e to see the wife of an advocate
who has bought his office, and who has not ten francs of income, dress
herself like a princess, display the gold on her neck, on her head, on
her girdle? She is dressed according to her station in life, she says.
Let her go to all the devils, she and her station! And you, Monsieur
Jacques, you give her absolution? Doubtless she will say: 'It is not my
husband who has given me such fine clothes, but I have earned them with
the labor of my body!' To thirty thousand devils with such labor!"

In the following reign, the Court and Parliament took extraordinary
measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease which was
called _le mal de Naples_, because it was said to have been first
brought into France by the soldiers of Charles VIII on their return from
the Italian campaigns. This statement, however, is very doubtful. An
ordinance was drawn up, with the approval of the _prevots_ of Paris, the
merchants and the _echevins_, by which all those affected with this
malady, and having no regular residence in the city, were directed to
leave it within twenty-four hours under penalty of the halter, and in
order to facilitate their return to their own homes, they were directed
to rendezvous at the Portes Saint-Denis or Saint-Jacques, where they
would give their names in writing to an official stationed there for
that purpose and receive each four sous parisis. Those who possessed
houses in the city were requested to immediately shut themselves up in
them and remain in them; the cures and churchwardens of their parishes
were to see that they were furnished with food. The homeless poor were
to congregate in the Faubourg Saint-Germain-des-Pres, where they would
be lodged, fed, and cared for; they were expressly forbidden to leave
until they were cured. The _prevot_ of Paris gave orders that those
affected with disease were not to be suffered to go about the city, but
were to be driven from it, or put in prison; the _prevot_ of the
merchants and the _echevins_ put guards at the city gates to prevent any
of these persons entering the capital.

In 1560, during the short reign of Francois II, the States-General
issued a positive prohibition of all prostitution,--which was as
ineffective as all the preceding regulations had been. Under Charles IX
and Henri III, the evil constantly increased,--the example offered by
the corrupt court not being conducive to the growth of a sound public
opinion. Those p