[86] [My friend Mr. Drury possessed a similar copy.]

[87] It may not be generally known that one of the most minute and
    interesting accounts of this assassination is given in Howell’s
    Familiar Letters.  The author had it from a friend who was an
    eye-witness of the transaction.

[88] As for the “singeing.”—­or the reputed story of the greater
    part of them having been burnt—­my opinion still continues to be as
    implied above:  I will only now say that FORTUNATE is that Vendor who
    can obtain 25l. for a copy—­be that copy brown or fair.

[89] [My friend, the late Robert Lang, Esq. whose extraordinary Collection
    of Romances was sold at the close of the preceding year, often told
    me, that THE ABOVE was the only Romance which he wanted to complete
    his Collection.]

[90] Page 164, ante.

LETTER VII.

LIBRARY OF STE. GENEVIEVE.  THE ABBE MERCIER ST. LEGER.  LIBRARY OF THE
MAZARINE COLLEGE, OR INSTITUTE.  PRIVATE LIBRARY OF THE KING.  MONS. BARBIER,
LIBRARIAN.

It is just possible that you may not have forgotten, in a previous letter, the mention of STE. GENEVIEVE—­situated in the old quarter of Paris, on the other side of the Seine; and that, in opposition to the ancient place or church, so called, there was the new Ste. Genevieve—­or the Pantheon.  My present business is with the old establishment:  or rather with the LIBRARY, hard by the old church of Ste. Genevieve.  Of all interiors of libraries, this is probably the most beautiful and striking; and it is an absolute reproach to the taste of antiquarian art at Paris, that so beautiful an interior has not been adequately represented by the burin.  There is surely spirit and taste enough in this magnificent capital to prevent such a reproach from being of a much longer continuance.  But my business is with the original, and not with any copy of it—­however successful.  M. Flocon is the principal librarian, but he is just now from home[91].  M. Le Chevalier is the next in succession, and is rarely from his official station.  He is a portly gentleman; unaffected, good-natured, and kind-hearted.  He has lived much in England, and speaks our language fluently:  and catching my arm, and leaning upon it, he exclaimed, with a sort of heart’s chuckle—­in English, “with all my soul I attend you to the library.”

On entering that singularly striking interior, he whispered gently in my ear “you shall be consigned to a clever attendant, who will bring you what you want, and I must then leave you to your occupations.”  “You cannot confer upon me a greater favour,” I replied.  “Bon, (rejoined he) je vois bien que vous aimez les livres.  A ca, marchons.”  I was consigned to a gentleman who sat at the beginning of the left rectangular compartment—­for the library is in the form of a cross—­and making my bow to my worthy conductor, requested he would retire to his own more important concerns.  He shook me by the hand, and added, in English—­“Good day, God bless you, Sir.”  I was not wanting in returning a similar salutation.