Lambesc, and sounded the first notes of that revolution which commenced by the assault of the Bastille! and ended by-the expulsion of the senate. It was in the Palais Royal that the club of the Jacobins was formed; it was in the Palais Royal that its rival club of the Thermidorians was held; the centre of action, discussion, politics-every café' in this historical spot is sacred for its recollections and its opinions. The Café de Foy was the theatre of the Dantonists-the Café de Chartres of the Gironde. The Hundred Days had its 'café' of patriots; and the Restoration its café' of enthusiastic youth and dissatisfied soldiers. I do not know a better description of the kind of gentlemen who frequent this resort than is contained in the simple fact mentioned by M. de Roch, viz. that "there is not an

in the place." The persons you

hôtel garni'

meet—are a population of strollers-of wanderers from every part of Paris, and from every part of the world -of men who seek no rest but such as may be found-in a chair; who desire no information not contained-in a newspaper; no excitement beyond that which is offered by certain houses in the vicinity,

The police, by no means less punctilious since

the revolution than during the pious' régime' that it destroyed, have completely driven away those improper ladies, who used to shock all more decent and respectable matrons, by the indecorum of their apparel. This, no doubt, has very much improved the evening company of the Palais Royal. But the most virtuous have a tidemark in their morality, and neither the 'Jesuits' nor the 'Doctrine' have allowed theirs to overflow the point at which it might do injury to the revenue. No: the gambling-house is to be open night and day to all adventurers, and the Morgue and the Treasury are filled by the same miserable contrivance.

The following passage, taken from a popular French novel, presents a picture of one of these iniquitous resources of the exchequer :

:

"Enter! how bare! The walls are covered with coarse paper to the height of your head! The floor is dirty, and a number of straw chairs, drawn round a cloth, threadbare from the rubbing of gold, manifest a strange indifference to luxury, among those who are sacrificing themselves for its sake! Four old men with bald heads, and visages as impassive as plaster, sit round the table; and by them a young Italian, with long black hair, leans quietly on his elbows,

and appears to seek those secret presentiments which whisper so fatally to the gambler-' Yes,' 'No.' Seven or eight spectators are standing silent, motionless, and attentive, as the mobs at the Place de Grève, when the guillotine is about to fall on the neck of the victim. A tall, sourlooking man, in a threadbare coat, holding a card in one hand, a pin in another, pricks in rouge' or 'noir,' according to the turn of the card. This is your Tantalus of modern daysone of those men who live upon the brink of all the pleasures of their time-this is a miser without a treasure, playing an imaginary stake; a sort of reasonable madman, who consoles himself for the misery of his fate by caressing a terrible chimera.

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Opposite the bank, one or two players, skilled in all the chances of the game, and like those thieves who are no longer frightened at the galleys, are come to make their three coups,' and to carry off immediately the probable winnings on which they live. An old waiter walks nonchalantly up and down the room, his arms folded, and stops now and then at the window, as if to show to the passengers beneath the sign of the house.' The dealer, the banker, cast upon the players that sombre look which thrills the

soul of the young gambler, and say with a hoarse voice, Faites le jeu !*

Such are the scenes of the Palais Royalsuch are the scenes of that fatal place, in which

* As there are many things untranslateable, or which would seem ridiculous in the translation, I subjoin the original forcible and fantastical description :—

"Entrez :-Quelle nudité. Les murs couverts de papier gros à hauteur d'homme, n'offrent pas une image qui puisse rafraîchir l'âme; pas même un clou pour faciliter le suicide. Le parquet est toujours malpropre. Une table ronde occupe le centre de la salle, et la simplicité des chaises de paille, pressées autour de ce tapis usé par l'or, annonce une curieuse indifférence au luxe chez ces hommes qui viennent périr là pour la fortune et pour le luxe Quatre vieillards,

à têtes chauves sont nonchalamment assis autour du tapis vert. Leurs visages de plâtre impassibles, comme ceux des diplomates révèlent des âmes blasées, des cœurs qui depuis long-tems avaient désappris de palpiter en envisageant même les biens paraphernaux d'une femme. Un jeune Italien aux cheveux noirs, au teint olivâtre, était accoudé tranquillement au bout de la table, et paraissait écouter ces pressentimens secrets qui crient fatalement à un joueur ‘oui'—' non '-cette tête méridionale respirait l'or et le feu. Sept ou huit spectateurs debout, rangés de manière à former une galerie, attendaient les scènes que leur préparaient les coups du sort, les figures des acteurs, le mouvement de l'argent et des râteaux. Ces désœuvrés étaient là,

the vice and the villany, the industry and the arts, the force and the weakness, the power and the pleasure, the idle and voluptuous habits, the morbid and active spirit of our race-all

silencieux, immobiles, attentifs, comme est le peuple à la Grève quand le bourreau tranche une tête. Un grand homme sec en habit rapé tenait un registre d'une main, et de l'autre une épingle pour marquer les passes de la rouge ou de la noire. C'était un de ces Tantales modernes, qui vivent en marge de toutes les jouissances de leur siècle; un de ces avares sans trésor qui jouent en idée une mise imaginaire; espèce de fou raisonnable, se consolant de ses misères en caressant une épouvantable chimère—agissant enfin avec le vice et le danger comme les jeunes prêtres avec Dieu quand ils lui disent des messes blanches.

“Puis, en face de la banque un ou deux de ces fins spéculateurs experts aux chances du jeu et semblables à d'anciens forçats qui ne s'effraient plus des galères, étaient venus là pour hasarder trois coups et emporter immédiatement le gain probable dont ils vivaient. Un vieux garçon de salle se promenait nonchalamment, les bras croisés, regardant aux carreaux par intervalles comme pour montrer aux passans sa plate figure en guise d'enseigne. Le tailleur et le banquier venaient de jeter sur les positeurs ce regard blême qui les tue, et disaient d'une voix grêle "FAITES LE JEU!"Balzac, Peau de Chagrin.—(I have translated into the present tense, and left out one or two sentences.)*

• See Appendix.