true daughters of the gulf, so
passionately fond of the wave, and devoted to the luxury of wild
sports with their native element were heard.

"With the exception of the patriarchal family of the Rostand, that
great house of ship-owners, which linked Smyrna, Athens, Syria and
Egypt to France by their various enterprises, and to whom I had been
indebted for all the pleasures of my first voyage to the East; with
the exception of M. Miege, the general agent of all our maritime
diplomacy in the Mediterranean, with the exception of Joseph Autran,
that oriental poet who refuses to quit his native region because
he prefers his natural elements to glory, I knew but few persons at
Marseilles. I wished to make no acquaintances and sought isolation
and leisure, leisure and study. I wrote the history of one revolution,
without a suspicion that the spirit of another convulsion looked over
my shoulder, hurrying me from the half finished page, to participate
not with the pen, but manually, in another of the great Dramas of
France.

"Marseilles is however hospitable as its sea, its port, and its
climate. A beautiful nature there expands the heart. Where heaven
smiles man also is tempted to be mirthful. Scarcely had I fixed myself
in the faubourg, when the men of letters, of politics,--the merchants
who had proposed great objects to themselves, and who entertained
extended views; the youth, in the ears of whom yet dwelt the echoes
of my old poems; the men who lived by the labor of their own hands,
many of whom however write, study, sing, and make verses, come to my
retreat, bringing with them, however, that delicate reserve which is
the modesty and grace of hospitality. I received pleasure without any
annoyances from this hospitality and attention. I devoted my mornings
to study, my days to solitude and to the sea, my evenings to a small
number of unknown friends, who came from the city to speak to me of
travels, literature, and commerce.

"Commerce at Marseilles is not a matter of paltry traffic, or trifling
parsimony and retrenchments of capital. Marseilles looks on all
questions of commerce as a dilation and expansion of French capital,
and of the raw material exported and imported from Europe and Asia.
Commerce at Marseilles is a lucrative diplomacy, at the same time,
both local and national. Patriotism animates its enterprises, honor
floats with its flag, and policy presides over every departure. Their
commerce is one eternal ba