could not help treating him with a bottle of _vin de pais_.




LETTER L.


From _Bonne_ we intended to have taken the high road to _Dijon_; but
being informed that there was another, though not much frequented, by
way of _Autun_, and that _that_ town, which was a Roman colony, still
contained many curious monuments worthy of notice, we pursued the
latter, which twisted in between a vast variety of small, but fertile
valleys, watered with brooks, bounded by romantic hills, and some high
mountains, most of which were covered with vines, which _did_ produce
the most delicious red wine in the world; I say _did produce_, for the
high _gout_ and flavour of the Burgundy grape has for many years failed,
and perhaps so as never to return again. We, however, missed the road to
_Autun_, and, after four leagues' journey through a most delightful
country, we arrived at a miserable auberge in a dirty village called
_Yozy_, which stands upon the margin of a large forest, in which, some
years since, the _diligence_ from _Lyons_ to _Paris_ was attacked by a
banditti, and the whole party of travellers were murdered: ever since
that fatal day, a guard of the _Marechaussee_ always escort the
_diligence_ through this deep and dreadful forest, (so they called it),
and we were persuaded it was right to take a couple of the
_Marechaussee_, and did so; but as we found the forest by no means so
long, deep, or dreadful, as it had been represented, we suspected that
the advice given us, was more for the sake of the men who _guarded us_,
than from any regard _to us_, two men could have made no great