He found Conde and Turenne in the very
zenith of military reputation. Luxemburg was Conde's pupil; and
Vendome, a prince of the blood, who at first obtained the command
of armies in consequence of his high birth, and happened to turn
out a man of genius. The same Louis had the sagacity to revoke
the edict of Nantz; to entrust his armies to a Tallard, a
Villeroy, and a Marsin. He had the humanity to ravage the
country, burn the towns, and massacre the people of the
Palatinate. He had the patriotism to impoverish and depopulate
his own kingdom, in order to prosecute schemes of the most
lawless ambition. He had the Consolation to beg a peace from
those he had provoked to war by the most outrageous insolence;
and he had the glory to espouse Mrs. Maintenon in her old age,
the widow of the buffoon Scarron. Without all doubt, it was from
irony he acquired the title le Grand.
Having received a favourable answer from Mr. B - , the English
consul at Nice, and recommended the care of my heavy baggage to
Mr. Ray, who undertook to send it by sea from Cette to
Villefranche, I hired a coach and mules for seven loui'dores, and
set out from Montpellier on the 13th of November, the weather
being agreeable, though the air was cold and frosty. In other
respects there were no signs of winter: the olives were now ripe,
and appeared on each side of the road as black as sloes; and the
corn was already half a foot high. On the second day of our
journey, we passed the Rhone on a bridge of boats at Buccaire,
and lay on the other side at Tarrascone. Next day we put up at a
wretched place called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with
an excellent supper; and among other delicacies, with a dish of
green pease. Provence is a pleasant country, well cultivated; but
the inns are not so good here as in Languedoc, and few of them
are provided with a certain convenience which an English
traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find are
generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much
exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them
without hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we
found the Temple of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the
servant-maid told me her mistress had caused it to be made on
purpose for the English travellers; but now she was very sorry
for what she had done, as all the French who frequented her
house, instead of using the seat, left their offerings on the
floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned three or four times
a day. This is a degree of beastliness, which would appear
detestable even in the capital of North-Britain. On the fourth
day of our pilgrimage, we lay in the suburbs of Aix, but did not
enter the city, which I had a great curiosity to see.
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