After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 Part 9

Parallel to one side of the _Duomo_ runs the _Corsia de' Servi_, the widest and most fashionable street in Milan, the resort of the _beau monde_ in the evening, and leading directly out to the _Porta Orientale_. The Cathedral appears to me certainly the most striking Gothic edifice I ever beheld. It is as large as the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, and the architecture of the interior is very ma.s.sive. There is little internal ornament, however, except the tomb or mausoleum of St Charles Borromeo, round which is a magnificent railing; there are also the statues of this Saint and of St Ambrogio. There are several well-executed bas-reliefs on the outside of the Church, from Scripture subjects, and the view from any of the balconies of the spires is very extensive. On the North the Alps, covered with snow and appearing to rise abruptly within a very short horizon, tho' their distance from Milan is at least sixty or seventy miles; and on all the other sides a vast and well-cultivated plain as far as the eye can reach, thickly studded with towns and villages, and the immense city of Milan nine miles in circ.u.mference at your feet. The streets in general in Milan are well paved; there is a line of trottoir on each side of the street equi-distant from the line of houses; so that these trottoirs seem to be made for the carriage wheels to roll on, and not for the foot pa.s.sengers, who must keep within the s.p.a.ce that lies between the trottoirs and line of houses. With the exception of the _Piazza del Duomo_ there is scarcely anything that can be called a _piazza_ in all Milan, unless irregular and small open places may be dignified with that name; the houses and buildings are extremely solid in their construction and handsome in their appearance.

A ca.n.a.l runs thro' the city and leads to Pavia; on this ca.n.a.l are stone bridges of a very solid construction. The shops in Milan are well stored with merchandize, and make a very brilliant display. The finest street, without doubt, is the _Corsia de' Servi_. In the part of it that lies parallel to the Cathedral, it is about as broad as the _Rue St Honore_ at Paris; but two hundred yards beyond it, it suddenly widens and is then broader than Portland Place the whole way to the _Porta Orientale_. On the left hand of this street, on proceeding from the Cathedral to the _Porta Orientale_, is a beautiful and extensive garden; an ornamental iron railing separates it from the street. From the number of fine trees here there is so much shade therefrom that it forms a very agreeable promenade during the heat of the day. On the right hand side of the _Corsia de' Servi_, proceeding from the Cathedral, are the finest buildings (houses of individuals) in Milan, among which I particularly distinguished a superb palace built in the best Grecian taste with a colonnaded portico, surmounted by eight columns. Just outside the _Porta Orientale_ is the _Corso_, with a fine s.p.a.cious road with _Allees_ on each side lined with trees. The _Corso_ forms the evening drive and _promenade a cheval_ of the _beau monde_. I have seen nowhere, except in Hyde Park, such a brilliant show of equipages as on the Corso of Milan. I observe that the women display a great _luxe de parure_ at this promenade.

The women here appear to me in general handsome, and report says not at all cruel. They have quite a _fureur_ for dress and ornaments, hi the adapting of which, however, they have not so much taste as the French women have.

The Milanese women do not understand the _simplicite recherchee_ in their attire, and are too fond of glaring colours. The Milanese women are accused of being too fond of wine, and a calculation has been made that two bottles _per diem_ are drank by each female in Milan; but, supposing this calculation were true, let not the English be startled, for the wine of this, country is exceedingly light, lighter indeed than the weakest Burgundy wine; indeed, I conceive that two bottles of Lombard wine are scarce equivalent in strength to four wine gla.s.ses of Port wine. The Lombards for this reason never drink water with their wine; and indeed it is not necessary, for I am afraid that all the wine drank in Milan is already baptised before it leaves the hands of the vendor, except that reserved for the priesthood; such, at any rate, was the case before the French Revolution, and no doubt the wine sellers would oppose the abolition of so _ancient_ and _sacred_ a custom. The Milanese are a gay people, hospitable and fond of pleasure: they are more addicted to the pleasures of the table than the other people of Italy, and dinner parties are in consequence much more frequent here than in other Italian towns. The women here are said to be much better educated than in the rest of Italy, for Napoleon took great pains to promote and encourage female instruction, well knowing that to be the best means of regenerating a country.

