spiked helmets of the Prussian Dragoons, were gaps, however, were speedily repaired with rough seen approaching. Everything had to be abandoned. The armed force, such as it was, dispersed or retreated, and the people submitted themselves to the inevitable in the way of war contributions." The scouts, as usual, heralded the approach of the main body. Then came the great bulk of the army, with the artillery and the ammunition wagons. They moved in open order, but were so well in hand that it is said they could have been collected at a day's notice. Vast hordes of men, in all the terror of military array, covered the hill-sides, barred the roads against other traffic, blackened wide stretches of plains, or, resting for a while, turned meadow-land and pasturage into temporary camps. The field-telegraph was frequently employed to establish communications between different parts of the army; and the fieldhospitals were got ready for the sick and wounded. Of course, such an immense body of men could not pass through a country without making their presence felt. The people complained that they were eaten up. After the human wave had swept by, a great scarcity of food and drink was experienced by the inhabitants. Dr. Russell remarked in the Times on this extraordinary invasion:"One thing which causes astonishment to me is the perfect impunity with which the Prussian communications have been preserved. Their military administration is most vigorous, and its apparent severity prevents bloodshed and secures their long lines against attack. It is Death' to have arms concealed or retained in any house. It is 'Death' to cut a telegraph wire, or to destroy anything used for the service of the army. What can a disarmed population, however hostile and venturesome, attempt against even small bodies of armed men who always move with caution, and against troops who do not make night marches unless in large bodies? The Prussian cavalry are everywhere. There is no neglect, no insouciance; nothing is taken on trust. Enter a small village in the centre of a district which is full of troops on all sides, and you see two sentries posted on the road, and two sentries further on at the exit; and on every road or lane, out or in, the same precautions are observed. The people in the towns and villages are quite aghast. Everywhere Prussians. 'Where, can you tell me, sir, is the French army?' The question has been put to me dozens of times." The French army, as far as it remained at all, had retired upon Paris.

The most that could be done to oppose, or rather to delay, the advance of the Germans, was to break down the bridges over the rivers. The

timber-work, and the army was not seriously checked. At Nogent-sur-Seine, the Prussians threatened to bombard the town if the bridge should be destroyed. Here and there a tunnel on a railway had been blown up, or trees had been cut down and laid across the roadway. But these obstacles were overcome with a little expenditure of time, labour, and trouble, and the resistless stream poured on. From many of the villages the peasantry fled in dismay, and did not return until after the Germans had passed; but in others, the people were willing to remain, and make as much money out of the strangers as they could by the sale of their wine and other commodities. On the 10th of September the Prussians approached Crespy and Compiègne, north-east of Paris, and two battalions of the Mobile Guards at the latter place fell back upon Beauvais. A camp of between 5,000 and 6,000 Germans was on the same day pitched at Clermont-les-Fermes, north of Paris, and scouts were reported at Montmirail, la Fertésous-Jouarre, and Vailly-sur-Aisne. On the 12th the invaders were in force at Crécy, and some Uhlans, arriving at Provins, south-east of Paris, announced the approach of 20,000 troops; next day, a body of Uhlans appeared at Senlis, to the north of Paris. By the 15th 10,000 Prussians were marching on Joinville, three miles south-east of the fortifications; on the 17th there was a great movement of the Prussians towards the heights of Binoy, south-east of Paris; and on the 18th the head-quarters of the Crown Prince of Prussia were at Chaumes, five-and-twenty miles from the outworks of the city in the same direction. The King's head-quarters had by that time been established at Meaux, on the Seine, about the same distance to the east of the capital. When Corbeil was reached, it was found that the stone bridge across the Seine had been blown up, and many of the houses were chipped or otherwise injured by the explosion. The mine was sprung just as the advance-guard of the Prussian Lancers came in sight. In about an hour's time, however, the pontoon train had thrown a temporary bridge across, and the German army passed the river, which was then the only barrier of importance lying between it and the fortifications of Paris. The city was completely invested on the 19th of September, and on the 20th the Crown Prince of Prussia, in command of the third army, set up his headquarters at Versailles, where 2,000 Gardes Mobiles were captured. The Prussian soldiers found plenty of accommodation in the barracks of the Imperial Guards, and immense stores of hay and

oats were discovered, on which the cavalry horses were enabled to feed sumptuously.

