groom (his master being absent) was engaged to attend one horse at grass, while Fontaine rode about the country on the other, professedly on business.
The latter arrangement lasted about three months. Then came the month of October, and with it the Edict of Revocation, whereupon he went to Marennes, and arranged with an English captain to embark himself and a party at Tremblade. The party consisted of Anne Elizabeth Boursiquot (to whom he was betrothed), her sister Elizabeth, and his niece, Janette Forestier. They intended to rendezvous on the sands near the Forest of Arvert, until, hearing that the Custom-house was on the look-out for them, they abandoned that plan. By the advice of the captain they went out in a boat to meet the ship, after the voyage had begun. One of His Christian Majesty’s frigates hove in sight, searched the British ship, and providentially found no prisoners, but compelled it to proceed on the straight course for England. The fugitives were immediately concealed in the bottom of the boat, and covered with an old sail. The boat being hailed by the frigate, the boatman and his son counterfeited drunkenness, and thus contrived both to quiet the suspicions of the naval captain and to give the appointed signal to the Englishman, by letting their sail drop three times while they seemed to be earnestly attempting to hoist it. The frigate sailed away towards Rochefort, and in a little time the boat made for the English vessel which had slackened its speed, and the exiles were received on board while the frigate was still in sight. After a voyage of eleven days, the party found a refuge in Barnstaple. Fontaine was hospitably received into the house of Mr Downe, along with his property, which consisted of twenty pistoles and six silver spoons, one of which was gilded and engraved with the infantine initials of his father, I.D.L.F. His betrothed accepted the hospitality of Mr Fraine.
The necessity of quickly earning a livelihood made him doubly acute. By his very first purchase, a cabin biscuit, which cost only a halfpenny, while in France the price would have been twopence, he was led to speculate in shipping grain for France. Mr Downe became his partner, getting one-half of the profits, and advancing all the money. The first cargo realised a fair profit. But, writes Fontaine, “the English seldom know when they are well off,” and Mr Downe insisting on naming a different consignee for the two subsequent cargoes, the speculation was ruined by dishonest agents. Mr Downe was the owner of an estate near Minehead, valued at £10,000. He was about forty years of age, and unmarried. A maiden sister took charge of his house.
There was every probability that the state of Fontaine’s purse would for some years be an inexorable argument against naming the day for his marriage with Miss Boursiquot. Miss Downe with the self-satisfaction of a lady endowed with £3000, resolved to announce herself as a rival candidate for the hand and heart of the refugee, although she was his senior by at least six years. Fontaine describes the English lady as totally destitute of personal attractions, while he gives this glowing picture of his lovely affiancee:—
“She was very beautiful; her skin was delicately fair; she had a brilliant colour in her cheeks, a high forehead, and a remarkably intellectual expression of countenance; her bust was fine, rather inclined to embonpoint, and she had a very dignified carriage which some persons condemned as haughty, but I always thought it peculiarly becoming to one of her beauty; the charms of her mind and disposition were in no way inferior to those of her person.”
Mr. Downe and Fontaine were able to keep up a connected conversation by having recourse to Latin, French, and English, according to the exigencies of the moment. And, at least in course of time, Fontaine’s knowledge of English enabled him to understand Miss Downe’s hints as to the folly of his engagement, and as to new and prosperous arrangements which might result from breaking it off, when both he and Miss Boursiquot might look hopefully in another direction. He, however, took refuge, in “n’entends pas,” successfully feigning his inability to follow her to the end of her sentences. But one day, when the farcical dialogue was being repeated, her brother came into the room, and was abruptly called upon by her to explain the two-fold project which they had agreed to suggest. Mr. Downe was embarrassed; he hesitated, but at length he said, “The plain truth of the matter is, my sister wishes to marry you, and if you will agree to it, I have promised to help to remove the difficulty which we see in the way, by taking for my wife your intended lady, whom you brought with you from France.” Fontaine silently drew out of his pocket the written engagement between his countrywoman and himself, and then answered Mr. Downe (who had read the document without remark). He said that his heart was engaged irrevocably, and as for Miss Boursiquot, he felt confident that her feelings were unchangeable; nevertheless he was so disinterestedly
