at supper; for him were all her smiles and pleasant talk and laughter. Was Charles Howard jealous? He did not show it if he were, though he did not dance much, and was quieter than usual. "The day after to-morrow, under the lindens, at seven o'clock in the evening," whispered Titania to her partner, as he led her from the ballroom and placed her in the carriage by the side of her mother and sisters. "I will not fail, my fair one," responded Bottom, or Cæsar-whichever you like to call him-tenderly pressing the little gloved hand. The next day Charles Howard did not go to his counting-house in the city at all, but spent it entirely with the Arnfelds. It is now the evening of the day after-a lovely evening, the softest zephyrs stirring the still, silent air, and the sun sinking to his rest in a gorgeous" daffodil sky." The Bergdorf church clock has just struck the hour of seven, and in the avenue of limes just opposite the church a solitary man lingers, evidently on the look out for some one, for he turns his head almost every minute, and often stands still as if listening. Byand-by the sound of advancing footsteps is heard; a lady and gentleman, arm-in-arm together, are approaching the solitary watcher. The latter, expectant though he was, is evidently surprised at the sight that meets his eyes. This was not what he expected. He starts, rubs his eyes as if to make sure of the vision, colours, looks disappointed, annoyed, angry. The lady leaves the gentleman on whose arm she is leaning, and going close up to the other, she says, in a serio-comic tone, waving her hand towards the companion of her evening walk: "Titania begs leave to introduce her Oberon." Then more seriously, in a half repentant, beseeching way, she continues: "Oh, Cæsar, my good cousin, do not be angry. I know that you have reason, that I have not treated you fairly, and I beg you a thousand pardons; but now listen to my excuse. Charles Howard and I have loved one another from the first; I had no affection to give you beyond that of a cousin. My parents preferred you to him. I did not wish to act against their wishes; I could not feel as they did; I wished to make them feel with me. The only way I could think of for attaining this object was by keeping you out of the way. Forgive the artifice I used for this purpose. Oh, Cæsar, I know it was very wrong, but I confessed all yesterday to mamma, and she has forgiven me, and she will tell papa, and get him to forgive me; and they like Mr. Howard now, and with their consent yesterday we were betrothed. Oh, Cæsar, say that you forgive me, and will come again to Bergdorf as you used to do, and will shake hands with Mr. Howard, and be our good cousin always." Cæsar hesitated a little; he had cause to be angry, and he was angry, but he did shake hands with Charles Howard, and I believe that eventually he did forgive Louise, and was present at their wedding some two years afterwards. Since then he himself has also married, and I have reason to believe that both are very happy couples. THE COUNTESS OF PARABÈRE.* WHAT M. Capefigue designates as the "charming decline" of the epoch of the Regency, had certainly little in common with the barbarous enervation that paved the way to the fall of Rome. If there was much licentiousness, so also there was much graceful taste, and even dissipation was concealed beneath elegance. The great ladies of the day, Mesdames de Parabère, de Sabran, and de Phalaris, never forgot their natural distinction of manners in the obliviousness of life; Art lent itself, in the persons of Watteau, Lancret, and Boucher, to the taste of the day; and Literature and Poetry, as represented by Voltaire, La Fave, and Chanlieu, abetted freedom in love as in all other things. A whole generation of gallant men-the Canillacs, the Nocés, the Broglies, and the Brancas ; all of whom had fought by the side of the Duke of Orleans-and a group of beautiful and intellectual ladies seemed to have met as if by appointment at that great crisis, as it were to drink the last crystal cup of joy, ere the tumult of a great revolution broke upon the court and country alike. The life of the Regent, viewed socially, divides itself into several epochs, each marked by a particular character. When young, he affected the company of actresses and opera girls. The demoiselles Desmarés and Florence were his favourites, and he himself arranged the music and brought out operas, to the scenery of which he also contributed, aided by Watteau and Lancret. To this succeeded an epoch of trials. Proscribed from the court of Louis XIV., the prince selected a devoted friend, Mademoiselle de Sery, created Countess of Argenton, for a friend in adversity. Once more restored to power, he sought excitement in the more lively society of Madame de Parabère and Madame de Sabran, the one of whom was queen of beauty at Asniéres, the other at La Muette. Several portraits of Madame de Parabère are in existence, and whether painted by Vanloo as Minerva, or with the Regent as Daphnis and Chloe, or with garlands of flowers by Blin de Fontenoy, still her transcendent beauty eclipses all artificial devices and encumbrances. Madame de Parabère, of Breton descent-her name was Marie Madeleine Coatquer de la Vieuxville-was educated at an