y a series of low narrow tables, which were, on closer
inspection, nothing but planks put upon bricks and laid round the four
sides of the apartment. Of other furniture there did not seem to be a
vestige in the place, save such as pertained to the necessities of
eating and sleeping. Each man lolled back on his own pile of dirty
pillows and dirtier blankets; each had before him a great metal
drinking-cup, a coarse knife, which I found was for hacking meat, long
rolls of plug tobacco, and a small red bundle, which I doubt not was
his portable property. Each, too, was dressed exactly as his fellow, in
a coarse red shirt, seamen's trousers of ample blue serge, a belt with
a clasp-knife about his waist, and each had some bauble of a bracelet
on his arm, and some strange rings upon his fingers. In the first
amazement at seeing such an assembly in the heart of civilised Paris, I
did no more than glean a general impression, but that was a powerful
one--the impression that I saw men of all ages from twenty-five years
upwards; men marked by time as with long service on the sea; men
scarred, burnt, some with traces of great cuts and slashes received on
the open face; men fierce-looking as painted devils, with teeth, with
none, with four fingers to the hand, with three; men whose laugh was a
horrid growl like the tumult of imprisoned passions, whose threats
chilled the heart to hear, whose very words seemed to poison the air,
who made the great room like a cage of beasts, ravenous and
ill-seeking. This and more was my first thought, as I asked myself,
into what hovel of vice have I fallen, by what mischance have I come on
such a company?

Martin Hall seemed to have no such ill opinion of the men, and put
himself at his ease the moment we entered. I had, indeed, believed for
the moment that he had brought me there with evil intent, distrusting
the man who was yet little more than a stranger to me; but recalling
all that passed, his disguise, his evident fear, I put the suspicion
from me, and listened to him, more content, as he made his way to the
top of the room and stood before one who forced from me individual
notice, so strange-looking was he, and so deep did the respect which
all paid him appear to be. We shall meet this man often in our travels
together, you and I, my friends, so a few words, if you please, about
him. He sat at the head of the rude table, as I have said, but not as
the others sat, on pillows and blankets, for