After we had performed our necessary ablutions, and had enjoyed the
luxury of fresh linen, we sat down to some excellent coffee, accompanied
with boiled milk, long, delicious rolls, and tolerably good butter, but
found no knives upon the table; which, by the by, every traveller in
France is presumed to carry with him: having mislaid my own, I requested
the maid to bring me one. The person of this damsel, would certainly
have suffered by a comparison with those fragrant flowers, to which
young poets resemble their beloved mistresses; as soon as I had
preferred my prayer, she very deliberately drew from her pocket a large
clasp knife, which, after she had wiped on her apron, she presented to
me, with a "voila monsieur." I received this dainty present, with every
mark of due obligation, accompanied, at the same time, with a resolution
not to use it, particularly as my companions (for we had two other
english gentlemen with us) had directed her to bring some others to
them. This delicate instrument was as savoury as its mistress, amongst
the various fragrancies which it emitted, garlic seemed to have the
mastery.

About twelve o'clock we went to the hall of the municipality, to procure
our passports for the interior, and found it crowded with people upon
the same errand. We made our way through them into a very handsome
antiroom, and thence, by a little further perseverance, into an inner
room, where the mayor and his officers were seated at a large table
covered with green cloth. To show what reliance is to be placed upon the
communications of english newspapers, I shall mention the following
circumstance: my companion had left England, without a passport, owing
to the repeated assurances of both the ministerial and opposition
prints, and also of a person high in administration, that none were
necessary.

The first question propounded to us by the secretary was, "citizens,
where are your passports?" I had furnished myself with one; but upon
hearing this question, I was determined not to produce it, from an
apprehension that I should cover my friend, who had none, with
suspicion, so we answered, that in England they were not required of
frenchmen, and that we had left our country with official assurances
that they would not be demanded of us here.

They replied to us, by reading a decree, which rigorously required them
of foreigners, entering upon the territories of the republic, and they
assured us, that this regula