own to assist such as were in prison, which charitable
disposition he perhaps acquired from having lost a good place himself,
having seen the inside of a prison, and known the want of a meal's
victuals, all which trials King Pharaoh's butler underwent, so he may
have been that butler; at any rate, I have known positive conclusions
come to, on no better premises, if indeed as good. As for the story of
his coming direct from Satan's kitchen, I place no confidence in it at
all, as Black Jack had nothing of Satan about him, but blackness, on
which account he was called Black Jack. Nor am I disposed to give credit
to a report that his hatred of the Portuguese arose from some ill
treatment which he had once experienced when on shore, at Lisbon, from
certain gentlewomen of the place, but rather conclude that it arose from
an opinion he entertained that the Portuguese never paid their debts, one
of the ambassadors of that nation, whose house he had served, having left
Paris several thousand francs in his debt. This is all that I have to
say about Black Jack, without whose funny jokes, and good ordinary, I
should have passed my time in Paris in a very disconsolate manner.

"After we had been at Paris between two and three months, we left it in
the direction of Italy, which country the family had a great desire to
see. After travelling a great many days in a thing which, though called
a diligence, did not exhibit much diligence, we came to a great big town,
seated around a nasty salt-water basin, connected by a narrow passage
with the sea. Here we were to embark; and so we did as soon as possible,
glad enough to get away; at least I was, and so I make no doubt were the
rest; for such a place for bad smells I never was in. It seems all the
drains and sewers of the place run into that same salt basin, voiding
into it all their impurities, which, not being able to escape into the
sea in any considerable quantity, owing to the narrowness of the
entrance, there accumulate, filling the whole atmosphere with these same
outrageous scents, on which account the town is a famous lodging-house of
the plague. The ship in which we embarked was bound for a place in Italy
called Naples, where we were to stay some time. The voyage was rather a
lazy one, the ship not being moved by steam; for at the time of which I
am speaking, some five years ago, steamships were not so plentiful as
now. There were only two passengers in the grand cabin, w