whatever Grant me, O ye powers which touch the tongue with eloquence in distress! is my caft, grant me but decent words to ex claim in, and I will give my nature way. ady But as these were not to be had in France, I refolved to take every evil just as it befell me without any exclamation at all. 81. La Fleur, who had made no such covenant with himself, followed the bidet with his eyes till it was 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 horse in jack-boots, there remained no alternative but taking La Fleur either behind the chaise, or into it. - I preferred the latter, and in half an hour we got to the post-house at Nampont. NAMPONT. THE DEAD ASS.108 And this, said he, putting the remains of a crust into his wallet and this, should have been thy portion, said he, hadst thou been aliye alive to have shared it with me. -- I thought by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but 'twas to his ass, and to the very ass we had seen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's misadventure.of The man feemed to lament it much; and it instantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his, but he did it with more true touches of nature. a The mourner was fitting upon 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 thein down look'd at them and shook his head. He then took his cruft of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; then laid it held it fome time in this hand upon the bit of his ass's bridle - looked wits Wilh The fimplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and La Fleur amongst the rest, whilft the horses were getting ready; as I continued fitting in the poft-chaife, I could fee and hear over heir heads. He said he had come last from Spain, where he had been from the furthest borders of Franconia and had god foo far von his return home, when his ass died. Every one feem'd defirous to know what business could have taken so old and poor a man fo far a journey from his own homemat, worlonga birim ym oral adguard 20 It had pleased heaven, he faid, to bless him with three fons, the finest lads in all Germany; but having in one week lost two of the eldest of them by the smallpox, and the youngest falling ill of the fame distemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all; and made 'a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him also, he would go in gratitude to St. Jago in Spain. When the mourner got thus far on his story, he stopp'd to pay nature her tribute - and wept bitterlyn bad oil semogaus all out a t He said, Heaven had accepted the conditions; and that he had set out from his cottage with this poor creature, who had been a patient partner of his journey. -- that it had eat the same bread with him all the way, and was unto him as a friend. ad How tova Trad Every Every body who stood about, heard the poor fellow with concern La Fleur offered him money. The mourner said, he did not want it was not the value of the afs -- but the lofs of him. The ass, he said, he was affured loved hiin - and upon this told them a long story of a mischance upon their passage over the Pyrenean mountains which had feparated them from each other three days: during which time the ass had fought him as much as he had fought the ass, and that they had neither scarce eat or drank till they met. Thou hast one confort, friend, faid I, at least in the lofs of thy poor beast; I'm sure thou haft been a merciful master to him. Alas! - faid the mourner, I thought so, when he was but now that he is dead I think other alive wife. I fear the weight of myself and my afflictions together have been too much for him - they have shortened the poor creature's days, and I fear I have them to answer for. - Shame on the world! said I to myself - Did we love each other, as this poor foul but loved his ass 'twould be something - the THE POSTILLION. The concern which the poor fellow's story threw me into, required some attention: the postillion paid not the least to it, but set off upon the pavé in a full gallop. The thierstiest soul in the most sandy desert of Arabia could not have wished more for a cup of cold water, than mine did for grave and quiet movements; and I should have had an high opinion of the postillion had he but stolen off with me in something like a pensive pace. On the contrary, as the mourner finished his lamentations, the fellow gave an unfeeling lash to each of his beasts, and set off clattering like a thousand devils. -2 I called to him as loud as I could, for heaven's sake to go flower -- and the louder I called the more unmercifully he galloped. - The deuce take him and his galloping too faid I - he'll go on tearing my nerves to pieces till he has worked me into a foolish paffion, and then he'll go flow, that I may enjoy the sweets of it. The |