When he learned that I was not German, but English, he told me they did not say _Anglais_ there, but _Gaudin_,--I was a _Gaudin_.

This he repeated persistently many times, with an air worthy of General Cyrus Choke, and half convinced me that there was something in it, and that I might after all be a Gaudin.

It was not till some hours after, that I remembered the indelible impression made by the piety of speech of recent generations of Englishmen upon the French nation at large, and thus was enabled to trace the origin of the name _Gaudin_.

The old man evidently believed that it was the proper thing to call an Englishman by that name; thus reminding me of a story told of a French soldier in the Austrian service during the long early wars with Switzerland.

The Austrians called the Swiss, in derision, Kuehmelkers--a term more opprobrious than _bouviers_; and it is said that, after the battle of Frastens--one of the battles of the Suabian war,--a Frenchman threw himself at the feet of some Grisons soldiers, and innocently prayed thus for quarter; '_Tres-chers, tres-honorables, et tres-dignes Kuehmelkers! au nom de Dieu, ne me tuez pas_!' The town of Besancon seems to spend its Sunday in fishing, and is apparently well contented with that very limited success which is wont to attend a Frenchman's efforts in this branch of _le sport_.