should infallibly see him, and have our business duly dispatched. The
office in which we were to wait for this Mons. Mangouit for three hours,
was about five feet in length by three in width, very dirty, without a
chair, and in every respect resembling a cobler's stall in one of the
most obscure streets of London. Mons. Commissary's inkstand was a
coffee-cup without an handle, and his book of entries a quire of dirty
writing-paper. This did not give us much idea either of the personal
consequence of Mons. Mangouit, or of the grandeur of the Republic.

The boy was sent out to summon his master, as a preferable way to our
waiting till twelve o'clock. Monsieur at length made his appearance; a
little, mean-looking man, with a very dirty shirt, a well-powdered head,
a smirking, bowing coxcomb. He informed us with many apologies,
unnecessary at least in a public officer, that he was under the
necessity of doing his duty; that his duty was to examine us according
to some queries transmitted to him; but that we appeared gentlemen, true
Americans, and not English spies.

After a long harangue, in which the little gentleman appeared very much
pleased with himself, he concluded by demanding our passport, upon sight
of which he declared himself satisfied, and promised to make us out
others for passing into the interior. We were desired to call for these
in the evening, or he would himself do us the honour to wait upon us
with them at our hotel. Considering the latter as a kind of
self-invitation to dine with us, we mentioned our dinner hour, and other
_et ceteras_. Mons. Mangouit smiled his acquiescence, and we left him,
in the hopes that he would at least change his linen.

Upon leaving the Commissary, our wheel-barrow was again put in motion,
and accompanied us to Dessein's. This hotel still maintains its
reputation and its name. After seeing almost all France, we had no
hesitation in pronouncing it to be the only inn which could enter into
any reasonable comparison with any of the respectable taverns either of
England or America. In no country but in America and England, have they
any idea of that first of comforts to the wearied traveller, a clean and
housewife-like bed. I speak from woeful experience, when I advise every
traveller to consider a pair of sheets and a counterpane as necessary a
part of his luggage as a change of shirts. He will travel but few miles
from Calais, before he will understand the necessity of this ad