which promised to make me better
acquainted with one evidently a character; and after half an hour's
chatting, I arose.

"You're not going away, are you?" said he. "Well, I can't leave this
yet; so I'll just send a boy, to show you the way to the 'St. Antoine.'"

With that, he beckoned to a lad at one of the tables, and addressing a
few words in Flemish to him, he shook me warmly by the hand: the whole
room rose respectfully as I took my leave, and I could see, that "Mr.
O'Kelly's friend," stood in no small estimation with the company.

The day was just breaking when I reached my hotel; but I knew I could
poach on the daylight for what the dark had robbed me; and, besides, my
new acquaintance promised to repay the loss of a night's sleep, should
it even come to that.

Punctual to his appointment, my newly-made friend knocked at my door
exactly as the cathedral was chiming for nine o'clock.

His dress was considerably smarter than on the preceding evening, and
his whole air and bearing bespoke a degree of quiet decorum and reserve,
very different from his free-and-easy carriage in the "Fischer's
Haus." As I accompanied him through the _parte-cochere_, we passed the
landlord, who saluted us with much politeness, shaking my companion, by
the hand, like an old friend.

"You are acquainted here, I see," said I.

"There are few landlords from Lubeck to Leghorn I don't know by this
time," was the reply, and he smiled as he spoke.

A caleche with one horse, was waiting for us without, and into this we
stepped. The driver had got his directions, and plying his whip briskly,
we rattled over the paved streets, and passing through a considerable
part of the town, arrived at last at one of the gates. Slowly crossing
the draw-bridge at a walk, we set out again at a trot, and soon I could
perceive, through the half light, that we had traversed the suburbs, and
were entering the open country.

"We've not far to go now," said my companion, who seemed to suspect that
I was meditating over the length of the way; "where you see the lights
yonder--that's our ground."

The noise of the wheels over the _pave_ soon after ceased, and I found
we were passing across a grassy lawn in front of a large house, which,
even by the twilight, I could detect was built in the old Flemish taste.
A square tower flanked one extremity, and from the upper part of this,
the light gleamed, to which my companion pointed.

We descended from the carria