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diff --git a/35125.txt b/35125.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..420fa66 --- /dev/null +++ b/35125.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12018 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dumas' Paris, by Francis Miltoun + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dumas' Paris + +Author: Francis Miltoun + +Release Date: January 31, 2011 [EBook #35125] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUMAS' PARIS *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +Dumas' Paris + + + + +_UNIFORM VOLUMES_ + + + Dickens' London + BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + Library 12mo, cloth, gilt top $2.00 + The Same, 3/4 levant morocco 5.00 + + Milton's England + BY LUCIA AMES MEAD + Library 12mo, cloth, gilt top 2.00 + The Same, 3/4 levant morocco 5.00 + + Dumas' Paris + BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + Library 12mo, cloth, gilt top _net_ 1.60 + _postpaid_ 1.75 + The Same, 3/4 levant morocco _net_ 4.00 + _postpaid_ 4.15 + + L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + New England Building + Boston, Mass. + + + + +[Illustration: _Alexandre Dumas_] + + + + + Dumas' Paris + + + By Francis Miltoun + + Author of "Dickens' London," "Cathedrals of Southern + France," "Cathedrals of Northern France," etc. + + + With two Maps and many Illustrations + + + Boston + L. C. Page & Company + MDCCCCV + + + + + _Copyright, 1904_ + BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + (INCORPORATED) + + _All rights reserved_ + + Published November, 1904 + + _COLONIAL PRESS + Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. + Boston, Mass., U.S.A._ + + + + +Contents + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 + + II. DUMAS' EARLY LIFE IN PARIS 14 + + III. DUMAS' LITERARY CAREER 33 + + IV. DUMAS' CONTEMPORARIES 68 + + V. THE PARIS OF DUMAS 83 + + VI. OLD PARIS 126 + + VII. WAYS AND MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 147 + + VIII. THE BANKS OF THE SEINE 165 + + IX. THE SECOND EMPIRE AND AFTER 178 + + X. LA VILLE 195 + + XI. LA CITE 235 + + XII. L'UNIVERSITE QUARTIER 244 + + XIII. THE LOUVRE 257 + + XIV. THE PALAIS ROYAL 266 + + XV. THE BASTILLE 278 + + XVI. THE ROYAL PARKS AND PALACES 297 + + XVII. THE FRENCH PROVINCES 321 + + XVIII. LES PAYS ETRANGERS 359 + + APPENDICES 373 + + INDEX 377 + + + + +List of Illustrations + + + PAGE + + ALEXANDRE DUMAS _Frontispiece_ + + DUMAS' HOUSE AT VILLERS-COTTERETS 7 + + STATUE OF DUMAS AT VILLERS-COTTERETS 14 + + FACSIMILE OF DUMAS' OWN STATEMENT OF HIS BIRTH 26 + + FACSIMILE OF A MANUSCRIPT PAGE FROM ONE OF + DUMAS' PLAYS 37 + + D'ARTAGNAN 48 + + ALEXANDRE DUMAS, _Fils_ 64 + + TWO FAMOUS CARICATURES OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS 68 + + TOMB OF ABELARD AND HELOISE 82 + + GENERAL FOY'S RESIDENCE 84 + + D'ARTAGNAN, FROM THE DUMAS STATUE BY GUSTAVE DORE 123 + + PONT NEUF--PONT AU CHANGE 135 + + PORTRAIT OF HENRY IV. 143 + + GRAND BUREAU DE LA POSTE 154 + + THE ODEON IN 1818 167 + + PALAIS ROYAL, STREET FRONT 183 + + 77 RUE D'AMSTERDAM--RUE DE ST. DENIS 188 + + PLACE DE LA GREVE 197 + + TOUR DE ST. JACQUES LA BOUCHERIE (MERYON'S + ETCHING, "LE STRYGE") 198 + + HOTEL DES MOUSQUETAIRES, RUE D'ARBRE SEC 207 + + D'ARTAGNAN'S LODGINGS, RUE TIQUETONNE 214 + + 109 RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. DENIS (DESCAMPS' STUDIO) 221 + + NOTRE DAME DE PARIS 235 + + PLAN OF LA CITE 236 + + CARMELITE FRIARY, RUE VAUGIRARD 246 + + PLAN OF THE LOUVRE 257 + + THE GARDENS OF THE TUILERIES 265 + + THE ORLEANS BUREAU, PALAIS ROYAL 268 + + THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE 284 + + INN OF THE PONT DE SEVRES 302 + + BOIS DE BOULOGNE--BOIS DE VINCENNES--FORET DE + VILLERS-COTTERETS 315 + + CHATEAU OF THE DUCS DE VALOIS, CREPY 318 + + CASTLE OF PIERREFONDS 324 + + NOTRE DAME DE CHARTRES 329 + + CASTLE OF ANGERS--CHATEAU OF BLOIS 333 + + + + +Dumas' Paris + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A GENERAL INTRODUCTION + + +There have been many erudite works, in French and other languages, +describing the antiquities and historical annals of Paris from the +earliest times; and in English the mid-Victorian era turned out--there are +no other words for it--innumerable "books of travel" which recounted +alleged adventures, strewn here and there with bits of historical lore and +anecdotes, none too relevant, and in most cases not of undoubted +authenticity. + +Of the actual life of the people in the city of light and learning, from +the times of Napoleon onward, one has to go to the fountainhead of written +records, the acknowledged masterworks in the language of the country +itself, the reports and _annuaires_ of various _societes_, _commissions_, +and what not, and collect therefrom such information as he finds may suit +his purpose. + +In this manner may be built up a fabric which shall be authentic and +proper, varied and, most likely, quite different in its plan, outline, and +scope from other works of a similar purport, which may be recalled in +connection therewith. + +Paris has been rich in topographical historians, and, indeed, in her +chroniclers in all departments, and there is no end of relative matter +which may be evolved from an intimacy with these sources of supply. In a +way, however, this information ought to be supplemented by a personal +knowledge on the part of the compiler, which should make localities, +distances, and environments--to say nothing of the actual facts and dates +of history--appear as something more than a shrine to be worshipped from +afar. + +Given, then, these ingredients, with a love of the subject,--no less than +of the city of its domicile,--it has formed a pleasant itinerary in the +experiences of the writer of this book to have followed in the footsteps +of Dumas _pere_, through the streets that he knew and loved, taking note +meanwhile of such contemporary shadows as were thrown across his path, +and such events of importance or significance as blended in with the +scheme of the literary life of the times in which he lived, none the less +than of those of the characters in his books. + +Nearly all the great artists have adored Paris--poets, painters, actors, +and, above all, novelists. + +From which it follows that Paris is the ideal city for the novelist, who, +whether he finds his special subjects in her streets or not, must be +inspired by this unique fulness and variety of human life. Nearly all the +great French novelists have adored Paris. Dumas loved it; Victor Hugo +spent years of his time in riding about her streets on omnibuses; Daudet +said splendid things of it, and nearly, if not quite, all the great names +of the artistic world of France are indissolubly linked with it. + +Paris to-day means not "La Ville," "La Cite," or "L'Universite," but the +whole triumvirate. Victor Hugo very happily compared the three cities to a +little old woman between two handsome, strapping daughters. + +It was Beranger who announced his predilection for Paris as a birthplace. +Dumas must have felt something of the same emotion, for he early +gravitated to the "City of Liberty and Equality," in which--even before +the great Revolution--misfortune was at all times alleviated by sympathy. + + * * * * * + +From the stones of Paris have been built up many a lordly volume--and many +a slight one, for that matter--which might naturally be presumed to have +recounted the last word which may justifiably have been said concerning +the various aspects of the life and historic events which have encircled +around the city since the beginning of the _moyen age_. + +This is true or not, according as one embraces a wide or a contracted +horizon in one's view. + +For most books there is, or was at the time of their writing, a reason for +being, and so with familiar spots, as with well-worn roads, there is +always a new panorama projecting itself before one. + +The phenomenal, perennial, and still growing interest in the romances of +Dumas the elder is the excuse for the present work, which it is to be +hoped is admittedly a good one, however far short of exhaustiveness--a +much overworked word, by the way--the volume may fall. + +It were not possible to produce a complete or "exhaustive" work on any +subject of a historical, topographical or aesthetic nature: so why claim +it? The last word has not yet been said on Dumas himself, and surely not +on Paris--no more has it on Pompeii, where they are still finding +evidences of a long lost civilization as great as any previously +unearthed. + +It was only yesterday, too (this is written in the month of March, 1904), +that a party of frock-coated and silk-hatted benevolent-looking gentlemen +were seen issuing from a manhole in the _Universite quartier_ of Paris. +They had been inspecting a newly discovered _thermale etablissement_ of +Roman times, which led off one of the newly opened subterranean arteries +which abound beneath Paris. + +It is said to be a rival of the Roman bath which is enclosed within the +walls of the present Musee Cluny, and perhaps the equal in size and +splendour of any similar remains extant. + +This, then, suggests that in every land new ground, new view-points, and +new conditions of life are making possible a record which, to have its +utmost value, should be a progressively chronological one. + +And after this manner the present volume has been written. There is a fund +of material to draw upon, historic fact, pertinent and contemporary +side-lights, and, above all, the environment which haloed itself around +the personality of Dumas, which lies buried in many a _cache_ which, if +not actually inaccessible, is at least not to be found in the usual books +of reference. + +Perhaps some day even more will have been collected, and a truly +satisfying biographical work compiled. If so, it will be the work of some +ardent Frenchman of a generation following that in which Alexandre Dumas +lived, and not by one of the contemporaries of even his later years. +Albert Vandam, perhaps, might have done it as it should have been done; +but he did not do so, and so an intimate personal record has been lost. + +Paris has ever been written down in the book of man as the city of light, +of gaiety, and of a trembling vivacity which has been in turn profligate, +riotous, and finally criminal. + +All this is perhaps true enough, but no more in degree than in most +capitals which have endured so long, and have risen to such greatness. + +With Paris it is quantity, with no sacrifice of quality, that has placed +it in so preeminent a position among great cities, and the life of +Paris--using the phrase in its most commonly recognized aspect--is +accordingly more brilliant or the reverse, as one views it from the +_boulevards_ or from the _villettes_. + + +[Illustration: DUMAS' HOUSE AT VILLERS-COTTERETS] + + +French writers, the novelists in particular, have well known and made +use of this; painters and poets, too, have perpetuated it in a manner +which has not been applied to any other city in the world. + +To realize the conditions of the life of Paris to the full one has to go +back to Rousseau--perhaps even farther. His observation that "_Les maisons +font la ville, mais le citoyens font la cite_," was true when written, and +it is true to-day, with this modification, that the delimitation of the +confines of _la ville_ should be extended so far as to include all +workaday Paris--the shuffling, bustling world of energy and spirit which +has ever insinuated itself into the daily life of the people. + +The love and knowledge of Alexandre Dumas _pere_ for Paris was great, and +the accessory and detail of his novels, so far as he drew upon the +capital, was more correct and apropos. It was something more than a mere +dash of local colour scattered upon the canvas from a haphazard palette. +In _minutiae_ it was not drawn as fine as the later Zola was wont to +accomplish, but it showed no less detail did one but comprehend its full +meaning. + +Though born in the provincial town Villers-Cotterets,--seventy-eight +kilometres from Paris on the road to Soissons,--Dumas came early in touch +with the metropolis, having in a sort of runaway journey broken loose +from his old associations and finally becoming settled in the capital as a +clerk in the Bureau d'Orleans, at the immature age of twenty. Thus it was +that his impressions and knowledge of Paris were founded upon an +experience which was prolonged and intimate, extending, with brief +intervals of travel, for over fifty years. + +He had journeyed meantime to Switzerland, England, Corsica, Naples, the +Rhine, Belgium,--with a brief residence in Italy in 1840-42,--then +visiting Spain, Russia, the Caucasus, and Germany. + +This covered a period from 1822, when he first came to Paris, until his +death at Puys, near Dieppe, in 1870; nearly a full half-century amid +activities in matters literary, artistic, and social, which were scarce +equalled in brilliancy elsewhere--before or since. + +In spite of his intimate association with the affairs of the capital,--he +became, it is recalled, a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies at the +time of the Second Republic,--Dumas himself has recorded, in a preface +contributed to a "Histoire de l'Eure," by M. Charpillon (1879), that if he +were ever to compile a history of France he should first search for _les +pierres angulaires_ of his edifice in the provinces. + +This bespeaks a catholicity which, perhaps, after all, is, or should be, +the birthright of every historical novelist. + +He said further, in this really valuable and interesting contribution, +which seems to have been entirely overlooked by the bibliographers, that +"to write the history of France would take a hundred volumes"--and no +doubt he was right, though it has been attempted in less. + +And again that "the aggrandizement of Paris has only been accomplished by +a weakening process having been undergone by the provinces." The egg from +which Paris grew was deposited in the nest of _la cite_, the same as are +the eggs laid _par un cygne_. + +He says further that in writing the history of Paris he would have founded +on "Lutetia (or Louchetia) the _Villa de Jules_, and would erect in the +Place de Notre Dame a temple or altar to Ceres; at which epoch would have +been erected another to Mercury, on the Mount of Ste. Genevieve; to Apollo +in the Rue de la Barillerie, where to-day is erected that part of +Tuileries built by Louis XIV., and which is called _Le Pavillon de Flore_. + +"Then one would naturally follow with _Les Thermes de Julien_, which grew +up from the _Villa de Jules_; the reunion under Charlemagne which +accomplished the Sorbonne (_Sora bona_), which in turn became the +favourite place of residence of Hugues Capet, the stronghold of +Philippe-Auguste, the _bibliotheque_ of Charles V., the monumental capital +of Henri VI. d'Angleterre; and so on through the founding of the first +printing establishment in France by Louis XI.; the new school of painting +by Francois I.; of the Academie by Richelieu; ... to the final curtailment +of monarchial power with the horrors of the Revolution and the significant +events which centred around the Bastille, Versailles, and the Tuileries." + +Leaving the events of the latter years of the eighteenth century, and +coming to the day in which Dumas wrote (1867), Paris was truly--and in +every sense-- + +"The capital of France, and its history became not only the history of +France but the history of the world.... The city will yet become the +capital of humanity, and, since Napoleon repudiated his provincial +residences and made Paris _sa residence imperiale_, the man of destiny who +reigns in Paris in reality reigns throughout the universe." + +There may be those who will take exception to these brilliant words of +Dumas. The Frenchman has always been an ardent and _soi-disant_ bundle of +enthusiasm, but those who love him must pardon his pride, which is +harmless to himself and others alike, and is a far more admirable quality +than the indifference and apathy born of other lands. + +His closing words are not without a cynical truth, and withal a pride in +Paris: + +"It is true that if we can say with pride, we Parisians, 'It was Paris +which overthrew the Bastille,' you of the provinces can say with equal +pride, 'It was we who made the Revolution.'" + +As if to ease the hurt, he wrote further these two lines only: + +"At this epoch the sister nations should erect a gigantic statue of Peace. +This statue will be Paris, and its pedestal will represent _La Province_." + +His wish--it was not prophecy--did not, however, come true, as the world +in general and France and poor rent Alsace et Lorraine in particular know +to their sorrow; and all through a whim of a self-appointed, though +weakling, monarch. + +The era of the true peace of the world and the monument to its glory came +when the French nation presented to the New World that grand work of +Bartholdi, "Liberty Enlightening the World," which stands in New York +harbour, and whose smaller replica now terminates the Allee des Cygnes. + +The grasp that Dumas had of the events of romance and history served his +purpose well, and in the life of the fifties in Paris his was a name and +personality that was on everybody's lips. + +How he found time to live the full life that he did is a marvel; it +certainly does not bear out the theory of heredity when one considers the +race of his birth and the "dark-skinned" languor which was supposedly his +heritage. + +One edition of his work comprises two hundred and seventy-seven volumes, +and within the year a London publisher has announced some sixty volumes +"never before translated." Dumas himself has said that he was the author +of over seven hundred works. + +In point of time his romances go back to the days of the house of Valois +and the Anglo-French wars (1328), and to recount their contents is to +abstract many splendid chapters from out the pages of French history. + +It would seem as though nearly every personage of royalty and celebrity +(if these democratic times will allow the yoking together of the two; real +genuine _red_ republicans would probably link royalty and notoriety) +stalked majestically through his pages, and the record runs from the +fourteenth nearly to the end of the nineteenth century, with the exception +of the reign of Louis XI. + +An ardent admirer of Sir Walter Scott has commented upon this lapse as +being accounted for by the apparent futility of attempting to improve upon +"Quentin Durward." This is interesting, significant, and characteristic, +but it is not charitable, generous, or broad-minded. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DUMAS' EARLY LIFE IN PARIS + + +At fifteen (1817), Dumas entered the law-office of one Mennesson at +Villers-Cotterets as a _saute-ruisseau_ (gutter-snipe), as he himself +called it, and from this time on he was forced to forego what had been his +passion heretofore: bird-catching, shooting, and all manner of woodcraft. + +When still living at Villers-Cotterets Dumas had made acquaintance with +the art of the dramatist, so far as it was embodied in the person of +Adolphe de Leuven, with whom he collaborated in certain immature +melodramas and vaudevilles, which De Leuven himself took to Paris for +disposal. + +"No doubt managers would welcome them with enthusiasm," said Dumas, "and +likely enough we shall divert a branch of that Pactolus River which is +irrigating the domains of M. Scribe" (1822). + +Later on in his "Memoires" he says: "Complete humiliation; we were refused +everywhere." + + +[Illustration: STATUE OF DUMAS AT VILLERS-COTTERETS] + + +From Villers-Cotterets the scene of Dumas' labours was transferred to +Crepy, three and a half leagues distant, a small town to which he made his +way on foot, his belongings in a little bundle "_not more bulky than that +of a Savoyard when he leaves his native mountains_." + +In his new duties, still as a lawyer's clerk, Dumas found life very +wearisome, and, though the ancient capital of the Valois must have made an +impress upon him,--as one learns from the Valois romances,--he pined for +the somewhat more free life which he had previously lived; or, taking the +bull by the horns, deliberated as to how he might get into the very vortex +of things by pushing on to the capital. + +As he tritely says, "To arrive it was necessary to make a start," and the +problem was how to arrive in Paris from Crepy in the existing condition of +his finances. + +By dint of ingenuity and considerable activity Dumas left Crepy in company +with a friend on a sort of a runaway holiday, and made his third entrance +into Paris. + +It would appear that Dumas' culinary and gastronomic capabilities early +came into play, as we learn from the "Memoires" that, when he was not yet +out of his teens, and serving in the notary's office at Crepy, he +proposed to his colleague that they take this three days' holiday in +Paris. + +They could muster but thirty-five francs between them, so Dumas proposed +that they should shoot game _en route_. Said Dumas, "We can kill, shall I +say, one hare, two partridges, and a quail.... We reach Dammartin, get the +hinder part of our hare roasted and the front part jugged, then we eat and +drink." "And what then?" said his friend. "What then? Bless you, why we +pay for our wine, bread, and seasoning with the two partridges, and we tip +the waiter with the quail." + +The journey was accomplished in due order, and he and his friend put up at +the Hotel du Vieux-Augustins, reaching there at ten at night. + +In the morning he set out to find his collaborateur De Leuven, but the +fascination of Paris was such that it nearly made him forswear regard for +the flight of time. + +He says of the Palais Royale: "I found myself within its courtyard, and +stopped before the Theatre Francais, and on the bill I saw: + + "'Demain, Lundi + Sylla + Tragedie dans cinq Actes + Par M. de Jouy' + +"I solemnly swore that by some means or other ... I would see Sylla, and +all the more so because, in large letters, under the above notice, were +the words, 'The character of Sylla will be taken by M. Talma.'" + +In his "Memoires" Dumas states that it was at this time he had the +temerity to call on the great Talma. "Talma was short-sighted," said he, +"and was at his toilet; his hair was close cut, and his aspect under these +conditions was remarkably un-poetic.... Talma was for me a god--a god +unknown, it is true, as was Jupiter to Semele." + +And here comes a most delicious bit of Dumas himself, Dumas the egotist: + +"Ah, Talma! were you but twenty years younger or I twenty years older! I +know the past, you cannot foretell the future.... Had you known, Talma, +that the hand you had just touched would ultimately write sixty or eighty +dramas ... in each of which you would have found the material for a +marvellous creation...." + +Dumas may be said to have at once entered the world of art and letters in +this, his third visit to Paris, which took place so early in life, but in +the years so ripe with ambition. + +Having seen the great Talma in Sylla, in his dressing-room at the Theatre +Francais, he met Delavigne, who was then just completing his "Ecole des +Viellards," Lucien Arnault, who had just brought out "Regulus;" Soumet, +fresh from the double triumph of "Saul" and "Clymnestre;" here, too, were +Lemercier, Delrien, Viennet, and Jouy himself; and he had met at the Cafe +du Roi, Theadlon, Francis, Rochefort, and De Merle; indeed by his friend +De Leuven he was introduced to the assemblage there as a "future +Corneille," in spite of the fact that he was but a notary's clerk. + +Leaving what must have been to Dumas _the presence_, he shot a parting +remark, "Ah, yes, I shall come to Paris for good, I warrant you that." + +In "The Taking of the Bastille" Dumas traces again, in the characters of +Pitou and old Father Billot, much of the route which he himself took on +his first visit to Paris. The journey, then, is recounted from first-hand +information, and there will be no difficulty on the part of any one in +tracing the similarity of the itinerary. + +Chapter I., of the work in question, brings us at once on familiar ground, +and gives a description of Villers-Cotterets and its inhabitants in a +manner which shows Dumas' hand so unmistakably as to remove any doubts as +to the volume of assistance he may have received from others, on this +particular book at least. + +"On the borders of Picardy and the province of Soissons, and on that part +of the national territory which, under the name of the Isle of France, +formed a portion of the ancient patrimony of our kings, and in the centre +of an immense crescent, formed by a forest of fifty thousand acres, which +stretches its horns to the north and south, rises, almost buried amid the +shades of a vast park planted by Francois I. and Henri II., the small city +of Villers-Cotterets. This place is celebrated from having given birth to +Charles Albert Demoustier, who, at the period when our present history +commences, was there writing his Letters to Emilie on Mythology, to the +unbounded satisfaction of the pretty women of those days, who eagerly +snatched his publications from each other as soon as printed. + +"Let us add, to complete the poetical reputation of this little city, +whose detractors, notwithstanding its royal chateau and its two thousand +four hundred inhabitants, obstinately persist in calling it a mere +village--let us add, we say, to complete its poetical reputation, that it +is situated at two leagues distance from Laferte-Milan, where Racine was +born, and eight leagues from Chateau-Thierry, the birthplace of La +Fontaine. + +"Let us also state that the mother of the author of 'Britannicus' and +'Athalie' was from Villers-Cotterets. + +"But now we must return to its royal chateau and its two thousand four +hundred inhabitants. + +"This royal chateau, begun by Francois I., whose salamanders still +decorate it, and finished by Henri II., whose cipher it bears entwined +with that of Catherine de Medici and encircled by the three crescents of +Diana of Poictiers, after having sheltered the loves of the knight king +with Madame d'Etampes, and those of Louis Philippe of Orleans with the +beautiful Madame de Montesson, had become almost uninhabited since the +death of this last prince; his son, Philippe d'Orleans, afterward called +Egalite, having made it descend from the rank of a royal residence to that +of a mere hunting rendezvous. + +"It is well known that the chateau and forest of Villers-Cotterets formed +part of the appanage settled by Louis XIV. on his brother Monsieur, when +the second son of Anne of Austria married the sister of Charles II., the +Princess Henrietta of England. + +"As to the two thousand four hundred inhabitants of whom we have promised +our readers to say a word, they were, as in all localities where two +thousand four hundred people are united, a heterogeneous assemblage. + +"Firstly: Of the few nobles, who spent their summers in the neighbouring +chateaux and their winters in Paris, and who, mimicking the prince, had +only a lodging-place in the city. + +"Secondly: Of a goodly number of citizens, who could be seen, let the +weather be what it might, leaving their houses after dinner, umbrella in +hand, to take their daily walk, a walk which was regularly bounded by a +deep, invisible ditch which separated the park from the forest, situated +about a quarter of a league from the town, and which was called, doubtless +on account of the exclamation which the sight of it drew from the +asthmatic lungs of the promenaders, satisfied at finding themselves not +too much out of breath, the 'Ha, ha!' + +"Thirdly: Of a considerably greater number of artisans who worked the +whole of the week and only allowed themselves to take a walk on the +Sunday; whereas their fellow townsmen, more favoured by fortune, could +enjoy it every day. + +"Fourthly and finally: Of some miserable proletarians, for whom the week +had not even a Sabbath, and who, after having toiled six days in the pay +of the nobles, the citizens, or even of the artisans, wandered on the +seventh day through the forest to gather up dry wood or branches of the +lofty trees, torn from them by the storm, that mower of the forest, to +whom oak-trees are but ears of wheat, and which it scattered over the +humid soil beneath the lofty trees, the magnificent appanage of a prince. + +"If Villers-Cotterets (Villerii ad Cotiam Retiae) had been, unfortunately, +a town of sufficient importance in history to induce archaeologists to +ascertain and follow up its successive changes from a village to a town +and from a town to a city--the last, as we have said, being strongly +contested, they would certainly have proved this fact, that the village +had begun by being a row of houses on either side of the road from Paris +to Soissons; then they would have added that its situation on the borders +of a beautiful forest having, though by slow degrees, brought to it a +great increase of inhabitants, other streets were added to the first, +diverging like the rays of a star and leading toward other small villages +with which it was important to keep up communication, and converging +toward a point which naturally became the centre, that is to say, what in +the provinces is called _Le Carrefour_,--and sometimes even the Square, +whatever might be its shape,--and around which the handsomest buildings of +the village, now become a burgh, were erected, and in the middle of which +rises a fountain, now decorated with a quadruple dial; in short, they +would have fixed the precise date when, near the modest village church, +the first want of a people, arose the first turrets of the vast chateau, +the last caprice of a king; a chateau which, after having been, as we have +already said, by turns a royal and a princely residence, has in our days +become a melancholy and hideous receptacle for mendicants under the +direction of the Prefecture of the Seine, and to whom M. Marrast issues +his mandates through delegates of whom he has not, nor probably will ever +have, either the time or the care to ascertain the names." + +The last sentence seems rather superfluous,--if it was justifiable,--but, +after all, no harm probably was done, and Dumas as a rule was never +vituperative. + +Continuing, these first pages give us an account of the difficulties under +which poor Louis Ange Pitou acquired his knowledge of Latin, which is +remarkably like the account which Dumas gives in the "Memoires" of his +early acquaintance with the classics. + +When Pitou leaves Haramont, his native village, and takes to the road, and +visits Billot at "Bruyere aux Loups," knowing well the road, as he did +that to Damploux, Compiegne, and Vivieres, he was but covering ground +equally well known to Dumas' own youth. + +Finally, as he is joined by Billot _en route_ for Paris, and takes the +highroad from Villers-Cotterets, near Gondeville, passing Nanteuil, +Dammartin, and Ermenonville, arriving at Paris at La Villette, he follows +almost the exact itinerary taken by the venturesome Dumas on his runaway +journey from the notary's office at Crepy-en-Valois. + +Crepy-en-Valois was the near neighbour of Villers-Cotterets, which +jealously attempted to rival it, and does even to-day. In "The Taking of +the Bastille" Dumas only mentions it in connection with Mother Sabot's +_ane_, "which was shod,"--the only ass which Pitou had ever known which +wore shoes,--and performed the duty of carrying the mails between Crepy +and Villers-Cotterets. + +At Villers-Cotterets one may come into close contact with the chateau +which is referred to in the later pages of the "Vicomte de Bragelonne." +"Situated in the middle of the forest, where we shall lead a most +sentimental life, the very same where my grandfather," said Monseigneur +the Prince, "Henri IV. did with 'La Belle Gabrielle.'" + +So far as lion-hunting goes, Dumas himself at an early age appears to have +fallen into it. He recalls in "Mes Memoires" the incident of Napoleon I. +passing through Villers-Cotterets just previous to the battle of Waterloo. + +"Nearly every one made a rush for the emperor's carriage," said he; +"naturally I was one of the first.... Napoleon's pale, sickly face seemed +a block of ivory.... He raised his head and asked, 'Where are we?' 'At +Villers-Cotterets, Sire,' said a voice. 'Go on.'" Again, a few days later, +as we learn from the "Memoires," "a horseman coated with mud rushes into +the village; orders four horses for a carriage which is to follow, and +departs.... A dull rumble draws near ... a carriage stops.... 'Is it +he--the emperor?' Yes, it was the emperor, in the same position as I had +seen him before, exactly the same, pale, sickly, impassive; only the head +droops rather more.... 'Where are we?' he asked. 'At Villers-Cotterets, +Sire.' 'Go on.'" + +That evening Napoleon slept at the Elysee. It was but three months since +he had returned from Elba, but in that time he came to an abyss which had +engulfed his fortune. That abyss was Waterloo; only saved to the +allies--who at four in the afternoon were practically defeated--by the +coming up of the Germans at six. + +Among the books of reference and contemporary works of a varying nature +from which a writer in this generation must build up his facts anew, is +found a wide difference in years as to the date of the birth of Dumas +_pere_. + +As might be expected, the weight of favour lies with the French +authorities, though by no means do they, even, agree among themselves. + +His friends have said that no unbiassed, or even complete biography of the +author exists, even in French; and possibly this is so. There is about +most of them a certain indefiniteness and what Dumas himself called the +"colour of sour grapes." + +The exact date of his birth, however, is unquestionably 1802, if a +photographic reproduction of his natal certificate, published in Charles +Glinel's "Alex. Dumas et Son Oeuvre," is what it seems to be. + +Dumas' aristocratic parentage--for such it truly was--has been the +occasion of much scoffing and hard words. He pretended not to it himself, +but it was founded on family history, as the records plainly tell, and +whether Alexandre, the son of the brave General Dumas, the Marquis de la +Pailleterie, was prone to acknowledge it or not does not matter in the +least. The "feudal particle" existed plainly in his pedigree, and with no +discredit to any concerned. + + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF DUMAS' OWN STATEMENT OF HIS BIRTH] + + +General Dumas, his wife, and his son are buried in the cemetery of +Villers-Cotterets, where the exciting days of the childhood of Dumas, the +romancer, were spent, in a plot of ground "conceded in perpetuity to the +family." The plot forms a rectangle six metres by five, surrounded by +towering pines. + +The three monuments contained therein are of the utmost simplicity, each +consisting of an inclined slab of stone. + +The inscriptions are as follows: + + FAMILLE + + Thomas-Alexandre + Dumas + Davy de la Pailleterie + general de division + ne a Jeremie + Ile et Cote de Saint + Dominique + le 25 mars 1762, + decede + a Villers-Cotterets + le 27 fevrier 1806 + + + ALEXANDRE + + Marie-Louise-Elizabeth + Labouret + Epouse + du general de division + Dumas Davy + de la Pailleterie + nee + a Villers-Cotterets + le 4 juillet 1769 + decedee + le 1er aout 1838 + + + DUMAS + + Alexandre Dumas + ne a Villers-Cotterets + le 24 juillet 1802 + decede + le 5 decembre 1870 + a Puys + transfere + a + Villers-Cotterets + le + 15 avril 1872 + +There would seem to be no good reason why a book treating of Dumas' Paris +might not be composed entirely of quotations from Dumas' own works. For a +fact, such a work would be no less valuable as a record than were it +evolved by any other process. It would indeed be the best record that +could possibly be made, for Dumas' topography was generally truthful if +not always precise. + +There are, however, various contemporary side-lights which are thrown upon +any canvas, no matter how small its area, and in this instance they seem +to engulf even the personality of Dumas himself, to say nothing of his +observations. + +Dumas was such a part and parcel of the literary life of the times in +which he lived that mention can scarce be made of any contemporary event +that has not some bearing on his life or work, or he with it, from the +time when he first came to the metropolis (in 1822) at the impressionable +age of twenty, until the end. + +It will be difficult, even, to condense the relative incidents which +entered into his life within the confines of a single volume, to say +nothing of a single chapter. The most that can be done is to present an +abridgment which shall follow along the lines of some preconceived +chronological arrangement. This is best compiled from Dumas' own words, +leaving it to the additional references of other chapters to throw a sort +of reflected glory from a more distant view-point. + +The reputation of Dumas with the merely casual reader rests upon his +best-known romances, "Monte Cristo," 1841; "Les Trois Mousquetaires," +1844; "Vingt Ans Apres," 1845; "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," 1847; "La Dame +de Monsoreau," 1847; and his dramas of "Henri III. et Sa Cour," 1829, +"Antony," 1831, and "Kean," 1836. + +His memoirs, "Mes Memoires," are practically closed books to the mass of +English readers--the word books is used advisedly, for this remarkable +work is composed of twenty stout volumes, and they only cover ten years of +the author's life. + +Therein is a mass of fact and fancy which may well be considered as +fascinating as are the "romances" themselves, and, though autobiographic, +one gets a far more satisfying judgment of the man than from the various +warped and distorted accounts which have since been published, either in +French or English. + +Beginning with "Memories of My Childhood" (1802-06), Dumas launches into +a few lines anent his first visit to Paris, in company with his father, +though the auspicious--perhaps significant--event took place at a very +tender age. It seems remarkable that he should have recalled it at all, +but he was a remarkable man, and it seems not possible to ignore his +words. + +"We set out for Paris, ah, that journey! I recollect it perfectly.... It +was August or September, 1805. We got down in the Rue Thiroux at the +house of one Dolle.... I had been embraced by one of the most noble ladies +who ever lived, Madame la Marquise de Montesson, widow of Louis-Philippe +d'Orleans.... The next day, putting Brune's sword between my legs and +Murat's hat upon my head, I galloped around the table; when my father +said, '_Never forget this, my boy_.'... My father consulted Corvisart, and +attempted to see the emperor, but Napoleon, the quondam general, had now +become the emperor, and he refused to see my father.... To where did we +return? I believe Villers-Cotterets." + +Again on the 26th of March, 1813, Dumas entered Paris in company with his +mother, now widowed. He says of this visit: + +"I was delighted at the prospect of this my second visit.... I have but +one recollection, full of light and poetry, when, with a flourish of +trumpets, a waving of banners, and shouts of 'Long live the King of Rome,' +was lifted up above the heads of fifty thousand of the National Guard the +rosy face and the fair, curly head of a child of three years--the infant +son of the great Napoleon.... Behind him was his mother,--that woman so +fatal to France, as have been all the daughters of the Caesars, Anne of +Austria, Marie Antoinette, and Marie Louise,--an indistinct, insipid +face.... The next day we started home again." + + * * * * * + +Through the influence of General Foy, an old friend of his father's, Dumas +succeeded in obtaining employment in the Orleans Bureau at the Palais +Royal. + +His occupation there appears not to have been unduly arduous. The offices +were in the right-hand corner of the second courtyard of the Palais Royal. +He remained here in this bureau for a matter of five years, and, as he +said, "loved the hour when he came to the office," because his immediate +superior, Lassagne,--a contributor to the _Drapeau Blanc_,--was the friend +and intimate of Desaugiers, Theaulon, Armand Gouffe, Brozier, Rougemont, +and all the vaudevillists of the time. + +Dumas' meeting with the Duc d'Orleans--afterward Louis-Philippe--is +described in his own words thus: "In two words I was introduced. 'My lord, +this is M. Dumas, whom I mentioned to you, General Foy's protege.' 'You +are the son of a brave man,' said the duc, 'whom Bonaparte, it seems, left +to die of starvation.'... The duc gave Oudard a nod, which I took to mean, +'He will do, he's by no means bad for a provincial.'" And so it was that +Dumas came immediately under the eye of the duc, engaged as he was at +that time on some special clerical work in connection with the duc's +provincial estates. + +The affability of Dumas, so far as he himself was concerned, was a +foregone conclusion. In the great world in which he moved he knew all +sorts and conditions of men. He had his enemies, it is true, and many of +them, but he himself was the enemy of no man. To English-speaking folk he +was exceedingly agreeable, because,--quoting his own words,--said he, "It +was a part of the debt which I owed to Shakespeare and Scott." Something +of the egoist here, no doubt, but gracefully done nevertheless. + +With his temperament it was perhaps but natural that Dumas should have +become a romancer. This was of itself, maybe, a foreordained sequence of +events, but no man thinks to-day that, leaving contributary conditions, +events, and opportunities out of the question, he shapes his own fate; +there are accumulated heritages of even distant ages to contend with. In +Dumas' case there was his heritage of race and colour, refined, perhaps, +by a long drawn out process, but, as he himself tells in "Mes Memoires," +his mother's fear was that her child would be born black, and he _was_, +or, at least, purple, as he himself afterward put it. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DUMAS' LITERARY CAREER + + +Just how far Dumas' literary ability was an inheritance, or growth of his +early environment, will ever be an open question. It is a manifest fact +that he had breathed something of the spirit of romance before he came to +Paris. + +Although it was not acknowledged until 1856, "The Wolf-Leader" was a +development of a legend told to him in his childhood. Recalling then the +incident of his boyhood days, and calling into recognition his gift of +improvisation, he wove a tale which reflected not a little of the open-air +life of the great forest of Villers-Cotterets, near the place of his +birth. + +Here, then, though it was fifty years after his birth, and thirty after he +had thrust himself on the great world of Paris, the scenes of his +childhood were reproduced in a wonderfully romantic and weird +tale--which, to the best of the writer's belief, has not yet appeared in +English. + +To some extent it is possible that there is not a little of autobiography +therein, not so much, perhaps, as Dickens put into "David Copperfield," +but the suggestion is thrown out for what it may be worth. + +It is, furthermore, possible that the historic associations of the town of +Villers-Cotterets--which was but a little village set in the midst of the +surrounding forest--may have been the prime cause which influenced and +inspired the mind of Dumas toward the romance of history. + +In point of chronology, among the earliest of the romances were those that +dealt with the fortunes of the house of Valois (fourteenth century), and +here, in the little forest town of Villers-Cotterets, was the magnificent +manor-house which belonged to the Ducs de Valois; so it may be presumed +that the sentiment of early associations had somewhat to do with these +literary efforts. + +All his life Dumas devotedly admired the sentiment and fancies which +foregathered in this forest, whose very trees and stones he knew so well. +From his "Memoires" we learn of his indignation at the destruction of its +trees and much of its natural beauty. He says: + +"This park, planted by Francois I., was cut down by Louis-Philippe. Trees, +under whose shade once reclined Francois I. and Madame d'Etampes, Henri +II. and Diane de Poitiers, Henri IV. and Gabrielle d'Estrees--you would +have believed that a Bourbon would have respected you. But over and above +your inestimable value of poetry and memories, you had, unhappily, a +material value. You beautiful beeches with your polished silvery cases! +you beautiful oaks with your sombre wrinkled bark!--you were worth a +hundred thousand crowns. The King of France, who, with his six millions of +private revenue, was too poor to keep you--the King of France sold you. +For my part, had you been my sole possession, I would have preserved you; +for, poet as I am, one thing that I would set before all the gold of the +earth: the murmur of the wind in your leaves; the shadow that you made to +flicker beneath my feet; the visions, the phantoms, which, at eventide, +betwixt the day and night, in the doubtful hour of twilight, would glide +between your age-long trunks as glide the shadows of the ancient +Abencerrages amid the thousand columns of Cordova's royal mosque." + +What wonder, with these lines before one, that the impressionable Dumas +was so taken with the romance of life and so impracticable in other ways. + + * * * * * + +From the fact that no thorough biography of Dumas exists, it will be +difficult to trace the fluctuations of his literary career with +preciseness. It is not possible even with the twenty closely packed +volumes of the "Memoires"--themselves incomplete--before one. All that a +biographer can get from this treasure-house are facts,--rather radiantly +coloured in some respects, but facts nevertheless,--which are put together +in a not very coherent or compact form. + +They do, to be sure, recount many of the incidents and circumstances +attendant upon the writing and publication of many of his works, and +because of this they immediately become the best of all sources of supply. +It is to be regretted that these "Memoires" have not been translated, +though it is doubtful if any publisher of English works could get his +money back from the transaction. + +Other clues as to his emotions, and with no uncertain references to +incidents of Dumas' literary career, are found in "Mes Betes," "Ange +Pitou," the "Causeries," and the "Travels." These comprise many volumes +not yet translated. + + +[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A MANUSCRIPT PAGE FROM ONE OF DUMAS' PLAYS] + + +Dumas was readily enough received into the folds of the great. Indeed, +as we know, he made his _entree_ under more than ordinary, if not +exceptional, circumstances, and his connection with the great names of +literature and statecraft extended from Hugo to Garibaldi. + +As for his own predilections in literature, Dumas' own voice is +practically silent, though we know that he was a romanticist pure and +simple, and drew no inspiration or encouragement from Voltairian +sentiments. If not essentially religious, he at least believed in its +principles, though, as a warm admirer has said, "He had no liking for the +celibate and bookish life of the churchman." + +Dumas does not enter deeply into the subject of ecclesiasticism in France. +His most elaborate references are to the Abbey of Ste. Genevieve--since +disappeared in favour of the hideous pagan Pantheon--and its relics and +associations, in "La Dame de Monsoreau." Other of the romances from time +to time deal with the subject of religion more or less, as was bound to +be, considering the times of which he wrote, of Mazarin, Richelieu, De +Rohan, and many other churchmen. + +Throughout the thirties Dumas was mostly occupied with his plays, the +predominant, if not the most sonorous note, being sounded by "Antony." + +As a novelist his star shone brightest in the decade following, +commencing with "Monte Cristo," in 1841, and continuing through "Le +Vicomte de Bragelonne" and "La Dame de Monsoreau," in 1847. + +During these strenuous years Dumas produced the flower of his romantic +garland--omitting, of course, certain trivial and perhaps unworthy +trifles, among which are usually considered, rightly enough, "Le Capitaine +Paul" (Paul Jones) and "Jeanne d'Arc." At this period, however, he +produced the charming and exotic "Black Tulip," which has since come to be +a reality. The best of all, though, are admittedly the Mousquetaire cycle, +the volumes dealing with the fortunes of the Valois line, and, again, +"Monte Cristo." + +By 1830, Dumas, eager, as it were, to experience something of the valiant +boisterous spirit of the characters of his romances, had thrown himself +heartily into an alliance with the opponents of Louis-Philippe. Orleanist +successes, however, left him to fall back upon his pen. + +In 1844, having finished "Monte Cristo," he followed it by "Les Trois +Mousquetaires," and before the end of the same year had put out forty +volumes, by what means, those who will read the scurrilous "Fabrique des +Romans"--and properly discount it--may learn. + +The publication of "Monte Cristo" and "Les Trois Mousquetaires" as +newspaper _feuilletons_, in 1844-45, met with amazing success, and were, +indeed, written from day to day, to keep pace with the demands of the +press. + +Here is, perhaps, an opportune moment to digress into the ethics of the +profession of the "literary ghost," and but for the fact that the subject +has been pretty well thrashed out before,--not only with respect to Dumas, +but to others as well,--it might justifiably be included here at some +length, but shall not be, however. + +The busy years from 1840-50 could indeed be "explained"--if one were sure +of his facts; but beyond the circumstances, frequently availed of, it is +admitted, of Dumas having made use of secretarial assistance in the +productions which were ultimately to be fathered by himself, there is +little but jealous and spiteful hearsay to lead one to suppose that he +made any secret of the fact that he had some very considerable assistance +in the production of the seven hundred volumes which, at a late period in +his life, he claimed to have produced. + +The "_Maquet affaire_," of course, proclaims the whilom Augustus Mackeat +as a _collaborateur_; still the ingenuity of Dumas shines forth through +the warp and woof in an unmistakable manner, and he who would know more +of the pros and cons is referred to the "_Maison Dumas et Cie_." + +Maquet was manifestly what we have come to know as a "hack," though the +species is not so very new--nor so very rare. The great libraries are full +of them the whole world over, and very useful, though irresponsible and +ungrateful persons, many of them have proved to be. Maquet, at any rate, +served some sort of a useful purpose, and he certainly was a confidant of +the great romancer during these very years, but that his was the mind and +hand that evolved or worked out the general plan and detail of the +romances is well-nigh impossible to believe, when one has digested both +sides of the question. + +An English critic of no inconsiderable knowledge has thrown in his lot +recently with the claims of Maquet, and given the sole and entire +production of "Les Trois Mousquetaires," "Monte Cristo," "La Dame de +Monsoreau," and many other of Dumas' works of this period, to him, placing +him, indeed, with Shakespeare, whose plays certain gullible persons +believe to have been written by Bacon. The flaw in the theory is apparent +when one realizes that the said Maquet was no myth--he was, in fact, a +very real person, and a literary personage of a certain ability. It is +strange, then, that if he were the producer of, say "Les Trois +Mousquetaires," which was issued ostensibly as the work of Dumas, that he +wrote nothing under his own name that was at all comparable therewith; and +stranger still, that he was able to repeat this alleged success with +"Monte Cristo," or the rest of the Mousquetaire series, and yet not be +able to do the same sort of a feat when playing the game by himself. One +instance would not prove this contention, but several are likely to not +only give it additional strength, but to practically demonstrate the +correct conclusion. + +The ethics of plagiarism are still greater and more involved than those +which make justification for the employment of one who makes a profession +of _library research_, but it is too involved and too vast to enter into +here, with respect to accusations of its nature which were also made +against Dumas. + +As that new star which has so recently risen out of the East--Mr. +Kipling--has said, "They took things where they found them." This is +perhaps truthful with regard to most literary folk, who are continually +seeking a new line of thought. Scott did it, rather generously one might +think; even Stevenson admitted that he was greatly indebted to Washington +Irving and Poe for certain of the details of "Treasure Island"--though +there is absolutely no question but that it was a sort of unconscious +absorption, to put it rather unscientifically. The scientist himself calls +it the workings of the subconscious self. + +As before said, the Maquet _affaire_ was a most complicated one, and it +shall have no lengthy consideration here. Suffice to say that, when a case +was made by Maquet in court, in 1856-58, Maquet lost. "It is not justice +that has won," said Maquet, "but Dumas." + +Edmond About has said that Maquet lived to speak kindly of Dumas, "as did +his legion of other _collaborateurs_; and the proudest of them +congratulate themselves on having been trained in so good a school." This +being so, it is hard to see anything very outrageous or preposterous in +the procedure. + +Blaze de Bury has described Dumas' method thus: + +"The plot was worked over by Dumas and his colleague, when it was finally +drafted by the other and afterward _rewritten_ by Dumas." + +M. About, too, corroborates Blaze de Bury's statement, so it thus appears +legitimately explained. Dumas at least supplied the ideas and the +_esprit_. + +In Dumas' later years there is perhaps more justification for the thought +that as his indolence increased--though he was never actually inert, at +least not until sickness drew him down--the authorship of the novels +became more complex. Blaze de Bury put them down to the "Dumas-Legion," +and perhaps with some truth. They certainly have not the vim and fire and +temperament of individuality of those put forth from 1840 to 1850. + +Dumas wrote fire and impetuosity into the veins of his heroes, perhaps +some of his very own vivacious spirit. It has been said that his moral +code was that of the camp or the theatre; but that is an ambiguity, and it +were better not dissected. + +Certainly he was no prude or Puritan, not more so, at any rate, than were +Burns, Byron, or Poe, but the virtues of courage, devotion, faithfulness, +loyalty, and friendship were his, to a degree hardly excelled by any of +whom the written record of _cameraderie_ exists. + +Dumas has been jibed and jeered at by the supercilious critics ever since +his first successes appeared, but it has not leavened his reputation as +the first romancer of his time one single jot; and within the past few +years we have had a revival of the character of true romance--perhaps the +first _true_ revival since Dumas' time--in M. Rostand's "Cyrano de +Bergerac." + +We have had, too, the works of Zola, who, indomitable, industrious, and +sincere as he undoubtedly was, will have been long forgotten when the +masterpieces of Dumas are being read and reread. The Mousquetaire cycle, +the Valois romances, and "Monte Cristo" stand out by themselves above all +others of his works, and have had the approbation of such discerning +fellow craftsmen as George Sand, Thackeray, and Stevenson, all of whom may +be presumed to have judged from entirely different points of view. +Thackeray, indeed, plainly indicated his greatest admiration for "La +Tulipe Noire," a work which in point of time came somewhat later. At this +time Dumas had built his own Chalet de Monte Cristo near St. Germain, a +sort of a Gallic rival to Abbotsford. It, and the "Theatre Historique," +founded by Dumas, came to their disastrous end in the years immediately +following upon the Revolution of 1848, when Dumas fled to Brussels and +began his "Memoires." He also founded a newspaper called _Le +Mousquetaire_, which failed, else he might have retrenched and satisfied +his creditors--at least in part. + +He travelled in Russia, and upon his return wrote of his journey to the +Caspian. In 1860 he obtained an archaeological berth in Italy, and edited a +Garibaldian newspaper. + +By 1864, the "Director of Excavations at Naples," which was Dumas' +official title, fell out with the new government which had come in, and he +left his partisan journal and the lava-beds of Pompeii for Paris and the +literary arena again; but the virile power of his early years was gone, +and Dumas never again wielded the same pen which had limned the features +of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan. + +In 1844 Dumas participated in a sort of personally-conducted Bonapartist +tour to the Mediterranean, in company with the son of Jerome Napoleon. On +this journey Dumas first saw the island of Monte Cristo and the Chateau +d'If, which lived so fervently in his memory that he decided that their +personality should be incorporated in the famous tale which was already +formulating itself in his brain. + +Again, this time in company with the Duc de Montpensier, he journeyed to +the Mediterranean, "did" Spain, and crossed over to Algiers. When he +returned he brought back the celebrated vulture, "Jugurtha," whose fame +was afterward perpetuated in "Mes Betes." + +That there was a deal of reality in the characterization and the locale of +Dumas' romances will not be denied by any who have acquaintance +therewith. Dumas unquestionably took his material where he found it, and +his wonderfully retentive memory, his vast capacity for work, and his wide +experience and extensive acquaintance provided him material that many +another would have lacked. + +M. de Chaffault tells of his having accompanied Dumas by road from Sens to +Joigny, Dumas being about to appeal to the republican constituency of that +place for their support of him as a candidate for the parliamentary +elections. + +"In a short time we were on the road," said the narrator, "and the first +stage of three hours seemed to me only as many minutes. Whenever we passed +a country-seat, out came a lot of anecdotes and legends connected with its +owners, interlarded with quaint fancies and epigrams." + +Aside from the descriptions of the country around about Crepy, Compiegne, +and Villers-Cotterets which he wove into the Valois tales, "The Taking of +the Bastille," and "The Wolf-Leader," there is a strong note of +personality in "Georges;" some have called it autobiography. + +The tale opens in the far-distant Isle of France, called since the English +occupation Mauritius, and in the narrative of the half-caste Georges +Munier are supposed to be reflected many of the personal incidents of the +life of the author. + +This story may or may not be a mere repetition of certain of the incidents +of the struggle of the mulatto against the barrier of the white +aristocracy, and may have been an echo in Dumas' own life. It is repeated +it may have been this, or it may have been much more. Certain it is, there +is an underlying motive which could only have been realized to the full +extent expressed therein by one who knew and felt the pangs of the +encounter with a world which only could come to one of genius who was by +reason of race or creed outclassed by his contemporaries; and therein is +given the most vivid expression of the rise of one who had everything +against him at the start. + +This was not wholly true of Dumas himself, to be sure, as he was endowed +with certain influential friends. Still it was mainly through his own +efforts that he was able to prevail upon the old associates and friends of +the dashing General Dumas, his father, to give him his first lift along +the rough and stony literary pathway. + +In this book there is a curious interweaving of the life and colour which +may have had not