of, even a gallery, a perfect
description whereof would require a large volume, with a roofe of most
glittering and admirable beauty. Yea, so unspeakably fair is it that a
man can hardly comprehend it in his mind that hath not seen it with
his bodily eyes." The Tuileries gardens were the finest he ever beheld
for length of delectable walks.

[Footnote 130: They marked the seven resting-places of the saint as he
journeyed to St. Denis after his martyrdom.]

[Footnote 131: The Grande Galerie.]

Next day Coryat saw the one thing above all he desired to see, "that
most rare ornament of learning Isaac Casaubon," who told him to
observe "a certain profane, superstitious ceremony of the papists--a
bedde carried after a very ethnicall manner, or rather a canopy in the
form of a bedde, under which the Bishop of the city, with certain
priests, carry the Sacrament. The procession of Corpus Christi," he
adds, "though the papists esteemed it very holy, was methinks very
pitiful. The streets were sumptuously adorned with paintings and rich
cloth of arras, the costliest they could provide, the shews of Our
Lady street being so hyperbolical in pomp that it exceedeth all the
rest by many degrees. Upon public tables in the streets they exposed
rich plate as ever I saw in my life, exceeding costly goblets and what
not tending to pomp; and on the middest of the tables stood a golden
crucifix and divers other gorgeous images. Following the clergy, in
capes exceeding rich, came many couples of little singing choristers,
which, pretty innocent punies, were so egregiously deformed that moved
great pity in any relenting spectator, being so clean shaved round
about their heads that a man could perceive no more than the very
rootes of their hair."

At the royal suburb Coryat saw "St. Denis, his head enclosed in a
wonderful, rich helmet, beset with exceeding abundant pretious
stones," but the skull itself he "beheld not plainly, only the
forepart through a pretty, crystall glass, and by light of a wax
candle."

CHAPTER XIV

_Paris under Richelieu and Mazarin_

Before Coryat left Paris he rode a sorry jade to Fontainebleau which,
"though I did excarnificate his sides," would not stir until a
gentleman of the court drew his rapier and ran him to the "buttock."
At the palace he saw the "Dolphin whose face was full and fat-cheeked,
his hair black, his look vigorous and courageous." The Dolphin that
Coryat saw came to the throne, at n