spectacle of a number of citizensoldiers, the majority of them potbellied and spectacled, suggests no very chivalrous association.

See those four amphibious animals marching two by two, keeping the step, or striving to keep it, under the guidance of a corporal. They are four Parisian citizens transformed into soldiers for the ensuing fourand-twenty hours. It is a quarter past six. They march towards the Tuileries gardens, where they should have made their appearance at six to the moment; but their's is no military parade. The impatient comrades whom it was their business to relieve have been champing the bit for the last twenty minutes. The flag in front of the palace makes this a post of honour, and our civic heroes are in complete uniform accordingly. Hence most probably the delay.

Beneath the perfectly horizontal, and therefore most ungraceful peaks of their chakos, you may obtain a glimpse of their physiognomy. One is a grocer, fat, good-humoured, yet withal somewhat pompous. He is by nature facetious, and no bad hand at constructing a calembourg. He is nevertheless very attentive to due military observance. Beside him marches a writer of burlesque vaudevilles, with a countenance-you would scarcely believe it, yet so contradictory are human appearances-long, sour, and melancholy, a thick, black moustache-the very hero of a murderous melodrame like the "Tour de Nêsle." The third is a stockjobber, chiefly remarkable for uxoriousness and jealousy. Silly man! He is the husband of a woman almost young enough to be his daughter, and so is the grocer, and both live in Paris! The fourth is a clerk in one of the government offices-a tall young man of fair complexion, tolerably good-looking, but not a little vain and fastidious.

The grocer unquestionably marches best of them all in line. He is one of those pragmatical gentry who affix a lofty notion of importance to every thing in which they are themselves

engaged. He is as serious as a parson in the discharge of his functions, and believes, so he does, that his vigilance and martial bearing are of vital importance to the security of the government.

The party now approaches the outer gate; and the corporal makes a sign to the young government clerk, who is nearest to his side. But the self-satisfied youth has his eyes fixed on that first-floor window above him, where a fair tenant is lounging, and does not perceive the summons. Accordingly it is the stock-jobber who is planted at the principal entrance. The vaudevillist, and the clerk, are placed in the interior of the garden, and the grocer at the inner gate. The general instructions are as follows:

1st article. To prevent all dogs from entering the gardens.

2d article. To prohibit the entrance of all persons carrying bundles.

3d article. To salute every individual wearing epaulettes, who approaches the post.

4th article. To cross bayonets against the ingress of all persons wearing caps, blouses, "casquettes,' or any other specimen of that class of society, which in all electioneering addresses is proclaimed to be so interesting and useful, to wit, the class of producers. For so rigorous is the law of admission into the Tuileries gardens that, parodying Dante's celebrated inscription in the Inferno, one might say

"To enter here, the wight who chooses,

Must doff caps, bundles, Macs,* and blouses."

The first quarter of an hour passes off quietly enough. Altogether intent on the duties of their "faction" (as the service is termed), our four civic heroes forget for the nonce their ideas, habits, and ordinary characters, and concentrate their minds on the confidential mission with which they have been intrusted for the espial of dogs, bundles, blouses, and epaulettes.

During the second quarter of an

VOL. II.

U

hour, one bourgeois warrior amuses himself, by way of pastime, with reckoning the bars in the iron gates, or varying his military attitudes by shifting the position of his musket; another measures with mathematical accuracy the ten paces allotted to him, right and left, or examines with prying curiosity the immovable soldier of the line, who stands at the same post in singular business-like contrast to the "hen on a griddle" sort of uneasiness which characterizes the belligerent citizen. The national guardsman cannot help wondering how it is that these honest troopers, light-complexioned or dusky, Norman or Provençal, have all the same identical "cut," almost the same physiognomy, on duty. And here be it observed, that the appearance of the French soldiers of the line, though not unmilitary, is almost always mean. They are proverbially ugly their stature is of the lowest (in England it would be accounted boyish), and their ungraceful chako, in shape like a truncated cone, and great hulking scarlet breeches, make them look more like scarecrows than soldiers.

