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diff --git a/32289.txt b/32289.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9659d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/32289.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7733 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An American Girl Abroad, by Adeline Trafton + +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: An American Girl Abroad + +Author: Adeline Trafton + +Illustrator: Miss L. B. Humphrey + +Release Date: May 8, 2010 [EBook #32289] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD *** + + + + +Produced by Emmy, Tor Martin Kristiansen and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "At night we descended into the depths of the steamer to +worship with the steerage passengers." Page 23] + + + + +AN + +AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD. + +BY + +ADELINE TRAFTON. + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + +_BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY._ + + BOSTON: + LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. + NEW YORK: + LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM. + + + + + Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1872, + BY LEE AND SHEPARD, + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + + Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, + No. 19 Spring Lane. + + + + + I DEDICATE + + This Record of Pleasant Days + + TO MY FATHER, + + REV. MARK TRAFTON. + + + + +BOOKS FOR "OUR GIRLS." + +THE GIRLHOOD SERIES. + +By Popular Authors. + + * * * * * + +AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD. + +By ADELINE F. TRAFTON. 16mo, cloth, illustrated. $1.50. + +One of the most bright, chatty, wide-awake books of travel ever written. +It abounds in information, is as pleasant reading as a story book, and +full of the wit and sparkle of "An American Girl" let loose from school +and ready for a frolic. + + +ONLY GIRLS. + +By VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND, Author of "That Queer Girl," &c., &c. 12mo, +cloth, illustrated. $1.50. + +"It is a thrilling story, written in a fascinating style, and the plot +is adroitly handled." + +It might be placed in any Sabbath School library, so pure is it in tone, +and yet it is so free from the mawkishness and silliness that mar the +class of books usually found there, that the veteran novel reader is apt +to finish it at a sitting. + + +THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER. + +By SOPHIE MAY, Author of "Our Helen," "The Asbury Twins," &c. 12mo, +cloth, illustrated. $1.50. + +"A delightful book, original and enjoyable," says the _Brownville Echo_. + +"A fascinating story, unfolding, with artistic touch, the young life of +one of our impulsive, sharp-witted, transparent and pure-minded girls of +the nineteenth century," says _The Contributor_, Boston. + + +SALLY WILLIAMS. + +=The Mountain Girl.= By Mrs. EDNA D. CHENEY, Author of "Patience," +"Social Games," "The Child of the Tide," &c. 12mo, cloth, illustrated. +$1.50. + +Pure, strong, healthy, just what might be expected from the pen of so +gifted a writer as Mrs. Cheney. A very interesting picture of life among +the New Hampshire hills, enlivened by the tangle of a story of the ups +and downs of every-day life in this out-of-the-way locality. The +characters introduced are quaintly original, and the adventures are +narrated with remarkable skill. + + +LOTTIE EAMES. + +=Or, do your best and leave the rest.= By a Popular Author. 16mo, illus. +$1.50. + +"A wholesome story of home life, full of lessons of self-sacrifice, but +always bright and attractive in its varied incidents." + + +RHODA THORNTON'S GIRLHOOD. + +By Mrs. MARY E. PRATT. 16mo, cloth, illustrated. $1.50. + +A hearty and healthy story, dealing with young folks and home scenes, +with sleighing, fishing and other frolics to make things lively. + + +_The above six volumes are furnished in a handsome box, for $9.00, or +sold separately by all booksellers, or sent by mail, postpaid, on +receipt of price by_ + + LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + I. + + "At night we descended into the depths of the steamer + to worship with the steerage passengers." FRONTISPIECE. + + + II. + + "A dozen umbrellas were tipped up; the rain fell + fast upon a dozen upturned, expectant faces." 57 + + + III. + + "At the word of command they struck the most + extraordinary attitudes." 157 + + + IV. + + "Frowsy, sleepy, cross, and caring nothing + whatever for the sun, moon, or stars, we stood + like a company of Bedlamites, ankle deep in + the wet grass upon the summit." 176 + + + V. + + "Evidently the little old woman is going a + journey." 196 + + + VI. + + "Together we stared at him with rigid and severe + countenances." 240 + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + ABOARD THE STEAMER. + + We two alone.--"Good by."--"Are you the captain of this + ship?"--Wretchedness.--The jolly Englishman and the + Yankee.--A sail!--The Cattle-man.--The Jersey-man + whose bark was on the sea.--Church services under + difficulties.--The sweet young English face.--Down + into the depths to worship.--"Beware! I stand by + the parson."--Singing to the fishes.--Green Erin.--One + long cheer.--Farewell, Ireland. 13 + + + CHAPTER II. + + FIRST DAYS IN ENGLAND. + + Up the harbor of Liverpool.--We all emerge as + butterflies.--The Mersey tender.--Lot's + wife.--"Any tobacco?"--"Names, please."--St. + George's Hall.--The fashionable promenade.--The + coffee-room.--The military man who showed the + purple tide of war in his face.--The railway + carriage.--The young man with hair all + aflame.--English villages.--London.--No place + for us.--The H. house.--The Babes in the + Wood.--The party from the country.--We are taken + in charge by the Good Man.--The Golden + Cross.--Solitary confinement.--Mrs. B.'s at last. 27 + + + CHAPTER III. + + EXCURSIONS FROM LONDON. + + Strange ways.--"The bears that went over to + Charlestown."--The delights of a runaway without + its dangers.--Flower show at the Crystal + Palace.--Whit-Monday at Hampton Court.--A queen + baby.--"But the carpets?"--Poor Nell Gwynne.--Vandyck + faces.--Royal beds.--Lunch at the King's Arms.--O + Music, how many murders have been committed in thy + name!--Queen Victoria's home at Windsor.--A new + "house that Jack built."--The Round Tower.--Stoke + Pogis.--Frogmore.--The Knights of the Garter.--The + queen's gallery.--The queen's plate.--The royal + mews.--The wicker baby-wagons.--The state equipages. 43 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + SIGHT-SEEING IN LONDON. + + The Tower.--The tall Yankee of inquiring mind.--Our + guide in gorgeous array.--War trophies.--Knights + in armor.--A professional joke.--The crown + jewels.--The room where the little princes were + smothered.--The "Traitor's Gate."--The Houses of + Parliament.--What a throne is like.--The + "woolsack."--The Peeping Gallery for + ladies.--Westminster Hall and the law courts.--The + three drowsy old women.--The Great Panjandrum + himself.--Johnson and the pump.--St. + Paul's.--Wellington's funeral car.--The Whispering + Gallery.--The bell. 55 + + + CHAPTER V. + + AWAY TO PARIS. + + The wedding party.--The canals.--New Haven.--Around + the tea-table.--Separating the sheep from the + goats.--"Will it be a rough passage?"--Gymnastic + feats of the little steamer.--O, what were officers + to us?--"Who ever invented earrings?"--Dieppe.-- + Fish-wives.--Train for Paris.--Fellow-passengers.-- + Rouen.--Babel.--Deliverance. 68 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE PARIS OF 1869. + + The devil.--Cathedrals and churches.--The Louvre.--Modern + French art.--The Beauvais clock, with its droll, little + puppets.--Virtue in a red gown.--The Luxembourg + Palace.--The yawning statue of Marshal Ney.--Gay life + by gas-light.--The Imperial Circus.--The Opera.--How + the emperor and empress rode through the streets after + the riots.--The beautiful Spanish woman whose face was + her fortune.--Napoleon's tomb. 76 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SIGHTS IN THE BEAUTIFUL CITY. + + The Gobelin tapestry.--How and where it is made.--Pere + La-Chaise.--Poor Rachel!--The baby establishment.--"Now + I lay me."--The little mother.--The old woman who lived + in a shoe.--The American chapel.--Beautiful women and + children.--The last conference meeting.--"I'm a + proof-reader, I am." 90 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + SHOW PLACES IN THE SUBURBS OF PARIS. + + The river omnibuses.--Sevres and its porcelain.--St. + Cloud as it was.--The crooked little town.-- + Versailles.--Eugenie's "spare bedroom."--The queen + who played she was a farmer's wife.--Seven miles of + paintings.--The portraits of the presidents. 100 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + A VISIT TO BRUSSELS. + + To Brussels.--The old and new city.--The paradise and + purgatory of dogs.--The Hotel de Ville and Grand + Place.--St. Gudule.--The picture galleries.--Wiertz + and his odd paintings.--Brussels lace and an hour + with the lace-makers.--How the girls found Charlotte + Bronte's school.--The scene of "Villette." 109 + + + CHAPTER X. + + WATERLOO AND THROUGH BELGIUM. + + To Waterloo.--Beggars and guides.--The Mound.--Chateau + Hougomont.--Victor Hugo's "sunken road."--Antwerp.--A + visit to the cathedral.--A drive about the city.--An + excursion to Ghent.--The funeral services in the + cathedral.--"Poisoned? Ah, poor man!"--The + watch-tower.--The Friday-market square.--The + nunnery.--Longfellow's pilgrims to "the belfry of + Bruges." 122 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + A TRIP THROUGH HOLLAND. + + Up the Meuse to Rotterdam.--Dutch sights and + ways.--The pretty milk-carriers.--The + tea-gardens.--Preparations for the Sabbath.--An + English chapel.--"The Lord's barn."--From Rotterdam + to the Hague.--The queen's "House in the + Wood."--Pictures in private drawing-rooms.--The + bazaar.--An evening in a Dutch tea-garden.--Amsterdam + to a stranger.--The "sights."--The Jews' quarter.--The + family whose home was upon the canals.--Out of the + city.--The pilgrims. 134 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE RHINE AND RHENISH PRUSSIA. + + First glimpse of the Rhine.--Cologne and the + Cathedral.--"Shosef in ter red coat."--St. Ursula + and the eleven thousand virgins.--Up the Rhine to + Bonn.--The German students.--Rolandseck.--A search + for a resting-place.--Our Dutch friend and his + Malays.--The story of Hildegund.--A quiet Sabbath.-- + Our Dutch friend's reply.--Coblentz.--The bridge of + boats.--Ehrenbreitstein, over the river.--A scorching + day upon the Rhine.--Romance under difficulties.-- + Mayence.--Frankfort.--Heidelberg.--The ruined + castle.--Baden-Baden.--A glimpse at the gambling.--The + new and the old "Schloss."--The Black Forest.-- + Strasbourg.--The mountains. 147 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + DAYS IN SWITZERLAND. + + The Lake of Lucerne.--Days of rest in the city.--An + excursion up the Righi.--The crowd at the summit.-- + Dinner at midnight.--Rising before "the early + worm."--The "sun-rise" according to Murray.--Animated + scarecrows.--Off for a tour through Switzerland.--The + lake for the last time.--Gruetlii.--William Tell's + chapel.--Fluellen.--Altorf.--Swiss haymakers.--An hour + at Amsteg.--The rocks close in.--The Devil's Bridge.-- + The dangerous road.--"A carriage has gone over the + precipice!"--Andermatt.--Desolate rocks.--Exquisite + wild flowers.--The summit of the Furka.--A descent to + the Rhone glacier.--Into the ice.--Swiss villages.-- + Brieg.--The convent inn.--The bare little chapel on the + hill.--To Martigny. 168 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + AMONG THE EVERLASTING HILLS. + + The quaint inn.--The Falls of the Sallenches, and the + Gorge de Trient.--Shopping in a Swiss village.--A + mule ride to Chamouni.--Peculiarities of the + animals.--Entrance to the village.--Egyptian mummies + lifted from the mules.--Rainy days.--Chamois.--The + Mer de Glace.--"Look out of your window."--Mont + Blanc.--Sallenches.--A diligence ride to Geneva.--Our + little old woman.--The clownish peasant.--The fork in + the road.--"Adieu." 189 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + LAST DAYS IN SWITZERLAND. + + Geneva.--Calvin and jewelry.--Up Lake Leman.--Ouchy and + Lausanne.--"Sweet Clarens."--Chillon.--Freyburg.-- + Sight-seers.--The Last Judgment.--Berne and its + bears.--The town like a story.--The Lake of Thun.-- + Interlaken.--Over the Wengern Alp.--The Falls of + Giessbach.--The Brunig Pass.--Lucerne again. 201 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + BACK TO PARIS ALONE. + + Coming home.--The breaking up of the party.--We start + for Paris alone.--Basle, and a search for a hotel.-- + The twilight ride.--The shopkeeper whose wits had + gone "a wool-gathering."--"Two tickets for Paris."-- + What can be the matter now?--Michel Angelo's Moses.-- + Paris at midnight.--The kind _commissionaire_.--The + good French gentleman and his fussy little wife.--A + search for Miss H.'s.--"Come up, come up."--"Can women + travel through Europe alone?" A word about a woman's + outfit. 220 + + + + +AN + +AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ABOARD THE STEAMER. + + We two alone.--"Good by."--"Are you the captain of + this ship?"--Wretchedness.--The jolly Englishman + and the Yankee.--A sail!--The cattle-man.--The + Jersey-man whose bark was on the sea.--Church + services under difficulties.--The sweet young + English face.--Down into the depths to + worship.--"Beware! I stand by the + Parson."--Singing to the fishes.--Green Erin.--One + long cheer.--Farewell Ireland. + + +WE were going to Europe, Mrs. K. and I--alone, with the exception of the +ship's company--unprotected, save by Him who watches over the least of +his creatures. We packed our one trunk, upon which both name and +nationality were conspicuously blazoned, with the necessaries, not +luxuries, of a woman's toilet, and made our simple preparations for +departure without a shadow of anxiety. "They who know nothing, fear +nothing," said the paterfamilias, but added his consent and blessing. +The rain poured in torrents as we drove down to the wharf. But floods +could not have dampened our enthusiasm. A wild Irishman, with a +suggestion of spirituous things in his air and general appearance, +received us at the foot of the plank, one end of which touched earth, +the other that unexplored region, the steamer. We followed the direction +of his dirty finger, and there fell from our eyes, as it were, scales. +In our ignorance, we had expected to find vast space, elegant +surroundings, glass, glare, and glitter. We peered into the contracted +quarters of the ladies' cabin. One side was filled with boxes and +bundles; the other, with the prostrate form of an old lady, her head +enveloped in a mammoth ruffle. We explored the saloon. The purser, with +a wen and a gilt-banded cap on his head, was flying about like one +distracted. An old gentleman similarly attired, with the exception of +the wen,--the surgeon as we afterwards learned,--read a large book +complacently in one corner, murmuring gently to himself. His upper teeth +lacked fixity, so to speak; and as they fell with every word, he had the +appearance of gnashing them continually at the invisible author. There +was a hurrying to and fro of round, fresh-faced stewards in short +jackets, a pushing and pulling of trunks and boxes, the sudden +appearance and disappearance of nondescript individuals in slouched hats +and water-proofs, the stirring about of heavy feet upon the deck above, +the rattling of chains, the 'yo-ing' of hoarse voices, as the sailors +pulled at the ropes, and, with it all, that sickening odor of oil, of +dead dinners--of everything, so indescribable, so never-to-be-forgotten. +Somewhat saddened, and considerably enlightened upon the subject of +ocean steamers, we sought our state-room. It boasted two berths (the +upper conveniently gained by mounting the stationary wash-stand), and a +velvet-covered sofa beneath the large, square window, which last we +learned, months later, when reduced to a port-hole for light and air, to +appreciate. A rack and half a dozen hooks against the wall completed its +furniture. + +The time of departure arrived. We said the two little words that bring +so many tears and heartaches, and ran up on the deck with the rain in +our faces, and something that was not all rain in our eyes, for one last +look at our friends; but they were hidden from sight. There comes to me +a dim recollection of attempting to mount to an inaccessible place: of +clinging to wet ropes with the intention of seeing the last of the land; +of thinking it, after a time, a senseless proceeding, and of resigning +ourselves finally to our berths and inevitable circumstances. Eight +bells and the dinner bell; some one darkened our doorway. + +"What's this? Don't give it up so. D'ye hear the dinner bell?" + +"Are--are you the captain of this ship?" gasped Mrs. K., feebly, from +the sofa. + +"To be sure, madam. Don't give it up so." + +Mrs. K. groaned. There came to me one last gleam of hope. What if it +were possible to brave it out! In a moment my feet were on the floor, +but whether my name were McGregor, or not, I could not tell. I made an +abortive attempt after the pretty hood, prepared with such pleasant +anticipations, and had a dim consciousness that somebody's hands tied it +about my head. Then we started. We climbed heights, we descended depths +indescribable, in that short walk to the saloon, and there was a queer +feeling of having a windmill, instead of a head, upon my shoulders. A +number of sympathizing faces were nodding in the most remarkable manner, +as we reached the door, and the tables performed antic evolutions. + +"Take me back!" and the berth and the little round stewardess received +me. There followed a night of misery. One can form no idea, save from +experience, of the horrors of the first night upon an ocean steamer. +There are the whir, and buzz, and jar, and rattle, and bang of the screw +and engine; the pitching and rolling of the ship, with the sensation of +standing upright for a moment, and then of being made to rest +comfortably upon the top of your head; the sense of undergoing internal +somersaults, to say nothing of describing every known curve externally. +You study physiology involuntarily, and doubt if your heart, your lungs, +or indeed any of your internal organs, are firmly attached, after all; +if you shall not lose them at the next lurch of the ship. Your head is +burning with fever, your hands and feet like ice, and you feel dimly, +but wretchedly, that this is but the beginning of sorrows; that there +are a dozen more days to come. You are conscious of a vague wonder (as +the night lengthens out interminably) what eternity _can_ be, since time +is so long. The bells strike the half hours, tormenting you with +calculations which amount to nothing. Everything within the room, as +well as without, swings, and rolls, and rattles. You are confident your +bottles in the rack will go next, and don't much care if they do, though +you lie and dread the crash. You are tormented with thirst, and the +ice-water is in that same rack, just beyond your reach. The candle in +its silver case, hinged against the wall, swings back and forth with +dizzy motion, throwing moving distorted shadows over everything, and +making the night like a sickly day. You long for darkness, and, when at +last the light grows dim, until only a red spark remains and the smoke +that adds its mite to your misery, long for its return. At regular +intervals you hear the tramp, tramp, overhead, of the relieving watch; +and, in the midst of fitful slumbers, the hoarse voices of the sailors, +as the wind freshens and they hoist the sails, wake you from frightful +dreams. At the first gray dawn of light come the swash of water and the +trickling down of the stream against your window, with the sound of the +holy-stones pushed back and forth upon the deck. And with the light--O, +blessed light!--came to us a dawn of better things. + +There followed days when we lay contented upon the narrow sofa, or +within the contracted berths, but when to lift our heads was woe. A kind +of negative blessedness--absence from misery. We felt as if we had lost +our heart, our conscience, and almost our immortal soul, to quote Mark +Twain. There remained to us only those principles and prejudices most +firmly rooted and grounded. Even our personal vanity left us at last, +and nothing could be more forsaken and appropriate than the plain green +gown with its one row of military buttons, attired in which, day after +day, I idly watched the faces that passed our door. "That's like you +Americans," said our handsome young Irish doctor, pointing to these same +buttons. "You can't leave your country without taking the spread-eagle +with you!" + +Our officers, with this one exception, were English. Our captain, a +living representative of the traditional English sailor. Not young, save +in heart; simple, unaffected, and frank in manner, but with a natural +dignity that prevented undue familiarity, he sang about the ship from +morning till night, with a voice that could carry no air correctly, but +with an enjoyment delightful to witness--always a song suggested by +existing circumstances, but with + + "Cheer, boys, cheer; my mother's sold her mangle," + +when everything else failed. He was forward among the men on the deck +with an eye to the wind, down below bringing fruit and comfort to the +sick in the steerage, dealing out apples and oranges to the children, +with an encouraging word and the first line of a song for everybody. + +The life of the ship was an Englishman, with the fresh complexion almost +invariably seen upon Englishmen, and forty years upon a head that looked +twenty-five. He was going home after a short tour through the United +States, with his mind as full of prejudices as his memorandum-book was +of notes. He chanced, oddly enough, to room with the genuine Yankee of +the company--a long, lean, good-natured individual from one of the +eastern states, "close on ter Varmont," who had a way of rolling his +eyes fearfully, especially when he glared at his food. He represented a +mowing machine company, and we called him "the Mowing Machine Man." He +accosted us one day, sidling up to our door, with, "How d'ye do to-day?" + +"Better, thank you," I replied from the sofa. + +"That's real nice. Tell ye what, we'll be glad to see the ladies out. +How's yer mar?" nodding towards the berth from which twinkled Mrs. K.'s +eyes. I laughed, and explained that our relations were of affection +rather than consanguinity. His interest increased when he found we were +travelling alone. He gave us his London address, evidently considering +us in the light of Daniels about to enter the lions' den. "Ef ye have +any trouble," said he, as he wrote down the street and number, "there's +one Yankee'll stand up for ye." He amused the Englishman by calling out, +"Hullo. D'ye feel _good_ this morning?" "No," would be the reply, with a +burst of laughter; "I feel awful wicked; think I'll go right out and +kill somebody." + +There was a shout one morning, "A sail! See the stars and stripes!" I +had not raised my head for days, but staggered across the floor at that, +and clinging to the frame, thrust my head out of the window. Yes, there +was a ship close by, with the stars and stripes floating from the +mast-head, I found, when the roll of the steamer carried my window to +its level. "Seems good ter see the old rag!" I looked up to find the +Mowing Machine Man gazing upon it with eyes all afloat. "I'd been a +thinking," said he, "all them fellers have got somebody waiting for 'em +over there,"--our passengers were mostly English,--"but there wasn't +nobody a waiting for me. Tell ye what,"--and he shook out the folds of a +red and yellow handkerchief,--"it does my heart good ter see the old +flag." There was a bond of sympathy between us from that moment. + +We had another and less agreeable specimen of this free people--a tall, +tough western cattle dealer, who quarrelled if he could find an +antagonist, swore occasionally, drank liquor, and chewed tobacco +perpetually, wore his trousers tucked into his long boots, his hands +tucked into his pockets, and, to crown these attributes, believed in +Andrew Johnson!--a middle-aged man, with soft, curling brown hair above +a face that could be cruelly cold and hard. His hair should have been +wire; his blue eyes were steel. But hard as was his face, it softened +and smoothed itself a little at sight of the sick women. He paused +beside us one day with a rough attempt to interest and amuse by +displaying a knife case containing a dozen different articles. "This is +ter take a stun out of a hoss's huf, and this, d'ye see, is a +tooth-pick;" putting it to immediate use by way of explanation. At the +table he talked long and loud upon the rinderpest, and other kindred and +appetizing topics. "I've been a butcher myself," he would say. "I've cut +up hundreds o' critters. What part of an ox, now, d'ye think that was +taken from?" pointing to the joint before him, and addressing a refined, +delicate-faced old gentleman across the table, who only stared in silent +horror. + +But even the "Cattle Man" was less marked in his peculiarities than the +"Jersey Man," a melancholy-eyed, curly-wigged individual from the Jersey +shore, who wore his slouched hat upon one side of his head, and looked +as though he were doing the rakish lover in some fifth-rate theatre; who +was "in the musical line myself; Smith and Jones's organs, you know; +that's me;" and who, being neither Smith nor Jones, we naturally +concluded must be the organ. He recited poetry in a loud tone at +daybreak, and discussed politics for hours together, arguing in the most +satisfactory manner with the principles, and standing most willingly +upon the platform, of everybody. He assumed a patronizing air towards +the Mowing Machine Man. "Well, you _are_ a green Yankee," he would say; +"lucky for you that you fell in with me;" to which the latter only +chuckled, "That's so." He had much to tell of himself, of his +grandmother, and of his friends generally, who came to see him off; +"felt awfully, too," which we could hardly credit; rolled out snatches +of sentimental songs, iterating and reiterating that his bark was on the +sea,--and a most disagreeable one we found it; wished we had a piano on +board, to which we murmured, "The Lord forbid;" and hoped we should soon +be well enough to join him in the "White Squall." He was constantly +reminding us that we were a very happy family party, so "congenial," and +evidently agreed with the Mowing Machine Man, who said, "They're the +best set of fellows I ever see. They'll tell ye anything." + +We numbered a clergyman among us, of course. "Always a head wind when +there's a parson aboard," say the sailors. So this poor dyspeptic little +man bore the blame of our constant adverse winds. Nothing more bigoted, +more fanatical than his religious belief could be imagined. You read the +terrors of the Lord in his eye; and yet he won respect, and something +more, by his consistency and zeal. Earnestness will tell. "The parson +will have great influence over the Cattle Man," the captain said, +Sabbath morning, as we were walking the deck. "The Cattle Man?" "Yes, +the parson will get a good hold of him." Just then, as if to prove the +old proverb true, that his satanic majesty is always in the immediate +neighborhood when his character is under discussion, the Cattle Man and +Jersey came up the companion-way. "If you please, captain," said the +former, "we are a committee to ask if the parson may preach to the +steerage people to-night." "Certainly," was the reply; "I will attend +myself." They thanked him, and went below, leaving me utterly amazed. +They were the last men upon the ship whom one would have selected as a +committee upon spiritual things! + +The church service for the cabin passengers was held in the saloon. A +velvet cushion upon one end of the long table constituted the pulpit, +before which the minister stood, holding fast to the rack on either +side, and bracing himself against the captain's chair in the rear. Even +then he made, involuntarily, more bows than any ritualist, and the +scripture, "What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" +would present itself. The sailors in their neat dress filed in and +ranged themselves in one corner. The stewards gathered about the door, +one, with face like an owl, most conspicuous. The passengers filled +their usual seats, and a delegation from the steerage crept shyly into +the unoccupied space--women with shawls over their heads and babies in +their arms, shock-headed men and toddling children, but all with an +evident attempt at appropriate dress and manner. Among them was one +sweet young English face beneath an old crape bonnet. A pair of shapely +hands, which the shabby black gloves could not disguise, held fast a +little child. Widowhood and want in the old world; what was waiting her +in the new? The captain read the service, and all the people responded. +The women's eyes grew wet at the sound of the familiar words. The little +English widow bent her face over the head of the child in her lap, and +something glistened in its hair. Our sympathies grew wide, and we joined +in the prayer for the queen, that she might have victory over her +enemies, and even murmured a response to the petition for Albert Edward +and the nobility, dimly conscious that they needed prayers. The good +captain added a petition for the president of the United States, to +which the Mowing Machine Man and I said, "Amen." Then the minister, +having poised himself carefully, read a discourse, sulphurous but +sincere; the Mowing Machine Man thrusting his elbow into my side in a +most startling manner at every particularly blue point. We were +evidently in sympathy; but I could have dispensed with the expression of +it. We closed with the doxology, standing upon our feet and swaying back +and forth as though it had been a Shaker chant, led by an improvised +choir and the Jersey Man. + +At night we descended into the depths of the steamer to worship with the +steerage passengers. It was like one of Rembrandt's pictures--the +darkness, the wild, strangely-attired people, the weird light from the +lanterns piercing the gloom, and bringing out group after group with +fearful distinctness; the pale, earnest face of the preacher, made +almost unearthly by the glare of the yellow light--a face with its +thin-drawn lips, its eyes like coals of fire such as the flames of +martyrdom lit once, I imagine. Close beside him stood the Cattle Man, +towering like Saul above the people, and with an air that plainly said, +"Beware--I stand by the parson." + + "There is a land of pure delight," + +repeated the minister; and in a moment the words rolled out of the +Cattle Man's mouth while he beckoned with his long arm for the people to +rise. Throwing back his head, he sang with an unction indescribable, +verse after verse, caught doubtless at some western camp-meeting, where +he had tormented the saints. One after another took up the strain. Clear +and strong came the tones from every dark corner, until, like one mighty +voice, while the steamer rolled and the waves dashed against its sides, +rose the words + + "Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, + Shall fright us from that shore." + +A great stillness fell upon the people as the minister gave out his +text, and began his discourse. He had lacked freedom in the saloon, but +here he forgot everything save the words given him; hard words they +seemed to me, containing little of the love of God. I glanced at the +Mowing Machine Man, who had made a seat of half a barrel under the +stairs. He winked in a fearful manner, as though he would say, "Just see +how he's a goin' on!" But the people received it gladly. One after +another of the sailors crept down the stairs and stood in the shadow. I +watched them curiously. It may be that this stern, hard doctrine suited +these stern, hard men. It made me shudder. + +But the record of all these days would have no end. How can I tell of +the long, happy hours, when more than strength, when perfect +exhilaration, came to us; when existence alone was a delight? To sit +upon the low wheel-house, with wraps and ribbons and hair flying in the +wind, while we sang,-- + + "O, a life on the ocean wave!" + +to admiring fishes; to watch the long, lazy swell of the sea, or the +spray breaking from the tops of the white caps into tiny rainbows; to +walk the rolling deck for hours with never a shadow of weariness; to +cling to the flag-staff when the stern of the ship rose in the air then +dropped like a heavy stone into the sea, sending the spray far over and +above us; to count the stars at night, watching the other gleaming +phosphorescent stars that seemed to have fallen from heaven upon the +long wake of the steamer,--all this was a delight unspeakable. + +One morning, when the land seemed a forgotten dream, we awoke to find +green Erin close beside us. All the day before the sea-gulls had been +hovering over us--beautiful creatures, gray above and white beneath, +clouds with a silver lining. Tiny land birds, too, flew about us, +resting wearily upon the rigging. The sea all at once became like glass. +It seemed like the book of Revelation when the sun shone on it,--the sea +of glass mingled with fire. For a time the land was but a line of rock, +with martello towers perched upon the points. On the right, Fastnet Rock +rose out of the sea, crowned with a light-house; then the gray barren +shore of Cape Clear Island, and soon the sharp-pointed Stag Rocks. It is +a treacherous coast. "I've been here many a night," said the captain, as +he gave us his glass, "when I never expected to see morning." And all +the while he was speaking, the sea smiled and smiled, as though it could +never be cruel. + +We drew nearer and nearer, until we could see the green fields bounded +by stone walls, the white, winding roads, and little villages nestling +among the hills. Towards noon the lovely harbor of Queenstown opened +before us, surrounded and almost shut in by rocky islands. Through the +glass we could see the city, with its feet in the bay. We were no longer +alone. The horizon was dotted with sails. Sometimes a steamer crossed +our wake, or a ship bore down upon us. We hoisted our signals. We dipped +our flag. The sailors were busy painting the boats, and polishing the +brass till it shone again. Now the tender steams out from Queenstown. +The steerage passengers in unwonted finery, tall hats and unearthly +bonnets, and one in a black silk gown, are running about forward, +shaking hands, gathering up boxes and bundles, and pressing towards the +side which the tender has reached. There are the shouting of orders, the +throwing of a rope, and in a moment they are crowding the plank. One +long cheer, echoed from the stern of our steamer, and they are off. + +All day we walked the deck; even the sick crawled up at last to see the +panorama. We still lingered when night fell, and we had turned away from +the land to strike across the channel, and the picture rests with me +now; the purple sky with one long stretch of purple, hazy cloud, behind +which the sun went down; the long, low line of purple rock, our last +glimpse of Ireland, and the shining, purple sea, with not a ripple upon +its surface. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FIRST DAYS IN ENGLAND. + + Up the harbor of Liverpool.--We all emerge as + butterflies.--The Mersey tender.--Lot's + wife.--"Any tobacco?"--"Names, please."--St. + George's Hall.--The fashionable promenade.--The + coffee-room.--The military man who showed the + purple tide of war in his face.--The railway + carriage.--The young man with hair all + aflame.--English villages.--London.--No place for + us.--The H. house.--The Babes in the Wood.--The + party from the country.--We are taken in charge by + the Good Man.--The Golden Cross.--Solitary + confinement.--Mrs. B.'s at last. + + +WE steamed up the harbor of Liverpool the next morning. New Brighton, +with its green terraces, its Chinese-pagoda villas, spread out upon one +side, upon the other that solid wall of docks, the barricade that breaks +the constant charges of the sea, with the masts of ships from every land +for an abattis. The wraps and shapeless garments worn so long were laid +aside; the pretty hood which had, like charity, covered so many sins of +omission, hidden, itself, at last, the soft wool stiffened with the sea +spray, the bright colors dimmed by smoke, and soot, and burning sun. We +crept shyly upon the deck in our unaccustomed finery, as though called +at a moment's notice to play another woman's part, half-learned. Not in +us alone was the transformation. The girl in blue had blossomed into a +bell--a blue bell. The Cattle Man, his hands released at last from the +thraldom of his pockets, stalked about, funereal, in wrinkled black. A +solferino neck-tie and tall hat of a pie-Adamite formation +transmogrified our Mowing Machine friend. Nondescripts, that had lain +about the deck wrapped in cocoons of rugs and shawls, emerged +suddenly--butterflies! A painful courtesy seized us all. We had doffed +the old familiar intercourse with our sea-garments. We gathered in +knots, or stood apart singly, mindful at last of our dignity. + +The Mersey tender (a tender mercy to some) puffed out to meet us, and we +descended the plank as those who turn away from home, leaving much of +our thoughts, and something of our hearts, within the ship. It had been +such a place of rest, of blessed idleness! Only when our feet touched +the wharf did we take up the burden of life again. There were the +meeting of friends, in which we had no part; the maelstrom of horses, +and carts, and struggling humanity, in which we found a most unwilling +place; and then we followed fast in the footsteps of the Mowing Machine +Man, who in his turn followed a hair-covered trunk upon the shoulders of +a stout porter, our destination the custom-house shed close by. For a +moment, as we were tossed hither and thither by the swaying mass, our +desires followed our thoughts to a certain sheltered nook, upon a still, +white deck, with the sunbeams slanting down through the furled sails +above, with the lazy, lapping sea below, and only our own idle thoughts +for company. Then we remembered Lot's wife. + +There was a little meek-faced custom-house officer in waiting, with a +voice so out of proportion to his size, that he seemed to have hired it +for the occasion, or come into it with his uniform by virtue of his +office. "Any tobacco?" he asked, severely, as we lifted the lid of our +one trunk. We gave a virtuous and indignant negative. That was all. We +might go our several ways now unmolested. One fervent expression of good +wishes among our little company, while we make for a moment a network of +clasped hands, and then we pass out of the great gates into our new +world, and into the clutches of the waiting cabmen. By what stroke of +good fortune we and our belongings were consigned to one and the same +cab, in the confusion and terror of the moment, we did not know at the +time. It was clearly through the intervention of a kind +fellow-passenger, who, seeing that amazement enveloped us like a +garment, kindly took us in charge. The dazed, as well as the lame and +lazy, are cared for, it seems. By what stroke of good fortune we ever +reached our destination, we knew still less. Our cab was a triumph of +impossibilities, uncertainties, and discomfort. Our attenuated beast, +like an animated hoop skirt, whose bones were only prevented, by the +encasing skin, from flying off as we turned the corners, experienced +hardly less difficulty in drawing his breath than in drawing his load. +We descended at the entrance to the hotel as those who have escaped from +imminent peril. We mounted the steps--two lone, but by no means lorn, +damsels, two anxious, but by no means aimless females, knowing little of +the world, less of travelling, and nothing whatever of foreign ways. +Our very air, as we entered the door, was an apology for the intrusion. + +"Names, please," said the smiling man in waiting, opening what appeared +to be the book of fate. We added ours to the long list of pilgrims and +strangers who had sojourned here, dotting our i's and crossing our t's +in the most elegant manner imaginable. If any one has a doubt as to our +early advantages, let him examine the record of the Washington Hotel, +Liverpool. The heading, "Remarks," upon the page, puzzled us. Were they +to be of a sacred or profane nature? Of an autobiographical character? +Were they to refer to the dear land we had just left? Through some +political throes she had just brought forth a ruler. Should we add to +the U. S. against our names, "As well as could be expected"? We +hesitated,--and wrote nothing. Up the wide stairs, past the transparency +of Washington--in the bluest of blue coats, the yellowest of top boots, +and an air of making the best of an unsought and rather ridiculous +position--we followed the doily upon the head of the pretty chambermaid +to our wide, comfortable room, with its formidable, high-curtained beds. +The satchels and parcels innumerable were propped carefully into +rectitude upon the dressing table, under the impression that the ship +would give a lurch; and then, gazing out through the great plate glass +windows upon the busy square below, we endeavored to compose our +perturbed minds and gather our scattered wits. + +It is not beautiful, this great city of Liverpool, creeping up from the +sea. It has little to interest a stranger aside from its magnificent +docks and warehouses. There are mammoth truck horses from Suffolk, with +feet like cart wheels; there is St. George's Hall, the pride of the +people, standing in the busy square of the same name, with a statue of +the saint himself--a terror to all dragons--just before it. It is gray, +many columned, wide stepped, vast in its proportions. Do you care for +its measurement? Having seen that, you are ready to depart; and, indeed, +there is nothing to detain one here beyond a day of rest, a moment to +regain composure after the tossing of the sea. There are some +substantial dwellings,--for commerce has its kings,--and some fine +shops,--for commerce also has its queens,--and one fine drive, of which +we learned too late. The air of endurance, which pervades the whole +city, as it does all cities in the old world, impresses one greatly, as +though they were built for eternity, not time; the founders having +forgotten that here we are to have no continuing city. In the new world, +man tears down and builds up. Every generation moulds and fashions its +towns and cities after its own desires, or to suit its own means. Man is +master. In the old world, one generation after another surges in and out +of these grim, gray walls, leaving not so much as the mark the waves +leave upon the rocks. Unchanged, unchanging, they stand age after age, +time only softening the hard outlines, deepening the shadows it has cast +upon them, and so bringing them into a likeness of each other that they +seem to have been the design of one mind, the work of one pair of hands, +and hardly of mortal mind or hands at that. They seem to say to man, "We +have stood here ages before you were born. We shall stand here ages +after you are forgotten." They must be filled with echoes, with ghosts, +and haunting memories. + +Bold Street, a tolerably narrow and winding way, in which many are found +to walk,--contrary to all precedent,--boasts the finest shops. Here the +Lancashire witches, as the beauties of the county are called, walk, and +talk, and buy gewgaws of an afternoon. It was something strange to us to +see long silken skirts entirely destitute of crinoline, ruffle, or +flounce, trailed here through mud and mire, or raised displaying low +Congress gaiters, destitute of heels. For ourselves, if we had been the +king of the Cannibal Islands, we could hardly have attracted more +attention than we did in our plain, short travelling suits and +high-heeled boots. It grew embarrassing, especially when our expression +of unqualified benevolence drew after us a train of beggars. They +crossed the street to meet us. They emerged from every side street and +alley, thrusting dirty hands into our faces, and repeating twice-told +tales in our ears, until we were thankful when oblivion and the shadow +of the hotel fell upon us. + +We dined in the coffee-room,--that comfortable and often delightfully +cosy apartment fitted with little tables, and with its corner devoted to +books, to papers and conversation,--that combination of dining, tea and +reading-room unknown to an American hotel,--sacred to the sterner sex +from all time, and only opened to us within a few years,--the gates +being forced then, I imagine, by American women, who will not consent to +hide their light under a bushel, or keep to some faraway corner, +unseeing and unseen. English women, as a rule, take their meals in +their own private parlors. Perhaps because English men generally desire +the flowers intrusted to their fostering care to blush unseen. It may be +better for the gardeners; it may be better for the flowers--I cannot +tell; but we dined in the coffee-room, as Americans usually do. One of +the _clergymen_, who attend at such places, received our order. It was +not so very formidable an affair, after all, this going down by +ourselves; or would not have been, if the big-eyed waiter, who watched +our every movement, would have left us, and the military man at the next +table, who showed "the purple tide of war," or something else, in his +face, and blew his nose like a trombone, ceased to stare. As it was, we +aired our most elegant table manners. We turned in our elbows and turned +out our toes,--so to speak,--and ate our mutton with a grace that +destroyed all appetite. We tried to appear as though we had frequently +dined in the presence of a whole battalion of soldiery, under the +scrutiny of innumerable waiters,--and failed, I am sure. "With verdure +clad" was written upon every line of our faces. The occasion of this +cross fire we do not know to this day. Was it unbounded admiration? Was +it spoons? + +Having brushed off the spray of the sea, having balanced ourselves upon +the solid earth, having seen St. George's Hall, there was nothing to +detain us longer, and the next morning we were on our way to London. We +had scrutinized our bill,--which might have been reckoned in pounds, +ounces, and penny-weights, for aught we knew to the contrary,--and +informed the big-eyed waiter that it was correct. We had also offered +him imploringly our largest piece of silver, which he condescended to +accept; and having been presented with a ticket and a handful of silver +and copper by the porter who accompanied us to the station across the +way, in return for two or three gold pieces, we shook off the dust of +Liverpool from our feet, turned our eyes from the splendors of St. +George's Hall, and set our faces steadfastly towards our destination. +There was a kind of luxury, notwithstanding our prejudices, in this +English railway carriage, with its cushions all about us, even beneath +our elbows; a restfulness unknown in past experience of travel, in the +ability to turn our eyes away from the flying landscape without, to the +peaceful quiet, never intruded upon, within. We did not miss the woman +who will insist upon closing the window behind you, or opening it, as +the case may be. Not one regret had we for the "B-o-s-t-o-n papers!" nor +for the last periodical or novel. The latest fashion gazette was not +thrown into our lap only to be snatched away, as we became interested in +a plan for rejuvenating our wardrobe; nor were we assailed by venders of +pop corn, apples, or gift packages of candy. Even the blind man, with +his offering of execrable poetry, was unknown, and the conductor +examined our tickets from outside the window. Settling back among our +cushions, while we mentally enumerated these blessings of omission, +there came a thought of the perils incurred by solitary females locked +into these same comfortable carriages with madmen. If the danger had +been so great for one solitary female, what must it be for two, we +thought with horror. We gave a quick glance at our fellow-passenger, a +young man with hair all aflame. Certainly his eyes did roll at that +moment, but it was only in search of a newsboy; and when he exclaimed, +like any American gentleman, "Hang the boy!" we became perfectly +reassured. He proved a most agreeable travelling companion. We exchanged +questions and opinions upon every subject of mutual interest, from the +geological formation of the earth to the Alabama claims. I can hardly +tell which astonished us most, his profound erudition or our own. Now, I +have not the least idea as to whether Lord John Russell sailed the +Alabama, or the Alabama sailed of itself, spontaneously; but, whichever +way it was, I am convinced it was a most iniquitous proceeding, and so +thought it safe to take high moral