After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 Part 20

The lady on reading these lines perceived at once the cause of her husband's estrangement and succeeded in explaining the matter satisfactorily to him, which was facilitated by the ingenuous declaration of Leon himself that he had tried to succeed but had been repulsed. The husband and wife being perfectly reconciled lived happily and no doubt the vine was cultivated as usual.

I left Florence the 27th November, and arrived at Turin 5th December. In an evil hour I engaged myself to accompany an old Swiss Baroness with whom I became acquainted at the Hotel of Mine Hembert to accompany her to Turin.

She had with her her son, a fine boy of thirteen years of age but very much spoiled. We engaged a _vetturino_ to conduct us to Turin, stopping one day at Milan. The Baroness did not speak Italian and generally sent for me to interpret for her when any disputes occurred between her and the people at the inns, and these disputes were tolerably frequent, as she always gave the servants wherever she stopped a good deal of trouble and on departing generally forgot to give them the _buona grazia._ I sometimes paid them for her myself in order to avoid noise and tumult; at other times we departed under vollies of abuse and imprecations such as _brutta vecchia, maladetta carogna,_ and so forth. The Baroness had strong aristocratic prejudices and was a bitter enemy of the French Revolution to which she attributed collectively all the _desagremens_ she had experienced during life and all the inconveniences she met with during our present journey. The negligence and impertinence of the servants in Italy were invariably attributed by her to the revolutionary principle and she told me that the servants in her native canton Bern were the best in the world, but that even in them the French Revolution had made a great deal of difference and that they were not so submissive as they used to be. As she sent for me to be her dragoman in all her disputes on the road, you may conceive how glad I was to arrive at Turin to be rid of her. She put me in mind of Gabrina in the _Orlando Furioso._ We stopped one day at Milan but we were very near being detained two or three days at Fiacenza owing to an informality in the Baroness's pa.s.sport, which had not been vise by the Austrian Legation at Florence. In vain she pleaded that she was told at the inn at Florence that such _visa_ was not necessary; the police officer at the Austrian _Douane_, at a short distance beyond Piacenza, was inexorable and refused to _viser_ her pa.s.sport to allow her to proceed. She was in a sad dilemma and it was thought we should be obliged to remain at Piacenza. I however recommended her to be guided by me and not to talk with or scold anybody, and that I would ensure her arrival at Milan without difficulty, for I had observed that her scolding the officer at the _Douane_ only served to make him more obstinate. I recommended her therefore that when we should arrive within sixty or seventy paces of the gate at Milan, she should get out of the carriage with her son and walk thro' the gate on foot with the utmost unconcern as if she belonged to the town and was returning from a promenade; and that while they stopped us who were in the carriage to examine our pa.s.sports, she should walk direct to the inn where we were to lodge, then write to the Consul of her nation to explain the business. She followed my advice and pa.s.sed un.o.bserved and unmolested into Milan. On the preceding evening at Castel-puster-lengo at supper I asked whether she thought the rigour of the Austrian government was also the offspring of the French Revolution. The Baroness had brought up her son in all these feelings and particularly in a determined hatred of the Canton de Vaud; for in the evening when we arrived at the inn and were sitting round the fire, he would shake the burning f.a.ggots about and say: _Voila la ville de Lausanne en cendres!_ If he grows up with these ideas and acts upon them, he stands a good chance of being shot in a duel by some Vaudois. It is a pity to see a child so spoiled, for he was a very fine boy, tho' very violent in his temper which probably he inherited from his mother. Somebody at the _pension Surpe_ at Milan who knew her told me that the Baroness was of an aristocratic family and had married a rich _bourgeois_ of Bern whom she treated rather too much _de haut en bas;_ in short that it was a marriage quite _a la George Dandin_, till the poor man took it into his head to die one day. At Turin we parted company, she for Genoa and I for Lausanne.

_From Turin to Lausanne_.

I felt the cold very sensibly in the journey from Florence to Milan and Turin. There is not a colder country in Europe than Lombardy in the winter.

