WHEN I had finifh'd my dinner, and drank the King of France's health, to fatisfy my mind that I bore him no fpleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper1 rose up an inch taller for the accommodation.

-No-faid I-the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race: they may be mifled like other people; but there is a mildness in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a fuffufion of a finer kind upon my cheek-more warm and friendly to man, than what Burgundy, at least of two livres a bottle, which was fuch as I had been drinking, could have produced.

-Juft God! faid I, kicking my portmanteau afide, what is there in this world's goods which fhould fharpen our fpirits, and make so many kind-hearted brethren of us, fall out fo cruelly as we do by the way?

When man is at peace with man, how much lighter than a feather is the heaviest of metals in his hand! he pulls out his purfe, and holding it airily and uncompress'd, looks round him, as if he fought for an object to share it with-In doing this, I felt every veffel in my

frame dilate-the arteries beat all chearily together, and every power which fuftained life, perform'd it with fo little friction, that 'twould have confounded the moft physical precieuse in France: with all her materialifm, fhe could fcarce have called me a machine

I'm confident, faid I to myself, I fhould have overfet her creed.

The acceffion of that idea, carried nature, at that time, as high as fhe could go—I was at peace with the world before, and this finish'd the treaty with myself

Now, was I a King of France, cried I-what a moment for an orphan to have begg'd his father's portmanteau of me!

THE

1

Τ Η Ε Μ Ο Ν Κ.

CALAI S.

I HAD fearce utter'd the words, when a poor

monk of the order of St. Francis came into the room to beg fomething for his convent. No man cares to have his virtues the fport of contingencies or one man may be generous, as another man is puiffant-fed non, quoad banc-or be it as it may—for there is no regular reasoning upon the ebbs and flows of our humours; they may depend upon the fame causes, for ought I know, which influence the tides themselves- 'twould oft be no difcredit to us, to fuppofe it was fo I'm fure at least for myself, that in many a case I fhould be more highly fatisfied, to have it faid by the world, I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither fin, nor fhame, than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was fo much of both.

-But be this as it may. The moment I caft my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to

give him a fingle fous; and accordingly I put my purse into my pocket-button'd it up-fet myfelf a little more upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him: there was fomething, I fear, forbidding in my look: I have his figure this moment before my eyes, and think there was that in it which deferved better.

The monk, as I judged from the break in his tonfare, a few scatter'd white hairs. upon his temples being all that remained of it, might be about feventy-but from his eyes, and that fort of fire which was in them, which feemed more temper'd by courtesy than years, could be no more than fixty-Truth might lie between-He was cretainly fixty-five; and the general air of his countenance, notwithstanding fomething seem'd to have been planting wrinkles in it before their time, agreed to the account.

It was one of thofe heads, which Guido has often painted-mild, pale-penetrating, free from all common-place ideas of fat contented ignorance, looking downwards upon the earthit look'd forwards; but look'd, as if it look'd at fome

fomething beyond this world. How one of his order came by it, heaven above, who let it fall upon a monk's fhoulders, beft knows: but it would have fuited a Bramin, and had I met it the plains of Indoftan, I had reverenced it,

upon

The reft of his outline may be given in a few strokes; one might put it into the hands of any one to defign, for 'twas neither elegant or otherwise, but as character and expreffion made it fo: it was a thin, fpare form, fomething above the common fize, if it loft not the diftinction by a bend forwards in the figurebut it was the attitude of Intreaty; and as it now ftands prefented to my imagination, it gain'd more than it loft by it,

When he had enter'd the room three paces, he flood ftill; and laying his left hand upon his breaft, a flender white flaff with which he journey'd being in his right,— when I had got clofe up to him, he introduced himfelf with the little ftory of the wants of his convent, and the poverty of his order-and did it with fo fimple a grace and fuch an air of depre