diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/8eur310h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/8eur310h.htm | 5826 |
1 files changed, 5826 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/8eur310h.htm b/old/8eur310h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6900ad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8eur310h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5826 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3, by Various</title> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + img { border-style: none } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3, by Various</h1> + +<pre> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8412] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: utf-8 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, VOLUME 3 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +</pre> + + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: The Seine and Bridges]</p> + + +<h1>Seeing Europe with Famous Authors</h1> + +<h2>Selected and Edited +with +Introductions, Etc.</h2> + +<h3>Francis W. Halsey</h3> + +<p align="center"><i>Editor of "Great Epochs in American History" +Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations" +and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc.</i></p> + + +<h4>In Ten Volumes</h4> + +<h5>Illustrated</h5> + + + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">Vol. III</p> + +<p align="center"><span class="smallcaps">France and the Netherlands</span><br /> +Part One</p> + + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">New York and London</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="intro"></a>Introduction to Volumes III and IV</h1> + +<h2>France and the Netherlands</h2> + + + +<p>The tourist bound for France lands either at Cherbourg, Havre, or +Boulogne. At Cherbourg, he sees waters in which the "Kearsarge" sank the +"Alabama"; at Havre a shelter in which, long before Caesar came to Gaul, +ships, with home ports on the Seine, sought safety from the sea; and at +Boulogne may recall the invading expedition to England, planned by +Napoleon, but which never sailed.</p> + +<p>From the Roman occupation, many Roman remains have survived in England, +but these are far inferior in numbers and in state of preservation to the +Roman remains found in France. Marseilles was not only an important Roman +seaport, but its earliest foundations date perhaps from Phoenician times, +and certainly do from the age when Greeks were building temples at Paestum +and Girgenti. Rome got her first foothold in Marseilles as a consequence +of the Punic wars; and in 125 B.C. acquired a province (Provincia Romana) +reaching from the Alps to the Rhone, and southward to the sea, with Aix as +its first capital and Arles its second. Caesar in 58 B.C. found on the +Seine a tribe of men called Parisii, whose chief village, Lutetia, stood +where now rises Notre Dame.</p> + +<p>Lutetia afterward became a residence of Roman emperors. Constantius +Chlorus spent some time there, guarding the empire from Germans and +Britons, while Julian the Apostate built there for himself a palace and +extensive baths, of which remains still exist in Paris. In that palace +afterward lived Pepin le Bref ("mayor of the palace"), son of Charles +Martell, and father of the great Charles. Romans built there an +amphitheater seating ten thousand people, of which remains are still +visible.</p> + +<p>Lyons was a great Roman city. Augustus first called it into vigorous life, +his wish being to make it "a second Rome." From Lyons a system of roads +ran out to all parts of Gaul. Claudius was born there; Caligula made it +the political and intellectual capital of Provincia; its people, under an +edict of Caracalla, were made citizens of Rome. At Nimes was born the +Emperor Antoninus. In Gaul, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian and Domitian +were made emperors. At Arles and Nîmes are Roman amphitheaters still +regularly put to use for combats between men and wild beasts--but the wild +beasts, instead of lions and tigers, are bulls. At Orange is a Roman +theater of colossal proportions, in which a company from the Théâtre +Français annually presents classical dramas. The magnificent fortress city +of Carcassonne has foundation walls that were laid by Romans. Notre Dame +of Paris occupies the site of a temple to Jupiter.</p> + +<p>As with modern England, so with modern France; its people are a mixture of +many races. To the southwest, in a remote age, came Iberians from Spain, +to Provence, Ligurians from Italy; to the northeast, Germanic tribes; to +the northwest, Scandinavians; to the central parts, from the Seine to the +Garonne, in the sixth century B.C., Gauls, who soon became the dominant +race, and so have remained until this day, masterful and fundamental. When +Caesar came, there had grown up in Gaul a martial nobility, leaders of a +warlike people, with chieftains whose names are familiar in the mouths and +ears of all schoolboys--Aricvistus and Vercingetorix. When Vercingetorix +was overthrown at Alesia, Gaul became definitely Roman. For five hundred +years it remained loyal to Rome. Within its borders, was established the +Pax Romana, and in 250 A.D., under St. Denis, Christianity. When the +disintegration of the empire set in five centuries afterward, Gaul was +among the first provinces to suffer. With the coming of the Visigoths and +Huns from the Black Sea, the Pranks and Bnrgundians from beyond the Rhine, +the Roman fall was near, but great battles were first fought in Gaul, +battles which rivaled those of Caesar five centuries before. Greatest of +all these was the one with Attila, at Chalons, in 451, where thousands +perished.</p> + +<p>When the Roman dominion ended, Rome's one great province in Gaul became +seventeen small principalities, and power drifted fast into the hands of a +warlike aristocracy. Then a strong man rose in Clovis, who, in 508, made +Lutetia his capital, his successors enriching and adorning it. From these +beginnings, has been evolved, in twelve hundred years, the great modern +state--through Charlemagne and his empire-building, Louis XI. and his work +of consolidating feudal principalities into one strong state, through a +Hundred Years' War, fierce wars of religion, a long line of Bourbon kings, +with their chateaux-building in Touraine and Versailles, the Revolution of +1789, the Napoleonic era, the Republic. An historical land surely is this, +and a beautiful land, with her snow-capped mountains of the southeast, her +broad vineyards, unrivaled cathedrals, her Roman remains, ancient olive +groves, her art, her literature, her people.</p> + +<p>Belgium and Holland were included in the territory known to Rome as Gaul. +Here dwelt a people called the Belgii, and another called the Nervii--that +tribal nation whom Cæsar "overcame" on a summer's day, and the same +evening, "in his tent," "put on" the mantle that was pierced afterward by +daggers in the Senate House. From these lands came the skilled Batavian +cavalry, which followed Caesar in pursuit of Pompey and forced Pompey's +flight at Pharsalia. From here afterward came other Batavians, who served +as the Imperial Guard of Rome from Caasar's time to Vespasian's. In race, +as in geographical position, the Netherlands have belonged in part to +France, in part to Germany, the interior long remaining Gallic, the +frontier Teutonic. From Caesar's time down to the fifth century, the land +was Roman. Afterward, in several periods, it was in part, or in whole, +included in the domain of France--in Charlemagne's time and after; under +Louis XI., who sought, somewhat unsuccessfully, its complete submission; +under Louis XIV., who virtually conquered it; under the French Revolution, +and during Napoleon's ascendency. On Belgium soil Marlborough fought and +won Ramillies, and Wellington Waterloo.</p> + +<p>Belgium and Holland were for long great centers of European commerce--at +Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam--rivals of English ports, +Holland an ancient adversary of England and her valiant enemy in great +wars. A still fiercer struggle came with Spain. Perhaps an even greater +conflict than these two has been her never-ending war with the sea. +Holland has been called a land enclosed in a fortress reared against the +sea. For generations her people have warred with angry waves; but, as +Motley has said, they gained an education for a struggle "with the still +more savage despotism of man." Let me not forget here Holland's great +school of art--comparable only to that of Spain, or even to that of Italy. +F. W. H.</p> + + + + +<h1>Contents of Volume III</h1> + +<h2>France and the Netherlands--Part One</h2> + + + + +<p><a href="#intro">Introduction to Vols. III and IV</a>--By the +Editor.</p> + + +<h3>I--Paris</h3> + +<p><a href="#01">The City Beautiful</a>--By Anne Warwick<br /> +<a href="#02">Notre-Dame</a>--By Victor Hugo<br /> +<a href="#03">The Louvre</a>--By Grant Allen<br /> +<a href="#04">The Madeline and Champs Elysées</a>--By Nathaniel Hawthorne<br /> +<a href="#05">The Hotel des Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#06">The Palais de Justice and Sainte Chapelle</a>--By Grant Allen<br /> +<a href="#07">The Hotel de Ville and the Conciergerie</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#08">Père la Chaise</a>--By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /> +<a href="#09">The Musée de Cluny</a>--By Grant Allen<br /> +<a href="#10">The Place de la Bastille</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#11">The Pantheon and St. Etienne du Mont</a>--By Grant Allen<br /> +<a href="#12">St. Roch</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare</p> + + +<h3>II--The Environs of Paris</h3> + +<p><a href="#13">Versailles</a>--By William Makepeace Thackeray<br /> +<a href="#14">Versailles in 1739</a>--By Thomas Gray<br /> +<a href="#15">Fontainebleau</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#16">St. Denis</a>--By Grant Allen<br /> +<a href="#17">Marly-Le-Roi</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#18">The Village of Auteuil</a>--By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /> +<a href="#19">The Two Trianons</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#20">Malmaison</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare<br /> +<a href="#21">St. Germain</a>--By Leitch Ritchie<br /> +<a href="#22">St. Cloud</a>--By Augustus J. C. Hare</p> + + +<h3>III--Old Provence</h3> + +<p><a href="#23">The Papal Palace at Avignon</a>--By Charles Dickens<br /> +<a href="#24">The Building of the Great Palace</a>--By Thomas Okey<br /> +<a href="#25">The Walls of Avignon</a>--By Thomas Okey<br /> +<a href="#26">Villeneuve and the Broken Bridge</a>--By Thomas Okey<br /> +<a href="#27">Orange</a>--By Henry James<br /> +<a href="#28">Vaucluse</a>--By Bayard Taylor<br /> +<a href="#29">The Pont du Guard,</a>--Aigues-Mortes--Nîmes--By Henry James<br /> +<a href="#30">Arles and Les Baux</a>--By Henry James</p> + + +<h3>IV--Cathedrals and Chateaux</h3> + +<p><a href="#31">Amiens</a>--By Nathaniel Hawthorne<br /> +<a href="#32">Rouen</a>--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin<br /> +<a href="#33">Chartres</a>--By Epiphanius Wilson<br /> +<a href="#34">Rheims</a>--By Epiphanius Wilson<br /></p> + +<p>(<i>Cathedrals and Chateaux continued in Vol. IV</i>)</p> + + + + +<h1>List of Illustrations</h1> + +<h2>Volume III</h2> + + + +<p>Frontispiece<br /> +Paris: The Seine and Bridges</p> + + +<p>Notre Dame, Paris<br /> +Portion of the Louvre, Paris<br /> +Church of the Madeleine, Paris<br /> +Napoleon's Sarcophagus, Paris<br /> +The Burial Place of Napoleon, Paris<br /> +Column and Place Vendóme, Paris<br /> +Column of July, Paris<br /> +The Pantheon, Paris<br /> +The House of the Chamber of Deputies, Paris<br /> +The Bourse, Paris<br /> +Interior of the Grand Opera House, Paris<br /> +Front of the Grand Opera House, Paris<br /> +The Arc de Triomphe, Paris<br /> +Arch Erected by Napoleon Near the Louvre, Paris<br /> +The Church of St. Vincent de Paul, Paris<br /> +The Church of St. Sulpice, Paris<br /> +The Picture Gallery of Versailles<br /> +The Bed-Room of Louis XIV., Versailles<br /> +The Grand Trianon at Versailles<br /> +The Little Trianon at Versailles<br /> +The Bed-Room of Catherine de Medici at Chaumont<br /> +Marie Antoinette's Dairy at Versailles<br /> +Tours<br /> +Saint Denis<br /> +Havre<br /> +The Bridge at St. Cloud</p> + + + + +<p>[Illustration: Notre Dame, Paris]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Church of the Madeleine]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Portion of the Louvre]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: Column and Place Vendome]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Burial Place of Napoleon]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Napoleon's Sarcophagus]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: Column of July in the Place de la Bastille]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Pantheon, Paris]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: House of the Chamber of Deputies]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Bourse, Paris]</p> + + + + + +<h1>I</h1> + +<h2>Paris</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="01"></a>The City Beautiful</h1> + +<h2>By Anne Warwick</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Meccas of the World." By permission of the publisher, +John Lane. Copyright, 1913.]</p> + + +<p>The most prejudiced will not deny that Paris is beautiful; or that there +is about her streets and broad, tree-lined avenues a graciousness at once +dignified and gay. Stand, as the ordinary tourist does on his first day, +in the flowering square before the Louvre; in the foreground are the +fountains and bright tulip-bordered paths of the Tuileries--here a glint +of gold, there a soft flash of marble statuary, shining through the trees; +in the center the round lake where the children sail their boats. Beyond +spreads the wide sweep of the Place de la Concorde, with its obelisk of +terrible significance, its larger fountains throwing brilliant jets of +spray; and then the trailing, upward vista of the Champs Elysées to the +great triumphal arch; yes, even to the most indifferent, Paris is +beautiful.</p> + +<p>To the subtler of appreciation, she is more than beautiful; she is +impressive. For behind the studied elegance of architecture, the elaborate +simplicity of garden, the carefully lavish use of sculpture and delicate +spray, is visible the imagination of a race of passionate creators--the +imagination, throughout, of the great artist. One meets it at every turn +and corner, down dim passageways, up steep hills, across bridges, along +sinuous quays; the masterhand and its "infinite capacity for taking +pains." And so marvelously do its manifestations of many periods through +many ages combine to enhance one another that one is convinced that the +genius of Paris has been perennial; that St. Genevieve, her godmother, +bestowed it as an immortal gift when the city was born.</p> + +<p>From earliest days every man seems to have caught the spirit of the man +who came before, and to have perpetuated it; by adding his own distinctive +yet always harmonious contribution to the gradual development of the +whole. One built a stately avenue; another erected a church at the end; a +third added a garden on the other side of the church, and terraces leading +up to it; a fourth and fifth cut streets that should give from the +remaining two sides into other flowery squares with their fine edifices. +And so from every viewpoint, and from every part of the entire city, +to-day we have an unbroken series of vistas--each one different and more +charming than the last.</p> + +<p>History has lent its hand to the process, too; and romance--it is not an +insipid chain of flowerbeds we have to follow, but the holy warriors of +Saint Louis, the roistering braves of Henry the Great, the gallant +Bourbons, the ill-starred Bonapartes. These as they passed have left their +monuments; it may be only in a crumbling old chapel or ruined tower, but +there they are, eloquent of days that are dead, of a spirit that lives +forever staunch in the heart of the fervent French people.</p> + +<p>It comes over one overwhelmingly sometimes, in the midst of the careless +gaiety of the modern city, the old, ever-burning spirit of rebellion and +savage strife that underlies it all, and that can spring to the surface +now on certain memorable days, with a vehemence that is terrifying. Look +across the Pont Alexandre, at the serene gold dome of the Invalides, +surrounded by its sleepy barracks. Suddenly you are in the fires and awful +slaughter of Napoleon's wars. The flower of France is being pitilessly cut +down for the lust of one man's ambition; and when that is spent, and the +wail of the widowed country pierces heaven with its desolation, a costly +asylum is built for the handful of soldiers who are left--and the great +Emperor has done his duty!</p> + +<p>Or you are walking through the Cité, past the court of the Palais de +Justice. You glance in, carelessly--memory rushes upon you--and the court +flows with blood, "so that men waded through it, up to the knees!" In the +tiny stone-walled room yonder, Marie Antoinette sits disdainfully composed +before her keepers; tho her face is white with the sounds she hears, as +her friends and followers are led out to swell that hideous river of +blood.</p> + +<p>A pretty, artificial city, Paris; good for shopping, and naughty +amusements, now and then. History? Oh yes, of course; but all that's so +dry and uninspiring, and besides it happened so long ago.</p> + +<p>Did it? In your stroll along the Rue Royale, among the jewellers' and +milliners' shops and Maxim's, glance up at the Madeleine, down at the +obelisk in the Place de la Concorde. Little over a hundred years ago, this +was the brief distance between life and death for those who one minute +were dancing in the "Temple of Victory," the next were laying their heads +upon the block of the guillotine.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="02"></a>Notre-Dame</h1> + +<h2>By Victor Hugo</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris." Translated by A.L. Alger. By +permission of Dana, Estes & Co. Copyright, 1888.]</p> + + + +<p>The church of Notre-Dame at Paris is doubtless still a sublime and +majestic building. But, much beauty as it may retain in its old age, it is +not easy to repress a sigh, to restrain our anger, when we mark the +countless defacements and mutilations to which men and time have subjected +that venerable monument, without respect for Charlemagne, who laid its +first stone, or Philip Augustus, who laid its last....</p> + +<p>Upon the face of this aged queen of French cathedrals, beside every +wrinkle we find a scar. "Tempus edax, homo edacior;" which I would fain +translate thus: "Time is blind, but man is stupid." Had we leisure to +study with the reader, one by one, the various marks of destruction graven +upon the ancient church, the work of Time would be the lesser, the worse +that of Men, especially of "men of art," since there are persons who have +styled themselves architects during the last two centuries.</p> + +<p>And first of all, to cite but a few glaring instances, there are assuredly +few finer pages in the history of architecture than that facade where the +three receding portals with their pointed arches, the carved and +denticulated plinth with its twenty-eight royal niches, the huge central +rose-window flanked by its two lateral windows as is the priest by his +deacon and subdeacon, the lofty airy gallery of trifoliated arcades +supporting a heavy platform upon its slender columns, and lastly the two +dark and massive towers with their pent-house roofs of slate, harmonious +parts of a magnificent whole, one above the other, five gigantic stages, +unfold themselves to the eye, clearly and as a whole, with their countless +details of sculpture, statuary, and carving, powerfully contributing to +the calm grandeur of the whole; as it were, a vast symphony in stone; the +colossal work of one man and one nation, one and yet complex, like the +Iliad and the old Romance epics, to which it is akin; the tremendous sum +of the joint contributions of all the force of an entire epoch, in which +every stone reveals, in a hundred forms, the fancy of the workman +disciplined by the genius of the artist--a sort of human creation, in +brief, powerful and prolific as the Divine creation, whose double +characteristics, variety and eternity, it seems to have acquired.</p> + +<p>And what we say of the façades, we must also say of the whole church; and +what we say of the cathedral church of Paris must be said of all the +Christian churches of the Middle Ages. Everything is harmonious which +springs from spontaneous, logical, and well-proportioned art. To measure a +toe, is to measure the giant.</p> + +<p>Let us return to the façade of Notre-Dame as we see it at the present day, +when we make a pious pilgrimage to admire the solemn and mighty cathedral, +which, as its chroniclers declare, inspires terror. This façade now lacks +three important things: first, the eleven steps which formerly raised it +above the level of the ground; next, the lower series of statues which +filled the niches over the doors; and lastly, the upper row of the twenty- +eight most ancient kings of France, which adorned the gallery of the first +story, from Childebert down to Philip Augustus, each holding in his hand +"the imperial globe."</p> + +<p>The stairs were destroyed by Time, which, with slow and irresistible +progress, raised the level of the city's soil; but while this flood-tide +of the pavements of Paris swallowed one by one the eleven steps which +added to the majestic height of the edifice, Time has perhaps given to the +church more than it took away, for it is Time which has painted the front +with that sober hue of centuries which makes the antiquity of churches +their greatest beauty.</p> + +<p>But who pulled down the two rows of statues? Who left those empty niches? +Who carved that new and bastard pointed arch in the very center of the +middle door? Who dared to insert that clumsy, tasteless, wooden door, +carved in the style of Louis XV., side by side with the arabesques of +Biscornette? Who but men, architects, the artists of our day?</p> + +<p>And if we step into the interior of the edifice, who overthrew that +colossal figure of Saint Christopher, proverbial among statues by the same +right as the great hall of the palace among halls, as the spire of +Strasburg among steeples? And those myriad statues which peopled every +space between the columns of the choir and the nave, kneeling, standing, +on horseback, men, women, children, kings, bishops, men-at-arms--of stone, +of marble, of gold, of silver, of copper, nay even of wax--who brutally +swept them away? It was not the hand of Time.</p> + +<p>And who replaced the old Gothic altar, with its splendid burden of shrines +and reliquaries, by that heavy marble sarcophagus adorned with clouds and +cherubs, looking like a poor copy of the Val-de-Grâce or the Hôtel des +Invalides? Who was stupid enough to fasten that clumsy stone anachronism +into the Carlovingian pavement of Hercandus? Was it not Louis XIV., +fulfilling the vow of Louis XIII.?</p> + +<p>And who set cold white panes in place of that stained glass of gorgeous +hue, which led the wondering gaze of our fathers to roam uncertain 'twixt +the rose-window of the great door and the ogives of the chancel? And what +would a precentor of the sixteenth century say if he could see the fine +coat of yellow wash with which our Vandal archbishops have smeared their +cathedral? He would remember that this was the color with which the +executioner formerly painted those buildings judged "infamous;" he would +recall the hotel of the Petit-Bourbon, bedaubed with yellow in memory of +the Constable's treason; "a yellow of so fine a temper," says Sauval, "and +so well laid on, that more than a hundred years have failed to wash out +its color." He would fancy that the sacred spot had become accursed, and +would turn and flee.</p> + +<p>And if we climb higher in the cathedral, without pausing to note a +thousand barbarous acts of every kind, what has become of that delightful +little steeple which rested upon the point of intersection of the +transept, and which, no less fragile and no less daring than its neighbor, +the spire of the Sainte-Chapelle, (also destroyed), rose yet nearer heaven +than the towers, slender, sharp, sonorous, and daintily wrought?</p> + +<p>An architect of good taste (1787) amputated it, and thought it quite +enough to cover the wound with that large leaden plaster which looks like +the lid of a stewpan. Thus was the marvelous art of the Middle Ages +treated in almost every land, but particularly in France. We find three +sorts of injury upon its ruins, these three marring it to different +depths; first, Time, which has made insensible breaches here and there, +mildewed and rusted the surface everywhere; then, political and religious +revolutions, which, blind and fierce by nature, fell furiously upon it, +rent its rich array of sculpture and carving, shivered its rose-windows, +shattered its necklaces of arabesques and quaint figures, tore down its +statues--sometimes because of their crown; lastly, changing fashion, even +more grotesque and absurd, from the anarchic and splendid deviations of +the Renaissance down to the necessary decline of architecture.</p> + +<p>Fashion did more than revolutions. Fashion cut into the living flesh, +attacked the very skeleton and framework of art; it chopped and hewed, +dismembered, slew the edifice, in its form as well as in its symbolism, in +its logic no less than in its beauty. But fashion restored, a thing which +neither time nor revolution ever pretended to do. Fashion, on the plea of +"good taste," impudently adapted to the wounds of Gothic architecture the +paltry gewgaws of a day,--marble ribbons, metallic plumes, a veritable +leprosy of egg-shaped moldings, of volutes, wreaths, draperies, spirals, +fringes, stone flames, bronze clouds, lusty cupids, and bloated cherubs, +which began to ravage the face of art in the oratory of Catherine de +Medici, and destroyed it, two centuries later, tortured and distorted, in +the Dubarry's boudoir.</p> + +<p>There are thus, to sum up the points to which we have alluded, three sorts +of scars now disfiguring Gothic architecture; wrinkles and warts upon the +epidermis--these are the work of time; wounds, brutal injuries, bruises, +and fractures--these are the work of revolution, from Luther to Mirabeau; +mutilations, amputations, dislocations of the frame, "restorations,"-- +these are the Greek, Roman barbaric work of professors according to +Vitruvius and Vignole. Academies have murdered the magnificent art which +the Vandals produced. To centuries, to revolutions which at least laid +waste with impartiality and grandeur, are conjoined the host of scholastic +architects, licensed and sworn, degrading all they touch with the +discernment and selection of bad taste, substituting the tinsel of Louis +XV. for Gothic lace-work, for the greater glory of the Parthenon. This is +the donkey's kick at the dying lion. It is the old oak, decaying at the +crown, pierced, bitten and devoured by caterpillars.</p> + +<p>How different from the time when Robert Cenalis, comparing Notre Dame at +Paris to the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus; "so loudly boasted by the +ancient pagans," which immortalized Herostratus, held the cathedral of the +Gauls to be "more excellent in length, breadth, height, and structure!"</p> + +<p>Notre Dame at Paris is not, however, what can be called a complete, +definite monument, belonging to a class. It is neither a Roman nor a +Gothic church. The edifice is not a typical one. It has not, like the +abbey at Tournus, the sober massive breadth, the round expansive arch, the +icy bareness, the majestic simplicity of those buildings based on the +semicircular arch. It is not, like the cathedral at Bourges, the +magnificent, airy, multiform, bushy, sturdy, efflorescent product of the +pointed arch.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to class it with that antique order of dark, mysterious, +low-studded churches, apparently crusht by the semicircular arch--almost +Egyptian, save for the ceiling; all hieroglyphic, all sacerdotal, all +symbolic, more loaded in their ornamentation with lozenges and zigzags +than with flowers, with flowers than with animals, with animals than with +men; less the work of the architect than of the bishop; the first +transformation of the art, bearing the deep impress of theocratic and +military discipline, taking root in the Lower Empire, and ceasing with +William the Conqueror. It is impossible to place our cathedral in that +other family of lofty, aerial churches, rich in stained glass and +sculpture; of pointed forms and daring attitudes; belonging to the +commoners and plain, citizens, as political symbols; free, capricious, +lawless, as works of art; the second transformation of architecture, no +longer hieroglyphic, unchangeable, sacerdotal, but artistic, progressive, +and popular, beginning with the close of the Crusades and ending with +Louis XI. Notre Dame at Paris is not of purely Roman race like the former, +nor of purely Arab breed like the latter.</p> + +<p>It is a building of the transition period. The Saxon architect had just +reared the pillars of the nave, when the pointed arch, brought back from +the Crusades, planted itself as conqueror upon those broad Roman capitals +which were never meant to support anything but semicircular arches. The +pointed arch, thenceforth supreme, built the rest of the church. And +still, inexperienced and shy at first, it swelled, it widened, it +restrained itself, and dared not yet shoot up into spires and lancets, as +it did later on in so many marvelous cathedrals. It seemed sensible of the +close vicinity of the heavy Roman columns.</p> + +<p>Moreover, these buildings of the transition from Roman to Gothic are no +less valuable studies than the pure types. They express a gradation of the +art which would otherwise be lost. They represent the ingrafting of the +pointed arch upon the semicircular.</p> + +<p>Notre Dame at Paris, in particular, is a curious example of this variety. +Every face, every stone of the venerable monument is a page not only of +the history of the country, but also of the history of science and art. +Thus, to allude only to leading details, while the little Porte Rouge +attains the almost extreme limit of the Gothic refinement of the fifteenth +century, the pillars of the nave, in their size and gravity of style, go +back to the Carlovingian Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés. One would say +that there was an interval of six centuries between that door and those +pillars. Even the Hermetics find among the symbols of the great door a +satisfactory epitome of their science, of which the Church of St. Jacques +de la Boucherie formed so complete a hieroglyph.</p> + +<p>Thus, the Roman abbey, the philosopher's church, Gothic art, Saxon art, +the clumsy round pillar, which recalls Gregory VII., the hermetic +symbolism by which Nicholas Flamel paved the way for Luther, papal unity, +schism, Saint-Germain des Prés, Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie, are all +confounded, combined and blended in Notre Dame. This central and +generative church is a kind of chimera among the old churches of Paris; it +has the head of one, the limbs of another, the trunk of a third, something +of all.</p> + +<p>Considering here Christian European architecture only, that younger sister +of the grand piles of the Orient, we may say that it strikes the eye as a +vast formation divided into three very distinct zones or layers, one +resting upon the other; the Roman zone, (the same which is also known +according to place, climate, and species, as Lombard, Saxon, and +Byzantine. There are the four sister forms of architecture, each having +its peculiar character, but all springing from the same principle, the +semicircular arch,) the Gothic zone, the zone of the Renaissance, which +may be called the Greco-Roman. The Roman stratum, which is the oldest and +the lowest, is occupied by the semicircular arch, which reappears, +together with the Greek column, in the modern and uppermost stratum of the +Renaissance. The painted arch is between the two. The buildings belonging +to any one of these three strata are perfectly distinct, uniform, and +complete. Such are the Abbey of Jumieges, the Cathedral of Rheims, the +Church of the Holy Cross at Orleans. But the three zones are blended and +mingled at the edges, like the colors in the solar spectrum.</p> + +<p>Hence, we have certain complex structures, buildings of gradation and +transition, which may be Roman at the base, Gothic in the middle, and +Greco-Roman at the top. This is caused by the fact that it took six +hundred years to build such a fabric. This variety is rare. The donjon- +keep at Étampes is a specimen. But monuments of two formations are more +frequent. Such is Notre-Dame at Paris, a structure of the pointed arch, +its earliest columns leading directly to that Roman zone, of which the +portals of Saint-Denis and the nave of Saint-Germain des Prés are perfect +specimens. Such is the charming semi-Gothic chapter-house of Boucherville, +where the Roman layer reaches midway. Such is the cathedral of Rouen, +which would be wholly Gothic if the tip of its central spire did not dip +into the zone of the Renaissance. [Footnote: This part of the spire, which +was of timber, happens to be the very part which was burned by lightning +in 1823.]</p> + +<p>However, all these gradations and differences affect the surface only of +an edifice. Art has but changed its skin. The construction itself of the +Christian church is not affected by them. The interior arrangement, the +logical order of the parts, is still the same. Whatever may be the carved +and nicely-wrought exterior of a cathedral, we always find beneath it, if +only in a rudimentary and dormant state, the Roman basilica. It rises +forever from the ground in harmony with the same law.</p> + +<p>There are invariably two naves intersecting each other in the form of a +cross, the upper end being rounded into a chancel or choir; there are +always side aisles, for the processions and for chapels, a sort of lateral +galleries or walks, into which the principal nave opens by means of the +spaces between the columns. This settled, the number of chapels, doors, +steeples, and spires may be modified indefinitely, according to the fancy +of the century, the people, and the art. The performance of divine service +once provided for and assured, architecture acts its own pleasure. +Statues, stained glass, rose-windows, arabesques, denticulations, +capitals, and bas-reliefs,--it combines all these flowers of the fancy +according to the logarithm that suits it best. Hence the immense variety +in the exteriors of those structures within which dwell such unity and +order. The trunk of the tree is fixt; the foliage is variable.</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="03"></a>The Louvre</h1> + +<h2>By Grant Allen</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The Louvre is the noblest monument of the French Renaissance. From the +time of St. Louis onward, the French kings began to live more and more in +the northern suburb, the town of the merchants, which now assumed the name +of La Ville, in contradistinction to the Cité and the Université. Two of +their chief residences here were the Bastille and the Hôtel St. Paul, both +now demolished--one, on the Place so called; the other, between the Rue +St. Antoine and the Quai des Célestins. But from a very early period they +also possest a château on the site of the Louvre, and known by the same +name, which guarded the point where the wall of Philippe Auguste abutted +on the river. François I. decided to pull down this picturesque turreted +medieval castle, erected by Philippe Auguste and altered by Charles V. He +began the construction in its place of a magnificent Renaissance palace, +which has ever since been in course of erection.</p> + +<p>Its subsequent growth, however, is best explained opposite the building +itself, where attention can be duly called to the succession of its +salient features. But a visit to the exterior fabric of the Louvre should +be preceded by one to St. Germain l'Auxerrois, the parish church, and +practically the chapel, of the old Louvre, to which it stood in somewhat +the same relation as the Ste. Chapelle to the home of St. Louis. Note, +however, that the church was situated just within the ancient wall, while +the château lay outside it. The visitor will doubtless be tolerably +familiar by this time with some parts at least of the exterior of the +Louvre; but he will do well to visit it now systematically, in the order +here suggested, so as to gain a clear general idea of its history and +meaning....</p> + +<p>Begin by understanding distinctly that this court is the real and original +Louvre; the rest is mere excresence, intended to unite the main building +with the Tuileries, which lay some hundreds of yards to the west of it. +Notice, first, that the Palace as a whole, seen from the point where you +now stand, is constructed on the old principle of relatively blank +external walls, like a castle, with an interior courtyard, on which all +the apartments open, and almost all the decoration is lavished. +Reminiscences of defense lurk about the Louvre. It can best be understood +by comparison with such ornate, yet fortress-like, Italian palaces as the +Strozzi at Florence. Notice the four opposite portals, facing the cardinal +points, which can be readily shut by means of great doors; while the +actual doorways of the various suites of apartments open only into the +protected courtyard. This is the origin of the familiar French porte- +cochère.</p> + +<p>Again, the portion of the building that directly faces you as you enter +the court from St. Germain is the oldest part, and represents the early +Renaissance spirit. It is the most primitive Louvre. Note in particular +the central elevated portion, known as a Pavilion, and graced with elegant +Caryatides. These Pavilions are lingering reminiscences of the medieval +towers. You will find them in the corners and centers of other blocks in +the Louvre. They form a peculiarly French Renaissance characteristic. The +Palace is here growing out of the Castle. The other three sides of the +square are, on the whole, more classical and later.</p> + +<p>Now across the square directly to the Pavilion de l'Horloge, as it is +called, from the clock which adorns it. To your left, on the floor of the +court, are two circular white lines, enclosed in a square. These mark the +site of the original Château of the Louvre, with its keep, or donjon. +François I., who began the existing building, originally intended that his +palace should cover the same area. It was he who erected the left wing, +which now faces you, marked by the crown and H on its central round gable, +placed there by his successor, Henry II., under whom it was completed. To +the same king are also due the monograms of H and D (for Diane de +Poitiers, his mistress), between the columns of the ground floor. The +whole of the Pavilion de l'Horloge, and of this west wing, should be +carefully examined in detail as the finest remaining specimen of highly +decorated French Renaissance architecture. (But the upper story of the +Pavilion, with the Caryatides, is an age later.) Observe even the +decoration lavished on the beautiful chimneys. Pierre Lescot was the +architect of this earliest wing; the exquisite sculpture is by Jean +Goujon, a Frenchman, and the Italian, Paolo Ponzio. Examine much of it. +The crossed K's of certain panels stand for Catherine de Médici.