leave by the west portal--a monstrous
pseudo-classic pile, added 1775-1778. To our L. is the vast area once
covered by a congeries of picturesque Halles and streets:--the Halle
aux Draps; the Marche des Herborists, with their mysterious stores of
simples and healing herbs and leeches; the potato and onion markets;
the butter and cheese markets; the fish market; the queer old Rue de
la Tonnellerie, under whose shabby porticoes, sellers of rags, old
clothes, iron and furniture, crowded against the bread market; the
Marche des Prouvaires, beloved of thrifty housewives--all swallowed up
by the vast modern structure of iron and glass, known as Les Halles.
The Halle au Ble, or corn market, last to disappear, was built on the
site of the Hotel de la Reine which Catherine de' Medici had erected
when frightened from the Tuileries by her astrologer Ruggieri. The
site is now occupied by the Bourse de Commerce, but one curious
decorated and channelled column, which conceals a stairway used by
Catherine and her Italian familiar when they ascended to the roof to
consult the stars, has been preserved.

The Rue Pirouette N. of the Halles reminds us that there, until the
reign of Louis XVI., stood the royal pillory, a tall octagonal tower
of two floors. The unhappy wretches condemned to exposure there were
placed with head and hands protruding through holes in a revolving
wheel, and were left for three hours on three market days, to the
gibes and missiles of the populace. There, too, was a place of
execution for state offenders, the Constable of Clisson in 1344 and
_le pauvre Jacques_ (p. 147) in 1477 having perished on this spot.

From the Place St. Eustache we cross (L.) to the Rue Vauvilliers,
formerly the Rue du Four St. Honore, the west side of which still
retains much of its old aspect, and many of the shops, their old
signs: _Au Chou Vert_; _Le Panier Fleuri_, etc. Descending this street
southwards, a turn (R.) up the Rue de Vannes will bring us to the
Ruggieri column, transformed (1812) into a fountain, as the
inscription tells. Resuming our way down the Rue Vauvilliers we turn
R. by the Rue St. Honore and opposite, at the corner of the Rue de
l'Arbre Sec, find the old fountain of the Croix du Trahoir, erected in
the reign of Francois I. and rebuilt by Soufflot in 1775. Here
tradition places the cruel death of Queen Brunehaut (p. 29).
Descending this street to the Rue de Rivoli, we note, No. 144, to the
L. an inscription mark