d his preferred summer residence, and was
actually beneath the palace roof when the Prussian horde commenced its
march on the capital of Clovis. He left Saint Cloud on July 27, to take
personal command of the Army of the Rhine at Metz.

As did Charles X, Napoleon III ceased to be sovereign of the French by
enacting the final scene in his royal career in the Palais de Saint
Cloud. Never again was the palace to give shelter to a French monarch.
The empress left precipitately after the disaster of Woerth, and two
months after the torch of arson made a ruin of all the splendour of the
palace and its dependencies. The inhabitants of the little city, which
had grown up around the confines of the palace, fled in refuge to
Versailles during the armistice. Scarcely an old house was preserved in
all the town.

Among the _chefs d'oeuvres_ of art which perished in the flames were
the fine works of Mignard--above all, the magnificent Galerie
d'Apollon--the paintings of LeMoyne, Nacret, Leloir, the marines of
Joseph Vernet and innumerable objects of art which had been gathered
together for the embellishment of Saint Cloud by the later monarchs.
Some few treasures were saved by the care of the Crown Prince of
Prussia, and some vases, chairs and statues were appropriated and packed
off across the Rhine as the plunder of war.

The park of Saint Cloud to-day contains nearly four hundred hectares,
the public park and the "preserve." From it spreads out one of the
loveliest panoramas in the neighbourhood of Paris, alleyed vistas
leading seemingly to infinity, with a sprinkling of statues still
flanking the Jardin du Trocadero.

From the town one enters the park through a great iron gate from the
Place Royale, or by the Avenue du Chateau, which lands one on the
terraces where once stood the royal palace.

From Ville d'Avray and from Sevres there are also entrances to the great
park, while to the latter runs an avenue connecting the "preserve" of
Saint Cloud with the wilder, more rugged Bois de Meudon.

Actually the surroundings of Saint Cloud's great park are the least bit
tawdry. Here and there are booths and tents selling trashy souvenirs,
and even more unpleasant-looking articles of food and drink, while
fringing the river, and some of the principal avenues approaching the
cascade, are more pretentious restaurants and eating houses which are
royal in name and their prices if nothing else.

The cascades are for the masses the chie