rogue I can easily pardon, but an old one, on the
verge of the grave, is a proof of hardened villainy, which admits of no
extenuation. After giving him this _cut direct_, we never met again.

To return to Saint Frond.--In the last church we visited we had a scene.
A woman was in the confessional; the priest, with a white handkerchief
up to conceal his face, and prevent what he said being overheard,
attracted the attention of the children, who demanded an explanation.
Children ask so many questions. "Do you think she has been very wicked?
Will he forgive her?" Before I could offer my opinion upon this
important subject, the woman gave a loud scream, and fell back from the
confessional in a fit. The priest rose, the handkerchief no longer
concealed his face, and he appeared to be burning with indignation. She
was carried out of the church, and the priest hastened up the aisle to
the vestry. What had she done? At all events, something for which it
appeared there was no absolution.

Aix-la-Chapelle--alas! What did we care for the tomb of Charles the
Great, and his extensive dominions, his splendour and power? We had
lost something to us of much more importance--a carpet bag; not that the
carpet bag was of much value, for it was an old one, nor the articles
which it contained, for they were neither new nor of much worth; but we
lost in that carpet bag an invaluable quantity of comfort, for it
contained a variety of little absolute necessaries, the loss of which we
could not replace until our arrival at Cologne, to which town all our
trunks had been despatched. The children could not be brushed, for the
brushes were in the carpet bag; they could not be combed, for the combs
were in the carpet bag; they were put to bed without nightcaps, for the
night-caps were in the carpet bag; they were put to bed in their little
chemises, reaching down to the fifth rib or thereabouts, for their
night-clothes were in the carpet bag: not only the children, but every
one else suffered by this carpet bag being absent without leave. My
boots burst, and my others were in the carpet bag; my snuff-box was
empty, and the canister was in the carpet bag; and the servants
grumbled, for they had smuggled some of their things into the carpet
bag.

It would appear that everything had been crammed into this unfortunate
receptacle. Had we lost a jewel-case, or a purse full of money, it
would have been a trifle compared to the misery occasione