No matter how, or in what mood--but I flew from the tomb of the
lovers--or rather I did not fly _from_ it--(for there was no such thing
existing) and just got time enough to the boat to save my passage; --and
ere I had sailed a hundred yards, the _Rhône_ and the _Saôn_ met
together, and carried me down merrily betwixt them.
But I have described this voyage down the _Rhône_, before I made it----
----So now I am at _Avignon_, and as there is nothing to see but the old
house, in which the duke of _Ormond_ resided, and nothing to stop me but
a short remark upon the place, in three minutes you will see me crossing
the bridge upon a mule, with _François_ upon a horse with my portmanteau
behind him, and the owner of both, striding the way before us, with a
long gun upon his shoulder, and a sword under his arm, lest peradventure
we should run away with his cattle. Had you seen my breeches in entering
_Avignon_, ----Though you’d have seen them better, I think, as I
mounted--you would not have thought the precaution amiss, or found in
your heart to have taken it in dudgeon; for my own part, I took it most
kindly; and determined to make him a present of them, when we got to the
end of our journey, for the trouble they had put him to, of arming
himself at all points against them.
Before I go further, let me get rid of my remark upon _Avignon_, which
is this: That I think it wrong, merely because a man’s hat has been
blown off his head by chance the first night he comes to _Avignon_,
----that he should therefore say, “_Avignon_ is more subject to high
winds than any town in all _France_:” for which reason I laid no stress
upon the accident till I had enquired of the master of the inn about it,
who telling me seriously it was so----and hearing, moreover, the
windiness of _Avignon_ spoke of in the country about as a proverb ----I
set it down, merely to ask the learned what can be the cause----the
consequence I saw--for they are all Dukes, Marquisses, and Counts,
there----the duce a Baron, in all _Avignon_----so that there is scarce
any talking to them on a windy day.
Prithee, friend, said I, take hold of my mule for a moment----for I
wanted to pull off one of my jack-boots, which hurt my heel--the man was
standing quite idle at the door of the inn, and as I had taken it into
my head, he was someway concerned about the house or stable, I put the
bridle into his hand--so begun with the boot: --when I had finished the
affair, I turned about to take the mule from the man, and thank him----
------But _Monsieur le Marquis_ had walked in----