Part 45 (2/2)

At Havre, I discovered that the measures of the police were of the very strictest kind, and that to obtain a permission to embark, it was necessary to have a reference to some citizen of the town, who should stand guarantee for your loyalty and integrity. Now, I had never been there before; I knew none, not even by name; and what was I to do?

Great as my difficulty was, I did not suffer it to appear so to the commissary, but calmly said that I 'd return to my hotel, and run my eye over a list of the merchants for one to be my bail.

The packet was to sail that evening with the tide; and as the office of the commissaire closed at four o'clock, there was little time to lose.

I wandered on ”from street to street; I walked into cafes; I sat down in the most public places, scanning with eagerness every face that pa.s.sed me, and straining my eyes to try and detect the features of an acquaintance. The pursuit became at length a perfect farce, and I hurried to and fro with a burning brain, and a restless impatience that was almost maddening.

”Parbleu! this is the fourth time you've been in here to-day,” cried a short, thickset man, past the prime of life, and who kept a sort of slop-shop near the quay. ”What do you want with me, my lad?”

I was turning to leave the spot without replying, when he closed the half-door of his shop, and placed his back against it.

”Come, my friend, you shall certainly say what has brought you here, ere you get away this time.”

”I am in search of some one,--I am looking for one of my acquaintances,”

said I, hurriedly.

”And expected to find him here?” added he, half sneeringly.

”Here--anywhere,” said I, recklessly.

”Just so; I thought as much. Well, my lad, you had better give a more satisfactory account of yourself to the commissary. Come along with me to the police.”

”With all my heart,” cried I.

”Who are you? Whence do you come?” asked he, with somewhat of kindliness in his voice.

”These are questions you have no right to ask me, citizen,” replied I.

”Well, have I not a right to know why you have been four several times in my shop this forenoon, and never bought nor asked for anything?”

”That you shall hear freely and frankly,” said I; ”I have a pa.s.sport made out for England, whither I wish to go. The authorities require that I should have some reference to a citizen of Havre before they allow me to depart. I am a stranger here,--I know of no one, not even by name.

The whole of this morning I have spent hurrying hither and thither to find out some one I have seen before, but in vain. All are strangers to me; none know me. In my wanderings, it may be that I have chanced to come here as often as you say,--perhaps I have done so in twenty places; for my head is distracted, and I cannot collect my thoughts. There, then, is the answer to your inquiry.”

”Have you a trade or a handicraft, lad?”

”Not either.”

”Nor any means of support?”

”Quite sufficient for all my wants,” replied I, boldly; and at the same time producing my purse, well stored as it was with five-franc pieces.

”Ah, then, you belong to some of the _emigres?_ You are going to join your family?” asked he, but in a lower and more cautious voice.

”Don't you think that I have been candid enough already, friend?” said I; ”and do you not know sufficient of my affairs, without asking me more?”

”Not if it be for more than mere curiosity,” said he, drawing nearer to me; ”not if I ask from a sincere interest in you.”

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