From the Pont Royal I proceeded to the Pont Neuf, where the collection of people was still more numerous, every eye being fastened on the quays in the direction of the Place de la Bastille, near which the disturbance had commenced.  Nothing, however, was visible, though, once or twice, we heard a scattering fire of musketry.  I waited here an hour, but nothing farther was heard, and, according to promise, I returned to the hotel, to repeat the little I had seen and gathered.  In passing, I observed that the number of National Guards at the Pont Royal had increased to about a hundred.

After quieting the apprehensions of my family, I proceeded to quiet those of a lady of my acquaintance, who was nearly alone in her lodgings.  I found her filled with apprehensions, and firmly believing that the present government was to be overturned.  Among other things, she told me that the populace had drawn General Lafayette, in triumph, to his own house, and that, previously to the commencement of the conflict, he had been presented with a bonnet rouge, which he had put upon his head.  The bonnet rouge, you will understand, with all Frenchmen is a symbol of extreme Jacobinism, and of the reign of terror.  I laughed at her fears, and endeavoured to convince her that the idle tale about General Lafayette could not be true.  So far from wishing to rule by terror, it was his misfortune not to resort to the measures of caution that were absolutely necessary to maintain his own legal ascendancy, whenever he got into power.  He was an enthusiast for liberty, and acted on the principle that others were as well disposed and as honest as himself.  But to all this she turned a deaf ear, for, though an amiable and a sensible woman, she had been educated in the prejudices of a caste, being the daughter and sister of peers of France.

I found the tale about General Lafayette quite rife, on going again into the streets.  The disposition to give credit to vulgar reports of this nature, is not confined to those whose condition in life naturally dispose them to believe the worst of all above them, for the vulgar-minded form a class more numerous than one might be induced to think, on glancing a look around him.  Liberality and generosity of feeling is the surest test of a gentleman; but, in addition to those of training and of a favourable association, except in very peculiar cases, they are apt to require some strong natural advantages, to help out the tendencies of breeding and education.  Every one who has seen much of the world, must have remarked the disposition, on the part of those who have not had the same opportunities, to cavil at opinions and usages that they cannot understand, merely because they do not come within the circle of their own every-day and familiar usages.  Our own country abounds with these rustic critics; and I can remember the time when there was a species of moral impropriety attached to practices that did not