It originally bore the following inscription--a verse written by Fausto Andrelini, the king's favourite poet. [Illustration: _Central Doorway, Château de Blois_] "Hic ubi natus erat dextro Lodoicus Olympo, Sumpsit honorata Regia sceptra manu; Felix quæ tanti fulfit lux nuntia Regis; Gallia non alio Principe digna fuit. FAUSTUS 1498." According to an old French description this old statue was: "_très beau et très agréable ainsy que tous ses portraits l'ont représenté, comme celui qui est au grand portail de Bloys_." Above rises a balustrade with fantastic gargoyles with the pinnacles and fleurons of the window gables all very ornate, the whole topped off with a roofing of slate. Blois, in its general aspect, is fascinating; but it is not sympathetic, and this is not surprising when one remembers men and women who worked their deeds of bloody daring within its walls. The murders and other acts of violence and treason which took place here are interesting enough, but one cannot but feel, when he views the chimneypiece before which the Duc de Guise was standing when called to his death in the royal closet, that the men of whom the bloody tales of Blois are told quite deserved their fates. One comes away with the impression of it all stamped only upon the mind, not graven upon the heart. Political intrigue to-day, if quite as vulgar, is less sordid. Bigotry and ambition in those days allowed few of the finer feelings to come to the surface, except with regard to the luxuriance of surroundings. Of this last there can be no question, and Blois is as characteristically luxurious as any of the magnificent edifices which lodged the royalty and nobility of other days, throughout the valley of the Loire. A numismatic curiosity, connected with the history of the Château de Blois, is an ancient piece of money which one may see in the local museum. It is the oldest document in existence in which, or on which, the name of Blois is mentioned. On one side is a symbolical figure and the legend _Bleso Castro_, and on the other a _croix haussée_ and the name of the officer of the mint at Blois, _Pre Cistato, monetario_. The plan of the Château de Blois here given shows it not as it is to-day, but as it was at the death of Gaston d'Orleans in 1660. The constructions of the different epochs are noted on the plan as follows: ERECTED BY THE COMTES DE CHATILLON 1. Tour de Donjon, Château-Regnault, Moulins, or des Oubliettes. 2. Salle des États. 3. Tour du Foix or Observatory. ERECTED BY THE DUCS D'ORLEANS 4. Portico and Galerie d'Orleans. (Destroyed in part by the military.) 5. Galerie des Cerfs. (Built in part by Gaston, but made away with by the city of Blois when the Jardins du Roi were built.) ERECTED BY LOUIS XII. 6. Chapelle St. Calais. (Destroyed in part by the military.) 7. La Grande Vis, or Grand Escalier of Louis XI.