A Fellow Countryman 



" An English gentleman ! that alters the case greatly. I 

 judged by his lordship's accent in speaking the Castilian 

 (which, by the way, his lordship speaks perfectamente)^ that 

 his lordship was an Italian. His lordship will be glad to 

 hear that there are two of his countrymen arrived here this 

 evening : another lord of Gibraltar similar tp his lordship, 

 attended by a pretty young gentleman, who shall perchance 

 be brother to his excellency. They have a supper in pre- 

 paration, muy r'lco (very rich), partridges and rabbits, with 

 a dish of eggs and bacon ; there will be well enough for all 

 four, and it will be a pleasure to your lordships to sup with 

 your countrymen." 



He did not wait to hear what I had begun to grumble 

 about my having seen a considerable number of English in 

 my time, and indeed the mention of partridges and rabbits 

 almost balanced that natural antipathy which an English- 

 man usually feels to encountering another Englishman any- 

 where, but especially abroad. 



My eye naturally followed the now obsequious mo%o as he 

 elbowed through the crowd towards a dark recess in the 

 chimney-corner. I felt sure there would be some awkward- 

 ness from the exceedingly vicious principle on which our 

 self-constituted ambassador was about to act — viz., that 

 Englishmen meeting with one another in a far country 

 must be glad to see one another and eat at the same table. 

 Therefore, feeling that it was better to be impudently than 

 bashfully intrusive, I followed up my corps diplomatique^ 

 and emboldened also by hunger, approached the awful 

 strangers. 



The mo7.o had stopped on the great hearth to rake up 

 some embers which smouldered dimly round a huge rooty 

 log something of the size and shape of a sheep (and, indeed, 

 with the heterogeneous company of sticks around it, it 



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