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A TRANSPORTING VIEW.

a cloud as large as a man's hand could anywhere be seen; and the great, imperial mountain of this Alpine group stood before us in its highest grandeur. We saw the last, lingering rays of the sun. play upon its icy crown; and we gazed at it long into the evening. No clearer or more perfect view of this stupendous height was ever had. Yet in one respect we were much disappointed. There are two prominent shoulders of the mountain, thousands of feet, perhaps, lower than the grand summit, but which, from their nearness, appear quite as high as the majestic peak itself.

The next morning was bright and cheerful. I stood at my window, and saw the first beam of sunlight fall on the snow-white crest. I was favored beyond my most extravagant anticipations; and here I leave this colossal pile, after quoting, with slight variations, from the great oration at the laying of the corner-stone on Bunker Hill: There it stands, to meet the sun in his coming. The earliest light of morning gilds it, and parting day lingers and plays upon its

summit.

THE CITY OF WATCHES.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

DOWN

THE RIDE TO GENEVA.SCRAPS OF ITS HISTORY. — JOHN CALVIN. — GENEVA TO GERMANY. HEIDELBERG AND MAYENCE. - A SAIL THE RHINE.— BINGEN AND COLOGNE.— KINGDOM OF BELGIUM. — THE CAPITAL.—FIELD OF WATERLOO. — DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE. —ART-GALLERIES OF ANTWERP.- RECROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. BACK TO LONDON.

WE took seats in the diligence at Chamouni Valley, for a ride of fifty miles to Geneva. The road, which follows down the valley of one of the tributaries of the Rhone, is finished like a turnpike. It passes through narrow defiles, along steep embankments, and over fretful cataracts; but we were not beside ourselves, for we had been having more exciting experiences. Looking back, after having receded six or eight miles from the mountain, we had views of the summit which were not obstructed or disparaged by intervening shoulders.

We reached Geneva before night. It is at the outlet of the lake of the same name. The city has long been distinguished for the manufacture of watches and jewelry. One hundred thousand watches are made annually. Among the distinguished persons born in Geneva, Albert Gallatin, the American statesman, and secretary of the

324

A REFUGEE FROM FRANCE.

treasury, was not the least. Sir Humphry Davy was born in this city. In December, 1871, the Court of Arbitration on the Alabama question, consisting of five members appointed by each of the governments of Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, and the United States, met here. The Mont-Blanc bridge over the Rhone is a fine structure. Just below it stands a monument to Rousseau, who was born in Geneva in 1712.

In October, 1536, a new actor appeared on the scene at Geneva, - John Calvin, then about twentyfive years of age. By force of intellect and strength of will he soon made himself the leader of the Protestant party. "The Church became the State; breach of ecclesiastical discipline was crime; innovation in dogma was treason." Calvin was a refugee from France, on account of his religious views; and yet his was a spirit that would neither tolerate nor look with allowance on what he considered religious error in others. Hence the banishment of Castello, and the burning to death of Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician, also a refugee, on account of religious opinions. He was burned at the stake, at the ancient place of execution, just outside the walls of the city. Among the statues and memorials to the eminent men and women of Geneva, none stands to the memory of Calvin.

From Geneva we traveled on by rail, a hundred and eighty miles, to Basle (pronounced

HAY-FIELD SCENES.

325

Bale, giving a the second sound). On this extensive line we generally found a well-wooded and well-watered country. The farmers all along the way were actively engaged in haying. Whole families-old and young, male and female-were in the fields together; and the spectacle was a lively one. Geneva is at one extreme of Switzerland, and Basle at another. At the latter place we cross the Rhine, go through the usual formalities of a custom-house, and are in the German Empire.

My trip of nearly five hundred miles in this empire was a hurried one; yet I saw no inconsiderable part of the surface of the country, and I had the pleasure of making short stops in a number of its best cities. The farming-lands of Germany are highly cultivated and very productive. The crops there are similar in kind to those of New England. I noticed with great satisfaction, that the hills of Germany, and, indeed, the lower elevations, are not denuded of wood, as they are in too many countries, but are clothed with the refreshing foliage of extensive forests.

The Germans make good American citizens. They are model farmers. They are industrious and saving, and Germany is now giving us a much larger number of immigrants than any other country. For the year 1882 the total number of immigrants was about seven hundred and thirty-four thousand. From Germany, there

were over two hundred thousand; from England and Wales, over eighty-two thousand; from Ireland, forty-seven thousand.

The cities of Germany appear ancient, but solid, and rather prosperous. Heidelberg is one of these. It is a beautiful summer-place, but is very cold in winter. Here is a maze of ruined courts, battlements, halls, towers, columns, and fountains, surrounded by gardens of grass and trees. The place is said to have taken its name from the Heidelbeeren, or bilberries, which abound in all that region.

Mayence, or Mainz, where we stopped over night, is on the Rhine. It is a strongly fortified town of fifty thousand inhabitants, and it has a garrison of eight thousand soldiers. Its origin is very ancient. In the year 14 B.C. Augustus sent his son-in-law, Drusus, to the Rhine, as commander-in-chief; and to him the fortress of Mayence owes its foundation. His camp was on the site of the present city. On the twenty-eighth day of July, 1870, Napoleon III. here joined the Army of the Rhine, and crossed the frontier to Saarbruck, where the Prince Imperial received his "baptism of fire."

At this place we went on board a steamer, for a daylight sail down the classic Rhine. The sources of this river are near those of the Rhone, in the elevated region bordering on the St. Gothard Mountains. The one running in a