ice and
Billingsgate could lurk under so much sweetness of countenance and
modesty of behaviour? Ah! God help us! Fronti nulla fides--nimium ne
crede colori--but we ought to down on our knees, and bless God for
delivering us from the jaws of that painted sepulchre!" I was pretty
much of Strap's opinion, and, though I did not believe myself in any
danger from the allurements of that sisterhood, I determined to act with
great circumspection for the future, and shun all commerce of that kind,
as equally prejudicial to my purse and constitution.

My next care was to introduce myself into a set of good acquaintance:
for which purpose I frequented a certain coffee-house, noted for
the resort of good company, English as well as foreigners, where my
appearance procured all the civilities and advances I could desire. As
there was an ordinary in the same house, I went upstairs to dinner with
the other guests, and found myself at a table with thirteen people, the
greatest part of whom were better dressed than myself. The conversation,
which was mostly carried on in French, turned chiefly on politics; and
I soon found the whole company were in the French interest, myself
excepted, and a testy old gentleman, who contradicted everything that
was advanced in favour of his Most Christian Majesty, with a surliness
truly English. But this trusty patriot, who had never been out of his
own country, and drew all his maxims and notions from prejudice and
hearsay, was very unequal to his antagonists, who were superior to him
in learning and experience, and often took the liberty of travellers
in asserting things which were not strictly true, because they thought
themselves in no danger of being detected by him. The claim of the Queen
Of Spain to the Austrian dominions in Italy was fully explained and
vindicated, by a person who sat opposite to me, and, by the solemnity
of his manner and the richness of his apparel, seemed to be a foreign
ambassador. This dissertation produced another on the Pragmatic
Sanction, handled with great warmth by a young gentleman at my right
hand, dressed in a green frock, trimmed with gold, who justified the
French king for his breach of that contract; and affirmed that he could
not have observed it without injuring his own glory. Although I was
not at all convinced by this gentleman's arguments, I could not help
admiring his vivacity which, I imagined, must be the effect of his
illustrious birth and noble educatio