HISTORIC PARIS. BY ovin r. JOIINSCX. PLACE PE I.A CONCORPK. There is a piece of territory shaped almost like a parallelogram extending from the heart of tlio city of Paris westwardly a little more than a mile and averaging in width probably a quarter of a mile. In order more clearly to describe it 1 will divide it into four sections by drawing three imagiuury lines straight across it from north to south. The section at the eastern end or nearest to the centre of the city, is occupied bv buildings. The first of which is the old Louvre— a large square structure with an ojsei court in the centre —known as the court of the Louvre, from this struc ture the new Louvre stretches virtually iu two parallel piles of huildiug, skirt ing opposite edges of the section until they reach the one, the northern, the other, the southern extreme of the palace of the Tuileries, which latter (iu ruins since 1871) passes across what I designate at the parallelogram. The immense space thus inclosed by the one side of the old Louvre, both wings of the new Louvre and the palace of the Tuileries is for a short distance known as the Place Napoleon, then the Place du Carrousel, and last ly beyond the high iron railingstretch ing aeross the space, the Court of the Tuileries. The second section of the parallelogram is occupied by the ex tensive and picturesque garden of the Tuileries. The third section which presents a vast, hare, yet imposiiig appearance, void of Mil decoration hut mouumeiit* and fountains and which might be said to be the heart of the parallelogram, for it is almost equi- listant from either end of it, is the subject of this sketch, "Place de la Concorde," and the fourth j and longest section is entirely taken J up by the Champ* Elysees. These names are familiar with the student of history, and that oue wilt concede , that there is no spot on all the globe, 1 reckoning its eventful associations' froin the close of the middle ages to the preseut, more historic lliun this ]>arallelogram. In the centre of the Palace de la Concorde, from a base prepared for it j rises the obelisk erty. The one on the right is now used ax I the Ministerc of Marine. It WHS from this building in 1792 that forty thieve* made a partially successful attempt to carry away the crown jewels, a* also the valuable diamond- of Cardinal Richelieu. The magnificent temple surrounded with columux, standing at the more distant end of the Rue Roy al, that is the church of the Madeleine. Turn to the south. The river Heine flows along that side; the bridge span- j ning here wa* built of stone* taken from the notorious Hostile. The large building decorated with statuary near the other end of the bridge, is the Pa lais Bourbon now Palais du Corps Legixlatif. The great guilt dome a little beyond, is the domo of the In valided Turn to the east. The hunch of trees and shrubbery spread ing away in that direction is the Gar den of the Tuileries. Looking lie tween the sculptures of Fame and Mercury mounted each upon a pegn sus —adorning the sides of the en trance into the Garden —the smoked and ragged walls seen peeping up be yond are the ruins of the Palace of the Tuileries. The dense sea of foliage on the west is the amps Elysees. The (great wide ► avenue coursina its centre is the "Av enue of the Champs Elysees" —the fashionable drive of Paris. Those hugely designed marbles upon high pedestal* standing upon either side of I lie entrance to the avenue counter balancing Fame and Mercury each of a horse tamer struggling with a horse are "the Horses of Marly." Thejr are familiar figures to many Ameri cans at first sight through a cheap plaster copy errooeously termed "AI . ezander and Bucepbalns"—scattered in perfusion through the eastern and middle states. Far out on the avenue and beyond the parallelogram that great heavy mass stretching over the roadway Is said to be the largest and most beautiful nt court, turned to that last great resort of kbuied peoples revolution. lutoxicated early with the magnitude of their succt**, they blindly staggered into excess; there fore the continued horrors of the guil lotine. It is ever when a nation is oppressed and burdened beyond suf ferance by its rulers, that it indignant ly pretests in some manner. When this indignation assumes the form of open revolt, then popular fury is apt to seek out the author of the hardship, j and popular elainor to at least call for , his humiliation. Should the opprca- j sion have rested with the weight of a calamity, then popular clamor in almost every instance demands the extreme immolation of such an one, that only seems to work the ultimate degree of satisfaction. The revolution sought for a victim, it was presented in the JKTSOO of the vaseillating Iui* 16, the man whose advent to the throne these very people had hailed with joy, and to whom thev had given the ap pellation, "The Desired." His true crime was that lie was a king descend ed from a long race of kiugs. Ilia