principal engineer, to conduct this movement. They are compelled to hide out of the way of the shower of balls coming from the Communists. “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: Hôtel de Ville.] THE HOTEL DE VILLE.—The Hôtel 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 Trône_, 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, Hédouin, and Bellel; in the _Salon des Arcades_, in the _Salon Napoléon_, in the _Galerie des Fêtes_, 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 Hôtel 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 Ferré 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 Première Instance.