21 8 Travels in France 



men they should be well treated; and, in case of a war, they 

 should pay the English by a different account — it would now be 

 man to man; before it was free men fighting with slaves. Land 

 at St. Maxima, and there hire two mules and a guide to Frejus. 

 The country the same mountainous and rocky desert of pines 

 and lentiscus; but, towards Frejus, some arbutus. Very little 

 culture before the plain near Frejus. I passed to-day thirty 

 miles, of which five are not cultivated. The whole coast of 

 Provence is nearly the same desert; yet the climate would give, 

 on all these mountains, productions valuable for feeding sheep 

 and cattle; but they are encumbered with shrubs absolutely 

 worthless. The effect of liberty had better appear in their 

 cultivation than on the decks of a man-of-war. — 30 miles. 



14th. Stayed at Frejus to rest myself; — to examine the neigh- 

 bourhood, which, however, contains nothing — and to arrange 

 my journey to Nice. Here are remains of an amphitheatre and 

 aqueduct. On inquiring for a voiture to go post, I found there 

 was no such thing to be had; so I had no resource but mules. 

 I employed the garfon d'ecurie (for a postmaster thinks himself 

 of too much consequence to take the least trouble), and he 

 reported that I should be well served for 12 livres to Estrelles: 

 this price for ten miles on a miserable mule was a very entertain- 

 ing idea; I bid him half the money; he assured me he had 

 named the lowest price and left me, certainly thinking me safe 

 in his clutches. I took a walk round the town, to gather some 

 plants that were in blossom, and, meeting a woman with an ass- 

 load of grapes, I asked her employment; and found, by help of 

 an interpreter, that she carried grapes from vineyards for hire. 

 I proposed loading her ass to Estrelles with my baggage — and 

 demanded her price — 40 sols. I will give it. Break of day 

 appointed: and I returned to the inn, at least an econoiyiist, 

 saving 10 livres by my walk. 



i^th. Myself, my female, and her ass jogged merrily over the 

 mountains ; the only misfortune was, we did not know one word 

 of each other's lingo; I could just discover that she had a 

 husband and three children. I tried to know if he was a good 

 husband, and if she loved him very much; but our language 

 failed in such explanations; — it was no matter; her ass was to 

 do my business and not her tongue. At Estrelles I took post- 

 horses ; it is a single house, and no women with asses to be had, 

 or I should have preferred them. It is not easy for me to 

 describe how agreeable a walk of ten or fifteen miles is to a man 

 who walks well, after sitting a thousand in a carriage. To-day's 