At the expiration of the first halfhour, the vaudevillist, who has to read a military piece next day at the Ambigu Theatre, begins to grow inspired by his situation, and ruminates over a song to the tune of "Soldat Français." He sticks obstinately at the last verse. The two concluding lines he is determined on making energetic, and to assist the effect, he is resolved to embody a platitude in the two preceding lines. The platitude he hath already found:

"Yes, without being trop subtil,

Upon my life, it is no story66 "Hem! hem!" He measures the

ground allotted to him for his beat, with snout obtruded like a porker's, chako on the back of his head, and

musket balanced horizontally on the

left shoulder :

"Yes, without being trop subtil,

Upon my word, it is no story"Hem!" While the vaudevillist's brain is thus big with thought, a captain of voltigeurs, who has just received his commission, and is some

what anxious to make his new epaulettes and gorget glitter in the sun, presents himself before the "eyes distraught" of the perplexed poet, with his young spouse leaning on his arm, having brought her express to the Tuileries for the purpose of gladdening her eyes with a sight of the honours decreed to his rank, and thus, as he flatters himself, elevating himself considerably in her estimation. But, alas! the ambitious couple vainly pass and repass in front of the post with all the "pride, pomp, and . circumstance" of military state; no notice whatever is taken of their promenade

Ahem! ahem!

"Yes, without being trop subtil,

Upon my honour, 'tis no story-" continues the playwright in armour, displacing his chako, and scratching his head: "Ah, I have it!—

"When one has conquered sans peril,

He often triumphs without glory! "Bravo!" But in the very midst of his self-laudatory enthusiasm, the vaudevillist is stopped short by an attack which compels him involuntarily to retire three paces. It is a fine dog of the Newfoundland breed, which has taken a fancy to make a breakfast of his boot!

Without muzzle or leash, the animal at perfect liberty, smelling, tailwagging, and gambolling up and down, in utter contempt of the stringent regulations of power, makes an open mockery of the national guards

sently he remembered that his pretty young wife was very fond of walking, that she not unfrequently went out alone, that she had a male cousin recently come on a visit to Paris, who, doubtless, must be very desirous to see the public buildings, monuments, and gardens. Could it be? - The poor man's head was almost turned by the notion. His wife could know nothing of the particular post assigned to him. If the fantastical notion should have entered her head on that particular day to profit by his absence, and come, under pretext of taking the air, to enjoy a tête-a-tête with Gustave, beneath those very shades with the care of which he was entrusted! Mille Tonnerres! If he were about to surprise the young couple marching "in the step," as lovers know how to do so well, better than the national guards, and without ever having been on drill! His imagination running riot with these wild notions, every woman that came within eye-shot of his post became suspected, and he suffered not a solitary one to pass, without spying under her bonnet, and in some instances thrusting his nose close to hers, to such a degree that complaints were that day rife against the impertinence of the citizen sentinels. All of a sudden he remarked, at the distance of the whole length of the terrace, a little woman who perfectly resembled his Eudoxie in the turn of her figure; the corner of a veil hanging from her bonnet partly concealed her face; but veil and bonnet both bore a singular likeness to the lady who engrossed his affections. In the remaining portions of the toilette, there was also a striking analogy. The shawl more especially, that sweetlyselected pea-green shawl, presented by him to the ungrateful jade on the anniversary of their marriage! 'Sblood! What mortal man could bear it? His blood curdled in his

veins, when presently he perceived a young man who, following what appeared to be the universal usage, seemed also to mount guard. He grew pale as his shirt-collar when this audacious youth offered the lady his arm. But, when the latter accepted it, the stock-jobber was no longer master of himself. He shouted like a madman, and ran off helterskelter, leaving, as though it were a matter of the slightest consideration in the world, his post, his guérite, the post of public order and patriotic security, to reach his perfidious spouse's side. He came up with the infidèle, and plucked her by the peagreen shawl. She turned round

surprise and horror! It was not Eudoxie. The stupified husband remained transfixed upon the spot, his eyes double their ordinary size, his arms outstretched, the bayonet at the end of his musket trailing in the dust. The young lady, terribly affrighted, trembled all over, and ran backward a few paces.

