wax

anew for reinforcement, and to return with a body of German cavalry, with which he cut his way through the Danish ranks into the city.

many a furious attack. The Normans ad- were the supplications of the Parisians to vanced to the assault of the towers of the their emperor to come to their assistance. bridge, under the shade of mantelets, and The siege was conducted in such fashion covered with flights of arrows and cross-that Count Eudes found time to go to bow bolts directed against the defenders Metz in 887 to supplicate the emperor of the towers, but were beaten off again and again with stones, and their mantelets destroyed with burning oil and pitch and the only substitutes for nitroglycerine and picrate of potash in those He announced, moreover, the tidings times. Primitive, indeed, were the means that Henry, Duke of Saxony, was on the of assault and defence in those days- road to their assistance, and that the emon the part of the besieged, one of the peror himself would arrive as soon as he chief means of defence on which they could get into motion. Henry, Duke of relied were processions, with the bodies Saxony, did indeed shortly appear, but of of St. Germain and St. Geneviève at their him the Danes disposed during a sortie, by head, with prayers and litanies to the catching him, horse and all, in a covered saints to help them in the hour of need. pit, like a wild beast, and by putting him There was too a perpetual ringing of bells to death. Charles the Fat, however, did in the city to sound the alarm, and trum- at last make his appearance with an army pets blown from the ramparts, to which at the foot of Montmartre; but he prethe Northmen replied with fierce bursts ferred rather to treat with the Danes and of laughter and cries of derision-they to give them another weighty sum of were not accustomed to be beaten back, Danegeld, and to divert their forces against and felt sure the city would fall, as it had Burgundy, then in revolt against him, than done before, into their hands. But this meet them in open field - much to the time they were mistaken. Charles le disgust of the inhabitants of Paris, who Gros, the Emperor, was far away, it is who had been enduring a close and long true, too busy with his Italian schemes to siege with such steadfastness. This siege attend to the cries of distress from Paris; is, in fact, as we have said, the initial point but the valiant Comte Eudes was there, of the history of modern France. The with Robert his brother, and Eblis, Abbot neglect of Charles the Fat, Carolus Crasof St. Germain-des-Prés, the nephew of sus or Karl der Diche, and his way of Eudes, whose ability as a marksman was so treating with the Danes, disgusted the great that he is hyperbolically said to have Parisians with the Carlovingian rule; been able to kill off seven Danes at a shot. while the valiant conduct of the Count of There was also the valiant warrior-bishop Paris, and of all his family, not only in this Gauzeline, who assisted his flock in their siege, but in two subsequent ineffectual hardest strait not only with benedic- sieges by the Danes, signalized them as tions and maledictions, and the perpetual the fitting chiefs for the new nationality singing of the litany, "A furore Norman- of France then in process of birth; and the norum, libera nos, O Domine," once universally chanted through the length and breadth of France, and which was intoned in the old Church of Ste. Geneviève even down to the siege of Louis XIII., but with goodly shots of the crossbow and doughty deeds of the strong arm. The Danes at last, despairing of taking the city by a coup de main, retired a little, and fortified themselves in St. Germain-le-Pont, and from there harassed the country all round, and advanced again to the assault of the city, from time to time. Many and many

-

An ac

Capetian dynasty may date its reign, in-
deed, from that very siege. It was an
event which deeply stirred all Europe at
the time, and lived long in the memories
of men associated with romance.
count of it is to be read in the "De bellis
Parisiacæ urbis" of Abbo, a monk of St.
Germains, and a still more romantic ver-
sion in the great poem of Ariosto. Ariosto
has given a description of the siege as it
came down to him, transfigured in the
Carlovingian legends of the Trouvères.
The siege is, of course, put back to the

time of Charlemagne, and its assailants are | period of efflorescence, and, aided by the not Danes but Moors; this kind of change is common in all Carlovingian legendary poetry. The besieger of Paris is, in Ariosto's verse, Agramante, son of the Moorish king Troiano.

