I had then but three sous left: so I gave one, simply, pour
l'amour de Dieu, which was the footing on which it was begg'd. - The
poor woman had a dislocated hip; so it could not be well upon any
other motive.
Mon cher et tres-charitable Monsieur. - There's no opposing this,
said I.
Milord Anglois - the very sound was worth the money; - so I gave MY
LAST SOUS FOR IT. But in the eagerness of giving, I had overlooked
a pauvre honteux, who had had no one to ask a sous for him, and
who, I believe, would have perished, ere he could have ask'd one
for himself: he stood by the chaise a little without the circle,
and wiped a tear from a face which I thought had seen better days.-
-Good God! said I - and I have not one single sous left to give
him. - But you have a thousand! cried all the powers of nature,
stirring within me; - so I gave him - no matter what - I am ashamed to
say HOW MUCH now, - and was ashamed to think how little, then: so,
if the reader can form any conjecture of my disposition, as these
two fixed points are given him, he may judge within a livre or two
what was the precise sum.
I could afford nothing for the rest, but Dieu vous benisse!
- Et le bon Dieu vous benisse encore, said the old soldier, the
dwarf, &c. The pauvre honteux could say nothing; - he pull'd out a
little handkerchief, and wiped his face as he turned away - and I
thought he thanked me more than them all.
THE BIDET.
Having settled all these little matters, I got into my post-chaise
with more ease than ever I got into a post-chaise in my life; and
La Fleur having got one large jack-boot on the far side of a little
bidet, and another on this (for I count nothing of his legs) - he
canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince.-
-But what is happiness! what is grandeur in this painted scene of
life! A dead ass, before we had got a league, put a sudden stop to
La Fleur's career; - his bidet would not pass by it, - a contention
arose betwixt them, and the poor fellow was kick'd out of his jack-
boots the very first kick.
La Fleur bore his fall like a French Christian, saying neither more
nor less upon it, than Diable! So presently got up, and came to
the charge again astride his bidet, beating him up to it as he
would have beat his drum.
The bidet flew from one side of the road to the other, then back
again, - then this way, then that way, and in short, every way but
by the dead ass: - La Fleur insisted upon the thing - and the bidet
threw him.
What's the matter, La Fleur, said I, with this bidet of thine?
Monsieur, said he, c'est un cheval le plus opiniatre du monde.
