Across the Channel; or, Picture-stories of foreign lands

Front matter

A BASLK. Frontispiece. The Ferry over the river, from Old to New Basle; tbe Cathedral iti the distance. Seepage 211. ACKOSS THE CHANNEL; or, PICTURE-STORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS. BY JAMES CEOWTHER, AUTHOR OF "THE HORSES OF THE SUN," "LADY BIRD'S TEA-FARTY," ETC. COUNTS EGMuNT AND HORS". {Seepage 138.) LONDON: SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 56, OLD BAILEY, E.C. "There are few things so exhilarating to the spirits as the first visit to a foreign land. Amongst things purely pleasurable, it is perhaps one of the most unalloyed gratifications which occur in the course of our life. But, like all other pleasures, it may be made, according as we use it, a source of present vanity, and future regret, or, on the other hand, of lasting and 6olid improvement. Our object should be, not to gratify curiosity, and seek mere temporary amusement, but to learn and to venerate — to improve the heartjUjcLunderstanding." /^W^^v GSESI.EY.

Preface

The observant reader will remark that there is no reference in the following stories either to the Franco- German War or the Bulgarian outbreak : — the greater part of the matter appeared iu the serials of the publishers before the occurrence of either of these events, and I have not thought it necessary to introduce them in the republication. But I have rewritten much ; and the events which have occurred since their original appearance, both in the church and the world, have suggested such additions as appeared to me to be necessary in the remarkable days in which it is our privilege to live. If I have expressed myself strongly in the illustrations given of tlie two gigantic delusions which characterize the faiths of nearly one-third the population of the whole earth, it has been from a conscientious,

PREFACE.

. but, I hope, a charitable, conviction that ordinary readers, into whose hands I suppose the book may come, should be constantly and popularly informed or reminded of the costly nature of the spiritual and political liberty which they, as English men and women, enjoy, and their responsibility in preserving, as well as their duty in transmitting it to their children. J. C. 1S88. CONTENTS.

Part I

CHAFTEIt PAGE I. From Cannon Street to Calais ... ... 9 II. From Calais to Paris ... ... ... 17 III. From Paris to Strasburg ... ... .. 24 IV. From Strasburg to the Danube ... ... 30 V. The Danube and the Euxine ... ... ■ ... 37 VI. Down the Bosphorus to Constantinople ... 43 VII. The Mosques of Stamboul ... ... ... 60 VIII. Visit to the Mosque of the Howling Dervishes at Scutari ... ... ... ... 67 IX. From Constantinople to Vienna ... ... 79 X. From Vienna to Salzburg and Munich ... 86 XI. From Munich to Lucerne ... ... ... 92 XII, On the Heights of Grindelwald ... ... 109

Part II

I. From Harwich to Antwerp ... ... ... 116 II. How a Blacksmith became a Painter and a Scholar or Martyr ... ... ... . 126 III. Brussels, and the Story of Counts Egmont and Horn 1 35 IV. The Story of Waterloo ... ... ... 143 V. The Field of Waterloo ... ... ... 151 VI. Cologne, and its Story ... ... ... 160 VII. The Rhine, and the Story of St. Ursula ... 167 VIII. The Churches and Fables of Cologne ... 173 IX. Bhineland ... ... ... ... ... 179 X. Heidelberg Castle in 1887 and 1518 ... 185 XI. A Scene in the Augustinian Monastery ... 192 XII. From Heidelberg to Basle ... ... 199 XIII. The City of Basle, and the Story of Zwingle... 207 XIV. The City of Bears, and the Story of a Skull 217 XV. Story of the Swiss Reformation ... ... 225 XVI. The Death of Zwingle ... ... ... 232 XVII. Geneva, and the Story of John Calvin ... 239 XVIII.

