I Was Also Very Sick Of Been Ficas, Grives,
Or Thrushes, And Other Little Birds, Which Are Served Up Twice A
Day At All Ordinaries On The Road.
They make their appearance in
vine-leaves, and are always half raw, in which condition the
French choose to eat them, rather than run the risque of losing
the juice by over-roasting.
The peasants on the South of France are poorly clad, and look as
if they were half-starved, diminutive, swarthy, and meagre; and
yet the common people who travel, live luxuriously on the road.
Every carrier and mule-driver has two meals a day, consisting
each of a couple of courses and a dessert, with tolerable small
wine. That which is called hermitage, and grows in this province
of Dauphine, is sold on the spot for three livres a bottle. The
common draught, which you have at meals in this country, is
remarkably strong, though in flavour much inferior to that of
Burgundy. The accommodation is tolerable, though they demand
(even in this cheap country) the exorbitant price of four livres
a head for every meal, of those who choose to eat in their own
apartments. I insisted, however, upon paying them with three,
which they received, though not without murmuring and seeming
discontented. In this journey, we found plenty of good mutton,
pork, poultry, and game, including the red partridge, which is
near twice as big as the partridge of England. Their hares are
likewise surprisingly large and juicy. We saw great flocks of
black turkeys feeding in the fields, but no black cattle; and
milk was so scarce, that sometimes we were obliged to drink our
tea without it.
One day perceiving a meadow on the side of the road, full of a
flower which I took to be the crocus, I desired my servant to
alight and pull some of them. He delivered the musquetoon to
Joseph, who began to tamper with it, and off it went with a
prodigious report, augmented by an eccho from the mountains that
skirted the road. The mules were so frightened, that they went
off at the gallop; and Joseph, for some minutes, could neither
manage the reins, nor open his mouth. At length he recollected
himself, and the cattle were stopt, by the assistance of the
servant, to whom he delivered the musquetoon, with a significant
shake of the head. Then alighting from the box, he examined the
heads of his three mules, and kissed each of them in his turn.
Finding they had received no damage,
he came up to the coach, with a pale visage and staring eyes, and
said it was God's mercy he had not killed his beasts. I answered,
that it was a greater mercy he had not killed his passengers; for
the muzzle of the piece might have been directed our way as well
as any other, and in that case Joseph might have been hanged for
murder. "I had as good be hanged (said he) for murder, as be
ruined by the loss of my cattle." This adventure made such an
impression upon him, that he recounted it to every person we met;
nor would he ever touch the blunderbuss from that day.
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