Among the company was M. Eynard, the celebrated Swiss Hellenist. He wore the military jacket of the Swiss militia, with a Greek cross on the sleeve. There were several Englishmen of rank present, in yeomanry uniforms; and one Lord----, told me his was that of a lieutenancy in the militia--an office he had _formerly_ held. I mention these things, as so much misconception exists in America on the subject. The wisest way to go to court, here, would be to go in the full dress of Washington; but nothing is in better taste than to go in a militia uniform, if one happened to be entitled to wear it. The mistake is in flourishing these _quasi_ military titles on the card, and in ordinary life, and in believing they are out of place on occasions like this. We get most of these things _dessus-dessous_, and fancy ourselves critically right, when we are singularly wrong. The well known story of Napoleon and General ----, _may_ be true, but I greatly question it, as it is opposed to the spirit of European feeling; and it sounds very much like one of those inventions that float about American society, and are taken for gospel. I have known a dozen similar tales, in great vogue, which are certainly false. Ignorance of European life is so very general in America, and the susceptibility to European opinion so very keen, that we are to make great allowances for what is rumoured in such matters. After remaining some time in the drawing-room, I was stealing off; when I perceived the grand duke moving slowly towards me, followed by a large circle of courtiers. I got into an angle of the room that happened to be empty at the moment, and close to a door, thinking I should be passed unseen, as I did not like the appearance of pushing myself on his notice, after the extreme civility of the first reception. With such an intention, however, a worse position could not have been taken; for on entering the room, happening to glance his eye aside, the grand duke saw me, and turning short, I was literally cornered. Those who kept near the person of their sovereign, some fifty in all, formed a semicircle, extending from the outer side of the door across the room, and we were left alone, literally in the corner. At first, the grand duke had his back turned towards the rest of the company; but recollecting the awkwardness of the position, he changed it so as to face his subjects.