Shortly after eleven o’clock the few English who were present at the fête, had nearly all gone home, being chiefly Generals and their aides-de-camp. I came away, leaving the company waltzing and dancing away with less spirit and skill than at Toulouse.
I met with some very liberal Catholics here; for instance, a gentleman said yesterday, before me, that if all the pieces of the true Cross were collected, they would, when put together, make a cross half a mile long. A lady in company said to a friend (also before me), that she did not much trouble the father confessor, and indeed that it was what she liked the least of any part of her duty. She added that their religion depended on faith, hope, and charity, and that she understood (addressing me), ours did so too, but that theirs required a good deal of hope. Madame Emerigon, with whom I live, has returned home highly delighted with Paris, but abuses the inhabitants, who, she says, think only of making money, taking in strangers, provincials and foreigners, and amusing themselves day and night.
She is a French creole from one of the islands. A little mulatto girl, about fourteen, always stands behind her chair, laughing at all her mistress says. The hairdresser is generally seated in one corner of the room, half the dinner-time, joining in the conversation, and sometimes adorning Madame, whilst we are taking our wine, and during this time an idle Paris lad, of the girl’s age, whom Madame seems to have fancied because he speaks such good French, and not the Patois, is running about, bustling, but in reality doing little or nothing from morning till night. Three other female servants, and a nephew of the family, complete the party on this side of the house, or rather wing.
In an opposite wing, are, first in the upper part, two respectable old ladies, and their servants; below them au-premier, is an old West Indian gentleman and his two sons, both ci-devant of the Imperial guard of honour, from Bordeaux, and his two daughters, with servants, &c. None of these are very elegant, nor, as far as I can judge from one visit, very well bred. They amused me the whole time with talking of the superiority of the French troops, and how the Imperial guards in particular could beat all the Allies if not more than two to one, as they always had done, to which I only said that I believed the Imperial Guards had been all withdrawn from the army of Spain, at least I supposed so, and that I had had, therefore, no opportunity of judging. One Miss also asked what the English lived upon? as she understood we ate no bread. Upon which a French visitor, to save me the trouble of explanation, informed her that we principally lived upon des potates (which is now the word here for potatoes) and betraves, with which accurate information she seemed quite satisfied. This sort of conversation, and a few songs quite in the French style, which I do not at all admire, though one of the demoiselles had a good voice, have not tempted me to pay another visit.
The other night I went to the benefit of Madame Georges. She acted Semiramis, in Voltaire’s play, and with considerable success, particularly when she let Nature have its way. She also acted in the sentimental farce of La Belle Fermière, and really well, if she had but omitted a miserable song, accompanied by an old violin or two behind the scenes, all out of tune. The orchestra, as well as every part of the house, was full—almost every passage crammed near the openings to the boxes. The play began at seven o’clock, and the company were all ready by four, and I saw many well-dressed women going to the play at two and three o’clock, as a box cannot be engaged without paying almost double price. The Duke was very well received, and as there was luckily no band, we escaped about five-and-twenty Vive Henry IV.! which we should otherwise have had.
Mr. Wilberforce should exert himself in getting little essays written in French, on the Slave Trade, circulated in France, in some degree at least to enlighten the people. At present, even the more intelligent and better sort of men seem only to consider the English as playing the part of Don Quixote in this business, and consider the whole as a sort of romantic affectation of humanity; whilst many others insinuate motives not quite so honourable, by stating that, having well supplied our own islands with slaves, we wish to give up all the other colonies, with a diminished black population, and in bad condition, and then to prevent their ever recovering themselves. This is to be done by the abolition of the Slave Trade; whilst our own islands, in full prosperity, will be ready to reap the benefit of the distress of their rivals.
July 18th.—I have now only time to seal up and to tell you that the returns of embarkations are just arrived from Pouillac, by which it appears that all the troops are now actually on board, except the two brigades of Guards, one of which entered Pouillac to-day to be prepared, and the other is still here. At present no more shipping is ready, though more are expected; some say we shall be moving about to-morrow week, some this day fortnight; but I believe no one knows anything of the matter.
From the following entry in the Diary kept by Mrs. Larpent, it appears that Mr. F. S. Larpent arrived at his father’s house, at East Sheen, on the 8th August, 1814.
8th August, 1814.—“In the evening came Seymour, looking younger than when he went away, and in excellent health, after having been absent two years, all but a fortnight. We thanked God sincerely for this great mercy and happiness.”