1829. i Ae 7) 
THE FRENCH ANNUALS. 
Tar French Annuals are not, in any respect, to be compared with 
ours, as far as paper, typography, and embellishments are concerned. 
Perhaps they are also inferior in writing ; but that is a question into 
which we do not think it necessary to enter ;—nor is it very material; 
for, we suppose, that the writing of these pretty books is the last thing 
looked to. One of the least ornamented among them, the “ Annales 
Romantiques,” contains occasionally a passable copy of verses, or a read- 
able prose article ; and as, we believe, it is not much seen in this coun- 
“try, we venture on a translation of a couple of its pieces. 
A Scene or 1815, Iv THE Town OF 
* Listen! listen!” cried a little man in black to the crowd which was press- 
ing round a cask placed at the door of the Brown Bear, “ I—a royalist a 
** Yes, yes!” repeated a thousand confused voices, “as great a royalist as 
a Chouan!” 
All the efforts of the little man in black were in vain; he could not make 
himself be heard from the top of his barrel ; his windpipe had got out of order 
from crying at the pitch of his voice ; he had bawled himself hoarse, and from 
his tormented throat no sounds issued but such as resembled those of a muffled 
bell. He was red with rage—his eyes sparkled—and he shook, with a sort of con- 
vulsive motion, a long sheet of stamped paper, which he thrust in the face of 
the spectators who came too near his barrel. Observing in the group a lad 
of fifteen or sixteen years old, he made signs to him to.approach: the youth 
hastened to climb the tribune ; and the little man in black put into his hand 
the sheet of stamped paper, raised on his forehead his rusty iron spectacles, 
pemece the pen which adorned his left ear, and assumed the attitude of a 
ner. 
- The lad understood him, ‘and a deep silence ensued among the multitude. 
** Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, 
Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Confederation ef 
Switzerland——” 
The boy stopped, and turning to the little man in black, “ Monsieur le 
Greffier,” said he, “‘ must I read the et ceteras ?” 
“ Yes, yes!” hastily answered the little man in black, taking the sheet of 
tamped paper out of the boy’s hand— et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!—Well! 
as not that courage? Et cetera, et cetera! People wear the cross of the 
ion of Honour who have not done half so much. ¢ cetera, et cetera! 
Draw up a judgment of the tribunal of commerce in the name of Napoleon, 
with all the et ceteras, when the white flag was still waving over our church, 
on the 10th of March! I would not have wished that you, who laugh so much 
now, had been in my place then. I should have been a fine fellow, with my 
et ceteras, if the three old lancers, who were mustered with so much difficulty 
at beat of drum, had driven off the emperor! Hanged—hanged !” 
So far the harangue of the little man in black had been listened to in silence ; 
‘but the conclusion was received with a general roar of laughter. Even the 
yery boy himself, looking the orator in the face, shared in the general hilarity ; 
jut, as for the little man, he, calm and imperturbable, contented himself in 
welling, with a most serious gravity, upon his et ceteras. 
“ Get off the barrel, then, Mr. Etcetera,” said all at once one of the spec- 
_tators, who, with naked arm, seized the leg of the poor greffier, which he 
shook like the trunk of a tree. The little man in black tumbled a couple of 
paces off from the barrel. 
It was the landlord of the Brown Bear, who, losing patience with listening 
to the greflier, had upset him. Mine host wore a white apron which reached 
to his shoes, and a cotton nightcap, adorned on one side by a brown bear, and, 
on the other, by an enormous white cockade, which, fastened by a pin,, 
moved with every breath of wind. 
_M.M. New Sertes— Vou. VII. No. 38. i 
