Bonaparte Turns Pale

A few nights before the 18th Brómate a little scene was enacted at my house whieh wcrald be void of interest but for the circumstances. Gen. Bonaparte, then lodging at Rué Chantereine, had come to have a talk with me about the preparations for the eventful day. I was then living in Bue Taitbout, iu a honse which has since become No. 24, I believe. It stood at the back of a conrtyard, and running froii the first floor there were galleries wm'ch led to wings looking on the street. M7 drawing room was lighted with sever-J candles. It was 1 o'clock in the morning, and we were in the middle of a very animated conversation when we heard a great noise in the street. To the ru:nbling of carriages was added the galloping. of an escort of cavaJry. Suddenly the enrriages stopped riglit before the door of my house. The general turned palé, and I quite believe ] did tho saite. The idea struck us both at the samo time that they were coming to arrest us by order of the directory, i blew out the candles and crept sfcealthily along the gallery to one of the outsMe wings, from which I conld see what was going on in the street. For some time J was at a loss to make anything out of the tr.mult, but at last I discovered the somewhat grotesque cause. At thia epoch, the Paris streets being very unsafe iit night, when the gambling houses closed at the Palais Royal all the money that had been used for the bank was collecte i and placed in cabs, and the banker liad been allowed by the pólice to have nis cabs escorted by gendarmes, at his expense, to bis home in the Rue de Clichy, or thereabout. That night one of the cabs had broken down jnst in front of my house, and that was the reason of th.i halt. which lasted for about a quarter of an hour. We had a hearty laugb, the general and I, over onr pai -e - very natural though it was when -"e knew, as we did, the tendencies of tne directorj' and the extreme measures it was capable of taking. - Talleyrand's Memoirs in Century