The house stood unusually near the river, facing eastward, and standing
four-square, with an immense veranda about its sides, and a flight of
steps in front spreading broadly downward, as we open arms to a child.
From the veranda nine miles of river were seen; and in their compass,
near at hand, the shady garden full of rare and beautiful flowers;
farther away broad fields of cane and rice, and the distant quarters of
the slaves, and on the horizon everywhere a dark belt of cypress forest.
The master was old Colonel De Charleu,--Jean Albert Henri Joseph De
Charleu-Marot, and "Colonel" by the grace of the first American
governor. Monsieur,--he would not speak to any one who called him
"Colonel,"--was a hoary-headed patriarch. His step was firm, his form
erect, his intellect strong and clear, his countenance classic, serene,
dignified, commanding, his manners courtly, his voice musical,
--fascinating. He had had his vices,--all his life; but had borne them,
as his race do, with a serenity of conscience and a cleanness of mouth
that left no outward blemish on the surface of the gentleman.
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