By the time I reached the Custom-house Stairs, the paddles of the
Rotterdam steam-boat were actually in motion, and I had scarcely
hurried across a plank, when I heard it fall splash into the muddy
water which separated me farther and farther from the wharf. Still
later than myself, passengers were now seen chasing the vessel in
boats, and there was a confusion on deck, which I gladly availed myself
of, by securing, close to the helmsman, a corner, where, muffled in
the ample folds of an old boat-cloak, I felt I might quietly enjoy an
incognito; for, as the sole object of my expedition was to do myself as
much good and as little harm as possible, I considered it would be a
pity to wear out my constitution by any travelling exclamations in the
Thames.
The hatches being now opened, the huge pile of trunks, black
portmanteaus, and gaudy carpet-bags which had threatened at first to
obstruct my prospect was rapidly stowed away; and, as the vessel,
hissing and smoking, glided, or rather scuffled, by Deptford,
Greenwich, Woolwich, &c., a very motley group of fellow-passengers
were all occupied in making remarks of more or less importance. Some
justly prided themselves on being able to read aloud inscriptions on
shore, which others had declared, from their immense distance, to be
illegible;--some, bending forward, modestly asked for information;
some, standing particularly upright, pompously, imparted it; at
times, wondering eyes, both male and female, were seen radiating in
all directions; then all were concentrated on an approaching sister
steam-boat, which, steering an opposite course, soon rapidly passed
us; the gilt figure at her head, the splashing of the paddles, and the
name written over her stern, occasioning observations which burst into
existence nearly as simultaneously as the thunder and lightning of
heaven;--handkerchiefs were waved, and bipeds of both sexes seemed to
be delighted, save and except one mild, gloomy, inquisitive little man,
who went bleating like a lamb from one fellow-passenger to another,
without getting even from me any answer to his harmless question,
"whether we had or had not passed yet the men hanging in chains?"
As soon as we got below Gravesend, the small volume of life which,
with feelings of good-fellowship to all men, I had thus been calmly
reviewing, began to assume a graver tone; and, as page after page
presented itself to my notice, I observed that notes of interrogation
and marks of admiration were types not so often to be met with, as the
comma, the colon--and, above all--the full stop.
The wind, as it freshened with the sun, seemed to check all exuberance
of fancy; and, as the puny river-wave rose, conversation around me
lulled and lulled into a dead calm. A few people, particularly some
ladies, suddenly at last broke silence, giving utterance to a mass of
heavy matter-of-fact ejaculations, directed rather to fishes than to
men. Certain colours in the picture now began rapidly to alter--the red
rose gradually looked like the lily--brown skin changed itself into
dirty yellow, and I observed two heavy cheeks of warm, comfortable,
fat flesh gradually assume the appearance of cold wrinkled tallow. Off
Margate, a sort of hole-and-corner system very soon began to prevail,
and one human being after another slowly descending heels foremost,
vanished from deck into a sub-stratum, or infernal region, where there
was moaning, and groaning, and gnashing of teeth; and, as head after
head thus solemnly sunk from my view, I gradually threw aside the folds
of my ægis, until finding myself alone, I hailed and inhaled with
pleasure the cool fresh breeze which had thus caused me to be left, as
I wished to be, by myself.
The gale now delightfully increased--(ages ago I had been too often
exposed to it to suffer from its effect);--and, as wave after wave
became tipt with white, there flitted before my mind a hundred
recollections chasing one another, which I never thought to have
re-enjoyed; occasionally they were interrupted by the salt spray, and
as it dashed into my face, I felt my grizzled eyebrows curl themselves
up, as if they wished me once again to view the world in the prismatic
colours of "Auld Lang Syne." Already was my cure half effected; and
the soot of London being thus washed from my brow, I felt a reanimation
of mind and a vigour of frame which made me long for the moment when,
like the sun bursting from behind a cloud, I might cast aside my
shadowy mantle: however, I never moved from my nook, until the darkness
of night at last encouraging me, without fear of observation, to walk
the deck, "I paced along upon the giddy footing of the hatches," till
tired of these vibrations, I stood for a few moments at the gangway.
There was no moon--a star only here and there was to be seen; yet,
as the fire-propelled vessel cut her way, the paddles, by shivering
in succession each wave to atoms, produced a phosphoric sparkling,
resembling immense lanthorns at her side; and while these beacons
distinctly proclaimed where the vessel actually was, a pale shining
stream of light issued from her keel, which, for a ship's length or
two, told fainter and fainter where she _had been_.
