The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 243: what you’re looking at

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

186 THE STEAM PACKET. Albert had brought from the distressed vessel in his boat. On their arrival at the cottage, the stranger was consigned to the care of Pau- line, who placed her in bed, and administered the proper restoratives to call her back to life. In ashort time the young lady—for such she evidently was—opened her eyes, and gazed in astonishment around _ her. A-few words made her comprehend her safety; and she then inquired, in a hurried and anxious tone, after her father. Pauline was about to reply in the words of promise and hope, when the door opened, and:an elderly gentleman rushed in, exclaiming, ‘‘ My child! Josephine—my dearest child!”’ . We shall not dwell upon the affecting details of this meeting after the dread perils which they had just escaped; but, after observing that through the gallantry of Albert Michel and his comrades in the dangerous enterprise, the whole of the vessel’s crew was saved, we shall proceed to put the reader in possession of those few facts con- cerning the two strangers, which they themselves communieated to the inmates of the cottage. It appeared that the gentleman, whose name was Tascher, and his daughter—a beautiful girl of only thirteen years of age—had sailed from Martinique, a French island in the West Indies, some weeks pre- viously, and that stress of weather had compelled the captain of the vessel. to run for Liverpool. There she was detained for repairs; and M. Tascher, with his daughter, being anxious to proceed to France as quickly as possible, hastened to Dover, where they embarked on board the hoy bound for Calais. The storm overtook the vessel at a distance of about five miles from Calais; the captain endeavoured to run for the harbour, but overshooting the mark, got aground on the sands to the north of the pier. Albert, who had landed from his own excursion before the storm commenced, had observed the distress of the vessel in the distance, and remained on the shore to watch its manceuvres,. He stayed until its dangerous predicament aroused his energies to action; and through the instrumentality of himself and a few other young men whom he persuaded to embark with him in his. frail boat, the whole crew was saved. M. Tascher, his daughter, and servants, remained that night at the cottage; but im order to allow the young lady as much time to repose as possible, after the alarms and. fatigues she had experienced, he de- termined not to commence his journey to Paris until the afternoon of the ensuing day. While he proceeded into the town of Calais to make the necessary arrangements for a vehicle and horses to be ready at the time proposed, Pauline passed a few agreeable hours with her new friend. The young lady possessed a most beautiful person, and an amiable (E(0) comichbooks