a little to do with the actual life which obtained with +respect to his ancestors, and as such, and the various descriptions of +negro and Creole life, the story becomes at once a document of prime +interest and importance. + +Since Dumas himself has explained and justified the circumstance out of +which grew the conception of the D'Artagnan romances, it is perhaps +advisable that some account should be given of the original D'Artagnan. + +Primarily, the interest in Dumas' romance of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" is +as great, if not greater, with respect to the characters as it is with the +scenes in which they lived and acted their strenuous parts. In addition, +there is the profound satisfaction of knowing that the rollicking and +gallant swashbuckler has come down to us from the pages of real life, as +Dumas himself recounts in the preface to the Colman Levy edition of the +book. The statement of Dumas is explicit enough; there is no mistaking his +words which open the preface: + + "Dans laquelle + Il est etabli que, malgre leurs noms en _os_ et en _is_, + Les heros de l'histoire + Que nous allons avoir l'honneur de raconter a nos lecteurs + N'ont rien de mythologique." + +The contemporary facts which connect the real Comte d'Artagnan with +romances are as follows: + +Charles de Batz de Castlemore, Comte d'Artagnan, received his title +from the little village of Artagnan, near the Gascon town of Orthez in the +present department of the Hautes-Pyrenees. He was born in 1623. Dumas, +with an author's license, made his chief figure a dozen years older, for +the real D'Artagnan was but five years old at the time of the siege of La +Rochelle of which Dumas makes mention. On the whole, the romance is near +enough to reality to form an ample endorsement of the author's verity. + + +[Illustration: D'ARTAGNAN] + + +The real D'Artagnan made his way to Paris, as did he of the romance. Here +he met his fellow Bearnais, one M. de Treville, captain of the king's +musketeers, and the illustrious individuals, _Armand de Sillegue d'Athos_, +a Bearnais nobleman who died in 1645, and whose direct descendant, Colonel +de Sillegue, commanded, according to the French army lists of a recent +date, a regiment of French cavalry; _Henry d'Aramitz_, lay abbe of Oloron; +and _Jean de Portu_, all of them probably neighbours in D'Artagnan's old +home. + +D'Artagnan could not then have been at the siege of La Rochelle, but from +the "Memoires de M. d'Artagnan," of which Dumas writes in his preface, we +learn of his feats at arms at Arras, Valenciennes, Douai, and Lille, all +places where once and again Dumas placed the action of the novels. + +The real D'Artagnan died, sword in hand, "in the imminent deadly breach" +at Maestricht, in 1673. He served, too, under Prince Rupert in the Civil +War, and frequently visited England, where he had an _affaire_ with a +certain Milady, which is again reminiscent of the pages of Dumas. + +This D'Artagnan in the flesh married Charlotte Anne de Chanlecy, and the +last of his direct descendants died in Paris in the latter years of the +eighteenth century, but collateral branches of the family appear still to +exist in Gascony, and there was a certain Baron de Batz, a Bearnais, who +made a daring attempt to save Marie Antoinette in 1793. + +The inception of the whole work in Dumas' mind, as he says, came to him +while he was making research in the "Bibliotheque Royale" for his history +of Louis XIV. + +Thus from these beginnings grew up that series of romances which gave +undying fame to Alexandre Dumas, and to the world of readers a series of +characters and scenes associated with the mediaeval history of France, +which, before or since, have not been equalled. + +Alexandre Dumas has been described as something of the soldier, the cook, +and the traveller, more of the journalist, diplomatist, and poet, and, +more than all else, the dramatist, romancer, and _raconteur_. He himself +has said that he was a "veritable Wandering Jew of literature." + +His versatility in no way comprised his abilities, and, while conceit and +egoism played a not unimportant share in his make-up, his affability--when +he so chose--caused him to be ranked highly in the estimation of his +equals and contemporaries. By the cur-dogs, which always snap at the heels +of a more splendid animal, he was not ranked so high. + +Certain of these were for ever twitting him publicly of his creed, race, +and foibles. It is recorded by Theodore de Bauville, in his "Odes," that +one Jacquot hailed Dumas in the open street with a ribald jeer, when, +calmly turning to his detractor, Dumas said, simply: "Hast thou dined +to-day, Jacquot?" Then it was that this said Jacquot published the +slanderous brochure, "_La Maison Dumas et Cie_," which has gone down as +something considerable of a sensation in the annals of literary history; +so much so, indeed, that most writers who have had occasion to refer to +Dumas' literary career have apparently half-believed its accusations, +which, truth to tell, may have had some bearing on "things as they were," +had they but been put forward as a bit of temperate criticism rather than +as a sweeping condemnation. + +To give the reader an idea of the Dumas of 1840, one can scarcely do +better than present his portrait as sketched by De Villemessant, the +founder and brilliant editor of the _Figaro_, when Dumas was at the height +of his glory, and a grasp of his hand was better than a touch of genius to +those receiving it: + +"At no time and among no people had it till then been granted to a writer +to achieve fame in every direction; in serious drama and in comedy, and +novels of adventure and of domestic interest, in humourous stories and in +pathetic tales, Alexandre Dumas had been alike successful. The frequenters +of the Theatre Francais owed him evenings of delight, but so did the +general public as well. Dumas alone had had the power to touch, interest, +or amuse, not only Paris or France, but the whole world. If all other +novelists had been swallowed up in an earthquake, this one would have been +able to supply the leading libraries of Europe. If all other dramatists +had died, Alexandre Dumas could have occupied every stage; his magic name +on a playbill or affixed to a newspaper _feuilleton_ ensured the sale of +that issue or a full house at the theatre. He was king of the stage, +prince of _feuilletonists_, _the_ literary man _par excellence_, in that +Paris then so full of intellect. When he opened his lips the most +eloquent held their breath to listen; when he entered a room the wit of +man, the beauty of woman, the pride of life, grew dim in the radiance of +his glory; he reigned over Paris in right of his sovereign intellect, the +only monarch who for an entire century had understood how to draw to +himself the adoration of all classes of society, from the Faubourg St. +Germain to the Batignolles. + +"Just as he united in himself capabilities of many kinds, so he displayed +in his person the perfection of many races. From the negro he had derived +the frizzled hair and those thick lips on which Europe had laid a delicate +smile of ever-varying meaning; from the southern races he derived his +vivacity of gesture and speech, from the northern his solid frame and +broad shoulders and a figure which, while it showed no lack of French +elegance, was powerful enough to have made green with envy the gentlemen +of the Russian Life-Guards." + +Dumas' energy and output were tremendous, as all know. It is recorded that +on one occasion,--in the later years of his life, when, as was but +natural, he had tired somewhat,--after a day at _la chasse_, he withdrew +to a cottage near by to rest until the others should rejoin him, after +having finished their sport. This they did within a reasonably short +time,--whether one hour or two is not stated with definiteness,--when +they found him sitting before the fire "twirling his thumbs." On being +interrogated, he replied that he had not been sitting there long; _in +fact, he had just written the first act of a new play_. + +The French journal, _La Revue_, tells the following incident, which sounds +new. Some years before his death, Dumas had written a somewhat quaint +letter to Napoleon III., apropos of a play which had been condemned by the +French censor. In this epistle he commenced: + +"SIRE:--In 1830, and, indeed, even to-day, there are three men at the head +of French literature. These three men are Victor Hugo, Lamartine, and +myself. Although I am the least of the three, the five continents have +made me the most popular, probably because the one was a thinker, the +other a dreamer, while I am merely a writer of commonplace tales." + +This letter goes on to plead the cause of his play, and from this +circumstance the censorship was afterward removed. + +A story is told of an incident which occurred at a rehearsal of "Les Trois +Mousquetaires" at the "Ambigu." This story is strangely reminiscent of +another incident which happened at a rehearsal of Halevy's "Guido et +Genevra," but it is still worth recounting here, if only to emphasize the +indomitable energy and perspicacity of Dumas. + +It appears that a _pompier_--that gaudy, glistening fireman who is always +present at functions of all sorts on the continent of Europe--who was +watching the rehearsal, was observed by Dumas to suddenly leave his point +of vantage and retire. Dumas followed him and inquired his reason for +withdrawing. "What made you go away?" Dumas asked of him. "Because that +last act did not interest me so much as the others," was the answer. +Whereupon Dumas sent for the prompt-book and threw that portion relating +to that particular tableau into the fire, and forthwith set about to +rewrite it on the spot. "It does not amuse the _pompier_," said Dumas, +"but I know what it wants." An hour and a half later, at the finish of the +rehearsal, the actors were given their new words for the seventh tableau. + +In spite of the varied success with which his plays met, Dumas was, we may +say, first of all a dramatist, if construction of plot and the moving +about of dashing and splendid figures counts for anything; and it most +assuredly does. + +This very same qualification is what makes the romances so vivid and +thrilling; and they do not falter either in accessory or fact. + +The cloaks of his swashbucklering heroes are always the correct shade of +scarlet; their rapiers, their swords, or their pistols are always rightly +tuned, and their entrances and their exits correctly and most +appropriately timed. + +When his characters represent the poverty of a tatterdemalion, they do it +with a sincerity that is inimitable, and the lusty throatings of a +D'Artagnan are never a hollow mockery of something they are not. + +Dumas drew his characters of the stage and his personages of the romances +with the brilliance and assurance of a Velasquez, rather than with the +finesse of a Praxiteles, and for that reason they live and introduce +themselves as cosmopolitans, and are to be appreciated only as one studies +or acquires something of the spirit from which they have been evolved. + +Of Dumas' own uproarious good nature many have written. Albert Vandam +tells of a certain occasion when he went to call upon the novelist at St. +Germain,--and he reckoned Dumas the most lovable and genial among all of +his host of acquaintances in the great world of Paris,--that he overheard, +as he was entering the study, "a loud burst of laughter." "I had sooner +wait until monsieur's visitors are gone," said he. "Monsieur has no +visitors," said the servant. "Monsieur often laughs like that at his +work." + +Dumas as a man of affairs or as a politician was not the success that he +was in the world of letters. His activities were great, and his enthusiasm +for any turn of affairs with which he allied himself remarkable; but, +whether he was _en voyage_ on a whilom political mission, at work as +"Director of Excavations" at Pompeii, or founding or conducting a new +journal or a new playhouse, his talents were manifestly at a discount. In +other words, he was singularly unfit for public life; he was not an +organizer, nor had he executive ability, though he had not a little of the +skill of prophecy and foresight as to many turns of fortune's wheel with +respect to world power and the comity of nations. + +Commenting upon the political state of Europe, he said: "Geographically, +Prussia has the form of a serpent, and, like it, she appears to be asleep, +in order to gain strength to swallow everything around her." All of his +prophecy was not fulfilled, to be sure, but a huge slice was fed into her +maw from out of the body of France, and, looking at things at a time fifty +years ahead of that of which Dumas wrote,--that is, before the +Franco-Prussian War,--it would seem as though the serpent's appetite was +still unsatisfied. + +In 1847, when Dumas took upon himself to wish for a seat in the +government, he besought the support of the constituency of the borough in +which he had lived--St. Germain. But St. Germain denied it him--"on moral +grounds." In the following year, when Louis-Philippe had abdicated, he +made the attempt once again. + +The republican constituency of Joigny challenged him with respect to his +title of Marquis de la Pailleterie, and his having been a secretary in the +Orleans Bureau. The following is his reply--verbatim--as publicly +delivered at a meeting of electors, and is given here as illustrating well +the earnestness and devotion to a code which many Puritan and prudish +moralists have themselves often ignored: + +"I was formerly called the Marquis de la Pailleterie, no doubt. It was my +father's name, and one of which I was very proud, being then unable to +claim a glorious one of my own make. But at present, when I am somebody, I +call myself Alexandre Dumas, and nothing more; and every one knows me, +yourselves among the rest--you, you absolute nobodies, who have come here +merely to boast, to-morrow, after having given me insult to-night, that +you have known the great Dumas. If such were your avowed ambition, you +could have satisfied it without having failed in the common courtesies of +gentlemen. There is no doubt, either, about my having been a secretary to +the Duc d'Orleans, and that I have received many favours from his family. +If you are ignorant of the meaning of the phrase, 'The memories of the +heart,' allow me, at least, to proclaim loudly that I am not, and that I +entertain toward this family of royal blood all the devotion of an +honourable man." + + * * * * * + +That Dumas was ever accused of making use of the work of others, of +borrowing ideas wherever he found them, and, indeed, of plagiarism +itself,--which is the worst of all,--has been mentioned before, and the +argument for or against is not intended to be continued here. + +Dumas himself has said much upon the subject in defence of his position, +and the contemporary scribblers of the time have likewise had their +say--and it was not brief; but of all that has been written and said, the +following is pertinent and deliciously naive, and, coming from Dumas +himself, has value: + +"One morning I had only just opened my eyes when my servant entered my +bedroom and brought me a letter upon which was written the word _urgent_. +He drew back the curtains; the weather--doubtless by some mistake--was +fine, and the brilliant sunshine entered the room like a conqueror. I +rubbed my eyes and looked at the letter to see who had sent it, astonished +at the same time that there should be only one. The handwriting was quite +unknown to me. Having turned it over and over for a minute or two, trying +to guess whose the writing was, I opened it and this is what I found: + + "'SIR:--I have read your "Three Musketeers," being well to do, and + having plenty of spare time on my hands--' + + "('Lucky fellow!' said I; and I continued reading.) + + "'I admit that I found it fairly amusing; but, having plenty of time + before me, I was curious enough to wish to know if you really did + find them in the "Memoirs of M. de La Fere." As I was living in + Carcassonne, I wrote to one of my friends in Paris to go to the + Bibliotheque Royale, and ask for these memoirs, and to write and let + me know if you had really and truly borrowed your facts from them. My + friend, whom I can trust, replied that you had copied them word for + word, and that it is what you authors always do. So I give you fair + notice, sir, that I have told people all about it at Carcassonne, + and, if it occurs again, we shall cease subscribing to the _Siecle_. + + "'Yours sincerely, + "'----.' + +"I rang the bell. + +"'If any more letters come for me to-day,' said I to the servant, 'you +will keep them back, and only give them to me sometime when I seem a bit +too happy.' + +"'Manuscripts as well, sir?' + +"'Why do you ask that question?' + +"'Because some one has brought one this very moment.' + +"'Good! that is the last straw! Put it somewhere where it won't be lost, +but don't tell me where.' + +"He put it on the mantelpiece, which proved that my servant was decidedly +a man of intelligence. + +"It was half-past ten; I went to the window. As I have said, it was a +beautiful day. It appeared as if the sun had won a permanent victory over +the clouds. The passers-by all looked happy, or, at least, contented. + +"Like everybody else, I experienced a desire to take the air elsewhere +than at my window, so I dressed, and went out. + +"As chance would have it--for when I go out for a walk I don't care +whether it is in one street or another--as chance would have it, I say, I +passed the Bibliotheque Royale. + +"I went in, and, as usual, found Paris, who came up to me with a charming +smile. + +"'Give me,' said I, 'the "Memoirs of La Fere."' + +"He looked at me for a moment as if he thought I was crazy; then, with the +utmost gravity, he said, 'You know very well they don't exist, because you +said yourself they did!' + +"His speech, though brief, was decidedly pithy. + +"By way of thanks I made Paris a gift of the autograph I had received from +Carcassonne. + +"When he had finished reading it, he said, 'If it is any consolation to +you to know it, you are not the first who has come to ask for the "Memoirs +of La Fere"; I have already seen at least thirty people who came solely +for that purpose, and no doubt they hate you for sending them on a fool's +errand.' + +"As I was in search of material for a novel, and as there are people who +declare novels are to be found ready-made, I asked for the catalogue. + +"Of course, I did not discover anything." + + * * * * * + +Every one knows of Dumas' great fame as a gastronome and epicure; some +recall, also, that he himself was a _cuisinier_ of no mean abilities. How +far his capacities went in this direction, and how wide was his knowledge +of the subject, can only be gleaned by a careful reading of his great +"Dictionnaire de Cuisine." Still further into the subject he may be +supposed to have gone from the fact that he also published an inquiry, or +an open letter, addressed to the _gourmands_ of all countries, on the +subject of mustard. + +It is an interesting subject, to be sure, but a trifling one for one of +the world's greatest writers to spend his time upon; say you, dear reader? +Well! perhaps! But it is a most fascinating contribution to the literature +of epicurism, and quite worth looking up and into. The history of the +subtle spice is traced down through Biblical and Roman times to our own +day, chronologically, etymologically, botanically, and practically. It +will be, and doubtless has been, useful to other compilers of essays on +good cheer. + +Whatever may be the subtle abilities which make the true romancer, or +rather those which make his romances things of life and blood, they were +possessed by Alexandre Dumas. + +Perhaps it is the more easy to construct a romantic play than it is to +erect, from matter-of-fact components, a really engrossing romantic novel. +Dumas' abilities seem to fit in with both varieties alike, and if he did +build to order, the result was in most cases no less successful than if +evolved laboriously. + +It is a curious fact that many serial contributions--if we are to believe +the literary gossip of the time--are only produced as the printer is +waiting for copy. The formula is manifestly not a good one upon which to +build, but it has been done, and successfully, by more writers than one, +and with scarce a gap unbridged. + +Dickens did it,--if it is allowable to mention him here,--and Dumas +himself did it,--many times,--and with a wonderful and, one may say, +inspired facility, but then his facility, none the less than his vitality, +made possible much that was not granted to the laborious Zola. + +Dumas was untiring to the very last. His was a case of being literally +worked out--not worked to death, which is quite a different thing. + +It has been said by Dumas _fils_ that in the latter years of the elder's +life he would sit for length upon length of time, pen in hand, and not a +word would flow therefrom, ere the ink had dried. + +An interesting article on Dumas' last days appeared in _La Revue_ in 1903. +It dealt with the sadness and disappointments of Dumas' later days, in +spite of which the impression conveyed of the great novelist's +personality is very vivid, and he emerges from it much as his books would +lead one to expect--a hearty, vigorous creature, surcharged with vitality, +with desire to live and let live, a man possessed of almost equally +prominent faults and virtues, and generous to a fault. + + +[Illustration: Alexandre Dumas, Fils] + + +Money he had never been able to keep. He had said himself, at a time when +he was earning a fortune, "I can keep everything but money. Money +unfortunately always slips through my fingers." The close of his life was +a horrible struggle to make ends meet. When matters came to a crisis Dumas +would pawn some of the valuable _objets d'art_ he had collected in the +opulent past, or ask his son for assistance. But, though the sum asked was +always given, there were probably few things which the old man would not +have preferred to this appeal to the younger author. + +As he grew old, Dumas _pere_ became almost timid in his attitude toward +the son, whose disapproval had frequently found expression in advice and +warning. But Dumas could not settle down, and he could not become careful. +Neither of these things was in his nature, and there was consequently +always some little undercurrent of friction between them. To the end of +his days his money was anybody's who liked to come and ask for it, and +nothing but the final clouding of his intellectual capacity could reduce +his optimism. Then, it is true, he fell into a state of sustained +depression. The idea that his reputation would not last haunted him. + +In 1870, when Dumas was already very ill, his son, anxious that he should +not be in Paris during its investment by the Germans, took him to a house +he had at Puys, near Dieppe. Here the great man rapidly sank, and, except +at meal-times, passed his time in a state of heavy sleep, until a sudden +attack of apoplexy finally seized him. He never rallied after it, and died +upon the day the Prussian soldiers took possession of Dieppe. + +Many stories are rife of Dumas the prodigal. Some doubtless are true, many +are not. Those which he fathers himself, we might well accept as being +true. Surely he himself should know. + +The following incident which happened in the last days of his life +certainly has the ring of truth about it. + +When in his last illness he left Paris for his son's country house near +Dieppe, he had but twenty francs, the total fortune of the man who had +earned millions. + +On arriving at Puys, Dumas placed the coin on his bedroom chimneypiece, +and there it remained all through his illness. + +One day he was seated in his chair near the window, chatting with his son, +when his eye fell on the gold piece. + +A recollection of the past crossed his mind. + +"Fifty years ago, when I went to Paris," he said, "I had a louis. Why have +people accused me of prodigality? I have always kept that louis. +See--there it is." + +And he showed his son the coin, smiling feebly as he did so. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DUMAS' CONTEMPORARIES + + +Among those of the world's great names in literature contemporary with +Dumas, but who knew Paris ere he first descended upon it to try his +fortune in its arena of letters, were Lamartine, who already, in 1820, had +charmed his public with his "Meditations;" Hugo, who could claim but +twenty years himself, but who had already sung his "Odes et Ballades," and +Chateaubriand. + +Soulie and De Vigny won their fame with poems and plays in the early +twenties, De Musset and Chenier followed before a decade had passed, and +Gautier was still serving his apprenticeship. + +It was the proud Goethe who said of these young men of the twenties, "They +all come from Chateaubriand." Beranger, too, "the little man," even though +he was drawing on toward the prime of life, was also singing melodiously: +it was his _chansons_, it is said, that upset the Bourbon throne and +made way for the "citizen-king." Nodier, of fanciful and fantastic rhyme, +was already at work, and Merimee had not yet taken up the administrative +duties of overseeing the preserving process which at his instigation was, +at the hands of a paternal government, being applied to the historical +architectural monuments throughout France; a glory which it is to be +feared has never been wholly granted to Merimee, as was his due. + + +[Illustration: TWO FAMOUS CARICATURES OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS] + + +Guizot, the _bete noire_ of the later Louis-Philippe, was actively writing +from 1825 to 1830, and his antagonist, Thiers, was at the same period +producing what Carlyle called the "voluminous and untrustworthy labours of +a brisk little man in his way;" which recalls to mind the fact that +Carlylean rant--like most of his prose--is a well-nigh insufferable thing. + +At this time Mignet, the historian, was hard at work, and St. Beauve had +just deserted _materia medica_ for literature. Michelet's juvenile +histories were a production of the time, while poor, unhonoured, and then +unsung, Balzac was grinding out his pittance--in after years to grow into +a monumental literary legacy--in a garret. + +Eugene Sue had not yet taken to literary pathways, and was scouring the +seas as a naval surgeon. + +The drama was prolific in names which we have since known as masters, +Scribe, Halevy, and others. + +George Sand, too, was just beginning that grand literary life which opened +with "Indiana" in 1832, and lasted until 1876. She, like so many of the +great, whose name and fame, like Dumas' own, has been perpetuated by a +monument in stone, the statue which was unveiled in the little town of her +birth on the Indre, La Chatre, in 1903. + +Like Dumas, too, hers was a cyclopean industry, and so it followed that in +the present twentieth century (in the year 1904), another and a more +glorious memorial to France's greatest woman writer was unveiled in the +Garden of the Luxembourg. + +Among the women famous in the _monde_ of Paris at the time of Dumas' +arrival were Mesdames Desbordes-Valmore, Amable Tastu, and Delphine Gay. + +"For more than half a century this brilliant group of men and women +sustained the world of ideas and poetry," said Dumas, in his "Memoires," +"and I, too," he continued, "have reached the same plane ... unaided by +intrigue or coterie, and using none other than my own work as the +stepping-stone in my pathway." + +Dumas cannot be said to have been niggardly with his praise of the work of +others. He said of a sonnet of Arnault's--"La Feuille"--that it was a +masterpiece which an Andre Chenier, a Lamartine, or a Hugo might have +envied, and that for himself, not knowing what his "literary brothers" +might have done, he would have given for it "any one of his dramas." + +It was into the office of Arnault, who was chief of a department in the +Universite, that Beranger took up his labours as a copying-clerk,--as did +Dumas in later years,--and it was while here that Beranger produced his +first ballad, the "Roi d'Yvetot." + +In 1851 Millet was at his height, if one considers what he had already +achieved by his "great agrarian poems," as they have been called. Gautier +called them "Georgics in paint," and such they undoubtedly were. Millet +would hardly be called a Parisian; he was not of the life of the city, but +rather of that of the countryside, by his having settled down at Barbizon +in 1849, and practically never left it except to go to Paris on business. + +His life has been referred to as one of "sublime monotony," but it was +hardly that. It was a life devoted to the telling of a splendid story, +that of the land as contrasted with that of the paved city streets. + +Corot was a real Parisian, and it was only in his early life in the +provinces that he felt the bitterness of life and longed for the +flagstones of the quais, for the Tuileries, the Seine, and his beloved Rue +de Bac, where he was born on 10th Thermidor, Year IV. (July 28, 1796). +Corot early took to painting the scenes of the metropolis, as we learn +from his biography, notably at the point along the river bank where the +London steamer moors to-day. But these have disappeared; few or none of +his juvenile efforts have come down to us. + +Corot returned to Paris, after many years spent in Rome, during the reign +of Louis-Philippe, when affairs were beginning to stir themselves in +literature and art. In 1839 his "Site d'Italie" and a "Soir" were shown at +the annual Salon,--though, of course, he had already been an exhibitor +there,--and inspired a sonnet of Theophile Gautier, which concludes: + + "Corot, ton nom modest, ecrit dans un coin noir." + +Corot's pictures _were_ unfortunately hung in the darkest corners--for +fifteen years. As he himself has said, it was as if he were in the +catacombs. In 1855 Corot figured as one of the thirty-four judges +appointed by Napoleon III. to make the awards for paintings exhibited in +the world's first Universal Exhibition. It is not remarked that Corot had +any acquaintance or friendships with Dumas or with Victor Hugo, of whom he +remarked, "This Victor Hugo seems to be pretty famous in literature." He +knew little of his contemporaries, and the hurly-burly knew less of him. +He was devoted, however, to the genius of his superiors--as he doubtless +thought them. Of Delacroix he said one day, "He is an eagle, and I am only +a lark singing little songs in gray clouds." + +A literary event of prime importance during the latter years of Dumas' +life in Paris, when his own purse was growing thin, was the publication of +the "Histoire de Jules Cesar," written by Napoleon III. + +Nobody ever seems to have taken the second emperor seriously in any of his +finer expressions of sentiment, and, as may be supposed, the publication +of this immortal literary effort was the occasion of much sarcasm, banter, +violent philippic, and sardonic criticism. + +Possibly the world was not waiting for this work, but royalty, no less +than other great men, have their hobbies and their fads; Nero fiddled, and +the first Napoleon read novels and threw them forthwith out of the +carriage window, so it was quite permissible that Napoleon III. should +have perpetuated this life history of an emperor whom he may justly and +truly have admired--perhaps envied, in a sort of impossible way. + +Already Louis Napoleon's collection of writings was rather voluminous, so +this came as no great surprise, and his literary reputation was really +greater than that which had come to him since fate made him the master of +one of the foremost nations of Europe. + +From his critics we learn that "he lacked the grace of a popular author; +that he was quite incapable of interesting the reader by a charm of +manner; and that his _style_ was meagre, harsh, and grating, but +epigrammatic." No Frenchman could possibly be otherwise. + +Dumas relates, again, the story of Sir Walter Scott's visit to Paris, +seeking documents which should bear upon the reign of Napoleon. Dining +with friends one evening, he was invited the next day to dine with Barras. +But Scott shook his head. "I cannot dine with that man," he replied. "I +shall write evil of him, and people in Scotland would say that I have +flung the dishes from his own table at his head." + +It is not recorded that Dumas' knowledge of swordsmanship was based on +practical experience, but certainly no more scientific sword-play of +_passe_ and _touche_ has been put into words than that wonderful attack +and counter-attack in the opening pages of "Les Trois Mousquetaires." + +Of the _duel d'honneur_ there is less to be said, though Dumas more than +once sought to reconcile estranged and impetuous spirits who would have +run each other through, either by leaden bullet or the sword. A notable +instance of this was in the memorable _affaire_ between Louis Blanc of +_L'Homme-Libre_ and Dujarrier-Beauvallon of _La Presse_. The latter told +Dumas that he had no alternative but to fight, though he went like a lamb +to the slaughter, and had no knowledge of the _code_ nor any skill with +weapons. + +Dumas _pere_ was implored by the younger Dumas--both of whom took +Dujarrier's interests much to heart--to go and see Grisier and claim his +intervention. "I cannot do it," said the elder; "the first and foremost +thing to do is to safeguard his reputation, which is the more precious +because it is his first duel." The Grisier referred to was the great +master of fence of the time who was immortalized by Dumas in his "Maitre +d'Armes." + +Dumas himself is acknowledged, however, on one occasion, at least, to +have acted as second--co-jointly with General Fleury--in an _affaire_ +which, happily, never came off. + +It was this Blanc-Dujarrier duel which brought into further prominent +notice that most remarkable and quasi-wonderful woman, Lola Montez; that +daughter of a Spaniard and a Creole, a native of Limerick, pupil of a +boarding-school at Bath, and one-time resident of Seville; to which may be +added, on the account of Lord Malmesbury, "The woman who in Munich set +fire to the magazine of revolution which was ready to burst forth all over +Europe." + +She herself said that she had also lived in Calcutta as the wife of an +officer in the employ of the East India Company; had at one time been +reduced to singing in the streets at Brussels; had danced at the Italian +Opera in London,--"not much, but as well as half the ugly wooden women who +were there,"--and had failed as a dancer in Warsaw. + +"This illiterate schemer," says Vandam, "who probably knew nothing of +geography or history, had pretty well the Almanach de Gotha by heart." +"Why did I not come earlier to Paris?" she once said. "What was the good? +There was a king there bourgeois to his finger-nails, tight-fisted +besides, and notoriously the most moral and the best father in all the +world." + +This woman, it seems, was a beneficiary in the testament of Dujarrier, who +died as a result of his duel, to the extent of eighteen shares in the +Theatre du Palais Royal, and in the trial which followed at Rouen, at +which were present all shades and degrees of literary and professional +people, Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, and others, she insisted upon appearing +as a witness, for no reason whatever, apparently, than that of further +notoriety. "Six months from this time," as one learns from Vandam, "her +name was almost forgotten by all of us except Alexandre Dumas, who once +and again alluded to her." "Though far from superstitious, Dumas, who had +been as much smitten with her as most of her admirers, avowed that he was +glad that she had disappeared. 'She has the evil eye,' said he, 'and is +sure to bring bad luck to any one who closely links his destiny with +hers.'" + +There is no question but that Dumas was right, for she afterward--to +mention but two instances of her remarkably active career--brought +disaster "most unkind" upon Louis I. of Bavaria; committed bigamy with an +English officer who was drowned at Lisbon; and, whether in the guise of +lovers or husbands, all, truly, who became connected with her met with +almost immediate disaster. + +The mere mention of Lola Montez brings to mind another woman of the same +category, though different in character, Alphonsine Plessis, more +popularly known as La Dame aux Camelias. She died in 1847, and her name +was not Marie or Marguerite Duplessis, but as above written. + +Dumas _fils_ in his play did not idealize Alphonsine Plessis' character; +indeed, Dumas _pere_ said that he did not even enlarge or exaggerate any +incident--all of which was common property in the _demi-monde_--"save that +he ascribed her death to any cause but the right one." "I know he made use +of it," said the father, "but he showed the malady aggravated by Duval's +desertion." + +We learn that the elder Dumas "wept like a baby" over the reading of his +son's play. But his tears did not drown his critical faculty. "At the +beginning of the third act," said Dumas _pere_, "I was wondering how +Alexandre would get his Marguerite back to town, ... but the way Alexandre +got out of the difficulty proves that he is my son, every inch of him, and +at the very outset of his career he is a better dramatist than I am ever +likely to be." + +"Alphonsine Plessis was decidedly a real personage, but not an ordinary +one in her walk of life," said Doctor Veron. "A woman of her refinement +might not have been impossible in a former day, because the grisette--and +subsequently the _femme entretenue_--was not then even surmised. She +interests me much; she is the best dressed woman in Paris, she neither +conceals nor hides her vices, and she does not continually hint about +money; in short, she is wonderful." + +"La Dame aux Camelias" appeared within eighteen months of the actual death +of the heroine, and went into every one's hands, interest being whetted +meanwhile by the recent event, and yet more by much gossip--scandal if you +will--which universally appeared in the Paris press. Her pedigree was +evolved and diagnosed by Count G. de Contades in a French bibliographical +journal, _Le Livre_, which showed that she was descended from a +"_guenuchetonne_" (slattern) of Longe, in the canton of Brionze, near +Alencon; a predilection which the elder Dumas himself had previously put +forth when he stated that, "I am certain that one might find taint either +on the father's side, or on the mother's, probably on the former's, but +more probably still on both." + +The following eulogy, extracted from a letter written to Dumas _fils_ by +Victor Hugo upon the occasion of the inhumation of the ashes of Alexandre +Dumas at Villers-Cotterets, whither they were removed from Puits, shows +plainly the esteem in which his literary abilities were held by the more +sober-minded of his compeers: + + "MON CHER CONFRERE:--I learn from the papers of the funeral of + Alexandre Dumas at Villers-Cotterets.... It is with regret that I am + unable to attend.... But I am with you in my heart.... What I would + say, let me write.... No popularity of the past century has equalled + that of Alexandre Dumas. His successes were more than successes: they + were triumphs.... The name of Alexandre Dumas is more than 'Francais, + il est Europeen;' and it is more than European, it is universal. His + theatre has been given publicity in all lands, and his romances have + been translated into all tongues. Alexandre Dumas was one of those + men we can call the sowers of civilization.... Alexandre Dumas is + seducing, fascinating, interesting, amusing, and informing.... All + the emotions, the most pathetic, all the irony, all the comedy, all + the analysis of romance, and all the intuition of history are found + in the supreme works constructed by this great and vigorous + architect. + + "... His spirit was capable of all the miracles he performed; this + he bequeathed and this survives.... Your renown but continues his + glory. + + "... Your father and I were young together.... He was a grand and + good friend.... I had not seen him since 1857.... As I entered Paris + Alexandre Dumas was leaving. I did not have even a parting shake of + the hand. + + "The visit which he made me in my exile I will some day return to his + tomb. + + "_Cher confrere, fils de mon ami, je vous embrasse._ + + "VICTOR HUGO." + +Of Dumas, Charles Reade said: "He has never been properly appreciated; he +is the prince of dramatists, the king of romancists, and the emperor of +good fellows." + +Dumas _fils_ he thought a "vinegar-blooded iconoclast--shrewd, clever, +audacious, introspective, and mathematically logical." + + * * * * * + +The Cimetiere du Pere La Chaise has a contemporary interest with the names +of many who were contemporaries of Dumas in the life and letters of his +day. + +Of course, sentimental interest first attaches itself to the Gothic +canopy--built from the fragments of the convent of Paraclet--which +enshrines the remains of Abelard and Heloise (1142-64), and this perhaps +is as it should be, but for those who are conversant with the life of +Paris of Dumas' day, this most "famous resting-place" has far more +interest because of its shelter given to so many of Dumas' contemporaries +and friends. + +Scribe, who was buried here 1861; Michelet, d. 1874; Delphine Cambaceres, +1867; Lachambeaudie, 1872; Soulie, 1847; Balzac, 1850; Ch. Nodier, 1844; +C. Delavigne, 1843; Delacroix, the painter, 1865; Talma, the tragedian, +1826; Boieldieu, the composer, 1834; Chopin, 1849; Herold, 1833; General +Foy, 1825; David d'Angers, 1856; Hugo, 1828 (the father of Victor Hugo); +David, the painter, 1825; Alfred de Musset, 1857; Rossini, 1868. + + +[Illustration: TOMB OF ABELARD AND HELOISE] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PARIS OF DUMAS + + +Dumas' real descent upon the Paris of letters and art was in 1823, when he +had given up his situation in the notary's office at Crepy, and after the +eventful holiday journey of a few weeks before. His own account of this, +his fourth entrance into the city, states that he was "landed from the +coach at five A. M. in the Rue Bouloi, No. 9. It was Sunday morning, and +Bourbon Paris was very gloomy on a Sunday." + +Within a short time of his arrival the young romancer was making calls, of +a nature which he hoped would provide him some sort of employment until he +should make his way in letters, upon many bearers of famous Bourbon names +who lived in the Faubourgs St. Germain and St. Honore--all friends and +compatriots of his father. + +He had brought with him letters formerly written to his father, and hoped +to use them as a means of introduction. He approached Marshal Jourdain, +General Sebastiani, the Duc de Bellune, and others, but it was not until +he presented himself to General Foy, at 64 Rue du Mont Blanc,--the deputy +for his department,--that anything to his benefit resulted. + +Finally, through the kindly aid of General Foy, Dumas--son of a republican +general though he was--found himself seated upon a clerk's stool, quill in +hand, writing out dictation at the secretary's bureau of the Duc +d'Orleans. + +"I then set about to look for lodgings," said Dumas, "and, after going up +and down many staircases, I came to a halt in a little room on a fourth +story, which belonged to that immense pile known as the 'Pate des +Italiens.' The room looked out on the courtyard, and I was to have it for +one hundred and twenty francs per annum." + +From that time on Dumas may be said to have known Paris intimately--its +life, its letters, its hotels and restaurants, its theatres, its salons, +and its boulevards. + +So well did he know it that he became a part and parcel of it. + +His literary affairs and relations are dealt with elsewhere, but the +various aspects of the social and economic life of Paris at the time Dumas +knew its very pulse-beats must be gleaned from various contemporary +sources. + + +[Illustration: General Foy's Residence] + + +The real Paris which Dumas knew--the Paris of the Second Empire--exists no +more. The order of things changeth in all but the conduct of the stars, +and Paris, more than any other centre of activity, scintillates and +fluctuates like the changings of the money-markets. + +The life that Dumas lived, so far as it has no bearing on his literary +labours or the evolving of his characters, is quite another affair from +that of his yearly round of work. + +He knew intimately all the gay world of Paris, and fresh echoes of the +part he played therein are being continually presented to us. + +He knew, also, quite as intimately, certain political and social movements +which took place around about him, in which he himself had no part. + +It was in the fifties of the nineteenth century that Paris first became +what one might call a coherent mass. This was before the days of the +application of the adjective "Greater" to the areas of municipalities. +Since then we have had, of course, a "Greater Paris" as we have a "Greater +London" and a "Greater New York," but at the commencement of the Second +Empire (1852) there sprang into being,--"jumped at one's eyes," as the +French say,--when viewed from the heights of the towers of Notre Dame, an +immense panorama, which showed the results of a prodigious development, +radiating far into the distance, from the common centre of the _Ile de la +Cite_ and the still more ancient _Lutece_. + +Up to the construction of the present fortifications,--under +Louis-Philippe,--Paris had been surrounded, at its outer confines, by a +simple _octroi_ barrier of about twenty-five kilometres in circumference, +and pierced by fifty-four entrances. Since 1860 this wall has been raised +and the limits of what might be called Paris proper have been extended up +to the fortified lines. + +This fortification wall was thirty-four kilometres in length; was +strengthened by ninety-four bastions, and surrounded and supported by +thirteen detached forts. Sixty-five openings gave access to the inner +city, by which the roadways, waterways, and railways entered. These were +further distinguished by classification as follows: _portes_--of which +there were fifty; _poternes_--of which there were five; and _passages_--of +which there were ten. Nine railways entered the city, and the "_Ceinture_" +or girdle railway, which was to bind the various _gares_, was already +conceived. + +At this time, too, the Quais received marked attention and development; +trees were planted along the streets which bordered upon them, and a vast +system of sewerage was planned which became--and endures until to-day--one +of the sights of Paris, for those who take pleasure in such unsavoury +amusements. + +Lighting by gas was greatly improved, and street-lamps were largely +multiplied, with the result that Paris became known for the first time as +"_La Ville Lumiere_." + +A score or more of villages, or _bourgs_, before 1860, were between the +limits of these two barriers, but were at that time united by the _loi +d'annexion_, and so "Greater Paris" came into being. + +The principle _bourgs_ which lost their identity, which, at the same time +is, in a way, yet preserved, were Auteuil, Passy, les Ternes, Batignolles, +Montmartre, la Chapelle, la Villette, Belleville, Menilmontant, Charenton, +and Bercy; and thus the population of Paris grew, as in the twinkling of +an eye, from twelve hundred thousand to sixteen hundred thousand; and its +superficial area from thirty-four hundred _hectares_ to more than eight +thousand--a _hectare_ being about the equivalent of two and a half acres. + +During the period of the "Restoration," which extended from the end of the +reign of the great Napoleon to the coming of Louis-Philippe (1814-30), +Paris may be said to have been in, or at least was at the beginning of, +its golden age of prosperity. + +In a way the era was somewhat inglorious, but in spite of liberal and +commonplace opinion, there was made an earnest effort to again secure the +pride of place for French letters and arts; and it was then that the +romantic school, with Dumas at its very head, attained its first +importance. + +It was not, however, until Louis-Philippe came into power that civic +improvements made any notable progress, though the Pont des Invalides had +been built, and gas-lamps, omnibuses, and sidewalks, had been introduced +just previously. + +Under Louis-Philippe were completed the Eglise de la Madeleine and the Arc +de Triomphe d'Etoile. The Obelisk,--a gift from Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of +Egypt, to Louis-Philippe,--the Colonne de Juillet, and the Ponts +Louis-Philippe and du Carrousel were built, as well as the modern +fortifications of Paris, with their detached forts of Mont Valerien, Ivry, +Charenton, Nogent, etc. + +There existed also the encircling boulevards just within the +fortifications, and yet another parallel series on the north, beginning at +the Madeleine and extending to the Colonne de Juillet. + +It was not, however, until the Second Republic and the Second Empire of +Napoleon III. that a hitherto unparallelled transformation was undertaken, +and there sprung into existence still more broad boulevards and spacious +squares, and many palatial civic and private establishments, the Bourse, +the New Opera, and several theatres, the Ceinture Railway, and the Bois de +Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes. + +By this time Dumas' activities were so great, or at least the product +thereof was so great, that even his intimate knowledge of French life of a +more heroic day could not furnish him all the material which he desired. + +It was then that he produced those essentially modern stories of life in +Paris of that day, which, slight though they are as compared with the +longer romances, are best represented by the "Corsican Brothers," "Captain +Pamphile," and "Gabriel Lambert." + + * * * * * + +Among the buildings at this time pulled down, on the Place du Carrousel, +preparatory to the termination of the Louvre, was the Hotel Longueville, +the residence of the beautiful duchess of that name, celebrated for her +support of the Fronde and her gallantries, as much as for her beauty. +Dumas would have revelled in the following incident as the basis of a +tale. In the arched roof of one of the cellars of the duchess' hotel two +skeletons of a very large size and in a perfect state of preservation were +discovered, which have since been the object of many discussions on the +part of the antiquarians, but _adhuc sub judice lis est_. Another +discovery was made close by the skeletons, which is more interesting from +a literary point of view; namely, that of a box, in carved steel, +embellished with gilded brass knobs, and containing several papers. Among +them was an amatory epistle in verse, from the Prince de Marsillac to the +fair duchess. The other papers were letters relating to the state of +affairs at that time; some from the hand of the celebrated Turenne, with +memorandums, and of the Prince de Conti, "of great value to autograph +collectors," said the newspaper accounts of the time, but assuredly of +still more value to historians, or even novelists. + +At this time Paris was peopled with many hundreds--perhaps thousands--of +_mauvais sujets_, and frequent robberies and nightly outrages were more +numerous than ever. The government at last hit on the plan of sending to +the _bagnes_ of Toulon and Brest for several of the turnkeys and gaolers +of those great convict _depots_, to whom the features of all their former +prisoners were perfectly known. These functionaries, accompanied by a +policeman in plain clothes, perambulated every part of Paris by day, and +by night frequented all the theatres, from the Grand Opera downward, the +low _cafes_ and wine-shops. It appears that more than four hundred of +these desperadoes were recognized and retransferred to their old quarters +at Toulon. Some of these worthies had been carrying on schemes of +swindling on a colossal scale, and more than one is described as having +entered into large speculations on the Bourse. Perhaps it was from some +such circumstance as this that Dumas evolved that wonderful narrative of +the life of a forger, "Gabriel Lambert." One of the most noted in the +craft was known by the _soubriquet_ of Pierre Mandrin, the name of that +_celebre_ being conferred on account of his superiority and skill in +assuming disguises. When arrested he was figuring as a Polish count, and +covered with expensive rings and jewelry. The career of this ruffian is +interesting. In 1839, while undergoing an imprisonment of two years for +robbery, he attempted to make his escape by murdering the gaoler, but +failed, however, and was sent to the galleys at Toulon for twenty years. +In 1848 he did escape from Brest, and, notwithstanding the greatest +exertions on the part of the police, he succeeded in crossing the whole +of France and gaining Belgium, where he remained for some time. Owing to +the persecutions of the Belgian police, he subsequently returned to +France. He was so unfortunate as to be captured in the very act of +breaking into a house at Besancon, but his prodigious activity enabled him +once again to escape while on his way to prison, and he came to Paris. +Being possessed of some money, he resolved to abandon his evil courses, +and set up a greengrocer's shop in the Rue Rambuteau, which went on +thrivingly for some time. But such an inactive life was insupportable to +him, and he soon resumed his former exciting pursuits. Several robberies +committed with consummate skill soon informed the police of the presence +in Paris of some great master of the art of Mercury. The most experienced +officers were accordingly sent out, but they made no capture until one of +the Toulon gaolers fancied he recollected the convict under the features +of an elegantly attired _lion_ on the Boulevard des Italiens. A few hours +afterward the luckless _echappe_ was safely lodged at the Conciergerie. At +his lodgings, besides the usual housebreaking implements, a complete +assortment of costumes of every kind was discovered--from that of the +dandy of the first water to the blouse of the artisan. + +There is something more than a morbid interest which attaches itself to +the former homes and haunts of a great author or artist. The emotion is +something akin to sentiment, to be sure, but it is pardonable; far more so +than the contemplation of many more popular and notorious places. + +He who would follow the footsteps of Alexandre Dumas about Paris must +either be fleet of foot, or one who can sustain a long march. At any rate, +the progress will take a considerable time. + +It is impossible to say in how many places he lived, though one gathers +from the "Memoires," and from contemporary information, that they numbered +many score, and the uncharitable have further said that he found it more +economical to move than to pay his rents. Reprehensible as this practice +may be, Dumas was no single exponent of it--among artists and authors; and +above all in his case, as we know, it resulted from imprudence and +ofttimes misplaced confidence and generosity. + +One of Dumas' early homes in Paris, jocularly called by him "La Pate +d'Italie," was situated in that famous centre of unconventionality, the +Boulevard des Italiens, a typical tree-shaded and cafe-lined boulevard. + +Its name was obviously acquired from its resemblance to, or suggestion of +being constructed of, that mastic which is known in Germany as noodles, +in Italy as macaroni, and in English-speaking countries as dough. + +To-day the structure, as it then was, exists no more, though the present +edifice at the corner of the Rue Louis le Grand, opposite the vaudeville +theatre, has been assuredly stated as in no wise differing in general +appearance from its prototype, and, as it is after the same ginger-cake +style of architecture, it will serve its purpose. + +Albert Vandam, in "An Englishman in Paris," that remarkable book of +reminiscence whose authorship was so much in doubt when the work was first +published, devoted a whole chapter to the intimacies of Dumas _pere_; +indeed, nearly every feature and character of prominence in the great +world of Paris--at the time of which he writes--strides through the pages +of this remarkably illuminating book, in a manner which is unequalled by +any conventional volume of "Reminiscence," "Observations," or "Memoirs" +yet written in the English language, dealing with the life of Paris--or, +for that matter, of any other capital. + +His account, also, of a "literary cafe" of the Paris of the forties could +only have been written by one who knew the life intimately, and, so far as +Dumas' acquaintances and contemporaries are concerned, Vandam's book +throws many additional side-lights on an aspect which of itself lies in no +perceptible shadow. + +Even in those days the "boulevards"--the popular resort of the men of +letters, artists, and musical folk--meant, as it does to-day, a somewhat +restricted area in the immediate neighbourhood of the present Opera. At +the corner of the Rue Lafitte was a tobacconist's shop, whose genius was a +"splendid creature," of whom Alfred de Musset became so enamoured that his +friends feared for an "imprudence on his part." The various elements of +society and cliques had their favourite resorts and rendezvous; the actors +under the trees in the courtyard of the Palais Royal; the _ouvrier_ and +his family meandered in the Champs Elysees or journeyed countryward to +Grenelle; while the soldiery mostly repaired to La Plaine de St. Denis. + +A sister to Thiers kept a small dining establishment in the Rue Drouet, +and many journalistic and political gatherings were held at her _tables +d'hote_. When asked whether her delicious pheasants were of her +illustrious brother's shooting, she shook her head, and replied: "No, M. +the President of the Council has not the honour to supply my +establishment." + +Bohemia, as Paris best knew it in the fifties, was not that pleasant land +which lies between the Moravian and the Giant Mountains; neither were the +Bohemians of Paris a Slavonic or Teutonic people of a strange, nomad race. + +But the history of the Bohemia of arts and letters--which rose to its +greatest and most prophetic heights in the Paris of the nineteenth +century--would no doubt prove to be as extensive a work as Buckle's +"History of Civilization," though the recitation of tenets and principles +of one would be the inevitable reverse of the other. + +The intellectual Bohemian--the artist, or the man of letters--has +something in his make-up of the gipsy's love of the open road; the +vagabond who instinctively rebels against the established rules of +society, more because they are established than for any other reason. + +Henri Muerger is commonly supposed to have popularized the "Bohemia" of +arts and letters, and it is to him we owe perhaps the most graphic +pictures of the life which held forth in the _Quartier Latin_, notorious +for centuries for its lack of discipline and its defiance of the laws of +Church, state, and society. It was the very nursery of open thought and +liberty against absolutism and the conventional proprieties. + +Gustave Nadaud described this "unknown land" in subtle verse, which loses +not a little in attempted paraphrase: + + "There stands behind Ste. Genevieve, + A city where no fancy paves + With gold the narrow streets, + But jovial youth, the landlady + On gloomy stairs, in attic high, + Gay hope, her tenant, meets. + + * * * * * + + 'Twas there that the Pays Latin stood, + 'Twas there the world was _really_ good, + 'Twas there that she was gay." + +Of the freedom and the unconventionally of the life of the Bohemian world +of Paris, where the lives of literature and art blended in an almost +imperceptible manner, and the gay indifference of its inhabitants, one has +but to recall the incident where George Sand went to the studio of the +painter Delacroix to tell him that she had sad news for him; that she +could never love him; and more of the same sort. "Indeed," said Delacroix, +who kept on painting.--"You are angry with me, are you not? You will never +forgive me?"