Chapter IX.

Versailles.

On my voyage across the Atlantic, I had formed the friendship of a young clergyman, (Rev. O.), of New York, who wished to make a summer vacation tour through western Europe, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.  On comparing programmes, we noticed that he would likely come to Paris during the time that I had alotted to that city.  We therefore agreed that each should drop a letter to the other, immediately after reaching Paris, so that he who should happen to come last might at once know where to find the other.  One evening, when I came home, the card of Rev. O., my American friend, was handed to me by the landlord, who informed me by his gestures that he had been there to call on me.  The card was backed by a note asking me to meet him at No.—­, Rue--------.  Though that street is perhaps not more than an eighth of a mile long, I soon found it upon my map of Paris, which was a very excellent one, as the maps of all large foreign cities generally are and must be, in order that persons who cannot speak the languages of those cities, may still be able to find any places without asking any one where they are or which way to go.  The map of Paris, for example, is divided into numerous squares by arbitrary lines.  Those which run vertically down the map are lettered, and those which cross it horizontally are numbered.  At the side of the map is a table of all the streets, with references to the squares on the map, designating between what lines they are found, or which they intersect.  By the aid of such a map, I started out the next morning to meet my friend, whose quarters were in a distant part of the city, about three miles away.  I found him without difficulty.  He was accompanied by two gentlemen from London that had come with him to see Paris and its environs.  It is both novel and pleasant for two such lonely pilgrims as my New York friend and I were when we left home, to meet each other again in a foreign city, and introduce to each other the friends which one picked up by the way.  We soon agreed to go all together to Versailles, the French Capital, that day.  This was Tuesday, July 27th.  At 10:40 a.m., we crossed the fortifications of Paris, and soon came into view of Bois de Boulogne, the great park of Paris.  Five minutes later we crossed the Seine at St. Cloud, a small town, where we stopped to see the ruins occasioned by the siege of Paris in 1870.  We had considerable trouble, however, in identifying the strongholds and redoubts held by the Prussians in that memorable siege, as nobody seemed to understand any of our French!  On one occasion, Rev. O., while asking a lady for a certain place, called on Mr. K——­, one of the Londoners, to come and see whether he could make this woman understand any of his French!  It was altogether a day of odd adventures and fun.  After enjoying the lovely prospects an hour, we walked