fopha bed, conftructed after the French fashion, which was very lofty, and handfome, and very comfortable, I waited upon my accomplished friend, Madame H, in the Rue Florentine. I had the honor of knowing her when in England, from very early years; I found her with her elegant and accomplished daughter, in a fuite of large rooms, very handsomely furnished after the antique, which gives to the prefent fafhionable furniture of France, its form and character. These rooms compofed a floor of a noble stone built houfe, which contained feveral other families; fuch is the customary mode of being lodged in the capital. She received me in the most charming manner, and had expected me for fome days, previous to my arrival, and was that evening going to her country house at Paffi, a few miles from Paris, whither fhe preffed me to accompany her, but I declined it, on account of the short time which I had before me to fpend in Paris. Madame H was not only a beauty, but a woman of wit and learning, and had accordingly admitted Voltaire amongst the number of her household gods; the arch old cynic, with his deathlike farcaftic face, admirably represented, by a small whole length porcelain ftatue, occupied the centre of her chimney piece. Upon finding that I was disposed to remain in town, the recommended me to a reftaurateur, in the gardens of the Thuilleries, one of the first eating houses in Paris, for fociety, and entertainment, to the

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master of which she fent her fervant, with my name,

to

inform him, the had recommended an English gentleman of her acquaintance to his houfe, and requefted that an English fervant in his fervice might attend to me, when I dined there. This was a little valuable civility, truly French. This houfe has been lately built under the auspices of the first consul, from a defign approved by his own exquifite tafte; he has permitted the entrance to open into the gardens of the confular palace. The whole is from a model of one of the little palaces of the Herculaneum, it is upon a fmall fcale, built of a fine white ftone, it con tains a centre, with a portico, fupported by doric pillars, and two long wings. The front is upon the terrace of the gardens, and commands an enchanting view of all its beautiful walks and ftatues. On the ground floor, the houfe is divided into three long and fpacious apartments, opening into each other through centre arches, and which are redoubled upon the view, by immenfe pier glaffes at each end. The firft room is for dinner parties, the next for ices, and the third for coffee. In the middle is a flying ftaircafe, lined on each fide with orange trees, which af cends into a fuite of upper rooms, all of which are admirably painted after the tafte of Herculaneum, and are almost lined with coftly pier glasses.

A

My fair countrywomen would perhaps be a little furprifed to be told, that elegant women, of the first refpectability, fuperbly dreffed for the promenade,

dine here with their friends in the public room, a custom which renders the fcene delightful, and removes from it the accustomed impreffions of groffness. Upon entering, the guest is prefented with a dinner chart, handsomely printed, enumerating the different dishes provided for that day, with their respective prices affixed. All the people who frequent this place are confidered highly respectable. The vifitor is furnished with ice for his water decanters, with the best attendance at dinner, and with all the English and foreign newspapers. I always dined here when I was not engaged. After parting from Madame Hwho intended returning to town the next day, I went to fee the confular guard relieved at the Thuilleries. About five companies of this distinguished regiment assemble in the gardens, exactly at five minutes before twelve o'clock, and preceded by their fine band of music march through the hall of the palace, and form the line in the grand court yard before it, where they are joined by a

fquadron of horse.

broad white facings.

Their uniform is blue, with

The confular guard were in a little difgrace, and were not permitted to do the entire duty of the palace at this time, nor during feveral fucceeding days, as a mark of the first conful's displeasure, which had been excited by fome unguarded expreffion of the common men, respecting his conduct, and which, to the jealous ear of a new created and untried authori

ty, founded like the tone of difaffection. Only the cavalry were allowed to mount guard, the infantry were, provifionally, fuperceded by a detachment from a fine regiment of huffars. On account of the fhortnefs of this parade, which is always difmiffed precifely at ten minutes paft twelve o'clock, it is not much attended. The band is very fine, they had a Turkish military inftrument, which I never heard before, and was ufed inftead of triangles. It was in the fhape of four canopies, like the roofs of Chinese temples, one above another, leffening as they afcended, made of thin plates of brafs, and fringed with very little brafs bells, it was fupported by a fliding rod which dropped into a handle, out of which, when it was intended to be founded, it was fuddenly jerked by the musician, and produced a good effect with the other inftruments. The tambour major is remarked for his noble appearance, and for the proportions of his perfon, which is very handsome: his full drefs uniform on the grand parade is the moft fplendid. thing, I ever beheld. The corps of pioneers who precede the regiment, have a fingular appearance. Thefe men are rather above fix feet high, and proportionably made, they wear fierce muftachios, and long black beards, lofty bear skin caps, broad white leathern aprons, which almost touch their chins, and over their fhoulders carry enormous hatchets. Their ftrange coftume feemed to unite the diffimilar char

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acters of high prieft, and warrior. They looked like military magi. The common men made a very martial appearance. Their officers wore English riding boots, which had an unmilitary effect. Paris at prefent exhibits all the appearances of a city in a ftate of fiege. The confular palace resembles a line of magnificent barracks, at the balconies, and upon the terraces of which, foldiers are every where to be seen lounging. This palace is partitioned between the first and second confuls, the third principal magiftrate refides in a palace near the Louvre, oppofite to the Thuilleries. The four coloffal brazen horfes, called the Venetian horses, which have been brought from Venice, are mounted upon lofty pedestals, on each fide of the gates of the grand court yard of the palWhen the Roman emperor Conftantine founded Conftantinople, he attached thefe exquisite statues to the chariot of the Sun in the hippodromus, or circus, and when that capital was taken poffeffion of by the Venetian and French crufading armies, in 1206, the Venetians obtained poffeffion of them, amongst many other inestimable curiofities, and placed these horfes in four niches over the great door of the church of St. Marco. Refpecting their previous hiftory, authors very much differ; fome affert that they were caft by the great statuary Lyfippus, in Alexander's time, others that they were raifed over the triumphal arch of Auguftus, others of Nero, and

ace.