Alfred de Rosann — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

138 ALFRED DE ROSANN. that boasted of never having been obliged to plunder the nightly traveller, and that despised the adventu- rous highwayman and assassin—he is fallen to‘a level with the vilest of robbers and miscreants. O what a change can a short period: work in the minds and pursuits of human beings! And, alas! what charms can temptation assume, what alluring habits hold out? It is too late—or I would still endeavour to snatch the unfortunate votary of dissipation and debauchery, from the precipice on which he stands, and procure him an honourable employment. But it is useless!’ De Rosann arrived at Southampton without any other adventure worth relating, and was not a little grieved when he found that the captain of the steam- vessel did not dare to put out to sea,-on account of the inclemency of the weather. Our hero was there- fore constrained to wait three or four days in a town where he was a perfect stranger; and solace himself as well as he was able with the contents of an old french romance which he picked up at a circulating library. On the morning of the fifth day the wind had so much abated, that De Rosann was enabled to embark. After a tolerable passage, during which he was never- theless a sad victim to that dreadful but transitory malady—sea-sickness, he landed in safety at Havre, and immediately hired a carriage to take him to St. Malo. His heart leaped within him as he once more breathed the air of his native France,—the land of his forefathers; and he felt proud of being again recognised by his government as a free citizen of the country that had produced whole armies of heroes to adorn with undying names the pages of history. There is not a nation in the world more patriotic than the French. The English mistake their own common national prejudices and bigotted adoration of institu- tions they scarcely comprehend, for a true patriotism; whereas pride alone is the origin of their blind love. A Frenchman understands his own feelings better ; Gomichbooks.com