and fork for the next course, was to slip the plate from under the unwonted charge, and leave those instruments sprawling on the tablecloth in a vengeful mess of gravy.  Chickens’ bones were there dealt with on all sides as nature perhaps intended that they should be dealt with, namely, by taking them between finger and thumb, and removing superfluities with the teeth; and French officers with wasp-like waists, and red trousers gathered in plaits to match, boldly despised the sophistication of spoons, and ate their vanilla cream like men, by the help of bread and fingers.  The manners and broken French of the stranger formed an open and agreeable subject of conversation, and the table was much quieter than a Frenchman’s table d’hote is sometimes known to be:  on one occasion, however, all decorum was scattered to the winds, and the guests rushed out into the court-yard with disordered bibs and tuckers, on the announcement by the head waiter of a ’chien a l’Anglaise, not so high as a mustard-pot,’ which one of the company promptly bought for twenty-four francs, commencing its education on the spot by a lesson in cigar-smoking.

It frequently happens in France that cafe noir is a much more ready and abundant tap than water, and so it was here; notwithstanding which, the bedroom apparatus was most comfortable and complete.  The chambermaid was a boy, and under his auspices a sheet of postage-stamps and a lead pencil vanished from the table.  When it was suggested to him that possibly they had been blown into some corner, and so swept away, he brought a dustpan from a distant part of the house, and miraculously discovered the stamps perched upon a small handful of dust therein, deferring the discovery and his consequent surprise till he reached my room.  It was curious that the stamps, which had before been in an open sheet, were now folded neatly together, and curled into the shape of a waistcoat-pocket.  He was inexorable about the pencil.

No certain information could be obtained in the hotel respecting the glaciere; so an owner of carriages was summoned, and consulted as to the best means of getting there.  He naturally recommended that one of his own carriages should be taken as far as the Abbey of Grace-Dieu, and that we should start at five o’clock the next morning, with a driver who knew the way to the glaciere from the point at which the carriage must be left.[34] Five o’clock seemed very early for a drive of fifteen miles; but the man asserted that instead of five leagues it was a good seven or eight, and so it turned out to be.  This glaciere may be called a historical glaciere, being the only one which has attracted general attention; and the mistake about its distance from Besancon arose very many years ago, and has been perpetuated by a long series of copyists.  The distance may not be more than five leagues when measured on the map with a ruler; but until the tunnels and via-ducts necessary for a crow line are constructed, the world must be