containing a celebrated image of the Virgin at
Boulogne-sur-Mer. On their return, wishing
to hand down to posterity a remembrance of
their pious zeal, they determined to build
a chapel on a site possessed by one of them
in the Forest of Rouvray. exactly similar to
the one they had visited. On application to
the king, the royal permission was speedily
granted. When the chapel was built, the
immense concourse of pilgrims made it necessary
to provide accommodation for them
in the vicinity. A little village arose in
course of time, and received the name of
Boulogne. Charles the Fifth, a few years
afterwards, had summer residences built for
himself and court at a short distance from
Autolium, on the side nearest to Paris. This
group of houses formed the nucleus of the
village of Passy. From its proximity to the
capital, and on account of the excellent hunting
ground it afforded, the Forest of Rouvray
became one of the favourite resorts of
successive French kings. Chateaux were built
and roads were made for their convenience
and pleasure. Gradually, the three little
villages increased in size, to the diminution
of the forest; which at length was reduced
to the proportions of a wood, with the name
of the Bois de Boulogne.

Napoleon Bonaparte was the first monarch
who made plantations in the Bois de
Boulogne. The green of pines, firs, cedars,
cypresses, and junipers was arranged to contrast
agreeably in winter with the brown solemnity
of oaks, elms, and limes, and the silvery bark
of beeches. The wall which surrounded the
wood was rebuilt, and keepers were appointed
to drive away footpads and vagabonds. During
the successive occupations of Paris by the
allies in eighteen hundred and fourteen and
fifteen, nearly all the trees in the Bois de
Boulogne were cut down and used as fire-wood.
In June, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, the
Bois de Boulogne was given over by the state
to the city of Paris, on condition that it
should be made into a park, and at least two
millions of francs spent, within four years,
upon its embellishment. Napoleon the Third,
it is said, drew out a plan of the alterations,
and confided its execution to M. Vare, a
celebrated French landscape gardener: leaving
him full liberty, however, to modify it if
necessary. We shall presently see with what
success their labours have been attended.

The most important edifice in the Forest
of Rouvray for many centuries was the
Convent of Longchamps. This convent was
founded in the year twelve hundred and sixty
by Isabella, the sister of Louis the Ninth.
At her death, which occurred in twelve
hundred and seventy, she was dressed in the
robe of Saint François and buried in the
chapel of the convent. Saint Louis followed
Isabella to the grave, and afterwards
delivered a discourse full of condolence for the
loss which the community had sustained.
Agnès d'Harcourt, the third Abbess of
Longchamps, published the life of Isabella, and
declared that numerous miraculous cures
had been effected through her intercession.
The announcement of these miracles
attracted immense crowds to Longchamps for
more than two centuries, and the belief in
them became so universal that Pope Leon
the Tenth declared Isabella beatified by a
bull dated the third of January, fifteen
hundred and twenty-one. Soon afterwards, the
body was exhumed, and it became a part of
the religious duty of all good Christians to
pay an annual visit, and present an annual
offering at the shrine of Sainte Isabella.
Thus originated the celebrated pilgrimages
to Longchamps, which were rigorously kept
up until about the middle of the last
century. When the convent began to be
neglected, the nuns announced, as a means of
rekindling the religious ardour of the
Parisians, that the first singers of the opera
would chant sacred music every Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday in Easter week. The
plan succeeded beyond their most sanguine
expectations; and for many years the chapel
was always crowded on the three appointed
days. At length the singing was prohibited
by the Archbishop of Paris, and the convent
closed to the public. The Parisians,
however, having become used to the Easter
pilgrimages, determined to keep them up in
their own way. With an eye to business, on
which they would have been mercilessly
sarcastic if the English had shown it, they
changed the pious pilgrimages to Longchamps
Abbey into gay promenades to Longchamps
for the display of the spring fashions. In seventeen
hundred and eighty-five, an Englishman
appeared at Longchamps in a silver carriage,
sparkling with precious stones, and drawn by
horses shod with silver. This was the signal
for the most extravagant display of wealth
ever witnessed in the French capital. As a
natural sequence, the Reign of Terror came,
and the Convent of Longchamps was
destroyed, and the priests and nuns put to
death. The promenades, nevertheless, were
revived under Napoleon the First, and have
been continued ever since.

The Champs Elysées,the Avenue de
l'Imperatrice, and the Route de Longechamps, in the
Bois de Boulogne, still present an animated
appearance on the days of promenades. The
roads are crowded with vehicles of every
description; aristocratic carriages occupied by
ladies in the most fantastically beautiful
toilets; cabs and hired vehicles filled with
milliners and mantua-makers, dressed up to exhibit
the spring modes and novelties;
advertising vans painted in the loudest colours;
and cars decorated with gaudy ribbons, or
tastefully festooned with flowers. The
pedestrians lounge about and criticise the passersby,
while flower-girls with early violets, and
marchands de coco, and plaisir, circulate
through the crowd. The carriages merely
go to the site of the ancient convent—which