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Anxious to see as much as possible of Paris in the limited time I had to
stay in it, I hired a cab yesterday morning and commenced with the Hotel
des Invalids, a magnificent building, within a few minutes' walk of the
National Assembly. On each side of the entrance gate are figures
representing nations conquered by Louis XIV., with colossal statues of
Mars and Minerva. The dome on the edifice is the loftiest in Paris--the
height from the ground being 323 feet.

Immediately below the dome is the tomb of the man at whose word the
world turned pale. A statue of the Emperor Napoleon stands in the second
piazza, and is of the finest bronze.

This building is the home of the pensioned soldiers of France. It was
enough to make one sick at the idea of war, to look upon the mangled
bodies of these old soldiers. Men with arms and no legs; others had legs
but no arms; some with canes and crutches, and some wheeling themselves
about in little hand carts. About three thousand of the decayed soldiers
were lodged in the Hotel des Invalids, at the time of my visit. Passing
the National Assembly on my return, I spent a moment or two in it. The
interior of this building resembles an amphitheatre. It is constructed
to accommodate 900 members, each having a separate desk. The seat upon
which the Duchesse of Orleans, and her son, the Comte de Paris, sat,
when they visited the National Assembly after the flight of Louis
Philippe, was shown with considerable alacrity. As I left the building,
I heard that the President of the Republic was on the point of leaving
the Elysee for St. Cloud, and with the hope of seeing the "Prisoner of
Ham," I directed my cabman to drive me to the Elysee.