THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ROMANCE SWITZERLAND Travel Lovers' Library Each in two volumes, profusely illustrated Florence. By Grant Allkn . Romance and Teutonic Switzerland. By \V. D. McCrackan The Same. — Unillustrated Old World Memories. I!y Edward Lowe Temple Paris. I'-y Gran't Allen Feudal and Modern Japan. By ARTHUR May Knapp The Same. — Unillustrated The Unchanging East. By Robert Barr Venice. By Grant Allen Gardens of the Caribbeej. By Ida M. H. StarR . Belgium: Its Cities. By Grant Allen . Rome Bv Walter Taylor Field Romantic Ireland. By M. F. and B. McM. ManSFIELD China and Her Peopl-. By Hon. Charles DenbV, LL. D Cities of Northern Italy . • • • By Grant .Allen and George C. Williamson The Umbrian Cities of Italy Bv T. W. AND A. M. Cruickshank Old Edinburgh By Frederick W. Watkeys . L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (incorporated) New England Building, Boston, Mas*. $3.00 3.00 1.50 3.00 3.00 3.00 1.50 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 ZKRMATr AM) 'I'lfK M ATTF.R HORN. ROMANCE AND TEUTONIC SWITZERLAND By W. D. McCrackan Author of " The Rise of the Swiss Republic," " The Fair Land Tyrol," "The Italian Lakes," etc. In Two Volumes Volume I. Romance Switzerland ^ew Illustrated Edition BOSTON * L. C. PAGE & COMPANY * PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1894, by Joseph Knight Company all rights reserved Sixth Impression, June, 1907 Seventh Impression, April, 1910 DC iS W I '^ J -I i o v, 1 CTfjts Fnlume is Brttcateti TO MY DEAR MOTHER IN MEMORY OF MY CHILDHOOD AT VEVEY PREFACE. T ET me say at once that I have no -^ desire to inflict another guide-book of Switzerland upon the tourist public. It is not my ambition to rival the inimitable Baedeker, but rather to supplement that work with portable companions, which shall add historical and biographical details to each place, and suggest local color and atmosphere. These little volumes on Romance and Teutonic Switzerland are intended to amplify and elucidate, by a series of pen pictures, what mere guide- books can only indicate. For this reason, the harrowing details of hotels and trains are religiously avoided. No tariffs of prices, no discussions about extra candles or vin cotnpf'is, are tolerated; especially no time-tables, with their snioky and stuffy memories. Who fares with me 7>iust travel fancy free ! Lest some readers should have their expectations unduly raised at the start by this name, '■ Romance,'' given to the first volume, I must explain that the term is applied to those parts of Switzerland, where Roman, or Latin, infiuences have remained uppermost; that is, to French and Italian Switzerland and the Enga- dine. If there be any latent romantic element in these chapters, it is doubtless due to the fact that " truth is stranger than fiction.'' It is often a source of genuine disap- pointment to the traveller, to find the Swiss mountaineers so different from what he had expected. He supposes that, living in the midst of magnificent scenery, they must be romantically inclined, venturesome for the sake of adventure, and at all times and PREFACE. IX in all places picturesque. He sets up ctn imaginary type. Every beauty in Nature, he argues, should somehow be reflected by a corresponding good quaffty in man. But he forgets that, if scenery leaves traces upon character, so do privation, overwork, and bad food. To be quite frank, the Swiss, as a whole, are tlie most practical, matter-of-factj and commofl-place people in the world. They are hardy, industrious, and deeplv attached to their native soil. Above a!!, they are possessed of an inborn talent for self-government. It would be resorting to unworthy flattery, to describe them as a handsome race, whether we speak of Ger- man, French, Italian, or Romansch Switzer- land. In fact, good looks are not common, and real beauty is actually rare. If the Swiss people were what the tourist would like them to be, merely picturesque, they would long ago have been absorbed by the great powers upon their borders, and the X PREFACE. mission of Switzerland, to provide a neu- tral territory in the midst of Europe, would never have been fulfilled. Pray, therefore, divest your minds of any lingering, high-flown impressions about chamois-hunters posing on the brink of precipices, in sentimental attitudes. Do not imagine that every Swiss wears a long feather in his cap; that all the girls are bewitching in brilliant costumes, or are likely to worry about your safety, like the maiden in Longfellow's "Excelsior," when she saw the youth pass through her village with his remarkable banner. Switzerland is not at all like a costume ball. The point of view in these volumes is almost invariably from below the snow line. Those who climb into the serene heights do not need to have their sensations re- hearsed for them, nor, it stands to reason, can there be much history, biography, or popular character to describe up there, on the silent wastes of snow. PREFACE. XI I have put into these two volumes what- ever seemed true, and therefore worthiest, after an acquaintance with Switzerland of many years, extending from my childhood to the present time, having but recently finished the special studies undertaken in connection with my history, " The Rise of the Swiss Republic." As it is intended to keep these chapters at all times up to date, I beg those who read them to forward me any suggestions, or corrections, they may deem expedient ; and to do this, whether in the character of sojourners in the land, or leisurely saunter- Ms, or merely hurrying tourists. W. D. McCRACKAN. CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. Geneva i 11. The Taming of Mont Blanc . 20 III. Rousseau, Voltaire, and Ma- dame DE Stael 30 IV. Brief Biographies : Calvin, De Saussure, Mallet-Di-'pan, SlSMONDI, ToPFFER, AMIEL, .\NI> MONNIER 57 V. The Tour of Lake Leman . . 82 VI. Two ViNEY.A KD Towns of Vaud : Lausanne and Vevey ... 95 VII. Off the Tourist Track : Some Hill Towns, A Forgotten Capital, Two Burgundian Battlefields 115 VIII. Neuchatel. Swiss-American Scientists 137 XIV CONTENTS. Chapter Page IX. Fribourg and Romont ... 159 X. The Land and Castle of Gruyere 171 XL In and Out the Valais ... 188 XII. Storming the Matterhorn . 214 XIII. Locarno and Lugano .... 225 XIV. Chur and the Engadine . . 242 Index 253 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Zermatt and the Matterhorn Frotiftspicce Geneva . 2 Mont Blanc 20 Chateau Voltaire, at Ferney . . 42 Lake Leman 82 Lausanne SS Vevey 112 Fribourg 160 St. Maurice 193 Pissevache Waterfall . . .196 Martigny 198 Hospice of St. Bernard . . . 200 The Matterhorn 216 Madonna del Sasso .... 230 Lugano 234 Davos 24S Volume I ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. CHAPTER I. GENEVA. WHEN the keen, fair-weather bise blows from the northeast, Geneva and its adjacent hillsides look as though they had been washed clean. An incredible pur- ity of atmosphere and brilliancy of color throws the city, mountains, and lake-shores into relief ; while an air which stimulates to boundless enterprise passes through the streets, across the bridges, and into the vineyards and fields. From the end of the stone jetty in the harbor, where some benches under spread- ing shade-trees invite meditation, the out- look on all sides is exceedingly noble. The old town of Calvin's day rises in a heaped conglomeration, pile on pile, to the cathe- dral towers ; bridges span the Rhone, that shoots from the lake in a blue-green flood ; on the water-front, a stretch of 2 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. foliage denotes the Jardin Anglais, and the lateral quays are lined with hotels and apartment-houses, white with the chalky glare peculiar to Geneva. Beyond the utmost limits of the Canton, rise the cir- cling hills of the Jura, the Saleve, and the Voirons, their every detail microscopically revealed in this crystal air. On such days, the lake appears ruffled into impossible colors, shading off from Prussian blue to indigo, from gay irides- cence to angry intensity. On either hand, the shore lines stand out clear and crisp, as far as Nyon in the Canton of Vaud and Bellerive in Savoy. It must have been the vividness of a genuine bise day which made Mr. Howells somewhat pitilessly describe Geneva as " an admirable illustration printed in colors, for a holiday number, to imitate a water-color sketch." And yet what a change comes over the physiognomy of the city, when the south wind blows! How gray the water turns, and how sadly the heavy, vapory atmosphere shuts off the lake-views ! Then, too, from the jetty as a point of vantage, the life of the harbor, bridges, and GENEVA. 3 quays is amply seen. As the steamboats come and go, fine-toned bells swing mu- sically in their bows, — such bells as are heard on all Swiss lakes. Lumbering, black-hulled barges, laden with wood or building stone, bear down upori the city, their lateen sails spread wing-a-wing like monster butterflies. There is a hurrying to and fro over the bridge of the Mont Blanc, where business and pleasure jostle each other. Nurses and children, however, hold undisputed possession of the Island of Rousseau, as by some unwritten law, while in their midst the unheeding statue of the author of " Emile " rests upon its pedestal under the shade-trees. He sits pencil in hand, this philosopher, ever ready to write upon his tablet, although for all these many years no new idea has come to him. But the crowning marvel of this region will always be Mont Blanc, if it be our good-fortune to find it uncovered. Gen- erally the mountain looks almost as ethereal and impalpable as the fluffy clouds which drift about it. After a fall of snow, however, Mont Blanc suggests a giant bowl of whipped cream, soft and sweet, as though 4 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. one could easily bite into it. On clear evenings, moreover, it passes through tints of sunset pinks and pale orange, fading finally into a peculiarly horrible colorlcss- ness, which is gray and ghastly by contrast with the preceding splendor. What impresses one most at first about Geneva is its cosmopolitan gayety, — prob- ably because so much has been written in the past about the influence of Calvinism in fostering long-faced austerity. As a matter of fact, Geneva is, in summer at any rate, a veritable holiday town; not to speak of the string bands that play before the caf^s every night, and the chafiteuses that sing there, dressed with an airy splendor which is almost Parisian, hardly a week passes without some general public fete. And then the Sundays ! Surely they must disturb the great Reformer in his last resting-place, for the people seem so art- lessly happy in their amusements. When the orchestra of the Society Nautique plays in the Jardin Anglais of an evening, the harbor becomes dotted with little boats, each carrying a Chinese lantern that casts GENEVA. 5 trailing reflections upon the water. It is then that the great water-jet, created by the force of the Rhone, plays into the night air, artificially illuminated by an electric contrivance of many colors. As for the Venetian nights, in which Geneva indulges from time to time, everybody agrees that they are fairy-like, and cost a good deal of money. Nobody can accuse the Genevese washer women of Calvinistic taciturnity. They have several floating houses made fast to the banks of the river Rhone, and there they spend the day, soaping and pounding their linen on the boards in front of them, chatting incessantly as only washerwomen can. No matter how loud the Rhone may roar, as it escapes from the sluice-gates at the Pont de la Machine, these ladies of the laundry can always make themselves heard. The choicest bits of gossip are never lost in the turmoil of the waters. When the cold weather comes, Geneva receives flocks of beautiful and mysterious visitors. These gulls hail apparently from the Mediterranean, along with the lateen sails of the barges. It is quite the fashion 6 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND, to go out on the l)ridgc of tlie Mont Blanc to feed them, for they will catch a piece of bread in the air as neatly as you like, and their screamin,'^ and an_a;ry pecking is at once disgraceful and delightful. But for all this frivolous modernness, Geneva still holds many remnants of antiquity for the sight-scer. There is a new quarter and an old; you can take your choice. On the hill stands the Cathedral of St. Peter, to which ancient and steep little streets give access from below. Architecturally speaking, the building is a mixture of many styles, with Gothic pre- dominating. The facade, however, is decidedly spoiled by a peristyle of six Corinthian columns, supporting a Pantheon- like dome. Otherwise the noble lines of the original design can still be appreciated at the back, where two massive flanking towers, and a smaller central one, stand forth handsomely above the bulging choir. The newly restored Chapel of the Macca- bees is also admirable in its Gothic beauty ; and you must be sure to sit in that old chair of Calvin's which stands under the pulpit, in order to fulfil your duty as a con- scientious sight-seer. There is no ques- tion about the antiquity of the cathedral site, for remnants of two older churches have been discovered beneath the present building. On Sundays, the solemn cathedral square becomes almost gay with the gathering congregation, exchanging decorous civili- ties. The bright dresses of young girls help to relieve the rather bare and forbid- ding aspect of the interior, while slow, measured, full-toned chorals rise to the vaulted ceiling in majestic cadences. Church attendance is with many Genevese more of a patriotic practice than a religious function. They consider it an act of tra- ditional respect toward that great past when Geneva was the Protestant Rome ; and so when the preacher turns to the well-filled benches, you may be sure that he will lay little stress on dogma and doctrine, but rather content himself with inculcating morality. Near the cathedral are several old streets bearing pre-Reformation names. There is a Rue du Cloitre, and another ,de I'Evechd. In the same quarter, too, is the Rue Calvin, S ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. The Reformer lived from 1541 to 1543 a* No. II, and then moved to No. 13, where he died in 1564. Rousseau's birthplace is No. 40 Grand' Rue. Farther down the hill, in the neighborhood of the quaint Church of the Madeleine, is a maze of ancient houses, dank and unwholesome, where the streets bear such realistic names as Rue de I'Enfer, Rue du Purgatoire, etc. Round the corner, the Hotel de Ville, lately renovated, make? a distinctly pleas- ing impression. Its Florentine style is exceedingly interesting. On the street side, you will notice certain wire-covered frames hanging against the wall. Wait a little, and you will be sure to see some young girls coming up to peer in at the lists of printed names. No wonder; for it is here that all announcements of marriage are officially posted. There is also an interior court of good effect, l:iut especially notice- able is a curious, winding, inclined plane to the first floor, which takes the place of a staircase, so that the magistrates in former days could ride up to their Assembly Hall on horseback, or be carried in litters. Here, too, the so-called Alabama Chamber GENEVA. 9 may be visited, where the famous decision was given in 1872. Nothing could be more aristocratically exclusive, and yet accessible, than the position, here on the hill, of the hotels of famous Genevese families, of the De Saussure, De la Rive, Necker, De Sellon, and others. The entrances are along the Rue de la Cit6 and the Rue des Granges, — narrow and steep streets, — but at the back, these mansions possess the most delightful of garden terraces with prospects over the high wall of the Corraterie and the Promenade de la Treille. In the matter of museums, Geneva, though well supplied, needs some central repository, like the Museum of Fine Arts in Neuchatel. There is the Mus^e Rath, containing pictures, casts, etc., the Mus^e Fol with its archceological odds and ends, the Ath^n^e, where periodic exhibitions of paintings are held, and the Ariana, the gift of the late Gustave Revilliod, full of treasures superbly housed, not to mention the curiosities in the public library and the arsenal. These collections would exert a greater educational influence if they were lO ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. not dispersed. The cost of their mainte- nance, too, would be considerably reduced by common management. Numerous statues and busts adorn Geneva; but, by some strange irony, there is not one of Calvin to be found, high or low. It seems unaccountable. Rousseau, to be sure, has been remembered, and an island set apart for his glorification. Still, even his monument does not make as much show as that of a foreign benefactor of the city, Duke Charles II. of Brunswick, who, dying in 1873, ^'^^^ Geneva twenty million francs, and thus made possible the fine opera-house and other luxurious improve- ments. The monument of this Prince stands in the Place des Alpes, and is copied after the tomb of the Scaligeri in Verona. It is a costly, sumptuous, and highly ornamental piece of work ; but, as Mr. Howells aptly remarks, " You must still go to Verona to see the tombs of the Scaligeri." Of other statues not much can be said. The group of two heroic female figures, representing Helvetia and Geneva, near the Jardin Anglais, suffers, as all such works do, from clumsiness, along with the Bavaria at Munich, and the Liberty in New York harbor. A David by Chaponniere, in the Promenade des Bastions, is pleasing ; Dufour's equestrian statue in the Place Neuve does not rise above mediocrity ; and the busts of various Gencvese celebri- ties in different parts of the citv arc said to be at least good characteristic likenesses. But what about educational facilities ? One cannot speak too highly of the efforts made by Geneva to perfect its scheme of public instruction. More than a quarter of the annual budget is devoted to this purpose. In fact, not the least interesting features of the city, even for a casual visitor, are the University and the influence which it radiates. If one were to search for the hall-mark, the characteristic temper, of this University of Geneva, it would be found in its cos- mopolitan scholarship, its combination of German seriousness with French adapta- bility, of liberality in thought with common sense in action. The lecture system is in universal use; compL'te liberty is left to 12 ROMANXE SV/ITZERI AND. the students in tlie clioice of courses . and women are admitted on terms ol absolute equality with men. Tlic compara- • tive method of study is in full vogue; and the relation l)et\veen the jjrofessors and the students very nearly resembles that good-humored, co-operative comradeship which is one of the chief charms of the smaller American colleges. Moreover, by a series of free lectures on winter evenings, given by distinguished specialists, the ques- tion of University Extension has to a great extent been solved in Geneva. In 1892, the number of students rose to over six hundred, thus exceeding that in attendance at any other Swiss university, whether Basel, liern, Ziirich, or Lausanne. In regard to nationality, there are always a great many Russians, with a strong contin- gent of women in their midst, also a good many Bulgarians and Greeks. Even in holidav-time, these foreign students may be seen in the adjacent public library, their dark faces bent in the eager pursuit of the learning they have come so far to acquire. In point of fact, no educational summary of Geneva would be complete without men- GEXEVA. 13 tion of this magnificent free library, with its one hundred thousand volumes and sixteen hundred manuscripts, founded centuries ago by Bonivard, the prisoner of Chillon. The writer has reason to speak highly of its usefulness in the study of local history. Of course Geneva possesses the usual complement of grade schools, the most interesting of which is the College St. Antoine, dating from the time of Calvin. Its building deserves to rank among the most picturesque of the old city. Of spe- cial industrial and art schools there is an astonishing supply. Music, too, is studied with enthusiasm at the Conservatory. M. Edouard Rod goes so far as to aver that, •• In summer, with the orchestras in the <:af6s, the street-organs in the open air, and the sounds of pianos and songs issuing from open windows, Geneva suggests one of those music-boxes which it manufactures so extensively."* It is well to care for the arts and to fur- ther popular instruction ; but it is even more necessary to stimulate industrial enterprise * Rod. Edouard. Geneve — Les Capitales du Monde. Hachette & Co.: Faii?. 1S92. 14 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND, and insure good trade returns. In one respect, Geneva may well serve as a model to all progressive, commercial communities. It has put itself in possession of one of the most effective and least expensive manu- facturing agents to be found in the world. This consists simply in the utilization of the Vvfater-power of the rapid Rhone upon an elaborate scale. Nowhere else has any- thing like it been attempted, unless the recently opened v/orks pt Frankfurt in Ger- many, and the projected ones at Niagara, may be taken as examples. As early as 1620, the current was made to turn primi- tive turbines; but in 1S86 the magnificent stone, iron, and glass palace of the Forces Motrices was formally inaugurated. Built by the eminent city engineer, Turretini, at the expense of the united citizens, and managed by the municipalit)^, these indus- ^:rial water-works deserve to stand as an object-lesson in practical co-operation. There are six huge turbines and founda- tions for fourteen more. Not only is drink- ing-water supplied to the whole city by this means, but hydraulic power is also distrib- uted to all parts through pipes under heavy GENEVA. 15 pressure, and rented to users at low rates. Forty-two hundred liorse-powei is tnus at disposal for the use of manufactories. An era of industrial aggrandizement would thus seem to await Geneva. Unfor- tunately, another factor mars the bright prospect. That is the protective policy of France, on the one hand, and of Switzer- land on the other. Geographically speaking, Geneva is well placed to become a great industrial centre. All it needs is free play and access to its natural markets. If those are cut off by customs duties, stagnation ensues. All the motive-power in the world cannot counter- act this inflexible law. What is known as the zone in Savoy is too slight a concession to the city's demands, for Geneva is the normal emporium of a large district extend- ing far into France. At present, therefore, the city presents the pathetic spectacle of a city swept and garnished, waiting for an opportunity to use its resources. This comparative stagnation of industry is certainly not due to any want of skill or lack of inventive faculty on the part of Genevese workmen. In certain specialties l6 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. their light touch is unrivalled, especially in articles of luxury, depending upon the exact sciences, such as watchmaking, enam- elling, and manufacturing of musical boxes. It is not generally known that the stem- winding attachment of modern watches is a Genevese invention. In the past, Geneva also had its famous enamellers, like Turquet de Mayern and Fetitot, whose work is highly prized by collectors. As for musical boxes, they have been brought to such perfection that the mechanism may be hidden in all sorts of articles of furniture, or in utensils of daily use. You sit down upon a chair, and it begins to play the " Swan Song" out of *' Lohengrin ; " when you take up a hand- mirror, it rolls off a waltz in your face ; and a decanter sings a drinking-song, as you pour out wine. Artificial nightingales warble from cages or bowers, with the true, caressing notes of the real bird. But the latest developments of this art are monster orchestrions, supplied with all the tones of great church organs, of brass bands, or of mixed orchestras, playing the best classical music automatically, yet with a perfected GENEVA. 17 human touch which makes them almost uncanny. In estimating the Genevese character, tlie genuine local type, one must not accept too readily the judgments of writers of the past, who knew the city only in its days of religious intolerance. Modern Geneva has practically emancipated itself from this influence, since the overthrow of the native oligarchy, which supported Calvinistic prin- ciples out of respect for tradition. As a rule, French critics reproached the place with being dull, the people with lack- ing manners and gayety. On the other hand, John Milton, journeying from Italy, thought that he had strayed into the ideal, theocratic state of his dreams, his pattern Puritan commonwealth. Neither Goethe nor Victor Hugo liked Geneva. The for- mer saw it in 1779, when it still stood sombre within its walls, and the latter in 1839, at a time when it was putting on the first garish coat of modernness. There is nothing more amusing for a stranger than to notice the opinion which other cantons of French Switzerland enter- 2 1 8 ROxMANCE SWITZERLAND. tain of the Genevese. In Lausanne and Neuchatel, you will hear them described as Frenchified and )iio7idaiiis, — intelligent, of course, but stiff and proud. Under this pro- vocation, it is only natural that the Genevese should retort by calling their neighbors stolid and f'-r^j-.f/ivj, — good, honest people, of course, but somewhat unpolished. The truth is that Geneva is the least Swiss of all the cantons. The Genevese have less of that rugged quality which is, in some measure, an unfailing ingredient in the Swiss character. They are also far- ther removed from the mountains than the others. Uut scratch the frivolous French skin of the Genevese, and you will find the serious substratum of the Teuton. Inven- tive, facile, and of an independent disposi- tion, the average Genevese is also strongly introspective and thorough. He is radical in thcor\-, but conservative in practice ; he is at once essentially progressive, and yet bound by preconceptions inherited from the past. In former times, the continual danger of Savoyard aggression rendered the Gene- vese citizens tenacious and combative : the firm rule of Calvinism gave them precisiou GKXEVA. ig And pedantry. In the modern type, these qualities can still be traced, softened by contact with cosmopolitan conditions. Who can tell what will be the future of a community thus endowed ! Geneva stands on the confines of P'rcnch, German, and Italian influences. Shall they continue to struggle for the mastery as heretofore, and produce an original, local character like the present one ? Or shall one of these elements absorb the others ? Mr. Howells has dubbed Geneva "a small moralized Bostonian Paris,'' — rather a promising combination. At any rate, tlie prevailing aspiration in Geneva is for the retention of a distinct personality. No one has expressed this sterling spirit in better lines than M. Henri Fnzy. '' Let us maintain within us,'" he writes, "'the sentiment of our national individuality, and to this end pre- serve carefully that indepeii.u.-nce of mind and manner which has been for four cen- turies one of the distinctive traits of the Genevese character." * * Fazy, Henri. Les Constitutions de la Repub- /ique de Geneve. Geneva. 1S90. p. 2S6. CHAPTER II. THE TAMING OF MONT BLANC. STRICTLY speaking, Mont Blanc is not in Switzerland at all, since it lies on the boundary between PVench Savoy and Italy; but the Genevese, who have the view of it every fine morning from their windows, cannot quite make up their minds that the great show-piece does not belong to them. Besides, is it not written in the guide-books that all well-regulated tourists approach the " monarch of European mountains " from the Swiss side ? We are now so much in the habit of resorting to the mountains for a summer outing, that it is difficult for us to realize that mountaineering, as a pastime, is a purely modern affair. The ancients apparently had no senti- ment for the beauty of Alpine scenery, no enthusiasm for its ineffable glories, or THE TAMING OF .MOXT BLAXC. 21 longing for its serene pleasures. Greek and Roman literature contains many refer- ences to the Alps ; but mention is made only of the dangers to be incurred, — the avalanches, precipices, and torrents. The Alps were considered simply as obstacles to traffic and transportation, full of hard- ships and terrors, to be shunned, and not to be crossed, except under the stress of dire necessity. The populations of the plains invested their peaks with all sorts of superstitions, peopled their valleys and ravines with monsters, and their caverns with dragons. As for anybody travelling over them for pleasure, climbing their summits for a view, or spending the sum- mer in their upland valleys for the air, such conduct would have been considered madness. In point of fact, men first crossed tlie Alps either as soldiers or merchants. Ilannibal's passage showed that they were practicable even for large armies, while Julius Caesar's conquest of the Helvetii did much to familiarize the Romans with Alpine passes. After the advent of Christianity, came travelling missionaries and multitudes 22 ROMAN'CR SWITZERLAND. of pilgrims from Northern Europe, bound for Rome. Tliroughout the Middle Ages, the German emperors also crossed repeat- edly with large detachments of followers. But there is no record of any ascent being made of an Alpine peak until com- paratively recent times, unless it be Leo- nardo da\'inci's climb up Mount Monboso, as he calls it, in the Maritime Alps. ]\Iont Blanc, with a summit 15.730 feet above the level of the sea, was not ascended until 1786. In that year, it was success- fully scaled by an inhabitant of the Valley of Chamonix, a chamois-hunter, named Jacques Balmat. A most complete account of this famous first ascent has been pre- served for us by Alexandre Dumas, the elder, who visited Chamonix in 1S33, '^^d wrote down the story as he heard it from Balmat himself, then an old man of seventy- two years. It appears that the Genevese naturalist, De Saussure. had offered a large reward to the first man who should reach the top. Balmat was twenty-five at the time, excep- tionally hardy, and experienced in mountain craft. First, he studied Mont Blanc from THE TAMING OF MOXT BLANC. 