Having settled all these little matters, I got into my post-chaise
with more ease than ever I got into a post-chaise in my life; and
La Fleur having got one large jack-boot on the far side of a little
bidet, and another on this (for I count nothing of his legs)--he
canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince.-
-But what is happiness! what is grandeur in this painted scene of
life! A dead ass, before we had got a league, put a sudden stop to
La Fleur's career;--his bidet would not pass by it,--a contention
arose betwixt them, and the poor fellow was kick'd out of his jack-
boots the very first kick.

La Fleur bore his fall like a French Christian, saying neither more
nor less upon it, than Diable! So presently got up, and came to
the charge again astride his bidet, beating him up to it as he
would have beat his drum.

The bidet flew from one side of the road to the other, then back
again,--then this way, then that way, and in short, every way but
by the dead ass: --La Fleur insisted upon the thing--and the bidet
threw him.

What's the matter, La Fleur, said I, with this bidet of thine?
Monsieur, said he, c'est un cheval le plus opiniatre du monde.--
Nay, if he is a conceited beast, he must go his own way, replied I.
So La Fleur got off him, and giving him a good sound lash, the
bidet took me at my word, and away he scampered back to Montreuil.-
-Peste! said La Fleur.

It is not mal-a-propos to take notice here, that though La Fleur