Mrs. Stanley was left to spend the time of their absence at her father's house in Cheshire, but the keen interest with which she would have shared the journey was not forgotten by her husband. The events of the tour were minutely chronicled in his letters to her, and not only in letters, but in sketch books, filled to overflowing with every strange group and figure which met the travellers on their way, through countries which had been, although so near, prohibited for such a long time that they had almost the interest of unknown lands. _Mrs. E. Stanley to Lady Maria Stanley._ STOKE, _July 4, 1814_. ...That my curiosity may not catch cold in the too sudden transition from exercise to inaction, the Shropshire and Cheshire Heroes have followed me down here, and I have had the pleasure of seeing and hearing of the crowds going to touch (for that is the present fashion of seeing, or, to speak philosophically, _mode_ of _perception_) Lord Hill; and yesterday I met Lord Combermere and his Bride at Alderley, and a worthy Hero he is for Cheshire! A folio from Havre just arrived. I am very noble, very virtuous, and very disinterested--pray assure me so, for nothing else can console me--it is too entertaining to send one extract. CHAPTER III UNDER THE BOURBON FLAG French prisoners--Oldenburg bonnets--"Fugio ut Fulgor"--Soldiers of the Empire--Paris--A French hotel--A walk through Paris--Portrait of Madame de Staël--An English ambassador--The Louvre--French tragedy--The heights of Montmartre--Cossacks in the Champs Elysées--£900 for substitute--Napoleon's legacies to his successor--A dinner at the English Embassy--Botany and mineralogy--Party at Madame de Staëls--A debate in the Corps Législatif--Malmaison--Elbowing the marshals--St Cloud and Trianon--The Catacombs. _Edward Stanley to his Wife._ LETTER I. HAVRE, _June 26, 1814_. We have passed the Rubicon--nous voilà en France, all new, interesting, and delightful. I know not where or how to begin--the observations of an hour were I to paint in Miniature would fill my sheet; however, you must not expect arrangement but read a sort of higgledy-piggledy journal as things run through my head. I must pin them down like my Butterflies as they pass, or they will be gone for ever. At half-past four on Friday we sailed from Portsmouth, and saw the fleet in the highest beauty--amongst them all while they were under sail tacking, &c.; the delay has not been lost time. I should observe before I quit the subject of Portsmouth events, that the Emperor could not find time to sail about for mere amusement two days, this he left to the P. R.[38] He (the Emperor) and the Duchess of Oldenburg occupied themselves in visiting the Dockyards, Machinery, Haslar Hospital--in short, everything worthy the notice of enlightened beings....