</p> + +<p>The right wing, beyond the Pavilion, was added, in the same style, under +Louis XIII., who decided to double the plan of his predecessors, and form +the existing Cour du Louvre.</p> + +<p>The other three sides, in a more classic style, with pediments replacing +the Pavilions, and square porticos instead of rounded gables, are for the +most part later. The south side, however, as far as the central door, is +also by Pierre Lescot. It forms one of the two fronts of the original +square first contemplated. The attic story of these three sides was added +under Louis XIV., to whom, in the main, is due this Cour du Louvre. A +considerable part of Louis XIV.'s decorations bear reference to his +representation as "le roi soleil."</p> + +<p>Now, pass through the Pavilion de l'Horloge (called on its west side +Pavilion Sully) into the second of the three courts of the Louvre. To +understand this portion of the building, again, you must remember that +shortly after the erection of the Old Louvre, Catherine de Médici began to +build her palace of the Tuileries, now destroyed, to the west of it. She +(and subsequent rulers) designed to unite the Old Louvre with the +Tuileries by a gallery which should run along the bank of the river. Of +that gallery, Catherine de Médici herself erected a considerable portion, +to be described later, and Henri IV., almost completed it. Later on, +Napoleon I. conceived the idea of extending a similar gallery along his +new Rue de Rivoli, on the north side, so as to enclose the whole space +between the Louvre and the Tuileries in one gigantic double courtyard. +Napoleon III. carried out his idea. The second court in which you now +stand is entirely flanked by buildings of this epoch--the Second Empire. +Examine it cursorily as far as the modern statue of Gambetta.</p> + +<p>Stand or take a seat by the railing of the garden opposite the Pavilion +Sully. The part that now faces you forms a portion of the building of +François I, and Louis XIII., redecorated in part by Napoleon I. The +portions to your right and left are entirely of the age of Napoleon III., +built so as to conceal the want of parallelism of the outer portions. +Observe their characteristic Pavilions, each bearing its own name +inscribed upon it. This recent square, tho quite modern in the character +of its sculpture and decoration, is Renaissance in its general +architecture, and, when looked back upon from the gardens of the +Tuileries, affords a most excellent idea of that stately style, as +developed in France under François I. The whole of this splendid plan, +however, has been rendered futile by the destruction of the Tuileries, +without which the enclosure becomes wholly meaningless.</p> + +<p>Now, continue westward, pass the Monument of Gambetta, and take a seat on +the steps at the base, near the fine figure of Truth. In front of you +opens the third square of the Louvre, known as the Place du Carrousel, and +formerly enclosed on its west side by the Palace of the Tuileries, which +was unfortunately burned down in 1871, during the conflict between the +Municipal and National authorities. Its place is now occupied by a garden +terrace, the view from which in all directions is magnificent. Fronting +you, as you sit, is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, erected under +Napoleon I., by Percier and Fontaine, in imitation of the Arch of +Septimius Severus at Rome, and once crowned by the famous bronze Roman +horses from St. Mark's at Venice. The arch, designed as an approach to the +Tuileries during the period of the classical mania, is too small for its +present surroundings, since the removal of the Palace. The north wing, +visible to your right, is purely modern, of the age of the First and +Second Empire and the Third Republic. The meretricious character of the +reliefs in its extreme west portion, erected under the Emperor Napoleon +III., and restored after the Commune, is redolent of the spirit of that +gaudy period. The south wing, to your left, forms part of the connecting +gallery erected by Henri IV., but its architecture is largely obscured by +considerable alterations under Napoleon III. Its west pavilion-known as +the Pavilion de Flore--is well worth notice.</p> + +<p>Having thus gained a first idea of the courtyard fronts of the building, +continue your walk, still westward, along the south wing as far as the +Pavilion de Flore, a remaining portion of the corner edifice which ran +into one line with the Palace of the Tuileries. Turn round the corner of +the Pavilion to examine the south or river front of the connecting +gallery--one of the finest parts of the whole building, but far less known +to ordinary visitors than the cold and uninteresting northern line along +the Rue de Rivoli. The first portion, as far as the gateways, belongs +originally to the age of Henry IV., but it was entirely reconstructed +under Napoleon III., whose obtrusive N appears in many places on the +gateways and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, it still preserves, on the whole, some reminiscence of its +graceful Renaissance architecture. Beyond the main gateway (with modern +bronze Charioteer of the Sun), flanked by the Pavilions de la Trémoille +and de Lesdiguières, we come upon the long Southern Gallery erected by +Catherine de Médici, which still preserves almost intact its splendid +early French Renaissance decoration. This is one of the noblest portions +of the entire building. The N here gives place to H's, and the Renaissance +scroll-work and reliefs almost equal those in that portion of the old +Louvre which was erected under François I. Sit on a seat on the Quay and +examine the sculpture.</p> + +<p>Notice particularly the splendid Porte Jean Goujon, conspicuous from afar +by its gilded balcony. Its crowned H's and coats-of-arms are specially +interesting examples of the decorative work of the period. Note also the +skill with which this almost flat range is relieved by sculpture and +decoration so as to make us oblivious of the want of that variety usually +given by jutting portions. The end of this long gallery is formed by two +handsome windows with balconies. We there come to the connecting Galérie +d'Apollon, of which these windows are the termination, and finally reach +once more a portion of Perrault's façade, with its double LL's, erected +under Louis XIV., and closely resembling the interior façade of the Cour +du Louvre....</p> + +<p>The Collections in the Louvre have no such necessary organic connection +with Paris itself as Notre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, or even those in +the rooms at Cluny. They may, therefore, be examined by the visitor at any +period of his visit that he chooses. I would advise him, however, whenever +he takes them up, to begin with the paintings and then to go on to the +Classical and Renaissance Sculpture. The last-named, at least, he should +only examine in connection with the rest of Renaissance Paris. Also, while +it is unimportant whether he takes first Painting or Sculpture, it is very +doubtful that he should take each separately in the chronological order.</p> + +<p>At least six days--far more, if possible--should be devoted to the Louvre +Collections--by far the most important objects to be seen in Paris. Of +these, four should be assigned to the Paintings, and one each to the +Classical and Renaissance Sculpture. If this is impossible, do not try to +see all; see a little thoroughly. Confine yourself, for Painting, to the +Salon Carré and Gallery VII., and for Sculpture to the Classical Gallery +and to the three Western rooms of the Renaissance collection.</p> + + + +<h1><a name="04"></a>The Madeleine and Champs Elysées</h1> + +<h2>By Nathaniel Hawthorne</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers of Hawthorne's works, Houghton, +Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1899.]</p> + + + +<p>Approaching the Madeleine, we found it a most beautiful church, that might +have been adapted from Heathenism to Catholicism; for on each side there +is a range of magnificent pillars, unequalled, except by those of the +Parthenon. A mourning coach, arrayed in black and silver, was drawn up at +the steps, and the front of the church was hung with black cloth, which +covered the whole entrance. However, seeing the people going in, we +entered along with them. Glorious and gorgeous is the Madeleine. The +entrance to the nave is beneath a most stately arch; and three arches of +equal height open from the nave to the side aisles; and at the end of the +nave is another great arch, rising, with a vaulted half-dome, over the +high altar. The pillars supporting these arches are Corinthian, with +richly sculptured capitals; and wherever gilding might adorn the church, +it is lavished like sunshine; and within the sweeps of the arches there +are fresco paintings of sacred subjects, and a beautiful picture covers +the hollow of the vault over the altar; all this, besides much sculpture; +and especially a group above and around the high altar, representing the +Magdalen smiling down upon angels and archangels, some of whom are +kneeling, and shadowing themselves with their heavy marble wings.</p> + +<p>There is no such thing as making my page glow with the most distant idea +of the magnificence of this church, in its details and in its whole. It +was founded a hundred or two hundred years ago; then Bonaparte +contemplated transforming it into a Temple of Victory, or building it anew +as one. The restored Bourbon remade it into a church; but it still has a +heathenish look, and will never lose it.</p> + +<p>When we entered we saw a crowd of people, all pressing forward toward the +high altar, before which burned a hundred wax lights, some of which were +six or seven feet high; and, altogether, they shone like a galaxy of +stars. In the middle of the nave, moreover, there was another galaxy of +wax candles burning around an immense pall of black velvet, embroidered +with silver, which seemed to cover, not only a coffin, but a sarcophagus, +or something still more huge.</p> + +<p>The organ was rumbling forth a deep, lugubrious bass, accompanied with +heavy chanting of priests, out of which sometimes rose the clear, young +voices of choristers, like light flashing out of the gloom. The church, +between the arches, along the nave, and round the altar, was hung with +broad expanses of black cloth; and all the priests had their sacred +vestments covered with black. They looked exceedingly well; I never saw +anything half so well got up on the stage. Some of these ecclesiastical +figures were very stately and noble, and knelt and bowed, and bore aloft +the cross, and swung the censers in a way that I liked to see.</p> + +<p>The ceremonies of the Catholic Church were a superb work of art, or +perhaps a true growth of man's religious nature; and so long as men felt +their original meaning, they must have been full of awe and glory. Being +of another parish, I looked on coldly, but not irreverently, and was glad +to see the funeral service so well performed, and very glad when it was +over. What struck me as singular, the person who performed the part +usually performed by a verger, keeping order among the audience, wore a +gold-embroidered scarf, a cocked hat, and, I believe, a sword, and had the +air of a military man....</p> + +<p>When we left the Madeleine we took our way to the Place de la Concorde, +and thence through the Elysian Fields (which, I suppose, are the French +idea of heaven) to Bonaparte's triumphal arch. The Champs Elysées may look +pretty in summer; tho I suspect they must be somewhat dry and artificial +at whatever season.--the trees being slender and scraggy, and requiring to +be renewed every few years. The soil is not genial to them. The strangest +peculiarity of this place, however, to eyes fresh from moist and verdant +England, is, that there is not one blade of grass in all the Elysian +Fields, nothing but hard clay, now covered with white dust. It gives the +whole scene the air of being a contrivance of man, in which Nature has +either not been invited to take any part, or has declined to do so.</p> + +<p>There were merry-go-rounds, wooden horses, and other provision for +children's amusements among the trees; and booths, and tables of cakes, +and candy-women; and restaurants on the borders of the wood; but very few +people there; and doubtless we can form no idea of what the scene might +become when alive with French gayety and vivacity.</p> + +<p>As we walked onward the Triumphal Arch began to loom up in the distance, +looking huge and massive, tho still a long way off. It was not, however, +till we stood almost beneath it that we really felt the grandeur of this +great arch, including so large a space of the blue sky in its airy sweep. +At a distance, it impresses the spectator with its solidity; nearer, with +the lofty vacancy beneath it. There is a spiral staircase within one of +its immense limbs; and, climbing steadily upward, lighted by a lantern +which the door-keeper's wife gave us, we had a bird's eye view of Paris, +much obscured by smoke or mist. Several interminable avenues shoot with +painful directness right toward it.</p> + +<p>On our way homeward we visited the Place Vendôme, in the center of which +is a tall column, sculptured from top to bottom, all over the pedestal, +and all over the shaft, and with Napoleon himself on the summit. The shaft +is wreathed round and round about with representations of what, as far as +I could distinguish, seemed to be the Emperor's victories. It has a very +rich effect. At the foot of the column we saw wreaths of artificial +flowers, suspended there, no doubt, by some admirer of Napoleon, still +ardent enough to expend a franc or two in this way.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="05"></a>The Hôtel des Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Walks In Paris." By arrangement with the publisher, David +McKay. Copyright, 1880.]</p> + + + +<p>We emerge from the Rue de Grenelle opposite the gardens to the north of +the magnificent Hôtel des Invalides, planned by Henri IV., and begun by +Louis XIV. in 1671, as a refuge for old soldiers, who, before it was +built, had to beg their bread on the streets.</p> + +<p>The institution is under the management of the Minister of War, and +nothing can be more comfortable than the life of its inmates. The number +of these is now small; in the time of Napoleon I., when the institution +was called the "Temple of Mars," it was enormous.</p> + +<p>On the terrace in front of the building are a number of cannon, trophies +taken in different campaigns. Standing before the hotel is the statue of +Prince Eugène. On either side of the entrance are statues of Mars and +Minerva by Coustou the younger. In the tympanum of the semicircle over the +center of the façade is Louis XIV. on horseback. Behind the façade is a +vast courtyard surrounded by open corridors lined with frescoes of the +history of France; those of the early history on the left by Bénédict +Masson, 1865, have much interest. In the center of the façade opposite the +entrance is the statue of Napoleon I. Beneath this is the approach to the +Church of St. Louis, built 1671-79, from designs of Libéral Bruant, and in +which many banners of victory give an effect of color to an otherwise +colorless building....</p> + +<p>The Tomb of Napoleon, under the magnificent dome of the Invalides, which +was added to the original church by Jules Hardouin Mansart, and is treated +as a separate building, is entered from the Place Vauban at the back, or +by the left cloister and a court beyond.</p> + +<p>On entering the vast interior, a huge circular space is seen to open, +beneath the cupola painted by Charles de Lafosse and Jouvenet, and, in it, +surrounded by caryatides and groups of moldering banners, the huge tomb of +Finland granite, given by the Emperor Nicholas. Hither the remains of the +great Emperor were brought back from St. Helena by the Prince de +Joinville, in 1841, tho Louis Philippe, while adopting this popular +measure as regarded the dead, renewed the sentence of exile against the +living members of the Bonaparte family.</p> + +<p>Four smaller cupolas encircle the great dome. In the first, on the right, +is the tomb of Joseph Bonaparte. On the left are the tombs of Jerome +Bonaparte, with a statue, and of his eldest son and the Princess Catherine +of Wurtemberg. The other two cupolas are still empty.</p> + +<p>Descending the steps behind the splendid baldacchino, we find black-marble +tombs of Marshals Duroc and Bertrand guarding the approach to that of +Napoleon I. His own words, taken from his will, appear in large letters +over the entrance: "I desire my ashes to lie on the shores of the Seine +among the people of France whom I loved so deeply."</p> + +<p>The sentiment, the tomb, and the dome have a unique splendor. A white-marble statue of Napoleon I. by Stuart is in a black-marble chapel. His +Austerlitz sword, the crown voted by Cherbourg, and colors taken in his +different battles, were formerly shown in a "chapelle ardente."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="06"></a>The Palais de Justice and the Sainte Chapelle</h1> + +<h2>By Grant Allen</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>Go along the Rue de Rivoli as far as the Square of the Tour St. Jacques. +If driving, alight here. Turn down the Place du Châtelet to your right. In +front is the pretty modern fountain of the Châtelet; right, the Thèâtre du +Châtelet; left, the Opéra Comique. The bridge which faces you is the Pont- +au-Change, so-called from the money-changers' and jewelers' booths which +once flanked its wooden predecessor (the oldest in Paris), as they still +do the Rialto at Venice, and the Ponte Vecchio at Florence.</p> + +<p>Stand by the right-hand corner of the bridge before crossing it. In front +is the Ile de la Cité. The square, dome-crowned building opposite you to +the left is the modern Tribunal de Commerce; beyond it leftward lie the +Marché-aux-Fleurs and the long line of the Hôtel-Dieu, above which rise +the towers and spire of Notre Dame. In front, to the right, the vast block +of buildings broken by towers forms part of the Palais de Justice, the +ancient Palace of the French kings, begun by Hugh Capet. The square tower +to the left in this block is the Tour de l'Horloge. Next, to the right, +come the two round towers of the Conciergerie, known respectively as the +Tour de César and the Tour de Montgomery. The one beyond them, with +battlements, is the Tour d'Argent. It was in the Conciergerie that Marie +Antoinette, Robespierre, and many other victims of the Revolution were +imprisoned.</p> + +<p>These medieval towers, much altered and modernized, are now almost all +that remains of the old Palace, which, till after the reign of Louis IX. +(St. Louis), formed the residence of the Kings of France. Charles VII. +gave it in 1431 to the Parlement or Supreme Court. Ruined by fires and +re-building, it now consists for the most part of masses of irregular +recent edifices. The main modern façade fronts the Boulevard du Palais.</p> + +<p>Cross the bridge. The Tour de l'Horloge on your right, at the corner of +the Boulevard du Palais, contains the oldest public clock in France +(1370). The figures of Justice and Pity by its side were originally +designed by Germain Pilon, but are now replaced by copies. Walk round the +Palais by the quay along the north branch of the Seine till you come to +the Rue de Harlay. Turn there to your left, toward the handsome and +imposing modern façade of this side of the Palais de Justice. The interior +is unworthy a visit. The Rue de Harlay forms the westernmost end of the +original Ile de la Cité. The prow-shaped extremity of the modern island +has been artificially produced by embanking the sites of two or three +minor islets. The Palace Dauphine, which occupies the greater part of this +modern extension, was built in 1608; it still affords a characteristic +example of the domestic Paris of the period before Baron Haussmann.</p> + +<p>Continue along the quay as far as the Pont-Neuf, so as to gain an idea of +the extent of the Ile de la Cité in this direction. The center of the +Pont-Neuf is occupied by an equestrian statue of Henri IV., first of the +Bourbon kings. Its predecessor was erected in 1635, and was destroyed to +make cannon during the great Revolution. Louis XVIII. re-erected it. From +this point you can gain a clear idea of the two branches of the Seine as +they unite at the lower end of the Ile de la Cité. To your right, looking +westward, you also obtain a fine view of the Colonnade of the Old Louvre, +with the southwestern gallery, and the more modern buildings of the Museum +behind it.</p> + +<p>Now, walk along the southern quay of the island, round the remainder of +the Palais de Justice, as far as the Boulevard du Palais. There turn to +your left, and go in at the first door of the Palace on the left +(undeterred by sentries) into the court of the Sainte Chapelle, the only +important relic now remaining of the home of Saint Louis. You may safely +neglect the remainder of the building.</p> + +<p>The thirteenth century was a period of profound religious enthusiasm +throughout Europe. Conspicuous among its devout soldiers was Louis IX., +afterward canonized as St. Louis. The saintly king purchased from Baldwin, +Emperor of Constantinople, the veritable Crown of Thorns, and a fragment +of the True Cross--paying for these relics an immense sum of money. Having +become possest of such invaluable and sacred objects, Louis desired to +have them housed with suitable magnificence. He therefore entrusted Pierre +de Montereau with the task of building a splendid chapel (within the +precincts of his palace), begun in 1245, and finished three years later, +immediately after which the king set out on his Crusade. The monument +breathes throughout the ecstatic piety of the mystic king; it was +consecrated in 1248, in the name of the Holy Crown and the Holy Cross, by +Eudes de Châteauroux, Bishop of Tusculum and papal legate.</p> + +<p>Three things should be noted about the Sainte Chapelle. (1) It is a +chapel, not a church; therefore it consists (practically) of a choir +alone, without nave or transepts. (2) It is the domestic Chapel of the +Royal Palace. (3) It is, above all things, the Shrine of the Crown of +Thorns. These three points must be constantly borne in mind in examining +the building.</p> + +<p>Erected later than Notre-Dame, it represents the pointed style of the +middle of the thirteenth century, and is singularly pure and uniform +throughout. Secularized at the Revolution, it fell somewhat into decay; +but was judiciously restored by Viollet-le-Duc and others. The "Messe +Rouge," or "Messe du St. Esprit," is still celebrated here once yearly, on +the re-opening of the courts after the autumn vacation, but no other +religious services take place in the building. The Crown of Thorns and the +piece of the True Cross are now preserved in the Treasury at Notre Dame.</p> + +<p>Examine the exterior in detail from the court on the south side. More even +than most Gothic buildings, the Sainte Chapelle is supported entirely by +its massive piers, the wall being merely used for enclosure, and +consisting for the most part of lofty windows. As in most French Gothic +buildings, the choir terminates in a round apse, whereas English +cathedrals have usually a square end. The beautiful light flêche or spire +in the center has been restored. Observe the graceful leaden angel, +holding a cross, on the summit of the chevet or round apse. To see the +facade, stand well back opposite it, where you can observe that the chapel +is built in four main stories--those, namely, of the Lower Church or +crypt, of the Upper Church, of the great rose window (with later +flamboyant tracery), and of the gable-end, partially masked by an open +parapet studded with the royal fleurs-de-lis of France. The Crown of +Thorns surrounds the two pinnacles which flank the fourth story.</p> + +<p>The chapel consists of a lower and an upper church. The Lower Church is a +mere crypt, which was employed for the servants of the royal family. Its +portal has in its tympanum (or triangular space in the summit of the arch) +the Coronation of the Virgin, and on its center pillar a good figure of +the Madonna and Child. Enter the Lower Church. It is low, and has pillars +supporting the floor above. In the polychromatic decoration of the walls +and pillars, notice the frequent repetition of the royal lilies of France, +combined with the three castles of Castille, in honor of Blanche of +Castille, the Mother of St. Louis.</p> + +<p>Mount to the Upper Chapel (or Sainte Chapelle proper) by the small spiral +staircase in the corner. This soaring pile was the oratory where the royal +family and court attended service; its gorgeousness bespeaks its origin +and nature. It glows like a jewel. First go out of the door and examine +the exterior and doorway of the chapel. Its platform was directly +approached in early times from the Palace. The center pillar bears a fine +figure of Christ. In the tympanum (as over the principal doorway of almost +every important church in Paris and in the district) is a relief of the +Last Judgment. Below stands St. Michael with his scales, weighing the +souls; on either side is depicted the Resurrection, with the Angels of the +Last Trump. Above, in the second tier, is Christ, holding up His hands +with the marks of the nails, as a sign of mercy to the redeemed: to right +and left of Him angels display the Crown of Thorns and the True Cross, to +contain which sacred relics the chapel was built.</p> + +<p>On the extreme left kneels the Blessed Virgin; on the extreme right, +Sainte Geneviève. This scene of the Last Judgment was adapted with a few +alterations from that above the central west door of Notre Dame, the Crown +of Thorns in particular being here significantly substituted for the three +nails and spear. The small lozenge reliefs to right and left of the portal +are also interesting. Those to the left represent in a very naïve manner +God the Father creating the world, sun and moon, light, plants, animals, +man, etc. Those to the right give the story of Genesis, Cain and Abel, the +Flood, the Ark, Noah's Sacrifice, Noah's Vine, etc., the subjects of all +which the visitor can easily recognize, and is strongly recommended to +identify for himself.</p> + +<p>The interior consists almost entirely of large and lofty windows, with +magnificent stained glass, in large part ancient. The piers which divide +the windows and alone support the graceful vault of the roof, are provided +with statues of the twelve apostles, a few of them original. Each bears +his well-known symbol. Spell them out if possible. Beneath the windows, in +the quatrefoils of the arcade, are enamelled glass mosaics representing +the martyrdoms of the saints--followers of Christ, each wearing his own +crown of thorns: a pretty conceit wholly in accord with St. Louis's +ecstatic type of piety. Conspicuous among them are St. Denis carrying his +head, St. Sebastian pierced with arrows, St. Stephen stoned, St. Lawrence +on his gridiron, etc. The apse (formerly separated from the body of the +building by a rood-screen, now destroyed), contains the vacant base of the +high altar, behind which stands an arcaded tabernacle, now empty, in whose +shrine were once preserved the Crown of Thorns, the fragment of the True +Cross, and other relics.</p> + +<p>Among them in the later times was included the skull of St. Louis himself +in a golden reliquary. Two angels at the summit of the large center arch +of the arcade bear a representation of the Crown of Thorns in their hands. +Above the tabernacle rises a canopy or baldacchino, approached by two +spiral staircases; from its platform St. Louis and his successors, the +kings of France, were in the habit of exhibiting with their own hands the +actual relics themselves once a year to the faithful. The golden reliquary +in which the sacred objects were contained was melted down in the +Revolution. The small window with bars to your right, as you face the high +altar, was placed there by the superstitious and timid Louis XI., in order +that he might behold the elevation of the Host and the sacred relics +without being exposed to the danger of assassination. The visitor should +also notice the inlaid stone pavement, with its frequent repetition of the +fleur-de-lis and the three castles. The whole breathes the mysticism of +St. Louis; the lightness of the architecture, the height of the apparently +unsupported roof, and the magnificence of the decoration, render this the +most perfect ecclesiastical building in Paris.</p> + +<p>In returning from the chapel, notice on the outside, from the court to the +south, the apparently empty and useless porch, supporting a small room, +which is the one through whose grated window Louis XI. used to watch the +elevation.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="07"></a>The Hotel de Ville and the Conciergerie</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Walks In Paris." By arrangement with the +publisher, David McKay. Copyright, 1880.]</p> + + + +<p>It was Etienne Marcel, Mayor of Paris, who first established the municipal +council at the Place de Grève, at that time the only large square in +Paris. In July, 1357, he purchased as a Hostel de Ville the Maison aux +Piliers, which had been inhabited by Clémence d'Hongrie, widow of Louis le +Hutin, and which afterward took the name of Maison du Dauphin from her +nephew and heir, Guy, Dauphin de Viennois.</p> + +<p>In 1532 a new Hôtel de Ville was begun and finished by the architect Marin +de la Vallée in the reign of Henri IV. This was so much altered by +successive restorations and revolutions that only a staircase, two +monumental chimney-pieces in the Salle du Trône, and some sculptured +doorways and other details remained from the interior decorations in the +old building at the time of its destruction.</p> + +<p>Till the time of Louis XVI. the history of the Hôtel de Ville was entirely +local; after that it became the history of France. It was there that Louis +XVI. received the tri-colored cockade from Bailly, Mayor of Paris, July +17, 1789; and there, in the chamber called, from its hangings, Le Cabinet +Vert, that Robespierre was arrested, in the name of the Convention, during +one of the meetings of the Commune, July 27, 1794. After the fall of +Robespierre it was seriously proposed to pull down the Hôtel de Ville, +because it had been his last asylum--"Le Louvre de Robespierre." It was +only saved by the common-sense of Leonard Bourdon.</p> + +<p>But most of all, in the popular recollection, is the Hôtel de Ville +connected with public fêtes--with those on the second marriage of Napoleon +I. (1810), on the entry of Louis XVIII. (1814), on the coronation of +Charles X. (1825), on the marriage of the Duke of Orleans (1837), on the +visits of different foreign potentates to Napoleon III. Here also was the +Republic proclaimed, September 4, 1870.</p> + +<p>It was in one of the windows of the Hôtel de Ville that Louis Philippe +embraced Lafayette (August, 1830) in sight of the people, to evince the +union of the July monarchy with the bourgeoisie. On the steps of the +building Louis Blanc proclaimed the Republic, February 24,1848. From +September 4, 1870, to February 28, 1871, the hôtel was the seat of the +"government of the national defense," and from March 19 to May 22, 1871, +that of the pretended "Committee of public safety" of the Communists. On +May 24 it was burned by its savage defenders, many of whom happily +perished in the flames.</p> + +<p>The Place de l'Hôtel de Ville is so modernized that it retains nothing of +the Place de Grève but its terrible historic associations. Among the many +fearful executions here, it is only necessary to recall that of Jean +Hardi, torn to pieces by four horses (March 30, 1473) on an accusation of +trying to poison Louis XI.; that of the Comte de St. Pol (December 19, +1475), long commemorated by a pillar; those of a long list of Protestants, +opened by the auto-de-fé of Jacques de Povanes, student of the University, +in 1525; that of Nicholas de Salcède, Sieur d'Auvillers, torn to pieces by +four horses in the presence of the king and queens, for conspiracy to +murder the Duc d'Anjou, youngest son of Catherine de Medici. More terrible +still was the execution of Ravaillac (May 27, 1610) murderer of Henri IV.</p> + +<p>"The executioner cut off his hand with an ax, and threw it and the +murderous knife into the fire. His breasts, his arms and his legs were +torn with pincers, and boiling oil and melted lead poured into the open +wounds. He was then dismembered by four strong horses, which pulled for no +less than an entire hour. They dismembered only a corpse. He expired," +says L'Estoile, "at the second or third pull." When the executioner had to +throw the limbs into the fire that the ashes, according to the sentence, +might be flung to the winds, the whole crowd rushed on to claim them. +"But," adds the same chronicler, "the people rushed on so impetuously that +every mother's son had a piece, even the children, who made fires of them +at the corners of the streets."</p> + +<p>After the capture of the Bastille its brave governor, M. de Launay, was +beheaded on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville, and his major, M. de Losme- +Salbray, was massacred under the Arcade St. Jean. These were the first +victims of the Revolution. Foulon, Intendant du Commerce, suffered here +soon afterward, hung from the cords by which a lamp was suspended, whence +the expression, which soon resounded in many a popular refrain, of "put +the aristocrats to the lantern."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Two parasite buildings, the Conciergerie, and the Prefecture of Police, +are now annexed to the Palais de Justice. The Conciergerie takes its name +from the house of the concierge in the time of the royal residence here, +who had a right to two chickens a day and to the cinders and ashes of the +king's chimney.</p> + +<p>It has always been a prison, and it was here that the Comte d'Armagnac was +murdered, June 12, 1418. Here was made, below the level of the Seine, the +prison called La Souricière, from the rats which had the reputation of +eating the prisoners alive. The present Conciergerie occupies the lower +story of the right wing of the existing Palais de Justice, and extends +along the Quai de l'Horloge, as far as the towers of Montgomery and César. +It has an entrance on the quay, before which the guillotine-carts received +the victims of the Reign of Terror, and another to the right of the great +staircase in the Cour d'Honneur.</p> + +<p>All other associations of the Conciergerie are lost in those which were +attached to it by the great Revolution. The cell in which Marie Antoinette +suffered her seventy-five days' agony--from August 2 till October 15, when +she was condemned--was turned into a chapel of expiation in 1816. The lamp +still exists which lighted the august prisoner and enabled her guards to +watch her through the night. The door still exists, tho changed in +position, which was cut transversely in half and the upper part fixt that +the queen might be forced to bend in going out, because she had said that +whatever indignities they might inflict upon her they could never force +her to bend the head.</p> + +<p>After her condemnation, Marie Antoinette was not brought back to this +chamber. It was a far more miserable cell which saw her write her last +touching farewell to Madame Elizabeth. But this was the room in which the +Girondins spent their last night, when, as Riouffe, himself in the prison +at the time, says, "all during this frightful night their songs sounded +and if they stopt singing it was but to talk about their country." The +adjoining cell, now used as a sacristy, was the prison of Robespierre.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="08"></a>Père la Chaise</h1> + +<h2>By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Outre Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.]</p> + + + +<p>The cemetery of Père la Chaise is the Westminster Abbey of Paris. Both are +the dwellings of the dead; but in one they repose in green alleys and +beneath the open sky--in the other their resting-place is in the shadowy +aisle, and beneath the dim arches of an ancient abbey. One is a temple of +nature; the other a temple of art. In one, the soft melancholy of the +scene is rendered still more touching by the warble of birds and the shade +of trees, and the grave receives the gentle visit of the sunshine and the +shower; in the other, no sound but the passing footfall breaks the silence +of the place; the twilight steals in through high and dusky windows; and +the damps of the gloomy vault lie heavy on the heart, and leave their +stain upon the moldering tracery of the tomb.</p> + +<p>Père la Chaise stands just beyond the Barrière d'Aulney, on a hill-side, +looking toward the city. Numerous gravel-walks, winding through shady +avenues and between marble monuments, lead up from the principal entrance +to a chapel on the summit. There is hardly a grave that has not its little +inclosure planted with shrubbery; and a thick mass of foliage half +conceals each funeral stone. The sighing of the wind, as the branches rise +and fall upon it,--the occasional note of a bird among the trees, and the +shifting of light and shade upon the tombs beneath, have a soothing effect +upon the mind; and I doubt whether any one can enter that inclosure, where +repose the dust and ashes of so many great and good men, without feeling +the religion of the place steal over him, and seeing something of the dark +and gloomy expression pass off from the stern countenance of death.</p> + +<p>It was near the close of a bright summer afternoon that I visited this +celebrated spot for the first time. The object that arrested my attention, +on entering, was a monument in the form of a small Gothic chapel, which +stands near the entrance, in the avenue leading to the right hand. On the +marble couch within are stretched two figures, carved in stone and drest +in the antique garb of the Middle Ages. It is the tomb of Abélard and +Héloïse. The history of these unfortunate lovers is too well known to need +recapitulation; but perhaps it is not so well known how often their ashes +were disturbed in the slumber of the grave. Abélard died in the monastery +of Saint Marcel, and was buried in the vaults of the church. His body was +afterward removed to the convent of the Paraclet, at the request of +Héloïse, and at her death her body was deposited in the same tomb. Three +centuries they reposed together; after which they were separated to +different sides of the church, to calm the delicate scruples of the lady- +abbess of the convent. More than a century afterward, they were again +united in the same tomb; and when at length the Paraclet was destroyed, +their moldering remains were transported to the church of Nogent-sur- +Seine. They were next deposited in an ancient cloister at Paris; and now +repose near the gateway of the cemetery of Père la Chaise. What a singular +destiny was theirs! that, after a life of such passionate and disastrous +love,--such sorrows, and tears, and penitence--their very dust should not +be suffered to rest quietly in the grave!--that their death should so much +resemble their life in its changes and vicissitudes, its partings and its +meetings, its inquietudes and its persecutions!