_Dear Jane:_--
What a variety of places we have visited since I despatched to you my
last letter! _Par exemple_, the Palais Royal, with its agreeable garden
and jets d'eau, surrounded by arcades, under which are splendid shops
and cafés, that are dazzling when illuminated at night; the Royal
Library, with its vast collection of manuscripts and engravings, and
its cabinets of antiquities and medals--the latter considered to be the
most complete in the world; the Hotel de Ville, on the Place de Grève,
where the guillotine sometimes plies its dreadful work; the Exchange,
with its sixty-four corinthian columns, fine hall, and superb
imitations of bas-reliefs, so admirably executed, that you can scarcely
be convinced they are the effect of the _brush_ instead of the
_chisel_. Add to these several churches and fountains, the Mint, where
we witnessed the curious process of coining, and the "Palais de
Justice." In this vast structure of antiquity, the judicial courts of
Paris hold their sittings. It was founded in the ninth century, and is
termed a palace, because it was once the abode of the French monarchs.
I remember having read in some history of the magnificent
entertainments they gave here, in a grand hall containing statues of
their race and a marble table of uncommon size, at which none but
princes of the blood were allowed to feast. In 1618 nearly the whole
edifice was burnt, and the wonderful table and statues destroyed; it
was rebuilt by Desbrosses, the architect of the Luxembourg. Besides the
court rooms and many others above them, filled with the judiciary
archives of the kingdom, there are long galleries which have on each
side rows of petty shops and stalls. Beneath these galleries are the
gloomy prisons of the conciergerie, wherein such atrocities were
committed during the revolution. Here we saw the dungeons in which
Marie Antoinette and the Princess Elizabeth were immured; the cell in
which Robespiérre was confined; and that of Louvel, who assassinated
the Duke de Berri. We were shown the prison room of the gallant Ney.
The cells that inclosed the unfortunate queen and her sister-in-law,
are now converted into a small chapel, which communicates by means of
an arch, with another of larger dimensions. In the latter, the captives
of the conciergerie are permitted to attend mass on the Sabbath. The
arch is decorated with medallions of Louis the Sixteenth and the
Princess Elizabeth, and a few lines extracted from his will are
inscribed on an altar in the smaller chapel. On the wall of this hang
three pictures in oil colors; the first represents Marie Antoinette
taking leave of her family just before she was brought to the prison;
in the second, you behold her standing wrapt in meditation by her
miserable cot-bed, after the door is barred upon her; in the third, you
see her at confession, preparatory to ascending the scaffold.
Melancholy themes, and well suited to the gloom of the place! You
approach the Palace of Justice through an enormous iron gate remarkable
for its workmanship and guilding. On the left of it stands an ancient
building, called the "Holy Chapel," from its having been erected by
Saint Louis for the reception of the sacred relics he brought with him
from Palestine, whither he went on a crusade, in fulfilment of a vow he
had made during a dangerous illness. His oratory is still shewn, and
once served as a refuge from popular fury to the present King Charles
the Tenth, in the time of the revolution. The painted windows of the
chapel are beautiful,--the colors so bright and various. Around the
interior, instead of altars and _confessionals_, are a range of cases,
containing archives and records. By the by, among those we saw in the
upper galleries of the Palace of Justice, (which communicates with the
"Sainte Chapelle,") were the condemnation of Joan of Arc, and that of
Jean Châtel, who attempted to stab Henry the Fourth, but failed, and
having been seized was put to a dreadful death, according to the
mandate which we read. He was stretched on the rack, then drawn on a
sledge to the Place de Grève, his flesh torn with hot pincers, and his
right hand cut off; finally, his limbs were tied to four wild horses,
and thus rent asunder. When dead, his body was burnt, and his ashes
scattered to the winds! The dress he wore when he attacked the King,
and a rope ladder he used in endeavoring to escape while confined, are
carefully preserved in a box, with a scull that was found in the
possession of a famous robber, and is said to have served him as a cup,
out of which he compelled has victims to drink wine, and then swear
allegiance to him. The condemnation of Joan of Arc is replete with
superstition and abuse of that poor warrior damsel; she is pronounced a
sorceress, a blasphemer, a devil, &c. and numerous other opprobrious
epithets are given to her besides. We were likewise shewn the hand
writing of Francis the First, Louis the Eleventh, and that of several
others of the French monarchs; and to speak the truth, I don't think
their penmanship does them much credit.
Returning home, we stopped at the flower market, and were surprised at
the beauty and cheapness of the flowers. You may buy them growing in
pots, or arranged as boquets. The market is held on the Quay Dessaix,
under two rows of trees, in the midst of which a plentiful fountain
refreshes the air, and affords water for the plants. Adieu. Ever yours,