the melée of demonstrative Frenchmen, making himself agreeable to a pretty little grisette from the Rue Maximèle, no doubt, who was laughing and saying "brara!" with an appropriate motion of the hands, at something M. Alphonse had whispered just as I approached. This young lady, who was on the way, as we were, to enjoy the fête, was one of the half butterfly half bee little creatures with which the garrets of Paris and especially of the Rue Maximèle abound; who work cheerily all the week and on the seventh day emerge from their chrysalis the lightest hearted and most fun-loving of the sex, to keep the commandment to the extent of their instruction, perhaps, by abstaining from any thing like labor. All grisettes who go to fêtes on Sundays, are not pretty, however, despite all that French art can do for them; and to be tied for the day-a fete day-to one of the "très ordinaires," those dreadful little girls with swarthy complexions, noses excessively retroussé, and a penchant for beaux the more violent as it is less often indulged -would have been at variance with my usual policy. Therefore I stood aloof until time sufficient to take a mental observation; complexion good; a red spot, evidently not rouge, in either cheek (the smoke from the chimney tops of Rue Maximèle has not had time to do its work yet); hair looking soft and pretty under that miracle of a cap; nose, the slightest in the world retroussé; mouth, bon; eyes -Ah, here she is, looking full at me.

"Introduce me," said I, touching my friend on the elbow.

“Ma'mselle," said Alphonse, "allow me to present for your delight and admiration, my amiable countryman, the heir apparent of New-York.

"Monsieur makes fun of me," Mademoiselle said doubtingly; in French of

course.

"I make fun of you! not at all," our friend rejoined. "The papa of Monsieur is immensely wealthy; owns the greater part of North America, in fact. He also votes annually for his candidate in council, which invests him with the dignity and emoluments (supposing him capable, which I hope not, of selling his vote) of an American sovereign: and Monsieur here, is in consequence, to be regarded as a Royal Highness."

Monseigneur travels incog.," Mademoiselle said.

"Certainly. His habits are such as to bring him into disgrace with the American sovereign before named, who cuts him off with a million of francs a month;

for which reason, as you see, he goes in rags," M. Alphonse replied, turning me round by the shoulder to direct attention to a rent in my coat sleeve, caused by his too energetic greeting half an hour earlier. "But you have not confided Ma'mselle's name yet," I ventured to put in.

"Oh, Mademoiselle is a princess also, and travels incog.; the one it at present pleases her to assume is Fanfan-Ma'mselle Fanfan."

"Fanfan-yes, yes, that is my name," Mademoiselle assented, laughing and clapping her hands.

"Mademoiselle's estate lies in the celebrated regions of the Rue Maximèle ?" I asked.

"Ah bête!" Mademoiselle answered, pretending to be moved to tears by my brusquerie. And M. Alphonse exclaimed melodramatically, "Bah! what is that to thee? Dost conceive a princess born would receive such as thou art, chez elle! Go to! and spoil not the flavor of the present moment by too close examination of a single hair, as our young friend Smythe did."

"A pretty metaphor," said I, "but what did Smythe do?”

"He supped off a ragout in a café, Rue Lapinsverts. Have you ever supped off stewed rabbit, Ma'mselle?"

"Mais, oui," said Ma'mselle.

"Well, he found in his ragout a single hair, which made him sick."

"A hair make him sick!-oh you Americans!" cried Mademoiselle, laughing.

"I mistake. It was not the hair, it was the color of it."

"The color of it!" said we both. "Oh!"

Yes, it was-in short it was-that is to say, the color of it was tortoiseshell." "Fi donc !" the grisette exclaimed reproachfully, and she put her head out of the window to hide her desire to laugh.

I flatter myself this little conversation will present Mademoiselle to the eye of the reader, better than as many formal words would; small in stature, rather pretty than otherwise, vivacious, and, as nine-tenths of her country women are, quite a fair impromptu actress. But it occurred to me that with all these recommendations, Mademoiselle Fanfan might be a little in the way pending our affair with the police; and hinted as much aside to my fellow conspirator, when we landed at Versailles. But M. Alphonse only said, “Poh, poh! wait and see!" with so confident an air that I began to believe the meeting with Mademoiselle not so

accidental as it might have been; and bestowed the charms of my conversation on Miss Fanfan's right hand, as her older cavalier did on her left, without caring to argue the matter further.