--"Certainly I will," said the painter, who was still at his +work, "but I've got a bit of sky here that has caused me a deal of trouble +and is just coming right. Go away, or sit down, and I will be through in +ten minutes." She went, and of course did not return, and so the _affaire_ +closed. + +Dumas was hardly of the Pays Latin. He had little in common with the +Bohemianism of the _poseur_, and the Bohemia of letters and art has been +largely made up of that sort of thing. + +More particularly Dumas' life was that of the boulevards, of the +journalist, of tremendous energy and output rather than that of the +_dilettante_, and so he has but little interest in the south bank of the +Seine. + + * * * * * + +Michelet, while proclaiming loudly for French literature and life in _Le +Peuple_, published in 1846, desponds somewhat of his country from the fact +that the overwhelming genius of the popular novelists of that day--and who +shall not say since then, as well--have sought their models, too often, in +dingy cabarets, vile dens of iniquity, or even in the prisons themselves. + +He said: "This mania of slandering oneself, of exhibiting one's sores, and +going, as it were, to look for shame, will be mortal in the course of +time." + +This may, to a great extent, have been true then--and is true +to-day--manifestly, but no lover of the beautiful ought to condemn a +noisome flower if but its buds were beautiful, and Paris--the Paris of +the Restoration, the Empire, or the Republic--is none the worse in the +eyes of the world because of the iniquities which exist in every large +centre of population, where creeds and intellects of all shades and +capacities are herded together. + +The French novelist, it is true, can be very sordid and banal, but he can +be as childlike and bland as an unsophisticated young girl--when he has a +mind to. + +Dumas' novels were not lacking in vigour, valour, or action, and he wrote +mostly of romantic times; so Michelet could not have referred to him. +Perhaps he had the "Mysteries of Paris" or "The Wandering Jew" in mind, +whose author certainly did give full measure of sordid detail; but then, +Sue has been accused before now as not presenting a strictly truthful +picture. + +So much for the presentation of the _tableaux_. But what about the actual +condition of the people at the time? + +Michelet's interest in Europe was centred on France and confined to _le +peuple_; a term in which he ofttimes included the _bourgeois_, as well he +might, though he more often regarded those who worked with their hands. He +repeatedly says: "I myself have been one of those workmen, and, although +I have risen to a different class, I retain the sympathies of my early +conditions." + +Michelet's judgment was quite independent and original when he compared +the different classes; and he had a decided preference for that section +which cultivates the soil, though by no means did he neglect those engaged +in trade and manufacture. The _ouvrier industriel_ was as much entitled to +respect as the labourer in the fields, or even the small tenant-farmer. He +regretted, of course, the competition which turned _industrialisme_ into a +cut-throat policy. He furthermore had this to say concerning foreign +trade: + +"Alsace and Lyons have conquered art and science to achieve beauty for +others.... The 'fairy of Paris' (the _modiste_) meets, from minute to +minute, the most unexpected flights of fancy--and she _or he_ does to-day, +be it recalled. _Les etrangers_ come in spite of themselves, and they buy +of her (France); _ils achetent_--but what?--patterns, and then go basely +home and copy them, to the loss, _but to the glory_, of France. + +"The Englishman or the German buys a few pieces of goods at Paris or +Lyons; just as in letters France writes and Belgium sells." + +On the whole, Michelet thought that the population was more successful in +tilling the soil than in the marts of the world; and there is this to be +said, there is no question but what France is a self-contained country, +though its arts have gone forth into the world and influenced all nations. + +Paris is, ever has been, and proudly--perhaps rightly--thinks that it ever +will be, the artistic capital of the world. + +Georges Avenel has recently delivered himself of a screed on the +"Mechanism of Modern Life," wherein are many pertinent, if sometimes +trite, observations on the more or less automatic processes by which we +are lodged, fed, and clothed to-day. + +He gives rather a quaint, but unquestionably true, reason for the alleged +falling-off in the cookery of French--of course he means +Parisian--restaurants. It is, he says, that modern patrons will no longer +pay the prices, or, rather, will not spend the money that they once did. +In the first half of the last century--the time of Dumas' activities and +achievements--he tells us that many Parisian lovers of good fare were +accustomed to "eat a napoleon" daily for their dinner. Nowadays, the same +persons dine sufficiently at their club for eight and a half francs. +Perhaps the abatement of modern appetites has something to say to this, as +many folk seldom take more than thirty-five or forty minutes over their +evening meal. How would this compare with the Gargantuan feasts described +by Brillat-Savarin and others, or the gastronomic exploits of those who +ate two turkeys at a sitting? + +Clearly, for comfort, and perhaps luxury, the Parisian hotels and +restaurants of a former day compare agreeably with those of our own time; +not so much, perhaps, with regard to time and labour-saving machinery, +which is the equipment of the modern _batterie de cuisine_, but with the +results achieved by more simple, if more laborious, means, and the +appointments and surroundings amid which they were put upon the board. +"The proof of the pudding is in the eating" is still applicable, whether +its components be beaten or kneaded by clockwork or the cook's boy. + +With the hotels himself, Avenel is less concerned, though he reminds us +again that Madame de Sevigne had often to lie upon straw in the inns she +met with in travelling, and looked upon a bed in a hotel, which would +allow one to undress, as a luxury. We also learn that the travellers of +those days had to carry their own knives, the innkeeper thinking that he +did enough in providing spoons and forks. Nor were hotels particularly +cheap, a small suite of rooms in a hotel of the Rue Richelieu costing 480 +francs a week. It was Napoleon III. who, by his creation of the Hotel de +Louvre,--not the present establishment of the same name, but a much +larger structure,--first set the fashion of monster hostelries. But what +was this compared with the Elysees Palace, which M. d'Avenel chooses as +his type of modern luxury, with its forty-three cooks, divided into seven +brigades, each commanded by an officer drawing 3,750 francs a year, and +its thirty-five hundred pairs of sheets and fifty thousand towels, valued +together at little short of 250,000 francs? Yet, as we well know, even +these totals pale before some of the hotels of America, in which M. +d'Avenel sees the _ne plus ultra_ of organization and saving of labour by +the ingenious use of machinery, and incidentally a great deal of the +sentiment of good cheer, which was as much an ingredient of former +hospitality as was the salt and pepper of a repast. + +It is pleasant to read of Alexandre Dumas' culinary skill, though the +repetition of the fact has appeared in the works of well-nigh every writer +who has written of the Paris of the fifties and sixties. The dinners at +his apartments in the Boulevard Malesherbes were worthy of Soyer or even +of Brillat-Savarin himself in his best days. In his last "Causeries +Culinaires," the author of "Monte Cristo" tells us that the Bourbon kings +were specially fond of soup. "The family," he writes, "from Louis XIV. to +the last of their race who reigned in France, have been great eaters. The +Grand Monarque commenced his dinner by two and sometimes three different +kinds of soup; Louis-Philippe by four plates of various species of this +comestible; in the fifth plate his Majesty usually mixed portions of the +four varieties he had eaten, and appeared to enjoy this singular culinary +combination." + +Dumas' reputation as an epicure must have been formed early; he describes +in his "Memoires" how, on a certain occasion, when he had first become +installed in Paris, he met a gentleman, Charles Nodier, in the stalls of +the Porte St. Martin, who was reading a well-worn Elzevir entitled "La +Pastissier Francaise." He says, "I address him.... 'Pardon my +impertinence, but are you very fond of eggs?' 'Why so?' 'That book you are +reading, does it not give recipes for cooking eggs in sixty different +ways?' 'It does.' 'If I could but procure a copy.' 'But this is an +Elzevir,' says my neighbour." + +The Parisian is without a rival as an epicure and a _gastronome_, and he +associates no stigma with the epithet. In Anglo-Saxon lands the reverse is +the case, though why it is hard to see. + +"Frog-legs" came to be a tidbit in the _tables d'hote_ of New York and +London many years ago, but sympathy has been withheld from the luscious +_escargot_. There be those fearless individuals who by reason of the +_entente cordiale_ have tasted of him and found him good, but learning +that in the cookshops of Paris they have at last learned to fabricate them +to equal the native grown article of Bourgogne, have tabooed them once for +all, and threaten to withdraw their liking for that other succulent +dainty, the frog. + +At any rate, the schoolboy idea that the Parisian's staple fare is snails +and frogs is quite exploded, and small wonder it is that Anglo-Saxon +palates never became wholly inured to them. But what about England's +peculiar dishes? Marrow-bones and stewed eels, for instance? + + * * * * * + +Dumas' familiarity with the good things of the table is nowhere more +strongly advanced than in the opening chapter of "The Queen's Necklace," +wherein the author recounts the incident of "the nobleman and his _maitre +d'hotel_." + +The scene was laid in 1784, and runs as follows: + + "The marshal turned toward his _maitre d'hotel_, and said, 'Sir, I + suppose you have prepared me a good dinner?' + + "'Certainly, your Grace.' + + "'You have the list of my guests?' + + "'I remember them perfectly.' + + "'There are two sorts of dinners, sir,' said the marshal. + + "'True, your Grace, but--' + + "'In the first place, at what time do we dine?' + + "'Your Grace, the citizens dine at two, the bar at three, the + nobility at four--' + + "'And I, sir?' + + "'Your Grace will dine to-day at five.' + + "'Oh, at five!' + + "'Yes, your Grace, like the king--' + + "'And why like the king?' + + "'Because, on the list of your guests is the name of a king.' + + "'Not so, sir, you mistake; all my guests to-day are simple + noblemen.' + + "'Your Grace is surely jesting; the Count Haga, who is among the + guests--' + + "'Well, sir!' + + "'The Count Haga is a king.' (The Count Haga was the well-known name + of the King of Sweden, assumed by him when travelling in France.) + + "'In any event, your Grace _cannot_ dine before five o'clock.' + + "'In heaven's name, do not be obstinate, but let us have dinner at + four.' + + "'But at four o'clock, your Grace, what I am expecting will not have + arrived. Your Grace, I wait for a bottle of wine.' + + "'A bottle of wine! Explain yourself, sir; the thing begins to + interest me.' + + "'Listen, then, your Grace; his Majesty, the King of Sweden--I beg + pardon, the Count Haga, I should have said--drinks nothing but + Tokay.' + + "'Well, am I so poor as to have no Tokay in my cellar? If so, I must + dismiss my butler.' + + "'Not so, your Grace; on the contrary, you have about sixty bottles.' + + "'Well, do you think Count Haga will drink sixty bottles with his + dinner?' + + "'No, your Grace; but when Count Haga first visited France when he + was only prince royal, he dined with the late king, who had received + twelve bottles of Tokay from the Emperor of Austria. You are aware + that the Tokay of the finest vintages is reserved exclusively for the + cellar of the emperor, and that kings themselves can only drink it + when he pleases to send it to them.' + + "'I know it.' + + "'Then, your Grace, of these twelve bottles of which the prince + royal drank, only two remain. One is in the cellar of his Majesty + Louis XVI.--' + + "'And the other?' + + "'Ah, your Grace!' said the _maitre d'hotel_, with a triumphant + smile, for he felt that, after the long battle he had been fighting, + the moment of victory was at hand, 'the other one was stolen.' + + "'By whom, then?' + + "'By one of my friends, the late king's butler, who was under great + obligations to me.' + + "'Oh! and so he gave it to you.' + + "'Certainly, your Grace,' said the _maitre d'hotel_, with pride. + + "'And what did you do with it?' + + "'I placed it carefully in my master's cellar.' + + "'Your master? And who was your master at that time?' + + "'His Eminence the Cardinal de Rohan.' + + "'Ah, _mon Dieu!_ at Strasbourg?' + + "'At Saverne.' + + "'And you have sent to seek this bottle for me!' cried the old + marshal. + + "'For you, your Grace,' replied the _maitre d'hotel_, in a tone which + plainly said, 'ungrateful as you are.' + + "The Duke de Richelieu seized the hand of the old servant, and + cried, 'I beg pardon; you are the king of _maitres d'hotel_.'" + +The French noblesse of the eighteenth century may have had retainers of +the perspicacity and freedom of manners of this servant of the Marechal de +Richelieu, but it is hard to picture them in real life to-day. At any +rate, it bespeaks Dumas' fondness of good eating and good drinking that he +makes so frequent use of references thereto, not only in this novel of a +later day, but throughout the mediaeval romances as well. + +Dumas' knowledge of gastronomy again finds its vent in "The Count of Monte +Cristo," when the unscrupulous Danglars is held in a dungeon pending his +giving up the five millions of francs which he had fraudulently obtained. + +It is not a very high-class repast that is discussed, but it shows at +least Dumas' familiarity with the food of man. + + "At twelve the guard before Danglars' cell was replaced by another + functionary, and, wishing to catch sight of his new guardian, + Danglars approached the door again. He was an athletic, gigantic + bandit, with large eyes, thick lips, and a flat nose; his red hair + fell in dishevelled masses like snakes around his shoulders. 'Ah! + ah!' cried Danglars, 'this fellow is more like an ogre than anything + else; however, I am rather too old and tough to be very good eating!' + We see that Danglars was quite collected enough to jest; at the same + time, as though to disprove the ogreish propensities, the man took + some black bread, cheese, and onions from his wallet, which he began + devouring voraciously. 'May I be hanged,' said Danglars, glancing at + the bandit's dinner through the crevices of the door, 'may I be + hanged if I can understand how people can eat such filth!' and he + withdrew to seat himself upon his goatskin, which recalled to him the + smell of the brandy.... + + "Four hours passed by, the giant was replaced by another bandit. + Danglars, who really began to experience sundry gnawings at the + stomach, rose softly, again applied his eye to the crack of the door, + and recognized the intelligent countenance of his guide. It was, + indeed, Peppino, who was preparing to mount guard as comfortably as + possible by seating himself opposite to the door, and placing between + his legs an earthen pan, containing chick-pease stewed with bacon. + Near the pan he also placed a pretty little basket of grapes and a + bottle of Vin d'Orvieto. Peppino was decidedly an epicure. While + witnessing these preparations, Danglars' mouth watered.... 'I can + almost imagine,' said he, 'that I were at the Cafe de Paris.'" + +Dumas, like every strong personality, had his friends and his enemies. It +is doubtful which class was in the ascendency as to numbers. When asked, +on one occasion, when he had been dining at the Cafe de Paris, if he were +an archaeologist,--he had been admiring a cameo portrait of Julius +Caesar,--he replied, "No, I am absolutely nothing." His partisans were +many, and they were as devoted as his enemies were jealous and +uncharitable. Continuing, he said, "I admire this portrait in the capacity +of Caesar's historian." "Indeed," said his interlocutor, "it has never been +mentioned in the world of savants." "Well," said Dumas, "the world of +savants never mentions me." + +This may be conceit or modesty, accordingly as one takes one view or +another. Dumas, like most people, was not averse to admiration. Far from +it. He thrived exceedingly on it. But he was, as he said, very much alone, +and quite felt a nobody at times. Of his gastronomic and epicurean +abilities he was vainly proud. + +The story is told of the sole possession by Dumas of a certain recipe for +stewed carp. Veron, the director of the opera, had instructed his own +cook to serve the celebrated dish; she, unable to concoct it +satisfactorily, announced her intention of going direct to the novelist to +get it from his own lips. Sophie must have been a most ingenious and +well-informed person, for she approached Dumas in all hostility and +candour. She plunged direct into the subject, presuming that he had +acquired the knowledge of this special tidbit from some outside source. + +Dumas was evidently greatly flattered, and gave her every possible +information, but the experiment was not a success, and the fair +_cordon-bleu_ began to throw out the suspicion that Dumas had acquired his +culinary accomplishments from some other source than that he had generally +admitted. It was at this time that Dumas was at the crux of his affairs +with his collaborators. + +Accordingly Sophie made her pronouncement that it was with Dumas' cooking +as it was with his romances, and that he was "_un grand diable de +vaniteux_." + +At his home in the Rue Chaussee d'Antin Dumas served many an epicurean +feast to his intimates; preparing, it is said, everything with his own +hands, even to the stripping of the cabbage-leaves for the _soupe aux +choux_, "sleeves rolled up, and a large apron around his waist." + +A favourite menu was _soupe aux choux_, the now famous carp, a _ragout de +mouton, a l'Hongroise_; _roti de faisans_, and a _salade +Japonaise_--whatever that may have been; the ices and _gateaux_ being sent +in from a _patissier's_. + + * * * * * + +The customs of the theatre in Paris are, and always have been, peculiar. +Dumas himself tells how, upon one occasion, just after he had come +permanently to live there, he had placed himself beside an immense _queue_ +of people awaiting admission to the Porte St. Martin. + +He was not aware of the procedure of lining up before the entrance-doors, +and when one well up in the line offered to sell him his place for _twenty +sous_--held since midday--Dumas willingly paid it, and, not knowing that +it did not include admission to the performance, was exceedingly +distraught when the time came to actually pay for places. This may seem a +simple matter in a later day, and to us who have become familiar with +similar conditions in Paris and elsewhere; but it serves to show the +guilelessness of Dumas, and his little regard for business procedure of +any sort. + +The incident is continued in his own words, to the effect that he "finally +purchased a bit of pasteboard that once had been white, which I presented +to the check-taker and received in return another of red.... My appearance +in the amphitheatre of the house must have been astonishing. I was the +very latest Villers-Cotterets fashion, but a revolution had taken place in +Paris which had not yet reached my native place. My hair was long, and, +being frizzled, it formed a gigantic aureole around my head. I was +received with roars of laughter.... I dealt the foremost scoffer a +vigorous slap in the face, and said, at the same time, 'My name is +Alexandre Dumas. For to-morrow, I am staying at the Hotel des +Vieux-Augustins, and after that at No. 1 Place des Italiens.'" + +By some incomprehensible means Dumas was hustled out of the theatre and on +to the sidewalk--for disturbing the performance, though the performance +had not yet begun. He tried his luck again, however, and this time bought +a place at two francs fifty centimes. + +Every visitor to Paris has recognized the preeminence of the "Opera" as a +social institution. The National Opera, or the Theatre Imperial de +l'Opera, as it was originally known, in the Rue Lepelletier, just off the +Boulevard des Italiens, was the progenitor of the splendid establishment +which now terminates the westerly end of the Avenue de l'Opera. The more +ancient "Grand Opera" was uncontestably the most splendid, the most +pompous, and the most influential of its contemporary institutions +throughout Europe. + +The origin of the "Grand Opera" was as remote as the times of Anne of +Austria, who, it will be recalled, had a most passionate regard for +_musique_ and spectacle, and Mazarin caused to be brought from Italy +musicians who represented before the queen "musical pieces" which proved +highly successful. + +Later, in 1672, Louis XIV. accorded the privilege of the Opera to Lulli, a +distinguished musician of Florence, and the theatre of the Palais Royal +was ceded to the uses of Academie de Musique. + +After the fire of 1763, the Opera was transferred to the Tuileries, but +removed again, because of another fire, to the Porte St. Martin, where it +remained until 1794, when it was transferred to a new house which had been +constructed for it in the Rue Richelieu. + +Again in 1820 it was removed to a new establishment, which had been +erected on the site of the former Hotel de Choiseul. + +This house had accommodations for but two thousand spectators, and, in +spite of its sumptuousness and rank, was distinctly inferior in point of +size to many opera-houses and theatres elsewhere. + +Up to this time the management had been governed after the manner of the +old regime, "by three gentlemen of the king's own establishment, in +concurrence with the services of a working director," and the royal privy +purse was virtually responsible for the expenses. Louis-Philippe astutely +shifted the responsibility to the public exchequer. + +In 1831, Dr. Louis Veron, the founder of the _Revue de Paris_,--since +supplanted by the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,--became the manager and +director. Doctor Veron has been called as much the quintessence of the +life of Paris of the first half of the nineteenth century as was Napoleon +I. of the history of France. + +Albert Vandam, the author of "An Englishman in Paris," significantly +enough links Veron's name in his recollections with that of Dumas, except +that he places Dumas first. + +"Robert le Diable" and Taglioni made Veron's success and his fortune, +though he himself was a master of publicity. From 1831 onward, during +Veron's incumbency, the newspapers contained column after column of the +"puff personal," not only with respect to Veron himself, but down through +the galaxy of singers and dancers to the veriest stage-carpenter, scenic +artist, and call-boy. + +The modern managers have advanced somewhat upon these premature efforts; +but then the art was in its infancy, and, as Veron himself was a +journalist and newspaper proprietor, he probably well understood the +gentle art of exchanging favouring puffs of one commodity for those of +another. + +These were the days of the first successes of Meyerbeer, Halevy, Auber, +and Duprez; of Taglioni, who danced herself into a nebula of glory, and +later into a shadow which inspired the spiteful critics into condemnation +of her waning power. + +It has been said that Marie Taglioni was by no means a good-looking woman. +Indeed, she must have been decidedly plain. Her manners, too, were +apparently not affable, and "her reception of Frenchmen was freezing to a +degree--when she thawed it was to Russians, Englishmen, or Viennese." "One +of her shoulders was higher than the other, she limped slightly, and, +moreover, waddled like a duck." Clearly a stage setting was necessary to +show off her charms. She was what the French call "_une pimbeche_." + +The architectural effect produced by the exterior of this forerunner of +the present opera was by no means one of monumental splendour. Its +architect, Debret, was scathingly criticized for its anomalies. A +newspaper anecdote of the time recounts the circumstance of a provincial +who, upon asking his way thither, was met with the direction, "That +way--the first large gateway on your right." + +Near by was the establishment of the famous Italian _restaurateur_, Paolo +Broggi, the resort of many singers, and the Estaminet du Divan, a sort of +humble counterpart of the Cafe Riche or the Cafe des Anglais, but which +proclaimed a much more literary atmosphere than many of the bigger +establishments on the boulevards. Vandam relates of this house of call +that "it is a positive fact that the _garcon_ would ask, 'Does monsieur +desire Sue's or Dumas' _feuilleton_ with his _cafe_?'" + +Of the Opera which was burned in 1781, Dumas, in "The Queen's Necklace," +has a chapter devoted to "Some Words about the Opera." It is an +interesting, albeit a rather superfluous, interpolation in a romance of +intrigue and adventure: + + "The Opera, that temple of pleasure at Paris, was burned in the month + of June, 1781. Twenty persons had perished in the ruins; and, as it + was the second time within eighteen years that this had happened, it + created a prejudice against the place where it then stood, in the + Palais Royal, and the king had ordered its removal to a less central + spot. The place chosen was La Porte St. Martin. + + "The king, vexed to see Paris deprived for so long of its Opera, + became as sorrowful as if the arrivals of grain had ceased, or bread + had risen to more than seven sous the quartern loaf. It was + melancholy to see the nobility, the army, and the citizens without + their after-dinner amusement; and to see the promenades thronged with + the unemployed divinities, from the chorus-singers to the prima + donnas. + + "An architect was then introduced to the king, full of new plans, who + promised so perfect a ventilation, that even in case of fire no one + could be smothered. He would make eight doors for exit, besides five + large windows placed so low that any one could jump out of them. In + the place of the beautiful hall of Moreau he was to erect a building + with ninety-six feet of frontage toward the boulevard, ornamented + with eight caryatides on pillars forming three entrance-doors, a + bas-relief above the capitals, and a gallery with three windows. The + stage was to be thirty-six feet wide, the theatre seventy-two feet + deep and eighty across, from one wall to the other. He asked only + seventy-five days and nights before he opened it to the public. + + "This appeared to all a mere gasconade, and was much laughed at. The + king, however, concluded the agreement with him. Lenoir set to work, + and kept his word. But the public feared that a building so quickly + erected could not be safe, and when it opened no one would go. + + "Even the few courageous ones who did go to the first representation + of 'Adele de Ponthieu' made their wills first. The architect was in + despair. He came to the king to consult him as to what was to be + done. + + "It was just after the birth of the dauphin; all Paris was full of + joy. The king advised him to announce a gratuitous performance in + honour of the event, and give a ball after. Doubtless plenty would + come, and if the theatre stood, its safety was established. + + "'Thanks, Sire,' said the architect. + + "'But reflect, first,' said the king, 'if there be a crowd, are you + sure of your building?' + + "'Sire, I am sure, and shall go there myself.' + + "'I will go to the second representation,' said the king. + + "The architect followed this advice. They played 'Adele de Ponthieu' + to three thousand spectators, who afterward danced. After this there + could be no more fear." + +It was three years after that Madame and the cardinal went to the +celebrated ball, the account of which follows in the subsequent chapter of +the romance. + +Dumas as a dramatist was not so very different from Dumas the novelist. +When he first came to Paris the French stage was by no means at a low and +stagnant ebb--at least, it was not the thin, watery concoction that many +English writers would have us believe; and, furthermore, the world's great +dramatist--Shakespeare--had been and was still influencing and inspiring +the French playwright and actor alike. + +It was the "Hamlet" of Ducis--a very French Hamlet, but still Hamlet--and +the memory of an early interview with Talma that first set fire to the +fuel of the stage-fever which afterward produced Dumas the dramatist. + +Dumas was not always truthful, or, at least, correct, in his facts, but he +did not offend exceedingly, and he was plausible; as much so, at any rate, +as Scott, who had erred to the extent of fifteen years in his account of +the death of Amy Robsart. + +In 1824 was born Alexandre Dumas _fils_, and at this time the parent was +collaborating with Soulie in an attempted, but unfinished, dramatization +of Scott's "Old Mortality." + +By 1830, after he had left official work, Dumas had produced that drama of +the Valois, "Henri III.," at the Theatre Francais, where more than a +century before Voltaire had produced his first play, "Oedipe," and +where the "Hernani" of Victor Hugo had just been produced. + +It was a splendid and gorgeous event, and the adventures of the Duchesse +de Guise, St. Megrin, Henri III. and his satellites proved to the large +and distinguished audience present no inconspicuous element in the success +of the future king of romance. It was a veritable triumph, and for the +time the author was more talked of and better known than was Hugo, who had +already entered the arena, but whose assured fame scarcely dates from +before "Hernani," whose first presentation--though it was afterward +performed over three hundred times in the same theatre--was in February of +the same year. + +Voltaire had been dead scarce a half-century, but already the dust lay +thick on his dramatic works, and the world of Paris was looking eagerly +forward to the achievements of the new school. One cannot perhaps claim +for Dumas that he was in direct lineage of Shakespeare,--as was claimed +for Hugo, and with some merit,--but he was undoubtedly one of the first of +the race of the popular French playwrights whose fame is perpetuated +to-day by Sardou. At any rate, it was a classic struggle which was +inaugurated in France--by literature and the drama--in the early half of +the nineteenth century, and one which was a frank rebellion against the +rigid rules by which their arts had been restrained--especially dramatic +art. + + +[Illustration: D'ARTAGNAN + +From the Dumas Statue by Gustave Dore] + + +With all due credit, then, to Hugo, it was Dumas who led the romanticists +through the breach that was slowly opening; though at the same time one +may properly enough recall the names of Alfred de Musset, Theophile +Gautier, and Gerard de Nerval. + +Dumas' next play was in "classical form"--"Christine." + +Mere chance brought Dumas into an acquaintance with the history of +Christine of Sweden, and, though the play was written and accepted before +"Henri III. et Sa Cour," it was not until some time later that it was +produced at the Odeon; the recollection of which also brings up the name +of Mlle. Mars. + + * * * * * + +The statue in Paris in the Place Malesherbes, erected to the memory of +Dumas, has been highly commended in conception and execution. It was the +work of Gustave Dore, and, truth to tell, it has some wonderfully +effective sculptures in bronze. A group of three symbolical figures _en +face_, and a lifelike and life-sized representation of the courageous +D'Artagnan _d'arriere_. These details are charming when reproduced on +paper by process of photography or the hand of an artist. Indeed, they are +of much the same quality when viewed as details, but in the ensemble, +combined with a cold, inartistic base or pedestal, which is crowned by a +seated effigy of Dumas--also life-size--clad in the unlovely raiment of +the latter nineteenth century, there is much to be desired. + +Statues, be they bronze or marble, are often artistically successful when +their figures are covered with picturesque mediaeval garments, but they are +invariably a failure, in an artistic sense, when clothed in latter-day +garb. Doublet and hose, and sword and cloak lend themselves unmistakably +to artistic expression. Trousers and top-hats do not. Just back of the +Place Malesherbes is the Avenue de Villiers--a street of fine houses, many +of them studio apartments, of Paris's most famous artists. Here at No. 94 +lived Alexandre Dumas during the later years of his life; so it is fitting +that his monument should be placed in this vicinity. The house was +afterward occupied by Dumas _fils_, and more lately by his widow, but now +it has passed into other hands. + +Of interest to Americans is the fact which has been recorded by some one +who was _au courant_ with Parisian affairs of the day, "that the United +States Minister to France, Mr. John Bigelow, breakfasted with Dumas at St. +Gratien, near Paris," when it came out that he (Dumas) had a notion to go +out to America as a war correspondent for the French papers; the Civil War +was not then over. Unhappily for all of us, he did not go, and so a truly +great book was lost to the world. + +In this same connection it has been said that Dumas' "quadroon autographs" +were sold in the United States, to provide additional funds for the widows +and orphans of slain abolitionists. As it is apocryphally said that they +sold for a matter of a hundred and twenty dollars each, the sum must have +reached considerable proportions, if their number was great. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +OLD PARIS + + +The Paris of Dumas was Meryon's--though it is well on toward a +half-century since either of them saw it. Hence it is no longer theirs; +but the master romancer and the master etcher had much in common. + +They both drew with a fine, free hand, the one in words that burn +themselves in the memory, and the other in lines which, once bitten on the +copper plate, are come down to us in indelible fashion. The mention of +Meryon and his art is no mere rambling of the pen. Like that of Dumas, his +art depicted those bold, broad impressions which rebuilt "old Paris" in a +manner which is only comparable to the background which Dumas gave to "Les +Trois Mousquetaires." + +The iconoclastic Haussman caused much to disappear, and it is hard to +trace the footsteps of many a character of history and romance, whose +incomings and outgoings are otherwise very familiar to us. + +There are many distinct cities which go to make up Paris itself, each +differing from the other, but Dumas and Meryon drew them each and all with +unerring fidelity: Dumas the University Quarter and the faubourgs in "Les +Trois Mousquetaires," and Meryon the Cite in "The Stryge." + +The sheer beauty and charm of old-world Paris was never more strongly +suggested than in the work of these two masters, who have given a +permanence to the abodes of history and romance which would otherwise have +been wanting. It is a pleasurable occupation to hunt up the dwellings of +those personages who may, or may not, have lived in the real flesh and +blood. The mere fact that they lived in the pages of a Dumas--or for that +matter of a Balzac or a Hugo--is excuse enough for most of us to seek to +follow in their footsteps. + +In spite of the splendour of the present and the past, Paris is by no +means too great to prevent one's tracing its old outlines, streets, and +landmarks, even though they have disappeared to-day, and the site of the +famous Hotel Chevreuse or the Carmelite establishment in the Rue +Vaugirard--against whose wall D'Artagnan and his fellows put up that +gallant fight against the cardinal's guard--are in the same geographical +positions that they always were, if their immediate surroundings have +changed, as they assuredly have. + +Indeed, the sturdy wall which kept the Carmelite friars from contact with +the outer world has become a mere hoarding for gaudily coloured posters, +and the magnificent Hotel Chevreuse on the Boulevard St. Germain has been +incorporated into a modern apartment-house, and its garden cut through by +the Boulevard Raspail. + +The destruction of "Old Paris"--the gabled, half-timbered, mediaeval +city--is not only an artistic regret, but a personal one to all who know +intimately the city's history and romance. It was inevitable, of course, +but it is deplorable. + +Meryon, too, like Dumas, etched details with a certain regard for effect +rather than a colder preciseness, which could hardly mean so much as an +impression of a mood. They both sought the picturesque element, and +naturally imparted to everything modern with which they came into contact +the same charm of reality which characterized the tangible results of +their labours. + +Nothing was left to chance, though much may--we have reason to think--have +been spontaneous. The witchery of a picturesque impression is ever great, +but the frequency of its occurrence is growing less and less. + +To-day we have few romancers, few painters or etchers of fleeting moods or +impressions, and are fast becoming schooled in the tenets of Zola and +Baudry, to the glorification of realism, but to the death and deep burial +of the far more healthy romanticism of the masters of a few generations +since. + + * * * * * + +To the Roman occupation of Paris succeeded that of the Franks, and Clovis, +son of Childerie and grandson of Merovee, after his conversion to +Christianity at Reims, established the seat of his empire at Paris. + +Childebert, the descendant of Clovis,--who had taken unto himself the +title King of Paris,--in 524 laid the foundation of the first Eglise de +Notre Dame. + +The kings of the second race lived in Paris but little, and under the +feeble successors of Charlemagne the city became the particular domain of +the hereditary counts. In the year 845 the Normans came up the river by +boat and razed all of that part known even to-day as La Cite, hence the +extreme improbability of there being existing remains of an earlier date +than this, which are to-day recognizable. After successive disasters and +invasions, it became necessary that new _quartiers_ and new streets should +be formed and populated, and under the reign of Louis VII. the walls were +extended to include, on the right bank, Le Bourg l'Abbe, Le Bourg +Thibourg, Le Beau-Bourg, Le Bourg St. Martin,--regions which have since +been occupied by the Rues St. Martin, Beaubourg, Bourtebourg, and Bourg +l'Abbe,--and, on the right bank, St. Germain des Pres, St. Victor, and St. +Michel. + +Since this time Paris has been divided into three distinct parts: La +Ville, to the north of the Seine, La Cite, in the centre, and +L'Universite, in the south. + +The second _enceinte_ did not long suffice to enclose the habitations of +the people, and in the year 1190 Philippe-Auguste constructed the third +wall, which was strengthened by five hundred towers and surrounded by a +deep _fosse_, perpetuated to-day as the Rempart des Fosses. At this time +the first attempts were made at paving the city streets, principally at +the instigation of the wealthy Gerard de Poissy, whose name has since been +given to an imposing street on the south bank. + +Again, in 1356, the famous Etienne Marcel commenced the work of the fourth +_enceinte_. On the south, the walls were not greatly extended, but on the +north they underwent a considerable aggrandizement. Fortified gateways +were erected at the extremity of the Rue de St. Antoine, and others were +known variously as the Porte du Temple and Porte St. Denis. Other chief +features of the time--landmarks one may call them--were the Porte St. +Honore, which was connected with the river-bank by a prolonged wall, the +Tour du Bois, and a new fortification--as a guardian against internal +warfare, it would seem--at the upper end of the Ile de la Cite. + +Toward the end of the reign of Louis XI. the city had become repeopled, +after many preceding years of flood, ravage, and famine, and contained, it +is said, nearly three hundred thousand souls. + +From this reign, too, dates the establishment of the first printing-shop +in Paris, the letter-post, and the _poste-chaise_. Charles VII., the son +of Louis XI., united with the Bibliotheque Royal those of the Kings of +Naples. + +Louis XII., who followed, did little to beautify the city, but his +parental care for the inhabitants reduced the income of the tax-gatherer +and endeared his name to all as the _Pere du Peuple_. + +Francois I.--whose glorious name as the instigator of much that has since +become national in French art--considerably enlarged the fortifications +on the west, and executed the most momentous embellishments which had yet +taken place in the city. In public edifices he employed, or caused his +architects to employ, the Greek orders, and the paintings by Italian hands +and the sculptures of Goujon were the highest expressions of the art of +the Renaissance, which had grown so abundantly from the seed sown by +Charles VIII. upon his return from his wanderings in Italy. + +It may be questioned if the art of the Renaissance is really beautiful; it +is, however, undeniably effective in its luxuriant, if often ill-assorted, +details; so why revile it here? It was the prime cause, more than all +others put together, of the real adornment of Paris; and, in truth, was +far more successful in the application of its principles here than +elsewhere. + +During the reign of Francois I. were built, or rebuilt, the great Eglises +de St. Gervais, St. Germain l'Auxerrois, and St. Merry, as well as the +Hotel de Ville. The Louvre was reconstructed on a new plan, and the +Faubourg St. Germain was laid out anew. + +Under Henri II. the work on the Louvre was completed, and the Hopital des +Petites Maisons constructed. It was Henri II., too, who first ordained +that the effigies of the kings should be placed upon all coins. + +The principal edifices built under Charles IX. were the Palais des +Tuileries, Hotel de Soissons, the Jesuit College, and the Hopital du St. +Jacques du Haut Pas. + +Henri III. erected the church of the Jesuits in the Rue St. Antoine, the +Eglise de St. Paul et St. Louis, the Monastere des Feuillants, the Hotel +de Bourgogne, and the Theatre Italien. + +Under Henri IV. was achieved the Pont Neuf, whose centre piers just +impinge upon the lower end of the Ile de la Cite; the Quais de l'Arsenal, +de l'Horloge, des Orphelins, de l'Ecole, de la Megisserie, de Conti, and +des Augustins; la Place Dauphine, and the Rue Dauphine. The Place Royale +came to replace--in the _Quartier du Marais_--the old Palais des +Tournelles, the pleasure of so many kings, Francois I. in particular. + +Louis XIII., the feeble king who reigned without governing, saw many +improvements, which, however, grew up in spite of the monarch rather than +because of him. + +There was a general furbishing up of the streets and quais. Marie de +Medicis built the Palais du Luxembourg and planted the Cours la Reine; +many new bridges were constructed and new monuments set up, among others +the Palais Royal, at this time called the Palais Cardinal; the Eglise St. +Roch; the Oratoire; le Val-de-Grace; les Madelonnettes; la Salpetriere; +the Sorbonne, and the Jardin des Plantes. Many public places were also +decorated with statues: the effigy of Henri IV. was placed on the Pont +Neuf, and of Louis XII. in the Place Royale. + +By this time the population had overflowed the walls of Philippe-Auguste, +already enlarged by Francois I., and Louis XIV. overturned their towers +and ramparts, and filled their _fosses_, believing that a strong community +needed no such protections. + +These ancient fortifications were replaced by the boulevards which exist +even unto to-day--not only in Paris, but in most French towns and +cities--unequalled elsewhere in all the world. + +Up to the reign of Louis XIV. the population of Paris had, for the most +part, been lodged in narrow, muddy streets, which had subjected them to +many indescribable discomforts. Meanwhile, during the glorious reign of +Louis XIV., Paris achieved great extension of area and splendour; many new +streets were opened in the different _quartiers_, others were laid out +anew or abolished altogether, more than thirty churches were +built,--"all highly beautiful," say the guide-books. But they are not: +Paris churches taken together are a decidedly mixed lot, some good in +parts and yet execrable in other parts, and many even do not express any +intimation whatever of good architectural forms. + + +[Illustration: PONT NEUF.--PONT AU CHANGE] + + +The Pont au Change was rebuilt, and yet four other bridges were made +necessary to permit of better circulation between the various _faubourgs_ +and _quartiers_. + +To the credit of Louis XIV. must also be put down the Hotel des Invalides, +the Observatoire, the magnificent colonnade of the Louvre, the Pont Royal, +the College des Quatre Nations, the Bibliotheque Royale, numerous +fountains and statues, the royal glass, porcelain, and tapestry +manufactories, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and the Boulevards St. +Denis and St. Martin. + +Saint Foix (in his "Essais sur Paris") has said that it was Louis XIV. who +first gave to the reign of a French monarch the _eclat_ of grandeur and +magnificence, not only for his court, but for his capital and his people. + +Under the succeeding reign of Louis XV. the beautifying of Paris took +another flight. On the place which first bore the name of the monarch +himself, but which is to-day known as the Place de la Concorde, were +erected a pair of richly decorated monuments which quite rivalled in +achievement the superb colonnaded Louvre of the previous reign, the Champs +Elysees were replanted, the Ecole Militaire, the Ecole de Droit, and the +Hotel de la Monnaie were erected, and still other additional boulevards +and magnificent streets were planned out. + +A new church came into being with St. Genevieve, which afterward became +the Pantheon. + +The reign following saw the final achievement of all these splendid +undertakings; then came the Revolution, that political terror which would +have upset all established institutions; and if Paris, the city of +splendid houses, did not become merely a cemetery of tombs, it was not +because maniacal fanaticism and fury were lacking. + +Religious, civic, and military establishments were razed, demolished, or +burnt, regardless of their past associations or present artistic worth. + +In a way, however, these sacrilegious demolitions gave cause to much +energetic rebuilding and laying out of the old city anew, in the years +immediately succeeding the period of the Revolution, which as an +historical event has no place in this book other than mere mention, as it +may have been referred to by Dumas. + +It was Napoleon who undertook the rehabilitation of Paris, with an energy +and foresight only equalled by his prowess as a master of men. + +He occupied himself above all with what the French themselves would call +those _monuments et decorations utiles_, as might be expected of his +abilities as an organizer. The canal from the river Ourcq through La +Villette to the Seine was, at the Fosses de la Bastille, cleared and +emptied of its long stagnant waters; _abattoirs_ were constructed in +convenient places, in order to do away with the vast herds of cattle which +for centuries had been paraded through the most luxurious of the city's +streets; new markets were opened, and numerous fountains and +watering-troughs were erected in various parts of the city; four new and +ornate bridges were thrown across the Seine, the magnificent Rues +Castiglione and de la Paix, extending from the Tuileries to the interior +boulevards, were opened up; the Place Vendome was then endowed with its +bronze column, which stands to-day; the splendid and utile Rue de Rivoli +was made beside the garden of the Tuileries (it has since been prolonged +to the Hotel de Ville). + +Napoleon also founded the Palais de la Bourse (1808), and caused to be +erected a superb iron _grille_ which should separate the Place du +Carrousel from the Tuileries. + +Under the Restoration little happened with regard to the beautifying and +aggrandizing of the city, though certain improvements of a purely economic +and social nature made their own way. + +The literature and art of Dumas and his compeers were making such sturdy +progress as to give Paris that preeminence in these finer elements of +life, which, before or since, has not been equalled elsewhere. + +Since the Revolution of 1830 have been completed the Arc de Triomphe de +l'Etoile (commenced by Napoleon I.), the Eglise de la Madeleine, the fine +hotel of the Quai d'Orsay, the Palais des Beaux Arts, the restoration of +the Chambre des Deputes (the old Palais Bourbon), and the statues set up +in the Place de la Concorde; though it is only since the ill-starred +Franco-Prussian _affaire_ of 1871 that Strasbourg's doleful figure has +been buried in jet and alabaster sentiments, so dear to the Frenchman of +all ranks, as an outward expression of grief. + +At the commencement of the Second Empire the fortifications, as they then +existed, possessed a circumference of something above thirty-three +kilometres--approximately nineteen miles. The walls are astonishingly +thick, and their _fosses_ wide and deep. The surrounding exterior forts +"_de distance en distance_" are a unique feature of the general scheme of +defence, and played, as it will be recalled, no unimportant part in the +investiture of the city by the Germans in the seventies. + +A French writer of the early days of the last Empire says: "These new +fortifications are in their ensemble a gigantic work." They are, +indeed--though, in spite of their immensity, they do not impress the lay +observer even as to impregnability as do the wonderful walls and ramparts +of Carcassonne, or dead Aigues-Mortes in the Midi of France; those +wonderful somnolent old cities of a glorious past, long since departed. + +The fortifications of Paris, however, are a wonderfully utile thing, and +must ever have an unfathomable interest for all who have followed their +evolution from the restricted battlements of the early Roman city. + +The Parisian has, perhaps, cause to regret that these turf-covered +battlements somewhat restrict his "_promenades environnantes_," but what +would you? Once outside, through any of the gateways, the Avenue de la +Grande Armee,--which is the most splendid,--or the Porte du Canal de +l'Ourcq,--which is the least luxurious, though by no means is it +unpicturesque; indeed, it has more of that variable quality, perhaps, than +any other,--one comes into the charm of the French countryside; that is, +if he knows in which direction to turn. At any rate, he comes immediately +into contact with a life which is quite different from any phase which is +to be seen within the barrier. + +From the Revolution of 1848 to the first years of the Second Empire, which +ought properly to be treated by itself,--and so shall be,--there came into +being many and vast demolitions and improvements. + +Paris was a vast atelier of construction, where agile minds conceived, and +the artisan and craftsman executed, monumental glories and improvements +which can only be likened to the focusing of the image upon the ground +glass. + +The prolongation of the Rue de Rivoli was put through; the Boulevards +Sebastopol, Malesherbes,--where in the Place Malesherbes is that appealing +monument to Dumas by Gustave Dore,--du Prince Eugene, St. Germain, +Magenta, the Rue des Ecoles, and many others. All of which tended to +change the very face and features of the Paris the world had known +hitherto. + +The "Caserne Napoleon" had received its guests, and the Tour St. Jacques, +from which point of vantage the "clerk of the weather" to-day +prognosticates for Paris, had been restored. Magnificent establishments of +all sorts and ranks had been built, the Palais de l'Industrie (since +razed) had opened its doors to the work of all nations, in the exhibition +of 1855. + +Of Paris, one may well concentrate one's estimate in five words: "Each +epoch has been rich," also prolific, in benefits, intentions, and +creations of all manner of estimable and admirable achievements. + +By favour of these efforts of all the reigns and governments which have +gone before, the Paris of to-day in its architectural glories, its +monuments in stone, and the very atmosphere of its streets, places, and +boulevards, is assuredly the most marvellous of all the cities of Europe. + + * * * * * + +It may not be an exceedingly pleasant subject, but there is, and always +has been, a certain fascination about a visit to a cemetery which ranks, +in the minds of many well-informed and refined persons, far above even the +contemplation of great churches themselves. + +It may be a morbid taste, or it may not. Certainly there seems to be no +reason why a considerable amount of really valuable facts might not be +impressed upon the retina of a traveller who should do the round of +_Campos Santos_, _Cimetieres_ and burial-grounds in various lands. + +In this respect, as in many others, Paris leads the way for sheer interest +in its tombs and sepulchres, at Montmartre and Pere la Chaise. + +In no other burial-ground in the world--unless it be Mount Auburn, near +Boston, where, if the world-wide name and fame of those there buried are +not so great as those at Paris, their names are at least as much household +words to English-speaking folk, as are those of the old-world +resting-place to the French themselves--are to be found so many celebrated +names. + +There are a quartette of these famous resting-places at Paris which, since +the coming of the nineteenth century, have had an absorbing interest for +the curiously inclined. Pere la Chaise, Montmartre, the royal sepulchres +in the old abbey church of St. Denis, and the churchyard of St. Innocents. + +"Man," said Sir Thomas Brown, "is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and +pompous in the grave." Why this should be so, it is not the province of +this book to explain, nor even to justify the gorgeous and ill-mannered +monuments which are often erected over his bones. + + +[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF HENRY IV.] + + +The catacombs of Paris are purposely ignored here, as appealing to a +special variety of morbidity which is as unpleasant to deal with and to +contemplate as are snakes preserved in spirit, and as would be--were we +allowed to see them--the sacred human _reliques_ which are preserved, even +to-day, at various pilgrims' shrines throughout the Christian world. That +vast royal sepulchre of the abbey church of St. Denis, which had been so +outrageously despoiled by the decree of the Convention in 1793, was in a +measure set to rights by Louis XVIII., when he caused to be returned from +the Petits Augustins, now the Palais des Beaux Arts, and elsewhere, such +of the monuments as had not been actually destroyed. The actual spoliation +of these shrines belongs to an earlier day than that of which this book +deals. + +The history of it forms as lurid a chapter as any known to the records of +riot and sacrilege in France; and the more the pity that the motion of +Barrere ("_La main puissante de la Republique doit effacer inpitoyablement +ces epitaphes_") to destroy these royal tombs should have had official +endorsement. + +The details of these barbarous exhumations were curious, but not edifying; +the corpse of Turenne was exhibited around the city; Henri IV.--"his +features still being perfect"--was kicked and bunted about like a +football; Louis XIV. was found in a perfect preservation, but entirely +black; Louis VIII. had been sewed up in a leather sack; and Francois I. +and his family "had become much decayed;" so, too, with many of the later +Bourbons. + +In general these bodies were deposited in a common pit, which had been dug +near the north entrance to the abbey, and thus, for the first time in the +many centuries covered by the period of their respected demises, their +dust was to mingle in a common blend, and all factions were to become one. + +Viollet-le-Duc, at the instruction of Napoleon III., set up again, +following somewhat an approximation of the original plan, the various +monuments which had been so thoroughly scattered, and which, since their +return to the old abbey, had been herded together without a pretence at +order in the crypt. + +Paris had for centuries been wretchedly supplied with _cimetieres_. For +long one only had existed, that of the churchyard of St. Innocents', +originally a piece of the royal domain lying without the walls, and given +by one of the French kings as a burial-place for the citizens, when +interments within the city were forbidden. + +It has been calculated that from the time of Philippe-Auguste over a +million bodies had been interred in these _fosses communes_. + +In 1785 the Council of State decreed that the cemetery should be cleared +of its dead and converted into a market-place. Cleared it was not, but it +has since become a market-place, and the waters of the Fontaine des +Innocents filter briskly through the dust of the dead of ages. + +Sometime in the early part of the nineteenth century the funeral +undertakings of Paris were conducted on a sliding scale of prices, ranging +from four thousand francs in the first class, to as low as sixteen francs +for the very poor; six classes in all. + +This law-ordered _tarif_ would seem to have been a good thing for +posterity to have perpetuated. + +The artisan or craftsman who fashions the funeral monuments of Paris has a +peculiar flight of fancy all his own; though, be it said, throughout the +known world, funeral urns and monuments have seldom or never been +beautiful, graceful, or even austere or dignified: they have, in fact, +mostly been shocking travesties of the ideals and thoughts they should +have represented. + +It is remarkable that the French architect and builder, who knows so well +how to design and construct the habitation of living man, should express +himself so badly in his bizarre funeral monuments and the tawdry tinsel +wreaths and flowers of their decorations. + +An English visitor to Paris in the thirties deplored the fact that her +cemeteries should be made into mere show-places, and perhaps rightly +enough. At that time they served as a fashionable and polite avenue for +promenades, and there was (perhaps even is to-day) a guide-book published +of them, and, since grief is paradoxically and proverbially dry, there was +always a battery of taverns and drinking-places flanking their entrances. + +It was observed by a writer in a Parisian journal of that day that "in the +Cimetiere du Montmartre--which was the deposit for the gay part of the +city--nine tombs out of ten were to the memory of persons cut off in their +youth; but that in Pere la Chaise--which served principally for the sober +citizens of Paris--nine out of ten recorded the ages of persons who had +attained a good old age." