first under his arm, which had once been a hat, took his fnuff-box out of his pocket, and generously offer'd a pinch on both fides of him: it was a gift of consequence, and modestly declined The poor little fellow press'd it upon them with a nod of welcomeness Prenez en

prenez, faid

a

He felt the weight of

he, looking another way; so they each took pinch - Pity thy box should ever want one, faid I to myself; so I put a couple of fous into it taking a small pinch out of his box, to enhance their value, as I did it. the fecond obligation more than that of the first 'twas doing him an honor the other was only doing him a charity and he made me a bow down to the ground for it.

-Here! faid I to an old foldier with one hand, who had been campaign'd and worn out to death in the service here's a couple of fous for thee. Vive

le Roi! faid the old foldier.

I had then but three sous left: so I gave one, fimply pour l'amour de Dieu, which was the footing on which it was begg'd - The poor woman had a diflocated hip; so it could not be well, upon any other motive.

Mon cher et très-charitable Monfieur - There's no opposing this, faid I.

My Lord Anglois

the very found was worth the

money fo I gave my last sous for it. But in the eagerness of giving, I had overlook'd a pauvre honteux, who had no one to ask a fous for him, and who, I believed, would have perish'd ere he could have afk'd one for himself: he stood by the chaise a little without the circle, and wiped a tear from a face which I thought had feen better days - Good God! faid I-and I have not one single sous left to give him But you have a thousand! cried all the powers of nature, stirring within me matter what

fo I gave him I am ashamed to say how much, now and was afhamed to think, how little, then, fo if the reader can form any conjecture of my disposition, as these two fixed points are given him, he may judge within a livre or two what was the precife fum.

I could afford nothing for the rest, but Dicu vous béniffe Et le bon Dieu vous bénisse encore faid the old foldier, the dwarf, &c. The pauvre honteux could say nothing - he pull'd out a little handkerchief, and wiped his face as he turned away - and I thought he thanked me more than them all.

THE BIDET.

HAVING fettled all these little matters, I got into my poft-chaise with more ease than ever I got into a post-chaise in my life; and La Fleur having got one large jackboot on the far side of a little bidet, and another on this (for I count nothing of his legs)-he canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince

-But what is happiness! what is grandeur in this painted scene of life! A dead ass, before we had got a league, put a sudden stop to La Fleur's career-his bidet would not pass by it-a contention arose betwixt them, and the poor fellow was kick'd out of his jack-boots the very first kick.

La Fleur bore his fall like a French christian, faying neither more or less upon it, than, Diable! so presently got up, and came to the charge again astride his bidet, beating him up to it as he would have beat his drum.

The bidet flew from one fide of the road to the other, then back again-then this way-then that way, and in short every way but by the dead afs. - La Fleur insisted upon the thing-and the bidet threw him.

What's the matter, La Fleur, said I, with this bidet of thine? - Monfieur, faid he, c'est un cheval le plus opiniâtré du monde - Nay, if he is a conceited beast, he must go his own way, replied I- so La Fleur got off him, and giving him a good found lash, the bidet took me at my word, and away he scamper'd back to Montriul - Peste! said La Fleur.

It is not mal a propos to take notice here, that tho' La Fleur availed himself but of two different terms of exclamation in this encounter-namely, Diable! and Pefte! that there are nevertheless three, in the French language; like the positive, comparative

D

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

Le Diable! which is the first, and positive 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 reafon, is always-Le Diable!

But in cafes where the cast has something 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 Peste!

And for the third

-But here my heart is wrung with pity and fellow-feeling, when I reflect what miseries must have been their lot, and how bitterly so refined a people must have smarted, to have forced them upon the use of it

Grant me, O ye powers which touch the tongue with eloquence in distress! - whatever is my caft, grant me but decent words to exclaim in, and I will give my nature way.

-But as these were not to be had in France, I refolved to take every evil, just 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 closed the whole affair. olbild ells aid

As there was no hunting down a frighten'd horse in jack-boots, there remained no alternative but taking La Fleur either behind the chaisfe, or into it.

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

NAMPON Ton nood bol ord

-AND this, faid he, putting the remains of

a crust into his wallet - and this, should have been thy portion, faid he, hadst thou been alive to have shared it with me - I thought by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but 'twas to his ass, and to the very ass we had feen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's misadventure. The man seemed to lament it much; and it instantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his; but he did it with more true touches of nature.