. Paris as seen and described by famous writers ... vre and the Tuileries, the absolute monarchyand the constitutional government. Across thissquare the whole of Europe has passed, we may read inletters of blood the entire political history of France sinceLouis XIV. And what a history, great heaven ! Interro-gate the guests of the Tuileries; ask the oldest inhabitantsof the palace; there is not one who would not tremblinglyrepeat this couplet of our illustrious Bcranger: Foiii des mkcoutents !Comvie balayeuu on me loge, Depuis quarante atis,Dans U ch&teau pris de rhorloge. Or, vies etifants, s
. Paris as seen and described by famous writers ... vre and the Tuileries, the absolute monarchyand the constitutional government. Across thissquare the whole of Europe has passed, we may read inletters of blood the entire political history of France sinceLouis XIV. And what a history, great heaven ! Interro-gate the guests of the Tuileries; ask the oldest inhabitantsof the palace; there is not one who would not tremblinglyrepeat this couplet of our illustrious Bcranger: Foiii des mkcoutents !Comvie balayeuu on me loge, Depuis quarante atis,Dans U ch&teau pris de rhorloge. Or, vies etifants, sachez Que Id pour tnes ptchis,Du coin d oit le soir je ne bouge, Jai vu le petit homme rouge. The little red man is the sole historiographer of thePlace du Carrousel, as Chodruc-Duclos is the true chron-icler of the Palais-Royale. Vous figurez-vousCe diable habilU dicarlate, Bossu, louclie et roux ;Un serpent lui sert de cravate ; II a le nez crochu ; II a le pied four chu ;Su voix rauqtie en chantant prksage Au chateau graird remu-niinage,300. PLACE DU CARROUSEL 301 Does not this allegorical demon affect you like an evilprognostication? He is the evil augur of political my-thology, and so we find him appearing for the first time atthe majority of Louis XIV., under the trees in Mile, deMontpensiers garden j he was the genius of revolutionwho breathed the spirit of rebellion into that ardent andpassionate soul. The apparition of the little red manalways preceded some great catastrophe; this time he an-nounced the Fronde, and the stone blocks of the day ofthe Barricades soon served to pave the Place du Carrousel. Until that time, this vast and waste space, situated be-tween the Louvre and the Tuileries, had been a mere mirydesert full of sewers and sloughs; you might go there butcould not be sure of returning. When Mile, de Mont-pensier came into the world, if we may believe a con-temporary poet, this swamp suddenly changed into a bedof flowers: in that happy century of gallantry
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