apprehended, and, though the wound was not mortal, condemned to
be broke. When this dreadful sentence was executed, he cried out,
that it was hard he should undergo such torments, for having
wounded a worthless priest, by whom he had been injured, while
such-a-one (naming the burgher mentioned above) lived in ease and
security, after having brutally murdered a poor man, and a
helpless woman big with child, who had not given him the least
provocation.

The inhabitants of Boulogne may be divided into three classes;
the noblesse or gentry, the burghers, and the canaille. I don't
mention the clergy, and the people belonging to the law, because
I shall occasionally trouble you with my thoughts upon the
religion and ecclesiastics of this country; and as for the
lawyers, exclusive of their profession, they may be considered as
belonging to one or other of these divisions. The noblesse are
vain, proud, poor, and slothful. Very few of them have above six
thousand livres a year, which may amount to about two hundred and
fifty pounds sterling; and many of them have not half this
revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be worth one
hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred pounds;
but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are
reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common
sense to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming
their own grounds, they might live at a small expence, and
improve their estates at the same time. They allow their country
houses to go to decay, and their gardens and fields to waste; and
reside in dark holes in the Upper Town of Boulogne without light,
air, or convenience. There they starve within doors,
that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine cloaths, and