py the lives of French kings have been!" said Master Lewis.
"If you would have a view of royalty that makes a peasant's life seem
desirable, read the history of the old French kings."

The beautiful forests of France extend to the very outskirts of the
city. One of these, the Bois de Boulogne, is the favorite park of
Paris. It contains more than two thousand acres. It has an immense
aquarium, pavilions of birds, and a garden for ostriches and
cassowaries, and its principal avenue is one hundred yards wide.

The Class visited this park on a beautiful afternoon, passing through
the Champs Elysees, a splendid avenue filled with equipages. In this
walk the boys saw the famous _Arc de Triomphe_ and the _Palais de
l'Industrie_, in which the World's Fair was held in 1855, when nearly
two million strangers beheld Paris in her glory. The Arc de Triomphe
was begun in 1806, the year of the battle of Austerlitz, and was
finished by Louis Philippe. It commemorates the victories of Napoleon,
and is the most magnificent imperial monument in the world.

No scene in Paris seemed to inspire a part of the Class with so much
awe as the tomb of Napoleon. At the entrance to the crypt of the dome
of the church of the Invalides, containing the conqueror's remains,
are these words: "I desire that my ashes may rest on the banks of the
Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have loved so well."

From a balustrade above the tomb under the beautiful dome the boys
looked down in silence on the sarcophagus, or stone coffin, which is
of Finland granite. The monolith on which it rests is porphyry, and
weighs 130,000 pounds. The monument cost nine million francs.

A beautifully tinted light fell upon the sarcophagus.

"Look," said Tommy, "see--"

An armed guard approached, with a solemn gesture of the hand. He
simply said,--

"Be reverent."

[Illustration: GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES.]

The Hotel des Invalides, an asylum for disabled soldiers, of which
the church and dome are a part, was founded by Louis XIV. The dome is
gilded, and is three hundred and thirty feet high.

[Illustration: FOUNTAIN IN THE CHAMPS ELYSEES.]

Ernest Wynn, who seemed to have a part of some old ballad always upon
his lips, repeated some fine lines to Master Lewis as they went out of
the church,--a quotation from an old song, entitled "Napoleon's
Grave." (At St. Helena.)

"Though nations may combat and war's thunders rattle,
No more on thy steed wi