CHAPTER II.
ENGLAND.
We arrived in London on the morning Prince Albert was to lay the corner-stone of the Royal Exchange. There was a crush of people in the streets; but as I was determined to see the procession and other grand doings, I rushed after the crowd, and in the course of of the day lost my way and lost my reticule, containing the card of my hotel; consequently, when all was over, and I had been sorely disappointed in not seeing the queen as well as Prince Albert, I knew no more where my lodgings were than the man in the moon. Whether I had come from the East, West, North, or South End, I could tell no one. The day was intensely cold, and I was fearfully hungry, but where to go I did not know. At length some kind ladies and gentlemen saw my perplexity, and interested themselves in my behalf. They even descended from their carriage, and offered to take me to their home, and shelter me until by some means or other they could find out where I had wandered from. Every sort of question was put to me about the appearance of my hotel, and at last a clue was obtained to it by my remembering a statue of Queen Elizabeth somewhere in its vicinity, by which it was conjectured by one of the gentlemen that it must be the "Hotel de Paris."
