JOHN LEDYARD. 309 



are certainly a hundred days in this city every year 

 whereon all the shops are shut and there is a gene- 

 ral suspension of business, for the good policy of 

 which, let them look to it. You will hear in your 

 papers of an affair between a certain cardinal and 

 the Queen of France. It has been the topic of 

 conversation here for thirty days ; and forty fools, 

 that have expressed themselves too freely in the 

 matter for the police, are already in the Bastille. 

 We have news to-day that the king will have him 

 tried by the Parliament, and has written to that 

 dying meteor, the pope, not to meddle in the busi- 

 ness. 



"I was late home yesterday evening from the 

 feast of St. Cloud, held at a little town of that 

 name on the bank of the Seine. It is particularly 

 remarkable for having the queen's gardens in it, 

 and a house for the queen, called a palace. The 

 chief circumstance which renders the village a place 

 of curiosity to strangers is the water-works, which, 

 after the labor of many years and vast expense, 

 exhibit a sickly cascade, and three jets d'eau, or 

 fountains, that cast water into the air. The largest 

 of these throws out a column as big as a man's arm, 

 which rises about thirty yards. In the evening I 

 entered a part of the gardens where some fireworks 

 were played off. The tickets were twenty-four sols. 



