," etc. The case was conducted on
both sides by the most eminent avocats, and finally compromised by
Ramponneau paying a large sum to have the agreement cancelled. He still
had left one hundred thousand livres, with which he established himself
at the Porcherons, and purchased from the Sieur Magny the cabaret de la
Grande-Pinte, on which he expended sixty thousand livres more, and where
he had the same success as at the Courtille. The court and the city
thronged his establishment, which became the restaurant _a la mode_.

A very celebrated wine-shop, known as the Petit-Ramponneau, was
established, in 1859, at Montmartre, and was the last in which wine was
served in little crocks or jugs. The proprietors, MM. Lallemand, made a
fortune in thus dispensing _vin bleu_ and portions at six sous the
plate.

"It had long been said that the third estate paid with its property, the
nobility with its blood, the clergy with its prayers. Now, the clergy of
the court and of the salon prayed but very little, the nobility no
longer constituted in itself the royal army; but the third estate,
remaining faithful to its functions in the State, still paid, and each
year more. Since its purse was the common treasury, it was inevitable
that the more the monarchy expended, the more would it place itself in
a condition of dependency upon the bourgeoisie, and that a day would
arrive when the latter, weary of paying, would demand its accounts. That
day is called the Revolution of 1789."

[Illustration: A MAID'S DUTY IN FRANCE.]

The engraving on page 245 is a reproduction of one of the many that
appear at this day of settlement, with the object of exciting the people
against the clergy and the nobility, and of illustrating forcibly the
two principal vices of society as then constituted,--the privileges and
the inequality of taxation. To suppress these privileges, and to make
this inequality disappear,--this was the task of the Revolution. In the
engraving, from the collection of M. le Baron de Vinck d'Orp, of
Brussels, we see a woman of the people bending under the double burden
of a nun and a lady of the nobility; the title is "_Le Grand Abus_."

As to the origin of the famous phrase, the sans-culottes, the following
statement is made by some historians. Two ladies of the nobility, but
favorably inclined toward the new ideas, were one day present at a
session of the Assembly, and were commenting very audibly and very
critically upon a speech