English essays -- 19th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs; London (England) -- Description and travel
“And after tossing and writhing, and clinging to the pallet, and saying,
'No, I will not go,' he rose up and donned his clothes--a gray coat, a
vest of white pique, black satin small-clothes, ribbed silk stockings,
and a white stock with a steel buckle; and he arranged his hair, and
he tied his queue, all the while being in that strange somnolence
which walks, which moves, which FLIES sometimes, which sees, which is
indifferent to pain, which OBEYS. And he put on his hat, and he went
forth from his cell; and though the dawn was not yet, he trod the
corridors as seeing them. And he passed into the cloister, and then into
the garden where lie the ancient dead. And he came to the wicket,
which Brother Jerome was opening just at the dawning. And the crowd was
already waiting with their cans and bowls to receive the alms of the
good brethren.
“And he passed through the crowd and went on his way, and the few people
then abroad who marked him, said, 'Tiens! how very odd he looks!
He looks like a man walking in his sleep!' This was said by various
persons:--
“By milk-women, with their cans and carts, coming into the town.
“By roysterers who had been drinking at the taverns of the Barrier, for
it was Mid-Lent.
“By the sergeants of the watch, who eyed him sternly as he passed near
their halberds.
“But he passed on unmoved by their halberds,
“Unmoved by the cries of the roysterers,
“By the market-women coming with their milk and eggs.
“He walked through the Rue St. Honore, I say:--
“By the Rue Rambuteau,
“By the Rue St. Antoine,
“By the King's Chateau of the Bastille,
“By the Faubourg St. Antoine.
“And he came to No. 29 in the Rue Picpus--a house which then stood
between a court and garden--
“That is, there was a building of one story, with a great coach-door.
“Then there was a court, around which were stables, coach-houses,
offices.
“Then there was a house--a two-storied house, with a perron in front.
“Behind the house was a garden--a garden of two hundred and fifty French
feet in length.
“And as one hundred feet of France equal one hundred and six feet of
England, this garden, my friends, equalled exactly two hundred and
sixty-five feet of British measure.
“In the centre of the garden was a fountain and a statue--or, to speak
more correctly, two statues. One was recumbent,--a man. Over him, sabre
in hand, stood a woman.
“The man was Olofernes. The woman was Judith. From the head, from the
trunk, the water gushed. It was the taste of the doctor:--was it not a
droll of taste?
“At the end of the garden was the doctor's cabinet of study. My faith, a
singular cabinet, and singular pictures!--
“Decapitation of Charles Premier at Vitehall.
“Decapitation of Montrose at Edimbourg.
“Decapitation of Cinq Mars. When I tell you that he was a man of a
taste, charming!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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