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Show SELECTED. Different Siege, of Paris. There beinz no doubt that Parii L? dooiued to suffer the extremes horrors of a s;ege, the details of former jiesti which it has eodured may prove iutlr-etiog. iutlr-etiog. The first siege dates back to fatty-three years before the ChrLtiarj era. Ihe whole of Paris was then embraced in the Island known to-day as La Cite. Labienos, the chief lieu tenant of Julittij C;e-ai. then having possesion of the banks of the Seine, wa.s about to attack the city. The Pa-ri.-iaus. foreseeing the impossibility ol delcnuing it. burned their houses and retired to the neighboring hills, where a sharp engagement was at once begun. Tue Parisians spread death in the enemies' en-emies' legions.and fought with desperate desper-ate valor, but were fureed to yield to the superior numbers and skill of the Romans. The Romans kept possession posses-sion of Paris for 530 years, and enlarged en-larged it on both banks of the river. In 405 Childeric, the first son of Meroven. chief of the Franks.drove the Romans out. In S4"i the Noinians, attracted by the wealth of the capital, of us churches and of its monasteries, lcil upon the city and burned and sacked it. In Sou these same Normans Nor-mans again advanced upon Paris. The inhabitants burned and abandoned aban-doned it. In sol the Normans took it again; but as they had already-sacked already-sacked it twice, they fuund no booty. Worn out by so many defeats, the Parisians about this time began to surround sur-round their city with towers and lor-t.lications. lor-t.lications. The walls were still unfinished unfin-ished when the Norman hordes, numbering num-bering over 30,000 men, once more sat dowu in front of the city. The Parisians defended it with a tenacity which the Normans could not shake. The siege lasted more than a year (bio fcST). The Normans, disheartened disheart-ened at the length of the siege, were just about to withdraw, when Charles the Fat ordered a flag of truce to be hung out, and at once signed the most shameful capitulation on record, without with-out consulting the citizens. For this he was afterward deposed. Iu 1 ooS the Dauphin attempted to besiege Paris, but was repulsed. In 1309 the King of Eustland attemuted it, and was equally unsuccessful. Iu 1-120 Paris was captured by the English, Eng-lish, who held it sixteen years. Iu 1427 Cnarles VII. attempted to take it, but the English repulsed him. In 1430 the French retook it. In 1402 the Duke of liarguudy managed to pillage the outskirts of the city, but was driven back. In 1404 the Count of Charolais, after sunoui,dng the city, assaulted it unsuccessfully several times. In lo30 the walls of Paris re-pelied re-pelied the army of Charles V. In l.j'J J, during the reign of the third and fourth Ileurys, the city underwent a blockade famous in history. And lastly, on the 31st of March, 1614, the gates of Paris were treacherously opened to the allied armies. The present is therefore the sixteonth siege which Paris has witnessed since her foundation. iV. Y. Sim. |