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PARIS AND ITS STORY
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: RUE ST. ANTOINE.]
PARIS
AND ITS STORY
BY
T. OKEY
[Illustration: colophon]
ILLUSTRATED BY
KATHERINE KIMBALL
& O. F. M. WARD
1904
LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
"I will not here omit, that I never rail so much against France as
to be out of humour with _Paris_; that city has ever had my heart
from my infancy; and it has fallen out to me, as of excellent
things, that the more of other fine cities I have seen since, the
more the beauty of this gains upon my affections. I love it for its
own sake, and more for its own native being than the addition of
foreign pomp; I love it tenderly even with all its warts and
blemishes. I am not a Frenchman but by this great city great in
people, great in the felicity or her situation, but above all great
and incomparable in variety and diversity of commodities; the glory
of France and one of the most noble ornaments of the world."
MONTAIGNE.
"Quand Dieu eslut nonante et dix royaumes
Tot le meillor torna en douce France."
COURONNEMENT LOYS.
PREFACE
The History of Paris, says Michelet, is the history of the French
monarchy. The aim of the writer in the following pages has been to
narrate the story of the capital city of France on the lines thus
indicated, dwelling, however, in the earlier chapters rather more on its
legendary aspect than perhaps an austere historical conscience would
approve. But it is precisely a familiarity with these romantic stories,
which at least are true in impression if not in fact, that the sojourner
in Paris will find most useful, translated as they are in sculpture and
in painting on the decoration of her architecture both modern and
ancient, and implicit in the nomenclature of her ways. Within the limits
of time and space allotted for the work no more than an imperfect
outline of a vast subject has been possible. The writer has essayed to
compose a story of, not a guide to, Paris. Those who desire the latter
may be referred to the excellent manuals of Murray, Bædeker and of Grant
Allen--the last named being an admirable companion for the
artistically-minded traveller. In controversial matter, such, for
instance, as the position of the ancient Grand Pont, the writer has
adopted the opinions of the most recent authorities.
The story of Paris presents a marked contrast with that of an Italian
city-state whose rise, culmination and fall may be roundly traced. Paris
is yet in the stage of lusty growth. Time after time, like a young
giantess, she has burst her cincture of walls, cast off her outworn
garments and renewed her armour and vesture. Hers are no grass-grown
squares and deserted streets; no ruined splendours telling of pride
abased and glory departed; no sad memories of waning cities once the
mistresses of sea and land; none of the tears evoked by a great historic
tragedy; none of the solemn pathos of decay and death. Paris has more
than once tasted the bitterness of humiliation; Norseman, and Briton,
Russian and German have bruised her fair body; the dire distress of
civic strife has exhausted her strength, but she has always emerged from
her trials with marvellous recuperation, more flourishing than before.
Since 1871, when the city, crushed under a two-fold calamity of foreign
invasion and of internecine war, seemed doomed to bleed away to feeble
insignificance, her prosperity has so increased that house rent has
doubled and population risen from 1,825,274 in 1870 to 2,714,068 in
1901. The growth of Paris from the settlement of an obscure Gallic tribe
to the most populous, the most cultured, the most artistic, the most
delightful and seductive of continental cities has been prodigious, yet
withal she has maintained her essential unity, her corporate sense and
peculiar individuality. Paris, unlike London, has never expatiated to
the effacement of her distinctive features and the loss of civic
consciousness. The city has still a definite outline and circumference,
and over her gates to-day one may read, _Entrée de Paris_. The Parisian
is, and always has been, conscious of his citizenship, proud of his
city, careful of her beauty, jealous of her reputation. The essentials
of Parisian life remain unchanged since mediæval times. Busy multitudes
of alert, eager burgesses crowd her streets; ten thousand students
stream from the provinces, from Europe, and even from the uttermost
parts of the earth, to eat of the bread of knowledge at her University.
The old collegiate life is gone, but the arts and sciences are freely
taught as of old to all comers; and a lowly peasant lad may carry in his
satchel a prime minister's portfolio or the insignia of a president of
the republic, even as his mediæval prototype bore a bishop's mitre or a
cardinal's hat. The boisterous exuberance of youthful spirits still
vents itself in rowdy student life to the scandal of bourgeois
placidity, and the poignant self-revelation and gnawing self-reproach of
a François Villon find their analogue in the pathetic verse of a Paul
Verlaine. Beneath the fair and ordered surface of the normal life of
Paris still sleep the fiery passions which, from the days of the
Maillotins to those of the Commune, have throughout the crisis of her
history ensanguined her streets with the blood of citizens.[1] Let us
remember, however, when contrasting the modern history of Paris with
that of London, that the questions which have stirred her citizens have
been not party but dynastic ones, often complicated and embittered by
social and religious principles ploughing deep in the human soul, for
which men have cared enough to suffer, and to inflict, death.
