Arthur O'Leary: his wanderings and ponderings in many lands . the color of your hair, the cut of your beard, and theangle of incidence of your eyebrow were all noted downand commented on, and a general summing-up of theexpression of your features collectively appended to thewhole; and you went forth to the world with an air mild or military, feeble, fascinating, or fero-cious, exactly as the Foreign Office chose. It was inthose days, I say, when on entering the fortress of Valen-ciennes the door of the diligence was rudely thrown open,and by the dim flicker of a lamp we beheld a mustached,ster
Arthur O'Leary: his wanderings and ponderings in many lands . the color of your hair, the cut of your beard, and theangle of incidence of your eyebrow were all noted downand commented on, and a general summing-up of theexpression of your features collectively appended to thewhole; and you went forth to the world with an air mild or military, feeble, fascinating, or fero-cious, exactly as the Foreign Office chose. It was inthose days, I say, when on entering the fortress of Valen-ciennes the door of the diligence was rudely thrown open,and by the dim flicker of a lamp we beheld a mustached,stern-looking fellow, who rudely demanded our fat companion, suddenly awakened from his sleep,searched his various pockets with all the trepidation of anew traveller, and at length produced his credentials,which he handed, with a polite bow, to the official. What-ever the nature of the description might have been I can-not say, but it certainly produced the most striking eifecton the passport officers, who laughed loud and long as theyread it Syi. Vtixifi^ia/ ay ,J^.^?7i-^i^e-ty. A PERILOUS ADVENTURE. 27 Descendez, Monsieur, said the chief of the party, iaa tone of stern command. What does he say ? said the traveller, in a verydecided western accent. You must get out, sir, said I. Tare-and-ages, said Mr. Moriarty, whats wrong ? After considerable squeezing, for he weighed abouttwenty stone, he disengaged himself from the body of thediligence, and stood erect upon the ground. A secondlantern was now produced, and while one of the officersstood on either side of him, with a light beside his face,a third read out the clauses of the passport, and comparedthe description with the original. Happily Mr. Moriartysignorance of French saved him from the penalty of lis-tening to the comments which were passed upon his nezretrousse, bouche ouverte, etc.; but what was his surprise,when, producing some yards of tape, they proceeded tomeasure him round the body, comparing the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1894
