that view, persuaded a counsellor of the parliament of Aix, a man of
great worth, learning, and good-humour, to accompany him in making a
tour of those parts of France which he had not yet seen. On their return
from this excursion, they found at Aix an Italian abbe, a person of
character, and great knowledge of men and books, who, having travelled
all over Germany and France, was so far on his return to his own
country.

"M-- having, by means of his friend the counsellor, contracted an
acquaintance with this gentleman, and, being desirous of seeing some
parts of Italy, particularly the carnival at Venice, they set out
together from Marseilles in a tartan for Genoa, coasting it all the
way, and lying on shore every night. Having shown him what was most
remarkable in this city, his friend the abbe was so obliging as to
conduct him through Tuscany, and the most remarkable cities in Lombardy,
to Venice, where M-- insisted upon defraying the expense of the whole
tour, in consideration of the abbe's complaisance, which had been
of infinite service to him in the course of this expedition. Having
remained five weeks at Venice, he was preparing to set out for Rome,
with some English gentlemen whom he had met by accident, when he was
all of a sudden obliged to change his resolution by some disagreeable
letters which he received from London. He had, from his first departure,
corresponded with his generous, though inconstant mistress, with a
religious exactness and punctuality; nor was she, for some time, less
observant of the agreement they had made. Nevertheless, she, by degrees,
became so negligent and cold in her expression, and so slack in her
correspondence, that he could not help observing and upbraiding her with
such indifference; and her endeavours to palliate it were supported by
pretexts so frivolous, as to be easily seen through by a lover of very
little discernment.

"While he tortured himself with conjectures about the cause of this
unexpected change, he received such intelligence from England, as, when
joined with what he himself had perceived by her manner of writing,
left him little or no room to doubt of her fickleness and inconstancy.
Nevertheless, as he knew by experience that informations of that kind
are not to be entirely relied upon, he resolved to be more certainly
apprised: and, for that end, departed immediately for London, by the
way of Tyrol, Bavaria, Alsace, and Paris. On his arrival in England, he
l