enormous claws; the leathers were
also limited in their length, and when drawn up to a proper height,
permitted my knees to be seen beneath, like the short costume of a
Spanish Tauridor, but scarcely as graceful; not wishing to encumber
myself in the heavy and noisy masses of wood, iron, and leather, they
call "les bottes forts," I slipped my feet into my slippers, and stole
gently from the room. How I must have looked at the moment I leave my
reader to guess, as with anxious and stealthy pace I crept along the low
gallery that led to the narrow staircase, down which I proceeded, step by
step; but just as I reached the bottom, perceived a little distance from
me, with her back turned towards me, a short, squat peasant on her knees,
belabouring with a brush the well waxed floor; to pass therefore,
unobserved was impossible, so that I did not hesitate to address her, and
endeavour to interest her in my behalf, and enlist her as my guide.

"Bon jour, ma chere," said I in a soft insinuating tone; she did not hear
me, so I repeated,

"Bon jour, ma chere, bon jour."

Upon this she turned round, and looking fixedly at me for a second,
called out in a thick pathos, "Ah, le bon Dieu! qu'il est drole comme ca,
Francois, savez vous, mais ce n'est pas Francois;" saying which, she
sprang from her kneeling position to her feet, and with a speed that her
shape and sabots seemed little to promise, rushed down the stairs as if
she had seen the devil himself.

"Why, what is the matter with the woman?" said I, "surely if I am not
Francois--which God be thanked is true--yet I cannot look so frightful as
all this would imply." I had not much time given me for consideration
now, for before I had well deciphered the number over a door before me,
the loud noise of several voices on the floor beneath attracted my
attention, and the moment after the heavy tramp of feet followed, and in
an instant the gallery was thronged by the men and women of the house
--waiters, hostlers, cooks, scullions, filles de chambre, mingled with
gens-d'armes, peasants, and town's people, all eagerly forcing their way
up stairs; yet all on arriving at the landing-place, seemed disposed to
keep at a respectful distance, and bundling themselves at one end of the
corridor, while I, feelingly alive to the ridiculous appearance I made,
occupied the other--the gravity with which they seemed at first disposed
to regard me soon gave way, and peal after peal of laughter