he thought I should save trouble if I
shot myself through the head.

All this was very alarming; and I began to doubt, when at last I caught
sight of the towers and domes of Paris in the distance, whether I should
not have been better off after all hiding in the caves under Fanad, or
dangling on the gallows beside Brest harbour.

At the barrier, however, things fell out easier for me than I had
feared. For, just as I arrived, a common cart on the way out had been
stopped and searched, and in it, hidden in a wood packing-case, had been
unearthed some notorious enemy of the people, over whose detection there
was great rejoicing, and the promise of a famous execution in the
morning. For all these reasons the soldiers and officials into whose
hands I fell were in high good-humour, and after scanning my passport
and the letter to the deputy let me go by.

I had followed the advice of my late counsellor, and forgotten all the
little French I knew, and had hidden the letter to Citoyen Lestrange in
my stocking. Whether I was to carry out the rest of his advice remained
to be seen.

The officer at the barrier retained my passport, saying it was done
with, from which I concluded that now I was in Paris there was little
hope of getting out of it again. So, feeling like a mouse in a trap, I
parted company with my horse, my passport, and even my pistol (of which
I was also relieved), and walked forward into the noisy city, wishing I
only knew where to go next.

Presently I came into a long narrow street, where the houses overhead
slanted towards one another and nearly shut out the light of heaven.
Poles stuck out from the windows, on which hung clothes or signs or
legends; the sight of which, swaying in the wind, mingled with the foul
odour and the noise and the jostling crowd, fairly dazed a country boy
like me. How, in such a place as this, was I to find what I wanted--
namely, a meal and a night's lodging?

At last, in front of me, there swung a flaunting sign--"A l'Irlandois"--
at which I cheered up. Here, at any rate, in the midst of this noisome
babel, seemed to come a whiff from the old country, and I felt like a
castaway in sight of land.

But before I had time to reach the place the whole street seemed
suddenly to go mad. First there was a yell and a roll of drums at the
end by which I had entered. Then every window seemed alive with people,
straining forward with howls and execrations and clenched fists.