ally, as he discovered my acquaintance
with various languages, the knowledge I possessed of different remote
countries, their habits and natural productions, this incredulity gave
way; and when finally I produced the letters of the Havannah banker,
with the receipts for my instalments, he showed that every shade of
hesitation had vanished, and that he no longer entertained a doubt of my
veracity.

As the hour of separating drew nigh, he turned the subject to my own
immediate requirements; and although I assured him that my ring, which
I had already disposed of, was sufficient for all immediate wants, he
insisted upon my accepting a loan of one hundred dollars, to be repaid,
as he himself said, "when I resumed my countship." These were his
parting words as I ascended to the roof of the diligence.

CHAPTER XXXI A NEW WALK IN PROGRESSIVE LIFE

I will not trespass on my reader's patience with the details of my
journey, nor ask him to form acquaintance with any of those pleasant
travelling companions whose whims, caprices, and merry fancies lightened
the road. The company of a diligence is a little world in all its
features of selfishness, apathy, trustfulness, credulity, and unbelief.
It has its mock humilities and absurd pretensions even more glaringly
displayed than every-day life exhibits them. Enough, then, if I say
ours were fair specimens of the class; and when, on arriving at the
Messageries Royales, the heavy "conveniency" deposited us in the court,
we shook hands all round ere separating, like people who were well
pleased when together, but yet not broken-hearted at the thought of
parting.

And now I found myself at Paris, that glorious capital, whose very air
is the champagne of atmospheres, and where, amid the brilliant objects
so lavishly thrown on every side, even the poor man forgets his poverty,
and actually thinks he has some share in the gorgeous scene around him.
I heaved one heavy sigh from the very bottom of my heart as I thought
what might have been the condition in which I could once have rolled
along these same streets; and with this brief tribute to the past, I
trudged along towards the Embassy. All my hope lay in the prospect of an
interference on the part of the English Government, and the demand of an
indemnification for my loss.

After some little delay, and a Blight catechizing on the part of a bulky
porter in scarlet livery, I was admitted to a room where a number of
people, chiefly c