CHAPTER I.
CHATEAU DE CHAMBORD.
We walked through the empty galleries and deserted rooms where spiders spin their cobwebs over the salamanders of Francis the First.

One is overcome by a feeling of distress at the sight of this poverty which has no grandeur.

It is not absolute ruin, with the luxury of blackened and mouldy debris, the delicate embroidery of flowers, and the drapery of waving vines undulating in the breeze, like pieces of damask.

It is a conscious poverty, for it brushes its threadbare coat and endeavours to appear respectable.

The floor has been repaired in one room, while in the next it has been allowed to rot.