th crying."--30th of November
1862.

[203] Here is another picture of Regiments in the Streets of which the
date is the 30th of January. "It was cold this afternoon, as bright as
Italy, and these Elysian Fields crowded with carriages, riders, and foot
passengers. All the fountains were playing, all the Heavens shining.
Just as I went out at 4 o'clock, several regiments that had passed out
at the Barriere in the morning to exercise in the country, came marching
back, in the straggling French manner, which is far more picturesque and
real than anything you can imagine in that way. Alternately great storms
of drums played, and then the most delicious and skilful bands,
'Trovatore' music, 'Barber of Seville' music, all sorts of music with
well-marked melody and time. All bloused Paris (led by the Inimitable,
and a poor cripple who works himself up and down all day in a big
wheeled car) went at quick march down the avenue, in a sort of hilarious
dance. If the colours with the golden eagle on the top had only been
unfurled, we should have followed them anywhere, in any cause--much as
the children follow Punches in the better cause of Comedy. Napoleon on
the top of the Column seemed up to the whole thing, I thought."

[204] Apropos of this, I may mention that the little shaggy white
terrier who came with him from America, so long a favourite in his
household, had died of old age a few weeks before (5th of Oct. 1855) in
Boulogne.

[205] "We have wet weather here--and dark too for these latitudes--and
oceans of mud. Although numbers of men are perpetually scooping and
sweeping it away in this thoroughfare, it accumulates under the windows
so fast, and in such sludgy masses, that to get across the road is to
get half over one's shoes in the first outset of a walk." . . . "It is
difficult," he added (20th of Jan.) "to picture the change made in this
place by the removal of the paving stones (too ready for barricades),
and macadamization. It suits neither the climate nor the soil. We are
again in a sea of mud. One cannot cross the road of the Champs Elysees
here, without being half over one's boots." A few more days brought a
welcome change. "Three days ago the weather changed here in an hour, and
we have had bright weather and hard frost ever since. All the mud
disappeared with marvellous rapidity, and the sky became Italian. Taking
advantage of such a happy change, I started off yesterday morning (for
exercise and meditation)