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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11898-0.txt b/11898-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5322656 --- /dev/null +++ b/11898-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5539 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11898 *** + +Note: This is Volume 4 of a 10-volume series, the contents of which + are as follows: + Volume 1: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 1 + Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2 + Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1 + Volume 4: France and the Netherlands, Part 2 + Volume 5: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 1 + Volume 6: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 2 + Volume 7: Italy and Greece, Part 1 + Volume 8: Italy and Greece, Part 2 + Volume 9: Spain and Portugal + Volume 10: Russia, Scandanavia and the Southeast + + + + +SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOL IV: FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS, PART TWO + +SELECTED AND EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS ETC + +BY + +FRANCIS W. HALSEY + +Editor of Great Epochs in American History Associate Editor of "The +Worlds Famous Orations" and of "The Best of the World's Classics" etc + +ILLUSTRATED + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV + + +France and the Netherlands--Part Two + +IV--CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX--(_Continued_) + +BAYEUX AND THE FAMOUS TAPESTRY--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRY IV. AT PAU--By H.A. Taine + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE--By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow + +AMBOISE--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +BLOIS--By Francis Miltoun + +CHAMBORD--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +CHENONCEAUX--By Francis Miltoun + +FOIX--By Francis Miltoun + + * * * * * + +V--VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + +MONT ST. MICHEL--By Anna Bowman Dodd + +CAEN--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX--By H.A. Taine + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE--By Thomas Gray + +CARCASSONNE--By Henry James + +BIARRITZ--By Francis Miltoun + +DOWN THE SAÔNE TO LYONS--By Nathaniel Parker Willis + +LYONS--By Thomas Gray + +MARSEILLES--By Charles Dickens + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA--By Francis Miltoun + +GAVARNIE--By H.A. Taine + + * * * * * + +VI--BELGIUM + +BRUGES--By Grant Allen + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES--By William Makepeace Thackeray + +GHENT--By Grant Allen + +BRUSSELS--By Clive Holland + +WATERLOO--By Victor Hugo + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD--By the Editor + +ANTWERP--By T. Francis Bumpus + + * * * * * + +VII--HOLLAND + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +HAARLEM--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +SCHEVENINGEN--By George Wharton Edwards + +DELFT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +LEYDEN--By Edmondo de Amicis + +DORTRECHT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +THE ZUYDER ZEE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE ART OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME IV + + +THE PEACE PALACE AT THE HAGUE +THE OLD PAPAL PALACE AT AVIGNON +THE WALLS OF AVIGNON, BUILT BY THE POPES +VAUCLUSE: THE "FOUNTAIN," OR THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER SORGUE +THE PONT DU GARD, NEAR AVIGNON +RHEIMS +AMIENS +THE FAÇADE OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL +THE BAYEUX CATHEDRAL +ROUEN +THE ROUEN CATHEDRAL +THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES +ORLEANS +THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS +THE CHATEAU OF AMBOISE +THE CHATEAU OF LOCHES +MOUNT ST. MICHAEL IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND +MONT ST. MICHEL IN NORMANDY, FRANCE +CARCASSONNE +THE LION'S MOUND AND OTHER MONUMENTS, WATERLOO +RUINS OF THE CHATEAU HUGOMONT, WATERLOO +THE HARBOR OF ROTTERDAM +THE MONTALBAANS TOWER, AMSTERDAM +CANAL AND HOUSES IN AMSTERDAM +SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND +ON THE PIER AT OSTEND +UTRECHT +THE EAST GATE OF DELFT +LAKE AT THE HAGUE +CANAL AT DORTRECHT + + + + +IV + + + + +CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX + +(_Continued_) + + +BAYEUX AND ITS FAMOUS TAPESTRIES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +The diligence brought me here from Caen in about two hours and a +half. The country, during the whole route, is open, well cultivated, +occasionally gently undulating, but generally denuded of trees. Many +pretty little churches, with delicate spires, peeped out to the right +and left during the journey; but the first view of the cathedral of +Bayeux put all the others out of my recollection. + +There is, in fact, no proper approach to this interesting edifice. The +western end is suffocated with houses. Here stands the post-office; +and with the most unsuspecting frankness, on the part of the owner, +I had permission to examine, with my own hands, within doors, every +letter--under the expectation that there were some for myself. Nor was +I disappointed. + +But you must come with me to the cathedral, and of course we must +enter together at the western front. There are five porticoes; +the central one being rather large, and the two, on either side, +comparatively small. Formerly, these were covered with sculptured +figures and ornaments, but the Calvinists in the sixteenth, and the +Revolutionists in the eighteenth century, have contrived to render +their present aspect mutilated and repulsive in the extreme. On +entering, I was struck with the two large transverse Norman arches +which bestride the area, or square, for the bases of the two towers. +It is the boldest and finest piece of masonry in the whole building. +The interior disappointed me. It is plain, solid, and divested of +ornament. + +Hard by the cathedral stood formerly a magnificent episcopal palace. +Upon this palace the old writers dearly loved to expatiate. There is +now, however, nothing but a good large comfortable family mansion; +sufficient for the purposes of such hospitality and entertainment as +the episcopal revenues will afford. + +It is high time that you should be introduced in proper form to the +famous Bayeux tapestry. Know then, in as few words as possible, that +this celebrated piece of tapestry represents chiefly the Invasion of +England by William the Conqueror, and the subsequent death of Harold +at the battle of Hastings. It measures about 214 English feet in +length, by about nineteen inches in width; and is supposed to have +been worked under the particular superintendence and direction of +Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. It was formerly exclusively kept +and exhibited in the cathedral; but it is now justly retained in the +Town Hall, and treasured as the most precious relic among the archives +of the city. + +There is indeed every reason to consider it as one of the most +valuable historical monuments which France possesses. It has also +given rise to a great deal of archeological discussion. Montfauçon, +Ducarel, and De La Rue, have come forward successively--but more +especially the first and last; and Montfauçon in particular has +favored the world with copper-plate representations of the whole. +Montfauçon's plates are generally much too small; and the more +enlarged ones are too ornamental. + +It is right, first of all, that you should have an idea how this piece +of tapestry is preserved, or rolled up. You see it here, therefore, +precisely as it appears after the person who shows it, takes off the +cloth with which it is usually covered. The first portion of the +needle-work, representing the embassy of Harold from Edward the +Confessor to William Duke of Normandy, is comparatively much +defaced--that is to say, the stitches are worn away, and little more +than the ground, or fine close linen cloth remains. It is not far from +the beginning--and where the color is fresh, and the stitches are, +comparatively, preserved--that you observe the portrait of Harold. + +You are to understand that the stitches, if they may be so called, +are threads laid side by side--and bound down at intervals by cross +stitches, or fastenings--upon rather a fine linen cloth; and that the +parts intended to represent flesh are left untouched by the needle. +I obtained a few straggling shreds of the worsted with which it is +worked. The colors are generally a faded or bluish green, crimson, and +pink. About the last five feet of this extraordinary roll are in a +yet more decayed and imperfect state than the first portion. But the +designer of the subject, whoever he was, had an eye throughout to +Roman art--as it appeared in its later stages. The folds of the +draperies, and the proportions of the figures, are executed with this +feeling. + +I must observe that, both at top and at bottom of the principal +subject, there is a running allegorical ornament, of which I will not +incur the presumption to suppose myself a successful interpreter. +The constellations, and the symbols of agriculture and of a rural +occupation form the chief subjects of this running ornament. All the +inscriptions are executed in capital letters of about an inch in +length; and upon the whole, whether this extraordinary and invaluable +relic be of the latter end of the eleventh, or the beginning or middle +of the twelfth century seems to me a matter of rather a secondary +consideration. That it is at once unique and important, must be +considered as a position to be neither doubted nor denied. + +I have learned even here, of what importance this tapestry roll was +considered in the time of Bonaparte's threatened invasion of our +country: and that, after displaying it at Paris for two or three +months, to awaken the curiosity and excite the love of conquest among +the citizens, it was conveyed to one or two sea-port towns, and +exhibited upon the stage as a most important material in dramatic +effect. + + + + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRI IV. AT PAU[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +Pau is a pretty city, neat, of gay appearance; but the highway is +paved with little round stones, the side-walks with small sharp +pebbles: so the horses walk on the heads of nails and foot-passengers +on the points of them. From Bordeaux to Toulouse such is the usage, +such the pavement. At the end of five minutes, your feet tell you in +the most intelligible manner that you are two hundred leagues away +from Paris.... + +Here are the true countrymen of Henry IV. As to the pretty ladies in +gauzy hats, whose swelling and rustling robes graze the horns of the +motionless oxen as they pass, you must not look at them; they would +carry your imagination back to the Boulevard de Gand, and you would +have gone two hundred leagues only to remain in the same place. I am +here on purpose to visit the sixteenth century; one makes a journey +for the sake of changing, not place, but ideas.... It was eight +o'clock in the morning; not a visitor at the castle, no one in the +courts nor on the terrace; I should not have been too much astonished +at meeting the Béarnais, "that lusty gallant, that very devil," who +was sharp enough to get for himself the name of "the good king." + +His château is very irregular; it is only when seen from the valley +that any graces and harmony can be found in it. Above two rows of +pointed roofs and old houses, it stands out alone against the sky and +gazes upon the valley in the distance; two bell-turrets project from +the front toward the west; the oblong body follows, and two massive +brick towers close the line with their esplanades and battlements. It +is connected with the city by a narrow old bridge, by a broad modern +one with the park, and the foot of its terrace is bathed by a dark but +lovely stream. + +Near at hand, this arrangement disappears; a fifth tower upon the +north side deranges the symmetry. The great egg-shaped court is a +mosaic of incongruous masonry; above the porch, a wall of pebbles from +the Gave, and of red bricks crossed like a tapestry design; opposite, +fixt to the wall, a row of medallions in stone; upon the sides, doors +of every form and age; dormer windows, windows square, pointed, +embattled, with stone mullions garlanded with elaborate reliefs. This +masquerade of styles troubles the mind, yet not unpleasantly; it is +unpretending and artless; each century has built according to its own +fancy, without concerning itself about its neighbor. + +On the first floor is shown a great tortoise-shell, which was the +cradle of Henry IV. Carved chests, dressing-tables, tapestries, clocks +of that day, the bed and arm-chair of Jeanne d'Albret, a complete set +of furniture in the taste of the Renaissance, striking and somber, +painfully labored yet magnificent in style, carrying the mind at once +back toward that age of force and effort, of boldness in invention, of +unbridled pleasures and terrible toil, of sensuality and of heroism. +Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV., crossed France in order that +she might, according to her promise, be confined in this castle. "A +princess," says D'Aubigné, "having nothing of the woman about her but +the sex, a soul entirely given to manly things, a mind mighty in great +affairs, a heart unconquerable by adversity." + +She sang an old Bearnaise song when she brought him into the world. +They say that the aged grandfather rubbed the lips of the new-born +child with a clove of garlic, poured into his mouth a few drops of +Jurançon wine, and carried him away in his dressing-gown. The child +was born in the chamber which opens into the lower tower of Mazères, +on the southwest corner. + +His mother, a warm and severe Calvinist, when he was fifteen years +old, led him through the Catholic army to La Rochelle, and gave him to +her followers as their general. At sixteen years old, at the combat of +Arnay-le-Duc, he led the first charge of cavalry. What an education +and what men! Their descendants were just now passing in the streets, +going to school to compose Latin verses and recite the pastorals of +Massillon. + +Those old wars are the most poetic in French history; they were made +for pleasure rather than interest. It was a chase in which adventures, +dangers, emotions were found, in which men lived in the sunlight, on +horseback, amidst flashes of fire, and where the body, as well as +the soul, had its enjoyment and its exercise. Henry carries it on as +briskly as a dance, with a Gascon's fire and a soldier's ardor, with +abrupt sallies, and pursuing his point against the enemy as with the +ladies. + +This is no spectacle of great masses of well-disciplined men, coming +heavily into collision and falling by thousands on the field, +according to the rules of good tactics. The king leaves Pau or Nérac +with a little troop, picks up the neighboring garrisons on his way, +scales a fortress, intercepts a body of arquebusiers as they pass, +extricates himself pistol in hand from the midst of a hostile troop, +and returns to the feet of Mlle. de Tignonville. They arrange their +plan from day to day; nothing is done unless unexpectedly and by +chance. Enterprises are strokes of fortune.... + +The park is a great wood on a hill, embedded among meadows and +harvests. You walk in long solitary alleys, under colonnades of superb +oaks, while to the left the lofty stems of the copses mount in close +ranks upon the back of the hill. The fog was not yet lifted; there was +no motion in the air; not a corner of the blue sky, not a sound in all +the country. The song of a bird came for an instant from the midst of +the ash-trees, then sadly ceased. Is that then the sky of the south, +and was it necessary to come to the happy country of the Béarnais to +find such melancholy impressions? A little by-way brought us to a bank +of the Gave: in a long pool of water was growing an army of reeds +twice the height of a man; their grayish spikes and their trembling +leaves bent and whispered under the wind; a wild flower near by shed a +vanilla perfume. + +We gazed on the broad country, the ranges of rounded hills, the silent +plain under the dull dome of the sky. Three hundred paces away the +Gave rolls between marshaled banks, which it has covered with sand; in +the midst of the waters may be seen the moss-grown piles of a ruined +bridge. One is at ease here, and yet at the bottom of the heart +a vague unrest is felt; the soul is softened and loses itself in +melancholy and tender revery. Suddenly the clock strikes, and one +is forced to go and prepare himself to eat his soup between two +commercial travelers. + +To-day the sun shines. On my way to the Place Nationale, I remarked a +poor, half-ruined church, which had been turned into a coach-house; +they have fastened upon it a carrier's sign. The arcades, in small +gray stones, still round themselves with an elegant boldness; beneath +are stowed away carts and casks and pieces of wood; here and there +workmen were handling wheels. A broad ray of light fell upon a pile of +straw, and made the somber corners seem yet darker; the pictures that +one meets with outweigh those one has come to seek. + +From the esplanade which is opposite, the whole valley and the +mountains beyond may be seen; this first sight of a southern sun, as +it breaks from the rainy mists, is admirable; a sheet of white light +stretches from one horizon to another without meeting a single cloud. +The heart expands in this immense space; the very air is festal; the +dazzled eyes close beneath the brightness which deluges them and which +runs over, radiated from the burning dome of heaven. The current of +the river sparkles like a girdle of jewels; the chains of hills, +yesterday veiled and damp, extend at their own sweet will beneath the +warming, penetrating rays, and mount range upon range to spread out +their green robe to the sun. + +In the distance, the blue Pyrenees look like a bank of clouds; the air +that bathes them shapes them into aërial forms, vapory phantoms, the +farthest of which vanish in the canescent horizon--dim contours, that +might be taken for a fugitive sketch from the lightest of pencils. In +the midst of the serrate chain the peak Midi d' Ossau lifts its abrupt +cone; at this distance, forms are softened, colors are blended, the +Pyrenees are only the graceful bordering of a smiling landscape and of +the magnificent sky. There is nothing imposing about them nor severe; +the beauty here is serene, and the pleasure pure. + +The statue of Henry IV., with an inscription in Latin and in patois, +is on the esplanade; the armor is finished so perfectly that it might +make an armorer jealous. But why does the king wear so sad an air? His +neck is ill at ease on his shoulders; his features are small and full +of care; he has lost his gayety, his spirit, his confidence in his +fortune, his proud bearing. His air is neither that of a great nor a +good man, nor of a man of intellect; his face is discontented, and one +would say that he was bored with Pau. I am not sure that he was wrong: +and yet the city passes for agreeable, the climate is very mild, and +invalids who fear the cold pass the winter in it. + + + + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Outre-Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW + + +In the beautiful month of October I made a foot excursion along the +banks of the Loire, from Orléans to Tours. This luxuriant region is +justly called the garden of France. From Orléans to Blois, the whole +valley of the Loire is one continued vineyard. The bright green +foliage of the vine spreads, like the undulations of the sea, over +the landscape, with here and there a silver flash of the river, a +sequestered hamlet, or the towers of an old chateau, to enliven and +variegate the scene. + +The vintage had already commenced. The peasantry were busy in the +fields--the song that cheered their labor was on the breeze, and +the heavy wagon tottered by, laden with the clusters of the vine. +Everything around me wore that happy look which makes the heart glad. +In the morning I arose with the lark; and at night I slept where the +sunset overtook me.... My first day's journey brought me at evening to +a village, whose name I have forgotten, situated about eight leagues +from Orléans. It is a small, obscure hamlet, not mentioned in the +guide-book, and stands upon the precipitous banks of a deep ravine, +through which a noisy brook leaps to turn the ponderous wheel of a +thatch-roofed mill. The village inn stands upon the highway; but the +village itself is not visible to the traveler as he passes. It is +completely hidden in the lap of a wooded valley, and so embowered +in trees that not a roof nor a chimney peeps out to betray its +hiding-place. + +When I awoke in the morning, a brilliant autumnal sun was shining in +at my window. The merry song of birds mingled sweetly with the sound +of rustling leaves and the gurgle of the brook. The vintagers were +going forth to their toil; the wine-press was busy in the shade, and +the clatter of the mill kept time to the miller's song. I loitered +about the village with a feeling of calm delight. I was unwilling to +leave the seclusion of this sequestered hamlet; but at length, with +reluctant step, I took the cross-road through the vineyard, and in a +moment the little village had sunk again, as if by enchantment, into +the bosom of the earth. + +I breakfasted at the town of Mer; and, leaving the high-road to Blois +on the right, passed down to the banks of the Loire, through a long, +broad avenue of poplars and sycamores. I crossed the river in a boat, +and in the after part of the day I found myself before the high and +massive walls of the château of Chambord. This château is one of the +finest specimens of the ancient Gothic castle to be found in Europe. +The little river Cosson fills its deep and ample moat, and above +it the huge towers and heavy battlements rise in stern and solemn +grandeur, moss-grown with age, and blackened by the storms of three +centuries. Within, all is mournful and deserted. The grass has +overgrown the pavement of the courtyard, and the rude sculpture upon +the walls is broken and defaced.... + +My third day's journey brought me to the ancient city of Blois, the +chief town of the department of Loire-et-Cher. This city is celebrated +for the purity with which even the lower classes of its inhabitants +speak their native tongue. It rises precipitously from the northern +bank of the Loire; and many of its streets are so steep as to be +almost impassable for carriages. On the brow of the hill, overlooking +the roofs of the city, and commanding a fine view of the Loire and its +noble bridge, and the surrounding country, sprinkled with cottages and +châteaux, runs an ample terrace, planted with trees, and laid out as a +public walk. The view from this terrace is one of the most beautiful +in France. But what most strikes the eye of the traveler at Blois is +an old, tho still unfinished, castle. Its huge parapets of hewn stone +stand upon either side of the street; but they have walled up the wide +gateway, from which the colossal drawbridge was to have sprung high in +air, connecting together the main towers of the building, and the two +hills upon whose slope its foundations stand. The aspect of this vast +pile is gloomy and desolate. It seems as if the strong hand of the +builder had been arrested in the midst of his task by the stronger +hand of death; and the unfinished fabric stands a lasting monument +both of the power and weakness of man--of his vast desires, his +sanguine hopes, his ambitious purposes--and of the unlooked-for +conclusion, where all these desires, and hopes, and purposes are so +often arrested. There is also at Blois another ancient château, to +which some historic interest is attached as being the scene of the +massacre of the Duke of Guise. + +On the following day, I left Blois for Amboise; and, after walking +several leagues along the dusty highway, crossed the river in a boat +to the little village of Moines, which lies amid luxuriant vineyards +upon the southern bank of the Loire. From Moines to Amboise the road +is truly delightful. The rich lowland scenery, by the margin of the +river, is verdant even in October; and occasionally the landscape is +diversified with the picturesque cottages of the vintagers, cut in the +rock along the road-side, and overhung by the thick foliage of the +vines above them. + +At Amboise I took a cross-road, which led me to the romantic borders +of the Cher and the château of Chenonceau. This beautiful château, as +well as that of Chambord, was built by the gay and munificent Francis +the First. One is a specimen of strong and massive architecture--a +dwelling for a warrior; but the other is of a lighter and more +graceful construction, and was designed for those soft languishments +of passion with which the fascinating Diane de Poitiers had filled the +bosom of that voluptuous monarch. + +The château of Chenonceau is built upon arches across the river Cher, +whose waters are made to supply the deep moat at each extremity. There +is a spacious courtyard in front, from which a drawbridge conducts to +the outer hall of the castle. There the armor of Francis the First +still hangs upon the wall--his shield, and helm, and lance--as if the +chivalrous but dissolute prince had just exchanged them for the silken +robes of the drawing-room.... Doubtless the naked walls and the vast +solitary chambers of an old and desolate château inspire a feeling of +greater solemnity and awe; but when the antique furniture of the olden +time remains--the faded tapestry on the walls, and the arm-chair +by the fire-side--the effect upon the mind is more magical and +delightful. The old inhabitants of the place, long gathered to their +fathers, tho living still in history, seem to have left their halls +for the chase or the tournament; and as the heavy door swings upon its +reluctant hinge, one almost expects to see the gallant princes and +courtly dames enter those halls again, and sweep in stately procession +along the silent corridors.... + +A short time after candle-lighting, I reached the little tavern of the +Boule d'Or, a few leagues from Tours, where I passed the night. The +following morning was lowering and sad. A veil of mist hung over +the landscape, and ever and anon a heavy shower burst from the +overburdened clouds, that were driving by before a high and piercing +wind. This unpropitious state of the weather detained me until noon, +when a cabriolet for Tours drove up, and taking a seat within it, I +left the hostess of the Boule d'Or in the middle of a long story about +a rich countess, who always alighted there when she passed that way. +We drove leisurely along through a beautiful country, till at length +we came to the brow of a steep hill, which commands a fine view of the +city of Tours and its delightful environs. But the scene was +shrouded by the heavy drifting mist, through which I could trace but +indistinctly the graceful sweep of the Loire, and the spires and roofs +of the city far below me. + +The city of Tours and the delicious plain in which it lies have been +too often described by other travelers to render a new description, +from so listless a pen as mine, either necessary or desirable. After a +sojourn of two cloudy and melancholy days, I set out on my return to +Paris, by the way of Vendôme and Chartres. I stopt a few hours at +the former place, to examine the ruins of a château built by Jeanne +d'Albret, mother of Henry the Fourth. It stands upon the summit of a +high and precipitous hill, and almost overhangs the town beneath. The +French Revolution has completed the ruin that time had already begun; +and nothing now remains, but a broken and crumbling bastion, and here +and there a solitary tower dropping slowly to decay. In one of these +is the grave of Jeanne d'Albret. A marble entablature in the wall +above contains the inscription, which is nearly effaced, tho enough +still remains to tell the curious traveler that there lies buried the +mother of the "Bon Henri." To this is added a prayer that the repose +of the dead may be respected. + +Here ended my foot excursion. The object of my journey was +accomplished; and, delighted with this short ramble through the valley +of the Loire, I took my seat in the diligence for Paris, and on the +following day was again swallowed up in the crowds of the metropolis, +like a drop in the bosom of the sea. + + + + +AMBOISE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The Castle of Amboise stands high above the town, like another +Acropolis above a smaller Athens; it rises upon the only height +visible for some distance, and is in a commanding position for holding +the level fields of Touraine around it, and securing the passage of +the Loire between Tours and Chaumont, which is the next link in the +chain that ends at Blois. + +The river at this point is divided in two by an island, as is so often +the case where the first bridge-builders sought to join the wide banks +of the Loire, and on this little spot between the waters Clovis is +said to have met Alaric before he overthrew the power of the Visigoths +in Aquitaine. + +Amboise gains even more from the river than the other châteaux of +the Loire. The magnificent round tower that springs from the end of +Charles VIII.'s façade completely commands the approaches of the +bridge, and the extraordinary effect of lofty masonry, produced by +building on the summit of an elevation and carrying the stone courses +upward from the lower ground, is here seen at its best.... + +But Amboise has a history before the days of Charles VIII. There was +without doubt a Roman camp here, but the traditions of the ubiquitous +Caesar must be received with caution. The so-called "Greniers de +Caesar," strange, unexplained constructions caverned in the soft rock, +are proved to be the work of a later age by that same indefatigable +Abbé Chevalier to whom we have been already indebted for so much +archeological research. A possible explanation of them is contained in +an old Latin history of the castle, which goes down to the death of +Stephen of England. According to this, the Romans had held Amboise +from the days of Caesar till the reign of Diocletian; the Baugaredi or +Bagaudee then put them to flight, but let the rest of the inhabitants +remain who, "being afraid to live above ground, tunnelled beneath it, +and made a great colony of subterranean dwellings in the holes they +had dug out," a custom apparently common in Touraine from the earliest +times. The Romans at any rate left unmistakable traces of their +presence; many of their architectural remains still exist, and their +fort is spoken of by Sulpicius Severus; but they can have built no +bridge of alone, for in St. Gregory's time there were only boats +available for crossing the river. + +Not till the fifteenth century did the castle become royal property, +when it was confiscated by Charles VII. as a punishment for +treacherous dealings with the invading English very similar to +the treason discovered at Chenonceaux just before. But beyond +strengthening the fortification of the place this king did little for +his new possession. + +In a few years the castle is overshadowed by the cruel specter of +Louis XI., whose memory has already spoiled several charming views +for us. It was to Amboise that the father of this unfilial prince +was carried from Chinon on his way north, when wearied out by the +annoyance caused by the Dauphin's plots. The castle had become a royal +residence, and soon after the whole town turns out to meet the new +king with a "morality-play made by Master Étienne for the joyous +occasion of his arrival," for Amboise was already famous for those +dramatic performances always so dear to the French, and particularly +to these citizens, in the old days at any rate. There is no trace of +such frivolities now in the sleepy little town.... + +The two great towers of Amboise with the inclined planes of brickwork, +which wind upward in the midst instead of staircases, were the result +of the work which Charles set on foot as a distraction of his grief. +These strange ascents had been partially restored by the Comte de +Paris, the present owner of Amboise, before his exile stopt the work +of repairing the chateau, and it is still possible to imagine the +"charrettes, mullets, et litières," of which Du Bellay speaks, +mounting from the low ground to the chambers above, or the Emperor +Charles V., in later years, riding up with his royal host Francis I., +always fond of display, amid such a blaze of flambeaux "that a man +might see as clearly as at mid-day." + +These great towers and the exquisite little chapel were the work of +the "excellent sculptors and artists from Naples" who, as Commines +tells us, were brought back with the spoils of the Italian wars; for +the young king "never thought of death" but only of collecting round +him "all the beautiful things which he had seen and which had given +him pleasure, from France or Italy or Flanders;" but death came upon +him suddenly. At the end of a garden walk, fringed with a mossy grove +of limes that rises from the river bank, is the little doorway through +which Charles VIII. was passing when he hit his head, never a +very strong one, against the low stone arch, and died a few hours +afterward. The castle had been fortified before his time; he left it +beautiful as well, and the traces of his work are those which are most +striking at the present day.... + +Within the shadow of the lime trees on the terraced garden of Amboise +is a small bust of Leonardo da Vinci, for it was near here he died. +His remains are laid in the beautiful chapel at the corner of +the castle court, and the romantic story of his last moments at +Fontainebleau becomes the sad reality of a tombstone covering ashes +mostly unknown and certainly indistinguishable; "among which" as the +epitaph painfully records, "are supposed to be the remains of Leonardo +da Vinci." He had been brought to Paris a weak old man, by Francis, +in pursuance of a certain fixt artistic policy, to which it may be +noticed this forgotten and uncertain grave does but little credit. + +To Francis I., rightly or wrongly, is given the glory of having +naturalized in France the arts of Italy; to him is due the +architecture built for ease and charm which turned the fortress into a +beautiful habitation, which changed Chambord from a feudal stronghold +to a country seat, and which left its traces at Amboise, as it did +at Chaumont and at Blois. He found in France the highest and most +beautiful expression of the work of "the great unnamed race of +master-masons," he found the traditions of a national school of +painting, the work of Fouquet and the Clouets, but for these he cared +not; for him the only schools were those of Rome and Florence, and +tho by encouraging their imitation he weakened the vital sincerity of +French art, yet from his first exercise of royal power the consistency +always somewhat lacking in his politics was shown clearly and firmly +in his taste for art. + + + + +BLOIS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1908.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Blois, among all the other cities of the Loire, is the favorite with +the tourist. Here one first meets a great château of state; and +certainly the Château de Blois lives in one's memory more than any +other château in France. + +Much has been written of Blois, its counts, its château, and its many +and famous hôtels of the nobility, by writers of all opinions and +abilities, from those old chroniclers who wrote of the plots and +intrigues of other days to those critics of art and architecture who +have discovered--or think they have discovered--that Da Vinci designed +the famous spiral staircase. + +From this one may well gather that Blois is the foremost château of +all the Loire in popularity and theatrical effect. Truly this is so, +but it is by no manner of means the most lovable; indeed, it is the +least lovable of all that great galaxy which begins at Blois and ends +at Nantes. It is a show-place and not much more, and partakes in +every form and feature--as one sees it to-day--of the attributes of a +museum, and such it really is. + +All of its former gorgeousness is still there, and all the banalities +of the later period when Gaston of Orleans built his ugly wing, for +the "personally conducted" to marvel at, and honeymoon couples to +envy. The French are quite fond of visiting this shrine themselves, +but usually it is the young people and their mammas, and detached +couples of American and English birth that one most sees strolling +about the courts and apartments where formerly lords and ladies and +cavaliers moved and plotted. + +The great château of the Counts of Blois is built upon an inclined +rock which rises above the roof-tops of the lower town quite in +fairy-book fashion. Commonly referred to as the Château de Blois, it +is really composed of four separate and distinct foundations; the +original château of the counts; the later addition of Louis XII.; the +palace of Francis I., and the most unsympathetically and dismally +disposed pavilion of Gaston of Orleans. + +The artistic qualities of the greater part of the distinct edifice +which go to make up the château as it stands to-day are superb, with +the exception of that great wing of Gaston's, before mentioned, which +is as cold and unfeeling as the overrated palace at Versailles. + +The Comtes de Chatillon built that portion just to the right of the +present entrance; Louis XII., the edifice through which one enters +the inner court and which extends far to the left, including also +the chapel immediately to the rear; while François I., who here as +elsewhere let his unbounded Italian proclivities have full sway, built +the extended wing to the left of the inner court and fronting on the +present Place du Château, formerly the Place Royale.... + +As an architectural monument the château is a picturesque assemblage +of edifices belonging to many different epochs, and, as such, shows, +as well as any other document of contemporary times, the varying +ambitions and emotions of its builders, from the rude and rough +manners of the earliest of feudal times through the highly refined +Renaissance details of the imaginative brain of François, down to the +base concoction of the elder Mansart, produced at the commands of +Gaston of Orleans. + +In the earliest structure were to be seen all the attributes of a +feudal fortress, towers and walls pierced with narrow loopholes, +and damp, dark dungeons hidden away in the thick walls. Then came a +structure which was less of a fortress and more habitable, but still a +stronghold, tho having ample and decorative doorways and windows, with +curious sculptures and rich framings. Then the pompous Renaissance +with "escaliers" and "balcons á jour," balustrades crowning the walls +and elaborate cornices here, there, and everywhere--all bespeaking +the gallantry and taste of the knightly king. Finally came the cold, +classic features of the period of the brother of Louis XIII. + +In plan the Château de Bois forms an irregular square situated at +the apex of a promontory high above the surface of the Loire, +and practically behind the town itself. The building has a most +picturesque aspect, and, to those who know, gives practically a +history of the château architecture of the time. Abandoned, mutilated +and dishonored, from time to time, the structure gradually took on new +forms until the thick walls underlying the apartment known to-day as +the Salle des États--probably the most ancient portion of all--were +overshadowed by the great richness of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries. + +From the platform one sees a magnificent panorama of the city and the +far-reaching Loire, which unrolls itself southward and northward for +many leagues, its banks covered by rich vineyards and crowned by thick +forests. + +The building of Louis XII. presents its brick-faced exterior in black +and red lozenge shapes, with sculptured window-frames, squarely upon +the little tree-bordered place of to-day, which in other times formed +a part of that magnificent terrace which looked down upon the roof +of the Église St. Nicholas, and the Jesuit church of the Immaculate +Conception, and the silvery bell of the Loire itself. + +The murders and other acts of violence and treason which took place +here are interesting enough, but one can not but feel, when he views +the chimney-piece before which the Due de Guise was standing when +called to his death in the royal closet, that the men of whom the +bloody tales of Blois are told quite deserved their fates. + +One comes away with the impression of it all stamped only upon the +mind, not graven upon the heart. Political intrigue to-day, if quite +as vulgar, is less sordid. Bigotry and ambition in those days allowed +few of the finer feelings to come to the surface, except with regard +to the luxuriance of surroundings. Of this last there can be no +question, and Blois is as characteristically luxurious as any of the +magnificient edifices which lodged the royalty and nobility of other +days throughout the valley of the Loire. + +The interior court is partly surrounded by a colonnade, quite +cloister-like in effect. At the right center of the François I. wing +is that wonderful spiral staircase, concerning the invention of which +so much speculation has been launched. + +The apartments of Catherine de Medici were directly beneath the +guard-room where the Balafré was murdered, and that event, taking +place at the very moment when the queen-mother was dying, can not be +said to have been conducive to a peaceful demise. + +Here, on the first floor of the François I. wing, the queen-mother, +held her court, as did the king his. The great gallery over-looked the +town on the side of the present Place du Château. It was, and is, a +truly grand apartment, with diamond-paned windows, and rich, dark wall +decorations on which Catherine's device, a crowned C and her monogram +in gold, frequently appears. There was, moreover, a great oval +window, opposite which stood her altar, and a doorway led to her +writing-closet, with its secret drawers and wall panels, which well +served her purpose of intrigue and deceit. + +A hidden stair-way led to the floor above, and there was a +chambre-à -coucher, with a deep recess for the bed, the same to which +she called her son Henri, as she lay dying, admonishing him to give +up the thought of murdering Guise. "What," said Henri, on this +embarrassing occasion, "spare Guise, when he, triumphant in Paris, +dared lay his hand on the hilt of his sword. Spare him who drove me a +fugitive from the capital. Spare them who never spared me. No, mother, +I will not." + +As the queen-mother drew near her end, and was lying ill at Blois, +great events for France were culminating at the château. Henry III. +had become King of France, and the Balafré, supported by Rome and +Spain, was in open rebellion against the reigning house, and the word +had gone forth that the Duc de Guise must die. + +The States-General were to be immediately assembled, and De Guise, +once the poetic lover of Marguerite, through his emissaries canvassed +all France to ensure the triumph of the party of the church against +Henri de Navarre and his queen--the Marguerite whom De Guise once +profest to love--who soon were to come to the throne of France. + +The uncomfortable Henri III. had been told that he would never be king +in reality until De Guise had been made away with. + +The final act of the drama between the rival houses of Guise and +Valois came when the king and his council came to Blois for the +assembly. The sunny city of Blois was indeed to be the scene of a +momentous affair, and a truly sumptuous setting it was, the roof-tops +of its houses sloping downward gently to the Loire, with its chief +accessory, the coiffed and turreted chateau itself, high above all +else. + +Details had been arranged with infinite pains, the guard doubled, and +a company of Swiss posted around the courtyard and up and down +the gorgeous staircase. Every nook and corner has its history in +connection with this greatest event in the history of the château of +Blois. + +As Guise entered the council chamber he was told that the king would +see him in his closet, to reach which one had to pass through the +guard-room below. The door was barred behind him that he might not +return, when the trusty guards of the Forty-fifth, under Dalahaide, +already hidden behind the wall-tapestry, sprang upon the Balafré and +forced him back upon the closed door through which he had just passed. +Guise fell stabbed in the breast by Malines, and "lay long uncovered +until an old carpet was found in which to wrap his corpse." + +Below, in her own apartments, lay the queen-mother, dying, but +listening eagerly for the rush of footsteps overhead, hoping and +praying that Henri--the hitherto effeminate Henri who played with his +sword as he would with a battledore, and who painted himself like a +woman, and put rings in his ears--would not prejudice himself at this +time in the eyes of Rome by slaying the leader of the church party.... + +It was under the régime of Gaston d'Orléans that the gardens of the +Château de Blois came to their greatest excellence and beauty. In +1653, Abel Brunyer, the first physician of Gaston's suite, published a +catalog of the fruit and flowers to be found here in these gardens, +of which he was also director. More than five hundred varieties were +included, three-quarters of which belonged to the flora of France. + +Among the delicacies and novelties of the time to be found here was +the Prunier de Reine Claude, from which those delicious green plums +known to all the world to-day as "Reine Claudes" were propagated, also +another variety which came from the Prunier de Monsieur, somewhat +similar in taste, but of a deep purple color. The potato was tenderly +cared for and grown as a great novelty and delicacy long before its +introduction to general cultivation by Parmentier. The tomato was +imported from Mexico, and even tobacco was grown.... + +In 1793 all the symbols and emblems of royalty were removed from +the château and destroyed. The celebrated bust of Gaston, the chief +artistic attribute of that part of the edifice built by him, was +decapitated, and the statue of Louis XII. over the entrance gateway +was overturned and broken up. Afterward the château became the +property of the "domaine" and was turned into a mere barracks. The +pavilion of Queen Anne became a military magazine, the Tour de +l'Observatoire, a powder-magazine, and all the indignities imaginable +were heaped upon the château. + +In 1814 Blois became the last capital of Napoleon's empire, and the +château walls sheltered the prisoners captured by the imperial army. + + + + +CHAMBORD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The road that leads from Blois to Chambord crosses the Loire by a fine +stone bridge, which the inscription sets forth to be the first public +work of Louis Philippe. + +For some distance the rails of a small tramway followed the road by +which our carriage was slowly rolling toward the level plains of the +Cologne, but we gradually left such uncompromising signs of activity, +and came into a flat country of endless vineyards, with here and there +a small plaster tower showing its slated roof above the low green +clusters of the vines. We passed through several villages, whose +inhabitants that day seemed to have but one care upon their minds, +like the famous Scilly Islanders, to gain a precarious livelihood by +taking each other's washing. On every bush and briar fluttered the +household linen and the family apparel, of various textures and in +different states of despair; and with that strict observance of +utility which is the chief characteristic of the French peasant, the +inevitable blouses, of faded blue were blown into shapeless bundles +even along the railings of the churchyard tombs. + +At last we came to an old moss-grown wall, and through a broken +gateway entered what is called the Park of Chambord. There is very +little of it to be seen now, the trees have been ruthlessly cut down +and mutilated, and of the wild boars, which Francis I. was so fond +of hunting there is left only the ghostly quarry that Thibault of +Champagne chases through the air, while the sound of his ghostly +horn echoes down the autumn night as the fantom pack sweeps by to +Montfrault. + +It is impossible for the uninstructed mind to grasp the plan or method +of this mass of architecture; yet it is unsatisfactory to give it up, +with Mr. Henry James, "as an irresponsible, insoluble labyrinth." +M. Viollet-le-Duc, with a sympathetic denial of any extreme and +over-technical admiration, gives just that intelligible account of the +château which is a compromise between the unmeaning adulation of its +contemporary critics and the ignorance of the casual traveler. + +"Chambord," says he, "must be taken for what it is; for an attempt in +which the architect sought to reconcile the methods of two opposite +principles, to unite in one building the fortified castle of the +Middle Ages and the pleasure-palace of the sixteenth century." Granted +that the attempt was an absurd one, it must be remembered that the +Renaissance was but just beginning in France; Gothic art seemed out +of date, yet none other had established itself to take its place. In +literature, in morals, as in architecture, this particular phase in +the civilization of the time has already become evident even in the +course of these small wanderings in a single province, and if only +this transition period is realized in all its meaning, with all the +"monstrous and inform" characteristics that were inevitably a part of +it, the mystery of this strange sixteenth century in France is half +explained, of this "glorious devil, large in heart and brain, that did +love beauty only" and would have it somewhere, somehow, at whatever +cost. + +Francis I. had passed his early years at Cognac, at Amboise, or +Romorantin, and when he first saw Chambord it was only the old feudal +manor-house built by the Counts of Blois. He transformed it, not by +the help of Primaticcio, with whose name it is tempting to associate +any building of this king's, for the methods of contemporary Italian +architecture were totally different; but, as Mr. de la Saussaye +proves, by the skill of that fertile school of art particularly of one +Maitre Pierre Trinqueau, or Le Nepveu, whose name is connected with +more successful buildings at Amboise and Blois. The plan is that +of the true French château; in the center is the habitation of the +seigneur and his family, flanked by four angle towers; on three sides +is a court closed by buildings, also with towers at each angle, and +like most feudal dwellings the central donjon has one of its sides on +the exterior of the whole ... + +It may well be imagined that Chambord is the parody of the old +castles, just as the Abbey of Thélème parodies the abbeys of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Both heaped a fatal ridicule upon +the bygone age, but what Rabelais could only dream Francis could +realize, yet not with the unfettered perfection that was granted to +the vision of Gargantua; for surely never was the spirit of the time, +seized and smitten into incongruous shapes of stone at so unfortunate +a moment, just when the old Renaissance was striving to take upon +itself the burden which was too heavy for the failing Gothic spirit, +just when success was coming, but had not yet come. + +It is only from within the court, where the great towers fling their +shadows over the space, where pinnacles and gables soar into the air, +and strange gargoyles and projectures shoot from the darkness into +light, that it is possible to realize the admiration which Chambord +roused when it was first created. Brantôme waxes enthusiastic over its +wonders, and describes how the king had drawn up plans (mercifully +never carried out) to divert the waters of the Loire to his new +palace, not content with the slender stream of Cosson, from which +the place derived its name. Others compare it to a palace put of the +Arabian Nights raised at the Prince's bidding by a Genie, or like +Lippomano, the Venetian ambassador, to "the abode of Morgana or +Alcinous"; but this topheavy barrack is anything rather than a "fairy +monument"; it might with as much humor be called a "souvenir of first +loves," as M. de la Saussaye has it. Both descriptions fit Chenonceaux +admirably; when used of Chambord they are out of place. + + + + +CHENONCEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1906.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + +Chenonceaux is noted chiefly for its château, but the little village +itself is charming. The houses of the village are not very new, nor +very old, but the one long street is most attractive throughout its +length, and the whole atmosphere of the place, from September to +December, is odorous with the perfume of red and purple grapes. The +vintage is not equal to that of the Bordeaux region, perhaps, nor +of Chinon, nor Saumur, but "vin du pays" of the Cher and the Loire, +around Tours, is not to be despised. + +Most tourists come to Chenonceaux by train from Tours; others drive +over from Amboise, and yet others come by bicycle or automobile. They +are not as yet so numerous as might be expected, and accordingly here, +as elsewhere in Touraine, every facility is given for visiting the +château and its park. + +If you do not hurry off at once to worship at the abode of the +fascinating Diane, one of the brightest ornaments of the court of +François I. and his son Henri, you will enjoy your dinner at the Hôtel +du Bon Laboureur, tho most likely it will be a solitary one, and you +will be put to bed in a great chamber over-looking the park, through +which peep, in the moonlight, the turrets of the château, and you +may hear the purling of the waters of the Cher as it flows below the +walls. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau, like François I., called Chenonceaux a +beautiful place, and he was right. It is all of that and more. Here +one comes into direct contact with an atmosphere which, if not feudal, +or even medieval, is at least that of several hundred years ago. + +Chenonceaux is moored like a ship in the middle of the rapidly running +Cher, a dozen miles or more above where that stream enters the Loire. +As a matter of fact, the château practically bridges the river, which +flows under its foundations and beneath its drawbridge on either side, +besides filling the moat with water. The general effect is as if the +building were set in the midst of a stream and formed a sort of island +château. Round about is a gentle meadow and a great park, which gives +to this turreted, architectural gem of Touraine a setting equalled by +no other château. + +What the château was in former days we can readily imagine, for +nothing is changed as to the general disposition. Boats came to the +water-gate, as they still might do if such boats still existed, in +true, pictorial legendary fashion. To-day the present occupant has +placed a curiosity on the ornamental waters in the shape of a gondola. +It is out of keeping with the grand fabric of the château, and it is a +pity that it does not cast itself adrift some night. What has become +of the gondolier, who was imported to keep the craft company, nobody +seems to know. He is certainly not in evidence, or, if he is, has +transformed himself into a groom or a chauffeur. + +The château of Chenonceaux is not a very ample structure; not so ample +as most photographs would make it appear. It is not tiny, but still it +has not the magnificent proportions of Blois, of Chambord, or even of +Langeais. It was more a habitation than it was a fortress, a +country house, as indeed it virtually became when the Connétable de +Montmorency took possession of the structure in the name of the king, +when its builder, Thomas Bohier, the none too astute minister of +finance in Normandy, came to grief in his affairs. + +Francis I came frequently here to hunt, and his memory is still kept +alive by the Chambre François I. François held possession till his +death, when his son made it over to the "admired of two generations," +Diane de Poitiers. + +Diane's memory will never leave Chenonceaux. To-day it is perpetuated +in the Chambre de Diane de Poitiers; but the portrait by Leonardo da +Vinci, which was supposed to best show her charms, has now disappeared +from the Long Gallery at the château. This portrait was painted at the +command of François, before Diane transferred her affections to his +son. + +No one knows when or how Diane de Poitiers first came to fascinate +François, or how or why her power waned. At any rate at the time +François pardoned her father, the witless Comte de St. Vallier, for +the treacherous part he played in the Bourbon conspiracy, he really +believed her to to be the "brightest ornament of a beauty-loving +court." + +Certainly, Diane was a powerful factor in the politics of her time, +tho François himself soon tired of her. Undaunted by this, she +forthwith set her cap for his son Henri, the Duc d'Orléans, and won +him, too. Of her beauty the present generation is able to judge for +itself by reason of the three well-known and excellent portraits of +contemporary times. + +Diane's influence over the young Henri was absolute. At his death +her power was, of course, at an end and Chenonceaux, and all else +possible, was taken from her by the orders of Catherine, the +long-suffering wife, who had been put aside for the fascinations of +the charming huntress. + +It must have been some satisfaction, however, to Diane, to know that, +in his fatal joust with Montgomery, Henri really broke his lance and +met his death in her honor, for the records tell that he bore her +colors on his lance, besides her initials set in gold and gems on his +shield. + +Catherine's eagerness to drive Diane from the court was so great, that +no sooner had her spouse fallen--even tho he did not actually die for +some days--than she sent word to Diane "who sat weeping alone," to +quit the court instantly; to give up the crown jewels--which Henri had +somewhat inconsiderately given her; and to "give up Chenonceaux in +Touraine," Catherine's Naboth's vineyard, which she had so long +admired and coveted. + +She had known it as a girl, when she often visited it in company with +her father-in-law, the appreciative but dissolute François, and had +ever longed to possess it for her own, before even her husband, now +dead, had given it to "that old hag Diane de Poitiers, Duchesse de +Valentinois." + +Diane paid no heed to Catherine's command. She simply asked: "Is the +king yet dead?" + +"No, madame," said the messenger, "but his wound is mortal; he can not +live the day." + +"Tell the queen, then." replied Diane, "that her reign is not yet +come; that I am mistress still over her and the kingdom as long as the +king breathes the breath of life." + +The château of Chenonceaux, so greatly coveted by Catherine when she +first came to France, and when it was in the possession of Diane, +still remains in all the regal splendor of its past. It lies in the +lovely valley of the Cher, far from the rush and turmoil of cities and +even the continuous traffic of great thoroughfares, for it is on the +road to nowhere unless one is journeying crosscountry from the lower +to the upper Loire. This very isolation resulted in its being one +of the few monuments spared from the furies of the Revolution, and, +"half-palace and half-château," it glistens with the purity of its +former glory, as picturesque as ever, with turrets, spires, and +roof-tops all mellowed with the ages in a most entrancing manner. + +Even to-day one enters the precincts of the château proper over a +drawbridge which spans an arm of the Loire, or rather, a moat which +leads directly from the parent stream. On the opposite side are the +bridge piers supporting five arches, the work of Diane when she was +the fair chatelaine of the domain. This ingenious thought proved to +be a most useful and artistic addition to the château. It formed a +flagged promenade, lovely in itself, and led to the southern bank of +the Cher, whence one got charming vistas of the turrets and roof-tops +of the château through the trees and the leafy avenues which converged +upon the structure. + +When Catherine came she did not disdain to make the best use of +Diane's innovation that suggested itself to her, which was simply to +build the Long Gallery over the arches of this lovely bridge, and so +make of it a veritable house over the water. A covering was made quite +as beautiful as the rest of the structure, and thus the bridge formed +a spacious wing of two stories. The first floor--known as the Long +Gallery--was intended as a banqueting-hall, and possest four great +full-length windows on either side looking up and down the stream, +from which was seen--and is to-day--an outlook as magnificently +idyllic as is possible to conceive. Jean Goujon had designed for the +ceiling one of those wonder-works for which he was famous, but if the +complete plan was ever carried out, it has disappeared, for only a +tiny sketch of the whole scheme remains to-day. + +Catherine came in the early summer to take possession of her +long-coveted domain. Being a skilful horsewoman, she came on +horseback, accompanied by a little band of feminine charmers destined +to wheedle political secrets from friends and enemies alike--a real +"flying squadron of the queen," as it was called by a contemporary. + +It was a gallant company that assembled here at this time--the young +King Charles IX., the Duc de Guise, and the "two cardinals mounted on +mules"--Lorraine, a true Guise, and D'Este, newly arrived from Italy, +and accompanied by the poet Tasso, wearing a "gabardine and a hood +of satin." Catherine showed the Italian great favor, as was due a +countryman, but there was another poet among them as well, Ronsard, +the poet laureate of the time. The Duc de Guise had followed in the +wake of Marguerite, unbeknown to Catherine, who frowned down any +possibility of an alliance between the houses of Valois and Lorraine. + +A great fête and water-masque had been arranged by Catherine to take +place on the Cher, with a banquet to follow in the Long Gallery in +honor of her arrival at Chenonceaux. + +When twilight had fallen, torches were ignited and myriads of lights +blazed forth from the boats on the river and from the windows of the +château. Music and song went forth into the night, and all was as gay +and lovely as a Venetian night's entertainment. The hunting-horns +echoed through the wooded banks, and through the arches above which +the château was built passed great highly colored barges, including a +fleet of gondolas to remind the queen-mother of her Italian days--the +ancestors perhaps of the solitary gondola which to-day floats idly by +the river-bank just before the grand entrance to the château. From +parterre and balustrade, and from the clipt yews of the ornamental +garden, fairy lamps burned forth and dwindled away into dim infinity, +as the long lines of soft light gradually lost themselves in the +forest. It was a grand affair and idyllic in its unworldliness ... + +Catherine bequeathed Chenonceaux to the wife of Henry III., Louise +de Vaudémont, who died here in 1601. For a hundred years it still +belonged to royalty, but in 1730 it was sold to M. Dupin, who, with +his wife, enriched and repaired the fabric. They gathered around +them a company so famous as to be memorable in the annals of art +and literature. This is best shown by the citing of such names as +Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Buffon, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, and Rousseau, +all of whom were frequenters of the establishment, the latter being +charged with the education of the Dupins' only son. + +Chenonceaux to-day is no whited sepulcher. It is a real living and +livable thing, and moreover, when one visits it, he observes that the +family burn great logs in their fireplaces, have luxurious bouquets of +flowers on their dining-table, and use wax candles instead of the more +prosaic oil-lamps, or worse--acetyline gas. + + + + +FOIX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Above the swift flowing Ariège in their superb setting of mountain +and forest are the towers and parapets of the old château, in itself +enough to make the name and fame of any city.... The actual age of +the monument covers many epochs. The two square towers and the main +edifice, as seen to-day, are anterior to the thirteenth century, as is +proved by the design in the seals of the Comtes de Foix of 1215 and +1241 now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In the fourteenth +century these towers were strengthened and enlarged with the idea of +making them more effective for defense and habitation. + +The escutcheons of Foix, Beam and Comminges, to be seen in the great +central tower, indicate that it, too, goes back at least to the end +of the fourteenth century, when Eleanore de Comminges, the mother of +Gaston Phoebus, ruled the Comté. The donjon or Tour Ronde arises on +the west to a height of forty-two meters; and will be remarked by all +familiar with these sermons in stones scattered all over France as one +of the most graceful. Legend attributes it to Gaston Phoebus; but all +authorities do not agree as to this. The window-and door-openings, the +moldings, the accolade over the entrance doorway, and the machicoulis +all denote that they belong to the latter half of the fifteenth +century. These, however, may be later interpolations. + +Originally one entered the château from exactly the opposite side from +that used to-day. The slope leading up to the rock and swinging around +in front of the town is an addition of recent years. Formerly the +plateau was gained by a rugged path which finally entered the +precincts of the fortress through a rectangular barbican. + +Finally, to sum it up, the pleasant, smiling, trim little city of +Foix, and its château rising romantically above it, form a delightful +prospect. Well preserved, well protected and forever free from further +desecration, the château de Fois is as nobly impressive and glorious +a monument of the Middle Ages as may be found in France, as well as +chief record of the gallant days of the Comtes de Foix. Foix' Palais +de Justice, built back to back with the rock foundation of the +château, is itself a singular piece of architecture containing a small +collection of local antiquities. This old Maison des Gouverneurs, now +the Palais de Justice, is a banal, unlovely thing, regardless of its +high-sounding titles.... + +It was that great hunter and warrior, Gaston Phoebus, who gave the +Château de Foix its greatest lustre. It was here that this most +brilliant and most celebrated of the counts passed his youth; and it +was from here that he set out on his famous expedition to aid his +brother knights of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. At Gaston's orders +the Comte d'Armagnac was imprisoned here, to be released after the +payment of a heavy ransom. As to the motive for this particular act, +authorities differ as to whether it was the fortune of war or mere +brigandage. + +They lived high, the nobles of the old days, and Froissart recounts a +banquet at which he had assisted at Foix, in the sixteenth century, as +follows: + +"And this was what I saw in the Comté de Foix: The Comte left his +chamber to sup at midnight, the way to the great 'salle' being led by +twelve varlets, bearing twelve illumined torches. The great hall was +crowded with knights and equerries, and those who would supped, saying +nothing meanwhile. Mostly game seemed to be the favorite viand, and +the legs and wings only of fowl were eaten. Music and chants were the +invariable accompaniment and the company remained at table until after +two in the morning. Little or nothing was drunk." + + + + +V + +VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + + + + +MONT ST. MICHEL[A] + +[Footnote A: From "In and Out of Three Normandy Inns." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Little Brown & +Co. Copyright, 1892.] + +BY ANNA BOWMAN DODD + + +The promised rivers were before us. So was the Mont, spectral no +longer, but nearing with every plunge forward of our sturdy young +Percheron. Locomotion through any new or untried medium is certain +to bring with the experiment a dash of elation. Now, driving through +water appears to be no longer the fashion in our fastidious century; +someone might get a wetting, possibly, has been the conclusion of the +prudent. And thus a very innocent and exciting bit of fun has been +gradually relegated among the lost arts of pleasure. + +We were taking water as we had never taken it before, and liking the +method. We were as wet as ducks, but what cared we? We were being +deluged with spray; the spume of the sea was spurting in our faces +with the force of a strong wet breeze, and still we liked it. Besides, +driving thus into the white foam of the waters, over the sand ridges, +across the downs, into the wide plains of wet mud, this was the old +classical way of going up to the Mont. + +Surely, what had been found good enough as a pathway for kings, and +saints and pilgrims should be good enough for lovers of old-time +methods. The dike yonder was built for those who believe in the devil +of haste, and for those who also serve him faithfully.... + +With our first toss upon the downs, a world of new and fresh +experiences began. Genets was quite right; the Mont over yonder was +another country; even at the very beginning of the journey we learned +so much. This breeze blowing in from the sea, that had swept the +ramparts of the famous rock, was a double extract of the sea-essence; +it had all the salt of the sea and the aroma of firs and wild flowers; +its lips had not kissed a garden in high air without the perfume +lingering, if only to betray them. + +Even this strip of meadow marsh had a character peculiar to itself; +half of it belonged to earth and half to the sea. You might have +thought it an inland pasture, with its herds of cattle, its flocks +of sheep, and its colonies of geese patrolled by ragged urchins. But +behold somewhere out yonder the pasture was lost in high sea-waves; +ships with bulging sails replaced the curve of the cattle's sides and +instead of bending necks of sheep, there were sea-gulls swooping down +upon the foamy waves. + +As the incarnation of this dual life of sea and land, the rock +stands. It also is both of the sea and the land. Its feet are of the +waters--rocks and stones the sea-waves have used as playthings these +millions of years. But earth regains possession as the rocks pile +themselves into a mountain. Even from this distance, one can see the +moving of great trees, the masses of yellow flower-tips that dye the +sides of the stony hill, and the strips of green grass here and there. + +So much has nature done for this wonderful pyramid in the sea. Then +man came and fashioned it to his liking. He piled the stones at its +base into titanic walls; he carved about its sides the rounded breasts +of bastions; he piled higher and higher up the dizzy heights a medley +of palaces, convents, abbeys, cloisters, to lay at the very top the +fitting crown of all, a jewelled Norman-Gothic cathedral. + +Earth and man have thrown their gauntlet down to the sea--this rock is +theirs, they cry to the waves and the might of the oceans. And the sea +laughs--as strong men laugh when boys are angry or insistent. She has +let them build and toil, and pray and fight; it is all one to her what +is done on the rock--whether men carve its stones into lace, or rot +and die in its dungeons; it is all the same to her whether each spring +the daffodils creep up within the crevices and the irises nod to them +from the gardens. + +It is all one to her. For twice a day she recaptures the Mont. She +encircles it with the strong arm of her tides; with the might of her +waters she makes it once more a thing of the sea. + +The tide was rising now. + +The fringe of the downs had dabbled in the shoals till they became +one. We had left behind the last of the shepherd lads, come out to the +edge of the land to search for a wandering kid. We were all at once +plunging into high water. Our road was sunk out of sight; we were +driving through, waves as high as our cart wheels.... + +Our cart still pitched and tossed--we were still rocked about in our +rough cradle. But the sun, now freed from the banks of clouds, was +lighting our way with a great and sudden glory. And for the rest of +our watery journey we were conscious only of that lighting. Behind the +Mont lay a vast sea of saffron. But it was in the sky; against it the +great rock was as black as if the night were upon it. + +Here and there, through the curve of a flying buttress, or the +apertures of a pierced parapet, gay bits of this yellow world were +caught and framed. The sea lay beneath like a quiet carpet; and over +this carpet ships and sloops swam with easy gliding motion, with sails +and cordage dipt in gold. The smaller craft, moored close to the +shore, seemed transfigured as in a fog of gold. And nearer still were +the brown walls of the Mont making a great shadow, and in the shadow +the waters were as black as the skin of an African. In the shoals +there were lovely masses of turquoise and palest green; for here and +there a cloudlet passed, to mirror its complexion in the translucent +pools.... + +There was a rapid dashing beneath the great walls; a sudden night of +darkness as we plunged through an open archway into a narrow village +street; a confused impression of houses built into side-walls; of +machicolated gateways; of rocks and roof-tops tumbling about our ears; +and within the street was sounding the babel of a shrieking troop of +men and women. Porters, peasants, and children were clamoring about +our cartwheels like so many jackals. The bedlam did not cease as we +stopt before a brightly-lit open doorway. + +Then through the doorway there came a tall, finely featured brunette. +She made her way through the yelling crowd as a duchess might cleave a +path through a rabble. She was at the side of the cart in an instant. +She gave us a bow and smile that were both a welcome and an act of +appropriation. She held out a firm, soft, brown hand. When it closed +on our own, we knew it to be the grasp of a friend, and the clasp of +one who knew how to hold her world. But when she spoke the words were +all of velvet, and her voice had the cadence of a caress. + +"I have been watching you, 'chères dames'--crossing the 'gréve,' but +how wet and weary you must be! Come in by the fire, it is ablaze +now--I have been feeding it for you!" + +And once more the beautifully curved lips parted over the fine teeth, +and the exceeding brightness of the dark eyes smiled and glittered in +our own. The caressing voice still led us forward, into the great gay +kitchen; the touch of skilful, discreet fingers undid wet cloaks and +wraps; the soft charm of a lovely and gracious woman made even the +penetrating warmth of the huge fire-logs a secondary feature of our +welcome. + +To those who have never crossed a "gréve;" who have had no jolting in +a Normandy "char-a-banc;" who, for hours, have not known the mixed +pleasures and discomfort of being a part of sea-rivers; and who have +not been met at the threshold of an Inn on a Rock by the smiling +welcome of Madame Poulard[A]--all such have yet a pleasant page to +read in the book of traveled experience.... + +[Footnote A: An innkeeper of international fame. She is now dead, but +her name and her omelet still survive at Mont St. Michel.] + +Altho her people were waiting below, and the dinner was on its way to +the cloth, Madame Poulard had plenty of time to give to the beauty +about her. How fine was the outlook from the top of the ramparts! +What a fresh sensation, this of standing-on a terrace in mid-air and +looking down on the sea and across to the level shores. The rose +vines--we found them sweet--"Ah"--one of the branches had fallen--she +had full time to re-adjust the loosened support. And "Marianne, give +these ladies their hot water, and see to their bags"--even this order +was given with courtesy. It was only when the supple, agile figure had +left us to fly down the steep rock-cut steps; when it shot over the +top of the gateway and slid with the grace of a lizard into the street +far below us, that we were made sensible of there having been any +special need of madame's being in haste ... + +The Mont proved by its appearance its history in adventure; it had the +grim, grave, battered look that comes only to features--whether of +rock or of more plastic human mold--that have been carved by the rough +handling of experience. + +It is the common habit of hills and mountains, as we all know, to turn +disdainful as they grow skyward; they only too eagerly drop, one by +one, the things by which man has marked the earth for his own. To +stand on a mountain top and to go down to your grave are alike, at +least in this--that you have left everything, except yourself, behind +you. But it is both the charm and the triumph of Mont St. Michael, +that it carries so much of man's handiwork up into the blue fields of +the air; this achievement alone would mark it as unique among hills. +It appears as if for once man and nature had agreed to work in concert +to produce a masterpiece in stone. The hill and the architectural +beauties it carries aloft, are like a taunt flung out to sea and to +the upper heights of air; for centuries they appear to have been +crying aloud, "See what we can do, against your tempests and your +futile tides--when we try" ... Rustic France along this coast still +makes pilgrimages to the shrine of the Archangel St. Michael. No +marriage is rightly arranged which does not include a wedding-journey +across the "gréve"; no nuptial breakfast is aureoled with the true +halo of romance which is eaten elsewhere than on these heights in +mid-air. The young come to drink deep of wonders; the old, to refresh +the depleted fountains of memory; and the tourist, behold he is a +plague of locusts let loose upon the defenseless hill! + +It was impossible, after sojourning a certain time upon the hill, not +to concede that there were two equally strong centers of attraction +that drew the world hitherward. One remained, indeed, gravely +suspended between the doubt and the fear, as to which of these +potential units had the greater pull, in point of actual attraction. +The impartial historian, given to a just weighing of evidence, would +have been startled to find how invariably the scales tipped; how +lightly an historical Mont, born of a miracle, crowned by the noblest +buildings, a pious Mecca for saints and kings innumerable, shot up +like feathers in lightness when overweighted by the modern realities +of a perfectly appointed inn, the cooking and eating of an omelet of +omelets, and the all-conquering charms of Madame Poulard. + +The fog of doubt thickened as, day after day, the same scenes were +enacted; when one beheld all sorts of conditions of men similarly +affected; when, again and again, the potentiality in the human magnet +was proved true. Doubt turned to conviction, at the last, that the +holy shrine of St. Michael had, in truth, been violated; that the Mont +had been desecrated; that the latter exists now solely as a setting +for a pearl of an inn; and that within the shrine--it is Madame +Poulard herself who fills the niche!... + +Such a variety of brides as come up to the Mont! You could have your +choice, at the midday meal, of almost any nationality, age, or color. +The attempt among these bridal couples to maintain the distant air +of a finished indifference only made their secret the more open. +The British phlegm, on such a journey, did not always serve as a +convenient mask; the flattering, timid glance, the ripple of tender +whispers, and the furtive touching of fingers beneath the table, made +even these English couples a part of the great human marrying family; +their superiority to their fellows would return, doubtless, when the +honey had dried out of their moon. + +The best of our adventures into this tender country were with the +French bridal tourists; they were certain to be delightfully human. As +we had had occasion to remark before, they were off, like ourselves, +on a little voyage of discovery; they had come to make acquaintance +with the being to whom they were mated for life. Various degrees of +progress could be read in the air and manner of the hearty young +"bourgeoises" and their paler or even ruddier partners, as they +crunched their bread or sipped their thin wine. Some had only entered +as yet upon the path of inquiry; others had already passed the +mile-stone of criticism; and still others had left the earth and were +floating in full azure of intoxication. Of the many wedding parties +that sat down to breakfast, we soon made the commonplace discovery +that the more plebeian the company, the more certain-orbed appeared to +be the promise of happiness.... + +Madame Poulard's air with this, her world, was as full of tact as with +the tourists. Many of the older women would give her the Norman kiss, +solemnly, as if the salute were a part of the ceremony attendant on +the eating of a wedding breakfast at Mont St. Michel. There would be +a three times' clapping of the wrinkled or the ruddy peasant cheeks +against the sides of Madame Poulard's daintier, more delicately +modeled face. Then all would take their seats noisily at the table. It +was Madame Poulard who would then bring us news of the party. At the +end of a fortnight Charm and I felt ourselves to be in possession of +the hidden and secret reasons for all the marrying that had been done +along the coast that year.... + +One morning, as we looked toward Pontorson, a small black cloud +appeared to be advancing across the bay. The day was windy; the sky +was crowded with huge white mountains--round, luminous clouds that +moved in stately sweeps. And the sea was the color one loves to see +in an earnest woman's eye, the dark blue sapphire that turns to +blue-gray. This was a setting that made that particular cloud, making +such slow progress across from the shore, all the more conspicuous. +Gradually, as the black mass neared the dike, it began to break and +separate; and we saw plainly enough that the scattering particles were +human beings. + +It was, in point of fact, a band of pilgrims; a peasant pilgrimage was +coming up to the Mont. In wagons, in market carts, in "char-á-bancs," +in donkey carts, on the backs of monster Percherons--the pilgrimage +moved in slow processional dignity across the dike. Some of the +younger black gowns and blue blouses attempted to walk across over the +sands; we could see the girls sitting down on the edge of the shore, +to take off their shoes and stockings and to tuck up their thick +skirts. When they finally started they were like unto so many huge +cheeses hoisted on stilts. The bare legs plunged boldly forward, +keeping ahead of the slower-moving peasant lads; the girls' bravery +served them till they reached the fringe of the incoming tide; not +until their knees went under water did they forego their venture. A +higher wave came in, deluging the ones farthest out; and then ensued a +scampering toward the dike and a climbing up of the stone embankment. +The old route across the sands, that had been the only one known to +kings and barons, was not good enough for a modern Norman peasant. The +religion of personal comfort has spread even as far as the fields. + +Other aspects of the hill, on this day of the pilgrimage, made those +older dead-and-gone bands of pilgrims astonishingly real. On the tops +of bastions, in the clefts on the rocks, beneath the glorious walls +of La Merveille, or perilously lodged on the crumbling cornice of a +tourelle, numerous rude altars had been hastily erected. The crude +blues and scarlets of banners were fluttering, like so many pennants, +in the light breeze. Beneath the improvised altar-roofs--strips of gay +cloth stretched across poles stuck into the ground--were groups not +often seen in these less fervent centuries. + +High up, mounted on the natural pulpit, formed of a bit of rock, with +the rude altar before him with its bits of scarlet cloth covered with +cheap lace, stood or knelt the priest. Against the wide blue of the +open heaven his figure took on an imposing splendor of mien and an +unmodern impressiveness of action. Beneath him knelt, with bowed +heads, the groups of the peasant pilgrims; the women, with murmuring +lips and clasped hands, their strong, deeply-seamed faces outlined +with the precision of a Francesco painting against the gray background +of a giant mass of wall or the amazing breadth of a vast sea-view; +children, squat and chubby, with bulging cheeks starting from the +close-fitting French "bonnet"; and the peasant-farmers, mostly of the +older varieties, whose stiffened or rheumatic knees and knotty hands +made their kneeling real acts of devotional zeal. + +There were a dozen such altars and groups scattered over the +perpendicular slant of the hill. The singing of the choir boys, rising +like skylark notes into the clear space of heaven, would be floating +from one rocky-nested chapel, while below, in the one beneath which +we, for a moment, were resting, there would be the groaning murmur of +the peasant groups in prayer. + +Three times did the vision of St. Michael appear to Saint Aubert, in +his dream, commanding the latter to erect a church on the heights of +Mont St. Michel to his honor. How many a time must the modern pilgrim +traverse the stupendous mass that has grown out of that command before +he is quite certain that the splendor of Mont St. Michel is real, and +not part of a dream! + +Whether one enters through the dark magnificence of the great portals +of the Châtelet; whether one mounts the fortified stairway, passing +into the Salle des Gardes, passing onward from dungeon to fortified +bridge to gain the abbatial residence; whether one leaves the vaulted +splendor of oratories for aërial passageways, only to emerge beneath +the majestic roof of the Cathedral--that marvel of the Early Norman, +ending in the Gothic choir of the fifteenth century; or, as one +penetrates into the gloom of the mighty dungeons where heroes, and +brothers of kings, and saints, and scientists have died their long +death--as one gropes through the black night of the crypt, where a +faint, mysterious glint of light falls aslant the mystical face of the +Black Virgin; as one climbs to the light beneath the ogive arches +of the Aumônerie, through the wide-lit aisles of the Salle des +Chevaliers, past the slender Gothic columns of the Refectory, up at +last to the crowning glory of all the glories of La Merveille, to the +exquisitely beautiful colonnades of the open Cloister--the impressions +and emotions excited by these ecclesiastical and military masterpieces +are ever the same, however many times one may pass them in review. A +charm indefinable, but replete with subtle attractions, lurks in every +one of these dungeons. + +The great halls have a power to make one retraverse their space I have +yet to find under other vaulted chambers. The grass that is set, +like a green jewel, in the arabesques of the cloister, is a bit of +greensward the feet press with a different tread to that which skips +lightly over other strips of turf. And the world, that one looks out +upon through prison bars, that is so gloriously arched in the arm of +a flying buttress, or that lies prone at your feet from the dizzy +heights of the rock clefts, is not the world in which you, daily, do +your petty stretch of toil, in which you laugh and ache, sorrow, sigh, +and go down to your grave. + +The secret of this deep attraction may lie in the fact of one's being +in a world that is built on a height. Much, doubtless, of the charm +lies, also, in the reminders of all the human life that, since the +early dawn of history, has peopled this hill. One has the sense +of living at a tremendously high mental pressure; of impressions, +emotions, sensations crowding upon the mind; of one's whole meager +outfit of memory, of poetic equipment, and of imaginative furnishing +being unequal to the demand made by even the most hurried tour of the +great buildings, or the most flitting review of the noble massing of +the clouds and the hilly seas. + +The very emptiness and desolation of all the buildings on the hill +help to accentuate their splendor. The stage is magnificently set; +the curtain, even, is lifted. One waits for the coming on of kingly +shapes, for the pomp of trumpets, for the pattering of a mighty host. +But, behold, all is still. And one sits and sees only a shadowy +company pass and repass across that glorious mise-en-scéne. + +For, in a certain sense, I know no other medieval mass of buildings as +peopled as are these. The dead shapes seem to fill the vast halls. The +Salle des Chevaliers is crowded, daily, with a brilliant gathering of +knights, who sweep the trains of their white damask mantles, edged +with ermine, over the dulled marble of the floor; two by two they +enter the hall; the golden shells on their mantles make the eyes +blink, as the groups gather about the great chimneys, or wander +through the column-broken space. + +Behind this dazzling cortege, up the steep steps of the narrow +streets, swarm other groups--the medieval pilgrim host that rushes +into cathedral aisles, and that climbs the ramparts to watch the +stately procession as it makes its way toward the church portals. + +There are still other figures that fill every empty niche and deserted +watch-tower. Through the lancet windows of the abbatial gateways the +yeomanry of the vassal villages are peering; it is the weary time of +the Hundred Years' War, and all France is watching, through sentry +windows, for the approach of her dread enemy. On the shifting sands +below, as on brass, how indelibly fixt are the names of the hundred +and twenty-nine knights whose courage drove, step by step, over +that treacherous surface, the English invaders back to their island +strongholds. + + + + +CAEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +Let us begin, therefore, with the Abbey of St. Stephen; for it is the +noblest and most interesting on many accounts. It is called by the +name of that saint, inasmuch as there stood formerly a chapel, on the +same site, dedicated to him. The present building was completed and +solemnly dedicated by William the Conqueror, in the presence of his +wife, his two sons Robert and William, his favorite, Archbishop +Lanfranc; John, Archbishop of Rouen, and Thomas, Archbishop of +York--toward the year 1080; but I strongly suspect, from the present +prevailing character of the architecture, that nothing more than the +west front and the towers upon which the spires rest remain of its +ancient structure. The spires, as the Abbé De La Rue conjectures, and +as I should also have thought, are about two centuries later than the +towers. + +The outsides of the side aisles appear to be of the thirteenth, rather +than of the end of the eleventh, century. The first exterior view of +the west front, and of the towers, is extremely interesting from the +gray and clear tint, as well as excellent quality, of the stone, +which, according to Huet, was brought partly from Vaucelle and partly +from Allemagne. One of the corner abutments of one of the towers has +fallen down and a great portion of what remains seem to indicate rapid +decay. The whole stands indeed greatly in need of reparation. Ducarel, +if I remember rightly, has made, of this whole front, a sort of +elevation as if it were intended for a wooden model to work by, having +all the stiffness and precision of an erection of forty-eight hours' +standing only. The central tower is of very stunted dimensions, and +overwhelmed by a roof in the form of an extinguisher. This, in fact, +was the consequence of the devastations of the Calvinists; who +absolutely sapped the foundation of the tower, with the hope of +overwhelming the whole choir in ruin--but a part only of their +malignant object was accomplished. The component parts of the eastern +extremity are strangely and barbarously miscellaneous. However, no +good commanding exterior view can be obtained from the place, or +confined square, opposite the towers. + +But let us return to the west front; and, opening the unfastened green +baize covered door, enter softly and silently into the venerable +interior--sacred even to the feelings of Englishmen. Of this interior, +very much is changed from its original character. The side aisles +retain their flattened arched roofs and pillars; and in the nave you +observe those rounded pilasters--or altorilievo-like pillars--running +from bottom to top, which are to be seen in the Abbey of Jumieges. The +capitals of these long pillars are comparatively of modern date. + +To the left on entrance, within a side chapel, is the burial place +of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. The tombstone attesting her +interment is undoubtedly of the time. Generally speaking, the interior +is cold, and dull of effect. The side chapels, of which not fewer than +sixteen encircle the choir, have the discordant accompaniments of +Grecian balustrades to separate them from the choir and nave. + +To the right of the choir, in the sacristy, I think, is hung the huge +portrait, in oil, within a black and gilt frame, of which Ducarel has +published an engraving, on the supposition of its being the portrait +of William the Conqueror. But nothing can be more ridiculous than +such a conclusion. In the first place, the picture itself, which is +a palpable copy, can not be older than a century; and in the second +place, were it an original performance, it could not be older than the +time of Francis I. In fact, it purports to have been executed as a +faithful copy of the figure of King William, seen by the Cardinals in +1522, who were seized with a sacred frenzy to take a peep at the body +as it might exist at that time. The costume of the oil painting is +evidently that of the period of our Henry VIII.; and to suppose that +the body of William--even had it remained in so surprisingly perfect +a state as Ducarel intimates, after an interment of upward of four +hundred years--could have presented such a costume, when, from +Ducarel's own statement, another whole-length representation of the +same person is totally different--and more decidedly of the character +of William's time--is really quite a reproach to any antiquary who +plumes himself upon the possession even of common sense. + +In the middle of the choir, and just before the high altar, the body +of the Conqueror was entombed with great pomp; and a monument erected +to his memory of the most elaborate and costly description. Nothing +now remains but a flat, black marble slab, with a short inscription, +of quite a recent date.... + +You must now attend me to the most interesting public building, +perhaps all things considered, which is to be seen at Caen. I mean +the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, or L'Abbaye aux Dames. This abbey was +founded by the wife of the Conqueror, about the same time that William +erected that of St. Stephen. Ducarel's description of it, which I +have just seen in a copy of the "Anglo-Norman Antiquities," in a +bookseller's shop, is sufficiently meager. His plates are also +sufficiently miserable: but things are strangely altered since his +time. The nave of the church is occupied by a manufactory for making +cordage, or twine: and upward of a hundred lads are now busied in +their flaxen occupations, where formerly the nun knelt before the +cross, or was occupied in auricular confession. + +The entrance at the western extremity is entirely stopt up; but the +exterior gives manifest proof of an antiquity equal to that of the +Abbey of St. Stephen. The upper part of the towers are palpably of the +fifteenth or, rather, of the early part of the sixteenth century. I +had no opportunity of judging of the neat pavement of the floor of the +nave, in white and black marble, as noticed by Ducarel, on account +of the occupation of this part of the building by the manufacturing +children; but I saw some very ancient tombstones, one, I think, of the +twelfth century, which had been removed from the nave or side aisles, +and were placed against the sides of the north transept. + +The nave is entirely walled up from the transepts, but the choir is +fortunately preserved; and a more perfect and interesting specimen +of its kind, of the same antiquity, is perhaps nowhere to be seen +in Normandy. All the monuments as well as the altars, described by +Ducarel, are now taken away. Having ascended a stone staircase, we got +into the upper part of the choir, above the first row of pillars--and +walked along the wall. This was rather adventurous, you will say; but +a more adventurous spirit of curiosity had nearly proved fatal to me; +for, on quitting daylight, we pursued a winding stone staircase, in +our way to the central tower--to enjoy from hence a view of the town. +I almost tremble as I relate it. + +There had been put up a sort of temporary wooden staircase, leading +absolutely to nothing; or, rather, to a dark void space. I happened +to be foremost in ascending, yet groping in the dark--with the guide +luckily close behind me. Having reached the topmost step, I was +raising my foot to a supposed higher or succeeding step--but there was +none. A depth of eighteen feet at least was below me. The guide +caught my coat, as I was about to lose my balance, and roared out, +"Wait--Stop!" The least balance or inclination, one way or the other, +is sufficient, upon these critical occasions; when luckily, from his +catching my coat, and pulling me, in consequence, slightly backward, +my fall and my life, were equally saved! I have reason from henceforth +to remember the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + +I gained the top of the central tower, which is not of equal altitude +with those of the western extremity, and from hence surveyed the town, +as well as the drizzling rain would permit. I saw enough, however, +to convince me that the site of this abbey is fine and commanding. +Indeed, it stands nearly upon the highest ground in the town. Ducarel +had not the glorious ambition to mount to the top of the tower; +nor did he even possess that most commendable of all species of +architectural curiosity, a wish to visit the crypt. Thus, in either +extremity, I evinced a more laudable spirit of enterprise than did +my old-fashioned predecessor. Accordingly, from the summit, you must +accompany me to the lowest depth of the building. I descended by the +same somewhat intricate route, and I took especial care to avoid all +"temporary wooden staircase." The crypt, beneath the choir, is perhaps +of yet greater interest and beauty than the choir itself. Within an +old, very old, stone coffin--at the further circular end--are the +pulverized remains of one of the earliest abbesses. I gazed around +with mixed sensations of veneration and awe, and threw myself back +into centuries past, fancying that the shrouded figure of Maltilda +herself glided by, with a look as if to approve of my antiquarian +enthusiasm! + +Having gratified my curiosity by a careful survey of the subterranean +abode, I revisited the regions of daylight, and made toward the large +building, now a manufactory, which in Ducarel's time had been a +nunnery. The revolution has swept away every human being in the +character of a nun; but the director of the manufactory showed me, +with great civility, some relics of old crosses, rings, veils, +lacrimatories, etc., which had been taken from the crypt I had +recently visited. These relics savored of considerable antiquity. Tom +Hearne would have set about proving that they must have belonged to +Matilda herself; but I will have neither the presumption nor the merit +of attempting this proof. They seemed, indeed, to have undergone half +a dozen decompositions. Upon the whole, if our Antiquarian Society, +after having exhausted the cathedrals of their own country, should +ever think of perpetuating the principal ecclesiastical edifices of +Normandy, by means of the art of engraving, let them begin their +labors with the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + + + + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The river is so fine that, before going to Bayonne, I have come down +as far as Royan. Ships heavy with white sails ascend slowly on both +sides of the boat. At each gust of wind they incline like idle birds, +lifting their long wings and showing their black bellies. They run +slantwise, then come back; one would say that they felt the better for +being in this great fresh-water harbor; they loiter in it and enjoy +its peace after leaving the wrath and inclemency of the ocean. + +The banks, fringed with pale verdure, glide right and left, far +away to the verge of heaven; the river is broad like a sea; at this +distance you might think you had seen two hedges; the trees dimly lift +their delicate shapes in a robe of bluish gauze; here and there great +pines raise their umbrellas on the vapory horizon, where all is +confused and vanishing; there is an inexpressible sweetness in these +first hues of the timid day, softened still by the fog which exhales +from the deep river. + +As for the river itself, its waters stretch out joyous and splendid; +the rising sun pours upon its breast a long streamlet of gold; the +breeze covers it with scales; its eddies stretch themselves, and +tremble like an awaking serpent, and, when the billow heaves them, you +seem to see the striped flanks, the tawny cuirass of a leviathan. + +Indeed, at such moments it seems that the water must live and feel; it +has a strange look, when it comes, transparent and somber, to stretch +itself upon a beach of pebbles; it turns about them as if uneasy and +irritated; it beats them with its wavelets; it covers them, then +retires, then comes back again with a sort of languid writhing and +mysterious lovingness; its snaky eddies, its little crests suddenly +beaten down or broken, its wave, sloping, shining, then all at once +blackened, resembles the flashes of passion in an impatient mother, +who hovers incessantly and anxiously about her children, and covers +them, not knowing what she wants and what fears. + +Presently a cloud has covered the heavens, and the wind has risen. +In a moment the river has assumed the aspect of a crafty and savage +animal. It hollowed itself, and showed its livid belly; it came +against the keel with convulsive starts, hugged it, and dashed against +it, as if to try its force; as far as one could see, its waves lifted +themselves and crowded together, like the muscles upon a chest; over +the flank of the waves passed flashes with sinister smiles; the mast +groaned, and the trees bent shivering, like a nerveless crowd before +the wrath of a fearful beast. Then all was hushed; the sun had burst +forth, the waves were smoothed, you now see only a laughing expanse; +spun out over this polished back a thousand greenish tresses sported +wantonly; the light rested on it, like a diaphanous mantle; it +followed the supple movements and the twisting of those liquid arms; +it folded around them, behind them, its radiant, azure robe; it took +their caprices and their mobile colors; the river meanwhile, slumbrous +in its great, peaceful bed, was stretched out at the feet of the +hills, which looked down upon it, like it immovable and eternal. + +The boat is made fast to a boom, under a pile of white houses; it +is Royan. Here already are the sea and the dunes; the right of the +village is buried under a mass of sand; there are crumbling hills, +little dreary valleys, where you are lost as if in the desert; no +sound, no movement, no life; scanty, leafless vegetation dots moving +soil, and its filaments fall like sickly hairs; small shells, white +and empty, cling to these in chaplets, and, wherever the foot is set, +they crack with a sound like a cricket's chirp; this place is the +ossuary of some wretched maritime tribe. + +One tree alone can live here, the pine, a wild creature, inhabitant of +the forests and sterile coasts; there is a whole colony of them here; +they crowd together fraternally, and cover the sand with their brown +lamels; the monotonous breeze which sifts through them forever awakes +their murmur; thus they chant in a plaintive fashion, but with a far +softer and more harmonious voice than the other trees; this voice +resembles the grating of the cicadas when in August they sing with all +their heart among the stalks of the ripened wheat. + +At the left of the village, a footpath winds to the summit of a wasted +bank, among billows of standing grasses. The river is so broad that +the other shore is not distinguishable. The sea, its neighbor, imparts +its influence; its long undulations come one after another against the +coast, and pour their little cascades of foam upon the sand; then the +water retires, running down the slope until it meets a new wave coming +up which covers it; these billows are never wearied, and their come +and go remind one of the regular breathing of a slumbering child. For +night has fallen, the tints of purple grow brown and fade away. The +river goes to rest in the soft, vague shadow; scarcely, at long +intervals, a remnant glimpse is reflected from a slanting wave; +obscurity drowns everything in its vapory dust; the drowsy eye vainly +searches in this mist some visible point, and distinguishes at last, +like a dim star, the lighthouse of Cordouan. + +The next evening a fresh sea-breeze has brought us to Bordeaux. +The enormous city heaps its monumental houses along the river like +bastions; the red sky is embattled by their coping. They on one hand, +the bridge on the other, protect, with a double line, the port where +the vessels are crowded together like a flock of gulls; those graceful +hulls, those tapering masts, those sails swollen or floating, weave +the labyrinth of their movements and forms upon the magnificent purple +of the sunset. The sun sinks into the river; the black rigging, the +round hulls, stand out against its conflagration, and look like jewels +of jet set in gold. + +Around Bordeaux are smiling hills, varied horizons, fresh valleys, +a river people by incessant navigation, a succession of cities and +villages harmoniously planted upon the declivities or in the plains, +everywhere the richest verdure, the luxury of nature and civilization, +the earth and man vying with each other to enrich and decorate the +happiest valley of France. Below Bordeaux a flat soil, marshes, +sand; a land which goes on growing poorer, villages continually less +frequent, ere long the desert. I like the desert as well. + +Pine woods pass to the right and to the left, silent and wan. Each +tree bears on its side the scar of wounds where the woodmen have set +flowing the resinous blood which chokes it; the powerful liquor still +ascends into its limbs with the sap, exhales by its slimy shoots and +by its cleft skin; a sharp aromatic odor fills the air. + +Beyond, the monotonous plain of the ferns, bathed in light, stretches +away as far as the eye can reach. Their green fans expand beneath the +sun which colors, but does not cause them to fade. Upon the horizon a +few scattered trees lift their slender columns. You see now and then +the silhouette of a herdsman on his stilts, inert and standing like a +sick heron. Wild horses are grazing half hid in the herbage. As the +train passes, they abruptly lift their great startled eyes and stand +motionless, uneasy at the noise that has troubled their solitude. + +Man does not fare well here--he dies or degenerates; but it is the +country of animals, and especially of plants. They abound in this +desert, free, certain of living. Our pretty, cut-up valleys are but +poor things alongside of these immense spaces, leagues upon leagues +of marshy or dry vegetation, a level country, where nature, elsewhere +troubled and tortured by men, still vegetates, as in primeval days, +with a calm equal to its grandeur. The sun needs these savannas in +order properly to spread out its light; from the rising exhalation, +you feel that the whole plain is fermenting under its force; and the +eyes, filled by the limitless horizon, divine the secret labor by +which this ocean of rank verdure renews and nourishes itself. + + + + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his mother, written from the monastery +in 1739.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +We took the longest road, which lies through Savoy, on purpose to see +a famous monastery, called the Grande Chartreuse, and had no reason to +think our time lost. After having traveled seven days very slow (for +we did not change horses, it being impossible for a chaise to go fast +in these roads), we arrived at a little village, among the mountains +of Savoy, called Echelles; from thence we proceeded on horses, who are +used to the way, to the mountain of the Chartreuse. + +It is six miles to the top; the road runs winding up it, commonly not +six feet broad; on one hand is the rock, with woods of pine-trees +hanging overhead; on the other, a monstrous precipice, almost +perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls a torrent that, sometimes +tumbling among the fragments of stone that have fallen from on high, +and sometimes precipitating itself down vast descents with a noise +like thunder, which is made still greater by the echo from the +mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most solemn, the +most romantic, and the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld. + +Add to this the strange views made by the crags and cliffs on the +other hand; the cascades that in many places throw themselves from the +very summit down into the vale, and the river below; and many other +particulars impossible to describe; you will conclude we had no +occasion to repent our plans. This place St. Bruno chose to retire +to, and upon its very top founded the aforesaid convent, which is the +superior of the whole order. When we came there, the two fathers, who +are commissioned to entertain strangers (for the rest must neither +speak one to another nor to any one else) received us very kindly; and +set before us a repast of dried fish, eggs, butter, and fruits, all +excellent in their kind, and extremely neat. They prest us to spend +the night there, and to stay some days with them; but this we could +not do, so they led us about their house, which is, you must think, +like a little city; for there are 100 fathers, besides 300 servants, +that make their clothes, grind their corn, press their wine, and do +everything among themselves. + +The whole is quite orderly and simple; nothing of finery; but the +wonderful decency, and the strange situation, more than supply the +place of it. In the evening we descended by the same way, passing +through many clouds that were then forming themselves on the +mountain's side. + + + + +CARCASSONNE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Little Tour in France." