es through compassion for the miseries of the kingdom "under the
discord and piteous government of Louis XI." Thus threatened by the
aristocracy, it was a question of the utmost importance for the king to
retain his capital; he wrote to the Parisians in the most cajoling
phrases before Montlhery, and after, hastened to arm the bourgeois and
accepted, as an aid and support, a council of six bourgeois, six members
of the Parliament, and six clerks of the University.

The festivals and processions in the streets of Paris were not so
numerous in this reign as in many of the preceding ones, but some of
them have remained memorable. On his entry into the city on the occasion
of his accession to the throne, August 30, 1461, he was richly dressed
in white satin, and rode between the old Duc de Bourgogne and the Comte
de Charolais. Over the Porte Saint-Denis was the representation of a
ship, "emblem of the arms of Paris (which are, gules, a ship _equipe_,
argent, on a sea of the same; _au chef cousu d'argent_, sown with
_fleurs-de-lis d'or_). From this ship descended two little angels, who
placed a crown upon the head of the king. The fountain of Ponceau ran
wine; and at this fountain three beautiful maids, quite nude,
represented sirens; 'and this was a very pleasant thing,' adds the
chronicler, Jean de Troyes; 'they discoursed little _motets_ and
_bergerettes_.'" Other demonstrations, in the fashion of the time, were
given at other points of the route; all the streets through which the
king passed were hung with rich tapestries, and when he arrived at the
Pont-au-Change, the bird merchants of Paris launched in the air "more
than two hundred dozen birds of all kinds."

[Illustration: GRAND SALON OF THE TUILERIES, 1810. After Percier and
Fontaine.]

A very good painter, M. Tattegrain, in one of his recent _envois_ to the
annual Salon, has represented with great detail and much historical
accuracy the incident of the three pretty sirens, quite nude. According
to his story, they were only bared to the waist, and the king, very
gallantly, checked the procession and rode out from under his canopy to
hear their _motets_ and _bergerettes_.

On the 15th of May, 1468, there was a fine tilting at the Hotel des
Tournelles between the gentlemen of Paris and those of Normandy; "they
were valiant champions, superbly apparelled in hacquetons embossed with
gold." Of the four Norman chevaliers who came expressly for this
occasion, three wer