BURNING OF THE LOUVRE AND TUILLERIES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 846, 5 August 1871, Page 3

BURNING OF THE LOUVRE AND TUILLERIES.

The " Times " correspondent telegraphed at 7.45 p.m. on May 24:—1 have just returned from witnessing one of the saddest sights that has occurred in the world history. In a former telegram I announced that the insurgents had set fire to several of the public buildings of Paris, the royal and historical Tuilleries included. I have since been for some hours in the magnificent city, which flames and bombshells are fast reducing to a huge and shapeless ruin. Its architectural glories are rapidly passing away in smoke and flame, such as have never been witnessed since the burning of Moscow, and amid a roar of cannon, the screaming of mitrailleuse?, a bursting of projectiles, and a horrid rattle of musketry from different quarters, whiph are appalling. A more lovely day it Would be impossible to imagine, a sky of unusual brightness, blue as the clearest ever seenj a sun of surpassing brilliancy even for Paris, scarcely a breath of wind to ruffle the Seine. Such of the great buildings as the spreading conflagration has not reached stand in the clearest relief as they are seen for probably the last time; but in a dozen spots, at both sides of the bridges, sheets of flame and awful Volumes of smoke rise to the sky, and positively obscure the light of the sun. I am making these notes on the Trocadero. Close and immediately opposite to me is the Invalides, with its gilded dome shining brightly as ever. The wide esplanade of the Ecole Militaire, almost immediately underneath it, is nearly covered with armed men, cannon, and horses. Shells from the positions of General Cissey, at Montrouge, are evory minute falling close to the lofty dome of the Pantheon* It and the

fine building of Val de Giice, near it, seem certain to be destroyed by missiles before the incendiary fire reaches them. There is a dense smoke close to Sulpice, and new flame rises amid the smoke, and the two towers of the church are illuminated as no electric light could illuminate them. Some large building is on fire there. Every one asks which it ia; but no one can approach that quarter to put the matter beyond doubt. Burnt leaves of books are flying towards us, and the prevailing opinion is that the ISarbonno and its library are being consumed. There are a dozen other fires between that and the river. No one doubts that the Palais tie Justice ia sharing the fate of the Tuilleries and the Louvre. The Chateau of the Tuilleries has all but disappeared. The centre cupola has fallen in, and so has the roof along the entire length of the building. Some of the lower storeys yet burn, for fire and smoke arn rushing fiercely from the openings where up to this morning there were window frames and windows. The Louvre is not yet wholly gone, and perhaps the fire will not reach all its courts. As well as we can make out through the flame and smoke rushing across the garden of the Tuilleries, the fire has rented the Palais Royal. Every one is now crying out, " The Palais Boyal burns!" and we ascer' tain that it does. "We cannot see Notre Dame or the Hotel Dieu. It is very probable that both are becoming ashes. Not an instant passes without an explosion. Stones and "timber and iron are flying high in the air, and falling to the earth with horrible crashes. The very trees are on fire. They are crackling, and their leaves and branches are like tinder. The buildings in the Place de la Concorde reflect the flames, and every stone in them is like bright flame; but the little wind that is blowing carries the smoke up to it, and in the clear heaven its rises black as Milton's Pandemonium. The New Opera-house is as yet uninjured; but the smoke encircles it, and it will be next to a miracle if it escapes. We see clearly now that the Palais de Justice, the Ste Chapelle, the Prefecture of Police, and the Hotel de Ville are all blazing without a possibility existing of any portion of any one of them being saved from the general wreck and ruin.