Those writers who are pleased to trace the permanency of racial traits
through the life of a people dwell with satisfaction on passages in
ancient authors who describe the Gauls as quick to champion the cause
of the oppressed, prone to war, elated by victory, impatient of defeat,
easily amenable to the arts of peace, responsive to intellectual
culture; terrible, indefatigable orators but bad listeners, so
intolerant of their speakers that at tribal gatherings an official
charged to maintain silence would march, sword in hand, towards an
interrupter, and after a third warning cut off a portion of his dress.
If the concurrent testimony of writers, ancient, mediæval and modern, be
of any worth, Gallic vanity is beyond dispute. Dante, expressing the
prevailing belief of his age, exclaims, "Now, was there ever people so
vain as the Sienese! Certes not the French by far."[2] Of their
imperturbable gaiety and the avidity for new things we have ample
testimony, and the course of this story will demonstrate that France,
and more especially Paris, has ever been, from the establishment of
Christianity to the birth of the modern world at the Revolution, the
parent or the fosterer of ideas, the creator of arts, the soldier of the
ideal. She has always evinced a wondrous preventive apprehension of
coming changes. The earliest of the western people beyond Rome to adopt
Christianity, she had established a monastery near Tours a century and a
half before St. Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, had
organised his first community at Subiaco. In the Middle Ages Paris
became the intellectual light of the Christian world. From the time of
the centralisation of the monarchy at Paris she absorbed in large
measure the vital forces of the nation, and all that was greatest in
art, science and literature was drawn within her walls until, in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, she became the centre of learning,
taste and culture in Europe.[3] During the first Empire and the
Restoration, after the tempest was stilled and the great heritage of the
Revolution taken possession of, an amazing outburst of scientific,
artistic and literary activity made Paris the _Ville Lumière_ of Europe.
Paris is still the city in Europe where the things of the mind and of
taste have most place, where the wheels of life run most smoothly and
pleasantly, where the graces and refinements and amenities of social
existence, _l'art des plaisirs fins_, are most highly developed and most
widely diffused. There is something in the crisp, luminous air of Paris
that quickens the intelligence and stimulates the senses. Even the scent
of the wood fires as one emerges from the railway station exhilarates
the spirit. The poet Heine used to declare that the traveller could
estimate his proximity to Paris by noting the increasing intelligence of
the people, and that the very bayonets of the soldiers were more
intelligent than those elsewhere. Life, even in its more sensuous and
material phases, is less gross and coarse,[4] its pleasures more refined
than in London. It is impossible to conceive the pit of a London
theatre stirred to fury by a misplaced adjective in a poetical drama, or
to imagine anything comparable to the attitude of a Parisian audience at
the cheap holiday performances at the Français or the Odéon, where the
severe classic tragedies of Racine, of Corneille, of Victor Hugo, or the
well-worn comedies of Molière or of Beaumarchais are played with small
lure of stage upholstery, and listened to with close attention by a
popular audience responsive to the exquisite rhythm and grace of
phrasing, the delicate and restrained tragic pathos, and the subtle
comedy of their great dramatists. To witness a _première_ at the
Français is an intellectual feast. The brilliant house; the pit and
stalls filled with black-coated critics; the quick apprehension of the
points and happy phrases; the universal and excited discussion between
the acts; the atmosphere of keen and alert intelligence pervading the
whole assembly; the quaint survival of the time-honoured
"overture"--three knocks on the boards--dating back to Roman times when
the Prologus of the comedy stepped forth and craved the attention of the
audience by three taps of his wand; the chief actor's approach to the
front of the stage after the play is ended to announce to Mesdames and
Messieurs what in these days they have known for weeks before from the
press, that "the piece we have had the honour of playing" is by such a
one--all combine to make an indelible impression on the mind of the
foreign spectator.
The Parisian is the most orderly and well-behaved of citizens. The
custom of the _queue_ is a spontaneous expression of his love of
fairness and order. Even the applause in theatres is organised. A
spectacle such as that witnessed at the funeral of Victor Hugo in 1885,
the most solemn and impressive of modern times, is inconceivable in
London. The whole population (except the Faubourg St. Germain and the
clergy) from the poorest labourer to the heads of the State issued forth
to file past the coffin of their darling poet, lifted up under the Arc
de Triomphe, and by their multitudinous presence honoured his remains
borne on a poor bare hearse to their last resting-place in the Panthéon.
Amid this vast crowd, mainly composed of labourers, mechanics and the
_petite bourgeoisie_, assembled to do homage to the memory of the poet
of democracy, scarcely an _agent_ was seen; the people were their own
police, and not a rough gesture, not a trace of disorder marred the
sublime scene. The Parisian democracy is the most enlightened and the
most advanced in Europe, and it is to Paris that the dearest hopes and
deepest sympathies of generous spirits will ever go forth in
"The struggle, and the daring rage divine for liberty,
Of aspirations toward the far ideal, enthusiast dreams of brotherhood."
