CHAPTER I. THE GRAND HALL. Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago to-day, the Parisians awoke to the sound of all the bells in the triple circuit of the city, the university, and the town ringing a full peal. What put the "whole population of Paris in commotion," as Jehan de Troyes expresses it, on the sixth of January, was the double solemnity, united from time immemorial, of the Epiphany and the Feast of Fools. * The word Gothic, in the sense in which it is generally employed, "Lecornu! Gilles Lecornu!" said some. The whole band burst into laughter. "Your titles?"