strain. Yet Gibbon
quailed before a final resolution. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, his mother,
Mrs. Gibbon, his friend, Lord Sheffield, all joined in deprecating his
voluntary exile. "That is a nonsensical scheme," said the latter, "you
have got into your head of returning to Lausanne--a pretty fancy; you
remember how much you liked it in your youth, but now you have seen
more of the world, and if you were to try it again you would find
yourself woefully disappointed." Deyverdun, with complete sympathy,
begged him not to be in too great a hurry to decide on a course which
he himself desired so much. "I agree with you," he wrote to Gibbon,
"that this is a sort of marriage, but I could never forgive myself if
I saw you dissatisfied in the sequel, and in a position to reproach
me." Gibbon felt it was a case demanding decision of character, and he
came to a determination with a promptitude and energy not usual with
him. He promised Deyverdun in the next letter an ultimatum, stating
whether he meant to _go_ or to _stay_, and a week after he wrote, "I
go." He had prudently refrained from consulting Lord Sheffield during
this critical period, knowing that his certain disapprobation of the
scheme would only complicate matters and render decision more
difficult. Then he wrote, "I have given Deyverdun my word of honour to
be at Lausanne at the beginning of October, and no power of
persuasion can divert me from this _irrevocable_ resolution, which I
am every day proceeding to execute."

This was no exaggeration. He cancelled the lease of his house in
Bentinck Street, packed the more necessary portion of his books and
shipped them for Rouen, and as his postchaise moved over Westminster
Bridge, "bade a long farewell to the _fumum et opes strepitumque
Romae_." The only real pang he felt in leaving arose from the "silent
grief" of his Aunt Porten, whom he did not hope to see again. Nor did
he. He started on September 15, 1783, slept at Dover, was flattered
with the hope of making Calais harbour by the same tide in "three
hours and a half, as the wind was brisk and fair," but was driven into
Boulogne. He had not a symptom of seasickness. Then he went on by easy
stages through Aire, Bethune, Douay, Cambray, St. Quentin, La Fere,
Laon, Rheims, Chalons, St. Dizier, Langres, Besancon, and arrived at
Lausanne on the 27th. The inns he found more agreeable to the palate
than to the sight or the smell. At Langres he had an excellent bed
about six