scene of woe, that I was glad to get out again; and upon inquiry, I
found it had been in that state ever since it had been used as an
hospital during the last plague.




LETTER XXXVIII.

MARSEILLES.


As the good and evil, which fall within the line of a road, as well as a
worldly traveller, are by comparison, I need not say what a heavenly
country _France_ (with all its untoward circumstances) appeared to us
_after_ having journeyed in _Spain_: what would have put me out of
temper before, became now a consolation. _How glad I should I have been,
and how perfectly content, had it been thus in Spain_, was always
uppermost, when things ran a little cross in France.

Travellers and strangers in France, in a long journey perhaps, have no
connection with any people, but such who have a design upon their purse.
At every _Auberge_ some officious coxcomb lies in wait to ensnare them,
and under one pretence or other, introduces himself; he will offer to
shew you the town; if you accept it, you are saddled with an impertinent
visiter the whole time you stay; if you refuse it, he is affronted; so
let him; for no gentleman ever does that without an easy or natural
introduction; and then, if they are men of a certain age, their
acquaintance is agreeable and useful. An under-bred Frenchman is the
most offensive civil thing in the world: a well-bred Frenchman, quite