THE GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES.
The first Sunday that Rollo spent in Paris he met with quite a singular
adventure.
His father and mother had arrived the evening before, and had
established themselves quite comfortably in the "apartment of three
pieces," which Mr. George had engaged for them. An apartment, according
to the French use of the term, is not a single room, but a group of
rooms, suitable to be occupied by one family. The number of _pieces_ is
the number of rooms.
Mr. Holiday's three rooms were a small but beautifully furnished parlor,
where they had breakfast, and two bed rooms. One bed room was for
himself and Mrs. Holiday, and the other was for Jennie. There were a
great many splendid mirrors in these rooms, and other elegant furniture.
The floors were not carpeted, but were formed of dark and polished wood,
curiously inlaid, with rugs here and there at the doors and before the
sofas and chairs. There was a small, square rug before every chair, and
a large one before the sofa. There were a great many other curious
things to be observed in the arrangements of the room. The fireplace,
for example, was closed by plates of sheet iron, which could be shoved
up and down like the sashes of a window; while the windows themselves
opened like doors, each having a great brass fastening, like a latch, in
the middle, and hinges at the sides.
Rollo had gone with his father and mother to church in the morning, and
at about one o'clock they returned. Rollo and Jennie remained at home,
after one, for an hour or two, waiting for their uncle George to come.
He had gone away somewhere, and had not yet returned. While thus
waiting, the children sat at the window of their parlor, which they
opened by swinging the two sides of the sash entirely back, so that they
could see out to great advantage. The window opened down quite low; but
there was a strong iron bar passing across from side to side, to keep
them from falling out. The children sat at this window, amusing
themselves with what they could see in the square. The name of the
square was the Place Vendome. There was a very large and lofty column in
the centre of it. This column is very greatly celebrated for its
magnitude and its beauty. It is twelve feet in diameter, and nearly a
hundred and forty feet high. But what is most remarkable is, that the
whole exterior of it, enormous as the mass is, is formed of brass. The
brass was obtained by melting up the cannons which Napoleon took from
his enemies. At the end of one of his campaigns he found that he had
twelve hundred cannons which he had taken from the Russians and
Austrians, with whom he had been at war; and after reflecting for some
time on the question, what he should do with them, he concluded to send
them to Paris, and there to have them made into this enormous column, to
ornament the centre of the Place Vendome.
The column, though made of brass, is not bright upon the outside, but
dark, like bronze, and the surface is ornamented with figures in what
are called bas relief, representing the battles and victories in which
the cannon out of which the column was composed were taken from the
enemy.
Rollo and Jennie, in looking at this column from the window of their
hotel, observed that around the foot of it there was a square space
enclosed by an iron railing, forming a sort of yard. There was a gate in
the front side of this railing. This gate was open; but there were two
soldiers standing by it, with guns in their hands, as if to prevent any
body from going in.
The column itself, as is usual with such columns, did not stand directly
upon the ground, but upon a square pedestal, which was built of massive
blocks of granite, resting on a deep and strong foundation; and as the
column itself was twelve feet in diameter, the pedestal, being
necessarily somewhat larger, was quite a considerable structure. In the
front of it, opposite the gate in the iron railing, was a door. The door
was open, but nothing was to be seen but darkness within.
"I wonder what they do in there?" said Rollo. "The gate is open, and the
door is open; but I suppose the soldiers would not let any body go in to
see. Do you suppose, Jennie, that it can be possible that there is any
way to get up to the top of the column by going in at that door?"
"Yes," replied Jennie; and so saying, she pointed eagerly to the top of
the column, and added, "For there are some boys up there now."
Rollo looked up to the top of the column. There was a statue of Napoleon
upon the summit, which appeared to be of about the ordinary size of a
man, though it is really about eight times as large as life, being twice
as large in every dimension. It looks small, on account of its being so
high in the air. Beneath this statue and around the top of the column
the children saw that there was a small gallery, with a railing on the
outside of it. Several persons were standing on this gallery, leaning on
the railing. At first Rollo thought that they were sculptured figures
placed there, like the statue of Napoleon on the top, for ornament; but
presently he saw some of them move about, which convinced him that they
were real men. Two of them were soldiers, as was evident from the red
uniform which they wore. But they all looked exceedingly small.
"There must be a staircase inside," said Rollo, "or else some ladders.
If not, how could those men get up?"
"Yes," said Jennie.
"I should like to go up there very much," said Rollo, "if I could only
get by the soldiers."
"I should not dare to go up to such a high place," said Jennie, shaking
her head solemnly.
At the foot of the column and outside of the railing which formed the
enclosure around the pedestal was a very broad and smooth place, as
smooth as a floor, and raised like a sidewalk above the street. It was
very broad, and people walked over it in passing through the square.
