Among
these last was a person about the age of fifty, of a remarkably
genteel air and polite address, dignified with a Maltese cross, and
distinguished by the particular veneration of all those who knew
him. When he understood that Pickle and his friends were travellers,
he accosted the youth in English, which he spoke tolerably well;
and, as they were strangers, offered to attend them in the afternoon
to all the places worth seeing in Lisle. Our hero thanked him for
his excess of politeness, which, he said, was peculiar to the French
nation; and, struck with his engaging appearance, industriously
courted his conversation, in the course of which he learned that
this chevalier was a man of good sense and great experience, that
he was perfectly well acquainted with the greatest part of Europe,
had lived some years in England, and was no stranger to the
constitution and genius of that people.
Having dined, and drunk to the healths of the English and French
kings, two fiacres were called, in one of which the knight, with one
of his companions, the governor, and Peregrine seated themselves,
the other being occupied by the physician, Pallet, and two Scottish
officers, who proposed to accompany them in their circuit.
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