Volume I Part 1 (1/2)
The Bath Keepers.
VOL.1.
by Charles Paul de k.o.c.k.
I
RUE COUTURE-SAINTE-CATHERINE
It was two o'clock on a cold, damp morning; the fine snow, which melted as soon as it touched the ground, made the streets slippery and dirty, and Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine,--then called Couture-Sainte-Catherine,--although it was one of the broadest streets in Paris, was as black and gloomy as any blind alley in the Cite to-day.
But these things took place in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-four; and I need not tell you that in those days no such devices for street lighting as lanterns, gas, or electric lights were known. The man who should have discovered the last-named invention, which, in truth, savors strongly of the magical, would surely have been subjected to the ordinary and extraordinary torture for a recompense.
Those were the good old times!
Everything new aroused suspicion; people believed much more readily in sorcerers, the devil, and magic, than in the results of study and learning and the reasoning of the human intellect.
Was it that men were too modest in those days? If so, they have reformed most effectually since then.
In those days, very few persons ventured to be out late in the streets of Paris, where the police was most inefficient and often worse.
The young n.o.blemen sometimes indulged in the pastime of beating the watch; that diversion was permitted to the n.o.bility. To-day, the prowlers about the barriers are the only cla.s.s who undertake to beat the gendarmes from time to time; but the gendarmes are not so accommodating as the watch of the old days.
There were not then some thirty or more theatres open every evening for the entertainment of the people of the capital and of the strangers drawn thither by its renown. A single one had been founded and was patronized by Cardinal de Richelieu, who, unfortunately for his glory, had undertaken to add to his other t.i.tles thereto the t.i.tle of author.
But all great men have had their weaknesses. Alexander drank too much, which was infinitely more reprehensible than to write wretched verses; Frederick the Great insisted that he was a talented performer on the flute; and Louis XIV danced in the comedies-ballets which Moliere composed for him.
The farces which were then being performed by Turlupin, Gros-Guillaume, and Gauthier-Garguille ended with the daylight, their theatres being in the open air. People dined at noon and supped at six o'clock; and when a worthy bourgeois remained at a friend's house as late as nine o'clock, he looked upon it as a genuine revel, as a youthful escapade, and hurried home at the top of his speed, carrying a lantern, and shuddering with terror many a time as he pa.s.sed through the lanes which were then called streets, and in which, if he should happen to meet any evil-minded person, he was certain of obtaining no a.s.sistance from any house or shop; for when the curfew had rung, everything must be closed, and you might not even have a light in your house, if you wished to read or work, or for any reason not to go to bed.
Why do we call that period ”the good old time”?
That is a question I have often asked myself.
Is it because people were not ent.i.tled to go to bed, to work, to entertain their friends, to amuse themselves when they had the desire, the need, or the fancy so to do?
Is it because people broke their necks after dark in the streets?
because thieves, then called _Truands_, _Mauvais Garcons_, _Tireurs de Laine_, or _Coupeurs de Bourses_, plied their trade in broad daylight on Pont Neuf and in other localities, laughing in your face if you ventured to remonstrate?
Was it because the shops were dark and filthy, devoid of taste and refinement?
Was it because duels were fought on street corners, or in the public squares, two or four or twelve a day, as unconcernedly as we go boating to-day; and the authorities took no steps to prevent this butchery?
Was it because edicts were promulgated every day whereby such a one was forbidden to wear silk, another to wear velvet, this woman to have a gilt girdle, another to dress in certain colors, which were too brilliant, too conspicuous for her walk in life?
O short-sighted politicians! O paltry critics! who anathematize luxury, who seek to restrict refinement, who censure coquetry, and who do not understand that by such theories you strike at our commerce, our manufacturers, our mechanics--in a word, all our _workers_!
In heaven's name, what harm is done if a plebeian who has money dresses fas.h.i.+onably, luxuriously even, if such be his taste, his caprice?
Are you afraid that he may eclipse you, who a.s.sume to belong to the beau monde? Try to make yourself distinguished by your manners, your bearing, your grace, your courtesy, your language; surely you must know that those are things that cannot be bought!