The vicinity of the Alps contributes much to this; and the houses being exceedingly large and having no stoves it is quite impossible that the fireplaces can give heat sufficient to warm the rooms. I started from Turin on the morning of the 9th December in the French diligence bound to Lyon, but taking my place only as far as Chambery. In the diligence were a Piedmontese Colonel who had served under Napoleon, and a young Scotchman, a relation of Lord Minto. The latter was fond of excursions in ice and snow and on our arrival at Suza he proposed to me to start from there two or three hours before the diligence and to ascend Mont Cenis on foot as far as the _Hospice_ and I was mad enough to accede to the proposal, for it certainly was little less than madness in a person of my chilly habits and susceptibility of cold and who had pa.s.sed several years within the tropics to scale the Alps on foot in the middle of December and to walk 24 miles in snow and ice at one o'clock in the morning, which was the hour at which we started. I was well clad in flannel and I went thro' the journey valiantly and in high spirits and without suffering much from the cold till within five miles of the Hospice, when a heavy snow storm came on; it then began to look a little ugly and but for Napoleon's grand _chausses_ we were lost.

We struggled on three miles further in the snow before we fell in with a _maison de refuge_. We knocked there and n.o.body answered. We then determined _coute que coute_ to push on to the _Hospice_ which we knew could not be more than two miles distant; indeed it was much more advisable so to do than to run the risk of being frozen by remaining two or three hours in the cold air till the diligence should come up. In standing still I began to feel the cold bitterly; so in spite of the snow storm, we pushed on and arrived at the inn at Mont-Cenis at five in the morning. We rubbed our hands and faces well with snow and took care not to approach the fire for several minutes, fortifying ourselves in the interim with a gla.s.s of brandy. We then had some coffee made and laid ourselves down to sleep by the side of an enormous fire until the diligence arrived, which made its appearance at eight o'clock. The pa.s.sengers stopped to breakfast and the Scotchman proposed to me to make the descent of Lans-le-Bourg also on foot; but I was quite satisfied with the prowess I had already exhibited and declined the challenge. He however set off alone and thus performed the entire pa.s.sage of Mont Cenis on foot. As for the rest of us we were carried down on a _traineau_; that is to say the diligence was unloaded and its wheels taken off; the baggage and wheels were put on one _traineau_ and the diligence with the pa.s.sengers in it on another, and in this manner we descended to Lans-le-Bourg. Nothing remarkable occurred on this journey and we arrived at Chambery in good case. I hired a _caleche_ to go to Geneva, remained there three days and arrived at Lausanne on the 18th December.

[100] Horace, _Sat_., II, 6, 65.--ED.

[101] Dante, _Inferno_, I, 33,29.--ED.

[102] Henry Augustus, thirteenth Viscount Dillon (1777-1832), married (1807) to Henrietta Browne (died 1862).--ED.

[103] Quoted from memory, with mistakes. The text has been corrected as it stands in Brantome, _Les Dames galantes_, ed. Chasles, vol. I, p.

351.--ED.

AFTER WATERLOO

PART III.

CHAPTER XIII

MARCH-SEPTEMBER, 1817

Journey from Lausanne to Clermont-Ferrand--A wretched conveyance--The first dish of frogs--Society in Clermont-Ferrand--General de Vergeunes--Cleansing the town--Return to Lausanne--A zealous priest--Journey to Bern and back to Lausanne--Avenches--Lake Morat--Lake Neufchatel--The Diet in Bern--Character of the Bernois--A beautiful Milanese lady.

I started from Lausanne on the 4th March 1817, and arrived on the same day at 4 o'clock at Geneva. On my arrival at Geneva, my banker informed me that I had been denounced to the police, for some political opinions I had spoken at the _Hotel de l'Ecu de Geneve_, previous to my journey into Italy, and that I had been traced as far as Turin. I went directly on hearing this to the police, and desired to know who my accusers were, and that the accusation against me might be investigated immediately. Both these propositions were however declined, and I was told it was an _affaire pa.s.see_, and of no sort of consequence; so that from that day to this I have never been able to ascertain who my friends were.

I left Lausanne with the intention of paying a visit to my friend Col.

Wardle and his family at Clermont-Ferrand, in the Department of the Puy de Dome, in Auvergne, where they are residing. I staid three days at Geneva, and then set off at 7 in the evening on the 8th March with the Courier for Lyons.