larged the privileges of the towns and catching fish from in time of Lent. Against commons, and paid attention to commerce the perfect organization of the English so that when he took the field against army, the immense mass of French grands the kings of France, he was able to do so seigneurs and knights were a mere brilliant, not only with a full exchequer, but with a brave, but thoughtless mob, incapable of goodly body of archers and crossbowmen, common action or of doing anything but to whom were mainly due the wondrous throw each other into confusion - so they defeats which he was enabled to inflict on came to utter ruin at Cressy and Poictiers, the splendid chivalry of France. He had, and Edward III. could march through however, to learn his business as an organ- France this time just as he would. He did izer of victorious invasion. His first inva- not, however, come straight to Paris; he sion in 1339 came to no very good end: marched right across France from Cherbut Cressy won for him Calais, and Poic- bourg to Rheims, amid the autumnal mud tiers laid all France open to his incursions. and the rain. He had a notion of getting It was not, however, until 1359 that he himself crowned at Rheims as King of made his most serious attempt on Paris. France. He was unable, however, to take Jean-le-Bon was then his prisoner; and the that ancient city; so after remaining beyoung Dauphin was then in the capital, fore its walls for six weeks, he raised his directing its defence, with the aid of the fa- camp and marched by Châlons and Bar-lemous Etienne Marcel, prévôt des marchands, Duc to Troyes, and held the duchy of and the leader of the popular movements Burgundy to ransom for 200,000 golden which had already begun to distinguish crowns. He then piously made his devoParis as one of the most impulsive and tions at Easter at Chanteloup, where 1,200 high-spirited of European cities. Indeed, fugitives had taken refuge in a church, the discord, divisions, and popular revolts and were surrounded and the church set which had occurred in the capital when fire to; and where, out of the 1,200 so shut John was in captivity, and under the weak up, only such escaped as jumped out of rule of the Dauphin, and which were owing the windows, and a good many of these to the intrigues of Charles the Mauvais, were killed by the English captains, amid King of Navarre, with Marcel and the pop- much horse-laughter, so that 300 only ular party, had acted as an encouragement were saved altogether. From Chanteloup to Edward in his invading policy, and con- Edward advanced to Bourg-la-Reine. The tributed largely to his success. He count-terror spread by the approach of the Enged on the obstacles which the revolution- lish host was so great, that no living beary party in Paris would throw in the way ing was to be seen far or near on the of national organization, just as Bismarck march, and as they came on they burnt has done, but still he never was able to Montlhéry and Lonjumeau and everything get possession of the city. en route. Edward advanced and fixed his Edward III., nevertheless, appears to quarters in the Faubourg St. Germain. have landed his army at Cherbourg in This was the portion of the suburbs of 1359 in as thorough a state of organization Paris which had grown the most since the as the times were capable of. His little Northmen's siege of Paris. That southern host of 30,000 men was, for the age, as suburb has, strangely enough, always been completely prepared in every branch and the learned quarter of Paris, and its chief against all contingencies as the Prussian accretion took place in the twelfth centuhost of this year. Nothing appears to ry, when Abelard and Guillaume de have been forgotten in the way of equip- Champeaux settled there, and set up ment and for the commissariat, and the rival schools, which attracted an immense force was even fully provided with means colony of students, so that Abelard may of diversion. The English king was, it is be looked on as the founder of the Paris said, the first to make use of artillery in Faubourg St. Germain. Edward III., the field, and all his weapons and accoutre- however, does not seem to have given any ments were of the newest fashion and in per- attention to scholastic philosophy, neither fect order. Six thousand chariots followed! did he venture on an actual assault of the the army with provisions, ammunition, and city. He contented himself with blockadstores of all kinds, among which were mills ing it, and with sending a defiance to sinfor grinding flour, ovens for baking bread, gle combat to the Dauphin, with burning forges for repairing armour and weapons, the faubourgs and the villages all around, and all sorts of migratory workshops; the and laying waste the country, so that the army was even provided with its packs of trembling citizens from the walls of their hounds for hunting, and with little barks capital beheld the smoke of their ruined we suppose like Welsh coracles for houses ascending around them on all

