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STORIES 
 
 OF 
 
 PERSONS AND PLACES 
 IN EUROPE 
 
 
 BY 
 
 E. L. BENEDICT 
 
 COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 SEP 30188"' 
 
 GEORGE ROUTEEDGE AND SONS 
 
 New-York: 9 LAFAYETTE Place 
 London: Broadway, Ludoatb Hill 
 
IN UNIFORM STYLE. 
 
 Copiously Illustrated. 
 
 D'AULNOY'S FAIRY TALES. 
 MATTIE'S SECRET. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS AMERICANS. 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN DISCOVERY. 
 GREAT CITIES OF THE ANCIENT 
 
 WORLD. 
 GREAT CITIES OF THE MODERN 
 
 WORLD. 
 PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 
 ILLUSTRATED POEMS AND SONGS 
 
 FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 LABOULAYE'S ILLUSTRATED FAIRY 
 TALES. 
 
 SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF AMERI- 
 CAN BOYS. 
 
 THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBIN- 
 SON CRUSOE. 
 
 THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. 
 
 LAMB'S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 WOOD'S ILLUSTRATED NATURAL 
 HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 All bound in handsome lithographed double 
 covers ; also in cloth. 
 
 George Routlcdge & Sons, 
 
 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK. 
 
 .tf> 
 
 fc 
 
 * 
 
 So 
 
 Copyright 1887, 
 By Joseph L. Blamire. 
 
 THE LIBRARY] 
 
 or c ompr ess) 
 
 WASHIMQTOwI 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The value of an illustrative story in impressing the.facl upon the mind 
 is well-known. Children, and those of Larger growth owe their clear concep- 
 tion oi many important matters to the story with wliicjj these were firsl 
 presented. 
 
 This suggests that the many things which young people" Deed to know 
 about the countries of the world, could be gained more easily from illustra- 
 tive stories than from condensed statements of bare facts. Ami numerous 
 Btories of this kind an- to be fo\md stored away in volumes uninteresting to 
 most young freaders and inaccessible to all bu1 a few. 
 
 Hence these Stories of Persons and Places which attempts to treat 
 in this illustrative way the countries of Europe, their noted physical 
 features, antiquities. Legends, historical events and personages, industries 
 and works of arl . 
 
 For some important subjects suitable stories conld not be found and 
 vivid descriptions have been substituted. In a few countries, Buch as 
 Greece, whose prominent points are her myths, her immortal statesmen 
 and her remains of ancient art, much has been omitted because ii has 
 already been told so often and so well in juvenile works. 
 
 B L. B. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter I. page 
 
 Russia 1 
 
 Chapteb II. 
 Sweden - - • • .43 
 
 Chapter 111. 
 Norway • • • • • • • • • • • r, i 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Denmark . . ' 36 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 England . • L01 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Ireland I36 
 
 ( Ihapter V 1 1 
 Scotland 160 
 
 Chapter Vlll. 
 Netherlands 183 
 
Contents, 
 
 Chapter IX. PAGE 
 
 Belgium 207 
 
 Chapter X. 
 Germany . 224 
 
 Chapter XL 
 Austria-Hungary 252 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 Switzerland 276 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 France 295 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 Spain . . 321 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 Portugal 343 
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 Ltalu m 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 Turkey . 38? 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 Greece 404 
 
 Chapter XIX. 
 
 Balkan States 420 
 
STORIES OF PERSONS AM) PLACES IN EUROPE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 Russia, the largest country of the world, lias no magnificent mountain 
 scenery like Switzerland ; no romantic hills and glens, like Scotland, and no 
 classic songs of heroes, like Greece; bu1 she lias lier own attractions lier 
 v&si rivers and lakes, forests and plains all, like herself, wonderful for their 
 
 atness, if for nothing else. She has, also, her stores of rich products; 
 her tales of brave warriors : of determined, though sometimes cruel, rulers, 
 ;iinl an abundance of fables and legends. 
 
 [f one could be at the top of a lofty observatory near the centre of Russia 
 and look over the whole extent, from Germany to the Ural Mountains and 
 from the Wliii-- Sea t<> the Black, he would see ^|>i«-:i<l ou1 before him mon 
 than one-half of nil Europi . Stretching away to the north, in :i wide band 
 along Mi.- Arctic ,Ocean, In- would Bee the frozen tundras; t<> tin- .smith , al< niL r 
 
 the Black and Caspian, \\ i<!<- plains, s<> sovered with waving grain, others 
 
 barren and Bandy; and, through the central part, vasi forests, broken here 
 and there in the northwesl by Immense lakes. 
 
 'I'm. Treeless Ti m»i:\. Prom the middle of September till tly end of 
 June the greal aorthem plain of Russia !!«•> buried under ;i thick mantle of 
 Not a tree nor a bush lifts Itself from out tin- whit.- mass; forthe 
 bushes .-if- completely buried, and trees there are none. For t\\<» months 
 nut ;i glimmer of sunshine lights up the Bnowj waste; though the moon, the 
 rtars, and the northern lights dispel ;i Little of the darkness. No sound nor 
 
 i of animal life disturbs the solitude, null--- n \,* an occasional fos "i 
 reindeer, or ;i straj buow owl. Bui when th<- -mi lian full3 returned and 
 
[0 Persons and Places in Europe, 
 
 begins to make Long slays each day, then a great change and commotion 
 takes place. The white mantle soon grows thin and shabby; the frozen 
 rivers and lakes snap and crack with the swelling Hoods, heaving and crash- 
 ing the ice on their bosoms till huge masses are piled up in every direction. 
 
 Then the long-buried secrets of the vegetable world begin to be revealed. 
 Out come reindeer moss and lichens, and dwarf shrubs with scented leaves; 
 last year's cranberries, preserved in ice and snow, appear; dwarf birch run 
 along the ground, like ivy, and endless rushes and grasses spring up. 
 
 As the season advances, the white mantle entirely disappears and a mot- 
 tled green one takes its place, bedecked with tiowers and patched with open 
 spaces o( water, and myriads o( birds come Hocking over the plain. 
 
 The tundra is a grand nesting place i'or the feathered folks, especially 
 those who are fond of water. The grassy mounds are thickly inhabited by 
 happy families of snipe, plover, buntings, redwings, wagtails, and widgeons, 
 and the lakes and marshes are perfect paradises to the thousands of ducks, 
 geese, and swans that every year take up their line of march across this 
 watery region. 
 
 Fokkst Scenes. — South of the tundra the zone of wood commences; first 
 witha stunted, sickly growth, crippled by the cold northern winds ; then with 
 more sturdy and fairer races, until there arises the full-grown pines, firs, 
 larches, alders, and willows of the great forest region. This part of the 
 country, though densely wooded and often uninhabited for miles, is Ear less 
 dreary than the tundras, for there istheeonstant charm of beauty and variety. 
 The monotony o( the somber pines is broken by the delicate hues of the 
 willows and alders, by plantations of young firs, by clumps of tall 
 spruces and haggard old larches. In many places a mantle of delicate 
 moss covers, not only the decayed and fallen trees, but the tall forms 
 of the living ones. All the way from the bottom to the top it spreads, runs 
 out over the stems and branches, and even hangs in long clusters of pale 
 green from the etuis, or in graceful festoons from one tree to another. Un- 
 derneath the fallen and moss-covered trunks is a tangle of brushwood — 
 bramble and juniper bushes, cranberry, erowberry and whortleberry, wood 
 sorrel, arbutus and rhododendrons, mingling with the soft carpet of mosses 
 and lichens. Frequently there are open spaces where the still waters of 
 little tarns or lakes shine out, or where their dry beds lie waiting for the 
 next season of high water. 
 
 A sudden fall of snow works a magical change in all these forms. But 
 furnishing fine pictures for admiring eyes is by no means the only purpose 
 
Russia. 
 
 II 
 
 of these iraal forests, [ndeed, the Russian peasanl would never dream that 
 snch was any pari of their mission. Il«- Looks to them for the necessaries 
 of life. He builds his cottage, his boat, and lii> fences from the timber of 
 the fir tree; tie burns il forlighl :in<l for firewood, spreads the ashes upon 
 the soil for manure, and taps its roots for turpentine. The birch furnishes 
 him with household utensils, with baskel shoes, and with switches for his 
 \ a por bath. 
 
 The mountain ash ornaments his yard and supplies his table with I" 
 marmalade. Prom the forest comes also another table delicacy, \\ il<l honej . 
 Quantities of il are gathered every year from the hollow trunks where the 
 bees have made their home, and a large a-mounl [s exported to other 
 countrie 
 
 The foresl Is the home of a number of w ild animals, w hich are hunted for 
 
12 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 their furs and for sport. A bear-hunt is a frequent and always a highly 
 exciting occurrence . Several methods of attacking him are practiced ; one 
 is to run him down with " skidors," a kind of huge roller-skate, on which 
 the hunters can keep up with the rapid gait of the bear and, sooner or later, 
 tire him out. They sometimes follow him in this way for a couple of weeks, 
 sleeping each night in the snow. 
 
 Life oisr the Steppes. — The southern zone of Russia consists of a 
 series of plains, the eastern ones salty, sandy, and barren ; the western, so 
 rich that they have been called the granaries of Europe. With no fertiliz- 
 ing whatever, the rich, black soil yields the most surprising crops of grain 
 and vegetables, and also of thrifty and troublesome weeds, called " burian." 
 One kind, called the " steppe needle," sends its sharp seeds right through the 
 skin of the cattle and into their hearts and bowels, causing the most painful 
 death. Another kind, called the " drunken weed," makes horses mad and 
 lame, but does no harm to cattle. There is also the " cholera burr," which 
 appeared first when the cholera was raging, and is said to be a cure for that 
 disease; and there is a very curious plant called the " perekatspole." In 
 autumn, when the winds begin to blow sharply, a great mass of this growth 
 loosens its hold upon the earth, rolls up and bounds off before the wind, 
 faster than a horse can gallop. At times it moves on in long, regular lines ; 
 then it breaks up and leaps onward with the wildest antics, as if alive. 
 Sometimes the forepart of the flying mass suddenly stops ; the rest, finding 
 its way blocked, flings itself up in a high heap. Presently the hill topples 
 over, and away the whole pile goes again before the breeze, faster than ever. 
 
 Underneath the tall grasses and burian a busy little world will be found- 
 all out of sight if one but glances over the plain. Long trains of ants may 
 be seen crossing in all directions ; huge spiders stretching their treacherous 
 bridges from stalk to stalk ; and butterflies, bees, locusts, and grasshoppers, 
 jumping, flying, buzzing, and humming about by myriads ; bustards start up 
 from their nests in the burian ; hawks and kites dart about, looking for prey ; 
 moles and marmots sun themselves at their doorways ; hares come leaping 
 through the grass ; and the wolf slinks into her hiding place beneath a 
 clump of weeds, where she tries to protect her young from their numerous 
 enemies. 
 
 Suddenly from out of the distance comes a "tuban" of half -wild steppe 
 horses, dashing along on their way to a watering-place. Yery beautiful 
 they look, with their long, waving manes reaching nearly to their knees and 
 heavy tails sweeping the ground, as they fly along after their dashing leader. 
 
14 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Following the drove on his own swift steed is, perhaps, a Tartar, " arkan" 
 in hand, bent upon capturing one of the fine creatures before him. This 
 arkan is a leathern sling, which the Tartars throw with as much dexterity 
 as the Mexican does his lasso, and never fails to bring out his horse from 
 the very centre of the drove if he chooses . When the horses hear the arkan 
 whizzing over their heads, they rush out in every direction to get away from 
 the victim, rearing and kicking each other to make a clearing ; the air is 
 filled with neighing and snorts of pain, until they break out of each other's 
 way and speed away over the plain. But a cry from the leader brings the 
 scattered ranks together again, and on they go, forgetful of danger in their 
 wild enjoyment of freedom. 
 
 A Steppe oisr Fire. — Every year the Russian peasant sets fire to his 
 portion of the steppe, in order to overcome the troublesome burian and make 
 room for his crops . He never seems to consider how great a matter a little 
 fire kindleth, only taking care to start it when the wind will blow it away 
 from his own house and barn. It is a curious sight to see the fiame as, with 
 a slight hiss, it darts forward through the dry grass, leaving a wake of 
 blackened earth and white ashes. The blaze does not show itself in the 
 daylight, and often one would fancy it had died out, when suddenly a tall 
 weed bursts forth into flame, in a second it fires its neighbors, and then the 
 stems all around begin to writhe as if in torture. A pillar of fire rises in the 
 air and then sinks again to the ground, spreading along the low grass. For 
 a while it seems motionless, then dashes suddenly away for miles, with the 
 speed of an arrow, leaving along, unburned patch, which takes fire afterward, 
 when all danger seems to be over. With every puff of wind the fiame is 
 driven further into the steppe, spreading out like a stream that has burst its 
 banks; forming islands here and there, which in time are flooded also; 
 myriads of black fibres begin to dance in the air and cover the spectator from 
 head to foot; an unpleasant smell of burning peat assails his nostrils; 
 gradually a dense cloud of smoke begins to collect over the ground, moving 
 backward and forward and up and down in the strangest way. Unlike the 
 terrible prairie fires of America, there are no flying herds of buffalo or wild 
 antelope rushing frantically from a fearful death ; it is seldom that the cattle 
 of the steppes are surprised by a fire. There is often a flock of excited birds ; 
 but many of them have followed the smoke, to feast on the roasted dainties 
 left in the wake of the fire. 
 
 More desolate than ever is the appearance of the steppe after the fire, 
 with its crust of ashes and blackened remains of plants. The parched earth 
 
gapes in thousands of cracks, and into these the pain washes the charred 
 remains. Bu1 when the spring sun begins to warm the earth, the dreary, 
 gray plain is changed as if by magic into bright, golden green. Millions of 
 sharp leaves peer out, and in a U-w days construct a thick, ptch carpet, to 
 gladden the eye and to fatten the hungry cattle. 
 
 The r>i:\ kiuc tion of the Waters. The steppe country of Russia 
 is crossed by four greal rivers, which have bad much to do with her growth 
 and welfare, especially before the Czars began to build railroads. Forcen- 
 turies they furnished the only routes from the interior to the roast. With 
 boats in summer and sledges in winter, the -rand princes could make tours 
 through their farthesl provinces, transport their armies quickly from one 
 place to another in time of war. Or engage in commerce in times of peace. 
 Without these highways it would have been impossible to keep up such 
 communication with the remote corners and thus to bold the empire to- 
 ge1 her. 
 
 In the north is the St. Lawrence of Russia, ih itlet of her greal lakes, 
 
 where every winters magnificent ceremony, called "The Benediction of the 
 Waters," is held. 
 
 The emperor, with all his priests, bishops, and officers of state, gather at 
 the winter palace and, no matter how cold or stormy, walk bareheaded in 
 Bolemn procession to the river. Eere a wooden temple has been riveted on 
 the ice, richly gilded and painted, and hung round with sacred pictures, 
 especially of St. John the Baptist. This temple, which is called the .Ionian, 
 is surrounded by a hedge of fir boughs, and in the midst of it a hole is cut 
 through the ice to the water. A platform of boards, covered with red cloth 
 and fenced in by fir boughs, is Laid from the shore for the procession to 
 pass over. Then, between lines of troops and standards, the clerks, deacons, 
 priests and bishops, in their richest roi.es, pass along, carrying lighted 
 tapers, censers, the gospels, sacred pictures, and banners, followed by the 
 emperor, the grand duke and all the court. 
 
 The sen ice is then Bung, after which the high-priesl descends a staircase 
 into the water, fills a vessel and carries it to the emperor, w ho immediately 
 plunges into it his hands and face. Then the priest sprinkles bis majesty 
 with a brush dipped in the consecrated water, praying all the while for 
 blessings on Russia and its monarch. All the (.Hirers, the standards ami 
 colors, are thus sprinkled, after which the procession marches back t<> the 
 palace. A priest has already been dispatched with some vessels of water 
 for the empress and her ladies; the guns of the fortress have been discharge 
 
16 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 ing salutes, and the people looking on in silent awe. Now, as the last of the 
 royal party leaves the place, the people rush in with their pitchers and pails 
 to obtain their share of the holy water. 
 
 A Legend of the Volga. — In Russia's early days the Dneiper was 
 its principal highway for war and commerce, but now the Volga is the river 
 of the empire, both in size and in importance. Its tributaries are as large 
 as ordinary rivers, and its 2,300 miles of natural waterway is still further 
 increased by canals connecting it with the White Sea and the Baltic. It is 
 the great artery of communication for the whole country, and its waters 
 supply one of the most profitable fisheries in Europe. Vast quantities of 
 sturgeon and salmon are caught every year in the lower Volga and shipped 
 to other countries . 
 
 The Russians, who have a story for almost everything, tell this legend 
 about the origin of the Volga. They say that many ages ago, before the 
 rivers were formed, there were two sisters, Volga and Vazuza, who disputed 
 long together as to which was the wiser, the stronger, and the more worthy 
 of respect. After a while they decided to settle the dispute in the following 
 way. 
 
 They would lie down together to sleep, and whichever was the first 
 to rise and reach the Caspian should ever afterward be held the wiser of the 
 two and most worthy of respect. So they lay down, and in the night 
 Vazuza rose silently and fled away by the nearest and straightest line 
 toward the Caspian. When Volga awoke she set off, neither slowly nor 
 hurriedly, but with just befitting speed. At Yubtsof she came up with 
 Vazuza and looked at her so angrily that Vazuza was frightened and 
 besought Volga to take her in her arms and bear her to the Caspian. So to 
 this day Vazuza is the first to awaken in the spring, but Volga overtakes 
 her and carries her to the Caspian. 
 
 A Great Salt Lake. — As the Volga nears the end of its journey it 
 passes through a wide sandy plain, shelving gradually to the borders of the 
 Caspian and continues there, under the water, its gentle slope, down to nearly 
 one- third of the length of the sea. Where the Caucasian Mountains strike 
 the sea at Cape Apsheron, there the plain breaks, and the bottom of the sea 
 becomes at once deeper and uneven. The dry part of the plain — the steppe 
 country — contains quantities of salt and sea shells mixed with the sand, 
 showing that it has once been a part of the bed of the sea. But why should 
 the water have dried away, when all the while the Volga, the Ura, and several 
 smaller rivers, are pouring into it such immense volumes of water that it 
 
18 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 would seem as if it must overflow instead of drying up ? Because the high 
 winds and the heat of the sun carry away by evaporation more than the 
 rivers can bring in. The process can be seen going on all around the 
 northern borders of the Caspian, where there is a thick fringe of narrow 
 inlets, each extending for some distance inland and spreading out into a 
 shallow }:>an — a natural evaporator. In some of these there is considerable 
 water and only a thin layer of salt around the banks ; in others there is less 
 water and a thick pavement of salt all over the bottom and about the sides ; 
 in others the waters has disappeared entirely and the salt bed is covered 
 with sand. This is already a part of the steppe. 
 
 East of the Caspian is an immense salt pan, into which, by a narrow 
 channel, the water is constantly running from the sea, and spreading out to 
 dry. It is thought that fully three hundred and fifty thousand tons of salt 
 is carried out of the Caspian every year into this marsh. No living thing 
 is found in its briny waters . 
 
 This same process of evaporation going on in the Caspian also takes 
 place in the Black, but that sea receives a larger supply of water in propor- 
 tion to the area of its surface, and so is kept full and running over. 
 
 It is thought that once the strait of the Bosporus did not exist ; that, 
 instead, the Black Sea overflowed into the Caspian ; that, in fact, they were 
 both one, and extended without doubt to the Sea of Aral. If some force 
 should block up the channel of the Bosporus, and the water in the Black 
 Sea should rise twenty-three feet higher than it now is, it would run over 
 into the Caspian, through a valley which can be easily traced and which 
 seems to have been once a water-course. Following this supposition further, 
 the Caspian would begin to overflow and spread out over all the low, steppe 
 country, covering a portion as large as France, and when it had risen one 
 hundred and flfty-eight feet it would All up the lakes and valleys on the east 
 and reach to the Sea of Aral. And then — some curious peoj)le have carried 
 the matter still further, and they say that a rise of sixty-two feet more would 
 carry the Aral as far as the Zobol, a tributory of the Obi, and then there 
 would be a continuous water-passage from the headwaters of the Danube in 
 Europe to the Arctic Ocean, ma the Black and Caspian seas. And, strange 
 to say, an ancient maker of geographies has marked such a connection 
 between the Arctic and the Aral. If there had only been some very learned 
 map-makers in the times of Adam or Noah, what wonderful changes in the 
 face of the earth we might now trace with certainty ! 
 
Russia. 
 
 19 
 
 Tiik Shores of the Baltic, At the opposite end of the empire an- 
 other set of changes is going <>n, as strange as those abont the Caspian. 
 The Baltic is Losing ground every year. < >nce fche City of Lubec stood upon 
 the shore; new, it is twelve miles inland. Once the chain of Lakes which 
 empty into the Baltic were joined to the White Sea, as is shown by the salt 
 water animals found there, though the Lakes are now fresh. 
 
 But the strangesi thing aboul the Baltic is the way the Lee is sometimes 
 formed. [nstead of ap- 
 pearing lirst on the surface, 
 as all ordinary Lee does, it 
 often forms on t hi- bottom 
 and rises to I he top in thin 
 plates about five Inches in 
 diameter. These Lee plates 
 are often Been coming np 
 ,.|_''\\ Lse \\ it h such force 
 as to lift themselves three 
 or four inches out of the 
 water. When they come 
 up in greal cumbers they 
 are piled togel her one upon 
 another and broken, luit if 
 only a few rise they remain 
 entire and t be diameter of 
 each increases to two feet 
 or more. When the fish- 
 erman sees fche Loeplates 
 rising rapidly, be makes 
 for the shore as fasl as 
 possible, for in a short rubik 
 
 time they will be frozen to- 
 gether in a Bolid mass through which a boal cannot pass. 
 
 Sometimes, in the gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, Btones are seen floating 
 on t..p of the water amidsl the Lee; thej bave been caughl in the plates and 
 brought to the Burface, w bere they are carried along until the ice melts or is 
 driven ashore. Blocks of granite weighing two or three hundred ton bave 
 been thus carried along by the Lee and deposited on the laud. 
 
 All the countries around the Baltic are rich in products of aU kinds, and 
 
20 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 these, added to the quantities of fish, yielded by the waters, make this sea a 
 place of great importance in the world of commerce. 'Ships of all nations 
 are continually crowding its waters. 
 
 It was on the shores of the Baltic that the history of Russia began, in a 
 strip of territory inhabited by a band of Northmen. To the south, in the 
 vicinity of Novgorod, there dwelt a race of Slavs, who had cleared for them- 
 selves a large tract of country and built cities. But they were not good 
 statesmen ; the chieftains quarreled so much that they kept the country 
 from prospering. Finally they sent a message to the Northmen, saying, 
 " Our land is great and fruitful, but it lacks order ; come and take posses- 
 sion and govern us." 
 
 From that time the history of Russia commences. The Northmen sent 
 three of their princes to rule over the Slavs, and they proved to be wise and 
 powerful rulers. One of them, named Rurik, after the death of the other 
 two, united all of the Slavs in one nation, which from that time was called 
 Russia. Rurik' s successor, Oleg, was another gifted ruler. He enlarged 
 his dominions by numerous conquests, and built cities. He was looked 
 upon almost as a god by the people for his wisdom, and the manner of his 
 death has been many times related by their historians. 
 
 They say that he had a horse of which he was very fond, and rode so 
 much that the soothsayers prophesied it would be the cause of his death. 
 Hearing this, Oleg had the horse put away, and paid no more attention to it 
 for several years. Upon asking one day what had become of it, he was told 
 that it had been dead a long time. Remembering, then, what the soothsayers 
 had told him. he asked to see the bones, and was shown where they lay. 
 " So this," he said, with a kick upon the skull, " is the creature that was to 
 cause my death." As he said this a serpent rushed out of the skull and 
 stung his foot so that he died from the effects of the bite. 
 
 Tribes and Peoples. — Russia is a land of many races. More than one 
 hundred different nations and tribes are found within the empire, and forty 
 different languages are spoken. Here has been the battle-ground on which 
 family after family, coming from "the cradle of the world," have fought for 
 supremacy. First came the little Lapps and Finns; but they were soon 
 driven to the north by the more powerful Celts. Then came another race, 
 more powerful still — the savage Scythians — who scalped their prisoners, 
 used skulls for drinking-cups, worshipped a sword wet with human blood, 
 and celebrated the death of their kings by strangling all their relations. 
 
 So fierce and untamable were they, that few people from the civilized 
 
Russia. 
 
 21 
 
 world ventured among them, No one has recorded the terrible scenes of 
 strife and bloodshed that took place between fchem in the earlier ages; bnl 
 at last something like order began to appear. Slavs, Goths, Buns, and 
 Tartars, had each carved 
 out a resting place with 
 their swords. About 
 this time an Arabian 
 writer ventured into the 
 country and round the 
 Slavs the most nume- 
 rous and powerful ; 
 they had herds of sheep 
 and cattle, and the} 
 sowed their fields with 
 grain; but they were 
 nearly as barbarous as 
 their Scythian ances- 
 tors. They fougfrl with 
 bows and poisoned ar- 
 rows, and long nooses 
 with which they Lassoed 
 their enemies. When 
 a chieftian died, they 
 
 killed a couple of slaves 
 
 to burn on his funeral 
 pyre, thai tie mighl 
 have an attendant when 
 he reached the other 
 world . 
 
 The Arabian writer 
 was presenl at one of 
 these horrible funerals. 
 For several days, he 
 says, t he friends of t he 
 deceased bewailed him * 9boupof bttmiaws. 
 
 and Intoxicated themselves over his corpse. Then the men-servants were 
 asked which of them would l>e buried with his master. ( me consented, and 
 was immediately strangled. The same question was asked of the women 
 
22 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 servants, and one of them offered herself. She was then washed, adorned, 
 and treated like a princess; did nothing bnt drink and sing until the 
 appointed day. Then the dead man was laid in a boat, with part of his 
 arms and his garments. His favorite horse [was slain, with other domes- 
 tic animals, and put in the boat, with the servant who had been strangled. 
 The young maid-servant then took off her jewels, and, with a glass of 
 kvass in her hand, sang her death-song, which she wonld gladly have pro- 
 longed, bnt the old woman who had been appointed to kill her — " the death 
 angel" she was called — ordered her to drink quickly and enter the boat 
 where her dead master lay. 
 
 At this she turned pale and tried to draw back, bnt the old woman seized 
 her by the hair and dragged her in. Then the men began to beat their 
 shields, so that the noise wonld drown her cries, which if the other slave 
 girls heard might make them nnwilling to offer themselves for their masters 
 when the time should come . 
 
 The whole horrid scene ended with the burning of the boat in one grand 
 funeral pile. 
 
 Vladimir's Baptism. — The second great event in the history of Russia 
 was brought about by Vladimir, a great-grandson of Rurik. Before his 
 day, the people had all been idol-worshippers ; he led them to change pagan- 
 ism for Christianity. His grandmother, Olga, had been baptized, and a few 
 Christian missionaries had preached to the people, bnt with little effect. . 
 
 During the first years of his reign Vladimir was a pagan. He erected 
 costly idols and persecuted the Christians. Bnt after a while he began to 
 be troubled about which was the true religion. Around him were Jews, 
 Christians, Mohammedans, and pagans — which belief was the right one? 
 He began to inquire into the matter. 
 
 The Bulgarians recommended to him the conquering religion of Mahomet, 
 and he was pleased with their description of its lovely paradise and houris , 
 But when they said that no wine was allowed, he shook his head : " Wine 
 is the delight of the Russians," he said ; "we cannot do without it." 
 
 The Germans offered him Catholicism, but he disliked the idea of wor- 
 shipping a pope — a mere man, he said. 
 
 The Jews sought to win him to the Hebrew religion; but he thought 
 they must have done something to greatly displease heaven, since they were 
 driven out of their country to wander in strange lands, and he had no desire 
 to share their punishment. 
 
 To decide the matter he sent ambassadors out to visit the churches of the 
 
Russia. 23 
 
 different faiths, and when they returned and gave the most glowing descrip- 
 tion of the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, with its magnificent fur- 
 nishings and solemn service, he made up his mind to join that church. 
 "Besides," the ambassadors said, "if the Greek religion had not been the 
 best, surely your ancestor, Queen Olga, the wisest of mortals, would never 
 have embraced it." 
 
 That settled the matter, and, in the year 980, Vladimir was baptized in 
 the river Cherson, near Sevastopol, receiving the name of Basil. A 
 church dedicated to St. Basil now stands upon the heights overlooking the 
 place. 
 
 When he returned home he had the idols pulled down, amid the tears 
 and terror of the people. The gold-headed and silver-bearded Perum was 
 flogged and thrown into the river. Then he commanded all the people, 
 young and old, men, women, and children, to plunge into the water, while 
 the Greek priest chanted the baptismal service. After this he built fine 
 churches, and adorned them with the richest workmanship of the Grecian 
 art. 
 
 It is said that his new religion made a great change in the prince, who, 
 all his life before, had been a most wicked old sinner. He now treated his 
 Greek wife with great kindness, and hardly punished criminals for fear of 
 doing wrong. 
 
 Many years went by, after Vladimir ordered the people to be baptized, 
 before they gave up the worship of idols in secret, and even yet the influence 
 of their old belief clings to them. Pictures representing the Virgin Mary 
 and the saints, called "icons," they have the greatest reverence for. There is 
 one in every house, and no one thinks of entering the door without bowing 
 to the icon. A visitor always bows to the icon before saluting any member 
 of the family. If he does not see it, he asks, " Where is the god ? " but it is 
 usually kept in the corner opposite the door, where it will be easily seen. 
 On feast days a light is kept burning before it. 
 
 Large icons are put up on the outside of the churches, to which everyone 
 bows as he passes by. Travelers are much amused at the frequent stops and 
 solemn bows whenever one of these is seen. Sometimes in a railroad 
 station a Russian, hurrying to get his ticket, sees an icon in the office, and 
 he stops at once to doff his hat and make his bow, even if he lose his train. 
 
 Some of the icons are thought to have the power of healing and working 
 other wonders. To these long pilgrimages are made on foot from one end of 
 the empire to the other. 
 
24 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The Khan of the Golden Hoede. — Unfortunately for Russia, her early 
 rulers began the unwise practice of dividing the country between their 
 children. Each prince received his principality, which, upon his death, 
 was divided among his children. The grand prince was the one who ruled 
 over Kief, and the title descended only to the eldest of the royal family ; 
 that is, when the Grand Prince of Kief died, his eldest son would probably 
 not be the heir, but a brother or, perhaps, an uncle of the deceased, who 
 would then be the oldest male member of the family. This practice kept 
 the country in a constant turmoil, for it usually took much fighting to find 
 out which of the numerous pretenders was really the oldest. 
 
 "While distracted with these wars of the princes, another great misfortune 
 overtook Russia. A great army of Tartars entered it, the subjects of 
 Genghis Khan, who had made himself ruler of a large part of Asia. " As there 
 is only one sun in heaven," said this ambitious man, " so there ought to be' 
 but one emperor on earth." So he sent his warriors into Europe to make 
 that a part of his empire. 
 
 So swiftly and suddenly this host of Mongols began j>ouring into Russia 
 that the princes had no time to prepare for resistance. City after city fell 
 quickly into their hands ; the people were robbed, and put to death by fire 
 and sword ; bags full of human ears were sent to China as a token of the con- 
 quest. On the conquerors came, to the very borders of Germany, and all 
 Europe held its breath in terror. But there Bati, the Tartar general, heard 
 that the Grand Khan was dead, and he hastened back to China to receive 
 for his share of the empire the newly-conquered region of Russia. At Sarai, 
 on the lower Volga, he built his palace, and called his dominion the 
 "Golden Horde." 
 
 He left the Russian princes in charge of their provinces, but obliged 
 them to pay him tribute or become his slaves. He also obliged them to 
 come to his capital to show their submission and to have their disputes 
 settled. 
 
 This journey to the "Golden Tent" was a most perilous one; before 
 setting out, the princes usually made their wills and arranged everything as 
 if they were never coming back, and the chances were that they never did. 
 Some died of thirst in the steppes on the way ; others were unable to fur- 
 nish the rich presents which the favorites of the khan demanded before 
 admitting them to his court. Many were accused before the khan of grave 
 offenses by their rivals, and put to death before they could say a word in 
 self-defense. 
 
wwm y i ; 
 
 IP" 
 
 
 ■■!■■ 
 
 S«lill»'~ ■ 
 
 lilli ll 
 
 »W : !;-;i!!i:! , !.;, i!j -/''; ' 
 llllh,,' 
 
 'ill ;ik i 
 
<26 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Upon approaching the khan, they were obliged to prostrate themselves 
 many times and to declare that they were the humble slaves of the great 
 Khan of the Golden Horde. 
 
 When they were at home and a letter was brought from the khan, they 
 must meet the bearer on foot, spread rich carpets under his feet, present 
 him with a cup of golden coin, and receive the message on their knees. 
 
 But the time came when the splendors of the Golden Horde began to 
 grow dim. The powerful khan died, and his empire was divided among a 
 number of weaker khans. The Russian princes, on the other hand, had 
 been gradually uniting themselves under one grand prince, and by and by, 
 when the Khan of Kazan sent his ambassadors to Moscow with his image, to 
 demand tribute, the grand prince trampled the image under his feet and 
 killed all of the messengers but one, whom he sent back to tell his master 
 what had been done. 
 
 I van the Terrible. — The new line of grand princes, who had made 
 Moscow the capital of the empire, began very early to show a proud and 
 autocratic spirit. "The grand prince decides all questions alone, shut up 
 in his chamber," complained one of the nobles, for which he had his head 
 cut off. "Be silent, rustic!" was the haughty rebuke given by the Grand 
 Prince Ivan to a great lord who dared to contradict him. This same prince 
 began when, only thirteen years old, a career of cruelty which won for him 
 the title of Ivan the Terrible. He ordered his chief courtier, who had dis- 
 pleased him, to be torn to death by hounds. The title of grand prince he 
 laid aside and took that of Czar. Czar, in Russian, was the title given to 
 Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and Ahasuerus . Ivan had read of these monarchs 
 and determined to be a Czar. His subjects he regarded as his private 
 property, whom he could treat as he choose. Men approached him in fear 
 and prostrated themselves before his terrible iron staff. 
 
 One of his most terrible deeds was the destruction he visited upon the 
 city of Novgorod, because the people, disliking his cruel ways, were not 
 afraid to say so. He was so enraged at their complaints that he swore he 
 would level the city and sow the ground with salt, and in this frame of mind 
 he marched to its gates. But there Father Nicholas met him — a good old 
 priest, with a long, white beard, and such a saintly face that even the savage 
 soldiers were awed by his presence. With fearless step the old man marched 
 straight up to the terrible Ivan : 
 
 "Bloodsucker and unbeliever !" he cried; " thou devourer of Christian 
 iiesh, listen to my words. If thou, or any of these thy servants, touch a 
 
Russia. 
 
 27 
 
 hair of a child's head in yon city, I swear by the angel whom God has given 
 nnto me to serve me, thou shalt surely die, die on the instant, by a flash 
 from heaven!" 
 
 As he spoke, the sky grew dark and a storm arose, as if in obedience to 
 his threat. 
 
 "Spare me, fearful saint," cried Ivan. "The city is forgiven; and let 
 me in remembrance of this day have thy constant prayers." 
 
 The priest then withdrew 
 his curse, and Ivan entered 
 the city, penitently to kneel 
 before the shrine of St. 
 Sophia. 
 
 But as time passed on, 
 the Czar again became en- 
 raged against the city, and 
 this time nothing could save 
 it from his wrath. He en- 
 tered it in fury and put 
 more than sixty thousand 
 men to death, some with the 
 most terrible torture. INot 
 even women and children 
 were spared. The streets 
 literally ran with blood, and 
 were choked up with the 
 bodies of the slain. 
 
 In his last days Ivan was 
 severely punished for his 
 many cruel deeds. He had 
 a son of whom he was very 
 fond, and to whom he ex- 
 pected to leave the large 
 
 empire he had taken such pains to build up. One day, in a rage, he struck 
 this son a savage blow with his great iron staff, and killed him on the spot. 
 Great was the father's grief and remorse; he could find no comfort in any- 
 thing, and was about to leave his throne and enter a convent when death 
 called him away. 
 
 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
28 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Peter's Legacy. — Nearly a hundred years went by after the death of 
 Ivan the Terrible before as able a ruler wore his crown. Then came Peter 
 the Great, who raised the country from barbarism to civilization. For this 
 he deserved the title of Great, but for the inhuman cruelties he practiced he 
 deserved the title of Terrible as much as did Ivan. He seemed to have no 
 regard whatever for human life. At Berlin, when shown a new gibbet, he 
 ordered one of his servants to be hung upon it that he might see how it 
 operated. When he built St. Petersburg, a hundred thousand workmen 
 were destroyed the first year by the hard work, dampness and bad food and 
 shelter. 
 
 He was not only inconsiderate, but terribly passionate. One day at 
 dinner he quarreled with his general-in-chief.' Becoming angry, he drew 
 his sword and, striking the officer, cried, " Thus will I mar thy mal-govern- 
 ment ! " He appealed to a couple of nobles present as to the truth of the 
 charges made against the general, but they found excuses for the man. At 
 this, Peter was thoroughly enraged, and startled all the guests by striking 
 right and left with his sword. One received a cut finger, another a blow on 
 the head, another a gash on the hand. The general was saved by the Czar's 
 old tutor, but at the expense of a hard blow on the back. 
 
 One evening he saw a noble dancing with his sword on, and taught him 
 to lay it aside by a blow on the nose that started the blood spouting over his 
 face. At another dinner he became enraged over the quarreling of two 
 guests and threatened both with immediate death ; the host tried to allay 
 his fury, and received for his pains a violent blow. Another subject gave 
 offense by being too free of speech, and was whipped "until his smarts 
 teach him to treat his sovereign with becoming reverence." 
 
 But all these were trifles compared with the punishments he inflicted on 
 the troops whom his sister encouraged to revolt. He prepared fourteen 
 torture-chambers, where the knout, rack, and fire were applied to these un- 
 fortunate men, until the whole two thousand, nearly, had been tortured ; 
 after which all but five hundred were put to death. 
 
 But these things are forgotten in the face of his great deeds, and it is 
 perhaps better, after all, that they should be. It certainly is a relief to turn 
 from such dark crimes and look upon the determined Czar in the shipyards 
 of Holland, working as an ordinary apprentice at ship-building, or serving 
 as a midshipman on an English vessel that he may master the principles of 
 navigation and teach them to his subjects. 
 
 At St. Petersburg, very carefully preserved, is the small craft which 
 
Russia. 
 
 29 
 
 Peter saw sailing down the Yansa, and which first pnt the idea of ship-build- 
 ing into his head. It is called "The Little Grandsire." Its descendants 
 are the numerous ironclad monsters that now constitute the Russian navy, 
 and which may very properly be called Peter's legacy to the Russians . 
 
 He saw that in order to make Russia like the other nations of Europe, 
 which was his great ambition, she must have a seaboard, where she could 
 carry her produce and enter into trade with other countries. Industry and 
 commerce, to call out the energy 
 of the people and the resources 
 of the country, were what was 
 needed to bind the Russians 
 together and make of them a 
 great nation. This could not be 
 done without a market-place. 
 This was why Peter was so 
 anxious to get a footing on the 
 sea coast and to create a navy 
 that could hold it. 
 
 C atheeine' s Conquests . — 
 One of the ablest rulers Russia 
 ever had was a woman — Cath- 
 erine II., wife of Peter III., a 
 grandson of Peter the Great. 
 During her reign learning and 
 the arts made considerable pro- 
 gress, and a large amount of 
 territory was added. Poland — 
 a country that had given a 
 great deal of trouble to Russia ; 
 that had once carried war to the 
 
 gates of Moscow; that had also saved Europe from being overrun with 
 Mohammedans by the strong hand of John Sobieski — was literally taken to 
 pieces during Catherine's reign. The largest part was added to Russia; 
 other portions to Prussia and Austria. The Poles made a most gallant 
 struggle in defense of their country ; the name of their leader, Kosciuszko, 
 will always have a place among patriotic heroes ; but their heroism came too 
 late. They had weakened their country by years of quarreling among 
 themselves, and so fell an easy prey to their enemies. 
 
 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
30 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 About the same time another struggle was going on between Catherine's 
 armies and the Crimeans at Bakchi-serai, where stood the palace of the last 
 of the Tartar khans. Near the capital stood also a beautiful summer 
 palace — a most fairy-like structure, with lofty windows of painted glass, 
 walls hung with purple velvet, floors covered with richest carpets and silk- 
 embroidered divans. Surrounding it was a garden of rarest flowers and 
 
 fruits of every clime, filled with; 
 sparkling fountains, perfumed 
 vases, birds of gayest plumage 
 and swestest song. 
 
 On the entrance of the gate 
 of the palace was a fatal inscrip- 
 tion. It read : 
 
 " From fire protect my domes and halls ; 
 When they shall crumble, Tartary falls." 
 
 Towards this beautiful palace 
 the Russian army was now ad- 
 vancing, and the Tartar soldiers 
 collected in defense. Elizah 
 Mansour, the mysterious prophet 
 of the Caucasus, the expected 
 deliverer of Tartary from the 
 Russians, was present on his coal- 
 black steed, riding here and there, 
 always at hand where most 
 needed, and inspiring the whole 
 Tartar army with confidence . 
 
 Long and fierce was the 
 struggle. Line after line of the 
 Russian host was swept away by the Tartars. Boiling lead, huge stones, 
 scalding water, every possible missile, was hurled from the walls of the 
 capital by the women and children. At last, as night drew on, the 
 Russians began to give way. A shout was almost' on the lips of the vic- 
 tors, when suddenly a dreadful crash was heard. Both armies paused to 
 look, and, lo ! the magnificent summer palace was a sheet of flame ! 
 
 Then every Tartar's heart stood still as he remembered the terrible 
 prophecy on its walls. The shout of victory died upon their lips, and they 
 
 CATHERINE II. 
 
82 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 threw themselves upon the ground, tearing their hair and clothes in th<; 
 fierceness of their despair. Yain was every attempt of the prophet to rally 
 them, and the Russians marched unopposed into the city. . 
 
 The Burning of Moscow. — A few years after the fall of the Crimea 
 and the destruction of the cherished palace of the khans, the Russians were 
 forced to see a like calamity befall, not a single palace, but a city full of 
 palaces — their own beloved Moscow . Their country was now being invaded 
 by the great French conqueror, Napoleon. The Czar, Alexander I., and his 
 generals had decided to retreat from the capital and set it on lire, rather 
 than leave it to become a refuge to the enemy they feared to light. 
 
 With tears in their eyes the j>eople bade farewell to their beautiful and 
 sacred city, and hurried out with such goods as they could carry, leaving 
 the kindlings prepared and those who were to light them stationed in their 
 hiding places. 
 
 On the same day Napoleon's advanced guard reached the top of the hill 
 overlooking the city, and saw for the first time its splendid domes and 
 towers glittering in the sun. The cry of " Moscow ! Moscow ! " burst from 
 their lips, and was echoed and re-echoed down the long lines behind them. 
 Breaking their ranks, the soldiers rushed headlong down the hill, Napoleon 
 in their midst. The fatigues and hardships of the long, cold march were 
 forgotten ; a haven of rest was before them. 
 
 All was silent within the city as they entered its gates ; the streets, 
 empty and deserted, echoed only the tramp of their footsteps . Night came 
 on, and Napoleon waited in vain at the citadel for a delegation of citizens 
 to come and arrange terms with him. The truth could no longer be 
 doubted — the city was deserted. But what richness was left for the French. 
 Provisions in the larders, wine in the cellars, clothes in the wardrobes, easy 
 chairs, soft beds, luxuries of every kind, with none to molest. Surely there 
 never were such fortunate soldiers . 
 
 These luxuries, however, they had enjoyed but a few days, when one night 
 a lire broke out among the splendid buildings in the northern part ; then 
 others in different directions, and the soldiers, overcome with wine and 
 luxuries, were too sleepy to put them out. 
 
 In the morning there were fires in every direction. Balloons of flame 
 shot up with frightful, hissing noises and loud explosions ; sheets of burn- 
 ing canvas unrolled from the buildings and floated in the air, scattering 
 fresh fires. The heat became intolerable. The wind rose to a hurricane. 
 The whole heavens were filled with burnino- smoke. 
 
Russia. 33 
 
 Napoleon clung to the Kremlin to the last, hoping that would escape ; but 
 on the third day the cry arose, "The Kremlin is on fire." There was nothing 
 now to be done but seek a place of safety outside of the gates, and there 
 Napoleon watched the city he had come so far to gain turning to ashes in 
 ,his grasp. Well might he exclaim, " This is but the beginning of disaster." 
 It meant an immediate return over the same path they had already left 
 
 BURNING OF MOSCOW. 
 
 strewed with their dead, with hunger, cold, and Cossack cavalry carrying 
 away the greater part of the survivors before they could regain the far-away 
 frontiers of Prussia. 
 
 The despair of the French troops as they turned their faces homeward 
 was scarcely greater than the grief of the Russians, as they heard the roar 
 of the flames and watched the burning fragments falling around them. 
 
3 ^ Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 They had sacrificed "their palaces and temples; their monuments of art and 
 miracles of luxury ; the remains of ages passed away and of those unfinished ; 
 the tombs of their ancestors and the cradles of their descendants. Nothing 
 remained of Moscow but the remembrance of her former glory and the reso- 
 lution to avenge it." 
 
 The Charge of the Light Brigade.— When Catherine went to visit' 
 her newly-conquered provinces on the Black Sea, her ministers flatteringly' 
 assured her that it was but a little farther to Constantinople. This they 
 knew to be a pleasing suggestion, for she was already planning to drive the 
 Turks out of Europe, revive the old Eastern Empire, and place a Russian 
 prince on the throne at Constantinople. This scheme she was never able to 
 carry out ; but it continued to be a pleasing subject to the Russian rulers 
 until the time of her grandson, Nicholas I. As soon as he had put down 
 the rebellions that greeted his coronation, he took up in earnest this project 
 of his royal grandmother. 
 
 Calling the English ambassador to him one day, he desired to speak wi"h 
 him as a gentleman speaks with his friend. "If England and myself can 
 come to an understanding about this affair," said he, "I shall care very little 
 what the others may say." The others were France and Austria. But 
 when the ambassador reported to England the proposition of the Czar, that 
 they share between them "the sick man's" dominion, that country was 
 alarmed at once at the audacity of the Czar's designs, well knowing he 
 would take the lion's share. Instead of "coming to an agreement" with 
 him, she at once came to an agreement with France to stand by the Turks. 
 This "abuse of confidence" greatly offended Nicholas, without deterring 
 him from his intentions. And so it came about that in the year 1854 there 
 were four great armies drawn up near Balaklava, in the Crimea, to fight a 
 battle— the Russians on one side; English, French and Turks on the other. 
 The Russians had taken a position in the shape of an immense horse- 
 shoe, the opening facing the armies of the allies. The English officer, Lord 
 Lucan, saw that by a combined attack upon the ends of the horse-shoe— the 
 French at one side and the English at the other— they could be "rolled up," 
 in army phrase, upon the centre, with good chances of a victory. So he 
 began sending out his orders. The English infantry were told to advance, 
 and meanwhile a body of light cavalry was ordered to make a charge, by 
 which time the infantry would be coming up to carry on the conflict. But 
 the officer to whom the order was sent, not understanding the plan, misun- 
 derstood the place of attack, and ordered the commander of the brigade to 
 
36 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 charge up the Russian centre. As Tennyson says, "Well they knew that 
 some one had blundered," and the officer commanding begged leave to call 
 his superior's attention to the fact that there were " cannon to right of them, 
 cannon to left of them, and cannon in front of them." 
 
 " You are ordered to charge," said the blundering officer. " Yery well," 
 answered the brave man; and away they went, "while all the world won- 
 dered "—the Russians at what appeared to them the unlimited daring of the 
 foe ; the English, at the heroic fidelity of their disciplined troops, rushing 
 into the very " jaws of death " on a misinterpreted order. The brave leader 
 was killed when his brigade had gone but a short distance, but they made 
 the charge and came back—" all that was left of them, left of six hundred." 
 
 Against such discipline and such daring the Russians made little progress 
 in the battles that followed, and Mcholas had to give up his designs upon 
 Constantinople. 
 
 The Liberator.— In the midst of the war in the Crimea the Czar 
 Nicholas laid down his crown and his life. Then began the reign of one of 
 the kindest Czars that Russia had ever known. As soon as he could, he 
 brought to a close the war his father had begun, and gave his attention to 
 improving the condition of his people. The greater part of his subjects 
 were slaves— miserable, abject, oppressed creatures, at once a disgrace, a 
 source of danger, and a bar to all national prosperity. 
 
 During all the early part of Russia's history the common people had 
 been wanderers, living in tents and wagons and roving about wherever they 
 pleased. When they found good pasture for their cattle they stayed, some- 
 times long enough to raise a little grain, then went on. As long as this was 
 the case, the Czars could collect no rent from them for the use of the land. 
 Ivan the Terrible remedied this by making a law that all must stay on the 
 lands they then occupied until Saint George's day; during the eight days 
 before and after that day they might move, and then only. To see that his 
 commands were obeyed and the rents paid, he set his nobles over portions of 
 the territory. A hundred years afterward a man who had no right to the 
 Russian throne seized it, and, to win the nobles over to his side, gave them 
 complete control of the serfs and took away the eight-day privilege of 
 moving. Thus the peasants were "fastened" to the soil and subjected to 
 the cruel treatment of hard masters. They were overworked, whipped, and 
 tortured, and there was no one to hear their complaint. " God is too high 
 and the Czar too far away" became their despairing cry. 
 
 Of course, there were kind masters, but in a land where, from the Czar 
 
Russia. 
 
 37 
 
 down, everybody could kick and flog the one beneath him, it is not strange 
 that the serf, when he came to be considered his master's own property as 
 much as the cow or the horse, often found life to be a burden too great to be 
 borne. 
 
 After a while, a few of the best people of Eussia began to be touched by 
 the misery of the serfs and to wonder if something could not be done to 
 better their condition. Catherine II. offered a prize to the writer of the best 
 essay upon the eman- 
 cipation of the serfs. 
 Alexander I . , her 
 grandson, planned a 
 gradual emancipation, 
 but the nobles opposed 
 it so much that it 
 came to nothing . 
 Nicholas, when he be- 
 came the successor of 
 his brother, Alexan- 
 der, wished to do some- 
 thing, but had his 
 hands too full of other 
 matters. Alexander 
 II. came to the throne 
 with the determina- 
 tion to grant them lib- 
 erty. He drew up his 
 plan of emancipation 
 and submitted it to 
 the nobles for their 
 suggestions . They, 
 of course, objected 
 strongly; then he used his autocratic power and said it should be done 
 whether they liked it or not. So, on the third of March, 1861, a day memor- 
 able in Russian history, over twenty-five million of people were declared 
 freemen. In the same year began the American civil war, which resulted 
 in the liberation of the negro slaves in the United States. 
 
 A Dark Deed. — The liberation of the serfs, though the greatest, was 
 not the only improvement begun by Alexander II. He granted freedom of 
 
 ALEXANDER II. 
 
38 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 opinion to the newspapers ; he pardoned prisoners and exiles ; he took the 
 drill-masters away from the universities, so that the students should no 
 longer be disciplined like soldiers ; he improved the courses of study ; re- 
 organized the army and the navy; multiplied railroads, increased manu- 
 factures and commerce, and to some provinces gave the privilege of local 
 self-government. 
 
 But this breadth of liberty was too much for a long-oppressed people. 
 The iron rule of Nicholas had taken away a number of the privileges granted 
 by his predecessors, and caused much bad feeling, especially among the 
 soldiers, who had come to know considerable about the more liberal govern- 
 ments in other parts of Europe . The freedom granted by Alexander gave 
 them a chance to express their discontent. The newspapers declared that 
 the people ought to have a share in the government ; the students in the 
 universities left off studying Greek and Latin and went to talking about 
 their country. But, worse than all, a dangerous doctrine called nihilism 
 began to spread. 
 
 " NiMV — nothing — said the leaders of this new theory, " is better than 
 what we have. Therefore, let us destroy everything; all law, all order, all 
 religion ; kill the Czar and the heads of the churches ; if others are put in 
 their places, kill them ; and by-and-by the people will begin to lose their 
 respect for these powers that be, and then will come that happy state in 
 which everybody can do as he pleases." " To concentrate all the forces of 
 this world into an invincible and all-destroying power" was the declared 
 object of nihilism. 
 
 Alarmed at the way in which the people were using the privileges lie 
 had given them, Alexander began to withdraw some. At this, nihilism 
 broke out like a plague, and spread in every direction. High and low, rich 
 and poor, were found among the infected ; but nearly all were young — the 
 students in the universities ; the young ladies in the seminaries. 
 
 The Czar received frequent warnings that his death had been decreed. 
 Several attempts were made to take his life ; but he unflinchingly set to 
 work to root out nihilism. The plotters were diligently sought for, and, 
 when found, sentenced to death or to exile in Siberia. 
 
 On the 2d of March, 1881, a grand military parade was held in St. Peters- 
 burg, and Alexander II. went out, accomj)anied by his military staff and 
 surrounded by his Cossack bodyguard, to view the troops. As he was 
 returning he passed a party of laborers, who were shoveling snow near the 
 Catherine Canal. Among these men was one armed with a deadly bomb. 
 
Russia. 
 
 39 
 
 As the emperor's carriage passed, the bomb was thrown, but it missed its 
 mark and only wounded two Cossack soldiers. The chief of police, in a 
 sleigh just behind, jumped out and seized the assassin. The emperor also 
 stepped from his carriage, and at that moment a second bomb was thrown, 
 which did the fatal work. Two hours afterward Alexander the Liberator 
 
 was no more. 
 
 The Seceet Police. - 
 
 -Few people would have cared to change places 
 
 RUSSIAN PENAL, COLONY. 
 
 with Alexander III. when he put upon his head the crown of Russia. His 
 life was threatened on every hand. He was warned that if he did^ not give 
 the people a share in the government he must take the fate of his father. 
 He determined to do neither ; but to fight— first for his life, then for the 
 maintenance of his title of Autocrat of all the Russias. The war begun by 
 his father against the nihilists and revolutionists he kept up with vigor. 
 
40 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 As they had their secret agents in every house to teach the doctrines of 
 nihilism, so the Czar sent his secret agents to spy them out — it might be 
 in the guise of a cook, coachman, or chambermaid ; of a guest in the draw- 
 ing-room, a general in the tent, or a midshipman on the quarter-deck. If a 
 man spoke a word against the Czar to his nearest friend, that friend might 
 be a spy who would report him to the secret police. Then a band of armed 
 men would enter his room at midnight, bind him, put him in a sledge and 
 whisk him off to Siberia. 
 
 The most trifling speech was often taken to have a treasonable meaning, 
 and thus great injustice was done, for no fair trial was given, so that if 
 falsely accused one could be released. The "examination" before the 
 magistrate seldom amounted to anything more than " Confess your guilt," 
 which, whether the prisoner did or not, made little difference. He was 
 hurried off into exile. 
 
 The officers of the secret service were promoted according to the number 
 of arrests they made, but never blamed for mistakes so long as they showed 
 diligence in making arrests. Even if a person's innocence was afterwards 
 proved, no atonement was made for the injury done him. 
 
 Among the many stories told of these midnight arrests is one of a young 
 writer who began a serial story in the Russian Monthly Magazine. It was 
 witty and well written, and gained wide attention, but suddenly it stopped. 
 The people inquired in vain for the reason ; no one knew anything about it, 
 nor where he was. At last a letter came to the publishers from far-off 
 Totma, and they asked permission of the officers to publish it, as an explana- 
 tion to their readers of the discontinuance of the story. 
 
 The police read it, and as it only said that the story would not be car- 
 ried further at present, they saw no objection to its being published ; but 
 they overlooked the headline, and when the people saw ' ' Totma ' ' at the 
 beginning of the letter they knew what it meant. Some one had mistrusted 
 the writer of throwing out a fling or so against the government, and he had 
 been spirited away. 
 
 A sadder case was that of a young girl who was seized in her father's 
 house one night and taken away from her home forever. Among her letters 
 had been found one from a young student who was known to cherish revo- 
 lutionary ideas . She was taken before a magistrate, accused of conspiracy 
 against the government, and bidden to confess . She declared that she had 
 done nothing and had nothing to confess ; but all her words were of no avail. 
 She was sent to prison, and what became of her no one ever knew. 
 
Russia. " 
 
 Until recently no trial was permitted to anyone thus accused by the secret 
 police. Now a trial is granted ; but if the courts acquit a person, the police 
 may still take him off into exile if they see fit. 
 
 A Little Would.— The Russian peasants are called "social people. 
 They are seldom found living in solitary huts, but together in villages, called 
 "mirs " Nearly all of these villages in the northern and central part ot 
 Russia have the same appearance. There is a collection of low, brown huts, 
 placed close together, but irregularly, over a large space, and in the midst 
 rising high above them, a white church, with green roof, silvered dome, and 
 frescoes of saints. A tall, graceful belfry stands near by, nsnaJly separate 
 from the church. Surrounding the village are the lands-the grain fields 
 meadows, and pastures, divided into regular, oblong patches and distributed 
 ' among the villagers in proportion to the number of workers there are m each 
 family. The more land one has, the more taxes he has to pay ; so no one is 
 anxious to have more than he can well take care of. 
 
 The day on which the lands are portioned out is a very important one to 
 the people. They all gather at the « Forum," and the village « Elder," who 
 is elected by the people to look after all such important matters, begins with 
 
 the arable or plow land. . 
 
 "Come, now, Ivan," he says to an elderly peasant; "you are a sturdy 
 f ellow, and you have a son there, a fine youth who can do the work of two ; 
 you must take at least three shares . " 
 
 The land in this case is poor, and no one wants to take very much. 
 
 "No: I cannot," objects Ivan. "My son, praise to God, is strong and 
 healthy but my old woman is quite without force ; I cannot take so much. 
 
 "If the old woman is weak, your daughter-in-law is strong-stronger 
 
 than a little horse." 
 
 "It is not in my power," pleads Ivan. 
 
 « But somebody must take them," replies the Elder. There is nothing 
 more to be said ; you must take three shares." 
 
 If Ivan objects to this, a vote is taken, and that decides the matter. The 
 will of the mir must be obeyed. 
 
 Then comes up a woman with a child . "And how much are you to have, 
 
 Prascovia?" asks the Elder. 
 
 « As the mir orders, so be it," she answers, submissively. But when he 
 says she ought to have a share and a half, she is much surprised- What 
 do you say, little father?" she cries. "A share and a half! Was such a 
 thing ever heard of ? Since St. Peter's day my husband has been bed-ridden. 
 
42 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 He cannot put a foot to the ground— all the same as if he were dead ; only 
 he eats bread !" 
 
 Here some one says that he was seen in the gin-shop last week, at which 
 Mrs. Prascovia begins to accuse the accuser of unbecoming behavior in the 
 past. The Elder interrupts her to say that she must take a share and a 
 quarter ; and so the work goes on. 
 
 In other places, where the land is more fertile, and the sharers more 
 numerous perhaps, each one is anxious to receive as much land as possible. 
 The Russians are greatly attached to this custom of holding the land in 
 common, and will not hear of a change of system. They are not troubled 
 with hard landlords, like the Irish, and, since the emancipation, there is no 
 noble to use the whip when their taxes are not forthcoming or their cabins 
 kept in order. 
 
 The peasant's house is usually built of wood, sometimes of brick, and 
 thatched with straw or reeds. Around it are thatched sheds for the horses 
 and cattle, and the whole surrounded with a palisade of interlaced twigs. 
 
 There is usually two rooms, a large, square wooden table, and sometimes 
 one or two rude chairs. In one corner is a huge brick stove, reaching nearly 
 to the ceiling, and on the top a bed for the master of the house ; the others 
 sleep on the floor, or on the benches that run around the wall. In the cor- 
 ner nearest the door is a three-cornered cupboard containing the holy 
 picture; sometimes another, holding a few glass and earthenware articles. 
 The floor is either of hard clay or boards, according to the means of the 
 owner. In well-wooded districts the houses are built much better, and often 
 two stories high. 
 
 If the peasant is able, he has a bath-house, where, every Saturday night, 
 he takes his vapor bath. The room is then heated very hot, and filled with 
 steam by dashing water on hot stones. The whole family usually bathe 
 together, switching each other with birch twigs to start the perspiration. 
 While every pore is streaming they rush out door and roll in the snow. If 
 too poor to have a private bath-house, they all go to the public one in the 
 village, or, if he happens to live too far away, they use the oven where the 
 bread is baked. Thus, whatever his circumstances, the Russian always 
 takes his vapor bath; it is a part of his religion— his preparation for the 
 Sabbath. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SWEDEN. 
 
 Hemmed in by Russia, Norway, the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, lies 
 Sweden, the home of the reindeer and the Lapp, the country of swarming 
 insect life, the land of myths and vikings. Here sprang up the religion 
 of Thor and Odin which was driven out only after along struggle, by Chris- 
 tianity. Sweden was also the mother of the old vikings who used to carry 
 trouble and terror over Western Europe, and from whom have descended a 
 brave, honest, peaceful and courteous people. 
 
 On the north of Sweden, and stretching also across Norway and Russia, 
 lies the cold, desolate country of Lapland, where the reindeer and his fur- 
 clothed master struggle with a cruel climate for the necessaries of life. 
 Bare rocks, forests of spruce and fir, stunted bushes and moss covers the 
 land, which, in turn, is covered nearly all the year with snow. There are 
 many lakes and streams which in spring overflow with water from the melt- 
 ing snow, and are filled with fish, and these are about the only things in the 
 shape of food that the grudging country gives the people. 
 
 To this barren land the Lapps were driven by the stronger races that 
 entered Europe, but they would not have been able to live here long with- 
 out the reindeer. On him they have to depend for the necessaries of life. 
 His skin furnishes them with clothing and covering for their tents, his 
 milk and meat with food, and his sinews with thread with which to sew 
 their clothing. On him they also must depend in winter if they would 
 make a journey from one place to another, for no animal is furnished with 
 a hoof like his to tread over the top of the deep snow. 
 
 A Ride Behind a Reindeee. — A famous traveler gives us a good idea 
 of the pleasures and annoyances of reindeer driving in his accounts of 
 Lapland life. Both the reindeer and the sledge are hard at first to manage; 
 the animal is guided by one line, and can never be induced to go slow unless he 
 is very tired, and the sledge is so high and narrow that it upsets very easily. 
 
44 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 "As soon as I had seated myself," says Bayard Taylor, " and taken 
 proper hold of the rein, the signal was given to start. My deer, a strong, 
 swift animal, gave a powerful leap and dashed around . the corner of the 
 house and down the hill. I tried to catch my breath that had been jerked 
 out of me, and keep my balance, as the pulk (sledge) swayed from side to 
 side and bounced over the snow. It was too late ; in a second I found my- 
 self rolling in the loose snow with the pulk bottom upward beside me. The 
 deer who was attached to my arm by the rein, was standing still facing me 
 with an expression of stupid surprise (but no sympathy) in his face. 
 
 " I got up, shook myself, righted the pulk and commenced again. Off we 
 went, like the wind, down the hill, the snow flying in my face and blinding 
 me. My pulk made tremendous leaps, bounding from side to side, until, 
 the whirlwind suddenly subsiding, I found myself off the road, deep over- 
 head in the snow, choked and blinded, and with small snowdrifts in my 
 pockets, sleeves and bosom. 
 
 " Then I took a fresh start, narrowly missing another overturn as we 
 descended the slope below the house, but on reaching the level I found no 
 difficulty in keeping my balance. My deer struck out, passed the others 
 and soon I was alone on the track greatly enjoying the exercise." 
 
 To be gliding along so swiftly and noiselessly over the snow in the grey 
 Arctic twilight, with the little Lapp huts rising dimly in the distance, was 
 delightful, novel and exhilirating. 
 
 . When the road leads down steep hills where there are sharp turns and 
 high precipices reindeer sledging is too dangerous to be delightful, espec- 
 ially as the reindeer always flies faster that ever when going down hill. 
 
 In such cases he is unhitched and tied by his horns to the back of the 
 sledge. This he does not like and pulls back to get away, and so keeps 
 the sledge from going too swiftly, while the rider guides its course with 
 his feet. 
 
 The reindeer become so tired sometimes, struggling through the deep 
 snow and up the steep hills that they drop with fatigue and lie upon their 
 backs with their mouths open, panting as if each breath would be their 
 last. But after resting for a while in this position they grow easier, get up 
 and eat a little snow and then go on. 
 
 The Lapps are always kind to their deer, and when going on a long and 
 tedious journey take extra ones to harness when the others become tired. 
 The reindeer does not take kindly to a life of drudgery. He prefers his 
 freedom, and it takes two or three years to teach him to draw his master's 
 
Sweden. 
 
 45 
 
 sledge and obey his commands. Sometimes, even after he is trained, he 
 becomes enraged at his driver and flies at him fnrionsly, butting him with 
 his horns. But the agile little Lapp dodges behind his sledge and lets the 
 deer vent his rage on that, then jumps in and goes on as if nothing had 
 happened. 
 
 Mountain Lapps. — There are two classes of Lapps, those who own rein- 
 deer and live mostly in the interior of the country, called Mountain 
 Lapps and those who live by fishing 
 and hunting, called Sea Lapps. The 
 Mountain Lapps live but a short 
 time in one place ; they are obliged 
 to follow their herd about here and 
 there where the best pasture is to be 
 found. In summer the reindeer go 
 near the sea to escape the mosqui- 
 toes, which are a great torment dur- 
 ing the hot weather. The herd takes 
 the lead swimming across rivers and 
 fiords on their way, and the Lapps 
 follow in boats. When the reindeers 
 stop the men set up their huts and 
 stay until the pasture becomes poor 
 and then follow the deer to another 
 place. 
 
 In winter the herds go north to 
 feed upon the reindeer moss or lichen 
 found there under the snow. It is 
 a curious sight, travelers say, to see 
 these animals burrowing under the 
 snow in search of the moss, raising little mounds over their heads and push- 
 ing on until only the tips of their tails can be seen sticking up at the opening. 
 
 When a Mountain Lapp becomes the owner of a herd of one or two 
 thousand reindeer he is considered wealthy. He employs men servants 
 and maid servants to tend them, and pays them for their services in rein- 
 deer, the men receiving five or six, the women three animals for a year's 
 work. When a young woman owns fifty reindeer she is considered quite a 
 -fortune for the young man that marries her, but he must pay her father for 
 her in reindeer to cover the expense she has been to him. 
 
 A LAPP CRADLE. 
 
46 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Every Mountain Lapp has his dog to assist in driving the herd, keeping 
 it together and defending it from the wolves that often makes sad havoc 
 among them. Night and day some one has to watch for these enemies. 
 The deer themselves are quick to scent the approach of their foes. When 
 they begin to look startled and move off the keepers know at once what the 
 trouble is, and start in pursuit of the wolves, while others send their dogs 
 running round the deer to keep them from scattering. When once they 
 break away it is hard to get them back again, and the loss of forty or fifty 
 deer is a sad misfortune to the owner, especially if he have but a few. 
 
 Every night in summer the herd has to be brought up to the enclosure 
 to be milked, which is quite an exciting operation. The boys run around 
 
 the herd to bring them together, 
 
 .:.,•.;, ,.•.::.,,„„- andthedogs dash here and there 
 
 driving in stragglers until the 
 whole herd comes trotting up in 
 fine style to the enclosure. Those 
 that are to be milked have to be 
 caught with a lasso, which is 
 another lively exercise, for often 
 the resentful captive dashes round 
 and round the ring after he is 
 caught, dragging his master with 
 him until both are tired out. The 
 little Lapp always takes the matter 
 coolly, never falling into a rage 
 and beating the poor dumb brute, 
 as some of his more enlightened brethren would be very likely to do under 
 such circumstances. 
 
 Sea Lapps. — Another class of Laplanders, called Sea Laps, usually have 
 three or four dwelling places, one for each season of the year. In winter 
 many of them go to the cod-fisheries off the coast of Norway, from there to 
 their summer residences by a lake or river where fresh- water fishing is good, 
 and, in the autumn, to their full stations to hunt birds, martins, squirrels, 
 otter, bears or wild reindeer. They never own but a few of these last 
 animals and these they frequently send to pasture with the mountain 
 Lapps, while they are engaged with other work. 
 
 At each station they have a rude hut, shaped something like a bee- 
 hive, the framework of birch stems, the covering of birch bark and sods, 
 
 A LAPP HUT. 
 
48 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the floor of mud with a small platform around the sides to sit or sleep 
 upon. A pile of stones serves for a stove, and a hole in the top of the hut 
 for a chimney. A pot to stew their meat in and a few wooden bowls and horn 
 spoons are about all the furniture or utensils they own. The walls are fre- 
 quently decorated with bladders of deer's milk and muffin-shaped cheeses. 
 
 The prettiest article in a Lapp's tent is the tiny cradle for the baby. It is 
 often covered on the outside with green baize cloth ornamented with bright 
 scarlet binding. The little bed inside is made of fine moss, as soft as velvet, 1 , 
 and covered with a little quilt of hare's skin. A string is fastened around 
 it so that at night it can be hung up on a peg, or when the parents are 
 traveling, across the mother's back. A string of prettily colored glass 
 beads for his playthings are kept; near the baby's head. 
 
 The summer huts are usually surrounded with gardens and green patches 
 of pasture where a few sheep and goats can be kept. 
 
 As a race, the Lapps are gentle and friendly, strangers to cruelty and 
 crime. One tribe in Russian Lapland is said to be somewhat savage, but 
 the most of them are harmless and industrious, their poor little lives are' 
 used up in a constant struggle with the unfriendly country to obtain from i 
 it enough to supply their simple wants. 
 
 Aintka, the Viking Giant. — During the long winter nights the Lapp's 
 often tell each other queer old legends as they sit around the fire in their i 
 smoky little huts. One of their favorite stories is about a fierce giant that \ 
 used to come every year to Ribatschi and demand tribute of the poor' ; 
 fishers. None knew of his coming or going, but he was always seen on the • 
 shore when the boats came in from the sea. Every time he came he - 
 challenged the fishermen to fight, but they did not dare attack such an 
 enormous creature. For many years he was the terror of Ribatschi. 
 
 One day a young man came among the fishermen and asked to be taken 
 with them on their trip. The men were all astonished at his strength in 
 catching the fish and at his quickness in cleaning them after they had 
 returned. 
 
 Anika was on hand as usual for his tribute of fish, but the young man 
 spoke slightingly to him. 
 
 " He ! hi !" laughed the giant. " Be careful or I will crush you." 
 
 The young man was not at all frightened at this, and when the giant 
 challenged him to fight, quickly accepted. The method they agreed upon 
 was for each to turn a summersault one after the other and strike his 
 enemy in the chest with his feet. 
 
Sweden. 
 
 49 
 
 Anika took the first turn and struck the young man, but he did not 
 budo-e The second blow sent him back a yard ; the third a fathom. Then 
 it was the stranger's turn. His first blow drove the giant back a fathom, 
 
 SWEDISH LAPLANDERS. 
 
 his second three fathoms, and his third flung the huge viking seven 
 fathoms outside of the ring, dead. They buried him and erected a stone 
 heap over him. 
 
50 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The youth then told them to thank God that their enemy was dead and 
 would trouble them no more. Then he disappeared. 
 
 Mosquito Season. — During the short snmmer in Lapland and northern 
 Sweden the bird and insect world break out into a state of great activity, as 
 if anxious to make the most of the brief season. Early in July the 
 mosquitoes begin to come, and from that time there is no peace for man or 
 beast for seven weeks. 
 
 The people prepare for their coming by covering the tops of their chim- 
 neys with sod so that they cannot fly down into the room. Windows and 
 doors are kept tightly closed during the whole time of their stay. Bad air is 
 as nothing compared with the irritating bites of these pests, so at least the 
 Swedes think. There seems to be more poison about these northern mos- 
 quitoes than those of other climes, and* they have a way of finding their 
 way through all kinds of netting. Travelers who come prepared with thick 
 veils and long gloves find their armour insufficient. 
 
 One traveler thus relates his attempts to fish, protected, as he supposed, 
 from the mosquitoes by his veil and gloves : 
 
 " I planted myself on a large stone from which I could reach a beautiful 
 looking eddy*. But the assembly had been sounded by the leaders of the 
 ' migs ' (mosquitoes) to wake up any who might have been asleep and call 
 them to the feast. 
 
 "Ina few moments they began to come from all directions. I was busy 
 putting my rod together and took but little notice of them at first, but as 
 fresh arrivals took place fresh vigor seized the whole body of the enemy 
 and they began to storm the citadel from all points. Some crawled 
 through my net, others up my sleeves and into my coat. By this time my 
 rod was put together and ready for a cast. But all around me the air 
 was darkened with mosquitoes, the poison of their bites already began 
 to irritate, and after fighting for sometime, net in one hand and rod in the 
 other, I jumped on 2 the stone and took to my heels through the forest." 
 
 An Aistt Colony. — A very thriving inhabitant of Sweden is a large 
 black ant, whose industry during the short summer enables it to provide 
 for a long winter of idleness. 
 
 The hillocks of these ants are sometimes six or seven feet high, made of 
 piles of Avithered fern-needles, small twigs, rotten bark and light mould. 
 Each mound contains many thousands of black inhabitants. 
 
 They are so busy running to and fro that one would think they were 
 always having a great political meeting or that their house was on fire. 
 
52 Persons and Places in JEurope. 
 
 But after watching them awhile one sees that their movements are all in 
 perfect order. Each one has his task to perform and he does it with all his 
 little might. No drones are allowed in this colony, neither do they allow 
 intruders. If one sits down too near their habitation he is soon invited, by 
 means of many very forcible little nips, to take himself away. 
 
 A gentleman once threw his glove upon the top of an ant-hill to seek 
 what they would do with it, and he was much amused at .their queer perfor- 
 mances. At first they fell into the greatest confusion. They collected in a 
 mob to view the calamity that had befallen them. They examined it in 
 every possible position, some burrowing inside, and arrviving at the top 
 through a small hole between the thumb and forefinger. Others clustered 
 around the button at the wrist as if speculating as to what that could 
 possibly be, and why so different from the rest. A few gathered about in 
 groups and seemed to consult as to whether this strange substance could be 
 made use of or should be removed. Very little time, however, was spent in 
 idle discussion. No long speeches were made, and a speedy decision was 
 reached. Thirty or forty strong ants approached the thumb cautiously, 
 seized it, and pulled stoutly. The glove moved. This quickly dispelled the 
 fears of the rest. The whole crowd made a rush at it and in a few moments 
 had dragged it to the edge of the hill. Then a startling accident happened. 
 The little finger fell over the brow of the hill with such suddenness that 
 some forty of the small folks were sent flying head over heels down upon 
 the grass at the foot. But none of them appeared to be injured by the fall, 
 and the others kept on dragging the glove. Suddenly, as they reached the 
 edge of the mound, the glove slid down the hill carrying nearly the whole 
 colony of terrified ants along with it. To see how surprised they were, how 
 quickly they scrambled up to the top of their hill again, and how they 
 gathered about in groups, as if talking over the wonderful invasion, and 
 their happy escape, was very amusing and entertaining to one interested in 
 the ways of such small folks. 
 
 The Great God Odin. — Not far from the city of Upsala is a plain that 
 used to be considered sacred ground by the ancient Scandinavians. It was 
 the burial place of their great god Odin. There stood a large temple erected 
 to his honor, and there stands yet three large mounds which the people be- 
 lieve to be the tombs of Odin, his wife Frigg and his son Thor. 
 
 The worship of Odin ceased about a thousand years ago, when Christi- 
 anity was introduced, and now people look upon him simply as an ancient 
 Scythian hero, around whose name many legends grew after he died. No 
 
Sweden. 53 
 
 clear account of him can be found. It is supposed that he came from near 
 the Caspian Sea,bringing with him perhaps the first band of Scythians that 
 invaded Scandinavia. He seems to have stopped at the island of Funen in 
 Denmark, for the Danes claim that he landed there and founded Odense. 
 From there he went to Sweden and settled near Upsala. 
 
 After dwelling at Upsala for some time, engaging in many wars and per- 
 forming many feats of valor, he called his people around him and told them 
 that he was going back to Asgard, to take his seat among the gods and pre- 
 pare an eternal banquet in Valhalla for all those who should fight like 
 heroes and die bravely with their swords in their hands. 
 
 He then charged his followers to burn his body after he left it, and 
 disdaining to wait for death, he killed himself with nine spear- wounds in 
 his breast. 
 
 After he was dead his people began to regard him as a god ; they 
 built a magnificent temple for him at Upsala and offered costly sacrifices, 
 sometimes human victims. His warriors became fiercer than ever, led on 
 by the hope of winning a place in the hall of Valhalla. There, they said, 
 they should have nothing to do except to feast and fight ; but the wounds 
 they received would not then be fatal. A warrior might be all cut to pieces, 
 but when the call to the feast sounded he would recover at once, spring 
 upon his steed and return to the banquet hall. 
 
 In battle they were encouraged by thought that the Valkyries, the celes- 
 tial maidens whom Odin sent through the earth to find the bravest heroes, 
 were hovering over them to carry at once to Valhalla those who fell fight- 
 ing gloriously. 
 
 Odin and the Wise Giant. — Besides his reputation as a great warrior, 
 Odin came to be regarded as a very wise man. He invented the use of 
 Runes, they said, the characters used in ancient Scandinavian writing. 
 Among the many stories told of his wisdom is one about a discussion he 
 once had with a very wise giant. 
 
 Disguised as a traveler Odin came to the giant's abode, and was kindly 
 received. After a while it was proposed that they have a discussion on 
 scientific subjects, but the one that was beaten was to lose his head. The 
 giant began by asking many questions about the religion of Odin, all of 
 which were answered with such wisdom that the giant was greatly surprised. 
 
 When it came the traveler's turn he asked the giant about the future 
 state of the soul. 
 
 " Tell me," he said," what do the heroes in Valhalla ?" 
 
54 People and Places in Europe. 
 
 The giant who was well versed in the religion of Odin answered readily, 
 taking great pains to explain everything as simply as if he were talking to 
 a child. 
 
 Odin listened quietly, and when he had finished, said in a low, deep voice: 
 
 "Tell me the words that Odin whispered in the ear of his son Baldur, 
 when Baldur lay on the funeral pyre ?" 
 
 At this the giant grew pale as death, for he knew that no one but Odin 
 himself knew those words, and that it must be he who sat before him. 
 
 " My doom, my doom, great Odin !" he cried. " Let the deed of celes- 
 tial destiny be done. Let it fall on him who has dared to talk of sacred 
 things to Odin, wisest of the gods." 
 
 Odin then told the giant that there was a higher question than that of 
 life and death, that it dealt with the existence of Odin and Baldur in the 
 new world where no evil comes. 
 
 . The Great God Thor. — The stories that were told of Odin began to in- 
 clude after a time the names of his two sons, Thor and Baldur. Thor, it 
 was said, was the bravest, strongest and swiftest of the gods. Unlike his 
 father he was not in favor of war, but when he was called uiDon to defend 
 the gods and men from the evil giants he could prove a most terrible war- 
 rior. With his great hammer, that always returned to his hand of itself 
 after being thrown, he dealt most deadly blows. This hammer he could 
 not lift unless he had on his iron gauntlets which gave him miraculous 
 strength. Then, too, he had a girdle that always kept him supplied with 
 strength. When he found himself growing weak all he had to do was to 
 press upon the girdle and at once he was as fresh and strong as ever. His 
 chariot was drawn by two rams, and when he rode over the bridge Gjallar 
 the noise made the heavens tremble. This, men called thunder, they said. 
 The rams that drew the chariot had also very remarkable powers. When 
 the god was hungry he killed and ate them, but the bones he gathered up 
 carefully and put back in the skins. By morning there were the two rams 
 alive and well, ready to draw his chariot and be eaten again the next day. 
 
 From this old Scandinavian god we get our name for Thursday, which 
 means Thor 's day. Wednesday also means Wodin's day, or Odin's day. 
 
 The Fate of Baldur. — Baldur, the second son of Odin, had the reputa- 
 tion of being a very graceful, eloquent and amiable god. He possessed 
 every good quality. He was so beautiful that rays of light seemed to dart 
 from his person, and his eyes shone more brilliantly than the morning star. 
 He was also very powerful ; he could still a tempest, and he made all of his 
 
Sweden . 55 
 
 brothers obey Mm. But lie seldom took part in any of their pastimes, he 
 preferred to stay in his beautiful palace in the bright zone of the heavens. 
 
 It was said that the happiness of all the gods depended upon the fate of 
 Baldur. During his life they were to be secure ; but when he should die 
 evil would befall them. From the book of destiny Odin found that Bal- 
 dur' s death had been foretold, and when the gods learned this terrible 
 secret they were filled with fear. 
 
 Then Frigg, the wife of Odin, the mother of Baldur, called upon every 
 object in nature to swear that it would not furnish arms against her son or 
 in any way injure him. Every element, fire, water, earth, rocks and trees all 
 swore a solemn oath not to harm Baldur. But one plant was forgotten, the 
 mistletoe. Loki, the evil one, saw this and resolved to take advantage of it. 
 
 It began to be a great amusement in the palace of Odin to throw darts at 
 Baldur when it was found that nothing would injure him. It was a 
 pleasure to them, and to him also, to see their weapons fall harmlessly from 
 his charmed person. But the crafty Loki prepared a weapon of the fatal 
 mistletoe and put it in the hands of a blind brother of Baldur, playfully 
 telling him to shoot and he would guide his hand. This brother, not know- 
 ing what the weapon was, nor who it was that gave it to him, raised the dart 
 and let it fly at Baldur. Guided by the Loki it flew straight to its mark, 
 and Baldur fell lifeless to the ground. 
 
 Then there was great consternation among the gods. They remembered 
 that terrible evil was to befall them when Baldur died, so a messenger was 
 sent in haste to the abode of Hel,(death),to see if she would not give Baldur 
 back to them. She replied that if the whole world would weep for him she 
 would give him back. Then the gods sent out messengers requesting every- 
 thing in the world to weep for Baldur, and there was a great lamentation. 
 Everything, gods and men, plants, animals, stones and the earth joined in 
 the general mourning. But on his way home the messenger met an old giant 
 woman who would not weep. Hel therefore would not give up her dead. 
 
 Then followed a terrible war between the gods and the descendents of 
 Loki, the evil giants. While it was waging the gods learned that the giant 
 woman who had refused to weep for Baldur was Loki himself in disguise. 
 They therefore sought for him until they found nim, bound him on a rock 
 and hung a venomous snake over him in such a way that the poison 
 dropped continually on his face. 
 
 The story also says that his wife Sigyn sits by his side and receives the 
 poison into a dish ; but when the dish is full and she goes away to empty 
 
56 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 it, the venom then drops on Loki's face and causes him snch pain that the 
 world shakes with his agonized struggles. 
 
 The Viking ae. — When the followers of Odin had f ought among them- 
 selves until they were tired, they began to long for new fields of battle. 
 To the south, they had heard, were many rich countries where every good 
 thing abounded. Why not go there and help themselves ? 
 
 Tims it came to pass that about the middle of the eight century, the 
 people of Europe, who until that time knew very little of the Scandinavians, 
 in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, saw queer square-sailed vessels sailing 
 down from the North sea, filled with fierce looking warriors. Wherever 
 these Northmen landed terrible scenes followed ; people were murdered, 
 their goods carried off and their houses left in ashes. Every year fresh 
 numbers came, more towns and villages were destroyed, and in vain the 
 terror-stricken people prayed, " Deliver us, O Lord, from the rage of the 
 Norsemen." 
 
 These Norsemen, Northmen, or Normans, as they were called, from the 
 region whence they came, were descendants of the fierce followers of Odin. 
 Having learned the art of war to perfection and fought among themselves 
 until they were tired, they now started out in search of plunder. It was 
 altogether beneath their idea of a warrior's dignity to hoe and plant, but 
 the business of viking— robbing, murdering and burning, was perfectly 
 proper and honorable, they thought. 
 
 The people of the south were all unprepared for defending themselves 
 against such savage foes ; and the kings of France and England, after a 
 time triecl to hire the Northmen to stay away. Their money was accepted, 
 but the next year the robbers came again and demanded more. As it was 
 better to give gold and silver than to be murdered,the people agreed to pay 
 for the privilege of being let alone, and the Norman came each year for their 
 tribute until the countries were able to resist them. 
 
 Ragnee Lodbeog.— One of the most terrible Vikings that ever visited 
 the shores of Europe, was one whose exploits made him a favorite hero in 
 all the Scandinavian country. In his younger days he was anxious to 
 marry a very beautiful princess named Tora, who was closely guarded by a 
 dragon that no one could get near her. This dragon had a very disagree- 
 able habit of biting the legs of all who approached him, so Ragner prepared 
 himself against such attacks by wearing a pair of thick leather leggings, 
 hence his name of Lodbrog. Attired in these he went out, killed the dragon, 
 and married the princess. 
 
Sweden. 57 
 
 Ragner's last " viking " expedition was against England, from which he 
 never returned. He intended it to be the most glorious of any he had yet 
 undertaken. He fitted out two ships, the largest that had ever been built 
 in the north, and sent an arrow, the signal of war, throughout his dominion 
 to call together his warriors. They came flocking to him, ready for the fray, 
 and the big ships set sail upon their murderous voyage. But fate did not 
 favor him as it had in former times. The vessels were shipwrecked off the 
 coast of Northumberland, and when the warriors landed they were not in so 
 good a condition for fighting as they might have been. The Saxon king, 
 Ella, was also quite well prepared to receive them, and they were soon 
 worsted. 
 
 Lodbrog, clothed in his enchanted robe, that his queen had made for him 
 just before he left home, broke the Saxon ranks four times, dealing terrible 
 death-blows all around him with his huge spear ; but at last his men were 
 all killed, and he was taken prisoner and cast into a den of serpents. At 
 first the reptiles did not touch him, but when he was stripped of his 
 enchanted robe they fastened upon him and in a few minutes stung him to 
 death. He died singing his famous death song, which is still preserved 
 among the Scandinavian legends, and which tells how he had during his life 
 " prepared ample food for the ravenous wolves and the yellow-footed eagles." 
 
 The Blood Bath. — A stop was put to "viking" when Christianity 
 began to take the place of the religion of Odin in the north. The people 
 began to till their lands instead of fighting. All three of the Scandinavian 
 countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark were united under one govern- 
 ment and began to grow civilized; but after a time the rulers, who were 
 always Danes, treated the Swedes harshly, and they began to wish for a 
 king and a government of their own. At last they made an effort to set up 
 a Swedish king. This made the Danish king very angry. He put a stop to 
 the movement, and prepared a severe punishment for all the nobles and 
 leading men that he thought were concerned in it. In the great market- 
 place of Stockholm ninety of these men were led out and beheaded one at a 
 time, while the people looked on stunned with horror. They shrunk away 
 to their homes, but were not allowed to close their eyes on the horrid scene, 
 for a heavy rain came down and mingled with the blood of the slain, 
 carrying it along the street into the very doorways. 
 
 The fearful sight was called the "Blood Bath," and from that time the 
 Swedes hated the Danish tyrant with an intense hatred, and never gave up 
 their determination to be free from Danish rule. 
 
f>8 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Gustavus Vasa. — At the time of the " blood bath " a young Swedish 
 noble was hiding from the Danish king in the forests, where he worked in 
 the guise of a farmer. For a while he worked as a miner in Delecarlia. 
 Here he heard of the death of his father, who was one of the victims of the 
 "blood bath." He began to urge the men about him to rise against the 
 Danish tyrant. Then he told them who he was, and soon he had collected 
 quite a band of patriots. Sixteen powerful men became his body-guard 
 and several hundred joined him as foot followers. 
 
 The Danes tried to turn the Swedes against him and his men, saying 
 they were lawless rebels, but their talk had no effect. 
 
 A company of eight thousand soldiers were sent against Gustavus by 
 the governor whom Christian had appointed at Stockholm. When he saw 
 the number of men in the patriotic company all drawn up and ready to 
 light he asked where they all came from, and what they could get to eat in 
 that desolate region. He was told that when they could get nothing else 
 they drank water and ate bread made from the bark of the fir tree. 
 
 " If this be so, my comrades," he said, " let us retreat while we may, for 
 the devil himself, let alone ordinary mortals, could never subdue people who 
 lived on wood and water." He therefore turned around and went back to 
 Stockholm. 
 
 AVhen the peasantry heard of this they were encouraged to come out 
 boldly in favor of Gustavus and defy the Danes. Soon twenty thousand 
 men gathered around his standard. Fresh victories brought fresh troops, 
 and in a little while the whole of the northern part of Sweden had thrown 
 off the Danish yoke. 
 
 But Christian'' s cruelties were drawing to a close. His own people were 
 disgusted with him and put him in prison. Then the Swedish nobles met 
 and elected Gustavus Vasa king of Sweden. 
 
 Warrior KijSTgs. — During the century following that in which Gustavus 
 Yasa lived, two kings arose in Sweden who proved that the land of Odin 
 could still produce warriors when they were needed. The first was Gusta- 
 vus Adolphus, a direct descendant of the other Gustavus, who found him- 
 self in trouble with Danes, Russians and Poles during the first years of his 
 reign. He overcame them all and by his wise rule, made the people prosper- 
 ous and happy and very proud of their young king. 
 
 At this time the "thirty years war" was raging in Europe, between the 
 Catholics and Protestants. The Swedes were Protestants, and they saw 
 that if their brethren down in Germany were conquered there would be 
 
VIKING. 
 
60 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 trouble in store for them. At least Gustavus saw this, and, calling his peo- 
 ple together, he told them that he had long wished to help the persecuted 
 brethren, and now he was ready to go with as many soldiers as would follow 
 him. Then he took his little five-year-old daughter up in his arms, com- 
 mended her to their care as their future queen if he never came back, and 
 after a few touching farewell words closed the meeting with prayer. 
 
 Twenty thousand Swedes followed their king into Germany, and there 
 began a series of conquests that made him the hero of the war. Within 
 eight months he had taken eighty fortified places, and during the next two 
 years defeated three times the greatest general of Europe, who had never 
 before been vanquished. 
 
 His last battle was fought at Lutzen, and there the hero was slain while 
 leading a charge early in the day. The sight of his riderless horse rushing 
 back from the front was the first intimation his men had of his fall, and it 
 filled them with such fury that they rushed madly on their foes and carried 
 the day. 
 
 Among twelve thousand dead and dying, the body of Gustavus was 
 found after the battle, covered with wounds and trampled by hoofs until 
 it could scarcely be recognized. It was taken up tenderly, carried to a little 
 church, and, after a funeral service, embalmed and sent to Sweden amid 
 universal mourning. Even his enemies could not but admire his military 
 skill, his heroism and his kindness to the vanquished. 
 
 About sixty years afterward another military meteor flashed out from 
 Sweden, and astonished Europe by his sudden conquests. This was Charles 
 XII., who, coming to the throne when a mere boy, and showing more taste 
 for boyish sports than for the affairs of his kingdom, led the greedy rulers 
 around him to suppose themselves safe in seizing some of his territory. 
 
 He laid down his playthings at once and descended with fury upon his 
 enemies, compelled the Danes to sue for peace, vanquished the Poles, and 
 drove Peter from Narva with but a handful of men compared with the host 
 of Russians. But the Swedish star sank as suddenly as it rose. His rival, 
 Peter the Great, learned his arts of warfare at Narva so well that he used 
 them against him afterward with good effect ; and by bad judgment Charles 
 lost the fruits of his brilliant victories, so that he left his kingdom in more 
 trouble than he found it. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 The Country of Norway bounds the northwestern coast of Europe with 
 a thick fringe of high capes and walled bays, the handwork of the ancient 
 glaciers that have cub and ground and polished the face of the earth in so 
 many places during the ages of the past, while the interior is full of 
 abrupt precipices, broad terraces, huge boulders, interesting subjects to the 
 
 NORSE SHIP OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 
 
 geologist, and of beautiful valleys and magnificent waterfalls. And the 
 people, though they boast of no glorious history, such as the world calls 
 glorious, have made good progress 'in civilization in spite of the severe 
 climate and unfriendly soil. The cold weather has but warmed their hearts 
 and the grudging soil brought out their perseverance and energy. 
 
62 Persons and Places in .Europe. 
 
 The Fjords.— The numerous narrow bays along the coast called 
 " fjords " extend, some but a short distance inland, others reach, like long 
 arms, far into the interior, their waters studded with small islands, some 
 rocky and barren, others clothed with grass and trees, and, if large enough, 
 inhabited. 
 
 The giant of these ocean arms is the Songe fjord on the most western 
 point of the coast. It resembles a tree with its numerous offshoots, corres- 
 ponding to branches and twigs. These dark crooked lanes of water expand- 
 ing here and there into lakes are lined with wooded precipices and musical 
 with roaring cataracts. 
 
 Another large fjord, full of pleasing surprises at every turn, is the Chris- 
 tiana, wku.i extends into the interior a distance of seventy or eighty miles. 
 The water is deep and studded with green wooded islands. Range upon 
 range of rugged mountains stretch away upon either side, and in the dis- 
 tance snowy peaks of inland ranges glisten in the sun. In the valleys rich 
 fields of yellow grain make a bright contrast with the dark green of the sur- 
 rounding pines. And all of these rich hues are repeated in reflections upon 
 the still surface of the water of the fjord. 
 
 To complete the picture are the queer old fashioned cottages perched 
 upon the hill-tops, the thrifty gardens on every slope, and the busy workers 
 at the numerous wharves along the way. 
 
 Fosses. — The rivers of Norway do not flow along like ordinary rivers ; 
 they plunge and rush and roar along as if in breathless haste to join the 
 fjords, and furiously angry at everything that gets in their way. They 
 boil around the boulders, plunge over precipices and fill the air with their 
 thunderings and their dashing spray. On every side are the most beautiful 
 waterfalls, where the stream comes pouring in a smooth curved band over 
 the rock above and thundering into the deep cauldron which it has pounded 
 out of the rocks beneath. 
 
 After a little it reappears further on shattered into a thousand snowy 
 fragments that tumble along down a rugged slope and are tossed by every 
 ledge into still greater confusion. Denser masses of spray arise and the 
 sun shining on them makes glorious rainbows. Presently a great ledge 
 bars the path and beats the foaming water into dust. But another fall of 
 five hundred feet awaits it, and after passing that it spreads out into a mul- 
 titude of little rills and disappears. • 
 
 One of the most beautiful cascades in Norway is the Ringsdal foss — 
 " foss " means force in Norse— in the Sor fjord. At its first leap the heavy 
 
Nor id ay. 
 
 63 
 
 body of water plunges over a precipice 
 eight hundred feet high, and then, 
 angry and turbulent, leaps to another 
 ledge from which it is tossed more 
 frantic than ever. Thicker and 
 heavier clouds of spray arise, are 
 seized by the strong current of air and 
 tossed into a hundred beautiful and 
 fantastic shapes. At one moment it 
 forms a spiral column, coiling and re- 
 coiling upon itself, 
 bounding forward and 
 backward, and up and 
 
 down, then breaking 
 into new shapes it 
 finally makes another plunge from 
 which it is driven into an utter des- 
 peration of mist. A vast cloud arises 
 
 Im-, 
 
64 Persons and Places in Euroiie. 
 
 above the stream and skims along the narrow gorge for a distance o 
 abont two hundred yards, then meeting another fall the whole torrent 
 vanishes in a cloud of spray. 
 
