In traversing the splendid apartments of the Tuileries, now the favorite residence of a peaceful dynasty, the mind involuntarily turns to those vestiges of the past, which have given it prominence in history. Among the structures of the capital of France, it early attracts the notice of the traveller. Stretching along the banks of the Seine, it is connected with the Louvre by a gallery commenced during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and completed under the auspices of Louis the Fourteenth. Three sides of an immense parallelogram are thus formed, and it was the intention of Bonaparte to have added the fourth, and completed the most magnificent edifice of the kind, that modern Europe can boast.
As the eye fixes involuntarily upon the central pavilion, past scenes and events of other days sweep by, like living pictures. Francis the First seems to pass proudly in his royal robes, and leaning upon his arm his intriguing mother, Louise of Savoy, for whom he purchased the hotel which originally occupied the site of this palace, somewhat more than three centuries since.
Ninety years after, we see Henry the Third hurrying from its walls to escape a tumult of the people. Assisted by his groom, he hastily mounts his horse, his dress disarranged, and the spurs but half fastened to his boots. Forty arquebusiers take aim at him as he passes out by the Ponte Neuve; and when he finds himself free from the perilous neighborhood of the
