TOUR DE ST. JACQUES LA BOUCHERIE
(Méryon’s Etching, “Le Stryge”)
Dumas, ever praiseful of good wine and good food, describes Vatel, the maître d’hôtel of Fouquet, as crossing the square with a hamper filled with bottles, which he had just purchased at the cabaret of the sign of “L’Image de Nôtre Dame;” a queer name for a wine-shop, no doubt, and, though it does not exist to-day, and so cannot be authenticated, it may likely enough have had an existence outside the novelist’s page. At all events, it is placed definitely enough, as one learns from the chapter of “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne,” entitled “The Wine of M. de la Fontaine.”
“‘What the devil are you doing here, Vatel?’ said Fouquet. ‘Are you buying wine at a cabaret in the Place de Grève?’... ‘I have found here, monsieur, a “vin de Joigny” which your friends like. This I know, as they come once a week to drink it at the “Image de Nôtre Dame.”’”
In the following chapter Dumas reverts to the inglorious aspect of the Place and the Quai de la Grève as follows:
“At two o’clock the next day, fifty thousand spectators had taken their position upon the place, around two gibbets which had been elevated between the Quai de la Grève and Quai Pelletier; one close to the other, with their backs to the parapet of the river. In the morning, also, all the sworn criers of the good city of Paris had traversed the quarters of the city, particularly the Halles and the faubourgs, announcing with their hoarse and indefatigable voices the great justice done by the king upon two peculators; two thieves, devourers of the people. And these people, whose interests were so warmly looked after, in order not to fail in respect for their king, quitted shops, stalls, and ateliers, to go and evince a little gratitude to Louis XIV., absolutely like invited guests, who feared to commit an impoliteness in not repairing to the house of him who invited them. According to the tenor of the sentence, which the criers read loudly and badly, two farmers of the revenues, monopolists of money, dilapidators of the royal provisions, extortioners and forgers, were about to undergo capital punishment on the Place de Grève, with their names affixed over their heads, according to their sentence. As to those names, the sentence made no mention of them. The curiosity of the Parisians was at its height, and, as we have said, an immense crowd waited with feverish impatience the hour fixed for the execution.”
D’Artagnan, who, in the pages of “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne,” was no more a young man, owned this very cabaret, the “Image de Nôtre Dame.” “‘I will go, then,’ says he, ‘to the “Image de Nôtre Dame,” and drink a glass of Spanish wine with my tenant, which he cannot fail to offer me.’”
En route to the cabaret, D’Artagnan asked of his companion, “Is there a procession to-day?” “It is a hanging, monsieur.” “What! a hanging on the Grève? The devil take the rogue who gets himself hung the day I go to take my rent,” said D’Artagnan.
The old mousquetaire did not get his rent, there was riot and bloodshed galore, “L’Image de Nôtre Dame” was set on fire, and D’Artagnan had one more opportunity to cry out “A moi, Mousquetaires,” and enter into a first-class fight; all, of course, on behalf of right and justice, for he saved two men, destined to be gibbeted, from the more frightful death of torture by fire, to which the fanatical crowd had condemned them.
The most extensive reference to the Place de la Grève is undoubtedly in the “Forty-Five Guardsmen,” where is described the execution of Salcède, the coiner of false money and the co-conspirator with the Guises.