UEEN MOTHER.

At the period of this history there existed in Paris, for passing from
one part of the city to another, but five bridges, some of stone and the
others of wood, and they all led to the Cite; there were le Pont des
Meuniers, le Pont au Change, le Pont Notre-Dame, le Petit Pont, and le
Pont Saint Michel.

In other places when there was need of crossing the river there were
ferries.

These five bridges were loaded with houses like the Pont Vecchio at
Florence at the present time. Of these five bridges, each of which has
its history, we shall now speak more particularly of the Pont Saint
Michel.

The Pont Saint Michel had been built of stone in 1373; in spite of its
apparent solidity, a freshet in the Seine undermined a part of it on the
thirty-first of January, 1408; in 1416 it had been rebuilt of wood; but
during the night of December 16, 1547, it was again carried away; about
1550, in other words twenty-two years anterior to the epoch which we
have reached, it was again built of wood, and though it needed repairs
it was regarded as solid enough.

In the midst of the houses which bordered the line of the bridge, facing
the small islet on which the Templers had been burnt, and where at the
present time the platform of the Pont Neuf rests, stood a wooden
panelled house over which a large roof impended like the lid of an
immense eye. At the only window, which opened on the first story, over
the window and door of the ground floor, hermetically sealed, shone a
reddish light, which attracted the attention of the passers-by to the
low, wide facade, painted blue, with rich gold mouldings. A kind of
frieze separating the ground floor from the first floor represented
groups of devils in the most grotesque postures imaginable; and a wide
scroll painted blue like the facade ran between the frieze and the
window, with this inscription: "RENE, FLORENTIN, PERFUMER DE SA MAJESTE
LA REINE MERE."

The door of this shop was, as we have said, well bolted; but it was
defended from nocturnal attacks better than by bolts by its occupant's
reputation, so redoubtable that the passengers over the bridge usually
described a curve which took them to the opposite row of houses, as if
they feared the very smell of the perfumes that might exhale through the
walls.

More than this, the right and left hand neighbors, doubtless fearing
that they might be compromised by the proximity, had, since Maitre
Rene's occupancy of the hous