and fuperlative, one or the other of which ferve for every unexpected throw of the dice in life.

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

But in cafes where the caft has fomething provoking in it, as in that of the bidet's running away after, and leaving La Fleur aground in jackboots'tis the second degree.

'Tis then Pefte!

And for the third

-But here my heart is wrung with pity and fellow-feeling, when I reflect what miferies must have been their lot, and how bitterly fo refined a people must have fmarted, to have forced them upon the use 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 thefe were not to be had in France, I

refolved to take every evil, juft 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 out of fight-and then, you may imagine, if you please, with what word he clofed 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 chaife, or into it.

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

NAMPON T.

THE DE A D A S S.

_AND this, faid he, putting the remains of

a cruft into his wallet and this, fhould have been thy portion, faid he, hadft thou been alive to have fhared it with me I thought by the accent, it had been an apoftrophe to his child; but 'twas to his ass, and to the very afs we had seen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's misadventure. The man feemed to lament it much; and it inftantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation 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 bridle looked wiftfully at the little arrangement he had made and then gave a figh.

The fimplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and La Fleur amongst the reft, whilft the horses were getting ready; as I continued fitting in the post-chaife, I could fee and hear over their heads.

-He faid he had come laft from Spain, where he had been from the furtheft borders of Franconia; and had got fo far on his return home, when his afs died. Every one feem'd defirous to know what bufinefs could have taken fo old and poor a man fo far a journey from his own home.

It had pleafed heaven, he faid, to blefs him with three fons, the finest lads in all Germany; but having in one week loft two of the eldest of them by the small-pox, and the youngest falling ill of the fame diftemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all; and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him alfo, he would go in gratitude to St. Iago in Spain.

When the mourner got thus far on his ftory, he stopp'd to pay nature her tribute and wept bitterly.

He said, Heaven had accepted the conditions, and that he had fet out from his cottage with this poor creature, who had been a patient partner of his journey that it had eat the fame bread with

him all the way, and was unto him as a friend.

Every body who stood about, heard the poor fellow with concern La Fleur offered him moThe mourner faid, he did not want it ney it was not the value of the afs but the lofs of him. The afs, he faid, he was affured loved him -and upon this told them a long ftory of a mifchance upon their paffage over the Pyrenean moun. tains which had feparated them from each other three days; during which time the afs had fought him as much as he had fought the afs, and that they had neither scarce eat or drank till they met.

Thou haft one comfort, friend, faid I, at least in the lofs of thy poor beast, I'm sure thou hast been a merciful mafter to him. Alas! faid the mourner, I thought fo, when he was alive but now that he is dead I think otherwife. — I fear the weight of myself and my afflictions together have been to much for him they have shortened the poor creature's days, and I fear I have them to answer for. Shame on the world! faid I to myself Did we love each other, as this

poor foul but loved his afs -'twould be fome.

thing.

THE concern which the poor fellow's story

threw me into required fome attention; the poftillion paid not the leaft to it, but set off upon the pavé in a full gallop.

The thirstieft foul in the most fandy defert 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 poftillion, had he but ftolen off with me in fomething like a penfive pace.-On the contrary, as the mourner finished his lamentation, the fellow gave an unfeeling lash to each of his beasts, and fet off clattering like a thousand devils.

I called to him as loud as I could, for heaven's fake 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 poftillion managed the point to a miracle: by the time he had got to the foot of a fteep hill