Moreover, still from all the towers and steeples the bells rang in honour of those who had died during the past year, so that, as Boileau sneeringly remarked, "Pour Honorer les morts ils font mourir les vivants," while from the dark, sombre-looking houses-of which the same writer observed that they must have been built by philosophers instead of architects, so filthy were they without and so brilliant within-were still hung paper lanterns, flags, banners, and all kinds of devices and decorations.
"In the Day of Adversity"
John Bloundelle-Burton