Then came another class of establishments which burned brilliantly in the second rank and were, in a way, political rendezvous also--the Cafe de Chartres and the Cafe de Valois. Of all these Palais Royal cafes of the early nineteenth century the most gorgeous and brilliant was the Cafe des Mille Colonnes, though its popularity was seemingly due to the charms of the _maitresse de la maison_, a Madame Romain, whose husband was a dried-up, dwarfed little man of no account whatever. Madame Romain, however, lived well up to her reputation as being "_incontestablement la plus jolie femme de Paris_." By 1824 the fame of the establishment had begun to wane and in 1826 it expired, though the "_Almanach des Gourmands_" of the latter year said that the proprietor was the Very of _limonadiers_, that his ices were superb, his salons magnificent--and his prices exorbitant. Perhaps it was the latter that did it! Another establishment, founded in 1817, was domiciled here, the clients being served by "_odalisques en costume oriental, tres seduisantes_." This is quoted from the advertisements of the day. The cafe was called the Cafe des Circassiennes, and there was a _sultane_, who was the presiding genius of the place. It met with but an indifferent success and soon closed its doors despite its supposedly all-compelling attractions. In the mid-nineteenth century a revolution came over the cafes of Paris. Tobacco had invaded their precincts; previously one smoked only in the _estaminets_. Three cafes of the Palais Royal resisted the innovation, the Cafe de la Galerie d'Orleans, the Cafe de Foy and the Cafe de la Rotonde. To-day, well, to-day things are different. The Theatre du Palais Royal of to-day was the Theatre des Marionettes of the Comte de Beaujolais, which had for contemporaries the Fantoches Italiens, the Ombres Chinoises and the Musee Curtius, perhaps the first of the wax-works shows that in later generations became so popular. The Palais Royal had now become a vast amusement enterprise, with side-shows of all sorts, theatres, concerts, cafes, restaurants, clubs, gambling-houses and what not--all paying rents, and high ones, to the proprietor. In the centre of the garden, where is now the fountain and its basin, was a circus, half underground and half above, and there were innumerable booths and kiosks for the sale of foolish trifles, all paying tribute to the ground landlord. Gaming at the Palais Royal was not wholly confined to the public gambling houses. During the carnival season of 1777 the gambling which went on in the royal apartments became notorious for even that profligate time: in one night the Duc de Chartres lost eight thousand _livres_. Louis XVI, honest man, took all due precautions to reduce this extravagance, but was impotent.