"This morning, at half-past seven, I went to inquire after our most worthy and respectable director, knight of the order of Christ, et caetera, et caetera.

Yes, gentlemen, last night he was a being with twenty et caeteras, to-day he is nothing, not even a government clerk.

I asked all particulars of his nurse.

She told me that this morning at five o'clock he became uneasy about the royal family.

He asked for the names of all the clerks who had called to inquire after him; and then he said: 'Fill my snuff-box, give me the newspaper, bring my spectacles, and change my ribbon of the Legion of honor,--it is very dirty.' I suppose you know he always wore his orders in bed.