for use; and evidently from their arrangement supposed by the owner to
be a rather creditable "turn out."

I turned over these singular habiliments with much of the curiosity with
which an antiquary would survey a suit of chain armour; the long
epaulettes of yellow cotton cord, the heavy belt with its brass buckle,
the cumbrous boots, plaited and bound with iron like churns were in
rather a ludicrous contrast to the equipment of our light and jockey-like
boys in nankeen jackets and neat tops, that spin along over our level
"macadam."

"But," thought I, "it is full time I should get back to No. 82, and make
my appearance below stairs;" though in what part of the building my room
lay, and how I was to reach it without my clothes, I had not the
slightest idea. A blanket is an excessively comfortable article of
wearing apparel when in bed, but as a walking costume is by no means
convenient or appropriate; while to making a sorti en sauvage, however
appropriate during the night, there were many serious objections if done
"en plein jour," and with the whole establishment awake and active; the
noise of mopping, scrubbing, and polishing, which is eternally going
forward in a foreign inn amply testified there was nothing which I could
adopt in my present naked and forlorn condition, save the bizarre and
ridiculous dress of the postillion, and I need not say the thought of so
doing presented nothing agreeable. I looked from the narrow window out
upon the tiled roof, but without any prospect of being heard if I called
ever so loudly.

The infernal noise of floor-cleansing, assisted by a Norman peasant's
"chanson du pays," the time being well marked by her heavy sabots, gave
even less chance to me within; so that after more than half an hour