od, but now disowns these slips of his
wanton youth, his case was still more desperate; for the Royal Nautical
proposed that he should take an oar in one of their eights on the
morrow, to compare the English with the Belgian stroke. I could see my
friend perspiring in his chair whenever that particular topic came up.
And there was yet another proposal which had the same effect on both of
us. It appeared that the champion canoeist of Europe (as well as most
other champions) was a Royal Nautical Sportsman. And if we would only
wait until the Sunday, this infernal paddler would be so condescending
as to accompany us on our next stage. Neither of us had the least desire
to drive the coursers of the sun against Apollo.

When the young man was gone, we countermanded our candles, and ordered
some brandy and water. The great billows had gone over our head. The
Royal Nautical Sportsmen were as nice young fellows as a man would wish
to see, but they were a trifle too young and a thought too nautical for
us. We began to see that we were old and cynical; we liked ease and the
agreeable rambling of the human mind about this and the other subject;
we did not want to disgrace our native land by messing an eight, or
toiling pitifully in the wake of the champion canoeist. In short, we had
recourse to flight. It seemed ungrateful, but we tried to make that good
on a card loaded with sincere compliments. And indeed it was no time for
scruples; we seemed to feel the hot breath of the champion on our
necks.

AT MAUBEUGE

Partly from the terror we had of our good friends the Royal Nauticals,
partly from the fact that there were no fewer than fifty-five locks
between Brussels and Charleroi, we concluded that we should travel by
train across the frontier, boats and all. Fifty-five locks in a day's
journey was pretty well tantamount to trudging the whole distance on
foot, with the canoes upon our shoulders, an object of astonishment to
the trees on the canal side, and of honest derision to all
right-thinking children.

To pass the frontier even in a train is a difficult matter for the
_Arethusa_. He is somehow or other a marked man for the official eye.
Wherever he journeys there are the officers gathered together. Treaties
are solemnly signed, foreign ministers, ambassadors, and consuls sit
throned in state from China to Peru, and the Union Jack flutters on all
the winds of heaven. Under these safeguards, portly clergymen,
schoolm