"PISTOLETS rOUli LES DAMES." UIJ 



than with, the piano. The other chij I called on a ladv 

 who complained of fatigue. AYliat was the matter? She had 

 only been practising all the morning "«?« hlanc''' with her 

 pistols. Cupid with his arrows^ in France, is transformed 

 into a lady with her pistol-case, and no wonder there is so 

 little love made. A squeeze of the hand may be construed 

 into a deadly insult ; and to be called out " sur le chainp,^^ 

 and be drilled there and then by your fair inamorata, is 

 an unpleasant manner of getting the heart touched. When 

 Pio None, of celebrated memory, fled from Rome in 1848, 

 disguised as a footman, he was accompanied by the Countess 

 Rossi, the wife of a French nobleman there. She is de- 

 scribed as a " maitrcsse de iirp and carried a couple of 

 brace of pistols with her, to defend the holy driver in case 

 of need : but really had I been in his Iloliness's place, 1 

 should have been as much afraid of the dano-er behind me 

 as of anything else. If ladies take to pistols, they may 

 just as well put on the gloves also and practise the art of 

 self-defence. A well-delivered facer, or a clean cross- 

 buttock, or a touch of chancery, would surprise a gentle- 

 man who ventured to look twice at a verjj killing pair of eyes, 

 or by chance trod upon the wrong foot, What with these 

 and other signs of progress, it is certain that the ladies are 

 going a-head fast in France, and our sex have need to look 

 out. The " unprotected female " will soon be a fable, and 

 instead we shall have the " helpless man." 



France is the only country in the world where much 

 attention is paid to hydrophobia. In England we grumble 

 and endure, and take no comprehensive means to di- 

 minish the horrible scourge, and this arises in one 



