ith the sceptist, but immediately
plunge their swords into his body.

Rhetoric at this period was a study much followed and admired, but the
logic of Saint-Louis, I suspect, was the most forcible and best
calculated to remove all doubts, having a great objection to language
that was what some persons would style far too energetic; where an oath
was suffered to escape, he ordered the intemperate orator's tongue to be
pierced with a hot iron and his lips burnt; hence many of his subjects
were compelled to endure that operation; but this was considered in
those days all very saint-like. They had strange ideas in some
instances, in days of yore, according to our present notion of words and
things. Louis the First, surnamed the _Debonnaire_ (the gentle), had his
nephew Bernard's eyes bored out; this act was certainly very like a
_gentle_ man. Hugh the Great, so called on account of his splendid
virtues, in the year 1014 thought it proper that he should be present at
the burning of a few heretics, and his lady, with her ardent religious
zeal, stepped forward and poked out the eye of her confessor, who was
one of the victims, with her walking cane, before he was committed to
the flames. Louis however had some redeeming qualities; he founded the
Hospital of the Quinze-Vingts, which still exists; he also enlarged and
improved the Hotel Dieu, the principal hospital in those days, in which
he even exceeded the munificence of his predecessor, Philippe Auguste,
who published an ordonnance commanding that all the straw which had been
used in his chamber should be given to the Hotel Dieu, whenever he
quitted Paris and no longer wanted it; such overpowering kindness one
would imagine must have had the effect of curing some of the invalids
who were capable of appreciating the high honour conferred upon them, in
being suffered to lie upon straw which had been trodden by royal feet.
Saint Louis also founded the celebrated College of the Sorbonne, which
is still existing, and maintains a high character; he also built the
curious and interesting chapel adjoining the Palais de Justice, which is
well worth the amateur's attention; he founded the Hospital of Les
Filles de Dieu, for the purpose of reclaiming women of improper conduct.
The Mendicant Monks, the Augustines, and the Carmes were established in
France during his reign, and he founded the convents of the Beguines,
Mathurins, Jacobins, Carthusians, Cordeliers, and several others of
min