—But I do not choose—
—But you must pay for it, whether you do or no.
Aye! for the salt; said I (I know)⸺
—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 apostrophe.
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 .