THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY He was begirt with a clean linen apron which fell below his knees, and with a sort of a bib that went half way up his breast; upon the top of this, 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 appetite 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. of a He was about forty-eight 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 begg'd he would explain the appearance which affected me. He told me in a few words, that the best part of his life had pass'd in the service, in which, after spending a small patrimony, he had obtain❜d a 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 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) The poor Chevalier won my pity, and he finished the scene with winning my esteem too. The king, he said, was 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 unless Providence had offer'd him way a better. It would be wicked to withhold a pleasure from the good, in passing over what happen'd 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, THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY and as his croix had caught the eye of numbers, numbers had made the same inquiry which I had done He had told the same story, and always with so much modesty and good sense, that it had reach'd at last the king's ears 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 't is a pity they should be parted. |