apartment was
lit by thousands of candles (no lamps) and as light as day. The
company amounted to between 3,000 and 4,000, from all the great
people down to national guards, and even private soldiers. None
of the Carlists were there, as they none of them choose to go to
Court. The King retired before eleven; it was said that he had
received anonymous letters warning him of some intended attempt
on his person, and extraordinary precautions were taken to guard
against the entrance of any improper people.

January 26th, 1837 {p.384}

Having seen all the high society the night before, I resolved to
see all the low to-night, and went to Musard's ball--a most
curious scene; two large rooms in the rue St. Honore almost
thrown into one, a numerous and excellent orchestra, a prodigious
crowd of people, most of them in costume, and all the women
masked. There was every description of costume, but that which
was the most general was the dress of a French post-boy, in which
both males and females seemed to delight. It was well-regulated
uproar and orderly confusion. When the music struck up they began
dancing all over the rooms; the whole mass was in motion, but
though with gestures the most vehement and grotesque, and a
licence almost unbounded, the figure of the dance never seemed to
be confused, and the dancers were both expert in their capers and
perfect in their evolutions. Nothing could be more licentious
than the movements of the dancers, and they only seemed to be
restrained within limits of common decency by the cocked hats and
burnished helmets of the police and gendarmes which towered in
the midst of them. After quadrilling and waltzing away, at a
signal given they began galloping round the room; then they
rushed pellmell, couple after couple, like Bedlamites broke
loose, but not the slightest accident occurred. I amused myself
with this strange and grotesque sight for an hour or more, and
then came home.

January 27th, 1837 {p.384}

[Page Head: RELATIONS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.]

Called on Talleyrand and sat with him for an hour. He talked of
England in a very Conservative strain. I called on the Duc de
Broglie, Mesdames de Marescalchi and Durazzo, dined at the
Embassy, then to Madame de Lieven's and Pembroke's concert. Not a
profitable life, but not dull, and the day glides away.

February 2nd, 1837 {p.385}

Nothing worth noticing for the last three or four days. Dined the
day before yesterday with the