journeyed from one extremity of that kingdom to
another, without meeting with the slightest resistance? I say journeyed,
for he had but a handful of men, whom, at almost every town, he left
behind him, and he proceeded on horseback, or in his carriage, with much
less precaution than at any former period of his life. France has now
nothing to hope, but from the heavy struggle that will, I trust,
immediately take place between her and the allied powers. It will be a
terrible, but, I trust, short struggle, if the measures are prompt: but
if he is allowed time to levy a new conscription; if even he has
sufficient time to collect the hordes of disbanded robbers whom his
abdication let loose in France, he possesses the same means of
conducting a long war that he ever possessed. The idea so current in
France, that this event will only occasion a civil war, is unworthy of a
moment's attention. Every inhabitant in every town he passed, was said
to be against him. We heard of nothing but the devoted loyalty of the
national guards; but at Grenoble, at Lyons, and at Paris, was there
found a man to discharge his musket? No! against a small number of
regular and veteran troops, no French militia, no volunteers will ever
fight, or if they do, it will be but for a moment; each city will yield
in its turn.

The country is improving; the banks, in many places, are beautiful; for
some days past we have been in the country of wheat, but now we are
again arrived among the vines. Very little commerce on this river,
although celebrated as possessing more than any one in France. It
reminds me of the state of commerce in India,--boats gliding down
rapidly with the stream, and toiling up in tracking. The shape, also, of
the boats is the same. We have this moment passed a boat full of
English, and the sailors have shouted out, that the white flag is no
longer flying at Bourdeaux. If the town has declared for the ex-Emperor,
I dread to think of our fate.

* * *

_Tuesday_, the 28th.--This morning, at three, I left my party, and took
a very light gig, determined (as the news were getting daily worse, and
the road full of English hurrying to Bourdeaux), to post it from Agen. I
was attended by a friend. By paying the post-boys double hires, we got
on very fast, and although, from their advanced age and infirmities, the
generality of French conveyances will not suffer themselves to be
hurried beyond their ordinary pace, this was no time to make an