- Adieu, then, to all rapid movements! 'Tis a
journey of caution; and it fares better with sentiments, not to be
in a hurry with them; so I contracted with a voiturin to take his
time with a couple of mules, and convoy me in my own chaise safe to
Turin, through Savoy.
Poor, patient, quiet, honest people! fear not: your poverty, the
treasury of your simple virtues, will not be envied you by the
world, nor will your valleys be invaded by it. - Nature! in the
midst of thy disorders, thou art still friendly to the scantiness
thou hast created: with all thy great works about thee, little
hast thou left to give, either to the scythe or to the sickle; - but
to that little thou grantest safety and protection; and sweet are
the dwellings which stand so shelter'd.
Let the way-worn traveller vent his complaints upon the sudden
turns and dangers of your roads, - your rocks, - your precipices; -
the difficulties of getting up, - the horrors of getting down, -
mountains impracticable, - and cataracts, which roll down great
stones from their summits, and block his road up. - The peasants had
been all day at work in removing a fragment of this kind between
St. Michael and Madane; and, by the time my voiturin got to the
place, it wanted full two hours of completing before a passage
could any how be gain'd: there was nothing but to wait with
patience; - 'twas a wet and tempestuous night; so that by the delay,
and that together, the voiturin found himself obliged to put up
five miles short of his stage at a little decent kind of an inn by
the roadside.
I forthwith took possession of my bedchamber - got a good fire -
order'd supper; and was thanking heaven it was no worse, when a
voiture arrived with a lady in it and her servant maid.
As there was no other bed-chamber in the house, the hostess, -
without much nicety, led them into mine, telling them, as she
usher'd them in, that there was nobody in it but an English
gentleman; - that there were two good beds in it, and a closet
within the room which held another. The accent in which she spoke
of this third bed, did not say much for it; - however, she said
there were three beds and but three people, and she durst say, the
gentleman would do anything to accommodate matters. - I left not the
lady a moment to make a conjecture about it - so instantly made a
declaration that I would do anything in my power.
As this did not amount to an absolute surrender of my bed-chamber,
I still felt myself so much the proprietor, as to have a right to
do the honours of it; - so I desired the lady to sit down, - pressed
her into the warmest seat, - called for more wood, - desired the
hostess to enlarge the plan of the supper, and to favour us with
the very best wine.
