quarrel, for at the first fire he received the Englishman's
ball in the stomach, and died shortly
after.

The season after the first abdication of
Napoleon, and more particularly after the battle
of Waterloo, was, it is well known, very fruitful
in quarrels between French and English
officers. That pleasant gossip, Captain
Gronow, has furnished many incidents illustrative
of this spirit. It is a fact, that the French
spent days and nights practising fencing; and
even resorted to the device of dressing up
fencing-masters in officers' clothes, and setting
them to pick quarrels with the English. It
became impossible for these latter to avoid
a conflict with men burning with rage and
mortification, and determined to insult their
conquerors. At Bordeaux, the Frenchmen used
to come across the Garonne for the express
purpose of picking a quarrel; and as the
challenge usually came from the English, the
French had the choice of weapons, and
invariably selected their favourite small-sword.
Strange to say, the result was usually in
favour of our countrymen, who, being utterly
helpless at carte, and tierce, and all the niceties
of the exercise, unconsciously reproduced
the scene in Molière's Bourgeois, rushed on,
in defiance of guards and passes, and cut down
their enemy at once. In vain the Frenchmen
protested that this was " brutal " and " unchi-
valrous," that it was a crying outrage against
"les règles d'escrime." Stalwart Englishmen
stood by their friend, and, producing loaded
pistols, threatened to shoot any who attempted
to interfere. This system gradually produced
a more wholesome state of feeling.

One night a party of English and Irish
officers were at the little Théâtre de la Gaîté,
where some French officers tried the usual
devices to engage them in a quarrel. The
Frenchmen had their swords, which they drew
at once, with the alacrity of their country;
unfortunately, the Anglo-Hibernian party had
none. They, however, rapidly broke up all the
chairs and tables at hand, and converting the
fragments into useful weapons of offence,
shivered every sword opposed to them, utterly routing
their opponents. In the delicate situation in
which the occupying army was placed, there
was an inclination to make every allowance for
wounded sensibilities; but it was found impossible
to brook the offensive behaviour of the
natives, and their studious insults. And the English
authorities knew the temper of the situation so
well, that none of the surviving offenders were
visited with severe punishment.

One of the most painful cases occurred at
Cambrai, shortly after Waterloo, where a party
of the English Guards were in garrison. A young
officer, Lieutenant G——, was followed one
day by a French officer in plain clothes, swearing
and uttering the grossest insults. The
young officer, finding it impossible to
misunderstand or overlook this intrusive mode of
address, turned round and asked him to whom
he was applying such language. " To you, and
all English cowards!" was the answer; which, as
a matter of course, bore fruit in a challenge.
The whole thing was so absurd, that the police
authorities interfered, and promised that the
offender should be sent away forthwith.
However, the meeting took place outside the
ramparts, in presence of a large number of the
townspeople. Though pistols had been agreed
on as the weapons, the Frenchman made his
appearance with swords, and after some discussion
agreed to use one of his adversary's weapons.
The young Guardsman fell at the first shot, and
it was remarked at the time that the French
officer gave a sort of start or stagger, whence it
was suspected afterwards that he had been
protected by a coat of mail. While the poor youth
was gasping and struggling in the arms of his
friends, the Frenchman looked on calmly from a
distance, and made this remark in a commiserating
tone : " Poor young man ! Had he fought
with swords, he had been spared all this agony !"
A party of soldiers arriving to carry off the
slain officer, the Frenchman grew apprehensive,
and said that it would be unfair to seize him ;
that he had come there on the understanding,
&c. ; but was allowed, says the chronicle, to
depart " in the most honourable manner." That
very evening he was seen at a café, exhibiting a
handkerchief with a mark of a bullet in it, and
boasted loudly that he had killed a Prussian, a
Spaniard, an Austrian, and a Portuguese, and
had, " at last, been lucky enough to kill an.
Englishman!"

In Mr. Lever's rollicking narrative of Harry
Lorrequer are introduced some true stories of
these Anglo-French encounters during the
"occupation."

MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S READINGS.

HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS. On Tuesday Evening, April 21,
MR. CHARLES DICKENS will read his
DAVID COPPERFIELD,
AND
MR. BOB SAWYER'S PARTY FROM PICKWICK.

On Thursday Evening, April 23, his
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY AT MR. SQUEERS'S
SCHOOL,
AND
BOOTS AT THE HOLLY TREE INN.

And on Tuesday Evening, April 28, his
CHRISTMAS CAROL, AND THE TRIAL
FROM PICKWICK.

Stalls, 5s. Centre Seats, 2s. Back Seats, 1s.

Tickets to be had at the Offlce of All the Year Round, 26, WelIington
-street, Strand; of Mr. JOHN POTTLE, 14 and 15, Royal Exchange,
City; Messrs. CHAPMAN aud HALL'S, Publishers, 193, Piccadilly; at
AUSTIN'S Ticket Office, St. James's Hall; and at PAYNE'S Ticket
Office, Hanover Square Rooms.