--that mistaken zeal should +follow them down to the very tomb--as if earthly passion could glimmer, +like a funeral lamp, amid the damps of the charnel-house, and "even in +their ashes bum their wonted fires!"....</p> + +<p>Leaving this interesting tomb behind me, I took a pathway to the left, +which conducted me up the hill-side. I soon found myself in the deep shade +of heavy foliage, where the branches of the yew and willow mingled, +interwoven with the tendrils and blossoms of the honeysuckle. I now stood +in the most populous part of this city of tombs. Every step awakened a new +train of thrilling recollections; for at every step my eye caught the name +of some one whose glory had exalted the character of his native land, and +resounded across the waters of the Atlantic. Philosophers, historians, +musicians, warriors, and poets slept side by side around me; some beneath +the gorgeous monument, and some beneath the simple headstone. But the +political intrigue, the dream of science, the historical research, the +ravishing harmony of sound, the tried courage, the inspiration of the +lyre--where are they? With the living, and not with the dead! The right +hand has lost its cunning in the grave; but the soul, whose high volitions +it obeyed, still lives to reproduce itself in ages yet to come.</p> + +<p>Among these graves of genius I observed here and there a splendid +monument, which had been raised by the pride of family over the dust of +men who could lay no claim either to the gratitude or remembrances of +posterity. Their presence seemed like an intrusion into the sanctuary of +genius. What had wealth to do there? Why should it crowd the dust of the +great? That was no thoroughfare of business--no mart of gain! There were +no costly banquets there; no silken garments, nor gaudy liveries, nor +obsequious attendants!....</p> + +<p>I continued my walk through the numerous winding paths, as chance or +curiosity directed me. Now I was lost in a little green hollow, overhung +with thick-leaved shrubbery, and then came out upon an elevation, from +which, through an opening in the trees, the eye caught glimpses of the +city, and the little esplanade, at the foot of the hill, where the poor +lie buried. There poverty hires its grave, and takes but a short lease of +the narrow house. At the end of a few months, or at most of a few years, +the tenant is dislodged to give place to another, and he in turn to a +third. "Who," says Sir Thomas Browne, "knows the fate of his bones, or how +often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither +they are to be scattered?"</p> + +<p>Yet, even in that neglected corner, the hand of affection had been busy in +decorating the hired house. Most of the graves were surrounded with a +slight wooden paling, to secure them from the passing footstep; there was +hardly one so deserted as not to be marked with its little wooden cross, +and decorated with a garland of flowers; and here and there I could +perceive a solitary mourner, clothed in black, stooping to plant a shrub +on the grave, or sitting in motionless sorrow beside it....</p> + +<p>After rambling leisurely about for some time, reading the iscriptions on +the various monuments which attracted my curiosity, and giving way to the +different reflections they suggested, I sat down to rest myself on a +sunken tombstone. A winding gravel-walk, overshaded by an avenue of trees, +and lined on both sides with richly sculptured monuments, had gradually +conducted me to the summit of the hill, upon whose slope the cemetery +stands. Beneath me in the distance, and dim-discovered through the misty +and smoky atmosphere of evening, rose the countless roofs and spires of +the city. Beyond, throwing his level rays athwart the dusky landscape, +sank the broad red sun. The distant murmur of the city rose upon my ear; +and the toll of the evening bell came up, mingled with the rattle of the +paved street and the confused sounds of labor. What an hour for +meditation! What a contrast between the metropolis of the living and the +metropolis of the dead!....</p> + +<p>Before I left the graveyard the shades of evening had fallen, and the +objects around me grown dim and indistinct. As I passed the gateway, I +turned to take a parting look. I could distinguish only the chapel on the +summit of the hill, and here and there a lofty obelisk of snow-white +marble, rising from the black and heavy mass of foliage around, and +pointing upward to the gleam of the departed sun, that still lingered in +the sky, and mingled with the soft starlight of a summer evening.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="09"></a>The Musée de Cluny</h1> + +<h2>By Grant Allen</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The primitive nucleus of the suburb on the South Side consists of the +Roman fortress palace, the "tête du pont" of the Left Bank, now known as +the Thermes, owing to the fact that its principal existing remains include +only the ruins of the bath or therma. This colossal building, probably +erected by Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine, covered an +enormous area south of the river. After the Frankish conquest, it still +remained the residence of the Merwing and Karling kings on the rare +occasions when they visited Paris; and it does not seem to have fallen +into utter decay till a comparatively late date in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>With the Norman irruptions, however, and the rise of the real French +monarchs under Eudes and the Capets, the new sovereigns found it safest to +transfer their seat to the Palace on the Island (now the Palais de +Justice), and the Roman fortress was gradually dismantled. In 1340 the +gigantic ruins came into the hands of the powerful Benedictine Abbey of +Cluny, near Mâcon, in Burgundy; and about 1480, the abbots began to erect +on the spot a town mansion for themselves, which still bears the name of +the Hôtel de Cluny. The letter K, the mark of Charles VIII. (1483-1498), +occurs on many parts of the existing building, and fixes its epoch. The +house was mostly built by Jaques d'Amboise, abbot, in 1490. The style is +late Gothic, with Renaissance features.</p> + +<p>The abbots, however, seldom visited Paris, and they frequently placed +their town house accordingly at the disposition of the kings of France. +Mary of England, sister of Henry VIII., and widow of Louis XII., occupied +it thus in 1515, soon after its completion. It was usual for the queens of +France to wear white as mourning; hence her apartment is still known as +the "Chambre de la reine blanche."</p> + +<p>At the Revolution, when the property of the monasteries was confiscated, +the Hôtel de Cluny was sold, and passed at last, in 1833, into the hands +of M. du Sommerard, a zealous antiquary, who began the priceless +collection of works of art which it contains. He died in 1842, and the +Government then bought the house and museum, and united it with the Roman +ruin at its back under the title of Musée des Thermes et de l'Hôtel de +Cluny. Since that time many further objects have been added to the +collection.</p> + +<p>At Cluny the actual building forms one of the most interesting parts of +the sight, and is in itself a museum. It is a charming specimen of a late +medieval French mansion; and the works of art it contains are of the +highest artistic value.... At least two whole days should be devoted to +Cluny--one to the lower and one to the upper floor. Much more, if +possible.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="10"></a>The Place de la Bastille</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Walks in Paris." By arrangement with the publisher, David +McKay. Copyright, 1880.]</p> + + + +<p>The south end of the Rue des Tournelles falls into the Place de la +Bastille, containing Le Colonne de Juillet, surmounted by a statue of +Liberty, and erected 1831-1840. This marks the site of the famous castle- +prison of the Bastille, which for four centuries and a half terrified +Paris, and which has left a name to the quarter it frowned upon. Hugues +Ambriot, Mayor of Paris, built it under Charles V. to defend the suburb +which contained the royal palace of St. Paul. Unpopular from the excess of +his devotion to his royal master, Aubriot was the first prisoner in his +own prison.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most celebrated of the long list of after captives were the +Connétable de St. Pol and Jacques d'Armagnac, Due de Nemours, taken thence +for execution to the Place de Grève under Louis XI., Charles de Gontaut, +Due de Biron, executed within the walls of the fortress under Henri IV., +and the "Man with the Iron Mask," brought hither mysteriously, September +18, 1698, and who died in the Bastille, November 19, 1703.</p> + +<p>A thousand engravings show us the Bastille as it was--as a "fort-bastide" +--built on the line of the city walls just to the south of the Porte St. +Antoine, surrounded by its own moat. It consisted of eight round towers, +each bearing a characteristic name, connected by massive walls, ten feet +thick, pierced with narrow slits by which the cells were lighted. In the +early times it had entrances on three sides, but after 1580 only one, with +a drawbridge over the moat on the side toward the river, which led to +outer courts and a second drawbridge, and wound by a defended passage to +an outer entrance opposite the Rue des Tournelles.</p> + +<p>Close beside the Bastille, to the north, rose the Porte St. Antoine, +approached over the city fosse by its own bridge, at the outer end of +which was a triumphal arch built on the return of Henri II. from Poland in +1573. Both gate and arch were restored for the triumphal entry of Louis +XIV. in 1667; but the gate (before which Etienne Marcel was killed, July, +1358), was pulled down in 1674.</p> + +<p>The Bastille was taken by the people, July 14, 1789, and the National +Assembly decreed its demolition.... The massive circular pedestal upon +which the Colonne de Juillet now rests was intended by Napoleon I. to +support a gigantic fountain in the form of an elephant, instead of the +column which, after the destruction of the Bastille, the "tiers état" of +Paris had asked to erect "à Louis XVI., restaurateur de la liberté +publique." It is characteristic of the Parisians that on the very same +spot the throne of Louis Philippe was publicly burned, February 24, 1848. +The model for the intended elephant existed here till the middle of the +reign of Louis Philippe, and is depicted by Victor Hugo as the lodging of +"Le petit Gavroche."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="11"></a>The Panthéon and St. Etienne-Du-Mont</h1> + +<h2>By Grant Allen</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The medieval church of Ste. Geneviève, having fallen into decay in the +middle of the eighteenth century, Louis XV. determined to replace it by a +sumptuous domed edifice in the style of the period. This building, +designed by Soufflot, was not completed till the Revolution, when it was +immediately secularized as the Panthéon, under circumstances to be +mentioned later. The remains of Ste. Geneviève, which had lain temporarily +meanwhile in a sumptuous chapel of St. Étienne-du-Mont (the subsidiary +church of the monastery) were taken out by the Revolutionists; the +medieval shrine, or reliquary (which replaced St. Éloy's), was ruthlessly +broken up; and the body of the patroness and preserver of Paris was +publicly burned in the Place de Grève.</p> + +<p>This, however, strange to say, was not quite the end of Ste. Geneviève. A +few of her relics were said to have been preserved: some bones, together +with a lock of the holy shepherdess's hair, were afterward recovered, and +replaced in the sarcophagus they had once occupied. Such at least is the +official story; and these relics, now once more enclosed in a costly +shrine, still attract thousands of votaries to the chapel of the saint in +St. Étienne-du-Mont.</p> + +<p>The Panthéon, standing in front of the original church, is now a secular +burial-place for the great men of France. The remains of Ste. Geneviève +still repose at St. Étienne. Thus it is impossible to dissociate the two +buildings, which should be visited together; and thus too it happens that +the patroness of Paris has now no church in her own city. Local saints are +always the most important; this hill and Montmartre are still the holiest +places in Paris.</p> + +<p>Proceed, as far as the garden of the Thermes, as on the excursion to +Cluny. Then continue straight up the Boulevard St. Michel. The large +edifice visible on the right of the Rue des Écoles to your left, is the +new building of the Sorbonne, or University. Further up, at the Place du +Sorbonne, the domed church of the same name stands before you. It is the +University church, and is noticeable as the earliest true dome erected in +Paris. The next corner shows one, right, the Luxembourg garden, and left, +the Rue Soufflot, leading up to the Panthéon.</p> + +<p>The colossal domed temple which replaces the ancient church of Ste. +Geneviève was begun by Soufflot, under Louis XV., in imitation of St. +Peter's, at Rome. Like all architects of his time, Soufflot sought merely +to produce an effect of pagan or "classical" grandeur, peculiarly out of +place in the shrine of the shepherdess of Nanterre. Secularized almost +immediately on its completion, during the Revolution, the building was +destined as the national monument to the great men of France, and the +inscription, "Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie Reconnaissante," which it still +bears, was then first placed under the sculptures of the pediment.</p> + +<p>Restored to worship by the Restoration, it was again secularized under the +Third Republic in order to admit the burial of Victor Hugo. The building +itself, a vast bare barn of the pseudo-classical type, very cold and +formal, is worthy of notice merely on account of its immense size and its +historic position; but it may be visited to this day with pleasure, not +only for some noble modern paintings, but also for the sake of the +reminiscences of Ste. Geneviève which it still contains. The tympanum has +a group by David d'Angers, representing France distributing wreaths to +soldiers, politicians, men of letters, men of science, and artists.</p> + +<p>The interior is in the shape of a Greek cross (with equal arms). Follow +round the walls, beginning from the right. In the right aisle are +paintings (modern) looking like frescoes, and representing the preaching +of St. Denis, by Galand; and the history of Ste. Geneviève--her childhood, +recognition by St. Germain l'Auxerrois, miracles, etc., delicate and +elusive works, by Puvis de Chavannes. The paintings of the South Transept +represent episodes in the early history of France. Chronologically +speaking, they begin from the east central corner. Choir, Death of Ste. +Geneviève, and Miracles before her Shrine, by Laurens. Apse of the +tribune, fine modern (archaic) mosaic, by Hébert, representing Christ with +the Guardian Angel of France, the Madonna, Jean d'Arc, and Ste. Geneviève. +Stand under the dome to observe the proportions of the huge, bare, +unimpressive building. Left, or Northern Transept, east side, the history +of Jeanne d'Arc; she hears the voices; leads the assault at Orleans; +assists at the coronation of Charles VII. at Rheims; and is burned at +Rouen. West side, St. Louis as a child instructed by Blanche of Castille; +administering justice in the Palace; and a captive among the Saracens. +North aisle, history of Ste. Geneviève and St. Denis. The building is thus +at once the apotheosis of patriotism, and the lasting memorial of the part +borne by Christianity in French, and especially Parisian, history.</p> + +<p>As you descend the steps of the Panthéon, the building that faces you to +the left is the Mairie of the 5th Arrondissement; that to the right, the +École de Droit. Turn to the right along the north side of the Panthéon. +The long, low building which faces you is the Bibliotheque Ste. Geneviève. +Nothing now remains of the Abbey of Ste. Geneviève except the tall early +Gothic tower seen to the right near the end of the Panthéon, and rising +above the modern buildings of the Lycée Henri IV. The singularly +picturesque and strangely-mingled church across the little square is St. +Étienne-du-Mont, which we now proceed to visit.</p> + +<p>Stand in the left-hand corner of the Place to examine the facade. The +church was begun (1517) as late Gothic; but before it was finished, the +Renaissance style had come into fashion, and the architects accordingly +jumbled the two in the most charming manner. The incongruity here only +adds to the beauty. The quaintly original Renaissance portal bears a +dedication to St. Stephen the Protomartyr, beneath which is a relief of +his martyrdom, with a Latin inscription, "Stone destroyed the temple of +the Lord," i.e., Stephen, "Stone rebuilds it." Right and left of the +portal are statues of Sts. Stephen and Geneviève, whose monograms also +appear on the doors. In the pediment is the usual representation of the +Resurrection and Last Judgment. Above it, the rose window, on either side +of which, in accordance with Italian rather than with French custom +(showing Italian Renaissance influence) are the Angel of the Annunciation +and the Madonna receiving his message. In the third story, a gable-end. +Singular tower to the left, with an additional round turret, a relic of +the earlier Gothic building. The whole façade (17th century) represents +rather late Renaissance than transitional architecture.</p> + +<p>The interior is the most singular, and in some ways the most picturesque, +in Paris--a Gothic church, tricked out in Renaissance finery. The nave is +flanked by aisles, which are divided from it by round pillars, capped by a +singular balustrade or gallery with low, flat arches, simulating a +triforium. The upper arches are round, and the decorations Renaissance; +but the vaulting, both of nave and aisles, with its pendant keystones, +recalls the Gothic style, as do also most of the windows. Stand near the +entrance, in the center of the nave, and look up the church.</p> + +<p>The most striking feature is the beautiful Renaissance jubé or rood-loft +(the only one now left in Paris) which divides the Choir from the body of +the building. This rood-loft still bears a crucifix, for the reception of +which it was originally intended. On the arch below are two charmingly +sculptured Renaissance angels. The rood-loft is flanked by two spiral +staircases, which are wholly unique architectural features. Notice also +the exquisite pendentive of the roof at the point of intersection of the +nave and short false transepts.</p> + +<p>Now walk up the right aisle. The first chapel is the Baptistery, +containing the font and a modern statue of the boy Baptist. Third chapel, +St. Antony of Padua. The fourth chapel contains a curious Holy Sepulcher, +with quaint life-size terra-cotta figures of the 16th century. Fifth +chapel, a gilt châsse. Notice the transepts, reduced to short arms, +scarcely, if at all, projecting beyond the chapels. From this point +examine the exquisite Renaissance tracery of the rood-screen and +staircases. Then pass under the fine Renaissance door, with lovely +decorative work, into the ambulatory. The Choir is in large part Gothic, +with late flamboyant tracery. The apparent triforium is continued round +the ambulatory.</p> + +<p>The splendid gilded shrine in the second choir-chapel contains the remains +of Ste. Geneviève, or what is left of them. Candles burn perpetually +around it. Hundreds of votaries here pay their devotions daily to the +Patroness of Paris. The shrine, containing what is alleged to be the +original sarcophagus of the Saint (more probably of the 13th century) +stands under a richly-gilt Gothic tabernacle, adorned with figures legibly +named on their pedestals. The stained-glass window behind it has a +representation of a processional function with the body of the Saint, +showing this church, together with a view of the original church of Ste. +Geneviève, the remaining tower, and adjacent houses, historically most +interesting. The window beyond the shrine also contains the history of +Ste. Geneviève--her childhood, first communion, miracles, distribution of +bread during the siege of Paris, conversion of Clovis, death, etc.</p> + +<p>Indeed the long sojourn of the body of Ste. Geneviève in this church has +almost overshadowed its dedication to St. Stephen, several memorials of +whom may, however, be recognized by the attentive visitor--among them, a +picture of his martyrdom (by Abel de Pujol) near the entrance to the +choir. The Protomartyr also stands, with his deacon's robe and palm, in a +niche near the door of the sacristy, where left and right are frescoes of +his Disputation with the Doctors, and his Martyrdom. The chapel +immediately behind the high altar is, as usual, the Lady Chapel. The next +contains a good modern window of the Marriage of the Virgin.</p> + +<p>Examine in detail all the windows; one of the mystic wine-press is very +interesting. Votive offerings of the city of Paris to Ste. Geneviève also +exist in the ambulatory. Curious frescoes of the martyrdom of the 10,000 +Christians on Mount Ararat on the north side. The best view of the choir +is obtained from the north side of the ambulatory, opposite the shrine of +Ste. Geneviève. In the north aisle notice St. Louis with the Crown of +Thorns. Stand again in the center of the nave, near the entrance, and +observe the curious inclination of the choir and high altar to one side-- +here particularly noticeable, and said in every case to represent the +droop of the Redeemer's head on the cross.</p> + +<p>As you emerge from the door, observe the cold and bare side of the +Panthéon, contrasted with the internal richness of St. Êtienne. Curious +view of the late Gothic portion of the church from the little Place on the +north side. Return by the Rue Cujas and Rue St. Jacques, passing the Lycée +Ste. Barbe, Lycée Louis-le-Grand, University, and other scholastic +buildings, which give a good idea of the character of the quarter.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="12"></a>St. Roch</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + +<p>[Footnote: From "Walks in Paris." By arrangement with the publisher, David +McKay. Copyright, 1880.]</p> + + + +<p>Englishmen are often specially imprest with Paris as a city of contrasts, +because one side of the principal line of hotels frequented by our +countrymen looks down upon the broad, luxurious Rue de Rivoli, all modern +gaiety and radiance, while the other side of their courtyards open upon +the busy working Rue St. Honoré, lined by the tall, many-windowed houses +which have witnessed so many revolutions. They have all the +picturesqueness of innumerable balconies, high, slated roofs, with dormer +windows, window-boxes full of carnations and bright with crimson flowers +through the summer, and they overlook an ever-changing crowd, in great +part composed of men in blouses and women in white aprons and caps.</p> + +<p>Ever since the fourteenth century the Rue St. Honoré has been one of the +busiest streets in Paris. It was the gate leading into this street which +was attacked by Jeanne d'Arc in 1429. It was the fact that the Cardinal de +Bourbon and the Due de Guise had been seen walking together at the Porte +St. Honoré that was said to have turned half the moustache of Henri of +Navarre suddenly white, from a presentiment of the crime which has become +known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Here, in 1648, the barricade was +raised which gave the signal for all the troubles of the Fronde. It was at +No 3--then called L'Auberge des Trois Pigeons--that Ravaillac was lodging +when he was waiting to murder Henry IV.; here the first gun was fired in +the Revolution of July, 1830, which overturned Charles X.; and here, in +the Revolution of 1848, a bloody combat took place between the insurgents +and the military. Throughout this street, as Marie Antoinette was first +entering Paris, the poissardes brought her bouquets, singing:</p> + +<blockquote> "La rose est la reine des fleurs.<br /> + Antoinette est la reine des coeurs."</blockquote> + +<p>("The rose is the queen of flowers, Antoinette is the queen of hearts") +and here, as she was being taken to the scaffold, they crowded round her +execution-cart and shouted:</p> + +<blockquote> "Madame Veto avait promis<br /> + De faire égorger tout Paris, <br /> + Mais son coup a manqué<br /> + Grâce à nos canonniers;<br /> + Dansons la carmagnole<br /> + Au bruit du son<br /> + Du canon!"</blockquote> + +<p>("Madame Veto had promised to have the throat cut of all Paris, but her +attempt failed, thanks to our gunners. Let us dance the carmagnole to the +music of the cannon's roar!")</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Turning east toward Old Paris, we pass, on the right of the Rue St. +Honoré, the Church of St. Roch, of which Louis XIV. laid the foundation- +stone in 1633, replacing a chapel built on the site of the Hôtel Gaillon. +The church was only finished, from designs of Robert de Cotte, in 1740. +The flight of steps which leads to the entrance has many associations.</p> + +<p>"Before St. Roch," says De Goncourt, "the tumbrel in which was Marie +Antoinette, stopt in the midst of howling and hooting. A thousand insults +were hurled from the steps of the church as it were with one voice, +saluting with filth their queen about to die. She, however, serene and +majestic, pardoned the insults by disregarding them." It was from these +steps, in front of which an open space then extended to the Tuileries +gardens, that Bonaparte ordered the first cannon to be fired upon the +royalists who rose against the National Convention, and thus prevented a +counter-revolution. Traces of this cannonade of 13 Vendémiaire are still +to be seen at the angle of the church and the Rue Neuve St. Roch.</p> + + + + + +<h1>II</h1> + +<h2>The Environs of Paris</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="13"></a>Versailles</h1> + +<h2>By William Makepeace Thackeray</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Paris Sketch Book."]</p> + + + +<p>You pass from the railroad station through a long, lonely suburb, with +dusty rows of stunted trees on either side, and some few miserable +beggars, idle boys, and ragged old women under them. Behind the trees are +gaunt, moldy houses; palaces once, where (in the days of the unbought +grace of life) the cheap defense of nations gambled, ogled, swindled, +intrigued; whence high-born duchesses used to issue, in old times, to act +as chambermaids to lovely Du Barri; and mighty princes rolled away, in +gilt caroches, hot for the honor of lighting his Majesty to bed, or of +presenting his stockings when he rose, or of holding his napkin when he +dined.</p> + +<p>Tailors, chandlers, tinmen, wretched hucksters, and greengrocers, are now +established in the mansions of the old peers; small children are yelling +at the doors, with mouths besmeared with bread and treacle; damp rags are +hanging out of every one of the windows, steaming in the sun; oyster- +shells, cabbage-stalks, broken crockery, old papers, lie basking in the +same cheerful light. A solitary water-cart goes jingling down the wide +pavement, and spirts a feeble refreshment over the dusty, thirty stones.</p> + +<p>After pacing for some time through such dismal streets, we déboucher on +the grande place; and before us lies the palace dedicated to all the +glories of France. In the midst of the great lonely plain this famous +residence of King Louis looks low and mean--Honored pile! Time was when +tall musketeers and gilded body-guards allowed none to pass the gate. +Fifty years ago, ten thousand drunken women from Paris broke through the +charm; and now a tattered commissioner will conduct you through it for a +penny, and lead you up to the sacred entrance of the palace.</p> + +<p>We will not examine all the glories of France, as here they are portrayed +in pictures and marble; catalogs are written about these miles of canvas, +representing all the revolutionary battles, from Valmy to Waterloo--all +the triumphs of Louis XIV.--all the mistresses of his successor--and all +the great men who have flourished since the French empire began. Military +heroes are most of these--fierce constables in shining steel, marshals in +voluminous wigs, and brave grenadiers in bearskin caps; some dozens of +whom gained crowns, principalities, dukedoms; some hundreds, plunder and +epaulets; some millions, death in African sands, or in icy Russian plains, +under the guidance, and for the good, of that arch-hero, Napoleon.</p> + +<p>By far the greater part of "all the glories" of France (as of most other +countries) is made up of these military men: and a fine satire it is on +the cowardice of mankind, that they pay such an extraordinary homage to +the virtue called courage; filling their history-books with tales about +it, and nothing but it.</p> + +<p>Let them disguise the place, however, as they will, and plaster the walls +with bad pictures as they please, it will be hard to think of any family +but one, as one traverses this vast gloomy edifice. It has been humbled to +the ground, as a certain palace of Babel was of yore; but it is a monument +of fallen pride, not less awful, and would afford matter for a whole +library of sermons.</p> + +<p>The cheap defense of nations expended a thousand millions in the erection +of this magnificent dwelling-place. Armies were employed, in the intervals +of their warlike labors, to level hills, or pile them up; to turn rivers, +and to build aqueducts, and transplant woods, and construct smooth +terraces, and long canals. A vast garden grew up in a wilderness, and a +stupendous palace in the garden, and a stately city round the palace: the +city was peopled with parasites, who daily came to do worship before the +creator of these wonders--the Great King.</p> + +<p>"Only God is great," said courtly Massillon; but next to him, as the +prelate thought, was certainly Louis, his vicegerent here upon earth-- +God's lieutenant-governor of the world--before whom courtiers used to fall +on their knees, and shade their eyes, as if the light of his countenance, +like the sun, which shone supreme in heaven, the type of him, was too +dazzling to bear.</p> + +<p>Did ever the sun shine upon such a king before, in such a palace?--or, +rather, did such a king ever shine upon the sun? When Majesty came out of +his chamber, in the midst of his super-human splendors, viz., in his +cinnamon-colored coat, embroidered with diamonds; his pyramon of a wig; +his red-heeled shoes, that lifted him four inches from the ground, "that +he scarcely seemed to touch;" when he came out, blazing upon the dukes and +duchesses that waited his rising--what could the latter do but cover their +eyes, and wink, and tremble? And did he not himself believe, as he stood +there, on his high heels, under his ambrosial periwig, that there was +something in him more than man--something above Fate?</p> + +<p>This, doubtless, was he fain to believe; and if, on very fine days, from +his terrace before his gloomy palace of St. Germains, he could catch a +glimpse, in the distance, of a certain white spire of St. Denis, where his +race lay buried, he would say to his courtiers, with a sublime +condescension, "Gentlemen, you must remember that I, too, am mortal."</p> + +<p>Surely the lords in waiting could hardly think him serious, and vowed that +his Majesty always loved a joke. However, mortal or not, the sight of that +sharp spire wounded his Majesty's eyes; and is said, by the legend, to +have caused the building of the palace of Babel-Versailles.</p> + +<p>In the year 1681, then, the great king, with bag and baggage--with guards, +cooks, chamberlains, mistresses, Jesuits, gentlemen, lackeys, Fénelons, +Molières, Lauzuns, Bossuets, Villars, Villeroys, Louvois, Colberts-- +transported himself to his new palace: the old one being left for James of +England and Jaquette his wife, when their time should come. And when the +time did come, and James sought his brother's kingdom, it is on record +that Louis hastened to receive and console him, and promised to restore, +incontinently, those islands from which the canaille had turned him.</p> + +<p>Between brothers such a gift was a trifle; and the courtiers said to one +another reverently, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right +hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." There was no blasphemy in +the speech; on the contrary, it was gravely said, by a faithful believing +man, who thought it no shame to the latter to compare his Majesty with God +Almighty.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the books of the time will give one a strong idea how general was +this Louis-worship. I have just been looking at one which was written by +an honest Jesuit and protégé of Père la Chaise, who dedicates it to the +august Infants of France, which does, indeed, go almost as far in print. +He calls our famous monarch "Louis le Grand: 1, l'invincible; 2, le sage; +3, le conquérant; 4, la merveille de son siècle; 5, la terreur de ses +ennemis; 6, l'amour de ses peuples; 7, l'arbitre de la paix et de la +guerre; 8, l'admiration de l'univers; 9, et digne d'en être le maître; 10, +le modèle d'un héros achevè; 11, digne de l'immortalité, et de la +vénération de tous les siècles!"</p> + +<p>A pretty Jesuit declaration, truly, and a good, honest judgment upon the +great king! In 30 years more: 1. The invincible had been beaten a vast +number of times. 2. The sage was the puppet of an artful old woman, who +was the puppet of more artful priests. 3. The conqueror had quite +forgotten his early knack of conquering. 5. The terror of his enemies (for +4, the marvel of his age, we pretermit, it being a loose term, that may +apply to any person or thing) was now terrified by his enemies in turn. 6. +The love of his people was as heartily detested by them as scarcely any +other monarch, not even his great-grandson, has been, before or since. 7. +The arbiter of peace and war was fain to send superb ambassadors to kick +their heels in Dutch shopkeepers' antechambers. 8. Is again a general +term. 9. The man fit to be master of the universe was scarcely master of +his own kingdom. 10. The finished hero was all but finished, in a very +commonplace and vulgar way. And, 11, the man worthy of immortality was +just at the point of death, without a friend to soothe or deplore him; +only withered old Maintenon to utter prayers at his bedside, and croaking +Jesuit to prepare him, with heavens knows what wretched tricks and +mummeries, for his appearance in that Great Republic that lies on the +other side of the grave. In the course of his fourscore splendid miserable +years, he never had but one friend, and he ruined and left her. Poor La +Vallière, what a sad tale is yours!...</p> + +<p>While La Vallière's heart is breaking, the model of a finished hero is +yawning; as, on such paltry occasions, a finished hero should. Let her +heart break: a plague upon her tears and repentance; what right has she to +repent? Away with her to her convent! She goes, and the finished hero +never sheds a tear. What a noble pitch of stoicism to have reached! Our +Louis was so great, that the little woes of mean people were beyond him; +his friends died, his mistresses left him; his children, one by one, were +cut off before his eyes, and great Louis is not moved in the slightest +degree! As how, indeed, should a god be moved?...</p> + +<p>Out of the window the king's august head was one day thrust, when old +Condé was painfully toiling up the steps of the court below. "Don't hurry +yourself, my cousin," cries Magnanimity; "one who has to carry so many +laurels can not walk fast." At which all the courtiers, lackeys, +mistresses, chamberlains, Jesuits, and scullions, clasp their hands and +burst into tears. Men are affected by the tale to this very day. For a +century and three-quarters have not all the books that speak of +Versailles, or Louis Quatorze, told the story?</p> + +<p>"Don't hurry yourself, my cousin!" O admirable king and Christian! what a +pitch of condescension is here, that the greatest king of all the world +should go for to say anything so kind, and really tell a tottering old +gentleman, worn out with gout, age, and wounds, not to walk too fast!</p> + +<p>What a proper fund of slavishness is there in the composition of mankind, +that histories like these, should be found to interest and awe them. Till +the world's end, most likely, this story will have its place in the +history-books, and unborn generations will read it, and tenderly be moved +by it.</p> + +<p>I am sure that Magnanimity went to bed that night, pleased and happy, +intimately convinced that he had done an action of sublime virtue, and had +easy slumbers and sweet dreams--especially if he had taken a light supper, +and not too vehemently attacked his "en cas de nuit." ...</p> + +<p>The king his successor has not left, at Versailles, half so much occasion +for moralizing; perhaps the neigbhboring Parc aux Cerfs would afford +better illustrations of his reign. The life of his great grandsire, the +Grand Llama of France, seems to have frightened Louis the well-beloved; +who understood that loneliness is one of the necessary conditions of +divinity, and, being of a jovial, companionable turn, aspired not beyond +manhood.</p> + +<p>Only in the matter of ladies did he surpass his predecessor, as Solomon +did David. War he eschewed, as his grandfather bade him; and his simple +taste found little in this world to enjoy beyond the mulling of chocolate +and the frying of pancakes. Look, here is the room called Laboratoire du +Roi, where, with his own hands, he made his mistress's breakfast; here is +the little door through which, from her apartments in the upper story, the +chaste Du Barri came stealing down to the arms of the weary, feeble, +gloomy old man.</p> + +<p>But of women he was tired long since, and even pancake-frying had palled +upon him. What had he to do, after forty years of reign; after having +exhausted everything? Every pleasure that Dubois could invent for his hot +youth, or cunning Lebel could minister to his old age, was flat and stale; +used up to the very dregs; every shilling in the national purse had been +squeezed out, by Pompadour and Du Barri and such brilliant ministers of +state. He had found out the vanity of pleasure, as his ancestor had +discovered the vanity of glory: indeed, it was high time that he should +die. And die he did; and round his tomb, as round that of his grandfather +before him, the starving people sang a dreadful chorus of curses, which +were the only epitaphs for good or for evil that were raised to his +memory....</p> + +<p>On the 10th of May, 1774, the whole court had assembled at the château; +the Oeil de Boeuf was full. The Dauphin had determined to depart as soon +as the king had breathed his last. And it was agreed by the people of the +stables, with those who watched in the king's room, that a lighted candle +should be placed in a window, and should be extinguished as soon as he had +ceased to live.</p> + +<p>The candle was put out. At that signal, guards, pages, and squires, +mounted on horseback, and everything was made ready for departure. The +Dauphin was with the Dauphiness, waiting together for the news of the +king's demise. An immense noise, as of thunder, was heard in the next +room; it was the crowd of courtiers, who were deserting the dead king's +apartment, in order to pay their court to the new power of Louis XVI.