—And for the post too; added he. Defend me! cried I——
I travel by water—I am going down the _Rhône_ this very afternoon—my
baggage is in the boat—and I have actually paid nine livres for my
passage——
_C’est tout egal_—’tis all one; said he.
_Bon Dieu!_ what, pay for the way I go! and for the way I do _not_ go!
——_C’est tout egal;_ replied the commissary——
——The devil it is! said I—but I will go to ten thousand Bastiles
first——
_O England! England!_ thou land of liberty, and climate of good sense,
thou tenderest of mothers—and gentlest of nurses, cried I, kneeling
upon one knee, as I was beginning my apostrophè.
When the director of Madam _Le Blanc_’s conscience coming in at that
instant, and seeing a person in black, with a face as pale as ashes, at
his devotions—looking still paler by the contrast and distress of his
drapery—ask’d, if I stood in want of the aids of the church——
I go by WATER—said I—and here’s another will be for making me pay for
going by OIL.