No extraordinary event occurred till we arrived at Paris. Here we took lodgings at the Hotel D'Espagne. The sign projected in an angle over the street: on one side was painted in French "L'Hotel D'Espagne," on the other, intended for English, but omitting the S, "The Hotel of Pain," and such it proved severely to me two years after.

Well, here we settled, opened our trunks, prepared our letters, and were ordered by our respective tutors to be ready to attend them the next morning; the pumpkin affair was forgiven, and being now in the free air, and capable of employing every optic nerve, which we had not been in the cabriolet, we began to reflect that

"Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos at sidera tollere vultus."

Accordingly, we determined to look up;-having received with gratitude all the advice our kind tutors gave, and the next morning prepared to attend. We visited that day, a number of private families, philosophical instrument makers, public institutions, gardens, &c. and in this manner we spent the first ten days, very much to our improvement, under the direction and instruction of these great and good men. So far, all went well; but, one morning Dr. Mosely came into my room with a huge folio volume, which he had borrowed from the king's library, and placing it open before me, he said, "I wish you to translate for me this article on coffee." I looked at it; it was a work of several days: "Will you?" said he. I told him I could not refuse, but I wished him to permit me to do it when my mind

was not otherwise engaged: he consented; I performed my task, and thence he drew a principal part of his celebrated treatise on coffee.

About this time we received an invitation to attend court at Versailles, on the Fête de St. Louis. As the invitation came from high authority, it put us" in a state of flusteration;" for we could not in delicacy refuse, and there was great difficulty in our arrangements for going; however, we accepted the invitation, and received the tickets of admission. We consequently set to work, cutting and slashing our best coats, to have them something in the French style; hired elegant swords, and a serjeant in the Swiss guards to tell us how to wear them; got chapeaux-de-bras, sharp pointed shoes, and when the day arrived as we met for our departure, with our hairs finely frizzled, our bags encumbering the back of our heads, and our swords dangling by our sides, we could not refrain from laughing at each other. In spite of the little difficulties our swords put us to, we contrived at last to get into the carriage, and proceeded for Versailles. We were ushered into the grand saloon, and some French gentlemen, though unknown, perceiving (I suppose from our awkwardness) that we were Englishmen, paid particular attention to us; they led us near the throne, and placed us in a situation to observe all that was about to pass. The king, soon after, entered from a private door, and ascended his throne.

The princes then entered with the nobility, passing through an opening made for them by the company on either side, and, going through the regular ceremonies, took their seats. The archbishops performed their duties, but as all these ceremonies have been before de

scribed, I shall only say that they ended in about three hours, when, to my great satisfaction, I was released.

During the ceremony, I had at intervals been conversing with one of the French gentlemen who had befriended us, on the subject of count de Grasse, who was present; and I observed how severely his reputation was treated in England, in consequence of his having broke his parole. Ah! monsieur, replied he, il faut, ce qu'il faut-le grand monarche peut aisément brisé le tendre fil, qui attache l'honneur au cœur humain. “We must do what we must; the grand monarch can easily break the tender thread that attaches honour to the human heart.".

I mentioned to him that I wish'd much to see the dauphin-he replied, that after the ceremonies were over, he would procure for us the means of introduction; accordingly, having requested us to wait a few moments, he withdrew, and returning, requested us to accompany him.

We were introduced by this gentleman, I never learnt who he was, to the dauphin's apartment. He was attended by three ladies of honour, who all arose on our entrance. One of them whispered something to the prince, which was immediately understood by us from his advancing firmly and addressing us in English, saying, "How do you do, gentlemen?" We, of course, answered him in French. After a little conversation with the ladies, I addressed myself to the lady who appeared the principal governess, and holding out my hand towards the dauphin, I looked at her and said, "Puis je avoir l'honneur?" " Voluntairement,” she re

plied, "nous voudrions que toujours les Anglois deigneroient prendre le main d'un Francois."

I must, for some of my readers, explain this; I was desirous of shaking hands with the dauphin, and, holding out my hand, asked if I might have that honour. The governess replied, "Willingly; we could wish that the English would always deign to shake hands with Frenchmen."

I then took his hand and kissed it. The usual ceremonies having passed we withdrew. Poor boy! he little thought, at this time, that the guillotine was being prepared for his parents, and the poison for himself:" happy in that state of innocence on which infancy cannot encroach; and blessed with that blindness to futurity which Providence has so benevolently bestowed on all, he smiled complacently on every one around him. His amiable instructors were teaching him to pursue greatness only through the medium of goodness: would that such lessons were always successful in the issue! But, alas! in this vicious era of mortal existence, power is estimated as wisdom; humanity as folly; selfishness as a virtue; benevolence as a vice; policy as the "summum bonum;" candour as the greatest evil; religion as the common foe; and infidelity as a shield of adamant.

For some part of our present state of depravity, we are indebted to the unlearned thoughts and indecent effusions of Thomas Paine. I wish I could add that his theological writings had proved as little dangerous to the ignorant as to the instructed. The pirated opinions of Spinoza, Aben-Ezra, and others, veiled in the garb of professed liberty of thought, have had too much weight with the unthinking; but none with the intelligent.

Before we left the palace, our friend asked us if we would permit him to introduce us to the queen's glass-room. (It was through this room that the queen effected her escape on the sixth of October the next year, I will therefore describe it.) We thanked and attended him. We entered; but judge our surprise when we saw nothing but ourselves reflected in it. The room was walled, ceiled, and doored with immense plates of glass; no wood-work was seen but what was necessary to support the plates, and that so artfully managed, that it appeared glass itself.There was a recess in this room, also completely covered with glass plates, that a person advancing in front to it and stopping at the entrance, looking on each side, would see himself multiplied into a regiment in line. The doors were so constructed that no person could discover them; they only, well acquainted with the chamber and its illusions, could do so. Here, in this room, the beautiful and much injured MarieAntoinette checked the chase of her brutal pursuers on the following year: she entered and passed through it, closing a door which none of them could find; while shocked, perhaps, with the reflections of themselves, they stood aghast and wondered where they were, seeing so many demons around them.

We left the palace after having visited every part of it, and entered the immense gardens attached to it. I could not, after much consideration, help wondering at the extreme folly of Louis the fourteenth. He had chosen a plain on which to erect an artificial hill, and on it the most splendid palace-a spot where there was no water, to establish the most beautiful water works in