Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 323: what you’re looking at

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

PICKWICK ABRUAD. 269 And as the voice repeated’ the words “‘ here below” a number of times, with pleasing variations, and in a rich volume, Mr. Pickwick became aware that he and his fair companion could be indebted to no other than Mr. Septimus Chitty for the harmony and the mterruption. They therefore prudently determined to avoid any encounter at that moment with the poet, and hastened towards the house, both not a little pleased with the confessions and avowals mutually given and received. The horses were now harnessed to the vehicle, and every prepara- tion was made for departure. Messieurs Pickwick, Scuttle, Siffkin, and Mrs. Weston, occupied one carriage; and Messieurs Tupman, Winkle, Chitty, and Walker, established themselves in the green britzka. Mr. Weller mounted the dickey of the latter—for once being obliged to separate for an‘hour from his beloved master; and the ca- valcade rolled leisurely on the road which leads to Paris: but as the horses which were attached to the vehicle that bore the four first- named individuals, were of somewhat a superior order of animals, it is not to be wondered at if the green britaka were soon distanced, and its occupants unable to discern the least glimpse of its precursor ten minutes after they had both left the inn together. As the night was dark, the driver of the first carriage crossed the river by the bridge opposite the Champs de Mars, and availed himself of the lamps which are placed at long intervals on the quay that leads from the Barriére of Passy to the Champs Elysées, while the inmates of the vehicle were all occupied in snoring to the utmost of their power, Mrs. Weston excepted. The carriage had arrived at the entrance to the Champs Elysées, and the driver was preparing to make his horses gallop in unison, when the front axle-tree broke with a des- perate jerk, and the equipage rolled lightly and easily over in the middle of the road. e coachman, who escaped with only a few bruises, hastened to extricate the lady and the three gentlemen from their unpleasant predicament inside the vehicle. Fortunately no bones were broken—but bruises had been plentifully distributed amongst them; a violent concussion with the door, in particular, having en- tirely bunged up Mr. Nassau Siffkin’s nght eye. Our travellers were all standing very miserably in the middle of the road, uncertain what course to adopt, as no vehicles were passing at that hour, and as the green britzka was pursuing its way on the other side of the river, when the door of an adjacent house was hastil thrown open, and a gentleman, bearing a lamp, and followed by his servants with lanthorns, issued from the said dwelling, and hastened to the spot. The gentleman, who was a little old fellow attired in the extreme of fashion, addressed himself with a thousand genuflexions to the discomfited party, and being answered in French by Mr. Scuttle, a short colloquy ensued between them, which ended in Mr. Scuttle’s informing his friends that the strange gentleman insisted upon their accepting his hospitality for an hour, while one of his domestics ob- tained a hackney-coach. To this proposition there was no possibilit of raising an objection: Mr. Pickwick accordingly rush forward, expelled Mr. Siffkin from the vicinity of Mrs. Weston, and havin conveyed that lady’s arm through his own, proceeded boldly into the COOUM ©) 6)(0)() .S (c@)