thing, faid I. Pardonnez-moi, faid the landlord.

I cannot take a fitter opportunity to obferve, once for all, that tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a ftranger would do well to fet himself right in the use of them, before he gets to Paris.

A prompt French Marquis, at our am. bassador's table, demanded of Mr. H-, if he was H- the poet? No, said H mildly-Tant pis, replied the Marquis.

It is H-the hiftorian, said another Tant mieux, said the Marquis. And Mr. H-, who is a man of an excellent heart, return'd thanks for both.

When the landlord had fet me right in this matter, he called in La Fleur, which was the name of the young man he had spoke of— saying only firft, That as for his talents, he would presume to fay nothing-Monfieur was the beft judge what would fuit him; but for the fidelity of La Fleur, he would ftand responsible in all he was worth.

The landlord deliver'd this in a manner which inftantly let my mind to the

bufinefs I was upon- and La Fleur, who flood waiting without, in that breathless expectation which every fon of nature of us have felt in our turns, came in.

MONTRIUL

I Am apt to be taken with all kinds of people at firft fight; but never more so, than when a poor devil comes to offer his fervices to fo poor a devil as myself; and as I know this weakness, I always fuffer my judgment to draw back something on that very account and this more or lefs, according to the mood I am in, and the cafe. and I may add the gender too, of the perfon I am to govern.

When La Fleur entered the room, after every discount I could make for my foul, the genuine look and air of the fellow determined the matter at once in his favour; so I hired him first and then began to inquire what he could do: But I fhall find out his talents, quoth I, as I want them-befides, a Frenchman can do every thing.

Now, poor La Fleur could do nothing

in the world but beat a drum, and play a march or two upon the fife. I was determined to make his talents do ; and can't say my weakness was ever so insulted by my widom, as in the attempt.

La Fleur had set out early in life, as gallantly as moft Frenchmen do, with Serving for a few years; at the end of which, having satisfied the sentiment, and found, moreover, "that the honour of "beating a drum was likely to be its own "reward, as it open'd no farther track "of glory to him” — he retired à ses terres, and lived comme il plaifoit à Dieu — that is to say, upon nothing.

-And fo, quoth Wisdom, you have hired a drummer to attend you in this tour of your's through France and Italy! Pfha! faid I, and do not one half of our gentry go with a hum-drum compagnon du voyage the same round, and have the piper and the devil and all to pay befides? When a man can extricate himself with an equivoque in fuch an unequal match-he is not ill off-But you can do fomething else, La Fleur? faid I-0 qu'oui!-he could make spatterdashes,

and play a little upon the fiddle--Bravo! faid Wisdom - Why, I play a bass myself, said I—we shall do very well. You can fhave, and dress a wig a little, La Fleur?-He had all the dispositions in the world-It is enough for Heaven! said I, interrupting him- and ought to be enough for me-So fupper coming in, and having a frifky English spaniel on one fide of my chair, and a French valet, with as much hilarity in his countenance as ever nature painted in one, on the other -I was fatisfied to my heart's content with my empire; and if monarchs knew what they would be at, they might be as Latisfied as I was.

MONTRIUL.

As La Fleur went the whole tour of France and Italy with me, and will be often upon the ftage, I muft intereft the reader a little farther in his behalf, by faying, that I had never lefs reason to repent of the impulses which generally do determine me, than in regard to this fellow - he was a faithful, affectionate,

fimple foul, as ever trudged after the heels of a philofopher; and, notwithstanding his talents of drum-beating and fpatterdafhmaking, which, though very good in themfelves, happened to be of no great fervice to me, yet was I hourly recompenfed by the feftivity of his temper-it fupplied all defects—I had a conftant resource in his looks, in all difficulties and diftreffes of my own-I was going to have added, of his too; but La Fleur was out of the reach of every thing; for whether 'twas hunger, or thirft, or cold, or nakednefs, or watchings, or whatever stripes of ill luck La Fleur met with in our journeyings, there was no index in his phyfiognomy to point them out by he was eternally the fame; so that if I am a piece of a philofopher, which Satan now and then puts it into my head I am―it always mortifies the pride of the conceit, by reflecting how much I owe to the complexional philosophy of this poor fellow, for fhaming me into one of a better kind. With all this, La Fleur had a small caft of the coxcomb-but he feemed at firkt fight to be more a coxcomb of nature than