a dinner-party when and in what style they chose. Under the
Valois regime strict limits were assigned to the expenses of the table,
determining the number of courses of which a banquet should consist, and
that of the dishes of which each course was to be composed. Any guest who
should fail to denounce an infraction of the law of which he had been a
witness, was liable to a fine of forty livres; and officers of justice,
who might be present, were strictly enjoined to quit the tables of their
hosts, and institute immediate proceedings against them. The rigor of
these regulations extended even to the kitchen, and the police had the
power of entry at all hours, to enforce compliance with the statutes.

But it was during the prevalence of an epidemic that it was least
agreeable to live in France in the good old times. No sooner did a
contagious malady, or one that was supposed to be so, make its appearance,
than the inhabitants of Paris were all forbidden to remove from one
residence to another, although their term of tenancy had expired, until
the judge of police had received satisfactory evidence that the house they
desired to leave had not been affected by the contagion. When a house was
infected, a bundle of straw fastened to one of the windows warned the
public to avoid all intercourse with the inmates. At a later period two
wooden crosses were substituted for the straw, one of which was attached
to the front door, and the other to one of the windows in an upper story.
In 1596 the provost of Paris having learned that the tenants of some
houses infected by an epidemic which was then making great ravages, had
removed these badges, issued an ordinance commanding that those who
transgressed in a similar manner again should suffer the loss of the right
hand--a threat which was found perfectly efficient.

By an ordinance of 1533, persons recovering from a contagious malady,
together with their domestics, and all the members of their families, were
forbidden to appear in the streets for a given period without a white wand
in their hands, to warn the public of the danger of contact.--Three years
after, the authorities were yet more severe against the convalescents, who
were ordered to remain shut up at home for forty days after their cure;
and even when the quarantine had expired, they were not allowed to appear
in the streets until they had presented to a magistrate a certificate from
the commissary of their district, attested