Laval; her amitié for you has an activity of zeal, and a delicacy of tact, with a spirit of constancy that are truly charming.

Hier, j'ai quitté ma retraite, très volontiers, pour indulge myself with the sight of the Emperor of Russia. How was I charmed with his pleasing, gentle, and so perfectly unassuming air, manner, and demeanour! I was extremely gratified, also, by seeing the King of Prussia, who interests us all here, by a look that still indicates his tender regret for the partner of his hopes, toils, and sufferings, but not of his victories and enjoyments. It was at the Queen's palace I saw them, by especial and most gracious permission. The Prussian Princes, six in number, and the young Prince of Mecklenburg, and the Duchess of Oldenbourg, were of the party. All our Royal Dukes assisted, and the Princesses Augusta and Mary. The Princess Charlotte looked quite beautiful. She is wonderfully improved. It was impossible not to be struck with her personal attractions, her youth, and splendour. The assemblage was highly magnificent. The invitation was confined to Sovereigns, Princes, Princesses, and the immediate officers of the Crown and the Court. The Duchess of York looked amongst the happiest; the King of Prussia is her brother. I was admirably placed for the view, where every one passed close to me, yet without my being en évidence.

F. D'A.

Madame d'Arblay to Mrs. Lock.

London, July, 1814.

AFTER a most painful suspense I have been at length relieved by a letter from Paris. It is dated the 18th of June, and has been a fortnight on the road. It is, he says, his fourth letter, and he had not then received one of the uneasy tribe of my own.

The Consul-Generalship is, alas, entirely relinquished, and that by M. d'Arblay himself, who has been invited into the Corps de Garde by the Duc de Luxembourg, for his own Compagnie; an invitation he deemed it wrong to resist at such a moment; and he has since been named one of the officers of the Corps de Garde by the King, Louis XVIII., to whom he had taken the customary oath that very day-the 18th.

The season, however, of danger over, and the throne and order steadily re-established, he will still, I trust and believe, retire to civil domestic life. May it be speedily! After twenty years' lying by, I cannot wish to see him re-enter a military career at sixty years of age, though still young in all his faculties and feelings, and in his capacity of being as useful to others as to himself. There is a time, however, when the poor machine, though still perfect in a calm, is unequal to a storm. Private life, then, should be sought while it yet may be enjoyed; and M. d'Arblay has resources for retirement the most delightful, both for himself and his friends. He is dreadfully worn and fatigued by the

last year; and he began his active services at thirteen years of age. He is now past sixty. Every propriety, therefore, will abet my wishes, when the King no longer requires around him his tried and faithful adherents. And, indeed, I am by no means myself insensible to what is so highly gratifying to his feelings as this mark of distinction: bien plus honorable, cependant, as he adds, than lucrative.

I must remain here till my own many affairs are settled, and till he sees the turn likely to accelerate or retard his final projects abroad. But he will obtain a short leave of absence in the autumn, should matters wear a procrastinating aspect.

I shall quite grieve if you have never been tempted from your retirement to view the good and THEREFORE really great Emperor. I delight in the unpretending simplicity of his manner and conduct. The King of Prussia made friends of all who most nearly approached him. Blücher is still the general idol; and he seems to enjoy as well as merit so being. Platoff is the only one of the noble set I have not had the pleasure to see. Nothing else has yet taken me forth. But my own kind Princess Augusta graciously asks me to see the fireworks from her Royal Highness's apartment, and to that I gladly consent. Rejoicings for PEACE!

Madame d'Arblay to Mrs. Lock.

August 9, 1814.

THE friends of M. d'A. in Paris are now preparing to claim for him his rank in the army, as he held it

VOL. VII.

E

under Louis XVI., of Maréchal de Camp; and as the Duc de Luxembourg will present, in person, the demand au Roi, there is much reason to expect it will be granted.

M. de Thuisy, who brought your letter from Adrienne, has given a flourishing account of M. d'A. in his new uniform, though the uniform itself, he says, is very ugly. But so sought is the Company of the Corps de Gardes du Roi that the very privates, M. de T. says, are gentlemen. M. d'A. himself has only the place of Sous-lieutenant; but it is of consequence sufficient, in that Company, to be signed by the King, who had rejected two officers that had been named to him just before he gave his signature for M. d'A.

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I need not say what spirits and what pleasure this has occasioned to him. I have heard much of him-all of cheerful import- lately through Miss Planta, whose sister has just accompanied Lady Rolle to Paris; that favoured capital seems to be half peopled by English. The rage for Parisian excursions is almost incredible.

August 24, 1814.

M. d'Arblay has obtained his rank, and the kind King has dated it from the æra when the original Brevet was signed by poor Louis XVI. in 1792.

Monsieur d'Arblay to Madame d'Arblay.

Paris, ce 30 Août, 1814.

Il n'y a que deux jours, ma bonne Fanny, que j'ai passé plus de huit heures entières à m'entretenir

avec toi, sans même me douter que la position dans laquelle j'écrivais me faisait beaucoup de mal. N'importe-aujourd'hui je ne puis résister au plaisir de venir te confier l'extrême satisfaction que me fait éprouver la manière dont la fête donnée hier au Roi par la Ville s'est passée. Tout a été non seulement bien, mais à merveille; et cela est d'autant plus important, que je n'ai actuellement aucune doute que notre réunion au mois de Novembre ne souffrira pas la moindre difficulté; puisque la seule chose qui pouvait s'y opposer, c'est à dire le moindre doute sur la stabilité du gouvernement paternel qui nous a été rendu si miraculeusement, n'est plus même admissible. Ce n'est pas simplement avec plaisir, mais avec transport, avec la plus expansive effusion de cœur, que le Roi, Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême, et nos Princes, ont été accueillis à l'hôtel de Ville. Si l'enthousiasme du peuple a été comprimé dans la route, ç'a été uniquement parcequ'en ne voyant que des voitures tout à fait simples, personne n'a imaginé qu'elles renfermassent notre Père, qu'on s'attendait à voir dans la voiture surmontée d'une couronne. Il est présumable qu'on ne s'en est pas servi parce que cette couronne est impériale et non Royale.

Louis XVIII. n'a pas fait sur tout cela le moindre changement; et son palais est encore tel qu'il était il y a six mois, parsemé d'abeilles, de N, et d'aigles, qu'on aurait pu au moins, ce me semble, faire disparaître du trône sur lequel siègeait Sa Majesté le jour où elle a reçu le Lord Wellington, d'une manière si flatteuse pour ce héros. Après lui avoir témoigné combien elle