announcement in the voice of the femme de chambre that une jeune personne' below desired to see M. Jean Le Gros immediately.

Une jeune personne' desirous of seeing me immediately! Who, in wonder's name, could it be? Mademoiselle Clémence? Hastening to obey the surprising summons, I was met, upon emerging from the chamber, by a little scream from the femme de chambre, who started back, exclaiming: 'My God! who is that?'

'Me, assuredly-Monsieur Jean Le Gros.' 'My faith, it is the voice and droll accent, but 'I was quickly out of hearing, but looking back as I turned down stairs, at the further end of the corridor, I saw the woman staring after me with wide-opened eyes and mouth-a pantomimic continuation, as it were, of her amazed, doubtful 'but.'

The 'jeune personne' waiting in the hall was one of Madame de Bonneville's work women, and she too was apparently only convinced by the voice and droll accent that I was really the M. Jean Le Gros to whom she had brought a letter from Mademoiselle Clémence, with strict injunctions to deliver it into his own hands. At the moment she was doing so, and saying: 'Monsieur Le Gros will then have the goodness to read it at once,' a gentleman came out of one of the lower rooms, and was leaving the hotel, but turned sharply round, and looked keenly at the individual addressed by that name. It was Mr Tyler the American. I had seen him but once, and that but for a few moments on the ramparts the day before, and as he, though with somewhat of a puzzled, mystified air, passed on his way without speaking, I concluded that he had not recognised me; and that, it vaguely occurred to me, was as well.

The note from Mademoiselle Clémence ran thus: 'CHER AMI-I pray of you not to speak of yesterevening's sad occurrences to any one, especially not to Captain Webbe, till you have seen me. begin to understand that we have both, to a certain extent, been the dupes of that man's cunning roguery. Please to send word by bearer-simply yes or no-if I may expect to see you at about eleven o'clock this forenoon. C. 'Say "Yes" to Mademoiselle de Bonneville from me,' said I.

I shall do so,' replied the woman. 'Good-day, monsieur.'

I had hardly regained my chamber, when the femme de chambre again tapped at the door, and opening it, I saw she was accompanied by one of the waiters.

'Monsieur, your uncle,' said the woman, with a peculiarity of tone that jarred disagreeably upon my ear, 'desires me to say that he waits breakfast for you.'

'Very well. And pray, what message do you bring?' said I, somewhat fiercely addressing the waiter, who, whilst the woman was speaking, eyed me with insolent inquisition.

'None,' he replied, turning carelessly upon his heel; 'none at present, Monsieur Le Gros.'

I was a good deal startled by the man's manner, instantly suggesting as it did, that with my usual propensity for running my heedless head against a post, I had done a very rash and foolish thing in resuming the precise dress I had worn at the Avranches banquet, and likely enough described in the newspaper paragraph Madame de Bonneville had spoken of. Webbe would know if I had thereby incurred any real danger, and I hastened to join him.

He was reading a newspaper when I entered the breakfast room, and seemed to be struck with astonishment and dismay at my appearance.

'What, rash boy,' he angrily exclaimed, is the meaning of this fool's trick? Are you tired of your life?'

I explained why I could not wear the puce-coloured redingote and blue vest, but of course without mentioning how the accident occurred. The explanation or apology seemed to mollify Webbe's wrath, but not in the least to diminish his alarm.

'Read this,' he exclaimed, handing me the newspaper.

I ran over the paragraph to which his finger pointed. It was a pompous version of the Avranches affair, copied from a Havre journal, and therefore supplied, it might be taken for granted, by Auguste Le Moine. My person and dress, to the very cross-barred satin waistcoat I had on, the fashion in which I wore my hair, as well as l'accent guttural of my French, were carefully described; and I blushed with shame for the inexcusable folly I had committed in taking pains to realise to the most cursory observer the portrait drawn of the infamous spy' by the newspaper. The article concluded by impressing upon all patriotic Frenchmen the duty of assisting to apprehend the said 'infamous spy,' and deliver him into the hands of justice. 'You can now appreciate the extent of your insane rashness,' said Webbe, as the paper dropped from my hands. Who has seen you in that dress?' he added with peremptory sternness. 'The garçon Edouard, the femme de chambre whose face is pitted with the small-pox, and one of Madame de Bonneville's workwomen, who brought me a note from Mademoiselle Clémence.' I did not think it necessary to mention Mr Tyler, my impression being that he had not recognised me.

A bitter oath broke from Webbe's ashy, quivering lips. It was plain that he thought the peril deadly, imminent, and of a kind which no courage or readiness of resource on his part might avail to turn aside or elude. Deadly, imminent peril to me only it at first appeared, not to himself.

