en; he rebuilt the
college and church of the Sorbonne where his monument,[135] by
Girardon from Lebrun's designs, may still be seen. He cheapened the
postal service,[136] established the Royal Press at the Louvre which
in twenty years published seventy Greek, Latin, Italian and French
classics. He issued the first political weekly gazette in France, was
a liberal patron of men of letters and of artists, and saw the birth
and fostered the growth of the great period of French literary and
artistic supremacy.

[Footnote 135: In 1793 the tomb was desecrated, and the head removed
from the body, but in 1863, as an inscription tells, the head was
recovered by the historian Duruy, and after seventy years reunited to
the trunk.]

[Footnote 136: A letter from Paris to Lyons was taxed at two sous.]

Another of Henry the Fourth's plans for the aggrandisement of Paris
was carried out by the indefatigable minister. As early as 867 the
bishops of Paris had been confirmed by royal charter, in their
possession of the two islands east of the Cite, the Isle Notre Dame
and Isle aux Vaches. From time immemorial these had been used as
timber-yards, and in 1616 the chapter of the cathedral was induced to
treat with Christophe Marie, contractor for the bridges of France, and
others, who agreed to fill in the channel[137] which separated the
islands; to cover them with broad streets of houses and quays, and to
build certain bridges; but expressly contracted never to fill up the
arm of the Seine between the Isle Notre Dame, and the Cite. The first
stone of the new bridge which was to connect the islands with the
north bank was laid by Louis XIII. in 1614 and named Pont Marie, after
the contractor. In 1664 a church, dedicated to St. Louis, was begun
on the site of an earlier chapel by Levau, but not completed until
1726 by Donat.

[Footnote 137: The Rue Poulletier marks the line of the old channel
between the islands.]

The new quarter soon attracted the attention of rich financiers, civic
officers, merchants and lawyers, some of whose hotels were designed by
Levau, and decorated by Lebrun and Lesueur. Madame Pompadour's brother
lived there; the Duke of Lauzan, husband of the Grande Mademoiselle,
lived in his hotel on the Quai d'Anjou (No. 17); Voltaire lived with
Madame du Chatelet in the Hotel Lambert (No. 1 Quai d'Anjou). To the
_precieuses_ of Moliere's time the Isle St. Louis (for so it was
called) became the Isle de Delos, around who