a few bottles of Burgundy in her voiture, sent down her fille-de-chambre for a couple of them; so that by the time supper was over, and we were left alone, we felt ourselves inspired with a strength of mind sufficient to talk, at least, without reserve, upon our situation. We turned it every way, and debated, and considered it in all kinds of lights, in the course of a two hours negotiation; at the end of which, the articles were settled finally betwixt us, and stipulated for, in form and manner of a treaty of peace-and, I believe, with as much religion and good faith on both sides, as in any treaty which has yet had the honour of being handed down to posterity. They were as follow: First. As the right of the bed-chamber is in Monsieur and he thinking the bed next to the fire to be the warmest, he insists upon the concession on the lady's side of taking up with it. Granted on the part of Madame; with a proviso, That as the curtains of that bed are of a flimsy transparent cotton, and appeared likewise too scanty to draw close, that the fille-de-chambre shall fasten up the opening, either by corking pins, or needle and thread, in such manner as shall be deemed a sufficient barrier on the side of Monsieur. 2dly. It is required on the part of Madame that Monsieur shall lie the whole night through in his robe de chambre. Rejected inasmuch as Monsieur is not worth a robe de chambre; he having nothing in his portmanteau but six shirts and a black silk pair of breeches. The mentioning the silk pair of breeches made an entire change of the article-for the breeches were accepted as an equivalent for the robe de chambre: and so it was stipulated and agreed upon, that I should lie in my black silk breeches all night. 3dly. It was insisted upon and stipulated for, by the lady, that after Monsieur was got to bed, and the candle and fire extinguished, that Monsieur should not speak one single word the whole night. Granted; provided Monsieur's saying his prayers might not be deemed an infraction of the treaty. There was but one point forget in this treaty; and that was the manner in which the lady and myself should be obliged to undress and get to bed-there was but one way of doing it, and that I leave to the reader to devise; protesting, as I do it, that, if it is not the most delicate in nature, it is the fault of his own imagi -nation-against which this is not my first complaint. Now when we were got to bed, whether it was the novelty of the situation, or what it was, I know not: but so it was, I could not shut my eyes; I tried this side and that, and turned again, till a full hour after midnight, when nature and patience both wearing out -O my God! said I— -You have broke the treaty, Monsieur, said the lady, who had no more sleep than myself. I begged a thousand pardons but insisted it was no more than an ejaculation-she maintained it was an entire infraction of the treaty-I maintained it was provided for in the clause of the third article. The lady would by no means give up the point, though she weakened her barrier by it; for, in the warmth of the dispute, I could hear two or three corking pins fall out of the curtain to the ground. Upon my word and honour, Madame, said I, stretching my arm out of bed, by way of asseveration (I was going to have added that I would not have trespassed against the remotest idea of decorum for the world) -- But the fille-de-chambre hearing there were words between us, and fearing that hostilities would ensue in course, had crept silently out of her closet, and, it being totally dark, had stolen so close to our beds that she had got herself into the narrow passage which separated them, and had advanced so far up as to be in a line betwixt her mistress and me So that when I stretched out my hand, I caught hold of the fille-de-chambre's — THE END. MARIA. The were the sweetest notes I ever heard; and I instantly let down the foreglass to hear them more distinctly 'Tis Maria; said the postillion, observing I was listening Poor Maria, continued he (leaning his body on one side to let me see her, for he was in a line betwixt us), is sitting upon a bank playing her vespers upon her pipe, with her little goat beside her. The young fellow uttered this with an accent and a look so perfectly in tune to a feeling heart, that I instantly made a vow I would give him a four and twenty sous piece, when I got to Moulins And who is poor Maria? said I. The love and pity of all the villages around us; said the postillion it is but three years ago, that the sun did not shine upon so fair, so quick-witted and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deserve, than to have her bans forbid, by the intrigues of the curate of the parish who published them -- -- He was going on, when Maria, who had made a short pause, put the pipe to her mouth and began the air again they were the same notes yet were ten times sweeter. It is the evening service to the Virgin, said the young man but who has taught her to play it or how she came by her pipe, no one knows we think that Heaven has assisted her in both; for ever since she has been unsettled in her mind, it seems her only consolation- she has never once had the pipe out of her hand, but plays that service upon it almost night and day. The postillion delivered this with so much discretion and natural eloquence, that I could not help deciphering something in his face above his condition, and should have sifted out his history, had not noor Maria's taken such full possession of me. We had got up by this time almost to the bank where Maria was sitting she was in a thin white jacket, : with her hair, all but two tresses, drawn up into a silk net, with a few olive leaves twisted a little fantastically on one side She was beautiful; and if ever I felt the full force of an honest heart-ach, it was the moment I saw her - God help her! poor damsel! above a hundred masses said the postillion, have been said, in the several parish churches and convents around, for her but without effect; we have still hopes, as she is sensible for short intervals, that the Virgin at last will restore her to herself; but her parents, who know her best, are hopeless upon that score, and think her senses are lost for ever. As the postillion spoke this, Maria made a cadence so melancholy, so tender and querulous, that I sprung out of the chaise to help her, and found myself sitting betwixt her and her goat before I relapsed from my enthusiasm. Maria looked wistfully for sometime at me and then at her goat and then at me and then at her goat again; and so on, alternately - -Well, Maria, said I softly what resemblance do you find? me, that it I do entreat the candid reader to believe was from the humblest conviction of what a beast man is, that I asked the question; and that I would not have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Misery, to be entitled to all the with that ever Rabelais scattered. Adieu, Maria! adieu, poor hapless damsel! - some time, but not now, I may hear thy sorrows from thy own lips but I was deceived; for that moment she took her pipe and told me such a tale of woe with it, that I rose up, and with broken and irregular steps walked softly to my chaise. THE STORY OF LE FEVRE. It was some time in the summer of that year in which Dendermond was taken by the allies which was about seven years before my father came into the country and about as many after the time that my uncle Toby and Trim had privately decamped from my father's house in town, in order to lay some of the finest sieges to some of the finest fortified cities in Europe When my uncle Toby was one evening getting his supper, with Trim sitting behind him at a small sideboard — the landlord of a little inn in the village came into the parlour with an empty phial in his hand to beg a glass or two of sack : 'Tis for a poor gentleman, I think, of the army, said the landlord, who has been taken ill at my house four days ago, and has never held up his head since, or had a desire to taste any thing, till just now, that he has a fancy for a glass of sack and a thin toast-I think, says he, taking his hand from his forehead, it would comfort me. If I could neither beg, borrow, or buy such a thing added the landlord I would almost steal it for the poor gentleman, he is so ill. · I hope in God he will still mend; continued he we are all of us concerned for him. -- Thou art a good-natured soul, I will answer for thee, cried my uncle Toby; and thou shalt drink the poor gentleman's health in a glass of sack myself and take a couple of bottles with my service, and tell him he is heartily welcome to them, and to a dozen more if they will do him good. Though I am persuaded, said my uncle Toby, as the landlord shut the door, he is a very compassionate fellow Trim-yet i cannot help entertaining a high opinion of his guest too; there must be something more than common in him, that in so short a time should win so much upon the affections of his host And of his whole family, added the corporal, for they are all concerned for |