. Paris and its story, by T. Okey; illustrated by Katherine Kimball & O. F. M. Ward . east ofthe Rue St. Martin and facing the old port of the Nautceat St. Landry on the island of the Cite, was ceded by royalcharter to the burgesses of Paris for a payment of seventylivres. It is void of houses, says the charter, and iscalled the gravia, and is situated where the old market-place{vetus forum) existed. This was the origin of the famousPlace de Greve where throbbed the very heart of civic,commercial and industrial Paris. Here Etienne Marcelpurchased for the Hotel de Ville the Maison aux Piliers(H
. Paris and its story, by T. Okey; illustrated by Katherine Kimball & O. F. M. Ward . east ofthe Rue St. Martin and facing the old port of the Nautceat St. Landry on the island of the Cite, was ceded by royalcharter to the burgesses of Paris for a payment of seventylivres. It is void of houses, says the charter, and iscalled the gravia, and is situated where the old market-place{vetus forum) existed. This was the origin of the famousPlace de Greve where throbbed the very heart of civic,commercial and industrial Paris. Here Etienne Marcelpurchased for the Hotel de Ville the Maison aux Piliers(House of the Pillars), a long, low building, whose upperfloor was supported by columns. Here every revolutionaryand democratic movement has been organised from the daysof Marcel to those of the Communes of 1789—when thelast Provost of the Merchants met his death—and of 1871,when Domenico da Cortonas fine Renaissance hotel wasdestroyed by fire. 294 PARIS AND ITS STORY The place of sand was much smaller in olden times, andfrom 1310, when Philip the Fair burned three heretics, to. ST. GERVAIS. July 1830, when the last murderer was hung there, hassoaked up the blood of many a famous enemy of State andChurch and of innumerable notorious and obscure permanent gibbet stood there and a market cross. EverySt. Johns eve—the church and cloister of St. Jean stood THE VILLE 295 behind the Hotel de Ville—a great bonfire was lighted inthe Place de Greve, fireworks were let off, and a salvo ofartillery celebrated the festival. When the relations betweenCrown and Commune were felicitous the king himselfwould take part in the fete and fired the pile with a torchof white wax which was decorated with crimson royal supper and ball in the Grande Salle concluded therevels. Not infrequently the ashes at the stake where apoor wretch had met his doom were scarcely cool beforethe joyous flames and fireworks of the Feu de St. Jean burstforth. The very day after the execution of
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectart, bookyear1904
