e of the first spots I sought
was the grave of Abelard and Heloise. The stranger always asks first for
it, and visits it last when returning from the cemetery. It is the most
beautiful monument in the cemetery. It consists of a chapel formed out
of the ruins of the Abbey of Paraclete, which was founded by Abelard,
and of which Heloise was the first abbess. It is fourteen feet in
length, by eleven in breadth, and is twenty-four feet in height. A
pinnacle rises out of the roof in a cruciform shape, and four smaller
ones exquisitely sculptured stand between the gables. Fourteen columns,
six feet high, support beautiful arches, and the cornices are wrought in
flowers. The gables of the four fronts have trifoliate windows, and are
exquisitely decorated with figures, roses, and medalions of Abelard and
Heloise. In the chapel is the tomb built for Abelard by Peter the
Venerable, at the priory of St. Marcel. He is represented as in a
reclining posture, the head a little inclined and the hands joined.
Heloise is by his side. On one side of the tomb, at the foot, are
inscriptions, and in other unoccupied places. I lingered long at this
tomb, and thought of the singular lives of that couple whose history
will descend to the latest generations. It seemed strange that two
lovers who lived in the middle of the twelfth century, should, simply by
the astonishing force of their passions, have made themselves famous
"for all time." It seemed wonderful that the story of their love and
shame should have so burned itself into the forehead of Time, that he
carries it still in plain letters upon his brow, that the world may
read. It shows how much the heart still controls the world. Love is the
master-passion, and so omnipotent is it, that yet in all hearts the
story of a man or woman who simply _loved each other_ hundreds of years
ago, calls forth our tears to-day, as if it occurred but yesterday. Bad
as Abelard's character must seem to be to the careful reader--cruel as
was his treatment of Heloise--he must have had depths of love and
goodness of which the world knew not. Such a woman as Heloise could not
have so adored any common man, nor a wonderful man who had a hard heart.
She saw and knew the recesses of his heart, and pardoned his occasional
acts of cruelty. Having known what there was of good and nobleness in
his nature, she was willing to die, nay, to live in torture for his
sake.

The tomb is constantly visited, and flowers and imm