The dialect spoken in the Milanese has a harsh nasal accent, to my ear peculiarly disagreeable. Pure Italian or Tuscan is little spoken here, and that only to foreigners. French, on the contrary, is spoken a good deal; but the Milanese, male and female, among one another, speak invariably the _patois_ of the country, which has more a.n.a.logy to the French than to the Italian, but without the grace or euphony of either.

I have visited likewise the _Zecca_, or Mint, where I observed the whole process of coining. They still continue to coin here Napoleons of gold and silver, with the date of 1814, and they coin likewise crowns or dollars with Maria Theresa's head, with the date of the last year of her reign. The double Napoleon of forty _franchi_ of the Kingdom of Italy is a beautiful coin; on the run are the words, _Dio protegge l'Italia_. It may not be unnecessary to remark that in Italy by the word _Napoleone_, as a coin, is meant the five franc piece with the head of Napoleon, and a twenty franc gold piece is called _Napoleone d'oro_.

At the _Zecca_ I was shown some gold, silver and bronze medals, struck in commemoration of the formation of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, under the sceptre of Austria. They bear the following inscription, which, if I recollect aright, is from Horace:

Redeunt in aurum Tempora prisc.u.m,[54]

but this golden age is considered by the Italians as a very leaden one; and it seems to bear as much a.n.a.logy to the golden age, as the base Austrian copper coin, daubed over with silver, and made to pa.s.s for fifteen and thirty soldi, has to the real gold and silver _Napoleoni_, which by the way are said to be fast disappearing; they are sent to Vienna, and Milan will probably be in time blessed with a similar paper currency to that of Vienna.

Napoleon seems to be as much regretted by the Milanese as the Austrian Government is abhorred; in fact, everybody speaks with horror and disgust of the _aspro boreal scettro_ and of the _aquila che mangia doppio_, an allusion taken from the arms of Austria, the double-headed Eagle.

I have visited the ancient Ducal, now the Royal, Palace; it is a s.p.a.cious building, chaste in its external appearance, but its ulterior very magnificent; its chiefest treasures are the various costly columns and pilasters of marble and of _jaune antique_ which are to be met with. The _salle de danse_ is peculiarly elegant, and in one of the apartments is a fine painting on the plafond representing Jupiter hurling thunderbolts on the Giants. Jupiter bears the head of Napoleon. Good G.o.d! how this man was spoiled by adulation!

The staircase of the Palace is superb, and the furniture is of the most elegant description, being faithfully and cla.s.sically modelled after the antique Roman and Grecian. After visiting the Ambrosian library (by the way, it is quite absurd to visit a library unless you employ whole days to inspect the various editions), I went to the Hospital, which is a stupendous building, and makes up 8,000 beds. The arrangement of this hospital merits the greatest praise. I then peeped into several churches, and I verily believe my conductor would have made me visit every church in Milan, if I had not lost all patience, and cried out: _perche sempre chiese? sempre chiese? andiamo a vedere altra cosa_. He conducted me then to the citadel, or rather place where the citadel stood, and which now forms a vast barrack for the Austrian troops. We then went to visit the _Teatro Olimpico_, which was built by Napoleon. It is built in the style of the Roman amphitheatres, but much more of an oval form than the Roman amphitheatres were in general; that is to say, the transverse axis is much longer in proportion to the conjugate diameter than is the case in the Roman amphitheatres, and it is by no means so high. In the time of Napoleon, games were executed in this circus in imitation of the games of the ancients, for Napoleon had a great hankering to ape the Roman Caesars in everything. There were, for instance, gymnastic exercises, races on foot, horse races, chariot races like those of the Romans, combats of wild beasts, and as water can be introduced into the arena, there were sometimes exhibited _naumachiae_ or naval fights. These exhibitions were extremely frequent at Milan during the vice-regency of Prince Eugene Napoleon; during this Government, indeed, Milan flourished in the highest degree of opulence and splendour and profited much by being one of the princ.i.p.al depots of the inland trade between France and Italy, during the continental blockade, besides enjoying the advantage of being the seat of Government during the existence of the _Regno d'Italia_. Even now, tho' groaning under the leaden sceptre of Austria, it is one of the most lively and splendid cities I ever beheld; and I made this remark to a Milanese. He answered with a deep sigh: "Ah! Monsieur, si vous aviez ete ici dans le temps du Prince Eugene! Mais aujourd'hui nous sommes ruines."