 Fjelds. — Norway, though a mountainous country, has no mountain 
 ranges ; it has a series of elevated table-lands from which rise numerous 
 sudden peaks and boulders. The table-lands called "fjelds," or fields,, 
 because they look like broad, flat fields, rise one above another in terraces 
 which are marked off in many places by marks' of ancient sea-levels, as 
 though the land had risen gradually out of the ocean, one terrace at a time. 
 Some people think that this has been the case, for it is found that the sur- 
 face is now gradually rising a few inches every hundred years. 
 
 Between the steeps and precipices are many gullies filled with snow, the \ 
 heads of glaciers like their predecessors that have ploughed the valleys and 
 polished the rocks in ages gone by. 
 
 One of the most noted peaks in Norway is the Romsdal horn, near the 
 Molde fjord, which springs up out of a valley to a distance of four thou- 
 sand feet like a monstrous shattered steeple. Many ragged peaks surround 
 it, and on its left side is a great notched and jagged wall that seems, from 
 the valley below, to scrape the sky. Here and there on the walls are large 
 scars where masses of rock have broken off and tumbled down to the river 
 bed below. There they may still be seen with the water boiling and foam- 
 ing around them. Such a rock, on a much smaller scale, is the North Cape, 
 the last jagged mass of the fjelds on the north, and for a long time thought 
 to be the northernmost point of Europe. It is a barren wedge-shaped mass 
 with its base dipped in the cold waters of the Arctic, which dash furiously 
 against it during the winter storms, and surrounded by other barren rocks, 
 whistling winds and shrieking sea fowl. 
 
 The Midnight Sun.— Travelers frequently go to the summit of the 
 North Cape to see one of the wonders of the northern regions, the midnight 
 sun. It is there that the continual day first dawns and there its last hours 
 linger longest. 
 
 The length of the summer day and the winter night varies as one goes 
 north or south from the North Cape to the Arctic circle. At the cape the 
 last glimpse of the sun is caught on the eighteenth of November, at Ham- 
 merfast on the twenty-first, while at Bodo, much farther south, it is seen 
 until the fifteenth of December. 
 
 After the sun disappears there is still a bright glow in the east every 
 day, but as winter deepens, it keeps fading until there are only a couple of 
 
Norway. 65 
 
 hours at noon when one can see to read by daylight. When the weather is 
 stormy the lamps must be kept burning all day. 
 
 This season used to be one of mournful distress and anxiety among the 
 natives. They used to send messengers to the hill- tops to watch for the 
 sun's return. When the news was brought that a little light was to be seen 
 a festival was proclaimed, which was the most joyful of all their feasts. 
 
 In January, at Hammerfast, there begins to be a little light at noon, and 
 about the twenty-first the sun just shows his face above the horizon. The 
 next day he stays in sight a little longer, and the next day longer still. 
 As May approaches he is in the sky nearly all of the twenty-four hours. 
 Each time he dips below the horizon his stay is shorter. Wild flowers then 
 begin to spring up in the fields as suddenly as if by magic, the leaves burst 
 out and the rivers swell and dance. 
 
 On the thirteenth of May at Hammerfast the sun does not set at all. 
 At twelve oclock at night he can be seen hanging low down on the horizon, 
 the midnight sun. 
 
 From this time until the twenty- seventh of July he never sets. People 
 must go to bed in broad daylight and sleep with his rays shining in at the 
 
 windows . 
 
 One of the strangest things about this midnight sun is the changes in 
 Ms appearance. As the last hour of the twenty-four approaches his light 
 grows very pale, wierd-like and very drowsy, and the sky in the west has 
 every appearance of sunset. The birds go to their nests, the dew falls. But 
 a few minutes after twelve he begins to brighten. The mellow light passes 
 away and the whole sky becomes brilliant as at sunrise. 
 
 The Aurora Borealis.— An ancient Roman writer who visited Germany 
 many years ago heard there that far to the north was a sea which men 
 believed to be the girdle or frontier of the earth, because, they said,' there 
 the brightness of the sun lasts till his rising, and there also is to be seen at 
 times the forms of divine beings and a head crowned with rays. " Surely," 
 he said, " this point must be the place where the world comes to an end." 
 
 In those days men had not traveled over very much of the earth, nor 
 studied into its strange appearances. They did not know anything about a 
 midnight sun, nor much about that other phenomenon whose mysterious 
 light shines brightest in these far northern regions— the aurora borealis. 
 
 ° During the long, dark night when the ocean roars and dashes against 
 the rock-bound coast, then this strange light flashes like a huge shining fan 
 over the northern heavens with a brilliancy and wierdness that is never seen 
 
66 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 in more southern lands. It often furnishes light enough for all kinds of 
 ordinary work. 
 
 Bayard Taylor gives a very vivid description of an universally brilliant 
 aurora that occurred during his visit to Norway. 
 
 First a narrow belt of silver fire appeared stretching directly across the 
 zenith, with its loose frayed ends slowly swaying to and fro down the slopes 
 of the sky. Presently it began to waver, bending back and forth, sometimes 
 slowly, sometimes with a quick springing motion. Now it took the shape 
 of a bow, now of Hogarth's line of beauty, brightening and fading in its 
 sinuous motion, and finally formed a shepherd's crook, the end of which 
 suddenly began to separate and fall off as if driven by a strong wind, until 
 the whole belt shot away in long drifting lines of fiery light. It then 
 gathered again into a dozen dancing fragments, which alternately ad- 
 vanced and retreated, shot hither and thither, against and across each other, 
 blazed out in yellow and rosy gleams, or paled again, playing a thousand 
 fantastic pranks, as if guided by some wild whim. 
 
 Suddenly the scattered lights ran together, as by a common impulse, 
 joined their bright ends, twisted them through each other, and fell in a 
 broad luminous curtain straight downward through the air until its fringed 
 hem swung apparently but a few yards over our heads. It did not follow 
 the spheric curve of the firmament bu-fc hung plumb from the zenith, fall- 
 ing apparently millions of leagues through the air, its folds gathered 
 together among the stars, and its embroidery of flame sweeping the earth, 
 shedding a pale unearthly radiance over the wastes of snow. A moment 
 afterward and it was drawn up again, parted, waved its flambeaux and shot 
 its lances hither and thither, advancing and retreating as before. " Noth- 
 ing," says the traveler," so strange, so capricious, so wonderful, so gloriously 
 beautiful I ever expect to see again." 
 
 The Maelstrom. — Looking west from the mainland of Norway between 
 Bodo and Tromso, one sees a dark uneven wall rising from the water far 
 out at sea. It is the Loffoden group, whose sharp jagged peaks used to be 
 looked upon with much reverence by the ancient mariners. They thought 
 it was the abode of the gods and that to guard ifc from the approach of 
 mortals the terrible maelstrom had been placed at its entrance. Fearful 
 stories were told about this mysterious whirpool. If ships once came within 
 reach of its current, it was said, they would be surely drawn toward the 
 unfathomable abyss and then suddenly disappear, never to be heard from 
 again. . _ 
 
Norway. 
 
 67 
 
 But this mysterious abyss itself has now vanished ; all that is fonnd there 
 is a very swift current running between two little islands at the southern 
 extremity of the group, which in stormy weather in winter, or during a 
 strong gale, is dangerous for small craft, and large vessels if not well 
 handled may be drifted against the rocks ; but there is no whirling eddy, 
 no mysterious abyss yawning to engulf unfortunate vessels. The frail 
 boats of the Norwegians may 
 be seen passing through it at 
 almost any time, stopping to 
 fish in its very midst. 
 
 Harold the Fair- 
 haired. — The countless 
 nooks and crannies about the 
 shores and islands of Nor- 
 way were fine hiding places 
 for the old vikings who used 
 to lurk there in their ships, 
 ready to dart out at the call 
 of their chiefs to pillage and 
 murder. Great was their 
 wrath when one of their 
 chiefs, having made himself 
 king, said "viking" was 
 disgraceful robbery and de- 
 clared that it should no 
 longer be carried on within 
 the bounds of Norway. 
 
 This brave and high- 
 minded man, the first king 
 of Norway, was called Harold 
 the Fair-haired, because of 
 his long fair hair. Before 
 
 his time there had been no one chief powerful enough to subdue the others. 
 This he undertook to do, because, so they say, a fair girl whom he wished 
 to marry refused to become his wife unless he would make himself a king. 
 He thought the task worth attempting, called his followers around him and 
 made a solemn vow to leave his fair hair uncut and uncombed until he had 
 made himself king of Norway. 
 
 A GLACIER. 
 
68 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 His men all praised him. for his resolution and promised to stand by him. 
 So the fighting began. First one powerful chief and then another submitted 
 to Harold until the rest who had not been conquered grew alarmed. They 
 saw that they could do nothing alone against the conqueror, and so all 
 united their forces and took their stand at a little fjord west of the present 
 city of Stavenger, to resist their common enemy. Here a terrible battle was 
 fought, the air was full of flying stones and spears and arrows, and many 
 of Harold's best men fell. But the chieftains fell also one by one, until there 
 were none left who dared to oppose him. 
 
 Then he had his hair cut, proclaimed himself king and married the beau- 
 tiful G-yda. 
 
 A few of the chiefs who had escaped on the day of battle. declared that 
 they would never submit to be ruled by a king. If they could no longer be 
 their own masters in Norway they would go where they could. They had 
 heard of a large island far to the west, which their forefathers had visited, 
 but the stories brought of the terrible giants who lived there under the 
 earth, and kept throwing out hot water and stones, had discouraged others 
 from going. 
 
 Now these chiefs said they would rather take their chances with the 
 giants than to be ruled by Harold Haarfager. So a number of them took 
 their wives, their children and all that they had, boarded their vessels and 
 sailed away to Iceland. 
 
 With nothing to oppose him Harold then went on strengthening and 
 improving his kingdom. And then it was that he commanded the earls to 
 stop their viking cruises and stay at home and cultivate their land. This 
 -was more than the conquered chiefs could stand. They had always consid- 
 ered viking very right and proper business for warriors ; but to stay at home 
 and work was altogether beneath their dignity, so they packed their goods 
 and followed the others to Iceland. A few stopped on the way at the islands 
 on the north of Scotland and settled there. 
 
 It was at this time that the Northmen, while sailing out in search of new 
 homes, ventured still farther than Iceland, some to Greenland and some to 
 the eastern shores of America, which they called Yinland. But for some 
 reason they did not choose to settle so far from the fatherland, and the 
 :account of their visit never went further than their own " sagas " until after 
 Columbus came across America on his way to India. 
 
 i The Yule Feast at Feowdheim. — Hakon, the youngest son of Harold, 
 the Fair-haired, spent most of his youth in England, where he was sent by 
 
Norway. 
 
 69 
 
 his father. When he came home he found the people suffering great 
 wrongs at the hands of his brother Erik, who had become king, and who on 
 account of his cruelties was called " Bloodaxe." Harold told the people that 
 if they would make him king he would treat them kindly, they were very 
 glad to hear this and crowned him without delay. His brother Erik could 
 not raise followers enough to fight him and so left the country. While 
 Hakon was in England he had become a Christian, and after he was 
 thoroughly established on the throne he called a great meeting at Frond- 
 heim, and standing up before the people told them that their religion was 
 not the true religion ; that there were no such gods as Odin and Thor and 
 Frigg; that there was only one God, the Lord, and he wanted them to serve 
 
 him. 
 
 The people were much astonished and very angry at this. They had a 
 high regard for the gods their forefathers had worshipped so many years, 
 and were not ready to give them up. One of the chiefs rose and said that 
 if the king was going to make them give up their gods and adopt a new 
 religion he should have nothing more to do with him. And this speech the 
 whole multitude loudly applauded. 
 
 Then the very polite and cautious Sigurd, Hakon' s uncle, stood up and 
 said that the king had no desire to force the new religion upon them, he 
 was simply recommending to them what he believed to be a better belief 
 than their old one. But this did not entirely dispel the anger of the people, 
 they insisted that Hakon should come to the great Yule feast that was 
 approaching and offer the sacrifice to the idols, as their other kings had 
 done. Sigurd promised that Hakon should do as they wished and the people 
 then went home. 
 
 On the day of the feast a great multitude came together at Frondheim. 
 The king was there, and when the sacred drinking horn that had been conse- 
 crated to Odin was offered to him they watched to see what he would do. 
 Now the king had decided that to appease the people he would drink, but 
 he would first make the sign of the cross in order to consecrate it anew to 
 the Lord. His subjects saw the motion and burst out in an angry uproar. 
 But Sigurd quieted them by saying that the sign the king had made was 
 that of Thor's mallet. 
 
 A short time after this the idolators found that the king was building 
 churches and attending them. Again they were very angry, and gathering 
 a large multitude they burned the churches, seized the king and compelled 
 him to eat a piece of horseflesh, which was considered a proof of paganism, 
 
70 Persons and Places in JEurope. 
 
 and drink three horns of wine, one to Odin, one to Thor and one to Frigg. 
 All of this Hakon did upon the advice of his uncle, but it made him more 
 disgusted than ever with their superstitions and more determined to put an 
 end to idolatry. He also decided to punish them for their disgraceful 
 treatment of himself — their king. 
 
 Had this threat been carried out there would probably have been a fierce 
 war in Norway, but just then Hakon' s nephews, the sons of Erik Blood- 
 axe, came with a number of Danes from Denmark to lay claim to the throne 
 of their father. Hakon was obliged to call on the people to assist him, 
 which they cheerfully did, for in spite of his having forsaken their gods 
 they were very fond of him for his kindness. They came, therefore, and 
 fought galantly until the sons of Erik were obliged to flee back to Den- 
 mark. 
 
 Hakon had not the heart after this to attempt to force his religion upon 
 the people who had served him so well. He remained a Christian himself 
 and induced many of his personal friends to forsake their idol worship. 
 The people became more and more attached to him, and after he died they 
 always spoke of him as Hakon the Good. 
 
 Olaf Tryggvason and the Pagans. — The honor of overthrowing idola- 
 try in Norway belongs to Olaf Tryggvason, a grandson of Hakon the Good, 
 and a very famous man in many respects. Before he became king he 
 had a number of exciting adventures, of which marvelous stories are told. 
 When he was but a baby, his cousins, the sons of Erik, and their mother, 
 Gunhild, tried to kill him, but his mother escaped with him to Russia, 
 where he grew up a dashing young viking. 
 
 One time when he was off on a cruise, he happened to be in Ireland on 
 the day when a young princess was to choose a husband. A large number 
 of nobles all dressed in their best, glittering in scarlet and gold, had ranged 
 themselves in a row in the streets, and a little to one side looking at the 
 show stood Olaf in his fur hood and cape thrown carelessly around him. 
 
 As the princess passed along, looking to see which of the nobles pleased 
 her most, she caught sight of the handsome Northman. Walking up to him 
 she looked him over and said she would take him for her husband. 
 
 Olaf, of course, was well pleased, and so he married the princess, settled 
 down in Ireland, and, in time, became a Christian. 
 
 After a while, his cousin, king of Norway heard of him and felt sure 
 that sooner or later he would come back to claim the throne. So he sent a 
 man to Ireland to tell Olaf that the people in Norway were rebelling against 
 
Norway. 
 
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 the king, and that if he 
 
 would only come and 
 
 make himself known 
 
 as the grandson of 
 
 Hakon the Good they 
 
 would receive him with 
 
 open arms. When once Olaf was in 
 
 Norway, Hakon thought he could easily 
 
 get him out of the way. 
 
72 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The young prince listened to the messenger, believed him, and returned 
 with him to Norway. "When the ship landed what was the astonishment of 
 the messenger to find than he had told the truth. The people were in open 
 rebellion against the king, and as soon as they heard that Olaf Tryggvason 
 was come, they received him with great gladness and crowned him king 
 at once. 
 
 Like Hakon the Good, Olaf as soon as he was established determined to 
 put away idolatry and introduce Christianity, but unlike Hakon he went 
 about it in no gentle manner. He too summoned a great meeting and told 
 the people that their idols were nothing but wood and stone, that the Lord 
 was the only true G-od and they must worship him. This aroused the 
 people's anger at once, and they made such an uproar that the king could 
 not say a word ; and they threathened to chase him out of the country if 
 he said anything more against their gods. To appease them he promised to 
 attend the Yule feast and offer the sacrifice. 
 
 But when he came to the feast with four of the most zealous idol 
 worshippers bound, and said that those were the sacrifices he should offer to 
 Odin, the people were taken back. The four men thought they would 
 rather be baptized into the Christian faith than offered up to Odin, so he let 
 them have their choice. 
 
 But the multitude still remained obstinate and would not listen when he 
 tried to talk to them. So he bade them come with him into the idol temple. 
 There he walked around, looked at the idols carefully, and then while all the 
 people were watching him raised his staff and knocked the great god Thor 
 off his pedestal and broke him all to pieces. Before the horrified people 
 had time to recover their surprise they found that their most zealous leader, 
 Ironbeard, had been killed. They had now no leader, and when the king 
 told them to take their choice either to be baptized or fight with him on the 
 spot they concluded to be baptized. 
 
 From this time paganism was uprooted in Norway though there was 
 much fighting and bloodshed before the peasants were ready to give up 
 their long-cherished idols. 
 
 The Hero of the Kringlejst Pass. — In the second century after Olaf 
 Tryggvason, the prosperity of Norway began to decline. Her line of kings 
 ran out, years of strife followed, and in 1380 she became a province of Den- 
 mark. After a period of over four hundred years she was transferred from 
 Denmark to Sweden with which country she is still united, but she has com- 
 pelled the Swedes to recognize her as an equal. Though reduced by bad 
 
Norway. ^ 
 
 eovernment and misfortunes her people were never weak-spirited ; they 
 have more than once proved themselves as brave as they are industrious 
 
 and honest. 4 _ , . „ a -, 
 
 An instance of this kind happened while Gustavus Adolphus ; of Sweden, 
 was waring with the Danes and Norwegians. A company of Scotts, under 
 Col Sinclair, having come over to help the Swedes, attempted to pass 
 through Norway instead of sailing around to Sweden by way of the Baltic, 
 They landed at the Romsdal fjord, and had gone as far as the pass of Krmg- 
 len in the vaUey of the Romsdal, when they were stopped. A company o± 
 about five hundred Norwegian peasants, headed by Lars Gram, had heard ol 
 their coming and stationed themselves on the heights above the pass, 
 armed with large stones and logs of wood, and when the unsuspecting 
 Scotts were just beneath them these things were hurled down upon 
 their heads. Such a sudden and unexpected attack threw the whole 
 regiment into confusion, and before they could recover Lars Gram and his 
 band rushed down upon them with their swords and only a few of the Scotts 
 
 Anna CoLBJOENSEN.-During the reign of Charles XII., of Sweden, 
 trouble broke out between that country and Norway, and Charles sent a 
 company of Swedes over to seize the silver mines at Kongsberg But they 
 were defeated, and the mines saved by the coolness and forethought ot a 
 clergyman's wife, whose name, Anna Colbjornsen, stands beside that o± Lars 
 Gram in the history of her country. 
 
 The Swedes reached Nordrehong, in the southern part of Norway, one 
 nio-ht lust after the clergyman and his wife had gone to bed. Colonel Loven, 
 the leader of the company, came to the house and demanded supper for his 
 men and a place in the out-houses for his sleeping quarters. 
 
 The o>ood couple arose to comply with the demand, and as Anna was 
 busy preparing the supper she overheard an important conversation between 
 
 the colonel and his men. . 
 
 About three miles away at Stien was quartered a Norwegian general, 
 Lutzow, with only a few soldiers, and he was ignorant of the arrival of the 
 Swedes The Swedish general proposed that early in the morning they 
 sally out and attack Colonel Lutzow. This Anna heard and she prepared 
 
 to prevent it. A 
 
 She showed every possible kindness and attention to her guests, and 
 
 finding that something more was needed for their comfort sent her servant 
 
 girl out to get it, so she told the colonel. But the girl had been bidden to 
 
74 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 go quickly to Stien and tell Colonel Lutzow of the arrival of the Swedes ; 
 also that she would light a bonfire when there was a favorable time for an 
 attack, and when he saw it he should come quickly and fall upon the intru- 
 ders. 
 
 When the Swedish colonel inquired of Anna the road to Stien, she told 
 him a wrong one ; when he stationed a boy at the door with a horse all 
 ready saddled that he might be able to start at a moment's notice, she made 
 the boy tipsy and had the horse locked up in the stable. Then she proposed 
 to the colonel to make a fire for the poor fellows who were watching out in 
 the cold, and the unsuspecting officer consented. As soon as the Norwegian 
 soldiers saw the signal they hurried forward, took Colonel Loven and a 
 number of the Swedes prisoners, put the rest to flight, and ate up the supper 
 that had been prepared for their enemies. 
 
 In the morning, as soon as it was light, Anna with one of her maids 
 went out to look around. The Swedes who had escaped capture still out- 
 numbered the Norwegians, and were now gathering together. One of the 
 officers pointed his gun at Anna, whom he probably suspected of treachery, 
 and seemed about to fire. The maid fainted, but Anna coolly asked the 
 officer if the King of Sweden kept his soldiers for the purpose of shooting 
 old women. This made the fellow ashamed of himself, so he lowered his gun 
 and asked her how many Norwegians there were in Colonel Lutzow' s band. 
 
 " See for yourself," said Anna. " They lie behind the church there as 
 thick as sand, and more than I can count." 
 
 The Swedes believed this and took themselves away as fast as they could 
 • — many being killed by the Norwegian soldiers or the peasants of the neigh- 
 borhood as they were going. 
 
 A Caeeiole Ride. — The people of Norway have many very excellent 
 qualities ; in true politeness they are not to be surpassed, they are honest 
 and industrious, and even when so poor that they have to put fir-bark in 
 the " flad-brod " to make it hold out, will give the best the house affords to 
 a stranger and seldom take any pay for their hospitality. 
 
 For this reason Norway is a pleasant country to visit. The traveler is 
 sure of being kindly treated and of finding friends whenever he needs them. 
 
 The mode of travel is interesting, and though not so rapid and convenient 
 in some respects as our own, it furnishes a good opportunity of seeing the 
 country and getting acquainted with the people. 
 
 A number of stations are established along the principal roads by the 
 government, and provided with ponies and " carrioles " to be let to travelers. 
 
Norway. 
 
 75 
 
 The carriole is a small two-wheeled vehicle with a seat for just one person 
 inside, and a step on the back for the boy who goes with the traveler from 
 one station to the next to bring the carriole and pony back _ 
 
 At a "fast" station a pony and oarriole can be had -within fifteen 
 minutes ; but at the slow ones, one must wait sometimes three or four 
 hours until a pony is found at a neighboring farm. 
 
 The roads in some places are not always the smoothest, but the beauty 
 of the landscapes through which one passes, the bright sunshine glimmering 
 throuo-h the trees, the music of the wild waterfall, and the invigorating air 
 fanning one's face, as the nimble little pony carries him swiftly along, makes 
 up for the unevenness of the road. 
 
 A whole day in some parts of Norway may be passed in a continuous 
 panorama of blue sky, bald mountains, dashing waterfalls, green slopes, 
 yellow-tinted fields, rich pine forests, and thriving farms. _ _ . 
 
 Sometimes the " skydskarl," or post-boy, proves to be an entertaining 
 little fellow, whose kindness, simplicity or precociousness whiles away the 
 time when the road proves tedious. 
 
 One traveler gives a pleasing account of his drive with a funny little 
 skydskarl, who seemed, he says, to be a fixed laugh all over. _ His mouth, 
 nose, ears, eyes, hair and chin was all turned up in a broad grin. Even the 
 elbows of his coat and the knees of his trousers were wide open with laugh- 
 ter He whistled, sang lively snatches of songs, joked with the horse, and 
 when the horse neighed, laughed a regular horse laugh to keep it company. 
 When they reached the station the traveler gave the boy an extra shilling 
 for his lively spirits, at which he grinned all over wider than ever, put the 
 change in his pocket, and with his red cap in one hand made a queer little 
 bow with his shaggy head, while he held out the other hand for the 
 traveler to shake. Everybody shakes hands in Norway. In one respect 
 the Norwegian ' ' skydskarl ' ' is unlike some American boys . He has a very 
 tender regard for the little pony that is a great pet in the family and 
 always treated kindly. If the traveler drives it too hard or whips it 
 unnecessarily the little fellow remonstrates in his strongest Norwegian, and 
 if no attention is paid to him he bursts into tears. But when the station is 
 reached he reports the. cruel traveler to the keeper, and then the traveler 
 finds it difficult to get another pony. 
 
 A Post Giul.— Sometimes a girl is sent with the carriole. The same 
 traveler gives an entertaining account of a ride he once took with a very 
 lively Norwegian girl. 
 
76 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 When lie was ready to start he looked around for the boy, but instead 
 he saw a young girl about sixteen years of age, with her cap and cape on. 
 bounding up behind the carriole. She whistled to the horse in a style 
 he seemed to understand perfectly well, for away he dashed down the hill 
 at a great rate. " I was afraid every moment I should be pitched out and 
 rolled down the precipice." 
 
 " Na ! Reise! Reise /" cried this extraordinary girl, and away we 
 went over rocks, into ruts, and against roots and bushes ; bouncing spring- 
 ing, splashing and dashing through mud holes ; whirling past terrific pits, 
 jagged pinnacles of rock and yawning gulfs of darkness ; through gloomy 
 patches of pine, out again into open spaces, and along the brinks of fearful 
 precipices ; over rickety wooden bridges and through foaming torrents that 
 dashed out over the road, the wild girl clinging fast behind, the little pony 
 flying along madly in front, the carriole creaking and rattling as if going toJ 
 pieces, and myself hanging on to the reins in a perfect agony of doubti 
 whether each moment would not be our last. 
 
 Trees whirled by, waterfalls flashed upon my astonished eyes, streaks of I 
 sunshine and of gloom dazzled me, and I could see nothing clearly. There; 
 was a horrible jumble in my mind of black rocks and blue eyes, pine forests,, 
 flying clouds, the roar of torrents and the ringing voice of the maiden as; 
 she cried, " Sknyde pa ! s~knyde pa /" (faster, faster.) 
 
 Only one thought was in my mind, the fear of being dashed to pieces 
 If I could only stop the pony, but I dared not attempt it. A pull at the; 
 reins would throw him upon his haunches, and carriole and all would go 
 spinning over him into some horrible abyss. And yet the wild damsel 
 whistled and shouted, " sJcnyde pa ! sfcnyde pa ! Riese /" She seized the 
 whip and cracked it around the pony's ears until he broke into a frantic 
 run, and yet she shrieked, " faster ! faster !" 
 
 By this time I was positively beside myself with terror, I closed my eyes 
 and gasped for breath. A fearful bouncing of the carriole made me open 
 them again. We had struck a rock and were now spinning along the edge 
 of a mighty abyss on one wheel, the other performing a sort of balance in 
 the air. I caught sight of a long stretch of level road beyond ! O ! if the 
 terrible creature would only stop whistling and cracking her whip, and driv- 
 ing the pony crazy with her cries until we reached it ! But the nearer we 
 approached to the bottom of the hill the wilder she became. JN T ow she 
 actually danced on the little board with delight, now leaning over to get a 
 good cut at the pony's tail with her whip while she whistled more fiercely 
 
Norway. 
 
 77 
 
 than ever and cried, " Flue ! Gaae ! Reise /" The poor little animal was 
 reeking with sweat, and it was a miracle that he did not drop down. 
 
 By great good fortune, aided by my skill in driving, we made the turn, 
 and in a few minutes were safely jogging along the level road. Quite bewild- 
 ered I turned around to see what manner of being this girl was. And if she 
 wasn't shaking her sides with laughter at the confusion and astonishment 
 she had caused me. 
 
 CHRISTIANIA. 
 
 In a little while the station house was in sight, and here I had to part 
 with my lively post girl. I gave her double the usual fee, at which she 
 made a very polite courtesy, gave me a hearty shake of the hand, and wished 
 me a pleasant journey. 
 
 AFahm-house. — The stations along thecarriole routes are usually at some 
 farm-house, which looks more like a village than a country residence, because 
 of the numerous sheds and out-houses huddled around it. There are cow- 
 sheds, sheep-sheds, pig-styes, chicken-cribs, store-rooms and lodging-houses 
 
78 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 all huddled around the barn as though that was the centre of attraction. 
 
 And when on top of all these, oats, weeds, flowers, moss or young trees are 
 
 seen growing out of the sod roofs it looks as if the people had made up 
 
 for the loss of the ground their buildings occupy by planting their gardens 
 
 on the roofs of the houses. 
 
 The family room of the place is usually large, as it must needs be to 
 
 accomodate the number of people and the various kinds of work carried on 
 
 there during the long winter evenings. 
 
 The floor is covered with home-made rugs, and a large porcelain stove 
 
 stands in the center of the room reaching nearly to the ceiling. 
 
 When the hay-making season arrives this little village is deserted all 
 
 day, for all hands are needed to gather every spear of grass that can be 
 found. The field may lie on the other side of a torrent that must be crossed 
 on a rickety bridge, or in a boat ; or it may be at the top of a dizzy cliff that 
 must be climbed at the risking of broken limbs ; no matter. A long, cold 
 winter is coming when the cattle will need more than can be gathered if 
 every spear is brought home. 
 
 Some farm-houses are built upon such high precipices that the path up 
 to them is very difficult and dangerous. Stepping places have to be made 
 by fixing logs against the face of the cliffs. The small children are " hob- 
 bled" to keep them from going too near the dangerous edge. 
 
 • When a death occurs in one of these out-of-the-way houses no hearse 
 can be brought to carry the dead away. The body has to be put into a bas- 
 ket and carried down the cliff on some one's back. 
 
 The Fishing Grounds .—Compared with other countries Norway has but 
 little farm land, the fisheries are the chief dependence of a large proportion 
 of the people. Every year, as the season draws near, they leave their homes 
 and go to the fishing grounds to stay for several weeks. 
 
 The Loffoden Islands is a favorite resort of the codfish, and about the 
 first of February the place begins to swarm with fishermen. The little Lapps 
 set up their canvas tents, the log-houses are filled to overflowing, hundreds 
 of fishing boats glide about the bays loaded to the water's edge, and numer- 
 ous trading vessels arrive to buy fish and sell coffee, sugar, bread, tobacco and 
 other things to the fishermen. On the shore are crowds of men and women 
 opening and cleaning the fish which are piled in heaps everywhere ; rows of 
 fish strung on poles are drying in the sun; barrels of cod-livers are 
 standing around, and heads and refuse are heaped everywhere, smelling 
 horribly. 
 
80 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The fishing grounds are divided into districts, in each of which is a 
 Station or headquarter where the boats assemble in the morning before 
 starting out. No one is allowed to go before the appointed time, for allmusj 
 have an equal chance in the fishing harvest. 
 
 Early in the morning the men come from their huts and take their places 
 in the boat, five or six usually in each one. All eyes are then turned toward 
 the flag-staff as the men wait with ready oars for the signal. Suddenly the 
 flag rises. A thousand oars strike the water, and the boats are pulled 
 rapidly away to the place where the fish are caught. In the afternoon they 
 come back with their loads, and the fishers tired and hungry hurry in to 
 their dinner. They do not mind the fatigue if they have had good luck, 
 but some seasons the fish are very scarce. Then all their toil and hardship 
 brings but little return, and the poor fishermen go home with heavy hearts 
 knowing there will be little bread for the hungry mouths the coming year. 
 One of the most profitable part of the cod-fisheries is the manufacture of 
 cod-liver oil in which a new process is being used, not so disgusting as the 
 old. The livers used to be allowed to stand in a tank and rot until the oil 
 rose to the top ; this was skimmed off, and the reeking mass was boiled to 
 extract the remainder of the oil. The stench around such an establishment 
 was terrible. 
 
 The latest process is to take the fresh livers, sort them carefully, throwing 
 away the bad ones, and boil the healthy ones in a large tank after they have 
 been washed and drained. The oil thus obtained is of a much better quality 
 than that from rotted livers. Herring-fisheries are carried on at Stavanger 
 and vicinity, begining on the first of January and lasting about three months, 
 with another short season in the early fall. There is not a set time for the 
 boats to go out here as in the cod-fisheries, for the herrings travel in large 
 shoals. When the watchers see a number of gulls and other sea-birds hover- 
 ing over a certain place in the sea they know there is a shoal of herring 
 underneath. The signal is quickly given, and the boats go out to cast the 
 nets with a great deal of shouting and noise ; it is an exciting time. As 
 soon as the " cast" has been made the men begin to take out the fish by 
 means of large baskets fastened on poles. Sometimes all of the boats are 
 filled and the net has to be held until they can go ashore and empty. As 
 many as thirty thousand barrels have been taken at a single catch, and more 
 than a million barrels are caught during the season if the fishing is good. 
 
 A Norwegian Dinner Party.— In the winter while the fishermen are 
 toiling away with their nets in the cold, the wealthier classes are enjoying 
 
Norway. 
 
 81 
 
 themselves at dinner parties, which are very fashionable in Norway. ^ Each 
 householder makes a big dinner, and invites all of his friends, expecting, of 
 course, to be invited by each one of them in return. Those who fail to return 
 the compliment he is pretty sure to drop from his list of guests another year. 
 The company at a dinner party meet in a large ante-room, says a traveler 
 who attended some of these, and stand about, the gentlemen by themselves, 
 
 and the ladies by themselves, all looking very grave and solemn. After 
 about an hour the dinner is announced. A few of the oldest gentlemen 
 escort some of the oldest ladies, the others go by themselves. If it is a 
 " stand-up" party, all stand around the table, plate in one hand and 
 knife and fork in the other, and help themselves to whatever they wish. 
 There is some crowding and pushing, but every one is good-natured and eats 
 and drinks as though that was what he came for. 
 
82 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 And there is enough on the table to keep them all busy for some time,. 
 There are hot crab pies, sausages, oyster patties, lobster, cold meats, cold 
 sliced fish, raw herrings, old cheese, hot vegetables and " flad-brod." 
 
 When this tableful is exhausted, and while the gentlemen are washing 
 the last down with draughts of wine, the ladies withdraw to the desert 
 table, where the gentlemen soon follow. This table is loaded with all kinds 
 of pastries, ices, jellies, and many other dainty dishes which soon disappear 
 before the hearty company. 
 
 The dinner ends with speech-making, very solemn and dignified, and 
 then games follow and dancing. The gentlemen do a great deal of smoking, 
 and the ladies considerable gossiping, as elsewhere, and then the party 
 breaks up, usually at an early hour. 
 
 Before leaving everybody shakes hands with the hostess and thanks her 
 for the meal ; to forget to do tnis would be considered very bad manners, 
 and an ill-mannered person is seldom found in Norway. The people always 
 take off their hats when they meet a friend, or a stranger, when they enter 
 a house or even a shop to make a trifling purchase. Common laborers, 
 fishermen and private soldiers salute each other with a bow and doff their 
 hats, even the children are carefully taught to bow politely to each other in 
 the streets. 
 
 Feast Days. — Two great festivals are held every year in Norway ; one 
 on St. John's day, the twenty-fourth of June, and the other at Christmas 
 time. These feasts have been observed ever since they first originated in 
 honor of Odin, Thor, and Frigg; but when the Christian religion was intro- 
 duced the honors were changed, while the feasts remained the same. The 
 festival now begins by going to church, instead of to the temple of Odin. 
 
 The chief amusement at the spring festival is dancing round the May- 
 poles, which are covered with flowers and evergreens, and sometimes with 
 colored egg-shells, gilded hearts, and festoons of colored paper. 
 
 The houses are also hung with festoons about the doors and windows, 
 the horses and wagons are decorated with evergreens, and even the ships 
 in the harbors are decked out with birch boughs. 
 
 But the Yule feast at Christmas time is the favorite holiday season, 
 especially among the farmers. Their out-door work is finished then, and 
 they have plenty of time for feasting and dancing. Sometimes the merry- 
 making is kept up for thirteen days, called " The Thirteen Days of Yule." 
 
 At this time all the old heirlooms of the family are brought out, the old 
 pottery, wooden spoons and vessels, and gilded tankards that have descended 
 
Norway. 
 
 83 
 
 from the old Viking forefathers. Baking and brewing is carried on on a 
 large scale in the kitchens for days before the feast begins. The fatted calf 
 or sheep is killed, and fish, venison and bird meat brought out from the 
 larders where they have been kept in waiting. 
 
 Not the people alone are feasted at this time but the birds and domestic 
 animals as well. Two or three days before Christmas, sheaves of oats are 
 driven into the towns by the sleigh-loads. Everyone, rich and poor, buy at 
 
 PEASANTS. 
 
 least a bunch to place on their houses, fences, or on along pole for the birds. 
 The sight of the little creatures fluttering around these sheaves, filling 
 their hungry crops with the grain, warms the hearts of these kindly people 
 and prepares them for a heartier enjoyment of their own feast. The old 
 horse, the cattle, and even the goats and pigs, are given a double portion of 
 food on this day, often more than they can eat. 
 
 A great deal of cleaning is also done on the day before Christmas. The 
 floors are scrubbed and strewn with fir or juniper leaves, and when all is 
 
84 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 finished, every member of the family takes a bath. Sometimes, sad to say, 
 it is the only bath they do take in the whole year. 
 
 Much merry-making goes on among the young people during the feast, 
 they hide each others shoes, black their faces, dress up in all sorts of 
 fantastical clothing, sing songs and dance, and have a much happier time 
 than people who have more of the good things of the world, but less good- 
 ness of heart. 
 
 TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 The low, flat country that rises out of the sea just south of Norway and 
 Sweden, forming with them the third Scandinavian country, has received, if 
 anything, fewer blessings from the hand of Nature than her sisters to the 
 north, and more adversities. She is the victim of blasting fogs, ocean floods 
 and desolating storms of wind and sand. But when the sun does come out 
 he shines upon many a bright-green meadow, grain covered hill, rich dark 
 forest, neatly kept garden and snug little cottage ; and also upon many fine 
 old castles filled with the memories and relics of Denmark's former glory. 
 For Denmark has had days of glory ; her dominion once extended over the 
 whole of Scandinavia, far away Iceland and Greenland, and other islands of 
 the sea. But Norway and Sweden have been taken from her, Schleswig- 
 Holstein cut off, and now only a little corner of Northwestern Europe is left 
 her, the barren peninsula of Jutland and a few islands to the east ; she still 
 holds Iceland and Greenland. 
 
 Sands and Sand Dunes.— It would be hard to find a more desolate 
 region than the northwestern part of Jutland. Nothing but sand and sea 
 and wrecks— marks of the sea' s fury— can be seen for miles . No roads ; the 
 smooth sand of the beach, brought in by the ocean at high tide, is driven 
 before the wind like snow in winter time, covering everything and making 
 high drifts or " dunes." The houses, when there are any, are half hidden by 
 sand-hills, and gardens, if any one is venturous enough to make them, are 
 in constant danger of being buried or caught up and carried away. 
 
 Whole cornfields planted on top of these treacherous sands have been 
 lifted up and whirled away, and whole fields are often buried. 
 
 In late years a kind of reed grass is sown on the dunes, and this taking 
 root forms a net- work over the sand that holds it down. In the extreme 
 northern part of Jutland once stood the old town of Skagen. Year after 
 year the people had to move their houses further inland because of the 
 
86 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 intruding drifts. In the churchyard the sand gathered as high as the walls, 
 then overtopped them and covered the graves and tombstones, and gathered 
 against the church until it hid the walls and windows. Still the people did 
 not like to give up their house of worship even though they had to shovel 
 their way to the door. But one Sunday morning, when they came together 
 for worship, they found that an enormous drift entirely blocked up the door; 
 to get in was impossible. So the clergyman read a prayer and dismissed 
 the people saying, " The Lord" has shut up His house here ; we must build 
 one somewhere else." Now nothing but the steeple of the old church is to 
 be seen rising above the sand. 
 
 The " Skaw."— Sailors long ago named the northern point of Jutland 
 "the Skaw," because of the fierce storms that raged there. Much they 
 dreaded coming into that dangerous region where countless numbers of fine 
 ships have gone down. For many years the shore was constantly strewn 
 with wrecks. The people built their houses of the planks and timbers' cast 
 up by the sea. Hans Christian Andersen tells of a shed that had for its 
 roof the hull of a boat, and of a great image of Walter Scott, which had 
 once been the figure-head of a ship bearing the poet's name, set up to orna- 
 ment a fisherman's potato garden. 
 
 A light-house now warns ships off the dangerous coast, and the people 
 of Skagen are prepared with the best kind of life-saving apparatus to go to 
 the rescue of those in danger of being shipwrecked. 
 
 "Follow us up yonder," says Hans Christian Andersen, "in a storm 
 when an ill-fated ship lies fast in the sand out there, and the raging billows 
 are breaking over its planks. There is not a bold denizen of the ' Skaw' 
 who will not risk his life to save its helpless human freight. Leave your 
 room during the pitch-dark night ! The storm is so furious that you cannot 
 hear the roaring of the sea ; the wind's terrific blasts meet you as you enter 
 the open air; the drifting sand, and clouds of small, sharp stones beat 
 against your face. You perceive over you and around you a power which 
 seems mighty enough to suck up the sea itself; a thundering noise is burst- 
 ing over you and seemingly over the whole world. Climb up to the top of 
 the sand hills m that deep gloom. Crawl on during the gusts of wind, and 
 when you have gained the top, and when you have become somewhat 
 accustomed to the blinding salt spray in your eyes, and the tomb-like dark- 
 ness around, glance down on the boiling, foaming sea, and listen to— more 
 piercing than the sea-bird's shrillest screams— that harrowing cry for help 
 that cry of wild despair. 
 
88 Persons and Places in JBurope. 
 
 " Suddenly there is a light — a bonfire is kindled — and away out from the 
 land a rocket is thrown towards the ship. By the flickering blue light of 
 the bonfire they see the stranded vessel, fast imprisoned in the sand ; the 
 heavy frothing billows are dashing against it and vaulting over it ; the peo- 
 ple on board, in the mortal agony of impending death, are running against 
 each other, some holding on by the rigging ; the next tremendous wave 
 may sweep them off into the raging sea, and crushing the planks and beams 
 scatter them like chips over the shore. 
 
 ' ' But helpful hands are near. A line is bound to the rocket that fell over 
 the ship ; the line drew out a stronger rope ; a connection was thus formed 
 between the land and the wrecked vessel, and by its means every one on 
 board is brought safely to the shore." 
 
 The Islands. — There is a wide contrast between the sand banks of Jut- 
 land and the fertile islands lying to the east, constituting the most important 
 parts of Denmark. Amak, just east of the city of Copenhagen, and connec- 
 ted with it by bridges, is called the garden of the city, for here is raised 
 nearly everything in the eating line that appears on its tables. 
 
 Bornholm has given to Copenhagen the stones that pave her streets, the 
 marble that adorns them, and the clay out of which her famous porcelain is 
 made. 
 
 The island of Moen, southeast of Zealand, has been called the " museum 
 of northern antiquities," because it contains so many tumuli and cairns and 
 other old burial places in which are found quantities of curious vessels, 
 weapons, beads, and gold and silver ornaments. They are the work of very 
 early races who peopled Scandinavia, and of whom history gives no account. 
 
 This island contains also some of the finest scenery in Denmark ; it 
 abounds in pretty lakes, beautiful narrow valleys, and fertile fields out of 
 which rise a number of snowy white chalk cliffs. 
 
 Elf-Folk. — On all the islands of Denmark, but especially on Bornholm, 
 the people used to believe a great deal in a race of Elf -folk, that they 
 thought lived under the ground working at blacksmithing, tin-making and 
 other trades, and sometimes appeared to people and helped them out of dif- 
 ficulties. 
 
 Once when some Swedish ships of war threatened to attack Bornholm, 
 they say that a company of elf soldiers came out of the ground in such 
 numbers that the Swedes were frightened and went away. It was also 
 declared that on bright moonlight nights these elf soldiers could be seen on 
 the hill-sides practising with their arms. As nearly as the observers could 
 
Denmark. 8 ^ 
 
 see, the soldiers wore light-blue, or steel-gray uniforms and red caps some- 
 toes three cornered hats. The sound of their drums could be heard at times, 
 and small round stones which they used for bullets could be found on the 
 ground. But such stories are now caUed " old wives tales 
 
 Odin's IsLAND.-The island of Fyen, which lies midway between Zealand 
 and Jutland, was long regarded as sacred ground by the early Danes. Here 
 the great Odin landed, and built the city to which he gave his name. Here 
 his temple stood, the Mecca of the rich vikings who brought their plunder 
 to the altars of their god, that by his favor they might gam more. 
 
 When Christianity was preached in Denmark, the people of Fyen were 
 among the first to embrace it, and here at Odensee was erected the church oi 
 St. Knud, Denmark's patron saint. _ . 
 
 Again in the time of the Reformation Fyen was the first to change its 
 religion. HanseTausen, a learned citizen of Odensee, became such a leading 
 reformer that he was called " the Danish Luting." 
 
 King Gorm and Queen THYRA.-During the early years of Denmark s 
 history the country was occupied by a number of petty chiefs, each oi 
 which ruled over his own band, and there was no king. But m the time ot 
 the Yiking expeditions, in which the Jutes and Danes joined the Swedes 
 and Norwegians, Gorm, one of the Danish chiefs, made himself king ^ He 
 remained at home one year when the others sailed away, and after they were 
 gone, Mlupon their provinces, conquered them, and w ^f hec ^ iefs "^ 
 he was ruler of the whole of Denmark. They must have thought when 
 they found their estates had been seized that the tables had been turned 
 npon them, and that " viking " sometimes worked both ways 
 
 After he had established himself as king of the country, Gorm went off 
 on a sea-voyage again, and during his absence the Franks on the south kept 
 i making trouble about the boundary line between his dominion and theirs. 
 Finally Queen Thyra, Gorm's wife, sent word to aU the chieftain. ; of Den- 
 mark that she wished to see them, and when they were assembled she talked 
 to them about the trouble with the Franks, and asked each one to state 
 before the others what he would give toward building a wall along the south- 
 ern boundary for a defence. AU the chiefs gave bountifully and oheerftdly 
 toward the object, and when Gorm returned he found a line of earth-works 
 ten miles long built up between his kingdom and that of ^™^™ 
 neighbors. This line served for a long time as a barrier against the Jnanks. 
 Queen Thyra has always been held in grateful remembrance by the 
 Danes for this, and many other wise deeds. They gave her the name ot 
 
90 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Danebod "the people's pride." It was she that first brought Christianity 
 into the country from France, where she had been baptized. She invited 
 Christian missionaries into Denmark to preach to her pagan subjects, and 
 she had her son Harold baptized into the new faith. Afterward he became 
 the first Christian king of Denmark. 
 
 In the southeastern part of Jutland near the Vezle Fjord stand two 
 monuments bearing the names of King Gform and Queen Thyra. On one is 
 written in runic writing : 
 
 " King Grorm constructed this barrow to his wife Thyra Danmarksbod ;" 
 on the other, " King Harold caused this barrow to be made to his father 
 Gorm and his mother Thyra ; the same Harold who acquired all Denmark 
 and Norway and Christianity as well." 
 
 Roskilde Cathedral. — On the island of Zealand, not far from Copen- 
 hagen, stands the famous cathedral of Roskilde, where all the kings of Den- 
 mark have been buried sinc| Harold Blatand, the son of Queen Thyra, built 
 here the first Christian church in honor of the new religion he had embraced. 
 It was built almost within sight and sound of the great temple of Odin, at 
 Ledre, where every seven or nine years the blood of human sacrifice flowed 
 over the pagan altars. 
 
 The church that Harold erected was only a wooden one. About a hundred 
 years afterward a handsome stone building was built in its place by Svend 
 Estrisden, a nephew of Canute the Great. The interior of the cathedral has 
 remained nearly the same from that day to this ; but each passing century has 
 added something to its furnishings . There are altar pieces made for it in the 
 thirteenth century, carved seats of the fourteenth, a curious piece of clock 
 work of the fifteenth, a grand organ, the finest in Scandinavia, of the six- 
 teenth, and a splendid pulpit, font and pew of the seventeenth century. 
 
 In the great vault of the cathedral stand side by side the coffins of the 
 kings. A hundred gorgeous caskets rich in silver and gold and curious 
 workmanship is all that remains of the great Harolds, the Canutes, the 
 Valdemars, the Christians and the Fredericks, who once swayed the sceptre 
 of Denmark. 
 
 The Valdemars. — Three of the early and most powerful kings of Den- 
 mark bore the name of Valdemar. The first won the title of " the Great," 
 by making seventeen successful wars upon the Pagans of the South, and 
 by clearing the northern seas of the Wendish pirates that were treating the 
 Danish coasts as the Danes had treated those of England and France a few 
 years before. 
 
Denmark. 91 
 
 Valdemar II. was as successful a warrior as his father, and the title " the 
 Victorious " was given to him. During his reign Norway, Sweden and the 
 northern part of Germany belonged to Denmark. Her ships ruled the 
 waves ; her warriors conquered wherever they fought. This has been caUed 
 her " Golden Age." 
 
 It was at this time, while Valdemar was fighting with the Wends, that 
 Denmark received, so the story goes, her national ensign, the red banner 
 bearing a white cross. While the battle was raging, and just as the Danes, 
 after a long day's fight, were beginning to give way before the Wends, this 
 banner feU from the skies. The sight of the emblem of their faith— the 
 cross _ gaV e to the Danes new strength while the pagans fell back frightened 
 at the strange appearance. Before another day dawned, this banner, which 
 they named the " Dannebrog " waved over the heads of thousands of 
 Wendish converts. 
 
 Queen Dagmar's Cross.— In the Museum of Northern Antiquities at 
 Copenhagen is a curious old cross that is held in almost as much veneration 
 as the national flag. It is called " Queen Dagmar's Cross." 
 
 Queen Dagmar was the wife of Valdemar II., who, before her marriage, 
 was a Bohemian Princess. He reputation for beauty and goodness reached 
 the ears of king Valdemar and he sent for her to make her his wife. 
 
 She began to be a blessing to Denmark as soon as she entered the coun- 
 try. She obtained from the king the release of the good bishop of Waldemar, 
 who had been imprisoned for eighteen years . She requested also the release 
 of all captives, and that the plow-rent should no longer be collected from the 
 poor. This the king was at first unwilling to grant, but when she told him 
 that she would go back to her father if he did not do it he consented. 
 
 After this Queen Dagmar was the idol of the people. Her praises were on 
 every lip, and the blessings of the peasants followed her wherever she went. 
 The cross which is kept as a national memorial of this queen is about 
 an inch and a quarter long, and one inch wide. It bears on one side the figure 
 of the Saviour, on the other five medallions, the heads of the Virgin Mary, 
 St. Basil, and the two St. Johns. The figures are aU of most excellent work- 
 manship in gold and enamel, and so fine and clear that the print of the 
 nails in the palms of the Saviour's hands can be plainly seen. The complex- 
 ion of the face is clear and transparent, and the hair and beard as natural as 
 life. On each side of the body under the outstretched arms are two en- 
 amelled scrolls, and above the head a blue enamelled circle bordered with 
 purple and gold. A very fine imitation of Queen Dagmar's cross was made 
 
Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 
 for the Princess Alexandria, daughter of Christian IX., when she was mar 
 ried to the Prince of Wales, and is valued as one of her most cherished 
 treasures. 
 
 Goose Towee.— In the southern part of the island of Zealand, at Yor- 
 dingborg, stands the ruins of an old castle built by Valdemar the Great. 
 Both he and his son died there, and there a hundred years later their name- 
 sake, Yaldemar III., dwelt for a time. 
 
 This Yaldemar left his mark upon one of the towers of the castle in the 
 shape of a golden goose which he had made to commemorate a joke that he 
 once played upon some members of the Hanseatic league when they came 
 to visit him. 
 
 This league was a union of large commercial cities on the Baltic, which 
 grew to be so powerful that they could compel the surrounding kings to do 
 about as they pleased— all but Yaldemar. He paid no attention to the 
 league or its demands, so a delegate from each of the seventy-seven cities 
 composing the league was sent to Yaldemar' s castle to remonstrate with 
 him. Having heard that Denmark was a very cold country they came well 
 provided with plenty of warm clothing, furs and blankets. When Yalde- 
 mar heard of this, he said, " Now we will have some fun." 
 
 He commanded that the guests should be received in the large banquet- 
 ing hall, and that roaring fires should be built in . every stove in the 
 room. 
 
 When the guests arrived they were politely conducted into the hall 
 where a feast was spread and the doors were locked. And here in this hot 
 room they were kept all night in their heavy fur coats and blanket trousers, 
 with the perspiration streaming from every pore, while the king and his 
 courtiers were as cool as cucumbers. 
 
 ^ In the morning Yaldemar sent them away with the assurance that he 
 did not care a fig for the Hanseatic towns nor anything they could do. In 
 memory of his good joke upon these " fat geese," as he caUed his Hansea- 
 tic visitors, he had a golden goose put upon one of the towers of the castle. 
 The tower, which was afterwards called the " goose tower," is still stand- 
 ing, though most of the castle is in ruins. 
 
 The Hunting Grounds of Guere.— In the eastern part of Zealand lies 
 a famous hunting ground of Gurre, where according to the belief of some 
 simple country folks, King Yaldemar rides every night with his hounds. 
 The reason for this curious behavior of the rather queer old king is that he 
 once said that if the Lord would give him Gurre wood he did not care for 
 
Denmark. 93 
 
 Heaven. And now, they say, he is receiving his punishment for his blasphe- 
 mous wish, by being compelled to ride there every night. 
 
 During the festival of St. John's eve some of the old women have a 
 custom of going out to open the gates for King Valdemar. But if they hear 
 him coming, hear the cracking of whips, the shouting of the huntsmen, and 
 the yelping of the dogs they must get out of the way, they say, for some- 
 times King Yaldemar stops and asks them to hold his dogs for an hour. 
 He always pays well for the service, but the coin is so hot, showing what 
 torment he endures, that it will burn a hole through one's hand if one takes 
 it. But if allowed to lie on the ground until it is cool it will be found to be 
 
 pure gold. ... 
 
 The way King Yaldemar came to be so much attached to Gurre wood is 
 
 accounted for as follows : . t ,, 
 
 There was a very lovely lady in Denmark named Loveldle, whom the 
 king liked very much, and when she died his sorrow was so great that he 
 could not quit her corpse, bub had it carried about with him wherever he 
 went This caused so much inconvenience to those about him that one ot 
 his courtiers tried to find out what it was that so attracted the king to the 
 dead body. He found an enchanted ring upon the finger of the corpse, 
 which he took off and put upon his own hand. 
 
 Immediately the king showed no further regard for the body of Love- 
 line, but became greatly attached to this courtier. Nothing was too good 
 for him, and the king could not bear him out of his sight a moment 
 
 At first the courtier enjoyed his great privileges, but after a while he 
 began to grow tired of so much very particular attention, and knowing that 
 the ring was the cause of it, he determined to throw it away. So one day as 
 he was riding through Gurre wood he tossed the ring into a thicket. From 
 that time there was nothing that King Yaldemar enjoyed so much as hunt- 
 ing in Gurre wood. He built him a castle there, and spent nearly all of his 
 time in the forest, having no desire for anything better. 
 
 The Semiramus of the Noeth.— One day as Yaldemar III. was out rid- 
 ing he saw a beautiful little brown-eyed girl weaving a garland of flowers. 
 He was so pleased with her that he placed her on his horse and said, M ow 
 where shall we ride ?" . 
 
 "To the castle," she replied, "where that wicked old king keeps my 
 mother a prisoner." By this Yaldemar knew that the child was his own 
 daughter whose mother he had kept shut up in a castle for years because 
 she had displeased him. He had never permitted the child to be brought 
 
94 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 near him before, but now he was so pleased with her that he had her sent to 
 Copenhagen and educated. 
 
 When she was ten years of age she was married to the king of Norway 
 Her son, Olaf , inherited the throne of both Norway and Denmark, but died 
 at an early age. The councillors of Denmark then chose Margaret as the 
 " all-powerful lord and master of Denmark." and a year afterward the Nor- 
 wegians chose her for their " king and ruler." 
 
 Their elections did not please Albert, king of Sweden, who had been plan- 
 ning to have the crowns of Denmark and Norway conferred upon himself 
 But he ruled his own country so poorly that the Swede's desired Margaret 
 to come and be their ruler. She accepted the invitation at once and raised 
 an army to assist in dethroning Albert, he of course opposed this with all 
 the forces he could muster, and to show his contempt for a woman warrior 
 sent her a whetstone with the message that she would do well to sharpen her 
 needles and leave swords to men. The taunt cost him dear, for when soon 
 after this Margaret's forces conquered, and Albert was taken prisoner, she 
 ordered him to be brought to her in a woman's gown and a fool's cap, " since 
 he had not known how to light in men's attire." 
 
 Margaret governed the three kingdoms so well that the people lived 
 peacefully together, and a few years later she was able to unite the three 
 countries m one government by what was called the Kalmar union which 
 lasted for many years, but which was the cause in after years of much 
 fighting and bloodshed. It was the « Blood Bath " in Sweden that put an 
 end to this union. 
 
 The Horn of Oldenborg.— During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies the kings of Denmark spent a great deal of time and money in 
 building fine castles. Many of these now serve as museums in which are 
 collected the interesting relics of other days, and are the scenes of numer- 
 ous stories concerning the kings, queens and princes who once held their 
 gay courts within the walls. One of these castles stands in the center of 
 the city of Copenhagen, though when it was built bv Christian IV for a 
 summer residence it stood outside. The city did not extend as far then as 
 
 now. 
 
 In this fine old building are to be seen many interesting relics, the prop- 
 erty of former kings and queens, and among them a magnificent silver drink- 
 ing horn, ornamented with pearl, ruby, emerald, amethyst and o- ld 1 
 very wonderful legend has often been told about the way this horn came 
 into the possession of Count Otto of Oldenborg many years ago 
 
Denmark. 
 
 95 
 
 One day as the count was out hunting he became separated from his 
 companions and wandered off into an unfrequented path. The weather was 
 very hot, and the King, reigning in his horse, sighed for a drink of cold 
 water He had scarcely ended his wish when the side of the mountain 
 opened and a beautiful maiden with long golden hair stood before him. 
 
 The count had seen many beautiful women, but the loveliness of this one 
 completely bewildered him. She wore a crown of gold upon her head, a 
 
 CRONBERG CASTLE. 
 
 light gossamer robe that f eU gracefully about her, and a wreath of beautiful 
 
 flowers. A 
 
 While the count was wondering at her marvelous beauty she stepped. 
 toward him and held out a silver horn saying, in a voice that sounded 
 sweeter than the strains of a iEoliaft harp, " Drink of this Count Otto then 
 fortune shaU favor thee and the whole house of Oldenborg. But if thou 
 refuse to empty this horn, dissentions and misfortune shaU befall thy house 
 and evil shall betide thy race." 
 
06 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The count placed the horn to his lips intending to obey the maiden, but 
 as soon as he tasted the liquid with which it was filled he discovered 'thai 
 it was intensely bitter and had a poisonous odor. 
 
 His admiration for the beautiful maiden was at once turned to disgust 
 and he dashed the liquid upon the ground. As he did so a drop fell upon 
 his horse's hair and singed it in an instant. 
 
 When the maiden saw what he did, she commanded him to return the] 
 horn at once, but with a polite bow he said, "What has once been given to 
 me must never be taken away." 
 
 With this he spurred up his horse and soon overtook his companions.! 
 The horn was always kept by the house of Oldenborg until it was brought! 
 to Copenhagen and placed in Rosenborg Castle. 
 
 Cronborg Castle.— At the northeastern extremity of the island of Zea- 
 land, near the town of Elsinore, stands the famous castle of Cronborg, 
 around which a number of interesting stories and legends centre. It was 
 built by Frederick II., the father of Christian IV., for a fortress to guard 
 the entrance to the Sound, but in form it has the elegance and grandeur of : 
 a palace. For many years all vessels passing through the Sound were' 
 obliged to stop and pay toll at Cronborg Castle,which the Danes claimed as 
 their pay for keeping up the lighthouse. This privilege has now been taken 
 away from her, and the United States was one of the first countries that 
 objected to paying the " Sound dues." 
 
 Cronborg Castle is noted especially as the place where Queen Matilda, 
 sister of George III., of England, and wife of Christian VII., of Denmark' 
 was for a long time imprisoned. 
 
 Her husband's mother, the Queen dowager of Denmark, being 
 anxious to secure the throne for her son Frederick, sought to make trouble 
 between Queen Matilda and the King. Her opportunity came on a night in 
 June, when a masked ball was given at the palace, and all the youth and 
 beauty of Copenhagen were present. The King, throwing aside the gloomy 
 look he usually wore, had danced a rustic country dance with the Queen 
 before retiring, and she, after remaining a while longer, went also to her 
 room. 
 
 ^ About four o'clock in the morning the Queen dowager and her son Fred- 
 erick entered the King's sleeping room,*woke him and told him that the 
 Queen and Count Struensee, the Prime Minister, were planning to take the 
 kingdom away from him and that he must at once sign the papers which 
 they had brought with them for the arrest of the guilty couple . 
 
Denmark. 
 
 97 
 
 The King refused at first to do this, but being very weak-minded yielded 
 at last to his mother and signed the warrant, in tears, it is said. Officers 
 were sent at once to take the Queen. 
 
 She was hurried into one of the King's carriages and driven with all haste 
 to Cronborg Castle, where she was kept a close prisoner until her brother 
 in England heard of it and sent a fleet to release her and take her to Ger- 
 many. In about a year after her release she died of grief. 
 
 Since Shakespeare's great tragedy of Hamlet came into existence, Cron- 
 
 ELSINORE 
 
 borg Castle has been a place of interest to all English speaking people as the 
 scene of the tradition upon which the play was founded. Outside of the 
 castle walls "Hamlet's garden" is still pointed out as the place where 
 the ghost is supposed to have appeared to tell Hamlet of his uncle's crime. 
 Holgek the Dane. — One of the several legends connected with Cronborg 
 Castle is about Holger, the favorite Danish hero, who is said to be sleeping 
 in one of the holds of the castle, waiting for the time when the Fatherland 
 shall stand in sorest need of his strong arm. " Poor Denmark !" says one, 
 
11 
 
 ■ 
 
 98 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 " if yet worse straits are to come upon her than those which have come an 
 have failed to rouse her sleeping hero." 
 
 It is said that a slave who had forfeited his life was promised his liberty 
 if he would go down into the holds of the castle and find out the cause o| 
 the strange noises that sometimes came from those dim regions. Others 
 had attempted to do this but were either frightened back or were never seen 
 again alive. 
 
 This slave, more brave than the others, went on down through dungeo 
 after dungeon until he came to one in the centre of which was a large table, 
 above it a lamp burning dimly, and around it a number of iron-clad warriors* 
 asleep. 
 
 As the slave entered, the largest and strongest of the warriors — which j 
 was Holger, the Dane — rose and holding out his hand, said, "It is well,, 
 there are yet men in Denmark." 
 
 The slave was afraid to give his hand to the warrior, so he held out ai 
 bar of iron that stood by the door. Holger, who had not known the grasp j 
 of a friendly hand for centuries did not perceive the difference and grasped I 
 the iron with such fervor that he left upon it the prints of his fingers. 
 
 The slave carried the bar up from the dungeons, showed the prints off 
 Holger' s fingers, related his story and received his freedom. 
 
 The Castle of the Heavens. — On the little island of Hveen, in the3 
 Sound just east of Zealand, once stood the castle of the great Danish 1 
 astronomer, Tycho Brahe. The King, Frederick II., became interested in 
 him when he was quite a young man and used to go to hear him lecture at 
 Copenhagen on his theory of comets, and after awhile made him a present! 
 of this island, gave him the money to build him an observatory and settled I 
 a pension upon him for the rest of his life, so that he need do nothing but 
 study the stars. 
 
 The astronomer built his house in a very queer style, something like the 
 old feudal castles, and something like the abode of an eastern magician. 
 On the top he put a great observatory like which nothing had ever been 
 seen in Europe. It was a great curiosity to the simple people around, who 
 wondered at his queer ways, his plebeian wife, his pet poodle, his golden 
 nose, which he wore to replace his own that he lost in a duel, but most of 
 all they wondered why he should stay in that great tower all night peering 
 at the stars. 
 
 But the result of his midnight vigils, when published to the world, made 
 his place become noted all over Europe. Scholars, princes and kings came 
 
Denmark. 99 
 
 to visit him. Among them was James VI. of Scotland, who afterward 
 became James I. of England. Keplar, the great German astronomer, came 
 also and studied with him, and from the observations which Tycho Brahe 
 made discovered the great laws that made his own name famous. 
 
 But the death of his patron Frederick II., put an end to Tycho Brahe' s 
 good fortune. His pension was stopped, his pet poodle was cuffed by the 
 Prime Minister, and he left Denmark in disgust. His nephew pulled down 
 his " Castle of the Heavens," and used the material for building his stables. 
 But later, when the value of the old astronomer's observations became known, 
 his countrymen all united in honoring his memory. 
 
 In the year 1846, the three hundredth anniversary of his birthday, eight 
 thousand people from Denmark, Norway and Sweden met on the site of 
 his old observatory and raised there a collossal bust of the great astronomer, 
 while the flags of the three countries waved in his honor from the masts of 
 the fleet that carried the people thither. 
 
 The Palace of Art.— There is one palace in Copenhagen which every 
 Dane looks upon as belonging in part to himself. It is the museum that 
 contains the works of Denmark's great sculptor — Thorwaldsen. All of his 
 great statues, the Christ, the Baptismal Angel and the Apostles, his char- 
 acters from Greek mythology and Odin's legends, together with his numer- 
 ous busts, reliefs, and friezes are here collected. 
 
 In one room is a bust of Luther which the sculptor was at work upon 
 the day he died. Near it is an old-fashioned clock, which stopped, it is said, 
 ; of itself when its master breathed his last. In another room is the furniture 
 that he used, his bed, sofa and chairs just as he left them. 
 
 In an open court in the centre of the Museum is the great sculptor's grave, 
 in the spot that he selected during his life as his last resting place. An 
 ebony cross on the top of his grave bears his name, the date of his birth and 
 of his death. Around it is twined vines of ivy, and upon the blue walls of 
 the court are painted roses and lilies, the flowers that he loved. Above,' the 
 sky forms the only ceiling, and the birds and the clouds sail over the tomb 
 of him who loved to look upon them when alive. 
 
 Bertel Thorwaldsen was an Icelander by birth, the son of a poor wood 
 carver. At eleven years of age he entered the free Academy of Arts at 
 Copenhagen. At seventeen he took the silver medal of the academy, at 
 twenty a gold medal, and at twenty- three a grand prize that enabled him to 
 go to Rome and study sculpture among the great masters. 
 
 There nobody took much notice of the quiet young sculptor until, one 
 
100 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 day, just as lie was beginning to grow discouraged, and "was thinking o 
 returning to Denmark, an English gentleman came in and was so muc 
 pleased with a figure, " Jason bearing the Golden Fleece," that he orders 
 one made like it in marble. 
 
 " What is your price ?" he asked of the sculptor. 
 
 " Six hundred sequins," Thorwaldsen replied. 
 
 " It is not enough, I will give you eight hundred," the gentleman said, 
 and asked to have it begun at once. 
 
 Orders soon began to come in from all over Europe. His King, Christian 
 VII., desired him to come home and complete the improvements he was 
 making in Christianborg Palace, but this he was now too busy to undertake. 
 
 Like all great geniuses his art completely absorbed his thoughts. Hans 
 Christian Andersen, who was a great admirer of Thorwaldsen, tells the 
 following story illustrating this : 
 
 One day he called on Thorwaldsen who was at work, chisel in hand, on a 
 bust of the great story-teller himself. Mr. Andersen wished him good morn- 
 ing, but the sculptor made no reply, and after waiting a few minutes the 
 visitor thinking that he was perhaps disturbing the sculptor went out. 
 Thorwaldsen who had not heard him leave, but had been conscious of his 
 presence, began presently to talk to him in his liveliest manner, but without 
 taking his eyes off his work. 
 
 He told a long story about himself and Lord Byron, and when he had fin- 
 ished, thought it strange that Andersen should not say a word in reply. 
 
 Turning around he discovered that he had been talking a whole hour to 
 bare walls. 
 
 Thorwaldsen modeled a statue of Lord Byron, and another of Sir Walter 
 ■Scott, from the originals themselves. With Lord Byron he did not get 
 along very well, for the poet would insist on being made to look melancholy, 
 and this the sculptor said was not his natural expression. But he and Sir 
 Walter Scott became fast friends, though neither could understand a word 
 of the other' s language. They expressed their mutual sympathy and admira- 
 tion by smiling, embracing, and patting each other on the shoulder, but not 
 n word could either say that the other could understand. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 England, the mistress of the sea, the owner of territory so vast that the 
 snn never sets on her dominions, occupies but a very small space on the 
 Continent of Europe. England and Wales together contain only a few more 
 square miles than the state of Georgia ; but the English people, combining 
 the bravery of their Saxon forefathers with the covetousness of the Norman 
 
 s^^^ 
 
 INVASION OF BRITAIN BY JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 vikings, have conquered and held a large proportion of the Earth's surface. 
 And being early compelled, by their not very friendly climate, to form habits 
 of industry and frugality, they have become a race of manufacturers, of 
 wealthy traders, statesmen, scholars, men of letters, masters of art and 
 learning in every branch. 
 
102 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 England is now at the height of her prosperity ; her coffers are full of gold, 
 her picturesque hills and valleys are covered with stately mansions, palaces 
 and churches. Will the time ever come when she must point back to 
 these for evidence of her former greatness, as Ireland is doing to-day, and 
 will it come to pass that some other country shall declare the English incap- 
 able of governing themselves, and refuse them a parliament at London % 
 History repeats itself, they say. 
 
 Lost in a Fog. — The marshes of northwestern Europe, give rise to extra 
 quantities of moisture about the shores of the North Sea. Rain or fog is the 
 usual state of the weather. Between the fog, and the smoke of her manu- 
 factories, England, and especially London, enjoys but a small share of sun- 
 shine. The average number of clear days at Greenwich observatory is only 
 twenty-two in a whole year. 
 
 There are times, out in the country, when a fog looks quite beautiful as 
 it comes winding along through the valleys like a milk white river, or flat- 
 tens out clear and silvery, like a lake. But in a double sense the going off 
 of a fog is the most pleasing part of it, especially when it lifts itself suddenly 
 and reveals unexpected surroundings. Where a moment before nothing 
 could be seen but dense smoky vaper shutting in ones view to a few feet in 
 each direction, now a great stretch of mountain wood, plain, river and lake 
 bursts out suddenly as if by magic. An unfortunate sportsman, caught in 
 a fog once, had a fine chance of noticing all these appearances and also some 
 curious effects upon himself. 
 
 Having promised to meet some friends in Princetown at five o'clock, he 
 shut up his rod as the hour drew nigh, and prepared to cross the moor. The 
 idea occurred to him that before he could gain the other side of the hill 
 towards Princetown he might be caught in a fog, but with a carelessness, 
 that he afterward regretted, he determined to run the risk. Up the mountain 
 therefore he started, but he had scarcely gone a quarter of a mile when a 
 cloud, dense, and dark, and flaky fell instantly about him. So sudden was 
 its descent that he was completely startled. On every side appeared whirl- 
 ing masses of mist, so thick that it effected his breathing. He paused, but 
 still thinking that he could not err in following a straight line over the hill 
 he went on. At last he saw through the mist some of the immense pieces 
 of granite that he knew to be strewed about the summit. Their appearance 
 through the fog was wonderfully grand, wavy, and fantastic, while some 
 sheep, a few yards away, looked like distorted moving masses, many times 
 larger than they really were. Every now and then one would start out from 
 
England. 
 
 103 
 
 ;he side of a block of granite with, a screaming bleat, as if it too was filled 
 vith surprise and awe at its strange surroundings. Above, beneath, and all 
 .wound was a flaky mass, and at times even a rushing white fog of no color 
 [hat could be named, a sombre whiteness, a light that was darkness. 
 
 As he went onward, now among massive fragments of granite, now 
 among bogs and rushes, he became impatient to catch sight of some familiar 
 object^ he quickened his pace ; but the further he proceeded the more did 
 
 DOVER, FROM THE SEA. 
 
 the fog bewilder him. 
 
 His eyesight became affected ; his brain began to 
 whirl, ^ill at last he sat down utterly unable to walk another step. 
 
 His situation was now painful. The evening was drawing on, and the 
 fog increasing in murkiness, all hopes that it would clear away had vanished. 
 He was chilled and shivering. Noticing the boggy nature of the ground 
 where he was now traveling, he concluded he had gone north instead of 
 south, and therefore turned directly to the left, and went swiftly forward. 
 The ground began to incline. He was descending a hill, and heard the dis- 
 
104 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 tant rushing of water ; after stopping to calculate where it could be, he 
 pressed onward, when suddenly, so suddenly that he could compare it to 
 nothing but the lifting of a veil, the fog rushed from him and the scene he 
 beheld made him almost doubt his senses. At his right, within two or three 
 hundred yards, was the very spot he had quitted when he put up his rod. 
 He had toiled up and across the mountain, and then back again to the very 
 spot from whence he had thought himself all the while going. 
 
 In an instant the fog was back again, but the sportsman had learned a 
 lesson by experience. This time he followed the stream, and in a little while 
 reached his destination in safety. 
 
 The Chalk Cliffs. — Rising out of the fog and the sea, the first object to 
 be seen as one approaches England from the south, are the tall white chalk 
 cliffs, whose glittering tops, when lit up by the morning sun, dazzle the 
 eye with their brilliancy. It was these shining white cliffs, very likely, that 
 first attracted the attention of the old Phoenician voyagers ages ago, and 
 led to the trade in tin, which brought wealth and civilization to the shores 
 of ancient Britain. 
 
 The chalk forming these cliffs is very dry and soft, and full of small flint 
 stones worn smooth like pebbles. Some one has called the cliffs English 
 plum puddings, the chalk, answering for flour, and the pebbles for plums. 
 
 To the east of the line, overlooking the strait of Dover, is a tall cliff, from 
 the top of which rises an old castle with its ancient watch tower still keep- 
 ing guard over the straits. It is supposed that Julius Ca3sar ordered the 
 building of this ancient castle, and ever since the place has been used as a 
 fortress. To-day the white cliffs bristle with black cannon, and are full of 
 soldiers barracks, apartments and galleries, which have been cut into the 
 soft stone. Among the guns is a great iron twelve pounder, twenty-four 
 feet long, which the states of Holland presented to Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 One of the Dover cliffs, which used to hang over the water, but is now 
 broken off, is called Shakspeare's Cliff, because it corresponds to a description 
 he gives in " King Lear." From here, in clear weather, one can see the far 
 away coast of France, with the straits between filled with sailing vessels. 
 
 Toppling Rocks. — On account of the softness of the chalky rocks along 
 the southern coast, they have been worn into many curious shapes by the 
 washing of the waves. The Isle of Wight, which is almost entirely of chalk 
 formation, ends in a long tapering point on the west, and from the extrem- 
 ity the sea has split huge perpendicular slices. These tall, pointed rocks 
 have been named " the needles," though somebody says they look more like 
 
England. 
 
 105 
 
 thimbles than needles. Once there was one which had a very sharp point, 
 and that probably suggested the name of needle, bnt it fell some time ago, 
 worn away by the waves. Others are growing thin and it is quite probable 
 that they too will fall some day, and their place be taken by new ones split 
 off from the wedge-shaped extremity of the isle. 
 
 Another curious rock in this vicinity is called the cheesewring, because 
 
 SNOWDON. 
 
 of its resemblance in shape to an old-fashioned cheesepress. The five up- 
 per stones are so much broader than the three supporting ones, that 
 people have long wondered how it could stand, especially when fierce storms 
 swept over it. 
 
 Another toppling rock once stood off the coast of Sidmouth, called^ the 
 Chit Rock. Here every year the fishermen used to come and hold a festival, 
 
106 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 during which the oldest man among them was taken to the top and crowned 
 "King of Chit Rock." One dark November night a fierce storm raged 
 along the coast, and in the morning when the people looked out toward the 
 channel, Chit Rock was gone. 
 
 Such changes are constantly going on along the coasts of England, and 
 have been for ages. The chalk and limestone cliffs on the south and west 
 are being worn down ; the rocky headlands on the east are slowly being 
 washed away by the strong Atlantic currents, while the sandy shore south 
 of kl the wash " is receiving constant additions. 
 
 Wild Wales. — England proper is not a mountainous country. The 
 highest regions are the Cheviot hills and the Pennine range in the north, 
 both abounding in many picturesque hills and valleys ; but over in Wales 
 are the wild, rugged Cambrian mountains, whose high peaks overlook all 
 England. From the top of Mount Snowdon, on a clear day, one can see 
 nearly all of the four united countries, and all around its feet lie the beau- 
 tiful mountains and valleys that attract hundreds of visitors every year. 
 
 Among these rugged hills the ancient Britons fled for refuge from the 
 Saxons, and many years went by before they submitted to be ruled by the 
 English kings. Here Owen Cflendwyr, the last native prince of Wales, lived 
 in his palace of Sycharth, and kept open house for years. His doors were 
 never locked nor barred. Everybody was free to come and go when he 
 liked, and help himself to whatever he needed while he stayed. 
 
 The wardrobe as well as the larder was kept supplied for the use of 
 guests. A perfect stranger could clothe himself from head to foot, eat and 
 rest a month, if he liked, and then go on his way with nothing to pay but 
 thanks. 
 
 But this same Owen was a troublesome enemy to the king of England, 
 who had roused the hatred of the Prince by attempting to deprive him of 
 his estate, and a bitter war was kept up during all the later years of Owen's 
 life. Some of the scenes in Shakspeare's play of Henry IV. are founded 
 on this war ; but the Owen Glendwyr of the play does not properly repre- 
 sent the real Owen. 
 
 At one time the Welsh forces, joined by the Percy's of England, who 
 were dissatisfied with Henry IV.., marched as far as Worcester, and threat- 
 ened the capital ; but they were driven back, and the brave chieftain was 
 obliged to spend the last years of his life hiding among the glens and caves 
 of his native mountains. 
 
 About a hundred years before Owen's insurrection, the Welsh had been 
 
England. 107 
 
 brought by a kind of stratagem, to recognize the young son of Edward I. as 
 their prince. They had long declared that they would own allegiance to no 
 prince born outside of Wales, and Edward had told them that he would 
 appoint a person born in their own country, who could not speak a word of 
 English. Such a person they consented to receive as their sovereign. But 
 when they had assembled at Carnarvon castle, where Edward was then stay- 
 ing, he brought out to them his infant son, who had been born in the castle, 
 and of course could not speak a word of English. Holding him up before 
 them, Edward said in "Welsh, " Eicli dyn" that is, " This is your man." 
 Ever since the eldest son of the English sovereign has been prince of Wales. 
 
 Beddgelert. — Edward II. was born just a short time after the death of 
 Llewelyn the Great, grandfather of Owen Glendwyr. This prince had freed 
 Wales entirely from the English, and been acknowledged by Henry III. as 
 an independent ruler, but when Edward I. came to the throne he demanded 
 Llewelyn's submission. Again war broke out, and though the Welsh were 
 defeated, they continued in rebellion until Llewelyn was killed, — not in bat- 
 tle, but in single combat with an English knight. 
 
 It is of this prince that the story is told which gave rise to Spencer's 
 noted poem of "Llewelyn and his Dog." During the struggle with Ed- 
 ward, Llewelyn was encamped at one time in a little valley not far from 
 Carnarvon Castle, and one day he went out to hunt with his men, leav- 
 ing his infant son inside the tent in charge of Gelert, his faithful hound. 
 
 While he was absent, a wolf came out of the forest, entered the tent and 
 would have devoured the child had it not been for the dog, who sprang 
 upon him and began a fierce struggle, during which the tent was overturned 
 and every thing besmeared with blood. When Llewelyn came back and saw 
 the tent overturned, blood everywhere, even on the dogs mouth, and his 
 child nowhere to be seen, he supposed Gelert had devoured him, and in a 
 great rage he thrust the faithful dog through with his sword. But scarcely 
 had he done so when he heard a cry, and hastily overturning the canvas 
 from whence the sound came, found his boy safe in his cradle, but close 
 beside him the torn and mangled body of a great wolf. 
 
 The reason for all the blood was then very clear, and Llewelyn, shedding 
 tears of repentance, hastened back to his dying dog. Poor Gelert was not 
 quite dead, and with his last strength tried to lick his master's hand. 
 
 Llewelyn raised a fine monument over the grave of his faithful dog, and 
 to this day the place is called " Beddgelert," — the grave of Gelert. 
 
 The Druid's Retreat. — Wales was the last stronghold of the ancient 
 
108 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Druids, who were found all over Britain when the Romans came, and whose 
 horrid ceremonies are described by Caesar and the Welsh bards. They 
 retreated from before the Roman conquerors into Wales, and then into the 
 farthest corner of Wales, the island of Anglesia. Here they were left for a 
 while to themselves. Here the priests continued to walk in their flowing 
 white robes through the sacred groves of oak, to talk of the signs they read 
 in the stars, and in the flight of birds ; to practice medicine, after their super- 
 stitious fashion ; and to teach the young men who resorted to them the 
 mysticism of their creed, their dark sayings, and their verses which it took 
 twenty years to learn. 
 
 At certain seasons of the year they gathered the sacred mistletoe from 
 the branches of the no less sacred oak. When a branch of this plant was 
 discovered, the Druids assembled in crowds fiom far and near beneath the 
 tree. A great banquet was prepared, and the arch-druid clothed in his white 
 vestments, cut the sacred twig with a golden sickle, while two other priests 
 caught it in a white cloak as it fell. Immediately two milk white heifers 
 were offered as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and the rest of the day was spent 
 in great rejoicing. 
 
 Other plants beside the mistletoe were held in high esteem : the marsh- 
 wort which they plucked with the left hand after fasting, and without look- 
 ing at it ; and the hedge hyssop which they gathered barefooted, and with- 
 out a knife, after careful ablutions, and offerings of bread and wine. All 
 these plants were thought to be powerful remedies for all manner of diseases, 
 as well as talesmen against evil influences. These, together with amber' 
 beads and serpent's eggs, the people carried about with them as charms, and 
 buried them in the tombs of their dead. 
 
 The Druids had other more mystic and darker ceremonies, which were 
 practiced only in the deep recesses of the forests, and of which no account 
 has ever been preserved, for these, the priests, though familiar with an alpha- 
 bet, never put in writing. One of their worst rites we know was the sacrifice 
 of human beings upon their stone altars. 
 
 All these things the Romans stopped when they entered Britain, and after 
 a while they appeared before the refugees in Anglesia. In vain the priests 
 called down vengeance upon their foes. In vain the women ran to and fro 
 with flying hair, tossing on high the blazing brands they had seized from 
 the sacred altars. The stern Romans, pausing only for a moment to observe 
 their strange performances, rushed upon the Druids, priests and priestesses, 
 and put an end to them and their religion. 
 
England. 
 
 109 
 
 The Stonehekge. — All over England and northern France, curious 
 stones are found, which are suj>posed to be the remains of temples, altars, 
 or places of burial left by the Druids. In some places the stones are 
 arranged in circles, in others in heaps, and in still others there stands only 
 a single tall stone. 
 
 On Salisbury plains, in southern England, is the most wonderful of all 
 these antiquities. It is a large circle of huge upright stones, containing a 
 smaller circle of smaller stones, and within that two ovals, the stones of 
 which are smaller still ; but none would weigh less than ten tons, and the 
 largest would weigh seventy. In the centre is a flat slab fifteen feet long, 
 
 STONEHENGE. 
 
 which is supposed to have been the altar ; beneath it have been found the 
 bones of 'deer, oxen and other animals, mixed with burnt wood and pieces of 
 pottery. 
 
 Many of the stones composing the Stonehenge have fallen, but enough 
 remain to show the original shape and size of the immense structure. 
 
 How those rude people managed to raise these great solid blocks that 
 tower up four or five times as high as a man, and then to lay across them 
 others nearly as large, and mortised them to the uprights, is a mystery. 
 And so is the purpose for which the whole was built. Whole books have 
 been written on the subject, but few writers hold the same opinion. Some 
 think it was erected in honor of the four hundred and sixty Britons slain 
 by Hengist, the Saxon. Some think it was a monument raised to Hengist ; 
 
110 • Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 some think it was a place for observing the stars, or for public assemblies. 
 But the majority think it was a place of worship built long before the Saxons 
 came to Britian. This opinion seems the more probable from the fact that 
 all around the Stonehenge is a vast burying ground, containing numberless 
 mounds or barrows, in many of which skeletons have been found with their 
 heads lying toward the Stonehenge, as if that were considered a holy place. 
 
 In nearly all of the mounds have been found human bones and various 
 ornaments and beads of amber, jet and gold. In one of the mounds the 
 bones were in an urn of baked clay, and from their size, .and the quantity 
 of female ornaments mixed with them, the discoverers judged that they 
 were the remains of a young girl. There were beads of all shapes and sizes, 
 some of colored glass and some of baked clay ; some were covered with 
 metal, one with a film of gold. These had all been burned with the body, 
 and all that could crumble was ready to fall to pieces. 
 
 This part of the great plain of Salisbury presents a curious sight in the 
 morning at sunrise, when each little bell-shaped mound is tipped with golden 
 light, and all the rest of the plain lies in shadows, except the tall, silent and 
 solemn monuments of the Stonehenge, whose secrets neither the light of 
 the sun, nor the light of learning have yet been able to reveal. 
 
 The Roman Wall. — Side by side with the rude works of the old bar- 
 barians are the traces left by their civilized conquerers, the Romans. Old 
 fortresses, castles, walls, bridges and roads, though nearly distroyed by the 
 hand of time, yet tell of the intelligent and exact workman whose purpose 
 was to hold the conquered land, to defend it from surrounding savages, and 
 to teach the conquered people the arts of civilization. 
 
 The greatest work left by the Romans is the long wall running across 
 Great Britian from the Solway Firth almost to the North sea. There are 
 really two walls, the nortnern one of stone, and about sixty yards below it on 
 the south another of earth ; between the two runs a smooth level road about 
 seventeen feet wide. The stone wall is very straight, except where there are 
 hills in its way. Instead of turning aside to go around them, it always goes 
 straight to their summits, shooting from the top of one to the top of the 
 next in a sharp zigzag line. 
 
 The work of this wall, and the inscriptions found upon some of the 
 stones, show that the Romans were the builders, and we have some account 
 of it in their old latin writings. We know too that after they had taken 
 possession of Briton, they found the Picts on the north very troublesome. 
 They would come rushing down unexpectedly upon the cultivated fields and 
 
England. 
 
 Ill 
 
 thriving villages of the Britons do a great deal of damage, and be back among 
 their hills again before any one could stop them. It did no good to follow 
 them, for their mountains were full of safe hiding places. So to keep them 
 out the Romans built this great wall, eighteen feet high, and by its side a 
 wide and deep ditch. At short distances apart, about four miles, were 
 placed stations large enough to hold a number of soldiers, and between these, 
 
 PART OF A ROMAN WALL. 
 
 about a mile apart, smaller stations, and between these yet little turrets, or 
 watch towers. 
 
 By keeping the turrets constantly guarded, and strong garrisons at each 
 station, word could be quickly sent along the line wherever a band of Picts 
 made their appearance; and before they could cross the wide ditch and 
 scale the high wall, a large body of soldiers could hurry along the smooth 
 road and be on hand to stop them. 
 
 It would seem at first that there was no need for the earthen wall at the 
 south, but there were some tribes not quite subdued in that portion of the 
 
112 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 country, and it would have been too good an opportunity for them to break 
 out while the soldiers had their backs turned, if there had been no southern 
 wall. One of the Roman generals once said, it had long been his opinion 
 that the back of a general or his army was never safe, so this is the reason, 
 it is supposed, that two walls were built. It was on the north, however, that 
 the greater danger lay, so the northern wall was made the stronger. 
 
 The Blood Banquet.— Troubles at home compelled the Romans after a 
 period of about five hundred years, to withdraw their soldiers from Britain, 
 and as soon as the Picts saw that the Roman eagles no longer waved above 
 the garrisons, they quickly clambered over the wall and descended upon the 
 well-kept fields and flocks of the Britons, robbing, murdering and burning. 
 The Britons tried for a while to keep the savages out, and then they hired 
 a band of Saxons, who were staying on the island of Thanet, to fight for 
 them. The Picts soon fled from before the prancing white horse °on the 
 banner of Hengist, the Saxon ; and Yertigen, king of the Britons, took care 
 to treat their deliverers with great respect. When soon afterward, five 
 thousand more of the Saxons came over from Germany, they too 'were 
 welcomed ; but when Yertigen shortly took the daughter of Hengist to be 
 his wife, the Britons said it was time for the Saxons to take their leave, and 
 Yertigen was made to give up his crown to his son. 
 
 After a short struggle the Saxons retreated, but in a few years Hengist 
 come back to beg for peace. Yertigen, who was again king, received him in 
 good faith, and prepared in his honor a great banquet on Salisbury Plain, 
 to which all the most distinguished British nobles were invited. They were 
 asked to bring neither spear nor shield, for it was to be a gathering of 
 friends. There was to be no strife among the jovial company, the invitation 
 said. 
 
 " The heroes went to the feast cheerful and sprightly," says the old 
 Welsh poet, "while he, the bitter warrior, was disposing of his blades. 
 Adorned with a wreath was the leader of the sea-drifted wolves, and of 
 amber was that wreath which twined about his temples." 
 
 Hengist had arranged that one of his own people should sit next to 
 each Briton, and had told his men that when he should rise and say, " take 
 your knives," each Saxon should seize his knife and plunge itfinto the 
 breast of his British neighbor. 
 
 The banquet began with much mirth and joyousness, but in the midst 
 of it, while the Britons were reveling in the good cheer before them Hen- 
 gist arose and repeated the fatal words. Each Saxon quickly drew his 
 
England. 
 
 113 
 
 knife, and so completely was the deadly work done, that only three of the 
 British nobles escaped. From that time the Saxons set up their rule in 
 
 ROBIN HOOD. 
 
 Briton, and the rightful owners were killed or driven into the mountains in 
 Wales. 
 
 Sherwood Forest. — The savage Saxons, after driving out the owners of 
 
114 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the land, settled down and made themselves at home for about six hundred 
 years. Then it came their turn to be invaded. William of Normandy came 
 over from France, defeated the Saxons in the great battle of Hasting and 
 made himself king. But the Saxons were not murdered and driven out as 
 the Britons had been. The Normans held all the offices, their language was 
 the only one spoken at court, and some very strict rules were made about 
 hunting in the forests, which William declared to be his special property. 
 The Saxons, of course, thought all of this was very hard ; they complained 
 of the injustice done by the Norman office-holders, and there was much ill- 
 will on both sides. 
 
 During these troublous times, there appeared among, the Saxons a 
 defiant young man known as Robin Hood, who became their hero and idol, 
 because of his kindness to them and his disregard for the more fortunate 
 Normans. 
 
 Collecting a band of men whom he trained to be expert archers, Robin 
 took up his aliode in Sherwood forest, where he hunted as much as he liked 
 in spite of the kings orders, and relieved the passing monks and nobles of 
 their purses, but all in a most polite and gentle manner, if the stories told 
 of him are true. 
 
 His custom was to station his men about the forest, and when they saw 
 a wealthy knight approaching, they invited him to come and dine with their 
 chief. No refusal, of course, was ever accepted, for their master had made 
 preparations for his guests, they said, and could not be disappointed. 
 
 Arrived at Robin's camp, the travelers always found a good dinner wait- 
 ing, and Robin a most jovial host ; but afterward the guest was requested to 
 pay a good round sum for his entertainment, as much as Robin judged he 
 could afford. 
 
 One day as Robin's men were watching, they saw a knighfc riding by 
 alone, whom they invited, according to the usual custom, to dine with their 
 master. The knight was somewhat surprised when told that dinner had 
 been waiting for him three hours, and knew not how to refuse so courteous 
 an invitation ; so he was taken to Robin's abode. 
 
 The dinner which followed was a good one, for there was plenty of game 
 in the forest, and Robin's men were unerring archers. When it was finished 
 the knight rose to go, and began to thank his host warmly for his entertain- 
 ment. But Robin gently hinted that thanks was not sufficient. The knight 
 replied that he was ashamed to offer what was in his purse, it was so small 
 a sum, all he had, he said, was ten shillings. Robin bade one of his men 
 
England. 115 
 
 examine the purse, saying to the knight that if this were really so he would 
 gladly lend him some money. 
 
 John, the attendant, reported that the knight had said truly, his purse 
 contained but ten shillings. Robin was interested at once, and inquired of 
 the knight the cause of his thin purse. 
 
 The stranger then told Robin how his son, in a tournament, had killed 
 his antagonist, for which he had been arrested, and the father had sold all 
 his goods and pledged his lands to obtain money for his son's defense. 
 Moreover, the day had nearly arrived upon which he was to redeem his 
 lands, and he should not be able to raise the money, so he should lose all he 
 had. To Robin's further inquiries he said that all of his friends, who had 
 flattered him when he was rich and partook of his hospitality, had now 
 deserted him, and that he should soon have to leave his native land and seek 
 his fortune elsewhere. Robin and all the company were much touched by 
 the stranger's story, and when he left the place it was with a pocket full 
 of money, enough to pay his debt and redeem his lands. 
 
 But this was not the end of the story. The Abbot who had lent the 
 money to the knight and taken his lands in pledge, was looking eagerly for- 
 ward to the day of redemption, believing that the knight would be unable to 
 pay and then all these broad acres should be his at a cost of only four hun- 
 dred pounds. 
 
 When the day of settlement came the knight appeared, and to try the good 
 man's mercy, pretended that he had not the money. This was exactly what 
 the abbot had expected and prepared to clinch the land at once, nor could 
 he be persuaded to wait a little longer. Then the knight produced the 
 money and demanded his paper of the much astonished and greatly disap- 
 pointed abbot. 
 
 One year from the day the knight had dined with Robin, he was to 
 return and pay the debt, so when the day arrived, and a very magnificent 
 procession was seen entering the wood, Robin supposed that it was the 
 knight coming to return his money. Instead of the knight, however, it was 
 the greedy old abbot, who was taking a trip through the wood with his gay 
 attendants. As the chief man in the train, he was taken by Robin's men, who 
 pretended to believe that he had been sent as an ambassador by the knight 
 to pay the money, and though he stoutly denied all knowledge of any such 
 business, they persisted in their demands for the money. To clear himself 
 the abbot declared that he had but twenty marks in his coffers. 
 
 Robin commanded Little John to see if this were true, and lo ! eight 
 
116 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 hundred pounds were found in the good monk's purse. Of course the 
 woodsman considered himself justified in taking it all, and the abbot went 
 sorrowfully on his way. 
 
 A little later in the day the real knight appeared, with a hundred men 
 clothed in red and white, bringing as a present to the forresters a hundred 
 beautiful bows, and a hundred sheaves of arrows, each with burnished head 
 and ornamented with silver and peacock plumes. He regretted that he was 
 so late in the day he said, but he had stopped by the way to help some one 
 out of trouble. Robin readily excused him and forgave him the debt, as 
 he had already received twice the amount that day from the abbot. 
 
 Saint George and the Dragon. — For each period of their early history 
 the English have had a popular hero. During the age of the Britons there 
 was Arthur Pendragon, who made himself known as the son of the king by 
 pulling the magic sword out of the stone at London, and then forming his 
 famous circle of knights about the enchanted "round table," rode forth 
 with them to perform most wonderful exrjloits. The poet Tennyson tells 
 a number of the legends of King Arthur in his " Idyls of the King," and a 
 table, said to be the very one around which the hero used to gather his 
 knights, is still kept at Winchester Castle ; but many persons think that 
 Arthur, table, and all are only myths. 
 
