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orders for dinner, I had time to glance and there was just enough of carpet in at his little library, and discerned, the middle of the room (more Gallico) amidst lives of saints, Catholic mis- to keep our friend's feet and those of sals, and les Nuits de Young, a sprink- bis large oak table from taking cold ; ling of uncanonical romance, and an add a few chairs, an armoire, a amateur treatise or two on cookery warm cushion, which also did duty for and medicine. A print of Fenelon's a footstool, a comfortable stove, whe. fine head was on the wall, and a Mater ther for standing at, or for sitting to Dolorosa from Sasso-Ferrata ; a bad read at by candle-light. All this had engraving of the Crucifixion in a black been glanced at, and the small amount frame, was evidently not hung up as a of what is essentially necessary to work of art, and two or three holy human comfort reflected on, when the subjects in oils, with a few landscapes, agreeable owner returned to accomcompleted the decoration. By the pany me to the cathedral; so, after modest, but not uncomfortable bed, taking a glass of wine and some of the hung a small carved ivory crucifix, talmouse, which is the staple commowith a little vessel for holy water; a dity of St Denys, we proceeded thither broad-brimmed hat hung on its peg, together.

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THE ABBEY.

The Abbey St Denys is, for an procured; for happening to point to edifice, as sacrosanct as any in Chris- that part of the wall which the divine tendom. Ever since the decapitated hand had touched, his immediate cure saint who originally imposed its name, was effected. Since this period the took that celebrated walk, “ of which reputation of the abbey has been supthe first step alone was difficult”. ported chiefly on the voluntary contri(the promenade took place towards butions of miracles, in which the atthe end of the third century)-ever testing parties have been generally since he appeared to a saintly lady, eye-witnesses of that for the accuracy by name Catulla, for the purpose of of which they vouch; nay, the very suggesting the necessity of a shrine road along which we have just been for himself and two other saints, his travelling to get here, may well have fellow martyrs, has this same abbey its interest to the faithful, though I been the scene and site of many a could not stop the reader in the dust, pious fraud. Its whole history comes as we came over it, to tell him of the of miracle,—the shrine, which long very singular event which occurred preceded the cathedral, was itself, we before it was paved (some 800 years see, intimated from above, and miracle ago), a mile on this side the Barrière : on miracle marked the whole period a rogue, it seems, had stolen “ La occupied in the erection of the sacred Hostie from one of the Paris edifice. The very workmen were sup- churches, St Genevieve, I believe, and ported on miraculous supplies, and a was making the best of his way out of single inexhaustible cask of wine, of town with his prize. Having cleared undeniable quality, gave them spirits the gates, his curiosity was natural for the task and strength for the toil; enough to open the sacred patina, nay, on the very evening of the day when lo! the contained host escaped, preceding that when the bishop was and flew up to heaven like an to perform the ceremony of consecra-caged bird ; not, however, to remain tion on the finished building, a certain there, since, according to the Chronicle, leper, fearing lest, by reason of his “ après plusieurs hymnes et louanges infirmities, he should be prevented chantées à l'honneur du St Sacrement, from getting in with the crowd, stole la dite Hostie, suspendue en l'air, vint thither, it seems, over night, and, à descendre miraculeusement entre les standing between two columns (which mains du Curé de St Gervais, non sans of course are known), beheld the per grande etonnement d'une multitude inson of our Saviour, who, having finie de personnes qui estoient presents." touched the wall with his hand, forth- Of a hundred persons entering this with vanished! Relating what he had edifice for the first time, the probability seen to the people and the priests, who were, that ninety-nine would utter an naturally required proof, this was soon exclamation indicative both of pleą.

