26, 1660, Anne of Austria watched the triumphal entrance into the capital of Louis XIV. and Marie-Thérèse.

Close to the former church of the Visitation, now, as Temple St. Marie, given to the Calvinists, is the Hôtel de Mayenne, or d'Ormes

Hotel de Sully.

abutted, being the place where all the boats coming from the upper Seine and the Marne were moored for the lading and unlading of their merchandise. The great Port de St. Paul took its name from a church, which dated from the seventh century, and it

son, which was built by Du Cerceau for the Duc de Mayenne, and was afterwards inhabited by the President d'Ormesson. The graceful domed church of the Visitation itself was begun by François Mansard in 1632, and dedicated, in 1634, to Notre Dame des Anges. The minister Fouquet, celebrated for his sudden disgrace and imprisonment, was buried in one of its chapels. The church occupies the site of the Hôtel de Boissy, where for thirty-three days Henri III. watched by his dying "Mignon" Quelus, mortally wounded in the great duel of April 27, 1578, promising 100,000 francs to the surgeons in attendance, if they could save the life of one to whom he bore " une merveilleuse amitié." But it was no use, and when Quelus had breathed his last, crying out "Oh, mon roi! mon roi!" it was the king, who with his own hands, took out the earrings he had given him, and cut off his long chestnut hair.

Opposite the Hôtel de Sully, the Rue de St. Paul leads from the Rue St. Antoine into the ancient Quartier de St. Paul, which, with the adjoining Quartier de l'Arsenal, were suburbs of the city before they were included within the walls of Charles V. and thus united to the northern part of the town. The quarter was chiefly inhabited by those who were "hommes d'eaue," or persons whose interests lay in the part of the Seine upon which it

was divided into several smaller ports, each of which had its own name and destination, under the superintendence of the confraternity of Marchands de l'eau. In this mercantile quarter, three great religious establishments were situated-the church of St. Paul, the Convent of Ave Maria, and the Convent of the Célestins. The church was founded in 633, by St. Eloy, prime-minister of the Merovingian King Dagobert I. But his building, which contained the tomb of the sainted abbot Quintilianus, was only a chapel on the site of the existing Rue de St. Paul, in a spot once called Grange de Saint-Eloy. Its cemetery, which extended as far as the Rue Beautreillis, was intended as a burialplace for the nuns of the great monastery of St. Martial, which St. Eloy had founded in the Cité, for, at that time, in accordance with the pagan custom, all burials took place outside the towns. It was only at the end of the eleventh century that the church of St. Paul les Champs became parochial. Charles V. re-built it in the severe Gothic style, and it was reconsecrated with great magnificence in 1431. Its entrance, on the Rue de St. Paul, had three Gothic portals, beneath a tower surmounted by a lofty spire. windows were of great beauty, and were not finished till the close of Charles VII.'s reign, for amongst the personages represented in them was the Maid of Orleans, with the legend, Et moy le Roy. Through its neighbourhood to Vincennes and afterwards to the Hôtel de St. Paul and the Hôtel des Tournelles, the royal church St. Paul was for several centuries the paroisse du roi. All the dauphins, from the reign of Philippe de Valois to that of Louis XI., were baptized there, in a font which still exists at Medan, near Poissy, whither it was removed by one Henri Perdrier, Alderman of Paris, when the old church was rebuilt. It became a point of ambition with the illustrious persons of the court to be buried either in its cemetery, or in its side chapels, which they had themselves adorned with sculpture, hangings, or

Its

Jacques Marcel, merchant of Paris, whose son, Garnier Marcel, bestowed it, in 1352, upon the Célestins, established here under the patronage of the dauphin Charles, during the captivity of his father, King Jean, in England. As Charles V., he built them a magnificent church, whose portal bore his statue and that of his wife Jeanne de Bourbon (now at St. Denis). Henceforth the Célestins became the especial royal foundation, and its monks were spoken of by the kings as their bien-aimés chapelains et serviteurs de Dieu. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century benefactors of the convent were dressed in the Célestin habit before receiving the last sacraments, and thus they were represented upon their tombs in the pavement of the church. Amongst the sepulchral inscriptions here were those of the family of Marcel; of Jean Lhuiller, counsellor of parliament; and of the famous doctor, Odo de Creil (1373). In the choir were many cenotaphs, containing only the hearts of the princesses of France buried at St. Denis, but it was also adorned by the tombs of Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V., 1377 (now at St. Denis); of Léon de Lusignan, last king of Armenia, 1393 (at St. Denis); and of Anne de Bourgogne, Duchess of Bedford, 1432 (now at the Louvre). Annexed to the church in the fifteenth century by the Confrèrie des dix mille martyrs, was the chapel which became the burial-place of the united families of Gesvres and Beaune, and contained the body of Jacques de Beaune, lord of Semblançay, controller of finances under François I., unjustly hung on a gallows at Montfaucon in 1543. Near his forgotten grave rose the magnificent monuments of the Potier des Gesvres and de Luxembourg, with their kneeling figures. Three little chapels, communicating with the Chapelle des Gesvres, belonged to other families that of Rochefort, which produced two chancellors of France in the reigns of Louis XI., Charles VIII., and Charles XII., of whom one, Guy de Rochefort, had a curious tomb; that of the family of Zamet, which began with the financier Sebastian Zamet, who died in 1614 in his magnificent Hôtel of the Rue de la Cerisaie, and which ended with his son Jean Zamet, Governor of the Château of Fontainbleau, who died in battle in 1622; and that of Charles de Maigné, gentleman of the chamber to Henri II., with a beautiful statue by the Florentine Paolo Poncio, now in the Louvre.