 But there was a real King Alfred during the Saxon period, who fought 
 against the Danish ' ' vikings ' ' so successfully that he became a national hero, 
 and then after the Norman conquest, came Robin Hood. Still later, before 
 the bad feeling between the Normans and Saxons was entirely healed another 
 personage was introduced to the English, both as a hero and a saint, and he, 
 though he had lived many years before, and had probably never heard of the 
 British Isles, and though Saint Augustine had come from Rome and con- 
 verted the whole of Saxon England to Christianity, this foreigner, Saint 
 George, the slayer of Dragons, became the patron saint of England. One 
 reason for this was the disdain of the Normans for everything belonging 
 io the Saxons, Saint Augustine not accepted, and another was the peculiar 
 character and history of Saint George, which made him suit both Norman 
 knights, and Saxon peasants. 
 
 " Saint George " was born, as nearly as can be learned, in far off Lydda, 
 many years before the battle of Hastings. His parents had accepted the 
 then new religion of Christianity, and being a wealthy family, their son was 
 allowed to enter the Roman army as a lieutenant under Diocletian. But 
 this emperior began to persecute the Christians, and young George resigned 
 
England. 
 
 117 
 
 his command, declaring that he was a Christian and should stand by his 
 faith. He was therefore arrested, tortured and put to death. 
 
 After he was burried the people who visited his tomb declared that they 
 had been cured of various ailments during their visits. His very bones they 
 said possessed the power of healing. So he was made a saint, and when the 
 persecution of the Christians ceased, and a Christian emperor ruled over 
 Rome, a church was raised 
 above his remains. 
 
 When Richard of England 
 reached Palestine, to engage in 
 the war of the Crusades, he 
 found the fame of Saint George 
 spread over all the land. The 
 knights of the cross called 
 upon him in all their trouble, 
 and even believed that he had 
 left his throne in heaven and 
 come down to help them fight 
 against the Turks. Richard 
 learned to call upon him too, 
 and determined to carry the 
 fame of the knightly saint back 
 to England. 
 
 There was still another side 
 to Saint George's character 
 that had much to do with his 
 reception in England. In the 
 same country where his fame 
 first arose, there had been two 
 cities, one named after Reseph, 
 the god of light, the other after 
 
 Dagon, the god of darkness. They were rival cities in trade, and after a 
 time the people of the city of light rose up and slew the people of the city 
 of darkness. As the story was told over by succeeding generations, it 
 grew to be a myth about Reseph, god of light, slaying Dagon, the god of 
 darkness, part of whose body was like a fish. 
 
 This myth spread about till it reached Egypt, where there was also a god 
 of light, and plenty of real dragons and crocodiles for him to slay. An 
 
 SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. 
 
118 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Egyptian artist represented the myth in a bas-relief, — a mounted god with 
 his feet on a reptile's neck thrusting his lance into the creatures spine. 
 
 And so the Egyptian bas-relief became, after a while, the symbol of the ? 
 Lyddian saint, and was pictured on the banners of the knights who went 
 forth to fight against the Turks in Palestine, and Richard carried the fame 
 of the saint, his banner and his war-cry back with him to England. The 
 Normans were pleased with the knightly character of Saint George, and 
 the Saxons, who believed with nearly all the rest of the world that marshes, 
 which were numerous in England, were the abodes of fearful dragons, were 
 very glad to know a saint who was a dragon-slayer. 
 
 A few years after Richard's return the council of Oxford ordered a feast- 
 day to be held in his honor, and in the next century Edward III. built a 
 chapel to Saint George at Windsor Palace, and at a grand tournament 
 founded the Order of the Garter, of which Saint George was the special 
 patron. 
 
 The Apostle of Britain. — A building from which has gone out a far 
 greater influence than ever went from the chapel of Saint George, stands in 
 the city of Canterbury, southeast of London. It was here that Saint Augus- 
 tine lived and labored until the whole Saxon nation, that was devoted to 
 paganism when he came, had become Christianized. 
 
 Christianity was preached among the Britons by the Romans, but when 
 the Saxons came they made the country a pagan land again, and so it con- 
 tinued for about a century and a half. About this time Pope Gregory the 
 First was an archdeacon in Rome, and one day he saw in the streets some 
 Saxon children who had been sent there from England to be sold as slaves. 
 The sight troubled him, and as he thought on the sad condition of those 
 pagan people who could sell their own children into slavery, he determined 
 to go and carry the gospel to the benighted land, but before he was ready 
 to go he was called to be Pope. But he did not forget about the English, 
 and as soon as he could, sent forty monks with Augustine at their head to 
 convert the Saxons, and Angles (or English — England meaning Angle-land). 
 
 Augustine and his brother monks landed at the island of Thanet, in the 
 southeastern part of England, and here king Ethelbert, with his Queen 
 Bertha, came down to meet them. Sitting down in the open air, Ethelbert 
 called the monks around him and asked what they proposed to do. 
 
 Augustine answered in an earnest speech in which he strongly urged the 
 king himself to become a Christian, and Ethelbert, like Agrippa of old, was 
 almost persuaded, but he finally said: 
 
England. 
 
 119 
 
 "Your proposals are noble, and your promises inviting, but I cannot 
 resolve to quit the religion of my ancestors. Since, however, you have 
 undertaken so long a journey on purpose to impart to us these things which 
 you deem so important you shall not be sent away without some satisiaction. 
 I will take care that you are treated with civility and supplied with all 
 things necessary and convenient. And if any of my people, convinced by 
 your arguments, desire to embrace your f aitln I will not oppose them. 
 
 The Queen, who had become a Christian ^efore she left France, asked 
 Ethelbert to invite Augustine to their palace at Canterbury to hold meet- 
 ings which he did, and the Queen gave him the use of her own chapel _ 
 
 In less than a year the King became a convert to the new religion which 
 had already been received by many of his subjects. After Ethelbert was 
 baptized the people nocked to the churches by thousand. As many as 
 ten thousand it is said were baptized in a single day. The old pagan 
 temples were deserted, many of them were consecrated to Christian services ; 
 and at Canterbury was laid the foundations of a great cathedral, which 
 Augustine did not live to see completed, but which has long been one of the 
 finest buildings in the land as well as the tomb of the saint and the centre 
 of Christian influence. 
 
 The Shrine of Saint Cuthbert.— For nearly a thousand years alter 
 Augustine converted the Saxons from idolatry the church of Rome was the 
 established religion of England, and all its institutions were greatly vener- 
 ated Great and good men who gave their lives to preaching the gospel were 
 looked upon after their death as more than ordinary mortals. Their very 
 bones were thought to have miraculous powers ; extravagant stories were 
 told of them and long visits were made to the shrines where they rested. 
 
 A favorite shrine in England was the cathedral of Durham, which con- 
 tained the remains of Saint Cuthbert, hermit of Lindisfarne. The stories 
 told of this remarkable man say that when he was a mere boy, tending sheep 
 like David of old, he felt caUed to enter a monastery and devote himself to 
 
 a holy life. 
 
 After passing several years among the brethren of St. Aiden he was 
 chosen prior of Melrose, and then abbot of the monastery of Lindisfarne, or 
 " Holy Island," off the coast of Northumberland. Here he lived for a long- 
 time, going over to the mainland occasionally and preaching the gospel to 
 the dwellers in the glens and fortresses who had never yet heard of it— were 
 yet under the spell of the old Druids. His preaching met with much 
 success, and the fierce hunters and warriors of the northern woods learned to 
 
120 Persons and Places in .Europe. 
 
 lower their spears before the Cross and become less ferocious, more 
 brotherly. 
 
 After fourteen years spent in this way he felt the need of more time for 
 prayer and study, so he went further out in the sea to the desolate island of 
 Fame, where there was nothing but the roaring sea and screaming sea- 
 birds to disturb the stillness of the stern bare rocks. Here he built him a 
 small house by scraping together the patches of scanty turf that grew in 
 the sheltered hollows, and piling up a few rough stones. The windows he 
 placed so high that he could see nothing but the sky, in order that his 
 attention might not be distracted even by the seagulls, the waves and the 
 rocks. 
 
 What he lived on no one knows, for nothing could grow on those bare 
 stones ; tradition says that a spring gushed out of the rock at his bidding 
 and he only had to strike his hoe into the earth to obtain vegetables . How- 
 ever that may be, he managed in some way to obtain food, and here 
 he lived for nine years. Much as he was revered in his life it was not 
 until after his death that the people began to hear what a wonderful man he 
 was. His body, so it is said, after being enshrined at Lindisf arne f or along 
 time, was discovered to be perfectly incorruptible and possessed of most 
 miraculous power. 
 
 When the Danish vikings came pouring down upon England, and the 
 monks were obliged to fly from the monastery, they took the sacred body of 
 Saint Cuthbert with them in a stone coffin. And then new marvels began. 
 Seven stout monks could barely carry the heavy coffin, but when they came 
 to a stream of water it would float easily along upon the surface, and many 
 miracles of healing were performed on the journey to Chester-le- Street. There 
 the coffin was left for more than a hundred years ; but the Danes came again, 
 and again the body had to. be carried still further. After another long 
 journey it was set down where the city of Durham now stands, a shrine was 
 built for it, and here it has remained ever since, the center of many historic 
 events. Here Canute the Dane came on a pilgrimage, with naked feet and in 
 pilgrim garb, to pay honors to the shrine of the saint. Here Robert Comyn, 
 whom William the Conqueror sent to subdue the north of England, was sur- 
 rounded by an angry host of peasantry, and here William himself come to 
 punish them with fire and sword. Here came many of Scotlands noted men, 
 Malcom, the Braces and Baliol, during the fierce border wars ; here a peace 
 was celebrated when James I. of Scotland was liberated and sent home with 
 his young wife, and here raged the destructive scenes of the Reformation, 
 
England. 
 
 121 
 
 and the Puritanical purging of Cromwell's time when, all shrines and relics 
 were unmercifully de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 To this shrine came 
 princes and people of 
 all ranks, eager to offer 
 lands, money, jewels 
 and more relics which 
 in turn drew more visi- 
 tors, and so the place 
 grewin riches and 
 splendor until a con- 
 vent, a cathedral, and 
 a city rose up around 
 the sacred shrine. 
 
 Literary Shrines. 
 — Veneration of relics 
 died out in England 
 after the Reformation. 
 The tomb of Saint 
 Cuthbert and all the 
 other holy shrines were 
 deserted. Now the 
 places most frequented 
 by visitors are the 
 homes or graves of 
 England's great states- 
 men, scholars, writers 
 and poets. At the head 
 of the list stands the 
 little house at Strat- 
 ford-on-Avon, where 
 the great Shakspeare 
 was born and the tomb 
 which contains the 
 threatening verse 
 about moving his 
 bones. Near Bedford is another shrine where the author of the Pil- 
 
 shakspeare's monument. 
 
122 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 grim's Progress was born, and at Stoke Pogis, near Windsor Castle, is 
 the home of Gray, and the churchyard from which all the scenes of his 
 great elegy may be traced. There may still be seen " the rugged elm," 
 "the yew-tree's shade," "the swelling mound where heaves the turf in 
 many a mouldering heap," and there too is the grave where the poet him- 
 self is "in his narrow cell forever laid." In the distance are " the spires and 
 towers" that crown the "watery glade," and those fields where he says 
 his " careless childhood strayed." All the features of the landscape which 
 he pictures, and nearly all the sounds of nature which he describes, may 
 here be seen and heard, — the "twittering swallow," the "lowing herd" 
 and the " drowsy tinkling of the sheep in the fold." No monument has 
 yet been raised over his tomb, but his poem is a monument that will never 
 allow his memory to fade as long as the English language is spoken. 
 
 Hampton Court. — No one of the celebrated buildings of England, the 
 cathedrals, castles and palaces, full of memories of other days, ever wit- 
 nessed so much elegance and rich display as {lid Hampton Court during 
 the reign of the great Cardinal Wolsey. Not even Windsor Palace, where 
 Queen Elizabeth used to stay with her maidens while she hunted in the 
 great park, and danced with her courtiers in the palace halls ; where nearly 
 all the English sovereigns from William III., who rebuilt and adorned it, 
 down to Queen Victoria have made it their chief residence, has ever been 
 the scene of so much stately splendor, or filled with as rich a train of cour- 
 tiers and attendants, as gathered around the Cardinal in this palace. 
 
 And well he might indulge in splendid surroundings, for not even the 
 king received so great an income as he. All the fat offices in church and 
 state had been bestowed upon him by the king and the pope. He was lord 
 chancellor and chief cardinal, and princes and dignitaries from foreign 
 courts sought his favor. By his adroitness he ruled the strong-minded 
 Henry, and whoever had a favor to ask went first to the Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 While in the enjoyment of all this power and riches he fitted up Hampton 
 Court for his private residence, though when Henry came to visit him, and, 
 surprised at the splendor, inquired if such a palace were becoming in a sub- 
 ject, Wolsey answered with ready tact, " I hope it is a becoming present for 
 a subject to offer to his king." Henry did not claim the present, though, 
 for some time, and the Cardinal continued in his glory. 
 
 The servants in the household at Hampton Court numbered between five 
 and eight hundred persons. Each department had its chief officers and 
 trains of assistants. There was a master of the wardrobe, of the laundry. 
 
England. 
 
 123 
 
 of the bake-house, and of the woodyard, each with a small army of assist- 
 ants ; and there were gatemen, stable-men, farmers, yeomen, and grooms 
 without number. 
 
 In the kitchen which supplied the public tables were two head clerks, a 
 clerk-comptroller, a surveyor of the dressers, a clerk of spicery, two cooks 
 with laborers and children for assistants, a dozen turn-spits, four scullery- 
 men, two pastry-men and two paste layers. Besides, the Cardinal had his 
 own private kitchen, with a master cook daily dressed in velvet or satin, and 
 under him another 
 ariny of officers. 
 Among these were 
 clerks of the larder, 
 the scullery, the 
 ewry, the buttery, 
 the chandlery and 
 the wafery. In his 
 private chapel were 
 deans, and sub- 
 deans, a gospeler, an 
 epistler, a repeater, 
 a singing master, 
 choirmen and chil- 
 dren, a vestryman 
 and two grooms. 
 There were forty 
 priests in attend- 
 ance, all wearing rich 
 vestments of white 
 
 satin, scarlet or crimson. The altar was covered with massive plate and 
 blazed with jewels and precious stones. 
 
 Another army of clerks, chamberlain's ushers, and grooms attended him 
 in his private chamber, and another set accompained him on his travels. 
 
 When he dressed to go to Westminister Hall he summoned his retinue 
 and they speedily clothed him in his cardinal's robes, his upper vesture of 
 red, scarlet or crimson satin, his scarlet " pillion " and sable tippet. In his 
 hand, when he was ready to go out, he carried an orange shell containing a 
 sponge of aromatic vinegar lest in the crowd he should inbibe a pestilence ; 
 a great lord or gentleman walked before him carrying the seal of England 
 
 ROOM IN WHICH SHAKSPEARE WAS BORN. 
 
124 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 and his cardinal's hat; two others proceeded this bearing two large silver 
 crosses, and before these thenshers cried " On masters, on, and make room 
 for my lord." As he descended to the hall of his palace other officers took 
 their places in front, a sergeant-at-arms with a great silver mace and two 
 gentlemen bearing silver plates. 
 
 At the gate he mounted his mule, trapped in crimson velvet, and with 
 his cross-bearers and pillar-bearers before him, all on fine horses, and sur- 
 rounded by a train of gentry and footmen, proceeded on his way. 
 
 When he went to visit king Henry at Greenwich, he sailed in his 
 magnificent barge with troops of yeomen standing on the sails, and crowds 
 of gentlemen about the deck. When he disembarked his mule and cavalcade 
 stood ready to conduct him to the king's door. Wherever he went the 
 same stately, solemn following accompanied him. 
 
 Within his stately palace very stately banquets were given to stately 
 lords and ladies who came, and had as merry a time as it were possible amid 
 so much stateliness. 
 
 But at last the great Wolsey was stripped of all his greatness ; the king 
 was influenced against him ; friends and fortune fled. Friendless and in 
 disgrace he sought a refuge for his last hours in a convent. Shakspeare 
 pictures him at the convent door saying : — 
 
 " O Father abbot, 
 An old man broken with the storms of state, 
 Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ; 
 Give him a little earth for charity !" 
 
 The Crystal Palace. — The most beautiful building now in England is 
 the Crystal Palace, the wonderful city of glass and iron, now at Sydenham. 
 It was first erected at Hyde Park to serve as an exhibition building when 
 Prince Albert, husband of Queen Yictoria, instituted there the first " world's 
 fair" held in Great Britain. Afterwards it was sold to a company, taken 
 down and re-erected at Sydenham, where it now stands. 
 
 The building is four or five stories high, built entirely of strong iron 
 frames, into which are set long, narrow plates of glass. Two towers, seyen 
 or eight stories high, contain reservoirs of water which supply the foun- 
 tains in all parts of the palace and in the gardens surrounding it. 
 
 Inside of this great palace, which covers twenty acres, one seems to be 
 walking through a street in Paris or Brussels. There are shops where 
 porcelain, jewelry, pictures and all kinds of industrial products are dis- 
 played ; there are places of amusement, theatres, concerts, restaurants, and 
 vast hot-houses containing almost every kind of rare and strange plant in the 
 
HAMPTON COURT. 
 
126 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 world, lovely flowers,, and giant trees with birds sporting and singing among 
 the branches. There is also a large aquarium containing many strange 
 creatures from the water world, among which is a number of sea-anemones, 
 helpless flower-like creatures that have to be waited on by an attendant, 
 whose sole business is to place small shrimps, crabs, oysters and fish within 
 reach of their waving tentacula. 
 
 Many rare works of art, paintings, pieces of sculpture, adorn the different 
 parts of the building, good music may almost always be heard in some part, 
 and altogether it is a most attractive place of resort, as is proved by the 
 crowds of ladies and gentlemen by whom it is frequented. 
 
 Tin Mines. — There is no other country in the world that can better 
 afford fine castles, palaces and costly public works than England. " Eng- 
 lish gold" is a familiar expression all over the world, and it has had much 
 to do with the world's history. Large sums of money have been paid to 
 countries who fought in her interests besides those that her own armies 
 have cost. Other countries trying to do the same have been impoverished, 
 the people have had to suffer for the extravagance of the rulers. But Eng- 
 land's wealth is almost inexhaustible ; it rolls in to her from her colonies all 
 over the globe, while beneath her feet she has mines of mineral wealth. In the 
 southwest are the tin mines which brought Phoenician gold to Britian before 
 the Romans came, and which ever since have yielded thousands of dollars 
 worth of metal every year. There are more than three hundred of these mines 
 in Cornwall, furnishing employment to about thirty thousand persons. 
 All round, the rocks resound with incessant clanging of steam hammers, 
 by which the ore, brought up from the mines below, is being reduced to 
 powder. This is afterward mixed with water and filtered over long shelv- 
 ing plates in which the tin, being heavier, forms a thin incrustation. The 
 metal is then poured into vats and again mixed with water, the finer por- 
 tion settling at the bottom. 
 
 It is quite amusing to see the different machines acting almost human 
 in their various movements. A brush looking like a paint brush is dipped 
 by machinery every few minutes very slowly and steadily, as if with great 
 jugment, into some water in a trough beneath, which but for this would 
 become stagnant. Another immense vat is tapped every few minutes with 
 a piece of wood to assist in precipitating the metal. 
 
 The ancient Britons used to be very careful about the quality of the. 
 metal sold to their Phoenician customers. 
 
 The tin on being melted was put into moulds, holding usually above 
 
CRYSTAL PALACE. 
 
128 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 three hundred weight, and stamped with the owner's mark, by laying th 
 brass or iron stamp on the face of the block of tin, while it was yet in a fluid 
 State, but cool enough to sustain the stamping iron. 
 
 When the tin was brought to the assay-master, it was tried by cutting 
 off a piece from the lower corner. If found good it was stamped with his 
 seal, an assurance that it had been examined and found all right. The 
 punishment of him who used to bring bad tin was to have a portion of it 
 melted and poured down his throat. 
 
 The Phoenicians were thus particular about the quality because, it is said, 
 they used it in the manufacture of their Tyrian Purple, and any adulteration 
 would have been fatal to the trade. 
 
 The Greeks were anxious to discover where the Phoenicians obtained 
 their tin, and sent one of their vessels to track a Phoenician trader, but it 
 was discovered by the wary captain, who it was said purposely ran his 
 vessel ashore in imminent danger of shipwreck to avoid detection. He was 
 highly rewarded when he returned home for having preserved so valuable a 
 secret of the national commerce. 
 
 The Portland Quarries. — East of the tin regions, along the southern 
 coast of England, are the celebrated Portland quarries, another fertile source 
 of British wealth. All about the quarry may be seen beautifully colored 
 stones as large as a good-sized room, some pure white, some mixed with 
 shades of yellow and red, and some stained by little rills of mineral water, 
 or by mosses and lichens. From projecting rocks hang large orange colored 
 stalactites which the quarrymen call " congealed water." 
 
 The good marble lies buried under layers of soil, turf, and coarse stone, 
 which must all be removed before the real work of quarrying begins. 
 
 There are many splits in the rock,which assist the quarryman in cutting 
 out the blocks of stone, and which also decide the size, and, therefore, the 
 use for which the blocks can be prepared. A tall, narrow one will make a 
 shaft for a column, a shorter, thicker one, a pier stone for a bridge. They 
 are then taken to a convenient place, chipped to their required shape and 
 receive their weight-mark. When ready they are lifted on heavy carts and 
 wheeled to the railroad station or wharf. The workmen are said to be all 
 very strong and hardy, the effects of their vigorous exercise and the pure 
 air of the quarry. 
 
 Carrying Coals at Newcastle. — For more than six hundred yeai men 
 have been continually picking, shoveling and carrying away coals from the 
 famous mines of Newcastle in the northern part of England, and yet the 
 
England. 
 
 129 
 
 supply shows no signs of giving out. If one would understand how unprofit- 
 able would be the labor of " carrying coals to Newcastle," he should visit 
 this wide coal field and see the quantities of coal that are being constantly 
 carried away to market. As soon as one reaches the Bishopric of Dur- 
 ham, he begins to see tall engine-houses, and vastly taller chimneys, breath- 
 ing into the sky long black 
 clouds of smoke. He hears 
 groans and whistlings and 
 numerous unearthly sounds 
 around him, which come 
 from the great engines that 
 work the machinery of the 
 mines, and the pulleys and 
 gins and cars that shriek 
 and groan and rumble as 
 they carry away the coals. 
 When he reaches the 
 country nearer Newcastle, 
 all these operations — 
 the groanings and wail- 
 ings, the cinders and 
 fires increase . Here he 
 passes one of the tall 
 engine-houses that he 
 saw in the distance, 
 with its tall chimney, 
 hoisting into the sky 
 slanting columns of 
 turbid smoke. He now 
 spes from the upper 
 part of the engine 
 
 house a huge beam, protruding itself like a giant's arm, lifting itself up and 
 then falling again. To this beam is attached the rod and bucket of a pump 
 which, probably at some hundred yards deep, is lifting out the water from 
 a mine and enabling the miners to work where otherwise they would be 
 dro 1 tied in the water that floods the mine. Or he sees a great beam placed 
 on a high support and wagging its ends alternately up and down, doing 
 the same work in a different way. 
 
 GRANITE QUARRIES. 
 
130 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 There again the huge engines are at work whirling baskets down into 
 the deep shafts for coal, or whirling the colliers themseves down to get the 
 coal. For two or three hundred yards, down into the bowels of the earth, 
 they are sent with a rapidity that to a stranger is frightful, the engines all 
 the time groaning and coughing over their toil like so many condemned 
 Titans ; and the wheels and pulleys that they had put in motion, singing 
 and whistling like so many lesser spirits doomed to attend their labors. 
 
 Here one sees baskets of coal emerge from the mouth of the pit, and im- 
 mediately, as if by self agency, run away, empty themselves into a wagon 
 or boat, and come back ready for a fresh descent. There is a whole train of 
 wagons loaded with coal, going on their way without horse, without steam- 
 engine, without man, except one who sits behind, and instead of pro- 
 pelling these mad wagons, he seems to be trying to stop them with his 
 weight. 
 
 But what is one's amazement when he comes insight of the river Tyne to 
 see these wagons still careering at the very brink of the water : to see a rail- 
 way carried from the high bank, and supported on tall piles, horizontally 
 above the surface of the river, and to some distance into it, as if to allow 
 these wagon trains to run right off, and dash themselves down into the river. 
 
 There they go, all mad together ! Another moment and they will shoot 
 off the end of the lofty railway, and go headlong into the Tyne, helter- 
 skelter ! But see ! As they draw near the river they pause ! They stop ! 
 One by one they detach themselves, and one runs on by itself, while the others 
 wait. It nears the river, and a pair of gigantic arms separate themselves from 
 the end of the railway. They catch the wagon and hold it suspended in the 
 air. They let it softly and gently descend. A ship lies below the end of the 
 railway ; the wagon descends to it. A man standing there strikes a bolt, and 
 the bottom falls from the wagon. The coals are quickly deposited into the 
 hold of the vessel. Then up again the wagon soars in that pair of gigantic 
 arms . It reaches the railway, and glides away of its own accord to a distance 
 and there it awaits its brethren. As they are carried down and emptied, they 
 come on and join it, and then all glide swiftly back over the plain to the 
 distant pit. 
 
 The Thames Tunnel. — Where plenty most abounds, and good govern- 
 ment gives fullest assurance to the people of continued peace and prosperity, 
 there the greatest advancement will be made in literature, science and art. 
 The English have long held a foremost rank in all these, but the arts in 
 which they have most excelled have not been the finer ones, sculpture 
 
England. 
 
 131 
 
 painting so much as works of invention and engineering, sUch as bare 
 most directly npon their manufacturing and commercial interests. 
 
 For many years the Thames, in the thickest part of London, was so 
 
 BLAST FURNACES. 
 
 choked up with all kinds of craft that it was next to impossible for a ferry 
 boat to make its way across, or for a bridge to span it without interfering 
 with tjhe shipping. When, therefore, Sir Mark Brunei, in the early part of 
 the present century, proposed to build a tunnel under the Thames the 
 
132 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 proposition was received with great favor, by those who did not declare it 
 an impossibility. Work was begun in 1825, but accidents, mismanagement, 
 and want of confidence, brought it to a stand still and seemingly confirmed 
 the words of those who said it could not be done, but after nineteen years 
 of patient labor on the part of the designer, the great task was completed. 
 Since then others have been built. 
 
 The following account of Queen Victoria's visit to the Tunnel, soon after 
 its completion, was published at the time in a London paper : 
 
 It was not generally known until the middle of the day that the Queen 
 and Prince Albert intended to pay a visit to the Tunnel, then in a short time 
 the streets presented a very gay appearance. Flags were hoisted from 
 nearly every house, and people made their way from all quarters to the 
 Middlesex side where the royal standard was hoisted. The bells of the old 
 church struck up a merry peal and the. standard was hung out from the 
 steeple. At one o'clock the tunnel was closed against the public, but those 
 who were in it, among them a number of the nobility and of very elegantly 
 dressed ladies who had been invited by the directors, remained. The 
 Tunnel Pier, on which it was announced that her Majesty would land, was 
 covered with crimson cloth, and a ladder was fixed on the outer barge for 
 her Majesty and suite to ascend. 
 
 The whole of the Thames police were mustered in their galleys upon the 
 river to prevent the multitude of boats from pressing upon the royal barge. 
 At half -past three o'clock the firing of guns and the advance of more than 
 one hundred small boats announced the approach of the noble company. 
 At twenty-five minutes of four her Majesty landed on the pier. Three 
 hearty cheers were given by the crowd, which the Queen gracefully acknowl- 
 edged. Her Majesty proceeded at once down the shaft into the tunnel and 
 entered the western arch, where the cheering was renewed by the company 
 assembled. 
 
 The superintendent of the police preceeded the Queen, the acting 
 engineer of the work walked by her side, explaining to her Majesty 
 the nature of the work and various particulars connected with it, to 
 which she and the royal consort paid much attention. 
 
 In the middle of the tunnel one of the stall-keepers displayed his loyality 
 in a peculiar manner. All the silk handkerchiefs disposed in his stall for 
 sale he spread upon the ground for her Majesty to walk upon, and they pre- 
 sented the appearance of a rich carpet. 
 
England. 133 
 
 Her Majesty proceeded as far as the Rotherhite side, but did not ascend 
 it, returning through, the same arch. 
 
 Upon ascending the shaft they were again cheered, and had got about half 
 way up when the people below began the national anthem " God save the 
 Queen." More than six hundred persons joined in the chorus; their voices 
 reverberating along the tunnel and up the shaft had a most pleasing effect. 
 
 SLATE QUARRIES. 
 
 Her Majesty and Prince Albert remained on the staircase listening to the 
 strain until it was ended, and then bowing to the people left the place. 
 
 On reaching the tunnel pier her Majesty was saluted by fifty coal porters 
 
 with their faces as black as coals. They raised their fan-tail hats and set 
 
 up a most tremendous cheer. Her Majesty turned round, smiled and bowed. 
 
 " God bless youmar'm " roared one of the coaleys with stentorian lungs, 
 
 " I hope. you'll come to Wapping again." 
 
 The rough manners of the honest fellow pleased her Majesty and the 
 
134 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Prince very much. Before leaving the tunnel her Majesty was presented 
 with a gold medal representing the Tunnel on one side and the illustrious 
 engineer, Sir Lambert Brunei, on the other. 
 
 THE THAMESo 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 The country that was once called the "Gem of the Sea" and the 
 « Emerald Isle," is to-day " Poor Erin," " Unfortunate Ireland." Her green 
 forests are sunken into black 
 bogs ; her prosperity has de- 
 parted ; the subject of her 
 wrongs has filled volumes. 
 Still Nature deals kindly 
 with her : she has many rich 
 acres, which, if properly 
 cared for, would supply all 
 her wants, and the sunken 
 forests furnish an abund- 
 ance of heat fuel to take the 
 place of wood and coal. All 
 she needs to make her a 
 prosperous and happy coun- 
 try again is good govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Peat-bogs. — Between 
 Galway and Sligo bays, on 
 the west coast of Ireland, is a 
 large shoulder of land ex- 
 tending into the Atlantic. 
 Lines, drawn from the north- 
 ern and southern extremities 
 of this projection across to 
 the east, would measure off 
 a belt of country know as 
 
 the "bog" region of Ireland. Nearly all of this strip is marshy ground 
 covered with a growth of mosses, lichens, heaths and grasses. Underneath 
 
136 Persons mid Places in Europe. 
 
 these living carpets lie the decaying roots and leaves of former growths, 
 imbedded inmnd, and kept continually wet by the moist climate. 
 
 In some places this rank growth has choked up shallow ponds and lakes, 
 in others it has spread itself over good ground, converting it into " bogs." 
 It is not uncommon to see a large patch of bog itself moving along over the 
 ground, as if on rollers. Water has collected under it, until it has broken 
 loose from its resting place, and is carried along by the overflowing water 
 until it comes to a level meadow where it stops, and begins to grow. 
 
 A few years ago the people in the neighborhood of the great Sloggan 
 bog, were alarmed one day by several loud reports like discharges of artillery 
 or claps of thunder coming from the bog. Then, to their astonishment, they 
 saw an immense field of turf, moving slowly toward the road. In a few 
 minutes it had covered the road for a distance of fifty rods and continuing 
 on towards the river Main, nearly choking up its channel. 
 
 When these rank mosses have obtained a footing they begin to increase 
 in depth. New leaves come out on top of the old ones each year, and, 
 supplied with abundant moisture, gather qualities of mud, and thus the moss 
 goes on thickening and deepening. As the depth increases the decaying 
 fibers disappear, and the moss becomes blacker until near the bottom peat 
 is formed. This substance, when dried, resembles soft coal, and makes very 
 good fuel. 
 
 In some bogs the trunks of large trees are found, showing that they have 
 formed over ancient forests. It is thought that the trees were perhaps first 
 felled by hurricanes, or destroyed by floods, and around their prostrate forms 
 the bog moss began to grow ; valuable wood is sometimes dug out of these 
 places and sold. 
 
 The business of digging peat affords to many poor families their only 
 means of earning a living. On all sides of a large bog may be seen miserable 
 little huts, dug out of the bank, and roofed over with sod, showing how 
 scanty is the reward of their hard toil. 
 
 The Bells or Shannon. — Through the bog region from north to south, 
 draining the lakes of the central part, runs the Shannon, the chief river of 
 Ireland. It abounds in fine scenery and furnishes a water-way for many 
 parts of the interior. Canals connect it with the chief water courses of the 
 northern and eastern regions, and costly dredgings from Limerick down to 
 the sea, make it passable there for large vessels. 
 
 Overlooking the wide estuary that begins to broaden out at Limerick, 
 stands the old cathedral of the town with its fine peal of bells, whose music 
 
Ireland. 
 
 137 
 
 resounds far over the waters of the Shannon, and have become widely noted 
 for their sweetness. The history of this set of bells is as remarkable as 
 their tone. They were made many years ago in Italy, by a young Italian 
 who devoted many months to the task, and when they were done, sold them 
 to the prior of a' neighboring convent. With the profits of his sale the 
 young manufacturer bought a little villa near the convent, and settled down 
 
 with the expectation of growing 
 old amid his pleasant surround- 
 ings, and within hearing of his 
 beloved bells, — the work of his 
 hands. 
 
 But misfortune in the shape of 
 war visited his quiet home. His 
 villa, his friends and all that he had perished ; he alone was left. Even the 
 convent bells were gone. The building in which they hung had been razed to 
 the earth and the bells taken away. The man became a wanderer ; traveled 
 all over Europe but found no place that satisfied him. After years of travel- 
 ing, when his hair had turned gray he was possessed with a desire to 
 hear again those convent bells which alone of all he had once loved, were 
 
138 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 left upon the earth. Hearing that they were in the cathedral of Limerick, 
 he took passage for Ireland. As the vessel came to anchor near the city, 
 some one pointed out to him the steeple where the bells hung. Procuring 
 a small boat he was rowed toward the town, his eyes fixed all the while 
 on the steeple of St Mary. 
 
 The evening was a calm and beautiful one in spring, just the time of year 
 to remind him of sunny Italy, his native land. The Shannon lay like a 
 broad, smooth mirror, and the boat glided over it almost noiselessly. Sud- 
 denly amid the stillness the bells tolled from the cathedral. The rowers 
 rested on their oars and waited in silence, as the old Italian crossed his arms 
 and lay back in his seat, listening to the familiar tones that brought back 
 to him memories of his early home and happiness. 
 
 When the rowers looked around they saw that his eyes were closed, 
 although his face was still turned toward the cathedral. They rowed to the 
 shore and when the boat landed they found him dead. 
 
 The Giant's Causeway. — A brim of mountains surrounds the bog region 
 of Ireland, narrow on the east and west, broader on the north and south. 
 Within this brim are many beautiful hills, valleys, rivers, and lakes, and on 
 the northern coast is one of Nature's wonders — the Giant's Causeway. 
 This remarkable place is a rocky platform composed of jointed columns like 
 those of Fingal's Cave, as regularly formed as if hewn out by chisel and rule ; 
 and fitted together so exactly that a knife blade, or a sheet of paper can 
 scarcely be crowded between them, yet each column is separate and can be 
 taken down joint by joint like a stove pipe. Nearly all are six-sided, there 
 are some with five, seven, eight, and nine sides. One has only three. 
 
 The platform called the " causeway " is about seven hundred feet long 
 and three hundred and fifty wide, extending from the base of a steep 
 cliff out into the sea in three divisions, like three separate piers, one much 
 larger than the others. 
 
 In various parts of the Causeway the columns rise in curious shaped 
 groups, one resembling an organ, another a chair. The organ, called the 
 Giant's organ, was once mistaken by a hostile ship at sea for. a castle, and 
 several balls were fired into it breaking some of the columns. 
 
 The ancient inhabitants of Ireland, to whom this Causeway was as much 
 of a wonder as it is to people of to-day, thought that it must have been the 
 work of a Giant, and after a while a story was spread around telling how it 
 came to be built. 
 
 It was said that a great giant once lived in the northern coast of Ireland, 
 
Ireland. 
 
 139 
 
 y%v 
 
 and another over on the coast of Scotland, just opposite. The Scotch giant 
 became enraged at the Irish giant one day and expressed a desire to whip 
 him. He said he would come over and give him a regular pounding if it 
 was not for getting his feet wet. 
 
 The Irish giant very obligingly told him that he would save him the 
 annoyance of wetting his feet and still give him an opportunity of fighting. 
 So he built this great causeway and then invited the Scotch giant to step 
 over and whip him. The great bellig- 
 erant came, but instead of beating his 
 Irish antagonist he was very badly 
 beaten himself, as he might have ex- 
 pected, from the hands that could pre- 
 pare such a path as the causeway. 
 
 Fairyland. — While the people in 
 the north talk of giants, those of the 
 west tell fairy stories, and are quite 
 well satisfied that certain of their 
 pretty mountain glens are the favorite 
 haunts of real fairies. It is not unu- 
 sual to see a rustic countryman take 
 off his hat when he sees an eddy of 
 dust raised by the wind whirling about 
 in the road before him, and mutter 
 half aloud " God speed ye Gentlemen." 
 He supposes that the elf-folks are pass- 
 ing along, and says it is always best to 
 be civil and polite. At any rate he 
 wishes to keep on good terms with 
 these invisible little people for he has 
 heard that they are armed with flint- 
 headed arrows, which they sometimes 
 shoot at cattle to bewitch them. This 
 
 was the way they used to take revenge, it was said, upon the people who set- 
 tled too near their haunts. 
 
 A story is yet told of an industrious peasant, who purchased a farm that 
 bordered upon one of the abodes of the fairies, and he not only dug and 
 plowed the land close to their doors, and built him a house, but he also set 
 up a lime-kiln. 
 
 THE BOYNE OBELISK. 
 
140 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 This was more than the fairies could allow, and they soon began to visit 
 their displeasure upon the daring farmer. First his horse fell into the 
 quarry, then three of his cows died, and nine of his pigs. He concluded 
 that it was because the fairies were displeased with him for digging up 
 the earth for his lime-kiln, and so, though it had cost him five guineas, he 
 took it down without delay and never burned another brick. 
 
 The Lakes of Killathstey. — The finest scenery in Ireland is in the 
 vicinity of the ]akes of Killarney in the southwest. Macgillicuddy's Rocks, 
 the highest mountain in Ireland, watch over the beautiful lakes, sur- 
 rounded by many other bare and rugged rocks. Passing these sentinels, 
 the hills become partially wooded ; the crags which over-hang the road 
 are tufted with rich verdure. Then the broad bosom of the upper lake 
 begins to spread out in its calm beauty like a smooth mirror set in 
 majestic mountains. 
 
 One of the lakes of Killarney contains as many as thirty little islands, 
 among which is Innisf alien, particularly noted for its beauty. It is bor- 
 dered by a dense wood, but the interior is spread out into the most grace- 
 ful lawns, broken here and there by clumps of trees and masses of rock. 
 ISTo spot among the lakes is so much frequented as this island of Innisfallen, 
 not only by travelers, but the resident gentry, who hold many a picnic there 
 in summer, dancing on the green sod and rowing about the little coves that 
 fringe the borders. 
 
 The people of the Killarney region have long held a curious tradition 
 about the origin of their largest lake. They say that it was once the site of 
 a fine city, where lived a daring Irish warrior, by the name of O'Donoghue. 
 
 It was supplied with an abundance of everything except water, of which 
 there was only a little spring. A mighty sorcerer had given them this 
 spring and charged O'Donoghue that whenever anyone drew water from 
 it he should always cover it with the silver vessel which he left for that 
 purpose. 
 
 But one day O'Donoghue had drank more wine than was good for him, 
 and being very careless and merry, he ordered the silver cover to be brought 
 into his house, for it would make him,he said, an excellent bath. His terri- 
 fied vassals tried to persuade him not to commit such a fearful sacrilege, 
 but he only laughed at their fears and insisted upon its being brought at 
 once. " Never fear," he said "the cool night air will do the water good 
 and in the morning you will find it fresher than ever." 
 
 Trembling with apprehensions, the servants took the cover from the 
 
 
Ireland 
 
 141 
 
 mouth, of the well and carried it to the room of the audacious prince. As 
 they did so they imagined that they heard awful sounds coming from it, 
 threatening them with vengeance. Fearful and anxious, they retired for 
 the night, but one more alarmed than the others fled to the mountains. 
 
 In the' morning he looked down into the valley where lie had left his 
 prince and companions and instead of the magnificent city, there was a 
 great lake of water. 
 
 So much credit is given to this legend that some of the fishermen are 
 still confident that they can see palaces and towers glimmering from the 
 
 ON THE LEE, CORK. 
 
 bottom of the lake when the water is clear. They also declare that when a 
 storm is approaching O'Donoghue's giant figure maybe seen riding over 
 the waves on a snorting white horse. 
 
 The beautiful scenery about Killarney is sadly marred by sights of 
 human wretchedness. Among the few fine mansions of the nobility, are 
 hosts of wretched hovels. Within the well-kept grounds of the aristocratic 
 enclosures, all is greenness and fertility, without all is want and misery. 
 The landlord's family lives in luxury ; the tenant's go hungry and in rags. 
 Nearly all of his earnings are taken for rent ; and even if he could save a 
 little he cannot buy a foot of land. No matter how frugal and industrious 
 
142 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 he is he can do little to improve his condition. It would be some consola- 
 tion if the landlord had the better right to the soil ; bnt when the tenant 
 remembers that his ancestors were driven out to make room for those of his 
 lord it is no wonder that he protests and rebels against the might that has 
 triumphed over right. 
 
 The Round To wees. — Beside the miserable huts of the poor in Ireland, 
 stand the evidences of her former prosperous times. Ruined castles, 
 fortresses, monasteries and towers tell of the wealth and learning of better 
 days. Among her numerous antiquities is a peculiar kind of high tower 
 which is found nowhere else after the same pattern. There are more than 
 a hundred of these round towers of different heights and sizes, all built in 
 the same shape. 
 
 Some are only thirty five feet high, some one hundred and twenty. They 
 were once divided into stories, from three to eight according to the height; 
 the lioors are yet remaining in two or three. In each story there was one 
 window, so placed that it would not come directly over the one below, and 
 around the top, just beneath the cone-shaped roof, a series of windows on a 
 level with each other ran all around the tower. The top of the roof ended 
 in a little sharp point. 
 
 The stones composing the shafts have all been skillfully chiseled and 
 nicely fitted together. There is no trace of mortar to be found between them, 
 but in places something that appears to have been a kind of cement. 
 
 All the careful examination that has been made of these towers has failed 
 to show when, by whom, or for what purpose they were constructed. There 
 is evidence that they were standing in the twelfth century ; a traveler 
 who visited the country at that time speaks of them, but he could tell 
 nothing of their origin. Some say that the Phoenicians erected them for 
 fire temples ; others that the Druids used them in proclaiming their festivals ; 
 others that the Magians built them for astronomical purposes ; some think 
 they were built by the early Christians either for bell towers, for store-rooms 
 for their church plate, for monasteries or for places of refuge. But nobody 
 can be certain, and the old towers stand silent and dark refusing to give 
 any account of themselves. 
 
 The Hall of Tara. — Ireland's oldest relic of the past is a heap of 
 mounds on a high hill in the county of Meath, surmounted by a single 
 upright stone. Twenty-seven hundred years ago the Irish princes used to 
 meet upon this hill in the great Hall of Tara that stood above these mounds. 
 Here they elected their king, crowned him upon the upright stone which, 
 
Ireland. 
 
 143 
 
 during the ceremony tradition says, used to roar, and then they gathered in 
 the great hall to make laws. m 
 
 A sumptuous dinner was always given before tne business of the day 
 began, announced by the chief trumpeter with three blasts of his horn ine 
 first signal called the shield bearers of the prince to enter the grand door 
 
 ROSS CASTLE, KILLARNEY. 
 
 and hand their master', shields to the marshal who hung themi b. ittett 
 proper places ; the second blast called the shield-bearers of the generals to 
 doThe same ; and the third brought the whole company to their places m 
 
 ^Nofonly'princes and soldiers, but scholars and poets assembled in the 
 
%44 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 halls of ancient Tara where the harp "the soul of music shed," for there 
 were noted schools of learning then in Ireland where philosophy, astronomy, 
 medicine, history and poetry were taught to pupils from far and near. 
 
 But not even the walls of Tara, where the harp so long hung mute, are 
 now remaining. A tradition says that the place was cursed in the year 
 563 by a saint who was displeased with the king, and after that it was 
 deserted. The buildings either crumbled entirely or were destroyed. 
 
 Ireland's Haep. — The ancient harps of Ireland have also passed away, 
 excepting perhaps a few that may still be found in the cabinets of the 
 curious. There is one called Brian Boroimhes harp in the nmseum at Dublin, 
 said to be the oldest Irish harp in Europe. It is beautifully carved and 
 ornamented, showing that music was not the only art in which the people 
 were skilled. 
 
 The harp has long been the favorite musical instrument of Ireland; it 
 used to be represented upon her national arms, and there are yet those who 
 can remember the time when a very old harper, the last of his race, used to 
 go through the country from house to house bending beneath the load of 
 his heavy instrument. 
 
 He used to play with a peculiar eager expression upon his face, and with 
 his head bent forward as if trying to catch from its strings strains of the 
 old heroic measures he had heard in former days. But as if the calamities 
 of the country had touched the strings of its national instrument, the music 
 it gave out was only sad and mournful. Says the poet, 
 
 " So oft hast thou echoed the deep sigh of sadness, 
 That e'en in thy mirth it will steal from thee still." 
 
 The Irish are still fond of music; they sing when they are happy because 
 they cannot help it, and when they are miserable to lighten their sorrows; 
 but as some one has said, the mingling of the wild and the beautiful of 
 gloom and sunshine, of tears and smiles, which marks the scenery, the 
 climate and the history of Ireland, has impressed itself upon the character 
 of her music which, while thrilling with exquisite melody, awakens emotions 
 of sadness. 
 
 Saint Patrick at Tara. — One night in the olden times, while a great 
 pagan festival was being held at Tara, the king and his attendants were 
 startled by seeing a fire on the top of a hill near by. 
 
 ISTow, it was well understood all over the land that on the night of this 
 festival all fires were to be put out, and none to be lit until the great fire, 
 which was the chief feature of the occasion, was seen blazing forth from the 
 
Ireland. 
 
 145 
 
 hill of Tara. Who could have dared to disobey this well known command ? 
 In haste the king sent for the arch Druid, and the priest bent his eyes on 
 the distant light. Presently he said, very solemly and emphatically, " 
 king, if yonder fire be not put out 
 this night it will never be quenched 
 jn Erin." 
 
 The person who had thus boldly 
 disobeyed the law of the land was 
 none other than Saint Patrick, who 
 had come to Ireland to preach 
 Christianity to the pagan people, 
 and this night, being the eve of Eas- 
 ter Sunday, he had lit a fire in ac- 
 cordance with the commandment of 
 the church. 
 
 He was arrested and brought be- 
 fore the king in all haste to answer 
 for his audacious act, but he boldly 
 told the king and the assembled 
 princes and high priests that he had 
 come to Erin on purpose to quench 
 the fires of pagan sacrifice through- 
 out the land, and to kindle in its 
 place the flames of Christian faith. 
 
 The king was amazed and not a 
 little angry to hear this, but he in- 
 vited Patrick to come to Tara the 
 next day, and talk the matter over 
 with the wise men of the country. 
 
 The result was that many of 
 those wise men were converted to 
 the new religion, and the king, 
 though not ready to quit the pagan 
 worship himself, gave Patrick per- 
 mission to go all through the land and preach. Many wonderful stories are 
 told of the life and labors of the Saint, some of which are too wonderful to 
 be believed; but the fact that Ireland was a pagan country when he entered 
 it, and a Christian one when he died, shows how successful a preacher he was. 
 
 ANCIENT ROUND TOWER. 
 
146 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 After his death Ireland again became famous for her schools of learning, 
 A great zeal for study spread through all the churches and monasteries 
 Saint Patrick had founded, especially the one at Armagh, in Munster y 
 which was resorted to by students from all over the continent. 
 
 Blarney Castle. — The most perfect of Ireland's antiquities is a cluster 
 of buildings on the rock of Cashel in Tipperary, consisting of a round tower, 
 a cathedral, an abbey, a chapel and a palace, all joined together, though built 
 at different periods, and all quite well preserved. But the most renowned 
 is the Castle of Blarney near the city of Cork. Its fame has been caused by 
 the tradition about the stone near its summit which, it is said, gives to who- 
 ever kisses it the power of persuasive eloquence. He will be able to wheedle 
 or coax people into doing whatever he wishes. But whoever would kiss 
 the real Blarney stone must submit to the unpleasant operation of being 
 suspended by the heels over the parapet of the tower, until his head is 
 within reach of the stone. Most visitors content themselves with kissing a 
 stone more easily reached. 
 
 A reason for the curious tradition of the Blarney stone is found in a 
 story about the Lord of Blarney and one of Queen Elizabeth's generals. 
 During the war carried on at the time of her reign, Lord Carew, an English 
 commander, agreed to a truce with Cormac McCarthy, lord of Blarney, on 
 condition that the castle be surrendered into his hands. Bay after day 
 went by and still the lord of Blarney held the castle. But whenever Carew 
 sent to demand its instant submission McCarthey put him off with flatter- 
 ing speeches, plausible excuses, and fair promises. At last the poor 
 general became the laughing stock of Elizabeth's court for being so duped 
 by the lord of Blarney, and " blarney " became the term applied to all such 
 smooth speeches in after time. 
 
 The old castle is now covered to the top of its tower with masses of ivy 
 that hide the mouldering walls and the huge gaps made in it by Cromwell's 
 cannon. 
 
 Near the castle is the famous " groves of Blarney " where, according to 
 the poet Milliken, there used to be a " cave where no daylight enters," a 
 " lake well stored with fishes " and a " sweet rock-close." The lake is still 
 said to contain treasures of wealth, which the last earl of Blarney cast 
 into it, and which are to lie there until a McCarthy is again lord of Blarney. 
 The secret of the hiding place he told to three of the McCarthys, who were 
 only to tell it at their death to another member of the family until the time 
 for revealing it came. 
 
Ireland. 
 
 147 
 
 Briaw, King of the Tributes.— It was in the vicinity of Blarney castle 
 that Ireland's troubles began, but the first link in the chain of evils was a 
 
 SAINT PATRICK GOING TO TARA. 
 
 piece of great good fortune very different from the events to which 
 it led. 
 
148 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The piratical vikings from Denmark paid Ireland a visit in the course of 
 their ravages, but they found here a second Alfred in the warlike Brian, king 
 of Munster. 
 
 At the beginning of the conflict Brian was only an under-king, subject to 
 the high-king, Malachy, with whom he joined his forces. 
 
 It seems to have been a case of Saul and David, for while the king slew 
 his thousands Brian slew his ten thousand. The Danes were vanquished, 
 but they feared only Brian. They agreed to pay tribute to him, but not to 
 the high king Malachy. This made Brian ambitious, and he announced 
 himself as high-king of Erin. 
 
 King Malachy made but little attempt to hold the throne against Brian. 
 Seeing that a struggle would bring a disastrous war upon the land he, like 
 a true patriot, yielded up his own rights for the welfare of his country. 
 
 Brian made a good king, although he exacted almost as heavy tributes 
 from his vassal kings as he had from the Danes. The five years of his 
 reign are considered the most glorious in the history of Ireland. The whole 
 country was wisely governed, and everybody dwelt without being disturbed 
 either by their neighbors or foreign foes. The Danes kept within their 
 fortified cities, and paid their tribute regularly. Many improvements were 
 made in the condition of the people, one was that everybody added the 
 name of his clan to that of his own, putting before it " Mac " for son, and 
 " " for grandson. 
 
 When Brian had become an old man the Danes arose again and made a 
 great effort to conquer Ireland. In all the surrounding lands they had been 
 victorious and they now determined to make a mighty effort for the con- 
 quest of Ireland. From all around they gathered, from Denmark the 
 "faderland" and from England, Scotland and the Orkney's where they had 
 settled colonies, to assist those already in Ireland in making one grand 
 struggle. 
 
 Brian gathered and prepared his warriors, and the battle took place at 
 Clontarf , near Dublin, April 23rd, 1014, a little more than fifty-two years 
 before the Norman conquest of England. 
 
 Just before the battle Brian rode along the lines with a sword in one hand 
 and a crucifix in the other, and with his white hair floating in the wind ex- 
 horted his soldiers to fight as they never had before. It was now their re- 
 ligion and their country against paganism and bondage. He begged them 
 to resolve, as he had, to win or die in the struggle; both he and his sons and 
 grandsons were all there, ready to risk their all in the fight. He reminded 
 
Ireland. 
 
 149 
 
 tliem of the savage cruelties these barbarians had inflicted upon their coun- 
 trymen, how they had profaned the altars and murdered even the priests. 
 Then raising the crucifix on high he prayed that God would strengthen their 
 arms in a cause so just and holy. 
 
 When he ceased speaking the whole army raised a deafening shout and 
 demanded to be led at once against their foes. The old man placed himself 
 at their head ready to lead, but his sons and all the princes besought him 
 not to go into the battle at his age, but to give the command to his eldest son. 
 After much persuasion he consented, and retired to his tent to pray, while 
 the battle went on. Most 
 fiercely did it rage all day 
 until on each side there 
 was hardly a leader left. 
 Brian's son performed the 
 most heroic deeds, but in 
 the afternoon he was slain, 
 just as the tide of battle 
 was turning in favor of 
 the Irish. All of Brian's 
 other sons perished also. 
 and even the young grand- 
 son, only fifteen years of 
 age was found dead with 
 his hand still grasping the 
 hair of a Dane whom he 
 had killed. Saddest of all 
 the aged Brian himself, 
 while praying in his tent 
 was slain by a Dane who 
 had made his way thither 
 
 from the field. But none of these calamities made the Irish soldiers waver. 
 They paused for nothing until the Danes were beaten back. 
 
 It has been said that the sun of Ireland set in a flash of glory, meaning 
 that the brilliant victory at Clontarf closed her career of greatness. After 
 Brian's death king Malachy again became high-king and for eight years the 
 country continued to prosper. But when he died civil wars began. 
 
 Brian had set a bad example in taking the government away from a good 
 king and all the ambitious princes were not slow in following it after 
 
 BLARNEY CASTLE. 
 
150 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Malachy's death. For more than a hundred years they strove and fought 
 with each other, sacrificing their country's good for their own selfish aims, 
 and thus prepared the way for Henry II. of England to step in as a peace- 
 maker and afterward demand their allegiance in return for his services. 
 
 A Transplanted Nation. — When the Irish, after a struggle of four 
 hundred years, had been compelled to submit to the English, afresh calamity 
 befell them. The English as a nation became Protestants, while the Irish 
 remained Catholics. Bitter hatred sprang up between the two sects and the 
 English determined to put an end to Catholicism in Ireland. The Irish rose 
 again and battled for their faith as heroically as they had for their independ- 
 ence, but they were defeated. Elizabeth took away the lands of their most 
 gallant defenders and gave them to her English favorites. Nearly the whole 
 province of Munster was " planted " in this way by English earls and barons, 
 and a few years afterward James the First planted Ulster in the same way. 
 This roused fresh rebellions and Cromwell was sent over to reduce the Irish 
 to submission and to convert them to Protestantism. He took with him for 
 the purpose a large supply of Bibles, ammunition, and scythes. Those who 
 refused to be converted were killed ; and those who escaped being killed 
 were starved into submission by the loss of their crops which were cut down 
 with the scythes. 
 
 After conquering the men in battle and murdering women and children 
 in cold blood, Cromwell followed the example of Elizabeth and James and 
 "planted' ' colonies . Having seized the government of England and killed the 
 king, he had the provinces of Ulster and Munster to replant with his own 
 friends, and Leinster to plant new. The remaining one, Connaught, which 
 was almost barren served as a prison for the dispossessed people whom he 
 could not otherwise dispose of. 
 
 In April, 1654, the work of " transplanting" began. Toward the sea- 
 ports moved a procession of over forty thousand men going into exile in 
 Spain. Following it was another procession of young boys and girls ten 
 and twelve years of age who had been torn from their mothers' arms 
 by bands of soldiers, going into slavery on the tobacco plantations of the 
 West Indies. Toward the west streamed another procession of aged men 
 and heart-broken women, stripped of their homes and their loved ones and 
 carrying with them into barren Connaught all they had left in the world. 
 
 The cause of all this cruel persecution is to be looked for, not in England 
 or Ireland, but away in Spain where the sullen fanatical Philip started the 
 fierce fires of persecution against the "heretics." It was the inquisition in 
 
Ireland. 
 
 151 
 
 the Netherlands, the massa- 
 cre of St. Bartholomew, and 
 the burning stake set up by 
 Mary, the wife of Philip in 
 England, that infuriated the 
 English against the Catholic 
 church and made them 
 think that they were doing 
 the Lord service when they 
 tried to banish it from Ire- 
 land. They forgot that the 
 Lord they pretended to serve 
 did not come to conquer by 
 the sword. 
 
 The Emancipator. — 
 About a hundred and fifty 
 years after Cromwell' s cruel- 
 ties at Drogheda and Wex- 
 ford, there arose in Ireland 
 a man who was able to 
 lighten somewhat the bur- 
 den that still rested upon his 
 Catholic countrymen. A 
 full account of his life is 
 necessary to give one a 
 clear idea of the difficulties 
 which he had to meet, but a 
 few scenes show how he ac- 
 complished much good. 
 
 First we see him as a 
 young lawyer, pouring over 
 law papers in his dimly 
 lighted study for hours be- 
 fore dawn. He needs to 
 make more than ordinary 
 efforts, for he belongs to the 
 despised Catholics, and the 
 courts are in the hands of 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL 
 
152 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Protestant judges, who favor the lawyers of their creed, and allow the juiy 
 boxes to be packed with those who will decide according to their wishes. 
 
 There is little chance for a Catholic lawyer to win. He must have more 
 than ordinary knowledge of the law, and he must be quick and sharp to 
 detect and expose the trickeries of an unjust court. So O'Connell spends 
 hours that he needs for sleep in mastering his case and points in the law. 
 
 Then we see him in the court-room. Several Irish noblemen have been 
 accused of conspiracy against the government in order that their estates 
 may be taken from them. Many witnesses have testified to their good 
 character. Nothing has been proved against them ; but the jury has been 
 " packed " and there i£ no hope for the victims unless O'Connell can come 
 to plead their case. 
 
 A messenger has been sent in haste, and O'Connell has come without 
 waiting to eat. He has a lunch brought into the court-room that he may 
 breakfast while Avaiting for his turn to speak, and not miss what the 
 other side is pleading. 
 
 In the midst of his lunch, he interrupts the lawyer on the other side, 
 "That is not according to law," he says with his mouth full. The judge is 
 obliged to admit that O'Connell is right. This embarrasses the lawyer, and 
 he makes a ridiculous blunder. O'Connell quickly points it out, and raises 
 a hearty laugh at the speaker's expense. 
 
 Then O'Connell's turn comes. He rises, and with a few keen words 
 shows the falseness of the accusation, the baseness of the conspiracy, and 
 the accused are set free. 
 
 Follow him again in the evening. His work in the court-room is over 
 and he has gathered a company of his countrymen to talk with them about 
 the deplorable condition of Ireland, and of what can be done for her relief. 
 He makes their blood boil by pictures of fresh abuses and rouses them to 
 a high pitch of enthusiasm. He says the Catholics must be given equal 
 privileges with the Protestants, and he says the law carrying the Irish par- 
 liament to London must be repealed and national parliament brought back 
 to Dublin. "But,"he says, "it must be done without costing a single drop 
 of blood. That is too great a price to pay for any social reform." 
 
 He says the way to bring it about is by their votes. When the English 
 see that the whole nation is united in voting for men of their own choice 
 they will not dare to deny Catholics the right of holding office. The peo- 
 ple listened to their great leader. His stirring appeals aroused the whole 
 nation and when election day came they voted as they pleased even at the 
 
DANIEL O'CONNELL. 
 
154 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 risk of being turned out of their homes by their landlords. O'Connell 
 was elected to a seat in Parliament. But now another difficulty arose. Be- 
 fore a new member could take his seat in the House he must swear to an 
 oath which among other things compelled him to deny the chief doctrines 
 of the Catholic creed. When it came O'Connell's turn to be sworn he re- 
 peated that part of the oath in a loud voice so that all could hear. Then 
 he said that some of these statements he knew to be false, and the rest he 
 did not believe were true and therefore it would be impossible for him to 
 take the oath. Of course he could not take his seat, but his manly bearing 
 made a profound impression, and people began to think about changing the 
 oath. 
 
 Another election was declared for Clair county, but again O'Connell was 
 elected by a larger majority than at first. The English saw there would be 
 serious trouble unless O'Connell was permitted to take his seat in Parlia- 
 ment. Finally they made out an " emancipation " bill giving Catholics the 
 right to hold office. There was great opposition to passing this bill and 
 it is said that when it was taken to King George to sign he broke his pen to 
 pieces and stamped upon it in his rage. But he saw that it must be signed, 
 and so the Catholic Emancipation bill became a law. O'Connell had gained 
 a great victory, and gained it as he said he would, without shedding a drop 
 of blood. 
 
 But there was still another measure to be won before Irish affairs could 
 be much improved. They must have a Parliament of their own at Dublin 
 for the regulation of home affairs. 
 
 Again we see O'Connell on the hillside speaking to a great throng of 
 people. He is their idol now and they gather from far and near to hear 
 him. At day -break on Sunday morning they may be seen coming in 
 groups to the place of meeting and kneeling on the greensward around 
 their priests while the incense rises from a hundred rude altars and the 
 solemn music of the mass floats out over the hillside. 
 
 Presently O'Connell comes to take his seat upon the platform and the 
 great throng bursts out in enthusiastic cheers. But when he rises to speak 
 every lip is still. Perfect silence reigns throughout the great multitude. 
 The good order is considered marvelous, and the English officers watch in 
 vain for any cause for arrests. But the people are under the influence of a 
 master mind, and confidence in their leader makes them calm. 
 
 But he has difficult material to manage sometimes. There are young 
 patriots in his audience who are burning with eagerness to fight for what 
 
Ireland. 155 
 
 they want. To them O'Oonnell says, "Is it by force or violence that I shall 
 gain this victory dear above every earthly consideration? No, perish the 
 thought forever! I will do it by legal, peaceable, and constitutional means 
 a l one _by the electricity of public opinion, by the moral combination of 
 good men, and by the enrollment of four millions of repealers." 
 
 But O'Connell was not allowed to finish his worl^. He was seized and 
 imprisoned in spite of his care to do nothing against the law, and the object 
 for which he labored has not yet been accomplished. But England has 
 now a "grand old man" who is ashamed of the long course of dishonor his 
 country has pursued toward Ireland, and is trying to obtain for it by 
 constitutional means a Home Parliament at Dublin. 
 
 The Wearing of the Green. — It has not been possible for some of 
 Ireland's eager patriots to follow O'Connell' s advice and refrain from fight- 
 ing. They have hoped to compel the English to yield to their wishes by 
 the force of arms, by secret plots, and by various other means that the 
 great agitator denounced. He saw that it would only make matters worse, 
 and it has. Many devoted lives have gone out on the scaffold for heading 
 insurrections, and the whole country has suffered from the harsh measures 
 that have been used to prevent further uprisings. 
 
 The world has seldom seen a more touching and peaceable protest against 
 oppression than took place one cold December day in the city of Dublin. 
 Men, women and children came from all the country round to join in a great 
 funeral procession in honor of their countrymen who had been put to 
 death by the government. 
 
 At eleven o' clock the ranks began to form and for hours the people 
 marched through mud and rain; women in silks and women in calico, 
 young children, and men of all ages. First in the lines came a company of 
 five hundred respectably-dressed citizens, each man wearing on his left 
 shoulder a green rosette and on his left arm a band of crape. Some had 
 crape and green ribbons around their hats, or a broad green scarf around 
 their shoulders, with shamrocks or a harp embroidered upon it. 
 
 Behind the five hundred came a couple of thousand of young children 
 trudging manfully through the cold storms and the mud, and after the chil- 
 dren a hundred young women. Then followed a company of elderly men, 
 another of bricklayers all wearing green caps, and another of young men 
 wearing crape hat-bands and green rosettes with harps in the centre. There 
 were between four and five thousand of these. Next came about two 
 thousand young women each one wearing some article of green, either a 
 
156 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 shawl, bonnet, veil, dress or mantle. On all of these the rain kept pouring 
 down and the mud was deep enough to have discouraged all ordinary 
 patriotism, but not these young Irish women. 
 
 At some distance from the head of the procession came the three empty 
 hearses each bearing the name of one of the martyrs whose bodies had been 
 buried in dishonor in Manchester. Bands proceeded and followed each 
 hearse, playing the dead march, and crowds of citizens lining the streets 
 reverently lifting their hats as the hearses passed by. 
 
 The line of march led by the scaffold where Emmet was executed and the 
 statue of O'Connell, at each of which the bands ceased playing and all 
 marched by in silence with uncovered heads. 
 
 At the cemetery one of the leading men made a stirring address on the 
 condition of Ireland, the death of their countrymen, and the object of the 
 funeral procession ; but he urged them to refrain from any disorderly out- 
 breaks and to go quietly to their homes, which they did. 
 
 Similar processions were arranged for other parts of Ireland, but they 
 were prevented from being held by the English authorites, who feared that 
 this wearing of the green would cause more insurrections. 
 
 The Famine.— While other lands are teeming with industry, humming 
 with factories and covered with nourishing farms, Ireland is full of idleness, 
 miserable shanties and want. The owner of a large estate, who is usually an 
 English lord, lets out little patches to the Irish peasant at a price which 
 would buy the same amount of land in America, and the tenant plants his 
 little strip with potatoes, as that will furnish him with the largest quantity 
 of food that can be raised on such a small space. When harvest time comes 
 he must pay the rent before he can gather his crop. To raise this is the 
 great struggle. He must often sell his pigs and cows before he can dig his 
 potatoes, and should these turn out bad there is nothing between him and 
 starvation. If his neighbors happen to be a little better off he can beg or 
 borrow, but when, as was the case in 1847, everybody's potatoes are bad, then 
 there is no hope. 
 
 For several years before this terrible time known as " the famine" the 
 potato crop had been a failure, but this year there came a sudden blight 
 upon all in the island. At first the people did not realize the terrible 
 calamity that had befallen them, but it was not long before a despairing cry 
 for bread arose. From every miserable, damp, unhealthy hovel the last 
 article of furniture and clothing was sold to buy food, and when all was gone 
 sickness and fever followed fast. 
 
Ireland. 
 
 157 
 
 The 
 almost 
 off by hundreds. Poor weak wretches dropped 
 
 living were too weak to bury their dead, and decaying corpses in 
 every hovel caused an outbreak of fever which carried the survivors 
 
 dead in the streets ; half 
 naked bodies lay 
 unburied by the 
 roadside, the market 
 places were piled 
 with coffined corpses 
 which there was no 
 one to bury. 
 
 Mothers carried 
 
 their dead infants about in 
 their arms in the hope of ob- 
 taining a little charity from 
 those who had plenty; for 
 there were those in Ireland 
 who had enough and to 
 spare in the midst of all this 
 wretchedness, and the suffer- 
 ing was increased by many a 
 heartless landlord who seized 
 what might have been sold for 
 bread to make sure of his 
 rents. 
 
 A gentleman who went to 
 Ireland at the time to dis- 
 tribute food met one day two 
 men driving several gaunt cows 
 toward Letterbrick, and behind them the sorrowful half-starved owners. He 
 inquired the trouble and was told that the cows were being taken to the 
 
158 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 pound to be sold for rent, which the owners declared was not due till May; 
 but the landlord said if he did not make sure of it the people would sell 
 the cows and be off to America leaving the rent unpaid. 
 
 As the news of Ireland's terrible distress spread abroad people every- 
 where sent relief as fast as possible. Private individuals and associations 
 gave money; a cargo of food was sent from the United States; and the Eng- 
 lish government made several large appropriations, amounting in all to ten 
 millions of pounds. Seed too for another year was sent, and Ireland 
 rose again from her affliction to carry on her struggle for existence. 
 
 The Linen Trade.— More than a quarter of a million of people in the 
 north of Ireland depend in some way or another upon the manufacture of 
 linen, which was started there during the reign of Charles I. Fleets of 
 coasters are occupied all the year round in carrying coals from the opposite 
 shore of Great Britan for the use of the factories and bleach works; thousands 
 of iron founders and engineers are working constantly at the construction and 
 repair of machinery. Blacksmiths, tinsmiths, turners and carpenters are 
 kept ever busy in furnishing the small articles needed. It is the linen manu- 
 factories that gives life and industry to the north of Ireland. 
 
 For many years the spinning and weaving and bleaching used to go on 
 among the cottagers all around the great towns, but now the little whirring 
 spinning wheels that used to enliven the firesides of Ulster are hushed, and 
 the girls go into the great factories to superintend machines that do the 
 work of hundreds of hand spinners. The bleaching too is now carried 
 on by wholesale, and rapidly in large houses. Chemistry has stepped 
 in and shown how the process may be greatly hastened. A piece of raw 
 linen can now be bleached and made ready for market in twenty-four hours. 
 Belfast is nearly surrounded by bleaching greens where strips of white linen 
 are stretched upon the green grass making a very pretty picture. By using 
 different kinds of chemicals a variety of shades can be produced according 
 to the taste of the customers, for in linen,as in everything else,tastes differ. 
 Some want a blue white, some a pink white,some pearl,snow,or dead white, 
 some want it put up in plain packages, some in decorated ones. The Eng- 
 lish buyers want the very best quality of linen put up without fancy orna- 
 ments on the packages. Decorations arouse the suspicions of their custo- 
 mers in regard to the quality. A large packing house in Belfast once made 
 the mistake of sending to a London linen-draper a bale of linen each piece 
 of which bore a trifling ornament on the outside. The London men at once 
 demanded a deduction on the amount of his bill because of the ornamented 
 
Ireland. 
 
 159 
 
 linen He had not dared to offer it to his customers and had to repack it 
 
 and dispose ot it as 
 best he could. The 
 Americans on the 
 other hand want their 
 linen done up in papers 
 of the gayest colors to 
 make it look attract- 
 
 VIEWS IN BELFAST : PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE. METHODIST COLLEGE. QUEEN'S BRIDGE. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Scotland is the land of poetry and romance. It is also a land of wild 
 glens, rugged mountains, blue haze and purple heather, all beautiful and 
 charming, but their chief charm lies in the glamor of romance that has been 
 thrown around them by story-tellers. Each loch, glen, and cave echoes with 
 the tales of Highland Chief and Lowland warrior told by poet and minstrel 
 from the days of Ossian, bard of Morven, to those of the great " Magician 
 of the North " and the sweet singer of " Bonnie Doon." 
 
 The Great Glen. — Many pointed bays cut the coast of Scotland into 
 jagged fragments ; the four larger ones making great inroads into the land. 
 Between the two northernmost, Murray Firth on the east and Firth of 
 Lorn on the west, runs a great natural gap, which looks as if some gigantic 
 Titan had split the mountains apart. A large part of this gap is the bed of 
 Loch Ness and a few smaller lakes, and the hand of man has finished the 
 work of the Titans by digging out the rest of the gap for the Caledonian 
 canal, which connects all the lakes and forms a continuous passage from the 
 North sea to the Atlantic. 
 
 Along this course lies some of the wildest glen scenery in Scotland . Lake 
 Ness, a long, narrow body of water, is here shut in by wooded shores and steep 
 hills rising upon either side in bold lofty swells. The water of this lake is so 
 deep that it never freezes ; all winter, vapor rises from its surface and this has 
 given rise to a belief that it rests upon a bed of fire. When the great earth- 
 quake occurred in Lisbon in 1755 the waters of this little lake tumbled about 
 in the greatest confusion showing that it had some secret connection with 
 the mysterious depths below. 
 
 Lake Locky, just below Lake Ness, is not quite half so long but its hills 
 are loftier and rise more perpendicularly from the water. On its western 
 shores lie the lands once owned by Donald Cameron, Chief of Lochiel, who, 
 in Campbell's poem is warned by the wizard not to join Charles Edward 
 
Scotland. 
 
 161 
 
 .•against the English. At the southern extremity of the great gap stands 
 Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. 
 
 Glenco.— Just south of Ben Nevis, branching off from an arm of Loch 
 linne, is a wild little" vale called Glenco. It is a most rugged and beautiful 
 spot, at one extremity fertile and well wooded, at the other rocky and bar- 
 ren. The wildest portion is near the center where rises a mountain three 
 thousand feet high, composed of perpendicular belts of dark cliffs piled one 
 upon another until the top is lost to sight. Under the base of this moun- 
 tain and overhung by its crags lies a small lake, the headwaters of the 
 dashing Cona, upon whose banks the poet Ossian was born. 
 
 This grand but gloomy pass is now nearly without inhabitants. Wild 
 eagles scream from the topmost crags, and 
 goats climb about the rocks where once the 
 powerful clan of the MacDonalds lived, peo- 
 pling the glen with hardy life and simple 
 happiness . But one of the darkest deeds in 
 human history put an end to their happi- 
 ness. When king William came from Hol- 
 land to rule over Great Britan, some of the 
 Scottish chiefs still held faithful to James 
 II., who had been deprived of his throne. 
 They said they had no dislike for William, 
 tout they considered James the rightful 
 king. William first tried to buy and then 
 to threaten the rebellious chiefs into sub- 
 mission. Some yielded, others stood out 
 still. Among the last was Maclan, chief of 
 ihe MacDonalds of Glenco. 
 
 At last a proclamation was sent out by the king saying that unless the 
 chiefs signed a paper declaring their fealty to him before the first of Janu- 
 ary (1691), they would be punished with fire and sword. Maclan at first paid 
 no attention to this, but finding that all of the other chiefs were giving in 
 he at last, just a few days before the time had expired went to Colonel 
 Hill, the governor of Fort William, to take his oath of allegiance. But this 
 man he found had no right to receive the oath, and he must go to the Sheriff 
 of Argyleshire at Inverary. This was some distance away, and though he 
 hurried as fast as he could through stony and almost impassable roads, it 
 was three or four days after the first of January before he reached the 
 sheriff's house. 
 
 A FAMILIAR BIT OF EDINBURG 
 WEATHER. 
 
162 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 He presented to the sheriff a letter which Colonel Hill had given him ex- 
 plaining the delay, was allowed to take the oath and went home thinking 
 that all wonld be well. 
 
 But Maclan had an enemy who had been watching for just this oppor- 
 tunity of striking a blow. This enemy was the powerful Lord of Stair, who 
 had a great deal of influence with King William. By representing the Mac- 
 Donald's as a most turbulent and troublesome people, and withholding, some 
 say, from the king the knowledge of Maclan' s late compliance with the 
 proclamation, he obtained the king's signature to an order for the complete 
 destruction of the whole clan. 
 
 The master of Stair sent the paper to Colonel Hill with orders to see 
 that it was strictly carried out, and much as that officer would like to 
 have saved the Highlanders he dared not disobey. A regiment was sent to 
 the glen with additional directions from the cruel Stair, telling how to pro- 
 ceed so as to prevent suspicion until the passes were all secured that none 
 could escape and then the orders were to put to death all under seventy, 
 and not to trouble the government with prisoners . 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth of February the terri- 
 ble work began and was carried on as mercilessly as the master of Stair could 
 wish, but a heavy fall of snow had prevented one body of troops from 
 reaching the eastern passes and through these a few of the people escaped 
 from their burning huts and savage foes. Half- naked they fled through 
 the snow on the cold winter morning and many sunk to rise no more. But 
 the weather was less pitiless than their terrible persecutors , and about a 
 hundred and fifty men, women and children reached a place of safety. 
 
 The Meist oe Moeven — At the southern extremity of the great glen, 
 northeast of the Island of Mull from which it is separated by a narrow 
 sound, lies the land of Morven, celebrated in the songs of Ossian. This 
 land, now a part of Argyle, was once invaded by the Norwegians who had 
 conquered the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and made several conquests in the 
 north of Scotland. 
 
 There was living in one of the wild caves of Morven at the time a Scottish 
 chief by the name of Somerled, who was urged by his followers to drive out 
 the Norwegians. 
 
 He knew it would be useless to attempt this in open fight with his small 
 force, so he planned a stratagem. He ordered a herd of cattle that were 
 quietly pasturing in the valley to be slain and skinned, and with only this 
 preparation awaited the approach of the Norsemen. " As soon as he saw 
 
Scotland. 
 
 163 
 
 a portion of the foo in motion lie caused his men to march several times 
 round the hill where they lay descending each time into a small glen under- 
 neath, from which, unknown to the foe was a path leading to the summit 
 on the other side. 
 
 When they appeared again on the top of the hill, the enemy took them 
 for fresh forces. And to strengthen this impression, and add more terror 
 
 to their appearance, Somerled had them, 
 after they had gone around once or twice, 
 put on the cows hides changing the position and manner of wearing 
 them after each round. 
 
 The trick was a success. The Norse, thinking that a whole army of Scots 
 was preparing to attack them, they fell into a panic, and while the confu- 
 sion lasted Somerled made a furious charge with his little band and completed 
 the route. 
 
 Two of the Norse leaders were killed, and the third finding himself closely 
 pursued, leaped into a boiling torrent. The place is still called " Leap of the 
 
164 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Chief." In a short time Somerled drove the Northmen from Morven, and 
 became Thane of Argyle. 
 
 Fingal's Caye.— Just north of the entrance to the Firth of Lorn, at 
 the southwestern extremity of the Great Glen is the island of Staff a, which 
 contains the celebrated FingaPs cave. The whole island is full of caves, 
 among which are the Scallopshell cave, and the Herdsman's cave ; but the 
 wonderful one is the cave of Fingal, whose huge jointed columns of basalt are 
 as regular as if hewn out with square and chisel ; its arched ceiling is like 
 that of a great Gothic church, and the thundering of the waves as they roll 
 in over the floor of the cave like the music of some huge organ. 
 
 Fingal, after whom this cave is supposed to be named, was a famous 
 hero whose deeds are celebrated in the songs of his son, the bard of Morven. 
 
 Ossian was very proud of his father's valor, and his own too, for he was 
 a warrior as well as a bard, and his songs are full of Fingal's praise and 
 stories of his adventures. One is of an encounter Fingal once had with 
 Starno, king of Lochlin. 
 
 Fingal, then a young man, and his heroes had had an encounter 
 Starno, a Scandinavian chief, and beaten him, the only time says the story 
 that ever the mighty Starno had been overcome. After capturing him, 
 Fingal had generously restored him to his ships, and he had gone home 
 vowing vengeance. After a while this chief sent a very flattering invitation 
 to Fingal to come to a Feast in his halls. 
 
 He said Fingal was the fairest of warriors, and might marry his beautiful 
 daughter, Agandecca. 
 
 Fingal accepted the invitation, taking only a few of his heroes with him. 
 
 Arrived at the hall of Starno the king proposed that they feast and hunt 
 for three days before the wedding. Accordingly the following days were 
 spent in hunting and in the evenings the harps were strung, and Fingal's 
 bards praised the beauty of Starno 's daughter, as well as the deeds of their 
 chief. On the third day Agandecca warned Fingal that her father was 
 plotting to take his life, and that he must that day beware of the wood 
 where the braves of Lochlin were hid. 
 
 Fingal went on apparently the same as ever, his heroes by his side, but 
 they were ready for the attack, and when it came had no trouble in over- 
 coming the men of Starno. Then " the king's dark brows were like clouds. 
 His eyes like meteors of night. ' Bring hither,' he cried, ' Agendecca to her 
 lovely king of Morven ! his hand is stained with the blood of my people ; 
 her words have not been in vain.' " ! 
 
Scotland. 
 
 165 
 
 " She came," says Ossian, " with the red eye of tears, with loosely flow- 
 ing locks. Starno pierced her side with steel. She fell like a wreath of 
 snow which slides from the rocks of Ronan. 
 
 " Then Fingal eyed his valiant chiefs ; his valiant chiefs took arms. The 
 gloom of battle roared ; Lochlin fled or died. Pale, in his bounding ship, 
 Fingal took the maid. Her tomb ascends on Ardven ; the sea roars round 
 her narrow dwelling." 
 
 The Clan Tartans.— The days of the Scottish clans are gone. No more 
 the whistle of the chief, or 
 the clang of his "bossy 
 shield " calls his warriors 
 abont him to battle. His 
 bonnet, plaid, and kilt- 
 skirt have been laid aside 
 for the hat, coat, and 
 tronsers of civilized En- 
 rope ; though occasion- 
 ally, in remote glens, 
 one may still see a High- 
 lander in full dress, bare • 
 knees, heavy leather 
 purse and all. 
 
 Some who have 
 adopted the new style of 
 dress still make their 
 clothes out of the old 
 clan tartans, which in 
 other days distinguished 
 one band from another. 
 The pattern of these tar- 
 tans, the breadth and or- 
 der, of the stripes, as well 
 as their precise shade 
 and color, were all established many hundred years ago and still remain 
 unaltered. The tribe distinction is still kept up though the clans are no 
 longer in existence. The people still cherish the traditions, memories, and 
 patriotic sentiments that the stripes of the Tartan once signified. It is 
 said that the sight of his clan tartan in a foreign land will at once raise 
 painful longings in the heart of a Scotchman. 
 
 HIGHLANDER PERFORMING THE NATIONAL DANCE. 
 
166 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Once there were no tartans except those appropriated by the particular 
 clans for which they were originated, but now patterns are being invented 
 and named after distinguished modern families. These are called fancy 
 tartans in distinction from the old historic clan- tartans . 
 
 Some of the old patterns were very simple, that of the Macgregors, of 
 whom Scott writes in " Rob Roy," was merely two red and black stripes of 
 equal width crossing each other in regular order. The tartan of the Stuart 
 clan was very complicated ; the ground work was royal purple crossed with 
 yellow, black, blue and green stripes woven in a very intricate manner. The 
 shepherd's tartan is a black and white check. 
 
 The plaid is still a favorite garment. It is so " handy " the people say ; 
 it is easily carried, thrown over the shoulder, and when needed can be 
 wrapped about whatever part the cold strikes. 
 
 The Dkoveks' Depaktuke. — The Highlanders still assemble every year, 
 and march down into England, but now it is to follow their droves of cattle 
 to market, instead of their chiefs to battle. At the time appointed each 
 owner of a herd sends the cattle he wishes to sell to the place of meeting in 
 charge of a herdsman. 
 
 When the drove is all made up they start away for the long journey to 
 the south. One of the men who knows all the ■ roads through the wildest 
 regions is chosen captain of the company or " topsman," and is paid a good 
 price by the owners of the cattle for taking charge of the drove. He directs 
 all the movements, transacts all the business, and is responsible for all losses. 
 
 The day when such a drove is to take its departure for the south is 
 one of great importance in all the hills and glens of the neighborhood. 
 
 Landseer, the famous animal painter, has made a picture of the scene 
 presented at such a time. It represents a young " topsman" taking leave of 
 his family while the advanced divisons of the drove are moving off in the 
 direction they are to take, with their drovers walking soberly after them. 
 
 The chief figure in the picture is that of the " Topsman" who in full 
 traveling costume, his kilt on, his plaid over his shoulder, his sandals on 
 his feet, and the "blue bonnet" on his head stands with his little son in his 
 arms just outside the door of his cot. His wife is busy preparing his bot- 
 tles for the journey, his old father, bent and wrinkled, has come out and 
 sat down by the door to see him off. A young woman, an unmarried sister 
 apparently, is wrapping a plaid about the old man to protect him from the 
 sharp mountain air as he takes another look at the scene he has witnessed 
 so often in his younger days. Farther back another bonnie lassie is saying 
 
Scotland. 
 
 167 
 
 good-bye to a great strong " laddie." All around are the cattle that have 
 not yet joined in the long line moving off toward the dark range of the 
 Scotch highlands in the distance. 
 
 The Firth of Clyde. — The boundary between the Highlands and the 
 Lowlands, is marked by a second pair of arms extending into Scotland 
 from the sea ; on the east the Firth of Forth, the highway to Edinburgh, 
 
 GLASGOW. 
 
 the city of art and literature ; on the west the Firth of Clyde leading to 
 Glasgow, the city of trade and industry. The river Clyde, on which this 
 great city stands, was only a narrow shallow stream at the beginning of the 
 present century, but as the manufactories sprang up and trade grew the 
 river was dredged until it can now admit large ships as far as Glasgow. 
 Now the water fairly swarms with laden vessels, and with new ones just 
 launched from the many dock-yards along its banks. More than a hundred 
 large steamers can be counted in these yards at onetime, some showing only 
 
168 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the frame work, like great skeletons, others all finished waiting to be 
 painted, others ready to be launched. 
 
 And not only is the Clyde the birth-place of the great Cunard and other 
 steamers of modern times, but also of the first steamer ever used in 
 European waters. Five years after Fulton's Clermont was completed in 
 ]S"ew York, the Comet, built by Henry Bell, was launched upon the Clyde. 
 
 And not only this, but the steam engine itself here grew from a mere 
 toy to a propelling power. It was on the bleaching green of Glasgow that 
 James Watt was walking one Sunday afternoon when the idea he had 
 been trying for months to find flashed into his head. He went home to 
 work upon his model — the little toy engine — and in a short time it was 
 ready to propel Fulton's boat. 
 
 Ben Lomond. — Passing from the Clyde to the north by way of the short 
 winding stream that connects it with Loch Lomond, the traveler soon comes 
 out upon that prince of Scotland's lakes, surrounded by beautiful scenery 
 and historic places. At its northern end rises the stately head of Ben 
 Lomond, not as high as Ben Nevis, who guards the Great Glen, but more 
 highly honored because he watches over the far-famed scenes of " the Lady 
 of the Lake." 
 
 Most of the time Ben Lomond keeps his head covered with a cap of mist, 
 but occasionally he doffs it, and then, if one is fortunate enough to be on 
 his summit a fine view may be enjoyed. At the foot of the mountain lies 
 Loch Lomond, smooth as a sheet of glass, and although three thousand 
 feet below, every island is perfectly distinct. On the east eight successive 
 mountain chains may be seen rising each one higher than the last ; on the 
 south the river Clyde and Dunbarton castle, farther on the ocean and the 
 Isle of Arran. 
 
 On the western side of Lomond are two celebrated caves, one of which 
 once sheltered Scott's hero, Rob Roy, from the English; and the other, 
 Robert Bruce, from the same enemies many years earlier. Only a short 
 distance from Lomond is the narrow pass of Dairy, through which Bruce 
 was passing with his men when the followers of the Lord of Lorn fell upon 
 him. He had sent his men on ahead while he staid behind to guard the 
 rear. Seeing him alone three of the Lorn men vowed that they would kill 
 or capture him. All three, a father and his sons, rushed upon him, one seiz- 
 ing his bridle and another his leg. 
 
 With one blow of his sword he cut off the hand that grasped his rein. 
 At the same time he gave his horse a stab with his spur, making it leap so 
 
sssiiiii 
 
 LOCH LOMOND. 
 
 that tlie man who had seized 
 his leg was thrown under the 
 horse, another blow of his pow- 
 erful sword felled this second 
 assailant just as the third 
 grasped him by the mantle and 
 held him so close that he conld 
 not use his long sword. But 
 a heavy hammer hung at his 
 saddle bow and with this he 
 struck his last enemy a death 
 blow. The dying man, how- 
 ever, did not loose his clasp on 
 Bruce' s mantle, and not being 
 able to wrench it away, Bruce undid the clasp and rode 
 off without it to this cave, where he passed the night. 
 
170 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The descendants of the house of Lorn always kept this mantle as a tro~; 
 phy, showing how nearly Robert Bruce came to being captured by their 
 ancestors. 
 
 Ellen's Isle. — It is doubtful if Sir Walter Scott imagined when writ- 
 ing "The Lady of the Lake" that hundreds of people would go over the 
 scene of his poem, guide book in hand, tracing out the very spots over which 
 he took his characters. So real has he made all his story seem, that the 
 sides of Ben Yoerlich, to the northeast of Loch Lomond, seem yet to 
 echo with the bay of the hounds and the horn of huntsmen as they 
 startled the noble stag from his heathery couch that bright morning. 
 Eagerly the visitor follows the course of the stag to the Teith at whose 
 flooded waters some of the huntsmen drew back, and to little lake Achray, 
 just east of Loch Katrine where the poor animal thought it would find safety. 
 Here the bristling crags of the Trosachs begin, whose heights were too 
 much for Fitz James' gallant gray, and in whose deep glens the stag soon 
 found a safe refuge from the panting hounds. 
 
 The "thunder splintered pinnacles" of the Trosach astonish the passer- 
 by as they did Fitz James, who often paused bewildered and amazed 
 before he issued from the glen by climbing the "far projecting precipice" 
 and saw Loch Katrine rolled out beneath him "in all her length far wind- 
 ing." 
 
 From this high rock, at the eastern extremity of the lake, one can see just 
 such an island as the one from which the light skiff shot towards Fitz 
 James in answer to his horn. 
 
 To make the scene still more real a lady once built upon the rocky isle a 
 rustic bower, such a one as Scott described the home of Ellen to be, but a 
 careless visitor's cigar destroyed the pretty tribute to Sir Walter's genius. 
 
 The usual route of the traveler lies from Loch Lomond to the western 
 extremity of Loch Katrine and then by steamer to the eastern side, through 
 the Trosachs and then on to Stirling. In going this way he passes "Ben 
 Ledi's living side," where the armed host sprang up at Roderick' s signal, 
 and again as quickly disappeared at a wave of their chieftain's hand, and 
 further on at the end of the glen Coilantogle's ford where Fitz James laid 
 the haughty chieftain low after the desperate fight. 
 
 Stiklhstg Castle — The fiercest struggles in the history of Scotland have 
 taken place in the vicinity of Stirling, just southeast of Loch Katrine. 
 From the terrace of the high rock on which the castle stands twelve battle- 
 fields may be seen. Lying as it does at the foot of the Highlands it has 
 

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172 • Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 formed the boundary line of invasion from the south. The rocky hiding 
 places in the north offered sure retreats to the northern chieftains and dan-j 
 gerous surprises to the southern invaders. Across this portion of the is-l 
 land the Romans stretched their furthest wall of defense; here the Saxon J 
 march was stayed, and here the English left many of their bravest sol] 
 diers. 
 
 Just above the town of Stirling, on Abbey Crag, William Wallace took 
 up his camp and called his countrymen to resist the English. It was not 
 long before their foes appeared on the southern side of the river and sent 
 a pompous message offering pardon to all who would lay down their arms. 
 
 "Go back to the Earl of Warren," said Wallace, "and tell him that we 
 value not the pardon of the English king. We are not here to talk of peace, 
 but to fight for the freedom of our country. Let the English come on, we 
 defy them to their beards." 
 
 The English came on, but when half had crossed the narrow bridge 
 Wallace swept down upon them and drove into the river all who were not 
 slain on the spot. 
 
 Farther away to the southeast of Stirling lies Falkirk, where Wallace was 
 sorely defeated the next year, deserted by the jealous Scottish nobility; but 
 nearer by only about three miles from the Castle lies the glorious field of Ban- 
 nockburn, where the persevering Bruce destroyed the flower of the English 
 army and obtained the long desired freedom. 
 
 The castle itself has been a bloody place. It was here that James II. of 
 Scotland slew with his own hand the Earl of Douglas after inviting him 
 there on a visit, in seeming friendliness. 
 
 The Gudeman or Ballengiech — There are some pleasant scenes, as well 
 as bloody ones connected with the old* castle of Stirling; one of these is the 
 story of James V., the "Fitz James" of Scott's "Lady of the Lake." This 
 king had a habit of going about the country in disguise in order to see 
 more of the ways of his people than he could when appearing among them 
 in his true character. 
 
 When out upon these rambles he always called himself the, "Goodman 
 of Ballengiech:" goodman meant a tenant, and Ballengiecli was the name 
 of a steep pass down the rock at the back of Stirling Castle. Only a few 
 of the nobility knew the secret of the Goodman of Ballengiech. 
 
 One time when he was out alone he fell into a quarrel with some gypsies 
 and four or five of them began to give him a beating. While he was de- 
 fending himself as best he could with his sword a poor man who was thresh- 
 
Scotland. 
 
 173 
 
 ing corn in a barn near by came out and seeing one man beset by a number 
 decided to take his part. So he went at the gypsies with his flail and they 
 were soon obliged to leave. He then took the stranger into the barn, brought 
 him a basin of water and a towel that he might wash the blood from his 
 face, and when he was ready to go walked with him toward the castle. 
 
 On the way James asked the man his name, and whether there was any- 
 thing which he would par- 
 ticularly like to have. The 
 man said his name was John 
 Howies on, that he was a 
 bondsman on a farm that be- 
 longed to the king of Scot- 
 land, and that he should be 
 perfectly happy if he owned 
 the farm. John then in- 
 quired of the stranger his 
 name. James answered as 
 usual that he was the Good- 
 man of Ballengiech,who had 
 some work to do about the 
 palace and ended by inviting 
 John to come and see him 
 the following Sunday. 
 
 On the day appointed 
 John came dressed in his 
 best. James had given or- 
 ders that he should be ad- 
 mitted and received him in 
 the same dress he had worn 
 when out on his journey. 
 He showed John about the 
 
 palace, and finally asked if he would like to see the king. John confessed 
 that he should like nothing better, but feared the king would be offended. 
 Assured that all would be right, he then wished to know how he should be 
 able to tell the king from the nobles who would be around him. 
 
 " Easily," said his companion, " all the others will be bareheaded, the king 
 alone will keep his bonnet on." 
 
 As they entered the hall John looked in vain for the king, everybody was 
 bareheaded but himself and the Goodman of Ballengiech. 
 
 
 MARY STUART. 
 
174 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 I told you you would know Mm by his wearing Ms hat," said James, 
 " Well then," said John, " it must be either you or me, for everybody else 
 is bareheaded." 
 
 James was much amused at this speech, but he gave the poor man a great 
 pleasure in return, for he assured him that the farm he was working 
 should be his on only one condition, that was that he should always 
 have a basin of water for the king to wash his hands in when he came that 
 way. 
 
 Holyeood — Upon ■ the heights of Edinburgh stands the palace of Holy- 
 rood begun by James Y., and completed during the reign of his daughter 
 Mary Queen of Scots. It was here she passed the few years of her troubled 
 reign before going to Elizabeth for protection and death. Her private room 
 still remains just as she left it. The royal curtains about the bed are old 
 and faded and the furniture rickety with age, but it will always be looked 
 upon with great interest as long as the story of "the unfortunate queen" 
 remains upon the page of history. Adjoining the palace is the abbey where 
 she was married to Lord Darnley, and in one of the rooms she was at supper 
 when her jealous husband entered with his ruffianly followers, seized her 
 Italian priest and before her eyes stabbed him to death while he was begging 
 her protection. 
 
 In another room are the portraits of the kings of Scotland, and among 
 them a portrait of Mary; it represents a proud but beautiful face, the ad- 
 miration of all who behold it. 
 
 A short distance from Holy rood Palace is the noted castle of Edinburgh, 
 where occurred an event that put an end to the troubles between England 
 and Scotland, the birth of Mary's son, James VI. He inherited the crowns 
 of both countries, and thus effected what no force of arms could ever have 
 done, the reunion of Scotland and England. Another room in the castle con- 
 tains the now useless regalia of Scotland, the golden crown, the sceptre, and 
 the sword, the cause of so many long years of misery and bloodshed. 
 
