A rather curious instance of the persistency of habit in Paris--a persistency which marks the French of to-day--may be noticed by comparing the testimony of a chronicler of the end of the twelfth century, with that of Villon, the poet of the fifteenth. To be sure the elder author’s statement is serious and the later man’s jocose, but there is an undoubted truth behind it. “The Petit Pont,” says Guy de Bazoches, “belongs to the dialecticians, who pace up and down, disputing.” Villon’s mention of the usage, “with a difference,” is in the third stanza of his tribute to the fluency and wit which he describes in his A BALLAD OF PARIS WOMEN[1] Bright talkers do the walls of Florence hold; Venetian damsels’ repartee is gay; The ancient ladies in their courts of old With merry gibe enlivened the long day. But whether she be Lombardese or Roman, Or, if you please, in great Genóa born, A Piedmont or a brilliant Savoy woman-- The Paris maiden puts them all to scorn. The belles of lovely Naples, so they say, In clever conversation take great pride; German and Prussian maids with chatter gay Entrance the swains that in those lands abide. Whether she live in Greece or Egypt, then, Or Hungary or other land adorn, A Spaniard be or dark-browed Castellan-- The Paris maiden puts them all to scorn. Heavy of speech are Swiss girls and Breton, The Gascon also and the Toulouse maid, Two chatterboxes from the Petit Pont Would without effort put them in the shade. Whether in Calais or in fair Lorraine The maiden lives or greets an English morn, Whether she’s Picard or Valencienne-- The Paris maiden puts them all to scorn. ENVOI For sparkling wit, then, give the foremost prize, O Prince, to damsels who are Paris born. Though we may jest with bright Italian eyes, The Paris maiden puts them all to scorn. Louis’ son, Charles VIII (1483-1498), reigned with a personal enthusiasm which diminished the power of the nobles, yet permitted the rise of the Third Estate, the political combination of the peasantry and the citizens or _bourgeois_ class. He repaired the palace and the Sainte Chapelle in which he introduced an organ. His interest in Italy being excited Charles began a war there of no great importance in itself, but interesting as bringing to France a knowledge of art and architecture, which, when increased at the time of Louis XII’s (1498-1515) southern expedition, imposed ready-made upon France the style called Renaissance.