Three Years in Europe eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 238 pages of information about Three Years in Europe.

Three Years in Europe eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 238 pages of information about Three Years in Europe.

In the year 1842, just ten years after George Green (for he adopted his master’s name) arrived in England, he visited France, and spent some days at Dunkirk.  It was towards sunset, on a warm day in the month of October, that Mr. Green, after strolling some distance from the Hotel de Leon, entered a burial ground and wandered long alone among the silent dead, gazing upon the many green graves and marble tombstones of those who once moved on the theatre of busy life, and whose sounds of gaiety once fell upon the ear of man.  All nature around was hushed in silence, and seemed to partake of the general melancholy which hung over the quiet resting place of departed mortals.  After tracing the varied inscriptions which told the characters or conditions of the departed, and viewing the mounds ’neath which the dust of mortality slumbered, he had now reached a secluded spot, near to where an aged weeping willow bowed its thick foliage to the ground, as though anxious to hide from the scrutinizing gaze of curiosity the grave beneath it.  Mr. Green seated himself upon a marble tomb, and began to read Roscoe’s Leo X., a copy of which he had under his arm.  It was then about twilight, and he had scarcely gone through half a page, when he observed a lady in black, leading a boy some five years old up one of the paths; and as the lady’s black veil was over her face, he felt somewhat at liberty to eye her more closely.  While looking at her, the lady gave a scream and appeared to be in a fainting position, when Mr. Green sprang from his seat in time to save her from falling to the ground.  At this moment, an elderly gentleman was seen approaching with a rapid step, who from his appearance was evidently the lady’s father, or one intimately connected with her.  He came up, and in a confused manner, asked what was the matter.  Mr. Green explained as well as he could.  After taking up the smelling bottle which had fallen from her hand, and holding it a short time to her face, she soon began to revive.  During all this time, the lady’s veil had so covered her face, that Mr. Green had not seen it.  When she had so far recovered as to be able to raise her head, she again screamed, and fell back into the arms of the old man.  It now appeared quite certain, that either the countenance of George Green, or some other object, was the cause of these fits of fainting; and the old gentleman, thinking it was the former, in rather a petulant tone said, “I will thank you, Sir, if you will leave us alone.”  The child whom the lady was leading had now set up a squall; and amid the death-like appearance of the lady, the harsh look of the old man, and the cries of the boy, Mr. Green left the grounds and returned to his hotel.

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Three Years in Europe from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.