In front of the palace is a large, almost triangular, esplanade, narrowing from the palace until it terminates in the road to Paris. A clumsy thing enough, for when building the palace they might as well have laid out a handsome square in front of it. The place looked dull and lifeless, few people, except some Prussian soldiers, being visible. The number of hotels, taverns, &c. &c., announced it as the resort of strangers and idlers. The palace itself, from all its window-shutters being closed, looked as dismal as the rest. Having secured my horse, I sounded the bell at the palace-gate, which brought out the _Suisse_, who sounded another bell, which brought a most gentlemanly, but very melancholy-looking, young man in the royal livery, who, upon being informed of my wish to see the palace, made a very polite bow, and requested me to follow him. It were needless repeating the history he gave of each splendid apartment, and they appeared innumerable. Solitary and silent, an overpowering sensation of melancholy came over me in comparing their present deserted state with that which had for ever passed, and I no longer wondered at the pensive manner of my interesting young companion, though he was too young to have known Versailles in the days of its splendour. I believe, with the exception of ourselves and the _Suisse_, whom we had left at the gate, this immense fabric did not contain another living soul. So long did we continue wandering from room to room, that at last, on returning to the vestibule--no time was left to visit the _Trianon_ as I had intended, or even the gardens--all that I saw of them was from a terrace upon which we were admitted from one of the central _salons_--unless I remained all night. It became necessary to depart forthwith, or find my way in the dark back to Colombes. The great road to Paris is a superb avenue, but it was disfigured by dust, which, spite of yesterday’s rain, I found a real nuisance.