The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-14
CURRENT TOPICS IN PARIS
Chateau d'Eu, One of the Most Historic Castles in France, Destroyed by Fire.
BY PIERRE RoslER.
ARIS, December 1s.-A pan of fou grease accidentally spilled on Qu' a fire has mt an end to the his to

foundation stone at about the time when Queen Elizabeth paid her famous visit to Wentworth. Mary Stuart was then her prisoner and in active correspondence with Guise It was therefore, meet, in view of her conspiracies and the possi- bility of their success, to turn his face toward England and be near a port to which emissaries of the captive queen could conveniently run over.
 Flu from time immemorial had tho name of being an unlucky place to live in. Le Balafre's heir made no haste to finish the chateau begun by his father. Mile. de Montpensier bought it seventy years after the laying of the foundation stone. She wanted to devote herself there to Lauzon and spent eS4,000, a great sum in her time, in finishing the chateau. The enamoured princess summoned Le Notrc to lay out the gardens in the stiff style of Versailles and looked forward to realizing her romantic dream when Mime. de Montespan set on Louis XIV. to forbid the banns. The king sent the lover to the bastile and only released him when the greatest heiress of her time settled the revenues of many of her es- tates and made a gift of others to his legitimate offspring. She brought Lau- zon to Flu.
 Louis Philippe came into the chateau and estate of Flu through his mother, nee De Penthieve, great-grandmother of | Louis XIV. and Mme de Montespan. His | title had root in an lniouitous act of tyr- amy. dare say the origin of most great fortunes would not bear better be- | ing looked into; but as the wrong done was so fragrant, it seems right that Ne mesis should have quickened his pace to inflict cnastisement.
 Louis Philippe made Flu his seaside res idence from 1921 to 1S4S. He led the life | of frxy wifi an instant neglecting home or foreign poli- tics with which he ever dealt from a family standpoint. Queen Victoria, whose ideas about domestic life were so consonant with those of Louis Philippe, visited him twice at Eu with her hus- band. She thought the place. the family, | and the entertainments provided for her quite delightful" and brought back to | Windsor a Sevres corffret of great value and the tapestries that are in the Oak room. Marie Amelie wrote from Flu to announce to Victoria Montpensier's mar riage, and received there that letter from her late majesty which Palmerston thought "ticlxler.'
 The Comte de Paris wished to make be- lieve that he only busied himself with high farming and literature at Flu. He spent nearly f100 000 in repairing the chateau, and owned all the fat pasturage and woodland that Rollo the Norman so well appreciated. The grazing for kline and horses was invaluable to a great household, and to a family that often went to stag-hunts. The Comte de Paris library at Flu, which had come down to him from his father and from Louis Phil ippe, contained about thirty thousand vol umes. He wrote there some unreadable books, painfully dragged from his brain
 and the fruit of slow and careful com piation. But his chief work lay in or ganizfng the Royalist party. in forming committees in all the great towns, and in every department and in directing a news agency which he founded. He had
 sweet, gentle manners, put people al
 their ease by his simplicity. showed him. self kind and considerate to humble neighbors. and charitable to the poor
 The republicans ever liked him; but they 1 neither loved nor admired the Comtesst , de Paris, and saw in the Due q Orleans , a budding Rehoboam The Comtesse ha(
 the mannishness of her grandmother Queen Christina, smoked big cigars, wal , A frst-rate shot. and could not be tiret out at a stag-hunt. As housekeeper |, her eye glanced everywhere, Under n' 3 | circumstances was she to be argued with } and she gave her orders in the fewes