alive to everything. After dinner they all put their heads
together and chattered politics as fast as they could. Madame de
Flahault is more violent than her husband, and her house is the
resort of all the Liberal party. Went afterwards to the Opera and
saw Maret, the Duc de Bassano, a stupid elderly bourgeois-looking
man, with two very pretty daughters. The battle is to begin in
the Chamber on Saturday or Monday on the Address. Talleyrand told
me that the next three weeks would be the most important of any
period since the Restoration. It is in agitation to deprive him
of his place of Grand Chambellan.

[Page Head: MOUNTAIN SCENERY]

Susa, March 15th, 1830, 9 o'clock. {p.286}

Just arrived at this place at the foot of Mont Cenis. Left Paris
on the 11th, at twelve o'clock at night. On the last day,
Montrond made a dinner for me at a club to see M. des Chapelles
play at whist. I saw it, but was no wiser; but I conclude he
plays very well, for he always wins, is not suspected of
cheating, and excels at all other games. At twelve I got into my
carriage, and (only stopping an hour and a half for two
breakfasts) got to Lyons in forty-eight hours and a half. Journey
not disagreeable, and roads much better than I expected,
particularly after Macon, when they became as good as in England;
but the country presents the same sterile, uninteresting
appearance as that between Calais and Paris--no hedges, no trees,
except tall, stupid-looking poplars, and no chateaux or farm-houses.
I am at a loss to know why a country should look so ill which I
do not believe is either barren or ill cultivated. Lyons is a
magnificent town. It was dark when I arrived, or rather
moonlight, but I could see that the quay we came along was fine,
and yesterday morning I walked about for an hour and was
struck with the grandeur of the place; it is like a great and
magnificent Bath; but I had not time to see much of it, and, with
beautiful weather, I set off at ten o'clock. The mountains (les
Echelles de Savoie) appear almost directly in the distance, but
it was long before I could make out whether they were clouds or
mountains.

After crossing the Pont de Beauvoisin we began to mount the
Echelles, which I did on foot, and I never shall forget the first
impression made upon me by the mountain scenery. It first burst
upon me at a turn of the road--one huge perpendicular rock above
me, a deep ravine with a torrent rushing down and a mountain
covered