cela rime comme hallebarde et miséricorde

The usual explanation of this expression is, that, on the death of the verger of St. Eustache, one of his friends—a small shopkeeper of the neighbourhood—wished to write an epitaph for his tomb. Being entirely ignorant of the rules of verse, he composed the following:—\n“Ci-gît mon ami Mardoche Il a voulu être enterré à Saint Eustache Il y porta trente-deux ans la hallebarde Dieu lui fasse miséricorde.” - (Par son ami, J. Cl. Bombet, 1727.)\nBut in reality the proverb is much older. It dates from the time of the old versifiers, one of whose rules was that two consonants followed by an e mute were sufficient to form a feminine rhyme. This led to abuses like the above, and this rule was superseded by another, that the vowel preceding the two consonants must be alike in both cases.