Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/33

 *sides, our situation at this moment may seem to have been desolate enough:—without friends; without experience; without any knowledge of the language of those, amongst whom the fate of war had thrown us. But sailors are not prone to despondency; and the buoyancy of youthful spirits kept us from dwelling upon present difficulties, or anticipating future troubles. There was, at any rate, a novelty in our present circumstances, which excited a pleasurable sensation, peculiar to itself, heightened, in some measure, by the knowledge that we were no longer subject to the caprice and insult of a military upstart, but enjoying, at least, a partial ray of liberty. Scarcely had we reached a cross street, when, as gazing around in the perplexity of indecision which way to turn, a gentleman came up, and, addressing us in English, volunteered his services in seeking a lodging; after rambling about some time, as if begging an entrance at every door, we found ourselves in one of the bye lanes, and here we succeeded in hiring a room at nine livres per month; the furni