Seven hours were spent in travelling
fifteen short miles:
At length we arrived at our old lodgings in
St. Remo, which we found white-washed, and in great order. We
supped pretty comfortably; slept well; and had no reason to
complain of imposition in paying the bill. This was not the case
in the article of the mules, for which I was obliged to pay fifty
livres, according to the regulation of the posts. The postmaster,
who came along with us, had the effrontery to tell me, that if I
had hired the mules to carry me and my company to St. Remo, in
the way of common travelling, they would have cost me but fifteen
livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I must submit to the
regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd, as the road
is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel faster in
one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least difference
either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling post
and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge
me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the
imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had
the same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he
made a wide difference between selling it as fish, and selling it
as whiting. Our felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the
night, and embarking next morning, we arrived at Nice about four
in the afternoon.
Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian
expedition, during which I was exposed to a great number of
hardships, which I thought my weakened constitution could not
have bore; as well as to violent fits of passion, chequered,
however, with transports of a more agreeable nature; insomuch
that I may say I was for two months continually agitated either
in mind or body, and very often in both at the same time. As my
disorder at first arose from a sedentary life, producing a
relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a
listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am
convinced that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated
with the change of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed
constitution, and promote a more vigorous circulation of the
juices, which had long languished even almost to stagnation. For
some years, I had been as subject to colds as a delicate woman
new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there was the
least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was sure
to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this
journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the
wet, heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently,
without feeling the least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt
myself growing stronger every day in the midst of these excesses.
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