led in the presence of the
Little Corporal of other days; on the other side, the host of the
Princes of the Rhine Confederation--all the personages that Germany,
Russia, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Spain, all Europe, in one word, England
excepted, had sent to Paris.

It is needless to say that the wedding reception of Napoleon and Marie
Louise at the Tuileries was celebrated with unusual magnificence.
Another event, on account of its peculiar moment, strongly excited the
enthusiasm of the French. On March 20, 1811, at seven o'clock in the
morning, the first salute of cannon announced that the empress had given
birth to a child, the future Aiglon, the King of Rome.

After Napoleon's occupancy of the Tuileries it again served the monarch
under the Empire, the Restoration, under Louis Philippe and under the
Second Empire. The palace of unhappy memory saw successively the fall of
Napoleon, the entry of Louis XVIII, the file-by of the Allies, the
flight of Louis XVIII, of Charles X, Louis Philippe and Napoleon III.

Up to the time of the Second Empire the Tuileries preserved, more or
less, its original interior arrangement, and, to a great extent, the
decorations with which it had been embellished under Louis XIV, Louis
XVI, and Napoleon I.

The Pavilion de Flore, at the juncture of the Tuileries and the Louvre
of Henri IV, was practically rebuilt during the Second Empire, but it
followed closely the contemporary designs of the adjoining building.
Here are quartered executive offices of the Prefecture de la Seine. That
portion facing the Pont Royal contains a series of fine sculptures by
Carpeaux, the sole modern embellishments of this nature to be seen in or
on a Paris palace.

As the Commune mob was fleeing before the army of Versailles a
conflagration broke out in the Tuileries and soon the whole edifice was
in flames. Within what may have been the briefest interval on record for
a conflagration of its size the Tuileries was but a smoking pile of
half-calcined stones.

The Tuileries had another brief day of glory when the Prince President,
Louis Napoleon, entered its gates, coming straight from his inauguration
at Notre Dame.

The cannon at the Hotel des Invalides blazed out a welcome and every
patriot Republican shouted: "Vive Napoleon!" They little knew, little
cared perhaps, that he would some day become the Second Emperor.

The throng poured forth from the cathedral after the _Domine Salvum_ and
the benediction,