CHAPTER XII. Journey from London to Paris. "I went from England into France, I came to Paris on the Seine. 'Tis Europe's greatest town."-B. C. 1530. SEVERAL methods of reaching Paris from London offer themselves to the traveler, and as our company desired that which would give us the briefest time upon the water, we selected that by the way of Folkestone, situated a few miles south of Dover, which we reached in less than two hours from departure at London Bridge. Very pleasant was our drive through the county of Kent, with its perpetual undulations of surface, its exquisite greenness of meadows, its productive plantations, rendering it a fit frontier province, and "worthy of the bold yeomen who once formed the strength of the English armies." But alas! alas! for the next two hours, we have now reached a spot, which for its size has occasioned more real distress, vexation, and other varieties of ill-humor, than any to be named in Christendom, and that is the English Channel. The rush of water up this narrow passage causes a chopping sea, and most unfavorable to comfort of body or mind. A frequent expedient, when crossing, is to secure a reclining posture, which our two ladies were favored in doing by making all haste from the car to the boat. The recorded pages of those who have preceded us omened occurrences too truly realized. Dr. Murray, usually brimful of humor, got his Irish most fairly up, as appears from sentences like these: "My I. Crossing the Channel. 66 "I "You worst Atlantic sickness was drinking nectar in comparison with this." Presently a man, with a gold band around his cap, stood before me, and demanded my ticket, I gave it him, and he added, "four shillings, sir." "For what?” said "For your seat in the boat and for attendance." have paid to Paris, and I have had no attendance." might have had by asking," he bluffly added. As well as a person, sick almost unto death, could do, I found slowly four shillings, and as I slowly counted them into his hands, I said to him, "You and your government should be indicted, first for such wretched accommodations upon such a thoroughfare, and next for your gross imposition." If her majesty's servant was not cut by what I said, it was not my fault; I put on my sentence, the keenest edge I could. If such extortions were practiced in the United States, they would be bruited through Europe as "Americanism." In Mrs. Stowe's "Sunny Memories," we find a few paragraphs bearing upon this subject, which, for the graphic and telling, are not unworthy the pen of the author of "Uncle Tom." "As we ran along behind the breakwater, I could see over it the white and green waves fiendishly running, and showing their malign eyes sparkling with hungry expectation. Come out! come out!' they seemed to say; 'you little black imp of a steamer! Come out! don't be hiding behind there like a coward. We dare you to come out here and give us a chance at you! We will eat you up, as so many bears would eat a lamb!' and sure enough the moment her bow peeped beyond the pier the sea struck her, and tossed her like an egg-shell, and the deck, from stem to stern, was drenched in a moment, and running with the flood as if she had been under water. In a short time, what horrors, what complicated horrors-did not ** Strange Scenes on Deck. that crowded deck present! Did the fiercest miscreants of the middle ages represent among the torments of purgatory the deck of a channel steamer? If not, then they forgot the lower deep, that Satan doubtless thought about, according to Milton." Well, to return "to ourself," (as the editors say), what of that? Having left Mrs. S. and Miss N. in the cabin, with a pile of ominous looking bowls near at hand, I went to the deck and took my position between Rev. Drs. S. and M., who were leaning against the paddle-box. If two learned Doctors of Divinity cannot keep me straight, where can I look for human help? But alas! scholastic and theological lore may heal the maladies of the mind; but there is a spot they cannot reach, and that is the very one upon which those green waves were making their fiercest attacks. A half-hour over, and conversation began to flag a little. Casting a glance at Dr. M., I noticed that he looked pale. Are you quite well? I anxiously inquired. "Not exactly," was the pathetic reply. I ought not to have inquired, for a visit to the vessel's side was the consequence. "Dr. S.," said I, "my time has come," and away I went, not to return till I was punished for my roguishness towards Dr. M. Dr. S. looked pale and sad; but I said never a word, take care not to busy my for I had enough of my own to self any longer with other people's affairs. It were hardly possible to say which was the worst, the waves or the bowls, each was bad enough. Mr. N. and Mr. W., by descending and interesting themselves with the machinery, fared far better than we upon deck. In two hours we were across; when I peeped into the ladies' cabin, and what a scene! "Stat nominis umbra" which, freely construed, means "don't speak about it." I Arrival in France. will not, but leave my reader to learn by experience, that among the ills that a traveler in Europe is heir to,-crossing the English Channel is not the least. Here we are actually on French soil, and what a change! Passport and the French language were the two necessities from that hour onward. If I could have carried the latter on my tongue, easily as I did the former in my pocket, there would have been far less difficulty than I actually encountered. Happily, I had a lady in my charge, who looked after the one, as I did after the other-a reciprocity which no one can fully appreciate until a traveler in foreign lands. Certificates of nation, visage, form, &c., examined, breakfast taken, we are on board the cars, which we found altogether superior to those of the Island. Instead of the bare seats, naked backs, narrow space and lampless divisions of the English carriages, the French have, in the second class, stuffed seats and backs, with lamps, the latter required for the passage of tunnels. Here, as across the channel, there is the locking of doors upon the imprisoned traveler, but with this comfortable feature, a consciousness of safety from the apparent strength of machinery and completeness of outside arrangement, which comes greatly to one's relief, and renders tolerable, to say the least, that which would not in our country be endured for a month. Moving rapidly onward to the place of our destination, passing through the city of Amiens, noted in history for the treaty here concluded, between England and France, we reached the place of our destination at mid-night, where Miss N. found her friend, Mr. H., of N. Y., awaiting her arrival. A happy greeting. The rest of our party made our rapid way to hotels-rising on the morning of May 17th, Arrival at Paris. with a glowing appreciation of the fact-"we are in Paris!" Paris, world-famed for its splendor, its palaces, its fashions, its arts, its revolutions, its cooks, and its milliners! Paris, the abode, the birth-place of fashion. Sending thence those ukases which give the law to London, St. Petersburgh and New York! Paris, too well meriting the nervous and caustic apostrophe, "Thou strangest thing of all things strange, True to one love alone, and that one, change; Light without lustre, glory without fame. Earth's darkest picture, set in earth's most gilded frame." |