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Its owner went downstairs into the courtyard, got into his

carriage, and drove away. Not many people had talked with him at

the reception; he had stood in a little space apart, and

Monseigneur might have been warmer in his manner. It appeared,

under the circumstances, rather agreeable to him to see the

common people dispersed before his horses, and often barely

escaping from being run down. His man drove as if he were

charging an enemy, and the furious recklessness of the man

brought no check into the face, or to the lips, of the master.

The complaint had sometimes made itself audible, even in that

deaf city and dumb age, that, in the narrow streets without

footways, the fierce patrician custom of hard driving endangered

and maimed the mere vulgar in a barbarous manner. But, few cared

enough for that to think of it a second time, and, in this

matter, as in all others, the common wretches were left to get

out of their difficulties as they could.