The Romance of the Forest, interspersed with some pieces of poetry.Radcliffe, Ann Ward
General
The Romance of the Forest, interspersed with some pieces of poetry.
Radcliffe, Ann Ward
Gothic fiction
yet her heart beat almost unconsciously with a something resembling
hope. Still she listened, till the breeze again stole the sounds. With
regret she now perceived that the vessel was moving from them, and at
length they trembled faintly on the waves, sunk away at distance, and
were heard no more. She remained upon deck a considerable time,
unwilling to relinquish the expectation of hearing them again, and their
sweetness still vibrating on her fancy, and at length retired to the
cabin oppressed by a degree of disappointment which the occasion did not
appear to justify.
La Luc grew better during the voyage, his spirits revived, and when the
vessel entered that part of the Mediterranean called the Gulf of Lyons,
he was sufficiently animated to enjoy from the deck the noble prospect
which the sweeping shores of Provence, terminating in the far distant
ones of Languedoc, exhibited. Adeline and Clara, who anxiously watched
his looks, rejoiced in their amendment; and the fond wishes of the
latter already anticipated his perfect recovery. The expectations of
Adeline had been too often checked by disappointment permit her now to
indulge an equal degree of hope with that of her friend, yet she
confided much in the effect of this voyage.
La Luc amused himself at intervals with discoursing, and pointing out
the situations of considerable ports on the coast, and the mouths of the
rivers that, after wandering through Provence, disembogue themselves
into the Mediterranean. The Rhone, however, was the only one of much
consequence which he passed. On this object, though it was so distant
that fancy perhaps, rather than the sense, beheld it, Clara gazed with
peculiar pleasure, for it came from the banks of Savoy; and the wave
which she thought she perceived, had washed the feet of her dear native
mountains. The time passed with mingled pleasure and improvement as La
Luc described to his attentive pupils the manners and commerce of the
different inhabitants of the coast, and the natural history of the
country: or as he traced in imagination the remote wanderings of rivers
to their source, and delineated the characteristic beauties of their
scenery.
After a pleasant voyage of a few days, the shores of Provence receded,
and that of Languedoc, which had long bounded the distance, became the
grand object of the scene, and the sailors drew near their port. They
landed in the afternoon at a small town, situated at the foot of a woody
eminence, on the right overlooking the sea, and on the left the rich
plains of Languedoc gay with the purple vine. La Luc determined to defer
his journey till the following day, and was directed to a small inn at
the extremity of the town, where the accommodation, such as it was, he
endeavoured to be contented with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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