many years after the time my story alludes to, Louis, who had long since forfeited the title of bien aimé, would take Madame de la Vieuville's hand, and, gazing at his signet, recall with pleasure the masked ball and his disappointment. I recollect one evening, upon the conclusion of one of the most formal and ponderous of Lord Elkington's receptions, being betrayed into an expedition which, as it resulted in somewhat of an adventure, I will e'en make bold, in my rambling and desultory way, to inflict upon my readers. A brother attaché, well hackneyed from his longer term of service-in all the frivolities and dissipations of the gay capital, proposed to me to pay a visit to one of the gambling "salons" of the Boulevards. Not having any great penchant-I may say it of myself with perfect sincerity, even at that gay and giddy period of my life-for the noble and fashionable vice of gambling, and being moreover in no condition to take upon myself any further bodily exertion at that early hour of the morning-I begged to be excused upon the plea of indifference and fatigue. Greville's importunities were not so easily to be evaded. With all the tact and petty selfishness of a man of the world bent upon humouring his own wayward fancies, he set about enumerating some fifty good, and to himself perfectly satisfactory, reasons against his being compelled to walk through the streets of Paris alone, and at such an hour upon a frosty winter's morning. He assured me the "salon" was one to which but few foreigners had the "entrée." That he himself had only obtained it through the greatest good fortune, and in his official capacity-that it was just the hour to view the scene to advantage-that I should perhaps never have such an opportunity again, &c. &c. The result may be anticipated; I withdrew my objections, and consented. So out we sallied arm in arm, from the court of the Ambassade, up the still deserted Rue St. Honoré, upon our unseasonable expedition. Upon reaching the further end of the Boulevards, we branched into a side street; Greville reconnoitred the vicinity, and finally came to a halt opposite to a mean and somewhat retired doorway, distant not many yards from the Boulevards we had quitted, Greville tapped against the door in a somewhat peculiar manner with his walking cane. "This entrance to the rooms," he whispered, "is private. Every 'salon' in Paris, by law, ought to be closed long before this hour. Not, indeed, that the authorities are unaware of the proceedings that take place here every night, but for reasons best known to themselves, the proprietors of this 'établissement' are left unmolested." He was interrupted by the grating of an inner lock. A somewhat ill-visaged countenance made its appearance at the "grille," and a surly voice in connection with it demanded our business at that late hour. Greville's reply appeared satisfactory; a bolt was let down, and suddenly as the door opened and closed almost immediately upon our entrance, there burst upon my unprepared vision a blaze of light and splendour, which at that period of my noviciate, appeared almost magical in its startling and sudden effects. I had occasionally whiled away an hour in a London hell, but entertained not the slightest notion of the extent to which decoration and lavish expenditure had been carried in these gambling houses of Paris. Many a time since then have I looked unmoved upon a similar scene, never for a moment thinking it otherwise than the most natural and reasonable thing in the whole world, that thus nobly and gorgeously arrayed, should be these dens of infamy and sin. Such is the force of habit. A long and richly lighted corridor led us into the principal apartment. Here the scene that presented itself was still more dazzling and splendid. At various tables, engaged in the all-absorbing mysteries of roulette, trente et un, and faro, were stationed groups of players, composed, many of them, of the highest and greatest of the land. "There," said Greville, pointing to one or another of these parties, "stands the Marquis de the Marechal de — the Duc de mentioning in rapid succession the names of several well known in the gay or political world of Paris. We moved towards the folding doors opposite to those by which we had entered the apartment, and upon Greville's presenting a ticket, apparently of talismanic properties, to an officiating liveried Cerberus, we were admitted into an inner saloon, smaller than the first, but equally well decorated and illuminated. There, was to be seen enacting the self-same scene, although upon a lesser scale. The play in this room was confined to an élite and favoured few, and the stakes played for, as I was given to understand, were generally much greater in amount. "Do you see that old military-looking man upon