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    46 BRADSHXW THE BETRAYER.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    .+. " Oh Doricles ! Your Praises Are Too...

    _grille , and despised the natives , and loathed the hotel Teie de Bdeuf , and wearied of the . waiter , and almost lost my faith in human

    nature . —Bradshaw excepted ! Bradshaw to whom . I trusted for

    tomorrow morning's deliverance—Bradshaw whom I never _doiibted for an instant—Bradshaw the inestimable—Bradshaw the veracious

    —Bradshaw the Well , I won't mind that just at present !

    The resignation with which I dined in the desert , and retired once more to rest beneath the funereal amber satin draperies of

    the catafalque ; the cheerful alacrity with which I rose the next morning ; and the benevolent frame of mind in which I discharged

    my bill , and feed the melancholy waiter , can never be described . At a quarter to ten o ' clock I despatched my luggage to the bureau _^

    and at ten precisely I followed it . : It was market-dayand the space in front of the hotel was lined

    with stallsand thronged , with noisy peasants . Stacks of fruit and vegetables , obstructed the pavement _; rude barrows and charrettes

    blocked up the roadway ; the population of old women seemed to have been multiplied by twenty ; and high above all the noise

    and bustle jangled the perpetual chimes . I crossed the street with difficulty , and in the midst of this confusion looked round

    in search of the cabriolet de poste _. Save the barrows , the cliarrettes ., and one yellow dilapidated , weather-beaten , perilous-looking cart ,

    . with a penthouse roof and _, a patched leather apron , standing at the corner of the street , there was no kind of conveyance in sight .

    I wandered into the stableyard of the bureau , but found it empty . I peeped into the office , but saw only the canary . I grew nervous .

    I began to fear that I had mistaken the hour , and that the courier had started without me . In this emergency I addressed myself

    to a sunburnt stripling who was lolling on a bench outside the door with a pipe in his mouth , and a short thong-whip across his

    knees . He looked about sixteen , was very shabby and ragged , wore sabots and no stockings , and had little gold rings in his ears .

    " Can _yoti tell me , " said I , " if the cabriolet has started ?" " Will start as soon as ever the letters come up from the station , "

    said he , pointing with his pipe to the cart at the comer . " There it sta " nds That . " rickety old charrette ¦ / " I exclaimed , tc That the

    government mail ! Impossible ! " The boy grinned and shrugged his shoulders .

    " I'll complain to the authorities , " I continued , indignantly . " Eleven francs to ride twelve miles in such a wretched concern as

    t courier hat ! ? W " . . . h y , it's an imposition ; and—and—where can I find the

    " I The I am boy : _the knocked courier" said ashes he out of cooll his pipe " and if ' re the - very y ; you pas

    ,,,

    46 Bradshxw The Betrayer.

    46 _BRADSHXW THE BETRAYER .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/46/