Méryon, too, like Dumas, etched details with a certain regard for effect rather than a colder preciseness, which could hardly mean so much as an impression of a mood. They both sought the picturesque element, and naturally imparted to everything modern with which they came into contact the same charm of reality which characterized the tangible results of their labours.
Nothing was left to chance, though much may—we have reason to think—have been spontaneous. The witchery of a picturesque impression is ever great, but the frequency of its occurrence is growing less and less.
To-day we have few romancers, few painters or etchers of fleeting moods or impressions, and are fast becoming schooled in the tenets of Zola and Baudry, to the glorification of realism, but to the death and deep burial of the far more healthy romanticism of the masters of a few generations since.
To the Roman occupation of Paris succeeded that of the Franks, and Clovis, son of Childérie and grandson of Merovée, after his conversion to Christianity at Reims, established the seat of his empire at Paris.
Childebert, the descendant of Clovis,—who had taken unto himself the title King of Paris,—in 524 laid the foundation of the first Église de Notre Dame.
The kings of the second race lived in Paris but little, and under the feeble successors of Charlemagne the city became the particular domain of the hereditary counts. In the year 845 the Normans came up the river by boat and razed all of that part known even to-day as La Cité, hence the extreme improbability of there being existing remains of an earlier date than this, which are to-day recognizable. After successive disasters and invasions, it became necessary that new quartiers and new streets should be formed and populated, and under the reign of Louis VII. the walls were extended to include, on the right bank, Le Bourg l’Abbé, Le Bourg Thibourg, Le Beau-Bourg, Le Bourg St. Martin,—regions which have since been occupied by the Rues St. Martin, Beaubourg, Bourtebourg, and Bourg l’Abbé,—and, on the right bank, St. Germain des Prés, St. Victor, and St. Michel.
Since this time Paris has been divided into three distinct parts: La Ville, to the north of the Seine, La Cité, in the centre, and L’Université, in the south.
The second enceinte did not long suffice to enclose the habitations of the people, and in the year 1190 Philippe-Auguste constructed the third wall, which was strengthened by five hundred towers and surrounded by a deep fosse, perpetuated to-day as the Rempart des Fosses. At this time the first attempts were made at paving the city streets, principally at the instigation of the wealthy Gérard de Poissy, whose name has since been given to an imposing street on the south bank.
Again, in 1356, the famous Etienne Marcel commenced the work of the fourth enceinte. On the south, the walls were not greatly extended, but on the north they underwent a considerable aggrandizement. Fortified gateways were erected at the extremity of the Rue de St. Antoine, and others were known variously as the Porte du Temple and Porte St. Denis. Other chief features of the time—landmarks one may call them—were the Porte St. Honoré, which was connected with the river-bank by a prolonged wall, the Tour du Bois, and a new fortification—as a guardian against internal warfare, it would seem—at the upper end of the Ile de la Cité.