First, we promenaded through the picture galleries in the palace, then rambled about the grounds and ate ices in company; it was while doing the latter that M. Alphonse made first allusion to the business of the evening, by directing attention to a covered van painted black, passing at no great distance.

"Yes, I see it," said I in a whisper, "with the gendarmes for convoy. By Jove! it contains our rockets-had we not best follow it?"

"Do you know where it is going?" Alphonse ask. d.

To th Cour d'Honneur, I suppose." Precisely. A better plan than to follow it, like those gamins yonder, will be to follow this by-path to the Avenue d'Sceaux, and the avenue into the Place d'Armes, where there is enough room to walk about out of hearing of eavesdroppers, and in full view of the field of battle."

"Spoken like a general-in-chief," answered I, "come, Ma'mselle."

Mademoiselle was all alert. With the glimpse of the powder wagon, she had risen to go; and we were all three presently facing the railed space behind or in front of the palace, if you like, which every one who has been to Versailles will remember as the Cour d'Honneur. In the midst of this court the usual scaffolding had been erected, and an enormous quantity of fireworks of all descriptions lay perdu on the pavement in the midst, surrounded by a group of gensd'armes and workmen busily engaged in tumbling down upon the already overgrown heap, the contents of the van we had seen a little before. In addition to this body guard, twelve to fifteen policemen and gensd'armes paced the outer circuit of the court, and overawed the gamins, who would have liked nothing better than scrambling up the rails and roosting on their tops. Alphonse regarded these preparations with sedate satisfaction, as subordinate and introductory to his grand entertainment; the grisette was delighted, as grisettes always are with a promise of glitter and noise; and for myself, in view of the possibility of my countryman's scheme proving successful, I began to look about for a safe place commanding a good

view of the field.

"If," said I, with the strong emphasis betokening want of faith. "if you contrive

to fire that mountain of combustibles, what is to prevent your immediate detection? or, to begin at the beginning, how are you to fire them at all, under surveillance such as we see yonder? It was very well to talk over in our garret, but here the thing is impossible."

"Bah!" M. Alphonse made answer with a shrug of disgust, "'if' and 'impossible!' Why the whole thing lies in a nutshell."

"As how?"

66

Thus;-but first, how many of the enemy do you count on duty yonder?" "Twenty-five in all, perhaps."

"Good-independent of the crowd who will presently gather about the railing; and with whom no one can tell how many of the detectives in plain clothes or blouses may be mixed. In short, the chances are desperate-this is the sum of what you think?"

I nodded; Mademoiselle Fanfan clasped her hands in stage despair.

"But what if instead of leaving them to exercise the functions of so many score of separate eyes, I find means to convert them into one great optic-a multitudinous Cyclops, to be brief, with its sole power of observation directed NOT on myself?"

"Bon!" cried I, beginning to be excited; Mademoiselle made an ecstatic gesture of joint approval and impatience.

M. Alphonse looked benignly upon us. "See here," he proceeded to say, withdrawing cautiously the hand with which he had been fumbling in the depths of his breast-pocket, and disclosing a packet the size of a cigar case, enveloped in black silk and with a black cord attached. "This flask contains a half pound of powder more or less, and, no doubt, will sufficiently assimilate in color to the ground after nightfall to escape easy detection. You may also observe that it is pierced on either side by a minute orifice now stopped by a pellet of paper, which I remove thus, and supply with my forefinger and thumb to prevent leakage for the present. It follows that, if seizing an instant during which the eyes of the entire public are skilfully drawn upon one person, NOT myself, I, an humble and unnoticed individual, succeed in shying my flask upon the margin of the combustibles in the midst, the action will both escape observation at the time, and remove the only difficulty in the way of establishing a train between said combustibles and the parapet; leaning my elbow upon which last, some moments later, it appears to me not impossible that the ashes or end

of my cigar may fall from my fingers within the rails and produce a catastrophe likely to astonish our common enemy, without the least suspicion as to the means employed. Of course it is part of the rôle to suppress all tangible proof, by pocketing my flask in the first of the melée. I have only farther to remark that by repeated experiments on the floor of my apartment, I find the contents of this flask drawn slowly towards me by its cord, and gradually discharging through whichever orifice may be beneath, amply sufficient to lay a train of twice the length here required. Is this explanation satisfactory?" "Brava!" we both cried in a breath, "brava!!"

