fear and horror. He recovered
presently from his fear, and, running to the palace window, became so
excited at the sight of blood that he fired upon the wretched
fugitives who were attempting to escape by swimming across the Seine.

"But the young king never knew a happy hour after that dreadful night.
He grew pale and thin, and his tortured conscience and shattered brain
called up in his solitary hours the images of the slain.

"Two years after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve the young king
lay dying. His disease, it has been said, was caused by poison, which
had been applied to the leaves of one of his favorite books for the
purpose, by his unnatural mother. His sufferings were dreadful in the
extreme. Historians tell us that he sweat drops of blood. His mental
anguish was as fearful as his bodily distress. He would cry out to his
nurse, '_Ah, nourrice, ma mie, ma bonne! que du sang, que
d'assassinats! Oh quels mauvais conseils j'ai suivis! Oh Seigneur
Dieu, pardonnez moi, et faites moi misericorde!_' 'Ah, nurse, my good
nurse! What blood! What murders! Oh what bad counsels I followed! Lord
God, pardon me! Have mercy on me!'

"Historians cover the memory of Charles IX. with infamy, but his first
impulses were usually kind, and his first intentions good. He does not
seem to have inherited the disposition of that monster of wickedness,
his mother. His most evil acts could hardly be called his own. Left to
himself he would have been deemed a most polished and amiable prince,
though wanting in decision. As a victim of bad counsellors, pity
should mingle with the censure that follows his name."

[Illustration: CHARLES IX. AND CATHARINE DE MEDICI.]

CHAPTER XV.

PARIS.

Paris the Beautiful.--Notre Dame.--Tuileries and Louvre.--Garden
of the Tuileries.--Bois de Boulogne.--Church of the Invalides.--
Napoleon's Tomb.--Place de la Concorde.--Story of the Man of the
Iron Mask.--Versailles and the Trianons.--Story of the Dauphin.--
Fontainebleau.--The Seine.--Water-Omnibuses.--A Wonderful Boat.--
Tommy's French.--A Surprise.--St. Eustache.--Moliere.--Young French
Heroes.--Wyllys Wynn's Poem.

Paris the beautiful!

City of light hearts, smiling faces, charming courtesies, and gay
scenes everywhere!

City of dark tragedies of history that have hardly left behind a scar!
The tropical forest gives no warning of poison lurking under the
flowers; the bright Southern sky wears no trace of the te