of Police, inclosing my father's passport, and requiring his
departure, by way of Calais, within a given time.

Whatever share curiosity as to the contents of the paper might have
had in my father's first thoughts, a sense of offended dignity for the
manner of his treatment speedily mastered; and as he journeyed along
towards the coast, his mind was solely occupied with one impression. To
be suddenly excluded from the society in which he had so long mixed, and
banished from the country where he had lived with such distinction, were
indeed deep personal affronts, and not without severe reflection on his
conduct and character.

His impatience to quit a land where he had been so grossly outraged grew
greater with every mile he travelled; and although the snow lay heavily
on the road, he passed on, regardless of everything but his insulted
honor. It was midnight when he reached Calais. The packet, which had
sailed in the afternoon, had just re-entered the port, driven back by
a hurricane that had almost wrecked her. The passengers, overcome with
terror, fatigue, and exhaustion, were crowding into the hotel at the
very moment of my father's arrival. The gale increased in violence at
every instant, and the noise of the sea breaking over the old piles of
the harbor was now heard like thunder. Indifferent to such warning, my
father sent for the captain, and asked him what sum would induce him to
put to sea. A positive refusal to accept of any sum was the first reply;
but by dint of persuasion, persistence, and the temptation of a large
reward, he at last induced him to comply.

To my father's extreme surprise, he learned that two ladies who had just
arrived at the hotel were no less resolutely bent on departure, and,
in defiance of the gale, which was now terrific, sent to beg that they
might be permitted to take their passage in the vessel. To the landlord,
who conveyed this request, my father strongly represented the danger of
such an undertaking; that nothing short of an extreme necessity would
have induced him to embark in such a hurricane; that the captain,
who had undertaken the voyage at his especial entreaty, might,
most naturally, object to the responsibility. In a word, he pleaded
everything against this request, but was met by the steady, unvarying
reply, "That their necessity was not less urgent than his own, and that
nothing less than the impossibility should prevent their departure."

"Be it so, then," said my