“I reckon yo’ are right, Jim,” said Jordan.  “When I was heah afore, I put up at er tavern whar ther war young women as waited on ther table.  I jest had plain food, in course, but when one o’ them young women brot me ther bill, she would hand et out in sech er way thet tho’ I knowed she war a-robbin’ me, I never thot o’ pertestin’; rather, she war shor ter git er tip in addition.  Talk er high art, them girls war daisies, shor.  One time thar war a row.  A dapper feller disputed er bill.  He thumped his heart, waved his arms, and made er speech like er politician.  Ther perprieter cum in, then both made speeches.  I thot ther would be shootin’ or cuttin’, sartin, but finally one rushed out, and I tho’t in course hed gone for a gun.  While waitin’ ter see ther fun, I seen over at er table a feller smilin’ like, and I tho’t by his face he war a Yankee, so I went over, and sez I:  ‘parler vouse Fronsa?’ Then he laffed and said:  ’Yes, a little, but I understand English better.’  Then I shuk his hand ’nd axed him wot ther row war, an ’nd ef he tho’t that thar man hed gone fur a wepin.  He smiled sort o’ quiet-like, and said:  ’No, it war jest a difficulty about an overcharge of five sous, and it’s all settled.’  ’All that row for five sous?’ I asked.  ‘Yes,’ he answered.  Then I said, ’My God, suppose it hed a-been five francs, it would uv been ez good ez er play.’  Yo’ see, that old trick thet they got from big Charlie, they overplay sometimes.”

Sedgwick smiled faintly, and Jordan continued: 

“But are they not er light-hearted, joyus race, tho’?  How they can sing ’nd dance ’nd play hades!  When I war heah they hed a review uv ther soldiers, ’nd how ther hull town turned out ’nd yelled ’nd yelled ’nd sung ther Marseilles, ’nd yet ther scars and humilitation uv ther mighty defeat war still fresh upon them.  They’r ez hopeful ez ther Irish, same time they is a great deal closer traders.  Ther stranger pays fur eny bow they make, for any smile they give.  Still, they is country-loving; every one uv ’em ’r ready ter die fur ther beautiful France, ’nd ther women ez jest ez’thuseastic ez ther men.  If I war young ’nd cud round up ther language a little, I’d camp heah fur six months.”

“The place is worth a longer visit,” said Sedgwick, “just to study its past, to go over the spots made sacred in history, to study the monuments, to visit galleries; to dream of all the events which transpired to round the present city into form; to trace the city’s career through wars, revolutions, uprisings, victories and defeats; to learn the processes, and count the throes which were necessary before the manhood of the people asserted its superiority over the manhood of kings.

“Think!  It is but sixty years since the great Corsican led his army out of here to his last campaign.  One can picture him now in thought, moving up this very street, the old familiar sovereign face, eyes straining towards the star that even then had become a fallen star, his ears thrilled with the plaudits of shouting armies and shouting people, his soul imperturbable in its dream of conquest.  Then the man was everything, the people nothing; now the people are everything, the man—­he is asleep and his heart is not colder in the grave than it was in life.”