ed forward, others tipped backward, while a few seemed disposed to
fall apart; all had a compost of earth, brought from heaven knows where,
in the nooks and crannies hollowed by the rain, in which the spring-tide
brought forth fragile flowers, timid creeping plants, and sparse
herbage. Moss carpeted the roof and draped its supports. The corner
pillar, with its composite masonry of stone blocks mingled with brick
and pebbles, was alarming to the eye by reason of its curvature; it
seemed on the point of giving way under the weight of the house, the
gable of which overhung it by at least half a foot. The municipal
authorities and the commissioner of highways did, eventually, pull the
old building down, after buying it, to enlarge the square.

The pillar we have mentioned, placed at the angle of two streets, was
a treasure to the seekers for Limousin antiquities, on account of its
lovely sculptured niche in which was a Virgin, mutilated during the
Revolution. All visitors with archaeological proclivities found traces
of the stone sockets used to hold the candelabra in which public piety
lighted tapers or placed its _ex-votos_ and flowers.

At the farther end of the shop, a worm-eaten wooden staircase led to the
two upper floors which were in turn surmounted by an attic. The house,
backing against two adjoining houses, had no depth and derived all its
light from the front and side windows. Each floor had two small chambers
only, lighted by single windows, one looking out on the rue de la Cite,
the other on the rue de la Vieille-Poste.

In the middle-ages no artisan was better lodged. The house had evidently
belonged in those times to makers of halberds and battle-axes, armorers
in short, artificers whose work was not injured by exposure to the
open air; for it was impossible to see clearly within, unless the iron
shutters were raised from each side of the building; where were also two
doors, one on either side of the corner pillar, as may be seen in many
shops at the corners of streets. From the sill of each door--of fine
stone worn by the tread of centuries--a low wall about three feet high
began; in this wall was a groove or slot, repeated above in the beam by
which the wall of each facade was supported. From time immemorial
the heavy shutters had been rolled along these grooves, held there by
enormous iron bars, while the doors were closed and secured in the same
manner; so that these merchants and artificers could bar t