wo
salons filled with the works of Paul Veronese. Some of these treasures
were later removed to the Luxembourg Palace, where the French Senate
was sitting, and to the palace of Saint-Cloud, residence of Napoleon
Bonaparte, First Consul. Little by little the canvases were dispersed,
until, at the end of the Empire, the Versailles Museum of French Art
ceased to be.

At the beginning of the year 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte established at
Versailles a branch of the _Hotel des Invalides_ in Paris, and wounded
veterans of the Revolution to the number of 2,000 were installed for
two years in the vast apartments of Louis XV and in rooms overlooking
the garden and the Court of Ministers. During this period several of
the salons were opened to the people for exhibitions and assemblies,
and the public were free to enjoy the park, the Orangery and the
fragrant bosques of Trianon. Fetes of the Republic frequently took
place about a national altar raised near the Lake of the Swiss Guards,
and a Tree of Liberty was planted with great solemnity in the court of
the chateau, where the equestrian statue of Louis XIV now stands. In
illuminating contrast to the regal celebrations it succeeded was this
latter ceremony, which was inaugurated by a meeting in the historic
Tennis Court, where loyal republicans took a new oath of hatred for all
things royal, and swore devotion to the constitution. Into the
dwelling of former sovereigns the people then crowded to witness the
ceremony of breaking a scepter and crown into a thousand pieces. Next,
they gathered around the Liberty Oak to consecrate it; they hung it
with ribbons of the tricolor of France, a band played "a republican
air," and an orator delivered a speech in commemoration of the glorious
anniversary of the day on which "the last tyrant of the French" had
been guillotined. Fortunately for the peace of mind of the Sixteenth
Louis, he had no gift of prevision!

With the beginning of Napoleon's reign, Versailles and the Trianon
became once more part of the Crown lands. The Emperor ordered
necessary repairs to be made. In the theater the royal troupe of
comedians was sometimes heard. The canal, which had nearly dried up
during the neglectful rule of the Republic, was again filled with
water. The park and the facades of the palace were restored, and in
the Gallery and State Apartments artists renewed the colors of the
mural decorations. Many of the repairs and changes made by Dufo