yard of the diligence. Here it was necessary to undergo the ceremony of opening our luggage for the inspection of the custom-house officers; after which, I put myself into a cab and drove to my hotel in the Fauxbourg St. Germain.

CHAPTER XIV.

Passport Office-Notre Dame-Jardin des Tuileries-Palais Royal-Gaming, fatal effects-St. Roch-Champs Elysées -Parisian Ladies-Innocent Recreation-A Tragic Anecdote-Place Vendome-Place des Victoires-Theatre Français-Jardin des Plantes-Concert Musard-PantheonGobelins-St. Germain du Pres-St. Cloud-Louis Philippe: His Escape-The Louvre-Conservatory of Arts and Machines House of Fieschi-Bibliotheque de Roi-Autographs-Soirée.

Saturday, 11th.

My first occupation was, to arrange the letters entrusted to my care, and put them in the post-office. I then went to the bureau of the Prefêt of Police about my passport, and was desired to call in the middle of the approaching week, as they had not yet received the passports from Boulogne. Not very far from this office is the celebrated cathedral of Notre Dame.

This splendid temple, which was three centuries building, was commenced during the reign of Robert, son of Hugh Capet, about 1010, but was not finished before the close of the year 1390.

It is in the form of a Latin cross, 390 feet long, 144 wide, and 102 feet under the principal vault. The portico in the principal front is 120 feet wide: it contains three portals, adorned with ornaments of cast iron. Immediately over the centre portal is a rose window, which lights the nave. There are two towers, 40 feet square, 204 high, the tops of which afford a fine view of Paris. They contain the great bells: Emanuel, the largest, weighs 32,000 lb., its clapper 976,-it is 8 feet diameter, 8 feet high, and 8 inches thick. This is rung on public occasions.

The interior fully corresponds with its external magnificence: the paintings, by the first artists, would fill a catalogue. The vestry is well worthy of inspection. A real piece of the true Cross is here preserved the Regalia of Charlemagne-many of the golden vessels, and the mantle worn by Napoleon at his Coronation are here exhibited. I returned home by Pont Neuf, completed in the reign of Henry IV. It is adorned by a bronze equestrian statue of that great king.

After dinner, went and walked in the gardens of the Tuileries. These gardens, the most delightful, perhaps, in the world, owe their origin to Louis XVI. and were planned by Le Notre. Every object is disposed of to the best advantage, and though all is symmetrical, the regularity is so agreeable, it does not fatigue; and where such variety exists there can be no monotony. The groves-statues-parterres, basins and walks are truly delightful.

PALAIS ROYAL.

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In front of the palace is a broad terrace, ornamented with white marble statues: the principal walk extends the whole length of the garden, running up to the Champ Elysées. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the perspective, the arch of the Etoile forming the point of sight. Looking also thence to the palace, the prospect is no less pleasing. The pieces of sculpture that adorn the walks, are each worthy of attention; but they are too numerous to attempt a list. This is the promenade of people of all nations; and every European language is heard amid the walks. It is the St. James's Park of Paris. In the evening I went to the Palais Royal.

This general rendezvous for natives and strangers was commenced by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1629, and increasing in extent, according to his fortune, became at last so magnificent, as to be deemed a fit bequest for royalty. Louis XVI. resided here during his minority, when it was called Palais Royal. In 1692 it became the property of the Duke of Orleans, the inheritor of which title, in order to save himself from ruin, converted this splendid residence into a bazaar, where are daily exhibited scenes of extravagance, vice, and dissipation not to be surpassed.

Its form is a parallelogram, enclosing a garden. At one end is a double piazza, with two rows of shops, nearly half a mile in length. These promenades are always filled with loungers. Every in

ducement is held out to tempt the visitor: shops of jewellery, prints, books, china, millinery, clothiers, clock-sellers, money-changers, gambling houses-all proffer temptations to invite the unwary to expend money; and many and fearful are the scenes of vice, and its accompaniment, remorse, daily enacted within its unhallowed precincts.

"I have seen," said a friend with whom I conversed on the subject, "many a scene sufficient to fill a volume. I recollect watching a man whom I once observed playing here, in a manner the most reckless. He staked a handful of gold every time, and regularly lost-fortune was quite against him-yet he played on. I saw him stake his last coin, and he could not sit still while his fate was deciding. He retired into the little garden, and, placing his hands on the back of a chair, looked into the room, where he had wasted so many hours. His excitement was immense, the play of his features, and the glare of his eyes, distracted between fear and hope, poverty or riches, was really fearful. Again his turn came-he lost! the gold was swept from his place, and added to the accumulated heap of his antagonist. In his madness he raised his clenched fist, and struck his forehead such a blow as felled him senseless to the ground."

It is an universally received opinion, that man's fall from virtue into the depths of vice is not momentary, but the result of some time; and that