Part 7

_July 6th._--As our house was very cold, and the stone floors were thought to be bad for Catherine, we took a house in the Rue Reservoir, which we this day went to; before we went, however, we had quite a battle with Madame Vernier. We warned her a fortnight before that we were going to quit the house; but it was at five in the afternoon, and she said we ought to have given her warning before twelve; she therefore charged us for another month. As mamma knew this was an imposition she was determined not to pay it. She sent for the proprietor of the house (who was very civil), and also for Madame Vernier. The proprietor talked to her a long time, but she would take no less; he then wanted Miss Wragge to go with her to the _juge de paix_, which of course she did not do. Madame Vernier had been a camp-follower: she was a great, fat woman with a voice like a man's. We heard of several tricks that she had played the English; she said that the French had payed plenty of contributions, and she was determined that the English should make up for it. Once when some people would not pay her what she asked for, she went round the house and picked out every scratch and hole, saying a franc for this, and so much for that, till she made up the sum she wanted. Another time she charged an unreasonable price to some people who were dining there (her husband was a _restaurateur_), and on their refusing to pay it she locked the gates and threatened to detain their trunks. As the gentleman was very lame, he was glad to pay what she required and get off, though they had bargained before for dinner at so much less per head! When mamma knew what a woman she was she determined not to pay her for the next month. Accordingly she sent for papa, who was at Paris, and papa and Dr. Murdoch (who had resided long in France and spoke French perfectly) went along with Madame Vernier to the _juge de paix_, who said she was wrong, and in case of her detaining our trunks gave papa the name of a _huissier_. Madame Vernier told the _juge de paix_ that papa had attempted to strangle her, to which he replied that she looked more likely to strangle one of the _garde de corps_. She told him that he knew nothing at all about it, and came away in a great passion. She then got a relation of hers who was a lawyer's clerk (or something of the kind), and she brought him upstairs to convince us. The proprietor tried to persuade her to take the money; she, however, refused it; but when she found papa was determined not to give any more they all went downstairs, and after consulting a little while, she sent up to say she would take the money. After this contest she was, like a tamed lion, and was quite civil. We went to our house in the Rue Reservoir, which we did not find quite so comfortable as we had expected.

NEW HOUSE

_July 7th._--Our new house was nearly opposite the theatre, which on a Sunday, particularly, was crowded with people; every Sunday evening a number of drunken people passed our windows; one Sunday we counted six close together.[36] Our servants went one day to the play, but it was so dirty that it made them quite sick. Near our house was a priests' school; we used to hear the boys singing a great part of the day and sometimes in the night. Behind our house there was a small garden with very little in it. When mamma went to see the house two of the rooms were carpeted, and everything was very comfortable. Although Monsieur Grincourt had several days to prepare it, when we came to our new house the carpets were taken up, the curtains were taken off some of the beds, and everything was uncomfortable. The fireplaces were full of every kind of rubbish. There were not enough plates, glasses, etc. And we were reduced to many curious expedients. The French are very dilatory about bringing things. We saw they did not intend to give us back our carpets, as the next day they sent a frotteur[37] to clean the floors; however, as we had taken the house with a carpet, we told them to bring it, and we used to send Nannette to scold every day till at last we got all we wanted. They also brought quilts for the beds, but they gave great charges that they were to be taken off at night. We got two tea-kettles which were a most extraordinary shape. The French make some little things very nicely, and other common things extremely awkwardly. There was a bath in the house, and the room adjoining it was remarkably damp; a great many toad-stools grew in the closet; there was also an ants' nest below the floor. The porter's wife was _much_ younger than the one in our other house; her husband lived at Paris; she had one son of eleven or twelve, a very rude boy. Different people lived above us, latterly a Mr. and Mrs. Spurrier. Mr. Spurrier was determined his French servants should do like English servants; if he succeeded, I think he did more than any person did before him.

SUNDAY

_July 8th._--The lady above stairs played the whole day without ceasing on the harp; the boys at the priests' school made more noise than usual in their playground; numbers of people were going to a village fête; a great many people passed by on their way to the theatre, among whom was Mademoiselle Croissé; we counted six drunken people; shops were open as usual, and people going about their work as on any other day. On Sunday Madame Crosnier's girls spent the day in working and dancing.