23 many sides, in order to find a way to the summit. On one occasion he spent three successive nights in the snow, unsheltered and at great altitudes, only to be driven back unsuccessful, by a change in the weather. Undaunted by repeated failures, he re- turned to the charge three weeks later, on the 8th of August, 17S6. This time he was accompanied by Dr. Paccard, the local practitioner. They left Chamonix at five o'clock in the evening, trying to elude observation. That night was spent on the mountain ; and next morning the two climbers started for the top at two o'clock. From a point above the Petit-AIulet, they perceived the villagers assembled below, watching their progress with telescopes. But after thev had advanced a little far- ther, Dr. Paccard gave out. overcome witli fatigue and cold. Balmat, however, pushed on to the top, which he finally reached in a state of great exhaustion. He described his sensations to Dumas in the following words: — " I was walking with my head lowed down; but perceiving that I was upon a 24 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. point wliich I did not recognize, I raised my head, and saw that I had at length reached the summit of Mont Blanc. Then I turned my eyes about me, trembling lest I had deceived myself, and should find some Aiguille, some new point, for I should not have had strength to climb it; the joints of my legs seemed to be held to- gether only by my trousers. But no, no ; I was at the end of my journey. I had arrived there where no one had been before, not even the eagle and the chamois ; I had arrived alone, without other assist- ance than that of my own strength and will; all that surrounded me seemed to belong to me; I was the King of Mont Blanc ; I was the statue of that immense pedestal." Balmat straightway returned to Dr. Pac- card, whom he discovered huddled up on the snow, more dead than alive. When he had succeeded in rousing him, he forced him to mount to the summit. Tliey reached it at six 1'. M., and then descended to a place below the snow-line, where they speiit the night. Next morning. Dr. I'accard found that he had been temporarily blinded THE TAMING OF MONT BLANC. 25 by the glare of the snow, and so he was obliged to return to Chamonix holding on to the strap of Balmat's knapsack. Next year, De Saussure made the ascent with Balmat, and his published account told the world of the subjugation of the highest of the Alpine giants. On the occasion of the centenary of De Saussure's ascent, in 1887, a monument was unveiled at Chamonix, representing the chamois-hunter and the naturalist standing on a great block of stone. Bal- mat is pointing eagerly to the summit, as though urging De Saussure to make the attempt. Although the monument is any- thing but impressive in itself, its position in the open air, at the foot of Mont Blanc, with Balmat actually pointing to the visible summit, lends the whole a certain real- istic fitness. Mont Blanc is now ascended almost daily during the season. It is one of the favorite occupations of less adventurous, or perhaps more economical, travellers ta watch, through telescopes, parties of climb- ers winding slowly ov;er the spotless snow. A man with a large glass will take his sta- 26 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. tion in front of your hotel, and hang out a sign, informing everybody that "persons are visible on Mont Blanc." The view from the top, however, is apt to be unsatis- factory, owing partly to the prevalence of clouds, and partly to the great distance of all surrounding objects. The trip from Chamonix and back is usually made in three days; and the total cost, including guides, porters, and provisions, amounts to about fifty dollars a person. The truth is, many people are more afraid of the ex- pense than the fatigue. In the summer of 1893, a courageous French scientist, M. Janssen, at last succeeded in establishing a small observa- tory on the summit of Mont lilanc. The first person, apparently, to suggest such an undertaking was M. Vallot, an Alpine climber, who actually built a provisional one below the summit. M. Janssen's building was constructed at Meudon, France, and transported to its position by porters and snow trolleys of special make. No rock foundation could be reached after deep borings, and so the whole stands upon the solid snow. The THE TAMING OF MO-NT BLANC. 27 base is over thirty feet long, by sixteen feet wide. The open frame\vorl< of wood has the form of a truncated pyramid in two stages, and the rooms inside are reached by a spiral staircase. The roof is surrounded by a railing and serves for meteorological observations. All the walls of the rooms as well as the windows are double, and the latter can be closed by air-tight shutters. Provision is made for keeping the observa- tory vertical in case the snow of tlie foundation should lose its level, after the manner of glacial ice. The interior will be heated by petroleum and furnished with every necessary for life at that great altitude. In spite of advanced age, M. Janssen ascended the mountain to see whether the project was feasible, and later to make the first scientific observations in that pure air. He at once satisfied himself by the use of the spectroscope, that there could be no oxygen in the solar atmosphere, and that the apparent oxygen lines, observed by others, were due to the effect of the earth's atmosphere. Further valuable results will no doubt continue to flow from this daring, 28 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. scientific experiment. Certainly, Alpine travellers have every reason to rejoice at the shelter afforded by the observatorj-, since it is now possible to remain a few days on the summit and wait for a view. Is the taming of Mont Blanc now complete? I think not. This age and the next has further surprises in store for the mountain giant. In our day, we are rapidly conquering the Alps by steam and electri- city. Perhaps it may be the turn of Mont Blanc next year, or the year after, to fall a victim. But if railroads do not succeed, perhaps balloons will. In point of fact, the attempt has already been made to cross the Alps in an air-ship, although, to be accurate, the issue was tragic, since the expedition began with a wedding and ended with a funeral. A certain Italian aeronaut married a wife, presented his bride with a new balloon as a wedding gift, and decided to spend his honeymoon making trips. On one occasion the couple invited a male friend to make the attempt of crossing the Alps and landing on French territory. When near the Cairamella Peaks, the balloon was caught in a hurri THE TAMING OF MONT BLANC. 29 cane, dashed with great violence against a glacier, and broken up. The occupants escaped practically uninjured, and spent the first night sheltering themselves as best they could under the remnants of the balloon. But in trying to make their way down next day, the party were less fortunate ; for the husband fell into a crevasse and was killed, the friend sus- tained serious injuries, and the bride alone, after a second terrible night spent on the snow with her disabled companion, was able to make her way down to a moun- taineer's hut. The friend was rescued by a party of searchers, and the body of the husband removed to a mountain chapel. The first attempt to conquer the Alps with balloons is not encouraging. But when contrivances have been perfected, we can imagine future tourists standing in immaculate toilets where Balmat arrived, panting and frozen ; telephoning to their friends below, from the pinnacle where the courageous hunter triumphantly proclaimed himself the King of Mont Blanc. What bathos ! And vet what a marvel ! CHAPTER III. ROUSSEAU, VOLTAIRE, AND MADAME DE STAEL. SWITZERLAND has never known a period of such intellectual brilliancy as that comprised by the closing j-ears of the last century and the opening ones of this. A whole list of world celebrities. both native and foreign, were gathered upon her soil ; but Geneva outshone even Zurich with the combined lustre of Rous- seau, Voltaire, and Madame de Stael. I. Jean Jacques Rousseau stands easily first among the men of genius whom Geneva has produced. Most of his life, it is true, was spent away from his native city; but the main spring of his best thoughts, and the elements of his real strength, were un- questionably Genevese. He was born in ROUSSEAU. 31 1 71 2, in a house on the Grand' Rue. His ancestors were French, a certain bookseller, Didier Rousseau, having come from Paris in 1550. His bringing up was singularly unfortu- nate ; for his mother, a woman of taste and accomplishments, died in giving birth to him, while his father, by turns a watch- maker and a dancing-master, was a fervent patriot, but a careless parent. The child was given into the charge of aunts, who brought him up without the companionship of other children. He became as sensitive and shy as a girl, devouring romances at home, when he ought to have been playing out-of-doors. For a while he was sent into the country to a pastor, Lambercier, and then apprenticed to an engraver, who beat him. The boy's character became sly and savage from bad treatment. At sixteen, Rousseau, unable to bear his lot, fled to a proselyting priest, M. de Pon- verre, at Confignon, in Savoy, and renounced Protestantism. " He received me well," relates Rousseau in his " Confessions," "spoke to me of the heresy of Geneva, of the authority of the holy mother church, 32 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. and gave me dinner. I found little to answer to arguments which ended thus ; and I judged that priests, at whose houses one dined so well, were at all events worth as much as our ministers." A commemo- rative tablet has recently been affixed to the wall of this parish house. At M. de Ponverre's suggestion Rousseau went to Annecy to ask help of Madame de Warens, — a recent convert, originally from Vevey, who was in receipt of an annuity from the King of Sardinia. This step was one of the decisive ones in his life. With Madame de Warens"s help, Rousseau at first sought employment in Turin, but soon returned to her and took up his abode for years in her house. She received him out of the goodness of her heart, pitying his misery, and attracted by his originality. But Madame de Warens was only thirty, and still beautiful, — a woman with a history, unbalanced in her religious ideas, and protesting against the world's conventional code. From being his "maman," as Rousseau called her, she became his mistress, by a process whose steps he has described with remorseless KOUSSEAU. 33 frankness in his " Confessions." For ten years they lived upon Madame de Warens's small income, Rousseau in the mean time trying a variety of occupations with little or no success, — studying law, giving music lessons, and, above all, reading philosophy with avidity. Removing to a country place near Chamb^ry, called Aux Charmettes, the couple gave themselves up to a life of luxurious sentimentalism. In 1 741 Rousseau finally broke away from this relaxing atmosphere, satiated, and anxious to distinguish himself in the world of Paris. The following twelve years were marked by a terrible struggle against pov- erty and in galling obscurity. The young enthusiast had gone to Paris with high hopes, having invented a new system of annotating music by numbers: but nobody would hear of it, and he was thrown upon various shifts to keep from starving. His first success was in 1752, when, having made the acquaintance of several actors, he had the good fortune of having his piece, " Devin du \'illage," acted at court. It was characteristic of the man, however, that he refused the pension which the king 3 34 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. offered him in acknowledgment of his talents, preferring to nurse his pride in poverty, copying music at so much a line. But the spell of constant failure was broken. He kept himself before the public by a series of radical utterances on music, political rights, and political economy. Mis "Discours sur I'lnegalite"' raised a per- fect whirlwind of discussion. In 1754, he returned to Geneva, after an absence of forty-two years, re-entered the Protestant Church, in order to enjoy the rights of citizenship, but refused the position of librarian offered him tliere. Instead, he contracted 3. liaison with Madame d'Epinay, and settled in a little house belonging to her, called L'Ermitagc, at Montmorency, near Paris. From this retreat Rousseau launched in succession his " Nouvelle H^loise." " Con- trat -Social," and •■ Emile,"' — three books which exerted an almost incredible influ- ence upon the times, forcing men and women to probe the problems underlying the relations of the sexes, the political rights of men, and the education of chib dren. Amiel. who made a special stud}- of ROUSSEAU. 35 the philosopher, aptly says: "J. J. Rous- seau is an ancestor in all things. It was he who founded travelling on foot before Topffer, revery before Ren^, literary bot- any before George Sand, the worship of Nature before Bernardin dc St. Pierre, the democratic theory before the Revolution of 1789, political discussion and theological discussion before Mirabeau and Renan, the science of teaching before Pestalozzi, and Alpine description before De Saussure. He made music the fashion, and created the taste for confessions to the public. He formed a new French style, — the close, chastened, passionate, interwoven style we know so well."* At this time he took as mistress a servant, Thdrfese Levasseur, by whom he had five children. In 1762, his work, "Emile," was burned by the hangman, by order both of the Parliament of France and the Council of Geneva. Its author was exiled, fled to Yverdon, but, being expelled by the Ber- nese authorities, then ruling the Pays de * Amiel, H. F. Journal Tntime. Translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. London and New York: 1885. pp. 165-166. ;i6 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Vaud, finally enjoyed a short period of rest at Motiers, in the Prussian principality of Neuchatel, under the protection of its nom- inal ruler, Frederick the Great. In disgust, Rousseau renounced liis rights of citizen- ship in Geneva. The city was thrown into a ferment, everybody siding for or against him. His friends petitioned the Council in his favor in a strongly worded rep7-hen- iaiion, to which the latter opposed their so-called droit negatif. From that moment the city was divided mto political parties, styling themselves Representants and Niga- tifs. Then followed a singular literary duel. The Procurator-General of Geneva, Tronchin, opened the case in favor of the Represefitants by his " Lettres de la Cam- pagne," — models of juridical discussion; but Rousseau answered with crushing effect in his " Lettres de la Montague," reproach- ing the partisans of the ancient order with burning words. " I see no servitude equal to yours," he wrote; "and the image of liberty is with you nothing but a mocking and childish decoy, which it is even unbe- coming to offer to men of sense." Driven even from Alotir-rs bv fimfirnl ROUSSEAU. 37 peasants, Rousseau sought refuge for two months on the little Isle of St. Peter, in the Lake of Bienne. His room is still shown to visitors in the so-called Schaffner- haus; but the level of the lake having been lowered by the Correction des Eaux du Jura, the island has virtually become a peninsula, being now connected with the mainland. It was a striking example of the intolerance of pre-RevoIutionary days in Switzerland, that the bigoted Bernese magistrates hunted Rousseau even from this retreat. He fled to Strassburg, visited David Hume for a while at Wootton, in England, and ended his days at Erme- nonville, near Paris, in 1778. His body rests side by side with that of Voltaire in the Pantheon. There can be no doubt that, during the last fifteen years of his life, Rousseau was pursued by the fixed idea that a vast con- spiracy had been organized against him. Lombroso, the Italian writer, whose thesis is that "genius is a special morbid condi- tion," goes so far as to assert : " Those who, without frequenting a lunatic asylum, wish to form a fairly complete idea of the mental 38 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. tortures of a monomaniac have only to look through Rousseau's works, especially his later writings, such as the ' Confessions,' the ' Dialogues," and the ' Reveries.' " * There can be no question that Rous- seau's physical and mental make-up was abnormal ; but it must not be forgotten that his persecutions were also sufficiently real to unbalance even a sturdier nature. An enigmatical creature he was, in truth, — impressionable, acting upon impulse, and as nervous as the proverbial modern woman. Paradoxical to a degree hardly conceivable until his life is compared with his teachings, he yet reclaimed himself from hypocrisy by a naive avowal of his sins. Although by temperament gross and sensual, he described the utmost delicacy and refinement of love in his " Nouvelle H^loise." He was a radical reformer in the education of the young, who abandoned his illegitimate children to the Foundlings' Hospital; a mediocre musician, playwright, and poet, but an original and courageous * Lombroso, Cesare. The Man of Genius London. iSiji. p. Si. VOLTAIRE. 39 philosopher ; incapable as a political leader, but unrivalled as an advocate of popular rights. Napoleon said: "Without Rous- seau, France would not have had her Revolution." It was his supreme merit to have turned the world in the nick of time once more to Nature. He was the apostle of her beau- ties, her laws, and her divine liberties. II. — Voltaire. In the same 3'ear, 1754, in which Rousseau returned for a short visit to his native city, Voltaire settled in Geneva to spend the declining years of his life. He was sixty- one years of age, possessed world-wide fame, and had just quarrelled with F'red- erick the Great at Potsdam. Voltaire bought two pieces of property, — one near Geneva, which he called Les D^Iices, and another, Monrion, near Lausanne. Living alternately upon these estates, he imme- diately created a stimulating, intellectual atmosphere in his environment. 40 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. There was first that famous article on Geneva, published by D'Alembert in the " Encyclopedia." but inspired by Voltaire himself. In it the pastors of the city were described as caring little for the forms of Christianity, and as being mere deists. The protests which rose from the Puritan city re-echoed far and wide, to the great delight of the cynical philosopher. Open war was thus declared. Voltaire, to make his position more secure, withdrew to Ferney, in France, just outside of the juris- diction of Geneva. Thence he published some of his most impious works. Near by, at Tournay, he erected a theatre, and, to the consternation of the Genevese, actually produced some of his own plays at his estate of Les D^lices. In spite of all the authorities could do, people flocked to the theatre. Voltaire observed the disturbance he had created with sinister satisfaction, twitting the magistrates and pastors with their impotence. Even Rousseau considered himself called upon to expostulate with Voltaire. The two philosophers had more than once be- fore exchanged letters, but they never actu- VOLTAIRE. 41 ally met. Rousseau had sent Voltaire his " In^galit^ " some years before, receiving from the latter an answer which M. Godet calls " a masterpiece of French irony " : " Sir, I have received your book against the human race. ... So much talent has never before been employed in making brutes of us ; one is seized with a desire to walk on all-fours after reading your book." On another occasion, Rousseau had had the courage to rebuke Voltaire for the pessi- mism of his poem on the " Desastre de Lis- bonne," and now he boldly reproached him with corrupting the simple, Spartan-like habits of the Genevese by means of his theatrical performances. But Voltaire's ardor was only fired the more by this op- position. His fury knew no bounds ; his satire became even more scathing, and his resources more versatile. The chateau at Ferney is one of the show places in the environs of Geneva. It has been overhauled recently, and a statue erected to Voltaire in his capacity as patri- arch of the place. In point of fact, he was the maker of Ferney ; for when he went there, in 1757, it consisted of only 42 RO.MAN'CE SWITZERLANO. eight houses, while to-day it is a populous village. The interior of the chateau con- tains little of interest beyond a few sou- venirs, but the arbored garden and old- fashioned pleasure-grounds are said to retain their original design. There is also the chapel of this king of irreligion, with that inimitable inscription, Deo cfexit Vol- taire, — "Voltaire erected [this] to God,"' — of which Dumas the elder wrote, after he had visited Ferney : " It was intended to prove to the whole world, which had become very anxious about the di?pt"tes of the creature with his Creator, that Voltaire and God had finally become reconciled ; the world heard this news with satisfaction, but it always suspected that Voltaire had made the first advances.'' From his retreat, the philosopher watched the political struggles of Geneva with con- siderable, and at times almost benevolent, interest. He once said to the party of the Natifs, — that is, the descendants of for- eigners who had settled in the city, but were deprived of their political rights by the Rcprcsentants and the A'egatifs, — "My friends, you resemble somewhat those VOLTAIRE. 43 flying-fish which, when out of water, are eaten by birds of prey, and when they dive back again into the waves, are devoured by big fish." A wigmaker, lierraud by name, a man of poetical aspirations, once presented Voltaire with a comedy. The philosopher asked, " What is your occupa- tion?" "I am a wigmaker." •■ Then, my friend, go make wigs." It was all very witty, very keen, but very repelling, this raillery of Voltaire's. No two men of genius could have been more unlike each other than Rousseau and Vol- taire, — the former a democrat, a plebeian, boasting in his title of Citizen of Geneva, even when he felt called upon to renounce it, an optimist of the optimists, and a firm believer in spirituality, though an unworthy exponent of its transforming powers ; the latter an aristocrat, a courtier, a despiser of the common people, a pessimist, and a confirmed materialist. Rousseau was, at all events, a man of heart, but Voltaire was a man of mere mind; and that is why the former founded a school and left dis- ciples, while the latter did not. Voltaire's death was long in coming. At 44 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. »;he age of eighty-four, in 1778, he started off for Paris, and while there, sickened and expired. A good deal has been said about the manner of his death. Sensa- tional reports were circulated at the time, that he was tortured by remorse and una- vailing regrets. There seems to have been no truth in these stories. They were con- cocted upon slender stories of his physi- cal sufferings to frighten people against infidelity. III. — Madame de Stael. Voltaire was a Frenchman ; but Rousseau and Madame de Stael were Swiss, alike by parentage, and by a certain earnestness of thought. The proper place to study Madame de Stael is in the old French chateau at Coppet, near Geneva. Her spirit pervades the quiet courtyard, the vestibule, with its statue of her father, Necker, the long library, where bookcases line one side, green-clothed gaming tables stand down the middle, and a few pieces of furniture MADAME DE STAEL. 45 against the wall recall the simple, graceful curves of the Directoire style. The bed- room of Madame de Stael is still brilliant in an old-fashioned sort of way, with its magnificent canopied bed, its brocaded silk hangings, and exquisitely embroidered wliite satin sofa. The room where Madame Rccamier slept, when she made her fre- quent visits, has a wall-paper of quaint designs, and is gay with a mellow, fasvn- colored tint. The walls of the great drawing-room upstairs are hung with portraits. There is one in particular, of the beautiful daugh- ter of Madame de Stael, Albertine, later the Duchesse de Broglie. The present possessor, the Comtesse d'Haussonville, is a great-granddaughter. On a table, among tlie snuff-boxes and other curios of that sort, is a miniature of Madame de Stael. svliich is especially fine. It represents her v.-ith flashing black eyes full of an intelli- gent inspiration, black ringlets about her head, highly colored complexion, thick lips, and full bosom, — a woman of tremen- dous spirit and tender heart. In the study are more portraits, — the parents, M. and 46 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Madame Necker, Madame de Stael herself, lurbaned and decolletee by Gerard, and her son, Aut^uste de Stacil, gentle scholar and philanthropist. The chateau at Coppet passed through many hands before it came into the posses- sion of Necker, the father. His prede- cessor was a wealthy money-changer of St. Gallen, who died a pauper, of a broken heart. Necker was by birth a Genevese, but descended from Protestant Irish stock. As a young man, he entered upon the career of financier in Paris, started a bank, and played his part in the opening chapters of the Revolution as minister of Louis XVI. He was a man of honest purpose, a syste- matic philanthropist, but proved incapable of controlling the surging forces of France in her great upheaval. Madame Necker, who, as Su/anne Curchod, it is said, had been jilted by Gibbon at Lausanne, was a woman of acknowledged charm, a bright spirit, who never quite forgot her Protestant principles in the dissolute air of Parisian society. Her salon was frequented by the famous men who were making history in MADAME DE STAEL. 47 France; and it was there that her little daughter, Germaine, used to appear, at the age of eleven, sitting on a stool beside her mother, listening with rapt attention to the discussions of philosophers and the sallies of wits. Germaine Necker was born in 1766, and early developed a precocious, prodigious heart and mind. But it is not wholesome to be an "infant phenomenon." She seemed capable of the most exalted joys and the blackest sorrows. Receptive, read- ing everything that came to her hand, emo- tional and susceptible, she seemed destined to a career full of dramatic intensity. Indeed, how can one speak with mod- eration of this most immoderate woman ? Her life was one vast, volcanic whirl. Her conversation entranced with a certain feverish force ; her books were more injflu- ential than State papers, and her salon than council-chambers. The atmosphere in which she lived was one of enormous exaggeration ; her temperament was pas- sionate, without self-control, at once prompted by a virile genius, and softened by feminine weaknesses ; her attachments 45 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. were ardent with unquenched fires, and stormy with bitter disappointments. But throughout she remained sincere in her convictions, and generous to her enemies. In 1786, she was married to Baron Stael- Holstein, Swedish ambassador to France, a reckless gambler and an ambitious diplo- mat, with a taste for mysticism. He was seventeen years her senior, and the mar- riage was a cold, unhappy affair. Madame Necker had tried to secure young Pitt as a son-in-law; but Germaine would not hear of leaving Paris, and wrote very disre- spectfully and hysterically in her diary about the " Hateful Island." Stael-Hol- stein was a sort of makeshift, and his wife soon forgot him in the presence of a host of brilliant admirers, among whom she selected for special favors young Talley- rand, Narbonne, and Mathieu de Mont- morency. The great Revolution burst upon Ma- dame de Stael, reigning like a queen in her salon at the Swedish embassy. She promptly turned to play a political part in the struggle. Her father, Necker, was twice overthrown, and then retired to MADAME DE STAEL. 49 Coppet, to study in oblivion the reasons for his failure as economist and peacemaker. His daughter remained to try to save Marie Antoinette, to intrigue in behalf of Nar- bonne, and to originate endless schemes for reorganizing the State, now upon Eng- lish principles, now after the American model. All in vain. On the 21st of Sep- tember, 1792, France was declared a repub- lic. The day before, Madame de Stael had escaped to Coppet. It was not till towards the end of her life, that the restless " ambassadress " became reconciled to her rustic n.treat. She frankly acknowledged, " I have a mag- nificent horror of the whole of Switzer- land." Paris always remained her real centre of attraction, where alone she was not assailed by the fear of ennui. The love of mountains was as inexplicable to her, as it was to the ancients. Her literary activity now practically began. She had already written a num- ber of sentimental romances and poems. Her first pretentious piece was " Letters upon the Writings and Character of Jean Jacques Rousseau," published in 1789. 4 50 ROjMANCE SWITZERLAND. Then came the " Reflections upon the Trial of the Queen," designed to move France in behalf of poor Marie Antoinette, the " Re- flections upon the Peace," and the "Essay on Fiction." Madame Neckcr de Saus- sure — a cousin who knew the authoress intimately, and has given us a grapliic account of her career- — -has said: ''Her works are, so to speak, in an abstract form, the memoirs of her life." This is, per- haps, particularly true of her riper books. "The l^assions," upon which subject no one surely could have been better qualified to writ(;, was born of ample experience. In 1794, Madame de Stael met Benjamin Constant, a native of I^ausanne, a vain and vacillating genius of twenty-seven, one year her junior. It is a sufficient commen- tary upon his life to say that, although he was one of the most gifted men of his day, he produced only what was second-rate. His \'ery name was a satire u])on his dispo- sition, and bv some strange irony, the principal work left by this unstable Lotha- rio v,as on '• Religion," Madame de Stael was fascinated by liis sparkling personality, and threw herself without reserve into an MADAME DE STAKL. 51 amorous adventure which in reality upset her whole life. She held Benjamin Con- stant by a jealous, passionate chain which he soon found irksome. Their liaiso7i was marked by stormy quarrels and fierce reconciliations. In 1795, Madame de Stael reopened her salon for a short time at the Swedish em- bassy ; but the Directory gave her very plainly to understand that her presence was not desired, and she returned to Coppet. At last, in 1797, she was allowed to live in Paris. She became a political factor in the history of the day, the queen upon the chess-board of P'rance. But she found her match in Napoleon. She had expected to captivate him ; instead of that, she simply roused his dislike. He silenced her with his peculiar eagle look, so that she. whose conversational powers were the talk of her contemporaries, confessed to a difficult}- of breathing in his presence. From antipathy their mutual feeling grew to hatred, and ended in a sort of Titanic duel, which lasted ten years, — the master of the nations against the mistress of tlie intellectual world. Her salon was at the height of its 52 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. splendor during the Consulate, graced by Madame R^camier's beauty, and distin- guished by the concentrated eloquence and learning of historical personages. Napo- leon first interdicted her salon, and "'n 1802 sent her into exile. But she was a woman, and was bound to have the las^ word: " What cruel fame you give me ! ' she wrote him in 1803, "I shall have a few lines in your history." M. de Stael, who for a while after his marriage appeared upon the scene casually, as it were, ceased to trouble himself about his wife in 1798, and died in 1S02; but the widow never married Benjamin Con- stant. For a time she devoted herself to her two sons, born in 1790 and 1792, and to her daughter Albertine, born at Coppet in 1797. She was, with all her failings, a loving mother; and her children grew up to have a positive adoration for her. Madame de Stael's book on " Literature " contributed not a little to her expulsion from France. Then followed " Delphine,"' — a romance in which she virtually tells the story of her youth. " Corinne " was written after a trip to Italy, when she MADAME DE STAEL. 