I never regretted any thing so much, and was near paying severely for my rashness in putting myself into such a wretched conveyance, at such a season of the year; but I had made the agreement with the Courier without inspecting his carriage, and was obliged to adhere to the bargain. It was a vehicle entirely open before; it was a bitter cold, rainy, snowy night; and I had the rain and snow in my face the whole way, and on crossing the Cerdon I was seized with a violent ague fit, and suffered so much from it that on arrival at a village beyond Nantua where we stopped for supper, I determined to proceed no further, but to rest there that night; and I asked the innkeeper if he could furnish me with a bed for the night. He however made so many objections and seemed so unwilling that I should remain, that I was obliged to make up my mind to proceed. I allayed the _frissonnement_ by a large gla.s.s of brandy and water, made fiery hot. At eight o'clock next morning I arrived at Lyons, more dead than alive. A warm bath, however, remaining in bed the whole day, buried in blankets, abstaining from all food, a few grains of calomel at night and copious libations of rice gruel the next day restored me completely to health; and after a _sejour_ of four days at Lyons, I was enabled to proceed on my journey to Clermont on the 14th March. We arrived at Roanne in the evening and I stopped there the whole night.

Between Lyons and Roanne is the mountain of Tarare where the road is cut right athwart the mountain and is consequently terribly steep; indeed it is the steepest ascent for a carriage I ever beheld. All the pa.s.sengers were obliged to _bundle out_ and ascend on foot; and even then it is a most arduous _montee_ for such a c.u.mbrous machine as a French diligence.

The country between Lyons and Roanne appears diversified; but this is not the season for enjoying the beauties of nature. Roanne consists of one immensely long street, but it is broad, and contains excellently built houses and shops. There is a theatre also and baths. It is situated on the Loire which I now salute for the first time.

The following morning at nine o'clock a _patache_ (a sort of two wheeled carriage) was in waiting to convey me the remainder of my journey; and I arrived at night at a large village or town called Thiers. Halfway between Roanne and Thiers, on stopping at a small village to dine, I observed a dish of frogs at the kitchen fire at the inn; and as it was the first time I had observed them as an article of food in France, I was desirous to taste them. They were dressed in a _frica.s.see_ of white sauce, and I found them excellent. The legs only are used. They would be delicious as a curry.

The next morning we continued our journey; and crossing the river Allier at twelve o'clock, arrived at Clermont-Ferrand at 2 p.m., and dined with Col.

Wardle. Clermont and Ferrand are two towns within a mile and half distant from each other and this Clermont is generally called Clermont-Ferrand to distinguish it from other towns of the same name.

CLERMONT, March 26th.

I have taken lodgings for a month, and board with a French family for 90 franks per month. On the road hither the immense mountain called the Puy de Dome is discernible at a great distance; it is said to have been a volcano.

Clermont is a very ancient city and has an air of dullness; but the _Place_ and promenades round the town are excellent. It is the capital of this department (Puy de Dome). There is a terrible custom here of emptying the _aguas mayores y menores_ (as the Spaniards term those secretions) into the small streets that lie at the back of the houses. The consequence is that they are clogged up with filth and there is always a most abominable stench. One must be careful how one walks thro' these streets at night, from the liability of being saluted by a golden shower. The lower cla.s.ses of the Auvergnats have the reputation of being dirty, slovenly and idle.

Here is a church built by the English in the time of Edward III, when the Black Prince commanded in this country; and it was in a chapel in this city, the remains of which still exist, that Peter the Hermit preached the first crusade. These are almost the only things worthy of remark in the town itself, except that there is a good deal of commerce carried on, manufactures of crockery, cloth and silk stockings. But in the natural curiosities of the environs of Clermont there is a great deal to interest the botanist and mineralogist and above all there is a remarkable petrifying well, very near the town, where by leaving pieces of wood, sh.e.l.l-fish and other articles exposed to the dropping of the water, they become petrified in a short time. This water has the same effect on dead animals and rapidly converts them into stone. I have myself seen a small basket filled with plovers' eggs become in eight days a perfect petrifaction.

CLERMONT, April 2d.

I am arrived here at rather a dull season: the Carnaval is just over and all the young ladies are taking to their _Livres d'Heures_ to atone for any levity or indiscretion they may have been guilty of during the hey day of the Carnaval. The Wardle family have a very pleasant acquaintance here, chiefly among the _liberaux_, or moderate royalists, but there are some most inveterate _Ultras_ in this city, who keep aloof from any person of liberal principles, as they would of a person infected with the plague. The n.o.blesse of Auvergne have the reputation of being in general ignorant and despotic. There is but little _agrement_ or instruction to be derived from their society, for they have not the ideas of the age. In general the n.o.bles of Auvergne, tho' great sticklers for feudality and for their privileges, and tho' they disliked the Revolution, had the good sense not to emigrate.

