ying his
fellow-creatures.

_Louis_ the XIth of France caused the Duke of _Nemours_, a descendant
of King _Clovis_, to be executed at Paris, and placed his children
under the scaffold, that the blood of their father might run upon their
heads; in which bloody condition they were returned to the Bastile, and
there shut up in iron cages: and a King of SIAM, having lost his
daughter, and fancying she was poisoned, put most of his court, young
and old, to death, by the most exquisite torture; by this horrid act of
cruelty, near two thousand of the principal courtiers suffered the most
dreadful deaths; the great Mandarins, their wives, and children, being
all scorched with fire, and mangled with knives, before they were
admitted to his last favour,--that of being thrown to the elephants.

But to have done with sad subjects.--It was not till the year 1758 that
it was certainly known at what time, or for what purpose, the _Maison
Carree_ was erected; but fortunately, the same town which produced the
building so many ages ago, produced in the latter end of the last, a
Gentleman, of whom it may be justly said, he left no stone unturned to
come at the truth. This is _Mons. Seguier_, whose long life has been
employed in collecting a cabinet of Roman antiquities, and natural
curiosities, and whose penetrating genius alone could have discovered,
by the means he did, an inscription, of which not a single letter has
been seen for many ages; but this _habile observateur_, perceiving a
great number of irregular holes upon the frontal and frize of this
edifice, concluded that they were the cramp-holes which had formerly
held an inscription, and which, according to the practice of the
Romans, were often composed of single letters of bronze. _Mons. Seguier_
therefore erected scaffolding, and took off on paper the distances and
situation of the several holes, and after nicely examining the
disposition of them, and being assisted by a few faint traces of some of
the letters, which had been impressed on the stones, brought forth, to
the full satisfaction of every body, the original inscription, which
was laid before _l'Academie des Inscriptions & de Belles Lettres de
Paris_ of which he is a member, and from whom he received their public
thanks; having unanimously agreed that there was not a doubt remained
but that he had produced the true reading: which is as follows:

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