re they routed as
I drove into that gorgeous capital, and saw the full tide of its
pleasure-loving inhabitants as it rolled proudly past! How vain to
reason farther upon the regulation of a life to which wealth set no
limits! how impossible to restrain one's self within the barriers of
cold prudential thought, where all was to be had for asking!

Ah, Con, your philosophy was excellent while, sitting in the corner of
your coupe, you rolled along unnoticed, save by the vacant stare of some
vigneron in a blue cotton nightcap, or some short-legged wench in wooden
"sabots;" but now that you stand in the window of your great hotel in
the Place Vendome and see the gathering crowd which inquires, who is the
illustrious arrival? your heart begins to beat quicker and fuller; you
feel like a great actor, for whom the house is already impatient; nor
is the curtain to remain longer down. You are scarcely an hour in
Paris when your visitors began to call. Here are cards without
number,--officers in high command, courtiers, ministers, and
aides-decamp of those whose rank precludes the first visit. The "place"
is like a fair, with its crush of equipages, the hotel is actually
besieged. Every language of Europe is heard within its "porte-cochere,"
and your own chasseur is overwhelmed with questionings enough to drive
him distracted.

Is it any wonder how the poor man adulates wealth, when those in high
station--the great and titled of the earth--are so ready to worship and
revere it!

My first care was, of course, to present myself before the Prince,
my gracious master, and I drove at once to the Tuileries. There was
a reception that morning by the King, and the Duc de St. Cloud led me
forward and presented me to his Majesty, with a very eulogistic account
of my services in Africa.

The King listened most graciously to the narrative, and then, with
a cordial courtesy that at once put me at my ease, asked me several
questions about my campaigns, all ingeniously contrived to be
complimentary to me.

"Yours is not originally a Spanish family, Count; I fancy the name is
Celtic."

"Yes, Sire, we came from Ireland," said I, blushing in spite of myself.

"Ah, very true. There was always a great interchange of races between
the two nations. And have you never tried to trace back among your Irish
ancestors, so as to learn who are the lineal descendants of your house?"

"I have been hitherto, Sire, rather a man of action than of thought