pose, and the pope sent mosaics and porphyry columns from beyond the Alps for its decoration. After eight years of labour it was finished, and it was determined to celebrate its consecration by an imposing ceremony. The sovereign pontiff, Leo the Third, presided at the dedication, assisted by three hundred and sixty-five archbishops and bishops, in allusion to the days of the year. Tradition says that, at the critical moment, two were found to be wanting, whereupon two dead bishops of Tongres quitted their graves at Maestricht, and took part in the festival with great joy, after which they disappeared. The name "Chapelle" was given to the edifice, a term derived from the " Chape," or cope of St. Martin, and which had been used to designate the oratories of the Frankish kings; and the city itself, now advanced to the dignity of Capital of the Empire north of the Alps, was in future called Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aix of the Chapel.

As the emperor advanced in age, he made Aixla-Chapelle his permanent residence. The rheumatic pains to which he now became subject, caused probably by his early devotion to the chase, were relieved by its warm springs. The basins in which the sulphureous waters were collected were of such size that more than a hundred persons could not only bathe, but swim in them without meeting each other, and in these it is said that he was wont to pass entire days.

The last autumn of his life Charlemagne hunt

ed, as usual, in the environs of Aix. Returning to his palace there, he died shortly afterward in the year 814, the seventy-second of his age. He had, during his life, caused his tomb to be prepared in the centre of the chapel which he had built, and there his body was placed, embalmed, clothed in the imperial garments, and seated on a throne of marble covered with plates of gold. His sword was by his side, with the pilgrim's wallet which he had always carried in his journeys to Rome, and the book of the Gospels was laid upon his knees. The vault was filled with treasures, with odours, and with precious spices.

Charlemagne died, and his work perished with him. The empire which he had founded with such toil crumbled into fragments. The barbarians of the North braved his feeble successors. The fierce Normans penetrated even to his capital, destroyed the palace, and plundered the sacred edifice in which he had taken such pride. From ignorance, perhaps from respect, they did not violate his tomb.

The Emperor Otho the Third restored the chapel, and, after long search, discovered the vault where the remains of its founder had been placed. On opening it, the form of the dead Cæsar was revealed sitting on the throne, and covered with the imperial ornaments as when he lived, one hundred and eighty-six years before. By command of Otho, the throne, the crown, the sceptre, the globe, the sword, and the book of the Gospels, were re

moved, and have since been used at the coronation of the German emperors. The tomb was again closed.

Frederic Barbarossa caused the vault to be once more opened, but with a different object. Charlemagne had now been canonized, and his remains were regarded as relics, and suffered the penalty of canonization. The dry bones were exhumed, and placed at first in an antique sarcophagus of Parian marble, still shown in the Cathedral, on which is sculptured the Rape of Proserpina: a singular receptacle, truly, for the bones of a saint! They were afterward separated from one another, placed in rich caskets, and dispersed in various quarters, to be gazed on by the devout.

For many centuries the emperors were crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. The last coronation which took place there was that of Ferdinand I., brother and successor of Charles the Fifth. The ceremony was afterward performed at Frankfurt on the Mayn.

CHAPTER II.

General appearance of the City.-Its Minster Church.-Relics and Treasures.-Rathhaus.-Frankenburg.-Mineral Springs.

THERE are cities which, having been the scene of some great drama, derive from that cause a peculiar impress which they ever afterward preserve. In spite of years and the changes which they bring, the period of their greatness seems always present, so deeply is its remembrance engraved on the minds of men. Such is Aix-la-Chapelle, still the Rome of the North, as it was a thousand years ago. Time has dealt hardly with the ancient city. The Normans, as I have already said, ravaged it and destroyed the imperial palace. Desolated on various occasions by war and pestilence, seven eighths of it were reduced to ashes by an accidental conflagration in the year 1656, an overwhelming calamity, which cast into the shade several minor accidents of the same nature. Its general aspect is therefore completely modern, and the gay crowds which press, during half the year, around its mineral springs, would destroy all recollection of the past, did we not know that these fountains are the same which Charlemagne discovered, and in which he delighted to bathe his strong limbs; that this edifice hard by, in front of which the peasant stops short to gaze upon its blackened walls and strange architecture, is the chapel which he founded, and

of which he himself is said to have designed the plan.

The Cathedral, or Münsterkirche of Aix, as it now exists, is composed of two parts, of different styles and ages. The central portion is the Carlovingian "Chapelle," which, though a thousand years have rolled over it, and left traces of their passage, still retains most of its original form. It is of an octagonal shape, and covered with a dome : the round arch everywhere prevails, for it was built long before the introduction of the Gothic: it is in the later Roman or Byzantine style. On the western side it is connected with a tower, the union between the upper portions of the two structures being effected by a sort of aërial bridge. The rest of the Cathedral is of more modern date, and consists of a choir in a very bold and striking style of Gothic, added in the latter half of the fourteenth century. Around these principal masses are grouped several small chapels, and a host of mean sheds used as shops, together with some grotesque little houses curiously nestled between the buttresses of the choir, which, while they detract from the magnificence, add to the picturesque effect of the whole.

The doors of the great entrance are of bronze. On the left hand stands a pine cone, and on the right a she wolf of the same metal. A curious tradition is attached to the figures. The magistrates of the city, it is said, were one day deliberating on the means of procuring funds for the completion of the Cathedral, when an individual of re