Chapter III

70

Departure under an unlucky star—Essonne—Petit Bourg—The Czar
Peter—Fontainebleau—Palace—Apartments of the Emperor Charles
the Fifth—Chamber where Pius the Seventh said mass daily—Chapel
founded in the seventh century—Cypher of the Saviour and Virgin
placed beside those of Henry the Second and Diana of
Poitiers—Princess Mary of Orleans—Napoleon’s apartments—Marie
Antoinette’s boudoir—Carving by Louis the Sixteenth’s
hand—Monaldeschi, favourite of Queen Christina—Gallery where he
was murdered—Account of his murder by the Monk who confessed
him, of his burial at dusk in the church of Avon—Window thrown
open by Henry the Fourth, to announce Louis the Thirteenth’s
birth—Gallery of Henry the Second, called Galerie des
Réformés—Petition in which they took the name presented here by
Coligny—Open chamber above the Donjon—Arch where Louis the
Thirteenth was publicly baptized—Biron’s tower—His treason—His
denial—His last interview with Henry the Fourth—Napoleon—The
Forest—The Comte de Moret, last inhabitant of the Hermitage of
Franchard—Fanny’s sagacity—Croix du Grand Veneur—The spectre
hunt—Apparition and warning to Henry the Fourth, corroborated by
Sully—Avon—Monaldeschi, Christina’s fickle lover—The old
church—The fat porter—The grave beneath the Bénitier—The
Englishmen’s sacrilege—Monaldeschi their relative—Precautions
against travellers

CHAPTER IV.

97

Moret—The Nunnery—Louis the Fourteenth’s black daughter—Two useful
Saints—Villeneuve la Guyard—-Descriptions deceitful—Strange cure
for blood to the head—A River-god on terra-firma—Sens—St. Colombe,
Thomas à Becket’s refuge—Villeneuve le Roy—Place where the Vine was
first cultivated—Auxerre—The Chapter’s hundred years’ Law-suit
concerning fur trimmings—The Canons’ games at ball—The Cathedral
occupying the site of the first Christian Chapel—St. Germain—The
Saint’s refusal to get out of his Grave to reform England—Tombs of
Dukes of Burgundy—Ill-treatment in a Church from a School at its
devotions—Lucy le Bois—The Face in a Hole in the Wall—Taken for a
beast—Arnay le Duc—La Rochepot—A danger avoided through Grizzle’s
affection—An unamiable Carter—Chalons, Cæsar’s head-quarters—Cross
seen by Constantine—Punishment of past times for unskilful
Physicians—A Prince of Portugal, Monk at St. Laurents—Cathedral