the street remorselessly, according to the familiar uses of
the building of that period. The street was narrowed by a
quarter by it, but then the house was enlarged by a half;
and was not that a sufficient compensation?

Tradition said that this house with the pointed gables was
inhabited, in the time of Henry III., by a councilor of
state whom Queen Catherine came, some say to visit, and
others to strangle. However that may be, the good lady must
have stepped with a circumspect foot over the threshold of
this building.

After the councilor had died -- whether by strangulation or
naturally is of no consequence -- the house had been sold,
then abandoned, and lastly isolated from the other houses of
the street. Towards the middle of the reign of Louis XIII.
only, an Italian, named Cropoli, escaped from the kitchens
of the Marquis d'Ancre, came and took possession of this
house. There he established a little hostelry, in which was
fabricated a macaroni so delicious that people came from
miles round to fetch it or eat it.

So famous had the house become for it, that when Mary de
Medici was a prisoner, as we know, in the castle of Blois,
she once sent for some.

It was precisely on the day she had escaped by the famous
window. The dish of macaroni was left upon the table, only
just tasted by the royal mouth.