 The Lay of The Last Minstrel. — Southeast of Edinburgh, on the 
 Tweed, is a fine old abbey that was built by Robert Bruce after he became 
 king of Scotland, and under which his heart is buried. This famous abbey 
 of Melrose has long stood in ruins, its chancel open to the sky, its walls 
 overgrown with ivy and its crumbling arches inhabited by rooks. Its great- 
 est fame was received at the hands of Scott, who made it the scene of a 
 passage in his " Lay of the Last Minstrel." Here he used to sit on one of 
 the broken arches, while the moonlight streamed over the moss-covered 
 
Scotland. 
 
 175 
 
 ruin, and muse on the tales of the old minstrels until he was ready to pour 
 forth his story about 
 the last of the old bards 
 and the Magic Book. 
 
 All over Scotland, 
 Ireland and England 
 the bards were once 
 great favorites. Every 
 chief had one or more 
 in his household, and 
 the people used to wel- 
 come to their firesides 
 wandering ones who 
 entertained the com- 
 pany with many a song 
 and jest after the even- 
 ing meal. So popular 
 were they in England 
 during the reign of 
 Henry V. that he took 
 eighteen with him 
 when he went to 
 France, and paid them 
 each twelve pence a 
 day. 
 
 After a while min- 
 strels went out of fash- 
 ion and long before Sir 
 Walter's day they had 
 come to be looked 
 upon with contempt. 
 
 This was owing no doubt to the unfit ones who entered 
 the profession in its prosperous days for gain, and by be- 
 coming mere jokers brought minstrelsy into disgrace. 
 But Scott had a great admiration for the genuine bards 
 of old. He hunted up all their old stories and from 
 these poured out new ones that have enchanted the world 
 ever since. It seems as if all the old poetic fire in 
 
 ABBOTTSFORD. 
 
176 Persons and Places in Murope. 
 
 the Scottish, bards before him was renewed in this the last one of their 
 race. 
 
 Scott's home at Abbottsford has been the Mecca of his admirers ever 
 since the weary old writer left it. Here in his private study stands his 
 desk with the inkstand still upon it, and the chair before it as though he 
 he had but just gone out for a moment. It is with a feeling of reverence, 
 almost awe, that one looks around this place where the noble old man 
 labored until the pen dropped from his hand to pay the debt in which his 
 dishonest partners had involved him. 
 
 About half way between the ceiling and the floor is a small wire balcony 
 running around the room and above it the walls are lined with books. A 
 door opening from the balcony leads into the little bedroom from which he 
 often came down at night and worked while the family slept. In a little 
 closet where he kept his manuscript are the clothes he last wore, his cane, 
 and his belt, to which a hammer, a small axe and his sword are attached. 
 
 In rooms adjoining the study are many curious old relics collected by him 
 from all parts of the world, besides costly presents from kings and nobles, 
 and some fine paintings. Among the antiquities are old suits of armor, in- 
 struments of torture, Rob Roy's gun and purse, Napoleon's writing case, 
 and the offering box of Queen Mary; also an amusing pen and ink sketch of 
 Queen Elizabeth dancing the Highland Fling when sixty years of age. 
 
 Scotland may well be proud of her " Magician of the North," he has 
 covered her glens and mountains with subtle charms and made the name 
 of Scotchman a passport into good favor wherever he goes. 
 
 The Field of Cttllode:n\ — Poetic genius has made famous a spot in 
 the^ north of Scotland near the coast of Murray Firth. It was the scene of 
 a great battle, but this did not give it the interest that the poet Campbell 
 gave it when he wrote " Lochiel's Warning." The " field of the dead " that 
 the old wizard saw in his prophetic vision was Culloden moor, near Murray 
 Firth, a short distance northeast of Inverness. 
 
 Charles Edward Stuart, a grandson of James II., came to Scotland to 
 ask the chiefs to help make his father, the son of the dethroned James, king 
 of England. The Highlanders, who had always taken the part of the 
 Stuarts, rose around the young prince with something of the old enthus- 
 iasm with which their ancestors had followed Bruce and Wallace in days 
 gone by. 
 
 On they went to Edinburgh and defeated the English at Preston-Pans. 
 In thirteen days they had taken Carlisle, Penrith, Kendall, Lancaster, Man- 
 
Scotland. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ■Chester and Derby. The people of London were wild with terror, many col- 
 lected their property and left the city. "Vessels were ready to carry the 
 kino- to Hanover. The Dnke of Newcastle, the prime minister, shnt himself 
 np in his room for two days to determine whether he should stand by King 
 Georo-e or declare for James, so certain did it seem that the exiled King- 
 would win. 
 
 But the powerful Duke of Cumberland had raised 30,000 men and 
 was now at Finchley, and the Scottish princes who had only 6,000 thought 
 it best to retreat toward Scotland. Some think this was a mistake on 
 
 CULLODEN MOOR. 
 
 -their part, for the English had such a terror of the valiant Scots that a 
 victory for James would have been almost certain if they had fought. But 
 -they retreated, and the Duke hastened after them to Inverness. 
 
 And now Charles made another mistake. He took his men upon an all 
 night march that he might surprise the forces of the Duke. He would not 
 wait to seek a strong-hold in the mountain as the chiefs urged. But with 
 men worn-out by a long march, faint for want of food and sleep, he put 
 himself in the way of the powerful forces of the Duke. Still, say some, he 
 might have won had not the MacDonald clan became offended and refused 
 
178 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 to tight because They were not placed on The right, the place They had always 
 occupied in The Scottish army since Bannockburn. 
 
 All The horrors foreseen by The wizard were move than fulfilled in the 
 battle that followed. Terrible was The slaughter of The brave Scots and 
 Terrible The cruelties of The heartless Puke of Cumberland after The strug- 
 gle was over. The wounded 
 were stripped of Their cloth- 
 ing and left upon The field 
 from Wednesday until Fri- 
 day and then they were put. 
 to death with savage cruelty. 
 Some had found refuge in a 
 barn, and This The Duke or- 
 dered burned while soldiers 
 were stationed around it 
 wiTh fixed bayonets. 
 
 On the battle-field is the 
 siTe of an old smithy which 
 is believed to have been 
 the only building upon the 
 ground when the battle was 
 fought. The smith, it is 
 said, had no desire to take 
 part in The battle, but when 
 he saw The havoc being made 
 among his countrymen he 
 snatched up the shaft of a 
 cart and rushing out into 
 the thickest of the fight 
 struck down every English- 
 man within reach of his tre- 
 mendous weapon. His ex- 
 ploits attracted the attention of the English cavalry and soon such numbers 
 began to gather about him that he was obliged to fly. He Took The road 
 toward Inverness and after turning upon and slaying several of his pursuers 
 was ar last killed. The spot where he fell is sTill pointed out by The coun- 
 try people. 
 
 Among the slain was The valiant Lochiel who refused to heed the wizard's 
 warning:. 
 
 CHARLES EDWARD. 
 
Scotland. 179 
 
 The Lobster Fishers. — The rain and mist and sharp mountain air of Scot- 
 land have made a brave and hardy race of her people, both men and women. 
 Particularly is this the case in the Hebrides, where the inhabitants are not 
 only finely formed and handsome, but well-read and gentle and courteous 
 in their manners, though their occupation obliges even the women to expose 
 
 PEAT GATHERERS. 
 
 themselves to dangers and hardships. One traveler tells of a woman who 
 was the best pilot and sailor on the coast. 
 
 All the men not only greatly respected her, but were ready to obey her, 
 so that she was quite the king of the district where she lived. And this 
 woman had saved several vessels from shipwreck. 
 
 One of the chief occupations in the northern Hebrides, off the island of 
 Lewis especially, is that of the lobster fishers. Their boats may be seen 
 beating about the dangerous islets in the stormiest of weather. Each one 
 
180 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 carries a crew of four, and from twelve to twenty lobster creels, which are 
 baited and lowered about fifteen fathoms with a cork buoy to mark the 
 place where they are left. When, one after another, all have been quietly 
 dropped, the fishers wait until they think the creatures below have had 
 time to taste their dinners ; then they begin where the first was let down 
 and draw them up. Eagerly they peer in upon the contents as soon as the 
 creel rises above the water, for it is not everyone that brings up a line high- 
 priced lobster. 
 
 There will always be a few adventurous crabs who have crashed their 
 broad backs through the ring of the creel, or a sea-serpent or a huge star fish 
 with its thousand brilliant mouths sucking dilligently at the bait. Perhaps 
 a large tangle is drawn to the surface bringing with it a piece of the bottom 
 of the ocean round which its roots are clinging. Over it numerous small 
 shell fish are running to and fro in their awkward attempts at walking. 
 
 Sometimes a fowl of the air is brought up from the bottom of the sea, a 
 daring cormorant who has plunged down for his dinner and caught his 
 death in the traps. But a big red lobster with his great nippers helplessly 
 dangling makes the fishermen's eyes sparkle. 
 
 A skillful cut severs the muscle of his dangerous weapons, and then he is 
 carefully wrapped in an oilskin to keei> him from the wind or shower which 
 his delicate constitution cannot stand. Each must also be kept from his 
 neighbor or a combat takes place which disfigures one or the other for 
 market. 
 
 The life of a lobster fisher is no child's play. He must keer> his line con- 
 stantly set for bait, for the red dragon of the deep requires always the very 
 choicest ; he must be out early so as to be the first on the ground, and stay 
 late so. as to watch his prorterty ; he must be ready to row for dear life in the 
 stormy gale and to take advantage of every change in the weather, and after 
 all his hard work he earns hardly enough to keep him comfortable. 
 
 The Fisherman's House. — For mile beyond mile the island of Lews is 
 covered with peat bog or overgrown by wet moss and grasses. Everywhere 
 gray, scattered fantastic masses of rocks push their barren summits up 
 through the black dank peat and scant herbage. 
 
 Everywhere the earth is moist and gleaming with dark, peat-stained 
 stagnant water. Noisy trout streams run sparkling along over loose stones 
 and pebbles, or flow silently between cliffs and chasms of cold, gray granite. 
 Tiny locks and tarns nestle in the hallows at the foot of every crag sometimes 
 lashed to fury by the wind which drives and whistles pitilessly over the 
 
Scotland. 
 
 181 
 
 sterile land, till they break in foam-crested waves on their small stony shores. 
 Not a tree is to be seen, not a shrub or flower. 
 
 No bees hum, no birds sing, only the mournful cry of the sea-gull or 
 curlew is heard. Small herds of 
 sheep or West Highland cattle may 
 be seen grazing on the scanty grass, 
 tended by bare-legged children, or 
 an occasional group of women or 
 girls carrying on their backs great 
 baskets full of peat. At long inter- 
 vals one comes upon a few beehive 
 shaped, straw thatched huts, many 
 of them windowless and most of 
 them chimneyless, the homes of the 
 poor fisherman. 
 
 Into one of these an 
 lady once took refuge from a storm 
 and thus describes what she saw: 
 
 English 
 
 "As I entered the 
 low doorway, the dark- 
 ness within was so 
 great that for a minute or two I could see nothing, but soon the ruddy glow 
 from the peat-fire illuminated the room and its occupants. I saw there a 
 
182 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 long lofty shed whose slanting roof was thatched with straw and fastened 
 down by ropes attached to heavy stones. 
 
 " There were neither windows nor chimney, the smoke from the tire find- 
 ing its escape through the various holes in the well ventilated roof, through 
 which the continuous drizzling rain freely entered, making little pools all 
 over the smooth-trodden mud floor. 
 
 " The shed was divided into two parts, the smaller end being the common 
 sleeping room, the larger the house-keeping place for the whole family , which, 
 included two cows, two sheep, and a score of ducks, hens, and chickens that 
 were quacking, chicking and picking all over the floor in company with 
 several small children and a baby. 
 
 "As I stood, wet and forlorn, in the door-way, a woman rose from a wooden 
 bench in a dark corner and came toward me. inviting me in a soft musical 
 voice to enter and take shelter. She was very tall and slight, and I saw by 
 the flickering firelight that she was handsome, with a dark gentle face and 
 large soft eyes. 
 
 "I saw also that she was weeping, and I heard sobs from some hidden 
 legion in the darkness beyond. I hesitated about intruding on a family 
 trouble, but the woman laid her hand on my arm and assured me that I was 
 welcome. 
 
 "Presently as my ear caught the sound of another stifled sob from the 
 room beyond, I said to the woman, ' You are in trouble ; is there anything 
 I can do '. ' 
 
 " k iSo/she answered, wiping her eyes,' it is the herring fishery. Seven of 
 our Lews men haf not been heard of whatever ; there haf been awful storms 
 here, and off the coast by Aberdeen, and seven men haf not come back 
 at all. One of them wass my daughter's laddie: and to-day it is she wass to 
 haf gone home to him in Stornoway as his married wife, and now ' — and 
 she hid her face and wept. 
 
 w ' I left the place," continued the lady, " picking my way through the 
 slushy road with my heart heavy for those I was leaving behind, and thinking 
 pitifully of the many dangers encounted by the men who ply their perilous 
 trade on the storm tossed waters of the Hebrides." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 The Low Countries of Europe, the Neder^lands , areas wonderful as the 
 famous hanging gardens of Babylon. They are the work of human hands. 
 They have been snatched from the ocean piece by piece, shut in with mas- 
 sive walls, and cultivated until there is no spot in the world so fertile as the 
 rich meadows and blooming gardens of Holland and her sister states. 
 
 A great part of the surface of the Netherlands lies below the level of the 
 sea ; or above low water, and below high water mark, so that an ancient 
 writer said of it, "the ocean pours in its flood twice every day, and keeps 
 one always in doubt as to whether the country is really a part of the conti- 
 nent, or a part of the sea." 
 
 The barbarous tribes who were first found in these morasses used to 
 build their huts on top of stakes or little sand hills. " When the sea rises," 
 said the same old writer, " they look like sailors, when it retires they seem as 
 though they had been shipwrecked." 
 
 But these ancient j)eople were brave and hardy ; they fought with terrific 
 force against their human enemies, and, after a while, they began to wage 
 war on their watery foes. Like Canute of old, they said to the ocean " Thus 
 far shalt thou go and no further, ' ' but unlike him they caused their com- 
 mands to be obeyed. 
 
 The Dykes. — From the mouth of the Ems to those of the Scheldt the 
 Netherlands is a great fortress showing to its enemy, the sea, only the tops 
 of its towers and the roofs of its houses. Its defenses are huge walls of 
 stone, timber and earthworks, built at a cost of money and labor that 
 has astonished the world. These dykes are so high in some places that 
 ships in the water outside sail along above the houses. 
 
 One can go all through the island of Zealand without seeing it ; it is 
 hidden behind the dykes that enclose the canals. On the western coast of 
 Walcheren is a dyke that has cost enough to buy its weight in solid cop- 
 
184 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 per. Friesland is nearly surrounded by dykes and all the large cities have 
 their protecting walls. 
 
 And all of these great works have been built under the greatest difficul- 
 ties. The country furnished nothing for the builders to work with, no 
 stone, no iron or metal of any kind, no wood, — the forests had all been 
 destroyed by tempests — no anything. But the people taxed themselves 
 out of their scanty stores to buy what was needed, they bought granite and 
 timber from Norway and toiled and struggled against every difficulty until 
 now they are safely walled in from the ocean by miles of solid masonry 
 against which the sea dashes in fury, but in vain ; it can find no entrance. 
 
 And yet all is not safe behind those thick walls without constant watch- 
 ing. The currents formed by the outflowing rivers and the inflowing tides 
 gnaw at the base of the dykes until they are ready to crumble. To watch 
 them and keep them in repair is the work of a class of men called water 
 engineers, who are educated and hired by the country for this special bus- 
 iness. They are called water engineers and they are supposed to know all 
 about dykes, sluices, flood-gates and water works of all kinds, even water- 
 spouts and tempests. With this standing army at their posts night and 
 day, a constant supply of wicker work, piles, and stones always on hand, 
 with alarm bells in every steeple and people ready to rush out at the first 
 signal to place mats of straw, rushes and sail cloths on the threatened spot 
 until the danger is over, the Dutch can feel just about secure. It has been 
 several years since they have been \ isited with any very terrible inunda- 
 tions, such as have come upon them in former times. One time a great del- 
 uge was caused by an unusually strong gale that, blowing for several days 
 swept the waters of the Atlantic up into the North sea and piled them with 
 such force against the dykes that they burst in every direction. The one 
 between Amsterdam and Meyden was broken in twelve pieces. Another, 
 made of oaken piles fastened with metal clamps, moored Avith iron anchors, 
 and secured by gravel and granite, was snapped like a thread. The ocean 
 poured in with terrible fury; whole districts of land with all their villages, 
 farms, and churches were torn out of their places and borne along by the 
 waves, to be lodged perhaps in another part of the country. The steeples 
 and towers of the cities that stood firm became islands in an ocean of waters. 
 Ships were driven in from the sea and beaten to pieces against the roofs and 
 walls of houses, or became entangled in orchards and groves. Everywhere 
 were men, women, and children, horses and cattle struggling in the waves. 
 Some found a refuge in the branches of trees or in churches until boats 
 
186 Persons and Places inpe.JSuro 
 
 could be sent out to their rescue, but fully one hundred thousand people 
 were drowned. 
 
 The Lady's Sand. — The rivers of the Netherlands have cost as much 
 labor as the sea. With the mud brought down by the currents they choke 
 up their mouths and then break out into new channels paying no regard to 
 the houses that stand in the way. But the Dutch have stopped these 
 ravages by walling the rivers in with dykes and keeping their mouths open 
 by dredging. The monsters sometimes break out in rebellion in winter, and 
 then a strange battle is fought. The water bursts from under the ice and 
 throws it up against the dykes in huge masses that reach across the river 
 and form a dam. In a little while the water would overflow and wash away 
 the dykes, but the watchful engineers are prepared to ward off the danger. 
 
 They bring up loaded cannon within range of the ice dam and open a 
 fire upon the frozen towers and pinnacles until they give way. With con- 
 siderable pride a Dutchman once said, " I think we are the only nation 
 who fight their rivers with cannon." 
 
 Before the Hollanders had learned how to control their watery enemies 
 so well, constant changes were going on in the shajDe of the country. In 
 some places the sea would cut off a piece of the mainland and make an island 
 of it ; in others it would sink away and join an island to the continent ; here 
 it would sweep in and wash away cities and then retire and leave far inland 
 those that once stood upon the shore. The rivers too added to the general 
 confusion by changing their channels and blocking up their harbors with 
 sand. 
 
 It was probably the last of these causes that gave rise to a curious story 
 about the town of Stavoren, a city that once had a good harbor and carried 
 on a thriving trade. 
 
 According to the story there once lived in the town a rich widow whose 
 wealth was so great that she knew not how much she was really worth. As is 
 quite often the case, her riches made her cross and saucy. One day she 
 loaded a ship for Dantzig and ordered its master to bring back the most 
 exquisite and rare produce in exchange for the goods she sent. The master 
 found in Dantzig nothing better to his mind than grain, so he loaded his 
 vessel with that and returned to Stavoren. But the widow was so displeased 
 with the cargo that she ordered him to throw it into the sea. He did as 
 he was bid and instantly a great sand bank arose, so high that it blocked 
 the harbor, and no ships have 'since been able to enter the port of Stavoren. 
 This bank is there yet and is called " the Lady's Sand." Since then the 
 town has lost its traffic. 
 
Netherlands. 187 
 
 Canals. — As in ancient times a victorious army made slaves of their 
 captives, so the Dutch have made servants of the conquered waters. All 
 over the Netherlands there is a net- work of canals running from city to city, 
 from village to village, and from house to house. Even the individual 
 farmers have little private canals around their fields and gardens serving as 
 boundary- wall, hedge, and roadway. They carry their produce to market, 
 not in a great lumbering wagon drawn by horses, but in private boats 
 drawn sometimes by horses, sometimes by the farmer and his wife. 
 
 Besides the private boats and rafts there are in Holland the treckschuy- 
 ten, or stage boat, which go from place to place carrying passengers, small 
 freight, letters or messages. The owner with his family live in the boat, and 
 passengers making long trips make themselves perfectly at home ; the 
 women knit, or sew, the men sit on the top and smoke. As night comes on 
 and the boat glides like a shadow through the sleeping villages, hiding 
 behind trees and shrubbery or skimming along in the silvery moonlight, the 
 passengers, lulled by the stillness and gentle motion, doze off to sleep as 
 comfortably as if in their beds at home. 
 
 In winter the canals become highways for skates and sledges. The far- 
 mer glides along to market on his skates, the laborer to his work, the shop- 
 keeper to his counter, the peasant girl to town with milk for her customers. 
 Whole families go on skates from the country to the city carrying bags or 
 baskets or drawing them on sleds. Skating is as easy and natural with 
 them as walking, and they attain a speed that is quite wonderful. Women 
 and girls dart along like arrows. People skate from the Hague to Amster- 
 dam and back the same day. University students leave Utrecht in the 
 morning, dine at Amsterdam at noon, and get back to the college before 
 night. 
 
 The first day on which the canals and basins are frozen solid enough for 
 skating is a grand gala day. Early in the morning the joyful news is an- 
 nounced in the city, the journals publish it, the boys shout it, rushing 
 excitedly about the streets, the servants are given a day out, even old 
 ladies forget their years and go to the canals to gossip with their friends 
 and see the sports. 
 
 Meanwhile a crowd gathers upon the ice, and together, ladies and ser- 
 vants, students, officers, boys, old men and sometimes a prince, mingle in a 
 giddy whirling crowd. Some cut curious figures on the ice, some dart 
 backward on one leg, others twist and twine in a hundred dizzy whirls 
 within one small space, bending, crouching, or standing straight ..upright, 
 like puppets moved by strings. 
 
1SS' Persons and Places hi Europe. 
 
 Sleds and sledges of every form and size gather upon the ice, — some 
 pushed from behind by a skater, some drawn by horses, some moved by 
 two iron-shod sticks held in hands of the persons seated in the sledges ; 
 quantities of carriages and vehicles of different sorts are deprived of their 
 wheels and placed on runners. Even boats and other vessels with flying 
 rigging are thus furnished with runners and sail along much more swiftly 
 than when traveling in their usual manner. 
 
 Gay festivals and exciting races are held upon the ice. The snow is 
 swept off ; cafes, eating-houses, pavilions and small theatres rise on every 
 side, brightly lit at night, and surrounded by throngs of skaters. The best 
 citizens from all around gather to see the racing. Masts and banners are 
 planted along the canal, stands and railings are put up, and good music is 
 provided. The names of the winners are faithfully recorded and they are 
 famous people ever afterward. 
 
 Haarlem Meer and Zuyder Zee. — Upon any map of Holland made 
 more than fifty years ago will be found a large body of water lying south- 
 west of Amsterdam, called Haarlem Lake, but no visitor to Holland now will 
 be able to find it. It is another conquest. The people, not the sea, are now 
 changing the geography of their country. 
 
 The lake was formed more than three hundred years ago by a terrible in- 
 undation that swept away a number of villages, and left this body of water 
 covering about forty-five acres of land . The thrifty Hollanders after a while 
 began to think it a great waste to have so many good acres occupied by use- 
 less water, and moreover the lake was constantly threatening their lives by 
 overflowing its banks, so they resolved to drain it. A high bank was built 
 up around it and three huge draining machines set to work, each of which 
 drove eleven monstrous pumps. For four years the engines puffed steadily 
 away day and night sucking up the water, and sending it out to the ocean 
 through sluices. Then the lake became dry land and now there are hand- 
 some dwellings, rich flourishing farms where once the salt sea dashed about 
 at its pleasure. The sturdy conquerors sit calmly down by their door- sides 
 and smoke their pipes in peace and plenty with the imprisoned waters 
 flowing obediently along above their heads. 
 
 This undertaking has been such a success that the Dutch are now plan- 
 ning a greater one, the draining of the Zuyder Zee. This great body of 
 water was also snatched by the ocean in one or two terrible sweeps of fury, 
 and now the persevering Hollanders will patiently win it back again. They 
 will gain about five hundred thousand acres of land by the operation at a 
 
Netherlands. 
 
 189 
 
 cost of fifty millions of dollars. Already the surveys have been completed, 
 a huge dyke will be built from Eukhuizen on the western shore to the island 
 of Urk, and from there to Kempen, a distance of twenty-five miles, and by 
 the end of the present century, the Dutch cows with blankets on will be 
 grazing where now the scaly fish are swimming. 
 
 Windmills.— It is often said that Nature has done nothing for the 
 Dutch, they have had to struggle against Nature all along. The only ele- 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE ZUYDER ZEE. 
 
 ment that has helped them at all has been the wind, it has furnished much 
 of the power that has drained the marshes and done quantities of other 
 work besides. In other countries sawmills, flourmills and factories can be 
 run by water power; in Holland where there are no swift streams to do this 
 work, they have harnessed the wind. Everywhere the country is covered 
 with tall whirling windmills that are busily draining the marshes, grinding 
 corn, sawing timber, cutting tobacco, washing rags, crushing lime, break- 
 ing stones and doing various other services for the Hollanders. 
 
190 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 These windmills, the larger ones, are tall brick towers about fifty feet 
 high, covered with a heavy thatch of straw and furnished with enormous 
 arms of wood or sailcloth that sweep around in a circle of over a hundred 
 feet in diameter. Each turn produces a tremendous shudder through- 
 out the mill and when there is a fair breeze the big shaft that passes 
 down through the centre seems to be alive with motion. It will lift a 
 height of four feet eight or ten thousand gallons of water per minute. 
 
 A large wind mill is worth as much as a farm: to build it, furnish it, and 
 find a market for its produce requires -a good sized capital. The owner 
 usually lives in the foundation story which is fitted up for the purpose. It 
 is a little surprising to find inside of these curious buildings all the charac- 
 teristics of a Dutch home, — the brass-mounted presses, the tiled fire-places, 
 the quaint Dutch clock, the dark old dressers adorned with Delft china, and 
 claw-footed chairs of dark mahogany mounted with polished brass — every- 
 thing clean and shining. 
 
 Curious enough in the day-time is the appearance of these huge wind- 
 mills, their flapping arms whirling round now fast, now slow, making all 
 the while a monotonous ''•tic-tack," but at night they look wierd and ghostly 
 as if they were so many giant sentinels watching over the plain and tossing 
 their huge arms in defiance to all invaders. And sometimes they take fire 
 and then the arms become wheels of flame, a tempest of burning meal 
 whirls through the air making a fiery cloud, and the whole structure turns 
 into a red writhing monster. 
 
 The INQUISITION. — Just as the Dutch were getting their watery enemies 
 under control, human foes broke in upon them and filled the land with 
 terror and sufferings. The people of the Netherlands were always a brave, 
 liberty-loving race. When the Romans undertook to conquer them in the 
 early years of their history their hardiness won the admiration of the Roman 
 general and he invited them to enter his army and fight with him instead 
 of against him. For many years afterwards the Batavian legions were the 
 pride of the Roman army, their chief dependence in many battles. 
 
 When Rome had loosened her hold upon the world and other conquerors 
 came to the shore of the North Sea they too found these people of the 
 marshes hard to subdue. But when once conquered they became a quiet 
 orderly race, too busy with their battles against the sea to engage in useless 
 fighting. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation the Netherlands were a part of the 
 dominions of Charles V., Emperor of Austria. " He was strongly attached 
 
Netherlands , 
 
 191 
 
 to the church of Rome, and when he found that many of his Dutch subjects 
 were being converted to the teachings of Luther he was very angry. He 
 determined to root out this heresy at once. So he sent into the country 
 special officers to hunt out, arrest, torture and burn all who showed any 
 belief in these dangerous doctrines. 
 
 Spies were sent into every house, and upon the least suspicion the peo- 
 ple were arrested and shut up in a dungeon. If a suspected person con- 
 fessed his crime and swore to remain faithful to the church of Rome ever 
 afterward, he was allowed to go free, but must give up all his property. 
 
 WINDMILL. 
 
 If, however, he declared himself innocent of the charges, he was tried by 
 torture. At midnight the black robed executioner entered his dungeon, 
 bound him upon a wooden bench, and with weights, pulleys and screws 
 strained and racked his poor body until the life was well-nigh crushed out. 
 If he endured this with no sign of suffering, an utter impossibility, his judges 
 would take it as a sign that he was innocent of all the errors against the 
 holy mother church ; but if he showed that no miraculous power had come 
 to him to save him, such as came to Daniel to shut the lions' mouths, then 
 
192 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 they said it was a clear evidence of his guilt. If he still persisted in saying 
 lie was not guilty he was put through the same process the next night. 
 A few people are said to have endured such torture for fifteen years, but 
 many escaped it by confession which took them at once to the stake and 
 ended their suffering in one fierce flame. 
 
 The Dutch were not the people to endure such things meekly. They 
 had inherited a love of liberty and these cruelties roused them to open 
 resistance. One time when two of their preachers had been condemned to 
 the stake they decided to rescue them. A great multitude gathered in the 
 market-place and waited until the executioners were binding the prisoner 
 to the stake. Suddenly a woman took off her shoe and threw it into the 
 funeral pile. This was the signal agreed upon. The whole crowd swept 
 over the barriers, scattered the fagots in every direction and would have 
 seized the prisoners, but the guards quickly took them back to the dungeon. 
 
 That night a great throng gathered in the streets, marched to the prison 
 and set the two captives free. 
 
 When the governor heard of this he was in a frenzy of rage, a body of 
 troops was at once sent to the village, and men women and children every- 
 where were seized and put to death. 
 
 William the Silent. — One day King Henry of France was out hunting 
 with his courtiers, and in the royal company was the young Prince William 
 of Orange. He had been sent on a mission to the French court by Philip 
 II., son of Charles V., who was now ruler of the Netherlands, and king of 
 Spain. This young man, a devoted Catholic, and the prince of a large estate, 
 had been a favorite at the court of Charles V., and Philip knowing his 
 abilities had sent him on important business to France. 
 
 But Philip had not told his young courtier all the business he was trans- 
 acting with the French King, and Henry, supposing that he had, began to 
 talk to William as they chanced to ride apart from the others of a matter 
 that filled the young man with horror. It was nothing less than a well 
 planned massacre of all the heretics in the combined dominions of both kings ; 
 for in spite of all the persecutions Charles had inflicted on the Netherlands 
 there were still many heretics among them, and there were numbers also in 
 France. 
 
 As William listened to the details of the plot, he showed by no look or 
 word the horror he felt, and for this wise course he was afterward called 
 «' William the Silent." But he resolved to prevent the deed, and for this 
 purpose hurried home and gave the alarm. 
 
Netherlands. 193 
 
 Then began a long and terrible straggle that has astonished everyone 
 who has ever considered the contrast between the two parties engaged. 
 
 On the one side was Philip II., lord o f an empire that embraced all Spain, 
 the north and south of Italy, Belgium, and Holland; in Africa, Ovan, Tunis 
 the Cape Verde and Canary Islands; in Asia, the Phillipines; in America, the 
 Antilles, Mexico, and Peru. He was married to the Queen of England, and 
 was nephew to the Emperor of Germany, who obeyed him almost as a vassal. 
 He was really the sovereign of all Europe, since those who were not under 
 him were too weak to oppose him. He had under his hand the best soldiers 
 in Europe, the greatest captains of the time, the gold of America, the indus- 
 try of Flanders, the science of Italy, an army of informers chosen from all 
 nations, the blind fanatical instruments of his will; he had everything that 
 enchains, corrupts, terrifies, and moves the world. On the other side was 
 William of Orange, without a kingdom, without an army, his fortune seized 
 and taken from him, surrounded by assassins, looked upon for a time with 
 suspicion by the very people he undertook to defend. But he is clear- 
 headed, far sighted. Like Philip he could read the minds of men, but un- 
 like him, he can win their hearts. He has a good cause to sustain and for 
 its sake he makes use of all the arts his keen mind can devise. Philip who 
 sends out spies and learns all of Williams surroundings, is himself spied 
 out and all his evil designs discovered before he can put them in operation. 
 Unsuspected hands search his caskets and his pockets, and unsuspected 
 eyes read his secret papers. William in Holland seems to read the very 
 thoughts of Philip in Spain, he foresees, unravels, and overturns all his 
 plots' mines the earth under his feet, provokes and flies before him, but 
 returns again perpetually, like a phantom that is seen but cannot be 
 clutched, or if clutched cannot be destroyed. And when at last the death 
 of this William of Orange is brought about by the hand of an assassin vic- 
 tory remains on his side, and defeat on that of his living enemy. The 
 Spanish Monarchy never recovered from the consequences of her war on 
 
 Holland. 
 
 This man, so great and grand a figure before the world, was equally 
 noble in his family and among his friends. He was simple in his manners, 
 plain in his dress, loved and beloved by his people. He frequently walked 
 in the streets of the city alone, talking with the workmen and the fisher- 
 men who offered him drink in their own cups. He listened to their tales of 
 trouble, settled their differences and entered their houses to re-establish 
 peace in families, and they called him father William. He was indeed the 
 
194 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 father, rather than the son of his country, and as such he lives in the hearts 
 of the Hollanders. 
 
 In the city of Delft stands a fine mausoleum, erected by the States of 
 Holland." to the eternal memory of that William of Nassau, whom Philip 
 II., scourge of Europe, feared and never overcame or conquered, but killed 
 by atrocious guile,'' as the Latin incription sets forth. It is a kind of small 
 temple in black and white marble, loaded with ornament and sustained by 
 columns between which are four figures, Liberty, Prudence, Justice and 
 Religion. 
 
 A carved figure of the Prince lies upon the coffin and at his feet the 
 effigy of the little dog that saved his life at Malines, by waking him when 
 two Spaniards were creeping toward him to assassinate him. 
 
 The Burgomaster of Leydejst. — During the struggle between the Dutch 
 and Philip the city of Leyden was beseiged by the Spaniards until the 
 l^eople were on the verge of starvation. Their only hope, William of 
 Orange, had sent word that if they could hold out three weeks he would 
 come and relieve them, but the time had passed and he was not yet in 
 sight. The Spanish general had sent a message into the town, saying that 
 if they would surrender and submit themselves to the mother church all 
 would be forgiven. Some said it was not exactly becoming for the man 
 who had broken all the promises he had ever made, destroyed their prop- 
 erty, hanged, beheaded, burned and buried alive their innocent brethern to 
 offer his forgiveness ; he might better ask for theirs. Others said it would 
 be wiser to admit the Spaniards and accept their fair promises than to 
 starve. A crowd of those who held the last opinion gathered around the 
 burgomaster one day as he was going through the street and began to 
 threat and abuse him for not opening the gates. 
 
 Standing up in a little open square, as gaunt and thin with suffering as 
 any of them, he waved his hat for silence and thus addressed them : 
 
 ' ' Why do ye murmur that we do not break our vows and surrender the 
 city to the Spaniards ? a fate more horrible than the agony she now endures. 
 I tell you I have made an oath to hold the city and may God give me 
 strength to keep it ! I can die but once, whether by your hand, the enemy's 
 or the hand of God. My own fate is indifferent to me, not so that of the 
 city entrusted to my care. I know that we shall starve if not soon relieved ; 
 but starvation is preferable to the dishonored death which is the only alter- 
 native. Your threats move me not ; my life is at your disposal ; here is my 
 sword, plunge it into my breast and divide my flesh among you. Take my 
 
Netherlands. 195 
 
 body to appease your hunger, but accept no other surrender as long as I 
 remain alive." 
 
 This put new courage into the despairing men and women. They went 
 out again to the tower to watch for William of Orange; and when the 
 Spaniards shouted " Cat-eaters " to them, they said " As long as you hear 
 a cat mew or a dog bark in the city you may know that it still holds out. 
 And then," they said, "when nothing remains but ourselves, we will devour 
 our left arms while with our right we defend our women and our liberty 
 from a foreign tyrant." 
 
 Meanwhile relief was coming. Holland had opened her dykes and let in 
 the sea upon her enemies, and William was sailing toward them on the 
 breast of the invading ocean, with soldiers and pro visions. The frightened 
 Spaniards when they saw that the Dutch were going to fight them with the 
 ocean as a weapon fled in terror and the city was saved. Then followed 
 such a sight as has been seldom seen. All the people of Leyden, barely 
 waiting to satisfy their hunger with the bread that was thrown them from 
 the ship, hurried to the church, the sturdy burgomaster at their head, and 
 there offered such prayers of thanksgivings as only people delivered from 
 such straits as theirs could offer. Bitt in the midst of their hymn they 
 broke down and wept like children so overcome with joy that they could 
 not finish the thanksgiving song. They did not forget too that part of their 
 deliverance they owed to the heroic conduct of their burgomaster, and a fine 
 statue has been raised to his honor in the city that he saved. 
 
 The Dutch Painters. — When the conflict with Philip was over, when 
 the Netherlands rose up out of the water to begin again the work of centuries 
 that she had destroyed in a day, because she prized liberty above fair fields, — 
 when the struggle was over, and the enemy driven out, many changes began 
 to take place. 
 
 First the country had a new government, all her own, subject to no 
 foreign master. She had a new religion, for while she had gone down into 
 the sea a Catholic, not intending to cut loose from the mother church, she 
 rose up out of the waters a Protestant because the church had taken the 
 side of her enemy. New views, new thoughts, new industries began to 
 spring up. Prosperity returned and the people were joyous and happy, 
 The arts and sciences were taken up with new vigor, especially painting. 
 A class of pictures began to grow under the brushes of the Dutch painters 
 that attracted the attention of artists all over the world. 
 
 These painters, having lost much of their interests in saints and Madonnas, 
 
196 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the usual subjects of artists in their time, began to paint what they saw 
 aronnd them. They took scenes from their snug little homes, safe now from 
 all enemies and dearer than ever for the struggle it had cost to make them so. 
 They painted the mother at her housework, the children at their play ; the 
 kitchen with its table spread for the noon, or evening meal ; the fireplace 
 with its circle of smiling faces, the yawning dog, and the dozing cat. 
 
 "When they looked outside for subjects there was the cow, the chief 
 source of the Dutchman's wealth, the creature upon which he bestows the 
 greatest of care, warm blankets and a post to rub against. These animals 
 the painters put upon canvas with such skill that they became celebrated as 
 cattle painters. In the museum at the Hague is a picture of a bull painted 
 by Paul Potter that has become world renowned. 
 
 There were no forests in their land to paint, but here and there were 
 clumps of trees, and these the Dutch painter treated in away that brought 
 out all their beauty, as no artist had ever done before. 
 
 Then there was their old enemy the sea, in all his changing forms and 
 terrors, sometimes gay and melancholy, sometimes turbulent and full of 
 varying colors, and sometimes furious with angry dashing waves. More 
 than one of the painters bought a vessel and went out to live upon the sea 
 with his family that he might catch all its different moods . The greatest of 
 these painters, William V an derVelde, folio wed the Dutch fleet when it went 
 to battle with the English, and painted in the midst of the cannon smoke, 
 pushing his little vessel right into the thickest of the fight. Another man 
 went out into a small boat while a tempest was raging that he might ob- 
 serve the action of the waves, and would probably have been drowned 
 if his boatmen had not rowed to the shore in spite of his orders to the con- 
 trary. Still another kept on the sea in this way after he was twice ship- 
 wrecked. 
 
 Such pluck must needs accomplish something, and when to it was added 
 the patience that the Dutch possess in about the same proportion the result 
 is often wonderful. In the picture of ' ' the Dropsical Woman' ' by Douro are 
 some examples of this patience. A broom handle, about as large as a pen, 
 cost the artist three days of labor. Every minute seam and vein, knot and 
 filament, stands out clearly and distinctly. But in this matter a certain 
 class of the painters went to an extreme that marred their pictures, magnify- 
 ing the little things beyond their true proportion. 
 
 Studying thus from nature instead of copying, the Dutch painters made 
 valuable discoveries. They brought out the striking effects of light 
 
Netherlands. 
 
 197 
 
 ■-■:- -■ ■ ■ : ■ --■■■' ■ ■■.-■ ..= . -. -■ -■■- ■ ■■■ 
 
 -...-..■'. 
 ■"":■■■■.■.■:■■"■■■.'■;-■:■■■ •■_":■■., /.'■ .■■■'■•...■.■.■. ;; 
 
 and shade, striking features of brilliant coloring and a masterly way of deal- 
 ing with ocean scenes. 
 
 But, especially, they succeeded in giving a perfect panorama of Dutch 
 life, so that if Holland should be swept away and only her pictures remain, 
 from these alone one could see the entire country, its cities,, its ports, ships, 
 markets, shops, costumes, arms, merchandise, household utensils, food, 
 pleasures, habits, religious beliefs and superstitions, and even read the 
 character of her people, firm, patient, calm and courageous, so accurately 
 have the Dutch painters represented 
 all these things in their pictures. 
 
 The Lesson in Anatomy. — One of 
 the best pictures of the Dutch Paint- 
 ers is " The Lesson in Anatomy," by 
 Paul Rembrandt. It represents a cer- 
 tain Dr. Tulp, professor of anatomy at 
 Amsterdam, with his pupils, grouped 
 about a table on which is stretched a 
 naked corpse, one arm of which has 
 been opened by the dissecting knife. 
 The professor, with his hat on his 
 head, points out to the students with 
 his forceps the muscles of the body. 
 Some of the students are seated, some 
 standing, bending over the corpse. 
 The light striking from left to right 
 lights up the faces and one side of the 
 dead body and leaves in darkness the 
 dresses, the table and the walls of the 
 room. 
 
 The first feeling upon looking upon the picture is one of horror and 
 repulsion from the corpse ; it is so ghastly. The eyes are open with the 
 pupils turned upward, the mouth half open, the chest sunken, the legs and 
 feet stiff, the flesh livid, looking as if, should you touch it with your hand, 
 it would feel cold. This stiff rigid body presents a most striking contrast 
 to the lively attitudes, the youthful faces and bright attentive eyes of the 
 disciples as they listen with curiosity and wonder to the words of the anato- 
 mist. He, the master, is tranquil, his eye serene and his face almost smiling 
 with the ease and assurance gained by long study of his subject. 
 
 REMBRANDT AND HIS "WIFE. 
 
198 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Rembrandt was the leader of the Dutch school of painting in his time. 
 Pupils from all over the world came to study under him. He taught that 
 it was better to paint the scenes of every day life even though they were 
 ugly, than to try to paint what existed only in ones imagination, however 
 beautiful it might seem. He painted all subjects from grave to gay, 
 sublime to commonplace, Christian and historical. In his early years he 
 painted a great many home scenes. 
 
 He has almost written his own biography and that of his wife in his 
 pictures . Her face appears to have been always a favorite study ; he put it 
 in many of his works. First he painted her when a young girl with a 
 bright smile on her face ; then he represented her as queen of the fairies ; 
 then as a rich lady dressed in silks and jewels ; then as mistress of her 
 household presiding at the table. As she grows older the pictures show the 
 changes that passing years bring to her face until there comes one in which 
 the fresh beauty of youth and strength are gone and in their place a quiet 
 thoughtfulness, the traces apparently of care or sickness. This picture is 
 the last of Saskia's ; she was taken from him the same year in which it was 
 painted. 
 
 Rembrandt has painted himself also in many fanciful ways : as a jovial 
 young man with his wife on his knee and a wine glass in his hand, as a 
 soldier with drawn sword, as an elegant lord magnificently dressed, as a happy 
 worker at his table, with Saskia sewing by his side or attending to her house- 
 hold duties. There was a long interval after Saskia's death in which he had 
 no heart for these happy home scenes. But again toward the close of his 
 life he painted himself with a medal around his neck, a fur cloak thrown 
 over his shoulders and close-fitting cap on his head, his long white hair 
 falling beneath it. Again comes a fanciful portrait in which he has a turban 
 of white linen on his head, the handle of a dagger projects from his dress, 
 in his right hand there is a bundle of manuscript and in his eye a merry 
 twinkle. His last portrait of himself shows a face wrinkled by time and 
 care, but with a hearty laugh upon it, as though he had learned to brave 
 trouble and misfortune and could be merry and light-hearted in spite of 
 them. 
 
 A Toy Majstsioist. — In the museum at the Hague may be seen a good 
 example of patient, painstaking, Dutch handiwork. It is a toy house that 
 was made for Peter the Great when he was in Holland learning the art of 
 ship-building. He intended to carry it to Russia as a memento of the 
 country, but when he found that it had cost a small fortune he refused to 
 
Netherlands. 199 
 
 take it. The ricli burgomaster who had had it made at his own expense, 
 presented it to the Museum to shame the stinginess of his royal cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 The little building is a perfect model of the house of a well-to-do Dutch- 
 man, completely furnished from garret to cellar, but on the smallest possi- 
 ble scale. In the dining room is a tiny tea service upon a table as big as a 
 silver dollar, in the kitchen are all the cooking utensils necessary for cook- 
 ing a dinner. There is a gallery of pictures, a library, a cabinet of Chinese 
 curiosities, cages with birds, tiny prayer books, carpets, linen for all the 
 family, with finest lace and embroidery. 
 
 The burgher did the work after the manner of a Dutchman, slowly and 
 well, so slowly, however, that it took nim twenty-five years to complete it, 
 which was perhaps one reason why Peter did not take it; he had grown 
 tired of waiting. But it was done perfectly; the cleverest workmen in Hol- 
 land had made the furniture; the most expert goldsmith the plate; the most 
 accurate typographer printed the little books, a delicate miniature painter, 
 the pictures; the linen was made in Flanders, the carpets and hangings in 
 Utrecht. It is no wonder, in view of all this that it was so long in being 
 put together, or that it cost too much for the economical Peter. 
 
 Delft Ware— In nearly every line of work that the Dutch have under- 
 taken they have come very near perfection. In the sixteenth century they 
 began the manufacture of earthen ware and made such an improvement upon 
 all the wares then in the market that theirs was demanded all over Europe. 
 
 Each generation of potters went on making improvements, not only in 
 finishing and enameling, but in producing fanciful shapes and artistic decor- 
 ations. 
 
 Each dish of the table sets was made in the shape of the viand it was to 
 contain and highly decorated. Some of the best Dutch painters were em- 
 ployed in decorating the Delft pottery. 
 
 Besides the table ware they made quantities of tile for ornamenting 
 chimneys, passages, and walls, and these too were highly decorated. On 
 some, made to hang against the wall, were painted fine pictures; a canary 
 bird in a cage, life size, was a frequent design ; horses, and cows, the last 
 wearing blankets which were painted yellow, blue, red and green. The 
 horses too were decked out in gay trappings and had their manes and tails 
 plaited. 
 
 A favorite subject with the pottery painters was the marriage of William 
 V., Prince of Orange, with the Princess Sophia Wilhelmina of Prussia. The 
 
200 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 couple are represented facing each other with an orange branch between 
 them. 
 
 Sometimes a historic incident is represented as the story of the strategem 
 by which a citizen of Rotterdam saved his house from pillage during the 
 trouble with the Spaniards. The Count of Bossu had craftily obtained an 
 entrance into the city, and once in, had given his soldiers leave to murder 
 and pillage to their hearts content. 
 
 One of the citizens, after sending his family into the cellar, sprinkled 
 the floor and steps with the blood of a cat which he killed for the purpose. 
 The door he left open, and the Spaniards seeing the blood, supposed that 
 some of their comrades had been there before them and let the house alone. 
 This story is told in pictures on the tile. 
 
 After a time Delft ware went out of fashion; other potters in Europe ac- 
 quired more skill and turned out more substantial articles. Now a vessel 
 of real Delft pottery of the finest kind is hard to find. The Queen of Hol- 
 land has some at her "House in the Woods," and so have a few wealthy 
 families of Holland where once it was found in every house. 
 
 The Dutch Navy. — When Peter the Great of Russia was trying to 
 learn how to build ships he could find no better teachers than the Dutch, 
 and so he came to Holland to receive instructions. The house where he 
 stayed, while, in the guise of " Peter Michaelhoff " — he worked like an 
 ordinary apprentice in the ship-yards — is still carefully preserved at 
 Zaardam. 
 
 As navigators the Dutch had no superiors ; they joined the search for 
 the northwest passage with the other adventurers, and while doing so discov- 
 ered the island of Nova Zembla. And it was from the Dutch port of Delft 
 that the Mayflower, a Dutch ship, brought the English Puritans to the New 
 World. 
 
 Soon after they had freed themselves from Spain they had a navy that 
 could not be excelled by any of the larger countries of Europe. Spain and 
 England had the largest ones and with both of these the Dutch were obliged 
 to fight ; the result was that the Spaniards were beaten badly and the 
 English came very near losing their title to " Mistress of the Sea." 
 
 No better example of sturdy Dutch " pluck" can be found than the 
 famous Admiral Van Tromp who saw thirty-two sea fights, and was killed 
 while leading a charge against the English. He fought several hard battles 
 with the English fleet and at flrst he was worsted in the encounters. But at 
 last he completely scattered their fleet and returned to Holland with a broom 
 
Netherlands. 201 
 
 nailed to the masthead of his ship to show that he had swept them from the 
 sea. 
 
 Another gallant Dutch admiral was De Ruyter, who led the Dutch fleet 
 against the English in the Irish sea and there fought one of the fiercest 
 naval battles on record. After four days of fighting it was hard to tell 
 which side was the victor. But a few days afterward the battle was 
 renewed and then the English won. 
 
 It is said that De Ruyter seeing the certain defeat in store for his side 
 cried out, ' ' What a wretch I am ! Among so many thousand bullets is there 
 not one to put an end to my miserable life ?" 
 
 The Tulip Mania. — The Dutch ships had much to do with the prosper- 
 ity of Holland. Before the war with Spain all the rich goods from the East 
 Indies were brought into Europe by the Portugese ; but when the Dutch 
 rebelled Philip forbade them to enter the harbors of Portugal. So they 
 formed an East India Company and went themselves to the Indies for silks 
 and spices. A thriving trade was soon established, which, added to their 
 home industries, made them extremely wealthy. Many gained large 
 fortunes and could afford to indulge in costly luxuries. 
 
 Their houses were like palaces ; they dressed themselves in velvets, silks 
 and pearls. After filling their homes with pictures, hangings, porcelain and 
 precious objects from all the countries of Europe and Asia, the rich mer- 
 chants of the large Dutch cities began to spend considerable sums in orna- 
 menting their gardens. 
 
 About this time some tulips were brought into Germany from Con- 
 stantinople. From there they came to Holland, and the Dutch admired 
 them greatly. Everybody soon had tulips in his garden. Rare varieties 
 were cultivated and brought extravagant prices. In a little while the 
 steady Dutchmen became possessed with a perfect frenzy for tulips. Mer- 
 chants and shop-keepers vied with each other in buying the most costly 
 varieties. 
 
 The prices of a few favorite kinds rose to the most unheard of sums. A 
 single bulb of the Admiral Lief ken specie was worth forty-four hundred 
 florins, an Admiral Van der Eyck twelve hundred and sixty florins, and a 
 Semper Augustus fifty-five hundred florins. The last were much sought 
 after and the fame of possessing one was reluctantly parted with even 
 for money. One speculator offered twelve acres of building ground 
 for one of these tulips, and another gave for one "forty-six hundred florins, 
 a new carriage, two gray horses and a complete suit of harness." 
 
'20"2 Persons and Places in ISurope. 
 
 Sometimes these costly plants met with sad accidents at the hands of 
 strangers or visitors in Holland who were not versed in tulip-lore. 
 
 A wealthy merchant who was once the owner of a very costly Semper 
 Augustus, which he kept upon his counter, received notice one day that a 
 ship-load of goods, ordered from abroad, had come to port. He re- 
 warded the sailor who came to tell him of the ship's arrival with a red- 
 herring for his breakfast, and the fellow went on his way. But this 
 sailor was very fond of onions, and while he was in the store seeing what 
 be took to be an onion lying on the merchant'' s counter, among the silks and 
 velvets, he picked it up, while the owner's back was turned, and put it in his 
 pocket. 
 
 Soon after the sailor left, the merchant missed his Semper Augustus. 
 A great uproar at once followed, everybody searched distractedly for the 
 precious root, but in vain. The merchant was nearly frantic, when some 
 one remembered the sailor. All hands dashed into the street, the master 
 leading the way, and rushed down to the vessel. There sat the sailor 
 innocently chewing the last morsel of his "onion;" never dreaming that 
 he was swallowing a fourteen-hundred dollar breakfast. Poor man ! he was 
 hustled off to prison by the irate merchant and sentenced to a term of several 
 months on a charge of felony. 
 
 Another unfortunate man, an English philosopher and a botanist, saw a 
 tulip-root lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman, and taking it 
 to be an onion, began experimenting on it with his pen-knife. AVhen he 
 had peeled off about half the layers, cut it into equal sections and made 
 many learned remarks upon it, the owner suddenly darted upon him and 
 asked if he knew what he was doing? 
 
 " Peeling a most extraordinary onion," 1 replied the philosopher coolly. 
 "JTunderf tausend dui/rei r /" cried the Dutchman, "that's an Admiral 
 Van der Eyck." 
 
 "Thank you," said the Englishman, taking out his note book to write 
 down the name ; " are these admirals common in your country ?" 
 
 For answer the Dutchman seized him by the collar and said, "Come 
 before the syndic and you shall see." 
 
 In spite of all his protests he was dragged through the streets, followed 
 by a mob of people and taken before the magistrate. There he learned that 
 he had been experimenting upon a tulip that cost four thousand florins, and 
 that he must go to prison until he could find securities for paying the full 
 amount to the owner. 
 
lililll I Miiiillli 
 
204 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The Smoking Mania. — Everybody who visits Holland is surprised and 
 somewhat amused at the clouds of tobacco smoke constantly rising from 
 the nose and mouth of every Dutchman. 
 
 One traveler says that they measure distances by pipe-fulls. From this 
 place to that one is not so many miles, but so many pipes. He says that 
 they go to sleep with pipes in their mouths, relight them when they wake in 
 the night, and again in the morning before they get out of bed. 
 
 A queer story is often told in Holland of a man who had as great a mania 
 for tobacco as ever his countrymen had for tulips. He had made a very 
 large fortune in India, and on his return built a beautiful palace near Rotter- 
 dam. In this he collected and arranged and labeled as in a museum, all the 
 models of pipes that were ever used in all countries and in all times, from 
 the rude ones of the most ancient barbarians to the splendid pipes of meer- 
 schaum and amber, carved in relief and bound in gold. The museum was open 
 to everybody, and all who visited it were sent away with an elaborate catalogue 
 of the articles on exhibition, bound in velvet, and a pocketful of cigars and 
 tobacco. 
 
 This great piper smoked 150 grammes of tobacco per day and lived to the 
 age of ninety eight, so that if he began when about eighteen years of age, in 
 the course of his life he smoked 4,383 kilograms of tobacco. 
 
 When he felt that his end was near we sent for his lawyer and made 
 his will, after each had placed a well filled pipe in his mouth. "I desire, " 
 he said, "that all the smokers in this country shall be invited to my 
 funeral by all possible means, by newspapers, private letters, circulars and 
 advertisements. Every smoker who accepts the invitation shall receive 
 ten pounds of tobacco and two pipes, upon which shall be engraved my 
 name, my arms and the date of my death. The poor who follow my body 
 to the grave shall receive each man, every year, on the anniversary of my 
 death, a large parcel of tobacco ; but on condition that all who are present 
 at the funeral services, shall smoke constantly throughout the entire cere- 
 mony. When my coffin is deposited in the vault every person present 
 shall pass by and cast upon it the ashes of his pipe." 
 
 This strange will, they say, was rigorously carried out. The funeral was 
 attended by a vast multitude, every one contributing to the cloud of smoke 
 that covered them like a veil. Even the old cook, to whom he had promised 
 a fortune if she would conquer her dislike to tobacco, joined the crowd with 
 a cigarette in her mouth. 
 
 Cow Paradise. — Many people who wear fine clothing would be glad 
 
JSfetlierlands . 
 
 205 
 
 to cnange abodes with the cows of Holland. Their stalls are paved with 
 colored tiles, the windows decorated with muslin curtains and pots of 
 flowers, the mangers are painted; the animals themselves are scraped, 
 combed, washed and, that they may not soil their coats, their tails are tied 
 up by a cord to a nail in the ceiling. The beams and woodwork are often 
 scrubbed or whitewashed and never so much as a cobweb is to be seen. 
 
 In summer, when the cows are out in the pasture, the gutters are often 
 sprinkled with sand which is brushed with a broom into curious and 
 fantastic figures, or ornamented with sea-shells, colored pebbles, old China- 
 ware and pottery. An old black table with carved legs will sometimes be 
 
 found in one of the stables 
 loaded with antique ves- 
 sels, fat old pewter or sil- 
 ver flagons, candlesticks 
 and snuffers, and brass- 
 hooped casks that look 
 like big black fingers wear- 
 ing gold rings. These 
 have to be removed, of 
 course, in the fall when 
 the cows are brought home 
 for the winter, but even 
 then the stalls are kept 
 perfectly clean with con- 
 stant washing and scrub- 
 bing. 
 
 Opening off of the cow- 
 room is a cheese-room, 
 which is a perfect arsenal 
 of shining pails and pans, wooden benches, scoured white, big milk and 
 curd tubs, curd knives and cheese moulds. 
 
 In the store-room there are alcoves and shelves full of cheeses, a per- 
 fect library of cheese ; all spotlessly clean, the room dry and well lighted. 
 The greatest care is taken of these products of the dairy ; each one is 
 turned and tended every day until it is a month old, then every other day 
 for another month. When they are sufficiently cured and painted over with 
 linseed oil on the outside they are sent to market. 
 
 The quantity of cheese shipped from the Netherlands to all parts of the 
 
206 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 world each year is something astonishing. From the province of North 
 Holland alone come twenty-six millions of pounds of cheese every year. 
 
 A Heroic Bird.— After the cow, there is nothing in the animal world 
 that the Dutch think so highly of as the Stork. On the same pole which is 
 set up for the cow to rub against, or perhaps on the roof of the house, is 
 nailed a huge cartwheel for these birds to make their nests upon. A very 
 common sight in Holland is a stork perched upon one leg on the ridge pole 
 of the house, and it is thought a good sign to have him there. To show that 
 these birds are worthy of the high regard in which they are held, the Hollan- 
 der tells of their heroic defense of their young at one time during a terrible 
 fire at Delft. 
 
 When the fire occurred there was a large number of young storks in their 
 nests about the city unable yet to fly. As the old birds saw the fire ap- 
 proaching they tried to carry their little ones out of danger but could not. 
 After making all kinds of desperate efforts they gave up. But instead of 
 trying to save themselves, as they might easily have done, they refused to 
 leave their little ones to perish. With a heroism more than human they 
 settled down upon the nests, gathered the young ones under their wings, 
 and so awaited their fate. 
 
 But the chief reason why the stork is cherished in Holland is that it 
 protects the dykes from destructive insects. A great panic was caused in 
 the country once by a small creature, a kind of shell fish that had been 
 brought in some ship from the tropical regions, and got into the dykes. It 
 multiplied so rapidly that when discovered the wood of the dykes was 
 almost eaten up by them, and in a very short time the sea would have broken 
 through. 
 
 In great alarm the people rushed, first to church to pray, and then out to 
 work. They lined the sluice gates with copper, they fortified the dykes with 
 stone and masonry, they strengthened the piles with nails, and so managed to 
 keep them standing until the damage had been fully repaired. But such a 
 time of terror not even the persecutions of Philip aroused as did that 
 little worm. 
 
 As the stork is an eager devourer of all such harmful creatures the Dutch 
 look upon it as a kind of national protection, and give it an invitation, in 
 the shape of a cartwheel or big box fastened on the top of the house, to come 
 and take up its abode with them. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 Belgium, once a part of the Netherlands is, geographically, a small coun* 
 try ; but an important one 
 because of its rich mineral 
 stores and the valuable 
 goods produced by its in- 
 dustrious people. After 
 England it yields more 
 coal than any other coun- 
 try of Europe; it sends 
 out quantities of iron, 
 zinc, building and paving 
 stones, and the beautiful 
 black marble of Dinant. 
 Its thriving farms stand 
 second to none, though the 
 soil, like that of Holland, 
 had to be created by pa- 
 tient toil ; and it is famous 
 for its fine linen and lace. 
 Besides this it is the site 
 of one of the most import- 
 ant battle fields in the 
 world's history, and its 
 painters once created an 
 epoch in the world of art. 
 
 The Forest of Ar- 
 dennes.— Belgium is HOMEWORK. 
 mostly a level country, but 
 in the southwest is a hilly region which belongs to the famous old for- 
 
£08 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 est of Ardennes through which Caesar led his legions against the ancient 
 Gauls. 
 
 Not all of the territory called the forest of Ardennes is wooded ; there 
 are among its rocky and heath covered hills, its deep ravines and dark rapid 
 streams, many fertile farms, neat cottages and thriving villages. Within 
 the deeper recesses where wild-boars, deer and wolves yet rove are many 
 curious old castles tilled with stories of the past. The great oak forests are 
 always roaring and whistling with the wind, resounding with the cries of 
 night-birds and beasts, and flickering with the fitful marsh lights. All of 
 these things, the cause of which the simple inhabitants do not understand, 
 tend to make them superstitious, and they have peopled the place with un- 
 earthly beings, mountain sprites, goblins and dwarfs, as well as saints and 
 heroes. The Ardennes especially abound in traditions of a kind of " lubber 
 fiend " who, like the Scottish brownies, help those whom they like by thrash- 
 ing their corn, mowing their hay, cleaning their houses, rubbing down their 
 horses and asking in return only a bowl of bread and milk. These little 
 people Shakespeare brings into his " Midsummer Mghts Dream," the scene 
 of which is laid in the forest of Ardennes. 
 
 The goddess Diana used to be the special deity of the ancient dwellers 
 in Arden, and the belief in her rites held its ground for many years in spite 
 of all the efforts made by Christian priests to banish it. In recent 
 times certain festivals have been held there during which a mysterious ban- 
 ner, was displayed bearing the likeness of a centaur, half woman and half 
 horse, with a lion's tail, holding a bow in its right hand and an arrow in its 
 left. The simple people manifested the greatest reverence for this old ban- 
 ner though they could give no account nor explanation of it. Those who 
 Studied into the matter said it was a relic of the worship of Diana. 
 
 This forest of Ardennes was the scene of some of the adventures of the 
 renowned St. Hubert, after whom it is sometimes called the forest of St. 
 Hubert. In his younger days this man was a mighty hunter, and once as 
 he was following his favorite pursuit a stag appeared before him bearing a 
 cross between its horns. He took this to be a miracle intended to reprove 
 him for his evil ways, and from that time he renounced his wickedness and 
 became a good man. So good and so holy, it is said, that he not only had 
 the power of working miracles, but even the smallest shred from his gar- 
 ments could cure disease. 
 
 He was particularly regarded as the patron saint of hunters. A town 
 and a church, the finest in Belgium, now stands upon the very spot, it is 
 said, where the stag appeared bearing the cross. 
 
Belgium. 209 
 
 Caverns of the Lesse. — The forest of Ardennes is traversed by two fine 
 rivers, theMeuse and its tributary the Lesse which is noted for its numerous 
 rocky caverns. All along this river are rugged lime-stone rooks containing 
 great empty chambers most beautifully decorated with hanging stalactites 
 and glittering pillars of lime. 
 
 One of the most remarkable of these caverns is the " Haus sur Lesse," 
 about twenty miles southeast of Dinant. The opening of the cave is a dark 
 yawning mouth out of which pours the river. Here the visitor enters in a 
 boat where all is dark as Tartarus except for the faint rays of the guide's 
 
 torch. 
 
 A gun fired off here produces a terrible succession of thundering echoes. 
 After a short sail the boat is landed and the visitor climbs a steep staircase 
 -till he reaches a magnificent chamber. This opens into numerous other 
 apartments some more than two hundred feet high. 
 
 All the roofs are covered with wonderful stalactites, and the floor 
 with corresponding stalagmites, some like bunches of grapes, others like 
 .cauliflowers, one like the head of a swan, and another like that of a dog. 
 
 In one chamber the stalactites look like banners, and the stalagmites 
 like tombs. Some resemble chandeliers draped with gauze, others the 
 heads of spears. In one part of the cavern the path leads over a gurgling 
 stream by a crazy bridge into a great gallery of marvelous height 
 •containing immense stalagmites. At every step some new and wonderful 
 form is met, the growth of long quiet ages. 
 
 The Spa. — Upon the eastern verge of the Ardennes, southeast of the city 
 of Liege,is a famous watering place which some one has described as a pretty 
 green bowl with a little toy town sunk in the middle. The edges of the bowl 
 are formed by the lofty wooded hills of the forest among and beyond which 
 are delightful rambles and drives. 
 
 Everybody used to go to the Spa. It was the place of resort for all 
 Europe. No tour of the continent was complete which did not take in this 
 place ; no gentleman's education was finished until he had visited it. 
 
 Not only lords and ladies but kings and queens were frequent visitors. 
 Peter the Great was cured of a disease here in 1717 and sent a tablet to be 
 put up at the springs as a memento of his recovery. This added greatly to 
 the fame of the place and the number of visitors began at once to increase. 
 Other crowned heads of Europe came here to be cured, among them Gusta- 
 vus III., of Sweden, Joseph II., Emperor of Germany, Prince Henry of 
 Prussia, and Charles II. of England during his banishment. 
 
210 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Two royal exiles have made their home at the Spa : the Infanta of 
 Spain, daughter of Don Francesco de Danla who married a Polish count 
 against the wishes of her family and was banished in disgrace, and the 
 Prince of Capua, brother of the king of Naples, who also was forbidden 
 to return to his home for marrying contrary to the wishes of his royal 
 brother. 
 
 After the French Revolution the tide of fashion began to turn from the 
 Spa to the German watering places, so that it is no longer the resort it was. 
 Still about 16,000 people visit it every year and 150,000 bottles of the water 
 are put up and sent away. 
 
 The Wicked Baeoist of Monjardijst. — In the neighborhood of the Spa 
 are a number of attractive grottos and cascades, to which the visitors at the 
 Springs usually make short excursions. Near one of these, the grotto of 
 Remouchamps, stood once the chateau of a very wicked baron who came to 
 the place stained with crimes commited in his native country of Italy. 
 
 One day, says the story, there came to the castle a young minstrel asking 
 permission to play before the baron and his wife. At the first stanza of his 
 song the baroness grew deadly pale and asked him where he came from and 
 of whom he had learned the song. He replied that he had come from Treves 
 and that an aged man with whom he had lived taught him the ballad and 
 bade him sing it in every town and castle he entered. 
 
 The baron, seeing that his wife was greatly disturbed by the song ordered 
 the minstrel to quit the room, but to wait in the castle for further orders. 
 
 As soon as he was gone the baroness told her husband that only her 
 father and herself had ever known that song. Then said the baron " He is 
 a spy, and I will see that he does not return to tell anyone where we are." 
 
 " do not kill him," said the baroness. "Add not the murder of this in- 
 nocent youth to thy long list of crimes." 
 
 " Well," replied the baron, "I will not take his life, but he must not be 
 allowed his liberty. I will confine him in one of the chambers of the castle. ' ' 
 But the youth was not to be found, he had left the place. A few days 
 afterward, however, he again appeared. Then the baron had him taken to a 
 secret chamber, known only to himself, and there bade him tell why he had 
 come to the castle. 
 
 The minstrel answered as he had before and would say no more. The 
 baron told him he should have neither food nor drink until he had told 
 what he had asked, and then left him. The next day the baron came again, 
 but the youth would say no more, so he left him to starve. 
 
Belgium. 
 
 211 
 
 On the third day an old man, weary and footsore with travel, came to the 
 door and asked to see the baron. 
 
 ' ' Thou dost not remember me, " he said when admitted . "lam thy wife' s 
 father. Thou didst carry off my daughter from Treves, at the head of thy 
 robber-band, and ever since I have sought her in vain. At length I thought of 
 a means which has proved successful. I knew a ballad which my daughter 
 composed in her youth. This I taught to a boy whom I brought up as my 
 son. I bade him go forth and sing this song in every town and castle until 
 
 FARM. 
 
 he had found my daughter, and send me word that I might see her before I 
 died. He came here, thou didst know him doubtless, for he is thy brother." 
 The baron waited to hear no more, but hurried out to the chamber where 
 he had confined the youth, and there found him lifeless on the floor. He 
 took him in his arms to carry him out, when to his terror he found he had 
 closed the door, which could only be opened from the outside. Nobody ever 
 knew what had become of him until years after,when some masons in repair- 
 ing the castle found this secret chamber, and the two wasted forms within 
 it, with a paper containing the confession of the baron. 
 
212 Persons and Places in Bur ope. 
 
 The baroness at once caused the castle to be pulled down and a church built 
 upon the spot. 
 
 The Horse Bayard. — About three miles from the same grotto of Remou- 
 champs, are the ruins of an old castle which once belonged to Aymon, Prince 
 of the Ardennes. He lived in the time of Charlemagne, or Karl the Great, and 
 his youngest son having slain one of Karl's sons in a quarrel, brought down 
 upon the whole family the revengeful wrath of the great monarch. For a 
 long time they were able to defend themselves by the aid of a powerful 
 magician and a wonderful horse called Bayard, which the Princf had given 
 to Remold, his youngest son. One day the magician captured the Great 
 Karl, and brought him into the castle of the princes, which he had been 
 beseiging, but Reinold let him go free. This angered the magician, and he 
 refused to help the princes any more. Fearing that their families would 
 be starved by the seige the emperor was keeping up, Reinold and his 
 brothers escaped to their castle in the Ardennes, whither the emperor fol- 
 lowed them. 
 
 Then Reinold' s mother, Ayra, went to Karl the Great to plead with him 
 for mercy on her children. 
 
 " Yery well," replied Karl, " listen to my offer. Reinold' s horse Bayard 
 has done me more harm than Reinold himself. Isow I will pardon your four 
 sons if Reinold will give the brute to me to be killed as I think best." 
 
 When Reinold heard the offer he refused at once. 
 
 " But think of your wife, your children and your brothers. The gallows 
 at Monfaucon is prepared for them, and it will be said that Reinold 
 gave up all his family to die a shameful death for the sake of a dumb 
 animal." 
 
 Here the horse whinnied softly ., and laid its head trustingly on Reinold' s 
 shoulder. 
 
 "I can not do it, mother. I can not do it," he cried. 
 
 " Yery well, my son," she said, "but remember when all my children and 
 grand-children are hanging on the gallows, your mother's heart will break." 
 
 " Have your will then," he said in a strange hollow voice; "but I shall 
 not survive it." 
 
 He signed the treaty, and the horse was taken to the emperor in Paris. 
 There it was led to the middle of the bridge over the Seine, with iron weights 
 fastened to its feet, and pushed into the river. 
 
 The emperor, Reinold, and his mother were there, and a great crowd 
 besides came to witness the death of the famous horse. Three times he rose 
 
Belgium. 
 
 213 
 
 to the surface, irf spite of the weights, and each time looked toward his 
 master. 
 
 " Beware, count Remold ! " cried the'emperor ; " his eye is fixed on you ; 
 if you are keeping him alive by any enchantment it shall be the worse for 
 you. I will tear up the treaty." 
 
 With a cry of terror, Ayra flung her arms around her sons neck so that 
 
 CANAL AT BRUGES. 
 
 he could not see Bayard as he rose the fourth time, and not seeing his master's 
 face, he sank then to rise no more. 
 
 Then Reinold pushed his mother aside, flung at the emperor's feet the 
 letters granting to him his lands, and breaking his sword, threw it into the 
 river, saying, " Lie there with my Bayard, and may God forget to be gracious 
 to me if ever I mount ahorse or draw a sword again." 
 
 Then he fled away into the forest and left his country for the Holy Land. 
 
214 . Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Knights of the Golden Fleece. — Charlemagne left Belgium, a part of 
 the French empire, to which it remained attached for several centuries. 
 After a while it came into possession of a family known as the house of 
 Burgundy, who held it under the French king, according to the custom in 
 feudal times. The Dukes of Burgundy, by marriage, treaties and alliances, 
 kept increasing their possessions until they owned all the Netherlands and 
 a part of France, making them nearly as powerful as the king himself. Their 
 castles were as splendid as the palaces of kings. 
 
 One of these powerful princes was Philip the Good, at whose court 
 one of the powerful orders of chivalry was organized. The occasion was 
 the celebration of Philip's marriage with Isabella, daughter of King John 
 of Portugal. When the festivities of the wedding were at their height, in 
 the city of Bruges, Philip called his courtiers together and made them 
 " Knights of the Golden Fleece." This name was chosen for the order because 
 his father had been imprisoned in the land of the Golden Fleece, and the 
 society was consecrated to St. Andrew, because he carried the gospel to that 
 region. 
 
 Each knight received a badge containing a golden fleece, fastened to a 
 red ribbon ; around his neck he wore a chain of flints and rays of steel, the 
 Duke's symbol of steel and flint striking fire, and each took a solemn oath 
 promising to uphold the honor of knighthood and the interests of the Church 
 of Rome. Its motto was, " I have accepted it." At the festivals, or " chap- 
 ters " of the order, held afterward, the knights used to wear long purple 
 robes made of silk velvet or rich scarlet cloth. 
 
 The honor of being grand master of the Golden Fleece has been the cause 
 of much dispute between the kings of Austria and Spain. It descended to 
 the heads of the Burgundian family until their line ended in Mary, who 
 married Maximillian I. of Austria, bringing all of her extensive domain to 
 that house. 
 
 According to a decree, when there was no longer a man at the head of 
 the house of Burgundy, the heiress might bestow the title of grandmaster of 
 the Golden Fleece upon her husband. Maximillian, therefore, received the 
 title and gave it to his descendants. After a time a woman, Maria Theresa, 
 inherited the throne of Austria, and she bestowed the honored title upon 
 her husband Francis. This greatly displeased Philip V., King of Spain, who 
 as a male descendant of Mary of Burgundy and Maximillian, through 
 another line, claimed the honor. 
 
 The dispute could never be settled, so the kings of both Spain and Austria 
 
Belgium. 215 
 
 have sinco claimed the honor, and neither will recognize the right of the 
 
 The Beggars.— About a hundred years after the order of the Golden 
 Fleece was founded, another company of men met in the city of Brussels 
 and banded themselves together, not to protect the interests of the church 
 of Rome but to resist the oppression which was being used against them m 
 the name of the church, by the fanatical Philip of Spain. There 
 was no pomp, nor ceremonies, nor festivities connected with the 
 formation of this society. It was a solemn, earnest company, met to pro- 
 tect themselves from a danger which threatened their lives. 
 
 Philip' s sister, Margaret of Parma, was governing the Netherlands at that 
 time for her brother, and he had sent orders for a court of inquiry to be 
 set up in every province for the purpose of discovering heretics and putting 
 them to death. When the nobles heard of this they called a meeting and 
 drew up a petition to the governess opposing most earnestly the execution 
 of this order. "When it was finished they all marched through the streets, 
 iour hundred of them, to present the paper to Margaret. 
 
 To avoid creating any excitement, or alarming the governess, they had 
 dressed themselves in their plainest clothes,and went on foot instead of on 
 horseback. Margaret, who had received news of their coming, was afraid 
 they were going to threaten her into complying with their demand, but 
 when they came into her presence, a countess whispered to her, " you need 
 fear nothing from these people, for they are beggars.' ' 
 
 The remark was overheard by one of the nobles, and that evening when 
 they were met together at a banquet, he mentioned it to the others. 
 
 « It is no shame," they said, " to be beggars for the country's good," and 
 everybody cried, "Long live the beggars." The host darted out and 
 brought in a wooden goblet, such as the pilgrims and mendicant monks 
 usually wear at their girdles, and pledged the whole company to the health 
 
 of the beggars. m 
 
 The cup went round, and when each had drank of it, they proceeded to 
 drive a nail into the wood as a token of their adherence to the vow of the 
 beggars Not only this, but they dressed themselves and their families 
 afterward in the beggar's costume of gray cloth, carried a small wooden 
 porringer, or cup, fastened to their caps, and wore about their necks medals 
 of gold or silver, on which were engraved the image of the king on one side, 
 and on the other a beggar's wallet and two hands joined, with the motto, 
 " Faithful to the king, even to the wallet." 
 
216 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The Image Breakers. — After the decided stand taken by the nobles, the 
 people who had been meeting in secret to hear the Bible and the preaching 
 of the Reformers, were considerably encouraged. They now assembled in 
 open fields and plains in great numbers, " to show," they said, " how many 
 the inquisition would have to burn, slay, and banish." 
 
 At first they went to the meetings unarmed, but finding the authorities 
 were disposed to send the people home, they carried pistols and rapiers, and 
 finally clubs, pikes, and muskets. They fortified the plain where they 
 assembled with wagons, and stationed guards at all the entrances. 
 
 One day as a number of people were proceeding towards a place of meet- 
 ing near the town of St. Omer, in Flanders, they were suddenly seized with 
 a zeal for breaking all the images of the saints they saw on the road. This 
 was a fine outlet to the fierce feelings oppression had stirred up within them, 
 and the impulse spread rapidly to all the surrounding towns. Not only the 
 images and statues in the churches were thrown down, but the altar pieces, 
 the monuments, and even the coffins of the dead were defaced ; the gold and 
 silver ornaments were plundered, and the fine carvings, and paintings of 
 the early Flemish masters, were destroyed. In the cathedral of Antwerp, 
 70,000 ducats worth of precious things were destroyed, and for three days 
 the streets were filled with a wild mob engaged in sacking the churches. 
 Order was finally restored by the knights of the Golden Fleece. In some 
 cities the works of art were saved by the magistrate, who quietly removed 
 them before the mob reached the churches, but the whole amount of damage 
 done was more than could be estimated. 
 
 One thing might be said in favor of the rioters ; they committed no deed 
 of violence upon man or woman and no robberies . They left heaps of jewelry, 
 gold and silver plate, and costly embroidery lying on the ground, and pun- 
 ished with death one of their number who stole five shillings worth. Their 
 motive was simply to destroy the religious symbols, which they considered 
 abominable idols. 
 
 But such blind zeal always does more harm than good, and the result of 
 their work was that the Catholics of Flanders, where the image-breaking 
 was carried on most fiercely, were so embittered against the Protestants that 
 this portion of the Netherlands remained with Spain when the rest rose in 
 revolt. 
 
 The Field of Waterloo. — Ten miles south of the city of Brussels is 
 the great dreary plain of Waterloo, where, a little more than seventy years 
 ago was fought one of the most important battles of history. On this plain 
 
THE GUARD DIES, IT NEVER SURRENDERS.' 
 
gl8 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the English Duke of Wellington placed his forces to resist an attack from 
 the great French Conqueror, who for several years had been creating 
 empires and emperors, and changing the map of Europe to suit himself. 
 
 Two ridges run through this field, with a little valley between them. On 
 the one the English and their allies were stationed, on the other French. 
 At one end of the field was the farm of "La Haie Sainte," at the other an 
 old Flemish chateau, each of which was occupied by the British. These 
 two points and the central ridge were the scenes of the fiercest fighting. 
 The farm was taken and retaken several times ; the chateau was held 
 unwaveringly by the British, though a battery of howitzers planted 
 against it set it on fire more than once. The French gained a footing 
 within the orchard and garden several times, but were never able to enter 
 the walls surrounding the house. Some one says, "The Belgian farmer's 
 garden wall was the safeguard of Europe, whose destinies hung on the 
 possession of this house." In these walls may still be seen the loop-holes 
 through which the British guards fired. 
 
 On the central ridge, also, the British stood firm, resisting charge after 
 charge of French cavalry, hurled upon them by the furious Ney. 
 
 A high mound has been erected on this part of the field, and on its top 
 is placed the figure of the lion of Belgium, made of iron from the cannon 
 left on the field, and raised in honor of the Prince of Orange, who fell there. 
 Some have thought a British lion would have been more appropriate, as it 
 was their insistence that saved the place, while the "braves Beiges" are 
 said to have left in great haste when the fight grew hot. 
 
 Another monument has been raised at the place where the Prussians en- 
 tered, in memory of the seven thousand dead, whom they left on the field. 
 Still another tells of a brave German legion that stood and were cut to 
 pieces after their ammunition had given out. Their commander had forgot- 
 ten to keep an opening at their rear for supplies, and they were left helpless 
 before the fire of the enemy. 
 
 The French have left monuments of their valor only in the records of 
 their conduct during the most trying scenes of the battle. Napoleon, when 
 he had given the order to retreat, declared his determination to die within 
 the square which he had vainly formed for the protection of his fugitives ; 
 but one of his generals hurried him away. Ney, covered with dust and 
 blood, his clothing torn, his head bare, kept his place at the head of the 
 guards, on foot and sword in hand, after the fifth horse had been shot from 
 under him. And the old guard, surrounded at last, and their retreat cut off, 
 
Belgium. 219 
 
 refused to lay down their arms. "The guard dies, it never surrenders," 
 was their last reply. 
 
 The " Masaniello." — After the battle of Waterloo the conquerors,— 
 Austria, headed by the keen old statesman Metternich ; Prussia, Russia, 
 England, Denmark, and several of the small German states, all met at Vienna, 
 to re-arrange the map of Europe, with which Napoleon had been playing such 
 havoc. The great statesmen who represented the different countries came 
 to the conclusion that Belgium should be put with the States of Holland, so 
 as to form a barrier against any future attempts of France to extend her 
 dominions on the north. The whole territory thus united was named "The 
 Kingdom of the Netherlands," and given to Frederick William, a prince of 
 the house of Orange. This was a very bad thing for both countries, for the 
 two nations differed in religion, in tastes, in character and language, and 
 more than that, the Dutch were burdened with a great debt amounting to 
 billions, which the Belgians, who owed only a few millons, were compelled 
 to help pay. Then too, the Dutch insisted that the Belgians, whose written 
 language was closely allied to the French, should change it at once for their 
 own. 
 
 The Belgians greatly outnumbered the Dutch, but were not allowed a 
 proportionate number of representatives in the legislative chambers, and any 
 measure they proposed for the benefit of their own country was usually 
 opposed. The Dutch received also nearly all the nominations to office. 
 
 Thus the position of Belgium became that of a subjected country, rather 
 than an equal. This humiliation she had already been obliged to endure for 
 centuries, having been tossed to and fro like a ball, from Austria to Spain, 
 from Spain back to Austria, from Austria to France, and now from France 
 to Holland . The people began to grow tired of this , after they had been joined 
 to Holland a while, and finally they presented petitions to the king stating 
 their grievances. When these received no attention they grew very restless, 
 and published bitter things in their papers . Then the papers were suppressed, 
 and all office holders who sympathized with the Belgians were turned out 
 of their places . 
 
 One brave man named Potter, started a subscription for the benefit of 
 those who had been thus deprived of their livelihood because of their opin- 
 ions, and he was immediately arrested, tried for sedition and banished. 
 
 Just at this time the French broke out in successful rebellion against 
 Louis XVIII. This had a great effect upon the Belgians, who began to say 
 that if the French could free themselves from hated rulers, why not they % 
 
220 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Thus the kindlings were all ready for the match, which was struck on 
 the evening of the 28th of August, 1830. While the people of Brussels were 
 listening to an opera composed by Auber, the French musician, they became 
 so excited by the music that they rushed out of the house and made an 
 attack on the office of the national newspaper, one that was carried on by 
 the government. 
 
 Smashing bolts, locks, doors and windows, they poured through the 
 building, broke and carried into the streets everything they could lay their 
 hands on, and there set the whole pile on fire. From here they went to the 
 armorer's shops, which they seized and barricaded. By the time the police 
 fully realized what was going on, the revolutionists were ready for a strong 
 defence. 
 
 The news flew quickly to other cities, where the same scenes were repeated. 
 Then a congress of citizens assembled at Brussels, and drew up an address 
 to the king, asking for several reforms in the government. The king replied 
 that he would not consider the matter until they laid down their arms. This 
 they were not willing to do, and so the royal troops were sent against them. 
 
 But the king was very loth to fight. He had been slow to realize how 
 deeply dissatisfied the Belgians were, and now believed that they might still 
 be brought back without much bloodshed. His son, the crown prince 
 Frederick, who was sent against the rebels at Brussels, tried to reason with 
 them instead of fighting, but they would not listen. When they did come 
 to blows, the Prince's men were obliged to withdraw. The Belgians then 
 declared their independence amid great rejoicing. 
 
 The king appealed to the powers who had given him Belgium to help him 
 bring it back, but after some delay they decided to let the " Braves Beiges " 
 keep the independence they had gained, and so Belgium has been a separate 
 country from that time. 
 
 Belgian Lace-makers. — While Belgium was subject to Spain all of her 
 industries except lace-making, either dwindled away, or were carried into 
 other countries. This too would doubtless have shared the same fate, but 
 that the workers were women, who could not so readily seek freedom from 
 persecution in foreign lands. They remained at home, and when the country 
 emerged from her trouble, took up their bobbins again. 
 
 Each town, where lace making is carried on, has its own patterns, which 
 have been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. Many 
 of the workers live and die in the houses where they were born, working as 
 they were taught by their mothers or grandmothers. Thus from the hands 
 
Belgium. 
 
 221 
 
 of the women of Malines comes the Mechlin lace; from those of Valenciennes, 
 the lace of that name, and from the capital city, the rich Brussels lace nsed 
 for bridal and ball dresses, and to adorn the robes of queens and courtly 
 ladies. 
 
 The work is divided among the makers, one doing the groundwork, 
 another the flowers, another attaching the flowers to the ground. 
 
 A very important part of lace making is spinning the thread. No 
 machine can be contrived to do this work, for it requires human care and 
 
 ~<^i^i<W n\> — . — — ■ -■ ~ 
 
 TJ^»yfe,. c 
 
 FISHERMEN. 
 
 vigilance. Only the skillful fingers of the Belgians have yet been able to 
 produce it. 
 
 The finest thread for lace-making is made in Brussels, in damp under- 
 ground cellars. For it is so extremely fine that the dry air above ground 
 causes it to break. There are many old thread makers in Brussels, who 
 have passed nearly their whole lives, spinning like spiders in their damp 
 cellars . 
 
 The spinner has a piece of dark blue paper as a back-ground against 
 which to watch her flax, and as soon as she sees the least unevenness in it, 
 she breaks it off and takes a new piece. This fine flax, prepared especially 
 
222 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 for the thread spinners, is very costly, and none of the pieces broken off are 
 wasted. 
 
 The weavers of the Lace are more fortunate than the spinners. They can 
 take their thread and Lace pillow into the open air, the park or garden. In 
 many of the towns there is a particular street where the lace makers meet 
 in tine weather. With their chairs and lace pillows they set out from their 
 homes for the wide open street, and there gather in little social groups with 
 their friends, their busy tongues keeping oompany,but not interfering with 
 their busy fingers. 
 
 TheFlemise Painters. WTitte Belgium was united with the Nether- 
 lands under the house o( Burgundy, the country became the most flourish- 
 ing part o( Europe, and in this condition it was carried by Mary o( Bur- 
 gundy to the Anstrians. The province of Flanders was one cd* the leading 
 portions of Burgundy, and here a school of remarkable painters arose. One 
 o( the founders, Hubert van Eyck, discovered a drying varnish for oil paints 
 that made paintings in oil much more valuable than they had ever been 
 before. The excellence o( the work done by him and a few associates drew 
 a number of students around them just before the war with Spain. But it 
 was not until the century after the war that the fame of the Flemish 
 painters shot up to its greatest height. 
 
 In the year L600, two years after the death of Philip II., Peter Paul 
 Rubens, a young man, whose father had been secretary of William the 
 Silent, went to Italy to study painting, having learned all that the Flemish 
 artists could teach him. These men too had gone to Italy to study, but they 
 had only imitated the works of the Italian masters. Rubens seized upon 
 the life and vigor which he saw in these old works, and this idea he began 
 to carry out in his own way "with brute violence of brush and brilliant 
 color, ami daring composition," said one of his critics. 
 
 His pictures so fall of life and energy won the highest admiration, and 
 pupils began to flock around him from every quarter. Orders came pour- 
 ing in by the score, so that he could only furnish the designs for many of 
 his pictures, and after his pupils had done the heavy work, give them their 
 finishing tenches. 
 
 He used to rise very early in the morning, in summer at four o'clock, 
 and immediately heard mass, after which he went to work. While paint- 
 ing he usually employed a person to read to him, so that his mind might be 
 occupied with pleasant thoughts while he worked. 
 
 At this time too, he was ever ready to receive visitors, talking animatedly 
 
Belgium. 223 
 
 and pleasantly while plying his brush.' Before dinner he rested an hour, 
 letting his thoughts dwell as they would on the subjects he had been read- 
 ing about, or on science, or politics. 
 
 After dinner he worked again until evening, then mounted his spirited 
 Andalusian horse and rode for an hour or so. This was his favorite exercise ; 
 he was extremely fond of horses, and his stables generally contained some 
 very beautiful animals. After his return home he usually received a few 
 congenial friends, men of learning or artists, and with these he shared his 
 plain supper, and passed the evening in pleasant conversation. 
 
 The last picture Rubens ever painted was one of his best . It was an altar- 
 piece ordered for the church of St. Peter at Cologne, the city where he spent 
 the first ten years of his life, and he was anxious to make it a strong one. 
 The subject he chose was " The Crucifixion of Saint Peter," who was nailed 
 to the cross with his feet upwards. 
 
 He was to have completed it in a year and a half, but it was not done at 
 the time, for the painter could now work but slowly. 
 
 The last touches were hardly put upon it, when the news went trom 
 mouth to mouth through Antwerp, " Rubens is dead." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Germany is a land of stories. Here all the legends and romances of the 
 northern nations appear in their most at tractive form . Its forests are famous 
 for witches and goblins ; its chief river owes half its charms to ghost- 
 haunted castles ; its highest mountain is never named apart from the spec 
 tral shadow that plays about the summit ; its most noted book is the one 
 that records the adventures of Siegfried, the prince of legendary heroes. 
 
 But Germany is something more than a land of stories. It is the land of 
 champion soldiers, skillful workmen, of great musicians and learned scholars. 
 
 The River Rhine. — There is no feature of his country that the German 
 speaks of with more pleasure and pride than the river Rhine, which some 
 travelers think does not deserve all the fame it has received, but Victor 
 Hugo, the great French writer, says it possesses the chief qualities of all 
 other noted rivers. He says it is "rapid, like the Rhone ; broad, like the 
 Loire ; encased, like the Meuse ; serpentine, like the Seine ; limpid and green, 
 like the Somme ; historical, like the Tiber ; royal, like the Danube ; myster- 
 ious, like the Nile ; spangled with gold, like an American river ; and, like 
 an Asiatic river, abounding with phantoms and fables." 
 
 Germany possesses but the middle portion of the Rhine, the upper part 
 lies within and upon the boundary of Switzerland, and the lower traverses 
 hill-less Holland, but neither of these parts are as attractive as that within 
 the German borders. 
 
 It is here that the Rhine flows by its most picturesque banks, its most 
 noted battle-fields, where the conquerors of other days won many of their 
 laurels, and the flourishing cities where to-day manufacturers and traders are 
 the chief actors. And here the busy steamers ply, carrying every year more 
 than a million of passengers, merchants planning or driving bargains, and 
 pleasure- seekers tracing out noted places in their guide-books, or listening 
 to some of the oft repeated stories, such as this : 
 
Germany. 
 
 225 
 
 " Here is the steeple of Yelmicli, where once hung a silver bell, that had 
 been given to the church by the Bishop Winnifred. For many years the 
 bell rang for prayers, and tolled for funerals, until a wicked Seigneur was sent 
 to rule over the town. He did not believe in God or the devil, and being 
 once in need of money, ordered the silver bell to be taken down from the 
 
 
 BLACK FOREST. 
 
 steeple and brought to him . The good prior of Yelmich was greatly troubled 
 over the sacriligious act and went to see the Seigneur about it. 
 
 " Ah ! you want your bell do you?" said the wicked man. "Very well 
 you shall have it, and I warrant it shall never leave you." He ordered the 
 bell to be tied around the priest's neck, and both to be thrown into the pit of 
 the tower. Then large stones were thrown into the pit, filling it up about 
 six feet. 
 
 A few days afterward the Seigneur fell ill, and when night came on the 
 
226 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 doctor and astrologer who were watching with him, heard with terror the 
 ringing; of a silver bell from the earth underneath them. 
 
 In the morning the man was dead, and every year since, when the day on 
 which he died comes around, those about the place can hear from beneath 
 the ground the ringing of a silver bell. 
 
 The Black Forest. — The high region in the southwestern part of Ger- 
 many where the Rhine enters, is known as the Black Forest. It is a branch 
 of the old Hyrcanian, or Hercyan Forest, that used to cover a large part of 
 central Europe, reaching from what is now the Thuringian Forest to the 
 Hartz and Carpathian mountains . On the east side of the Black Forest is the 
 birthplace of theDanube, on the west a series of elevated table-lands descend- 
 ing toward the Rhine. Down these steep slopes, after a heavy rain, the 
 torrents rush with terrible force, doing much damage in the hamlets and 
 villages below. Sometimes, in their mad career, they burst out into new 
 channels and startle the people with their unexpected appearance. 
 
 A queer legend is made to account for the origin of one of these streams 
 which rises in a little lake on the top of theKandel, one of the highest peaks 
 of the Black Forest. This lake, the people say, had once no outlet, and the 
 inhabitants of the valley through which it now flows suffered from the want 
 of water, and yet if the lake should break its bounds, it would flood the 
 whole valley, for it was said to be of immeasurable depth. Now the Evil 
 One had long been planning a way of breaking down the rocky wall and 
 letting the lake out to drown the poor people in the valley, but it could only 
 be done by an innocent boy, and he had much trouble in finding such a one 
 as would suit his purpose. 
 
 One evening he saw a poor orphan boy, who watched cattle on the Kandel, 
 coming down the mountain, looking very sad and dejected, for he was think- 
 ing of his pitiful wages, his tattered clothes and his hunger. " This is the 
 boy for me," said the Evil One to himself, and immediately he changed his 
 appearance to that of a hunter. He approached the boy kindly, inquired the 
 cause of his grief, and said that he could give him some assistance. " There 
 is plenty of gold and silver in this mountain," said the seeming hunter, " and 
 if you will come here early to-morrow, with a good strong team, I will help you 
 get it. The boy promised to be on hand. The next morning, as soon as it 
 was light, he hurried to the mountain with four heavy oxen that be- 
 longed to his master. The hunter was there waiting for him, and had 
 fastened a ring of yellow metal around the rocky wall. The boy was not 
 exactly pleased with the work before him, but he obeyed the stranger, and 
 
Germany. 227 
 
 when all was ready started the cattle, saying, " Now then, in the name of 
 God ." As soon as he had uttered these words the heavens became suddenly 
 dark, lightning flashed about in all directions, and the mountain trem- 
 bled and roared as if a mighty sea were within it, heaving against its side. 
 The boy fell in a dead swoon at the terrible sounds, and the oxen broke loose 
 and ran away. But the boy's exclamation as he started the oxen had 
 thwarted the plan of the Evil One. The rock did not split entirely away as 
 he expected, but only enough to let out a little rill of water. 
 
 When the boy recovered his senses the sun was shining, the hunter 
 was gone, and there from a deep gap in the side of the mountain was rush- 
 ing a beautiful torrent. 
 
 In a few moments he saw his master running toward him, terrified at the 
 noises he had heard, but seeing the torrent he fell on the boy's neck, ex- 
 claiming with great joy, " The wish of the people is fulfilled, the valley 
 will be supplied with water." 
 
 Then the boy told him what had taken place. 
 
 " Ah ! " said his master, "it is well you did it in the name of the Lord, 
 else the lake would have burst its bounds and we should all have been 
 drowned." 
 
