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preside that evening: but he did not press them, being well aware how extremely improbable it was that men who were in pursuit of pleasure, and who had unbounded wealth at their command, would be induced to enter into any engagements likely to expose them to imprisonment and more fatal consequences. He left them, therefore, to their own desires, and was, by no means, displeased with the result. But it is no part of our intended plan to enter into a minute detail of scenes particularly agreeable to him and, indeed, if we were disposed so to employ our pen, it would be a work of supererogation, seeing that they are already much too well known.

When our heroes left Louis's hotel in the Rue de L'Université, the room in which they had held their symposium with their sable acquaintance was immediately filled by divers welldressed lacqueys, who expressed no small sur

prise at the number of empty bottles which were scattered, in all directions, about the floor.. They had not seen the third, and probably the greatest drinker of the party; and Louis's personal valet declared that his master could not possibly take more than one bottle. They, of course, came to a conclusion that the remaining three dozen and upward must have been consumed by the Englishman. All were struck with astonishment except an old gascon, who coolly took up a snuff-box (left, as if by accident, by the gentleman in black) and remarked, as he gave it the preparatory tap, "Oh! Three dozen is nothing for an Englishman! He will take about the same quantity again after dinner! and then begin drinking brandy and water." He might have said more, but was interrupted by a violent fit of sneezing, at the end of which he felt an irresistible propensity to see if there was any wine left upon the table. The Vesuvian

snuff-box was handed round, and produced precisely the same effects on all the party; and in less time than the circumstance takes in relating, they were seated round the table, with a determination of not being outdone by an Englishman. The result was precisely as the gentleman in black intended, when he thought proper to leave his black Paris rappee and hellebore. They settled the affairs of the nation most luxuriously among themselves that evening, and were all turned adrift next morning, by their master, in a very fit state to form members of the political club before mentioned, at which the gentleman of the black-edged papers frequently presided.

We have related this trivial occurrence, because it may, probably, in some degree, account for the general mistake into which the French formerly fell, relative to the immense capacity of our wine-bibbing countrymen. We have

little doubt that, in most cases, wherein enormous quantities appeared to have been consumed by one or two individuals, the gentleman in black was at their elbow, with his black rappee and hellebore, and probably some of his long tales and abominable misrepresentations of the fair sex.

CHAPTER III.

HAD it been our lot to have related the adventures of our heroes about the time of their occurrence, we should willingly have traced their progress, step by step, among the lions of Paris, and throughout their subsequent continental tour: but now, the Louvre, the Jura, the Alps, Venice, the Vatican, and all the long list of et ceteras, are "familiar in our ears as household words;" and the reader would " skip" through the pages containing descriptions thereof, as rapidly as the modern traveller whirls past, in, or over the realities.

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