from the toils of the week, were
singing in parts, with all the musical taste and correctness of ear for
which the inhabitants of that part of France are noted; while, on the
broad boulevard that traverses the lower end of the _allee_, a crowd of
recruits whom the conscription had recently called under the colours,
stood gazing in open-mouthed astonishment and infinite delight at some
rudely constructed booths and shows, outside of which, clown and
paillasse were rivalling each other in the broad humour of their lazzi.
Parties of students, easily recognizable by their eccentric and
exaggerated style of dress, and the loud tone of their conversation,
were seated outside the cafes and ice-rooms, or circulating under the
trees, puffing forth clouds of tobacco smoke; and on the road round the
_allee_, open carriages, smart tilburies, and dapper horsemen were
careering.

Among the various groups thronging the promenade was one, which, in Hyde
Park or on the Paris boulevards, would have attracted some notice; but
the persons composing it were of a class too common of late years in the
south of France to draw upon them any attention from the loungers. The
party in question consisted of three men, who, by their bronzed
complexions, ragged mustaches, and sullen, dogged countenances, as well
as their whole air and _tournure_, were easily distinguishable as
belonging to the exiled and disappointed faction of the Spanish
Pretender. Their threadbare costume still exhibited signs of their late
military employment, probably from a lack of means to replace it by any
other garments. The closely buttoned blue frock of one of them still had
upon its shoulders the small lace straps used to support the epaulets,
and another wore for headdress a _boina_, with its large starlike
tassels of silver cord. The third and most remarkable of the party, was
a man in the prime of life and strength, whose countenance bore the
impress of every bad passion. It was one of those faces sometimes seen
in old paintings of monkish inquisitors, on viewing which, one feels
inclined to suspect that the artist has outdone and exaggerated nature.
The expression of the cold, glassy, grey eye, and thin, pale, compressed
lips, was one of unrelenting cruelty; while the coarsely moulded chin
and jaw gave a sensual character to the lower part of the face. The scar
of a sabre-cut extended from the centre of the forehead nearly to the
upper lip, partly dividing the nose,