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WAYS AND MEANS OF COMMUNICATION + + +The means of communication in and about Paris in former days was but a +travesty on the methods of the "Metropolitain," which in our time +literally whisks one like the wings of the morning, from the Arc de +Triomphe to the Bois de Vincennes, and from the Place de la Nation to the +Trocadero. + +In 1850 there were officially enumerated over twenty-eight hundred +boulevards, avenues, _rues_, and passages, the most lively being St. +Honore, Richelieu, Vivienne, Castiglione, de l'Universite,--Dumas lived +here at No. 25, in a house formerly occupied by Chateaubriand, now the +Magazin St. Thomas,--de la Chaussee d'Antin, de la Paix, de Grenelle, de +Bac, St. Denis, St. Martin, St. Antoine, and, above all, the Rue de +Rivoli,--with a length of nearly three miles, distinguished at its +westerly end by its great covered gallery, where the dwellings above are +carried on a series of 287 arcades, flanked by _boutiques_, not very +sumptuous to-day, to be sure, but even now a promenade of great +popularity. At No. 22 Rue de Rivoli, near the Rue St. Roch, Dumas himself +lived from 1838 to 1843. + +There were in those days more than a score of passages, being for the most +part a series of fine galleries, in some instances taking the form of a +rotunda, glass-covered, and surrounded by shops with _appartements_ above. +The most notable were those known as the Panoramas Jouffroy, Vivienne, +Colbert, de l'Opera, Delorme, du Saumon, etc. + +There were more than a hundred squares, or _places_--most of which remain +to-day. The most famous on the right bank of the Seine are de la Concorde, +Vendome, du Carrousel, du Palais Royal, des Victoires, du Chatelet, de +l'Hotel de Ville, Royale, des Vosges, and de la Bastille; on the left +bank, du Pantheon, de St. Sulpice, du Palais Bourbon. Most of these +radiating centres of life are found in Dumas' pages, the most frequent +mention being in the D'Artagnan and Valois romances. + +Among the most beautiful and the most frequented thoroughfares were--and +are--the tree-bordered quais, and, of course, the boulevards. + +The interior boulevards were laid out at the end of the seventeenth +century on the ancient ramparts of the city, and extended from the +Madeleine to La Bastille, a distance of perhaps three miles. They are +mostly of a width of thirty-two metres (105 feet). + +This was the boulevard of the time _par excellence_, and its tree-bordered +_allees_--sidewalks and roadways--bore, throughout its comparatively short +length, eleven different names, often changing meanwhile as it progressed +its physiognomy as well. + +On the left bank, the interior boulevard was extended from the Jardin des +Plantes to the Hotel des Invalides; while the "_boulevards exterieurs_" +formed a second belt of tree-shaded thoroughfares of great extent. + +Yet other boulevards of ranking greatness cut the _rues_ and avenues +tangently, now from one bank and then from the other; the most splendid of +all being the Avenue de l'Opera, which, however, did not come into being +until well after the middle of the century. Among these are best recalled +Sebastopol, St. Germain, St. Martin, Magenta, Malesherbes, and others. The +Place Malesherbes, which intersects the avenue, now contains the +celebrated Dumas memorial by Dore, and the neighbouring thoroughfare was +the residence of Dumas from 1866 to 1870. + +Yet another class of thoroughfares, while conceived previous to the +chronological limits which the title puts upon this book, were the vast +and splendid promenades and rendezvous, with their trees, flowers, and +fountains; such as the gardens of the Tuileries and the Luxembourg, the +Champs Elysees, the Esplanade des Invalides, and the Bois de Boulogne and +de Vincennes. + +Dibdin tells of his _entree_ into Paris in the early days of the +nineteenth century, having journeyed by "_malle-poste_" from Havre, in the +pages of his memorable bibliographical tour. + +His observations somewhat antedate the Paris of Dumas and his fellows, but +changes came but slowly, and therein may be found a wealth of +archaeological and topographical information concerning the French +metropolis; though he does compare, detrimentally, the panorama of Paris +which unrolls from the heights of Passy, to that of London from Highgate +Woods. + +On the contrary, his impressions change after passing the barriers. +"Nothing in London," says he, "can enter into comparison with the imposing +spectacle which is presented by the magnificent Champs Elysees, with the +Chateau of the Tuileries _en face_, and to the right the superb dome of +the Invalides glistening in the rays of the setting sun." + +Paris had at this time 2,948 "_voitures de louage_," which could be hired +for any journey to be made within reasonable distance; and eighty-three +which were run only on predetermined routes, as were the later omnibuses +and tram-cars. These 2,948 carriages were further classified as follows; +900 _fiacres_; 765 _cabriolets_, circulating in the twelve interior +_arrondissements_; 406 _cabriolets_ for the exterior; 489 _carrosses de +remise_ (livery-coaches), and 388 _cabriolets de remise_. + +The _prefet de police_, Count Angles, had received from one Godot, an +_entrepreneur_,--a sort of early edition of what we know to-day as a +company promoter,--a proposition to establish a line of omnibuses along +the quais and boulevards. Authorization for the scheme was withheld for +the somewhat doubtful reason that "the constant stoppage of the vehicles +to set down and take up passengers would greatly embarrass other traffic;" +and so a new idea was still-born into the world, to come to life only in +1828, when another received the much coveted authority to make the +experiment. + +Already such had been established in Bordeaux and Nantes, by an individual +by the name of Baudry, and he it was who obtained the first concession in +Paris. + +The first line inaugurated was divided into two sections: Rue de +Lancry--Madeleine, and Rue de Lancry--Bastille. + +It is recorded that the young--but famous--Duchesse de Berry was the first +to take passage in these "intramural _diligences_," which she called "_le +carrosse des malheureux_;" perhaps with some truth, if something of +snobbishness. + +There seems to have been a considerable difficulty in attracting a +_clientele_ to this new means of communication. The public hesitated, +though the prices of the places were decided in their favour, so much so +that the enterprise came to an untimely end, or, at least, its founder +did; for he committed suicide because of the non-instantaneous success of +the scheme. + +The concession thereupon passed into other hands, and there was created a +new type of vehicle of sixteen places, drawn by two horses, and priced at +six sous the place. The new service met with immediate, if but partial, +success, and with the establishment of new routes, each served by +carriages of a distinctive colour, its permanence was assured. + +Then came the "_Dames Blanches_,"--the name being inspired by Boieldieu's +opera,--which made the journey between the Porte St. Martin and the +Madeleine in a quarter of an hour. They were painted a cream white, and +drawn by a pair of white horses, coiffed with white plumes. + +After the establishment of the omnibus came other series of vehicles for +public service: the "_Ecossaises_," with their gaudily variegated colours, +the "_Carolines_," the "_Bearnaises_," and the "_Tricycles_," which ran on +three wheels in order to escape the wheel-tax which obtained at the time. + +In spite of the rapid multiplication of omnibus lines under +Louis-Philippe, their veritable success came only with the ingenious +system of transfers, or "_la correspondance_;" a system and a convenience +whereby one can travel throughout Paris for the price of one fare. From +this reason alone, perhaps, the omnibus and tram system of Paris is +unexcelled in all the world. This innovation dates, moreover, from 1836, +and, accordingly, is no new thing, as many may suppose. + +Finally, more recently,--though it was during the Second Empire,--the +different lines were fused under the title of the "Compagnie Generale des +Omnibus." + +"_La malle-poste_" was an institution of the greatest importance to Paris, +though of course no more identified with it than with the other cities of +France between which it ran. It dated actually from the period of the +Revolution, and grew, and was modified, under the Restoration. It is said +that its final development came during the reign of Louis XVIII., and grew +out of his admiration for the "_elegance et la rapidite des malles +anglaises_," which had been duly impressed upon him during his sojourn in +England. + +This may be so, and doubtless with some justification. _En passant_ it is +curious to know, and, one may say, incredible to realize, that from the G. +P. O. in London, in this year of enlightenment, there leaves each night +various mail-coaches--for Dover, for Windsor, and perhaps elsewhere. They +do not carry passengers, but they do give a very bad service in the +delivery of certain classes of mail matter. The marvel is that such things +are acknowledged as being fitting and proper to-day. + +In 1836 the "_malle-poste_" was reckoned, in Paris, as being _elegante et +rapide_, having a speed of not less than sixteen kilometres an hour over +give-and-take roads. + +Each evening, from the courtyard of the Hotel des Postes, the coaches +left, with galloping horses and heavy loads, for the most extreme points +of the frontier; eighty-six hours to Bordeaux at first, and finally +only forty-four (in 1837); one hundred hours to Marseilles, later but +sixty-eight. + + +[Illustration: GRAND BUREAU DE LA POSTE] + + +Stendhal tells of his journey by "_malle-poste_" from Paris to Marseilles +in three days, and Victor Hugo has said that two nights on the road gave +one a high idea of the _solidite_ of the human machine; and further says, +of a journey down the Loire, that he recalled only a great tower at +Orleans, a candlelit _salle_ of an _auberge en route_, and, at Blois, a +bridge with a cross upon it. "In reality, during the journey, animation +was suspended." + +What we knew, or our forefathers knew, as the "_poste-chaise_," properly +"_chaise de poste_," came in under the Restoration. All the world knows, +or should know, Edouard Thierry's picturesque description of it. "_Le reve +de nos vingt ans, la voiture ou l'on n'est que deux ... devant vous le +chemin libre, la plaine, la pente rapide, le pont._" "You traverse cities +and hamlets without number, by the _grands rues_, the _grande place_, +etc." + +In April, 1837, Stendhal quitted Paris under exactly these conditions for +his tour of France. He bought "_une bonne caleche_," and left _via_ +Fontainebleau, Montargis, and Cosne. Two months after, however, he +returned to the metropolis _via_ Bourges, having refused to continue his +journey _en caleche_, preferring the "_malle-poste_" and the _diligence_ +of his youth. + +Public _diligences_, however, had but limited accommodation on grand +occasions; Victor Hugo, who had been invited to the consecration of +Charles X. at Reims, and his friend, Charles Nodier, the +bibliophile,--also a friend of Dumas, it is recalled,--in company with two +others, made the attempt amid much discomfort in a private carriage,--of a +sort,--and Nodier wittily tells of how he and Hugo walked on foot up all +the hills, each carrying his gripsack as well. + +More than all others the "Coches d'Eau" are especially characteristic of +Paris; those fly-boats, whose successors ply up and down the Seine, to the +joy of Americans, the convenience of the Parisian public, and--it is +surely allowable to say it--the disgust of Londoners, now that their aged +and decrepit "Thames steamboats" are no more. + +These early Parisian "Coches d'Eau" carried passengers up and down river +for surprisingly low fares, and left the city at seven in the morning in +summer, and eight in winter. + +The following is a list of the most important routes: + + Paris--Nogent-sur-Seine 2 days en route + Paris--Briare 3 " " " + Paris--Montereau 1 " " " + Paris--Sens 2 " " " + Paris--Auxerre 4 " " " + +All of these services catered for passengers and goods, and were, if not +rapid, certainly a popular and comfortable means of communication. + +An even more popular journey, and one which partook more particularly of a +pleasure-trip, was that of the _galiote_, which left each day from below +the Pont-Royal for St. Cloud, giving a day's outing by river which to-day, +even, is the most fascinating of the many _petits voyages_ to be +undertaken around Paris. + +The other recognized public means of communication between the metropolis +and the provincial towns and cities were the "Messageries Royales," and +two other similar companies, "La Compagne Lafitte et Caillard" and "Les +Francaises." + +These companies put also before the Parisian public two other classes of +vehicular accommodation, the "_pataches suspendues_," small carriages with +but one horse, which ran between Paris and Strasburg, Metz, Nancy, and +Lyons at the price of ten sous per hour. + +Again there was another means of travel which originated in Paris; it was +known as the "Messageries a Cheval." Travellers rode _on_ horses, which +were furnished by the company, their _bagages_ being transported in +advance by a "_chariot_." In fine weather this must certainly have been an +agreeable and romantic mode of travel in those days; what would be thought +of it to-day, when one, if he does not fly over the kilometres in a +Sud--or Orient--Express, is as likely as not covering the _Route +Nationale_ at sixty or more kilometres the hour in an automobile, it is +doubtful to say. + +Finally came the famous _diligence_, which to-day, outside the "Rollo" +books and the reprints of old-time travel literature, is seldom met with +in print. + +"These immense structures," says an observant French writer, "which lost +sometimes their centre of gravity, in spite of all precaution and care on +the part of the driver and the guard, were, by an _Ordonnance Royale_ of +the 16th of July, 1828, limited as to their dimensions, weight, and +design." + +Each _diligence_ carried as many spare parts as does a modern automobile, +and workshops and supply-depots were situated at equal distances along the +routes. Hugo said that the complexity of it all represented to him "the +perfect image of a nation; its constitution and its government. In the +_diligence_ was to be found, as in the state, the aristocracy in the +coupe, the _bourgeoisie_ in the interior, the people in _la rotonde_, and, +finally, 'the artists, the thinkers, and the unclassed' in the utmost +height, the _imperiale_, beside the _conducteur_, who represented the law +of the state. + +"This great _diligence_, with its body painted in staring yellow, and its +five horses, carries one in a diminutive space through all the sleeping +villages and hamlets of the countryside." + +From Paris, in 1830, the journey by _diligence_ to Toulouse--182 French +leagues--took eight days; to Rouen, thirteen hours; to Lyons, _par_ +Auxerre, four days, and to Calais, two and a half days. + +The _diligence_ was certainly an energetic mode of travel, but not without +its discomforts, particularly in bad weather. Prosper Merimee gave up his +winter journey overland to Madrid in 1859, and took ship at Bordeaux for +Alicante in Spain, because, as he says, "all the inside places had been +taken for a month ahead." + +The coming of the _chemin de fer_ can hardly be dealt with here. Its +advent is comparatively modern history, and is familiar to all. + +Paris, as might naturally be supposed, was the hub from which radiated the +great spokes of iron which bound the uttermost frontiers intimately with +the capital. + +There were three short lines of rail laid down in the provinces before +Paris itself took up with the innovation: at Roanne, St. +Etienne-Andrezieux, Epinac, and Alais. + +By _la loi du 9 Juillet_, 1835, a line was built from Paris to St. +Germain, seventeen kilometres, and its official opening for traffic, which +took place two years later, was celebrated by a _dejeuner de circonstance_ +at the Restaurant du Pavillon Henri Quatre at St. Germain. + +Then came "Le Nord" to Lille, Boulogne, and Calais; "L'Ouest" to Havre, +Rouen, Cherbourg, and Brest; "L'Est" to Toul and Nancy; "L'Orleans" to +Orleans and the Loire Valley; and, finally, the "P. L. M." (Paris-Lyon et +Mediterranee) to the south of France. "Then it was that Paris really +became the rich neighbour of all the provincial towns and cities. Before, +she had been a sort of pompous and distant relative"--as a whimsical +Frenchman has put it. + +The mutability of time and the advent of mechanical traction is fast +changing all things--in France and elsewhere. The Chevaux Blancs, Deux +Pigeons, Cloches d'Or, and the Hotels de la Poste, de la Croix, and du +Grand Cerf are fast disappearing from the large towns, and the way of iron +is, or will be, a source of inspiration to the poets of the future, as has +the _postillon_, the _diligence_, and the _chaise de poste_ in the past. +Here is a quatrain written by a despairing _aubergiste_ of the little town +of Salons, which indicates how the innovation was received by the +provincials--in spite of its undeniable serviceability: + + "En l'an neuf cent, machine lourde + A tretous farfit damne et mal, + Gens moult rioient d'icelle bourde, + Au campas renovoient cheval." + +The railways which centre upon Paris are indeed the ties that bind Paris +to the rest of France, and vice versa. Their termini--the great +_gares_--are at all times the very concentrated epitome of the life of the +day. + +The new _gares_ of the P. L. M. and the Orleans railways are truly +splendid and palatial establishments, with--at first glance--little of the +odour of the railway about them, and much of the ceremonial appointments +of a great civic institution; with gorgeous _salles a manger_, +waiting-rooms, and--bearing the P. L. M. in mind in particular--not a +little of the aspect of an art-gallery. + +The other _embarcaderes_ are less up-to-date--that vague term which we +twentieth-century folk are wont to make use of in describing the latest +innovations. The Gare St. Lazare is an enormous establishment, with a +hotel appendage, which of itself is of great size; the Gare du Nord is +equally imposing, but architecturally unbeautiful; while the Gare de l'Est +still holds in its tympanum the melancholy symbolical figure of the late +lamented Ville de Strasbourg, the companion in tears, one may say, of that +other funereally decorated statue on the Place de la Concorde. + +Paris, too, is well served by her tramways propelled by horses,--which +have not yet wholly disappeared,--and by steam and electricity, applied in +a most ingenious manner. By this means Paris has indeed been transformed +from its interior thoroughfares to its uttermost _banlieu_. + +The last two words on the subject have reference to the advent and +development of the bicycle and the automobile, as swift, safe, and +economical means of transport. + +The reign of the bicycle as a pure fad was comparatively short, whatever +may have been its charm of infatuation. As a utile thing it is perhaps +more worthy of consideration, for it cannot be denied that its +development--and of its later gigantic offspring, the automobile--has had +a great deal to do with the better construction and up-keep of modern +roadways, whether urban or suburban. + +"_La petite reine bicyclette_" has been feted in light verse many times, +but no one seems to have hit off its salient features as did Charles +Monselet. Others have referred to riders of the "new means of locomotion" +as "cads on casters," and a writer in _Le Gaulois_ stigmatized them as +"_imbeciles a roulettes_," which is much the same; while no less a +personage than Francisque Sarcey demanded, in the journal _La France_, +that the police should suppress forthwith this _eccentricite_. + +Charles Monselet's eight short lines are more appreciative: + + "Instrument raide + En fer battu + Qui depossede + Le char torlu; + Velocipede + Rail impromptu, + Fils d'Archimede, + D'ou nous viens-tu?" + +Though it is apart from the era of Dumas, this discursion into a phase of +present-day Paris is, perhaps, allowable in drawing a comparison between +the city of to-day and that even of the Second Empire, which was, at its +height, contemporary with Dumas' prime. + +If Paris was blooming suddenly forth into beauty and grace in the period +which extended from the Revolution to the Franco-Prussian War, she has +certainly, since that time, not ceased to shed her radiance; indeed, she +flowers more abundantly than ever, though, truth to tell, it is all due to +the patronage which the state has ever given, in France, to the fostering +of the arts as well as industries. + +And so Paris has grown,--beautiful and great,--and the stranger within her +gates, whether he come by road or rail, by automobile or railway-coach, is +sure to be duly impressed with the fact that Paris is for one and all +alike a city founded of and for the people. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BANKS OF THE SEINE + + +The city of the ancient Parisii is the one particular spot throughout the +length of the sea-green Seine--that "winding river" whose name, says +Thierry, in his "Histoire des Gaulois," is derived from a Celtic word +having this signification--where is resuscitated the historical being of +the entire French nation. + +Here it circles around the Ile St. Louis, cutting it apart from the Ile de +la Cite, and rushing up against the northern bank, periodically throws up +a mass of gravelly sand, just in the precise spot where, in mediaeval +times, was an open market-place. + +Here the inhabitants of the city met the country dealers, who landed +produce from their boats, traded, purchased, and sold, and departed whence +they came, into the regions of the upper Seine or the Marne, or downward +to the lower river cities of Meulan, Mantes, and Vernon. + +At this time Paris began rapidly to grow on each side of the stream, and +became the great market or trading-place where the swains who lived +up-river mingled with the hewers of wood from the forests of La Brie and +the reapers of corn from the sunny plains of La Beauce. + +These country folk, it would appear, preferred the northern part of Paris +to the southern--it was less ceremonious, less ecclesiastical. If they +approached the city from rearward of the Universite, by the Orleans +highroad, they paid exorbitant toll to the Abbot of St. Germain des Pres. +Here they paid considerably less to the Prevot of Paris. And thus from +very early times the distinction was made, and grew with advancing years, +between the town, or La Ville, which distinguished it from the Cite and +the Universite. + +This sandy river-bank gradually evolved itself into the Quai and Place de +la Greve,--its etymology will not be difficult to trace,--and endured in +the full liberty of its olden functions as late as the day of Louis XV. +Here might have been seen great stacks of firewood, charcoal, corn, wine, +hay, and straw. + + +[Illustration: THE ODEON IN 1818] + + +Aside from its artistic and economic value, the Seine plays no great part +in the story of Paris. It does not divide what is glorious from what is +sordid, as does "London's river." When one crosses any one of its +numerous bridges, one does not exchange thriftiness and sublimity for the +commonplace. Les Invalides, L'Institut, the Luxembourg, the Pantheon, the +Odeon, the Universite,--whose buildings cluster around the ancient +Sorbonne,--the Hotel de Cluny, and the churches of St. Sulpice, St. +Etienne du Mont, and St. Severin, and, last but not least, the Chamber of +Deputies, all are on the south side of Paris, and do not shrink greatly in +artistic or historical importance from Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Tour +St. Jacques, the Place de la Bastille, the Palais Royal, or the +Theatre-Francais. + +The greatest function of the Seine, when one tries to focus the memory on +its past, is to recall to us that old Paris was a trinity. Born of the +river itself rose the Cite, the home of the Church and state, scarce +finding room for her palaces and churches, while close to her side, on the +south bank, the Universite spread herself out, and on the right bank the +Ville hummed with trade and became the home of the great municipal +institutions. + +Dumas shifts the scenes of his Parisian romances first from one side to +the other, but always his mediaeval Paris is the same grand, luxurious, and +lively stage setting. Certainly no historian could hope to have done +better. + +Intrigue, riot, and bloodshed of course there were; and perhaps it may be +thought in undue proportions. But did not the history of Paris itself +furnish the romancer with these very essential details? + +At all events, there is no great sordidness or squalor perpetuated in +Dumas' pages. Perhaps it is for this reason that they prove so readable, +and their wearing qualities so great. + +There is in the reminiscence of history and the present aspect of the +Seine, throughout its length, the material for the constructing a volume +of bulk which should not lack either variety, picturesqueness, or +interest. It furthermore is a subject which seems to have been shamefully +neglected by writers of all ranks. + +Turner, of the brilliant palette, pictured many of its scenes, and his +touring-companion wrote a more or less imaginative and wofully incorrect +running commentary on the itinerary of the journey, as he did also of +their descent of the Loire. Philip Gilbert Hamerton, accompanied by a +series of charming pictures by Joseph Pennell (the first really artistic +topographical illustrations ever put into the pages of a book), did the +same for the Saone; and, of course, the Thames has been "done" by many +writers of all shades of ability, but manifestly the Seine, along whose +banks lie the scenes of some of the most historic and momentous events of +mediaeval times, has been sadly neglected. + +Paris is divided into practically two equal parts by the swift-flowing +current of the Seine, which winds its way in sundry convolutions from its +source beyond Chatillon-sur-Seine to the sea at Honfleur. + +The praises of the winding river which connects Havre, Rouen, Vernon, +Mantes, and Paris has often been sung, but the brief, virile description +of it in the eighty-seventh chapter of Dumas' "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne" +has scarcely been equalled. Apropos of the journey of Madame and +Buckingham Paris-ward, after having taken leave of the English fleet at +Havre, Dumas says of this greatest of French waterways: + +"The weather was fine. Spring cast its flowers and its perfumed foliage +upon the path. Normandy, with its vast variety of vegetation, its blue +sky, and silver rivers, displayed itself in all its loveliness." + + * * * * * + +Through Paris its direction is from the southeast to the northwest, a +distance, within the fortifications, of perhaps twelve kilometres. + +Two islands of size cut its currents: the Ile St. Louis and the Ile de la +Cite. A description of its banks, taken from a French work of the time, +better defines its aspect immediately after the Revolution of 1848 than +any amount of conjecture or present-day observation, so it is here given: + +"In its course through the metropolis, the Seine is bordered by a series +of magnificent quais, which in turn are bordered by rows of sturdy trees. + +"The most attractive of these quais are those which flank the Louvre, the +Tuileries, D'Orsay, Voltaire, and Conti. + +"Below the quais are deposed nine ports, or _gares_, each devoted to a +special class of merchandise, as coal, wine, produce, timber, etc. + +"The north and south portions of the city are connected by twenty-six +_ponts_ (this was in 1852; others have since been erected, which are +mentioned elsewhere in the book). + +"Coming from the upper river, they were known as follows: the Ponts +Napoleon, de Bercy, d'Austerlitz, the Passerelle de l'Estacade; then, on +the right branch of the river, around the islands, the Ponts Maril, +Louis-Philippe, d'Arcole, Notre Dame, and the Pont au Change; on the left +branch, the Passerelle St. Louis or Constantine, the Ponts Tournelle, de +la Cite, de l'Archeveche, le Pont aux Doubles, le Petit Pont, and the Pont +St. Michel; here the two branches join again: le Pont Neuf, des Arts, du +Carrousel, Royal, Solferino, de la Concorde, des Invalides, de l'Alma, de +Jena, and Grenelle. + +"Near the Pont d'Austerlitz the Seine receives the waters of the petite +Riviere de Bievre, or des Gobelins, which traverses the faubourgs." + +Of the bridges of Paris, Dumas in his romances has not a little to say. It +were not possible for a romanticist--or a realist, for that matter--to +write of Paris and not be continually confronting his characters with one +or another of the many splendid bridges which cross the Seine between +Conflans-Charenton and Asnieres. + +In the "Mousquetaires" series, in the Valois romances, and in his later +works of lesser import, mention of these fine old bridges continually +recurs; more than all others the Pont Neuf, perhaps, or the Pont au +Change. + +In "Pauline" there is a charming touch which we may take to smack somewhat +of the author's own predilections and experiences. He says, concerning his +embarkation upon a craft which he had hired at a little Norman +fishing-village, as one jobs a carriage in Paris: "I set up to be a +sailor, and served apprenticeship on a craft between the Pont des +Tuileries and the Pont de la Concorde." + +Of the Seine bridges none is more historic than the Pont Neuf, usually +reckoned as one of the finest in Europe; which recalls the fact that the +French--ecclesiastic and laymen architects alike--were master +bridge-builders. For proof of this one has only to recall the wonderful +bridge of St. Benezet d'Avignon, the fortified bridges of Orthos and +Cahors, the bridge at Lyons, built by the Primate of Gaul himself, and +many others throughout the length and breadth of France. + +The Pont Neuf was commenced in the reign of Henri III. (1578), and +finished in the reign of Henri IV. (1604), and is composed of two unequal +parts, which come to their juncture at the extremity of the Ile de la +Cite. + +In the early years a great bronze horse, known familiarly as the "Cheval +de Bronze," but without a rider, was placed upon this bridge. During the +Revolution, when cannon and ammunition were made out of any metal which +could be obtained, this curious statue disappeared, though later its +pedestal was replaced--under the Bourbons--by an equestrian statue of the +Huguenot king. + +The Pont des Arts, while not usually accredited as a beautiful +structure,--and certainly not comparable with many other of its +fellows,--is interesting by reason of the fact that its nine iron arches, +which led from the Quai du Louvre to the Quai de la Monnai, formed the +first example of an iron bridge ever constructed in France. Its +nomenclature is derived from the Louvre, which was then called--before the +title was applied to the College des Quatre Nations--the Palais des Arts. +In Restoration times it was one of the fashionable promenades of Paris. + +The Pont au Change took its name from the _changeurs_, or money-brokers, +who lived upon it during the reign of Louis le Jeune in 1141. It bridged +the widest part of the Seine, and, after being destroyed by flood and fire +in 1408, 1616, and 1621, was rebuilt in 1647. The houses which originally +covered it were removed in 1788 by the order of Louis XVI. In "The +Conspirators," Dumas places the opening scene at that end of the Pont Neuf +which abuts on the Quai de l'Ecole, and is precise enough, but in +"Marguerite de Valois" he evidently confounds the Pont Neuf with the Pont +au Change, when he puts into the mouth of Coconnas, the Piedmontese: "They +who rob on the Pont Neuf are, then, like you, in the service of the king. +_Mordi!_ I have been very unjust, sir; for until now I had taken them for +thieves." + +The Pont Louis XV. was built in 1787 out of part of the material which was +taken from the ruins of the Bastille. + +Latterly there has sprung up the new Pont Alexandre, commemorative of the +Czar's visit to Paris, which for magnificent proportions, beauty of design +and arrangement, quite overtops any other of its kind, in Paris or +elsewhere. + +The quais which line the Seine as it runs through Paris are like no other +quais in the known world. They are the very essence and epitome of certain +phases of life which find no counterpart elsewhere. + +The following description of a bibliomaniac from Dumas' "Memoires" is +unique and apropos: + +"Bibliomaniac, evolved from _book_ and _mania_, is a variety of the +species man--_species bipes et genus homo_. + +"This animal has two feet and is without features, and usually wanders +about the quais and boulevards, stopping in front of every stall and +fingering all the books. He is generally dressed in a coat which is too +long and trousers which are too short, his shoes are always down at heel, +and on his head is an ill-shapen hat. One of the signs by which he may be +recognized is shown by the fact that he never washes his hands." + +The booksellers' stalls of the quais of Paris are famous, though it is +doubtful if genuine bargains exist there in great numbers. It is +significant, however, that more volumes of Dumas' romances are offered +for sale--so it seems to the passer-by--than of any other author. + +The Seine opposite the Louvre, and, indeed, throughout the length of its +flow through Paris, enters largely into the scheme of the romances, where +scenes are laid in the metropolis. + +Like the throng which stormed the walls of the Louvre on the night of the +18th of August, 1527, during that splendid royal fete, the account of +which opens the pages of "Marguerite de Valois," the Seine itself +resembles Dumas' description of the midnight crowd, which he likens to "a +dark and rolling sea, each swell of which increases to a foaming wave; +this sea, extending all along the quai, spent its waves at the base of the +Louvre, on the one hand, and against the Hotel de Bourbon, which was +opposite, on the other." + +In the chapter entitled "What Happened on the Night of the Twelfth of +July," in "The Taking of the Bastille," Dumas writes of the banks of the +Seine in this wise: + +"Once upon the quai, the two countrymen saw glittering on the bridge near +the Tuileries the arms of another body of men, which, in all probability, +was not a body of friends; they silently glided to the end of the quai, +and descended the bank which leads along the Seine. The clock of the +Tuileries was just then striking eleven. + +"When they had got beneath the trees which line the banks of the river, +fine aspen-trees and poplars, which bathe their feet in its current, when +they were lost to the sight of their pursuers, hid by their friendly +foliage, the farmers and Pitou threw themselves on the grass and opened a +council of war." + +Just previously the mob had battered down the gate of the Tuileries, as a +means of escape from the pen in which the dragoons had crowded the +populace. + +"'Tell me now, Father Billot,' inquired Pitou, after having carried the +timber some thirty yards, 'are we going far in this way?' + +"'We are going as far as the gate of the Tuileries.' + +"'Ho, ho!' cried the crowd, who at once divined his intention. + +"And it made way for them more eagerly even than before. + +"Pitou looked about him, and saw that the gate was not more than thirty +paces distant from them. + +"'I can reach it,' said he, with the brevity of a Pythagorean. + +"The labour was so much the easier to Pitou from five or six of the +strongest of the crowd taking their share of the burden. + +"The result of this was a very notable acceleration in their progress. + +"In five minutes they had reached the iron gates. + +"'Come, now,' cried Billot, 'clap your shoulders to it, and all push +together.' + +"'Good!' said Pitou. 'I understand now. We have just made a warlike +engine; the Romans used to call it a ram.' + +"'Now, my boys,' cried Billot, 'once, twice, thrice,' and the joist, +directed with a furious impetus, struck the lock of the gate with +resounding violence. + +"The soldiers who were on guard in the interior of the garden hastened to +resist this invasion. But at the third stroke the gate gave way, turning +violently on its hinges, and through that gaping and gloomy mouth the +crowd rushed impetuously. + +"From the movement that was then made, the Prince de Lambesq perceived at +once that an opening had been effected which allowed the escape of those +whom he had considered his prisoners. He was furious with disappointment." + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SECOND EMPIRE AND AFTER + + +The Revolution of 1848 narrowed itself down to the issue of Bourbonism or +Bonapartism. Nobody had a good word to say for the constitution, and all +parties took liberties with it. It was inaugurated as the most democratic +of all possible charters. It gave a vote to everybody, women and children +excepted. It affirmed liberty with so wide a latitude of interpretation as +to leave nothing to be desired by the reddest Republican that ever wore +pistols in his belt at the heels of the redoubtable M. Marc Caussidiere, +or expressed faith in the social Utopia of the enthusiastic M. Proudhon. +Freedom to speak, to write, to assemble, and to vote,--all were secured to +all Frenchmen by this marvellous charter. When it became the law of the +land, everybody began to nibble at and destroy it. The right of speaking +was speedily reduced to the narrowest limits, and the liberty of the +press was pared down to the merest shred. The right of meeting was placed +at the tender mercies of the prefect of police, and the right of voting +was attacked with even more zeal and fervour. The Revolution proved more +voracious than Saturn himself, in devouring its children, and it made +short work of men and reputations. It reduced MM. de Lamartine, Armand +Marrast, and General Cavaignac into nothingness; sent MM. Louis Blanc, +Ledru Rollin, and Caussidiere into the dreary exile of London, and +consigned the fiery Barbes, the vindictive Blanqui, the impatient Raspail, +and a host of other regenerators of the human race, to the fastnesses of +Vincennes. Having done this, the Revolution left scarcely a vestige of the +constitution,--nothing but a few crumbs, and those were not crumbs of +comfort, which remained merely to prove to the incredulous that such a +thing as the constitution once existed. + +The former king and queen took hidden refuge in a small cottage at +Honfleur, whence they were to depart a few days later for England--ever a +refuge for exiled monarchists. Escape became very urgent, and the king, +with an English passport in the name of William Smith, and the queen as +Madame Lebrun, crossed over to Le Havre and ultimately to England. +Lamartine evidently mistakes even the time and place of this incident, +but newspaper accounts of the time, both French and English, are very full +as to the details. On landing at the quai at Le Havre, the ex-royal party +was conducted to the "Express" steam-packet, which had been placed at +their disposal for the cross-channel journey. Dumas takes the very +incident as a detail for his story of "Pauline," and his treatment thereof +does not differ greatly from the facts as above set forth. Two years later +(August 26, 1850), at Claremont, in Surrey, in the presence of the queen +and several members of his family, Louis-Philippe died. He was the last of +the Bourbons, with whom Dumas proudly claimed acquaintanceship, and as +such, only a short time before, was one of the mightiest of the world's +monarchs, standing on one of the loftiest pinnacles of an ambition which, +in the mind of a stronger or more wilful personality, might have +accomplished with success much that with him resulted in defeat. + +After the maelstrom of discontent--the Revolution of 1848--had settled +down, there came a series of events well-nigh as disturbing. Events in +Paris were rapidly ripening for a change. The known determination of Louis +Napoleon to prolong his power, either as president for another term of +four years, or for life, or as consul or emperor of the French, and the +support which his pretensions received from large masses of the people and +from the rank and file of the army, had brought him into collision with a +rival--General Changarnier--almost as powerful as himself, and with an +ambition quite as daring as his own. + +What Louis Napoleon wanted was evident. There was no secret about his +designs. The partisans of Henri V. looked to Changarnier for the +restoration of peace and legitimacy, and the Orleanists considered that he +was the most likely man in France to bring back the house of Orleans, and +the comfortable days of bribery, corruption, and a thriving trade; while +the fat _bourgeoisie_ venerated him as the unflinching foe of the +disturbers of order, and the great bulwark against Communism and the Red +Republic. + +Still, this was manifestly not to be, though no one seemed to care a straw +about Louis Napoleon's republic, or whether or no he dared to declare +himself king or emperor, or whether they should be ruled by Bonapartist, +Bourbon, or Orleanist. + +These were truly perilous times for France; and, though they did not +culminate in disaster until twenty years after, Louis Napoleon availed +himself of every opportunity to efface from the Second Republic, of which +he was at this time the head, every vestige of the democratic features +which it ought to have borne. + +At the same time he surrounded himself with imposing state and pomp, so +regal in character that it was evidently intended to accustom the public +to see in him the object of that homage which is usually reserved for +crowned heads alone, and thus gradually and imperceptibly to prepare the +nation to witness, without surprise, his assuming, when the favourable +occasion offered, the purple and diadem of the empire. + +For instance, he took up his residence in the ancient palace of the +sovereigns of France, the Tuileries, and gave banquets and balls of regal +magnificence; he ordered his effigy to be struck upon the coinage of the +nation, surrounded by the words "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte," without any +title, whether as president or otherwise, being affixed. He restored the +imperial eagles to the standards of the army; the official organ, the +_Moniteur_, recommended the restoration of the titles and orders of +hereditary nobility; the trees of liberty were uprooted everywhere; the +Republican motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," was erased from the +public edifices; the colossal statue of Liberty, surmounted by a Phrygian +cap, which stood in the centre of the Place de Bourgogne, behind the +Legislative Assembly, was demolished; and the old anti-Republican names of +the streets were restored, so that the Palais National again became the +Palais Royal; the Theatre de la Nation, the Theatre Francais; the Rue de +la Concorde, the Rue Royal, etc.; and, in short, to all appearances, Louis +Napoleon began early in his tenure of office to assiduously pave the way +to the throne of the empire as Napoleon III. + + +[Illustration: PALAIS ROYAL, STREET FRONT] + + +The _London Times_ correspondent of that day related a characteristic +exercise of this sweeping instruction of the Minister of the Interior to +erase the words "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite" from all public buildings. +(The three revolutionary watchwords had, in fact, been erased the previous +year from the principal entrance to the Elysee, and the words "Republique +Francaise," in large letters, were substituted.) + +"There is, I believe, only one public monument in Paris--the Ecole de +Droit--where the workmen employed in effacing that inscription will have a +double duty. They will have to interfere with the 'Liberalism' of two +generations. Immediately under the coat of yellow paint which covered the +facade of the building, and on which time and the inclemency of the +seasons have done their work, may still be traced, above the modern +device, the following words, inscribed by order of the Commune of Paris +during the Reign of Terror: 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Unite, +Indivisibilite de la Republique Francaise!' As the effacing of the +inscription of 1848 is not now by means of whitewash or paint, but by +erasure, both the inscriptions will disappear at the same moment." + +Among the most important demolitions and renovations of the sixties was +the work undertaken on the Louvre at the orders of the ambitious emperor, +Napoleon III. The structure was cloven to the foundations, through the +slated roof, the gilded and painted ceiling, the parqueted floors; and, +where one formerly enjoyed an artistic feast that had taken four centuries +to provide, one gazed upon, from the pavement to the roof, a tarpaulin +that closed a vista which might otherwise have been a quarter of a mile in +length. + +Builders toiled day and night to connect the Louvre with the main body of +the Palace of the Tuileries, which itself was to disappear within so short +a time. Meanwhile so great a displacement of the art treasures was +undergone, that _habitues_ knew not which way to turn for favourite +pictures, with which the last fifty years had made them so familiar. + +To those of our elders who knew the Paris of the early fifties, the +present-day aspect--in spite of all its glorious wealth of boulevards and +architectural splendour--will suggest the mutability of all things. + +It serves our purpose, however, to realize that much of the character has +gone from the Quartier Latin; that the Tuileries disappeared with the +Commune, and that the old distinctions between Old Paris, the faubourgs, +and the Communal Annexes, have become practically non-existent with the +opening up of the Haussman boulevards, at the instigation of the wary +Napoleon III. Paris is still, however, an "_ancienne ville et une ville +neuve_," and the paradox is inexplicable. + +The differences between the past and the present are indeed great, but +nowhere--not even in the Tower of London, which is usually given as an +example of the contrast and progress of the ages--is a more tangible and +specific opposition shown, than in what remains to-day of mediaeval Paris, +in juxtaposition with the later architectural embellishments. In many +instances is seen the newest of the "_art nouveau_"--as it is popularly +known--cheek by jowl with some mediaeval shrine. + +It is difficult at this time to say what effect these swirls and blobs, +which are daily thrusting themselves into every form of architectural +display throughout Continental Europe, would have had on these masters +who built the Gothic splendours of France, or even the hybrid _rococo_ +style, which, be it not denied, is in many instances beautiful in spite of +its idiosyncrasies. + + * * * * * + +To those who are familiar with the "sights" of Paris, there is nothing +left but to study the aspects of the life of the streets, the boulevards, +the quais, the gardens, the restaurants, and the cafes. Here at least is +to be found daily, and hourly, new sensations and old ones, but at all +events it is an ever-shifting scene, such as no other city in the world +knows. + +The life of the _faubourgs_ and of the _quartiers_ has ever been made the +special province of artists and authors, and to wander through them, to +sit beneath the trees of the squares and gardens, or even outside a cafe, +is to contemplate, in no small degree, much of the incident and +temperament of life which others have already perpetuated and made famous. + +There is little new or original effort which can be made, though once and +again a new performer comes upon the stage,--a poet who sings songs of +vagabondage, a painter who catches a fleeting impression, which at least, +if not new, seems new. But in the main one has to hark back to former +generations, if one would feel the real spirit of romance and tradition. +There are few who, like Monet, can stop before a shrine and see in it +forty-three varying moods--or some other incredible number, as did that +artist when he limned his impressions of the facade of the Cathedral of +Notre Dame de Rouen. + +Such landmarks as the Place de la Bastille, the Pantheon,--anciently the +site of the Abbey de Ste. Genevieve,--the Chambre des Deputes,--the former +Palais Bourbon,--the Tour St. Jacques, the Fountain des Innocents, St. +Germain l'Auxerrois, the Palais du Luxembourg, the Louvre, and quite all +the historic and notable buildings one sees, are all pictured with +fidelity, and more or less minuteness, in the pages of Dumas' romances. + +Again, in such other localities as the Boulevard des Italiens, the Cafe de +Paris, the Theatre Francais, the Odeon, the Palais Royal,--where, in the +"Orleans Bureau," Dumas found his first occupation in Paris,--took place +many incidents of Dumas' life, which are of personal import. + +For recollections and reminders of the author's contemporaries, there are +countless other localities too numerous to mention. In the Rue Pigalle, at +No. 12, died Eugene Scribe; in the Rue de Douai lived Edmond About, while +in the Rue d'Amsterdam, at No. 77, lived Dumas himself, and in the Rue St. +Lazare, Madame George Sand. Montmartre is sacred to the name of Zola in +the minds of most readers of latter-day French fiction, while many more +famous names of all ranks, of litterateurs, of actors, of artists and +statesmen,--all contemporaries and many of them friends of Dumas,--will be +found on the tombstones of Pere la Chaise. + +The motive, then, to be deduced from these pages is that they are a record +of many things associated with Alexandre Dumas, his life, and his work. +Equally so is a fleeting itinerary of strolls around and about the Paris +of Dumas' romances, with occasional journeys into the provinces. + + +[Illustration: 77 Rue d'Amsterdam] + +[Illustration: Rue de St. Denis] + + +Thus the centuries have done their work of extending and mingling,--"_le +jeu est fait_," so to speak,--but Paris, by the necessities of her growth +and by her rather general devotion to one stately, towering form of +domestic architecture, has often made the separation of old from new +peculiarly difficult to a casual eye. It is indeed her way to be new and +splendid, to be always the bride of cities, espousing human destiny. And, +truly, it is in this character that we do her homage with our visits, our +money, and our admiration. Out of gray, unwieldy, distributed London +one flies from a vast and romantic camp to a city exact and beautiful. So +exact, so beautiful, so consistent in her vivacity, so neat in her +industry, so splendid in her display, that one comes to think that the +ultimate way to enjoy Paris is to pass unquestioning and unsolicitous into +her life, exclaiming not "Look here," and "Look there" in a fever of +sightseeing, but rather baring one's breast, like Daudet's _ouvrier_, to +her assaults of glistening life. + + * * * * * + +The Paris of to-day is a reconstructed Paris; its old splendours not +wholly eradicated, but changed in all but their associations. The life of +Paris, too, has undergone a similar evolution, from what it was even in +Dumas' time. + +The celebrities of the Cafe de Paris have mostly, if not quite all, passed +away. No more does the eccentric Prince Demidoff promulgate his +eccentricities into the very faces of the onlookers; no more does the +great Dumas make omelettes in golden sugar-bowls; and no more does he pass +his criticisms--or was it encomiums?--on the _veau saute_. + +The student revels of the _quartier_ have become more sedate, if not more +fastidious, and there is no such Mardi Gras and Mi-Careme festivities as +used to hold forth on the boulevards in the forties. And on the Buttes +Chaumont and Montmartre are found batteries of questionable +amusements,--especially got up for the delectation of _les Anglais_, +provincials, and soldiers off duty,--in place of the _cabarets_, which, if +of doubtful morality, were at least a certain social factor. + +New bridges span the Seine, and new thoroughfares, from humble alleys to +lordly and magnificent boulevards, have clarified many a slum, and +brightened and sweetened the atmosphere; so there is some considerable +gain there. + +The Parisian cabby is, as he always was, a devil-may-care sort of a +fellow, who would as soon run you down with his sorry old outfit as not; +but perhaps even his characteristics will change sooner or later, now that +the automobile is upon us in all its proclaimed perfection. + +The "New Opera," that sumptuous structure which bears the inscription +"Academie Nationale de Musique," begun by Garnier in 1861, and completed a +dozen years later, is, in its commanding situation and splendid +appointments, the peer of any other in the world. In spite of this, its +fame will hardly rival that of the Comedie Francaise, or even the Opera +Comique of former days, and the names of latter-day stars will have +difficulty in competing with those of Rachel, Talma, and their fellow +actors on the stage of other days. + +Whom, if you please, have we to-day whose name and fame is as wide as +those just mentioned? None, save Madame Bernhardt, who suggests to the +well-informed person--who is a very considerable body--the preeminent +influences which formerly emanated from Paris in the fifties. But this of +itself is a subject too vast for inclusion here, and it were better passed +by. So, too, with the Parisian artists who made the art of the world in +the latter half of the nineteenth century. Decamps, Delacroix, Corot, and +Vernet are names with which to conjure up reminiscences as great as those +of Rubens, Titian, and Van Dyke. This may be disputed, but, if one were +given the same familiarity therewith, it is possible that one's contrary +opinion would be greatly modified. + +To-day, in addition to the glorious art collection of former times, there +are the splendid, though ever shifting, collections of the Musee du +Luxembourg, the mural paintings of the Hotel de Ville, which are a gallery +in themselves, and the two spring Salon exhibitions, to say nothing of the +newly attempted Salon d'Automne. Curiously enough, some of us find great +pleasure in the contemplation of the decorations in the interiors of the +great _gares_ of the Lyons or the Orleans railways. Certainly these last +examples of applied art are of a lavishness--and even excellence--which a +former generation would not have thought of. + +The Arc de Triomphe d'Etoile, of course, remains as it always has since +its erection at the instigation of Napoleon I.; while the Bois de Boulogne +came into existence as a municipal pleasure-ground only in the early +fifties, and has since endured as the great open-air attraction of Paris +for those who did not wish to go farther afield. + +The churches have not changed greatly in all this time, except that they +had some narrow escapes during the Franco-Prussian War, and still narrower +ones during the Commune. It may be remarked here _en passant_ that, for +the first time in seventy years, so say the records, there has just been +taken down the scaffolding which, in one part or another, has surrounded +the church of St. Eustache. Here, then, is something tangible which has +not changed until recently (March, 1904), since the days when Dumas first +came to Paris. + +The Paris of the nineteenth century is, as might naturally be inferred, +that of which the most is known; the eighteenth and seventeenth are indeed +difficult to follow with accuracy as to the exact locale of their events; +but the sixteenth looms up--curiously enough--more plainly than either of +the two centuries which followed. The histories, and even the guide-books, +will explain why this is so, so it shall have no place here. + +Order, of a sort, immediately came forth from out the chaos of the +Revolution. The great Napoleon began the process, and, in a way, it was +continued by the plebeian Louis-Philippe, elaborated in the Second Empire, +and perfected--if a great capital such as Paris ever really is +perfected--under the Third Republic. + +Improvement and demolition--which is not always improvement--still go on, +and such of Old Paris as is not preserved by special effort is fast +falling before the stride of progress. + +A body was organized in 1897, under the name of the "_Commission du Vieux +Paris_," which is expected to do much good work in the preservation of the +chronicles in stone of days long past. + +The very streets are noisy with the echo of an unpeaceful past; and their +frequent and unexpected turnings, even in these modern days, are +suggestive of their history in a most graphic manner. + +The square in front of the Fontaine des Innocents is but an ancient +burial-ground; before the Hotel de Ville came Etienne Marcel; and +Charlemagne to the cathedral; the Place de la Concorde was the death-bed +of the Girondins, and the Place de la Madeleine the tomb of the Capetians; +and thus it is that Paris--as does no other city--mingles its centuries of +strife amid a life which is known as the most vigorous and varied of its +age. + +To enter here into a detailed comparison between the charm of Paris of +to-day and yesterday would indeed be a work of supererogation; and only in +so far as it bears directly upon the scenes and incidents amid which Dumas +lived is it so made. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LA VILLE + + +It would be impossible to form a precise topographical itinerary of the +scenes of Dumas' romances and the wanderings of his characters, even in +Paris itself. The area is so very wide, and the number of localities, +which have more than an incidental interest, so very great, that the +futility of such a task will at once be apparent. + +Probably the most prominent of all the romances, so far as identifying the +scenes of their action goes, are the Valois series. + +As we know, Dumas was very fond of the romantic house of Valois, and, +whether in town or country, he seemed to take an especial pride in +presenting details of portraiture and place in a surprisingly complete, +though not superfluous, manner. + +The Louvre has the most intimate connection with both the Valois and the +D'Artagnan romances, and is treated elsewhere as a chapter by itself. + +Dumas' most marked reference to the Hotel de Ville is found in the taking +of the Bastille, and, though it is not so very great, he gives prominence +to the incident of the deputation of the people who waited upon De +Flesselles, the prevot, just before the march upon the Bastille. + +In history we know the same individual as "Messire Jacques de Flesselles, +Chevalier, Conseiller de la Grande Chambre, Maitre Honoraire des Requetes, +Conseiller d'Etat." The anecdote is recorded in history, too, that Louis +XVI., when he visited the Hotel de Ville in 1789, was presented with a +cockade of blue and red, the colours of the ville--the white was not added +till some days later. + +_"Votre Majeste," dit le maire, "veut-elle accepte le signe distinctif des +Francais?"_ + +For reply the king took the cockade and put it on his chapeau, entered the +_grande salle_, and took his place on the throne. + +All the broils and turmoils which have taken place since the great +Revolution, have likewise had the Hotel de Ville for the theatre where +their first scenes were represented. + +It was invaded by the people during the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, as +well as in the Commune in 1871, when, in addition to the human fury, it +was attacked by the flames, which finally brought about its +destruction. Thus perished that noble structure, which owed its inception +to that art-loving monarch, Francois I. + + +[Illustration: PLACE DE LA GREVE] + + +The present-day Quai de l'Hotel de Ville is the successor of the Quai des +Ormes, which dates from the fourteenth century, and the Quai de la Greve, +which existed as early as 1254, and which descended by an easy slope to +the strand from which it took its name. + +Adjoining the quai was the Place de la Greve, which approximates the +present Place de l'Hotel de Ville. + +A near neighbour of the Hotel de Ville is the Tour de St. Jacques la +Boucherie, where sits to-day Paris's clerk of the weather. + +It was here that Marguerite de Valois, in company with the Duchesse de +Nevers, repaired from their pilgrimage to the Cimetiere des Innocents, to +view the results of the Huguenot massacre of the preceding night. + +"'And where are you two going?' inquired Catherine, the queen's mother. +'To see some rare and curious Greek books found at an old Protestant +pastor's, and which have been taken to the Tour de St. Jacques la +Boucherie,' replied the inquisitive and erudite Marguerite. For, be it +recalled, her knowledge and liking of classical literature was most +profound." + +This fine Gothic tower, which is still a notable landmark, is the only +_relique_ of the Church of St. Jacques. A bull of Pope Calixtus II., dated +1119, first makes mention of it, and Francois I. made it a royal parish +church. + +The tower itself was not built until 1508, having alone cost 1,350 livres. +It has often been pictured and painted, and to-day it is a willing or +unwilling sitter to most snap-shot camerists who come within focus of it, +but no one has perceived the spirit of its genuine old-time flavour as did +Meryon, in his wonderful etching--so sought for by collectors--called "Le +Stryge." + +The artist's view-point, taken from the gallery of Notre Dame,--though in +the early nineteenth century,--with the grotesque head and shoulders of +one of those monstrous figures, half-man, half-beast, with which the +galleries of Notre Dame are peopled, preserves, with its very simplicity +and directness, an impression of _Vieux Paris_ which is impossible to +duplicate to-day. + +The Place de la Greve was for a time, at least, the most famous or +infamous of all the places of execution in Paris. One reads of it largely +in "Marguerite de Valois" in this connection, and in "Le Vicomte de +Bragelonne" it again crops up, but in a much more pleasant manner. + + +[Illustration: TOUR DE ST. JACQUES LA BOUCHERIE + +(Meryon's Etching, "Le Stryge")] + + +Dumas, ever praiseful of good wine and good food, describes Vatel, the +_maitre d'hotel_ of Fouquet, as crossing the square with a hamper filled +with bottles, which he had just purchased at the _cabaret_ of the sign of +"L'Image de Notre Dame;" a queer name for a wine-shop, no doubt, and, +though it does not exist to-day, and so cannot be authenticated, it may +likely enough have had an existence outside the novelist's page. At all +events, it is placed definitely enough, as one learns from the chapter of +"Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," entitled "The Wine of M. de la Fontaine." + +"'What the devil are you doing here, Vatel?' said Fouquet. 