The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 259: what you’re looking at

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

194 THE STEAM PACKET. to picture with the eyes of the soul the heaven which lies within that pure sphere; or as upward and onward from the horizon the clouds come rolling, pale, or rose-tinted, or exceedingly glorious, to ac- knowledge their real semblance, the cataract, the castle, the landscape of surpassing beauty, and all the scenery admired by one who looks thoughtfully on the winter fire; yet more various, more marvellous in its effects of light and shade, more complete in its swift changes wrought out by a divine magic before the very eye which is baffled to detect the process, and withal so gradually that we know not where in nature to look for its comparison, unless it be in flowers which have assumed a deeper tint while we are gazing at them,—in infancy bloom- ing into childhood, and childhood bursting into the glory of youth. But the mind of the old man was not tranquil, nor at peace. Some- thing within told him that his son still lived, and urged him to seek after the lost but still dearly beloved youth. He then suddenly—and for the first time—blamed himself for his apathy in not seeking him whose strange disappearance he deplored. He was still at Calais—and his son had been lost in Paris—a distance of a hundred and sixty miles! Was it right that he—the father—should linger there ? Urged by these reasonings the old man started up, hastened to the dwelling of his son-in-law and daughter, and said, ‘‘ My children, to- morrow morning I depart for Paris. I shall not know peace—nor tranquillity—nor rest, until Iseek my lost Albert. Do not attempt to dissuade me from my purpose—I am resolved.”’ Neither Pauline nor Henri attempted to reason with the old man ; and on the following morning he took his departure for the capital of France. On his arrival there, his first care was to institute all the in- quiries which prudence could suggest: but the result was completely unsatisfactory. From the moment Albert had left his hotel, as before related, a few minutes previous to his contemplated departure with Henri, no trace of him remained. The old man, though weighed down by grief, still felt that he had performed his duty—that he had done alt that human nature, in such circumstances, could devise or accomplish. Thus, after a fortnight’s search, he was almost inclined to renounce his fruitless errand, when a circumstance occurred to pre- vent his meditated return to his peaceful abode in the vicinity of Calais. : The evening before his intended departure he endeavoured to divert his mind from the contemplation of the dreadful bereavement he had sustained, by a walk in the delightful gardens of the Tuileries. Fatigued at length with his ramble, he threw himself upon a seat shaded by the grateful foliage of the trees which overshadowed it, and sank into Comicbooks. co