Chapter 10

Now, when we were got to bed, whether it was the novelty of the situation, or what it was, I know not; but so it was, I could not shut my eyes; I tried this side, and that, and turn’d and turn’d again, till a full hour after midnight; when Nature and patience both wearing out,—O, my God! said I.

—You have broke the treaty, Monsieur, said the lady, who had no more slept than myself.—I begg’d a thousand pardons—but insisted it was no more than an ejaculation. She maintained ’twas an entire infraction of the treaty—I maintain’d it was provided for in the clause of the third article.

The lady would by no means give up her point, though she weaken’d her barrier by it; for in the warmth of the dispute, I could hear two or three corking pins fall out of the curtain to the ground.

Upon my word and honour, Madame, said I,—stretching my arm out of bed by way of asseveration.—

(I was going to have added, that I would not have trespassed against the remotest idea of decorum for the world);—

But the _fille de chambre_ hearing there were words between us, and fearing that hostilities would ensue in course, had crept silently out of her closet, and it being totally dark, had stolen so close to our beds, that she had got herself into the narrow passage which separated them, and had advanced so far up as to be in a line betwixt her mistress and me:—

So that when I stretch’d out my hand I caught hold of the _fille de chambre’s_—

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THE END

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FOOTNOTES.

{557} All the effects of strangers (Swiss and Scotch excepted) dying in France, are seized by virtue of this law, though the heir be upon the spot—the profit of these contingencies being farmed, there is no redress.

{562} A chaise, so called, in France, from its holding but one person.

{580} Vide S—’s Travels: [_i.e._ Dr. Smollett’s “Travels through France and Italy.”—ED.]

{588} Post-horse.

{648} Nosegay.

{649} Hackney coach.

{652} Plate, napkin, knife, fork and spoon.