380 BRIGHTON DIEPPE UOUEN. 



the calls of appetite put the steward in motion, and voices, fatherland, 

 French, Italian, and German broke the charm of meditation. 



But were there none who, pacing the deck, and blowing 1 forth the 

 fragrant odours of the cigar, thought of those left behind in the land 

 which had now disappeared ? Oh ! yes : the half-escaped sigh, the 

 contemplative gaze towards the shores of dear fatherland, told 

 unequivocally what was passing in the breasts of many, and which 

 deeply affected a few. Parents, children, friends, flitted across the 

 mind, and recalled to some the delights of" sacred home," and to 

 others the pangs of unrequited love or friendship. Oppressed myself 

 with reflections of a sombre cast, I betook myself to a couch, and 

 dreamed away two hours more of my variegated life. 



On my return to the deck, the scene had completely changed, and 

 the wind had increased so much, that the steamer staggered like a 

 drunken man. The ladies were qualmish, and the dandies who had 

 strutted about, but a few hours before, with all the importance a 

 fashionable coat, looked unutterable things. About ten o'clock we 

 descried the lights of Dieppe. The night was dark and cloudy, and 

 the entrance to the harbour not very easy. However, at eleven, we 

 were safely moored alongside of the custom-house quai, having 

 crossed the channel in ten hours. Experiencing but little difficulty 

 from the custom-house officers, we were soon seated at the excellent 

 hotel still kept by my old friend madame de la Rue, who, when I was 

 a stripling, fleeing from a college at Paris, to avoid the horrors of 

 the great revolution, in the time of Louis XVI, was a pretty little 

 girl, and mingled her tears with mine as I left her father's house, in 

 company with other fugitives, to embark on board a fishing-vessel, 

 in a gale of wind, to return to the embraces of an affectionate mother. 

 After a long conversation on the dangers we had past, and the 

 changes that time and circumstances had made, we returned thanks 

 to Almighty God for our preservation, y and 'once ^ore enjoyed the 

 .comforts of a good bed and of a friendly roof over our heads. This 

 was the fifth time that the old lady and I had talked over our 

 youthful days since the Restoration ; and I find her ever unchanged, 

 unchangeable, happy in possessing obedient children to relieve her 

 from the turmoils of business, and meriting, by the kindest attentions, 

 the applause she receives from her numerous visitors. 



The town of Dieppe, as a single object, has nothing sufficiently 

 .captivating to detain the visiter a day ; but the scenery in the 

 neighbourhood, some parts of which is connected with the history of 

 the only g ood monarch (as the French themselves say) that France 

 ever possessed (Henri IV.) cannot fail to gratify, in a high degree, 

 the lovers of the sublime and beautiful in nature. These were 

 familiar to me; and I therefore determined, with the friend who 

 accompanied me, to quit as soon as possible this ever fish-smelling 

 port ; and early the next morning I took my place on the very front 

 pinnacle of the immense machine called a diligence, with some risk 

 of breaking my neck in the ascent. The postillion smacked his 

 whip, as usual, to announce his departure ; the horses set off with a 

 celerity one could not have expected from a survey of them ; hoofs 

 clattered over the pavement, chains rattled, all the dogs in the town 



