ordered maid affected me not a little in the reading; but when I got within the neighbourhood where the lived, it returned fo ftrong into my mind, that I could not refift an impulfe which prompted me to go half a league out of the road, to the village where her parents dwelt, to enquire after her. It is going, I own, like the Knight of the Woeful Countenance, in quett of melancholy adventures-but I know not how it is, but I am never fo perfectly conscious of the existence of à foul within me, as when I am entangled in them. The old mother came to the door; her looks told me the story before fhe opened her mouth-She had loft her husband; he had died, the faid, of anguifh for the lofs of Maria's fenfes, about a month before. She had feared at first, she added, that it would have plundered her poor girl of what little understanding was left-but, on the contrary, it had brought her more to herfelf-till fhe could not reft-her poor daughter, she said, crying, which he had kept tied by a ftring to her girdle; as I looked at her dog, the drew him towards her with the itring. Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio,' faid fhe. I looked in Maria's eyes, and faw fhe was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for, as the uttered them, the tears trickled down her cheeks. I fat down clofe by her; and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handkerchief.I then teeped it in my own-and then in her's-and then in mine-and then I wiped her's again and as I did it, I felt fuch undefcribable emotions within me, as I am fure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion. I am pofitive I have a foul; nor can all the books with which materialists have peftered the world, ever convince me to the contrary. MARIA. was wandering fomewhere about the WHEN Maria had come a little road. Why does my pulfe beat languid as I write this? and what made • La Fleur, whose heart seemed only to ⚫be tuned to joy, to pass the back of his ⚫ hand twice across his eyes, as the wo• man ftood and told it?' I beckoned to the poftillion to turn back into the road. When we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I difcovered poor Maria fitting under a poplar he was fitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one fide within her hand-a fmall brook ran at the foot of the tree. I bid the poftillion go on with the chaife to Moulines-and La Fleur to bespeak my supper-and that I would walk after him. She was dreffed in white, and much as my friend defcribed her, except that her hair hung loofe, which before was twifted within a filk net.- -She had, fuperadded likewife to her jacket, a pale-green ribband, which fell acrofs her foulder to the waift; at the end of which hung her pipe.Her goat had been as faithlefs as her lover; and fhe had got a little dog in lieu of him, to herself, I asked her if the remembered a pale thin person of a man, who had fat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She faid, fhe was unfettled much at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts-that, ill as she was, the faw the perfon pitied her; and next, that her goat had ftolen his handkerchief, and fhe had beat him for the theft-fhe had washed it, the faid, in the brook, and kept it ever fince in her pocket to restore it to him in cafe the thould ever fee him again-which, the added, he had half promifed her. As fhe told me this, fhe took the handkerchief out of her pocket to let me fee it; fhe had folded it up neatly in a couple of vine-leaves, tied round with a tendril -on opening it, I faw an S. marked in one of the corners. She had fince that, he told me, frayed as far as Rome, and walked round St. Peter's once-and returned back-that the found her way alone across the Appenines-had travelled over all Lombardy without moneyand through the flinty roads of Savoy without fhoes-How the had borne it, and how he had got fupported, fhe could not tell- But God tempers the • the rvind,' said Maria, to the fhorn • lamb.' Shorn, indeed! and to the quick! faid I and wast thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it, and fhelter thee: thou fhouldft eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup-I would be kind to thy Sylvio-In all thy weakneffes and wanderings I would feek after thee, and bring thee back-when the fun went down, I would fay my prayers; and when I had done, thou •houldst play thy evening fong upon thy pipe nor would the incenfe of my facrifice be worfe accepted, for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart.' Nature melted within me as I uttered this; and Maria obferving, as I took out my handkerchief, that it was steeped needs go wash it in the ftream. And where will you dry it, Maria?' faid I. I will dry it in my bofom,' said she; it will do me good.' And is your heart ftill fo warm, Maria?' faid I. I touched upon the ftring on which hung all her forrows-fhe looked with wiftful diforder for fome time in my face; and then, without faying any thing, took her pipe, and played her fervice to the Virgin-The fting I had touched ceafed to vibrate-in a moment or two Maria returned to herfelf-let her pipe fall-and rofe up. joyous a riot of the affections, as in this journey in the vintage, through this part of France; but preffing through this gate of forrow to it, my fufferings have totally unfitted me in every fcene of feftivity I faw Maria in the back-ground of the piece, fitting penfive under her poplar; and I had got almoft to Lyons before I was able to caft a fhade across her. Dear Senfibility! fource inexhaufted of all that is precious in our joys, or coftly in our forrows! thou chaineft thy martyr down upon his bed of ftraw-and it is thou who lifts him up to HEAVEN-Eternal fountain of our feelings! it is here I trace theeand this is thy divinity which firs within me'- -not that, in fome fad and fickening moments, my foul shrinks back upon herself, and fartles at deAruction;- -mere pomp of words!but that I feel fome generous joys and generous cares beyond myself, all comes from thee, great-great SENSORIUM of the world! which vibrates, if a hair of our heads but falls upon the ground in the remotest defart of thy