Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 6.djvu/31

 A CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES IX CHAPTER I THE REITERS "The black bands came over The Alps and their snow; With Bourbon, the Rover, They passed the broad Po." Lord Byron, The Deformed Transformed.

NOT far from Etampes, on the Paris road, there is still to be seen a large square building with pointed windows roughly sculptured. Above the gate is a niche where was once a stone image of Our Lady, but in the Revolution this shared the fate of many saints of both sexes, and was solemnly demolished by the president of the revolutionary club of Larcy, " They have since put in its place another Virgin, which is no doubt only plaster, but which, with a scrap or two of silk and some