Journey from Paris to Lausanne--Besançon--French refugees in
Lausanne--François Lamarque--General Espinassy--Bordas--Gautier--Michau--
M. de Laharpe--Mlle Michaud--Levade, a Protestant minister--Chambéry--Aix--
Details about M. de Boigne's career in India--English Toryism and
intolerance--Valley of Maurienne--Passage across Mont Cenis and arrival at
Suza--Turin.
LAUSANNE, July 8th.
Departing from Paris on the 24th June, 1816, I varied my journey into
Switzerland this time, for instead of travelling thro' Lyons or Dole, I
took the route of Besangon, Pontarlier, Jougne and Orbe. The country
between Dijon and Besançon is a rich and fertile plain. At Besançon the
mountainous country begins; it is a strong fortress, and the last
considerable town of the French frontier. It lies in a very picturesque
situation, being nearly environed by the Doubs, which meanders under its
walls, and by very lofty mountains; on the other side of the Doubs stands
the citadel, its chief strength. The town of Besangon is exceedingly
handsome and well built, and there are several agreeable promenades, two of
which I must particularize, viz., the promenade de Chamarre and the garden
of the Palace of Granvelle. There are besides several Roman antiquities and
the remains of a large amphitheatre. I amused myself very well for a couple
of days at Besançon, and met with some agreeable society at the _Hôtel de
France_ where I lodged. I left Besançon at eight in the morning of the 30th
June, and arrived at Pontarlier at six the same evening. Pontarlier is a
dreary, melancholy looking place, consisting of a very long street and
several offsets of streets, situated in the midst of mountains, eternally
covered with snow. Winter reigns here during nine months of the year. At
Pontarlier the whole garrison were under arms, when I arrived, to pay the
last duties to a most respectable and respected officer, whose death was
occasioned by falling into the river, while at the _necessary_, by the
under board giving way. This officer had served in almost all the campaigns
of Napoleon and had greatly distinguished himself. What a cruel death for a
warrior who had been in fifty battles! That death should have shunned him
in the field of battle, to make him fall in a manner at once inglorious and
ridiculous! yet such is destiny. Pyrrhus fell by a tile flung from a house
by an old woman, and I am acquainted with a gallant captain in the British
Navy who lost his leg by amputation, having broken it (oh horror!) by a
fall from the top of a stage coach.
I left Pontarlier on the 2d July, and arrived at Lausanne the same evening
at five o'clock. On my return to Lausanne I had the pleasure to form an
acquaintance with several eminent Frenchmen proscribed and banished from
France, on account of having voted the death of Louis XVI, as members of
the National Convention, which tried him, and for having voted, after the
return of Napoleon from Elba, the _Acte additionnel_, which excluded the
Bourbons for ever from the throne of France, Among them are, 1st, Monsieur
Lamarque, who was one of the commissioners sent by the Convention to arrest
Dumouriez, but being seized by him, and delivered over to the Austrians, he
passed some time in captivity and was at length released, by being
exchanged with some others against the Duchess d'Angoulême.[67] He is a
very able man and seems to have far more political talent than any of the
other _Conventionnels_ who are here. On Napoleon's return from Elba he
voted for him, but made strong objections against the formation of a
peerage, which he said was perfectly useless in France, and pregnant with
mischief to boot, as it would only serve as an _appui_ to despotism. He
wrote a pamphlet with some excellent remarks on this, subject. He therein
points out the evils of an hereditary Chamber, and of a priviledged
aristocracy, who have nothing to expect from the people, but all from the
Prince; and in its stead he proposes an additional elective Chamber,
something on the plan of the Senate in America, but he decidedly reprobates
an hereditary peerage.
The next is General Espinassy, a very good classical scholar and a most
upright and amiable man.[68] In his vote he was solely influenced by strong
but conscienscious republican principles; he resides here with his wife and
two sons; he was considered as one of the best engineer officers in France
and he opposed the nomination of Napoleon to the Imperial dignity in 1804.
