The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-31 00:00:00

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(saw ova owir oosastroxnzrr.)
PARIS, Btiviny DIZIIIWG.

It appears that the Queen will not return home
through Germany. Aooording to present arrange-
ments she is to pass on through Paris to Cher-
bourg on the 12th without resting a moment here.
At this date the Emperor and Empress will bo
staying at the camp of Chalons. M. Drouyn
de Lhuys returned to town a few days ago;
but instead of going to preside at tho council
general of the Aisne, he went back to Lucerne,
which he is to leave on the 11th. It is thought
that he has gone to Switzerland to discharge a
political mission. Be this as it may, warble symp-
toms continuo to show themselves. Of those ter-
rible engines of destruction, the mitrailleuses,
ordered by the Minister of War, several hundred
are manufactured and ready for distribution, They

are to be served out to the army in the proportion
of one mitrailieuse a oompany. The 2,000 which
Marshal NW considers necessary for the safety of
France will be furnished before the end of the
year. It is stated in different papers that an army
clothier to whom a large contract has been given,
a little mere than s week ago had 1,800 hands
employed both night and day in making panta-
loons, tents, and " camp effects."
The result of the trial of MN. Racy, Guillon, and
Ribot, is not yet known here. These gentlemen, it
may be remembered, were arrested in the house
of M. Beanie?, on the charge of having
taken part in an illegal mooting. M. Jules
Fevre was retained by them. On his arri-
val at Nimes this Illustrious member of the
French bar was enthusiastically received by the
populace, which had turned out to acclaim him.
A deputation awaited him at the terminus to offer
him the hospitality of the town, and a dense
crowd was stationed in the Rue Fencheres, through
which he was to have passed ; but when his carriage
issued from the court-yard of the terminus a party
of police agents ordered the coachman to drive
another way. To make sure of their orders being
carried out, some of them walked at the horse's
head to the hotel, on a balcony of which M. Jules
Fevre was twice obliged to show himself to an ex-
cited multitude in front.

Here are fresh details concerning the accident
which last Wednesday befel M. de Montalem-
but at Charquemont, the chateau of M.
da Merode, in Pranche Comtk. During
an afternoon drive M. de Montelambert

(who has long been in a precarious state of health),
thinking the horse in need of refreshment ordered
him some oats. The coachman, as servants too
often do, to keep the bridle clean, removed it; and
the horse, on finding himetlf free, rushed forward
drawing the carriage with If. de Montalembert in it
after him, when, trying to hold him back by the
mane, the coachman was thrown violently against
the kerbstone. The carriage, a few minutes later,
was dashed to pieces, and If. do Ifontalembert
pitched against a heap of stones where he
was found senseless. The mars Odille, who was
the cause of the accident, died in lees than twenty
minutes from contusions in the head. Several
children who were playing in the road when the
horse ran away, narrowly escaped being killed.
One of them, a little girl, however, met with
serious injuries from which her recovery is
doubtful.

The Pays has a coarse article on the decision of
Victor Hugo and his sons not to follow the remains
Madame Hugo beyond the frontier. The liberal
press overflows with expressions of sympathy for
the family of the poet. The first page of to-day's
Agars is exclusively devoted to a biographical
notice of Madame Hugo, whose name is closely
associated with the litesary greatness of hes hue-
band.

The Count and Countess of Girgenti dine to-day
at Fontainebleau. Their suite is out of all pro-

portion with the charge of the countess on the
Spanish civil list, or the position of the count, who
is only the younger brother of an exiled king.
The Emperor has put of his visit to Chalons in
order to do them the honours of Fontainebleau,
where theyare to pass a few days. The oonntees,
though tall and slender, is said to bear a striking
resemblance to the Queen of Spain, her mother.
Her husband is destined to hold a high rank in the
Spanish army. He is a fine looking young
man, and served with credit under Benedek,
in the campaign of 1866. The match between
him and the Infanta was made up by the Pope,
who thought that his military experienoe and ap-
titudes qualified him to become the son-in-law of
Isabella, it being necessary to her safety to keep
the command of the army in the royal family.
The Emperor and Empress, I understand, through
the cordial reception they have given the Count
and Countess of Girgenti, wish to convey a re-
buke to the Prince and Princess of Piedmont for
neglecting when so near Paris as Brussels to pay
their respects to thee.

WIESBADEN, Avow)? 27.