</p> + +<p>Madame de Noailles entered, and was the first to salute the queen by her +title of Queen of France, and begged their Majesties to quit their +apartments, to receive the princes and great lords of the court desirous +to pay their homage to the new sovereigns. Leaning on her husband's arm, a +handkerchief to her eyes, in the most touching attitude, Marie Antoinette +received these first visits.</p> + +<p>On quitting the chamber where the dead king lay, the Due de Villequier +bade Mr. Anderville, first surgeon of the king, to open and embalm the +body: it would have been certain death to the surgeon.</p> + +<p>"I am ready, sir," says he; "but while I am operating, you must hold the +head of the corpse; your charge demands it."</p> + +<p>The Duke went away without a word, and the body was neither opened nor +embalmed. A few humble domestics and poor workmen watched by the remains, +and performed the last offices to their master. The surgeons ordered +spirits of wine to be poured into the coffin.</p> + +<p>They huddled the king's body into a postchaise; and in this deplorable +equipage, with an escort of about forty men, Louis, the Well-beloved, was +carried, in the dead of night, from Versailles to Saint-Denis, and then +thrown into the tombs of the kings of France!</p> + +<p>If any man is curious, and can get permission, he may mount to the roof of +the palace, and see where Louis XVI. used royally to amuse himself by +gazing upon the doings of all the towns-people below with a telescope. +Behold that balcony, where, one morning, he, his queen, and the little +Dauphin stood, with Cromwell Grandison Lafayette by their side, who kissed +her Majesty's hand, and protected her; and then, lovingly surrounded by +his people, the king got into a coach and came to Paris: nor did his +Majesty ride much in coaches after that....</p> + +<p>He is said to have been such a smart journeyman blacksmith that he might, +if Fate had not perversely placed a crown on his head, have earned a +couple of louis every week by the making of locks and keys. Those who will +may see the workshop where he employed many useful hours: Madame Elizabeth +was at prayers meanwhile; the queen was making pleasant parties with her +ladies; Monsieur the Count d'Artois was learning to dance on the +tightrope; and Monsieur de Provence was cultivating l'éloquence du billet +and studying his favorite Horace.</p> + +<p>It is said that each member of the august family succeeded remarkably well +in his or her pursuits; big Monsieur's little notes are still cited. At a +minuet or sillabub, poor Antoinette was unrivaled; and Charles, on the +tightrope, was so graceful and so gentil that Madame Saqui might envy him. +The time only was out of joint. Oh, curst spite, that ever such harmless +creatures as these were bidden to right it!</p> + +<p>A walk to the little Trianon is both pleasing and moral; no doubt the +reader has seen the pretty, fantastical gardens which environ it; the +groves and temples; the streams and caverns (whither, as the guide tells +you, during the heat of summer, it was the custom of Marie Antoinette to +retire with her favorite, Madame de Lamballe): the lake and Swiss village +are pretty little toys, moreover; and the cicerone of the place does not +fail to point out the different cottages which surround the piece of +water, and tell the names of the royal masqueraders who inhabited each.</p> + +<p>In the long cottage, close upon the lake, dwelt the Seigneur du Village, +no less a personage than Louis XV.; Louis XVI., the Dauphin, was the +Pailli; near his cottage is that of Monseigneur the Count d'Artois, who +was the Miller; opposite lived the Prince de Condé, who enacted the part +of Gamekeeper (or, indeed, any other role, for it does not signify much); +near him was the Prince de Rohan, who was the Aumonier; and yonder is the +pretty little dairy, which was under the charge of the fair Marie +Antoinette herself.</p> + +<p>I forget whether Monsieur the fat Count of Provence took any share of this +royal masquerading; but look at the names of the other six actors of the +comedy, and it will be hard to find any person for whom Fate had such +dreadful visitations in store. Fancy the party, in the days of their +prosperity, here gathered at Trianon, and seated under the tall poplars by +the lake, discoursing familiarly together: suppose, of a sudden, some +conjuring Cagliostro of the time is introduced among them, and foretells +to them the woes that are about to come.</p> + +<p>"You, Monsieur l'Aumonier, the descendant of a long line of princes, the +passionate admirer of that fair queen who sits by your side, shall be the +cause of her ruin and your own, [Footnote: In the diamond-necklace +affair.] and shall die in disgrace and exile. You, son of the Condés, +shall live long enough to see your royal race overthrown, and shall die by +the hands of a hangman. [Footnote: He was found hanging in his own bed- +room.] You, oldest son of St. Louis, shall perish by the executioner's ax; +that beautiful head, O Antoinette, the same ruthless blade shall sever."</p> + +<p>"They shall kill me first," says Lamballe, at the queen's side.</p> + +<p>"Yes, truly," says the soothsayer, "for Fate prescribes ruin for your +mistress and all who love her."</p> + +<p>[Footnote: Among the many lovers that rumor gave to the Queen, poor Fersen +is the most remarkable. He seems to have entertained for her a high and +perfectly pure devotion. He was the chief agent in the luckless escape to +Varennes; was lurking in Paris during the time of her captivity; and was +concerned in the many fruitless plots that were made for her rescue. +Fersen lived to be an old man, but died a dreadful and violent death. He +was dragged from his carriage by the mob. In Stockholm, and murdered by +them.--Author's note.]</p> + +<p>"And," cries Monsieur d'Artois, "do I not love my sister, too? I pray you +not to omit me in your prophecies."</p> + +<p>To whom Monsieur Cagliostro says, scornfully, "You may look forward to +fifty years of life, after most of these are laid in the grave. You shall +be a king, but not die one; and shall leave the crown only; not the +worthless head that shall wear it. Thrice shall you go into exile; you +shall fly from the people, first, who would have no more of you and your +race; and you shall return home over half a million of human corpses, that +have been made for the sake of you, and of a tyrant as great as the +greatest of your family. Again driven away, your bitterest enemy shall +bring you back. But the strong limbs of France are not to be chained by +such a paltry yoke as you can put on her: you shall be a tyrant, but in +will only; and shall have a scepter, but to see it robbed from your hand."</p> + +<p>"And pray, Sir Conjurer, who shall be the robber?" asked Monsieur the +Count d'Artois.</p> + +<p>This I can not say, for here my dream ended. The fact is, I had fallen +asleep on one of the stone benches in the Avenue de Paris, and at this +instant was awakened by a whirling of carriages and a great clattering of +national guards, lancers, and outriders, in red. His Majesty, Louis +Philippe, was going to pay a visit to the palace; which contains several +pictures of his own glorious actions, and which has been dedicated, by +him, to all the glories of France.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="14"></a>Versailles in 1739</h1> + +<h2>By Thomas Gray</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From a letter to his friend West.]</p> + + + +<p>What a huge heap of littleness! It is composed, as it were, of three +courts, all open to the eye at once, and gradually diminishing till you +come to the royal apartments, which on this side present but half a dozen +windows and a balcony. This last is all that can be called a front, for +the rest is only great wings. The hue of all this mass is black, dirty +red, and yellow; the first proceeding from stone changed by age; the +second, from a mixture of brick; and the last, from a profusion of +tarnished gilding. You can not see a more disagreeable tout ensemble; and, +to finish the matter, it is all stuck over in many places with small busts +of a tawny hue between every two windows.</p> + +<p>We pass through this to go into the garden, and here the case is indeed +altered; nothing can be vaster and more magnificent than the back front; +before it a very spacious terrace spreads itself, adorned with two large +basons; these are bordered and lined (as most of the others) with white +marble, with handsome statues of bronze reclined on their edges. From +hence you descend a huge flight of steps into a semi-circle formed by +woods, that are cut all around into niches, which are filled with +beautiful copies of all the famous antique statues in white marble. Just +in the midst is the bason of Latona; she and her children are standing on +the top of a rock in the middle, on the sides of which are the peasants, +some half, some totally changed into frogs, all which throw out water at +her in great plenty.</p> + +<p>From this place runs on the great alley, which brings you into a complete +round, where is the bason of Apollo, the biggest in the gardens. He is +rising in his car out of the water, surrounded by nymphs and tritons, all +in bronze, and finely executed, and these, as they play, raise a perfect +storm about him; beyond this is the great canal, a prodigious long piece +of water, that terminates the whole. All this you have at one coup d'oeil +in entering the garden, which is truly great.</p> + +<p>I can not say as much of the general taste of the place: everything you +behold savors too much of art; all is forced, all is constrained about +you; statues and vases sowed everywhere without distinction; sugar loaves +and minced pies of yew; scrawl work of box, and little squirting jets- +d'eau, besides a great sameness in the walks, can not help striking one at +first sight, not to mention the silliest of labyrinths, and all Aesop's +fables in water; since these were designed "in usum Delphini" only.</p> + +<p>Here, then, we walk by moonlight, and hear the ladies and the nightingales +sing. Next morning, being Whitsunday, make ready to go to the installation +of nine Knights du Saint Esprit. Cambis is one: high mass celebrated with +music, great crowd, much incense, King, Queen, Dauphin, Mesdames, +Cardinals, and Court: Knights arrayed by his Majesty; reverences before +the altar, not bows, but curtsies; stiff hams; much tittering among the +ladies; trumpets, kettledrums, and fifes.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="15"></a>Fontainebleau</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Days Near Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The golden age of Fontainebleau came with the Renaissance and Francis I., +who wished to make Fontainebleau the most glorious palace in the world. +"The Escurial!" says Brantôme, "what of that? See how long it was of +building? Good workmen like to be quick finished. With our king it was +otherwise. Take Fontainebleau and Chambord. When they were projected, when +once the plumb-line, and the compass, and the square, and the hammer were +on the spot, then in a few years we saw the Court in residence there."</p> + +<p>Il Rosso was first (1531) employed to carry out the ideas of François I. +as to painting, and then Sebastian Serlio was summoned from Bologna in +1541 to fill the place of "surintendant des bastiments et architecte de +Fontainebleau." Il Rosso-Giovambattista had been a Florentine pupil of +Michelangelo, but refused to follow any master, having, as Vasari says, "a +certain inkling of his own." François I. was delighted with him at first, +and made him head of all the Italian colony at Fontainebleau, where he was +known as "Maitre Roux." But in two years the king was longing to patronize +some other genius, and implored Giulio Romano, then engaged on the Palazzo +del Té at Mantua, to come to him. The great master refused to come +himself, but in his place sent the Bolognese Primaticcio, who became known +in France as Le Primatice.</p> + +<p>The new-comer excited the furious jealousy of Il Rosso, whom he supplanted +in favor and popularity, and who, after growing daily more morose, took +poison in 1541. Then Primaticcio, who, to humor his rival had been sent +into honorable exile (on plea of collecting antiquities at Rome), was +summoned back, and destroyed most of Il Rosso's frescoes, replacing them +by his own. Those that remain are now painted over, and no works of Il +Rosso are still in existence (unless in engravings) except some of his +frescoes at Florence.</p> + +<p>With the Italian style of buildings and decorations, the Italian system of +a Court adorned by ladies was first introduced here under François I., and +soon became a necessity.... Under François I., his beautiful mistress, the +Duchesse d'Étampes--"la plus belle des savantes, et la plus savante des +belles," directed all the fêtes. In this she was succeeded, under Henry +II., by Diane de Poitiers, whose monogram, interwoven with that of the +king, appears in all the buildings of this time, and who is represented as +a goddess (Diana) in the paintings of Primaticcio.</p> + +<p>Under François II., in 1560, by the advice of the queen-mother, an +assembly of notables was summoned at Fontainebleau; and here, accompanied +by her 150 beautiful maids of honor, Catherine de Medici received the +embassy of the Catholic sovereigns sent to demand the execution of the +articles of the Council of Trent, and calling for fresh persecution of the +reformers.</p> + +<p>Much as his predecessors had accomplished, Henri IV. did more for the +embellishment of Fontainebleau, where the monogram of his mistress, +Gabrielle d'Estrées, is frequently seen mingled with that of his wife, +Marie de Medici. All the Bourbon kings had a passion for hunting, for +which Fontainebleau afforded especial facilities.</p> + +<p>It was at Fontainebleau that Louis XIII. was born, and that the Maréchal +de Biron was arrested. Louis XIII. only lived here occasionally. In the +early reign of Louis XIV., the palace was lent to Christina, of Sweden, +who had abdicated her throne.</p> + +<p>It was in one of the private apartments, occupying the site of the ancient +Galerie des Cerfs, now destroyed, that she ordered the execution of her +chief equerry, Monaldeschi, whom she had convicted of treason. She +listened patiently to his excuses, but was utterly unmoved by them and his +entreaties for mercy. She provided a priest to confess him, after which he +was slowly butchered by blows with a sword on the head and face, as he +dragged himself along the floor, his body being defended by a coat of +mail....</p> + +<p>Even after the creation of the palaces of Versailles and Marly, Louis XIV. +continued to make an annual "voyage de Fontainebleau." He compelled his +whole court to follow him; if any of his family were ill, and unable to +travel by road, he made them come by water; for himself, he slept on the +way, either at the house of the Duc d'Antin (son of Mme. de Montespan) or +of the Maréchal de Villeroy.</p> + +<p>It was here that the Grand Dauphin was born, in 1661. Here, also, it was +that Mme. de Maintenon first appeared at the councils, and that the king +publicly asked her advice as to whether he should accept the throne of +Spain for the Duc d' Anjou. Here, also, in 1685, he signed the revocation +of the edict of Nantes. The great Condé died in the palace. Louis XV. was +married here to Marie Leczinska in 1725; and here the Dauphin, his son, +died in 1765. Louis XIV. delighted in Fontainebleau for its hunting +facilities.</p> + +<p>After the Revolution, Napoleon I. restored the château and prepared it for +Pius VII. who came to France to crown him, and was here (January 25, 1813) +induced to sign the famous Concordat de Fontainebleau, by which he abjured +his temporal sovereignty. The chateau which witnessed the abdication of +the Pope, also saw that of Napoleon I., who made his touching farewell to +the soldiers of the Vielle-Garde in the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, before +setting off for Elba.... The Cour du Cheval-Blanc, the largest of the five +courts of the palace, took its name from a plaster copy of the horse of +Marcus Aurelius at Rome, destroyed 1626. Recently it has been called the +Cour des Adieux, on account of the farewell of Napoleon I. in 1814. It was +once surrounded by buildings on all sides; one was removed in 1810, and +replaced by a grille.</p> + +<p>The principal façade is composed of five pavilions with high roofs, united +by buildings two stories high. The beautiful twisted staircase in front of +the central pavilion was executed by Lemercier for Louis XIII., and +replaces a staircase by Philbert Delorme. Facing this pavilion, the mass +of buildings on the right is the Aile Neuve of Louis XV., built on the +site of the Galerie d'Ulysse, to the destruction of the precious works of +Primaticcio and Niccolo dell' Abbate, with which it was adorned. Below the +last pavilion, near the grille, was the Grotte du Jardin-des-pins, where +James V. of Scotland, coming over to marry Magdalen of France, daughter of +François I., watched her bathing with her ladies, by the aid of a +mirror....</p> + +<p>To the west of the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, and communicating with it, is the +Cour de la Fontaine, the main front of which is formed by the Galerie de +François I. This faces the great tank, into which Gaston d' Orleans, at +eight years old, caused one of the courtiers to be thrown, whom he +considered to have spoken to him disrespectfully. One side of the Cour de +la Fontaine, that toward the Jardin Anglais, is terminated by a pavilion +of the time of Louis XV.; the other, formerly decorated with statues is +attributed to Serlio. The fountain from which the court takes its name has +been often changed; a poor work by Petitot now replaces the grand designs +of the time of François I. and Henri IV. Beyond this court we find, on the +left, the Porte Dorée, which faces the Chaussée de Maintenon, between the +Etang and Parterre; it was built under François I., and decorated by +Primaticcio with paintings, restored in 1835. It was by this entrance that +Charles V. arrived at the palace in 1539....</p> + +<p>A staircase now leads to the first floor, and we enter the apartments of +Napoleon I., all furnished in the style of the First Empire. The cabinet +de l'Abdication is the place where he resigned his power. His bedroom +(containing the bed of Napoleon I., the cradle of the King of Rome, and a +cabinet of Marie Louise) leads to the Salle du Conseil, which was the +Salon de Famille under Louis Philippe. Its decorations are by Boucher, and +are the best of the period. It was in leaving this room that the Maréchal +de Biron was arrested under Henri IV., in a cabinet which is now thrown +into the adjoining Salle du Trône, (previously the bedroom of the Bourbon +kings), dating from Charles IV., but decorated under Louis XIII. A fine +portrait by Phillipe de Champaigne represents Louis XIII. It is +accompanied by his device in allusion to his vehemence in the +extermination of heresy.</p> + +<p>The adjoining boudoir de Marie Antoinette is a beautiful little room, +painted by Barthelemy. The metal work of the windows is said to have been +wrought by Louis XVI. himself, who had his workshop here, as at +Versailles. The richly decorated Chambre à Coucher de la Reine was +inhabited by Marie de Medici, Marie Thérese, Marie Antoinette, Marie +Louise, and Marie Amelie. The silk hangings were given by the town of +Lyons to Marie Antoinette on her marriage. The Salon de Musique was the +Salon du jeu de la Reine, under Marie Antoinette. The ancient Salon de +Clorinde, or des Dames d' Honneur, is named from its paintings by Dubois +and from the "Gerusalemme Liberata."</p> + +<p>The Galerie de Diane, built by Napoleon I. and Louis XVIII., replaces the +famous frescoed gallery of Henri IV. It is now turned into a library for +the use of the town. In the center is a picture of Henri IV. on horseback, +by Mauzaise. The Salles des Chasses contain pictures of hunting scenes +under Louis XV. We now reach the glorious Galerie d' Henri II. (or Salle +des Fêtes), built by François I., and decorated by Henri II. The walnut- +wood ceiling and the paneling of the walls are of marvelous richness. Over +the chimney is a gigantic H, and the initials of Henri II. are constantly +seen interlaced with those of Diane de Poitiers.... The sixty paintings on +the walls, including eight large compositions, were executed by Niccolo +Dell' Abbate, and are probably the finest decorations of the kind existing +in France.</p> + +<p>The rooms usually shown last are those formerly inhabited by Catherine de +Medici and Anne of Austria, and which, under the First Empire, were used +by Pius VII., under Louis Philippe, by the Duke and Duchess of Orleans. +The most interesting of these are the Chambre à Coucher, which bears the +oft-repeated A L (the chiffre of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria), and in +which Pius VII. daily said mass, and the Salon, with its fine tapestry +after Giulio Romano. The Galerie des Assiettes, adorned with Sévres china, +only dates from Louis Philippe. Hence, by a gallery in the Aile Neuve, +hung with indifferent pictures, we may visit the Salle du Theâtre, +retaining its arrangements for the emperor, empress, and court.</p> + +<p>The Gardens, as seen now, are mostly as they were rearranged by Lenôtre +for Louis XIV. The most frequented garden is the Parterre, entered from +the Place du Cheval-Blanc. In the center of the Jardin Anglais (entered +through the Cour de la Fontaine) was the Fontaine Bleau, which is supposed +by some to have given a name to the palace. The Etang has a pavilion in +the center, where the Czar Peter got drunk. The carp in the pool, overfed +with bread by visitors, are said to be, some of them, of immense age. John +Evelyn mentions the carp of Fontainebleau, "that come familiarly to hand." +The Jardin de l' Orangerie, on the north of the palace, called Jardin des +Buis under Francois I., contains a good renaissance portal. To the east of +the parterre and the town is the park, which has no beauty, but harmonizes +well with the château.</p> + +<p>Visitors should not fail to drive in the Forest, 80 kilometers in circuit, +and, if they return late, may look out for its black huntsman--"le grand +veneur." ... The forest was a favorite hunting-ground of the kings of +France to a late period. It was here that the Marquis de Tourzel, Grand +Provost of France, husband of the governess of the royal children, +fractured his skull, his horse bolting against a tree, when hunting with +Louis XVI., in November, 1786. The forest is the especial land of French +artists, who overrun and possess it in the summer. There are innumerable +direction-posts, in which all the red marks--put up by Napoleon III., +because so few peasants could read--point to town.</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="16"></a>St. Denis</h1> + +<h2>By Grant Allen</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>About six miles north of the original Paris stands the great Basilica of +St. Denis--the only church in Paris, and I think in France, called by that +ancient name, which carries us back at once to the days of the Roman +Empire, and in itself bears evidence to the antiquity of the spot as a +place of worship. Around it, a squalid modern industrial town has slowly +grown up; but the nucleus of the whole place, as the name itself shows, is +the body and shrine of the martyred bishop, St. Denis. Among the numerous +variants of his legend, the most accepted is that in which the apostle of +Paris carries his head to this spot from Montmartre. Others say he was +beheaded in Paris and walked to Montmartre, his body being afterward +translated to the Abbey; while there are some who see in this legend a +survival of the Dionysiac festival and sacrifice of the vine-growers round +Paris--Denis--Dionysius--Dionysus.</p> + +<p>However that may be, a chapel was erected in 275 above the grave of St. +Denis, on the spot now occupied by the great Basilica; and later, Ste. +Geneviève was instrumental in restoring it. Dagobert I., one of the few +Frankish kings who lived much in Paris, built a "basilica" in place of the +chapel (630), and instituted by its side a Benedictine Abbey. The church +and monastery which possest the actual body of the first bishop and great +martyr of Paris formed naturally the holiest site in the neighborhood of +the city; and even before Paris became the capital of a kingdom, the +abbots were persons of great importance in the Frankish state.</p> + +<p>The desire to repose close to the grave of a saint was habitual in early +times, and even (with the obvious alteration of words) ante-dated +Christianity--every wealthy Egyptian desiring in the same way to "sleep +with Osiris." Dagobert himself was buried in the church he founded, beside +the holy martyr; and in later times this very sacred spot became for the +same reason the recognized burial place of the French kings. Dagobert's +fane was actually consecrated by the Redeemer Himself, who descended for +the purpose by night, with a great multitude of saints and angels.</p> + +<p>The existing Basilica, tho of far later date, is the oldest church of any +importance in the neighborhood of Paris. It was begun by Suger, abbot of +the monastery, and sagacious minister of Louis VI. and VII., in 1121. As +yet, Paris itself had no great church, Notre-Dame having been commenced +some 50 years later. The earliest part of Suger's building is in the +Romanesque style; it still retains the round Roman arch and many other +Roman constructive features. During the course of the 50 years occupied in +building the Basilica, however, the Gothic style was developed; the +existing church therefore exhibits both Romanesque and Gothic work, with +transitional features between the two, which add to its interest. +Architecturally, then, bear in mind, it is in part Romanesque, passing +into Gothic. The interior is mostly pure Early Gothic.</p> + +<p>The neighborhood to Paris, the supremacy of the great saint, and the fact +that St. Denis was especially the Royal Abbey, all combined to give it +great importance. Under Suger's influence, Louis VI. adopted the oriflamme +or standard of St. Denis as the royal banner of France. The Merovingian +and Carlovingian kings, to be sure--Germans rather than French--had +naturally been buried elsewhere, as at Aix-la-Chapelle, Rheims, and +Soissons (tho even of them a few were interred beside the great bishop +martyr). But as soon as the Parisian dynasty of the Capets came to the +throne, they were almost without exception buried at St. Denis. Hence the +abbey came to be regarded at last mainly as the mausoleum of French +royalty, and is still too often so regarded by tourists.</p> + +<p>But tho the exquisite Renaissance tombs of the House of Valois would well +deserve a visit on their own account, they are, at St. Denis, but +accessories to the great Basilica. Besides the actual tombs, too, many +monuments were erected here, in the 13th century (by St. Louis) and +afterward, to earlier kings buried elsewhere, some relic of whom, however, +the abbey possest and thus honored. Hence several of the existing tombs +are of far later date than the kings they commemorate; those of the Valois +almost alone are truly contemporary.</p> + +<p>At the Revolution, the Basilica suffered irreparable losses. The very +sacred reliquary containing the severed head of St. Denis was destroyed, +and the remains of the martyr and his companions desecrated. The royal +bones and bodies were also disinterred and flung into trenches +indiscriminately. The tombs of the kings were condemned to destruction, +and many (chiefly in metal) were destroyed or melted down, but not a few +were saved with difficulty by the exertions of antiquaries, and were +placed in the Museum of Monuments at Paris (now the École des Beaux-Arts), +of which Alexandre Lenoir was curator. Here, they were greatly hacked +about and mutilated, in order to fit them to their new situations.</p> + +<p>At the Restoration, however, they were sent back to St. Denis, together +with many other monuments which had no real place there; but, being housed +in the crypt, they were further clipt to suit their fresh surroundings. +Finally, when the Basilica was restored under Viollet-le-Duc, the tombs +were replaced as nearly as possible in their old positions; but several +intruders from elsewhere are still interspersed among them. Louis XVIII. +brought back the mingled bones of his ancestors from the common trench and +interred them in the crypt. As regards the tombs, again, bear in mind +these facts. All the oldest have perished; there are none here that go +back much further than the age of St. Louis, tho they often represent +personages of earlier periods or dynasties. The best are those of the +Renaissance period. These are greatly influenced by the magnificent tomb +of Giangaleazzo Visconti at the Certosa di Pavia, near Milan. Especially +is this the case with the noble monument of Louis XII., which closely +imitates the Italian work. Now, you must remember that Charles VIII. and +Louis XII. fought much in Italy, and were masters of Milan; hence this +tomb was familiar to them; and their Italian experiences had much to do +with the French Renaissance. The Cardinal d'Amboise, Louis's minister, +built the Château de Gaillon, and much of the artistic impulse of the time +was due to these two. Henceforth recollect that tho François I. is the +prince of the Renaissance, Louis XII. and his minister were no mean +forerunners....</p> + +<p>The interior is most beautiful. The first portion of the church which we +enter is a vestibule or Galilee under the side towers and end of the Nave. +Compare Durham. It is of the age of Abbot Suger, but already exhibits +pointed arches in the upper part. The architecture is solid and massive, +but somewhat gloomy.</p> + +<p>Descend a few steps into the Nave, which is surrounded by single aisles, +whose vaulting should be noticed. The architecture of this part, now pure +Early Gothic, is extremely lovely. The triforium is delicate and graceful. +The windows in the clerestory above it, representing kings and queens, are +almost all modern. Notice the great height of the Nave, and the unusual +extent to which the triforium and clerestory project above the noble +vaulting of the aisles. Note that the triforium itself opens directly to +the air, and is supplied with stained-glass windows, seen through its +arches. Sit awhile in this light and lofty Nave, in order to take in the +beautiful view up the church toward the choir and chevet. Then walk up to +the Barrier near the Transepts, where sit again, in order to observe the +Choir and Transepts with the staircase which leads to the raised +Ambulatory. Observe that the transepts are simple. The ugly stained glass +in the windows of their clerestory contains illustrations of the reign of +Louis Philippe, with extremely unpicturesque costumes of the period. The +architecture of the Nave and Choir, with its light and airy arches and +pillars, is of the later 13th century.</p> + +<p>The reason for this is that Suger's building was thoroughly restored from +1230 onward, in the pure pointed style of that best period. The upper part +of the Choir, and the whole of the Nave and Transepts was then rebuilt-- +which accounts for the gracefulness and airiness of its architecture when +contrasted with the dark and heavy vestibule of the age of Suger.</p> + +<p>Note from this point the arrangement of the Choir, which, to those who do +not know Italy, will be quite unfamiliar. As at San Zeno in Verona, San +Miniato in Florence, and many other Romanesque churches, the Choir is +raised by some steps above the Nave and Transepts; while the Crypt is +slightly deprest beneath them. In the Crypt, in such cases, are the actual +bodies of the saints buried there; while the Altar stands directly over +their tombs in the Choir above it.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="17"></a>Marly-Le-Roi</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Days Near Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The tram stops close to the Abreuvoir, a large artificial tank, surrounded +by masonry for receiving the surplus water from the fountains in the +palace gardens, of which it is now the only remnant. Ascending the avenue +on the right, we shall find a road at the top which will lead us, to the +left, through delightful woods to the site of the palace. Nothing remains +but the walls supporting the wooded terrace.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to realize the place as it was, for the quincunces of +limes which stood between the pavilions on either side of the steep avenue +leading to the royal residence, formerly dipt and kept close, are now huge +trees, marking still the design of the grounds, but obscuring the views, +and, by their great growth, making the main avenue very narrow. St. Simon +exaggerates the extravagance of Louis XIV. at Marly, who spent there four +and a half million francs between 1679 and 1690, and probably as much or +more between 1690 and 1715, perhaps in all ten or twelve millions, which +would represent fifty million francs at the present time. Nevertheless the +expense of the amusements of Louis XIV. greatly exceeded the whole revenue +of Henri IV., and those of the early years of Louis XIII.</p> + +<p>From the central pavilion in which the flattery of Mansart placed him as +the sun, Louis XIV. emerged every morning to visit the occupiers of the +twelve smaller pavilions, Les Pavilions des Seigneurs, the constellations, +his courtiers, who came out to meet him and swelled his train. These +pavilions, arranged on each side of the gardens, stood in double avenues +of clipt lime-trees looking upon the garden and its fountains, and leading +up to the palace.</p> + +<p>The device of the sun was carried out in the palace itself, where all the +smaller apartments circled round the grand salon, the king and queen +having apartments to the back, the dauphin and dauphine to the front, each +apartment consisting of an anteroom, bedroom, and sitting-room, and each +set being connected with one of the four square saloons, which opened upon +the great octagonal hall, of which four faces were occupied by chimney- +pieces and four by the doors of the smaller saloons. The central hall +occupied the whole height of the edifice, and was lighted from the upper +story.</p> + +<p>The great ambition of every courtier was to be of the Marly circle, and +all curried favor with the king by asking to accompany him on his weekly +journey to Marly. The Court used to arrive at Marly on a Wednesday and +leave it on a Saturday; this was an invariable rule. The king always +passed his Sundays at Versailles, which was his parish. ... The leading +figure at Marly was Mme. de Maintenon, who occupied the apartments +intended for Queen Marie Thérèse, but who led the simplest of lives, bored +almost to extinction. She used to compare the carp languishing in the +tanks of Marly to herself--"Like me they regret their native mud." ... At +first Mme. de Maintenon dined, in the midst of the other ladies in the +square salon which separated her apartment from that of the king; but soon +she had a special table, to which a very few other ladies, her intimates, +came by invitation.</p> + +<p>Marly was the scene of several of the most tragic events in the life of +Louis XIV. "Everything is dead here, there's no life in any thing," wrote +the Comtesse de Caylus, niece of Mme. de Maintenon, from Marly to the +Princess des Ursins, after the death of the Duchesse de Bourgogne. And, in +a few days afterward, Marly was the scene of the sudden death of the +Dauphin, Duc de Bourgogne, the beloved pupil of Fénelon. Early in the +morning after the death of his wife, he was persuaded, "ill and anguished +with the most intimate and bitterest of sorrows," to follow the king to +Marly, where he entered his own room by a window on the ground floor.</p> + +<p>It was also at Marly--"ill-omened Marly"--that the Duc de Berry, the +younger grandson of Louis XIV., and husband of the profligate daughter of +the Duc d' Orleans--afterward Regent, died, with great suspicion of +poison, in 1714. The MS. memorials of Mary Beatrice by a sister of +Chaillot, describe how, when Louis XIV. was mourning his beloved +grandchildren, and that queen, whom he had always liked and respected, had +lost her darling daughter Louisa, she went to visit him at Marly where +"they laid aside all Court etiquette, weeping together in their common +grief, because, as the Queen said, 'We saw that the aged were left, and +that death had swept away the young.'" St. Simon depicts the last walk of +the king in the gardens at Marly on August 10, 1715. He went away that +evening to Versailles, where he died on September 1.</p> + +<p>Marly was abandoned during the whole time of the Regency, and was only +saved from total destruction in 1717, when the Régent Philippe d'Orléans +had ordered its demolition, by the spirited remonstrance of St. Simon.... +The great pavilion itself only contained, as we have seen, a very small +number of chambers. The querulous Smollett, who visited Marly in 1763, +speaks of it as "No more than a pigeon-house in respect to a palace." But +it was only intended as the residence of the king.</p> + +<p>During the repairs necessary in the reign of Louis XV., who built Choisy +and never lived at Marly, the cascade which fell behind the great pavilion +was removed. Mme. Campan describes the later Marly of Louis XVI., under +whom the "Marly journey" had become one of the great burdens and expenses +of royal life. The Court of Louis XVI. was here for the last time on June +11, 1789, but in the latter years of Louis XVI., M. de Noailles, governor +of St. Germain, was permitted to lend the smaller pavilions furnished to +his friends for the summer months. Marly perished with the monarchy, and +was sold at the Revolution, when the statues of its gardens were removed +to the Tuileries. A cotton mill was for a time established in the royal +pavilion; then all the buildings were pulled down and the gardens sold in +lots!</p> + +<p>Still the site is worth visiting. The Grille Royale, now a simple wooden +gate between two pillars with vases, opens on the road from St. Germain to +Versailles, at the extremity of the Aqueduct of Marly. Passing this, one +finds oneself in an immense circular enclosure, the walls of which +surround the forest on every side.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="18"></a>The Village of Auteuil</h1> + +<h2>By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Outre-Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.]</p> + + + +<p>The sultry heat of summer always brings with it, to the idler and the man +of leisure, a longing for the leafy shade and the green luxuriance of the +country. It is pleasant to interchange the din of the city, the movement +of the crowd, and the gossip of society, with the silence of the hamlet, +the quiet seclusion of the grove, and the gossip of a woodland brook.</p> + +<p>It was a feeling of this kind that prompted me, during my residence in the +North of France, to pass one of the summer months at Auteuil, the +pleasantest of the many little villages that lie in the immediate vicinity +of the metropolis. It is situated on the outskirts of the Bois de +Boulogne, a wood of some extent, in whose green alleys the dusty city +enjoys the luxury of an evening drive, and gentlemen meet in the morning +to give each other satisfaction in the usual way. A cross-road, skirted +with green hedge-rows, and overshadowed by tall poplars, leads you from +the noisy highway of St. Cloud and Versailles to the still retirement of +this suburban hamlet. On either side the eye discovers old châteaux amid +the trees, and green parks, whose pleasant shades recall a thousand images +of La Fontaine, Racine, and Molière; and on an eminence, overlooking the +windings of the Seine, and giving a beautiful tho distant view of the +domes and gardens of Paris, rises the village of Passy, long the residence +of our countrymen Franklin and Count Rumford....