2-913-632 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cradle of Henri IV, at the Chateau, Pau [in France], 1854. 'Its construction is curious. A trophy of flags, placed on spears, and rising three at each end of the cradle, supports a cushion with drapery and a helmet, with plume of feathers; balanced under this trophy hangs a large tortoise-shell, the hollow side upwards. By this shell hangs a story. In the stormy days of the revolution, when the castle was stormed and pillaged, almost everything of value and interest smashed or stolen, the Commandant of the Castle conceived the daring idea of substituting a shell of the same size, possessed by a gentleman who was the owner of a cabinet of objects of rarity in Pau. The exchange was made atnight, and with great, danger, but it was successful. The original, however, was not restored for some years, and until the country bad grown somewhat settled'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.