Another, M. Bordas,[69] opposed Napoleon's assumption of the Consulship on
the 18th Brumaire, and was proscribed by him for a short time, but
afterwards amnestied and received into favour. He gave his vote for
Napoleon on the _Champ de Mai_ in 1815, but accompanied this vote by a bold
speech towards Napoleon wherein he found fault with his former despotic
practises, and reminded him of the solemnity of his promise to govern in
future paternally and nationally, as became the sovereign of a free people.
M. Bordas is a very cheerful, lively, companionable man and tho' seventy
years of age, he has an uncommon share of vivacity, with something of the
_ci-devant jeune homme_ about him, and He is pleased to be considered still
as a man _à bonnes fortunes_.
The next to him is M. Gauthier, who had been a lawyer, and held a
considerable post as a magistrate in the time of the Republic and under the
Empire.[70] He possesses a good deal of talent, close logical reasoning,
and has determined public principle.
The next, M. Michaud, had been also an advocate, and is possessor of
considerable property in the department of the Doubs;[71] he is a most
rigid unbending republican, something in the style of Verrina in Schiller's
_Fiesco_; he opposed the assumption of the supreme power by Buonaparte on
the 18th Brumaire; he voted against the Consulship for life, as well as
against the assumption of the Imperial dignity. He is a very good classical
scholar. He is a widower and has with him here Mlle Elisa, his only
daughter, who follows her father's fortunes. She is a very amiable and
accomplished young lady; she has a thorough knowledge of music and of
painting in oils, and is classically versed in the Italian language. I soon
became acquainted with the whole of these illustrious exiles, and I find
great delight and instruction from their conversation; and this is a great
relief to me, for the life one leads in a Swiss town is rather monotonous.
LAUSANNE.
I dine very often with my neighbour the Baron de Falkenskioeld, and at his
house I became acquainted with M. de Laharpe, who was preceptor to the
present Emperor of Russia. He is a native of this Canton, and has returned
here to pass the remainder of his life. He is married to a very amiable
Russian lady, and having acquired a pretty good fortune in Russia, he lives
here very happily and comfortably; but notwithstanding this, he is often
tempted to visit Paris, Milan and other great cities, and when there, sighs
to return to his native mountains.
As the Ultras of France bear a great hatred towards the inhabitants of the
Canton de Vaud, on account of the asylum given and sympathy shown to the
_proscrits_, they have been at the pains of trumping up and printing a
pretended petition from the inhabitants of the department of the Doubs,
praying that the French Government would endeavor to obtain the removal of
these _proscrits_ from the Canton de Vaud, and stating that the said Canton
was the _foyer_ of Jacobinical principles, and the place where Napoleon's
return from Elba was planned and accelerated, and thro' which the
conveyance of intelligence backwards and forwards was conducted. I have no
doubt that in this petition more is meant than meets the ear; that the
Oligarchs of Bern, as well as the Ultras of France, have a share in it, and
that it may be considered not so much as an attempt to compel the Canton to
refuse asylum to these exiles, as to excite the Great Powers to enforce the
abolition of the independence of Vaud, and to replace it under the dominion
and authority of the Canton of Bern.
Everybody here, however, sees thro' the drift of this petition, and many
persons whose names are put down as having signed it, have written to their
friends at Lausanne, to declare not only that they never signed such a
petition, but their entire ignorance even of the agitation of the question
till they saw the petition itself in print. The French government, however,
has not ventured to act any further upon it, than to make a pompous display
of the royalist zeal and _bon esprit_ that pervades the Department of the
Doubs.
