The huge clock of the Messagéries Royales told three as I entered the gateway. The wide court had an air of humid dreariness. On one side stood a dozen of those moving caravansaras, the national vehicles, with their leathern caps--like those of Danish sailors in a north-wester-- hanging half off, soaked with wet. Opposite was the range of offices, busy with all the peculiar importance of French _bureaucracie._ Their clerks, decorated with ribbons and crosses, wield their pens with all the conscious dignity of secretaries of state; and "_book_" a bale or a parcel as though they were signing a treaty, or granting an amnesty. The meanest _employé_ seems to think himself invested with certain occult powers. His civility savours of government patronage; and his frown is inquisitorial. To his fellows, his address is abrupt and diplomatic. He seems to speak in cipher, and to gesticulate by some rule of freemasonry. But to the _uninitiated_ he is explanatory to a scruple, as though mischief might ensue from his being misapprehended. He makes sure of your understanding by an emphasis, which reminds one of the loudness of tone used towards a person supposed to be hard of hearing--a proceeding not very flattering where there happens to be neither dulness nor deafness in the case. In a word, the measured pedantry of his whole deportment betrays the happy conviction in which he rejoices of being conversant with matters little dreamt of in your philosophy. Among the bystanders, too, there are some who might, probably with more reason, boast their proficiency in mysterious lore--fellows of smooth aspect and polite demeanour, whom at first you imagine to have become casual spectators from mere lack of better pastime, but whose furtive glances and vagrant attention betray the familiars of the police--that complex and mighty engine of modern structure, which, far more surely than the "ear of Dionysius," conveys to the tympanum of power each echoed sigh and reverberated whisper. It is a chilling thing to feel one's budding confidence in a new acquaintance nipped by such frosty suspicions; yet--Heaven forgive me!--the bare idea has, before now, caused me to drop, unscented, the pinch of _carote_ which has been courteously tendered by some coffee-house companion. In the group before me, I fancied that I could distinguish some of this ungentle brotherhood; and my averted eye rested with comparative complacency even on a couple of _gens d'armes_, who were marching up and down before the door, and whose long swords and voluminous cocked hats never appeared to me less offensive.