HOTEL DE VILLE, LYONS FRANCE

the executioner of Lyons refused to take part in the murders, as he termed them, saying that it was not his duty to execute until sentence had been passed.

But in 1585 Lyons joined the league to carry out the conditions of the treaty of Jourville for the suppression of Protestant heretics, but this was during the thirty years of religious turbulence when passion held sway and religious prejudice was used as a political stepping-stone.

During the French Revolution (1793-99) the greater part of the cities in the south of France declared against the Convention, among them Bordeaux and Lyons, but the Convention enacted laws for the suppression of commercial and political liberty, and sent an army to Lyons and Bordeaux and they were reduced to submission, but Lyons held out for 63 days. The law against suspects threw 300,000 people into prison, and Barrere declared in the name of the Committee of Public Safety that France must become one vast camp, and in their efforts to make it so, cartloads of

victims, without regard to age or station, were daily dragged to execution,-in Lyons as well as elsewhere,-which exceeded the most horrible proscription ever recorded in history. In 1813, when France was attacked by the allied armies, the Austrian army occupied Lyons and the English Bordeaux. An insurrection of the workmen occurred in Lyons in 1831, which was suppressed, and in 1834 a mixed trade and political insurrection concurrent in Lyons and Paris was suppressed and 164 Republicans were put on trial before the Peers, then in 1849 the trade riot assumed very formidable proportions, and since the war of 1870 Lyons has been known as the focus of red republicanism.

The commercial and fashionable part lie in the long narrow tongue of land between the two rivers, Rhone and Saone, and is connected with the suburbs beyond by more than twenty bridges. This central part of Lyons contains many narrowstreets, with tall, gloomy houses; yet there are some long wide streets and handsome squares. The Church of St. Martin d Ainay is the oldest in Lyons, dating back to the tenth century. St. Nizier is a fine specimen of the fifteenth century and has a crypt in which St. Pothinus is said to have officiated. Across the Saone and on its right bank is the steep high suburbs of Fourvieres, the ancient Forum Vetus of Trajan, whose summit 410 feet high is now crowned by the Church of Notre Dame (the new church begun in 1872) in which is the miracle working image of our Lady of Fourvieres, that is believed to have preserved the city from the cholera in 1832-35 and 1850; it is visited by thousands of pilgrims an

magnificent stained glass windows, fourteenth century, and a celebrated clock of 1598. The left bank of the Rhone is very low and is protected by embankments to prevent their overflow and flooding the handsome new suburb Les Brotteaux. In the Tete de Or Park there is an oriental museum, a zoological collection, and a fine botanical garden, which taken together are decidedly interesting. La Guitlotiere, a suburb to the south of the city, is decidedly squalid and evidently a breeder of the violence for which Lyons is quite noted.

nually, whose offerings cover the walls of the church. From its tower, which is surmounted by a gilded statue of the Virgin eighteen feet high, a view can be had of the distant Alps. On this elevated site also stands the church of St. Irenaeus, in the crypt of which are preserved what purports to be the bones of 19,000 Christian martyrs who perished in the persecution of Severus, before mentioned. At the foot of the hill next the Saone is the Archiepespical Cathedral of St. John of the thirteenth century, with

BORDEAUX, THE PALACE GATE.

Lyons has its share of libraries and museums and a collection of Roman antiquities. The city is a fortress of the first rank, being defended by a double row of forts. The staple industry is the silk; it is computed that there are within the city and its environs from 75,000 to 85,000 hand looms, and some 25,000 power looms, employed in this manufacture and the annual production reaches more than $200,000,000.

The list of notable persons born in Lyons includes Germanicus and the Roman Em

perors Claudius, Marcus Aurelius, and Caracalla, Jules Fevre, Roland, Say, Suchet, the De Jussieus, Ampere, Recamier, Bonnet, Delorme, Messionier, and Jacquard. There is sufficient interest for one to devote much time to Lyons, but we fear we have consumed too much of the readers' time already, and we take the train for the west.

Our next stop is at Vichy, the most frequented bathing place in France. Millions of bottles of Vichy water are exported from here every year. It has some 15,000 population, and is visited by more than twice that number, who go there for the benefit

and Pope Alexander granted it, and he married Anne, and French history intimates that the marriage was more political than otherwise. Nantes also witnessed the

embarkation of the young pretender Charles Stewart (1745); the fall of the Vendean leader Cathelmeau (1793) when Napoleon then but a captain drove them out of Nantes. Nature furnished a beautiful site for Nantes which has been mnch improved by art, further improvements between 1865 and 1870, now make it one of the handsomest cities in all France, with its noble river, quays, bridges, shady boulevards, squares, statues, etc. Popu

of the medicinal properties in the water, both for drinking and bathing.

We now pass on to the West to Nantes the city in which Henry IV. on April 15, 1598, issued the famous edict of Nantes which gave freedom of religion to the Huguenots, and whose revocation by Louis XIV. on the 22nd of October, 1685, drove 400,000 French into exile. Nantes was pillaged by the Northmen in the year 840. In a war over a candidate for the throne of France Nantes withstood a siege in 1342, and witnessed the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Louis XII. (1499); Anne was the widow of Charles VIII. Louis had been married for 22 years to a daughter of Louis XI., but not loving her he asked for a divorce

lation about 125,000. Ten miles below Nantes is the vast government steam engine factory of Indret employing some 3,000 mechanics and familiar to every reader of Daudet's "Jack,"

