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It is not rand hall of the veritable old palace The two extrera, so broad, and so thick that, as the ancient land rolls--in a style that would have given Gargantua an appetite--say, "such a slice of marble as was never beheld in the world"; the other by the chapel where Louis XI had hiin, and whither he caused to be brought, without heeding the two gaps thus ne and of Saint Louis, two saints whos of France This chapel, quite new, having been built only six years, was entirely in that char taste of delicate architecture, of , which marks with us the end of the Gothic era, and which is perpetuated to about the middle of the sixteenth century in the fairylike fancies of the Renaissance The little open-work rose , pierced above the portal, was, in particular, a race; one would have pronounced it a star of lace

In the old brocade, placed against the wall, a special entrance to which had been effected through ain the corridor of the gold chamber, had been erected for the Flees invited to the presentation of the mystery play

It was upon the marble table that the ed for the purpose, early in the ; its rich slabs of marble, all scratched by the heels of law clerks, supported a cage of carpenter's work of considerable height, the upper surface of which, within view of the whole hall, was to serve as the theatre, and whose interior, -rooes of the piece A ladder, naively placed on the outside, was to serve as e, and lend its rude rungs to entrances as well as to exits There was no personage, however unexpected, no sudden change, no theatrical effect, which was not obliged to mount that ladder Innocent and venerable infancy of art and contrivances!

Four of the bailiff of the palace's sergeants, perfunctory guardians of all the pleasures of the people, on days of festival as well as on days of execution, stood at the four corners of the marble table