Down the Rhine; Or, Young America in Germany by Oliver Optic (romantic books to read .txt) 📗

or two, if not before night, we shall be back again in the harbor of Brest. I'm willing to bet all my bad marks against all yours, that we get ashore in less than forty-eight hours."

"That's heavy betting, but it won't settle anything. There is Peaks; suppose we ask him," suggested Ibbotson, as the old boatswain came down the ladder.

"You can call up spirits from the vasty deep, but they won't come. You can ask him, but you might as well put the question to the anchor-stock."

"Where are we going, Mr. Peaks?" asked Ibbotson, as gently as though he were addressing a lady.

"Going to sea," replied Peaks, gruffly, as he went on his way, deigning no further answer.

"No use," said Little. "If we only wait, we shall know in a day or two. In the mean time we must be as proper as the parson's lambs."

Still the Josephine sped on her way, and no one was the wiser.

 

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM STRASBURG TO CONSTANCE.

The party on board of the Young America were in the highest spirits on the morning of their departure. All of them had now been decorated with the white ribbon of the Order of the Faithful. Even Raymond and Lindsley were entirely satisfied with the good faith and fairness of the principal—better satisfied than they were with their own conduct. What had before been regarded as defeat was now triumph, for a failure to achieve success in doing wrong is actually victory, especially if followed, as in this instance, by real regret, genuine penitence.

Grace Arbuckle, perhaps conscious that she had exerted a salutary influence upon the students through the pleasantry of the Order of the Faithful, was as happy as the young gentlemen themselves. She appeared on deck at an early hour, and when the officers and seamen presented themselves, in their best uniforms, wearing the white ribbon, she was so delighted she could not help laughing heartily.

"Commodore Kendall, are you going to wear that ribbon to Paris?" she asked, as Paul touched his cap to her.

"Certainly I am. I should as soon think of going without my coat as without that," replied he.

"But how absurd!"

"Absurd? Vous ne pouvez pas faire un sifflet de la queue d'un cochon," added he, very seriously.

"C'est vrai; but what has that to do with the ribbon? Do you mean to call that a pig's tail?"

"No; on the contrary, it is the wing of an angel—it was bestowed by you. I only mean to say it would be quite impossible to go to Germany without this ribbon. It is our talisman to keep us faithful to duty; and I am afraid we should get into mischief if we went without it. Every member will wear his decoration. But, Miss Arbuckle, I think you ought to wear the white ribbon also."

"I!"

"Certainly. You are the Grand Protectress of the order. Do wear it, Miss Arbuckle, with a rosette, to indicate your superior rank. It would please all the members very much."

"I will, if you desire it," replied Grace, more seriously.

"We all desire it."

"It shall be done, if you wish it."

"Thanks."

Grace tripped lightly down the stairs to the cabin, but presently returned, wearing the white ribbon, surmounted by a very tasty rosette, composed of white, blue, and yellow ribbons, to denote the several degrees of the order. Paul was in raptures, and when the ship's company saw the decoration she wore, they saluted her with three rousing cheers, which she gracefully acknowledged.

"We must perpetuate this order, Shuffles," said Paul, as they stood in the presence of the Grand Protectress.

"I think we must," replied the captain.

"We will organize more systematically when we have time."

"And have a suitable emblem to distinguish the members."

"The white ribbon must not be discarded," protested Paul, glancing at Grace.

"Certainly not; but we will have a gold anchor, say, from which the ribbon shall be suspended," added Shuffles. "On the anchor shall be engraved the single word Faithful."

"And 'Vous ne pouvez pas faire,' &c.," laughed Paul. "I think we must ask the Grand Protectress for a suitable emblem."

"You have great confidence in me, and I will give the subject faithful consideration," said Grace.

"Our motto is an excellent one, I think," continued Paul. "To us it will always mean that you cannot redress a wrong by resorting to dishonorable measures."

The conversation was interrupted by the call to breakfast. Before the meal was finished, the steamer that was to convey the party on shore came alongside. By the time she had made fast, and run out her planks, the boatswain piped, "All hands, on deck with bags, to go ashore." The stewards conveyed the baggage of the Arbuckles on board, and the ship's company marched in single file to the deck of the steamer. There were no turbulent spirits among them, and everything was done in order. In due time the party reached the railroad station, and seated themselves in the special cars, which had been provided for their use.

The Arbuckles, Dr. Winstock, Paul, and Shuffles occupied one compartment of a carriage, and, as usual, the pleasant and well-informed surgeon of the ship, who had been a very extensive traveller, was a living encyclopædia for the party. The course of the train was through Brittany, of which Dr. Winstock had much to say. It is a poor country, not unlike Scotland, though it has no high mountains. The lower order of the people wear quaint costumes, and have hardly changed their manners and customs for three hundred years.

"Do you see that building in the churchyard?" said the doctor, as he pointed out the window.

"What is it—the hearse-house?" asked Paul.

"No; I think they don't use hearses much here. It is a bone-house."

"A what!" exclaimed Shuffles.

