orrence were equally excited. The windows
were beaten through, the hangings were flapping in the wind, the altar
was shattered in pieces and prostrate, the pavement was every where torn
up, and the caves of the dead were still yawning upon us. From their
solemn and hallowed depths, the mouldering relics of the departed had
been raised, by torch light, and heaped in frightful piles of unfinished
decay against the walls, for the purpose of converting the lead, which
contained these wretched fragments of mortality, into balls for the
musketry of the revolution. The gardens behind the chapel must have been
once very pleasant, but they then had the appearance of a wilderness.
The painful uncertainty of many years, had occasioned the neglect and
ruin in which I saw them. Some of the nuns were reading upon shattered
seats, under overgrown bowers, and others were walking in the melancholy
shade of neglected avenues. The effect of the whole was gloomy and
sorrowful, and fully confirmed the melancholy recital which I received
from Mrs. S----. Bonaparte, it is said, intends to confirm to these
nuns their present residence, by an act of government.

Upon leaving the convent I visited the seats of cassation, and justice,
in the architectural arrangement of which, I saw but little worthy of
minute notice, except the perfect accommodation which pervades all the
french buildings, which are appropriated to the administration of the
laws.

The hall of the first cassation, or grand court of appeal, is very fine.
The judges wear elegant costumes, and were, as well as the advocates,
seated upon chairs, which were constructed to imitate the seats of roman
magistracy, and had a good effect. I was informed that the whole of the
ornamental arrangement was designed by David.

From the courts of justice, I went to the second national library, which
is very noble and large, and has a valuable collection of books. Several
students were arranged with great silence and decorum, at long tables.
In one apartment is a very large, and ingenious model of Rome in a glass
case, and another of a frigate.

Upon leaving the library I proceeded to the Gobelins, so called from one
Gobel, a noted dyer at Rheims, who settled here in the reign of Francis
I. This beautiful manufactory has a crowd of visitors every day. Upon
the walls of the galleries the tapestry is suspended, which exhibits
very exquisite copies of various historical paintings, of which there
a