders. She jumped up, and was about to try and throw herself off the
scaffold, when she saw the other man, who was drawing from a fire a hot
iron. At this sight she uttered a perfect howl, which was echoed by the
people.
"'Help! help!' she cried, trying to shake off the cord with which they
were tying her hands. The executioner at last forced her on her knees, and
tore open her dress; but she cried, with a voice which was heard through
all the tumult, 'Cowardly Frenchmen! you do not defend me, but let me be
tortured; oh! it is my own fault. If I had said all I knew of the queen I
should have been--'
"She could say no more, for she was gagged by the attendants: then two men
held her, while the executioner performed his office. At the touch of the
iron she fainted, and was carried back insensible to the Conciergerie."