A servant! that I do most sadly, quoth I.-Because, Monsieur, said the landlord, there is a clever young fellow, who would be very proud of the honour to serve an Englishman.-But why an English one, more than any other?-They are so generous, said the landlord.-I'll be shot if this is not a livre out of my pocket, quoth I to myself, this very night.—But they have wherewithal to be so, Monsieur, added he.-Set down one livre more for that, quoth I.-It was but last night, said the landlord, qu'un milord Anglois présentoit un écu à la fille de chambre.-Tant pis pour Mademoiselle Jeanneton, said I.

Now Janatone being the landlord's daughter, and the landlord supposing I was young in French, took the liberty to inform me, I should not have said tant pis-but, tant mieux. Tant mieux, toujours, monsieur, said he, when there is any thing to be got-tant pis, when there is nothing. It comes to the same thing, said I. Pardonnez-moi, said the landlord.

I cannot take a fitter opportunity to observe, once for all, that tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them, before he gets to Paris.

A prompt French marquis at our ambassador's table demanded of Mr. H-, if he was H-the poet. No, said Mr. H-, mildly.-Tant pis, replied the marquis.

It is H- the historian, said another,-Tant mieux, said the marquis. And Mr. H-, who is a man of an excellent heart, returned thanks for both.

When the landlord had set me right in this matter, he called in La Fleur, which was the name of the young man he had spoke of-saying only first, that as for his talents he would presume to say nothing.Monsieur was the best judge what would suit him; but for the fidelity of La Fleur, he would stand responsible in all he was worth.

The landlord delivered this in a manner which in

met with in our journeyings, there was no index in his physiognomy to point them out by-he was eternally the same; so that if I am a piece of a philosopher— which Satan now and then puts it into my head I am -it always mortifies the pride of the conceit, by reflecting how much I owe to the complexional philosophy of this poor fellow for shaming me into one of a better kind. With all this La Fleur had a small cast of the coxcomb ;-but he seemed at first sight to be more a coxcomb of nature than of art; and, before had been three days in Paris with him, he seemed to be no coxcomb at all.

MONTREUIL.

THE next morning La Fleur entering upon his employment, I delivered to him the key of my portmanteau, with an inventory of my half a dozen shirts and a silk pair of breeches, and bid him fasten all upon the chaise-get the horses put to-and desire the landlord to come in with his bill.

C'est un garçon de bonne fortune, said the landlord, pointing through the window to half a dozen wenches who had got round about La Fleur, and were most kindly taking their leave of him, as the postilion was leading out the horses. La Fleur kissed all their hands round and round again, and thrice he wiped his eyes, and thrice he promised be would bring them all pardons from Rome.

The young fellow, said the landlord, is beloved by all the town, and there is scarce a corner in Montreuil where the want of him will not be felt he has but one misfortune in the world, continued he, "he is always in love."-I am heartily glad of it, said 1— 'twill save me the trouble every night of putting my breeches under my head. In saying this, 1 was making not so much La Fleur's eloge as my own, having been in love with one princess or another almost

A

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

THROUGH

FRANCE AND ITALY.

THEY

France

HEY order, said I, this matter better in

-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 one and 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 fricaseed chicken, so incontestibly in France, that had I died that night of an indigestion, the whole world could not have suspended the effects of the droit d'aubaine*-my shirts, and black pair of silk

All the effects of strangers (Swiss and Scots excepted) dying in France, are seized by virtue of this law, though the heir be upon the spot-the profit of these contingencies being farmed, there is no redress.

B

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 passenger, whom your subjects had beckoned to their coast-by heaven, Sire, it is not well done; and much does it grieve me, 'tis 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 a foot in your dominions

CALAIS.

WHEN I had finished my dinner, and drank the King of France's health, to satisfy my mind that I bore him no spleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper-I rose up an inch taller for the accommodation.

-No, said I, the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race they may be misled, like other people; but there is a mildness in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a suffusion 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 such as I had been drinking) could have produced.

Just God! said I, kicking my portmanteau aside, what is there in this world's goods which should sharpen our spirits, and make so many kind-hearted brethren of us fall out so 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! be pulls out his purse, and, holding it airily and uncompressed, looks round him, as if he sought for an object to share it with-In doing this, I felt every vessel in my frame dilate-the arteries beat all cheerily together, and every power which sustained life, per

formed it with so little friction, that 'twould have confounded the most physical précieuse in France: with all her materialism, she could scarce have called me a machine

I'm confident, said I to myself, I should have overset her creed.

The accession of that idea carried nature, at that time, as high as she could go-I was at peace with the world before, and this finished the treaty with myself

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

THE MONK.
Calais.

I HAD scarce uttered the words, when a poor monk of the order of St. Francis came into the room to beg something for his convent. No man cares to have bis virtues the sport of contingencies-or one man may be generous, as another man is puissant-sed non, quo ad hanc 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 same courses, for aught I know, which influence the tides themselves-'twould oft be no discredit to us, to suppose it was so I'm sure at least for myself, that in many a case I should be more highly satisfied, to have it said by the world, "I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither sin nor shame," than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was so much of both.

-But be this as it may. The moment I cast my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to give him a single sous; and accordingly I put my purse into my pocket-buttoned it up-set myself a little more upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him;