The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-28 00:00:00

THE FETE AT VERSAILLES.

The Monitestr of yesterday gives the following
account of the fete at Versailles :
"On Saturday night the palace of Louis XI V.
recovered, as if by magic, the splendour and life
which animated it in its best days. In our epoch
we are called upon to behold marvels which would
have appeared impossible in the greatest ages and
under the most glorious reigns. In a short time,
when the éclat of the fetes and the noise of the
cheering shall have ceased, and when time has
been given to reflect upon the bearing and signifi-
cation of all that has taken place in this full and
brilliant weel:, the journey and visit of her Ma-
jesty Queen Victoria to the capital of France will
be looked upon as one of those events which appear
as a dream until realised. All who witnessed that
enthusiastic reception, those manifestations of sin-
cere cordiality and deep sympathy between Sovereign
and Sovereign and nation and nation, will retain a
lasting remembrance which they will love to tell
in their old age, and which marks an epoch in the
existence of individuals as well as in the history of
nations.

" Versailles had donned its festive apparel to
welcome the august guests of the Emperor. The
grand court-yard of the Chateau was as light as
day ; the imposing and severe profile of this grand
and beautiful architecture stood out in lines of fire,
and the marble statues which adorn the double
grand staircase appeared astonished .at all this
bustle and movement.

" Their Majesties entered by the marble stairs,
while the invited guests entered by the Princes'
staircase. Waiting and reposing rooms, boudoirs
hung with blue damask and filled with beautiful
flowers, had been prepared for the Queen of Eng-
land and Prince Albert in the apartments once
occupied by Marie Antoinette. The Emperor and
Empress withdrew for a few moments into their
private apartments. Their Majesties then crossed
the State apartments of Louis XIV., which were
magnificently lit up, and the immense fireplaces of
which were turned into gardens of flowers or plots
of verdure.

" The gallery of the mirrors offered a most
dazzling coup d'ceil. At the four angles four orches-
tras have been erected, consisting of 200 artistes,
directed by Strauss and Dufresne. Flowers and
shrubs concealed the stands of the musicians, and
the harmony seemed to proceed from invisible in-
struments through a bower of dahlias, rcses, and
other flowers. Garlands hung suspended from the
ceiling, and, interlaced with each other, formed the
; most charming decoration. Thousands of lustres
land torches reflected in the mirrors threw streams
of light upon the rich garments of the guests, co-
vered with gold and ornamented with diamonds.
" On approaching the windows a more admirable
sight presented itself to view. The great sheet of
water was enclosed by a series of porches, in the
Renaissance style, standing out from the back-
ground of the park in coloured wire, and joined
together by an emerald trellis-work. In the centre
a portal two-thirds larger than the rest, built like
a triumphal arch, was surmounted with a double
shield, with the arms of France and England. At
the two corners to the right and left were two
other porticoes, with the initials of their Majesties.
Under these brilliant arches the water sprang up
in jets and fell back in cascades. The two basins
formed one vast sheet of light, upon which golden
dolphins, mounted by Cupids, disported, carrying
circular torches and Venetian Ights.
" At 10 o'clock the doors of the State apartments
were thrown open,land their Majesties, followed by
the whole Court, entered the Gallery of Mirrors.
" The Queen of England leant upon the arm of
the Emperor, the Empress upon that of Prince
Albert ; the Princess Mathilde upon the arm of the
Prince of Bavaria ; the Princess Royal upon the
arm of Prince Napoleon.
" Their Majesties very soon proceeded to the
balcony reserved for them, iu the apartments of
Louis XV., to witness the fireworks on the sheet of
water called the Eau des Suisses, the signal for
which was given by Count Bacciocchi, First Cham-
berlain and Superintendent of the Cuurt Displays.
200 guns were fired while the rockets and lights
were fizzing through the air, or burst in showers
of stars of different colours • and when the cloud
of smoke cleared off, and die towers and battle-
ments of Windsor Castle appeared on the horizon,
a loud burst of applause proceeded from the spec-
tators. At this moment two orchestras, placed in .
the orangery, struck up God save the Queen.'
" A platform, covered with Gobelins tapestry,
had been erected in front of the southern façade ;
the guests reached it by vast external staircases at
either end, and. it allowed them to behold at their
ease the immense perspective spread before them.
"At half-past ten the Emperor opened the ball
: with the Queen of England.
At eleven the Court proceeded to supper in the
theatre. Their Majesties' table was laid in the
State box, which commands a view of all the
others, which were filled with ladies. Orchestra
and pit were turned into a festive hall. On all
sides flowers, light and brilliant toilettes—every-
where an air of satisfaction, joy, and delight im-
possible to describe. It was like a glance at fairy-
land.

" Their Majesties left Versailles amid the warm-
est demonstrations of enthusiasm. After their de-
parture the ball was kept up till morning, and
during the whole of the night the road was thronged
with brilliant equipages conveying back the guests
to Paris."

The Moniteur publishes the following
" The number of letters addressed to her Majesty
the Queen of England during her sojourn at St.
Cloud was so great that it has been impossible to
reply immediately to them all ; but they will be
answered hereafter."

NAPOLEON'S LETTER TO GENERAL

P.ELISSIBR.

