y. They had a reprehensible fashion of announcing deaths and ringing
their bell through the streets at all hours of the night: "Pray to God
for the soul of Messire Suchaone, who has just died! Awake, all ye who
sleep, and pray God for the dead!" The Parisian bourgeois, suddenly
aroused from slumber by this hoarse appeal under his windows, entered
into a state of fright, or of fury, according to his temperament. These
_crieurs_ and _clocheteurs des trepasses_, moreover, formed a wealthy
and influential corporation which held the monopoly of what is to-day
the _Pompes funebres_,--they furnished the serge, the robes, the
mantles, the chaperons or hoods, the hangings, and the torches for the
funerals, they even furnished the hired mourners when required, who
preceded the cortege to the graves in black garments, "ringing their
bells, drawing lugubrious sounds from grotesque instruments, appealing
to the people to pray for the defunct, making an infernal uproar, and,
in order to honor the dead, nearly killing the living." This corporation
was in existence after 1789, but the hospitals and hospices had obtained
the right of furnishing hangings for funeral ceremonies, and a decree of
the year XII transferred it to churches and consistories.

The arrangements for interments, generally, were in harmony with the
condition of the overcrowded and reeking cemeteries,--the bodies were
usually transported to their last resting-places on men's backs or by
their arms, the poor enjoyed the luxury of a bier only during this
journey and were thrown half-naked into the common grave. From this
period of the Revolution, these summary processes were forbidden; the
bodies were obliged to be carried in wagons or cars, excepting those of
children, though sometimes several coffins were placed in the same
vehicle. For more seemly processions, the cars were drawn by two horses,
walking, accompanied by an _ordonnateur_ and three porters in costume,
or even by four _aumoniers_ on horseback supporting the canopy. In the
latter case, the hearse would be furnished with no less than eight
horses. For these sumptuous occasions, however, the _jures-crieurs_
would deem it necessary to accompany the funeral cortege with a convoy
of saddle-makers, harness-makers, and wheelwrights, in case the heavy
funeral car should happen to upset or to become stalled in the mud. The
presence of these auxiliaries in their working costumes was concealed as
much as possible; the