The entry of the Germans into Versailles was described by a correspondent of the Indépendance Belge, who, writing from the town itself on the 20th of September, said:

"On the 18th three Death's Head Hussars presented themselves at one of the town gates, and demanded a parley of the authorities. Upon being taken to the

to the mairie, where the municipal authorities were sitting en permanence. Fighting was then going on at the farm of Villecoublay. General Vinoy was endeavouring to break this division of the enemy, or was Meudon, commanding the left bank of the Seine and defending the fortified position upon the heights of the forts of Vanvres and Issy. I have omitted to state that from the previous day the railways on either bank of the river had ceased to run trains. The discussion of terms was carried on until a quarter past eleven

mayor, that functionary refused to treat with any | A.M., when M. Raureau, the newly-appointed mayor, but a general, or some one furnished with full powers by him. The next morning an aide-de-camp, followed by a single cavalry soldier, made his appearance, and was taken under an escort of National Guards to the mayor. There a long discussion ensued. It was then a quarter past nine, and since six the cannon had been booming on the road from Versailles to Sceaux, in the plain of Velizy, about three miles from the town. The aide-de-camp required accommodation for the wounded, and also the keys of all forage stores. These points were warmly debated, and the officer departed to consult his general. Within less than an hour afterwards a captain of Engineers, an aide-de-camp to the general commanding the 5th Corps, arrived alone. He was accompanied by two National Guards

went out and, taking his station at the Paris gate, read aloud to the assembled crowd the conditions of capitulation that had been agreed to. These conditions were: 1. That property and person should be respected, as also public monuments and works of art. 2. The Confederate German forces should occupy the barracks with their soldiers, but the inhabitants were to lodge the officers, and if necessary soldiers also, if the barracks should afford insufficient accommodation. 3. The National Guard should retain its arms, and for the common interest should be entrusted with the internal police of the town, except that the Confede rates should occupy at their discretion the gates at the barriers. 4. There should be no requisition for money, but the town was to supply at money rates all

that should be requisite for the passing or stationary Velizy. The crowd uncovered to them silently but forces. 5. On the same day the Grille des Chantiers respectfully, and a few cries of 'Long live France !' would be opened to allow the 5th Corps to enter. were heard. In the Rue des Chantiers, the first officer This announcement having been made, immediate who came to negotiate for the capitulation was saluted steps were taken to carry out the terms of the capitu- by the same cry, 'Long live France !' from a bystander. lation. The officer in command of the French troops My friend,' said the officer, 'it is "Long live Peace" in Versailles was taken to the general commanding that you should cry.' When the marching on of the the enemy's forces at St. Juoy, and on his way had to troops had ended, then began the requisitions. Twentytraverse a part of the battle-field whence the wounded six oxen were delivered by the town, and ten casks of were being removed to the hospitals prepared in the wine, and also all the stores of forage, worth 300,000 Palace of Versailles and the Trianons. At that francs, which the French military authorities wished to

moment the French guns were withdrawn, and the force which had maintained the fight fell back into the wood, while the German columns commenced their march. Shortly before one o'clock they began to defile through the Rue des Chantiers, and the procession lasted until after five, the total number being variously estimated at from 25,000 to 40,000 men. Many did not remain in the town, but a considerable force took up quarters there. The general went to the Hôtel des Reservoirs. The artillery bivouacked on the Place d'Armes, and in the Avenue de St. Cloud. Two small incidents are deserving of mention. With the German troops there entered two small groups of Zouaves, who had been made prisoners in the affair at Villecoublay

destroy, but which the town had purchased in anticipation of actual events. Although these facts are heartbreaking to a Frenchman,, justice compels me to add that everything has been done with the most perfect order and regularity, and the most scrupulous discipline has been observed. The German intendance is to pay for the requisitions that are made. Individual soldiers tender the money for what they want to purchase-generally so, at least."

