been built under the reigns of Henry III., Henry IV., and Louis XIII.,
at the time when the hotels Mignon and Serpente were erected in the
same neighborhood, with the palace of the Princess Palatine, and the
Sorbonne. An old man could remember having heard it called, in the
last century, the hotel Duperron, so it seemed probable that the
illustrious Cardinal of that name had built, or perhaps merely lived
in it.

There still exists, indeed, in the corner of the courtyard, a perron
or flight of several outer steps by which the house is entered; and
the way into the garden on the garden front is down a similar flight
of steps. In spite of dilapidations, the luxury lavished by the
architect on the balustrade and entrance porch crowning these two
perrons suggests the simple-minded purpose of commemorating the
owner's name, a sort of sculptured pun which our ancestors often
allowed themselves. Finally, in support of this evidence,
archaeologists can still discern in the medallions which show on the
principal front some traces of the cords of the Roman hat.

M. le Marquis d'Espard lived on the ground floor, in order, no doubt,
to enjoy the garden, which might be called spacious for that
neighborhood, and which lay open for his children's health. The
situation of the house, in a street on a steep hill, as its name
indicates, secured these ground-floor rooms against ever being damp.
M. d'Espard had taken them, no doubt, for a very moderate price, rents
being low at the time when he settled in that quarter, in order to be
among the schools and to superintend his boys' education. Moreover,
the state in which he found the place, with everything to repair, had
no doubt induced the owner to be accommodating. Thus M. d'Espard had
been able to go to some expense to settle himself suitably without