| | 1 | Author: | Melville
Herman
1819-1891 | Add | | | Title: | Israel Potter  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | THE traveller who at the present day is content to travel
in the good old Asiatic style, neither rushed along by a
locomotive, nor dragged by a stage-coach; who is willing to
enjoy hospitalities at far-scattered farmhouses, instead of
paying his bill at an inn; who is not to be frightened by
any amount of loneliness, or to be deterred by the roughest
roads or the highest hills; such a traveller in the eastern
part of Berkshire, Massachusetts, will find ample food
for poetic reflection in the singular scenery of a country,
which, owing to the ruggedness of the soil and its lying out
of the track of all public conveyances, remains almost as
unknown to the general tourist as the interior of Bohemia. “After so courteous a reception, I am disturbed to
make you no better return than you have just experienced
from the actions of certain persons under my command.
—actions, lady, which my profession of arms obliges me
not only to brook, but, in a measure, to countenance.
From the bottom of my heart, my dear lady, I deplore
this most melancholy necessity of my delicate position.
However unhandsome the desire of these men, some
complaisance seemed due them from me, for their general
good conduct and bravery on former occasions. I had
but an instant to consider. I trust, that in unavoidably
gratifying them, I have inflicted less injury on your ladyship's
property than I have on my own bleeding sensibilities.
But my heart will not allow me to say more.
Permit me to assure you, dear lady, that when the
plate is sold, I shall, at all hazards, become the purchaser,
and will be proud to restore it to you, by such conveyance
as you may hereafter see fit to appoint. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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