It now remains for the writer to acknowledge his indebtedness to the
following among other authorities, which are here enumerated to obviate
the necessity for the use of repeated footnotes, and to indicate to
readers who may desire to pursue the study of the history of Paris in
more detail, some works among the enormous mass of literature on the
subject that will repay perusal.
For the general history of France the monumental _Histoire de France_
now in course of publication, edited by E. Lavisse; Michelet's _Histoire
de France_, _Récits de l'Histoire de France_, and _Procès des
Templiers_; Victor Duruy, _Histoire de France_; _Histoire de France
racontée par les Contemporains_, edited by B. Zeller; Carl Faulmann,
_Illustrirte Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst_; the Chronicles of Gregory
of Tours, Richer, Abbo, Joinville, Villani, Froissart, Antonio Morosini;
De Comines; _Géographie Historique_, by A. Guerard; Froude's essay on
the Templars; Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, by T. Douglas Murray;
_Paris sous Philip le Bel_, edited by H. Geraud.
For the later Monarchy, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, the
Histories of Carlyle, Mignet, Michelet and Louis Blanc; the _Origines de
la France Contemporaine_, by Taine; the _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol.
VIII.; the Memoirs of the Duc de St. Simon, of Madame Campan, Madame
Vigée-Lebrun, of Camille Desmoulins, Madame Roland, Paul Louis Courier;
the _Journal de Perlet_; _Histoire de la Societé Française pendant la
Revolution,_ by J. de Goncourt; Goethe's _Die Campagne in Frankreich_,
1792; _Légendes et Archives de la Bastille_, by F. Funck Brentano; Life
of Napoleon I., by J. Holland Rose; _L'Europe et la Revolution
Française_ by Albert Sorel; _Contemporary American Opinion of the French
Revolution_, by C. D. Hazen. For the particular history of Paris, the
exhaustive and comprehensive _Histoire de la Ville de Paris_, by the
learned Benedictine priests, Michel Félibien and Guy Alexis Lobineau;
the so-called _Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris_, edited by L. Lalanne;
_Paris Pendant la Domination Anglaise_, by A. Longnon; the more modern
_Paris à Travers les Ages_, by M. F. Hoffbauer, E. Fournier and others;
the _Topographie Historique du Vieux Paris_, by A. Berty and H. Legrand.
Howell's _Familiar Letters_, Coryat's _Crudities_, and Evelyn's _Diary_,
contain useful matter. For the chapters on Historical Paris, E.
Fournier's _Promenade Historique dans Paris_, _Chronique des Rues de
Paris_, _Enigmes des Rues des Paris_; the Marquis de Rochegude's _Guide
Pratique à Travers le Vieux Paris_, and the excellent _Nouvel Itinéraire
Guide Artistique et Archéologique de Paris_, by C. Normand, now
appearing in fascicules published by the _Société des Amis des Monuments
Parisiens_, have been largely drawn upon and supplemented by
affectionate memories of an acquaintance with the city dating back for
more than thirty years, and by notes of pilgrimages, under the guidance
of a member of the Positivist Society of Paris, made in 1891 through
revolutionary Paris and Versailles.
For personal help and information the writer desires to express his
obligations to Monsieur Lafenestre, Director of the Louvre: Monsieur L.
Bénédite, Director of the Luxembourg; Monsieur G. Redon, architect of
the Louvre and the Tuileries; Professor A. Legros; and for help in
proof-reading to Mr James Britten.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I PAGE
GALLO-ROMAN PARIS 1
CHAPTER II
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS--ST. GENEVIEVE--THE CONVERSION OF CLOVIS--THE
MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY 12
CHAPTER III
THE CARLOVINGIANS--THE GREAT SIEGE OF PARIS BY THE NORMANS--THE GERMS OF
FEUDALISM 29
CHAPTER IV
THE RISE OF THE CAPETIAN KINGS AND THE GROWTH OF PARIS 45
CHAPTER V
PARIS UNDER PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND ST. LOUIS 61
CHAPTER VI
ART AND LEARNING AT PARIS 79
CHAPTER VII
THE PARLEMENT--THE STATES-GENERAL--CONFLICT WITH BONIFACE VIII.--THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE KNIGHTS-TEMPLARS 103
CHAPTER VIII
ETIENNE MARCEL--THE ENGLISH INVASIONS--THE MAILLOTINS--MURDER OF THE
DUKE OF ORLEANS--ARMAGNACS AND BURGUNDIANS 117
CHAPTER IX
JEANNE D'ARC--PARIS UNDER THE ENGLISH--END OF THE ENGLISH
OCCUPATION 131
CHAPTER X
LOUIS XI. AT PARIS--THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING 138
CHAPTER XI
FRANCIS I.--THE RENAISSANCE AT PARIS 145
CHAPTER XII
RISE OF THE GUISES--HUGUENOT AND CATHOLIC--THE MASSACRE OF ST.