My next visit was to the _Porta del Sempione_, which is at a short distance from the amphitheatre, and which, were it finished, would be the finest thing of the kind in Europe; it was designed, and would have been completed by Napoleon, had he remained on the throne. Figures representing France, Italy, Fort.i.tude and Wisdom adorn the facade and there are several bas-reliefs, among which is one representing Napoleon receiving the keys of Milan after the battle of Marengo. All is yet unfinished; columns, pedestals, friezes, capitals and various other architectural ornaments, besides several unhewn blocks of marble, lie on the ground; and probably this magnificent design will never be completed for no other reason than because it was imagined by Napoleon and might recall his glories. Verily, Legitimacy is childishly spiteful!

Yesterday morning I went to see an Italian comedy represented at the _Teatro Re_. The piece was _l'Ajo nell' imbarazzo_--a very droll and humorous piece--but it was not well acted, from the simple circ.u.mstance of the actors not having their parts by heart, and the illusion of the stage is destroyed by hearing the prompter's voice full as loud as that of the actors, who follow his promptings something in the same way that the clerk follows the clergyman in that prayer of the Anglican liturgy which says "we have erred and strayed from our ways like lost sheep." An Italian audience is certainly very indulgent and good-natured, as they never hiss, however miserable the performance.

But in speaking of theatrical performances, no person should leave Milan without going to see the _Teatro Girolamo_, which is one of the "curiosities" of the place, peculiar to Milan, and more frequented, perhaps, than any other. This is a puppet theatre, but puppets so well contrived and so well worked as to make the spectacle well worth the attention of the traveller. It is the _Nec plus ultra of Marionettism_, in which Signer Girolamo, the proprietor, has made a revolution, which will form an epoch in the annals of puppetry; having driven from the stage entirely the _graziosissima maschera d'Arlecchino_, who used to be the hero of all the pieces represented by the puppets and subst.i.tuted himself, or rather a puppet bearing his name, in the place of Harlequin, as the princ.i.p.al _farceur_ of the performance. He has contrived to make the puppet Girolamo a little like himself, but so much caricatured and so monstrously ugly a likeness that the bare sight of it raises immediate laughter. The theatre itself is small, being something under the size of our old Haymarket little theatre, but is very neatly and tastefully fitted up. The puppets are about half of the natural size of man, and Girolamo, aided by one or two others, works them and gives them gesture, by means of strings, which are, however, so well contrived as to be scarcely visible; and Girolamo himself speaks for all, as, besides being a ventriloquist, he has a most astonishing faculty of varying his voice, and adapting it to the _role_ of each puppet, so that the illusion is complete. The scenery and decorations are excellent. Sometimes he gives operas as well as dramas, and there is always a _ballo_, with transformation of one figure into another, which forms part of the performance. These transformations are really very curious and extremely well executed. Almost all the pieces acted on the theatre are of Girolamo's own composition, and he sometimes chooses a cla.s.sical or mythological subject, in which the puppet Girolamo is sure to be introduced and charged with all the wit of the piece. He speaks invariably with the accent and _patois_ of the country, and his jokes never fail to keep the audience in a roar of laughter; his mode of speech and slang phrases form an absurd contrast to the other figures, who speak in pure Italian and pompous _versi sciolti_. For instance, the piece I saw represented was the story of Alcestis and was ent.i.tled _La scesa d'Ercole nell Inferno_, to redeem the wife of Admetus. Hercules, before he commences this undertaking, wishes to hire a valet for the journey, has an interview with Girolamo, and engages him. Hercules speaks in blank verse and in a phrase, full of _sesquipedalia verba_, demands his country and lineage.

Girolamo replies in the Piedmontese dialect and with a strong nasal accent: "_De mi pais, de Piemong_." Girolamo, however, though he professes to be as brave as Mars himself has a great repugnance to accompanying his master to the shades below, or to the "_casa del diavolo_," as he calls it; and while Hercules fights with Cerberus, he shakes and trembles all over, as he does likewise when he meets _Madonna Morte_.

All this is very absurd and ridiculous, but it is impossible not to laugh and be amused at it. An anecdote is related of the _flesh and blood_ Girolamo, that he had a very pretty wife, who took it into her head one day to elope with a French officer; and that to revenge himself he dramatized the event and produced it on his own theatre under the t.i.tle of _Colombina scampata coll'uffiziale_, having filled the piece with severe satire and sarcastic remarks against women in general and Colombina in particular.

