196 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



clofeft attention, from their refemblance to my 

 own. His leading objed was to deferve well' of 

 his fellow creatures, and he has been rewarded by 

 them with calumny and perfecution. He is under 

 misfortunes ; he has come to France to put him- 

 felf under the Queen's protedion, he hopes a great 

 deal from her goodnefs. I confirm his hopes, by 

 the idea which public opinion has conveyed to me 

 of the charaéler of that Princefs, and by that which 

 Nature has imprefled on her phyfionomy. I am 

 pouring the balm of confolation, he tells me, into 

 his heart. Full of emotion, he preffes my hand. 

 My cordial reception of him is a happy prefage 

 of the reft ; he could have met with nothing fo 

 friendly even in his own country. Oh ! what pun- 

 gent forrow may be foothed to reft by a fingle 

 word, and by the feebleft mark of benevolence ! 



I remember that one day I found, not far from 

 the iron- gate de Caillot, at the entrance into the 

 Elyfian Fields, a young woman fitting with a child 

 in her lap, on the brink of a ditch. She was hand- 

 fome, if that epithet may be applied to a female 

 overwhelmed in melancholy. 1 walked into the 

 fequeftered alley where fhe had taken her ftation ; 

 the moment that i\\Q perceived me, (lie looked the 

 other way : her timidity and modefty fixed my 

 eyes on her. I remarked that fhe was very de- 

 cently drefled, and wore very white linen j but 



her 



