He returned to Paris in January 1831, and began publishing vivid accounts of his trip to Spain in the "Revue de Paris" under the title "Lettres d'Espagne". These included the first mention of "Carmen", a story told to him by the Countess of Montijo. He also sought a position in the new administration of King Louis Philippe. Many of his friends had already found jobs in the new government; Stendhal was named French consul to Trieste, and the writers Chateaubriand and Lamartine both received honorary government posts. Mérimée, twenty-seven years old, briefly served as the chief of the secretariat of the Ministry of the Navy, and then, as the new government was organized, was moved from post to post; for a short time he was director of fine arts, then was moved to the Interior Ministry, where, he wrote ironically, "I conducted, with great glory, the telegraph lines, the administration of the corps of firemen, the municipal guards, etc." He turned out to be an efficient administrator, and was put in charge of organizing the response to the epidemic of cholera which struck Paris between 29 March and 1 October 1832, killing eighteen thousand Parisians. At the peak of the epidemic, he spent much of his time at the Hotel-Dieu, the main hospital of Paris. In November 1832 he was moved again to the State Council, where he became Chief of Accounts. He was not there for long; in December 1832 Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers sent him to London on an extended diplomatic mission to report on the British elections. He became a member of the most prominent London club, the Athenaeum, and consulted with the venerable French ambassador to England, Prince Talleyrand.