EPISODES OF 1848 AT PARIS AND MADRID. 121 



captain in and wearing the uniform of the National 

 Guard, who was in the grand saloon of the Duchess 

 of Orleans. ... I had with me the King's groom of 

 the chambers, who had brought with him a list of all 

 the articles which had been left behind by the Eoyal 

 Family. M. St. Amand, assuming an air of great dig- 

 nity and authority, observed, u This is a very long 

 list," to which I at once replied, "But when it is a 

 question of giving back what doos not belong to one, 

 there can be no question of much or little.' 7 Where- 

 upon a common man joined in and said, " This gentle- 

 man is quite right." 



The crowd 'closed in, and as I was about to be 

 shown into the rooms where the effects claimed had 

 been collected, a young man in a white blouse, with 

 very delicate hands and features, pushed my elbow 

 and said in a whisper, " Persevere in the same course ; 

 all these people are much better than they have credit 

 for being." He was a M. de* Montaut, a student of 

 the Polytechnic School, who has since entered the 

 corps of pouts et chaussees, and who was the first 

 engineer attached to the Suez Canal, where I en- 

 trusted him with one of the divisions of the works. 

 The people thereupon, without further reference to 

 the captain of the National Guard, conducted me into 

 one of the rooms on the ground floor, facing the Eue 

 de Eivoli, where all the effects belonging to the Eoyal 

 Family had been laid out on tables and ticketed, with 

 as much order as in a curiosity shop. On looking 