A more magnificent building, like a succursale to St. Denis, rose attached to the

Célestins-the great Chapelle d'Orleans, built in 1393 by Louis d'Orleans, the younger son of Charles V., who was murdered in the Rue Barbette, in fulfilment of a vow of his wife, Valentine de Milan, for his escape from perishing by fire in the terrible masquerade called le ballet des Ardents. Here, in the monastery which he had richly endowed, he was buried with his wife, who only survived him a short time, and all his descendants; and here his grandson, Louis XII., erected a magnificent monument (now at St. Denis) to his memory and that of his sons. Beside it stood the urn (also at St. Denis) which contained the heart of François II., and the beautiful group of the three Graces by Germain Pilon (now at the Louvre), which upheld the bronze urn holding the hearts of Henri II., Catherine de Médecis, Charles IX., and his brother, François de Maine, Duc d'Anjou. Near this rose a pyramid in honour of the house of Longueville, and two sarcophagi which contained the hearts of a Comte de Cossé-Brissac and a Duc de Rohan. Here also was the tomb, with a seated statue, of Philippe de Chabot, and that of the Maréchal Anne de Montmorency, by Barthélemy Prieur (both now in the Louvre). All the precious contents of the Célestins, except the few statues now in the galleries, perished in the Revolution. Its church served as a barn and stable for half a century, and was destroyed in 1849. Amongst the coffins thrown up at this time was that of Anne, Duchess of Bedford, daughter of Jean-sansPeur. She was buried here, because after her death her husband recollected how, one night, "qu'elle s'esbattoit à jeux honnestes, with the gentlemen and ladies of her household, she heard the bells of the Célestins sound for matins, and rising up, and inviting her ladies to follow her, went at once to the church, and assisted at the holy office, by the tomb of that Duc d'Orleans whom her father had caused to be assassinated.

Whilst Jean le Bon was a prisoner in England, his son, afterwards Charles V., was oppressed by the growing power of the Confrérie des Bourgeois, the municipal authorities of Paris. Under their formidable provost, Etienne Marcel, they had broken into the Louvre and murdered his two favourite ministers in his presence, his own life only being saved by his consenting to put on the red and green cap of the Republican leader, and giving him his own of cloth of gold, arrayed in which he showed himself triumphantly to the people. The king for the time escaped from Paris, and after Marcel had been killed, July 31, 1358, at the Bastille St. Antoine, he deter

mined to seek a more secure residence with the Association de la Marchandise de l'eau, which had always been submissive and devoted to the royal authority. Every preceding king had held his court either in the Cité or at the Louvre, but Charles now bought, near the Port de St. Paul, the hôtel of the Comte d'Étampes, which occupied the whole space. between the Rue St. Antoine and the Cemetery of St. Paul. In 1363 he added to his purchase the hôtel of the Archbishop of Sens, with gardens which reached to the Port, and he had also become the owner of the smaller hôtels d'Estomesnil and de Pute-y-Muce, and of that of the abbots of St. Maur, who built another for themselves in the Rue des Barrés. By an edict of July, 1364, Charles V. after coming to the throne, declared the Hôtel de St. Paul to be for ever part of the domain of the crown-the hôtel where "he had enjoyed many pleasures, endured and recovered from many illnesses, and which therefore he regarded with singular pleasure and affection." No plan of the Hôtel de St. Paul has come down to us, but we know that it was rather a group of palaces than a single building, the Hôtel de Sens being the royal dwelling-place; the Hôtel de St. Maur, under the name of Hôtel de la Conciergerie, being the residence of the Duc d'Orleans, Duc de Bourgogne, and other princes of the royal family; the Hôtel d'Etampes being called Hôtel de la Reine, afterwards Hôtel de Beautreillis; whilst, on the other side of the Rue du Petit-Musc, were the Hôtel du Petit-Musc, and Maison du Pont-Perrin, probably occupied by court officials. The palace, as a whole, was surrounded by high walls, enclosing six meadows, eight gardens, twelve galleries, and a number of courts. We know many of the names of the royal dwelling-rooms, such as the Chambre de Charlemagne, so called from its tapestries; the Galerie des Courges; the Chambre de Theseus ; the Chambre Lam

The garden walks were shaded by trellises covered with vines, which produced annually a large quantity of Vin de l'Hôtel. In their shade Charles V. amused himself by keeping a menagerie, and many accounts exist of sums disbursed to those who brought him rare animals.

From his twelfth year to his death at fiftyfour, Charles VI. lived constantly at the Hôtel de St. Paul; there he found himself practically a prisoner in the hands of the provost of the merchants, whom his father had come thither especially to avoid, and there, in 1392, he showed the first symptoms of the insanity, which returned, with intervals of calm and sense, till his death: there his twelve children by Isabeau de Bavière were born, most of them during his madness; there he several times saw his palace attacked by a mob, and his relations and courtiers arrested without being able to help them; and there, abandoned by his wife and chil dren, he died, Oct. 20, 1422, being only cared for by a mistress, Odette de Champdivers, nicknamed la petite reine. For thirteen years after her husband's death, Isabeau de Bavière remained shut up from the detestation of the French, in the Hôtel de St. Paul. "Even her body was so despised," says Brantôme, "that it was transported from her hôtel, in a little boat on the Seine, without any kind of ceremony or pomp, and was thus carried to her grave at St. Denis, just as if she had been a simple demoiselle." From this time the Hôtel de St. Paul was deserted by royalty. When Charles VII. returned victorious to Paris he would not lodge even in the Hôtel des Tournelles, contaminated for him by the residence

of the Duke of Bedford, and, whenever he was in Paris, he stayed at the Hôtel Neuf, which is sometimes supposed to have been the same as the Hôtel du Petit-Musc, afterwards (when given by Charles VIII. to Anne of Brittany) known

as

Hôtel de Bre