 Bingen on the Rhine. — Midway on its course through Germany the 
 Rhine passes the old town of Bingen, toward which the " soldier of the 
 legion," in Mrs. Norton's beautiful poem, looked back with such longings 
 as he "lay dying in Algiers." Near this noted town of Bingen, the great 
 Nibelungian hoard of the hero Siegfried is said to be buried, and 
 here too stands the famous " mouse- tower," where the wicked bishop was 
 eaten up by mice, or rats, which ever it was. The oft repeated story of this 
 "mouse-tower" is one that never loses its interests. It has been told in 
 many different ways, usually about as follows : 
 
 One time there lived at Mayence, a cruel archbishop named Hatto, — a 
 miserly priest, who was readier to open his hand to bless than to bestow. 
 One year when the hearvest was bad he purchased all the corn and shut it, 
 up in his granery, hoping to sell it at a high price. When the famine was. 
 so great that the people began to die of hunger they came to the bishop and 
 demanded corn ; but he refused to give it. Then they surrounded his 
 granery and would not go away. They threatened to break it open if he 
 did not give them something to keep them from starving. 
 
 Then the bishop appeared to change his mind. He told them to come 
 next day and bring all their friends and he would give them all they could 
 
228 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 carry away. Tliey came in great crowds, and the bishop, unlocking the 
 door told them to go in and help themselves. When they were all in he had 
 his servants lock the door, and set fire to the place. 
 
 Then the wicked bishop danced with delight as he heard the screams of 
 the burning people, and asked his servants if they heard the squeaking of 
 the rats. 
 
 The next day the fatal granery was in ashes, and there were no longer 
 any people in Mayence. The town seemed dead and deserted. Suddenly a 
 swarm of rats sprang from the ashes of the granery, coming from under the 
 ground, appearing at every crevice, swarming the streets, the citadel, the 
 palace. Hatto in despair quitted Mayence, and fled to the plains, but the 
 rats followed him ; he shut himself up in Bingen, which was surrounded by 
 walls, but the rats crept under them. He then fled to a tower in the middle 
 of the Rhine, thinking he should find refuge there ; but the rats swarmed 
 through the water, climbed up the tower, gnawed the door and windows, 
 the walls and ceilings, and at last, reaching the room where the wretched 
 bishop was hiding, devoured him. 
 
 The deserted tower is now crumbling in the middle of the river ; and 
 sometimes at night a strange red vapor is seen issuing from it, like the 
 smoke of a furnace. This,the people say, is the soul of Hatto condemned to 
 hover forever around the place of his crime. 
 
 It is too bad to spoil an interesting story for the sake of truth, but it must 
 sometimes be done. The facts in this case are, the tower was not built until 
 more than a hundred years after the Bishop of Hatto died, and its purpose 
 was for collecting toll. The bishop too was not such a very bad man, but 
 quite strict as to church discipline, and so was disliked by the people and 
 priests. The object of the toll house, moreover, was not very pleasing to those 
 who had to pay toll, and so by putting two and two together the story grew 
 into that of the very wicked bishop and the mouse-tower. 
 
 The Dragon's Rock. — Passing from the highlands of southern and 
 central Germany into the northern plain, the Rhine reaches Cologne, the 
 city of the great cathedral, of eau de Cologne (Cologne water), and the 
 meeting place of the old Hanseatic league. Here the glory of the river 
 toward the north ends, just where Siegfried the hero of the Nibelimgen lied 
 began his famous career. A few miles south of the city is a range of hills 
 called the Siebengebirge (seven-hills) on one of which once lived a terrible 
 dragon, who was greatly feared by all the surrounding country. One day 
 Siegfried, son of the king of the Netherlands, started out with the deter- 
 
Germany. 
 
 229 
 
 urination of slaying the terrible dragon. After a furions fight the hero was 
 victorious, and then to make his flesh proof against all mortal weapon 
 thereafter he bathed himself in the blood of the vanquished dragon. 
 
 Thus annointed Siegfried started out in search of adventure. Before he 
 had gone far he came to the cavern where the king of Nibelung-land had 
 stored his enormous treasure, and here at the mouth of the cave he saw the 
 hoard of gold spread out upon the ground and the two sons of King Nibel- 
 
 DRAGON S ROCK. 
 
 ung surrounded by their body guard trying to divide it between them. 
 But there was so much of the treasure that they could not decide upon any 
 way of dividing it, and thus they had been disputing ever since the death 
 of their father. 
 
 When they saw Siegfried they called to him to come and help them, say- 
 ing they would give him as a reward their father's mighty sword, Balmung. 
 The hero stopped and undertook to settle the dispute, but neither of the 
 brothers would agree to any plan he proposed. Both had fiery tempers 
 
230 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 and they wrangled and quarrelled until Siegfried was utterly out of 
 patience, and catching up their father's sword, he slew them both and also 
 their body guard of twelve giants. Then a powerful dwarf, Alberich, 
 rushed out upon him with the fury of a lion to avenge the death of his 
 masters. But Siegfried, annointed with the dragon's blood, easily over- 
 came the dwarf and took from him his magic cloak, which had the power 
 of making its wearer invisible and endowed with twelve times his natural 
 strength. 
 
 Thus Siegfried became master of the great Mbelungian hoard, which 
 consisted of more than a hundred wagon loads of gold and precious stones, 
 and the possessor of more than human power. Moreover all the knights 
 of Nubelungen-land swore that they would serve him as vassals, so he 
 became their king. The dwarf, Alberich, he made keeper of the hoard, 
 ordering him and his hosts to restore it to its place in the cavern from 
 which he might draw it when he wished. 
 
 In after days Siegfried found this hoard of great service to him, as he 
 went on and met with other adventures, all of which are told in the wonder- 
 ful " Nibelungian Lay." 
 
 Tito: Spectee of the Brocket. — Passing from the Rhine region to the 
 east at higher region than the Black Forest is reached among the Hartz 
 mountains . These, though the highest in North Germany, are not especially 
 remarkable for size nor beautiful scenery. They are mere mole-hills com- 
 pared with those of the Alps just to the south, but rising from the great 
 level plain that extends from their feet to the Baltic, they seem wonderful 
 to the peasants who are accustomed to nothing but these flat wastes. 
 
 They are also full of fertile valleys where large herds of cattle are pas- 
 tured, well wooded with valuable timber and stored with rich minerals, 
 silver, copper, zinc, lead and iron. 
 
 For many years about thirty thousand persons have been employed in 
 the mines of the Hartz Mountains, one of which is the deepest in the world. 
 Mining is studied here in schools established for that purpose, and there are 
 a number of towns in which no other business is conducted but such as is 
 connected with the mines. 
 
 On account of their curious formation and great variety of minerals 
 these mountains are a favorite resort of geologists, but to the usual visitor 
 their great attraction is the mysterious shadow that plays about the summit 
 of the Brocken at certain times. Once in a while, eight or nine times in a 
 year perhaps, when the mists happen to be rising perpendicularly out of 
 
Germany. 
 
 231 
 
 the valley opposite the sun, just at sunset or at sunrise, if the top of the 
 mountain is left clear, its shadow is reflected against the face of the rising 
 mists greatly enlarged. The inn on the summit appears like a great palace, 
 and the people about it like giants. p 
 
 The peasants account for the shadow by saying that on certain days all 
 the evil spirits in the world meet on the Brocken to hold a festival in honor 
 of the Evil One himself, and if any mortal is bold enough to venture up the 
 mountain on that night he will see his own ghost stretched out before him. 
 
 SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN. 
 
 Beunhilde's Leap.— The whole rocky region of the Harts mountains 
 bristles with " Devils' Pulpits," "Witches' Alters," "Goblins' Lakes," and 
 various other names given them by the superstitious people. There is such 
 a strong belief in real goblins, bogies and spectres among some of the peas- 
 ants that at certain seasons of the year they will not venture out after dark. 
 Every strange appearance in rock or hill is supposed to be the work of some 
 
 unearthly creature. „ 
 
 A very wonderful story is told of a mark, something like a horse s hoot, 
 
232 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 that is to be seen upon a rocky platform a few miles east of the Brockei. 
 The cause of it was a beautiful princess by the name of Brunhilda who liveu 
 in the land of Bohemia. One day there came to her father's castle a hand- 
 some young prince, the son of the king of the Hartz country, who feU ii 
 love with the beautiful princess at first sight. 
 
 She was equally pleased with him, and so the wedding day was set. 
 Soon after he had returned home to make preparations for her at his 
 father's house, there came another suitor for the hand of the princess, the 
 giant Bodo from the cold northland. She was not at all pleased with the 
 giant, though he brought her elegant presents, necklaces of amber, rich 
 gold ornaments studded with gems, and a wonderful white charger. But 
 her father was afraid of offending the great giant so he bade Brunhilda get 
 ready to be married within three days. 
 
 As Brunhilda was bemoaning her fate, and trying to plan some way of 
 escape, her eye lighted on the burly form of the giant riding up and down 
 before the castle on his favorite black steed, and a happy idea entered her 
 head. She began at once to treat the giant more cordially and the next day 
 made him almost happy by consenting to mount the white horse he had 
 brought her and learn how to manage it. 
 
 The next day was the wedding, and while the merry-making was at its 
 height, the giant laughing until the halls of the castle shook, Brunhilda 
 slipped out to the stable, sprang upon the fiery white steed and ordered the 
 guard to lower the drawbridge. 
 
 The sound of her horse's hoofs upon the bridge, roused the giant from 
 his mirth, and in an instant he was on the back of his black charger flying 
 after her. On they went over rocks, valleys, and streams, but the white 
 steed kept ahead, and slowly increased the distance between his mis- 
 tress and the giant. Night came, but on they went, sparks of fire dashing 
 out from underneath the flying hoofs of the steeds. 
 
 As morning dawned the maiden saw far ahead the summit of the 
 Brocken, the abode of her lover, the prince. If she could but reach his 
 castle she would be safe, for he, she thought, would be able to deliver her 
 from even the terrible giant. 
 
 Suddenly her horse stopped and reared, just upon the verge of a precipice. 
 Each side was walled up, there was no way of escape, behind was the angry 
 giant. There was only one hope and that lay before her. The horse might 
 jump the ravine. Wheeling him around she struck him a sharp blow with 
 her whip, and galloped to the verge of the rock. The brave horse gave a 
 
Germany. 233 
 
 mighty spring and landed safely on the other side, bnt he struck the rock 
 with such force that he left upon it the print of his foot. 
 
 When the giant came up, he tried to make his horse do what the maid- 
 en's had done, but the weight upon its back was too great, and it sank with 
 the giant to the bottom of the abyss. 
 
 The Heroes of Teutoberg Forest.— The northern part of Germany 
 is a great low plain over which the waters of the North Sea once roared but 
 have now left to the domain of man. Across it four great rivers roll slug- 
 gishly along, burdened with the waters of the central hills and terraces, the 
 Rhine having turned to the left and deserted Germany for Holland. 
 
 On the boundary between the plain and the terraces is the starting point 
 of German history. Instead of witches, goblins and nymphs, two real 
 heroes appear battling for the liberty of the German race. First comes 
 Arminius, or Herman, as he is sometimes called, who delivered his country 
 
 from the Romans. 
 
 ThisHerman was born sixteen years before Christ, and when a boy went to 
 Rome where he must have been at the time of the Saviour's birth. The young 
 Saxon, pleased with the wonderful sights of the great city remained there 
 some time learning the Roman language, and arts of warfare After a time 
 he was given command of a legion fighting on the banks of the Danube. 
 From there he returned home and found his country greatly oppressed by the 
 cruel Roman general Varus, who was stationed among them _ Herman 
 became a German again at once and began planning to get rid of this Roman 
 
 "Tretending great friendship for Varus, he advised that general to divide 
 his army into small bands and send it around through the different provinces, 
 that better order might be kept. Varus did as he advised, and then Herman, 
 having secretly organized a large force, made war upon the Roman general. 
 He drew him from his strong holds along the banks of the Rhine into the 
 wilds of Teutoberg forests. . 
 
 Then he began a fight that lasted three days and ended m the total 
 destruction of the Roman army, Varus himself being killed 
 
 ' When the news of this defeat reached Rome it caused great dismay. 
 The old Emperor Augustine nearly lost his mind and went about wringing 
 his hands and crying, " Varus, Varus, bring back my legions." 
 
 After five years the Romans came again to recover their lost country, but 
 all they accomplished was the work of burying the bones of their country- 
 men who perished with Varus. Herman was upon them and drove them 
 
234 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 , 
 
 back, with, great loss. Again they came with a larger army, but met wit 
 no better success, and then they left the country forever. This was the end 
 of the Romans in Germany. 
 
 The next great power after the Romans was that of Charlemagne, 
 King of the Franks, who marched his victorious army into Germany a few 
 hundred years after the Romans left. For a while his men conquered all 
 before them, but when they were gone, a sturdy chief by the name of 
 Wittikind stirred the Saxons up to active resistance. Charlemagne sent 
 another force against them and all but Wittikind took the oath of allegiance ; 
 he fled to his brother-in-law, the king of Jutland. 
 
 As soon as Karl had gone away again, Wittikind returned and raised 
 another revolt. This time the Saxons were more successful and after four 
 years of fighting they destroyed a great army belonging to Charlemagne 
 on the banks of the Weser just southwest of Hanover on nearly the same 
 ground where Herman fought his last battle with the Romans. When the 
 emperor heard of this he was very angry, and put over forty-five hundred 
 Saxons to death. Then all the tribes rose in revolt and declared they would 
 have Wittikind for their king. After three years more of fighting, Karl 
 gave up trying to conquer the Saxon king, and agreed that he should rule 
 over Saxony with the title of Duke. 
 
 Wittikind then became a Christian and reigned twenty years over the 
 duchy of Saxony, with his court at Enger, where, nearly six hundred years 
 after his death, the Germans raised a monument to his honor. Another 
 monument was raised in the year 1875 on the summit of the Grotenberg, 
 near Detmold, in honor of Arminius. The Emperor William was present at 
 the ceremony and unveiled the statue. 
 
 The Emperor at Ems. — Germany abounds in watering places, to which 
 in summer everybody goes. One of the favorite resorts is Ems, on the 
 Rhine, a few miles from Coblentz. It is a very pretty spot with plenty of 
 trees and green banks, sloping to the waters edge, and over-hung with high 
 wooded hills. The water of the springs is thought to be very beneficial for 
 several diseases, especially of the throat and lungs. 
 
 Jenny Lind so far recovered her voice during a short stay at Ems that 
 she was able to sing at a concert with all her former power and clearness. 
 
 Many celebrated people from all lands may be met at Ems, from kings 
 and emperors down. There royalty is set aside and the rulers appear somewhat 
 like ordinary mortals. The Emperor of all the Russias walks out unattended 
 to take his morning glass of spring- water, but the town is full of Russian 
 
Germany. 
 
 285 
 
 detectives in plain clothes constantly on the watch for lnrking nihilists. A 
 striking contrast to the careworn and troubled expression of the Czar is the 
 jovial good humored face of the aged German emperor, always going about 
 
 THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 
 
 among his people full of good humor and gay spirits, idolized almost by 
 his devoted subjects. He thrusts his cane playfully at a little German 
 maiden, stops and talks with the boys, is affable and courteous to every- 
 body. 
 
236 Persons and Places in JEurope. 
 
 One morning, a lew years ago, there was considerable excitment at the 
 chief hotel of Ems. The little host darted hither and thither very nervous 
 and anxious. He had heard that the Emperor was coming in the afternoon 
 to call upon one of the princesses who was stopping at his house, and he 
 was anxious to give him a grand reception. He had a huge roll of carpet 
 brought in to be laid down on the grand staircase and quantities of flowers 
 to be scattered over the Emperor's pathway. But the little host did 
 not wish his carpet to be soiled with other footsteps and his flowers 
 withered and trampled before the Emperor came. So he posted his 
 waiters about as scouts, to report at once when the Emperor was seen ap 
 proaching. 
 
 After much watching, bustling and talking a waiter rushed in, horror 
 stricken. "The Emperor is here! he is this moment in the parlor of: 
 Madame la Princess." 
 
 The poor landlord was crestfallen. How did it happen ? 
 It happened that the Emperor had come quietly along unattended, 
 and turning in at a side entry had inquired the way to the Princess's apart- 
 ment and so escaped Herr Huyn's watchful waiters. 
 
 But the carpets and flowers must still be made to do honor to His Majesty, , 
 and so they were laid with all haste on the back stairs. Then again all was i 
 anxiety lest the Emperor should find his way out at the front entrance. 
 Everybody watched and waited and at last the royal visitor was heard 
 taking leave of the princess. Coming into the hall he noticed the change 
 at once, and asked, " For whom has all this trouble been taken ?" 
 " For you, sire," answered little Herr Huyn, reverently. 
 " What a pity," said the Emperor, " to leave such lovely flowers to be 
 trodden on by an old man like me," and stooping he picked up some of the 
 most beautiful ones and handed them to the princess. One little blossom he 
 fastened to his own coat. 
 
 By such acknowledgments of displays, that he would avoid if possible, 
 and in many other kindly ways, the Emperor William has endeared himself 
 to the hearts of his people. 
 
 It was here at Ems in 1871, that the French minister Benedetti persist- 
 ently and impolitely pressed the Emperor, then King William of Prussia 
 only, to promise that no Prussian prince should ever become a candidate 
 for the throne of Spain. King William, refused to make any such promises 
 and six days later war was declared between France and Prussia. 
 
 Feedekick at Sans Souci.— The kings of Prussia have always been 
 
Germany. 
 
 237 
 
 noted more for their strict attention to the business of governing than for 
 their love of display, and the one most regardless of appearances was the 
 Great Frederick himself, who used to go about in a shabby old coat, and 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 who died without a decent shirt to his back. He had to be buried in one 
 belonging to his valet. 
 
 Though Frederick brought the Prussians out of the Seven Years' War, 
 in which they were threatened on every side, with flying colors, and it is 
 said without burdening the country with debt, yet the people were in a 
 
238 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 desolate condition. One-sixth of all the able-bodied men had been killed, 
 the fields were nnsown and the graneries empty. 
 
 Frederick at once excused the people from paying taxes, and then ordered 
 his household expenses on snch an economical plan that he was able to 
 save a million of thalers every year to spend in improving the lands and 
 industries of his subjects. 
 
 The only matter in which Frederick was not economical was in building, 
 but that could hardly be called wasteful extravagance, for it gave employ- 
 ment to many needy workmen. One of his finest buildings was the palace 
 of Sans Souci, where, his victories won, he settled down to a quite, busy life, 
 devoted to the affairs of the nation. 
 
 In his mode of life he was very regular and very industrious . For years 
 he only allowed himself four hours of sleep out of twenty-four. In summer 
 he usually rose at three, seldom in winter later than four, and never later 
 than five. While in the hands of his hair dresser he opened his first 
 packet of letters from Berlin. This contained only letters from nobles, 
 stamped as such by the postmaster who mailed them. All others were 
 opened by his secretaries. 
 
 His hat was one of the first articles of dress donned, and it never left .his 
 head except at dinner-time or during interviews with people of very high 
 birth. His strict economy allowed no extravagance in dress, his uniform 
 was often patched and threadbare, his boots red from age and want of black- 
 ing. 
 
 As soon as he was dressed his secretaries laid before him extracts from 
 the letters they had opened, the various petitions and matters of business, 
 and he told them what to say in reply. Then the Adjutant of the Royal 
 Guard brought a report of all strangers who had arrived or departed the day 
 before, a similar report was brought in from the officer at Berlin, and then 
 the Adjutant- General came to discuss the affairs of the army. 
 
 This finished, Frederick passed to his writing-room, drank several 
 glasses of cold water flavored with fennel leaves, and at intervals while he 
 wrote sipped coffee or tasted a little fruit which stood ready on a side table. 
 He took pains to encourage the culture of choice fruits by giving large orders 
 for every new variety. While in his writing-room, the king usually played 
 for an hour upon his flute. He was a great lover of music and said that, 
 instead of interfering with his business, often his happiest thoughts in 
 matters of state came to him while playing on his favorite instrument. 
 
 Between eight and ten o'clock he received his cabinet secretaries, separ- 
 
Germany.. 239 
 
 lately and gave them their instructions. The time that remained before 
 dinner he spent variously, reviewing his guards, walking out if it were 
 pleasant, or through his parlors if it were stormy. Sometimes he received 
 visitors/but only those of noble birth. He was not fond of coming m con- 
 tact with common people. 
 
 Twelve o'clock sharp was his dinner hour. Some times if the bill of fare 
 contained a dish of which he was particularly fond, he hurried the meal on 
 ten or fifteen minutes before the appointed time. He only took one regular 
 meal a day, and that he made the source of as much gratification as possible. 
 He gave especial attention to. his bill of fare, on which the names of the 
 cooks always appeared with the dishes they had prepared. The viands that 
 pleased him most he marked with a cross, and often wrote criticisms, 
 corrections or amendments upon the paper. Of wine he always drank 
 sparingly, and usually diluted it with water. . . -, .,, 
 
 There were usually at the table from seven to ten invited guests with 
 whom the king talked gaily, laughed and joked ; but his jokes were not 
 always of the pleasantest kind, and caused his guests sometimes as much 
 pain as the invitation to dinner could give pleasure ; in fact they usually 
 came in fear of some unpleasant thrust. After dinner, which sometimes 
 lasted until four o'clock, if there was an unusually witty assembly the 
 king took another half-hour with his flute and then attended to the letters 
 his secretaries had answered. Some he simply signed, to some he added a 
 short postscript ; for instance, to a general who had asked leave to retire 
 from the army, the secretary had written, according to Frederick s direction 
 that he would consider his request. The postscript by the king added 
 -The hens that will not lay I will not feed." To one who asked for 
 money he writes, » I cannot give a single groschen, I am now as poor 
 
 as Job." , . . . -, rr rt 
 
 He cared little what complaints or criticisms his subjects made. He 
 never persecuted them for their opinions or their remarks. "My people 
 and I understand each other," he used to say; "theyare to say what they 
 like and I am to do what I like." „ 
 
 From six to seven there was usually a small concert, consisting of a few 
 musicians of the highest rank, the king himself numbering one of the players 
 The rest of the evening was spent in reading or lively conversation with 
 distinguished guests ; when there were no visitors, one of his lecturers read 
 aloud to him until his bed-time. 
 
 Women had no part in the royal household; he had little regard for 
 
240 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 them, and was always much irritated when any of his friends, soldiers or 
 servants took to themselves wives. 
 
 Bristling Bayonets.— Prussia is a land of muskets and armed men 
 Every third man in the capital is a soldier off duty. Underneath the statue 
 of the old soldier Frederick, his countrymen, armed to the teeth, are con- 
 stantly passing and repassing in time of peace as well as in war, for Prussia 
 has learned that the only way to maintain peace is to be ready for war. 
 
 Each day at noon through the roar of the streets swells the finest mar- 
 tial music, first a grand sound of trumpets, then a deafening roll from a 
 Score of brazen drums. A heavy detachment of infantry wheels out from 
 some barracks, ranks of strong brown-haired young men stretching from 
 sidewalk to sidewalk. Squadrons in uniforms of green and red with pen- 
 nons fluttering at the ends of their lances, ride up to salute the king. Fre- 
 quent drills are held in the grand parade-ground in the outskirts, "officers 
 in f ull uniform gather at the quarters of the main guard on Wnter den Linden 
 to talk and listen to military music. 
 
 They present a most striking appearance in their brilliant uniforms, hus- 
 sars m red, blue, green and black, the king's body guard in white braided 
 with yellow and silver helmets, flashing as if made of burnished gold and 
 crested with an eagle. Every figure is straight and trim, perfectly developed 
 by the systematic exercise of the training. 
 
 Everything and every body in Prussia wears this military air. 
 The little boys in the primary school carry their books and dinners 
 in knapsacks strapped upon their backs, at the tap of the bell they march 
 like veterans to the bugle call. The larger boys go through gymnastics 
 which are but preparations for musket drills. Even the girls feed their 
 minds upon military scenes in which their forefathers have taken a part 
 and their teacher, a man who of course has been a soldier, glows with 
 enthusiasm as the memories of his soldier days are recalled, and waxes 
 eloquent in praise of military glory. 
 
 The result of aU this training and preparations for the evils that may 
 come, but which everybody hopes will not, are not simply the captured 
 flags that decorate the Prussian arsenals, trophies of victories over Austria 
 and France, but are to be seen in every department of life. The butcher 
 baker, tailor and merchant are all hardier, for the physical training of their 
 military life, and more prosperous for the discipline gone through in their 
 younger years in the army. 
 
 The Hanseatic League.— The foundation of Prussia's greatness was 
 
Germany. 241 
 
 laid, not so much in war as in trade. Along the shore of the Baltic were a 
 number of cities established and put in a flourishing condition by an order 
 of chivalry known as the Teutonic Knights. Under their wise rule the cities 
 grew and prospered, but they were sorely beset by pirates, who infested the 
 sea and seized their trading vessels, and also by petty lords in the country 
 round, who levied upon them burdensome taxes. 
 
 To defend themselves from these attacks, delegates from the leading cities 
 met together and agreed to band together and fit out such troops and ships 
 as they needed to protect their commerce. This compact became known as 
 the Hanseatic League, and so successful did they shortly become that all of 
 the surrounding cities joined them. Taxes were freely contributed and they 
 grew rich and powerful. The pirates were driven out of the seas, depots 
 of trade were established at London, at Bruges, Novgorod and Bergan under 
 protection of the league. From these points they sent out over all the sur- 
 rounding regions the products of the home manufactures and received in 
 return foreign goods, especially from the east, which brought large profits. 
 
 In a little while they became so powerful that they could dictate terms 
 to kings and princes . Vladmir III. of Denmark did not realize their strength 
 when he played his trick upon the seventy "fat geese," as he called the 
 Hansers who were sent to bring him to terms, and he paid dearly for it 
 shortly afterward. They compelled him to fly from his throne, and did not 
 allow him to come back until he agreed to do as they wished. 
 
 But as all great powers are apt to do, the league began to take ad- 
 vantage of and oppress their weaker neighbors. No cities could engage in 
 trade but those of the league. The countries of Europe began to make war 
 upon them and demand that their people too should have a chance to trade, 
 for they saw now the importance of commerce. The great English and 
 Dutch navies had become very powerful. Their great commanders, Van 
 Tromp, De Ruyter and Blake, compelled for their vessels the right of enter- 
 ing the Baltic and trading in any port, and the league was obliged to yield. 
 
 But though the league was no more, the good it had accomplished 
 remained; it had opened the way for commerce; it had shown kings and 
 emperors that trade was a greater means of prosperity than war; and it had 
 given to the people sale for the work of their hands, thus starting into 
 growth the great industries that make the people prosperous. . 
 
 Amber Gatherers. — A profitable business for many centuries on the 
 northern coast of Germany is collecting amber, which is more abundant 
 along the shores of the Baltic than in any other part of the world. It is 
 
242 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 gathered in several ways. On rough autumn days when the northeast wind 
 blows up rough waves, the coastmen go out with their nets in the face of the 
 freezing spray and draw in the amber which the waves have washed up. 
 
 On shore the women and children receive it and separate the pure sub- 
 stance from the amber weed to which it clings. Again, on a calm summer 
 morning, the boatmen go out and after peering eagerly into the glassy green 
 waters for a few minutes plunge their hooks and pitch-forks into a mass of 
 rock and sea-weed, which it taxes their strength to pull to the shore. The 
 pieces collected in this way are much larger than those washed up by the 
 waves. 
 
 In other places the precious substance is brought up by divers. Encased 
 in their rubber dresses, with their helmets and air chests of sheet-iron, they 
 plunge down fifty fathoms or more into the world of the fishes. They see 
 their way through the glass openings in the helmet which also keeps them 
 supplied with air, being connected with the far-away air world by a long 
 tube and kept full by air pumps in the boat. 
 
 When they reach the amber-bed they begin hooking, dragging and tear- 
 ing the masses from their long resting place, working sometimes four or 
 five hours before they give the signal to be drawn up. 
 
 The crew of a diving boat usually numbers six men, an overseer, two 
 divers, four men to work the air pumps — two at a time, and one to hold the 
 safety rope by which to haul the men up at the slightest signal from below. 
 
 Near Munich, East Prussia, amber is obtained by dredging machines, 
 which have brought up nearly sixty thousand pounds in a single season. 
 It is also obtained in the eastern province of the Baltic by mining. One of 
 these mines is said to have been discovered by a maiden while she was look- 
 ing for blackberries in a dell near the shore. She saw something glistening 
 in the sun and, picking it up, found it to be amber. Beneath the spot a 
 large strata of embedded trees were found rich with the fossilized gum. 
 
 When amber was first discovered among the barbarians who then lived 
 along the shore of the Baltic, it was not held in very high esteem by them; 
 some used it for kindling fires. But when the beauty loving Greeks 
 saw it they called it the " tear drops of the goddess," and were willing to 
 pay a good price for it. Pytheas, the old Greek navigator who lived in the 
 time of Alexander the Great, was much interested in the substance which 
 he thought was " the scum of the encrusted sea." The Greeks knew little 
 then about a frozen ocean. 
 
 The early Britons, who found some amber along their coasts, valued it 
 
Germany. 243 
 
 very highly They considered it a charm against evil influences and always 
 buried at least one bead in the graves of their dead. In the tomb of a chief 
 at Wiltshire was found an amber necklace consisting of a thousand beads ; 
 in another grave in Sussex was found a cup carved from a solid block of 
 amber- in another a collar of two hundred beads and plates, which must 
 have extended far over the shoulders. The perforations in these plates 
 show that they had been made with great skill by a fine metallic borer. 
 
 Some of the amber found in these old British graves is like that now 
 washed up by the waves along the coast of Great Britain, but the most of it 
 is a finer kind like that of the southern shores of the Baltic. When the 
 Teutonic Knights ruled over this country they claimed all the amber as their 
 own private property, and often paid all their court expenses with the money 
 they derived from its sale. The Prussian kings also for a long time claimed 
 exclusive right to the amber, and set guards to see that the people did not 
 carry any of it away. Any one found trying to hide or sell it was hung 
 upon gibbets kept standing there for that purpose as a warning. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century the government granted the right 
 of gathering amber to private contractors, and any person found helping him- 
 self to the coveted substance may yet be arrested for theft. 
 
 The nature of amber was a great mystery for a long time, but it is now 
 known to be the gum of trees, which has been buried in the sands until it 
 has become "fossilized." m ' ' 
 
 The trees from which it once flowed stood in vast forests m the region o± 
 the Baltic, and are now found buried beneath beds of sand and clay. The 
 wood of these is full of amber which is also seen hanging from the embedded 
 trunks in stalactites or mixed with the layer of sand beneath. 
 
 The Toy-Makeks.— From the deep recesses of the living forests of Ger- 
 many from the inky old trees that look in the distance like crowds of mourn- 
 ers comes a perfect torrent of fun and good times for the little folks . From 
 their lopped branches and felled trunks are turned the wonderful jointed 
 dolls, the legions of wooden soldiers, the fleets of Noah's arks, the doll's 
 houses, the chairs, tables, bricks, blocks, whips and rattles, that Santa 
 Claus pours down the chimneys at Christmas time. Many wooden images 
 of Santa Claus himself are carved out by the ingenious toy-makers of the 
 German forests. 
 
 In every house in these wooded regions, men, women and children may 
 be seen cutting, carving, whittling, glueing and painting. The wood used 
 is so soft that even the little children can begin to cut it as soon as they am 
 
; 
 
 244 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 able to manage a knife. As soon as they come home from school they pick 
 np their wood and cut demurely away at a leg or an arm, the easiest part 
 of whatever object the family has been in the habit of making. Each fam- 
 ily keeps to the cat, or donkey, or soldier, or whatever it has been trained to 
 make by its ancestors, and so no time is lost in getting the "knack" o 
 new operations. The most skilful cow-makers would not think of attempt- 
 ing a sheep or a dog. If the mother made goats, the children make goats, 
 and nothing else. 
 
 The easier and simpler objects are made by the women and the children, 
 the men take the more difficult ones, such as chairs, fancy boxes 
 brackets and crucifixes. 
 
 In mining regions another class of toys are made. From thence come mar 
 velous tin-trumpets, jingling carts, tiny tinkling pianos and music* 
 glasses. Wurtembnrg is famous for this kind of toys, especially painted 
 metal horses, stage coaches, cabs and omnibuses, ships and fire engines. 
 Berlin, the city of military men, sends out smart metal soldiers, real cannons 
 that will go off with a bang, tall fortresses, folding tents and pop-gun am- 
 munition. 
 
 Sonneberg, in northern Bavaria, is the city for girls. There are made the 
 beautiful wax dolls that sit and stand alone, and open and shut their eyes. 
 
 To get an idea of what the Germans really do in the toy-line one needs 
 to visit the great Toy Fair, held at Liepsic every Easter. Here all kinds of 
 toys that ever were known or invented line the streets of the city during 
 the few days of the fair. How the sturdy little people of Leipsic do open 
 their eyes and mouths in wonder, both at what they see and what they can 
 not see for the boxes and wrappers around them! and how the large people, 
 both the Leipsicians, the toy merchants from all parts of the world, and the 
 toy makers from the forests, do chatter and smoke and drive bargains ! 
 and how fast the swords and drums and cannon and doll-houses disappear 
 when the merchants take their leave and toy-makers go home with the 
 price of their hard earned labor in their pockets! 
 
 Duesden China. — The perfection of skillful handwork is reached in the 
 Dresden china works near that city. Here the people work, not in their 
 homes, but in the large factories, where the whole process of the manufac- 
 tures may be watched from the time the flower-like clay leaves the pulver- 
 izers till it emerges from the finishers in plates, cups and saucers, wonderful 
 vases and vessels of all kinds. 
 
 In one of the galleries of the manufactory, from which various work- 
 
Germany. 245 
 
 rooms open, is a most curious collection of moulds, bodies without heads, 
 legs, or arms, right legs, left legs, with and without shoes, birds, animals, 
 and fishes of every description. 
 
 In one of the workrooms is an army of workmen to whom is given the 
 contents of the moulds, after it has had one baking and is still yielding 
 With astonishing quickness they take a body, put on its arms, legs, and 
 head brushing them a little with a camels hair brush and water to make 
 them stick Then with small agate tools they mark the finger nails, deepen 
 the eyelids, round the arms or the cheek, pat it a little on one side and then 
 the other and behold a perfect shepherdess, or a dashing courtier. 
 
 In another room the delicate operations of the " raised china " is going on. 
 Dainty little leaves are roUed out by quick and skillful fingers. Rose petals, 
 one by one are curled, patted into shape and stuck into place. Each part 
 of the tiny forget-me-not is made by itself, and put in place with fairy-like 
 pincers and thus the work goes on until the bouquet is completed and placed 
 in the lap of the pretty dancing girl who has been brought from the leg and 
 arm department to receive it. m 
 
 After this the poor dancing girl, with the shepherdess, the courtier and 
 a great company of similar people must go to the oven for another baking; 
 then to the glazing tub for a dipping, and then to the painters. This visit 
 does not produce the appearance one would expect for the colors when first 
 put on are duU. Even what is to be gold, comes from their hands a dull 
 brown, but after another baking and then a brisk rubbing in the burnishing 
 room, this dark dusky brown turns to a gold that glitters. 
 
 Just before the final baking, every piece of Dresden china is taken to the 
 superintendent, and if he considers it perfect, he stamps it with the Dresden 
 trade-mark— two crossed swords ; if it is imperfect he draws a white line 
 through the swords and then it is sold at the " rejected shop." 
 
 The fine porcelains used in Europe, used to be all made by the Chinese. 
 Europeans tried in vain to discover the secret of the process and many ex- 
 periments were made resulting in very good wares, such as the Dutch Delft- 
 ware, but it was long before the art of making true porcelain was discovered, 
 — and then it was by chance. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Augustus, king of Poland 
 and elector of Saxony, employed a young chemist named Bottcher to search 
 for the philosopher's stone, which was then a favorite idea among some wise 
 heads. In the course of his experiments, the young chemist hit upon a 
 preparation that produced a hard stone ware, red and brown, resembling 
 
•240 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 porcelain. The importance of his discovery was at once seen, and for several 
 years he kept np his experiments hoping to be able soon to produce pure 
 porcelain. 
 
 One day his valet came home with a new kind of hair powder which he 
 had purchased in Dresden, and which was so unusually heavy that the 
 chemist thought he would try it in one of his pastes. The result was true 
 porcelain. Upon inquiring as to where the powder came from, it was found 
 to be a clay from near Dresden, which was exactly the same as the kaolin 
 used by the Chinese. 
 
 The whole matter was kept a secret, and a factory set up at Meisen near 
 Dresden. The workmen engaged in it were shut up and guarded like prison- 
 ers. But in spite of all their care the secret leaked out, and in a few years 
 was spread all over Europe. 
 
 The Kkupp Guns. — The mammoth manufactory of Germany is the Essen 
 steel works owned by Mr. Alfred Krupp. Nearly a thousand acres are 
 covered by his furnaces, ovens, forges, etc. Inside of their belching, smoking 
 shops many gigantic and interesting operations are carried on. One of these 
 is the emptying of the crucibles. 
 
 At a given signal the furnace doors fly open and an army of workmen bear- 
 ing long tongs, rush out with the red hot jars to the pits. The melted iron is 
 poured in one, and the empty crucible thrown in another. The heat is 
 almost unbearable to those not used to it, and it seems almost a miracle that 
 the men can rush about in it and perform their work. 
 
 Another interesting spectacle is the working of the immense steam 
 hammers, one of which weighs 50 tons. A mass of red hot iron is swung over 
 the anvil by three or four workmen, and "■Fritz," as the iron monster is called, 
 comes down, sometimes with a tremendous crash that seems to shake the 
 earth, sometimes with a gentle pressure, and sometimes with a soft tap, just 
 as he is bid by his master, the foreman. 
 
 "While these terrific operations are going on in one quarter, in another 
 workmen are handling the minutest weights and measures and listening to 
 every shade of sound in the iron under their inspection, careful that no Haw 
 shall escape them. 
 
 Tests are applied to the iron all the way through its course in the shops. 
 If a load of iron when brought to them is found to have one bad piece, the 
 whole is rejected ; and after every process, fresh tests are applied. Some- 
 times after a machine is nearly finished, one part will give a suspicious ring, 
 and the whole is instantly condemned. 
 
Germany. 
 
 247 
 
 It is this care rigidly practised by Mr. Krupp over aU parts of his work, 
 Together with his constant motto of "improvement," that has been the 
 secret of his success. He is determined that every wheel, axel and pulley, 
 that leaves his shop, as well his more important works, his boilers, steamer 
 shafts and guns, shall be absolutely perfect. In this way he has established 
 a reputation that few manufacturers enjoy. 
 
 The most important of all Mr. Krupp's products is his celebrated guns. 
 These too have attained their fame by constant attention to faults and im- 
 provements. In one large room of the great factory is ranged a line of 
 guns each one a specimen of those turned out at different stages of develop- 
 ment. The first is a rude affair, hardly worthy of comparison with the per- 
 fect monster of destruction that stands last in the line. 
 
 In 1864 when the Prussians were fighting the Danes, frequent com- 
 plaints came back to Mr. Krupp about the guns with which he had furnished 
 his Government. A number of them had burst and some people thought it 
 was because he had used poor material. But he knew better, and he studied 
 and experimented to remedy the fault which he knew to be m the pattern 
 of the gun. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out, vast numbers of his 
 guns were ordered, and not one of them ever burst upon the field, though 
 some were discharged nearly three thousand times. 
 
 The Printers' JuBiLEE.-In the year 1840 the people of Leipsic held a 
 grand celebration, the programme of which, published beforehand, was as 
 
 follows : .__ , 
 
 " On the 24th the bells will ring a merry peal and the morning will be 
 ushered in by music from the church towers and by a reveille through the 
 streets. At eight o'clock the magistrates and different companies, with all 
 their guests, walk in procession to hear divine service in one of the churches. 
 " At ten o'clock the festive procession will proceed through the principal 
 streets to the market place, on which three temporary buildings have been 
 
 erected. • . 
 
 " On the arrival of the procession a cantata, composed for the occasion by 
 Mendelssohn, will be sung ; at the conclusion of which the building m the 
 centre will be opened and disclose type founders and printers in full activity. 
 A song will be printed with the fresh cast types, distributed among the 
 public, and sung in general chorus. At three o'clock about three thousand 
 persons will sit down to dinner in the building erected before the university, 
 and in the evening the town will be illuminated. 
 
 " The morning of the 25th will be devoted to a conversazione and to an 
 
248 Persons and Places in Bur ope. 
 
 exhibition of all subjects connected with typography ; in the afternoon there 
 will be a grand mnsical performance under the direction of Mendelssohn, 
 consisting of a symphony with chorus composed by him expressly for this 
 feast, and other pieces. In the evening there will be a ball. 
 
 " The last day will be devoted to public amusements, concluding with fire- 
 works and a procession of torches. The st according to custom will be 
 extinguished at the market place amidst music and a general chorus." 
 
 All of this great celebration was in honor of the humble workman who 
 four hundred years ago and over gave to the world the art of printing. 
 Nearly every city in Germany now remembers the anniversary year of his 
 great invention, and celebrates it with much pomp and gladness. A statue 
 of him, by the Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen, was erected in Mentz, his native 
 place, in 1837, another in Strasburg 1840. 
 
 A German Student.— Foremost in the long list of Germany's noted 
 men stands that of Alexander von Humboldt, the great naturalist, who 
 traveled all over the world studying aU branches of natural history; ' made 
 valuable discoveries, wrote books and gave a new start to the study of nearly 
 every branch. When he was quite a young boy his desire to see the world was 
 awakened by the account of Captain Cook's voyages, which first came out 
 at that time. He longed for a chance to travel and explore the wonders 
 of foreign countries, not simply for the sake of adventure, but that he might 
 learn all about the wonderful things in the world of nature. He wanted to 
 see the constellations that shine over the southern pole ; he wanted to 
 see the plants and animals of the hot countries, and compare them with 
 those of his own, which he was very fond of studying. 
 
 Fortunately for the world he did not have an opportunity of traveling 
 until he was prepared to make good use of it. He had a wise father and 
 mother, who provided good tutors for him and his brother ; and his own 
 desire to know things made him a dilligent student. He did not learn as 
 quickly as some, but by having to work hard for what he gained, he acquired 
 the habit of dilligent and careful study. 
 
 The amount of knowledge this man gained during his life and travels 
 was something wonderful. After taking the regular university course he 
 studied manufactures and the Greek language. He studied the flowerless 
 plants and grasses. He studied the science of language; went to a mercan- 
 tile library in Hamburg and learned book-keeping and counting-house 
 affairs, and the modern languages. Then he went to a mining academy in 
 Freiburg and studied mining. While in the mines he discovered some 
 
Germany. 
 
 249 
 
 plants growing far beneath the surface of the ground, and he made a study 
 of them, and the classes to which they belonged. This led him to try 
 experiments in the color of plants shut out of the light and surrounded by 
 gasses. The results of his experiments he published in a small book. 
 
 He then made a study of the science of the earth's formation, from observa- 
 tions made in exploring one of the Bohemian mountains. He explored the 
 mining districts of upper Bavaria and various ports of Prussia, and made 
 experiments with fire damp. He studied practical astronomy and learned 
 to use the sextant for finding positions 
 on the earth's surface. 
 
 Then he was able to start out on 
 his long desired visit to foreign lands 
 for the purpose of further scientific 
 studies. 
 
 He visited the great volcanoes of 
 Italy. He made botanical, astrono- 
 mical, and magnetic observations in 
 Spain. Here he was warmly received 
 by King Charles IV., and fitted out 
 with all necessary instruments for very 
 extensive scientific studies in all the 
 Spanish possessions in America. 
 
 He reached Venezuela first, where 
 he spent 18 months in explorations ; % 
 he went through the wild regions of the 
 Orinoco; surveyed the high plateau of 
 Bogota and Quito, and the snow- 
 capped volcanoes surrounding it. He 
 
 ascended nearly to the top of Ohimborazo, crossed the Andes into Peru, 
 where he took observations of the transit of Mercury. He visited the vol- 
 canoes and measured the heights of Mexico, and made a profile of the coun- 
 try from sea to sea; the first that had ever been made. From Mexico he 
 sailed to Havana, thence to Washington, and called on President Jefferson ; 
 and then, having spent five years in America, made many important obser- 
 vations, valuable collections in all departments of natural science and 
 geography, studied the races, and taken many important statistics, he 
 returned home, still keeping up his studies upon every subject that came 
 within his observation as before. He printed as the result of his travels, 
 scientific works on astronomy, zoology and botany. 
 
 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 
 
250 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 A few years afterwards lie decided to take another scientific tonr in Asia, 
 which, he did after studying the eastern languages. There he made more im- 
 portant observations, and on his return published more valuable books. 
 During this time he was engaged by different European sovereigns to help 
 them on various political matters. He was especially biisy in 1830, the year 
 of the French and Belgic revolutions. 
 
 He was kept going about from Paris to Berlin, to Warsaw and St. Peters- 
 burg, on political missions, and all the time he kept up his scientific studies 
 during spare time, and prepared his books for publication. 
 
 Humboldt lived to be ninty years old, and left behind him the most valuable 
 accumulation of observations and scientific treaties that ever the world had 
 gained from one single man. 
 
 The Reformation Symphony. — One line in which the German nation 
 have excelled all others is that of music. The master-pieces of harmony 
 and melody that sprang from the brain of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, 
 Beethoven, Wagner and their contemporaries have delighted the world, 
 and refined the tastes of thousands of people. Thoughts as sublime as ever 
 painters put upon canvas, these great composers have expressed in music. 
 Their works have swayed multitudes as no paintings have ever been known 
 to do. The " Massaneillo " of Auber, the French composer, was the match 
 that lighted the kindlings of the Belgic Revolution in 1830. The stout- 
 hearted defenders of Leyden, who never quailed before the threats of the 
 terrible Alva, broke down completely while singing their hymn of thanksgiv- 
 ing ; and the persecuted Protestants of Germany and the Netherlands, during 
 all the early years of the Reformation, found their greatest comfort in singing 
 ' ' Luther' s Hymn . ' ' 
 
 During the same year in which the excited Belgians listened to the 
 "Massaneillo," the great German composer, Mendelssohn, then in his twenty- 
 first year, composed his " Reformation Symphony." The Protestants were 
 preparing for a grand celebration of the third centennial of Luther's confes- 
 sion at Augsburg, and Mendelssohn intended to have his symphony per- 
 formed at that time, but there was so much ill-feeling between the Catholics 
 and Protestants that it was thought best to postpone the symphony, 
 which might unduly excite the people. Two years later it was performed 
 at Berlin under thecomposers direction, but it was not published until after 
 his death. 
 
 The symphony opens with a quiet, serious strain of organ music, represent- 
 ing the undisturbed state of religion previous to the Reformation. 
 
Germany. 251 
 
 To show which religion then prevailed, the wind instruments give out an 
 ancient Catholic response, often heard in the services of the Church of 
 Rome. It mingles with, but does not disturb the serious organ strain, which 
 ends as calmly as it began. Then begins a light strain with quick confused 
 notes that seem to warn of coming conflict. The solemn response, slow and 
 sedate, then breaks in as if it would drown the light notes, but instead they 
 only grew louder and higher, and the response more and more imperative, 
 as if it would demand peace. The close of this first part of the symphony 
 is a grand climax of passionate sound, each part loud and distinct, as 
 though it were impossible to tell which would triumph. 
 
 Next the musician introduces a light, playful little strain, as if by it he 
 wished to express weariness with the conflict between the creeds, and a de- 
 sire to look upon the fields and flowers and listen to the song of birds. It 
 is simple, natural,, and so full of sweetness that it rarely fails of being 
 encored by the audience. Returning again to the subject, the violins bring 
 out the most pathetic music, supposed to represent the prayers of the 
 reformers for help and guidance. It is immediately followed by the well- 
 known song of the reformers— Luther's Hymn— "Mnfeste Burg ist unser 
 Gott." This is played alone on the flute, as if to show a heavenly response 
 to the prayer. Other instruments then join in and bring out grandly the fine 
 old hymn. Again the old religion is represented charging furiously upon 
 the new ; and then sometimes the "Mn feste Burg," seems to be lost in a 
 maze of sounds, but again it comes in, more distinctly than before, until at 
 the last the whole orchestra joins in the opening bars of the hymn, pro- 
 claiming the success of the reformers. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 
 
 Austria, or Austria-Hungary, since its union with the once subjected 
 province, is a land of beautiful scenery, of rich underground treasures, of 
 exceedingly fertile soil, and of state craft. Prussia's position in Europe is 
 due to her soldiers, while Austria's is due to her statesmen. 
 
 The surface of Austria is very mountainous . It is surrounded by the Alps 
 and Carpathians. Three large ranges, sending out branches in every direction, 
 cut the country up into numerous basins ; Bohemia, the large northwestern 
 province, is entirely surrounded by a circular wall of mountains, which has 
 given it the name of " Kettle-land." 
 
 Transylvania, on the opposite side, is nearly surrounded. The central part 
 of Hungary is a basin tipped toward the Danube, into which it pours its 
 contents. The small provinces in the west are all cut up by rocky walls. 
 
 Tyrol, the most western, bristles with peaks and crags all through the 
 interior as well as around its edge. This part of the country is much like 
 Switzerland, which joins it on the west, and is as greatly celebrated for 
 beautiful scenery. 
 
 The Dolomite Mountains. — In Tyrol are the celebrated Dolomite moun- 
 tains, named after the French scientist, Mr. Dolomien, whose interesting 
 studies and descriptions first brought them their reputation. These moun- 
 tains are a mass of dazzling white pinnacles, very different from ordinary 
 elevations . They are not snow-capped, nor of chalk formation, like the white 
 cliffs of England ; their whiteness is that of the pure magnesian lime stone, 
 of which they are composed . They are not huge rounded or ungainly masses 
 like most of their neighbors, but tall slender spires, delicate peaks and pinna- 
 cles rising up like sharp horns . In some places these spires are so numer- 
 ous and slender that they might be taken for a bundle of huge bayonets 01 
 sword blades, in others they look like a row of gigantic alligator teeth. 
 
 They have also a threatening look as if they were an army of sentinels, 
 
Austria- Hung ary . 
 
 253 
 
 whose duty it was to stand with uplifted swords ready to drive out invaders. 
 They are as solemn and silent as they are stern. No heavy blankets of snow 
 cling to their sides, sending down thundering avalanches or musical streams. 
 Their appearance is ever-changing with the conditions of sky and atmos^ 
 phere. A likeness seen one day will seldom appear the next ; a description 
 true for one time will not be again. On certain days they look like vertical 
 sheets of gray paste-board, with jagged edges outlined against the lighter 
 sky. Again like a mass of cold gray stone, rising high out of the green slopes 
 
 
 VIENNA, FROM THE UPPER TERRACE OP BELVEDERE PALACE. 
 
 at their feet, cheerless, frowning, pitiless and cruel. But under strong sun- 
 shine they are mellowed with the warmest of creamy and ruddy glows, even 
 the broad blackened patches of the older exposures taking on a warm blue 
 tone, and the fresh fissures revealing streaks of snowy whiteness, reminding 
 one of loaf sugar. And again when lit up by the red rays of sunset, their 
 splintered pinnacles look like so many flickering flames. 
 
 A Mountain of Salt.— Northeast of the Tyrol, in the province of Salz- 
 burg, is a range of mountains whose attractions are all on the inside. These 
 contain the extensive salt deposits of Hallein, from which thousands of tons 
 are produced every year. 
 
254 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The salt is mixed with earth, and has to be obtained by soaking it out of 
 the montain with water. Pits and galleries are cut into the rock until a favor- 
 able spot is reached, and there a small chamber is dug out. Pipes are laid 
 leading down to it from above, and also leading out from it to the foot of the 
 mountain, and in these are placed valves which can be opened and shut at 
 pleasure. 
 
 When all is ready, water is run into the chamber through the first set of 
 pipes until it is completely filled. The roof and sides becoming soaked 
 with water, crumble and fall to the bottom and the salt dissolves, converting 
 the water into strong brine. In a few weeks the brine is strong enough to 
 be drawn off. Then the valves are opened and it flows out through the pipes, 
 leaving the clay and marl upon the floor of the chamber. The workmen 
 then go in, throw out the stones and rubbish, make the floor level, and then 
 spread upon it a layer of sticky clay, well kneaded and packed down so as 
 to make the chamber water tight. Then it is tilled again and more of the 
 mountain put to soak. Some thirty or forty chambers lie one above 
 another in regular stories. - In one the workmen will be busy hardening the 
 floor while above their heads, with only a few feet of earth between, is a great 
 cistern of brine, and perhaps several more above that- On each side are 
 other chambers which sometimes approach so near that dykes have to be 
 built to keep the water from melting down the partitions. Accidents rarely 
 occur from these causes, however, as the engineers are watchful, but some- 
 times unknown to the workmen a hidden spring in the mountain gradually 
 wears away the floor of the chamber that has been dug out too near it, and 
 lets the contents down into another with a force that carries down several 
 more, and creates general destruction. 
 
 Each chamber, as the water eats away its roof and leaves a layer of clay 
 upon its floor, keeps rising until it reaches after a time what has been the 
 floor of the one above it ; but that too has been creeping upward, and so 
 they go on until the salt in that portion of the mountain has been all extrac- 
 ted. 
 
 The brine from the salt chambers is led down the sides of the mountain 
 through wooden pipes to the " salt pans," or evaporating house in the val- 
 ley, sometimes miles away. When the wood necessary for boiling the 
 brine is exhausted in one valley, the pans are set up in another, and the brine 
 carried there, as it is more expensive to cart fuel to the evaporators than it is 
 to lengthen the pipes enough to carry the brine a distance of forty or fifty 
 miles if necessary. The salt pans are composed of small plates of iron, 
 
DOLOMITE MOUNTAINS. 
 
256 Persons and Places in JEurope. 
 
 stoutly riveted together ; are about two feet deep, forty feet long and fifteen 
 wide, and are laid upon pillars of fireproof brick. Beneath them a tremen- 
 dous fire is kept up for a fortnight day and night, the salt being taken out 
 as fast as it crystalizes and fresh brine run in. 
 
 While the fire is raging a leak sometimes occuis in the pan, which must 
 be mended without putting out the flames. A man shod with pattens, high 
 enough to keep his feet out of the boiling brine, wades through to the break, 
 and repairs it with the hissing, steaming brine and roaring fire all around 
 him. 
 
 There are many salt deposits all over Austria, but one of the most re- 
 markable is the great bed of rock salt in Gfalicia, near Cracow. It extends 
 over a distance of several hundred miles, but only a portion of it is wor,ked. 
 At Wieliczka numerous shafts have been sunk, and galleries at seven differ- 
 ent levels quarried out. From each of these run a labyrinth of passages 
 and chambers, reaching more than 500 miles within the heart of the moun- 
 tain. In one of the galleries, now no longer worked, is a large lake over 600 
 feet long and forty deep. 
 
 Another has been fitted up as a chapel dedicated to St. Anthony, in which 
 the altar, statues, columns, pulpit and all are hewn out of solid salt. 
 
 Underground Wonders. — The mineral treasures of Austria comprise 
 nearly all of the precious stones, as well as the coarser products. Chalce- 
 dony, ruby, emerald, jasper, amethyst, topaz, carnelian, chrysolite and 
 beryl, are found; besides alabaster, gypsum, black lead, marble, zinc, iron, 
 silver and gold. Iron is found nearly every were, and the coal beds are 
 almost inexhaustible. The richest quicksilver mine in Europe, excepting 
 that of Almaden, in Spain, is at Idria, in Carniola. 
 
 Where the interior of the earth does not contain treasures, it abounds in 
 mammoth caves, grottos, caverns and underground passages, lakes and riv- 
 ers. All the southwestern strip facing the Adriatic Sea is hollowed out by 
 these caverns. At Adelsberg, in the Julian Alps, is the largest one in 
 Europe. Its walls and roofs shine with brilliant spar as if they were' set 
 with gems, and in all the rooms and passages are curious shapes, resem- 
 bling things of the upper world, as if Nature had been repeating them here 
 in statuary. On entering a roaring noise is heard, which grows louder and 
 louder, until the narrow passage opens into a gigantic chamber. Here the 
 light of the torches reveals a black chasm through which a river is thunder- 
 ing along fifty feet below. This chamber, which was once supposed to be 
 the extent of the cave, is only the vestibule. A laborer working here some 
 
Austria-Hungary . 
 
 257 
 
 liiiii : li!lsw 
 
 
 years ago, accidentally broke the screen 6f stalactite that had closed the 
 way to the rest of the cavern. 
 
 Beyond this rims a passage a mile or more in length, spreading ont occa- 
 sionally into great halls, where glittering stalactites have extended down- 
 wards until they touch the 
 floor . Groups of these have 
 grown together, forming 
 gigantic columns, from the 
 top of which pillars branch 
 off with slender arches run- 
 ning along the roof in deli- 
 cate tracery. 
 
 Sometimes the rich white 
 stone streams down in ruf- 
 fles, brilliantly transparent, 
 sometimes it spreads out 
 into branches and leaves, 
 cleaving to the crevices of 
 the cavern, like a tree grow- 
 ing in ruins. Sometimes the 
 stone starts up from the 
 floor in tall masses like sol- 
 emn sentinels sheeted in 
 white. 
 
 In one place is a great 
 white lion ready to spring, 
 in another a spreading ban- 
 yan tree, here a bell, which 
 resounds when struck; there 
 a pulpit, where a guide ap- 
 pears gesticulating like a 
 preacher; or a barred win- 
 dow, behind which he again 
 places himself playing pris- 
 oner in his cell. Chandeliers 
 
 and curtains hang in graceful drapery from the roof. Cats and birds are 
 perched about. Everywhere the beautiful white limestone paves the floors, 
 hangs in pendants from the roof, coats and plasters the walls, cements to- 
 
 SALT MINES OF WIELICZKA. 
 
258 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 getlier the fallen masses of rock, forms screens, partitions and pillars. Be- 
 sides the wonderful sights, wonderful sounds may be produced by tiring 
 off a pistol. The report is carried from cave to cave in a series of sharp 
 explosions, each one growing fainter, until it has reached the farthest cham- 
 ber, then the echo comes rolling back in a loud roar like a peal of thunder. 
 
 The largest apartment is the ball-room, where every year in May, the 
 Illyrian peasants come in excursion trains from all the surrounding cities 
 with several military bands, and have a grand dance. The fallen stalactites 
 broken into glittering sand, cover the floor, and a mass of white rock, run- 
 ning along the sides forms seats for the company; another serves as an 
 orchestra for the musicians. The air is soft and warm, like that of any 
 ordinary ball-room, — this apartment being much higher than the others. The 
 sounds of mirth and music on such occasions, echoing through the far- 
 away chambers and the brilliant lights, reflected in a thousand sparks from 
 the glistening walls, make up a scene most weird and grand. 
 
 " The Blue Danube/' — All the beauty that the Germans claim for the 
 Rhine, the Austrians claim — and not without good grounds — for the 
 Danube, the " beautiful blue Danube " ; but the blueness, travelers say, is 
 not so marked as one would suppose, from the " Strauss" Waltzes. The 
 Danube is the second river of Europe in size ; it drains all the large basins 
 of Austro-Hungary ; is the artery of travel for Austria, and abounds in beau- 
 tiful scenery. 
 
 The finest views are found between Passau and Pesth, with the exception 
 of a short distance at the southeastern extremity of the country, where the 
 Iron Gate frowns down upon the rushing current. Between here and Vienna 
 the river swarms with boats, barges and rafts, carrying lumber, grain and 
 all the various products of the rich resources of Austria. Some of the rafts 
 are very large, and contain small houses for the family of the owner. A 
 number of them floating along together look like floating villages, with 
 children playing about and men lounging or smoking on the decks. 
 
 After passing Pesth, the country through which the Danube courses 
 begins to grow wilder. Tall, silent mountains, clad with dark woods, 
 gloomy forests, sloping down to the water's edge from the tops of high hills; 
 dainty white cottages, pictursque villages, and ruined castles, once the 
 abode of robber chiefs, lie along the banks. Numerous old monasteries 
 peer out from their surrounding fir trees, and many places noted in history 
 meet the visitor at every turn. 
 
 At Duvvenstein is the old castle where Duke Leopold VI. kept Richard 
 
Austria-Hungary. 
 
 259 
 
 Cour de Leon so long a prisoner, and where his faithful minstrel found him 
 at last by singing before his prison. There are several places besides Duv- 
 venstein that claim this honor. _ 
 
 At Vienna the Emperor Maximillian entertained three kings one day, 
 and by great tact so disposed of his children that Bohemia, Hungary and 
 Moravia came to be part of Austria. Here also John Sobieski saved Christ- 
 endom from the Turks. % 
 
 At Buda, opposite Pesth, Attila, the terrible Hun, had his camp at one 
 
 SOUKCE OF THE DANUBE. 
 
 time, and as nearly as can be learned, died here on the night of his marriage 
 with the beautiful Ildico of Burgundy. 
 
 At Mohacs, further south, was fought the great battle between Louis of 
 Hungary and Solyman the Magnificent, which ended in disaster for Louis,, 
 and made all Hungary a Turkish province. But in the same place, one hun- 
 dred years afterward, Charles of Lorraine turned the day against the Turks 
 and completed Sobieski' s conquests. 
 
260 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The Turks at Vienna. — The danger that threatened Austria in the year 
 1683, when the Turks appeared in great hords before Vienna, was one shared 
 by all the nations of Europe. For more than a hundred years the Moslems 
 had been extending their conquests to the north, trying to get a foot-hold on 
 the Baltic. They had thrown themselves upon Poland in a number of furious 
 attacks, but the iron hand of John Sobeiski had hurled them back again. 
 
 The other nations had looked on without offering any assistance to the 
 struggling Poles,*surrounded and many times outnumbered by their enemies. 
 The jealous kings had even persuaded some of Sobeiski' s nobles to desert 
 him, and Louis XIV. ordered home the Frenchmen who of their own accord 
 had entered his service. 
 
 But now Austria, instead of Poland, was the threatened point, and the 
 Emperor Leopold was obliged to beg of Sobeiski, whom he had injured and 
 plotted against, to come to his deliverance. He sent the most imploring 
 petitions. His messenger actually flung himself at the feet of the King of 
 Poland, and begged him to come. He offered his daughter to Sobieski's son 
 in marriage, and Louis XIV. of France, alive now to the danger that threat- 
 ened his own empire if Austria were conquered by the Turks, also joined in 
 the entreaties. On the other hand Mahomet tried to secure his friendship, 
 promising to leave him undisturbed, if he remained neutral. 
 
 None of these inducements had any weight with Sobeiski, for he knew 
 that the Turks meant to conquer all Europe if they could, and in defence of 
 Christendom he consented to go. 
 
 The Turks had made the most elaborate preparations for this invasion. 
 For seven years they had been drawing men and money from all parts of their 
 dominion, which now extended from the Indian Ocean to the Adriatic, and 
 southward as far as the upper waters of the Nile. In their ranks were soldiers 
 from the Euphrates and the Nile, and whole tribes of Arabs, Kourds, Mame- 
 lukes, Greeks, Albanians and Tartars. Two thousand camels had been em- 
 ployed for years in carrying corn to stations along the Danube ; the river was 
 covered with their boats, and all merchant vessels passing their way had been 
 seized and pressed into service. This was the enemy, 300,000 strong, that 
 Sobieski was called to drive from Vienna. 
 
 While he was collecting his forces he begged Leopold to throw up for- 
 tifications around the city and put it in a defensible condition, but the Em- 
 peror left the city with all haste, and paid no attention to Sobieski's appeal. 
 
 Hastening forward with a little band of 18,000 Poles, and about twice as 
 many Germans, not a fifth of the Turkish hosts, Sobieski had nearly reached 
 
Austria- Hungary. 26i 
 
 the city before they were aware that he was coming. Then the Moslem army 
 was panic-stricken. Presently Sobieski and his allies appeared descending 
 from the hills back of Vienna. Bnt his men were hnngry and tired from 
 their loner march, and Sobieski ordered a halt that they might eat and rest. 
 1 He was abont to pnt off the battle nntil the next day, when he saw by 
 the position the Tnrks were in, that they conld be routed at once. 
 
 « The enemy is lost," he cried, and ordered an immediate charge. Sur- 
 rounded by his squadrons he rushed straight on toward the crimson tent 
 where the Vizier, in contempt for the Christian, had just gone to take coffee 
 with his sons. " By Allah ! the King is with them," cried the frightened 
 Turks as they recognized Sobieski' s golden quiver and magnificent buckler 
 dashing towards them as of old. " Heaven is against us," they cried and 
 ran for their lives. The Vizier tried in vain to rally them, and to save him- 
 self was obliged to follow his flying troops. 
 
 Such surprise and excitement as there was in Vienna that day! lne 
 people surrounded Sobieski, called him their savior, their deliverer, and 
 kissed his hands, his feet and his coat. His officers and soldiers too crowded 
 around him, embracing him, and called him their brave king. But the Em- 
 peror Leopold, a mile and a half away, never so much as came to thank him. 
 
 Leopold and His Contemporaries. -Leopold, who fled from before the 
 Turks, and refused to acknowledge the services Sobieski had rendered him, 
 was the most weak-minded and incapable member of the House of Haps- 
 burg that ever occupied the throne of Austria. While on each side he was 
 surrounded by the most energetic, ambitious, and powerful rulers of modern 
 times. During the age in which he lived despotic governments reached 
 
 their climax 
 
 In Russia was Peter the Great, who having shut up his sister, was work- 
 
 ing wonders for the land of the Muscovite. 
 
 In Sweden, Charles XII. was earring out his brilliant career, having 
 received from his father the newly acquired privilege of ruling as he pleased. 
 
 In England despotism had been overthrown during the reign of Charles 
 I., but was revived again under Cromwell, who for a few years ruled entirely 
 
 by the sword. , 
 
 Prussia, just freed from Poland, was beginning her career under Fred- 
 erick William the Great Elector, great-grandfather of Frederick the Great. 
 
 Poland, well on its decline, was struggling against the Turks under John 
 Sobieski, who ruled as well as the discords of the jealous nobles would 
 allow. 
 
262 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 In France, Louis XI V., was carrying matters with a high hand. His 
 ministers were mere clerks. He made war when and with whom he pleased. 
 He invaded Holland, which was saved only by opening her dykes ; he took 
 Flanders and Franche-Comte from the Netherlands, Luxemburg from Ger- 
 many, and put his grandson on the throne of Spain in opposition to the 
 claim of Leopold's brother Charles, causing by this the war of the Spanish 
 succession, which was in progress when Leopold died. 
 
 But the Emperor of Austria was saved from his enemy Louis by the 
 valiant Prince Eugene, a Frenchman, who had become embittered against 
 Louis, and declared that he would never enter France again save as an 
 enemy. He entered the service of the Austrian emperor, carried to a suc- 
 cessful close the war against the Turks, and won the battle of Blenheim, 
 which turned the tide of fortune against Louis. 
 
 The House of Hapsbukg. — The royal family of Austria, called the 
 House of Hapsburg, has played a very important part in the history of 
 Europe. Its founder was not an Austrian, but a Swiss count who lived 
 near Brugg on the river Aar. His house was called the " Hawks Castle," 
 which is the meaning of Hapsburg. This count, Rudolph of Hapsburg, was 
 a nephew of Frederick II. of Germany, at whose court he was brought up. 
 He was a brave warrior, won many battles, and as he was also kind and just, 
 he was chosen by many cities as their protector, and the leader of their 
 armies. This was in the feudal times, when governments were not able to 
 protect the weak from wrongs. About 1264 he was made chief magistrate 
 of Zurich, and soon afterwarcl, when his uncle died, he was elected Emperor 
 of Germany. 
 
 Not long after his coronation he marched against Ottocar, the Duke of 
 Austria, who had been one of the candidates for the throne of Germany, and 
 who refused to acknowledge his rival Rudolph as the emperor. The Haps- 
 burgian took away from him the duchy of Austria, which had once been a 
 German province, but had become independent, and some other provinces 
 beside. Thus the House of Hapsburg came into possession of Austria, which 
 they raised to a great power. 
 
 The maxim of the Hapsburgs has always been to enlarge their borders, and 
 strengthen themselves against their enemies by weddings instead of wars. 
 Whenever a danger threatened the empire a royal son or "daughter, brother or 
 sister, was given in marriage to some powerful prince, who would bring wealth 
 or influence to Austria. Sometimes the enemy himself was won over or concili- 
 ated by such an alliance. In this way the empire kept growing until the time 
 
Austria- Hungary. 263 
 
 of Maximillian, who made more brilliant marriage bargains than all the other 
 TTirmbnrcs before or since. . 
 
 Ftathe acquired the Netherlands and Franche-Comte by marrying Mary 
 of Burgundy ; he put his son Philip on the throne of Spain by marrying him 
 to the daughter of the Spanish monarch, and with one great stroke he gained 
 Hungary, Bohemia and Moravia by disposingof his grandson Ferdinand to 
 Anna of Hungary, sister of Lonis II. 
 
 Maria There a and hie Hungarian N BLE S .-Under the misrule of 
 the weak-minded Leopold, the Hungarians broke out in rebellion. They 
 were brouo-ht back by his sons, Joseph I. and Charles VI., but the relations 
 had hardlv become pleasant when Charles died and his daughter, Maria 
 Theresa, became Empress. It had not been the custom to recognize women 
 as he'rs before this, and Charles had made great exertions to obtain from all 
 Ss nobles and the surrounding sovereigns a promise that his daughter 
 should be recognized as his successor. But he was hardly m his grave 
 before they forgot their promises. Frederick the Great marched into feile- 
 ria the kfngs of Spain and Poland each claimed a portion of her territory 
 and Louis XV. of France, having no claim of bis own to make, sided with 
 those who had. Only George II. of England took her pan. 
 
 In This distress the young Empress decided to appeal to the Hungarian 
 nobt though she was told it would be useless, « : they toe > h *d declar d 
 that they would not be ruled by a woman. She went to Presburg and clad 
 n Hungarian costume, with the crown of Saint Stephen upon Her head 
 entered the great hall of the Hungarian diet, and slowly ascended he 
 throne After a moment of deep silence, she addressed the assembled 
 nobles telling them of the dangers that threatened the Empire; of the Prus- 
 *niles?a, and all the other powers preparing to make war against her. 
 "The very existence of the kingdom of Hungary, of our own person of our 
 children and our crown are now at stake," she said, » and our sole hope is 
 in the fidelity and long tried valor of the Hungarians." 
 
 Her stirring words" her distressed and helpless condition, her beauty 
 and dignity roused the nobles to a frenzy of enthusiam. They drew their 
 sabres half way out of the scabbard and then flung them back with a force 
 that made the great hall ring : » We will have no king but ManaTheresa, 
 
 ^^SeiroveTcome by their hearty response, burst into tears, and they 
 
 "^Ttv^V—s, and their valiant swords compelled 
 
264 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the enemies of the Empress to leave her to her possessions, all but Silesia, 
 which Frederick would not give up. Maria Theresa never forgot the devo- 
 tion of the Hungarian nobles ; throughout all her reign she looked out for 
 their interests, respected their rights, and spoke of them gratefully almost 
 with her last breath. 
 
 The Heko of the Tteol.— When Francis I., grandson of Maria Theresa, 
 became emperor, another storm was about to burst over the throne of Aus- 
 tria. The Hungarians were ready to rise the moment he attempted to 
 ignore their rights, as his uncle had done. France, just on the border of 
 a revolution, obliged Louis XVI. to declare war against Austria, and fol- 
 lowed this up by beheading both Louis and his Austrian wife, Marie Antoi- 
 nette, the daughter of Maria Theresa. 
 
 In the wars that followed Napoleon appeared, first as commander of the 
 French army, and then as consul. In a few years he compelled Francis to 
 give up Belgium, Milan, a portion of Germany, and lastly, by the battle of 
 Austerlitz, Venice, and the Tyrol, which he had before taken from Austria, 
 but which had returned of its own accord and resisted all interference. 
 
 The Tyrolese had always been firmly attached to the house of Hapsburg, 
 and they were very indignant when Napoleon handed them over to the 
 Bavarians, whom they heartily disliked. At the first opportunity, therefore, 
 they rose in rebellion against their new rulers, determined to return to Austria! 
 A few of the leading Tyrolese formed a plan of action, and one day as the 
 peasants were gathered for a shooting match, at the house of Andreas Hofer, 
 a voice was heard from the pinnacle of a mountain, saying, "It is time."' 
 The company looked at Andreas for an explanation, and he told them 
 quickly what it meant. 
 
 " It is the signal, ' ' he said . ' ' Martin, run down to the river and see if there 
 be aught upon its surface ; Hanora, fly with the signal to the next hamlet," 
 Then to the men, he said, " AVho will aid Andreas Hofer to liberate our 
 wretched country?" 
 
 ^ A shout from all present was the reply, and all who had not a weapon 
 with him hurried to find a club, spade, axe, or knife. Meanwhile " Martin" 
 had returned to say that the river was covered with sawdust. "It is time 
 then;" said Andreas, and away they sped, men and women, to the meeting- 
 place. 
 
 Andreas Hofer was made leader of the band of patriots, and quickly 
 marched his forces to the mountains over a narrow pass in the route of the 
 approaching enemy. Huge trees were felled and rolled to the edge of the 
 
QUEEN THERESA AND THE YOUNG KING. 
 
266 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 cliff, fastened with ropes and laden with masses of rock. The edge of the 
 precipices were loosened so that a slight force would send some great 
 rocks flying down into the gully. As soon as this was done, Hofer ordered 
 his best riflemen to place themselves out of sight at both ends of the pass, 
 and all the rest to hide until they heard the rifles. Soon a sentinel on a 
 distant height sent up a thin wreath of smoke, a sign that the enemy was i 
 approaching. Word was whispered around, and everyone waited impatiently, 
 ready to spring to his post. 
 
 On came the French, column after column, winding like a glittering snake 
 between the dark precipices. They were expecting an attack at this place 
 and were on the lookout. Not a sound was heard in the ranks, but the quick 
 commands of the officers disposing the men according to the nature of the 
 ground. But as they gained the pass, hearing no sounds and seeing no signs 
 of an enemy, they began to think all was well, and to talk and laugh a 
 
 little. 
 
 The riflemen still waited, according to their instructions, until the soldiers 
 reached a particular place; then the quick report of their guns was heard. 
 " Is all ready ?" cried Hofer to the commander on the opposite steep. " All 
 is ready," was the quick response. " Then in the name of God let go !" 
 
 A few quick strokes of the axe, and all that pile of rocks and logs went 
 crashing down upon the troops beneath. Shrieks, groans, and wild shouts 
 of terror rose and mingled with the thunder of the falling rocks and the 
 sharp cracking of the deadly rifles. The Tyrolese women stood by their 
 husbands and brothers, rapidly re-loading and keeping the workmen sup- 
 plied. The enemy tried to return the fire, but with no effect, and they soon 
 beat a retreat, leaving two thousand of their number, with cannon and bag- 
 gage in the pass. 
 
 A few days afterward the patriots, under Hofer, again met the enemy 
 upon the open field, and there too obtained a victory, so that Tyrol was at 
 once abandoned by her foes. But when Austria was defeated at Aus- 
 terlitz, Napoleon again said that the Tyrol must be joined with his allies, 
 the Bavarians. The French forces were poured into the province from 
 every point ; the brave Tyrolese were defeated, driven from hill to hill and 
 from rock to rock. A price was set upon Hofer' s head, and he was hunted 
 from one hiding place to another. Winter too came on, and cold! and hun- 
 ger greatly reduced the number of his followers. At last he was betrayed 
 into the hands of the French by one of his countrymen, and taken to Man- 
 tua. The officers there would have been glad to save his life, for they re- 
 
Austria-Hungary. 
 
 267 
 
 spected his bravery, and the humanity he had always shown to those of 
 their number who fell into his power; but Napoleon, as soon as he heard of 
 the capture, sent orders that the prisoner must be shot within twenty-four 
 hours And so the next morning, just before sunrise, the Tyrolese patriot 
 was led out into the square of Mantua, and bravely stood up before twelve 
 riflemen to meet his death. . 
 
 The Austkian Statesman .-From the humiliating position m which 
 
 
 METTERNICH. 
 
 Austria was left by the battle of Austerlitz, she was raised again to power 
 by the skill of a wily statesman. When peace had been proclaimed, 
 this man, the wealthy Prince Metternich, was sent to Napoleon's court at 
 Paris to represent the Austrian Empire. Here by flattery, studied courtesy 
 and very agreeable behavior, the ambassador won his way into Napoleon s 
 favor and so had agood chance to study out all the weak spots mthe blufl, 
 
268 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 frank, and unsuspecting French, emperor. Then he went home and ar- 
 ranged a grand Hapsburgian conquest. Napoleon was to put away his wife, 
 the faithful Josephine, and marry Maria Louise, the daughter of the Austrian 
 emperor, whom he had just defeated. Then Metternich, rightly supposing 
 that Napoleon would not now suspect Austria of plotting against him, 
 began to do just that very thing. But very deep and subtle were the 
 plans he laid. 
 
 AVhen Napoleon took offense at something Alexander of Russia did, 
 Metternich encouraged him in his resentment, and led him to declare war, 
 for he was anxious to see both these great powers weakening each other 
 while he kept making Austria stronger. Thus, cooly and quietly, he urged 
 the hot-headed Napoleon on in all the rash movements that led to his down- 
 fall, preparing to take advantage of him as soon as he had become ex- 
 hausted. 
 
 While Napoleon was hurrying home after his defeat in Russia to raise a 
 fresh army, Metternich was quietly drilling one over in Bohemia to use 
 against him when the time should arrive. Meanwhile he was secretly 
 urging on the other powers who were getting ready for Waterloo, and 
 promising assistance, on careful conditions, all the while maintaining a 
 friendly appearance toward Napoleon. But at last the soldier suspected 
 the statesman of double dealing and went to have a talk with him just as 
 dangers were beginning to thicken around him — to the great satisfaction of 
 Metternich. 
 
 As soon as they met, Napoleon went right to the point at once. " Well 
 Metternich " he said, " your Cabinet wants to make capital out of my mis- 
 fortune. The great question for you to decide is whether, without fighting, 
 you can exact profitable conditions from me, or if you are to throw in your 
 lot with my enemies . Well, we will see. Let us treat. What do you want V ' 
 
 This at least was straightforward and honest. Not so the Austrian's 
 answer, which was a perfect fog of indefinite phrases. " Nothing but those 
 moderate terms which justice inspired. He would take up the position 
 dictated by equity." " Speak more plainly and to the point," said the Em- 
 peror. " All I want is for you to be neutral. I am an old soldier, and know 
 better how to break than to bend. Will you take Illyria?" 
 
 In another fog of words, Metternich said something about restoring the 
 old condition of Europe, and guaranteeing peace by an association of in- 
 dependent states. Napoleon burst out in a torrent of fury. "In fact 
 you want Italy ; Russia wants Poland ; Sweden wants Norway ; Prussia, 
 
Austria- Hung ary . 269 
 
 Saxony; England, Holland and Belgium; and Austria wants me to agree 
 to these conditions without unsheathing a sword. The demand is an out- 
 rage. You urge moderation, and want to dismember the French Empire. 
 How much gold, Metternich, has England given you for this ? " 
 
 The enraged Emperor paced the room, muttered angry sentences between 
 his teeth, and waited half an hour for his wily companion to reply. But he 
 waited in vain. Metternich knew that he had the game in his own hands, 
 and he could afford to keep cool while his victim raged. 
 
 The silence at last became embarrassing. Napoleon dropped his hat, 
 which by all the courtesy that Metternich had once been so quick to show, 
 he should have picked up at once. For an emperor to stoop to pick up his 
 hat before an envoy was something unheard of in etiquette before. But 
 Metternich never moved, he was master now ; he was not the affable, bowing 
 courtier he used to be, when he regulated the new Emperor's drawing-room 
 at Paris, and who, when Napoleon told him he was young to represent so old 
 a house as Austria, replied with most becoming and delicate flattery, " Your 
 majesty was still younger at the battle of Austerlitz." Surely a wondrous 
 change had taken place ! 
 
 The interview closed abruptly. Napoleon said, " Illyria is not my last 
 word. We can make better terms. Consult your court and let me know." 
 But no better understanding was arrived at, and Austria sided with Napo- 
 leon's enemies. 
 
 But when the smoke of Waterloo had cleared away, and the conquerors 
 met at Vienna to divide, the spoils, then Metternich was in his element. 
 With the map of Europe spread out before him, surrounded by diplomats, 
 he began to show how the countries should be put together ; and to give 
 his weighty reasons. 
 
 First he pointed out the territories that should be allowed to Austria 
 " for deserting Napoleon and joining the allies." His next care was to pre- 
 vent each of the other powers from getting too large a share. Russia might 
 have Finland and the remainder of Poland, but Prussia must not have Sax- 
 ony, that " would not be just," was the reason he urged. His true reason 
 was it would make her too powerful. Alsace, Lorraine and Baden wanted 
 to unite and form a state by themselves ; but there were too many liberal 
 thinkers in the three provinces, and united they would be a hot-bed of liberty 
 that would be very likely to spread some of its ideas into Austria, and disturb 
 the House of the Hapsburgs. These were therefore annexed to France, who 
 would take care that liberal ideas did not grow too fast. The other small states 
 
270 Persons and Places in Bur ope. 
 
 were put together and called the new Germanic Confederation. This he trusted 
 to be able to manage by the arts of statesmanship, of which he was master. 
 
 The Patriots of Hungary. — When the great Austrian statesman had 
 arranged the map of Europe to suit his mind, he turned his attention to 
 Hungary, where the nobles still clung to their constitution. But Metternich 
 did not believe in constitutions. He thought rulers should govern as they 
 chose. So he began in his subtle underhanded way to make the constitu- 
 tion of Hungary of no account. 
 
 But the Hungarians were on their guard. They not only resisted all his 
 attempts to deprive them of their rights, but encouraged by the news of the 
 French revolution, they went with the people of Vienna in a great crowd to 
 the palace, and demanded that Metternich should be turned out of his office, 
 and that they should be guaranteed a right to have a hand in their govern- 
 ment. A mob surrounded the house of the great statesman, and he barely 
 escaped with his life to England. 
 
 This was the end of his wily policies. But he had taught those he left 
 behind at the court of Vienna his arts of statecraft. 
 
 Alarmed at the outbreak, the Emperor granted the petition of the Hun- 
 garians, but he took secret measures the same day to make it of no avail. 
 Dissensions were stirred up between the Hungarians and the Servians, which 
 resulted in a war, and this gave Austria a chance to bring in her army on the 
 plea of restoring peace. 
 
 Among the patriots who roused the people to resist their oppressors was 
 Kossuth, who became the central figure in the troubles that followed. He 
 won a number of brilliant victories, and might have established the independ- 
 ence of Hungary, if one of his generals had not needlessly surrendered his 
 army to the invaders. Kossuth and a number of the leaders were obliged to 
 fly for refuge to Turkey, and Hungary was made an Austrian province. 
 
 The Exiled Orator. — The fate of Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, 
 awakened general interest in both him and Hungary. President Fillmore 
 sent a vessel to Turkey to bring him to America, and all along the way, 
 wherever he stopped, the people showed him great honors. 
 
 There were those in England who said he was undeserving of so much 
 attention ; that he was a dissatisfied man, who wanted to raise himself to 
 notoriety, and so had excited his people to rebellion, which, instead of bring- 
 ing him the power he wished, had driven him into exile, and brought fearful 
 slaughter upon his countrymen. 
 
 His own answer to this charge, not only shows what were his true 
 
Austria-Hungary. 271 
 
 motives but it gives a specimen of the wonderful eloquence for which he 
 "ecame widely foted in England and America. The Engl sh language he 
 tod taught himself while in prison, with a volume of Shakespeare and an 
 
 En "How blindtre those men who pretend to believe that it is only certain 
 men who push to revolution the continent of Europe, which but for their 
 Wvolltio nary acts would be quiet and contented ! Contented With what ? 
 With oppression and servitude? France, contented with its constitution 
 made ridiculous? Germany, contented with being turned into a fold of 
 Xeu Pent up to be shorn by some thirty tyrants ? Switzerland, contented 
 ^threatening ambition of encroaching despots ? Italy, contented with 
 The King of Na^s, or the priestly government of Rome. Austria, Bohemia 
 Croatia Dalmatia, contented with having been drivento butchery and after 
 having been deceived, with having been plundered, oppressed, and laughed 
 at as fools? Poland, contented with being murdered ? Hungary my .poor 
 Hungary, contented with being more than murdered^-buned alive ?-f or it 
 I alfve. 7 Half of Europe contented with having been bombarded/ burned 
 plundered, sacked and butchered ?-contented with the scaffold, with the 
 hangman, with the prison, and no political rights at all ; but having to pay 
 fnnumerable millions for the highly beneficial purpose of being kept ma 
 state of serfdom ! That is the condition of the continent of Europe ; and is 
 it not ridiculous to prate about individuals disturbing the peace of Eu- 
 
 " OP Then as to bringing trouble upon his country by stirring up a rebellion, 
 
 116 ^Reluctant to present the neck of the realm to the deadly stroke which 
 aimed at its very life, and anxious to bear up against the horror of fate and 
 XifunVto fight the battle of lawful defence, scarcely had I spoken he 
 word sLrcelv had I added that the defence would require two hundred 
 rtousandmln and eighty millions of florins, when the spirit of freedom 
 moved through She hill, and nearly four hundred representatives rose as one 
 man Id lStfno- their right arms toward God, said solemnly, 'We grant it- 
 Womor delth ' Thus they spoke, and thus they stood m calm and 
 sfentmalestv awaiting what further word might fall from my lips. And 
 ormysel ? Hwalmy cfuty to speak, but the grandeur of the —^ 
 
 not accept the praise. No ; it is not I who inspired the Hungarian people , 
 it was the Hungarian people who inspired me. 
 
272 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 "With us, who beheld the nameless victims of the love of country lying on 
 the death field beneath Buda walls, and heard the dying answer of those 
 we would console, with the words, ' Never mind, Buda is ours,' — he who 
 witnessed such scenes, not as exceptions, but as a constant rule ; he who- 
 saw boys weep when told they were too young to die for their land ; 
 he who knows what sort of a sentiment is burning in the breast of old 
 and young, of the strong man and tender wife ; he who is aware of all this, 
 will surely bow before this people with respect, and will acknowledge with 
 me that such a people wants not to be inspired, but that it is an everlasting 
 source of inspiration itself." 
 
 The Coronation at Pesth. — Before the trouble with Hungary was over, 
 Austria was drawn into a war with Prussia, which after a short, sharp, seven 
 weeks' struggle ended in her defeat at the battle of Sadowa. She lost not 
 only Holstein, the cause of the outbreak, but the place she had long been 
 contesting with Prussia as the head of the German nation. Her emperors 
 had for many years born the title of Emperor of Germany, which at last 
 grew to be only a title, and then was resigned by Francis after his defeat by 
 Napoleon. But Austria was not willing to see the rapidly growing Prussia 
 take the place she had so long occupied, and a war of words and state intri- 
 gues had long been waged between the two great rivals. Now they had come 
 to blows and Prussia had won. 
 
 In this humiliated condition the Emperor Francis felt obliged to make 
 peace with the Hungarians. He appointed a new minister, who though clear 
 headed, was not a deceiver. This man, Beust, went right to the bottom of the 
 difficulty. He arranged that the Hungarians should be separated entirely 
 from the Austrians, have their own diet and capital, but have the Austrian 
 emperor for their king. This both parties agreed to, and so it was amid 
 national rejoicing that the Emperor and Empress of Austria came to Pesth 
 to be crowned King and Queen of Hungary. For in spite of the despotic 
 rule of the House of Hapsburg, and the cruel persecutions and numerous 
 executions that had followed the banishment of Kossuth, the Hungarians 
 never forgot Maria Theresa, and were inclined to be loyal to her descend- 
 ants . 
 
 They met the Emperor and Empress with enthusiastic demonstrations. 
 Thousands of people gathered at Pesth to be present at the coronation cere- 
 monies. The nobles called on the Emperor, and the grand ladies of Hungary, 
 came in their carriages, to pay their respects to the Empress. In the even- 
 ing Francis Joseph gave a great banquet, where all the leading men and 
 foreign ambassadors and diplomats were present. 
 
Austria- Hungary \ 
 
 273 
 
 On the next day the royal party gathered at the parish church of Buda, 
 where the crown of St. Stephen and the old' mantle of Gesella were put upon 
 the new king, and wearing these he rode to Pesth to take the oath. 
 
 Ever since the wars with the Turks, the Kings of Hungary, when they 
 took the oath have ridden up the Coronation Mound, and turning to the 
 four points of the compass have sworn with uplifted sword to maintain tne 
 rights and dominion of Hungary, and "to rescue the spoils of Christian- 
 
 SCHONBRUNN, NEAR VIENNA. 
 
 ity from the hands of the infidels." Some of the Austrian Emperors had 
 disdained to do this ; some had made no promises ; and some who did, had 
 not tried to keep them . But Francis Joseph went through all the ceremonies, 
 and made all the promises, and has endeavored to keep them; so the trouble- 
 some wound has been healed. 
 
 Music m Vienna.— The court of Vienna has always given a warm recep- 
 tion to musicians. The capital city abounds in pleasure gardens, fine parks, 
 walks and drives, where the people gather to hear good music and enjoy 
 
274 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 their holidays. And just outside the city is the beautiful summer residence 
 of the Emperor — the famous gardens of Shonbrunn. Here amid the tropical 
 plants and tall forest trees, and thickly scattered flower beds, the people 
 are fond of gathering, and here many musical treats have been given. Here 
 the boy Mozart, in his seventh year, was called to play with his sister before 
 Maria Theresa's royal family, and here her four daughters and their brother 
 Joseph, afterward emperor, performed G-luck's exquisite composition. 
 Gluck was a great favorite in this family. He composed a sonata for Maria 
 Theresa's birthday, another for the marriage festivities of one of her daugh- 
 ters, and was for some time chapel-master of the imperial opera. 
 
 Beethoven came to Vienna to study with Mozart, and his af terworks won the 
 enthusiastic admiration of the musical people of all classes. Here Schubert 
 sang in the imperial choir, and here he composed the songs which were not 
 appreciated until the author's life had been embittered with neglect and 
 dissappointment. His monument now stands in one of the principal parks. 
 
 Here Liszt, the great Hungarian composer, came to be educated, and here 
 he has given some of his best concerts for various benevolent objects. 
 
 Bohemian Artists. — In northern Austria is a class of people who have 
 a wonderful natural gift for both music and painting. The ordinary 
 laborers will sit down after their day' s work is over and play and sing the 
 most difficult music, and many are composers of no mean ability. In paint- 
 ing and decorations on glass and fine earthenware they have no equals. 
 Bohemian wares are widely celebrated and in great demand. 
 
 All around the villages, where the large glass factories are located, are the 
 houses of those who cut and paint the cups and saucers and vases as they 
 come from the shops. Their houses are usually dainty cottages hidden 
 among flowers, shrubs and fruit trees; as one would expect in people of such 
 artistic tastes. Here men, women and children may be found, simple, plain 
 people, painting the most beautiful patterns, with an ease that any artist 
 might be proud of. 
 
 They are real artists bred and trained in the work. With no patterns 
 but that in their ' ' mind' s eye, ' ' and one or two rude brushes they bring out the 
 most delicate scrolls, wreaths and flowers upon the plain glass. In one house 
 will be found exquisite paintings in gold, silver and colors; in another, 
 beautiful leaf-work, lily, bell-flower designs, cut out of the glass with wheels. 
 One young painter has a taste for painting insects and butterflies, which 
 he designs from a cabinet of insect specimens that he has collected. Another 
 turns out in five minutes on his wheel, a spirited deer making a spring over 
 
Austria- Hungary : 
 
 275 
 
 some broken pailings. Another keeps on hand engravings from the works 
 of great painters, which he re-arranges or selects from, and represents on 
 his vases. 
 
 PRAGUE. 
 
 These simple, modest artists are qnite surprised at the astonishment 
 and admiration strangers express over their work. They can scarcely believe 
 that the vases and jars which they turn off so easily, and use sometimes as 
 flower-pots in their windows, are so highly prized in other lands. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The most beautiful mountain scenery in the world is found in Switzerland, 
 among the Pennine Alps on the southern boundary, and the Burnese Ober- 
 lands just to the north. Here tower the loftiest mountains of Europe, and 
 plunge the mightiest avalanches ; here lie the grandest glaciers, rush the 
 maddest torrents, and sparkle the most beautiful waterfalls. And here, every 
 summer, comes the tourist to revel in the grandeur and beauty.—- his talk 
 all exclamations, feelings all ecstasy." 
 
 Alpine Climbing.— One of his chief delights is to scale the hio-hest 
 mountains, but kk he that would a climbing go "among the peaks of the Alps 
 must be prepared for many hardships. He must endure cold and fatigue ; 
 he must keep cool in the presence of sudden danger ; he must walk close to 
 the edge of precipices ; cross deceptive glaciers where lurk hidden crevices, 
 and climb vertical steeps by footholds chopped in ice. All of this he must do 
 with the cold sometimes so intense that lie can scarcely keep from freezing, 
 and at others, with the tierce rays of the sun scorching his skin and blind- 
 ing his eyes, with the avalanche ready to start even at his whisper, and un- 
 expected dangers on every hand. But in spite of all this there are many 
 who find rare pleasure in such adventures. Some are rewarded by the 
 satisfaction of doing what others have done ; some by finding out the secrets 
 which Nature has stored away in those remote regions, and some in the 
 grand views to be had from the great heights. 
 
 An Alpine View.— One of the finest prospects in Switzerland may be 
 viewed from the crest of the Matterhorn or Mount Cerwin. AH the high 
 peaks of the Alps can be seen from here. Away to the north, the great 
 Finster Aarhorn, monarch of the Burnese Oberlands, with the snowy Jung- 
 f ran,— the ''Maiden Mountain, "—close beside him ; farther away to the 
 northwest, the Jura range; slightly south of west hoary Mount Blanc, "the 
 monarch of mountains," followed in the distance by the Graian and the 
 
278 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Maritime Alps. Near by on the east towers the Queen of the Pennines, 
 Monte Rosa, surrounded by her train of lofty peaks, while below, on every 
 hand rise the massive ridges like huge stationary billows. Each sweep of 
 the eye brings out new beauty and grandeur. There are "forests black and 
 gloomy, and meadows light and lively, bounding water-falls and tranquil 
 lakes ; fertile lands and savage wastes ; sunny plains and frigid plateaus. 
 There are the most rugged forms, and the most graceful outlines, — bold 
 perpendicular cliffs and gentle undulating slopes ; rocky mountains and 
 snowy mountains, somber and solemn, or glittering and white, with walls, 
 turrets, pinnacles, pyramids, domes, cones and spires. There is every com- 
 bination that the world can give, and every contrast that the mind can 
 desire." 
 
 The Ascent of the Matterhorn. — The Matterhorn was one of the 
 last peaks to yield his "untrodden snows" to man's ambitious footsteps. 
 One after another the other peaks had been scaled, but he was believed to 
 be unconquerable. His precipitous sides showed no place for even a foot- 
 hold. Besides, the natives believed that goblins lived in those dim, lofty 
 regions round his top, and that they would deal vengeance to any who 
 came near their stronghold. No guides therefore could be hired to explore 
 them. 
 
 But there was one man who made up his mind that he would reach the 
 top of the Matterhorn. This was Mr. Edward AYhymper, an Englishman. 
 Finding a guide who would consent to go with him, he made an attempt, but 
 the guide soon became discouraged and refused to go on. Six different times 
 he tried and failed, usually through the fears of the guides. A seventh 
 trial was made in the summer of 1865. This time he had four guides, and 
 was accompanied by three other travelers. On the second day they reached 
 the top. The Matterhorn was conquered, and the triumphant party planted 
 their flag on his snowy crest. But he had a terrible vengeance in store for 
 them. 
 
