Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/209

Rh scenes in history can be created by one little man, whom I could have clapped into a basket, and carried on my shoulders from Cape Wrath to the Straits of Dover!'

'What was his name?' asked the King.

'Napoleon Bonaparte, sire. As for me, I began at last to rise in the world, and hired a carriage to Berlin, where I waited on the British Minister, and had my funds again recruited. In this city I remained for eight months, procrastinating from day to day my departure for Warsaw; for, yielding to my gambling propensities, I gained a prize in the Prussian lottery for four hundred crowns, my ticket having only cost me three shillings. I now gambled to excess, in spite of good resolutions vowed and sworn while lying quietly in bed. I was not happy until again within the exciting whirlpool. One of my partners at several games of whist was that debauched old dragoon, as his great enemy called him, who helped Wellington to crush Bonaparte at Waterloo, the renowned Field-Marshal Blucher. Tearing myself away from Berlin at last, I found myself at Dresden, where I fell among Philistines, and was completely fleeced, losing so large a sum as five hundred pounds to a disreputable rascal who I knew was not worth ten shillings.

'The gentlemen with whom I got connected at Dresden tried hard to persuade me that I was in debt to them, so I was obliged to depart suddenly without even applying for a passport, though I knew I should suffer greatly for want of one. But travelling now on foot, crestfallen and miserable, I was too obscure to attract much notice. One evening, however, arriving at the gate of a small fortified town, the sentinel positively refused to let me pass unless I produced my passport. I was terribly annoyed, being very tired and hungry, and the noise I made brought out the gatekeeper's wife, to whom I immediately appealed. God bless the ladies! Presenting her with two silk handkerchiefs, I