to the pantomime of royalty, and acting the part
of a _maitre d'hotel_. Had the duty fallen on Cambaceres, one would
understand it, and fancy that it might be well done. The king smiled on
him graciously, and, I presume, gave him leave to retire; for soon after
this act of loyal servitude, the prince disappeared. As for M. Louis, he
treated Charles better than his brother treated Sancho; for I did not
observe the slightest interference, on his part, during the whole
entertainment; though one of those near me said he had tasted a dish or
two by way of ceremony,--an act of precaution that I did not myself
observe. I asked my neighbour, the _abbe_, what he thought of M. de
Talleyrand. After looking up in my face distrustfully, he
whispered:--"Mais, monsieur, c'est un chat qui tombe toujours sur ses
pieds;" a remark that was literally true tonight, for, the old man was
kept on his feet longer than could have been agreeable to the owner of
two such gouty legs.

The Duchesse de Berri, who sat quite near the place where I stood, was
busy a good deal of the time _a lorgner_ the public through her
eye-glass. This she did with very little diffidence of manner, and quite
as coolly as an English duchess would have stared at a late intimate
whom she was disposed to cut. It certainly was neither a graceful, nor a
feminine, nor a princely occupation. The Dauphine played the Bourbon
better; though, when she turned her saddened, not to say _cruel_ eyes,
on the public, it was with an expression that almost amounted to
reproach. I did not see her smile once during the whole time she was at
table; and yet _I_ thought there were many things to smile at.

At length the finger-bowls appeared, and I was not sorry to see them.
Contrary to what is commonly practised in very great houses, the pages
placed them on the table, just as Henri puts them before us democrats
every day. I ought to have said, that the service was made altogether in
front, or at the unoccupied side of the table, nothing but the bill of
fare, in the hands of M. de Talleyrand, appearing in the rear. As soon as
this part of the dinner was over, the king arose, and the whole party
withdrew by the door on the further side of the galery. In passing the
_gradins_ of the ladies, he stopped to says a few kind words to an old
woman who was seated there, muffled in a cloak, and the light of royalty
vanished.

The catastrophe is to come. The instant the king's back was turned, the
g