</p> + +<p>It was to the Bois de Boulogne that I looked for my principal recreation. +There I took my solitary walk, morning and evening; or, mounted on a +little mouse-colored donkey, paced demurely along the woodland pathway. I +had a favorite seat beneath the shadow of a venerable oak, one of the few +hoary patriarchs of the wood which had survived the bivouacs of the allied +armies. It stood upon the brink of a little glassy pool, whose tranquil +bosom was the image of a quiet and secluded life, and stretched its +parental arms over a rustic bench, that had been constructed beneath it +for the accommodation of the foot-traveler, or, perchance, some idle +dreamer like myself. It seemed to look round with a lordly air upon its +old hereditary domain, whose stillness was no longer broken by the tap of +the martial drum, nor the discordant clang of arms; and, as the breeze +whispered among its branches, it seemed to be holding friendly colloquies +with a few of its venerable contemporaries, who stooped from the opposite +bank of the pool, nodding gravely now and then, and gazing at themselves +with a sigh in the mirror below....</p> + +<p>I entered, too, with some enthusiasm, into all the rural sports and +merrimakes of the village. The holidays were so many little eras of mirth +and good feeling; for the French have that happy and sunshine temperament +--that merry-go-mad character--which renders all their social meetings +scenes of enjoyment and hilarity. I made it a point never to miss any of +the fêtes champêtres, or rural dances, at the wood of Boulogne; tho I +confess it sometimes gave me a momentary uneasiness to see my rustic +throne beneath the oak usurped by a noisy group of girls, the silence and +decorum of my imaginary realm broken by music and laughter, and, in a +word, my whole kingdom turned topsy-turvy with romping, fiddling, and +dancing. But I am naturally, and from principle, too, a lover of all those +innocent amusements which cheer the laborer's toil, and, as it were, put +their shoulders to the wheel of life, and help the poor man along with his +load of cares. Hence I saw with no small delight the rustic swain astride +the wooden horse of the carrousel, and the village maiden whirling round +and round in its dizzy car; or took my stand on the rising ground that +overlooked the dance, an idle spectator in a busy throng. It was just +where the village touched the outward border of the wood. There a little +area had been leveled beneath the trees, surrounded by a painted rail, +with a row of benches inside. The music was placed in a slight balcony, +built around the trunk of a large tree in the center; and the lamps, +hanging from the branches above, gave a gay, fantastic, and fairy look to +the scene. How often in such moments did I recall the lines of Goldsmith, +describing those "kinder skies" beneath which "France displays her bright +domain," and feel how true and masterly the sketch--</p> + +<blockquote> "Alike all ages; dames of ancient days<br /> + Have led their children through the mirthful maze,<br /> + And the gray grandsire, skilled in gestic lore,<br /> + Has frisked beneath the burden of threescore."</blockquote> + +<p>Nor must I forget to mention the fête patronale--a kind of annual fair, +which is held at midsummer, in honor of the patron saint of Auteuil. Then +the principal street of the village is filled with booths of every +description; strolling players, and rope-dancers, and jugglers, and +giants, and dwarfs, and wild beasts, and all kinds of wonderful shows, +excite the gaping curiosity of the throng; and in dust, crowds, and +confusion, the village rivals the capital itself. Then the goodly dames of +Passy descend into the village of Auteuil; then the brewers of Billancourt +and the tanners of Sèvres dance lustily under the greenwood tree; and +then, too, the sturdy fishmongers of Brétigny and Saint-Yon regale their +fat wives with an airing in a swing, and their customers with eels and +crawfish....</p> + +<p>I found another source of amusement in observing the various personages +that daily passed and repassed beneath my window. The character which most +of all arrested my attention was a poor blind fiddler, whom I first saw +chanting a doleful ballad at the door of a small tavern near the gate of +the village. He wore a brown coat, out at elbows, the fragment of a velvet +waistcoat, and a pair of tight nankeens, so short as hardly to reach below +his calves. A little foraging cap, that had long since seen its best days, +set off an open, good-humored countenance, bronzed by sun and wind. He was +led about by a brisk, middle-aged woman, in straw hat and wooden shoes; +and a little barefooted boy, with clear, blue eyes and flaxen hair, held a +tattered hat in his hand, in which he collected eleëmosynary sous. The old +fellow had a favorite song, which he used to sing with great glee to a +merry, joyous air, the burden of which ran "Chantons l'amour et le +plaisir!" I often thought it would have been a good lesson for the crabbed +and discontented rich man to have heard this remnant of humanity--poor, +blind, and in rags, and dependent upon casual charity for his daily bread, +singing in so cheerful a voice the charms of existence, and, as it were, +fiddling life away to a merry tune.</p> + +<p>I was one morning called to my window by the sound of rustic music. I +looked out and beheld a procession of villagers advancing along the road, +attired in gay dresses, and marching merrily on in the direction of the +church. I soon perceived that it was a marriage-festival. The procession +was led by a long orang-outang of a man, in a straw hat and white dimity +bobcoat, playing on an asthmatic clarionet, from which he contrived to +blow unearthly sounds, ever and anon squeaking off at right angles from +his tune, and winding up with a grand flourish on the guttural notes. +Behind him, led by his little boy, came the blind fiddler, his honest +features glowing with all the hilarity of a rustic bridal, and, as he +stumbled along, sawing away upon his fiddle till he made all crack again. +Then came the happy bridegroom, drest in his Sunday suit of blue, with a +large nosegay in his button-hole; and close beside him his blushing bride, +with downcast eyes, clad in a white robe and slippers, and wearing a +wreath of white roses in her hair. The friends and relatives brought up +the procession; and a troop of village urchins came shouting along in the +rear, scrambling among themselves for the largess of sous and sugar-plums +that now and then issued in large handfuls from the pockets of a lean man +in black, who seemed to officiate as master of ceremonies on the occasion. +I gazed on the procession till it was out of sight; and when the last +wheeze of the clarionet died upon my ear, I could not help thinking how +happy were they who were thus to dwell together in the peaceful bosom of +their native village, far from the gilded misery and the pestilential +vices of the town.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the same day, I was sitting by the window, enjoying the +freshness of the air and the beauty and stillness of the hour, when I +heard the distant and solemn hymn of the Catholic burial-service, at first +so faint and indistinct that it seemed an illusion. It rose mournfully on +the hush of evening--died gradually away--then ceased. Then, it rose +again, nearer and more distinct, and soon after a funeral procession +appeared, and passed directly beneath my window. It was led by a priest, +bearing the banner of the church, and followed by two boys, holding long +flambeaux in their hands. Next came a double file of priests in their +surplices, with a missal in one hand and a lighted wax taper in the other, +chanting the funeral dirge at intervals--now pausing, and then again +taking up the mournful burden of their lamentation, accompanied by others, +who played upon a rude kind of bassoon, with a dismal and wailing sound. +Then followed various symbols of the church, and the bier borne on the +shoulders of four men. The coffin was covered with a velvet pall, and a +chaplet of white flowers lay upon it, indicating that the deceased was +unmarried. A few of the villagers came behind, clad in mourning robes, and +bearing lighted tapers. The procession passed slowly along the same street +that in the morning had been thronged by the gay bridal company. A +melancholy train of thought forced itself home upon my mind. The joys and +sorrows of this world are so strikingly mingled! Our mirth and grief are +brought so mournfully in contact! We laugh while others weep--and others +rejoice when we are sad! The light heart and the heavy walk side by side +and go about together! Beneath the same roof are spread the wedding-feast +and the funeral-pall! The bridal-song mingles with the burial-hymn! One +goes to the marriage-bed, another to the grave; and all is mutable, +uncertain, and transitory.</p> + +<p>It is with sensations of pure delight that I recur to the brief period of +my existence which was passed in the peaceful shades of Auteuil. There is +one kind of wisdom which we learn from the world, and another kind which +can be acquired in solitude only. In cities we study those around us; but +in the retirement of the country we learn to know ourselves.</p> + + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: Interior of the Grand Opera House]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Paris Front of the Grand Opera House]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Arc de Triomphe]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Arch Erected by Napoleon, Near the Louvre]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: Church of St. Vincent de Paul]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Paris: Church of St. Sulpice]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Picture Gallery at Versailles]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Versailles: Bed-Room of Louis XIV]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: The Grand Trianon at Versailles]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: The Little Trianon at Versailles]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Bed-Room of Catherine de Medici at Chaumont]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Marie Antoinette's Dairy at Versailles]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Tours From Turner's "Rivers of France"]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Saint Denis From Turner's "Rivers of France"]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: Havre From Turner's "Rivers of France"]</p> + +<p>[Illustration: The Bridge of St. Cloud From Turner's "Rivers of France"]</p> + + + + + +<h1><a name="19"></a>The Two Trianons</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Days Near Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The Trianons may be reached in half an hour from the railway station, but +the distance is considerable, and a carriage very desirable, considering +all the walking inside of the palaces to be accomplished. Carriages take +the straight avenue from Bassin de Neptune. The pleasantest way for foot- +passengers is to follow the gardens of Versailles as far as the Bassin +d'Apollon, and then turn to the right. At the end of the right branch of +the grand canal, staircases lead to the park of the Grand Trianon; but +these staircases are railed in, and it is necessary to make a détour to +the Grille de la Grande Entrée, whence an avenue leads directly to the +Grand Trianon, while the Petit Trianon lies immediately to the right, +behind the buildings of the Concierge and Corps de Garde.</p> + +<p>The original palace of the Grand Trianon was a little château built by +Louis XIV., in 1670, as a refuge from the fatigues of the Court, on land +bought from the monks of St. Genevieve, and belonging to the parish of +Trianon. But in 1687 the humble château was pulled down, and the present +palace erected by Mansart in its place.</p> + +<p>Louis XIV. constantly visited the Grand Trianon, with which for many years +he was much delighted. But, after 1700, he never slept at Trianon, and, +weary of his plaything here, turned all his attention to Marly. Under +Louis XV., however, the palace was again frequently inhabited.</p> + +<p>Being entirely on one floor, the Grand Trianon continued to be a most +uncomfortable residence, till subterranean passages for service were added +under Louis Philippe, who made great use of the palace. The buildings are +without character or distinction. Visitors have to wait in the vestibule +till a large party is formed, and are then hurried full speed round the +rooms, without being allowed to linger for an instant.</p> + +<p>The Petit Trianon was built by Gabriel for Louis XV. in the botanical +garden which Louis XIV. had formed at the instigation of the Duc d'Ayen. +It was intended as a miniature of the Grand Trianon, as that palace had +been a miniature of Versailles. The palace was often used by Louis XV., +who was here first attacked by the smallpox, of which he died. Louis XVI. +gave it to Marie Antoinette, who made its gardens, and whose happiest days +were spent here.</p> + +<p>The Petit Trianon is a very small and very unassuming country house. Mme. +de Maintenon describes it in June as "a palace enchanted and perfumed." +Its pretty simple rooms are only interesting from their associations. The +furniture is mostly of the times of Louis XVI. The stone stair has a +handsome iron balustrade; the salons are paneled in white.</p> + +<p>Here Marie Antoinette st to Mme. Lebrun for the picture in which she is +represented with her children. In the dining-room is a secretaire given to +Louis XVI. by the States of Burgundy, and portraits of the King and Marie +Antoinette. The Cabinet de Travail of the queen was a cabinet given to her +on her marriage by the town of Paris; in the Salle de Réception are four +pictures by Watteau; the Boudoir has a Sévres bust of the queen; in the +Chambre-á-coucher is the queen's bed, and a portrait of the Dauphin by +Lebrun. These simple rooms are a standing defense of the queen from the +false accusations brought against her at the Revolution as to her +extravagance in the furnishing of the Petit Trianon. Speaking of her happy +domestic life, Mme. Lebrun says: "I do not believe Queen Marie Antoinette +ever allowed an occasion to pass by without saying an agreeable thing to +those who had the honor of being near her."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="20"></a>Malmaison</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Days Near Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>The station is opposite a short avenue, at the end of which on the right, +is the principal entrance to Malmaison. A little higher up the road at the +right is a gate leading to the park and gardens, freely open to the +public, and being sold (1887) in lots by the Stat. There is a melancholy +charm in the old house of many recollections--grim, empty, and desolate; +approached on this side by a bridge over the dry moat. A short distance +off, rather to the left, as you look from the house, is a very pretty +little temple--the Temple of Love--with a front of columns of red Givet +marble brought from the chateau of Richelieu, and a clear stream bursting +from the rocks beneath it.</p> + +<p>Malmaison is supposed to derive its name from having been inhabited in the +XI century by the Norman brigand Odon, and afterward by evil spirits, +exorcised by the monks of St. Denis. Josephine bought the villa with its +gardens, which had been much praised by Delille, from M. Lecouteulx de +Canteleu for 160,000 francs.... Josephine retired to Malmaison at the time +of her divorce, and seldom left it afterward.... In 1814, the unhappy +Josephine, whose heart was always with Napoleon, was forced to receive a +visit from the allied sovereigns at Malmaison, and died of a chill which +she caught in doing the honors of her grounds to the Emperor Alexander on +May 26, by a water excursion on the pool of Cucufa. After his return from +Elba, Napoleon revisited the place....</p> + +<p>After the loss of the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon once more retired to +Malmaison, then the property of the children of Josephine, Eugene and +Hortense. There he passed June 25, 1815, a day of terrible agitation. That +evening at five o'clock he put on a brown suit of civilian clothes, +tenderly embraced Queen Hortense and the other persons present, gave a +long lingering look at the house and gardens connected with his happiest +hours, and left them for ever.</p> + +<p>After the second Restoration Prince Eugène sold Malmaison, removing its +gallery of pictures to Munich. There is now nothing remarkable in the +desolate rooms, tho the Salle des Maréchaux, the bedroom of Josephine, and +the grand salon, with a chimney-piece given by the Pope are pointed out. +In later years the house was for some time inhabited by Queen Christina of +Spain. It will be a source of European regret if at least the building +connected with so many historic souvenirs, and the immediate grounds are +not preserved.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="21"></a>St. Germain</h1> + +<h2>By Leitch Ritchie</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Rivers of France." Pictures by J. M. +W. Turner, R.A. Text by Leitch Ritchie.]</p> + + + +<p>The view from the terrace of Saint Germain is one of the finest in France. +This view, and a shady walk in the forest behind, are the only attractions +of Saint Germain; for the old palace of the kings of France presents the +appearance of nothing more than a huge, irregular, unsightly brick +building. It is true, a great portion of the walls is of cut stone; but +this is the idea which the whole conveys to the spectator. The edifice +stands on the site of a chateau built by Louis-le-Gros, which, having been +burned down by the English, was thus raised anew from its ruins. Charles +V., François II., Henry IV., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV., all exercised +their taste upon it, and all added to its general deformity.</p> + +<p>Near this Henri Quatre built another château, which fell into ruins forty +or fifty years ago. These ruins were altogether effaced by Charles X., who +had formed the project of raising another structure upon the spot, +entirely his own. The project, however, failed, like that of the coup +d'etat, but this is of no consequence. The new château exists in various +books of travel, written by eye-witnesses, quite as palpably as the +enormous bulk of the ancient château. It is a true "castle in Spain." +Among the sights to be seen in the palace is the chamber of Mademoiselle +de la Vallière, and the trap-door by which she was visited by Louis +Quatorze. There are also the chamber and oratory of our James II., who +died at Saint Germain, on the 16th September, 1701.</p> + +<p>The forest of Saint Germain is seven leagues in circumference, pierced in +every direction by roads and paths, and containing various edifices that +were used as hunting-lodges. This vast wood affords no view, except along +the seemingly interminable path in which the spectator stands, the vista +of which, carried on with mathematical regularity, terminates in a point. +This is the case with all the great forests of France except that of +Fontainebleau, where nature is sometimes seen in her most picturesque +form. In the more remote and unfrequented parts of Saint Germain, the wild +boar still makes his savage lair; and still the loiterer, in these +lengthened alleys, is startled by a roebuck or a deer springing across the +path....</p> + +<p>Independently of the noble satellites attached to the court, the infinite +number of official persons made its removal to Saint Germain, or the other +royal seats, seem like the emigration of a whole people. Forty-nine +physicians, thirty-eight surgeons, six apothecaries, thirteen preachers, +one hundred and forty maîtres d'hôtel, ninety ladies of honor to the +queen, in the sixteenth century! There were also an usher of the kitchen, +a courier de vin (who took the charge of carrying provisions for the king +when he went to the chase), a sutler of court, a conductor of the sumpter- +horse, a lackey of the chariot, a captain of the mules, an overseer of +roasts, a chair-bearer, a palmer (to provide ananches for Easter), a valet +of the firewood, a paillassier of the Scotch guard, a yeoman of the mouth, +and a hundred more for whose offices we have no names in English.</p> + +<p>The grand maître d'hôtel was the chief officer of the court. The royal +orders came through him; he regulated the expenses; and was, in short, to +the rest of the functionaries, what the general is to the army. The maître +des requetes was at the head of civil justice; the prevôt de l'hôtel at +the head of criminal justice....</p> + +<p>When the courtiers presented themselves at the château, some in chariots, +some on horseback, with their wives mounted behind them (the ladies all +masked), they were subjected to the scrutiny of the captain of the gate. +The greater number he compelled to dismount; but the princes and +princesses, and a select few who had brevets of entrance, were permitted +to ride within the walls.</p> + +<p>At court the men wore sword and dagger; but to be found with a gun or +pistol in the palace, or even in the town, subjected them to a sentence of +death. To wear a casque or cuirass was punished with imprisonment. The +laws of politeness were equally strict. If one man used insulting words to +another, the offense was construed as being given to the king; and the +offender was obliged to solicit pardon of his majesty. If one threatened +another by clapping his hand to the hilt of his sword, he was to be +assommé according to the ordinance; which may either mean knocked down, or +soundly mauled--or the two together. If two men came to blows, they were +both assommé. A still more serious breach of politeness, however, was the +importunity of petitioners.</p> + +<p>When the king hunted he was accompanied by a hundred pages, two hundred +esquires, and often four or five hundred gentlemen; sometimes by the queen +and princesses, with their hundreds of ladies and maids of honor, mounted +on palfreys saddled with black velvet.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="22"></a>St. Cloud</h1> + +<h2>By Augustus J. C. Hare</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Days Near Paris."]</p> + + + +<p>Very near the station is the Château de St. Cloud, set on fire by the +bombs of Mont-Valèrien, in the night of October 13, 1870, and now the most +melancholy of ruins. Sufficient, however, remains to indicate the noble +character of a building partly due to Jules Hardouin and Mansart. The +château is more reddened than blackened by the fire, and the beautiful +reliefs of its gables, its statues, and the wrought-iron grilles of its +balconies are still perfect. Grass, and even trees, grow in its roofless +halls, in one of which the marble pillars and sculptured decorations are +seen through the gaps where windows once were. The view from the terrace +is most beautiful.</p> + +<p>The name of St. Cloud comes from a royal saint, who was buried in the +collegiate church, pulled down by Marie Antoinette (which stood opposite +the modern church), and to whose shrine there is an annual pilgrimage. +Clodomir, King of Orleans, son of Clovis, dying in 524, had bequeathed his +three sons to the guardianship of his mother Clotilde. Their barbarous +uncles, Childebert and Clotaire, coveting their heritage, sent their +mother a sword and a pair of scissors, asking her whether she would prefer +that they should perish by the one, or that their royal locks should be +shorn with the other, and that they should be shut up in a convent.</p> + +<p>"I would rather see them dead than shaven," replied Clotilde proudly. Two +of the princes were then murdered by their uncles, the third, Clodowald, +was hidden by some faithful servants, but fright made him cut off his hair +with his own hands, and he entered a monastery at a village then called +Nogent, but which derived from him the name of St. Clodowald, corrupted +into St. Cloud.</p> + +<p>Clodowald bequeathed the lands of St. Cloud to the bishops of Paris, who +had a summer palace here, in which the body of François I. lay in state +after his death at Rambouillet. His son, Henri II., built a villa here in +the Italian style; and Henri III. came to live here in a villa belonging +to the Gondi family, while, with the King of Navarre, he was besieging +Paris in 1589. The city was never taken, for at St. Cloud Henri was +murdered by Jacques Clément, a monk of the Jacobin convent in Paris, who +fancied that an angel had urged him to the deed in a vision....</p> + +<p>From this time the house of the banker Jérôme Gondi, one of the Italian +adventurers who had followed the fortunes of Catherine de Medici, was an +habitual residence of the Court. It became the property of Hervard, +Controller of Finances, from whom Louis XIV. bought it for his brother +Philippe d'Orléans, enlarged the palace, and employed Lenôtre to lay out +the park. Monsieur married the beautiful Henriette d'Angleterre, youngest +daughter of Charles I., who died here, June 30, 1670, with strong +suspicion of poison. St. Simon affirms the person employed to have confest +to Louis XIV., having used it at the instigation of the Chevalier de +Lorraine (a favorite of Monsieur), whom Madame had caused to be exiled. +One of the finest sermons of Bossuet describes the "disastrous night on +which there came as a clap of thunder the astonishing news! 'Madame is +dying! Madame is dead!' At the sound of so strange a wo people hurried to +St. Cloud from all sides to find panic over all except the heart of the +princess."</p> + +<p>In the following year Monsieur was married again, to the Princess +Palatine, when it was believed that his late wife appeared near a fountain +in the park, where a servant, sent to fetch water, died of terror. The +vision turned out to be a reality--a hideous old woman, who amused herself +in this way. "The cowards," she said, "made such grimaces that I nearly +died laughing. This evening pleasure paid me for the toil of my hard day."</p> + +<p>Monsieur gave magnificent fétes to the Court at St. Cloud, added to the +palace with great splendor, and caused the great cascade, which Jérôme +Gondi had made, to be enlarged and embellished by Mansart. It was at St. +Cloud that Monsieur died of an attack of apoplexy, brought on by +overeating after his return from a visit to the king at Marly.... The +chateau continued to be occupied by Madame, daughter of the Elector, the +rude, the original, and satirical Princess Palatine, in whom the modern +House of Orleans has its origin, and here she died during the regency of +her son....</p> + +<p>The Régent d'Orléans, nephew of Louis XIV., received Peter the Great at +St. Cloud in 1717. In 1752 his grandson, Louis Philippe d'Orléans, gave at +St. Cloud one of the most magnificent fêtes ever seen in France.</p> + +<p>In 1785 the Due d'Orleans sold St. Cloud for six million francs to Queen +Marie Antoinette, who made great alterations in the internal arrangements +of the building, where she resided during the early days of the +Revolution.</p> + +<p>It was at St. Cloud that the coup d'état occurred which made Napoleon +first-consul. This led him to choose the palace of St. Cloud, which had +been the cradle of his power, as his principal residence, and, under the +first empire, it was customary to speak of "le cabinet de Saint-Cloud," as +previously of "le cabinet de Versailles," and afterward of "le cabinet des +Tuileries." Here, in 1805, Napoleon and Josephine assisted at the baptism +of the future Napoleon III....</p> + +<p>It was also in the palace of St. Cloud that Napoleon I. was married to +Marie Louise, April 1, 1810. In this palace of many changes the allied +sovereigns met after the fall of the First Empire. Blucher, after his +fashion, slept booted and spurred in the bed of Napoleon; and the +capitulation of Paris was signed here July 3, 1815.</p> + +<p>Louis XVIII. and Charles X. both lived much at St. Cloud, and added to it +considerably; but here, where Henry IV. had been recognized as King of +France and Navarre, Charles X. was forced by the will of the people to +abdicate, July 30, 1830. Two years after, Louis Philippe established +himself with his family at St. Cloud, and his daughter Clémentine was +married to Duke Augustus of Saxe-Coburg in its chapel, April 28, 1843. +Like his uncle, Napoleon III. was devoted to St. Cloud, where--"with a +light heart"--the declaration of war with Prussia was signed in the +library, July, 17, 1870, a ceremony followed by a banquet, during which +the "Marseillaise" was played. The doom of St. Cloud was then sealed. On +the 13th of the following October the besieged Parisians beheld the +volumes of flame rising behind the Bois de Boulogne, which told that St. +Cloud, recently occupied by the Prussians, and frequently bombarded in +consequence from Mont-Valérien, had been fired by French bombs.</p> + +<p>The steamer for St. Cloud descends the Seine, passing under the Pont de +Solferino, Pont de la Concorde, Pont des Invalides, and Pont d'Alma. Then +the Champ de Mars is seen on the left, the Palais du Trocadéro on the +right. After the Pont du d'Iéna, Passy is passed on the right, and the Ile +des Cygnes on the left. Then comes the Pont de Grenelle, after which +Auteuil is passed on the right and Javel on the left. After leaving the +Pont-viaduc du Point-du-Jour, the Ile de Billancourt is seen on the left. +After the Pont de Billancourt, the steamer passes between the Iles de +Billancourt and Séguin to Bas Meudon.</p> + + + + + + +<h1>III</h1> + +<h2>Old Province</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="23"></a>The Papal Palace at Avignon</h1> + +<h2>By Charles Dickens</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Pictures From Italy."]</p> + + + +<p>There lay before us, that same afternoon, the broken bridge of Avignon, +and all the city baking in the sun; yet with an underdone-piecrust, +battlemented wall, that never will be brown, tho it bake for centuries.</p> + +<p>The grapes were hanging in clusters in the streets, and the brilliant +oleander was in full bloom everywhere. The streets are old and very +narrow, but tolerably clean, and shaded by awnings stretched from house to +house. Bright stuffs and handkerchiefs, curiosities, ancient frames of +carved wood, old chairs, ghostly tables, saints, virgins, angels, and +staring daubs of portraits, being exposed for sale beneath, it was very +quaint and lovely. All this was much set off, too, by the glimpses one +caught, through a rusty gate standing ajar, of quiet sleepy court-yards, +having stately old houses within, as silent as tombs. It was all very like +one of the descriptions in the Arabian Nights. The three one-eyed +Calenders might have knocked at any one of those doors till the street +rang again, and the porter who persisted in asking questions--the man who +had the delicious purchases put into his basket in the morning--might have +opened it quite naturally.</p> + +<p>After breakfast next morning, we sallied forth to see the lions. Such a +delicious breeze was blowing in, from the north, as made the walk +delightful, tho the pavement-stones, and stones of the walls and houses, +were far too hot to have a hand laid on them comfortably.</p> + +<p>We went, first of all, up a rocky height, to the cathedral, where Mass was +performing to an auditory very like that of Lyons, namely, several old +women, a baby, and a very self-possest dog, who had marked out for himself +a little course or platform for exercise, beginning at the altar-rails and +ending at the door, up and down which constitutional walk he trotted, +during the service, as methodically and calmly, as any old gentleman out +of doors. It is a bare old church, and the paintings in the roof are sadly +defaced by time and damp weather; but the sun was shining in, splendidly, +through the red curtains of the windows, and glittering on the altar +furniture; and it looked as bright and cheerful as need be.</p> + +<p>Hard by the cathedral stands the ancient Palace of the Popes, of which one +portion is now a common jail, and another a noisy barrack; while gloomy +suites of state apartments, shut up and deserted, mock their own old state +and glory, like the embalmed bodies of kings. But we neither went there to +see state rooms, nor soldiers' quarters, nor a common jail, tho we dropt +some money into a prisoners' box outside, while the prisoners, themselves, +looked through the iron bars, high, up, and watched us eagerly. We went to +see the ruins of the dreadful rooms in which the Inquisition used to sit.</p> + +<p>A little, old, swarthy woman, with a pair of flashing black eyes--proof +that the world hadn't conjured down the devil within her, tho it had had +between sixty and seventy years to do it in--came out of the Barrack +Cabaret, of which she was the keeper, with some large keys in her hands, +and marshaled us the way that we should go. How she told us, on the way, +that she was a Government Officer (concierge du palais apostolique), and +had been, for I don't know how many years; and how she had shown these +dungeons to princes; and how she was the best of dungeon demonstrators; +and how she had resided in the palace from an infant--had been born there, +if I recollect right--I needn't relate.</p> + +<p>But such a fierce, little, rapid, sparkling, energetic she-devil I never +beheld. She was alight and flaming, all the time. Her action was violent +in the extreme. She never spoke, without stopping expressly for the +purpose. She stamped her feet, clutched us by the arms, flung herself into +attitudes, hammered against walls with her keys, for mere emphasis: now +whispered as if the Inquisition were there still; now shrieked as if she +were on the rack herself; and had a mysterious, hag-like way with her +forefinger, when approaching the remains of some new horror--looking back +and walking stealthily and making horrible grimaces--that might alone have +qualified her to walk up and down a sick man's counterpane, to the +exclusion of all other figures, through a whole fever.</p> + +<p>Passing through the courtyard, among groups of idle soldiers, we turned +off by a gate, which this She-Goblin unlocked for our admission, and +locked again behind us; and entered a narrow court, rendered narrower by +fallen stones and heaps of rubbish; part of it choking up the mouth of a +ruined subterranean passage, that once communicated (or is said to have +done so) with another castle on the opposite bank of the river. Close to +this courtyard is a dungeon--we stood within it, in another minute--in the +dismal tower of oubliettes, where Rienzi was imprisoned, fastened by an +iron chain to the very wall that stands there now, but shut out from the +sky which now looks down into it.</p> + +<p>A few steps brought us to the Cachots, in which the prisoners of the +Inquisition were confined for forty-eight hours after their capture, +without food or drink, that their constancy might be shaken, even before +they were confronted with their gloomy judges. The day has not got in +there yet. They are still small cells, shut in by four unyielding, close, +hard walls; still profoundly dark; still massively doored and fastened, as +of old.</p> + +<p>Goblin, looking back as I have described, went softly on, into a vaulted +chamber, now used as a store-room; once the Chapel of the Holy Office. The +place where the tribunal sat, was plain. The platform might have been +removed but yesterday. Conceive the parable of the Good Samaritan having +been painted on the wall of one of these Inquisition chambers! But it was, +and may be traced there yet.</p> + +<p>High up in the wall, are niches where the faltering replies of the accused +were heard and noted down. Many of them had been brought out of the very +cell we had just looked into, so awfully; along the same stone passage. We +had trodden in their very footsteps.</p> + +<p>I am gazing round me, with the horror that the place inspires, when Goblin +clutches me by the wrist, and lays, not her skinny finger, but the handle +of a key, upon her lip. She invites me, with a jerk, to follow her. I do +so. She leads me out into a room adjoining--a rugged room, with a funnel- +shaped, contracting roof, open at the top, to the bright day, I ask her +what it is. She folds her arms,, leers hideously, and stares. I ask again. +She glances round, to see that all the little company are there; sits down +upon a mound of stones; throws up her arms, and yells out, like a fiend, +"La Salle de la Question!"</p> + +<p>The Chamber of Torture! And the roof was made of that shape to stifle the +victim's cries! Oh Goblin, Goblin, let us think of this awhile, in +silence. Peace, Goblin! Sit with your short arms crossed on your short +legs, upon that heap of stones, for only five minutes, and then flame out +again.... A cold air, with an earthy smell, falls upon the face of +Monsieur; for she has opened, while speaking, a trap-door in the wall. +Monsieur looks in. Downward to the bottom, upward to the top, of a steep, +dark lofty tower; very dismal, very dark, very cold. The Executioner of +the Inquisition, says Goblin, edging in her head to look down also, flung +those who were past all further torturing, down here. "But look! does +Monsieur see the black stains on the wall?" A glance, over his shoulder, +at Goblin's keen eye, shows Monsieur--and would without the aid of the +directing-key--where they are. "What are they?" "Blood!"</p> + +<p>In October, 1791, when Revolution was at its height here, sixty persons; +men and women ("and priests," says Goblin, "priests"); were murdered, and +hurled, the dying and the dead, into this dreadful pit, where a quantity +of quicklime was tumbled down upon their bodies. Those ghastly tokens of +the massacre were soon no more; but while one stone of the strong building +in which the deed was done, remains upon another, there they will lie in +the memories of men, as plain to see as the splashing of their blood upon +the wall is now.... Goblin's finger is lifted; and she steals out again, +into the Chapel of the Holy Office. She stops at a certain part of the +flooring. Her great effect is at hand. She waits for the rest. She darts +at the brave courier, who is explaining something; hits him a sounding rap +on the hat with the largest key; and bids him be silent. She assembles us +all, round a little trap-door in the floor, as round as grave.</p> + +<p>"Voilà!" she darts down at the ring, and flings the door open with a +crash, in her goblin energy, tho it is no light weight. "Voilà les +oubliettes! Voilà les oubliettes! Subterranean! Frightful! Black! +Terrible! Deadly! Les oubliettes de l'Inquisition!"</p> + +<p>My blood ran cold, as I looked from Goblin, down into the vaults, where +these forgotten creatures, with recollections of the world outside--of +wives, friends, children, brothers--starved to death, and made the stones +ring with their unavailing groans. But, the thrill I felt on seeing the +accurst wall below, decayed and broken through, and the sun shining in +through its gaping wounds, was like a sense of victory and triumph.