cted by this scene. I now began to throw a word or two to her
occasionally in her own language, which surprised them a good deal,
and no less were they astonished when I told them she was my wife. No
doubt she felt queer with all strangers round her and in a foreign
land, which to her was like a new world, but by the evening we were
all reconciled to each other; and by that time too we had dozens of
friends and neighbours in to see us. My wife particularly wished to
know what all these people wanted, as so many could not be all
relations, so I told her that they had chiefly come to see her, as
they had never seen a Frenchwoman before; but of course she would not
believe this piece of flattery.

I then thought of wetting the subject a little, but there was no
public-house in the village, the nearest being at Piddletown about
three miles off. However, I got one of my brothers to go even that
distance, and he having brought back four gallons, we made ourselves
comfortable till ten o'clock, when we retired to rest in the same room
that I had slept in eighteen years before.

After a good night's rest we rose early and found all recovering
themselves, except perhaps the old lady, who had not yet done piping.
After breakfast I took a walk round the village and fell in with the
clergyman of the place, who would insist on taking me to his house and
giving me some ale; and when he had once got me there, he kept me for
at least an hour, the chief topics we talked about being the war and
the religion of the countries I had been in. I was glad enough to get
away from there, but I had to spend the whole of that day in visiting
the people of the village; and the next day I had to occupy still
worse, for my mother brought out every letter sent by me during my
absence from the first to the last, and made me listen to them being
read, which by the time night came on had almost sent me crazy. I
advised her to burn the lot, but that only made her put them back in
their place again, saying, "Never, William, so long as I live."

We passed the next two days visiting such of my brothers and sisters
as lived more near, and then as I could not rest in one place for
long, on the third morning I set out with my wife for Corfe Mullen,
about twelve miles off, to see another brother who was a farm-labourer
there. After some few inquiries for George Lawrence I found out his
house, and was answered at the door by his wife, who of course had no
knowl