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. +Copyright, 1884.] + +BY HENRY JAMES + + +When I say the town, I mean the towns; there being two at Carcassonne, +perfectly distinct, and each with excellent claims to the title. They +have settled the matter between them, however, and the elder, the +shrine of pilgrimage, to which the other is but a stepping-stone, or +even, as I may say, a humble doormat, takes the name of the Cité. + +You see nothing of the Cité from the station; it is masked by the +agglomeration of the "ville-basse," which is relatively (but only +relatively) new. A wonderful avenue of acacias leads to it from +the station--leads past it, rather, and conducts you to a little +high-backed bridge over the Aude, beyond which, detached and erect, a +distinct medieval silhouette, the Cité presents itself. Like a rival +shop, on the invidious side of a street, it has "no connection" with +the establishment across the way, altho the two places are united +(if old Carcassonne may be said to be united to anything) by a vague +little rustic faubourg. Perched on its solid pedestal, the perfect +detachment of the Cité is what first strikes you. + +To take leave, without delay, of the "ville-basse," I may say that +the splendid acacias I have mentioned flung a summerish dusk over +the place, in which a few scattered remains of stout walls and big +bastions looked venerable and picturesque. A little boulevard winds +around the town, planted with trees and garnished with more benches +than I ever saw provided by a soft-hearted municipality. This +precinct had a warm, lazy, dusty, southern look, as if the people sat +out-of-doors a great deal, and wandered about in the stillness of +summer nights. The figure of the elder town, at these hours, must be +ghostly enough on its neighboring hill. + +Even by day it has the air of a vignette of Gustave Doré, a couplet +of Victor Hugo. It is almost too perfect--as if it were an enormous +model, placed on a big green table at a museum. A steep, paved way, +grass-grown like all roads where vehicles never pass, stretches up +to it in the sun. It has a double enceinte, complete outer walls and +complete inner (these, elaborately fortified, are the more curious); +and this congregation of ramparts, towers, bastions, battlements, +barbicans, is as fantastic and romantic as you please. The approach I +mention here leads to the gate that looks toward Toulouse--the Porte +de l'Aude. There is a second, on the other side, called, I believe, +Porte Narbonnaise, a magnificent gate, flanked with towers thick and +tall, defended by elaborate outworks; and these two apertures alone +admit you to the place--putting aside a small sally-port, protected by +a great bastion, on the quarter that looks toward the Pyrenees.... + +I should lose no time in saying that restoration is the great mark of +the Cité. M. Viollet-le-Duc has worked his will upon it, put it into +perfect order, revived the fortifications in every detail. I do not +pretend to judge the performance, carried out on a scale and in +a spirit which really impose themselves on the imagination. Few +architects have had such a chance, and M. Viollet-le-Duc must have +been the envy of the whole restoring fraternity. The image of a more +crumbling Carcassonne rises in the mind, and there is no doubt that +forty years ago the place was more affecting. On the other hand, as we +see it to-day, it is a wonderful evocation; and if there is a great +deal of new in the old, there is plenty of old in the new. The +repaired crenellations, the inserted patches, of the walls of the +outer circle sufficiently express this commixture. + +Carcassonne dates from the Roman occupation of Gaul. The place +commanded one of the great roads into Spain, and in the fourth century +Romans and Franks ousted each other from such a point of vantage. In +the year 436, Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, superseded both these +parties; and it is during his occupation that the inner enceinte +was raised upon the ruins of the Roman fortifications. Most of +the Visigoth towers that are still erect are seated upon Roman +substructions which appear to have been formed hastily, probably +at the moment of the Frankish invasion. The authors of these solid +defenses, tho occasionally disturbed, held Carcassonne and the +neighboring country, in which they had established their kingdom of +Septimania, till the year 713, when they were expelled by the Moors +of Spain, who ushered in an unillumined period of four centuries, of +which no traces remain. + +These facts I derived from a source no more recondite than a +pamphlet by M. Viollet-le-Duc--a very luminous description of the +fortifications, which you may buy from the accomplished custodian. The +writer makes a jump to the year 1209, when Carcassonne, then forming +part of the realm of the viscounts of Béziers and infected by the +Albigensian heresy, was besieged, in the name of the Pope, by the +terrible Simon de Montfort and his army of crusaders. Simon was +accustomed to success, and the town succumbed in the course of a +fortnight. Thirty-one years later, having passed into the hands of +the King of France, it was again besieged by the young Raymond de +Trincavel, the last of the viscounts of Béziers; and of this siege M. +Viollet-le-Duc gives a long and minute account, which the visitor who +has a head for such things may follow, with the brochure in hand, on +the fortifications themselves. + +The young Raymond de Trineavel, baffled and repulsed, retired at the +end of twenty-four days. Saint Louis and Philip the Bold, in the +thirteenth century, multiplied the defenses of Carcassonne, which was +one of the bulwarks of their kingdom on the Spanish quarter; and from +this time forth, being regarded as impregnable, the place had nothing +to fear. It was not even attacked; and when, in 1355, Edward the Black +Prince marched into it, the inhabitants had opened the gates to the +conqueror before whom all Languedoc was prostrate. I am not one of +those who, as I said just now, have a head for such things, and having +extracted these few facts had made all the use of M. Viollet-le-Duc's +pamphlet of which I was capable.... + +My obliging friend the "mad lover" [of la Cité] handed me over to the +doorkeeper of the citadel. I should add that I was at first committed +to the wife of this functionary, a stout peasant woman, who conducted +me to a postern door and ushered me into the presence of her husband. + +This brilliant, this suggestive warden of Carcassonne marched us about +for an hour, haranguing, explaining, illustrating, as he went; it was +a complete little lecture, such as might have been delivered at the +Lowell Institute, on the manner in which a first-rate "place forte" +used to be attacked and defended. Our peregrinations made it very +clear that Carcassonne was impregnable; it is impossible to imagine, +without having seen them, such refinements of immurement, such +ingenuities of resistance. We passed along the battlements and +"chemins de ronde," ascended and descended towers, crawled under +arches, peered out of loopholes, lowered ourselves into dungeons, +halted in all sorts of tight places, while the purpose of something or +other was described to us. + +It was very curious, very interesting; above all, it was very +pictorial, and involved perpetual peeps into the little crooked, +crumbling, sunny, grassy, empty Cité. In places, as you stand upon +it, the great towered and embattled enceinte produces an illusion; it +looks as if it were still equipped and defended. One vivid challenge, +at any rate, it flings down before you; it calls upon you to make +up your mind on the matter of restoration. For myself, I have no +hesitation; I prefer in every case the ruined, however ruined, to the +reconstructed, however splendid. What is left is more precious than +what is added; the one is history, the other is fiction; and I like +the former the better of the two--it is so much more romantic. One is +positive, so far as it goes; the other fills up the void with things +more dead than the void itself, inasmuch as they have never had life. +After that I am free to say that the restoration of Carcassonne is a +splendid achievement. The little custodian dismissed us at last, +after having, as usual, inducted us into the inevitable repository of +photographs. + +After leaving it and passing out of the two circles of walls, I +treated myself, in the most infatuated manner, to another walk round +the Cité. It is certainly this general impression that is most +striking--the impression from outside, where the whole place detaches +itself at once from the landscape. In the warm southern dusk it looked +more than ever like a city in a fairy-tale. To make the thing perfect, +a white young moon, in its first quarter, came out and hung just over +the dark silhouette. It was hard to come away--to incommode one's self +for anything so vulgar as a railway train; I would gladly have spent +the evening in revolving round the walls of Carcassonne. + + + + +BIARRITZ[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +If Bayonne is the center of commercial affairs for the Basque country, +its citizens must, at any rate, go to Biarritz if they want to live +"the elegant and worldly life." The prosperity and luxury of Biarritz +are very recent; it goes back only to the Second Empire, when it was +but a village of a thousand souls or less, mostly fishermen and women. + +The railway and the automobile omnibus make communication with Bayonne +to-day easy, but formerly folk came and went on a donkey side-saddled +for two, arranged back to back, like the seats of an Irish +jaunting-car. If the weight were unequal, a balance was struck by +adding cobblestones on one side or the other, the patient donkey not +minding in the least. + +This astonishing mode of conveyance was known as a "cacolet," and +replaced the "voitures" and "fiacres" of other resorts. An occasional +example may still be seen, but the "jolies Basquaises" who conducted +them have given way to sturdy, barelegged Basque boys--as picturesque, +perhaps, but not so entrancing to the view. To voyage "en cacolet" was +the necessity of our grandfathers; for us it is an amusement only. + +Napoleon III., or rather Eugénie, his spouse, was the faithful +godfather of Biarritz as a resort. The Villa Eugénie is no more; it +was first transformed into a hotel and later destroyed by fire; but it +was the first of a great battery of villas and hotels which has made +Biarritz so great that the popularity of Monte Carlo is steadily +waning. Biarritz threatens to become even more popular; some sixteen +thousand visitors came to Biarritz in 1899, but there were thirty-odd +thousand in 1903; while the permanent population has risen from 2,700 +in the days of the Second Empire to 12,800 in 1901. The tiny railway +from Bayonne to Biarritz transported half a million travelers twenty +years ago, and a million and a half, or nearly that number, in 1903; +the rest, being millionaires, or gypsies, came in automobiles or +caravans. These figures tell eloquently of the prosperity of this +"villégiature impériale." + +The great beauty of Biarritz is its setting. At Monte Carlo +the setting is also beautiful, ravishingly beautiful, but the +architecture, the terrace, Monaco's rock, and all the rest combine +to make the pleasing "ensemble." At Biarritz the architecture of its +Casino and the great hotels is not of an epoch-making beauty, neither +are they so delightfully placed. It is the surrounding stage setting +that is so lovely. Here the jagged shore line, the blue waves, the +ample horizon seaward, are what make it all so charming. + +Biarritz as a watering-place has an all-the-year-round clientèle; in +summer the Spanish and the French, succeeded in winter by Americans, +Germans, and English--with a sprinkling of Russians at all times. +Biarritz, like Pau, aside from being a really delightful winter +resort, where one may escape the rigors of murky November to March in +London, is becoming afflicted with a bad case of "sport fever." There +are all kinds of sports, some of them reputable enough in their place, +but the comic-opera fox-hunting which takes place at Pau and Biarritz +is not one of them.... + +The picturesque "Plage des Basques" lies to the south of the town, +bordered with high cliffs, which in turn are surmounted with terraces +of villas. The charm of it all is incomparable. To the northwest +stretches the limpid horizon of the Bay of Biscay, and to the +south the snowy summits of the Pyrenees, and the adorable bays of +Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Fontarabie, while behind, and to the eastward, +lies the quaint country of the Basques, and the mountain trails into +Spain in all their savage hardiness. + +The off-shore translucent waters of the Gulf of Gascony were the +"Sinus Aquitanicus" of the ancients. A colossal rampart of rocks and +sand dunes stretches all the way from the Gironde to the +Bidassoa, without a harbor worthy of the name save at Bayonne and +Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Here the Atlantic waves pound, in time of storm, +with all the fury with which they break upon the rocky coasts of +Brittany further north. Perhaps this would not be so, but for the fact +that the Iberian coast to the southward runs almost at right angles +with that of Gascony. As it is, while the climate is mild, Biarritz +and the other cities on the coasts of the Gulf of Gascony have a fair +proportion of what sailors, the world over, call "rough weather." + +The waters of the Gascon Gulf are not always angry; most frequently +they are calm and blue, vivid with a translucence worthy of those of +Capri, and it is this that makes the beach at Biarritz one of the most +popular sea-bathing resorts in France to-day. It is a fashionable +watering-place, but it is also, perhaps, the most beautifully disposed +city to be found in all the round of the European coast line, its +slightly curving slope dominated by a background terrace, +decorative in itself, but delightfully set off with its fringe of +dwelling-houses, hotels, and casinos. Ostend is superbly laid out, +but it is dreary; Monte Carlo is beautiful, but it is ultra; while +Trouville is constrained and affected. Biarritz has the best features +of all these.... Saint-Jean-de-Luz had a population of ten thousand +two centuries ago; to-day it has three thousand, and most of these +take in boarders, or in one way or another cater to the hordes of +visitors who have made it--or would, if they could have supprest its +quiet Basque charm of coloring and character--a little Brighton. + +Not all is lost, but four hundred houses were razed in the +mid-eighteenth century by a tempest, and the stable population began +to creep away; only with recent years an influx of strangers has +arrived for a week's or a month's stay to take their places--if idling +butterflies of fashion or imaginary invalids can really take the place +of a hardworking, industrious colony of fishermen, who thought no more +of sailing away to the South Antarctic or the banks of Newfoundland in +an eighty-ton whaler than they did of seining sardines from a shallop +in the Gulf of Gascony at their doors. + + + + +DOWN THE SAONE TO LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pencillings by the Way." Published by Charles +Scribner, 1852.] + +BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + + +The Saone is about the size of the Mohawk, but not half so beautiful; +at least for the greater part of its course. Indeed, you can hardly +compare American with European rivers, for the charm is of another +description, quite. With us it is nature only, here it is almost +all art. Our rivers are lovely, because the outline of the shore is +graceful, and particularly because the vegetation is luxuriant. The +hills are green, the foliage deep and lavish, the rocks grown over +with vines or moss, the mountains in the distance covered with pines +and other forest-trees; everything is wild, and nothing looks bare or +sterile. The rivers of France are crowned on every height with ruins, +and in the bosom of every valley lies a cluster of picturesque stone +cottages; but the fields are naked, and there are no trees; the +mountains are barren and brown, and everything looks as if the +dwellings had been deserted by the people, and nature had at the same +time gone to decay. + +I can conceive nothing more melancholy than the views upon the Saone, +seen, as I saw them, tho vegetation is out everywhere, and the banks +should be beautiful if ever. As we approached Lyons the river narrowed +and grew bolder, and the last ten miles were enchanting. Naturally the +shores at this part of the Saone are exceedingly like the highlands of +the Hudson above West Point. Abrupt hills rise from the river's edge, +and the windings are sharp and constant. But imagine the highlands of +the Hudson crowned with antique chateaux, and covered to the very top +with terraces and summer-houses and hanging-gardens, gravel-walks and +beds of flowers, instead of wild pines and precipices, and you may get +a very correct idea of the Saone above Lyons. + +You emerge from one of the dark passes of the river by a sudden turn, +and there before you lies this large city, built on both banks, at +the foot and on the sides of mountains. The bridges are fine, and +the broad, crowded quays, all along the edges of the river, have a +beautiful effect. There is a great deal of magnificence at Lyons, in +the way of quays, promenades, and buildings.... I was glad to escape +from the lower streets, and climb up the long staircases to the +observatory that overhangs the town. From the base of this elevation +the descent of the river is almost a precipice. The houses hang on the +side of the steep hill, and their doors enter from the long alleys of +stone staircases by which you ascend.... + +It was holy-week, and the church of Notre Dame de Fourvières, which +stands on the summit of the hill, was crowded with people. We went +in for a moment, and sat down on a bench to rest. My companion was a +Swiss captain of artillery, who was a passenger in the boat, a very +splendid fellow, with a mustache that he might have tied behind his +ears. He had addrest me at the hotel, and proposed that we should +visit the curiosities of the town together. He was a model of a manly +figure, athletic, and soldier-like, and standing near him was to get +the focus of all the dark eyes in the congregation. + +The new square tower stands at the side of the church, and rises to +the height of perhaps sixty feet. The view from it is said to be one +of the finest in the world. I have seen more extensive ones, but never +one that comprehended more beauty and interest. Lyons lies at the +foot, with the Saone winding through its bosom in abrupt curves; the +Rhone comes down from the north on the other side of the range of +mountains, and meeting the Saone in a broad stream below the town, +they stretch off to the south, through a diversified landscape; the +Alps rise from the east like the edges of a thunder-cloud, and the +mountains of Savoy fill up the interval to the Rhone. + +All about the foot of the monument lie gardens, of exquisite +cultivation; and above and below the city the villas of the rich; +giving you altogether as delicious a nucleus for a broad circle of +scenery as art and nature could create, and one sufficiently in +contrast with the barrenness of the rocky circumference to enhance the +charm, and content you with your position. Half way down the hill lies +an old monastery, with a lovely garden walled in from the world. + +The river was covered with boats, the bells were ringing to church, +the glorious old cathedral, so famous for its splendor, stood piled +up, with its arches and gray towers, in the square below; the day was +soft, sunny, and warm, and existence was a blessing. I leaned over the +balustrade, I know not how long, looking down upon the scene about me; +and I shall ever remember it as one of those few unalloyed moments, +when the press of care was taken off my mind, and the chain of +circumstances was strong enough to set aside both the past and the +future, and leave me to the quiet enjoyment of the present. I have +found such hours "few and far between." + + + + +LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his friend West.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +I take this opportunity to tell you that we are at the ancient and +celebrated Lugdunum, a city situated upon the confluence of the +Rhone and Saône (Arar, I should say) two people, who tho of tempers +extremely unlike, think fit to join hands here, and make a little +party to travel to the Mediterranean in company; the lady comes +gliding along through the fruitful plains of Burgundy.... the +gentleman runs all rough and roaring down from the mountains of +Switzerland to meet her; and with all her soft airs she likes him +never the worse; she goes through the middle of the city in state, and +he passes incog, without the walls, but waits for her a little below. + +The houses here are so high, and the streets so narrow, as would be +sufficient to render Lyons the dismalest place in the world, but the +number of people, and the face of commerce diffused about it, are, +at least, as sufficient to make it the liveliest: between these two +sufficiencies, you will be in doubt what to think of it; so we shall +leave the city, and proceed to its environs, which are beautiful +beyond expression; it is surrounded with mountains, and those +mountains all bedropped and bespeckled with houses, gardens, and +plantations of the rich bourgeois, who have from thence a prospect of +the city in the vale below on one hand, on the other the rich plains +of the Lyonnois, with the rivers winding among them, and the Alps, +with the mountains of Dauphiné, to bound the view. + +All yesterday morning we were busied in climbing up Mount Fourvière, +where the ancient city stood perched at such a height, that nothing +but the hopes of gain could certainly ever persuade their neighbors to +pay them a visit. Here are the ruins of the emperors' palaces, that +resided here, that is to say, Augustus and Severus; they consist in +nothing but great masses of old wall, that have only their quality +to make them respected. In a vineyard of the Minims are remains of a +theater; the Fathers, whom they belong to, hold them in no esteem at +all, and would have showed us their sacristy and chapel instead of +them. The Ursuline Nuns have in their garden some Roman baths, but we +having the misfortune to be men, they did not think proper to admit +us. + +Hard by are eight arches of a most magnificent aqueduct, said to be +erected by Antony, when his legions were quartered here. There are +many other parts of it dispersed up and down the country, for it +brought the water from a river many leagues off in La Forez. Here are +remains too of Agrippa's seven great roads which met at Lyons; in some +places they lie twelve feet deep in the ground. + + + + +MARSEILLES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pictures from Italy," written in 1844] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +So we went on, until eleven at night, when we halted at the town of +Aix (within two stages of Marseilles) to sleep. The hotel, with all +the blinds and shutters closed to keep the light and heat out, was +comfortable and airy next morning, and the town was very clean; but +so hot, and so intensely light, that when I walked out at noon it was +like coming suddenly from the darkened room into crisp blue fire. The +air was so very clear, that distant hills and rocky points appeared +within an hour's walk; while the town immediately at hand--with a kind +of blue wind between me and it--seemed to be white hot, and to be +throwing off a fiery air from its surface. + +We left this town toward evening, and took the road to Marseilles. A +dusty road it was; the houses shut up close; and the vines powdered +white. At nearly all the cottage doors, women were peeling and slicing +onions into earthen bowls for supper. So they had been doing last +night all the way from Avignon. We passed one or two shady dark +châteaux, surrounded by trees, and embellished with cool basins of +water: which were the more refreshing to behold, from the great +scarcity of such residences on the road we had traveled. + +As we approached Marseilles, the road began to be covered with holiday +people. Outside the public-houses were parties smoking, drinking, +playing draughts and cards, and (once) dancing. But dust, dust, dust, +everywhere. We went on, through a long, straggling, dirty suburb, +thronged with people; having on our left a dreary slope of land, on +which the country-houses of the Marseilles merchants, always staring +white, are jumbled and heaped without the slightest order; backs, +fronts, sides, and gables toward all points of the compass; until, at +last, we entered the town. + +I was there, twice, or thrice afterward, in fair weather and foul; +and I am afraid there is no doubt that it is a dirty and disagreeable +place. But the prospect, from the fortified heights, of the beautiful +Mediterranean, with, its lovely rocks and islands, is most delightful. +These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque +reasons--as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually +arising from a great harbor full of stagnant water, and befouled by +the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes, which, in +hot weather, is dreadful in the last degree. + +There were foreign sailors, of all nations, in the streets; with red +shirts, blue shirts, buff shirts, tawny shirts, and shirts of orange +color; with red caps, blue caps, green caps, great beards, and no +beards; in Turkish turbans, glazed English hats, and Neapolitan +headdresses. There were the townspeople sitting in clusters on the +pavement, or airing themselves on the tops of their houses, or walking +up and down the closest and least airy of boulevards; and there were +crowds of fierce-looking people of the lower sort, blocking up the +way, constantly. + +In the very heart of all this stir and uproar, was the common +madhouse; a low, contracted, miserable building, looking straight upon +the street, without the smallest screen or courtyard; where chattering +madmen and mad-women were peeping out, through rusty bars, at the +staring faces below, while the sun, darting fiercely aslant into their +little cells, seemed to dry up their brains, and worry them, as if +they were baited by a pack of dogs. + +We were pretty well accommodated at the Hôtel du Paradis, situated +in a narrow street of very high houses, with a hairdresser's shop +opposite, exhibiting in one of its windows two full-length waxen +ladies, twirling around and around: which so enchanted the hairdresser +himself, that he and his family sat in armchairs, and in cool +undresses, on the pavement outside, enjoying the gratification of the +passers-by, with lazy dignity. The family had retired to rest when we +went to bed, at midnight; but the hairdresser (a corpulent man, in +drab slippers) was still sitting there, with his legs stretched out +before him, and evidently couldn't bear to have the shutters put up. + +Next day we went down to the harbor, where the sailors of all nations +were discharging and taking in cargoes of all kinds: fruits, wines, +oils, silks, stuffs, velvets, and every manner of merchandise. Taking +one of a great number of lively little boats with gay-striped awnings, +we rowed away, under the sterns of great ships, under tow-ropes and +cables, against and among other boats, and very much too near +the sides of vessels that were faint with oranges, to the "Marie +Antoinette," a handsome steamer bound for Genoa, lying near the mouth +of the harbor. + +By and by, the carriage, that unwieldy "trifle from the Pantechnicon," +on a flat barge, bumping against everything, and giving occasion for +a prodigious quantity of oaths and grimaces, came stupidly alongside; +and by five o'clock we were steaming out in the open sea. The vessel +was beautifully clean; the meals were served under an awning on deck; +the night was calm and clear; the quiet beauty of the sea and sky +unspeakable. + + + + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +The little republic of Andorra, hidden away in the fastnesses of the +Pyrenees between France and Spain, its allegiance divided between the +bishop of Urgel in Spain and the French government, is a relic of +medievalism which will probably never fall before the swift advance of +twentieth century ideas of progress. At least it will never be overrun +by automobiles. + +From French or Spanish territory this little unknown land is to be +reached by what is called a "wagon-way," but the road is so bad that +the sure-footed little donkeys of the Pyrenees are by far the best +means of locomotion, unless one would go up on foot, a matter of +twenty kilometers or more from Hospitalet in Spanish or Porté in +French territory. + +The political status of Andorra is most peculiar, but since it has +endured without interruption (and this in spite of wars and rumors of +wars), for six centuries, it seems to be all that is necessary. + +A relic of the Middle Ages, Andorra-Viella, the city, and its six +thousand inhabitants live in their lonesome retirement much as they +did in feudal times, except for the fact that an occasional newspaper +smuggled in from France or Spain gives a new topic of conversation. + +This paternal governmental arrangement which cares for the welfare of +the people of Andorra, the city and the province, is the outcome of a +treaty signed by Pierre d'Urg and Roger-Bernhard, the third Comte +de Foix, giving each other reciprocal rights. There's nothing very +strange about this; it was common custom in the Middle Ages for lay +and ecclesiastical seigneurs to make such compacts, but the marvel is +that it has endured so well with governments rising and falling +all about, and grafters and pretenders and dictators ruling every +bailiwick in which they can get a foot-hold. Feudal government +may have had some bad features, but certainly the republics and +democracies of to-day, to say nothing of absolute monarchies, have +some, too. + +The ways of access between France and Andorra are numerous enough; +but of the eight only two--and those not all the way--are really +practicable for wheeled traffic. The others are mere trails, or +mule-paths. + +The people of Andorra, as might be inferred, are all ardent Catholics; +and for a tiny country like this to have a religious seminary, as that +at Urgel, is remarkable of itself. + +Public instruction is of late making headway, but half a century ago +the shepherd and laboring population--perhaps nine-tenths of the +whole--had little learning or indeed need for it. Their manners and +customs are simple and severe and little has changed in modern life +from that of their great-great-great-grandfathers. Each family has a +sort of a chief or official head, and the eldest son always looks for +a wife among the families of his own class. Seldom, if ever, does the +married son quit the paternal roof, so large households are the rule. +In a family where there are only girls, the eldest is the heir, and +she may only marry with a cadet of another family by his joining his +name with hers. Perhaps it is this that originally set the fashion for +hyphenated names. + +The Andorrans are generally robust and well built; the maladies of +more populous regions are practically unknown among them. This speaks +much for the simple life! Costumes and dress are rough and simple and +of heavy woolens, clipt from the sheep and woven on the spot. Public +officers, the few representatives of officialdom who exist, alone +make any pretense at following the fashions. The women occupy a very +subordinate position in public affairs. They may not be present at +receptions and functions and not even at mass when it is said by the +bishop. Crime is infrequent, and simple, light punishments alone are +inflicted. Things are not so uncivilized in Andorra as one might +think! + +In need all men may be called upon to serve as soldiers, and each head +of a family must have a rifle and ball at hand at all times. In other +words, he must be able to protect himself against marauders. This does +away with the necessity of a large standing police force. + +Commerce and industry are free of all taxation in Andorra, and customs +dues apply on but few articles. For this reason there is not a very +heavy tax on a people who are mostly cultivators and graziers. There +is little manufacturing industry, as might be supposed, and what is +made--save by hand and in single examples--is of the most simple +character. "Made in Germany" or "Tabriqué en Belgique" are the marks +one sees on most of the common manufactured articles. + +The Andorrans are a simple, proud, gullible people, who live to-day in +the past, of the past and for the past; "Les vallées et souverainetés +de l'Andorre" are to them to-day just what they always were--a little +world of their own. + + + + +GAVARNIE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +From Luz to Gavarnie is eighteen miles. + +It is enjoined upon every living creature able to mount a horse, a +mule, or any quadruped whatever, to visit Gavarnie; in default of +other beasts, he should, putting aside all shame, bestride an ass. +Ladies and convalescents are there in sedan-chairs. + +Otherwise, think what a figure you will make on your return. + +"You come from the Pyrenees; you've seen Gavarnie?" + +"No." + +What then did you go to the Pyrenees for? + +You hang your head, and your friend triumphs, especially if he was +bored at Gavarnie. + +You undergo a description of Gavarnie after the last edition of the +guide-book. Gavarnie is a sublime sight; tourists go sixty miles out +of their way to see it; the Duchess d'Angouléme had herself carried +to the furthest rocks. Lord Bute, when he saw it for the first time, +cried: "If I were now at the extremity of India, and suspected the +existence of what I see at this moment, I should immediately leave in +order to enjoy and admire it!" You are overwhelmed with quotations +and supercilious smiles; you are convinced of laziness, of dulness +of mind, and, as certain English travelers say, of unesthetic +insensibility. + +There are but two resources: to learn a description by heart, or to +make the journey. I have made the journey, and am going to give the +description. + +We leave at six o'clock in the morning, by the road to Scia, in the +fog, without seeing at first anything beyond confused forms of trees +and rocks. At the end of a quarter of an hour, we hear along the +pathway a noise of sharp cries drawing near; it was a funeral +procession coming from Scia. Two men bore a small coffin under a white +shroud; behind came four herdsmen in long cloaks and brown capuchons, +silent, with bent heads; four women followed in black mantles. It was +they who uttered those monotonous and piercing lamentations; one knew +not if they were wailing or praying. They walked with long steps +through the cold mist, without stopping or looking at any one, and +were going to bury the poor body in the cemetery at Luz. + +At Scia the road passes over a small bridge very high up, which +commands another bridge, gray and abandoned. The double tier of arches +bends gracefully over the blue torrent; meanwhile a pale light already +floats in the diaphanous mist; a golden gauze undulates above the +Gave; the aërial veil grows thin and will soon vanish. + +Nothing can convey the idea of this light, so youthful, timid, and +smiling, which glitters like the bluish wings of a dragon-fly that is +pursued and is taken captive in a net of fog. + +Beneath, the boiling water is engulfed in a narrow conduit and leaps +like a mill-race. The column of foam, thirty feet high, falls with +a furious din, and its glaucous waves, heaped together in the deep +ravine, dash against each other and are broken upon a line of fallen +rocks. Other enormous rocks, débris of the same mountain, hang above +the road, their squared heads crowned with brambles for hair; ranged +in impregnable line, they seem to watch the torments of the Gave, +which their brothers hold beneath themselves crusht and subdued. + +We turn a second bridge and enter the plain of Gèdrés, verdant and +cultivated, where the hay is in cocks; they are harvesting; our horses +walk between two hedges of hazel; we go along by orchards; but the +mountain is ever near; the guide shows us a rock three times the +height of a man, which, two years ago, rolled down and demolished a +house. + +We encounter several singular caravans: a band of young priests in +black hats, black gloves, black cassocks tucked up, black stockings, +very apparent, novices in horsemanship who bound at every step, like +the Gave; a big, jolly, round man, in a sedan-chair, his hands crossed +over his belly, who looks on us with a paternal air, and reads his +newspaper; three ladies of sufficiently ripe age, very slender, very +lean, very stiff, who, for dignity's sake, set their beasts on a trot +as we draw near them. The cicisbeo is a bony cartilaginous gentleman, +fixt perpendicularly on his saddle like a telegraph-pole. We hear +a harsh clucking, as of a choked hen, and we recognize the English +tongue. + +Beyond Gèdres is a wild valley called Chaos, which is well named. +After a quarter of an hour's journey there, the trees disappear, then +the juniper and the box, and finally the moss. The Gave is no longer +seen; all noises are hushed. It is a dead solitude peopled with +wrecks. The avalanches of rocks and crusht flint have come down from +the summit to the very bottom. The horrid tide, high and a quarter +of a league in length, spreads out like waves its myriads of sterile +stones, and the inclined sheet seems still to glide toward inundating +the gorge. These stones are shattered and pulverized; their living +fractures and thin, harsh points wound the eye; they are still +bruising and crushing each other. Not a bush, not a spear of grass; +the arid grayish train burns beneath a sun of brass; its débris are +scorched to a dull hue, as in a furnace. + +A hundred paces further on, the aspect of the valley becomes +formidable. Troops of mammoths and mastadons in stone lie crouching +over the eastern declivity, one above another, and heaped up over the +whole slope. These colossal ridges shine with a tawny hue like iron +rust; the most enormous of them drink the water of the river at their +base. They look as if warming their bronzed skin in the sun, and +sleep, turned over, stretched out on their side, resting in all +attitudes, and always gigantic and frightful. Their deformed paws are +curled up; their bodies half buried in the earth; their monstrous +backs rest one upon another. When you enter into the midst of the +prodigious band, the horizon disappears, the blocks rise fifty feet +into the air; the road winds painfully among the overhanging masses; +men and horses seem but dwarfs; these rusted edges mount in stages to +the very summit, and the dark hanging army seems ready to fall on the +human insects which come to trouble its sleep. + +Once upon a time, the mountain, in a paroxysm of fever, shook its +summits like a cathedral that is falling in. A few points resisted, +and their embattled turrets are drawn out in line on the crest; but +their layers are dislocated, their sides creviced, their points +jagged. The whole shattered ridge totters. Beneath them the rock fails +suddenly in a living and still bleeding wound. The splinters are lower +down, strewn over the declivity. The tumbled rocks are sustained one +upon another, and man to-day passes in safety amidst the disaster. + +But what a day was that of the ruin: It is not very ancient, perhaps +of the sixth century, and the year of the terrible earthquake told of +by Gregory of Tours. If a man could without perishing have seen the +summits split, totter and fall, the two seas of rock come bounding +into the gorge, meet one another and grind each other amidst a shower +of sparks, he would have looked upon the grandest spectacle ever seen +by human eyes. + +On the west, a perpendicular mole, crannied like an old ruin, lifts +itself straight up toward the sky. A leprosy of yellowish moss has +incrusted its pores, and has clothed it all over with a sinister +livery. This livid robe upon this parched stone has a splendid effect. +Nothing is uglier than the chalky flints that are drawn from the +quarry; just dug up, they seem cold and damp in their whitish shroud; +they are not used to the sun; they make a contrast with the rest. But +the rock that has lived in the air for ten thousand years, where the +light has every day laid on and melted its metallic tints, is the +friend of the sun, and carries its mantle upon its shoulders; it +has no need of a garment of verdure; if it suffers from parasitic +vegetations, it sticks them to its sides and imprints them with its +colors. The threatening tones with which it clothes itself suits the +free sky, the naked landscape, the powerful heat that environs it; it +is alive like a plant; only it is of another age, one more severe and +stronger than that in which we vegetate. + +Gavarnie is a very ordinary village, commanding a view of the +amphitheater we are come to see. After you have left it, it is still +necessary to go three miles through a melancholy plain, half buried in +sand by the winter inundations; the waters of the Gave are muddy and +dull; a cold wind whistles from the amphitheater; the glaciers, strewn +with mud and stones, are stuck to the declivity like patches of dirty +plaster. The mountains are bald and ravined by cascades; black cones +of scattered firs climb them like routed soldiers; a meager and wan +turf wretchedly clothes their mutilated heads. The horses ford the +Gave stumblingly, chilled by the water coming from the snows. In this +wasted solitude you meet, all of a sudden, the most smiling parterre. +A throng of the lovely iris crowds itself into the bed of a dried +torrent; the sun stripes with rays of gold their velvety petals of +tender blue; and the eye follows over the whole plain the folds of the +rivulet of flowers. + +We climb a last eminence, sown with iris and with stones. There is a +hut where you breakfast and leave the horses. You arm yourself with a +stout stick, and descend upon the glaciers of the amphitheater. + +These glaciers are very ugly, very dirty, very uneven, very slippery; +at every step you run the risk of falling, and if you fall, it is on +sharp stones or into deep holes. They look very much like heaps of old +plaster-work, and those who have admired them must have a stock of +admiration for sale. The water has pierced them so that you walk +upon bridges of snow. These bridges have the appearance of kitchen +air-holes; the water is swallowed up in a very low archway, and, when +you look closely, you get a distinct sight of a black hole. + +After the glaciers we find a sloping esplanade; we climb for ten +minutes bruising our feet upon fragments of sharp rock. Since leaving +the hut we have not lifted our eyes, in order to restore for ourselves +an unbroken sensation. Here at last we look. + +A wall of granite crowned with snow hollows itself before us in a +gigantic amphitheater. This amphitheater is twelve hundred feet high, +nearly three miles in circumference, three tiers of perpendicular +walls, and in each tier thousands of steps. The valley ends there; the +wall is a single block and impregnable. The other summits might fall, +but its massive layers would not be moved. The mind is overwhelmed +by the idea of a stability that can not be shaken and an assured +eternity. There is the boundary of two countries and two races; this +it is that Roland wanted to break, when with a sword-stroke he opened +a breach in the summit. But the immense wound disappeared in the +immensity of the unconquered wall. Three sheets of snow are spread out +over the three tiers of layers. + +The sun falls with all its force upon this virginal robe without being +able to make it shine. It preserves its dead whiteness. All this +grandeur is austere; the air is chilled beneath the noonday rays; +great, damp shadows creep along the foot of the walls. It is the +everlasting winter and the nakedness of the desert. The sole +inhabitants are the cascades assembled to form the Gave. The +streamlets of water come by thousands from the highest layer, leap +from step to step, cross their stripes of foam, unite and fall by a +dozen brooks that slide from the last layer in flaky streaks to lose +themselves in the glaciers of the bottom. + +The thirteenth cascade on the left is twelve hundred and sixty-six +feet high. It falls slowly, like a dropping cloud, or the unfolding of +a muslin veil; the air softens its fall; the eye follows complacently +the graceful undulation of the beautiful airy veil. It glides the +length of the rock, and seems to float rather than to fall. The sun +shines, through its plume, with the softest and loveliest splendor. +It reaches the bottom like a bouquet of slender waving feathers, and +springs backward in a silver dust; the fresh and transparent mist +swings about the rock it bathes, and its rebounding train mounts +lightly along the courses. No stir in the air; no noise, no living +creature in the solitude. You hear only the monotonous murmur of the +cascades, resembling the rustle of the leaves that the wind stirs in +the forest. + +On our return, we seated ourselves at the door of the hut. It is a +poor, squat little house, heavily supported upon thick walls; the +knotty joists of the ceiling retain their bark. It is indeed necessary +that it should be able to stand out alone against the snows of winter. +You find everywhere the imprint of the terrible months it has gone +through. Two dead fir-trees stand erect at the door. The garden, three +feet square, is defended by enormous walls of piled-up slates. The low +and black stable leaves neither foot-hold nor entry for the winds. A +lean colt was seeking a little grass among the stones. A small bull, +with surly air, looked at us out of the sides of his eyes; the +animals, the trees and the site, wore a threatening or melancholy +aspect. But in the clefts of a rock were growing some admirable +buttercups, lustrous and splendid, which looked as if painted by a ray +of sunshine. + +At the village we met our companions of the journey who had sat down +there. The good tourists get fatigued, stop ordinarily at the inn, +take a substantial dinner, have a chair brought to the door, and +digest while looking at the amphitheater, which from there appears +about as high as a house. After this they return, praising the sublime +sight, and very glad that they have come to the Pyrenees. + + + + +VI + +BELGIUM + + + + +BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +The Rhine constituted the great central waterway of medieval Europe; +the Flemish towns were its ports and its manufacturing centers. They +filled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries much the same place +that Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham fill in the +nineteenth. Many causes contributed to this result. + +Flanders, half independent under its own counts, occupied a middle +position, geographically and politically, between France and the +Empire; it was comparatively free from the disastrous wars which +desolated both these countries, and in particular it largely escaped +the long smouldering quarrel between French and English, which so long +retarded the development of the former. Its commercial towns, again, +were not exposed on the open sea to the attacks of pirates or hostile +fleets, but were safely ensconced in inland flats, reached by rivers +or canals, almost inaccessible to maritime enemies. Similar conditions +elsewhere early ensured peace and prosperity for Venice. + +The canal system of Holland and Belgium began to be developed as early +as the twelfth century (at first for drainage), and was one leading +cause of the commercial importance of the Flemish cities in the +fourteenth. In so flat a country, locks are all but unnecessary. The +two towns which earliest rose to greatness in the Belgian area were +thus Bruges and Ghent; they possest in the highest degree the combined +advantages of easy access to the sea and comparative inland security. + +Bruges, in particular, was one of the chief stations of the Hanseatic +League, which formed an essentially commercial alliance for the mutual +protection of the northern trading centers. By the fourteenth century +Bruges had thus become in the north what Venice was in the south, +the capital of commerce. Trading companies from all the surrounding +countries had their "factories" in the town, and every European king +or prince of importance kept a resident minister accredited to the +merchant republic. + +Some comprehension of the mercantile condition of Europe in general +during the Middle Ages is necessary in order to understand the early +importance and wealth of the Flemish cities. Southern Europe, and in +particular Italy, was then still the seat of all higher civilization, +more especially of the trade in manufactured articles and objects of +luxury. Florence, Venice and Genoa ranked as the polished and learned +cities of the world. Further east, again, Constantinople still +remained in the hands of the Greek emperors, or, during the Crusades, +of their Latin rivals. A brisk trade existed via the Mediterranean +between Europe and India or the nearer East. This double stream of +traffic ran along two main routes--one, by the Rhine, from Lombardy +and Rome; the other, by sea, from Venice, Genoa, Florence, +Constantinople, the Levant, and India. + +On the other hand, France was still but a half civilized country, +with few manufactures and little external trade; while England was an +exporter of raw produce, chiefly wool, like Australia in our own time. +The Hanseatic merchants of Cologne held the trade of London; those of +Wisby and Lübeck governed that of the Baltic; Bruges, as head of the +Hansea, was in close connection with all of these, as well as with +Hull, York, Novgorod, and Bergen. + +The position of the Flemish towns in the fourteenth century was thus +not wholly unlike that of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston at the +present day; they stood as intermediaries between the older civilized +countries, like Italy or the Greek empire, and the newer producers of +raw material, like England, North Germany, and the Baltic towns. + +In a lost corner of the great lowland flat of Flanders, defended from +the sea by an artificial dike, and at the point of intersection of an +intricate network of canals and waterways, there arose in the early +Middle Ages a trading town, known in Flemish as Brugge, in French as +Bruges (that is to say, The Bridge), from a primitive structure that +here crossed the river. A number of bridges now span the sluggish +streams. All of them open in the middle to admit the passage of +shipping. + +Bruges stood originally on a little river, Reye, once navigable, now +swallowed by canals; and the Reye flowed into the Zwin, long silted +up, but then the safest harbor in the Low Countries. At first the +capital of a petty Count, this land-locked internal harbor grew in +time to be the Venice of the North, and to gather round its quays or +at its haven of Damme, the ships and merchandise of all neighboring +peoples. Already in 1200 it ranked as the central mart of the +Hanseatic League. + +It was the port of entry for English wool and Russian furs: the port +of departure for Flemish broadcloths, laces, tapestries, and linens. +Canals soon connected it with Ghent, Dunkirk, Sluys, Furnes and Ypres. +Its nucleus lay in a little knot of buildings about the Grand Place +and the Hotel de Ville, stretching out to the Cathedral and the Dyver; +thence it spread on all sides till, in 1362, it filled the whole space +within the existing ramparts, now largely abandoned or given over to +fields and gardens. It was the wealthiest town of Europe, outside +Italy. + +The decline of the town was due partly to the break-up of the +Hanseatic system; partly to the rise of English ports and +manufacturing towns; but still more, and especially as compared with +our Flemish cities, to the silting of the Zwin, and the want of +adaption in its waterways to the needs of great ships and modern +navigation. The old sea entrance to Bruges was through the Zwin, by +way of Sluys and Kadzand; up that channel came the Venetian merchant +fleet and the Flemish galleys, to the port of Damme. By 1470, it +ceased to be navigable for large vessels. + +The later canal is still open, but as it passes through what is now +Dutch territory, it is little used; nor is it adapted to any save +ships of comparatively small burden. Another canal, suitable for +craft of 500 tons, leads through Belgian territory to Ostend; but few +vessels now navigate it, and those for the most part only for local +trade. The town has shrunk to half its former size, and has only a +quarter of its medieval population. + +The commercial decay of Bruges, however, has preserved its charm for +the artist, the archeologist, and the tourist; its sleepy streets and +unfrequented quays are among the most picturesque sights of bustling +and industrial modern Belgium. The great private palaces, indeed, +are almost all destroyed; but many public buildings remain, and the +domestic architecture is quaint and pretty. + +Bruges was the mother of arts in Flanders: Jan van Eyck lived here +from 1428 to 1440. Memling, probably from 1477 till 1494. Caxton, the +first English printer, lived as a merchant at Bruges, in the Domus +Anglorum or English factory, from 1446 to 1476, and probably put in +the press here the earliest English book printed, tho strong grounds +have been adduced in favor of Cologne. Colard Mansion, the great +printer of Bruges at that date, was one of the leaders in the art of +typography.... + +The very tall square tower which faces you as you enter the Grand +Place is the Belfry, the center and visible embodiment of the town of +Bruges. The Grand Place itself was the forum and meeting place of the +soldier citizens, who were called to arms by the chimes in the Belfry. +The center of the place is therefore appropriately occupied by a +colossal statue group, modern, of Pieter de Coninck and Jan Breidel, +the leaders of the citizens of Bruges at the Battle of the Spurs +before the walls of Courtrai in 1302, a conflict which secured the +freedom of Flanders from the interference of the Kings of France. The +group is by Devigne. The reliefs on the pedestal represent scenes from +the battle and its antecedents. + +The majestic Belfry itself represents the first beginnings of freedom +in Bruges. Leave to erect such a bell-tower, both as a mark of +independence and to summon the citizens to arms, was one of the first +privileges which every Teutonic trading town desired to wring from its +feudal lord. This brick tower, the pledge of municipal rights, was +begun in 1291, to replace an earlier one of wood, and finished about a +hundred years later; the octagon, in stone at the summit, which holds +the bell, having been erected in 1393-96. + +It consists of three stories, the two lower of which are square and +flanked by balconies with turrets; the windows below are of the simple +early Gothic style, but show a later type of architecture in the +octagon. The niche in the center contains the Virgin and Child, a +group restored after being destroyed by the French revolutionists. +Below it on either side are smaller figures holding escutcheons. From +the balcony between these last, the laws and the rescripts of the +counts were read aloud to the people assembled in the square. + +The Belfry can be ascended by steps. Owing to the force of the wind, +it leans slightly to the southeast. The view from the top is very +extensive and striking. It embraces the greater part of the Plain of +Flanders, with its towns and villages. The country, tho quite flat, +looks beautiful when thus seen. In early times, however, the look-out +from the summit was of practical use for purposes of observation, +military or maritime. It commanded the river, the Zwin, and the sea +approach by Sluys and Damme; the course of the various canals; and the +roads to Ghent, Antwerp, Tournai, and Courtrai. The Belfry contains a +famous set of chimes, the mechanism of which may be inspected by the +visitor. He will have frequent opportunities of hearing the beautiful +and mellow carillon, perhaps to excess. The existing bells date only +from 1680: the mechanism from 1784. + + + + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Paris Sketch Book."] + +BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY + + +It is the quaintest and prettiest of all the quaint and pretty towns I +have seen. A painter might spend months here, and wander from church +to church, and admire old towers and pinnacles, tall gables, bright +canals, and pretty little patches of green garden and moss-grown wall, +that reflect in the clear quiet water. Before the inn-window is a +garden, from which in the early morning issues a most wonderful odor +of stocks and wallflowers; next comes a road with trees of admirable +green; numbers of little children are playing in this road (the place +is so clean that they may roll on it all day without soiling +their pinafores), and on the other side of the trees are little +old-fashioned, dumpy, whitewashed, red-tiled houses. + +A poorer landscape to draw never was known, nor a pleasanter to +see--the children especially, who are inordinately fat and rosy. Let +it be remembered, too, that here we are out of the country of ugly +women; the expression of the face is almost uniformly gentle and +pleasing, and the figures of the women, wrapt in long black monk-like +cloaks and hoods, very picturesque. No wonder there are so many +children: the "Guide-book" (omniscient Mr. Murray!) says there are +fifteen thousand paupers in the town, and we know how such multiply. + +How the deuce do their children look so fat and rosy? By eating +dirt-pies, I suppose. I saw a couple making a very nice savory one, +and another employed in gravely sticking strips of stick betwixt the +pebbles at the house-door, and so making for herself a stately garden. +The men and women don't seem to have much more to do. There are a +couple of tall chimneys at either suburb of the town, where no doubt +manufactories are at work, but within the walls everybody seems +decently idle. + +We have been, of course, abroad to visit the lions. The tower in the +Grand Place is very fine, and the bricks of which it is built do not +yield a whit in color to the best stone. The great building round this +tower is very like the pictures of the Ducal Palace at Venice; and +there is a long market area, with columns down the middle, from which +hung shreds of rather lean-looking meat, that would do wonders under +the hands of Cattermole or Haghe. + +In the tower there is a chime of bells that keep ringing perpetually. +They not only play tunes of themselves, and every quarter of an hour, +but an individual performs selections from popular operas on them at +certain periods of the morning, afternoon, and evening. I have heard +to-day "Suoni la Tromba," "Son Vergin Vezzosa," from the "Puritani," +and other airs, and very badly they were played too; for such a great +monster as a tower-bell can not be expected to imitate Madame Grisi or +even Signor Lablache. Other churches indulge in the same amusement, so +that one may come here and live in melody all day or night, like the +young woman in Moore's "Lalla Rookh." + +In the matter of art, the chief attractions of Bruges are the pictures +of Memling, that are to be seen in the churches, the hospital, and the +picture-gallery of the place. There are no more pictures of Rubens to +be seen, and, indeed, in the course of a fortnight, one has had quite +enough of the great man and his magnificent, swaggering canvases. +What a difference is here with simple Memling and the extraordinary +creations of his pencil! The hospital is particularly rich in them; +and the legend there is that the painter, who had served Charles the +Bold in his war against the Swiss, and his last battle and defeat, +wandered back wounded and penniless to Bruges, and here found cure and +shelter. + +This hospital is a noble and curious sight. The great hall is almost +as it was in the twelfth century; it is spanned by Saxon arches, and +lighted by a multiplicity of Gothic windows of all sizes; it is very +lofty, clean, and perfectly well ventilated; a screen runs across the +middle of the room, to divide the male from the female patients, and +we were taken to examine each ward, where the poor people seemed +happier than possibly they would have been in health and starvation +without it. + +Great yellow blankets were on the iron beds, the linen was +scrupulously clean, glittering pewter-jugs and goblets stood by the +side of each patient, and they were provided with godly books (to +judge from the building), in which several were reading at leisure. +Honest old comfortable nuns, in queer dresses of blue, black, white, +and flannel, were bustling through the room, attending to the wants +of the sick. I saw about a dozen of these kind women's faces; one was +young,--all were healthy and cheerful. One came with bare blue arms +and a great pile of linen from an out-house--such a grange as Cedric +the Saxon might have given to a guest for the night. A couple were in +a laboratory, a tall, bright, clean room, 500 years old at least. + +"We saw you were not very religious," said one of the old ladies, with +a red, wrinkled, good-humored face, "by your behavior yesterday in +chapel." + +And yet we did not laugh and talk as we used at college, but were +profoundly affected by the scene that we saw there. It was a fête-day; +a work of Mozart was sung in the evening--not well sung, and yet so +exquisitely tender and melodious, that it brought tears into our eyes. +There were not above twenty people in the church; all, save three or +four, were women in long black cloaks. I took them for nuns at first. +They were, however, the common people of the town, very poor indeed, +doubtless, for the priest's box that was brought round was not +added to by most of them, and their contributions were but two-cent +pieces--five of these go to a penny; but we know the value of such, +and can tell the exact worth of a poor woman's mite! + +The box-bearer did not seem at first willing to accept our +donation--we were strangers and heretics; however, I held out my hand, +and he came perforce as it were. Indeed it had only a franc in it; but +"que voulez vous?" I had been drinking a bottle of Rhine wine that +day, and how was I to afford more? The Rhine wine is dear in this +country, and costs four francs a bottle. + +Well, the service proceeded. Twenty poor women, two Englishmen, four +ragged beggars, cowering on the steps; and there was the priest at the +altar, in a great robe of gold and damask, two little boys in white +surplices serving him, holding his robe as he rose and bowed, and the +money-gatherer swinging his censer, and filling the little chapel with +smoke. + +The music pealed with wonderful sweetness; you could see the prim +white heads of the nuns in their gallery. The evening light streamed +down upon old statues of saints and carved brown stalls, and lighted +up the head of the golden-haired Magdalen in a picture of the +entombment of Christ. Over the gallery, and, as it were, a kind +protectress to the poor below, stood the statue of the Virgin. + + + + +GHENT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +Flanders owes everything to its water communications. At the junction +of the Schelde with the Lys and Lei, there grew up in the very early +Middle Ages a trading town, named Gent in Flemish, and Gand in French, +but commonly Anglicized as Ghent. It lay on a close network of rivers +and canals, formed partly by these two main streams, and partly by the +minor channels of the Lieve and the Moere, which together intersect it +into several islands. + +Such a tangle of inland waterways, giving access to the sea and to +Bruges, Courtrai, and Tournai, as well as less directly to Antwerp +and Brussels, ensured the rising town in early times considerable +importance. It formed the center of a radiating commerce. Westward, +its main relations were with London and English wool ports; eastward +with Cologne, Maastricht, the Rhine towns, and Italy. + +Ghent was always the capital of East Flanders, as Bruges or Ypres were +of the Western province; and after the Counts lost possession of +Arras and Artois, it became in the thirteenth century their principal +residence and the metropolis of the country.... + +Early in the fourteenth century, the burghers of Ghent, under their +democratic chief, Jacob or Jacques Van Artevelde, attained practical +independence. Till 1322, the counts and people of Flanders had been +united in their resistance to the claims of France; but with the +accession of Count Louis of Nevers, the aspect of affairs changed. +Louis was French by education, sympathies, and interests, and +artistocratic by nature; he sought to curtail the liberties of the +Flemish towns, and to make himself despotic. The wealthy and populous +burgher republics resisted and in 1337 Van Artevelde was appointed +Captain of Ghent. Louis fled to France and asked the aid of Philip of +Valois. + +Thereupon, Van Artevelde made himself the ally of Edward III. of +England, then beginning his war with France; but as the Flemings did +not like entirely to cast off their allegiance--a thing repugnant to +medieval sentiment--Van Artevelde persuaded Edward to put forward his +trumped-up claim to the crown of France, and thus induced the towns +to transfer their fealty from Philip to his English rival. It was +therefore in his character as King of France that Edward came to +Flanders. The alliance thus formed between the great producer of raw +wool, England, and the great manufacturer of woolen goods, Ghent, +proved of immense importance to both parties. + +But as Count Louis sided with Philip of Valois, the breach between the +democracy of Ghent and its nominal soverign now became impassable. Van +Artevelde held supreme power in Ghent and Flanders for nine years--the +golden age of Flemish commerce--and was treated on equal terms by +Edward, who stopt at Ghent as his guest for considerable periods. But +he was opposed by a portion of the citizens, and his suggestion that +the Black Prince, son of Edward III., should be elected Count +of Flanders, proved so unpopular with his enemies that he was +assassinated by one of them, Gerald Denys. The town and states +immediately repudiated the murder; and the alliance which Van +Artevelde had brought about still continued. It had far-reaching +results; the woolen industry was introduced by Edward into the Eastern +Counties of England, and Ghent had risen meanwhile to be the chief +manufacturing city of Europe. + +The quarrel between the democratic weavers and their exiled counts +was still carried on by Philip van Artevelde, the son of Jacques, and +godson of Queen Philippa of England, herself a Hainaulter. Under his +rule, the town continued to increase in wealth and population. But +the general tendency of later medieval Europe toward centralized +despotisms as against urban republics was too strong in the end for +free Ghent. In 1381, Philip was appointed dictator by the democratic +party, in the war against the Count, son of his father's opponent, +whom he repelled with great slaughter in a battle near Bruges. + +He then made himself Regent of Flanders. But Count Louis obtained +the aid of Charles VI. of France, and defeated and killed Philip van +Artevelde at the disastrous battle of Roosebeke in 1382. That was +practically the end of local freedom in Flanders. Tho the cities +continued to revolt against their sovereigns from time to time, they +were obliged to submit for the most part to their Count and to the +Burgundian princes who inherited from him by marriage. + +The subsequent history of Ghent is that of the capital of the +Burgundian Dukes, and of the House of Austria. Here the German king, +Maximilian, afterward Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy, the heiress +of the Netherlands; and here Charles V. was born in the palace of +the Counts. It was his principal residence, and he was essentially a +Fleming.... + +The real interest of the Cathedral centers, not in St. Bavon, nor in +his picture by Rubens, but in the great polyptych of the Adoration +of the Lamb, the masterpiece of Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert, +which forms in a certain sense the point of departure for the native +art of the Netherlands.... + +Stand before the west front at a little distance, to examine the +simple but massive architecture of the tower and façade. The great +portal has been robbed of the statues which once adorned its niches. +Three have been "restored"; they represent, center, the Savior; at the +left, the patron, St. Bavon, recognizable by his falcon, his sword as +duke, and his book as monk; he wears armor, with a ducal robe and cap +above it; at the right, St. John the Baptist, the earlier patron. + +Then, walk to the right, round the south side, to observe the external +architecture of the nave, aisles and choir. The latter has the +characteristic rounded or apsidal termination of Continental Gothic, +whereas English Gothic usually has a square end. Enter by the south +portal. + +The interior, with single aisles and short transepts (Early Gothic) +is striking for its simple dignity, its massive pillars, and its high +arches, tho the undeniably noble effect of the whole is somewhat +marred to English eyes by the unusual appearance of the unadorned +brick walls and vaulting. The pulpit, by Delvaux (1745), partly in +oak, partly in marble, represents Truth revealing the Christian Faith +to astonished Paganism, figured as an old and outworn man. It is a +model of all that should be avoided in plastic or religious art. +The screen which separates the choir from the transepts is equally +unfortunate. The apsidal end of the Choir, however, with its fine +modern stained glass, forms a very pleasing feature in the general +coup d'oeil.... + +The sixth chapel (of the Vydts family) contains the famous altar piece +of the Adoration of the Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, to study +which is the chief object of a visit to Ghent. See it more than once, +and examine it carefully. Ask the sacristan to let you sit before it +for some time in quiet or he will hurry you on. You must observe it in +close detail. Taking it in its entirety, then, the altar-piece, when +opened, is a great mystical poem of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of +the Lamb, with the Christian folk, both Church and World, adoring. The +composition contains over 200 figures. Many of them, which I have +not here identified, can be detected by a closer inspection, which, +however, I will leave to the reader. + +Now, ask the sacristan to shut the wings. They are painted on the +outer side (all a copy) mainly in grisaille, or in very low tones +of color, as is usual in such cases, so as to allow the jewel-like +brilliancy of the internal picture to burst upon the observer the +moment the altar-piece is opened. + +Old Ghent occupied for the most part the island which extends from the +Palais de Justice on one side to the Botanical Gardens on the other. +This island, bounded by the Lys, the Schelde, and an ancient canal, +includes almost all the principal buildings of the town, such as the +Cathedral, St. Nicholas, the Hôtel-dé-Ville, the Belfry, and St. +Jacques, as well as the chief Places, such as the Marché aux Grains, +the Marché aux Herbes, and the Marché du Vendredi. It also extends +beyond the Lys to the little island on which is situated the church of +St. Michael, and again to the islet formed between the Lieve and the +Lys, which contains the château of the Counts and the Palace Ste. +Pharailde. + +In the later middle ages, however, the town had spread to nearly its +existing extreme dimensions, and was probably more populous than at +the present moment. But its ancient fortifications have been destroyed +and their place has been taken by boulevards and canals. The line +may still be traced on the map, or walked round through a series of +shipping suburbs; but it is uninteresting to follow, a great part of +its course lying through the more squalid portions of the town. +The only remaining gate is that known as the Rabot (1489), a very +interesting and picturesque object situated in a particularly slummy +quarter. + +Bruges is full of memories of the Burgundian Princes. At Ghent it is +the personality of Charles V., the great emperor who cumulated in his +own person the sovereignties of Germany, the Low Countries, Spain and +Burgundy, that meets us afresh at every turn. He was born here in 1500 +and baptized in a font, otherwise uninteresting, which still stands in +the north transept of the Cathedral. Ghent was really, for the greater +part of his life, his practical capital, and he never ceased to be at +heart a Ghenter. + +That did not prevent the citizens from unjustly rebelling against him +in 1540, after the suppression of which revolt Charles is said to have +ascended the cathedral tower, while the executioner was putting to +death the ringleaders in the rebellion, in order to choose with his +brother Ferdinand the site for the citadel he intended to erect, to +overawe the freedom loving city. He chose the Monastery of St. Bavon +as its site, and, as we have seen, built there his colossal fortress, +now wholly demolished. The palace in which he was born and which he +inhabited frequently during life, was known as the Cour du Prince. It +stood near the Ancient Grand Béguinage, but only its name now survives +in that of a street. + + + + +BRUSSELS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Belgians at Home." Published by Little, Brown & +Co.] + +BY CLIVE HOLLAND + + +The great commercial and material prosperity of the place dates from +the commencement of the rule of the House of Burgundy. It was then, +in the fifteenth century, that the most beautiful of its many fine +buildings were erected. The Church of St. Michael and St. Gudule has +its great nave and towers dating from this period; the Hôtel de Ville, +Notre Dame du Sablon, the Nassau Palace, the Palace of the Dukes of +Brabant, and many other buildings were commenced then. Manufactures +and commerce commenced to flourish, while the liberties of the +municipality were extended considerably. + +It was undoubtedly under the rule of Charles V. that Brussels reached +its zenith of ancient prosperity. Then, with the era of Philip II. of +Spain, came a long period of bloodshed, persecution, and misery. The +religious disputes and troubles afflicting the Netherlands had their +effect upon the life, prosperity, and happiness of the Bruxellois. The +whole country was running with blood, and ruin stalked through the +land. But during this tragic period of Netherlands' history Brussels +saw several glorious events, and did as a city more than one noble +deed. It was in Brussels that the compromise of the nobles took place, +after which those who were rebelling against the cruelties of the +Inquisition were given the name of "Gueux," which had been bestowed +upon them contemptuously by the Comte de Barlaimont.... It was +Brussels which led the revolt against the most bloodthirsty of the +rulers sent to the Netherlands by Spain, the Duke of Alva, and +successfully resisted the imposition of the notorious "twentieth +denier" tax which it was sought to impose upon it, a tax which led +ultimately to the revolt of the whole of the Belgian provinces. + +Certainly this ancient capital of the Province of Brabant, containing +nowadays with its suburbs a population of upward of 600,000, which has +quadrupled in sixty years, has come to take its place among the most +beautiful and charming capital cities of Europe. It is undoubtedly +healthy, and there is an engaging air about Brussels which soon +impresses itself upon the foreign visitor. Added to all its many +attractions of interesting museums--the homes of wonderful and in +some cases unrivaled collections of works of art--and of historical +associations with the past, it possesses the charm of being modern in +the best sense and of being a place where one may find much that is +finest in art and music. As a home of fashion it bids fair some day +to rival Paris herself, and the shops of the Montagne de la Cour, +Boulevard Anspach, and contiguous streets are scarcely less luxurious +or exclusive than those of the Rue de la Paix or Boulevard des +Italiens in the French capital. Brussels is a city of shady +boulevards, open spaces, and pleasant parks as is Paris; and the +beautiful Bois de la Cambre on its outskirts compares very favorably +with the world-renowned Bois de Boulogne as regards rural charm and +picturesqueness. + +One impression that Brussels is almost certain to make upon the +visitor is its compactness. Its population, including the outskirts, +is nowadays rather over 600,000; but it is almost impossible to +realize that nearly one-eleventh of the whole population of Belgium +is concentrated in this one city, or, as might be said, in Greater +Brussels. Perhaps the real reason of this apparent lack of size +is because there are in reality two cities, Brussels interior and +Brussels exterior. The one with a population of about 225,000; the +latter with one of about 375,000. It is with the former, of course, +that the tourist and casual visitor are chiefly concerned. + +The outlying suburbs are, however, connected with the city proper by a +splendid system of steam, electric, and other trams. In fact, it may +be said that Brussels is in a sense surrounded by a group of small +towns, which tho forming part of the great city are yet independent, +and are governed very much like the various boroughs which make up +Greater London, Curhegem, St. Gilles, Ixelles, St. Josse, Ten Noodle, +Molenbeek, St. Jean, and Schaerbeek, still further out, are all in a +sense separate towns, seldom visited by, and indeed almost unknown to +the tourist. + +The most fashionable quarters for residences of the wealthy classes +are the broad and beautiful Avenue Louise and the streets and avenues +of the Quartier Leopold. They in a sense correspond to the Avenue du +Bois de Boulogne, Avenue des Champs Élysées, and Boulevard St. Germain +of Paris. There is another feature, too, that modern Brussels has in +common with Paris of the immediate past and of to-day. It is being +"Haussmannized," and the older and more quaint and interesting +portions of the city, as has been and is the case in Paris, are +gradually but surely disappearing to make way for the onward march of +progress and expansion. Almost on every hand, and especially in the +Porte de Namur Quarter, old buildings are constantly falling victims +to the house-wrecker, and new, in the shape of handsome mansions and +lofty blocks of flats, are arising from their ashes. + +The last thirty--even twenty--years have seen many changes. During +that period the sluggish little River Senne, which once meandered +through the city, and upon whose banks stood many fine and picturesque +old houses and buildings of past ages, has been arched over, and the +fine Boulevard of the same name, and those of Hainaut and Anspach, +have been built above its imprisoned waters. The higher portions of +the city are undeniably healthy, and the climate of Brussels is less +subject to extreme changes than that of Paris. It is not unbearably +cold in winter, and tho hot in summer, is not so, we think, airless +as either Paris or London, a fact accounted for by reason of its many +open spaces, its height above sea-level, and comparative nearness to +the North Sea. + +Of its fine buildings, none excels the Hôtel de Ville, which is +certainly one of the most interesting and beautiful buildings of its +kind in Belgium. It is well placed on one of the finest medieval +squares in Europe, and is surrounded by quaint and historic houses. On +this Grande Place many tragedies have from time to time been enacted, +and some of the most ferocious acts of the inhuman Alva performed. +In the spring of the terrible year, 1568, no less than twenty-five +Flemish nobles were executed here, and in the June of the same year +the patriots Lamoral, Count Egmont, Philip de Montmorency, and Count +Hoorn were put to death. This atrocious deed is commemorated by a +fountain with statues of the heroes, placed in front of the Maison +du Roi, from a window of which the Duke of Alva watched his orders +carried out. + +This most beautiful Hôtel de Ville, with its late Gothic façade +approaching the Renaissance period, nearly 200 feet in length, was +commenced, according to a well-known authority, either in 1401 or +1402, the eastern wing, or left-hand portion as one faces it across +the Place, having been the first part to be commenced, the western +half of the façade not having been begun until 1444. The later +additions formed the quadrangle. + +The Cathedral at Brussels is dedicated jointly to Ste. Gudule and St. +Michael. The former is one of the luckiest saints in that respect, as +probably but for this dedication, she would have remained among the +many rather obscure saints of the early periods of Christianity. + +It is to this church that most visitors to Brussels first wend their +way after visiting the Grande Place and its delightful Flower Market, +which is gay with blossoms on most days of the week all the year +round. The natural situation of the church is a fine one, which was +made the most of by its architects and builders of long ago. Standing, +as it does, on the side of a hill reached from the Grande Place by the +fine Rue de la Montagne and short, steep Rue Ste. Gudule, it overlooks +the city with its two fine twin western towers dominating the +neighboring streets. These towers have appeared to us when viewed up +the Rue Ste. Gudule and other streets leading up from the lower town +to the church, generally to be veiled by a mystic gray or ambient +haze, and to gain much in impressiveness and grandeur from the coup +d'oeil one obtains of them framed, as it were, in the end of the +rising street. + + + + +WATERLOO[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Les Miserables." Translated by Lascelles Wraxall.] + +BY VICTOR HUGO + + +The battle of Waterloo is an enigma as obscure for those who gained +it as for him who lost it. To Napoleon it is a panic; Blücher sees +nothing in it but fire; Wellington does not understand it at all. +Look at the reports; the bulletins are confused; the commentaries are +entangled; the latter stammer, the former stutter. + +Jomini divides the battle of Waterloo into four moments; Muffing cuts +it into three acts; Charras, altho we do not entirely agree with him +in all his appreciations, has alone caught with his haughty eye +the characteristic lineaments of this catastrophe of human genius +contending with divine chance. All the other historians suffer from a +certain bedazzlement in which they grope about. It was a flashing day, +in truth the overthrow of the military monarchy which, to the great +stupor of the kings, has dragged down all kingdoms, the downfall of +strength and the rout of war.... + +In this event, which bears the stamp of superhuman necessity, men play +but a small part; but if we take Waterloo from Wellington and Blücher, +does that deprive England and Germany of anything? No. Neither +illustrious England nor august Germany is in question in the problem +of Waterloo, for, thank heaven! nations are great without the mournful +achievements of the sword. Neither Germany, nor England, nor France +is held in a scabbard; at this day when Waterloo is only a clash of +sabers, Germany has Goethe above Blücher, and England has Byron above +Wellington. A mighty dawn of ideas is peculiar to our age; and in this +dawn England and Germany have their own magnificent flash. They are +majestic because they think; the high level they bring to civilization +is intrinsic to them; it comes from themselves, and not from an +accident. Any aggrandizement the nineteenth century may have can not +boast of Waterloo as its fountainhead; for only barbarous nations +grow suddenly after a victory--it is the transient vanity of torrents +swollen by a storm. Civilized nations, especially at the present day, +are not elevated or debased by the good or evil fortune of a captain, +and their specific weight in the human family results from something +more than a battle. Their honor, dignity, enlightenment, and genius +are not numbers which those gamblers, heroes and conquerors, can +stake in the lottery of battles. Very often a battle lost is progress +gained, and less of glory, more of liberty. The drummer is silent and +reason speaks; it is the game of who loses wins. Let us, then, speak +of Waterloo coldly from both sides, and render to chance the things +that belong to chance, and to God what is God's. What is Waterloo--a +victory? No; a prize in the lottery, won by Europe, and paid by +France; it was hardly worth while erecting a lion for it. + +Waterloo is the strangest encounter recorded in history; Napoleon +and Wellington are not enemies, but contraries. Never did God, who +delights in antitheses, produce a more striking contrast, or a more +extraordinary confrontation. On one side precision, foresight, +geometry, prudence, a retreat assured, reserves prepared, an obstinate +coolness, an imperturbable method, strategy profiting by the ground, +tactics balancing battalions, carnage measured by a plumb-line, war +regulated watch in hand, nothing left voluntarily to accident, old +classic courage and absolute correctness. + +On the other side we have intuition, divination, military strangeness, +superhuman instinct, a flashing glance; something that gazes like the +eagle and strikes like lightning, all the mysteries of a profound +mind, associated with destiny; the river, the plain, the forest, and +the hill summoned, and, to some extent, compelled to obey; the despot +going so far as even to tyrannize over the battlefield; faith in a +star, blended with a strategic science, heightening, but troubling it. + +Wellington was the Barême of war, Napoleon was its Michelangelo, and +this true genius was conquered by calculation. On both sides somebody +was expected; and it was the exact calculator who succeeded. Napoleon +waited for Grouchy, who did not come; Wellington waited for Blücher, +and he came. + +Wellington is the classical war taking its revenge; Bonaparte, in his +dawn, had met it in Italy, and superbly defeated it--the old owl +fled before the young vulture. The old tactics had been not only +overthrown, but scandalized. Who was this Corsican of six-and-twenty +years of age? What meant this splendid ignoramus, who, having +everything against him, nothing for him, without provisions, +ammunition, guns, shoes, almost without an army, with a handful of +men against masses, dashed at allied Europe, and absurdly gained +impossible victories? Who was this new comet of war who possest the +effrontery of a planet? + +The academic military school excommunicated him, while bolting, and +hence arose an implacable rancor of the old Caesarism against the new, +of the old saber against the flashing sword, and of the chessboard +against genius. On June 18, 1815, this rancor got the best; and +beneath Lodi, Montebello, Montenotte, Mantua, Marengo, and Arcola, it +wrote--Waterloo. It was a triumph of mediocrity, sweet to majorities, +and destiny consented to this irony. In his decline, Napoleon found +a young Suvarov before him--in fact, it is only necessary to blanch +Wellington's hair in order to have a Suvarov. Waterloo is a battle of +the first class, gained by a captain of the second. + +What must be admired in the battle of Waterloo is England, the English +firmness, the English resolution, the English blood, and what England +had really superb in it, is (without offense) herself; it is not her +captain, but her army. Wellington, strangely ungrateful, declares in +his dispatch to Lord Bathurst that his army, the one which fought on +June 18, 1815, was a "detestable army." + +What does the gloomy pile of bones buried in the trenches of Waterloo +think of this? England has been too modest to herself in her treatment +of Wellington, for making him so great is making herself small. +Wellington is merely a hero, like any other man. The Scots Grays, the +Life Guards, Maitland's and Mitchell's regiments, Pack's and Kempt's +infantry, Ponsonby's and Somerset's cavalry, the Highlanders playing +the bagpipes under the shower of canister, Ryland's battalions, the +fresh recruits who could hardly manage a musket, and yet held their +ground against the old bands of Essling and Rivoli--all this is grand. + +Wellington was tenacious; that was his merit, and we do not deny it +to him, but the lowest of his privates and his troopers was quite as +solid as he, and the iron soldier is as good as the iron duke. For our +part, all our glorification is offered to the English soldier, the +English army, the English nation; and if there must be a trophy, it +is to England that this trophy is owing. The Waterloo column would be +more just, if, instead of the figure of a man, it raised to the clouds +the statue of a people.... + +But this great England will be irritated by what we are writing here; +for she still has feudal illusions, after her 1688 and the French +1789. This people believes in inheritance and hierarchy, and while no +other excels it in power and glory, it esteems itself as a nation and +not as a people. As a people, it readily subordinates itself, and +takes a lord as its head; the workman lets himself be despised; the +soldier puts up with flogging. It will be remembered that, at the +battle of Inkerman, a sergeant who, as it appears, saved the British +army, could not be mentioned by Lord Raglan, because the military +hierarchy does not allow any hero below the rank of officer to be +mentioned in dispatches. What we admire before all, in an encounter +like Waterloo, is the prodigious skill of chance. The night raid, +the wall of Hougoumont, the hollow way of Ohain, Grouchy deaf to the +cannon, Napoleon's guide deceiving him, Bulow's guide enlightening +him--all this cataclysm is marvelously managed. + +There is more of a massacre than of a battle in Waterloo. Waterloo, of +all pitched battles, is the one which had the smallest front for +such a number of combatants. Napoleon's three-quarters of a league. +Wellington's half a league, and seventy-two thousand combatants +on either side. From this density came the carnage. The following +calculation has been made and proportion established: loss of men, at +Austerlitz, French, fourteen per cent.; Russian, thirty per cent.; +Austrian, forty-four per cent.; at Wagram, French, thirteen per cent.; +Austrian, fourteen per cent.; at Moscow, French, thirty-seven per +cent.; Russian, forty-four per cent.; at Bautzen, French, thirteen +cent.; Russian and Prussian, fourteen per cent.; at Waterloo, French, +fifty-six per cent.; allies, thirty-one per cent.--total for Waterloo, +forty-one per cent., or out of one hundred and forty-four thousand +fighting men, sixty thousand killed. + +The field of Waterloo has at the present day that calmness which +belongs to the earth, and resembles all plains; but at night, a sort +of a visionary mist rises from it, and if any traveler walk about it, +and listen and dream, like Virgil on the mournful plain of Philippi, +the hallucination of the catastrophe seizes upon him. The frightful +June 18th lives again, the false monumental hill is leveled, the +wondrous lion is dissipated, the battlefield resumes its reality, +lines of infantry undulate on the plain; furious galloping crosses the +horizon; the startled dreamer sees the flash of sabers, the sparkle +of bayonets, the red lights of shells, the monstrous collision of +thunderbolts; he hears like a death groan from the tomb, the vague +clamor of the fantom battle. + +These shadows are grenadiers; these flashes are cuirassiers; this +skeleton is Napoleon; this skeleton is Wellington: all this is +non-existent, and yet still combats, and the ravines are stained +purple, and the trees rustle, and there is fury even in the clouds +and in the darkness, while all the stern heights, Mont St. Jean, +Hougoumont, Frischemont, Papelotte, and Plancenoit, seem confusedly +crowned by hosts of specters exterminating one another. + + + + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. 1878.] + +BY THE EDITOR + + +The French wished to call it the battle of Mont St. Jean, but +Wellington said "The Battle of Waterloo." The victor's wish prevailed. +I know not why, except because he was the victor. The scene of the +battle is four miles from the village of Waterloo and, besides Mont +St. Jean, several villages from any one of which it might well have +been named, are included in the field. Before the battle, however, the +village of Waterloo had been the headquarters of the Duke and there he +rested for two days after the battle was won. + +I am now on this memorable spot as the solitary guest of a small hotel +at the base of the Lion's Mound, after having made a night of it in +crossing from Aix-la-Chapelle to Brussels and thence, through a storm +of mist and rain to the little station of Braine-l'Alleud, which is a +good mile from the battlefield. The train reached Braine-l'Alleud long +before daybreak. When the morn had really dawned, I left the +little waiting room, a solitary loiterer, and set out to find the +battleground. From the platform of the station the eye surveyed a +wide, thickly populated but rural plain, and in one direction afar +off, clearly set against the dark rain-dripping sky, rose in solemn +majesty a mound of earth, bearing on its lofty summit an indistinct +figure of a lion. + +A small rustic gate from the station led in the direction of the +Mound. From necessity, I began a tramp through the rain alone, no +conveyance being obtainable. The soil of Belgium here being alluvial, +a little rain soon makes a great deal of mud and little rains at this +season (January) are frequent. Along a small unpaved mud-deep road, +having meanwhile been joined by a peasant with a two wheeled cart +drawn by a single mule, I was soon hastening onward toward the Mound +which was growing more and more visible on the horizon. The road soon +turned away, however, but a path led toward the mound. The peasant +took the road and I the path, which led into a little clump of houses, +where were boys about their morning duties, and dogs that barked +vigorously until one of the boys to whom I had spoken silenced them. + +Passing onward through streets not more than six feet wide, along +neatly trimmed hedges and past small cottage doorways, I soon entered +an open plain, but in a crippled state with heavy mud-covered shoes. +Mud fairly obliterated all trace of leather. With this burden, and wet +to the skin with rain, there rose far ahead of me that historic mound, +and at last I stood at its base alone, there in the midst of one of +the greatest battlefields history records, soon to forget in the +momentary joys of a beefsteak breakfast that man had ever done +anything in this world except eat and drink. + +I must borrow an illustration--Victor Hugo's letter A. The apex is +Mount St. Jean, the right hand base La Belle Alliance, the left hand +base Hougoumont, the cross bar that sunken road which perhaps changed +the future of Europe, the two sides broad Belgian roads, paved with +square stones and bordered with graceful and lofty poplar trees, their +proud heads waving in every breeze that drifts across this undulating +plain. The Lion's Mound is just below the middle of this cross bar. +Mont St. Jean, La Belle Alliance and Hougoumont, at the three angles +of the triangle, are small villages--scarcely more than hamlets. All +were important points in the fortunes of that memorable 18th of June, +1815. Hougoumont, with its château and wall, in some sense was like a +fortress. + +Go with me if you will in imagination to the summit of the Lion's +Mound. A flight of 225 stone steps will take us there, a toilsome +ascent in this chilling air and this persistent rain. Toward Mont +St. Jean, the surface of the ground is rolling, the waves of it high +enough to conceal standing men from view. Except the lofty poplars at +the road sides, there are no trees. An admirable place for an army on +the defensive, you will at once say, since reserves can be concealed +behind the convolutions of the rolling plain. These convolutions may +also serve in the fight as natural fortifications. + +Here at Mont St. Jean, Wellington pitched his tent. Hougoumont lay far +off in front of his center, and had that morning a small garrison. +Napoleon, with his army, was a mile away, his line extending to the +right and left beyond La Belle Alliance. We must turn squarely around +as we stand alongside the lion if we are to see in the distance the +ground he occupied. Our place is nearly in the center of the field. +Hougoumont we realize to have been worthy of the prodigious struggle +the French made to capture it. Half a fortress then, it provided +an admirable stand for artillery. A few men might hold it against +superior numbers. + +At Waterloo the Duke had about 67,000 men--some accounts say +70,000--but many, perhaps 15,000, fled in desertion at an early hour +of the day. With these figures correct, the fighting forces of the +Allies later in the day, would remain little more than 55,000 men. The +Emperor's army has usually been placed at 70,000. His soldiers were +probably better trained than the Duke's and combined with long service +an abundance of enthusiasm for their old general, now restored to his +imperial throne and confident of victory. + +The night before the battle had been wet and stormy, but the morning +gave some promise of clearing; the sky, however, remained overcast and +some rain continued to fall. The French were weary after a long march, +and the artillery moved with difficulty across this wet and muddy +plain. Altogether they were in poor condition for a battle, in which +all their fortunes were at stake. It was just such a morning as ours, +except that it was then June and is now January. If the battle began +at 8 o'clock, as one account reads, we are here on the Lion's Mound at +that same hour. Even if this be January, daisies are in blossom at our +feet. + +Jerome Bonaparte, leading the attack, moves on Hougoumont, where the +Allies, who have come down from Mont St. Jean, repulse him. He renews +the attack "with redoubled fury," and a gallant resistance is made, +but he forces a way into the outer enclosure of the chateau that +crowns the hill. British howitzers are at once discharged upon the +French and compel them to retreat. New assaults are then made. +Overwhelming numbers seem to bear down upon the Allies. The stronghold +is more than once nearly lost, but it is defended with "prodigies of +valor" and firmly held to the last. Had Hougoumont been taken, the +result of the battle "would probably have been very different." + +Meanwhile, the Emperor has ordered a second attack elsewhere--this +time against the left wing of Wellington. Marshal Ney sends forward +six divisions, who encounter the Netherlandish troops and easily +scatter them. Two brigades of British numbering 3,000 men then prepare +to check the advancing French. A struggle, brief but fierce, ensues, +in which the French are repulsed. They rally again, however, and +Scotch Highlanders, their bagpipes sounding the cry, advance against +them, along with an English brigade. These make an impetuous assault, +while cavalry charge Napoleon's infantry, and force a part of them +back on La Belle Alliance. But here the pursuing British meet with a +check in a scene of wild carnage that sweeps over the field. + +We may look down upon the scene of that frightful struggle. It lies +just below us. Grass is growing there luxuriantly now. A north wind +sweeps over the plain. A mournful requiem seems to whistle through the +poplar trees. + +If we look toward Hougoumont, French gunners are seen to have been +slain. Many cannon are silent. With the chateau in flames, confusion +reigns. Napoleon, ordering a new cavalry attack, directs Jerome to +advance with his infantry. Immediately the Allies discharge grape +and canister on the advancing host. But no Frenchman wavers. On the +contrary, the French cavalry capture Wellington's outward battalion +and press onward toward his hollow squares of infantry. All efforts to +break these squares end in failure. For a time the French abandon the +attack, but only to renew it and then follows a remarkable scene. The +French charge with unprecedented fury, and the squares are partially +broken, while friends and enemies, wounded or killed, are mingled in +inextricable confusion. + +Some of the Belgian troops take flight and in mad terror run back to +Brussels, causing great consternation there by reporting a defeat for +Wellington. The squares maintain their ground to the end admirably, +and with severe losses the French retire. Hougoumont near by, all this +time was not silent. The attack being continued, the commander is +killed and at last its heights are gained. From elsewhere in the +field, Wellington learns of his loss, places himself at the head of a +brigade, and commands it to charge. Amid the utmost enthusiasm of the +Allies the French are driven back from Hougoumont. + +Napoleon now turns his efforts against La Haye Sainte, a small height +forward from Mont St. Jean, occupied by the enemy's left wing. Ney, +in a furious cannonade, begins the attack, in which the Allies are +overwhelmed and their ammunition is exhausted. Masters of this point, +the French again move on Hougoumont. It is seven o'clock in the +evening, with Napoleon in fair way to succeed, but his men are already +exhausted and their losses are heavy. Some of them plunge into that +famous sunken road, unheeded of him and them, and still so great a +mystery to historians. It was a charging cavalry column that plunged +in, unknowingly, rider and horse together, in indescribable confusion +and dismay. We may see that road to-day, for we have walked in a part +of it when coming across the plain from the station--a narrow road cut +many feet deep, its bed paved with little stones. Hugo's words on that +frightful scene are these: + +"There was the ravine, unlooked for, yawning at the very feet of the +horses, two fathoms deep between its double slope. The second rank +pushed in the first, the third pushed in the second; the horses +reared, threw themselves over, fell upon their backs, and struggled +with their feet in the air, piling up and overturning their riders; no +power to retreat; the whole column was nothing but a projectile. The +force acquired to crush the English crusht the French. The inexorable +ravine could not yield until it was filled; riders and horses rolled +in together pell-mell, grinding each other, making common flesh in +this dreadful gulf, and when this grave was full of living men, the +rest marched over them and passed on. Almost a third of the Dubois' +brigade sank into this abyss." + +Two hours before this, Blücher, with his Prussians, had +appeared--Blücher who was to turn the tide of battle. He had promised +Wellington to be there. His soldiers had complained bitterly on the +long march over muddy ground, but he told them his word as a soldier +must be kept. From far beyond La Belle Alliance had Blücher come, a +cow boy showing him the way--a boy who, if he had not known the way, +or had lied, might have saved Napoleon from St. Helena. The ground +where Blücher entered the field is just visible to us from the mound +as with strained eyes, we peer through the morning mist. During Ney's +attack, Blücher opens fire on La Haye Sainte. By six o'clock he has +forty-eight guns in action and some of the guns send shot as far as La +Belle Alliance. As the conflict deepens, Napoleon's fortunes are seen +to be obviously in grave, if not critical, danger, but he strengthens +his right wing and again hazards Hougoumont. Eight battalions are +sent forward, an outlying stronghold is captured, but more Prussians +advance and threaten to regain the point. + +At seven o'clock while Ney is renewing the attack on Hougoumont other +Prussians appear. The real crisis being at hand, Napoleon resolves +on a final, concentrated movement against the enemy's center. His +soldiers being worn out and discouraged, he gives out a false report +that reinforcements are at last coming--that Grouchy has not failed +him. A furious cannonade opens this new attack, causing "frightful +havoc" among the Allies. The Prince of Orange holds back the French +on the very ground where the lion is now elevated, but falls wounded. +Napoleon, in an address to the Imperial Guard, rouses them to great +enthusiasm. For a half hour longer the French bear down on the enemy, +but British gunners make gaps in their ranks. With his horse shot from +under him, Ney goes forward on foot. + +The Duke now takes personal command. He sends a shower of grape and +cannister against a column of French veterans, but they never waver. +Reserves, suddenly called for, pour a fierce charge against the +advancing French, rending them asunder. The attack is closely followed +up and the French are driven down the hill. Elsewhere in the field the +battle still rages. Blücher continues his attack on Napoleon's right +and forces it back. Reduced to despair, Napoleon now gives his final +and famous order: "Tout est perdu! Sauve qui peut." But the Young +Guard resists Blücher. Wellington, descending from his height, follows +the retreating enemy as far as La Belle Alliance. At eight o'clock, +after a most sanguinary struggle, the Young Guard yields. The success +of Blücher elsewhere completes the victory of the Allies. + +One man will never surrender--Cambronne. Who was Cambronne? No one +can tell you more than this--he was the man at Waterloo who would not +surrender. "The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders." "Among those +giants then," says Hugo, "there was one Titan--Cambronne. The man +who won the battle of Waterloo was not Napoleon, put to rout; not +Wellington, giving way at four o'clock, desperate at five; not +Blücher, who did not fight. The man who won the battle of Waterloo +was Cambronne. To fulminate at the thunderbolt which kills you, is +victory." + +As we look over this field from our height and try to realize what +mighty fortunes were here at stake, we note that the mementoes of +that day are few. A Corinthian column and an obelisk are seen at the +roadside as memorials of the bravery of two officers. This Lion's +Mound, two hundred feet high and made from earth piled up by cart +loads, commemorates the place where a prince was wounded. Colossal in +size, the lion was cast from French cannon captured in the fight. On +this broad plain upward of 50,000 men, who had mothers, sisters, +and wives at home, gave up their lives. Poplar trees sigh forth +perpetually their funeral dirge. Grass grows where their blood was +poured out. Modern Europe can show few scenes of more sublime tragedy. +Our visiting day, with its chilling air and penetrating rain, has +been a fit day for seeing Waterloo. The old woman who served me with +breakfast spoke English easily. It was well--doubly well. No other +language than English should be spoken on the field of Waterloo. I +passed a few French words with the boy who called off the dogs, but +was afterward sorry for having done so. + + + + +ANTWERP[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium." Published +by James Pott & Co.] + +BY T. FRANCIS BUMPUS + + +Byzantium--Venice--Antwerp, these are the centers around which the +modern world has revolved, for we must include its commercial with its +social progress, and with those interests which develop with society. +Indeed, the development of the arts has always run concurrently with +commerce. One could wish to add that the converse were equally true. + +Antwerp--the city on the wharf--became famous at the beginning of +the sixteenth century under the reign of the enterprising Charles V. +"Antwerp was then truly a leading city in almost all things, but +in commerce it headed all the cities of the world," says an old +chronicler. Bruges, the great banking center yielded her position, +and the Hanseatic merchants removed to the banks of the Scheldt. "I +was astonished, and wondered much when I beheld Antwerp," wrote an +envoy of the Italian Republic, "for I saw Venice outdone." + +In what direction Venice was outdone is not recorded. Not in her +architecture, at least; scarcely in her painting. We can not concede +a Tintoretto for a Rubens. Yet, as Antwerp was the home of Matsys, +of Rubens, Van Dyck, and the Teniers, the home also of Christopher +Plantin, the great printer, her glory is not to be sought in trade +alone. She is still remembered as a mother of art and letters, while +her mercantile preeminence belongs to a buried past. + +It must, however, be confest that the fortunes of Antwerp as a city, +prospering in its connection with the Hanseatic League, were anything +but advantageous to the student of architectural history. Alterations +and buildings were the order of the day, and so lavish were the means +devoted to the work that scarcely a vestige of architecture in the +remains is of earlier date than the fourteenth century. + +The grandly dimensioned churches raised in every parish afford ample +evidence of the zeal and skill with which the work of reconstruction +was prosecuted, and as specimens of the style of their day can not +fail to elicit our admiration by the nobility of their proportions, so +that in the monuments the wealthy burghers of Antwerp have left us we +have perhaps no reason to regret their zeal. At the same time, one +is tempted to wish that they had spared the works of earlier date by +raising their new ones on fresh ground, instead of such wholesale +demolition of the labors of preceding generations. + +Nôtre Dame at Antwerp, the most spacious church in the Netherlands, +originated in a chapel built for a miraculous image of the Blessed +Virgin. This chapel was reconstructed in 1124, when the canons of St. +Michel, having ceded their church to the Praemonstratensians, removed +hither. Two centuries later, the canons of St. Michel, animated by the +prevailing spirit, determined on rebuilding their church on a more +magnificent scale, and they commenced the work in 1352 by laying the +foundations for a new choir. But slow progress was made with this +great undertaking, more than two centuries and a half elapsing before +the church assumed that form with which we are familiar to-day. In +1520, the chapter, dissatisfied with its choir, started upon the +erection of a new one, the first stone of which was laid in the +following year by the Emperor Charles V., accompanied by King +Christian II. of Denmark and a numerous retinue. + +The new plan included a crypt, partly above ground, probably like that +we see in St. Paul's in the same town, and the work was progressing +when, in 1533, a disastrous fire did such damage to the western parts +of the church that the project of enlargement was suspended, and +the funds destined for its employment were applied to restoring the +damaged portions. Had the design been realized, the eastern limb of +the church would have been doubled in size. + +As regards its dimensions, Nôtre Dame at Antwerp is one of the most +remarkable churches in Europe, being nearly 400 feet long by 170 feet +in width across the nave, which, inclusive of that covered by the +western towers, has seven bays, and three aisles on either side. This +multiplication of aisles gives a vast intricacy and picturesqueness to +the cross views of the interior; but there is a poverty of detail, and +a want of harmony among the parts and of subordination and +proportion, sadly destructive of true architectural effect; so that, +notwithstanding its size, it looks much smaller internally than many +of the French cathedrals of far less dimensions. If there had been ten +bays in the nave instead of only seven, and the central division had +been at least ten feet wider, which could easily have been spared from +the outermost aisles, the apparent size of the church would have been +much greater. The outermost south aisle is wider than the nave, and +equal in breadth to the two inner aisles; the northernmost aisle is +not quite so broad. + +The transepts have no aisles, but they are continued beyond the line +of the nave aisles, so that they are more than usually elongated. The +two inner aisles of the nave open into the transepts, but the outer +ones, which, it should be remarked, are continuous, and not divided +into a series of chapels, are walled up at their eastern extremities. + +The choir consists of three bays, but has only one aisle on either +side. This is continued round the apse, and five pentagonal chapels +radiate from it. Three chapels flank the north aisle of the choir, the +first two opening, as does the north transept, into one large chapel +of the same breadth as the southernmost aisle of the nave.... The +façade is flanked by towers equal in width to the two inner aisles of +the nave. The northern one has alone been completed, and altho it may +seem to a severe judgment to possess some of the defects of the +late Flemish style, it is rivaled for beauty of outline only by the +flamboyant steeples of Chartres and Vienna. As might be expected from +its late age--it was not finished until 1530--this northwestern spire +of Notre Dame at Antwerp exhibits some extravagances in design and +detail, but the mode in which the octagonal lantern of openwork +bisects the faces of the solid square portion with its alternate +angles, thus breaking the outline without any harsh or disagreeable +transition, is very masterly, while the bold pinnacles, with their +flying buttresses, which group around it, produce a most pleasing +variety, the whole serving to indicate the appearance the steeple of +Malines would have presented had it been completed according to the +original design. + +If size were any real test of beauty, the interior or Notre Dame at +Antwerp ought to be one of the finest in