the different emblems of our Fire Offices imply--

"M[aison] A[ssuree] C[ontre] L'[incendie]:"

in plain English, that such houses are insured against fire. Walking
one afternoon with M. Barbier, I pointed to these letters, and said,
"You, who have written upon _Anonymes_ and _Pseudonymes_, do you know
what those letters signify?" He replied, "Assuredly--and they can have
but _one_ meaning." "What is that?" He then explained them as I have
just explained them. "But (rejoined I) since I have been at Paris, I
have learnt that they also imply _another_ meaning." "What might that
be?" Stopping him, and gently touching his arm, and looking round to
see that we were not overheard, I answered in a suppressed tone:--

"M[es] A[mis] C[hassez] L[ouis]."

He was thunderstruck. He had never heard it before: and to be told it
by a stranger! "Mais (says he, smiling, and resuming his steps) "voila
une chose infiniment drole!"

Let it be remembered, that this HERETICAL construction upon these
Initial Capitals was put at a time when the _Bonaparte Fever_ was yet
making some of the pulses of the Parisians beat 85 strokes to the
minute. _Now_, his Majesty Charles X. will smile as readily at this
anecdote as did the incomparable Librarian of his Regal Predecessor.

[INTRODUCTION TO LETTER VIII.]

Before entering upon the perusal of this memorable Letter--which, in the
previous edition, was numbered LETTER XXX,--(owing to the Letters having
been numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end) I request the
Reader's attention to a few preliminary remarks, which may possibly guide
him to form a more correct estimate of its real character. MONS. LICQUET
having published a French version of my Ninth Letter, descriptive of the
Public Library at Rouen, (and to which an allusion has been made in vol. i.
p. 99.) MONS. CRAPELET (see p. 1, ante) undertook a version of the
_ensuing_ Letter: of which he printed _one hundred copies_. Both
translations were printed in M. Crapelet's office, to arrange, in type and
form of publication, as much as possible with my own; so that, if the
_intrinsic_ merit of these versions could not secure purchasers, the beauty
of the paper and of the press work (for both are very beautiful) might
contribute to their circulation. To the version of M. Crapelet[120] was
prefixed a _Preface_, combining such a mixture of malign