come to the casement, and, opening the meatcage, taken thereout a dish of lard, and the suspended chicken. The botte of onions and turnips she has left on the window look like a caricature on the fragrant roses and geraniums of the neighbouring croisée.

This mixture is strange: it would have afforded me endless amusement, had not my mind been less happily engaged. As it is I have seen and heard little of what is going on in this teeming hollow square, except, perhaps, the unceasing labours of an unhappy young lady not far off, who is pursuing the "delightful task" of learning music. Up the gamut and down again go her poor indefatigable fingers from morning till night; the only change or variation with which she indulges herself and her hearers being from the plain scale to the chromatic, and from the chromatic to the plain again. The discordant tones of the porter's parrot, who shrieks out, "Bon jour, Jacquot""pauvre Jacquot"—"Ah! le petit Jacquot!" until his shrill cries can be heard at the cinquième, are a welcome relief to this musical monotony.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Parting-Hotel du Nord, versus l'Hotel des BainsThe Boulogne steamer-The ladies' cabin-Landing -Conclusion.

Boulogne, Nov. 11th.-Another chasm, which I have no inclination to fill up. It would comprise the parting with my beloved G

W

and

and the bitterness of that is too fresh,

too prone already to recur, for me to dwell upon it. The day arrived too soon;

"the moments bring

The time of parting with redoubled wing.”

Perhaps Byron goes too far in that parting. scene in the Corsair, the most touching, most natural, most heart-rendingly true that ever fell from poet's pen, when he says of “farewell,” that,

"in that word-that fatal word, howe'er, We promise,-hope-believe-there breathes despair."

Perhaps he goes too far in this; and yet who is there that in the bitter moment of separation, with all the uncertainties, the changes and chances of this mortal life before him, has not rather felt a momentary pang of " despair," than a gleam of any more hopeful feeling?

But enough: those who know what parting is, need not be told of its sadness, and those who do not-I was going to say are to be envied; but no. They must in this case be strangers to that endearing affection which makes it so hard to say farewell; and though spared the transient pain of parting, must lose the great and abiding pleasure of loving and being loved.

The road between Paris and Boulogne is so "flat, stale, and utterly unprofitable" to everybody except the inn-keepers, (who by the way seem to have profited abundantly this season,) that the best spirits would fail to embellish it.

When we reached Samer, the next stage before Boulogne, a very amusing scene took place. Before the carriage had well stopped, a hand, with a card in it, was thrust into the window, and presently appeared the young, ruddy, animated face belonging to said hand, the eyes beaming with eagerness, while the lips moved with the utmost rapidity. "Ladies and shentlemen, 'low me to recommend de Hotel des

VOL. II.

R

Bains, de best hotel at Boulogne-you will be ver well dere-de best hotel.”

"Soyez persuadé, messieurs et dames, que le meilleur hotel à Boulogne, c'est l'Hôtel du Nord-l'hôtel du Nord, messieurs et dames."

This was breathlessly uttered, and half-adozen other cards poured into our laps by a fresh candidate-a small, keen-eyed, hatchetfaced, dried-up little man, with a sharp, pinched nose, set crooked in a visage as wrinkled, as anxious, and as full of business as if he had the politics of Europe to manage.

The ruddy advocate of the hotel des Bains, without even deigning a glance at the new comer, began again:

"Ladies and shentlemen, 'low me to recommend de hotel des Bains, de best hotel-”

"Le meilleur hotel c'est l'Hôtel du Nord," exclaimed the pale-faced champion.

"I who speak de English, can assure you, shentlemen, dat de best-"

"Comme si tout le monde ne savait pas le François !" interrupted the other; evidently sore, however, at this advantage which his antagonist possessed over him. "Messieurs," he added, "vous trouverez à l'hôtel du Nord un valet de place qui parle parfaitement bien Anglais."

"All de waiters, and every body speaks de English at l'Hôtel des Bains."

"Soyez persuadé cependant que l'Hôtel du Nord"

"Dey're superior shops close to l'Hôtel des Bains."

"Les meilleurs boutiques à Boulogne sont en face de l'Hôtel du Nord."

"And den you have de view of de sea from de windows."

"On le voit aussi de l'Hôtel du Nord," exclaimed the rival champion, nothing daunted:

(the sea is half a mile from this hotel.) "Oui," he continued with the vehemence of one who knew he was making a bounce; “je vous assure, messieurs et dames, que l'on peut voir la mer de l'Hôtel du Nord."

"Aye, from de top of de chimney—cried the advocate of the Hotel des Bains; and this sally excited a roar of laughter from every one round the carriage.

We inside had been laughing for some time. Indeed it was impossible not to be amusedthere was something so irresistibly comic in the contrast between the two advocates and the vehement energy with which they put forth the claims of their respective hotels. Our mirth in no way interfered with their volubility,