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sure and surprise ; so imposing is it in into other passages, leading to little lowheight of roof and length of nave, roofed crypts or chapels, where, placed 80 graceful the graduated elevation upon many astone soros, lie quilted of its fine sanctuary and quire, so warrior and brocaded dame. Of course, pleasing the effect of those cataracts you ask for Clovis, the first Christian of coloured light that pour in on all king who ever imposed conditions on sides from a thousand windows ! The Providence, who, fighting against monuments are few, but on a grand the Germans in 455, and being hard scale, and placed with effect where pressed, “ fit un veu à Dieu, que they stand, especially that to the me- s'il lui donnait la victoire sans autre mory of Francis the First, the base of delay, il se rangerait à l'eglise Chréwhich is occupied by a magnificent tienne, et se ferait baptiser."_"Prince bas-relief. The new organ, which très illustre,” adds bis historian, “ si is to be without rival in France, was, sa grande cupidité de regner seul, ne at our visit, not as yet installed, lui eut fait oublier et l'equité et l'hubut active preparations were making manité, envers ses parens et ses sujets for its inauguration, and it may be, les plus fidèles !” Childebert is anand probably is, already pealing along other name you are sure to recollect; the aisles. My friend the Abbé first he came into being about sixty years conducted me to a door on one side of afterwards. He it was who built the quire ; a secret spring obeys his that church in front of the Louvre, touch, and we pass onward through a which no Protestant forgets, “ St cold cheerless Sacristy, the only furni- Germain l'Auxerrois.” Here he sleeps ture of which 'was an ample store of in his stone trough, with his wife Ultrohuge fluted candles, and a high-mount- goth beside him. It is she whom Sued extinguisher standing in one cor- rius calls, “ Nutrix orphanorum, conner. But here we stay not-a narrow solatrix pupillorum, sustentatrix paudoor opposite to that by which we enter, perum et Dei servorum, atque adjutrix lets us into a well. boarded, well-warm- fidelium monachorum.” In the eighth ed, well-proportioned room, where a year of the reign of Childebert, a handsome stove, some easy chairs, and great inundation of the Seine and the several good modern paintings, put Marne happened, and boats suffered your mind at rest on the subject of mo. shipwreck between St Denys and Paris. nastic austerity as comprehended at St “ Sequana Matronaque tantam inundaDenys. A room was this where ladies tionem circa Parisios intulerunt, ut might have sat over their work-boxes, inter civitatem et basilicam St Lauor a gay evening party have assembled, rentii, naufragia sæpe contingerent." quoad light, heat, and cheerfulness, Chilperic comes next in order : he was without any mistake : but we must by no means a deserving person, and not tarry in it, for we have the vaults his wife Fredigonda, who lies “ to visit, to do which we retrace our marquetterie” at his feet, was a very steps into the body of the church, Clytemnestra in her life. He is reprelooking up, as we are instructed, at sented here with his hand to his chin, the glass effigies of the French kings not, says Gregory of Tours (who is on the painted windows ; we cross the by no means flattering in his account high altar over the tombs of some of of him), to signify how he died (his the later Louises, and descend by a throat was cut), but merely because he dozen steps, through an iron grating, had a habit of stroking his beard. into the cold atmosphere of the royal Gerard gives you all that need be said vaults beneath. Directly at the end of or sung of either consort in three a long arched corridor, and illumi- linesnated by a window which lets in a Campanos vastavit agros, crudelis et scanty light from above, you soon discern, on a high pedestal, the statue of Uxorem primam jugulat; Fredigonda se. Charlemagne. Here and there, on cunda either hand, early sovereigns of France Quem jugulat; mors hæc crudeli digna and their royal consorts, stone crowns

marito.' on their heads and stone sceptres in “ Exemple memorable," adds the Chro. their hands, lie extended in grim re- nicler, “pour les roys, ne ex pellice pose. The corridor, which appeared conjugem faciant":

'-as if that remark to terminate at Charlemagne's statue, is were alone applicable to kings! Pepin found, on approaching it, to divaricate le Bref lies on his belly-pronus et non

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Bapinus, "pro peccatis patris sui, Ca- cursu latronum tute custodirent." The • roli Martelli.” Next comes Charles le pretty baby king, little Louis X.,

Chauve, who, with Cæsar's laurel, who died at eight months, is a lovelycould never get Cæsar's knack of writ- looking infant, and gives relief to the ing Latin; witness the following edict, quaint tombs near him, where imbri. where, in honour of St Denys, he or- cated warriors lie in quilted mail, dains, “ nullum teloneum, vel barga- while coloured figures in wood, with Daticum, nec rotaticum, nec pontati. short petticoats, and of true Dutch cum, nec cæspitaticum, nec pulverati- build, stand over them. Hideous blue cum, nec salutaticum, nec mutaticum, Ingels support len heads of denec ad nostrum opus nec ad vestrum, parted sovereigns, on red cushions, nec ad juniores nostros ullo exigere while the yellow or green slippers of aut exactare præsumatis !” The Reine the royal form rest upon the flank of Blanche sleeps here in black marble, some frightful abortion of natural hisand Philip Augustus, who, in 1190, tory, a mis-shapen dog, a lamb with a enclosed Paris with a rampart. He golden fleece, or a round-headed lion built the Halles, “ Halas, Magnas with a man's face and a rat's tail. Domus in quibus, tempore pluviali, On the whole, a day at St Denys is omnes mercatores merces suas mun- far from being unproductive of enterdissime venderent, et in nocte, ab in- tainment or instruction,

PARTIES.

