al animosity than is quite becoming in a pretty woman. However,
she has been placed in peculiar circumstances. The daughter of a
statesman who was a martyr to the rage of faction may be pardoned
for speaking sharply of the enemies of her parent; and she did speak
sharply. With knitted brows, and flashing eyes, and a look of feminine
vengeance about her beautiful mouth, she gave me such a character of
Peel as he would certainly have had no pleasure in hearing.

In the evening Lord John Russell came; and, soon after, old Talleyrand.
I had seen Talleyrand in very large parties, but had never been near
enough to hear a word that he said. I now had the pleasure of listening
for an hour and a half to his conversation. He is certainly the greatest
curiosity that I ever fell in with. His head is sunk down between two
high shoulders. One of his feet is hideously distorted. His face is as
pale as that of a corpse, and wrinkled to a frightful degree. His eyes
have an odd glassy stare quite peculiar to them. His hair, thickly
powdered and pomatumed, hangs down his shoulders on each side as
straight as a pound of tallow candles. His conversation, however, soon
makes you forget his ugliness and infirmities. There is a poignancy
without effort in all that he says, which reminded me a little of the
character which the wits of Johnson's circle give of Beauclerk. For
example, we talked about Metternich and Cardinal Mazarin. "J'y trouve
beaucoup a redire. Le Cardinal trompait; mais il ne mentait pas. Or, M.
de Metternich ment toujours, et ne trompe jamais." He mentioned M. de
St. Aulaire,--now one of the most distinguished public men of France. I
said: "M. de Saint-Aulaire est beau-pere de M. le duc de Cazes, n'est-ce
pas?" "Non, monsieur," said Talleyrand; "l'on disait, il y a douze
ans, que M. de Saint-Aulaire etoit beau-pere de M. de Cazes; l'on dit
maintenant que M. de Cazes est gendre de M. de Saint-Aulaire." [This
saying remained in Macaulay's mind. He quoted it on the margin of his
Aulus Gellius, as an illustration of the passage in the nineteenth book
in which Julius Caesar is described, absurdly enough as "perpetuus ille
dictator, Cneii Pompeii socer".] It was not easy to describe the change
in the relative positions of two men more tersely and more sharply; and
these remarks were made in the lowest tone, and without the slightest
change of muscle, just as if he had been remarking that the day was
fine. He added: "M. de Saint-Aula