- ED.
[30] The house in question was built about 1780 by Nicolas de Pigage for
the rich merchant, Franz von Schweizer; Pigage was the son of the
architect of King Stanislas at Nancy. The Schweizer palace became
later on the Hotel de Russie and was demolished about 1890, the
Imperial Post Office having been erected in its place. The Schweizer
family is now extinct. - ED.
[31] A Casinogesellschaft, still in existence (1908), was founded at
Frankfort in 1805, with the object of uniting the aristocratic
elements of the city, admittance being freely allowed to distinguished
strangers, in particular to the envoys of the Bundestag. The
Gesellschaft or club occupied spacious rooms in the house of the
once famous tapissier and decorator Major Rumpf, grandfather of the
German sculptor of the same name. That building, situated at the
corner of the Rossmarkt, was demolished about 1880. - ED.
CHAPTER III
From Bruxelles to Paris - Restoration of Louis XVIII - The officers of the
allied armies - The Palais Royal - The Louvre - Protest of the author against
the proposed despoiling of the French Museums - Unjust strictures against
Napoleon's military policy - The cant about revolutionary robberies - The
Grand Opera - Monuments in Paris - The Champs Elysees - Saint-Cloud - The Hotel
des Invalides - The Luxembourg - General Labedoyere - Priests and
emigrants - Prussian Plunder - Handsome behaviour of the English officers -
Reminiscences of Eton - Versailles.
PARIS, August 3rd.
Here I am in Paris. I left Bruxelles the 29th July, stopped one night at
Mons and passing thro' Valenciennes, Peronne and St Quentin arrived here on
the third day. The villages and towns on the road had been pretty well
stripped of eatables by the Allied army, as well as by the French, so that
we did not meet with the best fare. In every village the white flag was
displayed by way of propitiating the clemency of the Allies and averting
plunder.
August 7th.
I have put up at the Hotel de Cahors, Rue de Richelieu, where I pay five
francs per diem for a single room; such is the dearness of lodgings at this
moment. It is well furnished, however, with sofas, commodes, mirrors and a
handsome clock and is very spacious withal, there being an alcove for the
bed. This situation is extremely convenient, being close to the Palais
Royal, Rue St Honore, Theatre Francais, Louvre and the Tuileries on one
side, and to the Grand Opera, the Theatre Feydeau, the Italian Opera and
the Boulevards on the other. The National Library is not many yards distant
from my hotel, and a few yards from that en face is the Grand Opera house
or Academie Royale de Musique.
This city is filled with officers and travellers of all kinds who have
followed the army. The House of Legislature of the Hundred Days, - as it is
the fashion to style Napoleon's last reign - dissolved themselves on the
demand of a million of francs as a war contribution made by Marshall
Blucher.
