Paris herself again in 1878-9 . gland, they decayed through pride. Beneath my very feet the blood ofPichegru may have been shed. Where rises that iron staircaseleading to the galleries which surround the old-clothes mart mayhave risen the donj ons winding- stair down which Louis, Antoinette,Elizabeth of France, stepped to then- death. The phantoms of•Georges Cadoudal and Mehee de la Touche, of Simon the bestialcobbler and the poor little captive king, of Captain Wright and Sir-Sydney Smith (that gallant sailor lay long a prisoner in the Temple,and escaped from it in a wonderfully clever and au
Paris herself again in 1878-9 . gland, they decayed through pride. Beneath my very feet the blood ofPichegru may have been shed. Where rises that iron staircaseleading to the galleries which surround the old-clothes mart mayhave risen the donj ons winding- stair down which Louis, Antoinette,Elizabeth of France, stepped to then- death. The phantoms of•Georges Cadoudal and Mehee de la Touche, of Simon the bestialcobbler and the poor little captive king, of Captain Wright and Sir-Sydney Smith (that gallant sailor lay long a prisoner in the Temple,and escaped from it in a wonderfully clever and audacious manner),are all around me; but it is not these historic dead that my fancyconjures up. My vision is only of a pair of trousers bought in theTemple five-and-twenty years ago. It was in the early days of the 210 TARIS HERSELF AGAIN. Second Empire. We were a band of young English and Americanbrothers domiciled in Paris;—very fond of talking about the pic-tures which Ave intended to paint, and the novels and plays which. we intended to write, and much fonder of amusing ourselves—withmaterial enjojinents when we had any money, with strolling andidling and gossiping when we had none. It so fell out that oneof our number was favoured, some time during the winter season of1854, with an invitation to a grand ball to be given b}r the Prefectof the Seine at the Hotel de Ville. Evening dress was de claw-hammer coat and dress waistcoat our friend possessed, butthe requisite black pantaloons of fashionable society were was to be done ? We had all of us the lightest of hearts ;but there was not the thinnest pair of sable trousers availableamong us. So we made a friendly little subscription among our-selves, and our brother was enabled to trudge (fraternally escortedby two judicious brethren, lest he should stray into billiard-play-ing cafes or spend his peculiwm on rare and ragged editions ofthe classics on the way) to the Marche du Temple, where, for thes
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