fore of the lesser brethren not much is of a bolt driven home the rhythmic writ. traffic of life to slay life! To-day, many a time, Domenico Has Florence no heart? Is gratitude would have broken out into bitter dumb- memory dead? Is there not words, for all his soul was shaking a soul in this accursed city that rememwith wrath; not for himself, but for bers? Aye, there is one. Oh, pure, the prior of his adoring love. But with a touch Girolamo subdued him, if not to peace at least to silence. A strong soul, Domenico; yet had there been no Girolamo, Domenico had lived and died the pope's very humble servant. As for Silvestro, he trembled like a reed, a mere physical reaction, as I think, for the spirit was unbowed. The face might be pale, as whose might not at such a time? But the eyes which looked at Romolino up and down had no terror in them. pale face, and sorrowful, deep eyes! But the hammering and turmoil of this red, funeral horror will not let me rest, with its passionate, insistent voice. must leave it all for to-night, or I shall go mad. I May 23rd. — All night long the brute city has prowled round the square, howling like a famished beast, restless, and on the alert for blood. All night long, through the hoarse outcry, has rolled the din of labor. Rasp of saw trampling the hollow planks. What a companionship must be theirs-clang of iron, and the hurrying feet to-night, though not one of words, I think! There is but little room for words where the energy of faith crystallizes into death. One of spirit rather, and that strength which comes of union. I would I were with them, then I might fight down the devil better than now. What a pendulum is man! Let me set it down, that I may look the truth in the face. No peace without or within, for all night long I have cried into the darkness, and there is none to hearken. Dimly the light has crept in, seeming to bear upon its wings, more shrill and clear than in the gloom, the noise of the eager, life-thirsty floodtide of wrath outside. In this I am steadfast: not even the general himself shall drag me out to see the hungry lust for murder in the eyes of those who have been loved so well. Ha! how the tumult swells into a roar, and dies away in a gasp of silence as if the breath were choked down ten thousand throats. Leaving the hall with all the exaltation of rage and pity beating at my brain, there looked out of the crowd about the doorway that sorrowful, sweet face which has haunted me these three times. The blood surged to my heart and eyes like a wave flood, so that I gasped, and staggered-blinded. the planks ! The exaltation crumbled to despair, and all for a woman's face. I can hear their feet-the shuffle on them! Is that the murmur of the office for the dead? Oh, God in heaven, shrive See thou to that--prayer and fast-them! Oh, God in heaven, receive ing! See thou to that- trample nature under foot and rise to heaven upon it! But heaven seems near at hand! See thou to that! How? — How ? -Prayer and fasting, prayer and fasting! See thou to that! What an echo rumbles from the square! There is the thud of a mal It dies away. pectation. The the struggle. There is a buzz of ex- What is that? The crackle and roar of fire already, and a new red light that dances horribly on the wall! Down on thy knees, Giovanni, and let; there the crash of a plank flung weep. Who weeps with thee but that from shoulder high-the sharp ring one sorrowful, pale face? From Blackwood's Magazine. THE STREETS OF PARIS FORTY YEARS AGO. exercised particular influence on the look of the streets as on the home contacts of the inhabitants, and needs to THE changes which have come about be borne always in mind in endeavoring during the last forty years in the aspect to reconstitute the former aspects of of the streets of Paris have been vastly the place. Of course there were, in more marked than those which have those days as always, certain quarters occurred in London within the same of the town which were tenanted experiod. The two main reasons of the clusively by the poor; but the great difference are: firstly, that London set feature was that the poor were not to work to modify its ways at a much restricted to those special quarters; earlier date than Paris, and that Paris they lodged everywhere else as well, still retained, at the commencement of wherever they found themselves in the fifties, many reminders of ancient proximity to their work, in the most sights and customs, and still presented aristocratic as in the lowest districts. many characteristics of past days, In almost every house in the fashionwhich, on this side of the Channel, hadable parts of Paris the successive floors faded out long before; secondly, that, when transformation did at last begin in Paris, it was far more sudden and violent, far more universal and radical, than the mild gradual variations we have introduced in London, and that, in consequence of the utterness of that transformation, an entire city was virtually swept away and a new one put in its place. The Paris of the First Empire was still visible in 1850, almost unaltered in its essential features; old houses, old roadways, old vehicles, old cheapnesses, old particularities of all sorts, had been faithfully preserved, and struck both the eye and the pocket of the new-comer as signs of another epoch. It was not till Haussmann began, in 1854, the reconstruction, not not feel shocked at meeting a mason only of so many of the buildings of Paris, but what was far more grave of its conditions, and practices, and order of existence, that the relics of former life, former manners, and former economies found themselves successively crushed out, and that the brilliant, extravagant Paris of Napoleon III. was evolved from the ruins. were inhabited by a regular gradation of classes from the bottom to the top; over the rich people on the first and second floors were clerks and tradespeople en chambre on the third and fourth, and workmen of all sorts on the fifth and sixth. Thorough mingling of ranks under the same roof was the rule of life; all the lodgers used the same stairs (in those days back staircases scarcely existed); all tramped up and down amidst the careless spillings and droppings of the less clean portion of the inmates. The most finished of the women of the period thought it natural to use the same flight as the dirty children from above them; a lady going out to dinner in white satin did in white calico coming in; nodding acquaintances between fellow-lodgers were formed