From Geneva to Paris ... ... ... 217 Appendix ... ... ... ... ... LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. PAGE Basle Ferry ... ... ... ... Frontispiece Counts Egmont and Horn ... ... Title-page Afloat! Dover Castle ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 1* Bridge over the Seine ... ... ... •■• 17 Place de la Concorde, Paris ... ... ... ... 23 Storks in the German Marshes ... ... ... 29 A Reminder ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 35 The Mosque of Topahne, Constantinople ... ... 44 Street Scene in Galata ... ... ... ... 59 Turkish Mode of Worship ... ... ... ... 65 Exterior of a Turkish Mosque ... ... ... ••• 68 Eastern Gateway ... ... ... ... ••■ 70 Dancing Dervishes ... ... ... ... ... 73 The Water-giving Dervish ... ... ... ... 75 The Ceremony of the Doseh ... ... ... ... 77 A Turkish Cemetery ... ... ... ... 79 Eastern Letter- Writer .. . ... ... ... ... 80 "Adieu!" 81 Lutterworth Church, Wycliffe's Rectory ... ... 104 Alpine Climbing ... ... ... ... ... 114 On the Scheldt ... ... ...' ... ... 116 Antwerp ... ... ... ... .. ... 118 The Smithy ... ... ... ... ... ... 123 The Park and Chamber of Representatives, Brussels 134 Brussels Cathedral ... ... ... ... ... 142 The Bourse, Brussels ... ... ... ... 150 Ruins of Chateau Hougoumont ... ... ... ... 154 View in the Park, Brussels... ... ... ... 159 The Opened Grave ... ,.. ... ... ... 177 The Heidelberg Students ... ... ... ... 196 Luther's House at Frankfort ... ... ... ... 205 The Stork's Nest ... ... ... ... ... 208 Our Travelling Companions ... ... ... ... 210 Among the Mountains ... ... ... ... 216 Berne ... ... ... ,., ... ... ... 220 An Old House at Berne ... ... ... ... 234 Geneva and Mont Blano ... ... ... ... OR, PICTUEE-STOEIES OF FOEEIGN LANDS.

Chapter I. From Cannon-steeet To Calais

UNCLE JAMES requests the pleasure of the reader's com pany in an excursion across Europe to the East, by way of Dover, Calais, Strasburg, down the Danube, to the City of the Sultan, and the sweet waters of Asia; returning via Hungar)r, Austria, Bavaria, and Switzerland. Will you come with me O'er the deep blue sea, While the bright full moon Of resplendent June, Reflects her sheen O'er the glittering scene, And the white cliffs shine Like a silver mine ? Such was his invitation a few years ago, and such is it still. To all who accept it, he repeats his former advice — "Bring your seven-league boots with you, and take care of your eyes. We have rive thousand miles to pass over by road and river, by sea and mountain. You must be patient every now and then, and persevering always, and you must keep your eyes constantly on the look-out, and, like the hare, sleep with them open ; whilst, like the cat, you must see in the dark ; or, like the chameleon, turn them round in every direction."

Not simply a dull, heavy descriptive story of uninteresting scenery does he propose telling, but to take you, seriously, with him in the mind's eye through the lands and amongst the peoples visited a few years ago, wherein were many stirring incidents and charming adventures. Come, are you ready ? We have to catch the tidal express train to Dover; thence, halting at Paris, we hurry on over the Tyrolese mountains, along the banhs of the glorious old river Danube, to the extremity of the Austrian empire at Bazias ; thence, taking the steamer and passing through the Iron Gate and Danubian Principalities, we shall reach the Euxine of the ancients ; and, steaming down the entire length of the beautiful Bosphorus, land at the Golden Horn, where, after going to the Mosque with the Sultan, FROM CANNON STREET TO CALAIS. 11 and promenading amongst the ladies on the Asiatic side of the river, at the summer palace of his Majesty, spending a short time at the bazaars of Stamboul, and visiting the grand temple of Saint Sophia, to say nothing of attending the service of the howling dervishes at Scutari, we shall return by way of Varna and Rustchuk, Pesth, Buda, and the Emperor's city, Vienna ; the King of Bavaria's hunting ground in the neighbourhood of the deeply interesting frontier city of Salzburg; the lakes Obersee and Konigsee, to the Bavarian capital Munich ; thence, over the Lake Constance, by the spot where the celebrated council burnt John Huss and Jerome, to Zurich ; and afterwards to the land of William Tell— Lucerne — and over the Brunig Pass to the Bernese Alps, until we get to the " Mer de Glace " (sea of ice) at Grindelwald, returning through France to Calais.