Mr 's drawing-room is an ele- orgracefulattentions of common-place, gant drawing-room-we speak of the that any thing put down to be eaten, men and women we meet there, not abruptly before them, would only be of his tables and chairs. It is one an impertinence, and stop mouths of those which one frequents with more agreeably employed. The adroit feelings of unqualified approval, and service seizes the happy moment, when never too often. His dinners are with- an agreementas to a cantatrice's merits, out pretension, good, and remarkably or an actor's originality is arrived at, well served. In their social composi- and the conversation for an instant tion he knows both who is who, and languishes ; this is the time, surely, what is what; and to partake of that for the entremet, the sole en matelotte repast chez lui, which is at once the Normande, the pleasing mixture of the criterion of an host's abilities and a Macedoine de legumes, or that abyss of specimen of his society, is, in the good things, the truffled vol-au-vent, Maison ****

an assured enjoyment which lies smoking before you. The of several hours, for which you feel wine, being necessarily good, is not, grateful and flattered. One already as in England, descanted on ; no dish foresees a beautiful avenir, where the is criticised ; the elegant refinements soup is not an unmeaning expletive, of easy circumstances, and the good but challenges attention by its excel- taste of the invited, spare you the lence, and is promptly distributed by possibility of a shock, and are appamany hands. The first moments of rent throughout ; no awkward butler šuspense are past—you have recon. breaks mismanaged corks; an invi. noitred your position, you have taken sible functionary executes that duty your roll out of its spotless napkin, and without reproach. The footmen are unfurled it on your knee--you are silent in their service, unless, when going to make that first sotto voce and bringing round some bottle of more decided movement towards acquaint- recherché quality, they whisper the ance with your voisine, which, in- patronymic. They note your slightest spirited by the soup and half a glass movement of want, existing or satisof fine sherry, gets on afterwards fied, and never trouble you to repeat a of its own accord. In this agreeable demand. No lowering spouse looks salle à manger the dishes always come thunder-clouds at some awkward exat the right moment — the damask hibition of the homeliness of the family árena is always occupied—the servants resources ;

no conscious husband watch the gucsts' movements, and strives to cover his wife's discompoknow that while they are interesting sure by becoming prematurely and each other in sparkling sallies of wit, unnecessarily gay; no flippant imper

tinences pass muster ; no indiscrimi- clined, let him keep his own counsel; nate praise or censure of men, books, and if he have already been indiscreet or things, no loud assertion of egotis- enough to speak out to a lady confi. tical opinion, or egregious self-esteem dante, let him hold, suspect her offer will here meet with sympathy or of introducing him to the “charming support. Scandals past, present, young friend" with whom she may or to come, form no part of the have been at school. A man disposed conversation : vulgar retaliation upon to matrimony, as an expedient state, French prejudices are abstained from ; will go through any thing to arrive at provincialisms or solecisms offend it! On one of those fatal occasions, not. The conversation is, perhaps, when introductions to all that is en never deep, but it is seldom dull; it chanting are generously promised and may affect, perhaps, the last fashion gratefully accepted, did we find our of phrases yet unvulgarized by use, way up three pair of stairs of corkbut still its essence is the mainten- screw architecture, and land upon ance of that happy medium between two or three square feet of neutral sustained argumentation (which mo- territory, between two exactly similar nopolizes attention and induces dys- doors exposed to equal assault in the pepsia) and that raw violence of exploratory uncertainty of the guest. manner which, in addressing you, Here did we take our last draught of forces unqualified dissent, or compels respirable air for that night! we hit to silence and reserve. As dinner upon the right bell, and were again proceeds, it flows with more and more admonished on the threshold, that we facility and fewer interruptions; each must be very sentimental if we would has fair play; the whole is a piece of prosper in our undertaking; the door concerted music, a diapason of har- of the exterior oven presently opened, mony, and a Solo would scarcely be and in we went. There were three commenced ere it was quietly put rooms, at least there were three times down. It is not conceded to any four walls defining the limits of three large dealer in anecdote, at Mr. --'s compartments of contracted space, parties, to inflict his tiresome memory the whole of which would have made on reluctant audiences. Even the célé.

a respectable aviary, but would have brités do not engross attention. The been scarcely a zoological allowance profound thinker, from whose prolific for monkeys. These boxes, of course, wisdom society abroad may have opened and steamed into each other, drawn her largest supplies, here imi- wafting reciprocal gales of musk and tates those mighty rivers, which im- music to the equal annoyance of the part only the overflowings of their victims who were being black-holed full urns, and as they pass along, dis- with surprising resignation ! cover not in the serenity of their sur- The innermost room had been ren. face the depth of their resources. All dered entirely insupportable by a stiff waters are equally deep to the eye, fire, which it maintained till it came and like them, the mind's depths must to a natural death for want of air, on be fathomed to be known. To perfect which desirable event the guests, who the whole, a condiment to the intele had been equally ready to expire, be. lectual banquet is supplied in the free- gan to show tokens of revival. This masonry of a liberal education, and furnace, or engine-room, was moreover all rise with improved conversational papered of a fiery-red, with butterflies powers to join the ladies and contri- and passion-flower devices for border; bute to their amusement. A few an equally glaring carpet, covered musical friends drop in, and the rest every inch of the twelve by fourteen of the evening is passed in listening feet of surface on which it was extendto what is perfect in its kind, and new ed; and a voluminous rug almost smok. in its quality. May many such dine ed in front of the fire-place. The rest ners be in store for us (inasmuch as of the furniture was all dwarfish, to toutes les grandes pensées viennent correspond to the room, except a huge de l'estomac), and may many such piano—an immense old broken-kneed soirées follow them !

