ists rose everywhere, when it was seen that the Tuileries were in
flames. From points at considerable distances from each other fresh
outbreaks of fire took place. Most of those standing round were able to
locate them, and it was declared that the Palace of the Court of
Accounts, the Ministries of War and Finance, the palaces of the Legion
of Honor and of the Council of State, the Prefecture of Police the
Palace de Justice, the Hotel de Ville and the Palais Royale were all on
fire. As the night went on the scene became more and more terrible.
Paris was blazing in at least twenty places, and most of the
conflagrations were upon an enormous scale. The scene was too
fascinating and terrible to be abandoned, and it was not until the
morning began to break that the spectators on the Trocadero returned to
their homes.

CHAPTER XXV.

Armed with his pass Cuthbert started for the city at ten o'clock next
morning. A dense pall of smoke hung over Paris. On the south side of the
river the conflict was still raging, as it was also on the north and
east, but the insurgents' shells were no longer bursting up the Champs
Elysees and the firing had ceased at the Place de la Concorde. It was
evident that the insurgents, after performing their work of destruction,
had evacuated their position there. On reaching the bottom of the Champs
Elysees he found that a breach had been made in the barricade and that a
considerable number of troops were bivouacked in the Place de la
Concorde itself.

The fire-engines from Versailles, St. Denis, and other places round were
already at work, but their efforts seemed futile indeed in face of the
tremendous bodies of fire with which they had to cope. Just as Cuthbert,
after passing through the breach in the barricade, on the presentation
of his pass to the sentries, arrived at the end of the Rue Rivoli, a
mounted officer dashed up to the two engines at work opposite the
building that had first been fired, and said--

"You can do no good here. Take your engines to the courtyard of the
Tuileries and aid the troops in preventing the fire from spreading to
the Louvre. That is the only place where there is any hope of doing
good. Now, monsieur," he said to Cuthbert, "You must fall in and aid the
Pompiers. The orders are that all able-bodied men are to help in
extinguishing the fire."

Cuthbert was glad to be of use, and joining the firemen ran along with
the engines down the Rue Rivoli and turned