neither elegant nor otherwise, but as character and expression made it so: it was a thin, spare form, something above the common size, if it lost not the distinction by a bend forward in the figure-but it was the attitude of entreaty; and as it now stands presented to my imagination, 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 his breast (a slender white staff with which he journeyed being in his right), when I had got close up to him he introduced himself with the little story of the wants of his convent, and the poverty of his order; and did it with so simple a grace, and such an air of deprecation was there in the whole cast of his look and figure, I was bewitched not to have been struck with it.

A better reason was, I had predetermined not to give him a single sous.

"'Tis very true," said I, replying to a cast upwards with his eyes, with which he had concluded his address- "'tis very true

- and Heaven be their resource who have no other but the charity of the world; the stock of which, I fear, is no way sufficient for the many great claims which are hourly made upon it."

As I pronounced the words "great claims," he gave a slight glance with his eye downward upon the 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 pity is, as they can be earned in the world with so little industry, that your order should wish to procure them 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 to my portmanteau, "full cheerfully should it have been opened to you for the ransom of the unfortunate." The monk made me a bow.« But

of all others," resumed I, "the unfortunate of our own country surely have the first rights; and I have left thousands in distress 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.» "But we distinguish," said I, laying my hand upon the sleeve of his tunic, in return for his appeal,-"we distinguish, my good

father, betwixt those who wish only to eat the bread of their own labors, and those who eat the bread of other people's, and have no other plan in life but to get through it in sloth and ignorance for the love of God."

The poor Franciscan made no reply:- a hectic of a moment passed across his cheek, but could not tarry;- Nature seemed to have had done with her resentments in him: he showed none; but letting his staff fall within his arm, he pressed both his hands with resignation upon his breast, and retired.

My heart smote me the moment he shut the door.-"Pshaw!" said I, with an air of carelessness, three several times, but it would not do; every ungracious syllable I had uttered crowded back into my imagination. I reflected, I had no right over the poor Franciscan but to deny him; and that the punishment of that was enough to the disappointed without the addition of unkind language. I considered his gray hairs; his courteous figure seemed to re-enter, and gently ask me what injury he had done me, and why I could use him thus: I would have given twenty livres for an advocate.-"I have behaved very ill," said I within myself; "but I have only just set out upon my travels, and shall learn better manners as I get along."

I feel a damp upon my spirits, as I am going to add that in my last return through Calais, upon inquiring after Father Lorenzo, I heard that he had been dead near three months; and was buried, not in his convent, but according to his desire, in a little cemetery belonging to it, about two leagues off. I had a strong desire to see where they had laid him-when, upon pulling out his little horn box, as I sat by his grave, and plucking up a nettle or two at the head of it, which had no business to grow there, they all struck together so forcibly upon my affections, that I burst into a flood of tears: but I am as weak as a woman; and I beg the world not to smile, but pity me.

THE DEAD ASS

From 'A Sentimental Journey>

ND this," said he, putting the remains of a crust into his

"A wallet," and this should have been thy portion,» said

he, I hadst thou been alive to have shared it with me." I thought, by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but 'twas to his ass, and to the very ass we had seen dead in

the road, which had occasioned La Fleur's misadventure. The man seemed to lament it much: and it instantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his; but he did it with more true touches of nature.

The mourner was sitting upon a stone bench at the door, with the ass's pannel and its bridle on one side, which he took up from time to time-then laid them down-looked at them, and shook his head. He then took his crust of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; held it some time in his hand; then laid it upon the bit of his ass's bridle, looked wistfully at the little arrangement he had made, and then gave a sigh.

The simplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and La Fleur amongst the rest, whilst the horses were getting ready: as I continued sitting in the post-chaise, I could see and hear over their heads.

He said he had come last from Spain, where he had been from the furthest borders of Franconia; and had got so far on his return home, when his ass died. Every one seemed desirous to know what business could have taken so old and poor a man so far a journey from his own home.

It had pleased Heaven, he said, to bless him with three sons, the finest lads in all Germany; but having in one week lost two of the eldest of them by the small-pox, and the youngest falling ill of the same distemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all; and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him also, he would go in gratitude to St. Iago in Spain.

