44

MOUNTAIN PROSPECTS-LIVY-HANNIBAL'S MARCH.

spot the Cathaginian harangued his troops; for wherever there is a pass that conducts across mountains, there must be intersections, and chains and ridges flanking and crossing each other, and effectually intercepting any distant prospect.

I have crossed the Alps by the Simplon, Mount St. Gothard, and the great St. Bernard, as well as by Mount Cenis; but I do not remember seeing or hearing any body speak of those boundless views, which Hannibal's historians had in their imagination. The general accuracy of Polybius's account of that great general's march over the Alps, must make us loth to deny all credit to his statements; but Livy's descriptions are the dreams of a poet, rather than the details of an historian. Nothing can be more beautiful than the dreary and wintry picture which he has drawn ; his scenery is truly Alpine; and the sufferings and embarrassments of the Carthaginian army are those which they must really have encountered, had they actually been exposed to the situations in which he has placed them. But it is more than exaggeration, it is mere fable, to talk of an experienced soldier attempting to lead an armament, consisting of certainly not less than 26,000a men, with cavalry, elephants, and baggage, over the Alps, and through hostile tribes, under the conduct of guides, whose fidelity' or knowledge of the passes was questionable; and to march troops by mountain paths, which were so slippery, that they could not move without falling, beyond the power of recovering themselves; and where man and beast kept rolling over one another in endless confusion. His other accounts are even still more preposterous. For instance, the romantic dilemma

q "Minimum, viginti millia peditum, sex equitum," &c.

"Nono die in jugum Alpium perventum est, per invia pleraque, et errores, quos aut ducentium fraus, aut ubi fides iis non esset, temerè initæ valles a conjectantibus iter faciebant."

s "Omnis enim ferme via præceps, angusta, lubrica erat, ut neque sustinere se a lapsu possent, nec si paullulum titubassent, hærere afflicti vestigio suo : aliique super alios, et jumenta et homines occiderent."

ROUTE OF HANNIBAL'S ARMY.

45

of arriving at a spot, where an army, which had passed through so many real obstacles, was at last stopped by a precipice of a thousand feet deep, and obliged to spend four days in digging, and burning, and melting a passage through the rock. The fact is, that Hannibal was a general of too much experience, to think of a random expedition in the face of such mountain obstacles as Livy has represented : on the contrary, he must have supplied himself with able and trust-worthy guides, who knew and described the passes which the army was to take: he must have ascertained his route and resources before he set out, and have taken that line of march where his troops would have the means of subsistence, and the least fatigue. The plains of Chamberry, the valleys of the Isere and the Aouste, and the passes which were traced by following the courses of the Isere and the Doire, offered Hannibal a practicable route; which, though it was not without its perils and difficulties, yet did not expose his forces to the certainty of being starved to death, or lost amidst precipices.

"Ventum deinde ad multo angustiorem rupem, atque ita rectis saxis, ut ægre expeditus miles tentabundus, manibusque retinens virgulta ac stirpes circa eminentes, demittere se posset-in pedum mille altitudinem-tantum nivis fodiendum atque egerendum fuit-struem ingentem lignorum faciunt: eamque succendunt, ardentiaque saxa infuso aceto putrefaciunt- -quatriduum circa rupem consumptum."-Livy, l. 21. c. 35, 36, 37.

CHAPTER III.

Arrive at Turin-Priests and officers - Monks —Penitents · Popish cathedral service—Its effect on the imagination-Chapel of the British minister-A Vaudois pastor-Eloquent appeal— The Superga-Retrospect-Victor Amadeus II.-Prince Eugene-Meeting of Eugene and Amadeus-Persecutions of the Vaudois-France and Savoy attack the Protestants — Henri Arnaud-Imprisonment of the whole Protestant Population-Thousands perish in the Jails-Flight of the Vaudois to Switzerland-Restored to their country-Reconciled to their sove reign-Victor Amadeus and the Duke of Marlborough -M. Vertu Distressed English lady-Bigotry Opera at Turin— King of Sardinia-Revolutionary movements in Roman Ca→ tholic countries.

