" The
adjoining cell, now used as a sacristy, was the prison of Robespierre.
Pere la Chaise
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
[Footnote: From "Outre Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.]
The cemetery of Pere la Chaise is the Westminster Abbey of Paris. Both are
the dwellings of the dead; but in one they repose in green alleys and
beneath the open sky--in the other their resting-place is in the shadowy
aisle, and beneath the dim arches of an ancient abbey. One is a temple of
nature; the other a temple of art. In one, the soft melancholy of the
scene is rendered still more touching by the warble of birds and the shade
of trees, and the grave receives the gentle visit of the sunshine and the
shower; in the other, no sound but the passing footfall breaks the silence
of the place; the twilight steals in through high and dusky windows; and
the damps of the gloomy vault lie heavy on the heart, and leave their
stain upon the moldering tracery of the tomb.
Pere la Chaise stands just beyond the Barriere d'Aulney, on a hill-side,
looking toward the city.
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