when time had taught them each other's faces. The effect of this amalgamation in the houses stretched out naturally into the streets, where, in consequence of the nearness of their homes, the various strata of the population of each quarter were At the commencement of the Second thrown together far more promiscuously Empire Paris was still a city of many than they are now. The workers have mean streets and a few grand ones; no place in the new houses, which are still a city of rare pavements, rough built for the rich alone; they have stones, stagnant gutters, and scarcely been driven to the outskirts, instead of any drainage; still a city of uncom- being spread, more or less, over the fortable homes, of varied smells, of whole town; the classes and the relatively simple life, and of close masses live now entirely apart, in disintermixture of classes. This last ele-tricts remote from each other, and the ment-the intermixture of classes growing hate of the masses for the classes has been considerably stimu- | before. Stores, in the English sense, lated by the separation. A totally have never become acclimatized in altered social relationship, a far less Paris (though several attempts have friendly attitude and feeling between the top and the bottom, has resulted from the expulsion of so many of the poor from their old homes. been made to introduce them), mainly because the cooks refuse to purchase food in places where they can get no commission for themselves but the The good streets of Paris forty years growth of the Bon Marché and the ago were therefore far more generally Louvre, which has been entirely efrepresentative than they are to-day. fected within the last forty years, supThey exhibited the various components plies evidence enough that in Paris, as of the community with more abun- in London, the tendency of the period dance, more accuracy, and a truer -outside the cooks is towards comaverage; universal blending was their prehensive establishments, where obnormal condition. The stranger learnt jects of many natures can be found at more from them in a day about types low prices under the same roof. Potin, and categories than he can now learn the universal grocer, supplies even an in a week, for in the present state example of success in spite of the of things there are, in one direction, cooks. Yet, notwithstanding the comregions where a cloth coat is never petition of the new menageries of beheld, and, in another, districts where goods, most of the shop windows on a blouse is almost unknown. And the Boulevards and in the Rue de la when to this former medley of persons Paix seem to indicate that the comand castes we add the notable differ- merce inside is still prosperous. Cerences of dress, of bearing, of occupa- tain sorts of shops have, it is true, tious of the passers-by from those entirely, or almost entirely, disapwhich prevail in the rich quarters now,peared, partly from the general change the contrast of general effect may of ways of life, partly from the absorpeasily be imagined. Forty years are tion of their business by larger traders. but an instant in the history of a For instance, I believe I am correct in nation, and yet the last forty years saying that there is not now one single have sufficed to produce an organic glove-shop left in Paris (I mean a shop change in the appearance of the streets in which gloves alone are kept, as used of Paris. to be the case in former times). The The change extends to everything-high-class special dealers in lace, in to the houses, the shops, the public cachemire shawls, in silks, have melted and private carriages, the soldiers, the policemen, the hawkers' barrows, and the aspect of the men and women. Nearly everything has grown smarter, but everything without exception has grown dearer. Whether the former compensates for the latter is a question which every one must decide for himself according to his personal view. The shops were of course inferior to what they are now. The show in the windows the montre, as the French call it was less brilliant and less tempting. They were, however, the prettiest of their time in Europe; and all that they have done since has been to march onward with the century, and, amidst the general progress of the world, to keep the front place they held away. At the other end of the scale the herboristes, who sold medicinal herbs, have vanished too; the rotisseurs, who had blazing fires behind their windows, and supplied roast chickens off the spit, have abandoned business; even the hot-chestnut dealer of the winter nights is rarely to be discovered now. Specialities, excepting jewellery, are ceasing to be able to hold their own; emporiums are choking them. Measuring the old shops all round-in showiness, in variety of articles, in extent of business they were incontestably inferior to those of to-day, though not more so than in any other capital. The look of the private carriages was also far less bright. They were 80 less well turned out; the horses were | effect (the Viennese are generally put heavier; the servants were often badly second, though lengths behind); the dressed; the driving was, if possible, other, that at no time within living more careless. French carriages (like memory have they contributed French plates and knives) have always largely, so exclusively indeed, to that been more lightly made than those of effect as they did half a century ago. England, and at that time the differ- Their performance indoors is not inence was more marked, because English cluded in the present matter; it is not carriages were more massive than now. their talk but their walk, not their The omnibuses and cabs were dirty home manner but their out-door mainand uncomfortable; ancient shapes still tien, not their social action in private existed, and, certainly, they did not aid but their physical effect in public, that to adorn the streets. concern us here. In general terms it may be said that, The results, to the eye of the passerin Paris as everywhere else - but more by, were admirable; and so were the perhaps in Paris than elsewhere processes by which the results were there was, in comparison with to-day, reached. The period of Louis Philess smartness, less alertness, less lippe had been essentially honest and hurry, and of course less movement, respectable; it had discouraged vanfor the population was much smaller, ities and follies; it had encouraged and the city was still limited by the octroi wall. The relative absence of bustle produced, however, no