SE of St. Genevieve brought
out (two days ago), December 30th, to try it by miracle; &c. &c.] but
on this Sunday, New-year's morning, all is ice and glass; and they slid
about painfully by lamplight,--with unroughened horses, and on the
Hilly or Meudon road, having chosen that as fittest, the waters being
out;--not arriving at Court till 9. Nor finding very much to
comfort them, except on the side of curiosity, when there. Ushers,
INTRODUCTEURS, Cabinet Secretaries, were indeed assiduous to oblige; and
the King's Levee will be: but if you follow it, to the Chapel Royal to
witness high mass, you must kneel at elevation of the host; and this,
as reformed Christians, Reuss and his Tutor cannot undertake to do. They
accept a dinner invitation (12 the hour) from some good Samaritan of
Quality; and, for sights, will content themselves with the King's
Levee itself, and generally with what the King's Antechamber and the
OEil-de-Boeuf can exhibit to them. The Most Christian King's Levee
[LEVER, literally here his Getting out of Bed] is a daily miracle of
these localities, only grander on New-year's day; and it is to the
following effect:--

"Till Majesty please to awaken, you saunter in the Salle des
Ambassadeurs; whole crowds jostling one another there; gossiping
together in a diligent, insipid manner;" gossip all reported; snatches
of which have acquired a certain flavor by long keeping;--which the
reader shall imagine. "Meanwhile you keep your eye on the Grate of the
Inner Court, which as yet is only ajar, Majesty inaccessible as yet.
Behold, at last, Grate opens itself wide; sign that Majesty is out of
bed; that the privileged of mankind may approach, and see the miracles."
Geusau continues, abridged by Busching and us:--

"The whole Assemblage passed now into the King's Anteroom; had to wait
there about half an hour more, before the King's bedroom was opened.
But then at last, lo you,--there is the King, visible to Geusau and
everybody, washing his hands. Which effected itself in this way: 'The
King was seated; a gentleman-in-waiting knelt, before him, and held
the Ewer, a square vessel silver-gilt, firm upon the King's breast; and
another gentleman-in-waiting poured water on the King's hands.' Merely
an official washing, we perceive; the real, it is to be hoped, had, in
a much more effectual way, been going on during the half-hour
just elapsed. After washing, the King rose for an instant; had his
dressing-gown, a grand y