creation.Touched with thee, Eugenius draws my curtain when I languish-hears my tale of fymptoms, and blames the wea ther for the diforder of his nerves. Thou givett a portion of it fometimes to the roughest peasant who traverses the bleakest mountains-he finds the lacerated lamb of another's flock-This moment I beheld him leaning loaf was in the middle of the table; and a flaggon of wine at each end of it, promifed joy through the ftages of the repaft-it was a feaft of love. The old man rofe up to meet me, and with a refpectful cordiality would have me fit down at the table; my heart was fet down the moment I entered the room-fo I fat down at once like a fon of the family; and to inveft myself in the character as fpeedily as I could, I inftantly borrowed the old man's knife, and taking up the loaf, cut myself a hearty luncheon; and as I did it, I faw a teftimony in every eye, not only A Shoe coming loofe from the fore-foot of an honeft welcome, but of a web of the thill-horfe, at the beginning of the ascent of mount Taurira, the potillion difmounted, twifted the shoe off, and put it in his pocket; as the afcent was of five or fix miles, and that horfe our main dependance, I made a point of having the fhoe faftened on again, as well as we could; but the poftillion had thrown away the nails, and the hammer in the chaife-box being of no great ufe without them, I fubmitted to go on. He had not mounted half a mile higher, when coming to a flinty piece of road, the poor devil loft a fecond fhoe, and from off his other fore-foot. I then got out of the chaife in good earneft; and feeing a house about a quarter of a mile to the left-hand, with a great deal to do I prevailed upon the poitillion to turn up to it. The look of the house, and of every thing about it, as we drew nearer, foon reconciled me to the difafter.-It was a little farmhouse, furrounded with about twenty acres of vineyard, about as much corn -and close to the houfe, on one fide, was a potagerie of an acre and a half, full of every thing which could make plenty in a French peafant's houfe-and on the other fide was a little wood, which furnished wherewithal to drefs it. It was about eight in the evening when I got to the house-so I left the poftillion to manage his point as he could-and for mine, I walked directly into the house. The family confifted of an old greyheaded man and his wife, with five or fix fons and fons-in-law, and their feveral wives, and a joyous genealogy out of them. They were all fitting down together to their lentil-foup; a large wheaten come mixed with thanks that I had not feemed to doubt it. Was it this or tell me, Nature, what elfe it was, that made this morfel fo fweet-and to what magick I owe it, that the draught I took of their flaggon was fo delicious with it, that they remain upon my palate to this hour? If the fupper was to my tafte-the grace which followed it was much more fo. W THE GRACE. WHEN fupper was over, the old man gave a knock upon the table with the haft of his knife, to bid them prepare for the dance: the moment the fignal was given, the women and girls ran all together into a back apartment to tie up their hair-and the young men to the door to wash their faces, and change their fabots; and in three minutes every foul was ready, upon a little efplanade before the house, to begin - The old man and his wife came out laft, and placing me betwixt them, fat down upon a fopha of turf by the door. The old man had some fifty years ago been no mean performer upon the vielle-and, at the age he was then of, touched it well enough for the purpofe. His wife fung now-and-then a little to the tune-then intermitted-and joined her old man again, as their children and grand-children danced before them. It was not till the middle of the fecond dance, when, for fome pauses in the movement wherein they all feemed to look up, I fancied I could diftinguish an elevation of fpirit different from that which is the caufe or the effect of Limple fimple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld Religion mixing in the dance; -but as I had never feen her fo engaged, I fhould have looked upon it now as one of the illufions of an imagination which is eternally misleading me, had not the old man, as foon as the dance ended, faid-that this was their conftant way; and that all his life long he had made it a rule, after fupper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice; believing, he faid, that a chearful and contented mind was the best fort of thanks to Heaven that an illiterate peafant could pay faid I.. Or a learned prelate either,' THE CASE OF DELICACY. W HEN you have gained the top of mount Taurira, you run presently down to Lyons-adieu, then, to all rapid movements! 'Tis a journey of caution; and it fares better with fen timents, not to be in a hurry with them; fo I contracted with a voiturin to take his time with a couple of mules, and convey me in my own chaife fafe to Turin through Savoy. Poor, patient, quiet, honeft people! fear not your poverty, the treafury of your fimple virtues, will not be envied you by the world, nor will your vallies be invaded by it.-Nature! in the midst of thy diforders, thou art ftill friendly to the fcantinefs thou hast created-with all thy great works about thee, little haft thou left to give, either to the fcythe or to the fickle-but to that little thou granteft fafety and protection; and fweet are the dwellings which ftand fo fheltered. Let the way-worn traveller vent his complaints upon the fudden turns and dangers of your roads-your rocks-your precipices-the difficulculties of getting up the horrors of getting down-mountains impracticable and cataracts, which roll ⚫ down great ftones from their funmits, and block up his road.'