"This was indeed nobly kind and generous, and we all felt it as such. At our embarkation the graceful, interesting 'knight unknown' was on the pier of Dover, and you never saw, my dear friend, with what a dignified grace this _preúx_ chevalier handed us all on board, and how graciously he bade us 'adieu.' My dear enthusiastic Adelaide is still further convinced that he must be a prince _incognito_. He said, as we were about to part, 'I understand that your Grace and family are now departing on your way to Brussels.'
"I nodded assent. 'Shall we, pray, stand any chance,' I inquired, 'of seeing you, Sir, in that ancient city?'
"The stranger hesitated. '_Perhaps_,' quoth he, 'my Lady Duchess.'
"Oh, if then you were to have seen the indignant glance that Lady Letitia flung on the courteous stranger, while it would seem involuntarily she echoed, or rather screamed, '_perhaps!_' For you must know that to this adverb the Lady Letitia hath, and entertains an entire, instinctive, and unconquerable detestation, to the very extinction, I verily credit, of every other given adverb in English grammar, be it _aye_, or be it _no_.
"'But,' continued the gallant stranger, 'I yet may speak in more decided terms. It is my full determination to proceed to Brussels, unless ought unforeseen and unexpected should arise to prevent it. I most respectfully and sincerely wish your Grace and friends every prosperity, a safe and expeditious voyage, and a pleasant journey.'
"Then bowing with all the grace of one who had been familiar with courts, he took off his hat, which he several times waved on high, until the packet got under weigh. I could not but observe that when he took Adelaide by the hand to lead her on board, that my daughter coloured most deeply. Indeed I cannot but apprehend that an _impression_ has been made on her young and feeling heart. But this is _entré nous_. Is it not most strange, and does it not look exceedingly like _love at first sight_? But who can be 'the _unknown_ knight' of Chester walls? I can form no opinion, but I am not certainly inclined to agree with Adelaide that he is a prince _incognito_.
"But to resume my narrative:--We embarked at Dover on Friday morning, at eight o'clock, on board a neutral vessel bound for Calais; it was a Flemish packet, named _De Zee-Schilpad_, Captain Bulderende master. The weather when we left Dover was fine, but the breeze soon became squally, attended with heavy rain, and a rough and swelling sea; but in the event our passage proved a good one. Many of the sailors were Flemish, and some were French; and, I must say, the most lubberly and awkward I had ever beheld, _pàr examplé_, one of them sat down to haul a rope! So that really we felt far more indebted to the wind and waves than to the nautical skill of either French or Flemish sailors. And I must own, and am quite free to confess, that their inferiority to our own gallant tars, in verity, did not displease me.