WE arrived at Turin on Friday, January 3; and never, since we left England, had we been gratified with the sight of so many cheerful-looking houses and gardens, as between Rivoli, and the capital of Piemont. The city itself is much more imposing at first entrance, than either Paris or Lyons, from the breadth and cleanliness of the streets, and the uniformity of the houses. There was something also in the appearance of the population, which told us we were in a new region, and added to the general effect; but the most striking objects were priests and soldiers, both of whom swarm in Turin. The dress and figures of the Piemontese officers were equally handsome; and the long flowing cassocks and cloaks, the large flapped hats, and confident air of the priests, told that they are by no means the despised and neglected order that they are in France. Once only, on my journey through France, did I see any mark

of respect paid to the clergy, and that was at Lyons, where an aged priest, not in the full garb of his profession, passed a boy, who bowed to him; and the visible delight of the old man sufficiently proved the attention to be neither usual nor expected. At Moulins we happened to follow a priest for some distance, arrayed in all his canonicals; but "none cried, God bless him." The influence of the Roman hierarchy is sensibly felt in the metropolis of his Sardinian majesty; we noticed, on the outside of churches, innumerable such inscriptions as, " Plenary indulgence,” and “ Pray for the soul of Filippo Costani;” and saw votaries offering up their supplications before pictures of the Virgin, at the corners of the streets, penitents kneeling on the steps of churches, and mendicant monks with their cowls and rosaries. The whole scene is not only strikingly new, but even romantic, to a Protestant, who is accustomed to think of such things as divided from him by centuries.

One of my young friends went into a church the first day of our arrival, and came out amazed at what he had seen: he could talk of nothing but the crossings, and bowings, and genuflexions, and ringing and tingling, and placing and displacing and replacing the sacred utensils upon the altar, as if the worship of the ministers consisted in a sort of manual exercise, and gymnastic exhibition, in theatrical prostrations, and prescribed and studied obeisances. He was as much inclined to turn all that he saw into ridicule, as another of my companions was disposed to set an undue value upon some of the more impressive ceremonials of the Catholic service. We went together to the cathedral upon a festival day, in which high mass was performed, in presence of the bishop and chapter, and a large body of troops, who filled the nave. Certainly the appeal to the imagination was strong, but it was only to the imagination: a dim mysterious light fell through the stained glass of the arched windows, and mingled strangely with the blaze of the numberless tapers upon the altar: the cross, and the sacred vessels,

48

POPISH CATHEDRAL SERVICE.

were magnificent in the extreme; long trains of priests and choristers gave a solemn animation to the scene; and even the incense had its share in bewildering the senses; the brain was all but intoxicated with the overwhelming sweetness of the odour. But the effect of the music, inexpressibly fine in itself, thus favoured by every concomitant circumstance, had an influence beyond the power of language to describe; the soft breathings of the organ, and the wind-instruments, seemed to linger upon every column and upon every monument, till at last there was a rush of sound that reached the remotest parts of the cathedral, and, for the moment, filled the breast with unusual emotions; but, it was only for the moment, and could be only for the moment. Religious feeling that is called forth by appeals to the senses, must pass away with the existing cause; it should well from the heart itself, or we can hardly hope that it will be lasting. We may go to a Catholic cathedral to gratify our taste for music and splendour, but not for sentiments of pure devotion. The choir, and the chaunting, the military band and the opera singers, the banners and trophied monuments, the decorated altars and splendid paintings, the voluptuous portraits of beautiful Magdalenes and handsome St. Sebastians, these are all " of the earth earthy," far removed from the true "image of the heavenly."

At the British minister's chapel, on the following Sunday, I had the good fortune to fall in with a merchant (M. Vertu), who is a native Vaudois, but settled as a resident at Turin; and from him I gathered all the particulars which were necessary for my excursion to the valleys of the Pelice and Clusone. Some of his family were living at La Torre (La Tour), the principal village of the community, and to them he most kindly offered to give me a letter of introduction. To my great surprise, I also learnt that the minister who officiated, was one of the Vaudois clergy, the pastor of La Torre, the learned and excellent