"A bone-house, or reliquaire. The poor people in this part of France are very ignorant and superstitious. Requiescat in pace, so far as the mortal remains of their dead are concerned, has no meaning to them, for they do not let them rest quietly in their graves, as we do. After the bodies of the deceased have gone to decay, the skulls and bones are removed from the coffins, and placed in the bone-house. The names, or the initials, of the departed are painted upon the forehead of the skull."

"How horrible!" exclaimed Grace.

"Doubtless it is so to you; but to these people it is an act of affectionate remembrance," added the doctor; "as sacred and pious as any tribute we render to our loved and lost ones."

Dr. Winstock continued to describe the various places through which the train passed, answering the many questions proposed by his interested auditors. At noon they arrived at Rennes, where the excursionists lunched, and some of them, perhaps at the expense of the inner man, were enterprising enough to see a little of the city, which contains forty thousand inhabitants, and was the ancient capital of the dukedom of Brittany.

"This is Laval," said the doctor, an hour and a half after the train left Rennes.

"See there!" exclaimed Grace, pointing to a man clothed in goatskins, the hair outside. "Is that Robinson Crusoe?"

"No; that is the fashion for the peasants in this part of Brittany. They don't depend upon Paris for the mode. I suppose you have all heard of the Vendéan war."

"Yes, sir. The people of La Vendée were royalists, and fought against the republicans as long as there was anything left of them," replied Paul.

"La Vendée lies south of the Loire; but one of their greatest battles was fought near Laval, in 1793. They conducted themselves with fearful desperation, and after the republicans had sent word, as the battle waned, to the Convention at Paris, that La Vendée was no more, the wounded leader of the insurgents was carried through their ranks, and they rallied, gaining the day in a decisive victory, by which the government troops lost twelve thousand men."

Fifty-six miles farther brought the excursionists to Le Mans, where the Vendéan army was finally destroyed by the forces of General Marceau. The carnage was terrible, and extended even to the massacre of many of the wives and children of the royalists. An obelisk to the memory of the republican general, who was born at Le Mans, informs the reader that he was a soldier at sixteen, a general at twenty-three, and died when he was twenty-seven.

At Chartres, forty-seven miles from Paris, the train stopped half an hour, and the party had an opportunity to see the cathedral, the most magnificent in France, and one of the most ancient. It is four hundred and twenty-five feet long. Henry IV. was crowned in it in 1594, for the reason that Rheims, where coronations formerly took place, was in possession of the Leaguers.

At seven o'clock, the train arrived in Paris, and the party hastened to the lodgings which had been engaged for them. In the evening they attended the grand opera, at the invitation of Mr. Arbuckle, and the next morning proceeded to Strasburg. After a short delay, the party continued the journey, crossing the Rhine into Germany, and halting at Offenburg, a small town, where hotel accommodations had been bespoken. After supper, the excursionists were collected in a large room, and Professor Mapps took a position in front of them.

"Young gentlemen, where are we?" he asked.

"In Germany."

"Very true, but rather indefinite," added the professor.

"In Baden," said Paul Kendall, who, as usual, had taken pains to study up the situation.

"In the Grand Duchy of Baden."

"What is a Grand Duchy?" inquired one of the students, who was doubtless bothered, as others have been, by the varying titles of the German states.

"It is a territory having an independent local government. There is no reason why it should be called a Grand Duchy, unless it is because it is larger than a simple Duchy, though this rule does not always hold good, for the Duchy of Brunswick has double the territory and double the population of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The titles of the states seem to be entirely arbitrary, and, according to the fancy of their rulers, they were called kingdoms, principalities, electorates, palatinates, margraviates, Grand Duchies, or Duchies. The Grand Duchy of Baden is larger than the Kingdom of Saxony. These designations have been occasionally changed, as the states increased in size, or as their rulers desired a grander title. In 1803 Baden was a margraviate of one fourth its present extent. Napoleon gave the title of Elector, and afterwards of Grand Duke, to the Margrave Charles Frederick, as his territory was increased.

"Baden has about six thousand square miles, or is about equal in size to Rhode Island and Connecticut united. It has a population of one million three hundred thousand, which has hardly increased during the last fifty years, for the reason that so many of its people have emigrated to the United States. The country is mountainous, and contains the Schwarzwald. What does that mean?"

"The Black Forest," replied several.

"A mountainous region, which has been the paradise of story-tellers. The highest peak is the Feldberg, forty-six hundred and fifty feet high. Its principal river is the Rhine, which forms its western and southern boundary, and has many branches in this country. The Neckar is the largest, crossing Baden in the north. The river which you observed in this place is the Kinzig. The Danube, which the Germans call the Donau, rises in Baden. In the south-east the country borders on Lake Constance, or, in German, Boden See. The climate is salubrious, but it is cold in the mountains, where they have snow during the greater part of the year.

"Baden is divided into four circles, or provinces, which are again divided into bailiwicks, or counties, and communes, or towns. Two thirds of the people are Roman Catholics; the rest are Protestant, with a sprinkling of Jews, who are found in all parts of Germany. There is a Catholic university at Freiburg, and a Protestant one at Heidelberg, which is so celebrated that it has not a few American students. There are two thousand common schools, and several establishments of higher grade.

"The