On the northern part of the Pont Neuf Henry built the famous “Samaritaine,” a pump which forced water to the Louvre and the Tuileries, was crowned by a clock tower and a chime of bells, and was decorated with statues and carving. The name is perpetuated to-day in a department store on the right bank and in a public bath floating in the stream. On other bridges there were several of these pumps. One on the Pont Notre Dame was destroyed within the remembrance of people now living. Berthod, a seventeenth-century writer of doggerel, who describes “La Ville de Paris” in “burlesque verses,” draws a lively picture of the activities of Henry’s great esplanade in THE RASCALITIES OF THE PONT-NEUF May I be hung a hundred times--without a rope---- If ever more I go to see you, Champion gathering of scamps, And if ever I take the trouble To go and see the Samaritaine, The Pont-Neuf and that great horse Of bronze which never misbehaves, And is always clean though never curried (I’ll be blamed if he isn’t a merry companion)---- Touch him as much as you like, For he’ll never bite you; Never has this parade horse Either bitten or kicked. O, you Pont-Neuf, _rendezvous_ of charlatans, Of rascals, of confederates, Pont-Neuf, customary field For sellers of paints, both face and wall, Resort of tooth-pullers, Of old clo’ men, booksellers, pedants, Of singers of new songs, Of lovers’ go-betweens, Of cut-purses, of slang users, Of masters of dirty trades, Of quacks and of nostrum makers, [Illustration: THE SAMARITAINE. From an old print.] [Illustration: STATUE OF HENRY IV ON THE PONT NEUF. Madame Roland lived in the house on the right.]