“At ten o’clock the companies from the quarter of the Banque, the 12th battalion of National Guards, arrive.  The Federals are put to flight.  Thereupon thirty sapeurs-pompiers of Paris came at full speed and succeed in mastering the remaining fire.  An hour sooner and all could have been saved.”

[Illustration:  Hotel de Ville.]

THE HOTEL DE VILLE.—­The Hotel de Ville was set on fire by order of the Committee of Public Safety at the moment when the entry of the troops caused them to fly to the Ecole des Chartes, which was thus saved, and whence they fled to the Mairie of Belleville.  Five battalions of National Guards—­the 57th, 156th, 178th, 184th, and the 187th—­remained to prevent any attempt being made to extinguish the fire.  Petroleum had been poured about the Salle du Trone, and the Salle du Zodiaque, which were decorated by Jean Goujon and Cogniet; in the Galerie de Pierre, in which were paintings by Lecomte, Baudin, Desgoffes, Hedouin, and Bellel; in the Salon des Arcades, in the Salon Napoleon, in the Galerie des Fetes, and in the Salon de la Paix, which contained works of Schopin, Picot, Vanchelet, Jadin, Girard, Ingres, Delacroix, Landelle, Riesener, Lehmann, Gosse, Benouville and Cabanel.  It is not only as a fine specimen of architecture that the Hotel de Ville is to be regretted, but as the cradle of the municipal and revolutionary history of Paris, as well as for the vast collection of archives of the city, duplicates of which were at the same moment a prey to the flames at the Palais de Justice.

[Illustration:  FOREIGN OFFICE.]

THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE was set fire to by the Communal delegate Ferre and a band of drunken National Guards.

THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, thanks to the prompt arrival of the soldiers, has been partially spared.  The damage done, however, is very great.  In the SALLE DES PAS-PERDUS several of the grand arches that support the roof have fallen in, and many of the columns are lying in ruins on the pavement.  The Cour de Cassation and the Cour d’Assises are entirely destroyed.  The conflagration was stopped, when it reached the Cour d’Appel and the Tribunal de Premiere Instance.

PALACE OF THE QUAI D’ORSAY.—­This vast building, in which the Conseil d’Etat and the Cour des Comptes held their sittings, has suffered seriously, though the walls are not destroyed; but what is irreparable is the loss of the many precious documents belonging to the financial and legislative history of France.  The most famous artists of our time have contributed to the decoration of the interior.  Jeanron painted the twelve allegorical subjects for the vaulted ceiling of the Salle des Pas-Perdus; Isabey, the Port of Marseilles in the Committee-room.  The Death of President de Renty, in the Salle du Contentieux, was by Paul Delaroche; the fine portrait of Napoleon I., as legislator, in the great Council Chamber, by Flandrin; and in another apartment the portrait of Justinien by Delacroix.  These, and many other treasures, are lost; for the work of destruction was complete.