Come, are you ready ? It is half-past eight p.m. as, standing at the Cannon street station, we take our ticket to Paris. A glorious evening in June it is, and, bidding " Adieu " in a religious sense to our friends, away we rush, with only one stoppage in the seventy-two miles, to the place of embarkation. " This way for the Calais boat ! " exclaim a score of voices, and very soon passengers and luggage are tumbled on board, the ropes are detached, the whistle screams, the landing stage is hauled ashore, and we are afloat ! You need not fear sea-sickness, for the sea is as calm as a lake : the full moon is up, and the silvery crests of the little waves sparkle with the beautiful light, while Shakspere's Cliff, and the long boundar line of chalk extending beyond our reach of sight, appear as white as snow ; and over and above all look down the heights of the castle, and the strong for tifications of the outworks.

AFLOAT ! Looking across the Channel, we can just discover, on the verge of the horizon, what at first seems like a very large star ; it is the Calais light, two and twenty miles off, and, all well, we shall land there in less than a couple of hours. Over what is now called the "Channel," many thousands of years ago, had any human being been living, he might have passed on land. Once upon a time there was a safer alliance between what is now France and England, than that of national policy ; for geologists tell us that the two countries were naturally united, — some mighty upheaval, caused by volcanic eruption, rending them asunder ; but it must have been long previous to the historic period, and we therefore know but little about it. But we know very much about our own Kentish coast, and especially about Dover.

It is two thousand years since the dictator, Julius Cæsar, stepped out of his FROM CANNON STREET TO CALAIS. 13 galley just about this very spot. The old ocean has rolled on just the same ever since; it knows no change, — • " The voice of the great Creator Speaks in its mighty tone ; " and the old Roman Pharos, or lighthouse — there it is, forming, with the ruins of a church, traces of the Roman occupation : — half hidden by the ramparts, it marks the spot where, about fifty years before Christ, the invader with his legions, in their eight hundred war galleys, encountered our people, whom he said " for the most part do not sow corn, but live on milk and flesh, and have their clothing of skins." But long previous to the landing of Cæsar, Dover Castle was in existence. A British king strengthened the works, the Romans afterwards superintended the rebuilding of its walls, and the Normans, after them, constructed the keep.

And now — for " Saxon and Norman, and Dane, are we " — i we, of a strangely mixed race, there exercise our Arm strong guns, and burrow the rock like rabbits, for the discharge of our rifled cannon. Times are greatly altered. The Calais oystermen, who have plied their trade for more than twenty centuries, are no longer warned, of the dangerous Dover coasts by the fires of the Pharos, but a powerful light reaches across the Channel, which may be seen from the French coast. The beacon remains which our Roman conquerors erected, though its fires, like them, have long since expired ; but the ten feet of thickness of its walls is peculiarly characteristic of a people whom the Scripture of truth describes DOVElt CASTLE. FROM CANNON STREET TO CALAIS. 15 as " dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly," the symbols of whose strength are said to be "iron and clay."

Up there, on the Castle Hill, where a few sheep are cropping the grass, streams of human blood have dyed the earth ; there Angles and Danes, Saxons and Normans, have each struggled for the white-cliffed island, called by Cæsar, from the rugged and irregular coast, Angle-land ; and there But " avast ! " as the sailors exclaim ; " avast there ! " The time has passed so pleasantly as we walk the deck, chatting with our fellow-passengers, that " Cally," as the pronunciation is in French, is reached sooner than we expected. Now all is bustle and confusion. We enter the harbour; the long jetty has the impatient engine and railway train in readiness for those who prefer not to walk a mile to the station. But we have never been out of our country before, and are anxious to have our first peep at " Mossoo ; " and so, reminded by the disagreeable odour of the town of the description of the place in the reign of our James I., when Calais was said to be " a beggarly, extorting town, monstrous dear and sluttish," we enter the restaurant or refreshment-room.