Vauxhall-song affair—which quite ocBut, alas ! all parties are not ejus- cupied one side of the small parallelo. dem furinæ ! Take a specimen of ano- gram, compelling the guests who were ther!

to applaud its achievements to the When a man is matrimoniously in- other, and, played on or silent, was the

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lion of the evening. Such large instru- the moon, its moral exhortations to ments, we found, were always objects Lord Byron, its mawkish valedictions of respect; some opined“ it must have of young friends going to Cambridge, cost a deal of money :” some stated its lines written at sea, (and signed that it was particularly adapted to M. E. which must mean maris expers) sacred music and we wished it in St or stanzas from abroad, which only Peter's accordingly. Some celebrated show the writer not to have been at finger had pronounced upon its tones home in any thing but his Spellingbefore it had been purchased ; loud book !-or to crown all, its charades, to be sure it was, but then it was so its epigrams, its profane micrographieasy to open the window (bien entendu cal curiositiesthe stone tables of the when the wind was not easterly) and law, or the prayer of the Redeemer disperse a portion of its vibrations. within the circlet of a ten sous piece. The chimney-piece was ornamented The Album penalty exacted to the with flowers, cut out by some of the fa- letter, and our civility and patience mily, and paper pinks and muslin roses, having outdone themselves, we thankon silk-twisted wire-stalks, and under fully look up, and are prepared to reglass bells, flanked a clock in alabaster. sign the interesting volume into the But what could our Louisa be thinking hands of the fair proprietor, when of, to hang up those horrible daubs, by two tall gentlemen, who had been ber fair band, in oils ? one was ac- obtaining but a bird's eye view, are cordingly compelled, on this confes- already competitors ! Two long right sion, to say “ very pretty," to a cer- arms are suddenly extended towards tainly original sketch of Love sleeping the relinquished prize: two long right on a green bank-green, indeed, but arms are as suddenly retracted, with not exactly the right sort of green; galvanised politeness on perceiving and as for the Cupid thus served up each other's intentions.

These were on chopped spinnach, he looked as the active of the party, but many a silent if he were not likely ever to wake guest was sitting there in mute submisagain. That Warrior's head, we sion to the inscrutable decrees of fate, have surely seen before in some fo- and leaden-eyed expectation of eleven reign collection—and now that we o'clock, which was still far distant! recollect, it was from the top of a Tea came, and a third cup per man coach on Snowhill, where such a had been proffered and refused. The Saracenic head has glared on us since ill-made card-table had opened its we were five years old. We believe sybilline leaves, and displayed to eager be gets rouged every three or four eyes its wax-bespattered thread-bare years, but Louisa's warrior will not baize : premonitory of long whist, require it.

five sous points, captious trick-takers, A calmer sea than that, never women partners, and thin French showed smooth surface of a deeper cards. The young people, we hear, blue ; nor did the same element ever are expected to dance! Dance ? exhibit more froth below, or blacker what! in that cupboard, where a score sky above, than the pendant, on of mice would interfere with each another piece of canvass covered by other's tails ? Dance ? to that horrible the same indefatigable young lady, Megatherion, the grand piano? No, at whose bidding quicksilver rivulets by St Vitus! No, by our innate selfrun out of lead-coloured lakes, snow- esteem, and our instinct of self presercapt mountains are provided with vation. Leap, like Curtius, into that green bills for footstools, inextricable gulf of un-to-be-rewarded immolation, forests of black trees, are bisected by we neither can nor will! besides, à gash or wound over which a bridge could two indifferent arms do all the is thrown to intimate that some geo- dancing duty of this preposterous logical feature is designed, or a most evening? The limbs of Briareus and peculiar sky is studded with birds, Antæus, moved by the gallantry of a stuck immovably between heaven and modern colonel of militia would be earth—and so much for paysage, the left at fault, and we must look for the fine arts, and Louisa.

lucky moment when the necessity of Did our sufferings, pulmonary, cu- our departure can be confidentially taneous, or moral, terminate here? whispered, together with our immense Oh, that Canaan of ass's milk, a lady's regret. album ! with its lunatic addresses to

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