gee Duc d'Orleans (later Louis
Philippe of France) stayed but a short time in New Orleans, did he
manage to sleep in so many hundred beds, and in houses which were not
built until long after his departure? And why are so many of the signs,
over bars, restaurants, and shops, of that blue and white enamel one
associates with the signs of the Western Union Telegraph Company? And
why is the nickel as characteristic of New Orleans as is the silver
dollar of the farther Middle West, and gold coin of the Pacific
Slope--why, when one pays for a ten-cent purchase with a half-dollar,
does one receive eight nickels in change? Ah, but New Orleans is a
mysterious city!

Once, when the French and English were fighting for the possession of
Canada and New Orleans was depending for protection on Swiss
mercenaries, the French officer in command of these troops disciplined
them by stripping them and tying them to trees, where they were a prey
to the terrible mosquitoes of the Gulf. One day they killed him and
fled, but some of them were captured. These were taken back to New
Orleans, court-martialed, and punished according to the regulations:
they were nailed alive to their coffins and sawed in two.

Ceded to Spain by a secret clause in the Treaty of Paris, of which she
did not know until 1764, Louisiana could not believe the news. Even when
the Acadians, appeared, after having been so cruelly ejected from their
lands in what is now New Brunswick, Louisiana could not believe that
Louis XV would coldly cast off his loyal colony. The fact that he had
done so was not credited until a Spanish governor arrived. For three
years after, there was confusion. Then a strong force was sent from
Spain under Count O'Reilly, a man of Irish birth, but Spanish
allegiance, and the flag of Spain was raised. O'Reilly maintained
viceregal splendor; he invited leading citizens to a levee; here in his
own house he caused his soldiers to seize the group of prominent men who
had attempted to prevent the accomplishment of Spanish rule, and five
of these he presently caused to be shot as rebels.

Spanish governors came and went. The people settled down. At one time
Padre Antonio de Sedella, a Spanish Capuchin, arrived with a commission
to establish in the city the Holy office of the Inquisition, but he was
discouraged and shipped back to Cadiz. Miss King tells us that when,
half a century later, the calaboose was demolished, secret dungeons
containing instrumen