to W. E. Henley

[Monastier, September 1878.]

DEAR HENLEY,—I hope to leave Monastier this day (Saturday) week; thenceforward Poste Restante, Alais, Gard, is my address.  ‘Travels with a Donkey in the French Highlands.’  I am no good to-day.  I cannot work, nor even write letters.  A colossal breakfast yesterday at Puy has, I think, done for me for ever; I certainly ate more than ever I ate before in my life—a big slice of melon, some ham and jelly, a filet, a helping of gudgeons, the breast and leg of a partridge, some green peas, eight crayfish, some Mont d’Or cheese, a peach, and a handful of biscuits, macaroons, and things.  It sounds Gargantuan; it cost three francs a head.  So that it was inexpensive to the pocket, although I fear it may prove extravagant to the fleshly tabernacle.  I can’t think how I did it or why.  It is a new form of excess for me; but I think it pays less than any of them.

R. L. S.