There is a Swiss regiment of two battalions quartered here. It bears the name of its Colonel, De Salis. As there are a number of officers of the old army here, on half pay, about three hundred in number, it is said, frequent disputes occur between them and the Swiss officers. The Swiss are looked upon by the people at large as the satellites of despotism and not without reason. It is, I think, degrading for any country to have foreign troops in pay in time of peace. Several attempts have been made in the Chamber of Deputies to obtain their removal or _licenciement_, but without success. As it is supposed that the song of the _Ranz des Vaches_ affects the sensibility of the Swiss very much, and makes them long to return to their native mountains, a wag has recommended to all the young ladies in France who are musicians to play and sing the _Ranz des Vaches_ with all their might, in order to induce the Swiss to betake themselves to their native country.

There has been a great deal of denunciation going forward here; but the General de V----[104] who commands the troops in Clermont, determined to put a stop to it. He had the good sense to see that such a system, if encouraged, would be destructive of all society, prejudicial to the Government, and vexatious to himself; as he would be thereby kept continually in hot water. Accordingly, on a delator presenting himself and accusing another of not being well affected to the present order of things, and of having spoken disrespectfully of the King, M. de V---- said to him: "I have no doubt, Sir, that your denunciation proceeds from pure motives, and I give you full credit for your zeal and attachment to the royal cause; but I cannot take any steps against the person whom you accuse, unless you are willing to give me leave to publish your name and consent to be confronted with him, so that I may examine fairly the state of the case, and render justice to both parties." The accuser declined acceding to this proposition. The General desired him to withdraw, and shortly after intimated publicly that he would listen to no denunciation, unless the denouncer gave up his name and consented to be confronted with the accused.

The consequence of this intimation was that all denunciations ceased. The late Prefect however was not so prudent, and chose rather to encourage delation; but mark the consequence! He arrested several persons wrongfully, was obliged to release them afterwards, was in continual hot water and it ended by the Government being obliged to displace him. To avoid the merited vengeance of many individuals whom he had ill-treated, he was obliged, on giving up his prefecture, to make a precipitate retreat from Clermont. The delators attempted the same system with the new Prefect and Col. Wardle, having invited some of the Swiss officers to a ball, to which were likewise invited people of all opinions, an information was lodged against him, purporting that he wanted to corrupt the Swiss officers from their allegiance. The Prefect sent the letter to Col. Wardle and said that it had not made the slightest impression on his mind, and that he treated it as a malicious report. The new Prefect adopted the same system as the General and tranquillity is since perfectly restored.

Things have been taking a better turn since the dissolution of the _Chambre introuvable_. Decazes, the present minister, is an able man, and if he is not _contrarie_ by the _Liberaux_, he will keep the fanatical _Ultras_ in good order. The Bishop of Clermont is a liberal man also, and as it seems the wish of the present public functionaries here to conciliate, it is to be hoped that their example will not be lost on the _bons vieux gentilshommes_ of Auvergne.

I find an inexhaustible fund of entertainment from the conversation of M.

C----. He has so many interesting anecdotes to relate respecting the French Revolution. With regard to his present occupations, which are directed towards rural economy, he tells me that he has succeeded in a plan of cleansing the town from its Augean filth, and making it very profitable to himself; and that he calculates to obtain a revenue thereby of twenty thousand franks annually. He has, in short, undertaken to be the grand _scavenger_ of the town, and the Government, in addition to a salary of 2,500 francs per annum, which they give him for his trouble, give to him the exclusive privilege of removing all the dung he can collect in the precincts of the city, and of converting it to his own advantage. He began by fitting up a large enclosure, walled on each side, and in which he deposits all the filth he can collect in the stables, yards and streets of Clermont. He sends his carts round the town every morning to get them loaded. All their contents are brought to this repository, and shot out there. Straw is then placed over this dung, and then earth or soil collected from gullies and ravines, and this arranged _stratum super stratum_, till it forms an immense compact cake of rich compost; and when it has filled one of the yards and has completed a thickness of five feet, he sells it to the farmers, who send their carts to carry it off. He has divided this enclosure or repository into three or four compartments. The compost therefore is prepared, and ready to be carried off in one yard, while the others are filling. In this he has rendered a great benefit to the public, for the Auvergnats are incurable in their custom of emptying their _pots de chambre_ out of the windows; so that the streets every morning are in a terrible state: but thanks to the industry of C---- his cars go round to collect the precious material, and all is cleared away by twelve o'clock. He collects bones too, and offal to add to the compost. He conducted me to see his premises; but the odour was too strong....

