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The worst fault which divines and the doctors of the Sorbonne can alledge against it, is, that if there is but a cap-full of wind in or about Paris, tis more blasphemously sacre dieud there than in any other aperture of the whole cityand with reason, good and cogent, Messieurs; for it comes against you without crying garde deau, and with such unpremeditable puffs, that of the few who cross it with their hats on, not one in fifty but hazards two livres and a half, which is its full worth. The poor notary, just as he was passing by the sentry, instinctively clappd his cane to the side of it; but in raising it up, the point of his cane catching hold of the loop of the centinels hat, hoisted it over the spikes of the balustrade clear into the Seine Tis an ill wind, said a boatsman who catchd it, which blows no body any good. The sentry, being a Gascon, incontinently twirld up his whiskers, and levelld his harquebuss. Harquebusses in those days went off with matches; and an old womans paper lantern at the end of the bridge happening to be blown out, she had borrowd the sentrys match to light itit gave a moments time for the Gascons blood to run cool, and turn the accident better to his advantageTis an ill wind, said he, catching off the notarys castor,2 and legitimating the capture with the boatmans adage. The poor notary crossd the bridge, and passing along the rue de Dauphine into the fauxbourgs of St. Germain, lamented himself as he walkd along in this manner: Luckless man that I am! said the notary, to be the sport of hurricanes all my daysto be born to have the storm of ill language levelled against me and my profession wherever I goto be forced into marriage by the thunder of the church to a tempest of a womanto be driven forth out of my house by domestic winds, and despoiled of my castor by pontific onesto be here, bare-headed, in a windy night, at the mercy of the ebbs and flows of accidentswhere am I to lay my head?miserable man! what wind in the two-and-thirty points of the whole compass can blow unto thee, as it does to the rest of thy fellow- creatures, good! As the notary was passing on by a dark passage, complaining in this sort, a voice calld out to a girl, to bid her run for the next notarynow the notary being the next, and availing himself of his situation, walkd up the passage to the door, and passing through an old sort of a saloon, was usherd into a large chamber, dismantled of every thing but a long military pikea breast-platea rusty old sword, and bandoleer, hung up equidistant in four different places against the wall. An old personage, who had heretofore been a gentleman, and, unless decay of fortune taints the blood along with it, was a gentleman at that time, lay supporting his head upon his hand, in his bed; a little table, with a taper burning, was set close beside it; and close by the table was placed a chairthe notary sat him down in it; and pulling out his ink-horn and a sheet or two of paper which he had in his pocket, he placed them before him, and dipping his pen in his ink, and leaning his breast over the table, he disposed every thing to make the gentlemans last will and testament. Alas! Monsieur le Notaire, said the gentleman, raising himself up a little, I have nothing to bequeath, which will pay the expence of bequeathing, except the history of myself, which I could not die in peace unless I left it as a legacy to the world; the profits arising out of it, I bequeath to you for the pains of taking it from meit is a story so uncommon, it must be read by all mankindit will make the fortunes of your housethe notary dippd his pen into his ink-hornAlmighty director of every event in my life! said the old gentleman, looking up earnestly, and raising his hands towards heaventhou, whose hand has led me on through such a labyrinth of strange passages down into this scene of desolation, assist the decaying memory of an old, infirm, and broken-hearted mandirect my tongue, by the spirit of thy eternal truth, that this stranger may set down naught but what is written in that Book, from whose records, said he, clasping his hands together, I am to be condemned or acquitted!The notary held up the point of his pen betwixt the taper and his eye |
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