53 was thirty-nine. In it she depicts herself idealized, a woman of genius between love and glory. " Corinne," says Albert Sorel, " stands in literature not as a masterpiece, — there is too great length of narrative, too much of fashion in the style, — but as a fine example of poetic genius, such as it was conceived of in those days,"* The famous book on " Germany," in like manner, was the result of a visit to that country. There she met Goethe, Schiller, and other great lights of German literature, astounding them with her genius, but wearying them with her volubility. Her book practically opened the treasures of German literature to French appreciation. From 1806 to 181 2 there ensued a period of comparative tranquillity at Coppet. She held intellectual court, entertaining the notabilities of the time. Among the pre- ferred guests were Sismondi, lionstetten, Johann von Miiller, Guizot, and Schlegel. Madame R^camier would often be there with her train of admirers, and of course * Sorel, Albert. Madame de Stael. London, iSg2, p. 151. 54 ROMANCE SWITZFiRLAND. Benjamin Constant, when he was not absent on other gallantries. Towards the close of this period, in 1811, a very extraordinary thing happened. A young Gcnevese officer in the Spanish service, Albert de Rocca, returned to his native city. He had been wounded, and pos- sessed a charming, modest way of relating his military adventures. When he met Madame de Stacl, he promptly fell in love with her, and they were secretly married. He was twenty-three, and she forty-five. A boy was born of this union whom her other children took care to acknowledge, when they published her marriage after her death. It is said that Benjamin Constant reappeared at Coppet, on one occasion, but was forced to beat an angry retreat. Napoleon, now emperor, finally made Madame de Stael's stay even at Coppet unsafe. She was obliged to leave her chateau. It would be a long task indeed to record the details of this flight of hers through Europe. The restlessness of her life, as it is, must give the reader a species of vertigo. At all events, she has given us a sufficiently elaborate account in her " Ten MADAME DE STAEL. 55 Years of Exile." After the Restoration, she even reopened her salon for a while, and wrote her " Considerations upon the French Revolution," which is the most profound of her works. In reality, Madame de Stael wore well from a literary standpoint, improving with age, so that at last she acquired a sort of serenity of style. Her death came in 18 17. Worn out by insomnia, and enervated by the use of opium, she fell paralyzed at a ball in the house of the Due Decazes. Rocca nursed her faithfully until she sank into her last sleep. She was buried at Coppet, and Bonstetten pathetically describes the burial procession as passing " between two rows of children and old people, for the able- bodied were off harvesting." In any summing-up of her career, the word "passion " must be uppermost. That quality of temperament was at once her bane and her glory ; and yet her nature was never other than truthful and straight- forward, alike in her virtues and her faults. Albert Sorel has well said, " But go to the bottom, and you will find in her life only the desire to give and to obtain happiness. 56 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. the need of loving and being loved ; in her politics, only the sentiment of justice ; in her literature, only the aspiration after the ideal; and throughout all, sincerity."' * * Sorel, Albert. Madame de Stael. London 1892. p. 256. CHAPTER IV. BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES. I. — John Calvin. (1509-1564.) FOR so small a city, Geneva has produced an astonishing nunnber of great men. On two occasions she actually made world-history, — when Calvin sum- moned the sixteenth century to "return to the Bible." and Rousseau the eighteenth to " return to Nature." Each is a mighty cry ; but somehow Geneva has honored only the Apostle of the Revolution with a monument. For it is a remarkable fact that the " City of Calvin " does not contain a single statue, or even a bust, of the Reformer; his very grave is unknown and unmarked. At the third centenary of his death (i^X4- .P^^^l i / - 1: THE TOUR OF LAKE LEMAN. 89 quaintly cosey and neat, than this lalvtside townlet. You just have time to see an old quay with lofty shade-trees, that has the ornate Chateau de I'Aile in one corner; back of that an enormous open market place, topped by a funny little corn-hall of many columns. The fine square tower of St. Martin looms upon its terrace. Farther along, a narrow miniature quay, planted with trees, carefully trimmed ; then a grav- elly beach, held in full possession by jab- bering washerwomen; a swimming bath; and finally an old romantic tower, the Tour de Peilz, — such is the view of Vevey from the lake. Some distance back and above the town, the old castle of Blonay reposes among great trees upon the hillside. Before the boat reaches its next stopping-place, there is just time to tell a story about it. The Blonays came from across the lake in Chablais, and built this castle in 11 75. Being feudal followers of the Counts of Savoy, they filled various important offices in the land of Vaud. On one occasion, several knights, at Turin, got disputing about the military prowess of married men 90 ROMANCE SWITZERLAXD. versus baclielors. It was a theme capable of producing a very large crop of duels, and so it was decided that champions should represent the two sides. Simon de Blonay was chosen to fight the cause of the married men, Corsaut de Bresse that of the bachelors. The conditions were that if the married knight was de- feated, he should go cry mercy of Made- moiselle of Savoy and all other marriage- able ladies of that house, as well as of another lady, to be specified by the victor. The bachelor knight, if defeated, should humiliate himself before all the married ladies of the ducal house, and especially before the wife of his conqueror. Well, the married champion won, and the defeated bachelor rode off to perform his act of forfeit. After his visits in Savoy, he repaired to the land of \'aud, and found Madame de Blonay sitting on her castle terrace, with her baby on her knee. Thrice De Bresse cried for mercy, in humble attitude, to the great embarrass- ment of the sweet lady. But when an explanation had been given, Madame de Blonay, good woman as she was, imme THE TOUR OF LAKE LEMAN. 9I diately got an idea: she invited the neigh- boring nobility to a feast, and sat her cousin, Yolande de Villette, by her side. There was, of course, a good deal of chaff- ing at the expense of bachelors. De Bresse, not to be outdone, acknowledged that it was about time for him to marry, and actually looked at Yolande in the most significant way imaginable, so that, in fact, the young lady turned scarlet and heaved a sigh. It was all arranged between the two young people, with the consent of Madame de Blonay, after the guests had gone ; and so the champion of the bache- lors was twice defeated, in war and love. The bise sometimes blows at Vevey, though not so often as at Lausanne and Geneva; and people who are afraid of it, prefer to stay somewhere in that heaven- blessed corner, called Montreux, which the northeast wind can never reach. The explanation of this immunity is very sim- ple. That whole strip of land with a southern exposure, from Clarens to Ville- neuve, including the steep slopes up to Glion and Les Avants, is completely shel- 92 ROMANCE s\v!tzp:klaxi:). tered by the mountains of Gruyere. Hotels and vineyards dispute with each other for a foothold upon the mountain-side. A min- iature Alpine Riviera has developed there, with a fashionable winter season, a grape- cure peculiar to itself, a Kursaal, and plenty of cheap pensions. All the points along this narrow lake-front are kept in constant communication by a bewildering profusion of systems, — a carriage-road, a railroad, an electric-car service, and steam- boats running on schedule time. Nothing like it was ever dreamed of before. It is the culminating perfection of rapid transit. At Montreux, you have the choice of staying on the boat, which goes over to Villeneuve and Bouveret, or getting off and taking the cable-car to Glion. P'rom up there, the incomparable magnificence of the view is disclosed with startling effect. The peaks of Savov rear themselves in bristling array for a background. To the south, \'illeneuvc lies dead and grim ; the valley of the Rhone stretches beyond ; the river runs in its artificial l)ed, then shoots in a muddy line straight out into the lake. THE TOUR OF LAKE LEMAN. 93 Nearer by, compact Chillon stands in the opaque, blue water. To the west is Vevey, and after that the lake and its shores are lost in a veil of mist. It is all surpassingly beau- tiful. From the Rochers de Naye, above, to which a cogwheel railroad now runs, the view is the same in character, but more extended. There is no time, however, to make this excursion before the boat re- turns on its homeward stretch. Perhaps you can have a hurried glance at Chillon, but you really ought to have leisure to ex- amine the five subterranean rooms in detail, the path worn by lionivard, the famous names scratched on the pillars, — Byron, Shelley, Dumas, Victor Hugo, and (ieorge Sand. The cantonal policeman who guards the entrance will not fail to display a great deal of official pomposity ; and this will remind you irresistibly of how Daudet's hero, poor Tartarin, was arrested for sup- posed complicity in Nihilistic outrages, and incarcerated in the dungeon of Bonivard by this very policeman. It must be the same man. for he is the image of the one who appears in the illustration in " Tartarin sur tes Alpes.'" 94 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. The return trip is, of course, a good deal of a repetition, only the places have put on their afternoon colors, and the people their afternoon expressions. Wlicn the boat finally nears Geneva, Mont Blanc will be seen in the act of shifting its sunset shades of red, one upon another: but as you land, it will have finished, and will hang in mid- air like a great white spirit, supported by bands of grayish clouds. Then even the last passengers, who have insisted all along upon their money's worth, rise from the benches, stretch themselves, and mingle with the evening crowd on the quays of Geneva. CHAPTER VI. TWO VINEYARD TOWNS OF VAUD. IT is not enough to see Lausanne and Vevey from the deck of a passing steamboat, one must know them from the inside, to realize their enduring charms. The truth is, this whole lakeside district of Canton Vaud bears the impress of the utmost originality. It is a sunny, southern land, under the shelter of kindly moun- tains, consecrated from time immemorial to the grape, reflecting the great sickle-sweep of its shore in the unmatched mirror of the lake. To those to whom it has been given to know this region intimately, the cease- less changes of the seasons seem somehow doubly beautiful there, — from the first awakening of the green on the lower pas- tures, while all the mountains round still glisten with the snow, to the final fall days, when the vineyards on the banks turn sere 96 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. of leaf, but brilliant with purple and yellow grapes that proclaim the hour of vintage. The pale lavender of the crocuses in the springtime, the violets by the wayside, and the narcissus cloying the upland meadows with its sweetness, — do they not seem to belong to some transplanted Japan? The very gulls that scream about the quays and rocky headlands in winter, appear whiter than elsewhere, against the marvellous blue of the water. The two best wine-producing stretches on this shore are La Cote and Vaux, — the former near Rolle, and the latter to the east of Lausanne. Ancient ordinances regulate the time and manner of vintage with great precision. Every bunch is watched, from the flower to maturity, in that truly Swiss spirit of thrift, which is almost sordid by reason of the hard struggle for existence. It must be confessed that the wine itself is a trifle sharp, and that a liking for it must be acquired. Not so the grapes, however, which, thanks to the invention of the grape- cure, can be eaten in any quantity with a quiet conscience, and even with a sense of self-sacrifice. LAUSANNE. 9? I. — Lausanne. A cable-road, which the people call facetiously La Ficelle, or " the string," mounts from Ouchy to Lausanne proper. Still, in spite of many modern conven- iences, life in Lausanne continues to be literally uphill work. The streets are irreg- ular and steep, full of unexpected turns and novel surprises. We are not told why the Romans, who called the place Lausonium, settled here ; probably they fol- lowed the example of Celtic predecessors. But in the Middle Ages the bishop and his canons occupied the cathedral hill ; the nobles fortified themselves upon the adjoin- ing eminence, Du Bourg; and the traders, with other people who were of no account in the feudal system, liad to find room somehow at the base. And so it came about that succeeding generations in Lau- sanne have had to trudge and climb away the better part of their lives. The simple Gothic of the cathedral is, upon the whole, unsurpassed in Switzerland. The present structure dates from the thir- 7 98 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. teenth century, and witnessed the famous reconciliation between Pope Gregory X, and Rudolf of Habsburg. In 1536, one of the great disputations to which the Reformation gave rise, took place here, in which Calvin, Farcl, and \'iret took jjart. The interior has now, perhaps, too much of the scrubbed and cold appearance of Prot- estant churches, but it is none the less nobly impressive. Its glory is the rose window facing the cast, thirty feet in diame- ter, that glows towards the morning sun with the gleam of many thousand jewels. The Portal of the Apostles, on the west side, is a monument in itself; but unfortu- nately, its soft sandstone has crumbled, until the whole is practically in ruins. The south portal has been restored, along with many other parts of tlie church, from plans by Viollet-le-Duc. A tomb of Otto of Grandson and a tablet dedicated by Laharpe to the patriot martyr, Major Davel, attract attention. Williemin says that one of the cathedral bells, having succumbed to a fire, was recast, and therefore now bears the following inscription: — LAUSANNE. 99 " Ma forme que j'avois par la flamme perdue Ma de rechef este par la flamme rendue." * Vhe same writer affirms that, not ninety years ago, the ladies and gentlemen of Lausanne used to dance under the chestnut- trees of the cathedral terrace, singing a la ronde. Of the castle, little need be said. It is built with a sandstone foundation and an ugly brick superstructure, crenellated at the top, and flanked by four little towers on the corners. The new additions that are being made, threaten to destroy even these dubious charms. The Cantonal Museum contains natural history collections and a library, and is approached through a yard ennobled by great trees. There is more to see, if you climb down into the city by the one hundred and sixty steps of that quaint, wooden Escalier du Marche. Twice a week the country people organize a market in the streets of Lau- sanne, that trails in perplexing curves and steep inclines, through the narrow streets from the post-office up to the Place Riponne. * Le Cantcjn de \"au(l, Lautaiinc. 1862. lOO ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Here it unexpectedly develops into a full- fledged fair, with booths for almost every kind of article, from cheese to cheap prints. One side of this square is flanked by an open, pillared corn-hall; the other, by the unpretentious .AIus(5e Arlaud, which con- tains a very small, and by no means remark- able, collection of pictures. Here, too, will face the new university buildings, when they are completed, — thanks to the one million and a half of francs, left by a grate- ful Russian, Gabriel de Rumine. In 1891, the old academy blossomed forth as a university, and received the good wishes of student delegations from many nations, assembled to celebrate its inauguration with much banqueting and amid popular festivities. In the centre of the town stands a truly Swiss Hotel de Ville. Its overhanging eaves have painted figures on the under side; peaceful pigeons associate on the best of terms with two terrific gargoyles that project threateningly; and a funny little tower points from the roof. On the west side, the new Palais de Justice F^d^ral, the seat of the Supreme Court of Switzerland, LAUSAXNE. rol spreads its white architecture amid the shady avenues of Montbenon. But you will see all this, and more too, if you climb to the Signal above Lausanne. Thence, not only the city itself, but the whole length of the lake is revealed, from the hazy, flat lines near Geneva to the jagged moun- tains of the upper end ; while, inland, vast undulations of wood and meadow stretch northward in endless alternation. The local type is certainly more Swiss than that of Geneva, more rustic. The Vaudois seem to have absorbed a little of the acidity of their wine, to temper their many sterling qualities. Mr. Howells, whom I cannot help quoting again, during his stay at Villeneuve was continually reminded of the New England that is past, or passing. He speaks of " the surliness of the men and the industry of the women." " The Vaudois, as I saw them," he writes, "were at no age a merry folk. In the fields they toiled silently ; in the caf^s, where they were sufficiently noisy over their new wine, they talked without laughter, and without the shrugs and gestures that 102 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. enliven conversation amongst other Latin peoples." He noticed the "hard, pure, plain faces " of the women, and was much impressed with their voices, "which are the sweetest and most softly modulated voices in the world, whether they come from the throat of peasant or of lady, and can make a transaction in eggs and butter in the market-place as musical as chanted verse." * I can also add that the complexions of the young girls are exceptionally rosy, and their coming and going is almost unfettered by rules of false conventionality. In point of fact, many English parents select Lausanne for the education of their children, which is due almost as much to the wholesome, open-air atmosphere of the place, as to the cheap schools, — unless, indeed, there be any truth in the insinuation, sometimes uttered, that since the Prince of Wales's sons were in Lausanne, the lin- gering aroma of royalty proves perfectly irresistible. Certainly the merits of cheap- ness plus royalty must be very fetching indeed. But the fashion for living in Lausanne * A Little Swiss Sojourn. New York. p. 54. LAUSANNE. I03 was set long ago by a very great English- ^nan, — Edward Gibbon, author of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." His first visit was made in 1753, w^hen only sixteen years old. He had espoused Catholicism, and his father sent him to live with a Protestant pastor, Pavillard by name, who was to cure him of this prepos- terous idea. The worthy tutor was quite successful. Young Gibbon even went far- ther than was intended, for he mixed in the circle of bright spirits whom Voltaire had gathered about himself. The French philosopher freqeuntly resided at Alon- triond, and used to go so far as to say of the Lausannois, '■ They have succeeded in wedding the politeness of Athens to the simplicity of Lacedasmon." In this society. Gibbon also met Suzanne Curchod, — " the beautiful Curchod," as they called her in Lausanne, — daughter of a poor country clergyman. The two became engaged; but when, after a five years' stay, Gibbon returned to England, he broke his troth on the plea of his father's refusal. Suzanne's passionate protests and Gibbon's cold- blooded insistence are revealed in the 104 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. printed correspondence that passed between the lovers. Rousseau called him "a man to be despised " for this shabby conduct. Indications are not wanting also tliat the young lady had an eye to the young gentle- man's wealth and social position. When Gibbon next met his old flame, slie was the wife of Necker, the great financier of Louis XVI. of France, and mother of a girl who was to be famous as Madame de Stael. Perhaps, therefore, it was just as well that the Gibbon marriage did not come off; we might never have had our great authoress. There can be no doubt, however, that tlie historian was singularly susceptible to feminine charms, although he never married. We have that delightful anec- dote, now of course declared spurious, about his falling on his knees before Madame de Montolieu, a captivating widow who wrote a great many wishy-washy romances in her day. As he was at that time enormously fat, he could not rise again, in spite of her protests; and so she was obliged to ring for tiie servant to "lift up the gentleman."' On the whole, Gibbon exerted little influence upon Lausanne. He made a VEVEY. 105 second visit of a year in 1763, and finally a third from 1783 to 1793, but was remem- bered rather as a selfish savant, much eulogized, but not much liked. M. Rosscl says : " He passed like a large meteor whose light is admired, but not utilized." * II. — Vevey. Smaller than Lausanne, not perched upon a hill in the track of wind and sun, but edging down to the water-side upon a rounded promontory, Vevey impresses one as having a sweet and sensitive personality, like the modest maid of our grandmother's time. Lausanne seems more like the modern girl, displaying her accomplish- ments at once for the asking. Rousseau says in his " Confessions " : "I went to Vevey and lodged at the ' Clef,' and during the two days which I passed there without seeing any company, I took such a strong liking for the town, that its remem- brance has accompanied me in all my * Histoire Litteraire de la Suisse Romande, vol ii., p. 85. Io6 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. travels, and caused me to fix upon it as the residence of the hero of my romance." In fact, the various scenes of the " Nouvelle Heloise " were all laid in this neighborhood. The "Clef" still stands; it is the house next to the Doric corn-hall in the market-place on the north. At No. i, Rue de Lausanne, Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, lodged on his journey to the Great St. Bernard, to gain his victory at Marengo. The market-place is particularly interest- ing when the Savoyard boatmen cross the lake in their lateen barges, laden with fagots and sacks of chestnuts, and the Vaudois peasantry bring their garden pro- duce and cattle fodder for sale. The meeting of these two elements causes considerable picturesque animation. But better still is the spectacle in April, when the annual distribution of prizes to the school children takes place, the Fete des Promotions. On this occasion the cadets of the college indulge in a sham battle that is simply terrific, — and always ends in the same way. A last desperate stand is invariably made on the steps of the corn- hall by serried ranks of miniature soldiery. VEVEY. 107 A line of grim sharpshooters kneel in front, ready to shed their proverbial last drop of blood in the defence of the local forum. But the advancing field-guns of the artillery boom furiously, and make even this position untenable. There is an heroic struggle on the steps ; a final bloody episode takes place under the vaulted roof, which re-echoes with some last stray shots ; and then everybody goes off, in the best of spirits, to the colla- tion, prepared for the survivors. Most wonderful of all, however, is the as- pect of the market-place, when that unique festival, the Fete des Vi^^nerons, recurs after its long intermission. There is not any- where in Europe a popular performance at once more splendid and yet so naive. It is tlie celebration of the vintage in song and dance, the supreme symbolic expression of this vinevard land of Vaud. Pitched in the key of rustic gayety, and acted on the plane of animal spirits, it yet deserves to rank with the Passion Play at Oberammergau, for the genuine, spontaneous, and truth- ful manner of its production. The Fete des Vignerons is the artistic apotheosis of the grape. loS ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. The origin of this festival cannot be estabhshed with any certainty. It has sometimes been ascribed to the monks of Haut Cret, who are said to have called the people together for general rejoicing, after they had successfully planted vines upon the slopes of Vaux. Other writers profess to trace it back to Roman times, when the vine was first introduced. A fraternity, or guild, of vine-dressers, the Abbaye des Vignerons, has been in existence for many centuries. Unfortunately its archives were destroyed by fire in 1688. The festival is supposed to be given every fifteen years ; but, as a matter of fact, the intervals have been much longer than that. The last performance was in 1889; the one before that in 1865 ; and there was one farther back in 1833, when Fenimore Cooper was present, and gave a description of it in his novel, " The Headsman." Special music and special dances are composed by Swiss artists for each festi- val; a ballet-master spends six months in Vevey, training the performers ; and what is simply astounding, the thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred participants are all VEVEY. 109 recruited from the neighborhood. Only local talent is enlisted ; but old and young alike are needed, so that the result is essentially patriarchal and pastoral. It is a monster family festival, produced with all the accessories of art. The fete of 1SS9 lasted from the 5th to the loth of August. Its success was overwhelming, both as a splendid spectacle and as a patriotic celebration. Music, dancing, poetry, painting, and architecture had all been pressed into service. The enormous amphitheatre was filled with a crowd of between twelve thousand and fifteen thousand spectators on the various days. Let us take our seats with them. The booming of cannon announces that the mighty procession has started across the old-fashioned streets of \'evey. The first to enter the theatre portal is a troop of ancient Swiss, marked with scarlet and white crosses, carrying halberds. Then follow the Abbaye des Vignerons, with the abb^ at their head, who holds a crosier, after them the local councillors, and then vine- dressers in green tunics, white breeches, no ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. and straw hats. But this display is merely a foretaste. From the three portals, three great allegorical groups pour simultane- ously into the arena, — Pales, with her troop in springtime shades, her gardeners, haymakers, shepherds, and armailiis with a herd of cows ; Ceres, in brilliant harvest colors, accompanied by sowers, threshers, and winnowers ; and finally Bacchus, sur- rounded by vine-dressers, satyrs, fauns, and bacchantes. The performances of these costumed actors create a bewilder- ing succession of pictures. The domestic comedy of a country wedding is acted by a real young couple, married only a few weeks ago. The harvesters, sowers, vine- dressers, etc., dance in imitation of their several occupations. An arjnailli sings the Ranz des Vaches. There is a marvel- lous scintillation of rustic tools. The air throbs with exuberance. And when, at the close, the united jDarticipants intone their " Heureux enfants d'une heureuse enfance," people rise in their seats unable to contain themselves, or burst into tears, unnerv^ed and exhausted by their very joy. The essential charm of these perform- ances does not lie so much in perfect execution, as in the spirit which pervades them. The actors are not performing professional roles for pay; they are repre- senting their actual occupations in an idealized form. They are real haymakers, vine-dressers, and herders, expressing the indwelling, artistic essence of their daily occupations. They are celebrating the triumph of out-door labor. It would be as difficult to impart this natural, rustic quality to the typical chorus girls of our tinsel stage, as to shift the Savoy Alps themselves for scenery in an opera-house. But Vevey is interesting, even when the Fele des Vignerons is not on. By all means, walk up the hill to old St. Martin. Besides its shady avenues and glorious outlook, the church can boast of harboring the tombs of two English regicides, Ludlow and Broughton. The former was one of the judges who condemned Charles I., and the latter read the sentence to him. These men were not safe from Charles II. 's vengeance even in Vevey; for at their house, which 112 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Stood on the site of the present Hotel du Lac, they were allowed to keep a special alarm-bell to ring in case of need. We are not told that the alarm was ever given ; but certain it is, that Ludlow was once fired upon, as he was leaving St. Martin, and that the would-be assassin escaped across to Savoy. The American descendants of John Phelps, clerk of the court which tried Charles Stuart, not long since also placed a tablet in memory of their ancestor in St. .Alartin. \'evey has had quite a checkered career for so respectable a place. As far as we know, it began life as a Celtic station, then became a Roman colony, formed part of Transjurane Burgundy, succumbed to a variety of ecclesiastical and secular rulers, was sacked and burned by the mountain- eers of the Simmenthal, nearly depopulated by the plague, and lield in subjection by Bern, until the Helvetic Revolution allowed it to take its proper place as the second town in Canton Vaud. Rousseau's eulo- gies did much to popularize the place as a traveller's resort. The Hotel Monnet, or Des Trois Couronnes, practically served as VEVEY. 