VILLAGE FÊTE

_July 9th._--We went in a carriage to see the village fête of Louvécienne. Little Miss Foaker went with us. It was a fine evening. Louvécienne, or Lucien, is above four miles from Versailles; it is very pretty about the village. There were lamps hung across the trees, and seats placed round on the ground where they danced. Three fiddlers were stuck up in a kind of orchestra, and they played a very dull tune extremely badly. I was very much disappointed in the dancing: it was more like a funeral than a dance. The figure was a quadrille. They walked it all till they came to the setting, which they danced in their way, which was almost duller than the walking. All the time they were dancing their faces were as grave as judges: they behaved as if it was a lesson they wished to be done with; as soon as the dance was done they laughed, pulled each other round, and ran off to buy a sweetmeat at one of the booths; then they came back as grave as possible. One of the nicest girls was dressed in a white gown, pink apron, green shoes, and a gold chain; there was one very impudent, disagreeable, vulgar woman, dressed in blue cotton. Some were in white, and some had on red petticoats, high caps, gold chains, etc. There were booths, stalls, whirligigs, roundabouts, etc., like an English fair. We saw an old man and woman of sixty or seventy riding in a roundabout. At the other end, near some trees, there was a party of ladies and gentlemen; they danced much like the peasants, in some respects worse--one or two of them, however, danced tolerably well. This party had rather better music, but very dull. As we went away they were beginning to light the lamps. It looked very pretty to see the people under the trees, but the dancing nearly put one to sleep, and the music was like a funeral dirge. They say that the French like dancing better than anything, and we heard it very much admired. For my part, I think it is neither graceful, nor pretty, nor merry.

MUSEUM

_Tuesday, July 10th._--We went up to Paris at nine o'clock to see the museum; it was a fine morning, but rather cold. It is a very pretty drive; the country is beautiful about the Seine. There were a great many bluebottles and scarlet poppies in the corn, more than I ever saw in England; the fields looked like a sheet of blue and red. In Paris they sell pretty wreaths of bluebottles. We met a cart guarded by eight soldiers, with nothing in it but old chairs and broken tables. We arrived at Paris at twelve o'clock, and went to two flower-shops, where were beautiful artificial flowers. The carnations were scented. They had not many wreaths: the flowers that brides wear are the buds of orange flowers. We bought several single flowers, jessamine, roses, camilla,[38] japonica, etc. From this we all went to the cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle. We remarked the floating baths on the Seine. When we reached the Jardin des Plantes the museum was not open, so we walked in the garden till three o'clock, when the doors are opened. There was quite a crowd of people of all ranks. I think it is wonderful that the things are not hurt, as the people press close to the glasses. We went to the upper gallery first, that we might have more time to examine it. Several rooms open one into the other. There were soldiers with swords in their hands, walking up and down. We had not time to look at everything; we only skimmed over the things. The first rooms contain above two hundred monkeys; we scarcely looked at them at all. In this museum there seems to be every kind of creature. There is a great quantity of bats of all sizes; a rat with a young one on its back; some very small mice, marmottes, opossums, armadillos, lions, tigers, panthers, etc.; a horse; most beautiful little deer, some very small; a chevrotin; cats and dogs. These were all in _glass cases_ round the room. In the middle of the room there were two enormous elephants, a rhinoceros, etc., a hippopotamus, which is a frightful-looking creature with an immense mouth. On the top of the cases there is a morse. In the middle of the next room there is a whale, a wild ox, a buffalo, and a cameleopard which almost touched the top of the room. There was the skin of a snake, like a trunk of a tree, near the top of the room. The animals in the middle of the room were not in cases. There was a great variety of springboks, sjrisboks, etc., in this room, and also porcupines, foxes, and a variety of other animals.

The most beautiful and amusing room was that in which the birds were. There were a great many owls; pink spoonbills, scarlet flamingoes, toucans, parrots of every colour, very pretty kingfishers, penguins, cassowarys, peacocks and hens; there was one petrified ibis. The most beautiful were the humming-birds; their colours were quite dazzling: some were very small, and others larger. There was one beautiful forked-tailed humming-bird: its throat was of the most brilliant green, and its breast amethyst purple; the rest of its body was a shining black. The topaz humming-bird is also very pretty; it has a yellow breast and a red topping. The red-throated humming-bird is also pretty, but not so brilliant as my favourite fork-tail. One of the larger humming-birds is all bright black, like velvet, except the neck, which is the colour of an emerald. No colours could express the brightness of their plumage. There were several nests which were whitish. In the same case with the humming-birds there were some scarlet creepers, very bright and pretty, and one or two blue creepers which were like precious stones. We examined this case longer than any other.

There was a glass case up the middle of the room in which were lobsters, corals, shells, sponges, etc. In one part all the insects were arranged. The butterflies were the most beautiful things I ever saw. There was one very large blue one that dazzled my eyes to look at; another black and bluish lilac; and the Amboyna butterfly, an immense green and black one, with most brilliant colours and shining like velvet. There were several small ones striped yellow and black; one very beautiful small scarlet and purple one; several very large greyish butterflies or moths which had small clear spots in their wings like glass; there were two or three smallish butterflies marked with every colour like marble. The large butterflies were excessively beautiful. There were several English ones beside them that looked quite dull and ugly. There were a great many large moths; one grey and a great deal marked was even bigger than the green butterfly; there was another beautiful large grey moth with purple eyes in its under wings. Besides the butterflies there were several other insects: dragon-flies, the colours of which were quite gone; enormous spiders; a great variety of bees; an ant lion at the bottom of a small pit; very large caterpillars; and a great many other insects.