'As if your position,' he went on to say, 'was not already, after the publication of this accursed paragraph in a St Malo journal, sufficiently critical! Come, however, what may, I am guiltless of your blood: you cannot but admit that. But it is madness to stand idly babbling here. I must see that sly knave Edouard at once. He was reading the newspaper when I came into the room, and you may be arrested, walked off, and done for, before the day is two hours older. Do not stir from this till I return.'

The privateer captain was soon back again, and appeared to be even more excited and perturbed than when he left the room.

'It is as I feared,' he said. 'Edouard has identified you, as he could hardly help doing, with the newspaper portrait. A considerable bribe, coupled with an indirect threat and promise, pointing to the futurehe believing, as the newspaper intimates, that you are a confidential agent of the Bourbons, whose restoration is now only a question of a few days or weeks, more or less-has perhaps secured his and Marguerite's silence. Perhaps, I say; for there was a knavish glimmer in the fellow's eyes when I placed the rouleau of Napoleons in his hand, which forbids trust in his purchased promises. Upon my soul, Linwood,' added Webbe, 'I cannot at all understand you. Ten minutes ago, you were as alarmed as I am; and now your cheek has regained its colour, and you listen to what I say with the coolness of an iceberg. Is this a sign of calm determination or of mere doltishness?'

'I am not going to be scared away from St Malo, Mr Webbe, till the purpose that brought me here has been accomplished; of that be quite assured. And reflection tells me it is preposterous to argue that I have made myself amenable as a spy to the sentence of a court-martial, able as I am to prove the entirely pacific nature of the errand that brought me to France.'

'You talk of you know not what,' rejoined Webbe,

Bound with it, but is in reality only a matter of common precaution. I go overland to Cherbourg; thence probably, if Auguste Le Moine is not in the way, to Havre de Grace. You with your charming bride proceed to England, viâ Jersey. Now, distressing as the possibility of being cut down like the grass on one's wedding-day must be to the sensitive mind of a youthful bridegroom, it is useless endeavouring to conceal from ourselves that you may be overtaken and summarily shot; in which case you will experience whatever consolation or the reverse may be derived from the fact, that you brought the catastrophe upon yourself. In justice to me, I therefore presume you will not refuse to state that fact in a letter addressed to your mother and intrusted to me, but not of course to be delivered should you safely reach Jersey.'

'I understand. If I lose my life, that is no reason, Captain Webbe thinks, that he should lose the reward he has been promised. Give me a sheet of paper.'

My pen scoured over the paper as I related Webbe's confederacy from the first with Louise Féron, and I should have poured forth all the bitter thoughts that were seething in my brain, had it not suddenly struck me that the letter might be a trick of wily Webbe's to make himself sure of my secret thoughts and plans. He might open it directly he left the hotel, and I should then be effectually baffled as to the scheme which I still hoped to carry through. I tore the betraying scrawl to shreds, and indited a letter which, should he read, would but the more completely mislead the privateer captain as to my real thoughts and purposes; and having sealed, I handed it to him.

He had meanwhile written three letters, two of which he enclosed in a cover addressed to the seaman Baptiste; the other was for Fanchette.

'You will give this to Baptiste,' said Webbe; 'it contains letters for persons in Jersey, and intelligible only to them, which he will deliver. This, as I shall not find it convenient to call at Madame de Bonneville's, you will place in the hands of Fanchette. It instructs her to go immediately after the celebration of the marriage-with respect to which there will be no difficulty or hinderance-to Monsieur Delisle, the courtier-maritime, who by that time will have provided a swift conveyance, in which you must all three take your departure from St Malo without the loss of one precious moment. And now I am off; all my papers are fortunately in this coat-pocket, and I will not even go up stairs. You, however, must get the cloak I have seen you occasionally wear; and mind you keep the collar well up as you pass along the streets. Good-bye, my lad; keep your spirits up, and your weather-eye well open, and I shall stand godfather to your first boy yet. By the way, Linwood,' added Webbe, pausing with the handle of the door in his hand, a thought strikes me: the wreck of empires and the crush of crowns just now in progress-videlicet, the downfall of Bonaparte and restoration of the Bourbons, will at least have one important and beneficial result that of recovering my watch and our portmanteaus when you revisit St Malo with your wife. Good-bye once more.'