ground, and assure him that as a +nation we could not allow it to go unpunished. You have no idea what an +assistance it is, when one is somewhat ignorant and a good deal at a +loss for arguments, to take high moral ground. + +When we were weary of discussion, when knowledge palled upon our taste, +we pulled aside the little blue curtain, and gave ourselves up to gazing +upon the picture from the window. I doubt if any part of England is +looked upon with more curious eyes than that lying between Liverpool and +London. It is to so many Americans the first glimpse of strange lands. +Spread out in almost imperceptible furrows were the velvet turfed +meadows, the unclipped hedges a mass of tangled greenness between. For +miles and miles they stretched away, with seldom a road, never a +solitary house. The banks on either side were tufted with broom and +yellow with gorse; the hill-sides in the distance, white with chalk, or +black with the heather that would blossom into purple beauty with the +summer. We rushed beneath arches festooned, as for a gala-day, with +hanging vines. Tiny gardens bloomed beside the track at every station, +and all along the walls, the arched bridges, and every bit of stone upon +the wayside, was a mass of clinging, glistening ivy. Not the half-dead, +straggling thing we tend and shield so carefully at home, with here and +there a leaf put forth for very shame. These, bright, clear-cut, +deep-tinted, crowded and overlapped each other, and ran riot over the +land, transforming the dingy, mildewy cottages, bits of imperishable +ugliness, into things of beauty, if not eternal joys. Not in the least +picturesque or pleasing to the eye were these English villages; +straggling rows of dull red brick houses set amidst the fields--dirty +city children upon a picnic--with a foot square garden before each door, +cared for possibly, possibly neglected. A row of flower-pots upon the +stone ledge of every little window, a row of chimney-pots upon the slate +roof of every dwelling. Sometimes a narrow road twisted and writhed +itself from one to another, edged by high brick walls, hidden beneath a +weight of ivy; sometimes romantic lanes, shaded by old elms, and green +beyond all telling. The towns were much the same,--outgrown villages. +And the glimpse we caught, as we flew by, so far above the roofs often +that we could almost peep down upon the hearths through the chimney +tops, was by no means inviting. + +Dusk fell upon us with the smoke, and mist, and drizzling rain of +London, bringing no anxiety; for was there not, through the +thoughtfulness of friends, a place prepared for us? Our pleasant +acquaintance of the golden locks forsook his own boxes, and bundles, and +innumerable belongings to look for our baggage, and saw us safely +consigned to one of the dingy cabs in waiting. I trust the people of our +own country repay to wanderers there something of the kindness which +American women, travelling alone, receive at the hands of strangers +abroad. It was neither the first nor the last courtesy proffered most +respectfully, and received in the spirit in which it was offered. There +is a deal of nonsense in the touch-me-not air with which many go out to +see the world, as there is a deal of folly in the opposite extreme. But +these acquaintances of a day, the opportunity of coming face to face +with the people in whose country you chance to be, of hearing and +answering their strange questions in regard to our government, our +manners and customs, as well as in displaying our own ignorance in +regard to their institutions, in giving information and assistance when +it is in our power, and in gratefully receiving the same from +others,--all this constitutes one of the greatest pleasures of +journeying. + +Our peace of mind received a rude shock, when, after rattling over the +pavings around the little park in Queen's Square, and pulling the bell +at Mr. B.'s boarding-house, we found that we were indeed expected, but +indefinitely, and no place awaited us. We had forgotten to telegraph. It +was May, the London season, and the hotels full. "X. told us you were +coming," said the most lady-like landlady, leading us into the +drawing-room from the dank darkness of the street. There was a glow of +red-hot coals in the grate, a suggestion of warmth and comfort in the +bright colors and cosy appointments of the room--but no place for us. +"I'm very sorry; if you had telegraphed--but we can take you by Monday +certainly," she said. I counted my fingers. Two days. Ah! but we might +perish in the streets before that. Everything began to grow dark and +doleful in contemplation. Some one entered the room. The landlady turned +to him: "O, here is the good man to whose care you were consigned by X." +We gave a sigh of relief, as we greeted the Good Man, for all our +courage, like the immortal Bob Acres's, had been oozing from our finger +ends. And if we possess one gift above another, it is an ability to be +taken care of. "Do you know X.?" asked another gentleman, glancing up +from his writing at the long, red-covered table. "We travelled with +him," nodding towards his daughter, whose feet touched the fender, +"through Italy, last winter." "Indeed--" + +"I'll just send out to a hotel near by," interrupted kind Mrs. B., "and +see if you can be accommodated a day or two." How very bright the room +became! The world was not hollow, after all, nor our dolls stuffed with +sawdust. Even the cabman's rattle at the knocker, and demand of an extra +sixpence for waiting, could not disturb our serenity. The messenger +returned. Yes; we could be taken in (?) at the H. house; and accepting +Mrs. B.'s invitation to return and spend the evening, we mounted to our +places in the little cab, as though it had been a triumphal car, and +were whizzed around the corner at an alarming pace by the impatient +cabman. + +I should be sorry to prejudice any one against the H. house--which I +might perhaps say is not the H. house at all; I hardly like to compare +it to a whited sepulchre, though that simile did occur to my mind. Very +fair in its exterior it was, with much plate glass, and ground glass, +and gilding of letters, and shining of brass. It had been two +dwelling-houses; it was now one select family hotel. But the two +dwelling-houses had never been completely merged into one; never +married, but joined, like the Siamese twins. There was a confusing +double stairway; having ascended the right one, you were morally certain +to descend the wrong. There was a confusing double hall, with doors in +every direction opening everywhere but upon the way you desired to go. +We mounted to the top of the house, followed by two porters with our +luggage, one chambermaid with the key, another to ask if we would dine, +and two more bearing large tin cans of hot water. We grew confused, and +gasped, "We--we believe we don't care for any more at present, thank +you," and so dismissed them all. The furniture was so out of proportion +to the room that I think it must have been introduced in an infant +state, and grown to its present proportions there. The one window was so +high that we were obliged to jump up to look out over the mirror upon +the bureau--a gymnastic feat we did not care to repeat. The bed curtains +were gray; indeed there was a gray chill through the whole place. We sat +down to hold a council of war. We resolved ourselves into a committee of +ways and means, our feet upon the cans of hot water. "Pleasant," I said, +as a leading remark, my heart beginning to warm under the influence of +the hot water. "Pleasant?" repeated Mrs. K.; "it's enough to make one +homesick. We can't stay here." "But," I interposed, "suppose we leave +here, and can't get in anywhere else?" A vision of the Babes in the Wood +rose before me. There was a rap at the door; the fourth chambermaid, to +announce dinner. We finished our consultation hurriedly, and descended +to the parlor, where we were to dine. It was a small room, already +occupied by a large table and a party from the country; an old lady to +play propriety, a middle-aged person of severe countenance to act it, +and a pair of incipient and insipid lovers. He was a spectacled prig in +a white necktie, a clergyman, I suppose, though he looked amazingly like +a waiter, and she a little round combination of dimples and giggle. + +_He._ "Have you been out for a walk this morning?" + +_She._ "No; te-he-he-he." + +_He._ "You ought to, you know." + +_She._ "Te-he-he-he--yes." + +_He._ "You should always exercise before dinner." + +_She._ "Te-he-he-he." + +Here the words gave out entirely, and, it being remarkably droll, all +joined in the chorus. "We must go somewhere else, if possible," we +explained to Mrs. B., when, a little later, we found our way to her +door. "At least we shall be better contented if we make the attempt." +The Good Man offered his protection; we found a cab, and proceeded to +explore the city, asking admittance in vain at one hotel after another, +until at last the Golden Cross upon the Strand, more charitable than +its neighbor, or less full, opened its doors, and the good landlady, of +unbounded proportions, made us both welcome and comfortable. Quite +palatial did our neat bed-room, draped in white, appear. We were the +proud possessors, also, of a parlor, with a round mirror over the +mantel, a round table in the centre, a sofa, of which Pharaoh's heart is +no comparison as regards hardness, a row of stiff, proper arm-chairs, +and any amount of ornamentation in the way of works of art upon the +walls, and shining snuffers and candlesticks upon the mantel. Our +bargain completed, there remained nothing to be done but to remove our +baggage from the other house, which I am sure we could never have +attempted alone. Think of walking in and addressing the landlady, while +the chambermaids and waiters peeped from behind the doors, with, "We +don't like your house, madam. Your rooms are tucked up, your beds +uninviting, your chambermaids frowsy, your waiters stupid, and your +little parlor an abomination." How could we have done it? The Good Man +volunteered. "But do you not mind?" "Not in the least." Is it not +wonderful? How can we believe in the equality of the sexes? In less than +an hour we were temporarily settled in our new quarters, our rescued +trunks consigned to the little bed-room, our heart-felt gratitude in the +possession of the Good Man. + +We took our meals now in our own parlor, trying the solitary confinement +system of the English during our two days' stay. It seemed a month. Not +a sign of life was there, save the landlady's pleasant face behind the +bar and the waiter who answered our bell, with the exception of a pair +of mammoth shoes before the next door, mornings, and the bearded face +of a man that startled us, once, upon the stairs. And yet the house was +full. It was a relief when our two days of banishment Mere over, when in +Mrs. B.'s pretty drawing-room, and around her table, we could again meet +friends, and realize that we were still in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EXCURSIONS FROM LONDON. + + Strange ways.--"The bears that went over to + Charlestown."--The delights of a runaway without + its dangers.--Flower show at the Crystal + Palace.--Whit-Monday at Hampton Court.--A queen + baby.--"But the carpets?"--Poor Nell + Gwynne.--Vandyck faces.--Royal beds.--Lunch at the + King's Arms.--O Music, how many murders have been + committed in thy name!--Queen Victoria's home at + Windsor.--A new "house that Jack built."--The + Round Tower.--Stoke Pogis.--Frogmore.--The Knights + of the Garter.--The queen's gallery.--The queen's + plate.--The royal mews.--The wicker + baby-wagons.--The state equipages. + + +WE bought an umbrella,--every one buys an umbrella who goes to +London,--and this, in its alpaca glory, became our constant companion. +We purchased a guide-book to complete our equipments; but so +disreputable, so yellow-covered, was its outward appearance, so +suggestive of everything but facts, that we consigned it to oblivion, +and put ourselves under the guidance of our Boston friends, the Good Man +and his family. + +For two busy weeks we rattled over the flat pavings of the city in the +low, one-horse cabs. We climbed towers, we descended into crypts, we +examined tombstones, we gazed upon mummies. Everything was new, +strange, and wonderful, even to the little boys in the street, who, as +well as the omnibus drivers, were decked out in tall silk hats--a piece +of absurdity in one case, and extravagance in the other, to our minds. +The one-horse carriages rolled about upon two wheels; the occupants, +like cross children, facing in every direction but the one they were +going, and everybody, contrary to all our preconceived ideas of law and +order, turned to the left, instead of to the right,--to say nothing of +other strange and perplexing ways that came under our observation. We +had come abroad upon the same errand as the bears who "went over to +Charlestown to see what they could see," and so stared into every +window, into every passing face, as though we were seeking the lost. We +became known as the women who wanted a cab; our appearance within the +iron posts that guard the entrance to Queen's Square from Southampton +Row being the signal for a perfect Babel of unintelligible shouts and +gesticulations down the long line of waiting vehicles, with the charging +down upon us of the first half dozen in a highly dangerous manner. +Wisdom is sometimes the growth of days; and we soon learned to dart out +in an unexpected moment, utterly deaf and blind to everything and +everybody but the first man and the first horse, and thus to go off in +triumph. + +But if our exit was triumphant, what was our entry to the square, when +weary, faint with seeing, hearing, and trying in vain to fix everything +seen and heard in our minds, we returned in a hansom! English ladies do +not much affect this mode of conveyance, but American women abroad +have, or take, a wide margin in matters of mere conventionality,--and so +ride in hansom cabs at will. They are grown-up baby perambulators upon +two wheels; the driver sitting up behind, where the handle would be, and +drawing the reins of interminable length over the top of the vehicle. +Picture it in your mind, and then wonder, as I did, what power of +attraction keeps the horse upon the ground; what prevents his flying +into the air when the driver settles down into his seat. A pair of low, +folding doors take the place of a lap robe; you dash through the street +at an alarming rate without any visible guide, experiencing all the +delights of a runaway without any of its dangers. + + +FLOWER SHOW AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. + +A ride by rail of half an hour takes one to Sydenham. It is a charming +walk from the station through the tastefully arranged grounds, with +their shrubberies, roseries, and fountains, along the pebble-strewn +paths, crowded this day with visitors. The palace itself is so like its +familiar pictures as to need no description. Much of the grandeur of its +vast proportions within is lost by its divisions and subdivisions. There +are courts representing the various nations of the earth,--America, as +usual, felicitously and truthfully shown up by a pair of scantily +attired savages under a palm tree; there are the courts of the Alhambra, +of Nineveh, and of Pompeii; there are fountains, and statues, and +bazaars innumerable, where one may purchase almost anything as a +souvenir; there are cafes where one may refresh the body, and an immense +concert hall where one may delight the soul,--and how much more I +cannot tell, for the crowd was almost beyond belief, and a much more +interesting study than Egyptian remains, or even the exquisite mass of +perfumed bloom, that made the air like summer, and the whole place a +garden. They were of the English middle class, the upper middle class, +bordering upon the nobility,--these rotund, fine-looking gentlemen in +white vests and irreproachable broadcloth, these stout, red-faced, +richly-attired ladies, with their soft-eyed, angular daughters following +in their train, or clinging to their arms. We listened for an hour to +the queen's own band in scarlet and gold, and then came back to town, +meeting train after train filled to overflowing with expensively arrayed +humanity in white kids, going out for the evening. + + +A DAY AT HAMPTON COURT. + +It was Whit-Monday,--the workingman's holiday,--a day of sun and shower; +but we took our turn upon the outside of the private omnibus chartered +for the occasion, unmindful of the drops; our propelling power, six gray +horses. By virtue of this private establishment we were free to pass +through Hyde Park,--that breathing-place of aristocracy, where no public +vehicle, no servant without livery, is tolerated. It was early, and only +the countless hoof-prints upon Rotten Row suggested the crowd of wealth +and fashion that would throng here later in the day. One solitary +equestrian there was; perched upon a guarded saddle, held in her place +by some concealed band, serenely content, rode a queen baby in long, +white robes. A groom led the little pony. She looked at us in grave +wonder as we dashed by,--born to the purple! I cannot begin to describe +to you the rising up of London for this day of pleasure; the decking of +itself out in holiday attire; the garnishing of itself with paper +flowers; the smooth, hard roads leading into the country, all alive; the +drinking, noisy crowd about the door of every pot-house along the way. +It was a delightful drive of a dozen or more miles, through the most +charming suburbs imaginable,--past lawns, and gardens, and green old +trees shading miniature parks; past "detached" villas that had blossomed +into windows; indeed, the plate glass upon houses of most modest +pretension was almost reckless extravagance in our eyes, forgetting, as +we did, the slight duty to be paid here upon what is, with us, an +expensive luxury. No wonder the English are a healthful people,--the sun +shines upon them. I like their manner of house-building, of home-making. +They set up first a great bay-window, with a room behind it, which is of +secondary importance, with wide steps leading up to a door at the side. +They fill this window with the rarest, rosiest, most rollicksome +flowers. Then, if there remain time, and space, and means, other rooms +are added, the bay-windows increasing in direct proportion; while +shades, drawn shades, are a thing unknown. "But the carpets?" They are +so foolish as to value health above carpets. + +It was high noon when we rolled up the wide avenue of Bushey Park, with +its double border of gigantic chestnuts and limes, through Richmond +Park, with its vast sweep of greensward flecked with the sunbeams, +dripping like the rain through the royal oaks, past Richmond terrace, +with its fine residences looking out upon the Thames, the translucent +stream, pure and beautiful here, before going down to the city to be +defiled--like many a life. We dismounted at the gates to the palace, in +the rambling old village that clings to its skirts, and joined the crowd +passing through its wide portals. + +It is an old palace thrown aside, given over to poor relatives, by +royalty,--as we throw aside an old gown; a vast pile of dingy, red brick +that has straggled over acres of Hampton parish, and is kept within +bounds by a high wall of the same ugly material. It has pushed itself up +into towers and turrets, with pinnacles and spires rising from its +battlemented walls. It has thrust itself out into oriel and queer little +latticed windows that peep into the gardens and overhang the three +quadrangles, and is with its vast gardens and park, with its wide canal +and avenues of green old trees, the most delightfully ugly, old place +imaginable. Here kings and queens have lived and loved, suffered and +died, from Cardinal Wolsey's time down to the days of Queen Anne. It is +now one of England's show places; one portion of its vast extent, with +the grounds, being thrown open to the public, the remainder given to +decayed nobility, or wandering, homeless representatives of royalty,--a +kind of royal almshouse, in fact. A curtained window, the flutter of a +white hand, were to us the only signs of inhabitation. + +Through thirty or more narrow, dark, bare rooms,--bare but for the +pictures that crowded the walls,--we wandered. There were two or three +halls of stately proportions finely decorated with frescoes by Verrio, +and one or two royal stairways, up and down which slippered feet have +passed, silken skirts trailed, and heavy hearts been carried, in days +gone by. The pictures are mostly portraits of brave men and lovely +women, of kings and queens and royal favorites,--poor Nell Gwynne among +them, who began life by selling oranges in a theatre, and ended it by +selling virtue in a palace. The Vandyck faces are wonderfully beautiful. +They gaze upon you through a mist, a golden haze,--like that which hangs +over the hills in the Indian summer,--from out deep, spiritual eyes; a +dream of fair women they are. + +There were one or two royal beds, where uneasy have lain the heads that +wore a crown, and half a dozen chairs worked in tapestry by royal +fingers,--whether preserved for their questionable beauty, or because of +the rarity of royal industry, I do not know. We wandered through the +shrubberies, paid a penny to see the largest grape vine in the +world,--and wished we had given it to the heathen, so like its less +distinguished sisters did the vine appear,--and at last lunched at the +King's Arms, a queer little inn just outside the gates, edging our way +with some difficulty through the noisy, guzzling crowd around the +door--the crowd that, having reached the acme of the day's felicity, was +fast degenerating into a quarrel. In the long, bare room at the head of +the narrow, winding stairs, we found comparative quiet. The tables were +covered with joints of beef, with loaves of bread, pitchers of ale, and +the ubiquitous cheese. A red-faced young man in tight new clothes--like +a strait-jacket--occupied one end of our table with his blushing +sweetheart. A band of wandering harpers harped upon their harps to the +crowd of wrangling men and blowsy women in the open court below; +strangely out of tune were the harps, out of time the measure, according +well with the spirit of the hour. A loud-voiced girl decked out in +tawdry finery, with face like solid brass, sang "Annie Laurie" in hard, +metallic tones,--O Music, how many murders have been committed in thy +name!--then passed a cup for pennies, with many a jest and rude, bold +laugh. We were glad when the day was done,--glad when we had turned away +from it all. + + +QUEEN VICTORIA'S HOME AT WINDSOR. + +The castle itself is a huge, battlemented structure of gray stone,--a +fortress as well as a palace,--with a home park of five hundred acres, +the private grounds of Mrs. Guelph, and, beyond that, a grand park of +eighteen hundred acres. But do not imagine that she lives here with only +her children and servants about her,--this kindly German widow, whose +throne was once in the hearts of her people. Royalty is a complicated +affair,--a wheel within a wheel,--and reminds us of nothing so much as +"the house that Jack built." + +This is the Castle of Windsor. + +This is the queen that lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +These are the ladies that 'tend on the queen that lives in the Castle of +Windsor. + +These are the pages that bow to the ladies that 'tend on the queen that +lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +These are the lackeys that wait on the pages that bow to the ladies that +'tend on the queen that lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +These are the soldiers, tried and sworn, that guard the crown from the +unicorn, that stand by the lackeys that wait on the pages that bow to +the ladies that 'tend on the queen that lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +These are the "military knights" forlorn, founded by Edward before you +were born, that outrank the soldiers, tried and sworn, that guard the +crown from the unicorn, that stand by the lackeys that wait on the pages +that bow to the ladies that 'tend on the queen that lives in the Castle +of Windsor. + +These are the knights that the garter have worn, with armorial banners +tattered and torn, that look down on the military knights forlorn, +founded by Edward before you were born, that outrank the soldiers, tried +and sworn, that guard the crown from the unicorn, that stand by the +lackeys that wait on the pages that bow to the ladies that 'tend on the +queen that lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +This is the dean, all shaven and shorn, with the canons and clerks that +doze in the morn, that install the knights that the garter have worn, +with armorial banners tattered and torn, that look down on the military +knights forlorn, founded by Edward before you were born, that outrank +the soldiers, tried and sworn, that guard the crown from the unicorn, +that stand by the lackeys that wait on the pages that bow to the ladies +that 'tend on the queen that lives in the Castle of Windsor. + +And so on. The train within the castle walls that follows the queen is +endless. + +We passed through the great, grand, state apartments, refurnished at the +time of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, for the use of the Danish +family. We mounted to the battlements of the Round Tower by the hundred +steps, the grim cannon gazing down upon us from the top. Half a dozen +visitors were already there, gathered as closely as possible about the +angular guide, listening to his geography lesson, and looking off upon +the wonderful panorama of park, and wood, and winding river. Away to the +right rose the spire of Stoke Pogis Church, where the curfew still +"tolls the knell of parting day." To the left, in the great park below, +lay Frogmore, where sleeps Prince Albert the Good. Eton College, too, +peeped out from among the trees, its gardens touching the Thames, and in +the distance,--beyond the sleeping villages tucked in among the +trees,--the shadowy blue hills held up the sky. + +St. George's Chapel is in the quadrangle below. It is the chapel of the +Knights of the Garter. And now, when you read of the chapels, or +churches, or cathedrals in the old world,--and they are all in a sense +alike,--pray don't imagine a New England meeting-house with a double row +of stiff pews and a choir in the gallery singing "Antioch"! The body of +the chapel was a great, bare space, with tablets and elaborate monuments +against the walls. Opening from this were alcoves,--also called +chapels,--each one containing the tombs and monuments of some family. As +many of the inscriptions are dated centuries back, you can imagine they +are often quaintly expressed. One old knight, who died in Catholic +times, desired an open Breviary to remain always in the niche before his +tomb, that passers might read to their comfort, and say for him an +orison. Of course this would never do in the days when the chapel fell +into Protestant hands. A Bible was substituted, chained into its place; +but the old inscription, cut deep in the stone, still remains, beginning +"Who leyde thys book here?" with a startling appropriateness of which +the author never dreamed. Over another of these chapels is rudely cut an +ox, an N, and a bow,--the owner having, in an antic manner, hardly +befitting the place, thus written his name--Oxenbow. + +You enter the choir, where the installations take place, by steps, +passing under the organ. In the chancel is a fine memorial window to +Prince Albert. On either side are the stalls or seats for the knights, +with the armorial banner of each hanging over his place. Projecting over +the chancel, upon one side, is what appears to be a bay-window. This is +the queen's gallery, a little room with blue silk hangings,--for blue is +the color worn by Knights of the Garter,--where she sits during the +service. Through these curtains she looked down upon the marriage of the +Prince of Wales. Think of being thus put away from everybody, as though +one were plague-stricken. A private station awaits her when she steps +from the train at the castle gates. A private room is attached to the +green-houses, to the riding-school in the park, and even to the private +chapel. A private photograph-room, for the taking of the royal pictures, +adjoins her apartments. It must be a fine thing to be a queen,--and so +tiresome! Even the gold spoon in one's mouth could not offset the +weariness of it all, and of gold spoons she has an unbounded supply; +from ten to fifteen millions of dollars worth of gold plate for her +majesty's table being guarded within the castle! Think of it, little +women who set up house-keeping with half a dozen silver teaspoons and a +salt-spoon! + +We waited before a great gate until the striking of some forgotten hour, +to visit the royal mews. You may walk through all these stables in +slippers and in your daintiest gown, without fear. A stiff young man in +black--a cross between an undertaker and an incipient clergyman in +manner--acted as guide. Other parties, led by other stiff young men, +followed or crossed our path. There were stalls and stalls, upon either +side, in room after room,--for one could not think of calling them +stables,--filled by sleek bays for carriage or saddle. And the +ponies!--the dear little shaggy browns, with sweeping tails, and +wonderful eyes peeping out from beneath moppy manes, the milk-white, +tiny steeds, with hair like softest silk,--they won our hearts. Curled +up on the back of one, fast asleep, lay a Maltese kitten; the "royal +mew" some one called it. The carriages were all plain and dark, for the +ordinary use of the court. In one corner a prim row of little yellow, +wicker, baby-wagons attracted our attention, like those used by the +poorest mother in the land. In these the royal babies have taken their +first airings. + +The state equipages we saw another day at Buckingham Palace,--the +cream-colored horses, the carriages and harnesses all crimson and gold. +There they stand, weeks and months together, waiting for an occasion. +The effect upon a fine day, under favoring auspices,--the sun shining, +the bands playing, the crowd of gazers, the prancing horses, the gilded +chariots,--must almost equal the triumphal entry of a first class circus +into a New England town! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SIGHT-SEEING IN LONDON. + + The Tower.--The tall Yankee of inquiring + mind.--Our guide in gorgeous array.--War + trophies.--Knights in armor.--A professional + joke.--The crown jewels.--The house where the + little princes were smothered.--The "Traitor's + Gate."--The Houses of Parliament.--What a throne + is like.--The "woolsack."--The Peeping Gallery for + ladies.--Westminster Hall and the law courts.--The + three drowsy old women.--The Great Panjandrum + himself.--Johnson and the pump.--St. + Paul's.--Wellington's funeral car.--The Whispering + Gallery.--The bell. + + +THE TOWER. + +IT is not a tower at all, as we reckon towers, you must know, but a +walled town upon the banks of the Thames, in the very heart of London. +Hundreds of years ago, when what is now this great city was only moor +and marsh, the Romans built here--a castle, perhaps. Only a bit of +crumbling wall, of mouldering pavement, remain to tell the story. When +the Normans came in to possess the land, William the Conqueror erected +upon this spot a square fortress, with towers rising from its four +corners. Every succeeding monarch added a castle, a tower, a moat, to +strengthen its strength and extend its limits, until, in time, it +covered twelve acres of land, as it does to this day. Here the kings +and queens of England lived in comfortless state, until the time of +Queen Elizabeth, having need to be hedged about with something more than +royalty to insure safety. Times have changed; swords have been beaten +into ploughshares; and where the moat once encircled the tower wall, +flowers blossom now. The dungeons that for centuries held prisoners of +state do not confine any one to-day; and the strongholds that guarded +the person of England's sovereign keep in safety now the jewels and the +crown. There are round towers, and square towers, and, for anything I +know, three-cornered towers, each with its own history of horrors. There +are windows from which people were thrown, bridges over which they were +dragged, and dark holes in which they were incarcerated. + +[Illustration: "A dozen umbrellas were tipped up; the rain fell fast +upon a dozen upturned, expectant faces." Page 57.] + +To appreciate all this, you should see it--as we did one chilly May +morning. We huddled about the stove in the waiting-room upon the site of +the old royal menagerie, our companions a round man, with a limp gingham +cravat and shabby coat, a little old woman in a poke bonnet, and half a +dozen or more schoolboys from the country. A tall Yankee of inquiring +mind joined us as we sallied from the door, led by a guide gorgeous in +ruff and buckles, cotton velvet and gilt lace, and with all these +glories surmounted by a black hat, that swelled out at the top in a +wonderful manner. Down the narrow street within the gates, over the +slippery cobble-stones, under considerable mental excitement, and our +alpaca umbrella, we followed our guide to an archway, before which he +paused, and struck an attitude. The long Yankee darted forward. "Stand +back, my friends, stand back," said the guide. "You will please form +a circle." Immediately a dozen umbrellas surrounded him. He pointed to a +narrow window over our heads; a dozen umbrellas were tipped up; the rain +fell fast upon a dozen upturned, expectant faces. "In that room, Sir +----" (I could not catch the name) "spent the night before his +execution, in solemn meditation and prayer." There was a circular groan +of sympathy and approval from a dozen lips, the re-cant of a dozen +dripping umbrellas, and we pattered on to the next point of interest, +following our leader through pools of blood, figuratively +speaking,--literally, through pools of water,--our eyes distended, our +cheeks pale with horror. Ah, what treasures of credulity we must have +been to the guides in those days! Time brought unbelief and hardness of +heart. + +We mounted stairs narrow and dark; we descended stairs dark and narrow; +we entered chambers gloomy and grim. The half I could not tell--of the +rooms filled with war trophies--scalps in the belt of the nation--from +the Spanish Armada down to the Sepoy rebellion; the long hall, with its +double row of lumbering old warriors encased in steel, as though they +had stepped into a steel tower and walked off, tower and all, some fine +morning; the armory, with its stacked arms for thirty thousand men. "We +may have occasion to use them," said the guide, facetiously, making some +reference to the speech of Mr. Sumner, just then acting the part of a +stick to stir up the British lion. The Yankee chuckled complacently, and +we, too, refused to quake. There was a room filled with instruments of +torture, diabolical inventions, recalling the days of the Inquisition. +The Yankee expressed a desire to "see how some o' them things worked." +Opening from this was an unlighted apartment, with walls of stone, a +dungeon indeed, in which we were made to believe that Sir Walter Raleigh +spent twelve years of his life. No shadow of doubt would have fallen +upon our unquestioning minds, had we been told that he amused himself +during this time by standing upon his head. "Walk in, walk in," said the +smiling guide, as we peered into its darkness. We obeyed. "Now," said +he, "that you may appreciate his situation, I will step out and close +the door." The little old woman screamed; the Yankee made one stride to +the opening; the guide laughed. It was only a professional joke; there +was no door. We saw the bare prison-room, with its rough fireplace, the +slits between the stones of the wall to admit light and air, and the +initials of Lady Jane Grey, with a host more of forgotten names, upon +the walls. Just outside, within the quadrangle, where the grass grew +green beneath the summer rain, she was beheaded,--poor little +innocent,--who had no desire to be a queen! In another tower close by, +guarded by iron bars, were the royal jewels and the crown, for which all +this blood was shed--pretty baubles of gold and precious stones, but +hardly worth so many lives. + +You remember the story of the princes smothered in the Tower by command +of their cruel uncle? There was the narrow passage in the wall where the +murderers came at night; the worn step by which they entered the great, +bare room where the little victims slept; the winding stairs down which +the bodies were thrown. Beneath the great stone at the foot they were +secretly buried. Then the stairway was walled up, lest the stones should +cry out; and no one knew the story of the burial until long, long +afterwards--only a few years since--when the walled-up stairway was +discovered, the stones at the foot displaced, and a heap of dust, of +little crumbling bones, revealed it. A rosy-faced, motherly woman, the +wife of a soldier quartered in the barracks here, answered the rap of +the guide upon the nail-studded door opening from one of the courts, and +told us the old story. "The bed of the princes stood just there," she +said, pointing to one corner, where, by a curious coincidence, a little +bed was standing now. She answered the question in our eyes with, "My +boys sleep there." "But do you not fear that the murderers will come +back some night by this same winding way, and smother them?" How she +laughed! And, indeed, what had ghosts to do with such a cheery body! + +Down through the "Traitors' Gate," with its spiked portcullis, we could +see the steps leading to the water. Through this gate prisoners were +brought from trial at Westminster. It is said that the Princess +Elizabeth was dragged up here when she refused to come of her own will, +knowing too well that they who entered here left hope behind. A little +later, with music and the waving of banners, and amid the shouts of the +people, she rode out of the great gates into the city, the Queen of +England. + + +THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. + +Though they have stood barely thirty years, already the soft gray +limestone begins to crumble away,--the elements, with a sense of the +fitness of things, striving to act the part of time, and bring them into +a likeness of the adjoining abbey. There is an exquisite beauty in the +thousand gilded points and pinnacles that pierce the fog, or shine +softly through the mist that veils the city. Ethereal, shadowy, unreal +they are, like the spires of a celestial city, or the far away towers +and turrets we see sometimes at sunset in the western sky. + +Here, you know, are the chambers of the Houses of Lords and Commons, +with the attendant lobbies, libraries, committee-rooms, &c., and a +withdrawing-room for the use of the queen when she is graciously pleased +to open Parliament in person. The speaker of the House of Commons, as +well as some other officials, reside here--a novel idea to us, who could +hardly imagine the speaker of our House of Representatives taking up his +abode in the Capitol! Parliament was not in session, and we walked +through the various rooms at will, even to the robing-room of the noble +lords, where the peg upon which Lord Stanley hangs his hat was pointed +out; and very like other pegs it was. At one end of the chamber of the +House of Lords is the throne. It is a simple affair enough--a gilded +arm-chair on a little platform reached by two or three steps, and with +crimson hangings. Extending down on either side are the +crimson-cushioned seats without desks. In the centre is a large square +ottoman,--the woolsack,--which might, with equal appropriateness, be +called almost anything else. Above, a narrow gallery offers a +lounging-place to the sons and friends of the peers; and at one end, +above the throne, is a high loft, a kind of uplifted amen corner, for +strangers, with a space where women may sit and look down through a +screen of lattice-work upon the proceedings below. It seems a remnant of +Eastern customs, strangely out of place in this Western world, and akin +to the shrouding of ourselves in veils, like our Oriental sisters. Or +can it be that the noble lords are more keenly sensitive to the +distracting influence of bright eyes than other men? + + +WESTMINSTER HALL AND THE LAW COURTS. + +Adjoining the Houses of Parliament is this vast old hall. For almost +five hundred years has it stood, its curiously carved roof unsupported +by column or pillar. Here royal banquets, as well as Parliaments, have +been held, and more than one court of justice. Here was the great trial +of Warren Hastings. It was empty now of everything but echoes and the +long line of statuary on either side, except the lawyers in their long, +black gowns, who hastened up and down its length, or darted in and out +the three baize doors upon one side, opening into the Courts of +Chancery, Common Pleas, and the Exchequer. Our national curiosity was +aroused, and we mounted the steps to the second, which had won our +sympathies from its democratic name. + +There were high, straight-backed pews of familiar appearance, rising one +above the other, into the last of which we climbed, a certain Sunday +solemnity stealing over us, a certain awkward consciousness that we were +the observed of all observers, since we were the only spectators--a +delusion of our vanity, however. In the high gallery before us, in +complacent comfort, sat three fat, drowsy old women (?) in white, +curling wigs, and voluminous gowns, asking all manner of distracting +questions, and requiring to be told over and over again,--after the +manner of drowsy old women,--to the utter confusion of a poor witness in +the front pew, who clung to the rail and swayed about hopelessly, while +he tried to tell his story, as if by this rotary motion he could churn +his ideas into form. Not only did he lose the thread of his +discourse,--he became hopelessly entangled in it. Scratch, scratch, +scratch, went the pens all around him. Every word, as it fell from his +lips, was pounced upon by the begowned, bewigged, bewildering judges, +was twisted and turned by the lawyers, was tossed back and forth +throughout the court-room, until there arose a question in our minds, as +to who was telling the story. All the while the lawyers were glaring +upon him as though he was perjuring himself with every word--as who +would not be, under the circumstances? And such lawyers! They dotted the +pews all around us. The long, black gowns were not so bad; they hid a +deal of awkwardness, I doubt not. But the wigs! the queer little curly +things, perched upon every head, and worn with such a perverse delight +in misfits! the small men being invariably hidden beneath the big wigs, +and the large men strutting about like the great Panjandrum himself with +the little round button at the top! The appearance of one, whose head, +through some uncommon development, rose to a ridge-pole behind, was +surprising, to say the least. It was not alone that his wig was too +small, that a fringe of straight, black hair fell below its entire white +circumference; it was not alone that it was parted upon the wrong side, +or that, being mansard in form, and his head hip-roofed, it could +never, by any process, have been shaped thereto; but I doubt if the +wearing of it upside down, added to all these little drawbacks, could +conduce to the beauty or dignity of any man. Unmindful of this reversed +order of nature, its happy possessor skipped about the court-room, +nodding to his brethren with a blithesome air, to the imminent peril of +his top-knot, which sustained about the same relation to his head as the +sword to that of Damocles. He speered down upon the poor witness. He +pretended to make notes of dreadful import with a screaming quill, and, +in fact, comported himself with an airy unconsciousness delightful to +see. + +In regard to the proceedings of the court, I only know that the point +under discussion concerned one Johnson, and a pump; and Mr. Pickwick's +judge sat upon the bench. Whether he was originally round, red-faced, +with gooseberry eyes, I do not remember; but all these pleasing +characteristics he possessed at this present time, as well as a pudgy +forefinger, with which to point his remarks. + +"You say," he repeated, with a solemnity of which my pen is incapable, +and impressing every word upon the poor man in the front pew with this +same forefinger, "that--Bunsen--went--to--the--pump?" + +"Johnson, my lord," the witness ventured to correct him, in a low tone. + +"It makes no difference," responded the judge, irate, "whether it is +Bunsen or Jillson. The question is, Did--Jillson--go--to--the--pump?" + +Whom the gods destroy they first deprive of their five senses. Four, at +least, of the poor man's had departed some time since. The fifth +followed. "Johnson went, my lord," he replied, doggedly. Having found +one point upon which his mind was clear, he clung to it with the +tenacity of despair. + +"Johnson! who's _Johnson_?" gasped the bewildered judge, over whose face +a net of perplexed lines spread itself upon the introduction of this new +character. In the confusion of denials and explanations that followed, +we descended from our perch, and stole away; nor are we at all sure, to +this day, as to whether Johnson did or did not really go to the pump. + + +ST. PAUL'S. + +Imagine our surprise, one day, when admiring a pretty ribbon upon a +friend, to be told that it came from St. Paul's Churchyard. Hardly the +place for ribbons, one would think; but the narrow street which +encircles the cathedral in the form of a bow and its string goes by this +name, and contains, besides the bookstores and publishing houses, some +fine "silk mercers'" establishments. + +The gray surface of the grand edifice is streaked with black, as though +time had beaten it with stripes, and a pall of smoke and dust covers the +statues in the court before it. Consecrated ground this is, indeed. From +the earliest times of the Christian religion, through all the bigotry +and fanaticism of the ages that followed, down to the present time, the +word of God has been proclaimed here--in weakness often, in bitterness +many times that belied the spirit of its message; by a priesthood more +corrupt than the people; by noble men, beyond the age in which they +lived, and whom the flames of martyrdom could not appall. Under +Diocletian the first church was destroyed. It was rebuilt, and destroyed +again by the Saxons. Twice has it been levelled to the ground by fire. +But neither sword nor flame could subdue it, and firm as a rock it +stands to-day, as it has stood for nearly two hundred years, and as it +seems likely to stand for ages to come. The sacred stillness that +invests the place was rudely broken, the morning of our visit, by the +blows from the hammers of the workmen, resounding through the dome like +a discharge of artillery. A great stage, and seats in the form of an +amphitheatre, were being erected in the nave for a children's festival, +which prevented our doing more than glance down its length. We read some +of the inscriptions upon the monuments, that one, so often quoted, of +Sir Christopher Wren, among them--"Do you seek his monument? Look around +you;" glanced into the choir, with its Gothic stalls, where the service +is performed, and then descended into the crypt beneath all this, that +labyrinth of damp darkness where so many lie entombed. Here is the +funeral car of Wellington, with candles burning around it, cast from the +conquering cannon which thundered victory to a nation, but sorrow and +death to many a home. Shrouded with velvet it is, as are the horses, in +imitation of those which bore him to his rest. All around were marble +effigies, blackened, broken, as they survived the burning of the late +cathedral, at the time of the great fire. Tombstones formed the +pavement. "Whose can this be?" I said, trying to follow with the point +of my umbrella the half-worn inscription beneath my feet. It was that of +Sir Joshua Reynolds. Strange enough it seemed to us, coming from a +country so new as to have been by no means prolific in great men, to +find them here lying about under our feet. + +Having explored the crypt, we prepared to mount the endless winding +stairs, whose final termination is the ball under the cross that +surmounts the whole. Our ambition aimed only at the bell beneath the +ball. We paid an occasional sixpence for the privilege of peeping into +the library,--a most tidy and put-to-rights room, with a floor of wood +patchwork,--and for the right to look down upon the geometrical +staircase which winds around and clings to the wall upon one side, but +is without any visible support upon the other. The "whispering gallery" +was reached after a time. It is the encircling cornice within the dome, +surrounded by a railing, and forming a narrow gallery. "I will remain +here," said the guide, "while you pass around until you are exactly +opposite; wait there until I whisper." Had we possessed the spirit of +Casabianca, we should at this moment be sitting upon that narrow bench +against the wall, with our feet upon the gas-pipes. We waited and +listened, and listened and waited; but the sound of the blows from the +hammers below reverberated like thunder around us. We could not have +heard the crack of doom. Becoming conscious, after a time, that our +guide had disappeared, we came out and continued our ascent. Mrs. K.'s +curiosity, if not satisfied, was at least quenched, and she refused to +go farther. My aspirations still pointed upward. There was another +sixpence, another dizzy mount of dark, twisting stairs, with strength, +ambition, and even curiosity gradually left behind, and with only one +blind instinct remaining--to go on. There was a long, dingy passage, +through which ghostly forms were flitting; there were more stairs, with +twists and turns, forgotten now with other torments; there was the +mounting of half a dozen rickety wooden steps at last, for no object but +to descend shakily upon the other side, and then we found ourselves in a +little dark corner, peering over a dingy rail, with a great, dusky +object filling all the space below. And that was the bell! "Well, and +what of it?" I don't know; but we saw it! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +AWAY TO PARIS. + + The wedding party.--The canals.--New + Haven.--Around the tea-table.--Separating the + sheep from the goats.--"Will it be a rough + passage?"--Gymnastic feats of the little + steamer.--O, what were officers to us?--"Who ever + invented earrings!"--Dieppe.--Fish-wives.--Train + for + Paris.--Fellow-passengers.--Rouen.--Babel.--Deliverance. + + +IT was the last week in May, and by no means the "merry, merry month of +May" had we found it. Not only was the sky weighed down with clouds, but +they dripped upon the earth continually, the sun showing his ghastly, +white, half-drowned face for a moment only to be swept from sight again +by the cloud waves. A friend was going to Paris. Would we shake the +drops from our garments, close our umbrellas, and go with him? We not +only would, we did. We gathered a lunch, packed our trunk, said our +adieus, and drove down to the station in the usual pouring rain, the +tearful accompaniment to all our movements. But one party besides our +own awaited the train upon the platform--a young man with the insignia +of bliss in the gloves of startling whiteness upon his hands, and a +middle-aged woman of seraphic expression of countenance, clad in robes +of spotless white, her feet encased in capacious white slippers. In +this airy costume, one hand grasping a huge bouquet devoid of color, the +other the arm of her companion, she paced back and forth, to the great +amusement of the laughing porters, casting upon us less fortunate ones, +who shivered meekly in our wraps, glances of triumphant pity +indescribable. + +"Weddin' party, zur," explained the guard, touching his cap to our +friend. "Jus' come down in fly." They looked to us a good deal more as +if they were just going up in a "fly." The train shrieked into the +station, and we were soon rushing over the road to New Haven, from +which, in an evil moment, we had planned to cross the Channel. There was +little new or strange in the picture seen from our window. The cottages +were now of a dull, clay color, instead of the dingy red we had observed +before, as though they had been erected in sudden need, without waiting +for the burning of the bricks. There were brick-yards all along the way, +answering a vexed question in my mind as to where all the bricks came +from which were used so entirely in town and village here, in the +absence of the wood so plentiful with us. The canals added much to the +beauty of the landscape, winding through the meadows as if they were +going to no particular place, and were in no haste to reach their +destination. They turned aside for a clump of willows or a mound of +daisy-crowned earth; they went quite out of their way to peep into the +back doors of a village, and, in fact, strolled along in a lazy, +serpentine manner that would have crazed the proprietor of a Yankee +canal boat. + +It was five o'clock when we reached New Haven, having dropped our +fellow-passengers along the way, the blissful couple among them. +Through some error in calculation we had taken an earlier train than we +need have, and found hours of doleful leisure awaiting us in this sleepy +little town, lying upon an arm of the sea. Its outer appearance was not +inviting. Here were the first and last houses of wood we saw in +England,--high, ugly things, that might have been built of old boats or +drift wood, with an economy that precluded all thought of grace in +architecture. The train, in a gracious spirit of accommodation, instead +of plunging into the sea, as it might have done, paused before the door +of a hotel upon the wharf. There, in a little parlor, we improvised a +home for a time. Our friend went off to explore the town. We took +possession of the faded red arm-chairs by the wide windows. Down below, +beyond the wet platform, rose the well-colored meerschaum of the little +French steamer, whose long-boats hung just above the edge of the wharf. +Through the closed window stole the breath of the salt sea, that, only a +hand-breadth here, widened out below into boundlessness, bringing +visions of the ocean and a thrill of remembered delight. The rain had +ceased. The breeze rolled the clouds into snow-balls, pure white against +the blue of the sky. Over the narrow stream came the twitter of birds, +hidden in the hawthorn hedge all abloom. Everything smiled, and beamed, +and glistened without, though far out to sea the white caps crowned the +dancing waves. When night fell, and the lights glimmered all through the +town, we drew the heavy curtains, lighted the candles in the shining +candlesticks, whose light cast a delusive glow over the dingy dustiness +of the room, bringing out cheerfully the little round tea-table in the +centre, with its bright silver and steaming urn, over which we lingered +a long hour, measuring and weighing our comfort, telling tales, seeing +visions, and dreaming dreams of home. + +The clock struck nine as we crossed the plank to the Alexandra, trying +in vain to find in its toy appointments some likeness to our ocean +steamer of delightful memory. The train whizzed in from London, bringing +our fellow-voyagers. The sheep were separated from the goats by the +officer at the foot of the plank, who asked each one descending, "First +or second cabin?"--sending one to the right, the other to the left. The +wind swept in from the sea raw and cold. The foot-square deck was +cheerless and wet. Even a diagonal promenade proved short and +unsatisfactory, and in despair we descended the slippery, perpendicular +stairs between boxes and bales, and down still another flight, to the +cabin. A narrow, cushioned seat clung to its four sides, divided into +lengths for berths. "Will it be a rough night?" we carelessly asked the +young stewardess. "O, no!" was the stereotyped reply, though all the +while the wicked waves were dancing beneath the white caps just outside. +We divested ourselves of hats, and wraps, and useless ornaments, +reserving only that of a meek and quiet spirit, which, under a nameless +fear, grew every moment meeker and more quiet. We undid the interminable +buttons of our American boots, and prepared for a comfortable rest, with +an ignorance that at the time approximated bliss. There was leisure for +the working out of elaborate schemes. Something possessed the tide. +Whether it was high or low, narrow or wide, I do not know; but there at +the wharf we were to await the working of its own will, regardless of +time. Accordingly we selected our places with a deliberation that bore +no proportion to the time we were to fill them, advising with the +stewardess, who had settled herself comfortably to sleep. We tried our +heads to England and our feet to the foe, and then reversed the order, +finally compromising by taking a position across the Channel. But the +loading of the steamer overhead, with the chattering of our +fellow-passengers below,--two English girls, a pretty brunette and her +sister,--banished sleep. At three o'clock our voyage began--the +succession of quivering leaps, plunges, and somersaults which +miraculously landed us upon the French coast. I can think of no words to +describe it. The first night upon the ocean was paradise and the +perfection of peace in comparison. To this day the thought of the +swashing water, beaten white against the port-hole before my eyes, is +sickening. A calm--to me, of utter prostration--fell upon us long after +the day dawned, only to be broken by the stewardess, when sleep had +brought partial forgetfulness, with, "It's nine o'clock; we're at +Dieppe, and the officers want to come in here." We tried to raise our +heads. Officers! What officers? Had we crossed the Styx? Were they of +light or darkness? We sank back. O, what were officers to us! + +"But you must get up!"--and she began an awkward attempt at the buttons +of those horrible boots. That recalled to life. American boots are of +this world, and we made a feeble attempt to don some of its vanities. +O, how senseless did the cuffs appear that went on upside down!--the +collar which was fastened under one ear!--the ribbons that were +consigned to our pockets! Making blind stabs at our ears, "Good +heavens!" we ejaculated, "who ever invented earrings? Relics of +barbarism!" We made hasty thrusts at the hair-pins, standing out from +our heads in every direction like enraged porcupine quills; being +pulled, and twisted, and scolded by the stewardess all the while; +hearing the thump, thump, upon our door as one pair of knuckles after +another awoke the echoes, as one strange voice after another shouted, +"Why don't those ladies come out?" O the trembling fingers that refused +to hold the pins!--the trembling feet that staggered up the ladder-like +stairs as we were thrust out of the cabin--out of the cruel little +steamer to take refuge in one of the waiting cabs! O the blessedness of +our thick veils and charitable wraps! + +I recall, as though it were a dream, the narrow, roughly-paved street of +Dieppe; a latticed window filled with flowers, and a dark-eyed maiden +peeping through the leaves; the fish-wives in short petticoats and with +high white caps, clattering over the stones in their wooden _sabots_, +wheeling barrows of fish to the market near the station, where they +bartered, and bargained, and gossiped. Evidently it is a woman's right +in Normandy to work--to grow as withered, and hard, and old before the +time as she chooses, or as she has need; for to put away year after +year, as do these poor women, every grace and charm of womanhood, cannot +be of choice. + +At the long table in the refreshment-room of the station we drank the +tasteless tea, and ate a slice from the roll four feet in length. The +English-speaking girl who attended us found a place--rough enough, to be +sure--where in the few moments of waiting we could complete our hasty +toilets. Beside us at the table, our fellow-voyagers, were two +professors from a Connecticut college of familiar name, whom we had met +in London. They joined us in the comfortable railway carriage, and added +not a little to the pleasant chat that shortened the long day and the +weary journey to Paris. Our number--for the compartment held eight--was +completed by a young American gentleman, and a Frenchman of evil +countenance, who drank wine and made love to his pretty Lizette in an +unblushing manner, strange, and by no means pleasing, to us, +demonstrating the annoyance, if nothing worse, to which one is often +subjected in these compartment cars. It needed but one glance from the +window to convince us that we were no longer in England. To be sure, the +sky is blue, the grass green, in all lands; but in place of the level +sweep of meadow through which we had passed across the Channel, the land +swelled here into hills on every side. Long rows of stiff poplars +divided the fields, or stretched away in straight avenues as far as the +eye could reach. The English remember the beauty of a curved line; the +French, with a painful rectitude, describe only right angles. Scarlet +poppies blushed among the purple, yellow, and white wild flowers along +the way. The plastered cottages with their high, thatched roofs, the +tortuous River Seine with its green islands, as we neared Paris, the +neat little stations along the way--like gingerbread houses--made for us +a new and charming panorama. Hanging over a gate at one of these +stations was an old man, white-haired, blind; his guide, an old woman, +who waited, with a kind of wondering awe stealing over her withered +face, while he played some simple air upon a little pipe--thus asking +alms. So simple was the air, the very shadow of a melody, that the scene +might have been amusing, had it not been so pitiful. + +At noon we lunched in the comfortless waiting-room at Rouen, while the +professors made a hasty visit to the cathedral during our stay of half +an hour. We still suffered from the tossing of the sea, and cathedrals +possessed no charms in our eyes. It was almost night when we reached +Paris, and joined the hurrying crowd descending from the train. It was a +descent into Pandemonium. There was a confusion of unintelligible sounds +in our ears like the roll of a watchman's rattle, bringing no suggestion +of meaning. The calmness of despair fell upon our crushed spirits, with +a sense of powerlessness such as we never experienced before or since. A +dim recollection of school-days--of Ollendorff--rose above the chaos in +our minds. "Has the physician of the shoemaker the canary of the +carpenter?" we repeated mechanically; and with that our minds became a +blank. + +Deliverance awaited us; and when, just outside the closed gates, first +in the expectant crowd, we espied the face of a friend, peace enveloped +us like a garment. Our troubles were over. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARIS OF 1869. + + The devil.--Cathedrals and churches.--The + Louvre.--Modern French art.--The Beauvais clock, + with its droll little puppets.--Virtue in a red + gown.--The Luxembourg Palace.--The yawning statue + of Marshal Ney.--Gay life by gas-light.--The + Imperial Circus.--The Opera.--How the emperor and + empress rode through the streets after the + riots.--The beautiful Spanish woman whose face was + her fortune.--Napoleon's tomb. + + +IT may be the City of Destruction, the very gateway to depths unknown; +but with its fair, white dwellings, its fair, white streets, that +gleamed almost like gold beneath a summer sun, it seemed much more a +City Celestial. It may be, as some affirm, that the devil here walks +abroad at midday; but we saw neither the print of his hoofs upon the +asphaltum, nor the shadow of his horns upon the cream-like Caen stone. +We walked, and rode, and dwelt a time within its limits; and but for a +certain reckless gayety that gave to the Sabbath an air of Vanity Fair, +but for the mallet of the workman that disturbed our Sunday worship, we +should never have known that we were not in the most Christian of all +Christian cities. It is by no means imperative to do in Rome as the +Romans do, and one need not in Paris drink absinthe or visit the Jardin +Mabille. + +Our first expedition was to the banker's and to the shops, and having +replenished our purse and wardrobe, we were prepared to besiege the +city. There was a day or two of rest in the gilded chairs, cushioned +with blue satin, of our pretty _salon_, whence we peeped down upon the +street below between the yellow satin curtains that draped its wide +French window; or rolled our eyes meditatively to the delicately tinted +ceiling, with its rose-colored clouds skimmed by tiny, impossible birds; +or made abortive attempts to penetrate the secrets of the buhl cabinets, +and to guess at the time from the pretty clocks of disordered organism; +or admired ourselves in the mirrors which gazed at each other from +morning till night, for our apartments in the little Hotel Friedland we +found most charming. + +You will hardly care for a description of the dozen, more or less, +churches, old, new, and restored, with which we began and ended our +sight-seeing in Paris, where we looked upon sculptured saints without +number, and studied ecclesiastical architecture to more than our hearts' +content. There was St. Germain L'Auxerrois, the wicked old bell of which +tolled the signal for the massacre of St. Bartholomew. We stood with the +_bonnes_ and babies under the trees of the square before it, gazing up +at the belfry with most severe countenances,--and learned, afterwards, +that the bell had been long since removed! There was the Madeleine of +more recent date, built in the form of a Greek temple, and interesting +just now for having been the church of Father Hyacinthe, to which we +could for a time find no entrance. We shook the iron gate; we inquired +in excellent English of a French shopkeeper, and found at last an open +gateway, a little unlocked door, beyond which we spent a time of search +and inquiry in darkness, and among wood, and shavings, and broken +chairs, and holy dust-pans, before passing around and entering the great +bronze doors. There were the Pantheon and St. Sulpice, grand and +beautiful, erected piously from the proceeds of lotteries. There was St. +Etienne du Mont, and within one of its chapels the gilded tomb of the +patron saint of Paris--St. Genevieve. Who she was, or what she did to +gain this rather unenviable position, I failed to learn. Her name seems +to have outlived her deeds. Whether she was beautiful and beloved, and +put away earthly vanities for a holy life, or old and ugly, and bore her +lot with a patience that won saintship, I do not know. I can only tell +that tapers burn always upon her tomb, and if you buy one it will burn a +prayer for you. So we were told. There is one old church, St. Germain +des Pres, most beautifully colored within. Its pictures seem to have +melted upon the walls. But admired above all is the Sainte Chapelle, in +the Palais de Justice, a chapel fitted up by the fanatical St. Louis, +when this palace of justice, which holds now the courts of law, was a +royal residence. Of course all its brightness was dimmed long ago. Its +glories became dust, like its founder. But it has recently been +restored, and is a marvel of gilt, well-blended colors, and stained +glass. A graceful spire surmounts it, but the old, cone-capped towers, +rising from another part of the same building, possessed far greater +interest in our eyes; for here was the Conciergerie, where were confined +Marie Antoinette and so many more victims of the reign of terror. + +On the "isle of the city," in the Seine, where, under the Roman rule, a +few mud huts constituted Paris, stands the church of Notre Dame, which +was three hundred years in building. With its spire and two square +towers, it may be seen from almost any part of the city. I wish you +might look upon the relics and the vestments which the priests wear upon +occasions of ceremony, hidden within this church, and displayed upon the +payment of an extra fee. I did not wonder that the Sisters of Charity, +who went into the little room with us, gazed aghast upon the gold and +silver, and precious stones. + +Every one visits the galleries of the Louvre, of course. A little, worn +shoe, belonging once to Marie Antoinette, and the old gray coat of the +first emperor, were to us the most interesting objects among the relics. +From out the sea of pictures rise Murillo's Madonna, the lovely face +with a soul behind it, shining through, and the burial of the heroine of +Chateaubriand. Do you know it? The fair form, the sweeping hair of +Attila, and the dark lover with despair in his face? As for the Rubens +gallery,--his fat, red, undraped women here among the clouds, surrounded +by puffy little cherubs, had for us no charms. Rubens in Antwerp was a +revelation. We wandered through room after room, lighted from above, +crowded with paintings. To live for a time among them would be a +delight; to glance at them for a moment was tantalization. All around +were the easels of the artists who come here to sketch--sharp-featured, +heavy-browed men, with unkempt hair and flowing beards, and in shabby +coats, stood before them, pallet and brushes in hand; and women by the +score,--some of them young and pleasing, with duennas patiently waiting +near by; but more often they were neither young nor beautiful, and with +an evident renunciation of pomps and vanities. We glanced at their +copies curiously. Sometimes they seemed the original in miniature, and +sometimes,--ah well, we all fail. + +We looked in upon the annual exhibition of pictures at the Palais de +l'Industrie one day, and were particularly impressed with the _nudite_ +of the modern school of French art. Pink-tinted flesh may be very +beautiful, but there must be something higher! We saw there, too, +another day, the clock on exhibition for a time before being consigned +to its destined place at Beauvais. It was even more wonderful than the +one so famous at Strasbourg. This was of the size of an ordinary church +organ, and of similar shape; a mass of gilt and chocolate-colored wood; +a mass of dials, great and small--of time tables, and, indeed, of tables +for computing everything earthly and heavenly, with dials to show the +time in fifty different places, and everything else that could, by any +possible connection with time, be supposed to belong to a clock. Upon +the top, Christ, seated in an arm-chair, was represented as judging the +world, his feet upon the clouds; on either side kneeling female figures +adored him. Just below, a pair of scales bided their time. On every peak +stood little images, while fifty puppets peeped out of fifty windows. +Just below the image of the Saviour, a figure emerged through an open +door at the striking of every quarter of an hour,--coming out with a +slide and occasional jerk by no means graceful. We had an opportunity of +observing all this in the three quarters of an hour of waiting. We +viewed the clock upon every side, being especially interested in a +picture at one point representing a rocky coast, a light-house, and a +long stretch of waves upon which labored two ships attached in some way +to the works within. They pitched back and forth without making any +progress whatever, in a way very suggestive to us, who had lately +suffered from a similar motion. A dozen priests seated themselves with +us upon the bench before the clock as the hand approached the hour. They +wore the long black robes and odd little skull-caps, that fit so like a +plaster, and which are, I am sure, kept in place by some law of +attraction unknown to us. One, of a different order, or higher grade, in +a shorter robe and with very thin legs, encased in black stockings that +added to their shadowy appearance, shuffled up to his place just in time +to throw back his head and open his mouth as the clock struck, and the +last judgment began. The cock upon the front gave a preliminary and weak +flap of his wings, and emitted three feeble, squeaky crows, that must, I +am sure, have convulsed the very puppets. Certainly they all disappeared +from the windows, and something jumped into their places intended to +represent flames, but which looked so much like reversed tin petticoats, +that we supposed for a moment they were all standing on their heads. All +the figures upon the peaks turned their backs upon us. The image of +Christ began to wave its hands. The kneeling women swayed back and +forth, clasping their own. Two angels raised to their lips long, gilt +trumpets, as if to blow a blast; then dropped them; then raised them a +second time, and even made a third abortive attempt. From one of the +open doors Virtue was jerked out to be judged, Virtue in a red gown. The +scales began to dance up and down. An angel appeared playing a guitar, +and Virtue went triumphantly off to the right, to slow and appropriate +music, an invisible organ playing meanwhile. Then Vice appeared. I +confess he excited my instant and profound pity. Such a poor, naked, +wretched-looking object as he was! with his hands to his face, as though +he were heartily ashamed to come out in such a plight. I venture to say, +if he had been decked out like Virtue, he might have stolen off to the +right, and nobody been the wiser. Good clothes do a great deal in Paris. +As it was, the scales danced up and down a moment, and then the devil +appeared with a sharp stick, and drove him around the corner to the +left, with very distant and feeble thunder for an accompaniment. That +ended the show. All the little puppets jumped back into all the little +windows, and we came away. + +Speaking of picture galleries, we spent a pleasant hour in the gallery +of the Luxembourg--a collection of paintings made up from the works of +living artists, and of those who have been less than a year deceased. It +is sufficiently small to be enjoyable. There is something positively +oppressive in the vastness of many of these galleries. You feel utterly +unequal to them; as though the finite were about to attempt the +comprehension of the infinite. One picture here, by Ary Scheffer, was +exhibited in America, a few years since. It is the head and bust of a +dead youth in armor--a youth with a girlish face. There are others by +Henri Scheffer, Paulin Guerin, and a host more I will not name. One, a +scene in the Conciergerie, "Reading the List of the Condemned to the +Prisoners," by Mueller, haunted me long after the doors had swung +together behind us. The palace of the Luxembourg, small, remarkable for +the beauty of its architecture and charming garden, built for that +graceless regent, Marie de Medici, is now the residence of the president +of the Senate; and indeed the Senate itself meets here. We were shown +through the rooms open to the public, the private apartments of Marie de +Medici among them, in one of which was a bust of the regent. The garden, +like all gardens, is filled with trees and shrubs, flowers and +fountains, but yet with a certain charm of its own. The festooning of +vines from point to point was a novelty to us, as was the design of one +of the fountains. Approaching it from the rear, we thought it a +tomb,--perhaps the tomb of Marshal Ney, we said, whose statue we were +seeking. It proved to be an artificial grotto, and within it, sprinkled +with the spray of the fountain, embowered in a mass of glistening, green +ivy, reclined a pair of pretty, marble lovers; peering in upon them from +above, scowled a dreadful ogre--a horrible giant. The whole effect, +coming upon it unexpectedly, was startling. + +We had a tiresome search for this same statue of Marshal Ney. We chased +every marble nymph in the garden, and walked and walked, over burning +pebbles and under a scorching sun, until we almost wished he had never +been shot. At last, away beyond the garden, out upon a long avenue, +longer and hotter if possible than the garden paths, we found +it,--erected upon the very spot where he was executed. He stands with +arm outstretched, and mouth opened wide, as though he were yawning with +the wearisomeness of it all. It is a pity that he should give way to his +feelings so soon, since he must stand there for hundreds of years to +come. The guide-books say he is represented in the act of encouraging +his men. They must have been easily encouraged. + +Of the out-door gay life by gas-light, we saw less than we had hoped to +see in the French capital. The season was unusually cold and wet, and +most of the time it would have required the spirit of a martyr to sip +coffee upon the sidewalk. One garden concert we did attend, and found it +very bright and fairy-like, and all the other adjectives used in this +connection. We sat wrapped in shawls, our feet upon the rounds of the +chair before us, and shivered a little, and enjoyed a great deal. We +went one night--in most orthodox company--to the Cirque de +l'Imperatrice, a royal amphitheatre with handsome horses, pretty +equestriennes, and a child balanced and tossed about on horseback, +showing a frightened, painful smile, which made of the man who held her +a Herod in our eyes. A girl very rich in paint and powder, but somewhat +destitute in other particulars, skipped and danced upon a slack rope in +a most joyous and airy manner. When we came out, a haggard woman, with +an old, worn face, was crouching in a little weary heap by the door that +led into the stables, wrapped in an old cloak; and that was our dancing +girl! + +We went to the opera, too; it was Les Huguenots. To this day I cannot +tell who were the singers. I never knew, or thought, or cared. And the +bare shoulders flashing with jewels in the boxes around us, the +_claqueurs_ in the centre, hired to applaud, clapping their hands with +the regularity of clock-work, the empty imperial box, were nothing to +the sight of Paris portrayed within itself. You know the familiar opera; +do think how strange it was to see it in Paris; to look upon the stage +and behold the Seine and the towers of Notre Dame; the excited populace +rising up to slay and to be slain, with all the while this same fickle +French people serenely smiling, and chatting, and looking upon it--the +people who were even then ready at a word to reenact the same scenes for +a different cause. Just outside, only a day or two before, something of +the same spirit, portrayed here for our amusement, had broken out again +in the election riots. And we remembered that, as we drove around the +corner to the opera house, mounted soldiers stood upon either side, +while every other man upon the street was the eye, and ear, and arm of +the emperor, who knew that the very ground beneath his fair, white city +tottered and reeled. + +We saw the emperor and empress one day, after having looked for them +long and in vain upon the Champs Elysees, and in the Bois de Boulogne +where gay Paris disports itself. It was the morning after the riot, when +they drove unattended, you will remember, through the streets where the +rioters had gathered. We were in one of the shops upon the Rue de +Rivoli. Just across the way rose the Tuileries from the sidewalk. A +crowd began to collect about the open archway through the palace, which +affords entrance and egress to the great square around which the palace +is built. "What is it?" we asked of the voluble Frenchman who was +gradually persuading us that brass was gold. "L'Empereur," he replied; +which sent us to the sidewalk, and put from our minds all thoughts of +oxidized silver and copper-colored gold. Just within the arch paced a +lackey in livery of scarlet and gold, wearing a powdered wig and general +air of importance. On either side, the sentries froze into position. The +_gendarmes_ shouted and gesticulated, clearing the streets. A mounted +attendant emerged from the archway; there followed four bay horses +attached to a plain, dark, open carriage; upon the front seat were two +gentlemen, upon the back, a gentleman with a lady by his side. His hair +was iron gray, almost silvery. He turned his face from us as he raised +his hat gravely to the crowd, displaying a very perceptible bald spot +upon the back of his head as he was whizzed around the corner and down +the street. And that was Napoleon III. We saw no American lady in Paris +dressed so simply as the empress. Something of black lace draped her +shoulders; a white straw bonnet, trimmed with black, with a few pink +roses resting upon her hair, crowned her head. She bowed low to the +right and left, with a peculiar, graceful motion, and a smile upon the +face a little worn and pale, a little faded,--but yet the face we all +know so well. Beautiful Spanish woman, whose face was your fortune, +though you smiled that day upon the people, your cheeks were pale, your +eyes were full of tears. + +There is nothing more wonderful in Paris than the tomb prepared to +receive the remains of the first Napoleon, in the chapel of the Hotel +des Invalides; fitting, it would seem to be, that he should rest here +among his old soldiers. We left the carriage at the gateway, and crossed +the open court, mounted the wide steps, followed the half dozen other +parties through the open doors, and this was what we saw. At the farther +end of the great chapel or church, an altar, approached by wide, marble +steps; gilt and candles embellished it, and a large, gilt cross upon it +bore an image of the crucified Lord. All this was not unlike what we had +seen many times. But four immense twisted columns rose from its four +corners--columns of Egyptian marble, writhing like spotted serpents. +They supported a canopy of gold, and the play of lights upon this, +through the stained windows above and on either side, was indescribable. +As we entered the door, darkness enveloped it, save where an invisible +sun seemed to touch the roof of gold and rest lightly upon the pillars; +an invisible sun, indeed, for, without, the sky was heavy with clouds. +As we advanced, this unearthly light touched new points--the gilded +candlesticks, the dying Saviour, but above all the writhings of these +monster serpents, until the whole seemed a thing of life, a something +which grew and expanded every moment, and was almost fearful to look +upon. Filling the centre of the chapel was a circular marble wall +breast-high. Do you remember, in going to the old Senate chamber at +Washington, after passing through the rotunda, the great marble +well-curb down which you could look into the room below? This was like +that, only more vast. Over it leaned a hundred people, at least, gazing +down upon what? A circular, roofless room, a crypt to hold a tomb; each +pillar around its circumference was the colossal figure of a woman; +between these hung the tattered tri-colors borne in many a fierce +conflict, beneath the burning suns of Egypt and over the dreary snows of +Russia, with seventy colors captured from the enemies of France. A +wreath of laurel in the mosaic floor surrounded the names Austerlitz, +Marengo, Friedland, Jena, Wagram, Moscow, and Pyramids, and in the +centre rose the sarcophagus of Finland granite, prepared to hold the +body of him whose ambition knew no bounds. The letter N upon one +polished side was the only inscription it bore. He who wrote his name in +blood needed no epitaph. The entrance to this crypt is through bronze +doors, behind the altar, and gained by passing under it. On either side +stood a colossal figure in bronze; kings they seemed to be, giant kings, +in long black robes and with crowns of black upon their heads. One held, +upon the black cushion in his hands, a crown of gold and a golden sword; +the other, a globe crowned with a cross and a golden sceptre. They were +so grand, and dark, and still, they gazed upon us so fixedly from out +their great, grave eyes, that I felt a chill in all my bones. They guard +his tomb. They hold his sword and sceptre while he sleeps. I almost +expected the great doors to swing open at the touch of his hand, and to +see him come forth. Over these doors were his own words: "I desire that +my ashes may repose upon the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the +French people I have loved so well." On either side, as we came out, we +read upon the tombs the names of Bertrand and Duroc,--faithful in death! +We wondered idly whose remains were guarded in the simple tomb near the +door. It was surrounded by an iron railing, and bore no inscription. Who +can it be, we said, that is nameless here among the brave? Little did we +imagine at the time that here rested the body of the great Napoleon, as +it was brought from St. Helena; but his spirit seemed to pervade the +very atmosphere, and we came out into the gloom of the day as though we +had, indeed, come from the presence of the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SIGHTS IN THE BEAUTIFUL CITY. + + The Gobelin tapestry.--How and where it is + made.--Pere la-Chaise.--Poor Rachel!--The baby + establishment.--"Now I lay me."--The little + mother.--The old woman who lived in a shoe.--The + American chapel.--Beautiful women and + children.--The last conference-meeting.--"I'm a + proof-reader, I am." + + +BY no means least among the places of interest in Paris is the +manufactory of the Gobelin tapestry which serves to adorn the walls of +the palace _salons_. O, these long, tiresome _salons_, which must be +visited, though your head is ready to burst with seeing, your feet to +drop off with sliding and slipping over the polished floors. The wicked +_stand_ upon slippery places, and nothing so convinced us of the +demoralizing effect of foreign travel as our growing ability to do the +same. When you have seen one or two, you have seen all. There may be +degrees in gorgeous splendor, but we were filled with all the +appropriate and now-forgotten emotions at sight of the first, and one +cannot be more than full. Many of the old palace apartments are dull and +dingy beyond belief, by no means the marble halls of our dreams; but of +the others let me say something once for all. Under your feet is the +treacherous, bare floor of dark wood, laid in diamonds, squares, &c.; +over your head, exquisite frescoes of gods and goddesses, and all manner +of unearthly and impossible beings enveloped in clouds by the +bale,--usually an apotheosis of some king or queen, or both, and, as a +rule, of the most wicked known at that time. The Medici were especially +glorified and raised above the flesh,--and they had need to be. On every +side pictures in Gobelin tapestry, framed into the walls, often so large +as to cover the entire space from corner to corner, from cornice to +within a few feet of the floor, and in this latter space doors, formed +of a panel sometimes, for the entrance and egress of servants. Imagine, +with all this, the gilt, and stucco, and wood-carving; the flowers, and +arabesques, and entwined initials; the massive chandeliers, with +glittering pendants; the mantels of rare marbles, of porphyry, and +malachite; the cabinets, and tables, and escritoires of marqueterie and +mosaic; the gilded chairs, stiff and stark, richly covered; the bronzes, +vases, and curious clocks: and over all the air of having never been +used from all time, and of continuing to be a bare show to all +eternity,--and you have a faint conception of the _salons_ of half the +palaces. + +As for the tapestry, pray don't confound it with the worsted dogs and +Rebekahs-at-the-Well with which we sometimes adorn (?) our homes, since +one would never in any way suggest the other. In these every delicate +line is faithfully reproduced, and the effect exactly that of an oil +painting. After long years the colors fade; and we were startled +sometimes, in the old palaces, to come upon one of these gray shadows +of pictures, out from which, perhaps, a pair of wonderful eyes alone +would seem to shine. In old times the rough walls of the grim prison +palaces were hung with tapestry wrought by the fair fingers of court +ladies, the designs of tournament and battle being rudely sketched by +gay gallants. Many a bright dream was worked into the canvas, I doubt +not, never found upon the pattern; many a sweet word said over the task +that beguiled the dull hours, and kept from mischief idle hands. But in +the reign of Louis XIV. the art of weaving tapestry was brought from +Flanders, and a manufactory established on the outskirts of Paris which +still remains. To visit it a pass is required. Accordingly we addressed +a note of solicitation to some high official, and in due time came a +permit for Madame K. and family; and an ill-assorted family we must have +appeared to the official at the gate. There were the rooms, hung with +specimens of the tapestry, for which we did not care, and then the six +devoted to the weaving; long, low, and narrow they were, with hand-looms +ranged down one side. Through the threads of the warp we could see the +weavers sitting behind their work, each with his box of worsteds and +pattern beside him. The colors were wound upon quills, numbers of which +hung, each by its thread, from the half-completed work. Taking one of +these in one hand, the workman dexterously separated the threads of the +warp with the other, and passed the quill through, pressing down the one +stitch thus formed with its pointed end. You can imagine how slow this +work must be. How tiresome a task it is to delight the eyes of princes! +The making of carpets, which has been recently added, is equally +tiresome. This, too, is hand work, they being woven in some way over a +round stick, and then cut and trimmed with a pair of shears. To make one +requires from five to ten years, and their cost is from six to twenty +thousand dollars. About six hundred weavers are said to be here, though +we saw but a small proportion of that number. They receive only from +three to five hundred dollars a year, with a pension of about half as +much if they are disabled. + +From the Gobelins we drove across the Seine again, and out to Pere +la-Chaise, where stood once the house of the confessor of Louis XIV., +from whom the cemetery takes its name, the Jesuit priest through whose +influence the edict of Nantes was revoked. A kind of ghastly imitation +of life it all seemed--the narrow houses on either side of the paved +streets, that were not houses at all, hung with dead flowers and +corpse-like wreaths, stained an unnatural hue. We peered through the +bars of the locked gate opening into the Jews' quarter, trying to +distinguish the tomb where lie the ashes of a life that blazed, and +burned itself out. Poor Rachel! Through the solemn streets, among the +quiet dwellings of the noiseless city, whence comes no sound of joy or +grief, where they need no candle, neither light of the sun, we walked a +while, then plucked a leaf or two, and came away. + +One day, when the sun lay hot upon the white streets of the beautiful +city, we searched among the shops of the crooked Faubourg St. Honore for +a number forgotten now, and the Creche, where the working mothers may +leave their children during the day. In another and more quiet street +we found it. We pulled the bell before a massive gateway; the wide doors +opened upon a smiling portress, who led the way across the paved court +to the house, where she pointed up some stairs, and left us to mount and +turn until it was no longer possible, until a confusion of doors barred +our way, when we rapped upon one. Another was opened, and we found +ourselves among the babies. There were, perhaps, twenty in all, the +larger children being in the school-room below; but even twenty +toddling, rolling babies, looking so very like the same image done in +putty over and over again, appears an alarming and unlimited number when +taken in a body. They rolled beneath our feet, they clung to our skirts, +they peeped out, finger in mouth, from behind the doors, they kicked +pink toes up from the swinging cradles, and in fact, like the clansmen +of Rhoderic Dhu, appeared in a most startling manner from the most +unexpected places. Plump little things they were, encased in shells of +blue-checked aprons, from the outer one of which they were +surreptitiously slipped upon our entrance to disclose a fresher one +beneath. How long this process could have continued with a similar happy +result, we did not inquire. Every head was tied up in a tight little +night-cap, giving them the appearance of so many little bag puddings. +Every face was a marvel of health and contentment, with one kicking, +screaming exception upon the floor. "Eengleesh," explained the Sister of +Charity who seemed to have them in charge, giving a sweeping wipe to the +eyes, nose, and mouth, gradually liquidizing, of this one, and trying in +vain to pacify a nature that seemed peaceless. Who was its mother, or +how the little stranger chanced to be here, we did not learn. On either +side of the long, narrow room hung the white-curtained cradles, each +with its pretty, pink quilt. At one end was an altar, most modest in its +appointments, consisting of hardly more than a crucifix and a vase of +flowers upon the mantel. As we entered the room, the sister stood before +it with a circle of white caps and blue checked aprons around her, a +circle of little clasped hands, of upturned eyes and lisping lips, +repeating what might have been, "Now I lay me," for anything we knew. +Our entrance brought wandering eyes and thoughts. + +At the opposite end of the room, a wide, long window swung open, +revealing a pleasant garden down below, all green and blossoming, with +an image of the Virgin half hid among the vines. Cool, and fresh, and +green it seemed after the glare of the hot streets, a pleasant picture +for the baby eyes. Out from this window the little feet could trot upon +the guarded roof of a piazza. A little chair, a broken doll, and +limbless horse here were familiar objects to the eyes of the mothers in +our party, and when two children seized upon one block with a +determination which threatened a breach of the peace, we were convinced +that even baby nature was the same the world over. Supper time came, and +the children were gathered together in a small room, before the drollest +little table imaginable--a kind of elongated doughnut, raised a foot +from the floor, with a circular seat around it. All the little outer +shells of blue check were slipped on, all the little fat bodies lifted +over and set into their places, to roll off, or about, at will. A grace +was said, to us, I think, since all the little eyes turned towards us, +and a plate of oatmeal porridge put before each one. Some ate with a +relish, and a painful search over the face with a spoon for the open, +waiting mouth; some leaned back to stare at the company; and others +persisted in dipping into the dish of their next neighbor. One little +thing, hardly more than a year old, drew down the corners of her mouth +in a portentous manner, when the motherly one beside her, of the +advanced age of three years, perhaps, rapped on the table with her +spoon, and patted the doleful little face, smiling all the while, until +she actually drew out smiles in return. The dear little mother! An +attendant with a homely face, creased into all manner of good-natured +lines, resolved herself into the old woman who lived in a shoe, holding +two babies and the porridge dish in her lap, balancing one upon the end +of the low bench beside her, while two or three more stood at her knee, +clinging to her apron. It was like a nest of open-mouthed birdlings. +Blessings on the babies, and those, whether of our faith or not, who +teach and care for them, we thought, as we came away. "Inasmuch as ye +have done it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto me," said +the Master. + +Although I said nothing of our church-going in London, I cannot pass +over our American chapel in Paris, with its carved, umbrella-like +canopy, shading the good Dr. R., who did so much socially, as well as +spiritually, for Americans there. Here came many whose names are well +known; among them our minister to France, an elderly gentleman of +unpretending dress and manner, with a kindly, care-worn face. And here +gathered also a company of beautiful women and children, proving the +truth of all that has been said of our countrywomen. A blending of all +types were they, as our people are a blending of all nationalities, each +more lovely than the other, and all making up a picture well worth +seeing. I wish I might say as much for the opposite sex. One gentleman, +who wore a red rose always in his button-hole, and turned his back upon +the minister to stare at the women, had a handsome though _blase_ face, +and more than one head above the pews would have been marked anywhere; +but the women and children bore away the palm. The delicate, sensitive +faces which characterize American women, whether the effect of climate, +manner of life, or of the nerves for which we are so celebrated, are +found nowhere else, I am sure. + +Besides the Sabbath services a weekly prayer-meeting was held here. They +were singing some sweet familiar hymn as we entered one evening and took +our place among the pilgrims and strangers like ourselves. It was the +last gathering for the winter. Some were off for home, some for a summer +of travel; only a few, with the pastor, were to remain. One followed +another in words of retrospection, and regret at parting, until a pall +settled over the little company--until even we, who had never been there +before, wiped our eyes because of the general dolefulness. A hush and +universal mistiness pervaded the air of the dimly-lighted house; the +assembly seemed about to pass out of existence, Niobe-like. Then up rose +Dr. R., the pastor. I wondered what he could say to add to the gloom; +something like this, perhaps: "Dear people, everybody is off; let us +shut up the church, lock the door, and throw away the key. Receive the +benediction." But no; I wish you might feel the thrill that went through +the little company as his words fell from his lips. I wish I dared +attempt to repeat them. "And now to you who go," he said, at last, "who +take with you something of our hearts, be sure our prayers will follow +you. Keep us in memory; but, above all, keep in memory your church vows. +Make yourselves known as Christians among Christians. And when you have +reached home--the home to which our thoughts have so often turned +together--let this be a lesson. When summer comes and you leave the city +for the country, for the mountains, for the sea-side, take your religion +with you. Search out some struggling little church with a discouraged +pastor,--you'll not look far or long to find such a one,--and work for +that, as you have worked for us. And one thing more; send your friends +who are coming abroad to us. Send us the Christians, for we need them, +and by all means send us those who are not Christians; they may need us; +and the Lord bless you, and keep you in all your goings, and give you +peace." + +Then the people gathered in knots for last words--for hand-clasps and +good-byes. Now a spirit of peace and good will having fallen upon us +with the pastor's benediction, we gazed wistfully upon the strangers in +the hope of finding one familiar face; but there was none; so we came +sorrowfully down the aisle. The door was almost reached when a sharp, +twanging voice behind us began, "I'm sent out by X. & Y., book +publishers." "O," said I to the friend at my side, "I believe I will +speak to that man. I know Mr. X., and I do so want to speak to +somebody." How he accomplished the introduction I cannot tell, but in a +moment my hand was grasped by that of a stout little man, with bushy +hair and twinkling eyes. "Know Mr. X.? Mr. Q. X.?" he began. To tell the +truth I had not that honor, my acquaintance having been with his +brother; but there was no time to explain, and retreat was equally +impossible; so I replied that my father knew him well; then thinking +that something more was necessary to explain the sudden and intense +interest manifested in his behalf, added, desperately, "indeed, +intimately." To this he paid no manner of attention,--I doubt if he +heard it,--but rattled on: "Fine man, Mr. X., Mr. Q. X. Know Mr. Y.? +Fine man, Mr. Y.; been abroad a year; I'm goin' out to meet him, I am. +He's in Switzerland, Mr. Y. is; been abroad a year. I'm a proof-reader, +I am. I s'pose you know what a proof-reader is." "Yes," I succeeded in +inserting while he took breath, remembering some amateur attempts of my +own in that direction. He began anew: "I'm sent out by X. & Y.; expect +to find Mr. Y. in Switzerland; fine man--" Will he never stop, I +thought, beginning a backward retreat from the pew down the aisle, with +all the while ringing in my ears, "I'm a proof-reader, I am," &c. "Don't +laugh, pray don't," I said to the friends waiting at the door. "It's +dreadful--is it not?" What became of him we never knew, but in all +probability the sexton removed him--still vocal--to the sidewalk that +night; where, since we do not know for how long a time he was wound up, +he may be iterating and reiterating to this day the interesting fact of +his occupation, with the eulogy upon Messrs. X. & Y. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SHOW PLACES IN THE SUBURBS OF PARIS. + + The river omnibuses.--Sevres and its + porcelain.--St. Cloud as it was.--The crooked + little town.--Versailles.--Eugenie's "spare + bedroom."--The queen who played she was a farmer's + wife.--Seven miles of paintings.--The portraits of + the presidents. + + +THERE are four ways of going to St. Cloud, from Paris, says the +guide-book; we chose the fifth, and took one of the little +steamboats--the river omnibuses--that follow the course of the Seine, +stopping at the piers along the city, which occur almost as often as the +street crossings. Very insignificant little steamers they are, made up +of puff, and snort, and smoke, a miniature deck, and a man with a big +bell. Up the river we steamed through a mist that hid everything but the +green banks, the pretty villas whose lawns drabbled their skirts in the +river, and after a time the islands that seemed to have dropped cool, +wet, and green into the middle of the stream. We plunged beneath the +dark arches of the stone bridges--the Pont d'Alma not to be forgotten, +with its colossal sentinels on either side of the middle arch, calm, +white, and still, leaning upon their muskets, their feet almost dipping +into the water, their great, stony eyes gazing away down the river. +What is it they seem to see beyond the bend? What is it they watch and +wait for, gun in hand? We pulled our wraps about us, found a sheltered +place, and went on far beyond our destination, through the gray vapor +that gathered sometimes into great, plashing drops to fall upon the +deck, or, hovering in mid-air, wiped out the distance from the landscape +as effectually as the sweep of a painter's brush, while it softened and +spiritualized everything near, from the sharply outlined eaves, and +gables, and narrow windows of the village struggling up from the water, +to the shadowy span of the bridges that seemed to rest upon air. Then +down with the rain and the current we swept again, to land at the +forsaken pier of Sevres, from which we made our way over the pavings, so +inviting in these French towns for missile or barricade, to the +porcelain factory. No fear of missing it, since it is the one object of +interest to strangers in the town; and whatever question we asked, the +reply would have been the pointing of the finger in that one direction. +Once there, we clattered and slipped over the tiled floor after a polite +attendant, through its many show-rooms, and among its wilderness of +pottery, ancient and modern. The manufactory was established by--I'm +sure I don't know whom--in seventeen hundred and--something, at +Vincennes, quite the other side of Paris; but a few years later, in the +reign of Louis XV., was transferred to Sevres, and put under the +direction of government. It is almost impossible to gain permission to +visit the workshops, but a permit to pass through the show-rooms can +easily be obtained. There were queer old-fashioned attempts at glazed +ware here, some of them adorned with pictures like those we used to see +in our grandmothers' china closets, of puffy little pink gentlemen and +ladies ambling over a pink foreground; a pink mountain, of pyramidal +form, rising from the wide-rimmed hat of the roseate gentlemen; a pink +lake standing on end at the feet of the lady, and a little pink house, +upon which they might both have sat comfortably, with a few clouds of +jeweller's cotton completing the picture. A striking contrast were these +to the marvels of frailty and grace of later times. The rooms were hung +with paintings upon porcelain, the burial of Attila, which we had seen +at the Louvre, among them. Every conceivable model of vase, pitcher, and +jar was here--quaint, beautiful conceptions of form adorned by the hand +of skilful artists, from mammoth vases, whirling upon stationary +pedestals, to the most delicate cup that ever touched red lips. + +At noon we strolled over to St. Cloud, a pleasant walk of a mile, +beginning with a shaded avenue, rough as a country road; then on, down a +street leading to the gates of the park of St. Cloud--a street so vain +of its destination that it was actually lifted up above the gardens on +either side. From the wide gates we passed into a labyrinth of shaded, +clean-swept ways, and followed one to the avenue of the fountains, where +we sat upon the edge of a stone basin to await the opening of the +palace. For do not imagine, dear reader, that you can run in and out of +palaces without ceremony and at all hours of the day. There is an +appointed time; there is the gathering outside of the curious; there is +the coming of a man with rattling, ringing keys; there is the throwing +open of wide gates and massive doors, and then--and not until then--the +entering in. As for the fountains, next to those at Versailles they have +been widely celebrated; but as they only played upon Sundays and fete +days, we did not see them. Their Sunday gowns of mist and flowing water +were laid aside, and naked and bare enough they were this day. The wide +basins, the lions and dolphins, were here, with the marble nymphs, and +fauns and satyrs, that make a shower-bath spectacle of themselves upon +gala days. When the hour refused to strike, and we grew hungry,--as one +will among the rarest and most wonderful things,--we left the park, to +find the crooked little town that sits in the dust always at the feet of +palaces. Its narrow streets ran close up to the gates, and would have +run in had they not been shut. Here in the low, smoke-stained room of an +inn that was only a wine-shop, we spent the time of waiting,--our elbows +upon the round, dark table, which, with the dirt and wooden chairs, made +up its only furnishing,--sipping the sour wine, cutting slices from the +long, melancholy stick of bread, all dust and ashes, and nibbling the +cheese that might have vied with Samson for strength. The diamond-paned +window was flung wide open, for the air seemed soiled and stained, like +the floor. Just across the narrow, empty street, an old house elbowed +our inn. The eaves of its thatched roof were tufted with moss, out from +which rose a mass of delicate pink blossoms--pretty innocents, fairly +blushing for shame of their surroundings. Through the long passage-way +came the sound of high-pitched voices--of a strange jargon from the +room opening upon the street, where a heavy-eyed maid, behind a pewter +bar, served the blue-bloused workmen gathered about the little tables. + +The white palace of St. Cloud, with its Corinthian columns, stood +daintily back from its gates and the low-bred town; but its long wings +had run down, like curious children, to peep out through the bars; so, +you will see, it formed three sides of a square. It had lately been +refurnished for the prince imperial. The grand _salons_ need not be +described; one is especially noted as having been the place where a baby +was once baptized, who is now ex-emperor of France. In the same room the +civil contract of marriage between Napoleon I. and Marie Louise was +celebrated. A few elegant but less spacious rooms were interesting from +having been the private apartments of the poor queens and empresses who +have shared the throne of France. Gorgeous they were in tapestry and +gilding, filled with a gaping crowd of visitors, and echoing to the +voice of a voluble guide. Royal fingers may have touched the pretty +trinkets lying about; royal forms reclined upon the soft couches; royal +aching hearts beat to the tick of the curious gilt clock, that bore as +many faces as a woman, some one wickedly said; but it was impossible to +realize it, or to believe that high heels, and panniers, and jaunty hats +upon sweet-faced, shrill-voiced American girls had not ruled and reigned +here always, as they did this day. + +Versailles lies out beyond St. Cloud, but we gave to it another day. We +were a merry party, led by Dr. R., who left the train at the station, +and filled the omnibus for the palace. There was an air of having seen +better days about the city, which was at one time the second of +importance in France; it fed and fattened upon the court, and when at +last the court went away not to return, it came to grief. The most vivid +recollection I have of the great court-yard, around which extend three +sides of the palace, is of its round paving-stones--that seemed to have +risen up preparatory to crying out--and the grove of weather-stained +statues upon high pedestals,--generals, cardinals, and statesmen who +hated and connived against each other in life, doomed now in stone to +stare each other out of countenance. I am sure we detected a wry face +here and there, to say nothing of clinched fists. It is a gloomy old +court-yard at best. The front of the main building is all that remains +of the old hunting-seat of Louis XIII., which his son would not suffer +to be destroyed. It is of dingy, mildewed brick, that can never in any +possible light appear palatial; and so blackened and purple-stained are +the statues before it that they might have been just brought from the +Morgue. The whole palace is only a show place now--a museum of painting +and statuary. As for the celebrated gardens, we walked for hours, and +still they stretched away on every side. We explored paths wide and +narrow, crooked and straight, and saw clipped trees by the mile, with +grottoes and the skeletons of the fountains that, like naughty children, +play o' Sundays, and all the wonderful trees, shrubs, and flowers +brought from the ends of the earth, and ate honey gingerbread (flavored +with extract of turpentine) before an open booth, and were ready to +faint with weariness; and when at last a broad avenue opened before us +with the Trianons, which must be seen, at the farther end, we would not +have taken the whole place as a gift. It must have been at this point +that we fortified ourselves with the gingerbread. + +The Grand Trianon alone were we permitted to enter. It is in the form of +an Italian villa, with a ground floor only, and long windows opening +upon delightful gardens. Like Versailles, it is now a mere show, +although a suit of apartments was fitted up here some time since, in +anticipation of a neighborly visit from Queen Victoria to Eugenie, +making of the little palace a kind of guest chamber, a spare bedroom. As +we followed a winding path through the park, we came suddenly upon an +open glade, surrounded and shaded by forest trees. Over the tiny lake, +in the centre, swans were sailing. Half hidden among the wide-spread, +sweeping branches of the trees were the scattered farm-houses of a +deserted village--only half a dozen in all, of rude, half Swiss +architecture, made to imitate age and decay, quaintly picturesque. Here +Marie Antoinette and her court played at poverty. Do you remember how, +when she grew weary of solemn state, she came here with a few favored +ones to forget her crown, and dream she was a farmer's wife? The dairy +was empty, the marble slab bare upon which she made butter for her +guests. Just beyond was the mill, but the wheel was still. It was a +pleasant dream--a dream of Arcadia. Ah, but there was a fearful +awakening! "The poorest peasant in the land," said the queen, "has one +little spot which she can call her own; the Queen of France asks no +more." So she shut the gates upon the people who had claimed and held +the right, from all time, to wander at will through the gardens of +their kings. Then they hated her, whom they had greeted with shouts of +welcome when she came a bride from over the border. "The Austrian! the +Austrian!" they hissed through the closed gates. And one day they +dragged her out from a bare cell in the Conciergerie,--no make-believe +of rough walls, of coarse fare there,--they bound the slender hands +behind her, they thrust into a prison cart the form that had been used +to rest upon down and silken cushions, and bore her over the rough +stones to the scaffold. Ah, it makes one shudder! + +To see the two hundred rooms of the palace of Versailles requires a day, +at least; but we, fearful that this might be our last opportunity, +determined to spend the remaining hour or two and our last atom of +strength in the attempt. A wandering cabman pounced upon us as we came +down the avenue from the Trianons, and bore us back to the palace, where +we toiled up and down the grand stairway, and peeped into the chapel +that had echoed to the mockery of worship in the time of the king who +built all this--the king who loved everybody's wife but his own--so +faithlessly! There was a dizzy hurrying through corridors lined with +statuary, through one _salon_ after another hung with Horace Vernet's +paintings describing the glories of France--the crowning of its kings, +the reception of its ambassadors, the signing of its treaties, the +winning of its battles; but was all this bloodshed, and all this agony +depicted upon canvas, for the glory of France? There were immense +galleries, where, on every side, from cornice to floor, one was +conscious of nothing but smoke and cannon, wounds and gore, and rolling +eyes. We walked over the prescribed three miles and a half of floors +slippery as ice, and gazed upon the seven miles of pictures, with a +feeling less of pleasure or gratified curiosity than of satisfaction at +having _done_ Versailles. Room after room was devoted to portraits, full +lengths and half lengths, side faces and full fronts; faces to be +remembered, if one had not been in such mortal haste, and faces that +would never have been missed from the ermined robes. In a quiet corner +we were startled to find some of our good presidents staring down upon +us from the wall. A mutual surprise it seemed to be. But if we Americans +must be awkward and clownish to the last degree, half civilized, and but +one remove from barbarism, don't let us put the acme of all this upon +canvas, and hang it in the palace of kings. Here was President Grant +represented in the saloon of a steamboat,--America to the last,--one leg +crossed, one heel upon the opposite knee, and his head about to sink +into his coat collar in an agony of terror at finding himself among +quality. His attitude might have been considered graceful and dignified +in a bar-room, or even in the saloon of a Mississippi steamer; but it +utterly failed in both particulars in the Palace of Versailles, among +courtly men and high-bred women. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A VISIT TO BRUSSELS. + + To Brussels.--The old and new city.--The paradise + and purgatory of dogs.--The Hotel de Ville and + Grand Place.--St. Gudule.--The picture + galleries.--Wiertz and his odd + paintings.--Brussels lace and an hour with the + lace-makers. How the girls found Charlotte + Bronte's school.--The scene of "Villette." + + +THERE were one or two more excursions from Paris, and then, when we had +grasped the fat hand of Monsieur, our landlord, and kissed the dark +cheeks of Madame, his wife, and submitted to the same from Mademoiselle, +their daughter, with light hearts, serene consciences, and the ---- +family we started for Brussels. It is a six hours' ride by rail. + +Almost as soon as the line between France and Belgium is passed, the low +hills drop away, the thatch-roofed cottages give place to those of +whitewashed brick, with bright, red-tiled roofs. All along the way were +the straight poplars overrun with ivy, and the land was cared for, +coaxed, and fairly driven to the highest point of cultivation. Women +were at work in the fields, and more than one Maud Mueller leaned upon +her rake to gaze after us. Soon, when there were only level fields +beneath a level sky, the windmills began to appear in the distance, +slowly swinging the ghostly arms that became long, narrow sails as we +neared them. At two o'clock we reached Brussels, after being nearly +resolved into our original element--dust. Nothing but a sand-hill ever +equalled the appearance we presented when we stepped from the train; nor +did we need anything so much as to be thrown over a line and beaten like +a carpet when we finally gained our hotel. + +The old city of Brussels is crooked, and dull, and picturesque; but +joined to it--like an old man with a gay young wife--is the beautiful +Paris-like upper town, with its houses covered with white stucco, and a +little mirror outside of every window, placed at an angle of forty-five +degrees, so that Madame, sitting within, can see all that passes upon +the street, herself unseen. Here in the new town are the palaces, the +finest churches, the hotels, and Marie Therese's park, where young and +old walk, and chat, and make eyes at each other summer evenings. Scores +of strings, with a poodle at one extremity and a woman at the other, may +here be seen, with little rugs laid upon the ground for the pink-eyed +puff-balls to rest upon. Truly Brussels is the paradise and purgatory of +dogs. Anywhere upon the streets you may see great, hungry-eyed animals +dragging little carts pushed by women; and it is difficult to determine +which is the most forlorn--the dog, the cart, or the woman. We never +understood before what it was to "work like a dog." At one extremity of +the park was the white, new Senate-house; opposite, the gray, +barrack-like palace of the king; upon the third side, among others, our +hotel. Here we were happy in finding another family of friends. With +them we strolled down into the old town, after dinner, taking to the +middle of the street, in continental fashion, as naturally as ducks to +water; crossing back and forth to stare up at a church or into a shop +window,--straggling along one after another in a way that would have +been marked at home, but was evidently neither new nor strange here, +where the native population attended to their own affairs with a zeal +worthy of reward, and other parties of sight-seers were plying their +vocation with a perseverance that would have won eminence in any other +profession. Through crooked by-ways we wandered to the Grand Place of +the old city--a paved square shut in by high Spanish-gabled houses +ornamented with the designs of the various guilds. From the windows of +one hung the red, yellow, and black Belgian flag. There was no rattle of +carts, no clatter of hoofs. Down upon the dark paving-stones a crowd of +women, old and young, with handkerchiefs crossed over their bosoms, were +holding a flower-market. Just behind them rose the grim statues of the +two counts, Egmont and Van Horn,--who lost their heads while striving to +gain their cause against Spanish tyranny and the Spanish +Inquisition,--and the old royal palace, blackened and battered by time +and the hand of forgotten sculptors, until it seemed like the mummy of a +palace, half eaten away. Just before them was the Hotel de Ville, with +its beautiful tower of gray stone, its roof a mass of dormer windows. It +comes to me like a picture now--the gathering shadows of a summer night, +the time-worn houses, lovely in decay, the tawdry flag, and the heads of +the old women nodding over their flowers. + +Brussels has a grand church dedicated to Saints Michael and Gudule. If I +could only give to you, who have not seen them, some idea of the +vastness and beauty of these cathedrals! But descriptions are tiresome, +and dimensions nobody reads. If I could only tell you how far extending +they are, both upon earth and towards heaven--how they seem not so much +to have been built stone upon stone, as to have stood from the +foundation of the world, solitary, alone, until, after long ages, some +strolling town came to wonder, and worship, and sit at their feet in +awe! We crept in through the narrow door that shut behind us with a dull +echo. A chill like that of a tomb pervaded the air, though a summer sun +beat down upon the stones outside. A forest of clustered columns rose +all around us. Far above our heads was a gray sky, the groined arches +where little birds flew about. Stained windows gleamed down the vast +length, broken by the divisions and subdivisions,--one, far above the +grand entrance, like the wheel of a chariot of fire. All along the +walls, over the altar, and filling the chapel niches, were pictures of +saints, and martyrs, and blessed virgins, that seemed in the dim +distance like dots upon the wall. Muffled voices broke upon the +stillness. Far up the nave a little company of worshippers knelt before +the altar--workingmen who had thrown down mallet and chisel for a +moment, to creep within the shadows of the sanctuary; market-women, a +stray water-cress still clinging to the folds of their gowns; children +dropping upon the rush kneeling-chairs, to mutter a prayer God grant +they feel, with ever and anon, above the murmur of the prayer, above the +drone of white-robed priests, the low, full chant from hidden singers, +echoing through the arches and among the pillars, following us down the +aisles to where we read upon the monuments the deeds of some old knight +of heathen times, whose image has survived his dust--whose works have +followed him. + +After leaving the church we wandered among and through the picture +galleries in the old palaces of the city,--galleries of modern Belgian +art, with one exception, where were numberless flat old Flemish +pictures, and dead Christs, livid, ghastly, horrible to look upon. The +best of Flemish art is not in Brussels. Among the galleries of modern +paintings, that of the odd artist, recently deceased, Wiertz, certainly +deserves mention. It contains materials for a fortune to an enterprising +Yankee. The subjects of the pictures are allegorical, parabolical, and +diabolical, the scenes being laid in heaven, hell, and mid-air. In one, +Napoleon I. is represented surrounded by the flames of hell, folding his +arms in the Napoleonic attitude, while his soldiers crowd around him to +hold up maimed limbs and ghastly wounds with a denunciatory and angry +air. Widows and orphans thrust themselves before his face with +anathematizing countenances. In fact, the situation is decidedly +unpleasant for the hero, and one longs for a bucket of cold water. Many +of the pictures were behind screens, and to be seen through +peep-holes--one of them a ghastly thing, of coffins broken open and +their risen occupants emerging in shrouds. Upon the walls around the +room were painted half-open doors and windows with pretty girls peeping +out; close down to the floor, a dog kennel, from which its savage +occupant was ready to spring; just above him, from a latticed window, +an old _concierge_ leaned out to ask our business. Even in the pictures +hanging upon the walls was something of this trickery. In one the foot +and hand of a giant were painted out upon the frame, so that he seemed +to be just stepping out from his place; and I am half inclined to think +that many of the people walking about the room were originally framed +upon the walls. + +Brussels is always associated in one's mind with its laces. We visited +one of the manufactories. A dozen or twenty women were busy in a sunny, +cheerful room, working out the pretty leaves and flowers, with needle +and thread, for the _point_ lace, or twisting the bobbins among the +innumerable pins in the cushion before them to follow the pattern for +the _point applique_. When completed, you know, the delicate designs are +sewed upon gossamer lace. Upon a long, crimson-covered table in the room +above were spread out, in tempting array, the results of this tiresome +labor--coiffures that would almost resign one to a bald spot, +handkerchiefs insnaring as cobwebs, _barbes_ that fairly pierced our +hearts, and shawls for which there are no words. I confess that these +soft, delicate things have for women a wonderful charm--that as we +turned over and over in our hands the frail, yellow-white cobwebs, some +of us more than half forgot the tenth commandment. + +_Table-d'hote_ over, one evening, "Where shall we go? What can we do?" +queried one of the four girls in our party, two of whom had but just now +escaped from the thraldom of a French _pensionnat_. + +"It would be so delightful if we could walk out for once by ourselves. +If there were only something to see--somewhere to go." + +"Girls!" exclaimed Axelle, suddenly, "was not the scene of _Villette_ +laid in Brussels? Is not Charlotte Bronte's boarding-school here? I am +sure it is. Suppose we seek it out--we four girls alone." + +"But how, and where?" and "Wouldn't that be fine?" chorused the others. +There was a hasty search through guide-books; but alas! not a clew could +we find, not a peg upon which to hang the suspicions that were almost +certainties. + +"I am sure it was here," persisted Axelle. "I wish we had a _Villette_." + +"We could get one at an English library," suggested another. + +"If there is any English library here," added a third, doubtfully. + +Evidently that must be our first point of departure. We could ask for +information there. Accordingly we planned our crusade, as girls do,--the +elders smiling unbelief, as elders will,--and sallied out at last into +the summer sunshine, very brave in our hopes, very glad in our unwonted +liberty. A _commissionaire_ gave us the address of the bookstore we +sought as we were leaving the hotel. "There are no obstacles in the path +of the determined," we said, stepping out upon the Rue Royale. Across +the way was the grand park, a maze of winding avenues, shaded by lofty +trees, with nymphs, and fauns, and satyrs hiding among the shrubbery, +and with all the tortuous paths made into mosaic pavement by the +shimmering sunlight. But to Axelle _Villette_ was more real than that +June day. + +"Do you remember," she said, "how Lucy Snow reached the city alone and +at night?--how a young English stranger conducted her across the park, +she following in his footsteps through the darkness, and hearing only +the tramp, tramp, before her, and the drip of the rain as it fell from +the soaked leaves? This must be the park." + +When we had passed beyond its limits, we espied a little square, only a +kind of alcove in the street, in the centre of which was the statue of +some military hero. Behind it a quadruple flight of broad stone steps +led down into a lower and more quiet street. Facing us, as we looked +down, was a white stuccoed house, with a glimpse of a garden at one +side. + +"See!" exclaimed Axelle, joyfully; "I believe this is the very place. +Don't you remember when they had come out from the park, and Lucy's +guide left her to find an inn near by, she ran,--being frightened,--and +losing her way, came at last to a flight of steps like these, which she +descended, and found, instead of the inn, the _pensionnat_ of Madame +Beck?" Only the superior discretion and worldly wisdom of the others +prevented Axelle from following in Lucy Snow's footsteps, and settling +the question of identity then and there. As it was, we went on to the +library, a stuffy little place, with a withered old man for sole +attendant, who, seated before a table in the back shop, was poring over +an old book. We darted in, making a bewildering flutter of wings, and +pecked him with a dozen questions at once, oddly inflected: "_Was_ the +scene of _Villette_ laid in Brussels?" and "_Is_ the school really +here?" and "You _don't_ say so!" though we had insisted upon it from the +first, and he had just replied in the affirmative; lastly, "O, _do_ tell +us how we may find it." + +"You must go so-and-so," he said at length, when we paused. + +"Yes," we replied in chorus; "we have just come from there." + +"And," he went on, "you will see the statue of General Beliard." + +We nudged each other significantly. + +"Go down the steps in the rear, and the house facing you--" + +"We knew it. We felt it," we cried, triumphantly; and his directions +ended there. We neither heeded nor interpreted the expression of +expectation that stole over his face. We poured out only a stream of +thanks which should have moistened the parched sands of his soul, and +then hastened to retrace our steps. We found the statue again. We +descended into the narrow, noiseless street, and stood,--an awe-struck +group,--before the great square house, upon the door-plate of which we +read,-- + + "PENSIONNAT DE DEMOISELLES. + HEGER--PARENT." + +"Now," said Axelle, when we had drawn in with a deep breath, the +satisfaction and content which shone out again from our glad eyes, "we +will ring the bell." + +"You will not think of it," gasped the choir of startled girls. + +"To be sure; what have we come for?" was her reply. "We will only ask +permission to see the garden, and as the portress will doubtless speak +nothing but French, some one of you, fresh from school, must act as +mouthpiece." They stared at Axelle, at each other, and at the steps +leading into the upper town, as though they meditated flight. "I +cannot," and "_I_ cannot," said each one of the shrinking group. + +Axelle laid her hand upon the bell, and gave one long, strong pull. +"Now," she said, quietly, "some one of you must speak. You are ladies: +you will not run away." + +And they accepted the situation. + +We were shown into a small _salon_, where presently there entered to us +a brisk, sharp-featured little French woman,--a teacher in the +establishment,--who smiled a courteous welcome from out her black eyes +as we apologized for the intrusion, and made known our wishes. + +"We are a party of American girls," we said, "who, having learned to +know and love Charlotte Bronte through her books, desire to see the +garden of which she wrote in _Villette_." + +"O, certainly, certainly," was the gracious response. "Americans often +come to visit the school and the garden." + +"Then this _is_ the school where she was for so long a time?" we burst +out simultaneously, forgetting our little prepared speeches. + +"Yes, _mesdemoiselles_; I also was a pupil at that time," was the +reply. We viewed the dark little woman with sudden awe. + +"But tell us," we said, crowding around her, "was she like--like--" We +could think of no comparison that would do justice to the subject. + +The reply was a shrug of the shoulders, and, "She was just a quiet +little thing, in no way remarkable. I am sure," she added, "we did not +think her a genius; and indeed, though I have read her books, I can see +nothing in them to admire or praise so highly!" + +"But they are _so_ wonderful!" ventured one of our number, gushingly. + +"They are very untrue," she replied, while something like a spark shot +from the dark eyes. + +O, shades of departed story-tellers, is it thus ye are to be judged? + +"Madame Heger," she went on, "who still has charge of the school, is a +most excellent lady, and not at all the person described as 'Madame +Beck.'" + +"And M. Paul Emmanuel,--Lucy Snow's teacher-lover,"--we ventured to +suggest with some timidity. + +"Is Madame Heger's husband, and was at that time," she replied, with a +little angry toss of the head. After this terrible revelation there was +nothing more to be said. + +She led the way through a narrow passage, and opening a door at the end, +we stepped into the garden. We had passed the class-rooms on our +right--where, "on the last row, in the quietest corner," Charlotte and +Emily used to sit. We could almost see the pale faces, the shy figures +bending over the desk in the gathering dusk. + +The garden is less spacious than it was in Charlotte's time, new +class-rooms having been added, which cut off something from its length. +But the whole place was strangely familiar and pleasant to our eyes. +Shut in by surrounding houses, more than one window overlooks its narrow +space. Down its length upon one side extends the shaded walk, the +"_allee defendue_," which Charlotte paced alone so many weary hours, +when Emily had returned to England. Parallel to this is the row of giant +pear trees,--huge, misshapen, gnarled,--that bore no fruit to us but +associations vivid as memories. From behind these, in the summer +twilight, the ghost of _Villette_ was wont to steal, and buried at the +foot of "Methuselah," the oldest, we knew poor Lucy's love-letters were +hidden to-day. A seat here and there, a few scattered shrubs, evergreen, +laurel, and yew, scant blossoms, paths damp, green-crusted--that was +all. Not a cheerful place at its brightest; not a sunny spot associated +in one's mind with summer and girlish voices. It was very still that +day; the pupils were off for the long vacation, and yet how full the +place was to us! The very leaves overhead, the stones in the walls +around us, whispered a story, as we walked to and fro where little feet, +that tired even then of life's rough way, had gone long years before. + +"May we take one leaf--only one?" we asked, as we turned away. + +"As many as you please;" and the little French woman grasped at the +leaves growing thick and dark above her head. We plucked them with our +own hands, tenderly, almost reverently; then, with many thanks, and our +adieus, we came away. + +"We have found it!" we exclaimed, when we had returned to the hotel and +our friends. They only smiled their unbelief. + +"Do you not know--can you not see--O, do you not feel?" we cried, +displaying our glistening trophies, "that these could have grown nowhere +but upon the pear trees in the old garden where Charlotte Bronte used to +walk and dream?" + +And our words carried conviction to their hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WATERLOO AND THROUGH BELGIUM. + + To Waterloo.--Beggars and guides.--The + Mound.--Chateau Hougomont.--Victor Hugo's "sunken + road."--Antwerp.--A visit to the cathedral.--A + drive about the city.--An excursion to Ghent.--The + funeral services in the cathedral.--"Poisoned? Ah, + poor man!"--The watch-tower.--The Friday-market + square.--The nunnery.--Longfellow's pilgrims to + "the belfry of Bruges." + + +WE could not leave the city without driving out to the battle-field of +Waterloo. It is about a dozen miles to The Mound, and you may take the +public coach if you choose--it runs daily. Our party being large, we +preferred to engage a carriage. + +We left the house after breakfast, and passed through the wide, +delightful avenues of the Foret de Soignes,--the Bois de Boulogne of +Brussels,--then across the peaceful country which seemed never to have +known anything so disturbing as war. Beyond the park lies the village +which gave its name to the battle-field though the thickest of the fight +was not there. In an old brick church, surmounted by a dome, lie +intombed many minor heroes of the conflict. But heroes soon pall upon +the taste, and nothing less than Wellington or Napoleon himself could +have awakened a spark of interest in us by this time. Then, too, the +vivid present blinded us to the past. The air was sweet with summer +scents. Mowers were busy in the hayfields. A swarm of little barefooted +beggars importuned us, turning dizzy somersaults until we could see only +a maze of flying, dusty feet on either side. One troop, satisfied or +despairing, gave way to another, and the guides were almost as annoying +as the beggars. They walk for miles out of their villages to forestall +each other, and meet the carriages that are sure to come from Brussels +on pleasant days. They drive sharp bargains. As you near the centre of +interest, competition is greater, and their demands proportionately +less. We refused the extortionate overtures of two or three, and finally +picked up a shrewd-faced young fellow in a blue blouse, who hung upon +the step of the carriage, or ran beside it for the last mile or two of +the distance. The village of Mont St. Jean follows that of Waterloo. It +is only a scant collection of whitewashed farm buildings of brick. We +rolled through it without stopping, and out again between the quiet, +smiling fields, our minds utterly refusing to grasp the idea that they +had swarmed once with an army; that in this little village we had just +left--dull, half asleep in the sunshine--dreadful slaughter had held +high carnival one July day, not many years before. Even when the guide, +clinging to the door of the carriage, rattled over the story of the +struggle in a _patois_ all his own, hardly a shadow of the scene was +presented to us. + +As our horses slackened their pace, he stepped down from his perch to +gather a nosegay of the flowers by the road-side, making no pause in his +mechanical narrative--of how the Anglo-Belgian army were gathered upon +this road and the fields back to the wood, on the last day of the fight; +how many of the officers had been called at a moment's notice from the +gayeties at Brussels, and more than one was found dead upon the field +the next day, under the soaking rain, dressed as for a ball. He pushed +back his visorless cap, uttering an exclamation over the heat, and +adding, in the same breath, that just here, about Mont St. Jean, the +battle waged fiercely in the afternoon, when Ney, with his brave +cuirassiers, tried in vain to carry the position; and all the time, the +summer sounds of twittering birds and hum of locusts were in our ears; +the barefooted children still turned upon their axles beside the +carriage wheels as we rolled along, and that other day seemed so far +away, that we could neither bring it near nor realize it. One grim +reminder of the past rose in the distance, and, as we drew near, swelled +and grew before our eyes. It was the huge mound of earth raised two +hundred feet, to commemorate the victory of the allies. Hills were cut +down, the very face of nature changed for miles around, to rear this +monument to pride and vain-glory. Upon its summit crouches the Belgian +lion. + +We turn from the paved road, when we have reached what seems to be a +mass of unsightly ruins, with only a tumbling outbuilding left here and +there. The whole is enclosed by a wall, which skirts also an orchard, +neglected, grown to weeds. The carriage stops before the great gates. It +is very cool and quiet in the shaded angle of the battered wall as we +step down. It has been broken and chipped as if by pick-axes. Ah! the +shot struck hardest here. The top of the low wall is irregular; the +bricks have been knocked out; the dust has sifted down; the mosses have +gathered, and a fringe of grass follows all its length. Even sweet wild +flowers blossom where the muskets rested in those dreadful days. At +intervals, half way up its height, a brick is missing. Accident? Ah, no; +hastily constructed loopholes, through which the English fired at first, +before the horrible time when they beat each other down with the butts +of their guns while they fought hand to hand here, like wild beasts. + +We enter the court-yard. Only a roughly plastered room or two remain, +where the greed that gloats even over the field of blood offers +_souvenirs_ of the place importunately. In the centre of this court-yard +may still be seen the well that was filled with corpses. It must have +given out blood for many a day. Upon one side are the remains of the +building used for a hospital in the beginning of the fight, but where +the wounded and dying perished in torment, when the French succeeded in +firing the chateau; for this is _Hougomont_. + +We came out at the gateway where we had entered; crossed the slope under +the shadow of the branches from the apple trees, and followed the road +winding through wheat-fields to The Mound. Breast-high on either side +rose the nodding crests; and among them wild flowers, purple, scarlet, +and blue, fairly dazzled our eyes, as they waved with the golden grain +in the sunshine. "O, smiling harvest-fields," we said, "you have been +sown with heroes; you have been enriched with blood!" + +It was a long, dizzy climb up the face of The Mound to the narrow +foothold beside the platform where rests that grim, gigantic lion. Once +there, we held to every possible support in the hurricane of wind that +seized us, while the guide gave a name to each historic farm and village +spread out before our eyes. Only a couple of miles cover all the +battle-field--the smallest where grand armies ever met; but the +slaughter was the more terrible. + +Connected with an inn at the foot of The Mound is a museum of +curiosities. Here are queer old helmets worn by the cuirassiers, hacked +and rust-stained; broken swords, and old-fashioned muskets; buttons, and +bullets even--everything that could be garnered after such a sowing of +the earth. + +In unquestioning faith we bought buttons stained with mildew, and +bearing upon them, in raised letters, the number of a regiment. Alas! +reason told us, later, that the buttons disposed of annually here would +supply an ordinary army. And rumor added, that they are buried now in +quantities, to be exhumed as often as the supply fails. + +I remembered Victor Hugo to have said in _Les Miserables_ something in +regard to a sunken road here, which proved a pitfall to the French, and +helped, in his judgment, to turn the fortunes of the day. But we had +seen no sunken road. I mentioned it to the guide, who said that Victor +Hugo spent a fortnight examining the ground before writing that +description of the battle. "He lodged at our house," he added. "My +father was his guide. What he wrote was all quite true. There is now no +road such as he described; that was all changed when the earth was +scraped together to form The Mound." + +We lunched at the inn, surrounded by mementos and trophies, and served +by an elderly woman, whose father had been a sergeant in the Belgian +army, then late in the afternoon drove back to town. + +The pleasant days at Brussels soon slipped by, and then we were off to +Antwerp--only an hour's ride. I will tell you nothing about the former +wealth and commercial activity of the city--that in the sixteenth +century it was the wealthiest city in Europe, &c, &c. For all these +interesting particulars, see Murray's Handbook of Northern Germany. As +soon as we had secured rooms at the hotel, dropped our satchels and +umbrellas, we followed the chimes to the cathedral. The houses of the +people have crept close to it, until many of them, old and gray, have +fairly grown to it, like barnacles to a ship; or it seemed as though +they had built their nests, like the rooks, under the moss-grown eaves. +The interior of the cathedral was singularly grand and open. As we threw +our shawls about us--a precaution never omitted--an old man shuffled out +from a dark corner to show the church, take our _francs_, and pull aside +the curtains from before the principal pictures, if so dignified a name +as curtain can be applied to the dusty, brown cambric that obstructed +our vision. Rubens's finest pictures are here, and indeed the city +abounds in all that is best of Flemish art,--most justly, since it was +the birthplace of its master. Rubens in the flesh we had seen at the +Louvre; the spiritual manifestation was reserved for Antwerp; and to +recall the city is to recall a series of visions of which one may not +speak lightly. + +Across, from the cathedral, upon a wide wooden bench in the market-place +we sat a moment to consider our ways--the signal for the immediate +swooping down upon us of guides and carriages, and the result of which +was, our departure in a couple of dingy open vehicles to finish the +city. We crawled about the town like a diminutive funeral procession, +dismounting at the Church of St. Jacques to see the pictures, with which +it is filled. In one of the chapels was a young American artist, copying +Rubens's picture of "A Holy Family"--the one in which his two wives and +others of his family enact the part of Mary, Martha, St. Jerome, &c. +Behind the high altar is the tomb of Rubens, with an inscription of +sufficient length to extinguish an ordinary man. There was a museum, +too, in the city, rich in the works of Rubens and Vandyck, and the fine +park in the new part of the town, as well as the massive docks built by +the first Napoleon, were yet to be seen. The older members of the party +were in the first carriage, and received any amount of valuable +information, which was transmitted to us who followed in a succession of +shouts sounding as much like "fire!" as anything else, with all manner +of beckoning, and pointing, and wild throwing up of arms, that +undoubtedly gave vent to their feelings, but brought only confusion and +distraction to our minds. Not to be outdone, our driver began a series +of utterly unintelligible explanations, the only part of which we +understood in the least was, when pointing to the docks, he ejaculated, +"Napoleon!" At that we nodded our heads frantically, which only +encouraged him to go on. Pausing before a low, black house, exactly like +all the others, he pointed to it with his whip. It said "Hydraulics" +upon a rickety sign over the door. There were old casks, and anchors, +and ropes, and rotting wood all around, for it was down upon the +wharves. We tried to look enlightened, gratified even, and succeeded so +well that he entered upon an elaborate dissertation in an unknown +tongue. What do you suppose it was all about? Can it be that he was +explaining the principles of hydraulics? + +We made, one clay, an excursion from Antwerp to Ghent and Bruges. We +left the train at Ghent to walk up through the narrow streets, that have +no sidewalks, to the cathedral. There was a funeral within. The driver +of the hearse profusely decorated with inverted feather dusters, was +comfortably smoking his pipe outside. A little hunchbacked guide, with +great, glassy eyes, and teeth like yellow fangs, led us up the aisle to +the screen beside the high altar, where we looked between the tombs and +the monuments, upon the long procession of men circling around the +coffin in the choir, each with a lighted candle in hand. As there were +only about a dozen candles in all, and each must hold one while he +passed the coffin, it was a piece of dexterity, at least, to manage +them, which so engrossed our attention, that we caught but an occasional +sentence from our guide's whispered story of the seventh bishop of +Ghent, who donated the pulpit to the cathedral, and around whose marble +feet we were trying to peep; of the ninth, who was poisoned as he went +upon some mission ("Poisoned? Ah, poor man!" we ejaculated, absently, +our eyes anxiously fixed upon one man to whom had been given no candle +as yet); of the tall brass candlesticks, supposed to have been brought +from England in the time of Cromwell, and a host more of fragmentary +information, forgotten now. The whole interior of the church is rich in +decoration, black and white marble predominating, with pictures of the +early Flemish school filling every available space. Once out of the +church, we climbed into an ark of a carriage, and drove about the city, +our little guide standing beside the driver, back to the horses most of +the time, to pour out a torrent of history and romance. A most edifying +spectacle it would have been anywhere else. Do read Henry Taylor's +"Philip von Artevelde" before going to Ghent: the mingled romance and +history throw a charm about the place and people which bare history can +never give. Veritable Yankees these old Flemish weavers seem to have +been, with a touch of the Irish in their composition--always up in arms +for their rights, and striking out wherever they saw a head. There is a +new part to the city, with a grand opera-house, shaded promenades and +palatial dwellings, but one cares only for the narrow, dingy streets, +and the old market squares, in which every stone could tell a story. + +We saw the tall, brick watch-tower, where still hangs the bell that +tolled,-- + + "I am Roland, I am Roland! There is victory in the land," + +and the old Hotel de Ville, of conglomerate architecture, one side of +which, in the loveliest flamboyant Gothic imaginable, seems crumbling +away from its very richness. In the Friday-market square--it chancing to +be Friday--was a score of bustling busybodies, swarming like bees. +Here, in the old, quarrelsome times, battles were fought between the +different guilds. I say battles, because at one time fifteen hundred +were slain in this very square. Such a peaceful old square as it seemed +to be the day of our visit! the old gray houses, that have echoed to the +sound of strife, fairly smiling in the sunshine, and the market women +kneeling upon the stones which have run with blood. At one corner rose a +tower, and half way up its height may still be seen the iron rod, over +which was hung imperfect linen, to shame the weaver who had dared to +offer it in the market. + +There is a great nunnery here in Ghent--a town of itself, surrounded by +a moat and a wall, where are six hundred or more sisters, from families +high and low, who tend the sick, weave lace, and mortify the flesh in +black robes and white veils. When they become weary of it, they may +return to the world, the flesh, and--their homes: no vows bind them. We +drove along the streets past the cell-like houses where they dwell. Over +the door of each was the name of her patron saint. It seemed a quiet +retreat, a noiseless city, notwithstanding the six hundred women! But by +far the most interesting sight, because the most ancient in the quaint +old city, was the archway and turret of the old royal castle, erected a +thousand years ago; only this gateway remains. Here John o' Gaunt was +born. Built all round, and joined to it, are houses of more recent date, +themselves old and tottering, and the arch beneath which kings and +queens rode once, is now the entrance to a cotton factory. + +We had only a few hours at Bruges--the city once more powerful than +Antwerp even, but where not a house has been raised for a hundred years, +and where nearly a third of its inhabitants are paupers. But decay and +dilapidation are strong elements of the picturesque, and nothing seen +that day was more charming than a piece of wall, still standing, +belonging to the old Charles V.'s palace--honey-combed, black, of florid +Gothic architecture, rising from the quiet waters of the canal. At one +end it threw an arch over the street, with a latticed window above it, +beneath which we passed, after crossing the bridge. More than one +picture of Bruges rests within my memory--its canals spanned by the +picturesque bridges, and overhung with willows that dipped their long +branches into the water, and the quaint old houses with many-stepped +gables, rising sheer from the stream. + +But with all its past grandeur, the old city is best known to us +Americans through the chimes from its belfry tower, and we were some of +Longfellow's pilgrims. We drove into the great paved Place under the +shadow of the belfry tower when its shadows were growing long, and +watched the stragglers across the square--women in queer black-hooded +cloaks; chubby little blue-eyed maidens with school-books in hand; a +party of tourists; and last, but by no means least, the ubiquitous +American girl, with an immense bow on the back of her dress, and her eye +fixed steadily upon the milliner's shop just visible around the corner. +Almost three hundred feet the dingy brick tower rose above us, with low +wings on either side, where were once the halls of some guilds, in the +days when the tower was a lookout to warn of coming foes,--when the +square was planned for defence. In a little court-yard, gained by +passing under its arch, we watched and listened, until at last the sweet +tinkle of the silver-toned bells broke the hush of waiting--so far away, +so heavenly, we held our breath, lest we should lose the sound that fell + + "Like the psalms from some old cloister when the nuns sing in the choir, + And the great bell tolled among them like the chanting of a friar." + +We came back to Antwerp that night, tired, but triumphant, feeling as +though we had read a page from an old book, or sung a strain from an old +song. