A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

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A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
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Title: A Sentimental Journey Author: Laurence Sterne Release Date: February, 1997 [EBook #804] [This file was first posted on February 12, 1997] [Most recently updated: September 25, 2002] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII
Transcribed from the 1892 George Bell and Son edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY
They order, said I, this matter better in France. - You have been in France? said my gentleman ...

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Publié le	08 décembre 2010
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A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence SterneThe Project Gutenberg EBook of A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence SterneCopyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check thecopyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributingthis or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this ProjectGutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit theheader without written permission.Please read the "legal small print," and other information about theeBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included isimportant information about your specific rights and restrictions inhow the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make adonation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971*******These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****Title: A Sentimental JourneyAuthor: Laurence SterneRelease Date: February, 1997 [EBook #804][This file was first posted on February 12, 1997][Most recently updated: September 25, 2002]Edition: 10Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ASCIITranscribed from the 1892 George Bell and Son edition by David Price, emailccx074@coventry.ac.ukA SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGHFRANCE AND ITALYThey order, said I, this matter better in France. - You have been in France? said my gentleman,turning quick upon me, with the most civil triumph in the world. - Strange! quoth I, debating thematter with myself, That one and twenty miles sailing, for ’tis absolutely no further from Dover toCalais, should give a man these rights: - I’ll look into them: so, giving up the argument, - I wentstraight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen shirts and a black pair of silk breeches, - “the coat I

have on,” said I, looking at the sleeve, “will do;” - took a place in the Dover stage; and the packetsailing at nine the next morning, - by three I had got sat down to my dinner upon a fricaseedchicken, so incontestably in France, that had I died that night of an indigestion, the whole worldcould not have suspended the effects of the droits d’aubaine; - my shirts, and black pair of silkbreeches, - portmanteau and all, must have gone to the King of France; - even the little picturewhich I have so long worn, and so often have told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me into mygrave, would have been torn from my neck! - Ungenerous! to seize upon the wreck of an unwarypassenger, whom your subjects had beckoned to their coast! - By heaven! Sire, it is not welldone; and much does it grieve me, ’tis the monarch of a people so civilized and courteous, andso renowned for sentiment and fine feelings, that I have to reason with! --But I have scarce set a foot in your dominions. CALAIS.When I had fished my dinner, and drank the King of France’s health, to satisfy my mind that I borehim no spleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper, - I rose up an inchtaller for the accommodation.- No - said I - the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race: they may be misled, like other people; butthere is a mildness in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a suffusion of a finer kind uponmy cheek - more warm and friendly to man, than what Burgundy (at least of two livres a bottle,which was such as I had been drinking) could have produced.- Just God! said I, kicking my portmanteau aside, what is there in this world’s goods which shouldsharpen our spirits, and make so many kind-hearted brethren of us fall out so cruelly as we do bythe way?When man is at peace with man, how much lighter than a feather is the heaviest of metals in hishand! he pulls out his purse, and holding it airily and uncompressed, looks round him, as if hesought for an object to share it with. - In doing this, I felt every vessel in my frame dilate, - thearteries beat all cheerily together, and every power which sustained life, performed it with so littlefriction, that ’twould have confounded the most physical précieuse in France; with all hermaterialism, she could scarce have called me a machine. -I’m confident, said I to myself, I should have overset her creed.The accession of that idea carried nature, at that time, as high as she could go; - I was at peacewith the world before, and this finish’d the treaty with myself. - Now, was I King of France, cried I - what a moment for an orphan to have begg’d his father’s-portmanteau of me!THE MONK. CALAIS.I had scarce uttered the words, when a poor monk of the order of St. Francis came into the roomto beg something for a his convent. No man cares to have his virtues the sport of contingencies -or one man may be generous, as another is puissant; - sed non quoad hanc - or be it as it may, -