I see a good deal of Mlle Michaud. I find her conversation extremely
agreeable. She had lent to me an Italian work by Verri entitled _Le notti
Romane al sepolcro di Stipione_. She is a very rigid Catholic, having been
educated by a priest of very strict ideas. Her devotion however does not
render her less cheerful or less amiable. She having expressed a wish to
hear the Protestant church service, I offered to accompany her and we went
together one Sunday to the Cathedral Church at Lausanne. But it
unfortunately happened that on that day a sermon was preached which must
have given a great deal of pain to her filial feelings. Mr Levade, the
minister, took it into his head to give a political sermon, in which, after
a great deal of commonplace abuse of Voltaire, Rousseau and the French
Revolution, and very fulsome adulation towards the English government (a
subject which was brought in by the head and shoulders), of that _island_
(as he termed it) _surrounded by the Ocean_, he lavished a great deal of
still more fulsome adulation on the Bourbons; and then most wantonly and
unnecessarily began a furious declamation against the _régicides_ as he
termed them, who had taken refuge in the Canton, and intimated pretty
plainly how pleasing it would be to God Almighty that they should be
expelled from it. This intolerant discourse, more worthy of a raving Jesuit
than of a Protestant minister, was deservedly scouted by the inhabitants of
Lausanne; but this did not hinder poor Mlle Michaud from being much
affected at the opprobrious tirade directed against a set of men, among
whom her father bore a conspicuous part, and who acted from patriotic
motives. I must not omit to state that in this discourse M. Levade
interwove some hyperbolical compliments towards the young Prince of Sweden,
who attended the service that morning. He told him that the eyes of all
Europe were fixed upon him, and that Providence had him under his especial
care.
Now the following is the character of M. Levade.[72] He is a time-serving,
meddling priest, and a most flagrant adulator of the powers that be. He
thinks that by declaiming against the French Revolution, and against
Voltaire and Rousseau, that he will get into favor with the great people
who pass thro' Lausanne, with the French and English Government adherents,
and with the great Tory families of England. No considerable personage ever
passes through Lausanne, but Mr Levade is the first to make him a visit;
and no rich or noble English family arrives with whom he does not
ingratiate himself, and he is not sparing of his adulations. This mode of
procedure has been a very profitable concern to him, as he has received a
vast number of presents, and several valuable legacies, besides securing a
number of pupils among the English families, that come or that have been
here. He is in short a thorough parasite and time server, in every sense of
the word. This adulation of the Bourbon family in his sermon, besides the
meanness of it, was highly misplaced, coming from the mouth of a Protestant
minister, and somebody exclaimed on leaving the Church: "_Que doit-on
penser d'un ministre protestant du Canton de Vaud, qui prodigue des
louanges à une famille qui a été l'ennemie acharnée de l'Elise reformée, et
qui a persécuté les protestants d'une manière si atroce?_" But Mr Levade
(tho' to the honor of the clergymen of the Canton de Vaud he is singular
among _them_), yet he has many persons who perfectly resemble him among the
members of the Church of England, and who are as eager to support despotism
and to crush liberty as any disciple of Loyola or any Janissary of the
Grand Signor. The other Protestant ministers of this Canton were highly
indignant at this sermon; in fact, it was the first time in this city that
the House of God had been profaned by the introduction of political
subjects into a religious discourse. This sermon was the common topic of
conversation for many days after.
CHAMBÉRY, 2d August.
I left Lausanne for Geneva on 28 July. I stopped at Nyon to pay a visit to
Mme Duthon, with whom I became acquainted at Paris. I dined with her and
passed a most agreeable day. Her talents are of the first order, and she is
as great an enthusiast for the German language and litterature as myself,
besides being well versed in Italian. She had a female relation with her.
We took a boat after dinner to navigate the lake, and we visited the
Château and domains of Joseph Napoleon. The next day I proceeded to Geneva.
I determined on making the journey into Italy this time by Mont-Cenis, and
to make it on foot as far as the foot of Mont-Cenis on the Italian side,
intending to profit of the opportunity of the first conveyance I should
meet with at Suza to proceed to Turin. I accordingly forwarded my
portmanteau to Turin to the care of a banker there, and sallied forth from
Geneva at six o'clock on the morning of 1st August.
I stopped to dine at Frangy and reached Romilly at seven in the evening.
