Page:Stevenson - An Inland Voyage (1878).djvu/202

 upon all accounts, and were floated towards the sea like gentlemen.

We made Compiègne, as the sun was going down: a fine profile of a town above the river. Over the bridge, a regiment was parading to the drum. People loitered on the quay, some fishing, some looking idly at the stream. And as the two boats shot in along the water, we could see them pointing them out and speaking one to another. We landed at a floating lavatory, where the washerwomen were still beating the clothes.