There was only one way of passing through the square, and that was from
north to south. From east to west there was no street, but the ranges of
houses and palaces continued on those sides unbroken. These edifices
presented a very fine architectural frontage toward the square, and gave
to the whole space which they enclosed a very rich and grand appearance.
Over the doors of two or three of the houses there were small tricolored
flags flying; and wherever these flags were, there were soldiers on the
sidewalk below guarding the doors. But neither Rollo nor Jennie was able
to imagine what this could mean.
About three o'clock, when Rollo and Jennie had began to be tired of
looking at the column, their mother came into the room. She said that
Mr. Holiday was fatigued and was going to lie down, and that neither he
nor herself would go out again. Rollo then asked if he and Jennie might
go out and take a walk. His mother seemed to hesitate about it, but
presently said that she would go and ask Mr. Holiday if he thought it
would be safe. She accordingly went into the bed room, and very soon
returned, saying that Mr. Holiday thought it would be safe for them to
go if he gave them some directions.
"He says," added Mrs. Holiday, "that you may get ready, and then go into
his room, and he will give you the directions. Only you must not talk
much with him, for it hurts him to talk. Hear what he has to say, and
then come out immediately."
So the children made themselves ready, and then went into their father's
room. They found him sitting in a great arm chair by a window where the
sun was shining. He looked pale and tired. When the children came in,
however, he turned to them with a smile, and said,--
"Children, I am glad you are going out to take a walk. You can go very
safely, if you follow my directions.
"This is the Place Vendome. There are only two ways of going out of it.
One leads to the north, and the other to the south.
"If you take the road which goes to the north, that is, that way," said
Mr. Holiday, pointing, "you will go out by the street which is called
the Street of Peace.[D] The Street of Peace is straight, and pretty
broad; and if you follow it to the end of it, you will come to the
Boulevards."
[D] Mr. Holiday called this street, of course, by its French name; but
we give its name here in English, for the convenience of the reader, who
may, perhaps, not be able to pronounce French.
"What are the Boulevards?" asked Rollo.
"Hush!" said Jennie, gently touching Rollo at the same time with her
hand.
"Boulevards," said Mr. Holiday, "means bulwarks. A great many years ago
there was a line of bulwarks or fortifications all around Paris; but at
length, when the city grew too large for them, they levelled them down
and made a very broad and handsome street where they had been, and then
afterward made a new line of fortifications farther out. This broad and
handsome street, or rather, series of streets, is called the Boulevards.
It extends almost entirely around the city. Of course, when you get into
the Boulevards, you are in no danger of losing yourselves; for you can
go on as far as you please, either way, and then come back to the Street
of Peace again, and then come home."
"Yes," said Rollo, "I understand."
Here Jennie gently touched Rollo again, to remind him that he was not to
talk.
"You will know the Boulevards at once when you come to them," continued
Mr. Holiday, "they are so much broader and more beautiful than any of
the other streets of Paris. Even the sidewalks are as wide as many
ordinary streets; and there are rows of young trees along the edges of
the sidewalks. Now, if you choose, you can go out from the Place Vendome
on the northern side, by the Street of Peace, and so walk on till you
come to the Boulevards. Then you can walk along the Boulevards as far as
you please.
"Or," continued Mr. Holiday, "you can take the opposite course. You can
go out of the Place Vendome on the southern side. That will bring you
directly in the garden of the Tuileries."
"I should like to go into a garden," said Jennie, "and see the flowers."
"You will see," continued Mr. Holiday, "as soon as you begin to go out
of the Place Vendome, at a little distance before you, perhaps as far as
two or three blocks in New York, a wall of green trees."
"A wall of green trees!" exclaimed Rollo.
"Yes," said his father. "It is a thick row of trees growing in the
garden, and having the side toward the street trimmed smooth and
straight like a wall. The entrance through this range of trees, opposite
the gateway where you go into the garden, looks like an archway in a
green wall. You will see it before you as soon as you turn the corner of
this hotel into the street that leads that way. You can walk straight on
till you come to the place. There you will find the entrance to the
garden. There is a very high iron palisade along the side of the garden
toward the street, with the rows of trees which I have spoken of inside
of it. There is a gateway through this palisade where you can go in.
There are two soldiers there to guard the gateway."
"Then how can we get in?" asked Jennie.
"O, go right in," replied Mr. Holiday. "Pay no attention to the
soldiers. They will not say any thing to you. They are only sentinels.
"After you pass through the gateway, you keep on in the same direction,
without turning to the right hand or to the left, just as if you were
going across the garden. You go on in this way till you get to the
middle alley, which is a very wide alley, that runs up and down the
middle of the garden. This alley is called the Grand Alley, and it is a
very grand alley indeed. It is as broad as a very wide street, and it is
nearly two miles long.[A] It begins at the palace of the Tuileries, in
the middle of the city, and extends through the whole length of the
gardens of the Tuileries; and then, passing out through great gates at
the foot of the garden, it extends through the Elysian Fields, away out
to the great Triumphal Arch of the Star, which you saw from the cars
when you were coming into the city.
