flecting mind, and
which acts as a barrier against inordinate passions.

The peasantry in this part of the country seemed very poor, though
contented and happy. Many of them were employed on a labour for which
their pay must have been very small--picking stones from the fields, and
dung from the roads. The dung is dried and burned, and is said to be an
healthy fuel to those who use it.

On the following day we dined at Orange, but did not remain long enough
to examine the town, which was well worthy of minute attention.
Mademoiselle St. Sillery was seized with the symptoms of an
indisposition, which happily passed away, but whilst it lasted, left us
no inclination for any other employment but to assist and console her,
and to press forwards to Avignon, to procure medical assistance.
Fortunately, it turned out to be nothing but a mere dizziness resulting
from exposure to the sun.

Under these circumstances we reached Avignon on the evening of the
fourth day after leaving Lyons; and whether the fear of the physician
had any effect, so much is certain, that Mademoiselle seemed to have
completed her recovery almost in the same instant in which the
battlements of the city saluted her eyes.

CHAP. XIX.

_Avignon--Situation--Climate--Streets and Houses--Public
Buildings--Palace--Cathedral--Petrarch and Laura--Society
at Avignon--Ladies--Public Walks--Prices of
Provisions--Markets._

WHEN we left Angers, we had ordered our letters to be addressed for us
at Avignon. I was daily in expectation of receiving one of a very
important nature, and General Armstrong, who was in the habit of a state
correspondence with Marseilles, and was allowed for that purpose an
extra post, had promised to dispatch it for me to Avignon, as soon as it
should reach him. This circumstance delayed us for some days at Avignon;
but I believe none of us regretted a delay, which gave us time to see
and to survey this celebrated city and its neighbourhood.

The situation of this city is in a plain, equally fertile and beautiful,
about fifteen miles in breadth and ten in length. On the south and east
it is circled by a chain of mountains. The plain is divided into
cultivated fields, in which are grown wheat, barley, saffron, silk, and
madder. The cultivation is so clean and exact, as to give the grounds
the appearance of a garden. As the French farms are usually on a small
scale, they are invariably kept cleaner than those in England and
Amer