The ideas which rush into the mind, on contemplating by night, out of
sight of land, the sea, are as dark, as mysterious, as unfathomable,
and as indescribable as the vast ocean itself. One sees but
little,--yet that little, caught here and there, so much resembles some
of the attributes of the Great Power which created us, that the mind,
trembling under the immensity of the conceptions it engenders, is lost
in feelings which human beings cannot impart to each other. In the
hurricane which one meets with in southern latitudes, most of us have
probably looked in vain for the waves which have been described to be
"mountain high;" but, though the outline has been exaggerated, is there
not a terror in the filling in of the picture which no human artist can
delineate? and in the raging of the tempest--in the darkness which the
lightning makes visible--who is there among us that has not fancied he
has caught a shadow of the wrath, and a momentary glimmering of the
mercy, of the Almighty?
Impressed with these hackneyed feelings, I slowly returned to my nook,
and all being obscure, except just the red, rough countenance of the
helmsman, feebly illuminated by the light in the binnacle, I laid
myself down, and sometimes nodding a little and sometimes dozing, I
enjoyed for many hours a sort of half sleep, of which I stood in no
little need.
As soon as we had crossed the Briell, the vessel being at once in
smooth water, the passengers successively emerged from their graves
below, until, in a couple of hours, their ghastly countenances all were
on deck.
A bell, as if in hysterics, now rang most violently, as a signal to
the town of Rotterdam. The word of command, "STOP HER!" was loudly
vociferated by a bluff, short, Dirk Hatteraick-looking pilot, who
had come on board off the Briell. "Stop her!" was just heard faintly
echoed from below, by the invisible exhausted sallow being who had had,
during the voyage, charge of the engine. The paddles, in obedience
to the mandate, ceased--then gave two turns--ceased,--turned once
again--paused,--gave one last struggle, when, our voyage being over,
the vessel's side slightly bumped against the pier.
With a noise like one of Congreve's rockets, the now useless steam
was immediately exploded by the pale being below, and, in a few
seconds, half the passengers were seen on shore, hurrying in different
directions about a town full of canals and spirit shops.
"Compared with Greece and Italy--Holland is but a platter-faced,
cold-gin-and-water country, after all!" said I to myself, as I entered
the great gate of the _Hôtel des Pays-Bas_; "and a heavy, barge-built,
web-footed race are its inhabitants," I added, as I passed a huge
amphibious wench on the stairs, who, with her stern towards me, was
sluicing the windows with water: "however, there is fresh air, and
that, with solitude, is all I here desire!" This frail sentimental
sentence was hardly concluded, when a Dutch waiter (whose figure I will
not misrepresent by calling him "garcon") popped a long carte, or bill
of fare, into my hands, which severely reproved me for having many
other wants besides those so simply expressed in my soliloquy.
As I did not feel equal to appearing in public, I had dinner apart
in my own room; and, as soon as I came to that part of the ceremony
called dessert, I gradually raised my eyes from the field of battle,
until leaning backwards in my chair to ruminate, I could not help
first admiring, for a few moments, the height and immense size of an
apartment, in which there seemed to be elbow-room for a giant.
Close before the window was the great river upon whose glassy surface
I had often and often been a traveller; and, flowing beneath me, it
occurred to me, as I sipped my wine, that in its transit, or course of
existence, it had attained at Rotterdam, as nearly as possible, the
same period in its life as my own. Its birth, its froward infancy, and
its wayward youth, were remote distances to which even fancy could now
scarcely re-transport us. In its full vigour, the Rhine had been doomed
turbulently to struggle with difficulties and obstructions which had
seemed almost capable of arresting it in its course; and if there was
now nothing left in its existence worth admiring--if its best scenery
had vanished--if its boundaries had become flat, and its banks insipid,
still there was an expansion in its broader surface, and a deep-settled
stillness in its course, which seemed to offer tranquillity instead
of ecstasy, and perfect contentment instead of imperfect joy. I felt
that in the whole course of the river there was no part of it I desired
to exchange for the water flowing slowly before me; and though it
must very shortly, I knew, be lost in the ocean, that great emblem
of eternity, yet in every yard of its existence that fate had been
foretold to it.
Not feeling disposed again so immediately to endure the confinement of
a vessel, I walked out, and succeeded in hiring a carriage, which, in
two days, took me to Cologne, and the following morning I accordingly
embarked, _at six o'clock_, in a steam-boat, which was to reach
Coblentz in eleven hours.
As everybody, now-a-days, has been up the Rhine, I will only say,
that I started in a fog, and, for a couple of hours, was very coolly
enveloped in it. My _compagnons de voyage_ were tricolored--Dutch,
German and French; and, excepting always myself, there was nothing
English--nothing, at least, but a board, which sufficiently explained
the hungry, insatiable inquisitiveness of our travellers. The black
thing hung near the tiller, and upon it there was painted, in white
letters, the following sentence, which I copied literatim:--
"Enfering any conversation with the Steersner and Pilotes is desired
to be forborn."
