He had originally
come to this country in 1795, bringing with him a daughter, Pauline,
about four or five years old. Why he came nobody knew, nor did
anybody know who was the mother of the child. He soon obtained
plenty of employment, for he was an admirable workman, and learned to
speak English well. Pauline naturally spoke both English and French.
Her education was accomplished with some difficulty, though it was
not such a task as it might have been, because Jean's occupation kept
him at home; his house being in one of the streets in that
complication of little alleys and thoroughfares to most Londoners
utterly unknown; within the sound of St. Bride's nevertheless, and
lying about a hundred yards north of Fleet Street. If the explorer
goes up a court nearly opposite Bouverie Street, he will emerge from
a covered ditch into one that is opened, about six feet wide.
Presently the ditch ends in another and wider ditch running east and
west. The western one turns northward, and then westward again,
roofs itself over, squeezes itself till it becomes little less than a
rectangular pipe, and finally discharges itself under an oil and
colourman's house in Fetter Lane.
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