 When they were ready to descend they tied themselves together with 
 ropes, leaving a few feet between each, so that while one man moved, the 
 others, by standing firmly braced with their alpenstocks, could keep him 
 from falling if he slipped. When they had gone a short distance, Croz, the 
 foremost guide, stepped back to show the traveler just behind him how to 
 fix his feet. He had just turned to go on when the man slipped and struck 
 Croz in the back, knocking him down. He uttered a quick cry as he fell, 
 which was the only warning the others had, and before the third man could 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 279 
 
 brace himself, lie was jerked down, and then the fourth. Peter Taugwalder, 
 a powerful guide, came next, and behind him, Mr. Whymper. These two 
 were prepared for the strain, which came upon both at the same instant, 
 and they held their ground. But in a second, the rope snapped, and the 
 four fallen men went plunging down the side of the mountain. . 
 
 For more than an hour 
 the . others stood terror 
 stricken upon the spot, un- 
 able to move. The two 
 guides wept like children, 
 and when they did start, 
 trembled so that the danger 
 
 of falling was doubled. But 
 
 they reached the foot of the 
 
 mountain at last, and carried 
 
 the sad news to the village. 
 
 A party started out at once 
 
 to search for the lost men. 
 
 The bodies of three were 
 
 found crushed and mangled 
 
 on the rocks at the bottom 
 
 of the steep; the fourth, 
 
 was never found. 
 
 But this terrible accident, 
 
 which seemed to confirm the 
 
 belief of the simple people 
 
 about the goblins, did not 
 
 keep others from making the 
 
 same journey. Only three 
 
 days later another party 
 
 reached the summit, and 
 
 since then many ascents 
 
 have been made. 
 
 The Plunging Avalanche. -One of the grandest sights to be seen on 
 the Alps is an avalanche, and the place to see the most stupendous ones is 
 near a deep ravine, on one side of the Jungfrau. Down a steep of eleven 
 
 .thousand feet rush the huge masses of snow and ice, large enough to 
 cover a whole village or sweep away a forest. On a sunny day at noon, the 
 
 MATTERHORN. 
 
>80 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 avalanches are falling here about every ten minutes. First there is a loud re- 
 port as the mass breaks loose, followed by a prolonged roar ; then a swiftly 
 sliding snow-field with clouds of loose snow arising all along its course. 
 Once or twice on its way down it strikes against the sides of the mountain 
 with a terrific report, which swells the continuous roar. In a few seconds, 
 the whole mass pours over a projecting rock into the ravine with a, booming 
 crash. 
 
 The most terrible avalanche in the whole history of Switzerland occurred 
 on the Rossburg mountain, near the village of Brunnen, many years ago. 
 The summer had been a very rainy one, and on the first of September, 1806 
 a crevice was seen on the side of the mountain. The next day, the foot of 
 the mountain began to move. Springs of water ceased flowing ; trees began 
 to reel and fall, and the birds flew away screaming with fright. About five 
 o'clock the people saw the whole side of the mountain sliding downward 
 and they began to run for their lives. Some escaped, but over four hundred 
 and fifty were killed. Houses and villages were swept away, or buried bv 
 the mass as it rolled out over the valley. When it ceased moving the 
 whole valley of Arth, which a few hours before was full of happy homes 
 was a desolate waste. 
 
 The Massive Glaciers.— The graves of the fallen avalanches are the 
 birth-places of the glaciers. Like long white veils, these solid masses of 
 snow and ice stream down the sides of the mountains and fill up the valleys 
 The enormous weight of the everfalling snows keeps crowding the whole 
 solid valleyful slowly onward. Little by little, a few feet every year it 
 moves down toward the plain below with a slow, irresistible motion 
 
 Nothing can stop it. If a rock lies in its path, it divides, passes around 
 it, and, joining again on the other side, moves on, leaving no trace of the 
 split. Huge bowlders are carried along as easily as chips on the surface of 
 a stream. In and out it winds, following the course of the valley, its hard 
 surface serving as a path to the traveler, the hunter and the chamois. 
 
 One of the strangest things about a glacier is its ebb and flow After 
 remaining stationary for a long time, it begins to lengthen out creeping so 
 slowly toward the farmer's fertile fields that he does not notice its advance 
 until the wheat crop begins to fail and the trees begin to shrink and withe/ 
 When, after many years, it again recedes, nothing but bare brown earth 
 and rock is left. Its traces may be seen long afterward when the valley has 
 regained its verdure, by the huge bowlders strewn along its path and bv the 
 smooth edges of the rocks that it ground against and plolished as it passed 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 281 
 
 Tlie glaciers, though so huge and 
 powerful in their slow course, are usu- 
 ally very quiet and do little damage 
 to the people; but one in the St. Ber- 
 nard valley a number of years ago 
 outdid even the avalanches m the 
 work of destruction. 
 
 For a long time this glacier kept 
 projecting great icebergs over a cliff, 
 until they were piled up to a vast 
 height, and completely choked up the 
 narrow outlet for the water that 
 melted from them. The people knew 
 that when summer came there would 
 be a fearful flood, and some left their 
 homes to escape the danger. One hot 
 day, the icy dam gave way, and the 
 lake which had formed above it burst 
 out over the valley carrying death 
 and destruction all along its way to 
 Lake Geneva. Many lives were lost 
 and much property destroyed. 
 
 Gateways of the Alps.— When 
 Hannibal led his army over the Alps, 
 more than sixteen hundred years ago, 
 the people thought it a greater feat 
 than any he had accomplished in bat- 
 tle. They considered the Alps impas- 
 sable : they did not know of the 
 grand gateways that Nature had cut 
 for them in the mountain walls . There 
 are several of these passes, and on 
 some of them there are now good 
 carriage roads. The most noted of 
 these is the pass of St. Bernard, where 
 stands the famous life saving station 
 of the Alps, with its devoted monks 
 and noble dogs. This hospice was 
 
 A MOUNTAIN ASCENT. 
 
282 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 built nearly a thousand years ago by the good old St. Bernard of 
 Menthon, for the relief of travelers. No one is ever refused admittance 
 here, even thongh the guests number six or seven hundred, as they do 
 sometimes in summer ; and many a traveler has been saved from a death 
 in the snow by the heroic inmates. Every morning, after a violent storm, 
 the dogs are sent out, each with warm clothing, a bottle of wine, and some 
 food fastened to his body. The monks follow, and when they hear the 
 deep bay of a dog, they know that some lost one has been found, and that 
 their help is needed. 
 
 An instance of the wonderful intelligence of these dogs, is the story of 
 the famous Barry. He found a child asleep in the snow one day, awoke it, 
 persuaded it to get upon his back, and carried it safely to the hospice. 
 His picture, with the child clinging to his neck, approaching the convent 
 gate is a familiar one, and his stuffed remains are still preserved at the 
 museum of Berne. 
 
 There is one room in the hospice that tourists always look at with a 
 great deal of interest. It is the one in which Napoleon slept while making his 
 terrible passage with his thirty thousand soldiers. Another into which 
 they look with as much horror as interest, is the ghastly dead house, where 
 the bodies of those who have died upon the pass are kept, and their crumb- 
 ling remains shown to all who wish to look upon them. 
 
 Since the Mount Cenis tunnel and railway were completed, there are not 
 so many travelers over the St. Bernard pass as formerly ; but there will 
 always be some who prefer to climb the path, view the grand scenery, and 
 visit the old hospice, even though the journey be perilous. 
 
 Travelers agree that no one can say he has seen Switzerland or a moun- 
 tain gorge until he has crossed the Spluegen. Nothing in nature could be 
 more grand or sublime. " A continuous, tortuous, black, jagged, chasm 
 split through the stupendous mountain ridge from summit to base, in per- 
 pendicular, angular and convoluted, zigzag rifts, so narrow in some places 
 that you could almost leap across, yet so deep that the thunder of the 
 Rhone dies upon the ear struggling, in reverbrating echoes upward ! " In 
 some places, the precipices rise sixteen hundred feet in torn and jagged 
 masses ; in others frightful fissures yawn beside the path, through which 
 thunders the river, sometime lost from view, its muffled booming sound 
 just audible from the depths below, then again plunging into sight foaming 
 and whirling like a maelstrom. 
 
 The dreariest place in all Switzerland, travelers say, is the Hospice of 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 283 
 
 le Grimsel, near the summit of the Grimsel pass, in the Bernese Ober- 
 
 Ftt is bnilt in a rocky basin by the side of a small mountain tarn, which 
 
 is always black as night-kept from freezing by a warm spring underneath. 
 
 I story as wierd J the place is attached to it, about an old keeperjvho 
 
 used to stay there from November 
 
 to March, with no company but his 
 
 dogs. One night as he was keeping 
 
 his lonely vigils, he was startled by a 
 
 mysterious sound, like the moans of a 
 
 person in distress. Calling his dogs 
 
 he went out and searched, but no one 
 
 could be found. The dogs, however, 
 
 acted strangely, and when the moan- 
 ing came again, crouched and trem- 
 bled, refusing to go out. A third time 
 
 the sound came, and a voice seemed 
 
 to say, "Go in to the inner room." 
 
 He went in, and knelt down to pray. 
 In a few minutes an avalanche fell, 
 filling every room in the house ex- 
 cept the one where he was. With his 
 dogs he worked his way out next 
 day, and reached the village in safety. 
 The River Rhone.— The ancients 
 used to say that the Rhone river came 
 out of eternal night, but the great 
 Rhone glacier, in the Burnese Ober- 
 lands, is now known to be its birth- 
 place . Bursting out of this icy prison 
 house with a mighty roar, as if exult- m 
 
 ing over its escape, it hastens on to water the fertile fields of Valais, and 
 
 feed the vineyards of France. ■,'.'.-,,., +■ 
 
 The valley of the Rhone is the largest in Switzerland, and is lull ol beauti- 
 ful scenery. The most charming object in it is the Pizevache cascade, a white 
 line of foam boiling through a bed of black rocks, over a series of rapids to 
 the brink of a precipice three hundred feet high. Here it leaps down into a 
 dark cauldron, where nothing can be seen but the white seething foam. 
 
 HOSPICE OF THE GRIMSEL. 
 
284 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Over this, in the morning when the sun-shines, spans a beautiful rain* 
 bow. 
 
 A Valley of Fountains.— But the most beautiful valley in all Switzeiw. 
 land is the Lauter Brunnen,— " nothing but fountains." Its sides are lined 
 with multitudes of tiny streams, that hang like long tassels of silver dowm 
 
 ALPINE DOS. 
 
 the face of the crags, or fling themselves in showers of rainbow spray from 
 the edges of the high precipices. Chief among these fountains is the 
 btabback or Dust Stream, that comes curving down over a precipice nine 
 hundred feet high, swaying and spreading- in the wind, until it falls in clouds 
 ot silvery dust upon the rocks below. The valley is a deep narrow chasm 
 reaching into the sides of the St. Gothard giants. Rustic cottages are sprink- 
 led here and there upon its over-hanging cliffs, and the little village of Lauter 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 285 
 
 jrunnen, with its fifteen thousand inhabitants, nestles at its heart, so over- 
 shadowed by the surrounding cliffs, that in winter the sun does not reach it 
 r iitil noon, and then speedily disappears. 
 
 Lake Leman and Lake Lucerne. — " Clear placid Leman," the largest 
 f the Swiss lakes, has received many flattering tributes from pen and pen- 
 il. Her pure waters keep ever unsullied by the numerous muddy streams 
 hat bathe themselves there before entering the channel of the Rhine. 
 
 JUNGFEAU. 
 
 When the weather is clear, the stars and mountains could ask for no better 
 mirror than Lake Leman affords. Even Monte Blanc, fifty miles away, can 
 see his broad glittering diadem of snow and ice reflected from her glassy 
 surface. 
 
 Lake Lucerne, though considerably smaller than Leman, ranks not far 
 behind it in beauty of scenery, while it is of special interest from its associ- 
 ation with the memory of William Tell. The mountains at its eastern ex- 
 tremity are bold and grand, seeming to rise right out of the lake. On one 
 of them is a scar, where a huge fragment of rock broke off and fell into the 
 
288 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 ,s~\ 
 
 lake, raising such a wave that a whole hamlet was flooded, and a number of ' 
 lives destroyed. 
 
 On a little shelf of rock at the eastern end of the lake stands TelPs 
 Chapel, built in the year 1830 by the men of Uri to the memory of their 
 hero. 
 
 Alpine Plants and Flowers.— The ground at the base of the Alps is 
 
 covered with a variety of 
 
 plants, shrubs and trees. 
 
 But one by one, as the 
 
 higher regions are reached, 
 
 these disappear, and others 
 
 of different kind take their 
 
 place. No grain or fruit 
 
 trees are seen above a height 
 
 of sixty-five thousand feet ; 
 
 instead, are dwarfish birch 
 
 and elder and then stunted 
 
 pine . Farther on, these give 
 
 place to long, rich grass. 
 
 These lofty meadows are 
 
 brilliant with Alpine flowers, 
 
 many of them members of 
 
 well-known families. There 
 
 are bright colored thistles, 
 
 purple crocuses, scarlet 
 
 vetches, pale sweet pinks 
 with spear-like leaves, tiny 
 grey saxifrage, covered with 
 thick clumps of white flow- 
 ers, brilliant little blue gen- 
 tians and fragrant Alpine 
 roses, on whose petals the 
 crimson glows of sunset 
 
 seem to have been imprisoned. Upon the rocky banks of streams, grow 
 luxuriant rhododendrons and delicate ferns. Higher still are more hardy 
 adventurers, the Scottish blue-bell, hanging its rich clusters out of rocky 
 crevices, the ladies' mantle spreading its satiny leaves over the bare stones, 
 and the dainty little eidelweiss thrusting its pale yellow face out of its 
 
 ALPINE FLOWERS. 
 
Sioitzerland. 
 
 287 
 
 hood of white cottony leaves, at a height of eight thousand feet more. 
 Often the guides upon the giddy heights of Mont Rosa, or the Jungfrau, 
 call the tourist's attention to these hardy little mountaineers upon the 
 edges of the cliffs to keep him from looking at the dizzy depths below. 
 
 The Bearded Vulture.— Nearly one-half of all the birds of Europe 
 live among the Alps. The king of them all is the lammergeyer, or bearded 
 vulture, a huge bird nine feet across the wings, and a most voracious eater. 
 The stomach of one was found to contain five fragments of a cow's rib, two 
 inches wide and from six to nine inches long ; a mass of matted wool and 
 
 
 ALPINE ANTELOPE. 
 
 hair ; and the leg of a kid perfect from the knee down. These indigestible 
 things are slowly dissolved by the strong gastric juice of its enormous stom- 
 ach. Its victims are lambs, kids and young chamois, which, if not destroyed 
 on the spot, are carried off to its eyrie ; and small quadrupeds and birds, 
 which are "secured with one clutch, killed with one blow and swallowed 
 at one gulp." Often it wiU watch a goat, sheep, or chamois as it ap- 
 proaches the edge of a cliff, swoop down upon it and push it over the side 
 with its strong wings, then fly down and gorge itself upon the mangled 
 
288 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 remains. It has been known to attack a man when asleep and to carry oft 
 young children. 
 
 The Alpine Antelope.— The timid chamois is the most noted among 
 the animals of the Alps, for^ its wonderful spryness. It can spring across 
 chasms six or seven yards wide, with a sudden bound leap up against the 
 face of a perpendicular rock, and merely touching it with its hoofs rebound 
 again in an opposite direction to some higher crag. When reaching up- 
 ward on its hind legs, the fore hoofs resting on some higher spot, it is able 
 to stretch to a considerable distance, and with a quick spring to bring its 
 hind quarters to a level with the rest of its body, and with all four hoofs 
 close together, stand poised upon a rock not broader than one's hand. 
 
 A chamois's sense of sight, hearing, and smell is so keen that it is diffi- 
 cult to get near one. He knows man to be his worst enemy, and is greatly 
 disturbed when he finds one near. But even the most wary of the old 
 patriarchs cannot resist the attractions of the salt licks in summer time, and 
 here it is sometimes possible to find a place of ambush on the windward 
 side of the spot where a whole herd congregates. The gambols of such a 
 herd, especially of the giddy young kids, is a most pleasing sight. They 
 spring up like skip-jacks on their long hind legs, run round and round, 
 up and down, and even sideways. 
 
 The hunters do not like to frighten them by firing among them at the 
 salt licks, as they would soon cease to visit the place, and would suffer for 
 the need of salt. But sometimes the temptation to shoot is too great to be 
 resisted. This was the case with one hunter, who spied among such a herd 
 at a salt lick a notorious old fellow that had defied the best aim of all the 
 hunters in the vicinity. He had very narrowly escaped once with the 
 loss of a horn, and this served to make him more easily recognized. On 
 this occasion the hunter was in a good position, and felt almost sure of the 
 long-coveted prize. How he would be envied by the other hunters when he 
 appeared among them wearing a bunch of that old fellow's long hair on his 
 hat ! But it was not to be. As he pulled the trigger, the hammer clicked 
 but the cap did not go off. The noise, slight as it was, had been heard by 
 the wary old chamois. One loud whistle, and the whole herd, was off like 
 the wind. 
 
 Chamois Hunters.— Chamois hunting is one of the most dangerous and 
 the least profitable of sports. The hunter must use the greatest caution 
 endure hardships and fatigue, and risk his life scrambling among the treach- 
 erous cliffs. But the very difficulties and perils give it extra fascination 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 289 
 
 lin 
 
 One of the native hunters told a tourist that his father and grandfather had 
 both met their death while out on a chamois hunt, and that he expected to 
 do the same. He said, however, that money could not tempt him to give it 
 up. A couple of years afterward, the tourist heard that his prediction had 
 been fulfilled. _.. v ^ '. 
 
 One day as a couple of 
 hunters were out pursuing 
 a chamois, they separated m 
 order to prevent its escape. 
 One of them in his excite- 
 ment leaped across a chasm 
 to a narrow ledge of rock on 
 the face of a cliff. Here he 
 found that he could go no 
 further, neither could he re- 
 trace his steps, as the place 
 from which he had come was 
 much higher. 
 
 The ledge on which he 
 stood was so narrow that he 
 
 could neither sit nor lie 
 
 down. He shouted to his 
 
 companion, but no answer 
 
 came. All the rest of the 
 
 day and all the following 
 
 night he stood there calling 
 
 for help, his strength fast 
 
 failing him. The next day, 
 
 just as he was sure he could 
 
 hold out no longer, he heard 
 
 his friend calling to him. fisher girl. 
 
 A rope was lowered over 
 
 the cliff , and he was saved . The horror and fatigue of that one night blanched 
 
 his hair white as snow. 
 The u Wildheiter."— Scarcely less dangerous than chamois hunting is 
 
 the business of the " wildheuer," the climbing hay-cutter of the Alps. On 
 
 some of the steep lofty cliffs where the cattle cannot reach it, grows long 
 
 luxuriant grass, which is much needed during the winter. Armed with his 
 
290 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 scythe and his feet shod with crampons (thick iron-spiked shoe soles), he 
 sets off in the early morning climbing the steep cliffs like a chamois. When 
 he reaches the slopes where the grass grows, he cuts it, gathers it into a 
 firm bundle, and, if the cliff is not very high, lowers it in a net or flings it 
 over the side to wait for him below. But if the steep is high or there are 
 projecting rocks or trees on its side, he must take the heavy burden, often 
 more than a hundred pounds, on his back, or balance it on his head and 
 carry it down. The descent is usually a perilous one, high walls of rock on 
 one side and dizzy depths on the other. To turn a projecting crag he 
 must cling to a knob or crevice, and feel with one cramponed foot for the 
 slippery foothold that he cannot see, all the while balancing the heavy 
 load on his head. If a stone slips or a limb fails there is nothing to save 
 him from a fatal fall on the rocks below. 
 
 The Ribbon Weavers and the Watchmakers. — The Swiss women 
 as a rule are industrious and thrifty. In the vicinity of Basle the loom of 
 the ribbon weaver is found in nearly every cottage. The housewife weaves 
 a yard or two and then attends to her potatoes for dinner, weaves a little 
 more, then fries her sausage and boils her saurkraut. While her husband 
 is washing for dinner, she steps to her loom and adds a mite to her growing 
 flowers and figures. The most beautiful patterns and delicate shades come 
 from the hands of these hard working housewives . Even the Coloring is done 
 to perfection in these humble homes. The girls and old women aid by 
 twisting and reeling the silk. In the city the work is carried on, on a larger 
 scale, by the factories where hundreds of looms, filled with all the different 
 colors of the rainbow, hum with life and motion and gleam with brilliancy. 
 The spinners and weavers are all women making on an average about three 
 and a half dollars a week. This is continued when they are sick, and when 
 they grow too old to work. Every year three million dollars worth of ribbon 
 is shipped from Basle to America. 
 
 In the cottages around Geneva, the work tables of the watchmakers take 
 
 the place of ribbon-weaver's looms. There are also large factories in the city 
 
 where girls and women are employed. The girls first learn to make every 
 
 h part of the watch, and then select the part that they can do best, for their 
 
 life work. 
 
 One woman's only work will perhaps be to drill little holes in the 
 small steel plates, another's, to make a slight change in the shape of the holes 
 already drilled. 
 
 The Guides. — Many of the men of Switzerland find employment in act- 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 291 
 
 ing as guides to tourists. The work is difficult and dangerous and their 
 hardy courage is often put to the test. The sight of a man in peril rouses 
 them to super-human efforts for his relief, and a disaster fills them with 
 
 grief. 
 
 Prof . Tyndal became much attached to a guide by the name of Brennen, 
 
 MOUNTAIN GUIDE. 
 
 and tells the following story about his efforts to rescue a man from a crev- 
 asse in a glacier. 
 
 As Prof. Tyndal, accompanied by two other gentlemen, and the guide 
 Brennen, were proceeding along the Aletsch glacier they saw a man stand- 
 
292 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 ing perfectly still some little distance ahead of them. They thought noth- 
 ing of it at first, but as they approached, they saw that it was one of the 
 porters they had sent on ahead of them with provisions. As they came up 
 to him he neither moved nor spoke, and seemed dazed. When asked what 
 the matter was, he replied that his companion was killed. They asked 
 where he was and he nodded toward a crevasse just before them. But 
 when asked how he knew the man was dead, he only muttered that he was 
 killed. Brennen had meanwhile been growing very much excited, and rush- 
 ing to the brink of the crevasse, would have jumped recklessly in if Prof. 
 Tyndal had not held him back. They listened and heard a faint moan. 
 This increased Brennen' s excitement, but Prof. Tyndal laid a hand on his 
 shoulder and told him that unless he acted like a man they should not be 
 able to save the sufferer. 
 
 With shaking hands Brennen hastily tied some ropes together,but Prof. 
 Tyndal would not let him descend until each knot had been tested. Nearly 
 all gave way, and had to be tied over again. The other men lowered first 
 Brennen and then Prof Tyndal into the crevasse where they found the man* 
 so wedged in the ice that it took more than an hour to chop him loose, and 
 then he was so weak that he could scarcely stir when they got him out. 
 All the while Brennen worked like a frenzied man, and when they reached 
 the top, insisted on carrying the sufferer to the village. But before he had 
 gone many steps he sank under his load. 
 
 The Patriots op Rutli. — There are many interesting stories connected 
 with the struggles of the Swiss for freedom from the yoke of Austria. One 
 is of the three men of Rutli, who met at a house in Uri, talked of the misery 
 of their country and the cruelty of the Austrian bailiffs, and resolved to raise 
 a band of men who would strike for liberty. Soon after this they met again 
 in the meadow of Rutli, each bringing with him ten true and honorable men, 
 determined to hold the ancient liberty of their fatherland before all, and life as 
 nothing. The three men of Rutli raised their hands to heaven, and swore to 
 G-od the Lord, faithfully to live and die for the rights of the innocent people 
 Then the thirty raised their hands and took the oath like the three. They ap 
 pointed New Year's night for the work, and then separated ; each returned 
 to his valley and his cabin and tended his cattle. One of these thirty 
 men, it is said, was William Tell. 
 
 Some wise men have concluded that there never was such a person as 
 William Tell, and that all the stories about him are myths ; but it will not 
 do for them to tell the people of Switzerland so. One man tried it a few 
 
Switzerland. 
 
 293 
 
 years ago He read a paper before a historical association at Geneva m 
 which he tried to prove that William Tell was only an imaginary being. 
 The next year he happened in Alterof , and when the people found he was 
 there they sent word to tell him that the sooner he left the place the better it 
 would be for him. He left without delay. 
 
 PEASANT IN HOLIDAY DRESS. 
 
 William Tell.— The Story of William Tell is very beatifuUy told by the 
 German writer Zschokke as follows: 
 
 " The bailiff, Herman Gessler, was not easy because he had an evil con- 
 science. It seemed to him that the people began to raise their heads and 
 to show more boldness. So he set the ducal hat of Austria on a pole in Uri, 
 and ordered that every one who passed it should do it reverence. And 
 
294 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 William Tell, the archer of Burglen, one of the thirty men of Rutli, passed 
 before it, but he did not bow. He was immediately carried to the bailiff, 
 who angrily said : ' Insolent archer, I will punish thee by means of thine 
 own craft. I will place an apple on the head of thy little son. Shoot it off, 
 and fail not.' And they bound the child, and placed an apple on his head, 
 and led the archer far away. He took aim. The bowspring twanged. The 
 arrow pierced the apple. All the people shouted for joy. But Gessler said 
 to the archer : ' Why didst thou take a second arrow.' Tell answered: 
 ' If the first had not pierced the apple, the second would have pierced thy 
 heart.' 
 
 " This terrified the bailiff, and he ordered the archer to be seized, and car- 
 ried to a boat in which he was himself about to embark for Kussuacht. He 
 did not think it prudent to imprison Tell in Uri on account of the people, so 
 he hastily departed in spite of a strong headwind. 
 
 " The sea rose and the waves dashed foaming over the boat, so that all 
 were alarmed, and the boatman disheartened. In great anxiety, Gessler 
 ordered the fetters to be removed from Tell, that he, an experienced steers- 
 man might take the helm. But Tell steered toward the bare flank of the Axen- 
 berg, where a naked rock projects like a small shelf into the lake. There 
 was a shock — a spring. Tell was on the rock and the boat out upon the 
 lake. 
 
 " The freed man climbed the mountain, and fled across the land of 
 Schwyz, and he thought in his troubled heart : ' What may not Gessler do 
 to my family when Landenberg put out the eyes of the old man Melchthal 
 on account of a servant's broken finger \ Either my innocent wife and child 
 and fatherland must fall, or, bailiff Gessler, thou ! ' 
 
 " So thought Tell, and with bow and arrow fled toward Kussnacht, and 
 hid in a hollow way near the village. Thither came the bailiff ; there the 
 bowspring twanged ; there the free arrow pierced the tyrant's heart. The 
 whole people shouted for joy when they learned the death of their oppres- 
 sor. Tell's deed increased their courage ; but the night of the New Year 
 had not yet come." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 The Frenchman calls his country La Belle France, the beautiful France. 
 He does not mean by this a land of beautiful scenery, for a large part of 
 his country is flat and sandy ; but he means aland well cultivated and laden 
 with fruit. In this sense France is beautiful, for the thrifty people have 
 covered the face of the country with orchards, vineyards and groves. It has 
 also beautiful scenery, in the east where it reflects some of the glories of the 
 Alps and on the south where rise the tree-clad heights of the Pyrenees. 
 
 The Vale of Chamouni.— Upon the eastern boundary of France, separ- 
 ating it from Italy, lie the loftiest peaks and most magnificent glaciers of 
 the Alps. Above them all towers Mont Blanc with the great Mer de Glace 
 streaming down his side, and at his feet the beautiful Vale of Chamouni. 
 This noted spot, about which so much has been said and sung, lies in the 
 province of Savoy just south of Lake Geneva. It is the place in which to 
 see the " Monarch of Mountains " in all his majesty. His giant sides as 
 •well as his white summit, which he usually keeps veiled in mist, may here 
 be seen in one full sweep, when the air is clear. From the summit down to 
 the vale comes the great glacier filling up the deep valley between two 
 mountain ridges to a depth of hundreds of feet. Scattered along over all of 
 its fifteen miles of length are the huge masses of rock which have tumbled 
 down from the sides of the mountain and are being slowly carried down to 
 the melting point. Huge toppling crags and displaced obelisks of ice tower 
 up among the boulders, and great chasms yawn across the surface. Look- 
 ing down into one of these the most brilliant colors are seen reflected from 
 the glittering sides. 
 
 These treacherous crevasses have swallowed up many an unfortunate 
 traveler by snapping open at his feet just as he thought his way was smooth 
 and safe. A few who have slipped into open ones have been pulled out by 
 their companions, while one, a shepherd boy, was swept along by the torrent 
 
296 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 at the bottom to the valley below. The water had worn a channel under the 
 ice through which the boy was carried and he came out with only a broken 
 arm. 
 
 In summer when the sun is shining a host of small streams spring from 
 the mountain sides upon this sea of ice, and running down together form a 
 river which by and by leaps into a crevasse, and is out of sight. But down 
 in the valley it comes into view again — a great white cataract pouring into 
 the vale of Chamouni. 
 
 From the Mer de Glace many fine views may be had, not of Mont Blanc, 
 for that is shut out by surrounding peaks, but of the other huge cones ris- 
 ing like giant needles all around it. Down at their feet lies the vale of 
 Chamouni covered with squares of wheat and rye and oats in all their various 
 shades of green and yellow. The houses look like mere bird boxes from the 
 height, and the fields like children's play-grounds. The yellow Arve, that 
 muddy stream that so changes the clear waters of the Rhone, looks here 
 like a piece of burnished wire, and the whole scene like a strip of fairy-land. 
 
 The Bushing Rhone. — More than two hundred glaciers formed by the 
 snows of Mont Blanc and his neighbors pour their contents into the Rhone. 
 No wonder it is such a mad rushing river with all this burden of water to 
 carry. And then sometimes great bowlders get in its path, or it has to force 
 its way through a small gap between the rocks. 
 
 The Rhone is a very rapid river. The water that at sunrise was among 
 the chesnuts and walnuts of Savoy, at night has reached the rice fields of 
 Carnogue. It has passed in the course of its day's run through the great- 
 est variety of scenes. In Ain timber rafts were being prepared to float upon 
 its surface down to Lyons, and shepherds were leading their flocks over the 
 bordering hills. At Lyons the silk weaver's looms were rattling, and thou- 
 sands of busy wheels turning out all manner of goods. Through Drone its 
 bank was lined with the famous vintages of Zain. Busy people of Guard 
 crowded upon it with more factories, and with mulberry and olive groves. 
 Here, on the opposite side, lay the lands of the famous house of Orange, 
 that had so much to do with the fortunes of the Dutch in after years ; and 
 here, also, at Avignon in Vaucluse, was the home of Petrarch's " Laura." 
 Farther down lay the dry and arid wastes of Aries, and the rice-fields of 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 A glance at the past brings out another set of scenes that the Rhone 
 has witnessed. Here, many years ago, stood the great Carthagenian hero, 
 Hannibal, upon the western bank, looking across to the distant snow-clad 
 
France. *®' 
 
 hills beyond which lay the land of the Romans. Behind him was an army 
 of fifty thousand foot, nine thousand horse, and thirty elephants, all glit- 
 terin/with gay trappings. The heavy Spanish infantry were covered with 
 shleds and helmet" and breastplates of brass. The dingers from Sidy 
 and the Balearic Isles flamed out in crimson caps and short tunics. Over 
 all waved the ensigns of the different bands. A floating cloth, bearing the 
 red and bine of Carthage, denoted the troops of the leader; a glittering 
 crescent, a star or a sphere, the ranks of an ally 
 
 Bnt tie chief fignre was that of the mighty Hannibal himself Em 
 lithe, active and handsome figure set off with richly embroidered clothing 
 his bearing that of a king, as with eye and mind he planned how to over- 
 come the mad river before him and transport his troops to the other side 
 
 In three days his glittering brigades were all across, and the Rhone saw 
 Hannibal no more. But the Roman eagles continued to pass.over and row 
 ttielr- Jleys up and down the Rhine for centuries afterward Then came 
 the barges of the Gothic kings, drawn by horses struggling along the bank 
 Lastly came the steamboats puffing in one day oyer a space that he horse 
 could scarcely cover in a month, and carrying silk, wine, olive oil, watches 
 and iewelry, instead of soldiers. 
 
 The " Landes "—The mountains of eastern France run rapidly down 
 to hilly plains in the center, and to flat sandy moors in the west. From 
 the foot of the Pyrenees on the south to the mouth of the Garrone the 
 western coast is nothing but a dreary strip of sand dunes the ££*tof 
 which is only about ahundred and sixty feet. Like those of Jutland these 
 sands are constantly shifting in the wind and covering up the cultivated 
 fields around them. Many cabins, private dwellings, and even villages have 
 been completely buried within the past two hundred years Before that 
 time the sands were never known to do such damage, for they were kept 
 down by forests. When the people began to clear the trees away the 
 sand began to fly, and now they are trying to repair the damage by plant- 
 
 ing forests again. . -, , -. 
 
 Back of the dunes toward the interior stretches a region of wide level 
 plains covered with coarse grass, thorny shrnbs and ^ken by innnmerable 
 shallow ponds. This marshy region has been called the landes, and the 
 people who live there " landescots." 
 
 , A f ew years ago there was scarcely a sign of life in all this wide plain a 
 few shepherds stalked abont on high stilts tending their sheep and they 
 suffered terribly from the malaria caused by the stagnant water. .But 
 
298 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 during the past few years, science has taught them how to make improve- 
 ments here as well as in the dunes. Canals have been cut to drain the 
 marshes and millions of trees planted to suck up the moisture. Now the 
 malaria is gone and cottages and villages are spreading all over the once 
 desolate plain. 
 
 The Bone Caves.— The Mediterranean coast of France is also low and flat 
 with numerous marshes and lagoons, for a long distance east of the Pyre- 
 nees. But after passing the Rhone, bold rocky cliffs begin to appear until 
 the peaks of Maritime Alps overlook the sea. Among these, in the very 
 southeast corner is one of Nature's curiosities, by which men of science have 
 learned much about the men and animals living in this part of the earth in 
 the dark ages of the past. This is one of the bone caves, in which has been 
 found the remains of many large animals which have long ago ceased to 
 live in Europe, and a few years ago there was found here the petrified skel- 
 eton of a man. It was discovered more than twenty feet beneath the sur- 
 face, lying on its left side in a perfectly natural position, as if the person had 
 been overtaken by death while asleep. Every part of the skeleton was 
 there, but all was turned to stone. From the size and appearance of the 
 petrified bones it was thought that the person had once belonged to a strong 
 and powerful race. On the skull was an ornamental head-dress, made of 
 shells and stag's teeth, strung together in a kind of network. The work- 
 manship of this, especially the holes by which the pieces were fastened, was 
 such as people of the stone age used to produce. 
 
 Human bones have been found in other caves in France, and with them 
 the rude stone implements used in the early ages. Scattered around were 
 bones of the birds, animals and fish, especially salmon, which had been 
 their food. Everything seemed to show they had found plenty to eat with- 
 out much exertion. Those who have studied the appearance of the human' 
 bones found in these caves say they denote a people of great size, with long 
 flat feet, short arms with powerful muscles, large strong jaws, widely opened 
 nostrils, and a fierce disposition. 
 
 The animal bones found show that the climate was colder then than now. 
 Reindeer were very plenty and besides there were huge hairy mammoth, 
 wooly rhinoceros, and hippopotami, such as dressed for cold weather. 
 There were also hyeanas and bears, all of great size, but no dogs, sheep or 
 goats. 
 
 The Plain of Caenac. — Very wonderful remains of former ages are 
 found in the rocky peninsula forming the northwestern part of France. All 
 
France, 299 
 
 this region, once called Brittany, is noted for its wild wooded scenery ; its 
 quaint people, who are distant relatives of the ancient Britons, and still hold 
 their legend of King Arthur ; and its numerous and interesting stone monu- 
 ments ° These are much like the antiquities of Great Britain only that in 
 the Plain of Carnac is a muchlarger group than the Stonehenge. The stones, 
 ranging from ten to twenty-five feet in height, are set up in three groups over 
 a distance of seven miles. Each group is carried out toward the end in 
 eleven even rows of stones each a little lower than the one before it. 
 
 On a high mound in the midst of the plain stands a church which was 
 built by the early Christian missionaries, and dedicated to St. Michael. 
 Recently a chamber was discovered beneath the mound about six feet long 
 and four wide. The entrance, which had faced the east, was closed by two 
 large slabs, and another, laid across the top, formed the roof. This slab had 
 split through from the weight of earth above it, and the floor was covered 
 several inches deep with a flour-like dust that had sifted down through the 
 crevice. More than a hundred small beads of jasper were found beneath all 
 this dust, and in a corner under a small flat stone was a necklace of ivory- 
 bugles or beads. In a small recess on one side of the chamber was a mass of 
 cinders, earth, and fragments of human bones. 
 
 In another mound near by, thirty polished axes of stone and three neck- 
 laces of green turquois were found. On some of the stones were rude carv- 
 ings of wavy, curved and zigzag lines and spirals, showing that the people 
 who made these belonged to the later period of the stone age when ornament 
 as well as use was studied. ■ 
 
 The simple people of Carnac have an easy way of settling the question o± 
 how the stones came on the plain. They say that they are the petrified 
 soldiers of a mighty army whom St. Comely turned to stone when he could 
 oppose them in no other way. They also declare that sometimes at midnight 
 the skeletons of these stones maybe seen in the churchyard doing penance 
 for the sins they committed against the saint and listening very reverently 
 to a sermon preached by Death himself. 
 
 Gothic Aechitectuee.— Long years after the builders of the great 
 stone avenues had passed away, another rude, uncivilized race occupied the 
 land of France. These were the Goths who had come from the east and 
 broken up the Roman empire. They were somewhat further advanced in 
 the art of living than the ancient people of the iron and stone ages, but they 
 knew little about arts and sciences. They knew enough, however, to ap- 
 preciate the works of art that the Romans had left behind them. They 
 
300 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 found use for the houses, public halls, palaces, baths, aqueducts, and 
 bridges and after a time they began to try their hand at building. Taking 
 the Roman buildings for patterns they set to work, but found many diffi- 
 culties out of which they had to invent their way. The result was a style 
 quite different, and at first inferior to that of the Romans, but as the Goths 
 went on improving, they introduced many forms of beauty that are now 
 admired more than the ancient styles. This new style was named after 
 them, Gothic architecture. 
 
 One of the chief features of this style was the pointed arches, which 
 grew to be very graceful, and more light and airy than the solid round arch 
 of the Romans. In making "groined arches," the Goths invented a way 
 of supporting them with clusters of slender columns, branching off in ribs 
 at the top, which gave to the interior of a building the appearance of the 
 trunks, branches and interlacing boughs of a forest. 
 
 Another idea which grew upon these builders was the beauty of a great 
 deal of stained glass about the windows. So they put the small windows 
 as close together as possible, and left only enough masonry between them 
 to hold them up, so as to get in as much glass as possible. They made 
 openings shaped like flowers of three or four leaves above the windows, 
 and reduced the stones between to mere bars bending around the foliated 
 forms in tracery. Finally, instead of small windows, they made one large 
 one charmingly ornamented and surmounted with a pointed arch. 
 
 Just about this time,— the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 
 13th, — there arose a great desire to build elegant cathedrals. All over 
 France these buildings sprang up in all the beauty of graceful arches, tra- 
 ceried windows, and carved foliage ; but before they were completed the 
 fever died out, and nearly all were left unfinished. One of the most noted 
 of these Gothic cathedrals in France is that of Rheims, which is also one of 
 the finest in Europe ; another is that of Notre Dame in Paris. 
 
 Battle Fields. — On the soil of France many important battles have 
 been fought, — battles that have shaped the history of Europe. In Cham- 
 pagne, where Chalons sur Mame is now situated, the progress of the terri- 
 ble Attila and his horde of Huns was stayed. He had carried terror, 
 destruction and death over all the Eastern Roman empire, and had pro- 
 ceeded so far toward the west, when Aetius, a Roman general, assisted by 
 some Goths and Franks, met him at Chalons. Here they gave him a ter- 
 rible battle, in which he was utterly defeated. He was so chagrined that 
 he was determined to bury himself alive in a grand funeral pile, with his 
 
France. 
 
 301 
 
 treasures, his women and his baggage wagons; but he changed his mind 
 and lived to do some more ravaging in the south. But this battle may.be 
 said to have stopped his career. 
 
 In the northern part of France, in Aisne, the battle of Soissons was 
 fonght between the Franks, who were a branch of the Gothic race, and the 
 last of the Romans, after which the Romans left the Franks to ^emselves. 
 Clovis,thekingof the Franks, then went on to enlarge and establish the 
 kingdom which came to be called France. 
 
 In the west, south of the Loire, is the field of Poitiers, where Charles 
 Martel, a later king of the Franks, drove back the Saracens, who were 
 threatening Europe with the same danger that Sobeiski averted at Vienna, 
 nearly a thousand years afterward. The 
 Saracens had carried their swords and the 
 Mohammedan faith all over Spain, and had 
 come as far north as Poitiers, when they en- 
 countered the strong arm of Charles Martel. 
 On account of the deadly destruction he 
 dealt out to them that day, he was named 
 <•' Martel" — the hammer. 
 
 Karl the Great.— The Empire of the 
 Franks passed in time into the hands of 
 Charlemagne, a great grandson of Charles 
 Martel, who, was not contented with the ex- 
 tent of his dominions, and at once went to 
 making war on his neighbors. He marched 
 into Italy and conquered the Lombards, 
 who had taken possession of the northern part; then into Spam and 
 took from the Moors all of the country north of the Ebro ; then up into 
 Saxony, where he met the sturdy Wittikind, with whom he had a long 
 struggle This country gave him more trouble than all the others, but it 
 was compelled to yield to the great Karl at last. Then he was king from 
 the Ebro in Spain to the Baltic, and from the Atlantic to the Oder. So 
 great a conqueror had not lived since Osesar. 
 
 The great object that led Charlmagne to make all these conquests was 
 that he might unite again all the broken fragments of the fallen Roman 
 Empire He wished to see law and order and learning, such as the Romans 
 had maintained, take the place of the confusion that had reigned since the 
 coining of the barbarians. And he wished to see the Christian religion, in 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
302 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 which he was a zealous believer, take the place of Paganism and Moham- 
 medanism. 
 
 As soon, therefore, as he had put together this vast region, nearly all 
 that had belonged to the Western Roman Empire, he went to Italy and was 
 crowned by the Pope, Emperor of Rome. Then he went home, and began 
 to make laws, to erect tine buildings and establish schools of learning. He 
 set an example to his subjects by studying nearly everything that was then 
 taught, and tried to learn to write, but his fingers were so stiff with carry- 
 ing the sword that he did not make much progress. He contented himself 
 with the thought that his young subjects were enjoying privileges which 
 no one had been wise enough to provide for him. 
 
 When Charlemagne died his body was placed in a great Mausoleum at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, not in a coffin but on his throne clothed in his imperial robes, 
 with his crown upon his head, his sceptre in his hand and his sword by his 
 side. One hundred years afterward his tomb was opened and there sat the 
 withered skeleton of all that was left of the great conqueror. The royal 
 robes, crown, and sceptre were carried away, and are now at Vienna ; the 
 throne and a few other relics are kept in the cathedral of Aix la-Chapelle, and 
 over his tomb, which is just beneath the great dome, is a marble slab contain- 
 ing the words, " Carolo Magno." 
 
 Barbe Blue. — The conquered chiefs and the nobles of the country, 
 Charlemagne appointed to govern the various parts of his great empire, al- 
 lowing them to hold offices only so long as he chose ; but the weak kings 
 who followed him were obliged to grant large favors to their officers to hold 
 their allegiance. 
 
 One of the French kings gave the nobles large tracts of land and agreed 
 that their sons should inherit their property and titles, only when the king 
 went to war all must be ready to turn out and help him fight. This was 
 called holding lands in fief, and the system was called feudalism. It gave 
 great power to the nobles who could band together and make war on each 
 other, build strong castles where they were safe from all attacks, and rule 
 as they chose over the people within the bounds of their territory. The 
 strong sallied out in bands and robbed the weak, plundered travelers, and 
 carried people off to their castles and held them until money was paid for 
 their deliverance. The king could do nothing to stop these wrongs ; he him- 
 self lived in constant terror lest his strongest barons should band together, 
 and deprive him of his crown. 
 
 It was the deeds of one of these powerful and wicked barons that gave 
 
France. 303 
 
 rise to the story of " Blue-beard," only instead of wives it was children that 
 this monster killed. 
 
 The real name of the villain was Gilles de Retz Sienr, but the people 
 called him Bar be-Uue— Blue-Beard. In his younger days he spent his for- 
 tune in such riotous living that he wasted both his health and his money. 
 In this state he came across an Italian magician, who said he could cure 
 him by the use of his black arts. One of the remedies prescribed was the 
 blood of young children, to be used as a bath. This he said would restore 
 the baron, not only his health, but his fortune. 
 
 De Retz retired to his castle near Nantes, with the wicked magician, 
 and there during fourteen years the most horrible crimes were committed. 
 Hundreds of young children were seized or enticed into the castle, where 
 many were killed and others made to take the part of priests and priest- 
 esses in the most horrible scenes, said to be the worship of the Devil. 
 
 To destroy the traces of his crimes he burnt the bodies of his victims, 
 and scattered their ashes to the winds, but forty bodies not so disposed of 
 were found buried in one place and eighty in another. 
 
 At length the people all around grew furious and demanded his death. 
 The Duke of Britanny gave him a fair trial, and so much was proved against 
 him that he was sentenced to be burned, but being a noble, he was strang- 
 led instead. 
 
 The Knights of Chivalry.— The terrible wrongs inflicted by the strong 
 against the weak in feudal times, led a number of Christian nobles to band 
 together to protect the helpless. They said it was a shame for those who had 
 power to use it to oppress the weak, and that henceforth they would make 
 it their duty to relieve all who were in distress, and especially to protect 
 women and children. From this sprang that courteous treatment of women 
 which distinguishes men of civilized countries from those of half-civilized 
 or barbarian. 
 
 The purpose of these nobles pleased the church and the king, and so 
 there went out a decree from the council of Clermont saying that every 
 person of noble birth at twelve years of age, should take a solemn oath be- 
 fore the bishop of his diocese to defend the widows and orphans ; that 
 women of noble birth, both married and single, should enjoy his special care ; 
 and that nothing should be wanting to render traveling safe, and to destroy 
 the evils of tyranny. 
 
 The education of a nobleman's son for his career as a knight began when 
 he was very young. Sometimes when only seven years old he was sent 
 
304 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 to the court of his king, or the castle of a noble already famed for brave 
 deeds and there he became the page or valet of the great man. He played 
 with other well-bred children, went through vigorous gymnastic exercises 
 to strengthen his body,and spent much time with the ladies of the household 
 who taught him to be courteous,gentlemanly and to serve God. Thus good- 
 ness,manly strength, and graceful manners became the leading traits of every 
 knight. 
 
 When fourteen years of age the young page became a squire. He now 
 might wear a sword instead of a short dagger, and bear his lord's shield on 
 the battle-field. Sometimes it happened that on the battle-field a young 
 squire did such valiant service for his lord that he was then and there made 
 a knight, but usually he had to wait until he was twenty one. A very 
 grand ceremony always was held when a squire of high rank was to be made 
 a knight. Amid a crowd of lords and ladies he knelt before the king or 
 some great commander, who alone had the right to bestow the title, °and 
 swore that he would protect, at the risk of his life, the cause of religion, 
 the widow and orphan, and all ladies that should need his protection;°that 
 he would be loyal to his chief, and would live a life of purity, temperance 
 and uprightness. The king or lord before whom he knelt then gave him 
 three blows on the back with his sword saying, " In the name of God of 
 St. Michael and St. George, I dub thee knight; be brave, bold and loyal'." 
 
 Then the young man mounted his steed and started out, thirsting for a 
 chance to prove his courage. Clad in his coat of mail he was proof against 
 all common enemies. Only another knight might unhorse him, when he 
 would lie helplessly on his back like a turtle, held down by his heavy ar- 
 mour, until some one helped him up. But this did not happen often. The keen 
 scimeters of the Saracens, and all the weapons of warfare then used in Eu- 
 rope, excepting those of the English archers, fell harmlessly upon his coat 
 of mail, and his horse which was also clad in armour. He could ride 
 unharmed through a host of common soldiers slaying scores on every side. 
 
 Peter the Hermit.— While the knights were burning with a desire to 
 prove their courage and win fame, a zealous monk of Amiens, was pre- 
 paring to furnish them with just the opportunity they wished. Peter the 
 Hermit, so called because he had given up wordly affairs and lived the life 
 of a hermit, went on a pilgrimage from France to Jerusalem, and there he 
 became very indignant at the wrongs done to the Christian pilgrims by the 
 Turks, and also at the thought that these infidels should pollute the Holv 
 City. J 
 
PETER THE HERMIT. 
 
306 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Filled with rage he returned to Europe and began to preach the duty of. 
 every Christian to go to Jerusalem and drive out the Turks. He soon stirred 
 up a great excitement, and a vast army of people, men women and children 
 of all ranks, knights and nobles, lords and peasants, all started out on foot, 
 and on horseback for the far away land of Palestine. 
 
 Very few knew how long the journey was, or what dangers lay before 
 them. Those who did expected to be delivered in some miraculous way, for 
 they thought the mission on which they were going could not but receive 
 the approval and assistance of God. So they set out without clothing, pro- 
 vision, or anything, expecting to find all they needed as they went along. 
 And such was their zeal and their blindness that they thought it right to 
 rob the Jews, who they said had killed the Savior, and even to murder 
 thousands of these poor people. 
 
 When they came to Hungary they seized there whatever they wished, 
 but this brought down upon them the hatred of the Hungarians, who fell 
 upon them and slew thousands. 
 
 Hardly twenty thousand of the vast throng that started out lived to 
 reach the borders of Asia, and there these were nearly every one slain by 
 the Turks. Peter escaped and found his way back in time to join the next 
 great company of crusaders, as the cross-bearers were called. 
 
 This throng was really the first crusade ; the other had been a mere rabble. 
 This contained thousands of good warriors, the leading nobility of Europe, 
 and the best blood of France, where the movement had started. But of these, 
 thousands perished by sword and hardship on the way. Only a small por- 
 tion of them reached Palestine, where after a fierce struggle they succeeded in 
 capturing the Holy City. Godfrey of Bouillon was made ruler, — he refused 
 to be crowned king where the Savior had been crowned with thorns. Peter, 
 at the request of the army preached a sermon on the mount of Olives to the 
 Christian conquerors. After this he returned to France rejoicing that his 
 great mission had been a success. 
 
 It did not remain a success though according to his views. Before he 
 had been in his grave a century, Jerusalem was retaken by the Turks ; 
 and though six other crusades, continuing through three centuries, drained 
 Europe of thousands more of its leading men, the Turks were not driven out 
 of Jerusalem. 
 
 But results far greater than Peter or any of his followers expected, sprang 
 from the Crusades. The people of Europe, who had hardly risen out of 
 barbarism, saw the luxury and refinement of the Empire at Constantinople. 
 
France. 307 
 
 They saw the results of industry in the east and the riches that could be 
 gained by trade. They returned to Europe with new ideas. At home they 
 found that the war had put an end to the strife between the dukes and 
 barons by uniting them all in a common cause. And just about that time 
 fire arms were coming into use, against which the knight's coat of mail was 
 no protection. His shield and helmet and lance had to be laid aside, and 
 then knight-hood went out of fashion. 
 
 Trade and manufacture soon sprang up ; war ceased to be the chief ooject 
 of life, and the middle classes had a chance to earn their living by honest 
 toil. Thus another great step was taken in civilization. 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. — There are few nations that have carried on more 
 wars both at home and abroad than the French. They have been at war 
 with all the countries around them, and with England they fought steadily 
 for a hundred years. 
 
 The cause of that great struggle, known in their history as the " hundred 
 years war," was those Norman lands which William the Conqueror held 
 when he went to fight the battle of Hastings . The French af teward insisted 
 that his descendants, the kings of England, were the vassals of the French 
 king, because William held those lands "in fief" to the king of France. 
 The English on the other hand claimed not only a clear title to Normandy 
 and Brrttany but, on the grounds of some marriages and intermarriages, they 
 claimed the whole kingdom of France. 
 
 The long struggle had continued for nearly seventy years, when Charles 
 VII. came to the throne, or to what was left of it. The French were much 
 weakened by the long conflict. Charles was sickly and indolent; his 
 unnatural mother was trying to prevent him from being king, and Henry 
 YI. of England had already been crowned king of France in the northern 
 part, and recognized as such by all but a few in the centre and south.. 
 These kept up the discouraging contest. 
 
 While all this was going on, there was growing up at Domremy on the 
 banks of the Meuse, a devout young girl, who was to be the deliverer of 
 her king. This was Jeanne d'Arc or Joan of Arc. 
 
 When only thirteen years of age Jeanne became possessed of the idea 
 that heavenly beings came and talked with her-. She heard voices of the 
 saints to whom she prayed, telling her to be a good girl, to go to confes- 
 sions and perform her religious duties faithfully. These were only simple 
 messages, but they filled Jeanne's soul with joy. Above everything else 
 she prized these visits of her adored saints. She ceased to go with the vil- 
 
308 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 lage young people and kept out of her mind every evil thought so as to be 
 ready for her heavenly company. 
 
 One day, as she was listening for these voices, she thought she heard 
 them saying that she must go to the aid of her king. She began to weep 
 at the thought of such a thing, and said that she was only a poor maiden 
 who knew nothing of riding or of war, but the saints told her to go to Vau- 
 couleurs where she would find a captain of the royal army and be led to the 
 
 king. 
 
 And so this simple country maid went to the court of her afflicted king, 
 pointed him out from a number of courtiers all dressed like himself, won 
 his faith in her mission and was given command of the French army. 
 A suit of armour was made for her, and dressed in this she put herself at 
 the head of ten thousand of the royal troops and led them against the 
 English who were beseiging Orleans. Here she gained a great victory. 
 
 Enthusiasm now took the place of discouragment among all of Charles' 
 friends. The English, who at first ridiculed the soldier maid, became 
 almost panic stricken wherever she appeared. Within three months she 
 fulfilled her promise of leading Charles at Rheims to be crowned. 
 
 In her suit of armour Jeanne stood by during the ceremony, and then 
 thought her work done. Northern France which had declared for the 
 English had now recognized Charles, and he was king of the whole coun- 
 try. But the English still remained, and she was urged to stay and help 
 drive them out. She consented to remain with the army, but she gained 
 no more victories. The next year she was captured by the English and 
 cruelly put to death. 
 
 The blame, of this crime does not rest entirely on the English. 
 They were not anxious to take her life, but the University of Paris, a set of 
 strict religious teachers who had a great deal of power, declared that her 
 claim to hearing heavenly voices was a wicked sin, which deserved the pun- 
 ishment of fire. 
 
 She was tried therefore, and condemned for sorcery, and amid a great 
 crowd of people, in the city of Rouen, was burned to death. Charles, who 
 owed to her his crown and his kingdom, made no effort to save her, and 
 waited ten years before he published a declaration saying that she was 
 innocent of the charge for which she had been burned and was a martyr to 
 religion, her country and her king. But the people of France have always 
 held in high honor this pure minded, patriotic girl, who certainly believed, 
 whether others did or not, that she was commanded by Heaven to de- 
 
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 JOAN OF ARC BEFORE THE KING. 
 
310 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 liver her country, and who let no obstacles stand in the way of her obedi- 
 ence. 
 
 Catheeine de Medici.— Among the many noted women who have had 
 much to do in shaping the course of French history, there is one who is 
 remembered only for her evil deeds. One of the darkest crimes that stain 
 the record of the rulers was planned by a woman. This Jezebel of France 
 was Catherine de Medici, a member of the great Medici family of Florence. 
 
 When she first came to France as the wife of Henry II., she professed 
 to have no taste whatever for aifairs of state, and as long as her husband 
 lived seems not to have shown any desire to manage them. But when her 
 son, Francis II., husband of Mary Queen of Scots was reigning, she began 
 to lay plots against those she wished out of the way. At this time she was 
 on the side of the Huguenots, the French Protestants, who were on very 
 bad terms with the Catholics. She planned with them a scheme to seize 
 and imprison Francis and Mary, who were both Catholics, and to kill all 
 Mary's relatives. But this was found out, and the Huguenot plotters were 
 put to death. 
 
 Then she plotted the death of a powerful Catholic duke, and tried to get 
 Francis to give his consent ; but he would not listen to her proposal. Soon 
 after this Frances died, and it was believed by many that his mother had 
 caused him to be poisoned. 
 
 Then the wicked woman had a chance to rule as she chose. Her son 
 Charles, who was now made king, was young and weak, and let her have 
 her way in everything. She soon took sides with the Catholics, and 
 plotted the death of the leading Huguenot leader, but the assassin appointed 
 to do the work only succeeded in wounding his victim. Afraid of what 
 might follow, she then planned the death of all the Huguenots in one great 
 massacre. 
 
 The king very unwillingly signed the paper for this deed. He was told 
 that the Huguenots were preparing to kill all the Catholics, and this was the 
 only way to prevent it. Still he hesitated, and after the paper had been 
 signed, sent to countermand the order. But it was too late. 
 
 At four o'clock the next morning the terrible butchery began, and- for 
 three days it was continued through the streets of Paris, until ten thousand 
 Huguenots had been killed. Orders had been sent to other cities and there 
 like massacres took place. Some say thirty thousand, some say sixty 
 thousand were butchered in France at this horrible massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew. 
 
France. 
 
 311 
 
 Poor Charles was never able to forget these terrible scenes. It is said 
 that in his dying bed his mind was so tortured with the remembrance that 
 he sweat drops of blood. His last words were, " 0, how much blood ! how 
 many assassinations ! 0, what evil counsels have I followed." 
 
 He died in the belief that he had been poisoned by his mother and his 
 brother who succeeded to his crown. 
 
 From this time until her death Catherine was engaged m making trouble 
 between the different parties of 
 the court, and died,— " unheeded 
 in the fierce strife of wars that 
 she had stirred up." 
 
 The Man in the Ikon Mask. 
 —For four hundred years there 
 stood at the gate of St. Antoine 
 in Paris, a building whose very 
 name brought up thoughts of 
 horror. It was used by the kings 
 of France, from the time of 
 Charles V., who built it, until the 
 First French Revolution, as a 
 prison in which they put such 
 persons as had offended them, 
 aroused their jealousy or stood in 
 their way. 
 
 There were eight round tow- 
 ers in the building each full of 
 cells, and beneath it dark dun- 
 geons nineteen feet below the 
 •courtyard. 
 
 Here prisoners were kept for years. They were not allowed to receive or 
 send messages to their friends, were in fact buried alive and no one ever 
 
 knew their fate. 
 
 When the enraged people of Paris in 1789 tore down this building, they 
 found in it seven persons, one of whom had been there since he was eleven 
 years old ; another had been shut up for forty years. When set free he 
 was bewildered, like a man awaking out of his sleep. His reason was en- 
 tirely gone. , 
 
 But of all the prisoners known to have been in the Bastile none nave 
 
 CATHERINE DI MEDICI. 
 
312 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 awakened so much sympathy and curiosity as a man who was imprisoned 
 there during the reign of Louis XI Y. He was known as the Man in the 
 Iron Mask. His real name has never been found out. His face was always 
 covered with a black velvet mask, fastened with steel springs, which he was 
 forbidden, on pain of instant death, ever to remove. When the other 
 prisoners heard mass, he was forbidden to speak or show himself, and 
 armed soldiers who stood by with loaded muskets had orders to shoot him 
 if he made the attempt. 
 
 The great fear of whoever had put this man there seemed to be that he 
 would let some one know who he was. To prevent this he was constantly 
 watched by the governor, who alone seems to have been entrusted with the 
 secret. He alone brought the prisoner his meals, attended to his 
 toilet, and carefully examined or destroyed the linen he had worn, lest he 
 should have left some mark upon it telling who he was. When he died 
 everything he had worn or used was burned. 
 
 How long the man in the Iron Mask was held a prisoner is as great a 
 secret as his name. He was at the Bastile five years before he died; was 
 brought there in a closed litter, accompanied by a mounted guard and this 
 governor, who had come from another prison to take charge of the Bastile. 
 Twenty-two years before the same governor took two prisoners carefully 
 guarded from one prison to another, where one of them died. It is believed 
 that the man in the Iron Mask was the survivor. That would make twenty- 
 seven years he was held a prisoner, and how much longer will probably 
 never be known. 
 
 French Revolutions. — All the wrongs and oppressions that the French 
 people suffered through a long line of kings, began during the reign of 
 Louis XIY. to gather a storm of wrath. While Louis XV. reigned the 
 storm kept gathering. When Louis XYI. came it burst out in terrible 
 fury. Enraged at the thought of their past wrongs, their half starved con- 
 dition, their burden of taxes, hearing of the success of the American Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and having lost all respect for their kings, they seized 
 and placed under the guillotine the unfortunate Louis, who had been more 
 indulgent than all the rest. His queen, Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria 
 Theresa of Austria, shared the same fate a few months later, and then the 
 storm began to rage. AYith monarchy swept away, the maddened people 
 destroyed everything connected with it. All rank, all grades of society, and 
 even the Christian religion was declared abolished. The worship of Reason 
 was publicly set up ; but reason had nothing to do with the scenes that f ol- 
 
THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK. 
 
314 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 lowed. Blind rage, envy, jealousy, hatred, every evil passion seemed let 
 loose upon the unfortunate French of Paris in 1793. 
 
 An assembly declaring themselves the ruling power ordered every day the 
 death of from sixty to seventy persons. For seven weeks a reign of terror 
 followed in which no one knew who would be the next victim. Fully fifteen 
 hundred persons were sent to the guillotine during this period. 
 
 Then the tide turned against those who had caused these murders and 
 they met the same fate they had lavished upon others. This was the first 
 French Revolution. When the storm was spent a young Republic began 
 to bring order out of the chaos. 
 
 But this new government was surrounded by foes from without. All the 
 other sovereigns of Europe felt that the growth of a republican government 
 on their borders was a menace to their own thrones. A reign of terror 
 might be begun in their own capitals. So they came to compel the French to 
 restore their fallen monarchy. 
 
 Then Napoleon Bonaparte appeared as the defender of the young Repub- 
 lic. At first a plain unassuming man, his success in destroying the enemies 
 of France filled him with ambition and the people with admiration. They 
 made him Consul for ten years. And then he made himself Emperor. 
 Monarchy was again established. 
 
 Napoleon's Empire ended at Waterloo. But monarchy was continued, 
 for then the foreign powers went to Paris and put a crown on Louis XVIII. 
 
 All went well for fifteen years ; then came the Revolution of 1830. 
 Charles, the successor of Louis had tried to take back a little of the liberty 
 that the people had gained, and they set him aside, putting in his place 
 Louis Philippe. This was simply a revolution from one king to another 
 and there was no serious outbreak. 
 
 Eighteen years passed and then came the Revolution of 1848. 
 Louis Philippe saved his life by flight. His throne was burned, and 
 another republic was declared, with Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of 
 the great Napoleon, as president for four years. 
 
 When his term of office expired, another revolution broke out during 
 which he quietly gathered the reins in his own hands as his uncle had done, 
 and was declared Emperor Napoleon III. 
 
 This last monarchy lasted until the war with Prussia in 1870, brought 
 on by Napoleon III. without cause, and ending disastrously for the French. 
 The assembly declared that he was the cause of the calamities of the war 
 and that none of his family should ever occupy the throne of France 
 
 
 je. 
 
France. 
 
 315 
 
 Then the present republic was set np, which has, so far, successfully resisted 
 the pretensions of two lines of monarchs, and the easily excited passions of 
 the people. 
 
 The Bee ad Crust Dealer. — The people of France have the virtues of 
 industry and economy in a marked degree. By careful management they 
 live comfortably, and even elegantly, on wages that others find hardly 
 
 TAKING THE BASTILE. 
 
 enough to keep them alive. They are very ingenious, too, in finding ways 
 of making money. 
 
 A remarkable example of both these virtues was an old French soldier 
 who made a fortune out of what many people throw away. 
 
 Returning to Paris after the battle of Waterloo, he found his services 
 no longer needed in the army, and he had no other means of support, his 
 military training having unfitted him for a trade, and he had no capital. 
 The only thing he found to do to keep him from starving, was rag picking 
 which he tried for a time, but it led to meetings with his old comrades and 
 he could not bear their scoffs. He changed his occupation to rag sorting 
 
: 
 
 316 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 where lie could remain indoors, but this made him sick and he was taken 
 to the hospital. While there he fell in with a poultry fattener, with whom, 
 after he came out, he worked until he had saved quite a little sum of 
 money. With this he proposed to start in business for himself, and was 
 looking about for a good location for a wine-shop or eating-house, when he 
 happened to pass the place where he had worked as a rag-sorter, and here 
 a bright idea struck him. He remembered that the pickers always found 
 quantities of bread crusts among the refuse in the streets, which he be 
 lieved could be put to good use. So he went around to the restaurants 
 and eating-houses, and offered to buy the crusts they had been in the habi 
 of throwing away. The restaurant keepers thought he must be crazy, bu 
 of course were very willing to sell their waste bread. 
 
 In a few days he appeared in the market place with several baskets full 
 of neat looking, crisp and tempting bread-crusts. In a short time his stock 
 was exhausted, and he had no trouble afterward in disposing of all he could 
 prepare. In a short time he began to supply several eating-houses with his 
 prepared crusts for rabbit stews, and grated bread crumbs for the cooks to 
 use in powdering their cutlets. His business rapidly increased, until he 
 had a factory, employing fifty men and women in sorting and cleaning his 
 crusts, and six carts and horses to collect and bring his scraps to the fac- 
 tory. He also employed a large number of young girls in packing the lit- 
 tle baskets of crisped squares, and children in grinding to powder the 
 scraps, which, too far gone for any other use, were burned to cinder and sold 
 for tooth powder. 
 
 The old soldier always superintended all the operations of his large 
 establishment, and impressed upon everybody that not a crumb should be 
 wasted. When, at last, he retired from business, it was on an income of 
 thirty thousand francs a year. 
 
 The Vineyards of Champagne. — One of the most profitable indus- 
 tries of France is wine-making, and among all of its noted vineyards, that 
 of ChamxDagne is the most famous. A strip of country, about thirty miles 
 long and two broad, in this province, is almost entirely devoted to vines, but 
 the southern slopes of the hills are the most valuable for grape raising. 
 
 The planting and dressing of these sunny slopes is carried on very sys- 
 tematically. Every third year new vines are set out, at the bottom, and 
 from there trained until they reach the top. After each harvest all the 
 vines are cut off close to the ground and the stump buried ; next spring the 
 shoots come out three or four inches higher up the hill, and so keep 
 
France. 
 
 317 
 
 growing until they reach the top. In this way the whole surface is kept 
 covered, but the best crops are gathered about midway up, where the frosts 
 are less likely to trouble the fruit. 
 
 The gathering begins in the latter part of September, and then there is a 
 great rush and hurry to get all the grapes in before they are touched by the 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 frost. Not only all the people of the neighborhood, but many who come 
 from a distance, are employed in the picking, sorting and packing. 
 
 Sometimes the owner of the vineyard has his own press ; then the grapes 
 are laid on the platform, as they are gathered, and the juice drops into the 
 vats below. This "first dropping," without the application of pressure, is set 
 aside by itself, and made into a very choice wine. The screws are then 
 applied to the press, and another and larger flood of juice runs into the 
 vats. This makes wine of the first quality. Another turn of the 
 screws brings out a second quality of juice. Thus several different brands 
 
318 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 are secured from each pressing, the last obtained by putting the screws to 
 their utmost tension, brings out a red wine of poor quality, for the use of 
 the workmen about the establishment. 
 
 The various pressings are put into casks, all properly marked, and stowed 
 away until the first fermentation is over ; then an interesting operation 
 takes place. To give the required flavor, the product of the vines of one 
 locality must be mixed with those of another, in just the right propor- 
 tions. A " taster" is employed in every establishment to mix these, until 
 he knows by the taste that the right degree is obtained. He notes carefully 
 the proportions he has used, and then the large vats are filled with the dif 
 ferent juices in just the same proportion. When these have become 
 thoroughly mixed the liquor is drawn off into hogsheads and put into bot- 
 tles ; but it is not ready yet for market. It must remain all winter in deep, 
 cold cellars, built for the purpose with great care. Early in tlie spring it 
 goes through a second fermentation, which gives it its sparkling qualities, 
 then for another long period of eighteen months the bottles remain on their 
 sides, watched and shaken a little every day, until the sediment gathers 
 about the cork. Then a workman very skillfully draws out the cork in 
 such a way as to bring out with it all the sediment, but scarcely a drop of 
 the clear liquid. 
 
 Up to this time the liquor has been simply and purely the juice of the 
 grape, with no addition, except in rare cases where a little sugar is found 
 necessary, on account of a wet or cold season. But now each bottle 
 recives a quantity of sugar, dissolved in a mixture of old wine and brandy, 
 more or less, according to the country to which it is to be sent. If for 
 America, not over one per cent, of brandy is used ; if for England, three or 
 four per cent. After this mixing the bottles are corked, tinfoiled or leaded, 
 and packed away ready for shipping. 
 
 Flower-Farming. — Many of the people in southeastern France make 
 their living by raising flowers, — a business that results in crops of greater 
 beauty than even the rich clusters of the grapes, and a final product far less 
 harmful. The flowers are made into delicate perfumes to please people's 
 noses, not to scorch their stomachs and set their brains on fire. 
 
 Flower- farming is carried on in other parts of Europe, but nowhere so 
 extensively as in southern France. Here almost every field is a garden, 
 every proprietor a flower-grower, and every breath of summer wind ladened 
 with fragrance. 
 
 Who would not be a harvester there, where the crop is snowy mounds of 
 
France. 
 
 319 
 
 white orange blossoms, or purple violets, clustering jasmines, honeyed tube- 
 roses, or oceans of crimson, pink, white and yellow roses, of every size and 
 variety ! 
 
 As is most proper and fitting, the origin of this beautiful business was a 
 pair of lovers . Pierre was a poor but honest young Frenchman, who was very 
 anxious to marry pretty Marie, the maid of his choice. But Marie's father 
 said she should never marry a beggar. If Pierre could show twenty thous- 
 and crowns, very well, the 
 wedding day might be fixed ; 
 if not, Marie should die an 
 old maid rather than marry 
 Pierre. 
 
 They were standing in 
 Pierre's little flower garden 
 when Marie told him her 
 father's decision. " Twenty 
 thousand crowns ; " he cried 
 in despair. ' ' Why all I have, v 
 these few poor acres, that S 
 little vineyard, and these 
 olive trees would not bring 
 a fifth of that sum," and his 
 eyes rested on the flowers 
 around them. "How I 
 wish" he said, sadly, "I 
 could coin these flowers into 
 gold !" 
 
 These words came back 
 to him, afterward, bring- 
 ing a new idea. He vis- 
 ited the village druggist early the next morning, and together they went 
 through the little flower garden, the druggist sniffing, ogling, and even tast- 
 ing the pretty petals and fragrant stamens. 
 
 Soon after this visit, Pierre was seen shifting his fences and enlarging 
 his garden. Now he took in a slip of his vineyard, now a corner of his fields, 
 then he went off to the forest with his men, to search for fine blacking mould. 
 The next day he was busily sowing, cutting and trans-planting in his garden. 
 The people thought he was getting crazy ; they advised him to pull up his 
 
 JOSEPHINE. 
 

 820 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 useless flowers and grow leeks and garlic like a sensible man. But Pierre 
 shook his head, and Marie encouraged him in his obstinacy. The old 
 Italian druggist, too, was forever coming and whispering to Pierre in the 
 garden, and chuckling over the flowers. 
 
 The summer passed, and in the spring what a glorious garden Pierre's 
 was ; it made the old Italian chuckle more than ever. Then they began to 
 gather the flowers and Marie came over and helped. A fire was built in the 
 furnace and a strange brewing and simmering was begun, with the lean 
 Italian rubbing his hands over it as though he were some horrible wizard 
 
 That summer, Josephine, the wife of the then Consul Napoleon, was asked 
 by a friend of the Italian druggist to accept the dedication of a delightful 
 new essence, quite a new discovery. She graciously did so, and the products 
 of Pierre's little garden went off with lightning-like rapidity. All Paris 
 began to demand this new and fashionable essence, and poor Pierre's garden 
 could not begin to supply it. He turned all of his land into flower-gardens, 
 bought more, and raised more and more flowers, which now indeed were 
 turning to gold in his hands. 
 
 Marie's father consented to have the wedding day fixed, for though the 
 twenty thousand crowns were not ready yet, he saw that it would not take 
 long for Pierre to win them, and many more besides. 
 
 And the people who had laughed, advised and scolded, now blessed Pierre 
 Lescaut, for he had put them in a way of making far more money out of 
 their lands than they could by raising leeks and garlics, and thus it came 
 about that every year during the months of May and June nearly the whole 
 of Provence is a bower of beauty and fragrance, and the people well-to-do 
 and happy. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 A bird's-eye view of Spain would show a curious wave-like appearance in 
 the surface, as though it had once been a mass of huge heaving billows, 
 suddenly caught and held fast as they stood with their crests tossed high 
 in the air, and deep valleys between. First, along the Mediterranean coast 
 rises the tops of the Sierra Nevada, with the snow-covered peaks, Veletaand 
 Mulahacen, towering higher even 
 than any of the Pyrenees ; this bil- 
 low sinks into the valley of the 
 Guadalquiver, beyond which rises 
 the Sierra Toledo, giving place to 
 the Tagus valley ; then conies the 
 Sierra Guadarama which sinks 
 down into the broad valley of the 
 Bouro, on the west, and the Ebro 
 on the east. Then, as if to make 
 up for the wide interval, comes in 
 regular ocean fashion, the fifth bil- 
 low, — the towering range of the 
 Pyrenees extending onward in the 
 west as the Cantabrian. 
 
 But there is this difference in the shape of these frozen earth-waves and 
 the ocean billows ; their descent on the south side is in broad, flat terraces 
 ending in abrupt steeps. The northern slopes are more gentle. 
 
 The Pyrenees.— The largest of these billows^ the one which separates 
 France from Spain, has a curious wavy make-up, now a peak, now a pass, 
 but its formation resembles a huge backbone more than ocean waves. From 
 the central range, which runs nearly east and west, branches extend outward 
 on each side, like ribs from a backbone. Where the " ribs " join the spine, 
 
322 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 there is a high spur, corresponding to the hummocks on a backbone and 
 between are the hollows or passes. 
 
 There is the same difference between the northern and southern slopes of I 
 the Pyrenees that there is in the other ranges . On the French side are beauti- 
 ful valleys, carpeted with rich meadows, and wooded hills, brilliant with 
 beeches and maples, oaks and firs. Cottages and villages are set thickly 
 about the slope, and hundreds of streams hurry on their way to the Garonne 
 and the Adour. 
 
 But on the Spanish side are broad terraces scantily clothed, ending 
 abruptly in bare rugged steeps. 
 
 " Bano del Bio."— In summer the sun shine on the wide basins and 
 flat shelves of the central plains of Spain, makes the sands almost like burning 
 coals, and the hot air rising from them carries the moisture of the sea-breezes 
 far up into the mountains before it collects into drops. Falling there, it 
 reaches the rivers, and is quickly carried back to the sea, leaving the land 
 dry. 
 
 Again in winter the table lands grow so cold that all the winds blow 
 toward the sea, and so they receive little moisture. The earth becomes 
 parched and covered with a thick coat of fine dust, and the air grows hazy 
 as in a fog with these fine flying particles. During the hot days in sum- 
 mer, when the heat is almost unbearable, and the air dim with dust, the peo- 
 ple go for relief to the nearest river for a " bano del rio," a river-bath. 
 
 Early in the morning the whole household sets out, the " senoritas " in 
 a covered cart, with "senors" on horse-back, for the river side. They cross 
 the "campo," the treeless plain, knee-deep in dust and thistles, with per- 
 haps here and there a threshing-floor, where every day the oxen are driven 
 round and round treading out corn, peas and oats. Presently they come in 
 sight of the river, just as the morning haze of gray and purple begins to 
 break away from the Sierras. Where seemed to rest a heavier cloud looms 
 up the-jagged edge of dark-brown, rugged hills. The whole river and land- 
 scape become one hot mass of crimson light. 
 
 The path of the party now becomes more difficult, running between high 
 bowlders on one side,which half shut out the sky, and a deep, rocky chasm 
 on the other extending downward a hundred feet or more— the bed of a 
 mountain's torrent, now dry. 
 
 At the river they unsaddle the horses, and the creatures quickly plunge 
 into the water, while their masters prepare for bathing. On the sides of the 
 river the rocks form huge chairs, into which the bathers then take 
 
Spain. 323 
 
 their seats, with the water up to their shoulders, and lazily allow the cool 
 water to soothe their skins and nerves. The ladies clothed to the neck in 
 brilliant bathing gowns, red, yellow and blue, hold in one hand an umbrella 
 to keep off the sun, in the other, the ever-present fan. They make a very 
 pretty picture, sitting there, with the green bed of the river extending on each 
 side behind them the steep banks overhung with rose pink, oleanders and 
 pomegranites, and in the distance the saw-like edges of the Sierra Morena. 
 And the delicious coolness of the water makes them forget the hot air into 
 which they must again return. 
 
 The Paradise of Spain.— Some of the most fertile and well watered 
 regions of Spain lie in the south, where the beautiful valleys of the Sierra 
 Nevada abounds in almost every kind of plant, fruit and flower. In the 
 valley of Granada, the apple, pear and strawberry blossom by the side of 
 the orange, cactus, and sloe. On the other sideof therangem theLaAlpu- 
 iarra region, the trees and shrubs of northern climates grow just above the 
 olive and the vine, and below these, in the valleys, are the banana, cotton 
 
 and sugar cane. 
 
 In one of these beautiful vallies is the village of Lanjalon, which bears 
 the name of the " Paradise of Spain." It is perched on the southern end 
 of a spur of the Sierra Nevada, below it is a deep gorge, containing a noisy 
 little stream on its way to the Mediterranean, above a giant wall of rock and 
 all around a girdle of noble mountains. 
 
 The village itself is a long street of white, flat-roofed houses, with a tiny 
 park in the center. The shelving platform on which it stands, throughout 
 its length and breadth, is a tangled wilderness of pomegranate, fig, apricot, 
 and orange trees. For oranges Lanjalon is especially famous, while it 
 abounds in all the other fruits of this most fruitful region. On every side 
 they gleam through the glossy foliage "like golden lamps ina green night," 
 some one says. They hang temptingly over every path, and perfume every 
 mountain breeze that sweeps down this happy valley. 
 
 Gibraltar.— Like a last angry spurt, tossed up by an offended wave 
 when it meets with a resistance it can not overcome, the rock of Gibraltar 
 appears to have been thrown up by a heaving wave of earth that could not 
 succeed in reaching the surface. Only this jagged crest appears and over 
 the strait is its twin brother, the " Apes Hill." 
 
 The rock of Gibraltar is a steep, broken mass towering up above the sea 
 on three sides with the low, sandy strip that connects it with the mainland 
 on the other. The surface at a distance looks bare, but closer, acacia. 
 
324 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 fig, and orange trees appear, growing in sheltered places, and among the 
 animals that still run about wild are the Barbary apes, the onlfwilj 
 monkeys in Europe. 
 
 The general appearance of Gibralter is a queer mixture of threatening 
 fierceness and beauty, peace and industry. Every nook and cranny deal 
 to the top, bristles with artillery. Barracks rise tier above tier upon The 
 ledges The black muzzles of cannon peep menacingly out of small round 
 port-holes of which the rock seems to be full. Sentries are pacing to and 
 iro. The tattoo of drums and roar of cannon announces the opening and 
 closing of the great gates twice each day. ° 
 
 Farther down are more white barracks, amid gay villas surrounded with 
 gardens, rich green lawns, winding walks with white marble seats here and 
 there, beautiful shrubbery, geraniums in great abundance and groves of 
 oranges, lemons and figs. 
 
 On a shelving ledge on the west side of the rock near its northern ex- 
 tremity is the town, full of all manner of varied life. There are busy 
 Moors from the opposite shores of Barbary with snow white turbans flow- 
 ing robes, bare, dark legs and loose slippers; Jews in gaudy embroidered 
 costumes, with broad, many colored sashes around their waists and ba^y 
 white trousers; elegant Spanish caballeros with tight fitting coats and 
 breeches fastened down at the sides with silver buttons; pretty, dark'eyed 
 Genoese women in scarlet cloaks and hoods, trimmed with black velvet- 
 and dazzling Spanish « senoritas " with sweeping black lace veils and grace- 
 ful mantillas. Mingling with these are the soldiers and officers off duty 
 dressed in the sober English " coat and pants." ' 
 
 The rock of Gibraltar on the inside is full of hollow caverns extending 
 down to unknown depths, and all opening where their mouths can 
 scarcely be reached The greatest of these is the cave of St. Michael's, 
 about three hundred feet below the summit. In it is a hall hung with stal- 
 actites from floor to roof, and abounding in fearful chasms of which no one 
 has ever found the bottom, and numerous galleries leading off into re-ions 
 that have never been explored. 
 
 The Siege of GiBulLTAR.-There is no place in the world that can be 
 so easily held from an enemy as the rock of Gibraltar. When strongly 
 fortified as it is at present, it can resist the fiercest and most prolonged 
 attacks, both from land and sea. On all sides the guns and gunners are 
 protected by solid walls of rock, behind which their stations have been 
 chiseled. No amount of « cannon or grape » can make any impression on 
 
Spain. 325 
 
 these defenses, while the attacking side is constantly exposed to the fire of 
 some of the many loop-holes. 
 
 The first persons known to have nsed this rock as a fortress, were the 
 Moors when they came in under the leadership of Tarik to war against the 
 Goths Their leader built a fort upon the top, and this gave it the name 
 of " Hill of Tarik." A few hundred years afterward a Moorish engineer 
 built a number of strongholds about it, but these were not sufficient for its 
 defense It was captured by the Christians, and several times passed from 
 
 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 one party to the other, during fierce struggles for the possession of Spain. 
 Finally, the Spaniards gained it and made it stronger, and then it was 
 thought to be untakable. ( 
 
 But in the beginning of the eighteenth century, during the War o± the 
 Spanish Succession," the English fleets with the assistance of the Dutch 
 succeeded in taking the rock of Gibraltar. Then began a series of attacks 
 and sieges by the Spaniards to get it back again, the last and most terrible 
 of these lasted from 1779-1783. The Spaniards threw up a line of works 
 across the narrow isthmus completely shutting ofi the garrison from sup- 
 
326 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 plies by land, while a powerful fleet anchored in the bay to prevent their 
 receiving help by sea. For three weeks a constant fire was poured upon the 
 rock from 80 mortars and 200 pieces of battering cannon, but with no effect. 
 
 One night the English sailed out and destroyed the line of earth-worki 
 between them and the town, but the Spaniards immediately rebuilt them. A 
 thousand more pieces were added to the besieging artillery, and a host of 
 vessels surrounded the rock by sea. Still the English aj>peared as strong 
 as ever, and one of their admirals broke through the line of ships with sup- 
 plies. 
 
 When three years had passed away and still the garrison showed no signs 
 of surrender, ten enormous floating batteries, thought to be capable of 
 resisting all attacks, were fitted out by the Spanish, and then began one of 
 the most dreadful cannonades upon the rock that was ever known. J c 
 lasted for hours, and the red hot shot used by the English begun to 
 tell upon the batteries. At midnight nine of them were on fire. About 
 four hundred of the crew were humanely rescued from the water by tlie 
 British; the rest perished in the flames, by explosions or drpwning. 
 Only sixteen of the English were killed. 
 
 A number of attempts were afterward made to storm the rock facing the 
 land side but they only resulted in great loss to the Spaniards. 
 
 Meanwhile the English received fresh supplies and the siege was raised 
 nearly four years after it had begun. A peace was made by which it was 
 agreed that the English should keep the fortress and they have been the 
 undisputed possessors ever since. 
 
 Spain's Invaders. — When Spain first appears upon the page of history 
 it is a land of great natural riches, abounding in every kind of cattle, fruit, 
 and minerals. Gold, silver, quicksilver, precious stones, marble and other 
 valuable building material were obtained in great quantities. The Phoe- 
 nicians came here to trade, and planted colonies along the borders of the 
 Mediterranean . 
 
 Then from Carthage, on the African Coast, came the great warrior Hanni- 
 bal and conquered the "Iberians," as the inhabitants were called. Then came 
 the Romans who both conquered and civilized the people until " Espania," 
 as they named the country, became one of the principal seats of Roman 
 le .rning and literature. 
 
 Into this state of peace and plenty broke the barbarian deluge. First 
 the Alani tribes, who came only a little way and mixed with others who 
 came afterward. Then the Suevi who passed over to the northwest and 
 
Spain. ^ 27 
 
 inally down into Portugal, where their descendants now live. The third 
 3ribe was the fierce Vandals whose terrible doings has given the term 
 < vandalism " to such crimes as they committed. 
 
 The Romans unable in their now weakened state to drive back these 
 savage foes called to their aid the Goths, or Visi Goths as the western 
 branch of these people were called, to distinguish them from those who had 
 settled in the east. These Goths, who had already a large empire on the 
 borders of the Pyrenees, had shown themselves to be less savage than the 
 other barbarian tribes, and the Romans made treaties of friendship wich 
 them. But after driving out the Vandals the Goths decided to take the 
 government in their own hands. So the Roman rule in Spam ended m the 
 year 471, about twenty-five years after they left England and fifteen before 
 Clovis drove them from France at the battle of Soissons. 
 
 Bernabdo del CABPio.-The reign of the Moors in Spam was one of 
 great splendor. Arts and learning flourished, and the schools of the Span- 
 ish Mohammedans became so celebrated that they were visited by students 
 from all over Europe. Magnificent palaces and gardens arose filled with 
 all the rich luxury that the eastern nations so much enjoy. But their 
 religion was that of the false prophet, and in the north where the Moors 
 had never fully conquered the- Gothic and Spanish natives, grew up a zeal- 
 ous race of Christians, who in time became strong enough to make war on 
 the Moors. Gradually the provinces of the north extended, and small 
 kingdoms grew up, among them Leon and Castile. GaUant knights, who 
 had been to Palestine in the crusades, came down from France to assist the 
 Spaniards against the Mohammedans, Moors or Saracens, as they were also 
 
 During this time lived the famous knight, Bernardo del Carpto, who 
 gained great renown by fighting against the Moors But there was one 
 trouble that gnawed at his heart. During his whole life his father had 
 been held for a small offense by his uncle, the king. Bernardo had , often 
 plead in vain with the king for his father's release, and at last left the 
 court in anger, joined the Moors, took up his headquarters at the ^castle ol 
 Carpio at Valencia. Some say that while there -he fought with the Moors 
 against Charlemagne in the pass of the Pyrenees, and that it was his 
 sword that laid low the hero Roland. 
 
 A.fter a while the king told him that if he would surrender the castle ol 
 Caipio his father should be released. The hero consented to do so, and 
 mounting his horse rode out to meet the king's train in which it was said 
 
328 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 his father was coming — "a ransomed man." But when he reached the 
 stately horseman that they said was his "long imprisoned sire," he found 
 it was his father's corpse. 
 
 After this he left Spain to return no more and went to France, where the 
 tradition says he became a noted knight-errant. 
 
 The Cid. — Another Spanish hero who became still more famous in Spain 
 for his exploits against the Moors was the famous Cid whom the Spaniards 
 called el Campeador — the champion. His real name was Rodrigo Diaz. 
 
 As nearly as can be learned he was born in the time of Ferdinand the 
 Great, who had united the kingdoms of Leon and Castile into one powerful 
 Monarchy and was fast driving the Moors toward the south. When Ferdi- 
 nand died the Cid displeased the son who became king and was obliged to 
 leave court and give up his estates. Collecting a band of followers he then 
 began his famous wars on the Moors. 
 
 A book called " The Chronicles of the Cid," giving a full account of the 
 life of this hero was for many years the favorite story book of Spain. It tells 
 in a quaint way how " My Cid" took the town of Alcocer. "He pitched 
 his tent securely, having the Sierra on one side and the river on the Other. 
 And he made all his people dig a trench that they might not be alarmed 
 neither by day nor night. 
 
 "And' my Cid lay before Alcocer fifteen weeks ; and when he saw that the 
 town did not surrender, he ordered his people to break uj3 their camp as if 
 they were flying and they left one of their tents behind them and took their 
 way along the Salon, with their banners spread. And when the Moors saw 
 this they rejoiced greatly and there was a great stir among them, and they 
 praised themselves for what they had done in withstanding him, and said 
 that the Cid's barley had failed him and he fled away. And they said 
 among themselves, let us pursue them and spoil them, for if they of Terul 
 should be before us the honor and the profit will be theirs and we shall have 
 nothing. And they went out after him, great and little, leaving the gates 
 open and shouting as they went ; and there was not left in the town a man 
 who could bear arms. 
 
 " And when my Cid saw them coming he gave orders to quicken their 
 speed, as if he was in fear, and would not let his people turn till the Moors 
 were far enough from the town. But when he saw that there was a good 
 distance between them and the gates, then he bade his banner turn and 
 spurred towards them crying, ' Lay on knights ; by God's mercy the spoil 
 is our own.' 
 
 ' ' In one hour three hundred Moors were slain, and the Cid got between 
 them and the Castle and stood in the gateway, sword in hand, and there 
 was great mortality among the Moors . And my Cid won the place and planted 
 his banner upon the highest point of the Castle. 
 
THE ALCAZAR AT SEGOVIA. 
 
330 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 • 
 
 u But when the Moorish kings heard of this they came up with a ff reat 
 force against the Cid and beseiged him, as he had the natives of the Castle 
 until he had no bread or water for his men. Then he called his followers 
 and said to them, ' Ye see that the Moors have cut off our water, and we 
 have but little bread ; they gather numbers day bv dav, and we become 
 weak. JNow, if it please you, let us go out and fight with them, though 
 they be many m number, and either defeat them or die an honorable death « ' 
 bo they went out with their shields over their hearts, and their lances 
 lowered. < Many a shield was pierced that day, many a false corselet broken 
 many a white streamer dyed with blood, and many a horse left without a 
 Sr e ?V but "JP^y among the Moors. Few of the Cid's men fell. At last 
 the Moors, disheartened, began to give away. Then they lied, pursued by 
 rile Lmristians. 
 
 '' When the victors returned and began to divide the spoil they found 
 enough to make them all rich men. The Cid from his portion, prepared a 
 tine present for king Alfonso— thirty horses all saddled and bridled each 
 with a sword hanging from the saddle bow, and told the messenger to say 
 tnat they knew how to gain their way against the Moors." 
 
 The Alhambra.— The last stronghold of the Moors in Spain was Gran- 
 ada, where stood their grand palace,— the Alhambra. This beautiful 
 place, % about which whole books have been written, -was built by the early 
 Moorish kings, both for a palate and a fortress. They tilled it with every 
 possible luxury and surrounded it with a lofty wall, within which was 
 room for fifty thousand defenders. Every one of its numerous buildings 
 was decorated with marvelous frescoes, and surrounded by beautiful gar- 
 dens, groves, parks and fountains. It would seem as if nothing were want- 
 ing m this k < castle of pearls " to furnish all the pleasure the Moorish heart 
 could desire. 
 
 The grand apartment of the Alhambra is the "Hall of Lions," made 
 entirely of marble and alabaster, surrounded by a hundred marble columns 
 and ornamented with the most delicate fretwork. In the centre is a splen- 
 did fountain supported by thirteen lions, which has given the name to the 
 hall. Upon the alabaster bowl of the fountain, which rests upon the lions' 
 backs are several curious inscriptions, such as the Mohammedans were fond 
 of putting upon their most pleasing works. One of these says : 
 
 " Beautiful is the stream which flows from my bosom, thrown high into 
 the air by the profuse hand of Mohammed. His generosity excels the 
 strength of lions." 
 
 The Hall of Abencerrages is still more beautifully decorated. The 
 ceiling is of cedar wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ivory and silver. The 
 walls are ornamented with sculptures of the most elegant and intricate 
 
Spain. 
 
 331 
 
 designs. The colors of these are still brilliant, and the tracery in perfect 
 order, though put there more than five hundred years ago. 
 
 Passages from the court of lions lead into various halls. One is the 
 hall of the ambassadors, another the sleeping apartment of the king. This 
 has also a marble fountain in the centre, and two bath-rooms adjoining. 
 Above, in a circular tour, is the Queen's boudoir, the windows of which, 
 overlook " the Queen's gar- 
 dens." 
 
 Here, everything was 
 once loveliness . An inscrip- 
 tion says, " Where is there 
 a garden like unto this? 
 Its verdure and its fra- 
 grance exceed all others, 
 and its freshness is scat- 
 tered all around . The beauty 
 and excellence that are in 
 me proceed from Moham- 
 med ! His goodness sur- 
 passed all things past, and 
 all that are to come . Among 
 five stars, three turn pale 
 beside his superior bright- 
 ness. The marble softens at 
 his voice, and the light of 
 his eyes scatters darkness." 
 
 The palace of Generalife 
 is one of the most magnifi- 
 cent on the grounds of the 
 
 Alhambra. It is a palace of waters. The Darro, on its way from the 
 summits of the Sierra Nevada, boils through the court under evergreen 
 arches, murmurs and dances, and whirls around in marble basins at the 
 foot of each staircase, is carried to the topmost rooms, where it throws out 
 delicious coolness in the hot days of summer, and then passes down 
 through hollow balusters on either hand from top- to bottom. 
 
 In this palace is another curious inscription, on the arcades of the court, 
 showing the thoughts that hovered in the minds of these luxury-loving 
 Moors. " Charming palace ! splendid art thou, and great as thou art splen- 
 
332 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 did ! Worthy art thou to be praised, for divinity is in all thy charms. 
 Flowers adorn thy gardens. They nod upon their stalks and fill the air 
 with their sweet perfume. A breeze plays with the blossoms of the orange 
 trees, and their delightful fragrance is wafted all around. Hark! music 
 mingles with the gentle rustling of the leaves. Sweet Harmony ! Verdure 
 and flowers encompass me." 
 
 The Escurial.— In one of the most desolate spots in Spain, on the barren 
 slopes of the Gaudarama, northwest from Madrid, stands a palace which is 
 the exact opposite of the light, airy and beautiful palace of the Moors. 
 This is the dark, gloomy Escurial, built by the sullen Philip II., in memory 
 of a saint who died a horrible death on a gridiron. He whose very name 
 calls up " blood councils," the rack and the stake could scarcely have left 
 a more appropriate monument, He who caused eighteen thousand persons 
 to be beheaded, who never laughed so heartily as when he heard of the mas- 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew, was probably the only king to whose mind would 
 have come the thought of building his palace in the shape of an instrument 
 of torture on which a saint was roasted to death. 
 
 In the handle of this gridiron this strange architect placed his royal 
 palace; the legs, supposing the gridiron to be inverted, he had marked by 
 four great towers ; the grate by seventeen granite buildings, crossing each 
 other at right angles. In the center, to represent the body of the saint, 
 was placed a church, the grandest building in the inclosure. It is built in 
 imitation of St. Peter's at Rome ; contains forty chapels, each with its al- 
 tars and one grand altar of jasper and gilded bronze; porphyry and marbles 
 of the richest description incrust the walls. No expense was saved in en- 
 riching this, the chief feature of the Escurial. 
 
