nd axe and knapsack to the realms of snow he rushes.
O can I e'er the hour forget--a voice within cries "Never!"--
From British beef and sherry _dear_ which my young heart did sever?
My limbs were cased in flannel light, my frame in Norfolk jacket,
As jauntily I stepped upon the impatient Calais packet.
"Dark lowered the tempest overhead," the waters wildly rolled,
Wildly the moon sailed thro' the clouds, "and it grew wondrous cold;"
The good ship cleft the darkness, like an iron wedge, I trow,
As the steward whispered kindly, "you had better go below"--
Enough! I've viewed with dauntless eye the cattle's bloody tide;
Thy horse, proud Duke of Manchester, I've seen straight at me ride;
I've braved chance ram-rods from my friends, blank cartridges from foes;
The jeers of fair spectators, when I fell upon my nose;
I've laughed at toils and troubles, as a British Volunteer;
But the thought of that nigh's misery still makes me pale with fear.
Sweet the repose which cometh as the due reward of toil;
Sweet to the sea-worn traveller the French or British soil;
But a railway-carriage full of men, who smoke and drink and spit,
Who disgust you by their manners, and oppress you with their wit;
A carriage garlic-scented, full of uproar and of heat,
To a sleepy, jaded Briton is decidedly not sweet.
Then welcome, welcome Paris, peerless city of delights!
Welcome, Boulevards, fields Elysian, brilliant days and magic nights!
"Vive la gloire, et vive Napoleon! vive l'Empire (c'est la paix);
"Vive la France, the land of beauty! vive la Rue St. Honore!"
Wildly shouting thus in triumph, I arrived at my Hotel--
The exterior was palatial, and the dinner pretty well:
O'er the rest, ye muses draw a veil! 'Twas the Exhibition year--
And everything was nasty, and proportionately dear,
Why should ye sing how much I paid for one poor pint of claret--
The horrors of my bedroom in a flea-frequented garret--
Its non-Sabaean odours--Liliputian devices
For washing in a tea-cup--all at "Exhibition prices?"
To the mountains, to the mountains, to their snowy peaks I fly!
For their pure, primeval freshness, for their solitude I sigh!
Past old Dijon and its Buffet, past fair Macon and its wine,
Thro' the lime-stone cliffs, of Jura, past Mont Cenis' wondrous line;
Till at 10 A.M., "Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face,"
And I take outside the diligence for Chamonix my place.