There is nothing worthy of remark at Romilly. The next morning I stopped at
Aix to breakfast, and visited the bath establishment. The scenery is
picturesque on this route, and the whole road from Aix to Chambéry is
aligned with remarkably fine large trees. At three in the afternoon I
arrived at Chambéry, the capital of Savoy. It is a large handsome city,
situated in a fruitful valley, with a great many gardens and orchards
surrounding it. There is a strong garrison here. Among the many _maisons de
plaisance_ in the environs of this city, the most distinguishable is the
villa of General De Boigne, who has passed the greatest part of his life in
India, in the service of Scindiah, one of the Mahratta chiefs;[73] and it
was by De Boigne's assistance that Scindiah, from being a petty chief, with
not more than three or four hundred horse, became the founder of a powerful
kingdom, comprized chiefly of the provinces of the Ganges and Jumna, torn
from the Mogol Empire, whose Sovereign fell into the hands of Scindiah.
Scindiah caused the Mogol Emperor's eyes to be put out, and kept him as a
state prisoner in Delhi, till the year 1805, when on the Mahrattas engaging
in war with the English, Scindiah was defeated by Lake and lost the greater
part of his conquests. De Boigne had quitted India in 1796, long before
this rupture took place, and at that time Scindiah had a fine regular army
of thirty battalions of 1,000 men, each disciplined, armed and equipped in
the European manner. He had likewise sixty squadrons of regular cavalry and
a formidable train of artillery. At Chambéry I met with two French
_voyageurs de commerce_, who with that positiveness, which is often the
national characteristic, insisted that De Boigne owed his riches and
fortune to his treachery, in having betrayed and sold Tippoo Saib to the
English, when he was in Tippoo's service; and I find this is the current
report all over Savoy.
Now it is an accusation totally devoid of foundation, as I shall presently
show; and I took this opportunity of vindicating the reputation of De
Boigne, by simply stating that De Boigne could never have betrayd Tippoo,
since he was never in his service; 2dly, that he had, when in the service
of Scindiah, fought against Tippoo, when the Mahrattas coalesced with the
English against that Prince in 1792; and that had it not been for the
assistance given by the Mahrattas to the English (a most impolitic
coalition on the part of the Mahrattas, as it turned out afterwards),
Tippoo would not have been compelled to conclude so humiliating a treaty of
peace; 3dly, that De Boigne had quitted India in 1796, three years before
the second war and death of Tippoo in 1799. I stated, too, that I was
perfectly well acquainted with these particulars of De Boigne's career,
from having served six years in India, and from having been personally
acquainted with a gentleman of the name of Lucius Ferdinand Smith, who was
the ultimate friend of De Boigne and his lieutenant general in the service
of Scindiah; I added that I could not conceive how so unjust and unfounded
an aspersion on De Boigne's character could find currency.
I hope that what I said will be effectual towards doing away this injurious
report; but very probably it will not, for when the vulgar once imbibe an
opinion, it is difficult to eradicate it from their minds, and they are not
at all obliged to the person who endeavors to undeceive them, so that
General De Boigne's treachery and sale of Tippoo to the English will be
handed down to posterity among the Savoyards, as a fact of which it will be
as little permitted to doubt as of the treachery of Judas.
CHAMBÉRY, August 3d.
At the _table d'hôte_ this day I nearly lost all patience on hearing an
elderly English gentleman extolling the English Ministry to the skies, and
abusing the army of the Loire, calling them rebels and traitors. I stood up
in defence of these gallant men, and stated that the French Army in the
time of the Republic and of the Empire were the most constitutional of all
the European armies, since they were taken from and identified with the
people; and that it was this brotherly feeling for their fellow citizens
that induced them to join the standards of Napoleon, on his return from
Elba; that they only followed the voice of the nation; that all France was
indignant at the tergiversation and breach of faith on the part of the
restored Government, in a variety of instances; and that, had Napoleon and
the army been out of the question, the Bourbons would not have failed to be
upset, from the indignation their measures had excited among the people. He
then said that the Army of the Loire was a most dangerous body of men, and
that that was the reason why the Allies insisted on their being disbanded.
