my driver to try the approach by the Rue du I gained little by the change. Finding that every moment added to the long and constantly increasing line, I ordered my carriage to be joined to the queue, as the last alternative. I folded my cloak over my breast, and amused myself with counterfeiting a resignation I was far from enjoying. Three quarters of an hour elapsed, before I reached the hotel. The entrance was brilliantly illuminated; and a large open square, a little to the left, was covered with pyramids of lamps. It was more than an hour since I left my lodgings, less than a mile distant. I loitered a few minutes near the door of the ante-room, to listen to the names of those who entered; but the multitude was so great as to weary my attention. Indeed, the rooms were already crowded, and I concluded that most of the great personages likely to be present, had arrived before me. A series of five elevated and spacious apartments, opening into each other, extended through the whole length of the building. Beyond these, in the rear, a gallery, erected for the occasion, formed a magnificent promenade, capable of holding more than two thousand persons. The whole scene was one of most unusual splendor. The grandeur of the rooms, the richness of the hangings, the profusion of light from so many chandeliers, of the costliest workmanship, in gold and glass of the purest transparency, the indescribable variety and elegance of the female costumes, and the dazzling brilliancy of the military and diplomatic dresses, covered with decorations, formed a picture it is in vain to attempt to describe, Two rooms only were prepared for dancing; the rest were carpeted. Following the crowd, I ascended a couple of steps, which led from the apartment I had first entered to the gallery in the rear, Here I succeeded in obtaining a position that commanded a view of the gallery, of the two dancing rooms, and the ante-room I had just left. Not far from me stood the Turkish ambassador. He was dressed in a rich oriental costume, which not even his dignified and noble figure could redeem from an air of eastern lasciviousness and effeminacy. If I viewed his dress with aversion, I beheld his face with equal astonishment. If ever man's countenance was made in the image of his Maker's, his might be said to have been. Full of serene thought and compassionate humanity, venerable with years, reflection was stamped in its every lineament. He stood apart from others, looking on the scene around him, mute, absent, unconcerned, to all appearance buried in deep meditation. Here, alone, among Christians, he was the solitary representative of a religion which once threatened to extinguish Christianity itself. He stood in the capitol of the European world. The ministers of a great king were in the assembly before him; the generals of his armies mingled in the crowd; all the beauty and fashion of his court were there, buoyant with life and health; and it seemed to me, I could read, in the silent expres sion of his face, the thoughts that passed through his mind. Admiration of the greatness of Christian civilization, and a profound desire to penetrate the mystery of its future history, seemed mingled with the melancholy reflections suggested by the contrast of its ascendant fortune with the decaying greatness of Mohammedan power, and the contemplation of his own fast perishing race. I gazed on the noble countenance of this dignified old man, until, forgetting myself and the scene around me, I fell into a long reverie, suggested by his presence. I thought upon the grandeur and decline of nations, upon the various great religions of the past and present world, upon the weakness of man, his perishable existence and uncertain fate, until I became so deeply interested in the workings of my own fancy, as to turn with regret from one who had given rise to a train of such melancholy yet pleasing thoughts. I passed into the gallery. A military dress of unusual splendor caught my eye. It was the uniform of a general of division, who had served under Bolivar! Here was the new world in the presence of the old. Liberty and America - despotism and the East! What a contrast! Abandoning myself to the crowd, I moved with the current, examining the thousand figures which I passed. A very large force is always stationed in the capital; and as it is the policy of the king to court the favor of the army, by every species of attention, the saloons of the ministers are crowded with officers, dressed in the various uniforms of the different branches of the service. The number present on this occasion was even unusually great. French women, I speak of those one meets in the fashionable assemblies of the capital, it is well known are not generally handsome; but in grace, elegance, and the exquisite taste with which they dress, they excel the whole world. The vast majority are neither handsome nor ugly; the rest are beautiful or hideous. Those who filled the apartments of the Minister of the, formed no exception to this remark. In my whole experience of the sex, I never encountered cases of more extravagant ugliness than were to be found in this brilliant assembly, and