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the Muses' spring has retained a strong tafte of the infusion. Pity was commanded by Jupiter to follow the fteps of her mother through the world, dropping balm into the wounds fhe made, and binding up the hearts the had broken. She follows with her hair loose, her bofom bare, and throbbing, her garments torn by the briers, and her feet bleeding with the roughness of the path. The nymph is mortal, for her mother is fo; and when he has fulfilled her deftined courfe upon the earth, they shall both expire together, and Love be again united to Joy, his immortal and long betrothed bride.

MRS. BARBAULD.

CHAP. IX.

THE DEAD ASS.

AND this, faid he, patting the remains of a cruft into

his wallet and this fhould have been thy portion, faid he, hadft thou been alive to have fhared it with me. I thought by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but it was to his afs, and to the very ass we had seen dead in the road, which had occafioned La Fleur's mifadventure. The man feemed to lament it much; aud it inftantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentation for his;. but he did it with more true touches of nature.

THE mourner was fitting upon a stone-bench at the door. with the afs's pannel and its bridle on one fide, which he took up from time to time-then laid them down-looked at them, and fhook his head. He then took his cruft of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; held it fome time in his hand-then laid it upon the bit of his afs's

bridle-looked wiftfully at the little arrangement he had made—and then gave a figh.

THE fimplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and La Fleur among the reft, whilft the horses were getting ready: as I continued fitting in the post-chaife, I could fee and hear over their heads..

HE faid he had come laft from Spain, where he had been from the furthest borders of Françonia; and had got fo far on his return home, when his afs died. Every one seemed defirous to know what business could have taken fo old and poor a man so far a journey from his own home.

IT had pleased Heaven, he faid, to blefs him with three fons, the finest lads in all Germany; but having in one week loft two of them by the fmall-pox, and the youngest falling ill of the fame diftemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all, and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him alfo, he would go in gratitude to St. Iago in Spain.

WHEN the mourner got thus far in his story, he stopped to pay Nature her tribute-and wept bitterly.

HE faid Heaven had accepted the conditions; and that he had fet out from his cottage with this poor creature, who had been a patient partner of his journey-that it had eat the fame bread with him all the way, and was unto him as a friend.

EVERY body who stood about, heard the poor fellow with concern-La Fleur offered him money-The mourner faid he did not want it-it was not the value of the afs-but the lofs of him-The afs, he faid, he was affured, loved him-and upon this told them a long ftory of a mischance upon their paffage over the Pyrenean mountains, which had feparated them from each other three days; during which

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time

time the afs had fought him as much as he had fought the afs, and that he had neither fcarce eat or drank till they met.

THOU haft one comfort, friend, faid I, at least, in the lofs of thy poor beaft; I am fure thou has been a merciful: mafter to him.-Alas! faid the mourner, I thought fo, when he was alive-but now he is dead I think otherwife-I fear the weight of my felf-and my afflictions together-have been too much for him-they have fhortened the poor creature's days, and I fear I have them to answer for.- -Shame on the world! faid I to myself-Did we love each other, as this poor foul but lov'd his afs-'twould be fomething.STERNE.

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СНАР. Х.

THE SWORD.

WHEN ftates and empires have their periods of de

clenfion and feel in their turns what diftrefs and poverty is

I ftop not to tell the caufes which gradually brought the houfe d'E***, in Brittany,into decay. The Marquis d'E*** had fought up against his condition -with great firmnefs; wishing to preferve and ftill fhew to the world fome little fragments of what his ancestors had been-their indiscretion had put it out of his power. There was enough left for the little exigencies of obscurity-But he had two boys who looked up to him for light-he thought they deferved it. He had tried his fword-it could not open the way the mounting was too expenfive-and fimplé æconomy was not a match for it-There was no refource but

commerce.

IN any other province in France, fave Brittany, this was

fmiting

fmiting the root for ever of the little tree his pride and affection wished to fee re-bloffom-But in Brittany, there being a provifion for this, he availed himself of it; and taking an occafion when the ftates were affembled at Rennes, the Marquis, attended with his two fons, entered the court; and having pleaded the right of an ancient law of the duchy, which, though feldom claimed, he faid, was no less in force; he took his fword from his fide-Here-said hetake it; and be trufty guardians of it, till better times put me in a condition to reclaim it.

THE prefident accepted the Marquis's sword—he staid a few minutes to see it depofited in the archieves of his house --and departed.

THE Marquis and his whole family embarked the next day for Martinico, and in about nineteen or twenty years of fuccefsful application to bufinefs, with fome unlooked for bequeft from diftant branches of his houfe-returned home to reclaim his nobility, and to fupport it.

Ir was an incident of good fortune which will never happen to any traveller, but a fentimental one, that I fhould be at Rennes at the very time of this folemn requifition: I call it folemn-it was fo to me.

THE Marquis entered the court with his whole family; he fupported his lady-his eldest fon fupported his fifter,. and his youngest was at the other extreme of the line next his mother-he put his handkerchief to his face twice

THERE was a dead filence. When the Marquis had approached within fix paces of the tribunal, he gave the Marchioness to his youngest fon, and advancing three steps before his family-he relaimed his fword.-His fword was given him, and the moment he got it into his hand he drew it almoft out of the fcabbard-it was the fhining face of a friend:

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friend he had once given up. He looked attentively a long time at it, beginning at the hilt, as if to fee whether it was the fame-when obferving a little ruft which it had contracted near the point, he brought it near his eye, and bending his head down over it-I think I faw a tear fall upon the place: I could not be deceived by what followed. "I SHALL find, (faid he) fome other way to get it off." WHEN the Marquis had faid this, he returned his fword into its fcabbard, made a bow to the guardian of it—and, with his wife and daughter, and his two fons following him,. walked out.

O HOW I envied him his feelings!

CHAP. XI.

MARI A.

FIRST PART..

STERNE

THEY were the fweetest notes I ever heard; and I

inftantly let down the foreglafs to hear them more diftinctly Tis Maria, faid the poftilion, obferving I was liftening-Poor Maria, continued he, (leaning his. body on one fide to let me fee her, for he was in a line. between us,) is fitting upon a bank playing her vefpers. upon her pipe, with her little goat beside her.

THE young fellow uttered this with an accent and a look fo perfectly in tune to a feeling heart, that I instantly made a vow, I would give him a four and twenty fous piece, when I got to Moulines

AND who is poor Maria? faid I.

THE love and pity of all the villages around us, faid the poftilion-It is but three years ago, that the fun did

not

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