for there is no regular reasoning upon the ebbs and flows of our humours; they may depend uponthe same causes, for aught I know, which influence the tides themselves: ’twould oft be nodiscredit to us, to suppose it was so: I’m sure at least for myself, that in many a case I should bemore highly satisfied, to have it said by the world, “I had had an affair with the moon, in whichthere was neither sin nor shame,” than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, whereinthere was so much of both.- But, be this as it may, - the moment I cast my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to givehim a single sous; and, accordingly, I put my purse into my pocket - buttoned it - set myself a littlemore upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him; there was something, I fear, forbidding inmy look: I have his figure this moment before my eyes, and think there was that in it whichdeserved better.The monk, as I judged by the break in his tonsure, a few scattered white hairs upon his temples,being all that remained of it, might be about seventy; - but from his eyes, and that sort of fire whichwas in them, which seemed more temper’d by courtesy than years, could be no more than sixty: -Truth might lie between - He was certainly sixty-five; and the general air of his countenance,notwithstanding something seem’d to have been planting-wrinkles in it before their time, agreedto the account.It was one of those heads which Guido has often painted, - mild, pale - penetrating, free from allcommonplace ideas of fat contented ignorance looking downwards upon the earth; - it look’dforwards; but look’d as if it look’d at something beyond this world. - How one of his order came byit, heaven above, who let it fall upon a monk’s shoulders best knows: but it would have suited aBramin, and had I met it upon the plains of Indostan, I had reverenced it.The rest of his outline may be given in a few strokes; one might put it into the hands of any one todesign, for ’twas neither elegant nor otherwise, but as character and expression made it so: itwas a thin, spare form, something above the common size, if it lost not the distinction by a bendforward in the figure, - but it was the attitude of Intreaty; and, as it now stands presented to myimagination, it gained more than it lost by it.When he had entered the room three paces, he stood still; and laying his left hand upon hisbreast (a slender white staff with which he journey’d being in his right) - when I had got close upto him, he introduced himself with the little story of the wants of his convent, and the poverty of hisorder; - and did it with so simple a grace, - and such an air of deprecation was there in the wholecast of his look and figure, - I was bewitch’d not to have been struck with it.- A better reason was, I had predetermined not to give him a single sous.THE MONK. CALAIS.- ’Tis very true, said I, replying to a cast upwards with his eyes, with which he had concluded hisaddress; - ’tis very true, - and heaven be their resource who have no other but the charity of theworld, the stock of which, I fear, is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourlymade upon it.As I pronounced the words great claims, he gave a slight glance with his eye downwards uponthe sleeve of his tunic: - I felt the full force of the appeal - I acknowledge it, said I: - a coarse habit,and that but once in three years with meagre diet, - are no great matters; and the true point of pityis, as they can be earn’d in the world with so little industry, that your order should wish to procurethem by pressing upon a fund which is the property of the lame, the blind, the aged and the infirm;- the captive who lies down counting over and over again the days of his afflictions, languishes

also for his share of it; and had you been of the order of mercy, instead of the order of St. Francis,poor as I am, continued I, pointing at my portmanteau, full cheerfully should it have been open’dto you, for the ransom of the unfortunate. - The monk made me a bow. - But of all others, resumedI, the unfortunate of our own country, surely, have the first rights; and I have left thousands indistress upon our own shore. - The monk gave a cordial wave with his head, - as much as to say,No doubt there is misery enough in every corner of the world, as well as within our convent - Butwe distinguish, said I, laying my hand upon the sleeve of his tunic, in return for his appeal - wedistinguish, my good father! betwixt those who wish only to eat the bread of their own labour -and those who eat the bread of other people’s, and have no other plan in life, but to get through itin sloth and ignorance, for the love of God.The poor Franciscan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass’d across his cheek, but could nottarry - Nature seemed to have done with