The Argosy — page 399: what you’re looking at

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

In the Black Forest. ce > ed slung a net between two trees, was lying at ease therein, reading some favourite volume, and luxurlating in the shade of the firs, which kept out so well the heat and glare of the afternoon sun. Back to the inn at length, where a fresh carriage had to be taken for St. Blasien. But we were not far on the road when my ‘ com- pagnon de voyage” for the time being, finding the way longer than > he had anticipated, or rather that the day had flown more quickly (you cannot waste time at tables d’hote, and saunter about pleasant lakes, however delightful it all may be, without finding that the shadows will begin to lengthen before you are prepared for them), decided to turn back in order to reach the Titisee before nightfall—a feat he certainly never accomplished. Thus I was left to continue my way with no other society at command than that of the civil driver. From this point, on entering the Schwarzhalde, a romantic and beautiful valley, the scenery became once more especially grand and striking. Hills, covered with deep dark pines, stretched upwards on either side, and the road, winding amongst them, and overshadowed by them, extended for a considerable distance. At length, between two ranges of hills, right before us, but so far off as to look like a dream, there was suddenly disclosed the loveliest view of the Alps ever seen. It appeared less a vision of earth than of heaven opened to mortal eyes ; snow mountains so distant, so lofty, as to be in the very heaven itself; a part of the pure ethereal blue in which they seemed to repose. ‘The declining sun flushed them with a celestial rosy red. With it all, softened by distance, and enveloped by a very slight haze that increased their beauty by half veiling it, one could only think of them as dream mountains, | The fleeting character of the vision, and its suddenness—I had not been thinking of the Alps, and was not aware that they would appear from any point of the road—perhaps added no little to its charm, and to the after remembrance. It was an unusually fortunate vision too. ‘The Alps had been seen only twice in six weeks, and were now seen at the right and exact moment. ‘Ten minutes earlier they would not have been bathed in that rosy light which has no comparison, and cannot really be described ; the flush of declining sunlight, which comes so suddenly, departs as soon: and ten minutes later—for we stopped and saw the vision to the end—all had dis- appeared. It was as if the gates of heaven had rolled back and closed-in the glory, leaving us outside to darkness and melancholy. Soon after this we commenced a steep descent, still with the pine woods all about us. The road wound round in a deep valley, where, at the bottom, a noisy river ran its course: down, down until we reached the level. Then the great dome of the church of St. Blasien reared its ponderous head, as if it wanted to rival the hills in size ; the village opened up; we passed through an archway leading to the © Hotel St. Blasien ; and the day’s journey was at an end. No spot in the Black Forest strikes the traveller with greater sur- CORNICE LOOKS .(E©