The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 265: what you’re looking at

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

200 THE STEAM PACKET, : Lenormand. The proposal was therefore no sooner made by her husband than she conjured him to carry it into execution 3. and that same evening did they proceed to the dwelling of the sorceress. They were admitted into an anteroom by an. old woman,. whose back was so bent with the weight of years, that they could scarcely ob- tain a glimpse of her countenance. She did not, however, fail to scrutinise the visitors from beneath her shaggy eye- -brows ; and to the features of Pauline her glances were upraised for some ai A The anteroom was only dimly lighted ; and upon shelves around were placed skulls, stuffed alligators, lizards, and snakes, and glass jars con- taining reptiles of all kinds preserved in spirits. of ad All the walls were hung with black; and a coffin stood upon a table in. the middle. The faint lustre of a silver lamp did little more than render this horri- ble spectacle just visible to the eyes; and the old hag with her crooked back and her sable garments, seemed the presiding genius of one of the chambers of the Palace of Death. Pauline felt alarmed, and clung to her husband’s arm for support; but he implored her in a whisper to take courage, and nerve herself to arrive at the issue of the adventure. Meantime the old hag left the visitors in the antechamber of binge rors, and glided into an adjoining apartment, the door of which, also covered with black cloth, moved noiselessly upon its hinges. The very silence of that place seemed to be that of the tomb ;. and Pauline and Henri, apparently under the influence of some rch but undefinable awe, spoke to. each other in the lowest whispers. At length the old woman returned with a message that Mademoiselle Lenormand was at present engaged with the Viscountess de Beauharnais, but that she would receive the new visitors.in afew minutes. This interval was passed in silence; and at length a silver bell tinkled behind the black drapery. The old hag now beckoned Henri and Pauline to follow her into the next apartment ; and in another moment they found them- selves in the presence of the sorceress. This second chamber was hung around with sable drapery, like the first. At the further end stood a table, covered with a cloth of the same sombre hue, and upon which globes, old black-letter volumes, a small orrery, an hour-glass, a large sheet of parchment covered with hieroglyphics, a basin full of eggs, and a small coffee-pot boiling over a spirit-lamp, were placed. The room was as. dimly lighted as the other; but there were no symbols. of death piled around. Upona stage penind the table stood Mademoiselle Lenormand, dressed in deep black, wearing a huge sable turban upon her head, ae with her long, jetty, luxuriant hair flowing wildly over her shawiders Her command- GEomichbooks:.co