At One Moment,
It Appeared To Come, Wailing And Sobbing, From The Larboard, And The
Next Instant It Thundered Forth, Seemingly From The Starboard.
So
every man who could reach a boot picked it up, and threw it
promiscuously, silently praying to Providence, as he did so, to
guide it aright and bring it safe to its desired haven.
I watched the weird scene for a minute or two, and then I hauled
myself on deck again, and sat down - and went to sleep on a coil of
rope; and was awakened, in the course of time, by a sailor who
wanted that coil of rope to throw at the head of a man who was
standing, doing no harm to anybody, on the quay at Ostend.
SATURDAY, 24TH
Arrival at Ostend. - Coffee and Rolls. - Difficulty of Making French
Waiters understand German. - Advantages of Possessing a Conscience
That Does Not Get Up Too Early. - Villainy Triumphant. - Virtue
Ordered Outside. - A Homely English Row.
When I say I was "awakened" at Ostend, I do not speak the strict
truth. I was not awakened - not properly. I was only half-awakened.
I never did get fairly awake until the afternoon. During the
journey from Ostend to Cologne I was three-parts asleep and one-part
partially awake.
At Ostend, however, I was sufficiently aroused to grasp the idea
that we had got somewhere, and that I must find my luggage and B.,
and do something or other; in addition to which, a strange, vague
instinct, but one which I have never yet known deceive me, hovering
about my mind, and telling me that I was in the neighbourhood of
something to eat and drink, spurred me to vigour and action.
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