, again R. by the Rue Tiquetonne, then L.
by the curious Rue Dussoubs to the new Rue Reamur, where on the
opposite side, to the L., is the narrow passage between Nos. 100 and
102 that leads to the once notorious Cour des Miracles, so vividly
portrayed in Victor Hugo's _Notre Dame_. It was here that Jean Du
Barry and his mistress, Jeanne Vaubernier, kept a gambling-hell.
Jeanne, subsequently married to Jean's brother, was the daughter of a
monk and formerly known as Mademoiselle Lange. She it was who became
the famous Du Barry, mistress of Louis XV. Here also dwelt Hebert,
editor of the foul _Pere Duchesne_. Both perished on the scaffold. We
cross the Cour and leave by the Rue Damiette (L.), turn again L. and
descend the Rue du Nil to the Rue des Petits Carreaux. This we follow
to the L., and continue down it and the busy and picturesque Rue
Montorgeuil, noting (L.) No. 78, the curious house at the sign of the
Rocher de Cancale. 72-64 were part of the roomy sixteenth-century
posting house of the Golden Compasses, and have quaint reliefs carved
on their facades. We may enter at 64, the spacious old coaching yard,
still used by market carts and waggons. The courtyard on the opposite
side, No. 47, was the office of the old sedan-chair porters. We
continue to descend, and at length sight the tall apse of the majestic
church of St. Eustache, which towers over the Halles. Begun in 1532 by
Pierre Lemercier, it was not completed until more than a century later
by Jacques Lemercier, architect of the extended Louvre. We enter, by
the side portal, the spacious, lofty and beautiful interior with its
not unpleasing mingling of Gothic and Renaissance architecture. It
was here that in 1587 a friar reciting the story of the execution of
Mary Queen of Scots roused his hearers to such a tempest of passion
that the whole congregation melted into a common paroxysm of tears.
Here, too, on 4th April 1791 was celebrated, amid the gloom and sorrow
of a whole people, the funeral of their "Sovereign-Man," Mirabeau. Not
till five o'clock did the league-long procession reach the church in
solemn silence, interrupted only by the sound of muffled drums and
wailing music, "new clangour of trombones and metallic dirge-voice,
amid the infinite hum of men." After the funeral oration a discharge
of arms brought down some of the plaster from the vaultings of the
church, and the body went--the first tenant--to the Pantheon of the
heroes of the Fatherland. We