When the mourner got thus far on his story, he stopped to pay nature his tribute, and wept bitterly.

He said Heaven had accepted the conditions; and that he had set out from his cottage with this poor creature, which had been a patient partner of his journey; that it had ate the same bread with him all the way, and was unto him as a friend.

Everybody who stood about heard the poor fellow with concern. La Fleur offered him money. The mourner said he did not want it: it was not the value of the ass, but the loss of him. The ass, he said, he was assured, loved him: and upon this, told them a long story of a mischance upon their passage over the Pyrenean mountains, which had separated them from each other three days; during which time the ass had sought him as much as he had sought the ass, and that they had scarce either ate or drank till they met.

"Thou hast one comfort, friend," said I, "at least, in the loss of thy poor beast: I'm sure thou hast been a merciful master to him." — "Alas!" said the mourner, "I thought so when he was alive: but now that he is dead, I think otherwise; I fear that the weight of myself and my afflictions together have been too much for him,-they have shortened the poor creature's days, and I fear I have them to answer for." "Shame on the world! said I to myself. "Did we but love each other as this poor soul loved his ass 'twould be something."

H

THE PULSE

PARIS

From 'A Sentimental Journey'

AIL, ye small sweet courtesies of life! for smooth do ye make the road of it; like grace and beauty, which beget inclinations to love at first sight: 'tis ye who open this door, and let the stranger in.

-"Pray, madam," said I, "have the goodness to tell me which way I must turn to go to the Opéra Comique ? »

"Most willingly, monsieur," said she, laying aside her work. I had given a cast with my eye into half a dozen shops as I came along, in search of a face not likely to be disordered by such an interruption; till at last, this hitting my fancy, I had walked in.

She was working a pair of ruffles as she sat in a low chair on the far side of the shop, facing the door.

"Très volontiers-most willingly," said she, laying her work down upon a chair next her, and rising up from the low chair she was sitting in, with so cheerful a movement and so cheerful a look that had I been laying out fifty louis d'ors with her, I should have said, "That woman is grateful."

"You must turn, monsieur," said she, going with me to the door of the shop, and pointing the way down the street I was to take"you must turn first to your right hand,-mais prenez garde, there are two turns, and be so good as to take the second, - then go down a little way, and you'll see a church; and when you are past it, give yourself the trouble to turn directly to the right, and that will lead you to the foot of the Pont-Neuf, which

you must cross, and there any one will do himself the pleasure to show you."

She repeated her instructions three times over to me, with the same good-natured patience the third time as the first; and if tones and manners have a meaning,- which certainly they have, unless to hearts which shut them out,- she seemed really interested that I should not lose myself.

I will not suppose it was the woman's beauty (notwithstanding she was the handsomest grisette, I think, I ever saw) which had much to do with the sense I had of her courtesy; only I remember when I told her how much I was obliged to her, that I looked very full in her eyes, and that I repeated my thanks as often as she had done her instructions.

I had not got ten paces from the door, before I found I had forgot every tittle of what she had said; so looking back, and seeing her still standing in the door of the shop, as if to look whether I went right or not, I returned back to ask her whether the first turn was to my right or left, for that I had absolutely forgot.

"It is impossible!" said she, half laughing.

"Tis very possible," replied I, "when a man is thinking more of a woman than of her good advice."

As this was the real truth, she took it, as every woman takes a matter of right, with a slight courtesy.

"Attendez !" said she, laying her hand upon my arm to detain me, whilst she called a lad out of the back shop to get ready a parcel of gloves. "I am just going to send him," said she, "with a packet into that quarter; and if you will have the complaisance to step in, it will be ready in a moment, and he shall attend you to the place."

So I walked in with her to the far side of the shop; and tak. ing up the ruffle in my hand which she laid upon the chair, as if I had a mind to sit, she sat down herself in her low chair, and I instantly sat myself down beside her.

-"He will be ready, monsieur," said she, "in a moment."

"And in that moment,” replied I, "most willingly would I say something very civil to you for all these courtesies. Any one may do a casual act of good-nature, but a continuation of them shows it is a part of the temperature; and certainly," added I, "if it is the same blood which comes from the heart which