Chapter IV.
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.4 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."
"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.