Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

90 ALFRED$} OR ADVENTURES the Circean rock; nor am [ astonished that ss many are daily ruined and undone by the charms of the luxurious city !” The entrance of Theodore, who came to summon his guests to the morning's repast, interrupted this conversation. « And what have you done with the man of a delicate taste?’ inquired Belle-Rose; upon which the peasant narrated all that had taken place both ir and out of the pig-stye. ‘Was he handsome or ugly—tall or short—fat or thin—in fine, which are his characteristics, that we may consider whether he be a con- vict, and if we can recognize him or not.” “To tell you the truth,” answered Theodore, “I did not dare look at him in the face, when he had once divested himself of the dirt that at first enveloped his person, for fear of laughing outright: but as far as I can recollect, he was moderately stout—not very tall—tolerably ugly—and awkward in his gait.” “ That is a description, my dear Theodore, calculated to suit nine men out of any ten,” cried Belle-Rose with a smile: “ it is easy to per- ceive that you have never been a clerk in the passport-office at the Pre- fecture de Police-—But let us leave the hero of the stye alone for the present, and think of the repast which the gentle Marie has prepared for us.” “ Soit/” said Theodore; and they all three descended to the room where the orgies of the preceding evening had taken place, and where the breakfast was now spread upon the table. When the substantial repast was concluded, Belle-Rose and De Rosann took leave of their hospitable hosts, and pursued their journey, the former again enacting the part of guide as he had done the day before. ‘To be brief, they arrived in the neighbourhood of St. Brieue without encoun- tering any adventure worthy of record; and on the followmg evening pursued their journey towards St. Malo. The weather was once more favourable to their march; the western breeze still swept the face of the verdant country, laden with the saline particles it had collected in its passage across the ocean; and the whole aspect of nature was smiling and gay. ‘The labourers were abroad, attending to the bounteows har- vests which a rich soil produced; the songs of the peasant girls, hasten- iug to their daily labour, mingled with the notes of birds, and made a sweet though incongruous music; the wild flowers, profusely spread around, gave a rich perfume to the elastic air, and adorned the broad plains on which herds of cattle were tranquilly grazing: here the green tobacco-plant occupied wide acres with its somniferous leaves—there incipient crops of corn, gracefully waving to the gentle breeze, were pre- paring for the destructive hand of the mower*—on one side were thick groves of trees—on the other vineyards, soon to teem with heavy bunches of ripe grapes. All was one vast garden: scarcely a foot of earth, save the beaten pathways, was unoccupied by some flourishing fruit, vege- table, plant, or flower; there was no waste of land that the eye could detect. Belle-Rose and De Rosann often stopped to contemplate the sur- rounding beauties of nature; they were not in a hurry to arrive at the * In France the crops of grain are not cut down with a sickle, but with a scythe. CONNIE OOOKS (E(0)