The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1848-03-02


The curious stranger, and the idle crowd upon
fete day, alore enjoy the beauties of this
charming scene. The whole seems but as a
splendid monument standing to tell of world
" slories which have faded and persisted with
the frailty of summer leaves. l was remind
ed of the fine passage in the Memoirs of Mad
am dc Genlis, in which she referred to the
changes come cted with the Court of France,
and could feel it in all its pathos. ooh! how
much sweeter it is to me-" she writes, 'to re-
call to my mind the walks and sports of my
happy childhood, than the pomp and splendor
of the palaces l have since inhabited! All
these courts, once so brilliant, now are faded {!
all the projects which were then built with so
much confidence are become chimeras! The
impenetrable future has cheated alike, the Sc
curity of prince. and the ambition of COURT
ers Versailles is dropping into ruin the
delicious gardens of Chantilly, of Villers- Cot
erets, of Sceaux, of the Islo-A Adam, are de-
stroyed: should now look in vain for the
vestiges Of that fragile grandeur which l once
admired there but should find the banks of
the Loire as smiling as ever, the meadows of
st. Aubn as full Of violets and lilies of the
valley, and its woods loftier and fairer !
There are no vicissitudes for the eternal beau
ties of nature; and while amidst blood-stained
revolutions, palaces, marble columns, statues
of bronze, and even cities themselves disap-
+ho a. Of fba Ga1d rauar61pSS
of the storm, grows into beauty and multiplies
forever"
Another of our interesting excursions was
to the Abbey of st. Denis-the Westminster
Abbey Of France-the burial place of her an
cicnt kings, and of most of those also whose
names belong to later times. 1t is about five
miles distant from the city and in the great
Revolution was visited by the enraged and
desperate mob, who dug up the remains OF the
sovereigns and buried them all in the bitches.
All the monuments were carried away from
the place, but were not destroyed. The church
was made almost ruin. Napoleon commence
cd the restoration of the editice, and Louis
Philippe has completed it; and the monu-
ments are restored to their original places. 1t
is a strange and indescribable sensation, which
comes over one while walking among the mon
umental statues of kings belonging to races
long since extinct; and to see the efigies of
Dagobert, Clothaire, Pepin, Charles Martel,
Hugh Capet, the eighteen Louises, along with
those of famous queens, such as Blanche of
CASTLE, Catherine de Medicis, Claude of France
and many others, standing in their shadowy
niches or lying in cold and solemn pomp up
on their marble pillows, with the badges of
royalty still about them, seems like going back
into the thick darkness of buried ages and
penetrating the very dom ain of the King of
Tcrrors. 0. what bubble seems the glory of
this world, what me,e phantoms its honors and
rcnown when considered from such point as
this: Those who have lived So gorgeously;
who have fixed on themselves the attention,
perhaps the envy of the world and whose
tombs genius has done its utmost to make il
lustrious; what have they of all their hearts
desired and sought: The sculptured marble
covers them indeed, but they heed not its
beauty. The pavement Of the cold vaults
echoes the tread of the curious who come to
survey their resting place; but to them the
silence is unbroken, and the homage which
may be paid to their memories. unheard !
There is a greatness which death cannot de-
stroy; hut it is widely different in its nature
from that empty bauble which has too sener-
ally been the object of pursuit by princes, and
which, as the experience of age has most
clearly shown, affords no solid happiness, and
can only adorn tomb Such were the re-