514 The Adventurer's Story. [MAY, 



professor of these tenets, that police laws, like snuffers, have cleared 

 away so many thieves ; it is distressing to think, that even Lord 

 Cochrane should have taken arms against the pirates, and that so few 

 adventures being to be had now-a-days, foreign land is no longer 

 desirable, as a genteel means of procuring them. From my heart I 

 believe, that sundry patches of our own metropolis are as hopeful a soil 

 for such a produce as any between Dan and Beersheba. Looking over 

 a map, you may see dark unenclosed parts, where men seem to grow 

 up in a rugged and wild state, and odd things waddling about, perform 

 unknown vocations in garb so compound, that men and women are 

 indistinguishable, and dogs, cats, monkeys, and little Christians grow up 

 together like kin creatures. 



This is not much to the purpose. I had a friend, who, with knapsack 

 on back, launched himself from England, to forget, if possible, the vile 

 common places of his native land. He was a man of singular temper 

 perhaps I should call him rather too heteroclite, but that his crotchets 

 were generally harmless. Yet the being a continual exception to the 

 common rule of humanity, made his companions rather more like so 

 many dittos of each other than was agreeable, for their little deviations 

 and small eccentricities, seemed very ordinary by the side of his exceed- 

 ing crookedness. 



We left Falmouth together in a Mediterranean packet. France was 

 dull, and land-travelling insipid, unless the road happened to be un- 

 frequented. But a first voyage is a sad tamer of your wild spirits. 

 And when poor Roberts appeared on deck after his noviciate of sickness, 

 it was strange to hear him babble of his relations, and wonder how far 

 it might be to Gibraltar. 



f ' And," said he, " I should like to know how Napoleon looked in a 

 gale of wind ? Was he faint of heart think you, when these desperate 

 lurches, here's one, take care Ned take care ! I thought we had 

 been down ! Eh ? they call that a sea, don't they ? these hanged 

 sailors are never satisfied but with a hurricane. But I was asking just 

 now, whether Alexander, no, whether Napoleon was likely to suffer 

 much from this torture, which I can't help thinking." 



Here was a pause, during which all the features of his face seemed 

 to undergo a change of position; his lips quivered, but uttered 

 nought. 



" What can't you help thinking, Roberts ?" 



" Eh ? Think ? was I thinking ? what can it matter, to-morrow 

 Ned, to-morrow we'll talk all about it ; better weather then, I hope 

 to-morrow" 



And so saying, he tottered down the ladder to his hospital berth 

 below. 



All this was forgotten on the morning of our arrival at Cadiz. I had 

 just made my appearance on deck, when he came up to me rubbing his 

 hands, with a real chuckle. " At last, Ned ; at last. Just look around 

 you, my boy ; did you ever see such a bay ? Yonder's St. Mary's, and 

 that's Chiclona, and this large white town on the shore is Cadiz itself, 

 and those dark hills, are called let's see St. Mary's Chiclana. No 

 hang it! I've forgotten their name. But never mind; look at these 

 ships scarcely two of a nation, ye see. That odd little thing with the 

 raking masts is a brig of war from Brazil. They are just saluting her. 

 She's the first that ever was saluted. Then see a Sardinian cruizer, 

 and the Barbary flag. Oh ! but I haven't yet introduced you to my 

 friend." And he pointed to the harbour pilot, who had just come on 