What a clatter ! Sovereigns, shillings, and pence are now exchanged for napoleons, francs, and cents ; for the first we give fifteen shillings and tenpence, the second not quite tenpence, and the last a tenth part of our penny; don't forget, or you will "lose by the exchange," as most people do. You mustn't say "waiter," but " garcon ! " and when you want the guard of the train you must shout " conducteur ! " We have a journey of 234 miles before us, and about seven hours to spend on the " Chemin de Fer du Nord," which, being interpreted, is, the Northern railway. We have paid a few francs to the " con ducteur," who provides us with a private carriage, for which he very politely hands us a receipt ; and, bidding farewell to the silvery pathway over which we have come from England, the sharp scream of the whistle warns us to settle down for the night, waiting for six o'clock in the morning, when we expect to reach the French capital.

Shall we settle down in a railway train without lifting up our hearts, for a blessing, to Him, whose children we are ? Ah no ; we can pray as we sit as well as when we kneel, and our pleasant story must not be unsanctified by religion ; on the contrary, as God will see us wherever we are, and we need His protection in the dangers through which we are always passing, let us see Him in everything ; people, language, scenery, circumstance ; God in all things here, and all things in God hereafter ! PARIS. BRIDGE OVER THE SEINE.

Chapter II

I FROM CALAIS TO PARIS. IS old seaport town of Calais, we see it to advantage to-night ; the disagreeables are hidden, and the full moon lights up its moated walls and drawbridges, its old gateways, and its cathedral with great effect. It is the most interesting city to an Englishman in France, for, from the years 1347 to 1558, it was united to the English possessions. Our language is still very much spoken B by the inhabitants, and the water-side thoroughfares remind us much of our Wapping and Thames Street, though more fishy and less convenient ; but when we get to the old market-place, then we realize that we are not in England. Here is the town-hall, where a set of very fine bells play several tunes during the hour, making melody in the midnight air; rising above it is a tall tower, 124 feet high, serving as a landmark by day, and a lighthouse by night; and, lighted by the moon in the market-place, are statues of the Due de Guise and St. Pierre, who, in the reign of Edward III., during the famous siege of eleven months, withstood the English, from whom they re covered the city.

Close by is the handsome cathedral, built by the English during their two hundred years' occupation. The religions of England and France then were the same ; that of Rome darkened both lands, and huge crucifixes, altars, pictures, candles, and wooden images of saints look down upon you in every direction now, as they did then, in the grand nave and the eleven side chapels. But the train stops ; the engine requires breathing time as well as we ; passengers are getting out and rush to the " restaurant ; " others sleepily crawl in ; some yawn, others stretch themselves on the platform. What shall we do ? Think ; yes, this is the place for thought ! Hereabouts it was that in the year 1520 our " bluff King Hal," Henry VIII., met Francis I. on the spot called Le Champ du Drap d'Or, "the field of the cloth of gold," from the fact that the tents and pavilions of each monarch were covered with such mate rial.

Hereabouts six thousand warriors and upwards FROM CALAIS TO PARIS. 19 of four thousand horse rivalled each other in maitial splendour ; and presently, as we start afresh by St. Omer and Lille, the manufacturing towns of France, with their pretty gardens and long rows of poplar trees, we reach the neighbourhood where the wind has for many years past been used to work the mills. There are about two hundred of them at Lille, kept going in grinding corn and other seed, and the inhabitants themselves have long been famous for their industry. Not far off are the plains where the two famous battles of Cressy and Agincourt were fought between the French and English. At the former our Edward III., with forty thousand men, gained the victory over Philip with his hundred thousand, when the English arrows did more mischief than the cannon, which, it was said, were introduced for the first time.

The king of Bohemia, many noblemen, twelve hundred knights, five thousand men-at-arms, and thirty thousand infantry were on the side of the French. The feathers used as a crest at the present day by the Prince of Wales are commemorative of the 26th of August in that famous year 1346 ; for at Cressy it was that the Black Prince received the plume as part acknowledgment of his heroic services. Where now stands a village with its farmhouses was also fought the famous battle of Agincourt. The village is still called "Azincour." Close by is the wood in which our King Henry V. posted his bowmen, and where the French, though six times superior in numbers, retreated. Thus passing one interesting locality after another, now the ruins of an old abbey, and then the chateaux and parks of French noblemen, we soon reach the sandstone quarries from which the material is hewn with which the houses in Paris are built.

