with an amusing naïveté, "Ils se lavent mesme
icy souvent tous les jours apres le repas."
The great Louis himself, we read, only shaved
every other day, and his whole toilette, from
beginning to end, was made in public. No
wonder, then, that this little eccentricity of
the strangers was likely to startle his loyal
subjects. From Ancenis the route lay through
Angers, the mayor of which town was ready
with gifts of the dry confitures, which were a
specialty of the place. The magnificent
progress was continued through Tours—where
there were firing of cannons, reviews of
archers, harangues from all the heads of the
different departments of the province—
Clenborse, Blois, and Orleans.

The ambassadors did not fail to examine
with attention all the objects of interest
presented by the fine old towns we have named.
Indeed their nicety of observation seems to
have surpassed that of any traveller we have
ever known. They measured everything that
was capable of mensuration, counted the stones
and windows in front of the houses, and the
trees along the roads, or in the gardens which
they visited, and never relinquished their
inspection of an object, until they had gone
over all its parts minutely, and had got all
the information come-at-able respecting it.
Each ambassador made copious memoranda;
which were combined into a regular narrative,
or report, every evening by the
secretaries. On the journey, two or three
mandarins, each with an interpreter, were sent
out as flying scouts to inspect the country
for ten or fifteen miles on each side of the
grande route, and their notes also were
worked into the official report. Moreover, it
was the business of one of the mandarins,
day by day, to weave this narrative into
Siamese verse.

At Orleans, we learn from the diary of the
Marquis de Dangeau, the travellers were not
well treated—though he does not specify in
what manner. M. de Viré is discreetly silent
as to this fact, and fills up the space which is
allotted to Orleans with a description of the
city and its neighbourhood, without saying a
word good or bad, as to the behaviour of its
inhabitants on this occasion. The same
thing, the Marquis writes, had happened at
two or three other places, some of those
probably which the Mercure dismisses with a
simple mention of their names as stages on
the journey. At Fontainebleau—where they
arrived on the twenty-ninth of July—after
viewing the park and chateau, they gave
audience to M. Brisacier, the head of the
Foreign Missions, who made them a speech of
more than a quarter of an hour in length, which
was too prolix even for our universal panegyrist;
though he mentions that the chief
ambassador, in reply, touched neatly and briefly
on every point contained in it. Next day,
they moved on to Versailles, and thence
to Berny, a house in the neighbourhood
belonging to the Abbé de Saint Geneviève;
where they were to be lodged until the day
was appointed for the formal entry into
Paris. No sooner were they fixed here, than
there was a rush of visitors from Paris and
Versailles. All the great people about the
court, either came in person, or sent to
compliment them on their safe arrival. M.
Bonneuil, the introducer of ambassadors,
conveyed his Majesty's congratulations. The
easy and polite manner in which they
received and conversed with these distinguished
visitors, excited the astonishment of those
who had been accustomed to consider
Versailles as the sole fountain of good breeding,
and de Viré endeavours to account for it,
by saying, "ils entroient naturellement dans
les manières Françaises." He has preserved
several specimens of what he calls their
spiritual repartees; but, unfortunately, he is
not to be trusted to tell a good thing, and the
bloom of the esprit gets sadly blown off by
his handling. The lady visitors were, of
course, very numerous. They flocked to see
the Siamese ambassadors, just as they did
since to see Tom Thumb; and, apparently,
much in the same spirit. Their pet topic of
conversation was plurality of wives. The
twenty-two wives whom the chief ambassador
had left at-home, furnished a never-ending
subject of badinage, which he bore good-
humouredly enough, and returned, too, in a
style which showed that he had formed a very
just appreciation of the morality of court
ladies.

Pretty nearly a month was spent at Berny,
receiving visits, and viewing the various
places of interest outside of Paris. All this
time they were waiting for the heavy
baggage, which contained the presents from the
King of Siam — valued by some of the writers
of the time at thirty thousand pounds; and,
as it was necessary, according to Siamese
etiquette, that these presents should be all
displayed on the day of audience (as was the
case at Windsor, the other day), no progress
could be made until they arrived.

At length they turned up, and the
twenty-second of August was fixed for the
preliminary ceremonial of the grand entry
into Paris. The cortége was one of
unusual splendour. Besides the King's
carriages, the Dauphin, Monsieur and Madame,
all the princes of the blood, all the great officers
of state, and many other persons who
wished to show honour to the ambassadors,
or who had had friends in the last Siamese
expedition, sent their carriages to swell the
train, so that there were in all sixty carriages,
each drawn by six horses, and each containing
a gentleman from the household of the
owner. In the King's carriage, went the first
ambassador, with the Duc de Feuillade, who
had been deputed by the King to attend on
the embassy on state occasions, Madame
Bonneuil, and M. Storff. The second and
third ambassadors rode in the carriage of the
Dauphin, the mandarins in the carriage of