a number of
hackney coachmen; indeed, scarcely a day passed without outrages being
committed by the Russian and Prussian soldiers on the helpless
population of the lower orders.

THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN PARIS

England was represented at this period by Sir Charles Stuart, who was
one of the most popular ambassadors Great Britain ever sent to Paris.
He made himself acceptable to his countrymen, and paid as much
attention to individual interests as to the more weighty duties of
State. His attaches, as is always the case, took their tone and manner
from their chief, and were not only civil and agreeable to all those
who went to the Embassy, but knew everything and everybody, and were of
great use to the ambassador, keeping him well supplied with information
on whatever event might be taking place. The British Embassy, in those
days, was a centre where you were sure to find all the English
gentlemen in Paris collected, from time to time. Dinners, balls, and
receptions, were given with profusion throughout the season: in fact,
Sir Charles spent the whole of his private income in these noble
hospitalities. England was then represented, as it always should be in
France, by an ambassador who worthily expressed the intelligence, the
amiability, and the wealth, of the great country to which he belonged.
At the present day, the British Embassy emulates the solitude of a
monastic establishment; with the exception, however, of that
hospitality and courtesy which the traveller and stranger were wont to
experience, even in monasteries.

ESCAPE OF LAVALETTE FROM PRISON

Few circumstances created a greater sensation than the escape of
Lavalette from the Conciergerie, after he had been destined by the
French Government to give employment to the guillotine. The means by
which the prisoner avoided his fate and disappointed his enemies,
produced a deep respect for the English character, and led the French
to believe that, however much the Governments of France and England
might be disposed to foster feelings either of friendship or of enmity,
individuals could entertain the deepest sense of regard for each other,
and that a chivalrous feeling of honour would urge them on to the
exercise of the noblest feelings of our nature. This incident likewise
had a salutary influence in preventing acts of cruelty and of
bloodshed, which were doubtless contemplated by those in power.

Lavalette had been, under the Imperial Governm