whole surface of the globe; and if in the field--why not face to face in the cabinet too? And trust me, Yorick, whenever it is not so, man is false to himself, and betrays his own succours ten times, where nature does it once. Go to the Duc de C**** with the Bastile in thy looks-My life for it, thou wilt be sent back to Paris in half an hour with an escort.

I believe so, said I-Then I'll go to the Duke, by heaven! with all the gaiety and debonairness in the world.

-And there you are wrong again, replied IA heart at ease, Yorick, flies into no extremesit is ever on its centre-Well! well! cried I, as the coachman turned in at the gates—I find I shall do very well: and by the time he had wheeled round the court, and brought me up to the door, I found myself so much the better for my own lecture, that I neither ascended the steps like a victim to justice, who was to part with life upon the topmast-nor did I mount them with a skip and a couple of strides, as I do when I fly up, Eliza! to thee, to meet it.

As I entered the door of the saloon, I was met by a person who possibly might be the maitre d'hotel, but had more the air of one of the under secretaries,

secretaries, who told me the Duc de C**** was busy. I am utterly ignorant, said I, of the forms of obtaining an audience, being an absolute stranger, and what is worse in the present conjuncture of affairs, being an Englishman too. He replied, that did not increase the difficulty.—I made him a slight bow, and told him I had something of importance to say to Monsieur Le Duc.-The secretary looked towards the stairs, as if he was about to leave me to carry up this account to some one. But I must not mislead you, said I; for what I have to say is of no manner of importance to Monsieur Le Duc de C****, but of great importance to myself. C'est une autre affaire, replied he.Not at all, said I, to a man of gallantry. But pray, good sir, continued I, when can a stranger hope to have accesse ?-In not less than two hours, said he, looking at his watch. The number of equipages in the court-yard seemed to justify the calculation, that I could have no nearer prospect—and as walking backward and forward in the saloon, without a soul to commune with, was for the time as bad as being in the Bastile itself, I instantly went back to my remise, and bid the coachman drive me to the cordon bleu, which was the nearest hotel.

I think there is a fatality in it-I seldom go to the place I set out for..

LE PATISSER.

B

VERSAILLES.

EFORE I had got half way down the street, I changed my mind: as I am at Versailles, thought I, I might as well take a view of the town: so I pulled the cord, and ordered the coachman to drive round some of the principal streets.I suppose the town is not very large, said I. The coachman begged pardon for setting me right, and told me it was very superb, and that numbers of the first Dukes and Marquisses and Counts had hotels. The Count de B****, of whom the bookseller at the Quai de Conti had spoke so handsomely the night before, came instantly into my mind.- -And why should I not go, thought I, to the Count de B****, who has so high an idea of English books, and English men, and tell him my story? So I changed my mind a second time -in truth it was the third: for I had intended

that

that day for Madame de R*** in the Rue St. Pierre, and had devoutly sent her word by her fille de chambre that I would assuredly wait upon herbut I am governed by circumstances I cannot govern them; so seeing a man standing with a basket on the other side of the street, as if he had something to sell, I bid La Fleur go up to him, and inquire for the Count's hotel.

La Fleur returned a little pale; and told me it was a Chevalier de St. Louis selling patés-It is impossible, La Fleur! said I.-La Fleur could no more account for the phenomenon than myself; but persisted in his story: he had seen the croix set in gold, with its red ribbon, he said, tied to his button-hole-and had looked into his basket and seen the patés which the Chevalier was selling; so could not be mistaken in that.

Such a reverse in a man's life awakens a better principle than curiosity: I could not help looking for some time at him as I sat in the remise-the more I looked at him, his croix, and his basket, the stronger they wove themselves into my brainI got out of the remise, and went towards him.

He was begirt with a clean linen apron, which fell below his knees, and with a sort of a bib which went half way up his breast; upon the top of this, M 3

but

but a little below the hem, hung his croix. His basket of little patés was covered over with a white damask napkin; another of the same kind was spread at the bottom; and there was a look of propreté and neatness throughout, that one might have bought his patés of him, as much from appe-: tite as sentiment.

He made an offer of them to neither, but stood still with them at the corner of a hotel, for those to buy who chose it, without solicitation.

He was about forty-eight-of a sedate look, something approaching to gravity. I did not wonder. I went up rather to the basket than him, and having lifted up the napkin, and taken one of his patés into my hand, I begged he would explain the appearance which affected me.

He told me in a few words, that the best part of his life had passed in the service, in which, after spending a small patrimony, he had obtained at company and the croix with it; but that at the conclusion of the last peace, his regiment being reformed, and the whole corps, with those of some other regiments, left without any provision, he found himself in a wide world without friends, without a livre-and indeed, said he, without any thing but this-(pointing, as he said it, to his

croix.)