At St. Omers, a fortified town of gloomy aspect, where we stopped for a few minutes' refreshment, we were first initiated into the terrible mendicity of France. Every age and condition of suffering humanity beset us, and cried at each crevice of our vehicle with the most piteous and persevering tones.
Being fatigued with sitting twenty hours in the diligence, with scarcely an opportunity to change our position, we decided to rest at Amiens for a night and day. We visited the Cathedral, which is a grand, imposing building, both in architecture and decorations, heard the regular daily service performed, and saw many superb monuments and shrines, before which candles were perpetually burning. At seven in the evening, we recommenced another journey of twenty hours, stopping only a few moments at Clermont at three in the morning. The moon occasionally piercing the clouds reflected the shadow of our ludicrous and rumbling equipage, like a house on wheels, drawn sometimes by six, and at others by seven horses, over wet and heavy roads; and delighted were we, when the domes of Paris discovered themselves, and at the Hotel Meurice, opposite the gardens of the Tuileries, we found refreshment and repose.
