3 1 8 Travels in France 



standing troops^ as they may be called, that is the eight thousand 

 regularly paid, and of whom the French guards form a consider- 

 able portion, but he took for the expedition the bourgeoise only; 

 which has elated the latter as much as it has disgusted the 

 former. The moment seems big with events; there is an 

 anxiety, an expectation, an uncertainty, and suspense that is 

 visible in every eye one meets; and even the best informed 

 people, and the least liable to be led away by popular reports, 

 are not a little alarmed at the apprehension of some unknown 

 attempt that may be made to rescue the king and overturn the 

 National Assembly. Many persons are of opinion that it would 

 not be difficult to take the king, queen, and dauphin away 

 without endangering them, for which attempt the Tuileries 

 is particularly well situated, provided a body of troops of suffi- 

 cient force were in readiness to receive them. In such a case 

 there would be a civil war, which, perhaps, would end in 

 despotism whatever party came of? victorious; consequently 

 such an attempt, or plan, could not originate in any bosom 

 from true patriotism. If I have a fair opportunity to pass much 

 of my time in good company at Paris, I have also no small trouble 

 in turning over books, MSS. and papers, which I cannot see in 

 England: this employs many hours a day, with what I borrow 

 from the night, in making notes. I have procured also some 

 public records, the copying of which demands time. He who 

 wishes to give a good account of such a kingdom as France must 

 be indefatigable in the search of materials; for let him collect 

 with all the care possible, yet when he comes to sit down coolly 

 to the examination and arrangement, will find that much has 

 been put into his hands of no real consequence and more, possibly, 

 that is absolutely useless. 



i^ih. To the Palais Royal to view the pictures of the Duke of 

 Orleans, which I had tried once or twice before to do in vain. 

 The collection is known to be very rich in pieces of the Dutch and 

 Flemish masters ; some finished with all the exquisite attention 

 which that school gave to minute expression. But it is a genre 

 little interesting when the works of the great Italian artists are 

 at hand : of these the collection is one of the first in the world. 

 Raphael, Hannibal Carracci, Titian, Dominichino, Correggio, 

 and Paul Veronese. The first picture in the collection, and one 

 of the finest that ever came from the easel, is that of the three 

 Maries and the dead Christ, by H. Carracci; the powers of 

 expression cannot go further. There is the St. John of Raphael, 

 the same picture as those of Florence and Bologna; and an 



