th a soft light; and beyond
it was a blaze of candles amid clouds of incense, for the priests in
their gorgeous vestments were administering at the altar.

[Illustration: THE GODDESS OF REASON CARRIED THROUGH THE STREETS
OF PARIS.]

The boys passed through the waves of light reverently, and stood near
the altar. A choir of altar boys suddenly rose amid the smoke and
lights and glitter of priestly robes, and sang most melodiously. It
seemed very solemn and grand, but the thought of the associations of
the place was even more awe-inspiring. The scene was one that had
been enacted for more than a thousand years, under the groined roof of
the same stately edifice, and the past seemed to hang, a weight of
gloom, in the very air.

On each one's paying half a franc, the Class was admitted into the
sacristy, where the sacred relics, purchased in the East by St. Louis
himself, are kept. Among them is a supposed piece of the true cross
and a pretended part of the Crown of Thorns which was put upon the
Saviour's head before the Crucifixion.

The second day that the Class spent in Paris was the most delightful
of the whole tour.

"I shall go with you to-day," said Master Lewis, "to the most
beautiful place in Europe, the most beautiful garden in Europe, and
one of the most beautiful picture-galleries in the world."

"The Tuileries?" asked Frank.

"The Louvre?" asked Ernest.

"Both," said Master Lewis.

"The Tuileries and the Louvre are now one. Francis I. began the
building of the Louvre in 1541; Catharine de Medici commenced the
Tuileries in 1564; Napoleon III. united the two palaces in the four
years following 1852. The two palaces have been growing about three
hundred years. The Tuileries was partly burned by the Commune. The
united palaces cover twenty-four acres. Think of it! Twenty-four acres
of art, ornament, pictures, and splendor!"

The garden of the Tuileries is the favorite promenade of wealthy and
fashionable Parisians, and seemed to the boys too beautiful for
reality. Graceful statues rise on every hand from flower-beds, bowers,
by cool fountains, and in the shade of grand old trees,--statues in
marble, stone, and bronze; Grecian, Roman, French. Airy terraces,
basins bordered with rich foliage and gorgeous flowers carry the eye
hither and thither, and call out some new expression of admiration at
almost every step.

"How happy the life of a French king must have been!" said Tommy
Toby.

"How unhap