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THE PROSCRIBED; 



Translated from the French of M. De Balzac, by Margaret Patrickson. 



' Lives there the man with soul so dead, 

 Who never to himself hath said 

 This is my own my native land ?" 



Walter Scott. 



Ha ! banishment ? be merciful, say death : 



For exile hath more terror in his look 



Than death, much more : do not say banishment." 



ShaJcspeare. 



FEW houses were to be found in the year 1508, situated on the 

 soil formed by the sand and alluvions of the Seine, above the city, 

 and behind the church of Notre-Dame. The first, who ventured to 

 build himself a dwelling on this treacherous flat, subjected at all times 

 to be inundated by the rising of the river, was a sergeant of the city of 

 Paris, He had rendered some trifling services to the canons of the 

 chapter of Notre- Darn e, in recompence of which the bishop let him 

 on lease twenty perches of ground, dispensing, in consideration of 

 the buildings he engaged to erect, with all service or quit-rent. 

 Seven years before the period at which this history commences, 

 Joseph Tirechair, one of the roughest and sharpest sergeants in 

 Paris, as his name indicates, had, thanks to his rights in the fines 

 collected by him for offences committed in the streets of the city, 

 built his house on the edge of the Seine, exactly at the extremity 

 of the street called Port Saint Landry. In order to secure from all 

 damage the articles of merchandize deposed upon the wharf, the 

 authorities had constructed a species of pier in mason's work, yet to 

 be seen on some of the old plans of Paris ; which resisted, at the 

 extremity of the land, the force of floods and ice, and preserved the 

 piles of the port. The sergeant had taken advantage of this circum- 

 stance, and founded his dwelling upon it, as ensuring stability; so 

 that it was necessary to mount about half a score of steps to come at 

 him. Like all the houses of that date, his paltry dwelling was sur- 

 mounted by a pointed roof, which displayed above the front, the 

 upper half of a lozenge, and of which, to the great regret of historio- 

 graphers, there exists, at present, scarcely more than two or three 

 models in Paris. The rude pediment formed by this species of roof, 

 was adorned with a circular opening which gave light to the garret, 

 in which the sergeant's wife dried the linen of the chapter, 'for she 

 had the honour of washing for Notre-Dame, and it was no trifling 

 business. 



M. M No. 9. 2 K 