Ursuline convent at Versailles, and introduced to the court of Louis XIV.; she was protected there by the austerity of Madame de Maintenon, who wedded her to the Brigadiergeneral M. de Beaudeant, Count of Parabère. Madame de Parabère, at eighteen, was not only beautiful, but she also abounded in all the graces of conversation. She was fond of dress, and was always lively and smiling. Few in consequence came near her without being charmed by so many advantages of mind, person, and attire. Lord Bolingbroke, it is known from his letters to Prior and to de Torcy, came under their united influence. The Duke of Orleans-whose wealth as heir to Monsieur the king's brother, and to "la grande demoiselle," was immense-was at that epoch, as we have seen, proscribed at court. The king, under the influence of * Les Reines de la Main Gauche, la Comtesse de Parabère. Par M. Capefigue. Madame de Maintenon, had passed from libertinism to that state of savage bigotry which led to dragonading the Protestants, and he could The latter was also married not tolerate the licentiousness of the duke. to one of his children-Mademoiselle de Blois—and while his infidelities were perfectly well known both to the king and to the duchess, the Abbé Dubois, according to Capefigue, managed, by the influence he possessed over both Louis XIV. and Madame de Maintenon, to keep up appearances and to prevent an open rupture. The abbé is, indeed, said to have received several valuable benefices from the king for his services in these delicate family matters. The Duke of Orleans revenged himself for his disgrace at court by those "petits-soupers" known as the Regency Suppers, at which the Marquises of Nocé and de la Fave, and the Counts de Brancas and de Broglie participated, in the company of beauty, of those exquisite viands and delicate wines that enlisted their sympathies and exalted their wit: La véritable sagesse Est de savoir fuir la tristesse, Such were the principles adopted at the Palais Royal. The animosity of the court to the Duke of Orleans was envenomed by his claims, as a descendant of Anne of Austria, to the throne of Spain. The party of the legitimised princes, strengthened by Madame de Maintenon, never ceased to vilify his character, and hence it was that even his chemical pursuits were said to have had an object more characteristic of the times he lived in than of his own thoughtless, frivolous, and dissipated character. If he painted, it was said to be only to reproduce licentious scenes; and if he cultivated music, it was in the same way attributed to his partiality for opera singers. At length, the complaints of the duchess of his devotion to the Countess d'Argenton assumed so serious a character, that he was induced by the Duke of Saint-Simon and other friends to break off the connexion as the only chance of avoiding a public scandal. It was said of the duke: Turin le fait homme de guerre, It was probably this rupture which also saved the duke in the criminal proceedings soon after instituted against him and Humbert, the chemist, on the occasion of the sudden deaths of the children and grandchildren of The duke Louis XIV. the extinction, indeed, of the whole direct line. was also supported by the old aristocracy-princes, dukes, and peers-as well as by parliament, in his opposition to the legitimised princes, and hence the coup d'état by which the proclamation of the Regency was brought about at the decease of Louis XIV. was much facilitated. As Regent the duke devoted his mornings to business and his evenings to pleasure. M. de Capefigue insists that the peculiarity of the renowned petits soupers" of the Regency was that there was nothing coarse in them. Louis XIV., who was one of the greatest eaters in his dominions, There was not a banqueting neither knew how to dine nor how to sup. apartment in all Versailles. The Regent was, on the contrary, consummate in the art. All the viands were of an exquisitely delicate character; the only wines permitted were Tokay, Sillery, and Cyprus-the rich wine of the Knights Hospitallers, and called that of the Commanderie, or "of the Commanders." It was at one of these "petits soupers" that Madame de Parabère made her first appearance as an intimate guest, in the month of September, 1716. She could not only smile and talk, but she could also eat and drink to an extent that drew down upon her the animadversion of her enemies. The Princess Palatine said of her "that she was capable of eating and drinking like a hog." It was, however, only another manifestation of that health which rendered her so uniformly gay and lively"un beau morceau de chair fraiche"-and the Duke of Lauragnais also added, susceptible, even sometimes to bursts of anger. Every one at these suppers of the Regency had his or her name. Broglie was known as Brouillon, on account of his meddlesome humour; Nocé was called Braquemardo; La Fave, le Gros Poupart; Canillac, la Caillette Triste ; the Count of Brancas, la Caillette Gaie; the Duchess of Berry was called Joufflotte, from her fat cheeks, and Beau Paon from her ostentatious manners; Madame de Parabère was dubbed the Corbeau Noir, from her bright black eyes. This was the epoch at which M. de Noailles was labouring at making good the deficit, estimated at 