Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 231: what you’re looking at

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

198 . ALFRED; OR ADVENTURES rushed out of the room, glad to escape the severe necessity of beholding Selina’s woe, of which he himself was the innocent cause. De Rosann had ordered the post-chaise to be ready at ten o’clock on the following morning. He packed up his various papers with the most particular attention, arranged every thing ready for his departure, and lay down to rest—but not to sleep. At one moment the image of Selina haunted his fancy; and at another the antici- pated happiness he promised himself on his arrival at St. Malo, drove away all inclination to slumber. It was not till nearly daylight that he closed his eyes in forgetfulness of his present good - fortune and his past miseries; perhaps even then they followed him in his dreams. Ge, When he awoke, he found a waiter of the hotel standing by his bed-side with a letter in his hands. Our hero hastily tore it open ; he recognised the hand-writing of Leblond, and as speedily perused its contents, which obliged him to counter-order the post- chaise for a few hours. Leblond’s epistle was short, and neither welcome nor disagreeable. It merely stated, that as De Rosann would doubtless quit London immediately, even if he had not already left, he might call at a certain mercantile house in the city, and take charge of a considerable sum of money, in bills of ex- change and cheques upon Paris, which Leblond gave him authority to receive. This sum was doubtless destined for the service of those invisible powers whose intrigues extended even to a foreign land e> and De Rosann did not hesitate a moment what course to puwst® .~. * Leblond declared he should have mentioned the circumstance 1 his letter which accompanied the king’s pardon, and which Alfred aR had received the day before, had it not slipped his memory as he | wrote in a hurry. He concluded by desiring our hero not to linger more than possible on his journey to Paris, and to call at the Rue de la Chanoinesse the moment he arrived in that city. De Rosann threw the letter upon the table near the bed, and hastily performed his toilet, in order to lose no time ere he started for Southampton, whence it was his intention to embark on board a steam-vessel bound to Havre. He threw himself into a hackney- coach, and desired the driver to take him to an address, that he named, in the city. The obsequious Jarvey whipped his two miserable animals, which he was pleased to dignity by the title of horses, and the vehicle dew along the Strand at a quicker rate than ordinarily distinguishes carriages of the kind. And here we may observe, en passant, that if the English hackney-coachmen and omnibus-cads were only one quarter as civil as the individuals who fill similar distinguished situations in France, the magistrates of Bow-street, Hatton-garden, &c., would leave the official benches half an hour earlier every day, to their especial contentment, and to the annoyance of the proprietors of Bell's Life zn London and the | Weekly Dispatch, the columns of which journals are invariably filled with police-reports wherein the myrmidons of Shillibeer generally = figure to advantage. Sige is 2: Sy On account: of certain formalities to be filled up, and certain id - J os ECORNICLOOOKS. COm