le attempts to excite a spirit of defence amongst the people--a
spirit which, fortunately for Europe, was never excited. The lads of
Paris had determined to take their chance and not to do one atom more
than they were called upon or compelled to do. These wooden barriers
are made of le bois de tremble (aspen), and the pun was that the
fortifications "tremblaient partout." You will like to hear something of
Edgeworth's friend, St. Jean d'Angely;[46] he came up to the barrier
where our landlord (who had been formerly an imperial guardsman and
fought in the battle of Marengo) was posted; here he called loudly for
some brandy, for which he got laughed at by the whole line of guard; he
then sallied forth and proceeded a short distance, when his horse took
fright, and as St. Jean was, as our landlord told us, "entierement du
meme avis avec son cheval," they both set off as fast as they could, and
were in a few minutes far beyond all danger, nor did they appear again
amid the din of arms. The fate of Paris was decided with a rapidity and
sang-froid quite astonishing. By 5 o'clock in the Evening all was
entirely at an end, and the national guard and allies incorporated and
doing the usual duty of the town. They were, indeed, under arms a little
longer than usual, and a few more sentries were placed and the theatre
not open that Evening, but that single evening was the only exception,
and the next day the Palais Royal was as brilliant and more cheerful
than ever, with its motley groups of visitors. The Cossacks were not
quartered in the Palais Royal, they were in the Ch. Elysees, the trees
of which bear visible marks of their horses' teeth, but a good many came
in from curiosity and hung their horses in the open space of the
Palais.... The Russian discipline was most severe, and not an article
was taken from any individual with impunity, immediate death was the
punishment. The field of battle bore few marks of the event--a few
skeletons of horses and rags of uniforms; the more surprising thing is
that, notwithstanding all the trampling of horse and foot on the plains
below so late as the end of March, the corn has not suffered in the
slightest degree. I wish the Alderley crops were as good.

You have no idea of the severity of the conscription. That men can be
attached to a being who dragged them, with such violence to every
feeling, from their homes would be astonishing, but for the well-known
force of the "selfish principle" wh