The architectural settings, however, much as they may appeal to his professional eye, are but the beautiful frames in which to set a multitude of charming portraits of French worthies, from the most famous to the most obscure. He knows his French literature, and more particularly the memoirs and the letters which shed so vital a light on men and motives. He has resurrected more than one character from obscurity and forgetfulness. His pathetic picture of Bosc, the lover of nature, choosing his grave in the woods which he loved so well, in defiance of the immemorial custom of his race, will seem perhaps more unusual to the European mind than to the American, for the New England pioneer of necessity made his own family graveyard in the most accessible spot, and these little plots on farms and in woods dot American soil. His portrait of the mystic Martin of Gallardon is particularly timely in this era of revival of interest in psychical research. Written, as these essays were, through a series of years, his descriptions of Soissons and the valley of the Oise tell us of since-devastated regions as they were before the whirlwind and havoc of war swept over heroic France. Doubtless the visitor today would find but a memory of some of the architectural beauties here described. Their memories are imperishable, and not the least of the merits of the book is that the guns of the Hun cannot destroy the written records of this beauty, though they may have blasted from the earth the stones and mortar which composed those sacred edifices. Frank Roy Fraprie. Boston, June 23,1920. The SPELL of the HEART of FRANCE [Illustration: 0025] I. MAINTENON [Illustration: 0029] |THERE is in _L' Education Sentimentale_ a brief dialogue which recurs to my memory whenever I enter a historic home. Frédéric and Rosanette were visiting the château of Fontainebleau. As they stood before the portrait of Diane de Poitiers as Diana of the Nether World, Frédéric "looked tenderly at Rosanette and asked her if she would not like to have been this woman." "'What woman?' "'Diane de Poitiers!' "He repeated: 'Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II.' "She answered with a little, 'Ah!' That was all. "Her silence proved clearly that she knew nothing and did not understand, so to relieve her embarrassment he said to her, "'Perhaps you are tired?' "'No, no, on the contrary!' "And, with her chin raised, casting the vaguest of glances around her, Rosanette uttered this remark: "'That brings back memories!' "There could be perceived on her countenance, however, an effort, an intention of respect...