Belgium. Unfortunately, altho +it was begun at a time when the pointed style had reached the full +maturity of perfection, a colder and more unimpressive design than is +here carried out it would be difficult to find. Still, notwithstanding +the long period that elapsed between its commencement and completion, +there is a congruity about the whole building which is eminently +pleasing, and to some extent redeems the defects in its details and +proportions, while the views afforded in various directions by the +triple aisles on either side of the nave are undeniably picturesque. + +The high altarpiece, placed on the chord of the apse, is a noble and +sumptuous example of early Renaissance taste and workmanship, but like +the stallwork, its dimensions are such as to diminish the scale of the +choir, the five arches opening to the procession path being completely +obscured by it. Of the numerous creations of Rubens' pencil none +perhaps more thoroughly declares to us his comprehension of religious +decorative art than the "Assumption" which fills the arched +compartment in the lower portion of this altarpiece. It was finished +in 1625, and, of twenty repetitions of the subject, is the only +example still preserved at the place it was intended by the painter +to occupy. In spirit we are reminded of Titian's "Assumption" in the +cathedral at Verona, but Rubens' proves perhaps a higher conception +of the subject. The work is seen a considerable way off, and every +outline is bathed in light, so that the Virgin is elevated to dazzling +glory with a power of accession scarcely, if ever, attained by any +master. + +In the celebrated "Descent from the Cross," which hangs in the +south transept, the boldness of the composition, the energy in the +characters, the striking attitudes and grouping, the glowing, vigorous +coloring, are astonishing proofs of Rubens' power. The circumstances +which gave rise to this wondrous effort of art are interesting. It is +said that Rubens, in laying the foundations of his villa near Antwerp, +had unwittingly infringed on some ground belonging to the Company +of Gunsmiths (arquebusiers). A law suit was threatened, and Rubens +prepared to defend it, but, being assured by one of the greatest +lawyers of the city that the right lay with his opponents, he +immediately drew back, and offered to paint a picture by way of +recompense. The offer was accepted, and the company required a +representation of its patron saint, St. Christopher, to be placed in +its chapel in the cathedral, which at that time Notre Dame was. + +Rubens, with his usual liberality and magnificence, presented to his +adversaries, not merely a single representation of the saint, but +an elaborate illustration of his name--The Christ-bearer. The +arquebusiers were at first disappointed not to have their saint +represented in the usual manner, and Rubens was obliged to enter +into an explanation of his work. Thus, without knowing it, they had +received in exchange for a few feet of land a treasure which neither +money nor lands can now purchase. The painting was executed by +Rubens soon after his seven years' residence in Italy, and while the +impression made by the work of Titian and Paul Veronese were yet fresh +in his mind. The great master appeared in the fulness of his glory in +this work--it is one of the few which exhibits in combination all +that nature had given him of warmth and imagination--with all that he +acquired of knowledge, judgment and method, and in which he may be +considered fully to have overcome the difficulties of a subject which +becomes painful, and almost repulsive, when it ceases to be sublime. + + + + +VII + +HOLLAND + + + + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +The first time that I crossed the old Rhine, I had stopt on the +bridge, asking myself whether that small and humble stream of water +was really the same river that I had seen rushing in thunder over the +rocks at Schaffhausen, spreading majestically before Mayence, passing +in triumph under the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, beating in sonorous +cadence at the foot of the Seven Mountains; reflecting in its course +Gothic cathedrals, princely castles, fertile hills, steep rocks, +famous ruins, cities, groves, and gardens; everywhere covered with +vessels of all sorts, and saluted with music and song; and thinking of +these things, with my gaze fixt upon the little stream shut in between +two flat and desert shores, I had repeated, "Is this that Rhine?" + +The vicissitudes which accompany the agony and death of this great +river in Holland, are such as really to excite a sense of pity, such +as is felt for the misfortunes and inglorious end of a people once +powerful and happy. From the neighborhood of Emmerich, before reaching +the Dutch frontier, it has lost all the beauty of its banks, and flows +in great curves through vast and ugly flats, which seem to mark the +approach to old age. At Millingen it runs entirely in the territory of +Holland; a little farther on it divides. The main branch shamefully +loses its name, and goes to throw itself into the Meuse: the other +branch, insulted by the title of the Dannerden canal, flows nearly to +the city of Arnehm, when it once more divides into two branches. One +empties into the Gulf of Zuyder-Zee; the other still called, out of +compassion, the Lower Rhine, goes as far as the village of Durstede, +where it divides for the third time; a humiliation now of old date. + +One of these branches, changing its name like a coward, throws itself +into the Meuse near Rotterdam; the other still called the Rhine, +but with the ridiculous surname of "curved," reaches Utrecht with +difficulty, where for the fourth time it again divides; capricious as +an old man in his dotage. One part, denying its old name, drags itself +as far as Muiden, where it falls into the Zuyder-Zee; the other, with +the name of Old Rhine, or simply the Old, flows slowly to the city +of Leyden, whose streets it crosses almost without giving a sign of +movement, and is finally gathered into one canal by which it goes to +its miserable death in the North Sea. + +But it is not many years since this pitiful end was denied it. From +the year 839, in which a furious tempest had accumulated mountains of +sand at its mouth, until the beginning of the present century, the Old +Rhine lost itself in the sand before reaching the sea, and covered a +vast tract of country with pools and marshes. Under the reign of Louis +Bonaparte the waters were collected into a large canal protected +by three enormous sluicegates, and from that time the Rhine flows +directly to the sea. These sluices are the greatest monument in +Holland and, perhaps, the most admirable hydraulic work in Europe. + +The dikes which protect the mouth of the canal, the walls, pillars, +and gates, present altogether the aspect of a Cyclopian fortress, +against which it seems that not only that sea, but the united forces +of all seas, must break as against a granite mountain. When the tide +rises the gates are closed to prevent the waters from invading the +land; when the tide recedes they are opened to give passage to the +waters of the Rhine which have accumulated behind them; and then a +mass of three thousand cubic feet of water passes through them in one +minute. On days when storms prevail, a concession is made to the sea, +and the most advanced of the sluicegates is left open; and then the +furious billows rush into the canal, like an enemy entering by a +breach, but they break upon the formidable barrier of the second gate, +behind which Holland stands and cries, "Thus far shalt thou go, and +no farther!" That enormous fortification which, on a desert shore, +defends a dying river and a fallen city from the ocean, has something +of solemnity which commands respect and admiration.... + +Napoleon said that it [Holland] was an alluvion of Trench rivers--the +Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Meuse--and with this pretext he added +it to the empire. One writer has defined it as a sort of transition +between land and sea. Another, as an immense crust of earth floating +on water. Others, an annex of the old continent, the China of Europe, +the end of the earth, and the beginning of the ocean, a measureless +raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it the country nearest to +hell. + +But they all agreed upon one point, and all exprest it in the same +words:--Holland is a conquest made by man over the sea--it is an +artificial country--the Hollanders made it--it exists because the +Hollanders preserve it--it will vanish whenever the Hollanders shall +abandon it. + +To comprehend this truth, we must imagine Holland as it was when first +inhabited by the first German tribes that wandered away in search of +a country. It was almost uninhabitable. There were vast tempestuous +lakes, like seas, touching one another; morass beside morass; one +tract covered with brushwood after another; immense forests of pines, +oaks, and alders, traversed by herds of wild horses; and so thick were +these forests that tradition says one could travel leagues passing +from tree to tree without ever putting foot to the ground. The deep +bays and gulfs carried into the heart of the country the fury of the +northern tempests. Some provinces disappeared once every year under +the waters of the sea, and were nothing but muddy tracts, neither land +nor water, where it was impossible either to walk or to sail. The +large rivers, without sufficient inclination to descend to the sea, +wandered here and there uncertain of their day, and slept in monstrous +pools and ponds among the sands of the coasts. It was a sinister +place, swept by furious winds, beaten by obstinate rains, veiled in a +perpetual fog, where nothing was heard but the roar of the sea, and +the voice of wild beasts and birds of the ocean. + +Now, if we remember that such a region has become one of the most +fertile, wealthiest and best regulated of the countries of the world, +we shall understand the justice of the saying that Holland is a +conquest made by man. But, it must be added, the conquest goes on +forever. + +To drain the lakes of the country the Hollanders prest the air into +their service. The lakes, the marshes, were surrounded by dikes, +the dikes by canals; and an army of windmills, putting in motion +force-pumps, turned the water into the canals, which carried it off +to the rivers and the sea. Thus vast tracts of land buried under the +water, saw the sun, and were transformed, as if by magic, into fertile +fields, covered with villages, and intersected by canals and roads. In +the seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes +were drained. At the beginning of the present century, in North +Holland alone, more than six thousand hectares, or fifteen thousand +acres, were thus redeemed from the waters; in South Holland, before +1844, twenty-nine thousand hectares; in the whole of Holland, from +1500 to 1858, three hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. +Substituting steam-mills for windmills, in thirty-nine months was +completed the great undertaking of the draining of the lake of +Haarlem, which measured forty-four-kilometers in circumference, +and for ever threatened with its tempests the cities of Haarlem, +Amsterdam, and Leyden. And they are now meditating the prodigious work +of drying up the Zuyder-Zee, which embraces an area of more than seven +hundred square kilometers. + +But the most tremendous struggle was the battle with the ocean. +Holland is in great part lower than the level of the sea; +consequently, everywhere that the coast is not defended by sand-banks, +it has to be protected by dikes. If these interminable bulkwarks of +earth, granite, and wood were not there to attest the indomitable +courage and perseverance of the Hollanders, it would not be believed +that the hand of man could, even in many centuries have accomplished +such a work. In Zealand alone the dikes extend to a distance of more +than four hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of +Walcheren is defended by a dike, in which it is computed that the +expense of construction added to that of preservation, if it were put +out at interest, would amount to a sum equal in value to that which +the dike itself would be worth were it made of massive copper. + +Around the city of Helder, at the northern extremity of North Holland, +extends a dike ten kilometers long, constructed of masses of Norwegian +granite, which descends more than sixty meters into the sea. The whole +province of Friesland, for the length of eighty-eight kilometers, is +defended by three rows of piles sustained by masses of Norwegian and +German granite. Amsterdam, all the cities of the Zuyder Zee, and all +the islands--fragments of vanished lands--which are strung like beads +between Friesland and North Holland, are protected by dikes. From the +mouths of the Ems to those of the Scheldt Holland is an impenetrable +fortress, of whose immense bastions the mills are the towers, the +cataracts are the gates, the islands the advanced forts; and like a +true fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tops of +its bell-towers and the roofs of its houses, as if in defiance and +derision. + +Holland is a fortress, and her people live as in a fortress on a +war-footing with the sea. An army of engineers, directed by the +Minister of the Interior, spread over the country, and ordered like +an army, continually spy the enemy, watch over the internal waters, +foresee the bursting of the dikes, order and direct the defensive +works. The expenses of the war are divided; one part to the State, +one part to the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the general +imposts, a special impost for the dikes, in proportion to the extent +of his lands and their proximity to the water. An accidental rupture, +an inadvertence, may cause a flood; the peril is unceasing; the +sentinels are at their posts upon the bulwarks at the first assault of +the sea; they shout the war-cry, and Holland sends men, material, and +money. And even when there is not a great battle, a quiet, silent +struggle is for ever going on. + +The innumerable mills, even in the drained districts, continue to work +unresting, to absorb and turn into the canals the water that falls in +rain and that which filters in from the sea. + +But Holland has done more than defend herself against the waters; +she has made herself mistress of them, and has used them for her own +defense. Should a foreign army invade her territory, she has but to +open her dikes and unchain the sea and the rivers, as she did against +the Romans, against the Spaniards, against the army of Louis XIV., and +defend the land cities with her fleet. Water was the source of her +poverty, she has made it the source of wealth. Over the whole country +extends an immense net-work of canals which serve both for the +irrigation of the land and as a means of communication. The cities, +by means of canals, communicate with the sea; canals run from town to +town, and from them to villages, which are themselves bound together +by these watery ways, and are connected even to the houses scattered +over the country; smaller canals surround the fields and orchards, +pastures and kitchen-gardens, serving at once as boundary-wall, hedge, +and roadway; every house is a little port. Ships, boats, rafts move +about in all directions, as in other places carts and carriages. The +canals are the arteries of Holland, and the water her life-blood. + +But even setting aside the canals, the draining of the lakes, and +the defensive works, on every side are seen the traces of marvelous +undertakings. The soil, which in other countries is a gift of nature, +is in Holland a work of men's hands. Holland draws the greater part of +her wealth from commerce; but before commerce comes the cultivation +of the soil; and the soil had to be created. There were sand-banks, +interspersed with layers of peat, broad downs swept by the winds, +great tracts of barren land apparently condemned to an external +sterility. The first elements of manufacture, iron and coal, were +wanting; there was no wood, because the forests had already been +destroyed by tempests when agriculture began; there was no stone, +there were no metals. + +Nature, says a Dutch poet, had refused all her gifts to Holland; the +Hollanders had to do everything in spite of nature. They began by +fertilizing the sand. In some places they formed a productive soil +with earth brought from a distance, as a garden is made; they spread +the siliceous dust of the downs over the too watery meadows; they +mixed with the sandy earth the remains of peat taken from the bottoms; +they extracted clay to lend fertility to the surface of their lands; +they labored to break up the downs with the plow; and thus in a +thousand ways, and continually fighting off the menacing waters, they +succeeded in bringing Holland to a state of cultivation not inferior +to that of more favored regions. That Holland, the sandy, marshy +country that the ancients considered all but uninhabitable, now sends +out yearly from her confines agricultural products to the value of a +hundred millions of francs, possesses about one million three hundred +thousand head of cattle, and, in proportion to the extent of her +territory, may be accounted one of the most populous of European +states. + +But however wonderful may be the physical history of Holland, her +political history is still more so. This small territory invaded from +the beginning by different tribes of the Germanic races, subjugated by +the Romans and the Franks, devastated by the Normans and by the Danes, +desolated by centuries of civil war with all its horrors, this small +people of fisherman and traders, saves its civil liberty and its +freedom of conscience by a war of eighty years against the formidable +monarchy of Philip II., and founds a republic which becomes the ark of +salvation to the liberties of all the world, the adopted country of +science, the Exchange of Europe, the station for the commerce of the +world; a republic which extends its domination to Java, Sumatra, +Hindustan, Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of +Good Hope, the West-Indies, and New York; a republic which vanquished +England on the sea, which resists the united arms of Charles II. and +Louis XIV., and which treats on equal terms with the greatest nations, +and is, for a time, one of the three Powers that decide the fate of +Europe. + + + + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, S.P. Putnam's Sons. +Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +It is a singular thing that the great cities of Holland, altho built +upon a shifting soil, and amid difficulties of every kind, have all +great regularity of form. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague square, +Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an +immense dike, which defends the city from the Meuse, and is called +the Boompjes, signifying, in Dutch, small trees, from a row of little +elms, now very tall, that were planted when it was first constructed. + +The whole city of Rotterdam presents the appearance of a town that +has been shaken smartly by an earthquake, and is on the point of +the falling ruin. All the houses--in any street one may count the +exceptions on their fingers--lean more or less, but the greater part +of them so much that at the roof they lean forward at least a foot +beyond their neighbors, which may be straight, or not so visibly +inclined; one leans forward as if it would fall into the street; +another backward, another to the left, another to the right, at some +points six or seven contiguous houses all lean forward together, those +in the middle most, those at the ends lass, looking like a paling +with a crowd pressing against it. At another point, two houses lean +together as if supporting one another. In certain streets the +houses for a long distance lean all one way, like trees beaten by a +prevailing wind; and then another long row will lean in the opposite +direction, as if the wind had changed. + +Sometimes there is a certain regularity of inclination that is +scarcely noticeable; and again, at crossings and in the smaller +streets, there is an indescribable confusion of lines, a real +architectural frolic, a dance of houses, a disorder that seems +animated. There are houses that nod forward as if asleep, others that +start backward as if frightened, some bending toward each other, their +roofs almost touching, as if in secret conference; some falling upon +one another as if they were drunk, some leaning backward between +others that lean forward, like malefactors dragged onward by their +guards; rows of houses that curtsey to a steeple, groups of small +houses all inclined toward one in the middle, like conspirators in +conclave. + +Broad and long canals divide the city into so many islands, united by +drawbridges, turning bridges, and bridges of stone. On either side of +every canal extends a street, flanked by trees on one side and houses +on the other. All these canals are deep enough to float large vessels, +and all are full of them from one end to the other, except a space in +the middle left for passage in and out. An immense fleet imprisoned in +a city. + +When I arrived it was the busiest hour, so I planted myself upon the +highest bridge over the principal crossing. From thence were visible +four canals, four forests of ships, bordered by eight files of trees; +the streets were crammed with people and merchandise; droves of cattle +were crossing the bridges; bridges were rising in the air, or opening +in the middle, to allow vessels to pass through, and were scarcely +replaced or closed before they were inundated by a throng of people, +carts, and carriages; ships came and went in the canals, shining like +models in a museum, and with the wives and children of the sailors on +the decks; boats darted from vessel to vessel; the shops drove a busy +trade; servant-women washed the walls and windows; and all this moving +life was rendered more gay and cheerful by the reflections in the +water, the green of the trees, the red of the houses, the tall +windmills, showing their dark tops and white sails against the azure +of the sky, and still more by an air of quiet simplicity not seen in +any other northern city. + +From canal to canal, and from bridge to bridge, I finally reached the +dike of the Boompjes upon the Meuse, where boils and bubbles all the +life of the great commercial city. On the left extends a long row of +small many-colored steamboats, which start every hour in the day for +Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gonda, Schiedam, Brilla, Zealand, and continually +send forth clouds of white smoke and the sound of their cheerful +bells. To the right lie the large ships which make the voyage to +various European ports, mingled with fine three-masted vessels bound +for the East Indies, with names written in golden letters--Java, +Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang--carrying the fancy to those distant and +savage countries like the echoes of distant voices. In front the +Meuse, covered with boats and barks, and the distant shore with a +forest of beech trees, windmills, and towers; and over all the unquiet +sky, full of gleams of light, and gloomy clouds, fleeting and changing +in their constant movement, as if repeating the restless labor on the +earth below. + +Rotterdam, it must be said here, is, in commercial importance, the +first city in Holland after Amsterdam. It was already a flourishing +town in the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on +the Low Countries, adduces a proof of the wealth of the city in the +sixteenth century, saying that in one year nine hundred houses that +had been destroyed by fire were rebuilt. Bentivoglio, in his history +of the war in Flanders, calls it "the largest and most mercantile of +the lands of Holland." But its greatest prosperity did not begin until +1830, or after the separation of Holland and Belgium, when Rotterdam +seemed to draw to herself everything that was lost by her rival, +Antwerp. + +Her situation is extremely advantageous. She communicates with the sea +by the Meuse, which brings to her ports in a few hours the largest +merchantmen; and by the same river she communicates with the Rhine, +which brings to her from the Swiss mountains and Bavaria immense +quantities of timber--entire forests that come to Holland to be +transformed into ships, dikes, and villages. More than eighty splendid +vessels come and go, in the space of nine months, between Rotterdam +and India. Merchandise flows in from all sides in such great abundance +that a large part of it has to be distributed through the neighboring +towns.... + +Rotterdam, in short, has a future more splendid than that of +Amsterdam, and has long been regarded as a rival by her elder +sister. She does not possess the wealth of the capital; but is more +industrious in increasing what she has; she dares, risks, undertakes +like a young and adventurous city. Amsterdam, like a merchant grown +cautious after having made his fortune by hazardous undertakings, +begins to doze over her treasures. At Rotterdam fortunes are made; at +Amsterdam they are consolidated; at the Hague they are spent.... + +In the middle of the market-place, surrounded by heaps of vegetables, +fruit, and earthenware pots and pans, stands the statue of Desiderius +Erasmus, the first literary light of Holland; that Gerrit Gerritz--for +he assumed the Latin name himself, according to the custom of writers +in his day--that Gerrit Gerritz belonged, by his education, his style, +and his ideas, to the family of the humanists and erudite of Italy; +a fine writer, profound and indefatigable in letters and science, he +filled all Europe with his name between the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries; he was loaded with favors by the popes, and sought after +and entertained by princes; and his "Praise of Folly," written in +Latin like the rest of his innumerable works, and dedicated to Sir +Thomas More, is still read. The bronze statue, erected in 1622, +represents Erasmus drest in a furred gown, with a cap of the same, a +little bent forward as if walking, and in the act of reading a large +book, held open in the hand; the pedestal bears a double inscription, +in Dutch and Latin, calling him, "The Foremost Man of His Century," +and "The Most Excellent of All Citizens." In spite of this pompous +eulogium, however, poor Erasmus, planted there like a municipal guard +in the market-place, makes but a pitiful figure. I do not believe that +there is in the world another statue of a man of letters that is, +like this, neglected by the passer-by, despised by those about it, +commiserated by those who look at it. But who knows whether Erasmus, +acute philosopher as he was, and must be still, be not contented with +his corner, the more that it is not far from his own house, if the +tradition is correct? In a small street near the market-place, in the +wall of a little house now occupied as a tavern, there is a niche with +a bronze statuette representing the great writer, and under it the +inscription: "This is the little house in which the great Erasmus was +born." ... + +Rotterdam in the evening presents an unusual aspect to the stranger's +eye. While in other northern cities at a certain hour of the night all +the life is concentered in the houses, at Rotterdam at that hour it +expands into the streets. The Hoog-straat is filled until far into the +night with a dense throng, the shops are open, because the servants +make their purchases in the evening, and the cafés crowded. Dutch +cafés are peculiar. In general there is one long room, divided in the +middle by a green curtain, which is drawn down at evening and conceals +the back part, which is the only part lighted; the front part, closed +from the street by large glass doors, is in darkness, so that from +without only dark shadowy forms can be seen, and the burning points +of cigars, like so many fireflies. Among these dark forms the vague +profile of a woman who prefers darkness to light may be detected here +and there.... + +Walking through Rotterdam in the evening, it is evident that the city +is teeming with life and in process of expansion; a youthful city, +still growing, and feeling herself every year more and more prest +for room in her streets and houses. In a not far distant future, her +hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants will have increased to two +hundred thousand.[A] The smaller streets swarm with children; there is +an overflow of life and movement that cheers the eye and heart; a kind +of holiday air. The white and rosy faces of the servant-maids, whose +white caps gleam on every side; the serene visages of shopkeepers +slowly imbibing great glassfuls of beer; the peasants with their +monstrous ear-rings; the cleanliness; the flowers in the windows; the +tranquil and laborious throng; all give to Rotterdam an aspect of +healthful and peaceful content, which brings to the lips the chant +of "Te Beata," not with the cry of enthusiasm, but with the smile of +sympathy.... + +[Footnote A: The population now (1914) is 418,000, as stated In the +New Standard Dictionary.] + +The Hague--in Dutch, s'Gravenhage, or s'Hage--the political capital, +the Washington of Holland, Amsterdam being the New York--is a city +half Dutch and half French, with broad streets and no canals; vast +squares full of trees, elegant houses, splendid hotels, and a +population mostly made up of the rich, nobles, officials, artists, and +literati, the populace being of a more refined order than that of the +other Dutch cities. + +In my first turn about the town what struck me most were the new +quarters, where dwells the flower of the wealthy aristocracy. In no +other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain at Paris, did I feel +myself such a very poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and +straight, flanked by palaces of elegant form and delicate color, with +large shutterless windows, through which can be seen the rich carpets +and sumptuous furniture of the first floors. Every door is closed; and +there is not a shop, nor a placard, nor a stain, nor a straw to be +seen if you were to look for it with a hundred eyes. The silence +was profound when I passed by. Only now and then I encountered some +aristocratic equipage rolling almost noiselessly over the brick +pavement, or the stiffest of lackeys stood before a door, or the +blonde head of a lady was visible behind a curtain. Passing close +to the windows and beholding my shabby traveling dress ruthlessly +reflected in the plate-glass I experienced a certain humiliation at +not having been born at least a Cavalière, and imagined I heard low +voices whispering disdainfully: "Who is that low person?" + +Of the older portion of the city, the most considerable part is +the Binnenhof, a group of old buildings of different styles of +architecture, which looks on two sides upon vast squares, and on the +third over a great marsh. In the midst of this group of palaces, +towers, and monumental doors, of a medieval and sinister aspect, there +is a spacious court, which is entered by three bridges and three +gates. In one of these buildings resided the Stadtholders, and it is +now the seat of the Second Chamber of the States General; opposite is +the First Chamber, with the ministries and various other offices of +public administration. The Minister of the Interior has his office in +a little low black tower of the most lugubrious aspect, that hangs +directly over the waters of the marsh. + +The Binnenhof, the square to the west, called the Bintenhof, and +another square beyond the marsh, called the Plaats, into which you +enter by an old gate that once formed part of a prison, were the +theaters of the most sanguinary events in the history of Holland. + +In the Binnenhof was decapitated the venerated Van Olden Barneveldt, +the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of +that ever-recurring struggle between the burgher aristocracy and the +Statholderate, between the republican and the monarchical principle, +which worked so miserably in Holland. The scaffold was erected in +front of the edifice where the States General sat. Opposite is the +tower from which it is said that Maurice of Orange, himself unseen, +beheld the last moments of his enemy. + +The finest ornament of the Hague is its forest; a true wonder of +Holland, and one of the most magnificent promenades in the world. It +is a wood of alder-trees, oaks, and the largest beeches that are to be +found in Europe, on the eastern side of the city, a few paces from +the last fringe of houses, and measuring about one French league in +circuit; a truly delightful oasis in the midst of the melancholy Dutch +plains. As you enter it, little Swiss châlets find kiosks, scattered +here and there among the first trees, seem to have strayed and lost +themselves in an endless and solitary forest. The trees are as thickly +set as a cane-brake, and the alleys vanish in dark perspective. + +There are lakes and canals almost hidden under the verdure of their +banks; rustic bridges, deserted paths, dim recesses, darkness cool +and deep, in which one breathes the air of virgin nature, and feels +oneself far from the noises of the world. This wood, like that of +Haarlem, is said to be the remains of an immense forest that covered, +in ancient times, almost all the coast, and is respected by the Dutch +people as a monument of their national history. + + + + +HAARLEM[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-day."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +A few minutes bring us from Leyden to Haarlem by the railway. It +crosses an isthmus between the sea and a lake which covered the whole +country between Leyden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam till 1839, when it +became troublesome, and the States-General forthwith, after the +fashion of Holland, voted its destruction. Enormous engines were at +once employed to drain it by pumping the water into canals, which +carried it to the sea, and the country was the richer by a new +province. + +Haarlem, on the river Spaarne, stands out distinct in recollection +from all other Dutch towns, for it has the most picturesque +market-place in Holland--the Groote Markt--surrounded by quaint houses +of varied outline, amid which rises the Groote Kerk of S. Bavo, a +noble cruciform fifteenth-century building. The interior, however, +is as bare and hideous as all other Dutch churches. It contains a +monument to the architect Conrad, designer of the famous locks of +Katwijk, "the defender of Holland against the fury of the sea and +the power of tempests." Behind the choir is the tomb of the poet +Bilderijk, who only died in 1831, and near this the grave of Laurenz +Janzoom--the Coster or Sacristan--who is asserted in his native town, +but never believed outside it, to have been the real inventor of +printing, as he is said to have cut out letters in wood, and taken +impressions from them in ink, as early as 1423. His partizans also +maintain that while he was attending a midnight mass, praying +for patience to endure the ill-treatment of his enemies, all his +implements were stolen, and that when he found this out on his return +he died of grief. + +It is further declared that the robber was Faust of Mayence, the +partner of Gutenburg, and that it was thus that the honor of the +invention passed from Holland to Germany where Gutenberg produced his +invention of movable type twelve years later. There is a statue of the +Coster in front of the church, and, on its north side, his house is +preserved and adorned with his bust. + +Among a crowd of natives with their hats on, talking in church as in +the market-place, we waited to hear the famous organ of Christian +Muller (1735-38), and grievously were we disappointed with its +discordant noises. All the men smoked in church, and this we saw +repeatedly; but it would be difficult to say where we ever saw +a Dutchman with a pipe out of his mouth. Every man seemed to be +systematically smoking away the few wits he possest. + +Opposite the Groote Kerk is the Stadhuis, an old palace of the Counts +of Holland remodeled. It contains a delightful little gallery of the +works of Franz Hals, which at once transports the spectator into the +Holland of two hundred years ago--such is the marvelous variety of +life and vigor imprest into its endless figures of stalwart officers +and handsome young archers pledging each other at banquet tables and +seeming to welcome the visitor with jovial smiles as he enters the +chamber, or of serene old ladies, "regents" of hospitals, seated at +their council boards. The immense power of the artist is shown +in nothing so much as in the hands, often gloved, dashed in with +instantaneous power, yet always having the effect of the most +consummate finish at a distance. Behind one of the pictures is the +entrance to the famous "secret-room of Haarlem," seldom seen, but +containing an inestimable collection of historic relics of the time of +the famous siege of Leyden. + +April and May are the best months for visiting Haarlem, which is the +bulb nursery garden of the world. "Oignons à fleurs" are advertised +for sale everywhere. Tulips are more cultivated than any other flower, +as ministering most of the national craving for color; but times are +changed since a single bulb of the tulip "L'Amiral Liefkenshoch" sold +for 4,500 florins, one of "Viceroy" for 4,200, and one of "Semper +Augustus" for 13,000. + + + + +SCHEVENINGEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-Day." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the author and of the publishers, Moffat, Yard & +Co. Copyright, 1909.] + +BY GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS + + +Let us go down to the North Sea and see how the Dutch people enjoy +themselves in the summer. Of course the largest of the watering-places +in the Netherlands is Scheveningen, and it has a splendid bathing +beach which makes it an attractive resort for fashionable Germans and +Hollanders, and for summer travelers from all over the world. At the +top of the long dyke is a row of hotels and restaurants, and when +one reaches this point after passing through the lovely old wood of +stately trees one is ushered into the twentieth century, for here all +is fashion and gay life, yet with a character all its own. + +Along the edge of the beach are the bathing machines in scores, and +behind them are long lines of covered wicker chairs of peculiar form, +each with its foot-stool, where one may sit, shaded, from the sun and +sheltered from the wind, and read, chat or doze by the hour. Bath +women are seen quaintly clad with their baskets of bathing dresses and +labeled with the signs bearing their names, such as Trintje or Netje; +everywhere there are sightseers, pedlers calling their wares, children +digging in the sand, strolling players performing and the sound of +bands of music in the distance. So there is no lack of amusement here +during the season. + +The spacious Kurhaus with its verandas and Kursaal, which is large +enough to accommodate 2,500 people, is in the center of the dike. +There are concerts every evening, and altho the town is filled with +hotels, during the months of June, July, August, and September they +are quite monopolized by the Hollanders and the prices are very high. + +The magnificent pier is 450 yards long. The charges for bathing are +very moderate, varying from twenty cents for a small bathing box to +fifty cents for a large one, including the towels. Bathing costumes +range from five to twenty-five cents. The tickets are numbered, and as +soon as a machine is vacant a number is called by the "bath man" and +the holder of the corresponding number claims the machine. The basket +chairs cost for the whole day twenty cents, Dutch money. One may +obtain a subscription to the "Kurhaus" at a surprisingly reasonable +rate for the day, week or season. There is a daily orchestra; ballet +and operatic concerts once a week; dramatic performances and frequent +hops throughout the season. + +There is a local saying that when good Dutchmen die they go to +Scheveningen, and this is certainly their heaven. To stand on the pier +on a fine day during the season looking down on these long lines of +wicker chairs, turned seaward, is an astonishing sight. They are +shaped somewhat like huge snail-shells, and around these the children +delight to dig in the sand, throwing up miniature dunes around +one. Perhaps no seashore in the world has been painted so much as +Scheveningen. Mesdag, Maris, Alfred Stevens, to name only a few of the +artists, have found here themes for many paintings, and the scene is +a wonderful one when the homing fleet of "Boms," as the fishing-boats +are called, appears in the offing to be welcomed by the fisherwomen. +There are other smaller watering-places on the coast, but Scheveningen +is unique. + +In the little fishing town itself, the scene on the return of the men +is very interesting. Women and children are busily hurrying about from +house to house, and everywhere in the little streets are strange signs +chalked up on the shutters, such as "water en vuur te koop," that is +water and fire for sale; and here are neatly painted buckets of iron, +each having a kettle of boiling water over it and a lump of burning +turf at the bottom. Fish is being cleaned and the gin shops are well +patronized, for it seems a common habit in this moist northern climate +frequently to take "Een sneeuw-balletje" of gin and sugar, which does +not taste at all badly, be it said. All sorts of strange-looking +people are met in the little narrow street, and all doing +strange-looking things, but with the air of its being in no wise +unusual with them. All in all, Scheveningen is an entertaining spot in +which to linger. + + + + +DELFT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +An excursion must be made to Delft, only twenty minutes distant from +The Hague by rail. Pepys calls it "a most sweet town, with bridges +and a river in every street," and that is a tolerably accurate +description. It seems thinly inhabited, and the Dutch themselves +look upon it as a place where one will die of ennui. It has scarcely +changed with two hundred years. The view of Delft by Van der Meer in +the Museum at The Hague might have been painted yesterday. All the +trees are dipt, for in artificial Holland every work of Nature is +artificialized. At certain seasons, numbers of storks may be seen +upon the chimney-tops, for Delft is supposed to be the stork town par +excellence. Near the shady canal Oude Delft is a low building, once +the Convent of St. Agata, with an ornamental door surmounted by a +relief, leading into a courtyard. It is a common barrack now, for +Holland, which has no local histories, has no regard whatever for its +historic associations or monuments. Yet this is the greatest shrine of +Dutch history, for it is here that William the Silent died. + +Philip II. had promised 25,000 crowns of gold to any one who would +murder the Prince of Orange. An attempt had already been made, but had +failed, and William refused to take any measures for self-protection, +saying, "It is useless: my years are in the hands of God; if there is +a wretch who has no fear of death, my life is in his hand, however I +may guard it." + +At length, a young man of seven-and-twenty appeared at Delft, who +gave himself out to be one Guyon, a Protestant, son of Pierre Guyon, +executed at Besançon for having embraced Calvinism, and declared that +he was exiled for his religion. Really he was Balthazar Gerard, a +bigoted Catholic, but his conduct in Holland soon procured him the +reputation of an evangelical saint. + +The Prince took him into his service and sent him to accompany a +mission from the States of Holland to the Court of France, whence +he returned to bring the news of the death of the Duke of Anjou to +William. At that time the Prince was living with his court in the +convent of St. Agata, where he received Balthazar alone in his +chamber. The moment was opportune, but the would-be assassin had no +arms ready. William gave him a small sum of money and bade him hold +himself in readiness to be sent back to France. + +With the money Balthazar bought two pistols from a soldier (who +afterward killed himself when he heard the use which was made of the +purchase). On the next day, June 10, 1584, Balthazar returned to the +convent as William was descending the staircase to dinner, with his +fourth wife, Louise de Coligny (daughter of the Admiral who fell +in the massacre of St. Bartholomew), on his arm. He presented his +passport and begged the Prince to sign it, but was told to return +later. At dinner the Princess asked William who was the young man who +had spoken to him, for his expression was the most terrible she had +ever seen. + +The Prince laughed, said it was Guyon, and was as gay as usual. Dinner +being over, the family party were about to remount the staircase. The +assassin was waiting in a dark corner at the foot of the stairs, and +as William passed he discharged a pistol with three balls and fled. +The Prince staggered, saying, "I am wounded; God have mercy upon me +and my poor people." His sister Catherine van Schwartz-bourg asked, +"Do you trust in Jesus Christ?" He said, "Yes," with a feeble voice, +sat down upon the stairs, and died. + +Balthazar reached the rampart of the town in safety, hoping to swim +to the other side of the moat, where a horse awaited him. But he had +dropt his hat and his second pistol in his flight, and so he was +traced and seized before he could leap from the wall. + +Amid horrible tortures, he not only confest, but continued to triumph +in his crime. His judges believed him to be possest of the devil. The +next day he was executed. His right hand was burned off in a tube of +red-hot iron; the flesh of his arms and legs was torn off with red-hot +pincers; but he never made a cry. It was not till his breast was cut +open, and his heart torn out and flung in his face, that he expired. +His head was then fixt on a pike, and his body, cut into four +quarters, exposed on the four gates of the town. + +Close to the Prinsenhof is the Oude Kerk with a leaning tower. It is +arranged like a very ugly theater inside, but contains, with +other tombs of celebrities, the monument of Admiral van Tromp, +1650--"Martinus Harberti Trompius"--whose effigy lies upon his back, +with swollen feet. It was this Van Tromp who defeated the English +fleet under Blake, and perished, as represented on the monument, in an +engagement off Scheveningen. It was he who, after his victory over the +English, caused a broom to be hoisted at his mast-head to typify that +he had swept the Channel clear of his enemies. + + + + +LEYDEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +Leyden, the antique Athens of the north, the Saragossa of the Low +Countries, the oldest and most illustrious of the daughters of +Holland, is one of those cities which make you thoughtful upon first +entering them, and are remembered for a long time afterward with a +certain impression of sadness. + +I had hardly arrived when the chill of a dead city seemed to fall upon +me. The old Rhine, which crosses Leyden, dividing it into many islets +joined together by one hundred and fifty stone bridges, forms wide +canals and basins which contain no ship or boat, and the city seems +rather invaded by the waters than merely crossed by them. The +principal streets are very broad and flanked by rows of old +blockhouses with the usual pointed gables, and the few people seen in +the streets and squares are like the survivors of a city depopulated +by the plague. + +In the smaller streets you walk upon long tracts of grass, between +houses with closed doors and windows, in a silence as profound as +that of those fabled cities where all the inhabitants are sunk in a +supernatural sleep. You pass over bridges overgrown with weeds, and +long canals covered with a green carpet, through small squares that +seem like convent courtyards; and then, suddenly, you reach a broad +thoroughfare, like the streets of Paris; from which you again +penetrate into a labyrinth of narrow alleys. From bridge to bridge, +from canal to canal, from island to island, you wander for hours +seeking for the life and movement of the ancient Leyden, and finding +only solitude, silence, and the waters which reflect the melancholy +majesty of the fallen city. + +In 1573 the Spaniards, led by Valdez, laid siege to Leyden. In the +city there were only some volunteer soldiers. The military command was +given to Van der Voes, a valiant man, and a Latin poet of some +renown. Van der Werf was burgomaster. In brief time the besiegers +had constructed more than sixty forts in all the places where it was +possible to penetrate into the city by sea or land, and Leyden was +completely isolated. But the people of Leyden did not lose heart. +William of Orange had sent them word to hold out for three months, +within which time he would succor them, for on the fate of Leyden +depended that of Holland; and the men of Leyden had promised to resist +to the last extremity.... + +The Prince of Orange received the news of the safety of the city at +Delft, in church, where he was present at divine service. He sent the +message at once to the preacher, and the latter announced it to the +congregation, who received it with shouts of joy. Altho only just +recovered from his illness, and the epidemic still raging at Leyden, +William would see at once his dear and valorous city. He went there; +his entry was a triumph; his majestic and serene aspect put new heart +into the people; his words made them forget all they had suffered. To +reward Leyden for her heroic defense, he left her her choice between +exemption from certain imposts or the foundation of a university. +Leyden chose the university. + +How this university answered to the hopes of Leyden, it is superfluous +to say. Everybody knows how the States of Holland with their liberal +offers drew learned men from every country; how philosophy, driven +out of France, took refuge there; how Leyden was for a long time the +securest citadel for all men who were struggling for the triumph +of human reason; how it became at length the most famous school in +Europe. The actual university is in an ancient convent. One can not +enter without a sentiment of profound respect the great hall of the +Academic Senate, where are seen the portraits of all the professors +who have succeeded each other from the foundation of the university up +to the present day. + + + + +DORTRECHT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +Our morning at Dortrecht was very delightful, and it is a thoroughly +charming place. Passing under a dark archway in a picturesque building +of Charles V., opposite the hotel, we found ourselves at once on +the edge of an immense expanse of shimmering river, with long, rich +meadows beyond, between which the wide flood breaks into three +different branches. Red and white sails flit down them. Here and there +rises a line of pollard willows or clipt elms, and now and then a +church spire. On the nearest shore an ancient windmill, colored +in delicate tints of gray and yellow, surmounts a group of white +buildings. + +On the left is a broad esplanade of brick, lined with ancient houses, +and a canal with a bridge, the long arms of which are ready to open at +a touch and give a passage to the great yellow-masted barges, which +are already half intercepting the bright red house-fronts ornamented +with stone, which belong to some public buildings facing the end of +the canal. With what a confusion of merchandise are the boats laden, +and how gay is the coloring, between the old weedy posts to which they +are moored! + +It was from hence that Isabella of France, with Sir John de Hainault +and many other faithful knights set on their expedition against Edward +II. and the government of the Spencers. + +From the busy port, where nevertheless they are dredging, we cross +another bridge and find ourselves in a quietude like that of a +cathedral close in England. On one side is a wide pool half covered +with floating timber, and, in the other half, reflecting like a mirror +the houses on the opposite shore, with their bright gardens of lilies +and hollyhocks, and trees of mountain ash, which bend their masses of +scarlet berries to the still water. Between the houses are glints of +blue river and of inevitable windmills on the opposite shore. And all +this we observe standing in the shadow of a huge church, the Groote +Kerk, with a nave of the fourteenth century, and a choir of the +fifteenth and a gigantic trick tower, in which three long Gothic +arches, between octagonal tourelles, enclose several tiers of windows. +At the top is a great clock, and below the church a grove of elms, +through which fitful sunlight falls on the grass and the dead red of +the brick pavement (so grateful to feet sore with the sharp stones of +other Dutch cities), where groups of fishermen are collecting in their +blue shirts and white trousers. + +There is little to see inside this or any other church in Holland; +travelers will rather seek for the memorials at the Kloveniers Doelen, +of the famous Synod of Dort, which was held 1618-19, in the hope of +effecting a compromise between the Gomarists, or disciples of Calvin, +and the Arminians who followed Zwingli, and who had recently obtained +the name of Remonstrants from the "remonstrance" which they had +addrest eight years before in defense of their doctrines. The +Calvinists held that the greater part of mankind was excluded from +grace, which the Arminians denied; but at the Synod of Dort the +Calvinists proclaimed themselves as infallible as the Pope, and their +resolutions became the law of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Arminians +were forthwith outlawed; a hundred ministers who refused to subscribe +to the dictates of the Synod were banished; Hugo Grotius and Rombout +Hoogerbeets were imprisoned for life at Loevestein; the body of the +secretary Ledenberg, was hung; and Van Olden Barneveldt, the friend of +William the Silent, was beheaded in his seventy-second year.... + +Through the street of wine--Wijnstraat--built over stonehouses used +for the staple, we went to the museum to see the pictures. There were +two schools of Dortrecht. Jacob Geritee Cuyp (1575); Albert Cuyp +(1605), Ferdinand Bol (1611), Nicolas Maas (1632), and Schalken (1643) +belonged to the former; Arend de Gelder, Arnold Houbraken, Dirk +Stoop, and Ary Scheffer are of the latter. Sunshine and glow were the +characteristics of the first school, grayness and sobriety of the +second. But there are few good pictures at Dort now, and some of the +best works of Cuyp are to be found in our National Gallery, [London] +executed at his native place and portraying the great brick tower of +the church in the golden haze of evening, seen across rich pastures, +where the cows are lying deep in the meadow grass. The works of Ary +Scheffer are now the most interesting pictures in the Dortrecht +Gallery. Of the subject, "Christus Consolator," there are two +representations. In the more striking of these the pale Christ is +seated among the sick, sorrowful, blind, maimed, and enslaved, who +are all stretching their hands to Him. Beneath is the tomb which the +artist executed for his mother, Cornelia Scheffer, whose touching +figure is represented lying with outstretched hands, in the utmost +abandonment of repose. + + + + +THE ZUYDER ZEE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +This great basin of the North Sea, which bathes five provinces and has +an extent of more than seven hundred square kilometers, six hundred +years ago was not in existence. North Holland touched Friesland, and +where the gulf now extends there was a vast region sprinkled with +fresh-water lakes, the largest of which, the Flevo, mentioned by +Tacitus, was separated from the sea by a fertile and populous isthmus. +Whether the sea by its own force broke through the natural dikes +of the region, or whether the sinking of the land left it free to +invasion, is not certainly known. The great transformation was +completed during the course of the thirteenth century. + +About the formation of this gulf there has collected a varied and +confused history of cities destroyed and people drowned, to which has +been added in later times another history, of new cities rising on new +shores, becoming powerful and famous, and being in their turn reduced +to poor and mean villages, with streets overgrown with grass, and +sand-choked ports. Records of great calamities, wonderful traditions, +fantastic horrors, strange usages and customs, are found upon the +waters and about the shores of this peculiar sea, born but yesterday, +and already encircled with ruins and condemned to disappear; and a +month's voyage would not suffice to gather up the chief of them; but +the thought alone of beholding from a distance those decrepit +cities, those mysterious islands, those fatal sand-banks, excited my +imagination.... + +Marken is as famous among the islands of the Zuyder Zee as Broek +is among the villages of Holland; but with all its fame, and altho +distant but one hour by boat from the coast, few are the strangers, +and still fewer the natives who visit it. So said the captain as he +pointed out the lighthouse of the little island, and added that in his +opinion the reason was, that when a stranger arrived at Marken, even +if he were a Dutchman, he was followed by a crowd of boys, watched, +and commented upon as if he were a man fallen from the moon. This +unusual curiosity is explained by a description of the island. It is a +bit of land about three thousand meters in length and one thousand +in width, which was detached from the continent in the thirteenth +century, and remains to this day, in the manners, and customs of its +inhabitants, exactly as it was six centuries ago. + +The surface of the island is but little higher than the sea, and it is +surrounded by a small dike which does not suffice to protect it +from inundation. The houses are built upon eight small artificial +elevations, and form as many boroughs, one of which--the one which has +the church--is the capital, and another the cemetery. When the sea +rises above the dike, the spaces between the little hills are changed +into canals, and the inhabitants go about in boats. The houses are +built of wood, some painted, some only pitched; one only is of stone, +that of the pastor, who also has a small garden shaded by four large +trees, the only ones on the island. Next to this house are the church, +the school, and the municipal offices. The population is about one +thousand in number, and lives by fishing. With the exceptions of the +doctor, the pastor, and the school-master, all are native to the +island; no islander marries on the continent; no one from the mainland +comes to live on the island. + +They all profess the reformed religion, and all know how to read and +write. In the schools more than two hundred boys and girls are taught +history, geography, and arithmetic. The fashion of dress, which has +not been changed for centuries, is the same for all, and extremely +curious. The men look like soldiers. They wear a dark gray cloth +jacket ornamented with two rows of buttons which are in general +medals, or ancient coins, handed down from father to son. This jacket +is tucked into the waistband of a pair of breeches of the same color, +very wide about the hips and tight around the leg, fastening below the +knee; a felt hat or a fur cap, according to the season; a red cravat, +black stockings, white wooden shoes, or a sort of slipper, complete +the costume. + +That of the women is still more peculiar. They wear on their heads an +enormous white cap in the form of a miter, all ornamented with lace +and needlework, and tied under the chin like a helmet. From under the +cap, which completely covers the ears, fall two long braided tresses, +which hang over the bosom, and a sort of visor of hair comes down +upon the forehead, cut square just above the eyebrows. The dress is +composed of a waist without sleeves, and a petticoat of two colors. +The waist is deep red, embroidered in colors and costing years of +labor to make, for which reason it descends from mother to daughter, +from generation to generation. The upper part of the petticoat is gray +or blue striped with black, and the lower part dark brown. The arms +are covered almost to the elbow with sleeves of a white chemise, +striped with red. The children are drest in almost the same way, +tho there is some slight difference between girls and women, and on +holidays the costume is more richly ornamented. + + + + +THE ART OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The Dutch school of painting has one quality which renders it +particularly attractive to us Italians; it is of all others the most +different from our own, the very antithesis, or the opposite pole of +art. The Dutch and Italian schools are the two most original, or, as +has been said, the only two to which the title rigorously belongs; +the others being only daughters, or younger sisters, more or less +resembling them. Thus, even in painting Holland offers that which is +most sought after in travel and in books of travel; the new. + +Dutch painting was born with the liberty and independence of Holland. +As long as the northern and southern provinces of the Low Countries +remained under the Spanish rule and in the Catholic faith, Dutch +painters painted like Belgian painters; they studied in Belgium, +Germany, and Italy; Heemskerk imitated Michael Angelo; Bloemart +followed Correggio, and "Il Moro" copied Titian, not to indicate +others; and they were one and all pedantic imitators, who added to the +exaggerations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness, the +result of which was a bastard style of painting, still inferior to +the first, childish, stiff in design, crude in color, and completely +wanting in chiaroscuro, but not, at least, a servile imitation, and +becoming, as it were, a faint prelude to the true Dutch art that was +to be.... + +After depicting the house, they turned their attention to the country. +The stern climate allowed but a brief time for the admiration of +nature, but for this very reason Dutch artists admired her all the +more; they saluted the spring with a livelier joy, and permitted that +fugitive smile of heaven to stamp itself more deeply on their fancy. +The country was not beautiful, but it was twice dear because it had +been torn from the sea and from the foreign oppressor. The Dutch +artist painted it lovingly; he represented it simply, ingenuously, +with a sense of intimacy which at that time was not to be found in +Italian or Belgian landscape. + +The flat, monotonous country had, to the Dutch painter's eyes, a +marvelous variety. He caught all the mutations of the sky, and knew +the value of the water, with its reflections, its grace and freshness, +and its power of illuminating everything. Having no mountains, he took +the dikes for background; and with no forests, he imparted to a simple +group of trees all the mystery of a forest; and he animated the whole +with beautiful animals and white sails. + +The subjects of their pictures are poor enough--a windmill, a canal, +a gray sky;--but how they make one think! A few Dutch painters, not +content with nature in their own country, came to Italy in search of +hills, luminous skies, and famous ruins; and another band of select +artists is the result. Both, Swanevelt, Pynaeker, Breenberg, Van Laer, +Asselyn. But the palm remains with the landscapists of Holland, with +Wynants the painter of morning, with Van der Neer the painter of +night, with Rusydael the painter of melancholy, with Hobbema the +illustrator of windmills, cabins, and kitchen gardens, and with others +who have restricted themselves to the expression of the enchantment of +nature as she is in Holland. + +Simultaneously with landscape art was born another kind of painting, +especially peculiar to Holland--animal painting. Animals are the +wealth of the country; and that magnificent race of cattle which has +no rival in Europe for fecundity and beauty. The Hollanders, who owe +so much to them, treat them, one may say, as part of the population; +they wash them, comb them, dress them, and love them dearly. They are +to be seen everywhere; they are reflected in all the canals, and dot +with points of black and white the immense fields that stretch on +every side; giving an air of peace and comfort to every place, and +exciting in the spectator's heart a sentiment of patriarchal serenity. + +The Dutch artists studied these animals in all their varieties, in +all their habits, and divined, as one may say, their inner life and +sentiments, animating the tranquil beauty of the landscape with their +forms. Rubens, Luyders, Paul de Vos, and other Belgian painters, had +drawn animals with admirable mastery, but all these are surpassed by +the Dutch artists, Van der Velde, Berghum, Karel der Jardin, and by +the prince of animal painters, Paul Potter, whose famous "Bull," in +the gallery of The Hague, deserves to be placed in the Vatican beside +the "Transfiguration" by Rafael. + +In yet another field are the Dutch painters great--the sea. The sea, +their enemy, their power, and their glory, forever threatening their +country, and entering in a hundred ways into their lives and fortunes; +that turbulent North Sea, full of sinister colors, with a light of +infinite melancholy beating forever upon a desolate coast, must +subjugate the imagination of the artist. He, indeed, passes long hours +on the shore, contemplating its tremendous beauty, ventures upon its +waves to study the effects of tempests, buys a vessel and sails with +his wife and family, observing and making notes, follows the fleet +into battle, and takes part in the fight, and in this way are made +marine painters like William Van der Velde the elder, and William the +younger, like Backhuysen, Dubbels, and Stork. + +Another kind of painting was to arise in Holland, as the expression of +the character of the people and of republican manners. A people that +without greatness had done so many great things, as Michelet says, +must have its heroic painters, if we call them so, destined to +illustrate men and events. But this school of painting--precisely +because the people were without greatness, or, to express it better, +without form of greatness, modest, inclined to consider all equal +before the country, because all had done their duty, abhorring +adulation, and the glorification in one only of the virtues and the +triumph of many--this school has to illustrate not a few men who +have excelled, and a few extraordinary facts, but all classes of +citizenship gathered among the most ordinary and pacific of burgher +life. + +From this come the great pictures which represent five, ten, thirty +persons together, arquebusiers, mayors, officers, professors, +magistrates, administrators, seated or standing around a table, +feasting and conversing, of life size, most faithful likenesses, +grave, open faces, expressing that secure serenity of conscience +by which may be divined rather than seen the nobleness of a life +consecrated to one's country, the character of that strong, laborious +epoch, the masculine virtues of that excellent generation; all this +set off by the fine costume of the time, so admirably combining grace +and dignity; those gorgets, those doublets, those black mantles, those +silken scarves and ribbons, those arms and banners. In this field +stand preeminent Van der Heist, Hals, Covaert, Flink, and Bol.... + +Finally, there are still two important excellences to be recorded +of this school of painting--its variety, and its importance as the +expression, the mirror, so to speak, of the country. If we except +Rembrandt with his group of followers and imitators, almost all the +other artists differ very much from one another; no other school +presents so great a number of original masters. The realism of the +Dutch painters is born of their common love of nature; but each one +has shown in his work a kind of love peculiarly his own; each one has +rendered a different impression which he has received from nature and +all, starting from the same point, which was the worship of material +truth, have arrived at separate and distinct goals. + + + + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The word "tulip" recalls one of the strangest popular follies that has +ever been seen in the world, which showed itself in Holland toward +the middle of the seventeenth century. The country at that time had +reached the height of prosperity; antique parsimony had given place to +luxury; the houses of the wealthy, very modest at the beginning of +the century, were transformed into little palaces; velvet, silk, and +pearls replaced the patriarchal simplicity of the ancient costume; +Holland had become vain, ambitious, and prodigal. + +After having filled their houses with pictures, hangings, porcelain, +and precious objects from all the countries of Europe and Asia, the +rich merchants of the large Dutch cities began to spend considerable +sums in ornamenting their gardens with tulips--the flower which +answers best to that innate avidity for vivid colors which the Dutch +people manifest in so many ways. This taste for tulips promoted their +rapid cultivation; everywhere gardens were laid out, studies promoted, +new varieties of the favorite flower sought for. In a short time the +fever became general; on every side there swarmed unknown tulips, of +strange forms, and wonderful shades or combinations of colors, full of +contrasts, caprices, and surprises. Prices rose in a marvelous way; +a new variegation, a new form, obtained in those blest leaves was an +event, a fortune. Thousands of persons gave themselves up to the study +with the fury of insanity; all over the country nothing was talked of +but petals; bulbs, colors, vases, seeds. + +The mania grew to such a pass that all Europe was laughing at it. +Bulbs of the favorite tulips of the rarer varieties rose to fabulous +prices; some constituted a fortune; like a house, an orchard, or a +mill; one bulb was equivalent to a dowry for the daughter of a rich +family; for one bulb were given, in I know not what city, two carts +of grain, four carts of barley, four oxen, twelve sheep, two casks +of wine, four casks of beer, a thousand pounds of cheese, a complete +dress, and silver goblet. Another bulb of a tulip named "Semper +Augustus" was bought at the price of thirteen thousand florins. A bulb +of the "Admiral Enkhuysen" tulip cost two thousand dollars. One day +there were only two bulbs of the "Semper Augustus" left in Holland, +one at Amsterdam and the other at Haarlem, and for one of them there +were offered, and refused, four thousand six hundred florins, a +splendid coach, and a pair of gray horses with beautiful harness. +Another offered twelve acres of land, and he also was refused. On the +registers of Alkmaar it is recorded that in 1637 there were sold in +that city, at public auction, one hundred and twenty tulips for the +benefit of the orphanage, and that the sale produced one hundred and +eighty thousand francs. + +Then they began to traffic in tulips, as in State bonds and shares. +They sold for enormous sums bulbs which they did not possess, engaging +to provide them for a certain day; and in this way a traffic was +carried on for a much larger number of tulips than the whole of +Holland could furnish. It is related that one Dutch town sold twenty +millions of francs' worth of tulips, and that an Amsterdam merchant +gained in this trade more than sixty-eight thousand florins in the +space of four months. These sold that which they had not, and those +that which they never could have; the market passed from hand to hand, +the differences were paid, and the flowers for and by which so many +people were ruined or enriched, flourished only in the imagination of +the traffickers. Finally matters arrived at such a pass that, many +buyers having refused to pay the sums agreed upon, and contests and +disorders following, the government decreed that these debts should be +considered as ordinary obligations, and that payment should be exacted +in the usual legal manner; then prices fell suddenly, as low as fifty +florins for the "Semper Augustus," and the scandalous traffic ceased. + +Now the culture of flowers is no longer a mania, but is carried on for +love of them, and Haarlem is the principal temple. She still provides +a great part of Europe and South America with flowers. The city is +encircled by gardens, which, toward the end of April and the beginning +of May, are covered with myriads of tulips, hyacinths, carnations, +auriculas, anemones, ranunculuses, camelias, primroses, and other +flowers, forming an immense wreath about Haarlem, from which travelers +from all parts of the world gather a bouquet in passing. Of late years +the hyacinth has risen into great honor; but the tulip is still king +of the gardens, and Holland's supreme affection. + +I should have to change my pen for the brush of Van der Huysem or +Menedoz, if I were to attempt to describe the pomp of their gorgeous, +luxuriant, dazzling colors, which, if the sensation given to the eye +may be likened to that of the ear, might be said to resemble a shout +of joyous laughter or a cry of love in the green silence of the +garden; affecting one like the loud music of a festival. There are +to be seen the "Duke of Toll" tulip, the tulips called "simple +precocious" in more than six hundred varieties; the "double +precocious"; the late tulips, divided into unicolored, fine, +superfine, and rectified; the fine, subdivided into violet, rose, +and striped; then the monsters or parrots, the hybrids, the thieves; +classified into a thousand orders of nobility and elegance; tinted +with all the shades of color conceivable to the human mind: spotted, +speckled, striped, edged, variegated, with leaves fringed, waved, +festooned; decorated with gold and silver medals; distinguished by +names of generals, painters, birds, rivers, poets, cities, queens, +and a thousand loving and bold adjectives, which recall their +metamorphoses, their adventures, and their triumphs, and leave in the +mind a sweet confusion of beautiful images and pleasant thoughts. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11898 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be4105d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11898 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11898) diff --git a/old/11898-8.txt b/old/11898-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11d5606 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11898-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5967 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 +(of 10), by Various, Edited by Francis W. Halsey + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 (of 10) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 4, 2004 [eBook #11898] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, +VOLUME 4 (OF 10)*** + + +E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + +Note: This is Volume 4 of a 10-volume series, the contents of which + are as follows: + Volume 1: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 1 + Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2 + Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1 + Volume 4: France and the Netherlands, Part 2 + Volume 5: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 1 + Volume 6: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 2 + Volume 7: Italy and Greece, Part 1 + Volume 8: Italy and Greece, Part 2 + Volume 9: Spain and Portugal + Volume 10: Russia, Scandanavia and the Southeast + + + + +SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOL IV: FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS, PART TWO + +SELECTED AND EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS ETC + +BY + +FRANCIS W. HALSEY + +Editor of Great Epochs in American History Associate Editor of "The +Worlds Famous Orations" and of "The Best of the World's Classics" etc + +ILLUSTRATED + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV + + +France and the Netherlands--Part Two + +IV--CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX--(_Continued_) + +BAYEUX AND THE FAMOUS TAPESTRY--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRY IV. AT PAU--By H.A. Taine + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE--By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow + +AMBOISE--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +BLOIS--By Francis Miltoun + +CHAMBORD--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +CHENONCEAUX--By Francis Miltoun + +FOIX--By Francis Miltoun + + * * * * * + +V--VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + +MONT ST. MICHEL--By Anna Bowman Dodd + +CAEN--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX--By H.A. Taine + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE--By Thomas Gray + +CARCASSONNE--By Henry James + +BIARRITZ--By Francis Miltoun + +DOWN THE SAÔNE TO LYONS--By Nathaniel Parker Willis + +LYONS--By Thomas Gray + +MARSEILLES--By Charles Dickens + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA--By Francis Miltoun + +GAVARNIE--By H.A. Taine + + * * * * * + +VI--BELGIUM + +BRUGES--By Grant Allen + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES--By William Makepeace Thackeray + +GHENT--By Grant Allen + +BRUSSELS--By Clive Holland + +WATERLOO--By Victor Hugo + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD--By the Editor + +ANTWERP--By T. Francis Bumpus + + * * * * * + +VII--HOLLAND + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +HAARLEM--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +SCHEVENINGEN--By George Wharton Edwards + +DELFT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +LEYDEN--By Edmondo de Amicis + +DORTRECHT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +THE ZUYDER ZEE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE ART OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME IV + + +THE PEACE PALACE AT THE HAGUE +THE OLD PAPAL PALACE AT AVIGNON +THE WALLS OF AVIGNON, BUILT BY THE POPES +VAUCLUSE: THE "FOUNTAIN," OR THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER SORGUE +THE PONT DU GARD, NEAR AVIGNON +RHEIMS +AMIENS +THE FAÇADE OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL +THE BAYEUX CATHEDRAL +ROUEN +THE ROUEN CATHEDRAL +THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES +ORLEANS +THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS +THE CHATEAU OF AMBOISE +THE CHATEAU OF LOCHES +MOUNT ST. MICHAEL IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND +MONT ST. MICHEL IN NORMANDY, FRANCE +CARCASSONNE +THE LION'S MOUND AND OTHER MONUMENTS, WATERLOO +RUINS OF THE CHATEAU HUGOMONT, WATERLOO +THE HARBOR OF ROTTERDAM +THE MONTALBAANS TOWER, AMSTERDAM +CANAL AND HOUSES IN AMSTERDAM +SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND +ON THE PIER AT OSTEND +UTRECHT +THE EAST GATE OF DELFT +LAKE AT THE HAGUE +CANAL AT DORTRECHT + + + + +IV + + + + +CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX + +(_Continued_) + + +BAYEUX AND ITS FAMOUS TAPESTRIES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +The diligence brought me here from Caen in about two hours and a +half. The country, during the whole route, is open, well cultivated, +occasionally gently undulating, but generally denuded of trees. Many +pretty little churches, with delicate spires, peeped out to the right +and left during the journey; but the first view of the cathedral of +Bayeux put all the others out of my recollection. + +There is, in fact, no proper approach to this interesting edifice. The +western end is suffocated with houses. Here stands the post-office; +and with the most unsuspecting frankness, on the part of the owner, +I had permission to examine, with my own hands, within doors, every +letter--under the expectation that there were some for myself. Nor was +I disappointed. + +But you must come with me to the cathedral, and of course we must +enter together at the western front. There are five porticoes; +the central one being rather large, and the two, on either side, +comparatively small. Formerly, these were covered with sculptured +figures and ornaments, but the Calvinists in the sixteenth, and the +Revolutionists in the eighteenth century, have contrived to render +their present aspect mutilated and repulsive in the extreme. On +entering, I was struck with the two large transverse Norman arches +which bestride the area, or square, for the bases of the two towers. +It is the boldest and finest piece of masonry in the whole building. +The interior disappointed me. It is plain, solid, and divested of +ornament. + +Hard by the cathedral stood formerly a magnificent episcopal palace. +Upon this palace the old writers dearly loved to expatiate. There is +now, however, nothing but a good large comfortable family mansion; +sufficient for the purposes of such hospitality and entertainment as +the episcopal revenues will afford. + +It is high time that you should be introduced in proper form to the +famous Bayeux tapestry. Know then, in as few words as possible, that +this celebrated piece of tapestry represents chiefly the Invasion of +England by William the Conqueror, and the subsequent death of Harold +at the battle of Hastings. It measures about 214 English feet in +length, by about nineteen inches in width; and is supposed to have +been worked under the particular superintendence and direction of +Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. It was formerly exclusively kept +and exhibited in the cathedral; but it is now justly retained in the +Town Hall, and treasured as the most precious relic among the archives +of the city. + +There is indeed every reason to consider it as one of the most +valuable historical monuments which France possesses. It has also +given rise to a great deal of archeological discussion. Montfauçon, +Ducarel, and De La Rue, have come forward successively--but more +especially the first and last; and Montfauçon in particular has +favored the world with copper-plate representations of the whole. +Montfauçon's plates are generally much too small; and the more +enlarged ones are too ornamental. + +It is right, first of all, that you should have an idea how this piece +of tapestry is preserved, or rolled up. You see it here, therefore, +precisely as it appears after the person who shows it, takes off the +cloth with which it is usually covered. The first portion of the +needle-work, representing the embassy of Harold from Edward the +Confessor to William Duke of Normandy, is comparatively much +defaced--that is to say, the stitches are worn away, and little more +than the ground, or fine close linen cloth remains. It is not far from +the beginning--and where the color is fresh, and the stitches are, +comparatively, preserved--that you observe the portrait of Harold. + +You are to understand that the stitches, if they may be so called, +are threads laid side by side--and bound down at intervals by cross +stitches, or fastenings--upon rather a fine linen cloth; and that the +parts intended to represent flesh are left untouched by the needle. +I obtained a few straggling shreds of the worsted with which it is +worked. The colors are generally a faded or bluish green, crimson, and +pink. About the last five feet of this extraordinary roll are in a +yet more decayed and imperfect state than the first portion. But the +designer of the subject, whoever he was, had an eye throughout to +Roman art--as it appeared in its later stages. The folds of the +draperies, and the proportions of the figures, are executed with this +feeling. + +I must observe that, both at top and at bottom of the principal +subject, there is a running allegorical ornament, of which I will not +incur the presumption to suppose myself a successful interpreter. +The constellations, and the symbols of agriculture and of a rural +occupation form the chief subjects of this running ornament. All the +inscriptions are executed in capital letters of about an inch in +length; and upon the whole, whether this extraordinary and invaluable +relic be of the latter end of the eleventh, or the beginning or middle +of the twelfth century seems to me a matter of rather a secondary +consideration. That it is at once unique and important, must be +considered as a position to be neither doubted nor denied. + +I have learned even here, of what importance this tapestry roll was +considered in the time of Bonaparte's threatened invasion of our +country: and that, after displaying it at Paris for two or three +months, to awaken the curiosity and excite the love of conquest among +the citizens, it was conveyed to one or two sea-port towns, and +exhibited upon the stage as a most important material in dramatic +effect. + + + + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRI IV. AT PAU[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +Pau is a pretty city, neat, of gay appearance; but the highway is +paved with little round stones, the side-walks with small sharp +pebbles: so the horses walk on the heads of nails and foot-passengers +on the points of them. From Bordeaux to Toulouse such is the usage, +such the pavement. At the end of five minutes, your feet tell you in +the most intelligible manner that you are two hundred leagues away +from Paris.... + +Here are the true countrymen of Henry IV. As to the pretty ladies in +gauzy hats, whose swelling and rustling robes graze the horns of the +motionless oxen as they pass, you must not look at them; they would +carry your imagination back to the Boulevard de Gand, and you would +have gone two hundred leagues only to remain in the same place. I am +here on purpose to visit the sixteenth century; one makes a journey +for the sake of changing, not place, but ideas.... It was eight +o'clock in the morning; not a visitor at the castle, no one in the +courts nor on the terrace; I should not have been too much astonished +at meeting the Béarnais, "that lusty gallant, that very devil," who +was sharp enough to get for himself the name of "the good king." + +His château is very irregular; it is only when seen from the valley +that any graces and harmony can be found in it. Above two rows of +pointed roofs and old houses, it stands out alone against the sky and +gazes upon the valley in the distance; two bell-turrets project from +the front toward the west; the oblong body follows, and two massive +brick towers close the line with their esplanades and battlements. It +is connected with the city by a narrow old bridge, by a broad modern +one with the park, and the foot of its terrace is bathed by a dark but +lovely stream. + +Near at hand, this arrangement disappears; a fifth tower upon the +north side deranges the symmetry. The great egg-shaped court is a +mosaic of incongruous masonry; above the porch, a wall of pebbles from +the Gave, and of red bricks crossed like a tapestry design; opposite, +fixt to the wall, a row of medallions in stone; upon the sides, doors +of every form and age; dormer windows, windows square, pointed, +embattled, with stone mullions garlanded with elaborate reliefs. This +masquerade of styles troubles the mind, yet not unpleasantly; it is +unpretending and artless; each century has built according to its own +fancy, without concerning itself about its neighbor. + +On the first floor is shown a great tortoise-shell, which was the +cradle of Henry IV. Carved chests, dressing-tables, tapestries, clocks +of that day, the bed and arm-chair of Jeanne d'Albret, a complete set +of furniture in the taste of the Renaissance, striking and somber, +painfully labored yet magnificent in style, carrying the mind at once +back toward that age of force and effort, of boldness in invention, of +unbridled pleasures and terrible toil, of sensuality and of heroism. +Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV., crossed France in order that +she might, according to her promise, be confined in this castle. "A +princess," says D'Aubigné, "having nothing of the woman about her but +the sex, a soul entirely given to manly things, a mind mighty in great +affairs, a heart unconquerable by adversity." + +She sang an old Bearnaise song when she brought him into the world. +They say that the aged grandfather rubbed the lips of the new-born +child with a clove of garlic, poured into his mouth a few drops of +Jurançon wine, and carried him away in his dressing-gown. The child +was born in the chamber which opens into the lower tower of Mazères, +on the southwest corner. + +His mother, a warm and severe Calvinist, when he was fifteen years +old, led him through the Catholic army to La Rochelle, and gave him to +her followers as their general. At sixteen years old, at the combat of +Arnay-le-Duc, he led the first charge of cavalry. What an education +and what men! Their descendants were just now passing in the streets, +going to school to compose Latin verses and recite the pastorals of +Massillon. + +Those old wars are the most poetic in French history; they were made +for pleasure rather than interest. It was a chase in which adventures, +dangers, emotions were found, in which men lived in the sunlight, on +horseback, amidst flashes of fire, and where the body, as well as +the soul, had its enjoyment and its exercise. Henry carries it on as +briskly as a dance, with a Gascon's fire and a soldier's ardor, with +abrupt sallies, and pursuing his point against the enemy as with the +ladies. + +This is no spectacle of great masses of well-disciplined men, coming +heavily into collision and falling by thousands on the field, +according to the rules of good tactics. The king leaves Pau or Nérac +with a little troop, picks up the neighboring garrisons on his way, +scales a fortress, intercepts a body of arquebusiers as they pass, +extricates himself pistol in hand from the midst of a hostile troop, +and returns to the feet of Mlle. de Tignonville. They arrange their +plan from day to day; nothing is done unless unexpectedly and by +chance. Enterprises are strokes of fortune.... + +The park is a great wood on a hill, embedded among meadows and +harvests. You walk in long solitary alleys, under colonnades of superb +oaks, while to the left the lofty stems of the copses mount in close +ranks upon the back of the hill. The fog was not yet lifted; there was +no motion in the air; not a corner of the blue sky, not a sound in all +the country. The song of a bird came for an instant from the midst of +the ash-trees, then sadly ceased. Is that then the sky of the south, +and was it necessary to come to the happy country of the Béarnais to +find such melancholy impressions? A little by-way brought us to a bank +of the Gave: in a long pool of water was growing an army of reeds +twice the height of a man; their grayish spikes and their trembling +leaves bent and whispered under the wind; a wild flower near by shed a +vanilla perfume. + +We gazed on the broad country, the ranges of rounded hills, the silent +plain under the dull dome of the sky. Three hundred paces away the +Gave rolls between marshaled banks, which it has covered with sand; in +the midst of the waters may be seen the moss-grown piles of a ruined +bridge. One is at ease here, and yet at the bottom of the heart +a vague unrest is felt; the soul is softened and loses itself in +melancholy and tender revery. Suddenly the clock strikes, and one +is forced to go and prepare himself to eat his soup between two +commercial travelers. + +To-day the sun shines. On my way to the Place Nationale, I remarked a +poor, half-ruined church, which had been turned into a coach-house; +they have fastened upon it a carrier's sign. The arcades, in small +gray stones, still round themselves with an elegant boldness; beneath +are stowed away carts and casks and pieces of wood; here and there +workmen were handling wheels. A broad ray of light fell upon a pile of +straw, and made the somber corners seem yet darker; the pictures that +one meets with outweigh those one has come to seek. + +From the esplanade which is opposite, the whole valley and the +mountains beyond may be seen; this first sight of a southern sun, as +it breaks from the rainy mists, is admirable; a sheet of white light +stretches from one horizon to another without meeting a single cloud. +The heart expands in this immense space; the very air is festal; the +dazzled eyes close beneath the brightness which deluges them and which +runs over, radiated from the burning dome of heaven. The current of +the river sparkles like a girdle of jewels; the chains of hills, +yesterday veiled and damp, extend at their own sweet will beneath the +warming, penetrating rays, and mount range upon range to spread out +their green robe to the sun. + +In the distance, the blue Pyrenees look like a bank of clouds; the air +that bathes them shapes them into aërial forms, vapory phantoms, the +farthest of which vanish in the canescent horizon--dim contours, that +might be taken for a fugitive sketch from the lightest of pencils. In +the midst of the serrate chain the peak Midi d' Ossau lifts its abrupt +cone; at this distance, forms are softened, colors are blended, the +Pyrenees are only the graceful bordering of a smiling landscape and of +the magnificent sky. There is nothing imposing about them nor severe; +the beauty here is serene, and the pleasure pure. + +The statue of Henry IV., with an inscription in Latin and in patois, +is on the esplanade; the armor is finished so perfectly that it might +make an armorer jealous. But why does the king wear so sad an air? His +neck is ill at ease on his shoulders; his features are small and full +of care; he has lost his gayety, his spirit, his confidence in his +fortune, his proud bearing. His air is neither that of a great nor a +good man, nor of a man of intellect; his face is discontented, and one +would say that he was bored with Pau. I am not sure that he was wrong: +and yet the city passes for agreeable, the climate is very mild, and +invalids who fear the cold pass the winter in it. + + + + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Outre-Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW + + +In the beautiful month of October I made a foot excursion along the +banks of the Loire, from Orléans to Tours. This luxuriant region is +justly called the garden of France. From Orléans to Blois, the whole +valley of the Loire is one continued vineyard. The bright green +foliage of the vine spreads, like the undulations of the sea, over +the landscape, with here and there a silver flash of the river, a +sequestered hamlet, or the towers of an old chateau, to enliven and +variegate the scene. + +The vintage had already commenced. The peasantry were busy in the +fields--the song that cheered their labor was on the breeze, and +the heavy wagon tottered by, laden with the clusters of the vine. +Everything around me wore that happy look which makes the heart glad. +In the morning I arose with the lark; and at night I slept where the +sunset overtook me.... My first day's journey brought me at evening to +a village, whose name I have forgotten, situated about eight leagues +from Orléans. It is a small, obscure hamlet, not mentioned in the +guide-book, and stands upon the precipitous banks of a deep ravine, +through which a noisy brook leaps to turn the ponderous wheel of a +thatch-roofed mill. The village inn stands upon the highway; but the +village itself is not visible to the traveler as he passes. It is +completely hidden in the lap of a wooded valley, and so embowered +in trees that not a roof nor a chimney peeps out to betray its +hiding-place. + +When I awoke in the morning, a brilliant autumnal sun was shining in +at my window. The merry song of birds mingled sweetly with the sound +of rustling leaves and the gurgle of the brook. The vintagers were +going forth to their toil; the wine-press was busy in the shade, and +the clatter of the mill kept time to the miller's song. I loitered +about the village with a feeling of calm delight. I was unwilling to +leave the seclusion of this sequestered hamlet; but at length, with +reluctant step, I took the cross-road through the vineyard, and in a +moment the little village had sunk again, as if by enchantment, into +the bosom of the earth. + +I breakfasted at the town of Mer; and, leaving the high-road to Blois +on the right, passed down to the banks of the Loire, through a long, +broad avenue of poplars and sycamores. I crossed the river in a boat, +and in the after part of the day I found myself before the high and +massive walls of the château of Chambord. This château is one of the +finest specimens of the ancient Gothic castle to be found in Europe. +The little river Cosson fills its deep and ample moat, and above +it the huge towers and heavy battlements rise in stern and solemn +grandeur, moss-grown with age, and blackened by the storms of three +centuries. Within, all is mournful and deserted. The grass has +overgrown the pavement of the courtyard, and the rude sculpture upon +the walls is broken and defaced.... + +My third day's journey brought me to the ancient city of Blois, the +chief town of the department of Loire-et-Cher. This city is celebrated +for the purity with which even the lower classes of its inhabitants +speak their native tongue. It rises precipitously from the northern +bank of the Loire; and many of its streets are so steep as to be +almost impassable for carriages. On the brow of the hill, overlooking +the roofs of the city, and commanding a fine view of the Loire and its +noble bridge, and the surrounding country, sprinkled with cottages and +châteaux, runs an ample terrace, planted with trees, and laid out as a +public walk. The view from this terrace is one of the most beautiful +in France. But what most strikes the eye of the traveler at Blois is +an old, tho still unfinished, castle. Its huge parapets of hewn stone +stand upon either side of the street; but they have walled up the wide +gateway, from which the colossal drawbridge was to have sprung high in +air, connecting together the main towers of the building, and the two +hills upon whose slope its foundations stand. The aspect of this vast +pile is gloomy and desolate. It seems as if the strong hand of the +builder had been arrested in the midst of his task by the stronger +hand of death; and the unfinished fabric stands a lasting monument +both of the power and weakness of man--of his vast desires, his +sanguine hopes, his ambitious purposes--and of the unlooked-for +conclusion, where all these desires, and hopes, and purposes are so +often arrested. There is also at Blois another ancient château, to +which some historic interest is attached as being the scene of the +massacre of the Duke of Guise. + +On the following day, I left Blois for Amboise; and, after walking +several leagues along the dusty highway, crossed the river in a boat +to the little village of Moines, which lies amid luxuriant vineyards +upon the southern bank of the Loire. From Moines to Amboise the road +is truly delightful. The rich lowland scenery, by the margin of the +river, is verdant even in October; and occasionally the landscape is +diversified with the picturesque cottages of the vintagers, cut in the +rock along the road-side, and overhung by the thick foliage of the +vines above them. + +At Amboise I took a cross-road, which led me to the romantic borders +of the Cher and the château of Chenonceau. This beautiful château, as +well as that of Chambord, was built by the gay and munificent Francis +the First. One is a specimen of strong and massive architecture--a +dwelling for a warrior; but the other is of a lighter and more +graceful construction, and was designed for those soft languishments +of passion with which the fascinating Diane de Poitiers had filled the +bosom of that voluptuous monarch. + +The château of Chenonceau is built upon arches across the river Cher, +whose waters are made to supply the deep moat at each extremity. There +is a spacious courtyard in front, from which a drawbridge conducts to +the outer hall of the castle. There the armor of Francis the First +still hangs upon the wall--his shield, and helm, and lance--as if the +chivalrous but dissolute prince had just exchanged them for the silken +robes of the drawing-room.... Doubtless the naked walls and the vast +solitary chambers of an old and desolate château inspire a feeling of +greater solemnity and awe; but when the antique furniture of the olden +time remains--the faded tapestry on the walls, and the arm-chair +by the fire-side--the effect upon the mind is more magical and +delightful. The old inhabitants of the place, long gathered to their +fathers, tho living still in history, seem to have left their halls +for the chase or the tournament; and as the heavy door swings upon its +reluctant hinge, one almost expects to see the gallant princes and +courtly dames enter those halls again, and sweep in stately procession +along the silent corridors.... + +A short time after candle-lighting, I reached the little tavern of the +Boule d'Or, a few leagues from Tours, where I passed the night. The +following morning was lowering and sad. A veil of mist hung over +the landscape, and ever and anon a heavy shower burst from the +overburdened clouds, that were driving by before a high and piercing +wind. This unpropitious state of the weather detained me until noon, +when a cabriolet for Tours drove up, and taking a seat within it, I +left the hostess of the Boule d'Or in the middle of a long story about +a rich countess, who always alighted there when she passed that way. +We drove leisurely along through a beautiful country, till at length +we came to the brow of a steep hill, which commands a fine view of the +city of Tours and its delightful environs. But the scene was +shrouded by the heavy drifting mist, through which I could trace but +indistinctly the graceful sweep of the Loire, and the spires and roofs +of the city far below me. + +The city of Tours and the delicious plain in which it lies have been +too often described by other travelers to render a new description, +from so listless a pen as mine, either necessary or desirable. After a +sojourn of two cloudy and melancholy days, I set out on my return to +Paris, by the way of Vendôme and Chartres. I stopt a few hours at +the former place, to examine the ruins of a château built by Jeanne +d'Albret, mother of Henry the Fourth. It stands upon the summit of a +high and precipitous hill, and almost overhangs the town beneath. The +French Revolution has completed the ruin that time had already begun; +and nothing now remains, but a broken and crumbling bastion, and here +and there a solitary tower dropping slowly to decay. In one of these +is the grave of Jeanne d'Albret. A marble entablature in the wall +above contains the inscription, which is nearly effaced, tho enough +still remains to tell the curious traveler that there lies buried the +mother of the "Bon Henri." To this is added a prayer that the repose +of the dead may be respected. + +Here ended my foot excursion. The object of my journey was +accomplished; and, delighted with this short ramble through the valley +of the Loire, I took my seat in the diligence for Paris, and on the +following day was again swallowed up in the crowds of the metropolis, +like a drop in the bosom of the sea. + + + + +AMBOISE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The Castle of Amboise stands high above the town, like another +Acropolis above a smaller Athens; it rises upon the only height +visible for some distance, and is in a commanding position for holding +the level fields of Touraine around it, and securing the passage of +the Loire between Tours and Chaumont, which is the next link in the +chain that ends at Blois. + +The river at this point is divided in two by an island, as is so often +the case where the first bridge-builders sought to join the wide banks +of the Loire, and on this little spot between the waters Clovis is +said to have met Alaric before he overthrew the power of the Visigoths +in Aquitaine. + +Amboise gains even more from the river than the other châteaux of +the Loire. The magnificent round tower that springs from the end of +Charles VIII.'s façade completely commands the approaches of the +bridge, and the extraordinary effect of lofty masonry, produced by +building on the summit of an elevation and carrying the stone courses +upward from the lower ground, is here seen at its best.... + +But Amboise has a history before the days of Charles VIII. There was +without doubt a Roman camp here, but the traditions of the ubiquitous +Caesar must be received with caution. The so-called "Greniers de +Caesar," strange, unexplained constructions caverned in the soft rock, +are proved to be the work of a later age by that same indefatigable +Abbé Chevalier to whom we have been already indebted for so much +archeological research. A possible explanation of them is contained in +an old Latin history of the castle, which goes down to the death of +Stephen of England. According to this, the Romans had held Amboise +from the days of Caesar till the reign of Diocletian; the Baugaredi or +Bagaudee then put them to flight, but let the rest of the inhabitants +remain who, "being afraid to live above ground, tunnelled beneath it, +and made a great colony of subterranean dwellings in the holes they +had dug out," a custom apparently common in Touraine from the earliest +times. The Romans at any rate left unmistakable traces of their +presence; many of their architectural remains still exist, and their +fort is spoken of by Sulpicius Severus; but they can have built no +bridge of alone, for in St. Gregory's time there were only boats +available for crossing the river. + +Not till the fifteenth century did the castle become royal property, +when it was confiscated by Charles VII. as a punishment for +treacherous dealings with the invading English very similar to +the treason discovered at Chenonceaux just before. But beyond +strengthening the fortification of the place this king did little for +his new possession. + +In a few years the castle is overshadowed by the cruel specter of +Louis XI., whose memory has already spoiled several charming views +for us. It was to Amboise that the father of this unfilial prince +was carried from Chinon on his way north, when wearied out by the +annoyance caused by the Dauphin's plots. The castle had become a royal +residence, and soon after the whole town turns out to meet the new +king with a "morality-play made by Master Étienne for the joyous +occasion of his arrival," for Amboise was already famous for those +dramatic performances always so dear to the French, and particularly +to these citizens, in the old days at any rate. There is no trace of +such frivolities now in the sleepy little town.... + +The two great towers of Amboise with the inclined planes of brickwork, +which wind upward in the midst instead of staircases, were the result +of the work which Charles set on foot as a distraction of his grief. +These strange ascents had been partially restored by the Comte de +Paris, the present owner of Amboise, before his exile stopt the work +of repairing the chateau, and it is still possible to imagine the +"charrettes, mullets, et litières," of which Du Bellay speaks, +mounting from the low ground to the chambers above, or the Emperor +Charles V., in later years, riding up with his royal host Francis I., +always fond of display, amid such a blaze of flambeaux "that a man +might see as clearly as at mid-day." + +These great towers and the exquisite little chapel were the work of +the "excellent sculptors and artists from Naples" who, as Commines +tells us, were brought back with the spoils of the Italian wars; for +the young king "never thought of death" but only of collecting round +him "all the beautiful things which he had seen and which had given +him pleasure, from France or Italy or Flanders;" but death came upon +him suddenly. At the end of a garden walk, fringed with a mossy grove +of limes that rises from the river bank, is the little doorway through +which Charles VIII. was passing when he hit his head, never a +very strong one, against the low stone arch, and died a few hours +afterward. The castle had been fortified before his time; he left it +beautiful as well, and the traces of his work are those which are most +striking at the present day.... + +Within the shadow of the lime trees on the terraced garden of Amboise +is a small bust of Leonardo da Vinci, for it was near here he died. +His remains are laid in the beautiful chapel at the corner of +the castle court, and the romantic story of his last moments at +Fontainebleau becomes the sad reality of a tombstone covering ashes +mostly unknown and certainly indistinguishable; "among which" as the +epitaph painfully records, "are supposed to be the remains of Leonardo +da Vinci." He had been brought to Paris a weak old man, by Francis, +in pursuance of a certain fixt artistic policy, to which it may be +noticed this forgotten and uncertain grave does but little credit. + +To Francis I., rightly or wrongly, is given the glory of having +naturalized in France the arts of Italy; to him is due the +architecture built for ease and charm which turned the fortress into a +beautiful habitation, which changed Chambord from a feudal stronghold +to a country seat, and which left its traces at Amboise, as it did +at Chaumont and at Blois. He found in France the highest and most +beautiful expression of the work of "the great unnamed race of +master-masons," he found the traditions of a national school of +painting, the work of Fouquet and the Clouets, but for these he cared +not; for him the only schools were those of Rome and Florence, and +tho by encouraging their imitation he weakened the vital sincerity of +French art, yet from his first exercise of royal power the consistency +always somewhat lacking in his politics was shown clearly and firmly +in his taste for art. + + + + +BLOIS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1908.