</p> + +<p>I felt exalted with the proud delight of living, in these degenerate +times, to see it. As if I were the hero of some high achievement! The +light in the doleful vaults was typical of the light that has streamed in, +on all persecution in God's name, but which is not yet at its noon! It can +not look more lovely to a blind man newly restored to sight, than to a +traveler who sees it, calmly and majestically, treading down the darkness +of that Infernal Well.</p> + +<p>Goblin, having shown les oubliettes, felt that her great coup was struck. +She let the door fall with a crash, and stood upon it with her arms +a-kimbo, sniffing prodigiously.</p> + +<p>When we left the place, I accompanied her into her house, under the outer +gateway of the fortress, to buy a little history of the building. Her +cabaret, a dark low room, lighted by small windows, sunk in the thick +wall--in the softened light, and with its forge-like chimney; its little +counter by the door, with bottles, jars, and glasses on it; its household +implements are scraps of dress against the wall; and a sober looking woman +(she must have a congenial life of it, with Goblin) knitting at the door-- +looked exactly like a picture by Ostade.</p> + +<p>I walked round the building on the outside, in a sort of dream, and yet +with the delightful sense of having awakened from it, of which the light, +down in the vaults, had given, me the assurance. The immense thickness and +giddy height of the walls, the enormous strength of the massive towers, +the great extent of the building, its gigantic proportions, frowning +aspect, and barbarous irregularity, awaken awe and wonder.</p> + +<p>The recollection of its opposite old uses; an impregnable fortress, a +luxurious palace, a horrible prison, a place of torture, the court of the +Inquisition; at one and the same time, a house of feasting, fighting, +religion, and blood, gives to every stone in its huge form a fearful +interest, and imparts new meaning to its incongruities. I could think of +little, however, then, or long afterward, but the sun in the dungeons.</p> + +<p>The palace coming down to be the lounging-place of noisy soldiers, and +being forced to echo their rough talk and common oaths, and to have their +garments fluttering from its dirty windows, was some reduction of its +state, and something to rejoice at; but the day in its cells, and the sky +for the roof of its chambers of cruelty--that was its desolation and +defeat! If I had seen it in a blaze from ditch to rampart, I should have +felt that not that light, nor all the light in all the fire that burns, +could waste it, like the sunbeams in its secret council-chamber and its +prisons.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="24"></a>The Building of the Great Palace</h1> + +<h2>By Thomas Oakey</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Story of Avignon." Published by E.P. Dutton & Co.]</p> + + + +<p>It will now be convenient briefly to trace the growth of that remarkable +edifice, at once a castle and a cloister, a palace and a prison, which +constitutes the chief attraction of Avignon to-day, and which, altho +defaced by time and by modern restorers, remains in its massive grandeur a +fitting memorial of the great line of pontiffs who have made that little +city famous in the annals of Christendom.</p> + +<p>We have seen that Pope John XXII., having allotted a piece of land to his +nephew, Arnaud de Via, for the erection of a new episcopal palace, was +content to modify and enlarge the old one for pontifical uses, and that +Benedict XII., with characteristic straightforwardness, purchased the new +fabric from Arnaud's heirs and, having handed it over to the diocesan +authorities, proceeded to transform the old building into a stately and +spacious apostolic palace for the head of Christendom.</p> + +<p>He was moved to this purchase after mature reflection, for it was a matter +of urgent importance that the pontiff of the church of Rome should possess +a palace of his own at Avignon as long as it might be necessary for him to +remain there. The relation between Curia and Episcopate being thus clearly +defined, Benedict appointed a compatriot, Pierre Poisson de Mirepoix, +master of the works, and, since about two-thirds of the existing palace +dates from Benedict's reign, Pierre Poisson may be regarded as its first +architect.</p> + +<p>More, probably, is known of the construction of the papal palace of +Avignon than of any other relic of medieval architecture. Thanks to the +researches of Father Ehrle, Prefect of the Vatican Library, and other +scholars, the sums paid to the contractors, their names, the estimates of +quantities, the wages of the chief workmen, and the price of materials, +are before us, and we can trace day by day and month by month the progress +of the great pile. The whole of the craftsmen, with the exception of the +later master painters from Italy and some northern sculptors, were either +Avignonais, Gascons or Provençals.</p> + +<p>The first work undertaken by Pierre was the enlargement of the papal +chapel of John XXII. This was doubled in length, and the lavish +decorations executed by John's master painter, Friar Pierre Dupuy, were +continued on the walls of the added portion; payments for white, green, +indigo, vermilion, carmine and other pigments, and for colored tiles, +testify to the brilliancy of its interior.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile work was proceeding on the massy new tower, the Turris Magna, +now known as the Tour des Anges, the best preserved of all the old towers. +The foundations were laid on April 3, 1335, and it was roofed with lead on +March 18, 1337. The basement formed the papal wine-cellar; the ground +floor was the treasury, or strong room, where the specie, the jewels, the +precious vessels of gold and silver and other valuables were stored; many +payments are recorded for locks and bars and bolts for their safe-keeping +within the ten-feet-thick walls of the tower.</p> + +<p>The next great work put in hand was the east wing, which was raised on a +space left by John's demolished, or partially demolished, structure. On +November 20, 1337, two masons (lapiscidarios), Pierre Folcaud and Jean +Chapelier, and a carpenter, Jacques Beyran, all of Avignon, contracted to +carry out the plans of a new architect, Bernard Canello, for the +completion of Benedict's private apartments, and on the same day Lambert +Fabre and Martin Guinaud, housewreckers, were paid eighty-three gold +florins on account, for the demolition of the old buildings. This wing, +since wholly remodeled by the legates and the modern corps of engineers, +comprised the papal Garde Robe, the Garde Meuble, the private kitchen and +offices and, on the floor above, the papal dining-room, study and private +oratory. The walls were, of course, embattlemented, and in 1337 the most +exposed portions of the new buildings were defended by a stout rampart....</p> + +<p>The whole ground floor, 110 feet by 33, was occupied by a great reception +hall (Camera Paramenti), where distinguished visitors were accorded a +first welcome before being admitted to a private audience, or accorded a +solemn state reception in consistory, as the import of their embassy +demanded. The popes were also used to receive the cardinals there, and two +doorkeepers were appointed who must be faithful, virtuous and honest men +and sleep in the hall; their office being one of great trust, was highly +paid, and they were generally laymen. It was probably in this hall that +St. Catherine was received by Clement VI. The Avignon conclaves were held +there, for on December 31, 1352, four hundred and fifteen days' and +nights' labor were employed in breaking down the walls between the dining- +hall and the Camera Paramenti, clearing away the stones and making secret +chambers for the lord cardinals, in which chambers were twenty-eight +cells....</p> + +<p>On September 5, 1339, John's old belfry was pulled down and Jean Mauser de +Carnot, who asserted he had excavated 11,300 basketfuls of rubbish, was +paid at the rate of twelve deniers the hundred for the work. Evidently +these were good times for the basket makers as well as builders. December +22, 1340, three contractors, Isnard and Raymond Durand and Jacques +Gasquet, received 1,273 florins for the completed new tower, with its +barbicans, battlements and machicoulis, which was on the site and which +retained the appellation of the Tour de la Campane, or Bell Tower. The +embattlemented and machicolated summit, but not the chastelet, of this +mighty tower has recently been restored; its walls are nearly twelve feet +thick....</p> + +<p>Benedict's last undertaking was the erection of the Tour de Trouillas, +next the Tour des Latrines, and on April 20, 1341, sixteen rubbish baskets +were bought for the "Saracens that excavated the foundations of the turris +nova." The Tour de Trouillas, tallest and stoutest of the keeps of the +mighty fortress, is 175 feet high as compared with the 150 feet of the +Tour de la Campane, and its walls fifteen feet thick as compared with +twelve feet. It should be noted, however, that the latter tower appears +the taller owing to the elevated ground whereon, it stands....</p> + +<p>Having bought, by private agreement or by arbitration, all the houses +adjacent to the palace on the south side, Clement next proceeded to +demolish them and on the site to raise the noblest and most beautiful wing +of the great palace. This edifice, known to contemporaries as the great +new palace, comprised a spacious Chapel and Hall of Justice; and in August +9, 1344, contracts were made for cutting away and leveling the rock above +the present Rue Peyrolerie, whereon, by October 21, 1351, the masons had +raised their beautiful building.</p> + +<p>On that day, by order of our lord the pope, one hundred florins were +handed over by the papal chamber to Master John of Loubières to distribute +among the masters to celebrate the placing of the keystone in the vaulting +of the new chapel of the palace and the completion of the said chapel. On +All Saints' Day of that same year Clement recited (a month before his +death) the first solemn mass in his great new chapel and preached a most +eloquent sermon, praising God for the completion of his life's work. The +lower hall, most famous of judicial chambers in Christendom and final +Court of Appeal in all questions of international and ecclesiastical law, +was later in opening.</p> + +<p>Among the amenities of the old palace were the spacious and lovely gardens +on the east, with their clipt hedges, avenues of trees, flower-beds and +covered and frescoed walls, all kept fresh and green by channels of water. +John maintained a menagerie of lions and other wild and strange beasts; +stately peacocks swept proudly along the green swards, for the inventory +of 1369 specifies seventeen peacocks, some old and some young, whereof six +were white.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>But we have as yet dealt chiefly with the external shell of this mass of +architecture which, tall and mighty, raises its once impregnable walls and +towers against the sky. The beauty of its interior remains briefly to be +touched upon, for the fortress palace had, as Clement left it, some +analogy with the great Moorish palace of the Alhambra in that it stood +outwardly grim and strong, while within it was a shrine of exquisite and +luxurious art.</p> + +<p>The austere Benedict, who, his biographer tells us, left the walls of the +consistory naked, appears to have expended little on the pictorial +decorations of the halls and chambers erected during his pontificate; but +with the elevation of the luxurious and art-loving Clement VI., a new +spirit breathes over the fabric. The stern simplicity and noble strength +of his predecessor's work assume an internal vesture of richness and +beauty; the walls glow with azure and gold; a legion of Gallic sculptors +and Italian painters lavish their art on the embellishment of the +palace....</p> + +<p>Such, in brief outline, was the progress of the mighty fabric and its +internal decoration which the great popes of Avignon raised to be their +dwelling-place, their fortress, and the ecclesiastical center of +Christendom. Tho shorn of all its pristine beauty and robbed of much of +its symmetry, it stands to-day in bulk and majesty, much as it stood at +the end of Clement VI.'s reign, when a contemporary writer describes it as +a quadrangular edifice, enclosed within high walls and towers and +constructed in most noble style, and tho it was all most beautiful to look +upon, there were three parts of transcendent beauty: the Audientia, the +Capella major, and the terraces: and these were so admirably planned and +contrived that peradventure no palace comparable to it was to be found in +the whole world. The terraces referred to were those raised over the great +chapel, and were formed of stone, bedded in asphalt and laid on a staging +of stout oak joists; the view from the terraces was unparalleled for range +and beauty.</p> + +<p>The glowing splendor of frescoed walls was enhanced by gorgeous hangings +and tapestries and by the magnificent robes and jewels of popes and +cardinals. Crowds of goldsmiths--forty were employed at the papal court-- +embroiderers and silk mercers, made Avignon famous thoughout Europe. In +1337, 318 florins were paid for eight Paris carpets; in 1343 Clement VI. +paid 213 florins for green silk hangings, and 254 florins for carpets +adorned with roses; in 1348, 400 gold and silver vessels turned the scales +at 862 marks, 5 ounces; in the inventory of 1369, despite the fact that +the most precious had been sent to Rome, the gold vessels were weighed out +at 1,434 marks, 1 ounce; the silver at 5,525 marks 7 ounces.</p> + +<p>A cardinal's hat cost from 15 to 40 florins, and in 1348, 150 florins were +paid for one piece of scarlet for the pope, and 75 to 100 florins for the +garniture of a riding cloak. Clement VI. spent 1,278 florins in the +purchase of cloth of gold, woven by the Saracens of Damascus; one payment +to Jacopo Malabayla of Arti for summer and winter clothing for the papal +household amounted to 6,510 florins, and the same obviously Hebrew +merchant received 10,652 florins in 1341 for cloth and ermine and beaver; +in 1347 Clement's furrier received 1,080 ermine skins, whereof 430 were +used in one cloak, 310 for a mantle, 150 for two hoods, and 88 for nine +birettas; in 1351, 2,258 florins went to Tuscany for silk, and 385 for +brocade to Venice.</p> + +<p>The richness of the papal utensils beggars description; jeweled cups, +flagons of gold, knife handles of jasper and ivory, forks of mother-of- +pearl and gold. A goldsmith in 1382 was paid 14 florins for repairing two +of the last-named implements. The flabelli, or processional feather fans, +cost 14 florins; Benedict XIII., paid 300 florins for an enameled silver +bit; the Golden Roses cost from 100 to 300 florins. Presents of jewels +were costly and frequent. Gregory XI. gave 168 pearls, value 179 francs, +to the citizens of Avellino; Clement VII. presented the Duke of Burgundy +with a ring of gold, worth 335 florins; an aguière of gold and pearls, +valued at 1,000 florins, and two tables each over 200 florins. Richer +gifts were lavished on sovereign princes. Reliquaries were of prodigious +value; the gold cross containing a piece of the true cross at the +Célestins weighed fifteen pounds. In 1375 a silver arm for the image of +St. Andrew cost over 2,566 florins.</p> + +<p>The cardinals were equally munificent. The most striking example of lavish +splendor is afforded by the State banquet given to Clement V., by the +Cardinals Arnaud de Palegrue and Pierre Taillefer in May, 1308. Clement, +as he descended from his litter, was received by his hosts and twenty +chaplains, who conducted him to a chamber hung with richest tapestries +from floor to ceiling; he trod on velvet carpet of triple pile; his state- +bed was draped with fine crimson velvet, lined with white ermine; the +sheets of silk were embroidered with silver and gold.</p> + +<p>The table was served by four papal knights and twelve squires, who each +received silver girdles and purses filled with gold from the hosts. Fifty +cardinals' squires assisted them in serving the banquet, which consisted +of nine courses of three plates each--twenty-seven dishes in all. The +meats were built up in fantastic form: castles, gigantic stags, boars, +horses, etc. After the fourth service, the cardinal offered his holiness a +milk-white steed worth 400 florins; two gold rings, jeweled with an +enormous sapphire and a no less enormous topaz; and a bowl, worth 100 +florins; sixteen cardinal guests and twenty prelates were given rings and +jewels, and twelve young clerks of the papal house and twenty-four +sergeants-at-arms received purses filled with florins.</p> + +<p>After the fifth service, a great tower with a font whence gushed forth +five sorts of choicest wines was carried in; and a tourney was run during +the interval between the seventh and eighth courses. Then followed a +concert of sweetest music, and dessert was furnished by two trees--one of +silver, bearing rarest fruits of all kinds, and the other loaded with +sugared fruits of many colors. Various wines were then served, whereupon +the master cooks, with thirty assistants, executed dances before the +guests. Clement, by this time, having had enough, retired to his chamber, +where, lest he might faint for lack of refreshment during the night, wine +and spices were brought to him; the entertainment ended with dances and +distractions of many kinds.</p> + +<p>There is no reason to believe that the Avignon popes, either in their +household expenditure or in their personal luxury, were more extravagant +than their Roman predecessors or successors. Yet amid all this luxury, +strange defects of comfort appear to the modern sense. Windows, as we have +seen, were generally covered with wax cloth or linen, carpets were rare, +and rushes were strewn on the floors of most of the rooms. From May to +November, 1349, more than 300 loads of rushes were supplied for use in the +dining-rooms and chambers of the apostolic palace. Subsequently mats were +introduced, and in 1352 Pierre de Glotos, mat-maker to the palace of our +lord and pope, was paid for 275 cannae of matting for the palace of +Avignon and for the palace beyond the Rhone and the new chapel.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="25"></a>The Walls of Avignon</h1> + +<h2>By Thomas Oakey</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Story of Avignon." Published by E.P. Dutton & Co.]</p> + + + +<p>Intimately associated with the history of the palace of the Popes of +Avignon is that of the unparalleled circuit of walls and towers which +defended the city from the scourge of organized robber bands during the +fourteenth century. The earliest quadrilateral fortifications embraced a +relatively small area consisting of the Rocher des Doms and the parishes +of St. Agricol, St. Didier, and St. Pierre; these walls, demolished and +rebuilt on a more extensive scale in the twelfth century, embraced an area +easily traceable on the modern map, from the Porte du Rhone, round the +Rues du Limas, Joseph Vernet, des Lices, Philonarde, Campane, Trois +Colombes, to the Rocher.</p> + +<p>It was these fortifications that the Cardinal St. Angelo forced the +citizens to raze in 1227. Until the acquisition of Avignon by Clement VI., +the city was an open one and only defended by a double fosse. The origin +of the papal walls has already been traced, and their subsequent fate may +now be briefly given. The assaults of the Rhone proved more destructive +than human artillery. The walls and towers having been hastily raised, +towers fell by reason of bad foundation, and the upkeep of the +fortifications was a continual drain on papal and communal finances.</p> + +<p>In 1362 an irresistible flood of waters overthrew the Fortes St. Michel +and Limbert, and large breaches were often made by these recurring +inundations. Moreover, the expansion of the city of old and the need of +access to the suburbs involved frequent displacement and opening of new +gates. In 1482 the whole system of the defensive works was modified to +meet the new situation caused by the introduction of gunpowder. The gates +most exposed to attack were further defended by outworks, that of St. +Lazare having been fortified during the rule of Giuliano della Rovere by +the addition of a powerful bastide, with three round towers, a drawbridge, +a new fosse which communicated with the great fosse before the main walls. +Other modifications took place during the Huguenot wars.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding many repairs during the intervening centuries, the +fortifications had, under the second Empire, suffered sad degradation, and +at length Viollet-le-Duc was entrusted with their restoration. The famous +architect set to work on their southern side and had completed about one- +third of the restoration when the disastrous issue of the Franco-Prussian +war arrested all further progress until the Third Republic feebly resumed +the task. The walls along the Rhone, especially useful in time of flood, +were backed with stone, their battlements and machicoulis renewed. The +visitor, however, will need no reminder that the present passive aspect of +the ramparts conveys but a faint impression of their former state, when a +broad and deep fosse, seven feet by twelve, washed their bases, above +which they raised their once impregnable curtains full thirty feet.</p> + +<p>Two of the old gates have been demolished--the Porte de Limbert in 1896, +and the Porte de l'Oulle in 1900--the former, many times repaired, was the +only existing example of the external aspect of a medieval gate, the +latter had been rebuilt in 1786 in the Doric style. A new gate, the Porte +Pétrarque, now the Porte de la République, was erected by Viollet-le-Duc +when the walls were pierced for the new street; the Porte St. Dominique is +also new. These noble mural defenses, three miles in circuit, twice +narrowly escaped demolition--at the construction of the railway, when they +were saved by a vigorous protest of Prosper Mérimée, and in 1902, when, on +the pretext that they blocked the development of the city, the +municipality decided to demolish the unrestored portions. Luckily the +intervention of a public-spirited Prefect of Vaucluse proved successful, +and they were again rescued from the housewrecker's pick. No visitor to +Avignon should omit to walk or drive round the famous ramparts.</p> + +<p>Their stones have been subjected to careful scrutiny by antiquarians and +the masons' marks (tacherons)--about 4,500--carefully examined and reduced +to about four hundred and fifty types. Opinions differ as to the meaning +of these curious signs, but there is little doubt that M. Maire's +suggestion is the correct one--the workmen were paid by the piece, and +each had his own private mark which he cut on the stones he laid and thus +enabled the foreman to check his work.</p> + +<p>We begin at the Porte du Rhône, and skirt the older part of the walls on +the northwest with their different style of corbels and machicoulis. M. +Maire has no hesitation in assigning this portion to the time of Clement +VI., by reason of the coarser nature of the masons' marks. Turning +southwards, we pass the Porte St. Dominique, and reach the Porte St. Roch +(formerly the Porte du Chamfleury, and only opened at plague times) and +the Porte de la République. We soon note the unrestored portions, the site +of the old Porte Limbert, and turn northward to the Porte St. Lazare.</p> + +<p>Before we reach this gate we may fitly make a digression, and in pious +memory of a great Englishman, fare along the Avenue du Cimetière to the +grave of John Stuart Mill, who with his wife lies buried within the +cemetery under an elder-tree on the right and toward the end of Avenue 2. +A plain stone slab bears the well-known inscription to Mrs. Mill's memory +--the noblest and most eloquent epitaph ever composed by man for woman. It +is pleasant to remember that Mill has left golden opinions of his +gentleness and generosity behind him at Avignon. His house, a charming +little hermitage approached by an avenue of plane trees not far from the +cemetery, was sold in 1905, and a few relics were bought and still are +cherished by the rare friends the somewhat self-centered philosopher made +in the city. The present owner has preserved the library and study, where +the "Essay on Liberty" was written, much as it was in Mill's days.</p> + +<p>To the peasants who met the tall, bent, spare figure, musing and +botanizing along the country lanes and fields, he was known as "Monsieur +Émile." Before he left the city on his periodical visits to England, Mill +was wont to leave 300 francs with M. Rey, pastor of the Protestant Church +in Avignon: two hundred for expenses of public worship; one hundred for +the poor, always charging M. Rey to write to England if any further need +arose.</p> + +<p>Mill, a great Englishman of European fame, to the amazement of his French +friends, was followed to his last resting-place by no more than five +mourners. As we write news comes that the civic authorities have decided +to recall to posterity the association of the great thinker with Avignon +by giving the name of Stuart Mill to a new boulevard, and that a bust has +been unveiled to his memory near the pleasant city he loved so well. Mill +was much gratified that his pamphlet on "The Subjection of Women" +converted Mistral to the movement for their enfranchisement, and their +legal equality with men.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="26"></a>Villeneuve and the Broken Bridge</h1> + +<h2>By Thomas Oakey</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Story of Avignon." Published by E.P. +Dutton & Co.]</p> + + + +<p>The royal city of Villeneuve, altho geographically and politically +sundered from Avignon and the County Venaissin, was socially and +economically bound up with the papal city. The same reason that to-day +impels the rich citizens of Avignon to dot the hills of Languedoc with +their summer villas was operative in papal times, and popes and cardinals +and prelates loved to build their summer places on the opposite bank of +the Rhone.</p> + +<p>How silent and neglected are the streets of this once wealthy and +important city! How degraded its monuments, how faded its glory! In the +hot, dusty afternoon, as the cranky old omnibus rattles along the narrow +High Street, it appears to awaken echoes in a city of the dead.</p> + +<p>Making our way northward, we pass the restored seventeenth-century portal +of the palace of the sainted Cardinal of Luxembourg; the weather-worn, +neglected, late Renaissance portal of the so-called Hôtel de Conti; the +ruined Gothic portal of the palace of Cardinal Pierre de Thury, through +which we pass to the old court-yard and a chapel subsequently restored and +now used as the chapel of the Grey Penitents.</p> + +<p>We pass many another relic of departed grandeur, and beyond the Place +Neuve on our right come upon a great portal which opens on a vaulted +passage leading to one of the most bewildering and extraordinary congeries +of ruined monastic buildings in France, now inhabited by a population of +poor folk--two hundred families, it is said--who, since the Revolution, +have settled in the vast buildings of the once famous and opulent +Charterhouse of Villeneuve. Founded by Innocent VI., three years after his +elevation to the papal chair, and enriched by subsequent endownments, the +Charterhouse of the Val de Bénédiction, the second in importance of the +Order, grew in wealth and importance during the centuries until it was +sacked and sold in small lots during the Revolution to the ancestors of +the present occupants.</p> + +<p>The circuit of its walls was a mile in extent; its artistic treasures were +prodigious. The Coronation of the Virgin came thence; the Pietá of +Villeneuve, now in the Louvre; the founder's tomb; the high altar of Notre +Dame at Villeneuve, and a few other relics, alone survive of its vast +possessions. The scene resembles nothing so much as a city ruined by +bombardment or earthquake, but how long the wreck will remain in its +present picturesque and melancholy condition is difficult to forecast. The +state is slowly buying out the owners, and doubtless ere many years are +passed the more valuable artistic remains will have been swept and +garnished and restored.</p> + +<p>As we return from the Chartreuse we turn left along the Place Neuve, and +climb to the mighty fort of St. André, which occupies the most venerable +site in the royal new city, for on the hill where it stands tradition +relates that St. Cesarie, Bishop of Arles, was buried, and that there, in +the sixth century, the first Benedictines settled. The primitive +settlement, destroyed in the ninth century, was extensively rebuilt in +980, and within its walls, churches were dedicated to St. Andrew, St. +Michael, and St. Martin. In the twelfth century the rich and powerful +monastery, a strongly fortified, self-sufficing community, was held under +the counts of Toulouse, and from their overlordship it was subsequently +admitted by the counts to be within the territory of the republic of +Avignon, whose consuls in 1210 compelled the abbot to demolish his walls +and promise never to rebuild them.</p> + +<p>In 1292 Philip the Fair was permitted to settle a small community there, +to whom he accorded in 1293 valuable privileges and the same protection he +granted to his good city of Paris. Philip, to whom the position was +valuable as a frontier post, erected a castle there, maintained a royal +garrison, and the new settlement became known as the New Town +(Villeneuve). The walls and towers then raised were rebuilt in 1352 by +John the Good, who exacted a toll, known as St. Andrew's penny, for +maintenance on all merchandise that passes through the Senechaussée of +Beaucaire.</p> + +<p>Of these majestic ruins, restored in the sixteenth century and again in +recent times, the Tour des Masques at the west angle with its simple +battlements is the oldest portion, the massive machicolated towers that +frown over the main entrance having been raised by John the Good. The +ruined ravelin dates back to the seventeenth century. We enter and stroll +about the desolate interior, crowned by a tiny Romanesque chapel of the +twelfth century, that well deserves its name of Our Lady of the Fair View +(Notre Dame de Belvézét), with a graceful apse (restored). From its +summit, or from the tall old watch-tower of the monastery, a marvelous +view is obtained of the gaping ruins of the Charterhouse of Avignon, the +County Venaissin, the Cévennes, Mount Ventoux, and the distant Alps.</p> + +<p>In the later years of the monarchy a post of artillery was stationed in +the fort, and it was from the fire of a battery planted there that a young +captain of artillery, one Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1793, overawed the city +of Avignon, which was occupied by the Marseillais federalists who had +declared against the Convention; and it was with the cannon seized at St. +André that Bonaparte marched to Toulon and expelled the English from its +harbor.</p> + +<p>The papal soldiery were ever objects of scorn to the royalists of +Villeneuve, who dubbed them "patachines" ("pestacchina," Ital. for +slipper), and taunted them with drilling under parasols--a pleasantry +repaid by the Italians who hurled the epithet "luzers" (lizards) against +the royalists, who were said to pass their time sunning themselves against +the hot rocks of Villeneuve.</p> + +<p>Descending the stately stairway that leads to the foot of the Rocher des +Doms, and turning to the left, we soon reach the house of the "gardien du +pont," who will admit us to all that remains of the miraculous pontifical +structure of the twelfth century. The destructive hand of man and the +assaults of the Rhone have dealt hardly with St. Benezet's work. Ruined +during the siege of 1226, it was repaired in 1234-37, and in 1349 knit to +the papal fortress at the Avignon end. In 1352, when Clement VI. rebuilt +four of the arches, it is described as of stone and wood; it was cut +during the siege of Benedict XIII., and repaired, or rebuilt, in 1418 and +1430; in 1602 three arches collapsed; in 1633 two more fell, and in 1650 +the gaps were bridged by wooden struts and planks, which were carried away +in 1670 by ice-floes.</p> + +<p>Owing to the interminable dispute between the monarchy and the papacy as +to liability for its repair, each power claiming jurisdiction over the +Rhone, all attempts to preserve it from ruin were abandoned in 1680, when +Louis XIV. refused either to allow the legates to take toll for the +necesary repairs, or to undertake them himself.</p> + +<p>Little is known of the original bridge, which consisted of twenty-two +semi-circular arches (Viollet-le-Duc gives eighteen), much lower than the +present elliptic ones, which date back to the thirteenth century, +according to Labaude--or to the fifteenth century, acording to other +authorities--when the bridge, having proved too low-pitched, was raised to +its present level, and the flood arches over the piles were built. The +four subsisting arches were, with the bridge chapel, restored during the +last century. The old bridge formed an elbow upstream on the Villeneuve +branch of the Rhone.</p> + +<p>The chapel of St. Nicholas, too, has suffered many vicissitudes. The +primitive Romanesque building was raised to the level of the new footway +by dividing the nave into two floors and building a flight of steps, +supported on a squinch arch, down to what then became the lower chapel. +Much battered during the sieges of the palace, it was restored and +reconsecrated in 1411 and a century later the Gothic upper apse was added, +whose external walls overtop the old nave. In consequence of these +modifications the lower chapel has a Gothic nave and a Romanesque apse, +whereas the upper chapel has a Gothic apse and a Romanesque nave.</p> + +<p>The "Pont d'Avignon" is known to every French-speaking child, and with +many variants the old "ronde" is sung and danced from the remotest plains +of Canada to the valleys of the Swiss Alps. The good folk of Avignon, +however, protest that their "rondes" were not danced perilously on the +narrow Pont St. Benezet, but under its arches on the green meadows of the +Isle de la Barthelasse, and that "Sur" in lieu of "Sous" is due to +northern misunderstanding of their sweet Provençal tongue.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="27"></a>Orange</h1> + +<h2>By Henry James</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "A Little Tour In France." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1884.]</p> + + + +<p>I alighted at Orange to visit a collection of eminently civil monuments. +The collection consists of but two objects, but these objects are so fine +that I will let the word pass. One of them is a triumphal arch, supposedly +of the period of Marcus Aurelius; the other is a fragment, magnificent in +its ruin, of a Roman theater. But for these fine Roman remains and for its +name, Orange is a perfectly featureless little town, without the Rhone-- +which, as I have mentioned, is several miles distant--to help it to a +physiognomy. It seems one of the oddest things that this obscure French +borough--obscure, I mean, in our modern era, for the Gallo-Roman Arausio +must have been, judging it by its arches and theater, a place of some +importance--should have given its name to the heirs apparent of the throne +of Holland, and been borne by a king of England who had sovereign rights +over it. During the Middle Ages it formed part of an independent +principality; but in 1531 it fell, by the marriage of one of its +princesses, who had inherited it, into the family of Nassau. I read in my +indispensable Murray that it was made over to France by the treaty of +Utrecht.</p> + +<p>The arch of triumph, which stands a little way out of the town, is rather +a pretty than an imposing vestige of the Romans. If it had greater purity +of style, one might say of it that it belonged to the same family of +monuments as the Maison Carée at Nîmes. It has three passages--the middle +much higher than the others--and a very elevated attic. The vaults of the +passages are richly sculptured, and the whole monument is covered with +friezes and military trophies. This sculpture is rather mixed; much of it +is broken and defaced, and the rest seemed to me ugly, tho its workmanship +is praised. The arch is at once well preserved and much injured. Its +general mass is there, and as Roman monuments go it is remarkably perfect; +but it has suffered, in patches, from the extremity of restoration. It is +not, on the whole, of absorbing interest.</p> + +<p>It has a charm, nevertheless, which comes partly from its soft, bright +yellow color, partly from a certain elegance of shape, of expression; and +on that well-washed Sunday morning, with its brilliant tone, surrounded by +its circle of thin poplars, with the green country lying beyond it and a +low blue horizon showing through its empty portals, it made, very +sufficiently, a picture that hangs itself to one of the lateral hooks of +the memory. I can take down the modest composition, and place it before me +as I write. I see the shallow, shining puddles in the hard, fair French +road; the pale blue sky, diluted by days of rain; the disgarnished +autumnal fields; the mild sparkle of the low horizon; the solitary figure +in sabots, with a bundle under its arm, advancing along the "chaussée;" +and in the middle I see the little ochre-colored monument, which, in spite +of its antiquity, looks bright and gay, as everything must look in France +of a fresh Sunday morning.</p> + +<p>It is true that this was not exactly the appearance of the Roman theater, +which lies on the other side of the town; a fact that did not prevent me +from making my way to it in less than five minutes, through a succession +of little streets concerning which I have no observations to record. None +of the Roman remains in the south of France are more impressive than this +stupendous fragment. An enormous mound rises above the place, which was +formerly occupied--I quote from Murray--first by a citadel of the Romans, +then by a castle of the princes of Nassau, razed by Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>Facing this hill a mighty wall erects itself, thirty-six meters high, and +composed of massive blocks of dark brown stone, simply laid one on the +other; the whole naked, rugged surface of which suggests a natural cliff +(say of the Vaucluse order) rather than an effort of human, or even of +Roman labor. It is the biggest thing at Orange--it is bigger than all +Orange put together--and its permanent massiveness makes light of the +shrunken city. The face it presents to the town--the top of it garnished +with two rows of brackets, perforated with holes to receive the staves of +the "velarium"--bears the traces of more than one tier of ornamental +arches; tho how these flat arches were applied, or incrusted, upon the +wall, I do not profess to explain.</p> + +<p>You pass through a diminutive postern--which seems in proportion about as +high as the entrance of a rabbit-hutch--into the lodge of the custodian, +who introduces you to the interior of the theater. Here the mass of the +hill affronts you, which the ingenious Romans treated simply as the +material of their auditorium. They inserted their stone seats, in a +semicircle, in the slope of the hill, and planted their colossal wall +opposite to it. This wall, from the inside, is, if possible, even more +imposing. It formed the back of the stage, the permanent scene, and its +enormous face was coated with marble. It contains three doors, the middle +one being the highest, and having above it, far aloft, a deep niche, +apparently intended for an imperial statue. A few of the benches remain on +the hillside, which, however, is mainly a confusion of fragments. There is +part of a corridor built into the hill, high up, and on the crest are the +remnants of the demolished castle.