o Paris, and
repairing to his old haunts, he sought the Rue de la Mortellerie, which
had in part been pulled down, on account of some improvements which were
going forward; whilst he was gaping about, looking in vain for his dear
Rue de la Mortellerie, he was recognised by a Serjeant of police and
very unwillingly lodged in the _Corps de Garde_ (guard-house), and
brought before the Tribunal of Correction; he was interrogated as to his
having dared, in defiance of the law, to return to Paris. He replied,
"indeed, Monsieur le President, I was so overcome with ennui, that I
found it impossible to exist there any longer; now, only imagine for an
instant, M. le President, the idea of a Parisian, as I am, to be sent to
a little bit of a place where there was no theatre, no promenade, not
even a public monument."

He was interrupted by the President telling him, that whatever the place
might have been, there he should have staid to the end of his time, and
must be punished for returning to Paris. "But," continued the
delinquent, "the vile little hole to which I was exiled contained no
society whatever, the inhabitants were merely a set of illiterate
beings, and how could any enlightened person vegetate amongst such a
mic-mac of semi-barbarians; but tell me, M. le President, what has
become of the Rue de la Mortellerie?"

Without deigning to answer, the President was proceeding to condemn the
prisoner, when interrupted by his exclaiming, "Now I intreat, M. le
President, that you who are no doubt a very enlightened personage, would
only place yourself in my position, and conceive how it was possible to
exist buried alive as it were among such a set of Goths, and above all
do tell me what has become of my Rue de la Mortellerie?"

The President, out of all patience, sentenced him to imprisonment in one
of the goals of Paris for three years.

"Well," said the garrulous and incorrigible offender, "I shall have one
satisfaction, that of knowing that I am still in Paris, that seat of the
arts, that centre of civilisation, and terrestrial paradise; but pray
tell me, M. le President, before we part, do tell me what have they done
with my dear Rue de la Mortellerie?" Without affording him time to
occupy the court any longer with his irrelevant questions and
explanations, they hurried him away, whilst he continued to murmur what
could possibly have gone with his dear Rue de la Mortellerie which was
no other than a little narrow filthy