'Are you buying +wine at a _cabaret_ in the Place de Greve?'... 'I have found here, +monsieur, a "_vin de Joigny_" which your friends like. This I know, as +they come once a week to drink it at the "Image de Notre Dame."'" + +In the following chapter Dumas reverts to the inglorious aspect of the +Place and the Quai de la Greve as follows: + +"At two o'clock the next day, fifty thousand spectators had taken their +position upon the place, around two gibbets which had been elevated +between the Quai de la Greve and Quai Pelletier; one close to the other, +with their backs to the parapet of the river. In the morning, also, all +the sworn criers of the good city of Paris had traversed the quarters of +the city, particularly the Halles and the faubourgs, announcing with their +hoarse and indefatigable voices the great justice done by the king upon +two peculators; two thieves, devourers of the people. And these people, +whose interests were so warmly looked after, in order not to fail in +respect for their king, quitted shops, stalls, and ateliers, to go and +evince a little gratitude to Louis XIV., absolutely like invited guests, +who feared to commit an impoliteness in not repairing to the house of him +who invited them. According to the tenor of the sentence, which the criers +read loudly and badly, two farmers of the revenues, monopolists of money, +dilapidators of the royal provisions, extortioners and forgers, were about +to undergo capital punishment on the Place de Greve, with their names +affixed over their heads, according to their sentence. As to those names, +the sentence made no mention of them. The curiosity of the Parisians was +at its height, and, as we have said, an immense crowd waited with feverish +impatience the hour fixed for the execution." + +D'Artagnan, who, in the pages of "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," was no more a +young man, owned this very _cabaret_, the "Image de Notre Dame." "'I will +go, then,' says he, 'to the "Image de Notre Dame," and drink a glass of +Spanish wine with my tenant, which he cannot fail to offer me.'" + +_En route_ to the _cabaret_, D'Artagnan asked of his companion, "Is there +a procession to-day?" "It is a hanging, monsieur." "What! a hanging on the +Greve? The devil take the rogue who gets himself hung the day I go to take +my rent," said D'Artagnan. + +The old _mousquetaire_ did not get his rent, there was riot and bloodshed +galore, "L'Image de Notre Dame" was set on fire, and D'Artagnan had one +more opportunity to cry out "_A moi, Mousquetaires_," and enter into a +first-class fight; all, of course, on behalf of right and justice, for he +saved two men, destined to be gibbeted, from the more frightful death of +torture by fire, to which the fanatical crowd had condemned them. + +The most extensive reference to the Place de la Greve is undoubtedly in +the "Forty-Five Guardsmen," where is described the execution of Salcede, +the coiner of false money and the co-conspirator with the Guises. + +"M. Friard was right when he talked of one hundred thousand persons as the +number of spectators who would meet on the Place de la Greve and its +environs, to witness the execution of Salcede. All Paris appeared to have +a rendezvous at the Hotel de Ville; and Paris is very exact, and never +misses a fete; and the death of a man is a fete, especially when he has +raised so many passions that some curse and others bless him. + +"The spectators who succeeded in reaching the place saw the archers and a +large number of Swiss and light horse surrounding a little scaffold raised +about four feet from the ground. It was so low as to be visible only to +those immediately surrounding it, or to those who had windows overlooking +the place. Four vigorous white horses beat the ground impatiently with +their hoofs, to the great terror of the women, who had either chosen this +place willingly, or had been forcibly pushed there. + +"These horses were unused, and had never done more work than to support, +by some chance, on their broad backs, the chubby children of the peasants. +After the scaffold and the horses, what next attracted all looks was the +principal window of the Hotel de Ville, which was hung with red velvet and +gold, and ornamented with the royal arms. This was for the king. Half-past +one had just struck when this window was filled. First came Henri III., +pale, almost bald, although he was at that time only thirty-five, and with +a sombre expression, always a mystery to his subjects, who, when they saw +him appear, never knew whether to say '_Vive le roi!_' or to pray for his +soul. He was dressed in black, without jewels or orders, and a single +diamond shone in his cap, serving as a fastening to three short plumes. He +carried in his hand a little black dog that his sister-in-law, Marie +Stuart, had sent him from her prison, and on which his fingers looked as +white as alabaster. + +"Behind the king came Catherine de Medici, almost bowed by age, for she +might be sixty-six or sixty-seven, but still carrying her head firm and +erect, and darting bitter glances from under her thick eyebrows. At her +side appeared the melancholy but sweet face of the queen, Louise de +Touraine. Catherine came as a triumph, she as a punishment. Behind them +came two handsome young men, brothers, the eldest of whom smiled with +wonderful beauty, and the younger with great melancholy. The one was Anne, +Duc de Joyeuse, and the other Henri de Joyeuse, Comte de Bouchage. The +people had for these favourites of the king none of the hatred which they +had felt toward Maugiron, Quelus, and Schomberg. + +"Henri saluted the people gravely; then, turning to the young men, he +said, 'Anne, lean against the tapestry; it may last a long time.'... + +"Henri, in anger, gave the sign. It was repeated, the cords were +refastened, four men jumped on the horses, which, urged by violent blows, +started off in opposite directions. A horrible cracking and a terrible cry +was heard. The blood was seen to spout from the limbs of the unhappy man, +whose face was no longer that of a man, but of a demon. + +"'Ah, heaven!' he cried; 'I will speak, I will tell all. Ah! cursed +duch--' + +"The voice had been heard above everything, but suddenly it ceased. + +"'Stop, stop,' cried Catherine, 'let him speak.' + +"But it was too late; the head of Salcede fell helplessly on one side, he +glanced once more to where he had seen the page, and then expired." + + * * * * * + +Near the Hotel de Ville is "Le Chatelet," a name familiar enough to +travellers about Paris. It is an omnibus centre, a station on the new +"Metropolitan," and its name has been given to one of the most modern +theatres of Paris. + +Dumas, in "Le Collier de la Reine," makes but little use of the old Prison +du Grand Chatelet, but he does not ignore it altogether, which seems to +point to the fact that he has neglected very few historic buildings, or, +for that matter, incidents of Paris in mediaeval times, in compiling the +famous D'Artagnan and Valois romances. + +The Place du Chatelet is one of the most celebrated and historic open +spots of Paris. The old prison was on the site of an old Caesarian forum. +The prison was destroyed in 1806, but its history for seven centuries was +one of the most dramatic. + +One may search for Planchet's shop, the "Pilon d'Or," of which Dumas +writes in "The Vicomte de Bragelonne," in the Rue des Lombards of to-day, +but he will not find it, though there are a dozen _boutiques_ in the +little street which joins the present Rue St. Denis with the present +Boulevard Sebastopol, which to all intents and purposes might as well have +been the abode of D'Artagnan's old servitor. + +The Rue des Lombards, like Lombard Street in London, took its names from +the original money-changers, who gathered here in great numbers in the +twelfth century. Planchet's little shop was devoted to the sale of green +groceries, with, presumably, a sprinkling of other attendant garnishings +for the table. + +To-day, the most notable of the shops here, of a similar character, is the +famous _magasin de confiserie_, "Au Fidele Berger," for which Guilbert, +the author of "Jeune Malade," made the original verses for the wrappers +which covered the products of the house. A contemporary of the poet has +said that the "_enveloppe etait moins bonne que la marchandaise_." + +The reader may judge for himself. This is one of the verses: + + "Le soleil peut s'eteindre et le ciel s'obscurcir, + J'ai vu ma Marita, je n'ai plus qu'a mourir." + +Every lover of Dumas' romances, and all who feel as though at one time or +another they had been blessed with an intimate acquaintance with that +"King of Cavaliers,"--D'Artagnan,--will have a fondness for the old narrow +ways in the Rue d'Arbre Sec, which remains to-day much as it always was. + +It runs from the Quai de l'Hotel de Ville,--once the unsavoury Quai de la +Greve,--toward Les Halles; and throughout its length, which is not very +great, it has that crazy, tumble-down appearance which comes, sooner or +later, to most narrow thoroughfares of mediaeval times. + +It is not so very picturesque nor so very tumble-down, it is simply +wobbly. It is not, nor ever was, a pretentious thoroughfare, and, in +short, is distinctly commonplace; but there is a little house, on the +right-hand side, near the river, which will be famous as long as it +stands, as the intimate scene of much of the minor action of "Marguerite +de Valois," "Chicot the Jester," and others of the series. + + +[Illustration: HOTEL DES MOUSQUETAIRES, RUE D'ARBRE SEC] + + +This _maison_ is rather better off than most of its neighbours, with its +white-fronted lower stories, its little balcony over the Cremerie, which +now occupies the ground-floor, and its escutcheon--a blazing sun--midway +in its facade. + +Moreover it is still a lodging-house,--an humble hotel if you like,--at +any rate something more than a mere house which offers "_logement a +pied_." Indeed its enterprising proprietor has erected a staring blue and +white enamel sign which advertises his house: + + HOTEL + DES MOUSQUETAIRES + +There is, perhaps, no harm in all this, as it would seem beyond all +question to have some justification for its name, and it is above all +something more tangible than the sites of many homes and haunts which may +to-day be occupied with a modern _magasin_, _a tous genres_, or a great +tourist caravanserai. + +This house bears the name of "Hotel des Mousquetaires," as if it were +really a lineal descendant of the "Hotel de la Belle Etoile," of which +Dumas writes. + +Probably it is not the same, and if it is, there is, likely enough, no +significance between its present name and its former glory save that of +perspicacity on the part of the present patron. + +From the romance one learns how Catherine de Medici sought to obtain that +compromising note which was in possession of Orthon, the page. Dumas says +of this horror-chamber of the Louvre: + +"Catherine now reached a second door, which, revolving on its hinges, +admitted to the depths of the _oubliette_, where--crushed, bleeding, and +mutilated, by a fall of more than one hundred feet--lay the still +palpitating form of poor Orthon; while, on the other side of the wall +forming the barrier of this dreadful spot, the waters of the Seine were +heard to ripple by, brought by a species of subterraneous filtration to +the foot of the staircase. + +"Having reached the damp and unwholesome abyss, which, during her reign, +had witnessed numerous similar scenes to that now enacted, Catherine +proceeded to search the corpse, eagerly drew forth the desired billet, +ascertained by the lantern that it was the one she sought, then, pushing +the mangled body from her, she pressed a spring, the bottom of the +_oubliette_ sank down, and the corpse, borne by its own weight, +disappeared toward the river. + +"Closing the door after her, she reascended; and, returning to her closet, +read the paper poor Orthon had so valiantly defended. It was conceived in +these words: + + "'This evening at ten o'clock, Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, Hotel de la Belle + Etoile. Should you come, no reply is requisite; if otherwise, send + word back, _No_, by the bearer. + + "'DE MOUY DE SAINT-PHALE.' + +"At eight o'clock Henri of Navarre took two of his gentlemen, went out by +the Porte St. Honore, entered again by the Tour de Bois, crossed the Seine +at the ferry of the Nesle, mounted the Rue St. Jacques, and there +dismissed them, as if he were going to an amorous rendezvous. At the +corner of the Rue des Mathurins he found a man on horseback, wrapped in a +large cloak; he approached him. + +"'Mantes!' said the man. + +"'Pau!' replied the king. + +"The horseman instantly dismounted. Henri wrapped himself in his splashed +mantle, sprang on his steed, rode down the Rue de la Harpe, crossed the +Pont St. Michel, passed the Rue Barthelemy, crossed the river again on +the Pont au Meunier, descended the quais, reached the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, +and knocked at Maitre la Huriere's." + +The route is easily traced to-day, and at the end of it is the Hotel des +Mousquetaires, so it will not take much imagination to revivify the +incident which Dumas conceived, though one may not get there that "good +wine of Artois" which the innkeeper, La Huriere, served to Henri. + +The circumstance is recounted in "Marguerite de Valois," as follows: + +"'La Huriere, here is a gentleman wants you.' + +"La Huriere advanced, and looked at Henri; and, as his large cloak did not +inspire him with very great veneration: + +"'Who are you?' asked he. + +"'Eh, _sang Dieu_!' returned Henri, pointing to La Mole. 'I am, as the +gentleman told you, a Gascon gentleman come to court.' + +"'What do you want?' + +"'A room and supper.' + +"'I do not let a room to any one, unless he has a lackey.' + +"'Oh, but I will pay you a rose noble for your room and supper.' + +"'You are very generous, worthy sir,' said La Huriere, with some distrust. + +"'No; but expecting to sup here, I invited a friend of mine to meet me. +Have you any good wine of Artois?' + +"'I have as good as the King of Navarre drinks.' + +"'Ah, good!'" + +The Rue de l'Arbre-Sec is of itself historic, though it was baptized as +l'Arbre-Sel. Two legends of more than ordinary interest are connected with +this once important though unimposing street. The first applies to its +early nomenclature, and is to the effect that in the thirteenth century it +contained an oak-tree, which, in the snows of winter, always remained free +of the white blanket which otherwise covered everything around about. For +this reason the tree was said to be so full of salt that the snow that +fell upon it melted immediately, and the name was created for the +thoroughfare, which then first rose to the dignity of a recognized _rue_. + +The second legend in a similar way accounts for the change of name to +_arbre-sec_. At a certain rainy period, when the pavements and the walls +of the houses were "_ruisselants d'eau_," the same tree remained +absolutely dry. It is curious, too, to note that the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec is +identified with a certain personage who lived in Mazarin's time, by the +name of Mathieu Molle, whose fame as the first president of the +_Parlement_ is preserved in the neighbouring Rue Mathieu Molle. It was in +the hotel of "La Belle Etoile" that Dumas ensconced his character De la +Mole--showing once again that Dumas dealt with very real characters. + +Opposite the colonnade of the Louvre is the Eglise St. Germain +l'Auxerrois. From this church--founded by Childebert in 606--rang out the +tocsin which was the signal for that infamous massacre of the Protestants +in the time of Charles IX. In "Marguerite de Valois" Dumas has vividly +described the event; not, perhaps, without certain embroidered +embellishment, but, nevertheless, with a graphicness which the dry-as-dust +historian of fact could hardly hope to equal. + +This cruel inspiration of Catherine de Medici's is recorded by Dumas thus: + +"'Hush!' said La Huriere. + +"'What is it?' inquired Coconnas and Maurevel together. + +"They heard the first stroke of the bell of St. Germain de l'Auxerrois +vibrate. + +"'The signal!' exclaimed Maurevel. 'The time is put ahead, for it was +agreed for midnight. So much the better. When it is the interest of God +and the king, it is better that the clock should be put forward than +backward.' And the sinister sound of the church-bell was distinctly heard. +Then a shot was fired, and, in an instant, the light of several flambeaux +blazed up like flashes of lightning in the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec." + +There is much more of moment that happened before and afterward "on this +bloody ground;" all of which is fully recounted by the historians. + + * * * * * + +At No. 7 Rue du Helder, just off the Boulevard des Italiens, in a region +so well known to Dumas and his associates, lived De Franchi, the hero of +the "Corsican Brothers." The _locale_ and the action of that rapid review +of emotions to which Dumas gave the name of the "Corsican Brothers" ("Les +Freres du Corse"), was not of the mean or sordid order, but rather of the +well-to-do, a sort of semi-luxuriousness of the middle-class life of the +time. + +The scene of the novelette bears the date of 1841, and Paris, especially +in many of what are known as the newer parts, has changed but little +since. A new shop-front here and there, the addition of a huge gilt sign, +of which the proprietors of Parisian establishments are so fond, somewhat +changes the outside aspect of things, but, on the whole, the _locale_ +often remains much as it was before, and, in this case, with but scarce +three-quarters of a century past, the view down the Rue du Helder from +its junction with Rue Taitbout differs little. + +"Hotel Picardie," in the Rue Tiquetonne,--still to be seen,--may or may +not be the "La Chevrette" of "Twenty Years After," to which D'Artagnan +repaired in the later years of his life. D'Artagnan's residence in the Rue +Tiquetonne has, in the minds of many, made the street famous. It was +famous, though, even before it was popularized by Dumas, and now that we +are not able even to place the inn where D'Artagnan lived after he had +retired from active service--it is still famous. + +At No. 12 and 16 are two grand habitations of former times. The former +served as a residence to Henri de Talleyrand, who died in 1626, and later +to the Marquis de Mauge, then to Daubonne, a _tapissier_, much in the +favour of Louis XIII. + +The other is known as the "Hotel d'Artagnan," but it is difficult to trace +its evolution from the comfortable inn of which Dumas wrote. + + +[Illustration: D'ARTAGNAN'S LODGINGS, RUE TIQUETONNE] + + +At No. 23 is about the only _relique_ left which bespeaks the gallant days +of D'Artagnan and his fellows. It is a square tower of five _etages_, and, +from the character of its architecture, we know it to be of the fourteenth +or fifteenth century. It is known as the "Tour de Jean-sans-Peur." +Jean-sans-Peur was the grandfather of Charles-le-Temeraire. Monstrelet +has said that it was built to contain a strong chamber, in which its owner +might sleep safely at night. It formed originally a part of the Hotel de +Bourgogne, but to-day, though but partially disengaged from the +neighbouring houses, it is evidently the only member of the original +establishment which remains. + +Not far from the precincts of the Louvre was the Rue de la Martellerie, +where lived Marie Touchet. + +The portraiture of Dumas forms a wonderfully complete list of the +royalties and nobilities of France. Both the D'Artagnan gallery and the +Valois series literally reek with the names of celebrated personages, and +this, too, in the mere romances, for it must be remembered that, in spite +of his reputation as a romancist, Dumas' historical sketches and travels +were both numerous and of great extent. + +One significant portrait, though it is not one of noble birth, is that of +Marie Touchet, extracted from "Marguerite de Valois," and reprinted here. + +"When Charles IX. and Henri of Navarre visited the Rue de la Martellerie, +it was to see the celebrated Marie, who, though 'only a poor, simple +girl,' as she referred to herself, was the Eve of Charles' paradise. +'Your Eden, Sire,' said the gallant Henri. + +"'Dearest Marie,' said Charles, 'I have brought you another king happier +than myself, for he has no crown; more unhappy than me, for he has no +Marie Touchet.' + +"'Sire, it is, then, the King of Navarre?' + +"'It is, love.' + +"Henri went toward her, and Charles took his right hand. + +"'Look at this hand, Marie,' said he; 'it is the hand of a good brother +and a loyal friend; and but for this hand--' + +"'Well, Sire!' + +"'But for this hand, this day, Marie, our boy had been fatherless.' + +"Marie uttered a cry, seized Henri's hand, and kissed it. + +"The king went to the bed where the child was still asleep. + +"'Eh!' said he, 'if this stout boy slept in the Louvre, instead of +sleeping in this small house, he would change the aspect of things at +present, and perhaps for the future.' + +"'Sire,' said Marie, 'without offence to your Majesty, I prefer his +sleeping here; he sleeps better.'" + +This illustrates only one phase of Dumas' power of portraiture, based on +historical fact, of course, and casting no new light on matters which are +otherwise well known, but still a very fresh and vivifying method of +projecting the features of those famous in the history of France, and a +method, perhaps, which will serve to impress them upon the reader in a +more nearly indelible fashion than any other. + +"It was this child of Marie Touchet and Charles IX. who afterward was the +famous Duke d'Angouleme, who died in 1650; and, had he been legitimate, +would have taken precedence of Henri III., Henri IV., Louis XIII., Louis +XIV., etc., and altered the whole line of the royal succession of France." + +It was a pleasurable visit for all three, that of which Dumas writes. + +Charles, Henri, and Marie supped together, and the accomplished Prince of +Bearn made the famous anagram from the letters of the lady's name, "_Je +charme tout_," which Charles declared he would present to her worked in +diamonds, and that it should be her motto. + +History does not state that he did so, but no doubt that was a detail +which the chroniclers have overlooked, or, of course, it may have been an +interpolation of Dumas'. + + * * * * * + +Dumas' pen-pictures of the great Napoleon--whom he referred to as "The +Ogre of Corsica"--will hardly please the great Corsican's admirers, though +it is in no manner contemptuous. The following is from "The Count of Monte +Cristo": + +"'Monsieur,' said the baron to the count, 'all the servants of his Majesty +must approve of the latest intelligence which we have from the island of +Elba. Bonaparte--' M. Dandre looked at Louis XVIII., who, employed in +writing a note, did not even raise his head. 'Bonaparte,' continued the +baron, 'is mortally wearied, and passes whole days in watching his miners +at work at Porto-Longone.' + +"'And scratches himself for amusement,' added the king. + +"'Scratches himself?' inquired the count. 'What does your Majesty mean?' + +"'Yes, indeed, my dear count. Did you forget that this great man, this +hero, this demigod, is attacked with a malady of the skin which worries +him to death, _prurigo_?' + +"'And, moreover, M. le Comte,' continued the minister of police, 'we are +almost assured that, in a very short time, the usurper will be insane.' + +"'Insane?' + +"'Insane to a degree; his head becomes weaker. Sometimes he weeps +bitterly, sometimes laughs boisterously; at other times he passes hours on +the seashore, flinging stones in the water, and when the flint makes +"ducks and drakes" five or six times, he appears as delighted as if he had +gained another Marengo or Austerlitz. Now, you must agree these are +indubitable symptoms of weakness?' + +"'Or of wisdom, M. le Baron--or of wisdom,' said Louis XVIII., laughing; +'the greatest captains of antiquity recreated themselves with casting +pebbles into the ocean--see Plutarch's life of Scipio Africanus.'" + +Again, from the same work, the following estimate of Napoleon's position +at Elba was, if not original, at least opinionated: + +"The emperor, now king of the petty isle of Elba, after having held +sovereign sway over one-half of the world, counting us, his subjects, a +small population of twenty millions,--after having been accustomed to hear +the '_Vive Napoleons_' of at least six times that number of human beings, +uttered in nearly every language of the globe,--was looked upon among the +_haute societe_ of Marseilles as a ruined man, separated for ever from +any fresh connection with France or claim to her throne." + + * * * * * + +Firstly the Faubourg St. Denis is associated with Dumas' early life in +Paris. He lived at No. 53 of the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis in 1824. + +When one walks past the Porte St. Denis and looks up at that +seventeenth-century arch of triumph, built to commemorate the German +victories of Louis Quatorze, one just misses the historical significance +and architectural fitness of the arch. It is not merely an incident in the +boulevard. It belongs not so much to the newer boulevard, as to the +ancient Rue St. Denis, and it is only by proceeding some distance up this +street, the ancient route of the pilgrims to the tomb of the saint, that +the meaning of the Porte St. Denis can truly be appreciated. The arch may +be heavy,--it has been described as hideous, and it truly is,--but seen in +the Rue St. Denis, whose roadway passes under it, it forms a typical view +even to-day of Old Paris, and of the Paris which entered so largely into +Dumas' romances of the Louis. + +The more ancient Porte St. Denis, the gateway which lay between the +faubourg, the plain, and the ville, performed a function quite different +from that of the Renaissance gateway which exists to-day; in just what +manner will be readily inferred when it is recalled that, with the Porte +St. Antoine, the Porte St. Denis was the scene of much riot and bloodshed +in the early history of Paris. + + +[Illustration: 109 RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. DENIS (DESCAMPS' STUDIO)] + + +There are no tram-cars or omnibuses passing through its arch, as through +the Place du Carrousel, or the courtyards of the Louvre, to take away the +sentiment of romance; though the traffic which swirls and eddies around +its sturdy piers and walls is of a manifest up-to-date, twentieth-century +variety. + +Through its great arch runs the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, where, at No. +109, was the studio of Gabriel Descamps, celebrated in "Capitaine +Pamphile." + + * * * * * + +In "Marguerite de Valois" we have a graphic reference--though rather more +sentimental than was the author's wont--to the Cimetiere des Innocents: + +"On the day which succeeded that terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew's +night, in 1572, a hawthorn-tree," said Dumas, and it is also recognized +history, as well, "which had blossomed in the spring, and which, according +to custom, had lost its odorous flower in the month of June, had strangely +reblossomed during the night, and the Catholics, who saw in this even a +miracle, and who by rendering this miracle popular made the Deity their +accomplice, went in procession, cross and banner at their head, to the +Cemetery of the Innocents, where this hawthorn was blooming." + +Amidst the cries of "_Vive le roi!_" "_Vive la messe!_" "_Mort aux +Huguenots_," the accomplished Marguerite herself went to witness the +phenomenon. + +"When they reached the top of the Rue des Prouvelles, they met some men +who were dragging a carcass without any head. It was that of 'the admiral' +(Coligny).... The men were going to hang it by the feet at Montfaucon...." + +"They entered the Cemetery of St. Innocents, and the clergy, forewarned of +the visit of the king and the queen mother, awaited their Majesties to +harangue them." + +The cemetery--or signs of it--have now disappeared, though the mortal +victims of the massacre, and countless other souls besides, rest beneath +the flagstones adjacent to Les Halles, the great market-house of Paris. + +The Fontaine des Innocents formerly marked the site, but now it is removed +to the other side of Les Halles. + +This graceful Renaissance fountain was first erected in 1550, from designs +of Pierre Lescot and Jean Goujon. It stood formerly before the Eglise des +Innocents, which was demolished in 1783. + +The Fontaine des Innocents, in spite of its migrations, is a charming +oasis of green trees and running water, in the midst of the rather +encumbered market-square of Les Halles. Not that the region around about +is at all unsavoury; far from it. There is debris of green vegetables and +ripe fruits everywhere about, but it has not yet reached the unsavoury +stage; before it does all will be swept away, and on the morrow the +clamour and traffic will start fresh anew. + +The Place Royale, now called the Place des Vosges, is so largely +identified with "La Comtesse de Charny" that no special mention can well +be made of any action which here took place. + +At No. 21, now of course long since departed, lived "a gentleman entirely +devoted to your Majesty," said Dumas, and the adventuress, Lady de Winter, +whom D'Artagnan was wont to visit, was given domicile by Dumas at No. 6. +Likely enough it was her true residence, though there is no opportunity of +tracing it to-day, and one perforce must be satisfied with locating the +houses of Madame de Sevigne and Victor Hugo, each of which bear tablets to +that effect. + +The Place des Vosges is a charming square, reminiscent, in a way, of the +courtyard of the Palais Royal, though lacking its splendour. The iron +gateway to the central garden was a gift of Louis XIV., in 1685, when the +square was known as the Place Royale. Richelieu caused to be set up here a +magnificent equestrian statue of Louis XIII., which, however, was +overturned in the Revolution, though it has since been replaced by another +statue. The horse was the work of Ricciarelli de Volterre, a pupil of +Michelangelo, and the figure was by Biard. + +The first great historical event held here was the _carrousel_ given in +1612, two years after the tragic death of Henri IV. at the hands of the +assassin Ravaillac. It was a function of Marie de Medici's to celebrate +the alliance of France and Spain. + +Under Richelieu, the place became a celebrated duelling-ground, the most +famous duel being that between the Duc de Guise and Coligny _fils_, the +son of the admiral. + +The Place Royale soon became the most fashionable _quartier_, the houses +around about being greatly in demand of the _noblesse_. + +Among its illustrious inhabitants have been the Rohans, the D'Alegres, +Corneille, Conde, St. Vincent de Paul, Moliere, Turenne, Madame de +Longueville, Cinq-Mars, and Richelieu. + +By _un arrete_ of the 17th Ventose, year VII., it was declared that the +name of the department which should pay the largest part of its +contributions by the 20th Germinal would be given to that of the principal +place or square of Paris. The Department of the Vosges was the first to +pay up, and the Place Royale became the Place des Vosges. + +A great deal of the action of the D'Artagnan romances took place in the +Place Royale, and in the neighbouring _quartiers_ of St. Antoine and La +Bastille, the place being the scene of the notable reunion of the four +gallants in "Vingt Ans Apres." + +La Roquette, the prison, has disappeared, like the Bastille itself, but +they are both perpetuated to-day, the former in the Rue Roquette, and the +latter in the Place de la Bastille. + +Dumas does not project their horrors unduly, though the Bastille crops up +in many of the chapters of the Valois romances, and one entire volume is +devoted to "The Taking of the Bastille." + +D'Artagnan himself was doomed, by an order of arrest issued by Richelieu, +to be incarcerated therein; but the gallant _mousquetaire_, by a subtle +scheme, got hold of the warrant and made a present of it to the intriguing +cardinal himself. + +The sombre and sinister guillotine, since become so famous, is made by +Dumas subject of a weirdly fascinating chapter in "La Comtesse de +Charny." Dumas' description is as follows: + +"When Guilbert got out of the carriage he saw that he was in the court of +a prison, and at once recognized it as the Bicetre. A fine misty rain fell +diagonally and stained the gray walls. In the middle of the court five or +six carpenters, under the direction of a master workman, and a little man +clad in black, who seemed to direct everybody, put a machine of a hitherto +strange and unknown form. Guilbert shuddered; he recognized Doctor +Guillotin, and the machine itself was the one of which he had seen a model +in the cellar of the editor of '_l'ami du peuple_.'... The very workmen +were as yet ignorant of the secret of this novel machine. 'There,' said +Doctor Guillotin, ... 'it is now only necessary to put the knife in the +groove.'... This was the form of the machine: a platform fifteen feet +square, reached by a simple staircase, on each side of this platform two +grooved uprights, ten or twelve feet high. In the grooves slid a kind of +crescent-shaped knife. A little opening was made between two beams, +through which a man's head could be passed.... 'Gentlemen,' said +Guillotin, 'all being here, we will begin.'" + +Then follows the same vivid record of executing and blood-spurting that +has attracted many other writers perhaps as gifted as Dumas, but none +have told it more graphically, simply, or truthfully. + + * * * * * + +Every one knows the Mount of Martyrs, its history, and its modern aspect, +which has sadly degenerated of late. + +To-day it is simply a hilltop of cheap gaiety, whose patrons are catered +for by the Moulin Rouge, the Moulin de la Galette, and a score of +"eccentric cafes," though its past is burdened with Christian tragedy. Up +its slope St. Denis is fabulously supposed to have carried his head after +his martyrdom, and the quiet, almost forlorn Rue St. Eleuthere still +perpetuates the name of his companion in misery. Long afterward, in the +chapel erected on this spot, Ignatius Loyola and his companions solemnly +vowed themselves to their great work. So here on sinful Montmartre, above +Paris, was born the Society of Jesus. The Revolution saw another band of +martyrs, when the nuns of the Abbaye de Montmartre, old and young, chanted +their progress to the guillotine, and little more than thirty years ago +the Commune precipitated its terrible struggle in Montmartre. It was in +the Rue des Rosiers, on the 18th of March, 1871, that the blood of +Generals Lecomte and Clement-Thomas was shed. + +Hard by, in the Parc Monceau, is the statue of Guy de Maupassant, and so +the memory of the sinful mount is perpetuated to us. + +Dumas did not make the use of this banal attribute of Paris that many +other realists and romancists alike have done, but he frequently refers to +it in his "Memoires." + +Madame de la Motte, the scheming adventuress of the "Collier de la Reine," +lived at No. 57 Rue Charlot, in the Quartier des Infants-Rouges. It was +here, at the Hotel Boulainvilliers, where the Marquise de Boulainvilliers +brought up the young girl of the blood royal of the Valois, who afterward +became known as Madame de la Motte. + +Near by, in the same street, is the superb hotel of Gabrielle d'Estrees, +who herself was not altogether unknown to the court. The Rue de Valois, +leading from the Rue St. Honore to the Rue Beaujolais, beside the Palais +Royal, as might be supposed, especially appealed to Dumas, and he laid one +of the most cheerful scenes of the "Chevalier d'Harmental" in the hotel, +No. 10, built by Richelieu for L'Abbe Metel de Bois-Robert, the founder of +the Academie Francaise. + +Off the Rue Sourdiere, was the Couloir St. Hyacinthe, where lived Jean +Paul Marat--"the friend of the people," whose description by Dumas, in +"La Comtesse de Charny," does not differ greatly from others of this +notorious person. + +In the early pages of "The Count of Monte Cristo," one's attention is +transferred from Marseilles to Paris, to No. 13 Rue Coq-Heron, where lived +M. Noirtier, to whom the luckless Dantes was commissioned to deliver the +fateful packet, which was left in his care by the dying Captain Leclerc. + +The incident of the handing over of this letter to the depute procureur du +roi is recounted thus by Dumas: + +"'Stop a moment,' said the deputy, as Dantes took his hat and gloves. 'To +whom is it addressed?' + +"'To M. Noirtier, Rue Coq-Heron, Paris.' Had a thunderbolt fallen into the +room, Villefort could not have been more stupefied. He sank into his seat, +and, hastily turning over the packet, drew forth the fatal letter, at +which he glanced with an expression of terror. + +"'M. Noirtier, Rue Coq-Heron, No. 13,' murmured he, growing still paler. + +"'Yes,' said Dantes; 'do you then know him?' + +"'No,' replied Villefort; 'a faithful servant of the king does not know +conspirators.' + +"'It is a conspiracy, then?' asked Dantes, who, after believing himself +free, now began to feel a tenfold alarm. 'I have already told you, +however, sir, I was ignorant of the contents of the letter.' + +"'Yes, but you knew the name of the person to whom it was addressed,' said +Villefort. + +"'I was forced to read the address to know to whom to give it.' + +"'Have you shown this letter to any one?' asked Villefort, becoming still +more pale. + +"'To no one, on my honour.' + +"'Everybody is ignorant that you are the bearer of a letter from the isle +of Elba, and addressed to M. Noirtier?' + +"'Everybody, except the person who gave it to me.'" + + * * * * * + +The Rue Coq-Heron is one of those whimsically named streets of Paris, +which lend themselves to the art of the novelist. + +The origin of the name of this tiny street, which runs tangently off from +the Rue du Louvre, is curious and naive. A shopkeeper of the street, who +raised fowls, saw, one day, coming out of its shell, a _petit coq_ with a +neck and beak quite different, and much longer, than the others of the +same brood. Everybody said it was a heron, and the neighbours crowded +around to see the phenomenon; and so the street came to be baptized the +Rue Coq-Heron. + +In the Rue Chaussee d'Antin, at No. 7, the wily Baron Danglars had +ensconced himself after his descent on Paris. It was here that Dantes +caused to be left his first "_carte de visite_" upon his subsequent +arrival. + +Among the slighter works of Dumas, which are daily becoming more and more +recognized--in English--as being masterpieces of their kind, is "Gabriel +Lambert." It deals with the life of Paris of the thirties; much the same +period as does "Captain Pamphile," "The Corsican Brothers," and "Pauline," +and that in which Dumas himself was just entering into the literary life +of Paris. + +Like "Pauline" and "Captain Pamphile," too, the narrative, simple though +it is,--at least it is not involved,--shifts its scenes the length and +breadth of the continent of Europe, and shows a versatility in the +construction of a latter-day romance which is quite the equal of that of +the unapproachable mediaeval romances. It further resembles "The Corsican +Brothers," in that it purveys a duel of the first quality--this time in +the Allee de la Muette of the Bois de Boulogne, and that most of the +Parisians in the story are domiciled in and about the Boulevard des +Italiens, the Rue Taitbout, and the Rue du Helder; all of them localities +very familiar to Dumas in real life. In spite of the similarity of the +duel of Gabriel to that of De Franchi, there is no repetition of scene or +incident detail. + +The story deals frankly with the brutal and vulgar malefactor, in this +case a counterfeiter of bank notes, one Gabriel, the son of a poor peasant +of Normandy, who, it would appear, was fascinated by the ominous words of +the inscription which French bank notes formerly bore. + + LA LOI PUNIT DE MORT + LE CONTREFACTEUR + +Dumas occasionally took up a theme which, unpromising in itself, was yet +alluring through its very lack of sympathy. "Gabriel Lambert" is a story +of vulgar rascality unredeemed by any spark of courage, wit, or humanity. +There is much of truth in the characterization, and some sentiment, but +little enough of romance of the gallant vagabond order. + +Dumas never attempted a more difficult feat than the composition of an +appealing story from this material. + +Twenty years after the first appearance of "Gabriel Lambert," in 1844, M. +Amedee de Jallais brought Dumas a "scenario" taken from the romance. +Unsuitable and unsympathetic though the principal character was, Dumas +found the "scenario" so deftly made that he resolved to turn the book into +a drama. This was quickly done, and the rehearsals promised a success. On +the evening of the first performance Dumas showed himself full of +confidence in the play--confidence which amounted almost to certainty; for +he said to a friend with whom he promenaded the corridors of the theatre +while awaiting the rise of the curtain: "I am sure of my piece; to-night, +I can defy the critics." Some of these gentlemen, unfortunately +overhearing him, were provoked to hostility, and, finding unhappy phrases +here and there in the piece, they laid hold of them without mercy. Only +the comic part of the drama, a scene introduced by Dumas, in which a +vagabond steals a clock in the presence of its owner with superb audacity, +disarmed their opposition. But the verve of this comic part could not save +the play, says Gabriel Ferry, in narrating this anecdote. The antipathy +aroused by the principal character doomed it, and the career of the piece +was short. + +It remains, however,--in the book, at any rate,--a wonderful +characterization, with its pictures of the blue Mediterranean at Toulon, +the gay life of the Parisian boulevards, its miniature portrait of the +great Vidocq, and the sinister account of the prison of Bicetre, which, +since the abandonment of the Place de la Greve, had become the last resort +of those condemned to death. + +The tale is a short one, but it vibrates between the _rues_ and the +boulevards, from the Hotel de Venise in the Rue des Vieux-Augustins (now +the Rue Herold), where Gabriel, upon coming to Paris, first had his +lodgings, to the purlieus of the fashionable world,--the old Italian Opera +in the Rue Pelletier,--and No. 11 Rue Taitbout, where afterward Gabriel +had ensconced himself in a luxurious apartment. + + + + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME DE PARIS] + + +CHAPTER XI. + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +L'UNIVERSITE QUARTIER + + +L'Universite is the _quartier_ which foregathered its components, more or +less unconsciously, around the Sorbonne. + +To-day the name still means what it always did; the Ecole de Medicine, the +Ecole de Droit, the Beaux Arts, the Observatoire, and the student ateliers +of the Latin Quarter, all go to make it something quite foreign to any +other section of Paris. + +The present structure known as "The Sorbonne" was built by Richelieu in +1629, as a sort of glorified successor to the ancient foundation of Robert +de Sorbonne, confessor to St. Louis in 1253. The present Universite, as an +institution, was founded, among many other good and valuable things, which +he has not always been given credit for, by the astute Napoleon I. + + * * * * * + +With the work of the romancer, it is the unexpected that always happens. +But this very unexpectedness is only another expression of naturalness; +which raises the question: Is not the romancist more of a realist than is +commonly supposed? + +Dumas often accomplished the unconventional, and often the miraculous, but +the gallant attack of D'Artagnan and his three whilom adversaries against +the Cardinal's Guard is by no means an impossible or unreasonable +incident. Considering Dumas' ingenuity and freedom, it would be +unreasonable to expect that things might not take the turn that they did. + +Of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" alone, the scheme of adventure and incident +is as orderly and sagacious as though it had been laid down by the wily +cardinal himself; and therein is Dumas' success as the romancist _par +excellence_ of his time. A romancist who was at least enough of a realist +to be natural, if unconventional. + +Dumas is supposed to have fallen from the heights scaled by means of "Les +Trois Mousquetaires," when he wrote "Vingt Ans Apres." As a piece of +literary workmanship, this perhaps is so; as a chronicle of great interest +to the reader, who would trace the movement of its plot by existing stones +and shrines, it is hardly the case. + +One can get up a wonderful enthusiasm for the old Luxembourg quarter, +which the Gascon Don Quixote entered by one of the southern gates, +astride his Rosinante. The whole neighbourhood abounds with reminiscences +of the characters of the tale: D'Artagnan, with the Rue des Fossoyeurs, +now the Rue Servandoni; Athos with the Rue Ferou; Aramis, with the Rue de +la Harpe, and so on. + +There is, however, a certain tangible sentimentality connected with the +adventures of Athos, Aramis, D'Artagnan, and Porthos in "Twenty Years +After," that is not equalled by the earlier book, the reputed scenes of +which have, to some extent, to be taken on faith. + +In "Vingt Ans Apres," the scene shifts rapidly and constantly: from the +Rue Tiquetonne, in Paris, to the more luxurious precincts of the Palais +Royal; countrywards to Compiegne, to Pierrefonds--which ultimately came +into the possession of Porthos; to England, even; and southward as far as +Blois in Touraine, near to which was the country estate of Athos. + +At the corner of the Rue Vaugirard, which passes the front of the +Luxembourg Palace, and the Rue Cassette, is the wall of the Carmelite +Friary, where D'Artagnan repaired to fulfil his duelling engagements with +the three musketeers of the company of De Treville, after the incidents of +the shoulder of Athos, the baldric of Porthos, and the handkerchief of +Aramis. + + +[Illustration: CARMELITE FRIARY, RUE VAUGIRARD] + + +Both sides of the river, and, indeed, the Cite itself, are alive with the +association of the King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guards; so much so +that one, with even a most superficial knowledge of Paris and the +D'Artagnan romances, cannot fail to follow the shifting of the scenes from +the neighbourhood of the Palais du Luxembourg, in "Les Trois +Mousquetaires," to the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal, in "Vingt Ans +Apres" and the "Vicomte de Bragelonne." + +In "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," the fraternal _mousquetaires_ take somewhat +varying paths from those which they pursued in the first two volumes of +the series. Porthos and Athos had arrived at distinction and wealth, and +surrounded themselves accordingly; though, when they came to Paris, they +were doubtless frequenters--at times--of their old haunts, but they had +perforce to live up to their exalted stations. + +With D'Artagnan and Aramis this was not so true. D'Artagnan, it would +seem, could not leave his beloved Palais Royal quarter, though his +lodgings in the hotel in the Rue Tiquetonne could have been in no way +luxurious, judging from present-day appearances. + +In the Universite quarter, running squarely up from the Seine is a short, +unpretentious, though not unlovely, street--the Rue Guenegard. + +It runs by the Hotel de la Monnaie, and embouches on the Quai Conti, but +if you ask for it from the average stroller on the quais, he will reply +that he never heard of it. + +It was here, however, at "Au Grand Roi Charlemagne," "a respectable inn," +that Athos lived during his later years. + +In the course of three hundred years this inn has disappeared,--if it ever +existed,--though there are two hotels, now somewhat decrepit, on the short +length of the street. + +Perhaps it was one of these,--the present Hotel de France, for +instance,--but there are no existing records to tell us beyond doubt that +this is so. + +There is another inn which Dumas mentions in "The Forty-Five Guardsmen," +not so famous, and not traceable to-day, but his description of it is +highly interesting and amusing. + +"Near the Porte Buci," says Chapter VII. of the book before mentioned, +"where we must now transport our readers, to follow some of their +acquaintances, and to make new ones, a hum, like that in a beehive at +sunset, was heard proceeding from a house tinted rose colour, and +ornamented with blue and white pointings, which was known by the sign of +'The Sword of the Brave Chevalier,' and which was an immense inn, recently +built in this new quarter. This house was decorated to suit all tastes. On +the entablature was painted a representation of a combat between an +archangel and a dragon breathing flame and smoke, and in which the artist, +animated by sentiments at once heroic and pious, had depicted in the hands +of 'the brave chevalier,' not a sword, but an immense cross, with which he +hacked in pieces the unlucky dragon, of which the bleeding pieces were +seen lying on the ground. At the bottom of the picture crowds of +spectators were represented raising their arms to heaven, while from above +angels were extending over the chevalier laurels and palms. Then, as if to +prove that he could paint in every style, the artist had grouped around +gourds, grapes, a snail on a rose, and two rabbits, one white and the +other gray. + +"Assuredly the proprietor must have been difficult to please, if he were +not satisfied, for the artist had filled every inch of space--there was +scarcely room to have added a caterpillar. In spite, however, of this +attractive exterior, the hotel did not prosper--it was never more than +half full, though it was large and comfortable. Unfortunately, from its +proximity to the Pre-aux-Clercs, it was frequented by so many persons +either going or ready to fight, that those more peaceably disposed avoided +it. Indeed, the cupids with which the interior was decorated had been +ornamented with moustaches in charcoal by the _habitues_; and Dame +Fournichon, the landlady, always affirmed that the sign had brought them +ill-luck, and that, had her wishes been attended to, and the painting +represented more pleasing things, such as the rose-tree of love surrounded +by flaming hearts, all tender couples would have flocked to them. + +"M. Fournichon, however, stuck to his sign, and replied that he preferred +fighting men, and that one of them drank as much as six lovers." + +Dumas' reference to this curiously disposed "happy family" calls to mind +the anecdote which he recounts in "The Taking of the Bastille," concerning +salamanders: + +"The famous trunk, which had now been dignified with the name of desk, had +become, thanks to its vastness, and the numerous compartments with which +Pitou had decorated its interior, a sort of Noah's ark, containing a +couple of every species of climbing, crawling, or flying reptiles. There +were lizards, adders, ant-eaters, beetles, and frogs, which reptiles +became so much dearer to Pitou from their being the cause of his being +subjected to punishment more or less severe. + +"It was in his walks during the week that Pitou made collections for his +menagerie. He had wished for salamanders, which were very popular at +Villers-Cotterets, being the crest of Francois I., and who had them +sculptured on every chimneypiece in the chateau. He had succeeded in +obtaining them; only one thing had strongly preoccupied his mind, and he +ended by placing this thing among the number of those which were beyond +his intelligence; it was, that he had constantly found in the water these +reptiles which poets have pretended exist only in fire. This circumstance +had given to Pitou, who was a lad of precise mind, a profound contempt for +poets." + + * * * * * + +Here, at "The Sword of the Brave Chevalier," first met the "Forty-Five +Guardsmen." In the same street is, or was until recently, a modernized and +vulgarized inn of similar name, which was more likely to have been an +adaption from the pages of Dumas than a direct descendant of the original, +if it ever existed. It is the Hotel la Tremouille, near the Luxembourg, +that figures in the pages of "Les Trois Mousquetaires," but the hotel of +the Duc de Treville, in the Rue du Vieux-Colombier, has disappeared in a +rebuilding or widening of this street, which runs from the Place de St. +Sulpice to the Place de la Croix-Rouge. + +All these places centre around that famous _affaire_ which took place +before the Carmelite establishment on the Rue Vaugirard: that gallant +sword-play of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis,--helped by the not unwilling +D'Artagnan,--against Richelieu's minions, headed by Jussac. + +Within the immediate neighbourhood, too, is much of the _locale_ of "Les +Trois Mousquetaires." Here the four friends themselves lodged, "just +around the corner, within two steps of the Luxembourg," though Porthos +more specifically claimed his residence as in the Rue de Vieux-Colombier. +"That is my abode," said he, as he proudly pointed to its gorgeous +doorway. + +The Hotel de Chevreuse of "_la Frondeuse duchesse_," famed alike in +history and the pages of Dumas, is yet to be seen in somewhat changed form +at No. 201 Boulevard St. Germain; its garden cut away by the Boulevard +Raspail. + +At No. 12 or 14 Rue des Fossoyeurs, beside the Pantheon,--still much as it +was of yore,--was D'Artagnan's own "sort of a garret." One may not be able +to exactly place it, but any of the decrepitly picturesque houses will +answer the description. + + * * * * * + +It is a wonderfully varied and interesting collection of buildings which +is found on the height of Ste. Genevieve, overlooking the Jardin and +Palais du Luxembourg: the hybrid St. Etienne du Mont, the pagan Pantheon, +the tower of the ancient Abbaye de Ste. Genevieve, and the Bibliotheque, +which also bears the name of Paris's patron saint. + +The old abbey must have had many and varied functions, if history and +romance are to be believed, and to-day its tower and a few short lengths +of wall, built into the Lycee Henri Quatre, are all that remain, unless it +be that the crypt and dungeons, of which one reads in "Chicot the Jester," +are still existent. Probably they are, but, if so, they have most likely +degenerated into mere lumber-rooms. + +The incident as given by Dumas relates briefly to the plot of the Guises +to induce Charles IX., on the plea of some religious ceremony, to enter +one of the monkish _caches_, and there compel him to sign his abdication. +The plot, according to the novelist, was frustrated by the ingenious +Chicot. + +At all events, the ensemble to-day is one most unusual, and the whole +locality literally reeks with the associations of tradition. + +Architecturally it is a jumble, good in parts, but again shocking in other +parts. + +The Eglise St. Etienne du Mont is a weird contrast of architectural style, +but its interior is truly beautiful, and on the wall near the south +transept are two tablets, on which one may read the facts concerning Ste. +Genevieve, which likely enough have for the moment been forgotten by most +of us. + +The old abbey must have been a delightful place, in spite of the lurid +picture which Dumas draws of it. + + * * * * * + +Probably in none of Dumas' romances is there more lively action than in +"The Queen's Necklace." The characters are in a continual migration +between one and another of the faubourgs. Here, again, Dumas does not +forget or ignore the Luxembourg and its environment. He seems, indeed, to +have a special fondness for its neighbourhood. It was useful to him in +most of the Valois series, and doubly so in the D'Artagnan romances. + +Beausire, one of the thieves who sought to steal the famous necklace, +"took refuge in a small _cabaret_ in the Luxembourg quarter." The +particular _cabaret_ is likely enough in existence to-day, as the event +took place but a hundred years ago, and Dumas is known to have "drawn from +life" even his pen-portraits of the _locale_ of his stories. At any rate, +there is many a _cabaret_ near the Luxembourg which might fill the bill. + +The gardens of the Luxembourg were another favourite haunt of the +characters of Dumas' romances, and in "The Queen's Necklace" they are made +use of again, this time, as usual, as a suitable place for a promenade or +a rendezvous of the fair Oliva, who so much resembled Marie Antoinette. + + * * * * * + +Like the Rue du Helder, celebrated in "The Corsican Brothers," the Rue de +Lille, where lived, at No. 29, De Franchi's friend, Adrien de Boissy, is +possessed of an air of semi-luxuriousness, or, at any rate, of a certain +middle-class comfort. + +It lies on the opposite side of the Seine from the river side of the +Louvre, and runs just back of the site formerly occupied by the Duc de +Montmorenci, where was held the gorgeous ceremony of the marriage of the +Marquis St. Luc, of which one reads in "Chicot the Jester." + +There is not much of splendour or romance about the present-day Rue de +Lille; indeed, it is rather commonplace, but as Dumas places the +particular house in which De Boissy lived with definiteness, and, +moreover, in that it exists to-day practically unaltered, there seems +every good reason why it should be catalogued here. + + + + +[Illustration: THE BUILDERS OF THE LOUVRE + +(1) Francois I., _1546_; (2) Catherine de Medici, _1566-1578_; (3) +Catherine de Medici, _1564_ (destroyed at the Commune); (4) Louis XIII., +_1524_; (5) Louis XIV., _1660-1670_; (6) Napoleon I., _1806_; (7) Louis +XVIII., _1816_; (8) Napoleon III., _1852-1857_; (9) Napoleon III., +_1863-1868_.] + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE LOUVRE + +"_Paris renferme beaucoup de palais; mais le vrai palais de Paris, le vrai +palais de la France, tout le monde l'a nomme,--c'est le Louvre._" + + +Upon the first appearance of "Marguerite de Valois," a critic writing in +_Blackwood's Magazine_, has chosen to commend Dumas' directness of plot +and purpose in a manner which every lover of Dumas and student of history +will not fail to appreciate. He says: "Dumas, according to his custom, +introduces a vast array of characters, for the most part historical, all +spiritedly drawn and well sustained. In various respects the author may be +held up as an example to our own history-spoilers, and self-styled writers +of historical romance. One does not find him profaning public edifices by +causing all sorts of absurdities to pass, and of twaddle to be spoken, +within their precincts; neither does he make his king and beggar, +high-born dame and private soldier use the very same language, all +equally tame, colourless, and devoid of character. The spirited and varied +dialogue, in which his romances abound, illustrates and brings out the +qualities and characteristics of his actors, and is not used for the sole +purpose of making a chapter out of what would be better told in a page. In +many instances, indeed, it would be difficult for him to tell his story, +by the barest narrative, in fewer words than he does by pithy and pointed +dialogue." + +No edifice in Paris itself, nor, indeed, in all France, is more closely +identified with the characters and plots of Dumas' romances than the +Louvre. In the Valois cycle alone, the personages are continually flocking +and stalking thither; some mere puppets,--walking gentlemen and +ladies,--but many more, even, who are personages so very real that even in +the pages of Dumas one forgets that it is romance pure and simple, and is +almost ready to accept his word as history. This it is not, as is well +recognized, but still it is a pleasant manner of bringing before the +omnivorous reader many facts which otherwise he might ignore or perhaps +overlook. + +It really is not possible to particularize all the action of Dumas' +romances which centred around the Louvre. To do so would be to write the +mediaeval history of the famous building, or to produce an analytical index +to the works of Dumas which would somewhat approach in bulk the celebrated +Chinese encyclopaedia. + +We learn from "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne" of D'Artagnan's great familiarity +with the life which went on in the old chateau of the Louvre. "I will tell +you where M. d'Artagnan is," said Raoul; "he is now in Paris; when on +duty, he is to be met at the Louvre; when not so, in the Rue des +Lombards." + +This describes the situation exactly: when the characters of the +D'Artagnan and the Valois romances are not actually within the precincts +of the Louvre, they have either just left it or are about to return +thither, or some momentous event is being enacted there which bears upon +the plot. + +Perhaps the most dramatic incident in connection with the Louvre mentioned +by Dumas, was that of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's night, "that +bloody deed which culminated from the great struggle which devastated +France in the latter part of the sixteenth century." + +Dumas throws in his lot with such historians as Ranke and Soldain, who +prefer to think that the massacre which took place on the fete-day of St. +Bartholomew was not the result of a long premeditated plot, but was +rather the fruit of a momentary fanatical terror aroused by the +unsuccessful attempt on the life of Coligny. + +This aspect is apart from the question. The principal fact with which the +novelist and ourselves are concerned is that the event took place much as +stated: that it was from the Louvre that the plot--if plot it +were--emanated, and that the sounding bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois did, +on that fateful night, indicate to those present in the Louvre the fact +that the bloody massacre had begun. + +The fabric itself--the work of many hands, at the instigation of so many +minds--is an enduring monument to the fame of those who projected it, or +who were memorialized thereby: Philippe-Auguste, Marie de Medici, Francois +I., Charles IX., Henri IV., Louis XIV., Napoleon I.,--who did but little, +it is true,--and Napoleon III.