Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


Black was the river as a torrent of ink; lights glanced on it from the
piles of building round, ships rocked on its bosom. They rowed me up
to several vessels; I read by lantern-light their names painted in
great white letters on a dark ground. "The Ocean," "The Phoenix," "The
Consort," "The Dolphin," were passed in turns; but "The Vivid" was my
ship, and it seemed she lay further down.


Down the sable flood we glided, I thought of the Styx, and of Charon
rowing some solitary soul to the Land of Shades. Amidst the strange
scene, with a chilly wind blowing in my face and midnight clouds
dropping rain above my head; with two rude rowers for companions,
whose insane oaths still tortured my ear, I asked myself if I was
wretched or terrified. I was neither. Often in my life have I been far
more so under comparatively safe circumstances. "How is this?" said I.
"Methinks I am animated and alert, instead of being depressed and
apprehensive?" I could not tell how it was.

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