 Directly beneath the grand altar, so that the host might be raised directly 
 oyer the dead, was placed a mausoleum for the reception of the future 
 kings of Spain. And here they have since been laid in solemn black marble 
 niches, all the sovereigns of Spain from Charles V. down to the present 
 time. 
 
 On each side of the church was an oratory used by the roval family 
 when they attended mass. In the one on the 'left, which communicated 
 directly with the palace, Philip II. breathed his last, Sept. 13, 1598, aged 
 seventy-two. He desired to die there where his last glance might be directed 
 toward the altar. 
 
 The last days of this poor fanatical monarch were sad indeed. His body 
 was racked with dreadful pain and his mind was haunted with doubt as to 
 
Spain. 
 
 whether after all his wholesale slaughter of heretics were not crimes 
 
 >f virtues. 
 
 The different build- 
 ng s of the Escurial, 
 resides the church pal- 
 ice, consist of a mon- 
 astery with two hun- 
 dred cells, two colleges, 
 three chapterhouses, 
 three libraries, five 
 great halls, six dormi- 
 tories, three hospital 
 halls, twenty -seven 
 other halls, nine refec- 
 tories, five infirmaries, 
 a countless number of 
 apartments for attend- 
 ants, besides fourteen 
 gates and eighty-six 
 fountains. The whole 
 edifice is built of white 
 stone spotted with 
 grey, and from its 
 great size, presents a 
 most imposing appear- 
 ance. 
 
 For twenty-one 
 years Philip watched 
 the workmen raising 
 and embelishing this 
 great structure, — the 
 largest palace in Eu- 
 rope. Cases filled with 
 all that was rich and 
 rare, — pictures, statu- 
 ary and bronzes from 
 Italy, tapestry from 
 
 333 
 
 instead 
 
 ■ 
 
 THE HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES. 
 
 Italv, tapestry irom _ _ , -„,.,. 
 
 the Netherlands, plate from Nuremburg and Milan. But what Philip 
 
334 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 considered most precious of all, saintly relics from many a distant 
 shrine were constantly arriving. A Relicario, just off from the church 
 was fitted up for these sacred relics, and when the collection was com- 
 pleted it contained eleven whole bodies of dead saints, three hundred 
 heads, six hundred odd legs and arms, three hundred and forty-six 
 veins and arteries, and fourteen other bits of humanity, such as teeth, 
 toes, fingers, and hair, all supposed to be possessed of miraculous healing 
 power. Greatest of all were the bones of San Lorenzo himself and a bar of 
 the very gridiron on which he was roasted. But most wonderful of all was 
 a quill from Gabriel' swing; " a most glorious specimen of celestial plumage, 
 full three feet long of a blueish hue, more soft and delicate than the lovliest 
 rose.' 
 
 All of these were kept in the most costly cases, and in shrines of silver 
 ornamented with precious jewels, and there was a full length statue of San 
 Lorenzo in solid silver. 
 
 Strange to relate the very enemy which Philip was fighting when he 
 became terror-stricken and vowed to build this memorial building if he were 
 spared, broke into the Escurial a few years ago and seized all the silver and 
 gold and jewels in the Relicario. They dunked the bones from out the 
 cases in a pile upon the floor and melted up the silver statue of the saint 
 that the metal might be more easily carried. 
 
 But this was not the only misfortune that has visited the Escurial. 
 Before it was finished it was struck by lightning in various places, and a 
 crowd of workmen were organized into a fire brigade with the Duke of Alva 
 at the head, to put out the flames. Four times afterwards it was struck by 
 lightning, and three times great fires broke out which nearly consumed it. 
 The great library was twice nearly destroyed by fire, and a large portion of 
 its contents were lost by the depredations of the French. 
 
 "The Invincible Armada."— The whole life, reign, and character of 
 Philip II. can be summed up in the word failure. He set his heart upon 
 up-rooting heresy in the Netherlands, inflicting upon those unfortunate peo- 
 ple all the cruelties that his sullen mind and his great power could bring to 
 bear. But he failed utterly in accomplishing his desire. 
 
 His magnificent palace, which cost millions of dollars, and from which he 
 boasted that with a piece of paper he could rule the world, is a failure. It 
 is altogether too solemn and dreary, and too far away from the bright 
 world to suit his royal successors, and to-day it stands empty and desolate. 
 
 The religion he sought to clinch by fire and sword upon his people, has 
 
Spain. 
 
 335 
 
 failed to hold their respect, 
 iand civil funerals take place 
 
 Everywhere in Spain to-day c marriages 
 No religious ceremonies are allowed on such 
 occasions by-many of the people. The men say they have risen above such 
 " superstition," but most of the women are devoted yet to the church. They 
 bestow as much as their circumstances allow upon the poor priest, who has 
 no longer a salary set apart by the government, nor a good congregation to 
 
 sustain him. n . ... . , 
 
 One of Philip's most gigantic failures was that of the Invincible Armada, 
 
 COURT OF BLESSING, ALHAMBRA 
 
 the great fleet of ships that he fitted out and sent to England to humble the 
 
 ^g^rh""^ protector of the Protestants JaljJ. 
 out of Spain and the Netherlands, and Francis II drove out f France. 
 To conauer England would be to stab Protestamsm to its very heart. 
 
 Km that Elizabeth had killed her Catholic cousin, Ma^ ^ueen o 
 Scots. She was denounced as a murderous heretic whom it would be a virtue 
 
336 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 to put to death. The Pope promised to contribute a large sum toward the 
 expenses of a war against the Queen of England, and Philip began to prepare 
 for it. He taxed the resources of his great empire to their utmost. In the 
 seaports of the Mediterranean, and along almost the entire coast from Gibral- 
 tar to Jutland, busy ship-builders put together the vessels of a vast Armada 
 for the war. 
 
 On the 19th of May, 1588, the " most fortunate and invincible Armada," 
 as the Spaniards called it, was ready. One hundred and thirty ships, carry- 
 ing over two thousand guns and thirty thousand soldiers, set sail from 
 Tagus. In very stately grandure these great vessels sailed toward the 
 English coast, looking "like castles with lofty turrets," spreading out over 
 a space of seven miles as they slowly sailed along. 
 
 On the 20th of July, the great fleet came in sight of the English who 
 were watching for them in the channel, every sailor anxious to do good ser- 
 vice for his Queen and his country. 
 
 They let the whole fleet pass by and then began to give chase. In their 
 small fast sailing vessels they could dart up to the great ones, give a blow 
 and be away again before the Spanish ships would turn around. 
 
 Off Calais the Aimada stopped and cast anchor with their guns turned 
 menacingly in front thinking the English would not dare attack them while 
 they waited for their leader, the Duke of Parma, to join them from the 
 Netherlands. 
 
 On the second night of their stay the English admiral took eight of his 
 poorest vessels, besmeared them with pitch rosin and wild fire, filled them 
 with brimstone and other combustible matter, towed them down the channel, 
 and then setting them on fire, sent them sailing down the wind toward the 
 great fleet. 
 
 At once there was a great panic among the Spaniards^ and, slipping their 
 cables they stood pellmell out to sea. Then the little English vessels fairly 
 swarmed among them, dealing broadsides into every great hulk. The Span- 
 iards soon gave up all hope of overcoming their agile foes, and thought 
 only of escape. But at the straits a south wind blew them back again in 
 the midst of their tormenting foes. 
 
 Their only hope now, the commander thought, was to press up through 
 the North Sea and round the coast of Scotland,— a movement that the Eng- 
 lish saw with much satisfaction, for well they knew the terrors of that stormy 
 rock-bound coast. After chasing them for a little way the English left them 
 in the hands of the stormy winds and the cruel mercy of the waves. These 
 
BULL FIGHTING. 
 

 338 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 proved to be far worse enemies than the English. An nnnsually severe 
 storm arose, followed by tremendous hurricanes that strewed the shore with 
 Spanish wrecks. 
 
 For weeks they were imprisoned and tossed about in the winds, short of 
 water, food, and clothing ; nnused to the cold, and ignorant of the coast. 
 Off Ireland seventeen ships went down with five thousand three hundred 
 men on board. 
 
 Fifty-four ships out of the one hundred and thirty, battered and cut t( 
 pieces, the crews worn with sickness, hunger and cold, returned to Spain 
 The English lost one small ship, and a hundred men. 
 
 The People. — There is no more interesting people than the Spaniards 
 and to see all their interesting traits, costumes, ways and manners, one 
 must go through all parts of Spain, for in no two localities are the peopl 
 quite alike. Each province is inhabited by a different race, each 
 speaking a different dialect of the Spanish language. In character 
 there is a great difference. One class is cold, proud and haughty; 
 another warm-hearted, sunny and friendly; one industrious, another in- 
 dolent. 
 
 In the north, on both sides of the Pyrenees are the Basques, a race that 
 has never yet been subdued. They have stoutly resisted Carthaginians, 
 Romans, Goths, Franks and Saracens; have paid no taxes nor acknowledge 
 any sovereign who did not agree to grant them their long used privileges. 
 They will have no fortress within their territory ; the king when he enters 
 it must leave behind all his soldiers, except a small escort ; and they elect 
 their own governors to attend to their own affairs. 
 
 AVhen allowed thus to live unmolested they are quiet and industrious, 
 attend strictly to their work, never interfering with their neighbors, nor 
 allowing anybody to interfere with them. Besides cultivating their land, 
 they engage a great deal in whale-fishing, and they are brave and hardy 
 sailors. They were the first to follow the whale to the Arctic Ocean and 
 the first to bring cod from Newfoundland. They are very fond of sports 
 and athletic games. Their national game is a kind of tennis generally 
 played in an open space anwering to a village green, the church usually 
 serving as a boundary for their balls . 
 
 In appearance they are well-formed, strong and handsome, with black 
 hair and eyes and dark rosy complexions. The women are beautiful and 
 graceful, though engaged much of the time in men's work. All the 
 Basques are very proud of their race and language, which it is thought is 
 
Spain. 
 
 339 
 
 that of the ancient Iberian. From their proud and courteous bearing they 
 have often been called a nation of nobles. 
 
 Yery different are the Spanish gypsies or " Gitanos," who live mostly in 
 the south, especially Seville ; and from their wicked, thieving, degraded, 
 
 NATIONAL DANCE. 
 
 ways are considered worse than outcasts. They were thought once to be 
 the very children of the Wicked One, and a law was passed for them to 
 leave the country ; but they are still there and carry on their trade in tell- 
 ing fortunes, singing and playing wild, melancholy airs on their guitars, 
 and pilfering whenever they have a chance. 
 
840 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The Castilian has the name of being the proudest of all the Spanish 
 races, and that too without so very much ground for pride. He is greatly 
 opposed to work of any kind. His ease and his " honor," that is to have 
 other people impressed with the idea of his importance, are the two things 
 he cares most about. Sometimes, if compelled to do so, he will work, but 
 only that he may gain means enough to be indolent for a long time after- 
 ward, and if he can obtain this means, in any other way, high- way rob- 
 bery, or something worse, his " honor " does not hold him above such busi- 
 ness. He is very grave and dignified, and very proud of the name of Cas- 
 tile. 
 
 The Andalusian is a more pleasing character. He has also a high 
 opinion of himself, but he has rather more reason for this than the Castilian. 
 He has a country to be proud of; the sky of Andalusia is always serene, the 
 air neither too cold nor too warm for continual comfort. Refreshing breezes 
 blow continually from the Sierra Morena, and the soil yields an abundance 
 of food without much labor. There is nothing in his surroundings to com- 
 plain of, and he finds no cause of complaint with himself. He is kindly 
 and light-hearted. " He likes to array his handsome figure in fine garments; 
 he is never overweening nor unmannerly, for he is always anxious to show 
 himself in the most pleasing light. He is obliging, courteous, considerate, 
 talks with ease and elegance on entertaining subjects and surpasses the 
 Frenchman himself in gallantry towards the ladies." 
 
 But the most pleasing of all the Spaniards are the gentle, graceful, 
 women. Kindly in manners ; modest and plain, but also elegant and artistic 
 in dress ; and full of religious fervor, they have been models of grace and 
 good-breeding ever since Queen Isabella won the world's admiration by 
 these same virtues. They are not highly educated, but nature and custom 
 has done so much for them that the want of education is scarcely felt. A 
 young Spanish girl yet in her teens will receive guests and do all the hon- 
 ors of the house, if her elders happen to be absent, with the ease and dignity 
 of a court lady. 
 
 There is only one thing to be said against the Spanish women. They 
 share with the men a taste for the horrors of the bull-fight. They go in 
 crowds to the plays de toros and wave their pretty fans with approval of 
 the tortures inflicted upon the poor dumb brute. They have no pity for the 
 noble horses ripped open by the horns of the infuriated bull, and rushing 
 about the arena in terrible agony. They even express displeasure 
 when the fight is not sufliciently furious and bloody, and shower 
 
Spain. 341 
 
 smiles and honors upon the heartless men who engage in the unmanly 
 business. 
 
 The Double Picture.— In the field of Art, the Spaniards have a great 
 representative in Murillo, the painter of Seville. His pictures, which 
 were mostly on religious subjects, have won world-wide admiration. 
 
 In the city of Madrid may be seen one of his works, called " the Double 
 Picture," which has a touching history. 
 
 It bears on one side the portrait of a beautiful lady painted in life size. 
 She is young, dressed in the rich style of the Spanish senorita of the 17th 
 century, and looks to be a lady of wealth and high station, as well as of 
 great beauty. She is holding out her hand as if to greet a visitor, and 
 seems to be speaking words of kindness. The face expresses perfect hap- 
 piness, as if care, disappointment or trouble were entirely unknown. 
 
 A notice in Spanish, tacked to the frame, tells the spectator to turn the 
 picture, and having done so he sees upon the other side the same face but 
 no longer glowing with life and beauty. It bears the hues of death, and is 
 encased in a coffin. About it are the walls of the vault in which the coffin 
 stands, dark and shining, but the horror is taken away from the picture by 
 a brightness at the top. Clouds seem to be breaking away, and the shin- 
 ing light of a heavenly world appears. Here and there are angel faces full 
 of love and joy, as if beckoning the dead one to their blessed company. 
 
 Both of these pictures represent a lovely Spanish lady to whom Murillo 
 was to have been married. The living face he painted while she was appar- 
 ently in the full bloom of health, but before it was finished, she told him 
 of a fatal disease that had laid hold of her, and for which, there was no 
 remedy. She asked him then, to promise that he would visit her tomb 
 after she had been dead a month, and paint her as she then appeared, on 
 the reverse of the living picture, and then to exhibit it in the most public 
 place of Madrid, where all might see, and be impressed with the moral it 
 would teach — one day possessed of all that makes life desirable, the next a 
 poor, pale piece of clay. 
 
 Her wish was fulfilled. A month after her death the painter had the 
 beautiful picture carried to her .tomb and there he painted all one night. In 
 the morning they found him fainting upon the cold floor, with the face of 
 the dead reproduced upon the reverse of the picture. It was hung in a 
 public place as she had requested and thousands who came to look at it 
 went away with the warning in their hearts. But it had not then received 
 the upper scene. Forty years afterward when the painter had gained great 
 
342 
 
 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 renown he again visited the house where the painting was kept, and there 
 put on the finishing touches which took away the horrors of death and 
 pointed to a better life to come, while the solemn warning remained the 
 same. 
 
 STATUE OF PHILIP IV., MADRID. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 The natural features of Portugal are like those of Spain. It has the 
 same general formation. Its mountain chains and rivers are but a continua- 
 tion of those of its larger neighbor. There are no natural boundaries ; only 
 a difference in race make two nations of this Iberian Peninsula, instead of 
 
 Portugal has been called an out-of-the-way corner of Europe, because it 
 is not so much visited by travelers as the other countries ; but it has many 
 attractions. The scenery in some places is very fine, especially along the 
 soutlern extremity of the Sierra Estrella, between the Tagus and the Atlan- 
 tic A favorite resort of the wealthy Portugese, is the hills and town of 
 Cintra the most beautiful spot in this vicinity, and many English residents 
 have here handsome villas. Lord Byron laid the scene of the first part of 
 " Childe Harold " in this place. # 
 
 The Douro.— Two noble rivers escape from the mountain defiles ot 
 Spain and hurry across Portugal to the Atlantic. One of these is the Ta- 
 gus the longest river of the whole Iberian Peninsula, which broadens out 
 as it approaches the ocean until it reaches a width of eight miles above 
 Lisbon ; here it contracts again and flows through a narrow channel into the 
 sea Nearly all of its course is through dry and barren plains, between 
 rugged and precipitous banks. The other is the Douro, upon whose bor- 
 ders are the famous vineyards of Oporto. Every year it carries tons ol Port 
 wine down to the seaport in flat-bottomed boats. This river is naviga- 
 ble further than the Tagus, but the vessels that venture upon it are liable 
 to be swamped with sudden freshets. Every rain-fall is sent down its steep 
 banks in torrents, causing a rapid rise in the river. 
 
 In early spring, when the snows are melting rapidly from the mountains, 
 the Douro becomes wild in its grandeur. In a few hours the clear current 
 flowing sluggishly along, is changed to a mighty roaring torrent ot turbid, 
 
344 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 foaming waves, sweeping in its irresistible force, buildings and cattle, 
 human beings and their frail barks to destruction. At such times the 
 water rises from twenty to thirty feet between its lofty and confined banks, 
 filling the houses in the lower part of the city, and tearing vessels from 
 their moorings. The tumultuous yellow tides bear in their vast, whirling 
 eddies, whole trunks of trees tossed up and down, and round and round 
 like straws. One moment the leafless branches appear lifted high out of 
 the water, the next, the huge roots. The giddy, rapid whirl of the waters, 
 makes the brain reel, and the thunder of their loud, angry roar, stuns ones 
 ears . 
 
 But the most terrific conflict goes on at the river's mouth. Here the 
 fierce waters meet the stormy, incoming ocean billows, and both are tossed 
 high in the air, looking like two enraged horses of the desert, with their 
 flowing manes tossed wildly about. But the river triumphs, and its yel- 
 low tide is seen reaching far out into the sea, before it mixes with the clear 
 waters of the wide ocean. 
 
 Lntes de Castro. — Half-way between the Douro and the Tagus, is a 
 small river which flows past the famous town of Coimbra, for a long time 
 the capital of Portugal. A short distance from the town, on the opposite 
 bank of the river, is the Quinta de Lagrimas, or "Garden of Tears," 
 so named because of the sad fate that here befell the beautiful Ines de 
 Castro. 
 
 Dom Pedro, son of Alfonso IV., knowing that his father would oppose 
 taking this young Castilian into the royal family, contracted with her a 
 secret marriage, and it was some time before his father found it out. 
 When he did, he determined that Ines should die. Three assassins were 
 sent to murder her one day when Prince Pedro was out hunting. When 
 he returned and found the bleeding corpse of his wife, he was nearly fran- 
 tic with grief and rage. The strongest pleas of his mother and the arch- 
 bishop were hardly sufficient to keep him from taking revenge upon his 
 father. 
 
 Two years afterward the king died, and Dom Pedro succeeded to the 
 throne. Then his grief broke out afresh, and seizing two of the assassins, 
 he had them put to death with terrible tortures. The other escaped into 
 Aragon. He then ordered the corpse of his wife to be taken out of her 
 grave, dressed in royal robes, and placed beside him on the throne, while 
 all the officers and dignitaries of the court saluted her as queen, and kissed 
 the hem of her robe. The poor skeleton was then carried with great pomp 
 
Portugal. 34 ^ 
 
 to Alcobaca for burial; the king, the bishops and all the lords and officers 
 of the court following the procession all of the sixty miles on foot. 
 
 A number of poems and plays have been founded on this story of Ines 
 and the grief-stricken king. Camoens, the most noted of the Portugese 
 writers, has told it in a very fascinating way, in his famous drama of 
 
 U T -ii oi n/i ' ' 
 
 The Battle of Ourique.— Portugal did not become a kingdom until 
 about the middle of the twelfth century. Before that time the northern 
 part was held by the kings of Castile, the southern part by the Moors. In 
 the year 1139 Alfonso Henriquez, who then bore the title of Count of Portu- 
 gal collected a band of troops and began a march upon the Moors. From 
 every farm and homestead as he passed, horse and foot soldiers joined his 
 ranks, as in duty bound in those feudal times, until he had a large and 
 
 valiant force. 
 
 Instead of passing through the wilderness of Estremadura, the usual route 
 of the Christian princes when they went to make war on the Moors, he 
 turned to the east, struck the Tagus in its upper waters, and passed through 
 the rich plain of Almentezo, thus putting himself at once into the very heart 
 of the Saracen's country. 
 
 Up to this time the warfare between the Christians and the Moors had 
 been only a series of raids; now they were to meet in open battle. History 
 has left no account of this struggle— only that Alfonso won a great victory 
 and went back laden with valuable spoils in slaves, in arms and armour, and 
 in fine Arabian war-horses, and with the title of " King of Portugal." 
 
 Some say that on the field of battle he threw off his allegiance to the 
 King of Castile and Leon and declared himself king; others that he wrote first 
 to the Pope for permission to do so, and the Pope, in consideration of his 
 great services against the Moors, granted his request. At any rate the Por- 
 tugese date the commencement of their kingdom from the battle of Ounque. 
 
 The Capture of Lisbon.— While King Alfonso was carrying on his 
 warfare against the Moors, the second Crusade was being fitted out for the 
 holy land by the European princes. The English, Dutch and North German 
 Crusaders were going this time by water instead of by the long overland 
 route, and the foremost of the fleets, that from England, stopped at Oporto 
 to wait for their German companions . Here a messenger from King Alfonso 
 met them, asking them to join with him in taking Lisbon from the Moors. 
 As this was the same kind of work upon which they were going to engaged- 
 fighting against the Mohammedans— the Crusaders consented, and, proceed- 
 
346 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 ing to Lisbon, they joined forces with Alfonso and began the seige of the 
 city. 
 
 They bnilt a great movable castle on wheels, capable of holding a hun- 
 dred men. Fifty English and fifty Portugese soldiers mounted it, and were 
 rolled up to the walls. In vain the Saracens hurled showers of stones and 
 darts upon the great moving tower. Slowly and surely it came nearer and 
 nearer to the walls of the city. When within a yard of the parapet a draw- 
 bridge was let down, and just as the English and Portugese were about to 
 cross over into the town, the Saracens surrendered. 
 
 One pleasant feature of this conquest was that contrary to the usual 
 course in those savage times, the Moors were neither put to the sword, en 
 slaved, nor made to change their religion. They continued to live in the city 
 under a charter granted by King Alfonso, elected their own judges and were 
 not subject to severe taxation. 
 
 The Relief of Santarem. — The last time King Alfonso engaged with 
 the Moors was in his old age. He had given up leading his men to war; 
 had appointed his son Sancho to the command of his armies, and devoted 
 himself to the affairs of his government. Meanwhile the Moors had made 
 a grand effort to gain back their lost ground. They had gathered around 
 the standard of a dashing young leader, and crossing the Tagus, a vast 
 multitude had assembled on the rich plain around Santarem, where young 
 Sancho was beseiged. This was the most threatening time Portugal had 
 ever seen. It seemed impossible that the few Christian warriors could with- 
 stand this great horde of Saracens. 
 
 Sancho made a desperate resistance, but the Saracens used their arts of 
 beseiging well, and it was plain to all within the garrison that they could 
 hold out but a few hours longer. Suddenly, from the tower of Santarem, 
 the hard pressed garrison saw to the north a troop of cavalry rapidly 
 approaching. Presently they could distinguish the pennons and banners of 
 Christian knights, and then as the troops galloped nearer they saw riding 
 at their head the well-known form of their old King. With wild shouts of 
 Sanctiago, the familiar battle cry of the old warrior and his knights, the 
 garrison flew out of the gates and together they fell upon the host of Sara- 
 cens. Panic stricken by the sudden appearance of the old King, and the 
 triumphant shouts of the garrison the beseigers were soon pui to flight. 
 Their dashing leader was slain and his armies chased far beyond the Tagus. 
 
 Portugese Navigators. — Within two hundred years from the battle of 
 Ourique the Portugese had become one of the most enlightened and enter- 
 
Portugal. 347 
 
 prising nations of Europe . In geographical knowledge and navigation they 
 exceeded all others. The son of King John I. has always been known as 
 Prince Henry the Navigator, because of the start he gave to navigation and 
 geographical discovery. He set up an observatory at Sagres, on Cape St. 
 Vincent, and established there a school for the study of these sciences, and 
 was the first European to use the sailor's compass. One of his most distin- 
 guished pupils was an Italian, whose daughter became the wife of Columbus, 
 and the papers of his father-in-law, falling into the hands of the young 
 Genoese, greatly aided in forming his opinion of the shape of the earth. 
 
 Until the time of Prince Henry the Navigator Europeans had supposed 
 that Cape Nun, on the southern boundary of Morocco, was the furthest 
 extent of the land in that direction, but he concluded from his studies that 
 there was more beyond, and determined to brave the terrors of the dreaded 
 hot regions for the sake of the valuable discoveries which he believed could 
 there be made. He soon proved that there was land beyond Cape Nun, and 
 then found Cape Bogador, which was thought to be surely the furthest south- 
 ern point. But still Prince Henry's navigators went on until they had gone 
 as far as Sierra Leone. By this time the people, who at first complained at 
 the amount of money spent in fitting out exploring expeditions, began to 
 see gold pouring in from the newly discovered lands. Then they grew 
 enthusiastic over the triumphs of their great navigator and readily prepared 
 for further search. 
 
 Three years after Columbus discovered the New World for the King and 
 Queen of Spain, Emanual the Fortunate, or the Great, came to the throne 
 of Portugal, and began to carry on with great vigor further explorations of 
 the African coast. One of his navigators reached the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and drifting around it in a storm, was surprised to find himself upon the 
 eastern coast. Then the King sent Vasca de Gama to carry the search still 
 further and try to find a way to India. _ 
 
 De Gama was gone a little more than two years,'and many hours during 
 that time King Emanual spent in watching for his return from the convent 
 of Pera It is said that he was rewarded by being the first to spy the re- 
 turningship. He gave De Gama a splendid reception at Lisbon,and bestowed 
 on him'the title of "lord of the conquest of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and 
 
 T~nri 1 5} 
 
 Another Portugese voyager discovered Brazil, and all of that great coun- 
 try larger than the whole of Europe, came into the possession of Portugal. 
 A thriving trade now sprang up with India, carried on by the Portu- 
 
348 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 gese sailors, and gold rolled into the little country from all these new 
 regions. 
 
 It is interesting to know that the wife of this King, who devoted his re- 
 sources so earnestly to geographical discoveries, was the daughter of Isa- 
 bella of Spain, who had just sent Columbus out to the New World. 
 
 Dom Miguel.— As suddenly as Portugal arose to great prosperity so 
 suddenly she fell into as great adversity. The results of her discoveries 
 went to other nations, and even the throne had to be removed from Portu- 
 gal to Brazil to keep it from falling into the hands of the French. 
 
 Emanuel himself started the train of misfortunes by using large sums of 
 his vast wealth in erecting magnificent buildings, by driving out the Jews, 
 the most prosperous of his subjects, and by setting up the Inquisition. 
 After him came another king who wasted more money in carrying on use- 
 less wars against the Moors, and finally lost his life, and that of all the 
 principal men of his court in Barbary. Then Philip II. of Spain claimed 
 the throne, and only by a long war were the Portugese able to free them- 
 selves from Spanish rule. Then the English, who had befriended the Por- 
 tugese, drew them into disastrous wars with the French which ended by 
 the flight of the royal family to Brazil, while Napoleon's general raised the 
 French flag over Lisbon and declared that the house of Braganzahad ceased 
 to reign. But the Duke of AVellington came and drove out the French and 
 the king was recalled. 
 
 Soon after his return he died, leaving the throne to his son, who was 
 then reigning in Brazil. Dom Pedro preferred to stay in the New World 
 and gave the old country to his seven-year old daughter, " Dona Maria de 
 Gloria," arranging for her a marriage with her uncle, his brother Miguel. 
 This man went to Portugal to act as regent for his niece and future wife, 
 until she should be of age, but as soon as he obtained the reigns of govern- 
 ment he made himself kino-. 
 
 Then began the most cruel and tyrannical government that Portugal had 
 ever known. Every one who had been known to favor the cause of Dona 
 Maria, and every one belonging to the liberal party whose constitution he 
 had sworn to observe, became the subjects of remorseless persecution. 
 Thousands were thrown into jail and their property seized by the crown. 
 Many more were sent into exile or obliged to fly to escape imprisonment. 
 Thousands of Portugese who were shortly before in comfortable circum- 
 stances were thus wandering homeless in different parts of Europe; or, if 
 they dared, in their own land sheltered by their friends, but every morn- 
 
Portugal. 349 
 
 ing waking with the expectation of being imprisoned before night. About 
 twenty thousand more having been published as suspected persons were sub- 
 iected to all manner of abuse or insult from the mob who cried for Miguel, that 
 they might be left free to plunder. Three thousand more were sent as felons 
 or soldiers to the unhealthful regions of Africa, where they were left to die. 
 Besides these, a number of the chief leaders were led out every day to be 
 huno- shot or strangled, their families and friends being obliged to go with 
 them and witness their execution. One hundred thousand people, at the 
 very least, were suddenly plunged into misery by this tyrant usurper Then 
 relief came. Dom Pedro left Brazil and gathering an army fought for his 
 daughter's claim. The people gladly forsook the side of the tyrant and he 
 was obliged to give up the throne. ,.,,,. 
 
 The Eaethquake at LiSBON.-One of the greatest calamities that betel 
 Portugal was the terrible earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, that destroyed sixty 
 thousand lives in about six minutes. The morning of the fatal day, Nov. 1, 
 opened upon Lisbon fair and bright, as most autumn days m Portugal. I he 
 people had gathered in churches to celebrate the day of All Saints, when 
 suddenly, about ten o'clock a slight tremor of the earth was noticed, but 
 was supposed to be only the effect of a passing wagon. Then the trem- 
 ulous motion came again, and increased until the whole surface oi the 
 earth seemed to shake like the sea. The steeples staggered so that the 
 bells rung. Tiles came tumbling down from the roofs of the houses. Fur- 
 niture was thrown down, walls began to split, and buildings to fall. All the 
 while a loud rumbling noise, like distant thunder came from the depths ot 
 the quivering earth. Fissures opened in the earth, and from them terrible 
 sulphurous vapors arose and mingled with the dust of the falling buildings, 
 so darkening the bright day that it seemed suddenly turned into night. As 
 soon as this was settled a little, it was noticed that the waters of the Tagus 
 had suddenly sunken lower than they had ever been seen at lowest tides. 
 Suddenly in a mountainous wave they returned and burst upon the city. 
 Ships, boats and magnificent quays, just constructed at great expense, were 
 swallowed up, and with them thousands of people who had sought safety on 
 or near the water. Others were overwhelmed by the falling buildings. 
 Monks and nuns were buried alive by hundreds in their convents. 
 
 The first shock lasted, with occasional intervals of less intensity, for about 
 seven minutes, and in about twenty minutes the full measure of the calam- 
 ity had fallen. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 No country in the world lias received so much praise as " Sunny Italy.' 
 It has been called the " Garden of the Continent" and the " Cradle of Art.' 
 Its skies are said to be the bluest, its sun- 
 sets the loveliest, its airs the softest of any 
 known land. It was once the throne of the 
 Mistress of the world ; and it is yet the 
 store-house of the most wonderful works 
 of art. 
 
 The Alps abtd the ALPEisrisriisrEs. — Italy 
 has a double portion of the beautiful AljDine 
 regions, sharing with both Switzerland and 
 France the higher border ranges ; and, a 
 few years ago, before Savoy fell to the 
 French, Italy had sole possession of the 
 starting point of all the ranges of Europe, — 
 Mont Blanc. 
 
 As all roads are said to lead to Rome, 
 so all the mountain ranges of Europe may 
 be said to lead toward Mont Blanc. From 
 Cape Finisterre, off the coast of Spain, 
 comes the Pyrenees, cut off in their course 
 by the Gulf of Genoa, but yet sending a 
 spur off toward their king. From far away 
 Roumania comes the zigzag, wilful Carpa- 
 thians, on a long, reluctant course, but com- 
 pelled at last to join the train of courtiers 
 on the corner of Switzerland. From the 
 Bosphorus, and from Cape Matapan, come 
 two other subjects, the Balkan and the Pindus, uniting into the Dinaric train 
 
 PEASANT CHILDREN. 
 
SISTINE CHAPEL, 
 
352 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 at Montenegro and joining with the Carpathians in the towering procession 
 on the south, of Switzerland. And from the toe of the Italian boot comes the 
 Apennines in many graceful, waving curves, sweeping round the plain of 
 Piedmont, and towering up into the majestic heights of the Maratime Alps 
 the palace of the mountain king. 
 
 Of all his subjects, Mont Blanc can boast of none more graceful in outline, 
 more beautiful in detail, or more interesting as the scenes of noted events 
 than this last in his train— the Apennines. Only a few bare rocks crop out 
 above its rich coat of vegetation throughout its entire course. Forests of 
 pine, oak and chestnut are ranged beneath each other from the summit 
 down to the valleys, and there the fig and olive flourish. From east to west 
 branches shoot off from the central range and hang in impending cliffs over 
 the sea. Between them are valleys so deep and dark that the people live 
 m little worlds of their own, in utter ignorance of what takes place beyond 
 the heights that bound their home-regions. 
 
 From the western slopes of the Apennines, overlooking the gulf of Genoa 
 were quarried the beautiful pale blue marbles of Carrara, from which 
 Michael Angelo made his wonderful statues. 
 
 From the opposite side course down to the Adriatic the famous Rubicon 
 where Caesar made his great decision. 
 
 The Arno and the Tiber.— From out the wildest passes of the north- 
 ern Apennines pours the Arno, one of the three principal rivers of Italy un- 
 decided among so many pleasant fields which to choose for its path to the 
 sea. After a course of sixty miles it returns again to within eleven of its 
 source, and then strikes out in a new direction toward the Gulf of Genoa 
 through a new series of beautiful valleys. 
 
 Twenty miles south of the Arno, and still among the same wild glens 
 the Tiber takes its rise, to flow, first, a mountain torrent along the base of 
 the Apennines, and then, as it gathers strength, to wind its way to the sea 
 through mountain passes and narrow valleys, receiving as it runs the waters 
 of countless streams and torrents from east and west and north and south ■ 
 while the meadows which draw their freshness from its rising waters are 
 followed by the waving grain and tresselled vine, With towns and castles 
 scattered along its banks it sweeps down, turning around the base of Soracte 
 and comes out upon the broad Campagna, the great plain that surrounds 
 Koine. 
 
 There it flows along on the borders of ancient Etruria, whose people built' 
 flourishing cities, sailed powerful fleets, and made highly ornamented vases 
 
Italy. 
 
 and other wares before Eome was built. In after years these Etruscans were 
 employed to furnish bronzes for the Roman temples. 
 
 Opposite Etruria the Tiber washes the borders of the ancient Sabines, 
 whose maidens were seizecl by the wifeless Roman colonists soon after the 
 city was founded. A little further down it reaches the boundary of old 
 Latium, the fatherland of the Roman race and language. 
 
 Receiving here its last tributary, the headlong Anio, the Tiber rolls in a 
 
 GENOA. 
 
 great flood through the Eternal city that for six hundred years swayed the 
 scepter of the world ; then onward to the fork of the Sacred Island, where 
 it pours out its yellow flood, colored now by beds of clay along its lower 
 course, and stains for miles around the deep blue of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Pontine Maeshes. — Nowhere in all Italy does, the grass wave 
 more luxuriantly, or the trees put forth a lovelier green, than in the broad 
 meadows of the Campagna di Roma. But as far as the eye can reach it 
 detects nothing but pasture lands, or flocks of sheep and goats grazing on 
 the gentle slopes with the solitary form of the shepherd in the midst. 
 
354 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Sometimes a rising ground is crowned with a little shady grove of Italian 
 evergreen oak, but usually there is nothing but the treeless, sunlit Cam- 
 pagna. No houses, no thriving villages, such as once dotted the great 
 plain; but plenty of decaying ruins on every hand. A great change has 
 taken place in the air that blows over the Campagna since the days of the 
 old Romans. The breezes, once so bracing and healthful, are now laden 
 with the germs of malaria during the summer months. Thirteen hundred 
 people die in Rome every year during July an4 August from this terrible 
 scourge, caused by the great amount of marshy land. 
 
 Other parts of Italy suffer from malaria, — the rice grounds of Lombardy, 
 the highlands near Padua, and, in southern Italy, Apulia, almost the entire 
 coast of Calabria, and the south of Sicily. Only six out of Italy's sixty- 
 nine provinces are free from the disease, and in twenty-one it exists in its 
 worst form, producing fevers that end fatally in twenty-four hours. The 
 Campagna is one of the worst districts, for in its southern part are the 
 extensive Pontine Marshes, where stagnant water has been standing for' 
 ages. These marshes are caused by several small streams which flow down 
 from the Yolscian hills, and are kept from reaching the sea by the sand 
 that has accumulated on the coast. 
 
 When Julius Caesar became Dictator of Rome, one of the many im- 
 provements he intended to make was the draining of the Pontine Marshes, , 
 which had been partially accomplished a hundred years before; but he^ 
 was assassinated before he could carry out his wise projects. Since his: 
 time many other attempts have been made. In T577 Pope Pius VI. spent 
 two millions of dollars uxoon the marshes ; in a short time they had gone 
 back to their old condition. During the last few years quite successful 
 work has been accomplished by planting the Eucalyptus tree, which sucks; 
 up and thrives upon the stagnant water. 
 
 Mount Vesuvius. — South of the Campagna of Rome is another broad 
 plain called '-'■Campagna de Felice,'''' because here the air is always soft and 
 cool, tempered by the most healthful sea breezes ; the scenery is rich and 
 beautiful, with always a deep blue sky over head ; and the richest pro- 
 ducts of the vegetable world abound on every side. The soil is so rich, 
 and the climate so genial, that three crops can be raised in the same 
 ground in a year. It is the garden of the garden land, Campania, the 
 happy. 
 
 All over this plain are the yawning mouths of old volcanoes, that dur- 
 ing the long, dark ages of the past, threw out their ashes, lava and miner- 
 

 Italy. 
 
 als over the earth, preparing the soil for its fruitfulness. Pretty little 
 lakes now nestle in some of these old craters ; from others, sulphurous 
 vapors are yet ascending. The ancients used to call a part of this region 
 "the Burning Field," because it contained so many volcanoes, and they 
 really 'thought that the way to Hades was through these yawning mouths. 
 The active member of this family of volcanoes is Mount Vesuvius, who 
 has so startled the world with his ragings in recent years. During the last 
 
 BRIDGE OF ST. ANGELO, AND THE BOB.GO. 
 
 century he has broken out about every three or four years, and frequently 
 sends out smoke and flame between times. When the people see none of 
 these signs of life for several weeks, they begin to look for a severe erup- 
 tion. 
 
 There is no spectacle so terribly grand and fascinating as Mount Vesuvius 
 when he is hurling out his internal fires. The people everywhere rush out 
 of their houses to watch with breathless interest his tragical performances. 
 He sends up great pillars of white smoke like heaps of clouds several times 1 , 
 higher than his head. Into this he hurls stones and ashes with a force 
 
356 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 \ 
 
 that carries tliem up thousands of feet. Then columns of fire shoot up 
 three times as high as the mountain itself. 
 
 At times he seems to pause a little as if for breath, then with increased 
 fury sends roaring volleys of blood-red stones and dazzling meteors. Into 
 the deep black of the sky, made yet more black by dark masses of smoke, 
 the brilliant stones are hurled, and, like fiery balls from a rocket, make 
 a graceful curve, high in the air, then fall in showers of splendor around 
 the sides of the cone. Presently, from over the edge of the crater comes 
 the great red torrents of lava, like a huge, hissing, fiery snake crawling out 
 of his lair to descend upon his victims. Its motion is very slow and steady, 
 even where the descent is abrupt, and when near enough to it one can hear 
 a rustling sound like that made by fragments of ice jostling each other in a 
 half-frozen river. 
 
 The Last Days of Pompeii. — At the beginning of the Christian Era, when 
 Rome was at the height of her glory, when Nero, Vespasian and Titus were 
 ruling the world according to their wills ; when Tacitus was delivering his 
 polished orations, and the industrious Pliny was writing his books on His- 
 tory, Natural History, Rhetoric, Education and Military Tactics — rising 
 at midnight to study and listening to his readers while he ate his meals 
 and took notes, — in these days, there nestled at the base of Mount Vesuvius 
 the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Both lay upon the edge of the 
 beautiful bay of Naples, the former contained the elegant villas of the 
 wealthy Romans, and the latter was a fashionable summer resort. No 
 thought of danger disturbed the enjoyment of their luxuries and pleasures. 
 Vesuvius up to this time had never been known to be in a state of eruption; 
 though one observant Roman thought it had been active in the past. But 
 no one thought of its breaking out again. It was overgrown with shrubs 
 and vines ; and once, a few years before, in 72 B. C, Spartacus, the Thra- 
 cian gladiator, had taken refuge in it with his band of slaves. 
 
 In the year 63 A. D., two terrible earthquakes occurred, doing so mucn 
 damage to both Pompeii and Herculaneum that Seneca, the philosopher, 
 considered them unsafe. Other signs of disturbance followed, rumbling 
 noises in the mountains, and vapors over the crater, but little attention was 
 paid to them. On the 24th of August, 79 A. D., a cloud of such unusual 
 size and shape appeared about the summit of Vesuvius that it attracted the 
 attention of Pliny, who was stationed at Mfsenum, at the north entrance 
 of the bay, in command of a fleet. Hurrying to a hill to get a better view, 
 he saw that something unusual was about to occur, and ordered a light 
 vessel to be made ready to take him nearer to the mountain. 
 
Italy. 
 
 357 
 
 With tablet in hand npon which to take down his observations, he sailed 
 up close to the shore and dictated to his attendants a description of the 
 scene as he observed it. He approached so near that showers of pomice stone, 
 pieces .of burning rock and 
 hot cinders rained down 
 upon the ship, and the sea 
 began to sink away from the 
 coast so rapidly that his sea- 
 men advised him to hurry 
 away. 
 
 He ordered his vessel to 
 proceed to the little town of 
 Stabise, on the southern 
 shore of the bay, a short 
 distance from Pompeii, but 
 still within reach of the fall- 
 ing cinders . Here he found 
 his friend Pomponianus in 
 great alarm, about to hurry 
 
 away in his vessel. Pliny 
 
 quieted his friend's fears, 
 
 and to show that he was not 
 
 alarmed, ordered a bath, ate 
 
 a hearty dinner and lay 
 
 down to sleep. 
 
 But the court of the 
 
 house was fast filling with 
 
 cinders, and soon his friends 
 
 aroused him, and with pil- 
 lows on their heads to pro- 
 tect themselves from the 
 
 shower of falling stones, all 
 
 hurried to the sea- shore. It 
 
 was now day, but so dark 
 
 that they could only see by 
 
 the light of torches. When they reached the sea they found it raging so 
 
 furiously that they could not hope to escape in their vessels. 
 
 Terrible fumes of sulphur now began to suffocate the party. 
 
 ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS. 
 
 Pliny, 
 
358 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 thinking probably to escape them, lay down upon the sand by the sea while 
 his friends hastened away. His slaves came and raised him. but they had 
 no sooner done so than he fell back dead from suffocation. 
 
 Meanwhile like terrible scenes were going on all around the bay. Tor- 
 rents of hot mud were falling in continual streams covering everything. 
 This continued for eight days, filling the cities to the roofs of the houses. 
 Then storms of ashes and streams of lava finished the work of burying 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii completely out of sight. 
 
 Years passed by and all traces of the cities were lost, no one knew 
 exactly where they had stood and in time another town was built above their 
 grave. An aqueduct was carried directly over a part of Pompeii, without 
 discovering what lay beneath. But one day, in digging a well, several pieces 
 of statuary were discovered. The king of Naples at once ordered excava- 
 tions on a large scale and ever since the work of unearthing these old cities 
 has been going on. 
 
 Very interesting are the discoveries made among these ruins. In some 
 are the skeletons of the people who did not make their escape; but these are 
 comparatively few. In one large building, apparently the barracks of troops, 
 sixty four skeletons were found, supposed to be the soldiers on duty, who 
 in true Roman fashion remained at their posts until death overtook them. 
 
 The houses are just as the people left them, and show most plainly the 
 manner of life, tastes, and even thoughts of the old Roman occupants . Those 
 of the wealthy are adorned with the richest ornaments and works of art- 
 pictures, bronzes, vases, mosaics, statuary and coins, all excellently pre- 
 served. One of the statues that has excited the admiration of many artists, 
 is that of a youth wearing a Phrygian cap, sitting in the most easy and life- 
 like position, with his head leaning-on one hand, and his arm resting on his 
 knee. 
 
 The Bay of Naples.— In front of Mount Vesuvius, sweeping around in 
 almost a semi-circle is the beautiful Bay of Naples. Behind it in the dis- 
 tance appear the purple crests of the Apennines, at their feet the broad 
 plain of Campagna Felice, from which, near the foreground, stands the tall 
 cone of Vesuvius. Around it, like a vast amphitheater, rise the shores of 
 the bay with the city of Naples upon its northern side, the buried ruins of 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii on the east and Stabia3, where Pliny made his 
 fatal visit upon the south, opposite Naples. The fate of its buried sisters 
 seems^ to have no effect upon the prosperity of Naples, neither do the 
 calamities that it has suffered from its nearness to the burning monster. 
 
In 1872, during an unusually severe eruption the city was covered _ with ^a 
 shower of ashes and two hundred lives or more were lost. It is often 
 shaken with violent earthquakes. But none of these can drive the people 
 from their beautiful Naples. a +t,o «+ W pt* 
 
 The city itself is not very lovely, the houses are shabby and the streets 
 anything but clean. But the hills around it are covered and draped with 
 the richest of verdure. The cactus stands blooming among groves of palm, 
 
 THE GATE OF HERCULANEUM, AND PLACE OF TOMBS. 
 
 orange, lemon and stone; fine villas, monasteries and houses on number 
 less little eminences are linked together by chains of ™eyards orchards 
 and gardens. And here " the Italian sun shines its brightest, the zephyrs 
 blow their softest, the sea puts on its deepest blue and the mountains their 
 
 most glorious purple." ' ., 
 
 IscHiA.-Like two ornamental knobs upon the horns of the bay, are tne 
 islands of Ischia and Capri. The former upon the nor thern ■ »™ °* * >* 
 bay, once contained the most lively volcano of the whole Burning ^ Field, 
 which extended in a chain of craters from here to Vesuvius. Since the latter 
 
360 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 . v 
 
 has broken out, Mount Eperneo on Ischia has been mostly silent, but hot 
 springs and jets of gas and steam show that all is not quiet beneath. In 1883 a. 
 terrible earthquake occurred here, just as the season for visitors was at its 
 height, for Ischia is a very popular resort in summer for pleasure seekers 
 and invalids. 
 
 Many of the visitors were at the theatre when the shock occurred ; others 
 in the music and reading rooms of the large hotels. In fifteen seconds the 
 whole village of Casamicciola, the principal resort, was a heap of ruins. 
 Those who were not crushed under the falling houses, or struck down by 
 flying fragments after gaining the streets, rushed in terror to the beach and 
 seizing every boat and floating thing sought safety on the water. 
 
 In the theatre and hotels every light was put out ; blinding clouds of 
 dust enveloped the whole village, and a most terrible deafening roar came 
 from the bowels of the earth. Between two and three thousand people were 
 killed, six hundred injured, and many thousands made homeless. But this 
 is only one case out of hundreds that have occurred in volcanic Italy. 
 
 Capri. — On the southern horn of the bay stands the little island of Capri, 
 walled in by high cliffs crowned with vineyards and orange groves. This 
 beautiful little island has long been a favorite resort for invalids. The 
 Emperor Augustus spent some time here during his illness, not far from the 
 year of 1 A. D. And Tiberius, his less worthy son-in-law, who succeeded 
 him, came here to live, not for health but for pleasure, about the year 26, after 
 issuing an order that the people should not disturb his retirement. Here 
 he built elegant villas, the ruins of which may still be seen, and lived a life 
 of debauchery for ten years. The control of the government he left in the 
 hands of his wicked favorite Sejanus, and gave himself up to his pleasures; 
 but they do not seem to have brought him so very much happiness after 
 all. Pliny spoke of him as " the most wretched of men"; and in one of his 
 own letters to the senate he says, " What to write to you or how to write I 
 know not ; and what not to write may all the gods and goddesses torment 
 me, more than I daily feel, if I do know." In his younger days he had been 
 remarked for his fine form and handsome features, but now dissipation had 
 covered his face with ugly blotches and his body was bent nearly double. 
 No wonder that when he died (27 A. D.) the people shouted with delight and 
 cried, "Tiberius to the Tiber." Capri became once more the resort of re- 
 spectable people, who had been kept away by the royal guard lest they 
 should disturb their emperor's revelry. 
 
 One of the greatest curiosities about Capri is the famous " Blue Grotto" 
 
Italy. 
 
 361 
 
 in a steep cliff by the sea. Everything within this cave is intensely blue. 
 The walls look like the deepest sky in summer. Blue clouds seem to be 
 floating about overhead. The water at the bottom, and even one's clothing 
 is all of the same indigo hue. A flight of steps, cut out of the rock, seem to 
 be real sapphire stones. The water, besides being blue, has a silvery look 
 that o-ives everything in it a very curious appearance. A man in a bathing 
 suit plunges into it and straightway he looks like a moving statue. The 
 whole place is strange, weird and unearthly. No one has ever been able 
 to solve the mystery of its wonderful blueness. 
 
 HOUSE OF GLAUCUS IN POMPEII. 
 
 Mount Etna.— One interesting side of a volcano can not be seen at 
 Mount Vesuvius. This is the inside of the terrible cauldron from which the 
 fiery storms issue. The opening is so squarely in the middle of his sharp 
 cone and the sides so abrupt that the only way to look down into his throat 
 would be by going over it in a balloon. But at Mount Etna one can get a 
 fine view of a volcanic crater. The opening is slanting so that from a 
 certain point on the margin, one can see the whole great basin two miles 
 
362 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 around like a lake of pure white smoke on the top of the cone. It is ever 
 boiling over its shores, and tumbling cascades of vapor down the dismal 
 steeps. Then when for a moment the wind blows a rift in this cloud of va- 
 por the observer can see clear down into the deep black pit in the heart of 
 the mountain. This is one of the most awful mountain views in the world, 
 and it is made yet more startling by the contrast between the interior and 
 surroundings. A bright summer sky above, a blue island-studded sea 
 around, the white veil of vapor sailing gracefully above the crater, and the 
 terrible yawning black abyss beneath. 
 
 The view of the surrounding country from the top of Etna is one of the 
 finest in the world. Three cornered Sicily is spread out like a map on an 
 azure sea that fringes it with a beautiful girdle of white foam. On the 
 northern corner is the rock from which the monster Charybdis was supposed 
 to appear three times every day to gulp down his mouthful of water, and 
 opposite sat the still more dreadful Scylla waiting to seize her six victims 
 from each passing ship. Away to the north upon the Lipari Islands is a 
 real monster of the present day — Stromboli, continually sending up tokens of 
 his long unrest. In the opposite direction is little Malta, a hundred miles 
 away looking like a mere speck on the blue Mediterranean. 
 
 The Biography of the Po. — The surface of the earth in northern Italy 
 has been less disturbed by volcanoes than the south, but here the work of 
 other great forces can be traced. The history of the mighty movements that 
 occurred here long before man began to write books, is all written in the 
 great book of geology. 
 
 " Once," says a man who has studied this book, "ages and ages ago 
 there arose from out the waters on the earth's surface a lofty wall, running 
 from east to west ; then another running from north to south, and these 
 two joined, the northern end of the one to the western-end of the other, and 
 formed a right angled corner. These two broad solid walls are the Alps. 
 From the southern end of the second wall there started a third and smaller 
 one running east and west for a time then starting off south-eastwards. 
 This was the Apennines, which forms the back bone of Italy. Then came 
 earthquakes and steam explosions and cataracts of rain, splintering the 
 tops of the walls, and rolling their fragments into the valleys." 
 
 As yet the frost had not come. When he came he made the glaciers, 
 which brought down hosts of bowlders, great and small, from the crags and 
 pinnacles, and the chips, fragments, and dust from his winter's work helped 
 to fill up the bed of the sea that was inclosed within the walls until the lands 
 
Italy. 
 
 363 
 
 of Piedmont, and the plains of Lombardy were raised from out the 
 
 water. 
 
 The lakes of Como, Maggiore and La Garda were then mere fords opening 
 into the sea like those of Norway. All the Alpine valleys were full to the 
 brim of huge old glaciers. 
 
 In those early times the Po flowed forth from the ice caverns of the giant 
 glaciers, just as at the present day it does from their small descendants high 
 
 BAY OF NAPLES. 
 
 up among the inner Alps. No forests then clothed the rocky heights, all was 
 white and barren, a waste of snow most dreary to look upon, had eyes been 
 there to look. But not useless were these great glaciers, they were per- 
 forming their appointed work,— scouping out lake basins, great and small, 
 and grinding to powder the rocks in their path which carried into the great 
 river were spread out in the valley to form the soil on which man, when all 
 was ready, was to come and sow his crop. 
 
364 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 What a mighty river the Po must then have been, and what a crashing 
 of ice and bowlders there was during his spring floods. Stones, sand 
 and mud rolled along the bottom or were scattered out across the plain 
 as he overran his banks, or changed his course from one channel to 
 another. 
 
 But still the Po is a magnificent river. Its lakes and streams extend 
 from the Maritime Alps to the gulf of Venice. It gathers in as it flows the 
 tribute of every glacier, torrent and river within the great basin of upper 
 Italy, and rolls the full tide of these congregated waters, charged thick 
 with sediment, out into the distant Adriatic. And all along its course, where 
 once the mighty glaciers stood, are now hundreds of beautiful valleys, begin- 
 ning in the wilderness of mountain solitude and gradually softening as they 
 expand, till their sunny slopes sink down into the plain amid vineyards and 
 cornfields and meadows of loveliest green. 
 
 And in the midst of their green slopes is another chapter of the Po's his- 
 tory, which tells of the early animals that lived and died upon his banks . Here 
 are vast cemeteries of rhinoceros, elephants, hippopotamus, mastodons and 
 other huge animals. In one of the valleys they are so plentiful that the 
 peasants enclosed their gardens with the leg and thigh bones of elephants. 
 Within recent times great changes have taken place in the shape and size 
 of the channel of the Po. The people have thoughtlessly stripped the Alps 
 and Apennines of their timber, and the rain and melted snows having noth- 
 ing to hold them back, sweep down the slopes tearing lose more and more 
 of the soil each year, and carrying it down into the plain Here it keeps 
 narrowing and filling up the channel, and each following flood the river is 
 less able to carry away. The consequence is, it often overflows its banks, 
 doing great damage. 
 
 The Battle Ground. — It is a sad fact, says a historian, that the rich- 
 est and fairest spots on the earth's surface are often those where the 
 darkest deeds are committed ; where human blood is most freely spilled, 
 and human rights most ruthlessly ignored. Few countries have been more 
 blessed by the gifts of Nature, or more cursed by the strife of man, than 
 the wide plain of Lombardy. It is a very garden of fertility, hedged in by 
 the Alps and Apennines, watered by innumerable tributaries of the Po, 
 and glittering with a thousand towns and villages, "like white sails upon 
 a sea of verdure." But it has been for ages the battle-field of the. 
 nations, from the time when Bellovesus, nearly six centuries before 
 Christ, led his Celtic legions across the Alps, until the French and Aus- 
 

366 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 trians fought their last battle, and Victor Emmanuel drove out the last foes 
 of Italy. 
 
 Romans and Cimbri; Goths and Romans ; Lombards and Franks ; Ger-. 
 mans and Italians ; French, Spaniards and Swiss ; Austrians and French, 
 have again and again faced each other in deadly strife upon these 
 plains. 
 
 On the 30th of July, 101 B. C, a desperate and bloody combat was 
 fought at the western extremity of the Lombard plain, near Turin, between 
 the Roman legions and hordes of Cimbrians. On one side were Marius and 
 Catullus, the defenders of civilization, on the other, the champions of bar- 
 barism. The Romans numbered only fifty thousand men, while the Cim- 
 bric multitude extended in a vast square over many square miles. The front 
 ranks of the Cambrians were covered with immense shields and joined to- 
 gether by cords passing through the belts of the warriors to prevent their 
 line from being broken. Besides this enormous mass of infantry, there 
 were fifteen thousand cavalry, whose steel breast-plates white and glittering 
 shields, and plumed helmets, made a striking spectacle as they rode forth 
 into the plain. The heat of the weather and the clouds of dust raised by 
 the shock of battle, fought for the Romans, who were trained to endurance, 
 while their antagonists, bred in shady and frozen countries, proof against 
 the severest cold, could not bear the heat of the Italian sun. In spite of 
 this, however, they made a gallant resistance, and the strife was long and 
 doubtful. But Rome triumphed. Bogorine, one of the bravest of the 
 Cimbri, died sword in hand, and around him fell ninety thousand of his fol- 
 lowers. Sixty thousand were taken prisoners, and many killed themselves 
 in despair. 
 
 Even the women made a desperate resistance. They stood behind the 
 wagons, which formed the Cimbric camp, slaying those Avho fled, and at last, 
 when they saw that all was lost, killed their children and themselves. 
 This victory saved Italy from the barbarians, and gave Marius the title of 
 "The Third Founder of Rome." 
 
 In this same vicinity has lived a heroic band of people, who for six 
 hundred years have been persecuted for their religious faith. These peo- 
 ple — the Waldenses of Piedmont, like the Huguenots and Albigenese of 
 France and the Moravians of Austria, have endured the bitter hatred of 
 bigoted rulers and all the persecutions that misguided zeal could invent. 
 As early as 1242 many of them were put to death ; in the fifteenth century 
 the pope preached a crusade against them ; all through the sixteenth cen- 
 
Italy. 
 
 367 
 
 tury there was scarcely a stop in the persecutions. In 1655 a decree was- 
 published ordering them to leave Piedmont in three days, and as they went 
 they were set upon by the soldiers, every one of whom seemed to mven. a 
 new form of torture for the fleeing fugitives. Men were hewn m pieces 
 and women treated with all manner of cruelties. _ 
 
 One commander more merciful than the others, gave up his command in 
 disgust because he could not check the bloody deeds of his men All 
 Europe was filled with horror. Cromwell and Milton, in England, used, one 
 his pen the other his sword in behalf of the victims, and a treaty of peace 
 was made, which lasted for a season. But in 1686, Louis XIV sent an 
 army against the Waldenses. Ten thousand were imprisoned, and the val- 
 lies were desolated by murders and battles. In October, about three 
 thousand of the prisoners were released on condition that they would go 
 at once into exile. No time was allowed for preparation; they must leave 
 before night. Eighty-six of one company perished in the snow while go- 
 ino- over the mountains in a storm— they were not allowed to wait until it 
 was over One hundred and fifty of another died in a single night. 
 
 In 1848 Charles Albert, the father of Victor Emmanuel, granted them 
 full religious liberty, the first they had enjoyed in six hundred years. 
 
 The Christian Martyrs.— It was when Rome had reached her widest 
 extent when there was no more of the civilized world to be conquered, and 
 while the temple of the god of war was closed 'for the first time m seven 
 hundred years, that the central figure of history appeared. He who 
 "rulethinthe kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will, had 
 prepared the way for the coming of His Son. After the resurrection, the 
 belief in the heavenly mission of Jesus of Nazareth spread with great 
 rapidity The peaceful state of the world aided the zeal of the disciples, 
 which together with the force of the truths they taught, gained converts 
 by thousands. In less than two hundred years after the first church 
 was founded, Tertullian, the son of a Roman centurion, declared that it 
 the Christians were forced to emigrate, the empire would become a desert. 
 And this growth was in the face of the fiercest opposition and persecu- 
 tion By their stern words against the favorite gods of the Romans and 
 their refusal to worship the emperors, they became the objects of general 
 hatred, not only of the people but of the most powerful of the Csesars 
 Nero ordered them to be crucified, covered with the skins of wild beasts and 
 worried to death by dogs, thrown to lions and tigers in the amphitheatres, 
 and gray-haired men to be forced to fight with trained gladiators. One 
 
368 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 night he lighted Ms garden with burning Christians, whose clothes had been 
 smeared with pitch and set on fire. 
 
 Yet the Christians only multijDlied more rapidly. Their heroic behavior 
 under the tortures put upon them won the admiration even of their enemies. 
 One of the martyrs when brought before the tribunal and told to curse God, 
 replied " Eighty-six years have I served him and he has done me nothing 
 but good ; how could I curse him V ' Amid the flames in which he was cast 
 he thanked God that he was counted worthy to bear witness to the truth 
 by his death. 
 
 Such preaching make a deep impression upon the old idolators. For 
 every martyr there sprang up scores of new converts, and in less than three 
 hundred years the emperor of Rome himself became a Christian. From that 
 time the cross appeared upon the banners and shields of the Roman army ; 
 and fifteen years afterward (325 A. D.), Constantine declared Christianity 
 to be the religion of the Roman Empire. 
 
 The Fall of Rome. — For six hundred years Rome ruled the world 
 (133 B. C. — 476 A. D.). Then her prosperity became so great that her rulers 
 neglected to prepare for adversity. To the north and northeast was a great 
 dark world of savages ready to spread out over all Europe; and in Ravena, 
 a little city in the north of Italy, was the Emperor of Rome amusing him- 
 self with his pet chickens. 
 
 Presently, Alaric the Goth led his men through the pass of Thermopylae, 
 ravaged Greece and moved upon Italy. Stilicho, a watchful Roman general, 
 — for Rome had yet a good general, drove back the savages. But the weak 
 emperor, growing jealous of this brave defender, had him put to death. 
 When Alaric came again, not long after, he found no one to oppose him. 
 The " Eternal City" with its palaces filled with gold and silver ornaments 
 lay at his feet. 
 
 At midnight the people of Rome were awakened by the Goth's trumpets, 
 and told to open their gates. No Horatio was there then to defend them. 
 They were thrown open, and for six days the barbarians held high revel. 
 Then with their clumsy wagons heaped high with plunder they went out 
 over the Appian way toward the south. 
 
 When some one told the emperor, Honorius, that Rome was lost, lie 
 replied, " That cannot be, for I just fed her a moment ago out of my hand." 
 " Rome" was the name of one of his hens. 
 
 About forty years after Alaric took his departure, Attila, the Hun, after 
 his defeat at Chalons, appeared with his hords in Lombardy. To Yalen- 
 
Italy. 
 
 369 
 
 tinian III., who was then Emperor of Rome, he sent his ministers saying : 
 " Attila, my lord and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his 
 1 immediate reception," and the Emperor of Rome dared not disobey. 
 
 Attila helped himself to whatever he wished in Lombardy, stormed and 
 sacked the principal cities, and made the others pay him tribute. 
 
 When he took possession of the palace at Milan he was displeased to 
 see there a picture which represented the Caesars seated on their thrones 
 and the Princes of Scythia prostrate at their feet. So he commanded a 
 painter to change the position of the figures making the emperors appear 
 as humble supplicants, emptying their bags of gold at the feet of the Scy- 
 thian king. 
 
 Three years more, and then Gensaric, with his terrible Vandals, those 
 that had laid waste Spain and passed over into Africa, sailed up the Medi- 
 terranean and cast anchor in the Tiber. For fourteen days these pillagers 
 ravaged the City of Rome. Not only its gold and silver were taken now, 
 but its precious marbles, bronzes, and other works of art were ruthlessly 
 
 destroyed . 
 
 Twenty-live years afterwards the tiara and purple robe of the Caesars 
 were sent to Constantinople, where an eastern branch of the Empire had 
 been set up and Rome was no more. 
 
 Foreign Rulers.— During the years of confusion that followed the fall 
 of Rome, Italy became broken up into a number of separate provinces, in- 
 habited by different races. In the north the Longobards (long-beards) 
 founded Lombardy ; in the center, Theodore the Great set up a Gothic do- 
 minion ; in the south the Arabs obtained a foothold. Afterwards came the 
 Normans, and their leader Robert Guiscard began to rule in Rome ; the 
 Franks conquered Lombardy, and then for a time Charlemagne ruled over 
 the western empire which he had reunited. 
 
 By this time the barbarians had become quite civilized , but just as the coun- 
 try was ready for prosperity, a most unfortunate quarrel broke out between 
 two parties, one called Guelphs and the other Ghibellines. These kept the 
 land stirred up in civil strife for many years, and then, as always happens, 
 neighboring kings came in and set up claims to the territory. The French, 
 Spaniards and Austrians conquered and ruled over the most of Italy, from 
 that time till 1870. And when they were not fighting the Italians, they were 
 fighting each other, so the country was constantly overrun with foreign 
 troops. 
 
 Finally, when the French had set up their first republic, Napoleon came 
 
370 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 into Italy to fight against the Austrians, avIio then held large portions of 
 the country, and he promised to make the country free from one end to the 
 other, but he ended by dividing it up and giving it to his friends and rela- 
 tives. 
 
 Then Archduke John of Austria, came, and knowing how well pleased 
 the Italians had been with Napoleon's promise, he said, "Milanese, Tuscans, 
 Venetians, Piedmontese, and all inhabitants of the Peninsula, — Do you 
 wish to be Italians ? Do you wish for a constitution that will make the 
 Italian lands prosper and keep aloof from you every foreign enemy ? If so, 
 arm yourselves and fight against Napoleon." But when the war was over 
 the Austrians drew the fetters about them tighter than ever. 
 
 Then began to grow up a hatred of foreign rule, and a struggle for inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 The Carbonari.' — About the year 181.0, a number of those who were 
 most anxious to see the foreign rulers overthrown gathered among the 
 wildest recesses of the Apennines, and formed a society which they called 
 Carbonari — the " Charcoal Burners." The name was chosen because 
 charcoal was an emblem of purification, and Italy needed to be purified of 
 her bad rulers. 
 
 The place where they met was called the " baraca," the name given to a 
 charcoal burner's hut ; the interior was called the " venditti," because here 
 the collier always carried on the sale of his coals, and the surrounding 
 country was called a forest. 
 
 They used corresponding terms for all their operations and ceremonies, 
 and everything connected witli them. A person who was to be received 
 into the society was called a " pagan," and the most elaborate ceremonies 
 attended his entrance. He was led blind-folded from the " closet of reflec- 
 tion " to the door of the " baraca " by the " preparator," who there gave a 
 mysterious rap. Inside a " courrier," hearing the knock, said to his assis- 
 tant, " A pagan knocks for admission." The assistant repeated this to the 
 chief door-keeper, and he in turn to the grand-master. 
 
 " See who is the rash being who dares to trouble our sacred labors," 
 said the grand-master. 
 
 This was repeated back again from one to another, till it reached the 
 first man inside the door. He asked the preparer outside, and the answer 
 was " It is a man whom I have found wandering in the forest." 
 
 " Ask his name, country and profession," commanded the grand-mas- 
 ter when he had received the answer. This, like the others was passed 
 
Italy. 
 
 371 
 
 along, the replies returned and written down by the secretary. "Ask him 
 his habitation," was the next command. Then, "Ask him what it is he seeks 
 among us ?" 
 
 " Light, and to become a member of the society," was the reply. 
 
 "Let him enter," said the grand-master, and each official repeated it 
 solemnly to the next, until it reached the door-keeper. The " pagan " was 
 then led into the middle of the assembly, where he was again questioned. 
 
 COLISEUM. 
 
 " Mortal, the first virtues we require are frankness and courage," said the 
 grand-master. " Do you feel that you are capable of practising both to the 
 utmost? " 
 
 If the answer to this and other questions was satisfactory, the master said 
 "It is well. We will expose you to trials, in which you will find a mean- 
 ing. Let him first make the journey." 
 
 The candidate who was still blind-folded, was then led out of the baraca, 
 and caused to journey through the forest. His attendant, following 
 
372 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 silently at a distance. But the candidate thought himself lost in a tangle 
 of trees and brushwood, where he heard torrents rushing close beside his 
 path, and every kind of danger seemed to menace him. If he met all these 
 bravely his keeper came to him at last and took him back to the baraca. 
 The same preamble was gone through at the door, except that when he was 
 again in the presence of the grand-master that person explained the mean- 
 ing of the journey he had just taken. It was to show him that in the 
 life before him he would meet with many dangers and difficulties, but he 
 must overcome them if he would reach the goal. 
 
 He then was told to take another journey, during which his bandage 
 was suddenly removed for a. minute and he saw before him what seemed to 
 be a human head just severed from the body. This was to show him what 
 the society of the Carbonari did with traitors. 
 
 He was then taken back, still blind-folded, and made to kneel on a white 
 cloth and swear the most solemn oath to uphold the objects of the 
 society, and willingly meet his death if he revealed its secrets. The mem- 
 bers then formed a circle around him and the grand-master asked, "What 
 do you desire, pagan ?" " Light," he replied. " It shall be granted you by 
 the blows of my axe.'' 
 
 The bandage was then removed and he saw himself surrounded by a 
 circle of gleaming axes, which the grand-master assured him would surely 
 put him to death if he violated his oath, but would just as surely be raised 
 in his behalf should he continue faithful and ever stand in need of protec- 
 tion or assistance. This was the society that sought to be rid of their 
 enemies by secret assassinations, which the members were charged with 
 accomplishing. But they did not succeed, though by thus banding to- 
 gether they showed the strength there was in union, for the Carbonari 
 grew to be a very large society. The whole population of many towns en- 
 rolled themselves, and entire regiments most willingly joined. Magistrates 
 were compelled to enter in order to obtain anything like obedience to + heir 
 decrees, and all who were unprotected were glad to become members, m 
 hope of support or assistance. But the Carbonari did not drive out the 
 Austrians. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel.— Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, which included 
 besides the island of that name, Piedmont, Genoa, Savoy, and Nice, was 
 the first Italian to come out boldly and propose to fight for freedom from 
 foreign rules— " I am ready," he said," to give my life, and that of my sons, 
 my arms, my treasure, everything I have, for the cause of Italy." 
 
Italy. 
 
 373 
 
 Such noble words brought out other patriots, and in 1848 he was ready 
 to declare war on Austria. As his minister returned home from the ses- 
 
 VICTOR EMMANUEL. 
 
 sion at which this declaration had been passed, he was stopped by a young 
 man, wrapped in a mantle, whom he did not at first recognize. 
 
 " I came to beg you not to forget me when the companies are formed," 
 
374 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 said the young prince. "Will I have a command? I beg you to speak of 
 it to my father immediately." 
 
 "His majesty intends giving a command to your Highness," replied the 
 minister, as soon as the young man had thrown open his mantle and revealed 
 his face. "Be sure the Duke of Savoy could not be forgotten." Victor 
 Emmanuel, for this was he, shook the minister's hand heartily, wrapped 
 himself again in his cloak and returned to the palace quite happy. This 
 young prince had inherited his father's desire for the unity and independ- 
 ence of Italy, and with it a love for warfare that had led him to leave the 
 society of the court and devote his time to military studies. He was placed, 
 therefore, at the head of a corps and took an important part in the battle 
 that followed, but King Charles was defeated, the Italian cause lost, — at 
 least for a time. 
 
 That evening Charles Albert called his sons and his generals around 
 him and said. "It is now eighteen years that I have done the utmost in 
 my power for the good of my people. It is most painful to me to see my 
 hopes crushed, not so much for myself as for my country. I have not as I 
 would have wished, found death on the field of battle : perhaps my person 
 is the sole obstacle to our obtaining fair terms with the enemy. As no fur- 
 ther means remain to us of carrying on hostilities, I at this very moment 
 give up my crown in favor of my son, Victor Emmanuel, in the hope that 
 he may be able to come to a better agreement and procure the country an 
 advantageous peace. Here is your king." 
 
 The first words of the young king to his subjects were no less noble and 
 inspiring than those of his patriotic father. 
 
 " I will keep intact," said he "the institutions given by my father. I 
 will hold high and firm the tri-colored flag, the symbol of Italian nationality 
 which has been beaten now, but which will triumph one day." 
 
 For ten years Victor Emmanuel devoted himself to the government of 
 his kingdom and to preparing the way for the union of the whole country. 
 
 Then he was ready to fight the war of Italian independence. It began in 
 January 1859, and lasted five months. At Solferino on the 24th of June, the 
 Italians, assisted by the French under Napoleon III., defeated the Austrians, 
 and in the following February the liberator of his country was crowned 
 King of Italy. 
 
 The Plague in Milan. — Italy's misfortunes rank next to Ireland's 
 wrongs. Overrun by barbarians and foreign troops, torn by civil strife, and 
 held down by foreign powers, the victim of terrible volcanic eruptions, 
 
Italy. 
 
 375 
 
 of earthquakes, floods and malaria, she has still one other enemy in the 
 shape of epidemic diseases. In the year 1347, the most terrible plague ever 
 known in the history of the world, carried off two-thirds of her entire popu- 
 lation and many times since the cholera and other contagious diseases have 
 rao-ed 'with great violence. The cause of these is usually the filthy condition 
 of & the cities, and their ignorance and superstition. But when good govern- 
 ment has had a chance to raise the people above these, better things maybe 
 
 expected for Italy. . 
 
 The most terrible results of superstition, degredation and blind, ignorant 
 rage was felt by the city of Milan during a terrible plague in 1628. A scant 
 harvest, and the entrance of a plundering body of foreign troops brought on 
 a famine The soldiers destroyed much, and the price of wheat shortly rose 
 so that only the rich could buy. The city undertook to care for the poor, 
 and put them all in lazzarettos where they could be fed and sheltered. But 
 those who had the care of these places were wicked, and adulterated the 
 food for their own profit. The place was also allowed to become filthy, and 
 a contagion broke out; then in terror the whole mass of inmates were sent 
 out, and they carried the disease all over the city. 
 
 While in this condition of sickness and starvation a soldier entered the 
 city was taken sick and died— with a terrible malignant plague. Every 
 person in the house where he lodged sickened and died within a few days. 
 For a time it was hoped that the disease had spread no further; but the 
 hope was vain. There were fresh out-breaks and more deaths. 
 
 The people in their terror refused to believe that it was the plague, and 
 even attacked the doctors who had said it was, but they were soon obliged 
 to believe the truth by the rapid spread of the disease. 
 
 Then they turned with frenzy to seek for a cure. They paid no atten- 
 tion to the doctors but sought relief in superstitious ceremonies. A former 
 governor of the city in time of a pestilence had died, and for his wise 
 measures had been cannonized. So it was decided to take Saint Charles up 
 from his grave and carry him through the city in a solemn procession. The 
 body of the saint they said would surely stay the plague. 
 
 The doctors saw what would be the consequences of such a procession, 
 and vainly sought to prevent it. Within three days everything was ready. 
 Triumphal arches were raised, the streets were lined with tapestry and 
 silk, emblems, and verses in gilt letters a foot high were to be seen on 
 all sides. Altars were raised at every corner, and balconies were erected 
 in front of the houses in which bands of music and singers were placed. 
 
376 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Houses were gaily decorated which were filled within with the dead and 
 dying. 
 
 When the day for the procession came, everybody that could crawl out 
 of his bed joined the throng in the closely packed streets. For twelve 
 hours the show lasted, and the result was just what the doctors had fore- 
 told. Every person who joined the crowd was surrounded by the con- 
 tagion on all sides and, of course, there was a terrible out-burst of fresh 
 cases. Consternation seized the people to see that even the body of Saint 
 Charles, which they kept exposed in the cathedral eight days longer, was 
 not enough to turn aside the calamity. 
 
 To make matters still worse, disorder and license broke out, and added 
 greatly to the distress. A class of men called "monatti" were appointed 
 by the authorities to go into the houses and take the sick to the lazzaretto 
 and the dead to the pits outside the city. For this purpose they were 
 given the right to enter any house, and being men of the lowest class, 
 hardened by the scenes they passed through, if they were not before, they 
 committed the grossest deeds. They compelled the people who were well 
 to give them their money and valuables by threatening to take them to the 
 fearful lazzaretto. Seeing the advantages these robbers were having, oth- 
 ers put on the dress of the "moiiatti" and joined in plundering. 
 
 To crown the horrors of the stricken city the mad idea broke out that 
 the plague Avas caused by a poisonous ointment which evil-minded people 
 put upon the walls of houses. It did not take long to find those who t30uld 
 be accused of the crime, and they were taken before magistrates to be 
 tortured and put to death. Every name that could be extorted from the 
 suffering, crazy victims on the rack furnished a fresh accusation, and so the 
 persecution went on, until a disease that might have been stopped in the 
 beginning by proper measures, through ignorance and superstition nearly 
 depopulated the whole city. 
 
 The Medici. — Through all Italy's darkest hours there was one city 
 where prosperity, commerce, pleasure, luxury, learning and the arts con- 
 tinued uninterrupted. This was the city of Florence, which was ruled by 
 the famous family of Medici. The first great head of this family, that 
 came to have such a wide influence throughout Italy and Europe, was Gio- 
 vanni de Medici, a successful merchant. He discovered a great secret of 
 success in acquiring wealth and worldly influence, and when he was about 
 to die he called his two sons to his bed-side and imparted it to them. He 
 told them always to side with the multitude, this would bring them patron- 
 
Italy. 
 
 377 
 
 a „e , to avoid taking part in quarrels ; bnt to seek popularity with ail pa, 
 
 ties 
 
 3 - , t a «-f +1to fnmilv after Ms death, learned 
 
 ST. PETERS AND THE VATICAN. 
 
 m oney to needy citizens , put good »J J^SSKSJSJ 
 paid off the debts ot those whose privilege of voting ™s taK in politics ; 
 of them ; built up by his ^^£l™^lZ* diadvan- 
 but ruined those opposed to him ^ ™= l H man Toted agalns t the 
 
 Sci P^tStSfw^eS^ Plenty for others, it was not 
 
878 Persons and Places in ^Europe. 
 
 for him ; his rivals in trade underbid him ; taxes" increased as his wealth 
 diminished, nntil he had to sell his property to pay his debts. 
 
 In politics Cosmo was equally artful. He knew it would not be wise to 
 put himself at the head of affairs ; that would excite jealousy and opposition. 
 He kept carefully out of sight, but he put in power men whom he could 
 manage to suit himself, — those who owed him money or other obligations, or 
 who had done something bad that only he knew about, but whom he would 
 not bring to justice as long as they did his bidding. 
 
 But worse still was another method by which he sought to keep the peo- 
 ple under his control. He made the city merry with carnivals and festivals 
 and other pleasures, that the citizens might become gay and careless of 
 public affairs, and leave them more and more into his hands. 
 
 In this way Cosmo made himself and his family the first in Florence ; a 
 place which they held for many years. Though they had never belonged 
 to the nobility, yet when foreign princes, kings, and their ministers came to 
 Florence, it was the Medici who entertained them at their princely mansion. 
 Here were gathered the men of culture and learning, musicians, painters and 
 sculptors, for :the Medici were great patrons of all the fine arts and 
 sciences. But in time this family was made noble ; they became princes and 
 dukes, and two of their number were placed in the chair of St. Peter at 
 Rome, the place of greatest power then in the world. 
 
 The Snow Statue. — Lorenzo de Medici, one of the most gifted of the 
 whole Medici family, and the greatest promoter of art, opened in Florence 
 a garden filled with antique statues and busts, for the use of artists. 
 Among the students who hastened there to take advantantage of these was 
 Michael Angelo, then a mere boy. His first attempt at sculpture so pleased 
 Lorenzo that he invited the young artist to come and occupy rooms in his 
 house, and become one of his family. When Lorenzo died his son Pietro 
 continued the invitation to Angelo. 
 
 One evening as Pietro was entertaining some friends in the great mansion, 
 a heavy storm of snow fell, and when the guests went out to go home every 
 object in the yard was covered thick with snow. " Look at that Odyssean 
 ghost !" cried one of the guests to Pietro, who stood bowing and smiling fare- 
 wells to his friends. " Pietro mio, thou hast a noble quarry," said another. 
 " Send for the students of San Marco and order a new Colossus." 
 
 "Well thoughtof Francesco," returned Pietro; "We will have a statue be- 
 fore our door to fore tell the greatness of our Florence." "Luego," he said, 
 beckoning to a page, " Where is the sculptor Angelo ? Let him be called. 
 
Italy. 
 
 379 
 
 Come to-morrow friends and see the prophetic statue. Come as the bell 
 strikes high noon and we shall have some grand sport. 
 
 Michafl Angelo was summoned from his stndio to make a snow statue 
 for h s Toung ;atron,-a task that his proud spirit did not exactly ■ re ish. 
 H s talente had already excited much admiration, and he resented the idea 
 
 tS^S - the image grew under his handB^ 
 ing obediently the thought he wished to put ' 
 
 into it. , 
 
 When the morning sun lighted up tne 
 Val d'Arno, there sat a colossal figure of 
 Jupiter fronting the window of the Plazzo, 
 with the most severe and threatening look 
 upon his stern white face. 
 
 The early walkers in Florence that morn- 
 ing looked with wonder at the great white 
 statue, and soon its fame spread all oyer the 
 city All Florence poured out to see it. 
 
 Long before the great bell had tolled the 
 hour of noon, the gay young friends of Pietro 
 had come in response to his invitation and 
 been warmly welcomed. They gathered at 
 the window and looked out at the statue 
 which was to prophesy the fortunes of Flor- 
 ence In the centre of the circle stood the 
 handsome Pietro, wrapped in his costly fur mantle, and by his side, at 
 his express command, stood Michael Angelo. 
 
 But the sport they expected waswanting. Before the outstretched arm 
 warning hand and stern face of that white majestic figure, their jests died 
 Iway It was a moment of triumph for the artist. He saw that Pietrpw 
 awed as he looked upon the statue he had ordered to furnish sport; the em 
 menace it expressed was not the pleasing prophecy he expected. Michael 
 Wo felt gratified too, that his talent which was to have furnished sport 
 had L compelled admiration from all Florence, as the surging crowd around 
 
 ^^rber G of that year, Charles VIII. of France, ruled in th^azzo 
 de Medici, and Pietro was a fugitive. Ten years afterward and the waters ol 
 
 RAPHAEL. 
 
380 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 G-arigliano had closed over him, as he was lighting with the French againsl 
 the Spaniards. But the prophecy of the snow statue was not yet entirely 
 fulfilled. There wasanother side to it,— the future of the great artist who hac 
 made it. In L854, all the citizens of Florence were again assembled to do 
 honor to a, work of Michae] Angelo, chiseled from the snowy marbles of 
 Carara. Slowly tire (glossal statue of David was lifted to its place in the 
 piazza del (i ran Duca, and there it has stood ever since; the admiration and 
 wonder of all beholders, as the great artist himself, sculptor, painter, arch- 
 itect and poet, has been the wonder of the world. 
 
 Raphael's Saint Cecilia.— Next to the nameof Michael Angelo among 
 Italian painters is that of Raphael, who was only a few years younger, and 
 was particularly oelebrated Tor his numerous Madonnas. In those days the 
 best artists were employed in decorating t he chapels and cathedrals, and when 
 the chapel at Bologna was finished, Raphael was invited to adorn it with 
 religious paintings. 
 
 The building had been dedicated to St. Cecilia, one of the early martyrs, 
 who had been a great musician ; so one of the chief features of the decorations 
 had to be a picture of Saint Cecilia, and Raphael made it one of his best. 
 
 The picture represents Saint Paul, Saint John, Saint Augustine and 
 Mary Magdalene grouped around Saint Cecilia, the centra] figure. The idea 
 of the picture is the effect that music has upon each of these different persons 
 which is shown by musical instruments scattered around. Saint Pa.nl stands 
 quietly Listening, but his face shows that his mind is filled, not so much with 
 the music he hears, as with the thoughts it suggests. He represents the in- 
 fluenceof musicon areasoning man. Saint John on theotherhand is wholly 
 taken up with the sweet sounds. While if lasts he does not stop to think, 
 he only listens. That is the effect Of music upon an emotional man. The 
 same contrast is repeated in the other two figures, only that Saint, Augustine 
 both listens and thinks so that when the music shall have ceased, he will be 
 able to describe it, and its effect upon him. Mary Magdalene appears less 
 eager than Saint John ; she hears without listening. She feels its soothing 
 effect, and is satisfied. She is at peace with herself and the world. 
 
 But with Saint Cecilia the effect is different from all these. She listens, 
 thrilled and motionless, but she also,sees as she lifts her eyes the source 
 of the heavenly music. She feels the harmony and sees from whence it 
 comes. 
 
 Such are the fine distinctions and the beautiful ideas that those old 
 
 painters sought to express in their pictures. They are called the " idealists," 
 
Italy. 
 
 381 
 
 in distinction from the "realists;" such as Rembrant and others .who 
 painted tilings just as they appeared, no matter how ugly. Hie Dutch 
 painters tried simply to represent nature; the old Italians elevated 
 
 thoughts 
 
 The Mont Cenis Tunnel.— One of the greatest, if not the greatest 
 work ever accomplished by engineers, is the Mont Cenis tunnel through 
 the Alps, between France and Italy. This was planned and executed solely 
 
 
 MOUNT CENIS TUNNEL. 
 
 by the Italians. The St. Gothard, completed eleven years later, is some- 
 what longer, but the Mont Cenis one was the pioneer. 
 
 When it was first proposed to tunnel the Alps, everybody, ol course, 
 laughed at the idea. They said it would be utterly impossible, that there 
 were beds of rock in the Alps so hard that no instrument could penetrate 
 them; that great caverns would be run into, leading down nobody knew 
 where; that the bottom might be knocked out of some underground lake, 
 
382 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 and not only the mine but the whole country be flooded. But none of 
 these imaginary difficulties troubled the engineers ; they were studying 
 the real ones. 
 
 The great difficulty was that the work could not be carried on in the 
 ordinary manner, by sinking shafts every little way from which to work, 
 for the distance from the top of the mountain down to the proposed route 
 was nearly as great as the whole length of the tunnel. They must work 
 from the ends until they met in the middle. To do this, they must find a 
 way of forcing air into the mine to carry out the poisonous vapors of the 
 explosions and supply the men ; and they must find some kind of machin- 
 ery to work the drills when they were far in the mine, away from air and 
 water supplies. Some one finally hit upon a way of forcing in compressed 
 air, but then the machinery was lacking. Steam drills had been invented, 
 but steam engines to run them would consume more air than they could 
 provide. Then some one thought of using the compressed air to drive the 
 drills instead of steam. In a little while a machine of this kind was ready, 
 and the plans laid before Victor Emmanuel and his ministers, who were then 
 busily planning the union of Italy. They both thought very favorably of 
 the project, the experiments which were tried were satisfactory ; and in 
 1857 Victor; Emmanuel fired the first mine. 
 
 Then very careful surveys had to be made over the line proposed, and 
 signal staffs set up so that when the two mines met in the centre they 
 should exactly come together, and not pass by each other with several feet 
 of rock between. In making these surveys, the engineers had to scale the 
 steep sides of the Alps, carrying their instruments, make paths over un- 
 trodden regions, and take their measurements in places where a sudder- 
 storm would shut out their signal posts and keep them waiting for hours 
 on a giddy height. 
 
 While this was going on huge water-wheels were set up in the streams 
 at each extremity of the proposed tunnel, and machinery prepared for fur- 
 nishing the condensed air. A large tank, something like a gas-holder, was 
 put on the bank above the streams. Running up into this from the water 
 were a number of hollow tubes, each opening into the tank or receiver, by 
 a valve. The current of the stream then would turn the wheel ; the wheel 
 force water up into the tubes, which would condense the air already there. 
 From there it would go into the receiver, and from there the compressed 
 be carried by pipes into the mine. / 
 
 While the machinery was being prepared the drilling was carried on by 
 
Italy. 
 
 383 
 
 l, : „„l for two or three years. Then the drilling machines were pat in ami 
 fept going night and day for nearly ten yearn. Once a CortJught the work 
 ' s stopped while the engineers took observations to see that the mine was 
 befnfkept in a line with the signal posts over the mountain They also had 
 to compnte very carefully the grade of the excavations, so that one «1„>..I.I 
 not pas over the top of the other when they met. But whethertheu- meas- 
 
 h''V. ■.■■■■ ^n'• , 
 IN THE FORUM, LOOKING TOWARD THE OAPITOL. 
 
 areme nts would bring the two mines together true or not , continued to be 
 L anxious question through all the years of the work. When at ast, on 
 Christmas day, L870, the portion between their, was pierced, Ley fitfc I by 
 only a Eew inches. Ten months later the tunnel was opened for railroad 
 1 ra vel and now only seven minutes are required to pass through the moun- 
 tain over which the route had always been so tedious and dangerous. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TURKEY— IN EUROPE. 
 
 European Turkey is a bit of Asia that drifted across the Hellespont in 
 the fourteenth century, and has not yet gone back ; but the tide of its pro- 
 gress is rapidly ebbing that way. During the last century slice after slice 
 of the Turk's European territory has been cut away, and his hold upon the 
 remainder is very weak. It is only England's careful nursing that has kept 
 this "Sick Man" alive so long. 
 She is afraid that Russia and Aus- 
 tria would, in case of his death, fall 
 heir to too large a portion of his 
 dominions, and this would threaten 
 British possessions in the east. 
 
 At the opening of the present 
 century Turkey held possession of 
 Greece, Servia and Roumania, all of 
 which have now become independ- 
 ent; of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
 which have been transferred to 
 Austria; and Bulgaria, which is 
 now nearly independent. Only the 
 old provinces of Macedonia and 
 Thrace, and Albania, with a por- 
 tion of Epirus and Thessaly are left 
 entirely under the Sultan's control. 
 
 All of these provinces, excepting the eastern part of Thrace, are very 
 mountainous, but the slopes are richly covered with forests of pine, beech 
 and oak at their tops, ranging down through all manner of nut and fruit 
 trees to palms and almonds in the valleys. 
 
 The Grave of Orpheus. — The highest land in Turkey is the lofty 
 
 THE HAEEM WINDOW. 
 
Turkey — In Europe. 385 
 
 Olympian group in the southern part of Macedonia —the sacred ground of 
 the ancient Greeks. The throne of Jupiter, they said, was on its summit, 
 pnt veiled from mortal eyes by the clouds that ever hovered about it, con- 
 cealing the entrance to the vault of heaven. . 
 
 One of the most beautiful myths of the ancient Greeks was that ot the 
 sweet singer Orpheus, whose grave, according to their tradition, was at the 
 foot of these very mountains that had often been moved out of their place 
 by his wonderful music. The madly rushing torrents used to stop m their 
 course to listen to him, and the wild beasts of the forest, at the sound ot 
 his entrancing melodies, became as tame and gentle as lambs. 
 
 But poor Orpheus ! his beautiful young wife, Eurydice, was taken from 
 him and then all the valleys and groves were filled with his piteous lamen- 
 tations At last he could bear his grief no longer, and he determined to 
 brave the horrors of the lower world in order to entreat the king of that 
 region to restore to him his beloved wife. 
 
 Takino- only his golden lyre he descended into the gloomy depths, and 
 there, as he journeyed along, his wonderful music arrested for a time the tor- 
 ments of the unhappy. Tantalus forgot his perpetual thirst ; and even the 
 Furies forgot to be cruel, and shed tears at the sound of his lyre. 
 
 Whenhe came to theking's palace he began to tell his woes, accompany- 
 ing his mournful tale with his sweet sounding lyre. And the king and 
 queen were both so moved that they promised to let Eurydice go back again 
 with her husband, on condition that he would not look upon her until he 
 had reached the upper world. 
 
 Orpheus very gladly promised to do as they said, and started back again 
 to the re-ions of light, followed by Eurydice. When he had almost reached 
 the extreme limits of Hades, forgetting for a moment his promise, he turned 
 to see if his wife were really behind him, but that glance was fatal to his 
 hope. She was there when he looked, but instantly she was snatched away, 
 and vanished forever from his sight. < _ 
 
 His grief now was ten times greater than before, and his music was his 
 sole consolation. He wandered all day alone through the wildest and most 
 secluded parts of the forest, filling the hills and dales with his sad melodies. 
 Happening to come one day upon some Thracian women who were hold- 
 ing a wild carnival, they fell upon him with great fury and tore him to 
 pieces. Then the Muses collected his remains and buried them at the toot 
 of Mount Olympus, and the nightingales warbled a funeral dirge over his 
 grave. 
 
386 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Macedonia. — All the land about the Archipelago, the ancient iEgian 
 sea, is full of places made famous by stirring events of the past. The 
 largest part of this region was included within ancient Macedonia,— the 
 birth-place of him who first gave the country its great name, and of his son 
 who made himself master of the whole world. On a little plain northwest 
 of the Gulf of Salonica, between the Vardar and Kara rivers, stood the 
 ancient town of Pella, where Philip I. of Macedon established his court, 
 and here in the year 356 B. C. was born the great conqueror. Here he 
 spent his boyhood, taming his fiery steed, Bucephalous, and studying under 
 his great teacher Aristotle. It is said that as soon as Philip received the 
 news of Alexander's birth he wrote to Aristotle, " I know not which makes 
 me the happier,— that I have a son, or that I can have Aristotle for his 
 teacher." 
 
 Philip's confidence was rightly placed. The philosopher succeeded in 
 making a very good student of the war-like young prince. In the midst 
 of his conquests in Asia and Africa, in after years, he used to collect speci- 
 mens Of plants and animals to send home to his old teacher, and sometimes 
 Aristotle went with him and made valuable conquests in science, while 
 Alexander made conquests in war. 
 
 Aristotle's birth-place was also in Macedonia, in the town of Stagira, 
 that stood on the borders of the little gulf of Orfani. 
 
 Further to the east, on the northern shore of the Archipelago, stood the 
 old city of Philippi, where a number of important events occurred. Philip 
 enlarged the place and named it after himself. Near it was a very import- 
 ant gold mine, from which he used to obtain a thousand talents of gold 
 every year. It was at Philippi that Brutus and Cassius, after the death 
 of Julius Csesar, fought with Antony and Octavius, and were defeated 
 (42 B. C). With them fell the old Roman republic, and the empire soon 
 rose in its place under Octavius, who took upon himself the title of Augus- 
 tus Csesar. 
 
 Philippi was twice visited by the apostle Paul, and was the first place 
 in Europe where he preached the gospel. Nothing but ruins are now 
 found there, among them the remains of a great amphitheatre and a huge 
 relic of the temple of Claudius. 
 
 The Golden Horn.— The most important of the Turkish provinces is 
 ancient Thrace, extending from the borders of Macedonia to the Bosphorus. 
 It contains the rich plain of Adrianople, where roses are raised by the 
 acre to be converted into the precious Attar of Eoses, that sells for one 
 
Turkey— in Europe. 
 
 387 
 
 hundred dollars an onnce. But this is not snch an extravagant price, when 
 tt takes four hundred thousand full grown flowers to make an ounce of the 
 
 Ml Where the Bosphorus begins to cut the eastern extremity °f Thrace, 
 nearX sea of Marmora, is a little inlet jutting out from the strart into the 
 Peninsula, shaped like an ox's horn. Upon this many years ago, a city 
 was built by Greek colonists from Sparta and Athens, and was called By- 
 
 THE BOSPHORUS. 
 
 zantium. Having an excellent harbor, and being right on the line of travel 
 from Europe to Asia, it grew to be a very flourishing city It became the 
 depot of the corn trade between the shores of the Euxme (Black) Sea and 
 Greece and Egypt, and was the centre of ^ery extensive fisheries 
 
 Because of the wealth and prosperity thus flowing into it the little inlet 
 upon which the city stood received the name of "the Golden Horn 
 wMch has clung to it ever since. Upon this « Golden Horn » the ships of 
 
388 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 all nations are riding to-day, loading and unloading their treasures, just as 
 they have been doing for ages. But nations have come and gone since I 
 then. The city has been taken and retaken, and each new master has 
 given it a new name and a new appearance. 
 