The atelier of the famous artist in mosaic Rafaelli is well worth inspecting; and here I had an opportunity of beholding a copy in mosaic and nearly finished of the celebrated picture of Leonardo da Vinci representing the _Caena Domini_. What a useful as well as admirable art is the mosaic to perpetuate the paintings of the greatest masters! I recollected on beholding this work that Eustace, in his _Tour thro' Italy_,[55] relates with a pious horror that the French soldiers used the original picture as a target to practise at with ball cartridge, and that Christ's head was singled out as the mark. This absurd tale, which had not the least shadow of truth in it, has, it appears, gained some credit among weak-minded people; and I therefore beg leave to contradict it in the most formal manner. It was Buonaparte who, the moment the picture was discovered, ordered it to be put in mosaic. No! the French were the protectors and encouragers, and by no means the destroyers of the works of art; and this ridiculous story of the picture being used as a target was probably invented by the priesthood, who seemed to have taken great delight in imposing on poor Eustace's credulity. To me it seems that such a story could only have been invented by a monk, and believed and repeated by an old woman or a bigot. The priests and French emigrants have invented and spread the most shameful and improbable calumnies against the French republicans and against Napoleon, and that credulous gull John Bull has been silly enough to give full credence to all these tales, and stand staring with his eyes and mouth open at the recital, while a vulgar jobbing ministry (as Cobbet would say) _picked his pockets_.

Quite of a piece with this is the said Mr Eustace's bigotry, in not chusing to call Lombardy by its usual appellation "Lombardy," and affectedly terming it "the plain of the Po." Why so, will be asked? Why because Mr Eustace hates the ancient Lombards, and holds them very nearly in as much horror as he does the modern French; because, as he says, they were the enemies of the Church and made war on and despoiled the Holy See. The fact is that the Lombard princes were the most enlightened of all the monarchs of their time; they were the first who began to resist the encroachments of the clergy and to shake off that abject submission to the Holy See which was the characteristic of the age. The Lombards were a fine gallant race of men and not so bigoted as the other nations of Europe. Where has there ever reigned a better and more enlightened and more just and humane prince than Theodoric?[56] But Theodoric was an Arian, hence Mr Eustace's aversion, for he, with the most servile devotion, rejects, condemns and anathematizes whatever the Church rejects, condemns and anathematizes. For myself I look on the extinction of the Lombard power by Charlemagne to have been a great calamity; had it lasted, the reformation and deliverance of Europe from Papal and ecclesiastical tyranny would have happened probably three hundred years sooner and the Inquisition never have been planted in Spain. I have made this digression from a love of justice and from a wish to vindicate the French Republic and Napoleon from one at least of the many unjust aspersions cast on them. I feel it also my duty to state on every occasion that I, belonging to an army sent to Egypt in order to expel them from that country, have been an eyewitness of the good and beneficial reforms and improvements that the French made in Egypt during a period of only three years. They did more for the good of that country in this short period, than we have done for India in fifty years.

Being obliged to be in London on the 24th December I took leave of the agreeable city of Milan with much regret on the 19th of October and engaged a place in a Swiss _voiture_ going to Lausanne. My fellow travellers were two Brunswick officers in the service of the Princess of Wales, who were returning to their native country; and a Hungarian and his son settled in Domo d'Ossola. Nothing occurred till we arrived at Arona, where we were detained a whole day, in consequence of some informality in the pa.s.sport of the two Germans, viz., that of its not having been _vise_ by the Sardinian Charge d'Affaires at Milan.

During our detention at Arona, I fell in with a young Frenchman who was going to Milan in company of some Swiss friends. The Swiss were permitted to proceed, but the other was not, for no other reason than because he was a Frenchman; so that he took a place in our carriage in order to return to Switzerland. I found him a very agreeable companion, for tho' much chagrined and vexed at this harsh and ungenerous treatment on the part of the Piedmontese authorities, he soon recovered his good humour, and contributed much to the pleasure of our journey. The Germans came back to Arona very late at night, and during the rest of the journey gave vent to their feelings with many an execration such as _verfluchter Spitzbube, Hundsfott_, on the heads of the inexorable police officers of Arona. The next day, on pa.s.sing by Belgirate, we took a boat to visit the Borromean islands, and afterwards returned to rejoin our carriage at Fariolo. The first of these islands that we visited was the _Isola Bella_, where there is a large and splendid villa, belonging to the Borromean family. The rooms are of excellent and solid structure, and there are some good family pictures. The furniture is ancient, but costly. The _rez de chaussee_ or lower part of the house, which is completely _a fleur d'eau_ with the lake, is tastefully paved, and the walls decorated with a mosaic of sh.e.l.ls. One would imagine it the abode of a sea nymph. I thought of Calypso and Galatea. There are in these apartments _a fleur d'eau_ two or three exquisite statues.