Homburg was a village which has been con-
verttcl intrirfibign by a gambling establishment.
W (Auditoria Mown in which gambling is but an
re ory. -It As, until the sat German war, the
cal lb lof the duchy o• Nassau. It beaded of
court, of reweeentative chambers, and of a muni-
cipality which had always protested against the
an eetaiiin granted by the sovereign to the spite-
'eters who levied blackmail on all comers in tho
Kuriuml. In 1849, when most of the small Ger-
man potentates were driven by their subjects from
their thrones, the Duke of Nassau purchased im-
munity by abject submission to his dearly beloved
children, but the gambling establishment was
closed, and the citizens, to their credit be it said,
refused to allow either trente et guarante or rou-
lette to be played within their town. When the
reaction set in, and the duke, by the aid of Aus-
trian bayonets, re-acquired his former power, gam-
bling was again legalised, to the disgust of the
Wiesbadeners. It still flourishes, but the Prussians
have given the "company" notice to quit, and in
1872 it will come to an end. The townspeople
are of opinion that they will gain by this change.
Their mineral waters, which taste like chioken
broth, and of course cure every disease, will, they
imagine, suffice to attract visitors. I should not
be surprised if this were the case. All who come
to a German watering-place do not drink the
waters, but the drinkers form a nucleus, and, as
man is a gregarious animal, they attract others.
The chief objection to Wiesbaden is its tempera-
ture. From some unknown cause, in summer it
is several degrees hotter than any other place in
the neighbourhood of Frankfort. The accommo-
dation is much the same as at Homburg, but the
surrounding country is by far more beautiful. Its
walks and drives have been celebrated by Sir
Francis Head in his " Bubbles of the Bruunens,"
and they have lost none of their charm since he
wrote. There are two classes of Englishmen who
in the autumn leave their native shores for foreign
ports. The first class consists of those who are
determined to see as much as they can
during their excursion. They live in trains, in
steamers, or on donkeys. They seem to be of opinion
that to remain alive twenty-four hours in the
same place is to lose a day—they live with their
loins girded up, and their luggage consists of a
flannel shirt, two pairs of stockings, a "Bradshaw,"
and a " Murray." To quiet persons this hurry scurry
way of rushing through Europe appears a strange
mode of enjoyment, but happiness, as we know, is
not an absolute term, and everyone is right to
take it where he finds it. The larger class of
English tourists consists of individuals, or rather
of families, who leave Calais about the commence-
ment of August, get as quickly as they can through
Belgium, and when they find themselves safe in a
hotel at Cologne, begin to ask themselves whore
they are to pass the next few weeks. Whether
rich or poor they are alike anxious to economise,
for I have remarked that in proportion to the
wealth of the tourist is his anxiety to pay little
for his dinner. To this class I would recommend

Wiesbaden. It is neither so gaudy, so grand, nor
so rakish as Homburg or Baden, but there
is an air of solid respectability about it
which is not to be found in most
German watering-places. The gambling is kept in
the back-ground, and does not obtrude itself upon
thosewho do not seek it out. There are a good many
Russians, and not a few English, but it is princi-
pally affected by Germans. Ladies do not dress
half-a-dozen times a day, and the oldest shooting-
jacket of Paterfamilias is not out of place. He
may sit in the gardens, reading his morning
paper, or taking his coffee after dinner,' with
nothing to come between the wind and his re-
spectability. In the neighbourhood of Wiesbaden,

however, there are places in comparison with which
Wiesbaden is a centre of dissipation and of move-
ment. Nestled in the midst of a forest are the
modest watering-places of Schlangenbad and
Schwalbach, and I have often wondered that they
are frequented by eo few English. Each has of
course its " waters." Schlangenbad boasts of
baths, where ladies may be " made beautiful for
ever." That they produce this result I am not
prepared to say, but they probably are as effica-
cious as the balms and cosmetics of Madame
Rachel, and they certainly are much less costly.
Their reputation has stood the test of ages, for they
were frequented by the Mrs. Borrodailee of the
ancient world. And many a Roman matron, no
longer young, but anxious to captivate some
young knight or senator, has bad recourse to
them. Schwalbach is given up to ladies. I went
there some years ago and found myself quite a
cynosure, as I was the almost solitary represen-
tative of the male species. I breakfasted sur-
rounded by ladies. In the afternoon I went to
the borders of a small lake, where the band, repre-
sented by two gifted beings, who played on the
fiddle, was the centre of attraction, but I instead
of the band became the attraction, and I felt like
the black swan of the Latin grammar. Ladies
were everywhere, men nowhere. Fortunately only
chairs had been provided for a quarter of the
fair creatures, so they made up for the want
of beaux by intriguing for chairs. In
the evening there was a ball, but still nothing but
ladies. I sauntered in, when in a few moments
a stalwart dame came up to me, and said, " You
are to dance with me, I have won you," and I
found that I had been raffled for. Attention from
the fair sex is always agreeable, so I soon over-
came my native bashfulness, and at the com-
mencement of each dance my name was put into
I an urn, and I danced with the lady who drew me.
I was the first prize in the raffle, a music-master
was the second, and an aged Russian general the
th4rd. One old lady, lam convinced, cheated, for
to my great grief she won me three successive
I times, while the prettiest girl in the room always
drew a blank or the veteran. I have not been to
Schwalbach this year, because the Emperor
of Russia has been there, and I fear that
I should no longer be considered a prize.
Last year the Prince and Princess of Wales passed
some months at Wiesbaden, but those who love
royalties have been obliged to put up with a
short visit from the King of Prussia, and a Prince
of Wurtemberg who passes the season here. The
townspeople are not very fond of the Prussians,
and they showed it by giving the King a cold re-
ception, but no love was ever lost between them
and their Duke. That ex-potentate has taken
up his residence in Frankfort. From the wreck of
his fortunes he has saved about 100,0001. a year,
his palace at Biberich, a country house called the
Platten, and several of the best vineyards in
Germany. The wind, therefore, has been tempered
to this shorn royal lamb. There are no celebrities
of any note here, either British or foreign, no
gossip and no scandal. People lounge about all
day doing nothing, and doing it with gratifica-
tion to themselves. The temperature is mild, the
society is mild, the gambling is mild, the flirta-
tions are mild, and the conversation is mild.

PROFE:49OII AGABSIZ BOBBED.—A few days sines
the house of Professor Agents, in Cambridge, Hass,
was entered and ransacked by thieves, the family being
absent. A gold watch and penal and some valuable seals
are sainted, and possibly other articles ,were taken.—Now
York Thew, August 19,