ide de Savoie, he
had, in the exercise of his royal authority, demolished part of a house,
the property of the Canon Duranci, in the Rue des Marmousets, because it
projected too far out into the street and obstructed the circulation.
But the chapter of Notre-Dame protested in the name of its privileges
and of its immunities; the king admitted his error, and agreed to pay an
indemnity of a denier of gold; the chapter insisted that this should be
done on the day of his marriage, before he could be permitted to receive
the nuptial benediction, and the crowned culprit was obliged to consent
that a formal record of the affair should be placed on the registers of
the chapter. It was recognized that he had no right to demolish any
house, except for the purpose of erecting a church on the site: this,
although the narrowness and crookedness of the streets, as well as
their foul and miasmatic condition owing to the lack of all paving and
sewerage, were the constant sources of epidemics.

On the 13th of October, 1131, the king was riding with his son on the
hillock of Saint-Gervais (to-day the site of the Mairie of the IVth
Arrondissement, on the Rue de Rivoli, a little beyond the Hotel de
Ville), when a wandering pig ran between the legs of the young man's
horse, causing him to bolt and throw his rider, who was so badly injured
that he died in a few hours. This led to the promulgation of a royal
ordinance forbidding the proprietors of swine in the city to allow them
to run at large, under penalty of confiscation for the benefit of the
executioner of Paris. This regulation was several times renewed,--in
1261 under Saint Louis, in 1331 under Philippe VI, and in 1369 under
Charles V, and extended to the faubourgs of Paris and the surrounding
districts. The decree of 1331 gave the sergeants of the city authority
to kill all those which they found wandering at liberty, to keep the
head for themselves provided they transported the body to the
Hotel-Dieu. The pigs of the abbey of Saint-Antoine alone were exempted
from this regulation, and, that they might be recognized, they bore a
bell marked with a cross.

Louis le Gros, already occupied with measures to repress the growing
power of the great nobles, commenced the fortifications of Paris, which
were not completed until during the reign of his son, with a view of
guarding his capital against any sudden attack. It is recorded that he
adopted the habit of the great Caliph of the _Arabia