Part 10 (1/2)

After the edifice was finished it actually fell into disuse, except for the periodical intervals when the Cardinal visited the capital At other tirass on the gravelled walks and tangled shrubbery killed off the budding flowers of the gardens

Richelieu's last ho, after the execution of Cinq-Mars at Lyons, was a tragic one The despot of France, once again under his own rooftree, threw himself upon his bed surrounded by his choicest pictures and tapestries, and paid the price of hishis wan hands upon his breast and exclaiivehis he added: ”I have no enemies but those of State”

In a robe of purple silk, supported by pillows of the finest down and covered with the rarest of laces, he rigidly straightened hi that he ell beyond the reach of invisible foes But before he died Richelieu received a visit fro in person This was another token of his invincible power

Thus the Palais Royal was evolved froave the orders for its construction to Jacques Lemercier immediately after he had dispossessed the Ra at first to erect only a coarden Vanity, or sonificently proportioned edifice which was called the Palais Cardinal instead of that which was to be known more , but not without a certain graceful symmetry, the Palais Royal of to-day is a composition of ardens and connected by arcaded galleries The right wing enclosed an elaborate Salle de Spectacle while that to the left enclosed an equally ine, known as the Galerie des Hommes Illustres, and further ornamented with portraits of most of the court favourites of both sexes of the tiallery was of the Doric order, ly interspersed with moulded shi+ps'

prows, anchors, cables and what not of athe attitude of envy of reat man of politics that he was--made a present of the entire lot of curios to Louis XIII, but undertaking to house them for him, which he did until his death in 1642

At the death of Louis XIII the Palais Cardinal, which had been left to him in its entirety by the will of Richelieu, caent, ith the infant Louis XIV and the royal family, installed herself therein, and from now on (October 7, 1642), the edifice became known as the Palais Royal

Now commenced the political role of this sumptuous palace which hitherto had been but the Cardinal's caprice Mazarin had succeeded Richelieu, and to escape the anger of the Frondeurs, he, with the regent and the two princes, Louis XIV and the Duc d'Anjou, fled to the refuge of Saint Germain-en-Laye

In company with Mademoiselle de Montpensier, who had been rudely awakened fro, they took a coach in the dead of night for Saint Ger and weary ride; the _Pavi du Roi_ was then, as now, the hroad in existence

When calent to take up her residence again in the old abode of Richelieu and turned it over to Henriette de France, theof Charles I, who had been banished froland by Cromwell

Thirty odd years later Louis XIV, when he was dreaift of the property to his nephew, Philippe d'Orleans, Duc de Chartres Ie so radical as to change the specious aspect of the palace of the Cardinal's ti it rearward and annexing the Hotel Danville in the present Rue Richelieu Mansart on one occasion was called in and built a new gallery that Coypel decorated with fourteen coency the Salon d'Entree was redecorated by Oppenard, and a series ofqueen from the Austrian court Richelieu's theatre was made into an opera-house, and nificence were frequently given, not forgetting to ruelian opulence and lavish orgies at which the chronicles only hint

In 1661, Monsieur, brother of the king, took up his official residence in the palace, enlarged it in various directions and inbecoardens, by Letters Patent of February, 1692, the Duc d'Orleans left this superb property, in 1701, to his son the too faances rendered the Palais Royal notorious to the uthteenth century were indeed notorious It was then that Palais Royal became the head-centre for debauch and abandon

It is from this epoch, too, that date the actual structures which to-day foreneral outline is little changed to-day froent's policy was to carry the freedo even the edifices of the Cardinal with ht in his turn to surround them with an atmosphere more austere

A disastrous fire in 1763 caused the Palais Royal to be rebuilt by order of Louis Philippe d'Orleans, the future Philippe-Egalite, by the architect Moreau, who carried out the old traditions as to form and outline, and considerably increased the extent and nuhty to two hundred and seven These the astute duke immediately rented out to shopkeepers at an annual rental of more than ten h 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 transforalite 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 aparts-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 itators 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 establishenerations 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 na of the incidents connected therewith, have come down to history

It was the establishely to the events which unrolled themselves in the Palais Royal in 1789 This ”Eden de l'Enfer,” as it was known, has in late years been entirely reconstructed; the old haunts of the E has come to take their place

Then came another class of establishments which burned brilliantly in the second rank and were, in a way, political rendezvous also--the Cafe de Chartres and the Cafe de Valois Of all these Palais Royal cafes of the early nineteenth century the eous and brilliant was the Cafe des Mille Colonnes, though its popularity was seely due to the charms of the _maitresse de la maison_, a Madame Romain, whose husband was a dried-up, dwarfed little man of no account whatever Mada ”_incontestablement la plus jolie feun to wane and in 1826 it expired, though the ”_Almanach des Gourmands_” of the latter year said that the proprietor was the Very of _linificent--and his prices exorbitant Perhaps it was the latter that did it!

Another establish served by ”_odalisques en costume oriental, tres seduisantes_”

This is quoted from the advertisements of the day The cafe was called the Cafe des Circassiennes, and there was a _sultane_, as the presiding genius of the place It met with but an indifferent success and soon closed its doors despite its supposedly all-co attractions

In the mid-nineteenth century a revolution came over the cafes of Paris

Tobacco had invaded their precincts; previously one smoked only in the _estaminets_ Three cafes of the Palais Royal resisted the innovation, the Cafe de la Galerie d'Orleans, the Cafe de Foy and the Cafe de la Rotonde To-day, well, to-day things are different

The Theatre du Palais Royal of to-day was the Theatre des Marionettes of the Comte de Beaujolais, which had for contemporaries the Fantoches Italiens, the Ombres Chinoises and the Musee Curtius, perhaps the first of the orks shows that in later generations became so popular The Palais Royal had now become a vast amusement enterprise, with side-shows of all sorts, theatres, concerts, cafes, restaurants, clubs, gah ones, to the proprietor