Lake Leman-Byron.

209

where Byron lived nine months, and wrote the third canto of Childe Harold.' He used often to go out on the lake alone, at midnight, in violent storms, which seemed to delight and inspire him. The change in the elements described in the third canto, might be a counterpart of the author's mind :

"Clear placid Leman! thy contrasted lake,
With the wide world I dwell in, is a thing
Which warns me with its stillness to forsake
Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring;
This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing

To waft me from distraction."

Mark the contrast:

"The sky is changed! and such a change! Oh night,
And storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,
Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light

Of a dark eye in woman. Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,

Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue,
And Jura answers from her misty shroud,

Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!"

We were threatened with such a change,' which are said to be frequent and sudden; but it proved a false alarm.

But we must return :

"It is the hush of night, and all between

The margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear,
Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen
Save darkened Jura, whose capt heights appear
Precipitously steep; and drawing near,
There breathes a living fragrance from the shore,
Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear
Drops the light drip of the suspended oar,

Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more."

Miss Bone of the American ladies at Monsieur W-'s, has resided four years in Italy. Among other anecdotes, of which she has an entertaining and extensive fund at command, she was telling us one, illustrating the reputation of our 'great republic' with the common people of Europe. Near the Hotel de Secherons, on the banks of the lake, one mile from Geneva, she met a small boy at the gate of a cottage, and amused herself by a little talk with him. He seemed much surprised on learning the two facts, that she was an American lady, and that she boarded at the Secherons, where they paid more money for one dinner than he ever had in his life.' 'Did you ever hear of America?' 'Oh yes, father told me all about it. There was a famous Frenchman, Monsieur Lafayette, went there once, and conquered the country.' Indeed! well, what did he do then? Why, they wanted him to become king, but he would n't.' 'Why not? Because,' said the boy, hesitating, lest he should give offence, 'because the Americans are so poor! And thus he marvelled that one of them should be rich enough to patronize the Hotel de Secherons.

6

Sunday. Attended the English Episcopal chapel, to hear the celebrated Rev. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, author of the Velvet Cushion,' etc. He enjoined upon his audience, mostly English travellers or residents, to conduct themselves abroad as best became British Christians.' There are chapels of this kind for the English, in nearly all the large cities of Italy, and throughout Europe.

6

American Fame-View of the Alps.

211

XVI.

SWITZERLAND, CONTINUED.

Chamouni-The Alps-Frozen Sea-Chamois-Glaciers-Coleridge-Pass of the Tète Noire-Valley of the Rhone--Simplon Road-Visions of Italy--Disappointment--Convent on the Great St. Bernard.

CHAMOUNI, (Foot of Mont Blanc,) August 23.-Those who describe Swiss scenery, with a feeling sense of its beauty and grandeur, are apt to incur the charge of coloring the picture under the influence of an inflated imagination; but I am sure of one thing, that no mere words ever did or could give me a correct and full impression of the scenes I have passed to-day, or of the one now before me. To say that I am in the valley of Chamouni, at the very base of the stupendous Mont Blanc and his gigantic neighbors, on a moonlight evening, is to say enough for your own imagination to fill up the picture. Well does Rogers remark of the distant view of the Alps from the Jura, where they are scarcely distinguishable from the vapors :

"Who first beholds those everlasting clouds,
Seed-time and harvest, morning, noon and night,
Still where they were, steadfast, immovable;
Those mighty hills, so shadowy, so sublime,
As rather to belong to heaven than earth,
But instantly receives into his soul,

A sense, a feeling that he loses not,

A something that informs him 'tis an hour

Whence he may date henceforward and for ever."

It certainly is a school, where the egotist may learn humility.

Our party, (Mr. and Miss M, and myself.) left Geneva in a carry-all' yesterday morning at five o'clock. It was another clear and brilliant day, and the ride, of course, was delightful. Lake, hill, rnountain, valley, cascade, river, in their happiest combination, presented a splendid panorama, during the whole distance to this place, fifty-four miles. By way of variety, I must tell you my troubles, also. About five miles from Geneva, we were made aware of having left the Swiss, and entered the Sardinian territory, by a summons, at a little frontier bureau, for our passports. When lo! it was discovered that mine was minus the signature of his Sardinian majesty's consul at Geneva,* and I was politely requested to return for it! This was particularly pleasant! For to do it would be to lose the whole day, and the party beside. After some useless debate, the carbinier kindly permitted me to send back the document by a loafer who happened along, knowing that I could not go far without it; and the next day I received it at Chamouni, and had the pleasure of paying five dollars for not heeding Madame Starke's directions.

We breakfasted at Bonneville, a little village on the Arve, worthy of its name; and we were soon ushered into a region of sublimer scenery than we had as yet visited. The craggy summits, even of the minor mountains, liter

* This personage has the brief authority to demand four francs for affixing his cognomen to the passports of all who leave Geneva for this

route.

Passports-Chamouni-Frozen Sea.

213

ally touch or rise above the clouds, while their sides, up to a fearful height, are covered with verdure, and studded with cottages and the valleys below are laid out in squares of varied green. At St. Martin, we changed our vehicle for a charbanc, better suited to the rough and narrow path, for we were now coming where nature displays some of her wildest scenes:

"Above me are the Alps,

The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned eternity in icy halls

Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls
The avalanche, the thunder-bolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit yet appals,

Gather around these summits, as to show

How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man below."

The village of Chamouni is situated in the middle of the valley of the same name, which is ten miles long, and forms one of the most popular 'lions' in Europe, for the botanist, mineralogist, and all nature's students. Our first expedition was to the celebrated Mer-de-Glace. We set off from our inn on mules, headed by a guide, and shortly came to a steep and laborious ascent of some thousand feet, on Mont Anvert, from which, as we looked back, the objects in the valley appeared dwindled to atomies. In about three hours, that wonderful phenomena, the frozen sea, suddenly burst upon our view:

"Wave upon wave! as if a foaming ocean,

By boisterous winds to fierce rebellion driven,
Heard, in its wildest moment of commotion,
And stood congealed at the command of heaven!