built for the Pretres de l’Oratoire in 1621, but now devoted to the protestant worship; it is adorned with doric columns, with a range of corinthian pillars above, and in the interior, the roof of which is highly ornamented.  Service is performed in French every Sunday at half past 12.  Within a hundred yards eastward is the Fontaine de la Croix-du-Tiroir, at the corner of the Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, rebuilt by Soufflot (on the site of one erected under Francis I).  Adorned by pilasters and a nymph, which would have been graceful but is spoiled by their painting over it.

The first turning in the Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, is the Rue des Fosses St. Germain-l’Auxerrois, and at No. 14 is the house formerly called the Hotel Ponthieu, in which Admiral Coligni was assassinated on St. Bartholomew’s day, in 1572; in the very room where the event took place the witty actress, Sophie Arnould, was born, in 1740, then called the Hotel Lisieux, and in 1747, it was occupied by Vanloo the celebrated painter.  We return to the Rue de l’Arbre-Sec, and a few steps southward bring us in front of the venerable and mouldering church of St. Germain-l’Auxerrois (vide page 61); the oldest part still standing and supposed to be of the 14th century, is the western front; the porch was built by Jean Gausel in 1431, several other parts have been built at later periods; altogether it is a most interesting building and is connected with many sad historical associations, it was the bell of this church that tolled the signal for the massacre of the protestants on the night of St. Bartholomew; in a little street adjoining the south side of the church, is a house with a picturesque turret, supposed to have belonged to some building attached to the church; there is a very remarkable piece of carve-work in wood and some interesting pictures within the church; we will now leave its tranquil vaulted aisles, and quitting by the western porch, the most beautiful facade of the Louvre rises before us, which was erected in the reign of Louis XIV, after a design by Claude Perrault.

[Illustration:  Champin del.  Lith.  Rigo Freres Cie St. Germain l’Auxerrois.]

The Louvre has been so often described in works of so many different natures, descending the different grades from histories to pamphlets, that I shall not fatigue my readers with a too detailed review of its wonders, but endeavour to give them some impression of its grandeur, with as little prolixity as possible.  I have already, in the historical sketch of Paris, touched upon its foundation, and the various epochs at which the different parts of the building were erected, and certainly let any one place himself in the middle of the grand court, and behold the four sides, and see if he can call to mind any thing equal to it, take it, for its all in all; I am well aware that there is rather a redundancy of ornament to satisfy the purest taste, and in that respect there is undoubtedly a deviation from perfection, but the approach is sufficiently