His reception both by his majesty and the princes was, he wrote to Monroe, "what is called gracious." Louis the Eighteenth was a Bourbon to the ends of his fingers.

He had the _bonhommie_ dashed with malice which characterized the race.

None could better appreciate than he the vein of good-natured satire, the acquired tone of French society, which was to Mr.Gallatin a natural gift.

Mr.Gallatin was not only kindly but familiarly received at court; and at the _petits soupers_, which were the delight of the epicurean king, his majesty on more than one occasion shelled the crawfish for the youthful daughter of the republican ambassador.

An anecdote is preserved of the king's courteous malice.