The audience consisted
principally of the military in garrison.
On the road from Alencon to Laval, we were guarded the whole day by
two troopers of the Gendarmerie, who are quartered along the whole
line of road from the capital; they are well armed and mounted, and
keep a very vigilant guard. At every place we stopped our passports
were examined. The police of this country is observed with greater
rigor than at any former period of its history, with regard to
passports. The circumstances under which the restoration took place,
the political state of France, in regard to other powers, the
conflicting interests and opinions of various parties, probably render
it highly expedient. On the arrival of a stranger at Paris, his
passport must be presented, and inscribed in the police book.
The revision of the one under which the person has travelled is
indispensably necessary. It is then carried to the British Ambassador,
(if the stranger be of that nation), or to the minister of that
country to which he belongs, where it must obtain the Ambassador's
signature. It is next taken to the office of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, where it is deposited until the following day, for which ten
livres are charged, and afterwards to the Prefecture of the Police, to
be signed there in its turn: and when all this is done no one can quit
the capital for the interior without its being again signed at the
Prefecture of the police.
From Alencon, we passed the Briante, a small river, at Ville Neuve,
where the road begins to skirt the Forest of Moultonue.
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