THE PALACE OF ST. CLOUD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 514, 23 February 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PALACE OF ST. CLOUD.

This splendid retreat of French Royalty was situated about five miles to the west ot Paris, and had a reputation for magnificence, second only to that of Vcrsaibcs itself. It was a favorite country dwelling of Napoleon 111 The little town from which it took its name, and which was utterly destroyed by the Germans towards the close of the war, lay on the left bank of tho Seine, and on the railway from Paris to Versailles. * t was a very ancient place, and as early as the sixth century was selected "by Chtodoald, one of the three sons of Chlodomere, King of Orleans, as a spot where lie could retire from the world and embrace a monastic life. After his death the prince was canonised, and ids name, corrupted into -St. Cloud, was given to the town which witnessed thcclosoof his days. The place was pillagedandbimit by the English in 1358, and again by the party of the Armagnacs in 1411. In more recent times, Henry 111. of Franco took up his quarters there dining the siege of Paris by bis own forces and those of Henry IV. of Navarre; and in 1589 the former was assassinated at Bt. Cloud by Jacques Clement, the monk. The domain together with an adjacent one, was purchased by Louis XIV., and given to bis brother,, the Duke of Orleans. The palace destroyed on (he 13th ol October, 1870, was built by the directions of tho Duke, and was the work of of several architects. A little before Hie great revolution it was purchased by Marie Antoinette, who enlarged and beautified it; and it was at the Palace of St. -Cloud that Napoleon Buonaparte assembled tire Council ot the Five Hundred in 1799, afterwards dissolved them by force, and caused himself to be made First Consul. It was thence that he issued tho Act declaring himself Emperor, dated May 1 Stli, 1804 ; audit was in the same building that his nephew received the Senates Consul t urn which restored the Empire, November 7th, 1852. The palace (which was much improved and splendidly furnished by -Napoleon I.) was the favorite summer x'csort of the restored Bourbons; and the ordinances which were the immediate cause of the revolution of 1820 were dated from St. Cioud. Both Louis Philippe and Napoleon 111. were fond of the place.; and within its walls the latter entertained Queen Victoria in 1855, and signed the declaration of war against Prussia in 1870.— Cassell’s History of the War.