water, computing the
lost logs, and making the rafts which the Yonne carried down to the
Seine, brought together a large concourse of workmen. Such a population
increased consumption and encouraged trade. Thus Ville-aux-Fayes, which
had but six hundred inhabitants at the end of the seventeenth century,
had two thousand in 1790, and Gaubertin had now raised the number to
four thousand, by the following means.

When the legislative assembly decreed the new laying out of territory,
Ville-aux-Fayes, which was situated where, geographically, a
sub-prefecture was needed, was chosen instead of Soulanges as chief town
or capital of the arrondissement. The increased population of Paris,
by increasing the demand for and the value of wood as fuel, necessarily
increased the commerce of Ville-aux-Fayes. Gaubertin had founded
his fortune, after losing his stewardship, on this growing business,
estimating the effect of peace on the population of Paris, which did
actually increase by over one-third between 1815 and 1825.

The shape of Ville-aux-Fayes followed the conformation of the ground.
Each side of the promontory was lined with wharves. The dam to stop the
timber from floating further down was just below a hill covered by the
forest of Soulanges. Between the dam and the town lay a suburb. The
lower town, covering the greater part of the delta, came down to the
shores of the lake of the Avonne.

Above the lower town some five hundred houses with gardens, standing
on the heights, were grouped round three sides of the promontory, and
enjoyed the varied scene of the diamond waters of the lake, the rafts in
construction along its edge, and the piles of wood upon the shores. The
waters, laden with timber from the river and the rapids which fed the
mill-races and the sluices of a few manufactories, presented an animated
scene, all the more charming because inclosed in the greenery of
forests, while the long valley of Les Aigues offered a glorious contrast
to the dark foil of the heights above the town itself.

Gaubertin had built himself a house on the level of the delta, intending
to make a place which should improve the locality and render the lower
town as desirable as the upper. It was a modern house built of stone,
with a balcony of iron railings, outside blinds, painted windows, and
no ornament but a line of fret-work under the eaves, a slate roof,
one story in height with a garret, a fine courtyard, and behind it an
English ga