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Blois, among all the other cities of the Loire, is the favorite with +the tourist. Here one first meets a great château of state; and +certainly the Château de Blois lives in one's memory more than any +other château in France. + +Much has been written of Blois, its counts, its château, and its many +and famous hôtels of the nobility, by writers of all opinions and +abilities, from those old chroniclers who wrote of the plots and +intrigues of other days to those critics of art and architecture who +have discovered--or think they have discovered--that Da Vinci designed +the famous spiral staircase. + +From this one may well gather that Blois is the foremost château of +all the Loire in popularity and theatrical effect. Truly this is so, +but it is by no manner of means the most lovable; indeed, it is the +least lovable of all that great galaxy which begins at Blois and ends +at Nantes. It is a show-place and not much more, and partakes in +every form and feature--as one sees it to-day--of the attributes of a +museum, and such it really is. + +All of its former gorgeousness is still there, and all the banalities +of the later period when Gaston of Orleans built his ugly wing, for +the "personally conducted" to marvel at, and honeymoon couples to +envy. The French are quite fond of visiting this shrine themselves, +but usually it is the young people and their mammas, and detached +couples of American and English birth that one most sees strolling +about the courts and apartments where formerly lords and ladies and +cavaliers moved and plotted. + +The great château of the Counts of Blois is built upon an inclined +rock which rises above the roof-tops of the lower town quite in +fairy-book fashion. Commonly referred to as the Château de Blois, it +is really composed of four separate and distinct foundations; the +original château of the counts; the later addition of Louis XII.; the +palace of Francis I., and the most unsympathetically and dismally +disposed pavilion of Gaston of Orleans. + +The artistic qualities of the greater part of the distinct edifice +which go to make up the château as it stands to-day are superb, with +the exception of that great wing of Gaston's, before mentioned, which +is as cold and unfeeling as the overrated palace at Versailles. + +The Comtes de Chatillon built that portion just to the right of the +present entrance; Louis XII., the edifice through which one enters +the inner court and which extends far to the left, including also +the chapel immediately to the rear; while François I., who here as +elsewhere let his unbounded Italian proclivities have full sway, built +the extended wing to the left of the inner court and fronting on the +present Place du Château, formerly the Place Royale.... + +As an architectural monument the château is a picturesque assemblage +of edifices belonging to many different epochs, and, as such, shows, +as well as any other document of contemporary times, the varying +ambitions and emotions of its builders, from the rude and rough +manners of the earliest of feudal times through the highly refined +Renaissance details of the imaginative brain of François, down to the +base concoction of the elder Mansart, produced at the commands of +Gaston of Orleans. + +In the earliest structure were to be seen all the attributes of a +feudal fortress, towers and walls pierced with narrow loopholes, +and damp, dark dungeons hidden away in the thick walls. Then came a +structure which was less of a fortress and more habitable, but still a +stronghold, tho having ample and decorative doorways and windows, with +curious sculptures and rich framings. Then the pompous Renaissance +with "escaliers" and "balcons á jour," balustrades crowning the walls +and elaborate cornices here, there, and everywhere--all bespeaking +the gallantry and taste of the knightly king. Finally came the cold, +classic features of the period of the brother of Louis XIII. + +In plan the Château de Bois forms an irregular square situated at +the apex of a promontory high above the surface of the Loire, +and practically behind the town itself. The building has a most +picturesque aspect, and, to those who know, gives practically a +history of the château architecture of the time. Abandoned, mutilated +and dishonored, from time to time, the structure gradually took on new +forms until the thick walls underlying the apartment known to-day as +the Salle des États--probably the most ancient portion of all--were +overshadowed by the great richness of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries. + +From the platform one sees a magnificent panorama of the city and the +far-reaching Loire, which unrolls itself southward and northward for +many leagues, its banks covered by rich vineyards and crowned by thick +forests. + +The building of Louis XII. presents its brick-faced exterior in black +and red lozenge shapes, with sculptured window-frames, squarely upon +the little tree-bordered place of to-day, which in other times formed +a part of that magnificent terrace which looked down upon the roof +of the Église St. Nicholas, and the Jesuit church of the Immaculate +Conception, and the silvery bell of the Loire itself. + +The murders and other acts of violence and treason which took place +here are interesting enough, but one can not but feel, when he views +the chimney-piece before which the Due de Guise was standing when +called to his death in the royal closet, that the men of whom the +bloody tales of Blois are told quite deserved their fates. + +One comes away with the impression of it all stamped only upon the +mind, not graven upon the heart. Political intrigue to-day, if quite +as vulgar, is less sordid. Bigotry and ambition in those days allowed +few of the finer feelings to come to the surface, except with regard +to the luxuriance of surroundings. Of this last there can be no +question, and Blois is as characteristically luxurious as any of the +magnificient edifices which lodged the royalty and nobility of other +days throughout the valley of the Loire. + +The interior court is partly surrounded by a colonnade, quite +cloister-like in effect. At the right center of the François I. wing +is that wonderful spiral staircase, concerning the invention of which +so much speculation has been launched. + +The apartments of Catherine de Medici were directly beneath the +guard-room where the Balafré was murdered, and that event, taking +place at the very moment when the queen-mother was dying, can not be +said to have been conducive to a peaceful demise. + +Here, on the first floor of the François I. wing, the queen-mother, +held her court, as did the king his. The great gallery over-looked the +town on the side of the present Place du Château. It was, and is, a +truly grand apartment, with diamond-paned windows, and rich, dark wall +decorations on which Catherine's device, a crowned C and her monogram +in gold, frequently appears. There was, moreover, a great oval +window, opposite which stood her altar, and a doorway led to her +writing-closet, with its secret drawers and wall panels, which well +served her purpose of intrigue and deceit. + +A hidden stair-way led to the floor above, and there was a +chambre-à-coucher, with a deep recess for the bed, the same to which +she called her son Henri, as she lay dying, admonishing him to give +up the thought of murdering Guise. "What," said Henri, on this +embarrassing occasion, "spare Guise, when he, triumphant in Paris, +dared lay his hand on the hilt of his sword. Spare him who drove me a +fugitive from the capital. Spare them who never spared me. No, mother, +I will not." + +As the queen-mother drew near her end, and was lying ill at Blois, +great events for France were culminating at the château. Henry III. +had become King of France, and the Balafré, supported by Rome and +Spain, was in open rebellion against the reigning house, and the word +had gone forth that the Duc de Guise must die. + +The States-General were to be immediately assembled, and De Guise, +once the poetic lover of Marguerite, through his emissaries canvassed +all France to ensure the triumph of the party of the church against +Henri de Navarre and his queen--the Marguerite whom De Guise once +profest to love--who soon were to come to the throne of France. + +The uncomfortable Henri III. had been told that he would never be king +in reality until De Guise had been made away with. + +The final act of the drama between the rival houses of Guise and +Valois came when the king and his council came to Blois for the +assembly. The sunny city of Blois was indeed to be the scene of a +momentous affair, and a truly sumptuous setting it was, the roof-tops +of its houses sloping downward gently to the Loire, with its chief +accessory, the coiffed and turreted chateau itself, high above all +else. + +Details had been arranged with infinite pains, the guard doubled, and +a company of Swiss posted around the courtyard and up and down +the gorgeous staircase. Every nook and corner has its history in +connection with this greatest event in the history of the château of +Blois. + +As Guise entered the council chamber he was told that the king would +see him in his closet, to reach which one had to pass through the +guard-room below. The door was barred behind him that he might not +return, when the trusty guards of the Forty-fifth, under Dalahaide, +already hidden behind the wall-tapestry, sprang upon the Balafré and +forced him back upon the closed door through which he had just passed. +Guise fell stabbed in the breast by Malines, and "lay long uncovered +until an old carpet was found in which to wrap his corpse." + +Below, in her own apartments, lay the queen-mother, dying, but +listening eagerly for the rush of footsteps overhead, hoping and +praying that Henri--the hitherto effeminate Henri who played with his +sword as he would with a battledore, and who painted himself like a +woman, and put rings in his ears--would not prejudice himself at this +time in the eyes of Rome by slaying the leader of the church party.... + +It was under the régime of Gaston d'Orléans that the gardens of the +Château de Blois came to their greatest excellence and beauty. In +1653, Abel Brunyer, the first physician of Gaston's suite, published a +catalog of the fruit and flowers to be found here in these gardens, +of which he was also director. More than five hundred varieties were +included, three-quarters of which belonged to the flora of France. + +Among the delicacies and novelties of the time to be found here was +the Prunier de Reine Claude, from which those delicious green plums +known to all the world to-day as "Reine Claudes" were propagated, also +another variety which came from the Prunier de Monsieur, somewhat +similar in taste, but of a deep purple color. The potato was tenderly +cared for and grown as a great novelty and delicacy long before its +introduction to general cultivation by Parmentier. The tomato was +imported from Mexico, and even tobacco was grown.... + +In 1793 all the symbols and emblems of royalty were removed from +the château and destroyed. The celebrated bust of Gaston, the chief +artistic attribute of that part of the edifice built by him, was +decapitated, and the statue of Louis XII. over the entrance gateway +was overturned and broken up. Afterward the château became the +property of the "domaine" and was turned into a mere barracks. The +pavilion of Queen Anne became a military magazine, the Tour de +l'Observatoire, a powder-magazine, and all the indignities imaginable +were heaped upon the château. + +In 1814 Blois became the last capital of Napoleon's empire, and the +château walls sheltered the prisoners captured by the imperial army. + + + + +CHAMBORD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The road that leads from Blois to Chambord crosses the Loire by a fine +stone bridge, which the inscription sets forth to be the first public +work of Louis Philippe. + +For some distance the rails of a small tramway followed the road by +which our carriage was slowly rolling toward the level plains of the +Cologne, but we gradually left such uncompromising signs of activity, +and came into a flat country of endless vineyards, with here and there +a small plaster tower showing its slated roof above the low green +clusters of the vines. We passed through several villages, whose +inhabitants that day seemed to have but one care upon their minds, +like the famous Scilly Islanders, to gain a precarious livelihood by +taking each other's washing. On every bush and briar fluttered the +household linen and the family apparel, of various textures and in +different states of despair; and with that strict observance of +utility which is the chief characteristic of the French peasant, the +inevitable blouses, of faded blue were blown into shapeless bundles +even along the railings of the churchyard tombs. + +At last we came to an old moss-grown wall, and through a broken +gateway entered what is called the Park of Chambord. There is very +little of it to be seen now, the trees have been ruthlessly cut down +and mutilated, and of the wild boars, which Francis I. was so fond +of hunting there is left only the ghostly quarry that Thibault of +Champagne chases through the air, while the sound of his ghostly +horn echoes down the autumn night as the fantom pack sweeps by to +Montfrault. + +It is impossible for the uninstructed mind to grasp the plan or method +of this mass of architecture; yet it is unsatisfactory to give it up, +with Mr. Henry James, "as an irresponsible, insoluble labyrinth." +M. Viollet-le-Duc, with a sympathetic denial of any extreme and +over-technical admiration, gives just that intelligible account of the +château which is a compromise between the unmeaning adulation of its +contemporary critics and the ignorance of the casual traveler. + +"Chambord," says he, "must be taken for what it is; for an attempt in +which the architect sought to reconcile the methods of two opposite +principles, to unite in one building the fortified castle of the +Middle Ages and the pleasure-palace of the sixteenth century." Granted +that the attempt was an absurd one, it must be remembered that the +Renaissance was but just beginning in France; Gothic art seemed out +of date, yet none other had established itself to take its place. In +literature, in morals, as in architecture, this particular phase in +the civilization of the time has already become evident even in the +course of these small wanderings in a single province, and if only +this transition period is realized in all its meaning, with all the +"monstrous and inform" characteristics that were inevitably a part of +it, the mystery of this strange sixteenth century in France is half +explained, of this "glorious devil, large in heart and brain, that did +love beauty only" and would have it somewhere, somehow, at whatever +cost. + +Francis I. had passed his early years at Cognac, at Amboise, or +Romorantin, and when he first saw Chambord it was only the old feudal +manor-house built by the Counts of Blois. He transformed it, not by +the help of Primaticcio, with whose name it is tempting to associate +any building of this king's, for the methods of contemporary Italian +architecture were totally different; but, as Mr. de la Saussaye +proves, by the skill of that fertile school of art particularly of one +Maitre Pierre Trinqueau, or Le Nepveu, whose name is connected with +more successful buildings at Amboise and Blois. The plan is that +of the true French château; in the center is the habitation of the +seigneur and his family, flanked by four angle towers; on three sides +is a court closed by buildings, also with towers at each angle, and +like most feudal dwellings the central donjon has one of its sides on +the exterior of the whole ... + +It may well be imagined that Chambord is the parody of the old +castles, just as the Abbey of Thélème parodies the abbeys of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Both heaped a fatal ridicule upon +the bygone age, but what Rabelais could only dream Francis could +realize, yet not with the unfettered perfection that was granted to +the vision of Gargantua; for surely never was the spirit of the time, +seized and smitten into incongruous shapes of stone at so unfortunate +a moment, just when the old Renaissance was striving to take upon +itself the burden which was too heavy for the failing Gothic spirit, +just when success was coming, but had not yet come. + +It is only from within the court, where the great towers fling their +shadows over the space, where pinnacles and gables soar into the air, +and strange gargoyles and projectures shoot from the darkness into +light, that it is possible to realize the admiration which Chambord +roused when it was first created. Brantôme waxes enthusiastic over its +wonders, and describes how the king had drawn up plans (mercifully +never carried out) to divert the waters of the Loire to his new +palace, not content with the slender stream of Cosson, from which +the place derived its name. Others compare it to a palace put of the +Arabian Nights raised at the Prince's bidding by a Genie, or like +Lippomano, the Venetian ambassador, to "the abode of Morgana or +Alcinous"; but this topheavy barrack is anything rather than a "fairy +monument"; it might with as much humor be called a "souvenir of first +loves," as M. de la Saussaye has it. Both descriptions fit Chenonceaux +admirably; when used of Chambord they are out of place. + + + + +CHENONCEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1906.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + +Chenonceaux is noted chiefly for its château, but the little village +itself is charming. The houses of the village are not very new, nor +very old, but the one long street is most attractive throughout its +length, and the whole atmosphere of the place, from September to +December, is odorous with the perfume of red and purple grapes. The +vintage is not equal to that of the Bordeaux region, perhaps, nor +of Chinon, nor Saumur, but "vin du pays" of the Cher and the Loire, +around Tours, is not to be despised. + +Most tourists come to Chenonceaux by train from Tours; others drive +over from Amboise, and yet others come by bicycle or automobile. They +are not as yet so numerous as might be expected, and accordingly here, +as elsewhere in Touraine, every facility is given for visiting the +château and its park. + +If you do not hurry off at once to worship at the abode of the +fascinating Diane, one of the brightest ornaments of the court of +François I. and his son Henri, you will enjoy your dinner at the Hôtel +du Bon Laboureur, tho most likely it will be a solitary one, and you +will be put to bed in a great chamber over-looking the park, through +which peep, in the moonlight, the turrets of the château, and you +may hear the purling of the waters of the Cher as it flows below the +walls. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau, like François I., called Chenonceaux a +beautiful place, and he was right. It is all of that and more. Here +one comes into direct contact with an atmosphere which, if not feudal, +or even medieval, is at least that of several hundred years ago. + +Chenonceaux is moored like a ship in the middle of the rapidly running +Cher, a dozen miles or more above where that stream enters the Loire. +As a matter of fact, the château practically bridges the river, which +flows under its foundations and beneath its drawbridge on either side, +besides filling the moat with water. The general effect is as if the +building were set in the midst of a stream and formed a sort of island +château. Round about is a gentle meadow and a great park, which gives +to this turreted, architectural gem of Touraine a setting equalled by +no other château. + +What the château was in former days we can readily imagine, for +nothing is changed as to the general disposition. Boats came to the +water-gate, as they still might do if such boats still existed, in +true, pictorial legendary fashion. To-day the present occupant has +placed a curiosity on the ornamental waters in the shape of a gondola. +It is out of keeping with the grand fabric of the château, and it is a +pity that it does not cast itself adrift some night. What has become +of the gondolier, who was imported to keep the craft company, nobody +seems to know. He is certainly not in evidence, or, if he is, has +transformed himself into a groom or a chauffeur. + +The château of Chenonceaux is not a very ample structure; not so ample +as most photographs would make it appear. It is not tiny, but still it +has not the magnificent proportions of Blois, of Chambord, or even of +Langeais. It was more a habitation than it was a fortress, a +country house, as indeed it virtually became when the Connétable de +Montmorency took possession of the structure in the name of the king, +when its builder, Thomas Bohier, the none too astute minister of +finance in Normandy, came to grief in his affairs. + +Francis I came frequently here to hunt, and his memory is still kept +alive by the Chambre François I. François held possession till his +death, when his son made it over to the "admired of two generations," +Diane de Poitiers. + +Diane's memory will never leave Chenonceaux. To-day it is perpetuated +in the Chambre de Diane de Poitiers; but the portrait by Leonardo da +Vinci, which was supposed to best show her charms, has now disappeared +from the Long Gallery at the château. This portrait was painted at the +command of François, before Diane transferred her affections to his +son. + +No one knows when or how Diane de Poitiers first came to fascinate +François, or how or why her power waned. At any rate at the time +François pardoned her father, the witless Comte de St. Vallier, for +the treacherous part he played in the Bourbon conspiracy, he really +believed her to to be the "brightest ornament of a beauty-loving +court." + +Certainly, Diane was a powerful factor in the politics of her time, +tho François himself soon tired of her. Undaunted by this, she +forthwith set her cap for his son Henri, the Duc d'Orléans, and won +him, too. Of her beauty the present generation is able to judge for +itself by reason of the three well-known and excellent portraits of +contemporary times. + +Diane's influence over the young Henri was absolute. At his death +her power was, of course, at an end and Chenonceaux, and all else +possible, was taken from her by the orders of Catherine, the +long-suffering wife, who had been put aside for the fascinations of +the charming huntress. + +It must have been some satisfaction, however, to Diane, to know that, +in his fatal joust with Montgomery, Henri really broke his lance and +met his death in her honor, for the records tell that he bore her +colors on his lance, besides her initials set in gold and gems on his +shield. + +Catherine's eagerness to drive Diane from the court was so great, that +no sooner had her spouse fallen--even tho he did not actually die for +some days--than she sent word to Diane "who sat weeping alone," to +quit the court instantly; to give up the crown jewels--which Henri had +somewhat inconsiderately given her; and to "give up Chenonceaux in +Touraine," Catherine's Naboth's vineyard, which she had so long +admired and coveted. + +She had known it as a girl, when she often visited it in company with +her father-in-law, the appreciative but dissolute François, and had +ever longed to possess it for her own, before even her husband, now +dead, had given it to "that old hag Diane de Poitiers, Duchesse de +Valentinois." + +Diane paid no heed to Catherine's command. She simply asked: "Is the +king yet dead?" + +"No, madame," said the messenger, "but his wound is mortal; he can not +live the day." + +"Tell the queen, then." replied Diane, "that her reign is not yet +come; that I am mistress still over her and the kingdom as long as the +king breathes the breath of life." + +The château of Chenonceaux, so greatly coveted by Catherine when she +first came to France, and when it was in the possession of Diane, +still remains in all the regal splendor of its past. It lies in the +lovely valley of the Cher, far from the rush and turmoil of cities and +even the continuous traffic of great thoroughfares, for it is on the +road to nowhere unless one is journeying crosscountry from the lower +to the upper Loire. This very isolation resulted in its being one +of the few monuments spared from the furies of the Revolution, and, +"half-palace and half-château," it glistens with the purity of its +former glory, as picturesque as ever, with turrets, spires, and +roof-tops all mellowed with the ages in a most entrancing manner. + +Even to-day one enters the precincts of the château proper over a +drawbridge which spans an arm of the Loire, or rather, a moat which +leads directly from the parent stream. On the opposite side are the +bridge piers supporting five arches, the work of Diane when she was +the fair chatelaine of the domain. This ingenious thought proved to +be a most useful and artistic addition to the château. It formed a +flagged promenade, lovely in itself, and led to the southern bank of +the Cher, whence one got charming vistas of the turrets and roof-tops +of the château through the trees and the leafy avenues which converged +upon the structure. + +When Catherine came she did not disdain to make the best use of +Diane's innovation that suggested itself to her, which was simply to +build the Long Gallery over the arches of this lovely bridge, and so +make of it a veritable house over the water. A covering was made quite +as beautiful as the rest of the structure, and thus the bridge formed +a spacious wing of two stories. The first floor--known as the Long +Gallery--was intended as a banqueting-hall, and possest four great +full-length windows on either side looking up and down the stream, +from which was seen--and is to-day--an outlook as magnificently +idyllic as is possible to conceive. Jean Goujon had designed for the +ceiling one of those wonder-works for which he was famous, but if the +complete plan was ever carried out, it has disappeared, for only a +tiny sketch of the whole scheme remains to-day. + +Catherine came in the early summer to take possession of her +long-coveted domain. Being a skilful horsewoman, she came on +horseback, accompanied by a little band of feminine charmers destined +to wheedle political secrets from friends and enemies alike--a real +"flying squadron of the queen," as it was called by a contemporary. + +It was a gallant company that assembled here at this time--the young +King Charles IX., the Duc de Guise, and the "two cardinals mounted on +mules"--Lorraine, a true Guise, and D'Este, newly arrived from Italy, +and accompanied by the poet Tasso, wearing a "gabardine and a hood +of satin." Catherine showed the Italian great favor, as was due a +countryman, but there was another poet among them as well, Ronsard, +the poet laureate of the time. The Duc de Guise had followed in the +wake of Marguerite, unbeknown to Catherine, who frowned down any +possibility of an alliance between the houses of Valois and Lorraine. + +A great fête and water-masque had been arranged by Catherine to take +place on the Cher, with a banquet to follow in the Long Gallery in +honor of her arrival at Chenonceaux. + +When twilight had fallen, torches were ignited and myriads of lights +blazed forth from the boats on the river and from the windows of the +château. Music and song went forth into the night, and all was as gay +and lovely as a Venetian night's entertainment. The hunting-horns +echoed through the wooded banks, and through the arches above which +the château was built passed great highly colored barges, including a +fleet of gondolas to remind the queen-mother of her Italian days--the +ancestors perhaps of the solitary gondola which to-day floats idly by +the river-bank just before the grand entrance to the château. From +parterre and balustrade, and from the clipt yews of the ornamental +garden, fairy lamps burned forth and dwindled away into dim infinity, +as the long lines of soft light gradually lost themselves in the +forest. It was a grand affair and idyllic in its unworldliness ... + +Catherine bequeathed Chenonceaux to the wife of Henry III., Louise +de Vaudémont, who died here in 1601. For a hundred years it still +belonged to royalty, but in 1730 it was sold to M. Dupin, who, with +his wife, enriched and repaired the fabric. They gathered around +them a company so famous as to be memorable in the annals of art +and literature. This is best shown by the citing of such names as +Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Buffon, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, and Rousseau, +all of whom were frequenters of the establishment, the latter being +charged with the education of the Dupins' only son. + +Chenonceaux to-day is no whited sepulcher. It is a real living and +livable thing, and moreover, when one visits it, he observes that the +family burn great logs in their fireplaces, have luxurious bouquets of +flowers on their dining-table, and use wax candles instead of the more +prosaic oil-lamps, or worse--acetyline gas. + + + + +FOIX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Above the swift flowing Ariège in their superb setting of mountain +and forest are the towers and parapets of the old château, in itself +enough to make the name and fame of any city.... The actual age of +the monument covers many epochs. The two square towers and the main +edifice, as seen to-day, are anterior to the thirteenth century, as is +proved by the design in the seals of the Comtes de Foix of 1215 and +1241 now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In the fourteenth +century these towers were strengthened and enlarged with the idea of +making them more effective for defense and habitation. + +The escutcheons of Foix, Beam and Comminges, to be seen in the great +central tower, indicate that it, too, goes back at least to the end +of the fourteenth century, when Eleanore de Comminges, the mother of +Gaston Phoebus, ruled the Comté. The donjon or Tour Ronde arises on +the west to a height of forty-two meters; and will be remarked by all +familiar with these sermons in stones scattered all over France as one +of the most graceful. Legend attributes it to Gaston Phoebus; but all +authorities do not agree as to this. The window-and door-openings, the +moldings, the accolade over the entrance doorway, and the machicoulis +all denote that they belong to the latter half of the fifteenth +century. These, however, may be later interpolations. + +Originally one entered the château from exactly the opposite side from +that used to-day. The slope leading up to the rock and swinging around +in front of the town is an addition of recent years. Formerly the +plateau was gained by a rugged path which finally entered the +precincts of the fortress through a rectangular barbican. + +Finally, to sum it up, the pleasant, smiling, trim little city of +Foix, and its château rising romantically above it, form a delightful +prospect. Well preserved, well protected and forever free from further +desecration, the château de Fois is as nobly impressive and glorious +a monument of the Middle Ages as may be found in France, as well as +chief record of the gallant days of the Comtes de Foix. Foix' Palais +de Justice, built back to back with the rock foundation of the +château, is itself a singular piece of architecture containing a small +collection of local antiquities. This old Maison des Gouverneurs, now +the Palais de Justice, is a banal, unlovely thing, regardless of its +high-sounding titles.... + +It was that great hunter and warrior, Gaston Phoebus, who gave the +Château de Foix its greatest lustre. It was here that this most +brilliant and most celebrated of the counts passed his youth; and it +was from here that he set out on his famous expedition to aid his +brother knights of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. At Gaston's orders +the Comte d'Armagnac was imprisoned here, to be released after the +payment of a heavy ransom. As to the motive for this particular act, +authorities differ as to whether it was the fortune of war or mere +brigandage. + +They lived high, the nobles of the old days, and Froissart recounts a +banquet at which he had assisted at Foix, in the sixteenth century, as +follows: + +"And this was what I saw in the Comté de Foix: The Comte left his +chamber to sup at midnight, the way to the great 'salle' being led by +twelve varlets, bearing twelve illumined torches. The great hall was +crowded with knights and equerries, and those who would supped, saying +nothing meanwhile. Mostly game seemed to be the favorite viand, and +the legs and wings only of fowl were eaten. Music and chants were the +invariable accompaniment and the company remained at table until after +two in the morning. Little or nothing was drunk." + + + + +V + +VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + + + + +MONT ST. MICHEL[A] + +[Footnote A: From "In and Out of Three Normandy Inns." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Little Brown & +Co. Copyright, 1892.] + +BY ANNA BOWMAN DODD + + +The promised rivers were before us. So was the Mont, spectral no +longer, but nearing with every plunge forward of our sturdy young +Percheron. Locomotion through any new or untried medium is certain +to bring with the experiment a dash of elation. Now, driving through +water appears to be no longer the fashion in our fastidious century; +someone might get a wetting, possibly, has been the conclusion of the +prudent. And thus a very innocent and exciting bit of fun has been +gradually relegated among the lost arts of pleasure. + +We were taking water as we had never taken it before, and liking the +method. We were as wet as ducks, but what cared we? We were being +deluged with spray; the spume of the sea was spurting in our faces +with the force of a strong wet breeze, and still we liked it. Besides, +driving thus into the white foam of the waters, over the sand ridges, +across the downs, into the wide plains of wet mud, this was the old +classical way of going up to the Mont. + +Surely, what had been found good enough as a pathway for kings, and +saints and pilgrims should be good enough for lovers of old-time +methods. The dike yonder was built for those who believe in the devil +of haste, and for those who also serve him faithfully.... + +With our first toss upon the downs, a world of new and fresh +experiences began. Genets was quite right; the Mont over yonder was +another country; even at the very beginning of the journey we learned +so much. This breeze blowing in from the sea, that had swept the +ramparts of the famous rock, was a double extract of the sea-essence; +it had all the salt of the sea and the aroma of firs and wild flowers; +its lips had not kissed a garden in high air without the perfume +lingering, if only to betray them. + +Even this strip of meadow marsh had a character peculiar to itself; +half of it belonged to earth and half to the sea. You might have +thought it an inland pasture, with its herds of cattle, its flocks +of sheep, and its colonies of geese patrolled by ragged urchins. But +behold somewhere out yonder the pasture was lost in high sea-waves; +ships with bulging sails replaced the curve of the cattle's sides and +instead of bending necks of sheep, there were sea-gulls swooping down +upon the foamy waves. + +As the incarnation of this dual life of sea and land, the rock +stands. It also is both of the sea and the land. Its feet are of the +waters--rocks and stones the sea-waves have used as playthings these +millions of years. But earth regains possession as the rocks pile +themselves into a mountain. Even from this distance, one can see the +moving of great trees, the masses of yellow flower-tips that dye the +sides of the stony hill, and the strips of green grass here and there. + +So much has nature done for this wonderful pyramid in the sea. Then +man came and fashioned it to his liking. He piled the stones at its +base into titanic walls; he carved about its sides the rounded breasts +of bastions; he piled higher and higher up the dizzy heights a medley +of palaces, convents, abbeys, cloisters, to lay at the very top the +fitting crown of all, a jewelled Norman-Gothic cathedral. + +Earth and man have thrown their gauntlet down to the sea--this rock is +theirs, they cry to the waves and the might of the oceans. And the sea +laughs--as strong men laugh when boys are angry or insistent. She has +let them build and toil, and pray and fight; it is all one to her what +is done on the rock--whether men carve its stones into lace, or rot +and die in its dungeons; it is all the same to her whether each spring +the daffodils creep up within the crevices and the irises nod to them +from the gardens. + +It is all one to her. For twice a day she recaptures the Mont. She +encircles it with the strong arm of her tides; with the might of her +waters she makes it once more a thing of the sea. + +The tide was rising now. + +The fringe of the downs had dabbled in the shoals till they became +one. We had left behind the last of the shepherd lads, come out to the +edge of the land to search for a wandering kid. We were all at once +plunging into high water. Our road was sunk out of sight; we were +driving through, waves as high as our cart wheels.... + +Our cart still pitched and tossed--we were still rocked about in our +rough cradle. But the sun, now freed from the banks of clouds, was +lighting our way with a great and sudden glory. And for the rest of +our watery journey we were conscious only of that lighting. Behind the +Mont lay a vast sea of saffron. But it was in the sky; against it the +great rock was as black as if the night were upon it. + +Here and there, through the curve of a flying buttress, or the +apertures of a pierced parapet, gay bits of this yellow world were +caught and framed. The sea lay beneath like a quiet carpet; and over +this carpet ships and sloops swam with easy gliding motion, with sails +and cordage dipt in gold. The smaller craft, moored close to the +shore, seemed transfigured as in a fog of gold. And nearer still were +the brown walls of the Mont making a great shadow, and in the shadow +the waters were as black as the skin of an African. In the shoals +there were lovely masses of turquoise and palest green; for here and +there a cloudlet passed, to mirror its complexion in the translucent +pools.... + +There was a rapid dashing beneath the great walls; a sudden night of +darkness as we plunged through an open archway into a narrow village +street; a confused impression of houses built into side-walls; of +machicolated gateways; of rocks and roof-tops tumbling about our ears; +and within the street was sounding the babel of a shrieking troop of +men and women. Porters, peasants, and children were clamoring about +our cartwheels like so many jackals. The bedlam did not cease as we +stopt before a brightly-lit open doorway. + +Then through the doorway there came a tall, finely featured brunette. +She made her way through the yelling crowd as a duchess might cleave a +path through a rabble. She was at the side of the cart in an instant. +She gave us a bow and smile that were both a welcome and an act of +appropriation. She held out a firm, soft, brown hand. When it closed +on our own, we knew it to be the grasp of a friend, and the clasp of +one who knew how to hold her world. But when she spoke the words were +all of velvet, and her voice had the cadence of a caress. + +"I have been watching you, 'chères dames'--crossing the 'gréve,' but +how wet and weary you must be! Come in by the fire, it is ablaze +now--I have been feeding it for you!" + +And once more the beautifully curved lips parted over the fine teeth, +and the exceeding brightness of the dark eyes smiled and glittered in +our own. The caressing voice still led us forward, into the great gay +kitchen; the touch of skilful, discreet fingers undid wet cloaks and +wraps; the soft charm of a lovely and gracious woman made even the +penetrating warmth of the huge fire-logs a secondary feature of our +welcome. + +To those who have never crossed a "gréve;" who have had no jolting in +a Normandy "char-a-banc;" who, for hours, have not known the mixed +pleasures and discomfort of being a part of sea-rivers; and who have +not been met at the threshold of an Inn on a Rock by the smiling +welcome of Madame Poulard[A]--all such have yet a pleasant page to +read in the book of traveled experience.... + +[Footnote A: An innkeeper of international fame. She is now dead, but +her name and her omelet still survive at Mont St. Michel.] + +Altho her people were waiting below, and the dinner was on its way to +the cloth, Madame Poulard had plenty of time to give to the beauty +about her. How fine was the outlook from the top of the ramparts! +What a fresh sensation, this of standing-on a terrace in mid-air and +looking down on the sea and across to the level shores. The rose +vines--we found them sweet--"Ah"--one of the branches had fallen--she +had full time to re-adjust the loosened support. And "Marianne, give +these ladies their hot water, and see to their bags"--even this order +was given with courtesy. It was only when the supple, agile figure had +left us to fly down the steep rock-cut steps; when it shot over the +top of the gateway and slid with the grace of a lizard into the street +far below us, that we were made sensible of there having been any +special need of madame's being in haste ... + +The Mont proved by its appearance its history in adventure; it had the +grim, grave, battered look that comes only to features--whether of +rock or of more plastic human mold--that have been carved by the rough +handling of experience. + +It is the common habit of hills and mountains, as we all know, to turn +disdainful as they grow skyward; they only too eagerly drop, one by +one, the things by which man has marked the earth for his own. To +stand on a mountain top and to go down to your grave are alike, at +least in this--that you have left everything, except yourself, behind +you. But it is both the charm and the triumph of Mont St. Michael, +that it carries so much of man's handiwork up into the blue fields of +the air; this achievement alone would mark it as unique among hills. +It appears as if for once man and nature had agreed to work in concert +to produce a masterpiece in stone. The hill and the architectural +beauties it carries aloft, are like a taunt flung out to sea and to +the upper heights of air; for centuries they appear to have been +crying aloud, "See what we can do, against your tempests and your +futile tides--when we try" ... Rustic France along this coast still +makes pilgrimages to the shrine of the Archangel St. Michael. No +marriage is rightly arranged which does not include a wedding-journey +across the "gréve"; no nuptial breakfast is aureoled with the true +halo of romance which is eaten elsewhere than on these heights in +mid-air. The young come to drink deep of wonders; the old, to refresh +the depleted fountains of memory; and the tourist, behold he is a +plague of locusts let loose upon the defenseless hill! + +It was impossible, after sojourning a certain time upon the hill, not +to concede that there were two equally strong centers of attraction +that drew the world hitherward. One remained, indeed, gravely +suspended between the doubt and the fear, as to which of these +potential units had the greater pull, in point of actual attraction. +The impartial historian, given to a just weighing of evidence, would +have been startled to find how invariably the scales tipped; how +lightly an historical Mont, born of a miracle, crowned by the noblest +buildings, a pious Mecca for saints and kings innumerable, shot up +like feathers in lightness when overweighted by the modern realities +of a perfectly appointed inn, the cooking and eating of an omelet of +omelets, and the all-conquering charms of Madame Poulard. + +The fog of doubt thickened as, day after day, the same scenes were +enacted; when one beheld all sorts of conditions of men similarly +affected; when, again and again, the potentiality in the human magnet +was proved true. Doubt turned to conviction, at the last, that the +holy shrine of St. Michael had, in truth, been violated; that the Mont +had been desecrated; that the latter exists now solely as a setting +for a pearl of an inn; and that within the shrine--it is Madame +Poulard herself who fills the niche!... + +Such a variety of brides as come up to the Mont! You could have your +choice, at the midday meal, of almost any nationality, age, or color. +The attempt among these bridal couples to maintain the distant air +of a finished indifference only made their secret the more open. +The British phlegm, on such a journey, did not always serve as a +convenient mask; the flattering, timid glance, the ripple of tender +whispers, and the furtive touching of fingers beneath the table, made +even these English couples a part of the great human marrying family; +their superiority to their fellows would return, doubtless, when the +honey had dried out of their moon. + +The best of our adventures into this tender country were with the +French bridal tourists; they were certain to be delightfully human. As +we had had occasion to remark before, they were off, like ourselves, +on a little voyage of discovery; they had come to make acquaintance +with the being to whom they were mated for life. Various degrees of +progress could be read in the air and manner of the hearty young +"bourgeoises" and their paler or even ruddier partners, as they +crunched their bread or sipped their thin wine. Some had only entered +as yet upon the path of inquiry; others had already passed the +mile-stone of criticism; and still others had left the earth and were +floating in full azure of intoxication. Of the many wedding parties +that sat down to breakfast, we soon made the commonplace discovery +that the more plebeian the company, the more certain-orbed appeared to +be the promise of happiness.... + +Madame Poulard's air with this, her world, was as full of tact as with +the tourists. Many of the older women would give her the Norman kiss, +solemnly, as if the salute were a part of the ceremony attendant on +the eating of a wedding breakfast at Mont St. Michel. There would be +a three times' clapping of the wrinkled or the ruddy peasant cheeks +against the sides of Madame Poulard's daintier, more delicately +modeled face. Then all would take their seats noisily at the table. It +was Madame Poulard who would then bring us news of the party. At the +end of a fortnight Charm and I felt ourselves to be in possession of +the hidden and secret reasons for all the marrying that had been done +along the coast that year.... + +One morning, as we looked toward Pontorson, a small black cloud +appeared to be advancing across the bay. The day was windy; the sky +was crowded with huge white mountains--round, luminous clouds that +moved in stately sweeps. And the sea was the color one loves to see +in an earnest woman's eye, the dark blue sapphire that turns to +blue-gray. This was a setting that made that particular cloud, making +such slow progress across from the shore, all the more conspicuous. +Gradually, as the black mass neared the dike, it began to break and +separate; and we saw plainly enough that the scattering particles were +human beings. + +It was, in point of fact, a band of pilgrims; a peasant pilgrimage was +coming up to the Mont. In wagons, in market carts, in "char-á-bancs," +in donkey carts, on the backs of monster Percherons--the pilgrimage +moved in slow processional dignity across the dike. Some of the +younger black gowns and blue blouses attempted to walk across over the +sands; we could see the girls sitting down on the edge of the shore, +to take off their shoes and stockings and to tuck up their thick +skirts. When they finally started they were like unto so many huge +cheeses hoisted on stilts. The bare legs plunged boldly forward, +keeping ahead of the slower-moving peasant lads; the girls' bravery +served them till they reached the fringe of the incoming tide; not +until their knees went under water did they forego their venture. A +higher wave came in, deluging the ones farthest out; and then ensued a +scampering toward the dike and a climbing up of the stone embankment. +The old route across the sands, that had been the only one known to +kings and barons, was not good enough for a modern Norman peasant. The +religion of personal comfort has spread even as far as the fields. + +Other aspects of the hill, on this day of the pilgrimage, made those +older dead-and-gone bands of pilgrims astonishingly real. On the tops +of bastions, in the clefts on the rocks, beneath the glorious walls +of La Merveille, or perilously lodged on the crumbling cornice of a +tourelle, numerous rude altars had been hastily erected. The crude +blues and scarlets of banners were fluttering, like so many pennants, +in the light breeze. Beneath the improvised altar-roofs--strips of gay +cloth stretched across poles stuck into the ground--were groups not +often seen in these less fervent centuries. + +High up, mounted on the natural pulpit, formed of a bit of rock, with +the rude altar before him with its bits of scarlet cloth covered with +cheap lace, stood or knelt the priest. Against the wide blue of the +open heaven his figure took on an imposing splendor of mien and an +unmodern impressiveness of action. Beneath him knelt, with bowed +heads, the groups of the peasant pilgrims; the women, with murmuring +lips and clasped hands, their strong, deeply-seamed faces outlined +with the precision of a Francesco painting against the gray background +of a giant mass of wall or the amazing breadth of a vast sea-view; +children, squat and chubby, with bulging cheeks starting from the +close-fitting French "bonnet"; and the peasant-farmers, mostly of the +older varieties, whose stiffened or rheumatic knees and knotty hands +made their kneeling real acts of devotional zeal. + +There were a dozen such altars and groups scattered over the +perpendicular slant of the hill. The singing of the choir boys, rising +like skylark notes into the clear space of heaven, would be floating +from one rocky-nested chapel, while below, in the one beneath which +we, for a moment, were resting, there would be the groaning murmur of +the peasant groups in prayer. + +Three times did the vision of St. Michael appear to Saint Aubert, in +his dream, commanding the latter to erect a church on the heights of +Mont St. Michel to his honor. How many a time must the modern pilgrim +traverse the stupendous mass that has grown out of that command before +he is quite certain that the splendor of Mont St. Michel is real, and +not part of a dream! + +Whether one enters through the dark magnificence of the great portals +of the Châtelet; whether one mounts the fortified stairway, passing +into the Salle des Gardes, passing onward from dungeon to fortified +bridge to gain the abbatial residence; whether one leaves the vaulted +splendor of oratories for aërial passageways, only to emerge beneath +the majestic roof of the Cathedral--that marvel of the Early Norman, +ending in the Gothic choir of the fifteenth century; or, as one +penetrates into the gloom of the mighty dungeons where heroes, and +brothers of kings, and saints, and scientists have died their long +death--as one gropes through the black night of the crypt, where a +faint, mysterious glint of light falls aslant the mystical face of the +Black Virgin; as one climbs to the light beneath the ogive arches +of the Aumônerie, through the wide-lit aisles of the Salle des +Chevaliers, past the slender Gothic columns of the Refectory, up at +last to the crowning glory of all the glories of La Merveille, to the +exquisitely beautiful colonnades of the open Cloister--the impressions +and emotions excited by these ecclesiastical and military masterpieces +are ever the same, however many times one may pass them in review. A +charm indefinable, but replete with subtle attractions, lurks in every +one of these dungeons. + +The great halls have a power to make one retraverse their space I have +yet to find under other vaulted chambers. The grass that is set, +like a green jewel, in the arabesques of the cloister, is a bit of +greensward the feet press with a different tread to that which skips +lightly over other strips of turf. And the world, that one looks out +upon through prison bars, that is so gloriously arched in the arm of +a flying buttress, or that lies prone at your feet from the dizzy +heights of the rock clefts, is not the world in which you, daily, do +your petty stretch of toil, in which you laugh and ache, sorrow, sigh, +and go down to your grave. + +The secret of this deep attraction may lie in the fact of one's being +in a world that is built on a height. Much, doubtless, of the charm +lies, also, in the reminders of all the human life that, since the +early dawn of history, has peopled this hill. One has the sense +of living at a tremendously high mental pressure; of impressions, +emotions, sensations crowding upon the mind; of one's whole meager +outfit of memory, of poetic equipment, and of imaginative furnishing +being unequal to the demand made by even the most hurried tour of the +great buildings, or the most flitting review of the noble massing of +the clouds and the hilly seas. + +The very emptiness and desolation of all the buildings on the hill +help to accentuate their splendor. The stage is magnificently set; +the curtain, even, is lifted. One waits for the coming on of kingly +shapes, for the pomp of trumpets, for the pattering of a mighty host. +But, behold, all is still. And one sits and sees only a shadowy +company pass and repass across that glorious mise-en-scéne. + +For, in a certain sense, I know no other medieval mass of buildings as +peopled as are these. The dead shapes seem to fill the vast halls. The +Salle des Chevaliers is crowded, daily, with a brilliant gathering of +knights, who sweep the trains of their white damask mantles, edged +with ermine, over the dulled marble of the floor; two by two they +enter the hall; the golden shells on their mantles make the eyes +blink, as the groups gather about the great chimneys, or wander +through the column-broken space. + +Behind this dazzling cortege, up the steep steps of the narrow +streets, swarm other groups--the medieval pilgrim host that rushes +into cathedral aisles, and that climbs the ramparts to watch the +stately procession as it makes its way toward the church portals. + +There are still other figures that fill every empty niche and deserted +watch-tower. Through the lancet windows of the abbatial gateways the +yeomanry of the vassal villages are peering; it is the weary time of +the Hundred Years' War, and all France is watching, through sentry +windows, for the approach of her dread enemy. On the shifting sands +below, as on brass, how indelibly fixt are the names of the hundred +and twenty-nine knights whose courage drove, step by step, over +that treacherous surface, the English invaders back to their island +strongholds. + + + + +CAEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +Let us begin, therefore, with the Abbey of St. Stephen; for it is the +noblest and most interesting on many accounts. It is called by the +name of that saint, inasmuch as there stood formerly a chapel, on the +same site, dedicated to him. The present building was completed and +solemnly dedicated by William the Conqueror, in the presence of his +wife, his two sons Robert and William, his favorite, Archbishop +Lanfranc; John, Archbishop of Rouen, and Thomas, Archbishop of +York--toward the year 1080; but I strongly suspect, from the present +prevailing character of the architecture, that nothing more than the +west front and the towers upon which the spires rest remain of its +ancient structure. The spires, as the Abbé De La Rue conjectures, and +as I should also have thought, are about two centuries later than the +towers. + +The outsides of the side aisles appear to be of the thirteenth, rather +than of the end of the eleventh, century. The first exterior view of +the west front, and of the towers, is extremely interesting from the +gray and clear tint, as well as excellent quality, of the stone, +which, according to Huet, was brought partly from Vaucelle and partly +from Allemagne. One of the corner abutments of one of the towers has +fallen down and a great portion of what remains seem to indicate rapid +decay. The whole stands indeed greatly in need of reparation. Ducarel, +if I remember rightly, has made, of this whole front, a sort of +elevation as if it were intended for a wooden model to work by, having +all the stiffness and precision of an erection of forty-eight hours' +standing only. The central tower is of very stunted dimensions, and +overwhelmed by a roof in the form of an extinguisher. This, in fact, +was the consequence of the devastations of the Calvinists; who +absolutely sapped the foundation of the tower, with the hope of +overwhelming the whole choir in ruin--but a part only of their +malignant object was accomplished. The component parts of the eastern +extremity are strangely and barbarously miscellaneous. However, no +good commanding exterior view can be obtained from the place, or +confined square, opposite the towers. + +But let us return to the west front; and, opening the unfastened green +baize covered door, enter softly and silently into the venerable +interior--sacred even to the feelings of Englishmen. Of this interior, +very much is changed from its original character. The side aisles +retain their flattened arched roofs and pillars; and in the nave you +observe those rounded pilasters--or altorilievo-like pillars--running +from bottom to top, which are to be seen in the Abbey of Jumieges. The +capitals of these long pillars are comparatively of modern date. + +To the left on entrance, within a side chapel, is the burial place +of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. The tombstone attesting her +interment is undoubtedly of the time. Generally speaking, the interior +is cold, and dull of effect. The side chapels, of which not fewer than +sixteen encircle the choir, have the discordant accompaniments of +Grecian balustrades to separate them from the choir and nave. + +To the right of the choir, in the sacristy, I think, is hung the huge +portrait, in oil, within a black and gilt frame, of which Ducarel has +published an engraving, on the supposition of its being the portrait +of William the Conqueror. But nothing can be more ridiculous than +such a conclusion. In the first place, the picture itself, which is +a palpable copy, can not be older than a century; and in the second +place, were it an original performance, it could not be older than the +time of Francis I. In fact, it purports to have been executed as a +faithful copy of the figure of King William, seen by the Cardinals in +1522, who were seized with a sacred frenzy to take a peep at the body +as it might exist at that time. The costume of the oil painting is +evidently that of the period of our Henry VIII.; and to suppose that +the body of William--even had it remained in so surprisingly perfect +a state as Ducarel intimates, after an interment of upward of four +hundred years--could have presented such a costume, when, from +Ducarel's own statement, another whole-length representation of the +same person is totally different--and more decidedly of the character +of William's time--is really quite a reproach to any antiquary who +plumes himself upon the possession even of common sense. + +In the middle of the choir, and just before the high altar, the body +of the Conqueror was entombed with great pomp; and a monument erected +to his memory of the most elaborate and costly description. Nothing +now remains but a flat, black marble slab, with a short inscription, +of quite a recent date.... + +You must now attend me to the most interesting public building, +perhaps all things considered, which is to be seen at Caen. I mean +the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, or L'Abbaye aux Dames. This abbey was +founded by the wife of the Conqueror, about the same time that William +erected that of St. Stephen. Ducarel's description of it, which I +have just seen in a copy of the "Anglo-Norman Antiquities," in a +bookseller's shop, is sufficiently meager. His plates are also +sufficiently miserable: but things are strangely altered since his +time. The nave of the church is occupied by a manufactory for making +cordage, or twine: and upward of a hundred lads are now busied in +their flaxen occupations, where formerly the nun knelt before the +cross, or was occupied in auricular confession. + +The entrance at the western extremity is entirely stopt up; but the +exterior gives manifest proof of an antiquity equal to that of the +Abbey of St. Stephen. The upper part of the towers are palpably of the +fifteenth or, rather, of the early part of the sixteenth century. I +had no opportunity of judging of the neat pavement of the floor of the +nave, in white and black marble, as noticed by Ducarel, on account +of the occupation of this part of the building by the manufacturing +children; but I saw some very ancient tombstones, one, I think, of the +twelfth century, which had been removed from the nave or side aisles, +and were placed against the sides of the north transept. + +The nave is entirely walled up from the transepts, but the choir is +fortunately preserved; and a more perfect and interesting specimen +of its kind, of the same antiquity, is perhaps nowhere to be seen +in Normandy. All the monuments as well as the altars, described by +Ducarel, are now taken away. Having ascended a stone staircase, we got +into the upper part of the choir, above the first row of pillars--and +walked along the wall. This was rather adventurous, you will say; but +a more adventurous spirit of curiosity had nearly proved fatal to me; +for, on quitting daylight, we pursued a winding stone staircase, in +our way to the central tower--to enjoy from hence a view of the town. +I almost tremble as I relate it. + +There had been put up a sort of temporary wooden staircase, leading +absolutely to nothing; or, rather, to a dark void space. I happened +to be foremost in ascending, yet groping in the dark--with the guide +luckily close behind me. Having reached the topmost step, I was +raising my foot to a supposed higher or succeeding step--but there was +none. A depth of eighteen feet at least was below me. The guide +caught my coat, as I was about to lose my balance, and roared out, +"Wait--Stop!" The least balance or inclination, one way or the other, +is sufficient, upon these critical occasions; when luckily, from his +catching my coat, and pulling me, in consequence, slightly backward, +my fall and my life, were equally saved! I have reason from henceforth +to remember the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + +I gained the top of the central tower, which is not of equal altitude +with those of the western extremity, and from hence surveyed the town, +as well as the drizzling rain would permit. I saw enough, however, +to convince me that the site of this abbey is fine and commanding. +Indeed, it stands nearly upon the highest ground in the town. Ducarel +had not the glorious ambition to mount to the top of the tower; +nor did he even possess that most commendable of all species of +architectural curiosity, a wish to visit the crypt. Thus, in either +extremity, I evinced a more laudable spirit of enterprise than did +my old-fashioned predecessor. Accordingly, from the summit, you must +accompany me to the lowest depth of the building. I descended by the +same somewhat intricate route, and I took especial care to avoid all +"temporary wooden staircase." The crypt, beneath the choir, is perhaps +of yet greater interest and beauty than the choir itself. Within an +old, very old, stone coffin--at the further circular end--are the +pulverized remains of one of the earliest abbesses. I gazed around +with mixed sensations of veneration and awe, and threw myself back +into centuries past, fancying that the shrouded figure of Maltilda +herself glided by, with a look as if to approve of my antiquarian +enthusiasm! + +Having gratified my curiosity by a careful survey of the subterranean +abode, I revisited the regions of daylight, and made toward the large +building, now a manufactory, which in Ducarel's time had been a +nunnery. The revolution has swept away every human being in the +character of a nun; but the director of the manufactory showed me, +with great civility, some relics of old crosses, rings, veils, +lacrimatories, etc., which had been taken from the crypt I had +recently visited. These relics savored of considerable antiquity. Tom +Hearne would have set about proving that they must have belonged to +Matilda herself; but I will have neither the presumption nor the merit +of attempting this proof. They seemed, indeed, to have undergone half +a dozen decompositions. Upon the whole, if our Antiquarian Society, +after having exhausted the cathedrals of their own country, should +ever think of perpetuating the principal ecclesiastical edifices of +Normandy, by means of the art of engraving, let them begin their +labors with the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + + + + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The river is so fine that, before going to Bayonne, I have come down +as far as Royan. Ships heavy with white sails ascend slowly on both +sides of the boat. At each gust of wind they incline like idle birds, +lifting their long wings and showing their black bellies. They run +slantwise, then come back; one would say that they felt the better for +being in this great fresh-water harbor; they loiter in it and enjoy +its peace after leaving the wrath and inclemency of the ocean. + +The banks, fringed with pale verdure, glide right and left, far +away to the verge of heaven; the river is broad like a sea; at this +distance you might think you had seen two hedges; the trees dimly lift +their delicate shapes in a robe of bluish gauze; here and there great +pines raise their umbrellas on the vapory horizon, where all is +confused and vanishing; there is an inexpressible sweetness in these +first hues of the timid day, softened still by the fog which exhales +from the deep river. + +As for the river itself, its waters stretch out joyous and splendid; +the rising sun pours upon its breast a long streamlet of gold; the +breeze covers it with scales; its eddies stretch themselves, and +tremble like an awaking serpent, and, when the billow heaves them, you +seem to see the striped flanks, the tawny cuirass of a leviathan. + +Indeed, at such moments it seems that the water must live and feel; it +has a strange look, when it comes, transparent and somber, to stretch +itself upon a beach of pebbles; it turns about them as if uneasy and +irritated; it beats them with its wavelets; it covers them, then +retires, then comes back again with a sort of languid writhing and +mysterious lovingness; its snaky eddies, its little crests suddenly +beaten down or broken, its wave, sloping, shining, then all at once +blackened, resembles the flashes of passion in an impatient mother, +who hovers incessantly and anxiously about her children, and covers +them, not knowing what she wants and what fears. + +Presently a cloud has covered the heavens, and the wind has risen. +In a moment the river has assumed the aspect of a crafty and savage +animal. It hollowed itself, and showed its livid belly; it came +against the keel with convulsive starts, hugged it, and dashed against +it, as if to try its force; as far as one could see, its waves lifted +themselves and crowded together, like the muscles upon a chest; over +the flank of the waves passed flashes with sinister smiles; the mast +groaned, and the trees bent shivering, like a nerveless crowd before +the wrath of a fearful beast. Then all was hushed; the sun had burst +forth, the waves were smoothed, you now see only a laughing expanse; +spun out over this polished back a thousand greenish tresses sported +wantonly; the light rested on it, like a diaphanous mantle; it +followed the supple movements and the twisting of those liquid arms; +it folded around them, behind them, its radiant, azure robe; it took +their caprices and their mobile colors; the river meanwhile, slumbrous +in its great, peaceful bed, was stretched out at the feet of the +hills, which looked down upon it, like it immovable and eternal. + +The boat is made fast to a boom, under a pile of white houses; it +is Royan. Here already are the sea and the dunes; the right of the +village is buried under a mass of sand; there are crumbling hills, +little dreary valleys, where you are lost as if in the desert; no +sound, no movement, no life; scanty, leafless vegetation dots moving +soil, and its filaments fall like sickly hairs; small shells, white +and empty, cling to these in chaplets, and, wherever the foot is set, +they crack with a sound like a cricket's chirp; this place is the +ossuary of some wretched maritime tribe. + +One tree alone can live here, the pine, a wild creature, inhabitant of +the forests and sterile coasts; there is a whole colony of them here; +they crowd together fraternally, and cover the sand with their brown +lamels; the monotonous breeze which sifts through them forever awakes +their murmur; thus they chant in a plaintive fashion, but with a far +softer and more harmonious voice than the other trees; this voice +resembles the grating of the cicadas when in August they sing with all +their heart among the stalks of the ripened wheat. + +At the left of the village, a footpath winds to the summit of a wasted +bank, among billows of standing grasses. The river is so broad that +the other shore is not distinguishable. The sea, its neighbor, imparts +its influence; its long undulations come one after another against the +coast, and pour their little cascades of foam upon the sand; then the +water retires, running down the slope until it meets a new wave coming +up which covers it; these billows are never wearied, and their come +and go remind one of the regular breathing of a slumbering child. For +night has fallen, the tints of purple grow brown and fade away. The +river goes to rest in the soft, vague shadow; scarcely, at long +intervals, a remnant glimpse is reflected from a slanting wave; +obscurity drowns everything in its vapory dust; the drowsy eye vainly +searches in this mist some visible point, and distinguishes at last, +like a dim star, the lighthouse of Cordouan. + +The next evening a fresh sea-breeze has brought us to Bordeaux. +The enormous city heaps its monumental houses along the river like +bastions; the red sky is embattled by their coping. They on one hand, +the bridge on the other, protect, with a double line, the port where +the vessels are crowded together like a flock of gulls; those graceful +hulls, those tapering masts, those sails swollen or floating, weave +the labyrinth of their movements and forms upon the magnificent purple +of the sunset. The sun sinks into the river; the black rigging, the +round hulls, stand out against its conflagration, and look like jewels +of jet set in gold. + +Around Bordeaux are smiling hills, varied horizons, fresh valleys, +a river people by incessant navigation, a succession of cities and +villages harmoniously planted upon the declivities or in the plains, +everywhere the richest verdure, the luxury of nature and civilization, +the earth and man vying with each other to enrich and decorate the +happiest valley of France. Below Bordeaux a flat soil, marshes, +sand; a land which goes on growing poorer, villages continually less +frequent, ere long the desert. I like the desert as well. + +Pine woods pass to the right and to the left, silent and wan. Each +tree bears on its side the scar of wounds where the woodmen have set +flowing the resinous blood which chokes it; the powerful liquor still +ascends into its limbs with the sap, exhales by its slimy shoots and +by its cleft skin; a sharp aromatic odor fills the air. + +Beyond, the monotonous plain of the ferns, bathed in light, stretches +away as far as the eye can reach. Their green fans expand beneath the +sun which colors, but does not cause them to fade. Upon the horizon a +few scattered trees lift their slender columns. You see now and then +the silhouette of a herdsman on his stilts, inert and standing like a +sick heron. Wild horses are grazing half hid in the herbage. As the +train passes, they abruptly lift their great startled eyes and stand +motionless, uneasy at the noise that has troubled their solitude. + +Man does not fare well here--he dies or degenerates; but it is the +country of animals, and especially of plants. They abound in this +desert, free, certain of living. Our pretty, cut-up valleys are but +poor things alongside of these immense spaces, leagues upon leagues +of marshy or dry vegetation, a level country, where nature, elsewhere +troubled and tortured by men, still vegetates, as in primeval days, +with a calm equal to its grandeur. The sun needs these savannas in +order properly to spread out its light; from the rising exhalation, +you feel that the whole plain is fermenting under its force; and the +eyes, filled by the limitless horizon, divine the secret labor by +which this ocean of rank verdure renews and nourishes itself. + + + + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his mother, written from the monastery +in 1739.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +We took the longest road, which lies through Savoy, on purpose to see +a famous monastery, called the Grande Chartreuse, and had no reason to +think our time lost. After having traveled seven days very slow (for +we did not change horses, it being impossible for a chaise to go fast +in these roads), we arrived at a little village, among the mountains +of Savoy, called Echelles; from thence we proceeded on horses, who are +used to the way, to the mountain of the Chartreuse. + +It is six miles to the top; the road runs winding up it, commonly not +six feet broad; on one hand is the rock, with woods of pine-trees +hanging overhead; on the other, a monstrous precipice, almost +perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls a torrent that, sometimes +tumbling among the fragments of stone that have fallen from on high, +and sometimes precipitating itself down vast descents with a noise +like thunder, which is made still greater by the echo from the +mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most solemn, the +most romantic, and the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld. + +Add to this the strange views made by the crags and cliffs on the +other hand; the cascades that in many places throw themselves from the +very summit down into the vale, and the river below; and many other +particulars impossible to describe; you will conclude we had no +occasion to repent our plans. This place St. Bruno chose to retire +to, and upon its very top founded the aforesaid convent, which is the +superior of the whole order. When we came there, the two fathers, who +are commissioned to entertain strangers (for the rest must neither +speak one to another nor to any one else) received us very kindly; and +set before us a repast of dried fish, eggs, butter, and fruits, all +excellent in their kind, and extremely neat. They prest us to spend +the night there, and to stay some days with them; but this we could +not do, so they led us about their house, which is, you must think, +like a little city; for there are 100 fathers, besides 300 servants, +that make their clothes, grind their corn, press their wine, and do +everything among themselves. + +The whole is quite orderly and simple; nothing of finery; but the +wonderful decency, and the strange situation, more than supply the +place of it. In the evening we descended by the same way, passing +through many clouds that were then forming themselves on the +mountain's side. + + + + +CARCASSONNE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Little Tour in France." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. +Copyright, 1884.] + +BY HENRY JAMES + + +When I say the town, I mean the towns; there being two at Carcassonne, +perfectly distinct, and each with excellent claims to the title. They +have settled the matter between them, however, and the elder, the +shrine of pilgrimage, to which the other is but a stepping-stone, or +even, as I may say, a humble doormat, takes the name of the Cité. + +You see nothing of the Cité from the station; it is masked by the +agglomeration of the "ville-basse," which is relatively (but only +relatively) new. A wonderful avenue of acacias leads to it from +the station--leads past it, rather, and conducts you to a little +high-backed bridge over the Aude, beyond which, detached and erect, a +distinct medieval silhouette, the Cité presents itself. Like a rival +shop, on the invidious side of a street, it has "no connection" with +the establishment across the way, altho the two places are united +(if old Carcassonne may be said to be united to anything) by a vague +little rustic faubourg. Perched on its solid pedestal, the perfect +detachment of the Cité is what first strikes you. + +To take leave, without delay, of the "ville-basse," I may say that +the splendid acacias I have mentioned flung a summerish dusk over +the place, in which a few scattered remains of stout walls and big +bastions looked venerable and picturesque. A little boulevard winds +around the town, planted with trees and garnished with more benches +than I ever saw provided by a soft-hearted municipality. This +precinct had a warm, lazy, dusty, southern look, as if the people sat +out-of-doors a great deal, and wandered about in the stillness of +summer nights. The figure of the elder town, at these hours, must be +ghostly enough on its neighboring hill. + +Even by day it has the air of a vignette of Gustave Doré, a couplet +of Victor Hugo. It is almost too perfect--as if it were an enormous +model, placed on a big green table at a museum. A steep, paved way, +grass-grown like all roads where vehicles never pass, stretches up +to it in the sun. It has a double enceinte, complete outer walls and +complete inner (these, elaborately fortified, are the more curious); +and this congregation of ramparts, towers, bastions, battlements, +barbicans, is as fantastic and romantic as you please. The approach I +mention here leads to the gate that looks toward Toulouse--the Porte +de l'Aude. There is a second, on the other side, called, I believe, +Porte Narbonnaise, a magnificent gate, flanked with towers thick and +tall, defended by elaborate outworks; and these two apertures alone +admit you to the place--putting aside a small sally-port, protected by +a great bastion, on the quarter that looks toward the Pyrenees.... + +I should lose no time in saying that restoration is the great mark of +the Cité. M. Viollet-le-Duc has worked his will upon it, put it into +perfect order, revived the fortifications in every detail. I do not +pretend to judge the performance, carried out on a scale and in +a spirit which really impose themselves on the imagination. Few +architects have had such a chance, and M. Viollet-le-Duc must have +been the envy of the whole restoring fraternity. The image of a more +crumbling Carcassonne rises in the mind, and there is no doubt that +forty years ago the place was more affecting. On the other hand, as we +see it to-day, it is a wonderful evocation; and if there is a great +deal of new in the old, there is plenty of old in the new. The +repaired crenellations, the inserted patches, of the walls of the +outer circle sufficiently express this commixture. + +Carcassonne dates from the Roman occupation of Gaul. The place +commanded one of the great roads into Spain, and in the fourth century +Romans and Franks ousted each other from such a point of vantage. In +the year 436, Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, superseded both these +parties; and it is during his occupation that the inner enceinte +was raised upon the ruins of the Roman fortifications. Most of +the Visigoth towers that are still erect are seated upon Roman +substructions which appear to have been formed hastily, probably +at the moment of the Frankish invasion. The authors of these solid +defenses, tho occasionally disturbed, held Carcassonne and the +neighboring country, in which they had established their kingdom of +Septimania, till the year 713, when they were expelled by the Moors +of Spain, who ushered in an unillumined period of four centuries, of +which no traces remain. + +These facts I derived from a source no more recondite than a +pamphlet by M. Viollet-le-Duc--a very luminous description of the +fortifications, which you may buy from the accomplished custodian. The +writer makes a jump to the year 1209, when Carcassonne, then forming +part of the realm of the viscounts of Béziers and infected by the +Albigensian heresy, was besieged, in the name of the Pope, by the +terrible Simon de Montfort and his army of crusaders. Simon was +accustomed to success, and the town succumbed in the course of a +fortnight. Thirty-one years later, having passed into the hands of +the King of France, it was again besieged by the young Raymond de +Trincavel, the last of the viscounts of Béziers; and of this siege M. +Viollet-le-Duc gives a long and minute account, which the visitor who +has a head for such things may follow, with the brochure in hand, on +the fortifications themselves. + +The young Raymond de Trineavel, baffled and repulsed, retired at the +end of twenty-four days. Saint Louis and Philip the Bold, in the +thirteenth century, multiplied the defenses of Carcassonne, which was +one of the bulwarks of their kingdom on the Spanish quarter; and from +this time forth, being regarded as impregnable, the place had nothing +to fear. It was not even attacked; and when, in 1355, Edward the Black +Prince marched into it, the inhabitants had opened the gates to the +conqueror before whom all Languedoc was prostrate. I am not one of +those who, as I said just now, have a head for such things, and having +extracted these few facts had made all the use of M. Viollet-le-Duc's +pamphlet of which I was capable.... + +My obliging friend the "mad lover" [of la Cité] handed me over to the +doorkeeper of the citadel. I should add that I was at first committed +to the wife of this functionary, a stout peasant woman, who conducted +me to a postern door and ushered me into the presence of her husband. + +This brilliant, this suggestive warden of Carcassonne marched us about +for an hour, haranguing, explaining, illustrating, as he went; it was +a complete little lecture, such as might have been delivered at the +Lowell Institute, on the manner in which a first-rate "place forte" +used to be attacked and defended. Our peregrinations made it very +clear that Carcassonne was impregnable; it is impossible to imagine, +without having seen them, such refinements of immurement, such +ingenuities of resistance. We passed along the battlements and +"chemins de ronde," ascended and descended towers, crawled under +arches, peered out of loopholes, lowered ourselves into dungeons, +halted in all sorts of tight places, while the purpose of something or +other was described to us. + +It was very curious, very interesting; above all, it was very +pictorial, and involved perpetual peeps into the little crooked, +crumbling, sunny, grassy, empty Cité. In places, as you stand upon +it, the great towered and embattled enceinte produces an illusion; it +looks as if it were still equipped and defended. One vivid challenge, +at any rate, it flings down before you; it calls upon you to make +up your mind on the matter of restoration. For myself, I have no +hesitation; I prefer in every case the ruined, however ruined, to the +reconstructed, however splendid. What is left is more precious than +what is added; the one is history, the other is fiction; and I like +the former the better of the two--it is so much more romantic. One is +positive, so far as it goes; the other fills up the void with things +more dead than the void itself, inasmuch as they have never had life. +After that I am free to say that the restoration of Carcassonne is a +splendid achievement. The little custodian dismissed us at last, +after having, as usual, inducted us into the inevitable repository of +photographs. + +After leaving it and passing out of the two circles of walls, I +treated myself, in the most infatuated manner, to another walk round +the Cité. It is certainly this general impression that is most +striking--the impression from outside, where the whole place detaches +itself at once from the landscape. In the warm southern dusk it looked +more than ever like a city in a fairy-tale. To make the thing perfect, +a white young moon, in its first quarter, came out and hung just over +the dark silhouette. It was hard to come away--to incommode one's self +for anything so vulgar as a railway train; I would gladly have spent +the evening in revolving round the walls of Carcassonne. + + + + +BIARRITZ[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +If Bayonne is the center of commercial affairs for the Basque country, +its citizens must, at any rate, go to Biarritz if they want to live +"the elegant and worldly life." The prosperity and luxury of Biarritz +are very recent; it goes back only to the Second Empire, when it was +but a village of a thousand souls or less, mostly fishermen and women. + +The railway and the automobile omnibus make communication with Bayonne +to-day easy, but formerly folk came and went on a donkey side-saddled +for two, arranged back to back, like the seats of an Irish +jaunting-car. If the weight were unequal, a balance was struck by +adding cobblestones on one side or the other, the patient donkey not +minding in the least. + +This astonishing mode of conveyance was known as a "cacolet," and +replaced the "voitures" and "fiacres" of other resorts. An occasional +example may still be seen, but the "jolies Basquaises" who conducted +them have given way to sturdy, barelegged Basque boys--as picturesque, +perhaps, but not so entrancing to the view. To voyage "en cacolet" was +the necessity of our grandfathers; for us it is an amusement only. + +Napoleon III., or rather Eugénie, his spouse, was the faithful +godfather of Biarritz as a resort. The Villa Eugénie is no more; it +was first transformed into a hotel and later destroyed by fire; but it +was the first of a great battery of villas and hotels which has made +Biarritz so great that the popularity of Monte Carlo is steadily +waning. Biarritz threatens to become even more popular; some sixteen +thousand visitors came to Biarritz in 1899, but there were thirty-odd +thousand in 1903; while the permanent population has risen from 2,700 +in the days of the Second Empire to 12,800 in 1901. The tiny railway +from Bayonne to Biarritz transported half a million travelers twenty +years ago, and a million and a half, or nearly that number, in 1903; +the rest, being millionaires, or gypsies, came in automobiles or +caravans. These figures tell eloquently of the prosperity of this +"villégiature impériale." + +The great beauty of Biarritz is its setting. At Monte Carlo +the setting is also beautiful, ravishingly beautiful, but the +architecture, the terrace, Monaco's rock, and all the rest combine +to make the pleasing "ensemble." At Biarritz the architecture of its +Casino and the great hotels is not of an epoch-making beauty, neither +are they so delightfully placed. It is the surrounding stage setting +that is so lovely. Here the jagged shore line, the blue waves, the +ample horizon seaward, are what make it all so charming. + +Biarritz as a watering-place has an all-the-year-round clientèle; in +summer the Spanish and the French, succeeded in winter by Americans, +Germans, and English--with a sprinkling of Russians at all times. +Biarritz, like Pau, aside from being a really delightful winter +resort, where one may escape the rigors of murky November to March in +London, is becoming afflicted with a bad case of "sport fever." There +are all kinds of sports, some of them reputable enough in their place, +but the comic-opera fox-hunting which takes place at Pau and Biarritz +is not one of them.... + +The picturesque "Plage des Basques" lies to the south of the town, +bordered with high cliffs, which in turn are surmounted with terraces +of villas. The charm of it all is incomparable. To the northwest +stretches the limpid horizon of the Bay of Biscay, and to the +south the snowy summits of the Pyrenees, and the adorable bays of +Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Fontarabie, while behind, and to the eastward, +lies the quaint country of the Basques, and the mountain trails into +Spain in all their savage hardiness. + +The off-shore translucent waters of the Gulf of Gascony were the +"Sinus Aquitanicus" of the ancients. A colossal rampart of rocks and +sand dunes stretches all the way from the Gironde to the +Bidassoa, without a harbor worthy of the name save at Bayonne and +Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Here the Atlantic waves pound, in time of storm, +with all the fury with which they break upon the rocky coasts of +Brittany further north. Perhaps this would not be so, but for the fact +that the Iberian coast to the southward runs almost at right angles +with that of Gascony. As it is, while the climate is mild, Biarritz +and the other cities on the coasts of the Gulf of Gascony have a fair +proportion of what sailors, the world over, call "rough weather." + +The waters of the Gascon Gulf are not always angry; most frequently +they are calm and blue, vivid with a translucence worthy of those of +Capri, and it is this that makes the beach at Biarritz one of the most +popular sea-bathing resorts in France to-day. It is a fashionable +watering-place, but it is also, perhaps, the most beautifully disposed +city to be found in all the round of the European coast line, its +slightly curving slope dominated by a background terrace, +decorative in itself, but delightfully set off with its fringe of +dwelling-houses, hotels, and casinos. Ostend is superbly laid out, +but it is dreary; Monte Carlo is beautiful, but it is ultra; while +Trouville is constrained and affected. Biarritz has the best features +of all these.... Saint-Jean-de-Luz had a population of ten thousand +two centuries ago; to-day it has three thousand, and most of these +take in boarders, or in one way or another cater to the hordes of +visitors who have made it--or would, if they could have supprest its +quiet Basque charm of coloring and character--a little Brighton. + +Not all is lost, but four hundred houses were razed in the +mid-eighteenth century by a tempest, and the stable population began +to creep away; only with recent years an influx of strangers has +arrived for a week's or a month's stay to take their places--if idling +butterflies of fashion or imaginary invalids can really take the place +of a hardworking, industrious colony of fishermen, who thought no more +of sailing away to the South Antarctic or the banks of Newfoundland in +an eighty-ton whaler than they did of seining sardines from a shallop +in the Gulf of Gascony at their doors. + + + + +DOWN THE SAONE TO LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pencillings by the Way." Published by Charles +Scribner, 1852.] + +BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + + +The Saone is about the size of the Mohawk, but not half so beautiful; +at least for the greater part of its course. Indeed, you can hardly +compare American with European rivers, for the charm is of another +description, quite. With us it is nature only, here it is almost +all art. Our rivers are lovely, because the outline of the shore is +graceful, and particularly because the vegetation is luxuriant. The +hills are green, the foliage deep and lavish, the rocks grown over +with vines or moss, the mountains in the distance covered with pines +and other forest-trees; everything is wild, and nothing looks bare or +sterile. The rivers of France are crowned on every height with ruins, +and in the bosom of every valley lies a cluster of picturesque stone +cottages; but the fields are naked, and there are no trees; the +mountains are barren and brown, and everything looks as if the +dwellings had been deserted by the people, and nature had at the same +time gone to decay. + +I can conceive nothing more melancholy than the views upon the Saone, +seen, as I saw them, tho vegetation is out everywhere, and the banks +should be beautiful if ever. As we approached Lyons the river narrowed +and grew bolder, and the last ten miles were enchanting. Naturally the +shores at this part of the Saone are exceedingly like the highlands of +the Hudson above West Point. Abrupt hills rise from the river's edge, +and the windings are sharp and constant. But imagine the highlands of +the Hudson crowned with antique chateaux, and covered to the very top +with terraces and summer-houses and hanging-gardens, gravel-walks and +beds of flowers, instead of wild pines and precipices, and you may get +a very correct idea of the Saone above Lyons. + +You emerge from one of the dark passes of the river by a sudden turn, +and there before you lies this large city, built on both banks, at +the foot and on the sides of mountains. The bridges are fine, and +the broad, crowded quays, all along the edges of the river, have a +beautiful effect. There is a great deal of magnificence at Lyons, in +the way of quays, promenades, and buildings.... I was glad to escape +from the lower streets, and climb up the long staircases to the +observatory that overhangs the town. From the base of this elevation +the descent of the river is almost a precipice. The houses hang on the +side of the steep hill, and their doors enter from the long alleys of +stone staircases by which you ascend.... + +It was holy-week, and the church of Notre Dame de Fourvières, which +stands on the summit of the hill, was crowded with people. We went +in for a moment, and sat down on a bench to rest. My companion was a +Swiss captain of artillery, who was a passenger in the boat, a very +splendid fellow, with a mustache that he might have tied behind his +ears. He had addrest me at the hotel, and proposed that we should +visit the curiosities of the town together. He was a model of a manly +figure, athletic, and soldier-like, and standing near him was to get +the focus of all the dark eyes in the congregation. + +The new square tower stands at the side of the church, and rises to +the height of perhaps sixty feet. The view from it is said to be one +of the finest in the world. I have seen more extensive ones, but never +one that comprehended more beauty and interest. Lyons lies at the +foot, with the Saone winding through its bosom in abrupt curves; the +Rhone comes down from the north on the other side of the range of +mountains, and meeting the Saone in a broad stream below the town, +they stretch off to the south, through a diversified landscape; the +Alps rise from the east like the edges of a thunder-cloud, and the +mountains of Savoy fill up the interval to the Rhone. + +All about the foot of the monument lie gardens, of exquisite +cultivation; and above and below the city the villas of the rich; +giving you altogether as delicious a nucleus for a broad circle of +scenery as art and nature could create, and one sufficiently in +contrast with the barrenness of the rocky circumference to enhance the +charm, and content you with your position. Half way down the hill lies +an old monastery, with a lovely garden walled in from the world. + +The river was covered with boats, the bells were ringing to church, +the glorious old cathedral, so famous for its splendor, stood piled +up, with its arches and gray towers, in the square below; the day was +soft, sunny, and warm, and existence was a blessing. I leaned over the +balustrade, I know not how long, looking down upon the scene about me; +and I shall ever remember it as one of those few unalloyed moments, +when the press of care was taken off my mind, and the chain of +circumstances was strong enough to set aside both the past and the +future, and leave me to the quiet enjoyment of the present. I have +found such hours "few and far between." + + + + +LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his friend West.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +I take this opportunity to tell you that we are at the ancient and +celebrated Lugdunum, a city situated upon the confluence of the +Rhone and Saône (Arar, I should say) two people, who tho of tempers +extremely unlike, think fit to join hands here, and make a little +party to travel to the Mediterranean in company; the lady comes +gliding along through the fruitful plains of Burgundy.... the +gentleman runs all rough and roaring down from the mountains of +Switzerland to meet her; and with all her soft airs she likes him +never the worse; she goes through the middle of the city in state, and +he passes incog, without the walls, but waits for her a little below. + +The houses here are so high, and the streets so narrow, as would be +sufficient to render Lyons the dismalest place in the world, but the +number of people, and the face of commerce diffused about it, are, +at least, as sufficient to make it the liveliest: between these two +sufficiencies, you will be in doubt what to think of it; so we shall +leave the city, and proceed to its environs, which are beautiful +beyond expression; it is surrounded with mountains, and those +mountains all bedropped and bespeckled with houses, gardens, and +plantations of the rich bourgeois, who have from thence a prospect of +the city in the vale below on one hand, on the other the rich plains +of the Lyonnois, with the rivers winding among them, and the Alps, +with the mountains of Dauphiné, to bound the view. + +All yesterday morning we were busied in climbing up Mount Fourvière, +where the ancient city stood perched at such a height, that nothing +but the hopes of gain could certainly ever persuade their neighbors to +pay them a visit. Here are the ruins of the emperors' palaces, that +resided here, that is to say, Augustus and Severus; they consist in +nothing but great masses of old wall, that have only their quality +to make them respected. In a vineyard of the Minims are remains of a +theater; the Fathers, whom they belong to, hold them in no esteem at +all, and would have showed us their sacristy and chapel instead of +them. The Ursuline Nuns have in their garden some Roman baths, but we +having the misfortune to be men, they did not think proper to admit +us. + +Hard by are eight arches of a most magnificent aqueduct, said to be +erected by Antony, when his legions were quartered here. There are +many other parts of it dispersed up and down the country, for it +brought the water from a river many leagues off in La Forez. Here are +remains too of Agrippa's seven great roads which met at Lyons; in some +places they lie twelve feet deep in the ground. + + + + +MARSEILLES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pictures from Italy," written in 1844] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +So we went on, until eleven at night, when we halted at the town of +Aix (within two stages of Marseilles) to sleep. The hotel, with all +the blinds and shutters closed to keep the light and heat out, was +comfortable and airy next morning, and the town was very clean; but +so hot, and so intensely light, that when I walked out at noon it was +like coming suddenly from the darkened room into crisp blue fire. The +air was so very clear, that distant hills and rocky points appeared +within an hour's walk; while the town immediately at hand--with a kind +of blue wind between me and it--seemed to be white hot, and to be +throwing off a fiery air from its surface. + +We left this town toward evening, and took the road to Marseilles. A +dusty road it was; the houses shut up close; and the vines powdered +white. At nearly all the cottage doors, women were peeling and slicing +onions into earthen bowls for supper. So they had been doing last +night all the way from Avignon. We passed one or two shady dark +châteaux, surrounded by trees, and embellished with cool basins of +water: which were the more refreshing to behold, from the great +scarcity of such residences on the road we had traveled. + +As we approached Marseilles, the road began to be covered with holiday +people. Outside the public-houses were parties smoking, drinking, +playing draughts and cards, and (once) dancing. But dust, dust, dust, +everywhere. We went on, through a long, straggling, dirty suburb, +thronged with people; having on our left a dreary slope of land, on +which the country-houses of the Marseilles merchants, always staring +white, are jumbled and heaped without the slightest order; backs, +fronts, sides, and gables toward all points of the compass; until, at +last, we entered the town. + +I was there, twice, or thrice afterward, in fair weather and foul; +and I am afraid there is no doubt that it is a dirty and disagreeable +place. But the prospect, from the fortified heights, of the beautiful +Mediterranean, with, its lovely rocks and islands, is most delightful. +These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque +reasons--as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually +arising from a great harbor full of stagnant water, and befouled by +the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes, which, in +hot weather, is dreadful in the last degree. + +There were foreign sailors, of all nations, in the streets; with red +shirts, blue shirts, buff shirts, tawny shirts, and shirts of orange +color; with red caps, blue caps, green caps, great beards, and no +beards; in Turkish turbans, glazed English hats, and Neapolitan +headdresses. There were the townspeople sitting in clusters on the +pavement, or airing themselves on the tops of their houses, or walking +up and down the closest and least airy of boulevards; and there were +crowds of fierce-looking people of the lower sort, blocking up the +way, constantly. + +In the very heart of all this stir and uproar, was the common +madhouse; a low, contracted, miserable building, looking straight upon +the street, without the smallest screen or courtyard; where chattering +madmen and mad-women were peeping out, through rusty bars, at the +staring faces below, while the sun, darting fiercely aslant into their +little cells, seemed to dry up their brains, and worry them, as if +they were baited by a pack of dogs. + +We were pretty well accommodated at the Hôtel du Paradis, situated +in a narrow street of very high houses, with a hairdresser's shop +opposite, exhibiting in one of its windows two full-length waxen +ladies, twirling around and around: which so enchanted the hairdresser +himself, that he and his family sat in armchairs, and in cool +undresses, on the pavement outside, enjoying the gratification of the +passers-by, with lazy dignity. The family had retired to rest when we +went to bed, at midnight; but the hairdresser (a corpulent man, in +drab slippers) was still sitting there, with his legs stretched out +before him, and evidently couldn't bear to have the shutters put up. + +Next day we went down to the harbor, where the sailors of all nations +were discharging and taking in cargoes of all kinds: fruits, wines, +oils, silks, stuffs, velvets, and every manner of merchandise. Taking +one of a great number of lively little boats with gay-striped awnings, +we rowed away, under the sterns of great ships, under tow-ropes and +cables, against and among other boats, and very much too near +the sides of vessels that were faint with oranges, to the "Marie +Antoinette," a handsome steamer bound for Genoa, lying near the mouth +of the harbor. + +By and by, the carriage, that unwieldy "trifle from the Pantechnicon," +on a flat barge, bumping against everything, and giving occasion for +a prodigious quantity of oaths and grimaces, came stupidly alongside; +and by five o'clock we were steaming out in the open sea. The vessel +was beautifully clean; the meals were served under an awning on deck; +the night was calm and clear; the quiet beauty of the sea and sky +unspeakable. + + + + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Châteaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +The little republic of Andorra, hidden away in the fastnesses of the +Pyrenees between France and Spain, its allegiance divided between the +bishop of Urgel in Spain and the French government, is a relic of +medievalism which will probably never fall before the swift advance of +twentieth century ideas of progress. At least it will never be overrun +by automobiles. + +From French or Spanish territory this little unknown land is to be +reached by what is called a "wagon-way," but the road is so bad that +the sure-footed little donkeys of the Pyrenees are by far the best +means of locomotion, unless one would go up on foot, a matter of +twenty kilometers or more from Hospitalet in Spanish or Porté in +French territory. + +The political status of Andorra is most peculiar, but since it has +endured without interruption (and this in spite of wars and rumors of +wars), for six centuries, it seems to be all that is necessary. + +A relic of the Middle Ages, Andorra-Viella, the city, and its six +thousand inhabitants live in their lonesome retirement much as they +did in feudal times, except for the fact that an occasional newspaper +smuggled in from France or Spain gives a new topic of conversation. + +This paternal governmental arrangement which cares for the welfare of +the people of Andorra, the city and the province, is the outcome of a +treaty signed by Pierre d'Urg and Roger-Bernhard, the third Comte +de Foix, giving each other reciprocal rights. There's nothing very +strange about this; it was common custom in the Middle Ages for lay +and ecclesiastical seigneurs to make such compacts, but the marvel is +that it has endured so well with governments rising and falling +all about, and grafters and pretenders and dictators ruling every +bailiwick in which they can get a foot-hold. Feudal government +may have had some bad features, but certainly the republics and +democracies of to-day, to say nothing of absolute monarchies, have +some, too. + +The ways of access between France and Andorra are numerous enough; +but of the eight only two--and those not all the way--are really +practicable for wheeled traffic. The others are mere trails, or +mule-paths. + +The people of Andorra, as might be inferred, are all ardent Catholics; +and for a tiny country like this to have a religious seminary, as that +at Urgel, is remarkable of itself. + +Public instruction is of late making headway, but half a century ago +the shepherd and laboring population--perhaps nine-tenths of the +whole--had little learning or indeed need for it. Their manners and +customs are simple and severe and little has changed in modern life +from that of their great-great-great-grandfathers. Each family has a +sort of a chief or official head, and the eldest son always looks for +a wife among the families of his own class. Seldom, if ever, does the +married son quit the paternal roof, so large households are the rule. +In a family where there are only girls, the eldest is the heir, and +she may only marry with a cadet of another family by his joining his +name with hers. Perhaps it is this that originally set the fashion for +hyphenated names. + +The Andorrans are generally robust and well built; the maladies of +more populous regions are practically unknown among them. This speaks +much for the simple life! Costumes and dress are rough and simple and +of heavy woolens, clipt from the sheep and woven on the spot. Public +officers, the few representatives of officialdom who exist, alone +make any pretense at following the fashions. The women occupy a very +subordinate position in public affairs. They may not be present at +receptions and functions and not even at mass when it is said by the +bishop. Crime is infrequent, and simple, light punishments alone are +inflicted. Things are not so uncivilized in Andorra as one might +think! + +In need all men may be called upon to serve as soldiers, and each head +of a family must have a rifle and ball at hand at all times. In other +words, he must be able to protect himself against marauders. This does +away with the necessity of a large standing police force. + +Commerce and industry are free of all taxation in Andorra, and customs +dues apply on but few articles. For this reason there is not a very +heavy tax on a people who are mostly cultivators and graziers. There +is little manufacturing industry, as might be supposed, and what is +made--save by hand and in single examples--is of the most simple +character. "Made in Germany" or "Tabriqué en Belgique" are the marks +one sees on most of the common manufactured articles. + +The Andorrans are a simple, proud, gullible people, who live to-day in +the past, of the past and for the past; "Les vallées et souverainetés +de l'Andorre" are to them to-day just what they always were--a little +world of their own. + + + + +GAVARNIE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +From Luz to Gavarnie is eighteen miles. + +It is enjoined upon every living creature able to mount a horse, a +mule, or any quadruped whatever, to visit Gavarnie; in default of +other beasts, he should, putting aside all shame, bestride an ass. +Ladies and convalescents are there in sedan-chairs. + +Otherwise, think what a figure you will make on your return. + +"You come from the Pyrenees; you've seen Gavarnie?" + +"No." + +What then did you go to the Pyrenees for? + +You hang your head, and your friend triumphs, especially if he was +bored at Gavarnie. + +You undergo a description of Gavarnie after the last edition of the +guide-book. Gavarnie is a sublime sight; tourists go sixty miles out +of their way to see it; the Duchess d'Angouléme had herself carried +to the furthest rocks. Lord Bute, when he saw it for the first time, +cried: "If I were now at the extremity of India, and suspected the +existence of what I see at this moment, I should immediately leave in +order to enjoy and admire it!" You are overwhelmed with quotations +and supercilious smiles; you are convinced of laziness, of dulness +of mind, and, as certain English travelers say, of unesthetic +insensibility. + +There are but two resources: to learn a description by heart, or to +make the journey. I have made the journey, and am going to give the +description. + +We leave at six o'clock in the morning, by the road to Scia, in the +fog, without seeing at first anything beyond confused forms of trees +and rocks. At the end of a quarter of an hour, we hear along the +pathway a noise of sharp cries drawing near; it was a funeral +procession coming from Scia. Two men bore a small coffin under a white +shroud; behind came four herdsmen in long cloaks and brown capuchons, +silent, with bent heads; four women followed in black mantles. It was +they who uttered those monotonous and piercing lamentations; one knew +not if they were wailing or praying. They walked with long steps +through the cold mist, without stopping or looking at any one, and +were going to bury the poor body in the cemetery at Luz. + +At Scia the road passes over a small bridge very high up, which +commands another bridge, gray and abandoned. The double tier of arches +bends gracefully over the blue torrent; meanwhile a pale light already +floats in the diaphanous mist; a golden gauze undulates above the +Gave; the aërial veil grows thin and will soon vanish. + +Nothing can convey the idea of this light, so youthful, timid, and +smiling, which glitters like the bluish wings of a dragon-fly that is +pursued and is taken captive in a net of fog. + +Beneath, the boiling water is engulfed in a narrow conduit and leaps +like a mill-race. The column of foam, thirty feet high, falls with +a furious din, and its glaucous waves, heaped together in the deep +ravine, dash against each other and are broken upon a line of fallen +rocks. Other enormous rocks, débris of the same mountain, hang above +the road, their squared heads crowned with brambles for hair; ranged +in impregnable line, they seem to watch the torments of the Gave, +which their brothers hold beneath themselves crusht and subdued. + +We turn a second bridge and enter the plain of Gèdrés, verdant and +cultivated, where the hay is in cocks; they are harvesting; our horses +walk between two hedges of hazel; we go along by orchards; but the +mountain is ever near; the guide shows us a rock three times the +height of a man, which, two years ago, rolled down and demolished a +house. + +We encounter several singular caravans: a band of young priests in +black hats, black gloves, black cassocks tucked up, black stockings, +very apparent, novices in horsemanship who bound at every step, like +the Gave; a big, jolly, round man, in a sedan-chair, his hands crossed +over his belly, who looks on us with a paternal air, and reads his +newspaper; three ladies of sufficiently ripe age, very slender, very +lean, very stiff, who, for dignity's sake, set their beasts on a trot +as we draw near them. The cicisbeo is a bony cartilaginous gentleman, +fixt perpendicularly on his saddle like a telegraph-pole. We hear +a harsh clucking, as of a choked hen, and we recognize the English +tongue. + +Beyond Gèdres is a wild valley called Chaos, which is well named. +After a quarter of an hour's journey there, the trees disappear, then +the juniper and the box, and finally the moss. The Gave is no longer +seen; all noises are hushed. It is a dead solitude peopled with +wrecks. The avalanches of rocks and crusht flint have come down from +the summit to the very bottom. The horrid tide, high and a quarter +of a league in length, spreads out like waves its myriads of sterile +stones, and the inclined sheet seems still to glide toward inundating +the gorge. These stones are shattered and pulverized; their living +fractures and thin, harsh points wound the eye; they are still +bruising and crushing each other. Not a bush, not a spear of grass; +the arid grayish train burns beneath a sun of brass; its débris are +scorched to a dull hue, as in a furnace. + +A hundred paces further on, the aspect of the valley becomes +formidable. Troops of mammoths and mastadons in stone lie crouching +over the eastern declivity, one above another, and heaped up over the +whole slope. These colossal ridges shine with a tawny hue like iron +rust; the most enormous of them drink the water of the river at their +base. They look as if warming their bronzed skin in the sun, and +sleep, turned over, stretched out on their side, resting in all +attitudes, and always gigantic and frightful. Their deformed paws are +curled up; their bodies half buried in the earth; their monstrous +backs rest one upon another. When you enter into the midst of the +prodigious band, the horizon disappears, the blocks rise fifty feet +into the air; the road winds painfully among the overhanging masses; +men and horses seem but dwarfs; these rusted edges mount in stages to +the very summit, and the dark hanging army seems ready to fall on the +human insects which come to trouble its sleep. + +Once upon a time, the mountain, in a paroxysm of fever, shook its +summits like a cathedral that is falling in. A few points resisted, +and their embattled turrets are drawn out in line on the crest; but +their layers are dislocated, their sides creviced, their