113 model for succeeding generations of Swiss hotels. Many people of title settled here or in the neighborhood. Don Carlos and his family maintained a sort of small court for three or four years. The wine trade of Vevey is quite impor- tant, but the manufacture of a peculiar kind of cigar has given it a European reputation. This brand is made of home- grown tobacco, coarse, but pure, and very cheap. With practice, one can learn to like even the cigars that cost half a cent apiece. The taste is acquired, perhaps, but not necessarily depraved, because it is satisfied at a small cost. There seems to be every likelihood, however, that another commercial product will soon outrival even wine and cigars. That wonderful prepara- tion, described upon advertisements as " Nestle's Condensed Milk " has conquered for itself a recognized position in the nurs- eries of the world. Some mothers may still be very much set about the respective merits of other baby foods : but it is a fact that the photographs of babies fed on Nestle's preparation, create a very favor- able impression indeed. It is evident that 8 114 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Vevey appreciates the enormous influence of the modern woman, and seeks to in- gratiate itself, through her, into the good opinion of the rising generation. And, really, Vevey needs friends, for it has been quite overshadowed, as a stran- ger's resort, by that fashionable upstart farther up the lake, Montreux. Indeed, one need never feel any sympathy for that ideally situated place- it is too terribly prosperous. You may continue to go to Montreux ; but your best wishes will inva- riably stay with old-fashioned Vevey, that makes less pretences, and has, at all events, an historic background. CHAPTER VII. OFF THE TOURIST TRACK. BACK of the vineyard slopes of Lake Leman, the Pays de Vaud is like a rustic garden, where little old-fashioned towns grow upon the hilltops. It is an upland, undulating plateau, mainly agricul- tural, swept by the bise, where grapes do not thrive ; but there are stretches of fair meadow-land, ploughed fields, and orchards, with farms freely sprinkled about. Above all, it is a land fairly bristling with castel- lated towns, like the landscapes of mediaeval painters, perched as in Tuscany, gleaming with whitewash, and still, for the most part, provided with the accoutrements of feudal- ism, — walls, towers, and gates. And yet, it cannot be said that the history of this ancient Pays de Vaud is at all inspiring, or particularly creditable to the successive generations which have inhab- ited it. For, in truth, the people seem to Il6 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. have been fated, until comparatively recent times, to remain in subjection to petty local rulers or foreign conquerors. It is remark- able that the present appearance of the country should still reflect an ancient servi- tude which has long since been abolished. Every castle tower points the finger to some bygone act of political humiliation; every wall and gate recalls the former necessity for self-defence against petty, preying lordlings. From the time when the Helvetii were conquered by Julius Caesar, and sent back into this region to rebuild the twelve cities they had burned behind them, to the conquest of the whole country by the Bernese, the Pays de Vaud never knew the privileges of self-govern- ment. While their Germanic neighbors in the Forest States were victoriously re- pelling the encroachments of Habsburg- Austria, the Vaudois lay in apathetic sub- mission. The ill-fated revolt led by Major Davel, at the end of the last century, seems to have been their only serious effort. They did not know a period of freedom, until the French Revolutionists enfranchised them from Bern. SOME HILL TOWNS. I I 7 I. — Some Hill Towns. The march of modern travel has left these hill towns on one side, so that the guide-books barely mention them. And yet their fantastic picturesqueness might make the fortune of some clever etcher, so original and old-world are their lines. As for the student of history, he will recognize in them some of the most perfect, if un- pretentious, survivals of medievalism to be found anywhere. Taking Lausanne as a starting-point, you can run up to Yverdon, and pass several of them on the way, — Cossonay, La Sarraz, and Orbe, — dehghtful little places, full of feudal flavor. Perhaps a trip from Lau- sanne through the valley of the Broye will be, on the whole, the most paying, and at the same time throw more sidelights upon Swiss history. The train for Morat climbs the steep lake-front in curves and over viaducts, with the usual Swiss slowness tenfold exagger- ated by the upliill grade. At the top, there is just time to cast a backward look over Il8 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. the ever memorable magnificence of the lake, the pale green of the vineyards, and the violet richness of the Savoy mountains. Then the train plunges into a tunnel, and emerges on the other side in what seems another world. The colors there are som- bre by contrast, — crudely green, as though lacking the haze that gives atmosphere to Lake Leman. For this reason, it is perhaps preferable to travel in the opposite direc- tion, so as to pass from the subdued tones of the uplands to the brilliancy of the lake scenery. At Palezieux our train leaves the main track, that leads to Romont, Fribourg, and Bern, and follows the delightful valley of the Broye. This was the route of the Romans; and the little castled towns, so characteristic of this region, immediately appear to right and left, — Oron ; Ecublens ; Rue, one of the sweetest of them all; Moudon, with a massive, square building; and Lucens, leaning against its fort-crowned hill. The constantly recurring ending in ens is doubtless an abbreviation for the common Latin ensis. Farther along, an old chateau, perched above precipitous SOME HILL TOWNS. 1 19 cliffs, is happily called Surpierre; and then the towers of Payerne rise from the broadening plain. To tell the truth, Payerne is the least remarkable in appearance of all the towns in the valley of the Broye, as it is also the most modern and thriving among them. Indeed, it has actually quite a vulgar com- mercial reputation for pork sausages. But, in spite of this unfortunate drawback, the place is historically interesting, on account of its reminiscences of Bertha, Queen of Transjurane Burgundy. A certain Margrave, Rudolf, had utilized the confusion which followed the Treaty of \'erdun. to have himself crowned King of Transjurane Burgundy, in 888. His son, Rudolf II., attempted to enlarge the new kingdom in the direction of Alamannia, was defeated by Burkhard I., the duke of that country, and eventually reconciled to him in the most charming manner by mar- rying his daughter Bertha. During the absences of her husband upon warlike ex- peditions, and later, throughout the minor- ity of her son Conrad, the good queen showed extraordinary executive ability. 120 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. She was a sort of German Hausfrau on a royal scale, retaining, in her Romance en- vironment, the small economies and house- keeping thrift of her Teutonic training. Tradition represents her as riding from farm to farm, from manor to manor, upon a white palfrey, spinning the while from her distaff, which fitted into a hole in the saddle. To this day, the people of Vaud speak of "le temps ou Berlhe filait " as equivalent to "good old times." She built roads, encouraged agriculture and the plant- ing of vines, succored the sick, and reproved the lazy. When the country was invaded by hordes of Magyars and Saracens, she organized the defence by erecting towers of refuge on commanding points. Her personality impressed itself so strongly upon the memory of her contem- poraries, that succeeding generations, as usual, considered it necessary to translate her into legendary lore. Several Swiss artists have tried their hands at picturing her, and many poems have celebrated her virtues. In 961, Bertha founded a Benedictine abbey at Payerne, endowing it richly with SOME HILL TOWNS. 121 revenues and serfs. The church is now a granary, and the monastery a school ; but that does not prevent these buildings from being very much admired by art lovers. The pious queen and her beautiful daugh- ter, Adelaide, who became the wife of Otto, the Great, of Germany, took a deep interest in this foundation. The deed of endow- ment is still extant in two copies. An elaborate curse is appended, quite in the spirit of the times : " If any power be so bold as to invade the possessions of the servants of God," Bertha devoutly hopes, "they will be declared deprived of eternal life." The school-children who pour daily through the ancient portal show no signs of suffering from this curse. In 1817, her re- mains and those of her husband, Rudolf, as well as of her son Conrad, were discovered under the floor of the abbey church. At least, the authorities of Canton Vaud iden- tified the skeletons found there as belong- ing to these personages. They were trans- ferred to the parish church, where their tombs are marked with a long inscription. On her seals she is styled, Bcrta Dei Gracia Hn^iilis Regina (Bertha, by the 122 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. grace of God the humble queen). Travel- lers are still shown at Payerne lier identical famous saddle, with the hole for a distaff; but heartless archeeologists now affirm that this curious object is in reality a mediaeval instrument of torture, by which prisoners could be fastened on horseback. Of quite another stamp is the one other noted character which Payerne suggests,— Henri Jomini. He was born there, in 1779, but his military career was passed entirely in foreign countries. As a soldier of fortune of a superior kind, peculiar to his time, and now no longer possible, he distin- guished himself throughout the wars which convulsed Europe after the French Revo- lution, both as a leader and military writer. Aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney, and attached for years to the person of Napoleon, Jomini had ample opportunity of studying strategy. His principal works were a " Traitd des Grandes Operations" and his " Histoire des Guerres de la Revolution." But he had an enemy, Berthier, who intrigued con- tinually against his advancement ; and so Jomini, one fine day, in disgust, went over to the Russians, and accepted a high posi- A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL. 1 23 tion in that army. Napoleon himself, however, at St. Helena, acknowledged that Jomini had not betrayed any secrets to his new friends. Jomini followed the cam- paigns of the Allies to the Congress of Vienna, lived to see the Crimean War, and died in 1869, just before the outbreak of the Franco-German War. His works are even now by no means antiquated, and he insisted upon one very modern idea at least in his writings. He was a strong par- tisan of a P'ranco-Russian alliance, as the only means of maintaining the European equilibrium, and counteracting the maritime power of England. Indeed, he practically demonstrated this theory of an alliance in his own family ; for two of his daughters were married in France, another in Russia, and two sons even became Russian sub- jects, yet their family relations are said to have remained most affectionate. II. — A Forgotten Capital. One can never escape altogether from the circle of Roman remains in Europe. They turn up in the most unlikely places. 124 RO.MAXCE SWITZERLAND. In Romance Switzerland, they abound; but still one is curiously impressed to find in the little insignificant town of Avenches. farther along this valley of the Broye, the forgotten capital of a Roman province, — the ancient Aventicum of the Latin charts. Even before the beginning of the Christian era, the various Celtic tribes, inhabiting what is now Swiss soil, had fallen a prey to the conquerors of the world, — the Hel- vetii in B.C. 58, the clans of the Valais in the next year, and the Raeti of the eastern Alps in B.C. 15. These acquisitions were promptly organized into provinces, and the unfailing Roman roads built to secure military and commercial communication. One of the principal routes from Italy to Germany led from Aosta over the Great St. Bernard to Martigny, by \'evey and Avenches (Aventicum), to the defences on the Rhine. Aventicum was made the capi- tal of the Helveto-Roman province, and the centre of a network of minor roads. Under Vespasian and Titus, it attained the pro- portions of a veritable metropolis, with some fifty thousand inhabitants, and flour- ished during the reig:ns of succeeding A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL. 1 25 emperors, until it was destroyed by the sweeping stream of the invading Alamanni. Modern Avenches is one of the most charming of hill towns. Compact within its walls, it crowns an oblong eminence, the site of a Roman castellum. A mediae- val castle stands at one end, with peaked towers, pretty ornate windows, and blinds curiously painted in stripes, after the fash- ion of so many Swiss chateaux. The surrounding plain is thickly planted with tobacco. One hardly knows whether to be more surprised at the endless strings of tobacco-leaves, dr3'ing in the sun under the eaves of old-fashioned houses and in buildings especially adapted for the pur- pose, or at the pe7isio7inat for girls, that is patronized by English and foreign families : these two local products are so ill-assorted, and seem so out of place in their archaeo- logical environment. Ancient Aventicum lay mostly in the plain to the east of the present town. At the station itself, a part of the old wall is visible, which can be traced for almost its whole circumference of four miles. It used to be studded with eighty or ninety towers; 126 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. only one now remains. From the field of grass which was once the forum, rises a co- lumnar structure, known as the " Cigognier," because it used to be a favorite place for storks (French, cigogac) to build their nest upon. Dumas saw a nest of storks upon it in 1.S33, and affirms that there was a fine of seventy francs for any one wlio should kill one of the birds. In spite of this protection of the law, the "Cigognier" lias now for man}- years been tenantless. In Roman times, Aventicum was con- nected with Lake IMorat by a canal, and there was continuous water transport over the lakes of Neuchatel and Bienne. An ancient theatre is now being carefully excavated. The outlines of an amphi- theatre, capable of seating between eight thousand and ten thousand people, are seen on the hillside near the entrance to Avenches. In the low ground, towards the solitary v.-all-tower, innumerable articles of Roman origin have been discovered, notably some superb mosaic floors. Lmder the auspices of a society Pro Ai'cutico. tlic most noteworthy objects have been set up in a little local museum. A FORGOTTEN CAPITAL. 127 But every now and then, an inscription can be seen imbedded in the building material of some house. The effect is doubly impressive, because the spirit of Avenches is so rustic and provincial. Indeed, nothing could be more remarkable than this little country town, dwindled down to less than two thousand inhabitants, but surrounded by evidences of a splendid past. Unknown, except to a few archaeologists, and yet intensely suggestive to visitois, Avenches sits upon her hill, forgotten and forlorn, but ever beautiful, waiting, perhaps, for some new impulse of prosperity that may restore her prestige. There is an infinite pathos in this decayed metropolis of the Helveto-Romans, which even the smiling meadows in the plain, the whispering wheat, and the dark green tobacco-rows cannot make one forget. The train does not take long to run from Avenches to Morat, and yet what a span of centuries lies between the two places ! A whole change of civilization is expressed by the transition. The latter is famous in the world's history for the second great victory which the Swiss Confederates 128 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. gained over Charles, the Bold, of Burgundy, the first being at Grandson, on the lake of Neuchatel. The sites of these two victories are not far apart, as distances go ; it might be well, therefore, to consider them together. III. — Two BURGUNDIAN BATTLEFIELDS. When the Swiss Confederates were urged into war with Charles, the Bold, by the combined intrigues of Louis XI. of France and Duke Sigmund of Austria, their op- ponent was considered the richest prince in Europe. It was liis special ambition to found a great middle kingdom between France and Germany. After advancing so far towards the accomplishment of his plans, that he actually reigned from the Zuyder Zee to the lake of Neuchatel, he met an obstacle in the military prowess of the Swiss which not only shattered all his hopes, but eventually left him dead upon the batdefield. In order to approach these two Ijattle- fields in their proper liislorical sequence,. Grandson must be taken bjfore Morat TWO BURGUXDIAX BATTLEFIELDS. 1 29 Imagine yourself, therefore, transported to that place at the lower end of Lake Neu- chatel. Grandson, it is true, like Vevey, de- rives its modern reputation chiefly from a native brand of cigars ; but one must not be disconcerted by this apparent incon- gruity, and rather turn resolutely to the past. An old Romanesque church, which formerly belonged to an abbey, is said to be very interesting to art lovers ; and certainly the fine castle, restored and inhabited by a Baron de Blonay, is impressive even without its historical associations. The railroad passes directly under the cliff upon which the castle is perched, — in fact, cutting off an outlying bit of fortification from the main wall. A court, resembling that of Gruy&res, fairly exhales the knightly age; while the gallery that runs around the top of its walls, is very suggestive of the famous siege. The most noted occupant of this castle was Knight Otto, of Grandson, who has the distinction of having been the first poet of French Switzerland. He was born in 1330, served under Edward III. of Eng- 9 130 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAXD. land in the French wars, and died in a judicial duel fought with his jealous neigh- bor across the lake, Gerard of Estavayer. The latter had made some accusations against him, which are not clearly under- stood to this day ; and Knight Otto, although he must have been about seventy years old, considered himself bound to satisfy honor. He was pierced at the first encounter, and that is why, on his tomb in the Cathedral of Lausanne, his hands are represented as resting on a cushion, in token that he died under the ban. His verses consisted of the pastorals, rondels, and love plaints, affected by the Troubadours of his day, — sweet and melancholy notes of entreaty or protest to his i?-t's douce danwiselle. I3ut tliey must have possessed unusual merit, or Chaucer would not have translated Otto"s •• Complaint of Mars and \'enus,"' and called him •• the flower of French poets." It is also pleasant to know that although Otto acknowledged that his fair friend proved unfaithful to him, he continued to I)e a recognized champion of women in the poetic tournaments, where their virtues and frailties were frankly discussed. TWO BURGUXDIAX BATTLEFIELDS. I3I But now to describe the siege and battle. Charles, the Bold, marched upon Bern, by way of Neuchatel, in February of 1476. A garrison of some five hundred Swiss, hastily gathered and badly provisioned, held Grandson, to block his way. Finally, made desperate by lack of reinforcements, they surrendered to his army of twenty thousand men, having defended themselves with unexpected success for at least ten days. The prisoners, four hundred and twelve in number, were condemned to death, and hanged on the trees in the camp. In the mean time, the main force of the Swiss advanced from Neuchatel to meet Cliarles, the Bold, with perhaps eighteen tliousand troops. The two armies met near the spur which descends from the Jura down to the lake, at the hamlet of La Lance, some five miles north of Grandson. The Swiss drove the Burgundian outposts down the slopes, and, after a sharp engagement, scattered the magnificent army of Charles, the Bold, helter-skelter over the plain. There was comparatively little loss of life, but the booty found in the camp was simply f32 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. invaluable. " The Duke had brought with him the paraphernalia of his chapel and table, habiliments and regalia used on occasions of state." * No wonder the rude Swiss were demoralized by these riches, and quarrelled over them for years after. Jomini explains the Burgundian defeat from the point of view of a tactician in the following manner: " Charles had committed the fault of encamping with one of his wings resting on a lake, the other, ill assured, at the foot of wooded inoun- tains." t There is a certain family likeness between the battles of Grandson and Morat. They both began with obstinately contested sieges, the whole Burgundian army attacking a relatively small Swiss garrison, and both ended in great pitched battles which proved overwhelming vic- tories for the Swiss. In June of the same year, Charles, the Bold, returned to the charge against Bern, * Kirk, J. F. History of Charles, the Bold, Duke of Burgvindy, vol. iii., p. 342. t Ibid, p. 346. TWO BURGUNDIAX BATTLEFIELDS. 1 33 but this time by way of Alorat. On the 9th of June, 1476, his army encamped before that little walled town, which has preserved its antique aspect to this day with singular perfection. It would be hard to imagine anything more faultlessly feudal than that first sight of Morat from the land side, when you leave the railroad station, — the circling wall, the strong towers springing at inter- vals from its top, the castle in one corner, and round about the fields and gardens of living green to set off this medieval jewel. On the other side of Morat, the placid lake pales under the noonday sun, the vine-clad hill of Vully shuts off the lake of Neucha- tel, and a pathetic by-gone glory hovers about its small provincial buildings. As the railroad station is some distance off, you have time to drop all modernness by the wayside, and compose your mind in a feudal frame before the gate is reached. Within the walls, the spirit of remote centuries reigns undisturbed. Two long parallel streets run from end to end, with a few cross-cuts to connect them. The white houses of stone and mortar have wide, 134 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. overhanging eaves that, on the side streets, shelter rows of yellow ears of corn, or bun- dles of flax and hemp, strung up to dry. If the very streets breathe the atmosphere of another age, the wooden gallery which skirts the wall on the inside, is still more full of feudal flavor. A staircase starts from behind the church in one corner. There are occasional strong towers and peep-holes everywhere. The mouldering beams, now pathetically unsafe, are scratched full of lovers' names. This is the place to conjure up the memorial siege which preceded the battle. You must imagine the Burgundian host encamped outside, and see the brave defenders on the watch, spread along this gallery, or rallying at the gates. The garrison was well supplied with ammunition and provisions, and com- manded by the intrepid Adrian von Bubeu- berg. Outside the wall, there were ditches and other outworks, but Von Bubenbcivj; ordered the gates to be left open, in order to urge his men to vigilance. The siege was carried on with utmost bitterness by Charles, the Bold, for a fortnight, until the TWO BURGUNDIAX BATTLEFIELDS. 135 Swiss Confederates came to the rescue. Some stone cannon-balls may still be seen imbedded in the northern wall, — I know not whether actually shot there, or only found in the vicinity, and after- ward walled in. The Swiss advanced with about twenty- five thousand men, the same in number as the Burgundians. They came over the hills from Giimminen, in the valley of the Saane, and, as at (irandson, drove the enemy before them in disorder. The battle degenerated into an atrocious butchery. The Swiss made regular sport of killing off their prisoners. Some, who had taken refuge in chimneys and ovens at the hamlet of Faoug, were smoked out. Others had climbed into the great walnut-trees that lined the road to Avenches ; the crossbow- men stood round in a ring, and picked them off, calling them crows for fun. But by far the greater number were driven into the lake, drowned or shot from the shore like ducks, with many jests about their being thirsty or learning to swim. When Bonaparte passed through Moral in 1797, he is reported to have said, " If ever 136 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. we give battle hereabouts, be sure we shall not take the lake for our line of retreat." Nine years after the battle, Bern and Fribourg had the bones of the fallen gath- ered into a small building, with a chapel attaclied. At the time of the invasion of Switzerland by French Revolutionists, some Burgundian troops destroyed this ossuary ; and the bones remained exposed for many years, so that travellers used to carry them off as mementos. Finally, in 1822, the small obelisk was erected which now covers the site. In the local museum some trophies of the battle are kept, and in various parts of Switzerland travellers are shown objects said to have been cap- tured from Charles, the Bold. It is diffi- cult at this late date to identify them. The subsequent history of the Swiss Confederation bore the impress of these tremendous victories only too plainly. The people lusted for war, no longer in self- defence, but as a means of gaining booty; and though the nation soon after reached the very pinnacle of its military prowess, at heart it was beginning to feel the corrupting influence of unworthy motives. CHAPTER VIII. NEUCHATEL. APPROACH it as you will, Neuchatel is sure to charm at once with its tran- quil beauty. Whether you come through the Val de Travers, or from Bienne, or across the lake from Morat, the sight of the little town amid its vineyards, with that panoramic sweep of the Alps before it, never fails to produce an impression of joyful surprise. Neuchatel climbs the hillside of Chau- mont from a line of quays and shade-trees upon the water-front, up through irregular terraces and snug gardens, to the edge of the blue-black forest that tops the Jura range. Around the castle hill, as a nucleus, lies the old town, with houses closely clus- tered, and steep little streets running up the incline. But in the modern part there is a broad, winding road leading to the station, 138 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. and pretty villas arc sown broadcast among the vineyards on the outskirts. As for the outlook over lake and moun- tain, it is unsurpassed, in its way, even In Switzerland. In fine weather, the water lies pale and placid, of a sky-blue monotone, less intense than the azure of Lake Leman. On doubt- ful days, however, the lake, chameleon-like, changes color everv hour. The opposite shore reveals many hand- some aspects in flat lines. Beyond it rise first the fore-hills of the Alps, and then the great pe;iks themselves, from Pilatus to Alont Blanc, — an immutable phalanx, impalpable and misty, suggesting reveries and inspiring poetry. Dumas the Elder once said of Neuchatel, that it had ''the appearance of an immense plaything carved in butter."' In fact, a singular effect is produced by the use, in the construction of almost all the houses, of a certain yellow stone, called neocomian;* and yet there is no painful glare, as often in Geneva, where a white, chalky stone is * From Greek i-co? (new) and KoJai; (town), — that is, Neuchatel. NEUCHATEL. 139 used extensively, but, on the contrary, Neu- chatel is full of an agreeable yellow light, harmonizing with the blue of the lake. At present, the town can boast of only one mediaeval spot; for the walls and gates which once surrounded the town have yielded to the expanding force of progress and prosperity. This witness of the past is the hill upon which stand the castle, church, and cloisters. At its foot may still be seen an ancient tower, the Tour de Diesse, now somewhat ruthlessly modern- ized by the addition of a four-faced clock. Two old fountains near by are ornamented, one with a banneret-bearer, and the other with some mysterious heraldic animal. But on top of the hill there is a group of remarkable buildings, not large or impos- ing, but singularly attractive, built of the characteristic local stone, and belonging architecturally to the Burgundian period. They are symbolical of Neuchatel itself, admirable for their miniature grace and orderliness. F'irst, the Church of the ColMgiale, or the Temple du Haut, with choir and lateral 140 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. door in pure Romanesque, two comical little spires, and a marvellous Gothic monu- ment to the Counts of Neuchatel. This last is one of the most interesting remains of its kind in Europe, containing no less than fifteen life-size statues of various members of the family. At the time of the Reformation, it was almost destroyed, and, as now seen, is the result of careful restoration. On the wall opposite the monument is carved the following signifi- cant inscription: Z'(Z« 1530, le 23 d^octobre, fjit ostee et abattiie Fidolatrie de ceans par les bourgeois. But though, at the time of tlie Reformation, the church was swept clean of almost all ornaments, nothing can obliterate its pleasing proportions and graceful lines. On the terrace, in front of the church, stands a statue of f'arel. He is clad in a flowing preacher's gown, and holds a Bible with both hands high above his head, while his fierce, fanatical face, with straggling beard, lowers from under his beret. A strange product of the Reformation, this Farel ! Born in the south of France, a student in Paris, and a wandering preacher XEUCHATEL. 141 in Switzerland, he died in Neuchitel, after suffering repeated persecutions and im- prisonments. Pliilippe Godet speaks of him as "a soul of fire and faith."