"Now, when you get into the Grand Alley, which you will know by its
being the broadest, and smoothest, and most splendid grand walk that you
ever saw, you must stop for a minute, and look both ways. I'll tell you
what you will see. First, if you turn to the left, that is, toward the
east, you will see at the end of the alley, in that direction, a long
range of splendid buildings, extending across from side to side. In the
opposite direction, at the top of a long, gentle slope, a mile and a
half away, you will see the grand Triumphal Arch. That is at the barrier
of the city. The view is not entirely open, however, out to the arch.
About midway, in the centre of the Grand Alley, is a tall obelisk,
standing on a high pedestal, and farther along there are one or two
fountains. Still you can see the Triumphal Arch very plainly, it is so
large, and it stands so high.
"Now, the Grand Alley is nearly two miles long, and, wherever you may be
in it, you can always see the palace at one end, the arch at the other,
and the Egyptian obelisk in the middle. So that, as long as you walk
back and forth in this alley, keeping these things in sight, you cannot
lose your way.
"Only I ought to say," continued Mr. Holiday, "that the garden does not
extend all the way to the barrier. The garden extends, perhaps, half a
mile. Near the bottom of it is a great basin or pond of water, with a
stone margin to it all around. You will have to go round this basin, for
the centre of it is exactly in the middle of the Grand Alley. Then you
come very soon to the end of the garden, and you will go out through
great iron gates, but still you will keep on in the same direction. Here
you will come to a very large, open square, with the obelisk in the
centre of it, and fountains and statues in it all around. Still you will
keep straight on across this square, only you will have to turn aside to
go round the obelisk. After you pass through the square, the Grand Alley
still continues on, though now it becomes a Grand Avenue, leading
through pleasure grounds, with ranges of trees and of buildings on
either side. It becomes very wide here, being as wide as two or three
ordinary streets, and will be filled with carriages and horsemen. But
there will be good broad sidewalks for you on either hand, under the
shade of the trees; and you will know where you are all the time, for
you can always see the palace at one end of the view, and the great
Triumphal Arch at the other, with the obelisk in the middle between
them.
"The amount of it is," added Mr. Holiday, speaking in a tone as if he
were about finishing his instructions, "you can go out of the Place
Vendome to the north, and keep straight on till you come to the
Boulevards, and walk there either way as far as you like. Or you can go
south, and keep straight on till you come to the middle of the Grand
Alley of the garden of the Tuileries, and then walk in the Grand Alley
and the Grand Avenue which forms the continuation of it as long as you
like. Which way will you go?"
"I would rather go to the garden," said Rollo, looking toward Jennie.
"Yes," said Jennie, "and so would I."
Thus it was settled that they were to take the street which led toward
the south from the Place Vendome; and so, bidding their father good by,
they went away. Before leaving the house, however, Rollo went to a
secretary which stood in the parlor, and took down a map, in order to
show Jennie the places which his father had mentioned, and to make it
sure that they understood the directions which they had received. Rollo
found the Place Vendome very readily upon the map, and the street
leading to the gardens. He also found the Grand Alley running through
the garden; and following this alley between the rows of trees, he
showed Jennie a small circle which he thought must be the basin of
water, and the place where the obelisk stood; and finally he pointed out
the place where the Grand Alley widened out into the Grand Avenue and
led on toward the barrier.
Jennie did not understand the map very well; but she seemed satisfied
with Rollo's assurances that he himself could find all the places.
"It is all right, you may depend," said Rollo. "I can find the way, you
may be sure."
So he put up the map, bade his mother good by, and then he and Jennie
sallied forth.
The hotel was situated on the corner of the Place Vendome and the street
which led toward the garden; and as soon as the children had turned this
corner, after coming out from under the archway of the hotel, they saw
at some distance before them, at the end of the street, the iron
palisade, and the green wall of trees above it, which formed the
boundary of the garden.
"There it is!" exclaimed Rollo. "There is the garden and the gateway!
and it is not very far!"
The children walked along upon the sidewalk hand in hand, looking
sometimes at the elegant carriages which rolled by them from time to
time in the street, and sometimes at the groups of ladies and children
that passed them on the sidewalk. At the first corner that they came to,
Rollo's attention was attracted by the sight of a man who had a box on
the edge of the sidewalk, with a little projection on the top of it
shaped like a man's foot. Rollo wondered what it was for. Just before he
reached the place, however, he saw a gentleman, who then happened to
come along, stop before the box and put his foot on the projection.
Immediately the man took out some brushes and some blacking from the
inside of the box, which was open on the side where the man was
standing, and began to brush the gentleman's boot.
