192 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITER AT HUE. 



" On approaching the end of the street, which Was terminated by the gate 

 of St. Dennis on the same spot which it occupies to-day, the crowd became 

 so dense that sometimes a halt of several minutes at a time took place in the 

 moving mass. On such, occasioned by the valets, who enjoyed the reputa- 

 tion of being, next to the students, the greatest blackguards in Paris. So ob- 

 noxious, in fact, had they become to the authorities, that those who were out 

 of place were forced to quit the city instantly, if they could not find some re- 

 spectable person to become responsible for their conduct. Their costume was 

 as various as that of their descendants of the present day ; but many wore 

 only a single sleeve of their master's livery. On the present occasion their 

 delinquencies were confined to certain manual jokes played upon the lower 

 class of women, and some less innocent conversations which they held with 

 the speaking birds, hung out at almost every window. And, in these house- 

 hold favourites of the Parisians of the age, it must be said, they met with their 

 match. Leading the public life they did, in which they were exposed to every 

 sort of society, the natural morality of the birds was so far lost that they had 

 become fluent in every term of insult and indecency, and thunders of laughter 

 were elicited among the crowd by the aptness of their repartees. 



"When the Scottish knight at length reached the gate of St. Dennis, a 

 scene took place which formed a strange prelude to the approaching ceremony. 

 In those days the English were not the only ravagers of France. Famine, as 

 usual, had followed the steps of protracted war ; and troops of starved Wolves, 

 unable to live in their forests, came prowling, not only to the gates, but in 

 the very streets of Paris. Women as well as children, if we may believe con- 

 temporary authors, were in some instances killed by these hungry and fero- 

 cious beasts; and not a few of the more daring citizens went forth to combat 

 the destroyer, in the same chivalrous spirit which inspired the heroes of the 

 romances in their duels with giants and dragons. 



" At this moment, a slain wolf of extraordinary size was brought in, as a 

 trophy, by a party of these adventurers. In order to give greater effect to the 

 exhibition, the tremendous brute was raised upon his legs, with his dead eyes 

 and dropping jaws directed towards the street. The spectacle was hailed by 

 the rabble with a universal shout; but the noise died away with unusual 

 suddenness. It seemed as if the show had been taken as an evil augury ; and 

 this strange avant-courier of a monarch was ordered to make his entrance by 

 another avenue. The wolf-hunters, however, were now anxious to become 

 the spectators of a new and more splendid pageant, and the gaunt carcase was 

 thrown down by the way-side, to remain till the living hero of the day had 

 passed by. The incident was called to mind soon after, when the burdens 

 which the necessities of Charles VII. compelled him to impose were character- 

 ized by the selfishness of the Parisians, not as the demands of a lawful king, 

 but as the ravages of a wolf. 



" The whole of the space at the porte St. Dennis was taken up by the au- 

 thorities of the city, lining each side of the way, with those in the middle 

 appointed to receive the king. Above the gate was a shield, with the repre- 

 sentation of France supported by three angels, and the following inscription : 



'Tres excellent roy et seigneur, 



Les manans de votre cite 



Vous recoinent en tout honneur, 



Et entres grande humiliteV 



"The ground was kept by the arbalatriers and archers of the town, arrayed 

 in coats of arms, which, being of the livery colours of the city, red and blue, 

 gave them the appearance of wearing a uniform, although this improvement in 

 the dress of soldiers is of much more modern introduction. 



" The approaching cortege, which had been some time in sight, at length 

 gradually reached the ground, and file after file took up their position on 

 either side of tile way, till King Charles himself was seen through long vistas 



