rcles it, and it will be next to a miracle if it escapes. We see
clearly now that the Palais de Justice, the Ste. Chapelle, the
Prefecture of Police, and the Hotel de Ville are all blazing without a
possibility existing of any portion of any one of them being saved from
the general wreck and ruin.

The military are as far as the Pont Neuf on the left bank of the river,
and just beyond the Hotel de Ville on the right. Now, at 6 o'clock, it
is all but certain that when this fire is extinguished scarcely one of
the great monuments of Paris will have escaped entire destruction.

The barricade of the Insurgents at the end of the Rue Royale was taken
last night by a movement in which the troops made their way from house
to house, starting from the Rue Boissy d'Anglas, to the Rue Faubourg St.
Honore. The fighting in the Rue Faubourg St. Honore and the Avenue
Marigny was very severe. Six shells fell and exploded in the grounds of
the British Embassy. The two houses which formed the angles at the
corners of the Rue Royale and the Rue Faubourg St. Honore were burnt to
the ground. The Place Vendome was taken by the troops. In the Faubourg
St. Germain during the whole night an energetic combat was raging
between the Insurgents and the men of General Cissey's division.

The Versailles batteries are firing furiously against the Quarters
which still hold out. By the aid of the telescope the horrible fact is
disclosed of numerous dead and wounded left lying about the streets
without any succour whatever.

MAY 25th.

I have been over a large portion of the city to-day and I am happy to
say that, though large fires are still raging, the conflagration is not
spreading to the extent that had been apprehended. The destruction done
by the street fighting and the desolation which prevails in the
principal Boulevards and other leading thoroughfares exceed all I could
have imagined from a more distant view.

I went to the Porte de la Muette, and, getting round to the left,
approached the Arc de Triomphe from the Avenue de L'Imperatrice. All
along I found trees, lamp-posts, and the facades of houses smashed by
shells. Turning off by the Rue de Morny, I worked my way round to the
Boulevard Haussmann. It was impossible to proceed along by the pavement,
as on either side at intervals of a few feet felled trees and thick
branches had been laid down by the insurgents to obstruct the passage of
the troops. On Monday last the Federals had occup