, when in
common with the other Englishmen at that time in France, he was ordered
to Verdun. His school now passed to his French usher, who continuing to
conduct it upon the same plan, that is, with the order and intelligence
common in every English school, has increased its reputation, and reaps
his merited reward by general encouragement. The rate of the boarders at
this academy may serve to illustrate the comparative cheapness of every
thing in France. The boarders are provided with classic instruction of
every kind, as likewise the most eminent masters in all the fine arts,
and personal accomplishments, to which is to be added clothes, at forty
guineas per annum. An English or American school on the same plan, and
conducted in the same style, could not be less than double, if not
triple the above-mentioned sum.

I reached Paris at an early hour in the afternoon, and having letters
for Mr. Younge, the confidential secretary to Mr. Armstrong, immediately
waited upon him, that his information might assist me as to finding
suitable apartments. Lodgings in Paris are infinitely more expensive
than in London, and with not one-half the comfort. I did not find Mr.
Younge at his house; but upon hearing my name, his Lady received me as
an expected friend, and relieved me from the necessity of further
search, by informing me that Mr. Younge had expected me, and provided
apartments for me in his own house. I shall have future occasion to
mention, that the beautiful Lady of this Gentleman was a Frenchwoman,
and that he had been about six months married to her when I arrived in
Paris. She was the niece of the celebrated Lally Tolendal, and had all
the elegance, beauty, and dignity which seems characteristic of that
family. I never saw a woman, whose perfect beauty excited in me at first
sight such a mixed emotion of wonder, awe, and pleasure.

CHAP. IX.

_A Week in Paris--Objects and Occurrences--National Library--A
French Route--Fashionable French Supper--Conceits--Presentation
at Court--Audience._

AS my purpose in visiting France was not to see Paris, I resolved to
make my stay in this gay capital as short as possible. I entered it on
the Tuesday afternoon, and determined to leave it and pursue my journey
into the provinces on the following Monday. I had therefore little time
to see the singularities of this celebrated metropolis; but I made the
best of this time, and had the advantage of Mr. Younge's knowledge and