rm leaning against the side of the
receptacle. Ropes and ladders were now immediately procured; two men
went down, and in a few minutes brought up a body--it was that of the
unfortunate young man who had been so long missing! Life was not quite
extinct, for some motion of the limbs was perceptible, there was even
one last low groan, but then all animation ceased for ever. The
appearance of the body was most dreadful; the face was a livid green
colour, the trunk looked like that of a man drowned, and kept long
beneath the water, all brown and green--one of the feet had completely
disappeared--the other was nearly half decomposed and gone; the hands
were dreadfully lacerated, and told of a desperate struggle to escape:
worms were crawling about; all was putrid and loathsome. How did this
unfortunate young man come into so dreadful a position? was the
question that immediately occurred; and the only answer that could be
given was, that on the night of the cess-pool being emptied, the
porter remembered this young man coming home very late, or rather
early in the morning. He himself had forgotten to warn him of the
aperture being uncovered, indeed he supposed that it would have been
sufficiently seen by the lights left burning at its edge;--these had
probably been blown out by the wind, and the young man had thus fallen
in. That life should have been supported so long under such
circumstances, seems almost incredible: but it is no less curious than
true; for the porter was tried before the Correctional Tribunal for
inadvertent homicide, the facts were adduced in evidence, and
carelessness having been proved, he was sentenced to imprisonment for
several weeks, and to a heavy fine.

Of churches and religious establishments, there were plenty in and
about the Rue St Denis. Besides the great church of St Jacques,
mentioned before, there were in the street itself the churches of the
Holy Sepulchre, of St Leu, and St Gilles; of the Innocents; of the
Saviour; and of St Jacques de l'Hopital: while of conventual
institutions, there were the Hospitals of St Catharine; of the Holy
Trinity; of the Filles de St Magloire; of the Filles Dieu; of the
Community of St Chaumont; of the S[oe]urs de Charite; and of the great
monastery of St Lazare. The fronts, or other considerable portions of
those buildings, were all visible in the street, and added greatly to
its antiquated appearance. The long irregular lines of gable roofs on
either side,