were startled at a loud echo, which, by the construction of two circular passages in the centre of the vaulted area, gives singular force and perpetuity to the slightest sound.
The exterior of the Church of St. Denis, though less elaborate than many others, is striking and sufficiently ornate. The inhumed ashes of the monarchs of France, from Clovis to Louis the Eighteenth, give interest to the spot, and a lesson to human pride. During the madness of the revolution, their repose was violated, but the broken sepulchres and scattered relics were again gathered and reunited. Many of the monuments are exceedingly, costly, and some of their recumbent statues, by a strange perversion of taste, depict the distortions and agonies of death with fearful accuracy.
At the Porte St. Denis is the celebrated triumphal arch, erected to commemorate the victories of Louis the Fourteenth. Its proportions and sculpture are much admired, and surmounting the arch in bas relief, is the king on horseback, represented as crossing the Rhine, with only the inscription, "Ludovico Magno." But in no spot are his ambition and lavish expenditure so conspicuous as, in the palace of Versailles, which cannot be explored without remembering its mournful influence on the fates of France, at the birth of the Revolution. A double row of colossal statues of the great of other days, receive the visitant at the gates. The paintings, the tapestry, the
