his section was known characteristically enough as
the Palais Marchand, and thus the garden came to be surrounded by a
monumental and classic arcade of shops which has ever remained a
distinct feature of the palace.

A second fire burned out the National Opera, which now sought shelter in
the Palais Royal, and in 1781 the Theatre des Varietes Amusantes was
constructed, and which has since been made over into the home of the
Comedie Francaise.

The transformations imposed by Philippe-Egalite were considerable, and
the famous chestnut trees, which had been planted within the courtyard
in the seventeenth century by Richelieu, were cut down. He built also
the three transverse galleries which have cut the gardens of to-day into
much smaller plots than they were in Richelieu's time. In spite of this
there is still that pleasurable tranquillity to be had therein to-day,
scarcely a stone's throw from the rush and turmoil of the whirlpool of
wheeled traffic which centres around the junction of the Rue Richelieu
with the Avenue de l'Opera. It is as an oasis in a turbulent sandstorm,
a beneficent shelf of rock in a whirlpool of rapids. The only thing to
be feared therein is that a toy aeroplane of some child will put an eye
out, or that the more devilish _diabolo_ will crack one's skull.

Under the regency of the Duc Philippe d'Orleans the various apartments
of the palace were the scenes of scandalous goings-on, which were
related at great length in the chronicles of the time. It was a very
mixed world which now frequented the _purlieus_ of the Palais Royal. Men
and women about town jostled with men of affairs, financiers,
speculators and agitators of all ranks and of questionable
respectability. Milords, as strangers from across the Manche came first
to be known here, delivered themselves to questionable society and still
more questionable pleasures. It was at a little later period that the
Duc de Chartres authorized the establishment of the cafes and
restaurants which for a couple of generations became the most celebrated
rendezvous in Paris--the Cafe de Foy, the Cafe de la Paix, the Cafe
Carrazzo and various other places of reunion whose very names, to say
nothing of the incidents connected therewith, have come down to history.

It was the establishment of these public rendezvous which contributed
so largely to the events which unrolled themselves in the Palais Royal
in 1789. This "Eden de l'Enfer," as it was known, has in l