repared
fricandeau--with half boiled artichokes, and a bottle of undrinkable vin
ordinaire--was a charge sufficiently monstrous to have excited the well
known warmth of expostulation of an English traveller--but it was really
too hot to talk aloud! The landlady pocketed my money, and I pocketed the
affront which so shameful a charge may be considered as having put upon me.
We now rolled leisurely on towards _La Ferte-sous-Jouarre:_ about five
French-leagues from Meaux--not without stopping to change horses at _St.
Jean,_ &c. The heat would not even allow of the exercise of the postilion's
whip. Every body, and every thing seemed to be oppressed by it. The
labourer was stretched out in the shade, and the husbandman slept within
the porch of his cottage. We had no sooner entered the little town of La
Ferte-sous-Jouarre, and driven to the post-house, when not fewer than four
blacksmiths came rushing out of their respective forges, to examine every
part of the carriage. "A nail had started here: a screw was wanting there:
and a fracture had taken place in another direction: even the perch was
given way in the centre!" "Alas, for my voiture de voyage!" exclaimed I to
my companion. Meanwhile, a man came forward with a red-hot piece of iron,
in the shape of a cramp, to fix round the perch--which hissed as the
application was made. And all this--before I could say wherefore! or even
open my mouth to express astonishment! They were absolutely about to take
off the wheels of the carriage; to examine, and to grease them--but it was
then for the first time, that I opened a well-directed fire of
expostulation; from which I apprehend that they discovered I was not
perfectly ignorant either of their language or of their trickery. However,
the rogues had _four_ francs for what they had the impudence to ask _six_;
and considering my vehicle to be now proof against the probability of an
accident, I was resolved to leave the town in the same good humour in which
I had entered it.

On quitting, we mounted slowly up a high ascent, and saw from thence the
village of _Jouarre_, on a neighbouring summit, smothered with trees. It
seemed to consist of a collection of small and elegant country houses, each
with a lawn and an orchard. At the foot of the summit winds the
unostentatious little stream of _Le Petit Morin_ The whole of this scenery,
including the village of _Montreuil-aux-Lions_--a little onwards--was
perfectly charming, and after the E