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the citizen was in a position to give, while the small noble of Lorraine or of Beauce was obliged to receive; and this emphasises an historic lesson. Gentlemen as well as peasants lacked bread. After remaining two days without eating, one is ready to accept alms; at the end of three days, to demand them on account of the children. The decadence of the one class, the ascension of the other until their turn comes; it has always been the same since the world began.

      One last detail, and perhaps the most significant: There is no reference in the Memoirs of the times73 to the principal work of Vincent de Paul. Their authors would have made it a matter of conscience not to forget a Court intrigue or a scandalous adventure; but what can be interesting in people who are naked and hungry? One avoids speaking of them. It is even better not to think of them. In 1652, the year in which poverty was at its height in oppressed Paris, the Mother Angélique wrote from Port-Royal, to the Queen of Poland (June 28th):

      With the exception of the few actually engaged in charity, the rest of the world live in as much luxury as ever. The Court and the Tuileries are as thronged as ever, collations and the rest of the superfluities go on as always. Paris amuses itself with the same fury as if its streets were not filled with frightful spectacles. And, what is more horrible, fashion will not suffer the priests to preach penitence (Letter of July 12th).

      The lack of pity for the poor was almost general among the so-called higher classes. There is no need of too carefully inquiring as to what is passing in hovels.

      Vincent de Paul and his allies struggled six years. Not once did the government come to their aid, and the war always continued; for one ruin relieved, the armies made ten others. The group of the "good souls" who had made these prodigious sacrifices was at length used up, as one might say, and was never reinforced, in spite of the inexhaustible source of devotion offered by the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement. This body had been composed of men and women so exceptional in character, as well as in intelligence, that its ranks, emptied by death, and by the exhaustion of means and courage, could not be filled up. In 1655, the receipts of the committee were visibly diminished. Two years later, the resources were entirely exhausted and the work of relief remained unfinished.

      It was well that it was attempted; a leven of good has remained from it in the national soul.

      The actual benefits however, were promptly effaced; the famine of 1659 to 1662, especially in the latter year, counts amongst the most frightful of the century, perhaps in our entire history. The excess of material poverty engendered immense moral misery, particularly in the large cities, in which luxury stood side by side with the most frightful conditions, and Paris became both excitable and evil, as always when it suffers.

      The Carnival of 1660 was the most noisy and disorderly which old Parisians had ever known. Great and small sought amusement with a kind of rage, and dissensions and quarrels abounded from the top to the bottom of the social scale. Public places were noisy with riots and affrays. During the nights, masks were masters of the streets, and as has been seen above, no security existed with these composite crowds, which stole candles from the houses into which they had surged.

      One ball alone received in a single evening the visit of sixty-five masks, who ran through the city three nights in succession. These hysterics in Paris, while France was dying with hunger, are so much the more striking, inasmuch as the Court was not there to communicate to the outer world its eternal need of agitation and amusement. Louis XIV. spent a large portion of these critical years in journeying through his kingdom. One of the first journeys, lasting from October 27th to the following January 27th, had for its end the meeting of the Princess of Savoie at Lyons. There had been some question of marrying this Princess to the young King. On passing to Dijon, the Court stopped more than fifteen days. Mademoiselle tells us the reason for this delay; it is not very glorious for royalty. The Parliament of Dijon refused to register certain edicts which aggravated the burdens of the province. Le Tellier, "on the part of the King," promised that there should be no more difficulty if the states of Bourgogne would bring their subsidy to a sum which was indicated. "Upon which they agreed to what was demanded and presented themselves to account to the King."

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      1

      Letter of January 19, 1689.

      2

      Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Edited by Chéruel.

      3

      Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Edited by Chéruel.

      4

      The Château of Saint-Fargeau still exists, but the interior has been transformed since a great fire which occurred in 1752; the apart

1

Letter of January 19, 1689.

2

Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Edited by Chéruel.

3

Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier. Edited by Chéruel.

4

The Château of Saint-Fargeau still exists, but the interior has been transformed since a great fire which occurred in 1752; the apartments of Mademoiselle no longer remain. Cf. Les Châteaux d'Ancy-le-Franc, de Saint-Fargeau, etc., by the Baron Chaillou des Barres.

5

Cf. Les Sports et jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne France, by J. J. Jusserand.

6

Les nouvelles françaises, ou Les divertissements de la princesse Aurélie, by Segrais, Paris, 2 vols., 1656-1657. The last of the "Nouvelles françaises," Floridon, ou l'amour imprudent, is the history of the intrigues in the harem which led to the death of Bajazet. Racine had certainly read it when he wrote his tragedy.

7

See Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in the Collection of Grands écrivains. Paris, Hochette.

8

His Polexandre had appeared, 1629-1637; his last romance, La Jeune Alcidiane, in 1651; Cassandre and Cléopâtre, by La Calprenède, in 1642-1647. Arlamène, ou le Grand Cyrus, by Mlle. de Scudéry, was published 1649-1653.

9

Letters of the 12th and 15th of July, 1671, to Mme. de Grignan.

10

See Le dictionnaire des Précieuses, by Somaize.

11

Eugénie, ou la force du destin.

12

Mademoiselle commenced her Mémoires shortly after her arrival at Saint-Fargeau. She interrupted them in 1660, resumed them in 1677, and definitely abandoned them in 1688, five years before her death.

13

Oriane was the mistress of Amadis.

14

La relation de l'Isle imaginaire,

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