es to us, and more proud and
aristocratical than any of the _ci-devant Noblesse_ could ever have
been. From this Moment I believe all the Accounts I have heard from our
officers of the French officers who were prisoners during the War. They
were always insolent, and excepting in some few cases, ungratefull in
the extreme for any kindness shewn to them.

[Illustration: THE PRISON OF THE TEMPLE, PARIS, JUNE, 1802.

_To face p. 31._]

PARIS, _June 17th_.

The Day before yesterday I arrived in this Metropolis. We left Rouen in
a Diligence & had a pleasant Journey; the Country we passed over was
throughout extremely fertile; whatever Scarcity exists at present in
France, it must be of short duration, as the Harvest promises to be
abundant, and as every Field is corn land, the quantity of Grain will be
immense. Government has indeed now taken every precaution. The Ports of
Rouen & Dieppe were filled with Ships from Embden & Dantzig with Corn.
Our Diligence was accompanied all the Night by a Guard of Dragoons, and
we passed every now and then parties of Foot Soldiers on the Watch. The
reason was, that the road had lately been infested with Robbers, who
attacked the Public Carriages in great numbers, sometimes to the Amount
of 40 together. They in general behaved well to the Passengers,
requiring only any Money belonging to Government which might happen to
be in the Carriage. At present as the Leader is taken and the Band
dispersed, there is no Danger, but it is a good excuse to keep a Number
of Troops in that part of the Country. We entered Paris by St. Denis,
but the fine Church and Royal Palace are not now as they were in your
time. The Former is in part unroofed and considerably damaged--the
latter is a Barrack and from its outward appearance seems to have
suffered much in the Revolution. The City of Paris on entering it by no
means strikes a stranger. In your time it must have been but tolerable,
now it is worse, as every other house seems to be falling down or to be
deserted. We have taken our abode in the Rue de Vivienne at the Hotel de
Boston, a central Situation and the house tolerably dear. The poor
Hussey suffered so much from a Nest of Buggs the first night, that he
after enduring them to forage on his body for an Hour, left his Bed &
passed the night on a sofa. A propos, I must beg to inform Mr. Hugh
Leycester that I paid Attention to the Conveyances on the road & think
that he will have no reason to complain o