--who did much, and did it badly. + +Besides history, bloody deeds, and intrigue, there is also much of +sentiment to be gathered from an observation of its walls; as witness the +sculptures and decorations of Goujon and Lescot, the interlaced monogram +G. H., of Henri and Gabrielle d'Estrees, and the superimposed crescents of +the fair Diane de Poitiers. But such romances as these are best read in +the pages of Dumas. + +"To the French the Louvre is more than a palace; it is a sanctuary," said +an enthusiastic Frenchman. As such it is a shrine to be worshipped by +itself, though it is pardonable to wish to know to-day just where and when +the historic events of its career took place. + +One can trace the outline, in white marble, of the ancient Chateau du +Louvre, in the easterly courtyard of the present establishment; can admire +the justly celebrated eastern colonnade, though so defective was the +architect in his original plans that it overlaps the side walls of the +connecting buildings some dozen or more feet; can follow clearly all the +various erections of monarchs and eras, and finally contemplate the tiny +columns set about in the garden of the Tuileries, which mark all that is +left of that ambitious edifice. + +The best description of the Tuileries by Dumas comes into the scene in +"The Count of Monte Cristo," when Villefort,--who shares with Danglars and +Fernand the distinction of being the villain of the piece,--after +travelling with all speed from Marseilles to Paris, "penetrates the two or +three apartments which precede it, and enters the small cabinet of the +Tuileries with the arched window, so well known as having been the +favourite cabinet of Napoleon and Louis XVIII., as also that of +Louis-Philippe. + +"There, in this closet, seated before a walnut-tree table he had brought +with him from Hartwell, and to which, from one of those fancies not +uncommon to great people, he was particularly attached, the king, Louis +XVIII., was carelessly listening to a man of fifty or fifty-two years of +age, with gray hair, aristocratic bearing, and exceedingly gentlemanly +attire, whilst he was making a note in a volume of Horace, Gryphius's +edition, which was much indebted to the sagacious observations of the +philosophical monarch." + +Of course, an author of to-day would have expressed it somewhat +differently, but at the time in which Dumas wrote, the little cabinet did +exist, and up to the time of the destruction of the palace, at the +Commune, was doubtless as much of a showplace in its way as is the window +of the Louvre from which Charles IX. was supposed to have fired upon the +fleeing Huguenots--with this difference: that the cabinet had a real +identity, while the window in question has been more recently ascertained +as not having been built at the time of the event. + + * * * * * + +Some one has mentioned Paris, the forgetter, as if modern Paris and its +gay life--for assuredly it is gay, regardless of what the _blase_ folk +may say or think--had entirely blotted out from its memory the horrors of +St. Bartholomew's night, the tragedies of La Roquette, the Conciergerie, +or the Bastille. + +This is so in a measure, however, though one has only to cross the square +which lies before Les Halles, La Tour St. Jacques, or Notre Dame, to +recall most vividly the tragedies which have before been enacted there. + +The Louvre literally reeks with the intrigue and bloodshed of political +and religious warfare; and Dumas' picture of the murder of the admiral, +and his version of the somewhat apocryphal incident of Charles IX. potting +at the Protestant victims, with a specially made and garnished firearm, is +sufficiently convincing, when once read, to suggest the recollections, at +least, of the heartless act. From the Louvre it is but a step--since the +Tuileries has been destroyed--to the Place de la Concorde. + +When this great square, now given over to bird-fanciers, automobilists, +and photograph-sellers, was first cleared, it was known as the Place de la +Revolution. In the later volumes of the Valois romances one reads of a +great calendar of scenes and incidents which were consummated here. It is +too large a list to even catalogue, but one will recollect that here, in +this statue surrounded place, with playing fountains glittering in the +sunlight, is buried under a brilliance--very foreign to its former +aspect--many a grim tragedy of profound political purport. + +It was here that Louis XVI. said, "I die innocent; I forgive my enemies, +and pray God to avert his vengeance for my blood, and to bless my people." +To-day one sees only the ornate space, the _voitures_ and automobiles, the +tricolour floating high on the Louvre, and this forgetful Paris, brilliant +with sunlight, green with trees, beautified by good government, which +offers in its _kiosks_, cafes, and theatres the fulness of the moment at +every turn. Paris itself truly forgets, if one does not. + + * * * * * + +The Louvre as it is known to-day is a highly intricate composition. Its +various parts have grown, not under one hand, but from a common root, +until it blossomed forth in its full glory when the western front of +Catherine de Medici took form. Unfortunately, with its disappearance at +the Commune the completeness of this elaborate edifice went for ever. + +One is apt to overlook the fact that the old Louvre, the _ancienne Palais +du Louvre_, was a mediaeval battlemented and turreted structure, which bore +little resemblance to the Louvre of to-day, or even that of Charles, +Henri, Catherine, or Marguerite, of whom Dumas wrote in the Valois +romances. + + +[Illustration: THE GARDENS OF THE TUILERIES] + + +The general ground-plan of the two distinct portions is the same, except +for some minor additions of Napoleon I. and the connecting links built by +Napoleon III., and many of the apartments are of course much the same, but +there has been a general laying out of the courts anew, and tree-planting +and grading of the streets and quais in the immediate neighbourhood; so +much so that almost the entire aspect is changed. In spite of its +compositeness, there is a certain aspect of uniformity of outline, though +not of excellence of design. + +The only relics of the Palace of the Tuileries are the colonnettes set +about in the garden and surmounted by gilded balls. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE PALAIS ROYAL + + +It seems hardly necessary to more than mention the name of the Palais +Royal, in connection with either the life or the writings of Alexandre +Dumas, to induce a line of thought which is practically limitless. It was +identified with Dumas' first employment in the capital, and it has been +the scene of much of the action of both the D'Artagnan and the Valois +romances. + +More than all else, however, though one is apt to overlook it somewhat, it +is so closely identified with Richelieu that it is difficult to separate +it from any event of French political history of the period. + +It was built by Richelieu in 1629, on the site occupied by the Hotels de +Mercoeur and Rambouillet, and was originally intended to have borne the +name of Hotel Richelieu. Toward 1634 it was enlarged, and was known as the +Palais Cardinal. Finally it was presented, in 1642, to Louis XIII., and at +his death came to Anne of Austria, when the royal family removed thither +and it became known as the Palais Royal. + +The incident of the flight of the royal family and Mazarin to St. Germain +is one of the historic and dramatic incidents which Dumas used as one of +the events in which D'Artagnan participated. + +The court never returned to make use of the Palais Royal as a royal +residence, and it became the refuge of Henriette de France, Queen of +England and widow of Charles I. Thirty years later Louis XIV., who had +fled from its walls when a child, gave it to his nephew Philippe +d'Orleans, Duc de Chartres. + +It was during the _Regence_ that the famous _fetes_ of the Palais Royal +were organized,--they even extended to what the unsympathetic have called +orgies,--but it is certain that no town residences of kings were ever as +celebrated for their splendid functions as was the Palais Royal in the +seventeenth century. + +In 1763 a fire brought about certain reconstructions at the expense of the +city of Paris. In 1781, it became again the prey of fire; and +Philippe-Egalite, who was then Duc de Chartres, constructed the three vast +galleries which surround the Palais of to-day. + +The _boutiques_ of the galleries were let to merchants of all manner of +foibles, and it became the most lively quarter of Paris. + +The public adopted the galleries as fashionable promenades, which became, +for the time, "_un bazar europeen et un rendez-vous d'affaires et de +galanterie_." + +It was in 1783 that the Duc d'Orleans constructed "_une salle de +spectacle_," which to-day is the Theatre du Palais Royal, and in the +middle of the garden a _cirque_ which ultimately came to be transformed +into a restaurant. + +The purely theatrical event of the history of the Palais Royal came on the +13th of July, 1789, when at midday--as the _coup_ of a _petit canon_ rang +out--a young unknown _avocat_, Camille Desmoulins, mounted a chair and +addressed the throng of promenaders in a thrilling and vibrant voice: + +"_Citoyens, j'arrive de Versailles!_--Necker is fled and the Baron +Breteuil is in his place. Breteuil is one of those who have demanded the +head of Mirabeau ... there remains but one resource, and that 'to arms' +and to wear the cockade that we may be known. _Quelle couleur +voulez-vous?_" + +With almost a common accord the tricolour was adopted--and the next day +the Bastille fell. + + +[Illustration: The Orleans Bureau, Palais Royal] + + +Dumas' account of the incident, taken from "The Taking of the Bastille," +is as follows: + +"During this time the procession kept on advancing; it had moved obliquely +to the left, and had gone down the Rue Montmartre to the Place des +Victoires. When it reached the Palais Royal some great impediment +prevented its passing on. A troop of men with green leaves in their hats +were shouting 'To arms!' + +"It was necessary to reconnoitre. Were these men who blocked up the Rue +Vivienne friends or enemies? Green was the colour of the Count d'Artois. +Why then these green cockades? + +"After a minute's conference all was explained. + +"On learning the dismissal of Necker, a young man had issued from the Cafe +Foy, had jumped upon a table in the garden of the Palais Royal, and, +taking a pistol from his breast, had cried 'To arms!' + +"On hearing this cry, all the persons who were walking there had assembled +around him, and had shouted 'To arms!' + +"We have already said that all the foreign regiments had been collected +around Paris. One might have imagined that it was an invasion by the +Austrians. The names of these regiments alarmed the ears of all Frenchmen; +they were Reynac, Salis Samade, Diesbach, Esterhazy, Roemer; the very +naming of them was sufficient to make the crowd understand that they were +the names of enemies. The young man named them; he announced that the +Swiss were encamped in the Champs Elysees, with four pieces of artillery, +and that they were to enter Paris the same night, preceded by the +dragoons, commanded by Prince Lambesq. He proposed a new cockade which was +not theirs, snatched a leaf from a chestnut-tree and placed it in the band +of his hat. Upon the instant every one present followed his example. Three +thousand persons had in ten minutes unleaved the trees of the Palais +Royal. + +"That morning no one knew the name of that young man; in the evening it +was in every mouth. + +"That young man's name was Camille Desmoulins." + + * * * * * + +After 1793 the Palais Royal was converted, by decree, into the Palais et +Jardin de la Revolution; and reunited to the domains of the state. +Napoleon I. granted its use to the Tribunal for its seances, and Lucien +Bonaparte inhabited it for the "Hundred Days." In 1830 Louis-Philippe, Duc +d'Orleans, gave there a fete in honour of the King of Naples, who had come +to pay his respects to the King of France. Charles X. assisted as an +invited guest at the function, but one month after he had inhabited it as +king. + +Under Napoleon III. the Palais Royal was the residence of Prince Jerome, +the uncle of the emperor, afterward that of his son the Prince Napoleon, +when the _fleur-de-lis_ sculptured on the facade gave way before +escutcheons bearing the imperial eagles, which in turn have since given +way to the Republican device of "'48"--"Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite." + + * * * * * + +It is with a remarkable profusion of detail--for Dumas, at any rate--that +the fourteenth chapter of "The Conspirators" opens. + +It is a veritable guide-book phraseology and conciseness, which describes +the streets of the Palais Royal quarter: + +"The evening of the same day, which was Sunday, toward eight o'clock, at +the moment when a considerable group of men and women, assembled around a +street singer, who was playing at the same time the cymbals with his knees +and the tambourine with his hands, obstructed the entrance to the Rue de +Valois, a musketeer and two of the light horse descended a back staircase +of the Palais Royal, and advanced toward the Passage du Lycee, which, as +every one knows, opened on to that street; but seeing the crowd which +barred the way, the three soldiers stopped and appeared to take counsel. +The result of their deliberation was doubtless that they must take +another route, for the musketeer, setting the example of a new +manoeuvre, threaded the Cour des Fontaines, turned the corner of the Rue +des Bons Enfants, and, walking rapidly,--though he was extremely +corpulent,--arrived at No. 22, which opened as by enchantment at his +approach, and closed again on him and his two companions. + +"... The crowd dispersed. A great many men left the circle, singly, or two +and two, turning toward each other with an imperceptible gesture of the +hand, some by the Rue de Valois, some by the Cour des Fontaines, some by +the Palais Royal itself, thus surrounding the Rue des Bons Enfants, which +seemed to be the centre of the rendezvous." + +The locality has not changed greatly since the times of which Dumas wrote, +and if one would see for himself this Rue de Bons Enfants, Numero 22, and +try to find out how the Regent of France was able to climb over the +roof-tops to the Palais Royal, for a wager, he may still do so, for +apparently the roof-tops have changed but little. The especial connection +of the Rue des Bons Enfants with literature is perhaps Sylvestre's +establishment, which will, for a price, sell you almost any French +celebrity's autograph, be he king, prince, painter, or litterateur. + +In the "Vicomte de Bragelonne" there is a wonderfully interesting chapter, +which describes Mazarin's gaming-party at the Palais Royal. + +In that it enters somewhat more into detail than is usual with Dumas, it +appears worth quoting here, if only for its description of the furnishing +of the _salle_ in which the event took place, and its most graphic and +truthful picture of the great cardinal himself: + +"In a large chamber of the Palais Royal, covered with a dark-coloured +velvet, which threw into strong relief the gilded frames of a great number +of magnificent pictures, on the evening of the arrival of the two +Frenchmen, the whole court was assembled before the alcove of M. le +Cardinal de Mazarin, who gave a party, for the purposes of play, to the +king and queen. A small screen separated three prepared tables. At one of +these tables the king and the two queens were seated. Louis XIV., placed +opposite to the young queen, his wife, smiled upon her with an expression +of real happiness. Anne of Austria held the cards against the cardinal, +and her daughter-in-law assisted her in her game, when she was not engaged +in smiling at her husband. As for the cardinal, who was reclining on his +bed, his cards were held by the Comtesse de Soissons, and he watched them +with an incessant look of interest and cupidity. + +"The cardinal had been painted by Bernouin; but the rouge, which glowed +only on his cheeks, threw into stronger contrast the sickly pallor of the +rest of his countenance and the shining yellow of his brow. His eyes alone +acquired a more lively expression from this auxiliary, and upon those sick +man's eyes were, from time to time, turned the uneasy looks of the king, +the queen, and the courtiers. The fact is, that the two eyes of Mazarin +were the stars more or less brilliant in which the France of the +seventeenth century read its destiny every evening and every morning. +Monseigneur neither won nor lost; he was, therefore, neither gay nor sad. +It was a stagnation in which, full of pity for him, Anne of Austria would +not have willingly left him; but in order to attract the attention of the +sick man by some brilliant stroke, she must have either won or lost. To +win would have been dangerous, because Mazarin would have changed his +indifference for an ugly grimace; to lose would likewise have been +dangerous, because she must have cheated, and the Infanta, who watched her +game, would, doubtless, have exclaimed against her partiality for Mazarin. +Profiting by this calm, the courtiers were chatting. When not in a bad +humour, M. de Mazarin was a very debonnaire prince, and he, who prevented +nobody from singing, provided they paid, was not tyrant enough to prevent +people from talking, provided they made up their minds to lose. They were +chatting, then. At the first table, the king's younger brother, Philip, +Duc d'Anjou, was admiring his handsome face in the glass of a box. His +favourite, the Chevalier de Lorraine, leaning over the _fauteuil_ of the +prince, was listening, with secret envy, to the Comte de Guiche, another +of Philip's favourites, who was relating in choice terms the various +vicissitudes of fortune of the royal adventurer, Charles II. He told, as +so many fabulous events, all the history of his peregrinations in +Scotland, and his terrors when the enemy's party was so closely on his +track; of nights passed in trees, and days passed in hunger and combats. +By degrees, the fate of the unfortunate king interested his auditors so +greatly, that the play languished even at the royal table, and the young +king, with a pensive look and downcast eye, followed, without appearing to +give any attention to it, the smallest details of this Odyssey, very +picturesquely related by the Comte de Guiche." + + * * * * * + +Again mention of the Palais Royal enters into the action of "The Queen's +Necklace." When Madame de la Motte and her companion were _en route_ to +Versailles by cabriolet, "they met a delay at the gates of the Palais +Royal, where, in a courtyard, which had been thrown open, were a host of +beggars crowding around fires which had been lighted there, and receiving +soup, which the servants of M. le Duc d'Orleans were distributing to them +in earthen basins; and as in Paris a crowd collects to see everything, the +number of the spectators of this scene far exceeded that of the actors. + +"Here, then, they were again obliged to stop, and, to their dismay, began +to hear distinctly from behind loud cries of 'Down with the cabriolet! +down with those that crush the poor!' + +"'Can it be that those cries are addressed to us?' said the elder lady to +her companion. + +"'Indeed, madame, I fear so,' she replied. + +"'Have we, do you think, run over any one?' + +"'I am sure you have not.' + +"'To the magistrate! to the magistrate!' cried several voices. + +"'What in heaven's name does it all mean?' said the lady. + +"'The crowd reproaches you, madame, with having braved the police order +which appeared this morning, prohibiting all cabriolets from driving +through the streets until the spring.'" + +This must have been something considerable of an embargo on pleasure, and +one which would hardly obtain to-day, though asphalted pavements covered +with a film of frost must offer untold dangers, as compared with the +streets of Paris as they were then--in the latter years of the eighteenth +century. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE BASTILLE + + +The worshipper at the shrines made famous by Dumas--no less than +history--will look in vain for the prison of La Roquette, the Bastille, +the hotel of the Duc de Guise, at No. 12 Rue du Chaume, that of Coligny in +the Rue de Bethusy, or of the Montmorencies, "near the Louvre." + +They existed, of course, in reality, as they did in the Valois romances, +but to-day they have disappeared, and not even the "_Commission des +Monuments Historiques_" has preserved a pictorial representation of the +three latter. + +One of Dumas' most absorbing romances deals with the fateful events which +culminated at the Bastille on the 14th Thermidor, 1789. "This monument, +this seal of feudality, imprinted on the forehead of Paris," said Dumas, +"was the Bastille," and those who know French history know that he wrote +truly. + +The action of "The Taking of the Bastille," so far as it deals with the +actual assault upon it, is brief. So was the event itself. Dumas romances +but little in this instance; he went direct to fact for his details. He +says: + +"When once a man became acquainted with the Bastille, by order of the +king, that man was forgotten, sequestrated, interred, annihilated.... + +"Moreover, in France there was not only one Bastille; there were twenty +other Bastilles, which were called Fort l'Eveque, St. Lazare, the +Chatelet, the Conciergerie, Vincennes, the Castle of La Roche, the Castle +of If, the Isles of St. Marguerite, Pignerolles, etc. + +"Only the fortress at the Gate St. Antoine was called _the Bastille_, as +_Rome_ was called _the_ city.... + +"During nearly a whole century the governorship of the Bastille had +continued in one and the same family. + +"The grandfather of this elect race was M. de Chateauneuf; his son +Lavrilliere succeeded him, who, in turn, was succeeded by his grandson, +St. Florentin. The dynasty became extinct in 1777.... + +"Among the prisoners, it will be recollected, the following were of the +greatest note: + +"The Iron Mask, Lauzun, Latude. + +"The Jesuits were connoisseurs; for greater security they confessed the +prisoners. + +"For greater security still, the prisoners were buried under +supposititious names. + +"The Iron Mask, it will be remembered, was buried under the name of +Marchiali. He had remained forty-five years in prison. + +"Lauzun remained there fourteen years. + +"Latude, thirty years.... + +"But, at all events, the Iron Mask and Lauzun had committed heinous +crimes. + +"The Iron Mask, whether brother or not of Louis XIV., it is asserted, +resembled King Louis XIV. so strongly, that it was almost impossible to +distinguish the one from the other. + +"It is exceedingly imprudent to dare to resemble a king. + +"Lauzun had been very near marrying, or did actually marry, the Grande +Mademoiselle. + +"It is exceedingly imprudent to dare to marry the niece of King Louis +XIII., the granddaughter of Henri IV. + +"But Latude, poor devil, what had he done? + +"He had dared to fall in love with Mlle. Poisson, Dame de Pompadour, the +king's mistress. + +"He had written a note to her. + +"This note, which a respectable woman would have sent back to the man who +wrote it, was handed by Madame de Pompadour to M. de Sartines, the +lieutenant-general of police." + +"To the Bastille!" was the cry upon which Dumas built up his story. + +"'To the Bastille!' + +"Only that it was a senseless idea, as the soldiers had remarked, that the +Bastille could be taken. + +"The Bastille had provisions, a garrison, artillery. + +"The Bastille had walls, which were fifteen feet thick at their summit, +and forty at their base. + +"The Bastille had a governor, whose name was De Launay, who had stored +thirty thousand pounds of gunpowder in his cellars, and who had sworn, in +case of being surprised by a _coup de main_, to blow up the Bastille, and +with it half the Faubourg St. Antoine." + +Dumas was never more chary of tiresome description than in the opening +chapters of this book. Chapter XVI. opens as follows: + +"We will not describe the Bastille--it would be useless. + +"It lives as an eternal image, both in the memory of the old and in the +imagination of the young. + +"We shall content ourselves with merely stating, that, seen from the +boulevard, it presented, in front of the square then called Place de la +Bastille, two twin towers, while its two fronts ran parallel with the +banks of the canal which now exists. + +"The entrance to the Bastille was defended, in the first place, by a +guard-house, then by two lines of sentinels, and besides these by two +drawbridges. + +"After having passed through these several obstacles, you came to the +courtyard of the government-house--that is to say, the residence of the +governor. + +"From this courtyard a gallery led to the ditches of the Bastille. + +"At this other entrance, which opened upon the ditches, was a drawbridge, +a guard-house, and an iron gate." + +Then follow some pages of incident and action, which may be fact or may be +fiction. The detail which comes after is picturesque and necessary to the +plot: + +"The interior court, in which the governor was waiting for Billot, was the +courtyard which served as a promenade to the prisoners. It was guarded by +eight towers--that is to say, by eight giants. No window opened into it. +Never did the sun shine on its pavement, which was damp and almost muddy. +It might have been thought the bottom of an immense well. + +"In this courtyard was a clock, supported by figures representing +enchained captives, which measured the hours, from which fell the regular +and slow sounds of the minutes as they passed by, as in a dungeon the +droppings from the ceiling eat into the pavement slabs on which they fall. + +"At the bottom of this well, the prisoner, lost amid the abyss of stone, +for a moment contemplated its cold nakedness, and soon asked to be allowed +to return to his room.... + +"At the Bastille, all the places were sold to the highest bidder, from +that of the governor himself, down to that of the scullion. The governor +of the Bastille was a gaoler on a grand scale, an eating-house keeper +wearing epaulets, who added to his salary of sixty thousand livres sixty +thousand more, which he extorted and plundered.... + +"M. de Launay, in point of avarice, far surpassed his predecessors. This +might, perhaps, have arisen from his having paid more for the place, and +having foreseen that he would not remain in it so long as they did. + +"He fed his whole house at the expense of his prisoners. He had reduced +the quantity of firing, and doubled the hire of furniture in each room. + +"He had the right of bringing yearly into Paris a hundred pipes of wine, +free of duty. He sold his right to a tavern-keeper, who brought in wines +of excellent quality. Then, with a tenth part of this duty, he purchased +the vinegar with which he supplied his prisoners." + +The rest of Dumas' treatment of the fall of the Bastille is of the +historical kind. He does not blame De Launay for the fall, but by no means +does he make a hero of him. + +"A flash of fire, lost in a cloud of smoke, crowned the summit of a tower; +a detonation resounded; cries of pain were heard issuing from the closely +pressed crowd; the first cannon-shot had been fired from the Bastille; the +first blood had been spilled. The battle had commenced.... + +"On hearing the detonation we have spoken of, the two soldiers who were +still watching M. de Launay threw themselves upon him; a third snatched up +the match, and then extinguished it by placing his heel upon it. + +"De Launay drew the sword which was concealed in his cane, and would have +turned it against his own breast, but the soldiers seized it and snapped +it in two. + +"He then felt that all he could do was to resign himself to the result; he +therefore tranquilly awaited it. + + +[Illustration: THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE] + + +"The people rush forward; the garrison open their arms to them; and the +Bastille is taken by assault--by main force, without a capitulation. + +"The reason for this was that, for more than a hundred years, the royal +fortress had not merely imprisoned inert matter within its walls--it had +imprisoned thought also. Thought had thrown down the walls of the +Bastille, and the people entered by the breach." + +The life-history of the Bastille was more extended than was commonly +recalled. Still the great incident in its life covered but fifteen short +days,--from the 30th June to the 14th July, 1789,--when it fell before the +attack of the Revolutionists. There is rather vague markings in the +pavement on the Boulevard Henri Quatre and the Rue St. Antoine, which +suggest the former limits of this gruesome building. + +It were not possible to catalogue all the scenes of action celebrated or +perpetuated by Alexandre Dumas. + +In his "Crimes Celebres" he--with great definiteness--pictures dark scenes +which are known to all readers of history; from that terrible affair of +the Cenci, which took place on the terrace of the Chateau de Rocca +Petrella, in 1598, to the assassination of Kotzebue by Karl Ludwig Sand in +1819. + +Not all of these crimes deal with Paris, nor with France. + +The most notable was the poisoning affair of the Marquise de Brinvilliers +(1676), who was forced to make the "_amende honorable_" after the usual +manner, on the Parvis du Notre Dame, that little tree-covered place just +before the west facade of the cathedral. + +The Chevalier Gaudin de Ste. Croix, captain of the Regiment de Tracy, had +been arrested in the name of the king, by process of the "_lettre de +cachet_" and forthwith incarcerated in the Bastille, which is once more +made use of by Dumas, though in this case, as in many others, it is +historic fact as well. The story, which is more or less one of conjugal +and filial immorality, as well as political intrigue, shifts its scene +once and again to the Cul-de-sac des Marchands des Chevaux, in the Place +Maubert, to the Foret de l'Aigue--within four leagues of Compiegne, the +Place du Chatelet, the Conciergerie, and the Bastille. + +Here, too, Dumas' account of the "question by water," or, rather, the +notes on the subject, which accompanied the first (1839) edition of "Les +Crimes Celebres," form interesting, if rather horrible, reading. + +Not alone in the Bastille was this horrible torture practised, but in most +of the prisons of the time. + +"_Pour la 'question ordinaire,' quatre coquemars pleins d'eau, et +contenant chacun deux pintes et demi, et pour 'la question extraordinaire' +huit de meme grandeur._" + +This was poured into the victim through a funnel, which entered the mouth, +and sooner or later drowned or stifled him or her, or induced confession. + +The final act and end of the unnatural Marquise de Brinvilliers took place +at the Place de la Greve, which before and since was the truly celebrated +place of many noted crimes, though in this case it was justice that was +meted out. + +As a sort of sequel to "The Conspirators," Dumas adds "A Postscriptum," +wherein is recounted the arrest of Richelieu, as foreordained by Mlle. de +Valois. He was incarcerated in the Bastille; but his captivity was but a +new triumph for the crafty churchman. + +"It was reported that the handsome prisoner had obtained permission to +walk on the terrace of the Bastille. The Rue St. Antoine was filled with +most elegant carriages, and became, in twenty-four hours, the fashionable +promenade. The regent--who declared that he had proofs of the treason of +M. de Richelieu, sufficient to lose him four heads if he had them--would +not, however, risk his popularity with the fair sex by keeping him long in +prison. Richelieu, again at liberty, after a captivity of three months, +was more brilliant and more sought after than ever; but the closet had +been walled up, and Mlle. de Valois became Duchesse de Modena." + +Not only in the "Vicomte de Bragelonne" and "The Taking of the Bastille" +does Dumas make mention of "The Man in the Iron Mask," but, to still +greater length, in the supplementary volume, called in the English +translations "The Man in the Iron Mask," though why it is difficult to +see, since it is but the second volume of "The Vicomte de Bragelonne." + +This historical mystery has provided penmen of all calibres with an +everlasting motive for argumentative conjecture, but Dumas without +hesitancy comes out strongly for "a prince of the royal blood," probably +the brother of Louis XIV. + +It has been said that Voltaire invented "the Man in the Iron Mask." + +There was nothing singular--for the France of that day--in the man +himself, his offence, or his punishment; but the mask and the +mystery--chiefly of Voltaire's creation--fascinated the public, as the +veil of Mokanna fascinated his worshippers. Here are some of the +Voltairean myths about this mysterious prisoner: One day he wrote +something with his knife on a silver plate and threw it down to a +fisherman, who took it to the governor of the prison. "Have you read it?" +asked the governor, sternly. "I cannot read," replied the fisherman. "That +has saved your life," rejoined the governor. Another day a young lad found +beneath the prison tower a shirt written closely all over. He took it to +the governor, who asked, anxiously. "Have you read it?" The boy again and +again assured him that he had not. Nevertheless, two days later the boy +was found dead in his bed. When the Iron Mask went to mass he was +forbidden to speak or unmask himself on pain of being then and there shot +down by the invalids, who stood by with loaded carbines to carry out the +threat. Here are some of the personages the Iron Mask was supposed to be: +An illegitimate son of Anne of Austria; a twin brother of Louis XIV., put +out of the way by Cardinal Richelieu to avoid the risk of a disputed +succession; the Count of Vermandois, an illegitimate son of Louis XIV.; +Fouquet, Louis' minister; the Duke of Beaufort, a hero of the Fronde; the +Duke of Monmouth, the English pretender; Avedick, the Armenian patriarch; +and of late it has almost come to be accepted that he was Mattioli, a +Piedmontese political prisoner, who died in 1703. + +Dumas, at any rate, took the plausible and acceptable popular solution; +and it certainly furnished him with a highly fascinating theme for a +romance, which, however, never apparently achieved any great popularity. + +"The clock was striking seven as Aramis passed before the Rue du Petit +Muse and stopped at the Rue Tourelles, at the gateway of the Bastille.... + +"Of the governor of the prison Aramis--now Bishop of Vannes--asked, 'How +many prisoners have you? Sixty?'... + +"'For a prince of the blood I have fifty francs a day, ... thirty-six for +a marechal de France, lieutenant-generals and brigadiers pay twenty-six +francs, and councillors of parliament fifteen, but for an ordinary judge, +or an ecclesiastic, I receive only ten francs.'" + +Here Dumas' knowledge and love of good eating again crops out. Continuing +the dialogue between the bishop and the governor, he says: + +"'A tolerably sized fowl costs a franc and a half, and a good-sized fish +four or five francs. Three meals a day are served, and, as the prisoners +have nothing to do, they are always eating. A prisoner from whom I get +ten francs costs me seven francs and a half.' + +"'Have you no prisoners, then, at less than ten francs?' queried Aramis. + +"'Oh, yes,' said the governor, 'citizens and lawyers.' + +"'But do they not eat, too?... Do not the prisoners leave some scraps?' +continued Aramis. + +"'Yes, and I delight the heart of some poor little tradesman or clerk by +sending him a wing of a red partridge, a slice of venison, or a slice of a +truffled pasty, dishes which he never tasted except in his dreams (these +are the leavings of the twenty-four-franc prisoners); and he eats and +drinks, and at dessert cries, "Long live the king!" and blesses the +Bastille. With a couple of bottles of champagne, which cost me five sous, +I make him tipsy every Sunday. That class of people call down blessings +upon me, and are sorry to leave the prison. Do you know that I have +remarked, and it does me infinite honour, that certain prisoners, who have +been set at liberty, have almost immediately afterward got imprisoned +again? Why should this be the case, unless it be to enjoy the pleasures of +my kitchen? It is really the fact.' Aramis smiled with an expression of +incredulity." + +A visit to the prisoners themselves follows, but the reader of these +lines is referred to "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne" for further details. + +The following few lines must suffice here: + +"The number of bolts, gratings, and locks for the courtyard would have +sufficed for the safety of an entire city. Aramis was neither an +imaginative nor a sensitive man; he had been somewhat of a poet in his +youth, but his heart was hard and indifferent, as the heart of every man +of fifty-five years of age is, who has been frequently and passionately +attached to women in his lifetime, or rather who has been passionately +loved by them. But when he placed his foot upon the worn stone steps, +along which so many unhappy wretches had passed, when he felt himself +impregnated, as it were, with the atmosphere of those gloomy dungeons, +moistened with tears, there could be but little doubt he was overcome by +his feelings, for his head was bowed and his eyes became dim, as he +followed Baisemeaux, the governor, without uttering a syllable." + +Dumas gives a further description, of similar import, in "The Regent's +Daughter:" + +"And now, with the reader's permission, we will enter the Bastille--that +formidable building at which even the passing traveller trembled, and +which, to the whole neighbourhood, was an annoyance and cause of alarm; +for often at night the cries of the unfortunate prisoners who were under +torture might be heard piercing the thick walls, so much so, that the +Duchesse de Lesdequieres once wrote to the governor, that, if he did not +prevent his patients from making such a noise, she should complain to the +king. + +"At this time, however, under the reign of Philippe d'Orleans, there were +no cries to be heard; the society was select, and too well bred to disturb +the repose of a lady. + +"In a room in the Du Coin tower, on the first floor, was a prisoner +alone.... He had, however, been but one day in the Bastille, and yet +already he paced his vast chamber, examining the iron-barred doors, +looking through the grated windows, listening, sighing, waiting.... + +"A noise of bolts and creaking hinges drew the prisoner from this sad +occupation, and he saw the man enter before whom he had been taken the day +before. This man, about thirty years of age, with an agreeable appearance +and polite bearing, was the governor, M. De Launay, father of that De +Launay who died at his post in '89.... + +"'M. de Chanlay,' said the governor, bowing, 'I come to know if you have +passed a good night, and are satisfied with the fare of the house and the +conduct of the employes'--thus M. De Launay, in his politeness, called the +turnkeys and jailors. + +"'Yes, monsieur; and these attentions paid to a prisoner have surprised +me, I own.' + +"'The bed is hard and old, but yet it is one of the best; luxury being +forbidden by our rules. Your room, monsieur, is the best in the Bastille; +it has been occupied by the Duc d'Angouleme, by the Marquis de +Bassompierre, and by the Marshals de Luxembourg and Biron; it is here that +I lodge the princes when his Majesty does me the honour to send them to +me.' + +"'It is an excellent lodging,' said Gaston, smiling, 'though ill +furnished; can I have some books, some paper, and pens?' + +"'Books, monsieur, are strictly forbidden; but if you very much wish to +read, as many things are allowed to a prisoner who is _ennuye_, come and +see me, then you can put in your pocket one of those volumes which my wife +or I leave about; you will hide it from all eyes; on a second visit you +will take the second volume, and to this abstraction we will close our +eyes.' + +"'And paper, pens, ink?' said Gaston. 'I wish most particularly to write.' + +"'No one writes here, monsieur; or, at least, only to the king, the +regent, the minister, or to me; but they draw, and I can let you have +drawing-paper and pencils.'" + +All of the above is the authenticated fact of history, as written records +prove, but it is much better told by Dumas, the novelist, than by most +historians. + +Still other evidence of the good things set before the guests at the +"Hotel de la Bastille" is shown by the following. If Dumas drew the facts +from historical records, all well and good; if they were menus composed by +himself,--though unconventional ones, as all _bon vivants_ will +know,--why, still all is well. + +"'A fifteen-franc boarder does not suffer, my lord,' said De +Baisemeaux.--'He suffers imprisonment, at all events.'--'No doubt, but his +suffering is sweetened for him. You must admit this young fellow was not +born to eat such things as he now has before him. A pasty; crayfish from +the river Marne--almost as big as lobsters; and a bottle of Volnay.'" + +The potency of the Bastille as a preventative, or, rather, a fit +punishment for crime, has been nowhere more effectually set forth than by +the letter which Cagliostro wrote from London (in the "Queen's Necklace"). + +In this letter, after attacking king, queen, cardinal, and even M. de +Breteuil, Cagliostro said: "Yes, I repeat, now free after my imprisonment, +there is no crime that would not be expiated by six months in the +Bastille. They ask me if I shall ever return to France. Yes, I reply, when +the Bastille becomes a public promenade. You have all that is necessary to +happiness, you Frenchmen; a fertile soil and genial climate, good hearts, +gay tempers, genius, and grace. You only want, my friends, one little +thing--to feel sure of sleeping quietly in your beds when you are +innocent." + +To-day "The Bastille," as it is commonly known and referred to, meaning +the Place de la Bastille, has become a public promenade, and its bygone +terrors are but a memory. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE ROYAL PARKS AND PALACES + + +Since the romances of Dumas deal so largely with Paris, it is but natural +that much of their action should take place at the near-by country +residences of the royalty and nobility who form the casts of these great +series of historical tales. + +To-day Fontainebleau, St. Germain, Versailles, and even Chantilly, +Compiegne, and Rambouillet are but mere attractions for the tourist of the +butterfly order. The real Parisian never visits them or their precincts, +save as he rushes through their tree-lined avenues in an automobile; and +thus they have all come to be regarded merely as monuments of splendid +scenes, which have been played, and on which the curtain has been rung +down. + +This is by no means the real case, and one has only to read Dumas, and do +the round of the parks and chateaux which environ Paris, to revivify many +of the scenes of which he writes. + +Versailles is the most popular, Fontainebleau the most grand, St. Germain +the most theatrical, Rambouillet the most rural-like, and Compiegne and +Chantilly the most delicate and dainty. + +Still nearer to Paris, and more under the influence of town life, were the +chateaux of Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, and of Vincennes, at the other +extremity of the city. + +All these are quite in a class by themselves; though, of course, in a way, +they performed the same functions when royalty was in residence, as the +urban palaces. + +Dumas' final appreciation of the charms of Fontainebleau does not come +till one reaches the last pages of "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne." True, it +was not until the period of which this romance deals with Fontainebleau, +its chateau, its _foret_, and its fetes, actually came to that prominence +which to this day has never left them. + +When the king required to give his fete at Fontainebleau, as we learn from +Dumas, and history, too, he required of Fouquet four millions of francs, +"in order to keep an open house for fifteen days," said he. How he got +them, and with what result, is best read in the pages of the romance. + +"Life at the Palais Royal having become somewhat tame, the king had +directed that Fontainebleau should be prepared for the reception of the +court." Here, then, took place the fetes which were predicted, and Dumas, +with his usual directness and brilliance, has given us a marvellous +description of the gaiety of court life, surrounded by the noble forest, +over which artists and sentimentalists have ever rhapsodized. + +Continuing, from the pages of Dumas which immediately follow, one reads: + +"For four days, every kind of enchantment brought together in the +magnificent gardens of Fontainebleau, had converted this spot into a place +of the most perfect enjoyment. M. Colbert seemed gifted with ubiquity. In +the morning, there were the accounts of the previous night's expenses to +settle; during the day, programmes, essays, enlistments, payments. M. +Colbert had amassed four millions of francs, and dispersed them with a +prudent economy. He was horrified at the expenses which mythology +involved; every wood-nymph, every dryad, did not cost less than a hundred +francs a day. The dresses alone amounted to three hundred francs. The +expense of powder and sulphur for fireworks amounted, every night, to a +hundred thousand francs. In addition to these, the illuminations on the +borders of the sheet of water cost thirty thousand francs every evening. +The fetes had been magnificent; and Colbert could not restrain his +delight. From time to time he noticed Madame and the king setting forth on +hunting expeditions, or preparing for the reception of different fantastic +personages, solemn ceremonials, which had been extemporized a fortnight +before, and in which Madame's sparkling wit and the king's magnificence +were equally displayed." + +The "Inn of the Beautiful Peacock," celebrated by Dumas in "Le Vicomte de +Bragelonne," is not directly traceable to-day in the many neighbouring +hostelries of Fontainebleau. Just what Dumas had in mind is vague, though +his description might apply to any house for travellers, wherever it may +have been situated in this beautiful wildwood. + +It was to this inn of the "Beau Paon" that Aramis repaired, after he had +left Fouquet and had donned the costume of the cavalier once more. +"Where," said Dumas, "he (Aramis) had, by letters previously sent, +directed an apartment or a room to be retained for him. He chose the room, +which was on the first floor, whereas the apartment was on the second." + +The description of the establishment given by Dumas is as follows: + +"In the first place, let us supply our readers with a few details about +the inn called the Beau Paon. It owed its name to its sign, which +represented a peacock spreading out its tail. But, in imitation of some +painters who had bestowed the face of a handsome young man upon the +serpent which tempted Eve, the painter of this sign had conferred upon the +peacock the features of a woman. This inn, a living epigram against that +half of the human race which renders existence delightful, was situated at +Fontainebleau, in the first turning on the left-hand side, which divides +on the road from Paris, that large artery which constitutes in itself +along the entire town of Fontainebleau. The side street in question was +then known as the Rue de Lyon, doubtless because geographically it +advanced in the direction of the second capital of the kingdom." + +Lyons itself is treated by Dumas at some length in "Chicot the Jester," +particularly with reference to Chicot's interception of the Pope's +messenger, who brought the documents which were to establish the Duc de +Guise's priority as to rights to the throne of France. + +"The inn of the Beau Paon had its principal front toward the main street; +but upon the Rue de Lyon there were two ranges of buildings, divided by +courtyards, which comprised sets of apartments for the reception of all +classes of travellers, whether on foot or on horseback, or even with +their own carriages, and in which could be supplied, not only board and +lodging, but also accommodation for exercise or opportunities of solitude +for even the wealthiest courtiers, whenever, after having received some +check at the court, they wished to shut themselves up with their own +society, either to devour an affront or to brood over their revenge. From +the windows of this part of the building the travellers could perceive, in +the first place, the street with the grass growing between the stones, +which were being gradually loosened by it; next, the beautiful hedges of +elder and thorn, which embraced, as though within two green and flowering +arms, the houses of which we have spoken; and then, in the spaces between +those houses, forming the groundwork of the picture, and appearing like an +almost impassable barrier, a line of thick trees, the advanced sentinels +of the vast forest, which extends itself in front of Fontainebleau." + +On the road to Versailles, where the Seine is crossed by the not beautiful +Pont de Sevres, is the little inn of the Bridge of Sevres, in which the +story of "La Comtesse de Charny" opens, and, indeed, in which all its +early action takes place. The inn, or even its direct descendant, is not +discernible to-day. The Pont de Sevres is there, linking one of those +thumblike peninsulas made by the windings of the Seine with the Bois de +Meudon, and the traffic inward and outward from Paris is as great and +varied as it always was, probably greater, but there is no inn to suggest +that which Dumas had in mind. The rural aspect is somewhat changed, the +towering stacks of the china-factory chimneys, the still more +towering--though distant--Tour Eiffel, which fortunately is soon to be +razed, and the iron rails of the "Ceinture" and the "Quest," all tend to +estrange one's sentiments from true romance. + + +[Illustration: INN OF THE PONT DE SEVRES] + + +Farther on to the westward lies Versailles, with its theatrical, though +splendid, _palais_ and _parc_, the Trianons and Les Grandes Eaux, beloved +by the tourist and the Parisian alike. + +Still farther to the northward by the same road is the pretty town of St. +Germain-en-Laye, with the remains of its Chateau Neuf, once the most +splendid and gorgeous country residence of Henri II. and Henri IV., +continuing, also, in the favour of the court until the birth here of Louis +XIV. James II. of England made his residence here after his exile. + +Dumas' references to St. Germain are largely found in "Vingt Ans Apres." + +It was near St. Germain, too, that Dumas set about erecting his famous +"Chatelet du Monte Cristo." In fact, he did erect it, on his usual +extravagant ideas, but his tenure there was short-lived, and, altogether, +it was not a creditable undertaking, as after-events proved. + +The gaiety of the life at St. Germain departed suddenly, but it is said of +Dumas' life there, that he surrounded himself with a coterie which bespoke +somewhat its former abandon and luxuriance. It was somewhat of a Bohemian +life that he lived there, no doubt, but it was not of the sordid or humble +kind; it was most gorgeous and extravagant. + +Of all the royal parks and palaces in the neighbourhood of Paris, +Versailles has the most popularly sentimental interest. A whim of Louis +XIV., it was called by Voltaire "an abyss of expense," and so it truly +was, as all familiar with its history know. + +In the later volumes of Dumas' "La Comtesse de Charnay," "The Queen's +Necklace," and "The Taking of the Bastille," frequent mention is made but +he does not write of it with the same affection that he does of +Fontainebleau or St. Germain. The details which Dumas presents in "The +Taking of the Bastille" shows this full well. + +"At half-past ten, in ordinary times, every one in Versailles would have +been in bed and wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but that night no eye +was closed at Versailles. They had felt the counter-shock of the terrible +concussion with which Paris was still trembling. + +"The French Guards, the body-guards, the Swiss drawn up in platoons, and +grouped near the openings of all the principal streets, were conversing +among themselves, or with those of the citizens whose fidelity to the +monarchy inspired them with confidence. + +"For Versailles has, at all times, been a royalist city. Religious respect +for the monarchy, if not for the monarch, is engrafted in the hearts of +its inhabitants, as if it were a quality of its soil. Having always lived +near kings, and fostered by their bounty, beneath the shade of their +wonders--having always inhaled the intoxicating perfume of the +_fleurs-de-lis_, and seen the brilliant gold of their garments, and the +smiles upon their august lips, the inhabitants of Versailles, for whom +kings have built a city of marble and porphyry, feel almost kings +themselves; and even at the present day, even now, when moss is growing +around the marble, and grass is springing up between the slabs of the +pavement, now that gold has almost disappeared from the wainscoting, and +that the shady walks of the parks are more solitary than a graveyard, +Versailles must either belie its origin, or must consider itself as a +fragment of the fallen monarchy, and no longer feeling the pride of power +and wealth, must at least retain the poetical associations of regret, and +the sovereign charms of melancholy. Thus, as we have already stated, all +Versailles, in the night between the 14th and 15th July, 1789, was +confusedly agitated, anxious to ascertain how the King of France would +reply to the insult offered to the throne, and the deadly wound inflicted +on his power." + +Versailles was one of the latest of the royal palaces, and since its +birth, or at least since the days of "personally" and "non-conducted" +tourists, has claimed, perhaps, even more than its share of popular +favour. Certainly it is a rare attraction, and its past has been in turn +sad, gay, brilliant, and gloomy. Event after event, some significant, +others unimportant, but none mean or sordid, have taken place within its +walls or amid its environment. Dumas evidently did not rank its beauties +very high,--and perhaps rightly,--for while it is a gorgeous fabric and +its surroundings and appointments are likewise gorgeous, it palls +unmistakably by reason of its sheer artificiality. Dumas said much the +same thing when he described it as "that world of automata, of statues, +and boxwood forests, called Versailles." + +Much of the action of "The Queen's Necklace" takes place at Versailles, +and every line relating thereto is redolent of a first-hand observation on +the part of the author. There is no scamping detail here, nor is there any +excess of it. + +With the fourth chapter of the romance, when Madame de la Motte drove to +Versailles in her cabriolet, "built lightly, open, and fashionable, with +high wheels, and a place behind for a servant to stand," begins the record +of the various incidents of the story, which either took place at +Versailles or centred around it. + +"'Where are we to go?' said Weber, who had charge of madame's +cabriolet.--'To Versailles.'--'By the boulevards?'--'No.'... 'We are at +Versailles,' said the driver. 'Where must I stop, ladies?'