ructure covering so small an
area. The Cour d'Honneur gives it its chief exterior distinction and the
two pavilions have a certain grace of charm, when considered separately,
which the ensemble somewhat lacks. The surroundings, had they not been
ruthlessly cut up into building lots for over-ambitious Paris
shopkeepers, would have added greatly to the present appearance of the
property. As it is, the near-by race-course absorbed the orchard, the
_pelouse_ and many of the garden plots.

CHAPTER XIII

MALMAISON AND MARLY

Out from Paris, by the cobbly Pave du Roi, which a parental
administration is only just now digging up and burying under, just
beyond the little suburban townlet of Rueil (where the Empress Josephine
and her daughter Hortense lie buried in the parish church), one comes to
Malmaison of unhappy memory. It is not imposing, palatial, nor,
architecturally, very worthy, but it is one of the most sentimentally
historic of all French monuments of its class.

Since no very definite outlines remain of any royal historical monument
at Rueil to-day the tourist bound towards Versailles by train, tram or
road, gives little thought to the snug little suburb through which he
shuffles along, hoping every minute to leave the noise, bustle and
cobblestones of Paris behind.

Rueil is deserving of more consideration than this. According to Gregory
of Tours the first race of kings had a "pleasure house" here, and called
the neighbourhood Rotolajum. Not always did these old kings stay cooped
up in a fortress in the Isle of Lutetia. Sometimes they went afield for
a day in the country like the rest of us, and to them, with their slow
means of communication and the bad roads of their day, Rueil, scarce a
dozen miles from Notre Dame, seemed far away.

Childerbert I, son of Clovis, is mentioned as having made a protracted
sojourn at Rueil, and whatever may have existed then in the way of a
royal residence soon after passed to the monks of Saint Denis, who here
fished and hunted and lived a life of comfort and ease such as they
could hardly do in their fortress-abbey. They, too, required change and
rest from time to time, and, apparently, when they could, took it.

The Black Prince burned the town and all its dependencies in 1346, and
only an unimportant village existed when Richelieu thought to build a
country-house here on this same charming site which had so pleased the
first French monarchs. Richelieu did his work