We were, of course, inexpressibly shocked by this fatal catastrophe, the more so because we all felt that we might have been of use had we been told the truth.  The grief and distraction of the son and daughter, who had thus lost a parent, very possibly prevented them from taking the best measures in a case of such emergence; whereas strangers, anxious to be of service, and having all their presence of mind at command, might have afforded very important assistance.  How little had we thought, during the day spent so pleasantly upon the Rhone, that a fiat had passed which doomed one of the party to an untimely and violent death!  Our spirits, which had been of the gayest nature, were damped by this incident, which recurred to our minds again and again, and we were continually recollecting some trifling circumstance which had prepossessed us in favour of the family, thus suddenly overwhelmed by so distressing an event.

A couple of hours brought us to Arles, where we arrived before the town was astir; the steamer to Marseilles did not leave the quay until twelve o’clock, and we were tantalized by the idea of the excellent night’s rest we might have had if the steamer had fulfilled its agreement to go on to Arles.  The Marseilles boat, though a fine vessel of its class, was better calculated for the conveyance of merchandize than of passengers; there being only one cabin, and no possibility of procuring any refreshment on board.  This is the more inconvenient, as there is danger in bad weather of the passage into the harbour of Marseilles being retarded for several hours.  We now lamented having slighted an invitation to comfortable quarters in Avignon, which we found on board the Lyons steamer, printed upon a large card.

We were much pleased with what we saw of Arles; it is a clean, well-built town, the streets generally rather narrow, but the houses good.  In walking about, we found many of the outer doors open, and neat-looking female servants employed in sweeping the halls and entries.  With what I hope may be deemed a pardonable curiosity, we peeped and sometimes stepped into these interiors, and were gratified by the neatness and even elegance which they exhibited.  We found the people remarkably civil, and apparently too much accustomed to English travellers to trouble themselves about us.  The hotel was not of the best class, and we only saw some very inferior cafes, consisting of one small room, with a curtain before the open door, and on the outside a rude representation, on a board, of a coffee-pot, and a cup and saucer.  All the shops at Arles had curtains at the doors, a peculiarity which we had not previously observed in the towns of France.  We went into a handsome church, where we found a few people, principally beggars, at prayers, and leaving a small donation in the poor-box, beguiled the time by walking and sitting in the boulevard of the town.