--'At the Place +d'Armes.'" "At this moment," says Dumas, in the romance, "our heroines +heard the clock strike from the church of St. Louis." + +Dumas' descriptions of Versailles are singularly complete, and without +verboseness. At least, he suggests more of the splendours of that gay +residence of the court than he actually defines, and puts into the mouths +of his characters much that others would waste on mere descriptive matter. + +In the chapter headed Vincennes, in "Marguerite de Valois," Dumas gives a +most graphic description of its one-time chateau-prison: + +"According to the order given by Charles IX., Henri was the same evening +conducted to Vincennes, that famous castle of which only a fragment now +remains, but colossal enough to give an idea of its past grandeur. + +"At the postern of the prison they stopped. M. de Nancey alighted from his +horse, opened the gate closed with a padlock, and respectfully invited the +king to follow him. Henri obeyed without a word of reply. Every abode +seemed to him more safe than the Louvre, and ten doors, closing on him at +the same time, were between him and Catherine de Medici. + +"The royal prisoner crossed the drawbridge between two soldiers, passed +the three doors on the ground floor and the three doors at the foot of the +staircase, and then, still preceded by M. de Nancey, went up one flight of +stairs. Arrived there, Captain de Nancey requested the king to follow him +through a kind of corridor, at the extremity of which was a very large and +gloomy chamber. + +"Henri looked around him with considerable disquietude. + +"'Where are we?' he inquired. + +"'In the chamber of torture, monseigneur.' + +"'Ah, ah!' replied the king, looking at it attentively. + +"There was something of everything in this apartment: pitchers and +trestles for the torture by water; wedges and mallets for the question of +the boot; moreover, there were stone benches for the unhappy wretches who +awaited the question, nearly all around the chamber; and above these +seats, and to the seats themselves, and at the foot of these seats, were +iron rings, mortised into the walls with no symmetry but that of the +torturing art. + +"'Ah, ah!' said Henri, 'is this the way to my apartment?' + +"'Yes, monseigneur, and here it is,' said a figure in the dark, who +approached and then became distinguishable. + +"Henri thought he recognized the voice, and, advancing toward the +individual, said, 'Ah, is it you, Beaulieu? And what the devil do you do +here?' + +"'Sire, I have been nominated governor of the fortress of Vincennes.' + +"'Well, my dear sir, your debut does you honour; a king for a prisoner is +no bad commencement.' + +"'Pardon me, Sire, but before I received you I had already received two +gentlemen.' + +"'Who may they be? Ah! your pardon; perhaps I commit an indiscretion.' + +"'Monseigneur, I have not been bound to secrecy. They are M. de la Mole +and M. de Coconnas.' + +"'Poor gentlemen! And where are they?' + +"'High up, in the fourth floor.' + +"Henri gave a sigh. It was there he wished to be. + +"'Now, then, M. de Beaulieu,' said Henri, 'have the kindness to show me my +chamber. I am desirous of reaching it, as I am very much fatigued with my +day's toil.' + +"'Here, monseigneur,' said Beaulieu, showing Henri an open door. + +"'No. 2!' said Henri. 'And why not No. 1?' + +"'Because it is reserved, monseigneur.' + +"'Ah! that is another thing,' said Henri, and he became even more pensive. + +"He wondered who was to occupy No. 1. + +"The governor, with a thousand apologies, installed Henri in his +apartment, made many excuses for his deficiencies, and, placing two +soldiers at the door, retired. + +"'Now,' said the governor, addressing the turnkey, 'let us visit the +others.'" + + * * * * * + +The present aspect of St. Germain-en-Laye is hardly what it was in the +days of which Dumas wrote in "Marguerite de Valois" or in "Vingt Ans +Apres." Le Bois or Le Foret looks to-day in parts, at least--much as it +did in the days when royalty hunted its domain, and the glorious facade +chateau has endured well. + +Beyond this, the romance and history have well-nigh evaporated into air. +The whole neighbourhood is quite given over to a holiday, pleasure-making +crowd, which, though it is typically French, and therefore interesting, is +little in keeping with the splendid scenes of its past. + +To-day peasants from Brittany, heavily booted cavalry and artillery, +_ouvriers_, children and nursemaids, and _touristes_ of all nationalities +throng the _allees_ of the forest and the corridors of the chateau, where +once royalty and its retainers held forth. + +Vesinet, on the road from Paris to St. Germain,--just before one reaches +Pecq, and the twentieth-century _chemin-de-fer_ begins to climb that long, +inclined viaduct, which crosses the Seine and rises ultimately to the +platform on which sits the Vieux Chateau,--was a favourite hawking-ground +of Charles IX. Indeed, it was here that that monarch was warned of "a +fresh calumny against his poor Harry" (Henri de Navarre), as one reads in +the pages of "Marguerite de Valois." + +A further description follows of Charles' celebrated falcon, Bec de Fer, +which is assuredly one of the most extraordinary descriptions of a +hunting-scene extant in the written page of romance. + +Much hunting took place in all of Dumas' romances, and the near-by forests +of France, _i. e._, near either to Paris or to the royal residences +elsewhere, were the scenes of many gay meetings, where the stag, the boar, +the _cerf_, and all manner of footed beasts and winged fowl were hunted in +pure sport; though, after all, it is not recorded that it was as brutal a +variety as the _battues_ of the present day. + +St. Germain, its chateau and its _foret_, enters once and again, and +again, into both the Valois series and the Mousquetaire romances. Of all +the royal, suburban palaces, none have been more admired and loved for its +splendid appointments and the splendid functions which have taken place +there, than St. Germain. + +It had early come into favour as the residence of the French kings, the +existing chapel being the foundation of St. Louis, while the Chateau Neuf +was built mainly by Henri II. To-day but a solitary _pavillon_--that known +as Henri IV.--remains, while the Vieux Chateau, as it was formerly known, +is to-day acknowledged as _the_ Chateau. + +The most significant incident laid here by Dumas, is that of the flight of +Anne of Austria, Louis XIV., and the court, from Paris to the Chateau of +St. Germain. This plan was amplified, according to Dumas, and furthered +by D'Artagnan and Athos; and since it is an acknowledged fact of history, +this points once again to the worth of the historical romance from an +exceedingly edifying view-point. At the time of the flight Louis was but a +mere boy, and it may be recalled here that he was born at St. Germain in +1638. + +The architectural glories of St. Germain are hardly so great as to warrant +comparison with Versailles, to which Louis subsequently removed his court; +indeed, the Chateau Neuf, with the exception of the _pavillon_ before +mentioned, is not even a dignified ruin, being but scattered piles of +debris, which, since 1776, when the structure was razed, have been left +lying about in most desultory fashion. + +The Vieux Chateau was made use of by the great Napoleon as a sort of a +barracks, and again as a prison, but has since been restored according to +the original plans of the architect Ducercen, who, under Francois I., was +to have carried it to completion. + +Once St. Germain was the home of royalty and all the gaiety of the court +life of the Louis, and once again it was on the eve of becoming the +fashionable Paris suburb, but now it is the resort of "trippers," and its +chateau, or what was left of it after the vandalism of the eighteenth +century, is a sad ruin, though the view from its heights is as lovely as +ever--that portion which remains being but an aggravation, when one +recalls the glories that once were. Save the Vieux Chateau, all that is +left is the lovely view. Paris-wards one sees a panorama--a veritable +_vol-d'oiseaux_--of the slender, silvery loops of the Seine as it bends +around Port Marly, Argenteuil, Courbevoie, St. Denis, and St. Cloud; while +in the dimmest of the dim distance the Eiffel Tower looms all its ugliness +up into the sky, and the domed heights of Montmartre and the Buttes +Chaumont look really beautiful--which they do not on closer view. + +The height of St. Germain itself--the _ville_ and the chateau--is not so +very great, and it certainly is not giddy, which most of its frequenters, +for one reason or another, are; but its miserable _pave_ is the curse of +all automobilists, and the sinuous road which ascends from the Pont du +Pecq is now "rushed," up and down, by motor-cars, to the joy of the +native, when one gets stalled, as they frequently do, and to the danger to +life and limb of all other road-users and passers-by. + + * * * * * + +In all of the Valois cycle, "_la chasse_" plays an important part in the +pleasure of the court and the noblesse. The forests in the +neighbourhood of Paris are numerous and noted. + + +[Illustration: FORET DE VILLERS-COTTERETS] + +[Illustration: BOIS DE VINCENNES] + +[Illustration: BOIS DE BOULOGNE] + + +At Villers-Cotterets, Dumas' birthplace, is the Foret de +Villers-Cotterets, a dependence of the Valois establishment at Crepy. + +Bondy, Fontainebleau, St. Germain, Vincennes, and Rambouillet are all +mentioned, and are too familiar to even casual travellers to warrant the +inclusion of detailed description here. + +Next to Fontainebleau, whose present-day fame rests with the artists of +the Barbizon school, who have perpetuated its rocks and trees, and St. +Germain, which is mostly revered for the past splendour of its chateau, +Rambouillet most frequently comes to mind. + +Even Republican France has its national hunt yearly, at Rambouillet, and +visiting monarchs are invariably expected to partake in the shooting. + +Rambouillet, the _hameau_ and the _foret_, was anciently under the feudal +authority of the Comtes de Montford, afterward (1300) under Regnault +d'Augennes, Capitaine du Louvre under Charles VI., and still later under +Jacques d'Augennes, Capitaine du Chateau de Rambouillet in 1547. Louis +XVI. purchased the chateau for one of his residences, and Napoleon III., +as well as his more illustrious namesake, was specially fond of hunting in +its forests. + +Since 1870 the chateau and the forest have been under the domination of +the state. + +There is a chapter in Dumas' "The Regent's Daughter," entitled "A Room in +the Hotel at Rambouillet," which gives some little detail respecting the +town and the forest. + +There is no hotel in Rambouillet to-day known as the "Royal Tiger," though +there is a "Golden Lion." + +"Ten minutes later the carriage stopped at the Tigre-Royal. A woman, who +was waiting, came out hastily, and respectfully assisted the ladies to +alight, and then guided them through the passages of the hotel, preceded +by a valet carrying lights. + +"A door opened, Madame Desroches drew back to allow Helene and Sister +Therese to pass and they soon found themselves on a soft and easy sofa, in +front of a bright fire. + +"The room was large and well furnished, but the taste was severe, for the +style called rococo was not yet introduced. There were four doors; the +first was that by which they had entered--the second led to the +dining-room, which was already lighted and warmed--the third led into a +richly appointed bedroom--the fourth did not open.... + +"While the things which we have related were passing in the parlour of the +Hotel Tigre-Royal, in another apartment of the same hotel, seated near a +large fire, was a man shaking the snow from his boots, and untying the +strings of a large portfolio. This man was dressed in the hunting livery +of the house of Orleans; the coat red and silver, large boots, and a +three-cornered hat, trimmed with silver. He had a quick eye, a long, +pointed nose, a round and open forehead, which was contradicted by thin +and compressed lips." + + * * * * * + +Compiegne, like Crepy-en-Valois, Dammartin, Villers-Cotterets, and other +of the towns and villages of the district, which in the fourteenth century +belonged to the younger branch of the royal house, enter largely into the +romances of Dumas, as was but natural, seeing that this region was the +land of his birth. + +The most elaborate and purely descriptive parts are found in "The Wolf +Leader," wherein are presented so many pictures of the forest life of the +region, and in "The Taking of the Bastille," in that part which describes +the journey of Ange Pitou to Paris. + +Crepy, Compiegne, Senlis, Pierrefonds, are still more celebrated in Dumas' +writings for glorious and splendid achievements--as they are with respect +to the actual fact of history, and the imposing architectural monuments +which still remain to illustrate the conditions under which life endured +in mediaeval times. + +At Crepy, now a sleepy old-world village, is still seen the establishment +of the Valois of which Dumas wrote; and another _grande maison_ of the +Valois was at Villers-Cotterets--a still more somnolent reminder of the +past. At Compiegne, only, with its magnificent Hotel de Ville, does one +find the activities of a modern-day life and energy. + +Here in strange juxtaposition with a remarkably interesting and +picturesque church, and the dainty Renaissance Hotel de Ville, with its +_jacquemart_, its belfry, its pointed gable, and its ornate facade, is +found a blend of past and present, which combines to produce one of those +transformations or stage-settings which throughout France are so often met +with and admired. + +No more charming _petite ville_ exists in all France than Compiegne, one +of the most favoured of all the country residences of the Kings of France. + +The chateau seen to-day was an erection of Louis XV. + +Le Foret de Compiegne is as beautiful and unspoiled as any, and is, +moreover, not overrun with tourists and trippers, as is Fontainebleau. + + +[Illustration: CHATEAU OF THE DUCS DE VALOIS, CREPY] + + +Its area approximates 60,000 acres, and its circumference sixty miles. + +In short, the whole domain forms a charming and delightful place of +retreat, which must have been duly appreciated during the troublous times +of Louis' reign. + +It was here, in the Foret de Compiegne, that the great hunting was held, +which is treated in "Chicot the Jester." + +The Bois de Vincennes was a famous duelling-ground--and is to-day, _sub +rosa_. It was here that Louis de Franchi, in the "Corsican Brothers," who +forewarned of his fate, died in the duel with Rene de Chateaurien, just as +he had predicted; at exactly "_neuf heures dix_." + +This park is by no means the rival of the Bois de Boulogne in the +affections of the Parisian public, but it is a wide expanse of +tree-covered park land, and possesses all the characteristics of the other +suburban _forets_ which surround Paris on all sides. + +It has, moreover, a chateau, a former retreat or country residence of the +Kings of France, though to-day it has been made over to the ministry of +war, whereas the Chateau de Madrid, the former possession of the Bois de +Boulogne, has disappeared. The Chateau de Vincennes is not one of the +sights of Paris. For a fact, it is quite inaccessible, being surrounded +by the ramparts of the Fort de Vincennes, and therefore forbidden to the +inquisitive. + +It was here in the Chateau de Vincennes that Charles IX. died a lingering +death, "by the poison prepared for another," as Dumas has it in +"Marguerite de Valois." + +Among the many illustrious prisoners of the Chateau de Vincennes have been +the King of Navarre (1574), Conde (1650), Cardinal de Retz (1652), Fouquet +(1661), Mirabeau (1777), the Duc d'Enghien (1804), and many others, most +of whom have lived and breathed in Dumas' pages, in the same parts which +they played in real life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE FRENCH PROVINCES + + +Dumas' acquaintance with the French provinces was very comprehensive, +though it is of the region northeast of Paris that he was most fond; of +the beloved forest region around Crepy and Villers-Cotterets; the road to +Calais, and Picardie and Flanders. Dumas was ever fond of, and familiar +with, the road from Paris to Calais. The National Route ran through Crepy, +and the byroad through his native Villers-Cotterets. In the "Vicomte de +Bragelonne," he calls the region "The Land of God," a sentiment which +mostly has not been endorsed by other writers; still, it is a beautiful +country, and with its thickly wooded plantations, its industrious though +conglomerate population, it is to-day--save for the Cantal and the +Auvergne--that part of France of which English-speaking folk know the +least. And this, too, on the direct road between London and Paris! + +Dumas, in the above-mentioned book, describes the journey through this +region which was made by Buckingham and De Wardes. + +"Arriving at Calais, at the end of the sixth day, they chartered a boat +for the purpose of joining the yacht that was to convey them to England, +and which was then tacking about in full view." + +The old port of Calais must have been made use of by the personages of +whom Dumas wrote, who trafficked forth between England and France. + +Calais has ever been the most important terminus of cross-channel traffic, +and there be those who know, who say that the boat service is not improved +in comfort in all these ages, and certainly Calais, which most English +travellers know only by fleeting glimpses, might with profit be visited +more frequently, if only to follow in the wake of Sterne's sentimental +footsteps. + +The old port, of course, exists no more; new dykes, breakwaters, and the +_gare maritime_ have taken the place of the ancient landing-places, where +royalties and others used to embark in frail sailing-vessels for the +English ports across the channel. + +The old belfry still exists, and forms a beacon by day, at least, much as +it did of yore. By night the new electric-light flashes its beams twenty +odd miles across the channel on Dover Cliff, in a way which would have +astonished our forefathers in the days gone by. + +It was at Calais, too, that was enacted the final scene in the life of +Mary Stuart in France. + +The misfortunes of Mary Stuart formed the subject of one of the series of +"Les Crimes Celebres." In the opening words of this chapter, Dumas has +said, "Of all the names predestined to misfortune in France, it is the +name of Henri. Henri I. was poisoned, Henri II. was killed (maliciously, +so some one has said) in a tournament, Henri III. and Henri IV. were +assassinated." In Scotland it is the name of Stuart. + +The chronicle concerns France only with respect to the farewell of Mary, +after having lost her mother and her spouse in the same year (1561). She +journeyed to Scotland by Calais, accompanied by the Cardinals de Guise and +de Lorraine, her uncles, by the Duc and Duchesse de Guise, the Duc +d'Aumale, and M. de Nemours. + +Here took place that heartrending farewell, which poets and painters, as +well as historians and novelists, have done so much to perpetuate. "Adieu, +France!" she sobbed. "Adieu, France!" And for five hours she continued to +weep and sob, "Adieu, France! Adieu, France!" For the rest, the well-known +historical figures are made use of by Dumas,--Darnley, Rizzio, Huntley, +and Hamilton,--but the action does not, of course, return to France. + +Not far south of Calais is Arras, whence came the Robespierre who was to +set France aflame. + +"The ancestors of the Robespierres," says Dumas, "formed a part of those +Irish colonists who came to France to inhabit our seminaries and +monasteries. There they received from the Jesuits the good educations they +were accustomed to give to their pupils. From father to son they were +notaries; one branch of the family, that from which this great man +descends, established himself at Arras, a great centre, as you know, of +noblesse and the church. + +"There were in this town two _seigneurs_, or, rather, two kings; one was +the Abbe of St. Waast, the other was the Bishop of Arras, whose palace +threw one-half the town into shade." + +The former palace of the Bishop of Arras is to-day the local _musee_. It +is an extensive establishment, and it flanks an atrocious Renaissance +cathedral of no appealing charm whatever, and, indeed, the one-time +bishop's palace does not look as though it was ever a very splendid +establishment. + +Still farther to the southward of Calais is the feudal Castle of +Pierrefonds, so beloved of Porthos in "Vingt Ans Apres." It is, and has +ever been since its erection in 1390 by Louis d'Orleans, the brother of +Charles VI., one of the most highly impregnable and luxurious chateaux of +all France. + + +[Illustration: CASTLE OF PIERREFONDS] + + +Four times it was unsuccessfully besieged, and came finally, in 1617, to +be dismantled. + +The great Napoleon purchased it after the Revolution, and finally, through +the liberality of Napoleon III.,--one of the few acts which redound to his +credit,--it was restored, by Viollet-le-Duc, at a cost of over five +million francs. + +In "Pauline," that fragment which Dumas extracted from one of his +"Impressions du Voyage," the author comes down to modern times, and gives +us, as he does in his journals of travel, his "Memoires," and others of +his lighter pieces of fiction, many charming pen-portraits of localities +familiar not only to his pen, but to his personal experiences. + +He draws in "Pauline" a delightful picture of the old fishing-village of +Trouville--before it became a resort of fashion. In his own words he +describes it as follows: + +"I took the steamer from Havre, and two hours later was at Honfleur; the +next morning I was at Trouville." + +To-day the fly-by-day tourist does the whole journey in a couple of +hours--if he does not linger over the attractions of "Les Petits Chevaux" +or "Trente et Quarante," at Honfleur's pretty Casino. + +"You know the little town with its population of fisher-folk. It is one of +the most picturesque in Normandy. I stayed there a few days, exploring the +neighbourhood, and in the evening I used to sit in the chimney-corner with +my worthy hostess, Madame Oseraie. There I heard strange tales of +adventures which had been enacted in Calvados, Loiret, and La Manche." + +Continuing, the author, evidently having become imbued with the local +colour of the vicinity, describes, more or less superficially, perhaps, +but still with vividness, if not minuteness, those treasure-chests of +history, the towns and villages of Normandy:--Caen, Lisieux, Falaise, the +cradle of the Conqueror William, "the fertile plains" around Pont Audemer, +Havre, and Alencon. + +Normandy, too, was the _locale_ of the early life of Gabriel Lambert, the +unappealing leading-man of that dramatic story of a counterfeiter's life, +which bears the same title. + +Dumas' first acquaintance with the character in real life,--if he had any +real personality, as one is inclined to think he had,--was at Toulon, +where the unfortunate man was imprisoned and made to work in the galleys. + +In the course of the narrative the scene shifts from prisons, galleys, and +chain-gangs, backward and forward, until we get the whole gamut of the +criminal's life. + +Gabriel, in the days of his early life at Trouville, had acquired the art +of skilled penmanship, and used it wherever he could for his own +advantage, by fabricating the handwriting of others--and some honest work +of a similar nature. + +Finally the call of Paris came strong upon him, and he set forth by Pont +l'Eveque and Rouen to the metropolis, where his downfall was speedily +consummated, to the sorrow and resentment of his old friends of the little +Norman fishing-village, and more particularly to Marie Granger, his +country sweetheart, who longed to follow him to Paris, not suspecting the +actual turn affairs had taken. + +In "The Count of Monte Cristo," Dumas again evinces his fondness for, and +acquaintance with, the coast of Normandy. + +It is a brief reference, to be sure, but it shows that Dumas had some +considerable liking for the sea, and a more or less minute knowledge of +the coast of France. This is further evinced by the details into which he +launches once and again, with reference to the littoral of the +Mediterranean, Belle Ile, and its surroundings, and the coasts of +Normandy, Brittany, and the Pas de Calais. + +In "The Count of Monte Cristo," Dantes says to his companion, Bertuccio: + +"'I am desirous of having an estate by the seaside in Normandy--for +instance, between Havre and Boulogne. You see, I give you a wide range. It +will be absolutely necessary that the place you may select have a small +harbour, creek, or bay, into which my vessel can enter and remain at +anchor. She merely draws fifteen feet water. She must be kept in constant +readiness to sail immediately I think proper to give the signal. Make the +requisite inquiries for a place of this description, and when you have met +with an eligible spot, visit it, and if it possess the advantages desired, +purchase it at once in your own name. The corvette must now, I think, be +on her way to Fecamp, must she not?'" + +With Brittany, Dumas is quite as familiar. In "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," +he gives minute, though not wearisome, details of Belle Ile and the Breton +coast around about. Aramis, it seems, had acquired Belle Ile, and had +risen to high ecclesiastical rank, making his home thereon. + + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME DE CHARTRES] + + +Dumas' love and knowledge of gastronomy comes to the fore again here. When +D'Artagnan undertook his famous journey to Belle Ile, on the coast of +Brittany, as messenger of Louis XIV., whom he called his sun, after he had +bought that snuff-coloured _bidet_ which would have disgraced a +corporal, and after he had shortened his name to Agnan,--to complete his +disguise,--he put in one night at La Roche-Bernard, "a tolerably important +city at the mouth of the Vilaine, and prepared to sup at a hotel." And he +did sup; "off a teal and a _torteau_, and in order to wash down these two +distinctive Breton dishes, ordered some cider, which, the moment it +touched his lips, he perceived to be more Breton still." + +On the route from Paris to the mouth of the Loire, where D'Artagnan +departed for Belle Ile, is Chartres. Its Cathedral de Notre Dame has not +often appeared in fiction. In history and books of travel, and of artistic +and archaeological interest, its past has been vigorously played. + +Dumas, in "La Dame de Monsoreau," has revived the miraculous legend which +tradition has preserved. + +It recounts a ceremony which many will consider ludicrous, and yet others +sacrilegious. Dumas describes it thus: + +"The month of April had arrived. The great cathedral of Chartres was hung +with white, and the king was standing barefooted in the nave. The +religious ceremonies, which were for the purpose of praying for an heir to +the throne of France, were just finishing, when Henri, in the midst of +the general silence, heard what seemed to him a stifled laugh. He turned +around to see if Chicot were there, for he thought no one else would have +dared to laugh at such a time. It was not, however, Chicot who had laughed +at the sight of the two chemises of the Holy Virgin, which were said to +have such a prolific power, and which were just being drawn from their +golden box; but it was a cavalier who had just stopped at the door of the +church, and who was making his way with his muddy boots through the crowd +of courtiers in their penitents' robes and sacks. Seeing the king turn, he +stopped for a moment, and Henri, irritated at seeing him arrive thus, +threw an angry glance at him. The newcomer, however, continued to advance +until he reached the velvet chair of M. le Duc d'Anjou, by which he knelt +down." + + * * * * * + +But a step from Chartres, on the Loire,--though Orleans, the "City of the +Maid," comes between,--is Blois. + +In "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," the last of the D'Artagnan series, the +action comes down to later times, to that of the young king Louis XIV. + +In its opening lines its scene is laid in that wonderfully ornate and +impressive Chateau of Blois, which so many have used as a background for +all manner of writing. + +Dumas, with his usual directness, wasting no words on mere description, +and only considering it as an accessory to his romance, refers briefly to +this magnificent building--the combined product of the houses whose arms +bore the hedgehog and the salamander. + +"Toward the middle of the month of May, 1660, when the sun was fast +absorbing the dew from the _ravenelles_ of the Chateau of Blois, a little +cavalcade entered the city by the bridge, without producing any effect +upon the passengers of the quai-side, except a movement of the tongue to +express, in the purest French then spoken in France (Touraine has ever +spoken the purest tongue, as all know), 'There is Monsieur returning from +the hunt.'... It should have been a trifling source of pride to the city +of Blois that Gaston of Orleans had chosen it as his residence, and held +his court in the ancient chateau of its states." + +It was in the Castle of the States of Blois that Louis XIV. received that +unexpected visit from "His Majesty Charles II., King of England, Scotland, +and Ireland," of which Dumas writes in the second of the D'Artagnan +series. + +"'How strange it is you are here,' said Louis. 'I only knew of your +embarkation at Brighthelmstone, and your landing in Normandy.'... + +"Blois was peaceful that morning of the royal arrival, at which +announcement it was suddenly filled with all the tumult and the buzzing of +a swarm of bees. In the lower city, scarce a hundred paces from the +castle, is a sufficiently handsome street called the Rue Vieille, and an +old and venerable edifice which, tradition says, was habited by a +councillor of state, to whom Queen Catherine came, some say to visit and +others to strangle." + +Not alone is Blois reminiscent of "Les Mousquetaires," but the numberless +references in the series to Langeais, Chambord,--the chateaux and their +domains,--bring to mind more forcibly than by innuendo merely that Dumas +himself must have had some great fondness for what has come to be the +touring-ground of France _par excellence_. + +From "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," one quotes these few lines which, +significantly, suggest much: "Do you not remember, Montalais, the woods of +Chaverney, and of Chambord, and the numberless poplars of Blois?" This +describes the country concisely, but explicitly. + +Beyond Blois, beyond even Tours, which is Blois' next neighbour, passing +down the Loire, is Angers. + + +[Illustration: CASTLE OF ANGERS--CHATEAU OF BLOIS] + + +In "La Dame de Monsoreau," more commonly known in English translations +as "Chicot the Jester," much of the scene is laid in Anjou. + +To Angers, with its wonderful fairylike castle, with its seventeen +black-banded towers (recalling, also, that this is the "Black Angers" of +Shakespeare's "King John"), repaired the Duc d'Anjou, the brother of +Charles IX. and Henri III., who then reigned at Paris. + +To this "secret residence" the duc came. Dumas puts it thus: + +"'Gentlemen!' cried the duke, 'I have come to throw myself into my good +city of Angers. At Paris the most terrible dangers have menaced my +life.'... The people then cried out, 'Long live our seigneur!'" + +Bussy, who had made the way clear for the duc, lived, says Dumas, "in a +tumble-down old house near the ramparts." The ducal palace was actually +outside the castle walls, but the frowning battlement was relied upon to +shelter royalty when occasion required, the suite quartering themselves in +the Gothic chateau, which is still to be seen in the debris-cluttered +lumber-yard, to which the interior of the fortress has to-day descended. + +In other respects than the shocking care, or, rather, the lack of care, +which is given to its interior, the Castle of Angers, with its battalion +of _tours_, now without their turrets, its deep, machicolated walls, and +its now dry _fosse_, presents in every way an awe-inspiring stronghold. + +Beyond Angers, toward the sea, is Nantes, famous for the Edict, and, in +"The Regent's Daughter" of Dumas, the massacre of the four Breton +conspirators. + +Gaston, the hero of the tale, had ridden posthaste from Paris to save his +fellows. He was preceded, by two hours, by the order for their execution, +and the reprieve which he held would be valueless did he arrive too late. + +"On reaching the gates of Nantes his horse stumbled, but Gaston did not +lose his stirrups, pulled him up sharply, and, driving the spurs into his +sides, he made him recover himself. + +"The night was dark, no one appeared upon the ramparts, the very sentinels +were hidden in the gloom; it seemed like a deserted city. + +"But as he passed the gate a sentinel said something which Gaston did not +even hear. + +"He held on his way. + +"At the Rue du Chateau his horse stumbled and fell, this time to rise no +more. + +"What mattered it to Gaston now?--he had arrived.... + +"He passed right through the castle, when he perceived the esplanade, a +scaffold, and a crowd. He tried to cry, but no one heard him; to wave his +handkerchief, but no one saw him.... Another mounts the scaffold, and, +uttering a cry, Gaston threw himself down below.... Four men died who +might have been saved had Gaston but arrived five minutes before, and, by +a remarkable contretemps, Gaston himself shared the same fate." + +In "The Regent's Daughter," Dumas describes the journey to Nantes with +great preciseness, though with no excess of detail. The third chapter +opens thus: + +"Three nights after that on which we have seen the regent, first at +Chelles, and then at Meudon, a scene passed in the environs of Nantes +which cannot be omitted in this history; we will therefore exercise our +privilege of transporting the reader to that place. + +"On the road to Clisson, two or three miles from Nantes,--near the convent +known as the residence of Abelard,--was a large dark house, surrounded by +thick, stunted trees; hedges everywhere surrounded the enclosure outside +the walls, hedges impervious to the sight, and only interrupted by a +wicket gate. + +"This gate led into a garden, at the end of which was a wall, having a +small, massive, and closed door. From a distance this grave and dismal +residence appeared like a prison; it was, however, a convent, full of +young Augustines, subject to a rule lenient as compared with provincial +customs, but rigid as compared with those of Paris. + +"The house was inaccessible on three sides, but the fourth, which did not +face the road, abutted on a large sheet of water; and ten feet above its +surface were the windows of the refectory. + +"This little lake was carefully guarded, and was surrounded by high wooden +palisades. A single iron gate opened into it, and at the same time gave a +passage to the waters of a small rivulet which fed the lake, and the water +had egress at the opposite end." + +From this point on, the action of "The Regent's Daughter" runs riotously +rapid, until it finally culminates, so far as Nantes is concerned, in the +quintuple execution before the chateau, brought about by the five minutes' +delay of Gaston with the reprieve. + + * * * * * + +Dumas' knowledge of and love of the Mediterranean was great, and he knew +its western shores intimately. + +In 1830 he resolved to visit all the shores of the Mediterranean in a +yacht, which he had had specially built for the purpose, called the +_Emma_. + +He arrived in Sicily, however, at the moment of the Garibaldian struggle +against the King of Italy, with the result that the heroic elements of +that event so appealed to him, that he forewent the other more tranquil +pleasure of continuing his voyage, and went over to the mainland. + +In "The Count of Monte Cristo" is given one of Dumas' best bits of +descriptive writing. At any rate, it describes one of the aspects of the +brilliantly blue Mediterranean, which is only comparable to one's personal +contemplation of its charms. It is apropos of the voyage to the island of +Monte Cristo--which lies between Elba and Corsica, and has become fabled +in the minds of present-day readers solely by Dumas' efforts--that he +wrote the following: + +"It was about six o'clock in the evening; an opal-coloured light, through +which an autumnal sun shed its golden rays, descended on the blue sea. The +heat of the day had gradually decreased, and a light breeze arose, seeming +like the respiration of nature on awakening from the burning siesta of the +south; a delicious zephyr played along the coasts of the Mediterranean, +and wafted from shore to shore the sweet perfume of plants, mingled with +the fresh smell of the sea. + +"A light yacht, chaste and elegant in its form, was gliding amidst the +first dews of night over the immense lake, extending from Gibraltar to the +Dardanelles, and from Tunis to Venice. The motion resembled that of a swan +with its wings opened toward the wind, gliding on the water. It advanced, +at the same time, swiftly and gracefully, leaving behind it a glittering +track. By degrees the sun disappeared behind the western horizon; but, as +though to prove the truth of the fanciful ideas in heathen mythology, its +indiscreet rays reappeared on the summit of each wave, seeming to reveal +that the god of fire had just enfolded himself in the bosom of Amphitrite, +who in vain endeavoured to hide her lover beneath her azure mantle." + +Of the island of Monte Cristo itself, Dumas' description is equally +gratifying. In the earlier chapters he gives it thus: + +"The isle of Monte Cristo loomed large in the horizon.... They were just +abreast of Mareciana, and beyond the flat but verdant isle of La Pianosa. +The peak of Monte Cristo, reddened by the burning sun, was seen against +the azure sky.... About five o'clock in the evening the island was quite +distinct, and everything on it was plainly perceptible, owing to that +clearness of the atmosphere which is peculiar to the light which the rays +of the sun cast at its setting. + +"Edmond gazed most earnestly at the mass of rocks which gave out all the +variety of twilight colours, from the brightest pink to the deepest blue; +and from time to time his cheeks flushed, his brow became purple, and a +mist passed over his eyes.... In spite of his usual command over himself, +Dantes could not restrain his impetuosity. He was the first who jumped on +shore; and had he dared, he would, like Lucius Brutus, have 'kissed his +mother earth.' It was dark, but at eleven o'clock the moon rose in the +midst of the ocean, whose every wave she silvered, and then, 'ascending +high,' played in floods of pale light on the rocky hills of this second +Pelion. + +"The island was familiar to the crew of _La Jeune Amelie_--it was one of +her halting-places. As to Dantes, he had passed it on his voyages to and +from the Levant, but never touched at it." + +It is unquestionable that "The Count of Monte Cristo" is the most popular +and the best known of all Dumas' works. There is a deal of action, of +personality and characterization, and, above all, an ever-shifting +panorama, which extends from the boulevards of Marseilles to the faubourgs +of Paris, and from the island Chateau d'If to the equally melancholy +_allees_ of Pere la Chaise, which M. de Villefort, a true Parisian, +considered alone worthy of receiving the remains of a Parisian family, as +it was there only that they would be surrounded by worthy associates. + +All travellers for the East, _via_ the Mediterranean, know well the +ancient Phoenician port of Marseilles. One does not need even the words +of Dumas to recall its picturesqueness and importance--to-day as in ages +past. Still, the opening lines of "The Count of Monte Cristo" do form a +word-picture which few have equalled in the pages of romance; and there is +not a word too much; nothing superfluous or extraneous. + +"On the 28th of February, 1815, the watchtower of Notre Dame de la Garde +signalled the three-master, the _Pharaon_, from Smyrna, Trieste, and +Naples. + +"As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and, rounding the Chateau d'If, +got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and the isle of Rion. + +"Immediately, and according to custom, the platform of Fort Saint-Jean was +covered with lookers-on; it is always an event at Marseilles for a ship to +come into port, especially when this ship, like the _Pharaon_, had been +built, rigged, and laden on the stocks of the old Phocee, and belonged to +an owner of the city. + +"The ship drew on: it had safely passed the strait, which some volcanic +shock has made between the isle of Calasareigne and the isle of Jaros; had +doubled Pomegue, and approached the harbour under topsails, jib, and +foresail, but so slowly and sedately that the idlers, with that instinct +which misfortune sends before it, asked one another what misfortune could +have happened on board. However, those experienced in navigation saw +plainly that, if any accident had occurred, it was not to the vessel +herself, for she bore down with all the evidence of being skilfully +handled, the anchor ready to be dropped, the bowsprit-shrouds loose, and, +beside the pilot, who was steering the _Pharaon_ by the narrow entrance of +the port Marseilles, was a young man, who, with activity and vigilant eye, +watched every motion of the ship, and repeated each direction of the +pilot. + +"The vague disquietude which prevailed amongst the spectators had so much +affected one of the crowd that he did not await the arrival of the vessel +in harbour, but, jumping into a small skiff, desired to be pulled +alongside the _Pharaon_, which he reached as she rounded the creek of La +Reserve." + +The process of coming into harbour at Marseilles does not differ greatly +to-day from the description given by Dumas. + +New harbour works have been constructed, and sailing-ships have mostly +given way to great steamers, but the channel winds and twists as of old +under the lofty brow, capped by the sailors' church of Notre Dame de la +Garde, which is to-day a tawdry, bizarre shrine, as compared with the +motive which inspired the devout to ascend its heights to pray for those +who go down to the sea in ships. + +Marseilles, of all cities of France, more even than Bordeaux or Lyons, is +possessed of that individuality which stands out strong on the background +of France--the land and the nation. + +In the commercial world its importance gives it a high rank, and its +_affaires_ are regulated by no clues sent each morning by post or by +telegraph from the world's other marts of trade. It has, moreover, in the +Canebiere, one of the truly great streets of the world. Dumas remarked it, +and so, too, have many others, who know its gay cosmopolitan aspect at all +the hours of day and night. + +From "The Count of Monte Cristo," the following lines describe it justly +and truly, and in a way that fits it admirably, in spite of the fact that +Dumas wrote of it as it was a hundred years ago: + +"The young sailor jumped into the skiff, and sat down in the stern, +desiring to be put ashore at the Canebiere. The two rowers bent to their +work, and the little boat glided away as rapidly as possible in the midst +of the thousand vessels which choke up the narrow way which leads between +the two rows of ships from the mouth of the harbour to the Quai d'Orleans. + +"The ship-owner, smiling, followed him with his eyes until he saw him +spring out on the quai and disappear in the midst of the throng, which, +from five o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night, choke up +this famous street of La Canebiere, of which the modern Phoceens are so +proud, and say, with all the gravity in the world, and with that accent +which gives so much character to what is said, 'If Paris had La Canebiere, +Paris would be a second Marseilles.'" + +The Chateau d'If, far more than the island of Monte Cristo itself, is the +_locale_ which is mostly recalled with regard to the romance of "Monte +Cristo." + +Dumas has, of course, made melodramatic use of it; in fact, it seems +almost as if he had built the romance around its own restricted _pied a +terre_, but, nevertheless, it is the one element which we are pleased to +call up as representative of the story when mention is made thereof. + +Not a line, not a word, is misplaced in the chapters in which Dumas treats +of Dantes' incarceration in his island prison. Description does not crowd +upon action or characterization, nor the reverse. + +"Through the grating of the window of the carriage, Dantes saw they were +passing through the Rue Caisserie, and by the Quai St. Laurent and the Rue +Taramis, to the port. They advanced toward a boat which a custom-house +officer held by a chain near the quai. A shove sent the boat adrift, and +the oarsman plied it rapidly toward the Pilon. At a shout the chain that +closes the port was lowered, and in a second they were outside the +harbour.... They had passed the Tete de More, and were now in front of the +lighthouse and about to double the battery.... They had left the isle +Ratonneau, where the lighthouse stood, on the right, and were now opposite +the Point des Catalans. + +"'Tell me where you are conducting me?' asked Dantes of his guard. + +"'You are a native of Marseilles, and a sailor, and yet you do not know +where you are going?' + +"'On my honour, I have no idea.' + +"'That is impossible.' + +"'I swear to you it is true. Tell me, I entreat.' + +"'But my orders.' + +"'Your orders do not forbid your telling me what I must know in ten +minutes, in half an hour, or an hour. You see, I cannot escape, even if I +intended.' + +"'Unless you are blind, or have never been outside the harbour, you must +know.' + +"'I do not.' + +"'Look around you, then.' Dantes rose and looked forward, when he saw rise +within a hundred yards of him the black and frowning rock on which stands +the Chateau d'If. This gloomy fortress, which has for more than three +hundred years furnished food for so many wild legends, seemed to Dantes +like a scaffold to a malefactor. + +"'The Chateau d'If?' cried he. 'What are we going there for?' The gendarme +smiled. + +"'I am not going there to be imprisoned,' said Dantes; 'it is only used +for political prisoners. I have committed no crime. Are there any +magistrates or judges at the Chateau d'If?' + +"'There are only,' said the gendarme, 'a governor, a garrison, turnkeys, +and good thick walls. Come, come, do not look so astonished, or you will +make me think you are laughing at me in return for my good nature.' Dantes +pressed the gendarme's hand as though he would crush it. + +"'You think, then,' said he, 'that I am conducted to the chateau to be +imprisoned there?' + +"'It is probable.'" + +The details of Dantes' horrible confinement, at first in an upper cell, +and later in a lower dungeon, where, as "No. 34," he became the neighbour +of the old Abbe Faria, "No. 27," are well known of all lovers of Dumas. +The author does not weary one, and there are no lengthy descriptions +dragged in to merely fill space. When Dantes finally escapes from the +chateau, after he had been imprisoned for fourteen years, Dumas again +launches into that concise, direct word-painting which proclaims him the +master. + +"It was necessary for Dantes to strike out to sea. Ratonneau and Pomegue +are the nearest isles of all those that surround the Chateau d'If; but +Ratonneau and Pomegue are inhabited, together with the islet of Daume; +Tiboulen or Lemaire were the most secure. The isles of Tiboulen and +Lemaire are a league from the Chateau d'If.... + +"Before him rose a mass of strangely formed rocks, that resembled nothing +so much as a vast fire petrified at the moment of its most fervent +combustion. It was the isle of Tiboulen.... + +"As he rose, a flash of lightning, that seemed as if the whole of the +heavens were opened, illumined the darkness. By its light, he saw the isle +of Lemaire and Cape Croiselle, a quarter of a league distant." + +In "The Count of Monte Cristo," Dumas makes a little journey up the valley +of the Rhone into Provence. + +In the chapter entitled "The Auberge of the Pont du Gard," he writes, in +manner unmistakably familiar, of this land of the troubadours, the roses, +and the beautiful women; for the women of Arles--those world-famous +Arlesiennes--are the peers, in looks, of all the women of France. + +Dumas writes of Beaucaire, of Bellegarde, of Arles, and of Aigues-Mortes, +but not very affectionately; indeed, he seems to think all Provence "an +arid, sterile lake," but he comes out strong on the beauty of the women of +Arles, and marvels how they can live in the vicinity of the devastating +fevers of the Camargue. + +The auberge of the Pont du Garde itself--the establishment kept by the old +tailor, Caderousse, whom Dantes sought out after his escape from the +Chateau d'If--the author describes thus: + +"Such of my readers as have made a pedestrian excursion to the south of +France may perchance have noticed, midway between the town of Beaucaire +and the village of Bellegarde, a small roadside inn, from the front of +which hung, creaking and flapping in the wind, a sheet of tin covered +with a caricature resemblance of the Pont du Gard. This modern place of +entertainment stood on the left-hand side of the grand route, turning its +back upon the Rhone. It also boasted of what in Languedoc is styled a +garden, consisting of a small plot of ground, a full view of which might +be obtained from a door immediately opposite the grand portal by which +travellers were ushered in to partake of the hospitality of mine host of +the Pont du Gard. This plaisance or garden, scorched up beneath the ardent +sun of a latitude of thirty degrees, permitted nothing to thrive or +scarcely live in its arid soil. A few dingy olives and stunted fig-trees +struggled hard for existence, but their withered, dusty foliage abundantly +proved how unequal was the conflict. Between these sickly shrubs grew a +scanty supply of garlic, tomatoes, and eschalots; while, lone and +solitary, like a forgotten sentinel, a tall pine raised its melancholy +head in one of the corners of this unattractive spot, and displayed its +flexible stem and fan-shaped summit dried and cracked by the withering +influence of the mistral, that scourge of Provence." + +The great fair of Beaucaire was, and is,--though Beaucaire has become a +decrepit, tumble-down river town on the Rhone, with a ruined castle as +its chief attraction,--renowned throughout France. + +It was here that the head of the house of Morrel, fearing lest the report +of his financial distress should get bruited abroad at Marseilles, came to +sell his wife's and daughter's jewels, and a portion of his plate. + +This fair of Beaucaire attracted a great number of merchants of all +branches of trade, who arrived by water and by road, lining the banks of +the Rhone from Arles to Beaucaire, and its transpontine neighbour, +Tarascon, which Daudet has made famous. + +Caderousse, the innkeeper, visited this fair, as we learn, "in company +with a man who was evidently a stranger to the south of France; one of +those merchants who come to sell jewelry at the fair of Beaucaire, and +who, during the month the fair lasts, and during which there is so great +an influx of merchants and customers from all parts of Europe, often have +dealings to the amount of one hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty +thousand francs (L4,000 to L6,000)." + + * * * * * + +That Dumas was a great traveller is well known and substantiated by the +records he has left. + +When living at Toulon in the spring of 1835, as he himself tells us, he +first came into possession of the facts which led to the construction of +"Gabriel Lambert." + +There was doubtless much of truth in the tale, which appears not to be +generally known to English readers, and it is more than probable that much +of the incident was originally related to Dumas by the "governor of the +port." + +Dumas was living at the time in a "small suburban house," within a stone's +throw of Fort Lamalge, the prison, hard at work on his play of "Captain +Paul"--though, as he says, he was greatly abstracted from work by the +"contemplation of the blue Mediterranean spangled with gold, the mountains +that blind in their awful nakedness, and of the sky impressive in its +depth and clearness." + +The result of it all was that, instead of working at "Captain Paul" (Paul +Jones), he left off working at all, in the daytime,--no infrequent +occurrence among authors,--and, through his acquaintance with the +governor, evolved the story of the life-history of "Gabriel Lambert." + + * * * * * + +"Murat" was the single-worded title given by Dumas to what is perhaps the +most subtle of the "Crimes Celebres." He drew his figures, of course, from +history, and from a comparatively near view-point, considering that but +twenty-five years had elapsed since the death of his subject. + +Marseilles, Provence, Hyeres, Toulon, and others of those charming towns +and cities of the Mediterranean shore, including also Corsica, form the +rapid itinerary of the first pages. + +For the action itself, it resembles nothing which has gone before, or +which is so very horrible. It simply recounts the adventures and incidents +in the life of the Marshal of France which befel his later years, and +which culminated in his decapitated head being brought before the King of +Naples as the only assurance which would satisfy him that Murat was not an +adventurer and intriguer. + +There is a pleasant little town in the Midi of France by the name of +Cahors. It is a historic town as well; in fact, it was part of the dowry +which Henri de Navarre was to receive when he married Marguerite. + +The circumstance is recounted by Dumas in "The Forty-Five Guardsmen," and +extends to some length in the most marvellously descriptive dialogue. + +"The poor Henri de Navarre," as Dumas called him, "was to receive as his +wife's dowry three hundred thousand golden crowns and some towns, among +them Cahors. + +"'A pretty town, _mordieu_!' + +"'I have claimed not the money, but Cahors.' + +"'You would much like to hold Cahors, Sire?' + +"'Doubtless; for, after all, what is my principality of Bearn? A poor +little place, clipped by the avarice of my mother-in-law and +brother-in-law.' + +"'While Cahors--' + +"'Cahors would be my rampart, the safeguard of my religion.' + +"'Well, Sire, go into mourning for Cahors; for, whether you break with +Madame Marguerite or not, the King of France will never give it to you, +and unless you take it--' + +"'Oh, I would soon take it, if it was not so strong, and, above all, if I +did not hate war.' + +"'Cahors is impregnable, Sire.' + +"'Oh! impregnable! But if I had an army, which I have not--' + +"'Listen, Sire. We are not here to flatter each other. To take Cahors, +which is held by M. de Vezin, one must be a Hannibal or a Caesar; and your +Majesty--' + +"'Well?' said Henri, with a smile. + +"'Has just said you do not like war.'... + +"'Cahors is so well guarded, because it is the key of the south.'" + +Chapter fifty-three of the above book recounts the siege itself,--as we +know it in history,--but with all that added picturesqueness which Dumas +commanded. + +"'Henri will not pay me his sister's dowry, and Margot cries out for her +dear Cahors. One must do what one's wife wants, for peace's sake; +therefore I am going to try to take Cahors.'... + +"Henri set off at full gallop, and Chicot followed him. On arriving in +front of his little army, Henri raised his visor, and cried: + +"'Out with the banner! out with the new banner!' + +"They drew forth the banner, which had the double scutcheon of Navarre and +Bourbon; it was white, and had chains of gold on one side, and +_fleurs-de-lis_ on the other. + +"Again the cannon from Cahors were fired, and the balls tore through a +file of infantry near the king.... + +"'Oh!' cried M. de Turenne, 'the siege of the city is over, Vezin.' And as +he spoke he fired at him and wounded him in the arm.... + +"'You are wrong, Turenne,' cried M. de Vezin; 'there are twenty sieges in +Cahors; so, if one is over, there are nineteen to come.' + +"M. de Vezin defended himself during five days and nights from street to +street and from house to house. Luckily for the rising fortunes of Henri +of Navarre, he had counted too much on the walls and garrison of Cahors, +and had neglected to send to M. de Biron.... + +"During these five days and nights, Henri commanded like a captain and +fought like a soldier, slept with his head on a stone, and awoke sword in +hand. Each day they conquered a street or a square, which each night the +garrison tried to retake. On the fourth night the enemy seemed willing to +give some rest to the Protestant army. Then it was Henri who attacked in +his turn. He forced an intrenched position, but it cost him seven hundred +men. M. de Turenne and nearly all the officers were wounded, but the king +remained untouched." + + * * * * * + +The Pyrenean city of Pau is more than once referred to by Dumas in the +Valois romances, as was but natural, considering that its ancient chateau +was the _berceau_ of that Prince of Bearn who later married the intriguing +Marguerite, and became ultimately Henri IV. + +This fine old structure--almost the only really splendid historical +monument of the city--had for long been the residence of the Kings of +Navarre; was rebuilt in the fourteenth century by the brilliant Gaston +Phoebus; and enlarged and luxuriously embellished by the beautiful +Marguerite herself in the sixteenth century, after she had become _la +femme de Henri d'Albert_, as her spouse was then known. + +As might be expected, Dumas was exceedingly familiar with the suburban +topography of Paris, and made frequent use of it in his novels. + +It is in "The Count of Monte Cristo," however, that this intimacy is best +shown; possibly for the reason that therein he dealt with times less +remote than those of the court romances of the "Valois" and the "Capets." + +When Dantes comes to Paris,--as the newly made count,--he forthwith +desires to be ensconced in an establishment of his own. Dumas recounts the +incident thus: + +"'And the cards I ordered to be engraved as soon as you knew the number of +the house?' + +"'M. le Comte, it is done already. I have been myself to the best engraver +of the Palais Royal, who did the plate in my presence. The first card +struck off was taken, according to your orders, to M. le Baron Danglars, +Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin, No. 7.'... + +"As the steward had said, the notary awaited him in the small salon. He +was a simple-looking lawyer's clerk, elevated to the extraordinary dignity +of a provincial scrivener. + +"'You are the notary empowered to sell the country-house that I wish to +purchase, monsieur?' asked Monte Cristo. + +"'Yes, M. le Comte,' returned the notary. + +"'Is the deed of sale ready?' + +"'Yes, M. le Comte.' + +"'Have you brought it?' + +"'Here it is.' + +"'Very well; and where is this house that I purchase?' asked the count, +carelessly, addressing himself half to Bertuccio, half to the notary. The +steward made a gesture that signified, 'I do not know.' The notary looked +at the count with astonishment. + +"'What!' said he, 'does not M. le Comte know where the house he purchases +is situated?' + +"'No,' returned the count. + +"'M. le Comte does not know it?' + +"'How should I know it? I have arrived from Cadiz this morning. I have +never before been at Paris: and it is the first time I have ever even set +my foot in France!' + +"'Ah, that is different; the house you purchase is situated at Auteuil, in +the Rue de la Fontaine, No. 28.' At these words Bertuccio turned pale. + +"'And where is Auteuil?' asked the count. + +"'Close here, monsieur,' replied the notary; 'a little beyond Passy; a +charming situation, in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne.' + +"'So near as that?' said the count. 'But that is not in the country. What +made you choose a house at the gates of Paris, M. Bertuccio?' + +"'I?' cried the steward, with a strange expression. 'M. le Comte did not +charge me to purchase this house. If M. le Comte will recollect--if he +will think--' + +"'Ah, true,' observed Monte Cristo; 'I recollect now. I read the +advertisement in one of the papers, and was tempted by the false title, "a +country-house."' + +"'It is not yet too late,' cried Bertuccio, eagerly; 'and if your +Excellency will entrust me with the commission, I will find you a better +at Enghien, at Fontenay-aux-Roses, or at Bellevue.' + +"'Oh, no,' returned Monte Cristo, negligently; 'since I have this, I will +keep it.' + +"'And you are quite right,' said the notary, who feared to lose his fee. +'It is a charming place, well supplied with spring-water and fine trees; a +comfortable habitation, although abandoned for a long time; without +reckoning the furniture, which, although old, is yet valuable, now that +old things are so much sought after. I suppose M. le Comte has the tastes +of the day?'" + +Whatever may have been Dumas' prodigality with regard to money matters in +his personal affairs, he was evidently a good traveller, in the sense that +he knew how to plan a journey with the greatest economy. + +One sees evidences of this in the "Count of Monte Cristo," where he +describes the journey of Madame de Morcerf from Paris to Marseilles. + +"'I have made inquiries,' said Albert, 'respecting the diligences and +steamboats, and my calculations are made. You will take your place in the +coupe to Chalons. You see, mother, I treat you handsomely for thirty-five +francs.' + +"Albert then took a pen, and wrote: + + _Frs._ + + Coupe to Chalons, thirty-five francs 35 + From Chalons to Lyons you will go on by the + steamboat--six francs 6 + From Lyons to Avignon (still by steamboat), + sixteen francs 16 + From Avignon to Marseilles, seven francs 7 + Expenses on the road, about fifty francs 50 + ---- + Total 114 + +"'Let us put down 120,' added Albert, smiling. 