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A TRIP THROUGH HOLLAND. + + Up the Meuse to Rotterdam.--Dutch sights and + ways.--The pretty milk-carriers.--The + tea-gardens.--Preparations for the Sabbath.--An + English chapel.--"The Lord's barn."--From + Rotterdam to the Hague.--The queen's "House in the + Wood."--Pictures in private drawing-rooms.--The + bazaar.--An evening in a Dutch + tea-garden.--Amsterdam to a stranger.--The + "sights."--The Jews' quarter.--The family whose + home was upon the canals.--Out of the city.--The + pilgrims. + + +AT nine o'clock, the next morning, we left Antwerp for Rotterdam. Two +hours by rail brought us to a place with an unpronounceable name, ending +in "djk," where we were to take a steamer. How delightful, after the +dust and heat of the railway carriage, were the two hours that followed! +The day was charming, the passengers numerous, but scattered about the +clean, white deck, picturesquely, upon the little camp stools, drinking +brandy and water as a preventive to what seemed impossible, eating +fruit, reading, chatting, or pleased, like ourselves, with the panorama +before their eyes. In and out of the intricate passages to the sea we +steamed, the land and water all around us level as a floor; the only +sign of life the slow-revolving arms of the windmills, near and far, +with here and there a solitary mansion shut in by tall trees; or, as we +wound in and out among the islands fringed with green rushes, and waving +grasses that fairly came out into the water to meet us, and sailed up +the Meuse, the odd Dutch villages that had turned their backs to the +river, though their feet were still in the water over which hung rude +wooden balconies, or still ruder bay-windows, filled with pots of +flowers. This monotonous stretch of sea and land might grow tiresome +after a while, but there was something peculiarly restful in that sail +up the wide mouth of the river, beckoned on by the solemn arms of the +windmills. + +When we reached Rotterdam, how strange it was to find, instead of a row +of houses across from our hotel, a wharf and a row of ships! Such a +great, comfortable room as awaited us! with deep, wide arm-chairs, a +heavy round table suggesting endless teas, and toast unlimited, and +everything else after the same hearty, substantial manner. There was no +paper upon the walls, but, in its place, paintings upon canvas. Delilah +sat over the mantel, with the head of the sleeping Samson in her lap, +and Rebekah and the thirsty camels were behind our bed curtains. From +the wide windows we watched the loading and unloading of the ships, +while the song of the sailors came in on the evening breeze, and with +it, we half-fancied, the odor of sandal-wood and spices from the East +Indiamen anchored across the way. Our hotel was upon the Boompjes, the +quay that borders the river; but through nearly all the streets flow the +canals, deep enough to float large ships. You can appreciate the +advantage of sailing a ship to the very door of one's warehouse, as you +might drive a cart up to unload; and you can imagine, perhaps, the +peculiar appearance of the city, with its mingled masts and chimneys, +its irregular, but by no means picturesque, houses, and the inhabitants +equally at home upon water or land. Among the women of the lower classes +may still be seen some national peculiarities in dress, shown +principally in the startling ornaments--twisted gold wire horns, and +balls, and rings of mammoth size thrust out from their caps just above +their ears. Whether their bare red arms would come under the head of +dress, might be questioned; but a national peculiarity they certainly +were, and unlike anything ever seen before in the way of human flesh. +Was that painfully deep magenta hue nature or art? We could never tell. +There were some very pretty faces among the girls carrying milk about +the city in bright brass cans, or in pails suspended from a yoke over +their shoulders--faces of one type, round, red-cheeked, blue-eyed, with +the mouth called rosebud by poets, and bewitching little brown noses of +an upward tendency. As they all wore clean purple calico gowns, and had +each a small white cap on their heads, the resemblance among them was +rather striking. These caps left the whole top of the head exposed to +the sun. Only an iron-clad, fire-proof brain could endure it, I am sure. + +Not a beggar did we see anywhere in Holland. The people seemed +thoroughly industrious and thrifty. A gentleman connected with the civil +service there--an agreeable, cultivated man, who had been half over the +world, written a book or two, and parted his hair in the middle--gave +the people credit for all these, with many more good qualities, and +added, "They are the simplest minded people in the world. Why, would you +believe it, one of the canal bridges was run into and broken down, the +other day,--a fortnight ago,--and it has been town talk ever since. No +two men meet upon the street without, 'Have you heard about the +bridge?'" And sure enough, when we reached the scene of the accident, in +our after-dinner walk through the city, quite a crowd was collected to +watch the passage of a temporary ferry-boat, the simplest contrivance +imaginable, only an old barge pulled back and forth by ropes. Still +later we found the entrance to a narrow street choked with people, +though nothing more unusual seemed to be taking place than the bringing +out of a table and a few chairs. + +Upon the outskirts of the city are pleasant tea-gardens, often attached +to club-rooms, where concerts are held Sunday evenings, attended by the +upper classes. We walked through one, over the pebbled paths, and among +the deserted tables, and then returned to see more of the town. It was +Saturday night. All the little girls upon the street had their locks +twisted up in papers so tight and fast that they could shut neither eyes +nor mouth, but seemed to be in a continual state of wonderment. All +their mothers were down upon their hands and knees, scrubbing the +doorsteps and sidewalk, in preparation for the Sabbath. The streets were +dirty and uninviting with a few exceptions, yet hardly more so than +could be expected, when you remember that nearly the whole city is a +line of wharves; but we felt no disposition to walk through it in our +slippers, as the guide book in praising its cleanliness, says you may. +What an advantage it would be to the world if the compilers of +guide-books would only visit the places they describe so graphically! We +spent a quiet Sabbath here--the fourth of July--with not so much as a +torpedo to disturb its serenity or mark the day, attending church at the +English chapel, and joining in the responses led by a clear soprano +voice behind us, which we had some desire to locate; but when we turned, +at the conclusion of the service, there was only a row of horrible +chignons to be seen, to none of which, I am sure, the voice belonged. + +There is nothing to be seen in Rotterdam but its shipping. One great, +bare church we did visit--"the Lord's barn;" for these cathedrals, +stripped of altar, and image, and stained glass, and boarded into stiff +pews, without the least regard to the eternal fitness of things, are +ugly enough. There is somewhere here a collection of Ary Scheffer's +works,--in the city I mean,--but we did not see it. It is less than an +hour's ride by rail from Rotterdam to the Hague, with the same +delightfully monotonous scenery all along the way--meadows smooth and +green, and fields white for the harvest, separated by the almost +invisible canals. No wonder the Spaniards held the Low Countries with a +grasp of iron--the whole land is a garden. The Hague, being the +residence of the court, is much after the pattern of all continental +capitals, with wide, white streets, white stuccoed houses of regular and +beautiful appearance, and fine, large parks and pleasure-grounds filled +with deer, and shaded by grand old elms as large as those in our own +land, but lacking the long, sweeping branches. A mile from the city is +"The House in the Wood," the private residence of the queen of the +Netherlands. The wood is heavy and of funereal air, but the little +palace is quite charming within, though upon the exterior only a plain +brick country-house. The rooms are small, and hung with rice-paper, or +embroidered white satin, with which also much of the furniture is +covered. The bare floors are of polished wood, with a square of carpet +in the centre, the border of which was worked by hand. "Please step over +it," said the neat little old woman who was showing us through, which we +accordingly did. There was a home-like air, very unpalatial, about it +all,--as though the lady of the house might have been entertaining +callers, or having a dress-maker in the next room. Delicate trinkets +were scattered about--pretty, rare things worth a fortune, with any +amount of old Dutch china in the cosy dining-room. In one of the rooms +hung the portrait of a handsome young man,--just as there hang portraits +of handsome young men in our houses. This was the eldest son of the +queen,--heir to the throne,--who, rumor says, is still engaged in that +agricultural pursuit so fascinating to young men--the sowing of wild +oats. In the next room was a portrait of Queen Sophie herself--a +delicate, queenly face--a face of character. The walls of the ball-room +are entirely covered with paintings upon wood by Rubens and his pupils. +"Speak low, if you please," said our little old woman; "the queen is in +the next room, and she has a bad headache to-day." I am sure she had a +dress-maker! As we stooped to examine a rug worked by the royal +fingers, an attendant passed, bearing upon a silver salver the remains +of her majesty's lunch. + +From the palace we drove back to town to visit two private collections +of paintings. It seemed odd, if not impertinent, to walk through the +drawing-rooms of strangers, criticise their pictures, and fee their +servants. Upon the table, in one, were thrown down carelessly the bonnet +and gloves of the lady of the house. I was tempted to carry them off. +Only a vigorous early training, and the thought of a long line of pious +ancestors, prevented. Here were pictures from most of the earlier and +some of the later Dutch artists--Paul Potter's animals, Jan Steen's pots +and pans, Vandervelde's quays and luggers, and green, foaming seas, and +even a touch or two from the brush of the master of Dutch art. We +stopped on our way back to the hotel, at a bazaar,--a place of +beguilement, with long rooms full of everything beautiful in art, +everything tempting to the eye,--and after dinner went out to one of the +adjacent tea-gardens. It was filled with family parties drinking tea +around little tables. The music was fine, though unexpected at times, +as, for instance, when a trumpet blew a startling blast, and a little +man in its range sprang from his seat as though blown out of his place. +It was amusing and interesting to watch the stream of promenaders +circling around the musicians' stand--broad, heavily-built men, long of +body, short of limbs; women "square-rigged," of easy, good-natured +countenance. I doubt if there was a nerve in the whole assembly. + +At noon the next day, we took the train for Amsterdam--another two +hours' ride. The land began to undulate as we went towards the sea, +with the shifting hillocks of sand raised by wind and wave. We passed +Leyden, famous for its resistance to the Spaniards, as well as for +having been the birthplace of Rembrandt and a score of lesser lights, +and Haarlem, known for its great organ, and still the sand-hills rose +one above the other, until they shut out everything beyond. It was only +when we made a sharp turn, and struck out in a straight line for the +city, that the Zuyder Zee opened before us, the curving line of land +along its edge alive with windmills. We counted a hundred and twenty in +sight at one time, and still did not exhaust them; so many skipped and +whirled about, and refused to be counted. It hardly seems possible that +the city of Amsterdam is built upon piles driven into the sand and mud. +Certainly, when you have been jolted and shaken until your teeth +chatter, for a long mile, in one of the hotel omnibuses from the station +through the narrow streets and over the rough pavements, you will think +there must be a tolerably firm foundation. Such a peaceful, sleepy, +free-from-danger air, these slimy canals give to the cities! You forget +that just beyond the dikes the mighty, restless sea lurks, and watches +day and night for a chance to rush in and claim its own. The canals run +in a succession of curves, one within the other, all through the city. +Upon the quays are the dwellings and warehouses. In the narrow streets, +crossing them by means of endless bridges, are the shops and dwellings +of the lower classes. Looking down a street, no two houses present an +unbroken line. They have all settled in their places until they nod, and +leer, and wink at each other, in a decidedly sociable, intoxicated +manner. The whole city, to a stranger, is a curious sight--the arched +bridges over the interminable canals; the clumsy boats (for the canals +are too shallow to admit anything but coasters and river boats); the +antic and antiquated houses with high gables, rising in steps, to the +street; the women of the lower classes, with yokes over their shoulders, +and long-eared white caps on their heads, surmounted by naked straw +bonnets of obsolete fashion and coal-scuttle shape, and out and from +which, on either side, protruded all the wonderful tinkling ornaments of +which the prophet speaks; the long quays and streets utterly bare of +trees; the iron rods thrust out from the houses half way up their +height, upon which all manner of garments, freshly washed, hang over the +street to dry. Down in an open Place stands the dark, square palace, +grand and grim, where Hortense played queen a little time while Louis +Bonaparte was king of Holland. Near the palace is a national monument, +for the Dutch, too, remember their brave. There are old and new churches +also to be seen, but churches bare of everything which clothes +cathedrals with beauty, having been stripped in the time of the +reformation. I suppose one should rejoice; but we did miss the high +altar, the old carved saints, and the pictures in the chapels. + +Some of the finest paintings of the Dutch school are in the national +museum here; _genre_ pictures, many, if not most of them, but pleasant +to look at, if not of the highest art; and we visited another collection +of the same, left by a M. Van der Hoop. There are several other private +collections thrown open to the public. But after all, the most charming +picture was the Jews' quarter of the city. I know it was horribly +filthy, and so crowded that we could hardly make our way; I know it was +filled with squalor and rags, and great dark eyes, and breathed an odor +by no means of sanctity. The dusky, luminous-eyed people seemed to move, +and breathe, and hold a constant bazaar in the lane-like streets filled +with everything known and unknown in merchandise, or leaning out from +the windows of the tottering houses, their arms crossed over the sill, +to dream away a lifetime. Still there was a fascination about it all, a +suggestion of vagabondism, of Ishmaelitish wanderings, of having "here +no continuing city," that touched the heart of a certain Methodist +minister's daughter in our party. + +Sometimes the houses rise directly from the water, as did our hotel, the +entrance being gained from another street in front. Our room was like a +town hall, with mediaeval bed furniture and sofa, high chest of drawers, +and great round table that might have come in with the Dutch when they +took Holland. The deep windows looked down upon a canal. Across from +them, anchored to the quay as if for a lifetime, was one of the river +boats. Early in the morning the wife of the skipper--a square woman, +brown-faced, with faded, braided hair--ran out bareheaded into the town, +coming back with her arms mysteriously full. Down into the cabin she +disappeared, from whence directly came a sound of sputtering and frying, +with a most savory odor. Up she would come again--frying pan in hand to +corroborate her statement--to call her husband to breakfast. He was +never ready to respond, never, though he was doing nothing to support +his energetic family at the time, but coiling and uncoiling old ropes, +or rubbing at invisible spots with a handful of rope-yarn. I know he +only delayed to add to his own dignity and the importance of his final +advent. Breakfast over, there followed such a commotion in the little +world as I cannot describe--a shaking out of garments, a scraping out of +plates, and throwing into the canal the refuse of the feast, a flying up +with pots and pans for no object whatever but to clatter down again with +the same, and all in the face and eyes of the town, with nevertheless +the most absorbed and unconscious air imaginable. When it was over, +somewhat what red in the face, but serene, the wife would appear upon +the deck, to sit in the shadow of a sail and mend her husband's +stockings, or put on a needed patch. We left the boat still fast to the +quay; but I know that some day, when it was filled with scented oils, +and rouge, and borax, and all the other things exported from the +manufactories here, our skipper and his wife went sailing out of the +canals and along the edge of the sea or up the Rhine, the stockings all +mended, and the good woman not above giving a strong pull at the ropes. + +To drive about the streets of Amsterdam is slow torture, so rough are +the pavings, so springless the carriages; but to roll along the smooth, +wide roads in the suburbs is delightful. Upon one side is a canal, +stagnant, lifeless, with a green weed growing upon its still surface, +which often for a long distance entirely hides the water; beyond the +canal are pleasant little gardens and a row of low, comfortable-looking +wooden houses with green doors. Before each door is a narrow bridge--a +neatly-painted plank with hand-rails--thrown over the canal, to be swung +around or raised like a drawbridge at night, making every man's house a +moated castle. We passed a fine zoological garden here upon the +outskirts of the city, a garden of animals that ranks next to the famous +one in London; but had no time to visit it, nor did we see any of the +charitable institutions in which Amsterdam excels. + +"You know the pilgrim fathers?" said Emmie--whose family had preceded us +by a day or two--the night after our arrival. "O, yes; had not our whole +lives been straightened out after their maxims?" "Well, we've found the +house where it is said they held meetings before they embarked for +America. Wouldn't you like to see it?" Of course we would; in fact, it +would be showing no more than proper respect to our forefathers. So six +of us--women and girls--put ourselves under her guidance. We found a +narrow, dirty street, the dwellers in which stared after us curiously. +Between two old houses was an opening, hardly wide enough to be called +an alley, hardly narrow enough to be looked upon as a gutter. Into this +we crowded. "There; this is the house," said Emmie, laying her slight +fingers upon the old stone wall before us. It was quite bare, and devoid +of ornament or entrance, being evidently the back or side of a house. +Down from the peak of the gable looked a solitary window. A rude +balcony, holding a few plants, was below it, with freshly-washed clothes +hanging from its rail. We rolled our eyes, experienced a shiver that may +have been caused by awe or the damp chill of the spot, and came out to +find the narrow street half filled with staring men and women crowding +about the point of our disappearance, while from the upper end of the +street, and even around the corner, others hastened to join the +whispering, wondering crowd. How could we explain? It was utterly +impossible; so we came quickly and quietly away; but whether this house +had ever been a church, whether the pilgrim fathers ever saw it, or +indeed whether there ever were any pilgrim fathers, are questions I +cannot undertake to answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE RHINE AND RHENISH PRUSSIA. + + First glimpse of the Rhine.--Cologne and the + Cathedral.--"Shosef in ter red coat."--St. Ursula + and the eleven thousand virgins.--Up the Rhine to + Bonn.--The German students.--Rolandseck.--A search + for a resting-place.--Our Dutch friend and his + Malays.--The story of Hildegund.--A quiet + Sabbath.--Our Dutch friend's + reply.--Coblentz.--The bridge of + boats.--Ehrenbreitstein, over the river.--A + scorching day upon the Rhine.--Romance under + difficulties.--Mayence.--Frankfort.--Heidelberg.--The + ruined castle.--Baden-Baden.--A glimpse at the + gambling.--The new, and the old "Schloss."--The + Black Forest.--Strasbourg.--The mountains. + + +WE had made a sweep through Belgium and Holland, intending to return by +way of the Rhine and Switzerland. Accordingly, in leaving Amsterdam, we +struck across the country to Arnhem, where we found a pleasant hotel +near the station, outside of the town. Here we spent the night in order +to break the monotony of the ride to Cologne. After climbing stairs to +gain our room, wide, but so perpendicular that we were really afraid to +descend by them, we had, from a rickety, upper piazza, our first glimpse +of the Rhine, winding through flat, green meadows, with hardly more than +a suggestion of hills in the distance. There is nothing of interest to +detain one at Arnhem. The guide-book informed us that it was the scene +of Sir Philip Sidney's death; but no one in the hotel seemed ever to +have heard of that gentle knight--_sans peur et sans reproche_. + +We reached Cologne at noon the next day. The road makes a _detour_ +through the plain, so that, for some time before gaining it, we could +see the city nestling under the wings of the great cathedral. How can I +tell you anything about it? If I say that it is five times the length of +any church you know, and that the towers, when completed, are to be the +same height as the length, will my words bring to you any conception of +its size? If I say that it was partially built a couple of centuries +before the discovery of America; that it was worked upon for three +hundred years, and then suffered to remain untouched until recently; +that the architect who planned it has been forgotten for centuries, so +that the idea embodied in its form is like some beautiful old tradition, +whose origin is unknown,--will this give you any idea of its age? The +new part, seen from our hotel, was so white and beautiful, that, when we +had passed around to the farther side, it was like waking from a sleep +of a thousand years. The blackened, broken Gothic front told its own +story of age and decay. Ah, the interminable dusky length of its +interior, when we had crept within the doors! It was a very world in +itself, full of voices, and echoes, and shadows of its own. We followed +the guide over the rough stone floor, giving no heed to the tiresome +details that fell in broken words and monotonous tones from his lips. I +recall nothing now but the fact (!) that behind the choir lie buried, +in all their magnificence, the Three Wise Men of the East. As we came +down one of the shadowy aisles, we paused before a fine, old, stained +window. Our guide immediately became prolix again. "Dis," he said, +pointing to one of the figures upon the glass, "is Shosef, in ter red +coat; and dis is Shon ter Baptised; and dis, ter Holy Ghos' in ter form +off a duff." + +When the old woman at the door offered pictures of the cathedral, he +assured us that they were quite correct, having been taken "from +_nature_, _outzide_ and _inzide_." + +You must see the old Roman remains of towers and crumbling walls, sniff +the vile odors of the streets, which have become proverbial, and be +sprinkled with cologne--then your duty to the city is done. But almost +everybody visits the Church of St. Ursula, which is lined with the +skulls of that unfortunate young woman and her eleven thousand virgin +followers. + +The story is, that she was an English princess, who lived--nobody knows +at what remote period of antiquity. For some reason equally obscure, she +started with her lover and eleven thousand maidens to make a pilgrimage +to Rome. Fancy this lover undertaking a continental tour with eleven +thousand and one young women under his care! Even modern travel presents +no analogy to the case. "And they staid over night at my aunt's," droned +the sleepy guide, who was telling the story. The girls looked at each +other. "Good gracious! what unbounded hospitality!" whispered one. "At +his _aunt's_!" exclaimed a second, somewhat puzzled by the anachronism. +"Don't interrupt," said a third interested listener; "he means +_Mayence_;" and he proceeded with the narrative. They accomplished their +pilgrimage in safety; but, upon their return, were "fetched up py ter +parparians," as the guide expressed it, which means, in English, that +they were murdered, here at Cologne. If you doubt the story, behold the +skulls! We turned suddenly upon the guide. + +"Do _you_ believe this?" + +"I mus; sinz I tells it to you," was his enigmatical reply, dropping his +eyes. + +The scenery along the Rhine from Cologne, for twenty miles, is +uninteresting; just now, too, the weather was uncomfortably hot, and we +were glad to leave the steamer for a few hours at Bonn. Upon the balcony +of a hotel, looking out upon the river, we found a score of young men in +bright-colored caps--students from the university here. When dinner was +announced, they crowded in and filled the table, at which the ladies of +our party were the only ones present. Such a noisy, loud-talking set as +they were! When each one had dined, he coolly leaned back in his chair, +and lighted his pipe! Before we had finished our almonds and raisins the +room was quite beclouded. Then they adjourned with pipe and wine-glass +to the balcony again, where we left them when we went out to see the +town. + +The university was formerly a palace, the guide-book had told us; but +all our childish conceptions of palaces had been rudely destroyed before +now, so that we were not surprised to find it without any especial +beauty of architecture--only a pile of brown stone, three quarters of a +mile long. I think we had left all the students drinking wine upon the +balcony, for we saw none here,--though we went through the library, +museum, and various halls,--except one party outside, who stared +unblushingly at the girls remaining in the carriage. + +Somewhere in the town we found a lovely old minster, through the aisles +of which we wandered for a while, happy in having no guide and knowing +nothing whatever about it. Outside, in a little park, was a statue of +Beethoven, and in a quiet street near the water the musical girls of our +party found the house where he was born. In the cool of the day we took +another steamer, and went on towards the beckoning hills, at nightfall +reaching Rolandseck. There was no town in sight, only a pier and three +quiet hotels upon the bank, with a narrow road between their gardens and +the water. We chose the one farthest away, and were rowed down to it, +dabbling our hands in the water, and saying over and over again, "It is +the _Rhine_!" + +But the hotel was full; so we filled our arms with luggage, and walked +back, up the dusty road to the second. A complacent waiter stood in the +doorway, with nothing of that hungry, eager air about him which betokens +an empty house; cool, comfortable-looking tourists, in enviable, fresh +toilets, stared at us from the windows; a pretty German girl upon the +balcony overhead was sketching the river and the Seven Mountains just +below, uttering little womanly exclamations at times, ending in "_ach_" +and "_ich_." After some delay, four single rooms were offered us; our +party numbered twelve; we left a portion of our company here; the others +went on--to the pier where we had landed, in fact, and with all meekness +and humility sued for accommodations of the little hotel here, which we +had at first looked upon with disdain. Fortunately, we were not refused. + +When we came down the next morning, the sole occupant of the piazza +opening upon the garden--where our breakfast was spread--was a stout, +red-faced gentleman of general sleek appearance, who smiled a courteous +"good morning." He proved to be a Dutchman from Rotterdam, who had in +charge a couple of Malay youths sent to Holland to be +educated--bright-faced boys, with straight, blue-black hair, olive +complexions, and eyes like velvet. They were below us, walking in the +garden now. + +"We have but just come from Holland," we said, after some conversation; +and, with a desire to be sociable, added that it was a very charming, +garden-like _little_ (!) country. (O dreadful American spirit!) + +He smiled, showing his gums above his short teeth, and with a kind of +enraged humility replied,-- + +"It is nothing." + +"It is indeed wonderful," we went on, trying to improve upon our former +attempt, and quoting a sentiment from the guide-book, "how your people +have rescued the land from the clutch of the sea!" + +But his only reply was the same smile, and the "Yes?" so fatal to +sentiment. + +"We visited your queen's 'House in the Wood,'" we ventured, presently. +"Is it true that the domestic relations of the royal family are so +unhappy?" + +"O, the king and the queen are most happy," he replied. "You may always +be sure that when _he_ is in town _she_ will be in the country." + +This was a phase of domestic bliss so new to us that we were fain to +consider it for a moment. Various other attempts we made at gaining +information, with equally questionable success. Our Dutch acquaintance, +though disposed to conversation, avoided the topic of his own country. +Still he sought our society persistently, asking at dinner that his +plate might be laid at the same table. Our vanity was considerably +flattered, until he chanced to remark that he embraced every opportunity +of conversing with English and American travellers, _it did so improve +his English_. From that time we found him tiresome. Think of being used +as an exercise-book! + +It is here at Rolandseck that the romance of the Rhine, as well as its +world-renowned scenery, commences. Across the river is the +Drachenfels--the crag upon which the remains of a castle may still be +seen, where, "in the most ancient time," dwelt Hildegund, a maiden +beautiful as those of all stories, and beloved by Roland, a nephew of +Charlemagne. When he went away to the wars, she waited and watched at +home--as other maidens have done; but alas! instead of her lover, came +after a time only the news of his death. Then Hildegund laid aside her +gay attire and happy heart, with her hopes, and leaving her father's +castle, came down to bury her young life in the nunnery upon the island +at its foot. But the rumor was false; and in time Roland returned, only +to find himself too late, for Hildegund was bound by vows which could +not be broken. Then, upon the rock called now Rolandseck, the unhappy +lover built a castle opposite the Drachenfels and overlooking the +Island of Nonnenworth. Here he could watch the nuns as they walked in +the convent garden, and perhaps among them distinguish the form of +Hildegund. + +On our way down from the arch, which, with a few crumbling stones is all +that remains now of Roland's castle, we passed through one of the +vineyards for which the banks of this river are so noted. Do you imagine +them to be picturesque? They are almost ugly. The vines are planted in +regular order and pruned closely. They are not suffered to grow above +three feet in height, and each one is fastened to a stout stake until +the wood itself becomes self-supporting. + +We spent a quiet Sabbath at Rolandseck. There was no church, no church +service at either of the hotels. We rested and wrote letters, sitting in +the grape arbors of the garden; only a low hedge and narrow, grass-grown +road between us and the river. Down below, the rocks and the island shut +out the world; across, the hills rose to the sky, their slopes covered +with yellow grain, or dotted with red-roofed farm-houses, while tiny +villages had curled up and gone to sleep at their feet. It was +impossible to write. The breeze that rippled the yellow water blew away +our paper and our thoughts; and when the steamer, puffing, and evidently +breathless from stemming the current, touched at the little pier, we +left everything and ran out to see the passengers disembark. A band +played at the railroad station just above our hotel, and the park +attached to it swarmed with excursionists during the afternoon. At dusk, +when they had all gone, we wandered up the magnificent road which +follows the course of the river; built originally by the Romans, and +said to extend for a long distance--five hundred miles or more--into +Germany, returning with our hands full of wild flowers. When we went on +board the steamer, Monday morning, we were closely followed by our Dutch +friend and his Malays. They strolled off by themselves, as they seemed +always to do; he joined our group under the awning spread over the deck. +An English tourist seized upon him immediately, and when he had +disclosed his nationality, proceeded with a glance towards us, to quiz +him upon Dutch ways. + +"Now, really," said the tourist, tilting back against the rail in his +camp chair, "how dreadful it must be to live in a country where there +are no mountains! nothing but a stretch of flat land, you know. I fancy +it would be unendurable." + +"Yes?" was the Dutchman's sole response. + +"You still keep up your peculiar customs, I observe from Murray," the +Englishman went on, loftily. "Your women carry the same old foot-stoves +to church, I fancy. They hang up, you know, in every house." + +"Ah!" and the Dutchman only smiled that same incomprehensible smile that +had so puzzled us. + +"And you smoke constantly," continued the inquisitor, growing dogmatic; +"a pipe is seldom out of your mouths. Really, you are a nation of +perpetual smokers." + +"Yes," assented the Dutchman; "but then--" and here his eyes, and indeed +his whole round, rosy face twinkled with irresistible humor, "_you know +we have no mountains_." + +A shout went up from the listeners, and our English acquaintance became +at once intensely interested in the scenery. + +[Illustration: "At the word of command they struck the most +extraordinary attitudes." Page 157.] + +The sail of half an hour to Coblentz was a continual delight. The rocky +mountains rose abruptly from the water, terraced to their peaks with +vineyards, or stood back to give place to modest towns and villages that +dipped their skirts in the stream. At their wharves we touched for a +moment, to make an exchange of passengers or baggage. Often from the +lesser villages a boat shot out, the oars held by a brown-armed maiden, +who boarded us to take, perhaps, a single box or bale, or, it might be, +some bearded tourist with sketch-book under his arm. The passengers +walked the deck, or gathered in groups to eat ices and drink the wines +made from the grapes grown in these vineyards, with the pictured maps of +the river spread out upon their laps, and the ubiquitous Murray in their +hands. + +As we neared Coblentz the villages increased as the hills vanished. Each +had its point of interest, or monkish legend--the palace of a duke, a +bit of crumbling Roman wall rising from the water--something to invest +it with a charm. One--Neuwied--is noted for holding harmoniously within +its limits, Jews, Moravians, Anabaptists, and Catholics. The Millennium +will doubtless begin at Neuwied. + +At Coblentz we remained a day, in order to visit the fortress of +Ehrenbreitstein. From our windows at the hotel we could look directly +across to this grim giant of rock, as well as down upon the bridge of +boats which crosses the Rhine here. It was endless amusement to watch +the approach of the steamers, when, as if impelled by invisible boatmen, +a part of the bridge would swing slowly round to make an opening, +while the crowd of soldiers, market-women, and towns-people, waiting +impatiently, furnished a constant and interesting study. + +An hour or two after noon we too crossed the bridge in an open carriage, +nearly overcome by the stifling heat, and after passing through the +village of Ehrenbreitstein, ascended the winding road--a steep ascent, +leading under great arches of solid masonry, through massive gateways, +and shut in by the rock which forms the fortress. At various points, +guards of Prussian soldiers, as immovable as the stone under their feet, +were stationed. Suddenly in the gloomy silence, as we toiled slowly up, +echoed a sharp tramp, tramp, and a line of soldiers filed by in grim +silence, each one with a couple of loaves of bread slung by a cord over +his shoulder. In a moment another line followed with a quantity of iron +bedsteads, each borne solemnly upon the shoulders of four men. The +guards accompanying them were armed, and wore queer, shining helmets. +Still another company came swinging down to meet us, with fixed, +imperturbable countenances, each bearing a towel in one hand, with +military precision. They were on their way to the bathing-house upon the +bridge. + +Scattered about upon the broad esplanade at the summit, or rather +arranged in lines upon the breezy, grass-grown space, were squads of +recruits being drilled. At the word of command they struck the most +extraordinary attitudes. Taking a tremendous stride, they endeavored to +poise themselves on one foot, while they threw the other leg straight +out behind into the air. Being of all sizes, forms, and degrees of +grace in movement, the effect, to say the least, was surprising; +especially as the most intense silence and seriousness prevailed. A +second stride and fling followed, then a third, when a pert young +officer, of the bantam species, seized a gun, and strutting to the +front, proceeded to illustrate the idea more perfectly. At this point +our gravity gave way. + +A young sergeant, with a stupid but good-natured face, attached himself +to us in the capacity of guide. He could speak nothing but German, of +which not one of us understood a word. We followed him from point to +point, politely attending to all his elaborate explanations, and were +surprised to find how many ideas we had finally gained by means of the +patient and painful pantomimic accompaniment to his words. + +The view from the summit is wonderfully extensive. All the kingdoms of +the earth and the glory of them seemed spread out at our feet; and our +fat little guide grew fairly red in the face in his efforts to make us +comprehend the names of the various points of interest. + +When we returned to the carriage the animated jumping-Jacks were still +engaged in their remarkable evolutions; and as we came down we had a +last glimpse of our Dutch friend and his Malays, who were making the +ascent on foot. + +The next day, though passed upon the beautiful river, was a day of +torment. The stream narrowed; the frowning rocks closed in upon us, +shutting out every breath of air; the sun beat down upon the water and +the low awning over our heads with fiery fury; in a moment of idiocy we +answered the call to _table d'hote_, which was served upon deck with a +refinement of imbecility just as the climax of the striking scenery +approached. For one mortal hour we were wedged in at that table, peering +between heads and under the awning which cut off every peak, making +frantic attempts to turn in our places, as parties across the table +exclaimed over the scenery behind us, and consoling ourselves with +reading up the legends in the guide-book held open by the rim of our +soup-plates,--of the Seven Sisters, for instance, who were turned into +seven stones which stand in the stream to this day, because they refused +to smile upon their lovers (fortunately for navigation, maidens in these +days are less obdurate); of the bishop who shut his starving peasants +into his barn and set fire to it, though his granaries were full, and +who, in poetic justice, was afterwards devoured by rats; of the Lurlei +siren, who lured men to destruction, and became historical from the +individuality of the case; of various maidens bereft of lovers by cruel +fathers, and of various lovers bereft of maidens by cruel fate, &c., +while storied ruins crowned the crags on every hand, always half hidden +under a weight of ivy, and often indistinguishable from the rock on +which they seemed to have grown. + +At Bingen, which is not especially "fair" from the river, the precipices +drop away, the stream spreads out in nearly twice its former width, and +is dotted with islands. At Mayence you may leave the steamer; the +beauties of the Rhine are passed. + +From Mayence we made an excursion to Wiesbaden; then on to +Frankfort-on-the-Maine, to rest only a few hours, _doing_ the city +hastily and imperfectly; and finally reached Heidelberg at night, in +time for _table d'hote_. A talkative young Irishman sat beside us at the +table, who spoke five or six languages "with different degrees of +badness," he informed us; had travelled half the world over, but held in +reserve the pleasure of visiting America. + +"I have a friend there," he added, "though he is in _South_ America." + +"Ah?" + +"Yes; at _Mobile_," he replied. "He held some office under government +for a number of years, but during your recent war--for some reason which +I do not understand--he seems to have lost it." + +It did not seem so inexplicable to us. + +Our conception of Heidelberg had been most imperfect. We knew simply +that it held a university and a ruin. The former did not especially +attract us, and we were sated with ruins. So, when we took possession of +our lovely room,--a charming _salon_, converted temporarily into a +bedroom,--it was with a kind of listless indifference that we stepped +out upon the balcony before the window. And, behold! down below, an old, +paved square, walled in by delightfully dingy old houses; a stone +fountain; a string of waiting landaus (for Landau itself is near by), +with scarlet linings to their tops--giving a bit of color to the +picture; a party of German students crossing the square, wearing the +caps of different colors to betoken different societies or clubs, and +almost every one with a scarred cheek or suggestive patch upon his nose; +and, lastly, on the right hand, and so precipitous as almost to overhang +the square, a hill crowned with the castle, grand, though in ruins, +which nature vainly tries to conceal. There are ruins, and ruins. +Except the Alhambra, in Spain, none in the world equal these. + +What this castle must have been in the days of its glory, when it was +the residence of a court, we could only faintly imagine. It is of red +sandstone, and was a succession of palaces, built to enclose a square, +or great court-yard, each of entirely different architecture and design, +the _facade_ of one being covered with statues, another having pointed +gables, &c.; all having been erected at periods fifty or a hundred years +remote from each other. At each corner were watch-towers to apprise of +coming foes. You may still ascend the winding stairs of one, though the +steps have been hollowed into bowls by dripping rain and mounting feet. +Between these towers, upon one side, and on the verge of the hill, still +remains the grand stone terrace,--where a hundred couples might +promenade in solitude on moonlight evenings,--with summer-houses at each +end; and beautiful