We go up the river to Tours, capital of the department of Indre-et-Loire, 147 miles southwest of Paris. It stands in the fertile valley of the Loire just above the influx of the Cher. It is a regularly built and handsome town. Conspicuous among its buildings is the noble cathedral built in various styles of Gothic from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. It has two towers 205 feet high, and the glass in the many windows is very fine. Other buildings of interest are the church of St. Julien, the

towers and other remains of the famous abbey church of St. Martin (long a place of pilgrimage, but destroyed at the revolution), the Archbishop's place, Palace of Justica, Public Libraries, etc. Near the town are the remains of the monastery of Marmoutier and the Castle Plesses les Tours, the favorite residence of Louis XI., and there are some well preserved ancient houses, including that of the executioner Tristan l'Ermite. Near here Charles, snrnamed Martel (the hammer), met the Saracens (732) completely defeating them which is considered the most important victory in the world's history as it saved western civilization from hopeless retrogression and ruin. Meetings of the States-general and councils repeatedly took place in Tours, and during the Franco-German war Tours was the seat of government from the time the Germans closed round Paris September 21st, but later they closed round and then occupied Tours.

The great silk manufactories of Tours, established in the fifteenth century, were destroyed by the revocation of the edict of Nantes for it drove nearly half of the most industrious inhabitants of the place into exile, though now they have a brisk trade in woolens and silks.

Blois is 36 miles by rail from Tours, and though it has but about 20,000 inhabitants it is very interesting. It has a remarkably fine situation on a steep acclivity, and is built chiefly on the right bank of the Loire. The old historic town with its crooked, narrow streets is mainly on the hill on the crown of which stands the historic castle which has been the scene of many interesting historical events. Louis XII was born in it, and under its roof Charles Duc d

and at great cost. Blois is a place of great antiquity. Stephen, who usurped the crown of England on the death of Henry I. (1135), was born here in 1105. He was the son of one of the counts of Blois, by Adela, the daughter of William the Conqueror; among other natives was Peter of Blois, subsequently Archdeacon of London, who died in 1200, and Denis Papin, to whom belongs the honor of having first applied steam (1690) to produce motion by raising a piston. He was also the inventor of the safety valve. The

Alencon and Margaret of Anjou, and Henry IV. and Margaret of Valois were married. Here also the Duc de Guise and his brother, the Cardinal, were murdered by order of Henri III., December 23rd, 1588. Isabella, queen of Charles VI., here found a retreat, and it served as a prison for Mary de Medici; Catherine de Medici died within its walls; and Maria Louisa here held her court in 1814 after Paris had capitulated. The castle was then neglected and used as a barrack, but the greater part of it has been finely restored,

principal manufactures are porcelain and glass.

Orleans is 36 miles further up the river and but 75 miles from Paris. It stands in a fertile plain on the right bank of the Loire, the river being spanned by a ninearch bridge, built in 1760, 1,092 feet long. Close to the city is the Forest Orleans, covering nearly 150 square miles and planted with oak and other valuable trees. history of Orleans reaches back into the dim distance. It was the Celtic Genabum, where, in 52 B. C., the great Gallic rising

The

broke out against Julius Cæsar. About 272 A. D. it was renamed Civitas Aureliani, of which the present name is only a corruption. It was besieged by Attila in 451, passed into the hands of the Franks, and was twice plundered by the Northmen (855 and 865). In 1428-9 it was besieged by the English under the Duke of Bedford, but was delivered by Joan of Arc, called therefore the Maid of Orleans. The town suffered much in the Hugenot wars, and in the Franco-German war, being occupied by the invaders. It originally had walls and

TOURS CATHEDRAL, FRANCE.

gates, but they have given place to handsome boulevards; but the town seems lifeless, and there is little in or about it to interest the tourist, and we proceed on our journey to Fontainebleau.

Fontainebleau is 37 miles southeast of Paris, with which it is connected by both steamers on the Seine and by rail. It stands in the midst of a forest on the left bank of the river, and is chiefly famous for its Chateau, or pleasure place of the kings of France, and the forest and fine scenery that surrounds it. The Chateau is said to have been originally founded by Robert

the Good toward the end of the .enth century. Almost every king added something in the way of enlargement and embellishment, so that the Chateau bears the character and style of almost every century. It was the residence of Christina of Sweden after her abdication, and here in 1657 she caused her secretary, Monaldeschi, to be executed. In the Chateau Pope Pius VII. was detained a prisoner for nearly two years by Napoleon, and here this emperor signed the act of his abdication in 1814. Fontainebleau now has a population of about 15,000. From here we

go back to gay Paris (see previous letter March 1900,) with upwards of forty theaters and numerous places of amusement, suited to the tastes and means of every class, and where the open-air and restaurant life in summer exceeds that of any other city in the world. The French delight in the glitter, the chatter, the radiant and noisy ebb and flow of the boulevards; and if his meal and wine are served in the open in front of the hotel or restaurant, all the better.

An American may live fairly cheap in Paris in the lower grade of restaurants, but in the better ones no price is affixed to the several dishes upon the bill of fare. The head waiter and the lady accountant, of course, know that you are an American, and you will be exceedingly fortunate if you do not pay from one-fourth to one-half more for your service than the Frenchman does who sits beside you. Still, Paris is an enchanting place, and we tarry for a season on our return visit and make a few side trips.

Nancy, a very beautiful French town, 220 miles east of Paris, is well worth a visit, and especially so to many who have become American citizens, whose parents or themselves have been identified with Alsace-Lorraine, over which Germany and France have had so much trouble, now annexed to Germany.

Another pleasant and interesting trip is to Havre, one of the chief ports in France from which emigrants set sail, about 40,000 yearly, composed mostly of French, Italian and Swiss, two-thirds bound for America. The history of Havre as a seaport dates from the reign of Francis I. (1516), who built the harbor and fortified it. The