1,800,000,000 livres, in the treasury, left at the death of Louis XIV., by making the financiers and monopolists disgorge their ill-gotten gains; such at least was the language of the day, "en faisait rendre gorge aux maltôtiers." It was proposed at first to raise 147,355,433 livres from about a hundred persons compromised by their wealth. The financier Samuel Bernard, for example, was taxed at 4,000,000, and his son-in-law, Farges, 2,000,000. The public were delighted with these arbitrary proceedings, and they pilloried the victims in songs and engravings. The victims themselves, however, spared no efforts to obtain remission of the sums in which they were mulcted, and M. de Nocé and Madame de Parabère have the credit of having seconded their efforts to their utmost. Count de Maurepas, in his "Memoirs," says the financier Hénault bribed Nocé and Madame de Parabère with 300,000 livres to plead his cause, and that the latter did it successfully. Nocé was reputed to be as partial to the delicately-flavoured wines of the Regency suppers as Madame, and the people sang: Nous nous enivrerons, don, don, Avec la Parabère. Capefigue declares, however, that a more ephemeral favourite of the Regent's, Madame de Tencin-a friend of Montesquieu's and of Fontenelle-the latter of whom is designated as a base eavesdropper to the Abbé Dubois-was far more busy with these disreputable speculations than was Madame de Parabère. Madame was also at first opposed to the system of paper money and credit introduced by Law, probably because she made so much by Noailles's Oriental system of " avances." The fact is thus recorded: Laisse la Prie (la marquise) engloutir notre argent. Viens, Parabère, et goue un plus beau rôle, Sauve l'Etat, conseille à ton Régent De quitter Law. But after she had, through De Nocé, obtained twelve shares in the "Compagnie des Indes," and through them gained an income of 80,000 livres, she became an ardent convert to the Scotchman's system, and she took her place among those numerous fair ones who in the words of Capefigue "surrounded and interlaced the comptroller-general Law with crowns wove by their own fair hands, in exchange for a single word, which might enable them to turn millions in a few weeks. Madame de Parabère was apparently not the least successful pleader with the anything but stern Scot. She was enabled during the first year of the introduction of his financial system to purchase the duchy of Damville for 300,000 livres, and the lordship of Blain, in Berry, for 100,000. As the highest premium on the company's shares was 13,000, there is manifestly an error in saying that these properties were purchased by the sale of twelve shares, nor is it comprehensible how Capefigue can say, after Mathieu Marais, that the lordship of Blain, in Berry, was worth 300,000 livres a year and yet was purchased for 100,000! "If an epoch," our author says, "of over-excitement in credit inevitably entails the ruin of some, it also communicates a tone of adventurous splendour to society. Never had Paris been so gay, so animated, so active, as it became under the system of Law; new and sumptuous hotels rose up in every direction, from the Place Vendôme to the Place des Victoires. The crowd inundated the streets amidst hundreds of equipages; gold was bestowed open-handed on adventurers, actresses, and fashionable ladies; people were inebriated with shares and papers; every one drank to the dregs in this Bacchanal of speculation. The Regent, indeed, allowed every one who was connected with him to profit by the frenzy of the moment." It was a perfect shower of gold, and the Danaes benefited by the rainfall were not few in number. The Regent was by no means circumscribed in his favours. The old Princess Palatine said of him that he never knew what true affection was; his love was mere sensuality. On the other side, the ladies were not much more particular, and they followed the bent of their own inclinations without much regard for the Regent. The princess-mother said of him, "My son is not at all jealous; the tricks that his mistresses play him neither annoy him nor make him angry; they only amuse him, and make him laugh." If we are to believe Henri Sanson, however, the favour shown by Madame de Parabère to the young Count of Horn was fatal to the latter. This young nobleman, allied to the highest houses in France, had got engaged in a squabble with another young gentleman, and a Jew, as to a claim to certain shares in the Mississippi scheme, and the Jew had, unfortunately, lost his life in the scrimmage. There are, however, various accounts given of the event. It was said that the shares being at that moment at a discount, it was necessary to make a sacrifice in order to keep up the prestige of the scheme, and that Law and Dubois were among the most inveterate enemies of the young count. But Sanson tells us that Madame de Parabère made such extraordinary exertions to save the young man (he was only twenty-two years of age) as would imply a more than usual interest in his welfare. In an interview with Charles Sanson, the hereditary master of high works at that epoch, she declaimed in no measured terms against the Regent and his subordinates: "I have begged of them in vain-they would not listen to me. The |