letters from Mr. B--.

"From Mechlin I proceeded to Brussels, where, being known, I got credit
for some necessaries, and borrowed twenty guineas to defray the expense
of my journey to Paris. Having consulted with my friends about the
safest method of travelling through Flanders, I was persuaded to take
places in the public voiture; and accordingly departed, not without
fears of finding one part of the country as much infested with robbers
as another. Nor were these apprehensions assuaged by the conversation
of my fellow-travellers, who, being of the lower sort of people, that
delight in exaggerating dangers, entertained me all the way with an
account of all the robberies and murders which had been committed on
that road, with many additional circumstances of their own invention.
After having been two days exposed to this comfortable conversation,
among very disagreeable company, which is certainly one of the most
disagreeable situations in life, I arrived at Lisle, where, thinking the
dangerous part of the journey was now past, I hired a post-chaise, and
in two days more reached Paris without any further molestation.

"Upon my arrival in the capital, I was immediately visited by my old
acquaintances, who, hearing my disaster, offered me their clothes, and
insisted upon my wearing them, until I could be otherwise provided. They
likewise engaged me in parties, with a view of amusing my imagination,
that I might not grow melancholy in reflecting upon my loss; and desired
me to repeat the particulars of my story forty times over, expressing
great surprise at our not being murdered, or ravished at least. As for
this last species of outrage, the fear of it never once entered my head,
otherwise I should have been more shocked and alarmed than I really
was. But it seems this was the chief circumstance of my companion's
apprehension; and I cannot help observing, that a homely woman is always
more apt to entertain those fears, than one whose person exposes her to
much more imminent danger. However, I now learned, that the risk I
ran was much greater than I imagined it to be, those ruffians being
familiarized to rape as well as murder.

"Soon after my appearance at Paris, I was favoured with the addresses
of several French lovers; but I never had any taste for foreigners, or
indeed for any amusement of that kind, except such as were likely to be
lasting, and settled upon a more agreeable footing than that of common
gallantry. Wh