Not having tasted anything since my English breakfast in the morning, about seven o’clock, I was not very nice. I was shown to bed, and was agreeably surprised; for it was a much better one than I had any reason to expect in such a place. In the morning I had some of the same kind of soup, and my bill, as it ought to be, was very reasonable. I was informed that Constance was nineteen leagues distant, and away I limped, although at first my feet were very sore and stiff. About six in the evening, the weather became very inclement; and, finding myself close to a small village, I purposed taking up my abode in it for the night.
I according went into a public-house, and was shown upstairs into the coffee-room: in these places the public sitting-room is generally on the first floor. There I found a number of people drinking, and a respectable-looking priest at their head. I made my _entrée à la Française_, as near as I was able, and asked, “If I could have a bed?” I could get no answer; but the landlady called aloud for her domestic, Peter, who, she said, was a Frenchman, to explain. He at length appeared; and asked, in very good French, “What I wished to have?” I asked if “I could be accommodated with a bed and something for supper?” He replied, “Certainly,” and added, “I shall take care that you are well attended upon.” This poor fellow was really very attentive and kind. I supped heartily on soup and _bouilli_, after which I insisted upon his giving me his history, which he did without any hesitation. It was as follows:--
“I was born, sir, in Nancy, in Lorraine, and it is now eleven years since I quitted my native place.”
Here I thought fit to interrupt him, in order the better to preserve the disguise which I had assumed. I told him “that I had observed, the moment he began to speak, a vast difference between his accent and mine, and I had consequently conjectured that he had been a long time absent from Lorraine;” and I added “that the Lorraine accent was very different from that of other parts of France.” This interruption was fortunate and well-timed; for the man, by way of rejoinder, said--
“I have forgotten a great deal of my mother tongue; and I can tell you that I was going to make the same remark with respect to your accent that you have made upon mine; but now you have saved me the trouble, by accounting for the difference. But, to continue my narrative, I assure you, sir, all that has befallen me has been the consequence of my having been drawn for a conscript; for it went against my nature to serve Buonaparte. I was by trade a weaver, and I knew that I could get a living in any country; and, painful as it was to part from my family and friends, I one morning took French leave, crossed the Rhine, and have been eight years with my present landlord. He keeps a kind of manufactory, in which I have worked until very lately; but wishing to have a trusty person in the _auberge_, he has made me drop my old trade of weaver, and attend here in my present capacity.”