* His contemporaries describe him as a man of small stature, with unkempt red beard, burn- ing eyes, a tremendous voice, and a natural eloquence which was simply irresistible. In strange contrast to the scenes of reli- gious violence, evoked by the name of Farel, is the old-time peace which reigns undis- turbed in the restored cloisters adjoining the church. The sun pours down upon the little grass-plots laid out within the enclosure, and casts furtive glances into the seclusion of the cloisters. Ivy trails along the ground, and climbs decorously up the sides. For a view, commend me to the battle- mented terrace, where children play, while their mothers knit and gossip. The life of the rustic city lies at your feet. A steam- boat stops at the pier with much churning of the water. Some boys are hurrying to the bathing-houses. A carter cracks his * Histoire Litteraire de la Suisse Frangaise. Xeu- chatel, 1890. p. 54. r ;.2 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. v/hip in the narrow street. There is a breeze fresh from across the water, wliere a long, flat cloud lies basking on the moun- tain-side like an alligator. Formerly, the ancient counts used to hold court on tliis terrace, and the citizens swore fealtv to tlie reigning house. In truth, the complete independence of Neuchatel from foreign rule is quite a modern thing: for this Canton is the Benjamin of the Swiss Con- federation, the youngest-born among the brethren. Without going back to the time of the lake-dwellers and the Celtic Sequani, it will suffice to point out that a strong tower, with small surrounding settlement, stood on the site of the town in early mediaeval times. It went by the name of Novum Castrum, or in French, Neuchatel. From 1034 to 1707, a number of different families suc- ceeded each other as Counts of Neuchatel. Then the town and adjoining country dis- trict came into possession of the crown of Prussia. In 1806, after the battle of Aus- terlitz. Napoleon awarded Neuchatel to his Marshal, Berthier ; but in 18 14, it once more became a Prussian province, and in the NEUCHATEL. l^Z following year, strange to say, joined the Swiss Confederation, while still remaining in nominal subjection to a distant ruler. This anomalous position led to internal insurrections and grave international com- plications. It was not until 1857 that NeuchateTs complete emancipation from Prussia was definitely sanctioned by the Treaty of Paris. The castle is a composite building of several epochs. An old wing of exceed- ingly interesting construction, in Byzantine Romanesque, has a fagade ornamented with a species of loggia. There is a great deal of archaic carving in unlikely places. This may have been the regalissima sedes, or most royal residence, of the kings of Transjurane Burgundy, mentioned in a document of loii. It has lately been restored, with scrupulous exactness, wher- ever the stone had begun to crumble. The main body of the castle is in the usual feudal style, and there is a brand-new addi- tion containing the assembly hall for the Grand Council of the Canton. As this group of buildings is the seat of the can- tonal government, various offices face upon 144 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. the castle court, their modern signs con- trasting curiously with the latter's mediaeval aspect. Down in the town proper, the market- place is worth a visit, both on account of the quaint building known as the Halles, which stands on one side of the open space, and also in order to see the typical Neuchatelois. On market days there are stalls covered with snow-white awnings ; wicker baskets, full of vegetables, line the square, or are piled up empty in the corners, ready to return to the country. The peas- ants are mostly in homespun and blue blouses ; the women wear big straw hats. Maidservants, in the neatest of print dresses, carry home their morning's mar- keting. A sober, subdued sort of bargain- ing goes on, befitting the character of the people. On the quaj's everjlhing is modern, for, in fact, this quarter of the town was created not long since in a somewhat unusual man- ner. A hill near the station was found to impede the growth of the city. It was promptly attacked with pick and shovel, NEUCHATEL. I45 and the refuse dumped bit by bit along the lake-front, — an exhibition of remarkable municipal enterprise. One is astonished at the number of large buildings, standing in an almost unbroken row, devoted to educational purposes, — veritable palaces, upon which the worthy Neuchatelois have lavished great sums unstintingly. Indeed, teaching seems to be the principal local industry, instruction the staple product of the town. For, besides the usual primary and sec- ondary schools, there is a Latin college^ an academy with four faculties, — letters, science, law, and theology, — a commercial school, a school of watchmaking, as well as laboratories, and manual and industrial traming-schools. For girls, there are high and normal schools. Near by, at Cernier, the Canton maintains an agricultural col- lege, and at Auvernier, one for the cultiva- tion of the vine. As for boarding-schools, i:.'$.^tz\'iS\.y pettsionnats for girls, they abound on every hand, and are widely known for the thorough and practical instruction they afford. Nor must one forget to mention a peculiar custom which still flourishes to 10 146 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. a certain extent, and exerts an educational influence. Families from French and Ger- man Switzerland often exchange sons and daughters for a few years, in order to have their children learn the languages. No simpler and cheaper method of instruction could be devised. It is worthy of the practical common-sense of the Swiss people. Perhaps the most astonishing evidence of the vigorous intellectual and artistic life of Neuchatel is furnished by the Mu- seum of Fine Arts, which adorns the new quay. It is certainly worth careful exami- nation, with its souvenirs of the Prussian dominion, now so strangely incongruous in a Swiss canton, its array of ancient flags and furniture, of armor, costumes, house- hold implements, and porcelain stoves. Especially valuable are the specimens of old watchmaking, the coins, and por- traits of famous men of Neuchatel, such as Agassiz, Desor, and De Pourtales. Of course, the inevitable collection of lake- dwelling remains, whicli figures in every Swiss museum, is there also. The picture gallery, on the second tloor, has some NEUCHATEL. I47 really fine work to show, — notably the mountain effects of Calame and A. H. Berthoud, the charming bits around Neu- chatel by Dubois, Bachehn's military subjects, and at least one worl< of that admirable Swiss artist, Anker. There arc, of course, some pretentious pieces in pseudo-classic style, which make quite a show on the catalogue, and may impose on rustic visitors, f'ortunately, however, modern art has outgrown that posing, far- fetched phase which set at naught truth and actuality. As it is somewhat difficult to find any- thing in Neuchdtel of which one can speak disparagingly, tlic ugliness of tlie Hotel de Ville is almost welcome. Surely that heavy, inartistic faqade was a momen- tary aberration of the worthy townsmen's taste. At all events, its appearance dis- courages a closer acquaintance with the interior of the structure. In regard to business enterprises, the inhabitants have always sought to keep manufactures out of the town proper. A certain amount of watchmaking has de- scended from the vallcvs of tlic Jura. 148 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. There are also plants for the making of electric apparatus and cables. Wine, ab- sinthe, and Swiss champagne are pre- pared to some extent ; but in general the great industries are scattered about in various parts of the Canton. Watch- making flourishes principally at La Chaux- de-Fonds* and Le Locle, large villages situated in rugged Alpine valleys of the Jura. The wealth of the Val de Travers consists in absinthe and asphalt, the for- mer being exported in tremendous quan- tities to France and her colonies, the latter worked by an English company. Compara- tively little ordinary farming is done. On the other hand, vine-growing is carried to a degree of perfection and precision truly remarkable. Cortaillod furnishes a wine highly prized in Switzerland. The cele- brated Suchard chocolate is manufactured just outside of Neuchatel, in the Gorge de Serrieres, visible from the train on the road to Lausanne. * I.a Chaux-de-F(inds has more than twenty-two thousand inhabitants, and is known as the most nrpulous village in Europe. NEUCHATEL. 149 But what of the people themselves, of the Neuchatelois ? Of course there are types differing from each other, even in this little Canton. The vigneron, a crude, hard-fisted peasant, bending over his vines from sunrise to sunset, sobered by the monotony and regularity of his tasks, and the descendant of the native aristocracy, cradled in the memories of the Prussian regime, have at first sight little in common. But there are, in truth, local traits. Rous- seau, writing in 1763 to the Marshal of Luxembourg, painted a very unflattering portrait of the Neuchatelois. " Much wit and still more pretension," he writes, " but without taste : that is wliat impressed me at first among the Neuchatelois. They talk well, and with ease, but they write monotonously and badly, especially when they want to write lightly; and that they always want to do. . . . They think them- selves pohte, because they are full of man- nerisms, and gay, because they are turbu- lent. . . . The sex is not beautiful there. . . . The religion upon which they pride themselves serves rather to make them fault-finding than good." 150 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. There may have been some justification for Rousseau's complaints in 1763, for it must be remembered that art and letters were only beginning to be appreciated at Neuchatel in those days. In fact, his pres- ence had aroused an interest in such mat- ters, and the first results, obtained by the citizens, were doubtless somewhat crude and pretentious. The prevailing Puritan- ism was more uncompromising in his day; it was, moreover, outraged by his sayings, and probably affected greater primness, than was natural, in his presence. Nor was Rousseau himself in a fit frame of mind to render an unbiased judgment, for he was embittered by a series of more or less imaginary persecutions. At all events, Rousseau's portrait is no longer a true one. Let me confess at once to an undisguised admiration for those fresh young girls of whom Neuchatel somehow seems to have a disproportionately large supply. Are there such complexions to be found else- where in Switzerland? Perhaps in Lau- sanne, but rarely in Geneva. Such joyous pinks upon a white which is slightly sun- NEUCHATEL. I51 burnt, giving an effect of urban refinement and rustic health all in one. In truth, there is a distinct local complexion. Let it be prized as it deserves. On pleasant summer evenings, the quays become the great resort of young and old, taking the air. They are the rendezvous of the students of the Academy, who stalk about, wearing colored caps, and brandish- ing canes of impossible shapes. Although absurdly self-conscious, and displaying an infinite variety of provoking swaggers, they are, for all that, good fellows, and make steady citizens. Young girls, in twos and threes, walk about chatting with a freedom which is almost American. Old ladies and gentlemen, seated on the benches, are sol- emnly reminiscent, talking in that charming French of which Neuchatel is justly proud. A cool air comes from the lake, where some youngsters in boats are taking a spir. before dark. As a somewhat disquieting fact for the older residents, may be noted the steady influx of German Swiss into the Canton. Their grating guttural, doubly unpleasant in a French environment, is heard more 152 ROMANX'E SWITZERLAND. often every year upon the streets ; they already fill almost all the lower grades of labor. At the present time, it is calculated that there are actually more German than French speaking Swiss in the Canton. "We are in the midst of an invasion," M. Godet said to me. Not that this movement is of recent origin, for the fer- tility of the Canton and its business enter- prises have always to a certain extent acted as magnets for the German-speaking neigh- bors. At the same time, the children of these immigrants rapidly acquire French, and become good citizens. It is only nat- ural, however, that a certain latent race- antipathy should be aroused during the process of absorption. Alike in the vigjioble and the f/iontagne, the Neuchatelois are by temperament solid, sob'jr people, still to a great extent imbued with the hard piousness of Protestantism ; practical in affairs, like the Swiss in gen- eral, not speculative or adventurous; dis- tinctly provincial, in the best sense of the word. They possess a modern school of literature quite apart, — a school marked by an ingrained love of that smaller patrie, SWISS-AMERICAN SCIENTISTS. 1 53 which may be a native vineclad slope or a Jura valley. It is a literature dealing in minute details, painstaking, and depicting laboriously local manners and scenery. Taken all in all, Neuchatel, the town, impresses one as somewhat of a rustic Athens, the centre of a cultured Arcadia. Its Museum of Fine Arts, standing almost among the vineyards, is typical of this unique combination of the cultivation of the mind with manual toil. Is it not an idyl, that modest little town with its vast panorama, performing its simple tasks in the face of a truly noble intellectual hori- zon.^ Is it not surprisingly complete in everything which advanced civilization really needs? Surely, in such an atmos- phere, labor must cease to be drudgery, and local pride must become a prime vir- tue. May the mania for centralization never disturb these ideal conditions ! Svviss-American Scientists. Little Neuchatel once placed America under great obligation by lending it two very exceptional men of science, — 154 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Louis Jean Rodolphe Agassiz (r8o7-i873) and Arnold Henri Guyot (i 807-1884). Tliey were colleagues in the Academy at Neuchatel, co-operated in exploring and studying the glaciers, went to America at about the same time, and eventually took professorships in two of the foremost uni- versities of the United States, — Agassiz at Harvard University, and Guyot at Prince- ton. By quickening and ennobling scien- tific studies, they earned the imperishable gratitude of their adopted land. The great originator of the "Glacial Theory" was born at Motiers-en-Vully, on the lake of Morat. His father was pastor of the place. At an early age, he showed his bent for original research in natural history by turning the stone basin, under the fountain of the parsonage, into an aquarium. His student days were spent at Bienne, Lausanne, Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. At this last place, he became a warm friend of Ignaz Dollinger, Pro- fessor of Comparative Anatomy, who was the father of that famous Dollinger who acquired celebrity as an opponent of Papal Infallibility. Agassiz used to assemble SWISS-AMERICAN SCIENTISTS. 1 55 enthusiastic fellow-students for lectures on original work, so that his study was nick- named " The Little Academy." In Paris, the young scientist made the acquaintance of Von Humboldt, who from chat time on was able to render him many services. Agassiz first made his mark as an ichthyologist. At twenty-two, he brought out his "Brazilian Fishes;" in 1832, was made Professor at the Lyceum of Neucha- tel, where he aroused the keenest inter- est, teaching his pupils as much as possible out-of-doors, and in 1837, read his famous treatise before the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences, assembled at Neuchatel, m which he expounded for the first time his now very generally accepted glacial theory. Venetz and Charpentier had to some extent paved the way for this announcement ; nevertheless, it met with a good deal of opposition. Agassiz determined to place his theory upon indisputable ground by collecting all the necessary facts himself. This was the origin of periodic excursions to the glaciers at Chamonix, Zermatt, and especially to the Aar Gletscher, near the Grimsel Pass. Agassiz was accompanied 156 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. by Karl Vogt, F, de Pourtales, and Edouard Desor, while Guyot, Forbes, and others made temporary visits. Desor constituted himself chronicler of their excursions. He has told the story of their hardships and adventures in two books, now some- what rare, — " Excursions et S^jours dans les Glaciers et les Hautes Regions des Alpes" and " Nouvelles Excursions." Taking the Grimsel Hospice as a base of supplies, this band of climbing scientists built a hut on the great moraine of the Aar Gletscher, under the shelter of an enormous block of stone. Their temporary home soon became known as the " Hotel des Neuchatelois."' Thence they could explore the surrounding regions of ice and snow at their leisure. The task of measuring the march of the glaciers, and of taking all manner of observations, was divided among them, so that an enormous amount of work was accomplished. The result was Agassiz's " Etudes sur les Glaciers." These glacial investigations lasted some eight or nine years, until 1845. Then Agassiz sailed for the United States, and SWISS-AMERICAN SCIENTISTS. I 57 finally made his home permanently at Cambridge, Mass. As early as 1835, he had corresponded with Professor Silliman of Yale College, and in fact had long desired to visit and explore the New World. His career in America was exceedingly brilliant, and his name stands for everything that is worthiest in the scientific develop- ment of that country. From first to last, however, he resolutely rejected the theory of evolution, and clung to the old-fashioned idea of independent creations. When Agassiz died, a block was selected from the many lying on the moraine of the Aar Gletscher to place upon his tomb. It was so monumental in form that not a touch of the hammer was needed to fit it for its purpose. Arnold Guyot was not the author of any startling, comprehensive theory, nor did his reputation ever attain the splendor of Agassiz's. He was rather an adapter, a generalizer and popularizer of ideas. His name is especially identified with the work of reconciling science with religion, — of 158 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. establishing friendly relations between the discoveries of modern science and the Bible. This is the task he set himself in his work on "The Earth and Man." As a text- book, his " Physical Geograpliy " is widely known and highly prized. The original work that he did in the observation of glaciers went into the " Systeme Glaciaire," in which he collaborated with Agassiz and Desor; so that, on the whole, he is likely to be best known to future generations as a geographer, who was able to treat his sub- ject at once accurately and in a popular manner. CHAPTER IX. FRIBOURG AND ROMONT. ALMOST everybody passes the "City of Bridges" in making the regular Swiss tour, but few people take time to stop over for a nearer view. And yet what one sees from the train is very tantalizing indeed. There never was such a fantasti- cally built place as Fribourg. It gives one the impression of being a deliberate caprice, a fairy-tale freak. Dumas was much amused by it. " Altogether, Fribourg looks like the result of a wager," he wrote, "made by some whimsical architect after a copious dinner. It is the most hump- backed city that I know of." Since his day, fortunately, suspension bridges have been laid across the chasm made by the river. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the inhabitants ever had the patience to live there before those modern improve- ments. l6o ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Fribourg undoubtedly bears a strong resemblance to Bern. The Sarine curls around the foot of a rocky promontory much in the same way as the Aar does. There is the same grouping of houses above the steep slopes, topped by spires, and on the outskirts, the same occasional stretches of city wall, flanked by towers. Near the station itself stands that unique Tour de Henry, — a superb specimen of fourteenth-century fortification architecture. It presents a concave surface towards the outside, but is open on its city side, so that, even if the enemy succeeded in capturing it, they would be unprotected and, therefore, more easily dislodged. Another point of resemblance is that both cities were founded as strongholds by the Dukes of Zaeringen, to help maintain thuir ma.Nterv over rival Burgundian nobles, — only Fri- bourg has the advantage of Bern by a feu- years. It was a Berchtold W. who, in 1 1 76 or 1 1 78, enlarged a small settlement upon the banks of the Sarine into the stately city that we see to-day. Bern was not founded till 1191. This blood relation- ship, however, did not prevent the sister FRIBOURG. l6l cities from waging continual war upon each other. There was never any love lost between them, until Bern, in the end, grew so powerful as to be able to disregard her former rival. The hotels are certainly second-rate ; and if anybody does stop over at Fribourg, it is usually in order to hear the organ in the Church of St. Nicholas, justly famed for its extraordinary capabilities. A concer*^ is given twice a day, when a sufficient number of people present themselves to make up the sum of twenty francs. Or an evening the effect is overpowering. The church is dim and holy with a half- light ; a smell of spent incense hovers about ; and the images and tablets, with their gilded tinsel, seem almost like good art. A moment is given you to compose your mind, before the first notes of the organ steal through the recesses of the rafters, down the Gothic arches, to the aisles and the audience. Those to whom music means much, must hear thi.s organ to appreciate the various effects it can be made to pro- duce : the ringing peals of praise that fall, -efined and rarefied, from the vaulted ceiling, II l62 ROMANCE SWITZERLAXD. the golden, angelic arpeggios that are whis- pered through the carved stalls, or the plaintive tones of prayer that penetrate to the very altars of the side chapels. The organist usually gives the tourists a rep- resentation of a storm, to show off t'lie instrument, bringing out all the accessories of crashing tb.under and pattering rain. This is certainly the most popular piece on the programme. As for the rest, the very best music is selected for these concerts. In front of the Hotel de Ville stands a wonderful old lime-tree, supported by stone pillars. Tlie tradition is that it was planted there after tlie victory of Morat, in 1476, from a twig which the messenger who brought the good news bore in his hat. He fell dead on the spot, overcome by his efforts, and his fellow-citizens honored his memory in this beautiful manner. Fribourg has produced few celebrities, as it has also played a very small part in the world's history. But there are two personages who deserve to be mentioned, for their fame has crossed the frontiers of FRIBOURG. 163 Switzerland, — Pere Grdgoire Girard, the educator, and the Duchesse Adele Colonna of Castiglione-Aldebrandini, the sculptor, better known as " Marcello." Gregoire Girard, in truth, represents the best glory of Fribourg. In French Swit- zerland he stood for that radical reform in education, which his contemporaries, Pestalozzi and Fellenberg, were demon- strating on independent lines in German Switzerland. He belongs to that noble group of pioneer schoolmasters who have founded the modern system of pedagogy upon natural principles, discarding the arti- ficial traditions of medieevalism. Indeed, his boyhood was in itself a perfect prepara- tion for his life-work. He was born in 1765, the seventh child in a family of fifteen. In helping his mother to bring up the eight brothers and sisters who followed him, he unconsciously laid the foundation for his educational system. After studying at Luzern and Wiirzburg, he joined the order of the Franciscans, worked among the poor of Bern, and was finally called, with his order, to his native city to re-organize the primary 164 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. schools. He soon made them famous by his original and successful methods. Pes- talozzi apparently thought that mathematics were best suited to develop the faculties of children ; Girard taught his scholars by the study of their native language. \'isitors came from all parts of Europe to examine his system, and his text-books were in great demand. But Girard was a liberal Catholic, who read Kant, and co-operated with Protestants in the good cause. More- over, he was a Franciscan ; and so when the Ultramontane Jesuits got control of Fri- bourg, they drove him out, and reduced his school to its former mediocrity. In 1834, however, Girard was allowed to return, thenceforth to exercise, undisturbed, his influence upon the primary schools. He also wrote a whole series of text-books, and died in 1850, universally beloved and regretted. His fellow-citizens have erected a statue to him near the Hotel de Ville. " Marcello " was quite another type. Her grandfather was Count Charles Affry, who commanded a regiment of the Swiss Guard of Louis XVI., and died fighting in the famous massacre at the Tuileries. She FRIBOURG. 165 was married at Rome, in 1856, to the Duke Colonna, but became a widow at tlie end of the same year. Then she left for Paris, where her beauty and talent made her a central social fiijure in the throng that ren- dered Paris brilliant during the last years of the Second Empire. But she withdrew more and more to the seclusion of her studio. One year, Paris had been sur- prised to see a wonderful " Gorgon's Head " at the Salon, signed " Marcello ; " and from that time on the works of the artist were hailed as great creations. Wrapped up in her work, she finally returned to Italy, and died "literally of art," as Aleissonier is reported to have said. She was only forty- two ; but she left a noble legacy to Fribourg in the " Marcello Museum," which is now contained in two rooms on the ground-floor of the Cantonal Museum. On the whole, this collection is a better monument to her than any statue could be. The modern life of Fribourg is singu- larly uninteresting. As the headquarters of Catholicism in French Switzerland, it makes a merit of resisting all innovations. l66 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. The Canton of Fribourg is the only one in Switzerland which has not adopted the Referendum, in some form or other. But to mock this conservatism, the peculiarity of the city's position forced it, in 1834, to supply itself with one of the first great suspension bridges of modern times. Not only is Fribourg a city of bridges and a centre of bigotry, but it is also bi-lingual. Situated on the boundary line between French and German speaking races, it has for centuries formed the battle- ground of their respective languages. At present, French seems to be supplanting German, which is now spoken only in the lower quarters. In many parts of Switzer- land, the reverse is often the case. When all is said and done, Fribourg re- mains essentially an artist's paradise, ren- dered all the more attractive by its very lack of progress. There is one corner, in particular, which could not be more mediae- val if it tried. It has a fountain, with a carved column surmounted by a knight in armor; apiece of the town wall shows at the back, with a gallery running along the top ; and a little chapel is perched sugges- ROMONT. 167 lively at the side. I leave the reader to discover this spot for himself. Perhaps he will run across something even better in his search. ROMONT. Of the many hill towns in which Romance Switzerland rejoices, Romont is certainly one of the fairest. It looks as though it had escaped from an etching of Albrecht Diirer. A monster mound, smooth and green, rises from the plain ; on top a con- glomeration of houses are bound round by a wall ; at either end rises a tall, round tower with peaked roof, and smaller ones dotted along the outskirts. There is an inclined road leading up from the station; a border of poplars scatter their silver sparkle by the wayside ; and larks sow their songs broadcast over the fields in broken pulsations. Over all, an air of provincial prosperity reigns undisputed, at once old-fashioned, and yet quite in keeping with our day. One must see Romont, if possible, on an autumn market-day, when the vintage has begun in the Vaudois vineyards, and the l68 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. cattle are already down from their summer pastures on the neighl)oring Gru3'ere moun- tains. Then it is that cows of that fine parti-colored Swiss breed march througli the streets, swinging their bells ; great cheeses like grindstones are on sale in the stalls; and baskets overflow with the first grapes of the year, — yellow, gold, purple, or even magenta where the sun strikes upon them. The bargains that are made mean much to the people ; a transaction in cheeses may determine their manner of life for the whole winter. No wonder the men look so glum and grave, and the women show so much vim and volubility. At the same time, these market-days are also like rural recep- tions, where friends and enemies meet after the dispersion of the summer. There are loud greetings between Suzanne and ^larie ; while Louis and Henri go off to drink the new wine before it gets sour, and to clinch a bargain while they are in good humor. The Counts of Romont were vassals of Savoy. Their old castle is now used by the local authorities for police and otlier puqjoses, but you can still enter the castle court by a fine old gate. The holes for the KO-MOXT. 169 drawbridge chains are shown. In fact, every provision seems to have been made for a siege. There is a well with an enor- mous wheel and bucket; and they say that underground passages run from the two watch-towers, at the ends of the town, to the church, where the garrison could con- sider themselves inviolate. The church and castle are not what they used to be, and the market-days only come at intervals ; but the views from the ram- parts endure forever. As is only right and proper, these useless fortifications have been turned into lovers' walks ; and if some young fellow should have any hesitation about proposing mar- riage, surely a stroll there by moonlight must put him in the proper mood, and give him courage. You look over the rolling foothills to the mountains of Gruyere, and beyond to the snow giants, the Dent du Midi and others of the great fraternity, that seem from their torn and gashed ap- pearance actually to bite into the sky. One may spend many a delightful musing moment upon these ramparts at Romont, studying the lay of the land, and even 170 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. conjuring up scraps of history from the surrounding plains and hillsides. But to discover the fairest jewel of this region, you must pass through Bulle into the valley of Gruy^re. Over there, a land and castle unmatched in Switzerland beckon, and await your admiration. CHAPTER X. THE LAND AND CASTLE OF GRUY]fcRE. TO enter the verdant valley of Gruyere, after leaving the railroad at BuUe, is like turning from the pages of a modern newspaper to read a pastoral of Theocritus. The name Gruyere is applied to a moun- tainous district, lying principally in tlie Canton of Fribourg, and traversed by the stream of the Sarine, from the glacier of the Sanetsch to Mount Mol^son. A race of herdsmen live there, who have a history all their own, and speak a Romance lan- guage of great antiquity. If, at the present time, this land of rich pastures is known the world over only for the excellent cheese which it produces, in the past it was chiefly remarkable for the fact that the Counts of Gruy^res* there maintained a sort of minia- * The name of the family and town is spelled with a final " s." 172 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. ture feudal court. In other words, Gruy^re tells an ancient tale of chivalry and a modern one of cheese. For the better part of five centuries, the counts ruled over their subjects in a man- ner which was at once patriarchal and pastoral. Indeed, so full are local tradi- tions of their mutual gayeties, that the student is tempted to think of ancient Gruyere as a veritable Dresden-china state. It seems as though the swains from the mountains must have been forever dancing with their shepherdesses, short-skirted and with streaming ribbons, while in their midst the ruling count, himself the most assiduous gallant of them all, led the country dances. Of course, in such a community, where mirth was the main business of life, tlie peasants would only reluctantly drive theii cattle afield between whiles for a living. And of course all this is romantic rubbish, which will not stand the test of real inquiry. It was an autumn day of more than ordinary beauty, when I emerged from the prosaic little town of Bulle, to follow the highway which leads up the valley. A few LAND AND CASTLE OF GRUYfeRE. 