ary, the outward aspect of certain members of the crowd
being taken into consideration. In the Salle de la Paix a number of
women were busy uncovering a number of chairs for the promised concert,
and in the Salle des Marechaux beyond, where the concert was to be
given, velvet benches were already occupied by old ladies in white caps
with baskets in their hands, who presented a stern aspect of endurance,
as though they were determined to sit there through the preparations as
well as the promised entertainment, and still to continue sitting until
turned out by sword and bayonet. The "Salle des Marechaux" exists no
more except in name, for men on ladders were employed covering up the
portraits which decorate the hall with screens of red silk--I suppose
lest the past glory of French heroes should pale the brilliancy of the
National Guard, just as the bas-reliefs of the Vendome Column act as an
outrage upon the susceptibilities of the Commune. White cloths were
being tied over the busts of Napoleon's Generals, and everything
relating to the past carefully obliterated--a rather foolish proceeding,
considering that the bee-spangled Imperial curtains still hang over the
doors, and festoons of the same drapery decorate the gallery above. The
brocaded panels of the Salle du Trone were objects of much remark among
the ladies, as were the tapestries of the Salle des Gobelins; but the
bareness and total absence of furniture were commented on freely on all
sides. Not a chair or a window blind, or even a door-plate or handle, is
to be seen in any of the rooms, except in those used for the concerts,
and the question arose, naturally enough. "Where is it all gone to?" The
same demand was made so often of an elderly bourgeois on duty at the end
of the Salle de Diane that he was fairly bewildered, and looked round
for help, and hailing the gold stripes on my cap as a haven of relief,
he forthwith seized upon me as a superior officer, and insisted on an
explanation. "You know there were quantities of cases carried off during
the time before Sedan," he said, "but, with all their cunning, they
can't have dismantled a whole palace of this size, can they?" And the
crowd stood round endeavouring to account for the nakedness of the land,
until a remark that the Commune had been feathering their nests with the
chairs and tables dispersed them laughing. The Empress's bedroom was a
great attraction, Chaplin's charming decorations being subjects of
su