"But," said I, reflecting, "you have emitted to mention what I cannot help regarding, next after laying of the train, the chief obstacle to success. I mean the manner of inducing that total and absolute distraction of observation from the affair in hand-without which of course the endeavor must go for nothing."

M. Alphonse did not immediately reply; he rubbed the side of his prominent nose, looking at me all the while (as also did Mademoiselle), either immoderately perplexed or amused. Once I imagined he was on the point of going off into one of his outlandish fits of inward laughter, but he straightened himself up, and apparently checked the inclination. When he did reply, it was in the form of a question, and at first sight not much to the purpose.

"Let me see from the 'best practicable point of view,' were the words of our agreement, I believe?"

"Certainly; as a spectator interested in the success of the plot, I would prefer to place myself in a commanding position before the melée begins. Perhaps Mademoiselle Fanfan will accompany me?"

"What do you say to perching yourself up there?" my friend asked, with his eye on the top of the railing of the Cour d'Honneur.

"Are you mad!" cried I, amazed.

But Alphonse only shook his head, with his eye still directed to the top of the rails, as if he despaired of finding one more desirable.

"In the first place," I continued, uncertain whether to laugh or be angry, for his long visage expressed absolutely nothing, "if I make the attempt, I shall certainly be pounced upon by the police, and lose the opportunity of becoming a spectator from any where. On the other hand, if I make good my position, there are ten chances to one that I am brought

down at the first fire by a volley of rockets, if not actually riddled by their sticks; and lastly, I begin to entertain conscientious scruples in regard to the result of this fête of yours, which may end in maiming, or killing even, some of the spectators."

"Bah!" rejoined Alphonse, coolly, "if you had studied pyrotechnics, you would have perceived that all fireworks are tied in bundles, and in that condition counterIact the individual tendencies of each. Secondly, that the first rebound will throw every fire rocket above the parapet, clear of the people's heads; and thirdly, if a half dozen or so are deflected from their proper course by collision with the palace walls, the gamins will manage to run them down. Moreover you are at liberty to post yourself directly opposite the point whence my train will start, and so avert all suspicion from yourself at the time; and to get down as early as you see fit, after it is laid."

"To be short," said I, thoroughly vexed by his persistence, "I will not get up at all."

"Then," said Alphonse lugubriously, "who is to yell?"

"Yell!" I echoed.

Ah, yell!" Alphonse and the grisette sang in concert, like a chorus at the opera. "Yell indeed!" repeated I in a fury, suddenly enlightened.

This, then, was to be my rôle. Par example, when Monsieur Alphonse thought fit, I was to make a rush at the bars, clamber to the top, rather like a chimpanzee than a Christian, and create a sensation, partly by a free use of my lungs, partly by resistance to the tugs upon my legs, by a concentrated force of gensd'armes. If one or all my limbs were dislocated in the struggle, or if I were carried off instantly to a madhouse, as I would richly deserve, how much would that slabsided Yankee, ducking and swinging about there, concern himself? "No doubt, he would laugh at my simplicity, as he is doing now," I considered, glancing indignantly at my friend, who, with his body bent at a right angle, was giving convulsive signs of inward mirth.

While drawing these conclusions, I had been pacing back and forth in a highly dignified manner, with my hands thrust under my coat-tails, and my chin haughtily elevated. I was consequently not at all prepared for what ensued-namely, that when Mademoiselle Fanfan suddenly presented herself upon one knee, in my path, in the touchingly beseeching atti tude of La petite Absinthe in the vaude

ville of La fille reconnue, we both came to the ground together. I am afraid I began to say something wicked between my teeth, while picking myself up; but looking at Ma'mselle, a great revulsion took place in my nature; for my bachelor's heart has a soft place in it, which is this -if a woman shed tears before me, I am a mere puppet in her hands from that

moment.