1 73 steps, and then the castle of Gruyeres, with the cluster of houses which bear that name, hove in sight, perched crown-like upon a hill in the middle distance. The white of these buildings was admirably sketched against the varying greens of the farther mountains. An atmosphere of softening haze played upon their outlines, and lent the whole group the aspect of some old-time painting, so foreign to our modern world was it, and so perfect a bit of unconscious ^rt. I climbed to the town by the same ancient path which the counts used in their day, and passed through a rude gate into the single street which the town possesses. A group of peasants stood near the pump. I turned a corner, where a crude, ghastly crucifix stared me in the face, and was soon admitted into the castle court. The castle of Gruyeres is perhaps the most carefully restored specimen of feudal architecture which Switzerland possesses, and is hardly surpassed by Chillon itself for the beauty of its situation. In 1848, the castle, having ceased to be of use to the cantonal authorities, was offered for 174 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. sale, in a state of complete dilapidation, and purchased by a Genevese gentleman, M. Francois Bovy. The brother of the owner, M. Daniel Bovy, an artist who had studied under Ingres in Paris, devoted many years of his life and his entire for- tune to the preservation and restoration of the property. In 1862, the castle passed into the hands of M. Balland, a wealthy manufacturer of watches in Geneva, and himself an enthusiastic connoisseur. The latter continued the work so conscientiously begun by his predecessor, until to-day he has succeeded in transforming his sum- mer home into a real repository of local, mediaeval art. In the castle court, the breath of feudal- ism fills the air; and when you mount the broad, winding stairs under massive arches, and suddenly find yourself standing in a Hall of Knights, the illusion is perfect. On the walls of this room, Daniel Bovy painted twelve frescos, representing various scenes in the history of Gruyere, some purely legendary, and others strictly historical. The whole forms a veritable illustrated text-book. Although the touch of positive LAND AND CASTLE OF GRUYERE. I75 genius is not present, still the work is in every way admirable, — especially in an age like ours, which has allowed mural paint- ing to fall into undeserved disuse. The walls of this hall are of an extraordinary thickness, and give the windows corre- spondingly deep embrasures, from which delightful glimpses may be caught of the narrowing valley and its higher mountains. They will next show you the so-called Chamber of the Count, with its Gothic bed and ancient tapestries, the Chamber of the Countess, and also that of the fair Luce des Albergeux, mistress of Count John II., known far and wide for her great beauty. The pieces of furniture in these rooms, and in others throughout the castle, are either genuine pieces of mediaeval work, found in the castle and collected in the immediate vicinity, or else they are clever imitations made by a local cabinet-maker, whose workmanship as nearly as possible resem- bles that of his predecessors at Gruy6res. It appears that M. Balland, with praise- worthy conscientiousness, has preferred to enlist the services of local workmen in his restorations, in order to preserve the essen- 176 ROMANCE S\VITZP:RLAND. tially rustic character of his castle, even if the result be less polished, and at times a little crude. He has fitted up the former torture-chamber of the tower into an inter- esting little armory, where some trophies, won by the counts, hang, side by side with ancient weapons found in the neighborhood. On the ground-floor there is a kitchen, with a fireplace of colossal proportions, in which the traditional whole ox was roasted on festive occasions. It is, perhaps, remarkable that this castle of (Jruyeres, representing, as it does, the ideal of a purely Alpine feudal dwelling, and set apart to contain as com- plete as possible a collection of local me- di;eval art, should at the same time pos- sess anything so modern as a superb set of panels by Frcncli mast:;rs of our time. M. Daniel Bovy, it aj pjars, was in the halMt of inviting artist fiicnds of his student-days in Paris to visit him in his feudal retreat. Many of them contributed towards the work of beautifying the castle by painting the panels of the little drawing-room. There it is that Corot has left three oval pieces, — two simple groups of trees in his LAND AND CASTLE OF GKUVEKi:. 1 77 unmistakable style, and a little imaginary view of Gruyeres, which to-day are almost as valuable as the castle itself. Other panels are by such men as Baron, Franqais, Leleux, Menn, and Salzmann ; and the whole forms a picture gallery which it would be difficult to equal elsewhere, and perhaps impossible to duplicate. Taken all in all, the record of the family of Gruyeres is exceptionally picturesque, and not particularly discreditable, as feudal families go. Their race was full of knightly virtues and follies: warlike, but generous to the Church, perpetually in- volved in adventures which were consid- ered amusing in their age, but would now, of course, bring them into divorce courts. The counts were, after all, beloved by the simple peasants through all their escapades. Certainly they dwelt among their subjects in a manner which was almost democratic. The first documentary mention of the country dates from 923, when a certain Count Turimbert, of the county of Ogo, is recorded in a deed of transfer. At that time, the land of Gruyere formed part of 12 lyS ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. the kingdom of Upper Burgundy. Ogo seems to be a Romance corruption of the German Hochgau, and has survived in a slightly modified form in the name of Chateaux d'Oex. Gruyere is not derived from the word j,'f!(^, a crane, as mediaeval legend-makers were wont to assert, but from the title of Gruyer, meaning one who has a right to the use of forests. On more than one occasion, the warlike counts stepped forth from their mountain castle to take part in the world's history. Several of them went off to the Crusades. A Knight John of Gruy^res, brother to the ruling count of his day, served under Edward III. of England and the Black Prince in the French Wars. Then there was Count Louis, who distinguished him- self at the battle of Alorat, fighting as an ally of the Swiss Confederates against Charles, the Bold, of Burgundy. But the home life of these Alpine knights possesses a charm which is quite distinct from their military achievements. For if they were warlike while abroad, in Gruyere itself they settled down again into jovial domestic ways, and devoted them- LAND AND CASTLE OF GRUVfeRE. 1 79 selves to the difficult task of keeping their estates intact from the encroachments of their powerful neighbors, the free cities of Bern and Fribourg. It was Count Peter V. who kept a court fool, Girard Chalamala by name, a local character whose exploits form the subject of many traditions. A house of peculiar appearance stands on the village street, near the entrance to the castle. The fac^ade is decorated with grotesque figures, and a gargoyle of more than usual hide- ousness projects from the roof. This dwelling is known as the house of Chala- mala. M. Victor Tissot, the author of that charming work, " Unknown Switzerland," in which one of the best chapters is devoted to Gruyere, bought the place in order to preserve it intact as an historical curiosity. Chalamala, it is said, instituted a Court of Folly. All the gossip and scandal of the castle were completely ventilated at its sittings, and judgment was passed upon the delinquents who were so unfortunate as to be found out in their intrigues. All the details of carnival, of the sieges of the ISO ROMAXCE SWITZERLAND. Castle of Love, and all the mad freaks and practical jokes in which Chalamala de- lighted, were arranged by the Court of Folly. The count was allowed to attend, but without his spurs, because on one occasion he had kicked the impertinent fool for some more than ordinarily personal pleasantry. When the wine came on the table, Chalamala was wont to make liis appearance also. He would entertain the guests with his sallies, and with improvised verses on the exploits of bygone Counts of Gruveres. Even in his last will and testa- ment, tliis incorrigible jester could not refrain from perpetrating a joke, for, with delightful irony, he left the count his mask, his bonnet, his staff, and — his debts. A copy of this will hangs framed in one of the halls of the castle. Not to dwell too long on the history of the famil}- of Gruyeres, let us turn briefly to the final catastrophe, which drove Mi- chael, the last of the counts, from the home of his ancestors. He passed for one of the handsomest knights of his day. An ancient couplet in the local patois describes him thus : — LAND AND CASTLE OF GRUVERE. iSl " Ve la, Michel, li preux, li beaux: Fleur de tous aulters damoiseaux." After a youth spent at the court of Francis I., of France, in the capacity of a page, he entered upon a career of adventure and folly, which finally made him bankrupt. It has been estimated that the sum of his own debts, and of those which he had inherited, represented a total of no less than 1,500.000 francs in modern money. At one time he appealed to his subjects, and certain districts of Gruyere agreed to stand as security for a large sum. But nothing availed to check his ruin, not even his marriage to a wealthy widow of the nobility of Savoy, who devoted her whole fortune to his cause. In 1553, a board of arbitration, appointed to settle the diffi- culties between himself and his creditors, awarded his estates to Bern and Fribourg, the principal claimants, and then decreed his banishment. His subjects were ordered to transfer their allegiance to their new citizen-masters, which they did after a fashion, with many lamentations over the fall of their ancient counts. Michael died in 1576; and the last piece of news concern- l82 ROMAXCE SWITZERLAND. ing him, which has come down to us, is that a creditor was still pursuing him. It was a lamentable ending, but one typical of many another noble house in Switzerland, where the rising tide of democracy brooked no feudal barriers in its path. The modern population of Gruyere has discarded the picturesque costume of older days, along with other traces of a past which, however charming it may seem in the retrospect, must have had its own peculiar evil aspects. But in point of popular character, very little change seems to have taken place. If there is anything of which this pas- toral people have never ceased to be fond, even to excess, it is dancing. There used to be a native dance called the coratilc, which was probably related to a similar one in Provence, both names being evi- dently derived from the Greek x°P^^- inuring the rule of Count Antoine, a coraulc is said to have started one Sunday evening, on the castle terrace, with seven people, and, winding up the valley, to have gath- ered participants at every hamlet, until it LAND AND CASTLE OF CRUV^KE. 183 finished Tuesday morning with seven hun- dred, at Saanen. It is this incident which the poet Uhland has celebrated in his short poem entitled " Der Graf von Greyers." On the day of my visit to Gruyere, a local fete chanced to be in full swing, — one of those numerous, open-air jollitications which the people call bentchoiis. There was a gathering of enthusiastic dancers from all the country-side. Every inn which respected itself had erected a platform, where heavy-footed couples revolved with that deep solemnity which characterizes rustic dancers the world over. A few musicians, purple in the face and with much show of exertion, were extracting well-meant, but somewhat trying, music from their instruments. At the close of every dance, there would be a rush to the inn for a glass of wine. The loud shouts of laughter, which proceeded from within, proclaimed that these modern herdsmen and their sweethearts were as appreciative of a practical joke, as their ancestors, the contemporaries of Chalamala, that prince of fools. l84 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. A certain gay raillery, a good-natured satire, also pervades the literature of Gruy- fere. It is refreshing to meet anything so naively artistic as that classic of the coun- try, the Ranz des Vaches, amid the some- what barren fields of Swiss belles-lettres. It has the local flavor, and savors of the soil which produced it, without being de- void of delicate touches. One does not know what to admire most in this rustic masterpiece, the pure, pastoral quality of the music, so sombre yet spontaneous, the gentle irony of some of the couplets, or the rhythm of the refrains. The Ranz des Vaches may be trans- lated as the " March of the Cows," and refers to the annual migration of the cattle in spring from the valleys to the summer pastures on the mountains. Many parts of German Switzerland have such Kuhreiheti of their own, notably Appenzell, but the version current in Gruy^re has become more widely known than any other. It is too long to reproduce here entirely, consist- ing, as it does, of nineteen couplets with two recurring refrains. But the first coup- let, in the original patois, and in the French LAND AND CA.SILE OF GRUY^RE. 1^5 translation, with the two refrains, will suffice to give an idea of the spirit of the thing: — I. Les-j-armailli * di Colombett6t D6 bon matin she shon leva Ah ! ha ! ah ! ha ! Liauba ! t liauba ! poraria. I. Les vachers des Colombettes De bon matin se sont lev6s. Ah ! ha ! ah ! ha ! Vaches ! vaches I pour(vous)trairc. F:rst Refrain. V^enez toutes. Blanches et noires, Rouges et ^toilees, Jeunes et autres; Sous un chene, Ou je vous trais; Sous un tremble, Ou je fais caillcr (le lait). Second Refrain. Celles qui portent une sonnaille Vont les premieres, Les toutes noires Vont les dernieres. * Herdsmen, probably derived from Latin ar' vientarius. t Name of pastures at the foot of the Mol^son. \ An endearing call for cows. 1 86 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. The couplets go on to relate how tlic herdsmen and their cattle are stopped by a torrent, how they take counsel, and Pierre goes to knock at the door of the cur^ to ask him to say mass for them. The cure says that they must make him a cheese, if they wish to cross, "but you must not skim the cream from it," he adds, warningly. Pierre suggests that the cur6 send his maid-servant for the cheese, but the churchman has his doubts. " My maid is too pretty; you might perchance keep her.'' Pierre keeps up this bantering strain by rejoining that he need not fear, they would have to confess to him, if they did kiss her too much, and with a sly thrust at ecclesiastical failings, finally urges, '-for taking of the goods of the Church, we should never be forgiven." With that, the cur6 yields, bids Pierre Godspeed, and promises to say an Ave IMaria. After that, there is no difficulty in crossing, and the herd gives twice as much milk as usual that day. The melody which accompanies these words is very ancient, and was originally played on a shepherd's pipe or hautbois. LAND AND CASTLE OF GKUYERE. 1 87 Indeed, its pronouncedly pastoral quality almost demands a wood instrument. One lingers regretfully upon the castle terrace, when the time for departure has come. The gray Sarine curls plainwards to Bulle, where a massive tower rises above the red roofs ; on the right are the jagged Dents de Broc; on the left, the Moleson, which the guide-books like to call the Kigi of Western Switzerland; and from the valley at one's feet, comes, ever and anon, the hap-hazard jingling of cow-bells, mingled with tlie cry of some attendant ar»iaill!^ or the barking of farm dogs. As I turned logo, the merry-makers were still dancing to the tune of the village band, down there at the little inn on the corner, where the path diverges which mounts to the castle. It was all very modern, per- haps, and yet the air seemed full of some old-world melody. It was as though the shepherds of the past, up there on the summer pastures, were piping an ancient pastoral to their beloved land Gruy^re. CHAPTER XL IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. ALAND of contrasts, indeed, this Canton Valais ! One end dips into the arctics, the other into the tropics. Beginning in a glacier, it closes in a sunny- lake. Li the lower part, French is spoken, in the upper, German, and in the lateral valleys, a diversity of Romance dialects. Here, luxurious corners full of gardens, orchards, and vineyards, brilliant with myrtle, fig and almond trees; there, deserts of gravel beds, parched and glar- ing, or marshy wastes, unwholesome with fevers and stinging gnats. On one side, terraces of wheat and Indian corn; on the other, naked, burning rocks, smitten with a curse. Soft shadows under festooned vines; crude, vivid colors upon mountain pastures and pine forests; turquoise skies IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. 1 89 and brazen sunsets ; in the valleys, the music of the Angelus ; on the slopes, the tinkling from many tiocks ; in the heights, an unchanging silence. A land alternately scorching and freezing, smiling and scowl- ing, where fine old races live in the side valleys, while the villages of the plain abound in cretins and goitrous miseries. In prehistoric ages a monster glacier dug a trench from the inassif of the St. Gothard down as far as Lyons. In retreat- ing, it left the river Rhone, the lake of Geneva, some stony trails of moraines, and erratic blocks sprinkled about on the moun- tain-sides. And now the floor of the trench seems at the bottom of everything. It has become pre-eminently the valley of Europe, for two of the loftiest ranges in Europe overshadow it on either hand, the Bernese and Pennine groups. Inundations have played awful havoc with the land in times past, but at length, after twenty years of hard toil, the Correction du Rhone is com- plete. The river and its affluents have been enclosed in dikes and breakwaters, the fear of devastation is dispelled, and the waste places are beginning to revive. 190 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. It is very characteristic of Switzerland, — that sudden change from coquettish little Montreux, flaunting its charms upon lake- front and mountain-side, to poor old Ville- neuve, gray and inhospitable, with the swampy plain of the Rhone for a back- ground. Farther up, Aigle lies among vineyards, which produce the well-known white wine of Vvorne. There is a large chateau, that once served as residence for the Bernese bailiils who governed this district, until the Pfelvetic Revolution sent tliem home to mind tlieir own business. But Aigle is pre-eminently a starting-place. It is the gate to many a delightful summer resort, — Ormonts-Dessus, \"illars. Chateau d'Oex, etc. Bex, the next station up the Valais, is at its best in spring and autumn, for the sun shines there unremittingly, ripening the grapes for the grape-cure, of which it is difficult to speak without smiling. There are curious salt-works near by, the salt being derived partly from mines, partly from springs by evaporation. Opposite Bex. on the other side of the IX AND OUT THE VALAIS. I9I Rhone, is dingy little Monthey ; and back of that opens one of the very sweetest of the Arcadian side-valleys of Switzerland, the Val d'llliez. The way to Champdry, its highest-lying village, leads up from the cobbled streets of Monthey, through walled vineyards, to shady chestnut and walnut groves, up into the region of cherry-trees, meadows, and summer pastures. The Dent du Midi looms on the left all along tlie road. The villages of Troistorrents and Val d'llliez are prosperous-looking places, with flowers at the windows, and patches of grain on the outskirts. But Champcry is the favor- ite resort. Here, year after year, English families reappear, to occupy the same chalets, with their beautiful babies and exemplary nurses. Some go so far as to give the children regular lessons every morning. With characteristic imperturba- bility, they barely and grudgingly yield to their surroundings. At the foot of the Dent du Midi, they try to live the life of Margate or Scarborougli, and, what is more remarkable, they very nearly succeed. 192 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. The natives of the Val d'llliez are a surprise after the people of the plain. Such a high average of good looks ! Stal- wart men and pretty women are as common there, as they are rare in the Rhone Valley. My first visit to Champdry was made from Samoens, in Savoy, by the Col de Coux. It had been a hot walk, with a knapsack on my back. As the afternoon waned, and the village was not yet in sight, I called to a young man who was standing by the roadside, with his back turned to me : " Monsieur, will you please tell me how much farther it is to Champ^ry?" At that the young man turned, with a charm- ing smile on his face, — for he was a young woman. The joke is, it is not always easy to tell the sexes apart, for the women have the common-sense and courage to wear men's clothes while at work tending the cows. Is it this, perhaps, which preserves their figures, and keeps their cheeks rosy, long after their sisters in neighboring valleys are bent and faded.'' The trousers and jackets of black homespun are like those of the men ; so are the big hobnailed IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. I93 shoes. In fact, the only concession to femi- ninity is a brilHant scarlet handkerchief, wound round the head in an altogether bewitching manner. Unfortunately, Cham- pdry is becoming such a fashionable tourist tramping-ground that the women are get- ting a little shy, and no longer go about as freely as they used to do during the season. More 's the pity ! for they teach a much- needed lesson in dress reform. This cos- tume is also particularly convenient, when the women ride up to the Alps on their ponies, to milk the cows. Besides, their woman's dress is a rather ungainly and far-fetched affair, like most of the Valaisan costumes. At St. Maurice, the Rhone Valley sud- denly contracts, so that there is only room for the river and the carriage-road ; the railroad has to pass through a tunnel. The Romans, of course, with their unfailing keenness in military matters, immediately recognized the strategic value of this point. In fact, it is the natural key to the Valais. On the Roman charts, it appears as Tar- naias ; but later the name of Agaunum 13 194 ROMANXE SWITZEKLAXD. began to be used, and finally that of St. Maurice. Maximianus, Emperor of the West, it will be remembered, made a speciality of persecuting Christians; and some time between 280 and 300 A. d., he seems to have distinguished himself by an act of more than usual barbarity. There was a legion passing through Agaunum, on the way to Italy, which had been recruited from Thel:)es in Egypt, and was com- manded by an officer, Maurice. The men were all Christians, therefore they refused to help Maximianus in his work of exter- mination. In return, the emperor had them surrounded by other troops, and massacred to a man. Hence the name St. Maurice. As a Roman legion of that day numbered about six thousand men, some doubt has been expressed as to the accuracy of the tradition. Almost as much ink has tlowed in this controversy, as blood could possibly have been spilt in the massacre. Certain it is, that Christianity was al- ready firmly established in the Lower \'alais during the fourth century, for in 381 there is mention of a Bishop Theodor, IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. I95 or Theodul, of Martigny. This prelate founded an abbey in memory of the martyrs, probably the first in point of time, north of the Alps. It was richly endowed by Sigismond, king of the first kingdom of Burgundy, and by Charlemagne him- self. Here a Margrave, Rudolf, in 888, crowned himself King of Transjurane Burgundy. At all times, too, the abbey was a great resort for pilgrims on their way over the Great St. Bernard. St. Maurice, the town, is sad and shabby, with a sort of gray blight upon it. A bridge and castle command the valley. The only part of the ancient abbey which remains is a massive square tower, capped ■ by a small octagonal pyramid, with four cones at the corners, and several tiers of rude Romanesque windows up the sides. Some Roman inscriptions have been placed in the walls. The otlier buildings are of much more recent date. The Augustinian moqJNS will also show you, for a handsome consideration, what is left of the treasury of the abbey, some exceedingly valuable works of art, which attest the great wealth of the old institution. 196 ROMA^'CE SWITZERLAND. On the way to Alartigny are two natural features, which the guide-books take care to point out, — the waterfall of Pissevache and the Gorges du Trient. Vernayaz is the starting-place for Cha- monix, by way of Salvan and Finhaut. A road that seems to be uncertain, whether it was built for carriages or pedestrians only, rises in many zigzags up the face of a shady cliff, where glorious chestnut-treos have somehow found a foothold. Salvan has already risen to the dignity of a recog- nized summer resort, and Finhaut is now coming into favor for its delicious air. Indeed, there is something unique about the scenery along this route, — the broken vistas and unexpected turns, the gorges, the uneven floor of the valley, where the Trient rumbles almost unseen, the radiant slopes, and the enclosing peaks. But agricultural land is poor, and there is very little of it. Only a few sparse plots of grain gleam golden among t!i<; rorks : in fact, the most valuable crop is the small wild cherrv, ripening late in August, from which kirscli is made, that eminently Swiss cordial Unlike the inhabitants of PISSFA'ACHE WAIKRFAI.L. IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. I97 the Val d'llliez, who are but a few miles away, the people of Finhaut take life very hard ; they lack expansiveness, and are still a little distrustful of travellers. Natu- rally, therefore, the local type is not good- looking. The women seem worn with carrying loads, and lose color before their time. Still, tlierc is no reason to suppose that the art of entertaining tourists cannot be cultivated in Finhaut ; and so the sordid struggle will doubtless soon be lightened by tidy little sums, left there annually in the pockets of land-owners, hotel-keepers, and attendants. Near Martigny, the Rhone Valley makes an unexpected turn at right angles, widen- ing at the same time into a dreary, monoto- nous plain. As far as the eye can reach, a white road, planted with poplars, stretches in an unwavering line, side by side with an equally straight railroad track. One is glad to escape again into the mountains, whether it be in company with long files of car- riages, going to Chamonix by the Tcte Noire, or on the less-frequented route of the Great St. Bernard. Those who are 198 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. unfortunate enough to spend the night in Martigny, are likely to be inveigled into buying tickets for an organ-concert in the church. These performances would be pathetic, if it were not for the franc which j-ou have paid. As though this infliction were not enough, however, creaking carts pass under your windows all night, the drivers cracking their whips, and shouting like fiends, — going to market, somewhere, I suppose. Nothing can exceed the impressiveness and solemnity of the Great St. Bernard Pass. It is not as beautiful as at least a dozen other well-known Alpine crossings; it has even a terrible sameness and an unflinching dulness. But this very grim- ness appalls and fascinates. Besides, one feels the presence of historic ground. Tlie Great St. Bernard was the chosen route for many a Celtic invasion of Italy; Roman legions crossed it to subdue Gaul and Germany; and missionaries passed there, carrying primitive Christianity with them. During the tenth century, it was the haunt of Saracen robbers, who plundered cara- IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. 199 vans of merchants, and held high church dignitaries for ransom. Throughout the Middle Ages, German emperors used the pass repeatedly. From the 15th to the 2ist of May, 1800, it witnessed the famous passage of Napoleon I., on his way to Marengo. At present, the St. Gothard Railroad diverts most of the travel from the St. Bernard Pass, — a state of things which will certainly not improve when the Simplon Tunnel is made. The approach from Martigny is so long and uneventful, that one does not realize the height to which one is climbing, until Bourg-St, -Pierre is passed, and the bridle- path is reached at the Cantine de Proz. But thence to the top, the unmistakable Alpine signs abound, to right and left. The air grows keen; the mountain-sides are bare and lonesome, for the tree-line has been passed; some snow-patches lie in the hollows. Then, just as the perplexing windings of the path have driven you to despair, the hospice looms through the mist. One of the brethren welcomes stran- gers with a sweet courtesy which comes as 200 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. a complete surprise, after the obsequious insolence of hotel porters. One feels at liome immediately. The good brother listens to tlie oft-repeated tale of cold and fatigue, with a face full of sympathy, as t'lougii he was hearing it for the first time. Tlie rooms are apt to be chilly, of course, in a climate tJiat corresponds to the Soutli Cape of Spitsbergen on the sea-lcvel : but the table-cVliolc dinner in the dining-room is all that can be desired. The room is furnished with presents from grateful gucsts. And then the delight of eating without counting the cost, or bothering alx)ut fees! One cheerfully drops a gen- erous piece into the alms-box in the church before leaving, although, if the truth must be told, only about one thousand out of sixteen to twenty thousand annual visitors pay for tlicmselves, the rest being poor wayfarers in search of work. Sonii sort of a monastery and hospice existed on tlie pass as early as the ninth century; but the first authentic mention of the foundation made l)y St. Bernard of Menthon dates from 1125. At present, from ten to fifteen monks and seven atten- IN AXD OUT THE VALAIS. 20I dants are stationed on the St. Bernard, while others of the brotherhood serve at the hospice on the Simplon. After aljout fifteen j-ears of this life, the}- descend, with broken health, to an asylum at Alartigny. In fact, the hospice of the Great St. Ber- nard is the highest winter habitation in the Alps, next to the fourth Cantoniera on the Stelvio Pass, in the Tyrol. There are two buildings, weather-beaten, stone-and-mortar structures, that seem to be part of the bare rock and snow of the region. The black lake, which fills the hollow on one side, sug- gested to Dumas "a picture in miniature of the Dead Sea, lying at the feet of Jerusalem in ruins."' On a platform by this lake, the Romans once had a temple to Jupiter Pceninus, where travellers stopped to ex- press their gratitude to the god, or leave him presents and votive tablets. Tlie little museum of the hospice contains a great many Roman finds. It was from thds shrine that the mountain took the name of Mons Jovis. and is even now called, locally, Mont Joux. It takes a very well-ordered stomach, indeed, to stand the horrors of the little 202 ROMAN'CE S'lVITZF.RLANn. morgue, where the bodies of travellers who have been found by the dogs are kept for identification. The place is a rec- tangular outhouse. You look through a window, and see a few bodies ranged against the walls, dressed just as they were found, and cramped in their deatli- struggle. In that altitude, the bodies do not decompose, but dry up and crumble, bit by bit. There they lean, in all sorts of attitudes, in all stages of decay,— black, hollow-eyed, and horrible, sinking to the ground in grotesque helplessness, pathetic and repulsive. With what relief one turns to the dog- kennels ! As the keeper opens the door to let the beauties out, the first sensation is one of surprise. The St. Bernard dogs we usually see in the valleys are huge, curly- iiaired animals, solemn, and somewhat slouchy in their movements, displaying a tendency to lie down at tlie slightest provo- cation. l'>nt the dogs at the hospice are short-haired and stout-limbed, like mastiffs, with large heads and sensitive, quivering nostrils. They seem to be strung on wires, as they rush about, sniffing the air excit- IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. 