sides. Paris at this time seems to have provocation which he had received in renumbered about 49,110 inhabitants, and spect of his French possessions; and the their anxiety about assault was so great chivalrous character of the age, the galthat it was forbidden in the capital that lant, loyal, and courteous bearing of the the bells should be rung by night in the chieftains on either side towards each churches and monasteries for matins, for other, the universal want felt by the leadfear that the enemy might approach the ing spirits of those times for some field in walls at such time unheard. Only the which to display knightly accomplishments couvre-feu was allowed to be sounded at and virtues, render the story of the contest, evening from Notre Dame; and in all the as it is found in the pages of Froissart, inchurches and convents matins were sung ferior to none for interest in the history at couvre-feu instead of at midnight a of the world, if we keep out of sight the change found so agreeable in some con- barbarities which accompanied it, and the vents that they continued to sing matins at suffering which it entailed on the French couvre-feu instead of at midnight long people. In the story of the burgesses of after the English had departed. The in- Calais, towards whom Edward's cruelty habitants, moreover, of Paris, headed by relented at the intercession of his queen, Marcel, the prévôt des marchands, and his and also in that of the generous liberation échevins, made a wonderful vow to the of Sir Hervé de Leon at the noble reVirgin Mary of Notre Dame, if she would monstrance of the Earl of Derby, the bring about their deliverance; they vowed reader rejoices to see the barbarian disapher a taper of the length of the circumfer- pear before the earnest voice of merciful ence of Paris (then 4,455 toises, about six and chivalrous appeal. The aggression miles), to be burnt day and night before of Henry V., however, had little of this her shrine, with further promise that this chivalrous nature, it was an aggression monstrous taper should be renewed every of ambition and policy and calculation, the year. Whether this vow of the monstrons aggression of an offshoot of a usurping taper had any real efficacy or no, certain race, who took advantage of the distracted it is that the King of England did depart condition of France to invade her territoat last, but not before he had consumed ries for dynastic purposes. The Lancasall and wasted all far and near, and re-trian monarch had the brain and the heart duced Paris to the extremities of famine. of a conqueror, and felt moreover that his He wanted provisions himself, and so broke up the blockade, and soon after concluded the peace of Bretigny, by which he secured Aquitaine and Calais, and got 3,000,000 crowns of gold. The monstrous taper, it must be added, was really purchased for the Virgin of Notre Dame. so she was probably the only gainer in France by the war. Such a taper was kept always alight before her shrine, except during the troubled days of the League, till the year 1608, when M. Miron, then prévôt des marchands, substituted a silver candelabrum, with an ever-burning light, for the original taper.

Great indeed were the horrors which twenty years of English invasion had brought with it throughout the length and breadth of France; but as they were infinitely surpassed by those which the country suffered under the more merciless inroad of Henry V., and were necessarily of a similar character, we omit to notice them here. The claim of the Plantagenet king to the throne of France was indeed an unjustifiable pretext for invasion; yet he has some excuse in the arrogant tone assumed by the monarchs of France towards English kings, because they chanced to be their liege men, and in the

family had need of some splendid succeses in the realms of France to cast a glory of victory around their throne equal, if possible, in splendour to that which the Plantagenets had won for themselves, in order to become respectable in the eyes of the English nation.

France had, indeed, recovered with marvellous rapidity from the effects of the last English invasion, since the valour of Duguesclin had liberated her soil. Paris, within the fortifications which Marcel had erected round her northern side, beginning with the Tour de Billy, near the Arsenal, and following nearly the line of the present bouvelards up to the Tour du Bois of the Louvre on the Seine, had grown in wealth and prosperity, and increased in population. Its inhabitants already were characterized by that light, gay frondeur spirit, yet capable of immense efforts and courage on occasion, for which it has ever since been distinguished, so that Froissart was capable of writing of its citizens about twenty years after the peace of Bretigny

