adies of rank,
however, now appeared to take their part in the scene; and when these
fair hands were seen tearing their dresses to make white cockades, the
flame of their enthusiasm began to spread. Various pickets of the
National Guard had plucked the tricolor badge from their caps, and
assumed the white, ere many of the Allies passed the gates.

At noon, as has been mentioned, this triumphal procession began, and it
lasted for several hours. The show was splendid; 50,000 troops, horse,
foot, and artillery, all in the highest order and condition, marched
along the boulevards; and in the midst appeared the youthful Czar and
the King of Prussia, followed by a dazzling suite of princes,
ambassadors, and generals. The crowd was so great that their motion,
always slow, was sometimes suspended. The courteous looks and manners of
all the strangers--but especially the affable and condescending air of
Alexander, were observed at first with surprise; as the cavalcade passed
on, and the crowd thickened, the feelings of the populace rose from
wonder to delight, and ended in contagious and irresistible rapture. No
sovereigns entering their native capitals were ever received with more
enthusiastic plaudits; and still, at every step, the shouts of _Vive
L'Empereur Alexandre!_--_Vive le Roi de Prusse!_ were more and more
loudly mingled with the long-forgotten echoes of _Vive le Roi!_--_Vive
Louis XVIII._--_Vivent les Bourbons!_

The monarchs at last halted, dismissed their soldiers to quarters in the
city, saw Platoff and his Cossacks establish their bivouack in the
_Champs Elysees_, and retired to the residences prepared for them; that
of Alexander being, as we have mentioned above, in the hotel of
Talleyrand.

While the Czar was discussing with this wily veteran, and a few other
French statesmen of the first class, summoned at his request, the state
of public opinion, and the strength of the contending parties--the
population of Paris continued lost in surprise and admiration, at the
sudden march of events, the altogether unexpected amount of the troops
of the Allies--(for they that had figured in the triumphal procession
were, it now appeared, from the occupation of all the environs, but a
fragment of the whole)--and above all, perhaps--such is the theatric
taste of this people--the countless varieties of lineament and costume
observable among the warlike bands lounging and parading about their
streets and gardens. The capital w