[3] Cobbett, comparing the relative intellectual culture of the British Isles and of France between the years 1600 and 1787, found that of the writers on the arts and sciences who were distinguished by a place in the _Universal, Historical, Critical and Bibliographical Dictionary_ one hundred and thirty belonged to England, Scotland and Ireland, and six hundred and seventy-six to France. [4] "Nous cuisinons même l'amour."--TAINE. [5] The Seine takes five hours to flow through the seven miles of modern Paris. [6] "_Cesare armato con gli occhi grifani._"--_Inferno_, iv. 123. [7] Of some 10,000 ancient inscriptions found in Gaul, only twenty are in Celtic, and less than thirty words of Celtic origin now remain in the French language. [8] The water supply of Paris is even now partly derived from these sources, and flows along the old repaired Roman aqueduct. [9] Traces of the Gallo-Roman wall have been discovered, and are marked across the roadway opposite No. 6 Rue de la Colombe. [10] The Isle de Galilée was joined to the Cité during the thirteenth century. [11] In 1848 some remains were found of the old halls of this building, and of its columns, worn by the ropes of the boatmen who used to moor their craft to them. [12] The exact position of this bridge is much disputed by authorities, some of whom would locate it on the site of the present Pont au Change. The balance of probabilities seems to us in favour of the position given in the text. [13] "_Jovem brutum atque hebetem._" [14] Not to be confounded with the Royal Provost, a king's officer, who replaced the Carlovingian counts and Capetian viscounts. [15] The present writer recalls a similar glacial epoch in Paris during the early eighties, when the Seine was frozen over at Christmas time. [16] By the law of 350 A.D. it was a capital offence to sacrifice to or honour the old gods. The persecuted had become persecutors. Boissier, _La Fin du Paganisme_. [17] "He soon hugs himself in unconditioned ease." [18] To protect home producers against the competition of the Gallic wine and olive growers, Roman statesmen could conceive nothing better than the stupid expedient of prohibiting the culture of the vine and olive in Gaul. [19] The favourite arm of the Franks, a short battle-axe, used as a missile or at close quarters. [20] Her figure was a favourite subject for the sculptors of Christian churches. She usually bears a taper in her hand and a devil is seen peering over her shoulder. This symbolises the miraculous relighting of the taper after the devil had extinguished it. The taper was long preserved at Notre Dame. [21] If we may believe Gregory of Tours, her arguments were vituperative rather than convincing. "Your Jupiter," said she, "is _omnium stuprorum spurcissimus perpetrator_." [22] Merovée, second of the kings of the Salic Franks, was fabled to be the issue of Clodio's wife and a sea monster.