The Emperor Napoleon's letter to General Pelissier
deserves, for several reasons, the attention of everybody
who is interested in the great events of our times.
The occasion which elicited it, the circumstances un-
der which it was written, the events at which it glances,
the wise. and kindly measure which it announces, and
the brilliant hopes which it invites the Allied Powers
and Nations to entertain, all render it a truly striking
document—the purple patch (purpureas pannus) on the
grey monotony of the passing interval.
Let us give to these several points in their turn a mo-
ment's consideration. The occasion which drew forth
this letter (or at least furnished the more immediate
motive for writing it at that particular moment) was the
battle and victory of the Tchernaya, gained, as we ob-
served before, on the eve ef the day when tile Sovereign
of France was about to entertain, on his own soil, and
aniii.l4 his own palaces, the British Queen with a mag-
nificence not heretofore witnessed in the modern or
Christian world, and far surpassing all the glories of an
ancient Roman •triumph. Concerning this point, we
need say no more than merely caution the intelli-
gent reader not to underrate a splendid feat (f
arms on account of its apparent faeility. Those stub-
born victories which most commonly move our admira-
tion—because they seem extorted, as it were, from fate,
and torn out of the very hands of adverse circumstances
—reflect immense honour upon the valour of the mass of
the conquerors ; but, alas ! what do they say, in most
cases, for the prudence of the successful Generals ? An
easy victory is, perhaps, less splendid for the soldiery
of an army, but it ought to make us think more highly
of its leader. The soldiers win less glory, but then
they were less tried ; and whose glory is that ?
Why, the line of the Tchernaya is the longest, most
straggling, most easily forced, and least easilydefended,
of the various lines maintained by the Allies in the
Crimea ; yet it is very good and salubrious for the troops
that they should thus retain "elbow-room." General
Pelissier and General La Marmora had only about
40,000 men to guard this line. The victory was, in our
opinion, most glorious—as much a victory of mind,
prudence, and of long-continued unrelaxing vigilance as
of steadiness and intrepidity.
Such was the occasion which immediately moved the
Emperor of the French to write with his own hand to his
brave and skilful General. The letter was written and
sent amidst the festivities, or rather felicitations (for they
were grave though so cordial), of our gracious Queen's
visit to his Imperial Majesty. The circumstances, then,
under which the letter was despatched were nearly as
memorahle as the occurrence which occasioned it.
During the course of the splendid kindnesses of this un-
precedented reception, the great host is not " absent "
for ono moment, in manner or seeming—nay, not absent
in the characteristic earnestness of his cordiality. Yet
he thinks much of the absent, and his mind reverts to
the past, and turns, meditative and expectant, to stand
face to face with the future hopes of his country, of Eng-
land, and of Europe. And here is a short and very mo-
dest letter, most simple and grand in its style, which
says much' of both, and which will reverberate through
east and west. The Emperor is tranquil respectirg theec.
la
fate of his army, as an army ; but he thinks of the i
indi-
vidual soldier—that soldier who now, fora long time, a
time doubled by events, has confronted
and overthrown
a continuous file of successive antagonists, under un-
heard-of-hardships, "des fatigues ironies. And, as
all that soldier's comrades in France burn to have their
share in his glory, the Emperor is busy, he says, in send.
ing ship after ship and regiment aftustrierregimen fort, st, gradually
illustrious many
to replace the great envy,
, o as to give
hy and b
the first its well-earned fur
.oug
d,
achievements, by another elquall efficient s :
home and to country, to tohonour.rhes.oanthe_ The reader
• s hnoowbsl e bot
soldiery,
and of the colossal mili-
tary_Emperor's wakeful
sees what this
sympathy for his
But, as is usual in
the policy of the present Sovereign of that country, there
sentiment here ;
power and resources of France.
is more than mere . and we may take an
kindly, and, at the
opportunity of indicating what the practical effect of
measure is likely to be. same time, deeply-consi-
dtherisedgood,
Another and still more stirring consideration remains.
The Emperor " hopes that Sebastopol will soon fall be-
neath the blows of the Allies. But should that event be
postponed, lie has learned, from sources which he be-
lievea to be sure, that the Russian army will not be able
1 to sustain themselves through the approaching winter in

the Crimea." They have truly almost worn out the
day ; and this accords with the impression which we had
been led to indulge by various signs of stress and ex.
haustion in the enemy.

If this prognostic of the future be cheering, there is in
the same brief document a❑ allusion to the past which
must move the heart of every reader who can recognise
the bold, simple, and generous features of a heroic nature
when he sees them. It is an extraordinary sentence, if
pondered with a recollection of the usual practice of
crowned heads—and, above all, in positions similar to
that in which Napoleon the Third was placed at the emer-
gency to which he adverts. " You know, General, how
much it has grieved me to be kept away from that army
which has added new lustre to our eagles."
The effect which such an address, containing the an-
nouncements of such hopes, and that soul-stirring allu-
sion to a past and scarcely-prevented design—the effect,
we ray, which this letter will produce, when read at
parade to each company of the French army before Se-
bastopol, may be conceived without any commentary on
our part.

We cannot leave the subject without referring to
another peculiarity in the Emperor's note—we mean the
genuineness, appositeness, and energy of the style.
Nothing in it is factitious—nothing conventional.
Neither of these blemishes, indeed, was ever to be found
in his uncle's manifestoes, and various other productions,
which, according to Lord Brougham, are the model of a
new, original, and impetuous kind of eloquence. But
they were too flamboyant, too ostentatious, in the manner
and the diction ; otherwise, they had been unim-
provable. They missed perfection, just by the want of
that Cmsar-like and majestic simplicity which are visible
in all the public addresses of his successor. Read this
letter of Napoleon the Third's—or, better still, read the
manifesto after the re-establishment of the Empire—and
then read one of Mr. Gladstone's speeches, or an Ameri-
can President's message. But who reads a President's
message all through ? Not so in the case of the brief and
vivid productions of the French Sovereign.—Morning
Post.