her resentments in him; - he showed none: - but lettinghis staff fall within his arms, he pressed both his hands with resignation upon his breast, andretired.THE MONK. CALAIS.My heart smote me the moment he shut the door - Psha! said I, with an air of carelessness, threeseveral times - but it would not do: every ungracious syllable I had utter’d crowded back into myimagination: I reflected, I had no right over the poor Franciscan, but to deny him; and that thepunishment of that was enough to the disappointed, without the addition of unkind language. - Iconsider’d his gray hairs - his courteous figure seem’d to re-enter and gently ask me what injuryhe had done me? - and why I could use him thus? - I would have given twenty livres for anadvocate. - I have behaved very ill, said I within myself; but I have only just set out upon mytravels; and shall learn better manners as I get along.THE DESOBLIGEANT. CALAIS.When a man is discontented with himself, it has one advantage however, that it puts him into anexcellent frame of mind for making a bargain. Now there being no travelling through France andItaly without a chaise, - and nature generally prompting us to the thing we are fittest for, I walk’dout into the coach-yard to buy or hire something of that kind to my purpose: an old désobligeantin the furthest corner of the court, hit my fancy at first sight, so I instantly got into it, and finding it intolerable harmony with my feelings, I ordered the waiter to call Monsieur Dessein, the master ofthe hotel: - but Monsieur Dessein being gone to vespers, and not caring to face the Franciscan,whom I saw on the opposite side of the court, in conference with a lady just arrived at the inn, - Idrew the taffeta curtain betwixt us, and being determined to write my journey, I took out my penand ink and wrote the preface to it in the désobligeant.PREFACE. IN THE DESOBLIGEANT.It must have been observed by many a peripatetic philosopher, That nature has set up by her

own unquestionable authority certain boundaries and fences to circumscribe the discontent ofman; she has effected her purpose in the quietest and easiest manner by laying him underalmost insuperable obligations to work out his ease, and to sustain his sufferings at home. It isthere only that she has provided him with the most suitable objects to partake of his happiness,and bear a part of that burden which in all countries and ages has ever been too heavy for onepair of shoulders. ’Tis true, we are endued with an imperfect power of spreading our happinesssometimes beyond her limits, but ’tis so ordered, that, from the want of languages, connections,and dependencies, and from the difference in education, customs, and habits, we lie under somany impediments in communicating our sensations out of our own sphere, as often amount to atotal impossibility.It will always follow from hence, that the balance of sentimental commerce is always against theexpatriated adventurer: he must buy what he has little occasion for, at their own price; - hisconversation will seldom be taken in exchange for theirs without a large discount, - and this, bythe by, eternally driving him into the hands of more equitable brokers, for such conversation as hecan find, it requires no great spirit of divination to guess at his party -This brings me to my point; and naturally leads me (if the see-saw of this désobligeant will but letme get on) into the efficient as well as final causes of travelling -Your idle people that leave their native country, and go abroad for some reason or reasons whichmay be derived from one of these general causes:-Infirmity of body,Imbecility of mind, orInevitable necessity.The first two include all those who travel by land or by water, labouring with pride, curiosity,vanity, or spleen, subdivided and combined ad infinitum.The third class includes the whole army of peregrine martyrs; more especially those travellerswho set out upon their travels with the benefit of the clergy, either as delinquents travelling underthe direction of governors recommended by the magistrate; - or young gentlemen transported bythe cruelty of parents and guardians, and travelling under the direction of governorsrecommended by Oxford, Aberdeen, and Glasgow.There is a fourth class, but their number is so small that they would not deserve a distinction,were it not necessary in a work of this nature to observe the greatest precision and nicety, toavoid a confusion of character. And these men I speak of, are such as cross the seas andsojourn in a land of strangers, with a view of saving money for various reasons and upon variouspretences: but as they might also save themselves and others a great deal of unnecessarytrouble by saving their money at home, - and as their reasons for travelling are the least complexof any other species of emigrants, I shall distinguish these gentlemen by the name ofSimple Travellers.Thus the whole circle of travellers may be reduced to the following heads:-

