You
Know The Marechaussee Are A Body Of Troopers Well Mounted,
Maintained In France As Safe-Guards To The Public Roads.
It is a
reproach upon England that some such patrol is not appointed for
the protection of travellers.
At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to
bespeak fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another
company had been provided before him, altho' it was not his turn,
as he had arrived later at the post. Provoked at this partiality,
I resolved to chide the post-master, and accordingly addressed
myself to a person who stood at the door of the auberge. He was a
jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed in an odd kind of garb, with
a gold laced cap on his head, and a cambric handkerchief pinned
to his middle. The sight of such a fantastic petit maitre, in the
character of a post-master, increased my spleen. I called to him
with an air of authority, mixed with indignation, and when he
came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory tone, if he did not
understand the king's ordonnance concerning the regulation of the
posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before he could make
any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to read, with
great vociferation, the article which orders, that the traveller
who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh
horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted,
the coach set off all of a sudden, with uncommon speed.
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