they were generally women of the greatest rank and fashion; and I have rarely, if ever, looked upon faces of a higher order of beauty, than were to be seen mingled in the same crowd. Turning toward the dancing rooms, I found these apartments still more crowded than the rest; indeed, it was not until a late hour in the evening, that the company had withdrawn in sufficient numbers to allow the necessary space for the evolutions of the dance. The supper rooms, when thrown open a little after twelve, took off a great number, and many had by this time retired. The Duke de Nemours, second son of the king, was in the quadrille. His hair and complexion are light, and his face perfectly English in features and expression. He wore no sort of ornament on any part of his dress; and no attention shown to him by others, would have ever led a stranger to suspect that so important a person was among the guests of the minister. The Duke of Orleans, the eldest son, and heir to the throne, was also present; and I can mention nothing that will be so likely to give an idea of the total absence of all state upon similar occasions in France, as the fact, that I remained in the same rooms, throughout the whole evening, without being aware of his presence. As my eyes glanced over the various figures of the dancers, one, a girl of some sixteen years, arrested my attention. Never before had I beheld a face of such surpassing loveliness. Her extreme youth would alone have distinguished her from the rest of the assembly. -An expression of girlish, unaffected enjoyment, beaming from a countenance of more than Grecian regularity, betrayed the almost childish delight which the music and the dance inspired. Her figure was radiant with beauty; she seemed an angel descended upon the earth. Enchanted, spell-bound, by a vision of so much loveliness and innocence, I sought a position whence I might gaze unobserved upon her face, and contemplate, like some enthusiastic admirer of the great works of the ancient masters of painting, this chef d'œuvre of nature itself. Two of the five rooms the farthest from the entrance, were occupied by the supper tables. These rooms had been thrown open some time; and as many as could be accommodated, filled the tables; others had succeeded in their turn. Between two and three in the morning, it was found necessary to close these apartments for a while, to give the waiters an opportunity to rearrange the tables, and make further preparations for feeding a multitude, who were in no humor to be contented, without a miracle, with a few loaves and fishes. These arrangements consumed some time. About three, I left the dancing apartments, and joining a friend, proceeded toward the farther end of the gallery, which led to the supper rooms. The most distant of the two was separated from it by a slender balustrade, very tastefully supported by vases, filled with rare and beautiful flowers. The only entrance to these rooms, was between two of the largest of these vases, and was scarcely wide enough to admit two persons abreast. This fragile partition was but little calculated to keep off a horde of impatient fasters, as will be seen in the sequel. We observed a crowd gathering toward the end of the gallery. An object of some interest evidently attracted it. The tide was setting in this direction, and the numbers increased from moment to moment. Passing beyond this entrance, to the extreme end of the gallery, we managed to obtain a position, whence, secure from the pressure, we could watch the movements of the crowd. The preparations for the reception of a fresh company were nearly completed; and from time to time, some poor woman was squeezed through the crowd, and turned into the supper rooms. The vociferation of Place aux dames!' and the various entreaties with which those who occupied positions near the door-way, were importuned to make room for the frail and hungry fair ones, who, instigated by some serpent of a beau, seemed, like other Eves, determined to gratify their appetites, though death itself should be the penalty, produced no little confusion. The crowd, still increasing, became at last so dense, as to render the passage of ladies entirely impracticable. Pressing from every direction toward the entrance, those who were near this point must have suffered extremely. Sullen expostulation and muttered curses, betrayed the agony of their position. It was with great difficulty those in front could keep the crowd from breaking down the barricade of vases which obstructed their entrance to the supper rooms. The numbers and the pressure continued to increase. It was evident that the resistance of those near the entrance could hold out but little longer. They already touched the barrier, which required but a touch to be overthrown. In spite of all their entreaties and resistance, the pressure was becoming every moment more severe. The great vases forming the door-way, and the whole barrier, trembled, tottered, and in an instant, the whole fabric fell, with a startling crash, to the floor! Appalled at their own work, the invaders shrunk instinctively back. The little minister (he is scarcely five feet high,) happened