Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/272

270 and not very sincere at the best of times. The hatred which is so very cordial among our neighbours still subsists;—the voice of the first gun that peals in defiance over the deep waters at once awakens it; and we return to our old conviction, that one Englishman can beat three Frenchmen any day! Now, believe we can do a thing, and it is three parts done. For my own simple self, I confess to being very much behind my age. From Cressy to Waterloo, our island watchwords have been Enmity and Victory; and I see no reason why one century should be so much wiser than its predecessors. This national feeling is never more evinced than on the Continent: they herd together after their kind, and Englishman meets Englishman as if they encountered in the deserts round Timbuctoo.

Though Lady Mandeville's influence had been sufficient to induce her husband to go abroad, it was more than it could manage to make him enjoy it. Cecil Spenser's society—who soon shewed he could understand and enter into his views—became a source of great