A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. THEY order, faid I, this matter better in France-You have been in France? faid my gentleman, turning quick upon me with the most civil triumph in the world. Strange quoth I, debating the matter with myself, that one-and-twenty miles failing, for 'tis abfolutely no farther from Dover to Calais, fhould give a man these rights. I'll look into them: fo giving up the argument, I went straight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen fhirts and a black pair of filk breeches the coat I have on," said I, looking at the fleeve," will do” -took a place in the Dover stage; and the packet failing at nine the next morning-by three I had got fat down to my dinner upon a fricaffee'd chicken, fo inconteftibly in France, that, had I died that night of an indigeftion, the whole world could not have luspended the effects of the * droits d'aubaine—my shirts, and black pair of • All the effects of strangers (Swifs and Scotch excepted) dying in France, are seized, by virtue of this law, tho' the heir be upon the fpot--the profit of thefe contingencies being farm'd, there is no Redress. filk breeches-portmanteau and all, must have gone to the king of France-even the little picture which I have fo long worn, and fo often have told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me into my grave, would have been torn from my neck. Ungenerous!- -to feize upon the wreck of an unwary paffenger, whom your fubjects had beckon❜d to their coaft-by heaven! SIRE, it is not well done; and inuch does it grieve me, 'tis the monarch of a people fo civilized and courteous, and fo renown'd for fentiment and fine feelings, that I have to reason withBut I have fcarce fet a foot in your dominions. W CALAI S. HEN I had finished my dinner, and drank the king of France's health, to fatisfy my mind that I bore him no fpleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper-I rofe up an inch taller for the accommodation. -No-faid I,-the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race: they may be mifled like other people; but there is a mildnefs in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a fuffufion of a finer kind upon my cheek- -more warm and friendly to man, than what Burgundy (at least of two livres a bottle, which was such as I had been drinking) could have produced. -Juft God! faid 1, kicking my portmanteau afide, what is there in this world's goods which fhould fharpen our fpirits, and make fo many kind-hearted brethren of us fall out fo cruelly as we do by the way! When man is at peace with man, how much lighter than a feather is the heaviest of metals in his hand! he pulls out his purfe, and, holding it airily and uncomprefs'd, looks round him, as if he fought for an object to hare it with. In doing this, I felt every veffel in my frame dilate the arteries beat all cheerily together, and every power which fuftained life perform'd it with fo little friction, that 'twould have confounded the most Phyfical Phyfical precieufe in France: with all her materialism, fhe could fcarce have called me a machine.. I'm confident, faid I to myself, I should have overfet her creed. The acceffion of that idea, carried nature, at that time, as high as he could go I was at peace with the world before, and this finished the treaty with myself -Now, was I a King of France, cried I-what a moment for an orphan to have begg'd his father's portmanteau of me! I THE MONK, CALAIS. HAD fearce utter'd the words, when a poor monk of the order of St Francis came into the room, to beg fomething for his convent. No man cares to have his virtues the fport of contingencies-or one man may be generous, as another man is puiffant-fed non quo ad banc or be it as it may-for there is no regular reasoning upon the ebbs and flows of our humours, they may depend upon the fame caufes, for aught I know, which influence the tides themselves-'twould oft be no difcredit to us, to fuppofe it was fo: I'm fure, at least for myself, that in many a case I should be more highly fatisfied, to have it faid by the world, "I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither fin nor fhame," than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was fo much of both. -But be this as it may. The moment I caft my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to give him a fingle fous, and accordingly I put my purfe in my pocketbutton'd it up- fet myself a little more upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him: there was fomething, I fear, forbidding in my look: I have his figure this moment before my eyes, and think there was that in it which deferved better. A 3, The |