BARTHOLOMEW 161
CHAPTER XIII
HENRY III.--THE LEAGUE--SIEGE OF PARIS BY HENRY IV.--HIS CONVERSION,
REIGN, AND ASSASSINATION 175
CHAPTER XIV
PARIS UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN 192
CHAPTER XV
THE GRAND MONARQUE--VERSAILLES AND PARIS 209
CHAPTER XVI
PARIS UNDER THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV.--THE BROODING STORM 227
CHAPTER XVII
LOUIS XVI.--THE GREAT REVOLUTION--FALL OF THE MONARCHY 243
CHAPTER XVIII
EXECUTION OF THE KING--PARIS UNDER THE FIRST REPUBLIC--THE
TERROR--NAPOLEON--REVOLUTIONARY AND MODERN PARIS 259
CHAPTER XIX
HISTORICAL PARIS--THE CITÉ--THE UNIVERSITY QUARTER--THE VILLE--THE
LOUVRE--THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--THE BOULEVARDS 281
CHAPTER XX
THE COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE--THE OPERA--SOME FAMOUS CAFÉS--CONCLUSION 321
INDEX 339
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST OF COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
BY O. F. M. WARD
RUE ST. ANTOINE _Frontispiece_
POINT DU JOUR _facing page_ 5
ROMAN BATHS IN MUSÉE DE CLUNY " " 8
BOIS DE BOULOGNE--LAC SUPÉRIEUR " " 19
RUE ST. JACQUES " " 23
ST. JULIEN LE PAUVRE " " 26
PORT DES ORMES " " 37
L'INSTITUT DE FRANCE " " 44
HOTEL GEROUILHAC " " 51
ST. ETIENNE DU MONT AND TOUR DE CLOVIS " " 62
VINCENNES " " 68
RUE DE VENISE " " 77
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE " " 86
THE SEINE FROM PONT DA LA CONCORDE " " 93
LE PETIT PONT " " 100
ILE DE LA CITÉ " " 109
THE SEINE AT ALFORTVILLE " " 117
ON THE QUAI DES GRANDS AUGUSTINS " " 124
NOTRE DAME FROM THE NORTH " " 132
PORCH OF ST. GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS " " 141
RUE ROYALE " " 146
BOULEVARD ST. MICHEL " " 155
LUXEMBOURG GARDENS " " 165
THE LOUVRE--GALERIE D'APOLLON " " 172
ST. GERVAIS " " 178
LUXEMBOURG PALACE " " 181
PLACE DES VOSGES " " 188
PONT ST. MICHEL " " 191
PONT NEUF " " 194
NOTRE DAME " " 207
PLACE DU CARROUSEL " " 211
VERSAILLES--LE TAPIS VERT " " 214
GRAND PALAIS AND PONT ALEXANDRE " " 219
HOTEL DES INVALIDES " " 222
COLONNE VENDÔME " " 230
PLACE DU CHÂTELET AND TOUR ST. JACQUES " " 235
MONT S. GENEVIÈVE FROM L'ILE S. LOUIS " " 238
ST. SULPICE " " 241
MONTMARTRE FROM BUTTES CHAMONT " " 251
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE " " 256
EIFFEL TOWER " " 261
ARC DE TRIOMPHE, PLACE DU CARROUSEL " " 268
THE LOUVRE, EASTERN ENTRANCE " " 274
RUE DROUOT AND SACRÉ COEUR " " 278
VERSAILLES--BASSIN DE NEPTUNE " " 283
THE OBSERVATORY " " 287
THE LOUVRE FROM THE SOUTH-EAST " " 293
ST. EUSTACHE " " 300
THE TROCADERO " " 327
ARC DE TRIOMPHE--PLACE DE L'ETOILE " " 330
IN THE GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES " " 334
REPRODUCTIONS OF PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE
THIRTEENTH CENTURY SCULPTURES FROM ST. DENIS (Restored) 84
OUR LADY OF PARIS. Early Fifteenth Century " " 136
PORTRAIT OF FRANCIS I. JEAN CLOUET " " 150
TRITONS AND NEREIDS FROM THE OLD FONTAINE DES
INNOCENTS. JEAN GOUJON " " 166
PORTRAIT OF ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA, WIFE OF
CHARLES IX. FRANÇOIS CLOUET " " 168
CATHERINE DE' MEDICI. French School,
Sixteenth Century " " 176
PORTION OF THE EAST FAÇADE OF THE LOUVRE.
From BLONDEL'S Drawing, showing PERRAULT'S Base.
(_Reproduced by permission of_ M. LAMPUE) " " 220
WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE " " 302
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. MICHEL COLOMBE " " 302
CARDINAL VIRTUES. GERMAIN PILON " " 304
DIANA AND THE STAG. JEAN GOUJON
(_Photogravure_) " " 304
THE BURNING BUSH. NICOLAS FROMENT
(_Photogravure_) " " 306
TRIPTYCH OF MOULINS. LE MAÎTRE DE MOULINS " " 308
JUVENAL DES URSINS. FOUQUET " " 308
SHEPHERDS OF ARCADY. POUSSIN " " 310
A SEAPORT. CLAUDE LORRAIN " " 312
LANDING OF CLEOPATRA AT TARSUS.
