The battle was fought here, were it not to relate
an anecdote which I had from good authority.
I noticed, when I first mentioned this place to you, that we
descended a steep before we came to the inn; an immense ridge of
rocks stretching out on one side. The inn was sheltered under them;
and about a hundred yards from it was a bridge that crossed the
river, the murmurs of which I have celebrated; it was not fordable.
The Swedish general received orders to stop at the bridge and
dispute the passage - a most advantageous post for an army so much
inferior in force; but the influence of beauty is not confined to
courts. The mistress of the inn was handsome; when I saw her there
were still some remains of beauty; and, to preserve her house, the
general gave up the only tenable station. He was afterwards broke
for contempt of orders.
Approaching the frontiers, consequently the sea, nature resumed an
aspect ruder and ruder, or rather seemed the bones of the world
waiting to be clothed with everything necessary to give life and
beauty. Still it was sublime.
The clouds caught their hue of the rocks that menaced them. The sun
appeared afraid to shine, the birds ceased to sing, and the flowers
to bloom; but the eagle fixed his nest high amongst the rocks, and
the vulture hovered over this abode of desolation. The farm houses,
in which only poverty resided, were formed of logs scarcely keeping
off the cold and drifting snow: out of them the inhabitants seldom
peeped, and the sports or prattling of children was neither seen or
heard. The current of life seemed congealed at the source: all
were not frozen, for it was summer, you remember; but everything
appeared so dull that I waited to see ice, in order to reconcile me
to the absence of gaiety.
The day before, my attention had frequently been attracted by the
wild beauties of the country we passed through.
The rocks which tossed their fantastic heads so high were often
covered with pines and firs, varied in the most picturesque manner.
Little woods filled up the recesses when forests did not darken the
scene, and valleys and glens, cleared of the trees, displayed a
dazzling verdure which contrasted with the gloom of the shading
pines. The eye stole into many a covert where tranquillity seemed
to have taken up her abode, and the number of little lakes that
continually presented themselves added to the peaceful composure of
the scenery. The little cultivation which appeared did not break
the enchantment, nor did castles rear their turrets aloft to crush
the cottages, and prove that man is more savage than the natives of
the woods. I heard of the bears but never saw them stalk forth,
which I was sorry for; I wished to have seen one in its wild state.
In the winter, I am told, they sometimes catch a stray cow, which is
a heavy loss to the owner.
The farms are small. Indeed most of the houses we saw on the road
indicated poverty, or rather that the people could just live.
Towards the frontiers they grew worse and worse in their appearance,
as if not willing to put sterility itself out of countenance. No
gardens smiled round the habitations, not a potato or cabbage to eat
with the fish drying on a stick near the door. A little grain here
and there appeared, the long stalks of which you might almost
reckon. The day was gloomy when we passed over this rejected spot,
the wind bleak, and winter seemed to be contending with nature,
faintly struggling to change the season. Surely, thought I, if the
sun ever shines here it cannot warm these stones; moss only cleaves
to them, partaking of their hardness, and nothing like vegetable
life appears to cheer with hope the heart.
So far from thinking that the primitive inhabitants of the world
lived in a southern climate where Paradise spontaneously arose, I am
led to infer, from various circumstances, that the first dwelling of
man happened to be a spot like this which led him to adore a sun so
seldom seen; for this worship, which probably preceded that of
demons or demigods, certainly never began in a southern climate,
where the continual presence of the sun prevented its being
considered as a good; or rather the want of it never being felt,
this glorious luminary would carelessly have diffused its blessings
without being hailed as a benefactor. Man must therefore have been
placed in the north, to tempt him to run after the sun, in order
that the different parts of the earth might be peopled. Nor do I
wonder that hordes of barbarians always poured out of these regions
to seek for milder climes, when nothing like cultivation attached
them to the soil, especially when we take into the view that the
adventuring spirit, common to man, is naturally stronger and more
general during the infancy of society. The conduct of the followers
of Mahomet, and the crusaders, will sufficiently corroborate my
assertion.
Approaching nearer to Stromstad, the appearance of the town proved
to be quite in character with the country we had just passed
through. I hesitated to use the word country, yet could not find
another; still it would sound absurd to talk of fields of rocks.
The town was built on and under them. Three or four weather-beaten
trees were shrinking from the wind, and the grass grew so sparingly
that I could not avoid thinking Dr. Johnson's hyperbolical assertion
"that the man merited well of his country who made a few blades of
grass grow where they never grew before," might here have been
uttered with strict propriety.
