ome out and invited him to breakfast
or dinner, according to the hour, or at any rate to take some
refreshment; and several sent for his portemanteau from the inn where he
had put up (sometimes without his knowledge), compelling him to pass the
night at their chateau. On my making some remark as to the urbanity of
the French, "Oh! don't think," he exclaimed, "that I am praising them as
a nation, for I hate them; I only speak of facts as they happened." I
then asked him how he was treated at the inns in the different
provinces, and whether he was much imposed upon. "I cannot say I was,"
he replied, "or in any instance that I had reason to complain of my
treatment."

From this gentleman's account of the reception he had met with in
France, would not any rational being have imagined that he would speak
well of the French? instead of which, I soon had the most powerful
proofs to the contrary. When we arrived at Dieppe we found a party
assembled at the _table d'hote_, at the _hotel_ at which we alighted,
consisting of a few French but, more of English; the former left the
room as soon as the cloth was withdrawn, and the latter remaining, the
conversation became general and very patriotic; and as the merits of
England and the English rose in the discussion, so did the demerits of
France and the French sink, and at last bumpers were drank to old
England for ever, in which we all joyously joined. This was all very
natural and proper, but this ebullition of national and praiseworthy
feeling had hardly subsided, when Mr. Lewis, the very man who had
admitted that he had been received with kindness and hospitality
wherever he had been in France, arose, and said, "Now, gentlemen, I have
another toast to propose to you, which I hope will be drank with the
same enthusiasm as the last; so "Here's a curse for France and the
French." All immediately drank it but myself and an elderly gentleman,
who declared he would not invoke a curse upon any land or any people. A
silent pause intervened; every one appeared to look at the other, as to
how they ought to act on their toast being refused, none caring to
assume the initiative. At last, one rising from his chair, who perhaps
began to view the affair temperately, observed, "Well, I think we had
better see about the packet-boat for Brighton before it is too late,"
and they all quitted the room, except the elderly gentlemen and myself,
and he did certainly animadvert most severely against what