LAUSANNE, 11th November.

I have been now nearly three weeks at Lausanne and am much pleased both with the inhabitants, who are extremely affable and well-informed, and with the beautiful sites that environ this city, the capital of the Canton de Vaud. The sentiments of the Vaudois, with the exception of a few absurd families among the _n.o.blesse_, who from ignorance or prejudice are sticklers for the old times, are highly liberal; and as they acquired their freedom and emanc.i.p.ated themselves from the yoke of the Bernois, thro' the means of the French Revolution, they are grateful to that nation and receive with hospitality those who are proscribed by the present French Government; their behaviour thus forming a n.o.ble contrast to the servility of the Genevese. The Government of the Canton de Vaud is wholly democratic and is composed of a Landamman and grand and petty council, all _bourgeois_, or of the most intelligent among the agricultural cla.s.s, who know the interests of their country right well, and are not likely to betray them, as the _n.o.blesse_ are but too often induced to do, for the sake of some foolish ribband, rank, or t.i.tle. The _n.o.blesse_ are in a manner self-exiled (so they say) from all partic.i.p.ation in the legislative and executive power; for they have too much _morgue_ to endure to share the government with those whom they regard as _roturiers_; but the real state of the case is that the people will not elect them, and the people are perfectly in the right, for at the glorious epoch when, without bloodshed, the burghers and plebeians upset the despotism of Bern, the conduct of the _n.o.blesse_ was very equivocal. La Harpe was the leader of this beneficial Revolution, for which, however, the public mind was fully prepared and disposed; and La Harpe was a virtuous, ardent and incorruptible patriot.

This canton had been for a long period of years in a state of va.s.salage to that of Bern; all the posts and offices of Government were filled by Bernois and the Vaudois were excluded from all share in the government, and from all public employments of consequence. When the Sun of Revolution, after gloriously rising in America, had shone in splendour on France, and had successfully dissipated the mists of tyranny, feudality, priestcraft and prejudice, it was natural that those states which had languished for so many years in a humiliating situation should begin to look about them and enquire into the origin of all the shackles and restraints imposed on them; and no doubt the Vaudois soon discovered that it was an anomaly in politics as well as in reason that two states of such different origin, the one being a Latin and the other a Teutonic people, with language, customs, and manners so different, should be blended together in a system in which all the advantages were on the side of Bern, and nought but va.s.salage on the part of Vaud. A chief was alone wanting to give the impulse; he was soon found; the business was settled in forty-eight hours; and by the mediation of the French Government, Vaud was declared and acknowledged an independent state and for ever released from the dominion of Bern. The federative const.i.tution was then abolished throughout the union, and a general Government, called the Helvetic Republic, subst.i.tuted in its place; but this const.i.tution not suiting the genius and habits of the people, nor the locality of the country, was not of long duration; troubles broke out and insurrections, which were fomented and encouraged by the adherents of the old regime. But Napoleon, by a wise and salutary mediation, stepped in between them, and prevented the effusion of blood, by restoring the old confederation, modified by a variety of ameliorations. In the act of mediation, Napoleon contented himself with separating the Valais entirely from the confederation, and shortly after annexing it to France, on account of the high road into Italy across the Simplon running thro' that territory, and which it became of the utmost importance to him to be master of. The new Helvetic Confederation was inviolably respected and protected by Napoleon; for never after the act of mediation did any French troops enter in the Canton de Vaud, or any part of the Union to pa.s.s into Italy.

They always moved on the Savoy side of the Lake to enter into the Valais.

