interruption. From a smart little French maid I learned that the family
was called Grimes; that they had recently come from England by way of
Gibraltar, where one of the sons, now with them, was quartered with his
regiment; that the party consisted of a widow lady with three daughters
and two sons, a third being the invalid at Pisa. They were rich, good
sort of folks, very ignorant of the Continent, very credulous, and
altogether a satisfactory kind of connection for a cunning French
_femme-de-chambre_ and a roguish courier to fall in with. This latter
fact Mademoiselle Virginie insisted upon with no small degree of
self-gratulation, giving me to understand that we might have a very
thriving career as fellow-laborers in the same vineyard.

Her sketches of English life, manners, and prejudices were not a little
amusing, while the rules she laid down for the due management and
control of her masters were a perfect chapter in domestic machiavelism.
There had once been a time when I would have enlisted willingly under
such a banner,--glad to reach the upper story of life, even by such a
back stair; but now that I had tasted the glorious supremacy of command
myself, that I had revelled in the mastery of a great household, that
I had rolled along in my own chariot, clothed in fine linen and
faring sumptuously every day, I felt my return to a menial situation
a degradation unendurable. I determined that, once in Italy, I would
escape from the thraldom of such servitude, come what might of it.

By long dwelling on the theme, I had contrived to impress myself with
the most profound conviction that I was a much-injured individual, that
my case, if not sufficient for a war with Spain, was a fair ground for a
parliamentary "flare-up," angry diplomatic notes, and Heaven knows what
threats of our outraged Foreign Office. That a man with such a glorious
grievance should sink down into a courier, to wrangle with landlords,
bully waiters, and flirt with the "maid in the rumble," was not to be
thought of. I felt that I was sworn at Highgate, and destined for the
inside of the travelling-carriage, and not the "out."

Scarcely were we arrived at Leghorn, and installed at the San Marco,
than I began to prepare for my emancipation,--a bold step, considering
that all the available resources I possessed was a ruby ring set round
with brilliants, which I had concealed in my cap along with my papers.
I was admonished to lose no time in my dep