nge was chilled within me;
my boyish imaginations of republicanism were extinguished by this plunge
into innocent blood; and I never felt more relieved, than when the whole
fearful procession at length moved on, and I was left to make my way once
more, through dim and silent streets, to my dwelling.

* * * * *

I pass by a considerable portion of the time which followed. The
Revolution was like the tiger, it advanced couching; though, when it
sprang, its bound was sudden and irresistible. My time was occupied in my
official functions, which became constantly more important, and of which I
received flattering opinions from Downing Street. I mingled extensively in
general society, and it was never more animated, or more characteristic,
than at that period in Paris. The leaders of faction and the leaders of
fashion, classes so different in every other part of the world, were there
often the same. The woman who dazzled the ball-room, was frequently the
_confidente_ of the deepest designs of party. The coterie in a _salon_,
covered with gilding, and filled with _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the arts, was
often as subtle as a conspiracy in the cells of the Jacobins; and the
dance or the masquerade only the preliminary to an outbreak which
shattered a ministry into fragments All the remarkable men of France
passed before me, and I acknowledge that I was frequently delighted and
surprised by their extra ordinary attainments. The age of the
_Encyclopedie_ was in its wane, but some of its brilliant names still
illustrated the Parisian _salons_. I recognised the style of Buffon and
Rousseau in a crowd of their successors; and the most important knowledge
was frequently communicated in language the most eloquent and captivating.
Even the mixture of society which had been created by the Revolution, gave
an original force and freshness to these assemblies, infinitely more
attractive than the most elaborate polish of the old _regime_. Brissot,
the common printer, but a man of singular strength of thought, there
figured by Condorcet, the noble and the man of profound science. St
Etienne, the little bustling partizan, yet the man of talent, mingled with
the chief advocates of the Parisian courts; or Servan fenced with his
subtle knowledge of the world against Vergniaud, the romantic Girondist,
but the most Ciceronian of orators. Talleyrand, already known as the most
sarcastic of men, and Maury, by far the most power