had blest,
All empty, and cold, and despairing,
It shrinks in my desolate breast.

But a spirit is burning within me,
Unquench'd, and unquenchable yet;
It shall teach me to bear uncomplaining,
The grief I can never forget.

_Rouen, June 25._--I do not pity Joan of Arc: that heroic woman only
paid the price which all must pay for celebrity in some shape or
other: the sword or the faggot, the scaffold or the field, public
hatred or private heart-break; what matter? The noble Bedford could
not rise above the age in which he lived: but _that_ was the age of
gallantry and chivalry, as well as superstition: and could Charles,
the lover of Agnes Sorel, with all the knights and nobles of France,
look on while their champion, and a woman, was devoted to chains and
death, without one effort to save her?

It has often been said that her fate disgraced the military fame of
the English; it is a far fouler blot on the chivalry of France.

* * * * *

_St. Germains, June 27._--I cannot bear this place, another hour in it
will kill me; this sultry evening--this sickening sunshine--this
quiet, unbroken, boundless landscape--these motionless woods--the
Seine stealing, creeping through the level plains--the dull grandeur
of the old chateau--the languid repose of the whole scene--instead of
soothing, torture me. I am left without resource, a prey to myself
and to my memory--to reflection, which embitters the source of
suffering, and thought, which brings distraction. Horses on to Paris!
Vite! Vite!

_Paris, 28._--What said the witty Frenchwoman?--_Paris est le lieu du
monde ou l'on peut le mieux se passer de bonheur;_--in that case it
will suit me admirably.

_29._--We walked and drove about all day: I was amused. I marvel at my
own versatility when I think how soon my quick spirits were excited by
this gay, gaudy, noisy, idle place. The different appearance of the
streets of London and Paris is the first thing to strike a stranger.
In the gayest and most crowded streets of London the people move
steadily and rapidly along, with a grave collected air, as if all had
some business in view; _here_, as a little girl observed the other
day, all the people walk about "like ladies and gentlemen going a
visiting:" the women well-dressed and smiling, and with a certain
jaunty air, trip along with their peculiar mincing step, and appear as
if their sole object was but to show the