This act of mediation saved probably a good deal of bloodshed and in a very short time gave such general satisfaction, and was in every respect so useful and beneficial to the Helvetic Union, that in spite of the intrigues of the Senate of Bern, who have never been able to digest the loss of Vaud, the Allied Powers in the year 1814 solemnly guaranteed the Helvetic Confederation as established by the Act of Mediation, merely restoring the Valais to its independence and aggregating it as an independent Canton to the general Union. Geneva, on its being severed from the French Empire, and recovering its independence, solicited the Helvetic Union to be admitted as a member and component part of that Confederacy; which was agreed to, and it was and remains aggregated to it also.

In 1815, on the return of Napoleon from Elba and on the renewal of the war, the Bern Government made a most barefaced attempt to regain possession of the Canton de Vaud; to this they were no doubt secretly encouraged by the Allies, and princ.i.p.ally it is said by the British Government, the most dangerous, artful and determined enemy of all liberty; but this project was completely foiled, by the penetration, energy and firmness of the inhabitants of the Canton de Vaud and of its Government in particular. The central Government of the Union was at that time held at Bern and it was agreed upon in the Diet that Switzerland should remain perfectly neutral during the approaching conflict; an army of observation of 80,000 men was voted and levied to enforce this neutrality, but the command of it was given to De Watteville, who had been a colonel in the English service, and was a determined enemy of the French Revolution and of everything connected with or arising out of it. On the approach of the Austrian army, De Watteville, instead of defending the frontier and repelling the invasion, disbanded his army and allowed the Austrians to enter. No doubt he was encouraged, if not positively ordered to do this, by the Government of Bern, many members of which are supposed to have received bribes from the British Government to render the decreed neutrality null and void. At the same moment that this army was disbanded, the directoral Canton (Bern) caused to be intimated to the Canton de Valid that it was the wish and intention of the High Allies to replace Switzerland in the exact state it was in, previous to the French Revolution; and that, in consequence, two Commissioners would be sent from Bern to Lausanne, to take charge of the Bureaux, Archives and _insignia_ of Government, etc., and to act as a provisional Government under the direction of Bern. The Landamman and the grand and petty council at Lausanne, on learning this intelligence, immediately saw thro' the scheme that was planned to deprive them of their independence; they, therefore, pa.s.sed a decree, threatening to arrest and punish as conspirators the Commissioners, should they dare to set their foot in the Canton, and declaring such of their countrymen who should aid or abet this scheme, or deliver up a single doc.u.ment to the Commissioners, traitors and rebels; they likewise called on the whole Canton to arm in defence of its independence and proclaimed at the same time that should this plan be attempted to be carried into execution, they would join their forces to those of Napoleon and thus endanger the position of the Allies.

They took their measures accordingly; the whole Canton Sew to arms; the Bernois and the Allies were alarmed and consultations held; the Count de Bubna, the Austrian General, being consulted, thought the attempt so hazardous and so pregnant with mischief that he had the good sense to recommend to the Allied Powers and to the Canton of Bern to desist from their project and not to make or propose any alteration in the Helvetic Const.i.tution, as guaranteed in 1814. His advice was of great weight and was adopted, and thus the Vaudois by their firmness preserved their independence. They met with great support likewise on this trying occasion from General La Harpe, preceptor to the Emperor of Russia, and a relation to the gentleman of the same name who was so instrumental in the emanc.i.p.ation of Vaud. La Harpe, who enjoyed the confidence of his pupil, exerted himself greatly in procuring his good offices in favour of the Vaudois his countrymen, and this was no small weight in the scale.

Lausanne is an irregularly built city, and not very agreeable to pedestrians, for its continual steep ascents and descents make it extremely fatiguing, and there is a part of the town to which you ascend by a flight of stairs; the houses in Lausanne have been humorously enough compared to musical notes. The country in the environs is beautiful beyond description and has at all times elicited the admiration of travellers. There is an agreeable promenade just outside the town, on the left hand side of the road which leads to Geneva, called _Montbenon_, which is the fashionable promenade and commands a fine view of the lake. On the left hand side is a Casino and garden used for the _tir de l'arc_, of which the Vaudois, in common with the other Helvetic people, are extremely fond. On the right hand side of the road is a deep ravine planted in the style of an English garden, with serpentine gravel walks, and on the other side of the ravine stands the upper part of the city, the Cathedral, _Hotel de Ville_, and the _Chateau du Bailli_, which is the seat of Government. From the terrace of the Cathedral you enjoy a fine view, but a still finer and far more comprehensive one is from the Signal house, or _Belvedere_ near the forest of Sauvabelin (_Silva Bellonae_ in Pagan times)[57]. In this wood fairs, dances and other public festivals are held, and it is the favourite spot for parties of pleasure to dine _al fresco_; it is a pity, however, that the edifice called the _Belvedere_ was not conceived in a better taste; it has an uncouth and barbarous appearance.