I returned to Lausanne by the same route, leaving Clermont on the 6th April, staying four days at Lyons and as many at Geneva. Young Wardle accompanied me. We met with no other adventure on the road than having a young Catholic priest, fresh from the seminary, for our travelling companion, from Thiers to Roanne. This young man wished to convert Wardle and myself to Catholicism.

Among many arguments that he made use of was that most silly one, which has been so often sported by the Catholic theologians, viz.: that it is much safer to be a Catholic than a Protestant, inasmuch as the Catholics do not allow that any person can be saved out of the pale of their church, whereas the Protestants do allow that a Catholic may be saved. I answered him that this very argument made more against Catholicism than any other, and that this intolerant spirit would ever prevent me (even had such an idea entered into my head) of embracing such a religion. I then told him that, once for all, I did not wish to enter into any theological disputes; that I had fully made up my mind on these subjects; and that I would rather take the opinion of a Voltaire or a Franklin on these matters than all the opinions of all the theologians and churchmen that ever sat in council from the Council of Nicsea to the present day. This silenced him effectually. Such is the absurd line of conduct pursued by the Catholic priests of the present day in France. Instead of reforming the discipline and dogmas of their church and adapting it to the enlightened ideas of the present age, they are sedulously employd in preaching intolerant doctrines, and reviving absurd legends, and pretended miracles, which have been long ago consigned to contempt and oblivion by all rational Catholics; and by this they hope to re-establish the ecclesiastical power in its former glory and preponderance. Vain hope! By the American and French Revolutions a great light is gone up to the _Gentiles_. Catholicism is on its last legs, and they might as soon attempt to replace our old friend and school acquaintance Jupiter on the throne of heaven, as to re-establish the Papal power in its pristine splendour; to borrow the language of the _Pilgrim's Progress_, the Giant _Pope_ will be soon as dead as the Giant _Pagan_.

On arrival at Lyons we put up at the _Hotel du Parc_, where I found cheaper and better entertainment than at the _Hotel du Nord_.

My friend young Wardle has fallen in love with a very beautiful _cafetiere_ at Lyons', and spends a great part of his time in the _cafe_, at which this nymph administers, and looks at her, _sighs, looks and sighs again_. It is not probable however that he will succeed in his suit, for she has been courted by very many others and no one has succeeded. She remains constant to her _good man_, and the breath of calumny has never ventured to a.s.sail her. I met one day at Lyons with my old friend W----s of Stra.s.sburg, who was a Lieutenant in the 25th Regiment in the French service and served in the battle of Waterloo.[105] He is now here and being on _demi-solde_, employs himself in a mercantile house here as princ.i.p.al commis. He dined with us and we pa.s.sed a most pleasant day together.

I arrived on the 20th April at Lausanne.

After remaining some weeks, at Lausanne on my return from Clermont, I determind on making a pedestrian trip as far as Bern and Neufchatel previous to returning into Italy, which it is my intention to do in September. I sent on my portmanteau accordingly to Payerne near Avenches, intending to pay a visit and pa.s.s three days with my friend, the Revd. Mr.

J[omini],[106] the rector of the parish there, from whom I had received a pressing invitation. I was acquainted at Lausanne with his daughter, Mme C----, and was much pleased in her society. She had great talent of conversation, and I never in my life met with a lady possessed of so much historical knowledge. I started on the 27th June from Lausanne, pa.s.sed the first night at Mondon and the next afternoon arrived at Avenches, the _Aventic.u.m_ of the ancient Romans. Payerne is only a mile distant from Avenches, and I was received with the utmost cordiality by the worthy pastor and his daughter. The scenery on the road to Avenches is very like the scenery in all the rest of the Canton de Vaud, viz., alternate mountain and valley, lofty trees, and every spot capable of cultivation bearing some kind of produce; corn just ready for the sickle and fruit such as cherries and strawberries in full bloom. Avenches has an air of great antiquity and looks very gloomy withal, which forms a striking contrast to the neat, well built towns and villages of this Canton on the banks of the lake Leman where everything appears so stirring and cheerful. Avenches, on the contrary, is very dull, and there is little society.