I replied that this was the highest compliment he could pay them, and the
greatest feather in their cap, since it went to prove, that as long as this
Army was in existence, neither the crowned despots, nor the Ultras thought
themselves safe; and that they could not venture to pursue their
anti-national projects, which were all directed towards depriving the
French people of all they had gained by the Revolution and bringing them
back to the _blessings_ of the ancient _régime_. He could say nothing in
reply, but that he feared I had Jacobin principles, to which I made
rejoinder: "If these be Jacobin principles, I glory in them." Some
Sardinian officers, who were present, seemed to enjoy my argument, tho'
they said nothing; and one took me aside, when we quitted the table, and
said he rejoiced to see me take the old man in hand, as he disgusted them
every day by his tirades against the liberal party, and by his fulsome
adulations of the British Government. The old gentleman held forth likewise
in a long speech respecting the finances of England, in praise of the
sinking fund, and when it was suggested to him that England from the
immense national debt must one day become bankrupt: "_Non, Monsieur_," (he
said),"_la Caisse d'Amortissement empêchera cela_." In fine, the _Caisse
d'Amortissement_ was to work miracles. I replied that the principle of the
_Caisse d'Amortissement_ was good, provided a constant and consistent
economy were practised; but that at present and during the whole time from
its establishment, it had been a mockery on the understanding of the
Nation, when we reflected on the profligate expenditure of public money,
occasioned by the ruinous, unjust and liberticide wars, which were entered
into and fomented by the British Government. Indeed, I said it was like the
conduct of a man who possessing an income of 200£ per annum, should set
apart, in a box as a _Caisse d'épargne_, 20£ annually, and at the same time
continue a style of living, the annual expence of which would so far exceed
his income, as to oblige him to borrow 7 or 800£ every year. The old
gentleman was all amort at this comparison, which must be obvious to every
one. Nothing shows in a more glaring light the blind and superstitious
reverence paid to great names; for because this sinking fund was proposed
by Pitt, all his adherents extol it to the skies, without analysing it, and
give him besides the credit of an invention to which he had no right
whatever.
ST JEAN DE MAURIENNE.
I started from Chambéry on the morning of the fourth of August, and stopped
at Montmélian to breakfast. Here begins the valley of Maurienne, and as
this valley, along which the road is cut, is extremely narrow, being hemmed
in on each side by the High Alps, Montmélian, which stands on an eminence
in the centre of the valley (the road running thro' the town), must be a
post of the utmost importance towards the defence of this pass. It was a
fortified place of great consideration in the former wars, and if the
fortifications were repaired and improved, it might be made almost
impregnable, as it would enfilade the road on each side. From the
above-mentioned features of the ground, the valley narrowing more and more
as you proceed, from the high mountains that align it and from its
sinuosities, it follows that at every angle or curve caused by these
sinuosities, you appear as if you were shut out from all the rest of the
world and could proceed no further. The river Isère runs thro' and parallel
with this valley. It rises in the mountains of Savoy and falls into the
Rhône in Dauphiné. I passed the night at Aiguebelle.
From Aiguebelle to St Jean de Maurienne is twelve leagues, and I found
myself so tired with walking, and my legs from being swelled gave me so
much pain, that I determined to give up the _gloriole_ of making the whole
journey on foot as I intended and to remain here for two days to repose and
then profit by the first conveyance that might pass to conduct me to Turin.
From Aiguebelle the valley becomes still more narrow, and there is a
continual ascent, tho' it is so gentle as scarcely to be perceptible. Every
spot of ground in this valley, which will admit of cultivation, is put to
profit by the industry of the inhabitants. Here one sees beans, indian
corn, and even wines; for the heat is very great indeed in summer and
autumn, owing to the rays of the sun being concentrated, as it were, into a
focus, in this narrow valley, and were the bed of the Isère to be deepened,
or were it less liable to overflow, from the melting of the snow in spring
and summer, much land, which is now a marsh, might be applied to
agricultural purposes. The inhabitants of this valley regret very much the
separation of Savoy from France, as during the time that Duchy was annexed
to the French Empire, each peasant possessing an ass could earn three
franks per diem in transporting merchandise across Mont-Cenis. St Jean de
Maurienne is a neat little town. I put up at the same inn, and slept in the
same bedroom which was occupied by poor Didier who was put to death at
Grenoble for having raised the standard of liberty. He was surprized here
in bed by the _Carabiniere Reali_ of the Sardinian government, those
satellites of despotism; and according to the barbarous principles laid
down by the crowned heads, delivered over to the French authorities. I
observed a great many _crétins_ in this valley.
