of welcomeness-Prenez en-prenez, faid he, looking another way; fo they each took a pinch Pity thy box fhould ever want one! faid I to myfelf; fo I put a couple of fous into it-taking a fmall pinch out of his box, to enhance their value, as I did it- -He felt the weight of the fecond obligation more than that of the first-'twas doing him an honour-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 fervice-here's a couple of fous for theeVive le Roi! faid the old foldier.

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

Mon cher et très charitable MonfieurThere's no opposing this, faid I.

My Lord Anglois- the very found was worth the money-fo I gave my last fous for it. But in the eagerness of giving, I had overlooked a pauvre honteux, who had no one to ask a fous for him, and who, I believed, would have perish'd e're he could have ask'd one for himself: he stood by the chaife a little without the circle, and wiped a tear from a face which I thought had feen better days-Good God! faid 1-and have I not one fingle fous left to give him--But you have a thoufand! cried all the powers of nature, ftirring within me -fo I gave him-no matter what-I am afhamed to fay how much, now and was afhamed to think, how little, then: fo if the reader can form any conjecture of my difpofition, as these two fixed points

are

are given him, he may judge within a livre or two what was the precife fum.

I could afford nothing for the reft. but Dien vous beniffe-Et le bon Dieu vous beniffe encore ·faid the old foldier, the dwarf, &c. The pauvre bonteux could fay nothing-he pull'd out a little handkerchief, and wiped his face as he turned away and I thought he thank'd ne more than...

them all.

H

THE BIDET.

AVING fettled all thefe little matters, I got into my polt-chaife with more eafe than ever 1 got into a poft chaife in my life; and La Fleur having got one large boot on the far fide of a little bidett, and another on this (for 1 count nothing: of his legs)-he canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince

But what is happinefs! what is grandeur in this painted scene of life! A dead afs, before we had got a league, put a fudden ftop to La Fleur's career- -his bidet would not pafs by it--a contention arofe 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, fay. ing neither more or less upon it, than, Diable! fo prefently got up and came to the charge again aftride 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

+ Poft horfe.

other

other--then back again-then this way-then that way, and in fhort every way but by the dead afs. -La Fleur infifted upon the thing-and the bidet threw him.

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

It is not mal à propos to take notice here, that though 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 pofitive, comparative, and fuperlative; one or the other of which ferve for every unexpected throw of the dice in life.

Le Diable! which is the firft and pofitive degree, is generally ufed upon ordinary motions of the mind, where fmall things only fall out contrary to your expectations-fuch as 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 caft has something provoking in it, as in that of the bidet's running a. way after, and leaving La Fleur aground in jack. boots-'tis the fecond degree.

'Tis then Pefte!

And for the third

-But

But here my heart is wrung with pity and fellow-feeling, when I reflect what miferies have been their lot, and how bitterly fo refined a people must have finarted, to have forced them upon the afe of it.

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

-But as thefe are not to be had in France, I refolved to take every evil juft as it befel me with out any exclamation at all.

La Fleur, who had made no fuch covenant with himfelf, 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 clofed the whole af. fair.

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

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

-AN

NAMPONT.

THE DEAD ASS.

ND this, faid he, putting the remains of a cruft into his wallet-and this fhould have been thy portion, faid he, hadst thou been alive to have fhared it with me.I thought by the ac

cent,

cent, it had been an apoftrophe to his child; but 'twas to his afs, and to the very afs we had seen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's mifadventure. The man feemed to lament it much; and it inftantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his; but he did it with more true touches of nature.

The mourner was fitting upon a stone bench at the door, with the afs's pannel and its bridle on one fide, which he took up from time to time-then laid them down-look'd at them, and shook his head. He then took his cruft of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; held it fome time in his hand then laid it upon the bit of his afs's bridle-looked wiftfully at the little arrangement he had made—and then gave a figh:

The fimplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and La Fleur amongst the reft, whilft the horfes were getting ready; as I continued fitting in the poft chaife, I could fee and hear over their heads.

-He faid he had come laft from Spain, where he had been from the furthest borders of Franconia; and had got fo far on his return home, when his afs died. Every one feem'd defirous to know what business could have taken fo old and poor a man fo far a journey from his own home.

It had pleafed heaven, he faid, to bless him with three fons, the fineft lads in all Germany; but having in one week loft two of the eldest of them by the fmall-pox, and the youngest falling ill of the fame diftemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all; and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him alfo, he would go in gratitude to St. Iago in Spain.

When