“‘You are very generous, worthy sir,’ said La Hurière, with some distrust.
“‘No; but expecting to sup here, I invited a friend of mine to meet me. Have you any good wine of Artois?’
“‘I have as good as the King of Navarre drinks.’
“‘Ah, good!’”
The Rue de l’Arbre-Sec is of itself historic, though it was baptized as l’Arbre-Sel. Two legends of more than ordinary interest are connected with this once important though unimposing street. The first applies to its early nomenclature, and is to the effect that in the thirteenth century it contained an oak-tree, which, in the snows of winter, always remained free of the white blanket which otherwise covered everything around about. For this reason the tree was said to be so full of salt that the snow that fell upon it melted immediately, and the name was created for the thoroughfare, which then first rose to the dignity of a recognized rue.
The second legend in a similar way accounts for the change of name to arbre-sec. At a certain rainy period, when the pavements and the walls of the houses were “ruisselants d’eau,” the same tree remained absolutely dry. It is curious, too, to note that the Rue de l’Arbre-Sec is identified with a certain personage who lived in Mazarin’s time, by the name of Mathieu Mollé, whose fame as the first president of the Parlement is preserved in the neighbouring Rue Mathieu Mollé. It was in the hotel of “La Belle Etoile” that Dumas ensconced his character De la Mole—showing once again that Dumas dealt with very real characters.
Opposite the colonnade of the Louvre is the Église St. Germain l’Auxerrois. From this church—founded by Childebert in 606—rang out the tocsin which was the signal for that infamous massacre of the Protestants in the time of Charles IX. In “Marguerite de Valois” Dumas has vividly described the event; not, perhaps, without certain embroidered embellishment, but, nevertheless, with a graphicness which the dry-as-dust historian of fact could hardly hope to equal.
This cruel inspiration of Catherine de Medici’s is recorded by Dumas thus:
“‘Hush!’ said La Hurière.
“‘What is it?’ inquired Coconnas and Maurevel together.