the choicest fruits. In a short time a noble dinner
was served up to this unfortunate family, followed by confectionary,
fruits, and burgundy. When the repast was over, Mons. O---- ordered his
bill, and his cabriole to be got ready. Madame P----entered, and in the
most amiable manner requested him, as she had exceeded his orders, to
consider the dinner as a little acknowledgement of her sense of his past
favours; money, though earnestly pressed upon her, she would not
receive.

The whole of this interesting party were moved to tears, by this little
act of nature and generosity. When they entered their carriage, they
found in it bouquets of flowers, and boxes of cakes for the little
children. No doubt Madame P----moved lighter that day, than she ever did
in her life, and perhaps found the remembrance of her conduct upon the
occasion almost as exquisite as the hours of love, which she appeared
most happily to enjoy, when we had the honour of being under her roof.

Monsieur O---- could not help exhibiting much feeling, when he related
this little event to me. I must not fail to mention that all the house
seemed, for the moment, infected with the happy disease of the mistress.
General Ruffin's valet de chambre was in love with Dorothee, our
chamber-maid; the porter was pining for a little black eyed grisette,
who sold prints and pastry, in a stall opposite; and the ostler was
eternally quarrelling with the chef de cuisine, who repelled him from
the kitchen, which, in the person of the assistant cook, a plump rosy
norman girl, contained all the treasure of his soul--love and
negligence reigned throughout the household. We rang the bells, and
sacre dieu'd, but all in vain, we suffered great inconvenience, _but who
could be angry?_ In the course of our walks, and conversations, with the
workmen, whom we met, we found that most of the masons, and gardeners of
Rouen, had fought in the memorable, bloody, and decisive battle of
Marengo, at which it appears that a great part of the military of
France, within four or five hundred miles of the capital, were present.
The change they presented was worthy of observation; we saw men
sun-browned in campaigns, and enured to all the ferocity of war, at the
sound of peace assuming all the tranquil habits of ingenious industry,
or rustic simplicity. Some of them were occupied in forming the
shapeless stone into graceful embellishments for elegant houses, and
others in disposing, with botani