The evening was more sultry than I ever experienced an evening to be, even in Italy; the houses were all closed, the streets deserted, except when a few occasional stragglers rushed along, glancing at me with surprise, and uttering their comments on my courage.

Now and then a dog ran by, with a terrified air and drooping tail, keeping close to the houses as if for protection.

One might have fancied oneself in some city ravaged by the plague, and the burning heat of the atmosphere, and lurid red of the clouds, might have strengthened the notion.
It more than once occurred to me how singular it was for me, a woman and a stranger, to find myself with only one attendant in the streets, on foot, in a city declared to be in a state of siege, and with the noise of firing in the distance, and the shouts of the populace, continually breaking on my ears.
Having passed the Rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, and entered the Rue d'Anjou, I soon reached the _porte-cochere_ of my friend.

My servant knocked, and very loudly, but before the Swiss porter would open the door, he reconnoitred from the window in the _entresol_ of his lodge.
He could hardly credit his eyes when he saw me; and while he unbolted and unchained the door, an operation which took him more time than I thought necessary, I could hear him muttering that, "_Les dames Anglaises n'ont peur de rien, positivement rien_." I was not sorry when I heard the massive door closed after me, with its bolts and chains again secured; but, as I crossed the courtyard, the different aspect of the house, with its closed windows, reminded me so forcibly of the change that had occurred since my last visit, only three days previously, that I felt more agitated than while traversing the streets.
When I entered the drawing-room, in which a large circle were assembled, Madame Craufurd, though the servants announced my name, could hardly believe I was indeed come.

She wept bitterly while embracing me, and observed on the hardship of a person so aged as herself being called on to witness two revolutions.