Grass, and even trees, grow in its roofless
halls, in one of which the marble pillars and sculptured decorations are
seen through the gaps where windows once were. The view from the terrace
is most beautiful.
The name of St. Cloud comes from a royal saint, who was buried in the
collegiate church, pulled down by Marie Antoinette (which stood opposite
the modern church), and to whose shrine there is an annual pilgrimage.
Clodomir, King of Orleans, son of Clovis, dying in 524, had bequeathed his
three sons to the guardianship of his mother Clotilde. Their barbarous
uncles, Childebert and Clotaire, coveting their heritage, sent their
mother a sword and a pair of scissors, asking her whether she would prefer
that they should perish by the one, or that their royal locks should be
shorn with the other, and that they should be shut up in a convent.
"I would rather see them dead than shaven," replied Clotilde proudly. Two
of the princes were then murdered by their uncles, the third, Clodowald,
was hidden by some faithful servants, but fright made him cut off his hair
with his own hands, and he entered a monastery at a village then called
Nogent, but which derived from him the name of St.
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