It then wanted about three-quarters of an hour to eleven; upon the stroke of which I arrived at the magasin in the Rue Dupetit Thouars, and found Clémence anxiously expecting me. To her, I at once opened my whole heart; confided to her its hopes and fears, its wishes, apprehensions; and she, sweet, guileless maiden, with her head resting, after the old fashion, upon my shoulder, and sobbing with almost convulsive agitation, was hearkening, yieldingly as I thought, to my advice and entreaties, when the door was suddenly flung open, and Jacques Sicard, with his head bound up, and his face white as the paper upon which I am writing, presented himself.

'Monsieur Linwood,' he hurriedly exclaimed, 'you

have been betrayed by a femme de chambre of the Hôtel de l'Empire, and gendarmes are already on your track!'

THE OMNIBUS TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Ir will perhaps surprise our readers to learn that the omnibus is no new discovery of the nineteenth century, but rather the development of a seed sown in the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV.; that is, nearly two hundred years ago, when the Parisians actually enjoyed for a time this cheap and popular mode of conveyance.

Carriages on hire had already been long known in Paris; Nicolas Sauvage, in the Rue St Martin, at the sign of St Fiacre, let out coaches by the hour or the day; but these conveyances, which were soon distinguished by the name of the saint, were expensive, and quite beyond the means of the middle class. In the year 1657, a Monsieur de Givry obtained letters-patent to establish in the crossways and public places of the city and suburbs of Paris such a number of coaches, calèches, &c., drawn by two horses each, as he should judge proper; to be exposed there from seven in the morning until seven in the evening, at the hire of those who had need of them, whether by the hour, the half-hour, day, or otherwise, at the pleasure of those who wished to make use of them, to be carried from one place to another, wherever their affairs called them, either in the city and suburbs of Paris, or as far as four or five leagues in the environs,' &c. This was an improvement on the system of M. Sauvage; but the prices still continued too high for the multitude, and accordingly we find, in 1662, the Duke of Roanès, the Marquis of Sourches, and the Marquis of Crenan, soliciting and obtaining letters-patent for a great speculation-carriages to contain eight persons at five sous the seat, and running in stated routes, at fixed hours-the omnibus, in short.

The first omnibus journey was made on the 18th of March 1662: on that day, seven cheap coaches were driven for the first time through the streets that lead from the Porte St Antoine to the Luxembourg Palace. According to Sauval, in his Antiquities of Paris, they were pursued by the stones and hisses of the populace. The truth of this assertion is, however, much to be doubted; and we are far more inclined to believe Madame Perier, the sister of the great Pascal, who, in a letter to Arnould de Pomponne, describes the public joy caused by the appearance of these low-priced carriages. She writes as follows:

'PARIS, March 21, 1662.

'As every one has obtained some particular office in the affair of the coaches, I have solicited with eagerness that of announcing to you its success, and I have been so fortunate as to obtain it; therefore, sir, each time you see my writing, be assured of good news. The establishment commenced last Saturday morning, at seven o'clock, with wonderful pomp and splendour. The seven carriages provided for this route were first distributed. Three were sent to the Porte St Antoine, and four were placed before the Luxembourg, where at the same time were stationed two commissaries of the Chatelet in their robes, four guards of the highprovost, ten or twelve of the city archers, and as many men on horseback. When everything was ready, the commissaries proclaimed the establishment, explained its usefulness, exhorted the citizens to sustain it, and declared to the lower class that the slightest insult would be severely punished; and all this was said in the king's name. Afterwards, they gave the coach

* The great Chatelet, a court of justice.

men their coats, which are blue-the colour of the king and of the city-with the arms of the king and of the city embroidered on the bosom, and then they ordered the departure.

'Immediately one of the coaches started, carrying inside one of the high-provost's guards. Half a quarter of an hour after, another one set off, and then the two others at the same intervals of time, each carrying a guard, who was to remain therein the whole day. At the same time, the city archers and the men on horseback dispersed themselves on the route.

At the Porte St Antoine the same ceremonies took place, at the same hour, with the three carriages that had been sent there, and the same arrangements were made with respect to the guards, the archers, and the men on horseback. In short, the affair was so well managed, that not the slightest confusion arose, and those carriages were started as peaceably as the others.

