After several guns were fired, as a signal, the exhibition commenced, with the discharge of a large number of _honorary rockets_, fired three and three at a time. Nearly five hundred _lances_, and _saucissons_ garnished, lighted the four sides of the body of the works. Thirty cases of artificial fire, furnished with _fusées_, and double _marquises_, were placed upon the large terrace, with 1200 _pots à feu_ (fire-pots); and upon the ballustrade of the same terrace, forty _jets_, twenty of which were _aigrettes_, and eight, revolving suns, four in the middle, and four on the angles. Four large fixed suns were placed above the four which revolved, and four _pattes d'oies_, (_geese feet_,) were situated before the grand pedestal of the pyramid, with _jets_, and _pots_ with _aigrette_. At the foot of the pyramid, on the steps, were placed 1200 _fire-pots_, and upon the pedestal of the pyramid, twelve large pots of _aigrette_, on the extremity of which, were arranged _aigrettes_ in groups, and three large luminous stars, formed of two hundred fire lances. The four faces of the pyramid were lined with about fifty other _jets_; after which there were cascades, or fountains of fire. The first horizontal wheel was composed of, or furnished with, six cases, and contained also two hundred and forty double _marquises_. The second wheel contained two hundred and forty _fire-pots_, and six cases, with upwards of three hundred _fusées_, all in stars, twelve air balloons in the middle, but placed at the bottom of the fire-work. To this was added, twelve artificial bombs, fixed in mortars, and placed near the cannon, which pointed to the works. This outline of the brilliant exhibition of fire-works in 1739, will give the reader some idea of the taste and magnificence of the work at that period. We may here add, however, that the improvements, which have since taken place, both in the composition of artificial fire, and its arrangement, are such as to place the modern exhibitions of this kind far above that we have just spoken of. But the following account of the execution of fire-works, performed on the _Pont Neuf_, in August of the same year, is more extensive, as the exhibition appears to have been more grand. The theatre, which represented the temple of Hymen, was an edifice of the doric order. It was square. A gallery of five hundred feet in length was supported by thirty-two columns, four feet in diameter, and thirty-three feet in height. In the interior, were two solid bodies, and also one or more stair cases. At the two sides of this temple, along the parapets of the _Pont Neuf_, were thirty-six pyramids, eighteen of which were forty feet high, and the others, twenty-six feet. They were joined by what is called, in architecture, a _corbil_, and carried vases on their summits.