mUforture was that he lived in on age when the sentiments of men were ex* j puuding with a new, strauge and lib eral philosophy. Tried and condemn- I cd. he was taken from his prison, the ; Temple, on the 21*tof January, 1793,: brought as far as the Rue Itoynle thence out through it, between the j same garde incuble that yet stand ! there—for what? To atone for the wrongs and oppressions inflicted by his progenitors. The great red frame of the guillotine stood a short distance l away from the pr*ent location of the obelisk and towards where the foun tain now stauds dedicated to the seas. The man once a king, hut shrunk aud resolved back into a mere human creature, mounted its steps. A multi tude of one hundred thousand tieoplc, who were ouce hi* subjects, stood about him; with hands tied he turned to- I wards the east to address them. Hisul | terances were brief, lest for the people might weaken in uncertainty, the ' drums were ordered to drown his voice. The executioners rudely dragged him uway and under the axe. His confessor who stood beside him stupefied by the excitement of the hour unknowingly exclaimed as the instrument swiftly descended in its groove: "Son of St. Isuii* ascend to heaven." Soldiers colored their blades with the hluod as though to consecrate them furies, with the mein of women soaked their hand kerchiefs in it and a fiend in the shape of a man tasted it orying out "it is shockingly hitter," locks of the hair and the clothing were eagerly sought fur aod parted among the rabble. to * V When tho momentary excitement passed away the revolution stood agast ami stupefied at the sten it hud taken. Had it stopped here futurity have forgiven the deed, but no, thin sacrifice instead of satisfying rendered more intense it* zeal ami allowed how far it* revenge could go, when reaction followed it rolled mudiy on. In the consummation of thin crime was it# error. Marat sprung from the degraded sluius and haunts of tho great city, sat a high priest in the carnival of crime and eruelty, his proscriptions were as sweeping und merciless as those of the Roiiiuu Triuruvi rate of lx-pi dus, Augustus und Antony. Tho civilized world looked on in horror until Charlotte Corday, a guileless maiden from Normandy, sought the capital and with a |s>ignurd obliterat ed the monster. Her reasons were many, a republican at heart, but not a Jacobin. Hhc said: "I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand." A greut Frenchman of a later day deprecated the crime, but admiring her self sacrifice and its promptings termed her "the Augel of Assassina tion." She too perished in this square. As the axe fell some flapped their hands, others pitied her in silence, hut when the executioner lifted the sever ed head from the basket and struck the cheek a blow, it is said a blush suflbsed it. This atrocious barbarity drew from the s|K-ctaU)rs an exclama tion of horror and a tremor of aver sion. General Custine, a brave soldier adored by the army, had iieeu unfor tunate. He had erred,but not through design. His trial was an empty form, his condemnation u mockery and his execution a murder. With his arms pinioned he too came to his fate here, rouquier Tinville, the public accuser (who afterward* perished on the scaf fold), superintended the accusations. Now the Reigu of Terror found for him the enemies to the republic and the guillotine was her uitar upon which he immolated them. To lie sus|K-cted was a crime punished with death. Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Tlier*a of Austria ami widow of I/>uis XVI. had languished in prison lor sixteen months, tried and condemned. She was hi ought here with hound hands from the Coucicr gerie over the i'ont au Outage subject to every insult. The mob laughed, it was for them a fete day in the Uue St. Honors. A non-juring priest hidden away, from an upper window gave her absolution. When the tumbrel in which she sat reached the square it halted for u moment near the turning bridge which then connected the place with the garden of the Tuilericn at the entrance now adorned by the figures of Fame and Mercury. As the eyes of the woman mechanically wumlcrcd over her palace of the Tuilories tear* welled into thdhi. Sxili she was at the foot of the scaffold, liravely she asceuiled its ladder and wras IMIUIHI to the plank. It is said that when Sam son, the heaiismau, loosened the steel that terminated her life, though execu tions were with him a business of daily occurrence, he on this occasion trem bled from head to foot. The party in the national assembly known as the Girondists was led and guided through the treacherous quick sands of the revolution by some of the brightest intellects of France, though there w ere those among its leaders who had voted for the death of the mon arch, yet it was classid a the more moderate clement The mutability of public opinion saw only iu this mod eration a fault; twenty-two of its num- IHT fell under the banc of