festivals, passing the day in pious conversation with the monks and in religious observances." He also made considerable donations,[10] added to the many lamps which are kept continually burning before the shrines, and increased the number of wax tapers employed in the services of the church. Then further, amongst the curiosities, were the nail of a griffin upon a silver-gilt animal; a unicorn's horn six feet high, sent by Aaron King of Persia to Charlemagne; the hunting horn of Roland, nephew of Charlemagne; and the lantern which was used at the betrayal of our Lord in the Garden, called the Lantern of Judas. The latter was of copper, embellished by rock crystal, through which the light shone. (This was also the gift of Charles the Bald). The mirror of the prince of poets, Virgil, which was of jet; the sword of the _genereuse Amazone, Jeanne la Pucelle_. Of the beauty of the croziers and pastoral crosses, the mitres and episcopal rings, Dom Millet's description leaves no doubt; and of the magnificence of the abbots, and the splendour of their monastery, we have more than ample evidence. As an old epigram puts it: Au tems passé du siècle d'or, Crosse de _bois_, Evêque d'or, Maintenant changent les lois, Crosse d'or, Evêque de _bois_. The Huguenots destroyed many of the church ornaments, ruined chapels, and worse still, "ces impies la pillerent (S. Denis) et dissiperent entierement, sans y laisser aucune chose, sinon ce qu'ils ne voulutent point. Ils ne pouuoient faire pis, sinon mettre le feu par tout le Monastere, comme ils firent en tant d'autres par la France." It was supposed that the "Prince de Condé, leur chef," was not present at these little pastimes of his valiant soldiers, for when he heard what had been done "il fit pendre vne douzaine, pour monstrer comment il detestoit leur sacrilege: mais pour cela les pertes ne furent pas reconnettes." In a _History of the Royal Abbaye of Saint Denis_, published in London in 1795, we have some curious details connected with the church. "Every Sunday and Holy Day at mass, the Deacons and Sub-deacons, after having received the 'precious body of Our Lord,' repaired to a side altar to suck up through a reed, enclosed in a tube of enamelled gold, the 'precious blood,' according to a very ancient custom adopted in the church of S. Denis, which is retained without any variation to this day." Whether this was so, or whether it was the result of the anonymous writer's imagination, I cannot say, as I find nothing about it in other books that I have studied. The same author speaks of the "miraculous silver keys of S. Denis which they apply to the faces of those persons who have been so unfortunate as to be bitten by mad dogs, and who receive a certain and immediate relief by only touching them." Alas, that these keys should have been melted up; for here was a cure for hydrophobia without any of the vicarious suffering which M. Pasteur's discovery has caused.