On account of the fog, we could see nothing, yet, once or twice, we
steered towards the tinkling invitation of a bell; stopped for a
moment--took in passengers, and proceeded. The manner in which these
Rhine steam-vessels receive and deliver passengers, carriages, and
horses, is most admirable: at each little village, the birth of a new
traveller, or the death or departure of an old one, does not detain the
vessel ten seconds: but the little ceremony being over, on it instantly
proceeds, worming and winding its way towards its destination.
Formerly, and until lately, a few barges, towed by horses, were
occasionally seen toiling against the torrent of the Rhine, while
immense rafts of timber, curiously connected together, floated
indolently downward to their market: in history, therefore, this
uncommercial river was known principally for its violence, its
difficulties, and its dangers. Excepting to the painter, its points
most distinguished were those where armies had succeeded in crossing,
or where soldiers had perished in vainly attempting to do so; but the
power of steam, bringing its real character into existence, has lately
developed peaceful properties which it was not known to have possessed.
The stream which once relentlessly destroyed mankind, now gives to
thousands their bread;--that which once separated nations, now brings
them together;--national prejudices, which, it was once impiously
argued, this river was wisely intended to maintain, are, by its waters,
now softened and decomposed: in short, the Rhine affords another proof
that there is nothing really barren in creation but man's conceptions,
nothing defective but his own judgment, and that what he looked upon as
a barrier in Europe, was created to become one of the great pavés in
the world.
As the vessel proceeded towards Coblentz, it continually paused in
its fairy course, apparently to barter and traffic in the prisoners
it contained--sometimes stopping off one little village, it exchanged
an infirm old man for two country girls; and then, as if laughing at
its bargain, gaily proceeding, it paused before another picturesque
hamlet, to give three Prussian soldiers of the 36th regiment for a
husband, a mother, and a child; once it delivered an old woman, and got
nothing;--then, luckily, it received two carriages for a horse, and
next it stopped a second to take up a tall, thin, itinerant poet, who,
as soon as he had collected from every passenger a small contribution,
for having recited two or three little pieces, was dropped at the next
village, ready to board the steam-vessel coming down from Mainz.
In one of these cartels, or exchanges of prisoners, we received on
board Sir ---- and Lady ----, a young fashionable English couple, who
having had occasion, a fortnight before, to go together to St-George's
Church, had (like dogs suffering from hydrophobia or tin canisters)
been running straight forwards ever since. As hard as they could
drive, they had posted to Dover--hurried across to Calais--thence to
Brussels--snapped a glance at the ripe corn waving on the field of
Waterloo,--stared at the relics of that great _Saint_, old Charlemagne,
on the high altar of Aix-la-Chapelle, and at last sought for rest
and connubial refuge at Coln; but the celebrated water of that town,
having in its manufacture evidently abstracted all perfume from the
atmosphere, they could not endure the dirt and smell of the place, and,
therefore, had proceeded by land towards Coblentz; but, as they were
changing horses at a small village, seeing our steam-boat in view,
they ordered a party of peasants to draw their carriage to the banks
of the river, and as soon as our vessel, which came smoking alongside,
began to hiss, they, their rosy, fresh-coloured French maid, their
dark, chocolate-coloured chariot, and their brown, ill-looking Italian
courier, came on board.
As soon as this young London couple lightly stepped on deck, I saw, at
one glance, that without at all priding themselves on their abilities,
they fancied, and indeed justly fancied, that they belonged to that
class of society which, in England, so modestly calls itself--_good_.
That it was not healthy society--that its victims were exposed to
late hours, crowded rooms, and impure air, was evident enough from
the contrast which existed between their complexions, and that of
their healthy country attendant; however, they seemed not only to be
perfectly satisfied with themselves, and the clique which they had
left behind them, but to have a distaste for everything else they saw.
Towards some German ladies, who had slightly bowed to them as they
passed, they looked with a vacant haughty stare, as if they conceived
there must be some mistake, and as if, at all events, it would be
necessary to keep such people off. Yet, after all, there was no great
harm in these two young people: that, in the countries which they
were about to visit, they would be fitted only for each other, was
sadly evident; however, on the other hand, it was also evidently their
wish not to extend their acquaintance. Their heads were lanthorns,
illuminated with no more brains than barely sufficient to light them
on their way; and so, like the babes in the wood, they sat together,
hand-in-hand, regardless of everything in creation but themselves.
