bed. After, to me, a rough sea and river passage of eight days,
marked by no greater incidents than belonged to the vicissitudes of the
weather, we crossed the sand-bar at the mouth of the Elbe, and were soon
safe at our moorings in the outer harbour of Hamburg. It was Sunday
morning; paddled on shore in the ship's boat, I found myself in a town
utterly strange to me, armed only with a letter addressed to a person
with whom I could not converse, and written in a language I did not
understand. My chief comforts were three sovereigns, carefully wrapped
in a piece of cotton print, and deposited in my fob.

In the course of a ramble through the town, I discovered an English
hotel, and was there happy in making the acquaintance of a needle-maker
of Redditch, Worcestershire, who at once offered to be my interpreter and
guide in search of employment. We began our peregrinations on the
morrow, and I was first introduced to the only English cabinet-maker
established in Hamburg, who, however, did not receive our visit
cheerfully. He drew a rueful picture of trade generally, but more
especially of his own. The hours of labour were long, he said; the work
was hard, and the wages contemptible. He concluded by assuring me that I
had been very ill advised to come there, and that the best course I could
pursue was to take the first ship home again. As I was not yet inclined
to follow this doleful piece of advice, we continued our enquiries. In a
short time I was shaking hands with the jeweller to whom my letter of
introduction was addressed; and before another hour had elapsed, acting
under his instructions, I had the gratification of knowing that I was "in
work," and, best of all, under an employer who spoke the English, French,
and German languages with equal facility. Thus, in ten days from leaving
England, eight of which were spent on the passage, I had found both
friends and employment in a foreign city, and now that my greatest source
of anxiety for the future was removed, felt thoroughly independent and at
my ease.

My companions in the workshop were a quiet Dane who spoke German, and a
young Frenchman, whom I will call Alcibiade, who had been in London, and
acquired a smattering of English. We worked twelve hours a day,
commencing at six o'clock in the morning--the whole city was up and busy
at that hour--and kept on till seven in the evening. Thirteen hours were
thus spent in the workshop, one of which was given t