Chapter 22

_Museum of French Monuments_--Steps taken by the Constituent Assembly to arrest the progress of Vandalism--Many master-pieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture, destroyed in various parts of France --_Grégoire_, ex-bishop of Blois, publishes three reports, to expose the madness of irreligious barbarism, which claim particular distinction.--They saved from destruction many articles of value in the provinces--Antique monuments found in 1711, in digging among the foundation of the ancient church of Paris--Indefatigable exertions of _Lenoir_, the conservator of this museum--The halls of this museum fitted up according to the precise character peculiar to each century, and the monuments arranged in them in historical and chronological order--Tombs of _Clovis_, _Childebert_, and _Chilperic_--Statues of _Charlemagne_, _Lewis IX_, and of _Charles_, his brother, together with those of the kings that successively appeared in this age down to king _John_--Tombs of _Charles V_, _Du Gueselin_, and _Sancerre_--Mausolea of _Louis d'Orléans_ and of _Valentine de Milan_--Statues of _Charles VI_, _Rénée d'Orléans_, _Philippe de Commines_, _Lewis XI_, _Charles VII_, _Joan_ of _Arc_, _Isabeau de Bavière_--Tomb of _Lewis XII_--Tragical death of _Charles_ the _Bad_.