The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 238: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STEAM PACKET. 181 - There being plenty of time before dinner, Mr. Bambross proposed a walk round the ramparts—a motion to which Messieurs Pifpaf and Smale immediately assented. In the course of this ramble they arrived at a point whence they commanded a view of the Basse-Ville, or Low Town, which is situate outside the walls, and contains a population more numerous than that dwelling within the circuit of the fortifica- tions. At the distance of about a mile on the northern side of the Basse-Ville, the white walls of a cottage, standing apart from other habitations, gleamed amidst the trees which surrounded it, and at- tracted the notice of the two Luminaries. Mr. Bambross immediately perceived that their eyes were directed towards that point; and, changing his previously flippant tone to one of seriousness, and even melancholy, he said, ‘‘Gentlemen, a strange tale is connected with that humble dwelling which you perceive yonder. Your curiosity is awakened by my observations; and if you will allow me, I will endea- vour, to the best of my means, to allay it, by a narrative of the legend connected with the object of your attention.” His companions signified the desire which they experienced to hear the tale alluded to; and as they walked slowly onwards, their guide related the incidents which will be found condensed in the ensuing chapter. | CHAPTER XIX. IN: WHICH THE LEGEND CONNECTED WITH THE WHITE COTTAGE NEAR CALAIS IS NARRATED. WueEw the summer day of youth is slowly wasting away into the night- fall of age, and the shadows of past years grow deeper and deeper as life wears to its close, it is pleasant to look back, through the vista of _ time, upon the sorrows and felicities of our earlier years. If we have a home to shelter, and hearts to rejoice with us, and if friends have been gathered together around our firesides, then the rough places of our wayfaring will have been worn and smoothed away in the twilight of life, while the sunny spots we have passed through will grow brighter and more beautiful. Happy indeed are they, whose inter- course with the world has not changed the tone of their holier feelings, nor broken those musical chords of the heart, whose vibrations are so melodious, so tender and touching, in the evening of age. As the Gomichbooks (E(0)