CLAUDE LORRAIN " " 312
THE EMBARKATION FOR THE ISLAND OF CYTHERA
WATTEAU " " 314
GRACE BEFORE MEAT. CHARDIN " " 316
MADAME RÉCAMIER. DAVID " " 316
LANDSCAPE. COROT " " 318
LICTORS BRINGING TO BRUTUS THE BODIES
OF HIS SONS. DAVID " " 320
THE POND. ROUSSEAU " " 322
THE BINDERS. MILLET " " 324
The majority of the photographs of sculpture have been taken by
Messrs. HAWEIS & COLES, while most of the other photographs are
reproduced by permission of Messrs. GIRAUDON.
LINE ILLUSTRATIONS
BY KATHARINE KIMBALL
PAGE
THE CITÉ 3
REMAINS OF ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE 6
TOWER OF CLOVIS 16
ST. GERMAIN DES PRÉS 26
ST. JULIEN LE PAUVRE 32
ST. GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS 39
WALL OF PHILIPPE AUGUSTE, COUR DE ROUEN 64
LA SAINTE CHAPELLE 70
REFECTORY OF THE CORDELIERS 74
CATHEDRAL OF ST. DENIS 80
NOTRE DAME: PORTAL OF ST. ANNE 82
NOTRE DAME--SOUTHERN SIDE 85
NOTRE DAME AND PETIT PONT 91
TOWER IN RUE NAVARRE IN WHICH CALVIN IS SAID
TO HAVE LIVED 94
HÔTEL OF THE PROVOST OF PARIS 96
PALAIS DE JUSTICE, CLOCK TOWER AND CONCIERGERIE 105
PALACE OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF SENS 113
CHAPEL OF FORT VINCENNES 122
TOWER AT THE CORNER OF THE RUE VIEILLE DU TEMPLE AND
THE RUE BARBETTE 126
TOWER OF JEAN SANS PEUR 128
CLOISTER OF THE BILLETES, FIFTEENTH CENTURY, RUE DE
L'HOMME ARMÉ 135
TOWER OF ST. JACQUES 147
PONT NOTRE DAME 149
CHAPEL, HÔTEL DE CLUNY 151
WEST DOOR OF ST. MERRI 152
TOWER OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT 153
LA FONTAINE DES INNOCENTS 161
WEST WING OF LOUVRE BY PIERRE LESCOT 163
PETITE GALERIE OF THE LOUVRE 174
HÔTEL DE SULLY 183
PLACE DES VOSGES 188
OLD HOUSES NEAR PONT ST. MICHEL,
SHOWING SPIRE OF THE STE. CHAPELLE 190
THE MEDICI FOUNTAIN, LUXEMBOURG GARDENS 196
PONT NEUF 198
THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE 208
RIVER AND PONT ROYAL 225
SOUTH DOOR OF NOTRE DAME 237
INTERIOR OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT 239
HÔTEL DE VILLE FROM RIVER 279
NOTRE DAME, SOUTH SIDE 282
ST. SÉVERIN 285
TOWER AND COURTYARD OF HOTEL CLUNY 287
OLD ACADEMY OF MEDICINE 289
COUR DU DRAGON 292
ST. GERVAIS 294
PLACE DES VOSGES, MAISON DE VICTOR HUGO 296
ARCHIVES NATIONALES IN HÔTEL SOUBISE,
SHOWING TOWERS OF HÔTEL DE CLISSON 298
NEAR THE PONT NEUF 303
ARCHES IN THE COURTYARD OF THE HÔTEL CLUNY 322
_The majority of the three-colour, half-tone and line blocks used
in this book have been made by the Graphic Photo-Engraving Co.,
London._
LIST OF MAPS
PLAN OF THE HISTORIC LOUVRE FROM BLONDEL'S DRAWING xxiii
MAP OF THE SUCCESSIVE WALLS OF PARIS xxiv
PLAN OF PARIS WHEN BESIEGED BY HENRY IV. IN 1590, _facing page_ 175
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE HISTORIC LOUVRE FROM BLONDEL'S DRAWING THE
SITE OF THE OLD LOUVRE BEING ADDED.]
[Illustration: MAP OF THE SUCCESSIVE WALLS OF PARIS]
PARIS AND ITS STORY
CHAPTER I
GALLO-ROMAN PARIS
The mediæval scribe in the fulness of a divinely-revealed cosmogony is
wont to begin his story at the creation of the world or at the confusion
of tongues, to trace the building of Troy by the descendants of Japheth,
and the foundation of his own native city by one of the Trojan princes
made a fugitive in Europe by proud Ilion's fall. Such, he was very sure,
was the origin of Padua, founded by Antenor and by Priam, son of King
Priam, whose grandson, yet another Priam, by his great valour and wisdom
became the monarch of a mighty people, called from their fair hair,
Galli or Gallici. And of the strong city built on the little island in
the Seine who could have been its founder but the ravisher of fair
Helen--Sir Paris himself? The naïve etymology of the time was evidence
enough.
