Next morning my first business was to attend at the custom-house; and
the officers, after a diligent search, finding nothing illegal amongst
my baggage, permitted me to purchase a sufferance for it to be embarked
for France. The rest of the passengers having likewise arranged their
affairs and obtained sufferances, we proceeded on board the packet, and
found that it was extremely full without this last reinforcement; but I
doubt whether the captain way of that opinion. I found the charge for
the passage amounted to one guinea, which is the sum paid for the
passage between Dublin and Holyhead, although that is nearly three
times the extent of the channel between Dover and Calais. I was informed
that the seeming disproportion in those prices was to be attributed to
the heavy _post dues_ at Calais, which, for so small a vessel as the
packet, amounted to £14 or £15, although in the year 1793 they did not
exceed eighteen shillings.

Amongst the passengers was a Swiss gentleman, who I found passed for a
man of _great importance_ amongst the sailors. His carriage perhaps
contributed not a little to this, as it had once been the property of
the duke of Northumberland; and although the arms were defaced, yet the
coronet, the garter, and the gilding with which it was still decorated,
no doubt contributed to increase the expences of a journey which, from
its length, is a heavy tax on the pockets of the generality of
travellers, however plain may be their equipage.

We were above two hours on board before it was possible to extricate our
vessel from the great number of transports (I believe not less than
thirty-two) which crowded the harbour, being engaged for some time in
bringing home a large portion of our cavalry, who added to the military
glory they had acquired in Spain and Portugal, by their forbearance in
tolerating insults to which they were but too often exposed in their