made_ me hold up my _tete d'or_, the custom-house
officers there, who remembered my entrance into Spain, found
half-a-crown put into their hands less trouble than examining my baggage
gratis; they accordingly _passed_ me on my way to _Bellegarde_, without
even opening it; and we found the road up to that fortress, though in
the month of December, full as good as when we had passed it in the
summer; and after descending on the French side, and crossing the river,
got to the little _auberge_ at _Boulon_, the same we had held too bad
when we went into Spain, even to eat our breakfast at; but upon our
return, worthy of a place of rest, and we accordingly staid there a
week: beds with curtains, rooms with chimnies, and paper windows, though
tattered and torn, were luxuries we had been unaccustomed to.--But I
must not omit to tell you, that on our road down on the French side of
the _Pyrenees_, two men, both armed with guns, rushed suddenly out of
the woods, and making towards us, asked, whether we wanted a guard? I
was walking, perhaps fortunately at that time, with my fuzee in my hand,
and my servant had a double barrelled pistol in his; and therefore
forbid them to approach us, and told them, we had nothing else to lose
but our lives, and that if they did not retire I should look upon them
as people who meant to plunder, rather than protect us: they accordingly
retired into the woods, and I began to believe they had no evil intent;
but finding an _Exempt_ of the _Marechaussee_ at _Boulon_, I told him
what had passed, and asked him whether his men attended upon that road,
in coloured cloaths, or any others were allotted, to protect or guard
travellers? He assured me there were no such people of any kind; that
his men always moved on horseback, in their proper character, and
suspected _our guard_ would have been very troublesome, had they found
us _off our guard_; but he did not offer, nor did I ask him, to send
after them, though he was a very civil, sensible man, who had been three
years on duty in _Corsica_; and, consequently, his company, for the week
I staid in such a poor town, was very agreeable. And as _Mons. Bernard_,
or some officer of the _Marechaussee_, is always in duty at this town, I
would advise those who enter into Spain, by that route, to procure a
couple of those men to escorte them up to _Bellegarde_--an attention
that no officer in France will refuse to shew, when it is not
incompatible with his duty.

T