points +jagged. The whole shattered ridge totters. Beneath them the rock fails +suddenly in a living and still bleeding wound. The splinters are lower +down, strewn over the declivity. The tumbled rocks are sustained one +upon another, and man to-day passes in safety amidst the disaster. + +But what a day was that of the ruin: It is not very ancient, perhaps +of the sixth century, and the year of the terrible earthquake told of +by Gregory of Tours. If a man could without perishing have seen the +summits split, totter and fall, the two seas of rock come bounding +into the gorge, meet one another and grind each other amidst a shower +of sparks, he would have looked upon the grandest spectacle ever seen +by human eyes. + +On the west, a perpendicular mole, crannied like an old ruin, lifts +itself straight up toward the sky. A leprosy of yellowish moss has +incrusted its pores, and has clothed it all over with a sinister +livery. This livid robe upon this parched stone has a splendid effect. +Nothing is uglier than the chalky flints that are drawn from the +quarry; just dug up, they seem cold and damp in their whitish shroud; +they are not used to the sun; they make a contrast with the rest. But +the rock that has lived in the air for ten thousand years, where the +light has every day laid on and melted its metallic tints, is the +friend of the sun, and carries its mantle upon its shoulders; it +has no need of a garment of verdure; if it suffers from parasitic +vegetations, it sticks them to its sides and imprints them with its +colors. The threatening tones with which it clothes itself suits the +free sky, the naked landscape, the powerful heat that environs it; it +is alive like a plant; only it is of another age, one more severe and +stronger than that in which we vegetate. + +Gavarnie is a very ordinary village, commanding a view of the +amphitheater we are come to see. After you have left it, it is still +necessary to go three miles through a melancholy plain, half buried in +sand by the winter inundations; the waters of the Gave are muddy and +dull; a cold wind whistles from the amphitheater; the glaciers, strewn +with mud and stones, are stuck to the declivity like patches of dirty +plaster. The mountains are bald and ravined by cascades; black cones +of scattered firs climb them like routed soldiers; a meager and wan +turf wretchedly clothes their mutilated heads. The horses ford the +Gave stumblingly, chilled by the water coming from the snows. In this +wasted solitude you meet, all of a sudden, the most smiling parterre. +A throng of the lovely iris crowds itself into the bed of a dried +torrent; the sun stripes with rays of gold their velvety petals of +tender blue; and the eye follows over the whole plain the folds of the +rivulet of flowers. + +We climb a last eminence, sown with iris and with stones. There is a +hut where you breakfast and leave the horses. You arm yourself with a +stout stick, and descend upon the glaciers of the amphitheater. + +These glaciers are very ugly, very dirty, very uneven, very slippery; +at every step you run the risk of falling, and if you fall, it is on +sharp stones or into deep holes. They look very much like heaps of old +plaster-work, and those who have admired them must have a stock of +admiration for sale. The water has pierced them so that you walk +upon bridges of snow. These bridges have the appearance of kitchen +air-holes; the water is swallowed up in a very low archway, and, when +you look closely, you get a distinct sight of a black hole. + +After the glaciers we find a sloping esplanade; we climb for ten +minutes bruising our feet upon fragments of sharp rock. Since leaving +the hut we have not lifted our eyes, in order to restore for ourselves +an unbroken sensation. Here at last we look. + +A wall of granite crowned with snow hollows itself before us in a +gigantic amphitheater. This amphitheater is twelve hundred feet high, +nearly three miles in circumference, three tiers of perpendicular +walls, and in each tier thousands of steps. The valley ends there; the +wall is a single block and impregnable. The other summits might fall, +but its massive layers would not be moved. The mind is overwhelmed +by the idea of a stability that can not be shaken and an assured +eternity. There is the boundary of two countries and two races; this +it is that Roland wanted to break, when with a sword-stroke he opened +a breach in the summit. But the immense wound disappeared in the +immensity of the unconquered wall. Three sheets of snow are spread out +over the three tiers of layers. + +The sun falls with all its force upon this virginal robe without being +able to make it shine. It preserves its dead whiteness. All this +grandeur is austere; the air is chilled beneath the noonday rays; +great, damp shadows creep along the foot of the walls. It is the +everlasting winter and the nakedness of the desert. The sole +inhabitants are the cascades assembled to form the Gave. The +streamlets of water come by thousands from the highest layer, leap +from step to step, cross their stripes of foam, unite and fall by a +dozen brooks that slide from the last layer in flaky streaks to lose +themselves in the glaciers of the bottom. + +The thirteenth cascade on the left is twelve hundred and sixty-six +feet high. It falls slowly, like a dropping cloud, or the unfolding of +a muslin veil; the air softens its fall; the eye follows complacently +the graceful undulation of the beautiful airy veil. It glides the +length of the rock, and seems to float rather than to fall. The sun +shines, through its plume, with the softest and loveliest splendor. +It reaches the bottom like a bouquet of slender waving feathers, and +springs backward in a silver dust; the fresh and transparent mist +swings about the rock it bathes, and its rebounding train mounts +lightly along the courses. No stir in the air; no noise, no living +creature in the solitude. You hear only the monotonous murmur of the +cascades, resembling the rustle of the leaves that the wind stirs in +the forest. + +On our return, we seated ourselves at the door of the hut. It is a +poor, squat little house, heavily supported upon thick walls; the +knotty joists of the ceiling retain their bark. It is indeed necessary +that it should be able to stand out alone against the snows of winter. +You find everywhere the imprint of the terrible months it has gone +through. Two dead fir-trees stand erect at the door. The garden, three +feet square, is defended by enormous walls of piled-up slates. The low +and black stable leaves neither foot-hold nor entry for the winds. A +lean colt was seeking a little grass among the stones. A small bull, +with surly air, looked at us out of the sides of his eyes; the +animals, the trees and the site, wore a threatening or melancholy +aspect. But in the clefts of a rock were growing some admirable +buttercups, lustrous and splendid, which looked as if painted by a ray +of sunshine. + +At the village we met our companions of the journey who had sat down +there. The good tourists get fatigued, stop ordinarily at the inn, +take a substantial dinner, have a chair brought to the door, and +digest while looking at the amphitheater, which from there appears +about as high as a house. After this they return, praising the sublime +sight, and very glad that they have come to the Pyrenees. + + + + +VI + +BELGIUM + + + + +BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +The Rhine constituted the great central waterway of medieval Europe; +the Flemish towns were its ports and its manufacturing centers. They +filled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries much the same place +that Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham fill in the +nineteenth. Many causes contributed to this result. + +Flanders, half independent under its own counts, occupied a middle +position, geographically and politically, between France and the +Empire; it was comparatively free from the disastrous wars which +desolated both these countries, and in particular it largely escaped +the long smouldering quarrel between French and English, which so long +retarded the development of the former. Its commercial towns, again, +were not exposed on the open sea to the attacks of pirates or hostile +fleets, but were safely ensconced in inland flats, reached by rivers +or canals, almost inaccessible to maritime enemies. Similar conditions +elsewhere early ensured peace and prosperity for Venice. + +The canal system of Holland and Belgium began to be developed as early +as the twelfth century (at first for drainage), and was one leading +cause of the commercial importance of the Flemish cities in the +fourteenth. In so flat a country, locks are all but unnecessary. The +two towns which earliest rose to greatness in the Belgian area were +thus Bruges and Ghent; they possest in the highest degree the combined +advantages of easy access to the sea and comparative inland security. + +Bruges, in particular, was one of the chief stations of the Hanseatic +League, which formed an essentially commercial alliance for the mutual +protection of the northern trading centers. By the fourteenth century +Bruges had thus become in the north what Venice was in the south, +the capital of commerce. Trading companies from all the surrounding +countries had their "factories" in the town, and every European king +or prince of importance kept a resident minister accredited to the +merchant republic. + +Some comprehension of the mercantile condition of Europe in general +during the Middle Ages is necessary in order to understand the early +importance and wealth of the Flemish cities. Southern Europe, and in +particular Italy, was then still the seat of all higher civilization, +more especially of the trade in manufactured articles and objects of +luxury. Florence, Venice and Genoa ranked as the polished and learned +cities of the world. Further east, again, Constantinople still +remained in the hands of the Greek emperors, or, during the Crusades, +of their Latin rivals. A brisk trade existed via the Mediterranean +between Europe and India or the nearer East. This double stream of +traffic ran along two main routes--one, by the Rhine, from Lombardy +and Rome; the other, by sea, from Venice, Genoa, Florence, +Constantinople, the Levant, and India. + +On the other hand, France was still but a half civilized country, +with few manufactures and little external trade; while England was an +exporter of raw produce, chiefly wool, like Australia in our own time. +The Hanseatic merchants of Cologne held the trade of London; those of +Wisby and Lübeck governed that of the Baltic; Bruges, as head of the +Hansea, was in close connection with all of these, as well as with +Hull, York, Novgorod, and Bergen. + +The position of the Flemish towns in the fourteenth century was thus +not wholly unlike that of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston at the +present day; they stood as intermediaries between the older civilized +countries, like Italy or the Greek empire, and the newer producers of +raw material, like England, North Germany, and the Baltic towns. + +In a lost corner of the great lowland flat of Flanders, defended from +the sea by an artificial dike, and at the point of intersection of an +intricate network of canals and waterways, there arose in the early +Middle Ages a trading town, known in Flemish as Brugge, in French as +Bruges (that is to say, The Bridge), from a primitive structure that +here crossed the river. A number of bridges now span the sluggish +streams. All of them open in the middle to admit the passage of +shipping. + +Bruges stood originally on a little river, Reye, once navigable, now +swallowed by canals; and the Reye flowed into the Zwin, long silted +up, but then the safest harbor in the Low Countries. At first the +capital of a petty Count, this land-locked internal harbor grew in +time to be the Venice of the North, and to gather round its quays or +at its haven of Damme, the ships and merchandise of all neighboring +peoples. Already in 1200 it ranked as the central mart of the +Hanseatic League. + +It was the port of entry for English wool and Russian furs: the port +of departure for Flemish broadcloths, laces, tapestries, and linens. +Canals soon connected it with Ghent, Dunkirk, Sluys, Furnes and Ypres. +Its nucleus lay in a little knot of buildings about the Grand Place +and the Hotel de Ville, stretching out to the Cathedral and the Dyver; +thence it spread on all sides till, in 1362, it filled the whole space +within the existing ramparts, now largely abandoned or given over to +fields and gardens. It was the wealthiest town of Europe, outside +Italy. + +The decline of the town was due partly to the break-up of the +Hanseatic system; partly to the rise of English ports and +manufacturing towns; but still more, and especially as compared with +our Flemish cities, to the silting of the Zwin, and the want of +adaption in its waterways to the needs of great ships and modern +navigation. The old sea entrance to Bruges was through the Zwin, by +way of Sluys and Kadzand; up that channel came the Venetian merchant +fleet and the Flemish galleys, to the port of Damme. By 1470, it +ceased to be navigable for large vessels. + +The later canal is still open, but as it passes through what is now +Dutch territory, it is little used; nor is it adapted to any save +ships of comparatively small burden. Another canal, suitable for +craft of 500 tons, leads through Belgian territory to Ostend; but few +vessels now navigate it, and those for the most part only for local +trade. The town has shrunk to half its former size, and has only a +quarter of its medieval population. + +The commercial decay of Bruges, however, has preserved its charm for +the artist, the archeologist, and the tourist; its sleepy streets and +unfrequented quays are among the most picturesque sights of bustling +and industrial modern Belgium. The great private palaces, indeed, +are almost all destroyed; but many public buildings remain, and the +domestic architecture is quaint and pretty. + +Bruges was the mother of arts in Flanders: Jan van Eyck lived here +from 1428 to 1440. Memling, probably from 1477 till 1494. Caxton, the +first English printer, lived as a merchant at Bruges, in the Domus +Anglorum or English factory, from 1446 to 1476, and probably put in +the press here the earliest English book printed, tho strong grounds +have been adduced in favor of Cologne. Colard Mansion, the great +printer of Bruges at that date, was one of the leaders in the art of +typography.... + +The very tall square tower which faces you as you enter the Grand +Place is the Belfry, the center and visible embodiment of the town of +Bruges. The Grand Place itself was the forum and meeting place of the +soldier citizens, who were called to arms by the chimes in the Belfry. +The center of the place is therefore appropriately occupied by a +colossal statue group, modern, of Pieter de Coninck and Jan Breidel, +the leaders of the citizens of Bruges at the Battle of the Spurs +before the walls of Courtrai in 1302, a conflict which secured the +freedom of Flanders from the interference of the Kings of France. The +group is by Devigne. The reliefs on the pedestal represent scenes from +the battle and its antecedents. + +The majestic Belfry itself represents the first beginnings of freedom +in Bruges. Leave to erect such a bell-tower, both as a mark of +independence and to summon the citizens to arms, was one of the first +privileges which every Teutonic trading town desired to wring from its +feudal lord. This brick tower, the pledge of municipal rights, was +begun in 1291, to replace an earlier one of wood, and finished about a +hundred years later; the octagon, in stone at the summit, which holds +the bell, having been erected in 1393-96. + +It consists of three stories, the two lower of which are square and +flanked by balconies with turrets; the windows below are of the simple +early Gothic style, but show a later type of architecture in the +octagon. The niche in the center contains the Virgin and Child, a +group restored after being destroyed by the French revolutionists. +Below it on either side are smaller figures holding escutcheons. From +the balcony between these last, the laws and the rescripts of the +counts were read aloud to the people assembled in the square. + +The Belfry can be ascended by steps. Owing to the force of the wind, +it leans slightly to the southeast. The view from the top is very +extensive and striking. It embraces the greater part of the Plain of +Flanders, with its towns and villages. The country, tho quite flat, +looks beautiful when thus seen. In early times, however, the look-out +from the summit was of practical use for purposes of observation, +military or maritime. It commanded the river, the Zwin, and the sea +approach by Sluys and Damme; the course of the various canals; and the +roads to Ghent, Antwerp, Tournai, and Courtrai. The Belfry contains a +famous set of chimes, the mechanism of which may be inspected by the +visitor. He will have frequent opportunities of hearing the beautiful +and mellow carillon, perhaps to excess. The existing bells date only +from 1680: the mechanism from 1784. + + + + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Paris Sketch Book."] + +BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY + + +It is the quaintest and prettiest of all the quaint and pretty towns I +have seen. A painter might spend months here, and wander from church +to church, and admire old towers and pinnacles, tall gables, bright +canals, and pretty little patches of green garden and moss-grown wall, +that reflect in the clear quiet water. Before the inn-window is a +garden, from which in the early morning issues a most wonderful odor +of stocks and wallflowers; next comes a road with trees of admirable +green; numbers of little children are playing in this road (the place +is so clean that they may roll on it all day without soiling +their pinafores), and on the other side of the trees are little +old-fashioned, dumpy, whitewashed, red-tiled houses. + +A poorer landscape to draw never was known, nor a pleasanter to +see--the children especially, who are inordinately fat and rosy. Let +it be remembered, too, that here we are out of the country of ugly +women; the expression of the face is almost uniformly gentle and +pleasing, and the figures of the women, wrapt in long black monk-like +cloaks and hoods, very picturesque. No wonder there are so many +children: the "Guide-book" (omniscient Mr. Murray!) says there are +fifteen thousand paupers in the town, and we know how such multiply. + +How the deuce do their children look so fat and rosy? By eating +dirt-pies, I suppose. I saw a couple making a very nice savory one, +and another employed in gravely sticking strips of stick betwixt the +pebbles at the house-door, and so making for herself a stately garden. +The men and women don't seem to have much more to do. There are a +couple of tall chimneys at either suburb of the town, where no doubt +manufactories are at work, but within the walls everybody seems +decently idle. + +We have been, of course, abroad to visit the lions. The tower in the +Grand Place is very fine, and the bricks of which it is built do not +yield a whit in color to the best stone. The great building round this +tower is very like the pictures of the Ducal Palace at Venice; and +there is a long market area, with columns down the middle, from which +hung shreds of rather lean-looking meat, that would do wonders under +the hands of Cattermole or Haghe. + +In the tower there is a chime of bells that keep ringing perpetually. +They not only play tunes of themselves, and every quarter of an hour, +but an individual performs selections from popular operas on them at +certain periods of the morning, afternoon, and evening. I have heard +to-day "Suoni la Tromba," "Son Vergin Vezzosa," from the "Puritani," +and other airs, and very badly they were played too; for such a great +monster as a tower-bell can not be expected to imitate Madame Grisi or +even Signor Lablache. Other churches indulge in the same amusement, so +that one may come here and live in melody all day or night, like the +young woman in Moore's "Lalla Rookh." + +In the matter of art, the chief attractions of Bruges are the pictures +of Memling, that are to be seen in the churches, the hospital, and the +picture-gallery of the place. There are no more pictures of Rubens to +be seen, and, indeed, in the course of a fortnight, one has had quite +enough of the great man and his magnificent, swaggering canvases. +What a difference is here with simple Memling and the extraordinary +creations of his pencil! The hospital is particularly rich in them; +and the legend there is that the painter, who had served Charles the +Bold in his war against the Swiss, and his last battle and defeat, +wandered back wounded and penniless to Bruges, and here found cure and +shelter. + +This hospital is a noble and curious sight. The great hall is almost +as it was in the twelfth century; it is spanned by Saxon arches, and +lighted by a multiplicity of Gothic windows of all sizes; it is very +lofty, clean, and perfectly well ventilated; a screen runs across the +middle of the room, to divide the male from the female patients, and +we were taken to examine each ward, where the poor people seemed +happier than possibly they would have been in health and starvation +without it. + +Great yellow blankets were on the iron beds, the linen was +scrupulously clean, glittering pewter-jugs and goblets stood by the +side of each patient, and they were provided with godly books (to +judge from the building), in which several were reading at leisure. +Honest old comfortable nuns, in queer dresses of blue, black, white, +and flannel, were bustling through the room, attending to the wants +of the sick. I saw about a dozen of these kind women's faces; one was +young,--all were healthy and cheerful. One came with bare blue arms +and a great pile of linen from an out-house--such a grange as Cedric +the Saxon might have given to a guest for the night. A couple were in +a laboratory, a tall, bright, clean room, 500 years old at least. + +"We saw you were not very religious," said one of the old ladies, with +a red, wrinkled, good-humored face, "by your behavior yesterday in +chapel." + +And yet we did not laugh and talk as we used at college, but were +profoundly affected by the scene that we saw there. It was a fête-day; +a work of Mozart was sung in the evening--not well sung, and yet so +exquisitely tender and melodious, that it brought tears into our eyes. +There were not above twenty people in the church; all, save three or +four, were women in long black cloaks. I took them for nuns at first. +They were, however, the common people of the town, very poor indeed, +doubtless, for the priest's box that was brought round was not +added to by most of them, and their contributions were but two-cent +pieces--five of these go to a penny; but we know the value of such, +and can tell the exact worth of a poor woman's mite! + +The box-bearer did not seem at first willing to accept our +donation--we were strangers and heretics; however, I held out my hand, +and he came perforce as it were. Indeed it had only a franc in it; but +"que voulez vous?" I had been drinking a bottle of Rhine wine that +day, and how was I to afford more? The Rhine wine is dear in this +country, and costs four francs a bottle. + +Well, the service proceeded. Twenty poor women, two Englishmen, four +ragged beggars, cowering on the steps; and there was the priest at the +altar, in a great robe of gold and damask, two little boys in white +surplices serving him, holding his robe as he rose and bowed, and the +money-gatherer swinging his censer, and filling the little chapel with +smoke. + +The music pealed with wonderful sweetness; you could see the prim +white heads of the nuns in their gallery. The evening light streamed +down upon old statues of saints and carved brown stalls, and lighted +up the head of the golden-haired Magdalen in a picture of the +entombment of Christ. Over the gallery, and, as it were, a kind +protectress to the poor below, stood the statue of the Virgin. + + + + +GHENT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +Flanders owes everything to its water communications. At the junction +of the Schelde with the Lys and Lei, there grew up in the very early +Middle Ages a trading town, named Gent in Flemish, and Gand in French, +but commonly Anglicized as Ghent. It lay on a close network of rivers +and canals, formed partly by these two main streams, and partly by the +minor channels of the Lieve and the Moere, which together intersect it +into several islands. + +Such a tangle of inland waterways, giving access to the sea and to +Bruges, Courtrai, and Tournai, as well as less directly to Antwerp +and Brussels, ensured the rising town in early times considerable +importance. It formed the center of a radiating commerce. Westward, +its main relations were with London and English wool ports; eastward +with Cologne, Maastricht, the Rhine towns, and Italy. + +Ghent was always the capital of East Flanders, as Bruges or Ypres were +of the Western province; and after the Counts lost possession of +Arras and Artois, it became in the thirteenth century their principal +residence and the metropolis of the country.... + +Early in the fourteenth century, the burghers of Ghent, under their +democratic chief, Jacob or Jacques Van Artevelde, attained practical +independence. Till 1322, the counts and people of Flanders had been +united in their resistance to the claims of France; but with the +accession of Count Louis of Nevers, the aspect of affairs changed. +Louis was French by education, sympathies, and interests, and +artistocratic by nature; he sought to curtail the liberties of the +Flemish towns, and to make himself despotic. The wealthy and populous +burgher republics resisted and in 1337 Van Artevelde was appointed +Captain of Ghent. Louis fled to France and asked the aid of Philip of +Valois. + +Thereupon, Van Artevelde made himself the ally of Edward III. of +England, then beginning his war with France; but as the Flemings did +not like entirely to cast off their allegiance--a thing repugnant to +medieval sentiment--Van Artevelde persuaded Edward to put forward his +trumped-up claim to the crown of France, and thus induced the towns +to transfer their fealty from Philip to his English rival. It was +therefore in his character as King of France that Edward came to +Flanders. The alliance thus formed between the great producer of raw +wool, England, and the great manufacturer of woolen goods, Ghent, +proved of immense importance to both parties. + +But as Count Louis sided with Philip of Valois, the breach between the +democracy of Ghent and its nominal soverign now became impassable. Van +Artevelde held supreme power in Ghent and Flanders for nine years--the +golden age of Flemish commerce--and was treated on equal terms by +Edward, who stopt at Ghent as his guest for considerable periods. But +he was opposed by a portion of the citizens, and his suggestion that +the Black Prince, son of Edward III., should be elected Count +of Flanders, proved so unpopular with his enemies that he was +assassinated by one of them, Gerald Denys. The town and states +immediately repudiated the murder; and the alliance which Van +Artevelde had brought about still continued. It had far-reaching +results; the woolen industry was introduced by Edward into the Eastern +Counties of England, and Ghent had risen meanwhile to be the chief +manufacturing city of Europe. + +The quarrel between the democratic weavers and their exiled counts +was still carried on by Philip van Artevelde, the son of Jacques, and +godson of Queen Philippa of England, herself a Hainaulter. Under his +rule, the town continued to increase in wealth and population. But +the general tendency of later medieval Europe toward centralized +despotisms as against urban republics was too strong in the end for +free Ghent. In 1381, Philip was appointed dictator by the democratic +party, in the war against the Count, son of his father's opponent, +whom he repelled with great slaughter in a battle near Bruges. + +He then made himself Regent of Flanders. But Count Louis obtained +the aid of Charles VI. of France, and defeated and killed Philip van +Artevelde at the disastrous battle of Roosebeke in 1382. That was +practically the end of local freedom in Flanders. Tho the cities +continued to revolt against their sovereigns from time to time, they +were obliged to submit for the most part to their Count and to the +Burgundian princes who inherited from him by marriage. + +The subsequent history of Ghent is that of the capital of the +Burgundian Dukes, and of the House of Austria. Here the German king, +Maximilian, afterward Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy, the heiress +of the Netherlands; and here Charles V. was born in the palace of +the Counts. It was his principal residence, and he was essentially a +Fleming.... + +The real interest of the Cathedral centers, not in St. Bavon, nor in +his picture by Rubens, but in the great polyptych of the Adoration +of the Lamb, the masterpiece of Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert, +which forms in a certain sense the point of departure for the native +art of the Netherlands.... + +Stand before the west front at a little distance, to examine the +simple but massive architecture of the tower and façade. The great +portal has been robbed of the statues which once adorned its niches. +Three have been "restored"; they represent, center, the Savior; at the +left, the patron, St. Bavon, recognizable by his falcon, his sword as +duke, and his book as monk; he wears armor, with a ducal robe and cap +above it; at the right, St. John the Baptist, the earlier patron. + +Then, walk to the right, round the south side, to observe the external +architecture of the nave, aisles and choir. The latter has the +characteristic rounded or apsidal termination of Continental Gothic, +whereas English Gothic usually has a square end. Enter by the south +portal. + +The interior, with single aisles and short transepts (Early Gothic) +is striking for its simple dignity, its massive pillars, and its high +arches, tho the undeniably noble effect of the whole is somewhat +marred to English eyes by the unusual appearance of the unadorned +brick walls and vaulting. The pulpit, by Delvaux (1745), partly in +oak, partly in marble, represents Truth revealing the Christian Faith +to astonished Paganism, figured as an old and outworn man. It is a +model of all that should be avoided in plastic or religious art. +The screen which separates the choir from the transepts is equally +unfortunate. The apsidal end of the Choir, however, with its fine +modern stained glass, forms a very pleasing feature in the general +coup d'oeil.... + +The sixth chapel (of the Vydts family) contains the famous altar piece +of the Adoration of the Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, to study +which is the chief object of a visit to Ghent. See it more than once, +and examine it carefully. Ask the sacristan to let you sit before it +for some time in quiet or he will hurry you on. You must observe it in +close detail. Taking it in its entirety, then, the altar-piece, when +opened, is a great mystical poem of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of +the Lamb, with the Christian folk, both Church and World, adoring. The +composition contains over 200 figures. Many of them, which I have +not here identified, can be detected by a closer inspection, which, +however, I will leave to the reader. + +Now, ask the sacristan to shut the wings. They are painted on the +outer side (all a copy) mainly in grisaille, or in very low tones +of color, as is usual in such cases, so as to allow the jewel-like +brilliancy of the internal picture to burst upon the observer the +moment the altar-piece is opened. + +Old Ghent occupied for the most part the island which extends from the +Palais de Justice on one side to the Botanical Gardens on the other. +This island, bounded by the Lys, the Schelde, and an ancient canal, +includes almost all the principal buildings of the town, such as the +Cathedral, St. Nicholas, the Hôtel-dé-Ville, the Belfry, and St. +Jacques, as well as the chief Places, such as the Marché aux Grains, +the Marché aux Herbes, and the Marché du Vendredi. It also extends +beyond the Lys to the little island on which is situated the church of +St. Michael, and again to the islet formed between the Lieve and the +Lys, which contains the château of the Counts and the Palace Ste. +Pharailde. + +In the later middle ages, however, the town had spread to nearly its +existing extreme dimensions, and was probably more populous than at +the present moment. But its ancient fortifications have been destroyed +and their place has been taken by boulevards and canals. The line +may still be traced on the map, or walked round through a series of +shipping suburbs; but it is uninteresting to follow, a great part of +its course lying through the more squalid portions of the town. +The only remaining gate is that known as the Rabot (1489), a very +interesting and picturesque object situated in a particularly slummy +quarter. + +Bruges is full of memories of the Burgundian Princes. At Ghent it is +the personality of Charles V., the great emperor who cumulated in his +own person the sovereignties of Germany, the Low Countries, Spain and +Burgundy, that meets us afresh at every turn. He was born here in 1500 +and baptized in a font, otherwise uninteresting, which still stands in +the north transept of the Cathedral. Ghent was really, for the greater +part of his life, his practical capital, and he never ceased to be at +heart a Ghenter. + +That did not prevent the citizens from unjustly rebelling against him +in 1540, after the suppression of which revolt Charles is said to have +ascended the cathedral tower, while the executioner was putting to +death the ringleaders in the rebellion, in order to choose with his +brother Ferdinand the site for the citadel he intended to erect, to +overawe the freedom loving city. He chose the Monastery of St. Bavon +as its site, and, as we have seen, built there his colossal fortress, +now wholly demolished. The palace in which he was born and which he +inhabited frequently during life, was known as the Cour du Prince. It +stood near the Ancient Grand Béguinage, but only its name now survives +in that of a street. + + + + +BRUSSELS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Belgians at Home." Published by Little, Brown & +Co.] + +BY CLIVE HOLLAND + + +The great commercial and material prosperity of the place dates from +the commencement of the rule of the House of Burgundy. It was then, +in the fifteenth century, that the most beautiful of its many fine +buildings were erected. The Church of St. Michael and St. Gudule has +its great nave and towers dating from this period; the Hôtel de Ville, +Notre Dame du Sablon, the Nassau Palace, the Palace of the Dukes of +Brabant, and many other buildings were commenced then. Manufactures +and commerce commenced to flourish, while the liberties of the +municipality were extended considerably. + +It was undoubtedly under the rule of Charles V. that Brussels reached +its zenith of ancient prosperity. Then, with the era of Philip II. of +Spain, came a long period of bloodshed, persecution, and misery. The +religious disputes and troubles afflicting the Netherlands had their +effect upon the life, prosperity, and happiness of the Bruxellois. The +whole country was running with blood, and ruin stalked through the +land. But during this tragic period of Netherlands' history Brussels +saw several glorious events, and did as a city more than one noble +deed. It was in Brussels that the compromise of the nobles took place, +after which those who were rebelling against the cruelties of the +Inquisition were given the name of "Gueux," which had been bestowed +upon them contemptuously by the Comte de Barlaimont.... It was +Brussels which led the revolt against the most bloodthirsty of the +rulers sent to the Netherlands by Spain, the Duke of Alva, and +successfully resisted the imposition of the notorious "twentieth +denier" tax which it was sought to impose upon it, a tax which led +ultimately to the revolt of the whole of the Belgian provinces. + +Certainly this ancient capital of the Province of Brabant, containing +nowadays with its suburbs a population of upward of 600,000, which has +quadrupled in sixty years, has come to take its place among the most +beautiful and charming capital cities of Europe. It is undoubtedly +healthy, and there is an engaging air about Brussels which soon +impresses itself upon the foreign visitor. Added to all its many +attractions of interesting museums--the homes of wonderful and in +some cases unrivaled collections of works of art--and of historical +associations with the past, it possesses the charm of being modern in +the best sense and of being a place where one may find much that is +finest in art and music. As a home of fashion it bids fair some day +to rival Paris herself, and the shops of the Montagne de la Cour, +Boulevard Anspach, and contiguous streets are scarcely less luxurious +or exclusive than those of the Rue de la Paix or Boulevard des +Italiens in the French capital. Brussels is a city of shady +boulevards, open spaces, and pleasant parks as is Paris; and the +beautiful Bois de la Cambre on its outskirts compares very favorably +with the world-renowned Bois de Boulogne as regards rural charm and +picturesqueness. + +One impression that Brussels is almost certain to make upon the +visitor is its compactness. Its population, including the outskirts, +is nowadays rather over 600,000; but it is almost impossible to +realize that nearly one-eleventh of the whole population of Belgium +is concentrated in this one city, or, as might be said, in Greater +Brussels. Perhaps the real reason of this apparent lack of size +is because there are in reality two cities, Brussels interior and +Brussels exterior. The one with a population of about 225,000; the +latter with one of about 375,000. It is with the former, of course, +that the tourist and casual visitor are chiefly concerned. + +The outlying suburbs are, however, connected with the city proper by a +splendid system of steam, electric, and other trams. In fact, it may +be said that Brussels is in a sense surrounded by a group of small +towns, which tho forming part of the great city are yet independent, +and are governed very much like the various boroughs which make up +Greater London, Curhegem, St. Gilles, Ixelles, St. Josse, Ten Noodle, +Molenbeek, St. Jean, and Schaerbeek, still further out, are all in a +sense separate towns, seldom visited by, and indeed almost unknown to +the tourist. + +The most fashionable quarters for residences of the wealthy classes +are the broad and beautiful Avenue Louise and the streets and avenues +of the Quartier Leopold. They in a sense correspond to the Avenue du +Bois de Boulogne, Avenue des Champs Élysées, and Boulevard St. Germain +of Paris. There is another feature, too, that modern Brussels has in +common with Paris of the immediate past and of to-day. It is being +"Haussmannized," and the older and more quaint and interesting +portions of the city, as has been and is the case in Paris, are +gradually but surely disappearing to make way for the onward march of +progress and expansion. Almost on every hand, and especially in the +Porte de Namur Quarter, old buildings are constantly falling victims +to the house-wrecker, and new, in the shape of handsome mansions and +lofty blocks of flats, are arising from their ashes. + +The last thirty--even twenty--years have seen many changes. During +that period the sluggish little River Senne, which once meandered +through the city, and upon whose banks stood many fine and picturesque +old houses and buildings of past ages, has been arched over, and the +fine Boulevard of the same name, and those of Hainaut and Anspach, +have been built above its imprisoned waters. The higher portions of +the city are undeniably healthy, and the climate of Brussels is less +subject to extreme changes than that of Paris. It is not unbearably +cold in winter, and tho hot in summer, is not so, we think, airless +as either Paris or London, a fact accounted for by reason of its many +open spaces, its height above sea-level, and comparative nearness to +the North Sea. + +Of its fine buildings, none excels the Hôtel de Ville, which is +certainly one of the most interesting and beautiful buildings of its +kind in Belgium. It is well placed on one of the finest medieval +squares in Europe, and is surrounded by quaint and historic houses. On +this Grande Place many tragedies have from time to time been enacted, +and some of the most ferocious acts of the inhuman Alva performed. +In the spring of the terrible year, 1568, no less than twenty-five +Flemish nobles were executed here, and in the June of the same year +the patriots Lamoral, Count Egmont, Philip de Montmorency, and Count +Hoorn were put to death. This atrocious deed is commemorated by a +fountain with statues of the heroes, placed in front of the Maison +du Roi, from a window of which the Duke of Alva watched his orders +carried out. + +This most beautiful Hôtel de Ville, with its late Gothic façade +approaching the Renaissance period, nearly 200 feet in length, was +commenced, according to a well-known authority, either in 1401 or +1402, the eastern wing, or left-hand portion as one faces it across +the Place, having been the first part to be commenced, the western +half of the façade not having been begun until 1444. The later +additions formed the quadrangle. + +The Cathedral at Brussels is dedicated jointly to Ste. Gudule and St. +Michael. The former is one of the luckiest saints in that respect, as +probably but for this dedication, she would have remained among the +many rather obscure saints of the early periods of Christianity. + +It is to this church that most visitors to Brussels first wend their +way after visiting the Grande Place and its delightful Flower Market, +which is gay with blossoms on most days of the week all the year +round. The natural situation of the church is a fine one, which was +made the most of by its architects and builders of long ago. Standing, +as it does, on the side of a hill reached from the Grande Place by the +fine Rue de la Montagne and short, steep Rue Ste. Gudule, it overlooks +the city with its two fine twin western towers dominating the +neighboring streets. These towers have appeared to us when viewed up +the Rue Ste. Gudule and other streets leading up from the lower town +to the church, generally to be veiled by a mystic gray or ambient +haze, and to gain much in impressiveness and grandeur from the coup +d'oeil one obtains of them framed, as it were, in the end of the +rising street. + + + + +WATERLOO[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Les Miserables." Translated by Lascelles Wraxall.] + +BY VICTOR HUGO + + +The battle of Waterloo is an enigma as obscure for those who gained +it as for him who lost it. To Napoleon it is a panic; Blücher sees +nothing in it but fire; Wellington does not understand it at all. +Look at the reports; the bulletins are confused; the commentaries are +entangled; the latter stammer, the former stutter. + +Jomini divides the battle of Waterloo into four moments; Muffing cuts +it into three acts; Charras, altho we do not entirely agree with him +in all his appreciations, has alone caught with his haughty eye +the characteristic lineaments of this catastrophe of human genius +contending with divine chance. All the other historians suffer from a +certain bedazzlement in which they grope about. It was a flashing day, +in truth the overthrow of the military monarchy which, to the great +stupor of the kings, has dragged down all kingdoms, the downfall of +strength and the rout of war.... + +In this event, which bears the stamp of superhuman necessity, men play +but a small part; but if we take Waterloo from Wellington and Blücher, +does that deprive England and Germany of anything? No. Neither +illustrious England nor august Germany is in question in the problem +of Waterloo, for, thank heaven! nations are great without the mournful +achievements of the sword. Neither Germany, nor England, nor France +is held in a scabbard; at this day when Waterloo is only a clash of +sabers, Germany has Goethe above Blücher, and England has Byron above +Wellington. A mighty dawn of ideas is peculiar to our age; and in this +dawn England and Germany have their own magnificent flash. They are +majestic because they think; the high level they bring to civilization +is intrinsic to them; it comes from themselves, and not from an +accident. Any aggrandizement the nineteenth century may have can not +boast of Waterloo as its fountainhead; for only barbarous nations +grow suddenly after a victory--it is the transient vanity of torrents +swollen by a storm. Civilized nations, especially at the present day, +are not elevated or debased by the good or evil fortune of a captain, +and their specific weight in the human family results from something +more than a battle. Their honor, dignity, enlightenment, and genius +are not numbers which those gamblers, heroes and conquerors, can +stake in the lottery of battles. Very often a battle lost is progress +gained, and less of glory, more of liberty. The drummer is silent and +reason speaks; it is the game of who loses wins. Let us, then, speak +of Waterloo coldly from both sides, and render to chance the things +that belong to chance, and to God what is God's. What is Waterloo--a +victory? No; a prize in the lottery, won by Europe, and paid by +France; it was hardly worth while erecting a lion for it. + +Waterloo is the strangest encounter recorded in history; Napoleon +and Wellington are not enemies, but contraries. Never did God, who +delights in antitheses, produce a more striking contrast, or a more +extraordinary confrontation. On one side precision, foresight, +geometry, prudence, a retreat assured, reserves prepared, an obstinate +coolness, an imperturbable method, strategy profiting by the ground, +tactics balancing battalions, carnage measured by a plumb-line, war +regulated watch in hand, nothing left voluntarily to accident, old +classic courage and absolute correctness. + +On the other side we have intuition, divination, military strangeness, +superhuman instinct, a flashing glance; something that gazes like the +eagle and strikes like lightning, all the mysteries of a profound +mind, associated with destiny; the river, the plain, the forest, and +the hill summoned, and, to some extent, compelled to obey; the despot +going so far as even to tyrannize over the battlefield; faith in a +star, blended with a strategic science, heightening, but troubling it. + +Wellington was the Barême of war, Napoleon was its Michelangelo, and +this true genius was conquered by calculation. On both sides somebody +was expected; and it was the exact calculator who succeeded. Napoleon +waited for Grouchy, who did not come; Wellington waited for Blücher, +and he came. + +Wellington is the classical war taking its revenge; Bonaparte, in his +dawn, had met it in Italy, and superbly defeated it--the old owl +fled before the young vulture. The old tactics had been not only +overthrown, but scandalized. Who was this Corsican of six-and-twenty +years of age? What meant this splendid ignoramus, who, having +everything against him, nothing for him, without provisions, +ammunition, guns, shoes, almost without an army, with a handful of +men against masses, dashed at allied Europe, and absurdly gained +impossible victories? Who was this new comet of war who possest the +effrontery of a planet? + +The academic military school excommunicated him, while bolting, and +hence arose an implacable rancor of the old Caesarism against the new, +of the old saber against the flashing sword, and of the chessboard +against genius. On June 18, 1815, this rancor got the best; and +beneath Lodi, Montebello, Montenotte, Mantua, Marengo, and Arcola, it +wrote--Waterloo. It was a triumph of mediocrity, sweet to majorities, +and destiny consented to this irony. In his decline, Napoleon found +a young Suvarov before him--in fact, it is only necessary to blanch +Wellington's hair in order to have a Suvarov. Waterloo is a battle of +the first class, gained by a captain of the second. + +What must be admired in the battle of Waterloo is England, the English +firmness, the English resolution, the English blood, and what England +had really superb in it, is (without offense) herself; it is not her +captain, but her army. Wellington, strangely ungrateful, declares in +his dispatch to Lord Bathurst that his army, the one which fought on +June 18, 1815, was a "detestable army." + +What does the gloomy pile of bones buried in the trenches of Waterloo +think of this? England has been too modest to herself in her treatment +of Wellington, for making him so great is making herself small. +Wellington is merely a hero, like any other man. The Scots Grays, the +Life Guards, Maitland's and Mitchell's regiments, Pack's and Kempt's +infantry, Ponsonby's and Somerset's cavalry, the Highlanders playing +the bagpipes under the shower of canister, Ryland's battalions, the +fresh recruits who could hardly manage a musket, and yet held their +ground against the old bands of Essling and Rivoli--all this is grand. + +Wellington was tenacious; that was his merit, and we do not deny it +to him, but the lowest of his privates and his troopers was quite as +solid as he, and the iron soldier is as good as the iron duke. For our +part, all our glorification is offered to the English soldier, the +English army, the English nation; and if there must be a trophy, it +is to England that this trophy is owing. The Waterloo column would be +more just, if, instead of the figure of a man, it raised to the clouds +the statue of a people.... + +But this great England will be irritated by what we are writing here; +for she still has feudal illusions, after her 1688 and the French +1789. This people believes in inheritance and hierarchy, and while no +other excels it in power and glory, it esteems itself as a nation and +not as a people. As a people, it readily subordinates itself, and +takes a lord as its head; the workman lets himself be despised; the +soldier puts up with flogging. It will be remembered that, at the +battle of Inkerman, a sergeant who, as it appears, saved the British +army, could not be mentioned by Lord Raglan, because the military +hierarchy does not allow any hero below the rank of officer to be +mentioned in dispatches. What we admire before all, in an encounter +like Waterloo, is the prodigious skill of chance. The night raid, +the wall of Hougoumont, the hollow way of Ohain, Grouchy deaf to the +cannon, Napoleon's guide deceiving him, Bulow's guide enlightening +him--all this cataclysm is marvelously managed. + +There is more of a massacre than of a battle in Waterloo. Waterloo, of +all pitched battles, is the one which had the smallest front for +such a number of combatants. Napoleon's three-quarters of a league. +Wellington's half a league, and seventy-two thousand combatants +on either side. From this density came the carnage. The following +calculation has been made and proportion established: loss of men, at +Austerlitz, French, fourteen per cent.; Russian, thirty per cent.; +Austrian, forty-four per cent.; at Wagram, French, thirteen per cent.; +Austrian, fourteen per cent.; at Moscow, French, thirty-seven per +cent.; Russian, forty-four per cent.; at Bautzen, French, thirteen +cent.; Russian and Prussian, fourteen per cent.; at Waterloo, French, +fifty-six per cent.; allies, thirty-one per cent.--total for Waterloo, +forty-one per cent., or out of one hundred and forty-four thousand +fighting men, sixty thousand killed. + +The field of Waterloo has at the present day that calmness which +belongs to the earth, and resembles all plains; but at night, a sort +of a visionary mist rises from it, and if any traveler walk about it, +and listen and dream, like Virgil on the mournful plain of Philippi, +the hallucination of the catastrophe seizes upon him. The frightful +June 18th lives again, the false monumental hill is leveled, the +wondrous lion is dissipated, the battlefield resumes its reality, +lines of infantry undulate on the plain; furious galloping crosses the +horizon; the startled dreamer sees the flash of sabers, the sparkle +of bayonets, the red lights of shells, the monstrous collision of +thunderbolts; he hears like a death groan from the tomb, the vague +clamor of the fantom battle. + +These shadows are grenadiers; these flashes are cuirassiers; this +skeleton is Napoleon; this skeleton is Wellington: all this is +non-existent, and yet still combats, and the ravines are stained +purple, and the trees rustle, and there is fury even in the clouds +and in the darkness, while all the stern heights, Mont St. Jean, +Hougoumont, Frischemont, Papelotte, and Plancenoit, seem confusedly +crowned by hosts of specters exterminating one another. + + + + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. 1878.] + +BY THE EDITOR + + +The French wished to call it the battle of Mont St. Jean, but +Wellington said "The Battle of Waterloo." The victor's wish prevailed. +I know not why, except because he was the victor. The scene of the +battle is four miles from the village of Waterloo and, besides Mont +St. Jean, several villages from any one of which it might well have +been named, are included in the field. Before the battle, however, the +village of Waterloo had been the headquarters of the Duke and there he +rested for two days after the battle was won. + +I am now on this memorable spot as the solitary guest of a small hotel +at the base of the Lion's Mound, after having made a night of it in +crossing from Aix-la-Chapelle to Brussels and thence, through a storm +of mist and rain to the little station of Braine-l'Alleud, which is a +good mile from the battlefield. The train reached Braine-l'Alleud long +before daybreak. When the morn had really dawned, I left the +little waiting room, a solitary loiterer, and set out to find the +battleground. From the platform of the station the eye surveyed a +wide, thickly populated but rural plain, and in one direction afar +off, clearly set against the dark rain-dripping sky, rose in solemn +majesty a mound of earth, bearing on its lofty summit an indistinct +figure of a lion. + +A small rustic gate from the station led in the direction of the +Mound. From necessity, I began a tramp through the rain alone, no +conveyance being obtainable. The soil of Belgium here being alluvial, +a little rain soon makes a great deal of mud and little rains at this +season (January) are frequent. Along a small unpaved mud-deep road, +having meanwhile been joined by a peasant with a two wheeled cart +drawn by a single mule, I was soon hastening onward toward the Mound +which was growing more and more visible on the horizon. The road soon +turned away, however, but a path led toward the mound. The peasant +took the road and I the path, which led into a little clump of houses, +where were boys about their morning duties, and dogs that barked +vigorously until one of the boys to whom I had spoken silenced them. + +Passing onward through streets not more than six feet wide, along +neatly trimmed hedges and past small cottage doorways, I soon entered +an open plain, but in a crippled state with heavy mud-covered shoes. +Mud fairly obliterated all trace of leather. With this burden, and wet +to the skin with rain, there rose far ahead of me that historic mound, +and at last I stood at its base alone, there in the midst of one of +the greatest battlefields history records, soon to forget in the +momentary joys of a beefsteak breakfast that man had ever done +anything in this world except eat and drink. + +I must borrow an illustration--Victor Hugo's letter A. The apex is +Mount St. Jean, the right hand base La Belle Alliance, the left hand +base Hougoumont, the cross bar that sunken road which perhaps changed +the future of Europe, the two sides broad Belgian roads, paved with +square stones and bordered with graceful and lofty poplar trees, their +proud heads waving in every breeze that drifts across this undulating +plain. The Lion's Mound is just below the middle of this cross bar. +Mont St. Jean, La Belle Alliance and Hougoumont, at the three angles +of the triangle, are small villages--scarcely more than hamlets. All +were important points in the fortunes of that memorable 18th of June, +1815. Hougoumont, with its château and wall, in some sense was like a +fortress. + +Go with me if you will in imagination to the summit of the Lion's +Mound. A flight of 225 stone steps will take us there, a toilsome +ascent in this chilling air and this persistent rain. Toward Mont +St. Jean, the surface of the ground is rolling, the waves of it high +enough to conceal standing men from view. Except the lofty poplars at +the road sides, there are no trees. An admirable place for an army on +the defensive, you will at once say, since reserves can be concealed +behind the convolutions of the rolling plain. These convolutions may +also serve in the fight as natural fortifications. + +Here at Mont St. Jean, Wellington pitched his tent. Hougoumont lay far +off in front of his center, and had that morning a small garrison. +Napoleon, with his army, was a mile away, his line extending to the +right and left beyond La Belle Alliance. We must turn squarely around +as we stand alongside the lion if we are to see in the distance the +ground he occupied. Our place is nearly in the center of the field. +Hougoumont we realize to have been worthy of the prodigious struggle +the French made to capture it. Half a fortress then, it provided +an admirable stand for artillery. A few men might hold it against +superior numbers. + +At Waterloo the Duke had about 67,000 men--some accounts say +70,000--but many, perhaps 15,000, fled in desertion at an early hour +of the day. With these figures correct, the fighting forces of the +Allies later in the day, would remain little more than 55,000 men. The +Emperor's army has usually been placed at 70,000. His soldiers were +probably better trained than the Duke's and combined with long service +an abundance of enthusiasm for their old general, now restored to his +imperial throne and confident of victory. + +The night before the battle had been wet and stormy, but the morning +gave some promise of clearing; the sky, however, remained overcast and +some rain continued to fall. The French were weary after a long march, +and the artillery moved with difficulty across this wet and muddy +plain. Altogether they were in poor condition for a battle, in which +all their fortunes were at stake. It was just such a morning as ours, +except that it was then June and is now January. If the battle began +at 8 o'clock, as one account reads, we are here on the Lion's Mound at +that same hour. Even if this be January, daisies are in blossom at our +feet. + +Jerome Bonaparte, leading the attack, moves on Hougoumont, where the +Allies, who have come down from Mont St. Jean, repulse him. He renews +the attack "with redoubled fury," and a gallant resistance is made, +but he forces a way into the outer enclosure of the chateau that +crowns the hill. British howitzers are at once discharged upon the +French and compel them to retreat. New assaults are then made. +Overwhelming numbers seem to bear down upon the Allies. The stronghold +is more than once nearly lost, but it is defended with "prodigies of +valor" and firmly held to the last. Had Hougoumont been taken, the +result of the battle "would probably have been very different." + +Meanwhile, the Emperor has ordered a second attack elsewhere--this +time against the left wing of Wellington. Marshal Ney sends forward +six divisions, who encounter the Netherlandish troops and easily +scatter them. Two brigades of British numbering 3,000 men then prepare +to check the advancing French. A struggle, brief but fierce, ensues, +in which the French are repulsed. They rally again, however, and +Scotch Highlanders, their bagpipes sounding the cry, advance against +them, along with an English brigade. These make an impetuous assault, +while cavalry charge Napoleon's infantry, and force a part of them +back on La Belle Alliance. But here the pursuing British meet with a +check in a scene of wild carnage that sweeps over the field. + +We may look down upon the scene of that frightful struggle. It lies +just below us. Grass is growing there luxuriantly now. A north wind +sweeps over the plain. A mournful requiem seems to whistle through the +poplar trees. + +If we look toward Hougoumont, French gunners are seen to have been +slain. Many cannon are silent. With the chateau in flames, confusion +reigns. Napoleon, ordering a new cavalry attack, directs Jerome to +advance with his infantry. Immediately the Allies discharge grape +and canister on the advancing host. But no Frenchman wavers. On the +contrary, the French cavalry capture Wellington's outward battalion +and press onward toward his hollow squares of infantry. All efforts to +break these squares end in failure. For a time the French abandon the +attack, but only to renew it and then follows a remarkable scene. The +French charge with unprecedented fury, and the squares are partially +broken, while friends and enemies, wounded or killed, are mingled in +inextricable confusion. + +Some of the Belgian troops take flight and in mad terror run back to +Brussels, causing great consternation there by reporting a defeat for +Wellington. The squares maintain their ground to the end admirably, +and with severe losses the French retire. Hougoumont near by, all this +time was not silent. The attack being continued, the commander is +killed and at last its heights are gained. From elsewhere in the +field, Wellington learns of his loss, places himself at the head of a +brigade, and commands it to charge. Amid the utmost enthusiasm of the +Allies the French are driven back from Hougoumont. + +Napoleon now turns his efforts against La Haye Sainte, a small height +forward from Mont St. Jean, occupied by the enemy's left wing. Ney, +in a furious cannonade, begins the attack, in which the Allies are +overwhelmed and their ammunition is exhausted. Masters of this point, +the French again move on Hougoumont. It is seven o'clock in the +evening, with Napoleon in fair way to succeed, but his men are already +exhausted and their losses are heavy. Some of them plunge into that +famous sunken road, unheeded of him and them, and still so great a +mystery to historians. It was a charging cavalry column that plunged +in, unknowingly, rider and horse together, in indescribable confusion +and dismay. We may see that road to-day, for we have walked in a part +of it when coming across the plain from the station--a narrow road cut +many feet deep, its bed paved with little stones. Hugo's words on that +frightful scene are these: + +"There was the ravine, unlooked for, yawning at the very feet of the +horses, two fathoms deep between its double slope. The second rank +pushed in the first, the third pushed in the second; the horses +reared, threw themselves over, fell upon their backs, and struggled +with their feet in the air, piling up and overturning their riders; no +power to retreat; the whole column was nothing but a projectile. The +force acquired to crush the English crusht the French. The inexorable +ravine could not yield until it was filled; riders and horses rolled +in together pell-mell, grinding each other, making common flesh in +this dreadful gulf, and when this grave was full of living men, the +rest marched over them and passed on. Almost a third of the Dubois' +brigade sank into this abyss." + +Two hours before this, Blücher, with his Prussians, had +appeared--Blücher who was to turn the tide of battle. He had promised +Wellington to be there. His soldiers had complained bitterly on the +long march over muddy ground, but he told them his word as a soldier +must be kept. From far beyond La Belle Alliance had Blücher come, a +cow boy showing him the way--a boy who, if he had not known the way, +or had lied, might have saved Napoleon from St. Helena. The ground +where Blücher entered the field is just visible to us from the mound +as with strained eyes, we peer through the morning mist. During Ney's +attack, Blücher opens fire on La Haye Sainte. By six o'clock he has +forty-eight guns in action and some of the guns send shot as far as La +Belle Alliance. As the conflict deepens, Napoleon's fortunes are seen +to be obviously in grave, if not critical, danger, but he strengthens +his right wing and again hazards Hougoumont. Eight battalions are +sent forward, an outlying stronghold is captured, but more Prussians +advance and threaten to regain the point. + +At seven o'clock while Ney is renewing the attack on Hougoumont other +Prussians appear. The real crisis being at hand, Napoleon resolves +on a final, concentrated movement against the enemy's center. His +soldiers being worn out and discouraged, he gives out a false report +that reinforcements are at last coming--that Grouchy has not failed +him. A furious cannonade opens this new attack, causing "frightful +havoc" among the Allies. The Prince of Orange holds back the French +on the very ground where the lion is now elevated, but falls wounded. +Napoleon, in an address to the Imperial Guard, rouses them to great +enthusiasm. For a half hour longer the French bear down on the enemy, +but British gunners make gaps in their ranks. With his horse shot from +under him, Ney goes forward on foot. + +The Duke now takes personal command. He sends a shower of grape and +cannister against a column of French veterans, but they never waver. +Reserves, suddenly called for, pour a fierce charge against the +advancing French, rending them asunder. The attack is closely followed +up and the French are driven down the hill. Elsewhere in the field the +battle still rages. Blücher continues his attack on Napoleon's right +and forces it back. Reduced to despair, Napoleon now gives his final +and famous order: "Tout est perdu! Sauve qui peut." But the Young +Guard resists Blücher. Wellington, descending from his height, follows +the retreating enemy as far as La Belle Alliance. At eight o'clock, +after a most sanguinary struggle, the Young Guard yields. The success +of Blücher elsewhere completes the victory of the Allies. + +One man will never surrender--Cambronne. Who was Cambronne? No one +can tell you more than this--he was the man at Waterloo who would not +surrender. "The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders." "Among those +giants then," says Hugo, "there was one Titan--Cambronne. The man +who won the battle of Waterloo was not Napoleon, put to rout; not +Wellington, giving way at four o'clock, desperate at five; not +Blücher, who did not fight. The man who won the battle of Waterloo +was Cambronne. To fulminate at the thunderbolt which kills you, is +victory." + +As we look over this field from our height and try to realize what +mighty fortunes were here at stake, we note that the mementoes of +that day are few. A Corinthian column and an obelisk are seen at the +roadside as memorials of the bravery of two officers. This Lion's +Mound, two hundred feet high and made from earth piled up by cart +loads, commemorates the place where a prince was wounded. Colossal in +size, the lion was cast from French cannon captured in the fight. On +this broad plain upward of 50,000 men, who had mothers, sisters, +and wives at home, gave up their lives. Poplar trees sigh forth +perpetually their funeral dirge. Grass grows where their blood was +poured out. Modern Europe can show few scenes of more sublime tragedy. +Our visiting day, with its chilling air and penetrating rain, has +been a fit day for seeing Waterloo. The old woman who served me with +breakfast spoke English easily. It was well--doubly well. No other +language than English should be spoken on the field of Waterloo. I +passed a few French words with the boy who called off the dogs, but +was afterward sorry for having done so. + + + + +ANTWERP[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium." Published +by James Pott & Co.] + +BY T. FRANCIS BUMPUS + + +Byzantium--Venice--Antwerp, these are the centers around which the +modern world has revolved, for we must include its commercial with its +social progress, and with those interests which develop with society. +Indeed, the development of the arts has always run concurrently with +commerce. One could wish to add that the converse were equally true. + +Antwerp--the city on the wharf--became famous at the beginning of +the sixteenth century under the reign of the enterprising Charles V. +"Antwerp was then truly a leading city in almost all things, but +in commerce it headed all the cities of the world," says an old +chronicler. Bruges, the great banking center yielded her position, +and the Hanseatic merchants removed to the banks of the Scheldt. "I +was astonished, and wondered much when I beheld Antwerp," wrote an +envoy of the Italian Republic, "for I saw Venice outdone." + +In what direction Venice was outdone is not recorded. Not in her +architecture, at least; scarcely in her painting. We can not concede +a Tintoretto for a Rubens. Yet, as Antwerp was the home of Matsys, +of Rubens, Van Dyck, and the Teniers, the home also of Christopher +Plantin, the great printer, her glory is not to be sought in trade +alone. She is still remembered as a mother of art and letters, while +her mercantile preeminence belongs to a buried past. + +It must, however, be confest that the fortunes of Antwerp as a city, +prospering in its connection with the Hanseatic League, were anything +but advantageous to the student of architectural history. Alterations +and buildings were the order of the day, and so lavish were the means +devoted to the work that scarcely a vestige of architecture in the +remains is of earlier date than the fourteenth century. + +The grandly dimensioned churches raised in every parish afford ample +evidence of the zeal and skill with which the work of reconstruction +was prosecuted, and as specimens of the style of their day can not +fail to elicit our admiration by the nobility of their proportions, so +that in the monuments the wealthy burghers of Antwerp have left us we +have perhaps no reason to regret their zeal. At the same time, one +is tempted to wish that they had spared the works of earlier date by +raising their new ones on fresh ground, instead of such wholesale +demolition of the labors of preceding generations. + +Nôtre Dame at Antwerp, the most spacious church in the Netherlands, +originated in a chapel built for a miraculous image of the Blessed +Virgin. This chapel was reconstructed in 1124, when the canons of St. +Michel, having ceded their church to the Praemonstratensians, removed +hither. Two centuries later, the canons of St. Michel, animated by the +prevailing spirit, determined on rebuilding their church on a more +magnificent scale, and they commenced the work in 1352 by laying the +foundations for a new choir. But slow progress was made with this +great undertaking, more than two centuries and a half elapsing before +the church assumed that form with which we are familiar to-day. In +1520, the chapter, dissatisfied with its choir, started upon the +erection of a new one, the first stone of which was laid in the +following year by the Emperor Charles V., accompanied by King +Christian II. of Denmark and a numerous retinue. + +The new plan included a crypt, partly above ground, probably like that +we see in St. Paul's in the same town, and the work was progressing +when, in 1533, a disastrous fire did such damage to the western parts +of the church that the project of enlargement was suspended, and +the funds destined for its employment were applied to restoring the +damaged portions. Had the design been realized, the eastern limb of +the church would have been doubled in size. + +As regards its dimensions, Nôtre Dame at Antwerp is one of the most +remarkable churches in Europe, being nearly 400 feet long by 170 feet +in width across the nave, which, inclusive of that covered by the +western towers, has seven bays, and three aisles on either side. This +multiplication of aisles gives a vast intricacy and picturesqueness to +the cross views of the interior; but there is a poverty of detail, and +a want of harmony among the parts and of subordination and +proportion, sadly destructive of true architectural effect; so that, +notwithstanding its size, it looks much smaller internally than many +of the French cathedrals of far less dimensions. If there had been ten +bays in the nave instead of only seven, and the central division had +been at least ten feet wider, which could easily have been spared from +the outermost aisles, the apparent size of the church would have been +much greater. The outermost south aisle is wider than the nave, and +equal in breadth to the two inner aisles; the northernmost aisle is +not quite so broad. + +The transepts have no aisles, but they are continued beyond the line +of the nave aisles, so that they are more than usually elongated. The +two inner aisles of the nave open into the transepts, but the outer +ones, which, it should be remarked, are continuous, and not divided +into a series of chapels, are walled up at their eastern extremities. + +The choir consists of three bays, but has only one aisle on either +side. This is continued round the apse, and five pentagonal chapels +radiate from it. Three chapels flank the north aisle of the choir, the +first two opening, as does the north transept, into one large chapel +of the same breadth as the southernmost aisle of the nave.... The +façade is flanked by towers equal in width to the two inner aisles of +the nave. The northern one has alone been completed, and altho it may +seem to a severe judgment to possess some of the defects of the +late Flemish style, it is rivaled for beauty of outline only by the +flamboyant steeples of Chartres and Vienna. As might be expected from +its late age--it was not finished until 1530--this northwestern spire +of Notre Dame at Antwerp exhibits some extravagances in design and +detail, but the mode in which the octagonal lantern of openwork +bisects the faces of the solid square portion with its alternate +angles, thus breaking the outline without any harsh or disagreeable +transition, is very masterly, while the bold pinnacles, with their +flying buttresses, which group around it, produce a most pleasing +variety, the whole serving to indicate the appearance the steeple of +Malines would have presented had it been completed according to the +original design. + +If size were any real test of beauty, the interior or Notre Dame at +Antwerp ought to be one of the finest in Belgium. Unfortunately, altho +it was begun at a time when the pointed style had reached the full +maturity of perfection, a colder and more unimpressive design than is +here carried out it would be difficult to find. Still, notwithstanding +the long period that elapsed between its commencement and completion, +there is a congruity about the whole building which is eminently +pleasing, and to some extent redeems the defects in its details and +proportions, while the views afforded in various directions by the +triple aisles on either side of the nave are undeniably picturesque. + +The high altarpiece, placed on the chord of the apse, is a noble and +sumptuous example of early Renaissance taste and workmanship, but like +the stallwork, its dimensions are such as to diminish the scale of the +choir, the five arches opening to the procession path being completely +obscured by it. Of the numerous creations of Rubens' pencil none +perhaps more thoroughly declares to us his comprehension of religious +decorative art than the "Assumption" which fills the arched +compartment in the lower portion of this altarpiece. It was finished +in 1625, and, of twenty repetitions of the subject, is the only +example still preserved at the place it was intended by the painter +to occupy. In spirit we are reminded of Titian's "Assumption" in the +cathedral at Verona, but Rubens' proves perhaps a higher conception +of the subject. The work is seen a considerable way off, and every +outline is bathed in light, so that the Virgin is elevated to dazzling +glory with a power of accession scarcely, if ever, attained by any +master. + +In the celebrated "Descent from the Cross," which hangs in the +south transept, the boldness of the composition, the energy in the +characters, the striking attitudes and grouping, the glowing, vigorous +coloring, are astonishing proofs of Rubens' power. The circumstances +which gave rise to this wondrous effort of art are interesting. It is +said that Rubens, in laying the foundations of his villa near Antwerp, +had unwittingly infringed on some ground belonging to the Company +of Gunsmiths (arquebusiers). A law suit was threatened, and Rubens +prepared to defend it, but, being assured by one of the greatest +lawyers of the city that the right lay with his opponents, he +immediately drew back, and offered to paint a picture by way of +recompense. The offer was accepted, and the company required a +representation of its patron saint, St. Christopher, to be placed in +its chapel in the cathedral, which at that time Notre Dame was. + +Rubens, with his usual liberality and magnificence, presented to his +adversaries, not merely a single representation of the saint, but +an elaborate illustration of his name--The Christ-bearer. The +arquebusiers were at first disappointed not to have their saint +represented in the usual manner, and Rubens was obliged to enter +into an explanation of his work. Thus, without knowing it, they had +received in exchange for a few feet of land a treasure which neither +money nor lands can now purchase. The painting was executed by +Rubens soon after his seven years' residence in Italy, and while the +impression made by the work of Titian and Paul Veronese were yet fresh +in his mind. The great master appeared in the fulness of his glory in +this work--it is one of the few which exhibits in combination all +that nature had given him of warmth and imagination--with all that he +acquired of knowledge, judgment and method, and in which he may be +considered fully to have overcome the difficulties of a subject which +becomes painful, and almost repulsive, when it ceases to be sublime. + + + + +VII + +HOLLAND + + + + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +The first time that I crossed the old Rhine, I had stopt on the +bridge, asking myself whether that small and humble stream of water +was really the same river that I had seen rushing in thunder over the +rocks at Schaffhausen, spreading majestically before Mayence, passing +in triumph under the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, beating in sonorous +cadence at the foot of the Seven Mountains; reflecting in its course +Gothic cathedrals, princely castles, fertile hills, steep rocks, +famous ruins, cities, groves, and gardens; everywhere covered with +vessels of all sorts, and saluted with music and song; and thinking of +these things, with my gaze fixt upon the little stream shut in between +two flat and desert shores, I had repeated, "Is this that Rhine?" + +The vicissitudes which accompany the agony and death of this great +river in Holland, are such as really to excite a sense of pity, such +as is felt for the misfortunes and inglorious end of a people once +powerful and happy. From the neighborhood of Emmerich, before reaching +the Dutch frontier, it has lost all the beauty of its banks, and flows +in great curves through vast and ugly flats, which seem to mark the +approach to old age. At Millingen it runs entirely in the territory of +Holland; a little farther on it divides. The main branch shamefully +loses its name, and goes to throw itself into the Meuse: the other +branch, insulted by the title of the Dannerden canal, flows nearly to +the city of Arnehm, when it once more divides into two branches. One +empties into the Gulf of Zuyder-Zee; the other still called, out of +compassion, the Lower Rhine, goes as far as the village of Durstede, +where it divides for the third time; a humiliation now of old date. + +One of these branches, changing its name like a coward, throws itself +into the Meuse near Rotterdam; the other still called the Rhine, +but with the ridiculous surname of "curved," reaches Utrecht with +difficulty, where for the fourth time it again divides; capricious as +an old man in his dotage. One part, denying its old name, drags itself +as far as Muiden, where it falls into the Zuyder-Zee; the other, with +the name of Old Rhine, or simply the Old, flows slowly to the city +of Leyden, whose streets it crosses almost without giving a sign of +movement, and is finally gathered into one canal by which it goes to +its miserable death in the North Sea. + +But it is not many years since this pitiful end was denied it. From +the year 839, in which a furious tempest had accumulated mountains of +sand at its mouth, until the beginning of the present century, the Old +Rhine lost itself in the sand before reaching the sea, and covered a +vast tract of country with pools and marshes. Under the reign of Louis +Bonaparte the waters were collected into a large canal protected +by three enormous sluicegates, and from that time the Rhine flows +directly to the sea. These sluices are the greatest monument in +Holland and, perhaps, the most admirable hydraulic work in Europe. + +The dikes which protect the mouth of the canal, the walls, pillars, +and gates, present altogether the aspect of a Cyclopian fortress, +against which it seems that not only that sea, but the united forces +of all seas, must break as against a granite mountain. When the tide +rises the gates are closed to prevent the waters from invading the +land; when the tide recedes they are opened to give passage to the +waters of the Rhine which have accumulated behind them; and then a +mass of three thousand cubic feet of water passes through them in one +minute. On days when storms prevail, a concession is made to the sea, +and the most advanced of the sluicegates is left open; and then the +furious billows rush into the canal, like an enemy entering by a +breach, but they break upon the formidable barrier of the second gate, +behind which Holland stands and cries, "Thus far shalt thou go, and +no farther!" That enormous fortification which, on a desert shore, +defends a dying river and a fallen city from the ocean, has something +of solemnity which commands respect and admiration.... + +Napoleon said that it [Holland] was an alluvion of Trench rivers--the +Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Meuse--and with this pretext he added +it to the empire. One writer has defined it as a sort of transition +between land and sea. Another, as an immense crust of earth floating +on water. Others, an annex of the old continent, the China of Europe, +the end of the earth, and the beginning of the ocean, a measureless +raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it the country nearest to +hell. + +But they all agreed upon one point, and all exprest it in the same +words:--Holland is a conquest made by man over the sea--it is an +artificial country--the Hollanders made it--it exists because the +Hollanders preserve it--it will vanish whenever the Hollanders shall +abandon it. + +To comprehend this truth, we must imagine Holland as it was when first +inhabited by the first German tribes that wandered away in search of +a country. It was almost uninhabitable. There were vast tempestuous +lakes, like seas, touching one another; morass beside morass; one +tract covered with brushwood after another; immense forests of pines, +oaks, and alders, traversed by herds of wild horses; and so thick were +these forests that tradition says one could travel leagues passing +from tree to tree without ever putting foot to the ground. The deep +bays and gulfs carried into the heart of the country the fury of the +northern tempests. Some provinces disappeared once every year under +the waters of the sea, and were nothing but muddy tracts, neither land +nor water, where it was impossible either to walk or to sail. The +large rivers, without sufficient inclination to descend to the sea, +wandered here and there uncertain of their day, and slept in monstrous +pools and ponds among the sands of the coasts. It was a sinister +place, swept by furious winds, beaten by obstinate rains, veiled in a +perpetual fog, where nothing was heard but the roar of the sea, and +the voice of wild beasts and birds of the ocean. + +Now, if we remember that such a region has become one of the most +fertile, wealthiest and best regulated of the countries of the world, +we shall understand the justice of the saying that Holland is a +conquest made by man. But, it must be added, the conquest goes on +forever. + +To drain the lakes of the country the Hollanders prest the air into +their service. The lakes, the marshes, were surrounded by dikes, +the dikes by canals; and an army of windmills, putting in motion +force-pumps, turned the water into the canals, which carried it off +to the rivers and the sea. Thus vast tracts of land buried under the +water, saw the sun, and were transformed, as if by magic, into fertile +fields, covered with villages, and intersected by canals and roads. In +the seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes +were drained. At the beginning of the present century, in North +Holland alone, more than six thousand hectares, or fifteen thousand +acres, were thus redeemed from the waters; in South Holland, before +1844, twenty-nine thousand hectares; in the whole of Holland, from +1500 to 1858, three hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. +Substituting steam-mills for windmills, in thirty-nine months was +completed the great undertaking of the draining of the lake of +Haarlem, which measured forty-four-kilometers in circumference, +and for ever threatened with its tempests the cities of Haarlem, +Amsterdam, and Leyden. And they are now meditating the prodigious work +of drying up the Zuyder-Zee, which embraces an area of more than seven +hundred square kilometers. + +But the most tremendous struggle was the battle with the ocean. +Holland is in great part lower than the level of the sea; +consequently, everywhere that the coast is not defended by sand-banks, +it has to be protected by dikes. If these interminable bulkwarks of +earth, granite, and wood were not there to attest the indomitable +courage and perseverance of the Hollanders, it would not be believed +that the hand of man could, even in many centuries have accomplished +such a work. In Zealand alone the dikes extend to a distance of more +than four hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of +Walcheren is defended by a dike, in which it is computed that the +expense of construction added to that of preservation, if it were put +out at interest, would amount to a sum equal in value to that which +the dike itself would be worth were it made of massive copper. + +Around the city of Helder, at the northern extremity of North Holland, +extends a dike ten kilometers long, constructed of masses of Norwegian +granite, which descends more than sixty meters into the sea. The whole +province of Friesland, for the length of eighty-eight kilometers, is +defended by three rows of piles sustained by masses of Norwegian and +German granite. Amsterdam, all the cities of the Zuyder Zee, and all +the islands--fragments of vanished lands--which are strung like beads +between Friesland and North Holland, are protected by dikes. From the +mouths of the Ems to those of the Scheldt Holland is an impenetrable +fortress, of whose immense bastions the mills are the towers, the +cataracts are the gates, the islands the advanced forts; and like a +true fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tops of +its bell-towers and the roofs of its houses, as if in defiance and +derision. + +Holland is a fortress, and her people live as in a fortress on a +war-footing with the sea. An army of engineers, directed by the +Minister of the Interior, spread over the country, and ordered like +an army, continually spy the enemy, watch over the internal waters, +foresee the bursting of the dikes, order and direct the defensive +works. The expenses of the war are divided; one part to the State, +one part to the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the general +imposts, a special impost for the dikes, in proportion to the extent +of his lands and their proximity to the water. An accidental rupture, +an inadvertence, may cause a flood; the peril is unceasing; the +sentinels are at their posts upon the bulwarks at the first assault of +the sea; they shout the war-cry, and Holland sends men, material, and +money. And even when there is not a great battle, a quiet, silent +struggle is for ever going on. + +The innumerable mills, even in the drained districts, continue to work +unresting, to absorb and turn into the canals the water that falls in +rain and that which filters in from the sea. + +But Holland has done more than defend herself against the waters; +she has made herself mistress of them, and has used them for her own +defense. Should a foreign army invade her territory, she has but to +open her dikes and unchain the sea and the rivers, as she did against +the Romans, against the Spaniards, against the army of Louis XIV., and +defend the land cities with her fleet. Water was the source of her +poverty, she has made it the source of wealth. Over the whole country +extends an immense net-work of canals which serve both for the +irrigation of the land and as a means of communication. The cities, +by means of canals, communicate with the sea; canals run from town to +town, and from them to villages, which are themselves bound together +by these watery ways, and are connected even to the houses scattered +over the country; smaller canals surround the fields and orchards, +pastures and kitchen-gardens, serving at once as boundary-wall, hedge, +and roadway; every house is a little port. Ships, boats, rafts move +about in all directions, as in other places carts and carriages. The +canals are the arteries of Holland, and the water her life-blood. + +But even setting aside the canals, the draining of the lakes, and +the defensive works, on every side are seen the traces of marvelous +undertakings. The soil, which in other countries is a gift of nature, +is in Holland a work of men's hands. Holland draws the greater part of +her wealth from commerce; but before commerce comes the cultivation +of the soil; and the soil had to be created. There were sand-banks, +interspersed with layers of peat, broad downs swept by the winds, +great tracts of barren land apparently condemned to an external +sterility. The first elements of manufacture, iron and coal, were +wanting; there was no wood, because the forests had already been +destroyed by tempests when agriculture began; there was no stone, +there were no metals. + +Nature, says a Dutch poet, had refused all her gifts to Holland; the +Hollanders had to do everything in spite of nature. They began by +fertilizing the sand. In some places they formed a productive soil +with earth brought from a distance, as a garden is made; they spread +the siliceous dust of the downs over the too watery meadows; they +mixed with the sandy earth the remains of peat taken from the bottoms; +they extracted clay to lend fertility to the surface of their lands; +they labored to break up the downs with the plow; and thus in a +thousand ways, and continually fighting off the menacing waters, they +succeeded in bringing Holland to a state of cultivation not inferior +to that of more favored regions. That Holland, the sandy, marshy +country that the ancients considered all but uninhabitable, now sends +out yearly from her confines agricultural products to the value of a +hundred millions of francs, possesses about one million three hundred +thousand head of cattle, and, in proportion to the extent of her +territory, may be accounted one of the most populous of European +states. + +But however wonderful may be the physical history of Holland, her +political history is still more so. This small territory invaded from +the beginning by different tribes of the Germanic races, subjugated by +the Romans and the Franks, devastated by the Normans and by the Danes, +desolated by centuries of civil war with all its horrors, this small +people of fisherman and traders, saves its civil liberty and its +freedom of conscience by a war of eighty years against the formidable +monarchy of Philip II., and founds a republic which becomes the ark of +salvation to the liberties of all the world, the adopted country of +science, the Exchange of Europe, the station for the commerce of the +world; a republic which extends its domination to Java, Sumatra, +Hindustan, Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of +Good Hope, the West-Indies, and New York; a republic which vanquished +England on the sea, which resists the united arms of Charles II. and +Louis XIV., and which treats on equal terms with the greatest nations, +and is, for a time, one of the three Powers that decide the fate of +Europe. + + + + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, S.P. Putnam's Sons. +Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +It is a singular thing that the great cities of Holland, altho built +upon a shifting soil, and amid difficulties of every kind, have all +great regularity of form. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague square, +Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an +immense dike, which defends the city from the Meuse, and is called +the Boompjes, signifying, in Dutch, small trees, from a row of little +elms, now very tall, that were planted when it was first constructed. + +The whole city of Rotterdam presents the appearance of a town that +has been shaken smartly by an earthquake, and is on the point of +the falling ruin. All the houses--in any street one may count the +exceptions on their fingers--lean more or less, but the greater part +of them so much that at the roof they lean forward at least a foot +beyond their neighbors, which may be straight, or not so visibly +inclined; one leans forward as if it would fall into the street; +another backward, another to the left, another to the right, at some +points six or seven contiguous houses all lean forward together, those +in the middle most, those at the ends lass, looking like a paling +with a crowd pressing against it. At another point, two houses lean +together as if supporting one another. In certain streets the +houses for a long distance lean all one way, like trees beaten by a +prevailing wind; and then another long row will lean in the opposite +direction, as if the wind had changed. + +Sometimes there is a certain regularity of inclination that is +scarcely noticeable; and again, at crossings and in the smaller +streets, there is an indescribable confusion of lines, a real +architectural frolic, a dance of houses, a disorder that seems +animated. There are houses that nod forward as if asleep, others that +start backward as if frightened, some bending toward each other, their +roofs almost touching, as if in secret conference; some falling upon +one another as if they were drunk, some leaning backward between +others that lean forward, like malefactors dragged onward by their +guards; rows of houses that curtsey to a steeple, groups of small +houses all inclined toward one in the middle, like conspirators in +conclave. + +Broad and long canals divide the city into so many islands, united by +drawbridges, turning bridges, and bridges of stone. On either side of +every canal extends a street, flanked by trees on one side and houses +on the other. All these canals are deep enough to float large vessels, +and all are full of them from one end to the other, except a space in +the middle left for passage in and out. An immense fleet imprisoned in +a city. + +When I arrived it was the busiest hour, so I planted myself upon the +highest bridge over the principal crossing. From thence were visible +four canals, four forests of ships, bordered by eight files of trees; +the streets were crammed with people and merchandise; droves of cattle +were crossing the bridges; bridges were rising in the air, or opening +in the middle, to allow vessels to pass through, and were scarcely +replaced or closed before they were inundated by a throng of people, +carts, and carriages; ships came and went in the canals, shining like +models in a museum, and with the wives and children of the sailors on +the decks; boats darted from vessel to vessel; the shops drove a busy +trade; servant-women washed the walls and windows; and all this moving +life was rendered more gay and cheerful by the reflections in the +water, the green of the trees, the red of the houses, the tall +windmills, showing their dark tops and white sails against the azure +of the sky, and still more by an air of quiet simplicity not seen in +any other northern city. + +From canal to canal, and from bridge to bridge, I finally reached the +dike of the Boompjes upon the Meuse, where boils and bubbles all the +life of the great commercial city. On the left extends a long row of +small many-colored steamboats, which start every hour in the day for +Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gonda, Schiedam, Brilla, Zealand, and continually +send forth clouds of white smoke and the sound of their cheerful +bells. To the right lie the large ships which make the voyage to +various European ports, mingled with fine three-masted vessels bound +for the East Indies, with names written in golden letters--Java, +Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang--carrying the fancy to those distant and +savage countries like the echoes of distant voices. In front the +Meuse, covered with boats and barks, and the distant shore with a +forest of beech trees, windmills, and towers; and over all the unquiet +sky, full of gleams of light, and gloomy clouds, fleeting and changing +in their constant movement, as if repeating the restless labor on the +earth below. + +Rotterdam, it must be said here, is, in commercial importance, the +first city in Holland after Amsterdam. It was already a flourishing +town in the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on +the Low Countries, adduces a proof of the wealth of the city in the +sixteenth century, saying that in one year nine hundred houses that +had been destroyed by fire were rebuilt. Bentivoglio, in his history +of the war in Flanders, calls it "the largest and most mercantile of +the lands of Holland." But its greatest prosperity did not begin until +1830, or after the separation of Holland and Belgium, when Rotterdam +seemed to draw to herself everything that was lost by her rival, +Antwerp. + +Her situation is extremely advantageous. She communicates with the sea +by the Meuse, which brings to her ports in a few hours the largest +merchantmen; and by the same river she communicates with the Rhine, +which brings to her from the Swiss mountains and Bavaria immense +quantities of timber--entire forests that come to Holland to be +transformed into ships, dikes, and villages. More than eighty splendid +vessels come and go, in the space of nine months, between Rotterdam +and India. Merchandise flows in from all sides in such great abundance +that a large part of it has to be distributed through the neighboring +towns.... + +Rotterdam, in short, has a future more splendid than that of +Amsterdam, and has long been regarded as a rival by her elder +sister. She does not possess the wealth of the capital; but is more +industrious in increasing what she has; she dares, risks, undertakes +like a young and adventurous city. Amsterdam, like a merchant grown +cautious after having made his fortune by hazardous undertakings, +begins to doze over her treasures. At Rotterdam fortunes are made; at +Amsterdam they are consolidated; at the Hague they are spent.... + +In the middle of the market-place, surrounded by heaps of vegetables, +fruit, and earthenware pots and pans, stands the statue of Desiderius +Erasmus, the first literary light of Holland; that Gerrit Gerritz--for +he assumed the Latin name himself, according to the custom of writers +in his day--that Gerrit Gerritz belonged, by his education, his style, +and his ideas, to the family of the humanists and erudite of Italy; +a fine writer, profound and indefatigable in letters and science, he +filled all Europe with his name between the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries; he was loaded with favors by the popes, and sought after +and entertained by princes; and his "Praise of Folly," written in +Latin like the rest of his innumerable works, and dedicated to Sir +Thomas More, is still read. The bronze statue, erected in 1622, +represents Erasmus drest in a furred gown, with a cap of the same, a +little bent forward as if walking, and in the act of reading a large +book, held open in the hand; the pedestal bears a double inscription, +in Dutch and Latin, calling him, "The Foremost Man of His Century," +and "The Most Excellent of All Citizens." In spite of this pompous +eulogium, however, poor Erasmus, planted there like a municipal guard +in the market-place, makes but a pitiful figure. I do not believe that +there is in the world another statue of a man of letters that is, +like this, neglected by the passer-by, despised by those about it, +commiserated by those who look at it. But who knows whether Erasmus, +acute philosopher as he was, and must be still, be not contented with +his corner, the more that it is not far from his own house, if the +tradition is correct? In a small street near the market-place, in the +wall of a little house now occupied as a tavern, there is a niche with +a bronze statuette representing the great writer, and under it the +inscription: "This is the little house in which the great Erasmus was +born." ... + +Rotterdam in the evening presents an unusual aspect to the stranger's +eye. While in other northern cities at a certain hour of the night all +the life is concentered in the houses, at Rotterdam at that hour it +expands into the streets. The Hoog-straat is filled until far into the +night with a dense throng, the shops are open, because the servants +make their purchases in the evening, and the cafés crowded. Dutch +cafés are peculiar. In general there is one long room, divided in the +middle by a green curtain, which is drawn down at evening and conceals +the back part, which is the only part lighted; the front part, closed +from the street by large glass doors, is in darkness, so that from +without only dark shadowy forms can be seen, and the burning points +of cigars, like so many fireflies. Among these dark forms the vague +profile of a woman who prefers darkness to light may be detected here +and there.... + +Walking through Rotterdam in the evening, it is evident that the city +is teeming with life and in process of expansion; a youthful city, +still growing, and feeling herself every year more and more prest +for room in her streets and houses. In a not far distant future, her +hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants will have increased to two +hundred thousand.[A] The smaller streets swarm with children; there is +an overflow of life and movement that cheers the eye and heart; a kind +of holiday air. The white and rosy faces of the servant-maids, whose +white caps gleam on every side; the serene visages of shopkeepers +slowly imbibing great glassfuls of beer; the peasants with their +monstrous ear-rings; the cleanliness; the flowers in the windows; the +tranquil and laborious throng; all give to Rotterdam an aspect of +healthful and peaceful content, which brings to the lips the chant +of "Te Beata," not with the cry of enthusiasm, but with the smile of +sympathy.... + +[Footnote A: The population now (1914) is 418,000, as stated In the +New Standard Dictionary.] + +The Hague--in Dutch, s'Gravenhage, or s'Hage--the political capital, +the Washington of Holland, Amsterdam being the New York--is a city +half Dutch and half French, with broad streets and no canals; vast +squares full of trees, elegant houses, splendid hotels, and a +population mostly made up of the rich, nobles, officials, artists, and +literati, the populace being of a more refined order than that of the +other Dutch cities. + +In my first turn about the town what struck me most were the new +quarters, where dwells the flower of the wealthy aristocracy. In no +other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain at Paris, did I feel +myself such a very poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and +straight, flanked by palaces of elegant form and delicate color, with +large shutterless windows, through which can be seen the rich carpets +and sumptuous furniture of the first floors. Every door is closed; and +there is not a shop, nor a placard, nor a stain, nor a straw to be +seen if you were to look for it with a hundred eyes. The silence +was profound when I passed by. Only now and then I encountered some +aristocratic equipage rolling almost noiselessly over the brick +pavement, or the stiffest of lackeys stood before a door, or the +blonde head of a lady was visible behind a curtain. Passing close +to the windows and beholding my shabby traveling dress ruthlessly +reflected in the plate-glass I experienced a certain humiliation at +not having been born at least a Cavalière, and imagined I heard low +voices whispering disdainfully: "Who is that low person?" + +Of the older portion of the city, the most considerable part is +the Binnenhof, a group of old buildings of different styles of +architecture, which looks on two sides upon vast squares, and on the +third over a great marsh. In the midst of this group of palaces, +towers, and monumental doors, of a medieval and sinister aspect, there +is a spacious court, which is entered by three bridges and three +gates. In one of these buildings resided the Stadtholders, and it is +now the seat of the Second Chamber of the States General; opposite is +the First Chamber, with the ministries and various other offices of +public administration. The Minister of the Interior has his office in +a little low black tower of the most lugubrious aspect, that hangs +directly over the waters of the marsh. + +The Binnenhof, the square to the west, called the Bintenhof, and +another square beyond the marsh, called the Plaats, into which you +enter by an old gate that once formed part of a prison, were the +theaters of the most sanguinary events in the history of Holland. + +In the Binnenhof was decapitated the venerated Van Olden Barneveldt, +the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of +that ever-recurring struggle between the burgher aristocracy and the +Statholderate, between the republican and the monarchical principle, +which worked so miserably in Holland. The scaffold was erected in +front of the edifice where the States General sat. Opposite is the +tower from which it is said that Maurice of Orange, himself unseen, +beheld the last moments of his enemy. + +The finest ornament of the Hague is its forest; a true wonder of +Holland, and one of the most magnificent promenades in the world. It +is a wood of alder-trees, oaks, and the largest beeches that are to be +found in Europe, on the eastern side of the city, a few paces from +the last fringe of houses, and measuring about one French league in +circuit; a truly delightful oasis in the midst of the melancholy Dutch +plains. As you enter it, little Swiss châlets find kiosks, scattered +here and there among the first trees, seem to have strayed and lost +themselves in an endless and solitary forest. The trees are as thickly +set as a cane-brake, and the alleys vanish in dark perspective. + +There are lakes and canals almost hidden under the verdure of their +banks; rustic bridges, deserted paths, dim recesses, darkness cool +and deep, in which one breathes the air of virgin nature, and feels +oneself far from the noises of the world. This wood, like that of +Haarlem, is said to be the remains of an immense forest that covered, +in ancient times, almost all the coast, and is respected by the Dutch +people as a monument of their national history. + + + + +HAARLEM[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-day."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +A few minutes bring us from Leyden to Haarlem by the railway. It +crosses an isthmus between the sea and a lake which covered the whole +country between Leyden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam till 1839, when it +became troublesome, and the States-General forthwith, after the +fashion of Holland, voted its destruction. Enormous engines were at +once employed to drain it by pumping the water into canals, which +carried it to the sea, and the country was the richer by a new +province. + +Haarlem, on the river Spaarne, stands out distinct in recollection +from all other Dutch towns, for it has the most picturesque +market-place in Holland--the Groote Markt--surrounded by quaint houses +of varied outline, amid which rises the Groote Kerk of S. Bavo, a +noble cruciform fifteenth-century building. The interior, however, +is as bare and hideous as all other Dutch churches. It contains a +monument to the architect Conrad, designer of the famous locks of +Katwijk, "the defender of Holland against the fury of the sea and +the power of tempests." Behind the choir is the tomb of the poet +Bilderijk, who only died in 1831, and near this the grave of Laurenz +Janzoom--the Coster or Sacristan--who is asserted in his native town, +but never believed outside it, to have been the real inventor of +printing, as he is said to have cut out letters in wood, and taken +impressions from them in ink, as early as 1423. His partizans also +maintain that while he was attending a midnight mass, praying +for patience to endure the ill-treatment of his enemies, all his +implements were stolen, and that when he found this out on his return +he died of grief. + +It is further declared that the robber was Faust of Mayence, the +partner of Gutenburg, and that it was thus that the honor of the +invention passed from Holland to Germany where Gutenberg produced his +invention of movable type twelve years later. There is a statue of the +Coster in front of the church, and, on its north side, his house is +preserved and adorned with his bust. + +Among a crowd of natives with their hats on, talking in church as in +the market-place, we waited to hear the famous organ of Christian +Muller (1735-38), and grievously were we disappointed with its +discordant noises. All the men smoked in church, and this we saw +repeatedly; but it would be difficult to say where we ever saw +a Dutchman with a pipe out of his mouth. Every man seemed to be +systematically smoking away the few wits he possest. + +Opposite the Groote Kerk is the Stadhuis, an old palace of the Counts +of Holland remodeled. It contains a delightful little gallery of the +works of Franz Hals, which at once transports the spectator into the +Holland of two hundred years ago--such is the marvelous variety of +life and vigor imprest into its endless figures of stalwart officers +and handsome young archers pledging each other at banquet tables and +seeming to welcome the visitor with jovial smiles as he enters the +chamber, or of serene old ladies, "regents" of hospitals, seated at +their council boards. The immense power of the artist is shown +in nothing so much as in the hands, often gloved, dashed in with +instantaneous power, yet always having the effect of the most +consummate finish at a distance. Behind one of the pictures is the +entrance to the famous "secret-room of Haarlem," seldom seen, but +containing an inestimable collection of historic relics of the time of +the famous siege of Leyden. + +April and May are the best months for visiting Haarlem, which is the +bulb nursery garden of the world. "Oignons à fleurs" are advertised +for sale everywhere. Tulips are more cultivated than any other flower, +as ministering most of the national craving for color; but times are +changed since a single bulb of the tulip "L'Amiral Liefkenshoch" sold +for 4,500 florins, one of "Viceroy" for 4,200, and one of "Semper +Augustus" for 13,000. + + + + +SCHEVENINGEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-Day." