The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1870-11-05
MONROE LOUISIANA, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1870
The Destruction Of IT. Cloud.

The telegraph, with that cold pre-
cision and terrible cNactitude which
distinguishes some Of its revelations, has
informed us of the destruction of the
Chateau Of st. Cloud, that lovely royal
and imperial residence which for two
hundred years, crowded with historic
glorics, has been the pride of all the
western enVirons of Paris. Moreover,
we are informed that the work of ruin
was accomplished by the French and
not by the German batteries. We trust,
for the sake of that illustration of his
tory which has so much to do with the
steady advance of refinement, that the
news may not be true in its full extent
but if, unfortunately, all particulars be
exactly as narrated, the French capital
sl,stains an almost irrcparable loss.
st. Cloud, the ancient Novigentum,
derives its modern name from Clodoald,
the grandson of King Clovis. The
young man escaped from the assassin
hands Of his uncle Clotaire to this spot,
and after life passed as Il hermit in
the neighboring forests was canonized
by the title that the noble parks and
the palace there erected in 1853 by the
great capitalist, Jerome de Candy, have
since borne. The vast wealth and pow
er of Louis Quartorez, which, during
splendid in France, gave him posses
sion of st. Cloud, and the Grand Mon
argue bestowed this gem upon his
| brother, the Due d'Orleans. Become a
royal palace it extended it's hospitality
to Queen Henrietta of England, who
died there; and III succeeding years it
witnessed the murder of Henry iii. !;
the plottings of tho First Napoleon for
imperial control the royal folly of
Charles X, who dated thence the re-
scripts that revolted France and pre-
cipitatcd tho revolution OF 1880; and,
! finally, the .fetes of the hearty citizen
king Louis Philippe and the summer
pleasures of Napoleon III. St. Cloud
rivals Versailles in it's memories of the
lovely but unfortunate Marie Antoin-
ette and the gayeties of Queen Victoria's
sojourn in France in 1855. Some of the
most imposing scenes of the reign of
the First Napoleon occurred Mt this
celebrated residence, and the shades of
the gentle Josephine and of her sue
cessOr, the fair Austrian, Marie Louise
seemed, even i'll our day, to haunt the
apartments the crowned DANES once
occupied, and on the walls of which
their portraits smiled in the bloom of
pride and beauty as limned by master
| hands.
None who have ever VlSlteu tnlS Oe-
lightful abode with a tourists elegant
curiosity or by imperial invitation will
forgctits parks stocked with rare growth
and ranged by herds of English deer,
its enchanting gardens, its lakes, its
fountains and its cascades, the delight
Of the Paris Sunday throng who went 8
Maying in it's lawns and woods. It,
September festivals for this year have
been replaced by more magnificent
but disastrous October. The beautcous
domains are dcsolatcd by the bivouat
of needless foreign soldiery, and its
superb saloons and galleries, with all
their wontlrous wealth of canvas and
carving, have sunk into ruin beneath
the avcnging shot and shell of the great
city beleagucred through the folly OF
its latest imperial occupant. The fear
full war now raging "in the heart Of
| Europc'' is full of startling lessons Illus
trated by what seems more than the
caprice of mere chance in the scourgc
that it brings upon the oldcn seats of
| refined but arrogant pomp and power.
| None of these is more Instructive, even
while VIC must historically mourn it,
than the oblitcration of st. Cloudy.
| Y. Herald.