The passengers stopped to breakfast and the
Scotchman proposed to me to make the descent of Lans-le-Bourg also on foot;
but I was quite satisfied with the prowess I had already exhibited and
declined the challenge. He however set off alone and thus performed the
entire passage of Mont Cenis on foot. As for the rest of us we were carried
down on a traineau; that is to say the diligence was unloaded and its
wheels taken off; the baggage and wheels were put on one traineau and the
diligence with the passengers in it on another, and in this manner we
descended to Lans-le-Bourg. Nothing remarkable occurred on this journey and
we arrived at Chambery in good case. I hired a caleche to go to Geneva,
remained there three days and arrived at Lausanne on the 18th December.
[100] Horace, Sat., II, 6, 65. - ED.
[101] Dante, Inferno, I, 33,29. - ED.
[102] Henry Augustus, thirteenth Viscount Dillon (1777-1832), married
(1807) to Henrietta Browne (died 1862). - ED.
[103] Quoted from memory, with mistakes. The text has been corrected as it
stands in Brantome, Les Dames galantes, ed. Chasles, vol. I, p.
351. - ED.
AFTER
WATERLOO
PART III.
CHAPTER XIII
MARCH-SEPTEMBER, 1817
Journey from Lausanne to Clermont-Ferrand - A wretched conveyance - The
first dish of frogs - Society in Clermont-Ferrand - General de
Vergeunes - Cleansing the town - Return to Lausanne - A zealous
priest - Journey to Bern and back to Lausanne - Avenches - Lake Morat - Lake
Neufchatel - The Diet in Bern - Character of the Bernois - A beautiful
Milanese lady.
I started from Lausanne on the 4th March 1817, and arrived on the same day
at 4 o'clock at Geneva. On my arrival at Geneva, my banker informed me that
I had been denounced to the police, for some political opinions I had
spoken at the Hotel de l'Ecu de Geneve, previous to my journey into
Italy, and that I had been traced as far as Turin. I went directly on
hearing this to the police, and desired to know who my accusers were, and
that the accusation against me might be investigated immediately. Both
these propositions were however declined, and I was told it was an affaire
passee, and of no sort of consequence; so that from that day to this I
have never been able to ascertain who my friends were.
I left Lausanne with the intention of paying a visit to my friend Col.
Wardle and his family at Clermont-Ferrand, in the Department of the Puy de
Dome, in Auvergne, where they are residing. I staid three days at Geneva,
and then set off at 7 in the evening on the 8th March with the Courier for
Lyons.
I never regretted any thing so much, and was near paying severely for my
rashness in putting myself into such a wretched conveyance, at such a
season of the year; but I had made the agreement with the Courier without
inspecting his carriage, and was obliged to adhere to the bargain. It was a
vehicle entirely open before; it was a bitter cold, rainy, snowy night; and
I had the rain and snow in my face the whole way, and on crossing the
Cerdon I was seized with a violent ague fit, and suffered so much from it
that on arrival at a village beyond Nantua where we stopped for supper, I
determined to proceed no further, but to rest there that night; and I asked
the innkeeper if he could furnish me with a bed for the night. He however
made so many objections and seemed so unwilling that I should remain, that
I was obliged to make up my mind to proceed. I allayed the frissonnement
by a large glass of brandy and water, made fiery hot. At eight o'clock next
morning I arrived at Lyons, more dead than alive. A warm bath, however,
remaining in bed the whole day, buried in blankets, abstaining from all
food, a few grains of calomel at night and copious libations of rice gruel
the next day restored me completely to health; and after a sejour of four
days at Lyons, I was enabled to proceed on my journey to Clermont on the
14th March. We arrived at Roanne in the evening and I stopped there the
whole night.
Between Lyons and Roanne is the mountain of Tarare where the road is cut
right athwart the mountain and is consequently terribly steep; indeed it is
the steepest ascent for a carriage I ever beheld. All the passengers were
obliged to bundle out and ascend on foot; and even then it is a most
arduous montee for such a cumbrous machine as a French diligence.
The country between Lyons and Roanne appears diversified; but this is not
the season for enjoying the beauties of nature. Roanne consists of one
immensely long street, but it is broad, and contains excellently built
houses and shops. There is a theatre also and baths. It is situated on the
Loire which I now salute for the first time.
The following morning at nine o'clock a patache (a sort of two wheeled
carriage) was in waiting to convey me the remainder of my journey; and I
arrived at night at a large village or town called Thiers. Halfway between
Roanne and Thiers, on stopping at a small village to dine, I observed a
dish of frogs at the kitchen fire at the inn; and as it was the first time
I had observed them as an article of food in France, I was desirous to
taste them. They were dressed in a fricassee of white sauce, and I found
them excellent.
