All that I found then to amuse me in the streets of Paris, was the gaiety, the bustle, and the liveliness of the people, the witty ribaldry of their songs and jests, their easily excited merriment, and their extravagant grimaces. All this certainly pleased and interested me; and I met with many a sight to attract my attention and arrest my steps as I walked on to the Quai des Orfèvres. However, I at length arrived there; and, having discovered the dwelling of Jacques Marlot, I went in, and delivered his uncle's note.
He was a little, gay, joyful-looking man, not in the least resembling the worthy major-domo, but with a face not unlike the busts of Socrates, if we can conceive the countenance of the philosopher covered over with a florid and somewhat wine-imbued skin, and lighted up with two sparkling small black eyes, full of unquenchable fire and malice.
At the time that I entered, he was busily engaged, though in total solitude, in despatching the goodly form of a fat roasted capon, which he took care to bathe in repeated draughts from a tankard of warm wine, which stood in his chimney corner. He received me with the sort of gay civility which his whole demeanour bespoke; and, opening his uncle's note, grinned merrily at the contents; observing, that his relation warned him to beware of printing anything against the Court, as the Parliament and the generals were all racing against each other to see which should make peace fastest.
"_Ma foi_," he added, "I will make my peace as they have made theirs, with arms in my hand;" and, setting me down a cup, he insisted on my staying to drink with him, which, after having once tasted his potations, I felt very well inclined to do. It struck me, perhaps, as a little extraordinary, that a poor printer, whose trade was not at that time the most lucrative in Paris, should be able to afford rich Burgundy, and to feed upon fat capon; but I soon found that, being of a very unscrupulous nature, Master Jacques Marlot obtained large prices for printing all those defamatory libels against Mazarin, the Queen, and the whole Court, which then formed the amusement and the reproach of the city. It was his rule never to inquire who the authors were, provided they paid him largely. The more unceremonious the wit, and biting the satire, the more it agreed with the tastes of the printer himself; and many a noble, and, I believe I might add, many a reverend pen, poured forth its gall from under the mantle of Jacques. Marlot.