But the modern writer, as he compares the geographical position of the
capitals of Europe, is tempted to exclaim, _Cherchez le marchand!_ for
he perceives that their unknown founders were dominated by two
considerations--facilities for commerce and protection from enemies: and
before the era of the Roman roadmakers, commerce meant facilities for
water carriage. As the early settlers in Britain sailed up the Thames,
they must have observed, where the river's bed begins somewhat to
narrow, a hill rising from the continuous expanse of marshes from its
mouth, easily defended on the east and west by those fortified posts
which, in subsequent times, became the Tower of London and Barnard's
Castle. If we scan a map of France, we shall see that the group of
islands on and around which Paris now stands, lies in the fruitful basin
of the Seine, known as the Isle de France, near the convergence of three
rivers; for on the east the Marne and the Oise, and on the south the
Yonne, discharge their waters into the main stream on its way to the
sea. In ancient times the great line of Phoenician, Greek and Roman
commerce followed northwards the valleys of the Rhone and of the Saone,
whose upper waters are divided from those of the Yonne only by the
plateau of Dijon and the calcareous slopes of Burgundy. The Parisii were
thus admirably placed for tapping the profitable commerce of north-west
Europe, and by the waters of the Eure, lower down the Seine, were able
to touch the fertile valley of the Loire. The northern rivers of Gaul
were all navigable by the small boats of the early traders, and, in
contrast with the impetuous sweep of the Rhone and the Loire in the
south and west, flowed with slow and measured stream:[5] they were
rarely flooded, and owing to the normally mild winters, still more
rarely blocked by ice. Moreover, the Parisian settlement stood near the
rich corn-land of La Beauce, and to the north-east, over the open plain
of La Valois, lay the way to Flanders. It was one of the river stations
on the line of the Phoenician traders in tin, that most precious and
rare of ancient metals, between Marseilles and Britain, and in the early
Middle Ages became, with Lyons and Beaucaire, one of the chief fairs of
that historic trade route which the main lines of railway traffic still
follow to-day. The island now known as the Cité, which the founders of
Paris chose for their stronghold, was the largest of the group which lay
involved in the many windings of the Seine, and was embraced by a
natural moat of deep waters. To north and south lay hills, marshes and
forests, and all combined to give it a position equally adapted for
defence and for commerce.
[Illustration: THE CITÉ.]
[Illustration: POINT DU JOUR.]
The Parisii were a small tribe of Gauls who were content to place
themselves under the protection of the more powerful Senones. Their
island city was the home of a prosperous community of shipmen and
merchants, but it is not until the Conquest of Gaul by the Romans that
Lutetia, for such was its Gallic name, enters the great pageant of
written history. It was--
"Armèd Cæsar falcon-eyed,"[6]
who saw its great military importance, built a permanent camp there and
made it a central _entrepôt_ for food and munitions of war. And when in
52 B.C. the general rising of the tribes under Vercingetorix threatened
to scour the Romans out of Gaul and to destroy the whole fabric of
Cæsar's ambition, he sent his favourite lieutenant, Labienus, to seize
Lutetia where the Northern army of the Gauls was centred. Labienus
crossed the Seine at Melun, fixed his camp on a spot near the position
of the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and began the first of the
historic sieges for which Paris is so famous. But the Gaulish commander
burnt the bridges, fired the city and took up his position on the slopes
of the hill of Lutetius (St. Genevieve) in the south, and aimed at
crushing his enemy between his own forces and an army advancing from the
north. Labienus having learnt that Cæsar was in a tight place, owing to
a check at Clermont and the defection of the Eduans, by a masterly piece
of engineering recrossed the Seine by night at the Point du Jour, and
when the Gauls awoke in the morning they beheld the Roman legions in
battle array on the plain of Grenelle beneath. They made a desperate
attempt to drive them against the river, but they lost their leader and
were almost annihilated by the superior arms and strategy of the Romans.
Labienus was able to join his master at Sens, and the irrevocable
subjugation of the Gauls soon followed. With the tolerant and
enlightened conquerors came the Roman peace, Roman law, Roman roads, the
Roman schoolmaster; and a more humane religion abolished the Druidical
sacrifices. Lutetia was rebuilt and became a prosperous and, next to
Lyons, the most important of Gallo-Roman cities. It lay equidistant from
Germany and Britain and at the issue of valleys which led to the upper
and lower Rhine. The quarries of Mount Lutetius produced an admirable
building stone, kind to work and hardening well under exposure to the
air. Its white colour may have won for Paris the name of Leucotia, or
the White City, by which it is sometimes called by ancient writers.
