cend the Escalier Henry II. to the L., noting the
caissons of its ceiling, decorated by Jean Goujon, and reach the
Quadrangle under the Pavilion de l'Horloge, where we began our visit;
or we pass from the Rotonde down the Escalier Daru to the exit in the
Pavilion Denon, which gives on the Squares du Louvre. In the latter
case it will be of some interest before leaving to pass for a moment
by the exit and along the Galerie Mollien, where on the R. among the
models of Roman masterpieces executed for Francis I., under
Primaticcio's supervision, will be found one of the Laocoon, which
shows its condition before Bernini's bungling restoration had deformed
the group. To the unsated sightseer there yet remain the rich and
comprehensive collections of Egyptian and Asiatic antiquities on the
ground floor of the E. wing entered on either side of the E. portal.

SECTION VI

_The Ville (S. of the Rue St. Antoine)--The Hotel de Ville[222]--St.
Gervais--Hotel Beauvais--Hotel of the Provost of Paris--SS. Paul and
Louis--Hotel de Mayenne--Site of the Bastille--Bibliotheque de
l'Arsenal[223]--Hotel Fieubert--Hotel de Sens--Isle St. Louis._

[Footnote 222: Open, 2-4, by ticket obtained at the Secretary's
office.]

[Footnote 223: Open, 10-4, daily, except Chief Festivals.]

We take the _Metropolitain_ to the Hotel de Ville station and make our
way to the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, formerly Place de Greve, a
little W. of the station.

In 1141 a sloping bank of sand (greve), to the E. of the Rue St.
Martin and facing the old port of the Nautae at St. Landry on the
island of the Cite, was ceded by royal charter, to the burgesses of
Paris for a payment of seventy livres. "It is void of houses," says
the charter, "and is called the _gravia_, and is situated where the
old market-place (_vetus forum_) existed." This was the origin of the
famous Place de Greve,[224] where throbbed the very heart of civic,
commercial and industrial Paris. On its eastern side stood the old
Maison aux Piliers, a long, low building, whose upper floor was
supported by columns. Here every revolutionary and democratic movement
has been organised, from the days of Marcel to those of the Communes
of 1789--when the last Provost of the Merchants met his death--and of
1871, when the fine old Renaissance Hotel de Ville was destroyed by
fire. The place of sand was much smaller in olden times, and from
1310, when Philip the Fair burned three heretics, to Septembe