——BOULOGNE!——hah!——so we are all got together——debtors and sinners
before heaven; a jolly set of us—but I can’t stay and quaff it off with
you—I’m pursued myself like a hundred devils, and shall be overtaken,
before I can well change horses:——for heaven’s sake, make haste——’Tis
for high-treason, quoth a very little man, whispering as low as he
could to a very tall man, that stood next him——Or else for murder;
quoth the tall man——Well thrown, _Size-ace!_ quoth I. No; quoth a
third, the gentleman has been committing———
_Ah! ma chere fille!_ said I, as she tripp’d by from her matins—you
look as rosy as the morning (for the sun was rising, and it made the
compliment the more gracious)—No; it can’t be that, quoth a
fourth——(she made a curt’sy to me—I kiss’d my hand) ’tis debt,
continued he: ’Tis certainly for debt; quoth a fifth; I would not pay
that gentleman’s debts, quoth _Ace_, for a thousand pounds; nor would
I, quoth _Size_, for six times the sum—Well thrown, _Size-ace_, again!
quoth I;—but I have no debt but the debt of NATURE, and I want but
patience of her, and I will pay her every farthing I owe her——How can
you be so hard-hearted, Madam, to arrest a poor traveller going along
without molestation to any one upon his lawful occasions? do stop that
death-looking, long-striding scoundrel of a scare-sinner, who is
posting after me——he never would have followed me but for you——if it be
but for a stage or two, just to give me start of him, I beseech you,
madam——do, dear lady——
——Now, in troth, ’tis a great pity, quoth mine _Irish_ host, that all
this good courtship should be lost; for the young gentlewoman has been
after going out of hearing of it all along.——
——Simpleton! quoth I.
——So you have nothing _else_ in _Boulogne_ worth seeing?
—By Jasus! there is the finest SEMINARY for the HUMANITIES——
—There cannot be a finer; quoth I.