Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/218

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166
DEVONSHIRE CHARACTERS

Happily, they did not strip him and so discover that he had a good deal more than was in his pockets sewn into a belt about his waist.

"When I came to Franckfort, the Gates of the City were just ready to be shut, and I offering to go in, the Centinel demanded of me who I was. I told them I was an Englishman. They bid me show my Passport, but I had none. I having therefore no pass, they would not let me into the City. So the Gate was shut. I sat down upon the Ground and wept, bewailing my hard Fortune and their Unkindness, having not a bit of Bread to eat, nor Fire to warm myself in the extreme cold Season which then was.

"But there being just outside the Gate a little Hutt, where the Soldiers Kept Guard, the Corporal seeing me in such a condition as I was, called me in, where they had a good Fire, and he gave me some of his Victuals; for which seasonable Kindness I gave him some money to fetch us some good Liquor. And I told the Corporal, if he would get me into the City the next Day, I would Requite him for it. Accordingly he did. He brought me to a Frenchman's House, who had a Son that lived in England some time, and was lately come home again, who made me very Welcome. He ask'd me what my Business was; I told him 'twas to get a Pass to go safe down the River, (for they are so strict there in time of War, that they'll even examine their own Countrymen), and withal, desired him to change a Pistole for me, and to give me instead of it such Money as would pass current down the River. For (as I told him) I have sometimes chang'd a Pistole, and before the Exchange of it had been expended in my Travels, some of the money would not pass current. He chang'd my Pistole for me, and told me what Money would pass in such a place, and what in such a