I had often heard of people being taken up by a PLANK, but
seldom of their being set down by one. Just as I was going over, the
vessel rode off a little, the board slipped, and down I soused into the
water. You might have heard Mrs. Coxe's shriek as far as Gravesend; it
rung in my ears as I went down, all grieved at the thought of leaving
her a disconsolate widder. Well, up I came again, and caught the brim of
my beaver-hat--though I have heard that drowning men catch at straws:--I
floated, and hoped to escape by hook or by crook; and, luckily, just
then, I felt myself suddenly jerked by the waistband of my whites, and
found myself hauled up in the air at the end of a boat-hook, to the
sound of "Yeho! yeho! yehoi! yehoi!" and so I was dragged aboard. I
was put to bed, and had swallowed so much water that it took a very
considerable quantity of brandy to bring it to a proper mixture in my
inside. In fact, for some hours I was in a very deplorable state.
NOTICE TO QUIT.
Well, we arrived at Boulogne; and Jemmy, after making inquiries, right
and left, about the Baron, found that no such person was known there;
and being bent, I suppose, at all events, on marrying her daughter to a
lord, she determined to set off for Paris, where, as he had often said,
he possessed a magnificent ---- hotel he called it;--and I remember
Jemmy being mightily indignant at the idea; but hotel, we found
afterwards, means only a house in French, and this reconciled her.
Pages:
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632