er light
blue, French-looking eyes, possessed withal of infinite delicacy and
_finesse_--a fervent admirer of the old court school of Louis the
Fifteenth, in the _chronique scandaleuse_ of which she was as well
versed as if she had been herself a contemporary of that
pleasure-loving monarch. Besides these ladies, there was a young
Frenchman named Vergennes, the third son of some Gascon viscount, and
a distant cousin of the Menous, who had come to America till the
scandal occasioned by certain republican scribblings of his in one of
the newspapers of the day should have blown over, and till he could
revisit his country without risk of obtaining a lodging gratis in the
Conciergerie. He had brought with him a head crammed with schemes for
the political regeneration of the whole world, and a trunkful of
French fashions, neither of which, as I reckoned, were likely to take
much with us. He made me laugh inwardly twenty times a-day by his
Utopian theories and fancies. Truth to tell, in matters of politics or
of sound common sense, these Frenchmen are for the most part mere
children, and reach their dying day without ever becoming men. Take
them by their weak points, their unlimited vanity or their love of
what they call glory, and you may ride them like a horse to water.
Vergennes, however, when one could get him off his hobby, was a
pleasant gentlemanly fellow enough.

It was impossible to spare Richards more than three days, and at six
o'clock on the morning of the fourth, we went on board the steamer
Alexandria. I had prevailed on my friend and his wife, and the whole
party, to come and pass a week or two at my house, which was now quite
ready for the reception of guests. The three days we had remained with
Richards had been one continued fete, and considering the good living,
and the heat of the weather--the thermometer ranging from 95 deg. to
100 deg.--there were few things more agreeable or better to be done, than
to take a steam up the Red River. The fresh breezes on the water might
save some of us a touch of fever. On board we went therefore, all in
high glee and good-humour with each other.

We had passed the Atchafalaya, and had crossed over to the
Francisville side, in order to avoid the powerful current occasioned
by the influx of the Red River into the Mississippi. A strong wind had
sprung up, and in the middle of the stream the waves were of a
considerable height. The Mississippi was full to overflowing, and t