After having been wounded the king was brought dying to the Louvre. His royal coach drew up beneath the vault through which throngs all Paris to-day searching for a "short cut" from the river to Saint Honore. It was but a short, brief journey to the royal apartments above in the Pavilion de l'Horloge, but it must have been an interminable calvary to the gallant Henri de Navarre. The body was received by Marie de Medici in tears, and the Ducs de Guise and d'Epernon clattered out the courtyard on horseback to spread the false news that the king had suffered no harm. Fearing the results of too precipitate publishing of the disaster no other course was open. A gruesome memory is that the Swiss Guard at the Louvre surreptitiously acquired a "_quartier_" of the dismembered body of the regicide and roasted it in a fire set alight beneath the balcony of Marie de Medici as an indication of their faithfulness and loyalty. It was Sully, the king's minister, who ran first up the stairs to acquaint the queen of the tragedy--faithful ever to the interests of his royal master. In spite of this, one of the first acts of Marie de Medici as regent was to drive the Baron de Rosny and Duc de Sully away. Such is virtue's reward--sometimes. * * * * * "Lying on his bed, his face uncovered, clad in white satin and a bonnet of red velvet embroidered with gold, was all that remained of Henri IV of France and Navarre. Around the bed were nuns and monks from all the monasteries of Paris to keep vigil of his soul." So ends the chronicle closing the chapter of the relations of Henri IV with his Paris palace. No particularly tragic event took place here for some years. Henriette de France, widow of Charles I of England, taking refuge in France from the troublous revolt at home, lived in the Louvre in 1644. She had at first been graciously received by Mazarin, but was finally accorded only the most strict necessities of life, a mere lodging in the Louvre, a modest budget and a restricted entourage. In 1662, under Louis XIV, Moliere and his troup, in a theatre installed in the Salle des Caryatides, gave the first "command" performance on record. The plays produced were, "Nicodeme" and "Le Docteur Amoureux." An "art note" of interest is that Sylvain Bailly, the first curator of the Musee du Louvre, was born within its precincts in 1736. In the dark days of July, 1830, the populace attempted to pillage and sack the palace, but after a bloody reprisal retired, leaving hundreds of dead on the field. The _parterre_ beneath the famous colonnade was their burial place, though a decade later the bodies were exhumed and again interred under the Colonne de Juillet in the Place de la Bastille.