Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone: Made During the Year 1819Hughes, John
History
Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone: Made During the Year 1819
Hughes, John
Provence (France) -- Description and travel; Rhône River (Switzerland and France)
We were unsuccessful in our attempts to see the arsenal, the object best
worth attention in Toulon; as it is open to none but naval officers,
the very class of men, one would suppose, whose prying eyes it would be
least desirable to admit. The young officer at the gate, however, was
very pleasant and communicative, and conversed with us in excellent
English; a language which he had partly acquired as a prisoner during
the war, and partly by his education at the Marine School of this place,
where our language is one of the first things taught. An inveterate John
Bull might remark, "Ay, these fellows know they are sure to be made
prisoners, if they fight with us; and that is the reason they take this
precaution." Our English pride was certainly gratified this evening, but
it was by the voluntary civility which we experienced during our walk
from this young man and several others who had been prisoners in our
country. It is peculiarly pleasing to find those who visited England
under circumstances commonly the most unfavourable, expressing grateful
recollections of their treatment, and ready to acknowledge them by
little attentions. We found, indeed, nothing but friendly faces among
that very class of people of whom we should have been most shy of making
inquiries, and at the very place where we should have expected them to
excite the least pleasant recollections. Two marines accosted us on the
quay, to point out a sand-bank which the English had attempted to cut
through during the siege of Toulon, in order to facilitate the entrance
into the harbour; and on our inquiry whether they had penetrated as far
as a station where we saw a 140 gun ship and some others laid up, they
answered with a laugh, "Ah oui, Messieurs, ils etoient la, et encore
plus loin, je vous en reponds."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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