The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.Carr, John, Sir
History
The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.
Carr, John, Sir
France -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Mrs. S---- led me to the chapel, to show me the havoc which the
unspairing impious hands of the revolution had there produced. She put
into my hand an immense massy key to open the door of the choir. "That
key," said she, "was made for the master-key of the convent, by the
order of Robespierre. In the time of terrour, our gaoler wore it at his
belt. A thousand times has my soul sunk within me, when it loudly pushed
the bolt of the lock aside. When the door opened, it was either a signal
to prepare for instant death to some of those who were within, or for
the gloomy purpose of admitting new victims." When we entered the
chapel, my surprise and abhorrence were equally excited. The windows
were beaten through, the hangings were flapping in the wind, the altar
was shattered in pieces and prostrate, the pavement was every where torn
up, and the caves of the dead were still yawning upon us. From their
solemn and hallowed depths, the mouldering relics of the departed had
been raised, by torch light, and heaped in frightful piles of unfinished
decay against the walls, for the purpose of converting the lead, which
contained these wretched fragments of mortality, into balls for the
musketry of the revolution. The gardens behind the chapel must have been
once very pleasant, but they then had the appearance of a wilderness.
The painful uncertainty of many years, had occasioned the neglect and
ruin in which I saw them. Some of the nuns were reading upon shattered
seats, under overgrown bowers, and others were walking in the melancholy
shade of neglected avenues. The effect of the whole was gloomy and
sorrowful, and fully confirmed the melancholy recital which I received
from Mrs. S----. Bonaparte, it is said, intends to confirm to these
nuns their present residence, by an act of government.
Upon leaving the convent I visited the seats of cassation, and justice,
in the architectural arrangement of which, I saw but little worthy of
minute notice, except the perfect accommodation which pervades all the
french buildings, which are appropriated to the administration of the
laws.
The hall of the first cassation, or grand court of appeal, is very fine.
The judges wear elegant costumes, and were, as well as the advocates,
seated upon chairs, which were constructed to imitate the seats of roman
magistracy, and had a good effect. I was informed that the whole of the
ornamental arrangement was designed by David.
From the courts of justice, I went to the second national library, which
is very noble and large, and has a valuable collection of books. Several
students were arranged with great silence and decorum, at long tables.
In one apartment is a very large, and ingenious model of Rome in a glass
case, and another of a frigate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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