The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

92 THE STEAM PACKET. stopped at the gate of the Hotel d’Angleterre. This establishment is situate upon the Grande Place, or Market-Place, on which an immense — crowd had already assembled ; and, in the midst of that multitude, rose high in the air the beams and axe of the dread engine of slaughter which had been erected to wreak the vengeance of the law upon a criminal. | | aes The morning was now delightful in the extreme ;—but never more were the seasons and their changes to shed joy upon the soul of the doomed one ;—never again would it be his in this life to mark the ingress of one, or the egress of another! Spring, which is so charm- ing, with its soft mornings, and buds and blossoms, when earth has shaken off the icy hand of winter ;—Summer, so pleasant with its bright evenings and flowers, and rural scenes, and excursions ;—Autumn, so delicious with its golden days, each one of which we could cleave to for ever; when the fields are heavy with the yellow harvest, and the gardens hang ruddy with fruits, and the sun, shorn of his fiery beams, is succeeded at night by the harvest-moon ;—and then old Winter, offer- _ ing his bright fire-side, with pleasant friends or pleasant books; when, in spite of the freezing air without, the flow of soul gushes most sparkling within; so that while its chilling breath may blight all nature without, yet it is powerless upon the heart and soul of man ;— all these seasons, with their changes and their varied blessings, were now as nothing in respect to that wretched man who was hovering upon the verge of eternity: unless, indeed, that cold winter which ~ stands last upon our list, be taken as an affecting type of the other winter now about to follow—that long, cold, freezing winter in which no man can work! | The preparations for the dread tragedy of the morning did not rob the Luminaries of their appetite. An excellent breakfast was speedily served up at the Hotel d’Angleterre; and, ‘‘as the gentlemen had come all the way from Dunkirk on purpose to see the man guillotined,” the landlord very graciously kept the best windows of his establishment vacant for them, The meal was discussed—the time passed rapidly away—and at length the chimes of the neighbouring church clock pro- claimed half-past seven! The visitors now repaired to the windows so kindly retained for them, and which commanded a full view of the scene of death. | _ The criminal, it appeared, had been convicted of a heinous offence— that of murder, accompanied by robbery, and other violence of an infamous nature in respect to a poor girl who had acted in the capa- city of servant to the deceased. The victim of the assassination was a small farmer residing in the neighbourhood of Mount Cassel, upon. a _ Gomicbooks.co - | 0 om ra