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appear to be of solid rock, and upon these, as well as upon two hills on the shore, there are strong fortifications, the Château d' If, of Monte Cristo celebrity, being one of them. The rue Prado, a broad street three miles in length, is one of the most magnificent drives imaginable; and the city has good reason to be proud of its many beautiful buildings and its substantial dock.

Arles is a queer old Roman town. We saw here the ruins of an Amphitheater, also the ruins of an old church, in which were open lead coffins containing the bones and ashes of the dead, and near by any number of old Roman sarcophagi, monuments, and other objects of interest. From the cellar of a hotel we were conducted into the catacombs, a loathsome dungeon, extending a long way under the city, and exhibiting here and there heaps of human bones.

We were more interested in Nismes, another old Roman city, in which there is a well preserved Amphitheater, still in use for bull-fights and other exhibitions, and a Museum of most interesting antiquities. Nismes is some twenty miles off the direct route to Paris, and not very far from the boundary of Spain.

At Avignon, where we struck off from the direct line, we also stopped long enough to see the Pope's Palaces, now used as barracks, the tombs of Popes Jean XXII. and Benedictus, and to visit the Museum, where there is an almost endless variety of Roman relics, a large collection of paintings, and other objects of art. We were particularly struck by an ivory crucifix, or figure of Christ, here, made in 1659, which is curious as expressive of extreme suffering when viewed from one side, and of calm

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resignation when seen from the other side of the face.

At Lyons we spent one night and the better part of a day, going into the Museum, the principal churches, and some of the silk manufactories.

Next we stopped at Dijon, a most interesting city. The most attractive, point here is the stately old Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, now occupied as a Museum, where there is a very large and fine collection of paintings, one or two of which we noted as unusually impressive. One representing "Saul of Tarsus" fallen from his horse, when hearing “a voice from heaven," is remarkably striking. A "Goddess of Beauty" in the act of watering flowers, and several other goddesses in painting as well as in marble, are exquisitely beautiful.

Fontainebleau is about forty miles southeast of Paris. It has very little the appearance of a city, and about the only objects of interest here are the Royal Palace, Garden and Forest Park. After walking through the Palace Garden, which is extensive and beautiful, containing several artificial lakesone, a mile in length, for boating- -we were conducted through forty-one rooms of the Palace. The exterior of the Palace, which is of brick, is not at all imposing; but the interior, both in respect to finish and furniture, is very rich. One large room is set apart for a library. There are two chapels, the smaller being the Queen's Chapel. One room is adorned with porcelain plates from Sèvres. They are set into the walls and are of different dates, going back many years. Several of the apartments were pointed out to us as those occupied in 1812 by Pope Pius VIII., when a prisoner of Napoleon I., and in one of them the Pope's portrait was sus

pended. This was the Pope by whom Napoleon was crowned. A strange feeling came over us as we stood in the very room in which and by the side of the very table on which Napoleon signed his abdication, prior to his departure for Elba; and sad as we always feel when we think of the cruel decree which separated Josephine from him, it is not strange that this feeling of sorrow was more impressive when we found ourselves in the identical room, with its furniture unchanged, where this fatal decree was pronounced.

CHAPTER LVII.

PARIS, MARCH 30.-In speaking of Paris and of

what we have done and seen here, we hardly

know where to begin or what to say.

We have kept no regular account of our movements here. Dr. Parker and party preceded us here two weeks, taking lodgings at a private boarding house; and shopping being the leading business with the ladies along with us, sight seeing has been secondary with us all, and we have not sought to go much together. Of course, we have paid our respects to Minister Washburne, who received us in the kindest manner, and obtained tickets for us to visit the Legislative Assembly at Versailles. Unfortunately, however, we were one day too late, as on going to Versailles we were disappointed in learning that an adjournment for some weeks had taken place the day before. We made the trip in a two story street railroad carriage, occupying some two hours each way.

We could have gone by steam cars, but chose the former mode because we wished to see the country along the line of the stage road, which runs very near St. Cloud and through the village of Sèvres. We entered the tramway carriage, capable of accommodating thirty or forty persons, near the Louvre and passed along the Seine in the rear of the Palace and Garden of the Tuileries, at the left of the Champs Élysées and at the right of the Champ de Mars, where the great Exposition of 1867 was held, on the opposite side of the river. The trip would have been pleasanter had the day been fair, as we thought when we set out it would be; but we were served with all kinds of weather-sunshine, rain, hail, and a flurry of snow in the course of the day. The Field of Mars is a large open space, bare as the Desert of Sahara of vegetation, and used as a military parade ground. Some of the private residences along the country road are quite elegant. Arriving at Versailles, we at once made our way to the Palace, an immense edifice, with a façade over one quarter of a mile in extent. Two of the larger halls of the Palace are now used, one for the Senate and the other for the Chamber of Deputies. The larger of these two halls was constructed for a Theater. These we were permitted to enter, but the principal interest centered in the more private apartments abounding in works of art. These are magnificent in every respect, and are designated by various names, such as the Salle de Constantine, the Salle des Croisades, the Salle des États Généraux, the Salle de l' Abondance, the Salon de Venus, the Salon de Diane, the Salon d' Apollon, or Throne Room, the Grand Galerie de Louis XIV., etc. In the Gallery of Statuary are many excellent works, including a

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