At No. 7 Rue du Helder, just off the Boulevard des Italiens, in a region so well known to Dumas and his associates, lived De Franchi, the hero of the "Corsican Brothers." The _locale_ and the action of that rapid review of emotions to which Dumas gave the name of the "Corsican Brothers" ("Les Frères du Corse"), was not of the mean or sordid order, but rather of the well-to-do, a sort of semi-luxuriousness of the middle-class life of the time. The scene of the novelette bears the date of 1841, and Paris, especially in many of what are known as the newer parts, has changed but little since. A new shop-front here and there, the addition of a huge gilt sign, of which the proprietors of Parisian establishments are so fond, somewhat changes the outside aspect of things, but, on the whole, the _locale_ often remains much as it was before, and, in this case, with but scarce three-quarters of a century past, the view down the Rue du Helder from its junction with Rue Taitbout differs little. "Hôtel Picardie," in the Rue Tiquetonne,--still to be seen,--may or may not be the "La Chevrette" of "Twenty Years After," to which D'Artagnan repaired in the later years of his life. D'Artagnan's residence in the Rue Tiquetonne has, in the minds of many, made the street famous. It was famous, though, even before it was popularized by Dumas, and now that we are not able even to place the inn where D'Artagnan lived after he had retired from active service--it is still famous. At No. 12 and 16 are two grand habitations of former times. The former served as a residence to Henri de Talleyrand, who died in 1626, and later to the Marquis de Mauge, then to Daubonne, a _tapissier_, much in the favour of Louis XIII. The other is known as the "Hôtel d'Artagnan," but it is difficult to trace its evolution from the comfortable inn of which Dumas wrote. [Illustration: D'ARTAGNAN'S LODGINGS, RUE TIQUETONNE] At No. 23 is about the only _relique_ left which bespeaks the gallant days of D'Artagnan and his fellows. It is a square tower of five _étages_, and, from the character of its architecture, we know it to be of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is known as the "Tour de Jean-sans-Peur." Jean-sans-Peur was the grandfather of Charles-le-Téméraire. Monstrelet has said that it was built to contain a strong chamber, in which its owner might sleep safely at night. It formed originally a part of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, but to-day, though but partially disengaged from the neighbouring houses, it is evidently the only member of the original establishment which remains. Not far from the precincts of the Louvre was the Rue de la Martellerie, where lived Marie Touchet.