bleaux, differing in their groupings and color, but
each part of one mighty whole,--links in the great chain, and evidencing
the changeful aspect of a nation crouching beneath tyranny, or dwindling
under imbecility and dotage.

I have said the English were the vogue in Paris; and so they were, but
especially in those _salons_ which reflected the influence of the Court,
and where the tone of the Tuileries was revered as law. Every member of
the Government, or all who were even remotely connected with it, at once
adopted the reigning mode; and to be _a l'Anglaise_ became now as much
the type of fashion as ever it had been directly the opposite. Only such
as were in the confidence of Fouche and his schemes knew how hollow all
this display of friendly feeling was, or how ready the Government
held themselves to assume their former attitude of defiance when
circumstances should render it advisable.

Among those who speedily took up the tone of the Imperial counsels,
the _salons_ of the Hotel Glichy were conspicuous. English habits, as
regarded table equipage; English servants; even to English cookery did
French politeness extend its complaisance; and many of the commonest
habitudes and least cultivated tastes were imported as the daily
observances of fashionable people _outremer_.

In this headlong Anglomania, my English birth and family (I say English,
because abroad the petty distinctions of Irishman or Scotchman are
not attended to) marked me out for peculiar attention in society; and
although my education and residence in France had well-nigh rubbed off
all or the greater part of my national peculiarities, yet the flatterers
of the day found abundant traits to admire in what they recognized as
my John Bull characteristics. And in this way, a blunder in French, a
mistake in grammar, or a false accentuation became actually a _succes
de salon_. Though I could not help smiling at the absurdity of a vogue
whose violence alone indicated its unlikeliness to last, yet I had
sufficient of the spirit of my adopted country to benefit by it while it
did exist, and never spent a single day out of company.

At the Hotel Clichy I was a constant guest; and while with Mademoiselle
de Lacostellerie my acquaintance made little progress, with the countess
I became a special favorite,--she honoring me so far as to take me into
her secret counsels, and tell me all the little nothings which Fouche
usually disseminated as state secrets, and c