--The peafants 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 compleating before a paffage could any how be gained there was nothing but to wait with patience-'twas a wet and tem peftuous night: fo that by the delay: and that together, the voiturin found himself obliged to keep up five miles fhort of his ftage, at a little decent kind of an inn by the road fide. I forthwith took poffeffion of my bed-chamber-got a good fire-ordered fupper; and was thanking Heaven it was no worle-when a voiture arrived with a lady in it and her fervant-maid. As there was no other bed-chambér in the houfe, the hoftefs, without much nicety, led them into mine-telling them, as fhe ufhered them in, that there was nobody in it but an English gentleman that there were two good beds in it, and a clofet within the room which held another.The accent in which the fpoke of this third bed did not fay much for it-however, the faid there were three beds, and but three people-and fhe durft fay, the gentleman would do any thing to accommodate matters.—I left not the lady a moment to make a conjecture about it-fo inftantly made a declaration I would do any thing in my power. As this did not amount to an abfolute furender of my bed-chamber, I till felt myself fo much the proprietor, as to have a right to do the honours of it-fo I defired the lady to fit downprefled her into the warmeft feat-called for more wood-defired the hoftefs to enlarge the plan of the supper, and to favour us with the very best wine. The lady had fcarce warmed herself five minutes at the fire, before the began to turn her head back, and give a look at the beds; and the oftener the caft her eyes that way, the more they returned perplexed-I felt for her-and for myfelf; for in a few minutes, what by her looks, and the cafe itself, I found myfelf as much embarraffed as it was poffible the lady could be herfelf. That the beds we were to lie in were in one and the fame room, was enough fimply by itself to have excited all this but the position of them, for they flood parallel, and so very close to each other, as only to allow space for a finall wicker chair betwixt them, rendered the affair ftill more oppreffive to us-they were fixed up moreover near the fire, and the projection of the chimney on one fide, and a large beam which croffed the room on the other, formed a kind of recefs for them that was no way fa vourable vourable to the nicety of our fenfations if any thing could have added to it, was that the two beds were both of them fo very fmall, as to cut us off from every idea of the lady and the maid lying together; which in either of them, could it have been feasible, my lying befide them, though a thing not to be wished, yet there was nothing in it fo terrible which the imagination might not have paffed over without tor ment. As for the litle room within, it of fered little or no confolation to us; it was a damp cold clofet, with a halfdifmantled window-fhutter, and with a window which had neither glafs or oilpaper in it to keep out the tempeft of the night. I did not endeavour to stifle my cough when the lady gave a peep into it; fo it reduced the cafe in courfe to this alternative-that the lady should facrifice her health to her feelings, and take up with the clofet herself, and abandon the bed next mine to her maid -or that the girl fhould take the clofet, &c. &c. The lady was a Piedmontefe of about thirty, with a glow of health in her cheeks.—The maid was a Lyonoife of twenty, and as brifk and lively a French girl as ever moved.-There were difficulties every way—and the obftacle of the ftone in the road, which brought us into the distress, great as it appeared whilft the peasants were removing it, was but a pebble to what lay in our ways now I have only to add, that it did not leffen the weight which hung upon our spirits, that we were both too delicate to communicate what we felt to each other upon the occafion. We fat down to fupper; and had we not had more generous wine to it than a little inn in Savoy could have furnished, our tongues had been tied up, tili neceflity herself had fet them at liberty-but the lady having a few bottles of Burgundy in her voiture, fent down her fille de chambre for a couple of them; io that by the time fupper was over, and we were left alone, we felt ourlelves infpired with a strength of mind Jufficient to talk, at leaft, without referve upon our fituation. We turned it every way, and debated and confidered it in all kind of lights in the course of a two hours negociation; at the end of which the articles were fettled finally betwixt us, and ftipulated for, in form and manner of a treaty, of peace-and I believe with as much religion and good faith on both fides, as in any treaty which has yet had the honour of being handed down to pofterity. They were as follow: Ift. As the right of the bed-chamber is in Monfieur-and he thinking the bed next to the fire to be the warmeft, he infifts upon the conceffion on the lady's fide of taking up with it. Granted, on the part of Madame: with a provifo, That as the curtains of that bed are of a flimsey transparent cotton, and appear likewife too feanty to draw clofe, that the fille de chambre fhall faften up the opening, either by corking-pins, or needle and thread, in fuch a manner as fhall be deemed a fufficient barrier on the fide of Monfieur. 2dly. It is required on the part of Madame, that Monfieur shall lie the whole night through in his robe de chambre. Rejected: Inafmuch as Monfieur is not worth a robe de chambre; he having nothing in his portmanteau but fix fhirts and a black filk pair of breeches. The mentioning the filk pair of breeches made an entire change of the article-for the breeches were accepted as an equivalent for the robe de chambre; and so it was stipulated and agreed upon, that I fhould lie in my black filk breeches all night. 3dly. It was infifted upon, and stipulated for by the lady, that after Monfieur was got to bed, and the candle and fire extinguished, that Monfieur fhould not fpeak one fingle word the whole night. Granted: Provided Monfieur's faying his prayers might not be deemed an infraction of the treaty. There was but one point forgot in this treaty, and that was the manner in which the lady and myself should be obliged to undrefs and get to bedthere was one way of doing it, and that I leave to the reader to devife; protefting as I do, that if it is not the most delicate in nature, tis the fault of his own imagination-against which this is not my first complaint. Now when we were got to bed, whether it was the novelty of the fituation, H ог |