</p> + +<p>The whole place is a kind of wilderness of ruin; there are scarcely any +details; the great feature is the overtopping wall. This wall being the +back of the scene, the space left between it and the chord of the +semicircle (of the auditorium) which formed the proscenium is rather less +than one would have supposed. In other words, the stage was very shallow, +and appears to have been arranged for a number of performers standing in a +line, like a company of soldiers. There stands the silent skeleton, +however, as impressive by what it leaves you to guess and wonder about as +by what it tells you. It has not the sweetness, the softness of +melancholy, of the theater at Arles; but it is more extraordinary, and one +can imagine only tremendous tragedies being enacted there--</p> + +<blockquote> "Presenting Thebes' or Pelops' line."</blockquote> + +<p>At either end of the stage, coming forward, is an immense wing--immense in +height, I mean, as it reaches to the top of the scenic wall; the other +dimensions are not remarkable. The division to the right, as you face the +stage, is pointed out as the green-room; its portentous altitude and the +open arches at the top give it the air of a well. The compartment on the +left is exactly similar, save that it opens into the traces of other +chambers, said to be those of a hippodrome adjacent to the theater. +Various fragments are visible which refer themselves plausibly to such an +establishment; the greater axis of the hippodrome would appear to have +been on a line with the triumphal arch. This is all I saw, and all there +was to see, of Orange, which had a very rustic, bucolic aspect, and where +I was not even called upon to demand breakfast at the hotel. The entrance +of this resort might have been that of a stable of the Roman days.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="28"></a>Vaucluse</h1> + +<h2>By Bayard Taylor</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "Views Afoot." Published by G.P. Putnam's +Sons.]</p> + + + +<p>This district borders on the desert of the Crau, a vast plain of stones +reaching to the mouth of the Rhone and almost entirely uninhabited. We +caught occasional glimpses of its sealike waste between the summits of the +hills. At length, after threading a high ascent, we saw the valley of the +Durance suddenly below us. The sun, breaking through the clouds, shone on +the mountain-wall which stood on the opposite side, touching with his glow +the bare and rocky precipices that frowned far above the stream. +Descending to the valley, we followed its course toward the Rhone with the +ruins of feudal "bourgs" crowning the crags above us.</p> + +<p>It was dusk when we reached the village of Senas tired with the day's +march. A landlord standing in his door, on the lookout for customers, +invited us to enter in a manner so polite and pressing we could not choose +but do so. This is a universal custom with the country innkeepers. In a +little village which we passed toward evening there was a tavern with the +sign "The Mother of Soldiers." A portly woman whose face beamed with +kindness and cheerfulness stood in the door and invited us to stop there +for the night. "No, mother," I answered; "we must go much farther to-day." +"Go, then," said she, "with good luck, my children! A pleasant journey!"</p> + +<p>On entering the inn at Senas two or three bronzed soldiers were sitting by +the table. My French vocabulary happening to give out in the middle of a +consultation about eggs and onion-soup, one of them came to my assistance +and addrest me in German. He was from Fulda, in Hesse-Cassel, and had +served fifteen years in Africa....</p> + +<p>Leaving next morning at daybreak, we walked on before breakfast to Orgon, +a little village in a corner of the cliffs which border the Durance, and +crossed the muddy river by a suspension bridge a short distance below, to +Cavaillon, where the country-people were holding a great market. From this +place a road led across the meadow-land to L'Isle, six miles distant. This +little town is so named because it is situated on an island formed by the +crystal Sorgues, which flows from the fountains of Vaucluse.</p> + +<p>It is a very picturesque and pretty place. Great mill-wheels, turning +slowly and constantly, stand at intervals in the stream, whose grassy +banks are now as green as in springtime. We walked along the Sorgues-- +which is quite as beautiful and worthy to be sung as the Clitumnus--to the +end of the village to take the road to Vaucluse. Beside its banks stands +the "Hôtel de Petrarque et Laure." Alas that names of the most romantic +and impassioned lovers of all history should be desecrated to a sign-post +to allure gormandizing tourists!</p> + +<p>The bare mountain in whose heart lies the poet's solitude now rose before +us at the foot of the lofty Mount Ventoux, whose summit of snows extended +beyond. We left the river and walked over a barren plain across which the +wind blew most drearily. The sky was rainy and dark, and completed the +desolateness of the scene, which in nowise heightened our anticipations of +the renowned glen. At length we rejoined the Sorgues and entered a little +green valley running up into the mountain. The narrowness of the entrance +entirely shut out the wind, and, except the rolling of the waters over +their pebbly bed, all was still and lonely and beautiful. The sides of the +dell were covered with olive trees, and a narrow strip of emerald meadow +lay at the bottom.</p> + +<p>It grew more hidden and sequestered as we approached the little village of +Vaucluse. Here the mountain towers far above, and precipices of gray rock +many hundred feet high hang over the narrowing glen. On a crag over the +village are the remains of a castle; the slope below this, now rugged and +stony, was once graced by the cottage and garden of Petrarch. All traces +of them have long since vanished, but a simple column bearing the +inscription. "A Petrarque" stands beside the Sorgues.</p> + +<p>We ascended into the defile by a path among the rocks, overshadowed by +olives and wild fig-trees, to the celebrated fountains of Vaucluse. The +glen seems as if stuck into the mountain's depths by one blow of the +enchanter's wand, and just at the end, where the rod might have rested in +its downward sweep, is the fathomless well whose over-brimming fulness +gives birth to the Sorgues. We climbed up over the mossy rocks and sat +down in the grotto beside the dark, still pool. It was the most absolute +solitude.</p> + +<p>The rocks towered above and over us to the height of six hundred feet, and +the gray walls of the wild glen below shut out all appearance of life. I +leaned over the rock and drank of the blue crystal that grew gradually +darker toward the center till it became a mirror and gave back a perfect +reflection of the crags above it. There was no bubbling, no gushing up +from its deep bosom, but the wealth of sparkling waters continually welled +over as from a too-full goblet.</p> + +<p>It was with actual sorrow that I turned away from the silent spot. I never +visited a place to which the fancy clung more suddenly and fondly. There +is something holy in its solitude, making one envy Petrarch the years of +calm and unsullied enjoyment which blest him there. As some persons whom +we pass as strangers strike a hidden chord in our spirits, compelling a +silent sympathy with them, so some landscapes have a character of beauty +which harmonizes thrillingly with the mood in which we look upon them, +till we forget admiration in the glow of spontaneous attachment. They seem +like abodes of the beautiful which the soul in its wanderings long ago +visited and now recognizes and loves as the home of a forgotten dream. It +was thus I felt by the fountains of Vaucluse; sadly and with weary steps I +turned away, leaving its loneliness unbroken as before.</p> + +<p>We returned over the plain in the wind, under the gloomy sky, passed +L'Isle at dusk, and after walking an hour with a rain following close +behind us stopt at an auberge in Le Thor, where we rested our tired frames +and broke our long day's fasting. We were greeted in the morning with a +dismal rain and wet roads as we began the march. After a time, however, it +poured down in such torrents that we were obliged to take shelter in a +remise by the roadside, where a good woman who addrest us in the +unintelligible Provençal kindled up a blazing fire. On climbing a long +hill when the storm had abated, we experienced a delightful surprise. +Below us lay the broad valley of the Rhone, with its meadows looking fresh +and spring-like after the rain. The clouds were breaking away; clear blue +sky was visible over Avignon, and a belt of sunlight lay warmly along the +mountains of Languedoc. Many villages with their tall picturesque towers +dotted the landscape, and the groves of green olive enlivened the +barrenness of winter.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="29"></a>The Pont du Gard--Aigues-Mortes-Nîmes</h1> + +<h2>By Henry James</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "A Little Tour in France." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1884.]</p> + + + +<p>It was a pleasure to feel one's self in Provence again--the land where the +silver-gray earth is impregnated with the light of the sky. To celebrate +the event, as soon as I arrived at Nîmes I engaged a calèche to convey me +to the Pont du Gard. The day was yet young, and it was perfectly fair; it +appeared well, for a longish drive, to take advantage, without delay, of +such security. After I had left the town I became more intimate with that +Provençal charm which I had already enjoyed from the window of the train, +and which glowed in the sweet sunshine and the white rocks, and lurked in +the smoke-puffs of the little olives.</p> + +<p>The olive-trees in Provence are half the landscape. They are neither so +tall, so stout, nor so richly contorted as I have seen them beyond the +Alps; but this mild colorless bloom seems the very texture of the country. +The road from Nîmes, for a distance of fifteen miles, is superb; broad +enough for an army, and as white and firm as a dinner-table. It stretches +away over undulations which suggest a kind of harmony; and in the curves +it makes through the wide, free country, where there is never a hedge or a +wall, and the detail is always exquisite, there is something majestic, +almost processional. You are very near (the Pont du Gard) before you see +it; the ravine it spans suddenly opens and exhibits the picture. The scene +at this point grows extremely beautiful. The ravine is the valley of the +Garden, which the road from Nîmes has followed some time without taking +account of it, but which, exactly at the right distance from the aqueduct, +deepens and expands, and puts on those characteristics which are best +suited to give it effect. The gorge becomes romantic, still, and solitary, +and, with its white rocks and wild shrubbery, hangs over the clear, +colored river, in whose slow course there is here and there a deeper pool. +Over the valley, from side to side, and ever so high in the air, stretch +the three tiers of the tremendous bridge. They are unspeakably imposing, +and nothing could well be more Roman.</p> + +<p>The hugeness, the solidity, the unexpectedness, the monumental rectitude +of the whole thing leave you nothing to say--at the time--and make you +stand gazing. You simply feel that it is noble and perfect, that it has +the quality of greatness. A road, branching from the highway, descends to +the level of the river and passes under one of the arches. This road has a +wide margin of grass and loose stones, which slopes upward into the bank +of the ravine. You may sit here as long as you please, staring up at the +light, strong piers; the spot is extremely natural, tho two or three stone +benches have been erected on it.</p> + +<p>I remained there an hour and got a complete impression; the place was +perfectly soundless, and for the time, at least, lonely; the splendid +afternoon had begun to fade, and there was a fascination in the object I +had come to see. It came to pass that at the same time I discovered in it +a certain stupidity, a vague brutality. That element is rarely absent from +great Roman work, which is wanting in the nice adaption of the means to +the end. The means are always exaggerated; the end is so much more than +attained. The Roman rigidity was apt to overshoot the mark, and I suppose +a race which could do nothing small is as defective as a race that can do +nothing great. Of this Roman rigidity the Pont du Gard is an admirable +example.</p> + +<p>It would be a great injustice, however, not to insist upon its beauty--a +kind of manly beauty, that of an object constructed not to please but to +serve, and impressive simply from the scale on which it carries out this +intention. The number of arches in each tier is different; they are +smaller and more numerous as they ascend. The preservation of the thing is +extraordinary; nothing has crumbled or collapsed; every feature remains; +and the huge blocks of stone, of a brownish-yellow (as if they had been +baked by the Provençal sun for eighteen centuries), pile themselves, +without mortar or cement, as evenly as the day they were laid together.</p> + +<p>All this to carry the water of a couple of springs to a little provincial +city! The conduit on the top has retained its shape and traces of the +cement with which it was lined. When the vague twilight began to gather, +the lonely valley seemed to fill itself with the shadow of the Roman name, +as if the mighty empire were still as erect as the support of the +aqueduct; and it was open to a solitary tourist, sitting there +sentimental, to believe that no people has ever been, or will ever be, as +great as that, measured, as we measure the greatness of an individual, by +the push they gave to what they undertook. The Pont du Gard is one of the +three or four deepest impressions they have left; it speaks of them in a +manner with which they might have been satisfied....</p> + +<p>On my way back to the little inn where I had left my vehicle, I passed the +Pont du Gard, and took another look at it. Its great arches made windows +for the evening sky, and the rocky ravine, with its dusky cedars and +shining river, was lonelier than before. At the inn I swallowed, or tried +to swallow, a glass of horrible wine with my coachman; after which, with +my team, I drove back to Nîmes in the moonlight. It only added a more +solitary whiteness to the constant sheen of the Provençal landscape.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The weather the next day was equally fair, so that it seemed an imprudence +not to make sure of Aigues-Mortes. Nîmes itself could wait; at a pinch, I +could attend to Nîmes in the rain. It was my belief that Aigues-Mortes was +a little gem, and it is natural to desire that gems should have an +opportunity to sparkle. This is an excursion of but a few hours, and there +is a little friendly, familiar, dawdling train that will convey you, in +time for a noonday breakfast, to the small dead town where the blest Saint +Louis twice embarked for the crusades. You may get back to Nîmes for +dinner; the run is of about an hour.</p> + +<p>I found the little journey charming, and looked out of the carriage +window, on my right, at the distant Cévennes, covered with tones of amber +and blue, and, all around, at vineyards red with the touch of October. The +grapes were gone, but the plants had a color of their own. Within a +certain distance of Aigues-Mortes they give place to wide salt-marshes, +traversed by two canals; and over this expanse the train rumbles slowly +upon a narrow causeway, failing for some time, tho you know you are near +the object of your curiosity, to bring you to sight of anything but the +horizon. Suddenly it appears, the towered and embattled mass, lying so low +that the crest of its defences seems to rise straight out of the ground; +and it is not till the train stops, close before them that you are able to +take the full measure of its walls.</p> + +<p>Aigues-Mortes stands on the edge of a wide étang, or shallow inlet of the +sea, the further side of which is divided by a narrow band of coast from +the Gulf of Lyons. Next after Carcassonne, to which it forms an admirable +pendant, it is the most perfect thing of the kind in France. It has a +rival in the person of Avignon, but the ramparts of Avignon are much less +effective. Like Carcassonne, it is completely surrounded with its old +fortifications; and if they are far simpler in character (there is but one +circle), they are quite as well preserved. The moat has been filled up, +and the site of the town might be figured by a billiard-table without +pockets. On this absolute level, covered with coarse grass, Aigues-Mortes +presents quite the appearance of the walled town that a school-boy draws +upon his slate, or that we see in the background of early Flemish +pictures--a simple parallelogram, of a contour almost absurdly bare, +broken at intervals by angular towers and square holes.</p> + +<p>Such, literally speaking, is this delightful little city, which needs to +be seen to tell its full story. It is extraordinarily pictorial, and if it +is a very small sister of Carcassonne, it has at least the essential +features of the family. Indeed, it is even more like an image and less +like a reality than Carcassonne; for by position and prospect it seems +even more detached from the life of the present day. It is true that +Aigues-Mortes does a little business; it sees certain bags of salt piled +into barges which stand in a canal beside it, and which carry their cargo +into actual places. But nothing could well be more drowsy and desultory +than this industry as I saw it practised, with the aid of two or three +brown peasants and under the eye of a solitary douanier who strolled on +the little quay beneath the western wall. "C'est bien plaisant, c'est bien +paisible," said this worthy man, with whom I had some conversation; and +pleasant and peaceful is the place indeed, tho the former of these +epithets may suggest an element of gayety in which Aigues-Mortes is +deficient.</p> + +<p>The sand, the salt, the dull sea-view, surround it with a bright, quiet +melancholy. There are fifteen towers and nine gates, five of which are on +the southern side, overlooking the water. I walked all round the place +three times (it doesn't take long), but lingered most under the southern +wall, where the afternoon light slept in the dreamiest, sweetest way. I +sat down on an old stone, and looked away to the desolate salt-marshes and +still, shining surface of the étang; and, as I did so, reflected that this +was a queer little out-of-the-world corner to have been chosen, in the +great dominions of either monarch, for that pompous interview which took +place, in 1538, between Francis I. and Charles V. It was also not easy to +perceive how Louis IX., when in 1248 and 1270 he started for the Holy +Land, set his army afloat in such very undeveloped channels.</p> + +<p>An hour later I purchased in the town a little pamphlet by M. Marius +Topin, who undertakes to explain this latter anomaly, and to show that +there is water enough in the port, as we may call it by courtesy, to have +sustained a fleet of crusaders. I was unable to trace the channel that he +points out, but was glad to believe that, as he contends, the sea has not +retreated from the town since the thirteenth century. It was comfortable +to think that things are not so changed as that. M. Topin indicates that +the other French ports of the Mediterranean were not then "disponibles," +and that Aigues-Mortes was the most eligible spot for an embarkation.</p> + +<p>Behind the straight walls and the quiet gates the little town has not +crumbled, like the Cité of Carcassonne. It can hardly be said to be alive; +but if it is dead it has been very neatly embalmed. The hand of the +restorer rests on it constantly; but this artist has not, as at +Carcassonne, had miracles to accomplish. The interior is very still and +empty, with small stony, whitewashed streets, tenanted by a stray dog, a +stray cat, a stray old woman. In the middle is a little place, with two or +three cafés decorated by wide awnings--a little place of which the +principal feature is a very bad bronze statue of Saint Louis by Pradier. +It is almost as bad as the breakfast I had at the inn that bears the name +of that pious monarch.</p> + +<p>You may walk round the enceinte of Aigues-Mortes, both outside and in; but +you may not, as at Carcassonne, make a portion of this circuit on the +chemin de ronde, the little projecting footway attached to the inner face +of the battlements. This footway, wide enough only for a single +pedestrian, is in the best order, and near each of the gates a flight of +steps leads up to it; but a locked gate, at the top of the steps, makes +access impossible, or at least unlawful. Aigues-Mortes, however, has its +citadel, an immense tower, larger than any of the others, a little +detached, and standing at the northwest angle of the town. I called upon +the casernier--the custodian of the walls--and in his absence I was +conducted through this big Tour de Constance by his wife, a very mild, +meek woman, yellow with the traces of fever and ague--a scourge which, as +might be expected in a town whose name denotes "dead waters," enters +freely at the nine gates.</p> + +<p>The Tour de Constance is of extraordinary girth and solidity, divided into +three superposed circular chambers, with very fine vaults, which are +lighted by embrasures of prodigious depth, converging to windows little +larger than loop-holes. The place served for years as a prison to many of +the Protestants of the south whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes +had exposed to atrocious penalties, and the annals of these dreadful +chambers during the first half of the last century were written in tears +and blood. Some of the record cases of long confinement there make one +marvel afresh at what man has inflicted and endured. In a country in which +a policy of extermination was to be put into practise this horrible tower +was an obvious resource. From the battlements at the top, which is +surmounted by an old disused lighthouse, you see the little compact +rectangular town, which looks hardly bigger than a garden-patch, mapped +out beneath you, and follow the plain configuration of its defenses. You +take possession of it, and you feel that you will remember it always.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>In general Nîmes is poor; its only treasures are its Roman remains, which +are of the first order. The new French fashions prevail in many of its +streets; the old houses are paltry, and the good houses are new; while +beside my hotel rose a big spick-and-span church, which had the oddest air +of having been intended for Brooklyn or Cleveland....</p> + +<p>What nobler ornament can there be than the Roman baths at the foot of Mont +Cavalier, and the delightful old garden that surrounds them? All that +quarter of Nîmes has every reason to be proud of itself; it has been +revealed to the world at large by copious photography. A clear, abundant +stream gushes from the foot of a high hill (covered with trees and laid +out in paths), and is distributed into basins which sufficiently refer +themselves to the period that gave them birth--the period that has left +its stamp on that pompous Peyrou which we admired at Montpellier. Here are +the same terraces and steps and balustrades, and a system of water-works +less impressive, perhaps, but very ingenious and charming.</p> + +<p>The whole place is a mixture of old Rome and of the French eighteenth +century; for the remains of the antique baths are in a measure +incorporated in the modern fountains. In a corner of this umbrageous +precinct stands a small Roman ruin, which is known as a temple of Diana, +but was more apparently a nymphaeum, and appears to have had a graceful +connection with the adjacent baths. I learn from Murray that this little +temple, of the period of Augustus, "was reduced to its present state of +ruin in 1577;" the moment at which the towns-people, threatened with a +siege by the troops of the crown, partly demolished it, lest it should +serve as a cover to the enemy. The remains are very fragmentary, but they +serve to show that the place was lovely. I spent half an hour in it on a +perfect Sunday morning (it is enclosed by a high grille, carefully tended, +and has a warden of its own), and with the help of my imagination tried to +reconstruct a little the aspect of things in the Gallo-Roman days.</p> + +<p>I do wrong, perhaps, to say that I tried; from a flight so deliberate I +should have shrunk. But there was a certain contagion of antiquity in the +air; and among the ruins of baths and temples, in the very spot where the +aqueduct that crosses the Garden in the wondrous manner I had seen +discharged itself, the picture of a splendid paganism seemed vaguely to +glow. Roman baths--Roman baths; those words alone were a scene.</p> + +<p>Everything was changed; I was strolling in a jardin français; the bosky +slope of the Mont Cavalier (a very modest mountain), hanging over the +place, is crowded with a shapeless tower, which is as likely to be of +medieval as of antique origin; and yet, as I leaned on the parapet of one +of the fountains, where a flight of curved steps (a hemicycle, as the +French say) descended into a basin full of dark, cool recesses, where the +slabs of the Roman foundations gleam through the clear green water--as in +this attitude I surrendered myself to contemplation and reverie, it seemed +to me that I touched for a moment the ancient world. Such moments are +illuminating, and the light of this one mingles, in my memory, with the +dusky greenness of the Jardin de la Fontaine.</p> + +<p>The fountain proper--the source of all these distributed waters--is the +prettiest thing in the world, a reduced copy of Vaucluse. It gushes up at +the foot of the Mont Cavalier, at a point where that eminence rises with a +certain cliff-like effect, and, like other springs in the same +circumstances, appears to issue from the rock with a sort of quivering +stillness. I trudge up the Mont Cavalier,--it is a matter of five +minutes,--and having committed this cockneyism enhanced it presently by +another. I ascended the stupid Tour Magne, the mysterious structure I +mentioned a moment ago. The only feature of this dateless tube, except the +inevitable collection of photographs to which you are introduced by the +doorkeeper, is the view you enjoy from its summit. This view is, of +course, remarkably fine but I am ashamed to say I have not the smallest +recollection of it; for while I looked into the brilliant spaces of the +air I seemed still to see only what I saw in the depths of the Roman +baths--the image, disastrously confused and vague, of a vanished world. +This world, however, has left at Nîmes a far more considerable memento +than a few old stones covered with water-moss.</p> + +<p>The Roman arena is the rival of those of Verona and of Arles; at a +respectful distance it emulates the Colosseum. It is a small Colosseum, if +I may be allowed the expression, and is in a much better preservation than +the great circus at Rome. This is especially true of the external walls, +with their arches, pillars, cornices. I must add that one should not speak +of preservation, in regard to the arena at Nîmes, without speaking also of +repair. After the great ruin ceased to be despoiled, it began to be +protected, and most of its wounds have been drest with new material. These +matters concern the archeologist; and I felt here, as I felt afterward at +Arles, that one of the profane, in the presence of such a monument, can +only admire and hold his tongue. The great impression, on the whole, is an +impression of wonder that so much should have survived. What remains at +Nîmes, after all dilapidation is estimated, is astounding.</p> + +<p>I spent an hour in the Arènes on that same sweet Sunday morning, as I came +back from the Roman baths, and saw that the corridors, the vaults, the +staircases, the external casing, are still virtually there. Many of these +parts are wanting in the Colosseum, whose sublimity of size, however, can +afford to dispense with detail. The seats at Nîmes, like those at Verona, +have been largely renewed; not that this mattered much, as I lounged on +the cool surface of one of them, and admired the mighty concavity of the +place and the elliptical sky-line, broken by uneven blocks and forming the +rim of the monstrous cup--a cup that had been filled with horrors, and yet +I made my reflections; I said to myself that tho a Roman arena is one of +the most impressive of the works of man, it has a touch of that same +stupidity which I ventured to discover in the Pont du Gard. It is brutal; +it is monotonous; it is not at all exquisite.</p> + +<p>The Arènes at Nîmes were arranged for a bull-fight--a form of recreation +that, as I was informed, is much dans les habitudes Nîmoises and very +common throughout Provence, where (still according to my information) it +is the usual pastime of a Sunday afternoon. At Arles and Nîmes it has a +characteristic setting, but in the villages the patrons of the game make a +circle of carts and barrels, on which the spectators perch themselves. I +was surprised at the prevalence, in mild Provence, of the Iberian vice, +and hardly know whether it makes the custom more respectable that at Nîmes +and Arles the thing is shabbily and imperfectly done. The bulls are rarely +killed, and indeed often are bulls only in the Irish sense of the term-- +being domestic and motherly cows. Such an entertainment of course does not +supply to the arena that element of the exquisite which I spoke of as +wanting.</p> + +<p>The exquisite at Nîmes is mainly represented by the famous Maison Carrée. +The first impression you receive from this delicate little building, as +you stand before it, is that you have already seen it many times. +Photographs, engravings, models, medals, have placed it definitely in your +eye, so that from the sentiment with which you regard it curiosity and +surprise are almost completely, and perhaps deplorably absent. Admiration +remains however--admiration of a familiar and even slightly patronizing +kind. The Maison Carrée does not overwhelm you; you can conceive it. It is +not one of the great sensations of antique art; but it is perfectly +felicitous, and, in spite of having been put to all sorts of incongruous +uses, marvelously preserved. Its slender columns, its delicate +proportions, its charming compactness, seemed to bring one nearer to the +century that built it than the great superpositions of arenas and bridges, +and give it the interest that vibrates from one age to another when the +note of taste is struck.</p> + +<p>If anything were needed to make this little toy-temple a happy production, +the service would be rendered by the second-rate boulevard that conducts +to it, adorned with inferior cafés and tobacco-shops. Here, in a +respectable recess, surrounded by vulgar habitations, and with the +theater, of a classic pretension, opposite, stands the small "square +house," so called because it is much longer than it is broad. I saw it +first in the evening, in the vague moonlight, which made it look as if it +were cast in bronze. Stendhal says, justly, that it has the shape of a +playing-card, and he expresses his admiration for it by the singular wish +that an "exact copy" of it should be erected in Paris. He even goes as far +as to say that in the year 1880 this tribute will have been rendered to +its charms; nothing would be more simple, to his mind, than to "have" in +that city "le Panthéon de Rome, quelques temples de Grèce." Stendhal found +it amusing to write in the character of a commis-voyageur, and sometimes +it occurs to his reader that he really was one.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="30"></a>Arles and Les Baux</h1> + +<h2>By Henry James</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "A Little Tour in France." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1884.]</p> + + + +<p>There are two shabby old inns at Arles, which compete closely for your +custom. I mean by this that if you elect to go to the Hôtel du Forum, the +Hôtel du Nord, which is placed exactly beside it (at a right angle), +watches your arrival with ill-concealed disapproval; and if you take the +chances of its neighbor, the Hôtel du Forum seems to glare at you +invidiously from all its windows and doors. I forget which of these +establishments I selected; whichever it was, I wished very much that it +had been the other.</p> + +<p>The two stand together on the Place des Hommes, a little public square of +Arles, which somehow quite misses its effect. As a city, indeed, Arles +quite misses its effect in every way; and if it is a charming place, as I +think it is, I can hardly tell the reason why. The straight-nosed +Arlésiennes account for it in some degree; and the remainder may be +charged to the ruins of the arena and the theater. Beyond this, I remember +with affection the ill-proportioned little Place des Hommes; not at all +monumental, and given over to puddles and to shabby cafés. I recall with +tenderness the tortuous and featureless streets, which looked like the +streets of a village, and were paved with villainous little sharp stones, +making all exercise penitential.</p> + +<p>Consecrated by association is even a tiresome walk that I took the evening +I arrived, with the purpose of obtaining a view of the Rhone. I had been +to Arles before, years ago, and it seemed to me that I remembered finding +on the banks of the stream some sort of picture. I think that on the +evening of which I speak there was a watery moon, which it seemed to me +would light up the past as well as the present. But I found no picture, +and I scarcely found the Rhone at all. I lost my way, and there was not a +creature in the streets to whom I could appeal. Nothing could be more +provincial than the situation of Arles at ten o'clock at night. At last I +arrived at a kind of embankment, where I could see the great mud-colored +stream slipping along in the soundless darkness. It had come on to rain, I +know not what had happened to the moon, and the whole place was anything +but gay. It was not what I had looked for; what I had looked for was in +the irrecoverable past. I groped my way back to the inn over the infernal +cailloux, feeling like a discomfited Dogberry.</p> + +<p>I remember now that this hotel was the one (whichever that may be) which +has the fragment of a Gallo-Roman portico inserted into one of its angles. +I had chosen it for the sake of this exceptional ornament. It was damp and +dark, and the floors felt gritty to the feet; it was an establishment at +which the dreadful "gras-double" might have appeared at the table d'hôte, +as it had done at Narbonne. Nevertheless, I was glad to get back to it; +and nevertheless, too--and this is the moral of my simple anecdote--my +pointless little walk (I don't speak of the pavement) suffuses itself, as +I look back upon it, with a romantic tone. And in relation to the inn, I +suppose I had better mention that I am well aware of the inconsistency of +a person who dislikes the modern caravansary, and yet grumbles when he +finds a hotel of the superannuated sort, one ought to choose, it would +seem, and make the best of either alternative. The two old taverns at +Arles are quite unimproved; such as they must have been in the infancy of +the modern world, when Stendhal passed that way, and the lumbering +diligence deposited him in the Place des Hommes, such in every detail they +are to-day. Vieilles auberges de France, one ought to enjoy their gritty +floors and greasy windowpanes. Let it be put on record, therefore, that I +have been, I won't say less comfortable, but at least less happy, at +better inns.</p> + +<p>To be really historic, I should have mentioned that before going to look +for the Rhone I had spent part of the evening on the opposite side of the +little place, and that I indulged in this recreation for two definite +reasons. One of these was that I had an opportunity of conversing at a +café with an attractive young Englishman, whom I had met in the afternoon +at Tarascon, and more remotely, in other years, in London; the other was +that there sat enthroned behind the counter a splendid mature Arlésienne, +whom my companion and I agreed that it was a rare privilege to +comtemplate.</p> + +<p>There is no rule of good manners or morals which makes it improper, at a +café to fix one's eyes upon the dame de comptoir; the lady is, in the +nature of things, a part of your "consommation." We were therefore free to +admire without restriction the handsomest person I had ever seen give +change for a five-franc piece. She was a large quiet woman, who would +never see forty again; of an intensely feminine type, yet wonderfully rich +and robust, and full of a certain physical nobleness. Tho she was not +really old, she was antique, and she was very grave, even a little sad. +She had the dignity of a Roman empress, and she handled coppers as if they +had been stamped with the head of Caesar.</p> + +<p>I have seen washerwomen in the Trastevere who were perhaps as handsome as +she; but even the head-dress of the Roman contadina contributes less to +the dignity of the person born to wear it than the sweet and stately +Arlesian cap, which sits at once aloft and on the back of the head; which +is accompanied with a wide black bow covering a considerable part of the +crown; and which, finally, accomodates itself indescribably well to the +manner in which the tresses of the front are pushed behind the ears.</p> + +<p>This admirable dispenser of lumps of sugar has distracted me a little; for +I am still not sufficiently historical. Before going to the café I had +dined, and before dining I had found time to go and look at the arena. +Then it was that I discovered that Arles has no general physiognomy, and, +except the delightful little church of Saint Trophimus, no architecture, +and that the rugosities of its dirty lanes affect the feet like knife- +blades. It was not then, on the other hand, that I saw the arena best. The +second day of my stay at Arles I devoted to a pilgrimage to the strange +old hill town of Les Baux, the medieval Pompeii, of which I shall give +myself the pleasure of speaking.</p> + +<p>The evening of that day, however (my friend and I returned in time for a +late dinner), I wandered among the Roman remains of the place by the light +of a magnificent moon, and gathered an impression which has lost little of +its silvery glow. The moon of the evening before had been aqueous and +erratic; but if on the present occasion it was guilty of any irregularity, +the worst it did was only to linger beyond its time in the heavens, in +order to let us look at things comfortably. The effect was admirable; it +brought back the impression of the way, in Rome itself, on evenings like +that, the moonshine rests upon broken shafts and slabs of antique +pavement. As we sat in the theater, looking at the two lone columns that +survive--part of the decoration of the back of the stage--and at the +fragments of ruin around them, we might have been in the Roman forum.