Taking up my abode at the Hotel d'Angleterre, my first care was to
order a good dinner; and having despatched that, and a bottle of Vin
de Beaune (which, by the by, I strongly recommend to all travellers,
if they can get it, for I am no bad judge), I asked my _valet de
place_ how I was to dispose of myself for the remainder of the
evening?
"_Mais, monsieur_," said he, "_il faut aller au spectacle_?"
"_Allons_," said I, and in a few minutes I was seated in the stage-box
of the handsomest theatre in the world.
What strange events--what unexpected meetings and sudden separations
are sailors liable to--what sudden transitions from grief to joy, from
joy to grief, from want to affluence, from affluence to want! All
this the history of my life, for the last six months, will fully
illustrate.
Chapter XXVI
You will proceed in pleasure and in pride,
Beloved, and loving many; all is o'er
For me on earth, except some years to hide
My shame and sorrow deep in my heart's core.
_Don Juan_.
I paid little attention to the performance; for the moment I came to
the house, my eyes were rivetted on an object from which I found it
impossible to remove them. "It is," said I, "and yet it cannot be; and
yet why should it not?" A young lady sat in one of the boxes; she was
elegantly attired, and seemed to occupy the united attentions of many
Frenchmen, who eagerly caught her smiles.
"Either that is Eugenia," thought I, "or I have fallen asleep in the
ruins of St Jago, and am dreaming of her.
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