to be at this time in the supper rooms, superintending, with Madame, the arrangement of the tables, and the accommodation of the ladies, who had entered through the crowd. Seizing, with the promptness of a great general, the critical moment, he charged in person and alone, against the invaders, and with violent gestures, and words half entreaty and half reproach, actually forced the column of assailants back, almost to the very wall on the opposite side of the gallery. The ground being thus cleared of the enemy, troops of waiters instantly rëerected the prostrate barrier, replaced the vases, which, being of wood, had escaped unbroken from the fall, and restored, with the skill of veterans, the shattered defences of the besieged; when Madame, the lady of the minister, seizing a chair, planted it in the breach, or passage way; and turning her back upon her guests, guarded, with the assistance of another lady seated near her, the entrance to these favored apartments! This violent, indecorous scene, shows how easy it is for men, even in the most polished and elevated circles, to sink to more than clownish rudeness. A large number of those who formed the very front of this phalanx of Frenchmen, were evidently well bred men; but I must confess, that I remarked, here and there, certain vielles moustaches, whose fierce, hungry looks, and gaunt forms, half persuaded me that they found much more congenial employment in this mimic assault of a supper room, than in any other of the amusements of the evening. At length, Madame withdrew from the breach; and I entered the supper rooms in the rear of the party who had formed around the entrance, after the overthrow of the barriers, and their retreat before the minister. Here every thing was of the greatest elegance and luxury; the rarest and most costly dishes, whatever fancy or extravagance could suggest, abounded; the most expensive wines of Europe were alone served at tables prepared for thousands! For more than five hours, they were spread for a succession of guests, few of whom remained longer than ten minutes in their places. I soon withdrew from a scene which lost its interest after the first coup d'œil. The gallery was now less oppressed with numbers, and the dancers began to move with greater ease in the two apartments allotted to their use. I strolled, with a friend, up and down the long promenade, and observed at more ease the various figures of the guests. Among the first persons whom we met, was our little minister, with a grand daughter of Lafayette on each arm; two blooming girls, with yellow hair, and blonde faces, of much sweetness and intelligence. Returning to the dancing-rooms, my attention was again rivetted by the beautiful girl whose extreme loveliness I have before attempted to describe. I watched her till she withdrew from the quadrille, and in a few minutes after, retired from the rooms. It was nearly six when I left the hotel. My friend accompanied The impure atmosphere of the rooms, and the exhaustion of the evening, had produced a sort of feverish excitement, from which me. I have always found relief in the cooling effects of the open air. We determined to walk to our lodgings. The court-yard and street were still crowded with carriages. Making our way, as we best could, over the wet and slippery pavement, we entered the place on the left. The illuminated pyramids, with their partly-extinguished lamps, threw a glare of irregular light over this deserted square. A few minutes brought us to the bridge in front of the Palais Bourbon. The Place de la Revolution lay directly in our way. In Paris, every inch of ground is full of history. We crossed the very spot on which Louis XVI., the Duke of Orleans, Barnaave, the Girondists, the great personages of the revolution, had perished under the axe of the guillotine. The bloody and fantastic scenes of that wonderful drama, the great men of that great and memorable period, filled our imaginations. Our conversation turned from the splendid fête we had just left, to speculate on the future history of a people who had done and suffered so much in the cause of liberty. To our right, beyond those stately elms, and in a palace where the people had placed the red bonnet of Jacobinism on the royal brow of a son of Saint Louis, slept a king, no heir to the sceptre which he held, who, raised to the throne by the arms of the multitude, now oppresses them with a cunning despotism, worse than that hereditary slavery which the fury of the first revolution, in its passage, swept from the earth. The king recalled his minister back to our thoughts. The former, from the dukedom of Orleans, had reached the throne; the last, from an employé on a republican journal, earning a scanty subsistence by the hire of his pen, was in a few months to become one of the great ministers of an almost absolute prince, and distributed his invitations to balls that cost fifty thousand francs! The step was not so great from the Palais Royale to the Palace of the Tuilleries, as from the bureau of the newspaper, to the hotel of the Minister of the WHAT is the greatest good? a mind which can Who's virtuously chaste? She of whose fame |