the English press have irritated me; how
deeply wounded I must feel at such a license permitted under the very
eyes of a friendly government,--plots against my life encouraged,
assassination countenanced! Repeat, that Sebastiani's mission to Egypt
is merely commercial; that although prepared for war, our wish, the wish
of France, is peace; that the armaments in Holland are destined for the
Colonies. Show yourself disposed to treat, but not to make advances.
Reject the word ultimatum, if he employ it; the phrase implies a parley
between a superior and an inferior. This is no longer the France that
remembers an English commissary at Dunkirk. If he do not use the
word, then remark on its absence; say, these are not times for longer
anxiety,--that we must know, at last, to what we are to look; tell him
the Bourbons are not still on the throne here; let him feel with whom he
has to deal."

"And if he demand his passport," gravely observed Talleyrand, "you can
be in the country for a day; at Plombiferes,--at St. Cloud."

A low, subdued laugh followed these words, and they walked forward
towards the salons, still conversing, but in a whispered tone.

A cold perspiration broke over my face and forehead, the drops fell
heavily down my cheek, as I sat an unwilling listener of this eventful
dialogue. That the fate of Europe was in the balance I knew full well;
and ardently as I longed for war, the dreadful picture that rose before
me damped much of my ardor; while a sense of my personal danger, if
discovered where I was, made me tremble from head to foot. It was, then,
with a sinking spirit, that I retraced my steps towards the salons, not
knowing if my absence had not been remarked and commented on. How little
was I versed in such society, where each came and went as it
pleased him,--where the most brilliant beauty, the most spiritual
conversationalist, left no gap by absence,--and where such as I were no
more noticed than the statues that held the waxlights!

The salons were now crowded: ministers of state, ambassadors, general
officers in their splendid uniforms, filled the apartments, in which the
din of conversation and the sounds of laughter mingled. Yet, through the
air of gayety which reigned throughout,--the tone of light and flippant
smartness which prevailed,--I thought I could mark here and there
among some of the ministers an appearance of excitement and a look of
preoccupation little in unison with the easy intim