The oration consisted of several parts, each ending with a kind of burden of _"Citoyens, la patri est en danger;"_ and the arrangers of the ceremony had not selected appropriate music:  so that the band, who had been accustomed to play nothing else on public occasions, struck up _ca ira_ at every declaration that the country was in danger!

Many of the spectators, I believe, had for some time been convinced of the danger that threatened the country, and did not suppose it much increased by the events of the war; others were pleased with a show, without troubling themselves about the occasion of it; and the mass, except when rouzed to attention by their favourite air, or the exhibitions of the equestrian orator, looked on with vacant stupidity.  —­This tremendous flag is now suspended from a window of the Hotel de Ville, where it is to remain until the inscription it wears shall no longer be true; and I heartily wish, the distresses of the country may not be more durable than the texture on which they are proclaimed.

Our journey is fixed for to-morrow, and all the morning has been passed in attendance for our passports.—­This affair is not so quickly dispatched as you may imagine.  The French are, indeed, said to be a very lively people, but we mistake their volubility for vivacity; for in their public offices, their shops, and in any transaction of business, no people on earth can be more tedious—­they are slow, irregular, and loquacious; and a retail English Quaker, with all his formalities, would dispose of half his stock in less time than you can purchase a three sols stamp from a brisk French Commis.  You may therefore conceive, that this official portraiture of so many females was a work of time, and not very pleasant to the originals.  The delicacy of an Englishman may be shocked at the idea of examining and registering a lady’s features one after another, like the articles of a bill of lading; but the cold and systematic gallantry of a Frenchman is not so scrupulous.—­The officer, however, who is employed for this purpose here, is civil, and I suspected the infinity of my nose, and the acuteness of Mad. de ____’s chin, might have disconcerted him; but he extricated himself very decently.  My nose is enrolled in the order of aquilines, and the old lady’s chin pared off to a "menton un peu pointu.—­["A longish chin.]

The carriages are ordered for seven to-morrow.  Recollect, that seven females, with all their appointments, are to occupy them, and then calculate the hour I shall begin increasing my distance from England and my friends.  I shall not do it without regret; yet perhaps you will be less inclined to pity me than the unfortunate wights who are to escort us.  A journey of an hundred miles, with French horses, French carriages, French harness, and such an unreasonable female charge, is, I confess, in great humility, not to be ventured on without a most determined patience.—­I shall write to you on our arrival at Arras; and am, till then, at all times, and in all places, Yours.