Alfred de Rosann — page 199: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

190 ALFRED DE ROSANN. dividing his time and his attention between the music of Rossini or Meyerbeer, and the prose of Pixericourt or Alexander Dumas. He is always the first to pur- chase the last new novel of Paul de Kock, De Balzac or Georges Sand; and is a constant subscriber to the Constitutionnel and the Guzette des Tribunaucz. He has entirely lost his English tastes and manners, and has imbibed everything that is French. Jiven his very hat has a conical shape verging towards a peak, and is curiously curled at the brim. He has only retained his English prejudices. Champignon accidentally heard of our hero’s happy rnarriage and establishment in Paris, and wrote him a complimentary letter on the occasion. ‘The epistle concluded with a request that De Rosann would in- terest the government in the gastronomer’s favour, and procure him a full pardon: “ for,’? said Champig- non in his own language, ‘TI flutter like a fowl when a Gendarme passes by my door, or enters my shop to purchase a cervelas sans ail.’? De Rosann readily complied with the wishes “of the best cook in Ku- rope,’ and succeeded in his demand for the indul- gence thus pathetically solicited. Champignon -was so overjoyed at the event of his supplication, that he gave an immense pate de foi gras to the postman who brought him the welcome despatch, and regaled the respectable functionary with such frequent liba- tions of marasquino, that the letters, instead of being distributed to their different addresses, were carefully consigned to the gutter, where their guardian himself: lay down—doubtless for the purpose of protecting them. . No sooner had Champignon received his pardon, than he dropped the name of Citron as unworthy of him, and reassumed his own. But fearful that this sudden change might appear singular to his cus- tomers, he caused upwards of ten thousand circu- Jars to be printed and spread over the town of St. Malo, to inform the public that particular reasons, which he could not immediately explain, obliged him comichbooks.Gom