Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
Most joyfully I followed him. We walked on, in silence, till at length
we came to a narrow street, where the crowd was so great that I thought
we should both of us have been squeezed to death. I saw the guillotine
at a distance, and I felt sick.
"'Come on,' said my guide, who kept fast hold of me; and he turned
sharp into a yard, where I heard the noise of carts, and the voices of
muleteers. 'This man,' said he, leading me up to a muleteer, who seemed
to be just ready to depart, 'is my father; trust yourself to him.'
"I had nobody else to trust myself to. I got into the muleteer's covered
cart; he began a loud song; we proceeded through the square where the
crowd were assembled. The enthusiasm of the moment occupied them so
entirely, that we were fortunately disregarded. We got out of Paris
safely: I will not tire you with all my terrors and escapes. I, at
length, got on board a neutral vessel, and landed at Bristol. Escaped
from prison, and the fear of the guillotine, I thought myself happy; but
my happiness was not very lasting. I began to apprehend that I should be
starved to death; I had not eaten for many hours. I wandered through the
bustling streets of Bristol, where every body I met seemed to be full of
their own business, and brushed by me without seeing me. I was weak, and
I sat down upon a stone by the door of a public-house.
"A woman was twirling a mop at the door. I wiped away the drops with
which I was sprinkled by this operation. I was too weak to be angry;
but a hairdresser, who was passing by, and who had a nicely powdered wig
poised upon his hand, was furiously enraged, because a few drops of the
shower which had sprinkled me reached the wig. He expressed his anger
half in French and half in English; but at last I observed to him in
French, that the wig was still '_bien poudrée_'--this calmed his rage;
and he remarked that I also had been _horribly_ drenched by the shower.
I assured him that this was a trifle in comparison with my other
sufferings.
"He begged to hear my misfortunes, because I spoke French; and as I
followed him to the place where he was going with the wig, I told him
that I had not eaten for many hours; that I was a stranger in Bristol,
and had no means of earning any food. He advised me to go to a tavern,
which he pointed out to me--'The Rummer;'--he told me a circumstance,
which convinced me of the humanity of the master of the house.{4}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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