o transplant and transport anything which pleased
their fancy among the exotics which had been set out by Le Notre in
Chantilly's famous _parterres_.

Under the imperial regime the Foret de Chantilly was given in fee simple
to Queen Hortense, though all was ultimately returned to the Conde heirs
after the Restoration. It was at this period that Chantilly received the
visit of Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and the historian's account of
that visit makes prominent the fact that during the periods of rain it
was necessary that an umbrella be carried over the imperial head as he
passed through the corridors of the palace from one apartment to
another.

The host of the emperor died here in 1818 and his son, spending perhaps
half of his time here, cared little for restoration and spent all his
waking hours hunting in the forest, returning to the Petit Chateau only
to eat and sleep.

The Duc de Bourbon added to the flanking wings of the Petit Chateau and
cleaned up the debris which was fast becoming moss-grown, weed
encumbered and altogether disgraceful. The moats were cleaned out of
their miasmatic growth and certain of the grass-carpeted _parterres_
resown and given a semblance of their former selves.

Some days after the Revolution of 1830 the Prince de Conde died in a
most dramatic fashion, and his son, the Duc d'Enghien, having been shot
at Vincennes under the Empire, he willed the Duc d'Aumale and his issue
his legal descendants forever.

Towards 1840 the Duc d'Aumale sought to reconstruct the splendours of
Chantilly, but a decree of January 22, 1852, banished the entire Orleans
family and interrupted the work when the property was sold to the
English bankers, Coutts and Company, for the good round sum of eleven
million francs, not by any means an extravagant price for this estate
of royal aspect and proportions. The National Assembly of 1872 did the
only thing it could do in justice to tradition--bought the property in
and decreed that it be restored to its legitimate proprietor.

It was as late as 1876 that the Duc d'Aumale undertook the restoration
of the Chatelet and the rebuilding of the new chateau which is seen
to-day. The latter is from the designs of Henri Daumet, member of the
Institut de France.

In general the structure of to-day occupies the site of the moyen-age
chateau but is of quite a different aspect.

The Duc d'Aumale made a present of the chateau and all that was
contained therein to the Ins