REFLECTION AND GENUFLECTION. 449 



damages, I got this piece of advice from the bench 

 — " II faut qiHil V a].-)prenne doneP I thought this hint 

 was quite superfluous, my first lesson having com- 

 pletely enlightened me on the subject. 



My next appearance before the most worthy 



showed how little I had profited by his advice, or I 

 should not have troubled him again ; but I did, and 

 my present case was this : — Riding one evening after 

 dark along the same delectable road, on a favourite 

 English horse, down he dropped as if he had been shot, 

 sending me over his ears en avant-courrier. This mis- 

 hap had arisen from my (Englishman-like) taking 

 the side of the pave in preference to the middle of the 

 route. A drain had been left open of about two feet 

 deep, into which my horse had gone. He was up in 

 a moment : I remounted, and what I said about French 

 high-roads was bad enough then^ but when I exa- 

 mined my horse's knees by the first light I came to, 

 and found two concavities made in them something 

 the size of a teacup, I fear what I said was ten times 

 worse. I really now thought, that from this trap 

 having been left open, and holding myself a loser 

 of about thirty pounds each knee, some redress would 

 be afibrded me. I found, however, that redress, 

 something like promotion or reward for services, was 

 likely to be some time in coming, for I was first told 

 I had no business riding where I did ; and secondly, 

 from whom was the redress to come ? Before this 

 could be got at, it was necessary to find who made the 

 drain, and it behoved me to find that out. " Did 

 Monsieur know who it was ? " Of course Monsieur did 

 not. I saw my chance was out, but to render assu- 

 rance doubly sure, out came again the infernal " 11 

 faut qiHil Vapprenne done." 



VOL. I. G G 



