d his eye detected the
_conjuration de quinze ans!_

Among the gay parties of this festive period, Scott mentioned with
special pleasure one fine day given to an excursion to Ermenonville,
under the auspices of Lady Castlereagh. The company was a large one,
including most of the distinguished personages whom I have been
naming, and they dined _al fresco_ among the scenes of Rousseau's
retirement, but in a fashion less accordant with the spirit of his
_reveries d'un promeneur solitaire_, than with the song which
commemorates some earlier tenants of that delicious valley,--

"La belle Gabrielle
Etoit dans ces lieux--
Et le souvenir d'elle
Nous rend heureux," etc.

At some stage of this merry day's proceedings, the ladies got tired of
walking, and one of Lord Castlereagh's young diplomatists was
despatched into a village in quest of donkeys for their accommodation.
The _attache_ returned by and by with a face of disappointment,
complaining that the charge the people made was so extravagant,
{p.063} he could not think of yielding to the extortion. "_Marshal
Forwards_" said nothing, but nodded to an aide-de-camp. They had
passed a Prussian picket a little while before;--three times the
requisite number of donkeys appeared presently, driven before
half-a-dozen hussars, who were followed by the screaming population of
the refractory hamlet; and "an angry man was Bluecher," said Scott,
"when Lord Castlereagh condescended to go among them, all smiles, and
sent them back with more Napoleons than perhaps the fee-simple of the
whole stud was worth."

Another evening of more peaceful enjoyment has left a better record.
But I need not quote here the lines on Saint Cloud.[22] They were
sent, on the 16th of August, to the late Lady Alvanley, with whom and
her daughters he spent much of his time while in Paris.

[Footnote 22: See _Poetical Works_ (Edin. Ed.), vol. xi.
p. 295 [Cambridge Ed. p. 420].]

As yet, the literary reputation of Scott had made but little way among
the French nation; but some few of their eminent men vied even with
the enthusiastic Germans in their courteous and unwearied attentions
to him. The venerable _Chevalier_, in particular, seemed anxious to
embrace every opportunity of acting as his cicerone; and many mornings
were spent in exploring, under his guidance, the most remarkable
scenes and objects of historical and antiquarian interest both in
Paris and its ne