l more business coming on.
I would not have given myself the pain of relating, nor you the reading,
the particulars of this horrid affair, but to observe, that it is such
examples as these, that render travelling in France, in general, secure.
I say, in general; for there are, nevertheless, murders committed very
frequently upon the high roads in France; and were those murders to be
made known by news-papers, as ours are in England, perhaps it would
greatly intimidate travellers of their own, as well as other nations.
But as the murdered, and murderers, are generally foot-travellers,
though the dead body is found, the murderer is escaped; and as nobody
knows either party, nobody troubles themselves about it. All over
France, you meet with an infinite number of people travelling on foot,
much better dressed than you find, in general, the stagecoach gentry in
England. Most of these foot-travellers are young expensive tradesmen,
and artists, who have paid their debts by a light pair of heels; when
their money is exhausted, the stronger falls upon the weaker, knocks out
his brains, and furnishes himself with a little money; and these murders
are never scarce heard of above a league from the place where they are
committed; for which reason, you never meet a foot-traveller in France,
without arms, of one kind or other, and carried for one _purpose_, or
the _other_. Gentlemen, however, who travel only in the day-time, and
who are armed, have but little danger to apprehend; yet it is necessary
to be upon their guard when they pass through great woods, and to keep
in the _middle_ of the road, so as not to be too suddenly surprized;
because a _convenient_ opportunity may induce two or three _honest_
travellers to embrace a favourable occasion of replenishing their
purses; and as they always murder those whom they attack, if they can,
those who are attacked should never submit, but defend themselves to the
utmost of their power. Though the woods are dangerous, there are, in my
opinion, plains which are much more so; a high hill which commands an
extensive plain, from which there is a view of the road some miles, both
ways, is a place where a robber has nothing to fear but from those whom
he attacks; and he is morally certain of making his escape one way or
the other: but in a wood, he may be as suddenly surprized, as he is in a
situation to surprize others; for this reason, I have been more on my
guard when I have seen people approa