Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/509

 The skeleton of the immense palace alone remains. The walls, which are corroded by the flames, irregularly mutilated, with their windows enlarged and disjoined, their doors resembling breaches, and their summits capriciously cut in points, give them the appearance of the battlements of a dismantled fortress; with the statues of the great Parisians, who were the honor of their native city, tottering on their bases, some still standing erect and proud, others already overthrown and turned towards the Palace, as though to contemplate its ruin, all this forms a spectacle of imposing grandeur which moves, saddens, and at the same time captivates and retains the beholder.

The losses to art in this terrible catastrophe were very great. The Renaissance lost the small central edifice, the two marvelous mantel-pieces at the extremities of the Salle du Trône, one from the chisel of Beard, pupil of Michael Angelo, the other by Th. Bodin, and in the Salle du Zodiaque, the decorative sculptures on wood of Jean Goujon.

The epoch of Louis XIV. lost the statue of the great king by Coysevox, which was a chef-d'œuvre, while the present epoch has lost forty-six statues by the ablest sculptors of modern times, which had been placed in niches purposely designed to ornament the principal front of the building. These statues are all either completely destroyed or greatly damaged.

The Hotel de Ville possessed also a fine municipal library, which was situated in the third story of the north-*eastern pavilion, and which contained one hundred thousand volumes, principally historical works. Not a book, not a leaf remains.

On the first story, the walls and ceilings were covered by works from the brushes of the greatest painters of modern times, which, like all the marvels of this beautiful building, were entirely destroyed.