Idle Travellers,Inquisitive Travellers,Lying Travellers,Proud Travellers,Vain Travellers,Splenetic Travellers.Then follow:The Travellers of Necessity,The Delinquent and Felonious Traveller,The Unfortunate and Innocent Traveller,The Simple Traveller,And last of all (if you please) The Sentimental Traveller, (meaning thereby myself) who havetravell’d, and of which I am now sitting down to give an account, - as much out of Necessity, andthe besoin de Voyager, as any one in the class.I am well aware, at the same time, as both my travels and observations will be altogether of adifferent cast from any of my forerunners, that I might have insisted upon a whole nitch entirely tomyself; - but I should break in upon the confines of the Vain Traveller, in wishing to draw attentiontowards me, till I have some better grounds for it than the mere Novelty of my Vehicle.It is sufficient for my reader, if he has been a traveller himself, that with study and reflectionhereupon he may be able to determine his own place and rank in the catalogue; - it will be onestep towards knowing himself; as it is great odds but he retains some tincture and resemblance,of what he imbibed or carried out, to the present hour.The man who first transplanted the grape of Burgundy to the Cape of Good Hope (observe hewas a Dutchman) never dreamt of drinking the same wine at the Cape, that the same grapeproduced upon the French mountains, - he was too phlegmatic for that - but undoubtedly heexpected to drink some sort of vinous liquor; but whether good or bad, or indifferent, - he knewenough of this world to know, that it did not depend upon his choice, but that what is generallycalled choice, was to decide his success: however, he hoped for the best; and in these hopes, byan intemperate confidence in the fortitude of his head, and the depth of his discretion, Mynheermight possibly oversee both in his new vineyard; and by discovering his nakedness, become alaughing stock to his people.Even so it fares with the Poor Traveller, sailing and posting through the politer kingdoms of theglobe, in pursuit of knowledge and improvements.Knowledge and improvements are to be got by sailing and posting for that purpose; but whetheruseful knowledge and real improvements is all a lottery; - and even where the adventurer issuccessful, the acquired stock must be used with caution and sobriety, to turn to any profit: - but,as the chances run prodigiously the other way, both as to the acquisition and application, I am ofopinion, That a man would act as wisely, if he could prevail upon himself to live contentedwithout foreign knowledge or foreign improvements, especially if he lives in a country that has noabsolute want of either; - and indeed, much grief of heart has it oft and many a time cost me,when I have observed how many a foul step the Inquisitive Traveller has measured to see sightsand look into discoveries; all which, as Sancho Panza said to Don Quixote, they might have seendry-shod at home. It is an age so full of light, that there is scarce a country or corner in Europewhose beams are not crossed and interchanged with others. - Knowledge in most of its

branches, and in most affairs, is like music in an Italian street, whereof those may partake whopay nothing. - But there is no nation under heaven - and God is my record (before whose tribunalI must one day come and give an account of this work) - that I do not speak it vauntingly, - butthere is no nation under heaven abounding with more variety of learning, - where the sciencesmay be more fitly woo’d, or more surely won, than here, - where art is encouraged, and will sosoon rise high,- where Nature (take her altogether) has so little to answer for, - and, to close all, where there is more wit and variety of character to feed the mind with: - Where then, my dearcountrymen, are you going? -We are only looking at this chaise, said they. - Your most obedient servant, said I, skipping out ofit, and pulling off my hat. - We were wondering, said one of them, who, I found was an InquisitiveTraveller, - what could occasion its motion. - ’Twas the agitation, said I, coolly, of writing apreface. - I never heard, said the other, who was a Simple Traveller, of a preface wrote in adésobligeant. - It would have been better, said I, in a vis-a-vis.- As an Englishman does not travel to see Englishmen, I retired to my room.CALAIS.I perceived that something darken’d the passage more than myself, as I stepp’d along it to myroom; it was effectually Mons. Dessein, the master of the hôtel, who had just returned fromvespers, and with his hat under his arm, was most complaisantly following me, to put me in mindof my wants. I had wrote myself pretty well out of conceit with the désobligeant, and Mons.Dessein speaking of it, with a shrug, as if it would no way suit me, it immediately struck my fancythat it belong’d to some Innocent Traveller, who, on his return home, had left it to Mons.Dessein’s honour to make the most of. Four months had elapsed since it had finished its careerof Europe in the corner of Mons. Dessein’s coach-yard; and having sallied out from thence but avampt-up business at the first, though it had been twice taken to pieces on Mount Sennis, it hadnot profited much by its adventures, - but by none so little as the standing so many monthsunpitied in the corner of Mons. Dessein’s coach-yard. Much indeed was not to be said for it, - butsomething might; - and when a few words will rescue misery out of her distress, I hate the manwho can be a churl of them.