Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1Walton, William
History
Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1
Walton, William
Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
foot of the Abbé de Lubersac, walking near him; the latter made use of a
strong expression, to which the soldier replied in kind; the young woman
endeavored to make peace by saying: "After all, it is only an abbé, who
is not worth stopping for." The churchman, still further forgetting
himself, permitted himself to kick the young woman quite as if she were
a man; the dragoon took him by the collar; the _Suisses_ of the palace
hastened to quell the riot, but their numbers were quite insufficient;
the Duc de Chartres, seeing the tumult, but not daring to show himself
because of his great unpopularity, summoned the city guard to what by
this time had become a "regular field of battle," and the disturbance
was finally quelled. Among the wounded who were carried off was a
Chevalier de Saint-Louis, "disemboweled;" and thereafter the Suisses
prohibited the entrance of the gardens to all women of doubtful virtue.
It may be remembered that, in the celebrated affair of the diamond
necklace, the young person who was persuaded by the adventuress, Madame
de la Motte, to personify the queen, Marie Antoinette, and to meet the
duped Cardinal Rohan in the park of Versailles at ten o'clock in the
evening for the purpose of giving him the fictitious authority to
purchase the necklace, was a _fille du monde_ who lived in the Rue du
Jour at Paris, and was known as "la d'Oliva." For playing this part, the
young woman was promised fifteen thousand livres. The _mémoire_ that was
afterward drawn up by the avocat of Madame de la Motte "excited the
interest of all sensitive souls by relating that the demoiselle,
enceinte at the moment of her arrest, had been delivered in the Bastile,
and was nursing her infant herself."
[Illustration: PILLAGE OF THE ARCHBISHOP'S DWELLING, FEBRUARY 15, 1831.
Engraved from an unpublished drawing by Raffet.]
One of the most celebrated resorts of the ladies of the monde and the
demi-monde, the cabaret of Ramponneau at Belleville, was closed a few
years before the outbreak of the Revolution of 1789. Its renown seems to
have been established, in the early days of the Regency, by the fact
that wine was there sold at three sous six deniers the pint, that is to
say, at one sou less than the usual price. "It was so crowded that there
were as many persons outside, waiting their turn to enter, as inside,
although the accommodations were very considerable in size. This crowd
excited the curiosity of persons of distinction, who wished to see for
themselves this prodigy." It is described as a species of cellar,
decorated on the exterior with a vine painted on the wall, and with a
sign bearing the legend, "_Au Tambour Royal_," and a picture of the
proprietor astride of a cask. It was furnished in the interior with
wooden benches and crippled tables, around which crowded a multitude
drawn from all classes of society, high and low.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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