Thank you everybody.

Just to add a note to the Paris discussion, I don't think this could be related to the city or to the mythological hero. AFAYK it's true the tune derivated from a dance played in a opera show in Paris, but even in the "Ca ira" phase it lost most of his relationship with the original source. Then everything started for the english-speaking people during the 1794 Campaign in France when the West Yorks (Prince of Wales' Own) regiment's band played the tune they had heard so many times from their enemies and from the locals as well, so it became "the Downfall of Paris" just as a "friendly" wish the redcoats were sending to their enemies.