- Now was I the master of this hôtel, said I, laying the point of my fore-finger on Mons. Dessein’sbreast, I would inevitably make a point of getting rid of this unfortunate désobligeant; - it standsswinging reproaches at you every time you pass by it.Mon Dieu! said Mons. Dessein, - I have no interest - Except the interest, said I, which men of acertain turn of mind take, Mons. Dessein, in their own sensations, - I’m persuaded, to a man whofeels for others as well as for himself, every rainy night, disguise it as you will, must cast a dampupon your spirits: - You suffer, Mons. Dessein, as much as the machine -I have always observed, when there is as much sour as sweet in a compliment, that anEnglishman is eternally at a loss within himself, whether to take it, or let it alone: a Frenchmannever is: Mons. Dessein made me a bow.C’est bien vrai, said he. - But in this case I should only exchange one disquietude for another,and with loss: figure to yourself, my dear Sir, that in giving you a chaise which would fall topieces before you had got half-way to Paris, - figure to yourself how much I should suffer, ingiving an ill impression of myself to a man of honour, and lying at the mercy, as I must do, d’unhomme d’esprit.The dose was made up exactly after my own prescription; so I could not help tasting it, - and,

returning Mons. Dessein his bow, without more casuistry we walk’d together towards his Remise,to take a view of his magazine of chaises.IN THE STREET. CALAIS.It must needs be a hostile kind of a world, when the buyer (if it be but of a sorry post-chaise)cannot go forth with the seller thereof into the street to terminate the difference betwixt them, buthe instantly falls into the same frame of mind, and views his conventionist with the same sort ofeye, as if he was going along with him to Hyde-park corner to fight a duel. For my own part,being but a poor swordsman, and no way a match for Monsieur Dessein, I felt the rotation of allthe movements within me, to which the situation is incident; - I looked at Monsieur Desseinthrough and through - eyed him as he walk’d along in profile, - then, en face; - thought like a Jew,- then a Turk, - disliked his wig, - cursed him by my gods, - wished him at the devil. -- And is all this to be lighted up in the heart for a beggarly account of three or four louis d’ors,which is the most I can be overreached in? - Base passion! said I, turning myself about, as a mannaturally does upon a sudden reverse of sentiment, - base, ungentle passion! thy hand is againstevery man, and every man’s hand against thee. - Heaven forbid! said she, raising her hand up toher forehead, for I had turned full in front upon the lady whom I had seen in conference with themonk: - she had followed us unperceived. - Heaven forbid, indeed! said I, offering her my own; -she had a black pair of silk gloves, open only at the thumb and two fore-fingers, so accepted itwithout reserve, - and I led her up to the door of the Remise.Monsieur Dessein had diabled the key above fifty times before he had found out he had comewith a wrong one in his hand: we were as impatient as himself to have it opened; and so attentiveto the obstacle that I continued holding her hand almost without knowing it: so that MonsieurDessein left us together with her hand in mine, and with our faces turned towards the door of theRemise, and said he would be back in five minutes.Now a colloquy of five minutes, in such a situation, is worth one of as many ages, with your facesturned towards the street: in the latter case, ’tis drawn from the objects and occurrences without; -when your eyes are fixed upon a dead blank, - you draw purely from yourselves. A silence of asingle moment upon Mons. Dessein’s leaving us, had been fatal to the situation - she hadinfallibly turned about; - so I begun the conversation instantly. -- But what were the temptations (as I write not to apologize for the weaknesses of my heart in thistour, - but to give an account of them) - shall be described with the same simplicity with which Ifelt them.THE REMISE DOOR. CALAIS.When I told the reader that I did not care to get out of the désobligeant, because I saw the monkin close conference with a lady just arrived at the inn - I told him the truth, - but I did not tell himthe whole truth; for I was as full as much restrained by the appearance and figure of the lady hewas talking to. Suspicion crossed my brain and said, he was telling her what had passed:something jarred upon it within me, - I wished him at his convent.When the heart flies out before the understanding, it saves the judgment a world of pains. - I was

