We arrived, after an hour's drive, at the villa belonging to my
protector's family, and walked into a large room, with a comfortable
stove, and extensive preparations made for a comfortable breakfast.
Presently three young ladies appeared. They were his sisters,--blue--eyed,
fair--haired, white--skinned, round--sterned, plump little partridges.
"Haben sie gefruhstucht?" said the eldest.
"Pas encore," said he in French, with a smile. "But, sisters, I have
brought a stranger here, a young English officer, who was recently
captured in the river."
"An English officer!" exclaimed the three ladies, looking at me, a poor,
little, dirty midshipman, in my soiled linen, unbrushed shoes, dirty
trowsers and jacket, with my little square of white cloth on the collar;
and I began to find the eloquent blood mangling in my cheeks, and tingling
in my ears; but their kindly feelings got the better of a gentle
propensity to laugh, and the youngest said--"Sie sind gerade zu rechter
zeit gekommen:" when, finding that her German was Hebrew to me, she tried
the other tack "Vous arrivez a propos, le dejeuner est pret."
However I soon found, that the moment they were assured that I was in
reality an Englishman, they all spoke English, and exceedingly well too.
Our meal was finished, and I was standing at the window looking out on a
small lawn, where evergreens of the most beautiful kinds were checkered
with little round clumps of most luxuriant hollyhocks, and the fruit trees
in the neighborhood were absolutely bending to the earth under their loads
of apples and pears.
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