The modest hotel in which he stayed during his visit, was crowded with visitors.

Peers, ministers, deputies, journalists, members of the French Academy, came to salute the author of the 'Papillotos.' The proprietor of the hotel began to think that he was entertaining some prince in disguise--that he must have come from some foreign court to negotiate secretly some lofty questions of state.

But when he was entertained at a banquet by the barbers and hair-dressers of Paris, the opinions of "mine host" underwent a sudden alteration.

He informed Jasmin's son that he could scarcely believe that ministers of state would bother themselves with a country peruke-maker! The son laughed; he told the maitre d'hotel that his bill would be paid, and that was all he need to care for.
Jasmin was not, however, without his detractors.

Even in his own country, many who had laughed heartily and wept bitterly while listening to his voice, feared lest they might have given vent to their emotions against the legitimate rules of poetry.