"The thing, indeed, has succeeded perfectly: the very first morning the coaches were filled, and even several women were among the passengers; but in the afternoon, the crowd was so great, that one could not get near them, and every day since it has been the same; so that we see by experience that the greatest inconvenience is the one you apprehended-people wait in the street for the arrival of one of these coaches to get into it, and when it comes, it is full. This is vexatious, but there is consolation, for it is known that another will arrive in half a quarter of an hour; however, this other comes, and it also is full; and after this has been repeated several times, people are obliged to continue their way on foot. In short, that you may not think I exaggerate, I tell you this because it happened to myself. I was waiting at the door of St Merry's Church, in the Rue de la Verrerie, having a great desire to return home in a coach for it is pretty far from there to my brother's house-but I had the vexation to see five coaches pass without being able to get a seat; all were full; and during all this time I heard blessings bestowed on the authors of an establishment so advantageous and useful to the public: as every one spoke his thought, some said that all this affair was perfectly well invented, but that it was a great fault to have put only seven coaches on one route; that they were not sufficient for half the people who had need of them, and that there ought to have been at least twenty. I listened to all this, and I was in so bad a temper from having missed five coaches, that at the moment I was quite of their opinion. In short, the applause is universal, and one may say that nothing was ever better begun.

"The first and second days there was a crowd on the Pont Neuf, and in all the streets to see them pass, and it was very amusing to observe the workmen cease their labour to look at them, so that no more work was done all Saturday throughout the whole route than if it had been a holiday. Smiling faces were seen everywhere-not smiles of mockery, but of content and joy; and this convenience is found so great that every one desires it for his own quarter.

"The shopkeepers of the Rue St Denis demand a route with so much importunity, that they even speak of presenting a petition. Preparations were being made to give them one next week, but yesterday morning M. de Roanès, M. de Crenan, and M. the High Provost (M. de Sourches), being all three at the Louvre, the king talked very pleasantly about this novelty, and addressing those gentlemen, said: "And our route, will you not soon establish it?"

"These words of the king oblige them to think of the Rue St Honoré, and to defer for some days the Rue St Denis. Besides this, the king, speaking on the same subject, said that he wished those who were guilty of the slightest insolence to be severely punished, and

that he would not permit this establishment to be disturbed.

'This is the present position of the undertaking. I am sure you will not be less surprised than we are at its great success, which has far surpassed all our hopes. I shall not fail to send you exact word of every pleasant thing that happens, according to the office conferred on me, and to supply the place of my brother, who would have undertaken the duty with joy if he could write.

'I wish with all my heart to have matter to write you every week, both for your satisfaction, and for other reasons that you can well guess. I am, your obedient servant, G. PASCAL.'

the last lines he ever penned-he died August 1662: Postscriptum in the writing of Pascal, and probably

'I will add to the above, that the day before yesterday, at the king's petit-coucher (evening reception), a dangerous assault was made against us by two courtiers most distinguished in rank and wit, which would have ruined us by turning us into ridicule, and would have given room to all sorts of attacks, but the king answered so obligingly and so drily with respect to the excellence of the affair, and for us, that they quickly put up their weapons. I have no more paper; adieu, entirely yours.'

It has been said that Pascal was the inventor of the omnibus. Sauval affirms it distinctly in his Antiquities, and Madame de Sévigné seems to allude to it in a passage of one of her letters, where she says: 'Apropos of Pascal, I am in the humour to admire the honesty of messieurs les postillons, who are incessantly on the road carrying our letters.'

It is certain that he and his sister were pecuniarily interested in the affair, and it is possible that it was at his suggestion that his rich friend the Duke of Roanès became one of the principal leaders of the undertaking; but we must not consider Pascal in the light of a vulgar speculator, for earthly interests affected him personally but slightly: he saw in this invention an advantage for the public at large; and if any profits were to accrue, his share was intended for the relief of the poor, as is evident in the following extract from the little work Madame Perier has dedicated to the memory of her brother:

'As soon as the affair of the coaches was settled, he told me that he wished to ask the farmers of it for an advance of a thousand francs, to send to the poor at Blois. When I remarked that the success of the enterprise was not sufficiently assured for him to make this request, he replied that he saw no inconvenience in it, because, if the affair did not prosper, he would repay the money from his estate, and he did not wish to wait until the year was ended, because the necessities of the poor were too urgent to defer charity. As no arrangement could be made with the farmers, he was not able to satisfy his desire. On this occasion, we perceived the truth of what he had so often told me, that he wished for riches only to be able to help the poor: the moment God gave him the hope of possessing wealth, even before he was assured of it, he began to distribute it.'

By an extract taken from the parliament registers in the ninth volume of the Ordonnances de Louis XIV., we learn that these cheap conveyances are permitted

for the convenience of a great number of persons ill accommodated; such as pleaders, infirm people, and others who, not having the means to hire chairs or carriages, because they cost a pistole or two crowns at least the day, can thus be carried for a moderate price by means of this establishment of coaches, which are always to make the same journeys in Paris from one quarter to another-namely, the longest at five sous the seat, and the others less; the suburbs in proportion; and which are always to start at fixed hours, however small the number of persons then assembled,