I accordingly read the letter over to her, and when I had finished, she remarked,—
“Poor boys! poor boys! Prisoners! Well, well, it cannot be helped. We must be patient, and trust to the mercy of Le Bon Dieu. And now, monsieur, as to yourself. You are doubtless hungry and tired. Here is the supper which I had prepared for my two; alas! they are not here to eat it; but draw up, monsieur; put the basket in the corner there, and draw up to the table. You are heartily welcome to such as a poor widow has to give; and when you have satisfied your hunger I will show you to your bed. It was my boy’s—my poor Jean’s—ah! will he ever sleep on it again?”
I drew up to the table, in accordance with the poor old soul’s invitation; and while partaking of what turned out to be a very savoury meal, did my best to cheer her up with the hope of speedily seeing her Jean once more.
My meal concluded, she conducted me up a rickety, worm-eaten staircase, to a small room above that which we had just left; and indicating one of the two beds therein as the one belonging to her Jean, and the one, therefore, which I was to occupy, bade me good-night and retired.
I must admit that, now I had fairly embarked upon my adventure, I found there were certain physical discomforts incidental to it, which were by no means to my taste. Thus, the disguise upon which my safety to a great extent depended, consisted of clothing the reverse of clean, and though it was certainly odoriferous enough, the perfume was by no means that of “Araby the blest.” Then there was my lodging. It was moderately clean, perhaps, compared with the condition of a few of the places in the immediate neighbourhood; but ideas of cleanliness, like ideas upon many other matters, vary, and this place, though doubtless considered scrupulously clean by the rightful occupants, was sufficiently the reverse to make me really uncomfortable; and for a short time I abandoned myself to reflections the reverse of self-complimentary with regard to the impulse which had led me into such a situation. But the fact remained that I was there; and common-sense suggested the desirability of making the best of the situation; I accordingly arranged matters as comfortably as I could, and flinging myself upon the coarse pallet was soon wrapped in a dreamless slumber.
My first business in the morning was to find out and report myself to the maire. I had given a great deal of consideration to this matter while rowing ashore on the previous night, weighing carefully the arguments for and against such a course; and had finally arrived at the conclusion that, though such a proceeding would undoubtedly be fraught with great danger, yet it would in reality be the safest thing to do. The great thing to avoid was the exciting of suspicion; and the surest means of achieving this seemed to me to be, not the actual courting of observation, certainly, but the careful avoidance of anything which seemed like shunning it.
Accordingly, after an early breakfast, during the discussion of which I easily extracted from my unsuspicious hostess all the information necessary to enable me to find my way to the various points I deemed it most important to visit, I shouldered my basket of fish, and set out on my way to the residence of Monsieur le Maire.
As I slouched heavily and leisurely along the streets, affecting as nearly as I could the clumsy gait of a common seaman on terra firma, I glanced carefully about me to note such signs as might make themselves visible of the state of things within the town. It was not however until I reached the more respectable business quarter of the town that I was able to detect much. Then I observed tickets in the windows and on the stalls, announcing the various articles for sale—and especially provisions—at only—such a price—and exorbitantly high these prices were, too.
I soon had reason to see that my resolution to report myself was a wise one; for I had not proceeded far on my way before I found myself the subject of sundry suspicious glances, and shortly afterwards a corporal of infantry hurried up behind, and, laying his hand upon my shoulder, exclaimed,—
“Halt, friend, and give me your name and place of residence, if you please. You are a fisherman, apparently, yet two of your own people have just pointed you out to me as certainly a stranger.”