etitioned
the director for leave to take a row on the etang. Half a dozen of the
eldest succeeded in obtaining leave, and I was commissioned to accompany
them as surveillant. Among the half dozen happened to be a certain Jean
Baptiste Vandenhuten, a most ponderous young Flamand, not tall, but
even now, at the early age of sixteen, possessing a breadth and depth of
personal development truly national. It chanced that Jean was the first
lad to step into the boat; he stumbled, rolled to one side, the boat
revolted at his weight and capsized. Vandenhuten sank like lead, rose,
sank again. My coat and waistcoat were off in an instant; I had not been
brought up at Eton and boated and bathed and swam there ten long years
for nothing; it was a natural and easy act for me to leap to the rescue.
The lads and the boatmen yelled; they thought there would be two deaths
by drowning instead of one; but as Jean rose the third time, I clutched
him by one leg and the collar, and in three minutes more both he and I
were safe landed. To speak heaven's truth, my merit in the action was
small indeed, for I had run no risk, and subsequently did not even catch
cold from the wetting; but when M. and Madame Vandenhuten, of whom Jean
Baptiste was the sole hope, came to hear of the exploit, they seemed
to think I had evinced a bravery and devotion which no thanks could
sufficiently repay. Madame, in particular, was "certain I must have
dearly loved their sweet son, or I would not thus have hazarded my own
life to save his." Monsieur, an honest-looking, though phlegmatic man,
said very little, but he would not suffer me to leave the room, till
I had promised that in case I ever stood in need of help I would, by
applying to him, give him a chance of discharging the obligation under
which he affirmed I had laid him. These words, then, were my glimmer of
light; it was here I found my sole outlet; and in truth, though the cold
light roused, it did not cheer me; nor did the outlet seem such as I
should like to pass through. Right I had none to M. Vandenhuten's good
offices; it was not on the ground of merit I could apply to him; no, I
must stand on that of necessity: I had no work; I wanted work; my best
chance of obtaining it lay in securing his recommendation. This I knew
could be had by asking for it; not to ask, because the request revolted
my pride and contradicted my habits, would, I felt, be an indulgence of
false and indolent fastidiousness. I migh