hours after quitting Havre, 57 miles.
Rouen, beautiful Rouen, we entered through such an avenue of noble
trees, its spires, hills and woods peeping forth, and the Seine winding
up the country, wide as the Thames at Chelsea.

Such a gateway! I have made a sketch, but were I to work it up for a
month it would still fall far short and be an insult to the subject it
attempts to represent. If Havre can strike the eye of a stranger, what
must not Rouen do? Every step teems with novelty and richness, Gothic
gateways, halls, and houses. What are our churches and cathedrals in
England compared to the noble specimens of Gothic architecture which
here present themselves?... Rouen has scarcely yet recovered from the
dread they were in of the Cossacks, who were fully expected, and all
valuables secreted--not that they were absolutely without news from the
capital: the diligence had been stopped only once during the three days
after the Allies entered Paris. Till then they had proceeded _comme a
l'ordinaire_, and the diligence in which we are to proceed to-night left
it when Shots were actually passing over the road during the battle of
Montmartre--how they could find passengers to quit it at such an
interesting moment I cannot conceive; had I been sure of being eaten up
by a Horde of Cossacks, I could not have left the spot.

What an odd people the French are! they will not allow they were in
ignorance of public affairs before the entrance of the Allies. "Oh no,
we had the Gazettes," they say, and I cannot find that they considered
these Gazettes as doubtful authorities. We have plenty of troops
here--genuine veterans horse and foot; I saw them out in line yesterday.
The men were soldier-like looking fellows enough, but one of our cavalry
regiments would have trotted over their horses in a minute without much
ceremony; the army is certainly dissatisfied. Marmont is held in great
contempt; they will have it he betrayed Paris, and say it would be by no
means prudent for him to appear at the head of a line when there was any
firing. The people may or may not like their emancipation from tyranny,
but their vanity--they call it glory--has been tarnished by the
surrender of Paris, and they declare on all hands that if Marmont had
held out for a day Bonaparte would have arrived, and in an instant
settled the business by defeating the Allies. In vain may you hint that
he was inferior in point of numbers (to say anything of the skill and
me