PALAIS ROYAL. 433 



ceptibly at variance with the motives that gave birth to 

 it, but when once the execution was feen and under- 

 flood, they were no longer thought of. 



In the year 1781, the opera houfe at the palais royal 

 was burnt down, and the violence of the conflagration 

 was fo great as to threaten the whole pile with de- 

 finition. The Parifians were * inconfolable on the 

 lofs of their magic world; till it iftruck the fancy of a 

 porter who was fitting on a cart loaded with the drefYes 

 and properties of the theatre which had been refcued 

 from the flames, to put on his head the helmet tof Alexan- 

 der the great, or fome other hero of antiquity, and to 

 throw an imperial mantle over his moulders, and thus 

 equipped, . brandifhing the thunderbolts of Jove in one 

 hand, and waving the petticoat of a nymph in the other, 

 to caufe himfelf to be drawn about the principal ftreets 

 of the city, accofting all he met with fome new frroke 

 of humour. The fellow with his buffooneries railed 

 fuch a general laughter, that the fire, the danger, and 

 the damage were prefently forgotten; and the next 

 day the ladies wore ribbons and filks couleur de feu 

 d'opera. But the lofs of the palais royal in brilliancy 

 and vivacity was not the lefs for all this drollery. 



This, however, was only the prelude to another 

 misfortune ; and which, in fact, mull have been as 

 grievous to the Parifians as the former. The fcheme 

 of building round about the garden was now come to 

 maturity ; when all at once fome hundred of axes and 

 faws were fet in motion, and the grand chefnut allee, 

 with all the others, were in a few days felled to the 

 ground and extirpated. The lovers of walking were 

 quite in an uproar, which Was the more violent, as 

 vol. 11. • f f the 



