CHAPTER I. HISTORY AND GRADUAL INCREASE OF PARIS. EVERY ancient and famous city has a tale of its origin which tradition or poetry has woven for it; and each of these ingenious legends is in some point distinguished from the rest by its own peculiar tissue of incidents. One thing, however, is common to the generality of such fictions; namely, that they are fond of representing the mightiest capitals as having grown out of the smallest beginnings, and of telling how the ground now covered by their proud palaces was once the site of only a few straggling huts. And this is, in most cases, the little particle of truth in the common story of the shipwrecked crew, or expatriated tribe, or other band of bold adventurers, with their high-born chief, to whom the renown is usually assigned of having thus laid the foundations of the future metropolis or empire. It is certain that some of the most illustrious cities that have adorned the earth have been, in their origin, only insignificant collections of hovels, built of mud, thatched with straw, and inhabited by barbarians. Such was Rome-such was Londonsuch also was Paris. The first mention we find of Paris, is in the Commentaries of Cæsar, in whose time, about half a century before the birth of Christ, it was the chief city of the Parisii, one of the numerous tribes of the great Celtic family by whom Gaul was then inhabited. The Parisii, Cæsar informs us, had united themselves to the powerful nation of the Senones, on whose confines they resided in the memory of per sons who were still alive when he wrote; and the probability is that they were a horde of fugitives, who, having been expelled from their original seat in some other part of Gaul, were permitted by the Senones to form a new settlement on the borders of their territory. The strip of land which was granted to them appears from various evidences to have been of inconsiderable extent. It formed the north-western extremity of the lands of the Senones, and was also the most northerly part of the possessions of the Celts, properly so called, as distinguished from the Belgians; from which circumstances in all likelihood its occupants received their name of the Parisii, the prefix Par or Bar, in Celtic names, generally denoting a Border tribe*. The French antiquaries, however, have many other accounts, besides this, to give of the term in question-one of the most romantic of which deduces it from the famous Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, of whom it is in this manner attempted to be made out that the Parisii were the descendants. This notion of a Trojan lineage was long a cherished article of the popular faith among most of the nations of western Europe; and among none more than ourselves. Even so lately as the beginning of the fourteenth century, we find an argument derived from it gravely brought forward by Edward I. in his letter to Pope Boniface, in defence of his claims as Lord Paramount of Scotland; and we do not read of any objection being made, or doubt expressed, by the opposite party, in the course of the dispute, in regard to such a sacred historical truth †. The town itself Cæsar calls Lutetia. In so far as the meaning of this term can be recovered, it seems to signify the dwelling in the midst of the river Histoire de Paris, par J. M. Dulaure, edit. troisième, tom. i. †See Warton's History of English Poetry, edit. of 1824, i. 132. which is at any rate an exact description of what Paris originally and for a long time was. Cæsar tells us *that the town stood on an island in the river Seine, which he calls the Sequana, the Celtic name having been probably Squan, which in that language signifies winding,-an epithet peculiarly applicable to the Seine. The few notices which we have in Cæsar of the Parisii, represent them as uniformly acting in conjunction with their powerful protectors, the Senones. From the small number of the troops, also, which on one occasion they are stated to have furnished to a general confederacy of the Gallic tribes, it is evident that their importance at this time was very inconsiderable. Their capital was confined to the small island in the Seine, now called the Cité, or the Ile du Palais. The houses which covered this little spot were of the most humble order, being, as Cæsar informs us, merely of mud, with straw roofs and without chimneys. They were, in fact, just such temporary habitations as we still find used by savages. When the Gauls, newly and but partially subdued, rose in general revolt against the Roman dominion in the year 53 B. C., Cæsar's able lieutenant Labienus marched against Lutetia, in the neighbourhood or which the insurgents had assembled in great force. The Parisians, on this occasion, to prevent their insular strong-hold from falling into the hands of the enemy and serving them as a road whereby to cross the river, burnt the huts on it to the ground, and cut down the bridges which connected it with the land. So formidable did Labienus consider the strength of the assembled Gauls, that he did not venture to attack them before he had had recourse to stratagem, in order to effect a division of their forces. In this attempt he was at last successful; and a *De Bello Gallico, vii. 57. bloody conflict ensued, in which the undisciplined valour of the barbarians availed them nothing when opposed to the scientific tactics of the Roman legions. They were routed with great slaughter; but not even after the battle began to go against them, says Cæsar, did a man of them quit his station, but all fought on till they were cut down where they stood. A division of the Gauls, that had been detached to another point, arrived to the assistance of their countrymen; but the battle was almost over before they came up, and they were obliged to take flight immediately before the pursuing victors. "Those," continues Cæsar, with his characteristic indifference in relating such miseries, "who did not find shelter among the woods and the hills, the cavalry slew*" This battle was fought about four miles to the west of the Ile du Palais; but on which bank of the river the meagreness of Cæsar's narrative leaves in considerable obscurity. It has been affirmed by several modern writers that Cæsar, some time after this victory, repaired to Paris, and, having re-peopled the place from the neighbourhood, erected several considerable buildings on the island, and in particular two stone towers at the extremity of the two bridges which formed the approaches to the town from the north and south. But this is a mere invention of these ingenious restorers of lost history, only a very small part of the story having even the countenance of tradition. The Benedictines, Felibien and Lobineau, tell us †, that in their time one of the apartments of a building near the Pont au Change, called Le Grand Châtelet, was still popularly distinguished as Cæsar's chamber. It would be very rash, however, to conclude from this Quos non sylvæ montesque texerunt, ab equitatu sunt interfecti. Histoire de Paris, 5 tomes, fol. Paris 1725: tom. i. that the tower was actually built by Cæsar. In the old fortified towns of our own country, some one of the most important posts will often be found to bear the name of Cæsar's tower, having been so designated in all probability merely by way of eminence, and on the same principle on which a sovereign ruler has, in several modern languages, come be denominated a Cæsar. In both France and England, old military erections, whose origin is forgotten, have been vulgarly attributed to Cæsar, as the most renowned soldier whose exploits make part of the primitive history of the country. Thus the Tower of London is commonly said to have been built by that great conqueror. "This is the way," says the Queen of the unfortunate Richard II. in Shakspeare, "To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower." * The Bell Tower in the lower ward of Windsor Castle is also called "Cæsar's Tower;" although the sturdiest believer in historical romances cannot venture to assign its origin to the Roman conqueror. In France, in like manner, every thing possessing any extraordinary character used to be ascribed, by the credulity of former generations, either to the fairies, the devil, or Cæsart. The fact is, that we find no mention made of Paris till four hundred years after the time of Cæsar. The next notice of it is in the Emperor Julian's curious tract entitled " Misopogon,' in which he speaks of having spent a winter in that town. This was in the year 358. It was also in Paris that Julian's soldiers two years afterwards proclaimed him emperor, and forced him to assume that dignity, when the messengers arrived from Constans to recal him from the government of Gaul, which he then *See also Richard III. Act. iii. sc. 1. |