manteau and all must have gone to the king of France-even the little picture which I have fo long worn, and fo often have told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me into my grave, would have been torn from my neck.-Ungenerous !-to feize upon the wreck of an unwary passenger, whom your fubjects had beckon'd to their coaft-by heaven! SIRE, it is not well done; and much does it grieve ine, 'tis the monarch of a people fo civilized and courteous, and fo renown'd for fentiment and fine feelings, that I have to reafon with

But I have scarce fet foot in your dominions

WHE

CALAI S.

7HEN I had finished my dinner, and drank the king of France's health, to fatisfy my mind that I bore him no fpleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper I rofe up an inch taller for the accommodation.

-No-faid I-the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race they may be misled like other people ; but there is a mildness in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a fuffufion of a fmer kind, upon my cheek-more warm and friendly to man than what Burgundy (at leaft of two livres a bottle, which was fuch as I had been drinking) could have produced.

Juft God! faid I, kicking my portmanteau afide, what is there in this world's goods which fhould fharpen our fpirits, and make fo many kind. hearted brethren of us, fall out fo cruelly as we do by the way?

When

When man is at peace with man, how much Fighter than a feather is the heaviest metals in his hand! he pulls out his purfe, and holding it airily and uncompress'd, looks round him, as if he fought for an object to share it with.-In doing this, I felt every veffel in my frame dilate-the arteries beat all chearily together, and every power which fustained life, performed it with fo little friction, that twould have confounded the most phyfical precieufe in France: with all her materialifm, fhe could fcarce have called me a machine→→→→

I'm confident, faid I to myfelf, I should have overfet her creed.

The acceffion of that idea, carried nature, at that time, as high as the could go-I was at peace with the world before, and this finifh'd the treaty with my felf

-Now, was I a King of France, cried I—what a moment for an orphan to have begg'd his father's portmanteau of me!

I

THE MONK.

CALAI S.

HAD fcarce uttered thefe words, when a poor monk of the order of St Francis came into the

room to beg fomething for his convent.. No man cares to have his virtues the fport of contingencies

or one man may be generous, as another man is puiffant-fed non, quo ad hanc--or be it as it mayfor there is no regular reafoning upon the ebbs and flows of our humours; they may depend upon the fame caufes, for ought I know, which in

A 3

fluence

fluence the tides themselves-twould oft be no dif credit to us to fuppofe it was fo: I'm fure at leaft for myself, that, in many a cafe I fhould be more highly fatisfied, to have it faid by the world, "I "had had an affair with the moon, in which there "was neither fin nor fhame," than have it pass altogether as my own act and deed, wherein there was fo much of both.

But be this as it may. The moment I caft my eyes upon him, I was predetermined not to give him a fingle fous; and accordingly I put my purfe into my pocket-button'd it up-fet myself a little more upon my centre, and advanced up gravely to him: there was fomething, I fear, forbidding in my look: I have his figure this moment before my eyes, and think there was that in it which deserved better.

The monk, as I judged from the break in his tonfure, a few scatter'd white hairs upon his temples, being all that remained of it, might be about seventy-but from his eyes, and that fort of fire which was in them, which feemed more temper'd by courtely than years, could be no more than fixty-Truth might lie between-He was certainly fixty-five; and the general air of his countenance, notwithftanding, fomething feemed to have been planting wrinkles in it before their time, agreed to the ac

count.

It was one of those heads, which Guido has often painted-mild, pale-penetrating, free from all common-place ideas of fat-contented ignorance, looking downwards upon the earth-it look'd forwards; but look'd, as if it look'd at fomething beyond this world. How one of his order came by it, heaven above, who let it fall upon a monk's houlders, beft knows; but it would have fuited a

Bramin,

Bramin, and had I met it upon the plains of Inde stan, I had reverenced it.

The reft of his outline may be given in a few ftrokes; one might put it into the hands of any one to defign, for 'twas neither elegant or otherwife, but as character and expreffion made it fo: it was a thin, fpare form, fomething above the common fize, if it loft not the distinction by a bend forwards in the figure-but it was the attitude of Entreaty; and, as it now ftands prefented to my ima gination, it gained more than it loft by it.

When he had enter'd the room three paces, he ftood ftill; and laying his left hand upon his breast, (a flender white staff with which he journey'd being in his right) when I had got close up to him, he introduced himself with the little ftory of the wants of his convent, and the poverty of his order-and did it with fo fimple a grace-and fuch an air of deprecation was there in the whole caft of his look and figure-I was bewitch'd not to have been ftruck with it

-A better reafon was, I had predetermined not to give him a fingle fous.

THE MON K.

CALAIS.

Twards with his eyes,

IS very true, faid I, replying to a cast upwards with his eyes, with which he had concluded his addrefs-'tis very true-and heaven be their refource who have no other but the chari ty of the world, the ftock of which, I fear, is no

way

way fufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it.

As I pronounced the words great claims, he gave a flight glance with his eye downwards upon the fleeve of his tunic-I felt the full force of the ap peal-I acknowledge it, faid I-a coarfe habit, and that but once in three years, with meagre dietare no great matters; and the true point of pity is, as they can be earn'd in the world with fo little industry, that your order fhould wish to procure them by preffing 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, languithes alfo for his fhare of it and had you been of the order of Mercy, inftead of the order of St Francis, poor as I am, continued I, pointing at my portmantean, full chearfully fhould it have been open'd to you, for the ranfom of the unfortunate-The Monk made me a bow-but of all others, refumed I, the unfortu nate of our own country, furely have the firft rights; and I have left thousands in diftrefs upon our own fhore-the monk gave a cordial wave with his head

as much as to fay, No doubt there is mifery enough in every corner of the world as well as withi our convent-But we diftinguish, faid 1, laying my hand upon the fleeve of his tunic, în return for his appeal-we diftinguish, my good father! betwixt thofe who wifh 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 it in floth and ignorance, for the love of God.

The poor Francifcan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass'd across his cheek, but could not tarry-Nature feemed to have done with her refentments in him; he fhewed none-but letting his