the English tea-gardens of the humblest class, with a difference in the
drinkables and other fare. The base of Montmartre is crowded with them.

[Footnote 23: Weddings and merry-makings are kept here.]

One sometimes meets with an unpleasant adventure among these exhilarated
gentry; for, though I think a low Frenchman is usually better natured
when a little _grise_ than when perfectly sober, this is not always the
case. Quite lately I had an affair that might have terminated seriously,
but for our good luck. It is usual to have two sets of reins to the
cabriolets, the horses being very spirited, and the danger from
accidents in streets so narrow and crowded being great. I had dined in
town, and was coming out about nine o'clock. The horse was walking up
the ascent to the Barriere de Clichy, when I observed, by the shadow
cast from a bright moon, that there was a man seated on the cabriolet,
behind. Charles was driving, and I ordered him to tell the man to get
off. Finding words of no effect, Charles gave him a slight tap with his
whip. The fellow instantly sprang forward, seized the horse by the
reins, and attempted to drag him to one side of the road. Failing in
this, he fled up the street. Charles now called out that he had cut the
reins. I seized the other pair and brought the horse up, and, as soon as
he was under command, we pursued our assailant at a gallop. He was soon
out of breath, and we captured him. As I felt very indignant at the
supposed outrage, which might have cost, not us only, but others, their
lives, I gave him in charge to two gendarmes at the gate, with my
address, promising to call at the police office in the morning.

Accordingly, next day I presented myself, and was surprised to find that
the man had been liberated. I had discovered, in the interval, that the
leather had broken, and had not been cut, which materially altered the
_animus_ of the offence, and I had come with an intention to ask for the
release of the culprit, believing it merely a sally of temper, which a
night's imprisonment sufficiently punished; but the man being _charged_
with cutting the rein, I thought the magistrate had greatly forgotten
himself in discharging him before I appeared. Indeed I made no scruple
in telling him so. We had some warm words, and parted. I make no doubt I
was mistaken for an Englishman, and that the old national antipathy was
at work against me.

I was a good deal surprised at the termination of th