I had nothing to say, and that nothing might have been expressed in half a dozen lines, I made half a dozen different beginnings, and could no way please myself. In short, I was in no mood to write. La Fleur stept out, and brought a little water in a glass to dilute my ink-then fetched sand and sealing-wax-It was all one-I wrote, and blotted, and tore off, and burnt, and wrote again-Le Diable l'emporte ! said I, half to myself—I cannot write this same letter; throwing the pen down despairingly as I said it. As soon as I had cast down the pen, La Fleur advanced with the most respectful carriage up to the table, and making a thousand apologies for the liberty he was going to take, told me he had a letter in his pocket wrote by a drummer in his regiment to a corporal's wife, which, he durst say, would suit the occasion. I had a mind to let the poor fellow have his humour-Then pr'ythee, said I, let me see it. La Fleur instantly pulled out a little dirty pocket-book, crammed full of small letters and billet-doux in a sad condition, and laying it upon the table, and then untying the string which held them all altogether, ran them over one by one, till he came to the letter in question—La voila! said he, clapping his hands: so unfolding it first, he laid it before me, and retired three steps from the table whilst I read it. E MADAME, THE LETTER. Je suis penetré de la douleur la plus vive, et reduit en même temps au desespoir par ce retour imprevû du Corporal, qui rend notre entreveue de ce soir la chose du monde la plus impossible. Mais vive la joie! et toute la mienne sera de penser à vous. L'amour n'est rien sans sentiment. Et le sentiment est encore moins sans amour. On dit qu'on ne doit jamais se desesperer. On dit aussi que Monsieur le Corporal monte la garde Mercredi: alors ce sera mon tour. Chacun à son tour. En attendant-Vive l'amour! et vive la bagatelle ! Je suis, MADAME, Avec toutes les sentiments les plus respectueux et les plus tendres, tout à vous, JAQUES ROQUE. It was but changing the Corporal into the Count--and saying nothing about mounting guard on Wednesday--and the better was neither right or wrong-so to gratify the poor fellow, who stood trembling for my honour, his own, and the honour of his letter-I took the cream gently off it, and whipping it up in my own way-I sealed it up, and sent him with it to Madame de L***-and the next morning we pursued our journey to Paris. PARIS. WHEN a man can contest the point by dint of equipage, and carry all on floundering before him with half a dozen lackies, and a couple of cooks-'tis very well in such a place as Paris-he may drive in at which end of a street he will. A poor prince who is weak in cavalry, and whose whole infantry does not exceed a single man, had best quit the field, and signalize himself in the cabinet, if he can get up into it—I say up into it—for there is no descending perpendicularly amongst them with a "Me voici! mes enfans"here I am, whatever many may think. I own my first sensations, as soon as I was left solitary and alone in my own chamber in the hotel, were far from being so flattering as I had prefigured them: I walked up gravely to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass, saw all the world in yellow, blue, and green, running at the ring of pleasure-The old with broken lances, and in helmets which had lost their vizards-the young in armour bright which shone like gold, beplumed with each gay feather of the east-all-all tilting at it like fascinated knights in tournaments of yore for fame and love Alas, poor Yorick! cried I, what art thou doing here? On the very first onset of all this glittering clatter, thou art re |