ehand, consequently was not entitled to a
stroll through the Palace previous to the concert. When I entered the
Salle des Marechaux, where the concert was to take place, I felt
thankful that the trial had been spared to me, and I mentally ejaculated
a wish that I might never see that glorious apartment under similar
circumstances. The traces of neglect were too painful to behold, though
I am bound to say that I could detect no proofs of wilful damage. My
wish was gratified with a vengeance. A little more than a month
afterwards, the building was in flames, and, at the hour I write, it is
being razed to the ground.

I did not stay long; I heard Madame Agar, dressed in deep mourning,
declaim "the Marseillaise," and M. Thome execute a fantasia on
well-known operatic airs. Some of the reserved seats were occupied by
the minor dignitaries of the Commune, but the greater part of the place
was filled by working men and their spouses and the very _petite
bourgeoisie_. The latter seemed to be in doubt whether to enjoy
themselves or not; but the former were very vociferous, and had
evidently made up their minds that the Commune was the best of all
possible regimes, seeing that it enabled them to listen to a concert in
a palace for a mere trifle. "That's equality, as I understand it,
monsieur," said a workman in a very clean blouse to me, at the same time
making room for me on the seat next to him. He and his companion
beguiled the time between the first and second number on the programme
by sucking barley-sugar.

About a month later--on Wednesday, May 17th, but I will not be
certain--I was present at the first gala-performance organized by the
Commune, although the Versailles troops were within gunshot of the
fortifications. This time I had taken a ticket beforehand. The
performance was to take place at the Opera-Comique, and long before the
appointed hour the Boulevards and the streets adjoining the theatre were
crowded with idlers, anxious to watch the arrival of the bigwigs under
whose immediate patronage the entertainment was to be given. The papers
had been full of it for days and days beforehand; the posters on the
walls had set forth its many attractions. In accordance with traditional
usage on such occasions, the programme was a miscellaneous one, and the
wags did not fail to remark that the Commune ought to have struck out
something original instead of blindly following the precedents of
tyrants; but in reality the Com