were frequently most insubordinate, and never lost an opportunity of
insulting a people whose armies had almost always defeated them on the
day of battle. I remember one particular occasion, when the Emperor
of Russia reviewed his Garde Imperiale, that the Cossacks actually charged
the crowd, and inflicted wounds on the unarmed and inoffensive spectators.
I recollect, too, a Prussian regiment displaying its bravery in the
Rue St. Honore on a number of hackney coachmen; indeed, scarcely a
day passed without outrages being committed by the Russian and Prussian
soldiers on the helpless population of the lower orders.


THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN PARIS


England was represented at this period by Sir Charles Stuart, who was
one of the most popular ambassadors Great Britain ever sent to Paris.
He made himself acceptable to his countrymen, and paid as much attention
to individual interests as to the more weighty duties of State. His
attaches, as is always the case, took their tone and manner from their
chief, and were not only civil and agreeable to all those who went to
the Embassy, but knew everything and everybody, and were of great use
to the ambassador, keeping him well supplied with information on whatever
event might be taking place. The British Embassy, in those days, was
a centre where you were sure to find all the English gentlemen in Paris
collected, from time to time. Dinners, balls, and receptions, were
given with profusion throughout the season: in fact, Sir Charles spent
the whole of his private income in these noble hospitalities. England
was then represented, as it always should be in France, by an ambassador
who worthily expressed the intelligence, the amiability, and the wealth,
of the great country to which he belonged. At the present day, the