'You see I am generous; am +I not, mother?' + +"'But you, my poor child?' + +"'I! do you not see I reserve eighty francs for myself? A young man does +not require luxuries; besides, I know what travelling is.' + +"'With a post-chaise and _valet de chambre_?'" + +The route is practicable even to-day, though probably not at the prices +given, and one does not go by steamboat from Chalons to Lyons, though he +may from Lyons to Avignon. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LES PAYS ETRANGERS + + +Dumas frequently wandered afield for his _mise-en-scene_, and with varying +success; from the "Corsican Brothers," which was remarkably true to its +_locale_, and "La Tulipe Noire," which was equally so, if we allow for a +certain perspective of time, to "Le Capitaine Pamphile," which in parts, +at least, is gross exaggeration or burlesque. + +Once only, to any great extent, did he go to Germany for his inspirations, +and then only to German legend,--where so many others had been +before,--and have since. + +In "Otho the Archer" is found a repetition of the Knight and Swan legend +so familiar to all. It has been before--and since--a prolific source of +supply to authors of all ranks and nationalities: Goethe, Schiller, +Hoffman, Brentano, Fouque, Scott, and others. + +The book first appeared in 1840, before even "Monte Cristo" and "Les +Trois Mousquetaires" were published as _feuilletons_, and hence, whatever +its merits may be, it is to be classed as one of his immature efforts, +rather than as a piece of profound romancing. + +The story of adventure, of battle, and of love-making is all there, but +his picture of the scenery and life of the middle ages on the Rhine are, +of course, as purely imaginary as is the romantic background of myth and +legend. + +Of all the works dealing with foreign lands,--or, at least, foreign to his +pen,--Dumas' "Black Tulip" will ever take a preeminent rank. Therein are +pictures of Holland life and of the Hollandaise which, like the +pen-drawings of Stevenson in "Catriona," will live far more vividly in the +minds of most readers than volumes of mere dissertation written by others. + +The story opens with a recounting of the tragedy of the brothers Cornelius +and Jacobus de Windt, which, though not differing greatly from historical +fact, is as vivid and terrible an account of the persecutions of mortal +man as any similar incident in romance itself, of whatever age and by +whomever written. + +Dumas was in Amsterdam, in 1849, at the coronation of William III., where +it has been said--by Flotow, the composer--that the king remarked to +Dumas that none of the scenes of his romances had as yet been laid in the +Netherlands, and thereupon told him what was substantially the story of +"La Tulipe Noire." This first appeared as the product of Dumas' hand and +brain in 1850. + +This is perhaps more or less a legendary account of its inception; like +many another of the reasons for being of Dumas' romances, but it is +sufficiently plausible and well authenticated to warrant acceptance, +though it has been said, too, that it was to Paul Lacroix--"Bibliophile +Jacob"--that Dumas owed the idea of the tale. + +At all events, it is a charming pen-picture of Holland; shows a wonderful +love and knowledge of the national flower, the tulip, and is one of the +most popular of all Dumas' tales, if we except the three cycles of +romances, whose scenes and incidents are based on the history of French +court life. + +Not for many years did the translators leave "La Tulipe Noire" unnoticed, +and for over a half-century it has enjoyed a vogue which is at least +comprehensible. + +Its plot and characters are most ingeniously and dextrously handled, but +its greatest charm is incident to the process of evolving the famous black +tulip from among the indigenous varieties which, at the time of the scene +of the novel, had not got beyond the brilliantly variegated yellows and +reds. From the various stages of mauve, purple, brown, and, finally, +something very nearly akin to black, the flowering bulb finally took form, +as first presented to a wide-spread public by Dumas. + +The celebrated Alphonse Karr, a devoted lover of flowers, took the trouble +to make a "romancers' garden," composed of trees and flowers which +contemporary novelists, finding the laws of nature too narrow for them, +had described in their books. This imaginary garden owed to George Sand a +blue chrysanthemum, to Victor Hugo a Bengal rose without thorns, to Balzac +a climbing azalea, to Jules Janin a blue pink, to Madame de Genlis a green +rose, to Eugene Sue a variety of cactus growing in Paris in the open air, +to Paul Feval a variety of larch which retained its leaves during winter, +to Forgues a pretty little pink clematis which flourished around the +windows in the Latin quarter, to Rolle a scented camellia, and to Dumas +the black tulip and a white lotus. The black tulip, it may be remarked, +though unknown in Dumas' day, has now become an accomplished fact. + +Dumas, though not a botanist, had charming, if not very precise, notions +about flowers,--as about animals,--and to him they doubtless said: + + "Nous sommes les filles du feu secret, + Du feu qui circule dans les veines de la terre; + Nous sommes les filles de l'aurore et de la rosee, + Nous sommes les filles de l'air, + Nous sommes les filles de l'eau; + Mais nous sommes avant tout les filles du ciel." + +Dumas wandered much farther afield than the land of his beloved Valois. To +Italy, to Spain, to Algeria, to Corsica, to Germany, and even to Russia. +Mostly he made use of his experiences in his books of travel, of which +"Les Impressions du Voyage" is the chief. + +Who would read the narrative of the transactions which took place in +Russia's capital in the early nineteenth century, should turn to "Les +Memoires d'un Maitre d'Armes," or "Dix-huit Mois a St. Petersburgh." It +presents a picture of the Russian life of the time, in which--the critics +agree--there is but slight disguise. Its story--for it is confessedly +fiction--turns upon the fortunes of a young subaltern, who played a +considerable part in the conspiracy of 1825, and, it has been said by a +contemporary writer of the time, hardly any circumstance but the real name +of the young man is disguised. + +It is in the main, or, at least, it has for its principal incident, the +story of a political exile, and it is handled with Dumas' vivid and +consummate skill, which therein proves again that the mere romancist had a +good deal of the historian about him. + +Besides the _locale_ of "La Tulipe Noire," Dumas takes the action of "The +Forty-Five Guardsmen" into the Netherlands. Francois, the Duc d'Anjou, had +entered Belgium and had been elected Duc de Brabant, Sovereign Prince of +Flanders. At this time it was supposed that Elizabeth of England saw the +opportunity of reuniting the Calvinists of Flanders and France with those +of England, and so acquire a triple crown. Then follows an account of the +attack on Antwerp, which resulted in final defeat of the French, and +presents one of the most graphic descriptions of a battle to be found in +the pages of Dumas. The historic incident of the interview in Duc +Francois' tent, between that worthy and the French Admiral de Joyeuse, is +made much of by Dumas, and presents a most picturesque account of this +bloody battle. The topography of Antwerp and the country around about is +as graphic as a would-be painting. + +"'But,' cried the prince, 'I must settle my position in the country. I am +Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders, in name, and I must be so in +reality. This William, who is gone I know not where, spoke to me of a +kingdom. Where is this kingdom?--in Antwerp. Where is he?--probably in +Antwerp also; therefore we must take Antwerp, and we shall know how we +stand.' + +"'Oh! monseigneur, you know it now, or you are, in truth, a worse +politician than I thought you. Who counselled you to take Antwerp?--the +Prince of Orange. Who disappeared at the moment of taking the field?--the +Prince of Orange. Who, while he made your Highness Duke of Brabant, +reserved for himself the lieutenant-generalship of the duchy?--the Prince +of Orange. Whose interest is it to ruin the Spaniards by you, and you by +the Spaniards?--the Prince of Orange. Who will replace you, who will +succeed, if he does not do so already?--the Prince of Orange. Oh! +monseigneur, in following his counsels you have but annoyed the Flemings. +Let a reverse come, and all those who do not dare to look you now in the +face, will run after you like those timid dogs who run after those who +fly.' + +"'What! you imagine that I can be beaten by wool-merchants and +beer-drinkers?' + +"'These wool-merchants and these beer-drinkers have given plenty to do to +Philippe de Valois, the Emperor Charles V., and Philippe II., who were +three princes placed sufficiently high, monseigneur, for the comparison +not to be disagreeable to you.'" + +In "Pascal Bruno," Dumas launched into a story of Sicilian brigandage, +which has scarce been equalled, unless it were in his two other tales of +similar purport--"Cherubino et Celestine," and "Maitre Adam le Calabrais." + +Originally it formed one of a series which were published in one +volume--in 1838--under the title of "La Salle d'Armes, Pauline, et Pascal +Bruno." + +According to the "Memoires," a favourite rendezvous of Dumas in Paris, at +this period, was Grisier's fencing-room. There it was that the _maitre +d'armes_ handed him the manuscript entitled "Eighteen Months at St. +Petersburg,"--that remarkable account of a Russian exile,--and it is there +that Dumas would have his readers to believe that he collected the +materials for "Pauline" and "Murat." + +The great attraction of "The Corsican Brothers" lies not so much with +Corsica, the home of the _vendetta_, the land of Napoleon, and latterly +known politically as the 86me Departement de France, as with the events +which so closely and strenuously encircled the lives of the brothers De +Franchi in Paris itself. + +Corsican life and topography is limned, however, with a fidelity which has +too often been lacking in Dumas' description of foreign parts. Perhaps, +as has been said before, he extracted this information from others; but +more likely--it seems to the writer--it came from his own intimate +acquaintance with that island, as it is known that he was a visitor there +in 1834. + +If this surmise be correct, the tale was a long time in taking shape,--an +unusually long time for Dumas,--as the book did not appear until 1845, the +same year as the appearance of "Monte Cristo" in book form. + +It was dedicated to Prosper Merimee, whose "Colomba" ranks as its equal as +a thrilling tale of Corsican life. + +It has been remarked that, curiously enough, in spite of the fact that the +story has been so often dramatized and adapted for the stage,--and acted +by persons of all shades and grades of ability,--Dumas never thought well +enough of it to have given it that turn himself. + +Dumas' acquaintance with Naples never produced any more lucid paragraphs +descriptive of character, and the local colour and scenic effect besides, +than in the few short pages of "Les Pecheurs du Filet." It comes, of +course, as a result of Dumas' rather extended sojourn in Italy. + +When Dumas actually did write scenic descriptions, they were exceedingly +graphic,--though not verbose,--and exceedingly picturesque,--though not +sentimental,--as witness the following lines which open the tale--though +he does make use a little farther on of the now trite tag, "See Naples and +die." + +"Every morning on awakening I was in the habit of resting my elbows on the +window-sill and gazing far out over the limpid and sparkling mirror of the +Tyrrhenian Sea.... At night the bay is so intensely blue that, under more +favourable conditions, it resembles those leaden-hued lakes, such as +Avernus, the Fucine Lake, or Lake Agnano,--all in the neighbourhood of +Naples, which cover the craters of extinct volcanoes." + +The story gives further a wonderful pen-portrait of Ladislas I. of +Hungary, of Jerusalem, and of Sicily, and of the barbaric torture of "The +Question," which was performed upon the aspiring lover of Joanna of +Naples. + +Rome figures chiefly in "The Count of Monte Cristo," wherein half a dozen +chapters are devoted to the "Eternal City." Here it is that Monte Cristo +first meets Albert de Morcerf, son of one of that trio of enemies on whom +the count has sworn revenge. De Morcerf, enjoying the pleasures of the +Roman carnival, is captured by bandits, from whom he is rescued by the +count, who, in saving the son, makes the first move of vengeance against +the father. + +Various interesting parts of Rome are described and touched upon,--the +Teatro Argentino, the Colosseum, the Plaza del Popolo--scene of the public +executions of that time,--the catacombs of San Sebastian, and many others. +The characteristic and picturesque manners and customs of the Romans, from +_noblesse_ to peasants, are set down here in vivid and graphic style; and +it is clearly plain that when Dumas sojourned in Rome he "did as the +Romans do." + +Dumas' familiarity with Switzerland was no greater or no less than his +knowledge of Spain, of Italy, of Russia, or of Corsica. In his volumes of +travel, "Impressions du Voyage," are many charming bits of narrative which +might well be extracted and elaborated into what is otherwise known as +fiction. With regard to "Pauline," this is exactly what did happen, or, +rather, the relationship between the Pauline of the novelette and the +Pauline of "La Voyage en Suisse" is one based upon a common parentage. + +Switzerland early attracted Dumas' attention. He took his first tour in +the cantons in 1832, partly as a means of convalescing from a severe +illness, and partly because he was in danger of arrest for the too active +part taken by him in the public funeral of General Lamarque and the riots +that followed. No sooner was Dumas _en route_ than the leaves of his +note-book were torn asunder and despatched forthwith to the then newly +founded _Revue des Deux Mondes_. + +At Flueelen, that high Alpine pass, the mysterious veiled Pauline de +Meulien and her cavalier, Alfred de N----, make their first appearance. +One feels intuitively that here are the elements of a drama, of which the +author will avail himself before long. The voyages continue, however, and +the veiled lady fails to reappear until the end of the journey, when +another transitory glimpse of her is had at Pfeffers. + +This Pauline's adventures evidently demanded more space than the travels +could afford, and became ultimately a novelette. + +"Pauline" is one of Dumas' early attempts at fiction, and is told with +originality, and a very considerable skill. Nearly twenty years after +"Pauline" was written, Dumas told us that he met the counterpart of the +villain of the story, Horace de Beuzeval, who consigned the beautiful +Pauline to a living burial in the old abbey vault on the coast of +Normandy, near Trouville. + +Dumas' pictures of Switzerland are more or less conventional; with him the +story was the thing, and the minutiae of stage setting but a side issue. + + * * * * * + +In "Les Crimes Celebres," Dumas goes back to history, though he sticks to +France, with the exception of those dealing with the Borgias and Mary +Stuart. + +The crimes of the Borgias--and they were many--end the series, though they +cover but the period 1492-1507. The most unnatural and quite the most +despicable being the throwing into the Tiber by Caesar Borgia the cadaver +of his brother. Rome, the Popes, and Italy in general form much of the +venue, but the political history of France, Spain, and Austria enter +largely into the movement of the chronicle, and such widely separated +towns of France as Perpignan, in the Comte de Roussillon in the south, and +Hesdin, Etaples, and Bethune in the north, all play their parts in the +political treaties of the time. + + +THE END. + + + + +Appendix I. + +DUMAS' ROMANCES AND HISTORICAL STUDIES CLASSED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER + + + B.C. 100 Cesar. + B.C. 64 Gaule et France. + A.D. 57 Acte. + 740-1425 Les Hommes de Fer. + 740 Pepin. + 748 Charlemagne. + 1076 Guelfes et Gibelins. + 1099 Praxede. + 1157 Ivanhoe. + 1162 Le Prince de Voleurs. + 1162 Robin Hood. + 1248 Dom Martins de Freytas. + 1291-1737 Les Medicis. + 1324-1672 Italiens et Flamands. + 1324 Ange Gaddi. + 1338 La Comtesse de Salisbury. + 1356 Pierre le Cruel. + 1385 Monseigneur Gaston Phoebus. + 1388 Le Batard de Mauleon. + 1389 Isabel de Baviere. + 1402 Masaccio. + 1412 Frere Philippe Lippi. + 1414 La Peche aux Filets. + 1425 Le Sire de Giac. + 1429 Jehanne la Pucelle. + 1433 Charles le Temeraire. + 1437 Alexandre Botticelli. + 1437-1587 Les Stuarts. + 1446 Le Perugin. + 1452 Jean Bellin. + 1470 Quintin Metzys. + 1474-1576 Trois Maitres. + 1474-1564 Michel-Ange. + 1477-1576 Titien. + 1483-1520 Raphael. + 1484 Andre de Mantegna. + 1486 Leonard da Vinci. + 1490 Fra Bartolommeo. + 1490 Sogliana. + 1492 Le Pincturiccio. + 1496 Luca de Cranach. + 1503 Baldassare Peruzzi. + 1504 Giorgione. + 1512 Baccio Bandinelli. + 1512 Andre del Sarto. + 1519 Le Salteador. + 1523 Jacques de Pontormo. + 1530 Jean Holbein. + 1531 Razzi. + 1537 Une Nuit a Florence. + 1540 Jules Romain. + 1540 Ascanio. + 1542 Albert Durer. + 1531 Les Deux Dianes. + 1553 Henri IV. + 1555 Le Page du Duc de Savoie. + 1559 L'Horoscope. + 1572 La Reine Margot. + 1578 La Dame de Monsoreau. + 1585 Les Quarante-Cinq. + 1585 Louis XIII. et Richelieu. + 1619-1825 Les Drames de la Mer. + 1619 Boutikoe. + 1621 Un Courtesan. + 1625 Les Trois Mousquetaires. + 1637 La Colombe. + 1638-1715 Louis XIV. et Son Siecle. + 1639 La Princesse de Monaco. + 1640 Guerard Berck-Heyden. + 1645 Vingt Ans Apres. + 1650 La Guerre des Femmes. + 1660 Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. + 1672 Francois Mieris. + 1672 La Tulipe Noire. + 1683 La Dame de Volupte. + 1697 Memoires d'une Aveugle. + 1697 Les Confessions de la Marquise. + 1703 Les Deux Reines. + 1710-1774 Louis XV. et Sa Cour. + 1715-1723 La Regence. + 1718 Le Chevalier d'Harmental. + 1719 Une Fille du Regent. + 1729 Olympe de Cleves. + 1739 La Maison de Glace. + 1754-1789 Louis XVI. et la Revolution. + 1762-1833 Mes Memoires. + 1769-1821 Napoleon. + 1770 Joseph Balsamo. + 1772 Le Capitaine Marion. + 1779 Le Capitaine Paul. + 1784 Le Collier de la Reine. + 1785 Le Docteur Mysterieux. + 1788 Ingenue. + 1789 Ange Pitou. + 1789 Le Chateau d'Eppstein. + 1790 La Comtesse de Charny. + 1791 La Route de Varennes. + 1792 Cecile. + 1793 Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge. + 1793 La Fille du Marquis. + 1793 Blanche de Beaulieu. + 1793 Le Drame de '93. + 1794 Les Blancs et les Bleus. + 1795 La Junon. + 1798 La San Felice. + 1799 Emma Lyonna. + 1799 Les Compagnons de Jehu. + 1800 Souvenirs d'une Favorite. + 1807 Memoires de Garibaldi. + 1812 Le Capitaine Richard. + 1815 Murat. + 1824 Le Maitre d'Armes. + 1825 Le Kent. + 1831 Les Louves de Machecoul. + 1838-1858 Les Morts Vont Vite. + 1838 Hegesippe Moreau. + 1842 Le Duc d'Orleans. + 1848 Chateaubriand. + 1849 La Derniere Annee de Marie Dorval. + 1857 Beranger. + 1857 Eugene Sue. + 1857 Alfred de Musset. + 1857 Achille Deveria. + 1857 Lefevre-Deumier. + 1858 La Duchesse d'Orleans. + 1860 Les Garibaldiens. + 1866 La Terreur Prussienne. + + + + +Appendix II. + +DUMAS' ROMANCES, SKETCHES, AND "NOUVELLES INTIMES" CLASSED IN +CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER + + + 1469 Isaac Laquedem. + 1708 Sylvandire. + 1754 Le Pasteur d'Ashbourn. + 1774 Le Testament de M. de Chauvelin. + 1780 Le Meneur de Loups. + 1793 La Femme au Collier de Velours. + 1797 Jacques Ortis. + 1799 Souvenirs d'Antony. + 1805 Un Cadet de Famille. + 1806 Aventures de John Davys. + 1810 Les Mariages du Pere Olifus. + 1810 Le Trou de l'Enfer. + 1812 Jane. + 1814 Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. + 1815 Conscience l'Innocent. + 1817 Le Pere La Ruine. + 1824 Georges. + 1827 Les Mohicans de Paris. + 1827 Salvator. + 1828 Sultanetta. + 1828 Jacquot sans Oreilles. + 1829 Catherine Blum. + 1829 La Princesse Flora. + 1830 Dieu Dispose. + 1830 La Boule de Neige. + 1831 Le Capitaine Pamphile. + 1831 Les Drames Galants. + 1831 Le Fils du Forcat. + 1831 Les Mille et un Fantomes. + 1832 Une Vie d'Artiste. + 1834 Pauline. + 1835 Fernande. + 1835 Gabriel Lambert. + 1838 Amaury. + 1841 Les Freres Corses. + 1841 Le Chasseur de Sauvagini. + 1842 Black. + 1846 Parisiens et Provinciaux. + 1847 L'Ile de Feu. + 1856 Madame de Chamblay. + 1856 Une Aventure d'Amour. + + + + +Appendix III. + +DUMAS' TRAVELS CLASSED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER + + + 1830 Quinze Jours au Sinai. + 1832 Suisse. + 1834 Le Midi de la France. + 1835 Une Annee a Florence. + 1835 La Ville Palmieri. + 1835 Le Speronare. (Sicile.) + 1835 Le Capitaine Arena. (Sicile.) + 1835 Le Corricolo. (Naples.) + 1838 Excursions sur les Bords du Rhin. + 1839 La Vie au Desert. (Afrique meridionale.) + 1843 L'Arabie Heureuse. + 1846 De Paris a Cadix. + 1846 Le Veloce (Tanger, Alger, Tunis.) + 1850 Un Gil Blas en Californie. + 1853 Un Pays Inconnu. (Havane, Bresil.) + 1858 En Russie. + 1858 Le Caucase. + 1858 Les Baleiniers. + + + + +Index + + + Abbaye de Montmartre, 227. + + Abbey of St. Denis, 142, 143. + + Abbey of St. Genevieve, 37, 136, 187, 253. + + Abelard and Heloise, 82. + + About, Edmond, 42, 188. + + Academie Francaise, 228. + + Aigues-Mortes, 139, 347. + + Alais, 160. + + Alegres, D', 224. + + Alencon, 79, 326. + + Algiers, 45. + + Alicante, 159. + + Allee de la Muette, 231. + + Allee des Cygnes, 11. + + Alsace and Lorraine, 11. + + "Ambigu," The, 54. + + Amsterdam, 361. + + "An Englishman in Paris" (Vandam), 94, 116. + + "Ange Pitou," see Works of Dumas. + + Angers, 332-334. + + Angers, Castle of, 333. + + Angers, David d', 82. + + Angles, Count, 151. + + Anjou, 333. + + Anjou, Duc d', 365. + + Anne of Austria, 115, 266, 289, 312. + + "Anthony," see Works of Dumas. + + Antwerp, 365. + + Aramis, 45, 49, 246, 247, 252, 300, 329. + + Aramitz, Henry d', see Aramis. + + Arc de Triomphe, 147. + + Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, 135. + + Arc de Triomphe d'Etoile, 88, 138, 192. + + Argenteuil, 314. + + Arles, 347, 349. + + Arnault, Lucien, 18, 71. + + Arras, 49, 324. + + Artagnan, 49. + + Artagnan, see D'Artagnan. + + Asnieres, 171. + + Athos, 45, 49, 246-248, 252, 313. + + Auber, 117. + + "Au Fidele Berger," 205. + + Augennes, Jacques d', 315. + + Augennes, Regnault d', 315. + + "Au Grand Roi Charlemagne," 248. + + Aumale, D', 323. + + Auteuil, 87. + + Auvergne, 321. + + Auxerre, 159. + + Avedick, 289. + + Avenel, Georges, 101-103. + + Avenue de la Grande Armee, 139. + + Avenue de l'Opera, 114, 149. + + Avenue de Villiers, 124. + + Avignon, 359. + + + Balzac, 69, 82, 127, 363. + + Barbes, 179. + + Barbizon, 71. + + Barras, 74. + + Barrere, 143. + + Bartholdi's "Liberty," 11. + + Bastille, The, 149, 152, 173, 196, 225, 241, 263, 268, 278, 284-287, + 292, 295, 296. + + Bath, 76. + + Batignolles, 87. + + Batz, Baron de, 50. + + Batz de Castlemore, Charles de, see D'Artagnan. + + Baudry, 129, 151. + + Bauville, Theodore de, 51. + + Bavaria, 77. + + Beaucaire, 347-349. + + Beaufort, Duke of, 289. + + Beausire, 254. + + Belgium, 8, 92, 365. + + Bellegarde, 347. + + Belle Ile, 327-329. + + Belleville, 87. + + Bellune, Duc de, 84. + + Beranger, 3, 68, 71. + + Bercy, 87. + + Bernhardt, Sara, 191. + + Berry, Duchesse de, 152. + + Bertuccio, 328. + + Besancon, 92. + + Bethune, 372. + + Beuzeval, Horace de, 371. + + Biard, 224. + + "Bibliotheque Royale," 50, 131, 135, 253. + + Bicetre, 234. + + Bigelow, John, 125. + + Billot, Father, 18, 23, 24. + + "Black Tulip," see Works of Dumas. + + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 257. + + Blanc, Louis, 75, 179. + + Blanqui, 179. + + Blois, 155, 246, 330-332. + + Blois, Chateau de, 330, 331. + + Bohemia, 95, 96. + + Boieldieu, 82, 153. + + Bois de Boulogne, 89, 150, 192, 231, 298, 319. + + Bois de Meudon, 303. + + Bois de Vincennes, 89, 147, 150, 319. + + Boissy, Adrien de, 255, 256. + + Bondy, 315. + + Bordeaux, 151, 154, 159, 342. + + Borgias, The, 372. + + Boulevard des Italiens, 92, 93, 114, 187, 213, 231. + + Boulevard du Prince Eugene, 140. + + Boulevard Henri Quatre, 285. + + Boulevard Magenta, 140, 149. + + Boulevard Malesherbes, 103, 140, 149. + + Boulevard Raspail, 252. + + Boulevard Sebastopol, 140, 149. + + Boulevard St. Denis, 135, 147. + + Boulevard St. Germain, 128, 140, 149, 252. + + Boulevard St. Martin, 135, 147, 149. + + Boulogne, 160. + + Bourges, 155. + + Bourg, L'Abbe, 130. + + Bourgogne, 105. + + Bourse, The, 89, 91. + + Brabant, Duc de, 365. + + Brentano, 360. + + Brest, 90, 91, 160. + + Breteuil, De, 296. + + Bridges: + Cahors, 172. + Lyons, 172. + Orthos, 172. + St. Benezet d'Avignon, 172. + See under Pont also. + + Brillat-Savarin, 102, 103. + + Brinvilliers, Marquise de, 286, 287. + + Brionze, 79. + + Brittany, 327, 328. + + Broggi, Paolo, 118. + + Brown, Sir Thomas, 142. + + Brozier, 31. + + Brussels, 44, 76. + + "Bruyere aux Loups," 23. + + Buckingham, 322. + + Buckle, 96. + + Bureau d'Orleans, 8, 31, 58, 84, 187. + + Burns, 43. + + Bussy, 333. + + Buttes Chaumont, 190, 314. + + Byron, 43. + + + "Cachot de Marie Antoinette," 238. + + Caderousse, 347, 349. + + Caen, 326. + + Cafe de Paris, 111, 187, 189. + + Cafe des Anglais, 118. + + Cafe du Roi, 18. + + Cafe Riche, 118. + + Cagliostro, 295, 296. + + Cahors, 351. + + Cahors, Bridge of, 172. + + Calais, 159, 160, 321-324, 327. + + Calcutta, 76. + + Calixtus II., 198. + + Cambaceres, Delphine, 82. + + Canebiere, The, 342. + + Cantal, 321. + + Capetians, The, 194. + + "Capitaine Pamphile," see Works of Dumas. + + "Capitaine Paul" (Paul Jones), see Works of Dumas. + + Carcassonne, 139. + + Carlyle, 69. + + Carmelite Friary, 246, 252. + + "Caserne Napoleon," 140. + + Caspian Sea, The, 44. + + Castle of Angers, 333. + + Castle of Pierrefonds, 324. + + Cathedral de Notre Dame (Chartres), 329. + + Cathedral of Notre Dame de Rouen, 187. + + "Catriona" (Stephenson), 361. + + Caucasus, 8. + + "Causeries," see Works of Dumas. + + Caussidiere, Marc, 178, 179. + + Cavaignac, General, 179. + + Ceinture Railway, 89, 303. + + Cenci, The, 285. + + Chaffault, De, 46. + + Chalet de Monte Cristo, see Residences of Dumas. + + Chalons, 359. + + Chambord, 332. + + Chambre des Deputes, 8, 138, 167, 187. + + Champs Elysees, 95, 136, 150. + + Changarnier, General, 181. + + Chanlecy, Charlotte Anne de, 50. + + Chantilly, 297, 298. + + Charenton, 87. + + Charlemagne, 129, 193. + + Charles I., 267. + + Charles VI., 315, 325. + + Charles VII., 131. + + Charles VIII., 132. + + Charles IX., 133, 212, 217, 236, 253, 263, 311, 320, 333. + + Charles X., 156, 270. + + Charles-le-Temeraire, 215. + + Charpillon, M., 8. + + Chartres, 329, 330. + + Chartres, Cathedral de Notre Dame, 329. + + Chartres, Duc de (Philippe d'Orleans), 267. + + Chateaubriand, 68, 147. + + Chateau de Blois, 330, 331. + + Chateau d'If, 45, 339, 340, 343, 347. + + Chateau de Rambouillet, 315. + + Chateau de Rocca Petrella, 285. + + Chateau de Vincennes, 319, 320. + + Chateau of Madrid, 298, 319. + + Chateau Neuf, 303, 312, 313. + + Chateaurien, Rene de, 319. + + Chatelet du Monte Cristo, 303. + + Chatillon-sur-Seine, 169. + + Chenier, Andre, 68, 71. + + Cherbourg, 160. + + "Cherubino et Celestine," see Works of Dumas. + + "Cheval de Bronze," 172. + + "Chevalier d'Harmental," see Works of Dumas. + + "Chicot the Jester" ("La Dame de Monsoreau"), see Works of Dumas. + + Childebert, 129, 212. + + Childerie, 129. + + Chopin, 82. + + Christine of Sweden, 123. + + Churches, see under Eglise. + + Cimetiere des Innocents, 197, 221. + + Cimetiere Pere la Chaise, see Pere la Chaise. + + Cinq-Mars, 224. + + Civil War, The, 50. + + Claremont, 180. + + Clement-Thomas, Gen., 227. + + Clovis, 129. + + "Clymnestre," 19. + + "Coches d'Eau," 156. + + Coconnas, 173. + + Coligny, 260. + + Coligny, _fils_, 224. + + College des Quatre Nations, 135, 173. + + "Colomba," 368. + + Colonne de Juillet, 88. + + Comedie Francaise, 190. + + "_Commission des Monuments Historiques_," 278. + + "_Commission du Vieux Paris_," 193. + + Commune, The, 185, 192, 196, 227, 263, 264. + + "Compagnie Generale des Omnibus," 153. + + Compiegne, 24, 46, 246, 286, 297, 298, 317-319. + + "Comtesse de Charny," see Works of Dumas. + + Conciergerie, 92, 236, 238, 240, 241, 263, 286. + + Conde, 224, 320. + + Conflans-Charenton, 171. + + Contades, Count G. de, 79. + + Conti, Prince de, 90. + + Corneille, 224. + + Corot, 72, 73, 191. + + Corsica, 8, 337, 351, 367. + + "Corsican Brothers," see Works of Dumas. + + Cosne, 155. + + Couloir St. Hyacinthe, 228. + + Courbevoie, 314. + + Cour du Justice, 241. + + "Count of Monte Cristo," see Works of Dumas. + + Cours la Reine, 133. + + Crepy-en-Valois, 15, 16, 24, 46, 83, 315, 317, 318, 321. + + "Crimes Celebres" ("Celebrated Crimes"), see Works of Dumas. + + Cul-de-sac des Marchands des Chevaux, 286. + + "Cyrano de Bergerac," 43. + + + Dammartin, 16, 24, 317. + + Damploux, 24. + + Danglars, Baron, 109, 231, 261. + + Dantes, 229, 231, 328, 344, 346, 347, 355. + + Darnley, 324. + + Daubonne, 214. + + Daudet, 3, 349. + + David, 82. + + "David Copperfield," 34. + + D'Alegres, The, 224. + + D'Angers, David, 82. + + D'Anjou, Duc, 365. + + D'Aramitz, Henry, see Aramis. + + D'Artagnan, 45, 48-50, 56, 127, 200, 201, 206, 214, 223, 225, 245-247, + 252, 267, 313, 328, 329. + + D'Artagnan Romances, 148, 171, 195, 205, 215, 225, 235, 247, 254, 266, + 312, 330, 331. + + D'Augennes, Jacques, 315. + + D'Augennes, Regnault, 315. + + D'Aumale, 323. + + De Batz, Baron, 50. + + De Batz de Castlemore, Charles, see D'Artagnan. + + De Bauville, Theodore, 51. + + De Bellune, Duc, 84. + + De Berry, Duchesse, 152. + + De Beuzeval, Horace, 371. + + De Boissy, Adrien, 255, 256. + + De Brabant, Duc, 365. + + De Breteuil, 296. + + De Brinvilliers, Marquise, 286, 287. + + De Chaffault, 46. + + De Chanlecy, Charlotte Anne, 50. + + De Chartres, Duc (Philippe d'Orleans), 267. + + De Chateaurien, Rene, 319. + + De Contades, Count G., 79. + + De Conti, Prince, 90. + + D'Enghien, Duc, 320. + + D'Estrees, Gabrielle, 228, 260. + + De Flesselles, 196. + + De France, Henriette, 267. + + De Franchi, 213, 232, 255, 367. + + De Franchi, Louis, 319. + + De Genlis, Madame, 363. + + De Guise, Cardinal, 323. + + De Guise, Duc, 224, 253, 278, 301, 323. + + De Guise, Duchesse, 122, 323. + + De Jallais, Amedee, 232. + + De Joyeuse, Admiral, 365. + + De la Mole, 212. + + De la Motte, Madame, 228, 241, 307. + + De Launay, 284. + + De Leuven, Adolphe, 14, 16, 18. + + De Lesdequieres, Duchesse, 293. + + De Longueville, Madame, 224. + + De Marsillac, Prince, 90. + + De Mauge, Marquis, 214. + + De Maupassant, Guy, 228. + + De Medici, Marie, 133, 224, 260. + + De Medici, Catherine, 208, 212, 264. + + De Merle, 18. + + De Meulien, Pauline, 371. + + De Montford, Comtes, 315. + + De Montmorenci, Duc, 255. + + De Montpensier, Duc, 45. + + De Morcerf, Albert, 369. + + De Morcerf, Madame, 358. + + De Musset, Alfred, 68, 82, 95, 123. + + De Nemours, M., 323. + + De Nerval, Gerard, 123. + + De Nevers, Duchesse, 197. + + D'Orleans, Louis, 324. + + De Poissy, Gerard, 130. + + De Poitiers, Diane, 260. + + De Portu, Jean, see Porthos. + + De Retz, Cardinal, 320. + + De Richelieu, see Richelieu. + + De Rohan, 37, 224. + + De Sevigne, Madame, 102, 223. + + De Sillegue, Colonel, 49. + + De Sillegue d'Athos, Armand, see Athos. + + De Sorbonne, Robert, 244. + + De Ste. Croix, Gaudin, 286. + + De Talleyrand, Henri, 214. + + De Treville, 49, 246, 251. + + De Valois, see under Valois. + + De Vigny, 68. + + De Villefort, 261, 340. + + De Villemessant, 52. + + De Volterre, Ricciarelli, 224. + + De Wardes, 322. + + De Windt, Cornelius, 361. + + De Windt, Jacobus, 361. + + De Winter, Lady, 223. + + Debret, 117. + + Decamps, 191. + + Delacroix, 73, 82, 97, 191. + + Delavigne, 18, 82. + + Delrien, 18. + + Demidoff, Prince, 189. + + "Dernier Jour d'un Condamne," 239. + + Desaugiers, 31. + + Desbordes-Valmore, Madame, 70. + + Descamps, Gabriel, 221. + + Desmoulins, Camille, 268. + + Dibdin, 150. + + Dickens, Charles, 34. + + "Dictionnaire de Cuisine," see Works of Dumas. + + Dieppe, 8, 66. + + "Director of Evacuations at Naples," 45, 57. + + "Dix-huit Mois a St. Petersburgh," see Works of Dumas. + + Don Quixote, 245. + + Dore, Gustave, 123, 140, 149. + + Douai, 49. + + Dover, 154, 322. + + _Drapeau Blanc_, 31. + + Ducercen, 313. + + Ducis, 121. + + Dujarrier-Beauvallon, 75-77. + + Dumas: + Monuments to, see under Monuments. + Residences of, see under Residences. + Title of, see under Title. + Travels of, see under Travels. + Works of, see under Works. + + Dumas, General, Marquis de la Pailleterie, 26, 27, 47. + + Dumas, _fils_, 64, 66, 67, 75, 78, 79, 81, 121, 124. + + Duprez, 117. + + + Ecole des Beaux Arts, 244. + + Ecole de Droit, 136, 183, 244. + + Ecole de Medicine, 244. + + "Ecole des Viellards," 18. + + Ecole Militaire, 136. + + Edict of Nantes, 334. + + Eglise de la Madeleine, 88, 138, 149, 153. + + Eglise de Notre Dame, 86, 129, 167, 198, 235, 263, 286. + + Eglise de St. Gervais, 132. + + Eglise de St. Merry, 132. + + Eglise de St. Paul et St. Louis, 133. + + Eglise St. Etienne du Mont, 167, 253, 254. + + Eglise St. Eustache, 192. + + Eglise St. Germain l'Auxerrois, 132, 212, 260. + + Eglise St. Innocents, 142, 144, 223. + + Eglise St. Jacques, 198. + + Eglise St. Roch, 134. + + Eglise St. Severin, 167. + + Eglise St. Sulpice, 167. + + "Eighteen Months at St. Petersburg," 367. + + Elba, 25, 219, 337. + + Elizabeth, 365. + + Elysee, The, 25, 103. + + Enghien, Duc d', 320. + + England, 8, 50. + + Epinac, 160. + + Ermenonville, 24. + + Esplanade des Invalides, 150. + + Estaminet du Divan, 118. + + Estrees, Gabrielle d', 228, 260. + + Etaples, 372. + + + "Fabrique des Romans," 38. + + Falaise, 326. + + Faubourg St. Denis, 220. + + Faubourg St. Germain, 83, 132. + + Faubourg St. Honore, 83. + + Fernand, 261. + + Ferry, Gabriel, 233. + + Feval, Paul, 363. + + _Figaro, The_, 52. + + Flanders, 321. + + Flaubert, Gustave, 77. + + Flesselles, De, 196. + + Fleury, General, 76. + + Florence, 115. + + Fontainebleau, 155, 297, 298, 300, 302, 303, 315. + + Fontaine des Innocents, 145, 187, 193, 222. + + Foret de Compiegne, 318, 319. + + Foret de l'Aigue, 286. + + Forgues, 363. + + Fort de Vincennes, 320. + + Fort Lamalge, 350. + + "Forty-Five Guardsmen," see Works of Dumas. + + Fosses de la Bastille, 137. + + Fouque, 360. + + Fouquet, 199, 289, 298, 300, 320. + + Foy, General, 31, 82, 84. + + France, Henriette de, 267. + + Franchi, De, 213, 232, 255, 367. + + Franchi, Louis de, 319. + + Francis, 18. + + Francois I., 131-134, 144, 197, 198, 260, 313. + + Franco-Prussian War, 57, 164, 192. + + Fronde, 89. + + + "Gabriel Lambert," see Works of Dumas. + + Gaillardet, 238. + + Gare de l'Est, 162. + + Gare du Nord, 162. + + Gare St. Lazare, 161. + + Garibaldi, 37. + + Garnier, 190. + + Gascony, 50. + + Gaston of Orleans, 331. + + Gautier, 68, 71, 72, 123. + + Gay, Mme. Delphine, 70. + + Genlis, Madame de, 363. + + "Georges," see Works of Dumas. + + Germany, 8, 360. + + Girondins, The, 194. + + Glinel, Charles, 26. + + Godot, 151. + + Goethe, 68, 360. + + "Golden Lion," 316. + + Gondeville, 24. + + Gouffe, Armand, 31. + + Goujon, Jean, 132, 223, 260. + + Granger, Marie, 327. + + Grenelle, 95. + + Grisier, 75, 367. + + "Guido et Genevra" (Halevy), 54. + + Guilbert, 205. + + Guise, Cardinal de, 323. + + Guise, Duc de, 224, 253, 278, 301, 323. + + Guise, Duchesse de, 122, 323. + + Guizot, 69. + + + Halevy, 54, 70, 117. + + Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 168. + + Hamilton, 324. + + "Hamlet," 121. + + Haramont, 23. + + Hautes-Pyrenees, 49. + + Havre, 150, 160, 169, 179, 180, 326. + + Henri I., 323. + + Henri II., 132, 172, 303, 312, 323. + + Henri III., 122, 133, 172, 323, 333. + + Henri IV., 133, 134, 143, 217, 224, 235, 236, 260, 303, 312, 320, 323, + 351, 354. + + Henri V., 181. + + "Henri III. et Sa Cour," see Works of Dumas. + + "Hernani," 122. + + Herold, 82. + + Hesdin, 372. + + "Histoire de Jules Cesar" (Napoleon III.), 73. + + "Histoire des Prisons de Paris," 238. + + "History of Civilization" (Buckle), 96. + + Hoffman, 360. + + Honfleur, 169, 179. + + Hopital des Petites Maisons, 132. + + Hopital du St. Jacques du Haut Pas, 133. + + Hotel Boulainvilliers, 228. + + Hotel Chevreuse, 127, 128, 252. + + Hotel D'Artagnan, 214. + + Hotel de Bourgogne, 133, 215. + + Hotel de Choiseul, 115. + + Hotel de Cluny, 167. + + Hotel de Coligny, 278. + + Hotel de Duc de Guise, 278. + + Hotel de France, 248. + + Hotel des Invalides, 135, 149, 167. + + "Hotel de la Belle Etoile," 208, 212. + + Hotel de la Monnaie, 136, 248. + + Hotel de Louvre, 102. + + Hotel de Mercoeur, 266. + + Hotel des Montmorencies, 278. + + Hotel des Mousquetaires, 207, 210. + + Hotel des Postes, 154. + + Hotel de Soissons, 133. + + Hotel de Venise, 234. + + Hotel de Ville, 132, 137, 191, 196, 197, 204, 318. + + Hotel du Vieux-Augustins, 16. + + Hotel la Tremouille, 251. + + Hotel Longueville, 89. + + "Hotel Picardie," 214. + + Hotel Rambouillet, 266. + + Hotel Richelieu, 266. + + Hugo, Victor, 3, 37, 68, 71, 73, 79, 82, 122, 127, 155, 156, 158, 223, + 239, 363. + + Hugo, Pere, 82. + + Huntley, 324. + + Hyeres, 351. + + + Ile de la Cite, 86, 131, 133, 165, 169, 172, 235. + + Ile St. Louis, 165, 169. + + "Impressions du Voyage," see Works of Dumas. + + "Inn of the Beautiful Peacock," 300. + + Irving, Washington, 41. + + Island of Monte Cristo, 338. + + Isle of France (Mauritius), 46. + + Italy, 8, 44. + + Ivry, 88. + + + Jacquot, 51. + + Jallais, Amedee de, 233. + + James II., 303. + + Janin, Jules, 363. + + Jardin des Plantes, 134, 149. + + "Jeanne d'Arc," see Works of Dumas. + + Jean-sans-Peur, 215. + + Jerome, Prince, 271. + + Jerusalem, 369. + + Jesuit College, 132. + + "Jeune Malade," 205. + + Joanna of Naples, 369. + + Joigny, 46, 58. + + Jourdain, Marshal, 84. + + Jouy, 18. + + Joyeuse, Admiral de, 365. + + "Jugurtha," 45. + + Jussac, 252. + + + Karr, Alphonse, 363. + + "Kean," see Works of Dumas. + + Kipling, 41. + + Kotzebue, 285. + + + L'Abbe Metel de Bois-Robert, 228. + + La Beauce, 166. + + La Brie, 166. + + Lachambeaudie, 82. + + Lacenaire, 240. + + La Chapelle, 87. + + La Chatre, 70. + + "La Chevrette," 214. + + La Cite, 129, 130, 166, 167, 235, 247. + + "La Compagne Lafitte et Caillard," 157. + + Lacroix, Paul, 362. + + "La Dame aux Camelias," 79. + + La Dame aux Camelias, see Plessis, Alphonsine, 78. + + "La Dame de Monsoreau" ("Chicot the Jester"), see Works of Dumas. + + Ladislas I. of Hungary, 369. + + "La Feuille" (Arnault), 71. + + _La France_, 163. + + Lamartine, 68, 71, 179. + + Lambert, Gabriel, 326, 327. + + Langeais, 332. + + "La Pastissier Francaise," 104. + + "La Pate d'Italie," 93. + + _La Presse_, 75. + + _La Revue_, 54, 64. + + La Rochelle, 49. + + La Roquette, 263, 278. + + Lassagne, 31. + + Latin Quarter, see Quartier Latin. + + "La Tour de Nesle," see Works of Dumas. + + Launay, De, 284. + + La Ville, 130, 166, 167. + + La Villette, 24, 87, 137. + + Lebrun, Madame, 179. + + "Le Chatelet," 204. + + Leclerc, Captain, 229. + + "Le Collier de la Reine" (The Queen's Necklace), see Works of Dumas. + + Lecomte, General, 227. + + _Le Gaulois_, 163. + + Legislative Assembly, 183. + + _Le Livre_, 79. + + Lemarquier, 239. + + Lemercier, 19. + + _Le Mousquetaire_, 44. + + "Le Nord" Railway, 160. + + _Le Peuple_, 98. + + Lescot, Pierre, 222, 260. + + Lesdequieres, Duchesse de, 293. + + "Les Francaises," 157. + + Les Grandes Eaux, 303. + + Les Halles, 206, 222, 263. + + "Les Pecheurs du Filet," see Works of Dumas, 368. + + "L'Est" Railway, 160. + + Les Ternes, 87. + + "Les Trois Mousquetaires," see Works of Dumas. + + "Le Stryge," 198. + + Leuven, Adolphe de, 14, 16, 18. + + _L'Homme-Libre_, 75. + + Lille, 49, 160. + + "L'Image de Notre Dame," 199, 201. + + Limerick, 76. + + L'Institut, 167. + + Lisbon, 77. + + Lisieux, 326. + + Loire, The, 155, 160, 168, 329-331. + + London, 76, 105, 150, 154, 179, 189, 321. + + London Tower, 185. + + Longe, 79. + + Longueville, Madame de, 224. + + "L'Orleans" Railway, 160, 161, 192. + + "L'Ouest" Railway, 160. + + Louis I., 77. + + Louis IV., 220. + + Louis VII., 130, 173. + + Louis VIII., 144. + + Louis XI., 12, 131. + + Louis XII., 131, 134. + + Louis XIII., 133, 214, 224, 266. + + Louis XIV., 50, 104, 115, 134, 135, 143, 224, 260, 267, 288, 289, 303, + 304, 312, 328, 330, 331. + + Louis XV., 135, 166, 318. + + Louis XVI., 196, 264, 315. + + Louis XVIII., 143, 154, 262. + + Louis-Philippe, 31, 38, 58, 69, 72, 86, 88, 104, 116, 153, 180, 193, + 268, 270. + + Louvre, The, 89, 132, 135, 136, 167, 173, 175, 184, 187, 195, 208, 212, + 215, 221, 241, 255, 258-264, 315. + + Loyola, Ignatius, 227. + + Lulli, 115. + + L'Universite, 127, 130, 166, 167, 244, 248. + + _Lutece_, 86. + + Luxembourg, The, 133, 167, 187, 191, 245-247, 251, 253-255. + + Luxembourg, Gardens of the, 70, 150, 253. + + Lycee Henri Quatre, 253. + + Lyons, 157, 159, 172, 301, 342, 359. + + + Mackeat (Maquet), Augustus, 39-42. + + Madeleine, The (Church), 88, 138, 149, 153. + + Madelonnettes, The, 134. + + Madrid, 159. + + Madrid, Chateau of, 298, 319. + + Maestricht, 50. + + Magazin St. Thomas, 147. + + "_Maison Dumas et Cie_," 40, 51. + + "Maitre Adam le Calabrais," see Works of Dumas. + + Malmesbury, Lord, 76. + + Mandrin, Pierre, 91. + + "Man in the Iron Mask, The," 288, 289. + + Mantes, 165, 169. + + Marat, Jean Paul, 229. + + Marcel, Etienne, 130, 193. + + Margot, 236. + + "Marguerite de Valois," see Works of Dumas. + + Marie Antoinette, 50, 236, 238. + + Marne, 165. + + Marrast, Armand, 179. + + Mars, Mlle., 123. + + Marseilles, 155, 219, 229, 261, 339-342, 349, 351, 358. + + Marsillac, Prince de, 90. + + Mattioli, 290. + + Mauge, Marquise de, 214. + + Maupassant, Guy de, 228. + + Mauritius (Isle of France), 46. + + Mazarin, 37, 115, 211, 267, 273, 275. + + "Mechanism of Modern Life," 101. + + Medici, Marie de, 133, 224, 260. + + Medici, Catherine de, 208, 212, 264. + + "Meditations" (Lamartine), 68. + + Mediterranean, The, 45, 327, 336, 340. + + "Memoires," see Works of Dumas. + + "Memoires de M. d'Artagnan," 49. + + "Memoires d'un Maitre d'Armes," see Works of Dumas. + + Menilmontant, 87. + + Mennesson, 14. + + Merimee, 69, 159, 368. + + Merle, De, 18. + + Merovee, 129. + + Meryon, 126-128, 198. + + "Mes Betes," see Works of Dumas. + + "Messageries a Cheval," 157. + + "Messageries Royale," 157. + + "Metropolitain," 204. + + Metz, 157. + + Meulan, 165. + + Meulien, Pauline de, 371. + + Meyerbeer, 117. + + Michelangelo, 224. + + Michelet, 69, 82, 98-100. + + Mignet, 69. + + Millet, 71. + + Minister of the Interior, 183. + + Mirabeau, 320. + + Mohammed Ali, 88. + + Mole, De la, 212. + + Moliere, 224. + + Molle, Mathieu, 211. + + Monastere des Feuillants, 133. + + Monet, 187. + + Monmouth, Duke of, 289. + + Monselet, Charles, 163. + + Monstrelet, 215. + + Montargis, 155. + + "Monte Cristo," see Works of Dumas. + + Monte Cristo, Island of, 45, 338. + + Montez, Lola, 76, 78. + + Montford, Comtes de, 315. + + Montmartre, 87, 142, 146, 188, 190, 227, 314. + + Montmartre, Abbaye of, 227. + + Montmorenci, Duc de, 255. + + Montpensier, Duc de, 45. + + Mont Valerien, 88. + + Monuments to Dumas, 140, 149. + + Morcerf, Mme. de, 358. + + Morcerf, Albert de, 369. + + Morrel, House of, 349. + + Motte, Mme. de la, 228, 241, 307. + + Moulin Rouge, 227. + + Moulin de la Galette, 227. + + Mount of Martyrs, 227. + + Mueller, 241. + + Munier, Georges, 46. + + Murat, 351. + + "Murat," see Works of Dumas. + + Muerger, Henri, 96. + + Musee, Cluny, 5. + + Musset, Alfred de, 68, 82, 95, 123. + + "Mysteries of Paris," 99. + + + Nadaud, Gustave, 96. + + Nancy, 157, 160. + + Nantes, 151, 334-336. + + Nantes, Edict of, 334. + + Nanteuil, 24. + + Naples, 8, 368. + + Napoleon I., 1, 25, 74, 88, 116, 137, 138, 192, 193, 218, 219, 244, 260, + 265, 270, 313, 325, 367. + + Napoleon III., 54, 73, 74, 89, 102, 144, 180, 181, 183-185, 260, 265, + 271, 315, 325. + + Napoleon, Jerome, 45. + + Nemours, De, 323. + + Nerval, Gerard de, 123. + + Netherlands, The, 365. + + Nevers, Duchesse de, 197. + + New York, 11, 105. + + Nodier, Charles, 69, 82, 104, 156. + + Nogaret, 238. + + Nogent, 88. + + Noirtier, M., 229. + + Normandy, 326, 327. + + Notre Dame, see under Eglise. + + Notre Dame de la Garde (Marseilles), 342. + + + Obelisk, The, 88. + + Observatoire, The, 135, 244. + + Odeon, The, 123, 167, 187. + + "Odes et Ballades" (Hugo), 68. + + "Oedipus," 122. + + "Old Mortality," 121. + + Oliva, 255. + + Oloron, 49. + + Omnibus, Companies: + "Compagnie Generale des Omnibus," 153. + "La Compagne Lafitte et Caillard," 157. + "Les Francaises," 157. + "Messageries Royales," 157. + "Messageries a Cheval," 157. + + "Opera," The, 89, 91, 95, 114, 115, 118, 190. + + Opera Comique, 190. + + Oratoire, The, 134. + + Orleans, 155, 160, 237, 330. + + Orleans, House of, 181, 324. + + Orthez, 49. + + Orthon, 208. + + Orthos, 172. + + Orthos, Bridge of, 172. + + "Otho the Archer," 360. + + Ourcq (river), 137. + + + Pailleterie, Marquis de la, see Dumas, General. + + Palais Bourbon, 187. + + Palais Cardinal, 134, 266. + + Palais de Justice, 236, 239, 241. + + Palais de la Bourse, 137. + + Palais de l'Industrie, 141. + + Palais de la Revolution, 270. + + Palais des Arts, 173. + + Palais des Beaux Arts, 138, 143, 238. + + Palais des Tournelles, 133. + + Palais National, 183. + + Palais Royale, 16, 31, 95, 115, 134, 167, 183, 187, 224, 228, 246, 247, + 266-273, 275. + + Panorama Colbert, 148. + + Panorama Delorme, 148. + + Panorama de l'Opera, 148. + + Panorama du Saumon, 148. + + Panorama Jouffroy, 148. + + Panorama Vivienne, 148. + + Pantheon, The, 37, 136, 167, 187, 252, 253. + + Paraclet, 81. + + Parc Monceau, 228. + + "Paris-Lyon et Mediterranee" (P. L. M.) Ry., 160, 161, 192. + + "Pascal Bruno," see Works of Dumas. + + Passerelle, Constantine, 170. + + Passerelle de l'Estacade, 170. + + Passerelle St. Louis, 170. + + Passy, 87, 150. + + Pau, 354. + + "Pauline," see Works of Dumas. + + "Paul Jones" ("Capitaine Paul"), see Works of Dumas. + + Pennell, Joseph, 168. + + Pere la Chaise, 81, 142, 146, 188, 239, 340. + + Perpignan, 372. + + Petit Pont, 170. + + Petits Augustins, 143. + + Pfeffers, 371. + + Philippe-Auguste, 130, 134, 144, 260. + + Phoebus, Gaston, 354. + + Pierrefonds, 246, 317. + + Pierrefonds, Castle of, 324. + + Picardie, 321. + + "Pilon d'Or," 205. + + Pitou, Louis Ange, 18, 23, 24, 317. + + Place Dauphine, 133, 235. + + Place de Bourgogne, 182. + + Place de la Bastille, 148, 167, 187, 225, 296. + + Place de la Concorde, 136, 138, 148, 162, 193, 263. + + Place de la Croix-Rouge, 252. + + Place de la Greve, 166, 197-199, 201, 234, 239, 287. + + Place de l'Hotel de Ville, 148, 197. + + Place de la Madeleine, 194. + + Place de la Nation, 147. + + Place de la Revolution, 263. + + Place de St. Sulpice, 148, 252. + + Place des Victoires, 148. + + Place des Vosges, 148, 223, 225. + + Place du Carrousel, 89, 138, 148, 221. + + Place du Chatelet, 148, 205, 286. + + Place du Palais Bourbon, 148. + + Place du Palais Royal, 148. + + Place du Pantheon, 148. + + Place Malesherbes, 123, 124, 140, 149. + + Place Maubert, 286. + + Place Royale, 133, 134, 148, 223-225. + + Place St. Antoine, 225. + + Place Vendome, 137, 148. + + Plaine de St. Denis, 95. + + Plessis, Alphonsine, (La Dame aux Camelias), 78. + + Poe, E. A., 41, 43. + + Poissy, Gerard de, 130. + + Poitiers, Diane de, 260. + + Pompeii, 5, 45, 57. + + Pont Alexandre, 173. + + Pont au Change, 135, 170, 171, 173. + + Pont Audemer, 326. + + Pont aux Doubles, 170. + + Pont de l'Archeveche, 170. + + Pont d'Arcole, 170. + + Pont d'Austerlitz, 170. + + Pont de Bercy, 170. + + Pont de la Cite, 170. + + Pont des Arts, 170, 172. + + Pont de Sevres, 302. + + Pont des Invalides, 88. + + Pont du Carrousel, 88, 171, 235. + + Pont du Garde, 347. + + Pont du Pecq, 311, 314. + + Pont l'Eveque, 327. + + Pont, le Petit, 168. + + Pont Louis XV., 173. + + Pont Louis-Philippe, 88, 170. + + Pont Maril, 170. + + Pont Napoleon, 170. + + Pont Neuf, 133, 134, 170, 171, 173. + + Pont Notre Dame, 170. + + Pont Royal, 135, 157. + + Pont St. Michel, 170. + + Pont Tournelle, 170. + + Porette, Marguerite, 239. + + Porte du Canal de l'Ourcq, 139. + + Porte du Temple, 131. + + Porte Marly, 314. + + Porte St. Antoine, 221. + + Porte St. Denis, 131, 220, 221. + + Porte St. Honore, 131. + + Porte St. Martin, 104, 113, 115, 153. + + Porthos, 45, 49, 246, 247, 252, 324. + + Portu, Jean de, see Porthos. + + Prison du Grand Chatelet, 204. + + Proudhon, M., 178. + + Provence, 347, 351. + + Puits, 80. + + Puys, 8, 66. + + + Quai de Conti, 133, 170, 248. + + Quai de la Greve, 166, 197, 199, 206. + + Quai de la Megisserie, 133. + + Quai de la Monnai, 172. + + Quai de l'Arsenal, 133. + + Quai de l'Ecole, 133, 173. + + Quai de l'Horloge, 133, 236. + + Quai de l'Hotel de Ville, 197, 206. + + Quai des Augustins, 133. + + Quai des Ormes, 197. + + Quai des Orphelins, 133. + + Quai d'Orleans, 343. + + Quai d'Orsay, 138, 170. + + Quai du Louvre, 170, 172. + + Quai Voltaire, 170. + + Quartier des Infants-Rouges, 228. + + Quartier du Marais, 133. + + Quartier Latin, 96, 185, 244. + + "Quentin Durward," 13. + + + Rachel, 191. + + Railways: + "Ceinture," 89, 303. + "L'Est," 160. + "Le Nord," 160. + "L'Orleans," 160, 161, 192. + "L'Ouest," 160, 303. + "P. L. M." (Paris-Lyon et Mediterranee), 160, 161, 192. + + Rambouillet, 297, 298, 315, 316. + + Ranke, 259. + + Raspail, 179. + + Ravaillac, 224. + + Reade, Charles, 81. + + "Regulus," 18. + + Reims, 129, 156. + + Rempart des Fosses, 130. + + Renaissance, 132. + + Residences of Dumas, 44, 93, 103, 112, 124, 147, 148, 150, 188, 220, + 303. + + Restaurant du Pavillon Henri Quatre, 160. + + "Restoration," The, 87, 138, 154, 155. + + Retz, Cardinal de, 520. + + Revolutions, The, 4, 44, 136, 138, 140, 154, 164, 172, 178-180, 193, + 196, 224, 227, 325. + + _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 371. + + Rhine, The, 8. + + Rhone, 347, 349. + + Richelieu, 37, 224, 225, 228, 244, 252, 266, 289. + + Richelieu, Marechal, 109. + + Rizzio, 324. + + Roanne, 160. + + "Robert le Diable," 116. + + Robespierre, 324. + + Robsart, Amy, 121. + + Roche-Bernard, 329. + + Rochefort, 18. + + Rohan, De, 37, 224. + + "Roi d'Yvetot" (Beranger), 71. + + Roland, Madame, 235. + + Rolle, 363. + + Rollin, Ledru, 179. + + Rossini, 82. + + Rostand, 43. + + Rouen, 77, 159, 160, 169, 327. + + Rougemont, 31. + + Rousseau, 7. + + "Royal Tiger," 316. + + Rubens, 191. + + Rue Beaubourg (Le Beau-Bourg), 130. + + Rue Beaujolais, 228. + + Rue Bourtebourg (Le Bourg Thibourg), 130. + + Rue Cassette, 246. + + Rue Castiglione, 137, 147. + + Rue Charlot, 228. + + Rue Coq-Heron, 229-231. + + Rue d'Amsterdam, 188. + + Rue Dauphine, 133. + + Rue de Bac, 72, 147. + + Rue de Bethusy, 278. + + Rue de Bons Enfants, 272. + + Rue de Douai, 187. + + Rue de Faubourg St. Denis, 220, 221. + + Rue de Grenelle, 147. + + Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, 206, 211. + + Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin, 147, 231. + + Rue de la Concorde, 183. + + Rue de la Harpe, 246. + + Rue de Lancry, 152. + + Rue de la Martellerie, 215. + + Rue de Lille, 255. + + Rue de la Paix, 137, 147. + + Rue de l'Universite, 147. + + Rue de Rivoli, 140, 147, 148. + + Rue des Ecoles, 140. + + Rue des Fossoyeurs, 246, 252. + + Rue des Lombards, 205. + + Rue des Rosiers, 227. + + Rue des Vieux-Augustins, 234. + + Rue de Tivoli, 137. + + Rue de Valois, 228. + + Rue du Chaume, 278. + + Rue du Helder, 213, 232, 255. + + Rue du Louvre, 230. + + Rue du Monte Blanc, 84. + + Rue du Vieux-Colombier, 251, 252. + + Rue Drouet, 95. + + Rue Ferou, 246. + + Rue Guenegard, 248. + + Rue Herold, 234. + + Rue Lafitte, 95. + + Rue Lepelletier, 114. + + Rue Louis le Grand, 94. + + Rue Mathieu Molle, 212. + + Rue Pelletier, 234. + + Rue Pigalle, 187. + + Rue Rambuteau, 92. + + Rue Richelieu, 102, 112, 115, 147. + + Rue Roquette, 225. + + Rue Royal, 183. + + Rue Servandoni, 246. + + Rue Sourdiere, 228. + + Rue St. Antoine, 131, 133, 147, 285. + + Rue St. Denis, 220. + + Rue St. Eleuthere, 227. + + Rue St. Honore, 147, 228. + + Rue St. Lazare, 188. + + Rue St. Martin (Le Bourg St. Martin), 130. + + Rue St. Roch, 148. + + Rue Taitbout, 214, 231. + + Rue Tiquetonne, 214, 246, 247. + + Rue Vaugirard, 127, 246, 252. + + Rue Vivienne, 147. + + Rupert, Prince, 50. + + Russia, 8, 44. + + + Sabot, Mother, 24. + + Sainte Chapelle, 236. + + Saint Foix, 135. + + Salcede, 201. + + Salon d'Automne, 191. + + Salons, 161. + + Salpetriere, The, 134. + + Sand, George, 44, 70, 97, 188, 363. + + Sand, Karl Ludwig, 285. + + Saone, 168. + + Sarcey, Francisque, 163. + + Sardou, 122. + + "Saul," 18. + + Schiller, 360. + + Scotland, 323. + + Scott, Sir Walter, 13, 41, 74, 121, 360. + + Scribe, Eugene, 70, 82, 187. + + Sebastiani, General, 84. + + Second Empire, 89, 138, 140, 153, 163, 193. + + Second Republic, 89, 181. + + Seine, The, 72, 98, 130, 137, 148, 156, 165-171, 173-175, 190, 248, 255, + 302, 303, 311, 314. + + Senlis, 317. + + Sens, 46. + + Sevigne, Madame de, 102, 223. + + Seville, 76. + + Shakespeare, 121, 122. + + Sicily, 337, 369. + + Sillegue, Colonel de, 49. + + "Site d'Italie" (Corot), 72. + + Smith, William, 179. + + "Soir" (Corot), 72. + + Soissons, 7. + + Soldain, 259. + + Sorbonne, 134, 167, 245. + + Sorbonne, Robert de, 244. + + Soulie, 68, 82, 121. + + Soumet, 18. + + Soyer, 103. + + Spain, 8, 45, 160. + + St. Bartholomew's Night, 259, 263. + + St. Beauvet, 69. + + St. Benezet d'Avignon, 172. + + St. Cloud, 157, 314. + + Ste. Croix, Gaudin de, 286. + + St. Denis, 227, 314. + + St. Denis, Abbey of, 142, 143. + + St. Etienne-Andrezieux, 160. + + Ste. Genevieve, 253, 254. + + Ste. Genevieve, Abbey of 37, 136, 187, 253. + + St. Germain, 44, 56, 58, 160, 267, 297, 298. + + St. Germain, Abbot of, 166. + + St. Germain des Pres, 130. + + St. Germain-en-Laye, 303, 304, 310-315. + + St. Germain l'Auxerrois, 187. + + St. Gratien, 125. + + St. Luc, Marquis, 255. + + St. Megrin, 122. + + St. Michel, 130. + + St. Vincent de Paul, 224. + + St. Victor, 130. + + St. Waast, Abbey of, 324. + + Stendhal, 155. + + Sterne, 322. + + Stevenson, R. L., 41, 44. + + Strasbourg (monument), 138, 162. + + Strasbourg, 157. + + "Stryge, The," 127. + + Stuart, Mary, 323. + + Sue, Eugene, 69, 99, 363. + + Switzerland, 8, 370. + + "Sword of the Brave Chevalier," 251. + + Sylla, 17. + + Sylvestre's, 272. + + + Taglioni, Marie, 116, 117. + + Talleyrand, Henri de, 214. + + Talma, 17, 82, 121, 191. + + Tarascon, 349. + + Tastu, Mme. Amable, 70. + + Thackeray, 44. + + Thames, 168. + + Theatre de la Nation, 183. + + Theatre du Palais Royal, 77, 268. + + Theatre Francaise, 16, 17, 121, 167, 183, 187. + + "Theatre Historique," 44. + + Theatre Italien, 133. + + Theadlon, 18. + + Theaulon, 31. + + "The Conspirators," see Works of Dumas. + + "The Queen's Necklace," (Le Collier de la Reine), see Works of Dumas. + + "The Regent's Daughter," see Works of Dumas. + + "The Sorbonne," 244. + + "The Taking of the Bastille," see Works of Dumas. + + "The Wandering Jew," 99. + + "The Wolf-Leader," see Works of Dumas. + + Thierry, Edouard, 155, 165. + + Thiers, 69, 95. + + "Third Republic," 193. + + Titian, 191. + + Title of Dumas, 45, 57, 58. + + Touchet, Marie, 215, 217. + + Toul, 160. + + Toulon, 90, 91, 233, 326, 349, 351. + + Toulouse, 159. + + "Tour de Jean-sans-Peur," 214. + + Tour de Nesle, 237. + + Tour de St. Jacques la Boucherie, 197. + + Tour du Bois, 131. + + Tour Eiffel, 303, 314. + + Tours, 332. + + Tour St. Jacques, 140, 167, 187, 263. + + Tower of London, 185. + + "Travels," see Works of Dumas. + + Travels of Dumas, 8, 44-46, 336, 337, 361, 364, 370, 371. + + "Treasure Island," 42. + + Treville, De, 49, 246, 251. + + Trianon, The, 303. + + Trocadero, 147. + + Trouville, 325, 327, 371. + + Tuileries, The, 72, 133, 137, 138, 150, 170, 176, 182, 184, 185, 261, + 265. + + Turenne, 90, 143, 224. + + + Universite, The, 167, 244. + + + Val-de-Grace, The, 134. + + Valenciennes, 49. + + Valois, House of, 12, 34, 38, 195, 318. + + Valois, Marguerite de, 197, 287, 351, 354. + + Valois Romances, 15, 44, 46, 148, 171, 195, 205, 215, 225, 235, 239, + 254, 258, 259, 263, 266, 278, 312, 314, 354, 355. + + Vandam, Albert, 6, 56, 76, 77, 94, 95, 116, 118. + + Van Dyke, 191. + + Vatel, 199. + + Vermandois, Count of, 289. + + Vernet, 191. + + Vernon, 165, 169. + + Veron, Doctor, 79, 111, 116, 117. + + Versailles, 297, 298, 302-306. + + Vesinet, 311. + + "Vicomte de Bragelonne," see Works of Dumas. + + Vidocq, 234. + + Viennet, 18. + + Vieux Chateau, 311, 312, 313, 314. + + Vigny, De, 68. + + Villefort, De, 261, 340. + + Villemessant, De, 52. + + Villers-Cotterets, 7, 14, 15, 18, 24, 25, 27, 33, 34, 46, 80, 315, 317, + 318, 321. + + Vincennes, 179, 315. + + Vincennes, Chateau of, 298, 320. + + Vincennes, Fort of, 320. + + "Vingt Ans Apres" ("Twenty Years After"), see Works of Dumas. + + Viollet-le-Duc, 144, 325. + + Vivieres, 24. + + Voltaire, 121, 122, 238, 288, 303. + + Volterre, Ricciarelli de, 224. + + + Wardes, De, 322. + + Warsaw, 76. + + Waterloo, 25. + + William III., 361. + + William the Conqueror, 326. + + Windt, Cornelius de, 361. + + Windt, Jacobus de, 361. + + Windsor, 154. + + Winter, Lady de, 223. + + Works of Dumas: + "Ange Pitou," 36. + "Antony," 29, 37. + "Black Tulip" ("La Tulipe Noire"), 38, 44, 360-362, 365. + "Capitaine Pamphile," 89, 221, 231, 360. + "Capitaine Paul" ("Paul Jones"), 38, 350. + "Causeries," 36, 103. + "Cherubino et Celestine," 367. + "Chevalier d'Harmental," 228. + "Chicot the Jester" ("La Dame de Monsoreau"), 29, 37, 38, 40, 207, + 253, 255, 301, 319, 329, 332, 333. + "Comtesse de Charny," 223, 226, 229, 302, 303. + "Corsican Brothers," 89, 213, 231, 319, 360. + "Count of Monte Cristo," 29, 38-41, 44, 109, 218, 229, 261, 327, 328, + 339, 340, 342, 343, 347, 355, 358, 361, 368, 369. + "Crimes Celebres" ("Celebrated Crimes"), 285, 286, 323, 350, 372. + "Dictionnaire de Cuisine," 63. + "Dix-huit Mois a St. Petersburgh," 364. + "Forty-Five Guardsmen," 201, 248, 351, 365. + "Gabriel Lambert," 89, 91, 231, 232, 350. + "Georges," 46. + "Henri III. et Sa Cour," 29, 121, 123. + "Impressions du Voyage," 36, 325, 364, 370. + "Jeanne d'Arc," 38. + "Kean," 29. + "La Tour de Nesle," 237. + "Les Pecheurs du Filet," 368. + "Les Trois Mousquetaires" ("The Three Musketeers"), 29, 38-41, 44, 48, + 54, 75, 126, 127, 245, 247, 251, 252, 332, 361. + "Maitre Adam le Calabrais," 367. + "Marguerite de Valois," 173, 175, 198, 210, 212, 215, 221, 236, 257, + 307, 310, 311, 320. + "Memoires," 14, 15, 17, 23, 25, 29, 32, 34, 36, 44, 70, 93, 104, 174, + 228, 325, 367. + "Memoires d'un Maitre d'Armes," 75, 364. + "Mes Betes," 36, 45. + "Murat," 367. + "Pascal Bruno," 367. + "Pauline," 171, 180, 231, 325, 367, 370, 371. + "The Conspirators," 173, 271, 287. + "The Queen's Necklace," ("Le Collier de la Reine"), 105, 118, 204, + 228, 241, 254, 255, 275, 295, 303, 306. + "The Regent's Daughter," 292, 316, 334-336. + "The Taking of the Bastille," 18, 24, 46, 175, 225, 250, 279, 288, + 303, 317. + "The Wolf-Leader," 33, 46. + "Vicomte de Bragelonne," 24, 29, 38, 169, 199, 200, 205, 247, 259, + 273, 288, 292, 298, 300, 321, 328, 330, 332. + "Vingt Ans Apres" ("Twenty Years After"), 29, 214, 225, 245-247, 303, + 310, 324. + + + Zola, 7, 44, 64, 129, 188. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "Sordonne" corrected to "Sorbonne" (page 10) + "be" corrected to "he" (page 330) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + +Errors in quotations, place names, and French passages have been retained +from the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dumas' Paris, by Francis Miltoun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUMAS' PARIS *** + +***** This file should be named 35125.txt or 35125.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/2/35125/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so 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