Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXV, No. 5, November 1849Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXV, No. 5, November 1849
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
It is true that the moderate pleasures of Major Anspach did not
materially encroach on his pocket, and for this we deem the cidevant
musqueteer worthy of eulogium. He limited his enjoyments to a promenade
in the Tuileries, each time that the sun deigned to shine on its
precincts, happy alike when the Dog Star raged or under the frozen beams
of a wintry sky. As this orb however rarely deigns to show us his face
in unclouded brilliance, our old friend had made it his profound study
to discover that part of the garden in which he could enjoy the rays of
Phœbus without exposure to their intensity.
After much research and divers trials, the major at last made his
choice. At the extremity of the terrace des Feuillants is a platform,
embowered in trees and shrubs, which commands a view of the Place de la
Concorde, and the architectural entrance to that part of the garden. A
balustrade terminates this platform, and by a graceful sweep conducts
you to a pleasant enclosure between the avenues and the western gate of
the Tuileries. This turn in the balustrade forms then, as you will
perceive, an acute angle with the line of the platform, and it is of the
summit of this angle, whose sides are composed of two walls about twelve
feet high, which form a fortified corner, that we are going to speak.
Exposed to the rising sun, this spot (as the reader may ascertain for
himself if he likes) seems expressly constructed in order to concentrate
the greatest possible heat in the smallest space, which heat would
indeed be insupportable were it not surrounded with flowering shrubs and
thickets to render it agreeable to the frequenters of the place.
Major Anspach, for reasons pertaining a little to his plush
inexpressibles, avoided all contact with the passing crowd; and although
gazing with pleasure on the sports of the children who visited the
garden, nothing would have annoyed him more than too close a proximity
to the young rogues, or to the fresh and frisky damsels with laughing
eyes who had charge of the juveniles. It was essential to his comfort,
therefore, to select a position where he could see without being seen,
and also that his seat should be of such narrow limits that when he once
occupied it, no one could expect to share it with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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