Lausanne is situated about a quarter of a mile (in a right line) from the lake, and you descend continually in going from the city to the Lake Leman by a good carriage road, until you arrive on the borders of the lake, where stands a neat little town called Ouchy, or as it is sometimes termed _le port de Lausanne_. There is a good quai and pier. The pa.s.sage across the lake from Ouchy to the Savoy side requires four hours with oars.

I have made several pleasant acquaintances here, viz., M. Pidon the Landamman, a litterato of the first order; Genl La Harpe, the tutor of the Emperor of Russia; but the most agreeable of all is the Baron de F[alkenskiold], an old gentleman of whose talents, merits and delightful disposition I cannot speak too highly. He has the most liberal and enlightened views and opinions, and is extremely well versed in English, French and German litterature. He is a Dane by birth and was exiled early in life from his own country, on account of an accusation of being implicated in the affair of Struensee; and it is generally supposed that he was one of Queen Matilda's favoured lovers, which supposition is not improbable, as in his youth, to judge from his present dignified and majestic appearance, he must have been an uncommonly handsome man. He has lived ever since at Lausanne, and tho' near seventy-four years of age and tormented with the gout, he never loses his cheerfulness, and pa.s.ses his time mostly with his books. He gives dinner parties two or three times a week, which are exceedingly pleasant, and one is sure to meet there a small, but well informed society of natives and foreigners. Most German travellers of rank and litterary attainments, who pa.s.s thro' Lausanne, bring letters of introduction and recommendation to the Baron and are sure to meet with the utmost hospitality and attention.

The women of the Canton de Vaud are in general very handsome, well shaped and graceful; litterature, music, dancing and drawing are cultivated by them with success; and among the men, tho' one does not meet perhaps with quite as much instruction as at Geneva (I mean that it is not so general), yet no pedantry whatever prevails as in Geneva. At Lausanne they have sincere and solid republican principles and they do not pay that servile court to the English that the Genevese do; nor have they as yet adopted the phrase "_Dieu me d.a.m.ne_."

PARIS, Dec. 5th.

I returned to Paris by Geneva and crossing the Jura chain of mountains pa.s.sed thro' Dole, Auxonne and Dijon. At Geneva, where I stopped three days, I met, at a musical party given by M. Picot the banker, the celebrated cantatrice Gra.s.sini, who looked as beautiful as ever, and sung in the most fascinating style several airs, particularly "_Quelle pupille tenere_" in the opera of the _Orazj e Curiazi_. To my taste her style of singing is far preferable to that of Catalani; there is much more pathos and feeling in the singing of Gra.s.sini; it is completely and truly the "_cantar che nell'anima si sente_." Catalani is very powerful, wonderful, if you will, in execution; but she does not touch my heart as Gra.s.sini does.

On my return to Paris from Geneva I found that the conditions of peace had been made public. They are certainly hard, not so much on account of the cession of territory, which is trifling, as on account of the vast sums of money that Prance is obliged to pay, and the still more galling condition of having to pay and feed at her expense an army of occupation of 150,000 men, of the Allied troops, for a term of three or five years, and to cede during that period several important fortresses. The inhabitants of Paris look very gloomy and n.o.body seems to think that the peace will last half as long. Prussia and Austria strove hard to wrest Alsace and German Lorraine from France; hosts of German publicists had accompanied their armies into France and had written pamphlet upon pamphlet to prove that mountains and not rivers were the proper boundaries of nations and that wherever the German language prevails, the country ought to belong to the Germanic body.

Ergo, the Vosges mountains were the natural boundaries of France, and Alsace and German Lorraine should revert to Germany. Russia and England, however, opposed this, and insisted that these two provinces should remain with France; but I have no doubt that the first movements that may occur in France (and they will perhaps be secretly encouraged) will serve as a pretext for the Allies to separate these countries definitively from France.

