274 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



from getting my passport ; but that I had letters 

 proving who I was, and I felt sure the captain of the 

 packet would vouch for me. The gendarme, very 

 civilly, said, he " could not let any one pass without 

 a passport ;" and on this the blackguards behind me 

 gave a sort of shout of derision. I replied to the 

 gendarme that " I knew he must do his duty what- 

 ever it was," and I called to the captain to come and 

 explain. The captain replied by some insolent re- 

 mark, the purport of which I could not catch, and 

 laughed at me. He then gave the order to go 

 ahead, and left me in a dark rainy night wet 

 through on the quay at Havre, surrounded by a 

 crowd of the lowest blackguards, and steamed away 

 for England with every single thing I possessed, and, 

 for all he knew, with my money. 



As the vessel moved off the steward called out in a 

 jocular vein, *^ Will you have your dogs to keep you 

 company ?" to which I replied, " No ; and you had 

 better take care of them at least, and deliver them to 

 Mr. Matchem, at the Dolphin, or I will make you smart 

 for it: give me at least my dressing-case — you have 

 left me nothing." The answer to this, if there was 

 one, was drowned in the roar of the revolving wheels, 

 as the vessel started for her destination. It was not 

 a pleasant fix, this, that I felt myself in, alone in a 



