o favor to the community, but the reverse, to let
imprisoned criminals go free. In those days, on the other hand,
crimes were considered rather as injuries committed _by_ the
community, and against the king; so that, if the monarch wished to
show the community a favor, he would do it by releasing such of them
as had been imprisoned by his officers for their crimes. It was just
so in the time of our Savior, when the Jews had a custom of having
some criminal released to them once a year, at the Passover, by the
Roman government, as an act of _favor_. That is, the government was
accustomed to furnish, by way of contributing its share toward the
general festivities of the occasion, the setting of a robber and a
murderer at liberty!

The King of France has several palaces in the neighborhood of Paris.
Mary was taken to one of them, named St. Germain. This palace, which
still stands, is about twelve miles from Paris, toward the northwest.
It is a very magnificent residence, and has been for many centuries a
favorite resort of the French kings. Many of them were born in it.
There are extensive parks and gardens connected with it, and a great
artificial forest, in which the trees were all planted and cultivated
like the trees of an orchard. Mary was received at this palace with
great pomp and parade; and many spectacles and festivities were
arranged to amuse her and the four Maries who accompanied her, and
to impress her strongly with an idea of the wealth, and power, and
splendor of the great country to which she had come.

She remained here but a short time, and then it was arranged for her
to go to a _convent_ to be educated. Convents were in those days, as
in fact they are now, quite famous as places of education. They were
situated sometimes in large towns, and sometimes in secluded places
in the country; but, whether in town or country, the inmates of them
were shut up very strictly from all intercourse with the world. They
were under the care of nuns who had devoted themselves for life to
the service. These nuns were some of them unhappy persons, who were
weary of the sorrows and sufferings of the world, and who were glad
to retire from it to such a retreat as they fancied the convent would
be. Others became nuns from conscientious principles of duty,
thinking that they should commend themselves to the favor of God by
devoting their lives to works of benevolence and to the exercises of
religion. Of course there were al