ie to Lavater; his air was
heavy, and absolutely without intelligence. Mons. St. Quentin had
dismissed him his house on account of a very malignant sally of passion:
a horse having thrown him by accident, the young demon took a knife from
his pocket, and deliberately stabbed him three several times. Such was a
peasant boy, now seemingly enveloped in the interesting simplicity of
Marmontel. How inconsistent is what is called character!

I had a sweet ride for the remaining way to Montreuil by moon-light,
accompanied by two gentlemen on horseback, who lived in that town. They
related to me many melancholy incidents during the revolutionary period.
Montreuil was formerly distributed into five parishes, and had five
churches; but the people doubtless thinking that five was too many for
the religion of the town, destroyed the other four, and sold the best
part of the materials. Accordingly, when I entered the town, my eye was
caught by a noble ruin, which upon inquiry I found to be the church of
Notre Dame. This ruin is beautiful beyond description. The pillars which
remain are noble, and the capitals and carving rich to a degree. It is
astonishing to me that any reasonable beings, the inhabitants of a town,
could thus destroy its chief ornament; but in the madness of the
revolutionary fanatics, the sun itself would have been plucked from
Heaven, if they could have reached it. I was sincerely happy to learn
that religion had returned, and that there was a general inclination to
subscribe for the repair, or rather rebuilding, of Notre Dame.

My friends took leave of me after recommending to me an inn kept by two
sisters, the name of which I have forgotten. They were so handsome as to
resemble English women, and what is very uncommon in this class of
people in France, were totally without rouge. Whilst my supper was
preparing, I had a moon-light walk round the town. The situation of it
is at once commanding and beautiful. The ruins of a chateau, seen under
the light of the moon, improved the scenery, and was another memento of
the execrable Revolution. There are a number of pretty houses, and some
of them substantial. One of them belonged to one of the gentlemen who
accompanied me from Mons. St. Quentin's, and was his present residence,
being all that remained to him of a noble property in the vicinity. This
property had been sold by the nation, and the recovery of it had become
impossible, though the gentleman was in tolerabl