dulness; the streets were not so noisy, not so crowded, not so business-like as they have become since; but I think it is quite true to say that they were as bright. The brightness came from one special cause, from a spring of action proper to the time, which produced an aspect unlike that of other days. The great peculiarity, the striking mark and badge, which distinguished the streets of then from the streets of now, were supplied by a something which was nationally proper to the France of the period, by a something which none of us will see at work again in the same form by the type of the Paris women of the time. The question of the influence of on the aspect of out-of-door life has always occupied the attention of travellers. I have discussed it. and, especially, the comparative attractiveness of European women of different races and epochs - with many cosmopolitan observers, including old diplomatists from various lands, who, as a class, are experienced artistes en femmes and profound students of "the eternal feminine," and I have found a concordancy of opinion on two points: one, that the women of Paris have always stood first as regards open-air women - moderation and prudence; it had reacted on the whole organization of the life of the time, and, amongst other things, on women's dress. It was a season of economy, of frank acceptance of the fruits of small money, and of an astonishing handiuess in making the most out of little. When we look back (with the ideas of to-day) to the conditions of expenditure which prevailed then, it is difficult to believe that, with such limited resources, the woman of the time can have won such a place in the admiration of the world. I am certainly not far wrong in affirming that the majority of the women of the upper classes who ambled about the streets in those days had not spent ten pounds each on their entire toilette, every detail of it included. The tendency of the epoch was towards extreme refinement, but towards equally extreme simplicity as the basis of the refinement. There was no parade of stuffs, or colors, or of façons; there was scarcely any costly material; but there was a perfume of high breeding and a daintiness of small niceties that were most satisfying to the critical beholder. Finish not flourish, distinction not display, grace not glitter, were the aims pursued. The great ambition indeed, the one ambition - was to be comme il faut; that phrase expressed the perfection of feminine possibilities as the generation understood them. | meaning of comme il faut; if the young And they were comme il faut! Never ones were acquainted with it they has delicate femininity reached such a would only scorn it. As the Figaro height, never has the ideal "lady" observed some years ago, "la femme been so consummately achieved. That comme il faut est remplacée par la ideal (by its nature purely conven- femme comme il en faut." When the tional) has never been either conceived streets were peopled by the "femme or worked out identically in all coun- comme il faut," it was a privilege and tries simultaneously; local variety has a lesson to walk in them. always existed; the Russian lady, the And yet, if she could be called to life German lady, the English lady, the again, the streets of to-day would only French lady I mean, of course, laugh at her. Paris has grown accuswomen of social position - have never tomed to another theory of woman, been precisely like each other; the and would have no applause to offer to differences are diminishing with facili-a revival of the past. The eye addicts ties of communication and more fre- itself to what it sees each day, mistakes quent contacts, but they still exist mere habit for reasoned preference, perceptibly, and half a century ago and likes or dislikes, admires or conwere clearly marked. The French lady temns, by sheer force of contact; but of the time was most distinctly herself, surely it will be owned, even by those not the same as the contemporaneous who are completely under present inlady of other lands, and the feeling fluences, that the principles of dress of the judges to whom I have already and bearing which were applied in referred was that, out of doors, she Paris in the second quarter of the cenbeat them all. I personally remember tury had at all events a value which her (I was young then, and probably has become rare since. Women atsomewhat enthusiastic) as a dream of tained charm without expense, but charm, and feminine beyond anything I have seen or heard of since. with strong personality, for the reason that they manufactured it for themselves, and did not ask their tailor to supply it. It was a delicious pattern while it lasted, and while it corresponded to the needs of a time; but the time has passed, the pattern has become antiquated, and, in every way, Paris has lost largely by the change. Unhappily there was a fault in this Conceive the effect she produced in the streets! Conceive the sensation of strolling in a crowd in which every woman had done her utmost to be comme il faut; in which, as a natural result, a good many looked "born;" in which a fair minority might have carried on their persons the famous lines inscribed on one of the arabesquedattractive picture; but as it was a fault walls of the Alhambra, "Look at my elegance; thou wilt reap from it the benefit of a commentary on decoration." The fashions of the time aided in the production of the effect sought for; they were quiet, simple, subdued; and they were so because the women who adopted them had the good sense to take calm, simplicity, sobriety for their rules. common to all Europe then, and was in no way special to the French, it did not strike the foreign spectator of those days, because he was accustomed to it everywhere. The fault was that it was the fashion to look insipid! The portraits of the period testify amply to the fact, for they depict the least expressive looking generation that ever had itself painted. Both ringlets and flat Alas! the expression comme il faut bandeaux lent their aid successively to has disappeared from the French lan- the fabrication of the air of weakness. guage, just as the type and the ideas The Parisienne, with all her natural of which I have been speaking have vivacity, could not escape from the unidisappeared from French life. Some-versal taint; in comparison with what thing very different is wanted now. she has been at other times and is toNone but old people know the ancient day, there was about her a feebleness |