ose which we saw, were
worthy of attention. From these rooms, we passed to the late king's
private opera house, which surpasses in magnificence, and costly
decoration, every thing of the kind I ever beheld. The facing of the
whole of the inside is of carved wood, richly gilt. The dome is
beautifully painted. Upon the scenery of the stage being removed, and
temporary columns, and galleries raised; all of which can be effected in
twenty-four hours, that part of the theatre presents a counterpart of
the other, and the whole forms a most splendid oblong ball room, very
deservedly considered to be the finest in Europe: it used to be
illuminated by ten thousand wax lights. The concert rooms, and retiring
apartments are also very beautiful. From the opera, we visited the
chapel, which is very fine, and costly, in which there are many large,
and valuable paintings. After leaving this deserted place of royal
worship, we passed through the Halls of Plenty, Venus, Mars, Mercury,
Apollo, and the Hall of the Billiard Table, finely painted by Houasse,
le Brun, Champagne, and other eminent artists, to the grand gallery,
which is seventy-two yards long, and fourteen broad, and has seventeen
lofty windows on one side, which look into the gardens, and seventeen
immense pier glasses on the opposite side to correspond. In this
gallery, the kings of France were accustomed to receive ambassadors, and
ministers of state.

We next entered the bedroom of the late queen and beheld the door,
which, on the night of the 6th of October, 1789, the frantic, and
sanguinary mob, headed by the infamous Legendre, burst open, for the
purpose of dispatching her with daggers, in her bed, on that frightful
night, which preceded the return of the royal family to Paris, under the
protection of the marquis de la Fayette, through an enraged multitude,
which extended itself from Versailles to Paris.

The miserable queen saved herself by escaping into an adjoining
apartment. Her bed was pierced through and through with poignards. The
door is nailed up, but the marks of that horrible outrage still remain.
In this, and in the adjoining chambers, are some very beautiful and
valuable paintings. I must not omit to mention, although the sentiment
which it inspires is not very pleasant, the representation of the
capture of an english frigate, by la Bayonne, a french corvette, after a
desperate engagement, in which victory for once decided in favour of the
enemy, who opp