to endure in silence the
interminable hour which must elapse ere we should reach Culoz. There
we were to change cars, the Geneva train going on to Paris, while
we took the train on the opposite platform for Aix-les-Bains. This
necessitated passing through the depot, and passing through the depot
was passing through the custom-house. As our train stopped in front of
the fatal door, and one by one the passengers filed into it and were
lost to sight, I seemed to see written above the door, "All hope
abandon, ye who enter here!" It was simply rushing into the jaws of
fate: there was not the slightest possibility of my being able to pass
through that depot unchallenged. I should be carried on to Paris if
I remained in the train; I should be arrested if I remained on the
platform; I was discovered if I entered the custom-house. Eagerly I
glanced around for some means of escape. Every instant the number of
passengers on the platform was decreasing, the danger of discovery
rapidly increasing.

I had feared lest some benevolent French officer, anxious for my
safety, would be found waiting to assist me in alighting: I was
thankful to find that I should be allowed to assist myself, and
that no one paid any particular attention to me. As I stood there
hesitating what course to pursue, and feeling how much easier my mind
at this moment would be were I waiting on the Belgarde platform, I
noticed a door standing open a few steps to the left. Without any
further hesitation I walked directly in, to find myself in a railroad
restaurant. It proved to be a tower of refuge.

No one had noticed me. There were other passengers in the room,
waiting for the Paris train; so, joining myself to them, I remained
there until the custom-house doors were closed and the guards had left
the platform. The question now arose, How should I reach the opposite
platform? The train might start at any moment: the only legitimate
passage was closed. I knew that the attempt would be fraught with
danger, yet I felt that it was now too late to draw back. If I
remained any length of time in the restaurant, I should be suspected
and discovered; and as I thought of that moment a terrific scene arose
before my mind in which an excited French official thundered at me
in his choicest French, while I stood silent, unable to explain who
I was, how I came there, whither I was going; I imagined myself being
searched for treasonable documents and none being found; I seemed