We then went to the lower gallery, which is not so amusing; but there are some curious fishes, a crocodile, very pretty marbles, a large piece of gold ore, and a great variety of stones, etc. Instead of real precious stones there were only imitations in glass, which looked very shabby. I was very sorry to leave the museum; it was the most amusing and beautiful thing in France. It closes at five o'clock. After we had left it we returned to Versailles.

DUCHESSE DE BERRI--DUCHESSE D'ANGOULÊME

_July 15th._--Hearing a great deal of noise amongst the boys in the priests' school, we enquired what was the matter, and were told that it was the Duchesse d'Angoulême and the Duchesse de Berri come to visit the priests' school. We went out to see them, and after waiting a very long time for them, they at last came out, got into an open carriage, and drove away very quickly. There were a lady and a gentleman in the carriage with them, and several soldiers on horseback. There were a great many priests and boys looking out of the windows. Neither the Duchesse d'Angoulême nor the Duchesse de Berri are pretty: the Duchesse de Berri has very red eyes. Before this we had heard of the death of Buonaparte. A man used to go about the streets with a bundle of papers, crying, 'Voici les dernières paroles, et la confession importante que faisoit Napoléon Buonaparte avant de mourir.' We were told that this was a famous spy. It was hot weather for two or three days, and every person watered before their doors.

ENGLISH ROBBERS

_July 17th._--This evening we had just returned from walking in the gardens when we were told by the servants that three English robbers had been just then taken up. There were two men and a woman, who had robbed some English at an hotel in Paris of a great deal of money, and gone off with it; they were, however, all stopped and taken up at Versailles. We heard of another Englishman that had swindled. An English lady told us that at Boulogne there were quantities of English who came over in debt, and that a prison there was so full of English that it was called the British Hotel.

HAYFIELD--MUSIC--CHILD

_July 18th._--This (and several other) evenings we walked to the hayfield near the Trianons. There were a great many grasshoppers and brown butterflies (meadow arguses) flying out of the haycocks. We sat down on the hay, and Miss Wragge got a wisp of hay round her leg, which she took for a snake; this amused the people very much. Near here we used to see some little pensions of poor children going out to walk. At the gate of the Trianons we saw a little child of about three years old standing. It came up to us with a straw in its hand, which it held like a soldier; it then put it to our faces and tickled them. We asked it where it lived; it said 'là-bas.' Miss Wragge gave it a sou. The French children have a very forward manner; they come up to strangers and talk quite at their ease. We returned by the gardens. There was now a band of music (every Wednesday and Friday) in the King's garden, or the Tapis-vert. There were a great many flowers out in the King's garden: many different sorts of columbine, honeysuckle, syringas, and roses on sticks. The trees in the garden (Hartwell) are not cut like those in the rest of the garden, but are suffered to grow naturally. The music was not pretty; the players seemed very much afraid of tiring themselves, as they rested more than half the time. While the music played to-day, the Tapis-vert was crowded with people. We observed one little boy, who did not look more than three or four years old, with light curly hair and rosy cheeks; he had a kind of little bag before him, in which were different sweetmeats--dogs, lambs, etc. He ran to every person and begged them to buy; his little sweetmeats were a sou apiece. At first we thought it looked very pretty to see the little fellow selling the things, but we soon discovered that he was accompanied by a very disagreeable woman, and as the child followed and plagued every one it was quite unpleasant. As we returned through the gardens we saw some watering-pots--great, awkward, copper things--which we drew on our nails. This was a fine day.

MONSIEUR SOUPÉ

_July 20th._--Monsieur Soupé (from whom we got our wine) was the King's wine-merchant. He told us that there were 500 bottles of wine a day drunk in the King's house, and that the bills are settled every night; and that the King breakfasts at twelve o'clock on eggs and tea. He told us also that he had seen Buonaparte dine, and that he never took longer than eleven minutes. In the beginning of Louis XVI.'s reign 1300 bottles a day were drunk.

SHEPHERD

_July 21st._--This evening (being fine) we walked past the Trianons. We met a shepherd with a flock of Andalusian sheep, and two fine dogs with pieces of wood hung to their necks. He had a crook in his hand, and a bag with a bottle in it by his side; one end of his crook was brass, and at the other there was a kind of little spade. We stopped to talk with the shepherd. Papa asked him what the dogs' names were; he answered 'Petit et Beau-Rouge.' The wood was round their necks so that he might know them. He said that he used the crook to catch the sheep by their legs. He told us that the use of the spade was to punish his dogs, and to explain what he meant, he dug up a piece of earth and threw it at them. Papa asked what was in his bottle. 'Méchant cidre,' he answered. Papa gave him a franc to fill the bottle.

