CHAPTER XLI

No matter how, or in what mood--but I flew from the tomb of the lovers--or rather I did not fly _from_ it--(for there was no such thing existing) and just got time enough to the boat to save my passage; --and ere I had sailed a hundred yards, the _Rhône_ and the _Saôn_ met together, and carried me down merrily betwixt them.

But I have described this voyage down the _Rhône_, before I made it----

----So now I am at _Avignon_, and as there is nothing to see but the old house, in which the duke of _Ormond_ resided, and nothing to stop me but a short remark upon the place, in three minutes you will see me crossing the bridge upon a mule, with _François_ upon a horse with my portmanteau behind him, and the owner of both, striding the way before us, with a long gun upon his shoulder, and a sword under his arm, lest peradventure we should run away with his cattle. Had you seen my breeches in entering _Avignon_, ----Though you’d have seen them better, I think, as I mounted--you would not have thought the precaution amiss, or found in your heart to have taken it in dudgeon; for my own part, I took it most kindly; and determined to make him a present of them, when we got to the end of our journey, for the trouble they had put him to, of arming himself at all points against them.

Before I go further, let me get rid of my remark upon _Avignon_, which is this: That I think it wrong, merely because a man’s hat has been blown off his head by chance the first night he comes to _Avignon_, ----that he should therefore say, “_Avignon_ is more subject to high winds than any town in all _France_:” for which reason I laid no stress upon the accident till I had enquired of the master of the inn about it, who telling me seriously it was so----and hearing, moreover, the windiness of _Avignon_ spoke of in the country about as a proverb ----I set it down, merely to ask the learned what can be the cause----the consequence I saw--for they are all Dukes, Marquisses, and Counts, there----the duce a Baron, in all _Avignon_----so that there is scarce any talking to them on a windy day.

Prithee, friend, said I, take hold of my mule for a moment----for I wanted to pull off one of my jack-boots, which hurt my heel--the man was standing quite idle at the door of the inn, and as I had taken it into my head, he was someway concerned about the house or stable, I put the bridle into his hand--so begun with the boot: --when I had finished the affair, I turned about to take the mule from the man, and thank him----

------But _Monsieur le Marquis_ had walked in----

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