I have nothing further to add upon him, but that from that time to this, I have borne this poor ftarling as the creft to my arms. Thus:

++

+

--And let the heralds officers twist his

neck about if they dare.

THE

THE ADDRESS.

VERSAILLES.

I SHOULD not like to have my enemy

take a view of my mind when I am going to ask protection of any man; for which reason I generally endeavour to protect myfelf: but this going to Monfieur Le Duc de C-was an act of compulfion-had it been an act of choice, I fhould have done it, I fuppofe, like other people.

How many mean plans of dirty addrefs, as I went along, did my fervile heart form! I deferved the Baftile for every one of them.

Then nothing would ferve me, when I got within fight of Versailles, but putting words and fentences together, and conceiving attitudes and tones to wreath myfelf into Monfieur le Duc de C's good graces-This will do, faid I- Juft as well, retorted I again, as a coat carried up to him by an adventurous taylor,

without

without taking his meafure-Fool! continued I-fee Monfieur Le Duc's face firft-obferve what character is written in it-take notice in what posture he ftands to hear you-mark the turns and expreflions of his body and limbsAnd for the tone-the firft found which comes from his lips will give it you; and from all thefe together you'll compound an address at once upon the fpot, which cannot difguft the Duke-the ingredients are his own, and most likely to go down.

Well! faid I, I wish it well over-Coward again! as if man to man was not equal throughout the whole furface of the globe; and if in the field-why 'not face to face in the cabinet too? And trust me, Yorick, whenever it is not fo, man is false to himself, and betrays his own fuccours ten times where nature does it once. Go to the Duc de C―― with the Baflile in thy looks-My life for it, thou wilt be sent back to Paris in half an hour, with an escort.

I believe fo, faid I-Then I'll go to the Duke, by heaven! with all the gaiety and debonairnefs in the world.

VOL. II.

C

-And

-And there you are wrong again, replied I -A heart at eafe, Yorick, flies into no extremes 'tis ever in its center. -Well! well!

--

cried I, as the coachman turn'd in at the gates, I find I fhall do very well: and by the time he had wheel'd round the court, and brought me up to the door, I found myself fo much the better for my own lecture, that I neither afcended the fteps like a victim to justice, who was to part with life upon the topmoft-nor did I mount them with a skip and a couple of ftrides, as I do when I fly up, Eliza! to thee, to meet it.

As I enter'd the door of the faloon I was met by a perfon who poffibly might be the maître d'hôtel, but had more the air of one of the under fecretaries, who told me the Duc de C― was bufy-I am utterly ignorant, faid I, of the forms of obtaining an audience, being an abfolute ftranger, and what is worse in the prefent conjuncture of affairs, being an Englishman too. He replied, that did not increase the difficulty.—I made him a flight bow,

and

and told him, I had fomething of importance to fay to Monfieur Le Duc. The secretary look'd towards the ftairs, as if he was about to leave me to carry up this account to fome one -But I must not mislead you, faid I—for what I have to fay is of no manner of importance to Monfieur Le Duc de C, but of great inportance to myself.-C'est une autre affaire, replied he-Not at all, faid I, to a man of gallantry. But pray, good Sir, continued I, when can a ftranger hope to have acceffe?-In not lefs than two hours, faid he, looking at his watch. The number of equipages in the courtyard feem'd to juftify the calculation, that I could have no nearer a prospect- and as walking backwards and forwards in the faloon without a foul to commune with, was for the time as bad as being in the Baftile itself, I inftantly went back to my remife, and bid the coachman drive me to the cordon bleu, which was the neareft hôtel,

I think there is a fatality in it- I feldom to the place I fet out for.

go