"Il avait alors de riches et puissants hommes armés de pied en cap, la somme de trente mille, aussi bien appareillés de toutes pièces comme nuls chevaliers pourraient être et disaient quand ils se nombraient

as

qu'ils étaient bien gens à combattre d'eux | lamities which were sufficient for its ruin mêmes et sans aide les plus grands seig- without the English invasion. The young neurs du monde." Indeed, all the kings of king was married to the infamous Isabeau the Valois race held in some dread the ris- de Bavière, whose shameful adulteries and ing independence of spirit of the French intriguing spirit made her a woman citizens of that time, who were in constant fatal to France as Eleanor de Guienne. intercourse with the free cities of Flanders, The king himself fell into a state of madwhich they endeavoured to emulate in their ness, and continued so afflicted for the aspirations for liberty; and it was as much greater part of his life. Under a disputed the suspicion and apprehension which the and divided regency the Burgundian and French kings felt for the criticism of the Armagnac parties created factions among Parisians in their manner of court life and the citizens, and contended with ferocity public and private conduct, as the superior for the possession of the capital. Assascharm and climate of the valley of the sination and massacres became of almost Loire, which induced the Valois monarchs daily occurrence. As the Dauphin grew to prefer Blois, Chambord, Chinon, and up a party formed about him also, and Amboise to their royal residences on the then came the famous scene at the bridge borders of the Seine. of Montereau, in which the great Duke of Burgundy, Jean sans Peur, who was suspected of the assassination of a rival prince of the blood, the Duke of Orleans, was himself assassinated before the eyes of the Dauphin, who had invited him to the interview.

Rapid, however, as had been the growth of French prosperity during the last twenty years, it was now destined, during the period of the second English invasion, to fall into just as rapid a decline, and to descend to such a depth of misery as England has never known in the whole of her That fatal scene at Montereau sufficed, history. France, however, has not once, together with the victory of Agincourt, to but several times, in the course of her give Henry V. possession of the kingdom national existence, been the prey of such and of the capital; for the Burgundian horrors, in the way of suffering brought party not only held the person of the upon her by invasion and war and civil king, but were the ruling faction in Paris. and religious discord, that they surpass all The new Duke of Burgundy, who played power of description, and her rapid re- much the same part as Charles le Mauvais covery from such states of utter desolation on the previous invasion, at once, out of show an elasticity in the character of the enmity to the Dauphin, threw himself into people such as no other nation can ex- the English alliance, and by the Treaty of hibit. Charles V., who as Dauphin had Troyes, signed in 1419, by both King and been the antagonist of Edward III., and Queen of France, in which Isabeau de who had even been on his knees as a sup-Bavière had the infamy to call her son the pliant before the Parisians in the person of Marcel, died in 1380, and was succeeded by Charles VI., then twelve years of age. During his minority his three uncles undertook the regency, which, owing to their jealousy and quarrels brought disorder on the country. The spirit of the Parisians was still rising, and in consequence of some fiscal exactions, the Revolte de Maillotins took place, in which the court of Charles VI. capitulated with the people of Paris for a quiet entry into the city.

soi-disant Dauphin, and so throw doubts on his legitimacy, the heir to the throne was declared for ever excluded from the succession on account of his crimes; and, under its stipulations, the English king found himself shortly after lodged in the Louvre as husband of a daughter of France, and heir to the monarchy.

The victor of Agincourt entered the Parisian capital in state, riding between the poor mad King of France and the Duke of Burgundy, and followed by a suite in which were the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford, and Exeter, and the Earl of Warwick.

A reaction, however, took place. The king and his governors made a great display of force, and carried on war against the Flemings, who then, as later, were Not long, however, did Henry V. enjoy ever the allies of the Parisians in their his conquest, for he died on the 31st of popular movements. The Flemings were August, 1422, at Vincennes : and the mad defeated by the royal forces at Rosbecq, king, Charles VI., died likewise about two and the royal party treated the victory as months later-followed to the grave by one over the Parisians, and the young the tears and sympathy which subjects king entered Paris lance in hand, as have ever bestowed on monarchs so afthough into a conquered city. The country then was afflicted with a series of ca

flicted.

The death of the English king, and the