112 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



report in Dover, that somebody must have perished during the night. 

 I now began to have hints from within, that I should have to wrestle 

 with a cold and fever. A short cough, with pain at the chest, gave 

 me to understand that a cold bath at midnight was more likely to 

 do harm than good. Still I felt great repugnance at the very 

 thought of returning home to my house in Yorkshire. There was a 

 French steamer in the harbour, to start for Calais in the afternoon. 

 I embraced the opportunity ; so, having settled my little account at 

 the hotel, and having thanked the worthy landlady for her attention to 

 an unknown gentleman in distress, I bade her farewell ; and whilst 

 shaking her by the hand, I assured her that, wherever I went, I 

 would never fail to recommend to my friends the excellent cheer 

 and comfortable apartments in the Dover Castle Hotel. As we 

 parted, she put a card into my hand, with the address, ' Hotel 

 de Paris, a Calais, tenu par Charles Ledez.' 'This, sir,' said the 

 landlady, as she gave it to me, ' will be of service to you, on your 

 reaching Calais.' And so, indeed, it proved to be ; for this kind- 

 hearted French gentleman did everything in his power to comfort 

 me. We had a roaring fire, at which I gave him a full account ot 

 my recent disaster. He remained with me in the coffee-room until 

 midnight, when he took a ticket for me by the train for Flanders, 

 got my passport viewed, and thus saved me much trouble at the 

 time when I was the least prepared to undertake it.' 



" Arrived at Bruges, I felt assured that I was called upon to pay 

 the piper for my late wintry dance in Dover's unprotected basin. 

 Symptoms of fever, heats, and shiverings, alternately accompanied 

 by cough and oppression at the chest, warned me forcibly that it 

 was time to keep a sharp look-out. This was on the eve of the 

 great festival of the Holy Blood. I had come all the way from 

 Yorkshire to be present at it, and I could not well brook a disap- 

 pointment. Finding things going worse and worse on the score of 

 health, I resolved at once to have recourse to the lancet, and I 

 forthwith drew twenty-five ounces of blood from my arm. The 

 operation was crowned with complete success, and I immediately 

 became a new man. The fever, cough, and headache went away as 

 though by magic. I found myself competent to attend the proces- 

 sion through the streets of the city, for full four hours ; but to make 



