The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Exiles, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: The Exiles

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Clara Bell and James Waring

Release Date: September, 1999 [Etext #1884]
Posting Date: March 5, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXILES ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

The Exiles

By Honore de Balzac

Translated by Clara Bell and James Waring

ALMAE SORORI

In the year 1308 few houses were yet standing on the Island formed by
the alluvium and sand deposited by the Seine above the Cite, behind the
Church of Notre-Dame. The first man who was so bold as to build on this
strand, then liable to frequent floods, was a constable of the watch
of the City of Paris, who had been able to do some service to their
Reverences the Chapter of the Cathedral; and in return the Bishop leased
him twenty-five perches of land, with exemptions from all feudal dues or
taxes on the buildings he might erect.

Seven years before the beginning of this narrative, Joseph Tirechair,
one of the sternest of Paris constables, as his name (Tear Flesh) would
indicate, had, thanks to his share of the fines collected by him for
delinquencies committed within the precincts of the Cite, had been able
to build a house on the bank of the Seine just at the end of the Rue du
Port-Saint-Landry. To protect the merchandise landed on the strand, the
municipality had constructed a sort of break-water of masonry, which may
still be seen on some old plans of Paris, and which preserved the piles
of the landing-place by meeting the rush of water and ice at the upper
end of the Island. The constable had taken advantage of this for the
foundation of his house, so that there were several steps up to his
door.

Like all the houses of that date, this cottage was crowned by a peaked
roof, forming a gable-end to the front, or half a diamond. To the great
regret of historians, but two or three examples of such roofs survive in
Paris. A round opening gave light to a loft, where the constable's wife
dried the linen of the Chapter, for she had the honor of washing for the
Cathedral--whic