 Philip of Macedon attempted to take the city of Byzantium from the 
 Greeks, but by the help of the Athenians, whom Demosthenes had at last 
 stirred up, it was able to hold out against him. It is said, however, to the 
 disgrace of these old Byzantians, that their patriotism was not sufficient to 
 keep them at their posts of duty on the walls until their general had planted 
 there a range of cook shops. 
 
 The citizens were wise enough not to resist Alexander, and so were not 
 disturbed by him. All he asked of them was that they acknowledge him 
 as their master. It also became an ally of Rome when that rising power 
 was at war with Alexander's failing successors, and continued for a long 
 time on good terms with the Roman emperors. But when Yespasian took 
 away its liberties, and put over it a Roman governor, there began to be 
 trouble. It stood out against the Emperor Severius during a three years' 
 siege, and then when at last compelled by famine to surrender, the chief 
 citizens were put to death and the massive walls torn down. Again it was 
 rebuilt and again sacked and pillaged. At last Constantine captured it, and 
 determined to make it the capital of the Roman empire. He began to build 
 here a new city, which he intended to call New Rome, but which was finally 
 called " the city of Constantine," — Constantinople. 
 
 The Church of Saint Sophia. — When the Roman Empire was divided - 
 between the two sons of Theodosius the Great, one of whom was the weak 
 Honorius, Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Empire ; which 
 extended over Asia Minor to the Euphrates, over Syria, Egypt and the 
 northern coast of Africa, as far as Tunis, and in Europe over nearly all of the 
 peninsula between the Adriatic and Black Seas, as far north as the Danube. 
 
 For a thousand years after the Western Empire had fallen (395 — 1453), 
 this Eastern, Byzantine, or Greek Empire, continued to hold together, pro- 
 tecting from the savage hordes that raged around it the remains of ancient 
 Greek and Roman civilization. 
 
 Justinian, who came to the throne about one hundred and thirty years 
 after it was established, raised the Empire to the summit of its glory. His 
 victorious general, Belisarius, drove the Vandals from Africa and the Goths 
 from Rome ; his lawyers collected from all the old Roman laws material for 
 a book that has ever since been of great value to the law-makers of every 
 
390 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 civilized nation; and the city of Constantinople was adorned and beautified 
 by this successful, bnt vain and selfish ruler, until he thought it "worthy of 
 himself." A throng of stately churches, a palace of unequalled splendor, 
 groves, gardens, and public edifices, rich with varied marbles, mosaics and 
 gold rose over the city, but the crowning glory of them all was the church 
 of Saint Sophia. 
 
 To perfect this grand cathedral Justinian labored with a zeal that never 
 tired. Often he went about under the glare of the noonday sun while all 
 others slept, clothed in a course linen tunis, a staff in his hand, his head 
 bound with a linen cloth, directing his workmen, urging the indolent and 
 stimulating the industrious. 
 
 The church was built of brick and coated with marble. A hundred 
 columns of jasper, porphyry and other costly stones torn from ancient 
 temples, unlike in form and carving, sustained the lofty roof. Four high 
 columns, very tall and graceful, held up the swelling dome. Twenty- two 
 rounded windows threw streams of light through the groined ribs of equal 
 number. Four colossal figures of winged seraphins adorned its four angles, 
 and from, its summit looked down the majestic face of Christ. 
 
 At the eastern end of the pillared nave, arose the silver screen of the 
 altar, composed of twelve pillars wrought in arabesque devices, twined into 
 pairs and graced with holy faces. Above was a massive cross of gold. 
 The table of the altar was formed of molten gold, and behind it were seats 
 of silver, separated by golden pillars, arranged for the bishops and the clergy. 
 Tall candelabra of gold of the richest workmanship threw a soft light over 
 the glittering scene. The altar cloths were stiff with gold and gems. 
 
 On Christmas day, in the year 538, the great church was dedicated, with 
 ceremonies the most pompous and magnificent that Justinian could devise. 
 
 AVhen the great bronze doors rolled open, the Emperor, clothed in purple, 
 the patriarch radiant in cloth of gold, a host of clergy arrayed in rich vest- 
 ure, filled the silver seats around the altar. The golden candlesticks poured 
 down their sparkling lights. The graceful galleries were thronged with 
 the fairest and noblest women of Constantinople; throngs of people covered 
 the floor and isles, and Justinian in grateful exultation, with arms out- 
 stretched and lifted in the attitude of prayer exclaimed, " Glory to God who 
 has deemed me worthy of such a work ! I have conquered thee, O Solomon !" 
 The chant of countless choristers swelled through the pillared isles. Im- 
 mense sums were expended in lavish gifts to the poor. 
 
 For nine centuries the Emperors of Byzantium were crowned in the church 
 
Turkey— In Europe. 391 
 
 of Saint Sophia; patriarchs were there installed, and Christian festivals 
 celebrated with all the pomp of the east. All the imperial marriages and 
 baptisms were celebrated at its altars. Its magnificent ceremonies so im- 
 pressed the ambassadors of Vladimir in the year 987, that the Greek form 
 of the Christian religion was chosen for the rising Russian empire. 
 
 From the pulpit of Saint Sophia in 867, Photius, the patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople, pronounced the sentence of excommunication against the pope of 
 Rome, and thus started the breach between the Greek and Latin churches, 
 which has never yet been healed. 
 
 And here, in the church of Saint Sophia, in 1453, amidst the groans and 
 cries of a host of dying Greeks, Mohammed II. strode up the blood-stained 
 aisle and proclaimed from the high altar the religion of God and the 
 Prophet. The rich ornaments were torn out, the pictures destroyed, and 
 the Mohammedan crescent was raised above the high dome in place of the 
 
 Christian cross. 
 
 The Knights at Constantinople. — A little more than three hundred 
 and fifty years before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the Em- 
 peror Alexis had joined Peter the Hermit and the Pope in urging Chris- 
 tian princes of Europe to make war on the Turks in the Holy Land. For 
 seeing his eastern possessions over-run by these terrible foes, and being 
 unable to drive them out himself, he naturally turned to the strong Chris- 
 tian warriors of Europe, of whose valor he had heard much, for assistance. 
 With joy he heard of their preparation for the war. But his joy was 
 turned into surprise, and then into fear and suspicion, when the vast host 
 of crusaders began to cross his territory on their way to the Holy Land. 
 He had expected a few troops of well disciplined soldiers, but instead came 
 the countless legions of rude warriors and people that no man could num- 
 ber, pouring with frantic eagerness towards the Bosphorus. He did not at 
 all like the appearance of the steel-clad knights, the men of iron, beside 
 whom his own subjects looked very small and weak. He feared that they 
 would not leave him as well off as they had found him, and required them 
 to take an oath of allegiance before he would give them permission to cross 
 over into Asia. The knights were greatly displeased at this, and at first 
 refused to comply. But their leader, Godfrey of -Bouillon, finally persuaded 
 them to yield their pride for the sake of the cause upon which they were 
 engaged. All but one consented. But they showed very little respect to 
 this magnificent eastern emperor. One knight, when he had taken the oath, 
 coolly seated himself beside the monarch on his throne saying, "What 
 
392 • Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 churl is this that sits when so many brave knights are standing in his 
 presence/' 
 
 None of the emperors officers, though greatly shocked at this rudeness 
 to their sovereign, dared offer to molest him, and the emperor himself felt 
 it was best to conceal his indignation by asking the name and rank of the 
 warrior who had taken so great a liberty. One of tin? other Crusaders took 
 the rude knight by the hand, rebuked him for his rudeness and compelled 
 him to rise; but still he answered the king's question by saying proudly, " I 
 can tell you this. In my country there is an ancient church to which those 
 desirous of proving their valor repair, fully armed for battle, and having 
 gone through their devotions, there remain to abide the attack of any adven- 
 turous knight that may appear to encounter them. At that church, where 
 three ways met, have 1 abode for a long space. But there lives not a man in 
 France who dared answer my challenge/ ' 
 
 The Emperor replied by saying that if the knight wished to light his 
 desire would probably be fully gratified when he met the Turks, and he 
 kindly gave him some information about their mode of warfare. 
 
 It is not strange that Alexis breathed easier when these rude warriors 
 were safely over the Bosphorus, but he misjudged them and did not assist 
 them as much as he promised to in their battles with his foes. He is 
 accused of having betrayed them into the hands of the Turks, and of thwart- 
 ing their best efforts more than once. If this is true his successors paid 
 the penalty in after years when these Turks, having stripped Byzantium of 
 her possessions in Asia, crossed the Helespont and conquered all the rest. 
 
 Constantinople was the last G reek stronghold to fall, and with it fell the 
 last of the Eastern Emperors, Constantine XIII. He stood at the walls 
 bravely lighting and urging his allies not to fly until after the Turks had 
 begun to pour over the walls. His body was found among heaps of the slain 
 and could only be recognized by the golden eagles embroidered on his shoes. 
 
 The Janizaries. — Not even the old barbarians were more inhuman in 
 their treatment of the vanquished than were the Turks in their treatment 
 of the Christians. For these people, besides being savage and brutal, were 
 religious fanatics. Death or the Koran were the only terms they granted to 
 those they conquered. Their rule was one of continual insult, oppression 
 and outrage. They shoAved less mercy to the " Christian dog" than to the 
 brute dog, who was allowed to live as best he could unmolested. 
 
 One of the greatest afflictions the Christians had to suffer was to yield one- 
 lifth of all their bravest boys to be educated in the Mohammedan faith and 
 
Turkey— In Europe. 
 
 393 
 
 trained to become soldiers. Every fifth year the Turkish officers cam, and 
 Juected this priceless tribal, .Von, the Christian fathers and -others a^d 
 the boys thus taken never come buck. They often become the most zealous 
 of Mohammedans, and the troops they formed, the -Janizaries," were the 
 most hardy and valuable of the Sultan's army. 
 
 When Solyman the Magnificent won his great victory at Mphaci ( L526), 
 the flower of his troops were these « Janizaries " that had been taken m their 
 youth from the conquered people. They were the ™*»^£^ 
 the Continent, But aHer thedeathof Sol yuan the Sultans of luikeybegan 
 to give themselves up to pleasure, leaving the care of their government «d 
 their armies to officers. Then the Janizaries were not well trained ; hey 
 became undisciplined and immoral. They were not now always taken from 
 the Christians/but from any source whatever. Whoever wished could join 
 the Janizaries, whether he knew anything about hghtmg or not, whethei he 
 was a respectable citizen or villain. But nearly all were from the very 
 lowest classes, little better than vagabonds. 
 
 Then Janizaries began to rebel against the Sultan. When set to guard 
 a city or province, they seized whatever they wished from the people put to 
 death whom they chose, and when the Sultan sent orders that did not 
 please them, appeared "with their kettles reversed,"-a sign that they were 
 Line to do as they pleased. The spoon and kettle was the chief badge 
 of the Janizaries, and when they were in revolt they always announced it 
 bv turning their kettles upside down. 
 
 For a long time the turbulent Janizaries made great trouble for the Sultan, 
 as well as for the people over whom they tyrannized. Some ol the Sultans 
 were put to death for trying to reduce them to order; others sought to keep 
 on good terms by yielding to them. 
 
 It was not until 1820 that these troublesome troops were disposed oi. 
 Sultan Mahmoud had been obliged on first ascending the throne to pardon 
 a number of the Janizaries, but he began at once planning to overcome 
 them After gaining over on his side some of the chief officers w. 1 1. thi 
 Mohammedan priests, he issued an order that a certain number of paries 
 out of every regiment should join the regular disciplined militia. 1 his as He 
 expected, lead to a great revolt. The kettles were all turned upside down, 
 but the Sultan was ready for them. A large number of citizens, pnva 
 guards and sailors, seized the artillery and turned it upon the rebellious 
 
 °Terrible scenes now followed. The Janizaries fought with great fury, but 
 
394 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 they were overcome. They were burned in their barracks, cannonaded, 
 massacred in the streets, and driven into exile. Within three months 
 twenty-five thousand were killed, and the order was never reorganized. 
 
 The Turk at Home.— The Turk is a man who loves his else ; yet he 
 lives in a most uncomfortable manner. He smokes his " chibouque" on sofas 
 without backs ; he uses his knees for a writing desk, and the floor for a 
 dinner table. He is fond of riding, and has no roads. He is fond of visit- 
 ing his friends in state, but has no carriage. 
 
 The Turk's wives are so muffled up that they cannot see where they are 
 walking; they roll about like barrels from the length of their dresses and 
 the largeness of their shoes. He veils and imprisons them, yet allows them 
 to go where they please unaccompanied. He is never seen in public with 
 his wife, never suffers her name to pass his lips, and would consider it an 
 insult to be asked after her health. 
 
 The Turk is both extravagant and penurious; he keeps a multitude of 
 servants, horses, pipe-sticks and houses, but his servants are poorly dressed, 
 his horses are worthless, and his houses are often in such bad repair that 
 the rain comes down into the drawing-room. 
 
 In Turkey great men salute those beneath them. Other Europeans take 
 off their hats to show respect, the Turk takes off his shoes. 
 
 The Turkish gentlemen of means has his house and everything about it 
 in the most exquisite taste. The walls are of white marble, and surround 
 an open court, in the midst of which is a fountain flashing its bright water 
 from a thousand jets ; and its marble basin alive with gold-fish 
 
 The buildings are surrounded with orange trees, palms, limes, and ter- 
 races of flowers. The morning room is lighted by windows that open upon 
 a beautiful garden threaded with marble walks. In the center perhaps is 
 an artificial ledge of rocks, with a stream breaking over them into a num- 
 ber of waterfalls. 
 
 The covering of his furniture and drapery of his rooms is of rich satin 
 damask ; the hangings are of velvet worked and fringed with gold ; the 
 tables are covered with cloth of gold and silver ; the floors are covered 
 with matting and rich rugs. There are curious little stands here and there 
 inlaid with mother-of-pearl ; there are carved wooden boxes, and clocks 
 that produce singing birds to announce the hours. His dinner is placed on 
 silver trays, resting on low stools, around which are drawn cushions of 
 pink and sky-blue satin, embroidered with gold and silver and colored 
 silks. Beside every cushion are napkins of the finest muslin exquisitely 
 
Turkey— In Europe. 
 
 395 
 
 wrought with golden birds and silken flowers. A row of slaves reaching 
 torn the furthest tray to the door, pass the dishes from hand to hand 
 until they reach the master, to whom the slave kneels as he presents them. 
 Slaves lead the guests to their cushions, spread a napkin over their knees 
 Sour rose wLr from a golden ewer over their hands Then each gues 
 helps himself from the dish in the center of the table, taking from any part 
 of it whatever he wishes. +*#*.„«„ 
 
 The Turk is fond of a variety of food; and has usually about fifteen 
 courses at his private dinner, yet the meal does not last so long as m other 
 countries, where there are fewer courses. The slaves remove each dish as 
 soon as it is used, and the next course is passed m. 
 
 After an evening spent in listening to music, to his jesters watctoig 
 his dancers and talking with his guests, the Turk retires to his bed which 
 is a silk cushion, orange colored perhaps, embroidered with gold and filled 
 with swan's down. And he draws over him when he lies down to his 
 night's rest, a sheet of blue silk gauze brilliantly marked with crimson 
 stripes, and a coverlid of pale violet silk worked with azure and golden 
 
 °The Harem —In the Turk's house are two departments, the " place of 
 oreetinff " where the master receives his guests and transacts all his busi- 
 ness and the "harem," or "Sacred Enclosure," where his family lives. 
 In the first the doors are always open, the windows unlatched, the rooms 
 comparatively bare. But the other, the abode of his mother, wife or wives, 
 daughters and female slaves, is carefully guarded from all outsiders, ex- 
 cept female friends, and is embellished with every ornament and luxury 
 
 that he can afford. . . . T 
 
 The harem is the Turk's chief solace. There he is his own master. No 
 man mav enter without his permission. Even officers sent to arrest him 
 dare notfenter the harem, neither will the servants call him out to attend to 
 any business however important. The Turks lost an important battle m the 
 late war with Russia because the commander-in-chief was m his harem when 
 -the officer in charge telegraphed him that the Russians were advancing, 
 and asked for orders. The servants would not take the message to their 
 master. The general on the field waited in vain for an answer, and then 
 ordered a retreat on his own responsibility. After the defeat the authori- 
 ties inquired into the case, and punished-not the commander-m-chief-it 
 was not once supposed that the message could have been taken to him, but 
 the general who lost the battle. He was condemned to exile. 
 
396 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The law of Mohammed allows four wives to all faithful followers of the 
 prophet, but most Moslems find si^ch a large household too expensive, and 
 too uncomfortable because of the many family quarrels that are likely to 
 arise. In most houses there is but one mistress, and her rule is undisputed. 
 She looks after the welfare of the children and the slaves with true house- 
 wifely care, is very dutiful and respectful to the aged grand-parents, and 
 hospitable to strangers. 
 
 .The Turkish woman is very generous, always ready to give alms . When- 
 ever the family has some special cause for rejoicing, or for mourning, she 
 remembers the poor. She goes out very seldom, but when she does she 
 takes with her a well-filled alms-bag, and gives something to every beggar 
 she passes. 
 
 ^ The Turkish women are not educated to support themselves, and when 
 widowed, or left without support, they have no resources but the friendly 
 harems, which are open to all such. A poor woman comes to the door with 
 all her worldly goods done up in a little bundle, and presents a letter from 
 some friend of the family. She is admitted at once. Her place is set at the 
 table, or among the slaves, according to her former rank. Mattresses and 
 padded quilts are spread for her at night, and she remains for several days a 
 guest of the house. 
 
 When she is ready to go, she receives a letter to another harem and a 
 garment or two, perhaps an entire new outfit. It would be considered a dis- 
 grace to send her away without at least one new garment. 
 
 There seems to be a kind of freemasonry among these women. They 
 are ever ready to do all they can for each other. This is well known among 
 the Turkish officials, or politicians, and when one man wants to obtain a 
 favor. from another, he often sends his wife to the other's harem. Here she 
 flatters and coaxes and bribes the women until they promise to help her and 
 goes home. When the favorable time comes the new advocates broach the 
 subject to their master, and the point is usually gained. The solemn and 
 dignified Turk is " like wax in the hands of his harem." The mothers 
 especially have great influence over their sons . It is a doctrine of the Koran 
 that parents should be reverenced and obeyed. 
 
 The Turkish women are generally well satisfied with their positions and 
 finatically attached to their religion. They are more bigoted and intolerant 
 of foreigners than the men. They may frequently be heard praying down 
 curses upon those who pass them in the streets. They believe that the 
 Americans have learned all their great arts from Satan himself. 
 
Turkey — In Europe. 397 
 
 The Sultan's Household.— The Sultan of Turkey is allowed a larger 
 number of wives than his subjects, and having more money and more time 
 -to attend to family jars, usually indulges in a good many. But he often 
 finds his household expenses heavier than he can afford, and his ministers 
 are sadly perplexed to raise the necessary funds. Each wife has to have 
 her slaves, carriages, coachmen, and full suite of servants, and the maids 
 of honor all have their separate residences, carriages and horses. All of 
 these royal ladies have besides a very great weakness for costly jewelry, 
 pearls and diamonds, and when their royal master undertakes to cut short 
 their costly purchases, then there is a general conspiracy among all the 
 women of the harem. They pout, and scold, and make the Sultan's life so 
 miserable, that for peace sake he grants them whatever they desire. 
 
 One time when the ladies had been more than usually extravagant, and 
 -the royal treasury was running very low in consequence, the European 
 diplomats waited upon the Sultan in a body and begged him to show him- 
 self master in his own house and stop these needless expenses. The poor 
 man heaved a deep sigh and expressed his regret that he was not in a po- 
 sition to meet them. 
 
 One great drain upon the Sultan's purse is the cost of marrying and main- 
 taining the princesses. These royal ladies choose their husbands from among 
 the men at their father's court. The chosen man has to be .immediately 
 made lieutenant-general of the army, and given a magnificent, fully fur- 
 nished mansion, with a liberal allowance of pocket money, besides the amount 
 necessary for his household expenses. 
 
 A great arrav of costly wedding presents are made the pair,— diamonds, 
 rubies, pearls, diadems, bracelets, girdles, cups, furs, gold embroidered 
 dresses and a thousand smaller articles, all enclosed in gold or silver bas- 
 kets. The wedding dress is of pearls and embroidery and costs an enormous 
 
 sum. 
 
 The bridegroom is not always over and above pleased at being chosen, 
 for he must divorce his wife if he have one, and live henceforth almost as 
 secluded a life as that of the ordinary Turkish woman. In fact, the tables 
 are completely turned against him. He becomes the imprisoned member 
 of the household, and his wife goes when and where she pleases. 
 
 Whether his bride be handsome or not, he does not know until the 
 ceremony has been performed and she has made a visit to her future home 
 in state with her maids, examined all the furnishings and then if pleased 
 comes to take up her abode. A kind of palace state-room having been pre- 
 
398 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 pared for her she enters with her maids, seats herself on a throne and the 
 young husband is allowed toMook for the first time on her face, as the 
 maids raise her veil. 
 
 Whether she be pretty or homely she lets him understand that she is 
 master of the house. He must never leave his room without her permis- 
 sion, he must come to her the instant she sends for him no matter what he 
 is doing. In her presence he stands until she asks him to be seated. If 
 he wishes to go out he must ask her permission, and one of her eunuchs is 
 sent with him to see that he does nothing contrary to her orders. He must 
 never look at another woman, while she, if she wishes to see gentlemen, 
 orders him to invite whoever she wishes to the house. The invited guests 
 assemble in a room separated from hers with a gilt grating. On one side 
 is the princess with her ladies, hearing and seeing without being seen ; on 
 the other side the gentlemen who talk of such subjects as they think will 
 please their unseen royal audience. 
 
 There is no escape for such a husband, if he is dissatisfied, while the 
 princess may obtain a divorce any day she pleases. 
 
 The Turkish Bath. — One of the Turk's greatest luxuries is his bath. 
 Every well-to-do person has in his house his marble bath-room, with great 
 furnaces underneath to heat the whole floor. If he is not able to have this 
 he goes to the public bath-house. But even here, in the perfectly arranged 
 apartments, administered by well trained attendants, the Turkish bath is a 
 luxury. 
 
 The first apartment of the real Turkish bathing establishment is a spa- 
 cious hall open at the summit, to admit a gentle but free circulation of air. 
 Running around it, by the wall, is a raised dais or platform covered with a 
 carpet and divided into compartments, one for each visitor. In the center 
 of the building is a fountain playing into a marble basin. 
 
 In the little room on the platform the visitor undresses and puts on 
 three scarfs of toweling, warm and rough, but soft and gaily bordered with 
 blue or red silk. One of these he ties around his waist, one is thrown 
 across the shoulders, and the third is twisted up in a turban for his head. 
 With wooden pattens on his feet he then walks to the heated chamber, 
 followed by two attendants. 
 
 This room has a marble platform on each side, raised about a foot and 
 a half above the central part, upon which the attendants place a mattress 
 and cushion. Coffee and pipes are brought, and while taking his ease in 
 this comfortable way, the perspiration starts gently from all the pores of 
 
Turkey — In Europe. 
 
 399 
 
 his body. A little " shampooing " is done here, the attendant rnbbing the 
 feet and lightly tapping the neck and limbs to increase the perspiration. 
 When this has fully broken out the bather enters the hot chamber. 
 
 In this, the attendant begins the shampooing, first pouring on a bowl- 
 ful or two of water. Then, with his glove of camel's or goat's hair, he rubs 
 the whole surface of the body, delicately and briskly. After this opera- 
 tion a bowl of water is brought, frothed with perfumed Cretan soap, and 
 applied with the soft, fibrous life of the palm tree. Hot clothes are then 
 
 FOUNTAIN ST. SOPHIA. 
 
 wrapped about the bather's body, a bowl of cold water is dashed over his 
 feet and he is ready for the cooling room, thefrigidarium. 
 
 Many glowing descriptions have been given of the pleasurable feeling 
 that now follows, while the bather reclines upon a couch in the cool, refresh- 
 ing air of this final chamber. His blood fairly sparkles through his veins ; 
 there is a sense of boundless energy and yet of absolute rest. The air feels 
 electrical and breathing a delight. This feeling soon gives place to an 
 eager desire for exercise, and then the whole man is ready for a whole day's 
 
 work. 
 
 Fountains. — Far more numerous than the baths even, and every town 
 and village has its bath as surely as its mosque, are the fountains. In all 
 the principal cities there is scarcely a street in which they may not be 
 
400 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 found. Large legacies are o^ten left by dying Turks to be used in build- i 
 ing fountains. Some are very old and no longer active ; their marble tanks i 
 full of dust and melon rinds ; their gildings worn off, and the name of the j 
 Turk who built them forgotten. 
 
 Fountains are found in all places about the city, — " by the water's edge, i 
 in the open places where boatmen and horse boys congregate, by the bazar's j 
 dark entrance, by the khans where laden pack horses go in and out all day, 
 beyond the city walls where the country opens into gardens and broad 
 dusty tracts." 
 
 They are of all sizes, from that at the Seraglio gate, with its square bulk 
 and circular towers to the mere boarded over arch top and tank. They are ; 
 of many varying patterns, but generally with a wide over-lapping roof, so as to 
 make a large shade; around their base a terrace and tall gratings with drink- 
 ing-vessels attached by chains . These gratings are always specially beautiful, 
 fine as jeweler's work and full of flowing lines, trefoil and heart shaped, and 
 blossoming into a thousand fairy like shapes. The marble shafts between 
 the gratings are ornamented with honeysuckle wreaths, trails of wild vines, 
 rose branches, and tendrils of jasmine and pomegranate. 
 
 Human figures, the Koran forbids, so the Turks have no painters or 
 sculptors, but they are very skillful in the portraying pots of roses, lilies, 
 bunches of grapes, dishes of pears and numerous fan-like ornaments. 
 
 Two things are always to be seen about a Turkish fountain : the first, 
 pigeons, the second, street boys. Always pigeons on the lead roof, cooing, 
 spreading their purple necks to the light, fondling, pecking or fluttering ; 
 always the street boys, watchful and mischievous, who sit in the niches, with 
 their dirty backs against the gilding and carving, idle and happy. Over 
 them lies the broad shadow, and they lie under it as in a shady wood, de- 
 fying the heat which makes the paving-stones just beyond the shadow, all 
 but red-hot. 
 
 Often a boatman's oars rest up against the carved brackets, while the 
 owner snatches a nap under the greatful shadow, having first drank of the 
 fountain. Hundreds of times in a day these brass cups, all in a row under 
 the stanchioned grating, are filled and emptied. 
 
 Fires in Constantinople. — The capital city of Turkey has probably 
 more fountains than any other city in the world, and it has also more de- 
 structive fires. "Asa storm is said to be always going on in some part of 
 the sea," says one, "so a fire, larger or smaller is always raging in some 
 part of the narrow wooden streets of Constantinople." Instead of creating 
 
Turkey — In Europe. 401 
 
 L panic, a fire here is always the signal for a good time. The people attend it 
 much as they do a theatre in other countries. A crowd quickly gathers 
 and struggle for a place in the balconies of the opposite houses or upon the 
 piles of carpets, cushions and pillows that have been hurried out of the 
 burning houses. Having found a place, the women in one place and the 
 men in & another, they settle down comfortably, with a look of calm enjoy- 
 ment to watch the fire that is destroying their neighbors property, or per- 
 haps their own. If so they resign themselves to their loss without a mur- 
 mur, for whatever comes is sent by Allah and must therefore be right. 
 
 In a few moments refreshments begin to come from all quarters, sweet- 
 meats, confectionery and sherbet, carried around by peddlers, who act as 
 if the fire were gotten up expressly for their benefit. They rush around 
 amid the falling smoke, elbowing to one side the police, who are hurrying 
 to the fire with pails of water on their heads. 
 
 It is small wonder, therefore, that with no fire department, no engines, 
 and houses built mostly of wood, there should be many terrible fires m the 
 great city of Stamboul. One night in 1852, seven fires broke out, destroying 
 about thirty-five thousand houses; in 1865, a fire swept away eight thousand 
 houses, twenty mosques, and a large number of baths, khans, and other 
 public buildings. Others nearly as destructive occurred in 1870, and in 
 
 1873. . . 
 
 Homeless Dogs.— A very curious, and not altogether pleasant sigiit m 
 -the large cities of Turkey, are the hordes of dogs that run wild about the 
 .streets without home or master. " If you look down a hole under a door- 
 step," says a visitor, " blind puppies crawl up ; if you go out at dusk and 
 fall over something, and that something turns and bites you, it will prove 
 to be a dog." Dogs lurk under the market stalls, prowl about mosque 
 gates, roam (not without kicks and cuffs) through the dim vaulted drug 
 bazaars ; they lie in the open streets and sleep, unmindful of passing foot 
 or wheel ; they haunt the cemeteries and the cypress groves, are m fact 
 everywhere. 
 
 A traveler passing through one of the burying grounds saw an opening 
 in a grave, and while he was wondering what had caused it, up came a little 
 puppy, toddling and winking at the light. And while he was wondering 
 how this little fellow came to have a grave for his kennel, up toddled four 
 others winking, yelping, and rolling over each other .^ Lastly the mother 
 appeared at the opening, watchful and anxious for their safety. 
 " As it is against the Mohammedan creed to kill animals unnecessarily, the 
 
402 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 dogs are suffered to live ; but their own kind are less merciful. It is no un- 
 common sight to see a pack of dogs tearing along the street in full chase after 
 some strange dog, who has ventured within their district. The poor victim, 
 covered with mud and blood struggles on, while from every doorway, hole in 
 the ground, or rubbish heap, dash out fresh persecutors to worry and tumble 
 and bite him still more. 
 
 In the busy parts of the city, the dogs are seldom dangerous. They are 
 so kicked and driven that they become altogether meek and sneaking. The 
 shop-men are making constant charges upon them with sticks and stones. 
 But they are more fierce and sullen in the suburbs, where they have only 
 women and children to contend with. 
 
 Dancing Dervishes. — -Among the Turks there is a class of people who 
 are to the Mohammedan religion what the Monks are to the church of Rome, 
 in that they own no property and spend their time in religious rites and 
 ceremonies. They are commanded to support themselves by the labor of 
 their hands, but many prefer to obtain their living by begging. Some lead 
 a vagrant life, traveling about from one country to another, playing the part 
 of jugglers, sorcerers, and montebanks, and finding a refuge in their numer- 
 ous convents. Those who wish are allowed to live in villages with their 
 families, but they are required to spend two nights each week with their 
 associates. 
 
 There are several sects of these dervishes, and each has its own peculiar 
 methods of worship. The mos t numerous of these are the dancing dervishes, 
 founded by a Persian poet who is said to have turned around on his toes 
 for four days without stopping, while his companion played the flute. 
 
 His followers try to imitate him and their zeal keeps them going, not 
 for four days, but until they drop from exhaustion. 
 
 A large congregation usually gathers to witness the performances of the 
 dancing dervishes, and occasionally an "infidel" gets in. The spectators 
 occupy a gallery, with a corner reserved for the flute players ; the dancers 
 assemble in solemn procession upon the smooth floor below. With arms 
 crossed upon their breasts, eyes closed, and their white sandaled feet peep- 
 ing out from beneath their long gray dresses, they begin their rounds, tip- 
 toeing along to the accompaniment of the flutes. Then there is a kind of 
 salute from one division of dancers to the other, and then the waltzing 
 begins. Round and round they go, one after another, each one spinning on 
 his toes. The wind gradually fills and spreads out the long grey dress, but 
 so fast it goes round one can scarcely make out anything but the face. 
 
Turkey — In Europe. 
 
 403 
 
 When the flutes cease, then stop their whirling very suddenly, otherwise 
 they keep on until they drop down. 
 
 Another sect called the howling dervishes perform their religious cere- 
 monies in a more terrible manner. 
 
 They begin by prostra- 
 ting themselves upon the 
 earth, with their foreheads 
 in the dust. The priest 
 commences a long, low wail, 
 which is echoed by the whole 
 band, and then they begin to 
 rock their bodies back and 
 forth. Soon they grow excit- 
 ed. Their eyes shine, froth 
 gathers upon their lips, their 
 faces are fearfully contort- 
 ed, while the perspiration 
 rolls down in drops. 
 
 Each moment their cry 
 of "Al'lan-hon!" is re- 
 peated with greater fury, 
 until their words give way 
 to mere frantic roarings. As 
 their excitement and fury 
 increases some roll upon the 
 floor in death-like convul- 
 sions. The others toss their 
 arms in the air like maniacs. 
 The priest regulates the 
 chant by clapping his hands 
 
 to increase its speed, or demanding by gestures that it 
 in this way the wailing and howling, and cry of " Al'lah-hon ! " 
 up until the strongest fall into convulsions, or sob and 
 prostration. 
 
 MTJSSELMAN WOMAN. 
 
 go slower 
 
 is 
 cry 
 
 And 
 kept 
 from 
 
\ 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 Greece is sacred soil to all students of the past. Upon it rose the most 
 wonderful civilization that the world ever saw. There has never lived a 
 race of people gifted with such wonderful imagination, and such a love of 
 beauty as the ancient Greeks. They have been the world's teacher in phil- 
 osophy, in literature, and in nearly all branches of learning, in art and in 
 architecture for hundreds of years. 
 
 The old Greeks grew up amid scenes of great natural beauty, and their 
 literature shows that they appreciated it. They are ever speaking of the 
 sighing of the trees in the wind ; of the rush and splashing of the sea on the 
 beach ; of the trinkling of fountains ; of the chirp of grasshoppers in the 
 sun ; of the cooing of doves, the hum of bees, the barking of dogs, the low- 
 ing of kine ; of the neighing of the war-horse as he bounds and plunges 
 over stream and chasm. 
 
 Mount Parnassus. — Though showing many signs of neglect and de- 
 cay, Greece is still full of beautiful scenery. It bristles with mountains 
 from the interior to the very tips of the jutting headlands. Mountains 
 cluster together in groups, and cross and recross each other in every dis- 
 trict and province. Her crowning glory. Mount Olympus, the palace of 
 her ancient gods, has been taken away, with nearly all of the Pindus, but 
 she has left the mountains of Parnassus, the home of her Muses, the site 
 of her far-famed oracle of Delphi. In the midst of the bold, rugged rocks 
 and wild glens of ancient Phocis, just north of the gulf of Corinth, rises this 
 renowned old cluster of mountains. The highest summit overlooks all 
 Greece, — the irregular coast with its singular deep bays, where the sea lies 
 within the arms of the land ; in the north the immortal pass of Thermopo- 
 la?, in the south the ocean of mountains that fill +he land of the valiant old 
 Spartans . 
 
 On every hand are the scenes of Greece's ancient glory mingled with 
 
Greece. 405 
 
 the evidences of her great decline. The valleys, every one of which once 
 swarmed with cattle, blushed with orchards and glowed with harvests, are 
 now many of them, brown and dry, deserted or neglected. The culture 
 that' once brought such bountiful crops from the smiling land has for 
 many years been wanting. Through the once proud cities where the young 
 men came to listen to the wise old philosophers, the traveler now passes, 
 revolver in hand, with sidelong glances into the bushes for fear of lurking 
 brio-ands The fair, wild region, "the haunt of nymphs m the days of 
 - Hesiod, had become the lair of pirates in the days of Byron." 
 
 Parnassus is being stripped of his glory also. Huge bowlders are being 
 constantly loosened from his side by earthquakes and sent crashing down 
 the slopes at his feet. Great scars cover all his sides, where these pieces 
 have been torn off. A litttle town situated underneath some of the over- 
 hand cliffs of Parnassus, presents the most crooked and uncertain appear- 
 ance owing to the fallen bowlders which have blocked up her streets and 
 crushed her houses. Great damage was done to the town when these first 
 began to fall, about 187 A. D., but now the bowlders that rattle down are 
 not so large, though more frequent; almost every day one or more falls. 
 
 The Oracle of Delphi. -Within the most secluded valley of Mount 
 Parnassus, surrounded by the loftiest heights, is the site of the ancient oracle 
 of Delphi, to which thousands of the old Grecians used to come on long 
 pilo-rimages, to inquire of Apollo concerning the all-important affairs of 
 their lives From a narrow cleft in the rock issued a strange intoxicating 
 vapor, which was said to be the breath of inspiration from Apollo himsett. 
 Over this sacred cleft, was placed a three legged stool or tripod upon which 
 a priestess seated herself, after she had fasted three days and bathed in the 
 Castalian spring near by. As she inhaled the vapor she became strangely 
 excited, uttering groans, confused sounds, and disconnected words, and 
 , sometimes became so violent that those who heard her fled m terror. The 
 priestess frequently died from the effects. 
 
 The confused words she uttered were all caref ully noted down by the art- 
 ful priests, who made them mean whatever they thought would best fit the 
 case of the person who had come to consult the oracle. As people were con- 
 stantly coming to them from all parts of the country, they were able to keep 
 informed of all that was going on, and could thus answer many questions with 
 a wisdom that seemed to the simple people far more than human. When- 
 ever they were in doubt about anything they shaped their answer so care- 
 fully that it could be fitted to any result. Thus when Croesus, king of 
 
406 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Lydia, asked the oracle if he should be successful against Cyrus, king of 
 Persia, the answer was, if he crossed a certain river he would destroy a great 
 empire. He crossed the river, but was defeated, and his kingdom was taken 
 by the Persians. This, said the interpreters of the oracle, was a direct ful- 
 filment of the prophecy, for by crossing the river to fight the Persians he 
 had destroyed his own empire. 
 
 But on one occasion the priests thought they could give a definite answer, 
 and then the result turned out so directly opposite that there was no way 
 of escaping the fact that they had blundered. 
 
 When the Persian host was marching upon Greece, the priests hearing 
 of their great numbers, thought all opposition would be useless, and so 
 declared ; but the battles that followed proved their prophecy false, and 
 they lost their reputation. 
 
 Adjoining the sacred cleft was the great temple of Apollo, made rich by 
 the thousands of beautiful and costly presents brought to it every year. Its 
 front was built entirely of beautiful Persian marble, and it was covered with 
 the most beautiful and costly ornaments. Within the temple were two 
 stones which were supposed to mark the very center of the earth. They 
 were anointed with oil and decked with garlands every day. Beside them 
 were two eagles to remind the worshippers that the spot had been ascertained 
 by the meeting here of two eagles, sent out by Jupiter from the opposite 
 ends of the earth for that purpose. 
 
 When the Roman conquerors came into Greece they plundered the rich 
 temple of Delphi of its sacred treasures. Nero carried off five hundred 
 bronze statues, and still three thousand were left. Constantine, afterward, 
 took many of these to adorn his capital. Julian, who came after Constan- 
 tine, tried to revive idolatry, and sent to consult the famous old oracle. 
 But the reply was, " Tell the king, the fair wrought dwelling has sunk into 
 the dust. Phoebus has no longer a shelter nor a prophetic laurel. Neither 
 has he a speaking fountain; the fair water is dried up." A few years 
 after this, Theodosius the Great took the oracle at its word, and closed it 
 up forever. The splendid temple sank into decay and ruin. The gym- 
 nasia and porticos tumbled down the precipitous cliffs ; the prophetic 
 chasm was filled up by the Christians with fear and horror, for they 
 thought it the very mouth of the pit. The only remaining trace of the old 
 temple is the marks of the chisel on the rock against which it stood, and a 
 slight difference in color between this portion and the rest. 
 
 The Castalian Spring. — Near the site of the old Temple of Delphi are 
 
INTERIOR OF THE PARTHENON. 
 
408 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 two great tocks rising up so close together that they form a high, narrow 
 chasm. From the bottom of this issues the famous Castalian spring, whose 
 waters the ancient Greeks thought contained the gift of poetry and music. 
 This place, where the mountains rose so grand and lofty, yet softened with 
 all the beautiful forms and sounds of nature, they thought must surely 
 be the favorite abode of the gods of poetry and music whom they called the 
 Muses. What could be more beautiful than the musical little streams, that, 
 fed by the melting snows on the mountain's top, came tumbling down his 
 lofty sides, or the beautiful carpets of green spread over the face of the 
 numerous cliffs, waving with wild anemone, or the valleys stretching out 
 beyond in green and golden lemon groves. And up from the blue Mediter- 
 ranean came the cool sea-breezes, heavily laden with sweets from the orange 
 bowers on their way. Surely there could be no place more fit for the 
 haunts of the gods of beautiful thoughts than this Mount Parnassus. 
 
 So they cut a square stone basin out of the rock, below the spring, to re- 
 ceive the water, and stone steps leading down into it; and upon the face 
 of the rock around they cut niches for the reception of flowers and other 
 offerings to the Muses. 
 
 This fountain was also considered sacred to Apollo, who himself was a 
 god of song and stringed instruments, and in this water the priestess of 
 Delphi used to bathe before she took her place over the vaporous cleft. 
 
 The reverence of the Greeks for this place was so great that in the year 
 564 they cast down from the top of the precipice a man whom they thought 
 guilty of an act of sacrilege. And this man was no other than iEsop, the 
 writer of the famous fables, who had been sent by Croesus to consult the 
 oracle. 
 
 The Coryctan Cave. — Upon the highest summit of Mount Parnassus, 
 called now Mount Lycorea, was a cave where dwelt the funny little Pan, 
 the merriest and most curious of all the Grecian gods. He was supposed 
 to sing and dance about and make sport for all the other gods and goddesses, 
 and hence his name of Pan, — all, for he pleased all. He was a terrible 
 homely creature with horns, a pug nose, a goat's beard, feet and tail, and 
 yet all the nymphs and goddesses were constantly singing and dancing 
 around him, pleased with his funny ways and the merry music of his won- 
 derful pipe. This pipe which was one of his chief charms, came to him 
 through a great misfortune caused by his ugliness. Being greatly pleased 
 with one of the fair nymphs named Syrinx, he started in pursuit of her one 
 day, and she fled in great terror from her ugly admirer. Finding that she 
 
 
Greece. 
 
 would be overtaken, she prayed to the gods for dehverance and they 
 Xn 2 ed her into a reed. While poor Pan was moaning over his loss, the 
 wndsgentiy swayed the reeds, and produced a sweet murmuring sound 
 pin was greatly charmed with the soothing tones and began cutting %te 
 reeds and putting them together until he had formed a pipe which would 
 give outthe same's*** tones, and which he named the syrinx, after hislost 
 
 ^mong men Pan was supposed to be the especial protector of shepherd Is 
 „„ ATnte" He was supposed to be always wandering about his favorite 
 lottos woods and dells .cheerful and always noisy, but taking good care 
 of tne sheep and cattle committed to his keeping. The shepherds who had 
 no folds nor pens for their sheep used to drive them into caves for shelter, 
 at ni'ht and before they went to sleep called upon Pan to protect them 
 The hunters too besought his favor when they went out for game, but if 
 limy had to come' back empty handed they bestowed a good * jg ; upon 
 the image of the naughty god, which was always kept in their houses. 
 Thev evidently were not very much afraid of Pan's displeasure. 
 
 ^•aveler's had no love for Pan, for it was supposed that he made all the 
 sudden and startling noises that came from the depths of the forests 
 hrough which they passed. Besides all of his ugliness Pan had a most 
 harsh and dreadful voice. He frightened the Titans once into flight ; d*r- 
 fug their struggles with the gods, and several times he was bought to 
 hawe helped the Greeks in battle by frightening their enemies with his tor- 
 'rible voice It is from the name of this god that we get our word 
 
 " P The Olympian PLAix.-More sacred still than Mount Parnassus in 
 
 the estimation of the old Greeks, was the plain of Olympia, southwest of 
 
 the guU of Corinth, on the river Alpheus. On this plain Croims the 
 
 father of all the gods, was worshipped, and here was raised a temple in 
 
 htnor of Ws grit son, Zeus (Jupiter), that was only equaled by the Par- 
 
 thenon at Athens. One of the seven wonders of the world was the great 
 
 statue of Zeus that adorned this temple, that was in fact its chief feature 
 
 and brought it its greatest renown. A person who never saw this statue 
 
 was consfdered most unfortunate. Its maker was Phidias, the greatest of 
 
 111 the G recmn sculptors. It was sixty feet high, seated on a finely sculp- 
 
 uied thron of cedar, inlaid with gold, ivory, ebony aMFec.**^ 
 
 The face feet and body were of ivory; the eyes were brilliant jewels, the 
 
 hafr aTd'beard pur e gold. The drapery was of beaten gold enameled with 
 
410 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 flowers. One hand grasped a scepter composed of precious metals and sur- 
 rounded by an eagle, the other held a golden statue of the wingless goddess 
 of victory. 
 
 For over 800 years this wonderful statue stood in its place at Olympia, 
 until the downfall of paganism in the fourth century after Christ. Then it 
 was removed to Byzantium, and not long after perished in a fire. What 
 would not the artists of later years have given to be able to see and study 
 this master- piece of the first great sculptor. 
 
 The second attraction of Olympia was the festivals held there every 
 four years. These came to be of such importance that all dates were reck- 
 oned from them. People came from all over Greece and from the Greek 
 colonies in Asia, Africa and Europe to attend these festivals. Great em- 
 perors like Alexander used to here make their public announcements, the 
 poets and historians read or repeated their productions, and artists exhib- 
 ited their works. The great plain was covered with crowds of people, 
 dancing, singing, lying at ease on the grass amid the shady groves and the 
 white temples and statues, all crowned with flowers, eating sweetmeats and 
 having a very merry time. 
 
 The chief feature was the games for the trial of strength and endur- 
 ance. At first these were only races over the great " stadium," but after a 
 time wrestling matches, boxing, leaping, throwing the quoit and the javelin 
 were introduced. Besides these were foot races in which the runners wore 
 heavy armor, several kinds of races on horseback, races between chariots 
 drawn by two horses or by mules, wrestling and running matches between 
 boys ; but no combats with any kind of weapons. In all cases those who 
 took part in the games must go through a careful training and take a sol- 
 emn oath to contend fairly. Any attempt to bribe one person to give the 
 victory to another was punished by a heavy fine. 
 
 The prize given to the victors was only a simple olive wreath plucked 
 from a sacred tree near Olympia; but the person who won it was a very 
 famous man all the rest of his life. His name was written in the record of 
 the games, and when he reached home his neighbors and friends all made 
 feasts in his honor, poets sang his praises, and sometimes his fellow citizens 
 hired a great sculptor to make his statue to be placed on the plain of Olympia. 
 
 Discovekies at Olympia. — For a thousand years after the barbaric in- 
 vasion that caused the fall of Rome, and the destruction of many works of 
 art in both Italy and Greece, the statues and temples on the plain of Olym- 
 pia were forgotten. They went both out of mind and out of sight. When 
 
412 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 people became sufficiently civilized to look around for these famous ol&J 
 works they were nowhere to be seen. In the year 1829 a large fragment oft 
 a sculptured column was found in the center of the Olympian plain, having 
 worked its way up through the ground. This led people to think that there 
 were probably more where that came from, but it was not until 1875 that 
 any one undertook to search for them. A company of German scientists 
 then began, with the help of their own government and the consent of the 
 king of Greece, to explore the plain of Olympia. Several hundred workmen i 
 were engaged, and for long months the digging went on and nothing but 
 sand was found. But at last they came upon a confused mass of sculptured 
 fragments, columns, capitals, architraves and blocks of stone, remains of 
 statues, terra-cottas and tile. These were not in the positions in which they 
 had at first fallen, or been thrown down, but as they had been piled up and 
 made into rude huts. This was evidently the work of the barbarians who, 
 without knowledge of the past or respect for its relics, had torn down one 
 of the most richly ornamented spots in the world and built with the material 
 their miserable dwellings. 
 
 Farther on was found the work of other hands. Under the network of 
 huts was a second stratum of strong walls which had been built up out of the 
 fallen columns into fortresses. This was plainly the work of the Byzan- 
 tians, trying as best they could with the material at hand to fortify them- 
 selves against the barbarians. Thus the history of the past could be traced 
 in the layers of sand that had been washed down from the hills, where 
 some one had thoughtlessly cut away the trees. This process going on for 
 centuries, spread a layer of sand seventeen feet deep over the soil once trod 
 by the ancient Greeks. 
 
 Traces of the Byzantians were also found in copper coins, dated with 
 the closing years of the sixth century and by emblems of the Christian 
 religion. Their graves were solid tombs formed out of antique slabs of 
 stone and tiles, marked with Christian symbols. Among the ruins was an 
 ancient building which had been turned into a church. All of the interior 
 showed traces of long use as a place of Christian worship 
 
 At the time when these Byzantine priests were holding their sevices in 
 these churches, at least half of the temple of Zeus was still standing, the rest 
 having been thrown down by an earthquake in 522. Among these prostrate 
 columns and broken bodies of gods and heroes the Byzantine children often 
 played and doubtless did much damage to objects which are now so highly 
 valued as works of art. 
 
Greece. 413 
 
 The great temple of Zeus was found by the excavators at last, with 
 nearly all of its material still on the spot. The broken colums lay often 
 directly in front of their old positions in the structure, and but little labor 
 was necessary to set them again in their places. Enough remained to show 
 the entire size and shape of the temple, and in the broad center isle stood 
 the pedestal which had upheld the great statue of Zeus. 
 
 Upon the front of the building was a group of twenty-one great figures 
 representing a battle between the Pelops and the king of Troy, with Zeus 
 deciding the contest between them. These were allrecovered m more or less 
 perfect states. Another group of twenty-one which adorned the other end 
 represented a wedding scene, where drunken centaurs rushed in carrying off 
 the women, and the Hellenes coming to their rescue. Besides these, were 
 many other figures from different parts of the building, and a great number 
 of small bronzes, weapons, beautiful terra cottas, and roof tiles exquisitely 
 ornamented, the colors still quite fresh. 
 
 While this temple was still in its glory, Pausanius, an old Greek traveler 
 and student, visited it and made a careful list of all the statues it contained, 
 together with the sculptors who made them. By means of this list not only 
 the identity of all the statues could be known but also the names of their 
 creators, all of whom were either pupils or companions of the great Phidias. 
 Besides these works of art many important documents were found, bear- 
 ing on bronze or marble their ancient records. Among them were more than 
 four hundred inscriptions, many having reference to visitors at the games, 
 and all affording much valuable information. 
 
 The Acropolis .—It has been said that all the old world' s culture centered 
 in Greece, all Greece in Athens, all Athens in the Acropolis, and all the 
 Acropolis in the Parthenon. This last was the chief gem of all the rare works 
 of the ancient Greeks, while the Acropolis on which it stood, the high hill 
 overlooking the city, was the casket that contained this and a number of 
 other beautiful temples and statues. 
 
 The Parthenon was built for the worship of Pallas- Athene, the warrior 
 goddess who was supposed to guard Athens from her foes, and teach the 
 people all of their industries, arts, learning, and philosophy. No expense 
 was spared to make it a fitting temple for so great-a goddess. Phidias, the 
 great artist, who afterward made the statue of Zeus, planned all of its decora- 
 tions . He made a beautiful s fcatue of the goddess for the court of the temple, 
 which struck everybody who saw it with admiration and awe. It was one of 
 the three great works that made his name famous. Like the statue of Zeus 
 
414 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 X 
 at Olympia, it was made of ivory and wood draped with gold It represented 
 the goddess in all her grace and beauty, with her golden shield resting on the 
 ground, and an image of Victory in her hand, as clothed in her long golden 
 tunic she received the homage of gods and men. Outside of the temple 
 was another statue of Athens, also the work of Phidias, that represented 
 her in full armor, her shield and spear in her hands ready for battle. This 
 statue towered above all the other objects on the Acropolis, and could be 
 seen far off at sea. 
 
 A splendid marble fortress, a kind of gateway, called the Propyheas 
 guarded the entrance to the Acropolis from the only side on which the sacred 
 enclosure could be approached. Near it stood a greatly venerated temple 
 called the Erechtheum, which contained many shrines and statues of numer- 
 ous gods, and all the sacred treasures of the city, placed there under the pro- 
 tection of Athens. Another beautiful structure, highly ornamented, stood 
 near the northern part of the Acropolis, and was called the Lantern of 
 Demosthenes. It was hardly more than ten feet in diameter and was once 
 ornamented with a tripod. 
 
 All of these once beautiful buildings, which with numerous statues and 
 shrines covered the top and the sides of the Acropolis, are now in ruin, but 
 from what still remains, and from the descriptions given in various old writ- 
 ings, a very fair idea of their old glories can be obtained. The same Pausa- 
 nius, who gave such a careful description of the temple of Jupiter Olympus, 
 also visited Athens in the days of its greatest splendor, and left a very 
 valuable record of what he saw. 
 
 The Elgin Marbles. — The rich carvings and sculptures of the Par- 
 thenon remained in good condition for over a thousand years after the god- 
 dess Minerva was no longer worshipped. It was used as a Christian church 
 for a long time, and then when the Turks captured Athens, as a Mohamme- 
 dan Mosque. But in 1687 the people of Venice came to make war on the 
 Turks, and one of their shells lodged in the Parthenon, where the Turks had 
 stored their power. The explosion blew out a large part of the interior and 
 threw down many of the columns. 
 
 Having conquered the city, the Venetians took several of the finest 
 pieces of sculpture from the Parthenon, ruining many more in getting them. 
 More damage was done in the wars that followed, and neither the Greeks 
 nor the Turks, who finally held possession, showed any regard for the decay- 
 ing treasures of art. 
 
 In 1799 Lord Elgin, British ambassador to Turkey, seeing the damage 
 
416 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 that was being constantly done, thought it would be doing a service to the 
 civilized world to rescue these rare old works before they were entirely de- 
 stroyed, and place them where they would be taken care of. He obtained 
 permission from the Porte to take from Athens " any stones that might ap- 
 pear interesting to him;" and at his own expense, aided by a company of 
 Italian artists, he took from the Acropolis, chiefly the Parthenon, a large 
 number of valuable statues and sculptures. These are now in the British 
 Museum, where they are known as the Elgin Marbles. Many unkind things 
 were said of Lord Elgin for taking down these pieces and carrying them 
 so far away from the place where they rightly belonged, but later events 
 have shown that, had he left them, they would probably have -been de- 
 stroyed in the wars between the Greeks and Turks, during which the temples 
 were badly shattered, and much more of the rare old workmanship de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Life in" Old Athens. — In the fifteen hundred years that have passed 
 since the Acropolis was the glory and pride of Greece, the world has made 
 wonderful improvements in many respects, but in others we could well af- 
 ford to go back and take a few lessons of the ancient Greeks. If one of 
 those old stalwart people could wake up to-day, Rip Yan Winkle fashion, 
 he would doubtless be greatly astonished at our steamships, our lightning- 
 express trains, our telegraphs and telephones, and morning journals. But 
 he would miss his public bath and his gymnasium, and he would wonder 
 much that among a people so like the gods in wisdom there should be so 
 many weak, dwarfed and misshapen. In his day his people spent much 
 time in taking care of their bodies, but little over their toilets. Their mode 
 of life has been very vividly described by an English student of the ancient 
 Greeks. Of the Athenians he says : They were very early risers, and the 
 first business of the man of the house, after performing a very simple toilet, 
 was to go out to the market-place to hear the news, to transact business, 
 and to make his purchases for the day. If he was expecting to entertain 
 some friends in the evening there was no time to be lost. By seven in the 
 morning the plumpest of the blackbirds, the whitest of the celery, and the 
 firmest of the great eels from the Theban stewponds, would have been 
 bought up ; and he would be forced to content himself with a string of lean 
 thrushes and a cuttle-fish whose freshness might be called in question. 
 Perhaps, while he was counting out his purchase money, he might hear be- 
 hind him a sudden rush of people, and, looking around, would see two 
 Scythian policemen sweeping the square with a rope besmeared with red 
 
418 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 chalk. Then he would know that a general assembly was to be held to 
 attend to some business matters, and he would hurry off to secure a good 
 place. And there he would sit, as an old Athenian describes himself, 
 groaning, yawning, stretching, jotting down notes and waiting for the ap- 
 pearance of the president and the committee to open the meeting. 
 
 After a while the committee would come bustling in ; treading on one 
 anothers toes, and jostling for a good place. And then the crier would pro- 
 claim : "Who wishes to speak about the Spartan treaty?" and the call 
 would be for Pericles ; and Pericles would rise, with his right hand thrust 
 in his bosom, and say something that is still worth reading. 
 
 When the public business was concluded, after a light-breakfast, the 
 citizen would return to his ship or counting house until the first hour after 
 noon, and then he would saunter down to his favorite gymnasium, and 
 thence to his bath. The old Greek had a high regard for his body and 
 would as soon have thought of going without his meal as his bath and 
 physical exercise. 
 
 Some winter evening, perhaps, as this same citizen was hurrying out to 
 a dinner party, curled and oiled, and in a clean tunic, he would see a crowd 
 gathered in the market glace ; and then he would turn to the slave who 
 trotted behind him with his napkin and spoon, and send the boy off to see 
 what was the matter. And the slave would return with a grin on his face 
 to say that the Thebian foragers were abroad, and that the generals had put 
 up a notice containing the names of the citizens who were to turn out and 
 watch the passes, and that his master's name stood third on the list. 
 
 And then the poor man would send off an excuse to his host, and run 
 home to fill his knapsack with black bread and onions and dried fish ; and 
 his wife would stuff wool under his cuirass to keep the cold from his bones ; 
 and out he would go ankle deep in the slush, straight into the bitter night. 
 
 Or it might be that some fine morning — or some morning when it was 
 not fine — he would be pulling an oar in the middle of a sea-fight off some 
 headland noted for shipwrecks. There he would sit on his leather cushion, 
 sea sick, sore and terrified; the blade of his sweep hitting now against a 
 shattered spar, and now against a floating corpse, as he vainly tried to give 
 a strong pull; his mind distracted by seeing one of the enemy's galleys 
 dashing through the surge with her beak directly opposite the bench on 
 which he was seated. 
 
 The Groves of Philosophy. — On some days our ancient Athenian, 
 while walking through one of the plane-tree avenues, or the gymnastic 
 
Greece. 419 
 
 colonade, attended by his slave, — no citizen ever went out without at least 
 one slave — would see a crowd of people gathered about one of the old phi- 
 losophers, — Plato perhaps, the uncouth, ungainly man with naked feet 
 and thread-bare clothes. All would be listening attentively to the wonder- 
 ful words that fell from his lips; laughing when he made homely jokes 
 about the business of the tanners and drovers and smiths about him, but 
 always finding a charm in his voice and a sweetness in his tone that ma&e 
 them forget to laugh after a while in their desire to listen. 
 
 Nothing so stirred the blood of the young Athenians as one of their 
 eloquent speakers, and none possessed the power of so moving them more 
 than Plato. They would stand transfixed and awe-struck before him, 
 straining their ears to catch every word. He touched chords in their 
 hearts that brought the tears to their eyes and made them feel as if they 
 would like to sit down at his feet and grow old listening to his words » 
 There were few books of learning in those days to satisfy the curiosity 
 of the active minded youth, but this man had studied all there was and 
 thought out much more that was worth listening to. He talked to them 
 about the formation of the earth, of the stars, of the body and soul, of 
 morality, wisdom, courage, temperance and justice, and pointed out the 
 right way of living so as to make the most of their lives. 
 
 About two miles north of the city, upon the plain of Attica, was a grove 
 or garden in which Plato opened a school where everybody who chose 
 might come to hear him. Among his audience were often women, dressed 
 in men's guise, that they might also hear the lectures. Some of those who 
 listened to the teachings of Plato became teachers in after years, and 
 opened gardens or schools of their own. One of these was Aristotle, who 
 opened the "Lyceum " in the eastern part of the city, and who also be- 
 came the private tutor of Alexander the Great. 
 
 Among the other philosophers who opened gardens in Athens was Epi- 
 curus, who taught that the true aim of living was for pleasure, but that the 
 way to obtain the most pleasure was to live simply and temperately, and 
 cultivate the mind by study and noble thoughts, for there was no pleasure 
 to be compared with that of the intellect. Over the entrance to his garden 
 was written: " The hospitable keeper of this mansion, where you will find 
 pleasure the highest good, will present you liberally with barley cakes and 
 freshwater from the spring. The gardens will not provoke your appetites. 
 with dainties, but satisfy you with natural supplies. Will you not be well, 
 entertained?" 
 
420 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 The desire of the Greeks to hear the words of wise men continued in 
 Athens to the time of Paul, the Apostle; hence he found many people 
 there " spending their time in hearing and telling new things." And so 
 when he stood np on Mar's Hill, and with great tact drew their attention 
 first to their altar "to the unknown God," and then to the true God, he 
 found many attentive listeners, who expressed a desire to hear him again. 
 The hill upon which he stood, — the Areopagus — was nearly as high as the 
 Acropolis; ascended by a flight of stone steps cut out of the rock and lev- 
 eled off into an area capable of holding a very large congregation. From 
 here both he and the people he addressed were in plain sight of the temples 
 and the images "made of gold and stone, and graven by art and man's 
 device," which he told them they should not think were not like unto the 
 God-head, — the maker of heaven and earth. 
 
 Aisr Ancient Flower-Garden.— With his keen love of beauty, the 1 old 
 Grecian saw nothing more appropriate to offer to his gods than flowers, and 
 nothing more beautiful to use for his own adornment. At all their festivals 
 they wore crowns and garlands of flowers; in the theatres, where an audience 
 of twenty or thirty thousand often gathered, scarcely a person could be seen 
 without a garland upon his head. At their private parties all the guests 
 were decked with flowers, and the room in which they gathered was so thickly 
 strewn with them that they served instead of sofas. 
 
 The lover crowned himself with flowers when he went to see his sweet- 
 heart, hung garlands upon her door, and adorned with wreaths the statues 
 of the gods of love and matrimony that they might grant their aid in brighten- 
 ing his future. Scarcely a worshipper ever entered the temple uncrowned, 
 and as each deity was supposed to have its favorite flowers, he changed his 
 garland for every one he visited. 
 
 With such a demand, therefore, as there was in ancient Greece for flowers, 
 their culture was an important branch of industry. Every garden had its 
 flower-plot, and the whole was so arranged that every shrub and plant which 
 was not ornamental as well as useful, was hidden behind copses of rhododen- 
 drons, myrtle, or oleander, which, at the proper time of year became a blaze 
 of blossoms. 
 
 No ungainly fences separated a man's garden from that of his neighbors, 
 but rows of olive or plain trees thirty or forth feet apart, or loose hedges of 
 fragment phillyrea, broken into gaps here and there to admit banks of wild- 
 flowers. They had no fear of being plundered ; the wealthy used to invite 
 the people to stroll at will through their gardens, and public footpaths 
 
TYPES AND COSTUMES OF EARLY GRECIAN LIFE. 
 
422 ^Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 often traversed private orchards, vineyards and kitchen gardens. There is 
 no record that the public ever abused the trust. 
 
 The windows of the ladies usually opened toward the garden, so that 
 shaded by amber or purple curtains, they could lean out on the sills of marble, 
 or carved cedar, and fill their eyes and nostrils with the early morning beauty 
 and fragrance. Before their eyes were waves of peach, apple and pome- 
 granite blossoms, and in the distance plane-tree avenues dotted with cupolas 
 of white marble glittering like newly carved alabaster in the sun. 
 
 Leaving the house to stroll out in the garden, the first thing encoun- 
 tered was a row of rue plants, extending right and left to mark the boun- 
 dary of the flower department. Passing this one came in the midst of gilly- 
 flowers, pinks, carnations, beds of matted violets, thickets of roses, hil- 
 locks of wild thyme encircling clusters of the sweetest flowers, overhung by 
 the branches of the smilax or pomegranite tree. 
 
 Here the path descended perhaps into a fountain such as Grecian taste 
 alone could produce, water splashed and fell into marble channels, shaded 
 here and there by plants which love the moisture, such as hyacinth and war- 
 cessus. Fragrant shrubs overhung the tiny stream, where all day could be 
 heard the hum of bees seeking after the sweets. Overhead in the boughs 
 of the platane or the cedar the wood lark or the thrush sang in rivalry. 
 When evening came on the nightingale here began her song; and one of these 
 old Greeks, a poet, used to sit up all night to listen to her song. 
 
 A continuous line of such gardens bordered the road-sides from one 
 city to another, backed by olive groves with vines trailing along their walls, 
 and their entrances arched with golden or purple clusters hung in tempt- 
 ing profusion. 
 
 Further in the country were the ruder gardens of those who raised 
 flowers to sell. These were enclosed with high strong walls, along the 
 southern face of which, just where the busy inhabitants could find plenty 
 of sweets, were rows of beehives. 
 
 When a Greek was shut up hopelessly in a city, where he could have 
 no garden, he made one on his window ledge, in a silver basket, sculptured 
 all over with rustic imagery, if he could afford it, if not, in one of wood or 
 osier. In this some native of the distant mountains and valleys was cher 
 ished and coaxed to grow and bloom. 
 
 The Heroes of Marathon. — For many years there was strife in ancient 
 Greece between the cities of Athens and Sparta. The Athenians were more 
 cultured and elegant than their southern neighbors; the Spartans claimed 
 
MODERN GREEKS. 
 
424 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 the honor of being better soldiers. But when at last an opportunity came 
 for the Athenians to show their valor, the Spartans coiild no more boast 
 over them in this respect, in fact they had reason to hide their heads in 
 shame. For when the great Persian host came before Athens, the Spar- 
 tans excused themselves from coming to their aid and left the Athenians, a 
 mere handful before the vast number of their enemies. But the men of 
 Athens did not stop to count the foe. They knew that an awful crisis had 
 come in the history of their country . They knew that defeat meant ruin 
 and shame, the loss of their beautiful capital, the enslavement of their 
 wives and children and so they prepared for a life or death struggle to 
 meet the enemy. Shop-keepers and artisans, merchants and politicians, 
 and farmers, took down their spears and shields, pocketed their biscuit and 
 salt fish, kissed their wives and walked through their doors with no idea 
 that they were going to take part in an affair that all coming generations 
 would remember with gratitude and admiration. 
 
 And when they came to the sacred plain of Marathon they did not stop 
 to count the foe ; but went on a run straight into the midst of the twenty 
 myriads of Medes and Persians. Out of breath, but not out of heart, 
 with such line as they could keep, and with such martial science as a city 
 militia might recall in the heat of contest, they fought, foot to foot, and beard 
 to beard, until the conquerors of the world broke and fled. And that very 
 night they marched home to supper — all save one hundred and ninety- two, 
 who were lying with clenched brows and wounds, all in front, on the 
 threshold of their country. 
 
 Civil Strife. — The glory of ancient Greece went out in the darkness of 
 civil strife. With all their culture, their love of beauty and philosophy, the 
 Greeks were not above envy, jealousy and treachery. Each one was more 
 attached to his particular part of Greece than to the whole country, and 
 rather than see a rival take the lead would go over to a foreign enemy. 
 
 Philip of Macedon knew just how to take advantage of their weakness. 
 By stirring up their quarrels, and stepping in to settle them, he obtained a 
 firm foothold in the country in spite of all the eloquence of Demosthenes, the 
 great orator, who saw into Philip's schemes, and warned the people in the 
 most burning speeches. His words for a time would have an effect, but be- 
 fore the states could be brought to forget their jealousy and unite for 
 common defense, Philip was in. Then Alexander came, completing the 
 conquests his father had begun, and carrying the arms of the Greeks vic- 
 toriously over Asia and Africa. 
 
Greece. 425 
 
 Alexander's conquests had little effect urjon Greece, for his great empire 
 fell to pieces after his death as quickly as it had sprang up. But they 
 were left under the Macedonian kings, against whom they began at once to 
 struggle. But even then they could not forget their jealousies, and they 
 were still quareling amongst themselves when the Romans came and made 
 Greece a Roman province. 
 
 King Geokge. — At midnight, on the 29th of October, 1863, the Greek 
 steamer Hellas, attended by an English, a French, and a Russian ship-of- 
 war, dropped anchor in the Saronic Gulf, near the city of Athens. The next 
 morning a barge put off from it, bearing to the shore a bright faced youth, 
 in the uniform of a Greek admiral. And from the multitude on the shore, 
 assembled from all parts of the land, went up a great shout of welcome. 
 From the Peirsens along the road, where passed once the hero of so 
 many brilliant conflicts, they went up in a vast procession, amid the wav- 
 ing of banners and the flashing of bayonets, up to their ancient city to 
 crown young George of Bavaria, the second king of Greece. From every 
 window fluttered banners and from every balcony that night lamps glit- 
 tered amid garlands of flowers. And all around through the city could be 
 heard nothing but one heavy ceaseless roar of excited human voices. 
 
 There were those present on this occasion who remembered a similar 
 scene thirty years before, when the first king of their newly recovered 
 country was welcomed to his throne. He was likewise a foreign prince, 
 and high hopes had attended his arrival. But he had proved too much of 
 an autocrat for the Greeks. He failed to give them the constitution he had 
 promised, and was at last banished amid the tumult and terror of a revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 But fourteen years have gone by since King George, son of Christian IX. 
 of Denmark, became king of Greece, and he has safely guided their frail 
 ship of state through all its trying times. The Turks have been compelled 
 to restore still more of their ancient lands, and the Greeks to-day are looking 
 forward to the time when all of Thessaly and Epirus shall be brought back, 
 and all of Greece be again united as in the days of old. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BALKAN STATES. 
 
 A few years ago the Czar of Russia requested the Sultan of Turkey 
 to treat more humanely the Christians within his Dominions. Other 
 nations of Europe joined the Czar in this request, hut the Sublime Porte 
 proudly replied that he could not grant to any of the powers, collectively 
 or individually, the right to interfere in the relations of the Sultan of Turkey 
 with his subjects, nor with the interior administration of his empire. With- 
 out waiting for further action of the other powers the Czar proceeded to 
 compel the Sultan to accede to his terms, and this led to the war of the 
 Crimea, in which England, France and Sardinia, came to the assistance of 
 the Sultan, because they thought Russia was intending to seize upon his 
 dominions, and this would seriously upset the " balance of power " in Eu- 
 rope. Russia was obliged to withdraw, but she waited only until France 
 was engaged in war with Germany, and England alone could not oppose 
 her. Then the Czar called upon his subjects to rise to the aid of their 
 oppressed Christian brethren within the dominion of Turkey. In a few 
 months the pride of the Sultan was completely humbled, and he who had sent 
 such a defiant answer a few years before, now sent his ambassadors to the 
 victorious Russian generals to agree to any terms which were required. 
 
 The Berlin Treaty. — The terms which Russia imposed upon the Sultan 
 were thought rather too severe by the other powers of Europe, but this time 
 they met to talk it all over peaceably. Representatives from Germany, 
 England, Russia, Austria, France, Italy, and Turkey came together at Ber- 
 lin June 13, 1878, and within a month arranged a treaty to which all parties 
 concerned agreed. 
 
 The principal features of this treaty were that the Sultan should grant 
 civil and religious liberty to all of his Christian subjects, but more than 
 that, — 
 
The Balkan States 
 
 427 
 
 Montenegro, the brave little country that had so long resisted Turkish 
 rale should be acknowledged by all Europe to be free and independent. 
 Servia and Roumania were also acknowledged as independent countries, 
 
 A MONTENEGRIN SENATOR. 
 
 and additional territory was given to them, for which they were to pay a 
 portion of Turkey's debt. 
 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina were given to Austria. 
 
 Bulgaria was formed into a partially independent country, having a 
 
428 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 Christian government, a native militia, and a prince elected by the people, 
 confirmed by Turkey and assented to by the Powers. This prince was to 
 acknowledge the Sultan as his sovereign, and the principality was to pay to 
 Turkey a yearly tribute. 
 
 South of Bulgaria a new province called Eastern Roumelia was formed. 
 This was to be more directly under the control of the Sultan, but was to 
 have a Christian governor-general appointed by the Porte with the assent 
 of the Powers. 
 
 Montenegro. — No more heroic resistance has ever been made by a small 
 struggling people against a strong oppressive power than the handful of 
 Montenegrins carried on for over four hundred years against the Turks. 
 In the very midst of their enemies, shut away from trading posts with other 
 countries, with no means of sustaining life but such as they could wring 
 from an unfriendly soil, with no refuge but their bleak barren mountains, a 
 few thousand men withstood the resources of the whole Turkish empire. 
 
 When the Turks first conquered the Balkan lands, Montenegro was a 
 principality of the Servian king, who was defeated at the great battle of Kos- 
 sova (1389). But they decided to take poverty and independence among 
 the wild regions of their Black Mountains rather than the slavery of Turkish, 
 rule. They gave up their little strip of sea-coast and went up among the 
 barren hills, set up their little capital at Cettigne and went to work cultivat- 
 ing their small patches of ground with their rifles slung at their backs ready 
 for the Turks. 
 
 The Sultan hemmed them in with a circle of forts, and every few years 
 sent a body of troops to ravage as much of their territory as possible, but 
 still they held out. 
 
 When their prince grew discouraged, near the end of the fifteenth century, 
 at the constantly narrowing borders of his country and the seeming hope- 
 lessness of the situation, and left the people without a head, they gathered 
 around their bishop, and he became their leader both in worship and war- 
 fare. 
 
 Two hundred years more passed, and the people were almost on th 
 point of yielding, when a fresh insult roused them to fresh resistance 
 Their bishop was invited into Albania by the Pasha of Podgaritza to dedi 
 cate a church for Christian worship. He went, was treacherously seized 
 and commanded to become a Mohammedan. Upon his refusal, he was tor 
 tured and chained to a large piece of timber, which he was compelled 
 drag along the road from one village to another. 
 
The Balkan States. 4 s9 
 
 The Montenegrins ransomed their bishop at a heavy price and then 
 took a terrible vengeance upon the Turks by massacring ^^ 
 dan within their borders. Then a fierce war began. The Sultan was deter 
 nitaed now to subdue these mountaineers. They were obliged for a tame 
 to acknowledge his sovereignty, but the treaty of Berlin released them 
 completely from all further subjection. _ 
 
 Servia -Northeast of Montenegro is the land of the Servians or Serbs, 
 to which race the Montenegrins also belong. Iu the fourteenth century, 
 under Stephen Dushan, the Servian kingdom was extended from the Dan- 
 ube and Savi into Thessaly . The Emperor at Constantinople was so alarmed 
 at their growing power that he called on the Turks for assistance, a fatal 
 step fo both himself and the Servians. A few years afterward, these allies 
 had become his bitterest enemies, and taken the land from both Greeks and 
 Servians On the plain of Kossova, sixty-four years before the capture of 
 Constantinople, the last king of the Servians was slam, and all except the 
 few who fled to the rocky recesses of the Black Mountains became the sub- 
 el of the Mohammedan Sultan. Then began a " reign of terror for the 
 Servians The fact that they were conquered and had to pay heavy taxes 
 was galling enough to this proud-spirited people; but far worse was the 
 Tcorn thev had to receive from the Turks. They were despised -Rajas," 
 who had "no rights that " the faithful " were bound to respect. They were 
 forbidden to carry arms, to enter any town on horseback, to repair or build 
 their churches; they were obliged to dismount and stand aside for the 
 meanest Osmanli they met on the road, and to do for him any personal 
 service that he required. They were compelled to receive a kick as a favor, 
 and to retaliate for the grossest injury was a crime. But more than this, 
 the fairest of their girls and the bravest of their boys were seized and car- 
 ried off to become the slaves and soldiers of their conqueror. _ 
 
 ff a " Raja," unable longer to endure the wrongs put upon him turned 
 upon one of his oppressors he was published as a criminal and liable to be 
 kUled by any passing Turk. His only safety was in fleeing to the moun- 
 tains, and becoming a « Heyduc," his hand against every Turk, every Turk 
 
 8g WhenTn Osmanli, laden with treasures for Constantinople passed by 
 the lurking places of these mountain « Heyducs," he was quite likely to be 
 relieved of his burden, and if he escaped with his life he did well Like 
 the Robin Hood men of England, the Heyducs protected and assisted their 
 countrymen as much as possible, and in winter came down and lived among 
 
430 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 them, each one staying with some farmer and helping him about his win- 
 ter's work. In the spring they returned to the forests again and joined 
 their bands. 
 
 Kava George. — In those days of their affliction the Servian peasants 
 used to gather around the firesides on winter evenings, listening to the tales 
 of the Heyducs, or of Stephen Bogislas, the first founder of the Servian 
 principality, who escaped from Constantinople, returned to his native land, 
 and after driving out the Greek governors, took up his position near the 
 coast, where he seized the richly laden Byzantine vessels ; or of John 
 Hunyady, who, though vanquished on the plain of Kossova, gained many 
 victories over the Turks and once compelled them to raise the siege of 
 Belgrade. And among those who used to feel their pulses quicken at these 
 tales of wrongs and of heroisms was one tall man with bright deep-sunken 
 eyes, a scar across his face that bespoke at least one fight, and on his left 
 hand one that told of another. His shoulders were broad, his whole frame 
 spare, but strong and active. In his arms lay his ever ready rifle. He was 
 a silent, thoughtful man, — would sit surrounded by his family a whole 
 winter's evening without speaking; would not even answer sometimes if 
 spoken to. And then suddenly his face would clear, and he would lead off 
 in the Kolo dance. 
 
 This man was "Kava George," the founder of Servian Independence. 
 
 From his boyhood he had hated the Turks with all the strength of his 
 strong nature. Once when told to stand aside or have his brains blown 
 out, though only a boy, he replied by shooting the Turk on the spot. The 
 first twenty years of his life had been spent in tending swine and cattle ; a 
 few following ones in the Austrian army. When he returned he found his 
 country in a worse condition than ever. The Janizaries had revolted and 
 become so troublesome that the Sultan threatened to send against them an 
 army of another faith. (It would be contrary to the Koran for the Moslems 
 to fight against their brethren.) "But who will he send?" said the Jani- 
 zaries, " not the Russians, nor the Austrians ; he would not bring a foreign 
 foe into the country. By- Allah !" they said, " he means the Raja." They 
 resolved to prevent this at once by putting to death all the chief men of 
 Servia. They began their work without delay. Suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly the foremost men in each district were stricken down. Terror 
 seized all the people; they knew not who would be the next. Even the 
 poorest feared for his life. All the abled-bodied men fled to the moun- 
 tains,, and there they found their Spartacus. Kava George, who had es- 
 
The Balkan States. 431 
 
 caped lust as he was about to be seized by the Turks, united the flying 
 fugitives into a resolute band, and inarching down upon the Janizaries 
 showed them that the Rajas could fight for their lives In a little while 
 the men who were to have been exterminated, stood before the Janizaries, 
 ready to exterminate them. 
 
 The Sultan at first assisted the Servians, because as yet they were only 
 ftehtins his rebellious Janizaries. But when these were conquered and 
 the Pasha of Bosnia told them they could go home, the Servians were not 
 ready to go Men whose arms had been victorious over Turkish soldiers 
 could not go back into slavery and perform menial services for those they 
 had overcome. They were now determined to have their rights recognized 
 This the Sultan was not ready to grant. The Koran said that the Raja 
 must not be allowed equal privileges with the faithful. They must be op- 
 pressed, and no Sultan could think of going contrary to the Koran. 
 
 So the Servians continued to fight. Kava George was made commander- 
 in-chief of their armies, and everywhere he was successful. The lurks be- 
 came panic stricken wherever he appeared, for it was believed that he was 
 destined always to be victorious. When at last he captured Belgrade, the 
 Sultan consented to recognize Kava George as chief of the Servians. The 
 unlearned peasants-there were no nobles, no one man higher than another,, 
 all had been slaves of the Turks-met and formed a government of their own 
 with Kava George at the head. He ruled as wisely as a poor learned peas- 
 ant could. He was upright, and maintained stern justice.^ He wore his old 
 clothes, and went to work on his farm, his daughter carried water for the 
 household from the fountain with the other girls. And he condemned his 
 own brother to death for a crime. . 
 
 Two years after the taking of Belgrade, George tried to drive the Turks 
 out of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to form an alliance with Montenegro. 
 It was a disastrous attempt. He was successful himself everywhere he 
 went, but his generals were not. While he was making himself master of 
 Herzegovina the Turks were overrunning Servia. He hastened back and 
 with the help of the Russians repaired the mischief, but in a peace that the 
 great powers of Europe made soon after this, Russia was obliged to with- 
 draw her assistance, and Servia was left to the mercy of the Turks. Kava 
 George was seized, sent to Constantinople and beheaded. .• 
 
 His work seemed completely undone and all the Servians had fought 
 so desperately for seemed lost. But it was not. He had shown them what 
 they could do ; he had made them know the feeling of victory ; and three 
 
432 Persons and Places in PJurope. 
 
 years afterward (1815), a man, who had been one of his most valiant officers 
 headed a successful insurrection, and compelled the Sultan to grant a partial 
 independence to the long suffering country. This was changed to entire in- 
 dependence by the treaty of Berlin. 
 
 Peince Alexandee aid the Bulgaeians. — The little province which 
 the Berlin Treaty created south of the Balkans, and named Eastern Roume- 
 lia, was a part of Bulgaria, — the people were mostly Bulgarians. They were 
 much grieved at being separated and at being placed still more directly under 
 the Sultan's control than upper Bulgaria, which had not suffered so much 
 from Turkish atrocities as Roumelia. Their chief governor was a Turk, 
 while Bulgaria was ruled by a G-erman prince, Alexander of Battenburg, a 
 grand-nephew of the German Emperor William, and a cousin of Czar Alexan- 
 der III . The result was a very quiet, sudden and peaceable revolution in Sep- 
 tember, 1885. The Roumelians seized their governor and shut him up, took 
 possession of the important military posts, blew up bridges, cut telegraph 
 wires and declared themselves subjects of Prince Alexander of Bulgaria. 
 
 Prince Alexander sent circulars to the powers asking them to recognize 
 the union, and telegraphed to his cousin, the Czar of Russia, begging his 
 approval of what had been done. He offered to abdicate the throne if his per- 
 son stood in the way of establishing union. He said he was much. surprised 
 himself at the sudden action of the people, but he felt obliged to sanction it. 
 But the Czar was greatly displeased, although Russia had openly favored a 
 union of all the Bulgarian people. But Alexander of Bulgaria had not 
 ruled his little country exactly as Alexander of Russia wished, and they 
 were not on the best of terms, so the Czar replied that " while he did not 
 doubt the word of the Prince, he regretted the adventure upon which he had 
 embarked, and should take steps to prevent anymore such surprises." 
 
 King Milan of Servia was also greatly displeased and alarmed lest the 
 people of Macedonia and Thrace, just south of Eastern Roumelia, should join 
 them, and this would cut the Servians entirely off from the Archipelago, shut- 
 ting them in on all sides from a seaport. King Milan, therefore, encouraged 
 it is supposed by Austria, immediately made war upon the Bulgarians. But 
 Prince Alexander in a little while compelled the king of Servia to withdraw. 
 
 He took care to keep the Macedonians from revolting from Turkey and 
 joining his people, for he had no such wish as the Servians accused him of. 
 
 All the powers excepting Russia agreed to the union of Bulgarians under 
 Prince Alexander ; even Turkey consented as soon as the Prince assured the 
 Sultan that he had no intention of throwing off his allegiance to him. But 
 
The Balkan States. 433 
 
 Russia insisted that the agreement should last only five years at the longest. 
 To this Alexander did not propose to consent, but finally did upon the advice 
 of the Powers. 
 
 Still Russia was not satisfied, and on August 22d, 1886, a regiment of 
 Russian cavalry surrounded the palace, forced their way into the Prince's 
 sleeping-room, and took him on board his yacht a prisoner ; first trying to 
 make him sign an abdication, which he refused to do. 
 
 This action stirred up strong excitement all over Europe. England sent 
 a very sharp letter to the Russian minister, and the Emperor William sent 
 a telegram to the Czar, which was followed by the Prince's release. 
 
 The indignant Bulgarians who had instantly risen against the Russians, 
 and demanded their Prince's return, now sent a delegation to bring him back, 
 and received him at Bucharest with the wildest enthusiasm. A body of 
 officers placed a crown on his head and carried him on their shoulders to the 
 palace, followed by cheering crowds. But so great was their rage against 
 the Czar that the Russian Consul at Sofia was obliged to ask for a guard 
 to protect his house from the angry crowd who surrounded it, throwing 
 stones and threatening to whip him if he appeared in the streets. 
 
 About a month later Prince Alexander announced to his people his inten- 
 tion to abdicate the, throne. " I cannot remain in Bulgaria," he said, " for 
 the Czar will not permit me. The independence of Bulgaria requires that 
 I should leave the country. If I do not Russia will occupy it." Some of 
 the officers wished to detain him by force, but they finally consented to his 
 departure, but sent out a delegation to all the powers asking that he might 
 be returned ; or if that was impossible, that Prince Waldemar of Denmark: 
 might take the vacant throne. Meanwhile Russia is using every possible 
 means to prepare their way for taking possession of the unfortunate princi- 
 pality. 
 
 Roumania and the Fanavoites. — Until 1859 the country, now called 
 Roumania, formed two separate provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, each 
 claiming descent from the old Romans, hence their present name of 
 Roumania. Finding themselves threatened by Hungarians on one side and 
 Turks on the other, the Moldavians of their own accord submitted to the 
 Sultan, and thus gained more privileges than some of the other countries 
 that stood out against him. 
 
 Their own princes were allowed to rule, the Greek church remained the 
 religion of the land, and no Turks were allowed to settle within their terri- 
 tory without special permission. But after a time some of the princes 
 
434 Persons and Places in Europe. 
 
 sought to throw off their allegiance to Turkey and unite with other 
 powers. 
 
 Then the Sultan appointed in both Moldavia and Wallachia Greek gover- 
 nors called " Fanavoites," because they lived in the " Fanav " district of 
 Constantinople. These Greeks had been a favored class since the capture 
 of the Crescent city by the Turks, and had long been employed by the Sul- 
 tans as scribes and secretaries. 
 
 The career of the Fanavoite " Hospidar " usually began very splendidly 
 and ended very ingloriously. As soon as he received his appointment he 
 was taken in state to the Seraglio, where he tasted the soup of the Janizaries ; 
 since he was now a general in their ranks by virtue of his new office, and 
 then was led into the presence of the Sultan and his chief minister, the 
 Grand Vizier. Then the Grand Vizier said, for the Sultan, " TMs man's 
 fidelity and sincere devotion to my person having come to the ears of My 
 Highness I am graciously pleased to reward him by investing him with the 
 principality of Moldavia. It is his duty never to depart from his fidelity to 
 my service, but to protect and defend the province submitted to him and 
 above all to do nothing against, or exceeding my orders." 
 
 The Hospidar having prostrated himself and kissed the hem of the 
 Sultan's robe, then said : "I swear by my life and head to use all my 
 efforts in the services of the most just and gracious Emperor as long as his 
 Highness will not turn away the eye of his clemency from the nothingness 
 of his slave." He then " salaamed" three times, bowed low to the Grand 
 Vizier, and backed out of the august presences with his arms crossed over 
 his breast and his head bent. 
 
 He returned to his palace and had thirty days in which to prepare for 
 his departure. Then, escorted by a great train of attendants, he proceeded 
 by slow stages to his future capital. On his arrival he received his 
 "boyards," appointed court officers and then prepared for a good time. 
 For, knowing that he might be called to Constantinople any moment to 
 have his head taken off, perhaps, he tried to enjoy life while he had an 
 opportunity. His severest labor was planning how he might get all the 
 money that could be squeezed out of the people over whom he ruled. 
 Nothing could give him more delight than a message from the Porte de- 
 manding a certain number of bushels of wheat and so many head of cattle. 
 He at once sent out his officers and collected twice the amount called for, 
 selling all the surplus for his own benefit. It is but justice to say that the 
 
The Balkan States. 435 
 
 Sultan always punished the Fanavoites for such wickedness as soon as' he 
 found them out. 
 
 During his reign the Hospidar lived in the most extravagant splendor. 
 He had a multitude of slaves around him who never approached him but 
 on their knees. When he rose to pass through his apartments, two or 
 three seized him by the arms and bore him along, his toes scarcely touch- 
 ing the floor, while others very reverently carried the train of his robe. 
 
 At the table everything was served to him in small pieces, so that he 
 need make no exertion in preparing his food. Even the bread was broken 
 into bits, and the chief cup-bearer always stood behind him, holding in his 
 hand a half-filled glass, which at the slightest sign he put to his master's 
 lips. 
 
 At one o'clock, when the mid-day meal was at an end, one of the attend- 
 ants uttered a loud cry which was to summon the grand coffee attendant. 
 He came, and half-prostrate, presented the beverage in a little cup studded 
 with diamonds. Going to the window, the same attendant uttered another 
 cry. This is to inform the town that His Highness was about to take 
 his coffee, and the hour of his slumber having arrived, the town must be 
 quiet. 
 
 Then the city seemed to hold its breath. All work in the palace ceased. 
 Three hours were given to rest and idleness. There were also three hours 
 of respite from the tyrant. At four o'clock the noise of innumerable bells 
 announce that the Hospidar had awakened, and all were allowed to move 
 again. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Russia: — 
 
 The Kremlin - 
 
 Sledge Traveling 
 
 Rurik - - - - - 
 
 A Group of Russians 
 
 Napoleon in Russia 
 
 Joan the Terrible 
 
 Peter the Great 
 
 Catherine II. 
 
 St. Petersburg 
 
 Burning of Moscow - 
 
 Coronation of Alexander II. 
 
 Alexander II. 
 
 Penal Colony 
 
 Sweden: — 
 
 Lapp Cradle - 
 
 Lapp Hut - - - - 
 
 Reindeer - 
 
 Norway: — 
 
 Norse Ship of the Tenth 
 
 Century - - - - 
 Farm Life - - - - 
 A Glacier - - - - 
 The Voringfoss - 
 Christiania 
 
 Village during the Fishing 
 Season - 
 
 PAGE 
 
 - 11 
 
 17 
 
 - 19 
 21 
 
 - 25 
 27 
 
 - 29 
 30 
 
 - 31 
 33 
 35 
 37 
 39 
 
 45 
 46 
 
 47 
 
 61 
 63 
 
 67 
 71 
 
 77 
 
 79 
 
 Norway: — 
 Lapp Huts 
 Peasants 
 Frondhjem Cathedral 
 
 Denmark: — 
 
 Copenhagen - 
 Cronbey Castle - 
 Elsinore 
 
 PAGE 
 
 81 
 
 • 83 
 
 84 
 
 87 
 95 
 97 
 
 England: — 
 
 Invasion of Britian by Caesar 101 
 
 Dover, from the Sea 
 
 Snowdon - - - - 
 
 Stonehenge - 
 
 Part of a Roman Wall - 
 
 Robin Hood - 
 
 St. George and theDragon 
 
 Shakespeare's Monument 
 
 Room in which Shakespeare 
 
 was born - - _ 123 
 Hampton Court - - 125 
 
 Crystal Palace - - - 127 
 Granite Quarries - - - 129 
 Blast Furnaces - - - 131 
 Slate Quarries - - - I 33 
 The Thames - - 134 
 
 103 
 105 
 109 
 111 
 113 
 117 
 121 
 
List of Illustrations. 
 
 Ireland: — page 
 
 Ancient Cross - - - 135 
 
 Giant's Causeway - - 137 
 
 Boyne Obelisk - - - 139 
 
 On the Lee, Cork - - 141 
 
 Ross Castle, Killarney - 143 
 
 Ancient Round Tower - 145 
 
 St. Patrick going to Tara - 147 
 
 Blarney Castle - - - 149 
 
 Oliver Cromwell - - - 151 
 
 Daniel O'Connell - - 153 
 
 Belfast Mill- Workers - - 157 
 
 Views in Belfast - - 159 
 
 Scotland: — 
 
 Edinburg Weather - - 161 
 
 Ben Nevis - - - - 163 
 
 Highlander Performing the 
 
 National Dance - - 165 
 
 Glasgow . - - - 167 
 
 Loch Lomond - - - 169 
 Holyrood Palace and Abbey 171 
 
 Mary Stuart - - - 173 
 
 Abbottsford - - 175 
 
 Culloden Moor - - 177 
 
 Charles Edward - - 178 
 
 Peat Gatherers - . - - 179 
 
 Fishermen's Huts - - 181 
 
 Netherlands: 
 
 Street Scene in Holland - 185 
 Entrance to the Zuyder Zee 189 
 
 Windmill - 191 
 
 Rembrant and His Wife - 197 
 
 Rotterdam - - - 203 
 
 Storks - - - - - 205 
 
 gium: 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Home Life 
 
 - 207 
 
 Farm Life 
 
 - 211 
 
 Canal at Burges 
 
 - 213 
 
 " The Guard Dies, but Never 
 
 Surrenders." - - - 217 
 Fishermen - 221 
 
 Germany: — 
 
 Black Forest - - 225 
 
 Dragon Rock - - - 229 
 
 Spectre of the Brocken - 231 
 
 Emperor of Germany - 235 
 
 Frederick the Great - - 237 
 
 Alexander Von Humboldt 249 
 
 Austria-Hungary: — 
 Vienna - 
 
 Dolomite Mountains 
 Salt Mines - 
 Source of Danube 
 Queen Theresa and the 
 
 Young King 
 Metternich 
 
 Schonbrun, near Vienna 
 Prague _.--.- 
 
 Switzerland: — 
 
 Alpine View in the Snow 
 The Matterhorn 
 A Mountain Ascent 
 Hospice of Grimsel - 
 Alpine Dog - 
 The Jungfau 
 Alpine Flowers - 
 
 253 
 
 255 
 257 
 259 
 
 265 
 267 
 273 
 
 275 
 
 - 277 
 279 
 
 - 281 
 283 
 
 - 284 
 285 
 
 - 286 
 
List of Illustrations. 
 
 Switzerland :— 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Antelopes - 
 
 - 287 
 
 Fisher Girl - 
 
 - 289 
 
 Mountain Guide 
 
 - 291 
 
 Peasant in Holiday Dress - 293 
 
 France: — 
 
 Charlemagne - 301 
 
 Peter the Hermit - 305 
 
 Joan of Arc before the King 309 
 Catherine de Medici - - 311 
 Man with the Iron Mask - 313 
 Taking the Bastile - - 315 
 Napoleon Bonaparte - ' 317 
 Josephine - 319 
 
 Spain: — 
 
 Gibraltar - 325 
 
 The Alcazar at Seregovia - 329 
 The Hall of the Abencerrages 333 
 
 The Court of Blessing - 335 
 
 Bull-fighting - - - 337 
 
 National Dance - - 339 
 
 Statue of Philip IV. - - 342 
 
 Italy: — 
 
 Peasant Children - - 350 
 The Sistine Chapel - 351 
 
 Genoa - 353 
 
 Bridge of St. Angelo - - 355 
 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius 357 
 The Gate of Herculaneum 359 
 
 Italy: — page 
 
 House of Glaucus in Pompeii 361 
 Bay of Naples - - - 363 
 The Appian Way - - 365 
 The Colisseum - - - 371 
 Victor Emanuel - - 373 
 St. Peters and the Vatican 377 
 Raphael - 379 
 
 Mount Cencis Tunnel - - 387 
 In the Forum - - - 383 
 
 Turkey: — 
 
 A Harem Window - - 384 
 
 The Bosphorus - - - 387 
 
 Constantinople - - - 389 
 
 Fountain of St. Sophia - 399 
 
 Musselman Women - - 403 
 
 Greece: — 
 
 Interior of the Parthenon 407 
 The Parthenon at the Time 
 
 of Pericles - - - 411 
 The Acropolis at Athens - 415 
 Market of Athens - - 417 
 
 Types and Costumes of 
 
 Early Grecian Life - 421 
 Modern Greeks - - - 423 
 A Montenegrin Senator - 427 
 

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