OCR Text |
Show sn!X "r T1110 TIC.TI .NIKI.DS OK I'AIWK. Though tho l'Vuiich huvu nnult! l'uri 1 1 10 hirgi'st unci nU'iikomL luiircss in tho wniiil, tlu:y iirni'os.s to lvganl iliu iilon ol' i la boinn bc.irgi'il us hi in nly burhurous; yut, tliufo i.s no fiipitul winch lius ho ut leu provoked and undirgoiio uttuck. Tiio tirMt uicntion of i'uris in history records an investment. Kiiiy ycur.s bel'oro Ohrist it was tho stronghold of tho (.iuuls-. Labionus, tlio most ublo ol' C;tsar's generals, in that year marched an army against tho rebellious rebel-lious iluoo, uud ul'ter crossing the Seine, l'oreed tlio insurgents to evueu-ato evueu-ato it. lieliiro evacuating, Vereinge-torix, Vereinge-torix, tlio ehiel'of tho Uauls, burned what thoro was oi' a city. Jiut the site wus too uligiblo uot to invito the building of a new town. Liko iJerliu, Paris originally was confined to un island is-land formed by a river.und Mirrounded by inaecessiblo swamps, s'o sooner had tho Germans conquered Franco than Chlodwig, the leader of tho invading in-vading tribe, reconstructed ancient Lu-tetia, Lu-tetia, and made it tho centre of the new empire. During the time his descendants de-scendants hold sway in France, it remained re-mained their principal fortress. When their authority beguu to decline.the do-leaso do-leaso of i'aris against a foreign enemy gave such prestigo to one of their generals gen-erals as to enable him to usurp the throne of tho decaying dynasty. .Nearly ilOO years after Christ, Charles Le Gros, a degenerato scion of Charlo-mague, Charlo-mague, found himself attacked ut i'uris by the Normans. A helpless imbecile, he bad no choice but to make his peace with the predatory bands, no matter at what cost. On the occasion of a second raid, however, i'uris held out for a whole year under the command of Count Otio, ouo of tho King's nobles. So great was the renown Otto acquired by this feat of arms, that on Charles' death, iu SbS, tho Frunkish nobility elected him their King. A nephew of this Otto was iiugh Cupet, the ancestor ances-tor of the Bourbons. In tho meantime the German conquerors con-querors of France, comparatively lew in number, had become absorbed by the subject of nationality, and every now and then had a brush with the old country whence they had proceeded. proceed-ed. In 97S, when the German Kin-peror Kin-peror Otto II. was celebrating the festival fes-tival of St. John at Aix-la Chapelej, he was surprised by King Lothair, of France, at the head of an army of 30,000 men. The German Emperor returned the compliment, and having crossed the frontier on the 1st of October, Octo-ber, marched straight upon Paris, overcoming over-coming all resistance in hb way. Before Be-fore winter set in he stood at the foot of Montmartre, and invested the city. Very much like the Moltke of our day, he bad to detail a portion of his army to ward off the hosts attempting the rescue of the beleaguered place; but, unlike what seems to be reserved lor Paris in the present instance, he was obliged to withdraw without effecting his object. Winter and disease decimating deci-mating his troops, he eventually returned re-turned the Vfay by which he came. There is an old story that, before leaving, the Germans assembled on Montmartre and sang a Te Ucum with so vast an energy of lungs that all Paris re-echoed the sound. hy they should have offered up their thanks iu this boisterous manner when foiled in their efforts, is a riddle unsolved to this day. The strength of the place having thus been proved by experience, King Philip Augustus at the beginning of the thirteenth century, extended its fortifications, adding several hundred towers to the walls. King Charles V, in the latter part of the fourteenth century, surrounded the new suburbs with fresh encientc, built a citadel called the Bastill, and constructed a fort on the isle of St. Louis. Notwithstanding Notwith-standing these new defences, the English Eng-lish took Paris after the battle of Agin-court, Agin-court, 1420. The Maid of Orleans, attempting to recapture Paris, 1-429, was repulsed by the English, who, however, seven years later, were obliged to march out, owing to the gallantry of Dunois, le Batard Koyal. King Henry IV". was the next to assail the devoted capital. As he was a Protestant, it would not recognize his authority. Having defeated the Catholic Catho-lic League at Ivry, March 17, 15'jO, he approached Paris by forced marches, and occupying Corbeil, Lagny and Creil, cut oft' provisions, then chiefly received by the river. He next planted his guns on Montmartre, and from this dominant position left the Parisians his naughty children, as he jokingly called them to choose between bread and bombs. Not less obstinate than they are now, 15,000 of the inhabitants died of hunger before the town opened negotiations with the King. Just in the nick of time, however, the Spaniards, who assisted the Catholic League, sent General Farnese with a large army from Belgium to the rescue. Henry was compelled to raise the siege, and only entered Paris four years later when he had embraced Catholicism, and then he was welcomed with the greatest enthusiasm. France now rapidly increased in power, Paris remained more than 200 years unvisited by an invading army. In the reign of Louis XVI. the mere idea of the foreigner venturing into the heart of France had come to appear so preposterous as to lead to the razing of the old fortifications. Louis XV. in 1726 again encircled the city with a wall, which, however, was not intended to serve a military purpose. As an open town, Paris underwent the storms of the Revolution. When,- in 1814, the allied armies arrived in front of it to avenge the deeds of Napoloon I, a few redoubts, hastily thrown up, were all the impediments in their way. 25,-000 25,-000 regulars under Marmont and Mortier, and 15,000 national guards, with 150 guns, held the place for a day against 40,000 Prussians and Russians. Rus-sians. When Montmartre had been taken by storm, and the Cossacks and Uhlans were swarming in La Chapelle and La Villette, the proud capital surrendered. sur-rendered. On March 13, Frederick William III of Prussia, the father of William I of the present day, and Alexander I of Russia, made their entry into the city. The following year witnessed the re-petition re-petition of the feat. On the 2d of July, 1S15, the Prussians, under Blucher, took Montrouge and Issy by storm, while Wellington forced his way into the northern and eastern suburbs. On the 7th of July the English and Prussian Prus-sian guards once more trod the Boulevards. Boule-vards. London Times. |