accusation and were cast into the cells of the Conciergeric. Among them Verguiaud, an orator of that finished class that attracts and impresses by the lieautv of eloqueuce and convinces by pro found argument; Gcnsonnc, one of these clear reasoning mind* thnt rijieii into the great statesman if allowed to jtrow; Hillery, learned, upright nml intrepid, three qualities which cum hincd go far to make the great man ; Krissot, honest, fearless and able had solved the time* as deliberately a* the mathematician solves the problem, he accept**! it* results not with regret for hims'lf, hut with pity for the rest of * mankind. Fauchet, bishop of Cal- ! vado*, one of those intellectual giant* whom the revolution fouud a chnreh mail. It whispered into his soul ami lie descended frim the pulpit to as cend into the tribune—though meta morphosed to the invmau yet was he still the religious, clinging to the sac redotal semblance his garb wis more a cassock than a toga. Tried and con demned one of their number Valaze sunk by hi* own hand in death before his judges. Hut the Imrlwrian* that sentenced the dead to be conveyed with the living that all might share a com mon grave, as though to avenge the axe for the loss of a victim by cont inuing the presence of the inanimate clay at the extermination of what had licen its companion* in life. The? met their fate in this square not with sacrilegious defiance but boldly and with that stoical indifference that characterized the sacrificed of the rev olution. They were great men whom the era produred but to destroy. Philippe, Duke of Orleans, known as Philip Kgalite (Kqiiality), a title lie assumed in the repuhfienn times, father of Louis Philippe, late king of the French, was a man of immense wealth. Ho lived in and owned the Palais Koyal, which still stands (par tially destroyed by the communists of 1871 but liuce restored). Of dissolute habits, ho swum boldly into the niiul strom of the revolution. Ho nasocia ted hiiuflelf with the cause of the mas ses, but was at length swallowed up in the vortex that cugulphcd friend and foe. He 100 perished hero, hpt with a cool, strange indifference, dress,*) j n the height of fashion, he ascended iijsin the platform of the acutfold. 'I lie cxecutiouers among them express ed a lietievolent desire to first remove his boots. '-No, no; )ou will do it more easily afterwards," he remarked, and perished with the joke on his lips. General Horn-hard, commanded the French army in the north, was victo rious ut the battle of Houdschoote, but tardy about completing his success he was condemned for gaining only half a victory, and here terminated his career beneath the axe. A little French girl, who held in her hand a copy of Plutarch's lives, was asked why she was weeping: -'I weep," replied she, "because 1 was uot horn u Roman maiden." A quar ter of a century later a woman stood with her hand upon a lever and a throne that held a royally ruling over w hat wa.-> once a vast province of Ro man conquest trembled. The child was the daughter of an engraver at l'aris; the woman was known in his tory as Madam Roland—they were one uud the same person—inspired with the seiitiineiit of republicanism she confidently plunged into the revo lution. What Mintix-ait had Ix-cn to it in its infancy she was to it iu its youth. Brilliant in diplomacy the suggestions of her opinion were sought for by the less violent of the assembly ; she was to them, what the compass is to the mariner. This prestige wu* but ephemeral, her dream of n republic faded away, and she surveyed from the scaffold its vapory ruins, slowly dissipating into empty air. Turning from the axe and laming to the clay statute that decorated the sjsit pre vious to the obelisk she uttered this memorable sentence, "Oh Liberty, Liberty how many crimes are com mitted in thy name!" Madam Du Rarrv by self degrada tion hud climlx-d to opulence and be come a jmwer at the degraded court of Louis XV. His unfortunate successor thrusts her aside. When the revolu tion came, she hurriedly buried her treasure and fled to Knglaud. At length tempted back to France with the hope of securing it, she was be trayed by tlx- base ingratitude fa negro upon whom she bad lavi-bCd favor and she endt-d her davs here. "Life, life, life, for my rvj>entanoo; life lr all iuy devotion to the repub lic; life for ul! mv riches to the na tion such were her cries, but her tears and lamentation* were in vain. The popnlnce knew its victim and they returned applause iu lieu of comniiascr ation. General Hiron; though H noble mid a courtier, had fought with I Afayctle on thi. side of the ocean for American independence. later he returned and offered the service* of hi* sword to the revolution, hrave, courageous and pop lar, he became one of it* greatest gen eral*, a pretext presented and ho met death beside thi* Magdalen, with an air of nonchalance. The contract of which rendered more conspicuous her lack of womanly courage. Kach