With France; and had reached Dover, and
looked through my glass at the hills beyond Boulogne, before the
idea presented itself; and with this in its train, that there was
no getting there without a passport. Go but to the end of a
street, I have a mortal aversion for returning back no wiser than I
set out; and as this was one of the greatest efforts I had ever
made for knowledge, I could less bear the thoughts of it: so
hearing the Count de - had hired the packet, I begg'd he would take
me in his suite. The Count had some little knowledge of me, so
made little or no difficulty, - only said, his inclination to serve
me could reach no farther than Calais, as he was to return by way
of Brussels to Paris; however, when I had once pass'd there, I
might get to Paris without interruption; but that in Paris I must
make friends and shift for myself. - Let me get to Paris, Monsieur
le Count, said I, - and I shall do very well. So I embark'd, and
never thought more of the matter.
When La Fleur told me the Lieutenant de Police had been enquiring
after me, - the thing instantly recurred; - and by the time La Fleur
had well told me, the master of the hotel came into my room to tell
me the same thing, with this addition to it, that my passport had
been particularly asked after: the master of the hotel concluded
with saying, He hoped I had one. - Not I, faith! said I.
The master of the hotel retired three steps from me, as from an
infected person, as I declared this; - and poor La Fleur advanced
three steps towards me, and with that sort of movement which a good
soul makes to succour a distress'd one: - the fellow won my heart
by it; and from that single trait I knew his character as
perfectly, and could rely upon it as firmly, as if he had served me
with fidelity for seven years.
Mon seigneur! cried the master of the hotel; but recollecting
himself as he made the exclamation, he instantly changed the tone
of it. - If Monsieur, said he, has not a passport (apparemment) in
all likelihood he has friends in Paris who can procure him one. -
Not that I know of, quoth I, with an air of indifference. - Then
certes, replied he, you'll be sent to the Bastile or the Chatelet
au moins. - Poo! said I, the King of France is a good natur'd soul:
- he'll hurt nobody. - Cela n'empeche pas, said he - you will
certainly be sent to the Bastile to-morrow morning. - But I've taken
your lodgings for a month, answer'd I, and I'll not quit them a day
before the time for all the kings of France in the world. La Fleur
whispered in my ear, That nobody could oppose the king of France.
Pardi! said my host, ces Messieurs Anglois sont des gens tres
extraordinaires; - and, having both said and sworn it, - he went out.
THE PASSPORT. THE HOTEL AT PARIS.
I could not find in my heart to torture La Fleur's with a serious
look upon the subject of my embarrassment, which was the reason I
had treated it so cavalierly: and to show him how light it lay
upon my mind, I dropt the subject entirely; and whilst he waited
upon me at supper, talk'd to him with more than usual gaiety about
Paris, and of the Opera Comique. - La Fleur had been there himself,
and had followed me through the streets as far as the bookseller's
shop; but seeing me come out with the young fille de chambre, and
that we walk'd down the Quai de Conti together, La Fleur deem'd it
unnecessary to follow me a step further; - so making his own
reflections upon it, he took a shorter cut, - and got to the hotel
in time to be inform'd of the affair of the police against my
arrival.
As soon as the honest creature had taken away, and gone down to sup
himself, I then began to think a little seriously about my
situation. -
- And here, I know, Eugenius, thou wilt smile at the remembrance of
a short dialogue which passed betwixt us the moment I was going to
set out: - I must tell it here.
Eugenius, knowing that I was as little subject to be overburden'd
with money as thought, had drawn me aside to interrogate me how
much I had taken care for. Upon telling him the exact sum,
Eugenius shook his head, and said it would not do; so pull'd out
his purse in order to empty it into mine. - I've enough in
conscience, Eugenius, said I. - Indeed, Yorick, you have not,
replied Eugenius; I know France and Italy better than you. - But you
don't consider, Eugenius, said I, refusing his offer, that before I
have been three days in Paris, I shall take care to say or do
something or other for which I shall get clapp'd up into the
Bastile, and that I shall live there a couple of months entirely at
the king of France's expense. - I beg pardon, said Eugenius drily:
really I had forgot that resource.
Now the event I treated gaily came seriously to my door.
Is it folly, or nonchalance, or philosophy, or pertinacity - or what
is it in me, that, after all, when La Fleur had gone down stairs,
and I was quite alone, I could not bring down my mind to think of
it otherwise than I had then spoken of it to Eugenius?
- And as for the Bastile; the terror is in the word. - Make the most
of it you can, said I to myself, the Bastile is but another word
for a tower; - and a tower is but another word for a house you can't
get out of.
