were terrible. The inhabitants asserted that a season of such intense and protracted cold had not been experienced for many years. The Seine froze in December, on the night after the ceremony of the reception of Bonaparte's remains. It was feared that the period of that grand pageant might be fixed on for some popular tumult, as symptoms of disaffection towards the government, especially of exasperation against the English, had for some time been revealing themselves. During the day the Marsellois Hymn, the ancient signal of outbreak, had been heard hoarsely uplifted, with here and there cries among the crowd of "a bas les traiteurs!" Some of us, nurtured in a peaceful land, were considerably alarmed, not so much for our own personal safety, as lest our eyes should be shocked by sights of conflict and bloodshed. But the extreme cold, benumbing nerve and muscle, and checking all effervescence of animal spirits, probably operated as a protection to the peace of the city; on the same principle that Marshal Soult once quelled the beginning of a formidable insurrection, by causing the engines to play plentifully upon the malcontents. Would that all distinguished commanders were equally ingenious and merciful in substituting water for blood.
Among the slighter traits of French character, we could not but notice that variety and fruitfulness of resource, by which a little was made sufficient for the necessities of life; and the respect which was shown
