The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-15 00:00:00

(Stamped id. Additional.) [TWOPENCE.

"Is it true, gessera," I saka, " that yes ones went to a
lost snasqui at the opera with the Queen of France, Marie
Antoinette, leaning on your erre, the king knowing nothing
of the matter till alter her return "
" 1 am afraid e," mid he, "she wee so indiscreet, and
I OM conscientiously add, so innocent. However, le
Comte d'Artots was of the party, and we were ell young,
enterprising, end pleasure-loving. But what is most
absurd in the adventure was, that when I pointed
out Medusa do Barri to her—wlasie figure and
hvouriie domino I knew—the QlllBOll elpreened the most
anzious desire to hear her speak, and bade sue intriguer her.
BM answered me flippantly, and 1 am rare if I had offered
her my other urn, the Qum would not lam objeated to it;
such was the esprit eraventssrs at that time in the Court of
Versailles, and in the bead of the haughty daughter of
Austria." I mid, " Ati, pima, you were their Cromwell

" Pan encore," replied he, selling, "that sobriquet was
Oven me long flee by bliribeau.' " I believe," said I,
the Queen was quite taken with the American cause."
" She thought so, but understood nothing about it,"
replied be.
' The world said at least," I added, with some hesitation,
" that she favoured its young champion, le biros des deux
roondet." Cancan de salon ." be replied, and the subjoin

was dropped.
In this merry, melancholy volume we are always
more or lees among the tombs; here is a group of
by-gone celebrities in a soiree at Madame Sophie
My's :
Went to • soirée at Madame Sophie Gay's, • beautiful
writer, and still a pretty woman, in spite of the rivalry of
two beautiful daughters, who were in attendance on her all
the night, Madam O'Donnell sad Dolph/as Gay, still in her
teens, but promiging to surplus her mother's fall-blown
Went.
Madame O'Donnal thanked ma gracefully for Mutest*
the name of her husband, General O'Docaml, who begged
mastodon to wait on me. These French women have such
• peculiar grace in saying gracious things. A certain little
twist about the mouth; • movement of goodwill which I.
pleasant, but hes not the affectation to fairs la 'none. I
made the remark to • John Bull who was standing near me,
and he replied gruffly, " Grimace, misoi—rill grimace ; ' a
sentence which hie wife—a piece of still-life, with an im-
placable face, all Sternhold end Hopkins in every asanne—
endowed.
There were many celebrities present, literary and dramatic;
case particularly struck me—a fragment of the supreme
beauty of the Directory . it was Le Primers de Chiceie I
Madam* Mallen, a poi Agana of the Directory ! A very fine
young man stood beside her : it wan her son, the present
promo. I wee presented to her, and had • few minutes'
pleasant convereation.: Another, a simple and elegant-
looking woman, no longer young, and plainly dressed in
white silk, without • single ornament, and only a bandeau
bioding bra beimtiful black hair ; but such eyes: once seen
they were never to be forgotten. I asked Madame Gay who
she was; ohs hesitated, and then said, "Eh Man, ere
Mademoiselle Mare."
" Then," said I, " those ere the eyes of /Heirs!"
" Yea," said %edema Gay, "el vans Faux joliement
critique In year remarks on her acting in Le Tartu&
d proper, I mat not mislead you by letting you
suppose admen, are received in society with us as they are
with you; but I take oat my privilege as an auteur dra-
meiotic to receive a charming creature. '
Some of the sketches of Madame de Steel are
inimitable in their life-like vivacity ; here is one :
The convesttion turned upon Madame de Steel, which I
thought might • little discompose Madame Constant, ea
" Betjamin the Ruler" was the moat afitehi. of Corinna's
potiti. However, I was soon relieved, as Constant gave
us the most admirable and graphic description of Madame
de Steel's mode of exhibiting, "ear elle se porta toujoura"
"Do (you remember," said he turning to Di 7.011 .4 that
night at Madame de Tracy's, where Albertina had her
branch of laurel (de rignear), which she always presented to
her mother when she saw inspiration coming strong upon
her ?" (He took down an 'Barnette as he spoke, and
twisted it round his finger and thumb with the " preliminary
look" with which she was wont to collect her audience.
The imitation wee en good and go comic that everybody
bust out laughing, and Madame Constant loudest of all.
" Taking for her text," continued Constant, " some 11Wd
dropped on polities or literature, she bent forth in one of I
those rhapsodies of eloquence—for she never converted;
she lost sight of every one, except the one, over wham, for
the moment, she wished to throw her spell. All this looked
like art; but in heir it WM second nature.'
Cependaat," said Eason, " c iinat nee bonne pitta de
femme, and Lady Mogan hill dome her ample justice in her
work upon France,
Leveler says, that to supreme bees mot would merit cano-
nisation ; a Frenchman never does even at the rapers of
his friend, or—of him mistress. Constant related that Corinna
had 'toiled, but in vain, on the hellbent Count de Rivard,
the spoiled pet of two court., Meeting her one night at •
mat merged, hemmed away from her. "De quells dimes
voubz-vous &beeper done F' said the friend with whom he
wee walking; " and bow do you know the masque?"
l'or le pied de Stoel," he answered.
Madame de Steel's foot was nog that of Atalanta. I saw
Alvarol in his last days in London. He was even then pre-
eminently distinguished for hie wit and brilliant conversation.

