little knowledge of me, so made little or no difficulty -only said, his inclination to serve me could reach no further than Calais, as he was to return by way of Brussels to Paris: however, when I had once passed there, I might get to Paris without interruption; but that in Paris I must make friends and shift for myself.-Let me get to Paris, Monsieur Le Count, said I, and I shall do very well. So I embarked, and never thought more of the matter.

When La Fleur told me the Lieutenant de Police had been enquiring after me the thing instantly recurred and by the time La Fleur had well told me, the master of the hotel came into my room, to tell me the same thing, with this addition to it, that my passport had been particularly asked after-the master of the hotel concluded with saying-He hoped I had one-Not I, faith! said I.

The master of the hotel retired three steps from me, as from an infected person, as I declared thisand poor La Fleur advanced three steps towards me, and with that sort of movement which a good soul makes to succour a distressed one-the fellow won my heart by it; and from that single trait, I knew his character as perfectly, and could rely upon it as firmly, as if he had served me with fidelity for seven years.

Mon Seigneur! cried the master of the hotel-but recollecting himself as he made the exclamation, he instantly changed the tone of it-If Monsieur, said he, has not a passport, (apparemment) in all likelihood he has friends in Paris who can procure him one.-Not that I know of, quoth I, with an air of indifference. Then, certes, replied he, you will be sent to the Bastile or the Chatelet, au moins. Poo! said

I, the king of France is a good-natured soul--he will hurt nobody. Cela n'empeche pas, said he-you will certainly be sent to the Bastile to-morrow morning. -But I have taken your lodgings for a month, answered I, and I will not quit them a day before the time for all the kings of France in the world.-La Fleur whispered in my ear, That nobody could oppose the king of France.

Pardi! said my host, ces Messieurs Anglois sont des gens très extraordinaires-and having both said and sworn it he went out.

THE PASSPORT.

THE HOTEL AT PARIS.

I COULD not find in my heart to torture La Fleur's with a serious look upon the subject of my embarrassment, which was the reason I had treated it so cavalierly: and to shew him how light it lay upon my mind, I dropped the subject entirely; and, whilst he waited upon me at supper, talked to him with more than usual gaiety about Paris, and of the Opera Comique. La Fleur had been there himself, and had followed me through the streets as far as the bookseller's shop; but seeing me come out with the young fille de chambre, and that we walked down the Quai de Conti together, La Fleur deemed it unnecessary to follow me a step further so making his own reflections upon it, he took a shorter cut, and got to the hotel in time to be informed of the affair of the police against my arrival.

As soon as the honest creature had taken away, and gone down to sup myself, I then began to think a little seriously about my situation.

-And here, I know, Eugenius, thou wilt smile at the remembrance of a short dialogue which passed betwixt us the moment I was going to set out-I must tell it here.

Eugenius, knowing that I was as little subject to be overburdened with money as thought, had drawn me aside to interrogate me how much I had taken care for: upon telling him the exact sum, Eugenius shook his head, and said it would not do-so pulling out his purse in order to empty it into mine-I have enough in conscience, Eugenius, said I.-Indeed, Yorick, you have not, replied Eugenius. I know France and Italy better than you. But you do not consider, Eugenius. said I, refusing his offer, tha before I have been three days in Paris, I shall take care to say or do something or other for which I shall get clapped up into the Bastile, and that I shall live there a couple of months entirely at the king of France's expence. -I beg pardon, said Eugenius, dryly: really I had forgot that resource.

Now the event I treated gaily came seriously to my

door.

Is it folly, or nonchalance, or philosophy, or pertinacity-or what is it in me, that, after all, when La Fleur had gone down stairs, and I was quite alone, that I could not bring down my mind to think of it otherwise than I had then spoken of it to Eugenius? --And as for the Bastile! the terror is in the word. Make the most of it you can, said I to myself, the Bastile is but another word for a tower, and a tower is but another word for a house you cannot get out of. Mercy on the gouty! for they are in it twice a year-but with nine livres a day, and pen and ink

and paper, and patience, albeit a man cannot get out, he may do very well within-at least for a month or six weeks:-at the end of which if he is a harmless fellow, his innocence appears, and he comes out a better and wiser man than he went in.

I had some occasion (I forget what) to step into the court-yard, as I settled this account; and remember I walked down stairs in no small triumph with the conceit of my reasoning.-Beshrew the sombre pencil! said I, vauntingly for I envy not its powers, which paints the evils of life with so hard and deadly a colouring. The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself, and blackened: reduce them to their proper size and hue, she overlooks them. 'Tis true, said I, correcting the proposition -the Bastile is not an evil to be despised-but strip it of its towers-fill up the fossé-unbarricade the doors-call it simply a confinement, and suppose it is some tyrant of a distemper-and not of a manwhich holds you in it-the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half without complaint.

I was interrupted in the hey-day of this soliloquy, with a voice which I took to be of a child, which complained 'it could not get out.' I looked up and down the passage, and seeing neither man, woman, or child, I went out without further attention.

In my return back through the passage, I heard the same words repeated twice over; and looking up, I saw it was a starling hung in a little cage-' I can't get out-I can't get out,' said the starling.

I stood looking at the bird; and to every person who came through the passage, it ran fluttering to the side towards which they approached it, with the

same lamentation of its captivity-' I can't get out,' said the starling-God help thee! said I, but I will let thee out, cost what it will; so I turned about the cage to get at the door; it was twisted and double twisted so fast with wire, there was no getting it open without pulling the cage to pieces-I took both hands to it.

The bird flew to the place where I was attempting his deliverance, and thrusting his head through the trellis, pressed his breast against it, as if impatientI fear, poor creature! said I, I cannot set thee at liberty- No,' said the starling-' I can't get out-I can't get out,' said the starling.

I vow I never had my affections more tenderly awakened; nor do I remember an incident in my life, where the dissipated spirits, to which my reason had been a bubble, were so suddenly called home. Mechanical as the notes were, yet, so true in tune to nature were they chaunted, that, in one moment, they overthrew all my systematic reasonings upon the Bastile; and I heavily walked up stairs, unsaying every word I had said in going down them.

Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery, said Istill thou art a bitter draught! and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. 'Tis thou, thrice sweet and gracious goddess, addresing myself to Liberty, whom all in public or in private worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till Nature herself shall change-no tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron-with thee to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou