Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 2).djvu/181

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LETTER II.


COLIGNY—GENEVA— PLAINPALAIS.


Campagne C******,[1] near Coligny,

1st June.


You will perceive from my date that we have changed our residence since 1 June, 1816.my last letter. We now inhabit a little cottage on the opposite shore of the lake, and have exchanged the view of Mont Blanc and her snowy aiguilles for the dark frowning Jura, behind whose range we every evening see the sun sink, and darkness approaches our valley from behind the Alps, which are then tinged by that glowing rose-like hue which is observed in England to attend on the clouds of an autumnal sky when day-light is almost gone. The lake is at our feet, and a little harbour contains our boat, in which we still enjoy our evening excursions on the water. Unfortunately we do not now enjoy those brilliant skies that hailed us on our first arrival to this country. An almost perpetual rain confines us principally to the house; but when the sun bursts forth it is with a splendour and

  1. Mrs. Shelley supplied the name Chapuis in the Essays &c.