1849.] PEACE CONGRESS AT PARIS. 115 



duced me to Madame ; she spoke English very well. . . . When 

 the rooms were too full we turned out into the gardens, which 

 were beautifully illuminated. " 



On Monday the Government invited them to a display of 

 the fountains at Versailles and St. Cloud, which was said to 

 have cost about ^500, and to have been an honour previously 

 accorded only to sovereigns. To the exhibition at St. Cloud 

 none but the delegates were admitted. "The gardens are 

 a VAnglaise and very beautiful. We went through them three 

 abreast, and enjoyed it intensely after the stiffness, dust, and 

 crowding of Versailles. A jet about a hundred feet high, in 

 the middle of the woods, pleased me most. Then came the 

 grandest of all the sights. After the beautiful sunset tints in 

 the woods, we descended by the light of torches to the bottom 

 of the cascades. Here was a hill, perhaps sixty feet high, 

 surrounded by trees, and completely covered by illuminated 

 lamps arranged in steps ; then the water began to fall over 

 them, and descended to the bottom. The effect was most 

 magical, and when they burnt coloured lights, the shades on 

 the trees, with the distant moon, were magnificent." 



Although these compliments were paid to the Peace 

 Congress, it was evident that the war-spirit was rampant. 

 Ruins bore witness to the Revolution of the preceding year. 

 On the Sunday the President had a grand review in the 

 Champs de Mars. " I got quite sick," Philip wrote, " of 

 military hospitals and barracks, and cannot imagine how 

 France can bear it. The city was full of soldiers. The 

 Luxembourg, Hotel de Ville, and numerous other public 

 buildings are turned into barracks ; and all the public honour 

 and taste is directed to them." 



He devoted himself with his usual energy to the various 

 sights of Paris. He went to Pere-la-Chaise on a Sunday, and 

 was much interested with the simple inscriptions. Then "we 

 left the rich people's part to see the humbler places. Here 

 were small graves huddled close together; but each one 

 covered with a garden, and having a black cross with inscrip- 

 tion, and generally a number of yellow and white garlands, and 



