y nature
on purpose to extend the surface, and to expose it the more
advantageously to the rays of the sun. The vandange was but just begun,
and the people were employed in gathering the grapes; but I saw no
signs of festivity among them. Perhaps their joy was a little damped by
the bad prospect of their harvest; for they complained that the weather
had been so unfavourable as to hinder the grapes from ripening. I
thought, indeed, there was something uncomfortable in seeing the
vintage thus retarded till the beginning of winter: for, in some parts,
I found the weather extremely cold; particularly at a place called
Maison-neuve, where we lay, there was a hard frost, and in the morning
the pools were covered with a thick crust of ice. My personal
adventures on the road were such as will not bear a recital. They
consisted of petty disputes with landladies, post-masters, and
postillions. The highways seem to be perfectly safe. We did not find
that any robberies were ever committed, although we did not see one of
the marechaussee from Paris to Lyons. You know the marechaussee are a
body of troopers well mounted, maintained in France as safe-guards to
the public roads. It is a reproach upon England that some such patrol
is not appointed for the protection of travellers.

At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to bespeak
fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another company had been
provided before him, altho' it was not his turn, as he had arrived
later at the post. Provoked at this partiality, I resolved to chide the
post-master, and accordingly addressed myself to a person who stood at
the door of the auberge. He was a jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed
in an odd kind of garb, with a gold laced cap on his head, and a
cambric handkerchief pinned to his middle. The sight of such a
fantastic petit maitre, in the character of a post-master, increased my
spleen. I called to him with an air of authority, mixed with
indignation, and when he came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory
tone, if he did not understand the king's ordonnance concerning the
regulation of the posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before
he could make any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to
read, with great vociferation, the article which orders, that the
traveller who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh
horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted, the
coach set off all o