the right of the croupier," whispered Greville, pressing my arm, "who views, or affects to view his diminishing heap of rouleaux with such consummate sang froid; it is the Carlist Conte Lagrange,-you must surely have seen him at our Embassy Balls. However, let us keep moving, and I will introduce you everybody knows Lagrange." I made my bow, as Greville performed the ceremony in his usual offhand manner. The aristocratic-looking old Frenchman returned my salutation with a most profound inclination, but withal with that frank and easy courtesy of manner which so eminently and happily distinguishedalas, that the race has almost passed away-the old Noblesse of France. We conversed pleasantly for some minutes. No one who marked the animated and intelligent countenance of the polite old nobleman, would have guessed from its expression, that he was in the slightest degree aware of the fact that there happened to be such a thing as a rouge et noir table in existence, or that he himself had within the last few moments been a loser at the game to the amount of some hundred Napoleons. "Ma foi," he answered, in reply to some remark of mine referring to his bad fortune, "ma foi ça m'est égal je me suis accoutumé à de revers." The phrase meant more than he allowed it to express, as I discovered subsequently; the reverses he had sustained in the late troubles of his country were indeed numerous and sufficiently severe to produce despondency, had such been at all a condition of his nature. I must now leave my friend, the Count, although but for a short period, I can assure my readers,-and at the same time the "Salon de Jeu," to which I have introduced them. I have too long delayed my long promised adventure, although the scenes I have recounted were indispensably necessary to the due elucidation of it. As, upon our homeward progress towards the embassy, Greville and myself were threading our careful way through that labyrinth of streets which encompass the vicinity of the Rue de la Chaussée D'Antin, Greville suddenly uttered an exclamation, and wresting his arm with violence from mine, ran like a madman down a bye street we had just traversed. So unexpected was the movement, and so intense the darkness of the night, that he was almost out of sight before I had made up my mind as to what on earth could possess him, or what course I ought myself to pursue. I could not but conclude that some sudden fit had taken possession of his senses-the champagne we had been both drinking at the salon had perhaps produced a stronger effect upon his nerves than I had at all imagined. I buttoned my coat around me, to keep off the rain that kept falling with a heavy sough upon the pavement of the deserted streets. I could plainly hear the receding footsteps of my friend, and, as I thought, of some one else he was pursuing. I shouted, but he returned no answer-there was no alternative-my only course appeared to be to trust to my legs, or some propitious accident, to effect my junction with Greville, before I had lost all traces of the direction he had taken. Hardly, in following up my resolution, had I made two steps in advance, when down I fell with violence upon the hard and slippery pavement; fortunately I was not stunned by the shock, although my bones were somewhat sorely bruised. I knelt down in order to satisfy myself concerning the nature of the obstacle that had so rudely opposed my progress. To my inexpressible horror I laid my hands upon what, by the assistance of a ray of disky moonlight that streamed for a moment from behind a neighbouring chimney-stack, I discovered to be the warm and murdered body of a man. COMFITURES. (To be continued.) A BALLAD. The sun had sunk beneath the hills, By age or sorrow's palsied hand- No smiling forms to meet him now O can you tell, with accents slow Years, years ago; the tale is old, But like the fairest flower, so she Full many suitors round her flocked But vainly for her sued, She gave her hand or heart to none Each oath, each promise that he made Her's from the heart, his from the lip- For war broke out, so William went She lost her lover-ever true, And long his absence mourned. He ne'er returned to claim his bride, And her, too, chance forsook- He'll soon return, she said, but ah! For gnawing to her inmost heart No word she uttered of complaint, But sinking to the silent grave, But though she's dead, for many a day Though by no costly tribute marked, To all the country, far and near, Chaplets of flowers in garlands wreathed, "O, lead me there," the stranger cried, And now, repentant, but too late "Why should I live? What happiness Where'er I go, where'er I turn, Her chiding form appears. Then lead me there, for pity's sake, And lay me down beside, That I may breathe my last where she Is laid who for me died." S. S. |