We went out by the Porte de Neuilly.
Anything like the scene of artificial desolation and ruin outside this gate it is impossible to imagine.

The houses are blown up--in some places the bare walls are still standing, in others even these have been thrown down.

The Bois itself, from being the most beautiful park in the world, has become a jungle of underwood.

In the roads there are large barricades formed of the trees which used to line them, which have been cut down.

Between the ramparts and the lake the wood is swept clean away, and the stumps of the trees have been sharpened to a point.