A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

THROUGH

FRANCE AND ITALY

T

THEY order, said I, this matter better in

France. -You have been in France? said my gentleman, turning quick upon me with the most civil triumph in the world.—Strange! quoth I, debating the matter with myself, that oneand-twenty miles'sailing, for 'tis absolutely no further from Dover to Calais, should give a man these rights.—I'll look into them: so giving up the argument,—I went straight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen shirts and a black pair of silk breeches—“the coat I have on,” said I, looking at the sleeve, “will do"

took a place in the Dover stage and the packet sailing at nine the next morning-by three I had got sat down to my dinner upon a fricasseed chicken, so incontestably in France, that, had I died that night of an indigestion, the whole world could not have suspended the

effects of the droits d'aubaine* - my shirts,
and black pair of silk breeches - portmanteau
and all must have gone to the King of France
-even the little picture which I have so long
worn, and so often have told thee, Eliza, I
would carry with me into my grave, would
have been torn from my neck.—Ungenerous !
to seize upon the wreck of an unwary passen-
ger, whom your subjects had beckon’d to their
coast.— By Heaven! Sire, it is not well done;
and much does it grieve me,'t is the monarch
of a people so civilized and courteous, and so
renowned for sentiment and fine feelings, that
I have to reason with
But I have scarce set foot in