lots and sold. But the guillotine created a need for new
burial-grounds, two of which were accordingly established. One, situated
near the Place du Trone, still exists: it occupies the former site of
the gardens of the Dames Chauvinesses de Picpus. After the Revolution it
was purchased by an association of the surviving members of families who
had relatives interred there. This cemetery ought to be a pilgrim shrine
for every American visiting Paris, for it was chosen as a last
resting-place for the remains of La Fayette. The other "garden of the
guillotine," as these cemeteries were once significantly called, has
long since disappeared, but the Chapelle Expiatoire erected to the
memory of Marie Antoinette and of Louis XVI. on the Boulevard Haussmann
now marks its former site. It was there that the bodies of these royal
victims of revolutionary fury were hastily interred in a bed of
quicklime, with a thick layer of quicklime cast over each of them. When,
after the Restoration, the task of exhuming the royal remains was
undertaken, crumbling bones alone remained to point out the
resting-place of the once beautiful daughter of the Caesars and of the
descendant of Saint Louis. The smaller bones of the skeleton of Louis
XVI., in particular, had almost wholly disappeared: that of the queen
was in better preservation, owing to a smaller quantity of quicklime
having been used. Strange to say, her garters, which were of elastic
webbing, were found in a state of almost perfect preservation, while of
the rest of her garments only a few rotting fragments remained. These
garters, together with some pieces of the coffins, were presented as
precious relics to Louis XVIII. But grave doubts have frequently been
expressed, in view of the very slight means of identification afforded
by the state of the remains, as to whether these crumbling relics of
mortality were really those of the king and queen. With the exception of
the plot on which stands the Chapelle Expiatoire, every vestige of the
revolutionary cemetery has long since disappeared. The splendid
Boulevard Haussmann now passes directly over its site, and the gayety
and animation of one of the most brilliant quarters of modern Paris
surround what was once the last resting-place of those who perished by
the guillotine on the Place de la Revolution.

The present system of Parisian cemeteries was only adopted at the
beginning of this century. Paris now possesses twenty, the most
impor