"What is the matter, sir? What business have you with us?" demanded her companion in tones of strong indignation.

Completely dumbfounded, and not knowing what excuse to offer, the unfortunate stock-jobber stammered forth a few unintelligible words, which the sudden recollection of the penalty he had incurred for abandoning his post, rendered still more incomprehensible

"How dare you pluck madame by the shawl?"

"P-p-pardon! I thought that madame carried a bundle."

"Insolent wretch!"

And the lady gave him a slap in the face! The hurried observation of the stock-jobber, offered by way of excuse, was most unfortunate; for the lady was very visibly enceinte, and the pleasantry appeared both to her and her companion to be in exceedingly bad taste.

Covered with confusion, the runaway sentinel crawled back to his post. It was during the interval of his desertion that the dog had defrauded the corps de garde, while at the same time an infinite number of

blouses and "casquettes" made an Ostrogothic irruption into the gardens through the neglected post.

The vaudevillist, delivered at length of the verse of which he had been so long parturient, and recalled to a sense of his duty, pursued the canine intruder with the butt-end of his gun en avance, and directed his steps to wards the point where the government clerk had been fixed. This was the least frequented part of the entrance to the gardens; and the young man had, doubtless, excellent reasons for claiming this post by preference, for the vaudevillist as he approached stopped short at beholding two sentinels instead of one.

In truth," a young and interestinglooking female (as the police-reporters have it), wearing a bonnet of rose-coloured silk, and a lilac dress, kept company with the clerkly soldier, in the hope to sweeten the toils of his post by sharing them with him. Their conversation appeared to be exceedingly animated. What could be the subject of this vivacious interchange of ideas? The vaudevillist, ever intent upon materials for the construction of theatrical scenes, was excessively anxious to know; and for that purpose he strove his best to overhear them by gliding behind them without being perceived. The tall young clerk saw nothing but the two large and full black eyes of his fair sentinel-comrade.

"How imprudent, Ernest!" said the young female, "to choose this place for our téte-à-tête, when my husband is so near us."

"What of that, dear Adèle? Fear nothing."

"How? when from this spot I can perceive him," she resumed, pointing covertly to the gate where the fat grocer was mounting guard.

"Pooh, pooh, he is short-sighted," replied Ernest. " Besides, I stole his spectacles at the corps de garde-and a deuce of a rage he was in at not being able to find them; without them he can see but little, and he has a downright passion for wearing them while he is mounting guard. At this distance he could not tell a man from a monkey. Then he is always too

busily engaged with the duties of his post, to pay the slightest attention to

us.

You perceive that I have not acted without due foresight. I have, moreover, taken some precautions." "What may those be," inquired Adèle.

"I have set some of my friends to keep his vigilance exercised. They are sure to find employment for him. He is planted at the principal side of entrance, and the fertility of their invention will not give him much time to look about him, trust me."

The conversation which ensued between Adèle and Ernest was carried on in so low a tone, that the curious vaudevillist could not seize a word. Nevertheless, rubbing his hands, he exclaimed, "a capital scene for my new vaudeville!" His wandering eyes naturally sought the poor grocer, who, without the slightest suspicion of what the government-clerk was about, mounted guard with a conscientious zeal and a heroic devotion well worthy of a better fate.

At

Our portly grocer was in utter astonishment at the unaccustomed annoyances which he met that day in the discharge of his duty. Never before had he found his undivided attention to be so indispensably necessary. Never had such a number of vagabond dogs congregated at the entrance of the royal garden. no previous time did such an infinitude of gamins and mauvais sujets show their noses under the peaks of forbidden caps through the bars of the gate. Never did so heterogeneous a multitude of bundles of all forms and dimensions strive to obtain a fraudulent entrance. And to make his fatigues well nigh insupportable, he saw passing and repassing, without intermission, a whole legion of epauletted officers, whom it was absolutely necessary that he should honour with the military salute. It seemed that the whole staff of Louis Philippe, his marshals and generals, had a common appointment in front of the poor grocer's post; and sweating, blowing, yet proud, withal, of the manner in which he handled his arms, he seemed like an ancient warrior, multiplying himself