e second division left
head-quarters and made straight for the Barriere d'Italie. But when
outside the gates they stood undecided. For one moment only. The next
they caught sight of a magnificent Bouginier on a wall next to the
excise office--of a Bouginier whose outstretched index pointed to the
Fontainebleau road. After that, all went well. As far as Marseilles
their Bouginier no more failed them than the clouds of smoke and fire
failed the Israelites in the wilderness. At the seaport town they lost
the track for a little while, rather through their want of faith in the
ingenuity of their predecessors than through the latter's lack of such
ingenuity. They had the Mediterranean in front of them, and even if they
found a Bouginier depicted somewhere on the shore, his outstretched
index could only point to the restless waves; he could do nothing more
definite. Considerably depressed, they were going down the Cannebiere,
when they caught sight of the features of their guiding star on a panel
between the windows of a shipping office. His outstretched index did
not point this time; it was placed over a word, and that word spelt
"Malta." They took ship as quickly as possible for the ancient
habitation of the Knights-Templars. On the walls of the Customs in the
island was Bouginier, with a scroll issuing from his nostrils, on which
was inscribed the word "Alexandria." A similar indication met their gaze
at the Pyramids, and at last the second contingent managed to come up
with the first amidst the ruins of Thebes at the very moment when the
word "Suez" was being traced as issuing from Bouginier's mouth.

Among the company was a young fellow of the name of Berthier, who became
subsequently an architect of some note. The Passage du Caire, as I have
already observed, was in those days the head-quarters of the
lithographic-printing business in general, but there was one branch
which flourished more than the rest, namely, that of _lettres de faire
part_,[1] menus of restaurants and visiting-cards. The two first-named
documents were, in common with most printed matter intended for
circulation, subject to a stamp duty, but in the early days of the
Second Empire Louis-Napoleon had it taken off. To mark their sense of
the benefit conferred, the lithographic firms[2] determined to have the
arcade, which stood in sad need of repair, restored, and Berthier was
selected for the task. The passage was originally built to commemorate
Bonapar