the reign of Henry the
Third about the year 1580. There are many histories of Paris which have
been handed down by oral record to some of the earliest authors amongst
the Gauls, but so ill authenticated that they do not merit repetition,
having being reputed as fabulous by most writers to whom credit can be
attached. There is, however, one account of the foundation of Paris
which may be cited more for its comic ingenuity than for its veracity,
beginning by tracing the Trojans to Samothes, the son of Japhet and
grandson of Noah; then following in the same line, they endeavour to
prove that at the destruction of Troy, Francus, the son of Hector, fled
to Gaul, of which he became king and no doubt bestowed upon it the name
of France, as the French have a most happy knack of cutting off the _us_
at the end of names as, Titus Livius and Quintus Curtius they have
metamorphosed into Tite-Live and Quinte-Curce, and in fact with one or
two exceptions they have abbreviated the terminations of the ancient
Greek and Roman appellations entirely according to their own fashion.
This fortunate youth, Francus, at length fixed his abode in Champagne,
and built the town of Troyes, calling it after his native place, which
having accomplished, he repaired to the borders of the Seine and ever
partial to Trojan associations, built a city which he called Paris after
his uncle.

However agreeable it may prove to the feelings of the Parisians to trace
their origin to the remotest antiquity, yet common sense suggests that
the account of the foundation of their city which is the most rational,
is that which is deduced from the Commentaries of Julius Caesar, he
having been at some pains to ascertain from whence the Parisii sprung,
and was informed by persons who remembered the epoch, that they were a
people who had emigrated from their native country in consequence of the
persecutions and massacres of their enemies, and that they were supposed
to have belonged to some of the petty nations known under the common
appellation of the Belgae, and arriving on the borders of the Seine
requested permission of the Senones, a powerful people of the Gauls, to
establish themselves on the frontiers of their territory, and place
themselves under their protection, agreeing at the same time to conform
to the laws of those whose hospitality they sought. That they were but a
very inconsiderable people on the arrival of Caesar is proved by the
small contingent of warr