exposed to all its noise, and very small. So
we made our bows to Madame F----, and proceeded with our wheelbarrow to
the Hotel de Poitiers--a rival house. It is situated in the beautiful
boulevards, which I have mentioned, and is part of a row of fine
stonebuilt houses. Upon our ringing the bell, Madame P---- presented
herself. We told her, we were just arrived at Rouen, that we had the
honour of being known to Messrs. G----, and should be happy to be placed
under her roof, and wished to have two lodging rooms and a sitting room
to ourselves. Madame P----, who possessed that sort of good and generous
heart, which nature, for its better preservation, had lodged in a
comfortable envelope of comely plumpness, observed, that Messrs. G----
were gentlemen of great respectability, were her patrons, and always
_sent their_ friends to _her_ house (a point upon which these rival
dames were at issue, but the truth was with Madame P----); that she
would do all in her power to make us happy; but at present, on account
of her house being very crowded, she could only offer us two bedrooms.
We were too tired to think of any further peregrinations of discovery;
so we entered our bed-rooms, which, like most of the chambers in France,
had brick floors without any carpetting; they were, however, clean;
and, after ordering a good fire in one of them (for the sudden and
unusual frost, which, in the beginning of summer, committed so much
ravage throughout Europe, commenced the day we had first the honour of
seeing Madame P----); and, after enjoying those comforts which weary
wanderers require, we mounted our lofty beds, and went to rest.

The next day we presented our letter, and ourselves, to Madame G----,
the amiable mother of the gentlemen I have mentioned. She received us
with great politeness, and immediately arranged a dinner party for us,
for that day. It being rather early in the morning, we were admitted
into her chamber, a common custom of receiving early visits in France.

About eleven o'clock we saw a splendid procession of all the military
and civil authorities to the hotel[4] of the prefect, which was opposite
to our inn.

[4] Hotel, in France, means either an inn, or private house of
consequence.

The object of this cavalcade was to congratulate the archbishop of Rouen
(who was then upon a visit to the prefect, until his own palace was
ready to receive him) on his elevation to the see.

This spectacle displayed the interf