Following the bouldings of Louis XII. are works of Francis I., who built, in all luxuriance of the Renaissance style, The north front of the Chateau and the splendid outside staircase seen in this etching. This staircase is made the leading feature of the spacious court in which it stands, and is most effective with the deep shadows of its recesses, giving high relief to the delicately carved white stone. Hard it seems that our climate forbids the use of the open staircase, a feature which gives such emphasis to the French chateaux. This work before us shows a strong classic element creeping into details. Italian shafts and capitols are mixed with Gothic niches and canopies. The present is an example of the Italian Renaissance, a style which produced much beautiful and refined work, but in which vigor and individuality of the medieval builder were lost.These stairs lead to the apartments of Catherine de Medicis and Henry III., and it was at the summons of the latter that the bold Duc de Guise ascended to meet his assassins. The room is still shown where the murder was committed, as also the the adjoining chamber where the King himself distributed daggers to his five-and-forty gentlemen in waiting. There, too, is the chapel where in the meanwhile prayers were offered up for the successful issue of the enterprise. The day following the commission of this crime, the Cardinal de Lorraine, brother of the murdered Duke, was also assassinated in a vault under the Castle de Blois. Catherine de Medicis, who planned these murders, died at Blois in a raving delirium, but a few days after their perpetration. Subsequently her daughter Marie de Medicis, while imprisoned by Richelieu, succeeded in making her escape through a window of the castle.