[_Monastier, September 1878._]
DEAR HENLEY,--I hope to leave Monastier this day (Saturday) week;
thenceforward Poste Restante, Alais, Gard, is my address. _Travels with
a Donkey in the French Highlands._ I am no good to-day. I cannot work,
nor even write letters. A colossal breakfast yesterday at Puy has, I
think, done for me for ever; I certainly ate more than ever I ate before
in my life--a big slice of melon, some ham and jelly, a _filet_, a
helping of gudgeons, the breast and leg of a partridge, some green peas,
eight crayfish, some Mont d'Or cheese, a peach, and a handful of
biscuits, macaroons, and things. It sounds Gargantuan: it cost three
francs a head. So that it was inexpensive to the pocket, although I fear
it may prove extravagant to the fleshly tabernacle. I can't think how I
did it or why. It is a new form of excess for me; but I think it pays
less than any of them.