Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Marchioness of Brinvilliers: The Poisoner of the Seventeenth Century; A Romance of Old Paris
The beggars were as numerous then as now - perhaps more so for the various Cow's des Miracles, the Rook eries of Paris, if we may be allowed the expression, which abounded all over the city, offered them a ready colony and retreat. Here, were counterfeiters of every disease to which humanity is liable, dragging themselves along the rude foot path; there, beggars of more active habits, who swarmed, cap in hand, by the side of the splendid carriages which passed along the quays, to and from the Louvre. The thieves, too, everywhere plied their vocation and the ah surd custom of carrying the purse suspended at the girdle, favoured their delinquencies whence certain of them ao quired the title of coupe-bourse, as in England the pick pockets were formerly termed cut-purses. Crowds of soldiers, venders of street merchandise, and charlatans of every description filled the Carrefour. Look ing to the tableau offered by the public resorts of Paris at the present time, the Champs Elysees for instance, (in 1665 consisting only of fields, literally, in cultivation) it is curious to observe how little the principal features of the assembly have altered from the accounts left us by accu rate and careful delineators of former manners. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
