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52
AN ADVENTURE

Trianon (August 19th, 1785), just at the beginning of the diamond necklace episode, when Vaudreuil took the part of Almaviva and was dressed for it in a large dark cloak and Spanish hat.

In 1908 we found out from Madame Éloffe's Journal (the Queen's modiste) that in 1789 the broad-brimmed hat had entirely displaced the three-cornered hat, and was generally fashionable; also that swords were no longer generally worn.[1]

Vandreuil left the court of France amongst the first party of émigrés after the taking of the Bastille, July, 1789.


The Running Man

Though we were surprised when the second man, also dressed in a large cloak and hat, ran up to us and with extreme earnestness directed us to go to the right rather than to the left, yet we merely thought his manner very French; and as he said in the course of a rather long unintelligible sentence "cherchez la maison," we imagined that he understood that we were

  1. Modes et Usages, De Reiset, p. 479, vol. i.