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the author and of the publishers, Moffat, Yard & +Co. Copyright, 1909.] + +BY GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS + + +Let us go down to the North Sea and see how the Dutch people enjoy +themselves in the summer. Of course the largest of the watering-places +in the Netherlands is Scheveningen, and it has a splendid bathing +beach which makes it an attractive resort for fashionable Germans and +Hollanders, and for summer travelers from all over the world. At the +top of the long dyke is a row of hotels and restaurants, and when +one reaches this point after passing through the lovely old wood of +stately trees one is ushered into the twentieth century, for here all +is fashion and gay life, yet with a character all its own. + +Along the edge of the beach are the bathing machines in scores, and +behind them are long lines of covered wicker chairs of peculiar form, +each with its foot-stool, where one may sit, shaded, from the sun and +sheltered from the wind, and read, chat or doze by the hour. Bath +women are seen quaintly clad with their baskets of bathing dresses and +labeled with the signs bearing their names, such as Trintje or Netje; +everywhere there are sightseers, pedlers calling their wares, children +digging in the sand, strolling players performing and the sound of +bands of music in the distance. So there is no lack of amusement here +during the season. + +The spacious Kurhaus with its verandas and Kursaal, which is large +enough to accommodate 2,500 people, is in the center of the dike. +There are concerts every evening, and altho the town is filled with +hotels, during the months of June, July, August, and September they +are quite monopolized by the Hollanders and the prices are very high. + +The magnificent pier is 450 yards long. The charges for bathing are +very moderate, varying from twenty cents for a small bathing box to +fifty cents for a large one, including the towels. Bathing costumes +range from five to twenty-five cents. The tickets are numbered, and as +soon as a machine is vacant a number is called by the "bath man" and +the holder of the corresponding number claims the machine. The basket +chairs cost for the whole day twenty cents, Dutch money. One may +obtain a subscription to the "Kurhaus" at a surprisingly reasonable +rate for the day, week or season. There is a daily orchestra; ballet +and operatic concerts once a week; dramatic performances and frequent +hops throughout the season. + +There is a local saying that when good Dutchmen die they go to +Scheveningen, and this is certainly their heaven. To stand on the pier +on a fine day during the season looking down on these long lines of +wicker chairs, turned seaward, is an astonishing sight. They are +shaped somewhat like huge snail-shells, and around these the children +delight to dig in the sand, throwing up miniature dunes around +one. Perhaps no seashore in the world has been painted so much as +Scheveningen. Mesdag, Maris, Alfred Stevens, to name only a few of the +artists, have found here themes for many paintings, and the scene is +a wonderful one when the homing fleet of "Boms," as the fishing-boats +are called, appears in the offing to be welcomed by the fisherwomen. +There are other smaller watering-places on the coast, but Scheveningen +is unique. + +In the little fishing town itself, the scene on the return of the men +is very interesting. Women and children are busily hurrying about from +house to house, and everywhere in the little streets are strange signs +chalked up on the shutters, such as "water en vuur te koop," that is +water and fire for sale; and here are neatly painted buckets of iron, +each having a kettle of boiling water over it and a lump of burning +turf at the bottom. Fish is being cleaned and the gin shops are well +patronized, for it seems a common habit in this moist northern climate +frequently to take "Een sneeuw-balletje" of gin and sugar, which does +not taste at all badly, be it said. All sorts of strange-looking +people are met in the little narrow street, and all doing +strange-looking things, but with the air of its being in no wise +unusual with them. All in all, Scheveningen is an entertaining spot in +which to linger. + + + + +DELFT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +An excursion must be made to Delft, only twenty minutes distant from +The Hague by rail. Pepys calls it "a most sweet town, with bridges +and a river in every street," and that is a tolerably accurate +description. It seems thinly inhabited, and the Dutch themselves +look upon it as a place where one will die of ennui. It has scarcely +changed with two hundred years. The view of Delft by Van der Meer in +the Museum at The Hague might have been painted yesterday. All the +trees are dipt, for in artificial Holland every work of Nature is +artificialized. At certain seasons, numbers of storks may be seen +upon the chimney-tops, for Delft is supposed to be the stork town par +excellence. Near the shady canal Oude Delft is a low building, once +the Convent of St. Agata, with an ornamental door surmounted by a +relief, leading into a courtyard. It is a common barrack now, for +Holland, which has no local histories, has no regard whatever for its +historic associations or monuments. Yet this is the greatest shrine of +Dutch history, for it is here that William the Silent died. + +Philip II. had promised 25,000 crowns of gold to any one who would +murder the Prince of Orange. An attempt had already been made, but had +failed, and William refused to take any measures for self-protection, +saying, "It is useless: my years are in the hands of God; if there is +a wretch who has no fear of death, my life is in his hand, however I +may guard it." + +At length, a young man of seven-and-twenty appeared at Delft, who +gave himself out to be one Guyon, a Protestant, son of Pierre Guyon, +executed at Besançon for having embraced Calvinism, and declared that +he was exiled for his religion. Really he was Balthazar Gerard, a +bigoted Catholic, but his conduct in Holland soon procured him the +reputation of an evangelical saint. + +The Prince took him into his service and sent him to accompany a +mission from the States of Holland to the Court of France, whence +he returned to bring the news of the death of the Duke of Anjou to +William. At that time the Prince was living with his court in the +convent of St. Agata, where he received Balthazar alone in his +chamber. The moment was opportune, but the would-be assassin had no +arms ready. William gave him a small sum of money and bade him hold +himself in readiness to be sent back to France. + +With the money Balthazar bought two pistols from a soldier (who +afterward killed himself when he heard the use which was made of the +purchase). On the next day, June 10, 1584, Balthazar returned to the +convent as William was descending the staircase to dinner, with his +fourth wife, Louise de Coligny (daughter of the Admiral who fell +in the massacre of St. Bartholomew), on his arm. He presented his +passport and begged the Prince to sign it, but was told to return +later. At dinner the Princess asked William who was the young man who +had spoken to him, for his expression was the most terrible she had +ever seen. + +The Prince laughed, said it was Guyon, and was as gay as usual. Dinner +being over, the family party were about to remount the staircase. The +assassin was waiting in a dark corner at the foot of the stairs, and +as William passed he discharged a pistol with three balls and fled. +The Prince staggered, saying, "I am wounded; God have mercy upon me +and my poor people." His sister Catherine van Schwartz-bourg asked, +"Do you trust in Jesus Christ?" He said, "Yes," with a feeble voice, +sat down upon the stairs, and died. + +Balthazar reached the rampart of the town in safety, hoping to swim +to the other side of the moat, where a horse awaited him. But he had +dropt his hat and his second pistol in his flight, and so he was +traced and seized before he could leap from the wall. + +Amid horrible tortures, he not only confest, but continued to triumph +in his crime. His judges believed him to be possest of the devil. The +next day he was executed. His right hand was burned off in a tube of +red-hot iron; the flesh of his arms and legs was torn off with red-hot +pincers; but he never made a cry. It was not till his breast was cut +open, and his heart torn out and flung in his face, that he expired. +His head was then fixt on a pike, and his body, cut into four +quarters, exposed on the four gates of the town. + +Close to the Prinsenhof is the Oude Kerk with a leaning tower. It is +arranged like a very ugly theater inside, but contains, with +other tombs of celebrities, the monument of Admiral van Tromp, +1650--"Martinus Harberti Trompius"--whose effigy lies upon his back, +with swollen feet. It was this Van Tromp who defeated the English +fleet under Blake, and perished, as represented on the monument, in an +engagement off Scheveningen. It was he who, after his victory over the +English, caused a broom to be hoisted at his mast-head to typify that +he had swept the Channel clear of his enemies. + + + + +LEYDEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +Leyden, the antique Athens of the north, the Saragossa of the Low +Countries, the oldest and most illustrious of the daughters of +Holland, is one of those cities which make you thoughtful upon first +entering them, and are remembered for a long time afterward with a +certain impression of sadness. + +I had hardly arrived when the chill of a dead city seemed to fall upon +me. The old Rhine, which crosses Leyden, dividing it into many islets +joined together by one hundred and fifty stone bridges, forms wide +canals and basins which contain no ship or boat, and the city seems +rather invaded by the waters than merely crossed by them. The +principal streets are very broad and flanked by rows of old +blockhouses with the usual pointed gables, and the few people seen in +the streets and squares are like the survivors of a city depopulated +by the plague. + +In the smaller streets you walk upon long tracts of grass, between +houses with closed doors and windows, in a silence as profound as +that of those fabled cities where all the inhabitants are sunk in a +supernatural sleep. You pass over bridges overgrown with weeds, and +long canals covered with a green carpet, through small squares that +seem like convent courtyards; and then, suddenly, you reach a broad +thoroughfare, like the streets of Paris; from which you again +penetrate into a labyrinth of narrow alleys. From bridge to bridge, +from canal to canal, from island to island, you wander for hours +seeking for the life and movement of the ancient Leyden, and finding +only solitude, silence, and the waters which reflect the melancholy +majesty of the fallen city. + +In 1573 the Spaniards, led by Valdez, laid siege to Leyden. In the +city there were only some volunteer soldiers. The military command was +given to Van der Voes, a valiant man, and a Latin poet of some +renown. Van der Werf was burgomaster. In brief time the besiegers +had constructed more than sixty forts in all the places where it was +possible to penetrate into the city by sea or land, and Leyden was +completely isolated. But the people of Leyden did not lose heart. +William of Orange had sent them word to hold out for three months, +within which time he would succor them, for on the fate of Leyden +depended that of Holland; and the men of Leyden had promised to resist +to the last extremity.... + +The Prince of Orange received the news of the safety of the city at +Delft, in church, where he was present at divine service. He sent the +message at once to the preacher, and the latter announced it to the +congregation, who received it with shouts of joy. Altho only just +recovered from his illness, and the epidemic still raging at Leyden, +William would see at once his dear and valorous city. He went there; +his entry was a triumph; his majestic and serene aspect put new heart +into the people; his words made them forget all they had suffered. To +reward Leyden for her heroic defense, he left her her choice between +exemption from certain imposts or the foundation of a university. +Leyden chose the university. + +How this university answered to the hopes of Leyden, it is superfluous +to say. Everybody knows how the States of Holland with their liberal +offers drew learned men from every country; how philosophy, driven +out of France, took refuge there; how Leyden was for a long time the +securest citadel for all men who were struggling for the triumph +of human reason; how it became at length the most famous school in +Europe. The actual university is in an ancient convent. One can not +enter without a sentiment of profound respect the great hall of the +Academic Senate, where are seen the portraits of all the professors +who have succeeded each other from the foundation of the university up +to the present day. + + + + +DORTRECHT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +Our morning at Dortrecht was very delightful, and it is a thoroughly +charming place. Passing under a dark archway in a picturesque building +of Charles V., opposite the hotel, we found ourselves at once on +the edge of an immense expanse of shimmering river, with long, rich +meadows beyond, between which the wide flood breaks into three +different branches. Red and white sails flit down them. Here and there +rises a line of pollard willows or clipt elms, and now and then a +church spire. On the nearest shore an ancient windmill, colored +in delicate tints of gray and yellow, surmounts a group of white +buildings. + +On the left is a broad esplanade of brick, lined with ancient houses, +and a canal with a bridge, the long arms of which are ready to open at +a touch and give a passage to the great yellow-masted barges, which +are already half intercepting the bright red house-fronts ornamented +with stone, which belong to some public buildings facing the end of +the canal. With what a confusion of merchandise are the boats laden, +and how gay is the coloring, between the old weedy posts to which they +are moored! + +It was from hence that Isabella of France, with Sir John de Hainault +and many other faithful knights set on their expedition against Edward +II. and the government of the Spencers. + +From the busy port, where nevertheless they are dredging, we cross +another bridge and find ourselves in a quietude like that of a +cathedral close in England. On one side is a wide pool half covered +with floating timber, and, in the other half, reflecting like a mirror +the houses on the opposite shore, with their bright gardens of lilies +and hollyhocks, and trees of mountain ash, which bend their masses of +scarlet berries to the still water. Between the houses are glints of +blue river and of inevitable windmills on the opposite shore. And all +this we observe standing in the shadow of a huge church, the Groote +Kerk, with a nave of the fourteenth century, and a choir of the +fifteenth and a gigantic trick tower, in which three long Gothic +arches, between octagonal tourelles, enclose several tiers of windows. +At the top is a great clock, and below the church a grove of elms, +through which fitful sunlight falls on the grass and the dead red of +the brick pavement (so grateful to feet sore with the sharp stones of +other Dutch cities), where groups of fishermen are collecting in their +blue shirts and white trousers. + +There is little to see inside this or any other church in Holland; +travelers will rather seek for the memorials at the Kloveniers Doelen, +of the famous Synod of Dort, which was held 1618-19, in the hope of +effecting a compromise between the Gomarists, or disciples of Calvin, +and the Arminians who followed Zwingli, and who had recently obtained +the name of Remonstrants from the "remonstrance" which they had +addrest eight years before in defense of their doctrines. The +Calvinists held that the greater part of mankind was excluded from +grace, which the Arminians denied; but at the Synod of Dort the +Calvinists proclaimed themselves as infallible as the Pope, and their +resolutions became the law of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Arminians +were forthwith outlawed; a hundred ministers who refused to subscribe +to the dictates of the Synod were banished; Hugo Grotius and Rombout +Hoogerbeets were imprisoned for life at Loevestein; the body of the +secretary Ledenberg, was hung; and Van Olden Barneveldt, the friend of +William the Silent, was beheaded in his seventy-second year.... + +Through the street of wine--Wijnstraat--built over stonehouses used +for the staple, we went to the museum to see the pictures. There were +two schools of Dortrecht. Jacob Geritee Cuyp (1575); Albert Cuyp +(1605), Ferdinand Bol (1611), Nicolas Maas (1632), and Schalken (1643) +belonged to the former; Arend de Gelder, Arnold Houbraken, Dirk +Stoop, and Ary Scheffer are of the latter. Sunshine and glow were the +characteristics of the first school, grayness and sobriety of the +second. But there are few good pictures at Dort now, and some of the +best works of Cuyp are to be found in our National Gallery, [London] +executed at his native place and portraying the great brick tower of +the church in the golden haze of evening, seen across rich pastures, +where the cows are lying deep in the meadow grass. The works of Ary +Scheffer are now the most interesting pictures in the Dortrecht +Gallery. Of the subject, "Christus Consolator," there are two +representations. In the more striking of these the pale Christ is +seated among the sick, sorrowful, blind, maimed, and enslaved, who +are all stretching their hands to Him. Beneath is the tomb which the +artist executed for his mother, Cornelia Scheffer, whose touching +figure is represented lying with outstretched hands, in the utmost +abandonment of repose. + + + + +THE ZUYDER ZEE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +This great basin of the North Sea, which bathes five provinces and has +an extent of more than seven hundred square kilometers, six hundred +years ago was not in existence. North Holland touched Friesland, and +where the gulf now extends there was a vast region sprinkled with +fresh-water lakes, the largest of which, the Flevo, mentioned by +Tacitus, was separated from the sea by a fertile and populous isthmus. +Whether the sea by its own force broke through the natural dikes +of the region, or whether the sinking of the land left it free to +invasion, is not certainly known. The great transformation was +completed during the course of the thirteenth century. + +About the formation of this gulf there has collected a varied and +confused history of cities destroyed and people drowned, to which has +been added in later times another history, of new cities rising on new +shores, becoming powerful and famous, and being in their turn reduced +to poor and mean villages, with streets overgrown with grass, and +sand-choked ports. Records of great calamities, wonderful traditions, +fantastic horrors, strange usages and customs, are found upon the +waters and about the shores of this peculiar sea, born but yesterday, +and already encircled with ruins and condemned to disappear; and a +month's voyage would not suffice to gather up the chief of them; but +the thought alone of beholding from a distance those decrepit +cities, those mysterious islands, those fatal sand-banks, excited my +imagination.... + +Marken is as famous among the islands of the Zuyder Zee as Broek +is among the villages of Holland; but with all its fame, and altho +distant but one hour by boat from the coast, few are the strangers, +and still fewer the natives who visit it. So said the captain as he +pointed out the lighthouse of the little island, and added that in his +opinion the reason was, that when a stranger arrived at Marken, even +if he were a Dutchman, he was followed by a crowd of boys, watched, +and commented upon as if he were a man fallen from the moon. This +unusual curiosity is explained by a description of the island. It is a +bit of land about three thousand meters in length and one thousand +in width, which was detached from the continent in the thirteenth +century, and remains to this day, in the manners, and customs of its +inhabitants, exactly as it was six centuries ago. + +The surface of the island is but little higher than the sea, and it is +surrounded by a small dike which does not suffice to protect it +from inundation. The houses are built upon eight small artificial +elevations, and form as many boroughs, one of which--the one which has +the church--is the capital, and another the cemetery. When the sea +rises above the dike, the spaces between the little hills are changed +into canals, and the inhabitants go about in boats. The houses are +built of wood, some painted, some only pitched; one only is of stone, +that of the pastor, who also has a small garden shaded by four large +trees, the only ones on the island. Next to this house are the church, +the school, and the municipal offices. The population is about one +thousand in number, and lives by fishing. With the exceptions of the +doctor, the pastor, and the school-master, all are native to the +island; no islander marries on the continent; no one from the mainland +comes to live on the island. + +They all profess the reformed religion, and all know how to read and +write. In the schools more than two hundred boys and girls are taught +history, geography, and arithmetic. The fashion of dress, which has +not been changed for centuries, is the same for all, and extremely +curious. The men look like soldiers. They wear a dark gray cloth +jacket ornamented with two rows of buttons which are in general +medals, or ancient coins, handed down from father to son. This jacket +is tucked into the waistband of a pair of breeches of the same color, +very wide about the hips and tight around the leg, fastening below the +knee; a felt hat or a fur cap, according to the season; a red cravat, +black stockings, white wooden shoes, or a sort of slipper, complete +the costume. + +That of the women is still more peculiar. They wear on their heads an +enormous white cap in the form of a miter, all ornamented with lace +and needlework, and tied under the chin like a helmet. From under the +cap, which completely covers the ears, fall two long braided tresses, +which hang over the bosom, and a sort of visor of hair comes down +upon the forehead, cut square just above the eyebrows. The dress is +composed of a waist without sleeves, and a petticoat of two colors. +The waist is deep red, embroidered in colors and costing years of +labor to make, for which reason it descends from mother to daughter, +from generation to generation. The upper part of the petticoat is gray +or blue striped with black, and the lower part dark brown. The arms +are covered almost to the elbow with sleeves of a white chemise, +striped with red. The children are drest in almost the same way, +tho there is some slight difference between girls and women, and on +holidays the costume is more richly ornamented. + + + + +THE ART OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The Dutch school of painting has one quality which renders it +particularly attractive to us Italians; it is of all others the most +different from our own, the very antithesis, or the opposite pole of +art. The Dutch and Italian schools are the two most original, or, as +has been said, the only two to which the title rigorously belongs; +the others being only daughters, or younger sisters, more or less +resembling them. Thus, even in painting Holland offers that which is +most sought after in travel and in books of travel; the new. + +Dutch painting was born with the liberty and independence of Holland. +As long as the northern and southern provinces of the Low Countries +remained under the Spanish rule and in the Catholic faith, Dutch +painters painted like Belgian painters; they studied in Belgium, +Germany, and Italy; Heemskerk imitated Michael Angelo; Bloemart +followed Correggio, and "Il Moro" copied Titian, not to indicate +others; and they were one and all pedantic imitators, who added to the +exaggerations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness, the +result of which was a bastard style of painting, still inferior to +the first, childish, stiff in design, crude in color, and completely +wanting in chiaroscuro, but not, at least, a servile imitation, and +becoming, as it were, a faint prelude to the true Dutch art that was +to be.... + +After depicting the house, they turned their attention to the country. +The stern climate allowed but a brief time for the admiration of +nature, but for this very reason Dutch artists admired her all the +more; they saluted the spring with a livelier joy, and permitted that +fugitive smile of heaven to stamp itself more deeply on their fancy. +The country was not beautiful, but it was twice dear because it had +been torn from the sea and from the foreign oppressor. The Dutch +artist painted it lovingly; he represented it simply, ingenuously, +with a sense of intimacy which at that time was not to be found in +Italian or Belgian landscape. + +The flat, monotonous country had, to the Dutch painter's eyes, a +marvelous variety. He caught all the mutations of the sky, and knew +the value of the water, with its reflections, its grace and freshness, +and its power of illuminating everything. Having no mountains, he took +the dikes for background; and with no forests, he imparted to a simple +group of trees all the mystery of a forest; and he animated the whole +with beautiful animals and white sails. + +The subjects of their pictures are poor enough--a windmill, a canal, +a gray sky;--but how they make one think! A few Dutch painters, not +content with nature in their own country, came to Italy in search of +hills, luminous skies, and famous ruins; and another band of select +artists is the result. Both, Swanevelt, Pynaeker, Breenberg, Van Laer, +Asselyn. But the palm remains with the landscapists of Holland, with +Wynants the painter of morning, with Van der Neer the painter of +night, with Rusydael the painter of melancholy, with Hobbema the +illustrator of windmills, cabins, and kitchen gardens, and with others +who have restricted themselves to the expression of the enchantment of +nature as she is in Holland. + +Simultaneously with landscape art was born another kind of painting, +especially peculiar to Holland--animal painting. Animals are the +wealth of the country; and that magnificent race of cattle which has +no rival in Europe for fecundity and beauty. The Hollanders, who owe +so much to them, treat them, one may say, as part of the population; +they wash them, comb them, dress them, and love them dearly. They are +to be seen everywhere; they are reflected in all the canals, and dot +with points of black and white the immense fields that stretch on +every side; giving an air of peace and comfort to every place, and +exciting in the spectator's heart a sentiment of patriarchal serenity. + +The Dutch artists studied these animals in all their varieties, in +all their habits, and divined, as one may say, their inner life and +sentiments, animating the tranquil beauty of the landscape with their +forms. Rubens, Luyders, Paul de Vos, and other Belgian painters, had +drawn animals with admirable mastery, but all these are surpassed by +the Dutch artists, Van der Velde, Berghum, Karel der Jardin, and by +the prince of animal painters, Paul Potter, whose famous "Bull," in +the gallery of The Hague, deserves to be placed in the Vatican beside +the "Transfiguration" by Rafael. + +In yet another field are the Dutch painters great--the sea. The sea, +their enemy, their power, and their glory, forever threatening their +country, and entering in a hundred ways into their lives and fortunes; +that turbulent North Sea, full of sinister colors, with a light of +infinite melancholy beating forever upon a desolate coast, must +subjugate the imagination of the artist. He, indeed, passes long hours +on the shore, contemplating its tremendous beauty, ventures upon its +waves to study the effects of tempests, buys a vessel and sails with +his wife and family, observing and making notes, follows the fleet +into battle, and takes part in the fight, and in this way are made +marine painters like William Van der Velde the elder, and William the +younger, like Backhuysen, Dubbels, and Stork. + +Another kind of painting was to arise in Holland, as the expression of +the character of the people and of republican manners. A people that +without greatness had done so many great things, as Michelet says, +must have its heroic painters, if we call them so, destined to +illustrate men and events. But this school of painting--precisely +because the people were without greatness, or, to express it better, +without form of greatness, modest, inclined to consider all equal +before the country, because all had done their duty, abhorring +adulation, and the glorification in one only of the virtues and the +triumph of many--this school has to illustrate not a few men who +have excelled, and a few extraordinary facts, but all classes of +citizenship gathered among the most ordinary and pacific of burgher +life. + +From this come the great pictures which represent five, ten, thirty +persons together, arquebusiers, mayors, officers, professors, +magistrates, administrators, seated or standing around a table, +feasting and conversing, of life size, most faithful likenesses, +grave, open faces, expressing that secure serenity of conscience +by which may be divined rather than seen the nobleness of a life +consecrated to one's country, the character of that strong, laborious +epoch, the masculine virtues of that excellent generation; all this +set off by the fine costume of the time, so admirably combining grace +and dignity; those gorgets, those doublets, those black mantles, those +silken scarves and ribbons, those arms and banners. In this field +stand preeminent Van der Heist, Hals, Covaert, Flink, and Bol.... + +Finally, there are still two important excellences to be recorded +of this school of painting--its variety, and its importance as the +expression, the mirror, so to speak, of the country. If we except +Rembrandt with his group of followers and imitators, almost all the +other artists differ very much from one another; no other school +presents so great a number of original masters. The realism of the +Dutch painters is born of their common love of nature; but each one +has shown in his work a kind of love peculiarly his own; each one has +rendered a different impression which he has received from nature and +all, starting from the same point, which was the worship of material +truth, have arrived at separate and distinct goals. + + + + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The word "tulip" recalls one of the strangest popular follies that has +ever been seen in the world, which showed itself in Holland toward +the middle of the seventeenth century. The country at that time had +reached the height of prosperity; antique parsimony had given place to +luxury; the houses of the wealthy, very modest at the beginning of +the century, were transformed into little palaces; velvet, silk, and +pearls replaced the patriarchal simplicity of the ancient costume; +Holland had become vain, ambitious, and prodigal. + +After having filled their houses with pictures, hangings, porcelain, +and precious objects from all the countries of Europe and Asia, the +rich merchants of the large Dutch cities began to spend considerable +sums in ornamenting their gardens with tulips--the flower which +answers best to that innate avidity for vivid colors which the Dutch +people manifest in so many ways. This taste for tulips promoted their +rapid cultivation; everywhere gardens were laid out, studies promoted, +new varieties of the favorite flower sought for. In a short time the +fever became general; on every side there swarmed unknown tulips, of +strange forms, and wonderful shades or combinations of colors, full of +contrasts, caprices, and surprises. Prices rose in a marvelous way; +a new variegation, a new form, obtained in those blest leaves was an +event, a fortune. Thousands of persons gave themselves up to the study +with the fury of insanity; all over the country nothing was talked of +but petals; bulbs, colors, vases, seeds. + +The mania grew to such a pass that all Europe was laughing at it. +Bulbs of the favorite tulips of the rarer varieties rose to fabulous +prices; some constituted a fortune; like a house, an orchard, or a +mill; one bulb was equivalent to a dowry for the daughter of a rich +family; for one bulb were given, in I know not what city, two carts +of grain, four carts of barley, four oxen, twelve sheep, two casks +of wine, four casks of beer, a thousand pounds of cheese, a complete +dress, and silver goblet. Another bulb of a tulip named "Semper +Augustus" was bought at the price of thirteen thousand florins. A bulb +of the "Admiral Enkhuysen" tulip cost two thousand dollars. One day +there were only two bulbs of the "Semper Augustus" left in Holland, +one at Amsterdam and the other at Haarlem, and for one of them there +were offered, and refused, four thousand six hundred florins, a +splendid coach, and a pair of gray horses with beautiful harness. +Another offered twelve acres of land, and he also was refused. On the +registers of Alkmaar it is recorded that in 1637 there were sold in +that city, at public auction, one hundred and twenty tulips for the +benefit of the orphanage, and that the sale produced one hundred and +eighty thousand francs. + +Then they began to traffic in tulips, as in State bonds and shares. +They sold for enormous sums bulbs which they did not possess, engaging +to provide them for a certain day; and in this way a traffic was +carried on for a much larger number of tulips than the whole of +Holland could furnish. It is related that one Dutch town sold twenty +millions of francs' worth of tulips, and that an Amsterdam merchant +gained in this trade more than sixty-eight thousand florins in the +space of four months. These sold that which they had not, and those +that which they never could have; the market passed from hand to hand, +the differences were paid, and the flowers for and by which so many +people were ruined or enriched, flourished only in the imagination of +the traffickers. Finally matters arrived at such a pass that, many +buyers having refused to pay the sums agreed upon, and contests and +disorders following, the government decreed that these debts should be +considered as ordinary obligations, and that payment should be exacted +in the usual legal manner; then prices fell suddenly, as low as fifty +florins for the "Semper Augustus," and the scandalous traffic ceased. + +Now the culture of flowers is no longer a mania, but is carried on for +love of them, and Haarlem is the principal temple. She still provides +a great part of Europe and South America with flowers. The city is +encircled by gardens, which, toward the end of April and the beginning +of May, are covered with myriads of tulips, hyacinths, carnations, +auriculas, anemones, ranunculuses, camelias, primroses, and other +flowers, forming an immense wreath about Haarlem, from which travelers +from all parts of the world gather a bouquet in passing. Of late years +the hyacinth has risen into great honor; but the tulip is still king +of the gardens, and Holland's supreme affection. + +I should have to change my pen for the brush of Van der Huysem or +Menedoz, if I were to attempt to describe the pomp of their gorgeous, +luxuriant, dazzling colors, which, if the sensation given to the eye +may be likened to that of the ear, might be said to resemble a shout +of joyous laughter or a cry of love in the green silence of the +garden; affecting one like the loud music of a festival. There are +to be seen the "Duke of Toll" tulip, the tulips called "simple +precocious" in more than six hundred varieties; the "double +precocious"; the late tulips, divided into unicolored, fine, +superfine, and rectified; the fine, subdivided into violet, rose, +and striped; then the monsters or parrots, the hybrids, the thieves; +classified into a thousand orders of nobility and elegance; tinted +with all the shades of color conceivable to the human mind: spotted, +speckled, striped, edged, variegated, with leaves fringed, waved, +festooned; decorated with gold and silver medals; distinguished by +names of generals, painters, birds, rivers, poets, cities, queens, +and a thousand loving and bold adjectives, which recall their +metamorphoses, their adventures, and their triumphs, and leave in the +mind a sweet confusion of beautiful images and pleasant thoughts. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, +VOLUME 4 (OF 10)*** + + +******* This file should be named 11898-8.txt or 11898-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/9/11898 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11898-8.zip b/old/11898-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..807ccb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11898-8.zip diff --git a/old/11898.txt b/old/11898.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce02404 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11898.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5967 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 +(of 10), by Various, Edited by Francis W. Halsey + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 (of 10) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 4, 2004 [eBook #11898] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, +VOLUME 4 (OF 10)*** + + +E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + +Note: This is Volume 4 of a 10-volume series, the contents of which + are as follows: + Volume 1: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 1 + Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2 + Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1 + Volume 4: France and the Netherlands, Part 2 + Volume 5: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 1 + Volume 6: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Part 2 + Volume 7: Italy and Greece, Part 1 + Volume 8: Italy and Greece, Part 2 + Volume 9: Spain and Portugal + Volume 10: Russia, Scandanavia and the Southeast + + + + +SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOL IV: FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS, PART TWO + +SELECTED AND EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS ETC + +BY + +FRANCIS W. HALSEY + +Editor of Great Epochs in American History Associate Editor of "The +Worlds Famous Orations" and of "The Best of the World's Classics" etc + +ILLUSTRATED + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV + + +France and the Netherlands--Part Two + +IV--CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX--(_Continued_) + +BAYEUX AND THE FAMOUS TAPESTRY--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRY IV. AT PAU--By H.A. Taine + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE--By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow + +AMBOISE--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +BLOIS--By Francis Miltoun + +CHAMBORD--By Theodore Andrea Cook + +CHENONCEAUX--By Francis Miltoun + +FOIX--By Francis Miltoun + + * * * * * + +V--VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + +MONT ST. MICHEL--By Anna Bowman Dodd + +CAEN--By Thomas Frognall Dibdin + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX--By H.A. Taine + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE--By Thomas Gray + +CARCASSONNE--By Henry James + +BIARRITZ--By Francis Miltoun + +DOWN THE SAONE TO LYONS--By Nathaniel Parker Willis + +LYONS--By Thomas Gray + +MARSEILLES--By Charles Dickens + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA--By Francis Miltoun + +GAVARNIE--By H.A. Taine + + * * * * * + +VI--BELGIUM + +BRUGES--By Grant Allen + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES--By William Makepeace Thackeray + +GHENT--By Grant Allen + +BRUSSELS--By Clive Holland + +WATERLOO--By Victor Hugo + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD--By the Editor + +ANTWERP--By T. Francis Bumpus + + * * * * * + +VII--HOLLAND + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +HAARLEM--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +SCHEVENINGEN--By George Wharton Edwards + +DELFT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +LEYDEN--By Edmondo de Amicis + +DORTRECHT--By Augustus J.C. Hare + +THE ZUYDER ZEE--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE ART OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND--By Edmondo de Amicis + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME IV + + +THE PEACE PALACE AT THE HAGUE +THE OLD PAPAL PALACE AT AVIGNON +THE WALLS OF AVIGNON, BUILT BY THE POPES +VAUCLUSE: THE "FOUNTAIN," OR THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER SORGUE +THE PONT DU GARD, NEAR AVIGNON +RHEIMS +AMIENS +THE FACADE OF RHEIMS CATHEDRAL +THE BAYEUX CATHEDRAL +ROUEN +THE ROUEN CATHEDRAL +THE CATHEDRAL OF CHARTRES +ORLEANS +THE CHATEAU OF BLOIS +THE CHATEAU OF AMBOISE +THE CHATEAU OF LOCHES +MOUNT ST. MICHAEL IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND +MONT ST. MICHEL IN NORMANDY, FRANCE +CARCASSONNE +THE LION'S MOUND AND OTHER MONUMENTS, WATERLOO +RUINS OF THE CHATEAU HUGOMONT, WATERLOO +THE HARBOR OF ROTTERDAM +THE MONTALBAANS TOWER, AMSTERDAM +CANAL AND HOUSES IN AMSTERDAM +SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND +ON THE PIER AT OSTEND +UTRECHT +THE EAST GATE OF DELFT +LAKE AT THE HAGUE +CANAL AT DORTRECHT + + + + +IV + + + + +CATHEDRALS AND CHATEAUX + +(_Continued_) + + +BAYEUX AND ITS FAMOUS TAPESTRIES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +The diligence brought me here from Caen in about two hours and a +half. The country, during the whole route, is open, well cultivated, +occasionally gently undulating, but generally denuded of trees. Many +pretty little churches, with delicate spires, peeped out to the right +and left during the journey; but the first view of the cathedral of +Bayeux put all the others out of my recollection. + +There is, in fact, no proper approach to this interesting edifice. The +western end is suffocated with houses. Here stands the post-office; +and with the most unsuspecting frankness, on the part of the owner, +I had permission to examine, with my own hands, within doors, every +letter--under the expectation that there were some for myself. Nor was +I disappointed. + +But you must come with me to the cathedral, and of course we must +enter together at the western front. There are five porticoes; +the central one being rather large, and the two, on either side, +comparatively small. Formerly, these were covered with sculptured +figures and ornaments, but the Calvinists in the sixteenth, and the +Revolutionists in the eighteenth century, have contrived to render +their present aspect mutilated and repulsive in the extreme. On +entering, I was struck with the two large transverse Norman arches +which bestride the area, or square, for the bases of the two towers. +It is the boldest and finest piece of masonry in the whole building. +The interior disappointed me. It is plain, solid, and divested of +ornament. + +Hard by the cathedral stood formerly a magnificent episcopal palace. +Upon this palace the old writers dearly loved to expatiate. There is +now, however, nothing but a good large comfortable family mansion; +sufficient for the purposes of such hospitality and entertainment as +the episcopal revenues will afford. + +It is high time that you should be introduced in proper form to the +famous Bayeux tapestry. Know then, in as few words as possible, that +this celebrated piece of tapestry represents chiefly the Invasion of +England by William the Conqueror, and the subsequent death of Harold +at the battle of Hastings. It measures about 214 English feet in +length, by about nineteen inches in width; and is supposed to have +been worked under the particular superintendence and direction of +Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. It was formerly exclusively kept +and exhibited in the cathedral; but it is now justly retained in the +Town Hall, and treasured as the most precious relic among the archives +of the city. + +There is indeed every reason to consider it as one of the most +valuable historical monuments which France possesses. It has also +given rise to a great deal of archeological discussion. Montfaucon, +Ducarel, and De La Rue, have come forward successively--but more +especially the first and last; and Montfaucon in particular has +favored the world with copper-plate representations of the whole. +Montfaucon's plates are generally much too small; and the more +enlarged ones are too ornamental. + +It is right, first of all, that you should have an idea how this piece +of tapestry is preserved, or rolled up. You see it here, therefore, +precisely as it appears after the person who shows it, takes off the +cloth with which it is usually covered. The first portion of the +needle-work, representing the embassy of Harold from Edward the +Confessor to William Duke of Normandy, is comparatively much +defaced--that is to say, the stitches are worn away, and little more +than the ground, or fine close linen cloth remains. It is not far from +the beginning--and where the color is fresh, and the stitches are, +comparatively, preserved--that you observe the portrait of Harold. + +You are to understand that the stitches, if they may be so called, +are threads laid side by side--and bound down at intervals by cross +stitches, or fastenings--upon rather a fine linen cloth; and that the +parts intended to represent flesh are left untouched by the needle. +I obtained a few straggling shreds of the worsted with which it is +worked. The colors are generally a faded or bluish green, crimson, and +pink. About the last five feet of this extraordinary roll are in a +yet more decayed and imperfect state than the first portion. But the +designer of the subject, whoever he was, had an eye throughout to +Roman art--as it appeared in its later stages. The folds of the +draperies, and the proportions of the figures, are executed with this +feeling. + +I must observe that, both at top and at bottom of the principal +subject, there is a running allegorical ornament, of which I will not +incur the presumption to suppose myself a successful interpreter. +The constellations, and the symbols of agriculture and of a rural +occupation form the chief subjects of this running ornament. All the +inscriptions are executed in capital letters of about an inch in +length; and upon the whole, whether this extraordinary and invaluable +relic be of the latter end of the eleventh, or the beginning or middle +of the twelfth century seems to me a matter of rather a secondary +consideration. That it is at once unique and important, must be +considered as a position to be neither doubted nor denied. + +I have learned even here, of what importance this tapestry roll was +considered in the time of Bonaparte's threatened invasion of our +country: and that, after displaying it at Paris for two or three +months, to awaken the curiosity and excite the love of conquest among +the citizens, it was conveyed to one or two sea-port towns, and +exhibited upon the stage as a most important material in dramatic +effect. + + + + +THE CHATEAU OF HENRI IV. AT PAU[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +Pau is a pretty city, neat, of gay appearance; but the highway is +paved with little round stones, the side-walks with small sharp +pebbles: so the horses walk on the heads of nails and foot-passengers +on the points of them. From Bordeaux to Toulouse such is the usage, +such the pavement. At the end of five minutes, your feet tell you in +the most intelligible manner that you are two hundred leagues away +from Paris.... + +Here are the true countrymen of Henry IV. As to the pretty ladies in +gauzy hats, whose swelling and rustling robes graze the horns of the +motionless oxen as they pass, you must not look at them; they would +carry your imagination back to the Boulevard de Gand, and you would +have gone two hundred leagues only to remain in the same place. I am +here on purpose to visit the sixteenth century; one makes a journey +for the sake of changing, not place, but ideas.... It was eight +o'clock in the morning; not a visitor at the castle, no one in the +courts nor on the terrace; I should not have been too much astonished +at meeting the Bearnais, "that lusty gallant, that very devil," who +was sharp enough to get for himself the name of "the good king." + +His chateau is very irregular; it is only when seen from the valley +that any graces and harmony can be found in it. Above two rows of +pointed roofs and old houses, it stands out alone against the sky and +gazes upon the valley in the distance; two bell-turrets project from +the front toward the west; the oblong body follows, and two massive +brick towers close the line with their esplanades and battlements. It +is connected with the city by a narrow old bridge, by a broad modern +one with the park, and the foot of its terrace is bathed by a dark but +lovely stream. + +Near at hand, this arrangement disappears; a fifth tower upon the +north side deranges the symmetry. The great egg-shaped court is a +mosaic of incongruous masonry; above the porch, a wall of pebbles from +the Gave, and of red bricks crossed like a tapestry design; opposite, +fixt to the wall, a row of medallions in stone; upon the sides, doors +of every form and age; dormer windows, windows square, pointed, +embattled, with stone mullions garlanded with elaborate reliefs. This +masquerade of styles troubles the mind, yet not unpleasantly; it is +unpretending and artless; each century has built according to its own +fancy, without concerning itself about its neighbor. + +On the first floor is shown a great tortoise-shell, which was the +cradle of Henry IV. Carved chests, dressing-tables, tapestries, clocks +of that day, the bed and arm-chair of Jeanne d'Albret, a complete set +of furniture in the taste of the Renaissance, striking and somber, +painfully labored yet magnificent in style, carrying the mind at once +back toward that age of force and effort, of boldness in invention, of +unbridled pleasures and terrible toil, of sensuality and of heroism. +Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV., crossed France in order that +she might, according to her promise, be confined in this castle. "A +princess," says D'Aubigne, "having nothing of the woman about her but +the sex, a soul entirely given to manly things, a mind mighty in great +affairs, a heart unconquerable by adversity." + +She sang an old Bearnaise song when she brought him into the world. +They say that the aged grandfather rubbed the lips of the new-born +child with a clove of garlic, poured into his mouth a few drops of +Jurancon wine, and carried him away in his dressing-gown. The child +was born in the chamber which opens into the lower tower of Mazeres, +on the southwest corner. + +His mother, a warm and severe Calvinist, when he was fifteen years +old, led him through the Catholic army to La Rochelle, and gave him to +her followers as their general. At sixteen years old, at the combat of +Arnay-le-Duc, he led the first charge of cavalry. What an education +and what men! Their descendants were just now passing in the streets, +going to school to compose Latin verses and recite the pastorals of +Massillon. + +Those old wars are the most poetic in French history; they were made +for pleasure rather than interest. It was a chase in which adventures, +dangers, emotions were found, in which men lived in the sunlight, on +horseback, amidst flashes of fire, and where the body, as well as +the soul, had its enjoyment and its exercise. Henry carries it on as +briskly as a dance, with a Gascon's fire and a soldier's ardor, with +abrupt sallies, and pursuing his point against the enemy as with the +ladies. + +This is no spectacle of great masses of well-disciplined men, coming +heavily into collision and falling by thousands on the field, +according to the rules of good tactics. The king leaves Pau or Nerac +with a little troop, picks up the neighboring garrisons on his way, +scales a fortress, intercepts a body of arquebusiers as they pass, +extricates himself pistol in hand from the midst of a hostile troop, +and returns to the feet of Mlle. de Tignonville. They arrange their +plan from day to day; nothing is done unless unexpectedly and by +chance. Enterprises are strokes of fortune.... + +The park is a great wood on a hill, embedded among meadows and +harvests. You walk in long solitary alleys, under colonnades of superb +oaks, while to the left the lofty stems of the copses mount in close +ranks upon the back of the hill. The fog was not yet lifted; there was +no motion in the air; not a corner of the blue sky, not a sound in all +the country. The song of a bird came for an instant from the midst of +the ash-trees, then sadly ceased. Is that then the sky of the south, +and was it necessary to come to the happy country of the Bearnais to +find such melancholy impressions? A little by-way brought us to a bank +of the Gave: in a long pool of water was growing an army of reeds +twice the height of a man; their grayish spikes and their trembling +leaves bent and whispered under the wind; a wild flower near by shed a +vanilla perfume. + +We gazed on the broad country, the ranges of rounded hills, the silent +plain under the dull dome of the sky. Three hundred paces away the +Gave rolls between marshaled banks, which it has covered with sand; in +the midst of the waters may be seen the moss-grown piles of a ruined +bridge. One is at ease here, and yet at the bottom of the heart +a vague unrest is felt; the soul is softened and loses itself in +melancholy and tender revery. Suddenly the clock strikes, and one +is forced to go and prepare himself to eat his soup between two +commercial travelers. + +To-day the sun shines. On my way to the Place Nationale, I remarked a +poor, half-ruined church, which had been turned into a coach-house; +they have fastened upon it a carrier's sign. The arcades, in small +gray stones, still round themselves with an elegant boldness; beneath +are stowed away carts and casks and pieces of wood; here and there +workmen were handling wheels. A broad ray of light fell upon a pile of +straw, and made the somber corners seem yet darker; the pictures that +one meets with outweigh those one has come to seek. + +From the esplanade which is opposite, the whole valley and the +mountains beyond may be seen; this first sight of a southern sun, as +it breaks from the rainy mists, is admirable; a sheet of white light +stretches from one horizon to another without meeting a single cloud. +The heart expands in this immense space; the very air is festal; the +dazzled eyes close beneath the brightness which deluges them and which +runs over, radiated from the burning dome of heaven. The current of +the river sparkles like a girdle of jewels; the chains of hills, +yesterday veiled and damp, extend at their own sweet will beneath the +warming, penetrating rays, and mount range upon range to spread out +their green robe to the sun. + +In the distance, the blue Pyrenees look like a bank of clouds; the air +that bathes them shapes them into aerial forms, vapory phantoms, the +farthest of which vanish in the canescent horizon--dim contours, that +might be taken for a fugitive sketch from the lightest of pencils. In +the midst of the serrate chain the peak Midi d' Ossau lifts its abrupt +cone; at this distance, forms are softened, colors are blended, the +Pyrenees are only the graceful bordering of a smiling landscape and of +the magnificent sky. There is nothing imposing about them nor severe; +the beauty here is serene, and the pleasure pure. + +The statue of Henry IV., with an inscription in Latin and in patois, +is on the esplanade; the armor is finished so perfectly that it might +make an armorer jealous. But why does the king wear so sad an air? His +neck is ill at ease on his shoulders; his features are small and full +of care; he has lost his gayety, his spirit, his confidence in his +fortune, his proud bearing. His air is neither that of a great nor a +good man, nor of a man of intellect; his face is discontented, and one +would say that he was bored with Pau. I am not sure that he was wrong: +and yet the city passes for agreeable, the climate is very mild, and +invalids who fear the cold pass the winter in it. + + + + +CHATEAUX IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOIRE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Outre-Mer." Published by Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW + + +In the beautiful month of October I made a foot excursion along the +banks of the Loire, from Orleans to Tours. This luxuriant region is +justly called the garden of France. From Orleans to Blois, the whole +valley of the Loire is one continued vineyard. The bright green +foliage of the vine spreads, like the undulations of the sea, over +the landscape, with here and there a silver flash of the river, a +sequestered hamlet, or the towers of an old chateau, to enliven and +variegate the scene. + +The vintage had already commenced. The peasantry were busy in the +fields--the song that cheered their labor was on the breeze, and +the heavy wagon tottered by, laden with the clusters of the vine. +Everything around me wore that happy look which makes the heart glad. +In the morning I arose with the lark; and at night I slept where the +sunset overtook me.... My first day's journey brought me at evening to +a village, whose name I have forgotten, situated about eight leagues +from Orleans. It is a small, obscure hamlet, not mentioned in the +guide-book, and stands upon the precipitous banks of a deep ravine, +through which a noisy brook leaps to turn the ponderous wheel of a +thatch-roofed mill. The village inn stands upon the highway; but the +village itself is not visible to the traveler as he passes. It is +completely hidden in the lap of a wooded valley, and so embowered +in trees that not a roof nor a chimney peeps out to betray its +hiding-place. + +When I awoke in the morning, a brilliant autumnal sun was shining in +at my window. The merry song of birds mingled sweetly with the sound +of rustling leaves and the gurgle of the brook. The vintagers were +going forth to their toil; the wine-press was busy in the shade, and +the clatter of the mill kept time to the miller's song. I loitered +about the village with a feeling of calm delight. I was unwilling to +leave the seclusion of this sequestered hamlet; but at length, with +reluctant step, I took the cross-road through the vineyard, and in a +moment the little village had sunk again, as if by enchantment, into +the bosom of the earth. + +I breakfasted at the town of Mer; and, leaving the high-road to Blois +on the right, passed down to the banks of the Loire, through a long, +broad avenue of poplars and sycamores. I crossed the river in a boat, +and in the after part of the day I found myself before the high and +massive walls of the chateau of Chambord. This chateau is one of the +finest specimens of the ancient Gothic castle to be found in Europe. +The little river Cosson fills its deep and ample moat, and above +it the huge towers and heavy battlements rise in stern and solemn +grandeur, moss-grown with age, and blackened by the storms of three +centuries. Within, all is mournful and deserted. The grass has +overgrown the pavement of the courtyard, and the rude sculpture upon +the walls is broken and defaced.... + +My third day's journey brought me to the ancient city of Blois, the +chief town of the department of Loire-et-Cher. This city is celebrated +for the purity with which even the lower classes of its inhabitants +speak their native tongue. It rises precipitously from the northern +bank of the Loire; and many of its streets are so steep as to be +almost impassable for carriages. On the brow of the hill, overlooking +the roofs of the city, and commanding a fine view of the Loire and its +noble bridge, and the surrounding country, sprinkled with cottages and +chateaux, runs an ample terrace, planted with trees, and laid out as a +public walk. The view from this terrace is one of the most beautiful +in France. But what most strikes the eye of the traveler at Blois is +an old, tho still unfinished, castle. Its huge parapets of hewn stone +stand upon either side of the street; but they have walled up the wide +gateway, from which the colossal drawbridge was to have sprung high in +air, connecting together the main towers of the building, and the two +hills upon whose slope its foundations stand. The aspect of this vast +pile is gloomy and desolate. It seems as if the strong hand of the +builder had been arrested in the midst of his task by the stronger +hand of death; and the unfinished fabric stands a lasting monument +both of the power and weakness of man--of his vast desires, his +sanguine hopes, his ambitious purposes--and of the unlooked-for +conclusion, where all these desires, and hopes, and purposes are so +often arrested. There is also at Blois another ancient chateau, to +which some historic interest is attached as being the scene of the +massacre of the Duke of Guise. + +On the following day, I left Blois for Amboise; and, after walking +several leagues along the dusty highway, crossed the river in a boat +to the little village of Moines, which lies amid luxuriant vineyards +upon the southern bank of the Loire. From Moines to Amboise the road +is truly delightful. The rich lowland scenery, by the margin of the +river, is verdant even in October; and occasionally the landscape is +diversified with the picturesque cottages of the vintagers, cut in the +rock along the road-side, and overhung by the thick foliage of the +vines above them. + +At Amboise I took a cross-road, which led me to the romantic borders +of the Cher and the chateau of Chenonceau. This beautiful chateau, as +well as that of Chambord, was built by the gay and munificent Francis +the First. One is a specimen of strong and massive architecture--a +dwelling for a warrior; but the other is of a lighter and more +graceful construction, and was designed for those soft languishments +of passion with which the fascinating Diane de Poitiers had filled the +bosom of that voluptuous monarch. + +The chateau of Chenonceau is built upon arches across the river Cher, +whose waters are made to supply the deep moat at each extremity. There +is a spacious courtyard in front, from which a drawbridge conducts to +the outer hall of the castle. There the armor of Francis the First +still hangs upon the wall--his shield, and helm, and lance--as if the +chivalrous but dissolute prince had just exchanged them for the silken +robes of the drawing-room.... Doubtless the naked walls and the vast +solitary chambers of an old and desolate chateau inspire a feeling of +greater solemnity and awe; but when the antique furniture of the olden +time remains--the faded tapestry on the walls, and the arm-chair +by the fire-side--the effect upon the mind is more magical and +delightful. The old inhabitants of the place, long gathered to their +fathers, tho living still in history, seem to have left their halls +for the chase or the tournament; and as the heavy door swings upon its +reluctant hinge, one almost expects to see the gallant princes and +courtly dames enter those halls again, and sweep in stately procession +along the silent corridors.... + +A short time after candle-lighting, I reached the little tavern of the +Boule d'Or, a few leagues from Tours, where I passed the night. The +following morning was lowering and sad. A veil of mist hung over +the landscape, and ever and anon a heavy shower burst from the +overburdened clouds, that were driving by before a high and piercing +wind. This unpropitious state of the weather detained me until noon, +when a cabriolet for Tours drove up, and taking a seat within it, I +left the hostess of the Boule d'Or in the middle of a long story about +a rich countess, who always alighted there when she passed that way. +We drove leisurely along through a beautiful country, till at length +we came to the brow of a steep hill, which commands a fine view of the +city of Tours and its delightful environs. But the scene was +shrouded by the heavy drifting mist, through which I could trace but +indistinctly the graceful sweep of the Loire, and the spires and roofs +of the city far below me. + +The city of Tours and the delicious plain in which it lies have been +too often described by other travelers to render a new description, +from so listless a pen as mine, either necessary or desirable. After a +sojourn of two cloudy and melancholy days, I set out on my return to +Paris, by the way of Vendome and Chartres. I stopt a few hours at +the former place, to examine the ruins of a chateau built by Jeanne +d'Albret, mother of Henry the Fourth. It stands upon the summit of a +high and precipitous hill, and almost overhangs the town beneath. The +French Revolution has completed the ruin that time had already begun; +and nothing now remains, but a broken and crumbling bastion, and here +and there a solitary tower dropping slowly to decay. In one of these +is the grave of Jeanne d'Albret. A marble entablature in the wall +above contains the inscription, which is nearly effaced, tho enough +still remains to tell the curious traveler that there lies buried the +mother of the "Bon Henri." To this is added a prayer that the repose +of the dead may be respected. + +Here ended my foot excursion. The object of my journey was +accomplished; and, delighted with this short ramble through the valley +of the Loire, I took my seat in the diligence for Paris, and on the +following day was again swallowed up in the crowds of the metropolis, +like a drop in the bosom of the sea. + + + + +AMBOISE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The Castle of Amboise stands high above the town, like another +Acropolis above a smaller Athens; it rises upon the only height +visible for some distance, and is in a commanding position for holding +the level fields of Touraine around it, and securing the passage of +the Loire between Tours and Chaumont, which is the next link in the +chain that ends at Blois. + +The river at this point is divided in two by an island, as is so often +the case where the first bridge-builders sought to join the wide banks +of the Loire, and on this little spot between the waters Clovis is +said to have met Alaric before he overthrew the power of the Visigoths +in Aquitaine. + +Amboise gains even more from the river than the other chateaux of +the Loire. The magnificent round tower that springs from the end of +Charles VIII.'s facade completely commands the approaches of the +bridge, and the extraordinary effect of lofty masonry, produced by +building on the summit of an elevation and carrying the stone courses +upward from the lower ground, is here seen at its best.... + +But Amboise has a history before the days of Charles VIII. There was +without doubt a Roman camp here, but the traditions of the ubiquitous +Caesar must be received with caution. The so-called "Greniers de +Caesar," strange, unexplained constructions caverned in the soft rock, +are proved to be the work of a later age by that same indefatigable +Abbe Chevalier to whom we have been already indebted for so much +archeological research. A possible explanation of them is contained in +an old Latin history of the castle, which goes down to the death of +Stephen of England. According to this, the Romans had held Amboise +from the days of Caesar till the reign of Diocletian; the Baugaredi or +Bagaudee then put them to flight, but let the rest of the inhabitants +remain who, "being afraid to live above ground, tunnelled beneath it, +and made a great colony of subterranean dwellings in the holes they +had dug out," a custom apparently common in Touraine from the earliest +times. The Romans at any rate left unmistakable traces of their +presence; many of their architectural remains still exist, and their +fort is spoken of by Sulpicius Severus; but they can have built no +bridge of alone, for in St. Gregory's time there were only boats +available for crossing the river. + +Not till the fifteenth century did the castle become royal property, +when it was confiscated by Charles VII. as a punishment for +treacherous dealings with the invading English very similar to +the treason discovered at Chenonceaux just before. But beyond +strengthening the fortification of the place this king did little for +his new possession. + +In a few years the castle is overshadowed by the cruel specter of +Louis XI., whose memory has already spoiled several charming views +for us. It was to Amboise that the father of this unfilial prince +was carried from Chinon on his way north, when wearied out by the +annoyance caused by the Dauphin's plots. The castle had become a royal +residence, and soon after the whole town turns out to meet the new +king with a "morality-play made by Master Etienne for the joyous +occasion of his arrival," for Amboise was already famous for those +dramatic performances always so dear to the French, and particularly +to these citizens, in the old days at any rate. There is no trace of +such frivolities now in the sleepy little town.... + +The two great towers of Amboise with the inclined planes of brickwork, +which wind upward in the midst instead of staircases, were the result +of the work which Charles set on foot as a distraction of his grief. +These strange ascents had been partially restored by the Comte de +Paris, the present owner of Amboise, before his exile stopt the work +of repairing the chateau, and it is still possible to imagine the +"charrettes, mullets, et litieres," of which Du Bellay speaks, +mounting from the low ground to the chambers above, or the Emperor +Charles V., in later years, riding up with his royal host Francis I., +always fond of display, amid such a blaze of flambeaux "that a man +might see as clearly as at mid-day." + +These great towers and the exquisite little chapel were the work of +the "excellent sculptors and artists from Naples" who, as Commines +tells us, were brought back with the spoils of the Italian wars; for +the young king "never thought of death" but only of collecting round +him "all the beautiful things which he had seen and which had given +him pleasure, from France or Italy or Flanders;" but death came upon +him suddenly. At the end of a garden walk, fringed with a mossy grove +of limes that rises from the river bank, is the little doorway through +which Charles VIII. was passing when he hit his head, never a +very strong one, against the low stone arch, and died a few hours +afterward. The castle had been fortified before his time; he left it +beautiful as well, and the traces of his work are those which are most +striking at the present day.... + +Within the shadow of the lime trees on the terraced garden of Amboise +is a small bust of Leonardo da Vinci, for it was near here he died. +His remains are laid in the beautiful chapel at the corner of +the castle court, and the romantic story of his last moments at +Fontainebleau becomes the sad reality of a tombstone covering ashes +mostly unknown and certainly indistinguishable; "among which" as the +epitaph painfully records, "are supposed to be the remains of Leonardo +da Vinci." He had been brought to Paris a weak old man, by Francis, +in pursuance of a certain fixt artistic policy, to which it may be +noticed this forgotten and uncertain grave does but little credit. + +To Francis I., rightly or wrongly, is given the glory of having +naturalized in France the arts of Italy; to him is due the +architecture built for ease and charm which turned the fortress into a +beautiful habitation, which changed Chambord from a feudal stronghold +to a country seat, and which left its traces at Amboise, as it did +at Chaumont and at Blois. He found in France the highest and most +beautiful expression of the work of "the great unnamed race of +master-masons," he found the traditions of a national school of +painting, the work of Fouquet and the Clouets, but for these he cared +not; for him the only schools were those of Rome and Florence, and +tho by encouraging their imitation he weakened the vital sincerity of +French art, yet from his first exercise of royal power the consistency +always somewhat lacking in his politics was shown clearly and firmly +in his taste for art. + + + + +BLOIS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1908.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Blois, among all the other cities of the Loire, is the favorite with +the tourist. Here one first meets a great chateau of state; and +certainly the Chateau de Blois lives in one's memory more than any +other chateau in France. + +Much has been written of Blois, its counts, its chateau, and its many +and famous hotels of the nobility, by writers of all opinions and +abilities, from those old chroniclers who wrote of the plots and +intrigues of other days to those critics of art and architecture who +have discovered--or think they have discovered--that Da Vinci designed +the famous spiral staircase. + +From this one may well gather that Blois is the foremost chateau of +all the Loire in popularity and theatrical effect. Truly this is so, +but it is by no manner of means the most lovable; indeed, it is the +least lovable of all that great galaxy which begins at Blois and ends +at Nantes. It is a show-place and not much more, and partakes in +every form and feature--as one sees it to-day--of the attributes of a +museum, and such it really is. + +All of its former gorgeousness is still there, and all the banalities +of the later period when Gaston of Orleans built his ugly wing, for +the "personally conducted" to marvel at, and honeymoon couples to +envy. The French are quite fond of visiting this shrine themselves, +but usually it is the young people and their mammas, and detached +couples of American and English birth that one most sees strolling +about the courts and apartments where formerly lords and ladies and +cavaliers moved and plotted. + +The great chateau of the Counts of Blois is built upon an inclined +rock which rises above the roof-tops of the lower town quite in +fairy-book fashion. Commonly referred to as the Chateau de Blois, it +is really composed of four separate and distinct foundations; the +original chateau of the counts; the later addition of Louis XII.; the +palace of Francis I., and the most unsympathetically and dismally +disposed pavilion of Gaston of Orleans. + +The artistic qualities of the greater part of the distinct edifice +which go to make up the chateau as it stands to-day are superb, with +the exception of that great wing of Gaston's, before mentioned, which +is as cold and unfeeling as the overrated palace at Versailles. + +The Comtes de Chatillon built that portion just to the right of the +present entrance; Louis XII., the edifice through which one enters +the inner court and which extends far to the left, including also +the chapel immediately to the rear; while Francois I., who here as +elsewhere let his unbounded Italian proclivities have full sway, built +the extended wing to the left of the inner court and fronting on the +present Place du Chateau, formerly the Place Royale.... + +As an architectural monument the chateau is a picturesque assemblage +of edifices belonging to many different epochs, and, as such, shows, +as well as any other document of contemporary times, the varying +ambitions and emotions of its builders, from the rude and rough +manners of the earliest of feudal times through the highly refined +Renaissance details of the imaginative brain of Francois, down to the +base concoction of the elder Mansart, produced at the commands of +Gaston of Orleans. + +In the earliest structure were to be seen all the attributes of a +feudal fortress, towers and walls pierced with narrow loopholes, +and damp, dark dungeons hidden away in the thick walls. Then came a +structure which was less of a fortress and more habitable, but still a +stronghold, tho having ample and decorative doorways and windows, with +curious sculptures and rich framings. Then the pompous Renaissance +with "escaliers" and "balcons a jour," balustrades crowning the walls +and elaborate cornices here, there, and everywhere--all bespeaking +the gallantry and taste of the knightly king. Finally came the cold, +classic features of the period of the brother of Louis XIII. + +In plan the Chateau de Bois forms an irregular square situated at +the apex of a promontory high above the surface of the Loire, +and practically behind the town itself. The building has a most +picturesque aspect, and, to those who know, gives practically a +history of the chateau architecture of the time. Abandoned, mutilated +and dishonored, from time to time, the structure gradually took on new +forms until the thick walls underlying the apartment known to-day as +the Salle des Etats--probably the most ancient portion of all--were +overshadowed by the great richness of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries. + +From the platform one sees a magnificent panorama of the city and the +far-reaching Loire, which unrolls itself southward and northward for +many leagues, its banks covered by rich vineyards and crowned by thick +forests. + +The building of Louis XII. presents its brick-faced exterior in black +and red lozenge shapes, with sculptured window-frames, squarely upon +the little tree-bordered place of to-day, which in other times formed +a part of that magnificent terrace which looked down upon the roof +of the Eglise St. Nicholas, and the Jesuit church of the Immaculate +Conception, and the silvery bell of the Loire itself. + +The murders and other acts of violence and treason which took place +here are interesting enough, but one can not but feel, when he views +the chimney-piece before which the Due de Guise was standing when +called to his death in the royal closet, that the men of whom the +bloody tales of Blois are told quite deserved their fates. + +One comes away with the impression of it all stamped only upon the +mind, not graven upon the heart. Political intrigue to-day, if quite +as vulgar, is less sordid. Bigotry and ambition in those days allowed +few of the finer feelings to come to the surface, except with regard +to the luxuriance of surroundings. Of this last there can be no +question, and Blois is as characteristically luxurious as any of the +magnificient edifices which lodged the royalty and nobility of other +days throughout the valley of the Loire. + +The interior court is partly surrounded by a colonnade, quite +cloister-like in effect. At the right center of the Francois I. wing +is that wonderful spiral staircase, concerning the invention of which +so much speculation has been launched. + +The apartments of Catherine de Medici were directly beneath the +guard-room where the Balafre was murdered, and that event, taking +place at the very moment when the queen-mother was dying, can not be +said to have been conducive to a peaceful demise. + +Here, on the first floor of the Francois I. wing, the queen-mother, +held her court, as did the king his. The great gallery over-looked the +town on the side of the present Place du Chateau. It was, and is, a +truly grand apartment, with diamond-paned windows, and rich, dark wall +decorations on which Catherine's device, a crowned C and her monogram +in gold, frequently appears. There was, moreover, a great oval +window, opposite which stood her altar, and a doorway led to her +writing-closet, with its secret drawers and wall panels, which well +served her purpose of intrigue and deceit. + +A hidden stair-way led to the floor above, and there was a +chambre-a-coucher, with a deep recess for the bed, the same to which +she called her son Henri, as she lay dying, admonishing him to give +up the thought of murdering Guise. "What," said Henri, on this +embarrassing occasion, "spare Guise, when he, triumphant in Paris, +dared lay his hand on the hilt of his sword. Spare him who drove me a +fugitive from the capital. Spare them who never spared me. No, mother, +I will not." + +As the queen-mother drew near her end, and was lying ill at Blois, +great events for France were culminating at the chateau. Henry III. +had become King of France, and the Balafre, supported by Rome and +Spain, was in open rebellion against the reigning house, and the word +had gone forth that the Duc de Guise must die. + +The States-General were to be immediately assembled, and De Guise, +once the poetic lover of Marguerite, through his emissaries canvassed +all France to ensure the triumph of the party of the church against +Henri de Navarre and his queen--the Marguerite whom De Guise once +profest to love--who soon were to come to the throne of France. + +The uncomfortable Henri III. had been told that he would never be king +in reality until De Guise had been made away with. + +The final act of the drama between the rival houses of Guise and +Valois came when the king and his council came to Blois for the +assembly. The sunny city of Blois was indeed to be the scene of a +momentous affair, and a truly sumptuous setting it was, the roof-tops +of its houses sloping downward gently to the Loire, with its chief +accessory, the coiffed and turreted chateau itself, high above all +else. + +Details had been arranged with infinite pains, the guard doubled, and +a company of Swiss posted around the courtyard and up and down +the gorgeous staircase. Every nook and corner has its history in +connection with this greatest event in the history of the chateau of +Blois. + +As Guise entered the council chamber he was told that the king would +see him in his closet, to reach which one had to pass through the +guard-room below. The door was barred behind him that he might not +return, when the trusty guards of the Forty-fifth, under Dalahaide, +already hidden behind the wall-tapestry, sprang upon the Balafre and +forced him back upon the closed door through which he had just passed. +Guise fell stabbed in the breast by Malines, and "lay long uncovered +until an old carpet was found in which to wrap his corpse." + +Below, in her own apartments, lay the queen-mother, dying, but +listening eagerly for the rush of footsteps overhead, hoping and +praying that Henri--the hitherto effeminate Henri who played with his +sword as he would with a battledore, and who painted himself like a +woman, and put rings in his ears--would not prejudice himself at this +time in the eyes of Rome by slaying the leader of the church party.... + +It was under the regime of Gaston d'Orleans that the gardens of the +Chateau de Blois came to their greatest excellence and beauty. In +1653, Abel Brunyer, the first physician of Gaston's suite, published a +catalog of the fruit and flowers to be found here in these gardens, +of which he was also director. More than five hundred varieties were +included, three-quarters of which belonged to the flora of France. + +Among the delicacies and novelties of the time to be found here was +the Prunier de Reine Claude, from which those delicious green plums +known to all the world to-day as "Reine Claudes" were propagated, also +another variety which came from the Prunier de Monsieur, somewhat +similar in taste, but of a deep purple color. The potato was tenderly +cared for and grown as a great novelty and delicacy long before its +introduction to general cultivation by Parmentier. The tomato was +imported from Mexico, and even tobacco was grown.... + +In 1793 all the symbols and emblems of royalty were removed from +the chateau and destroyed. The celebrated bust of Gaston, the chief +artistic attribute of that part of the edifice built by him, was +decapitated, and the statue of Louis XII. over the entrance gateway +was overturned and broken up. Afterward the chateau became the +property of the "domaine" and was turned into a mere barracks. The +pavilion of Queen Anne became a military magazine, the Tour de +l'Observatoire, a powder-magazine, and all the indignities imaginable +were heaped upon the chateau. + +In 1814 Blois became the last capital of Napoleon's empire, and the +chateau walls sheltered the prisoners captured by the imperial army. + + + + +CHAMBORD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Old Touraine." Published by James Pott & Co.] + +BY THEODORE ANDREA COOK + + +The road that leads from Blois to Chambord crosses the Loire by a fine +stone bridge, which the inscription sets forth to be the first public +work of Louis Philippe. + +For some distance the rails of a small tramway followed the road by +which our carriage was slowly rolling toward the level plains of the +Cologne, but we gradually left such uncompromising signs of activity, +and came into a flat country of endless vineyards, with here and there +a small plaster tower showing its slated roof above the low green +clusters of the vines. We passed through several villages, whose +inhabitants that day seemed to have but one care upon their minds, +like the famous Scilly Islanders, to gain a precarious livelihood by +taking each other's washing. On every bush and briar fluttered the +household linen and the family apparel, of various textures and in +different states of despair; and with that strict observance of +utility which is the chief characteristic of the French peasant, the +inevitable blouses, of faded blue were blown into shapeless bundles +even along the railings of the churchyard tombs. + +At last we came to an old moss-grown wall, and through a broken +gateway entered what is called the Park of Chambord. There is very +little of it to be seen now, the trees have been ruthlessly cut down +and mutilated, and of the wild boars, which Francis I. was so fond +of hunting there is left only the ghostly quarry that Thibault of +Champagne chases through the air, while the sound of his ghostly +horn echoes down the autumn night as the fantom pack sweeps by to +Montfrault. + +It is impossible for the uninstructed mind to grasp the plan or method +of this mass of architecture; yet it is unsatisfactory to give it up, +with Mr. Henry James, "as an irresponsible, insoluble labyrinth." +M. Viollet-le-Duc, with a sympathetic denial of any extreme and +over-technical admiration, gives just that intelligible account of the +chateau which is a compromise between the unmeaning adulation of its +contemporary critics and the ignorance of the casual traveler. + +"Chambord," says he, "must be taken for what it is; for an attempt in +which the architect sought to reconcile the methods of two opposite +principles, to unite in one building the fortified castle of the +Middle Ages and the pleasure-palace of the sixteenth century." Granted +that the attempt was an absurd one, it must be remembered that the +Renaissance was but just beginning in France; Gothic art seemed out +of date, yet none other had established itself to take its place. In +literature, in morals, as in architecture, this particular phase in +the civilization of the time has already become evident even in the +course of these small wanderings in a single province, and if only +this transition period is realized in all its meaning, with all the +"monstrous and inform" characteristics that were inevitably a part of +it, the mystery of this strange sixteenth century in France is half +explained, of this "glorious devil, large in heart and brain, that did +love beauty only" and would have it somewhere, somehow, at whatever +cost. + +Francis I. had passed his early years at Cognac, at Amboise, or +Romorantin, and when he first saw Chambord it was only the old feudal +manor-house built by the Counts of Blois. He transformed it, not by +the help of Primaticcio, with whose name it is tempting to associate +any building of this king's, for the methods of contemporary Italian +architecture were totally different; but, as Mr. de la Saussaye +proves, by the skill of that fertile school of art particularly of one +Maitre Pierre Trinqueau, or Le Nepveu, whose name is connected with +more successful buildings at Amboise and Blois. The plan is that +of the true French chateau; in the center is the habitation of the +seigneur and his family, flanked by four angle towers; on three sides +is a court closed by buildings, also with towers at each angle, and +like most feudal dwellings the central donjon has one of its sides on +the exterior of the whole ... + +It may well be imagined that Chambord is the parody of the old +castles, just as the Abbey of Theleme parodies the abbeys of the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Both heaped a fatal ridicule upon +the bygone age, but what Rabelais could only dream Francis could +realize, yet not with the unfettered perfection that was granted to +the vision of Gargantua; for surely never was the spirit of the time, +seized and smitten into incongruous shapes of stone at so unfortunate +a moment, just when the old Renaissance was striving to take upon +itself the burden which was too heavy for the failing Gothic spirit, +just when success was coming, but had not yet come. + +It is only from within the court, where the great towers fling their +shadows over the space, where pinnacles and gables soar into the air, +and strange gargoyles and projectures shoot from the darkness into +light, that it is possible to realize the admiration which Chambord +roused when it was first created. Brantome waxes enthusiastic over its +wonders, and describes how the king had drawn up plans (mercifully +never carried out) to divert the waters of the Loire to his new +palace, not content with the slender stream of Cosson, from which +the place derived its name. Others compare it to a palace put of the +Arabian Nights raised at the Prince's bidding by a Genie, or like +Lippomano, the Venetian ambassador, to "the abode of Morgana or +Alcinous"; but this topheavy barrack is anything rather than a "fairy +monument"; it might with as much humor be called a "souvenir of first +loves," as M. de la Saussaye has it. Both descriptions fit Chenonceaux +admirably; when used of Chambord they are out of place. + + + + +CHENONCEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Touraine." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1906.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + +Chenonceaux is noted chiefly for its chateau, but the little village +itself is charming. The houses of the village are not very new, nor +very old, but the one long street is most attractive throughout its +length, and the whole atmosphere of the place, from September to +December, is odorous with the perfume of red and purple grapes. The +vintage is not equal to that of the Bordeaux region, perhaps, nor +of Chinon, nor Saumur, but "vin du pays" of the Cher and the Loire, +around Tours, is not to be despised. + +Most tourists come to Chenonceaux by train from Tours; others drive +over from Amboise, and yet others come by bicycle or automobile. They +are not as yet so numerous as might be expected, and accordingly here, +as elsewhere in Touraine, every facility is given for visiting the +chateau and its park. + +If you do not hurry off at once to worship at the abode of the +fascinating Diane, one of the brightest ornaments of the court of +Francois I. and his son Henri, you will enjoy your dinner at the Hotel +du Bon Laboureur, tho most likely it will be a solitary one, and you +will be put to bed in a great chamber over-looking the park, through +which peep, in the moonlight, the turrets of the chateau, and you +may hear the purling of the waters of the Cher as it flows below the +walls. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau, like Francois I., called Chenonceaux a +beautiful place, and he was right. It is all of that and more. Here +one comes into direct contact with an atmosphere which, if not feudal, +or even medieval, is at least that of several hundred years ago. + +Chenonceaux is moored like a ship in the middle of the rapidly running +Cher, a dozen miles or more above where that stream enters the Loire. +As a matter of fact, the chateau practically bridges the river, which +flows under its foundations and beneath its drawbridge on either side, +besides filling the moat with water. The general effect is as if the +building were set in the midst of a stream and formed a sort of island +chateau. Round about is a gentle meadow and a great park, which gives +to this turreted, architectural gem of Touraine a setting equalled by +no other chateau. + +What the chateau was in former days we can readily imagine, for +nothing is changed as to the general disposition. Boats came to the +water-gate, as they still might do if such boats still existed, in +true, pictorial legendary fashion. To-day the present occupant has +placed a curiosity on the ornamental waters in the shape of a gondola. +It is out of keeping with the grand fabric of the chateau, and it is a +pity that it does not cast itself adrift some night. What has become +of the gondolier, who was imported to keep the craft company, nobody +seems to know. He is certainly not in evidence, or, if he is, has +transformed himself into a groom or a chauffeur. + +The chateau of Chenonceaux is not a very ample structure; not so ample +as most photographs would make it appear. It is not tiny, but still it +has not the magnificent proportions of Blois, of Chambord, or even of +Langeais. It was more a habitation than it was a fortress, a +country house, as indeed it virtually became when the Connetable de +Montmorency took possession of the structure in the name of the king, +when its builder, Thomas Bohier, the none too astute minister of +finance in Normandy, came to grief in his affairs. + +Francis I came frequently here to hunt, and his memory is still kept +alive by the Chambre Francois I. Francois held possession till his +death, when his son made it over to the "admired of two generations," +Diane de Poitiers. + +Diane's memory will never leave Chenonceaux. To-day it is perpetuated +in the Chambre de Diane de Poitiers; but the portrait by Leonardo da +Vinci, which was supposed to best show her charms, has now disappeared +from the Long Gallery at the chateau. This portrait was painted at the +command of Francois, before Diane transferred her affections to his +son. + +No one knows when or how Diane de Poitiers first came to fascinate +Francois, or how or why her power waned. At any rate at the time +Francois pardoned her father, the witless Comte de St. Vallier, for +the treacherous part he played in the Bourbon conspiracy, he really +believed her to to be the "brightest ornament of a beauty-loving +court." + +Certainly, Diane was a powerful factor in the politics of her time, +tho Francois himself soon tired of her. Undaunted by this, she +forthwith set her cap for his son Henri, the Duc d'Orleans, and won +him, too. Of her beauty the present generation is able to judge for +itself by reason of the three well-known and excellent portraits of +contemporary times. + +Diane's influence over the young Henri was absolute. At his death +her power was, of course, at an end and Chenonceaux, and all else +possible, was taken from her by the orders of Catherine, the +long-suffering wife, who had been put aside for the fascinations of +the charming huntress. + +It must have been some satisfaction, however, to Diane, to know that, +in his fatal joust with Montgomery, Henri really broke his lance and +met his death in her honor, for the records tell that he bore her +colors on his lance, besides her initials set in gold and gems on his +shield. + +Catherine's eagerness to drive Diane from the court was so great, that +no sooner had her spouse fallen--even tho he did not actually die for +some days--than she sent word to Diane "who sat weeping alone," to +quit the court instantly; to give up the crown jewels--which Henri had +somewhat inconsiderately given her; and to "give up Chenonceaux in +Touraine," Catherine's Naboth's vineyard, which she had so long +admired and coveted. + +She had known it as a girl, when she often visited it in company with +her father-in-law, the appreciative but dissolute Francois, and had +ever longed to possess it for her own, before even her husband, now +dead, had given it to "that old hag Diane de Poitiers, Duchesse de +Valentinois." + +Diane paid no heed to Catherine's command. She simply asked: "Is the +king yet dead?" + +"No, madame," said the messenger, "but his wound is mortal; he can not +live the day." + +"Tell the queen, then." replied Diane, "that her reign is not yet +come; that I am mistress still over her and the kingdom as long as the +king breathes the breath of life." + +The chateau of Chenonceaux, so greatly coveted by Catherine when she +first came to France, and when it was in the possession of Diane, +still remains in all the regal splendor of its past. It lies in the +lovely valley of the Cher, far from the rush and turmoil of cities and +even the continuous traffic of great thoroughfares, for it is on the +road to nowhere unless one is journeying crosscountry from the lower +to the upper Loire. This very isolation resulted in its being one +of the few monuments spared from the furies of the Revolution, and, +"half-palace and half-chateau," it glistens with the purity of its +former glory, as picturesque as ever, with turrets, spires, and +roof-tops all mellowed with the ages in a most entrancing manner. + +Even to-day one enters the precincts of the chateau proper over a +drawbridge which spans an arm of the Loire, or rather, a moat which +leads directly from the parent stream. On the opposite side are the +bridge piers supporting five arches, the work of Diane when she was +the fair chatelaine of the domain. This ingenious thought proved to +be a most useful and artistic addition to the chateau. It formed a +flagged promenade, lovely in itself, and led to the southern bank of +the Cher, whence one got charming vistas of the turrets and roof-tops +of the chateau through the trees and the leafy avenues which converged +upon the structure. + +When Catherine came she did not disdain to make the best use of +Diane's innovation that suggested itself to her, which was simply to +build the Long Gallery over the arches of this lovely bridge, and so +make of it a veritable house over the water. A covering was made quite +as beautiful as the rest of the structure, and thus the bridge formed +a spacious wing of two stories. The first floor--known as the Long +Gallery--was intended as a banqueting-hall, and possest four great +full-length windows on either side looking up and down the stream, +from which was seen--and is to-day--an outlook as magnificently +idyllic as is possible to conceive. Jean Goujon had designed for the +ceiling one of those wonder-works for which he was famous, but if the +complete plan was ever carried out, it has disappeared, for only a +tiny sketch of the whole scheme remains to-day. + +Catherine came in the early summer to take possession of her +long-coveted domain. Being a skilful horsewoman, she came on +horseback, accompanied by a little band of feminine charmers destined +to wheedle political secrets from friends and enemies alike--a real +"flying squadron of the queen," as it was called by a contemporary. + +It was a gallant company that assembled here at this time--the young +King Charles IX., the Duc de Guise, and the "two cardinals mounted on +mules"--Lorraine, a true Guise, and D'Este, newly arrived from Italy, +and accompanied by the poet Tasso, wearing a "gabardine and a hood +of satin." Catherine showed the Italian great favor, as was due a +countryman, but there was another poet among them as well, Ronsard, +the poet laureate of the time. The Duc de Guise had followed in the +wake of Marguerite, unbeknown to Catherine, who frowned down any +possibility of an alliance between the houses of Valois and Lorraine. + +A great fete and water-masque had been arranged by Catherine to take +place on the Cher, with a banquet to follow in the Long Gallery in +honor of her arrival at Chenonceaux. + +When twilight had fallen, torches were ignited and myriads of lights +blazed forth from the boats on the river and from the windows of the +chateau. Music and song went forth into the night, and all was as gay +and lovely as a Venetian night's entertainment. The hunting-horns +echoed through the wooded banks, and through the arches above which +the chateau was built passed great highly colored barges, including a +fleet of gondolas to remind the queen-mother of her Italian days--the +ancestors perhaps of the solitary gondola which to-day floats idly by +the river-bank just before the grand entrance to the chateau. From +parterre and balustrade, and from the clipt yews of the ornamental +garden, fairy lamps burned forth and dwindled away into dim infinity, +as the long lines of soft light gradually lost themselves in the +forest. It was a grand affair and idyllic in its unworldliness ... + +Catherine bequeathed Chenonceaux to the wife of Henry III., Louise +de Vaudemont, who died here in 1601. For a hundred years it still +belonged to royalty, but in 1730 it was sold to M. Dupin, who, with +his wife, enriched and repaired the fabric. They gathered around +them a company so famous as to be memorable in the annals of art +and literature. This is best shown by the citing of such names as +Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Buffon, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, and Rousseau, +all of whom were frequenters of the establishment, the latter being +charged with the education of the Dupins' only son. + +Chenonceaux to-day is no whited sepulcher. It is a real living and +livable thing, and moreover, when one visits it, he observes that the +family burn great logs in their fireplaces, have luxurious bouquets of +flowers on their dining-table, and use wax candles instead of the more +prosaic oil-lamps, or worse--acetyline gas. + + + + +FOIX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +Above the swift flowing Ariege in their superb setting of mountain +and forest are the towers and parapets of the old chateau, in itself +enough to make the name and fame of any city.... The actual age of +the monument covers many epochs. The two square towers and the main +edifice, as seen to-day, are anterior to the thirteenth century, as is +proved by the design in the seals of the Comtes de Foix of 1215 and +1241 now in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. In the fourteenth +century these towers were strengthened and enlarged with the idea of +making them more effective for defense and habitation. + +The escutcheons of Foix, Beam and Comminges, to be seen in the great +central tower, indicate that it, too, goes back at least to the end +of the fourteenth century, when Eleanore de Comminges, the mother of +Gaston Phoebus, ruled the Comte. The donjon or Tour Ronde arises on +the west to a height of forty-two meters; and will be remarked by all +familiar with these sermons in stones scattered all over France as one +of the most graceful. Legend attributes it to Gaston Phoebus; but all +authorities do not agree as to this. The window-and door-openings, the +moldings, the accolade over the entrance doorway, and the machicoulis +all denote that they belong to the latter half of the fifteenth +century. These, however, may be later interpolations. + +Originally one entered the chateau from exactly the opposite side from +that used to-day. The slope leading up to the rock and swinging around +in front of the town is an addition of recent years. Formerly the +plateau was gained by a rugged path which finally entered the +precincts of the fortress through a rectangular barbican. + +Finally, to sum it up, the pleasant, smiling, trim little city of +Foix, and its chateau rising romantically above it, form a delightful +prospect. Well preserved, well protected and forever free from further +desecration, the chateau de Fois is as nobly impressive and glorious +a monument of the Middle Ages as may be found in France, as well as +chief record of the gallant days of the Comtes de Foix. Foix' Palais +de Justice, built back to back with the rock foundation of the +chateau, is itself a singular piece of architecture containing a small +collection of local antiquities. This old Maison des Gouverneurs, now +the Palais de Justice, is a banal, unlovely thing, regardless of its +high-sounding titles.... + +It was that great hunter and warrior, Gaston Phoebus, who gave the +Chateau de Foix its greatest lustre. It was here that this most +brilliant and most celebrated of the counts passed his youth; and it +was from here that he set out on his famous expedition to aid his +brother knights of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. At Gaston's orders +the Comte d'Armagnac was imprisoned here, to be released after the +payment of a heavy ransom. As to the motive for this particular act, +authorities differ as to whether it was the fortune of war or mere +brigandage. + +They lived high, the nobles of the old days, and Froissart recounts a +banquet at which he had assisted at Foix, in the sixteenth century, as +follows: + +"And this was what I saw in the Comte de Foix: The Comte left his +chamber to sup at midnight, the way to the great 'salle' being led by +twelve varlets, bearing twelve illumined torches. The great hall was +crowded with knights and equerries, and those who would supped, saying +nothing meanwhile. Mostly game seemed to be the favorite viand, and +the legs and wings only of fowl were eaten. Music and chants were the +invariable accompaniment and the company remained at table until after +two in the morning. Little or nothing was drunk." + + + + +V + +VARIOUS FRENCH SCENES + + + + +MONT ST. MICHEL[A] + +[Footnote A: From "In and Out of Three Normandy Inns." