(and very severely). Accomplishments While the edict conferred on Reynie certain responsibilities it allowed him the freedom to organize his administration by gathering under its authority the old institutions. At that time, four "police forces" competed within Paris: police chiefs, archers and freemen of the guet royal (royal watch), the company of the criminal lieutenant, and the Provost of the city. De la Reynie reorganized these forces and took them under his wing. They were charged with ensuring the safety of the streets of Paris and supervising the environs of Paris. In addition to this, Reynie re-established royal authority in place of the Governor of Paris, those who held fiefdoms within Paris, and the Parlement, which had until then dealt with police, commercial, and municipal regulation. The result represented a significant improvement in law enforcement. The chief inspectors in the Châtelet became Police Chiefs of the force and were increased in number to 48. Distributed between the 17 districts of Paris, they gave a daily account of their activity to the General Lieutenant. Nicolas de la Reynie also relied on a network of paid informers known as "flies" outside and "sheep" in the prisons. He was authorized to call on the armed forces, either the constabulary of Isle-de-France or the guard of Paris (approximately a thousand guards that worked the gates and walls(?) of Paris). Responsible for the execution of royal lettres de cachets, he was an enforcer of government policy such as when he ensured the corn supply of Paris, defended Protestants against persecution (even after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he saved Protestants from interference, sometimes at the risk of his own life and safety), giving aid rather than punishment to beggars and vagabonds, and seeing to the proper retrieval and care of abandoned infants, often left in the streets to die. De la Reynie also served as judge or prosecutor in lawsuits involving the aristocracy, such as that of the Chevalier de Rohan, decapitated for conspiracy, and the Affair of the Poisons (l'affaire des poisons) involving the Marquise de Brinvilliers and other high-ranking French nobility. Paris owes to de la Reynie its system of street lighting which made the streets safer (and from whence arose the expression "Paris, the City of Light"), the first rules of circulation and parking, the paving of the streets and the water conveyance(?). Later life In private life, Reynie was