pay fifty livres, according to
the regulation of the posts. The postmaster, who came along with us,
had the effrontery to tell me, that if I had hired the mules to carry
me and my company to St. Remo, in the way of common travelling, they
would have cost me but fifteen livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I
must submit to the regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd,
as the road is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel
faster in one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least
difference either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling
post and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge
me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the
imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had the
same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he made a wide
difference between selling it as fish, and selling it as whiting. Our
felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the night, and embarking next
morning, we arrived at Nice about four in the afternoon.

Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian expedition,
during which I was exposed to a great number of hardships, which I
thought my weakened constitution could not have bore; as well as to
violent fits of passion, chequered, however, with transports of a more
agreeable nature; insomuch that I may say I was for two months
continually agitated either in mind or body, and very often in both at
the same time. As my disorder at first arose from a sedentary life,
producing a relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a
listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am convinced
that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated with the change
of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed constitution, and promote a
more vigorous circulation of the juices, which had long languished even
almost to stagnation. For some years, I had been as subject to colds as
a delicate woman new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there
was the least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was
sure to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this
journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the wet,
heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently, without feeling the
least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt myself growing stronger
every day in the midst of these excesses. Since my return to Nice, it
has rained the b