t the very time they are laying schemes for fleecing you of your
money. It is a very odd contrast between France and England; in the
former all the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter
there is hardly any complaisance but among the publicans. When I said
all the people in France, I ought also to except those vermin who
examine the baggage of travellers in different parts of the kingdom.
Although our portmanteaus were sealed with lead, and we were provided
with a passe-avant from the douane, our coach was searched at the gate
of Paris by which we entered; and the women were obliged to get out,
and stand in the open street, till this operation was performed.

I had desired a friend to provide lodgings for me at Paris, in the
Fauxbourg St. Germain; and accordingly we found ourselves accommodated
at the Hotel de Montmorency, with a first floor, which costs me ten
livres a day. I should have put up with it had it been less polite; but
as I have only a few days to stay in this place, and some visits to
receive, I am not sorry that my friend has exceeded his commission. I
have been guilty of another piece of extravagance in hiring a carosse
de remise, for which I pay twelve livres a day. Besides the article of
visiting, I could not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the
girls to see the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such
as the Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the
Invalids, the Gobelins, &c. together with Versailles, Trianon, Marli,
Meudon, and Choissi; and therefore, I thought the difference in point
of expence would not be great, between a carosse de remise and a
hackney coach. The first are extremely elegant, if not too much
ornamented, the last are very shabby and disagreeable. Nothing gives me
such chagrin, as the necessity I am under to hire a valet de place, as
my own servant does not speak the language. You cannot conceive with
what eagerness and dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in
pillaging strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your
arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your
baggage, and interests himself in your affairs with such artful
officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, even
though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such domestic.
He produces recommendations from his former masters, and the people of
the house vouch for his honesty.

The truth is, thos