All Paris has been alive for the last three days. Can you guess the reason? Perhaps you will imagine, that the inhabitants, roused from the state of lethargy, into which they have for some time back been plunged, are beginning to give sincere but tardy marks of joy, at the reestablishment of internal order, and external peace. Not at all, my good friend. A subject, much more interesting to the parisians, is the cause of the show and gayety so generally exhibited. Know, then, that “_Long Champ_” has begun! I must now, like other learned commentators, explain my explanation. “Long Champ” is the name of a village, situate on the other side of the “Bois de Boulogne,” of which latter place I spoke to you in a former letter. In this village stood an abbey, or church; and one of the holy fathers, some hundred years ago, had a voice of such extraordinary sweetness, that, when high mass was performed, crowds of Parisians flocked to hear him. His popularity was not confined to the lower class, and the _noblesse_ shared the curiosity of the public. The fashion of going to Long Champ so rapidly increased, that, in a short time, it was no uncommon thing to see whole strings of splendid carriages at the door of the convent. The road to this village became the favourite ride, and vanity soon discovered, that it afforded an excellent opportunity of displaying all the varieties of dress, and all the pomp of equipage. In the course of a few years, it became an established custom, at this particular period of the year, to make, during three days, not an humble pilgrimage, but a splendid procession, to Long Champ. The mass and the singer were soon forgotten; but the _promenade_ continued, and increased every year in the magnificence of parade. To appear, on this occasion, with becoming grandeur, the haughty, but often distressed noble, would, for months beforehand, deprive himself of his ordinary comforts. To rival “les dames de bonne compagnie[70]” in richness of dress, in show of equipage, and blaze of diamonds, was the grand object of the admired _belles_ of the opera house; and the means of doing so, was the exacted price of those smiles, which the well beneficed prelate, or the wealthy _financier_, were sometimes permitted to enjoy. The _Bourgeois_ and their wives appeared in their humble _cabriolets_, but the former wore their Sunday apparel; and the latter were loaded with all the tinsel finery, which, during the course of the year, they had been able to collect. The common people, or _la canaille_ (as they were then indignantly called), were equally fond of this procession; and, at the risk of being run over, crowded and completed the show, some dressed in tattered regimentals, some in faded silk coats, and ragged embroidered waistcoats, and others with bag-wig’s and wooden shoes.