Guise at five in
the morning of 27th April 1578, and fought on until every one was
either slain or severely wounded.

[Footnote 233: Recently augmented.]

How different is the present aspect of this once courtly square! Here
noble gentlemen in dazzling armour jousted, while from the windows of
each of the thirty-five pavilions, gentle dames and demoiselles smiled
gracious guerdon to their cavaliers. Around the bronze statue of Louis
XIII., proudly erect on the noble horse cast by Daniello da Volterra,
in the midst of the gardens, fine ladies were carried in their
sedan-chairs and angry gallants fought out their quarrels. And now on
this royal Place, the Perle du Marais, the scene of these brilliant
revels, peaceful inhabitants of the east of Paris sun themselves and
children play. Bronze horse and royal rider went to the melting pot of
the Revolution to be forged into cannon that defeated and humbled the
allied kings of Europe, and a feeble marble equestrian statue, erected
under the Restoration, occupies its place.

We cross the Square obliquely and at No. 6, Victor Hugo's old house,
find a delightful little museum of portraits, busts, casts,
illustrations of his works in various mediums, and personal and
intimate objects belonging to the poet. It was at this house that in
1847 the two greatest novelists of their age met. Dickens has
described how he was welcomed with infinite courtesy and grace by
Hugo, a noble, compact, closely-buttoned figure, with ample dark hair
falling loosely over his clean-shaven face and with features never so
keenly intellectual, and softened by a sweet gentility. We leave the
Place by the S. exit, and entering the Rue St. Antoine turn R. to No.
62, where stands the Hotel de Sully, built by Du Cerceau in 1634. The
stately but now rather grimy inner courtyard is little altered, but
the fine facade has been disfigured by the erection of a mean
building between the wings. We return from the Metropolitain station
at the end of the Rue Francois Miron.

[Illustration: PLACE DES VOSGES, MAISON DE VICTOR HUGO.]

SECTION VIII

_Rue St. Denis--Fontaine des Innocents--Tower of Jean sans Peur--Cour
des Miracles--St. Eustache--The Halles--St. Germain l'Auxerrois._

From the Chatelet Station of the Metropolitain we strike northwards
along the Rue St. Denis, passing R. and L. the Rue des Lombards, the
Italian business quarter of old Paris, where Boccaccio, son of
Boccassin, the money-chang