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Little Brown & +Co. Copyright, 1892.] + +BY ANNA BOWMAN DODD + + +The promised rivers were before us. So was the Mont, spectral no +longer, but nearing with every plunge forward of our sturdy young +Percheron. Locomotion through any new or untried medium is certain +to bring with the experiment a dash of elation. Now, driving through +water appears to be no longer the fashion in our fastidious century; +someone might get a wetting, possibly, has been the conclusion of the +prudent. And thus a very innocent and exciting bit of fun has been +gradually relegated among the lost arts of pleasure. + +We were taking water as we had never taken it before, and liking the +method. We were as wet as ducks, but what cared we? We were being +deluged with spray; the spume of the sea was spurting in our faces +with the force of a strong wet breeze, and still we liked it. Besides, +driving thus into the white foam of the waters, over the sand ridges, +across the downs, into the wide plains of wet mud, this was the old +classical way of going up to the Mont. + +Surely, what had been found good enough as a pathway for kings, and +saints and pilgrims should be good enough for lovers of old-time +methods. The dike yonder was built for those who believe in the devil +of haste, and for those who also serve him faithfully.... + +With our first toss upon the downs, a world of new and fresh +experiences began. Genets was quite right; the Mont over yonder was +another country; even at the very beginning of the journey we learned +so much. This breeze blowing in from the sea, that had swept the +ramparts of the famous rock, was a double extract of the sea-essence; +it had all the salt of the sea and the aroma of firs and wild flowers; +its lips had not kissed a garden in high air without the perfume +lingering, if only to betray them. + +Even this strip of meadow marsh had a character peculiar to itself; +half of it belonged to earth and half to the sea. You might have +thought it an inland pasture, with its herds of cattle, its flocks +of sheep, and its colonies of geese patrolled by ragged urchins. But +behold somewhere out yonder the pasture was lost in high sea-waves; +ships with bulging sails replaced the curve of the cattle's sides and +instead of bending necks of sheep, there were sea-gulls swooping down +upon the foamy waves. + +As the incarnation of this dual life of sea and land, the rock +stands. It also is both of the sea and the land. Its feet are of the +waters--rocks and stones the sea-waves have used as playthings these +millions of years. But earth regains possession as the rocks pile +themselves into a mountain. Even from this distance, one can see the +moving of great trees, the masses of yellow flower-tips that dye the +sides of the stony hill, and the strips of green grass here and there. + +So much has nature done for this wonderful pyramid in the sea. Then +man came and fashioned it to his liking. He piled the stones at its +base into titanic walls; he carved about its sides the rounded breasts +of bastions; he piled higher and higher up the dizzy heights a medley +of palaces, convents, abbeys, cloisters, to lay at the very top the +fitting crown of all, a jewelled Norman-Gothic cathedral. + +Earth and man have thrown their gauntlet down to the sea--this rock is +theirs, they cry to the waves and the might of the oceans. And the sea +laughs--as strong men laugh when boys are angry or insistent. She has +let them build and toil, and pray and fight; it is all one to her what +is done on the rock--whether men carve its stones into lace, or rot +and die in its dungeons; it is all the same to her whether each spring +the daffodils creep up within the crevices and the irises nod to them +from the gardens. + +It is all one to her. For twice a day she recaptures the Mont. She +encircles it with the strong arm of her tides; with the might of her +waters she makes it once more a thing of the sea. + +The tide was rising now. + +The fringe of the downs had dabbled in the shoals till they became +one. We had left behind the last of the shepherd lads, come out to the +edge of the land to search for a wandering kid. We were all at once +plunging into high water. Our road was sunk out of sight; we were +driving through, waves as high as our cart wheels.... + +Our cart still pitched and tossed--we were still rocked about in our +rough cradle. But the sun, now freed from the banks of clouds, was +lighting our way with a great and sudden glory. And for the rest of +our watery journey we were conscious only of that lighting. Behind the +Mont lay a vast sea of saffron. But it was in the sky; against it the +great rock was as black as if the night were upon it. + +Here and there, through the curve of a flying buttress, or the +apertures of a pierced parapet, gay bits of this yellow world were +caught and framed. The sea lay beneath like a quiet carpet; and over +this carpet ships and sloops swam with easy gliding motion, with sails +and cordage dipt in gold. The smaller craft, moored close to the +shore, seemed transfigured as in a fog of gold. And nearer still were +the brown walls of the Mont making a great shadow, and in the shadow +the waters were as black as the skin of an African. In the shoals +there were lovely masses of turquoise and palest green; for here and +there a cloudlet passed, to mirror its complexion in the translucent +pools.... + +There was a rapid dashing beneath the great walls; a sudden night of +darkness as we plunged through an open archway into a narrow village +street; a confused impression of houses built into side-walls; of +machicolated gateways; of rocks and roof-tops tumbling about our ears; +and within the street was sounding the babel of a shrieking troop of +men and women. Porters, peasants, and children were clamoring about +our cartwheels like so many jackals. The bedlam did not cease as we +stopt before a brightly-lit open doorway. + +Then through the doorway there came a tall, finely featured brunette. +She made her way through the yelling crowd as a duchess might cleave a +path through a rabble. She was at the side of the cart in an instant. +She gave us a bow and smile that were both a welcome and an act of +appropriation. She held out a firm, soft, brown hand. When it closed +on our own, we knew it to be the grasp of a friend, and the clasp of +one who knew how to hold her world. But when she spoke the words were +all of velvet, and her voice had the cadence of a caress. + +"I have been watching you, 'cheres dames'--crossing the 'greve,' but +how wet and weary you must be! Come in by the fire, it is ablaze +now--I have been feeding it for you!" + +And once more the beautifully curved lips parted over the fine teeth, +and the exceeding brightness of the dark eyes smiled and glittered in +our own. The caressing voice still led us forward, into the great gay +kitchen; the touch of skilful, discreet fingers undid wet cloaks and +wraps; the soft charm of a lovely and gracious woman made even the +penetrating warmth of the huge fire-logs a secondary feature of our +welcome. + +To those who have never crossed a "greve;" who have had no jolting in +a Normandy "char-a-banc;" who, for hours, have not known the mixed +pleasures and discomfort of being a part of sea-rivers; and who have +not been met at the threshold of an Inn on a Rock by the smiling +welcome of Madame Poulard[A]--all such have yet a pleasant page to +read in the book of traveled experience.... + +[Footnote A: An innkeeper of international fame. She is now dead, but +her name and her omelet still survive at Mont St. Michel.] + +Altho her people were waiting below, and the dinner was on its way to +the cloth, Madame Poulard had plenty of time to give to the beauty +about her. How fine was the outlook from the top of the ramparts! +What a fresh sensation, this of standing-on a terrace in mid-air and +looking down on the sea and across to the level shores. The rose +vines--we found them sweet--"Ah"--one of the branches had fallen--she +had full time to re-adjust the loosened support. And "Marianne, give +these ladies their hot water, and see to their bags"--even this order +was given with courtesy. It was only when the supple, agile figure had +left us to fly down the steep rock-cut steps; when it shot over the +top of the gateway and slid with the grace of a lizard into the street +far below us, that we were made sensible of there having been any +special need of madame's being in haste ... + +The Mont proved by its appearance its history in adventure; it had the +grim, grave, battered look that comes only to features--whether of +rock or of more plastic human mold--that have been carved by the rough +handling of experience. + +It is the common habit of hills and mountains, as we all know, to turn +disdainful as they grow skyward; they only too eagerly drop, one by +one, the things by which man has marked the earth for his own. To +stand on a mountain top and to go down to your grave are alike, at +least in this--that you have left everything, except yourself, behind +you. But it is both the charm and the triumph of Mont St. Michael, +that it carries so much of man's handiwork up into the blue fields of +the air; this achievement alone would mark it as unique among hills. +It appears as if for once man and nature had agreed to work in concert +to produce a masterpiece in stone. The hill and the architectural +beauties it carries aloft, are like a taunt flung out to sea and to +the upper heights of air; for centuries they appear to have been +crying aloud, "See what we can do, against your tempests and your +futile tides--when we try" ... Rustic France along this coast still +makes pilgrimages to the shrine of the Archangel St. Michael. No +marriage is rightly arranged which does not include a wedding-journey +across the "greve"; no nuptial breakfast is aureoled with the true +halo of romance which is eaten elsewhere than on these heights in +mid-air. The young come to drink deep of wonders; the old, to refresh +the depleted fountains of memory; and the tourist, behold he is a +plague of locusts let loose upon the defenseless hill! + +It was impossible, after sojourning a certain time upon the hill, not +to concede that there were two equally strong centers of attraction +that drew the world hitherward. One remained, indeed, gravely +suspended between the doubt and the fear, as to which of these +potential units had the greater pull, in point of actual attraction. +The impartial historian, given to a just weighing of evidence, would +have been startled to find how invariably the scales tipped; how +lightly an historical Mont, born of a miracle, crowned by the noblest +buildings, a pious Mecca for saints and kings innumerable, shot up +like feathers in lightness when overweighted by the modern realities +of a perfectly appointed inn, the cooking and eating of an omelet of +omelets, and the all-conquering charms of Madame Poulard. + +The fog of doubt thickened as, day after day, the same scenes were +enacted; when one beheld all sorts of conditions of men similarly +affected; when, again and again, the potentiality in the human magnet +was proved true. Doubt turned to conviction, at the last, that the +holy shrine of St. Michael had, in truth, been violated; that the Mont +had been desecrated; that the latter exists now solely as a setting +for a pearl of an inn; and that within the shrine--it is Madame +Poulard herself who fills the niche!... + +Such a variety of brides as come up to the Mont! You could have your +choice, at the midday meal, of almost any nationality, age, or color. +The attempt among these bridal couples to maintain the distant air +of a finished indifference only made their secret the more open. +The British phlegm, on such a journey, did not always serve as a +convenient mask; the flattering, timid glance, the ripple of tender +whispers, and the furtive touching of fingers beneath the table, made +even these English couples a part of the great human marrying family; +their superiority to their fellows would return, doubtless, when the +honey had dried out of their moon. + +The best of our adventures into this tender country were with the +French bridal tourists; they were certain to be delightfully human. As +we had had occasion to remark before, they were off, like ourselves, +on a little voyage of discovery; they had come to make acquaintance +with the being to whom they were mated for life. Various degrees of +progress could be read in the air and manner of the hearty young +"bourgeoises" and their paler or even ruddier partners, as they +crunched their bread or sipped their thin wine. Some had only entered +as yet upon the path of inquiry; others had already passed the +mile-stone of criticism; and still others had left the earth and were +floating in full azure of intoxication. Of the many wedding parties +that sat down to breakfast, we soon made the commonplace discovery +that the more plebeian the company, the more certain-orbed appeared to +be the promise of happiness.... + +Madame Poulard's air with this, her world, was as full of tact as with +the tourists. Many of the older women would give her the Norman kiss, +solemnly, as if the salute were a part of the ceremony attendant on +the eating of a wedding breakfast at Mont St. Michel. There would be +a three times' clapping of the wrinkled or the ruddy peasant cheeks +against the sides of Madame Poulard's daintier, more delicately +modeled face. Then all would take their seats noisily at the table. It +was Madame Poulard who would then bring us news of the party. At the +end of a fortnight Charm and I felt ourselves to be in possession of +the hidden and secret reasons for all the marrying that had been done +along the coast that year.... + +One morning, as we looked toward Pontorson, a small black cloud +appeared to be advancing across the bay. The day was windy; the sky +was crowded with huge white mountains--round, luminous clouds that +moved in stately sweeps. And the sea was the color one loves to see +in an earnest woman's eye, the dark blue sapphire that turns to +blue-gray. This was a setting that made that particular cloud, making +such slow progress across from the shore, all the more conspicuous. +Gradually, as the black mass neared the dike, it began to break and +separate; and we saw plainly enough that the scattering particles were +human beings. + +It was, in point of fact, a band of pilgrims; a peasant pilgrimage was +coming up to the Mont. In wagons, in market carts, in "char-a-bancs," +in donkey carts, on the backs of monster Percherons--the pilgrimage +moved in slow processional dignity across the dike. Some of the +younger black gowns and blue blouses attempted to walk across over the +sands; we could see the girls sitting down on the edge of the shore, +to take off their shoes and stockings and to tuck up their thick +skirts. When they finally started they were like unto so many huge +cheeses hoisted on stilts. The bare legs plunged boldly forward, +keeping ahead of the slower-moving peasant lads; the girls' bravery +served them till they reached the fringe of the incoming tide; not +until their knees went under water did they forego their venture. A +higher wave came in, deluging the ones farthest out; and then ensued a +scampering toward the dike and a climbing up of the stone embankment. +The old route across the sands, that had been the only one known to +kings and barons, was not good enough for a modern Norman peasant. The +religion of personal comfort has spread even as far as the fields. + +Other aspects of the hill, on this day of the pilgrimage, made those +older dead-and-gone bands of pilgrims astonishingly real. On the tops +of bastions, in the clefts on the rocks, beneath the glorious walls +of La Merveille, or perilously lodged on the crumbling cornice of a +tourelle, numerous rude altars had been hastily erected. The crude +blues and scarlets of banners were fluttering, like so many pennants, +in the light breeze. Beneath the improvised altar-roofs--strips of gay +cloth stretched across poles stuck into the ground--were groups not +often seen in these less fervent centuries. + +High up, mounted on the natural pulpit, formed of a bit of rock, with +the rude altar before him with its bits of scarlet cloth covered with +cheap lace, stood or knelt the priest. Against the wide blue of the +open heaven his figure took on an imposing splendor of mien and an +unmodern impressiveness of action. Beneath him knelt, with bowed +heads, the groups of the peasant pilgrims; the women, with murmuring +lips and clasped hands, their strong, deeply-seamed faces outlined +with the precision of a Francesco painting against the gray background +of a giant mass of wall or the amazing breadth of a vast sea-view; +children, squat and chubby, with bulging cheeks starting from the +close-fitting French "bonnet"; and the peasant-farmers, mostly of the +older varieties, whose stiffened or rheumatic knees and knotty hands +made their kneeling real acts of devotional zeal. + +There were a dozen such altars and groups scattered over the +perpendicular slant of the hill. The singing of the choir boys, rising +like skylark notes into the clear space of heaven, would be floating +from one rocky-nested chapel, while below, in the one beneath which +we, for a moment, were resting, there would be the groaning murmur of +the peasant groups in prayer. + +Three times did the vision of St. Michael appear to Saint Aubert, in +his dream, commanding the latter to erect a church on the heights of +Mont St. Michel to his honor. How many a time must the modern pilgrim +traverse the stupendous mass that has grown out of that command before +he is quite certain that the splendor of Mont St. Michel is real, and +not part of a dream! + +Whether one enters through the dark magnificence of the great portals +of the Chatelet; whether one mounts the fortified stairway, passing +into the Salle des Gardes, passing onward from dungeon to fortified +bridge to gain the abbatial residence; whether one leaves the vaulted +splendor of oratories for aerial passageways, only to emerge beneath +the majestic roof of the Cathedral--that marvel of the Early Norman, +ending in the Gothic choir of the fifteenth century; or, as one +penetrates into the gloom of the mighty dungeons where heroes, and +brothers of kings, and saints, and scientists have died their long +death--as one gropes through the black night of the crypt, where a +faint, mysterious glint of light falls aslant the mystical face of the +Black Virgin; as one climbs to the light beneath the ogive arches +of the Aumonerie, through the wide-lit aisles of the Salle des +Chevaliers, past the slender Gothic columns of the Refectory, up at +last to the crowning glory of all the glories of La Merveille, to the +exquisitely beautiful colonnades of the open Cloister--the impressions +and emotions excited by these ecclesiastical and military masterpieces +are ever the same, however many times one may pass them in review. A +charm indefinable, but replete with subtle attractions, lurks in every +one of these dungeons. + +The great halls have a power to make one retraverse their space I have +yet to find under other vaulted chambers. The grass that is set, +like a green jewel, in the arabesques of the cloister, is a bit of +greensward the feet press with a different tread to that which skips +lightly over other strips of turf. And the world, that one looks out +upon through prison bars, that is so gloriously arched in the arm of +a flying buttress, or that lies prone at your feet from the dizzy +heights of the rock clefts, is not the world in which you, daily, do +your petty stretch of toil, in which you laugh and ache, sorrow, sigh, +and go down to your grave. + +The secret of this deep attraction may lie in the fact of one's being +in a world that is built on a height. Much, doubtless, of the charm +lies, also, in the reminders of all the human life that, since the +early dawn of history, has peopled this hill. One has the sense +of living at a tremendously high mental pressure; of impressions, +emotions, sensations crowding upon the mind; of one's whole meager +outfit of memory, of poetic equipment, and of imaginative furnishing +being unequal to the demand made by even the most hurried tour of the +great buildings, or the most flitting review of the noble massing of +the clouds and the hilly seas. + +The very emptiness and desolation of all the buildings on the hill +help to accentuate their splendor. The stage is magnificently set; +the curtain, even, is lifted. One waits for the coming on of kingly +shapes, for the pomp of trumpets, for the pattering of a mighty host. +But, behold, all is still. And one sits and sees only a shadowy +company pass and repass across that glorious mise-en-scene. + +For, in a certain sense, I know no other medieval mass of buildings as +peopled as are these. The dead shapes seem to fill the vast halls. The +Salle des Chevaliers is crowded, daily, with a brilliant gathering of +knights, who sweep the trains of their white damask mantles, edged +with ermine, over the dulled marble of the floor; two by two they +enter the hall; the golden shells on their mantles make the eyes +blink, as the groups gather about the great chimneys, or wander +through the column-broken space. + +Behind this dazzling cortege, up the steep steps of the narrow +streets, swarm other groups--the medieval pilgrim host that rushes +into cathedral aisles, and that climbs the ramparts to watch the +stately procession as it makes its way toward the church portals. + +There are still other figures that fill every empty niche and deserted +watch-tower. Through the lancet windows of the abbatial gateways the +yeomanry of the vassal villages are peering; it is the weary time of +the Hundred Years' War, and all France is watching, through sentry +windows, for the approach of her dread enemy. On the shifting sands +below, as on brass, how indelibly fixt are the names of the hundred +and twenty-nine knights whose courage drove, step by step, over +that treacherous surface, the English invaders back to their island +strongholds. + + + + +CAEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical Tour in France and Germany."] + +BY THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN + + +Let us begin, therefore, with the Abbey of St. Stephen; for it is the +noblest and most interesting on many accounts. It is called by the +name of that saint, inasmuch as there stood formerly a chapel, on the +same site, dedicated to him. The present building was completed and +solemnly dedicated by William the Conqueror, in the presence of his +wife, his two sons Robert and William, his favorite, Archbishop +Lanfranc; John, Archbishop of Rouen, and Thomas, Archbishop of +York--toward the year 1080; but I strongly suspect, from the present +prevailing character of the architecture, that nothing more than the +west front and the towers upon which the spires rest remain of its +ancient structure. The spires, as the Abbe De La Rue conjectures, and +as I should also have thought, are about two centuries later than the +towers. + +The outsides of the side aisles appear to be of the thirteenth, rather +than of the end of the eleventh, century. The first exterior view of +the west front, and of the towers, is extremely interesting from the +gray and clear tint, as well as excellent quality, of the stone, +which, according to Huet, was brought partly from Vaucelle and partly +from Allemagne. One of the corner abutments of one of the towers has +fallen down and a great portion of what remains seem to indicate rapid +decay. The whole stands indeed greatly in need of reparation. Ducarel, +if I remember rightly, has made, of this whole front, a sort of +elevation as if it were intended for a wooden model to work by, having +all the stiffness and precision of an erection of forty-eight hours' +standing only. The central tower is of very stunted dimensions, and +overwhelmed by a roof in the form of an extinguisher. This, in fact, +was the consequence of the devastations of the Calvinists; who +absolutely sapped the foundation of the tower, with the hope of +overwhelming the whole choir in ruin--but a part only of their +malignant object was accomplished. The component parts of the eastern +extremity are strangely and barbarously miscellaneous. However, no +good commanding exterior view can be obtained from the place, or +confined square, opposite the towers. + +But let us return to the west front; and, opening the unfastened green +baize covered door, enter softly and silently into the venerable +interior--sacred even to the feelings of Englishmen. Of this interior, +very much is changed from its original character. The side aisles +retain their flattened arched roofs and pillars; and in the nave you +observe those rounded pilasters--or altorilievo-like pillars--running +from bottom to top, which are to be seen in the Abbey of Jumieges. The +capitals of these long pillars are comparatively of modern date. + +To the left on entrance, within a side chapel, is the burial place +of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. The tombstone attesting her +interment is undoubtedly of the time. Generally speaking, the interior +is cold, and dull of effect. The side chapels, of which not fewer than +sixteen encircle the choir, have the discordant accompaniments of +Grecian balustrades to separate them from the choir and nave. + +To the right of the choir, in the sacristy, I think, is hung the huge +portrait, in oil, within a black and gilt frame, of which Ducarel has +published an engraving, on the supposition of its being the portrait +of William the Conqueror. But nothing can be more ridiculous than +such a conclusion. In the first place, the picture itself, which is +a palpable copy, can not be older than a century; and in the second +place, were it an original performance, it could not be older than the +time of Francis I. In fact, it purports to have been executed as a +faithful copy of the figure of King William, seen by the Cardinals in +1522, who were seized with a sacred frenzy to take a peep at the body +as it might exist at that time. The costume of the oil painting is +evidently that of the period of our Henry VIII.; and to suppose that +the body of William--even had it remained in so surprisingly perfect +a state as Ducarel intimates, after an interment of upward of four +hundred years--could have presented such a costume, when, from +Ducarel's own statement, another whole-length representation of the +same person is totally different--and more decidedly of the character +of William's time--is really quite a reproach to any antiquary who +plumes himself upon the possession even of common sense. + +In the middle of the choir, and just before the high altar, the body +of the Conqueror was entombed with great pomp; and a monument erected +to his memory of the most elaborate and costly description. Nothing +now remains but a flat, black marble slab, with a short inscription, +of quite a recent date.... + +You must now attend me to the most interesting public building, +perhaps all things considered, which is to be seen at Caen. I mean +the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, or L'Abbaye aux Dames. This abbey was +founded by the wife of the Conqueror, about the same time that William +erected that of St. Stephen. Ducarel's description of it, which I +have just seen in a copy of the "Anglo-Norman Antiquities," in a +bookseller's shop, is sufficiently meager. His plates are also +sufficiently miserable: but things are strangely altered since his +time. The nave of the church is occupied by a manufactory for making +cordage, or twine: and upward of a hundred lads are now busied in +their flaxen occupations, where formerly the nun knelt before the +cross, or was occupied in auricular confession. + +The entrance at the western extremity is entirely stopt up; but the +exterior gives manifest proof of an antiquity equal to that of the +Abbey of St. Stephen. The upper part of the towers are palpably of the +fifteenth or, rather, of the early part of the sixteenth century. I +had no opportunity of judging of the neat pavement of the floor of the +nave, in white and black marble, as noticed by Ducarel, on account +of the occupation of this part of the building by the manufacturing +children; but I saw some very ancient tombstones, one, I think, of the +twelfth century, which had been removed from the nave or side aisles, +and were placed against the sides of the north transept. + +The nave is entirely walled up from the transepts, but the choir is +fortunately preserved; and a more perfect and interesting specimen +of its kind, of the same antiquity, is perhaps nowhere to be seen +in Normandy. All the monuments as well as the altars, described by +Ducarel, are now taken away. Having ascended a stone staircase, we got +into the upper part of the choir, above the first row of pillars--and +walked along the wall. This was rather adventurous, you will say; but +a more adventurous spirit of curiosity had nearly proved fatal to me; +for, on quitting daylight, we pursued a winding stone staircase, in +our way to the central tower--to enjoy from hence a view of the town. +I almost tremble as I relate it. + +There had been put up a sort of temporary wooden staircase, leading +absolutely to nothing; or, rather, to a dark void space. I happened +to be foremost in ascending, yet groping in the dark--with the guide +luckily close behind me. Having reached the topmost step, I was +raising my foot to a supposed higher or succeeding step--but there was +none. A depth of eighteen feet at least was below me. The guide +caught my coat, as I was about to lose my balance, and roared out, +"Wait--Stop!" The least balance or inclination, one way or the other, +is sufficient, upon these critical occasions; when luckily, from his +catching my coat, and pulling me, in consequence, slightly backward, +my fall and my life, were equally saved! I have reason from henceforth +to remember the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + +I gained the top of the central tower, which is not of equal altitude +with those of the western extremity, and from hence surveyed the town, +as well as the drizzling rain would permit. I saw enough, however, +to convince me that the site of this abbey is fine and commanding. +Indeed, it stands nearly upon the highest ground in the town. Ducarel +had not the glorious ambition to mount to the top of the tower; +nor did he even possess that most commendable of all species of +architectural curiosity, a wish to visit the crypt. Thus, in either +extremity, I evinced a more laudable spirit of enterprise than did +my old-fashioned predecessor. Accordingly, from the summit, you must +accompany me to the lowest depth of the building. I descended by the +same somewhat intricate route, and I took especial care to avoid all +"temporary wooden staircase." The crypt, beneath the choir, is perhaps +of yet greater interest and beauty than the choir itself. Within an +old, very old, stone coffin--at the further circular end--are the +pulverized remains of one of the earliest abbesses. I gazed around +with mixed sensations of veneration and awe, and threw myself back +into centuries past, fancying that the shrouded figure of Maltilda +herself glided by, with a look as if to approve of my antiquarian +enthusiasm! + +Having gratified my curiosity by a careful survey of the subterranean +abode, I revisited the regions of daylight, and made toward the large +building, now a manufactory, which in Ducarel's time had been a +nunnery. The revolution has swept away every human being in the +character of a nun; but the director of the manufactory showed me, +with great civility, some relics of old crosses, rings, veils, +lacrimatories, etc., which had been taken from the crypt I had +recently visited. These relics savored of considerable antiquity. Tom +Hearne would have set about proving that they must have belonged to +Matilda herself; but I will have neither the presumption nor the merit +of attempting this proof. They seemed, indeed, to have undergone half +a dozen decompositions. Upon the whole, if our Antiquarian Society, +after having exhausted the cathedrals of their own country, should +ever think of perpetuating the principal ecclesiastical edifices of +Normandy, by means of the art of engraving, let them begin their +labors with the Abbey aux Dames at Caen. + + + + +DOWN THE RIVER TO BORDEAUX[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The river is so fine that, before going to Bayonne, I have come down +as far as Royan. Ships heavy with white sails ascend slowly on both +sides of the boat. At each gust of wind they incline like idle birds, +lifting their long wings and showing their black bellies. They run +slantwise, then come back; one would say that they felt the better for +being in this great fresh-water harbor; they loiter in it and enjoy +its peace after leaving the wrath and inclemency of the ocean. + +The banks, fringed with pale verdure, glide right and left, far +away to the verge of heaven; the river is broad like a sea; at this +distance you might think you had seen two hedges; the trees dimly lift +their delicate shapes in a robe of bluish gauze; here and there great +pines raise their umbrellas on the vapory horizon, where all is +confused and vanishing; there is an inexpressible sweetness in these +first hues of the timid day, softened still by the fog which exhales +from the deep river. + +As for the river itself, its waters stretch out joyous and splendid; +the rising sun pours upon its breast a long streamlet of gold; the +breeze covers it with scales; its eddies stretch themselves, and +tremble like an awaking serpent, and, when the billow heaves them, you +seem to see the striped flanks, the tawny cuirass of a leviathan. + +Indeed, at such moments it seems that the water must live and feel; it +has a strange look, when it comes, transparent and somber, to stretch +itself upon a beach of pebbles; it turns about them as if uneasy and +irritated; it beats them with its wavelets; it covers them, then +retires, then comes back again with a sort of languid writhing and +mysterious lovingness; its snaky eddies, its little crests suddenly +beaten down or broken, its wave, sloping, shining, then all at once +blackened, resembles the flashes of passion in an impatient mother, +who hovers incessantly and anxiously about her children, and covers +them, not knowing what she wants and what fears. + +Presently a cloud has covered the heavens, and the wind has risen. +In a moment the river has assumed the aspect of a crafty and savage +animal. It hollowed itself, and showed its livid belly; it came +against the keel with convulsive starts, hugged it, and dashed against +it, as if to try its force; as far as one could see, its waves lifted +themselves and crowded together, like the muscles upon a chest; over +the flank of the waves passed flashes with sinister smiles; the mast +groaned, and the trees bent shivering, like a nerveless crowd before +the wrath of a fearful beast. Then all was hushed; the sun had burst +forth, the waves were smoothed, you now see only a laughing expanse; +spun out over this polished back a thousand greenish tresses sported +wantonly; the light rested on it, like a diaphanous mantle; it +followed the supple movements and the twisting of those liquid arms; +it folded around them, behind them, its radiant, azure robe; it took +their caprices and their mobile colors; the river meanwhile, slumbrous +in its great, peaceful bed, was stretched out at the feet of the +hills, which looked down upon it, like it immovable and eternal. + +The boat is made fast to a boom, under a pile of white houses; it +is Royan. Here already are the sea and the dunes; the right of the +village is buried under a mass of sand; there are crumbling hills, +little dreary valleys, where you are lost as if in the desert; no +sound, no movement, no life; scanty, leafless vegetation dots moving +soil, and its filaments fall like sickly hairs; small shells, white +and empty, cling to these in chaplets, and, wherever the foot is set, +they crack with a sound like a cricket's chirp; this place is the +ossuary of some wretched maritime tribe. + +One tree alone can live here, the pine, a wild creature, inhabitant of +the forests and sterile coasts; there is a whole colony of them here; +they crowd together fraternally, and cover the sand with their brown +lamels; the monotonous breeze which sifts through them forever awakes +their murmur; thus they chant in a plaintive fashion, but with a far +softer and more harmonious voice than the other trees; this voice +resembles the grating of the cicadas when in August they sing with all +their heart among the stalks of the ripened wheat. + +At the left of the village, a footpath winds to the summit of a wasted +bank, among billows of standing grasses. The river is so broad that +the other shore is not distinguishable. The sea, its neighbor, imparts +its influence; its long undulations come one after another against the +coast, and pour their little cascades of foam upon the sand; then the +water retires, running down the slope until it meets a new wave coming +up which covers it; these billows are never wearied, and their come +and go remind one of the regular breathing of a slumbering child. For +night has fallen, the tints of purple grow brown and fade away. The +river goes to rest in the soft, vague shadow; scarcely, at long +intervals, a remnant glimpse is reflected from a slanting wave; +obscurity drowns everything in its vapory dust; the drowsy eye vainly +searches in this mist some visible point, and distinguishes at last, +like a dim star, the lighthouse of Cordouan. + +The next evening a fresh sea-breeze has brought us to Bordeaux. +The enormous city heaps its monumental houses along the river like +bastions; the red sky is embattled by their coping. They on one hand, +the bridge on the other, protect, with a double line, the port where +the vessels are crowded together like a flock of gulls; those graceful +hulls, those tapering masts, those sails swollen or floating, weave +the labyrinth of their movements and forms upon the magnificent purple +of the sunset. The sun sinks into the river; the black rigging, the +round hulls, stand out against its conflagration, and look like jewels +of jet set in gold. + +Around Bordeaux are smiling hills, varied horizons, fresh valleys, +a river people by incessant navigation, a succession of cities and +villages harmoniously planted upon the declivities or in the plains, +everywhere the richest verdure, the luxury of nature and civilization, +the earth and man vying with each other to enrich and decorate the +happiest valley of France. Below Bordeaux a flat soil, marshes, +sand; a land which goes on growing poorer, villages continually less +frequent, ere long the desert. I like the desert as well. + +Pine woods pass to the right and to the left, silent and wan. Each +tree bears on its side the scar of wounds where the woodmen have set +flowing the resinous blood which chokes it; the powerful liquor still +ascends into its limbs with the sap, exhales by its slimy shoots and +by its cleft skin; a sharp aromatic odor fills the air. + +Beyond, the monotonous plain of the ferns, bathed in light, stretches +away as far as the eye can reach. Their green fans expand beneath the +sun which colors, but does not cause them to fade. Upon the horizon a +few scattered trees lift their slender columns. You see now and then +the silhouette of a herdsman on his stilts, inert and standing like a +sick heron. Wild horses are grazing half hid in the herbage. As the +train passes, they abruptly lift their great startled eyes and stand +motionless, uneasy at the noise that has troubled their solitude. + +Man does not fare well here--he dies or degenerates; but it is the +country of animals, and especially of plants. They abound in this +desert, free, certain of living. Our pretty, cut-up valleys are but +poor things alongside of these immense spaces, leagues upon leagues +of marshy or dry vegetation, a level country, where nature, elsewhere +troubled and tortured by men, still vegetates, as in primeval days, +with a calm equal to its grandeur. The sun needs these savannas in +order properly to spread out its light; from the rising exhalation, +you feel that the whole plain is fermenting under its force; and the +eyes, filled by the limitless horizon, divine the secret labor by +which this ocean of rank verdure renews and nourishes itself. + + + + +THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his mother, written from the monastery +in 1739.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +We took the longest road, which lies through Savoy, on purpose to see +a famous monastery, called the Grande Chartreuse, and had no reason to +think our time lost. After having traveled seven days very slow (for +we did not change horses, it being impossible for a chaise to go fast +in these roads), we arrived at a little village, among the mountains +of Savoy, called Echelles; from thence we proceeded on horses, who are +used to the way, to the mountain of the Chartreuse. + +It is six miles to the top; the road runs winding up it, commonly not +six feet broad; on one hand is the rock, with woods of pine-trees +hanging overhead; on the other, a monstrous precipice, almost +perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls a torrent that, sometimes +tumbling among the fragments of stone that have fallen from on high, +and sometimes precipitating itself down vast descents with a noise +like thunder, which is made still greater by the echo from the +mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most solemn, the +most romantic, and the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld. + +Add to this the strange views made by the crags and cliffs on the +other hand; the cascades that in many places throw themselves from the +very summit down into the vale, and the river below; and many other +particulars impossible to describe; you will conclude we had no +occasion to repent our plans. This place St. Bruno chose to retire +to, and upon its very top founded the aforesaid convent, which is the +superior of the whole order. When we came there, the two fathers, who +are commissioned to entertain strangers (for the rest must neither +speak one to another nor to any one else) received us very kindly; and +set before us a repast of dried fish, eggs, butter, and fruits, all +excellent in their kind, and extremely neat. They prest us to spend +the night there, and to stay some days with them; but this we could +not do, so they led us about their house, which is, you must think, +like a little city; for there are 100 fathers, besides 300 servants, +that make their clothes, grind their corn, press their wine, and do +everything among themselves. + +The whole is quite orderly and simple; nothing of finery; but the +wonderful decency, and the strange situation, more than supply the +place of it. In the evening we descended by the same way, passing +through many clouds that were then forming themselves on the +mountain's side. + + + + +CARCASSONNE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Little Tour in France." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. +Copyright, 1884.] + +BY HENRY JAMES + + +When I say the town, I mean the towns; there being two at Carcassonne, +perfectly distinct, and each with excellent claims to the title. They +have settled the matter between them, however, and the elder, the +shrine of pilgrimage, to which the other is but a stepping-stone, or +even, as I may say, a humble doormat, takes the name of the Cite. + +You see nothing of the Cite from the station; it is masked by the +agglomeration of the "ville-basse," which is relatively (but only +relatively) new. A wonderful avenue of acacias leads to it from +the station--leads past it, rather, and conducts you to a little +high-backed bridge over the Aude, beyond which, detached and erect, a +distinct medieval silhouette, the Cite presents itself. Like a rival +shop, on the invidious side of a street, it has "no connection" with +the establishment across the way, altho the two places are united +(if old Carcassonne may be said to be united to anything) by a vague +little rustic faubourg. Perched on its solid pedestal, the perfect +detachment of the Cite is what first strikes you. + +To take leave, without delay, of the "ville-basse," I may say that +the splendid acacias I have mentioned flung a summerish dusk over +the place, in which a few scattered remains of stout walls and big +bastions looked venerable and picturesque. A little boulevard winds +around the town, planted with trees and garnished with more benches +than I ever saw provided by a soft-hearted municipality. This +precinct had a warm, lazy, dusty, southern look, as if the people sat +out-of-doors a great deal, and wandered about in the stillness of +summer nights. The figure of the elder town, at these hours, must be +ghostly enough on its neighboring hill. + +Even by day it has the air of a vignette of Gustave Dore, a couplet +of Victor Hugo. It is almost too perfect--as if it were an enormous +model, placed on a big green table at a museum. A steep, paved way, +grass-grown like all roads where vehicles never pass, stretches up +to it in the sun. It has a double enceinte, complete outer walls and +complete inner (these, elaborately fortified, are the more curious); +and this congregation of ramparts, towers, bastions, battlements, +barbicans, is as fantastic and romantic as you please. The approach I +mention here leads to the gate that looks toward Toulouse--the Porte +de l'Aude. There is a second, on the other side, called, I believe, +Porte Narbonnaise, a magnificent gate, flanked with towers thick and +tall, defended by elaborate outworks; and these two apertures alone +admit you to the place--putting aside a small sally-port, protected by +a great bastion, on the quarter that looks toward the Pyrenees.... + +I should lose no time in saying that restoration is the great mark of +the Cite. M. Viollet-le-Duc has worked his will upon it, put it into +perfect order, revived the fortifications in every detail. I do not +pretend to judge the performance, carried out on a scale and in +a spirit which really impose themselves on the imagination. Few +architects have had such a chance, and M. Viollet-le-Duc must have +been the envy of the whole restoring fraternity. The image of a more +crumbling Carcassonne rises in the mind, and there is no doubt that +forty years ago the place was more affecting. On the other hand, as we +see it to-day, it is a wonderful evocation; and if there is a great +deal of new in the old, there is plenty of old in the new. The +repaired crenellations, the inserted patches, of the walls of the +outer circle sufficiently express this commixture. + +Carcassonne dates from the Roman occupation of Gaul. The place +commanded one of the great roads into Spain, and in the fourth century +Romans and Franks ousted each other from such a point of vantage. In +the year 436, Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, superseded both these +parties; and it is during his occupation that the inner enceinte +was raised upon the ruins of the Roman fortifications. Most of +the Visigoth towers that are still erect are seated upon Roman +substructions which appear to have been formed hastily, probably +at the moment of the Frankish invasion. The authors of these solid +defenses, tho occasionally disturbed, held Carcassonne and the +neighboring country, in which they had established their kingdom of +Septimania, till the year 713, when they were expelled by the Moors +of Spain, who ushered in an unillumined period of four centuries, of +which no traces remain. + +These facts I derived from a source no more recondite than a +pamphlet by M. Viollet-le-Duc--a very luminous description of the +fortifications, which you may buy from the accomplished custodian. The +writer makes a jump to the year 1209, when Carcassonne, then forming +part of the realm of the viscounts of Beziers and infected by the +Albigensian heresy, was besieged, in the name of the Pope, by the +terrible Simon de Montfort and his army of crusaders. Simon was +accustomed to success, and the town succumbed in the course of a +fortnight. Thirty-one years later, having passed into the hands of +the King of France, it was again besieged by the young Raymond de +Trincavel, the last of the viscounts of Beziers; and of this siege M. +Viollet-le-Duc gives a long and minute account, which the visitor who +has a head for such things may follow, with the brochure in hand, on +the fortifications themselves. + +The young Raymond de Trineavel, baffled and repulsed, retired at the +end of twenty-four days. Saint Louis and Philip the Bold, in the +thirteenth century, multiplied the defenses of Carcassonne, which was +one of the bulwarks of their kingdom on the Spanish quarter; and from +this time forth, being regarded as impregnable, the place had nothing +to fear. It was not even attacked; and when, in 1355, Edward the Black +Prince marched into it, the inhabitants had opened the gates to the +conqueror before whom all Languedoc was prostrate. I am not one of +those who, as I said just now, have a head for such things, and having +extracted these few facts had made all the use of M. Viollet-le-Duc's +pamphlet of which I was capable.... + +My obliging friend the "mad lover" [of la Cite] handed me over to the +doorkeeper of the citadel. I should add that I was at first committed +to the wife of this functionary, a stout peasant woman, who conducted +me to a postern door and ushered me into the presence of her husband. + +This brilliant, this suggestive warden of Carcassonne marched us about +for an hour, haranguing, explaining, illustrating, as he went; it was +a complete little lecture, such as might have been delivered at the +Lowell Institute, on the manner in which a first-rate "place forte" +used to be attacked and defended. Our peregrinations made it very +clear that Carcassonne was impregnable; it is impossible to imagine, +without having seen them, such refinements of immurement, such +ingenuities of resistance. We passed along the battlements and +"chemins de ronde," ascended and descended towers, crawled under +arches, peered out of loopholes, lowered ourselves into dungeons, +halted in all sorts of tight places, while the purpose of something or +other was described to us. + +It was very curious, very interesting; above all, it was very +pictorial, and involved perpetual peeps into the little crooked, +crumbling, sunny, grassy, empty Cite. In places, as you stand upon +it, the great towered and embattled enceinte produces an illusion; it +looks as if it were still equipped and defended. One vivid challenge, +at any rate, it flings down before you; it calls upon you to make +up your mind on the matter of restoration. For myself, I have no +hesitation; I prefer in every case the ruined, however ruined, to the +reconstructed, however splendid. What is left is more precious than +what is added; the one is history, the other is fiction; and I like +the former the better of the two--it is so much more romantic. One is +positive, so far as it goes; the other fills up the void with things +more dead than the void itself, inasmuch as they have never had life. +After that I am free to say that the restoration of Carcassonne is a +splendid achievement. The little custodian dismissed us at last, +after having, as usual, inducted us into the inevitable repository of +photographs. + +After leaving it and passing out of the two circles of walls, I +treated myself, in the most infatuated manner, to another walk round +the Cite. It is certainly this general impression that is most +striking--the impression from outside, where the whole place detaches +itself at once from the landscape. In the warm southern dusk it looked +more than ever like a city in a fairy-tale. To make the thing perfect, +a white young moon, in its first quarter, came out and hung just over +the dark silhouette. It was hard to come away--to incommode one's self +for anything so vulgar as a railway train; I would gladly have spent +the evening in revolving round the walls of Carcassonne. + + + + +BIARRITZ[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +If Bayonne is the center of commercial affairs for the Basque country, +its citizens must, at any rate, go to Biarritz if they want to live +"the elegant and worldly life." The prosperity and luxury of Biarritz +are very recent; it goes back only to the Second Empire, when it was +but a village of a thousand souls or less, mostly fishermen and women. + +The railway and the automobile omnibus make communication with Bayonne +to-day easy, but formerly folk came and went on a donkey side-saddled +for two, arranged back to back, like the seats of an Irish +jaunting-car. If the weight were unequal, a balance was struck by +adding cobblestones on one side or the other, the patient donkey not +minding in the least. + +This astonishing mode of conveyance was known as a "cacolet," and +replaced the "voitures" and "fiacres" of other resorts. An occasional +example may still be seen, but the "jolies Basquaises" who conducted +them have given way to sturdy, barelegged Basque boys--as picturesque, +perhaps, but not so entrancing to the view. To voyage "en cacolet" was +the necessity of our grandfathers; for us it is an amusement only. + +Napoleon III., or rather Eugenie, his spouse, was the faithful +godfather of Biarritz as a resort. The Villa Eugenie is no more; it +was first transformed into a hotel and later destroyed by fire; but it +was the first of a great battery of villas and hotels which has made +Biarritz so great that the popularity of Monte Carlo is steadily +waning. Biarritz threatens to become even more popular; some sixteen +thousand visitors came to Biarritz in 1899, but there were thirty-odd +thousand in 1903; while the permanent population has risen from 2,700 +in the days of the Second Empire to 12,800 in 1901. The tiny railway +from Bayonne to Biarritz transported half a million travelers twenty +years ago, and a million and a half, or nearly that number, in 1903; +the rest, being millionaires, or gypsies, came in automobiles or +caravans. These figures tell eloquently of the prosperity of this +"villegiature imperiale." + +The great beauty of Biarritz is its setting. At Monte Carlo +the setting is also beautiful, ravishingly beautiful, but the +architecture, the terrace, Monaco's rock, and all the rest combine +to make the pleasing "ensemble." At Biarritz the architecture of its +Casino and the great hotels is not of an epoch-making beauty, neither +are they so delightfully placed. It is the surrounding stage setting +that is so lovely. Here the jagged shore line, the blue waves, the +ample horizon seaward, are what make it all so charming. + +Biarritz as a watering-place has an all-the-year-round clientele; in +summer the Spanish and the French, succeeded in winter by Americans, +Germans, and English--with a sprinkling of Russians at all times. +Biarritz, like Pau, aside from being a really delightful winter +resort, where one may escape the rigors of murky November to March in +London, is becoming afflicted with a bad case of "sport fever." There +are all kinds of sports, some of them reputable enough in their place, +but the comic-opera fox-hunting which takes place at Pau and Biarritz +is not one of them.... + +The picturesque "Plage des Basques" lies to the south of the town, +bordered with high cliffs, which in turn are surmounted with terraces +of villas. The charm of it all is incomparable. To the northwest +stretches the limpid horizon of the Bay of Biscay, and to the +south the snowy summits of the Pyrenees, and the adorable bays of +Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Fontarabie, while behind, and to the eastward, +lies the quaint country of the Basques, and the mountain trails into +Spain in all their savage hardiness. + +The off-shore translucent waters of the Gulf of Gascony were the +"Sinus Aquitanicus" of the ancients. A colossal rampart of rocks and +sand dunes stretches all the way from the Gironde to the +Bidassoa, without a harbor worthy of the name save at Bayonne and +Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Here the Atlantic waves pound, in time of storm, +with all the fury with which they break upon the rocky coasts of +Brittany further north. Perhaps this would not be so, but for the fact +that the Iberian coast to the southward runs almost at right angles +with that of Gascony. As it is, while the climate is mild, Biarritz +and the other cities on the coasts of the Gulf of Gascony have a fair +proportion of what sailors, the world over, call "rough weather." + +The waters of the Gascon Gulf are not always angry; most frequently +they are calm and blue, vivid with a translucence worthy of those of +Capri, and it is this that makes the beach at Biarritz one of the most +popular sea-bathing resorts in France to-day. It is a fashionable +watering-place, but it is also, perhaps, the most beautifully disposed +city to be found in all the round of the European coast line, its +slightly curving slope dominated by a background terrace, +decorative in itself, but delightfully set off with its fringe of +dwelling-houses, hotels, and casinos. Ostend is superbly laid out, +but it is dreary; Monte Carlo is beautiful, but it is ultra; while +Trouville is constrained and affected. Biarritz has the best features +of all these.... Saint-Jean-de-Luz had a population of ten thousand +two centuries ago; to-day it has three thousand, and most of these +take in boarders, or in one way or another cater to the hordes of +visitors who have made it--or would, if they could have supprest its +quiet Basque charm of coloring and character--a little Brighton. + +Not all is lost, but four hundred houses were razed in the +mid-eighteenth century by a tempest, and the stable population began +to creep away; only with recent years an influx of strangers has +arrived for a week's or a month's stay to take their places--if idling +butterflies of fashion or imaginary invalids can really take the place +of a hardworking, industrious colony of fishermen, who thought no more +of sailing away to the South Antarctic or the banks of Newfoundland in +an eighty-ton whaler than they did of seining sardines from a shallop +in the Gulf of Gascony at their doors. + + + + +DOWN THE SAONE TO LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pencillings by the Way." Published by Charles +Scribner, 1852.] + +BY NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + + +The Saone is about the size of the Mohawk, but not half so beautiful; +at least for the greater part of its course. Indeed, you can hardly +compare American with European rivers, for the charm is of another +description, quite. With us it is nature only, here it is almost +all art. Our rivers are lovely, because the outline of the shore is +graceful, and particularly because the vegetation is luxuriant. The +hills are green, the foliage deep and lavish, the rocks grown over +with vines or moss, the mountains in the distance covered with pines +and other forest-trees; everything is wild, and nothing looks bare or +sterile. The rivers of France are crowned on every height with ruins, +and in the bosom of every valley lies a cluster of picturesque stone +cottages; but the fields are naked, and there are no trees; the +mountains are barren and brown, and everything looks as if the +dwellings had been deserted by the people, and nature had at the same +time gone to decay. + +I can conceive nothing more melancholy than the views upon the Saone, +seen, as I saw them, tho vegetation is out everywhere, and the banks +should be beautiful if ever. As we approached Lyons the river narrowed +and grew bolder, and the last ten miles were enchanting. Naturally the +shores at this part of the Saone are exceedingly like the highlands of +the Hudson above West Point. Abrupt hills rise from the river's edge, +and the windings are sharp and constant. But imagine the highlands of +the Hudson crowned with antique chateaux, and covered to the very top +with terraces and summer-houses and hanging-gardens, gravel-walks and +beds of flowers, instead of wild pines and precipices, and you may get +a very correct idea of the Saone above Lyons. + +You emerge from one of the dark passes of the river by a sudden turn, +and there before you lies this large city, built on both banks, at +the foot and on the sides of mountains. The bridges are fine, and +the broad, crowded quays, all along the edges of the river, have a +beautiful effect. There is a great deal of magnificence at Lyons, in +the way of quays, promenades, and buildings.... I was glad to escape +from the lower streets, and climb up the long staircases to the +observatory that overhangs the town. From the base of this elevation +the descent of the river is almost a precipice. The houses hang on the +side of the steep hill, and their doors enter from the long alleys of +stone staircases by which you ascend.... + +It was holy-week, and the church of Notre Dame de Fourvieres, which +stands on the summit of the hill, was crowded with people. We went +in for a moment, and sat down on a bench to rest. My companion was a +Swiss captain of artillery, who was a passenger in the boat, a very +splendid fellow, with a mustache that he might have tied behind his +ears. He had addrest me at the hotel, and proposed that we should +visit the curiosities of the town together. He was a model of a manly +figure, athletic, and soldier-like, and standing near him was to get +the focus of all the dark eyes in the congregation. + +The new square tower stands at the side of the church, and rises to +the height of perhaps sixty feet. The view from it is said to be one +of the finest in the world. I have seen more extensive ones, but never +one that comprehended more beauty and interest. Lyons lies at the +foot, with the Saone winding through its bosom in abrupt curves; the +Rhone comes down from the north on the other side of the range of +mountains, and meeting the Saone in a broad stream below the town, +they stretch off to the south, through a diversified landscape; the +Alps rise from the east like the edges of a thunder-cloud, and the +mountains of Savoy fill up the interval to the Rhone. + +All about the foot of the monument lie gardens, of exquisite +cultivation; and above and below the city the villas of the rich; +giving you altogether as delicious a nucleus for a broad circle of +scenery as art and nature could create, and one sufficiently in +contrast with the barrenness of the rocky circumference to enhance the +charm, and content you with your position. Half way down the hill lies +an old monastery, with a lovely garden walled in from the world. + +The river was covered with boats, the bells were ringing to church, +the glorious old cathedral, so famous for its splendor, stood piled +up, with its arches and gray towers, in the square below; the day was +soft, sunny, and warm, and existence was a blessing. I leaned over the +balustrade, I know not how long, looking down upon the scene about me; +and I shall ever remember it as one of those few unalloyed moments, +when the press of care was taken off my mind, and the chain of +circumstances was strong enough to set aside both the past and the +future, and leave me to the quiet enjoyment of the present. I have +found such hours "few and far between." + + + + +LYONS[A] + +[Footnote A: From a letter to his friend West.] + +BY THOMAS GRAY + + +I take this opportunity to tell you that we are at the ancient and +celebrated Lugdunum, a city situated upon the confluence of the +Rhone and Saone (Arar, I should say) two people, who tho of tempers +extremely unlike, think fit to join hands here, and make a little +party to travel to the Mediterranean in company; the lady comes +gliding along through the fruitful plains of Burgundy.... the +gentleman runs all rough and roaring down from the mountains of +Switzerland to meet her; and with all her soft airs she likes him +never the worse; she goes through the middle of the city in state, and +he passes incog, without the walls, but waits for her a little below. + +The houses here are so high, and the streets so narrow, as would be +sufficient to render Lyons the dismalest place in the world, but the +number of people, and the face of commerce diffused about it, are, +at least, as sufficient to make it the liveliest: between these two +sufficiencies, you will be in doubt what to think of it; so we shall +leave the city, and proceed to its environs, which are beautiful +beyond expression; it is surrounded with mountains, and those +mountains all bedropped and bespeckled with houses, gardens, and +plantations of the rich bourgeois, who have from thence a prospect of +the city in the vale below on one hand, on the other the rich plains +of the Lyonnois, with the rivers winding among them, and the Alps, +with the mountains of Dauphine, to bound the view. + +All yesterday morning we were busied in climbing up Mount Fourviere, +where the ancient city stood perched at such a height, that nothing +but the hopes of gain could certainly ever persuade their neighbors to +pay them a visit. Here are the ruins of the emperors' palaces, that +resided here, that is to say, Augustus and Severus; they consist in +nothing but great masses of old wall, that have only their quality +to make them respected. In a vineyard of the Minims are remains of a +theater; the Fathers, whom they belong to, hold them in no esteem at +all, and would have showed us their sacristy and chapel instead of +them. The Ursuline Nuns have in their garden some Roman baths, but we +having the misfortune to be men, they did not think proper to admit +us. + +Hard by are eight arches of a most magnificent aqueduct, said to be +erected by Antony, when his legions were quartered here. There are +many other parts of it dispersed up and down the country, for it +brought the water from a river many leagues off in La Forez. Here are +remains too of Agrippa's seven great roads which met at Lyons; in some +places they lie twelve feet deep in the ground. + + + + +MARSEILLES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Pictures from Italy," written in 1844] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +So we went on, until eleven at night, when we halted at the town of +Aix (within two stages of Marseilles) to sleep. The hotel, with all +the blinds and shutters closed to keep the light and heat out, was +comfortable and airy next morning, and the town was very clean; but +so hot, and so intensely light, that when I walked out at noon it was +like coming suddenly from the darkened room into crisp blue fire. The +air was so very clear, that distant hills and rocky points appeared +within an hour's walk; while the town immediately at hand--with a kind +of blue wind between me and it--seemed to be white hot, and to be +throwing off a fiery air from its surface. + +We left this town toward evening, and took the road to Marseilles. A +dusty road it was; the houses shut up close; and the vines powdered +white. At nearly all the cottage doors, women were peeling and slicing +onions into earthen bowls for supper. So they had been doing last +night all the way from Avignon. We passed one or two shady dark +chateaux, surrounded by trees, and embellished with cool basins of +water: which were the more refreshing to behold, from the great +scarcity of such residences on the road we had traveled. + +As we approached Marseilles, the road began to be covered with holiday +people. Outside the public-houses were parties smoking, drinking, +playing draughts and cards, and (once) dancing. But dust, dust, dust, +everywhere. We went on, through a long, straggling, dirty suburb, +thronged with people; having on our left a dreary slope of land, on +which the country-houses of the Marseilles merchants, always staring +white, are jumbled and heaped without the slightest order; backs, +fronts, sides, and gables toward all points of the compass; until, at +last, we entered the town. + +I was there, twice, or thrice afterward, in fair weather and foul; +and I am afraid there is no doubt that it is a dirty and disagreeable +place. But the prospect, from the fortified heights, of the beautiful +Mediterranean, with, its lovely rocks and islands, is most delightful. +These heights are a desirable retreat, for less picturesque +reasons--as an escape from a compound of vile smells perpetually +arising from a great harbor full of stagnant water, and befouled by +the refuse of innumerable ships with all sorts of cargoes, which, in +hot weather, is dreadful in the last degree. + +There were foreign sailors, of all nations, in the streets; with red +shirts, blue shirts, buff shirts, tawny shirts, and shirts of orange +color; with red caps, blue caps, green caps, great beards, and no +beards; in Turkish turbans, glazed English hats, and Neapolitan +headdresses. There were the townspeople sitting in clusters on the +pavement, or airing themselves on the tops of their houses, or walking +up and down the closest and least airy of boulevards; and there were +crowds of fierce-looking people of the lower sort, blocking up the +way, constantly. + +In the very heart of all this stir and uproar, was the common +madhouse; a low, contracted, miserable building, looking straight upon +the street, without the smallest screen or courtyard; where chattering +madmen and mad-women were peeping out, through rusty bars, at the +staring faces below, while the sun, darting fiercely aslant into their +little cells, seemed to dry up their brains, and worry them, as if +they were baited by a pack of dogs. + +We were pretty well accommodated at the Hotel du Paradis, situated +in a narrow street of very high houses, with a hairdresser's shop +opposite, exhibiting in one of its windows two full-length waxen +ladies, twirling around and around: which so enchanted the hairdresser +himself, that he and his family sat in armchairs, and in cool +undresses, on the pavement outside, enjoying the gratification of the +passers-by, with lazy dignity. The family had retired to rest when we +went to bed, at midnight; but the hairdresser (a corpulent man, in +drab slippers) was still sitting there, with his legs stretched out +before him, and evidently couldn't bear to have the shutters put up. + +Next day we went down to the harbor, where the sailors of all nations +were discharging and taking in cargoes of all kinds: fruits, wines, +oils, silks, stuffs, velvets, and every manner of merchandise. Taking +one of a great number of lively little boats with gay-striped awnings, +we rowed away, under the sterns of great ships, under tow-ropes and +cables, against and among other boats, and very much too near +the sides of vessels that were faint with oranges, to the "Marie +Antoinette," a handsome steamer bound for Genoa, lying near the mouth +of the harbor. + +By and by, the carriage, that unwieldy "trifle from the Pantechnicon," +on a flat barge, bumping against everything, and giving occasion for +a prodigious quantity of oaths and grimaces, came stupidly alongside; +and by five o'clock we were steaming out in the open sea. The vessel +was beautifully clean; the meals were served under an awning on deck; +the night was calm and clear; the quiet beauty of the sea and sky +unspeakable. + + + + +THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OF ANDORRA[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Castles and Chateaux of Old Navarre." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L.C. Page & +Co. Copyright, 1907.] + +BY FRANCIS MILTOUN + + +The little republic of Andorra, hidden away in the fastnesses of the +Pyrenees between France and Spain, its allegiance divided between the +bishop of Urgel in Spain and the French government, is a relic of +medievalism which will probably never fall before the swift advance of +twentieth century ideas of progress. At least it will never be overrun +by automobiles. + +From French or Spanish territory this little unknown land is to be +reached by what is called a "wagon-way," but the road is so bad that +the sure-footed little donkeys of the Pyrenees are by far the best +means of locomotion, unless one would go up on foot, a matter of +twenty kilometers or more from Hospitalet in Spanish or Porte in +French territory. + +The political status of Andorra is most peculiar, but since it has +endured without interruption (and this in spite of wars and rumors of +wars), for six centuries, it seems to be all that is necessary. + +A relic of the Middle Ages, Andorra-Viella, the city, and its six +thousand inhabitants live in their lonesome retirement much as they +did in feudal times, except for the fact that an occasional newspaper +smuggled in from France or Spain gives a new topic of conversation. + +This paternal governmental arrangement which cares for the welfare of +the people of Andorra, the city and the province, is the outcome of a +treaty signed by Pierre d'Urg and Roger-Bernhard, the third Comte +de Foix, giving each other reciprocal rights. There's nothing very +strange about this; it was common custom in the Middle Ages for lay +and ecclesiastical seigneurs to make such compacts, but the marvel is +that it has endured so well with governments rising and falling +all about, and grafters and pretenders and dictators ruling every +bailiwick in which they can get a foot-hold. Feudal government +may have had some bad features, but certainly the republics and +democracies of to-day, to say nothing of absolute monarchies, have +some, too. + +The ways of access between France and Andorra are numerous enough; +but of the eight only two--and those not all the way--are really +practicable for wheeled traffic. The others are mere trails, or +mule-paths. + +The people of Andorra, as might be inferred, are all ardent Catholics; +and for a tiny country like this to have a religious seminary, as that +at Urgel, is remarkable of itself. + +Public instruction is of late making headway, but half a century ago +the shepherd and laboring population--perhaps nine-tenths of the +whole--had little learning or indeed need for it. Their manners and +customs are simple and severe and little has changed in modern life +from that of their great-great-great-grandfathers. Each family has a +sort of a chief or official head, and the eldest son always looks for +a wife among the families of his own class. Seldom, if ever, does the +married son quit the paternal roof, so large households are the rule. +In a family where there are only girls, the eldest is the heir, and +she may only marry with a cadet of another family by his joining his +name with hers. Perhaps it is this that originally set the fashion for +hyphenated names. + +The Andorrans are generally robust and well built; the maladies of +more populous regions are practically unknown among them. This speaks +much for the simple life! Costumes and dress are rough and simple and +of heavy woolens, clipt from the sheep and woven on the spot. Public +officers, the few representatives of officialdom who exist, alone +make any pretense at following the fashions. The women occupy a very +subordinate position in public affairs. They may not be present at +receptions and functions and not even at mass when it is said by the +bishop. Crime is infrequent, and simple, light punishments alone are +inflicted. Things are not so uncivilized in Andorra as one might +think! + +In need all men may be called upon to serve as soldiers, and each head +of a family must have a rifle and ball at hand at all times. In other +words, he must be able to protect himself against marauders. This does +away with the necessity of a large standing police force. + +Commerce and industry are free of all taxation in Andorra, and customs +dues apply on but few articles. For this reason there is not a very +heavy tax on a people who are mostly cultivators and graziers. There +is little manufacturing industry, as might be supposed, and what is +made--save by hand and in single examples--is of the most simple +character. "Made in Germany" or "Tabrique en Belgique" are the marks +one sees on most of the common manufactured articles. + +The Andorrans are a simple, proud, gullible people, who live to-day in +the past, of the past and for the past; "Les vallees et souverainetes +de l'Andorre" are to them to-day just what they always were--a little +world of their own. + + + + +GAVARNIE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "A Tour Through the Pyrenees." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & +Co. Copyright, 1873.] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +From Luz to Gavarnie is eighteen miles. + +It is enjoined upon every living creature able to mount a horse, a +mule, or any quadruped whatever, to visit Gavarnie; in default of +other beasts, he should, putting aside all shame, bestride an ass. +Ladies and convalescents are there in sedan-chairs. + +Otherwise, think what a figure you will make on your return. + +"You come from the Pyrenees; you've seen Gavarnie?" + +"No." + +What then did you go to the Pyrenees for? + +You hang your head, and your friend triumphs, especially if he was +bored at Gavarnie. + +You undergo a description of Gavarnie after the last edition of the +guide-book. Gavarnie is a sublime sight; tourists go sixty miles out +of their way to see it; the Duchess d'Angouleme had herself carried +to the furthest rocks. Lord Bute, when he saw it for the first time, +cried: "If I were now at the extremity of India, and suspected the +existence of what I see at this moment, I should immediately leave in +order to enjoy and admire it!" You are overwhelmed with quotations +and supercilious smiles; you are convinced of laziness, of dulness +of mind, and, as certain English travelers say, of unesthetic +insensibility. + +There are but two resources: to learn a description by heart, or to +make the journey. I have made the journey, and am going to give the +description. + +We leave at six o'clock in the morning, by the road to Scia, in the +fog, without seeing at first anything beyond confused forms of trees +and rocks. At the end of a quarter of an hour, we hear along the +pathway a noise of sharp cries drawing near; it was a funeral +procession coming from Scia. Two men bore a small coffin under a white +shroud; behind came four herdsmen in long cloaks and brown capuchons, +silent, with bent heads; four women followed in black mantles. It was +they who uttered those monotonous and piercing lamentations; one knew +not if they were wailing or praying. They walked with long steps +through the cold mist, without stopping or looking at any one, and +were going to bury the poor body in the cemetery at Luz. + +At Scia the road passes over a small bridge very high up, which +commands another bridge, gray and abandoned. The double tier of arches +bends gracefully over the blue torrent; meanwhile a pale light already +floats in the diaphanous mist; a golden gauze undulates above the +Gave; the aerial veil grows thin and will soon vanish. + +Nothing can convey the idea of this light, so youthful, timid, and +smiling, which glitters like the bluish wings of a dragon-fly that is +pursued and is taken captive in a net of fog. + +Beneath, the boiling water is engulfed in a narrow conduit and leaps +like a mill-race. The column of foam, thirty feet high, falls with +a furious din, and its glaucous waves, heaped together in the deep +ravine, dash against each other and are broken upon a line of fallen +rocks. Other enormous rocks, debris of the same mountain, hang above +the road, their squared heads crowned with brambles for hair; ranged +in impregnable line, they seem to watch the torments of the Gave, +which their brothers hold beneath themselves crusht and subdued. + +We turn a second bridge and enter the plain of Gedres, verdant and +cultivated, where the hay is in cocks; they are harvesting; our horses +walk between two hedges of hazel; we go along by orchards; but the +mountain is ever near; the guide shows us a rock three times the +height of a man, which, two years ago, rolled down and demolished a +house. + +We encounter several singular caravans: a band of young priests in +black hats, black gloves, black cassocks tucked up, black stockings, +very apparent, novices in horsemanship who bound at every step, like +the Gave; a big, jolly, round man, in a sedan-chair, his hands crossed +over his belly, who looks on us with a paternal air, and reads his +newspaper; three ladies of sufficiently ripe age, very slender, very +lean, very stiff, who, for dignity's sake, set their beasts on a trot +as we draw near them. The cicisbeo is a bony cartilaginous gentleman, +fixt perpendicularly on his saddle like a telegraph-pole. We hear +a harsh clucking, as of a choked hen, and we recognize the English +tongue. + +Beyond Gedres is a wild valley called Chaos, which is well named. +After a quarter of an hour's journey there, the trees disappear, then +the juniper and the box, and finally the moss. The Gave is no longer +seen; all noises are hushed. It is a dead solitude peopled with +wrecks. The avalanches of rocks and crusht flint have come down from +the summit to the very bottom. The horrid tide, high and a quarter +of a league in length, spreads out like waves its myriads of sterile +stones, and the inclined sheet seems still to glide toward inundating +the gorge. These stones are shattered and pulverized; their living +fractures and thin, harsh points wound the eye; they are still +bruising and crushing each other. Not a bush, not a spear of grass; +the arid grayish train burns beneath a sun of brass; its debris are +scorched to a dull hue, as in a furnace. + +A hundred paces further on, the aspect of the valley becomes +formidable. Troops of mammoths and mastadons in stone lie crouching +over the eastern declivity, one above another, and heaped up over the +whole slope. These colossal ridges shine with a tawny hue like iron +rust; the most enormous of them drink the water of the river at their +base. They look as if warming their bronzed skin in the sun, and +sleep, turned over, stretched out on their side, resting in all +attitudes, and always gigantic and frightful. Their deformed paws are +curled up; their bodies half buried in the earth; their monstrous +backs rest one upon another. When you enter into the midst of the +prodigious band, the horizon disappears, the blocks rise fifty feet +into the air; the road winds painfully among the overhanging masses; +men and horses seem but dwarfs; these rusted edges mount in stages to +the very summit, and the dark hanging army seems ready to fall on the +human insects which come to trouble its sleep. + +Once upon a time, the mountain, in a paroxysm of fever, shook its +summits like a cathedral that is falling in. A few points resisted, +and their embattled turrets are drawn out in line on the crest; but +their layers are dislocated, their sides creviced, their points +jagged. The whole shattered ridge totters. Beneath them the rock fails +suddenly in a living and still bleeding wound. The splinters are lower +down, strewn over the declivity. The tumbled rocks are sustained one +upon another, and man to-day passes in safety amidst the disaster. + +But what a day was that of the ruin: It is not very ancient, perhaps +of the sixth century, and the year of the terrible earthquake told of +by Gregory of Tours. If a man could without perishing have seen the +summits split, totter and fall, the two seas of rock come bounding +into the gorge, meet one another and grind each other amidst a shower +of sparks, he would have looked upon the grandest spectacle ever seen +by human eyes. + +On the west, a perpendicular mole, crannied like an old ruin, lifts +itself straight up toward the sky. A leprosy of yellowish moss has +incrusted its pores, and has clothed it all over with a sinister +livery. This livid robe upon this parched stone has a splendid effect. +Nothing is uglier than the chalky flints that are drawn from the +quarry; just dug up, they seem cold and damp in their whitish shroud; +they are not used to the sun; they make a contrast with the rest. But +the rock that has lived in the air for ten thousand years, where the +light has every day laid on and melted its metallic tints, is the +friend of the sun, and carries its mantle upon its shoulders; it +has no need of a garment of verdure; if it suffers from parasitic +vegetations, it sticks them to its sides and imprints them with its +colors. The threatening tones with which it clothes itself suits the +free sky, the naked landscape, the powerful heat that environs it; it +is alive like a plant; only it is of another age, one more severe and +stronger than that in which we vegetate. + +Gavarnie is a very ordinary village, commanding a view of the +amphitheater we are come to see. After you have left it, it is still +necessary to go three miles through a melancholy plain, half buried in +sand by the winter inundations; the waters of the Gave are muddy and +dull; a cold wind whistles from the amphitheater; the glaciers, strewn +with mud and stones, are stuck to the declivity like patches of dirty +plaster. The mountains are bald and ravined by cascades; black cones +of scattered firs climb them like routed soldiers; a meager and wan +turf wretchedly clothes their mutilated heads. The horses ford the +Gave stumblingly, chilled by the water coming from the snows. In this +wasted solitude you meet, all of a sudden, the most smiling parterre. +A throng of the lovely iris crowds itself into the bed of a dried +torrent; the sun stripes with rays of gold their velvety petals of +tender blue; and the eye follows over the whole plain the folds of the +rivulet of flowers. + +We climb a last eminence, sown with iris and with stones. There is a +hut where you breakfast and leave the horses. You arm yourself with a +stout stick, and descend upon the glaciers of the amphitheater. + +These glaciers are very ugly, very dirty, very uneven, very slippery; +at every step you run the risk of falling, and if you fall, it is on +sharp stones or into deep holes. They look very much like heaps of old +plaster-work, and those who have admired them must have a stock of +admiration for sale. The water has pierced them so that you walk +upon bridges of snow. These bridges have the appearance of kitchen +air-holes; the water is swallowed up in a very low archway, and, when +you look closely, you get a distinct sight of a black hole. + +After the glaciers we find a sloping esplanade; we climb for ten +minutes bruising our feet upon fragments of sharp rock. Since leaving +the hut we have not lifted our eyes, in order to restore for ourselves +an unbroken sensation. Here at last we look. + +A wall of granite crowned with snow hollows itself before us in a +gigantic amphitheater. This amphitheater is twelve hundred feet high, +nearly three miles in circumference, three tiers of perpendicular +walls, and in each tier thousands of steps. The valley ends there; the +wall is a single block and impregnable. The other summits might fall, +but its massive layers would not be moved. The mind is overwhelmed +by the idea of a stability that can not be shaken and an assured +eternity. There is the boundary of two countries and two races; this +it is that Roland wanted to break, when with a sword-stroke he opened +a breach in the summit. But the immense wound disappeared in the +immensity of the unconquered wall. Three sheets of snow are spread out +over the three tiers of layers. + +The sun falls with all its force upon this virginal robe without being +able to make it shine. It preserves its dead whiteness. All this +grandeur is austere; the air is chilled beneath the noonday rays; +great, damp shadows creep along the foot of the walls. It is the +everlasting winter and the nakedness of the desert. The sole +inhabitants are the cascades assembled to form the Gave. The +streamlets of water come by thousands from the highest layer, leap +from step to step, cross their stripes of foam, unite and fall by a +dozen brooks that slide from the last layer in flaky streaks to lose +themselves in the glaciers of the bottom. + +The thirteenth cascade on the left is twelve hundred and sixty-six +feet high. It falls slowly, like a dropping cloud, or the unfolding of +a muslin veil; the air softens its fall; the eye follows complacently +the graceful undulation of the beautiful airy veil. It glides the +length of the rock, and seems to float rather than to fall. The sun +shines, through its plume, with the softest and loveliest splendor. +It reaches the bottom like a bouquet of slender waving feathers, and +springs backward in a silver dust; the fresh and transparent mist +swings about the rock it bathes, and its rebounding train mounts +lightly along the courses. No stir in the air; no noise, no living +creature in the solitude. You hear only the monotonous murmur of the +cascades, resembling the rustle of the leaves that the wind stirs in +the forest. + +On our return, we seated ourselves at the door of the hut. It is a +poor, squat little house, heavily supported upon thick walls; the +knotty joists of the ceiling retain their bark. It is indeed necessary +that it should be able to stand out alone against the snows of winter. +You find everywhere the imprint of the terrible months it has gone +through. Two dead fir-trees stand erect at the door. The garden, three +feet square, is defended by enormous walls of piled-up slates. The low +and black stable leaves neither foot-hold nor entry for the winds. A +lean colt was seeking a little grass among the stones. A small bull, +with surly air, looked at us out of the sides of his eyes; the +animals, the trees and the site, wore a threatening or melancholy +aspect. But in the clefts of a rock were growing some admirable +buttercups, lustrous and splendid, which looked as if painted by a ray +of sunshine. + +At the village we met our companions of the journey who had sat down +there. The good tourists get fatigued, stop ordinarily at the inn, +take a substantial dinner, have a chair brought to the door, and +digest while looking at the amphitheater, which from there appears +about as high as a house. After this they return, praising the sublime +sight, and very glad that they have come to the Pyrenees. + + + + +VI + +BELGIUM + + + + +BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +The Rhine constituted the great central waterway of medieval Europe; +the Flemish towns were its ports and its manufacturing centers. They +filled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries much the same place +that Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham fill in the +nineteenth. Many causes contributed to this result. + +Flanders, half independent under its own counts, occupied a middle +position, geographically and politically, between France and the +Empire; it was comparatively free from the disastrous wars which +desolated both these countries, and in particular it largely escaped +the long smouldering quarrel between French and English, which so long +retarded the development of the former. Its commercial towns, again, +were not exposed on the open sea to the attacks of pirates or hostile +fleets, but were safely ensconced in inland flats, reached by rivers +or canals, almost inaccessible to maritime enemies. Similar conditions +elsewhere early ensured peace and prosperity for Venice. + +The canal system of Holland and Belgium began to be developed as early +as the twelfth century (at first for drainage), and was one leading +cause of the commercial importance of the Flemish cities in the +fourteenth. In so flat a country, locks are all but unnecessary. The +two towns which earliest rose to greatness in the Belgian area were +thus Bruges and Ghent; they possest in the highest degree the combined +advantages of easy access to the sea and comparative inland security. + +Bruges, in particular, was one of the chief stations of the Hanseatic +League, which formed an essentially commercial alliance for the mutual +protection of the northern trading centers. By the fourteenth century +Bruges had thus become in the north what Venice was in the south, +the capital of commerce. Trading companies from all the surrounding +countries had their "factories" in the town, and every European king +or prince of importance kept a resident minister accredited to the +merchant republic. + +Some comprehension of the mercantile condition of Europe in general +during the Middle Ages is necessary in order to understand the early +importance and wealth of the Flemish cities. Southern Europe, and in +particular Italy, was then still the seat of all higher civilization, +more especially of the trade in manufactured articles and objects of +luxury. Florence, Venice and Genoa ranked as the polished and learned +cities of the world. Further east, again, Constantinople still +remained in the hands of the Greek emperors, or, during the Crusades, +of their Latin rivals. A brisk trade existed via the Mediterranean +between Europe and India or the nearer East. This double stream of +traffic ran along two main routes--one, by the Rhine, from Lombardy +and Rome; the other, by sea, from Venice, Genoa, Florence, +Constantinople, the Levant, and India. + +On the other hand, France was still but a half civilized country, +with few manufactures and little external trade; while England was an +exporter of raw produce, chiefly wool, like Australia in our own time. +The Hanseatic merchants of Cologne held the trade of London; those of +Wisby and Luebeck governed that of the Baltic; Bruges, as head of the +Hansea, was in close connection with all of these, as well as with +Hull, York, Novgorod, and Bergen. + +The position of the Flemish towns in the fourteenth century was thus +not wholly unlike that of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston at the +present day; they stood as intermediaries between the older civilized +countries, like Italy or the Greek empire, and the newer producers of +raw material, like England, North Germany, and the Baltic towns. + +In a lost corner of the great lowland flat of Flanders, defended from +the sea by an artificial dike, and at the point of intersection of an +intricate network of canals and waterways, there arose in the early +Middle Ages a trading town, known in Flemish as Brugge, in French as +Bruges (that is to say, The Bridge), from a primitive structure that +here crossed the river. A number of bridges now span the sluggish +streams. All of them open in the middle to admit the passage of +shipping. + +Bruges stood originally on a little river, Reye, once navigable, now +swallowed by canals; and the Reye flowed into the Zwin, long silted +up, but then the safest harbor in the Low Countries. At first the +capital of a petty Count, this land-locked internal harbor grew in +time to be the Venice of the North, and to gather round its quays or +at its haven of Damme, the ships and merchandise of all neighboring +peoples. Already in 1200 it ranked as the central mart of the +Hanseatic League. + +It was the port of entry for English wool and Russian furs: the port +of departure for Flemish broadcloths, laces, tapestries, and linens. +Canals soon connected it with Ghent, Dunkirk, Sluys, Furnes and Ypres. +Its nucleus lay in a little knot of buildings about the Grand Place +and the Hotel de Ville, stretching out to the Cathedral and the Dyver; +thence it spread on all sides till, in 1362, it filled the whole space +within the existing ramparts, now largely abandoned or given over to +fields and gardens. It was the wealthiest town of Europe, outside +Italy. + +The decline of the town was due partly to the break-up of the +Hanseatic system; partly to the rise of English ports and +manufacturing towns; but still more, and especially as compared with +our Flemish cities, to the silting of the Zwin, and the want of +adaption in its waterways to the needs of great ships and modern +navigation. The old sea entrance to Bruges was through the Zwin, by +way of Sluys and Kadzand; up that channel came the Venetian merchant +fleet and the Flemish galleys, to the port of Damme. By 1470, it +ceased to be navigable for large vessels. + +The later canal is still open, but as it passes through what is now +Dutch territory, it is little used; nor is it adapted to any save +ships of comparatively small burden. Another canal, suitable for +craft of 500 tons, leads through Belgian territory to Ostend; but few +vessels now navigate it, and those for the most part only for local +trade. The town has shrunk to half its former size, and has only a +quarter of its medieval population. + +The commercial decay of Bruges, however, has preserved its charm for +the artist, the archeologist, and the tourist; its sleepy streets and +unfrequented quays are among the most picturesque sights of bustling +and industrial modern Belgium. The great private palaces, indeed, +are almost all destroyed; but many public buildings remain, and the +domestic architecture is quaint and pretty. + +Bruges was the mother of arts in Flanders: Jan van Eyck lived here +from 1428 to 1440. Memling, probably from 1477 till 1494. Caxton, the +first English printer, lived as a merchant at Bruges, in the Domus +Anglorum or English factory, from 1446 to 1476, and probably put in +the press here the earliest English book printed, tho strong grounds +have been adduced in favor of Cologne. Colard Mansion, the great +printer of Bruges at that date, was one of the leaders in the art of +typography.... + +The very tall square tower which faces you as you enter the Grand +Place is the Belfry, the center and visible embodiment of the town of +Bruges. The Grand Place itself was the forum and meeting place of the +soldier citizens, who were called to arms by the chimes in the Belfry. +The center of the place is therefore appropriately occupied by a +colossal statue group, modern, of Pieter de Coninck and Jan Breidel, +the leaders of the citizens of Bruges at the Battle of the Spurs +before the walls of Courtrai in 1302, a conflict which secured the +freedom of Flanders from the interference of the Kings of France. The +group is by Devigne. The reliefs on the pedestal represent scenes from +the battle and its antecedents. + +The majestic Belfry itself represents the first beginnings of freedom +in Bruges. Leave to erect such a bell-tower, both as a mark of +independence and to summon the citizens to arms, was one of the first +privileges which every Teutonic trading town desired to wring from its +feudal lord. This brick tower, the pledge of municipal rights, was +begun in 1291, to replace an earlier one of wood, and finished about a +hundred years later; the octagon, in stone at the summit, which holds +the bell, having been erected in 1393-96. + +It consists of three stories, the two lower of which are square and +flanked by balconies with turrets; the windows below are of the simple +early Gothic style, but show a later type of architecture in the +octagon. The niche in the center contains the Virgin and Child, a +group restored after being destroyed by the French revolutionists. +Below it on either side are smaller figures holding escutcheons. From +the balcony between these last, the laws and the rescripts of the +counts were read aloud to the people assembled in the square. + +The Belfry can be ascended by steps. Owing to the force of the wind, +it leans slightly to the southeast. The view from the top is very +extensive and striking. It embraces the greater part of the Plain of +Flanders, with its towns and villages. The country, tho quite flat, +looks beautiful when thus seen. In early times, however, the look-out +from the summit was of practical use for purposes of observation, +military or maritime. It commanded the river, the Zwin, and the sea +approach by Sluys and Damme; the course of the various canals; and the +roads to Ghent, Antwerp, Tournai, and Courtrai. The Belfry contains a +famous set of chimes, the mechanism of which may be inspected by the +visitor. He will have frequent opportunities of hearing the beautiful +and mellow carillon, perhaps to excess. The existing bells date only +from 1680: the mechanism from 1784. + + + + +A PEN PICTURE OF BRUGES[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Paris Sketch Book."] + +BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY + + +It is the quaintest and prettiest of all the quaint and pretty towns I +have seen. A painter might spend months here, and wander from church +to church, and admire old towers and pinnacles, tall gables, bright +canals, and pretty little patches of green garden and moss-grown wall, +that reflect in the clear quiet water. Before the inn-window is a +garden, from which in the early morning issues a most wonderful odor +of stocks and wallflowers; next comes a road with trees of admirable +green; numbers of little children are playing in this road (the place +is so clean that they may roll on it all day without soiling +their pinafores), and on the other side of the trees are little +old-fashioned, dumpy, whitewashed, red-tiled houses. + +A poorer landscape to draw never was known, nor a pleasanter to +see--the children especially, who are inordinately fat and rosy. Let +it be remembered, too, that here we are out of the country of ugly +women; the expression of the face is almost uniformly gentle and +pleasing, and the figures of the women, wrapt in long black monk-like +cloaks and hoods, very picturesque. No wonder there are so many +children: the "Guide-book" (omniscient Mr. Murray!) says there are +fifteen thousand paupers in the town, and we know how such multiply. + +How the deuce do their children look so fat and rosy? By eating +dirt-pies, I suppose. I saw a couple making a very nice savory one, +and another employed in gravely sticking strips of stick betwixt the +pebbles at the house-door, and so making for herself a stately garden. +The men and women don't seem to have much more to do. There are a +couple of tall chimneys at either suburb of the town, where no doubt +manufactories are at work, but within the walls everybody seems +decently idle. + +We have been, of course, abroad to visit the lions. The tower in the +Grand Place is very fine, and the bricks of which it is built do not +yield a whit in color to the best stone. The great building round this +tower is very like the pictures of the Ducal Palace at Venice; and +there is a long market area, with columns down the middle, from which +hung shreds of rather lean-looking meat, that would do wonders under +the hands of Cattermole or Haghe. + +In the tower there is a chime of bells that keep ringing perpetually. +They not only play tunes of themselves, and every quarter of an hour, +but an individual performs selections from popular operas on them at +certain periods of the morning, afternoon, and evening. I have heard +to-day "Suoni la Tromba," "Son Vergin Vezzosa," from the "Puritani," +and other airs, and very badly they were played too; for such a great +monster as a tower-bell can not be expected to imitate Madame Grisi or +even Signor Lablache. Other churches indulge in the same amusement, so +that one may come here and live in melody all day or night, like the +young woman in Moore's "Lalla Rookh." + +In the matter of art, the chief attractions of Bruges are the pictures +of Memling, that are to be seen in the churches, the hospital, and the +picture-gallery of the place. There are no more pictures of Rubens to +be seen, and, indeed, in the course of a fortnight, one has had quite +enough of the great man and his magnificent, swaggering canvases. +What a difference is here with simple Memling and the extraordinary +creations of his pencil! The hospital is particularly rich in them; +and the legend there is that the painter, who had served Charles the +Bold in his war against the Swiss, and his last battle and defeat, +wandered back wounded and penniless to Bruges, and here found cure and +shelter. + +This hospital is a noble and curious sight. The great hall is almost +as it was in the twelfth century; it is spanned by Saxon arches, and +lighted by a multiplicity of Gothic windows of all sizes; it is very +lofty, clean, and perfectly well ventilated; a screen runs across the +middle of the room, to divide the male from the female patients, and +we were taken to examine each ward, where the poor people seemed +happier than possibly they would have been in health and starvation +without it. + +Great yellow blankets were on the iron beds, the linen was +scrupulously clean, glittering pewter-jugs and goblets stood by the +side of each patient, and they were provided with godly books (to +judge from the building), in which several were reading at leisure. +Honest old comfortable nuns, in queer dresses of blue, black, white, +and flannel, were bustling through the room, attending to the wants +of the sick. I saw about a dozen of these kind women's faces; one was +young,--all were healthy and cheerful. One came with bare blue arms +and a great pile of linen from an out-house--such a grange as Cedric +the Saxon might have given to a guest for the night. A couple were in +a laboratory, a tall, bright, clean room, 500 years old at least. + +"We saw you were not very religious," said one of the old ladies, with +a red, wrinkled, good-humored face, "by your behavior yesterday in +chapel." + +And yet we did not laugh and talk as we used at college, but were +profoundly affected by the scene that we saw there. It was a fete-day; +a work of Mozart was sung in the evening--not well sung, and yet so +exquisitely tender and melodious, that it brought tears into our eyes. +There were not above twenty people in the church; all, save three or +four, were women in long black cloaks. I took them for nuns at first. +They were, however, the common people of the town, very poor indeed, +doubtless, for the priest's box that was brought round was not +added to by most of them, and their contributions were but two-cent +pieces--five of these go to a penny; but we know the value of such, +and can tell the exact worth of a poor woman's mite! + +The box-bearer did not seem at first willing to accept our +donation--we were strangers and heretics; however, I held out my hand, +and he came perforce as it were. Indeed it had only a franc in it; but +"que voulez vous?" I had been drinking a bottle of Rhine wine that +day, and how was I to afford more? The Rhine wine is dear in this +country, and costs four francs a bottle. + +Well, the service proceeded. Twenty poor women, two Englishmen, four +ragged beggars, cowering on the steps; and there was the priest at the +altar, in a great robe of gold and damask, two little boys in white +surplices serving him, holding his robe as he rose and bowed, and the +money-gatherer swinging his censer, and filling the little chapel with +smoke. + +The music pealed with wonderful sweetness; you could see the prim +white heads of the nuns in their gallery. The evening light streamed +down upon old statues of saints and carved brown stalls, and lighted +up the head of the golden-haired Magdalen in a picture of the +entombment of Christ. Over the gallery, and, as it were, a kind +protectress to the poor below, stood the statue of the Virgin. + + + + +GHENT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Cities of Belgium."] + +BY GRANT ALLEN + + +Flanders owes everything to its water communications. At the junction +of the Schelde with the Lys and Lei, there grew up in the very early +Middle Ages a trading town, named Gent in Flemish, and Gand in French, +but commonly Anglicized as Ghent. It lay on a close network of rivers +and canals, formed partly by these two main streams, and partly by the +minor channels of the Lieve and the Moere, which together intersect it +into several islands. + +Such a tangle of inland waterways, giving access to the sea and to +Bruges, Courtrai, and Tournai, as well as less directly to Antwerp +and Brussels, ensured the rising town in early times considerable +importance. It formed the center of a radiating commerce. Westward, +its main relations were with London and English wool ports; eastward +with Cologne, Maastricht, the Rhine towns, and Italy. + +Ghent was always the capital of East Flanders, as Bruges or Ypres were +of the Western province; and after the Counts lost possession of +Arras and Artois, it became in the thirteenth century their principal +residence and the metropolis of the country.... + +Early in the fourteenth century, the burghers of Ghent, under their +democratic chief, Jacob or Jacques Van Artevelde, attained practical +independence. Till 1322, the counts and people of Flanders had been +united in their resistance to the claims of France; but with the +accession of Count Louis of Nevers, the aspect of affairs changed. +Louis was French by education, sympathies, and interests, and +artistocratic by nature; he sought to curtail the liberties of the +Flemish towns, and to make himself despotic. The wealthy and populous +burgher republics resisted and in 1337 Van Artevelde was appointed +Captain of Ghent. Louis fled to France and asked the aid of Philip of +Valois. + +Thereupon, Van Artevelde made himself the ally of Edward III. of +England, then beginning his war with France; but as the Flemings did +not like entirely to cast off their allegiance--a thing repugnant to +medieval sentiment--Van Artevelde persuaded Edward to put forward his +trumped-up claim to the crown of France, and thus induced the towns +to transfer their fealty from Philip to his English rival. It was +therefore in his character as King of France that Edward came to +Flanders. The alliance thus formed between the great producer of raw +wool, England, and the great manufacturer of woolen goods, Ghent, +proved of immense importance to both parties. + +But as Count Louis sided with Philip of Valois, the breach between the +democracy of Ghent and its nominal soverign now became impassable. Van +Artevelde held supreme power in Ghent and Flanders for nine years--the +golden age of Flemish commerce--and was treated on equal terms by +Edward, who stopt at Ghent as his guest for considerable periods. But +he was opposed by a portion of the citizens, and his suggestion that +the Black Prince, son of Edward III., should be elected Count +of Flanders, proved so unpopular with his enemies that he was +assassinated by one of them, Gerald Denys. The town and states +immediately repudiated the murder; and the alliance which Van +Artevelde had brought about still continued. It had far-reaching +results; the woolen industry was introduced by Edward into the Eastern +Counties of England, and Ghent had risen meanwhile to be the chief +manufacturing city of Europe. + +The quarrel between the democratic weavers and their exiled counts +was still carried on by Philip van Artevelde, the son of Jacques, and +godson of Queen Philippa of England, herself a Hainaulter. Under his +rule, the town continued to increase in wealth and population. But +the general tendency of later medieval Europe toward centralized +despotisms as against urban republics was too strong in the end for +free Ghent. In 1381, Philip was appointed dictator by the democratic +party, in the war against the Count, son of his father's opponent, +whom he repelled with great slaughter in a battle near Bruges. + +He then made himself Regent of Flanders. But Count Louis obtained +the aid of Charles VI. of France, and defeated and killed Philip van +Artevelde at the disastrous battle of Roosebeke in 1382. That was +practically the end of local freedom in Flanders. Tho the cities +continued to revolt against their sovereigns from time to time, they +were obliged to submit for the most part to their Count and to the +Burgundian princes who inherited from him by marriage. + +The subsequent history of Ghent is that of the capital of the +Burgundian Dukes, and of the House of Austria. Here the German king, +Maximilian, afterward Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy, the heiress +of the Netherlands; and here Charles V. was born in the palace of +the Counts. It was his principal residence, and he was essentially a +Fleming.... + +The real interest of the Cathedral centers, not in St. Bavon, nor in +his picture by Rubens, but in the great polyptych of the Adoration +of the Lamb, the masterpiece of Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert, +which forms in a certain sense the point of departure for the native +art of the Netherlands.... + +Stand before the west front at a little distance, to examine the +simple but massive architecture of the tower and facade. The great +portal has been robbed of the statues which once adorned its niches. +Three have been "restored"; they represent, center, the Savior; at the +left, the patron, St. Bavon, recognizable by his falcon, his sword as +duke, and his book as monk; he wears armor, with a ducal robe and cap +above it; at the right, St. John the Baptist, the earlier patron. + +Then, walk to the right, round the south side, to observe the external +architecture of the nave, aisles and choir. The latter has the +characteristic rounded or apsidal termination of Continental Gothic, +whereas English Gothic usually has a square end. Enter by the south +portal. + +The interior, with single aisles and short transepts (Early Gothic) +is striking for its simple dignity, its massive pillars, and its high +arches, tho the undeniably noble effect of the whole is somewhat +marred to English eyes by the unusual appearance of the unadorned +brick walls and vaulting. The pulpit, by Delvaux (1745), partly in +oak, partly in marble, represents Truth revealing the Christian Faith +to astonished Paganism, figured as an old and outworn man. It is a +model of all that should be avoided in plastic or religious art. +The screen which separates the choir from the transepts is equally +unfortunate. The apsidal end of the Choir, however, with its fine +modern stained glass, forms a very pleasing feature in the general +coup d'oeil.... + +The sixth chapel (of the Vydts family) contains the famous altar piece +of the Adoration of the Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, to study +which is the chief object of a visit to Ghent. See it more than once, +and examine it carefully. Ask the sacristan to let you sit before it +for some time in quiet or he will hurry you on. You must observe it in +close detail. Taking it in its entirety, then, the altar-piece, when +opened, is a great mystical poem of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of +the Lamb, with the Christian folk, both Church and World, adoring. The +composition contains over 200 figures. Many of them, which I have +not here identified, can be detected by a closer inspection, which, +however, I will leave to the reader. + +Now, ask the sacristan to shut the wings. They are painted on the +outer side (all a copy) mainly in grisaille, or in very low tones +of color, as is usual in such cases, so as to allow the jewel-like +brilliancy of the internal picture to burst upon the observer the +moment the altar-piece is opened. + +Old Ghent occupied for the most part the island which extends from the +Palais de Justice on one side to the Botanical Gardens on the other. +This island, bounded by the Lys, the Schelde, and an ancient canal, +includes almost all the principal buildings of the town, such as the +Cathedral, St. Nicholas, the Hotel-de-Ville, the Belfry, and St. +Jacques, as well as the chief Places, such as the Marche aux Grains, +the Marche aux Herbes, and the Marche du Vendredi. It also extends +beyond the Lys to the little island on which is situated the church of +St. Michael, and again to the islet formed between the Lieve and the +Lys, which contains the chateau of the Counts and the Palace Ste. +Pharailde. + +In the later middle ages, however, the town had spread to nearly its +existing extreme dimensions, and was probably more populous than at +the present moment. But its ancient fortifications have been destroyed +and their place has been taken by boulevards and canals. The line +may still be traced on the map, or walked round through a series of +shipping suburbs; but it is uninteresting to follow, a great part of +its course lying through the more squalid portions of the town. +The only remaining gate is that known as the Rabot (1489), a very +interesting and picturesque object situated in a particularly slummy +quarter. + +Bruges is full of memories of the Burgundian Princes. At Ghent it is +the personality of Charles V., the great emperor who cumulated in his +own person the sovereignties of Germany, the Low Countries, Spain and +Burgundy, that meets us afresh at every turn. He was born here in 1500 +and baptized in a font, otherwise uninteresting, which still stands in +the north transept of the Cathedral. Ghent was really, for the greater +part of his life, his practical capital, and he never ceased to be at +heart a Ghenter. + +That did not prevent the citizens from unjustly rebelling against him +in 1540, after the suppression of which revolt Charles is said to have +ascended the cathedral tower, while the executioner was putting to +death the ringleaders in the rebellion, in order to choose with his +brother Ferdinand the site for the citadel he intended to erect, to +overawe the freedom loving city. He chose the Monastery of St. Bavon +as its site, and, as we have seen, built there his colossal fortress, +now wholly demolished. The palace in which he was born and which he +inhabited frequently during life, was known as the Cour du Prince. It +stood near the Ancient Grand Beguinage, but only its name now survives +in that of a street. + + + + +BRUSSELS[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Belgians at Home." Published by Little, Brown & +Co.] + +BY CLIVE HOLLAND + + +The great commercial and material prosperity of the place dates from +the commencement of the rule of the House of Burgundy. It was then, +in the fifteenth century, that the most beautiful of its many fine +buildings were erected. The Church of St. Michael and St. Gudule has +its great nave and towers dating from this period; the Hotel de Ville, +Notre Dame du Sablon, the Nassau Palace, the Palace of the Dukes of +Brabant, and many other buildings were commenced then. Manufactures +and commerce commenced to flourish, while the liberties of the +municipality were extended considerably. + +It was undoubtedly under the rule of Charles V. that Brussels reached +its zenith of ancient prosperity. Then, with the era of Philip II. of +Spain, came a long period of bloodshed, persecution, and misery. The +religious disputes and troubles afflicting the Netherlands had their +effect upon the life, prosperity, and happiness of the Bruxellois. The +whole country was running with blood, and ruin stalked through the +land. But during this tragic period of Netherlands' history Brussels +saw several glorious events, and did as a city more than one noble +deed. It was in Brussels that the compromise of the nobles took place, +after which those who were rebelling against the cruelties of the +Inquisition were given the name of "Gueux," which had been bestowed +upon them contemptuously by the Comte de Barlaimont.... It was +Brussels which led the revolt against the most bloodthirsty of the +rulers sent to the Netherlands by Spain, the Duke of Alva, and +successfully resisted the imposition of the notorious "twentieth +denier" tax which it was sought to impose upon it, a tax which led +ultimately to the revolt of the whole of the Belgian provinces. + +Certainly this ancient capital of the Province of Brabant, containing +nowadays with its suburbs a population of upward of 600,000, which has +quadrupled in sixty years, has come to take its place among the most +beautiful and charming capital cities of Europe. It is undoubtedly +healthy, and there is an engaging air about Brussels which soon +impresses itself upon the foreign visitor. Added to all its many +attractions of interesting museums--the homes of wonderful and in +some cases unrivaled collections of works of art--and of historical +associations with the past, it possesses the charm of being modern in +the best sense and of being a place where one may find much that is +finest in art and music. As a home of fashion it bids fair some day +to rival Paris herself, and the shops of the Montagne de la Cour, +Boulevard Anspach, and contiguous streets are scarcely less luxurious +or exclusive than those of the Rue de la Paix or Boulevard des +Italiens in the French capital. Brussels is a city of shady +boulevards, open spaces, and pleasant parks as is Paris; and the +beautiful Bois de la Cambre on its outskirts compares very favorably +with the world-renowned Bois de Boulogne as regards rural charm and +picturesqueness. + +One impression that Brussels is almost certain to make upon the +visitor is its compactness. Its population, including the outskirts, +is nowadays rather over 600,000; but it is almost impossible to +realize that nearly one-eleventh of the whole population of Belgium +is concentrated in this one city, or, as might be said, in Greater +Brussels. Perhaps the real reason of this apparent lack of size +is because there are in reality two cities, Brussels interior and +Brussels exterior. The one with a population of about 225,000; the +latter with one of about 375,000. It is with the former, of course, +that the tourist and casual visitor are chiefly concerned. + +The outlying suburbs are, however, connected with the city proper by a +splendid system of steam, electric, and other trams. In fact, it may +be said that Brussels is in a sense surrounded by a group of small +towns, which tho forming part of the great city are yet independent, +and are governed very much like the various boroughs which make up +Greater London, Curhegem, St. Gilles, Ixelles, St. Josse, Ten Noodle, +Molenbeek, St. Jean, and Schaerbeek, still further out, are all in a +sense separate towns, seldom visited by, and indeed almost unknown to +the tourist. + +The most fashionable quarters for residences of the wealthy classes +are the broad and beautiful Avenue Louise and the streets and avenues +of the Quartier Leopold. They in a sense correspond to the Avenue du +Bois de Boulogne, Avenue des Champs Elysees, and Boulevard St. Germain +of Paris. There is another feature, too, that modern Brussels has in +common with Paris of the immediate past and of to-day. It is being +"Haussmannized," and the older and more quaint and interesting +portions of the city, as has been and is the case in Paris, are +gradually but surely disappearing to make way for the onward march of +progress and expansion. Almost on every hand, and especially in the +Porte de Namur Quarter, old buildings are constantly falling victims +to the house-wrecker, and new, in the shape of handsome mansions and +lofty blocks of flats, are arising from their ashes. + +The last thirty--even twenty--years have seen many changes. During +that period the sluggish little River Senne, which once meandered +through the city, and upon whose banks stood many fine and picturesque +old houses and buildings of past ages, has been arched over, and the +fine Boulevard of the same name, and those of Hainaut and Anspach, +have been built above its imprisoned waters. The higher portions of +the city are undeniably healthy, and the climate of Brussels is less +subject to extreme changes than that of Paris. It is not unbearably +cold in winter, and tho hot in summer, is not so, we think, airless +as either Paris or London, a fact accounted for by reason of its many +open spaces, its height above sea-level, and comparative nearness to +the North Sea. + +Of its fine buildings, none excels the Hotel de Ville, which is +certainly one of the most interesting and beautiful buildings of its +kind in Belgium. It is well placed on one of the finest medieval +squares in Europe, and is surrounded by quaint and historic houses. On +this Grande Place many tragedies have from time to time been enacted, +and some of the most ferocious acts of the inhuman Alva performed. +In the spring of the terrible year, 1568, no less than twenty-five +Flemish nobles were executed here, and in the June of the same year +the patriots Lamoral, Count Egmont, Philip de Montmorency, and Count +Hoorn were put to death. This atrocious deed is commemorated by a +fountain with statues of the heroes, placed in front of the Maison +du Roi, from a window of which the Duke of Alva watched his orders +carried out. + +This most beautiful Hotel de Ville, with its late Gothic facade +approaching the Renaissance period, nearly 200 feet in length, was +commenced, according to a well-known authority, either in 1401 or +1402, the eastern wing, or left-hand portion as one faces it across +the Place, having been the first part to be commenced, the western +half of the facade not having been begun until 1444. The later +additions formed the quadrangle. + +The Cathedral at Brussels is dedicated jointly to Ste. Gudule and St. +Michael. The former is one of the luckiest saints in that respect, as +probably but for this dedication, she would have remained among the +many rather obscure saints of the early periods of Christianity. + +It is to this church that most visitors to Brussels first wend their +way after visiting the Grande Place and its delightful Flower Market, +which is gay with blossoms on most days of the week all the year +round. The natural situation of the church is a fine one, which was +made the most of by its architects and builders of long ago. Standing, +as it does, on the side of a hill reached from the Grande Place by the +fine Rue de la Montagne and short, steep Rue Ste. Gudule, it overlooks +the city with its two fine twin western towers dominating the +neighboring streets. These towers have appeared to us when viewed up +the Rue Ste. Gudule and other streets leading up from the lower town +to the church, generally to be veiled by a mystic gray or ambient +haze, and to gain much in impressiveness and grandeur from the coup +d'oeil one obtains of them framed, as it were, in the end of the +rising street. + + + + +WATERLOO[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Les Miserables." Translated by Lascelles Wraxall.] + +BY VICTOR HUGO + + +The battle of Waterloo is an enigma as obscure for those who gained +it as for him who lost it. To Napoleon it is a panic; Bluecher sees +nothing in it but fire; Wellington does not understand it at all. +Look at the reports; the bulletins are confused; the commentaries are +entangled; the latter stammer, the former stutter. + +Jomini divides the battle of Waterloo into four moments; Muffing cuts +it into three acts; Charras, altho we do not entirely agree with him +in all his appreciations, has alone caught with his haughty eye +the characteristic lineaments of this catastrophe of human genius +contending with divine chance. All the other historians suffer from a +certain bedazzlement in which they grope about. It was a flashing day, +in truth the overthrow of the military monarchy which, to the great +stupor of the kings, has dragged down all kingdoms, the downfall of +strength and the rout of war.... + +In this event, which bears the stamp of superhuman necessity, men play +but a small part; but if we take Waterloo from Wellington and Bluecher, +does that deprive England and Germany of anything? No. Neither +illustrious England nor august Germany is in question in the problem +of Waterloo, for, thank heaven! nations are great without the mournful +achievements of the sword. Neither Germany, nor England, nor France +is held in a scabbard; at this day when Waterloo is only a clash of +sabers, Germany has Goethe above Bluecher, and England has Byron above +Wellington. A mighty dawn of ideas is peculiar to our age; and in this +dawn England and Germany have their own magnificent flash. They are +majestic because they think; the high level they bring to civilization +is intrinsic to them; it comes from themselves, and not from an +accident. Any aggrandizement the nineteenth century may have can not +boast of Waterloo as its fountainhead; for only barbarous nations +grow suddenly after a victory--it is the transient vanity of torrents +swollen by a storm. Civilized nations, especially at the present day, +are not elevated or debased by the good or evil fortune of a captain, +and their specific weight in the human family results from something +more than a battle. Their honor, dignity, enlightenment, and genius +are not numbers which those gamblers, heroes and conquerors, can +stake in the lottery of battles. Very often a battle lost is progress +gained, and less of glory, more of liberty. The drummer is silent and +reason speaks; it is the game of who loses wins. Let us, then, speak +of Waterloo coldly from both sides, and render to chance the things +that belong to chance, and to God what is God's. What is Waterloo--a +victory? No; a prize in the lottery, won by Europe, and paid by +France; it was hardly worth while erecting a lion for it. + +Waterloo is the strangest encounter recorded in history; Napoleon +and Wellington are not enemies, but contraries. Never did God, who +delights in antitheses, produce a more striking contrast, or a more +extraordinary confrontation. On one side precision, foresight, +geometry, prudence, a retreat assured, reserves prepared, an obstinate +coolness, an imperturbable method, strategy profiting by the ground, +tactics balancing battalions, carnage measured by a plumb-line, war +regulated watch in hand, nothing left voluntarily to accident, old +classic courage and absolute correctness. + +On the other side we have intuition, divination, military strangeness, +superhuman instinct, a flashing glance; something that gazes like the +eagle and strikes like lightning, all the mysteries of a profound +mind, associated with destiny; the river, the plain, the forest, and +the hill summoned, and, to some extent, compelled to obey; the despot +going so far as even to tyrannize over the battlefield; faith in a +star, blended with a strategic science, heightening, but troubling it. + +Wellington was the Bareme of war, Napoleon was its Michelangelo, and +this true genius was conquered by calculation. On both sides somebody +was expected; and it was the exact calculator who succeeded. Napoleon +waited for Grouchy, who did not come; Wellington waited for Bluecher, +and he came. + +Wellington is the classical war taking its revenge; Bonaparte, in his +dawn, had met it in Italy, and superbly defeated it--the old owl +fled before the young vulture. The old tactics had been not only +overthrown, but scandalized. Who was this Corsican of six-and-twenty +years of age? What meant this splendid ignoramus, who, having +everything against him, nothing for him, without provisions, +ammunition, guns, shoes, almost without an army, with a handful of +men against masses, dashed at allied Europe, and absurdly gained +impossible victories? Who was this new comet of war who possest the +effrontery of a planet? + +The academic military school excommunicated him, while bolting, and +hence arose an implacable rancor of the old Caesarism against the new, +of the old saber against the flashing sword, and of the chessboard +against genius. On June 18, 1815, this rancor got the best; and +beneath Lodi, Montebello, Montenotte, Mantua, Marengo, and Arcola, it +wrote--Waterloo. It was a triumph of mediocrity, sweet to majorities, +and destiny consented to this irony. In his decline, Napoleon found +a young Suvarov before him--in fact, it is only necessary to blanch +Wellington's hair in order to have a Suvarov. Waterloo is a battle of +the first class, gained by a captain of the second. + +What must be admired in the battle of Waterloo is England, the English +firmness, the English resolution, the English blood, and what England +had really superb in it, is (without offense) herself; it is not her +captain, but her army. Wellington, strangely ungrateful, declares in +his dispatch to Lord Bathurst that his army, the one which fought on +June 18, 1815, was a "detestable army." + +What does the gloomy pile of bones buried in the trenches of Waterloo +think of this? England has been too modest to herself in her treatment +of Wellington, for making him so great is making herself small. +Wellington is merely a hero, like any other man. The Scots Grays, the +Life Guards, Maitland's and Mitchell's regiments, Pack's and Kempt's +infantry, Ponsonby's and Somerset's cavalry, the Highlanders playing +the bagpipes under the shower of canister, Ryland's battalions, the +fresh recruits who could hardly manage a musket, and yet held their +ground against the old bands of Essling and Rivoli--all this is grand. + +Wellington was tenacious; that was his merit, and we do not deny it +to him, but the lowest of his privates and his troopers was quite as +solid as he, and the iron soldier is as good as the iron duke. For our +part, all our glorification is offered to the English soldier, the +English army, the English nation; and if there must be a trophy, it +is to England that this trophy is owing. The Waterloo column would be +more just, if, instead of the figure of a man, it raised to the clouds +the statue of a people.... + +But this great England will be irritated by what we are writing here; +for she still has feudal illusions, after her 1688 and the French +1789. This people believes in inheritance and hierarchy, and while no +other excels it in power and glory, it esteems itself as a nation and +not as a people. As a people, it readily subordinates itself, and +takes a lord as its head; the workman lets himself be despised; the +soldier puts up with flogging. It will be remembered that, at the +battle of Inkerman, a sergeant who, as it appears, saved the British +army, could not be mentioned by Lord Raglan, because the military +hierarchy does not allow any hero below the rank of officer to be +mentioned in dispatches. What we admire before all, in an encounter +like Waterloo, is the prodigious skill of chance. The night raid, +the wall of Hougoumont, the hollow way of Ohain, Grouchy deaf to the +cannon, Napoleon's guide deceiving him, Bulow's guide enlightening +him--all this cataclysm is marvelously managed. + +There is more of a massacre than of a battle in Waterloo. Waterloo, of +all pitched battles, is the one which had the smallest front for +such a number of combatants. Napoleon's three-quarters of a league. +Wellington's half a league, and seventy-two thousand combatants +on either side. From this density came the carnage. The following +calculation has been made and proportion established: loss of men, at +Austerlitz, French, fourteen per cent.; Russian, thirty per cent.; +Austrian, forty-four per cent.; at Wagram, French, thirteen per cent.; +Austrian, fourteen per cent.; at Moscow, French, thirty-seven per +cent.; Russian, forty-four per cent.; at Bautzen, French, thirteen +cent.; Russian and Prussian, fourteen per cent.; at Waterloo, French, +fifty-six per cent.; allies, thirty-one per cent.