gardens are still connected with the ruins. For all +these palaces are in ruins. A few habitable rooms only remain among them +all. Several sieges, and partial demolition at times, the castle +suffered, and at last, a hundred years ago, lightning completed the +work, since which time no efforts at restoration have been made. + +The whole is overgrown with ivy, and embowered in shrubbery. Great trees +spread their branches in the midst of the walls that still remain +standing, and crumbling earth and drifting dust have filled many parts, +even up to the broken window ledges of the second story. Across the +broad stone steps leading to one of these palaces, tangled vines +disputed right of way, and a neglected cherry-tree had scattered with +wanton hand its over-ripe fruitage. Thrust through a casement was an ivy +that might have vied with many of the trees around in the size of its +trunk, and no artistic hand could have trailed its creepers with the +grace Nature alone had displayed. + +There was a grand banqueting-hall, with the blue heavens for a ceiling +overhead. There was a drawing-room, the floor long since crumbled away, +and only the broken walls remaining. Standing upon the loose earth, you +may see the blackened fireplace far above your head, before which fair +faces grew rosy centuries ago, and where white hands were outspread that +have been dust and mould for ages. There was-- But words cannot describe +it, though I should speak of the winding ways like a labyrinth beneath +it all; of the queer paved court-yard, from whence the knights sallied +out in the olden time; of the great tower, split in twain by an +explosion during the last siege; of the wine-cellars and the "Great +Tun," upon which the servants of the castle danced when the vintage was +gathered. In all attempts at word-painting there remains something that +defies description, that will not be portrayed by language. And, alas! +in that the charm lies. + +We turned away from it with regret. One might linger here for days; but +we had little time for dreaming. + +The road from Heidelberg to Baden-Baden led through a charming country: +indeed, we ceased to exclaim after a time over the cultivation of the +land. So far as we saw it, the whole of Europe was a market-garden, +with prize meadows interspersed. Not a foot of neglected or +carelessly-tilled ground did we see anywhere. + +We chanced to spend the Sabbath in this most un-Sabbath-like city of +Baden-Baden. But so far as we knew to the contrary, it might have been a +Puritan village. There was a little English chapel out in the fields +beyond the city, where morning service was held, and our windows, +overlooking a quiet square, told nothing of the gayeties of the town. It +is an interesting old city in itself, built upon a side hill, full of +unexpected stone steps leading from one street to another, and by and +crooked ways, that were my especial delight. It being just now "the +season," the town was full of visitors. The hot springs are of course +the nominal attraction; the shops, parks, and new parts of the city, +fine; but, after all, the interest centres at the Kursaal, or +Conversation-haus. It is a great white structure, with a colonnade where +it fronts an open square, and contains reading-rooms, _cafes_, a grand +ball-room, and the gambling _salons_. Government has at length +interfered, and these last, hired by companies paying a certain sum for +the privilege of beguiling and beggaring visitors, were to be closed now +in two years, I think, or less. In front of the Kursaal a band plays +every afternoon; the colonnade and square are thronged with people +promenading or occupying the chairs placed there, eating ices, drinking +wine, and enjoying the fine music, but all perfectly quiet in manner and +plain of dress. No one was gaudily or even strikingly attired. The +Hanoverian women were the most marked for their queer head-dresses, +consisting of an enormous bow and ends of wide, black ribbon perched +upon their crowns, and giving their heads a peculiar, bat-like +appearance. And in this connection I might say that national +peculiarities in dress are seldom met with in the ordinary course of +continental travel. They still exist to some extent among the lower +classes, and are often assumed and perpetuated to attract the attention +of travellers; but ordinarily you will find people whom you meet +anywhere and everywhere to be costumed much alike. Paris fashions, with +modifications (and in America with _intensifications_), have prevailed +universally, until there are few outward dissimilarities to be observed +among the people of different nationalities. Nothing strikes the +attention of the traveller more than this universal homogeneousness; and +not in dress alone. In Bruges, under the shadow of the belfry tower, +little girls trot off to school in water-proofs, just as they do at home +with us; and at the entrance to Stirling Castle, we passed a sturdy +little boy with his hands in his pockets, whistling, "Not for Jo," +exactly like other sturdy little boys we know at home. + +But to return to Baden-Baden. + +We almost fancied a sulphurous odor hung about the gambling _salons_. +Not a footfall echoed upon the softly-carpeted floors as we entered. The +most breathless silence hung over everything. In the centre, a crowd, +three in depth at least, surrounded and hid the table covered with green +cloth, before which sat the _croupier_, with a kind of little rake in +his hand. In our eyes he was the incarnation of evil, though to +unprejudiced vision he would appear simply a well-dressed--not +flashily-arrayed--gentleman, of a rather intellectual countenance, who +might have passed upon the street as a lawyer in good practice, or +possibly a doctor somewhat overworked. + +One after another of the bystanders covered the figures stamped upon the +table with gold or silver. The ball in the centre, spinning in its +circle, fell into a pocket with a "click." The _croupier_ called the +winning number I think (though confessing that the game is a hidden +mystery). That quick, sharp utterance was the only sound breaking the +silence. At the same time, with wonderful dexterity, he raked the money +into a pile, and pushed it towards the winner, or, more frequently, +added it to the pile before himself. + +I looked in vain for any exhibition of excitement or anxiety among the +players sitting or standing around the table. All were serious, silent; +some few absorbed. Both sexes were equally represented, and old as well +as young. Beside us was standing a woman with a worn, though still fine +face, unobtrusive in dress and manner; a traveller and spectator, I +judged, like ourselves. It was something of a surprise, not to say a +shock, to see her suddenly stretch out her hand, and lay down a handful +of gold pieces, selecting the numbers with an air that proved her to be +no novice. "Click," fell the ball. The _croupier_, with a sweep of the +rake, gathered up her Napoleons. The bank had won. Again she laid down +her gold, placing each piece with thoughtful deliberation. Again they +were swept away; and even the third time. She made no exclamation. She +did not so much as raise her eyes from the table as she prepared to make +a fourth attempt. There was no change in her face, except a certain +fixedness which came over it, and a faint tinge of color rising in her +cheeks. + +We breathed more freely when we had gained the open air. I am sure there +was an odor of sulphur about the place. + +The scenery around Baden-Baden is striking and wild. Gloomy valleys +abound, and dark forests cover many of the hills. We took a kind of +wagonet one morning, and climbed the mountain behind the city, passing +what is known as the "New Schloss," or castle, before leaving its +limits. It is anything but _new_, however, having been erected some four +or five hundred years. Its horrible dungeons, where all manner of +torments were inflicted, and tortures suffered by the unfortunate +wretches incarcerated here, attract scores of visitors. We went on, by +the zigzag road up the mountain, to the Old Schloss upon its summit. +This was the residence of the reigning family of Baden before the +erection of the New Schloss. Hardly anything remains of it now but the +walls of a square tower, from the battlements of which, by mounting to +an encircling gallery, you may obtain a view well worth the effort. As +far as the eye can see in one direction, extends the Black Forest--the +very name of which brings to mind elfish legends innumerable. But, +though our way led along its edge, so that we were shut in by the chill +and gloom of the evergreens which give it its name, we saw neither elves +nor gnomes, nor the traditional "wood-cutter, named Hans, who lived upon +the borders of the Black Forest," about whom we used to read when we +were children. + +From Baden-Baden we took the railroad, following the course of the +Rhine to Strasbourg, spending only a night here, in order to visit the +beautiful cathedral; then on to Lucerne, waiting an hour or two to break +the long day's ride, at Basle. Here the mountains began to grow before +our eyes. We shot through tunnel after tunnel, cut in the solid rock, +and suddenly sweeping around a curve, the everlasting hills wrapped in +perpetual snows, greeted our astonished sight. We had reached the Mecca +of our hopes at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DAYS IN SWITZERLAND. + + The Lake of Lucerne.--Days of rest in the + city.--An excursion up the Righi.--The crowd at + the summit.--Dinner at midnight.--Rising before + "the early worm."--The "sun-rise" according to + Murray.--Animated scarecrows.--Off for a tour + through Switzerland.--The lake for the last + time.--Gruetlii.--William Tell's + chapel.--Fluellen.--Altorf.--Swiss haymakers.--An + hour at Amsteg.--The rocks close in.--The Devil's + Bridge.--The dangerous road.--"A carriage has gone + over the precipice!"--Andermatt.--Desolate + rocks.--Exquisite wild flowers.--The summit of the + Furka.--A descent to the Rhone glacier.--Into the + ice.--Swiss villages.--Brieg.--The convent + inn.--The bare little chapel on the hill.--To + Martigny. + + +WHEN we forget the scene before our dazzled eyes as we stepped out upon +the balcony of the hotel Bellevue at Lucerne, earth will have passed +away. There lay the fair lake, the emerald hills rising from its blue +depths on every side, save where the queer old town sweeps around its +curve, or beyond Pilatus, where the chain is broken, and a strip of +level land lies along the water's edge, sprinkled with red-roofed +farm-houses set in the midst of grain-fields, and with rows of tall, +straight poplars extending to the water. This sight of peaceful homes +among the heavenly hills is like a vision of earth in mid-heaven. +Beyond, above, overlapping each other, rise these delectable hills. No +earthly air envelops them. No earthly feet tread their fair summits. +Upon the highest, among the eternal snows, rest the clouds. Truly, the +heavens declare the glory of God; but Switzerland showeth his handiwork! + +Beautiful was the lake in the hazy morning light, when the hills cast +purple and green shadows over its bosom, when the breeze rippled its +surface, and the path in the wake of the little steamer widened into an +endless way; beautiful in the glare of the noonday sun, when a veil of +mist half hid the far-off mountains, and the water gleamed like molten +gold; but most beautiful of all when the mountains wrapped themselves in +the shadows of night, and stole away into the darkness, while upon their +white, still faces shone the rays of the setting sun. Then grim Pilatus +stepped forth; the moon, like a burnished globe, hung over the water, +across which the little steamer ploughed silver furrows, or tiny boats, +impelled by flashing oars, shot over the still surface, now near, now +far away; but dim, unreal, always. + +It was a place of rest to us--this city of Lucerne; the "House +Beautiful," where we tarried for a time before setting out again upon +our pilgrimage. We wandered about the narrow streets, visited the dingy +shops full of wood carvings or ornaments cut in the many-hued crystals; +strayed over the low hills behind the town, through fields set with +painted shrines; paused before Thorwaldsen's Dying Lion, cut in the +living rock--the grandest monument that heroes ever won; and once, in +the stillness of a summer morning, sat in the cathedral and heard the +angels sing, when the old organist laid his hands upon the keys. Sabbath +mornings we sang the old versified psalms, and listened to the +exposition of a rigid faith from the lips of a Scotch Presbyterian +minister, in an old Roman Catholic church--the walls hung with pictured +saints and martyrs, the high altar only partially concealed, and a +company of women kneeling by the door to tell their beads. Not only +rest, but Christian charity, had we found here. + +Almost every one who spends any time at Lucerne ascends the Righi to see +the sun rise. Accordingly, five of our number prepared to follow the +universal custom. In one of the little shops of the town we found some +light, straw hats, with wide rims, for which we gave the extravagant +price of three cents apiece, trimming them afterwards to suit individual +taste, with ribbons, soft white lawn, and even mountain ferns and +grasses. We slung our wraps over our shoulders by a strap,--a most +uncomfortable arrangement by the way,--discarded crinoline, brought into +use the shabbiest gowns in our possession, packed hand-satchels with +whatever was necessary for a night upon the mountain, and then declared +ourselves ready for any disclosures of the future or the Righi. + +A little steamer bore us from Lucerne to Weggis--a half hour's sail. We +found Weggis to be only an insignificant village, almost pushed into the +lake by the crowding mountain, and seeming to contain nothing but guides +and shabby horses. As we left the steamer, the open space between the +pier and the hotel facing it was crowded with tourists, waiting for or +bargaining with the guides for these sorry-looking beasts. No matter of +what age, sex, or condition in life you may be, if you visit +Switzerland, you will make, at least one, equestrian attempt; but in +truth, there is nothing to fear for even the most inexperienced, as a +guide usually leads each horse. The saddles for the use of ladies are +provided with a rail upon one side, and the nature of the paths are +such, that it would be impossible to go beyond a walk. The only danger +is from over-fatigue in descending the rocky, slippery way, often like +flights of stairs; then, exhausted from trying to hold back in the +saddle, dizzy from gazing into frightful depths, one might easily become +unseated. + +When our guides were secured, one dejected beast after another was led +to the wooden steps, always provided for mounting and dismounting; we +climbed to our several elevations with some inward quaking, fell into +line,--for single file is the invariable rule,--and passed out of the +village by immediately beginning the ascent, describing, in our saddles +every known curve and angle, as the path became more and more rough and +precipitous. For guides we had a man with a rakish air, and--we judged +from his gait--a wooden leg, who tragically wrung the perspiration from +his red flannel shirt at intervals; a boy, with one of those open +countenances only saved from complete lateral division by the merciful +interposition of the ears, and a wizen-faced old man of so feeble an +appearance as to excite my constant sympathy, since his place chanced to +be by my side. He assured me continually that he was not tired, though +before half of the three hours of the ascent had passed, his pale face +belied his words. He was quite ready to converse, but I could with +difficulty understand his English. We had paused at a wayside shed to +rest the horses, and offer some refreshment to the guides, when I +addressed him with,-- + +"What is that you are drinking? Is it goat's milk?" + +"Noo, leddy," was his reply. "It is coo's;" at the same time, and with +the utmost simplicity and good will, offering me the glass from which he +had been drinking, that I might taste and judge for myself. + +It is nearly nine miles to the summit, or Righi-Kulm. The bridle-path is +rocky, rough, and steep, with a grassy slope upon either side, sprinkled +at this season with dandelions, blue-bells, and odd yellow butter-cups. +Often this slope changed to a precipice, still smiling with flowers. +Upon every level spot orchards of pear trees and apricots had been +planted, while evergreens and shrubs innumerable clung to the mountain +sides, or sprang from among the rocks. + +Tossed about wherever they could find a resting-place, were great +boulders of pudding-stone, overhanging the path, rising in our way, or +rolling in broken masses under the horses' feet. Sometimes, perched upon +a natural terrace, was a _chalet_, sheltered from sweep of wind or +avalanche by overhanging rocks half covered with ivy and dainty +clematis. Occasionally a beggar barred the way with outstretched hand, +or offered for sale some worthless trinket, as an excuse for asking +alms. We hugged the rocks upon one side, as other lines of tourists +wound down to meet us, upon horseback or afoot with alpenstocks to aid +their steps. Peasants, laden like beasts of burden, passed as we paused +to rest, with trunks, provisions, and even the red tiles for the new +hotel above, strapped upon their backs, or resting there on wooden +frames. They came and went; but ever present were the wonderful glimpses +of earth, and sky, and shimmering lake far down below. + +At the half-way house we turn to climb a gentle slope upon the mountain +face. On either side the land spreads out smooth and green. It had been +hot below. The air strikes us here with an icy chill. A party of young +Englishmen in knickerbockers, with blue veils tied about their hats, +lean over the railing of the piazza, and scan us as we pass. A Spaniard, +with his dark-faced wife, step out of the path--all manner of oily words +dropping from their lips. We reach the Righi-Staffel. Suddenly, upon one +side, the land falls away. Among the reverberating hills echoes the +_joedel_, and from a terrace far below, where a herd of dun cows are +feeding, rises the tinkle of sweet-toned bells. From every path--and +there are many now--winds a slow procession. The grassy slopes are all +alive with people; the hotel piazza, as we pass, is crowded with +travellers. Still they pour in from every side. Still the mountain-peak +rises above us as we go on joining other trains, and leading others in +turn. We pass through a rough gateway, ascend the broken rocks that rise +like steps, follow again the narrow path, and reach at last the hotel, +just before which rises the Kulm. + +Talk of the solitude of nature! It is not found among these mountain +peaks, grand though they are. We dismounted in the midst of a noisy +crowd. Exclamations in seemingly every known tongue echoed about us, as +one party after another arrived to swell the confusion. The hill before +us swarmed with tourists, who had come, like ourselves, to see the sun +rise. The hotel, and even the adjoining house into which the former +overflows, were more than full. Since we had taken the precaution to +telegraph,--for telegraphic communication is held with most of these +mountain resorts,--some show of civility awaited us. A single room was +given to the four ladies of our party, where, a few hours later, we +disposed ourselves as best we could. It was only a rough place, with +bare plastered walls, and unpainted wooden floor; but we were not +disposed to be fastidious. Dropping our satchels, we hastened up the +hill before the house. It fell in a precipice upon the other side--to +what frightful depth I know not. Down below, the hills spread out like +level land, with lakes where every valley should be, and villages, like +white dots only, upon the universal green, among which the River Reuss +wound like a silver thread. But above and over all, against the sky, +rose the mountains--the Bernese Alps, like alabaster walls, the gates of +which, flung back, would open heavenward. + +We wandered over the hillocks, which make up the summit, until the sun +was gone. Gradually the darkness gathered--a thickening of the shadows +until they seemed almost tangible. There was no flame of gold and +crimson where the sun had disappeared; there were no clouds to reflect +the warm yellow light that hung about the west. But when the night +wrapped us in, the little lakes down below gleamed out like stars. + +The crowd that pushed and fairly wedged itself into the _salle a +manger_, when dinner was announced at eight o'clock, was quite beyond +belief or computation. Everybody was tired, hungry, and impatient, after +the ride to the summit. For once, silver was at a discount. One of the +waiters was finally bribed to give us a private room, and slyly edged +our party into a pantry, where he brought us, at immense intervals, a +spoonful of soup and a hot plate apiece, after which, his resources +utterly failing, he acknowledged that he could do no more. The second +_table d'hote_ was served between the hours of ten and eleven at night, +and consisted of numerous courses, with a similarity of flavor, +suggesting one universal saucepan. + +It was midnight when we finally gained our rooms, and threw ourselves +upon the uncomfortable beds. The linen was wet, rather than damp. The +only covering consisted of a single blanket, and the _duvet_ or down +pillow, always found upon the foot of continental beds. + +We imagined that the sun would appear with the very earliest known worm, +and at least an hour before the most ambitious lark, and dared not close +our eyes, lest they should not open in time to greet him. At last, +however, sleep overpowered our fears. Katie's voice roused us. + +"It is three o'clock," she said, "and growing light, and I believe +people are hurrying up the hill." + +Profane persons should avoid the Righi; it is a place of terrible +temptation. "Good heavens!" we responded, "what kind of a sun can it be +to rise at such an hour?" + +[Illustration: "Frowsy, sleepy, cross, and caring nothing whatever for +the sun, moon, or stars, we stood like a company of Bedlamites, ankle +deep in the wet grass upon the summit." Page 176.] + +Our room was upon the ground floor. We pushed open the shutters and +peered out, facing an untimely Gabriel, just raising to his lips an +Alpine horn some six feet in length. Evidently the hour had arrived. We +thrust our feet into our boots, tied our hats under our chins, and ran +out to join a most ridiculous collection of animated scarecrows like +ourselves. Frowsy, sleepy, cross, and caring nothing whatever for the +sun, moon, or stars, we stood like a company of Bedlamites, ankle deep +in the wet grass upon the summit. No sun of irreproachable moral +character and well-regulated habits would appear at such an hour, we +knew. The light strengthened with our impatience. Every half-closed eye +was fixed upon that corner of the heavens from which the sun would sally +forth. The golden gates had opened. A red banner floated out. Tiny +clouds on either side awaited his coming, dressed in crimson and yellow +livery. Every one of us stood upon tiptoe--the heels of our unbuttoned +boots thereupon dropping down. One collarless tourist, in whose outward +adorning suspenders played a conspicuous part, gravely opened his +guide-book, found the place with some difficulty, and buried his head in +the pages, to assure himself that everything was proceeding according to +Murray. Suddenly the white faces of the distant mountains grew purple +with a rage which we all shared; the flaming banner streamed out across +the east, and the king of day, with most majestic step, but frightfully +swollen, tell-tale countenance, rose in the heavens. I am sure he had +been out all night. + +The light grew clearer now. The mountains rose reluctantly, and shook +off their wrappings of mist. The little clouds doffed their crimson +finery. The man held together by the marvellous complication of +shoulder-straps, closed his guide-book with an air of entire +satisfaction. Evidently the programme, as laid down by Murray, had been +accurately carried out. Everybody exclaimed, "Wonderful!" in his or her +native tongue. All the knickerbockers, and woollen shirts, and lank +water-proofs, without any back hair to speak of, trotted off down the +hill to be metamorphosed into human beings, and prepare for breakfast, +even to the individual who had been stalking about in a white bed +blanket, with a striped border--though printed notices in every room +expressly forbade the using of bed blankets as morning wraps. + +When breakfast was over, there was nothing to do but to make the descent +to Weggis, and return to Lucerne. + +After a time, when weariness could no longer be made an excuse for +lingering, we prepared for a tour through Switzerland. Engaging +carriages to meet us at Fluellen, we embarked for the last time upon the +beautiful lake, winding in and out its intricate ways, shut in by the +towering cliffs that closed before us, only to re-open, revealing new +charms as we rounded some promontory, and the lake widened again. Upon +the bays thus formed, villages lean against the mountain-side. Where the +rocks fall abruptly to the water, an occasional _chalet_ is perched upon +some natural terrace, in the midst of an orchard or scanty garden. As we +touched at these lake villages, brown-faced girls, in scant blue +petticoats and black bodices, and with faded hair braided in their +necks, offered us fruits--apricots and cherries--in pretty, rustic +baskets. + +One of these green spots, high among the rocks, forms a sloping meadow, +touching the water at last. It is an oasis in the surrounding desert of +barren rock. Do you know why the grass is greener here than elsewhere? +why the sun bestows its kisses more warmly? why the foliage upon the +scattered walnut and chestnut trees is thicker, darker, than upon those +on other mountain-sides? It is because this is Gruetlii--the birthplace +of Swiss liberty. Here, more than five hundred years ago, the three +confederates met at night to plan the throwing off of the Austrian yoke. + +Not far from Gruetlii, resting apparently upon the water, at the base of +one of these cliffs, is what appears at first sight to be a pretty green +and white summer-house, open towards the lake. It is Tell's Chapel, +built upon a shelf of rock, and only approachable from the water. +Here--so the story runs--William Tell sprang ashore, and escaped the +tyrant Gessler. We sweep around this promontory and gain the last bay +where lies Fluellen--a ragged village, swarming with tourists, +vetturinos, and diligences. Among the carriages we find our own. It is a +roomy landau, luxuriously lined with scarlet velvet, drawn by three +horses which wear tinkling bells, and is capable of carrying six +passengers. The top is thrown back, but a kind of calash-shade screens +from the sun the occupants of what we should call the driver's seat. Our +driver's place is a narrow board behind the horses. One crack of a long +whip, and we are off at a rattling pace over the hard road, smooth as a +floor. + +For the first day we are to follow the pass of St. Gothard--that +well-travelled highway which leads through mountain defiles into Italy. +We dashed by Altorf, where the family of Queen Victoria's husband +originated, passing the open square in which William Tell shot the apple +from the head of his son. An old man is watering a horse at the basin of +the stone fountain which marks the spot where the father stood. All this +valley is sacred to the memory of William Tell. In a village near by he +was born; in the mountain stream, just beyond, he is said to have lost +his life in the attempt to save a drowning child. After Altorf, the road +winds among the meadows, though the mountains rise on every side, with +_chalets_ perched upon points which seem inaccessible, so steep are +their sides. It is haying time, and men and women are at work in the +fields and upon the mountain-sides, carefully securing every blade of +grass. Once, when we had begun to wind up the mountains, where a +grass-grown precipice fell almost sheer to the valley below, a girl +clung to its side, and pulled with one hand the grass from between the +rocks, thrusting it into a bag that hung about her neck. She paused to +gaze after us as we dashed by, a kind of dull awe that never rose to +envy lighting her face for an instant. O, the hungry, pitiful faces of +these dwellers upon the heights! the pinched, starved faces of the +little ones especially, who forgot to smile--how they haunted us! At +noon we sweep up to the post-house at Amsteg, with a jingle of bells, a +crack of the whip, and an annunciatory shout from the driver. There is +no village that we can see. The piazza of the post-house is filled with +travellers, lunching before a long table; half a dozen waiting carriages +stand in the open space before it; as many hostlers, with knit caps +upon their heads, from which hang long, bright-colored tassels, are busy +among the horses. At a short distance the Reuss River rushes past the +house; upon its bank is a little shop, with its store of Swiss +curiosities and trinkets. A couple of girls fill a tray with the dainty +wares, and cross the space to tempt us. One has a scarlet handkerchief +knotted under her handsome, dark face. She turns her brown cheek to her +shoulder, tossing a word back as the young hostlers contrive to stand in +her way. + +One by one the carriages take up their loads and go on. We soon follow +and overtake them, winding slowly up among the rocks, which seem ready +to fall upon us. We form a long train, a strange procession, bound by no +tie but that of common humanity. The meadows and soft, green +mountain-slopes are left behind as we ascend, crossing from one side to +the other by arched bridges thrown over the chasm, at the foot of which +foams the torrent. Higher and higher rise the rent rocks--bare, black +walls, seamed, and scarred, and riven, their summits reaching to the +sky. They close about us, shutting out everything of earth and heaven, +save a narrow strip of blue far above all. Even the sweet light of day +departs, and a gloom and darkness as of a brooding tempest falls upon us +as the way narrows. Suddenly a mad, foaming torrent, with angry roar, +leaps from the rocks above, to toss, and writhe, and moan upon the rocks +below the arch upon which we stand. The water rushes over them, and +dashes against them. It swirls, and pants, and foams, while high above +it all we stand, our faces wet with the spray, our ears deafened by the +terrible roar. Truly, this _is_ "The Devil's Bridge." + +Think of armies meeting here, as they did in the old Napoleonic wars, +contending for the passage of the bridge below. Think of the shrieks of +the wounded and dying, mingling with the raging of the waters. Think of +the white foam surging red among the rocks; of the angry torrent beating +out the ebbing life of those who checked its flow. Think of the meeting +of hosts in mortal conflict where no eye but God's could witness it, +upon which not even bird or startled beast looked down. It was like a +dreadful dream from which we passed--as through deep sleep--by a way cut +in the solid rock out into God's world again. Still, from one side of +the road rose the rocks that began to show signs of scanty vegetation +now; from the other fell the precipice to the torrent. We had left the +carriages at the bridge, and singly or in companies toiled up the road +that doubled back upon itself continually. Often we climbed from one of +these windings to the next above, by paths among the rocks, leaving the +carriages to make the turn and follow more slowly. Often our way was the +bed of a last year's torrent, or our feet touched the borders of the +stream, as we pulled ourselves up by the shrubs that grew among the +rocks. The ice-chill in the air brought strength for the time, and +perfect exhilaration. It seemed as if we could go on forever, scaling +these mountain heights. + +At last the carriages overtake us, and we reluctantly resume our places. +The road is built out upon the mountain-side. It offers no protection +against the fall of the precipice. It narrows here. We look down, and +say, "How dreadful a careless driver might make this place!" and, +shuddering, draw back. Suddenly the train pauses, and down the long +hill runs a shout, "A carriage has gone over." We spring out, and run to +the front. "Is any one killed?" "No; thank God, no one is harmed." We +gather upon the edge of the precipice. Upon the rocks below lies the +body of a horse--dead, with his fore feet raised, as though pawing the +air; and mingling with the white waters, and tossed about in the raging +stream, are the shattered remains of a carriage and its contents. + +It seems that two young men from Canton Zurich essayed to make a tour of +the mountains with their own horse and carriage--a foolhardy experiment, +since none but tried horses, used to these passes, are considered safe +here. All went well, however, until they reached this point, where a +torrent falls down the mountain-side to the road, under which it passes +with a fearful noise. It might, indeed, startle the strongest nerves. +The horse, young and high-spirited, shied to the edge of the precipice, +then reared high in the air. They saw that he must go over when his fore +feet came down, and springing out, barely escaped a similar fate. We all +passed the spot with some trepidation, the most of us preferring to +walk; but our horses, accustomed to the road, were utterly unmoved by +the swooping torrent. At night we reached Andermatt--only an untidy +little village, lying in one of these upper valleys, bustling and all +alive around the door of its one inn; but how green and beautiful were +the mountains, shutting us in all around, after the desolation through +which much of our way had led! Upon the side of the nearest was a +triangular patch of wood-land,--firs and spruces,--said to divide and +break the force of the avalanches that sweep down here in the spring. +It can be nothing but a story of what had been true formerly, when the +wood was more extensive. Down these mountains, as night closed in, +straggled a herd of goats to the milking, tinkling countless little +bells, while the roar of the Reuss, which we had followed until it was +now hardly more than a mountain brook, mingled with our dreams as it ran +noisily through the village. + +On we went the next morning, wrapping ourselves warmly, for the air was +chill as November, though at Lucerne, only twenty-four hours before, we +had suffered a torrid heat. Just beyond Andermatt, at Hospenthal, we +left the St. Gothard, to follow the Furka pass. All around was barren +desolation, as we went on, still ascending, leaving every sign of human +life behind. Rocky and black the mountains rose, bearing only lichens +and ferns. Occasional patches of snow appeared, lying in the beds of the +last year's torrents, or scattered along beside the road. But here, +where Nature had bestowed little to soften and beautify, she had spread +upon the barren land, and tucked in among the rocks, a covering of +exquisitely delicate flowers. You cannot realize, until you have seen +them, the variety, beauty, and profusion of the Alpine flowers. Looking +back in memory upon the bare rocks, doomed to stand here through all +time in solitude and in the midst of desolation, as though in expiation +of some sin, it is pleasant to remember that at their feet and in their +clefts these little flowers nestle and bloom. + +We gathered nosegays and made snowballs, and at noon gained the summit +of the Furka, and rested an hour or two at the inn--the only sign of +house or hut we had seen since morning. The rough _salons_, the passage, +the doorway, even the space outside, were alive with tourists. It is a +continual jar upon one's sense of the fitness of things, something to +which you never become thoroughly accustomed, until all freshness of +sight-seeing is passed--this coming suddenly upon the world in the midst +of the unutterable solitude of nature; this plunging into a crowd +dressed in the latest style, and discussing universal frivolities where +the very rocks and hills seem to stand in silent adoration. But after +the first moment you, too, form one of the frivolous throng, the sight +and sound of which shock the sensibilities of the next comer. + +From the inn a tongue of land, green and dotted with flowers, falls into +the valley below. On either side rises a mountain, scarred by the +torrents dried away now, and stained this day with the last year's snow, +while beyond--ever beyond, like some heavenly heights we vainly strove +to gain--rose the Bernese Alps. + +From the summit of the Furka we descended to the Rhone glacier by one of +the zigzag mountain roads. Looking down over the edge, we could see +below, the ways we were yet to follow on the mountain face before +accomplishing the descent. The horses dashed down at a flying pace. The +inclination of the road was not sufficient to alarm; but the turns are +always so frightfully abrupt as to make it seem as though the leader +must dash off. But no; he invariably swung around just upon the outer +edge, held, it seemed sometimes, by the traces, and with a crack of the +driver's whip was off again before our fears, if we had any, could find +words. + +One of these abrupt turns fairly hangs over the glacier, where the icy +river has fallen into broken masses from a higher point, before +spreading out in the narrow valley just here where it ends. Only a short +distance from the foot of the glacier is the inn, with its scattered +out-buildings, where we were to spend the night. The sheer descent from +the summit of the Furka is only about half a mile; but though our horses +had galloped the whole distance, and the inn was in sight all the time, +we were three hours reaching it; so many turns did the road make upon +the face of the mountain. + +It was a gloomy valley, shut in by mountains, and surrounded by lesser +hills all soaked and dripping with icy streams that chilled the air. We +gained the foot of the glacier from the inn by a rough path over and +among the rocks, and stones, and heaps of gravel it had brought down and +deposited here. From beneath the solid mass of ice flowed a hundred +shallow streams, which, uniting, form the beginning of the River Rhone. +We penetrated for a short distance the gallery cut into the glacier, +surrounded and shut down upon by the walls and ceiling, of a deep blue +color, and were preceded by an old man, who awoke the echoes by uttering +a series of broken cries. What with the echoes and horrible chill, the +place seemed most unearthly, and we were glad to retreat. + +The roar of torrents, and hardly less thunderous noise of departing +diligences, awakened us the next morning. We were soon off upon the +road, skirting the mountains, rolling through the pleasant valleys, and +passing village after village now. They seemed silent and deserted, +their occupants perhaps busy in the fields, or serving at the inns, or +among the mountains as guides. One was a mass of ruins, thrown down in +the bed of a torrent, among which a few dull-faced peasants were at +work, with a hopeless, aimless air, that promised little. A mountain +stream, swollen to a flood by melting snows, had swept it away in a +night. + +At noon we lunched at Viesch--a slipshod, unwashed village, by the side +of the young Rhone, which so far, in its dirty, chalk-white color, was +not unlike the white-headed children that played upon its banks. Some of +the party left the horses to their noon rest, and strayed out upon the +road beyond the village. On its outskirts was a fine new church, of +stone. If only something of its beauty could but come into the every-day +lives of the poor people here! We sat down upon the steps to wait. +Across the road was an orchard, roughly fenced in; beside it one of the +picturesque Swiss peasant houses--all steps, and queer old galleries, +from which a little tow-headed girl stared out at us in open-eyed +wonder, as we blew the down from the dried dandelions we had pulled +along the way, and questioned if, in our far-off homes, our mothers +wanted us! + +It seemed as though we could descend no farther; and yet, after sweeping +through a valley, a sudden turn would disclose another, far below, to +which this was as a mountain. So down we sped the whole day long; once +by a frightfully-narrow zigzag road, the worst by far of any we had +seen; passing still through the villages so charming in the distance, +but dirty, and full of odors by no means pleasing, as we drew near. At +night we rattled into the paved square before the inn at Brieg, just as +the first drops of a coming shower wet its stones. + +This was evidently something more than a village. The houses were +plastered, instead of being of wood with a rich, burnt-sienna color, +like those we had seen along the road through the day. They were thickly +clustered together, and from their midst rose the four turrets of a +chateau. Our inn was a delightfully-dingy old place. It had been an +Ursuline convent, and abounded in queer, dark passages, rough stone +stairways, and old wooden galleries overlooking the square. One of our +rooms had been a part of the convent chapel, and was still lighted by a +window just beneath the groined roof. Here we braided our hair, and +knotted our ribbons, and dreamed, in the twilight that followed the +rain, of the hopeless ones who had sought comfort in other days within +these walls, and fell asleep at last, knowing full well that the fringe +of many an old prayer was still caught and held in the arches high over +our heads. We walked up through the town the next morning, to the +beginning of the Simplon Pass. Somewhere in the narrow streets we passed +the old chateau, and pressed our faces against the bars of a gate, in +order to gain some idea as to the domestic economy of the family which +had bestowed upon Brieg its air of importance. But the chateau had +degenerated into a brewery, and the court-yard was filled with old +carts, clumsy and broken. + +Farther up the hill the door of a little chapel stood invitingly open, +waiting for stray worshippers, or a chance-burdened heart (for even so +far away as Brieg, hearts do grow heavy, I doubt not). Something in its +narrow, whitewashed poverty touched our sympathies. It is rare indeed in +these countries to find a chapel without at least some votive offering +to make it beautiful in the eyes of the simple people: here was only a +crucifix, and we pleased ourselves with the fancy that when the ships +come in that we sent out as children--laden with hopes that were to be +bartered for treasures--we would return, and hang the walls with +pictures, and make the whole place wonderful in the eyes that had seen +only its bareness. The shower the night before had laid the dust, and +the drive that morning was most enjoyable. Following the course of the +noisy Rhone, we reached Sierre at noon, where we left the carriages with +regret, and took the railway train to Martigny. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +AMONG THE EVERLASTING HILLS. + + The quaint inn.--The Falls of the Sallenches, and + the Gorge de Trient.--Shopping in a Swiss + village.--A mule ride to Chamouni.--Peculiarities + of the animals.--Entrance to the + village.--Egyptian mummies lifted from the + mules.--Rainy days.--Chamois.--The Mer de + Glace.--"Look out of your window."--Mont + Blanc.--Sallenches.--A diligence ride to + Geneva.--Our little old woman.--The clownish + peasant.--The fork in the road.