such a reception,
I ventured to inquire if I should be able to see the consul on the
following day.

"No," replied the clerk, abruptly, without raising his eyes from the
desk; "neither tomorrow nor the day after."

I left the counting room, hobbled down the steps, and returned to my
temporary home, feeling like "the Ancient Mariner," "a sadder and a
wiser man!"

Chapter XVI. UNITED STATES CONSULS

Weeks passed, and I remained in Liverpool. I had called several times at
the consulate, and each time met with the same ungracious reception. I
could never see the consul, and began to regard him as a myth. I did not
then know that every time I called he was seated at his comfortable
desk in a room elegantly furnished, which was entered from the ante-room
occupied by his clerks. Nor could I get any satisfactory information
from the well-dressed Englishman, his head clerk. I ventured to ask that
gentleman one day if Captain Bacon had not left money with Mr. Maury
for my benefit. But he seemed astonished at my audacity in imagining the
possibility of such a thing.

After the lapse of three weeks, a messenger came to my boarding house
with directions for me to appear at the consulate the next morning at
nine o'clock precisely. Full of hope, overjoyed that some change was
about to take place in my destiny, I impatiently awaited the hour in
which I was to present myself at the office of the American consul,
hoping to have an interview with that dignitary. By this time I had
thrown aside my crutches, and, although owing to the weakness of my
fractured limb I limped as ungracefully as the swarthy deity who, after
being kicked out of heaven, set up his blacksmith's shop in the Isle
of Lemnos, I managed, with the aid of a stout cane, to pass through the
streets without difficulty.

When I reached the counting room of the consul, I found the everlasting
clerk at his post, as unfeeling, as authoritative, and haughty as ever.
He addressed me at once as follows: "You will go directly to Queen's
Dock; find the ship Lady Madison of New York, and put this letter into
the hands of Captain Swain. He will give you a passage to New York,
where you must take care of yourself. The ship will sail in a day or
two. Be sure to be on board when the ship leaves the dock."

I regretted that a passage had not been provided in a vessel going
directly to Boston. Ships were leaving Liverpool every day for that
place. Nevertheless, I took the l