"Oh!" whimpered Mademoiselle, with her handkerchief to her forehead, "you dreadful, cruel, cruel man!"

"I cruel!" returned I, dreadfully pale, I have no doubt. "Why, I would not have hurt you for the world—not for all Paris!"

"Then why don't you ye-e-ell, and make me happy again?" said Mademoiselle, between laughing and crying, holding up her left hand beseechingly.

I was so overjoyed to see her laughing, when, for any thing I knew, she might fall down any moment in a faint, by reason of the wound my clumsiness had inflicted, that my resolutions were gone in a moment. I took the little hand in both of mine, to the great amusement of Alphonse, and got a tender squeeze in return, for every promise I made. "I will even dance a wardance, if it will make you feel better," I added, in the abundance of my gratitude.

"Will you climb the rails ?" murmured Mademoiselle Fanfan.

"And over! if you will feel better." “And ye-e-ll?” which was Mademoiselle's mode of pronunciation.

"Like a Pottawattami-if you will only ""

Indeed, Mademoiselle was already better. She bade me tie her handkerchief behind her ear, which I did with rather bungling fingers, and was not sorry to be told it was not tight enough, and to do it all over again. Then we arranged the remaining preliminaries, and took our places. Mine was opposite that chosen by Alphonse, with my back to the palace, some ten yards removed from the rails on that side of the Cour; Alphonse under cover of the parapet, dividing the latter from the Place d'Armes, awaited the proper moment to throw his pouch and withdraw it by the cord attached; Ma'mselle hovered in the vicinity of the latter, ready to convey his bidding. Had I been left to review the scene recorded above, and ponder on what I was about to do, perhaps I might have again thrown up my rôle; but the chief conspirator was too acute for that. Little Fanfan came to me before I had been three minutes at my post, to tell me I might open the perform

ance as soon as I thought fit; "and ye-e-ll," were her last words, spoken on tiptoe into my ear, with a squeeze of the hand, which I returned with interest. It was by this time late twilight, and not only was the space between the Cour d'Honneur and the palace itself thronged with bourgeoise, blouses, gamins, and the like; but the Place d'Armes also swarmed with spectators of all grades. Within the Cour three or four gensd'armes only remained; the requisite scaffolding had been erected, and the regular bill of fare might be served up at any moment. No time was to be lost; and pulling my cap well over my eyes, and parting the astonished crowd before me with both hands, I made for my elevated perch without more ado.

Now, it had happened to me, early in my life, to be the familiar associate of a certain Seminole warrior, who had left his ferocity behind him, it seemed, in the hammock, and beguiled the hours of captivity by teaching us youngsters the mysteries of bow-and-arrow manufacture and exercise, and the manly accomplishment of the war-whoop in all its savage atrocity of sound. I became, for one, a great proficient in the latter art, as our immediate household, to say nothing of the neighbors, had good cause to know. I now endeavored to recall this dormant proficiency, and assume to myself, for the time being, the character of an American savage in his native wilds. In three bounds I had cleared the intervening space, upset all opposition, and overtopped the crowd.

"WHOOP!" I uttered, at the highest pitch of my lungs: "Wah! Wah! Wh-o-o-p! Wh-0-0-0-p-p!'' In short, my blood was up, and being in for it, I determined to excel.

The confusion that ensued fully equalled our hopes. Assuredly, there was not an eye, of the many thousand pairs congregated in the Place d'Armes, nor an ear to the remotest bound of the great avenues of Paris, St. Cloud, and the Sceaux, which failed to take in the sound, and to transfer its utmost of attention to my humble self. Some laughed, some (of the gentle sex) screamed, and some were frightened, no doubt-some were angry; and, to crown all, the style of the thing seemed to take wonderfully with the gamins at large, who reproduced the war-whoop with indifferent success from all quarters of the Place. Moreover, from every direction, gensd'armes and emissaries of the police, were rushing to pounce upon the conspicuous author of