The book opens with the protagonist, Yorick, discussing the differences between British and French society. After the discussion, Yorick realizes that he has never been to France and decides to travel across the English Channel, which is no further than “one and twenty miles’ sailing” (7). He packs quickly, taking few clothes, as the boat leaves the next morning. If he dies, Yorick acknowledges, all of his possessions will be seized by the King of France, even the little picture of his love, Eliza, which he has promised to “carry with [him] into [his] grave” (7).

Yorick finishes his dinner and drinks to the health of the King of France, happy to demonstrate that he bears no ill will to the French monarch. As he discusses the mildness of the Bourbon people, Yorick feels his cheeks flush. His drink is strong and he feels his “arteries beat all cheerily together” (8). If Yorick was the King of France, he proclaims, it would be the ideal moment “for an orphan to have begg’d father’s portmanteau of” him (8).

Just as Yorick says this, a Franciscan monk enters the room to beg for money for his convent.