For running their carriage down to the shore, the brown confidential
courier, whose maxim was, of course, to pay little and charge much,
offered the gang of peasants some kreutzers, which amounted, in English
currency, to about sixpence. This they refused, and the captain of the
party, while arguing with the flint-skinning courier, was actually
carried off by our steam-boat, which, like time and tide, waited for no
man. The poor fellow, finding that the Italian was immoveable, came
aft to the elegant English couple, who were still leaning towards each
other like the Siamese boys. He pleaded his case, stated his services,
declared his poverty, and, in a manly voice, prayed for redress. The
dandy listened--looked at his boots, which were evidently pinching
him,--listened--passed four white fingers through the curls of his
jet-black hair--showed the point of a pink tongue gently playing with a
front tooth, and when the vulgar story was at an end, without moving a
muscle in his countenance, in a sickly tone of voice, he pronounced his
verdict as follows ........ "_Alley!_"
The creditor tried again, but the debtor sat as silent and as inanimate
as a corpse. However, all this time the steam-boat dragging the poor
peasant out of his way, he protested in a few angry exclamations
against the injustice with which he had been treated (a sentiment
I was very sorry to hear more than once mildly whispered by many a
quiet-looking German), and descending the vessel's side into a small
boat, which had just brought us a new captive, he landed at a village
from which he had about eight miles to walk to join his comrades.
It is with no satirical feeling that I have related this little
occurrence. To hurt the feelings of "gay beings born to flutter but a
day"--to break such a pair of young, flimsy butterflies upon the wheel,
affords me neither amusement nor delight; but the every-day occurrence
of English travellers committing our well-earned national character for
justice and liberality to the base, slave-driving hand of a courier,
is a practice which, as well as the bad taste of acting the part of a
London dandy on the great theatre of Europe, ought to be checked.
As we proceeded up the Rhine, there issued from one of the old romantic
castles we were passing a party of young English lads, whose appearance
(as soon as they came on board) did ample justice to their country;
and, comparing them while they walked the deck, with the rest of their
fellow-prisoners, I could not help more than once fancying that I saw a
determination in their step, a latent character in their attitudes, and
a vigour in their young frames, which being interpreted, said--
"We dare do all that doth become a man,
He who dares more--is none!"
Besides these young collegians, an English gentleman came on board,
who appeared quite delighted to join their party. He was a stout man,
of about fifty, tall, well-dressed, evidently wealthy, and as ruddy
as our mild wholesome air could make him. Not only had he a high
colour, but there was a network of red veins in his cheeks, which
seemed as if not even death could drive it away: his face shone from
excessive cleanliness, and though his nose certainly was not long,
there was a sort of round bull-dog honesty in his face, which it was
quite delightful to gaze upon. I overheard this good man inform his
countrymen, who had surrounded him in a group, that he had never
before been out of England--and that, to tell the truth, he never
wished to quit it again! "It's surely beautiful scenery!" observed
one of his auditors, pointing to the outline of a ruin which, with
the rock upon which it stood, seemed flying away behind us. "Yes,
yes!" replied the florid traveller. "But, sir! it's the dirtiness of
the people I complain of. Their cookery is dirty--they are dirty in
their persons--dirty in their habits--that shocking trick of smoking
(pointing to a fat German who was enjoying this pleasure close by
his side, and who I rather suspect perfectly understood English) is
dirty--depend upon it, they are what we should call, sir, a very dirty
race!" "Do you speak the language?" said one of the young listeners
with a smile which was very awkwardly repressed. "Oh, no!" replied
the well-fed gentleman, laughing good-naturedly: "I know nothing of
their language. I pay for all I eat, and I find, by paying, I can
get anything I want. "_Mangez! changez!_" is quite foreign language
enough, sir, for _me_;" and having to the first word suited his action,
by pointing with his fore-finger to his mouth, and to explain the
second, having rubbed his thumb against the self-same finger, as if it
were counting out money, he joined the roar of laughter which his two
French words had caused, and then very good-naturedly paced the deck by
himself.
The jagged spires of Coblentz now came in sight, and every Englishman
walked to the head of the vessel to see them, while several of the
inhabitants of the city, with less curiosity, occupied themselves in
leisurely getting together their luggage. For a moment, as we glided
by the Moselle, on our right, we looked up the course of that lovely
river, which here delivers up its waters to the Rhine; in a few minutes
the bell on board rang, and continued to ring, until we found ourselves
firmly moored to the pier of Coblentz. Most of the passengers went
into the town. I, however, crossing the bridge of boats, took up my
quarters at the Cheval Blanc, a large hotel, standing immediately
beneath that towering rock so magnificently crowned by the celebrated
fortress of Ehrenbreitstein.