MONTRIUL. When all is ready, and every article is difputed and paid for in the inn, unless you are a little four'd by the adventure, there is always a matter to com-. pound at the door, before you can get into your chaife; and that is with the fons and daughters of poverty, who furround you. them go to the devil" fend a few miferables, and enough without it: I always think it better to take a few fous out in my hand; and I would counsel every gentle traveller to do fo likewife; he need not be fo exact in fetting down his motives for giving them they will be register'd elsewhere, Let no man fay, "let 'tis a cruel journey to they have had fufferings. For my own part, there is no man gives fo little as I do; for few that I know have fo little to give: but as this was the first publick act of my charity in France, I took the more notice of it. A well-a-way! faid I. I have but eight fous in the world, fhewing them in my hand, and there are eight poor men and eight poor women for 'em. A poor tatter'd foul without a fhirt on instantly withdrew his claim, by retiring two steps out of the circle, 1 57 circle, and making a disqualifying bow on his part. Just heaven! for what wife reasons hait thou order'd it, that beggary and urbanity, which are at fuch variance in other countries, fhould find a way to be at unity in this? I infifted upon prefenting him with a fingle fous, merely for his politesse. A poor little dwarfish brifk fellow, who stood overagainst me in the circle, putting fomething first under his arm, which had once been a hat, took his fnutfbox out of his pocket, and generously offer'd a pinch. on both fides of him: it was a gift of confequence, and modeftly declined The poor little fellow prefs'd it upon them with a nod of welcomeness en Prenez prenez, faid he, looking another way; fo they each took a pinch Pity thy box fhould ever want one! faid I to myfelf; fo I put a couple of fous into it taking a small pinch out of his box, to enhance their value, as I did it He felt the weight of the second obligation more than that of the first 'twas doing him an honour the other was only Here! faid I to an old foldier with one hand, who had been campaign'd and worn out to death in the fervice here's a couple of fous for thee Vive le Roi! faid the old foldier. I had then but three fous left: fo I gave one, fimply pour l'amour de Dieu, which was the footing on which it was begg'd · The poor woman had a dislocated hip; so it could not be well upon any other motive. Mon cher et tres charitable Monfieur ! no oppofing this, faid I. My Lord Anglois the money - There's the very found was worth fo I gave my last fous for it. But in the eagerness of giving, I had overlook'd a pauvre honteux, who had no one to afk a fous for him, and who, I believed, would have perifh'd, ere he could have afk'd one for himself: he ftood by the chaife a little without the circle, and wiped a tear from a face which I thought had feen better days Good God! faid I and I have not one fingle fous left to give him But you have a thousand! cried all the powers of nature, stirring within me fo I gave him no matter what I am afhamed to fay how much, now and was afhamed to think, how little, then fo if the reader can form any conjecture of my difpofition, as these two fixed points -- are are given him, he may judge within a livre or two what was the precife fum. I could afford nothing for the reft, but, Dien et le bon Dieu vous beniffe encore 1 vous benisse faid the old foldier, the dwarf, c. The pauvre honteux could fay nothing he pull'd out a little handkerchief, and wiped his face as he turned away and I thought he thank'd me more than them all. Having fettled all these little matters, I got into my post-chaife with more ease than ever I got into a post-chaife in my life; aud La Fleur having got one large jackboot on the far fide of a little bidet *, and another on this (for I count nothing of his legs) he canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince. But what is happiness! what is grandeur in this painted fcene of life! A dead afs, before we had got a league, put a fudden ftop to La Fleur's career - a contention arofe arofe betwixt them, and the poor fellow was kick'd out of his jack-boots the very first kick. La Fleur bore his fall like a French chriftian, faying neither more or lefs upon it, than, Diable! fo pre fently got up and came to the charge again aftride his bidet, beating him up to it as he would have beat his drum. The bidet flew from one fide of the road to the other, then back again then this way - then that way, and in fhort every way but by the dead La Fleur infifted upon the thing afs. bidet threw him, --- and the What's the matter, La Fleur, faid I, with this le plus opiniatré du monde Nay, if he is a conceited beaft, he muft go his own way, replied I, and fo La Fleur got off him, and giving him a good La Fleur. Pefte! faid It is not mal à propos to take notice here, that tho' La Fleur availed himself but of two different terms of exclamation in this encounter - namely, Diable! and Pefte! that there are nevertheless three, in the French language; like the pofitive, comparative, and fuper |