"Now, how convenient that is!" said Rollo. "If you get your shoes or
your boots muddy or dusty, you can stop and have them brushed."
So saying, he looked down at his own boots, almost in hopes that he
should find that they needed brushing, in order that he might try the
experiment; but they looked very clean and bright, and there seemed to
be no excuse for having them brushed again.
Besides, Jennie was pulling him by the hand, to hasten him along. She
said at the same time, in an undertone,--
"Look, Rollo, look! See! there is a blind lady walking along before us!"
"Blind?" repeated Rollo.
"Yes," said Jennie; "don't you see the little dog leading her?"
There was a little dog walking along at a little distance before the
lady, with a beautiful collar round his neck, and a cord attached to it.
The lady had the other end of the cord in her hand.
"I don't believe she is blind," said Rollo.
As the children passed by the lady she turned and looked at them, or
seemed to look, and manifested no indications of being blind. Afterward
Jennie saw a great many other ladies walking with little dogs, which
they led, or which led them, by means of a cord which the owner of the
dog held in her hand. There were so many of these cases that Jennie was
compelled to give up the idea of their being blind; but she said that
she never knew any body but blind people led about by dogs before.
At length the children arrived at the entrance to the garden. It was on
the farther side of a broad and beautiful street which ran along there,
just outside of the enclosure. The palisades were of iron, though the
tops were tipped with gilding, and they were very high. They were more
than twice as high as a man's head. The lower ends of them were set
firmly in a wall of very substantial masonry. The gateway was very wide,
and it had sentry boxes on each side of it. A soldier, with his bayonet
fixed, was standing in front of each sentry box. When Jennie saw these
soldiers she shrank back, and seemed afraid to go in. In fact, Rollo
himself appeared somewhat disposed to hesitate. In a moment, however, a
number of persons who came along upon the sidewalk turned in at the
gates, and went into the yard. The soldiers paid no attention to them.
Rollo and Jane, seeing this, took courage, and went in, too.
On passing through the gates, the children found themselves on a very
broad terrace, which ran along on that side of the garden. The surface
of the terrace was gravelled for a walk, and it was very smooth and
beautiful. While standing on, or walking upon it, you could look on one
side, through the palisade, and see the carriages in the street, and on
the other side you could look over a low wall down into the garden,
which was several feet below. The descent into the garden was by a
flight of stone steps. The children, after staying a little time upon
the terrace, went down the steps. They came out upon a very broad
avenue, or alley, which formed the side of the garden. This alley was
very broad indeed, so broad that it was divided into three by orange
trees, which extended up and down in long rows parallel to the street,
almost as far as you could see, and forming beautiful vistas in each
direction. These orange trees, though very large, were not set in the
ground, but were planted in monstrous boxes, painted green and set on
rollers. The reason of this was, so that they could be moved away in the
winter, and put in a building where they could be kept warm.
This broad alley, the great side alley of the garden on the side toward
the city, was called the Alley of the Oranges. There is another similar
alley on the opposite side of the garden, which is toward the river, and
that is called the Alley of the Riverside.
Passing across the three portions of the Alley of the Oranges, the
children went on toward the centre of the garden. Instead, however, of
such a garden as they had expected to see, with fruits and flowers in
borders and beds, and serpentine walks winding among them, as Jennie had
imagined, the children found themselves in a sort of forest, the trees
of which were planted regularly in rows, with straight walks here and
there under them.
"What a strange garden!" said Jennie.
"Yes," said Rollo. "But we must not stop here. We must go straight on
through the trees until we come to the Grand Alley."
In fact, Rollo could see the Grand Alley, as he thought, at some
distance before him, with people walking up and down in it. There were
several people, too, in the same walk with Rollo and Jane, some going
with them toward the Grand Alley, and others coming back from it. Among
these were two children, just big enough to go alone, who were prattling
in French together very fluently as they walked along before their
father and mother. Jennie said she wondered how such little children
could learn to speak French so well. Another child, somewhat older than
these, was trundling a hoop, and at length unfortunately she fell down
and hurt herself. So, leaving her hoop upon the ground, she came toward
the maid who had care of her, crying, and sobbing, and uttering broken
exclamations, all in French, which seemed to Rollo and Jane very
surprising.
At length the children came out into the Grand Alley. They knew it
immediately when they reached it, by its being so broad and magnificent,
and by the splendid views which were presented on every hand.
"Yes," said Rollo, "this is it, I am sure. There is the obelisk; and
there, beyond it, on the top of that long hill, is the Triumphal Arch;
and there, the other way, is the palace of the Tuileries. Here is a
seat, Jennie. Let's go and sit down."
So saying, Rollo led Jennie to a stone seat which was placed on one side
of the alley, at the margin of the grove; and there they sat for some
time, greatly admiring the splendid panorama which was spread out before
them. What happened to them for the remainder of their walk will be
described in the next chapter.