Cæsar had done his work well, for so completely were the Gauls
Romanised, that by the fifth or sixth century their very language had
disappeared.[7]
But towards the end of the third century three lowly wayfarers were
journeying from Rome along the great southern road to Paris, charged by
the Pope with a mission fraught with greater issues to Gaul than the
Cæsars and all their legions. Let us recall somewhat of the appearance
of the city which Dionysius, Rusticus and Eleutherius saw as they neared
its suburbs and came down what is now known as the Rue St. Jacques.
After passing the arches of the aqueduct, two of which exist to this
day, that crossed the valley of Arcueil and brought the waters of
Rungis,[8] Paray and Montjean to the baths of the imperial palace, they
would discern on the hill of Lutetius to their right the Roman camp,
garrison and cemetery. Lower down on its eastern slopes they would catch
a glimpse of a great amphitheatre, capable of accommodating 10,000
spectators, part of which was laid bare in 1869 by some excavations made
for the Campagnie des Omnibus between the Rues Monge and Linné.
Unhappily, the public subscription initiated by the Académie des
Inscriptions to purchase the property proved inadequate, and the Company
retained possession of the land. In 1883, however, other excavations
were undertaken in the Rue de Navarre, which resulted in the discovery
of the old aqueduct that drained the amphitheatre, and some other
remains, which have been preserved and made into a public park.
[Illustration: REMAINS OF ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE.]
On their left, where now stands the Lycée St. Louis, would be the
theatre of Lutetia, and further on the imposing and magnificent palace
of the Cæsars, with its gardens sloping down to the Seine. The turbulent
little stream of the Bièvre flowed by the foot of Mons Lutetius on the
east, entering the main river opposite the eastern limit of the
_civitas_ of Lutetia, gleaming white before them and girdled by
Aurelian's wall[9] and the waters of the Seine. A narrow eel-shaped
island, subsequently known as the Isle de Galilée,[10] lay between the
Isle of the Cité and the southern bank; two islands, the Isles de Notre
Dame and des Vaches, divided by a narrow channel to the east, and two
small islets, the Isles des Juifs and de Bussy, to the west. Another
islet, the Isle de Louviers, lay near the northern bank beyond the two
eastern islands. Crossing a wooden bridge, where now stands the Petit
Pont, they would enter the forum (Place du Parvis Notre Dame) under a
triumphal arch. Here would be the very foyer of the city; a little way
to the left the governor's palace and the basilica, or hall of
justice;[11] to the right the temple of Jupiter. As they crossed the
island they would find it linked to the northern bank by another wooden
bridge, replaced by the present Pont Notre Dame.[12] In the distance to
the north stood Mons Martis (Montmartre) crowned with the temples of
Mars and Mercury, four of whose columns are preserved in the church of
St. Pierre; and to the west the aqueduct from Passy bringing its waters
to the mineral baths located on the site of the present Palais Royal. A
road, now the Rue St. Martin, led to the north; to the east lay the
marshy land which is still known as the quarter of the Marais.
Denis and his companions preached and taught the new faith unceasingly
and met martyrs' deaths. By the mediæval hagiographers St. Denis is
invariably confused with Dionysius, the Areopagite, said to have been
converted by St. Paul and sent on his mission to France by Pope Clement.
In the _Golden Legend_ he is famed to have converted much people to the
faith, and "did do make many churches," and at length was brought before
the judge who "did do smite off the heads of the three fellows by the
temple of Mercury. And anon the body of St. Denis raised himself up and
bare his head between his arms, as the angels led him two leagues from
the place which is said the hill of the martyrs unto the place where he
now resteth by his election and the purveyance of God, when was heard so
great and sweet a melody of angels that many that heard it believed in
our Lord." In an interesting picture, No. 995 in Room X. of the Louvre,
said to have been painted for Jean sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy, by
Malouel, and finished at his death in 1415 by Bellechose, St. Denis in
bishop's robes is seen kneeling before the block; the headsman raises
his axe; one of the saint's companions has already met his fate, the
other awaits it resignedly. To the left, St. Denis in prison is
receiving the Sacred Host from the hands of Christ.
[Illustration: ROMAN BATHS IN MUSÉE DE CLUNY.]
The work that Denis and his companions began was more fully achieved in
the fourth century by the rude Pannonion soldier, St. Martin, who also
evangelised at Paris. He is the best-known of Gallic saints, and the
story of his conversion one of the most popular in Christendom. When
stationed at Amiens he was on duty one bitter cold day at the city gate,
and espied a poor naked beggar asking alms. Soldiers in garrison are
notoriously impecunious, and Martin had nothing to give; but drawing his
sword he cleaved his mantle in twain, and bestowed half upon the
shivering wretch at his feet. That very night the Lord Jesus appeared to
him in a dream surrounded by angels, having on His shoulders the half of
the cloak which Martin had given to the beggar. Turning to the angels,
Jesus said: "Know ye who hath thus arrayed Me? My servant Martin, though
yet unbaptised, hath done this." After this vision Martin received
baptism and remained steadfast in the faith. At length, desiring to
devote himself wholly to Christ, he begged permission to leave the army.
