Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/163

 *vas gaiters, with scraps of paper directed to two of the inhabitants, under pretence of purchasing pigs, I set out at two in the afternoon, attended by old Cocher, the servant maid, who walked about fifty paces in advance. On my arrival, Madame Winderkins received me in the utmost confusion: I questioned her upon her husband's delay; she told me she was apprehensive some accident had befallen him, or he certainly would not have failed in his promise. In the midst of our conversation, he entered, having visited the coast as far as Calais, without discovering any prospect of success more promising than at Blankenberg; he assured me, that not a craft, nor a boat of any kind, was to be seen in a situation whence it could be carried off. After a fulsome train of compliments, upon the patience and perseverance we had hitherto displayed; he repeated his entire devotion to the cause, be the risk never so great, and said, that during the detention of the fishing vessels, he would range the coast, and endeavour to find out other means of embarking. I