From hence we proceed by the street opposite to the Rue Richelieu, and turning to the left, we arrive at the Place Richelieu, and must pass a few minutes in admiring the elegant bronze fountain in the centre with its noble basins and four allegorical figures representing the Seine, the Loire, the Saone, and the Garonne, round which the water falls from above, and flows beneath, producing a most beautiful effect.

Opposite is the Bibliotheque du Roi, or Royal Library, which certainly is the most extensive and most complete of any in the world, possessing nearly 1,000,000 books and printed pamphlets, 80,000 MSS, 100,000 medals, 1,400,000 engravings, 300,000 maps and plans.  This institution may be considered to owe its foundation to St. Louis, who first made the attempt of forming a public library, and arranged some volumes in an apartment attached to the Holy Chapel; under successive reigns the number gradually increased, whilst the locality assigned for them was often changed, and it was not until the reign of Louis XV that they were placed where they now are, in a most extensive building, formerly the residence of Cardinal Mazarin, which, seen from the Rue Richelieu, presents nothing but a great ugly dead wall, with a high roof to it, and here and there a few square holes for windows, but when you enter the court-yard, you find rather a fine building than otherwise, and the interior displays, by the vast size of the apartments, some idea of what its former grandeur must have been; the richness of the ornaments and decorations in most instances are destroyed, and replaced by books, with which the walls are covered.  The engravings occupy the ground floor, and amongst them are to be found fifty thousand portraits, including every eminent character which Europe has produced, and presenting all the varieties of costumes existing at the different epochs in which they flourished; in one of the rooms where the prints are kept is an oil portrait, in profile, of the unfortunate King John of France, which is curious as an antiquity, being an original, and executed at a time when the art of portrait painting was very little known, as John died in the year 1364.  On ascending the staircase to the right, a piece of framed tapestry must be remarked, as having formed part of the furniture of the chateau of Bayard.

Those who are curious in typographical specimens must ask to see the most ancient printed book with a date, being 1457, also the Bible, called Mazarin, printed in 1456, with cut metal types.  The oldest manuscript is one of Josephus, and others are of the fifth and sixth centuries; the amateurs of autography will be gratified in seeing letters from Henri IV to Gabrielle d’Estree, and the writing of Francis I, Turenne, Madame de Maintenon, Voltaire, Rousseau, Racine, Corneille; Boileau, Bossuet, etc.  Amongst other interesting objects is the chair of Dagobert, which is supposed to be much older even than his time, and of ancient Roman fabric, the vase of