Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

92 & f Boulogne with our fellow-countrymen re- siding there, are the bailiffs and the gaoler of the debtor’s prison. With them the Eng- lish are tolerably intimate, in consequence of the frequent intercourse that takes place’ between them, | But the English in Boulogne are not very particular amongst themselves; that is to say, they even cheat, and traduce, in their own little domestic circles, with as much unconeern and independence as if they had already arrived at Botany Bay, which eventually proves to be their usual place of destination.. Few of the couples living together as husband and wife have deemed it necessary to go through the fatiguing _ ceremony of marriage, which is so generally esteemed elsewhere ; and the young ladies do-not suffer themselves to be at all uneas when they make a slight addition to the population of the town without their off- spring being born in lawful wedlock. These mamers and customs certainly savor of primitive freedom) and independence : but they are, however, supposed to be oce- | casionally accompanied by a few slight disadvantages. ; Duels are of very frequent occurrence in this liberal community. Their causes are, for the most part, accusations of cheating at cards, the seduction of an individual’s mis- tress or daughter, the trifling offence which one gentleman commits when he tells an- other, in unvarnished language, that he has uttered an untruth, or in some such every day occurrences, which speak so well and so much for the civilization and progressive improvement of the age we livein. The principal amusements of the gentlemen in Boulogne are gaming and getting drunk; those of the ladies, flirting and scandal— all equally innocent in their way, and ab- solutely necessary to the well-being of a fashionable. community. The only varia- tion to these modes of pastime is walking on the quay or pier, to see the steam-boats arrive, and exhibit a new cloak or bonnet which the tailor or milliner, with an ex- ‘tent of faith. sufficient to remove several mountains, has sent home the night before upon credit, shh In the middle of the Rue de ’Eeu, in the good town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, stands the -Hotel,du Nord; and on the occasion which we seize to introduce our readers thither, a tall slim young gentleman was standing in the middle of the court-yard of this splen- did hotel. © Yas PICKWICK ABROAD. ae ‘ F «“ What time did you say’the diligence starts?” demanded the tall slim young gentleman, whose age might be about six or seven-and-twenty, and who carried over his arm a large cloak with a canine-skin collar. “At five dis evening,” was the reply, given by a French Commissioner, who had pounced upon the English gentleman the moment he landed from the packet, and dragged him by force to the Hotel du ord. | , “Will you see about my luggage, then, if you please?” continued the tall gentle- man ; “and take me a place in the coupe , ‘(as i think they call it) for this evening ?” “Vary well, milord,” said the Commis- sioner. “But vot your name, for me see ater your von trunk ?” ‘ “Snodgrass—Mr, Augustus Snodgrass,” was the answer. i nd A gentleman, with large black whiskers, who had been lounging in the court-yard while the above dialogue was going on, “now stepped up to Mr. Snodgrass, and ad- dressed him with that ease and familiarity often adopted by modern travellers. © — “Going to Paris to-night?” demanded the gentleman. Mr. Snodgrass replied in the affirmative. “Know the language?” was the next question. ia . negative was the answer in its turn. ’“Wouldn’t like to go ina post-chaise, eh ? It’s a devilish deal better than humbugging in that cursed diligence, as the baronet used to say,” continued the gentleman with the black whiskers; “and if you choose to go halves in the expense, ’m your man—and no mistake.” — Mt Be 9 Mr. Snodgrass reflected. for a moment that he was ignorant of the French lan- guage, and that the stranger appeared to be a very gentlemanly, though somewhat off-hand individual; he accordingly made a few inquiries about the expense of travel- ling post, d&c., and eventually co : sented te accompany his new acquaintance manner proposed. ' _ “Snodgrass is your name I believe,” said the gentleman, leading the, way, coffee-room. “I think I've heard some of my friends mention that name before—but I can’t recollect who or when. Mine is Boloski—Count Boloski of Bolsk, Varso- vitch: I’m a Pole by birth, but I speak the English and French languages fluently.” — Mr. Snodgrass bowed with great vespect ‘ into the ~ Goin (9) DOOKSaEO