certain she was of a better order of beings; - however, I thought no more of her, but went on andwrote my preface.The impression returned upon my encounter with her in the street; a guarded frankness withwhich she gave me her hand, showed, I thought, her good education and her good sense; and asI led her on, I felt a pleasurable ductility about her, which spread a calmness over all my spirits -- Good God! how a man might lead such a creature as this round the world with him! -I had not yet seen her face - ’twas not material: for the drawing was instantly set about, and longbefore we had got to the door of the Remise, Fancy had finished the whole head, and pleasedherself as much with its fitting her goddess, as if she had dived into the Tiber for it; - but thou art aseduced, and a seducing slut; and albeit thou cheatest us seven times a day with thy picturesand images, yet with so many charms dost thou do it, and thou deckest out thy pictures in theshapes of so many angels of light, ’tis a shame to break with thee.When we had got to the door of the Remise, she withdrew her hand from across her forehead,and let me see the original: - it was a face of about six-and-twenty, - of a clear transparent brown,simply set off without rouge or powder; - it was not critically handsome, but there was that in it,which, in the frame of mind I was in, attached me much more to it, - it was interesting: I fancied itwore the characters of a widow’d look, and in that state of its declension, which had passed thetwo first paroxysms of sorrow, and was quietly beginning to reconcile itself to its loss; - but athousand other distresses might have traced the same lines; I wish’d to know what they had been- and was ready to inquire, (had the same bon ton of conversation permitted, as in the days ofEsdras) - “What ailelh thee? and why art thou disquieted? and why is thy understandingtroubled?” - In a word, I felt benevolence for her; and resolv’d some way or other to throw in mymite of courtesy, - if not of service.Such were my temptations; - and in this disposition to give way to them, was I left alone with thelady with her hand in mine, and with our faces both turned closer to the door of the Remise thanwhat was absolutely necessary.THE REMISE DOOR. CALAIS.This certainly, fair lady, said I, raising her hand up little lightly as I began, must be one ofFortune’s whimsical doings; to take two utter strangers by their hands, - of different sexes, andperhaps from different corners of the globe, and in one moment place them together in such acordial situation as Friendship herself could scarce have achieved for them, had she projected itfor a month.- And your reflection upon it shows how much, Monsieur, she has embarrassed you by theadventure -When the situation is what we would wish, nothing is so ill-timed as to hint at the circumstanceswhich make it so: you thank Fortune, continued she - you had reason - the heart knew it, and wassatisfied; and who but an English philosopher would have sent notice of it to the brain to reversethe judgment?In saying this, she disengaged her hand with a look which I thought a sufficient commentary uponthe text.It is a miserable picture which I am going to give of the weakness of my heart, by owning, that itsuffered a pain, which worthier occasions could not have inflicted. - I was mortified with the loss

of her hand, and the manner in which I had lost it carried neither oil nor wine to the wound: Inever felt the pain of a sheepish inferiority so miserably in my life.The triumphs of a true feminine heart are short upon these discomfitures. In a very few secondsshe laid her hand upon the cuff of my coat, in order to finish her reply; so, some way or other, Godknows how, I regained my situation.- She had nothing to add.I forthwith began to model a different conversation for the lady, thinking from the spirit as well asmoral of this, that I had been mistaken in her character; but upon turning her face towards me, thespirit which had animated the reply was fled, - the muscles relaxed, and I beheld the sameunprotected look of distress which first won me to her interest: - melancholy! to see suchsprightliness the prey of sorrow, - I pitied her from my soul; and though it may seem ridiculousenough to a torpid heart, - I could have taken her into my arms, and cherished her, though it wasin the open street, without brushing.The pulsations of the arteries along my fingers pressing across hers, told her what was passingwithin me: she looked down-a silence of some moments followed. I fear in this interval, I must have made some slight efforts towards a closer compression of herhand, from a subtle sensation I felt in the palm of my own, - not as if she was going to withdrawhers - but as if she thought about it; - and I had infallibly lost it a second time, had not instinctmore than reason directed me to the last resource in these dangers, - to hold it loosely, and in amanner as if I was every moment going to release it, of myself; so she let it continue, till MonsieurDessein returned with the key; and in the mean time I set myself to consider how I should undothe ill impressions which the poor monk’s story, in case he had told it her, must have planted inher breast against me.THE SNUFF BOX. CALAIS.The good old monk was within six paces of us, as the idea of him crossed my mind; and wasadvancing towards us a little out of the line, as if uncertain whether he should break in upon us orno. - He stopp’d, however, as soon as he came up to us, with a world of frankness: and having ahorn snuff box in his hand, he presented it open to me. - You shall taste mine - said I, pulling outmy box (which was a small tortoise