officer in Paris, and you are the first I have yet met with." He talked
about the battle of Waterloo, and gave me some useful directions concerning
restaurants and cafes. Along the Boulevards were handsome houses, isolated,
with gardens interspersed, and the roads were bordered on both sides
with stately, spreading trees, some of them probably a hundred years
old. There was but an imperfect pavement, the stepping-stones of which
were adapted to display the Parisian female ankle and boot in all their
calculated coquetry; and the road showed nothing but mother earth, in
the middle of which a dirty gutter served to convey the impurities of
the city to the river. The people in the streets appeared sulky and
stupefied: here and there I noticed groups of the higher classes evidently
discussing the events of the moment.

How strange humanity would look in our day in the costume of the first
empire. The ladies wore very scanty and short skirts, which left little
or no waist; their bonnets were of exaggerated proportions, and protruded
at least a foot from their faces, and they generally carried a fan.
The men wore blue or black coats, which were baggily made, and reached
down to their ankles; their hats were enormously large, and spread out
at the top.

I dined the first day of my entrance into Paris at the Cafe Anglais,
on the Boulevard des Italiens, where I found to my surprise several
of my brother officers. I recollect the charge for the dinner was about
one-third what it would be at the present day. I had a potage, fish
- anything but fresh, and, according to English predilections and taste,
of course I ordered a beef-steak and pommes de terre. The wine, I thought,
was sour. The dinner cost about two francs. The theatres at this time,
as may easily be imagined, were not very well attended. I recollect
going to the Francais, where I saw for the first time the famous Talma.