occasion. They had
scarcely finished their prayer, when they heard footsteps approaching
the room. Madame R----, who had been indisposed at the opera, returned
home before its conclusion, with the intended bridegroom. The young man
awoke, as it were, from his deadly drowsiness, and, exerting his last
strength, pulled from his breast a dagger, stabbed the expiring being,
upon whom he doated, to the heart; and, falling upon her body, gave
himself several mortal wounds. The door opened; the frantic mother
appeared. All the house was in an instant alarmed; and the fatal
explanation which furnished the materials of this short and sad recital,
was taken from the lips of the dying lover, who had scarcely finished it
before he breathed his last. Two days afterwards, the story was hawked
about the streets.

From this painful narrative, in which the French impetuosity is strongly
depicted, I must turn to mention my visit to Mons. le G----, who lives
in the Rue Florentine, and is considered to be one of the first
architects in France; in which are many monuments of his taste and
elegance. It is a curious circumstance that all artists exercise their
talents more successfully for their patrons than for themselves. Whether
it is the hope of a more substantial reward than that of mere
self-complacency, which usually excites the mind to its happiest
exertions, I will not pretend to determine; but the point seems to be in
some degree settled by the conduct of a celebrated Bath physician, of
whom it is related, that, happening once to suffer under a malady from
which as his skill had frequently relieved others, he determined to
prescribe for himself. The recipe at first had not the desired effect.
The doctor was surprised. At last he recollected that he had not feed
himself. Upon making this discovery, he drew the strings of his purse,
and with his left hand placed a guinea in his right, and then
prescribed. The story concludes by informing its readers, that the
prescription succeeded, and the doctor recovered.--In adorning the front
of his own hotel, Mons. le G----, in my very humble opinion, has not
exhibited his accustomed powers. In a small confined court-yard he has
attempted to give to a private dwelling the appearance of one of those
vast temples of which he became enamoured when at Athens. The roof is
supported by two massy fluted pilastres, which in size are calculated to
bear the burthen of some prodigious dome. The muscular p