equally debased the final hour, the woman by craven conduct and the man hv forced bravado. Camille Dcxmoulins and Dnntou, ruling spirit* of a faction, had *ent number* to the scaffold, but soon they liecume in their turn an object for de struction, and they perished here be neath the axe they had so often caused to descend upon their enemies. When the Prussian troop* occupied the citv of Verduu the inhabitant* gave a bail in honor of the occasion, for they im agined they saw in it the overthrow of r*l republicanism. Sane children had luuoeently taken part in the festivities of the occasion. When the republican troop* again occupied the city those children were sent to Pari* for trial — condemned —thev were brought here i for execution. The people looked on, stupefied with an|ii-cincut and horror nt the sacrifice of this innocence. On the morning tluft followed the tum brel* rolled again to this place of death. Now it was the abiw*s and nun* of the Abbey of Montmartre who i were martyrized en inn** then the vi-1 einily rose in indignatiou against this uuholy use of the place and the great | instrument of death wa forced away and set up iu Barriere du Trone. So great bed lieen the numlier executed here that the very soil re (used to re ceive within it the blood spilled ; it stood iu coagulated pools. Finally the guillotine found its way back, but the melt who stood tinder it frame-work Isiund for execution were those who had mused it to work the more fre quently — Kola-spier rv aud his brother, with Oouthou lieu riot and St. Just, the last remnants of a cable stained with the blood of their fellow crea ture?. Men of genius hut devils in heart, despised and unpilcd they went under the axe and the last sound that greeted their ears was the plaudit of those whose idols they had been. The blade now fell at longer inter vals and ujion fewer victims. Soon it rusted iu its inaction and was brushed away as a useless thing of the past. Then the "empire, bearing aloft to for eign lands, the flaming torch of war and desolation iu one hand and the •hackle* to follow conquest in the other. Kach nation in iu tnrn failed to juggle the Ckwar of tin? eighteenth century, till men of Groat Briliao, hardy Bweeds from the shorn of the Baltic, wild and almost barbaric Gu*- sncks from the banks of the Don and all the steppes of Russia, Prussians from tin-, hills of the Rhine, and Aus tria us from the regions watered by the Danube, combined and overwhelmed him. More than twenty-one vears have elapsed since the death of f/iuis XVI, it is now the 10th day of April, IHI4, the victorious Allies hold this place, crowned tnonarcbs are present. Hark ! a solemn service ascends, it is the long delayed funeral riles of the murdered king, whose blood rendered liuilowed in the eyes of kings this spot. Dix* it not rebuke the ambition of the dead republic and hurl back into the face of France the recollection of the crime of the revolution? This is an outline of the history of the Place dc la Concorde—-over and over again has it Ix-en the scenes of stormy and terrible outbreaks, for nearly every tumultuous rising of the populace has stained the place with blood, yet look about you, and so ef fectually are the traces of discord wi|s.-d away, and so peaceful seem all the circumstances, that one can hardly credit the tale. ♦ TIIK HKFXOItIAN CHANT. the i-ore's aacRKE i-NirrixociicacH msic IX THE M'lNl.N connexion. YT- m lit# fall Mfcll Oa/#t<.] Through the medium of its s|>ecial tires*, the Vatican has lately made mown to the world a brief in which Pope Je XIII., completing a work already begun by Pius IX., decr<6< the unification of church music in all Roiiiuu < 'atbolic churches throughout the world. Pio Nono had considered that it would be more seemly, and that it would, as it were, solidify the faith, if, instead of their ls-ing as at present one form of mnsic used iu one country another in another, there should arise one sound of song, as there is but one form of prayer, throughout latin Christendom; und to this end he in structed the Sacred Congregation of Rites to se< k out ami re-write for mod ern use the old Gregorian chant in its original purity. As long ago a the Council of Trent the revision or ameudmuit of the missal and breviary was placed in the bands of the Popes ; and in one of its sittings the Council |ecinlly condemmsl by n decree "De < )1m rvantlis et Kvilandi* in Celebra tione Missic" the introduction of im pure, ami, as it was quaintly termed, lascivious, music either in tue intru mcutal or vocal part of the service. Sne years after the Council I'opc Pius \ . (afterwards canonized) autho rized the issue of a missal and breviary reformed according to the intention of the Council, to which, in the form of nn appendix, n corrected form of church music was intended to be add ed. Some authorities desired to ad- here rigidly to the "canto fermo" of the Gregorian chant, to the absolute i exclusion of all harmouy, but