rand jeu, une belle occupation.

He wondered the English should have sent him to Paris--"On n'aime
pas l'homme par qui on a ete battu. Je n'ai jamais envoye a Vienne
un homme qui a assiste a la prise de Vienne." He asked who was our
Minister (Lord Burghersh) at Florence, and whether he was
_honnete homme_, "for," he said, "you have two kinds of men in
England, one of _intrigans_, the other of _hommes tres
honnetes_."

Some time afterwards he said, "Dites moi franchement, votre
Ministre a Florence est il un homme a se fier?"

He had seen something in the papers about sending him (Napoleon) to
St. Helena, and he probably expected Lord Burghersh to kidnap
him--he inquired also about his family and if it was one of
consequence.

His great anxiety at present seems to be on the subject of France.
He inquired if I had seen at Florence many Englishmen who came from
there, and when I mentioned Lord Holland, he asked if he thought
things went well with the Bourbons, and when I answered in the
negative he seemed delighted, and asked if Lord Holland thought
they would be able to stay there. I said I really could not give an
answer. He said he had heard that the King of France had taken no
notice of those Englishmen who had treated him well in
England--particularly Lord Buckingham; he said that was very wrong,
for it showed a want of gratitude. I told him I supposed the
Bourbons were afraid to be thought to depend upon the English.
"No," he said, "the English in general are very well received." He
asked sneeringly if the Army was much attached to the Bourbons.

Talking of the Congress, he said, "There will be no war; the Powers
will disagree, but they will not go to war"--he said the Austrians,
he heard, were already much disliked in Italy and even at Florence.

_F. R._ It is very odd, the Austrian government is hated
wherever it has been established.

_N._ It is because they do everything with the baton--the
Italians all hate to be given over to them.

_F. R._ But the Italians will never do anything for
themselves--they are not united.

_N._ True.

Besides this he talked about the robbers between Rome and Florence,
and when I said they had increased, he said, "Oh! to be sure; I
always had them taken by the _gendarmerie_."

_F. R._ It is very odd that in England