</p> + +<p>The arena at Arles, with its great magnitude, is less complete than that +at Nîmes; it has suffered even more the assaults of time and of the +children of time, and it has been less repaired. The seats are almost +wholly wanting; but the external walls, minus the topmost tier of arches, +are massively, ruggedly complete; and the vaulted corridors seem as solid +as the day they were built. The whole thing is superbly vast, and as +monumental, for a place of light amusement--what is called in America a +"variety-show"--as it entered only into the Roman mind to make such +establishments. The podium is much higher than at Nîmes, and many of the +great white slabs that faced it have been recovered and put into their +places. The proconsular box has been more or less reconstructed, and the +great converging passages of approach to it are still majestically +distinct; so that, as I sat there in the moon-charm stillness, leaning my +elbows on the battered parapet of the ring, it was not impossible to +listen to the murmurs and shudders, the thick voice of the circus, that +died away fifteen hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>The theater has a voice as well, but it lingers on the ear of time with a +different music. The Roman theater at Arles seemed to me one of the most +charming and touching ruins I had ever beheld; I took a particular fancy +to it. It is less than a skeleton--the arena may be called a skeleton; for +it consists only of half a dozen bones. The traces of the row of columns +which formed the scene--the permanent back-scene--remain; two marble +pillars--I just mentioned them--are upright, with a fragment of their +entablature. Before them is the vacant space which was filled by the +stage, with the line of the proscenium distinct, marked by a deep groove, +imprest upon slabs of stone, which looks as if the bottom of a high screen +had been intended to fit into it. The semicircle formed by the seats--half +a cup--rises opposite; some of the rows are distinctly marked. The floor, +from the bottom of the stage, in the shape of an arc of which the chord is +formed by the line of the orchestra, is covered by slabs of colored +marble--red, yellow, and green--which, tho terribly battered and cracked +to-day, give one an idea of the elegance of the interior.</p> + +<p>Everything shows that it was on a great scale: the large sweep of its +enclosing walls, the massive corridors that passed behind the auditorium, +and of which we can still perfectly take the measure. The way in which +every seat commanded the stage is a lesson to the architects of our epoch, +as also the immense size of the place is a proof of extraordinary power of +voice on the part of the Roman actors. It was after we had spent half an +hour in the moonshine at the arena that we came on to this more ghostly +and more exquisite ruin. The principal entrance was locked, but we +effected an easy escalade, scaled a low parapet, and descended into the +place behind the scenes.</p> + +<p>It was as light as day, and the solitude was complete. The two slim +columns, as we sat on the broken benches, stood there like a pair of +silent actors. What I called touching, just now was the thought that here +the human voice, the utterance of a great language, had been supreme. The +air was full of intonations and cadences; not of the echo of smashing +blows, of riven armor, of howling victims and roaring beasts. The spot is, +in short, one of the sweetest legacies of the ancient world; and there +seems no profanation in the fact that by day it is open to the good people +of Arles, who use it to pass, by no means, in great numbers, from one part +of the town to the other; treading the old marble floor, and brushing, if +need be, the empty benches. This familiarity does not kill the place +again; it makes it, on the contrary, live a little--makes the present and +the past touch each other.</p> + +<p>If I called Les Baux a city, it was not that I was stretching a point in +favor of the small spot which to-day contains but a few dozen inhabitants. +The history of the place is as extraodinary as its situation. It was not +only a city, but a state; not only a state; but an empire; and on the +crest of its little mountain called itself sovereign of a territory, or at +least of scattered towns and counties, with which its present aspect is +grotesquely out of relation. The lords of Les Baux, in a word, were great +feudal proprietors; and there was a time during which the island of +Sardinia, to say nothing of places nearer home, such as Arles and +Marseilles, paid them homage.</p> + +<p>The chronicle of this old Provençal house has been written, in a style +somewhat unctuous and flowery, by M. Jules Canonge. I purchased the little +book--a modest pamphlet--at the establishment of the good sisters, just +beside the church, in one of the highest part of Les Baux. The sisters +have a school for the hardy little Baussenques, whom I heard piping their +lessons, while I waited in the cold parlor for one of the ladies to come +and speak to me. Nothing could have been more perfect than the manner of +this excellent woman when she arrived; yet her small religious house +seemed a very out-of-the-way corner of the world. It was spotlessly neat, +and the rooms looked as if they had lately been papered and painted; in +this respect, at the medieval Pompeii, they were rather a discord. They +were, at any rate, the newest, freshest thing at Les Baux.</p> + +<p>I remember going round to the church, after I had left the good sisters, +and to a little quiet terrace, which stands in front of it, ornamented +with a few small trees and bordered with a wall, breast-high, over which +you look down steep hillsides, off into the air and all about the +neighboring country. I remember saying to myself that this little terrace +was one of those felicitous nooks which the tourist of taste keeps in his +mind as a picture. The church was small and brown and dark, with a certain +rustic richness. All this however, is no general description of Les Baux.</p> + +<p>I am unable to give any coherent account of the place, for the simple +reason that it is a mere confusion of ruin. It has not been preserved in +lava like Pompeii, and its streets and houses, its ramparts and castle, +have become fragmentary, not through the sudden destruction, but through +the gradual withdrawal, of a population. It is not an extinguished, but a +deserted city; more deserted far than even Carcassonne and Aigues-Mortes, +where I found so much entertainment in the grass-grown element.</p> + +<p>It is of very small extent, and even in the days of its greatness, when +its lords entitled themselves counts of Cephalonia and Neophantis, kings +of Arles and Vienne, princes of Achaia, and emperors of Constantinople-- +even at this flourishing period, when, as M. Jules Canonge remarks, "they +were able to depress the balance in which the fate of peoples and kings is +weighed," the plucky little city contained at the most no more than +thirty-six hundred souls. Yet its lords (who, however, as I have said, +were able to present a long list of subject towns, most of them, tho a few +are renowned, unknown to fame) were seneschals and captains-general of +Piedmont and Lombardy, grand admirals of the kingdom of Naples, and its +ladies were sought in marriage by half the first princes in Europe.</p> + +<p>A considerable part of the little narrative of M. Canonge is taken up with +the great alliances of the House of Baux, whose fortunes, matrimonial and +other, he traces from the eleventh century down to the sixteenth. The +empty shells of a considerable number of old houses, many of which must +have been superb, the lines of certain steep little streets, the +foundations of a castle, and ever so many splendid views, are all that +remains to-day of these great titles.</p> + +<p>To such a list I may add a dozen very polite and sympathetic people, who +emerged from the interstices of the desultory little town to gaze at the +two foreigners who had driven over from Arles, and whose horses were being +baited at the modest inn. The resources of this establishment we did not +venture otherwise to test, in spite of the seductive fact that the sign +over the door was in the Provençal tongue. This little group included the +baker, a rather melancholy young man, in high boots and a cloak, with whom +and his companions we had a good deal of conversation.</p> + +<p>The Baussenques of to-day struck me as a very mild and agreeable race, +with a good deal of the natural amenity which, on occasions like this one, +the traveler, who is waiting for his horses to be put in or his dinner to +be prepared, observes in the charming people who lend themselves to +conversation in the hilltowns of Tuscany. The spot where our entertainers +at Les Baux congregated was naturally the most inhabited portion of the +town; as I say, there were at least a dozen human figures within sight. +Presently we wandered away from them, scaled the higher places, seated +ourselves among the ruins of the castle, and looked down from the cliff +overhanging that portion of the road which I have mentioned as approaching +Les Baux from behind.</p> + +<p>I was unable to trace the configuration of the castle as plainly as the +writers who have described it in the guide-books, and I am ashamed to say +that I did not even perceive the three great figures of stone (the three +Marys, as they are called; the two Marys of Scripture, with Martha), which +constitute one of the curiosities of the place, and of which M. Jules +Canonge speaks with almost hyperbolical admiration. A brisk shower, +lasting some ten minutes, led us to take refuge in a cavity, of mysterious +origin, where the melancholy baker presently discovered us, having had the +bonne pensée of coming up for us with an umbrella which certainly +belonged, in former ages, to one of the Stéphanettes or Berangères +commemorated by M. Canonge. His oven, I am afraid, was cold so long as our +visit lasted.</p> + +<p>When the rain was over we wandered down to the little disencumbered space +before the inn, through a small labyrinth of obliterated things. They took +the form of narrow, precipitous streets, bordered by empty houses, with +gaping windows and absent doors, through which we had glimpses of +sculptured chimney-pieces and fragments of stately arch and vault. Some of +the houses are still inhabited; but most of them are open to the air and +weather. Some of them have completely collapsed; others present to the +street a front which enables one to judge of the physiognomy of Les Baux +in the days of its importance. This importance had pretty well passed away +in the early part of the sixteenth century, when the place ceased to be an +independent principality, It became--by request of one of its lords, +Bernardin des Baux, a great captain of his time--part of the appanage of +the kings of France, by whom it was placed under the protection of Arles, +which had formerly occupied with regard to it a different position. I know +not whether the Arlesians neglected their trust; but the extinction of the +sturdy little stronghold is too complete not to have begun long ago. Its +memories are buried under its ponderous stones.</p> + +<p>As ve drove away from it in the gloaming, my friend and I agreed that the +two or three hours we had spent there were among the happiest impressions +of a pair of tourists very curious in the picturesque. We almost forgot +that we were bound to regret that the shortened day left us no time to +drive five miles further, above a pass in the little mountains--it had +beckoned to us in the morning, when we came in sight of it, almost +irresistibly--to see the Roman arch and mausoleum of Saint Remy. To +compass this larger excursion (including the visit to Les Baux) you must +start from Arles very early in the morning; but I can imagine no more +delightful day.</p> + + + + + +<h1>IV</h1> + +<h2>Cathedrals and Chateaux</h2> + + + + +<h1><a name="31"></a>Amiens</h1> + +<h2>By Nathaniel Hawthorne</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "French and Italian Note Books." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. +Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1889.]</p> + + + +<p>The aspect of the old French town was very different from anything +English; whiter, infinitely cleaner; higher and narrower houses, the +entrance to most of which seeming to be through a great gateway affording +admission into a central court-yard; a public square, with a statue in the +middle, and another statue in a neighboring street. We met priests in +three-cornered hats, long frock-coats, and knee-breeches; also soldiers +and gendarmes, and peasants and children, clattering over the pavements in +wooden shoes.</p> + +<p>It makes a great impression of outlandishness to see the signs over the +shop doors in a foreign tongue. If the cold had not been such as to dull +my sense of novelty, and make all my perceptions torpid, I should have +taken in a set of new impressions, and enjoyed them very much. As it was, +I cared little for what I saw, but yet had life enough left to enjoy the +Cathedral of Amiens, which has many features unlike those of English +cathedrals.</p> + +<p>It stands in the midst of the cold, white town, and has a high-shouldered +look to a spectator accustomed to the minsters of England, which cover a +great space of ground in proportion to their height. The impression the +latter give is of magnitude and mass; this French Cathedral strikes one as +lofty. The exterior is venerable, tho but little time-worn by the action +of the atmosphere; and statues still keep their places in numerous niches, +almost as perfect as when first placed there in the thirteenth century. +The principal doors are deep, elaborately wrought, pointed arches; and the +interior seemed to us, at the moment, as grand as any that we had seen, +and to afford as vast an idea of included space; it being of such an airy +height, and with no screen between the chancel and nave, as in all the +English cathedrals.</p> + +<p>We saw the differences, too, betwixt a church in which the same form of +worship for which it was originally built is still kept up, and those of +England, where it has been superseded for centuries; for here, in the +recess of every arch of the side-aisles, beneath each lofty window, there +was a chapel dedicated to some saint, and adorned with great marble +sculptures of the crucifixion, and with pictures, execrably bad, in all +cases, and various kinds of gilding and ornamentation. Immensely tall wax +candles stand upon the altars of these chapels, and before one sat a +woman, with a great supply of tapers, one of which was burning. I suppose +these were to be lighted as offerings to the saints, by the true +believers. Artificial flowers were hung at some of the shrines, or placed +under glass.</p> + +<p>In every chapel, moreover, there was a confessional--a little oaken +structure, about as big as a sentry-box, with a closed part for the priest +to sit in, and an open one for the penitent to kneel at, and speak through +the open-work of the priest's closet. Monuments, mural and others, to +long-departed worthies, and images of the Savior, the Virgin, and saints, +were numerous everywhere about the church; and in the chancel there was a +great deal of quaint and curious sculpture, fencing in the Holy of Holies, +where the high altar stands. There is not much painted glass; one or two +very rich and beautiful rose-windows, however, that looked antique; and +the great eastern window, which, I think, is modern. The pavement has, +probably, never been renewed, as one piece of work, since the structure +was erected, and is foot-worn by the successive generations, tho still in +excellent repair. I saw one of the small, square stones in it, bearing the +date of 1597, and no doubt there are a thousand older ones.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="32"></a>Rouen</h1> + +<h2>By Thomas Frognall Dibdin</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."]</p> + + + +<p>The approach to Rouen is indeed magnificent. I speak of the immediate +approach, after you reach the top of a considerable rise, and are stopt by +the barriers. You then look down a straight, broad, and strongly paved +road, lined with a double row of trees on each side. As the foliage was +not thickly set, we could discern, through the delicately clothed +branches, the tapering spire of the cathedral, and the more picturesque +tower of the Abbaye St. Ouen--with hanging gardens, and white houses, to +the left--covering a richly cultivated ridge of hills, which sink, as it +were, into the Boulevards, and which is called the Faubourg Cauchoise. To +the right, through the trees, you see the River Seine (here of no +despicable depth or breadth), covered with boats and vessels in motion, +the voice of commerce, and the stir of industry, cheering and animating +you as you approach the town. I was told that almost every vessel which I +saw (some of them of two hundred, and even of three hundred tons burden) +was filled with brandy and wine....</p> + +<p>First for the cathedral, for what traveler of taste does not doff his +bonnet to the mother-church of the town through which he happens to be +traveling, or in which he takes a temporary abode? The west front, always +the forte of the architects's skill, strikes you as you go down, or come +up, the principal street--La Rue des Carmes--which seems to bisect the +town into equal parts. A small open space, which, however, has been +miserably encroached upon by petty shops, called the Flower Gardens, is +before this western front; so that it has some little breathing room in +which to expand its beauties to the wondering eyes of the beholder. In my +poor judgment, this western front has very few elevations comparable with +it--including even those of Lincoln and York. The ornaments, especially +upon the three porches, between the two towers, are numerous, rich, and +for the greater part entire, in spite of the Calvinists, the French +Revolution, and time.</p> + +<p>As you enter the cathedral, at the center door, by descending two steps, +you are struck with the length and loftiness of the nave, and with the +lightness of the gallery which runs along the upper part of it. Perhaps +the nave is too narrow for its length. The lantern of the central large +tower is beautifully light and striking. It is supported by four massive +clustered pillars, about forty feet in circumference; but by casting your +eye downward, you are shocked at the tasteless division of the choir from +the nave by what is called a Grecian screen; and the interior of the +transepts has undergone a like preposterous restoration.</p> + +<p>The rose windows of the transepts, and that at the west end of the nave, +merit your attention and commendation. I could not avoid noticing, to the +right, upon entrance, perhaps the oldest side chapel in the cathedral, of +a date less ancient than that of the northern tower, and perhaps of the +end of the twelfth century. It contains by much the finest specimens of +stained glass--of the early part of the sixteenth century. There is also +some beautiful stained glass on each side of the chapel of the Virgin, +behind the choir; but altho very ancient, it is the less interesting, as +not being composed of groups, or of historical subjects. Yet, in this as +in almost all the churches which I have seen, frightful devastations have +been made among the stained glass windows by the fury of the +Revolutionists....</p> + +<p>On gazing at this splendid monument of ancient piety and liberality--and +with one's mind deeply intent upon the characters of the deceased--let us +fancy we hear the sound of the great bell from the southwest tower--called +the Amboise Tower--erected, both the bell and the tower, by the uncle and +minister of Amboise. Know, my dear friend, that there was once a bell (and +the largest in Europe, save one), which used to send forth its sound for +three successive centuries from the said tower. This bell was broken about +thirty years ago, and destroyed in the ravages of the immediately +succeeding years. The southwest tower remains, and the upper part of the +central tower, with the whole of the lofty wooden spire--the fruits of the +liberality of the excellent men of whom such honorable mention has been +made. Considering that this spire is very lofty, and composed of wood, it +is surprising that it has not been destroyed by tempest or by lightning.</p> + +<p>Leaving the cathedral, you pass a beautifully sculptured fountain, of the +early time of Francis I., which stands at the corner of the street, to the +right; and which, from its central situation, is visited the livelong day +for the sake of its limpid waters. Push on a little further, then, turning +to the right, you get into a sort of square, and observe the abbey--or +rather the west front of it--full in face of you. You gaze, and are first +struck with its matchless window: call it rose, or marigold, as you +please.</p> + +<p>I think, for delicacy and richness of ornament, this window is perfectly +unrivaled. There is a play of line in the mullions, which, considering +their size and strength, may be pronounced quite a masterpiece of art. You +approach, regretting the neglected state of the lateral towers, and enter +through the large and completely opened center doors, the nave of the +abbey. It was toward sunset when we made our first entrance. The evening +was beautiful; and the variegated tints of sunbeam, admitted through the +stained glass of the window, just noticed, were perfectly enchanting. The +window itself, as you look upward, or rather as you fix your eye upon the +center of it, from the remote end of the abbey, or the Lady's Chapel, was +a perfect blaze of dazzling light; and nave, choir, and side aisles seemed +magically illumined. We declared instinctively that the Abbey of St. Ouen +could hardly have a rival--certainly not a superior.</p> + +<p>Let me, however, put in a word for the organ. It is immense, and perhaps +larger than that belonging to the cathedral. The tin pipes (like those of +the organ in the cathedral) are of their natural color. I paced the +pavement beneath, and think that this organ can not be short of forty +English feet in length. Indeed, in all the churches which I have yet seen, +the organs strike me as being of magnificent dimensions.</p> + +<p>You should be informed, however, that the extreme length of the interior, +from the further end of the chapel of the Virgin, to its opposite western +extremity, is about four hundred and fifty English feet; while the height, +from the pavement to the roof of the nave, or the choir, is one hundred +and eight English feet. The transepts are about one hundred and forty feet +in length. The central tower, upon the whole, is not only the grandest +tower in Rouen, but there is nothing for its size in our own country that +can compare with it. It rises upward of one hundred feet above the roof of +the church; and is supported below, or rather within, by four magnificent +cluster-pillared bases, each about thirty-two feet in circumference. Its +area, at bottom, can hardly be less than thirty-six feet square. The choir +is flanked by flying buttresses, which have a double tier of small arches, +altogether "marvelous and curious to behold."</p> + +<p>I could not resist stealing quietly round to the porch of the south +transept, and witnessing, in that porch, one of the most chaste, light, +and lovely specimens of Gothic architecture which can be contemplated. +Indeed, I hardly know anything like it. The leaves of the poplar and ash +were beginning to mantle the exterior; and, seen through their green and +gay lattice work, the traceries of the porch seemed to assume a more +interesting aspect. They are now mending the upper part of the façade with +new stone of peculiar excellence--but it does not harmonize with the old +work. They merit our thanks, however, for the preservation of what remains +of this precious pile. I should remark to you that the eastern and +northeastern sides of the abbey of St. Ouen are surrounded with promenades +and trees: so that, occasionally, either when walking or sitting upon the +benches, within these gardens, you catch one of the finest views +imaginable of the abbey.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="33"></a>Chartres</h1> + +<h2>By Epiphanius Wilson</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Cathedrals of France." By permission +of the author. Copyright, 1900.]</p> + + + +<p>For many a mile over the rich cornfields of Beauce, of which ancient +district Chartres was once the capital, the spires of Chartres are +visible. The river and the hill constitute at Chartres the basis of its +strength in long-forgotten warfare; its walls in piping times of peace +have been leveled into leafy boulevards, but it may still be entered +through one of the antique gates that survive as memorials of its former +fortifications.</p> + +<p>The cathedral itself is one of that group to which belong Amiens, Rheims, +Bourges and Notre Dame de Paris. It is noted for its size, magnificence +and completeness, and contains in itself, from its crypt to its highest +stone, an exemplification of architectural history in France from the +eleventh to the fourteenth centuries. We may suppose that Christianity was +first published in the Beauce province by the same apostles, Savinienus +and Potentienius, who had evangelized Sens and the Senones. Their +disciple, Aventin (Aventinus), is recognized as the first Bishop of +Chartres, and as the builder of the first cathedral which stood on the +site of the present building....</p> + +<p>The naves, the north and south transept portals, and the choir belong to +the thirteenth century, the north tower to the fifteenth, and the +magnificent jubé, or screen, which runs round the choir, is evidently +sixteenth century style, being an example of that Renaissance employment +of Gothic details, of which we find such glorious counterparts at Rouen +and Albi. The western façade of Chartres is plain in comparison with those +of Amiens or Rheims. The voussures of the three central portals are +comparatively shallow. Above them are three lancet windows which resemble +windows of the Early English Style. The rose-window, beneath which the +lancets are placed, is of great dimensions and effective tracery. The +highest story of the front between the towers is screened by a rich +arcade, over which rises the gable point.</p> + +<p>This arcade, or gallery, is intended to break the abruptness with which +the pointed roof rises between the two spires. These spires are different +in design, the southern tower being much earlier than that at the north. +The southern spire, in its austere simplicity and exquisite proportions, +is certainly the finest I have seen in France, and can only be paralleled +elsewhere by that which rises like a flower-bud almost ready to burst over +Salisbury plain. The northern tower is very much more elaborate, and +reminded me of those examples with which the traveler becomes so familiar +in the many churches of Rouen. The richly crocketed gables, the flying +buttresses and pinnacles which run half way up this spire, while they +adorn it, seem to stunt the profile and rob it of its towering altitude, +just as is the case with the western spires of St. Ouen. Yet this northern +tower is considerably higher than the ancient one at the south, being 374 +feet high, while the more ancient spire is only 348. The other dimensions +of the church are as follows: It is 420 feet long; 110 feet wide; its +height from ceiling vault to pavement is 115 feet. The modern tower was +built by Louis XII. in 1514, the architect being an inhabitant of Beauce, +a certain Jean Texier.</p> + +<p>The carvings in the west front of the cathedral are examples of the +beginning of French sculpture, as it emerges from the severity and +rigidity of Byzantine types. The human figures are long, slender, and +swathed almost like mummies in their drapery. The faces are strongly +individualized and seem to be portraits. While these statues must be +attributed to a period previous to the middle of the twelfth century, we +see in them the originality of French genius struggling to break away from +the fetters of Eastern precedent.</p> + +<p>Viollet-de-Duc thinks that these faces belong to the type of the ancient +Gaul; the flat forehead and raised arch of the eyebrows, the projecting +eyes, the long jaws, the peaked and drooping nose, the long upper lip, the +wide, closed mouth, the square chin, the long wavy hair are neither +German, Roman, or French. There is a blending of firmness, grandeur and +refinement in these wonderful countenances, each of them apparently copied +from a different model. They are crowned and nimbused as the kings and +saints of antique France. A more impressive gallery of illustrious +personages is nowhere else to be found.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="34"></a>Rheims</h1> + +<h2>By Epiphanius Wilson</h2> + + +<p>[Footnote: From "The Cathedrals of France." By permission +of the author. Copyright, 1900.]</p> + + + +<p>French cathedrals have, as it were, a royal character, and this is +emphasized especially in the history and architecture of Rheims cathedral, +which became, from the time of Philippe Auguste, the church at whose altar +the kings of France were crowned.</p> + +<p>The origin of the Church at Rheims dates from the third century; when we +are told Pope Fabian sent into Gaul a band of bishops and teachers. Rheims +was chosen as the seat of an episcopal primacy, and it was in the church +built by St. Nicaise, or Nicasius, in 401, that Clovis was baptized and +crowned in 496. This ancient building, doubtless of simple Roman +proportions, was rebuilt in the reign of Louis the Debonair in 822, when +Ebon was archbishop.</p> + +<p>It was completed with a magnificence which vied with the churches of +Constantinople, Ravenna and Rome. It was considered in its day the most +splendid church in France. Its roof and walls blazed with gilding and +many-tinted paintings. Its floors were of marble mosaic. Rich tapestries +hung round the choir, and its treasury was filled with masterpieces of the +goldsmith and the jeweler. This church continued to be the wonder of +Gallic Christianity until the beginning of the thirteenth century, when it +was destroyed by fire. It is remarkable to notice in the history of French +cathedrals how many of them were rebuilt just at the time when the pointed +style, which may be called preeminently the Christian style of +architecture, had come to birth almost simultaneously in various countries +of Europe.</p> + +<p>We are obliged to come to the conclusion that the pointed arch was +introduced in Germany, France and England by the Crusaders, who had seen +it used in the East, and had considered it best fitted for buildings that +enshrined the sublime mysteries of the Christian faith. It was in the +pointed style, therefore, that the new cathedral of Rheims was built. The +name of its architect is not known, but his plan shows that he must have +been a man of profound genius. Archbishop Alberic Humbert laid the +foundation stone in 1212. The whole province contributed liberally to the +work, and in 1242 the building was sufficiently advanced for the +celebration of divine service in the choir.</p> + +<p>The Church of Notre Dame of Rheims would require a volume to describe it +completely. The front is perhaps the most elaborate to be found in France. +The three vast portals, peopled with statues of colossal size, their +arched vaulting covered with saintly and angelic figures, the mighty rose- +windows, flanked with pointed openings, crowned with carved tabernacle +work, and the great gallery of kings crossing the whole front, just below +the peak of the gable, and above all, the two towers pierced by majestic +windows and supported at each corner by niches with three open faces, give +an impression of richness and brightness and grace, mingled with that +indefinable majesty, which is due partly to the vast dimensions, partly to +the harmonious proportions of the whole structure.</p> + +<p>The divisions of the front façade resemble somewhat the same part of the +edifice at Amiens, excepting that it is far more florid, and less strict +and severe in its main divisions. At Amiens the details are kept in +strictest subservience to the structural lines of the edifice. At Rheims +it is the magnificent wealth of details that crowds upon the view, the +walls and arches are surcharged with statues, with niches, with brackets, +pinnacles, tracery, foliage, finials and turrets. The sides of the +entrances of the three portals are crowded with colossal statues, thirty- +nine in number, representing patriarchs, prophets, kings, bishops, virgins +and martyrs. On the trumeau of the central gate is a fine statue of the +Virgin Mary; on the sides of this trumeau are bas-reliefs representing the +Fall of Man, of whose restoration Mary should be the instrument.</p> + +<p>It is quite characteristic of a medieval church that we should find, on +the lintels and side-posts of these doorways, emblems of agricultural work +in the various seasons of the year, as well as different symbols of arts +and handicrafts. Amid the carvings of these doorways are the heroes and +saints of the Old Testament, types and forerunners of the Messiah, as well +as historic scenes, representing the Redemption of the World, the +Conversion of the Gentiles, the Resurrection of the Dead, the Last +Judgment, the Condemnation of the Wicked, the Reception of the Just into +the habitations of the blest. Finally, the Assumption and Coronation of +the Blessed Virgin sums up, with an imaginative legend, this series of +Christian dogma perpetuated in stone.</p> + +<p>But the medieval genius is many-sided, and never satisfied with that which +is beautiful alone; and this magnificent array of Christian carving would +not be complete to the mind of the medieval artist unless he had crowned +the angles of his buildings with a series of grotesque gargoyles and +allegoric statues, representing the streams that watered the earthly +paradise, while at the summit of the roof are niched angles bearing +instruments of music. As the rose is a peculiarity of Gothic churches, and +from its remarkable shape gives ample room for sculpture in stone, and +color in glass, so the rose at Rheims is among the most beautiful examples +of the kind, and illustrates the principle that the rose is intended to +light up high, remote and shadowy spaces in a long nave or aisle.</p> + +<p>Above the great rose-window is a pointed arch in whose voussures are ten +statues, relating the history of David, while over this arch runs a band +of niches, forty-two in number, in which are colossal statues of the kings +of France from Clovis to Charles VI.</p> + +<p>The two portals of the transepts are richly decorated in harmony with the +style of the western façade. A graceful spire rises from the eastern part +of the roof. It is called "The Angel's spire," from the fact that poised +upon its summit is an angel covered with gilt and holding aloft a cross. +This turret rises 59 feet above the roof of the church. The church itself +is 486 feet in length, and from the vaulting of the roof to the pavement +is 125 feet. The towers are 272 feet high. I noticed the church is built +in the form of a cross, but the transept is very close to the apse, so +that the choir being too confined for the great ceremonies, such as that +of royal coronations, which used to take place there, has been extended +westward across the transept so as to take up three bays of the nave.</p> + +<p>There are seven chapels at the east of the church, but none are found in +the naves. The plainness of the nave, in comparison with the ornate +character of the exterior, is very remarkable, but this plainness detracts +nothing from the impressiveness of its long arcades, its towering roof, +the noble lines which rise from the ground and support, as it were, on +slender sinews of stone, the shadowy ceiling. The rose-windows, four in +number, are filled with glass of the thirteenth century, and the tall +windows of the chevet and clerestory contain a many colored mosaic of a +similar sort. I was particularly struck with the rose-window over the +western portal. It represents the Beautiful Vision; the Eternal Father is +throned in the central ring of the window, and in the radiating panes is +the Hierarchy of Paradise, angels and archangels and all the company of +Heaven, while in a wider circumference are grouped the redeemed, +contemplating in adoration the majesty of God.</p> + +<p>I noticed two very interesting tombs in Rheims cathedral. The first was +the sarcophagus of Jovinus, the Christian prefect of Rheims, in the fourth +century, who protected the church and was originally buried in the Abbey +of St. Nicaise, from whence his tomb was brought to the cathedral. It +consists of a single block of snowy marble, nine feet long, and four feet +high, on which the consular general is represented in a spirited bas- +relief mounted on horseback and saving the life of a man from the lion, in +whose flank Jovinus has launched his spear. Very fine indeed is the +workmanship of this monument. The figures which surround Jovinus are men +of handsome countenance, evidently portraits, their dress and arms being +finished with the utmost nicety of detail. The figures are about half +life-size.</p> + +<p>The other tomb is that of St. Remigius, a Renaissance work erected by +Cardinal Delenoncourt in 1533. It is sumptuous and gaudy rather than +beautiful. Twelve statues, full life-size, represent the twelve peers of +France, six are the prelates of Rheims, Laon, Langres, Beauvais, Chalons, +and Noyon; the six lay peers are the dukes of Burgundy, Normandy and +Aquitaine, and the counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Toulouse. The white +marble of these somewhat stagey figures is beautifully worked and the +effect is imposing.</p> + +<p>The western wall of the interior is faced with niches, in which the +statues seem to emerge from a cloud of gloom. At one time tombs of the +most magnificent sort crowded the aisles, enshrining the relics of saints +and bishops, but during the raging of the Terror the Revolutionists +violated these tombs, seizing their treasures, breaking down with ax and +hammer their carvings. But, after all, the church of Notre Dame of Rheims +does not seem to have suffered very much loss from the clearing away of +these obstructions to the vista of her arcades, which now depend for their +solemn beauty upon the simplicity and dignity of their lines and +proportions, the effect of their windows, and the religious gloom which +lingers in their lofty recesses.</p> + +<pre> + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, VOLUME 3 *** + +This file should be named 8eur310h.htm or 8eur310h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8eur311h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8eur310ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +<a href="http://gutenberg.net">http://gutenberg.net</a> or +<a href="http://promo.net.pg">http://promo.net/pg</a> + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05</a> or +<a href="ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04">ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05</a> + +Or /etext05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html">http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html</a> + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +<a href="mailto:hart@pobox.com">Michael S. Hart [hart@pobox.com]</a> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* +</pre> + +</body> +</html> |