across the gardens, and in front,--some short English mile--stands the
OBSERVATORY. Yet fail not to visit the interior square of the palace, for
it is well worth your notice and admiration. This building is now the
_Chambre des Pairs_. Its most celebrated ornament was the famous suite of
paintings, by Rubens, descriptive of the history of Henry IV. These now
adorn the gallery of the Louvre. It is a pity that this very tasteful
structure--which seems to be built of the choicest stone--should be so far
removed from what may be called the fashionable part of the city. It is in
consequence reluctantly visited by our countrymen; although a lover of
botany, or a florist, will not fail to procure two or three roots of the
different species of _tulips_, which, it is allowed, blow here in uncommon
luxuriance and splendor.

The preceding is, I am aware, but a feeble and partial sketch--compared
with what a longer residence, and a temperature more favourable to exercise
(for we are half scorched up with heat, positive and reflected)--would
enable me to make. But "where are my favourite ECCLESIASTICAL EDIFICES?"
methinks I hear you exclaim. Truly you shall know as much as I know myself;
which is probably little enough. Of NOTRE-DAME, the west front, with its
marygold window, is striking both from its antiquity and richness. It is
almost black from age; but the alto-relievos, and especially those above
the doors, stand out in almost perfect condition. These ornaments are
rather fine of their kind. There is, throughout the whole of this west
front, a beautiful keeping; and the towers are, _here_, somewhat more
endurable--and therefore somewhat in harmony. Over the north-transept door,
on the outside, is a figure of the Virgin--once holding the infant Jesus in
her arms. Of the latter, only the feet remain. The drapery of this figure
is in perfectly good taste: a fine specimen of that excellent art which
prevailed towards the end of the XIIIth century. Above, is an alto-relievo
subject of the slaughter of the Innocents. The soldiers are in quilted