The French Poets and Novelists. 527 



sight of the devouring flames unties her tongue and, as an accident 

 originally struck her dumb, so now a similar occurrence restores her 

 long-lost faculty of speech. *' My child my child oh ! save my 

 child !" and the child is saved : but "Soeur Anne" lives not to see it 

 grow, nor to hear the word " Mother" from its lisping tongue she 

 dies in early youth, broken-hearted, and only consoled by the assur- 

 ance of a paternal home for her child. 



Dubourg in "Sreur Anne" is the parallel to Chaudoreille in " Le 

 Barbier de Paris ;" but his character is, if any thing, more amusing ; 

 and the various shifts to which he and a poor tutor are reduced, in 

 order to obtain wherewith to support life, the ridiculous impositions 

 put upon that tutor (Menard) by Dubourg, and the infamous lies he 

 is the author of, added to the dilemmas into which he works himself 

 and his companions by means of his falsehoods these again point out 

 useful lessons, afford good examples, and place the vices of the world 

 forcibly in their proper light. 



" Jean" is exquisitely witty. In few of his works has Paul de 

 Kock displayed so much humour as in this. All the peculiarities of 

 the French, youthful and aged, are brought to view. The first chapter 

 is delicious; M. Durand, a herbalist, is called up in the middle of the 

 night to fetch the doctor and the nurse for his wife, who is about to 

 give birth to a child. M. Durand is not the bravest man in exist- 

 ence; and as he traverses one of the streets of Paris, he sees a drunken 

 wretch reeling about in that glorious state which defies all control. 

 The attenuated imagination of M. Durand instantly converts the 

 drunkard into a thief, so that the poor herbalist takes to his heels, 

 and hurries towards the street where the nurse lives. He forgets the 

 number of the house, and, in his affright, he knocks at the doors of 

 several, crying out " La garde! la garde!" (The nurse ! the nurse!) 

 which also means "The guard! the guard!" He arrives home with- 

 out any accident, and gives his wife, and a neighbour who has kindly 

 dropped in, a fine description of his walk, or rather run. Meantime 

 the labour-pains increase : a loud knocking at the front door seems 

 to promise the assistance of the nurse or the doctor; the door opens, 

 and as Madame Durand gives birth to a son, who should enter the 

 room but a corporal and four soldiers, crying in a terrible voice, 

 " Where are the robbers?" 



The fact was, that the neighbourhood, alarmed by the cries of 

 Durand in the street, and hearing him hallooing after " la garde!" 

 fancied he was summoning military assistance instead of a nurse; and 

 up to the period when the history takes leave of her, the servant 

 continually declared that Monsieur Durand had expressly called in a 

 regiment of soldiers to see his wife brought to bed. 



There are some admirable characters in " Jean." Belle-queue 

 the retired barber, Mistigris the dancing-master, and father Chop- 

 ard, are exquisite. There is also Madame Ledoux, the widow of 

 three husbands, and the mother of fourteen children. In conversa- 

 tion she universally alludes to the sheriffs-officer, the stationer, or 

 the cabinet-maker, her departed lords ; and she is continually mak- 

 ing comparisons between other people's children and her thirteenth, 

 or ninth, or seventh child, she forgets which ; but she declares in 