Again :
The baron's silhouette of the Lady of Copet, though it
slopped short of the caneata, and still more of the caricature,
was certainly very amusing. " Vanity and good-nature,
be odd, " prompted her to se maw de tout,' even to the
undertaking the reconciliation of Lord and Lerly Byron,
when both parties would have been most &vexes to the meccas
of her attempt. 1 read her letter addressed to Lady Byron.
It wee most eloquent, sa she intended it to be ; but it an-
swered no purpose, I believe, beyond displayit.g this power,
which I once maw her exercise upon her coachman, who had
overturned her into s ditch. When he appeared before her
next morning, she asked him solemnly, Are you 'were of
the importance of the life you endangered ?' The man, with
much simplicity, answered that be was not ; but she coati-
road her peroration all the same. Corinna never did better.
The men retired, satisfied at not losing his place, but uncon-
vinced of hie error, protesting it wee an accident, and arising
from no went of skill."
Boustetten was with her when she first saw Rocca, end
when he made his first impression, which ended in their
marriage. " Talmo," said be, " had arrived at Lyons to
ploy • few nights at the theatre. Madame de Steel proposed
that a party of us should till a rhar.ti-bane, and go and see
his first regimentation. We had scarcely settled ourselves
in our box when • strikingly handsome young man appeared
in the one adjoining. His flue head immediately caught the
attention of Madame de Steel. Oermsnicus pleaded in vain—
Talmo was forgotten. At the end of the first act, having
found out that he was a M. Rocca, well known, and much
considered at Geneva, she sent me to offer him a place in
our Lege. 'Le coup tat parti She turned her beck on the
stage, sod talked to him all the rest of the evening.
Vitale Venus touts ratline lea prole ettachile.
And Byron, who often afterwards met hint at Copet, fostered
her prepomession by his own liking and admiration of the
young artist. After their marriage they removed to
where they both fell into that state of ill health trout which
neither ever perfectly recovered "
I mentioned en anecdote of en English friend of mine
going to pay them a visit, and finding them at a dinner of
Invalid dishes, in vein pressing each other to eat. "It was
death end the lady," said he. They were both looking worn
and depressed in spirits ; but on the Due de Richelieu being
ennounc,d, Madame de Steel flushed up, and recovered
somewhat of her wonted energy. A duke, and such a duke,
was to her a potent elixir.
Again :
Bonutetten mentioned instsucee of her went of tact and
her great ',meets, which were extraordinary. Eloquent as
she was when she had a clear stage (and she generally made
one for herself), in desultory conversation she mid the
strangest things. "I was present that day," said he,
"when, across a crowded dinner table st Copet, she asked
Lord Byron whether he wee not the original of Lady C.
Lamb's portrait of Glenarvon. He answered coolly, C'est
possible, madame, maim je net jewels pore."'
- -

Quite as vivid, and scarcely less interesting, the
picture of Alexander's sibyl—Madame Krudener :

- _ "
Oh," said D4noe, " Madame Krudener engrossed all
influences. I remember her at the Congress, and later at
Paris, when her salons were crowded with devotees and
crowned heeds. She was the greatest actress I ever saw—
too toelo-dramatic for a Clarion or a Mare, but quite good
enough for an audience of kings and emperor.; for royalty
has loved the drama from Crew to Bonaparte."
" How was she dreamed ?' I asked—always a woman's
finit ides.
Well, in • flowing robe of white cashmere, or some eat
fabric, but draped artiatiguement , the folds gathered round her
waist by a silver girdle, des tress '+ dories Bowing in profit-
Finn over a neck of alabseter. She had the ale of having
been flung on a crimson velvet sofa piled with cushions—the
sort of background a painter would bare chosen fur her.
Always two or three crowned heads in attendance : Alex-
ander on one aide, dressed to effect in black and diamonds ;
the King of Prairie, nowise remarkable except by contrast,
on the other. On a low stout at the feet high t
prophetem
sat her disciple, Bergman and her high priest, Jung
Stilling."
" Ecoutez done I" told Madame de Houchien, nudging
me; " est-il artiste, noire Deem ? Quells groups I"
" Attendee., ettender I" maid Denon. In the midst of •
solemn silence she roe* and extending her arms, exclaimed,
with • strange and penetrating tone, " Priam' !" Down on
his knees went the Emperor of all the Ruseim, followed by
everybody present,, kings, aide-de-eampa, and valets incl Med.
A.• thin; said Segue, starting up, "was the grandson
of my great Catharine I "
" You may well my year great Catherine," said Discs.
" What must the Priem de Limo have thought on the occa-
sion ? He was present"
" Madame de H.rudener must have had great taloa," mid
Madams de Hoechien.

" Pas le moire du monde," mid Dimon. She bed ezt,
Ile minim of mediocrity."
" Yee," ventured 1, the had religion for he► aid ; but aim
fought with the arms of St. Therese, who *island for
pope., sad toads princes do her bidding. Ones you get into
the spirited, you have nothing to ge by but faith; and
Madams de Ktedener had the greatest Ugh in Jung fitdnng,
as the Emperor Alexander had in her."

And now who will rest satisfied without becoming
acquainted with this delightful reminiscence of r
brilliant pest told by one of the best wits still ex-
taut—the yet lively and vigorous survivor of one of
the foremost ages in English hietory—the age which
gave Lyndhurst to law, Wellington to war, and
Byron to poetry ? The hope and trust of all who
make themselves acquainted with this .. promissory
note in the form of an odd volume" must certainly
be that the completed series may be given to the
world ere the gifted woman, who is its writer and its
subject, shall be called in the Unroof timer,. follow
the crowd of " fair women and brave men" whose
she his here commemorated.