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 purpose. We enquired about the green uniforms of the garden officials, and he emphatically denied their existence. He said that "green was one of the colours of the royal liveries," and when we answered that three years before persons in long green coats had directed us in the grounds, he spoke of it as "impossible, unless (he added) they were masqueraders." One of the gardiens of the Palace also told us that "green was a royal livery and that now only the President had the right to use it on certain occasions."

We asked how long the gardens had been thrown open to the public and people allowed to wander everywhere, and were told that "it had been so for years," and this evidently implied a great many years.

The result of this visit was to make us take a graver view of the two first visits, and we resolved to look into the matter as carefully as we could, and to be entirely silent about the change of scenery until we had explained it somewhat to ourselves. After some years, and in spite of various false leads, we have been able to put together some very interesting facts. The