perfection of
Parisian taste, was floating down the dance, radiant with jewels and
joy, the very image of delight, when her eye dropped upon the figure of
a stranger, standing in a recess of the superb apartment, with arms
folded, a moody brow, and a burning gaze fixed upon her. A pang shot
through her heart. In her exquisite acting, a single gesture, a single
glance, showed that all the recollections of her native isle had
returned. She was the child of nature and of sensibility once more. She
tottered from the dance, tremblingly approached the stranger, and fell
at his feet. That stranger was Paul; and Talma, in his finest tragedy,
never displayed more profound emotion, nor produced more enthusiastic
applause, than when he raised her up, and with one look, and one word,
"Virginie,"--forgot all and forgave all.

But we were spared the catastrophe, which would certainly have been an
ill return for the profusion of sighs and tears which the fair
spectators gave to the performance. The ruling genius of the night, the
minister's wife, officially inspired to do honour to the triumphs of the
State, had employed the talents of her _decorateurs_ actively during our
stay at the supper-table; and when the curtain rose for the third act,
instead of "a stormy sea and the horrors of shipwreck," according to the
stage directions, we saw a stage Olympus, in which the whole _elite_ of
the Celestials escorted a formidable Bellona-like figure, the cuirassed
and helmed Republic, in triumphal procession, to an altar covered with
laurels and flaming with incense, inscribed "_a la Liberte_." Some
stanzas, more remarkable for their patriotism than their poetry, were
chanted by Minerva, Juno, and the rest of the Olympians, IN HONOUR of
the "jour magnifique de victoire, Jemappes." A train of _figurantes_,
the monarchies of Europe, came forward, dancing and depositing their
crowns and sceptres at the foot of the altar, (a sign, at least,
tolerably significant;) the whole concluding with an exhibition of the
bust of Dumourier, on which Madame laid a chaplet of laurel, accompanied
with a speech in the highest republican style--bust, speech, and Madame,
being all alike received with true Gallic rapture.

On that night, to have doubted the "irresistible, universal, and
perpetual" triumph of the Republic, would have been high-treason to
taste, to hospitality, and the ladies; and for that night our belief was
unbounded. All had made up their minds t