The progress of Paris and indeed the whole of France was retarded continually by famine, fourteen seasons of scarcity happening in the course of twenty-three years; in fact, from 843 to 899 such was often the state of desolation, that hunger impelled human beings to murder each other to feed upon the flesh of their bodies, which in many instances were sold, and bought with eagerness by those who were famishing with want. Unwholesome food caused thousands to be afflicted with a disease which was called the sacred fire, the ardent malady, and the infernal evil, the sufferers feeling as if they were devoured by an internal flame. To give some idea of the luxury of costume which existed in those days at Paris, it is but requisite to quote an address of Abbon the poet to the Parisians, written about the year 890, wherein hen observes: "An agraffe (a clasp) of gold fastens the upper part of your dress; to keep off the cold you cover yourselves with the purple of Tyre, you will have no other cloak than a chlamyde embroidered with gold, your girdle must be ornamented with precious stones, and gold must sparkle even upon your shoes, and on the cane which you carry. O France! if you do not abandon such luxurious extravagance, you will lose your courage and your country." Hugh Capet, who became king of France in 987, fixed his residence at Paris, thus again constituting it the capital of the kingdom, and his son and successor Robert, being a strict devotee, built and repaired several churches which had been greatly injured by the Normans, and Paris began in his reign to assume an appearance of improvement, which continued until it received a check from an ill-timed joke of Philippe the First, who made a satirical remark upon William the Conqueror of England having become rather unwieldy, which so provoked that choleric monarch that he laid waste a great portion of Philippe's dominions; when his progress was checked by his falling from his horse, which occasioned his death and thus delivered Philippe from a most powerful enemy. In the following reign, that of Lewis the Fat, learning began to make considerable progress, and the colleges of Paris to acquire a high celebrity, and amongst the professors whose reputation was of the highest, was Abelard, no one before having succeeded in attracting so many pupils. In 1118 he established a school in Paris, but from a variety of persecutions which he endured, he was frequently obliged to retire to different parts of France; his unfortunate attachment to Héloise is but too well known, and she ultimately became the abbess of a convent which Abelard founded at Nogent-sur-Seine, and which he called Paraclet. The number of pupils at one time are stated to have been three thousand, and he instructed them in the open air; it is also asserted that of his followers fifty became either bishops or archbishops, twenty cardinals, and one pope, Celestin II. In fact the fame of Abelard had arrived at such an altitude that he was the means of giving a new era to Paris, which was designated the city of letters; other professors became highly celebrated, and some authors pretend that the immense concourse of students who ultimately flocked to Paris, exceeded the number of the inhabitants, and there was much difficulty in finding the means of lodging them; how great must have been the anxiety for learning, as the masters were exceedingly brutal and imparted their knowledge to the pupil by the force of blows, which at length deterred many students from placing themselves under the charge of such preceptors. This extraordinary desire for obtaining education appears to have been almost a sudden impulse, as the immediate descendants of Hugh Capet could not read or write, but were obliged to make a mark as the signature to their edicts, whilst those who possessed that accomplishment were styled clerks. Although much brilliance was shed over the reign of Louis the Sixth by the learning of Abelard and the professors who followed him, yet soon after the barbarous custom was introduced of trial by combat; the idea might probably have been suggested by Louis having challenged Henry the First of England to decide their differences in a single encounter. Although Lewis the Fat was so bulky as to have obtained the cognomen by which he was always designated, he was one of the most active kings of France; constantly harrassed by perpetual wars with his neighbours and nobles, which he carried on personally and generally successfully, he first undertook the fortifying of Paris and is supposed to have constructed the greater and the lesser Châtelet, two towers on the opposite sides of the Seine, although many authors pretend that they were of a much more ancient date; he also built walls round a certain portion of the suburbs, which by that time had become part of Paris. It was said of Lewis VI, "He might have been a better king, a better man he could not." He died in 1137.
In the succeeding reign of Louis VII, surnamed the Younger, many privileges were granted to the Parisians which greatly increased the prosperity of the city; several public buildings were erected, amongst the rest an hospital which was the first ever built in Paris. But according to the descriptions of all authors who wrote at that period upon the subject, the streets were in a filthy condition in many parts of the city, and the names which have long since been changed were as dirty and indecent; some were absolutely ridiculous; as Did you find me Hard, Bertrand Sleeps, Cut Bread, John Bread Calf (alluding to the leg); the last still exists, as also Bad Advice, Bad Boys, etc. It was in this reign that the first crusade from France took place, and Louis VII was followed by 200,000 persons, and after various encounters with the Saracens, he owed his preservation to his own personal prowess; he was divorced from his Queen Eleanor, who afterwards married Henry II of England, and proved herself a detestable character in both kingdoms. Louis VII abolished one law which had long disgraced France, allowing the officers of the King on his arrival in Paris or other towns in his dominions, to enter any private house and take for the monarch's use such bedding or other articles of furniture as his Majesty might require. Louis also by force of arms compelled his nobles to desist from robbing the merchants, dealers, and the poor of their property. At this period the Fête des Fous, or feast of madmen was celebrated to its full extent, and anything more absurd, more farcical, or more irreverential cannot well be imagined. Dulaure, in his voluminous History of Paris, gives a most detailed account of this extraordinary mockery, of which I will give my readers a very brief abridgment.
On the first of January the clergy went in procession to the bishop who had been elected as the grand master of the fête, conducting him solemnly to the church with all the ecclesiastical banners usually borne on important occasions, amidst the ringing of bells; when arrived at the choir, he was placed in the episcopal seat, and mass was performed with the most extravagant gesticulations. The priests figuring away in the most ridiculous dresses; some in the costume of buffoons, others in female attire with their faces daubed with soot, or covered with hideous masks, some dancing, others jumping, or playing different games, drinking, and eating puddings, sausages, etc., offering them to the high-priest whilst he was celebrating high mass; also burning old shoes in the chalice, instead of incense, to produce a disagreeable scent; at length, elevated by wine, their orgies began to have