The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.Carr, John, Sir
History
The stranger in France : $b or, a tour from Devonshire to Paris illustrated by engravings in aqua tint of sketches taken on the spot.
Carr, John, Sir
France -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- Description and travel
I have before had occasion to notice the promptitude and activity of the
french police, under the penetrating eye of Mons. Fouche. No one can
escape the vigilance of this man and his emissaries. An emigrant of
respectability assured me, that when he and a friend of his waited upon
him for their passports to enable them to quit Paris for the South of
France, he surprised them by relating to them the names of the towns,
the streets, and of the people with whom they had lodged, at various
times, during their emigration in England.
Whilst I was at Paris, an affair happened very near the hotel in which I
lodged, which in its sequel displayed that high spirit and sensibility
which appear to form the presiding features in the french character, to
which may be attributed all the excesses which have stained, and all the
glory which has embellished it. A lady of fortune, and her only
daughter, an elegant and lovely young woman, resided in the Fauxbourg
St. Germain. A young man of merit and accomplishments, but unaided by
the powerful pretensions of suitable fortune, cherished a passion for
the young lady, to whom he had frequent access, on account of his being
distantly related to her. His affection was requited with return; and
before the parent suspected the attachment, the lovers were solemnly
engaged. The indications of pure love are generally too unguarded to
escape the keen, observing eye of a cold, mercenary mother. She charged
her daughter with her fondness, and forbade her distracted lover the
house. To close up every avenue of hope, she withdrew with her wretched
child into Italy, where they remained for two years; at the expiration
of which, the mother had arranged for her daughter a match more
congenial to her own pride and avarice, with an elderly gentleman, who
had considerable fortune and property in the vicinity of Bourdeaux.
Every necessary preparation was made for this cruel union, which it was
determined should be celebrated in Paris, to which city they returned
for that purpose. Two days before the marriage was intended to take
place, the young lover, wrought up to frenzy by the intelligence of the
approaching nuptials, contrived, by bribing the porter whilst the mother
was at the opera with her intended son-in-law, to reach the room of the
beloved being from whom he was about to be separated for ever. Emaciated
by grief, she presented the mere spectre of what she was when he last
left her. As soon as he entered the room, he fell senseless at her feet,
from which state he was roused by the loud fits of her frightful maniac
laughter. She stared upon him, like one bewildered. He clasped her with
one hand, and with the other drew from his pocket a vial containing
double distilled laurel water: he pressed it to her lips, until she had
swallowed half of its contents; the remainder he drank himself.--The
drug of death soon began to operate.--Clasped in each other's arms, pale
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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