203 edly, and anxious to distinguish them- selves. They represent the most perfect combination of strength and agihty imag- inable. The original stock, which is said to have come from the Spanish Pyrenees, is now extinct. In former days, there was a good deal more for them to do, before the hospice was connected by teleplionc witli Martigny and Aosta. Travellers can now inquire about the state of the weather and the paths before they start, or, at all events, warn the brothers of their coming. It looks very much as though the traditional dog of the picture-books, with a flask of brandy tied to his neck, would lose his occupation soon. Sion is the capital of Canton Valais, an interesting-looking town of over five thou- sand inhabitants, half feudal and half rustic, rising from the burning plain of the Rhone in a curious medley of bleached houses and ancient walls. The surround- ing castles of Tourbillon, Valeria, and Ma- joria heighten its appearance of a fortress. The place is at its best during vintage time. 204 ROMAN'CE SWITZKRI.A ND. An old mansion of the Supersaxo family is spoken of as containing objects of interest ; and the torrent of the Sionne, which flows down the principal street of the town in a channel covered with wooden beams, acts as a reminder of the mountains. On one side, the passes of the Sanetsch and the Rawyl lead over to the Simmenthal and the Bernese Oberland ; on the other, open the interesting valleys of Hdrens and Hdrdmence, whose primitive, patriarchal inhabitants have been so well described by M. Victor Tissot in " La Suisse Inconnue." Sierre is another typical Valaisan town, clinging to the foot of the mountains, in tlie broiling sun. A certain air of medie- val dilapidation lends an added charm. At one side of the town is a special quar- ter, like a separate hamlet, consisting of low, unfinished houses, built helter-skelter, and unoccupied for the greater part of the year. At stated times, the mountaineers of the Val d'Anniviers, who own the best vineyards of the district, descend en ?nasse to cultivate them in common, each family sending one representative. The hamlet then becomes suddenly peopled with a IX AND OUT THE VALAIS. 205 hard-working race, in sober costume. In the morning, men and women assemble at the sound of drum and fife, and march to the common vineyard, with music and flags. Prayers are recited before the labor begins ; and in the evening, the same pro- cession files back to the rickety houses. From the uninviting little borough town of Loeche, or Leuk, a fine road mounts in great v.indings by Inden to Leuker-Bad and the Gemmi Pass. The baths have passed throu'rh many vicissitudes. They were known to the Romans, of course, who ferreted out hot springs wherever they were to be had. During the "thousand years without a bath," of the Middle Ages, they must have fallen into oblivion. It was reserved for the most widely known personage the \^ahiis has ever produced, to revive the prestige of Leuker-Bad. Cardinal Mathew Sciiinner, Count-Bishop of Sion, was born in the miserable hamlet of Miillibach, just above Fiesch, in the Upper Valais. His boyhood was spent in great poverty, and in a brave struggle to educate himself for the Church. Con- 2o6 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. spicuous talents of administration, backed by energy and ambition, marked his eccle- siastical career. An uncle of his became Bishop of Sion, and abdicated in his favor. Pope Julius II. was just then trying to rid Italy of the French, and turned to the Swiss to help him. Schinner became his agent in raising the necessary mercenary troops. He preached a veritable crusade against the French throughout the Confed- eration, persuading thousands of Swiss to cross the Alps repeatedly in defence of papal interests. For these services, he was created Cardinal, — an honor never before conferred upon a native of Swiss soil, and only once since, in the case of the late Cardinal Mermeillod. Under the stimulus of Schinner's exhortations, the Swiss drove the French out of Italy, after the battle of Novara; but the prelate finally tricked them into a bloody defeat at Marignano, whence they withdrew after frightful slaughter, dis- gusted with their foreign adventures. It was in 1501 that Schinner erected some buildings at Leuker-Bad, but they were unfortunately destroyed by an ava- IX AND OUT THE VALAIS. 207 lanche soon after, as were also others in 1719. When the mule-track ov^er the Gemmi Pass was hewn out of the face of the cliff, in 1736-41, the place rose in importance. At the present time, Leuker-Bad is not in favor with the great bathing public. The bath-houses wear a dejected air; there is no gay gossip in the square, where the fountain runs; booths, with mountain- crystals and wood-carvings, no longer line the grass-grown promenade ; no fashion- able flirtations and nightly dances enliven the hotels that stand about, far too num- erous to lodge infrequent guests. The pathos of unpopularity broods over the whole place. For some reason or other, the rich foreigners who used to spend their seasons there, some twenty years ago, have abandoned it to transient tour- ists and poorer invalids. The water from the hot spring is led into bath-houses, situated in different parts of the village. The cure consists of a tre- mendous soaking, spread over twenty-seven days. You begin by bathing for, say, half an hour, and increase the time, until you spend four or five hours a day in the water. 208 ROMANCE SWITZERl. AND. If all works well, a rash ought to break out after the first week, and disappear before the third. When one adds the nap of an hour, which is obligatory after every bath, there remains comparatively little time for outdoor amusements. That is probably the reason why the bath is made as attractive as pos.sible by an artless system of batliing in common. The guests sit about in a large tank, with the water up to their shoulders, -ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, clad in long flannel gowns. Little crescent-shaped tables float about, upon which you can take your breakfast of coffee and rolls, or play checkers and dominos. A gallery runs along the principal bath ; and every visitor w'.io conies in to see the bathers, is hailed witli shouts of ^^ pour les pmtvres,'''' while a basket, fastened to a stick, is held out to him. Woe to the tourist who does not, or pretends not, to understand! He will be fairly hooted out of the place; and then some of the bathers, by long practice, are able to squirt water from their hands with deadly precision. It is an art the boys learn from each other with phenomenal IN AXD OUT THE VALAIS. 209 quickness. Altogether, there is a good deal of fun going on, and the best of man ners prevail at all times. One of the sights of the neighborhood are the eight ladders that lead up to the village of Albinen. The natives climb up and down unconcernedly, trained from earliest youth. The women, in using the ladders, take the hem of their skirts at tlie back, and, passing it between the legs, fasten it in front, so as to extemporize a sort of divided skirt. From near Leuk, up to the Rhone Gla- cier, German is spoken, — a harsh-sounding dialect, which all the other German Swiss pretend is more rude and primitive than theirs. Wliat poverty and misery! The goitre on the necks of men and women is so common that its absence occasions remark. The villages seem thrown down, as it were, by the handful, their houses crowded and low, unwholesome, unventi- lated, and undrained ; the country alternat- ing between stony tracts, fresh meadows, vineyards, and pine forests. Here and there, a strong tower recalls days of feudal 14 2IO ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. oppression. Only the glimpses up the side-valleys remain, ever more alluring as you progress. Visp is the gate to an enchanted garden of the Alps, perhaps the very noblest and most inspiring spot in Switzerland. It seems almost incredible that Zermatt had to be practically rediscovered for modern tourists, although the Th^odule Pass was undoubtedly used in Roman times. In 1789, De Saussure paid the first recorded visit of a traveller, the details of which have reached us. His reception by tlie astonished inhabitants was anything but pleasant. A few years later, an English party visited Zermatt, and as this century advanced, an increasing number of bota- nists, naturalists, and geologists made it a happy hunting-ground. Such men as Sir John Herschel, Agassi z, Desor, the two Forbes, Tyndall, and Ruskin were among early visitors. One by one, the giant peaks were scaled until, in 1865, Mr. Whymper capped the climax by his daring ascent of the Matterhorn. The first travellprs took shelter with the IN AND OUT THE VALAIS. 211 parish priest, Pfarrer Gottsponer ; but, in 1839, D''- Lauber, the village doctor, built an inn, which was later bought by M. Alexandre Seller, and called the Hotel de Monte Rosa. Tlie Rev. W. A. B. Coolidge, who has made some remarkable studies in the by- ways of Swiss history, finds that Zermatt is mentioned in documents dated as early as 1280, and thinks the settlement must doubtless be much older. The inhabitants were originally probably united in a free Mark, but ultimately fell into feudal depend- ence upon certain powerful families in the Rhone Valley. Brig gives one a last glimpse of the pecu- liar Oriental quality of the Valais, — a dusty, glaring, white-walled town, where the rail- road ends, and the great Simplon carriage- road begins. Farther up, the country loses whatever southern characteristics it pos- sessed, and becomes frankly Alpine, Teu- tonic, monotonous. Dirty, huddled villages succeed each other, after long stretches of open pasture. The houses of pine or larch wood, tanned brown on the sunny 212 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. quarter, are topped by enormous roofs; gar- dens become rarer; and ghastly wooden crucifixes stand by the wayside, in all their terrible crudities of blood and wounds, painted scarlet. The landscape grows greener, darker, more subdued and restful. The valley narrows, and the road mounts in weary zigzags to great natural terraces; wliile the Rhone ceases to be a river, and becomes a boisterous, boiling torrent. A keener air blows down the sides, bringing a smell of forests, shrubs, and wild-flowers. At every corner you expect the end of this wayward valley; its sombre persistency fatigues and depresses. One longs for a halting-place; so that it is generally in a mood of utter weariness that the hubbub of the Gletsch Hotel is first heard, and the glistening spires of the Rhone Glacier are sighted. During the short summer season, a cease- less stream of tourists passes this point from the Grimsel, the Furka, or the Rhone Valley Xo one stays there except to take a meal, or at most a night's lodging. There is a greedy scramble to secure places at the table d'hote, in the diligence, in the IN AND OUT THE V'ALAIS. 213 very barber's chair. It is a grumbling, bargaining mess of nationalities, competing for drivers and guides. Carriages of all models are there, from the comical little Einspdnner to the great Italian travelling- carriages, with four horses, having foxes' tails dangling from their bridles at the side of the head. The lumbering yellow dili- gence is another variety. And all the while the glorious glacier beyond the hotel stands unmindful, like a cataract frozen in the act of being tossed and swirled a])out. Its pointed waves have crystallized into pyramids and columns, wliili, in between, a chaos of crevasses vavvii. with iridescent blues and greens. .\ftcr the glacier in its fall seems to have been broken into hopeless disarray, it reaches the level, consolidates, and pushes out over a desert waste of rocks, sand, and mud. At the end, from an ice cavern that changes form every year, the glacier lets slip the tumbling torrent of the Rhone, to overrun Switzerland and France. CHAPTER XII. STORMING THE MATTERHORN. '"pHE glory of first ascents has departed A from Switzerland. The golden age of Alpine climbing is no more. Explorers have left for other highlands, farther from the beaten track. The Tyrol came first, then the Dauphine, the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Andes, and the snow mountains of New Zealand. Not long ago, Kilimanjaro, the great snow mountain of Africa, was ascended. The wave of pioneer climbing has passed over Switzerland, onward, to conquer the world. After Mont Blanc, all the other great peaks were ascended, one by one, — in i8i i, the Jungfrau ; in 1812, the Finsteraarhorn. Then came the scientific investigations of Agassiz, Guyot, and Desor, of Forbes and Tyndall. IMonte Rosa was conquered in 1851. From 1854 on, a great number of STORMING THE MATTERHORX. 21 5 Englishmen entered heart and soul into the work of exploring the glaciers and peaks, — men like Hudson, Kennedy, Hardy, Wills, Whymper, MacDonald, Ball, and others. It was the era of exploration, the heyday of famous guides, — like Johann Benen, Melchior Anderegg, and Michel Croz. The Alpine Club was founded in 1857; and the work of describing the Alps was planned out and pushed forward with such vigor, that to-day hardly a nook or cranny remains unexplored. During that time, many remarkable ascents were made. The late Professor Tyndall, among other exploits, managed to be the first to reach the top of the Weiss- horn. On one occasion, this intrepid scien- tist climbed Monte Rosa absolutely alone, in his shirt-sleeves, with one ham sandwich and a pint bottle of tea. At another time, he risked his life in treacherous weather in order to place a minimum thermometer upon the summit of Mont Blanc. For many years, he was in the habit of spending his summers upon the Belalp, near the Eggis- horn, in a cottage of his own, whence he could easily explore the marvels of the 2l6 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. great Aletsch Glacier, the lake of Merjelen with its miniature icebergs, as well as the monster mountains of the Bernese group. But perhaps the most thrilling of the many first ascents made at this time was that of the Matterhorn (14,705 feet) by Mr. Edward Whymper, in 1865. In his delightful book, entitled " Scrambles among the Alps in the Years 1860-69," this dauntless climber gives us a graphic ac- count of his extraordinary feat and its sad culmination. The Matterhorn looms above Zermatt like a monument, — like something between a pyramid and an obelisk, with sides of precipitous cliffs. Before Mr. Whymper's ascent, it was considered the most thor- oughly inaccessible of all mountains. In fact, it was the last of the great peaks to remain unsealed; and the natives had, as usual, a stock of gruesome legends to relate. Several years in succession, Mr. Whymper went out from England to ex plore its cliffs, and experiment with appli ances for surmounting its difficulties. He was obliged to record seven failures before he succeeded. STORMING THE MATTERHORN. 21 7 One of these attempts came very near ending fatally. He was entirely alone upon the mountain, and at a great height, when, in turning a difficult corner, he slipped, and fell back, head over heels, down a steep snow-slope. Incredible as it may seem, he was not killed by this fall. A kindly ledge stopped him just in time ; and so he was able to make his way down unin- jured, though decidedly the worse for wear. It was on the 13th of July, 1865, on a perfectly cloudless day, that a party started from Zermatt on this perilous expedition. Besides Mr. Whymper himself, there was the Rev. Charles Hudson, considered one of the best amateur climbers of his day ; a young friend of his, named Hadow, who, though only nineteen years of age, had just been to the top of Mont Blanc ; and Lord Francis Douglas, of about the same age, just fresh from his ascent of the difficult Ober Gabelhorn. These gentlemen were accompanied by three guides, — .Michel Croz, of Chamonix, Peter Taugwalder, and the latter's son. It is necessary to specify their names carefully in order to understand the party's tragic descent. 2l8 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. The night was spent in an improvised camp at an altitude of about eleven thou- sand feet. Before dawn, the party resumed its progress. At an altitude of about four- teen thousand feet, the most difficult part of the ascent began. The climbers had to make their way up the face of a steep, sloping cliff, partly covered with snow and ice films. But this dangerous part was, happily, surmounted; and at i 40 p.m., Air. Whymper and the guide Croz simulta- neously reached the virgin summit. Then came the descent, which was to end so fatally. The party were roped together in the following order: the guide, Michel Croz, led ; then followed young Hadow ; and after them Hudson, Lord Douglas, Peter Taug- walder the elder, Mr. Whymper, and, last, Peter Taugwalder the younger. As they were descending the dangerous icy cliffs referred to above, a slip was made which resulted in one of the most terrible accidents recorded in the annals of moi'ntaineering. Mr. Whymper, who was one of the sur- vivors, relates : — " Michel Croz had laid aside hi** axe. and, STORMING THE MATTERHORN. 219 in order to give Mr. Hadow greater secur- ity, was absolutely taking hold of his legs and putting his feet one by one into their proper positions. As far as I know, no one was actually descending. I cannot speak with certainty, because the two leading men were partially hidden from my sight by an intervening mass of rock ; but it is my belief, from the movements of their shoulders, that Croz, having done as I have said, was in the act of turning round to go down a step or two himself. At this moment, Mr. Hadow slipped, fell against him, and knocked him over. I heard one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him and Mr. Hadow flying downwards; in another moment, Hudson was dragged from his steps, and Lord F. Douglas imme- diately after him. All this was the work of a moment. Immediately I heard Croz's exclamation, old Peter and I planted our- selves as firmly as the rock would permit. The rope was taut between us, and the jerk came on us both as on one man. We held ; but the rope broke midway between Taug- walder and Lord Francis Douglas. For a few seconds we saw our unfortunate com- 220 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. panions sliding downwards on their backs, and spreading out their hands endeavoring to save themselves. They passed from our sight uninjured, disappeared one by one, and fell from precipice to precipice on to the Matterhorn-gletscher below, — a dis- tance of nearly four thousand feet in height. From the moment the rope broke, it was impossible to help them."* The three survivors clung for half an hour to their perilous post on the cliff, unable to move up or down, the two guides completely unnerved, and breaking out every moment into loud lamentations. Then they made their way down, as best they could, looking in vain for traces of their lost comrades. To add to their terror, when they were farther down, a very rare phenomenon of the Alps suddenly loomed upon them. A mighty arch appeared against the sky, and gradually two vast crosses developed within it. The guides, appalled by this unearthly apparition, thought it had some connection with the accident. The survivors were obliged to * Scrambles among the Alps in the Years 1860-69. London. 1S71. p. 396. STORMING THE MATTERHORN. 221 spend another miserable night upon the mountain before, shattered and exhausted, they could descend to Zermatt. The bodies of the fallen were discovered lying in the order in which they had started from above, but that of Lord Douglas was never recovered, — a few articles of his clothing only were found. Such was the tragic first ascent of the Matterhorn. The mountain is now fre- quently ascended, even by ladies. The rocks have been blasted at the most diffi- cult points, and ropes attached to steady the climbers ; but the sudden changes of weather, to which the Matterhorn seems to be particularly exposed, still render it, to a certain extent, a dangerous mountain. Switzerland has now become the " Play- ground of Europe." Of the hundreds of thousands who visit it every summer, thousands swarm over its passes and sum- mits in frantic emulation. Some enthu- siasts choose the winter for their ascents, and others wander for weeks at a time from chain to chain, without descending below the snow-line. There are those who profess to find pleasure only in climbing 222 ROMANXE SWITZERLAND. rocks. The Jungfrau is voted tame and dull, because there is too much snow upon it. The great thing is to discover some new route, more perpendicular than the others, to pass over the Alps across- country, as it were, taking as little account as possible of natural obstacles. In fact, the passion for Alpme climbing has now reached a point undreamed of by the pioneer climbers. It has entered upon a new and, in some respects, a ridiculous period. No wonder that " Tartarin sur les Alpes" was written, or that Bompard should say to the hero from Tarascon : — " ' Switzerland at the present day, Mr. Tartarin, is nothing but a vast Kursaal, open from June to September, a panoramic Casino, where people meet from the four quarters of the globe to amuse themselves. It is managed by an enormously rich company, with hundreds of thousands of millions, having offices in Geneva and London. ... At the same time, the Com- pany, in view of the patronage of its English and American climbers, keeps up the dangerous and terrible appearance STORMING THE MATTEKHORX. 223 of certain famous Alps, the Jungfrau, the Monk, and the Finsteraarhorn, although, in reality, there is no more danger there than elsewhere.' " ' But still, the crevasses, my good friend, those horrible crevasses! ... If you fall into them ! ' "'You fall on the snow, Mr. Tartarin, and you do not hurt yourself; there is always below, at the bottom, a porter or a hunter, — some one who picks you up, brushes you off, shakes you, and politely asks if Monsieur has any baggage.' . . . '"What nonsense are you telling me?'" But Bompard continued, with redoubled gravity: "The keeping in repair of these crevasses entails one of its largest outlays upon the Company." As an antidote to the sad catastrophe on the Matterhorn, you cannot do better than read Tartarin's ludicrous ascent of the Jungfrau. His refusal to take any precautions, his serenity after falling into a crevasse, his complete confidence that the whole excursion was a joke, and the guides were accomplices, — all this is quite inimitable. 224 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Happily, mountaineering, even in Swit- zerland, has not come to such a pass. There was some virtue in knight-errantry, even when Cervantes killed it with satire ; and there is plenty of exhilaration left in mountain-climbing, plenty of splendid ex- ercise. Steady eyes and nerves, self-control and self-sacrifice, are still needed. Only it is a little discouraging to adventure, this orderly systematizing of climbing by means of club huts, and guides with diplo- mas. As for the encroachment of rail- roads upon the snow-line, it must cause the surviving pioneers to speak under their breath, the more the hotel-keepers laugh in their sleeve. CHAPTER XIII. LOCARNO AND LUGANO. HOW immediate and impressive is the change when you pass out of the St. Gothard Tunnel, going south ! After the cold, crystalline atmosphere of the north, its rigid firs and slopes of glowing green, its wooden chalets and general air of Teu- tonic neatness, you emerge into a land of warm colors. Luxuriant walnut and chest- nut trees cover the hillsides, vines are fes- tooned from granite posts, and the stone houses are streaked in impossible tints with sham, painted windows. There is an air of slap-dash about the villages, from their tumble-down roofs of tiles to their brilliant Lombard campanili, open at the top, where bells are always ringing. It is a transition from Alpine exhilaration to Italian leisure. IS 226 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. When the train has performed its last wonderful windings, and dropped down into the Val Leventina, it follows the hurrying Ticino, past Giornico, into the lovely region of the Riviera. But just before you get your first view of Lago Maggiore, the fortress of ]3ellinzona bars the way. It forms a monster barricade against tl-e south. Bellinzona bears a certain resemblance to Sion, in tlieValais; both are cantonal capitals, and strategic points of first im- portance. But Nature has not been as kind to Bellinzona. Its surroundings wear an arid, desert look, unwholesome and unhappy; the mountains are bare and monotonous ; the plain looks dusty and blighted, as tliough swept by fierce winds. There is an unkindly glare about the place. The people seem ill at ease, suffering from some local type of wretchedness. Even the brand-new railroad station and the white expanse of barracks cannot atone for this absence of geniality. And yet where will you find anything more fantastical than those three castles of Uri, Schwiz, and Unterwalden i- They LOCARNO. 227 command the valley, and are joined to- gether by terraced walls and bastions, that run in and out among the modern houses in a most unaccountable fashion. The fact is, that these strongholds tell the history of the Itahan Swiss people, — rather a humiliating one, until the French Revolution set them free. From belonging originally to the Dukes of Milan, the Val Leventina fell into the hands of the rude mountaineers of the Forest Cantons, in the course of the fourteenth century. The freemen on the banks of Luzern, wlio believed in self-government for themselves, but not for others, sent bailiffs to rule their new provinces. These gentlemen used to buy their appointments at auction, treating them as investments, for what they could make out of them, in the way of taxes and private exactions. It is generally believed that the inhabitants of Val Leventina did not appreciate their ignorant and brutal rulers from across the Alps, who bullied them in a harsh northern dialect, and grew rich at their expense. It is even suspected that they thought just as highly of their old Milanese masters, who, at all events, 228 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. oppressed them in Italian. Perhaps that is the reason why the hateful Teutonic names are no longer used in connection with residences of the bailiffs. The cas- tles of Schwiz and Unterwalden, now in ruins, are called Castelli di Mezzo and di Corbario ; that of Uri, used as prison and arsenal, Castello Grande. Beyond Bellinzona lies the enchanted region of the Italian Lakes, midway be- tween the rugged glories of the Alps and the languid fertility of the plain of Lom- bardy ; full of bland and balmy surprises, of soothing magic, enticing and seductive. You have the choice of entering this dis- trict by way of Locarno, on Lago Mag- giore, or by Lugano and its lake. Locarno has not so far proved a success as a tourist resort, and so the people have not yet made a business of cultivating the little smirks and deceptions that follow in the wake of the Frefudenindustrie. Of course, there is the magnificent Grand Hotel, with gardens and five-franc dinners ; but people say that it has proved an un- lucky speculation. LOCARNO. 229 That which is best worth seeing in Locarno, its precious jewel and heirloom, is, without doubt, the pilgrimage chapel of the Madonna del Sasso (of the Rock). It is perched above the town upon a cliff, projecting between two ravines, posed as for a painter. The architectural lines sug- gest a delightful, hap-hazard mixture, from the high substructures like parapets, to the loggia and the foolish little tower. The col- oring is a rich yellow, with here and there bits of red or blue frescoing, and the red brown of the tiles on the roof. There are two ways to the top. Unless one is going to pray and confess, it is wise to mount by the easier one, a cobbled and shady path, and to reserve the steep, sunny via crucis for the descent. Unfortunately, the pleasant path is lined with horrible oratories, containing life-size terra-cotta groups, painted vivid and ghastly. One would have to get up very early indeed in the morning, to escape the old women who pass the day there. They have a way of mumbling feverishly at their prayers as you approach, and then suddenly wheeling around for alms, with a dexterity that is 230 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. very apt to make you give something, before you can stop to think. The chapel of the Madonna was dedicated in 1606. There is an old sun-dial on the wall, and a primitive clock with only one hand. The interior is a mass of rough and vul- gar -ornamentation, from which a modern Entombment by Ciseri stands out in re- freshing contrast. On the mountain-side above the chapel, is an outlook whence the eye can range over the roofs of Locarno to the delta of the Ticino, and across the lake to the bare, bronze-colored mountains opposite. Travellers usually see Locarno in spring or autumn. In the former season, the whole country-side is pervaded with a delicious perfumed dampness ; the prim- roses line the embankments and wayside hedges with their saffron embroidery; periwinkles nestle in cool shelters ; and the oranges and lemons, trained against the white walls, hang ripe for plucking. Peas- ants call to one another from their sloping fields or trellised vineyards. A woman clinks along the cobbled ways in wooden sandals, or a boy sings a scrap of song, while MADONNA DKL SAS30. LOCARNO. 