The Whole Party On Board Were Made Merry By These Unexpected
Supplies; But None More So Than A Loquacious Little Frenchman, Who
Got Drunk In Five Minutes, And A Sturdy Cappuccino Friar, Who Had
Taken Everybody's Fancy Mightily, And Was One Of The Best Friars In
The World, I Verily Believe.
He had a free, open countenance; and a rich brown, flowing beard;
and was a remarkably handsome man, of about fifty.
He had come up
to us, early in the morning, and inquired whether we were sure to
be at Nice by eleven; saying that he particularly wanted to know,
because if we reached it by that time he would have to perform
Mass, and must deal with the consecrated wafer, fasting; whereas,
if there were no chance of his being in time, he would immediately
breakfast. He made this communication, under the idea that the
brave Courier was the captain; and indeed he looked much more like
it than anybody else on board. Being assured that we should arrive
in good time, he fasted, and talked, fasting, to everybody, with
the most charming good humour; answering jokes at the expense of
friars, with other jokes at the expense of laymen, and saying that,
friar as he was, he would engage to take up the two strongest men
on board, one after the other, with his teeth, and carry them along
the deck. Nobody gave him the opportunity, but I dare say he could
have done it; for he was a gallant, noble figure of a man, even in
the Cappuccino dress, which is the ugliest and most ungainly that
can well be.
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