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222. In the Revolution of 1848, a strong barricade was raised here and was bravely defended, and was only forced after the storming of several days. And again in 1871, the Communists strongly barricaded themselves there, and were only dislodged after a long and desperate struggle.

We have now travelled the whole distance from the Place de la Concorde to the Place de la Bastille, by the Rue de Rivoli, (with its continuation Rue St. Antoine,) which is almost a straight line. Let us now travel the same distance again, i. e., from the Place de la Concorde to the Bastille, but not in a straight line but by the line of Boulevards which describes something like a semicircle having the Rue de Rivoli for its cord or base. A preliminary word about the Boulevards is necessary.

The circle of the Inner of Great Boulevards with the beautiful rows of shady trees on either side, with their rich shops, brilliant cafés and spacious foot-paths are perhaps the finest streets in existence and justly excite the envy and admiration of visitors of all nations coming to Paris. But the Boulevards, as their name implies, were at one time not streets but simply a circle of fortifications enclosing the town. It was Francis I., the founder of the Louvre who built this circle of fortifications round the town as it then stood. But the city soon outgrew even this wide circle—and in the reign of Louis XIV., the town had grown so much that the Boulevards no longer served their original purpose as enclosing fortifications. Louis XIV. therefore removed the