beneath. The _Rue de la
Grande Truanderie_, which was above the Innocents, must have been the
rendez-vous of all the thieves and beggars of Paris, if there be any
thing in a name: the old chronicles of the city relate, indeed, that
it took a long time to respectabilize its neighbourhood; and they add
that the herds of rogues and impostors who once lived in it took
refuge, after their ejection, in the famous _Cour des Miracles_, a
little higher up the Rue St Denis. We must not venture into this, the
choicest preserve of Victor Hugo, whose graphic description of its
wonders in his _Notre Dame_ needs hardly to be alluded to; but we may
add, that there were several abodes of the same kind, all
communicating with the Rue St Denis, and all equally infamous in their
day, though now tenanted only by quiet button-makers and
furniture-dealers. The real _Puits d'Amour_ stood at the corner of the
Rue de la Grande Truanderie, and took its name in sad truth from a
crossing of true love. In the days of Philip Augustus, more than six
hundred years ago, a beautiful young lady of the court, Agnes
Hellebik, whose father held an important post under the king, was
inveigled into the toils of love. The object of her affections,
whether of noble birth or not, made her but a sorry return for her
confidence: he loved her a while, and her dreams of happiness were
realized; but by degrees his passion cooled, and at length he
abandoned her. Stung with indignation, and broken-hearted at this
thwarting of her soul's desire, the unfortunate young creature fled
from her father's house, and betaking herself on a dark and stormy
night to the brink of the well, commended her spirit to her Maker, and
ended her troubles beneath its waters. The name of the _Puits d'Amour_
was then given to the well; and no young maiden ever dared to draw
water from it after sunset, for fear of the spirit that dwelt
unquietly within. The tradition was always current in people's mouths;
and three centuries after, a young man of the neighbourhood, who had
been jilted and mocked by an inconstant mistress, determined to bear
his ills no longer, so he rushed to the _Puits_, and took the fatal
leap. The result was not what he anticipated: he did not, it is true,
jump into a courtly assembly of knights and gallants, but he could not
find water enough in it to drown him; while his mistress, on hearing
of the mishap, hastened to the well with a cord, and promising to
compensate him f