The Hotel des Invalides, an asylum for disabled soldiers, of which the church and dome are a part, was founded by Louis XIV. The dome is gilded, and is three hundred and thirty feet high. [Illustration: FOUNTAIN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSÉES.] Ernest Wynn, who seemed to have a part of some old ballad always upon his lips, repeated some fine lines to Master Lewis as they went out of the church,--a quotation from an old song, entitled "Napoleon's Grave." (At St. Helena.) "Though nations may combat and war's thunders rattle, No more on thy steed wilt thou sweep o'er the plain; Thou sleep'st thy last sleep, thou hast fought thy last battle, No sound can awake thee to glory again." The delightful _Place de la Concorde_, which is between the Garden of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées, and which has been called the most delightful spot in any European city, had been passed through by the Class in their walk to the park, and it was decided to give an afternoon to a visit to it. Here stands the obelisk of Luxor, brought from the ruins of Thebes. [Illustration: PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.] Here stood the guillotine, or rather the guillotines, on which Louis XIV. and Marie Antoinette and nearly three thousand persons perished. Here revolutionists cut off the heads of the royal family, and the people the heads of the revolutionists. [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE LOUVRE.] Two beautiful fountains were playing on the afternoon when the Class made their visit. The sky was all rose and gold; the Seine flowed calmly along; the aspect of every thing seemed as foreign to any past association of war, tragedy, and pangs of human suffering as the figures of the Tritons and Nereids that were spouting water from the fishes in their hands. [Illustration: FOUNTAIN, PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.] Leaving the Place de la Concorde, which Master Lewis said he believed was constructed in part of stones of the old Bastile, the Class went to the public square where the Bastile had stood. "The Place of the Bastile," said Master Lewis, "now adorned by the Column of Liberty, is the site of the old Castle of Paris, which was built as a defence against the English. The castle became a prison for people who offended the French kings. The Man of the Iron Mask was confined here. It was regarded as an obstacle to liberty, and it was stormed by the people during the Revolution, and destroyed." "Who was the Man of the Iron Mask?" asked Tommy Toby. "That is a question that used to be asked by all the statesmen of Europe, and that has been repeated and always will be by every reader of history. It has been answered in many different ways. Books, pamphlets, and essays have been written upon the subject. It is still a secret, and seems destined always to remain so. I will give you briefly the strange history of this State prisoner." THE MAN OF THE IRON MASK.