one) and putting it into his hand. - ’Tis most excellent, saidthe monk. Then do me the favour, I replied, to accept of the box and all, and when you take apinch out of it, sometimes recollect it was the peace offering of a man who once used youunkindly, but not from his heart.The poor monk blush’d as red as scarlet. Mon Dieu! said he, pressing his hands together - younever used me unkindly. - I should think, said the lady, he is not likely. I blush’d in my turn; butfrom what movements, I leave to the few who feel, to analyze. - Excuse me, Madame, replied I, - Itreated him most unkindly; and from no provocations. - ’Tis impossible, said the lady. - My God!cried the monk, with a warmth of asseveration which seem’d not to belong to him - the fault wasin me, and in the indiscretion of my zeal. - The lady opposed it, and I joined with her inmaintaining it was impossible, that a spirit so regulated as his, could give offence to any.I knew not that contention could be rendered so sweet and pleasurable a thing to the nerves as Ithen felt it. - We remained silent, without any sensation of that foolish pain which takes place,when, in such a circle, you look for ten minutes in one another’s faces without saying a word. Whilst this lasted, the monk rubbed his horn box upon the sleeve of his tunic; and as soon as ithad acquired a little air of brightness by the friction - he made me a low bow, and said, ’twas too

late to say whether it was the weakness or goodness of our tempers which had involved us inthis contest - but be it as it would, - he begg’d we might exchange boxes. - In saying this, hepresented his to me with one hand, as he took mine from me in the other, and having kissed it, -with a stream of good nature in his eyes, he put it into his bosom, - and took his leave.I guard this box, as I would the instrumental parts of my religion, to help my mind on to somethingbetter: in truth, I seldom go abroad without it; and oft and many a time have I called up by it thecourteous spirit of its owner to regulate my own, in the justlings of the world: they had found fullemployment for his, as I learnt from his story, till about the forty-fifth year of his age, when uponsome military services ill requited, and meeting at the same time with a disappointment in thetenderest of passions, he abandoned the sword and the sex together, and took sanctuary not somuch in his convent as in himself.I feel a damp upon my spirits, as I am going to add, that in my last return through Calais, uponenquiring after Father Lorenzo, I heard he had been dead near three months, and was buried, notin his convent, but, according to his desire, in a little cemetery belonging to it, about two leaguesoff: I had a strong desire to see where they had laid him, - when, upon pulling out his little hornbox, as I sat by his grave, and plucking up a nettle or two at the head of it, which had no businessto grow there, they all struck together so forcibly upon my affections, that I burst into a flood oftears: - but I am as weak as a woman; and I beg the world not to smile, but to pity me.THE REMISE DOOR. CALAIS.I had never quitted the lady’s hand all this time, and had held it so long, that it would have beenindecent to have let it go, without first pressing it to my lips: the blood and spirits, which hadsuffered a revulsion from her, crowded back to her as I did it.Now the two travellers, who had spoke to me in the coach-yard, happening at that crisis to bepassing by, and observing our communications, naturally took it into their heads that we must beman and wife at least; so, stopping as soon as they came up to the door of the Remise, the one ofthem who was the Inquisitive Traveller, ask’d us, if we set out for Paris the next morning? - I couldonly answer for myself, I said; and the lady added, she was for Amiens. - We dined thereyesterday, said the Simple Traveller. - You go directly through the town, added the other, in yourroad to Paris. I was going to return a thousand thanks for the intelligence, that Amiens was in theroad to Paris, but, upon pulling out my poor monk’s little horn box to take a pinch of snuff, I madethem a quiet bow, and wishing them a good passage to Dover. - They left us alone. -- Now where would be the harm, said I to myself, if I were to beg of this distressed lady to acceptof half of my chaise? - and what mighty mischief could ensue?Every dirty passion, and bad propensity in my nature took the alarm, as I stated the proposition. -It will oblige you to have a third horse, said Avarice, which will put twenty livres out of yourpocket; - You know not what she is, said Caution; - or what scrapes the affair may draw you into,whisper’d Cowardice. -Depend upon it, Yorick! said Discretion, ’twill be said you went off with a mistress, and came byassignation to Calais for that purpose; -- You can never after, cried Hypocrisy aloud, show your face in the world; - or rise, quothMeanness, in the church; - or be any thing in it, said Pride, but a lousy prebendary.But ’tis a civil thing, said I; - and as I generally act from the first impulse, and therefore seldomlisten to these cabals, which serve no purpose, that I know of, but to encompass the heart with