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thing approaching to gravity. I did not wonder.: I went up rather to the basket lifted up one of his pâtés into my hand I begged he would explain the appea= rance which affected me.

the napkin, and taken him, and having

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 a com= pany and the croix with it; but that at the conclu= sion 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 e said it, to his croix)=The poor chevalier von my pity, and he finished the scene, with winning my esteem too.

The king, he said, was as the most generous of princes, but his generosity could neither relieve or reward every one, and it was only his misfortune to be amongst the number. He had a little wife, he said, whom he loved, who did the patisserie; and added, he felt no dishonour in defending her and himself from want in this way unless providence had offered him a better.

It would be wicked to with-hold a pleasure from the good, in passing over what happened to this poor chevalier of St. Louis about nine months after.

It seems he usually took his stand near the iron gates which lead up to the palace; and as his croix had caught the eyes of numbers, numbers had made the same enquiry which I had done=He had told them the same story, and always with so much mo= desty and good sense, that, it had reached at last the king's ear who hearing the chevalier had been a gallant officer, and respected by the whole regiment

as a man of honour and integrity he broke up his little trade by a pension of fifteen hundred livres a year.

As I have told this to please the reader, I beg he will allow me to relate another, out of its order, to please myself the two stories reflect light upon each other, and it is a pity they should be parted.

THE SWORD.

RENNES.

WHEN states and empires have their periods of

declension, and feel in their turns what distress and poverty is I stop not to tell the causes which gra= dually brought the house d'E— in Britany into decay. The marquis d'E- had fought up against his condition with great firmness; wishing to preserve and still shew to the world some little frag= ments of what his ancestors had been their indis cretions had put it out of his power. There was enough left for the little exigencies of obscurity But he had two boys who looked up to him for light he thought they deserved it. He had tried his sword it could not open the way the mounting was too expensive and simpleœconomy was not a match for it there was no resource but commérce.

In any other province in France, save Britany, this was smiting the root for ever of the little tree his pride and affection wished to see re-blossom= But in Britany, there being a provision for this, he availed himself of it; and taking an occasion, when the states were assembled at Rennes, the marquis, attended with his two boys, entered the court; and having pleaded the right of an ancient law of the du chy, which, though seldom claimed, he said, was no

less in force; he took his sword from his side: Here, said he, take it; and be trusty guardians of it, till better times put me in condition to reclaim it.

The president accepted the marquis's sword= he staid a few minutes to see it deposited in the archives of the house and departed.

The marquis and his whole family embarked the next day for Martinico, and in about nineteen or twenty years of successful application to business, with some unlooked for bequests from distant bran= ches of his house, returned home to reclaim his nobility and to support it.

It was an incident of good fortune which will never happen to any traveller, but a sentimental one, that I should be at Rennes at the very time of this solemn requisition: I call it solemn it was so to me. The marquis entered the court with his whole fa mily; he supported his lady his eldest son supported his sister, and his youngest was at the other extreme of the line next his mother he put his handkerchief to his face twice=

There was a dead silence. When the marquis had approached within six paces of the tribunal, he gave the Marchioness to his youngest son, and advancing three steps before his family he reclaimed his sword

His sword was given him, and the moment he got it into his hand, he drew it almost out of the scab bard it was the shining face of a friend he had once given up he looked attentively along it, beginning at the hilt, as if to see whether it was the same when observing a little rust, which it had contracted near the point, he brought it near his eye, and bend ing his head down over it I think I saw a tear fall upon the place I could not be deceived by what followed.

« I shall find, said he, some other way, to get it

off ».

When the marquis had said this, he returned his sword into its scabbard, made a bow to the guardians of it and, with his wife and daughter, and his two sons following him, walked out. O how I envied him his feelings!

Ικουτ

THE PASSPORT.

VERSAILLES.

FOUND no difficulty in getting admittance to mom sieur le comte de B--The set of Shakespear's was laid upon the table, and he was tumbling them over. I walked up close to the table, and giving first such a look at the books as to make him conceive I knew what they were I told him I had come without any one to present me, knowing I should meet with a friend in his apartment, who, I trusted, would do it for me it is my countryman the great Shakespear, said I, pointing to his works et ayez la bonté, mon cher ami, apostrophizing his spirit, added I, de me faire cet honneur là.=

The count smiled at the singularity of the intro duction; and seeing I looked a little pale and sickly, insisted upon my taking an arm-chair: so I sat down; and to save him conjectures upon a visit so out of all rule, I told him simply of the incident in the bookseller's shop, and how that had impelled me rather to go to him with the story of a little embare rassment I was under, than to any other man in France=And what is your embarrassment? let me hear it, said the count. So I told him the story just as I have told it the reader

And the master of my hotel, said I, as I coneluded it, will needs have it, monsieur le comte, that I shall be sent to the bastille but I have no apprehensions, continued Ifor in falling into the hands of the most polished people in the world, and being conscious I was a true man, and not come to spy the nakedness of the land, I scarce thought I laid at their mercy. It does not suit the gallantry of the French, monsieur le comte, said I, so shew it against invalids.

An animated blush came into the count de B's cheeks, as I spoke this Ne craignez rien-Do not fear, said he Indeed I do not, replied I again be= sides, continued I, a little sportingly I have come laughing all the way from London to Paris, and I do not think monsieur le duc de Choiseul is such an enemy to mirth, ac to send me back crying for my pains. My application to you, monsieur le comte de B-, (making him a low bow) is to desire he will

not.

The count heard me with great good-nature, or I had not said balf as much and once or twice said C'est bien dit. So I rested my cause there determined to say no more about it.

and

The count led the discourse we talked of indif ferent things of books and politicks, and men⇒ and then of women God bless them all! said I, after much discourse about them there is not a man upon earth who loves them so much as I do after all foibles I have seen, and all the satires I have read against them, still I love them, being firmly persuaded that a man who has not a sort of an affec= tion for the whole sex, is incapable of ever loving a single one as he ought.

the

Hé bien! monsieur l'Anglois, said the count,

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