It was a remarkable but grievous day for Paris; the
citizens generally stayed within their houses, and left the streets to
the armed multitude, whom they could not regard as friends, and with
whom they were no longer able to contend as enemies. In spite of the
enthusiasm with which Napoleon was greeted in Paris on his return from
Elba, there were very many royalists resident in the city; men, who
longed to welcome back to France the family of the Bourbons, and to live
again beneath the shelter and shade of an ancient throne. But even these
could not greet with a welcome foreigners, who by force had taken
possession. of their capital. It was a sad and gloomy day in Paris, for
no man knew what would be the fate, either of himself or of his country:
shops were closed, and trade was silenced; the clanking of arms and the
jingling of spurs was heard instead of the busy hum of busy men.
On the evening of this day, a stout, fresh-coloured, good-looking woman,
of about forty years of age, was sitting in a perruquier's shop, at the
corner of the Rue St.
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