The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-21 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(PEON OUR OW COI

PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.

At the funeral service performed yesterday in the
fashionable church of St. Clothilde for the soul of
the Duke de Levis, lately deceased, many people
were puzzled to know what could be the meaning of
the words inscribed upon the catafalque, " Second
Christian of France." The explanation is that
when Clovis was converted, the first noble who
offered himself to be baptised was the ancestor of
the Montmorencys, and the second the ancestor of
the Duke de Levis. The pedigree of the Count de
Chambord's late right-hand man goes back, how-
ever, to a much earlier date in history. The French
aristocratic name of Levis is all one with the
Lewises and Levys of Curaitor-street and Hounds-
ditch. They all claim descent from Jacob's son,
Levi. The French Lenses trace their descent from
a first cousin of the Virgin Mary. In the ancestral
hall of the Dukes of Levis, in Brittany, there is an
antique picture representing au interview between
the founder of the family and his relation, the wife
of Joseph the carpenter. The parent of the house of
Levis is represented in the act of taking off his hat,
and a scroll issuing from his mouth bears the
words bon joss, use cousins (good day, cousin). The
Virgin replies, course: roue, mom cousin (put on
your hat, cousin). What " boast of heraldry " can
beat this

A duel with sabres took place the morning before
last in the forest of Bondy between two Hungarian
emigrants, M. de B— and Capt. N—. The latter
received a rather serious cut on the head. Whilst
the wounded man was being conveyed to his resi-
dence, the gendarmery of Bondy, having been in-
formed of the affair, arrived and arrested M. de
B— and the seconds. They were taken to Pantin,
and placed at the dispo.lal of the commissary of
police.

The Empress Eugenie, on Ash Wednesday,
"received cinders"—that is, allowed a priest to mirk on
her forehead the sign of the cross with ashes, and tell her
as be did so to remember that she is dust and will return
to dust ; and it is said by a corresp.mdent of the Press that
she made all the people at court go through the same
ceremony. Her Majesty has also notifiod that she will
expect the fasts which the church orders for this solemn
season to be observed, and that during the Lent the cour-
tiers must be as diligent in the confesaion and ►ttendance at
church as she is.

A painful loss (says Ga/ignaui) has just been
experienced by a family connected by sloes ties with the
Emperor of the French. The Princess Julie Bonaparte,
Marquise de Rucvtgiovine, suddenly left Paris a few days
back for Rome, to be near her daughter, who had been
seized with typhus fever. The princess only arrived in
time to receive the child's last sigh, as she died on Saturday
in her mother's arms•

Millie. Livry was able to leave her bed two days
beck for the first time slaw the terrible accident which
endangered her life.
At Vienna, in Carnival time, a kind of masked
ball is held at which gentlemen, and they only in mask, are
admitted. The " tomfoolery" this year took everywhere a
political character. The new Stamp Aet, Pravda as leader
of Germany, Germany divided into large and small, Greece
seeking a king. Lord Palmenton as a hawker selling kings,
United Italy with her " bripati," Austria as a great power
represented by a gentleman wearing a pair of Hungarian
inerpreeeiblea, top-boots with spurs, au elegant German
dress-coat, and the much-repudiated "cylinder bat." The
police, the Reicharath, and the press, each in turn was ridi•
culed, not to forget Louis Napoleon 111. exchanging ideas
for profitable pieces of lead.