Meantime famine thinned the population of Paris, cut off from any means of receiving provisions from without; but on account of the wall constructed by Marcel, Edward III of England found it impossible to make any progress in the siege, and having exhausted the country for some leagues of extent, was obliged to retreat for want of food to maintain his army.  The scarcity of money was such in Paris at that period, that they were compelled to have a circulation of leather coin, with a little nail of gold or silver stuck in the middle; yet when John returned from his captivity in England, the streets were hung with carpets wherever he had to pass, and a cloth of gold borne over his head, the fountains poured forth wine, and the city made him a present of a silver buffet weighing a thousand marcs.  At this period schools existed in Paris sanctioned by the government, when the pay for each scholar was so contemptible that they must have been for the use of the middle classes, whose means were very confined; they were called Petites Ecoles (Little Schools), and paid a certain sum for having the privilege to teach; the number in the reign of John was sixty-three, of which forty-one were under masters, and twenty-two under mistresses.  In some of the streets of Paris it was the custom to have two large doors or gates, which were closed at night, and the names of several streets still bear evidence of that practice, as the Rue des deux Portes; the Rue des Deux-Portes-Saint-Jean, des Deux-Portes-Saint-Sauveur, etc.

During the reign of John, about 1350, a poem appeared, which contained advice as to the conduct ladies ought to observe who wished to act with propriety, and as my fair countrywomen are generally willing to listen to good counsel, no matter how remote the period from which it is derived, I cannot resist giving them the benefit of some of the recommendations of the sapient poet to the Parisian belles, some of which are certainly highly commendable.  The verses were written by a monk, whose name I have forgotten.

“In walking to church never trot or run, salute those you meet upon the way, and even return the salutations of the poor; when at church it is not proper to look either to the right or the left, neither to speak nor to laugh out loud, but to rise to the Gospel and courteously make the sign of the cross, to go to the offering without either laughing or joking, at the moment of the elevation also to rise; then kneel and pray for all Christians; to recite by heart her prayers, and if she can read, to pray from her psalmody.

“A courteous lady ought to salute all in going out of church, both great and small.

“Those whom nature have endowed with a good voice ought not to refuse to sing when they are asked.

“Cleanliness is so necessary for ladies, that it is an obligation for them to cut their nails.

“It is not proper for a lady to stop in passing the house of a neighbour, to look into the interior, because people may be doing things that they do not wish others to know.