Eusebe, absorbed in his reflections, walked nearly two hours,
gazing to the right and left, without seeing any thing. Finally, he
found himself, by accident, on the Place de la Bastille. Great was
his astonishment when his eyes rested on the July Column. He could
not imagine the utility of this immense tower of bronze. He would
gladly have asked some questions of the passers-by, but his former
experience deterred him. He approached the column and examined the
inscriptions minutely.
“This is very singular,” thought he. “Here is a monument erected
to the memory of citizens who died for liberty. Is it possible that
in 1830, at so recent a period, there were in France, the centre
of civilization, persons who were opposed to liberty? This would
seem to me improbable, if it were not engraved here. Are there,
too, those who are so abandoned as to think of depriving us of our
liberty, the greatest of blessings? This was a remarkable event,
about which I shall know more so soon as I am able to read the
historians of that period.”
Hunger put a stop to Eusebe’s reflections on the liberties of the
people. He walked on, glancing eagerly about, and hoping to see a
signboard swinging in the wind and bearing that fallacious legend,
“Here they give something to eat and drink,” such as he had seen
on the rural roads. He had commenced to despair of finding what he
sought, however, when the magic word “dinner” greeted his eyes. On
closer inspection of the establishment where this promise was held
out, he read,--
RESTAURANT BROCHONS.
_Dîners à 2 francs; déjeuners à 1 franc 25._
Eusebe fairly sprang towards the door, but entered the place in a
humble manner, and took a seat at the table nearest to the window,
so that he might satisfy at the same time his stomach and his
curiosity.
“What will you have, monsieur?” inquired a waiter.
“Whatever you please,” replied Eusebe. “Having been raised in the
country, I am not difficult to please.”
“After the soup, will monsieur have a beefsteak?”
“As it pleases you.”
“Oh, it is all the same to me. Would you prefer a kidney?”
“I have no preference.”
“A calf’s liver?”
“It is a matter of indifference to me.”
“To me also. We have, besides, cutlets, collops, fricasseed
chicken, rabbits, partridges, roast chicken, mutton----”
Eusebe caught the word cutlets, as the waiter ran rapidly through
the bill of fare, and eagerly interrupted him with,--
“Give me a cutlet.”
“How will you have it?” And the waiter again went into a catalogue
of which Eusebe understood only the word “broiled.”
“I will have it broiled,” he exclaimed.
“Cutlet broiled! One!” exclaimed the waiter to the cook.
“Here is a queer servant,” said the young provincial, _solus_.
Having obtained the cutlet, he devoted himself to it with an
appetite sharpened by abstinence and exercise. After the dish had
been finished, the waiter again began to run over his bill of
fare; but Eusebe interrupted him with,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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