The sight has not changed. It is the same triumphal defile, which each day gathers within these select surroundings the most elegant women in Paris, fashionable horsemen, vibrating autocars with their _chauffeurs_, clubmen as well as artists and workmen, who come to enjoy the fair spectacle, this feast of the eyes, this unique scenery: the Bois de Boulogne, the Avenue du Bois, the Champs Elysées. [Illustration: THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE ABOUT 1850] From the top of the Arc de Triomphe, 'mid the twilight of May, the vision is a magic one; it is from the terraces of the portico erected to the glory of the Grand Army that a view is obtained of the sumptuous quarters of modern Paris. Some sixty years ago, Balzac showed his hero dreaming on the hill of Père-Lachaise, and contemplating, as it lay in the valley, the Monster he intended to tame. To-day Rastignac would have to mount the Arc de Triomphe, if he wished to threaten Paris. Thence, he might launch his famous defiance: "It is a struggle between us now!" for, if the aspect of things has altered, the impression made by the immense City is still and ever the same: an impression of weight, of imperious conflict, of hard victory. In verity, no one disembarks without a sort of anguish in this great Paris,--Paris, so redoubtable to the valiant that attempt its conquest and so prodigal to the fortunate ones that have known how to win its favour. GEORGES CAIN. FOOTNOTES: [3] Successive landlords have more or less spoilt this fine dwelling. The grand staircase is almost the only part intact, and it is a marvel. The carving is by Martin Desjardins, and the oval courtyard retains some of its ancient grace. [4] A word here meaning ultra-naturalistic, broadly satirical. WORKS QUOTED OR CONSULTED _History of and Researches into the Antiquities of the City of Paris_. By H. SAUVAL (1724). _History of the City and Diocese of Paris_. By the ABBÉ LEBEUF (1883). _Tableau of Paris_. By MERCIER (1782). _History of Paris_. By DULAURE (1825). _Tableau of Paris_. By TEXIER (1850). _Paris Demolished_. By E. FOURNIER (1855). _Enigma of the Streets of Paris_. By E. FOURNIER (1860). _Chronicle of the Streets of Paris_. By E. FOURNIER (1864). _Paris throughout the Ages_. By E. FOURNIER (1875). _My Old Paris_. By E. DRUMONT (1879). _Paris_. By AUGUSTE VITU (1889). _Paris (History of the Twenty Arrondissements or Quarters)_. By LABÉDOLLIÈRE. _Revolutionary Paris_. By LENÔTRE (1895). _Old Papers, Old Houses_. (1900). _The Bièvre and Saint-Séverin_. By HUYSMANS (1898). _The Chronicle of the Streets_. By BEAUREPAIRE (1900). _Paris-Atlas_. By F. BOURNON. _New Itinerary Guide to Paris_. By CH. NORMAND. _Through Old Paris_. By the MARQUIS DE ROCHEGRUDE (1903). _Minutes of the Municipal Commission of Old Paris_ (from 1898). End of Project Gutenberg's Nooks and Corners of Old Paris, by Georges Cain