TILT A L'OUTRANCE. 61 



present times, for he is a lucky fellow who has not eaten f de chien 

 ou de chat/ We know what it cost us when King Charles came 

 from Flanders with his barons, and laid on again the tax upon provi- 

 sions." " Ay," added the mercer, te and put down our burgess- 

 counsellors." " Yes," chimed in Marcoquet, (e and raised the tax on 

 wine from an eighth to a fourth ;" " And took away the chains from 

 the streets," * interrupted the tanner, c( so that at present we can 

 offer no more resistance than a flock of sheep; but the winter is 

 coming, and we shall see if people will cry out as they did last year, 

 ' I am dying of hunger/ f I perish with cold.' We shall see if we 

 are to pay twelve francs for a calf and sixteen for a hog. We shall 

 see if the wolves of Vanvres and Gentilly are to come and visit us 

 every night as far as the Place Maubert." " Patience beats skill, 

 gossip," said the butcher ; " he who burns his wood too green makes 

 only smoke, and he who eats his bread too hot chokes himself. I 

 may answer you too in the words of the song : 



' Take time while yet it is in view, 



For Fortune is a fickle fair ; 

 Days fade, and others spring anew, 



Then take the moment still in view. 

 What boots to toil, and cares pursue ? 



Each, month a new moon hangs in air ; 

 Take then the moment still in view, 



For Fortune is a fickle fair, 'f 



If the Burgundy plane smooth the knotted club of Orleans let the 

 flying stagi. beware ! and then " " I have told you already," in- 

 terrupted the tanner, " I have told you already, gossip, that I would 

 not give the horns of an old ox to choose between the Burgundian, 

 the Orleans, and the Flying Stag. They quarrel with one another 

 like blind men begging in company, but to oppress the people they 

 understand one another like thieves at a fair. I wish one of them 

 would break his neck in carrying the other two into Paradise. By St. 

 Thibaut, what we want now are our franchises, even if we must fight 

 to obtain them." At this bold speech of the tanner's, the old woman 

 already mentioned again renewed her monitory exclamations : (( Good 

 folks, good folks, pray cast a glance this way on the Bastille of St. 

 Anthony beside us; there are fine cages there, where they feed you 

 with a fork. To my thinking, unless you keep your tongues between 



* The Parisians sought to defend themselves against attack by heavy chains 

 and doors which guarded the entrances of the streets. A proof of this exists in 

 the names of many of the present streets which refer to the fact, as the Rue des 

 deux Fortes, which is so often repeated ; and also the Rue des Douze Fortes in 

 the Marais, which formed at pleasure no less than twelve separate enclosures. 



j- " Faut prendre le terns comme il vient." Ilondel by Jean Froissart. 



J The Duke of Orleans having taken for his device a knotted dub, with this 

 inscription, u Je Venme^ the Duke of Burgundy, who considered this a bravado 

 of his antagonist, in his turn took for his device a plane, thus menacing the 

 knotted club. The Duke of Orleans being afterwards assassinated in the Rue 

 Barbette, the children went about the streets crying out, " the knotted club is 

 planed." The " cerf-volant" is an allusion to the stag which Charles VI. bore 

 in his shield. 



