.

"When I saw that there was no way to turn back, I determined to go
forward boldly, and even eagerly, trusting to the course of events to
give me a chance of escape. I wrote to Collins to say that my relative
was better, and should not require me to go over; and, in short, by
eleven o'clock on the appointed Saturday, we all assembled on the deck
of the 'St Helier,' bound for Jersey.

"Never was a jollier party met for an excursion of pleasure,--all but
Hawke himself; he came aboard very ill, and went at once to his berth.
He was in that most pitiable state, the commencing convalescence of
delirium tremens, when all the terrors of a deranged mind still continue
to disturb and distress the recovering intellect. As we went down one
by one to see him, he would scarcely speak, or even notice us. At times,
too, he seemed to have forgotten the circumstance which brought us all
there, and he would mutter to himself, 'It was no good job gathered all
these fellows together. Where can they be going to? What can they be
after?' We had just sat down to dinner, when Towers came laughing into
tie cabin. 'What do you think,' said he to me, 'Hawke has just told
me confidentially? He said, "I 'm not at all easy about that lot on
deck,"--meaning you all. "The devil doesn't muster his men for mere
drill and parade, and the moment I land in the island I 'll tell the
police to have an eye on them."' We laughed heartily at this polite
intention of our host, and joked a good deal over the various
imputations our presence might excite. From this we went on to talk over
what was to be done if Hawke should continue ill, all being agreed
that, having come so far, it would be impossible to forego our projected
pleasure: and at last it was decided that I, by virtue of certain
domestic relations ascribed to me, should enact the host, and do the
honors of the house, and so they filled bumpers to the Regency, and I
promised to be a mild Prince.

"'There's the thing for Godfrey,' said Towers, as some grilled chicken
was handed round; and taking the dish from the waiter, he carried it
himself to Hawke, and remained while he ate it. 'Poor devil!' said he,
as he came back, 'he seems quite soft-hearted about my little attentions
to him. He actually said, "Thank you, old fellow."'"

Perhaps our reader will thank us if we do not follow Paten through a
narrative in which the minutest detail was recorded, nor any, even the
most trivial, incident forgotten