"but fomething must be allowed for the pre"judices of education: an old horse-officer "[un ancien Capitaine de Cavalerie] is natural"ly prolix when his horfe chances to be the “subject of discourse."

"Pray, Captain," faid one of the company,. "will you give me leave to ask the name of your horfe?"-The question was unexpect ed: "Upon my word," faid he, "I do not "remember his name. Oh! now I recollect,

"I called him Alexander, after M. de Villars, "the noble donor: that M. de Villars was a 8.6 great man."-"True; but his Chriftian name

was Helor;" "Was it Hector? then de

pend upon it, my horfe had the fame Chri"ftian name [nom de Baptême] as M. de Vil· «lars."

My curiofity led me afterwards to inquire into the hiftory of the gentleman who "always made a point of living handfomely;" and of the old horfe-officer whom M. de Vil lars fo much diftinguifhed.

The former was a perfon of honourable birth, and had ferved, as the French express it, with reputation. On his quitting the army, he retired to a fmail paternal eftate, and lived in a decent way, with moft fcrupulous eco

nomy.

nomy. His Chateau had been ruined during the wars of the League, and nothing remained of it but one turret, converted into a pigeon-house. As that was the most remarkable object on his eftate, he was generally known by the name of M. de la Tour le Colombier. His manfion-house was little better than that of a middling farmer in the fouth of England. The foreft of which his daughter fpoke, was a copfe of three or four acres ; and the ruins in which Cavalier and his af fociates lay concealed, had been originally a place of worship of the Proteftants; but was demolished when those eminent divines Lewis XIV and Madame de Maintenon thought fit that all France fhould be of one religion; and, as that edifice had not received confecration from a perfon Epifcopally ordained, the owner made no fcruple of accommodating two or three calves in it, when his cow-houfe happened to be crouded; and this is all that I could learn of M. de la Tour le Colombier.

As for "the old horfe-officer," he had ferved with eclat in the corps eftablished for repreffing fmugglers of tobacco. This recom mended him to the notice of the Farmers General; and, by their intereft, he obtained an

office that gave him a feat at those

great tables

to which all the world is invited; and he had lived fo very long in this ftation, that the meanness of his original feemed to have been forgotten by most people, and efpecially by himfelf.

Thofe ridiculous ftories, which excited mirth when I first heard them, afterwards afforded matter for much ferious reflection.

It is wonderful that any one should tell things impoffible with the hope of being credited; and yet the two perfonages, whofe legends I have related, muft have entertained that hope.

Neither is it lefs wonderful that invention fhould be ftretched to the utmoft, in order to perfuade mere ftrangers to think highly of the importance of the relater.

Mile de la Tour le Colombier, and the old horfe officer, had not feen us before, and had little chance of ever feeing us again. We were the acquaintance of the day, entertained without affection, and parted from without regret; and yet what pains did they take to leave on our minds the impreffion of their confequence!

The country where this fcene lay, is the

land

land of the nativity of Romance; and it is probable that warm funs and pure fkies enliven and fertilize the invention of its inhabitants. But Romance, for I will not give it a harfher name, thrives not in the bleaker and more northern climates: There it is forced fruit, without that flavour which it has in its own foil.

We can as little rival the French in their ease of behaviour, and in the inexhaustible talent of enunciating trifles with grace, as in their Colloquial Romances. How do I feel for my countrymen, on obferving them toil through a romance, compofe fentence by fentence as they go on, hefitate with the consciousness of doing wrong, ftare like a crimi nal, at once abashed and obdurate, and at length produce a ftory as tedious and as dull

as truth.

I am, &c.

EUTRAPELUS.

N° 63,

N° 63.

TUESDAY, December 14. 1779.

Celebrare domeftica Fata.

TH

HOR.

HE incidents attending domeftic and private fituations, are of all others the moft apt to affect the heart. Defcriptions of national events are too general to be very interefting, and the calamities befalling Kings and Princes too far removed from common life to make a deep impreffion. With the vir tues of fuch perfonages, it is nearly the fame as with their fufferings; the heroic qualities which hiftory afcribes to great and illuftrious names, play around the imagination, but rarely touch the feelings, or direct the conduct; the humbler merits of ordinary life are those to which we feel a nearer relation; from which, therefore, precept is more powerfully enforced, and example more readily drawn.

Mr Hargrave is one of my earliest friends. Being many years younger than he, I have ever been accustomed to regard him both as my guardian and. my friend; and the reve

rence