"Les cloches dans les airs, de leurs voix argentines, Appelaient à grand bruit les chantres à matines, Quand leur chef, agité d'un sommeil effrayant, Encor tout en sueur, se réveille en criant: 'Pour la seconde fois (dit-il) un sommeil gracieux Avait sous ses pavots appesenti mes yeux; Quand, l'esprit agité d'une douce fumée, J'ai cru remplir au chœur ma place accoutumée. Là, triomphant aux yeux des chantres impuissants, Je bénissais le peuple, et j'avalais l'encens: Lorsque, du fond caché de notre sacristie, Une épaisse nuée à grands flots est sortie, Que s'ouvrant à mes yeux, dans son bleuâtre éclat M'a fait voir un serpent conduit par le prélat. Du corps de ce dragon plein de soufre et de nitre, Une tête sortait en forme de pupitre, Dont le triangle affreux, tout hérissé de crins, Surpassait en grosseur nos plus épais lutrins: Animé par son guide, en sifflant il s'élance. J'ai crié, mais en vain; et, fuyant sa fureur Je me suis réveillé plein de trouble et d'horreur." An order of the Conseil d'Etat, dated March 11, 1787, sequestered all the goods of the chapel, suppressed the chaplaincies and canonries, and ordained that the services should be continued by the king's ordinary chaplains. Three years later, the chapel shared the fate of all the abbeys, chapters, and religious foundations; and soon after, S. Louis' beautiful oratory was closed. The relics were sent to S. Denis, and the other objects were dispersed to the National museums. _Propriété Nationale à Vendre_ was written upon the building, a piece of information which has only disappeared in our own time. Under the Directoire a club held its meetings there; and later, it was converted into a warehouse for corn and flour. Towards 1800, certain ecclesiastics hired the lower chapel and celebrated mass there, but in 1803 it was further profaned; the upper chapel was turned into a depository for judicial documents, and the lower one was given for the same purpose to the Cour des Comptes. In vain Louis XVIII. and Charles X. endeavoured to restore the building to its proper use; and it was only in 1837, in the reign of Louis Philippe, that its restoration was decided upon. MM. Duban, Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc, and Boeswillwald were commissioned to undertake the work at a cost of 2,000,000 francs, a sum nearly equal to the original value of the relics and reliquaries (2,800,000 francs), while it exceeded by nearly two millions the original cost of the building, 800,000 francs. The 3rd November, 1849, the work was sufficiently advanced for the ceremony of the Institution of the Judicature, when the ancient chants were sung as in former times. Since then, until quite recently, a mass has always been celebrated in the chapel, upon the opening of the Law Courts, in the presence of the judges, barristers, and others who could gain admission. But this