French Di2)lomatists in the East. 4^1 



jcctcd to tlie very great inconvenience of the Propellor Auda- 

 cieuse, which had been brought from France, having suddenly- 

 become unseaworthy, so that he had to abandon her. She 

 was making from 100 to 140 tons of water per diem, and 

 there was nothing for it but to have the vessel taken with all 

 speed to the docks at Whampoa for repairs, while the envoy 

 had to return to Europe by another opportunity. More- 

 over, the Baron had been attacked by a disorder of common 

 occurrence in hot countries, namely, a furuncle, which is 

 exceedingly painful, and obstinately resists every remedy. 

 Whoever is of a constitution liable to such attacks is never 

 free from them till he gains a colder climate. In the case of 

 the unfortunate Baron, these went on continually increasing, 

 and on one of his compatriots being asked in society what was 

 tlie cause of the absence of the French ambassador, replied 

 with an arch look, '' le imiivre haron a quatre-vingt clouxP In 

 fact, the annoyance caused by this malady is redoubled by the 

 little sympathy accorded to those afflicted with it, who are 

 only rallied or laughed at. 



Another personage who, at tlie period of our stay in 

 Shanghai, attained a rather unenviable notoriety by his 

 strange conduct, and did but little to raise the recantation of 

 France in these latitudes, was the Marquis de Chassiron. By 

 his marriage with one of the Princesses Murat (since dead), 

 he was allied to the Emperor of the French, whom he occa- 

 sionally spoke of in an off-hand way as '' mon neveu, T 

 Empereur." Meagre, mzcn, spindle-shanked, and ringlettcd, 



