evacuation of Toulon
was the ultimate consequence of this daring coup de main, in which
Buonaparte is said to have first distinguished himself. After passing
this point, and leaving on the right the distant hills of Hieres, no
remarkable feature presents itself. The country is chiefly an extensive
olive forest, varied by a few vineyards, and enlivened by hedges of
pomegranate, and Spanish broom. We found Puget les Crottes but a bad
exchange for the fountains, and clean airy streets of Toulon: and it
better deserves the name of Puget le Crotte, by which it is laid down by
some mistake in some maps. The inn was perfectly worthy of the place; a
frowzy kennel of bustling Yahoos, totally deficient in that readiness
and attention which can put a reasonable traveller in good humour with
the worst accommodations. Our servant fought his way to the kitchen fire
to execute our orders; finding them neither attended to by the old dame
who presided in the kitchen, of whom Gil Blas's Leonarda was a faint
type, nor by the maid who screamed rejoinders at the top of the stairs,
to the ravings of her mistress at the bottom, in a tone that deafened
us. The arrival of the Draguignan diligence, which we had passed on the
road, heavily laden with money and passengers, and travelling at a foot
pace, escorted like a condemned cart by two gens d'armes, accounted for
this mighty sensation. We were glad enough to escape from the din of
tongues and the steams of garlic, and resume our road, which did not
offer any variety, till we had nearly reached La Luc, 17 miles from
Puget, whose situation and red sandy soil reminded us of a Herefordshire
glen. The junction of two main roads has created a tolerable inn at this
small place, which may with safety be recommended to persons on an
abstemious regimen, and to none else.

May 28.--To La Muy 19 miles, without any remarkable feature, though the
character of the country is rather pleasing. La Muy is a wretched
village, whose _tout ensemble_ is completed by a ruinous house of the
Count de Muy: this, as well as his castle at Grignan, was destroyed in
the Revolution, and the annexed property alienated from him. To Frejus
12 miles: the few last of which improve as to scenery. We saw cork trees
for the first time, and a profusion of myrtle in hedges and bushes.
There is something peculiarly stagnant and wo-begone in the appearance
of Frejus, which, however, is in more strict poetical character with its
Roman r