--"Adieu." + + +OUR hotel here at Martigny, was even more suggestive of romance than the +one at Brieg. It had been a monastery, and was an old, yellow-washed +structure facing the street, with a rambling garden surrounded by high +walls, clinging to it in the rear. Low, dark rooms, with bare, unpainted +floors, like the waves of the sea in smoothness, were given to some of +our party, while Mrs. K. and I were consigned again, with singular +appropriateness, to what had been the chapel. Its windows overlooked the +straggling, half-dead trees, and bare, hard-baked earth of the open +space before the door, which was always being crossed by strings of +mules ornamented with bright saddle-cloths, and still further with the +ubiquitous tourist arrayed in every known costume of the period. +Village girls, too, passed under the trees, knitting as they went, and +horrible creatures afflicted with the _goitre_--that curse of this +region--which we met at every turn now. + +To gain the long, low refectory where we dined, or to pass from one room +to another, necessitated crossing the brick-paved cloisters, upon which +all the doors of the second story opened. Here a row of columns +encircled a narrow, inner court-yard--so narrow as to be nothing more +than a slit in the walls, yet wide enough to allow the shimmering +sunlight to drop down upon the vines twined around the columns, and +light the whole dingy interior into a weird, strange beauty. + +We rode out to the Falls of the Sallenches,--one of the mist veils left +hanging from many of these Swiss mountains by the water-sprites,--and +penetrated the Gorge de Trient upon the shaky gallery that follows its +windings; wandered about and beyond the town; stole into an old church, +and brought away the memory of a lovely virgin face; and haunted the +dingy shops in the vain hope of making a few necessary purchases. These +shops were not unlike our New England country stores in their combined +odors and confused incapabilities. Behind the counters, or more likely +sitting in the doorway with the inevitable blue knitting in hand, were +old women, of hard, baked-apple faces, whose ideas of the luxuries of a +woman's wardrobe were so far below what we considered its necessaries, +that we parted in mutual surprise, to say the least, and without gain on +either side. + +Sabbath morning, English church service was held in the parlor of one of +the hotels; after which a clergyman in gown and bands discoursed from +the text, "And there shall be no more sea,"--a peculiarly comforting +hope to some of us. + +Monday morning, we mounted the horses and mules waiting in dejected +impatience before the door, and started upon the long ride of twenty-two +miles to Chamouni by the Tete Noir Pass. A wide, pleasant avenue, shaded +by walnut trees, led out of the town; after which we began to ascend the +gently-sloping mountain-sides, passing occasional villages, and besieged +by beggars and venders of fruit, as usual. Indeed, these beggars are so +constant in their attendance and importunity that one forgets to mention +them, unless recalling flies and similar swarming annoyances. + +The scenery, as we went on, was often grand, always interesting; the sky +overcast, but at times the clouds, drifting apart, disclosed peaks or +"needles" so far above the mountains about us as to seem a revelation of +heaven. The path was treacherous and rough--skirting precipices, +descending in rocky steps or slippery mire, and crossing mountain +streams by narrow, insecure bridges. Single file is the invariable rule +in all these mountain excursions, and after a time the isolations of +this mode of travelling adds to its wearisomeness. Solitude is +delightful; but as some one has said, "How pleasant it is to have a +friend near by to whom you may remark, 'How delightful is solitude!'" + +As you follow the windings of the narrow, steep path, you have a choice +between addressing the back of the one who precedes you, and throwing a +remark over your shoulder to those who come after. Involuntarily you +fall to studying the curves of the former, and are utterly indifferent +to the fact that the latter are probably meditating upon the intricacies +of your back hair. Mule-riding is conducive to grace of neither soul nor +body; still you know you are not making such a spectacle of yourself as +did the woman just passed--who twisted about in the saddle as though +worked along by rotary motion. Perhaps not. + +As you leave the villages to plunge into the woods, the flies swarm like +beggars; and it is only when the guides have cut boughs from the trees, +which you wave before you, wickedly suggesting palm branches, that you +can proceed with tolerable comfort, and without the fear of an +unexpected toss in the air, as one kick after another runs down the +line. + +Each horse or mule has his own slight peculiarities of habit and +disposition. I recall one whose inordinate curiosity led him to walk +always upon the verge of the precipices, so that the rider's feet +overhung the frightful depths. Murray says it is best to allow these +animals to choose their own paths. But to hang suspended between heaven +and earth at the mercy of a strap and a mule, will shake one's faith, +even in Murray. + +My horse this day was possessed of the dreamy, melancholy nature of a +poet, with the attendant lack of ambition. Every time we wound +funereally through a village, he would walk deliberately to the +mounting-steps, and wait most suggestively. Indeed, an air of +abstraction characterized all his movements; even when, as we approached +these villages, raising his head, he would seem to sniff the odors of +Araby the Blest; which was a mistake, a delusion of his fancy shared by +none of the others of the party. That he was without pride I must +confess. No stable did we pass so poor, none so mean, that he was +ashamed to pause and offer to enter with meek obdurateness. + +Poetic as was his temperament, his appetites were developed in a +remarkable degree. Once upon a narrow bridge we met two walking +haystacks, out from which peered great, blue eyes. If the size of his +mouth had corresponded at all to his desires, they would have vanished +from sight in a twinkling; as it was, they barely escaped. Whether or +not insatiable thirst is an attribute of a poet, I do not know; but each +stream which crossed the path,--and the whole country seemed +liquidizing,--each drinking-trough beside the way,--and to my excited +imagination they seemed to form an unbroken line,--was an irresistible +temptation. It was only by shouting, "Yeep! Yeep!" in staccato chorus, +and vigorously applying the palm branches, thus engaging his attention +and diverting his thoughts into less watery channels, that we succeeded +in making any progress whatever. Under this disciplinary process his +nature was at last so far subdued that he would have passed the ocean +itself without a sigh, I am sure. + +There was a rest of an hour at the Tete Noir inn at noon, shut in by the +firs, and rocks, and mountains, then we went on to Argentiere, where we +gladly exchanged the horses and mules for some low, open carts with a +couple of villagers in blue blouses for drivers. In these we +accomplished the remaining three or four miles, and made a triumphal +entry into Chamouni. + +It was late in the afternoon when we crawled up the narrow, thronged +street to the Hotel Royal, from which the English, French, and American +flags were flying. The clouds had dropped lower and lower, until a fine +mist was beginning to deepen into rain, and the guides and tourists +detained in the village fairly jostled each other at the intersection of +the two principal streets, which seemed to form the village Exchange. +The mire of the streets was thickly stamped with hoof-prints and the +marks from the nails that stud the shoe-soles of the mountain climbers. +Line after line of doleful looking objects, which might prove Egyptian +mummies when unwrapped, were being lifted from still more sorry looking +beasts before the door of the hotel, and assaying to mount the steps, +with a stiffness and angularity of movement in which we all sympathized. + +Indeed, after dinner, when a bright fire was lighted in the long _salon_ +where the various parties gathered to read, write, look over +stereoscopic views, or chat among themselves, it was amusing, as well as +pitiable to observe the abortive attempts at ease and flexibility as +these individuals crossed the polished floor, to hear the groans +smothered to sighs as they resumed their seats. "Mules!" whispered the +girls, nudging each other, and mindful of the delight which misery is +said to find in company. + +All the next day the rain dripped down upon the village from the heavy +clouds that hid the mountains. Everybody improved the opportunity to +write letters, or yawned over the books scattered about the _salon_. +Among them was a well-thumbed copy of "Artemus Ward, His Book." At the +foot of each page the local allusions of the jokes were explained, I +remember. Out in the street, umbrellas were dodging about from one shop +to another. These rainy days, though a loss to the guides, are harvest +times for the shopkeepers. Photographs and stereoscopic views of the +mountains, the glaciers, and daring climbers hanging on by their +eyelids, abound here, with any amount of wood and chamois (?) horn +carving and crystal ornaments. Speaking of chamois-horn, if you expect +to see in Switzerland--as you do in geographies--chamois perched upon +every crag, preparatory to bounding from peak to peak, you will be +grievously disappointed. Not a chamois will greet your eyes. We +passed--I have forgotten where--a pen in which, by paying a certain sum, +we might look upon a veritable live chamois; but we had no desire to see +the incarnation of liberty thus degraded. + +We waited two days for the uplifting of the clouds, making, in the mean +time, an excursion up the Montanvert to overlook the Mer de Glace--which +is not a sea, but a river of ice, like all the glaciers that have worked +themselves down into these valleys. We retired one night with the cloud +curtains spread low over our heads; the next morning a voice from +outside of our door called, "Look out of your window." We sprang up, +seized the cord of the shutters, and behold! a new heaven and new earth! +Every vestige of cloud was gone. The mountains were bathed in sunlight, +vivid green were the peaks before us, which had never met our gaze until +now, while behind the nearest, against the deep blue of the summer sky, +rose the three vast white steps which lead heavenward, the highest of +which men call Mont Blanc. All that morning, as we descended from the +valley of Chamouni to Sallenches, we turned continually to look back; +and still, white and beautiful, but growing less in the distance, rose +the triple domes. + +We had taken a carriage to Sallenches: here we find places in the open +diligence for Geneva. We pause in the first village through which we +pass, where a knot of people gathers about a round little old woman. She +wears a wide-rimmed hat over her neat frilled cap, and carries another +upon her arm. Her waist is dimly defined by the strings of a voluminous +apron, and her mind entirely distracted by the cares attendant upon the +disposal of a cotton bag, a wicker basket, an old umbrella, and a box, +which half a dozen men seize upon with clumsy hands, in good-natured +officiousness, and thrust into the baggage compartment, while the women +and children press about her, kissing the rough, ruddy cheeks, and +uttering what we are sure must be blessings--odds and ends of which +float up to us. Evidently the little, old woman is going a journey. +Aided by a dozen rough, helpful hands, she climbs the ladder to her +place beside us, with a deprecatory though cheerful "_Bon jour_" to us +all, subsiding into a corner, where she is immediately submerged as her +belongings are showered down upon her; last of all a crumpled letter is +tossed into her lap. + +The driver mounts to his place; she leans over; a perfect gust of +blessings, and kisses, and adieus follow us, as with a crack of the whip +the horses spring away, and we leave the village far behind. + +Suddenly--for we have turned away our faces--the little old woman's hand +is plunged into the cotton bag under our feet. We venture to look +around. The tears have gone; her face beams like the sun, as she brings +out of the depths a couple of eggs. Another dive, and she emerges with a +piece of bread. A pinch of salt is added from the basket, and her +breakfast is complete. She hospitably offers a share to each of us. We +decline; and as a shadow dims the brightness of her face, Katie adds +quickly,-- + +"We have had two breakfasts already." + +The little old woman rolls her round, blue eyes to heaven, with a pious +ejaculation. Such lavish extravagance is beyond her comprehension. + +"That is like you rich people," she says. "We are only too happy if the +good God sends us _one_." And she relapses into a wondering silence. + +"Does madame travel far?" we venture presently. + +"Ah, yes." And she shakes her head slowly. Words cannot express the +distance, it is so great. + +"But she has been this way before?" we go on. + +"No, never before." And again the round, blue eyes seek heaven, and +again a deep sigh follows the words. She has finished her lunch, and, +diving under our feet, emerges after a time with a box, which, opened, +discloses a small store of peppermints. This she offers with some +hesitation, and we each hasten to accept one, her countenance beaming +more and more as they disappear. "Given to hospitality," the little old +woman has been, we know. + +When the box is with difficulty replaced, the string of the bag drawn, +the basket arranged to her satisfaction, the umbrella placed at a +pleasing angle, she balances herself upon the edge of the seat, and +glances fearfully from side to side as we swing along the smooth road. +Once, when the wheel passes over a stone, she seems to murmur a prayer. + +"Madame is not afraid?" we say. + +"O, very much. These diligences are most dangerous." And now she is +glancing over her shoulder at a rocky wall of mountains which follows +the road at a distance. "They might fall." And she shudders with the +thought. We assure her that it is impossible; but she has heard of a +rock falling upon a diligence, and thinks it was upon this road. And all +the horror of the fearful catastrophe is depicted upon her face. +Gradually we learn that the little old woman has never travelled in a +diligence before; that she has never before made any journey, in fact. +For forty years she has kept the house of the _cure_ in her native +village. Now, she tells us with a sigh, and uplifted eyes, he has +"become dead," and she is obliged to seek a home elsewhere among +strangers. Here she turns away her eyes, which grow dim as her smile, +and for a moment forgets her fears. + +We are approaching a village. She hastily searches her basket and brings +out the crumpled letter which had been thrown into her lap. As we dart +through the narrow street and across an open square, she leans out, +utters a word in a sharp, excited tone, and, to our surprise, throws the +letter far out into the dust of the street. An idle lounger in the +square starts at her voice, runs heavily across the street, and picks it +up. She sinks back, all cheerful smiles again. She has chanced upon the +very man to whom the letter was addressed. + +The dust rolls up from the great wheels. She exchanges the hat upon her +head for the one over her arm, covering the former carefully with a +corner of her apron. This, she tells us, as she arranges the second +upon her head, she was accustomed to wear when she picked vegetables of +a morning in the garden of the good _cure_. And the sighs return with +the recollection of her master. + +The day wears on with heat and sifting dust. By and by, at another +village, a filthy, dull-faced peasant clambers up the ladder and +stumbles into a vacant place. We shrink away from him in disgust. Our +little old woman only furtively draws aside her neat petticoats. Soon +she engages him in conversation. We see her lean far forward with +intense, questioning gaze upon the distance where he points with +dirt-begrimed finger. Then with a sigh which seems to come from the +baggage compartment beneath us, so very deep and long-drawn it is, she +turns to us. She, too, points to a range of hills, very dark and gloomy +now, for they are covered with woods, and the shadow of a cloud lies +upon them. + +"It is there, beyond the mountains, I am going;" and the shadow of the +cloud has fallen upon her face. All the sunshine has faded out of it. +Then, with something warmer, brighter than any sunshine gleaming in her +eyes, she adds, "But the good God takes care of us wherever we go." + +We have reached a fork in the road. There is no village, no house even, +in sight. Why, then, do we pause? The ladder is raised. + +[Illustration: "Evidently the little old woman is going a journey." Page +195.] + +"It must be for me!" gasps the little old woman, casting one bewildered +glance over to where the shadows are creeping, and then calmly gathering +together her possessions. We grasp the hands she extends, we pour out +confused, unintelligible blessings. Is it the dust which blinds our +eyes? Even the clownish peasant stumbles down the ladder, and lifts out +her box. The driver remounts. The whip cracks. We lean far out. We wave +our hands. Again the dust fills our eyes so that our sight for a moment +is dim, as we dash away, leaving her sitting there alone upon her box, +where the two roads meet. But beyond the hills where the shadows rested, +we know that the sun still shines for our little old woman whose master +"became dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +LAST DAYS IN SWITZERLAND. + + Geneva.--Calvin and jewelry.--Up Lake + Leman.--Ouchy and Lausanne.--"Sweet + Clarens."--Chillon.--Freyburg.--Sight-seers.--The + Last Judgment.--Berne and its bears.--The town + like a story.--The Lake of + Thun.--Interlaken.--Over the Wengern Alp.--The + Falls of Giessbach.--The Brunig Pass.--Lucerne + again. + + +WE dashed up to the hotel upon one of the fine quays at Geneva, and +descended from the open diligence with all the appearance of travellers +who had crossed a sandy desert. There is an air of experienced travel +which only dust can impart. + +The most charming sight in the city, to us, was our own names upon the +waiting letters here. In truth, there are no sights in Geneva. Tourists +visit the city because they have been or are going elsewhere, beyond. If +they pause, it is to rest or buy the jewelry so far-famed. To be sure +the view from almost any window opening upon the blue Rhone is pleasing, +crossed by various bridges as it is, one of which touches Rousseau's +Island. But our heads by this time were as full of views as that of a +Boston woman. + +Calvinists and Arminians alike visit the Cathedral, and sit for a moment +in the old reformer's chair, or at least look upon the canopy of carved +wood from beneath which he used to preach. There are few monuments here. +The interior is bare, and boarded into the stiff pews, which belong by +right and the fitness of things, not to these grand, Gothic cathedrals, +but to the Puritan meeting-houses, where we gather less to breathe a +prayer than to sit solemnly apart and listen to a denunciation of each +other's sins. + +It is a little remarkable that the city where Calvin made and enforced +such rigid laws against luxury and the vanities of the world should, in +these latter days, be noted for the manufacture of jewelry. But so it +is; and to walk the streets and gaze in at the shop windows would turn +the head of any but the strongest-minded woman. Two or three addresses +had been given us of manufactories where we could be served at more +reasonable rates than at the grand shops. We climbed flight after flight +of dingy stone stairs, in dingier buildings, to reach them, and found +ourselves at last in little dark rooms, almost filled by a counter, a +desk, and a safe or two. Certainly no one would think of looking for +beautiful things here! But we had become tolerably accustomed to such +places in Paris, and were not at all surprised when one shallow drawer +after another was produced from behind the counter, and a blaze of gems +and bewildering show of delicately executed gold work met our eyes. If +you care for a _souvenir_ only, there are pretty little finger-rings +encircled by blue forget-me-nots in enamel, which are a specialty of +Geneva. But if you possess the means and disposition, you may gratify +the most extravagant desires, and rival Solomon in magnificence. + +Twice a day steamers leave Geneva to ascend the lake. It was a bright, +summer afternoon when we embarked from the pier beyond our hotel, and +steamed away past the villages that lie along its edge. Among them is +Coppet, the home of Madame de Stael, the towers of which rise up behind +the town. The deck of the steamer was alive with tourists. One party, +from meeting at every turn, rests even yet in memory; the ladies stout, +red-faced, and showily dressed, with immense "charms" pendent from their +_chatelaines_--shovels, tongs, and pokers, _life-size_--the result of a +sojourn at Geneva, doubtless. + +For some time after leaving the city, we could look back upon Mont +Blanc, white and beautiful, rising above the dark mountains, and lying +close against the sky blue as the waters of the lake. The likeness of a +recumbent figure of Napoleon--the head and shoulders alone,--in the garb +of a grenadier was startling, haunting us even after it had changed +again to a snow-white mountain. As though the hero slept, like those in +German legends, until his country called him to awake and lead its hosts +to battle. + +At Ouchy we leave the steamer, where the gardens of the grand hotel +Beaurivage come down to meet us. How delightful are these Swiss hotels! +with their pleasant gardens, many balconies, wide windows, and the +flying flags outside; and within, scrupulous neatness, and even elegant +appointments. The rooms vary in size rather than in degree of comfort, +there being none of the sudden leaps or plunges between luxury and utter +discomfort, found in so many hotels--elsewhere. The floors are bare, the +strips of wood forming squares or diamonds, waxed, and highly polished. +A rug here and there invites bare feet. A couple of neatly-spread beds +stand foot to foot upon one side of the room, sometimes with silk or +lace coverlets, but with always the _duvet_, or large down pillow, at +the foot. There is no stint of toilet arrangements. A lounge and +easy-chairs tempt to idleness and repose; and a round table, of generous +proportions, awaits the chocolate, rolls, fresh butter, and amber honey, +when the last curl is in order, the last ribbon knotted, and you have +rung for your breakfast. Of course the rooms vary in degree of +ornamentation. The walls are often beautifully tinted or frescoed, and +the furniture elegant; but the neatness and comfort among these summer +hotels are almost universal. Sometimes, in one corner, or built into the +wall, stands the high, white porcelain stove, so like a stray monument +that has forgotten its inscription, and is sacred to many memories; and +the long, plate-glass windows, swinging back, open often upon a balcony +and a charming view. No wonder that half the hotels in Switzerland are +named _Bellevue_. + +An omnibus bears you from Ouchy, which is simply the port of Lausanne, +back into the city, past pretty country residences, walled in, over the +gates of which the owners have placed suggestive names: "My Rest;" +"Heart's Desire;" "Good Luck;" "Beautiful Situation;" anything which +fancy or individual taste may dictate. Of Lausanne I recall little but +an endless mounting and descending of stairs. The city is built upon a +hill, intersected by ravines, which accounts for this peculiar method of +gaining many streets from others above and below. We made but a hurried +visit. It was market day, and ugly women, old and young, were sitting +upon the sidewalks in the narrow streets, knitting, with the yarn held +over the fore-finger of the left hand, and selling fruits and vegetables +between times. In the honey market the air fairly buzzed and swarmed; +yet still these women knit, and gossiped, and bargained complacently, +unmindful of the bees in their bonnets. From Ouchy we made an excursion +to the head of the lake. It is a short voyage of two hours to +Villeneuve, the last town. Clouds hid the distant mountains; but those +lesser and nearer, upon our right, as we went on, were bare, and broken, +and rocky, contrasting strangely with the gently swelling slopes upon +the other side, covered with vineyards, and with quiet little villages +at their feet. Each of these villages has its romantic association; or, +failing in that, a grand hotel to attract summer visitors. Vevay boasts +the largest hotel, but nothing more. Just beyond Vevay is "Clarens, +sweet Clarens," the willows of which dip into the lake. Here, if +Rousseau and Byron are to be believed, Love was born; possibly in some +one of the mean little houses which border the narrow streets. + +Soon after leaving Clarens, the gray, stained tower of Chillon rises +from the water, near enough to the shore to be reached by a bridge. With +the "little isle" and its three tall trees marked by the prisoner as he +paced his lonely cell, ends the romance of the lake. Poets have sung its +beauties, but Lucerne had stolen away our hearts, and we gazed upon the +rocks, and vineyards, and villages, with cold, critical eyes. It was +only later, when the summer twilight fell as we lingered upon the +balcony before our windows at Ouchy that we acknowledged its charm. The +witching sound of music came up from the garden below. Upon the silver +lake before us, the lateen sails, like the white wings of great +sea-birds, gleamed out from the darkness; the tiny wavelets rippled and +plashed softly against the breakwater; and where the clouds had parted +overhead, a horned moon hung low in the sky, while the mountains +resolved themselves into shadows or other waiting clouds. + +There was a little church between Ouchy and Lausanne, gained by crossing +the fields, where we remembered the Sabbath day, and joined in the +church service led by an English clergyman. These Sabbaths are like +green spots now in memory,--restful, cool, refreshing, and pleasant to +recall,--when the world, and all haste and perplexity of strange sights, +and sounds, and ways, were rolled off like a heavy burden, while we +gathered, a little company of strangers in a strange land, yet of one +family, to unite in the familiar prayers, and hymns, and grand old +chants. + +Monday morning the "American cars" bore us away from Lausanne to +Freyburg. But such a caricature are they upon our railway carriages, +that we were inclined to resent the appellation. Low, bare, box-like, +with only three or four seats upon each side, they hardly suggested the +original. + +We had chosen the route through Freyburg that we might visit the +suspension bridge, and hear the celebrated organ. The city clings to the +sides of a ravine after the perverse manner of cities, instead of +spreading itself out comfortably upon level land. So steep is the +declivity that the roofs of some of the houses form the pavement for +the street above. At the foot of the ravine flows a river crossed by +bridges, and the towns-people have for centuries descended from the +summit on one side to climb to that upon the other, until some humane +individual planned and perfected this suspension bridge,--the longest in +the world save one,--which is thrown across the chasm. In order to test +its strength, when completed, the inhabitants of the city, or a portion +of them, gathered in a mass, with artillery and horses, _and stood upon +it_! Then they marched over it, preceded by a band of music, with all +the dignitaries of the town at the head of the column. Since it did not +bend or break beneath their weight, it is deemed entirely safe. + +Through the most closely-built portion of the city runs the old city +wall, with its high, cone-capped watch-towers, and the narrow, crooked, +and often steep streets are very quaint. The sense of satisfaction which +returns with the memory of these streets is perhaps partly due to the +fact, that the girls of the party surveyed them from above great squares +of gingerbread bought at a _patisserie_ near the station, and ate as +they strolled through the town over the pavings of these crooked ways. +The bread of dependence is said to be exceedingly bitter; but the +gingerbread of Freyburg is uncommonly sweet, in memory. + +When the suspension bridge has been crossed and commented upon, every +one strikes a bee-line to the Cathedral, which rises conspicuously above +its surroundings. It would be very amusing to watch the professional +sight-seers at all these places, if one did not belong to the +fraternity, which makes of it quite another affair. There is no air of +pleasuring about them; no placid expression of content and +sweet-to-do-nothing. They seldom are found meandering along the tortuous +streets, the milk of human kindness moistening every feature, beams of +satisfaction irradiating every countenance. They never spend long hours +wandering among the cloisters of old cathedrals, or dream away days by +storied shrines, as friends at home, who read of these places, fondly +imagine. By no means. The sight-seer is a man of business. He has +undertaken a certain amount of work, to be done in a given time. He will +do or die. And since it is a serious matter, involving doubt, he wears +an appropriately solemn and preoccupied expression of countenance. He +darts from point to point. He climbs stairs as though impatient Fame +waited for him at the top. His emotions of wonder, admiration, or +delight, must bestir themselves. He drives to the first point of +interest, strikes a bee-line to the second, cuts every corner between +that and the third, and then, consulting his watch, desires to know if +there is anything more, and experiences his only moment of satisfaction +when the reply is in the negative. And the most remarkable part of all +is, that he goes abroad to enjoy himself. + +But even if one is less ambitious, if you are so fortunate as to be +naturally indolent, and to delight to dwell in the shadow of dreams, you +will shake off dull sloth here. You live and move in a bustling crowd. +Every storied spot is thronged with visitors. Far from musing by +yourself, you can at best but follow in the wake of the crowd, with the +drone of an endless story from the lips of a stupid guide in your ears, +bringing only confusion and weariness. + +A notice upon the door of the Cathedral informed us that the organ would +not be played until evening. We held a council of war, and decided to go +on. Just over our heads, as we stood before the entrance, was a +representation of the Last Judgment, cut in the stone, in which the +good, very scantily attired, and of most self-satisfied countenances, +trotted off after St. Peter, who carried the father of all keys, to the +door of a castle representing heaven, while the poor wicked were borne +away in a Swiss basket, strapped upon the back of a pig-headed devil, to +a great pot over a blazing fire, which a little imp was vigorously +blowing up with a pair of bellows. The wicked seeming to outnumber the +good (this was designed many centuries ago), and the pot not being large +enough to hold them all, the surplus were thrust into the jaws of a +patient crocodile near by. Seated in an arm-chair, above all this, the +devil looked down with an expression of entire satisfaction. + +The interior of the Cathedral was in no way remarkable. In the choir +(which you know, perhaps, is not a place where girls stand in their best +bonnets to sing on Sundays, but the corner of these great cathedrals in +which the church service is held) were some fine stained glass windows; +but even here, horrible monkeys and hideous animal figures, life-size, +were cut from the wood, and made to stand or crouch above the stalls +where the priests sit. Those old ecclesiastic artists must have believed +in a personal devil, who assumed many forms. + +A threatened shower hastened our steps to the station some time before +the arrival of the train, which seemed to come and go without regard to +the hour appointed. While waiting, we read the advertisements framed and +hanging upon the walls, of hotels, shops, &c. One of the latter, in a +triumph of English, ran,-- + + WOOD CARWINGS; + CHOOSE AS NOWHERE ELSE. + +We reached Berne before night, and drove to the Hotel ----. If it could +by some happy chance have been turned inside out, how comfortable we +might have been! The exterior was most inviting. A German waiter of +Irish face, who had a polyglot manner of speech, difficult to be +understood, showed us to our rooms; and the _table d'hote_, to which we +descended an hour later, was made up of an uncommon array of +prim-visaged individuals. Dickens's Mr. Chadband, in a very stiff, white +neckcloth, was my _vis-a-vis_. I looked every moment for his lips to +open, and--"Wherefore air we gathered here, my friends?" to issue forth. + +The guide-book had informed us that the greatest attraction of Berne to +strangers was the fine view of the Bernese Alps to be gained from here; +but a curtain of cloud hung before them during all our stay. Still we +were interested in the queer old city, with the second story of the +houses, through many of the streets, projecting over the sidewalk, +forming gloomy arcades, and bright red cushions in the window seats, +where pretty girls sat and sewed, and watched the passers down below. I +remember it rained, and there was a market held out in the square before +the hotel windows in the early morning, where the umbrellas made every +old woman to dwell in her own tent for the time. When it was over, and +the rain had ceased to fall, we waited in front of the old clock-tower +before driving out through the pleasant suburbs, with market women, +baskets on their arms, stray children, idle loungers, and alert +tourists, for the feeble puppet-show heralded by the asthmatic crow of a +rheumatic cock. Of course it was a procession of bears. Everything in +Berne is, or has to do with, a bear, since the city was founded upon the +spot where somebody killed a bear. Bears surmount most of the stone +fountains in the streets; they ornament the monuments erected to heroes. +Cut from wood, they are offered for sale as _souvenirs_; stuffed, they +are exhibited at the zoological gardens; and, to crown all, government +supports in luxury a whole family of bruins. We left the carriage upon +the Nydeck bridge, to look down into the immense circular basin where +they are kept. It must be a dull life, even for a bear. They are ugly +creatures, with reddish fur, and spend their time climbing a leafless +semblance of a tree, with no object but to descend again, or in sitting +up to beg for biscuits of visitors. So universal has the custom of +begging become in Switzerland, that even the bears take to it quite +naturally. + +The mountains obstinately refusing to appear, we left Berne for Thun, +passing through a lovely country. Only occasionally did a road appear; +then it would seem to extend for long miles, bordered by immense, +close-planted trees. Neither fences nor hedges were there to divide the +fields; but patches of grain were thrown down anywhere and at any angle. +Potatoes were sown like grass instead of being planted in hills, and +were devoured this year by rot--the worst feature in the landscape. All +through the early summer we had seen hemp growing everywhere. Now it was +cut, and lying outspread upon the ground in odd regularity, an +occasional head only being left to run to seed. + +There was nothing to visit in Thun. But the whole town is like a story. +Not an elegant, high-toned story, to be sure, though a picturesque old +castle and church lifted themselves aristocratically above the more +humble town. The streets are narrow, and as picturesque as they are +dirty, with a sidewalk sometimes above the first, low, projecting story +of the houses. + +It is a mile from the town to the lake of the same name. Close by the +steamer landing, where we were to embark for Newhaus, is the hotel +Bellevue. Within the garden enclosure were several little _chalets_; one +to serve as reading-room, another as _salle a manger_, while a third, +beyond the pond, where swan were sailing, displayed Swiss wares for +sale. Here we lunched and rested for an hour, before going up the lake. +It is a voyage of an hour and a half to its head, past beautiful villas +upon one side, and precipitous rocks upon the other. Once landed at +Newhaus,--where there was not a _new house_ that we could see, but only +a scanty collection of little huts,--we searched about, with the mud +ankle deep, among the crowd of waiting vehicles, for the omnibus which +was to bear us the two miles and a half to Interlaken and the hotel Jung +Frau. If you recall your geography lessons, you will perhaps know that +the two lakes, Thun and Brienz, are separated by a strip of land, upon +which is this village of Interlaken. It is hardly more than one long +street, with green fields and a row of trees upon one side, and a line +of houses standing back upon the other. In full view from the windows of +these summer hotels, when the sky is clear, rises the Jung Frau, between +two great mountain peaks. This is the only _sight_ in Interlaken, and +yet the town throngs with visitors. It must be intolerably hot here at +times, lying low among the mountains as does this valley. In the fields, +behind the grand hotels, is a long, low Kursaal, a rustic affair, with a +wide piazza. You may lunch, and read the newspapers; but government has +prohibited the gambling. There are delightful excursions to be made from +here, which accounts, perhaps, for the crowded hotels. And there are +several fine shops, where you may buy all or any of the curiosities for +which the country is well known. + +A rainy day crowded these shops and the hotel parlors, and made a busy +scene the length of the street, which is very like a country road. But +the second morning after our arrival, we rose early, to prepare for an +excursion over the Wengern Alp. The Jung Frau, hidden the day before, +appeared in full view with the rolling away of the clouds, and we +desired to approach nearer to the shy maiden. All the listlessness of +the day before was past. As we stepped out of the little _chalet_, in +the hotel garden, where--the hotel being full--we had slept in a room +only vacated for the night, with a pair of immense red slippers behind +the door, and Madame's gowns hanging from pegs on the wall, everybody +was astir. More than one party was sipping their scalding coffee as we +entered the hotel breakfast-room, while, under the great trees outside, +guides and saddled horses waited impatiently. + +When we had tied on our wide-rimmed hats, and gathered our shawls, we +found a roomy carriage, an open landau, waiting for us at the side-door +of the hotel. We drove quickly out of the town, followed by and +following other carriages, until we formed a long procession by the time +we had reached the valley of Lauterbrunnen and began the ascent. It is a +deep, dark valley, shut in by innumerable overhanging rocks, from which +thread-like waterfalls hang suspended in air, or are lost in spray. +Hardly does the sun seem to penetrate its depth, and an indescribable +gloom, as well as chill, pervades the place. From a few scattered +cottages women and children emerged to follow the carriages, begging +mutely or offering fruits, while at one point a man awaited our approach +to awake the echoes with an Alpine horn. + +After an hour we reach Lauterbrunnen, and leave the carriage at the door +of an inn, where a crowd bargains and waits for guides and horses. We +swell the number. When we are served, we mount to our places, and file +out of the straggling village, turning before we reach the Staubach +Falls--a stream of silvery spray that never touches earth, but swings +and waves in mid-air. The ascent grows more and more steep. The recent +rain has added to the icy streams, which filter constantly from snows +above, and the horses sink in the mire, or slide and slip in a way by no +means reassuring. Often the path is mounted by steps of slippery logs; +when added to this is a precipice upon one side, we hold our breath--and +pass in safety. We commend each other as we perform feats of valor and +intrepidity which would make our fortune in the ring, we fancy. The +guides, insolent and careless, stroll on in advance, leaving the most +timid to their own devices. Presently, as we enter a perfect slough of +despond, we see a man before us scraping the mire with a hoe vigorously, +as we come in sight. + +"You should give this poor man something," says one of the guides. "He +keeps the road in order." I wish you might have seen the _orderly_ road! + +Suddenly we gain a point where the land spreads out into green knolls +before us and on either side--a strip of almost level verdure, with, on +one hand, peak on peak, rising till they touch heaven; upon the other, +the Jung Frau, draped in snow. It seems so near, so very near,--though +the land drops between us and it into a deep ravine, and the snow-clad +peaks and needles are a mile away,--I almost thought I might guide my +horse to the verge of the chasm, and reaching out, gather the snow in my +hand. Across the summit, the clouds, white as itself, drifted +constantly, hiding it completely at times. It had been a tiresome climb +of two hours and a half, and we were glad to rest an hour before +descending. As we turned the corner of the Jung Frau inn, having +dismounted from our horses, we were met by our ubiquitous, stout friends +of Lake Leman memory, to whom, I presume, we seemed equally omnipresent. +_Table d'hote_ was served here, one party following another, until the +long table was full. Occasionally the noise of an avalanche, like the +sound of distant thunder, aroused and startled us, and caused us to +vacate every seat. But though the mountain appeared to be so near, these +avalanches, which sweep with tremendous force, carrying tons of ice and +snow, seen from this distance, seemed like nothing more than tiny +mountain streams let loose. + +From the inn, we mounted and went on half a mile, before reaching the +summit and beginning the uncomfortable descent. We thought every bad +place must be the worst, as the horses slid down the slippery stones, or +descended the log steps with a peculiar jerky motion, suggesting +imminent and unpleasant possibilities. But, after fording torrents +swollen by the rain, crossing narrow, treacherous bridges, sliding down +inclined planes, and whole flights of stairs, the guides informed us +that we should reach a _dangerous place_ presently! + +When, finally, we came to it, we were quite willing to dismount, and +make our way down over the rocks for a mile, trusting to our own feet, +and beset continually by women and children, who appeared most +unexpectedly at every turn, to thrust little baskets of fruit or flowers +into our hands. The very youngest child toddled after us with a withered +field-flower, if nothing more. So early do they begin to learn the trade +of a lifetime. + +We entered Grindelwald late in the afternoon. The shadows of night, +which fall earlier in these valleys than elsewhere, were already +gathering. The few, scattered cottages, walled in by the everlasting +hills, with the snow-covered Wetterhorn in full view, and the glacier +behind it, wore a cheerless and gloomy air in the quick-coming twilight. +Train after train of tourists, upon horses and mules, or dragging weary +feet, descended from among the mountains, to find carriages here and +hasten away. Only these arrivals and departures gave a momentary life to +the spot. What must it be when the summer sun and the last visitor have +left it? + +We, too, sought out our waiting carriage, and rolled away in the summer +twilight, down the beautiful road, wide and smooth enough to lead to +more dreadful places than the pleasant valley of Interlaken, where, for +a day at least, was our home. + +The next afternoon, instead of spending the Sabbath here, we decided to +go on to Giessbach, on the Lake of Brienz, to visit the celebrated +falls. We had rested comfortably in the hope of a quiet day in the +little _chalet_, where more permanent arrangements had been made for our +disposal. But the enterprising member of the party, to whom we owed not +a little, in a happy moment of leisure, gave herself to the study of the +guide-book, the result of which was--Giessbach. We gathered our personal +effects together, under the pressure of great excitement and limited +time, reached the little steamer, fairly breathless, and then sat and +waited half an hour for it to move. It was not, however, a tedious time; +for there occurred an incident which engaged our attention. + +"What do you suppose they're going to do with that calf?" asked the boy +of the party, who, like all boys, was of an inquiring turn of mind. +"They've got him into the water, and are poking him with sticks." + +Upon this we all became immensely interested. A calf had fallen into the +water, between the pier and the steamer; but the fruitless efforts made +by everybody, interested or disinterested, were to rescue, not drown, +the creature, as a bystander would have inferred. Suddenly, as his own +struggles carried him away from the wharf and he was about to sink, a +white, delicate hand, bound with rings, and an arm daintily draped, were +thrust out from one of the cabin windows, seized upon the head +disappearing in a final _bob_, and held on until assistance came, when +the poor animal, half dead with fright, was drawn from the water. + +At last the steamer moved away from the wharf, and in an hour or less +the little pier at Giessbach received us. There is a tiny valley, one +hotel, and a series of pretty cascades here. But all these are reached +by a smooth road, winding back upon itself continually, and so steep +that carriages do not ascend it. You must walk, or rather climb it, for +twenty minutes, or accept the disagreeable alternative of being carried +up by two men in a chair, resting on poles. The day was warm; our arms +were weighed down with satchels, &c.; but we pressed on, while, +commenting upon our personal peculiarities in dress, gait, and general +air, as they looked down upon us from the height we almost despaired of +gaining, were the complacent, comfortable souls, who always reach these +desirable places the day before any one else, and, in the freshest +possible toilets, sit, like Mordecai, in the gates. + +It may have been droll to them; it was a most serious matter to us. It +was Saturday afternoon, and each one felt and acted upon the realized +necessity of outstripping his neighbor, in order to secure rooms. +Finally the gentlemen hastened on, our ambition failing with our +strength, and we were happy in finding comfortable quarters awaiting us +when we had gained the hotel at last. + +It was the most delightful little nook imaginable when we were rested +and refreshed. Until then it possessed no charms in our eyes. It is a +little valley, high above the lake, towards which it opens, but shut in +on three sides by precipitous hills. Down the face of one the cascades +fall. Back against another the hotel is built, facing the lake; its +_dependance_, and the inevitable shops for the sale of Swiss +wood-carving and crystals, being ranged along the third side. The whole +place is not larger than a flower-garden of moderate size. + +We were served at our meals by pretty, red-cheeked girls, in charming +Swiss costumes; and when we had been out after dark to see the falls +illuminated in different colors, while the rustic bridges, which span +the cascades at various heights, were crossed by these picturesque +figures, I felt as if we were all part of a travelling show, for whom +this dear little level spot was the stage, and that a vast audience +waited outside, where the walls of hills opened upon the lake, for the +curtain to fall. It was like the Happy Valley of Rasselas, which we left +with regret when the peaceful Sabbath was over. + +Across the lake, at Brienz, Monday morning, a carriage waited to bear us +on, over the Brunig Pass, into the clouds and out again; then down, +down, past village, and lake, and towering hills, resting again at +Sarnen, then on to Lucerne, into which we swept, with tinkling bells and +cracking whip, to find the city gay with streaming flags and flowery +arches, erected for some singing _fete_, but which to us were all signs +of a happy welcoming. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BACK TO PARIS ALONE. + + Coming home.--The breaking up of the party.--We + start for Paris alone.--Basle, and a search for a + hotel.--The twilight ride.--The shopkeeper whose + wits had gone "a wool-gathering."--"Two tickets + for Paris."--What can be the matter now?--'Michel + Angelo's Moses.--Paris at midnight.--The kind + _commissionaire_.--The good French gentleman, and + his fussy little wife.--A search for Miss + H.'s.--"Come up, come up."--"Can women travel + through Europe alone?"--A word about a woman's + outfit. + + +TO dash through the town, along the quay where we had walked so many +times beneath the trees or leaning over the low parapet fed the fishes, +past the two-spired cathedral, the cloisters of which had become so +familiar, to mount the hill and draw up before the door of the Bellevue +again, welcomed by the innkeeper, and greeted with outstretched hands by +"Charles," who had served our chocolate, while familiar faces met us at +every window or upon the stairs, to pull up the shutters, throw wide +open the windows, and drink in the glorious beauty of the scene before +our eyes--all this was delightful, but fleeting, like all earthly joys, +and mixed with pain; for here we were to say "good by." + +Our pleasant party was to break up. The friends in whose care we had +been so long, were off for Germany, and Mrs. K. and I must turn our +faces towards home. We were to renew our early and brief experience in +travelling alone. It had been as limited as our French, which consisted +principally of "_Est-ce que vous avez?_" followed by a pantomimic +display that would have done credit to a professional, and "_Quel est le +prix?_" succeeded by the blankest amazement, since we could seldom, if +ever, understand a reply. + +"Are you afraid?" queried our friends. + +"No; O, no." The state of our minds transcended fear. + +It was a hot day when we took our last view of the lake, as we rode down +the hill from the hotel, past the cathedral, past the shaded promenade +upon the quay, to the station; but we heeded neither the heat nor the +landscape when we were once in the train and on the way. Our hearts were +heavy with grief at parting from friends, our spirits weighed down by +nameless fears. It was a wicked world, we suddenly remembered. Wolves in +sheep's clothing doubtless awaited us at every turn. Roaring lions +guarded every station. We clutched our travelling-bags, umbrellas, and +wraps, with a grasp only attained by grim fate or lone women. Gradually, +however, as the uneventful hours wore away, we forgot that in eternal +vigilance lay our safety, and relaxed our hold. + +We had left Lucerne at noon; at five o'clock we reached Basle. Here we +were to spend the night at the hotel _Les Trois Rois_. Every step of the +way to Paris had been made plain to us by our kind friends. + +"Let me see; the hotel is close by the station?" queried Mrs. K., when +we had left our trunks, as our friends had advised, and followed the +crowd to the sidewalk. + +"Yes," I replied with assurance, "close by, they said; I am sure." + +Accordingly we turned away from the long line of hotel omnibuses backed +up against the curb-stone, to the fine hotels on each side of the +straight avenue, extending as far as the eye could see. Alas! among +their blazing names was no "_Trois Rois_." We read them over and over +again. We even tried to pronounce them. Not a king was there, to say +nothing of _three_. + +In a kind of bewilderment we strayed down the avenue. Might not some one +of the fair dwellings gleaming out from the shrubbery prove the house we +sought? There was a rattle and clatter behind us; a passing omnibus. +Another, and still another followed. Serene faces beamed out upon our +perplexity. A cloud of dust enveloped us as the last rolled cheerfully +by, upon the end of which we read, with staring eyes, "_Les Trois +Rois_." + +"Ah!" gasped Mrs. K. + +"Sure enough," I replied. + +"Why, suppose we take it?" said she, slowly. + +"Suppose we do," I assented, with equal deliberation. But by this time +the little red omnibus was a speck in the distance. + +"At least we can follow it." And we quickened our steps, when, with +almost human perversity, it turned a distant corner, and vanished from +sight. + +Fixing our eyes steadily upon the point of disappearance, we hastened +on, and on, and on! I have a faint recollection of green trees, of +stately houses, of an immense fountain swaying its white arms in the +distance--mirage-like, for we never approached it; of the sun pouring +its fierce rays upon us as we toiled on, with our wraps and satchels +turning to lead in our arms. + +We reached the corner at last. There was no omnibus; no hotel in sight; +only the meeting of half a dozen narrow, crooked streets, crowded with +carriages, and alive with humanity. All settled purpose left us then; +our wits, never very firmly attached, followed. We became completely +demoralized. + +"Suppose you inquire," suggested Mrs. K., after a period of inaction, +during which we were pushed, and jostled, and trampled under foot by the +crowd. + +If I possessed one capability above another, it was that of asking +questions, especially in a strange language. Upon this corner where we +were standing, rose an imposing building, in the open doorway of which +stood a portly gentleman, with a countenance like the setting sun, in +glow and warmth. A heavy mane flowed over his shoulders. Evidently this +was the first of the roaring lions! Taking our lives in our hands, we +approached him. + +"Do you speak English?" I ventured. + +"_Nein_," was his reply, with a shrug of the leonine shoulders. + +I drew a long breath and began again. + +"_Parlez-vous Francais?