Thus they proceeded until they reached the Rue du Coq St. Honoré, and here had been raised one of the most beautiful of those monuments in snow of which we have spoken.
Round this a great crowd had collected, and they were obliged to stop until the people would make an opening for them to pass, which they did at last, but with great grumbling and discontent.
The next obstacle was at the gates of the Palais Royal, where, in a courtyard, which had been thrown open, were a host of beggars crowding round fires which had been lighted there, and receiving soup, which the servants of M. le Duc d’Orleans were distributing to them in earthen basins; and as in Paris a crowd collects to see everything, the number of the spectators of this scene far exceeded that of the actors.
Here, then, they were again obliged to stop, and to their dismay, began to hear distinctly from behind loud cries of “Down with the cabriolet! down with those that crush the poor!”
“Can it be that those cries are addressed to us?” said the elder lady to her companion.
“Indeed, madame, I fear so,” she replied.
“Have we, do you think, run over any one?”
“I am sure you have not.”
But still the cries seemed to increase. A crowd soon gathered round them, and some even seized Bélus by the reins, who thereupon began to stamp and foam most furiously.
“To the magistrate! to the magistrate!” cried several voices.