"All his remonstrances were in vain; but distressed as his circumstances were at this date, his heart was warm and his board as hospitable as ever. Many an evening have I passed with him talking over the events of former times and of his financial schemes. I have never met with a spirit more buoyant nor a disposition more sanguine. In that Paris where he had once stood at the head of the mercantile interest, and enjoyed, with a zest of which few men were capable, every luxury that the luxurious capital could supply, he was now the double bankrupt, the prisoner of war. But to the credit of the French financiers--then, indeed, the men of most distinction in the world of fashion--he was not neglected. He still lived in that society of which he had formerly been so distinguished a member, nor was he treated with contempt because his wife and daughters now went to parties in their fiacre. On one of these occasions he met Talleyrand, who could not help exclaiming, 'Ah! _Monsieur Boyd, vous voir comme cela!_' "An application was at one time made to Boyd for his opinion on the financial affairs of England. This, although not avowed, he was perfectly aware was made by the Emperor's desire and for his Majesty's private information. Mr Boyd was not a man, be the consequences what they might, to bend before the Imperial footstool or to disguise the truth. He was placed upon his hobby-horse--Pitt's financial system and the sinking fund. His statement proved anything but satisfactory to the high quarter for which it was desired; and never again was Mr Boyd applied to on the subject of English finance." With regard to his acquaintance amongst the French, John Stanhope speaks with the greatest interest of a man who became his great friend, Monsieur de Baure, a Member of the Institute and President of the Cour Impériale. "I do not know," he writes, "that I ever remember to have seen a countenance expressive of brighter intelligence than his. His was indeed the eye of genius, and gave me a perfect conception of the meaning of an _eagle eye_. Yet I have seen it alight with a much greater disposition to fun than I expected to have found in one occupying so high a judicial situation. Indeed, in one instance, I was more amused than I can express by the extremely dry manner in which he completely took in an assembly of the wisest men in France!" On this occasion young Stanhope was seated amongst a number of distinguished men at the Institute, when M. de Baure rose to his feet, and a hush fell on the assembly of savants, who waited with profound attention for the words of wisdom about to flow from the lips of their learned colleague. As he rose, however, de Baure caught Stanhope's eye with a glance which the latter says "spoke as plainly as a glance could speak, 'Now I am about to have some fun with these wiseacres!'"