You are to understand that the stitches, if they may be so called, are threads laid side by side—­and bound down at intervals by cross stitches, or fastenings—­upon rather a fine linen cloth; and that the parts intended to represent flesh are left untouched by the needle.  I obtained a few straggling shreds of the worsted with which it is worked.  The colors are generally a faded or bluish green, crimson, and pink.  About the last five feet of this extraordinary roll are in a yet more decayed and imperfect state than the first portion.  But the designer of the subject, whoever he was, had an eye throughout to Roman art—­as it appeared in its later stages.  The folds of the draperies, and the proportions of the figures, are executed with this feeling.

I must observe that, both at top and at bottom of the principal subject, there is a running allegorical ornament, of which I will not incur the presumption to suppose myself a successful interpreter.  The constellations, and the symbols of agriculture and of a rural occupation form the chief subjects of this running ornament.  All the inscriptions are executed in capital letters of about an inch in length; and upon the whole, whether this extraordinary and invaluable relic be of the latter end of the eleventh, or the beginning or middle of the twelfth century seems to me a matter of rather a secondary consideration.  That it is at once unique and important, must be considered as a position to be neither doubted nor denied.

I have learned even here, of what importance this tapestry roll was considered in the time of Bonaparte’s threatened invasion of our country:  and that, after displaying it at Paris for two or three months, to awaken the curiosity and excite the love of conquest among the citizens, it was conveyed to one or two sea-port towns, and exhibited upon the stage as a most important material in dramatic effect.

THE CHATEAU OF HENRI IV.  AT PAU[A]

[Footnote A:  From “A Tour Through the Pyrenees.”  By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co.  Copyright, 1873.]

BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE

Pau is a pretty city, neat, of gay appearance; but the highway is paved with little round stones, the side-walks with small sharp pebbles:  so the horses walk on the heads of nails and foot-passengers on the points of them.  From Bordeaux to Toulouse such is the usage, such the pavement.  At the end of five minutes, your feet tell you in the most intelligible manner that you are two hundred leagues away from Paris....