A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

MOULINS.

her maid or that the girl should take the closet, &c. &c.

The lady was a Piedmontese of about thirty, with a glow of health in her cheeks-The maid was a Lionnois of twenty, and as brisk and lively a French girl as ever moved. There were difficulties every way, and the obstacle of the stone in the road, which brought us into the distress, great as it appeared, whilst the peasants were removing it, was but a pebble to what lay in our way now

-I have only to add, that it did not lessen the weight which hung upon our spirits, that we were both too decliate to commnnicate what we felt to each other upon the occasion.

We sat down to supper; and had we not had more generous wine to it than a little inn in Savoy could have furnished, our tongues had been tied up, till Necessity herself had set them at liberty-but the lady having 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 We least without reserve, upon our situation. 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 be

A CASE OF DELICACY.

lieve with as much religion and good faith on both sides, as in any treaty which has yet had the ho nour of being handed down to posterity.

They were as follows:

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 appear 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 port. manteau 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

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by the lady, that after Monsieur was got to bed, and the candle and fire extinguished, that Mon. sieur should not speak one single word the whole night.

Granted: provided Monsieur saying his prayers might not be deemed an infraction of the treaty.

There was but one point forgot 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 imagination-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 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 slept 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 be no means give up her point,

A CASE OF DELICACY.

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 Istretching my arm out of bed, by way of assevertion

(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 of 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.

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