Versailles is a royal suburb of Paris, distant eleven miles by rail from the capital, on the western side of which it lies. It is the chief town of the department of the Seine-et-Oise, and is a place

of some importance independently of its association with the Court. Until the reign of Louis XIII. it was a mere village; but in 1627 that monarch built here a small hunting-seat, to which Louis XIV. made a series of additions between the years 1661 and 1672, which resulted in the creation of one of the most magnificent palaces in Europe. The front towards the town consists of a centre and two wings, enclosing three sides of a court, which is open on the fourth or east side to the Place d'Armes. There are also two wings at the back, extending into the park, which is laid out in terraces, parterres, and alleys, with statues and sculptures, ornamental water, and fountains that are among the sights of Paris, whenever (which is only once in a way) their glittering columns and quaintly interwoven devices are set in motion. In this park are the two royal seats called the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon, with their respective gardens; names intimately associated with the personal history of the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. with their gaiety, their gallantry, their intrigue, their license-with a world of heat and passion that has long burnt itself out, and now lies still and cold in the ashes of old memoirs and letters, and with some better traditions of love that was not venal and courage that was not braggart. Shades of the Louis, and of their wives and favourites of Madame de Maintenon and of Marie Antoinette-of the great, the witty, the beautiful, and the profligate-haunt these palaces, parks, and gardens, and present to the inner eye the whole history of France during that brilliant, laughing, cynical, sportive, terrible eighteenth century, from the elegant comedy of its commencement to the squalid tragedy of its close. Memories of later days swell the pageant of suffering and of splendour. Napoleon I. delighted in the retirement, of the Great Trianon; and it was in the Little Trianon that Marie Louise, his Empress, had an interview with her father after the abdication of 1814. In the theatre of the Palace of Versailles Louis Philippe gave a public dramatic entertainment on the marriage of his son, the Duke of Orleans, June 10th, 1837, after the building had remained closed for nearly half a century; and in the same theatre the Emperor Napoleon III. gave a series of magnificent fêtes to Queen Victoria in 1855. Little did he then think that in fifteen years from that time the King of Prussia would camp with his armies at Versailles and direct the siege of Paris.

The palace and park of Versailles have the state and courtliness of old French history. All is vast, costly, magnificent, luxurious, and formal Ranges

of columns divide windows without end. The gods and goddesses of Renaissance Paganism blush in painting, or glimmer in marble, or sport in bronze and lead, at every available point. Sea-monsters spout cataracts of water from their mouths, or gape in arid vacuity when the water is not there. The Virtues and the Vices, as conceived by fashionable. painters of the time of Louis Quatorze, simper from ceilings and exhort from walls, where they have simpered and exhorted to but small purpose for nearly two centuries. Fame, in a hundred fantastic shapes, commemorates the invincibility of French arms, despite the comments of 1814, of 1815, and of 1871. Great suites of chambers open out of one another, and incrustations of gold reflect the sunshine or the lamplight from architrave and cornice. In the park and gardens, Nature is seen dressed and drilled for society. The bowers and alleys are such as Watteau painted, and seem to demand for their perfection the glittering and careless company with which he peopled them.

The town is very much in harmony with the palace and grounds. It is divided into two nearly equal parts by a grand avenue, nearly half a mile long, and proportionally broad, planted with four rows of elms, forming shady walks, and flanked with noble houses. Other avenues, equally embowered in trees, are found in different portions of the town; handsome squares and market-places form pleasant centres here and there; and numerous fountains are silvery and voluble in the public ways. Yet, though still a place of residence of the court, Versailles has declined somewhat from its former state. It seems never to have entirely recovered the rough work of the first Revolution. In the eighteenth century it had a population of 100,000; now it cannot count half that number.

The entry of the Crown Prince of Prussia into this historic town was described by the correspondent of the Times, who wrote:-" As the Prince got nearer the Avenue de Paris, the people in the streets and windows became more numerous, and there were almost crowds at the corners of some streets. But they were not cheerful nor welcomegiving. The only sign of greeting I saw was from an elderly lady, in spectacles and a British porkpie hat, who waved her hand from under the cover of a Union Jack hoisted from a third-storey window, while a lad beside her took off his Glengarry bonnet; but when the Prince rode across the Avenue de Paris to the Prefecture there was a real welcome. The thousands of silent French men and women stood inside the lines of sentries across the road; the Lancers drew up outside the gates on one side, the Gendarmerie and Jägers at the other,