re. But you will find hosts who will be charmed to have you
and your MSS. I beg you not to forget the latter.

My wife, as housekeeper, desires me to give you an important piece of
advice. In the provinces, especially during Lent, it is difficult to get
good meat on Fridays and Saturdays, and though you are a great sinner,
she has no wish to force you to do penance, especially against your will,
as that would take away all the merit. She advises you, therefore, to
arrange to spend with us Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, and to avoid Friday and Saturday, and especially the whole of
the Holy Week.

Now you are provided with the necessary instructions. Choose your own
day, and give us twenty-four hours' warning.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

St. Cyr, March 31, 1854.

My dear Senior,--As you are willing to encounter hard meat and river
fish, I have no objection to your new plan. I see in it even this
advantage, that you will be able to tell us _de visu_ what went on in the
Corps Legislatif, which will greatly interest us.

The condemnation of Montalembert seems to me to be certain; but I am no
less curious to know how that honourable assembly will contrive to
condemn a private letter which appeared in a foreign country, and which
was probably published without the authorisation and against the will of
the writer.

It is a servile trick, which I should like to see played.

Do not hesitate to postpone your visit if the sitting of the Corps
Legislatif should not take place on Monday.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

CONVERSATIONS.

I passed the 3rd and 4th of April in the Corps Legislatif listening to
the debate on the demand by the Government of permission to prosecute M.
de Montalembert, a member of the Corps Legislatif, for the publication of
a letter to M. Dupin, which it treated as libellous. As it was supposed
that M. de Montalembert's speech would be suppressed, I wrote as
much of it as I could carry in my recollection; the only other
vehicle--notes--not being allowed to be taken.[1] On the evening of the
5th of April I left Paris for St. Cyr.

[Footnote 1: See Appendix.]

_St. Cyr, Thursday, April 6_, 1854.--I drove with Tocqueville to
Chenonceaux, a chateau of the sixteenth century, about sixteen miles from
Tours, on the Cher. I say _on_ the Cher, for such is literally its
position. It is a habitable bridge, stretching across the water.

The two first arches, which spring from the right bank of