at this time Picrluigi da Pahwtrina and Gui dctli had la-gun to write, and their i church music charmed all cars, and was considered so pure and diviue thnt it silenced opposition and was even approved hv sjtecial official letter from Sixtus V. There had previously Itccti issued "for the use of all churches and colleges," a collection of nntiphoti* selected from ancient ones and those still in use; ami this selection, revised by Palestrina and reported on a* the j most correct, is still in the hand* of choirs and i* the one recognized I throughout the Church. The original copy presented to Gregory XIII., the then Pontitf, who had granted a sort of copywrighl to the author, i* still pre served in the Yantican Library. Thing* were at this point when, during the reign of Paul V., in 1014, there appeared a Gradual, which ha* since been known a* the Mcdicean Gradual, from the press whence it issued. This was specially recommended to the Church by a pontifical brief, a* being the most correct type of ecclesiastical music and a* the first authentic edition of that branch of the Sacred Liturgy. A copy of thi* also is preserved in the Vatican Library, beiug the one pre sented to Paul V. From that time to thi* no other authorized version of the musical part of the Church service had bceu put forward, until Pius IX., de siriou* to supply the ucod for it, ami |erhaps also from a pardonable desire to be remembered by posterity as the completer of the service used by tho Church, nominated a commission of professors of music and others to un dertake the work, following out the lines already laid down, under the direction of the Sacred Congregation of Kite*. The men api?oiiitcd were Monsigoor Luigi lticci, C'anou of the Libcriau Basilica, as president; Pro lessor Tominaao Carosi, Chamberlain of the Pontifical Chapel; Cavaliero G. Cn|*cei t master of the Cappella I'ia I jiterancnse; and Gavalicro 8. Me luzzi, master of the Cappella Giulia Yaticana; and these with the assist a nee of the codes aud choral books preserved in Home and elsewhere, and following as nearly as possible the text of the books preserved in the Pajal archives, completed the work lieguu uuder Paul V. The Mcdicean Gradual had first to be reprinted—a work entrusted to Cavalicro F. Pustet, of Ilati*boii, editor to the Congrega tion of Kites ; and while this was do ing the Antiphunary, Psaltery and Hymnal were Wing prepared after the Venetian edition of l'iotro Licbton strin, printed in 1567. During the lifetime of Pit* Nono only the Gradual was completed; the Auttphonary was about to issue from the prees when he •lied. Under hi* successor tins work lias been brought to perfection: and a* both the Pauline or Medicean edition and those part* of the Gradual Issued during the lifetime of Pitta IX. had been preceded by Apostolic briefs, the remainder of the work i prefaced by u hri.-f in which Ix-o XllL,after set ting forth the reason* for itnexecution, add* : "I tuque incmoratum cditionem, a viri* ecclesiaxltci caulus npprirne |M(ln Utlr Ui U,. auutkorr Anwrku ] When Mrs. Bruce took up her resi dence here the first person to pay her social respects to the bride was the wife of the President. She was so much pleased with Mrs. Brace's lady like hearing that she repeated her ' visit, aud then soon followed nearly all the Senators' and a large number iof members' wives. Of course, the Cabinet ladies were not behind hand in their respect*, and as is the custom here, after the wife of the Secretary of State had by calling formally in troduced Mrs. Brace into Washington society, visits became general—so much so in fact that time has not al lowed of their being repaid. Every j one who has called at Senator Brace's j residence, at No. 909 M street where he has recently removed from College Hill, speaks in glowing terms of his wife, ller beauty and ber accomplish ments are both praised, and even those who went to see her, more to gratify a I love of curiosity than anything else, | accord her a full meed of praise. Mrs. Brace before her marriage was Miss Josephine Wilson, daughter of Dr. Wilson, a wealthy cttiaen of Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated with high honors at the Cleveland High School, ami speaks French and Ger man fluently. She is of fine | rcs.-nce; her complexion is a rich olive, her hair jet black, silken in quantity and louslrous in hue; eyes are full and dark and teeth perfect. There is a Saee in her mauuers that bespeaks e perfect lady. She resembles close ly what we ail imagine a beautiful S|*uiu>h lady to he, and no one cogni sant of her birth could trace any signs of African blood. I have often heard in the South that these signs were unmistakable, aud, no matter bow fair in complexion and how far removed from the negro, the marks of Africau blood were always visible. Mr*. Brace pit* such theories to flight Senator Brace is of the color designat ed In the south as "saddlc-colored," and ia a 250-pvuuder.