231 he beats his donkey on the highway. As though to intensify this springtime gladness, the church-bells ring on the slightest provo- cation. It is all so Italian, so relaxing and restful. In the late autumn, a certain exhilaration sharpens the air, producing a phenomenal clearness of atmosphere ; the summer greens have been scorched into rich reds and yellows ; impalpable violets hover in the shadows of the mountains ; and the sky dawns day after day pure, serene, and unchang-insf. Locarno is, at best, a poor, unprogressive place. There is hardly anything worth seeing in the town itself, unless it be the remnants of a tumble-down castle, almost crowded out of sight by unwholesome-look- ing houses, an arcaded street, and a few gaudy churches. The unfinished bell- tower of St. Victor perhaps has sometliiii<^ about it that is fine. But for a sight which is really romantica!l\- gruesome, commend me to the Castcllo di Ferro by the lakeside, just out of town. It contains all the necessaries for an old-fashioned volume on sentimental villany. There are grated windows, gates leading into an interior 232 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. court, a tower with a gallery running round it, and next door a tiny antique chapel, where the assassin could confess, and the lovers get married. There are even weep- ing willows on the beach, so that the unsuccessful suitor could drown himself in proper stage setting. In point of fact, awful stories are told of this dingy castle, for the benevolent bailiffs who were sent by the Swiss Confederates to govern this district, used it for some of their most picturesque crimes. Locarno has one special claim to recog- nition in history. When the Reformation threatened to disturb its papal churchman- ship with new-fangled ideas about the Bible and independent congregations, the major- ity of the people generously determined to make a great sacrifice, in order to save their native town from heresy. The Protes- tant agitation had already taken quite a hold upon the place; and, as luck would have it, some of the most influential and industrious families had become converts, — like the Orelli and the Muralto. Sadly, but firmly, the good Catholics set to work to persecute and banish everybody who LOCARNO. 233 would not conform to their ritual, until their beloved town was cleaned of every heretical stain. In those days, Locarno used to possess a thriving silk industry and some five thousand inhabitants ; after the heroic measures of the Catholics, the silk industry was transferred to Zurich by the exiles, and the population sank almost to the vanishing point. The excursions around Locarno are of all kinds. At Ascona, however, there is a work of art highly praised by Rahn, Switzerland's principal art critic. It is the fac^ade of the Casa Borrani, done in stucco by Giovanni Serodino. The work is in the best Renaissance style, now somewhat dam- aged and in places coarsely patched, but still betraying the touch of a real master. Rahn calls it " the finest fagade on Swiss soil."* Farther south, the shores of Lago Mag- giore grow more beautiful every time the steamer makes a stop, more Oriental with olive, pomegranate, and myrtle trees. The N\Titer would like to stray down to the rich * Rahn, J. Rudolf. Kunst und Wanderstudien aus der Schweiz. Vienna. 18S3. p. 164. 234 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. glories that are suggested by the name of the Borromean Islands, — of Pallanza, Strcsa, Laveno, etc.; but unfortunately the Swiss frontier does not extend farther south than Brissago, and this book is to be devoted to Switzerland. But we can take our revenge by turning aside to Lugano, which is quite capable of holding its own, even amid the blandishments of its Italian neighbors. The guide-books are not far wrong when they speak of Lugano as a miniature Naples. Its curving line of quays sweeps around a gulf of pure azure ; white houses sun themselves in amphitheatre, as though sitting for a spectacle ; and a wreath of villas is thrown out upon the country-side. With a little indulgence on the part of travellers, San Salvatore can even masque- rade as a small Vesuvius, without smoke. No wonder they call one of the lakeside suburbs " Paradise." The people, too, have a certain Italian suppleness of mind and manner, that comes from being much out- of-doors under the kindly sun. At the caf(5s, they prefer to sit around little tables on the pavement, where a few orange-trees LUGANO. 233 in pots make a pretence of seclusion from the street. They will spend hours there, noisy and gesticulating over their harmless drinks. The temperament of the Ticinese is Italian, but with a difference. A little of that Swiss sourness, which somehow comes with the sordid struggle in the Alps, has filtered down the mountains, and sobered their natural expansiveness. Perhaps they are all the more reliable for this reason. Their century of self-government, too, has given them a wholesome self-respect; and, though their Canton is still indulgently regarded by Teutonic Swiss neighbors as the bad boy in the family of the Confed- eration, they are not devoid of a good deal of political common-sense. Their love of the native soil soon lures them back from foreign countries, to which necessity makes them emigrate in great numbers. Whether selling roast chestnuts on the streets of Paris, or working in the vineyards of Cali- fornia, they invariably look forward at last to a home on their own native slopes. Lugano has profited enormously by the St. Gothard Railroad. It is now as pro- 2^6 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. gressive as Locarno is reactionary. Not only has it become a favorite winter resort, but it also boasts of several flourishing industries, and its shops are certainly well supplied. Rahn has truly said, " At no time has Switzerland been a land prominent in art." * But Ticino deserves in a measure to stand as an exception to this sweeping judgment. Some of its churches contain art treasures of great value. Rahn cites, for example, a fresco in the village of Ponte Capriasca, above Taverne. It is an ancient copy of Lionardo da Vinci's " Last Sup- per," so nobly done and well preserved that Giuseppe Bossi thought it worth special study, when he accepted the delicate task of restoring the original "Last Supper" in Milan. In Lugano itself, Bernardino Luini has left us some of his very best work, upon the walls of S. Maria degli Angioli, — a " Passion " in three sections, a " Last Supper," and a widely known Madonna. Luini was essentially a fresco painter, and * Rahn, J. Rudolf. Kunst und Wanderstudien aus der Schwciz. Vienna. 1S83. P- ?• LUGANO. 237 in this capacity was unsurpassed for the brilliancy and purity of his scale of colors. In composition, he was, however, inferior to Da Vinci, being an idyllic, rather than a dramatic, genius. He was most successful as the interpreter of naive grace, of ten- der, youthful joy. The Cathedral of San Lorenzo has a costly marble facade, and a pretty poor fountain statue of William Tell, by Vincenzo Vela, a sculptor of local repu- tation, adorns the quay. As for the rest, the interior of the town is quaintly arcaded and paved in large blocks, Italian fashion. Of an evening, in the mellow half-lights of May, when the season is at its height, the quay becomes the promenade of cosmo- politan crowds. The hotel tables d'Jiote have spun their weary courses to an end, and dismissed the chatting guests into the open air. The native Ticinese come from their villas on the outskirts, or their dark houses in the town, to show themselves by the water-side, strolling in family groups, or as dapper dandies in gaudy neckties. It is a hash of nationalities, flavored with a little Italian garlic. In the summer, other hotel-keepers will stir this same mixture on .:3s KOMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. the quay of Luzern with a sprinkling of Swiss cheese. The lake of Lugano is altogether on a less imposing scale than Maggiore and Como; its banks are more uniform, less opulent and Oriental, but its windings are delightfully wayward. If you decide to return to Switzerland across the .Mps, go by way of Porlezza, at the end of the east- ern arm of the lake, thence to Menaggio, and up the Lake of Como to Chiavenna. Even before you have reached Porlezza, however, you will have left Switzerland. Under the hollow pretence of acting as guide, I must accompany you to Menaggio for the view. It is there that Bellagio is seen, crouch- ing upon the tongue of land which divides the lake of Como into two parts, a glisten- ing miracle amid fairy bowers ; Cadenabbia on the hither side, less theatrical in appear- ance, but rejoicing in lovelier gardens: white-walled Varenna opposite; Tremezzo ; and all the other places, where couples spend their honeymoons, or lovers make arrangements for future ones. Tliere are secluded stretches along this lake that LUGANO. 239 neither railroad nor carriage-road has touched as yet. A cobbled foot-path leads from village to hamlet, rising and falling with the nature of the shore, skirt- ing cliffs by means of terraces, creeping between walled vineyards, and crossing chasms on vaulted bridges. Of course, all this is in Italy, and by rights ought not to be mentioned in this book. Let me just urge you to notice the olive- orchards in spring, — the gray-green of the leaves against the pink almond-blossoms. Was there ever a harmony so tender, so subtle! And the gardens, radiant with waxen camellias, pure white and scarlet; thickets of flowering rhododendron; laven- der wistaria, caressing yellow house-walls; sombre verdure stretching up to naked rocks and crests ; oranges and lemons ripening in sunny corners, — you will not find their like elsewhere. Then do not overlook the amusing little jetties and har- bors, the awninged boats, and the magic mystery of the water. Listen to the dirge- like singing of the boatmen. Breathe deeply of the scented air, crush the violets in your 240 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. palm, and wait at dusk for the first ten- tative trills of the nightingale, that you may carry away in all your senses the delights of that thrice-blessed region. There is no place in the world where it is so easy to become idiotically sentimental as on the lake of Como. And yet the writer has one slight excuse for lingering on the lake of Como, for on the way up to Colico to connect with the train for Chiavenna, the boat stops at Dongo. Nearly above the village of Musso, upon precipitous cliffs, are perched the ruins of three castles. From 1525 to 1 53 1, they were held by a condottiere, Giovanni Giacomo Medici, a charming villain with a fine name and of obscure ancestry. By posing as the representative of the Dukes of Milan, this enterprising robber managed to bring the whole lake into subjection, and then began to trouble his neighbors in Graubiinden. The latter appealed for help to the Swiss Confederates. Now, at this moment, the Catholic and Protestant parties in Switzerland were facing each other in a sullen, suspicious mood, waiting for an excuse to renew LUGANO. 241 hostilities. When this call for help was rejected by the Catholic cantons, the Protestants immediately suspected them of sympathizing with the condottiere. In fact, this worthless plunderer actually became the cause of the so-called second war of Kappel. The Protestants precipitated a contest upon utterly unfounded suspicions, were badly beaten in a pitched battle, and Zwingli himself left dead upon the field. Chiavenna (Italian, chiave) is the key that will unlock the marvels of Graubiinden. There are two key-holes, the Spliigen and the Maloja passes, and they lead to Chur and the Engadine. 16 CHAPTER XIV. CHUR AND THE ENGADINE. BEFORE the Romans conquered the territory now known as Switzerland, it was inhabited by a conglomeration of hostile tribes, for the most part of Celtic origin. But the valleys of the eastern Alps, comprising the modern Canton of Graubiinden and the Tyrol, were in pos- session of the Raeti, of mixed Latin and Etruscan stock. It is the subjugation of the latter by Tiberius and Drusus, the step-sons of Emperor Augustus, which Horace celebrates in a famous ode. At the time of the Teutonic invasion of the Roman empire, Raetia received a certain number of German-speaking immigrants, and in the tenth century was used for awhile as a basis of operations by the Saracen brigands who made Europe unsafe. During the Middle Ages Raetia was divided into feudal fragments similar to CHUR AND THE ENGADINE. 243 those which characterized Switzerland in general. It was not until the beginning of the fifteenth century that the various ecclesiastical and secular rulers united with the communities of free peasants to form a loose confederation, which became known as the Gray League, or Graubiinden. This league often co-oper- ated with the Swiss Confederation in mat- ters of foreign policy, as a trusted ally, but maintained its independence and lived its own life. In 1797, the Val Tellina (German Vcltlin) which was a subject-land of Graubiinden, broke away, with Napoleon's permission, to join the newly created Cisalpine Republic. Next year, the French invaded Switzerland and erected the short-lived Helvetic Repub- lic. Then came the terrible summer of 1799, when Switzerland and Graubiinden became the battleground of Europe, a prey to vast French, Russian, and Austrian armies. In the general remodeUing of States which followed in 1803, Graubiinden became a canton of the Swiss Confedera- tion, in accordance with Napoleon's Act of Mediation. 244 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Chur is strangely primitive for the capital of the largest of the Swiss cantons. There are some new houses in the direction of the railroad station, but the town itself is ancient and shabby, with happy-go-lucky, narrow streets. What is known as the Episcopal Court occupies high ground. Here the cathedral of St. Lucius and the bishop's palace face upon a square, adorned with a fountain, the whole quarter being surrounded with walls, so that its general appearance is quite like that of a fortress. Two towers are called, in local speech, Marsoel and Spinoel ; that is, in Latin, Mars in oculis and Spina in oculis, which practically means that the Romans had to keep a sharp eye on their conquered Raeti. It is pleasant to know that you can now drink a glass of wine, and enjoy the view from the tower of Spinoel, regardless of the Romans. The place is marked on Roman charts as Curia. Its bishopric is first mentioned in the acts of a Synod of Milan, in 452 ; but there is the legend of a missionary, a certain Saint Lucius, from Britain, who is CHUR AND THE EXGADINE. 245 supposed to have established himself here at an earlier time. It is impossible to determine what kernel of truth the tra- dition may contain ; at the same time, the name of the saint has been connected with Chur, practically since the introduction of Christianity into that region. The cathedral is extremely curious, with- out being exactly beautiful. An ancient stone portal consists of columns reposing on lions' backs, after the fashion of so many early entrances and pulpits. Within, there is a succession of styles, Roman- esque predominating, but the whole is too crude to be more than interesting. The treasury is said to be very rich, and to con- tain charters granted by Charlemagne. A peculiar feature of Chur is the moun- tain-torrent of the Plessur, which flows rapidly through the town, in a deep, walled cut, and empties itself into the young Rhine in the plain beyond. Opposite, rises the solemn, slate-colored range of the Calanda. A hillock, just outside the town, on the Julier Road, the Rosenhiigel, has been prettily laid out as a park and point of view. When the annual drills are on, 246 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. the long white barracks on the road to Ems are full of dark-blue militia-men; and every Sunday morning they march to the cathedral for early Mass, unarmed, with bands playing. On the whole, the people are somewhat better-looking than in German Switzerland. The prevailing type is black-haired and strong-eyed, cretins being rarely seen. German is gradually supplanting the old Romansch language ; still one would say that some of the beautiful pronunciations of the Latin survive, for the German that is spoken in Chur is far pleasanter than that of other parts of Switzerland. The Raetian Museum may be recom- mended to those who have time to spare for sight-seeing; not so much on account of the portraits of local worthies, and the collection of stained glass and coins, as for a really remarkable Dance of Death, This consists of seventeen frescos, after designs made by Holbein, which were cut from the walls of the Episcopal Palace. There are also some rare inscriptions on stone, in the undeciphered language of the Lepontii, a tribe of Ligurian origin, which CHUR AND THE ENGADINE. 247 occupied Ticino before the advent of the Romans. Chur is, of course, an important starting- point for several passes, notably the Julier and Spliigen. The railroad that comes up the Rhine Valley stops here ; and if you speak to the people of the advantage of carrying it farther, say, over to Chiavenna, they urge that their town would thereby cease to be a stopping-place, and become one merely of transit. In the mean time, the main stream of travellers pours from Landquart to Davos, and up to the highlands of the Engadine. Imagine a long valley, about six thou- sand feet above the sea-level, with hardly a turn for sixty miles. It is the top of many passes, a region almost treeless and untilled, but full of villages and health- resorts. During the long winter, it is the haunt of invalids; its short-lived summer is gay with a rush of tourists, for a silent atmosphere, bracing and life-giving, reigns almost undisturbed throughout the year. In 1862, the local practitioner of Davos, Dr. Spengler, published a paper in the 248 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. Deutsche Klinik, calling attention to the fact that phthisis was unknown in the Enga- dine, and that the Davosers who had con- tracted pulmonary diseases elsewhere, were quickly cured upon their return. Three years after, a German physician. Dr. Unger, and a friend of his, both consump- tives, decided to test the effect of the climate upon themselves. They were soon cured ; and thus arose the remarkable winter-season treatment at Davos. Medicines are practically discarded, for mountain air and sunshine are counted upon to effect the cures. Exercise and good food are necessary supplements. The snow lies for about seven months, and the thermometer often falls far below zero (Fahrenheit). And yet con- sumptives can go sleigh-riding and to- bogganing, walk under the falling snow, or sit upon their balconies in the sun- shine. The worst winds are practically excluded from Davos, and so the cold is clear and dry. Of course, life is neces- sarily somewhat monotonous in those alti- tudes, in spite of every effort made by hotel proprietors. One must bring re- ,>■-'■' ■ ■''■ Mk ^1 / 1 : , mi 1 • t 1 ^ 1 i ' _ ! CHUR AND THE ENGADIXE. 249 sources within one's self, to winter in the Engadine. Then, when the spring comes, with its melting snows and impas- sable roads, invalids are obliged to descend to Montreux, Lugano, or some Italian resort. The change to a moist, relaxing atmosphere is generally very trying to them. Agriculture does not really exist in the Engadine, but the pastures are particu- larly in demand. From time immemorial, the inhabitants have let them to Berga- mesque shepherds, who come up from the Italian side every summer, bronzed, and clad in dirty sheepskins, — primitive and Pan-like beings, that seem to be survivors of an aboriginal race. When the hay is not gathered and bought by the Italians, you may come across many a pretty native scene. The people work in the distinctive costumes of their district ; the men wield the hay forks, the women the rakes. Their natural attitudes are full of meaning to the sculptor. One wonders how the peo- ple of the Engadine occupied their time before the advent of hotels. Many of them, however, emigrate to various parts of Europe, to make money as confectioners 250 ROMANCE SWITZERLAND. and restaurant-keepers. When they have amassed enough, they return to their lofty valley, and spend the rest of their days in comfort. Any land which has had the late John Addington Symonds for a constant guest and admirer, may well consider itself for- tunate. This warm-hearted and versatile man of letters spent the better part of thirteen years in the Engadine, fighting against the encroachment of disease. Dur- ing that time, he published twenty odd volumes, principally upon art, and the his- tory of art. In 1892, he issued "Our Life in the Swiss Highlands," in collaboration with his daughter Margaret. After Sy- monds's valuable and true picture of life in the Engadine, the writer feels that there is but little for him to say. The book is an account of experiences and excursions, containing much information about the history of the district and the character of the people. Symonds took a vital personal interest in the doings of his Alpine neighbors. He learned to know them intimately. "Good-breeding," he writes of them, "a CHUR AND THE ENGADINE. 25I high average of inteUigence, active poli- tical instincts, manliness, and sense of personal freedom, are conspicuous, even among the poorer peasants. Nowhere, I take it, upon the face of the earth, have republican institutions and republican vir- tues developed more favorably. Nowhere is the social atmosphere of a democracy more agreeable at the present moment. What I have learned from my Graubiinden comrades, and what I owe to them, cannot be here described in full. But their com- panionship has become an essential ingre- dient in my life, — a healthy and refreshing relief from solitary studies and incessant quill-driving." How long the local character will be able to retain these republican virtues depends a great deal upon the industrial future of the Engadine. Political and social equality are based upon economic equality. If the marvellous growth of hotel-keeping and kindred occupations should by any chance enrich a few men, at the expense of the rest, it is safe to say that the present republican virtues will cease to have any meaning. Nothing short 252 ROMAN'CE SWITZERLAND. of some arrangement by which the right of all the inhabitants to the natural opportu- nities of the valley can be safeguarded, will enable the Engadine to weather, unharmed, the extraordinary tide of popu- larity by which it has been visited- INDEX. INDEX. A. Page Aar 155, 156, 157, 160 Affry, Count Charles 164 Agassiz 68, 146, 154-158, 210, 214 Aigle 190 Alabama Chamber 8 Aiamanni 125 Albergeux, Luce des • '75 Albinen 209 Aletsch Glacier 216 Ameaux 61 Amiel 34) 35- 74-So Anderegg 215 Anker 147 Armatlii no, 1S5, 1S7 Ascona 233 Auvernier • '45 Avenches (Aventicum) 123-128, 135 B. Bachelin 147 Ball 215 Balland, M 174, 175 Balmat, Jacques 22-25, ^9, 68 Bancroft, George ..,.,.... 63-64 256 INDEX. Pace Baron 177 Belalp 215 Bellagio 238 Bellerive 2, 84 Bellevue 6g, 83 Bellinzona 226-228 Benen, Johann 215 Benichons 183 Bergamesque shepherds 249 Bern . 112, 116, 118, 131, 132, 136, 160, 179, 181 Berthier 122, 142 Berthoud, A. H 147 Bex 190 Bienne, Lake of 37, 126, 137 Bise I, 2, 84, 115 Blonay 89-91, 129 Bonivard 13) 93 Bonnet, Charles 69, 70 Bonstetten 53. 55> S5, 86 Borrani, Casa 233 Borromean Islands 234 Bourrit, Marc Theodore 69, 70 Bouveret = 92 Bovy, M. Daniel 174, 176 Bovy, M. Frangois 174 Bresse, Corsaut de 90-91 Brig or Brieg 211 Brissago 234 Broglie, Duchesse de 45 Broughton m Broye, Valley of the 117-124 INDEX. 257 PAGB Bubenberg, Von 134 Bulle 170, 171, 172 Bure, Idelette de 58 Burgundy, Charles the Bold of . . . 128, 131-136 Burgundy, Transjurane 86,112, 119-122,143,178, 195 Burkhard I. of Alamannia 119 Byron 82, 88, 93 c. Cadenabbia 238 Cassar, Julius 21, 85, 116 Calame 147 Calanda 245 Calvin i, 6, 7, 8, 10, 57-67, 98 Carnot 85-86 Castello di Corbario 228 Castello di Ferro 231-232 Castello di Mezzo 228 Castello Grande 228 Celigny 71 Cernier 145 Chablais 86, 89 Chalamala, Girard 179-1 So, 183 Chamonix 22, 23, 2;. 26 Champel, Place de 58, 66 Champ6ry 191, 192, 193 Chaponni^re 11 Charlemagne 245 Charpentier 155 Chateau d'Aile 89 Chateaux d'Oex 178, 190 IT 258 INDEX. Page Chaucer 130 Chaumont 137 Chiavenna 238,240,241,247 Chillon 86, 88, 93 Chur ^ . . . 244-247 " Cigognier " i2(j Cisalpine Republic 243 Ciseri 230 Clarens 79i 91 Como, Lake of 238-240 Confignon 31 Constant, Benjamin So-S'j 52, 54 Coolidge, Rev. W. A. B 211 Cooper, Fenimore 108 Coppet, Chateau at 44-46, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 84 Coraule c 182 Corot .............. 176 Cortaillod . 148 Cossonay 117 Cretins 189, 246 Croz, Michel 215, 217-221 D. Daudet 93 Davel, Major 98, 116 Davos 247-249 De la Rive 9 D6Iices, Les .39i 40 Dent du Midi 169, 191 De Saussure 9; 22, 25, 35, 68, 71, 210 De Sellon 9 INDEX. 259 I'AGE Desor 146,156,158,210,214 Don Carlos 113 Douglas, Lord Francis 217-221 Drusus . 242 Dubois 147 Dufour II Dumas, Alexandre 22, 42, S7, 93, 126, 138, 159, 201 E. ECUBLENS 118 Eggishorn 215 Ems 246 Engadine 241, 247-252 Estavayer, Gerard of 130 Evian 87 F. Faoug 135 Farel 58, 65, 66, 98, 140-141 Fazy, M. Henri 19, 61, 62 Fazy, James 74 Fellenberg 163 Ferney 40. 41-42 Fiesch or Viesch 205 Finhaut 196-197 Finsteraarhorn 214, 223 Forbes 156, 210, 214 Frangais 177 Frederick the Great . ...... . 36, 39 Fribourg 118, 136, 159 167, 179, 181 Furka 212 26o INDEX. G. PAGE Gemmi Pass 205 Geneva .... 1-19, 30, 39, 42, 57, 82, 91, 94 Genthod 69 Gerard 46 Gibbon, Edward 46, 103-105 Giornico 226 Girard, Pere Gr6goire 163-164 Glion 91, 92 Godet, Philippe 41, 141, 152 Goethe 17, 53 Gottsponer, Pfarrer 211 Grandson 98, 128-132 Graubiinden 240, 241, 242-252 Gregory X., Pope . 98 Grimsel ~ . . „ 155, 212 Griiet . • „ . 60 Gruyere or Gruyeres 86, 92, 168, 169, 170, 171-187 Guizot 53 Giimminen 135 Guyot 154, 156, 157-158, 214 H. Habsburg-Austria 98, 116, 128 Hadow 217-221 Hannibal 21 Hardy 215 Haussonville, Comtesse d' ...... . 45 Haut Cret 108 Helvetic Ke))iiblic 243 INDEX. 261 Page Helvetic Revolution , . . . , , . 112, 190 Helvetii 21, 116, 124 Heremence » 204 Kerens e. 204 Herschel, Sir John 210 Holbein 246 Horace , . 242 Hotel des Neuchatelois 156 Howells, Mr 2, 10, 19, loi, J02 Hudson 215, 217-221 Hugo, Victor iji 93 h Janssen, M, 26-27 Jomini, Henri ..,,,.., » 122-123, 132 Jorat, Mont .,..,.,,,... 87 Joux, Mont ..o,., 201 Julier Road ..,.,.,.,... 245 Julius n,, Pope ....,,..., 206 Jungfrau 214, 222, 223 Jupiter Poeninus - . , . 201 Jura . 2, 84, 137, 148, 153 Jura, Correchon des Eaux du 37 K. Kappel, War of 241 Kennedy 215 Kirk, J. F , . . 132 Kirsch ....,...,,,,.. 196 Kiihreihen 184 262 INDEX. L. Page La Bellotte 84 La Chaux-de-Fonds 14S La Cote 96 Lago Maggiore 226, 22S, 233 Laharpe, Frederic Cesar , , S6, 98 La Lance i^i Lanibercier 31 Landquart 247 La Sarraz 117 Lauber, Dr. . 271 Lausanne ... iS, 39, S7-SS, 91, 95, 96, 97-105 Leleux 177 Le Locle ... 14S Leman, Lake S2-94, 11 8, 13S Leponti , 246 Les Avants 91 Libertines 59) 62 Locarno 22S-233. 236 Loeche or Leuk 205-209 Lombroso 3~~3S Lucens ..iiS Ludlow Ill, 112 Lugano 228, 234-23S, 249 Lugano, Lake of 23S Luini, Bernardino ......... 236-237 M. MacDoxald ... 215 Madonna del Sasso 229-230 INDEX. 263 PAGE Magyars 120 Majoria 203 !^^allet-Dupan, Jacques 70-71 Maloja Pass 241 Marcello (Duchesse Adele Colonna de Cas- tiglione-Aldebrandini) .... 163, 164-165 Marignano 206 JMartigny .,.,... 124, 196, 197-19S, 201 Massacre of the Swiss Guard ...... 164 Matterhorn ,..,..... 210, 214-221 Maximianus, Emperor 194 Medici, Giovanni Giacomo 240 jNIenaggio . „ 238 Menn 177 Merjelen, Lake of .... , 216 Mermeillod, Cardinal 206 Milan, Dukes of 227, 240 Milton, John . . 17 Moleson, Mount 171 Monnier, Marc 80-Si Monrion 39, 103 Montbenon , loi Mont Blanc 3, 20-29, 94, 13S, 215 Monte Rosa 214, 215 Monthey 191 Montolieu, Madame de 104 Montreux 88,91-92, 114, 190, 249 Morat . . . .117, 127, 128, 132-136, 162, 178 Morat, Lake 126, 137, 154 Morges 86 Metiers 36 264 INDEX. Page M6tiers-en-Vully 154 Moudon .,, .....118 Miiller, Johann von 53 Miillibach ........>.... 20^ Muralto 232 Museum in Chur 246-247 Museums in Geneva 9-10 Museums in Lausanne 100 Museum in Neuchatel , . . . . 146-147, 153 Musso .............. 240 N. Napoleon Bonaparte 30, 51, 52, 54, 106, 122, 123, 135. '42, 199, 243 Nattfs 42 Xaye, Rochers de 93 Xecker 9, 44, 46, 48, 103-104 Necker de Saussure, Madame 50 Negaiifs 36, 42 Neocomian ....13S Neuchatel ......... 18, 36, 137-1 58 Neuchatel, Lake of 126, 128 Novara 206 Nyon 2, 85-86 O. Ober Gabelhorn ......... 217 Ogo or Hochgau 177, 178 Orbe 117 Orelli - 232 Ormonts-Dessus , . . 190 INDEX. 265 PAGE Oron 118 Ouchy 88,97 P. Paccard, Dr. . , . . , 23-24 Pal6zieux 118 Patriots 59) 62 Pavillard 103 Payerne I19-123 Peilz, Tour de 89 Perrin, Ami 60 Pestalozzi , 35, 163 Petit-Mulet 23 Petitot 16 Pis^evache 196 Phelps, John 112 Plessur 245 Ponte Capriasca 236 Ponverre, M. de 31 Porlezza 23S Pourtales, de 146, 156 Prangins 84 Pro Aventico., Society of o 126 R. Raeti 124, 242 Rahn ., 233, 236 Ranz des Vaches Iio, 184-187 Rawyl , . . 204 Recamier, Madame ....,,.. 45, 52, 53 Refere7idum 166 266 INDEX. PACB Eepreseniants 36, 42 Rhine 245, 247 Rhone I, 4, 92, 189, 212 Rhone Glacier 212-213 Riviera 226 Rocca, Albert de 54> 55 Rod, Edouard 13 Kolle 86, 96 Romans 21, 97, 108, I18, I?3-I28, 193, 194, 201, 205, 210, 242, 244 Romansch 246 Romont 118, 167-170 Rosenhligel r. 245 Rossel : , 105 Rousseau 3, 8, 10, 30-39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 49, 57, 70, 79, 104, 105-106, 112, 149, 150 Rue .118 Rumine, Gabriel de ........ ^ 100 Ruskin « . . , . , 210 S. Saint Lucius .,.......- 244 Sal^ve ..... 2 Salvan ....- 196 Salzman 177 Sand, George 93 Sanetsch 171, 204 San Lorenzo in Lugano . 237 San Salvatore 234 Saracens 120 Sarine 160, 187 INDEX. Savoy Scherer, M. Edmond . . Schiller ...... Schinner, Cardinal Mathew Schlegel ...... bequam . . . Serodino, Giovanni Serrieres, Gorge de . Servetus , . . . Shelley . . Sierra . . . . . Simmenthal . . . Simplon . . . Sion r , . . . Sismondi .... S. Maria degli Angioh Sorel, Albert , . , Spengler, Dr. , , Spliigen .... Stael, Augusta de , , Stael, Madame de . . Stael-Holstein. Baron . St. Antoine, College of St. Bernard. Great . too, St. Bernard de Menthon Stelvio Pass .... St. Gotiiard .... St. Martin in Vevey St. Maurice .... St. Nicholas in F"ribour? 267 Pack 2j 15, 20, 89, 92 76,78 • 53 205-206 ^ 53 . 142 - 233 . 14S 58, 64-67 S2, 93 . 204 112, 204 199, 201, 211 203, 226 . 20^ n-72, 75 . 236 55> 55~5^ 247 241, 247 40 30,44-56, 104 4S, 5:1 [24, 195 197 19S-20; 225. 235 III, 113 193-195 j6i 268 INDi St. Peter in Geneva St. Peter, Island of . . St. Saphorin St. Victor in Locarno Supersaxo Surpierre . Syinonds, joim Addington T T;\RTARIN Taugwalder, Peter . Tell. \Mlliam, statue of 'I'ete Noire .... Theodor or Theodul, isishop Theodule Pass Thonon Tibsrius Ticino . . - Tissot, Victor Titus . Topffer . , Tourbillon Tournay . , Tremezzo . Trient, Gorges du Troistorrents Tronchin Turimbert, Count , Turquet de Mayern Turretini .... Tvndall Page 226. V 88 231 ^04 ii9 . 250- -.251 9.1, 22L> 217 ■2^1 194, 195 i, 230, 236, 35. 7 124 2-74 40 8. 2X0^ 2 £4. 3(t INDEX- 269 u Page Uhland, the poet .. = ....,. 183 Unger, Dr. ...... o.,.- . 248 V. Valajs .......... 124, 188-213 Valeria . 203 Val d'Anniviers 204 Va! de Travers .....,,,. r-;;, 1^8 Vald'IIliez igi-193. 197 Val Leventina 237 Vallot, M 26 Val I'ellina 243 •-aienna 23S V?.'.ll . . 2, 86,89,90,95-114, 115, 1(6, 130, \2l Vaux . . 88, 96, ic8 v'ela. \'incenzo 237 "•'enetz jr; \cinaya?. 156 '•'e«o''^ 69,84 Vespasian ,24 3. 9». 93, 95: '05-114, 124 • . . . 190 V';]!eneuve 9T, 92, loi, 190 Villette, Voiande de ^j Vinci, Leonardo da ..,.., , 22, 236, 237 VioHet-leduc . ' 98 Viret - . . . 98 Visp ?io Voi^t, Karl .-5 Villars 270 INDEX. PAGE Voirons ... 2 Voltaire 3°. 37, 39-44, 7°, '03 Vufflens 86 Vulliemin . 98 Vully . , . , 133 W. Ward, Mrs. HtiMPHREY 78, 79 Warens, Madame de ,..,,,. . 32-33 Weisshorn ..215 Whymper, Edward . . . . ^ 210, 215, 216-221 Wills . - 215 Y. YvERDON 35 17 Yvorne 90 Z, Zaeringen, Dukes op .00 Zermatt 2io-2i» ,16 Zurich i . . i . . o . 30, 233 Zwingli ...... ...... 241 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. rm L0-I7m !-',-5.5i H;i,'i3;>s4 ; 44 1 TIIK LIKKAttl UXaVEKSlTY OF CAUFORNM AA 000 130 138 1