Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/47

 public houses. On the 7th, we arrived at Orleans, and were joined by Lieutenant Prater, of the second West India regiment, captured on his passage from Honduras to England.

The next day we proceeded to Pethivier. Here our fare was wretched enough; short commons, and a truss of straw, in a small tower, were our accommodation for the night. On the 11th, we journeyed on to Melun, where again, in the other extreme, we were lodged in a comfortable inn, and permitted to stroll about the town without the least interruption, and even without a gendarme. The 12th was a "jour de repos;" whether it was thought too great an honour for us to pass so near "la bonne ville de Paris," or not, I cannot say; but instead of taking the direct road to Verdun, the next day our course was shaped to the S. E. and we slept at Belleville; thence eastwardly, and dined in a village, where the gendarmes again attempted to make us pay for escort, but we had travelled too far to be such dupes. On our arrival at Troyes, the following