It Is This Placid Appearance That
Tempts So Many People To Bathe In It At Lions, Where A Good
Number Of Individuals Are Drowned Every Summer:
Whereas there is
no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the
rapidity of it deterring every body from bathing in its stream.
Next night we passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but
the wine, for which we paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our
axle-tree took fire; an accident which detained us so long, that
it was ten before we arrived at Auxerre, where we lay. In all
probability we must have lodged in the coach, had not we been
content to take four horses, and pay for six, two posts
successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with four on
those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and be
refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to
put up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much
upon their mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner
than the others in which you have the full complement.
There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken
arm, to whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but
his servant told my man that he did not choose to see any
company, and had no occasion for my service. This sort of reserve
seems peculiar to the English disposition. When two natives of
any other country chance to meet abroad, they run into each
other's embrace like old friends, even though they have never
heard of one another till that moment; whereas two Englishmen in
the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and diffidence, and
keep without the sphere of each other's attraction, like two
bodies endowed with a repulsive power.
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