1830.] The Half-Drowned Englishman. 47 



Sensations, and changes an evening that has set in with dulness and 

 stupidity into one of social mirth and pleasure. Thus,, after the Turk's 

 laconic tale, the evening decidedly assumed a new aspect : the old aunt 

 replenished the fire with an additional faggot in defiance of the alma- 

 nack, which had not yet announced the commencement of the winter 

 quarter. An autumnal fire is really a subject for the poet ; and were it 

 not that my Pegasus rather limps, I might attempt to amble through a 

 verse or two. No, no, I must stick to prose ; it gets on faster ; and 

 rhymers are troubled with such abominable headaches ! 



In humble prose, then, the faggots blazed cheerfully ; and just at the 

 moment when the white and blue flame, accompanied by the delicious 

 odour of a French wood fire, proudly lost itself in the invisible regions 

 of the chimney, its reflexion irradiated the visage of a personage who 

 had not yet opened his mouth, except for the purpose of swallowing. 

 From the mixture of phlegm and fog distributed in equal portions over 

 his countenance, it was easy to recognise the taciturn stranger for an En- 

 glishman : no disparagement to my countrymen, for silence is said to be 

 the concomitant of wisdom. His jaws would have absolutely grown 

 rusty for want of practice in the vocal department, had it not been for 

 the increased agility with which they were forced to perform their mas- 

 ticating functions. And yet, athwart the cold reserve of his countenance, 

 that damped and chilled like the gloomy November of his metropolis, a 

 keen sarcastic glance beamed occasionally from his eye, a ray of inter- 

 cepted sunshine, that, piercing faintly through the mist, cheered for a 

 moment with its promise of genial warmth. The caustic smile by which 

 his features were from time to time dilated, the malicious curl which 

 played around his nether lip, denoted that he was visited with moments 

 of mirthful mood, even with casual glimmerings of fun ; that he could 

 sometimes utter as well as swallow a good thing, and circulate the jest as 

 well as pass the bottle. 



I know not how it happened, but the eyes of the company were simul- 

 taneously turned upon the Englishman, as if in expectation of his tale j 

 for narratives had now become the order of the night, and were as indis- 

 pensable as the long stories which at the delicate entertainments of Ma- 

 dame de Maintenon, as her biographers have taken the trouble to inform 

 us, the guests were sometimes obliged to accept in lieu of the more sub- 

 stantial roti that usually preceded the desert. Fortunately my country- 

 man was " in the vein" for personal anecdote : had not his humour of 

 the moment seconded the wishes of the company, I much doubt if I 

 should now have the satisfaction of communicating the following adven- 

 ture, which was narrated in a tone that might have passed for banter- 

 ing, but for the imperturbable and somewhat melancholy gravity of the 

 speaker. 



" For my poor part, ladies and gentlemen," said he, " I regret that I 

 cannot gratify you with a dissertation on the pleasures of Suspension or 

 Impalement, never having personally experienced either of those high 

 destinies. My fate was different and less exalted ; and if you will con- 

 descend to relish a simple scene of drowning, a few artless details of 

 suffocation by water, I have it in my power to contribute my mite to the 

 general hilarity. Though I can only boast of having been drowned, the 

 particulars of my death are rather strange. Not long since, in my ram- 

 bles through France, I visited Lyons. Some of you who are acquainted 

 with the environs of that city may recollect a charming landscape almost 



