I am glad of it, said I, settling the account with myself, as I walk’d into Lyons ⸺my chaise being all laid higgledy-piggledy with my baggage in a cart, which was moving slowly before me⸺I am heartily glad, said I, that ’tis all broke to pieces; for now I can go directly by water to Avignon , which will carry me on a hundred and twenty miles of my journey, and not cost me seven livres⸺and from thence, continued I, bringing forwards the account, I can hire a couple of mules—or asses, if I like (for nobody knows me) and cross the plains of Languedoc for almost nothing⸺I shall gain four hundred livres by the misfortune clear into my purse: and pleasure! worth—worth double the money by it. With what velocity, continued I, clapping my two hands together, shall I fly down the rapid Rhone , with the Vivares on my right hand, and Dauphiny on my left, scarce seeing the ancient cities of Vienne , Valence , and Vivieres . What a flame will it rekindle in the lamp, to snatch a blushing grape from the Hermitage and Côte roti , as I shoot by the foot of them! and what a fresh spring in the blood! to behold upon the banks advancing and retiring, the castles of romance, whence courteous knights have whilome rescued the distress’d⸺and see vertiginous, the rocks, the mountains, the cataracts, and all the hurry which Nature is in with all her great works about her.
As I went on thus, methought my chaise, the wreck of which look’d stately enough at the first, insensibly grew less and less in its size; the freshness of the painting was no more—the gilding lost its lustre—and the whole affair appeared so poor in my eyes—so sorry!—so contemptible! and, in a word, so much worse than the abbess of Andoüillets’ itself—that I was just opening my mouth to give it to the devil—when a pert vamping chaise-undertaker, stepping nimbly across the street, demanded if Monsieur would have his chaise refitted⸺No,