A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. HEY order, faid I, this matter better in France -You have been in France? faid my gentleman, turning quick upon me with the moft civil triumph in the world. Strange! quoth I, debating the matter with myfelf, that one-andtwenty miles failing, for 'tis abfolutely no farther from Dover to Calais, fhould give a man these rights. I'll look into them: fo giving up the argument, I went ftraight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen fhirts and a black pair of filk breeches" the coat I have on," faid I look * ing at the fleeve, "will do"-took a place in the Dover ftage; and the packet failing at nine the next morning-by three I had got fat down to my dinner upon a fricaffee'd chicken fo inconteftibly in France, that, had I died that night of an indigeflion, the whole world could not have fufpended the effects of the droits d'aubaine-my Thirts and black pair of filk breeches-portmanteau and all, must have gone to the king of Franceeven the little picture which I have fo long worn, and fo often have told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me into my grave, would have been torn from my neck. Ungenerous !-to feize upon the wreck of any unwary paffenger, whom your fubjects had beckon'd to their coaft-by heaven ! SIRE, it is not well done; and much does it grieve me, 'tis the monarch of a people fo civilized and courteous, and fo renown'd for fentiment and fine feelings, that I have to reafon with- But I have scarce fet a foot in your dominions. W CALAIS. HEN I had finish'd my dinner, and drank the King of France's health, to fatisfy my mind that I bore him no fpleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper- I rofe up an inch taller for the accommodation. All the effects of strangers (Swifs and Scotch excepted) dying in France, are feized, by virtue of this law, though the heir be upon the Spot-The profit of thefe contingencies being farmid, there is no redrefs. -faid I -the Bourbon is by no -Nomeans a cruel race: they may be mifled like other people; but there is a mildnefs in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a fuffufion of a finer kind upon my cheek--more warm and friendly to man, than what Burgundy (at leaft of two livres a bottle, which was such as I had been drinking) could have produced. -Juft God! faid I, kicking my portmanteau afide, what is there in this world's goods which fhould fharpen our fpirits, and make fo many kind-hearted brethren of us, fail out fo 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 he pulls out his purfe, and, holding it airily and uncomprefs'd, looks round him, as if he fought for an object to share it with. In doing this, I felt every veffel in my frame dilate-the arteries beat all cheerily together, and every power which fuftained life, perform'd it with fo little friction, that 'twould have confounded the most Phyfical precieufe in France: with all her materialifm, fhe could fcarce have called me a machineI'm confident, faid I to myfelf, I should have overfet her creed. The acceffion of that idea, carried Nature, at that time, as high as the could go-I was at peace with the world before, and thus finished the treaty with myfelf-- Now, was I a King of France, cried Iwhat a moment for an orphan to have begg'd his father's portmanteau of me! I THE MONK. CALA I S. HAD fearce utter'd the words, when a poor monk of the order of St. Francis came into the room, to beg fomething for his convent. No man cares to have his virtues the sport of contingencies- ———or one man may be generous, as another man is puiffant--fed non quo ad hanc-or be it as it may for there is no regular reafoning upon the ebbs and flows of their humours; they may depend upon the fame causes, for aught Í know, which influence the tides themfelves 'twould oft be no difcredit to us, to fuppofe it was fo I'm fure, at least for myself, that in many a cafe I fhould be more highly fatisfied, to have it faid by the world, "I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither fin nor fhame," than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was fo much of both. : But be this as it may. The moment I caft my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to give him a fingle fous, and accordingly I put my purfe in my pocket-button'd it upset myfelf a little more upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him: there was fomething, I fear, forbidding in my look: I have his figure this moment before my eyes, and think there was that in it which deferved better. The monk, as I judged from the break in his tonfure, a few fcatter'd white hairs upon his temples being all that remained of it, might be about feventy-but from his eyes, and that fort of fire which was in them, which feemed more |