The Emperor Julian, who deemed the Christian faith fit only to form
souls of slaves, reproached him for his cowardice, for he was yet in the
prime of life, being forty years of age. "Put me," exclaimed Martin,
"naked and without defence in the forefront of the battle, and armed
with the Cross alone I will not fear to face the enemy." Early on the
following morning the barbarians submitted to the emperor without
striking a blow, and thus was victory vouchsafed to Martin's faith and
courage, and he was permitted to leave the army. The illiterate and
dauntless soldier became the fiery apostle of the faith, a vigorous
iconoclast, throwing down the images of the false gods, breaking their
altars in pieces and burning their temples. Of the Roman gods, Mercury,
he said, was most difficult to ban, but Jove was merely stupid[13]
and brutish, and gave him least trouble. Martin was a democratic saint,
of ardent charity and austere devotion. Later in life he founded the
monastery of Marmoutier, which grew to be one of the richest in France.
His rule was severe; when his monks murmured at the hard fare he bade
them remember that cooked herbs and barley bread was the food of the
hermits of Africa. "That may be," answered they, "but we cannot live
like the angels."
On the 16th of March 1711, some workmen, digging a tomb for the
archbishop of Paris in the choir of Notre Dame, came upon the walls, six
feet below the pavement, of the original Christian basilica over which
the modern cathedral is built. In the fabric of these walls the early
builders had incorporated the remains of the still earlier temple of
Jupiter, which had been destroyed to give place to the Christian church,
and among the _débris_ were found the fragments of an altar raised to
Jove in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar by the _Nautæ_, a guild of Parisian
merchant-shippers, an altar on whose foyer still remained some of the
very burnt wood and incense used in the last pagan sacrifice. The
mutilated stones, with their rude Gallo-Roman reliefs and inscriptions,
may be seen in the Frigidarium of the Thermæ, the old Roman baths by the
Hôtel de Cluny, and are among the most interesting of historical
documents in Paris. The Corporation of _Nautæ_ who dedicated this altar
to Jove, were the origin of the Commune or Civil Council of Paris, and
in later time gave way to the provost[14] of the merchants and the
sheriffs of that city. Their device was the _Nef_, or ship, which is and
has been throughout the ages the arms of Paris, and which to this day
may be seen carved on the vaultings of the Roman baths.
In the great palace of which these baths formed but a part was enacted
that scene so vividly described in the pages of Gibbon, when Julian,
after his victories over the Alemanni and the Franks, was acclaimed
Augustus by the rebellious troops of Constantius. On a plain outside
Paris Julian had admonished the sullen legions, angry at being detached
from their victorious and darling commander for service on the Persian
frontier, and had urged them to obedience. But at midnight the young
Cæsar was awakened by a clamorous and armed multitude besieging the
palace, and at early dawn its doors were forced; the reluctant Julian
was seized and carried in triumph through the streets to be enthroned
and saluted as emperor. He was lifted on a shield, and for diadem,
crowned with a military collar. In after life the emperor-philosopher
looked back with tender regret to the three winters he spent in Paris
before his elevation to the imperial responsibilities and anxieties. He
writes of the busy days and meditative nights he passed in his dear
Lutetia, with its two wooden bridges, its pure and pleasant waters, its
excellent wine. He dwells on the mildness of its climate, where the
fig-tree, protected by straw in the winter, grew and fruited. One
rigorous season, however, the emperor well remembered[15] when the Seine
was blocked by huge masses of ice. Julian, who prided himself on his
endurance, at first declined the use of those charcoal fires which to
this day are a common and deadly method of supplying heat in Paris. But
his rooms were damp and his servants were allowed to introduce them into
his sleeping apartment. The Cæsar was almost asphyxiated by the fumes,
and his physicians to restore him administered an emetic. Julian in his
time was beloved of the Lutetians, for he was a just and tolerant prince
whose yoke was easy. He had purged the soil of Gaul from the barbarian
invaders, given Lutetia peace and security, and made of it an important,
imperial city. His statue, found near Paris, still recalls his memory in
the hall of the great baths of the Lutetia he loved so well.
The so-called apostasy of this lover of Plato and worshipper of the Sun,
who never went to the wars or travelled without dragging a library of
Greek authors after him, was a philosophic reaction against the harsh
measures,[16] the bloody and treacherous natures of the Christian
emperors, and the fierceness of the Arian controversy. The movement was
but a back-wash in the stream of history, and is of small importance.
Julian's successors, Valentinian and Gratian, reversed his policy but
shared his love for the fair city on the Seine, and spent some winters
there. Lutetia had now become a rich and cultured Gallo-Roman city.