A ROMANTIC STORY.
She was nearly seventy; forty years before, had been one of the handsomest and most courted of the lorettes of Paris. Everybody admired her lovely face and exquisite figure. Her fame as a beauty had extended to all the capitals of Europe. She had any number of wealthy lovers, and not a few young noblemen of high rank in her train. She lived like a queen. Her horses, and carriages, and toilets were the envy of the most fashionable ladies; and when the name of Annette Gariteau was mentioned, as it constantly was, eulogies on her charms were upon every lip.
On retiring one night, her bed-curtains caught fire, and she was dreadfully burned. Not a single trace of her beauty was left, but in its stead a frightfully disfigured face, and a shrivelled and crippled form. For some weeks it was thought she could not live; and when she did recover, she was so disgusted with herself, she tried to commit suicide by drowning, by poison, and by charcoal. They all failed, and she then fancied it was the wish of Heaven she should atone for her past errors by living until nature summoned her. Since then she has been very pious, never neglecting her religious duties in the smallest particular. She became a rag-picker because she considered that the humblest of callings, and because she thought that in it she would best serve her purpose of penitence, and render her reformation clear as noonday in the eyes of all who had known her in her pride of iniquity.
That was a queer story, and would hardly have been plausible, or probable, except when told of a French woman. I heard it repeated several times afterwards, and have no reason to doubt its correctness. The tale made a deep impression on me; and now, whenever I see some deformed and miserable creature, I try to forget her deformity and misery by fancying that she may be another Annette Gariteau.
LX.
BRIGANDAGE AND PIRACY.
RELATIONS OF THE STEAM ENGINE TO HONESTY.—PIRACY AND STEAMSHIPS.—HOW THE SLAVE TRADE WAS BROKEN UP.—STORIES OF BRIGANDS.—EXPLOITS OF SPANISH ROBBERS.—“ROAD AGENTS” IN CALIFORNIA.—AN ADVENTURE WITH HIGHWAYMEN.—AN ARMED STAGE COACH.—THE HAUNTS OF THE ROBBERS.—STORY OF A PLUNDERED PASSENGER.—“PUT UP YOUR HANDS.”—AN EXCITING INCIDENT.—BROAD-HORNS AND KEEL-BOATS.—MIKE FINK AND THE CLERGYMAN.—PIRACY ON THE MISSISSIPPI.—A FIGHT WITH RIVER PIRATES.—A CAPTAIN AND CREW MURDERED.—VISIT TO A ROBBERS’ CAVE.
The invention of the steam engine, while it has done a good deal for honest labor and honest enterprise, has done just as much towards breaking up dishonest enterprises and occupations. Before steamships came into fashion, the broad ocean and its adjacent waters were in many places the cruising grounds of pirates. They had sailing vessels built very long and low, with large spars, and, in proportion to the size of their hulk, with an immense spread of canvas. In a light wind or a heavy breeze, they could outsail the deeply and richly laden merchant ships, whose breadth of beam was great in proportion to their length, in order that they might carry heavy cargoes. These pirate vessels either sailed on the open ocean, in the track of merchant ships, or were concealed along the coast, whence they could dart out, and, after securing their prey, could sail back to their safe retreats. It was impossible to avoid them, impossible to escape them in a fair race, and, from the great number of men they carried, generally impossible to contend against them. Ships of war, like merchant ships, depended upon the wind for their propulsion, and were rarely able to sail as rapidly as the pirate craft. The invention of the steam engine was followed by the construction of the steamship; and when the steamship was armed with guns, she could run down and destroy these pirate cruisers.