The Louvre has been stripped of the princ.i.p.al statues and pictures which have been sent back to the places from whence they were taken, to the great mortification of the Parisians, most of whom would have consented to the cession of Alsace and Lorraine and half of France to boot on condition of keeping the statues and pictures. The English Bureaux are preparing to leave Paris and the troops will soon follow; a new French army is organizing and several Swiss battalions are raised. It is generally supposed that by the end of December France, with the exception of the fortresses and districts to be occupied by the Allied Powers, will be freed from the pressure of foreign troops.

The Chamber of Peers is occupied with the trial of Marshall Ney, the Conseil de Guerre, which was ordered to a.s.semble for that purpose having declared itself incompetent. The friends of Ney advised him to claim the protection of the 12th Article of the Capitulation of Paris, and Madame Ney, it is said, applied both to the Duke of Wellington and to the Emperor of Russia; both ungenerously refused; to the former Nature has not given a heart with much sensibility, and the latter bears a petty spite against Ney on account of his t.i.tle, _Prince de la Moskowa_. It is pretty generally antic.i.p.ated that poor Ney will be condemned and executed; for tho' at the representation of _Cinna_ a few nights ago, at the Theatre Francais, the allusions to clemency were loudly caught hold of and applauded by the audience, yet I suspect Louis XVIII is by no means of a relenting nature, and that he is as little inclined to pardon political trespa.s.ses as his ancestor Louis IX was disposed to pardon those against religion; for, according to Gibbon, his recommendation to his followers was: _"Si quelqu'un parle contre la foi chretienne dans votre presence, donnez lui l'epee ventre-dedans_."

December 18th.

I met with an emigrant this day at the Palais Royal who was acquainted with my family in London. It was the Vicomte de B*****ye.[58] He had resided some time in England and also in Switzerland. He is an amiable man, but a most incorrigible Ultra. He displayed at once the ideas that prevail among the Ultras, which must render them eternally at variance with the ma.s.s of the French nation. In speaking of the state of France, he said: "_Je n'ai jamais cesse et jamais je ne cesserai de regarder comme voleurs tous les acquereurs des biens des emigres. Il faudroit, pour le bonheur de la France, qu'elle fut places dans le meme etat ou elle etait avant la Revolution._" He would not listen to my reasons against the possibility of effecting such a plan, even were the plan just and reasonable in itself. I told him that for the emigrants to expect to get back their property was just as absurd as for the descendants of those Saxon families in England, whose ancestors were dispossessed of their estates by William the Conqueror, to think of regaining them, and to call upon the Duke of Northumberland, for instance, as a descendant of a Norman invader, to give up his property as unjustly acquired by his progenitors. We did not hold long converse after this; his ideas and mine diverged too much from each other.

The English are very much out of favour with the emigrants, as well on account of the stripping of the Louvre as on account of not having shot all the _liberaux_. They had the folly to believe that the Allied troops would merely make war for the emigrants' interests, and after having put to death a considerable quant.i.ty of those who should be designated as rebels and Jacobins by them (the emigrants), would replace France in the exact position she was in 1789, and then depart.

Poor Marshall Ney's fate is decided. He was sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried into execution not on the _Place de Grenelle_ as was given out, but in the gardens of Luxemburgh at a very early hour. He met his fate with great firmness and composure. I leave Paris to-morrow for London.

[47] Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, VI, 20, 7.

[48] Virgil, _Aen_., VI, 620 (temnere _divos_).--ED.

[49] Louis Wirion (1764-1810), an officer of _gendarmerie_, commander-general of the _place_ de Verdun since 1804, was accused in 1808 of having extorted money from certain English prisoners quartered in Verdun (Estwick, Morshead, Garland, etc.). Wirion shot himself before the end of the long proceedings, which do not seem to have established his guilt, but had reduced him to misery and despair.--ED.

[50] Richard Brinsley Sheridan's (1751-1816) _Pizarro_, produced at Drury Lane in 1799.--ED.

[51] Three brothers Zadera, all born in Warsaw, served in the Imperial army.--ED.

[52] Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_ III, 2, i.--ED.

[53] These words mean, or are supposed to mean, in French and in Dutch: "I don't understand" (_je n'entends pas_).--ED.

[54] Horace, _Carm._, IV, 2,39.--ED.

[55]John Chetwode Eustace (1762-1815), author of _A Tour through Italy_ (2 vol., London, 1813), the eighth edition of which appeared in 1841.--ED.

[56] Theodoric was a Goth, not a Lombard.--ED.