THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 19 



It was to this extraordinary demand for coffee that the adul- 

 terations of the berry may be traced ; the adulterers made for- 

 tunes by their combination of chiccory with it, but the well- 

 earned reputation of the French suffered by the admixture. 



At the " Cafe Procope," the earliest of these establishments 

 in Paris, a curious incident, worth mentioning, occurred con- 

 cerning a cup of coffee. As M. Saint Foix was one day seated 

 at his usual table in this cafe, an officer of the king's body-guard 

 entered, sat down, and ordered a cup of coffee, with milk and a 

 roll, adding, " It will serve me for a dinner ! " At this Saint 

 Foix remarked aloud, " that a cup of coffee, with milk and a 

 roll, was a confoundedly poor dinner." The officer remonstrated. 

 Saint Foix reiterated his remark, adding, that nothing he could 

 say to the contrary would convince him that it was not a con- 

 foundedly poor dinner. Thereupon a challenge was given 

 and accepted, and the whole company present adjourned as 

 spectators of a fight, which ended by Saint Foix receiving a 

 wound in the arm. " That is all very well," said the wounded 

 combatant, " but I call you to witness, gentlemen, that I am still 

 profoundly convinced that a cup of coffee, with milk and a roll, 

 is a confoundedly poor dinner ! " At this moment the principals 

 were arrested and carried before the Duke de Noailles, in whose 

 presence St. Foix, without waiting to be questioned, said, " Mon- 

 seigneur, I had not the slightest intention of offending the gal- 

 lant officer, who, I doubt not, is an honorable man, but your 

 Excellency can never prevent my asserting that a cup of coffee, 

 with milk and a roll, is a confoundedly poor dinner." " Why, 

 so it is," said the Duke. " Then I am not in the wrong," per- 

 sisted St. Foix, " and a cup of coffee," at these words magis- 

 trates, delinquents, and auditory burst into a roar of laughter, 

 and the antagonists became forthwith warm friends. The oldest 

 cafe in the Palais Royal is the celebrated " Cafe de Foy," so 

 called from the name of its founder. Carl Yernet was one of 



