Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 07.djvu/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
86
FRENCH AFFAIRS.

ances, and the hall of the Amis du Peuple be closed. "I believe that the National Guard and the line will shell us out (nous cerneront) to-night," remarked my neighbour; "have you your pistols for such an emergency?" "I will go and get them," I replied, and leaving the hall, went to a soirée in the Faubourg Saint Germain, where there was naught save lights, mirrors, flowers, bare shoulders, eau sucrée, yellow gloves, and fadaises—frivolities. There was on every face a triumphant joy, as if the victory of the ancien régime had been established, and while the "Vive la Républiqne" of the Rue Grenelle was still ringing in my ears, I must needs hear that the return of the enfant du miracle and of the whole miraculous set of his relations was as good as certain. I cannot here help betraying that I there saw two doctrinaires dance an "Anglaise." These gentlemen dance nothing else but to the English step.[1] A lady in a white dress, on which were green bees which looked like lilies, asked me if the Germans and Cossacks might be relied


  1. The point is better given in French than in German: "Je ne puis m'empecher de dénoncer deux doctrinaires que j'ai vus dans cette maison danser des gigues anglaises; ces messieurs ne dansant qu'à l'anglaise." The next sentence is reduced in the French version to "une aimable dame me demanda." It is hardly necessary to remark that the bees indicated Napoleonism and lilies Legitimacy.