Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/517

 however, who did most for the building. By his orders it was almost entirely reconstructed and the Sainte-Chapelle built.

This beautiful building, happily uninjured to-day, is an admirable specimen of the religious architecture of the thirteenth century—a model of grace, elegance, and at the same time of majesty, which nothing since has surpassed, or even equaled, and which will cause the name and genius of its author, Eudes de Montreuil, to live as long as there exist men, lovers of the beautiful and capable of appreciating it.

Saint Louis had also caused an immense saloon to be constructed for the fêtes which he gave sometimes to his great vassals; here also were accomplished all the solemn acts of his reign. This grandiose-type of the civil architecture of the thirteenth century occupied the site of the more modern Salle des Pas Perdus, which was unhappily entirely destroyed by the conflagration.

Philippe le Bel, Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII made new additions to the Palace, although it was no longer the exclusive and habitual residence of royalty. The monarchs began to prefer the Louvre or the Hotel Saint-Paul, and Francis I was the last monarch who took up his residence here, which he did, however, only temporarily.

From the time of Saint Louis, the Parliament had divided the Palace with the king, and from Henry II they occupied it alone.

Of the ancient Palace of the middle ages and the Renaissance, nothing now remains but the Sainte-Chapelle. a part of the gallery, the kitchens, the Tour de l'Horloge, and the two neighboring towers.

Forty years ago, works were begun after a new plan which were to end in the definitive completion of the Palace, and to realize the ameliorations which had been