--total for Waterloo, +forty-one per cent., or out of one hundred and forty-four thousand +fighting men, sixty thousand killed. + +The field of Waterloo has at the present day that calmness which +belongs to the earth, and resembles all plains; but at night, a sort +of a visionary mist rises from it, and if any traveler walk about it, +and listen and dream, like Virgil on the mournful plain of Philippi, +the hallucination of the catastrophe seizes upon him. The frightful +June 18th lives again, the false monumental hill is leveled, the +wondrous lion is dissipated, the battlefield resumes its reality, +lines of infantry undulate on the plain; furious galloping crosses the +horizon; the startled dreamer sees the flash of sabers, the sparkle +of bayonets, the red lights of shells, the monstrous collision of +thunderbolts; he hears like a death groan from the tomb, the vague +clamor of the fantom battle. + +These shadows are grenadiers; these flashes are cuirassiers; this +skeleton is Napoleon; this skeleton is Wellington: all this is +non-existent, and yet still combats, and the ravines are stained +purple, and the trees rustle, and there is fury even in the clouds +and in the darkness, while all the stern heights, Mont St. Jean, +Hougoumont, Frischemont, Papelotte, and Plancenoit, seem confusedly +crowned by hosts of specters exterminating one another. + + + + +WATERLOO: A VISIT TO THE FIELD[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Two Months Abroad." Privately printed. 1878.] + +BY THE EDITOR + + +The French wished to call it the battle of Mont St. Jean, but +Wellington said "The Battle of Waterloo." The victor's wish prevailed. +I know not why, except because he was the victor. The scene of the +battle is four miles from the village of Waterloo and, besides Mont +St. Jean, several villages from any one of which it might well have +been named, are included in the field. Before the battle, however, the +village of Waterloo had been the headquarters of the Duke and there he +rested for two days after the battle was won. + +I am now on this memorable spot as the solitary guest of a small hotel +at the base of the Lion's Mound, after having made a night of it in +crossing from Aix-la-Chapelle to Brussels and thence, through a storm +of mist and rain to the little station of Braine-l'Alleud, which is a +good mile from the battlefield. The train reached Braine-l'Alleud long +before daybreak. When the morn had really dawned, I left the +little waiting room, a solitary loiterer, and set out to find the +battleground. From the platform of the station the eye surveyed a +wide, thickly populated but rural plain, and in one direction afar +off, clearly set against the dark rain-dripping sky, rose in solemn +majesty a mound of earth, bearing on its lofty summit an indistinct +figure of a lion. + +A small rustic gate from the station led in the direction of the +Mound. From necessity, I began a tramp through the rain alone, no +conveyance being obtainable. The soil of Belgium here being alluvial, +a little rain soon makes a great deal of mud and little rains at this +season (January) are frequent. Along a small unpaved mud-deep road, +having meanwhile been joined by a peasant with a two wheeled cart +drawn by a single mule, I was soon hastening onward toward the Mound +which was growing more and more visible on the horizon. The road soon +turned away, however, but a path led toward the mound. The peasant +took the road and I the path, which led into a little clump of houses, +where were boys about their morning duties, and dogs that barked +vigorously until one of the boys to whom I had spoken silenced them. + +Passing onward through streets not more than six feet wide, along +neatly trimmed hedges and past small cottage doorways, I soon entered +an open plain, but in a crippled state with heavy mud-covered shoes. +Mud fairly obliterated all trace of leather. With this burden, and wet +to the skin with rain, there rose far ahead of me that historic mound, +and at last I stood at its base alone, there in the midst of one of +the greatest battlefields history records, soon to forget in the +momentary joys of a beefsteak breakfast that man had ever done +anything in this world except eat and drink. + +I must borrow an illustration--Victor Hugo's letter A. The apex is +Mount St. Jean, the right hand base La Belle Alliance, the left hand +base Hougoumont, the cross bar that sunken road which perhaps changed +the future of Europe, the two sides broad Belgian roads, paved with +square stones and bordered with graceful and lofty poplar trees, their +proud heads waving in every breeze that drifts across this undulating +plain. The Lion's Mound is just below the middle of this cross bar. +Mont St. Jean, La Belle Alliance and Hougoumont, at the three angles +of the triangle, are small villages--scarcely more than hamlets. All +were important points in the fortunes of that memorable 18th of June, +1815. Hougoumont, with its chateau and wall, in some sense was like a +fortress. + +Go with me if you will in imagination to the summit of the Lion's +Mound. A flight of 225 stone steps will take us there, a toilsome +ascent in this chilling air and this persistent rain. Toward Mont +St. Jean, the surface of the ground is rolling, the waves of it high +enough to conceal standing men from view. Except the lofty poplars at +the road sides, there are no trees. An admirable place for an army on +the defensive, you will at once say, since reserves can be concealed +behind the convolutions of the rolling plain. These convolutions may +also serve in the fight as natural fortifications. + +Here at Mont St. Jean, Wellington pitched his tent. Hougoumont lay far +off in front of his center, and had that morning a small garrison. +Napoleon, with his army, was a mile away, his line extending to the +right and left beyond La Belle Alliance. We must turn squarely around +as we stand alongside the lion if we are to see in the distance the +ground he occupied. Our place is nearly in the center of the field. +Hougoumont we realize to have been worthy of the prodigious struggle +the French made to capture it. Half a fortress then, it provided +an admirable stand for artillery. A few men might hold it against +superior numbers. + +At Waterloo the Duke had about 67,000 men--some accounts say +70,000--but many, perhaps 15,000, fled in desertion at an early hour +of the day. With these figures correct, the fighting forces of the +Allies later in the day, would remain little more than 55,000 men. The +Emperor's army has usually been placed at 70,000. His soldiers were +probably better trained than the Duke's and combined with long service +an abundance of enthusiasm for their old general, now restored to his +imperial throne and confident of victory. + +The night before the battle had been wet and stormy, but the morning +gave some promise of clearing; the sky, however, remained overcast and +some rain continued to fall. The French were weary after a long march, +and the artillery moved with difficulty across this wet and muddy +plain. Altogether they were in poor condition for a battle, in which +all their fortunes were at stake. It was just such a morning as ours, +except that it was then June and is now January. If the battle began +at 8 o'clock, as one account reads, we are here on the Lion's Mound at +that same hour. Even if this be January, daisies are in blossom at our +feet. + +Jerome Bonaparte, leading the attack, moves on Hougoumont, where the +Allies, who have come down from Mont St. Jean, repulse him. He renews +the attack "with redoubled fury," and a gallant resistance is made, +but he forces a way into the outer enclosure of the chateau that +crowns the hill. British howitzers are at once discharged upon the +French and compel them to retreat. New assaults are then made. +Overwhelming numbers seem to bear down upon the Allies. The stronghold +is more than once nearly lost, but it is defended with "prodigies of +valor" and firmly held to the last. Had Hougoumont been taken, the +result of the battle "would probably have been very different." + +Meanwhile, the Emperor has ordered a second attack elsewhere--this +time against the left wing of Wellington. Marshal Ney sends forward +six divisions, who encounter the Netherlandish troops and easily +scatter them. Two brigades of British numbering 3,000 men then prepare +to check the advancing French. A struggle, brief but fierce, ensues, +in which the French are repulsed. They rally again, however, and +Scotch Highlanders, their bagpipes sounding the cry, advance against +them, along with an English brigade. These make an impetuous assault, +while cavalry charge Napoleon's infantry, and force a part of them +back on La Belle Alliance. But here the pursuing British meet with a +check in a scene of wild carnage that sweeps over the field. + +We may look down upon the scene of that frightful struggle. It lies +just below us. Grass is growing there luxuriantly now. A north wind +sweeps over the plain. A mournful requiem seems to whistle through the +poplar trees. + +If we look toward Hougoumont, French gunners are seen to have been +slain. Many cannon are silent. With the chateau in flames, confusion +reigns. Napoleon, ordering a new cavalry attack, directs Jerome to +advance with his infantry. Immediately the Allies discharge grape +and canister on the advancing host. But no Frenchman wavers. On the +contrary, the French cavalry capture Wellington's outward battalion +and press onward toward his hollow squares of infantry. All efforts to +break these squares end in failure. For a time the French abandon the +attack, but only to renew it and then follows a remarkable scene. The +French charge with unprecedented fury, and the squares are partially +broken, while friends and enemies, wounded or killed, are mingled in +inextricable confusion. + +Some of the Belgian troops take flight and in mad terror run back to +Brussels, causing great consternation there by reporting a defeat for +Wellington. The squares maintain their ground to the end admirably, +and with severe losses the French retire. Hougoumont near by, all this +time was not silent. The attack being continued, the commander is +killed and at last its heights are gained. From elsewhere in the +field, Wellington learns of his loss, places himself at the head of a +brigade, and commands it to charge. Amid the utmost enthusiasm of the +Allies the French are driven back from Hougoumont. + +Napoleon now turns his efforts against La Haye Sainte, a small height +forward from Mont St. Jean, occupied by the enemy's left wing. Ney, +in a furious cannonade, begins the attack, in which the Allies are +overwhelmed and their ammunition is exhausted. Masters of this point, +the French again move on Hougoumont. It is seven o'clock in the +evening, with Napoleon in fair way to succeed, but his men are already +exhausted and their losses are heavy. Some of them plunge into that +famous sunken road, unheeded of him and them, and still so great a +mystery to historians. It was a charging cavalry column that plunged +in, unknowingly, rider and horse together, in indescribable confusion +and dismay. We may see that road to-day, for we have walked in a part +of it when coming across the plain from the station--a narrow road cut +many feet deep, its bed paved with little stones. Hugo's words on that +frightful scene are these: + +"There was the ravine, unlooked for, yawning at the very feet of the +horses, two fathoms deep between its double slope. The second rank +pushed in the first, the third pushed in the second; the horses +reared, threw themselves over, fell upon their backs, and struggled +with their feet in the air, piling up and overturning their riders; no +power to retreat; the whole column was nothing but a projectile. The +force acquired to crush the English crusht the French. The inexorable +ravine could not yield until it was filled; riders and horses rolled +in together pell-mell, grinding each other, making common flesh in +this dreadful gulf, and when this grave was full of living men, the +rest marched over them and passed on. Almost a third of the Dubois' +brigade sank into this abyss." + +Two hours before this, Bluecher, with his Prussians, had +appeared--Bluecher who was to turn the tide of battle. He had promised +Wellington to be there. His soldiers had complained bitterly on the +long march over muddy ground, but he told them his word as a soldier +must be kept. From far beyond La Belle Alliance had Bluecher come, a +cow boy showing him the way--a boy who, if he had not known the way, +or had lied, might have saved Napoleon from St. Helena. The ground +where Bluecher entered the field is just visible to us from the mound +as with strained eyes, we peer through the morning mist. During Ney's +attack, Bluecher opens fire on La Haye Sainte. By six o'clock he has +forty-eight guns in action and some of the guns send shot as far as La +Belle Alliance. As the conflict deepens, Napoleon's fortunes are seen +to be obviously in grave, if not critical, danger, but he strengthens +his right wing and again hazards Hougoumont. Eight battalions are +sent forward, an outlying stronghold is captured, but more Prussians +advance and threaten to regain the point. + +At seven o'clock while Ney is renewing the attack on Hougoumont other +Prussians appear. The real crisis being at hand, Napoleon resolves +on a final, concentrated movement against the enemy's center. His +soldiers being worn out and discouraged, he gives out a false report +that reinforcements are at last coming--that Grouchy has not failed +him. A furious cannonade opens this new attack, causing "frightful +havoc" among the Allies. The Prince of Orange holds back the French +on the very ground where the lion is now elevated, but falls wounded. +Napoleon, in an address to the Imperial Guard, rouses them to great +enthusiasm. For a half hour longer the French bear down on the enemy, +but British gunners make gaps in their ranks. With his horse shot from +under him, Ney goes forward on foot. + +The Duke now takes personal command. He sends a shower of grape and +cannister against a column of French veterans, but they never waver. +Reserves, suddenly called for, pour a fierce charge against the +advancing French, rending them asunder. The attack is closely followed +up and the French are driven down the hill. Elsewhere in the field the +battle still rages. Bluecher continues his attack on Napoleon's right +and forces it back. Reduced to despair, Napoleon now gives his final +and famous order: "Tout est perdu! Sauve qui peut." But the Young +Guard resists Bluecher. Wellington, descending from his height, follows +the retreating enemy as far as La Belle Alliance. At eight o'clock, +after a most sanguinary struggle, the Young Guard yields. The success +of Bluecher elsewhere completes the victory of the Allies. + +One man will never surrender--Cambronne. Who was Cambronne? No one +can tell you more than this--he was the man at Waterloo who would not +surrender. "The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders." "Among those +giants then," says Hugo, "there was one Titan--Cambronne. The man +who won the battle of Waterloo was not Napoleon, put to rout; not +Wellington, giving way at four o'clock, desperate at five; not +Bluecher, who did not fight. The man who won the battle of Waterloo +was Cambronne. To fulminate at the thunderbolt which kills you, is +victory." + +As we look over this field from our height and try to realize what +mighty fortunes were here at stake, we note that the mementoes of +that day are few. A Corinthian column and an obelisk are seen at the +roadside as memorials of the bravery of two officers. This Lion's +Mound, two hundred feet high and made from earth piled up by cart +loads, commemorates the place where a prince was wounded. Colossal in +size, the lion was cast from French cannon captured in the fight. On +this broad plain upward of 50,000 men, who had mothers, sisters, +and wives at home, gave up their lives. Poplar trees sigh forth +perpetually their funeral dirge. Grass grows where their blood was +poured out. Modern Europe can show few scenes of more sublime tragedy. +Our visiting day, with its chilling air and penetrating rain, has +been a fit day for seeing Waterloo. The old woman who served me with +breakfast spoke English easily. It was well--doubly well. No other +language than English should be spoken on the field of Waterloo. I +passed a few French words with the boy who called off the dogs, but +was afterward sorry for having done so. + + + + +ANTWERP[A] + +[Footnote A: From "The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium." Published +by James Pott & Co.] + +BY T. FRANCIS BUMPUS + + +Byzantium--Venice--Antwerp, these are the centers around which the +modern world has revolved, for we must include its commercial with its +social progress, and with those interests which develop with society. +Indeed, the development of the arts has always run concurrently with +commerce. One could wish to add that the converse were equally true. + +Antwerp--the city on the wharf--became famous at the beginning of +the sixteenth century under the reign of the enterprising Charles V. +"Antwerp was then truly a leading city in almost all things, but +in commerce it headed all the cities of the world," says an old +chronicler. Bruges, the great banking center yielded her position, +and the Hanseatic merchants removed to the banks of the Scheldt. "I +was astonished, and wondered much when I beheld Antwerp," wrote an +envoy of the Italian Republic, "for I saw Venice outdone." + +In what direction Venice was outdone is not recorded. Not in her +architecture, at least; scarcely in her painting. We can not concede +a Tintoretto for a Rubens. Yet, as Antwerp was the home of Matsys, +of Rubens, Van Dyck, and the Teniers, the home also of Christopher +Plantin, the great printer, her glory is not to be sought in trade +alone. She is still remembered as a mother of art and letters, while +her mercantile preeminence belongs to a buried past. + +It must, however, be confest that the fortunes of Antwerp as a city, +prospering in its connection with the Hanseatic League, were anything +but advantageous to the student of architectural history. Alterations +and buildings were the order of the day, and so lavish were the means +devoted to the work that scarcely a vestige of architecture in the +remains is of earlier date than the fourteenth century. + +The grandly dimensioned churches raised in every parish afford ample +evidence of the zeal and skill with which the work of reconstruction +was prosecuted, and as specimens of the style of their day can not +fail to elicit our admiration by the nobility of their proportions, so +that in the monuments the wealthy burghers of Antwerp have left us we +have perhaps no reason to regret their zeal. At the same time, one +is tempted to wish that they had spared the works of earlier date by +raising their new ones on fresh ground, instead of such wholesale +demolition of the labors of preceding generations. + +Notre Dame at Antwerp, the most spacious church in the Netherlands, +originated in a chapel built for a miraculous image of the Blessed +Virgin. This chapel was reconstructed in 1124, when the canons of St. +Michel, having ceded their church to the Praemonstratensians, removed +hither. Two centuries later, the canons of St. Michel, animated by the +prevailing spirit, determined on rebuilding their church on a more +magnificent scale, and they commenced the work in 1352 by laying the +foundations for a new choir. But slow progress was made with this +great undertaking, more than two centuries and a half elapsing before +the church assumed that form with which we are familiar to-day. In +1520, the chapter, dissatisfied with its choir, started upon the +erection of a new one, the first stone of which was laid in the +following year by the Emperor Charles V., accompanied by King +Christian II. of Denmark and a numerous retinue. + +The new plan included a crypt, partly above ground, probably like that +we see in St. Paul's in the same town, and the work was progressing +when, in 1533, a disastrous fire did such damage to the western parts +of the church that the project of enlargement was suspended, and +the funds destined for its employment were applied to restoring the +damaged portions. Had the design been realized, the eastern limb of +the church would have been doubled in size. + +As regards its dimensions, Notre Dame at Antwerp is one of the most +remarkable churches in Europe, being nearly 400 feet long by 170 feet +in width across the nave, which, inclusive of that covered by the +western towers, has seven bays, and three aisles on either side. This +multiplication of aisles gives a vast intricacy and picturesqueness to +the cross views of the interior; but there is a poverty of detail, and +a want of harmony among the parts and of subordination and +proportion, sadly destructive of true architectural effect; so that, +notwithstanding its size, it looks much smaller internally than many +of the French cathedrals of far less dimensions. If there had been ten +bays in the nave instead of only seven, and the central division had +been at least ten feet wider, which could easily have been spared from +the outermost aisles, the apparent size of the church would have been +much greater. The outermost south aisle is wider than the nave, and +equal in breadth to the two inner aisles; the northernmost aisle is +not quite so broad. + +The transepts have no aisles, but they are continued beyond the line +of the nave aisles, so that they are more than usually elongated. The +two inner aisles of the nave open into the transepts, but the outer +ones, which, it should be remarked, are continuous, and not divided +into a series of chapels, are walled up at their eastern extremities. + +The choir consists of three bays, but has only one aisle on either +side. This is continued round the apse, and five pentagonal chapels +radiate from it. Three chapels flank the north aisle of the choir, the +first two opening, as does the north transept, into one large chapel +of the same breadth as the southernmost aisle of the nave.... The +facade is flanked by towers equal in width to the two inner aisles of +the nave. The northern one has alone been completed, and altho it may +seem to a severe judgment to possess some of the defects of the +late Flemish style, it is rivaled for beauty of outline only by the +flamboyant steeples of Chartres and Vienna. As might be expected from +its late age--it was not finished until 1530--this northwestern spire +of Notre Dame at Antwerp exhibits some extravagances in design and +detail, but the mode in which the octagonal lantern of openwork +bisects the faces of the solid square portion with its alternate +angles, thus breaking the outline without any harsh or disagreeable +transition, is very masterly, while the bold pinnacles, with their +flying buttresses, which group around it, produce a most pleasing +variety, the whole serving to indicate the appearance the steeple of +Malines would have presented had it been completed according to the +original design. + +If size were any real test of beauty, the interior or Notre Dame at +Antwerp ought to be one of the finest in Belgium. Unfortunately, altho +it was begun at a time when the pointed style had reached the full +maturity of perfection, a colder and more unimpressive design than is +here carried out it would be difficult to find. Still, notwithstanding +the long period that elapsed between its commencement and completion, +there is a congruity about the whole building which is eminently +pleasing, and to some extent redeems the defects in its details and +proportions, while the views afforded in various directions by the +triple aisles on either side of the nave are undeniably picturesque. + +The high altarpiece, placed on the chord of the apse, is a noble and +sumptuous example of early Renaissance taste and workmanship, but like +the stallwork, its dimensions are such as to diminish the scale of the +choir, the five arches opening to the procession path being completely +obscured by it. Of the numerous creations of Rubens' pencil none +perhaps more thoroughly declares to us his comprehension of religious +decorative art than the "Assumption" which fills the arched +compartment in the lower portion of this altarpiece. It was finished +in 1625, and, of twenty repetitions of the subject, is the only +example still preserved at the place it was intended by the painter +to occupy. In spirit we are reminded of Titian's "Assumption" in the +cathedral at Verona, but Rubens' proves perhaps a higher conception +of the subject. The work is seen a considerable way off, and every +outline is bathed in light, so that the Virgin is elevated to dazzling +glory with a power of accession scarcely, if ever, attained by any +master. + +In the celebrated "Descent from the Cross," which hangs in the +south transept, the boldness of the composition, the energy in the +characters, the striking attitudes and grouping, the glowing, vigorous +coloring, are astonishing proofs of Rubens' power. The circumstances +which gave rise to this wondrous effort of art are interesting. It is +said that Rubens, in laying the foundations of his villa near Antwerp, +had unwittingly infringed on some ground belonging to the Company +of Gunsmiths (arquebusiers). A law suit was threatened, and Rubens +prepared to defend it, but, being assured by one of the greatest +lawyers of the city that the right lay with his opponents, he +immediately drew back, and offered to paint a picture by way of +recompense. The offer was accepted, and the company required a +representation of its patron saint, St. Christopher, to be placed in +its chapel in the cathedral, which at that time Notre Dame was. + +Rubens, with his usual liberality and magnificence, presented to his +adversaries, not merely a single representation of the saint, but +an elaborate illustration of his name--The Christ-bearer. The +arquebusiers were at first disappointed not to have their saint +represented in the usual manner, and Rubens was obliged to enter +into an explanation of his work. Thus, without knowing it, they had +received in exchange for a few feet of land a treasure which neither +money nor lands can now purchase. The painting was executed by +Rubens soon after his seven years' residence in Italy, and while the +impression made by the work of Titian and Paul Veronese were yet fresh +in his mind. The great master appeared in the fulness of his glory in +this work--it is one of the few which exhibits in combination all +that nature had given him of warmth and imagination--with all that he +acquired of knowledge, judgment and method, and in which he may be +considered fully to have overcome the difficulties of a subject which +becomes painful, and almost repulsive, when it ceases to be sublime. + + + + +VII + +HOLLAND + + + + +HOW THE DUTCH OBTAINED THEIR LAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +The first time that I crossed the old Rhine, I had stopt on the +bridge, asking myself whether that small and humble stream of water +was really the same river that I had seen rushing in thunder over the +rocks at Schaffhausen, spreading majestically before Mayence, passing +in triumph under the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, beating in sonorous +cadence at the foot of the Seven Mountains; reflecting in its course +Gothic cathedrals, princely castles, fertile hills, steep rocks, +famous ruins, cities, groves, and gardens; everywhere covered with +vessels of all sorts, and saluted with music and song; and thinking of +these things, with my gaze fixt upon the little stream shut in between +two flat and desert shores, I had repeated, "Is this that Rhine?" + +The vicissitudes which accompany the agony and death of this great +river in Holland, are such as really to excite a sense of pity, such +as is felt for the misfortunes and inglorious end of a people once +powerful and happy. From the neighborhood of Emmerich, before reaching +the Dutch frontier, it has lost all the beauty of its banks, and flows +in great curves through vast and ugly flats, which seem to mark the +approach to old age. At Millingen it runs entirely in the territory of +Holland; a little farther on it divides. The main branch shamefully +loses its name, and goes to throw itself into the Meuse: the other +branch, insulted by the title of the Dannerden canal, flows nearly to +the city of Arnehm, when it once more divides into two branches. One +empties into the Gulf of Zuyder-Zee; the other still called, out of +compassion, the Lower Rhine, goes as far as the village of Durstede, +where it divides for the third time; a humiliation now of old date. + +One of these branches, changing its name like a coward, throws itself +into the Meuse near Rotterdam; the other still called the Rhine, +but with the ridiculous surname of "curved," reaches Utrecht with +difficulty, where for the fourth time it again divides; capricious as +an old man in his dotage. One part, denying its old name, drags itself +as far as Muiden, where it falls into the Zuyder-Zee; the other, with +the name of Old Rhine, or simply the Old, flows slowly to the city +of Leyden, whose streets it crosses almost without giving a sign of +movement, and is finally gathered into one canal by which it goes to +its miserable death in the North Sea. + +But it is not many years since this pitiful end was denied it. From +the year 839, in which a furious tempest had accumulated mountains of +sand at its mouth, until the beginning of the present century, the Old +Rhine lost itself in the sand before reaching the sea, and covered a +vast tract of country with pools and marshes. Under the reign of Louis +Bonaparte the waters were collected into a large canal protected +by three enormous sluicegates, and from that time the Rhine flows +directly to the sea. These sluices are the greatest monument in +Holland and, perhaps, the most admirable hydraulic work in Europe. + +The dikes which protect the mouth of the canal, the walls, pillars, +and gates, present altogether the aspect of a Cyclopian fortress, +against which it seems that not only that sea, but the united forces +of all seas, must break as against a granite mountain. When the tide +rises the gates are closed to prevent the waters from invading the +land; when the tide recedes they are opened to give passage to the +waters of the Rhine which have accumulated behind them; and then a +mass of three thousand cubic feet of water passes through them in one +minute. On days when storms prevail, a concession is made to the sea, +and the most advanced of the sluicegates is left open; and then the +furious billows rush into the canal, like an enemy entering by a +breach, but they break upon the formidable barrier of the second gate, +behind which Holland stands and cries, "Thus far shalt thou go, and +no farther!" That enormous fortification which, on a desert shore, +defends a dying river and a fallen city from the ocean, has something +of solemnity which commands respect and admiration.... + +Napoleon said that it [Holland] was an alluvion of Trench rivers--the +Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Meuse--and with this pretext he added +it to the empire. One writer has defined it as a sort of transition +between land and sea. Another, as an immense crust of earth floating +on water. Others, an annex of the old continent, the China of Europe, +the end of the earth, and the beginning of the ocean, a measureless +raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it the country nearest to +hell. + +But they all agreed upon one point, and all exprest it in the same +words:--Holland is a conquest made by man over the sea--it is an +artificial country--the Hollanders made it--it exists because the +Hollanders preserve it--it will vanish whenever the Hollanders shall +abandon it. + +To comprehend this truth, we must imagine Holland as it was when first +inhabited by the first German tribes that wandered away in search of +a country. It was almost uninhabitable. There were vast tempestuous +lakes, like seas, touching one another; morass beside morass; one +tract covered with brushwood after another; immense forests of pines, +oaks, and alders, traversed by herds of wild horses; and so thick were +these forests that tradition says one could travel leagues passing +from tree to tree without ever putting foot to the ground. The deep +bays and gulfs carried into the heart of the country the fury of the +northern tempests. Some provinces disappeared once every year under +the waters of the sea, and were nothing but muddy tracts, neither land +nor water, where it was impossible either to walk or to sail. The +large rivers, without sufficient inclination to descend to the sea, +wandered here and there uncertain of their day, and slept in monstrous +pools and ponds among the sands of the coasts. It was a sinister +place, swept by furious winds, beaten by obstinate rains, veiled in a +perpetual fog, where nothing was heard but the roar of the sea, and +the voice of wild beasts and birds of the ocean. + +Now, if we remember that such a region has become one of the most +fertile, wealthiest and best regulated of the countries of the world, +we shall understand the justice of the saying that Holland is a +conquest made by man. But, it must be added, the conquest goes on +forever. + +To drain the lakes of the country the Hollanders prest the air into +their service. The lakes, the marshes, were surrounded by dikes, +the dikes by canals; and an army of windmills, putting in motion +force-pumps, turned the water into the canals, which carried it off +to the rivers and the sea. Thus vast tracts of land buried under the +water, saw the sun, and were transformed, as if by magic, into fertile +fields, covered with villages, and intersected by canals and roads. In +the seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes +were drained. At the beginning of the present century, in North +Holland alone, more than six thousand hectares, or fifteen thousand +acres, were thus redeemed from the waters; in South Holland, before +1844, twenty-nine thousand hectares; in the whole of Holland, from +1500 to 1858, three hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. +Substituting steam-mills for windmills, in thirty-nine months was +completed the great undertaking of the draining of the lake of +Haarlem, which measured forty-four-kilometers in circumference, +and for ever threatened with its tempests the cities of Haarlem, +Amsterdam, and Leyden. And they are now meditating the prodigious work +of drying up the Zuyder-Zee, which embraces an area of more than seven +hundred square kilometers. + +But the most tremendous struggle was the battle with the ocean. +Holland is in great part lower than the level of the sea; +consequently, everywhere that the coast is not defended by sand-banks, +it has to be protected by dikes. If these interminable bulkwarks of +earth, granite, and wood were not there to attest the indomitable +courage and perseverance of the Hollanders, it would not be believed +that the hand of man could, even in many centuries have accomplished +such a work. In Zealand alone the dikes extend to a distance of more +than four hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of +Walcheren is defended by a dike, in which it is computed that the +expense of construction added to that of preservation, if it were put +out at interest, would amount to a sum equal in value to that which +the dike itself would be worth were it made of massive copper. + +Around the city of Helder, at the northern extremity of North Holland, +extends a dike ten kilometers long, constructed of masses of Norwegian +granite, which descends more than sixty meters into the sea. The whole +province of Friesland, for the length of eighty-eight kilometers, is +defended by three rows of piles sustained by masses of Norwegian and +German granite. Amsterdam, all the cities of the Zuyder Zee, and all +the islands--fragments of vanished lands--which are strung like beads +between Friesland and North Holland, are protected by dikes. From the +mouths of the Ems to those of the Scheldt Holland is an impenetrable +fortress, of whose immense bastions the mills are the towers, the +cataracts are the gates, the islands the advanced forts; and like a +true fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tops of +its bell-towers and the roofs of its houses, as if in defiance and +derision. + +Holland is a fortress, and her people live as in a fortress on a +war-footing with the sea. An army of engineers, directed by the +Minister of the Interior, spread over the country, and ordered like +an army, continually spy the enemy, watch over the internal waters, +foresee the bursting of the dikes, order and direct the defensive +works. The expenses of the war are divided; one part to the State, +one part to the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the general +imposts, a special impost for the dikes, in proportion to the extent +of his lands and their proximity to the water. An accidental rupture, +an inadvertence, may cause a flood; the peril is unceasing; the +sentinels are at their posts upon the bulwarks at the first assault of +the sea; they shout the war-cry, and Holland sends men, material, and +money. And even when there is not a great battle, a quiet, silent +struggle is for ever going on. + +The innumerable mills, even in the drained districts, continue to work +unresting, to absorb and turn into the canals the water that falls in +rain and that which filters in from the sea. + +But Holland has done more than defend herself against the waters; +she has made herself mistress of them, and has used them for her own +defense. Should a foreign army invade her territory, she has but to +open her dikes and unchain the sea and the rivers, as she did against +the Romans, against the Spaniards, against the army of Louis XIV., and +defend the land cities with her fleet. Water was the source of her +poverty, she has made it the source of wealth. Over the whole country +extends an immense net-work of canals which serve both for the +irrigation of the land and as a means of communication. The cities, +by means of canals, communicate with the sea; canals run from town to +town, and from them to villages, which are themselves bound together +by these watery ways, and are connected even to the houses scattered +over the country; smaller canals surround the fields and orchards, +pastures and kitchen-gardens, serving at once as boundary-wall, hedge, +and roadway; every house is a little port. Ships, boats, rafts move +about in all directions, as in other places carts and carriages. The +canals are the arteries of Holland, and the water her life-blood. + +But even setting aside the canals, the draining of the lakes, and +the defensive works, on every side are seen the traces of marvelous +undertakings. The soil, which in other countries is a gift of nature, +is in Holland a work of men's hands. Holland draws the greater part of +her wealth from commerce; but before commerce comes the cultivation +of the soil; and the soil had to be created. There were sand-banks, +interspersed with layers of peat, broad downs swept by the winds, +great tracts of barren land apparently condemned to an external +sterility. The first elements of manufacture, iron and coal, were +wanting; there was no wood, because the forests had already been +destroyed by tempests when agriculture began; there was no stone, +there were no metals. + +Nature, says a Dutch poet, had refused all her gifts to Holland; the +Hollanders had to do everything in spite of nature. They began by +fertilizing the sand. In some places they formed a productive soil +with earth brought from a distance, as a garden is made; they spread +the siliceous dust of the downs over the too watery meadows; they +mixed with the sandy earth the remains of peat taken from the bottoms; +they extracted clay to lend fertility to the surface of their lands; +they labored to break up the downs with the plow; and thus in a +thousand ways, and continually fighting off the menacing waters, they +succeeded in bringing Holland to a state of cultivation not inferior +to that of more favored regions. That Holland, the sandy, marshy +country that the ancients considered all but uninhabitable, now sends +out yearly from her confines agricultural products to the value of a +hundred millions of francs, possesses about one million three hundred +thousand head of cattle, and, in proportion to the extent of her +territory, may be accounted one of the most populous of European +states. + +But however wonderful may be the physical history of Holland, her +political history is still more so. This small territory invaded from +the beginning by different tribes of the Germanic races, subjugated by +the Romans and the Franks, devastated by the Normans and by the Danes, +desolated by centuries of civil war with all its horrors, this small +people of fisherman and traders, saves its civil liberty and its +freedom of conscience by a war of eighty years against the formidable +monarchy of Philip II., and founds a republic which becomes the ark of +salvation to the liberties of all the world, the adopted country of +science, the Exchange of Europe, the station for the commerce of the +world; a republic which extends its domination to Java, Sumatra, +Hindustan, Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of +Good Hope, the West-Indies, and New York; a republic which vanquished +England on the sea, which resists the united arms of Charles II. and +Louis XIV., and which treats on equal terms with the greatest nations, +and is, for a time, one of the three Powers that decide the fate of +Europe. + + + + +ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, S.P. Putnam's Sons. +Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +It is a singular thing that the great cities of Holland, altho built +upon a shifting soil, and amid difficulties of every kind, have all +great regularity of form. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague square, +Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an +immense dike, which defends the city from the Meuse, and is called +the Boompjes, signifying, in Dutch, small trees, from a row of little +elms, now very tall, that were planted when it was first constructed. + +The whole city of Rotterdam presents the appearance of a town that +has been shaken smartly by an earthquake, and is on the point of +the falling ruin. All the houses--in any street one may count the +exceptions on their fingers--lean more or less, but the greater part +of them so much that at the roof they lean forward at least a foot +beyond their neighbors, which may be straight, or not so visibly +inclined; one leans forward as if it would fall into the street; +another backward, another to the left, another to the right, at some +points six or seven contiguous houses all lean forward together, those +in the middle most, those at the ends lass, looking like a paling +with a crowd pressing against it. At another point, two houses lean +together as if supporting one another. In certain streets the +houses for a long distance lean all one way, like trees beaten by a +prevailing wind; and then another long row will lean in the opposite +direction, as if the wind had changed. + +Sometimes there is a certain regularity of inclination that is +scarcely noticeable; and again, at crossings and in the smaller +streets, there is an indescribable confusion of lines, a real +architectural frolic, a dance of houses, a disorder that seems +animated. There are houses that nod forward as if asleep, others that +start backward as if frightened, some bending toward each other, their +roofs almost touching, as if in secret conference; some falling upon +one another as if they were drunk, some leaning backward between +others that lean forward, like malefactors dragged onward by their +guards; rows of houses that curtsey to a steeple, groups of small +houses all inclined toward one in the middle, like conspirators in +conclave. + +Broad and long canals divide the city into so many islands, united by +drawbridges, turning bridges, and bridges of stone. On either side of +every canal extends a street, flanked by trees on one side and houses +on the other. All these canals are deep enough to float large vessels, +and all are full of them from one end to the other, except a space in +the middle left for passage in and out. An immense fleet imprisoned in +a city. + +When I arrived it was the busiest hour, so I planted myself upon the +highest bridge over the principal crossing. From thence were visible +four canals, four forests of ships, bordered by eight files of trees; +the streets were crammed with people and merchandise; droves of cattle +were crossing the bridges; bridges were rising in the air, or opening +in the middle, to allow vessels to pass through, and were scarcely +replaced or closed before they were inundated by a throng of people, +carts, and carriages; ships came and went in the canals, shining like +models in a museum, and with the wives and children of the sailors on +the decks; boats darted from vessel to vessel; the shops drove a busy +trade; servant-women washed the walls and windows; and all this moving +life was rendered more gay and cheerful by the reflections in the +water, the green of the trees, the red of the houses, the tall +windmills, showing their dark tops and white sails against the azure +of the sky, and still more by an air of quiet simplicity not seen in +any other northern city. + +From canal to canal, and from bridge to bridge, I finally reached the +dike of the Boompjes upon the Meuse, where boils and bubbles all the +life of the great commercial city. On the left extends a long row of +small many-colored steamboats, which start every hour in the day for +Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gonda, Schiedam, Brilla, Zealand, and continually +send forth clouds of white smoke and the sound of their cheerful +bells. To the right lie the large ships which make the voyage to +various European ports, mingled with fine three-masted vessels bound +for the East Indies, with names written in golden letters--Java, +Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang--carrying the fancy to those distant and +savage countries like the echoes of distant voices. In front the +Meuse, covered with boats and barks, and the distant shore with a +forest of beech trees, windmills, and towers; and over all the unquiet +sky, full of gleams of light, and gloomy clouds, fleeting and changing +in their constant movement, as if repeating the restless labor on the +earth below. + +Rotterdam, it must be said here, is, in commercial importance, the +first city in Holland after Amsterdam. It was already a flourishing +town in the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on +the Low Countries, adduces a proof of the wealth of the city in the +sixteenth century, saying that in one year nine hundred houses that +had been destroyed by fire were rebuilt. Bentivoglio, in his history +of the war in Flanders, calls it "the largest and most mercantile of +the lands of Holland." But its greatest prosperity did not begin until +1830, or after the separation of Holland and Belgium, when Rotterdam +seemed to draw to herself everything that was lost by her rival, +Antwerp. + +Her situation is extremely advantageous. She communicates with the sea +by the Meuse, which brings to her ports in a few hours the largest +merchantmen; and by the same river she communicates with the Rhine, +which brings to her from the Swiss mountains and Bavaria immense +quantities of timber--entire forests that come to Holland to be +transformed into ships, dikes, and villages. More than eighty splendid +vessels come and go, in the space of nine months, between Rotterdam +and India. Merchandise flows in from all sides in such great abundance +that a large part of it has to be distributed through the neighboring +towns.... + +Rotterdam, in short, has a future more splendid than that of +Amsterdam, and has long been regarded as a rival by her elder +sister. She does not possess the wealth of the capital; but is more +industrious in increasing what she has; she dares, risks, undertakes +like a young and adventurous city. Amsterdam, like a merchant grown +cautious after having made his fortune by hazardous undertakings, +begins to doze over her treasures. At Rotterdam fortunes are made; at +Amsterdam they are consolidated; at the Hague they are spent.... + +In the middle of the market-place, surrounded by heaps of vegetables, +fruit, and earthenware pots and pans, stands the statue of Desiderius +Erasmus, the first literary light of Holland; that Gerrit Gerritz--for +he assumed the Latin name himself, according to the custom of writers +in his day--that Gerrit Gerritz belonged, by his education, his style, +and his ideas, to the family of the humanists and erudite of Italy; +a fine writer, profound and indefatigable in letters and science, he +filled all Europe with his name between the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries; he was loaded with favors by the popes, and sought after +and entertained by princes; and his "Praise of Folly," written in +Latin like the rest of his innumerable works, and dedicated to Sir +Thomas More, is still read. The bronze statue, erected in 1622, +represents Erasmus drest in a furred gown, with a cap of the same, a +little bent forward as if walking, and in the act of reading a large +book, held open in the hand; the pedestal bears a double inscription, +in Dutch and Latin, calling him, "The Foremost Man of His Century," +and "The Most Excellent of All Citizens." In spite of this pompous +eulogium, however, poor Erasmus, planted there like a municipal guard +in the market-place, makes but a pitiful figure. I do not believe that +there is in the world another statue of a man of letters that is, +like this, neglected by the passer-by, despised by those about it, +commiserated by those who look at it. But who knows whether Erasmus, +acute philosopher as he was, and must be still, be not contented with +his corner, the more that it is not far from his own house, if the +tradition is correct? In a small street near the market-place, in the +wall of a little house now occupied as a tavern, there is a niche with +a bronze statuette representing the great writer, and under it the +inscription: "This is the little house in which the great Erasmus was +born." ... + +Rotterdam in the evening presents an unusual aspect to the stranger's +eye. While in other northern cities at a certain hour of the night all +the life is concentered in the houses, at Rotterdam at that hour it +expands into the streets. The Hoog-straat is filled until far into the +night with a dense throng, the shops are open, because the servants +make their purchases in the evening, and the cafes crowded. Dutch +cafes are peculiar. In general there is one long room, divided in the +middle by a green curtain, which is drawn down at evening and conceals +the back part, which is the only part lighted; the front part, closed +from the street by large glass doors, is in darkness, so that from +without only dark shadowy forms can be seen, and the burning points +of cigars, like so many fireflies. Among these dark forms the vague +profile of a woman who prefers darkness to light may be detected here +and there.... + +Walking through Rotterdam in the evening, it is evident that the city +is teeming with life and in process of expansion; a youthful city, +still growing, and feeling herself every year more and more prest +for room in her streets and houses. In a not far distant future, her +hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants will have increased to two +hundred thousand.[A] The smaller streets swarm with children; there is +an overflow of life and movement that cheers the eye and heart; a kind +of holiday air. The white and rosy faces of the servant-maids, whose +white caps gleam on every side; the serene visages of shopkeepers +slowly imbibing great glassfuls of beer; the peasants with their +monstrous ear-rings; the cleanliness; the flowers in the windows; the +tranquil and laborious throng; all give to Rotterdam an aspect of +healthful and peaceful content, which brings to the lips the chant +of "Te Beata," not with the cry of enthusiasm, but with the smile of +sympathy.... + +[Footnote A: The population now (1914) is 418,000, as stated In the +New Standard Dictionary.] + +The Hague--in Dutch, s'Gravenhage, or s'Hage--the political capital, +the Washington of Holland, Amsterdam being the New York--is a city +half Dutch and half French, with broad streets and no canals; vast +squares full of trees, elegant houses, splendid hotels, and a +population mostly made up of the rich, nobles, officials, artists, and +literati, the populace being of a more refined order than that of the +other Dutch cities. + +In my first turn about the town what struck me most were the new +quarters, where dwells the flower of the wealthy aristocracy. In no +other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain at Paris, did I feel +myself such a very poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and +straight, flanked by palaces of elegant form and delicate color, with +large shutterless windows, through which can be seen the rich carpets +and sumptuous furniture of the first floors. Every door is closed; and +there is not a shop, nor a placard, nor a stain, nor a straw to be +seen if you were to look for it with a hundred eyes. The silence +was profound when I passed by. Only now and then I encountered some +aristocratic equipage rolling almost noiselessly over the brick +pavement, or the stiffest of lackeys stood before a door, or the +blonde head of a lady was visible behind a curtain. Passing close +to the windows and beholding my shabby traveling dress ruthlessly +reflected in the plate-glass I experienced a certain humiliation at +not having been born at least a Cavaliere, and imagined I heard low +voices whispering disdainfully: "Who is that low person?" + +Of the older portion of the city, the most considerable part is +the Binnenhof, a group of old buildings of different styles of +architecture, which looks on two sides upon vast squares, and on the +third over a great marsh. In the midst of this group of palaces, +towers, and monumental doors, of a medieval and sinister aspect, there +is a spacious court, which is entered by three bridges and three +gates. In one of these buildings resided the Stadtholders, and it is +now the seat of the Second Chamber of the States General; opposite is +the First Chamber, with the ministries and various other offices of +public administration. The Minister of the Interior has his office in +a little low black tower of the most lugubrious aspect, that hangs +directly over the waters of the marsh. + +The Binnenhof, the square to the west, called the Bintenhof, and +another square beyond the marsh, called the Plaats, into which you +enter by an old gate that once formed part of a prison, were the +theaters of the most sanguinary events in the history of Holland. + +In the Binnenhof was decapitated the venerated Van Olden Barneveldt, +the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of +that ever-recurring struggle between the burgher aristocracy and the +Statholderate, between the republican and the monarchical principle, +which worked so miserably in Holland. The scaffold was erected in +front of the edifice where the States General sat. Opposite is the +tower from which it is said that Maurice of Orange, himself unseen, +beheld the last moments of his enemy. + +The finest ornament of the Hague is its forest; a true wonder of +Holland, and one of the most magnificent promenades in the world. It +is a wood of alder-trees, oaks, and the largest beeches that are to be +found in Europe, on the eastern side of the city, a few paces from +the last fringe of houses, and measuring about one French league in +circuit; a truly delightful oasis in the midst of the melancholy Dutch +plains. As you enter it, little Swiss chalets find kiosks, scattered +here and there among the first trees, seem to have strayed and lost +themselves in an endless and solitary forest. The trees are as thickly +set as a cane-brake, and the alleys vanish in dark perspective. + +There are lakes and canals almost hidden under the verdure of their +banks; rustic bridges, deserted paths, dim recesses, darkness cool +and deep, in which one breathes the air of virgin nature, and feels +oneself far from the noises of the world. This wood, like that of +Haarlem, is said to be the remains of an immense forest that covered, +in ancient times, almost all the coast, and is respected by the Dutch +people as a monument of their national history. + + + + +HAARLEM[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-day."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +A few minutes bring us from Leyden to Haarlem by the railway. It +crosses an isthmus between the sea and a lake which covered the whole +country between Leyden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam till 1839, when it +became troublesome, and the States-General forthwith, after the +fashion of Holland, voted its destruction. Enormous engines were at +once employed to drain it by pumping the water into canals, which +carried it to the sea, and the country was the richer by a new +province. + +Haarlem, on the river Spaarne, stands out distinct in recollection +from all other Dutch towns, for it has the most picturesque +market-place in Holland--the Groote Markt--surrounded by quaint houses +of varied outline, amid which rises the Groote Kerk of S. Bavo, a +noble cruciform fifteenth-century building. The interior, however, +is as bare and hideous as all other Dutch churches. It contains a +monument to the architect Conrad, designer of the famous locks of +Katwijk, "the defender of Holland against the fury of the sea and +the power of tempests." Behind the choir is the tomb of the poet +Bilderijk, who only died in 1831, and near this the grave of Laurenz +Janzoom--the Coster or Sacristan--who is asserted in his native town, +but never believed outside it, to have been the real inventor of +printing, as he is said to have cut out letters in wood, and taken +impressions from them in ink, as early as 1423. His partizans also +maintain that while he was attending a midnight mass, praying +for patience to endure the ill-treatment of his enemies, all his +implements were stolen, and that when he found this out on his return +he died of grief. + +It is further declared that the robber was Faust of Mayence, the +partner of Gutenburg, and that it was thus that the honor of the +invention passed from Holland to Germany where Gutenberg produced his +invention of movable type twelve years later. There is a statue of the +Coster in front of the church, and, on its north side, his house is +preserved and adorned with his bust. + +Among a crowd of natives with their hats on, talking in church as in +the market-place, we waited to hear the famous organ of Christian +Muller (1735-38), and grievously were we disappointed with its +discordant noises. All the men smoked in church, and this we saw +repeatedly; but it would be difficult to say where we ever saw +a Dutchman with a pipe out of his mouth. Every man seemed to be +systematically smoking away the few wits he possest. + +Opposite the Groote Kerk is the Stadhuis, an old palace of the Counts +of Holland remodeled. It contains a delightful little gallery of the +works of Franz Hals, which at once transports the spectator into the +Holland of two hundred years ago--such is the marvelous variety of +life and vigor imprest into its endless figures of stalwart officers +and handsome young archers pledging each other at banquet tables and +seeming to welcome the visitor with jovial smiles as he enters the +chamber, or of serene old ladies, "regents" of hospitals, seated at +their council boards. The immense power of the artist is shown +in nothing so much as in the hands, often gloved, dashed in with +instantaneous power, yet always having the effect of the most +consummate finish at a distance. Behind one of the pictures is the +entrance to the famous "secret-room of Haarlem," seldom seen, but +containing an inestimable collection of historic relics of the time of +the famous siege of Leyden. + +April and May are the best months for visiting Haarlem, which is the +bulb nursery garden of the world. "Oignons a fleurs" are advertised +for sale everywhere. Tulips are more cultivated than any other flower, +as ministering most of the national craving for color; but times are +changed since a single bulb of the tulip "L'Amiral Liefkenshoch" sold +for 4,500 florins, one of "Viceroy" for 4,200, and one of "Semper +Augustus" for 13,000. + + + + +SCHEVENINGEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland of To-Day." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the author and of the publishers, Moffat, Yard & +Co. Copyright, 1909.] + +BY GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS + + +Let us go down to the North Sea and see how the Dutch people enjoy +themselves in the summer. Of course the largest of the watering-places +in the Netherlands is Scheveningen, and it has a splendid bathing +beach which makes it an attractive resort for fashionable Germans and +Hollanders, and for summer travelers from all over the world. At the +top of the long dyke is a row of hotels and restaurants, and when +one reaches this point after passing through the lovely old wood of +stately trees one is ushered into the twentieth century, for here all +is fashion and gay life, yet with a character all its own. + +Along the edge of the beach are the bathing machines in scores, and +behind them are long lines of covered wicker chairs of peculiar form, +each with its foot-stool, where one may sit, shaded, from the sun and +sheltered from the wind, and read, chat or doze by the hour. Bath +women are seen quaintly clad with their baskets of bathing dresses and +labeled with the signs bearing their names, such as Trintje or Netje; +everywhere there are sightseers, pedlers calling their wares, children +digging in the sand, strolling players performing and the sound of +bands of music in the distance. So there is no lack of amusement here +during the season. + +The spacious Kurhaus with its verandas and Kursaal, which is large +enough to accommodate 2,500 people, is in the center of the dike. +There are concerts every evening, and altho the town is filled with +hotels, during the months of June, July, August, and September they +are quite monopolized by the Hollanders and the prices are very high. + +The magnificent pier is 450 yards long. The charges for bathing are +very moderate, varying from twenty cents for a small bathing box to +fifty cents for a large one, including the towels. Bathing costumes +range from five to twenty-five cents. The tickets are numbered, and as +soon as a machine is vacant a number is called by the "bath man" and +the holder of the corresponding number claims the machine. The basket +chairs cost for the whole day twenty cents, Dutch money. One may +obtain a subscription to the "Kurhaus" at a surprisingly reasonable +rate for the day, week or season. There is a daily orchestra; ballet +and operatic concerts once a week; dramatic performances and frequent +hops throughout the season. + +There is a local saying that when good Dutchmen die they go to +Scheveningen, and this is certainly their heaven. To stand on the pier +on a fine day during the season looking down on these long lines of +wicker chairs, turned seaward, is an astonishing sight. They are +shaped somewhat like huge snail-shells, and around these the children +delight to dig in the sand, throwing up miniature dunes around +one. Perhaps no seashore in the world has been painted so much as +Scheveningen. Mesdag, Maris, Alfred Stevens, to name only a few of the +artists, have found here themes for many paintings, and the scene is +a wonderful one when the homing fleet of "Boms," as the fishing-boats +are called, appears in the offing to be welcomed by the fisherwomen. +There are other smaller watering-places on the coast, but Scheveningen +is unique. + +In the little fishing town itself, the scene on the return of the men +is very interesting. Women and children are busily hurrying about from +house to house, and everywhere in the little streets are strange signs +chalked up on the shutters, such as "water en vuur te koop," that is +water and fire for sale; and here are neatly painted buckets of iron, +each having a kettle of boiling water over it and a lump of burning +turf at the bottom. Fish is being cleaned and the gin shops are well +patronized, for it seems a common habit in this moist northern climate +frequently to take "Een sneeuw-balletje" of gin and sugar, which does +not taste at all badly, be it said. All sorts of strange-looking +people are met in the little narrow street, and all doing +strange-looking things, but with the air of its being in no wise +unusual with them. All in all, Scheveningen is an entertaining spot in +which to linger. + + + + +DELFT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +An excursion must be made to Delft, only twenty minutes distant from +The Hague by rail. Pepys calls it "a most sweet town, with bridges +and a river in every street," and that is a tolerably accurate +description. It seems thinly inhabited, and the Dutch themselves +look upon it as a place where one will die of ennui. It has scarcely +changed with two hundred years. The view of Delft by Van der Meer in +the Museum at The Hague might have been painted yesterday. All the +trees are dipt, for in artificial Holland every work of Nature is +artificialized. At certain seasons, numbers of storks may be seen +upon the chimney-tops, for Delft is supposed to be the stork town par +excellence. Near the shady canal Oude Delft is a low building, once +the Convent of St. Agata, with an ornamental door surmounted by a +relief, leading into a courtyard. It is a common barrack now, for +Holland, which has no local histories, has no regard whatever for its +historic associations or monuments. Yet this is the greatest shrine of +Dutch history, for it is here that William the Silent died. + +Philip II. had promised 25,000 crowns of gold to any one who would +murder the Prince of Orange. An attempt had already been made, but had +failed, and William refused to take any measures for self-protection, +saying, "It is useless: my years are in the hands of God; if there is +a wretch who has no fear of death, my life is in his hand, however I +may guard it." + +At length, a young man of seven-and-twenty appeared at Delft, who +gave himself out to be one Guyon, a Protestant, son of Pierre Guyon, +executed at Besancon for having embraced Calvinism, and declared that +he was exiled for his religion. Really he was Balthazar Gerard, a +bigoted Catholic, but his conduct in Holland soon procured him the +reputation of an evangelical saint. + +The Prince took him into his service and sent him to accompany a +mission from the States of Holland to the Court of France, whence +he returned to bring the news of the death of the Duke of Anjou to +William. At that time the Prince was living with his court in the +convent of St. Agata, where he received Balthazar alone in his +chamber. The moment was opportune, but the would-be assassin had no +arms ready. William gave him a small sum of money and bade him hold +himself in readiness to be sent back to France. + +With the money Balthazar bought two pistols from a soldier (who +afterward killed himself when he heard the use which was made of the +purchase). On the next day, June 10, 1584, Balthazar returned to the +convent as William was descending the staircase to dinner, with his +fourth wife, Louise de Coligny (daughter of the Admiral who fell +in the massacre of St. Bartholomew), on his arm. He presented his +passport and begged the Prince to sign it, but was told to return +later. At dinner the Princess asked William who was the young man who +had spoken to him, for his expression was the most terrible she had +ever seen. + +The Prince laughed, said it was Guyon, and was as gay as usual. Dinner +being over, the family party were about to remount the staircase. The +assassin was waiting in a dark corner at the foot of the stairs, and +as William passed he discharged a pistol with three balls and fled. +The Prince staggered, saying, "I am wounded; God have mercy upon me +and my poor people." His sister Catherine van Schwartz-bourg asked, +"Do you trust in Jesus Christ?" He said, "Yes," with a feeble voice, +sat down upon the stairs, and died. + +Balthazar reached the rampart of the town in safety, hoping to swim +to the other side of the moat, where a horse awaited him. But he had +dropt his hat and his second pistol in his flight, and so he was +traced and seized before he could leap from the wall. + +Amid horrible tortures, he not only confest, but continued to triumph +in his crime. His judges believed him to be possest of the devil. The +next day he was executed. His right hand was burned off in a tube of +red-hot iron; the flesh of his arms and legs was torn off with red-hot +pincers; but he never made a cry. It was not till his breast was cut +open, and his heart torn out and flung in his face, that he expired. +His head was then fixt on a pike, and his body, cut into four +quarters, exposed on the four gates of the town. + +Close to the Prinsenhof is the Oude Kerk with a leaning tower. It is +arranged like a very ugly theater inside, but contains, with +other tombs of celebrities, the monument of Admiral van Tromp, +1650--"Martinus Harberti Trompius"--whose effigy lies upon his back, +with swollen feet. It was this Van Tromp who defeated the English +fleet under Blake, and perished, as represented on the monument, in an +engagement off Scheveningen. It was he who, after his victory over the +English, caused a broom to be hoisted at his mast-head to typify that +he had swept the Channel clear of his enemies. + + + + +LEYDEN[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +Leyden, the antique Athens of the north, the Saragossa of the Low +Countries, the oldest and most illustrious of the daughters of +Holland, is one of those cities which make you thoughtful upon first +entering them, and are remembered for a long time afterward with a +certain impression of sadness. + +I had hardly arrived when the chill of a dead city seemed to fall upon +me. The old Rhine, which crosses Leyden, dividing it into many islets +joined together by one hundred and fifty stone bridges, forms wide +canals and basins which contain no ship or boat, and the city seems +rather invaded by the waters than merely crossed by them. The +principal streets are very broad and flanked by rows of old +blockhouses with the usual pointed gables, and the few people seen in +the streets and squares are like the survivors of a city depopulated +by the plague. + +In the smaller streets you walk upon long tracts of grass, between +houses with closed doors and windows, in a silence as profound as +that of those fabled cities where all the inhabitants are sunk in a +supernatural sleep. You pass over bridges overgrown with weeds, and +long canals covered with a green carpet, through small squares that +seem like convent courtyards; and then, suddenly, you reach a broad +thoroughfare, like the streets of Paris; from which you again +penetrate into a labyrinth of narrow alleys. From bridge to bridge, +from canal to canal, from island to island, you wander for hours +seeking for the life and movement of the ancient Leyden, and finding +only solitude, silence, and the waters which reflect the melancholy +majesty of the fallen city. + +In 1573 the Spaniards, led by Valdez, laid siege to Leyden. In the +city there were only some volunteer soldiers. The military command was +given to Van der Voes, a valiant man, and a Latin poet of some +renown. Van der Werf was burgomaster. In brief time the besiegers +had constructed more than sixty forts in all the places where it was +possible to penetrate into the city by sea or land, and Leyden was +completely isolated. But the people of Leyden did not lose heart. +William of Orange had sent them word to hold out for three months, +within which time he would succor them, for on the fate of Leyden +depended that of Holland; and the men of Leyden had promised to resist +to the last extremity.... + +The Prince of Orange received the news of the safety of the city at +Delft, in church, where he was present at divine service. He sent the +message at once to the preacher, and the latter announced it to the +congregation, who received it with shouts of joy. Altho only just +recovered from his illness, and the epidemic still raging at Leyden, +William would see at once his dear and valorous city. He went there; +his entry was a triumph; his majestic and serene aspect put new heart +into the people; his words made them forget all they had suffered. To +reward Leyden for her heroic defense, he left her her choice between +exemption from certain imposts or the foundation of a university. +Leyden chose the university. + +How this university answered to the hopes of Leyden, it is superfluous +to say. Everybody knows how the States of Holland with their liberal +offers drew learned men from every country; how philosophy, driven +out of France, took refuge there; how Leyden was for a long time the +securest citadel for all men who were struggling for the triumph +of human reason; how it became at length the most famous school in +Europe. The actual university is in an ancient convent. One can not +enter without a sentiment of profound respect the great hall of the +Academic Senate, where are seen the portraits of all the professors +who have succeeded each other from the foundation of the university up +to the present day. + + + + +DORTRECHT[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Sketches in Holland and Scandinavia."] + +BY AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + +Our morning at Dortrecht was very delightful, and it is a thoroughly +charming place. Passing under a dark archway in a picturesque building +of Charles V., opposite the hotel, we found ourselves at once on +the edge of an immense expanse of shimmering river, with long, rich +meadows beyond, between which the wide flood breaks into three +different branches. Red and white sails flit down them. Here and there +rises a line of pollard willows or clipt elms, and now and then a +church spire. On the nearest shore an ancient windmill, colored +in delicate tints of gray and yellow, surmounts a group of white +buildings. + +On the left is a broad esplanade of brick, lined with ancient houses, +and a canal with a bridge, the long arms of which are ready to open at +a touch and give a passage to the great yellow-masted barges, which +are already half intercepting the bright red house-fronts ornamented +with stone, which belong to some public buildings facing the end of +the canal. With what a confusion of merchandise are the boats laden, +and how gay is the coloring, between the old weedy posts to which they +are moored! + +It was from hence that Isabella of France, with Sir John de Hainault +and many other faithful knights set on their expedition against Edward +II. and the government of the Spencers. + +From the busy port, where nevertheless they are dredging, we cross +another bridge and find ourselves in a quietude like that of a +cathedral close in England. On one side is a wide pool half covered +with floating timber, and, in the other half, reflecting like a mirror +the houses on the opposite shore, with their bright gardens of lilies +and hollyhocks, and trees of mountain ash, which bend their masses of +scarlet berries to the still water. Between the houses are glints of +blue river and of inevitable windmills on the opposite shore. And all +this we observe standing in the shadow of a huge church, the Groote +Kerk, with a nave of the fourteenth century, and a choir of the +fifteenth and a gigantic trick tower, in which three long Gothic +arches, between octagonal tourelles, enclose several tiers of windows. +At the top is a great clock, and below the church a grove of elms, +through which fitful sunlight falls on the grass and the dead red of +the brick pavement (so grateful to feet sore with the sharp stones of +other Dutch cities), where groups of fishermen are collecting in their +blue shirts and white trousers. + +There is little to see inside this or any other church in Holland; +travelers will rather seek for the memorials at the Kloveniers Doelen, +of the famous Synod of Dort, which was held 1618-19, in the hope of +effecting a compromise between the Gomarists, or disciples of Calvin, +and the Arminians who followed Zwingli, and who had recently obtained +the name of Remonstrants from the "remonstrance" which they had +addrest eight years before in defense of their doctrines. The +Calvinists held that the greater part of mankind was excluded from +grace, which the Arminians denied; but at the Synod of Dort the +Calvinists proclaimed themselves as infallible as the Pope, and their +resolutions became the law of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Arminians +were forthwith outlawed; a hundred ministers who refused to subscribe +to the dictates of the Synod were banished; Hugo Grotius and Rombout +Hoogerbeets were imprisoned for life at Loevestein; the body of the +secretary Ledenberg, was hung; and Van Olden Barneveldt, the friend of +William the Silent, was beheaded in his seventy-second year.... + +Through the street of wine--Wijnstraat--built over stonehouses used +for the staple, we went to the museum to see the pictures. There were +two schools of Dortrecht. Jacob Geritee Cuyp (1575); Albert Cuyp +(1605), Ferdinand Bol (1611), Nicolas Maas (1632), and Schalken (1643) +belonged to the former; Arend de Gelder, Arnold Houbraken, Dirk +Stoop, and Ary Scheffer are of the latter. Sunshine and glow were the +characteristics of the first school, grayness and sobriety of the +second. But there are few good pictures at Dort now, and some of the +best works of Cuyp are to be found in our National Gallery, [London] +executed at his native place and portraying the great brick tower of +the church in the golden haze of evening, seen across rich pastures, +where the cows are lying deep in the meadow grass. The works of Ary +Scheffer are now the most interesting pictures in the Dortrecht +Gallery. Of the subject, "Christus Consolator," there are two +representations. In the more striking of these the pale Christ is +seated among the sick, sorrowful, blind, maimed, and enslaved, who +are all stretching their hands to Him. Beneath is the tomb which the +artist executed for his mother, Cornelia Scheffer, whose touching +figure is represented lying with outstretched hands, in the utmost +abandonment of repose. + + + + +THE ZUYDER ZEE[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + + +This great basin of the North Sea, which bathes five provinces and has +an extent of more than seven hundred square kilometers, six hundred +years ago was not in existence. North Holland touched Friesland, and +where the gulf now extends there was a vast region sprinkled with +fresh-water lakes, the largest of which, the Flevo, mentioned by +Tacitus, was separated from the sea by a fertile and populous isthmus. +Whether the sea by its own force broke through the natural dikes +of the region, or whether the sinking of the land left it free to +invasion, is not certainly known. The great transformation was +completed during the course of the thirteenth century. + +About the formation of this gulf there has collected a varied and +confused history of cities destroyed and people drowned, to which has +been added in later times another history, of new cities rising on new +shores, becoming powerful and famous, and being in their turn reduced +to poor and mean villages, with streets overgrown with grass, and +sand-choked ports. Records of great calamities, wonderful traditions, +fantastic horrors, strange usages and customs, are found upon the +waters and about the shores of this peculiar sea, born but yesterday, +and already encircled with ruins and condemned to disappear; and a +month's voyage would not suffice to gather up the chief of them; but +the thought alone of beholding from a distance those decrepit +cities, those mysterious islands, those fatal sand-banks, excited my +imagination.... + +Marken is as famous among the islands of the Zuyder Zee as Broek +is among the villages of Holland; but with all its fame, and altho +distant but one hour by boat from the coast, few are the strangers, +and still fewer the natives who visit it. So said the captain as he +pointed out the lighthouse of the little island, and added that in his +opinion the reason was, that when a stranger arrived at Marken, even +if he were a Dutchman, he was followed by a crowd of boys, watched, +and commented upon as if he were a man fallen from the moon. This +unusual curiosity is explained by a description of the island. It is a +bit of land about three thousand meters in length and one thousand +in width, which was detached from the continent in the thirteenth +century, and remains to this day, in the manners, and customs of its +inhabitants, exactly as it was six centuries ago. + +The surface of the island is but little higher than the sea, and it is +surrounded by a small dike which does not suffice to protect it +from inundation. The houses are built upon eight small artificial +elevations, and form as many boroughs, one of which--the one which has +the church--is the capital, and another the cemetery. When the sea +rises above the dike, the spaces between the little hills are changed +into canals, and the inhabitants go about in boats. The houses are +built of wood, some painted, some only pitched; one only is of stone, +that of the pastor, who also has a small garden shaded by four large +trees, the only ones on the island. Next to this house are the church, +the school, and the municipal offices. The population is about one +thousand in number, and lives by fishing. With the exceptions of the +doctor, the pastor, and the school-master, all are native to the +island; no islander marries on the continent; no one from the mainland +comes to live on the island. + +They all profess the reformed religion, and all know how to read and +write. In the schools more than two hundred boys and girls are taught +history, geography, and arithmetic. The fashion of dress, which has +not been changed for centuries, is the same for all, and extremely +curious. The men look like soldiers. They wear a dark gray cloth +jacket ornamented with two rows of buttons which are in general +medals, or ancient coins, handed down from father to son. This jacket +is tucked into the waistband of a pair of breeches of the same color, +very wide about the hips and tight around the leg, fastening below the +knee; a felt hat or a fur cap, according to the season; a red cravat, +black stockings, white wooden shoes, or a sort of slipper, complete +the costume. + +That of the women is still more peculiar. They wear on their heads an +enormous white cap in the form of a miter, all ornamented with lace +and needlework, and tied under the chin like a helmet. From under the +cap, which completely covers the ears, fall two long braided tresses, +which hang over the bosom, and a sort of visor of hair comes down +upon the forehead, cut square just above the eyebrows. The dress is +composed of a waist without sleeves, and a petticoat of two colors. +The waist is deep red, embroidered in colors and costing years of +labor to make, for which reason it descends from mother to daughter, +from generation to generation. The upper part of the petticoat is gray +or blue striped with black, and the lower part dark brown. The arms +are covered almost to the elbow with sleeves of a white chemise, +striped with red. The children are drest in almost the same way, +tho there is some slight difference between girls and women, and on +holidays the costume is more richly ornamented. + + + + +THE ART OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The Dutch school of painting has one quality which renders it +particularly attractive to us Italians; it is of all others the most +different from our own, the very antithesis, or the opposite pole of +art. The Dutch and Italian schools are the two most original, or, as +has been said, the only two to which the title rigorously belongs; +the others being only daughters, or younger sisters, more or less +resembling them. Thus, even in painting Holland offers that which is +most sought after in travel and in books of travel; the new. + +Dutch painting was born with the liberty and independence of Holland. +As long as the northern and southern provinces of the Low Countries +remained under the Spanish rule and in the Catholic faith, Dutch +painters painted like Belgian painters; they studied in Belgium, +Germany, and Italy; Heemskerk imitated Michael Angelo; Bloemart +followed Correggio, and "Il Moro" copied Titian, not to indicate +others; and they were one and all pedantic imitators, who added to the +exaggerations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness, the +result of which was a bastard style of painting, still inferior to +the first, childish, stiff in design, crude in color, and completely +wanting in chiaroscuro, but not, at least, a servile imitation, and +becoming, as it were, a faint prelude to the true Dutch art that was +to be.... + +After depicting the house, they turned their attention to the country. +The stern climate allowed but a brief time for the admiration of +nature, but for this very reason Dutch artists admired her all the +more; they saluted the spring with a livelier joy, and permitted that +fugitive smile of heaven to stamp itself more deeply on their fancy. +The country was not beautiful, but it was twice dear because it had +been torn from the sea and from the foreign oppressor. The Dutch +artist painted it lovingly; he represented it simply, ingenuously, +with a sense of intimacy which at that time was not to be found in +Italian or Belgian landscape. + +The flat, monotonous country had, to the Dutch painter's eyes, a +marvelous variety. He caught all the mutations of the sky, and knew +the value of the water, with its reflections, its grace and freshness, +and its power of illuminating everything. Having no mountains, he took +the dikes for background; and with no forests, he imparted to a simple +group of trees all the mystery of a forest; and he animated the whole +with beautiful animals and white sails. + +The subjects of their pictures are poor enough--a windmill, a canal, +a gray sky;--but how they make one think! A few Dutch painters, not +content with nature in their own country, came to Italy in search of +hills, luminous skies, and famous ruins; and another band of select +artists is the result. Both, Swanevelt, Pynaeker, Breenberg, Van Laer, +Asselyn. But the palm remains with the landscapists of Holland, with +Wynants the painter of morning, with Van der Neer the painter of +night, with Rusydael the painter of melancholy, with Hobbema the +illustrator of windmills, cabins, and kitchen gardens, and with others +who have restricted themselves to the expression of the enchantment of +nature as she is in Holland. + +Simultaneously with landscape art was born another kind of painting, +especially peculiar to Holland--animal painting. Animals are the +wealth of the country; and that magnificent race of cattle which has +no rival in Europe for fecundity and beauty. The Hollanders, who owe +so much to them, treat them, one may say, as part of the population; +they wash them, comb them, dress them, and love them dearly. They are +to be seen everywhere; they are reflected in all the canals, and dot +with points of black and white the immense fields that stretch on +every side; giving an air of peace and comfort to every place, and +exciting in the spectator's heart a sentiment of patriarchal serenity. + +The Dutch artists studied these animals in all their varieties, in +all their habits, and divined, as one may say, their inner life and +sentiments, animating the tranquil beauty of the landscape with their +forms. Rubens, Luyders, Paul de Vos, and other Belgian painters, had +drawn animals with admirable mastery, but all these are surpassed by +the Dutch artists, Van der Velde, Berghum, Karel der Jardin, and by +the prince of animal painters, Paul Potter, whose famous "Bull," in +the gallery of The Hague, deserves to be placed in the Vatican beside +the "Transfiguration" by Rafael. + +In yet another field are the Dutch painters great--the sea. The sea, +their enemy, their power, and their glory, forever threatening their +country, and entering in a hundred ways into their lives and fortunes; +that turbulent North Sea, full of sinister colors, with a light of +infinite melancholy beating forever upon a desolate coast, must +subjugate the imagination of the artist. He, indeed, passes long hours +on the shore, contemplating its tremendous beauty, ventures upon its +waves to study the effects of tempests, buys a vessel and sails with +his wife and family, observing and making notes, follows the fleet +into battle, and takes part in the fight, and in this way are made +marine painters like William Van der Velde the elder, and William the +younger, like Backhuysen, Dubbels, and Stork. + +Another kind of painting was to arise in Holland, as the expression of +the character of the people and of republican manners. A people that +without greatness had done so many great things, as Michelet says, +must have its heroic painters, if we call them so, destined to +illustrate men and events. But this school of painting--precisely +because the people were without greatness, or, to express it better, +without form of greatness, modest, inclined to consider all equal +before the country, because all had done their duty, abhorring +adulation, and the glorification in one only of the virtues and the +triumph of many--this school has to illustrate not a few men who +have excelled, and a few extraordinary facts, but all classes of +citizenship gathered among the most ordinary and pacific of burgher +life. + +From this come the great pictures which represent five, ten, thirty +persons together, arquebusiers, mayors, officers, professors, +magistrates, administrators, seated or standing around a table, +feasting and conversing, of life size, most faithful likenesses, +grave, open faces, expressing that secure serenity of conscience +by which may be divined rather than seen the nobleness of a life +consecrated to one's country, the character of that strong, laborious +epoch, the masculine virtues of that excellent generation; all this +set off by the fine costume of the time, so admirably combining grace +and dignity; those gorgets, those doublets, those black mantles, those +silken scarves and ribbons, those arms and banners. In this field +stand preeminent Van der Heist, Hals, Covaert, Flink, and Bol.... + +Finally, there are still two important excellences to be recorded +of this school of painting--its variety, and its importance as the +expression, the mirror, so to speak, of the country. If we except +Rembrandt with his group of followers and imitators, almost all the +other artists differ very much from one another; no other school +presents so great a number of original masters. The realism of the +Dutch painters is born of their common love of nature; but each one +has shown in his work a kind of love peculiarly his own; each one has +rendered a different impression which he has received from nature and +all, starting from the same point, which was the worship of material +truth, have arrived at separate and distinct goals. + + + + +THE TULIPS OF HOLLAND[A] + +[Footnote A: From "Holland and Its People." Translated by Caroline +Tilton. By special arrangement with, and by permission of, the +publishers, G.P. Putnam's Sons. Copyright, 1880.] + +BY EDMONDO DE AMICIS + +The word "tulip" recalls one of the strangest popular follies that has +ever been seen in the world, which showed itself in Holland toward +the middle of the seventeenth century. The country at that time had +reached the height of prosperity; antique parsimony had given place to +luxury; the houses of the wealthy, very modest at the beginning of +the century, were transformed into little palaces; velvet, silk, and +pearls replaced the patriarchal simplicity of the ancient costume; +Holland had become vain, ambitious, and prodigal. + +After having filled their houses with pictures, hangings, porcelain, +and precious objects from all the countries of Europe and Asia, the +rich merchants of the large Dutch cities began to spend considerable +sums in ornamenting their gardens with tulips--the flower which +answers best to that innate avidity for vivid colors which the Dutch +people manifest in so many ways. This taste for tulips promoted their +rapid cultivation; everywhere gardens were laid out, studies promoted, +new varieties of the favorite flower sought for. In a short time the +fever became general; on every side there swarmed unknown tulips, of +strange forms, and wonderful shades or combinations of colors, full of +contrasts, caprices, and surprises. Prices rose in a marvelous way; +a new variegation, a new form, obtained in those blest leaves was an +event, a fortune. Thousands of persons gave themselves up to the study +with the fury of insanity; all over the country nothing was talked of +but petals; bulbs, colors, vases, seeds. + +The mania grew to such a pass that all Europe was laughing at it. +Bulbs of the favorite tulips of the rarer varieties rose to fabulous +prices; some constituted a fortune; like a house, an orchard, or a +mill; one bulb was equivalent to a dowry for the daughter of a rich +family; for one bulb were given, in I know not what city, two carts +of grain, four carts of barley, four oxen, twelve sheep, two casks +of wine, four casks of beer, a thousand pounds of cheese, a complete +dress, and silver goblet. Another bulb of a tulip named "Semper +Augustus" was bought at the price of thirteen thousand florins. A bulb +of the "Admiral Enkhuysen" tulip cost two thousand dollars. One day +there were only two bulbs of the "Semper Augustus" left in Holland, +one at Amsterdam and the other at Haarlem, and for one of them there +were offered, and refused, four thousand six hundred florins, a +splendid coach, and a pair of gray horses with beautiful harness. +Another offered twelve acres of land, and he also was refused. On the +registers of Alkmaar it is recorded that in 1637 there were sold in +that city, at public auction, one hundred and twenty tulips for the +benefit of the orphanage, and that the sale produced one hundred and +eighty thousand francs. + +Then they began to traffic in tulips, as in State bonds and shares. +They sold for enormous sums bulbs which they did not possess, engaging +to provide them for a certain day; and in this way a traffic was +carried on for a much larger number of tulips than the whole of +Holland could furnish. It is related that one Dutch town sold twenty +millions of francs' worth of tulips, and that an Amsterdam merchant +gained in this trade more than sixty-eight thousand florins in the +space of four months. These sold that which they had not, and those +that which they never could have; the market passed from hand to hand, +the differences were paid, and the flowers for and by which so many +people were ruined or enriched, flourished only in the imagination of +the traffickers. Finally matters arrived at such a pass that, many +buyers having refused to pay the sums agreed upon, and contests and +disorders following, the government decreed that these debts should be +considered as ordinary obligations, and that payment should be exacted +in the usual legal manner; then prices fell suddenly, as low as fifty +florins for the "Semper Augustus," and the scandalous traffic ceased. + +Now the culture of flowers is no longer a mania, but is carried on for +love of them, and Haarlem is the principal temple. She still provides +a great part of Europe and South America with flowers. The city is +encircled by gardens, which, toward the end of April and the beginning +of May, are covered with myriads of tulips, hyacinths, carnations, +auriculas, anemones, ranunculuses, camelias, primroses, and other +flowers, forming an immense wreath about Haarlem, from which travelers +from all parts of the world gather a bouquet in passing. Of late years +the hyacinth has risen into great honor; but the tulip is still king +of the gardens, and Holland's supreme affection. + +I should have to change my pen for the brush of Van der Huysem or +Menedoz, if I were to attempt to describe the pomp of their gorgeous, +luxuriant, dazzling colors, which, if the sensation given to the eye +may be likened to that of the ear, might be said to resemble a shout +of joyous laughter or a cry of love in the green silence of the +garden; affecting one like the loud music of a festival. There are +to be seen the "Duke of Toll" tulip, the tulips called "simple +precocious" in more than six hundred varieties; the "double +precocious"; the late tulips, divided into unicolored, fine, +superfine, and rectified; the fine, subdivided into violet, rose, +and striped; then the monsters or parrots, the hybrids, the thieves; +classified into a thousand orders of nobility and elegance; tinted +with all the shades of color conceivable to the human mind: spotted, +speckled, striped, edged, variegated, with leaves fringed, waved, +festooned; decorated with gold and silver medals; distinguished by +names of generals, painters, birds, rivers, poets, cities, queens, +and a thousand loving and bold adjectives, which recall their +metamorphoses, their adventures, and their triumphs, and leave in the +mind a sweet confusion of beautiful images and pleasant thoughts. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE WITH FAMOUS AUTHORS, +VOLUME 4 (OF 10)*** + + +******* This file should be named 11898.txt or 11898.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/8/9/11898 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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