Rue Vertbois, on the northern side of the institution, records the existence of a leafy wood in the old Abbey grounds. The tower dates from 1140, the fountain from 1712; both were restored at the end of the nineteenth century. Going on up this old street we find numerous traces of what were erewhile the Abbey precincts. Porte St-Martin at the angle where the _rue_ meets the _boulevard_ is that last of three great _portes_ moving northward, and each in its time marking the city boundary. Rue Meslay, opening out of Rue St-Martin at this point, dates from the first years of the eighteenth century, when it was Rue du Rempart. No. 49 was the home of the last Commandant du Guet. At No. 46 Aurore Dupin, known as George Sand, the famous novelist, was born in 1804. At No. 40 we see the fine old _hôtel_, with a fountain in the court, where in eighteenth-century days dwelt the Commandant de la Garde de Paris, the _garde_ having replaced the _guet_ (the Watch) in 1771. [Illustration: RUE BEAUBOURG] Rue Beaubourg, stretching from Rue Rambuteau to Rue Turbigo, and the streets and passages leading out of it, show us many traces of bygone times. At No. 28 we find subterranean halls, with hooks where iron chains were once held fast--for this was an ancient prison--and a salon Louis XVI, with traces of ancient frescoes and sculpture. The city wall of Philippe-Auguste passed where the house No. 39 now stands. At No. 62, opposite which stretched the graveyard of St-Nicolas-des-Champs, was the palace of the bishops of Châlons, taken later to form part of a Carmelite convent suppressed in 1793. In a later revolutionary period--when Louis-Philippe was on the throne of France--the Paris insurrections centred here and horrible scenes took place on this spot[B]. In Rue au Maire, a secular official, mayor or bailiff of the Abbey, had his seat of office. In the Passage des Marmites (Saucepan Street) dwelt none but _chaudronniers_ (coppersmiths and tinkers). We see ancient houses all along Rue Volta, and Rue des Vertus, so called by derision, having been the Rue des Vices, is made up of quaint old houses. Most of the houses, rather sordid, in Rue des Gravilliers, are ancient. No. 44 is said to have been the meeting-place of the secret Society “l’Internationale” in the time of Napoléon III. At Nos. 69 and 70 we see traces of the _hôtel_ built by the grandfather of Gabrielle d’Estrées. At No. 88 the accomplices of Cadoudal, of the infernal machine conspiracy, were arrested.