The Lottery of Life
by Marguerite Gardiner (9781458928832)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: GALERIA; OR, THE DESERTED VILLAGE. " Pourquoi tous les hommes ne voyent-ils pas sans une motion profonde les ruines, mme les plus humble ? ne serait-ce partout simplement pour eux un image du malheur dont ils sentent diversement le poids? Si les cimetires font penser la mort, un village abandonn fait songer au peines de la vie; mais la mort est un malheur prvu, tandis que les peines de la vie sont infinies; or, l'infini n'est-il pas le secret des grandes melancholies?"?Balzac. " Would the signora like to see the deserted village?" asked the master of the post-house where we stopped to refresh our horses, on our route from Rome to the Castle of Bracciano; " it is not above a quarter of a mile from this place, and those few strangers who travel our road all go to examine it." Luigi, for so was the master of this post- house named, was a handsome, intelligent-looking man: his military bearing, and the mustache that shaded his lip, denoted he had served in the army; and a politeness and gentleness in his manner bore evidence that he had been accustomed to present himself before ladies: his language was correct, and, as well as his appearance and manner, indicated that he had seen much of the world; while a certain romantic air betrayed that its contact had not obliterated the natural bias of his character, which was that of a reflective and sentimental turn. s " There stands the village," said he, pointing to a mass of buildings seated on an eminence, overlooking the fertile valley of Arena; along which the clear and sparkling river of that name glided like a silvery serpent, but shaping itself, sporting through verdant meadows, and then losing itself amidst wooded knolls. We set out to visit Galeria, our communicative host acting as guide; and, after a s...

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