rses, he reached Dover by
morning, hired a vessel to carry him over, and soon left England and his
creditors behind. He was instantly pursued; but the chase stopped on
reaching the sea. Debtors could not then be followed to France, and
Brummell was secure.

The little, rude, and thoroughly comfortless town of Calais was now to
be the place of residence, for nearly the rest of his life, to a man
accustomed to the highest luxuries of London life, trained to the
keenest sensibility of London enjoyment, and utterly absorbed in London
objects of every kind. Ovid's banishment among the Thracians could
scarcely be a more formidable change of position. Yet Brummell's
pleasantry did not desert him even in Calais. On some passing friend's
remark on the annoyance of living in such a place--"Pray," said the
Beau, "is it not a general opinion that a gentleman might manage to
spend his time pleasantly enough _between_ London and Paris?"

At Calais he took apartments at the house of one Leleux, an old
bookseller, which he fitted up to his own taste; and on which, as if
adversity had no power to teach him common prudence, he expended the
greater part of the 25,000 francs which, by some still problematical
means, he had contrived to carry away with him. This was little short of
madness; but it was a madness which he had been practising for the last
dozen years, and habit had now rendered ruin familiar to him. At length
a little gleam of hope shone across his fortunes. George IV. arrived at
Calais on his way to Hanover. The Duke d'Angouleme came from Paris to
receive his Majesty, and Calais was all in a tumult of loyalty. The
reports of Brummell's conduct on this important arrival, of the King's
notice of him, and of the royal liberality in consequence, were of every
shape and shade of invention. But all of them, except the mere
circumstance of the King's pronouncing his name, seem to have been
utterly false. Brummell, mingling in the crowd which cheered his Majesty
in his progress, was observed by the King, who audibly said, "Good
heavens, Brummell!" But the recognition proceeded no further. The Beau
sent his valet, who was a renowned maker of punch, to exhibit his talent
in that art at the royal entertainment, and also sent a present of some
excellent maraschino. But no result followed. The King was said to have
transmitted to him a hundred pound note; but even this is unluckily
apocryphal. Leleux, his landlord, thus gives the version