No. 254 _bis_, the national Deaf and Dumb Institution, is the ancient _commanderie_ of the Frères hospitaliers de St-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas--the Pontifici--given for the purpose in 1790, partly rebuilt in 1823. The statue of Abbé de l’Épée, inventor of the alphabet for the deaf and dumb, in the court is the work of a deaf and dumb sculptor. The trunk of the tree we see near it is said to be that of an elm planted there by Sully three hundred years ago. At No. 262 we see vestiges of a _vacherie_, once the farm St-Jacques. At No. 261 we may turn into Rue des Feuillantines, where at No. 10 we see vestiges of the convent that was at one time in part the abode of George Sand, then of Mme Hugo, mother of the poet, and her children; later Jules Sardou lived in the _impasse_, now merged in the _rue_. At No. 269 we find some walls of the monastery founded by English Benedictines in 1640, to which a few years later they added a chapel dedicated to St. Edmond. The fabric is still the property of English bishops. It is used as a great music school: “Maison de la Schola Cantorum.” The door seen between two fine old pillars at No. 284 led in olden days to the Carmelite convent where Louise de la Vallière took definite refuge and acted as “sacristan” till her death; Rue du Val-de-Grâce runs where the convent stood.[D] The military hospital Val-de-Grâce was founded as a convent early in the seventeenth century. Anne d’Autriche installed there the impoverished Benedictines of Val Parfond, or Profond, evacuated from their quarters hard by owing to an inundation from the Bièvre. In their gratitude they changed their name: the nuns of Val Profond became sisters of Val-de-Grâce. In 1645 Louis XIV, the child Anne d’Autriche had so ardently prayed for laid the first stone of the chapel dome, built on the model of St. Peter’s at Rome. The church is now used only for funerals and indispensable military services. The dependency of Val-de-Grâce was built by Catherine de’ Medici, the catacombs lie below it and the surrounding houses. CHAPTER XX LE JARDIN DES PLANTES