The increase of manufactories and streets reminds us we are getting nearer some city ; the train stops and scores of voices call out lustily, " Parry ! " " Parry ! " " Parry ! " and there we are. And this is really the great city of Paris, about which we have heard so much, but which before we have never seen. Let us get on the top of an omnibus and endeavour to see a few of the ten thousand things that make the city of revolutions so famous. Ah ! there is the Place de la Bastile ; horrible recollection ! there the beginning of the long lines of " Boulevards," so called, like Pall Mall, in London, because there the game of bowls used to be played (bolder sur vert). The French have wisely pulled down the ugly fortifications and built handsome streets, planted with long rows of trees, sometimes in double lengths, under whose friendly shades many thousands of people drink their cafe and smoke their cigarette from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. On our road to the hotel we pass along the Boulevard des Italiens, the gayest and most frequented of all.

Magnificent cafes and restaurants meet us in every direction, and at the early hour of six, as we pass rapidly by, many of the Parisians are having their breakfasts in the streets, for, as we are told, they do not know the luxury of our English homes. The houses, which are let out at enormous rents, are taken, as in Edinburgh, in "fiats," or compartments, several hundreds of pounds being paid in some instances for a " floor ; " and the long row of bell-knobs at the entrance FROM CALAIS TO PARIS. 21 remind us what a colony one house may contain. How we pity those who live in the garret ! Let us pity ourselves. Lo ! our bedroom in " the Grand Hotel," which we reach after a wonderful climb, is numbered 474 ! We are in the immediate neighbourhood of the " Place de la Concorde," without doubt one of the grandest and most imposing scenes in this or any other city ; it is considered as the culminating point in the splendour of France.

Here have been performed some of the most terrible tragedies of all the tragedies which have made the history of the city so terrible. Looking south, we observe in the distance, behind the second fountain, the House of Parliament (" Palais du Corps Legislatif "), over the Pont de la Concorde. The two fountains which so much contribute to the splendour of the great square, consist each of a lower basin of granite fifty feet in diameter; figures of Dolphins, Tritons, and Nereids, surround the wall; public build ings and private hotels form the sides of the square, in the centre of which is the famous Luxor obelisk. This fine red granite monolith formed one of two columns which stood at the entrance of the grand temple of Thebes; it has a great claim upon our interest, for it was erected by Rameses the Great not long after Moses received the law at Mount Sinai, about fourteen hundred years before Christ.

The Pasha of Egypt made the French nation a present of it, and offered its fellow to the English, who were too lazy or too stingy to fetch it. This magnificent block of granite, weighing 240 tons, had a vessel expressly built to bring it to Cherbourg, and it was actually packed in a wooden case and transported over the sands of the desert, down the Nile, having eight hundred men to attend it. It arrived at its destination in 1836, and was successfully erected where we now see it, in the presence of Louis Philippe and 150,000 spectators. It is seventy-four feet high, and cost £80,000 in its removal. Bat it is not the obelisk from the old Temple of Thebes, now called Luxor, alone which makes the Place de la Concorde interesting to us, nor yet the fountains, nor the grand buildings, nor yet the enormous extent of ground with its palaces, gardens, bridges, and churches which meet the eye in every direction.

Ah, no ! chiefly is it interesting as being the place where the Revolution of 1789 broke out, and where the guillotine was erected four years afterwards. Here perished the lamented Louis XVI. and his beloved wife Marie Antoinette ; and here, too, while the amiable Princess Elizabeth, the king's sister, was being tortured, seats were arranged as for a festival, the ladies of the time taking up their places and amusing themselves during the horrid operation, over their needlework. Here, too, fell the infamous Robespierre and twenty-one of his partisans, the monsters who had caused the dreadful scenes which in those four years of terror had been enacted ; and on this very spot, in 1814, the Prussian and Russian, and, in 1815, a part of the British army, were encamped, when the allies entered Paris in the struggle with Napoleon. Who can say the Place de la Concorde is not the most interesting in Paris ? PLACE DE LA CONCOKDE, PARIS.

