Juft heaven! for what wife reasons haft 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 presenting him with a single fous, merely for his politesse.

A poor little dwarfish brifk fellow, who stood over against me in the circle, putting something firft under his arm, which had once been a hat, took his fnuff-box 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 welconeness Prenez en-prenez, faid he, looking another way; fo they each took a pinch

-Pity thy box fhould ever want one! faid I to myfelf; so I put a couple of fous into it-taking a fmall pinch out of his box, to enhance their value, as I did it-He felt the weight of the fecond obligation more than that of the firft-'twas doing him an honour the other was only doing him a charity and he made me a bow down to the ground for it.

-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 diflocated hip; fo it could not be well upon any other motive.

Mon

Mon cher et très charitable Monfieur-There' no oppofing this, faid I.

My Lord Anglois-the very found was worth the money-fo I gave my last fous for it. But, in the eagerness of giving, I had overlooked a pauvre honteux, who had no one to ask a fous for him, and who, I believed, would have perifh'd e're 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 have I not one fmngle fous left to give him-But you have a thousand! cried all the powers of nature, stirring within me-fo I gave himno 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 given him, he may judge within a livre or two what was the precife fum.

1 could afford nothing for the reft, but Dieu vous beniffe- Et le bon Dieu vous beniffe encorefaid 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 a way and I thought he thank'd me more than them all.

HAVING

THE BIDET.

AVING fettled all thefe little matters, I got into my post-chaise with more ease than ever got into a poft-chaife in my life; and La Fleur having got one large boot on the far fide of a lit

I

tle

tle 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 scene of life! A dead afs, before we had got a league, put a fudden stop to La Fleur's career his bidet would not pafs by it-a contention arose 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 christian, faying neither more or lefs upon it, than, Diable ! fo prefently got up and came to the charge again aftride his bidet, beating him up to it as he would have beat this drum.

The bidet flew from one fide of the road to the other then back again-then this way-then that way, and in short every way but by the dead afs. -La Fleur infifted upon the thing-and the bidet threw him.

What's the matter, La Fleur, faid I, with this bidet of thine?. -Monfieur faid he, c'est un cheval le plus opiniatré du monde- -Nay, if he is a conceited beaft, he must go his own way, replied I. fo La Fleur got off him, and giving him a good found lafh, the bidet took me at my word, and away he scamper'd back to Montriul. faid La Fleur.

-Pefte!

It is not mal à propos to take notice here, that though La Fleur availed himself but of two different terms of exclamation in this encounter-namely, Diable! and Pefte! that there are nevertheless

† Poft-horfe.

three

three, in the French language; like the pofitive, comparative, and fuperlative; one or the other of which serve for every unexpected throw of the dice in life.

Le Diable! which is the first and pofitive degree, is generally used upon ordinary motions of the mind, where small things only fall out contrary to your expectations-fuch as the throwing once doublets La Fleur's being kick'd off his horfe, and fo forth-cuckoldom, for the fame reason, is always -Le Diable!

But in cafes where the caft has something provoking in it, as in that of the bidet's running away after, and leaving La Fleur aground in jack-boots 'tis the fecond degree.

'Tis then Peste!

And for the third

But here my heart is wrung with pity and fellow-feeling, when I reflect what miferies have been their lot, and how bitterly fo refined a people must have smarted, to have forced them upon the ufe of it.

Grant me, O ye powers which touch the tongue with eloquence in diftrefs!whatever is my caft, Grant me but decent words to exclaim in, and I will give my nature way.

But as these are not to be had in France, I refolved to take every evil just as it befel me without any exclamation at all.

La Fleur, who had made no fuch covenant with himself, followed the bidet with his eyes till it was

got

got out of fight and then, you may imagine, if you please, with what word he closed the whole affair.

As there was no hunting down a frighten'd horfe in jack-boots, there remained no alternative, but taking La Fleur either behind the chase, or into it.

I preferred the latter, and in half an hour we got to the post-house at Nampont.

NAMPONT.

THE DEAD ASS.

ND this, faid he, putting the remains of a cruft into his wallet-and this fhould have been thy portion, said he, hadft thou been alive to have shared it with me.I thought by the accent, it had been an apoftroph to his child; but 'twas to his ass, and to the very afs we have seen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's mifadventure. The man feemed to lament it much; and it instantly brought into my mind Sancho's iamentation for his; but he did it with more true touches of nature.

The mourner was fitting upon a stone-bench at the door, with the afs's pannel and its bridle on one fide, which he took up from time to time-then laid them down-look'd at them, and fhook his head. He then took his cruft of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; held it fome time in his hand-then laid it upon the bit of his afs's