Louis XVIII Has Been Hustled Into Paris, And Now Occupies The
Throne Of His Ancestors Under The Protection Of A Million Of Foreign
Bayonets, And The Banniere Des Lis Has Replaced The Tricolor On The
Castle Of The Tuileries.
A detachment of the British army occupies
Montmartre, where the British flag is flying, and in the Champs Elysees
And
Bois de Boulogne are encamped several brigades of English and Hanoverians.
The Sovereigns of Russia, Austria and Prussia are expected and then it is
said that the fate of France will be decided. The Army of the Loire has at
length made its submission to the King, after stipulating but in vain for
the beloved tricolor. Report says it is to be immediately dissolved and a
new army raised with more legitimate inclinations. Should the King accede
to this, France will be completely disarmed and at the mercy of the Allies,
and the King himself a state prisoner. The entrance into Paris, thro' the
Faubourg St Denis, does not give to the stranger who arrives there for the
first time a great idea of the magnificence of Paris; he should enter by
the Avenue de Neuilly or by the Porte St Antoine, both of which are very
striking and superb.
Now you must not expect that I shall or can give you a description of all
the fine things that I have seen or am about to see, for they have been so
often described before that it would be a perfect waste of time, and I can
do better in referring you at once to the Guide des Voyageurs a Paris; so
that I shall content myself with merely indicating these objects which make
the most impression on me.
My first visit was, as you will have no doubt guessed, to the Palais Royal:
there I breakfasted, there I dined, and there I passed the whole day
without the least ennui. It is a world in itself. It swarms at present
with officers of the Allied army. The variety of uniforms adds to the
splendour and novelty of the scene. The restaurants and cafes are filled
with them. The Palais Royal is certainly the temple of animal
gratification, the paradise of gastronomes. The officers are indulging in
all sorts of luxury, revelling in Champaign and Burgundy, in all the
pleasures of the belly, as well as in iis quae sub ventre sunt. 'Twill be
a famous harvest for the restaurateurs and for the Cyprians who parade up
and down the Arcades, sure of a constant succession of suitors. In fact,
whatever be the taste of a man, whether sensual or intellectual or both, he
can gratify himself here without moving out of the precincts of the Palais
Royal. Here are cafes, restaurants, shops of all kinds whose display of
clocks, jewellery, stuffs, silks, merchandize from all parts of the world,
is most brilliant and dazzling; here you find reading-rooms where
newspapers, reviews and pamphlets of all tongues, nations and languages are
to be met with; here are museums of paintings, statues, plans in relief,
cosmoramas; here are libraries, gaming houses, houses of fair reception;
cellars where music, dancing and all kinds of orgies are carried on;
exhibitions of all sorts, learned pigs, dancing dogs, military canary
birds, hermaphrodites, giants, dwarf jugglers from Hindostan, catawbas from
America, serpents from Java, and crocodiles from the Nile.
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