J827.] Travelling Sketches. 243 



and polite demeanour, whom at first you imagine to have become casual 

 spectators from mere lack of better pastime, but whose furtive glances and 

 vagrant attention betray the familiars of the police that complex and 

 Mighty engine of modern structure, which, far more surely than the " ear 

 of Dionysius," conveys to the tympanum of power each echoed sigh and 

 reverberated whisper. It is a chilling thing to feel one's budding confi- 

 dence in a new acquaintance nipped by such frosty suspicions ; yet 

 Heaven forgive me ! the bare idea has, before now, caused me to drop, 

 unscented, the pinch of carotte which has been courteously tendered by 

 some coffee-house companion. In the group before me, I fancied that I 

 could distinguish some of this ungentle brotherhood ; and my averted eye 

 rested with comparative complacency even on a couple of gens-d'armes, 

 who were marching up and down before the door, and whose long swords 

 and voluminous cocked hats never appeared to me less offensive. 



In the mean time, knots of travellers were congregating round the differ- 

 ent vehicles about to depart. In the centre of each little band stood the 

 main point of attraction Monsieur le Conducteur that important per- 

 sonage, whose prototype we look for in vain among the dignitaries of Lad- 

 lane, or the Bull-and-Mouth, and whose very name can only be trans- 

 lated by borrowing one of Mr. Me Adam's titles* " the Colossus of Roads. 1 ' 

 With fur cap, official garb, and the excursive eye of a martinet, he 

 inspects every detail of preparation sees ea'ch passenger stowed seriatim 

 in his special place then takes his position in front gives the word to 

 his jack-booted vice, whose responsive whip cracks assent and away rolls 

 the ponderous machine, with all the rumbling majesty of a three-decker 

 from off the stocks. 



I was roused from these contemplations by a hasty summons to the 

 Bordeaux Diligence, which was now ready to start, and which, in a few 

 minutes, was thundering, like, its predecessors, along the Rue des Vic- 

 toires. It consisted of three distinct corps de loges, capable of holding 

 altogether eighteen passengers ; but in the centre compartment, to which I 

 had articled myself, I found only one travelling companion. A numerous 

 host of friends had attended his departure; and I had observed him 

 exchange the national embrace with nearly a dozen young officers of the 

 Royal Guard. He appeared about five-and-twenty years of age, with 

 dark intelligent eyes, and an agreeable countenance ; but the peculiarly 

 mild expression of which checked the surmise suggested by his demi- 

 military costume that he belonged to the army. There was an evident 

 dejection, too, about him, which ill-assorted w T ith the reckless buoyancy 

 of spirit so characteristic of the young French soldier. 



As we emerged from the narrow streets, and neared the Pont Neuf, a 

 flood of glorious sunshine bathed the long vista of architectural ma^nifir 

 cence which burst on our view. Every cornice, frieze, and pilaster of that 

 dazzling perspective gleamed out in all the distinctness of their sculptured 

 tracery : yet the effect of the whole was as that of a mellowed painting, 

 and the eye slighted every detail to revel in the luxury of that sublime and 

 fugitive emotion which abhors decomposition, and is destroyed by analysis ! 

 My companion leaned eagerly to gaze on the splendid scene, and sighed 

 deeply as his last lingering look was intercepted by the projecting angle of 

 the street into which we were now entering. The seriousness of his manner 

 so unusual in a Frenchman checked any inclination which 1 might 

 have felt to indulge that " spirit of free inquiry" so often adopted in these 



2 12 



