138 The French Annuals. ‘Fes. 
“¢ Old wretch of a greffier!” he cried ; “ rascally dauber of stamped paper ! 
you shall have none of it. It is I, the landlord of the Brown Bear, who 
assures you of that. Every body shall have some, except you.” 
« Bravo! bravo, Master Laurent!” cried the multitude. 
“And I, Mr. Laurent,” said an old woman, who endeavoured to raise her 
‘withered hand and shrivelled fingers above the heads of the crowd ; “ and I 
—sha’n’t I get any?” 
* You! you, indeed !—the fruit-woman of the square !—you,-too, want it ? 
I suppose it is for having put between two flower-pots the busts of Louis 
XVIII.—the Count de Lille, I mean, as the emperor calls him ?” 
“ You lie!” said the old lady ; “ look from your barrel, and see the busts 
of the emperor; and of his dear son, the king of Rome ; and of his chaste 
spouse, Maria Louisa! Don’t you see this pretty cradle? I have bought all 
the bushes of the neighbouring forest to make it.” 
*« And I—won’t you give me some, honest landlord of the Brown Bear?” 
“Oh! as for you, it is another affair; you at least have done something. 
Was it not you who tore down the white flag?” 
“ Yes, and all the flags which have been for thirty years planted on our 
steeple. The birds of the cathedral know me ; I have frightened them twenty 
times.” 
“ You shall have two ;—are you satisfied ?” 
« And me; I want some to complete my collection of national curiosities. 
T have already Marshal Saxe’s pipe, one of the glasses of a pair of spectacles 
that belonged to Robespierre, Coligny’s toothpick, and a rag of the king of 
Rome’s frock.” . 
“Tl not forget you, Mr. Antiquary ; but it is on condition that you will 
not sell them to every Englishman who passes this way, as you did with the 
nail on which the First Consul used to hang his hat ; you remember, faith ! 
in this same hall, when he returned from Lyons?” 
“ I, too—should not I get as much, for having broken the windows of the 
Procureur du Roi ?” 
“ And I, for having given a black eye to a royalist?” 
Every one began to recapitulate his titles, vaunt his exploits, and extol his 
prowess. The only question was, who should arrive the soonest at the barrel, 
rom the top of which the landlord was distributing some grains of a whitish 
powder. 
Don’t be pushing—don’t be pushing!” cried the landlord ; “every body 
shall have some.” 
‘These words, however, only irritated the impatience of the more distant 
groups, who, not being able to get any thing, drove so furiously against the 
foremost line of the spectators as to upset them. Mine host struggled like a 
sailor in the midst of a tempest ; but the waves had reached his frail bark, and 
broke it into a thousand pieces. , 
At this moment, the guard, drawn to the spot by the tumult, arrived, pre- 
ceded by the greffier, and lost no timein driving aside the spectators by blows 
with the butt-ends of their muskets, going straight to the innkeeper, seizing 
him in the name of the emperor and king, and carrying him before the 
mayor. 
The crowd was so great, that it was impossible to prevent them from push- 
ing into the hall of justice. The innkeeper did not give the mayor time to 
ask him any questions. : 
“ Monsieur le Maire,” said he, “ you shall soon see if I was wrong 
“He was very wrong, Monsieur le Maire,” interrupted the greffier ; “ he 
called me a Chouan.” 
“ Silence, Mr. Greffier!” said the mayor ; “ silence ! you shall speak in — 
your turn.” 
“ You know, M. le Maire,” continued the innkeeper, “ that the little cor- 
poral,* passing through our town, lodged in the hotel of your humble 
servant.” 
“ Le petit caporal—the pet nickname in the French army for Buonaparte. 
a aoe a ts 
