第43章

Letters were being written,answers were being received,arrangements were being made for my departure for Marseilles,where an excellent fellow called Solary,got at in a round about fashion through various French channels,had promised good-naturedly to put le jeune homme in the way of getting a decent ship for his first start if he really wanted a taste of ce metier de chien.

I watched all these preparations gratefully,and kept my own counsel.But what I told the last of my examiners was perfectly true.Already the determined resolve that "if a seaman,then an English seaman"was formulated in my head,though,of course,in the Polish language.I did not know six words of English,and I was astute enough to understand that it was much better to say nothing of my purpose.As it was I was already looked upon as partly insane,at least by the more distant acquaintances.The principal thing was to get away.I put my trust in the good-natured Solary's very civil letter to my uncle,though I was shocked a little by the phrase about the metier de chien.

This Solary (Baptistin),when I beheld him in the flesh,turned out a quite young man,very good-looking,with a fine black,short beard,a fresh complexion,and soft,merry black eyes.He was as jovial and good natured as any boy could desire.I was still asleep in my room in a modest hotel near the quays of the old port,after the fatigues of the journey via Vienna,Zurich,Lyons,when he burst in,flinging the shutters open to the sun of Provence and chiding me boisterously for lying abed.How pleasantly he startled me by his noisy objurgations to be up and off instantly for a "three years'campaign in the South Seas!"Omagic words!"Une campagne de trois ans dans les mers du sud"--that is the French for a three years'deep-water voyage.

He gave me a delightful waking,and his friendliness was unwearied;but I fear he did not enter upon the quest for a ship for me in a very solemn spirit.He had been at sea himself,but had left off at the age of twenty-five,finding he could earn his living on shore in a much more agreeable manner.He was related to an incredible number of Marseilles well-to-do families of a certain class.One of his uncles was a ship-broker of good standing,with a large connection among English ships;other relatives of his dealt in ships'stores,owned sail-lofts,sold chains and anchors,were master-stevedores,calkers,shipwrights.