Chapter III From Paris To Strasburg Igepjng

around the granite obelisk, which counts upwards of three thousand years for its age, our minds revert to that terrible time in the history of France, when, after the murder of Louis XVI. and his queen, the Eeign of Terror commenced ; when Christianity was refused either a name or place in the nation ; when the goddess Reason was set up instead of Jehovah ; and when the most abominable and diabolical scenes were performed which ever disgraced the pages of history in a civilized country. See the king, employed in his last hours studying the life of Charles I. of England ; see him walking to the scaffold, accompanied by his priestly confessor ; the streets are lined with soldiers and people ; dressed FROM PARIS TO STRASBURG. 25 in his ordinary costume, the king submitted without a murmur to the binding of his hands, the drums beat to drown the cries of the women, but stopped as the king's last words were about to be spoken.

" People ! " he exclaimed, " I die innocent ; may my blood cement the happiness of Frenchmen ! " Immediately he was seized by the executioner, and he who was said to be the most virtuous of kings was forced under the axe, which, falling upon his neck, cut off the head at a blow. " Vive la Republique ! " exclaimed the assembled mob, as the bleeding head was exhibited to the people. This was the signal for revolt ; the Reign of Terror had begun. All business in the city was sus pended ; the shops were closed ; the most respectable of the citizens left their houses, which, abandoned to the Terrorists, were the scenes of debauchery and murder. Marie Antoinette and her children continued in prison ; nine months after her beloved husband had been despatched, she was aroused from her meditation by a peremptory demand for her son ; her bitter appeal for mercy, which lasted upwards of an hour, was resisted; the jailer threatened that if she refused to give him up they would kill him in her arms ; soon after she was removed to the prison of the Conciergerie, the round tower of which and the clock, whose dreadful bell tolled the knell of the Huguenots, are just visible from the corner of our " Place."

There the poor queen spent all her time between praying and weeping, being denied all food and rest through a trial which lasted the whole night. On the morning of the 16th of October, 1793, sentence of death was pronounced upon her by her pitiless judges, the only petition which she made being that previously to suffering she might be allowed to retire for a short time to write to her children. At eleven o'clock in the morning, dressed in white, as if for reunion with her lamented husband who had gone before her nino months ago, with her delicate hands tied behind her, placed in an open and common cart with no other companions than the executioner and a rascally priest, whose character was such that the pious lady refused his " consolations," she passed from the other bank of the river to this identical spot to her execution.

The immense multitude rent the air with their savage yells; they thirsted for blood like wild beasts ; and they made the cart occasionally stop, that they might torture the queen with their wicked remarks. At length, after being thus exposed to the rude eyes of the rabble, this other royal victim of the Revolution reached the scaffold, and, mounting it with a light step, as one going to a land " where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest," Marie Antoinette bent beneath the fatal knife, and in another moment the head, reeking with blood, was held aloft by the monster who had charge of the rope, whilst the mob again rent the air with shouts of " The Republic for ever ! " It is said that when beasts of prey once taste human blood they despise all other; it was so with the Revolutionists, and from the time that the life of the queen was taken until a considerable period had expired, here, in the Place de la Concorde, where we are standing, about thirty persons were sacrificed daily !

In the spring of the year, thirty-one members FROM PARIS TO STRASBURG. 27 of the Council were despatched in one day. Lavoisier, the famous chemist, was amongst the number of the condemned; he was one who, according to French account, had been employed by the Government in the rating of taxes. He was busily occupied at the time in some experiments, and requested before he was be headed that he might be allowed to complete them. The reply was that "the Republic had no need of chemists," and he was led to the scaffold and decapitated. Retribution to the originators of these dreadful scenes came at last. On the 28th of July, the in famous Robespierre and his companions in guilt, in all twenty-two of the vilest of the vile, were conducted to the scaffold; the very knife which the chief had in vented a short time before was specially sharpened for himself.