e
knowledge of such an act of liberality to the spot where it was so
handsomely manifested. The sessions of the legislative assembly had
closed the day before my arrival, a circumstance I much regretted, as
through his means I should have been enabled to have attended their
sittings. The bankers of France are immensely rich, and almost command
the treasury of the nation. Mons. P----, with the well-timed, silent
submission of the flexible reed, in the fable, has survived the
revolutionary storm, which by a good, but guiltless policy, has passed
over him, without leaving one stain upon his honourable character, and
has operated, like the slime of the Egyptian inundation, only to
fructify, and increase his fortunes. He once however narrowly escaped.
In the time of Robespierre, the Marquis de Chatelet, a few nights before
his execution, attempted to corrupt his guards, and told them, if they
would release him, Mons. P---- would give them a draft to any amount
which they might choose then to name. The centinels rejected the bribe,
and informed their sanguinary employer of the offer, who had the books
of Mons. P---- investigated: he was in no shape concerned in the
attempted escape; but hearing, with extraordinary swiftness, that the
marquis, whose banker he had been, and to whom an inconsiderable balance
was then due, had implicated him in this manner, he instantly with
dexterity, removed the page which contained the last account of the
unhappy nobleman, and also his own destiny, and thus saved his life.
Mons. P---- is a widower; his daughter, an only child, is married to a
wealthy general, a man of great bravery, and beloved by Bonaparte.

I dined this day at the Restaurateur's in the Thuilleries, and found the
effect of Madame H----'s charming civility to me. There were some
beautiful women present, dressed after the antique, a fashion
successfully introduced by David. This extraordinary genius was desirous
of dressing the beaux of Paris after the same model; but they politely
declined it, alleging that if Mons. David would at the same time create
another climate, warmer, and more regular for them, they would then
submit the matter to a committee of fashion. The women, though said, in
point of corporal sufferance, to be able to endure less than men, were
enchanted with the design of the artist, and, without approaching a
single degree nearer to the sun, unmindful of colds, consumptions, and
death, have assumed a dress, if