ance. Our banker has procured for us, and
another party, forming in all 29 English, a small common country boat,
covered over only with a sail. In this miserable conveyance we embarked
this afternoon at two, and arrived the first night at Maste. Our passage
down the Garonne is most rapid, and as the weather is delightful, the
conveyance is pleasant enough; but our minds are in such a state we
cannot enjoy any thing. To-morrow I shall continue more connectedly.

* * *

_Monday_, the 27th.--We are now gliding down the Garonne with the utmost
rapidity and steadiness. The scene before us presents the most perfect
tranquillity. The weather which we now enjoy is heavenly,--the air soft
and warm,--and the sun shedding an unclouded radiance upon the glassy
waters of the Garonne, in whose bosom the romantic scenery through which
we pass, is reflected in the most perfect beauty. On each side, are the
most lovely banks covered with hanging orchards, whose trees, in full
blossom, reach to the brink of the river. We have passed several small
villages very beautifully situated; and where we have not met with
these, the country is more generally scattered with the cottages of the
peasantry, which are seen at intervals, peeping through the woods which
cover the banks. As our boat passes, the villagers flock from their
doors, and place themselves in groups on the rocks which overhang the
river, or crowd into the little meadows which are interspersed between
the orchards and the gardens. At the moment in which I now write, the
sun is setting upon a scene so perfectly still and beautiful, that it is
impossible to believe we are now in the devoted country, experiencing,
at this very hour, a terrible revolution; the most disastrous political
convulsion, perhaps, which it has ever yet undergone. In former times,
the changes from the tranquillity it enjoyed under a monarchial
government, to the chaos of republicanism, and from that to the sullen
stagnation of a firm-rooted military despotism, were gradual; they were
the work of time. But the unbounded ambition of Bonaparte, after a
series of years, had brought on his downfall, by a natural course of
events, and France had begun to taste and to relish the blessings of
peace. On a sudden, that fallen Colossus is raised again, and its dark
shadow has over-spread the brightening horizon. Could it be credited,
that within one short month, that man whom we conceived detested in
France, should have