On the following day we dined at Blois, where they gave us some of the finest grapes I had yet partaken of in France. In the evening the weather proved rainy; at midnight we arrived at Tours, from whence, after resting a few hours, we proceeded on our journey at five o’clock in the morning; at eight o’clock we halted at a small town for breakfast, where I derived some gratification from meeting with a person who could speak English, an Irish horse-dealer, travelling with his string of horses from Rochelle to Paris.
We reached Poitiers for dinner, at the late hour of eight in the evening, but my companions did not appear to be annoyed at this late postponement of their favourite repast. It appears very immaterial to a Frenchman when he gets his meals, he is not only toujours prêt, but endures fasting with better grace by far than an Englishman. On the following day we passed through Limoges and Angoulême. In the afternoon of this day, we took up a woman and her daughter, aged about seventeen, with a child; these were the only females I had yet met with in a diligence in France, and I could not but feel irritated at the ungallant treatment they received from their countrymen. The young lady having placed herself in the seat of one of them, he very rudely insisted upon her restoring it: I regretted that I was unable to advocate her cause: but possibly this feeling might be dictated by some selfish motive, as a desire to resent certain indignities to which I had been subjected by the same individual, who frequently annoyed me with the fumes of his segar, and once had the impudence to puff them in my face; I felt not a little inclined to give him personal chastisement, but prudence restrained me.
About nine o’clock on the following morning, being Sunday, the 31st of October, one of our company exclaimed, “Voilà Bordeaux!” The sound revived me exceedingly, for I was become irritable and impatient, from the length and fatigue of the journey. At twelve o’clock the coach halted, and my fellow-passengers immediately jumped out, leaving me to shift for myself. Of course I concluded that we had arrived at the coach-office, and began to call loudly for the conducteur to come and assist me in getting out. He immediately presented himself, uttered the now well-known “toute a l’heure,” and left me. Although I perfectly recollected the unlimited signification of this word in Paris, what could I do? Had I jumped out, I should not have known what step to have taken next, and the rain was falling in torrents. There appeared no remedy, but to sit patiently until it might please some one to come to my assistance. In a while I heard at least thirty people around the coach, talking a loud and unintelligible gibberish, quite unlike any language of the country which I had hitherto heard; soon afterwards I perceived the carriage undergoing an extraordinary, and irregular kind of motion; the people occasionally opened the door, and made me move from one side to the other, as if they were using me for shifting ballast; I inferred that they were taking off the wheels, with a view of placing the carriage under cover. After this I became sensible of a noise of water splashing, as if they were throwing it from out of hollows, where it had collected in consequence of the rain. It was in vain that I endeavoured to gain an explanation of my being thus left behind in the coach, the only satisfaction I could derive was “tout a l’heure,” and the conviction that nothing remained for me but to be patient.
“But patience is more oft the exercise
Of saints, the trial of their fortitude.”
At length the motion began to increase, and to my great surprise, after an hour’s suspense, I heard the horses again attaching to the carriage; the passengers re-entered the coach, and we once more proceeded on our journey!
It was afterwards explained to me, that these unaccountable proceedings arose, on our having arrived on the banks of the river Dordogne, which enters the Garonne, near Bordeaux, from the necessity, at this point, of transporting the carriage on a raft for some distance down the stream; that the passengers had crossed the river in a ferry-boat, to a coach waiting for them on the other side, leaving me to float down with the carriage on the raft, or sink to the bottom as fate might determine; in short, I found that, while I supposed myself sitting in the coach-office yard at Bordeaux, I had actually travelled four miles by water, without having entertained the least idea of such an adventure.
In a quarter of an hour after this, we actually arrived at the coach office. On alighting, I was accosted by a man, who in the English language informed me, that he was a traiteur (or the keeper of an eating and lodging-house), and who did me the favour of recommending to me, in very strong terms, both his house and his wife; the latter, he said, was an American, spoke English well, and would provide me an excellent bed, as well as every thing else I might wish for; but as I had a particular introduction to a friend, I determined to decline these tempting offers, until I had consulted him: taking the traiteur’s card therefore, and requesting him to procure a hackney-coach, I drove straightway to the house of my friend, who recommended me to take lodgings in preference. I lost no time in adopting his suggestion, and taking immediate possession of my apartments, experienced the great luxury and refreshment of changing my dress, after four days’ uninterrupted travelling.
After this, my friend accompanied me to dine at a traiteur’s, first bargaining that we should be allowed to select any four dishes from the carte, for which, with a small bottle of wine, and pain a discrétion, we were to pay about fifteen-pence each. In the first place, we were served with soup in silver basins; then came an entré of ragoûts, and afterwards a roast chicken, followed by a dessert. When we had done, we gave the waiter three or four sous, with which he appeared highly satisfied.
On the following morning, at the urgent instance of my friend, I consulted an eminent oculist of this place, respecting my eyes, who appeared to entertain the same opinion as most of my medical attendants in England; namely, that a cataract existed, but not sufficiently matured, to be operated upon, with advantage, for the present. My friend, however, was not satisfied with this opinion, and insisted upon taking me to the wife of an umbrella-maker, famous for her skill in restoring sight, and who recommended a long course of herb medicines, and other nostrums; but I wanted faith in her power to serve me, and moreover, was satisfied with the opinions, in which my medical friends had concurred, as well as reconciled to my deprivation, and resigned to the will of Providence.