_" + +His reply to this was as singular as unprecedented. He turned his back +and disappeared up the wide stairs in the rear. + +"This _may_ be foreign politeness," I was beginning, doubtfully, when he +reappeared, accompanied by an intensified counterpart of himself. The +setting sun in the face of this man gave promise of a scorching day. + +"_Parlez-vous Francais, monsieur?_" I began again, when we had bowed and +"_bon-jour_"-ed for some time. + +"_Oui, oui, mademoiselle._" + +Here was an unexpected dilemma. A terrible pause ensued. Then, with an +effort which in some minds would have produced a poem at least, I +attempted to make known the object of our quest. I cannot begin to tell +of the facial contortions which accompanied this sentence, nor of the +ineffable peace which followed its conclusion. It made no manner of +difference that his reply was a jargon of unintelligible sounds. Virtue +is its own reward. One sentence alone I caught, as the indistinguishable +tones flew by. We were to take the first street, and then turn to the +right. + +"What did he say?" asked Mrs. K., when we had _merci_-d ourselves out of +their radiant presences. + +I explained the direction we were to follow. + +"Horrible countenance he had," she remarked, as we pursued our way. + +"O, dreadful," I assented. + +"Nobody knows where he may send us," she continued. + +Sure enough! In our alarm we stopped short in the street, and stared at +each other with horrified countenances. + +"I have heard--" I began. + +"Yes; and so have I," she went on, shaking her head, and expressing by +that gesture most fearful possibilities. + +A bright thought seized me. "He told us to turn to the _right_; we will +turn to the _left_!" And with that happy, womanly instinct, said to +transcend all judgment, _we did_. Strange as it may appear, though we +went on for a long half hour, no "_Trois Rois_" gladdened our eyes. + +Suddenly Mrs. K. struck an attitude. "A fine appearance we shall +present," said she; "two lone women, dusty and heated, our arms full of +baggage, straggling up to a hotel two mortal hours after the arrival of +the train. We'll take a carriage." + +To me this inglorious advent was so distant in prospect that it held no +terrors, nothing of mortification even. "_Les Trois Rois_" had become a +myth, an idea towards which we vainly struggled. + +"If it were only across the street," she went on, rising to the occasion +and warming with the subject, "we would go in a carriage." + +One approached at that moment. We motioned to it _a la Mandarin_, with +our heads, our hands and arms being full. The driver raised his whip and +pointed solemnly into the distance. We turned to gaze, seeing nothing +but the heavens in that direction. When we looked back, he was gone. We +should not like to affirm--we hardly dare suggest--we are sure of +nothing but that he vanished from before our eyes. + +A second appeared in the distance. We began in time. We pawed the air +wildly with our umbrellas. The very satchels and wraps upon our arms +nodded and beckoned. In serene unconsciousness the driver held to his +course. + +"Well!" I exclaimed, indignantly. + +"I should think so," added Mrs. K., with emphasis. + +"Is there anything peculiar, anything unusual in our personal +appearance?" I asked, glancing down upon our dusty appointments. As we +concentrated our energies and belongings for one final effort, a +benignant countenance smiled out upon us from above a _cipher_. We were +storming a private carriage! + +The third attempt was more successful. The driver paused. We requested +him, in English, to take us to "The Three Kings." He only stared and +shook his head. We tried him with "_Les Trois Rois_." He seemed still +more mystified. + +"What can be done with people who do not understand their own language!" +I exclaimed in despair. + +We tried it again with our purest Parisian accent. An inkling of our +meaning pierced his dull understanding. He rolled heavily down from his +seat, and opened the door with the usual "_Oui, oui_." We entered and +were driven away. + +"Do you think he understood you?" queried Mrs. K. + +"No-o." + +"Well, where do you suppose he will take us?" + +"I don't know, and I don't much care," I responded, in desperation. + +We settled back upon the cushions. The peace that follows resignation +possessed our souls. O, the luxury of that jolting, rattling ride, as we +wound in and out among the tortuous streets! A full half hour passed +before the dusky old hotel darkened above us, surmounted by "The Three +Kings" arrayed in Eastern magnificence, and wearing gilded crowns upon +their heads. + +Fate had been propitious. This was our destination, without doubt, +though we had made a grand mistake as to its location. We descended at +the entrance with the air, I trust, of being equal to the occasion. We +calmly surveyed the assembled porters, who hastened to seize our +satchels and wraps. We demanded a room, and inquired the hour of _table +d'hote_, as though we had done the same thing a thousand times before. +Mrs. K. was right; there was a moral support in that blessed carriage. + +_Table d'hote_ over, we strayed into a pretty _salon_ opening from the +_salle a manger_. Both were crowded--over doors and windows, and within +cabinets filling every niche and corner--with quaint specimens of +pottery--pitchers, vases, and jars, ancient enough in appearance to have +graced the domestic establishment of the original "Three Kings." The +glass doors thrown back enticed us upon a long, low balcony, almost +swept by the rushing river below--the beautiful Rhine hastening on to +its hills and vineyards. We leaned over, smitten with sudden +homesickness, and sent a message back to Rolandseck of happy memory. + +With the faint shadows of coming twilight we wandered out into the +square before the hotel. A line of _voitures_ extended down one side, +every one of which was quickened into life at our approach. We paused, +with foot upon the step of the first, for the _carte_ always proffered, +upon which is the number of the driver and the established rate of +fares. He only touched his shiny hat and prepared to gather up his +reins. + +"O, dear!" we said; "this will never do; we must not go." And we +stepped down. The porters upon the hotel steps began to cast inquiring +glances. One or two stray passers added their mite of curiosity, when +the knight-errant, who always breaks a lance for distressed womanhood, +appeared upon the scene. We recognized him at once, though his armor was +only a suit of gray tweed, and he wore a fashionable round-topped hat +for a casque. + +Almost before we knew it, we were seated in the carriage, the _carte_ in +our hands, and were slowly crawling out of the square--for a subdued +snail-pace is the highest point of speed attained by these public +vehicles. + +The memory of Basle is as shadowy, dim, delightful, as was that twilight +ride. Where we were going, we neither knew nor cared; nor, later, where +we had been. We wound in and out the close streets of the old part of +the city, full of a busy life so far removed from our own, that it +seemed a show, a picture; below the surface we could not penetrate. We +rolled along wide avenues where the houses on either side were white as +the dust under the wheels. Once in a quiet square, we paused before an +old _Hotel de Ville_, frescoed in warm, rich colors. Again upon the +outskirts of the city, before a monument; but whether it had been +erected to hero or saint I cannot now recall. And somewhere, when the +dusk was deepening, we found an old church, gray as the shadows +enveloping it, with a horseman, spear in hand, cut in _bas relief_ upon +one side. What dragon he made tilt against in the darkness we never +knew. + +Even our driver seemed to warm beneath the influences which subdued and +dissipated our cares. He nodded gently and complacently to +acquaintances, eliciting greetings in return, in which we, in a measure, +shared. He hummed a guttural, though cheerful song, which found an echo +in our hearts. He stood up in his place to point the way to misguided +strangers, in whose perplexities we could so well sympathize. And once, +having laid down the reins, and paused in our slow advance, he held a +long and seemingly enjoyable conversation with a passing friend. To all +this we made no manner of objection, rather we entered into the spirit +of the hour, and were filled with a complacency which was hastily +banished upon our return to the hotel, where, as we put into the hand of +our benevolent driver his due, and the generous _pour boire_ which gave +always such a twinge to our temperance principles, he demanded more. + +"He claims," said the porter, who was assisting our descent, "that he +has been driving with the carriage lamps lighted. There is an extra +charge for that." + +"But he left his seat to light them this moment, just before we turned +into the square," we replied, indignantly. + +The porter shrugged his shoulders. That is the end of an argument. There +is never anything more to be said. We submitted at once, though our +faith in benevolent humanity went to the winds. + +Somewhat dispirited, we climbed the stairs to our room. "One day more," +we said, "and our troubles will be at an end." But, alas! one day was as +a thousand years! + +It was to be an all-day's ride to Paris, from nine o'clock in the +morning until half past nine or ten at night. So, while waiting for +breakfast, we hastened out into the town, in search of a bookstore, and +something to while away the dull hours before us. + +A young man, of preternaturally serious countenance, was removing the +shutters as we entered a musty little shop. We turned over the +Tauchnitz's editions of English novels until we had made a choice, the +value of our purchases amounting to four or five francs, and gave him a +napoleon. With profuse apologies he left us to get it changed. Returning +presently, he threw the silver into a drawer, and handed the books to +us, with a "_Merci_." + +"Yes," we said; "but--" Arithmetic had never been my strength; still +something was clearly wrong here. + +"The change," said Mrs. K. "He has given us no change." Sure enough; but +still he continued to bow and thank us, evidently expecting us to go. + +We tried to explain; eliciting only one of the blank stares that usually +followed our attempts at explanation. + +"The man must be an idiot," Mrs. K. said, gravely. + +"He certainly has an imbecile expression of countenance," I assented. He +stood still, bowing at intervals, while we calmly weighed and balanced +his wits before his eyes. We tried signs; having through much practice +developed a system to which the deaf and dumb alphabet is as nothing. We +attempted to convince him that a part of the money was ours. + +He smiled, and assured us, in a similar way, that the books belonged to +us, the money to him. + +There was so much justice in this, that we should doubtless have +assented, had not his own wits finally asserted themselves. Blushing +like a bashful boy, he suddenly exclaimed, counted out the change, and +poured it into our hands with so many apologies, that we were glad to +retreat. + +It was a discouraging beginning for the new day. Still we would not +despair. We had assured our anxious friends that we were quite able to +take care of ourselves. We would triumphantly prove our own words. +Breakfast over, and our bill settled without mishap or misunderstanding, +we started for the station in the hotel omnibus, in company with a +stout, genial Frenchman, who spoke a little English, and his fussy +little wife. When we entered the station, the line formed before the +ticket-window was already formidable. It lacked fifteen minutes of the +hour when the train would start, and our baggage was--where? We seized a +_commissionaire_, slipped a piece of money into his hand in a very +bungling, shamefaced way, and, presto! in a moment our trunks appeared +among the other baggage, though we had looked in vain for them before. +Then, with a sensation of self-consciousness approaching guilt, I +stepped to the foot of the line before the ticket-window. + +"Two tickets for Paris," I gasped, finding myself, after a time, brought +face to face with the sharp-eyed official. "What is the price?" But +before I could utter the words, the reply rattled through my head like a +discharge of grape-shot. Every finger resolved itself into ten, as I +essayed to open my purse and count out the gold pieces. What should I +do! I had not enough into ten francs; it might as well have been ten +thousand! Mrs. K. was waiting at a little distance; but the place once +lost in the line could not be regained, and there was our baggage yet to +be weighed, and the hands of the clock frightfully near the hour of +departure. There was an impatient stamping of feet behind me, as I stood +for a moment dizzy, bewildered, with an angry buzz of voices ringing +with the din and roar in my ears. Then I rushed down the room to Mrs. +K., and explained as hastily as possible. She filled my purse, and I +flew back to find the line pushed forward and my place gone. One glance +at the hands of the clock, at the discouraging line of ticket-seekers +yet to be served,--how could I go to the foot again! Then I walked +straight to the window with the courage of despair. A low growl ran down +the line, the _gendarme_ on guard stepped forward, expostulating +excitedly; but, blessings on the man at the head of the line, who pushed +the others back, and gave me a place, and even upon the grim official +behind the window, who smiled encouragement, and gave me the tickets, +while the _gendarme_ stormed. I stepped out again, conscious only of the +wish--strong as a prayer--that we were safe again in Lucerne, or--some +other place of peaceful rest. + +Wedged in among the crowd, we saw one trunk after another weighed and +removed, while ours remained untouched. I pulled the sleeve of a porter. +My hand held my purse. The suggestion was enough. In a moment our trunks +were weighed, and the little paper ticket corresponding to our "check" +safe in our possession. I turned, conscientiously, to reward the +porter; but we were jostled by a score of elbows, each encased in the +sleeve of a blue blouse. Which was the one I sought? I could not tell. +Each answered my glance of puzzled inquiry with one of expectation. +Diving to the depths of my purse, I found it to contain one solitary +centime--nothing more. I slipped it into the hand nearest, and from the +start of surprise and delight was immediately convinced that it was the +wrong man. However, it did not matter. There was no time to explain. The +doors opening upon the platform, which remain locked until the last +moment, were thrown open, and we hurried away, found places upon the +train, and sank back upon the cushions exhausted, but happy. For ten +hours at least, nothing could happen to us. The guard passed the window, +examining the tickets, and slamming the doors, making our safety doubly +sure. A moment more, and with a noiseless motion we were off. Hardly had +the train started before it stopped again. One after another our +companions left us--for we were not alone in the compartment. "Strange," +we said, yet too thoroughly exhausted to be curious. It was still more +strange when, after a short time, they each and all returned. They began +to whisper among themselves, pointing to us. "What _can_ be the matter +_now_?" we queried, suddenly mindful that life is a warfare, and roused +to interest. + +Our fellow-travellers proceeded to enlighten us in chorus, and in the +confusion of the outburst, we caught--by inspiration--at their meaning. +We had crossed the frontier into France, and the baggage was examined +here. We hastened out and into the station. All the trunks but our own +had been checked. With his hand upon one of these, an official demanded +the key, upon our appearance. Remembering an episode in its packing, we +demurred, and proffered the key of another. Already vexed by the delay, +his suspicions were roused now. He demanded the key of the first, which +we gave up with wicked delight. The by-standers drew near. Indeed, a +crowd was the embarrassing accompaniment to all our unfortunate +experiences. The official turned the key with the air of doing his duty +if he perished in the attempt, when the lid flew open, and a hoop-skirt, +compressed to the final degree, sprang up into his startled face, like a +Jack-in-the-box. The spectators laughed--French though they were--as, +very red in the face, he vainly tried to replace it, entirely forgetting +to search for contraband articles. + +No other incident disturbed the quiet of that long day's ride to Paris. +At some queer little station we descended to lunch, and returned to our +places, laden, like the spies of Eschol, with luscious grapes. Our +fellow-travellers dropped out along the way, only, however, to be +replaced by others. We had not succeeded in securing places in the +compartment reserved for ladies alone; but the French gentlemen who were +our companions proved most courteous in their polite indifference to our +movements. An old gentleman among these, elicited our outspoken +admiration for his grand head. We were secure in our native language, we +knew. + +"Lovely face!" we exclaimed, unblushingly. "What a head for a sculptor! +Quite like Michel Angelo's Moses, I declare." + +Before the day was over, "Michel Angelo's Moses" addressed us in +excellent English. + +When the darkness gathered, when the night settled down, something of +its gloom oppressed us. Once safely housed in Paris, we should be at +rest; but there were still difficulties to be overcome. Our friends had +telegraphed to Miss H. that we should arrive by this train; but the +number of her house we did not know, nor did they. We were only sure +that her apartments were over the _Magasin au Printemps_. Still that was +tolerably exact; we would not be uneasy. At ten o'clock at night we +stepped down from the train into a confusion of tongues and elbows which +I cannot describe, and followed the crowd into the baggage-room. I say +_followed_--we were literally lifted from our feet and borne along. +There was no baggage in sight. We waited until an hour seemed to have +passed, and still no trunks appeared. + +"Suppose we leave them, and send a porter from the house in the morning +to find them;" and acting upon this, we struggled out of the station +into the great paved square at one side. The night was dark; but the +gas-lights dimly lighted up a line of carriages at the farther side, +towards which we hastened, and had seated ourselves in one, when a +_commissionaire_ came running across the square, and putting his head in +at the carriage window, asked if we had any baggage. + +"Yes," we replied; but the rattling words that followed brought only +confusion to us. Our minds, already overtaxed, gave way at once. It is +pleasant to recall the patience and good-nature of that official. It is +pleasant, when old things have so entirely passed away, to remember the +Paris of 1869 as, at least, a city into which women might come at +midnight, alone, unprotected, and be not only free from insult and +imposition, but actually cared for, and sent to their rightful +destination, in spite of their own ignorance and incompetence. + +"Stay here," said our friend in uniform; and he disappeared, to return +in a moment with the stout French gentleman who had been our companion +in the hotel omnibus at Basle. We met with mutual surprise, and pleasure +on our side at least. + +"_Do_ any one look for your baggage?" he asked. + +"No," we replied. "We thought we might leave it." + +"You must go," he said. + +The _commissionaire_ took possession of our check and the driver's +_carte_, and I followed the two back to the station, leaving Mrs. K. to +guard our satchels, &c., in the carriage. + +"Wait one leetle moment," said the kind French gentleman; "I bring +madame." And in a moment he dragged the fussy little woman from the +crowd, handing her over with the triumphant air of having now settled +all difficulties. + +"Madame speak ze Eengleesh fine," he said. + +Looking down from an immeasurable height, the little madam condescended +to remark that their servant was looking for their baggage. + +"Ah!" I responded. "Then we are not permitted to leave our trunks." + +"I am sure I don't know," she replied, looking so greatly bored, not to +say exhausted, that I did not think it best to press the matter. "Our +servant is attending to it," she repeated. + +Her husband's face fairly glowed with satisfaction while this side +conversation was being carried on. Evidently he believed the whole +French baggage system to have been elucidated for my benefit. I thanked +him heartily, as we exchanged cordial adieus. Even the fussy little +woman gathered, for the moment, sufficient life to attempt to bow; +which, alas! never got beyond a stare. The _commissionaire_ seized upon +a blue-bloused porter, and gave me to him with the check, the _carte_, +and a few sharply-spoken directions. Clinging to that blue sleeve, I was +borne through the swaying, surging mass of humanity, into the +baggage-room--how, I never knew. Our trunks were identified, lifted, not +thrown, by my porter upon a hand-truck, which dragged for itself and us +an opening in the crowd. Once out upon the platform, the porter pushed +doggedly on into the darkness, though I had left Mrs. K. and the +carriage in the square at one side. I expostulated. He held persistently +to his course. I gave one thought to poor Mrs. K., resigned to what fate +I knew not, and then, woman-like, followed my trunks. + +It was all explained, when, dimly outlined in the darkness before the +station, we espied a sea of shiny hats and shadowy cabs; and when, after +long shouting of the number of our own, by the porter and everybody +else, it finally crawled up to the steps where we were standing, Mrs. +K.'s anxious face looking out of the window. + +"I began to think you were lost," she said. "You can fancy my feelings +when the driver gathered up the reins and drove out of that square." + +We made a thank-offering upon the palm of every grimy hand, suddenly +outstretched; then the driver paused, whip in the air, for the address +of our destination. + +"_Magasin au Printemps_, Boulevard Haussman." He stared, as everybody +had, and did, along the way. If they only wouldn't! We repeated it. He +conferred, in a low tone, with the man on the next box, who got down +from his place, and came around to our window to look at us. One or two +lounging porters joined him. The _Magasin au Printemps_ is a large dry +and fancy goods establishment, which had been closed, of course, for +hours, since it was now nearly midnight. It was as though we had reached +New York late at night, and insisted upon being driven to _Stewart's_. +The little crowd stared at us solemnly, in a kind of pitiful curiosity, +I fancied. I think, by this time, our countenances may have expressed +incipient idiocy. We attempted to explain that Miss H.'s apartments were +over the _Magasin_, and the driver mounted to his seat, though, I am +obliged to confess, with an ominous shake of his head. + +As we rolled out into the wide boulevards our spirits rose. The +sidewalks were crowded with promenaders, the streets with carriages. The +light of a glorious day seemed to have burst upon our dazzled eyes. +Paris, gay, beautiful Paris, which never sleeps, was out, disporting +herself. + +"We will not be anxious," we said; nor were we in the least. "Even if we +cannot find Miss H.'s, some hotel will take us in. Or, failing in that, +we can drive about until morning." + +A thought of our respective and respectable families did cross our minds +with this lawless suggestion. In happy unconsciousness, they believed us +still safe with our friends. + +We crawled up the Boulevard Haussman. There were the closed doors and +shutters of the _Magasin au Printemps_. Two or three other doors met our +gaze. The driver paused before one. We descended, and pulled the bell. +You must know there are no doorsteps, in Paris, leading to front doors, +as with us. The first floor is, almost without exception, given up to +shops; and dwellings, unless pretentious enough to be houses enclosing a +court-yard and entered from the street by passing through great gates, +are simply apartments in the two, three, and four stories above these +shops. + +Some invisible mechanism swung back the great double doors as we pulled +the bell, disclosing a pretty, paved court-yard, with a fountain in the +centre, surrounded by pots of flowers. A glass door at one side, +revealed wide marble stairs, down which a charming little portress was +tripping. + +"Is this Miss H.'s?" we asked in English. She only shook her head. We +paraded our French. She seemed lost in thought for a moment, then, with +a "_Oui, oui_," ran past us to the carriage, and gave some directions to +the driver, emphasizing her words with a pair of plump little hands. +Then, with a "_bon nuit_," she disappeared, and the great doors closed +again. Evidently we were being taken care of, we thought, as we settled +back again in the carriage. We stopped before another door, already +open, and disclosing a flight of wide, stone stairs, ascending almost +from the sidewalk. Immediately upon pulling the bell--as though the wire +had been attached to it--a long, loose-jointed, grotesque, yet horrible +figure appeared at the head of the stairs, half-stooping to bring +himself within the range of my vision, swinging his arms like a Dutch +windmill, and grinning in a way which seemed to open his whole head. + +[Illustration: "Together we stared at him with rigid and severe +countenances." Page 240.] + +"Is--is this Miss H.'s?" I ventured from the sidewalk. + +He only beckoned still more wildly for me to ascend. I drew back. Good +Heavens! What was the matter with him? And still, while I stared +fascinated, yet horror-stricken, he continued, without intermission, +these speechless contortions and evolutions. Although he uttered not a +sound, he seemed to say with every cracking joint, "Come up, come up," +while he scooped the air with his bony hands. + +I remembered that it was midnight; that we were alone, and in wicked +Paris; that we had been religiously brought up; that Mrs. K.'s husband +was the superintendent of a large and flourishing Sunday school; that my +father was a minister of the gospel. I planted my feet firmly upon the +sidewalk. I folded my arms rigidly. I shook my head virtuously. Come up? +Chains should not drag me. Then I turned to the carriage. + +"Mrs. K., do come and see this man." + +She came. Together we stared at him with rigid and severe countenances. + +"Dreadful!" said I, remembering the Sunday school. + +"Awful!" said she, recalling the pious ancestors. And again we shook our +heads at his blandishments to the point of dislocation. The driver, who +had been all this time tipped back against a tree, began to show +symptoms of impatience. Something must be done. + +"Suppose you ask for some one who can speak English," suggested Mrs. K. + +"Sure enough." And I did. With one last, terrible grimace the ogre's +heels disappeared up the second flight of stairs. + +There came down in a moment a thoroughly respectable appearing porter, +who informed us, in English, that we were expected, our telegram having +been received; though, through the ambiguity of its address, it had been +sent first to a house below. The people there had promised to forward +us, however, in case we followed the telegram. This accounted for the +movements of the little portress. + +The _ogre_ proved to be a most good-natured _concierge_, who had been +instructed to keep the door open in anticipation of our arrival. + +So our fears had been but feathers, after all, blown away by a breath; +our troubles only a dream, to be laughed over in the awakening. + + * * * * * + +Here the story of our journeying may end. The remaining distance, +through the kindness of friends, new and old, was accomplished without +difficulty or annoyance. We reached our own homes in due time, and like +the princess in the fairy tales, "lived happily forever afterwards." + +A few practical words suggest themselves here which would pass unnoticed +in a preface--where, perhaps, they belong. First, in regard to the +question often asked, "Can women travel alone through Europe?" Recalling +our own experience,--too brief to serve as a criterion,--I should still +say, "_Yes_." We met, frequently, parties of ladies who had made the +whole grand tour alone. In Switzerland we found English women, +constantly, without escort. The care of choosing routes, of looking +after baggage and buying tickets, of managing the sometimes complicated +affairs attendant upon sight-seeing, with the vexations and impositions +met with and suffered on every hand, no woman would voluntarily accept +without great compensation, I am sure. But if she prefers even these +cares to seeing nothing of the world, they can be borne, and the +annoyances, to a great extent overcome, through patience and growing +experience. + +Then, if you start alone, or without being consigned to friends upon the +other side,--which no _young_ woman would think of doing,--you are +almost sure to join, at different times, other parties, whose way is +your own; and far preferable this is to making up a large company before +leaving home--the members of which usually disagree before reaching the +continent, and often part in mutual disgust. "There is nothing like +travelling to bring out a person's real nature," say some. But this is +untrue. Travelling develops, rather than reveals, I think, and under +conditions favorable only to the worse side of one's nature. You are +bewildered by the multitude of strange sights and ways; the very +foundation of usages is broken up; you are putting forth physical +exertions that would seem superhuman at home, and are mentally racked +until utterly exhausted,--for there is nothing so exhausting as +continued sight-seeing,--and at this point people say they begin "to +find each other out." + +An occasional period of rest--not staying within doors to study up the +guide-books, but entire cessation from seeing, hearing, or doing--and a +scrap from the mantle of charity, will save many a threatened friendship +at these times. We learned to know our strength--how weak it was; and to +await in some delightful spot, chosen for the purpose, returning energy, +courage, and _interest_; for even that would be banished at times by +utter weariness and exhaustion. + +In former times, Americans fitted themselves out for Europe as though +bound to a desert island. Wider intelligence and experience have opened +their eyes and reformed their judgment; still, a word upon this subject +will not be unwelcome, I am sure, to girls especially, who contemplate a +trip over the ocean. + +In the first place, your steamer outfit is a distinct affair. You are +allowed to take any baggage you wish for into your state-room; but, if +wise, you will not fill the narrow space, nor encumber yourself with +anything larger than a lady's _hat box_, which may offer a tolerable +seat to the stewardess, or visitors of condolence, in case seasickness +confines you to berth or sofa. Even preferable to this is a flat, +English portmanteau, which can be slipped under the lower berth. If you +sail for Liverpool, you can leave this at your hotel there in charge of +the head waiter until you return, and thus avoid the expense and care of +useless baggage. + +Its contents your own good sense will in a measure suggest. Let me +add--a double gown or woollen wrapper, in which you may sleep, flannels +(even though you cross the ocean in summer), merino stockings, warm +gloves or mittens, as pretty a hood as you please, only be sure that it +covers the back of your head, since you will ignore all cunning craft of +hair dressing, for a few days at least, and even after you are well +enough to appear at the table, perhaps. Bear in mind that the Northern +Atlantic is a cold place, and horribly open to the wind _at all seasons +of the year_; that you will live on the deck when not in your berth or +at your meals, and that the deck of an ocean steamer partakes of the +nature of a whirlwind. Fur is by no means out of place, and skirts +should be sufficiently heavy to defy the gales, which convert everything +into a sail. Take as many wraps as you choose--and then you will wish +you had one more. A large shawl, or, better, a carriage-robe, is +indispensable, as you will very likely lie rolled up like a cocoon much +of the time. A low sea-chair, or common camp-chair, is useful to older +people; but almost any girl will prefer a seat upon the deck itself; +there are comfortable crannies into which no chair can be wedged. + +By all means avoid elaborate fastenings to garments. A multiplicity of +unmanageable "hooks and eyes" is untold torment at sea; and let these +garments be few, but warm. You will appreciate the wisdom of this +suggestion, when you have accomplished the herculean task of making your +first state-room toilet. + +If you are really going abroad for a season of _travel_, take almost +nothing. You can never know what you will need until the necessity +arises. If you anticipate, you misjudge. Your American outfit will +render you an oddity in England. But do not change there, or you will +be still more singular in Paris. It is as well to start with but one +dress besides the one you wear on the steamer--anything you chance to +have; a black alpaca, or half-worn black silk, is very serviceable. When +you reach Paris, circumstances and the season will govern your +purchases; and this same dress will be almost a necessity for constant +railway journeys, rainy-day sight-seeing, and mule-riding in +Switzerland. A little care and brushing, fresh linen, and a pretty +French tie, will make it presentable--if not more--at any hotel dinner +table. + +A warm shawl or wrap of some kind you will need for evenings,--even +though you travel in summer,--for visiting the cathedrals, which are +chill as a tomb; and for weeks together among the mountains you will +never throw it aside. But if you can take but one, _don't_ provide +yourself with a _water-proof_. They are too undeniably ugly, and not +sufficiently warm for constant wear. If it rains slightly, the umbrella, +which you will buy from force of necessity and example in England, will +protect you; if in torrents, you will ride. Indeed, you will always +ride, time is so precious, cab-hire so cheap, and distances so great in +most foreign cities. + +Lastly, let me beg of you to provide yourself with an abundant supply of +patience and good-nature. Without these, no outfit is complete. Try to +laugh at annoyances. Smile, at least. And do not anticipate +difficulties. Above all, enjoy yourself, and then everybody you meet +will enjoy you. And so good by, and "God bless us every one." + + + + +LEE AND SHEPARD'S HANDBOOKS. + + +"JUST AS THE TWIG IS BENT, THE TREE'S INCLINED." + + =LESSONS ON MANNERS.= For home and school use. A + Manual by EDITH E. WIGGIN. 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Cloth, black and gold, $2.50. + +While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, it is remarkably +vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the land of the Hindu. +The illustrations are many and excellent. + + =OUR BOYS IN CHINA.= The adventures of two young + Americans, wrecked in the China Sea on their + return from India, with their strange wanderings + through the Chinese Empire. 188 illustrations. + Boards, ornamental covers in colors and gold. + $1.75. Cloth, $2.50. + +This gives the further adventures of "Our Boys" of India fame in the +land of Teas and Queues. + + +_Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of +price._ + +LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston. + + + + +HARRY W. FRENCH'S BOOKS. + + + =THE ONLY ONE.= A Novel. 16mo. Cloth. $1.00. + +"The Only One" is a powerful story, dealing with the lights and shadows +of life in America, Naples, and Persia. Written in a dashing style, +sometimes deeply tragic, at others humorous in the extreme, it presents +pictures of human life that attract and interest by their naturalness +and vividness. + + + =CASTLE FOAM;= or, The Pauper Prince. A story of + real life, true love, and intrigue in the + brilliant capital of Prussia. 12mo. $1.50. + +"A novel of remarkable power, and strangely unlike any yet written by an +American. There is something in the beauty and intensity of expression +that reminds one of Bulwer in his best days."--_Cincinnati Commercial._ + + + =NUNA, THE BRAMIN GIRL.= 16mo. Cloth. $1.25. + +"This book is beautifully written, and abounds in novel and dramatic +incidents."--_St. Louis Globe Democrat._ + + + =EGO=, The Life Struggles of Lawrence Edwards. + 16mo. Cloth. $1.00. + +"Both an interesting and an exciting work, written with freedom, +effectiveness, and power."--_Philadelphia Item._ + + =GEMS OF GENIUS.= 4to. Illuminated covers. Gilt. + $2.00. + +"Fifty full-page illustrations, selected from the art-works of as many +foreign painters, with text descriptive of each, from the pen of one of +our native Ruskins."--_New-York Mail._ + + + ART AND ARTISTS. A history of the birth of art in + America, with biographical studies of many + prominent American artists, and nearly one hundred + illus. from their studios. Cloth. Gilt. $3.00. + +"A work that will grow in value every year, showing the most patient +research and elaboration, skilfully executed, and admirably worked up. +An honor to the author, an honor to the publishers, an honor to the +country."--_New-York Evening Post._ + + + =OUR BOYS IN INDIA.= The wanderings of two young + Americans in Hindustan, with their exciting + adventures on the sacred rivers and wild mountains. + With 145 illustrations. Royal octavo, 7 x 91/2 + inches. Bound in emblematical covers of Oriental + design, $1.75. Cloth, black and gold, $2.50. + +A new edition of the most popular of books of travel for young folks, +issued last season. While it has all the exciting interest of a romance, +it is remarkably vivid in its pictures of manners and customs in the +land of the Hindu. The illustrations are many and excellent. + + + =OUR BOYS IN CHINA.= The adventures of two young + Americans, wrecked in the China Sea on their + return from India, with their strange wanderings + through the Chinese Empire. 188 Illustrations. + Boards, ornamental covers in colors and gold, + $1.75. Cloth, $2.50. + +After successfully starting the young heroes of his previous book, "Our +Boys in India," on their homeward trip, the popular lecturer, extensive +traveller, and remarkable story-teller, has them wrecked in the China +Sea, saved, and transported across China: giving him an opportunity to +spread for young folks an appetizing feast of good things. + + +_Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of +price._ + +=LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.= + + + +MISS VIRGINIA F. TOWNSEND'S BOOKS. + +Uniform Edition. Cloth. $1.50 Each. + + +BUT A PHILISTINE. + +"Another novel by the author of 'A Woman's Word' and 'Lenox Dare,' will +be warmly welcomed by hosts of readers of Miss Townsend's stories. There +is nothing of the 'sensational,' or so-called realistic, school in her +writings. On the contrary, they are noted for their healthy moral tone +and pure sentiment, and yet are not wanting in STRIKING SITUATIONS AND +DRAMATIC INCIDENTS."--_Chicago Journal._ + + +LENOX DARE. + +"Her stories, always sunny and healthful, touch the springs of social +life, and make the reader better acquainted with this great human +organization of which we all form a part, and tend to bring him into +more intimate sympathy with what is most pure and noble in our nature. +Among the best of her productions we place the volume here under notice. +In temper and tone the volume is calculated to exert a healthful and +elevating influence."--_New-England Methodist._ + + +DARYLL GAP; or, Whether it Paid. + +A story of the petroleum days, and of a family who struck oil. "Miss +Townsend is a very entertaining writer, and, while she entertains, at +the same time instructs. Her plots are well arranged, and her characters +are clearly and strongly drawn. The present volume will not detract from +the reputation she has heretofore enjoyed."--_Pittsburg Recorder._ + + +A WOMAN'S WORD, AND HOW SHE KEPT IT. + +"The celebrity of Virginia F. Townsend as an authoress, her brilliant +descriptive powers, and pure, vigorous imagination, will insure a hearty +welcome for the above-entitled volume in the writer's happiest vein. +Every woman will understand the self-sacrifice of Genevieve Weir, and +will entertain only scorn for the miserable man who imbittered her life +to hide his own wrong-doing."--_Fashion Quarterly._ + + +THAT QUEER GIRL. + +"A fresh, wholesome book about good men and good women, bright and +cheery in style, and pure in morals. Just the book to take a young +girl's fancy, and help her to grow up, like Madeline and Argia, into the +sweetness of real girlhood; there being more of that same sweetness +under the fuss and feathers of the present day than a casual observer +might suppose."--_People's Monthly._ + + +ONLY GIRLS. + +"This volume shows how two persons, 'only girls,' saved two men from +crime, even from ruin of body and soul; and all this came about in their +lives without their purpose or knowledge at the time, and not at all as +they or anybody else would have planned it; but it comes about well and +naturally enough. The story is ingenious and graphic, and kept the +writer of this notice up far into the small hours of yesterday +morning."--_Washington Chronicle._ + + +_Sold by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, postpaid on +receipt of price._ + +=LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.= + + + + +LEE AND SHEPARD'S DOLLAR NOVELS. + + + =JOHN THORN'S FOLKS.= By ANGELINE TEAL. Cloth. + $1.00. + + + =BARBARA THAYER.= By MISS ANNIE JENNESS. Cloth. + $1.00. Popular Edition. Paper. 50 cents. + + + =THE ONLY ONE.= A Novel by HARRY W. FRENCH, author + of "Castle Foam," "Nuna, the Bramin Girl," "Our + Boys in China," "Our Boys in India," etc. 16mo. + Cloth. $1.00. + +This work was published as a serial in "The Boston Globe," and made a +sensation. It will have a large sale in its new dress. + + + =LORD OF HIMSELF.= A Novel by FRANCIS H. + UNDERWOOD, author of "Handbook of English + Literature," etc. A new edition. 16mo. Cloth. + $1.00. + +"This novel is one that has come into American literature to +stay."--_Boston Post._ + +"Spirited, fresh, clean-cut, and deeply thoughtful."--_Boston Gazette._ + + + =DORA DARLING:= The Daughter of the Regiment. By + J. G. AUSTIN. 16mo. Cloth, $l.00. A thrilling + story of the great Rebellion. + + + =OUTPOST.= By J. G. AUSTIN. 16mo. Cloth. $1.00. A + Sequel to "Dora Darling," but each story complete + in itself. + + + =NUMA ROUMESTAN.= By ALPHONSE DAUDET. Translated + from the French by Virginia Champlin. With ten + illustrations. Cloth. $1.00. + +The latest work of fiction from the pen of Alphonse Daudet, and derives +its main interest from the generally accepted belief that the hero of +the novel is really Gambetta, the French statesman. + + + =KINGS IN EXILE.= By ALPHONSE DAUDET. A new + edition. 16mo. Cloth. $1.00. + + + =LIKE A GENTLEMAN.= By Mrs. MARY A. DENISON. A + Temperance Novel, by a well-known author. Cloth. + $1.00. + +Mrs. Denison is well known as the author of "That Husband of Mine," a +summer book which exceeded in sale any thing published in America. This +book is in a more thoughtful vein, but is very entertaining. The style +is bright and witty. + + =HIS TRIUMPH.= By the author of "That Husband of + Mine," "Like a Gentleman," etc. Cloth. $1.00. + + + =A TIGHT SQUEEZE.= The adventures of a gentleman, + who, on a wager of ten thousand dollars, undertook + to go from New York to New Orleans in three weeks, + without money or the assistance of friends. Cloth, + $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. + + + =PUDDLEFORD PAPERS;= or, Humors of the West. By H. + R. RILEY. Illustrated. A new edition. $1.00. + +"This is a rich book. Any one who wants a genuine, hearty laugh, should +purchase this volume."--_Columbus Gazette._ + + + =THE FORTUNATE ISLAND=, and other Stories. By MAX + ADELER. Illustrated. Cloth. $1.00. + +"Max Adeler is a fellow of infinite humor."--_Albany Evening Journal._ + +"Extravagant, of course, are these stories, but entertaining and +amusing, and instructive too."--MARGERY DEANE, _Newport News._ + + +_Sold by all booksellers and newsdealers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on +receipt of price._ + +LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston. + + + + +YOUNG FOLKS' HEROES OF HISTORY. + +By GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE. + +Handsomely Illustrated. Price per vol., $1.25. Sets in neat boxes. + + +VASCO DA GAMA: HIS VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES. + +"Da Gama's history is full of striking adventures, thrilling incidents, +and perilous situations; and Mr. Towle, while not sacrificing historical +accuracy, has so skilfully used his materials, that we have a charmingly +romantic tale."--_Rural New-Yorker._ + + +PIZARRO: HIS ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS. + +"No hero of romance possesses greater power to charm the youthful reader +than the conqueror of Peru. Not even King Arthur, or Thaddeus of Warsaw, +has the power to captivate the imagination of the growing boy. Mr. Towle +has handled his subject in a glowing but truthful manner; and we venture +the assertion, that, were our children led to read such books as this, +the taste for unwholesome, exciting, wrong-teaching boys' books--dime +novels in books' clothing--would be greatly diminished, to the great +gain of mental force and moral purpose in the rising generation."--_Chicago +Alliance._ + + +MAGELLAN; OR, THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. + +"What more of romantic and spirited adventures any bright boy could want +than is to be found in this series of historical biography, it is +difficult to imagine. This volume is written in a most sprightly manner; +and the life of its hero, Fernan Magellan, with its rapid stride from +the softness of a petted youth to the sturdy courage and persevering +fortitude of manhood, makes a tale of marvellous fascination."--_Christian +Union._ + + +MARCO POLO: HIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES. + +"The story of the adventurous Venetian, who six hundred years ago +penetrated into India and Cathay and Thibet and Abyssinia, is pleasantly +and clearly told; and nothing better can be put into the hands of the +school boy or girl than this series of the records of noted travellers. +The heroism displayed by these men was certainly as great as that ever +shown by conquering warrior; and it was exercised in a far nobler +cause,--the cause of knowledge and discovery, which has made the +nineteenth century what it is."--_Graphic._ + + +RALEGH: HIS EXPLOITS AND VOYAGES. + +"This belongs to the 'Young Folks' Heroes of History' series, and deals +with a greater and more interesting man than any of its predecessors. +With all the black spots on his fame, there are few more brilliant and +striking figures in English history than the soldier, sailor, courtier, +author, and explorer, Sir Walter Ralegh. Even at this distance of time, +more than two hundred and fifty years after his head fell on the +scaffold, we cannot read his story without emotion. It is graphically +written, and is pleasant reading, not only for young folks, but for old +folks with young hearts."--_Woman's Journal._ + + +DRAKE: THE SEA-LION OF DEVON. + +Drake was the foremost sea-captain of his age, the first English admiral +to send a ship completely round the world, the hero of the magnificent +victory which the English won over the Invincible Armada. His career was +stirring, bold, and adventurous, from early youth to old age. + + +_Sold by all Booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of +price._ + +=LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers BOSTON.= + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Varied hyphenation was retained. Boldface type is depicted by = and +italic by _. + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 28, repeated word "a" removed from text (blossomed into a bell) + +Page 35, "iniquitious" changed to "iniquitous" (most iniquitous +proceeding) + +Page 39, "beginnnig" changed to "beginning" (my heart beginning) + +Page 82, "heartly" changed to "heartily" (were heartily ashamed) + +Page 101, "Sevres" changed to "Sevres" (pier of Sevres) + +Page 101, "Sevres" changed to "Sevres" (transferred to Sevres) + +Page 130, "Hotel" changed to "Hotel" (and the old Hotel de Ville) + +Page 212, "beautifull" changed to "beautiful" (head, past beautiful) + +Page 216, "momentry" changed to "momentary" (a momentary life) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An American Girl Abroad, by Adeline Trafton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 32289.txt or 32289.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/8/32289/ + +Produced by Emmy, Tor Martin Kristiansen and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +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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