The partial sprinkling had already caused many of the dancers to
withdraw to the cafés, and to the most sheltered parts of the park. The
lightning became more and more vivid; and, at length, the thousands who
had lingered in these groups of gaiety, were fairly routed by pelting
rain; and the park, with a few lamps flickering out, and decorative
finery drenched with rain, presented a miserable contrast with the
festivities of the previous hour. The crowd streamed through the
park-gate into the village, where hundreds of competitors shouted
"Paris, Paris;" and their swarms of diligences, cabriolets, and
curtained carts, were soon freighted. One of these charioteers engaged
to convey me to Paris for half a franc, in a large, covered cart, with
oil-skin curtains to protect the passengers in front. To my surprise I
found the vehicle pre-occupied by twelve or fourteen well-dressed
persons--male and female, who appeared to forget their inconvenient
situation in sallies of laughter, which sometimes bordered on boisterous
mirth. The storm increased; lamps gleamed and flitted across the road;
many of the horses plunged with their heavy loads, and swept along the
line in resistless confusion; for nothing can be less characteristic of
timidity than French driving.

On reaching Paris, the streets resembled so many torrents, and in most
places were not fordable, notwithstanding scores of persons, with the
alacrity of mushrooms after rain, had placed themselves at the narrowest
parts of the streams, with raised planks, or temporary bridges for
crossing. Our load was _landed_ under the arcade of the Hotel de Ville;
but the driver, in the genuine spirit of a London hackney-coachman, did
not forget to turn the "ill-wind" to his own account, by importuning me
for a double fare.

I learned that the storm had been less tremendous in its consequences at