THE DUG DE NIVERNAIS 191 



to Dover, and landing there on the morning of 

 September 11. The elements had been unkind to 

 him, and his passage occupied no less than five hours ; 

 but Nivernais handed over to Captain Ray, the 

 commander of the Princess Augusta yacht (the vessel 

 in which he had voyaged and suffered the most horrible 

 pangs of sea-sickness), the sum of one hundred guineas, 

 to be divided among the crew. Perhaps the unbounded 

 gratitude with which he found himself again upon the 

 shore — even though it were not his nati^'e land — 

 accounted for the magnitude of this largesse. 



The country was not eager for the peace which 

 exhausted France desired, and looked upon Nivernais' 

 commission rather as an attempt to curtail the glory 

 which England and Englishmen were reaping on land 

 and achieving by sea ; but the French Ambassador 

 was received with a show of enthusiasm and the 

 discharge of cannon as he landed at Dover, and a 

 crowd of shouting countrymen cheered him as, bowing 

 his acknowledgments of this reception, he bowled away 

 in a coach and six horses, accompanied by a retinue 

 of twelve persons. 



Bowled, did I say ? Nay : the motion of the ill- 

 hung equipages of that day, tumbling along over the 

 wretched roads of those times, resembled little the 

 smooth career of bowls gliding over trimly shaven 

 bowling-greens. Rather should the motion be described 

 as a series of hesitating lurches and unexpected jolts ; 

 and this in the comparative excellence of the highways 

 in September ! 



The Ambassador had started upon his journey from 

 Dover to London as soon as possible after the early 

 hour of the morning when he had landed from the 

 " Chops of the Channel ** ; but he arrived at Canterbury 

 too late for further progress to be made that day. 

 Therefore he put up in the Cathedral city, after having 

 had the empty satisfaction, to a traveller in his 

 exhausted condition, of being received en grande tenue 

 by the garrison. 