BAL CHAMPÊTRE

_July 26th._--We drove out in the carriage this afternoon with Catherine, who was getting better, and who frequently drove out. We went round by the Trianons; in the forest we saw some pretty roebucks, which bounded through the wood. We passed a field full of lilac poppies. In returning we stopped at the Boulevard de St. Antoine, where there was a _bal champêtre_. There were lamps hung on the trees. The music was very dull. We saw them dance two quadrilles. One _garde du corps_ danced in a most extraordinary manner: he jumped and hopped, and kicked and bounced, as if he had learned off a bear at the North Pole. His partner, a little girl of ten or eleven years old, danced very well. One lady in a pink silk bonnet seemed as if she had learned in the French style, but wanted to dance lighter, for she walked two or three steps and then jumped up. They all kept bad time, walked and hopped. The three Miss Williams and their father were there. In the middle of their dance a heavy shower of rain came on; everybody ran into a house or went home. We saw the Miss Williams standing under a tree, like three white graces, half-way home.

TOADSTOOLS, ETC.

_July 28th._--This was an excessively rainy day; we found ten toadstools in Catherine's room. There were several people dining here; there were fires in the rooms, which everybody was glad to get near. It was wet, disagreeable weather. We were all waiting eagerly to go home; the days seemed like weeks. To make them appear shorter, I made a list of all the days till the time we were to go home, and I scratched out one each day. This day was Nannette's fête; she went to a Dutch frow (a German woman), who gave her a nosegay.

BELLE VUE

_July 29th._--We drove out this evening to Belle Vue. It was a fine evening. We saw a man standing before his door watering some boxes full of mushrooms. At Belle Vue we went through a house where we had a very fine view of Paris, the Seine and St. Cloud. We looked at a vineyard; there were no grapes on the vines there. We heard that the bad season had injured them.[39]

PRIESTS WITH HOST--CORPSE, ETC.

_July 30th._--As we were walking out, we saw some priests carrying the host to a sick person across the street. A boy in red and white walked first, carrying a lantern on the top of a stick; next went another boy carrying a cross. After him two men in scarlet holding a little red canopy over the priest who carried the host. The sick man died next day. The servants saw the body laid out in the _porte cochère_ with a vessel of holy water and a ladle beside it; every person that went past took a ladle full of holy water and sprinkled the corpse with it.

VILLE D'AVRY

_August 4th._--We drove out this evening to Ville d'Avry. This drive is the prettiest I saw about Versailles; there are woody banks and paths, more like England. It was late when we reached the village, but there was a clear, bright moon; and a woody hill with a house on the top, looked exceedingly pretty in the moonlight. There was also a house under a woody bank covered with vines; and a man was standing on a ladder pruning them. This place is beautiful; more like what I had imagined France. We got out of the carriage to see it plainer.

KING AND WATERS

_August 6th._--We were told this morning that the King and Prince Leopold were expected at Versailles. Quantities of troops passed our windows in their way to the Avenue Trianon, where the King was to review them. There were some La Roche Jacquellines on black horses. At about twelve o'clock we went (along with Mr. and Mrs. Spurrier) to Neptune's Bath, near which the King was to pass. The women charged a franc apiece for our chairs. There were rows of soldiers behind the trees. There was a great quantity of people around Neptune's Bath; there seemed to be nearly all Versailles.[40]

There were several carriages waiting for the King in case it should rain, etc.; one of them was gold and red, very gaudy-looking. A carriage came on first before the King. When the King came, one needed four eyes: to look at the King on one side and round to Neptune's Bath at the other, for as soon as ever he came the waters began to play like fairy-work. The water shot out of each vase, Neptune's horses spouted, and the whole water seemed covered with spouts and cascades. In the first open carriage was the King, the Duchess d'Angoulême, Monsieur, and the Duchess de Berri. Prince Leopold did not come. Several carriages followed with attendants. The King is a _very_ fat, contented-looking man. As soon as the carriages had passed the waters stopped. It was an extremely pretty sight. The King went on to the Trianons and stayed there for a long while. When he returned the waters played again. They came back with large bunches of flowers in each carriage. We saw great numbers of the soldiers returning. Although the waters played for so short a time, some of the pipes burst. It costs 1200 francs every time the great waters play. The _restaurateurs_ make a great deal of money when they play, as it brings numbers of people from Paris. About a week before this the _restaurateurs_ caused it to be put in the newspapers that the great waters were to play; and this brought a great many people, who found to their disappointment that it was all false.

SÈVRE