SUZA, 10th August.
On the morning of the 8th August two _vetturini_ passed by the inn at St
Jean de Maurienne, and I engaged a place in one of them, as far as Turin.
We arrived at the village of Modena in the evening. The landscape is much
the same as what we have hitherto passed, but the climate is considerably
colder, from the land being more elevated. Hitherto I had suffered much
inconvenience from the heat. The next morning we reached Lans-le-Bourg, the
last town of Savoy lying at the foot of Mount Cenis.
After breakfast we began the ascent of Mont Cenis, and I made the whole way
from Lans-le-Bourg to the _Hospice_ of Mont Cenis, that is, the whole
ascent, a distance of twenty-five Italian miles, on foot. This _chaussée_
is another wonderful piece of work of Napoleon; a broad carriage road, wide
enough for three carriages to go abreast, and cut zig-zag with so gentle a
slope as to allow a heavy French diligence to pass, with the utmost ease,
across a mountain where it was formerly thought impossible a wheel could
ever run. This _chaussée_ is passable at all seasons of the year; the
mountain is not so high as that of the Simplon and is less liable to
impediments from the snow; the obstacles from nature are less, and you can
descend in a sledge from the _Hospice_ by gliding down the side of the
cone, and thus descending in nine or ten minutes, whereas the ascent
requires four hours' time. From Lans-le-Bourg to the _Hospice_ on
Mont-Cenis the road is on the flank of an immense mountain and you have no
ravines to cross; the road is cut zig-zag on the flank of the mountain and
forms a considerable number of very acute angles, as it is made with so
gentle a slope that you scarcely feel the difficulty of the ascent. These
repeated zig-zags and acute angles formed by the road, and the very slight
slope given to the ascent, make the different branches appear to be almost
parallel to each other, and it is a very curious and novel sight when a
number of carriages are travelling together on this road to see them with
their horses' heads turned different ways, yet all following the same
course, just like ships on different tacks beating against the wind to
arrive at the same port, a comparison that could not fail immediately to
occur to a sailor. There is scarcely ever any detention on this road from
the fall of snow, as there are a considerable number of persons employed to
_deblay_ it as soon as it falls; but here, as well as on the Simplon, there
are _maisons de refuge_ at a short distance from each other. We stopped for
two hours at the inn at Mont-Cenis, which is about one hundred yards from
the _Hospice_. It was a remarkable fine day, and I enjoyed my walk very
much. The mountain air was keen and bracing and particularly delightful
after being shut up for some many days in the close valley. We had some
excellent trout for dinner. At Mont-Cenis, near the _Hospice_, is a large
lake which is frozen during eight months of the year. Here reigns eternal
winter and the mountains are covered with snows that never melt. From
Mont-Cenis to Suza the descent is very grand and striking, and the scenery
resembles that of the Simplon; there are more obstacles of nature than on
the former part of the road, and here ravines are connected by the means of
bridges, and there are subterraneous galleries to pass thro. Several
_chutes d'eau_ are here observable; one of them I cannot avoid mentioning,
as being very magnificent. It is formed by the Cenischia[74] which divides
Savoy from Piedmont and runs into the Dora at Suza. We were highly
gratified at the sight of the sublime scenery on all sides, and at the
magnificent _chaussée_, and we all (I mean the passengers in the two
coaches and myself) did hommage to the mighty genius who conceived and
caused to be executed such a stupendous work. We arrived at Suza at six
o'clock p.m.
TURIN, 18th August.
Suza is a tolerably large town and has a neat appearance. It is commanded
and defended by the fort of Brunetti, now dismantled, but which is to be
repaired according to the treaty of 1815. It will then be a very important
post and completely barr the pass of Suza. The road from Suza to Rivoli is
thro' a valley widening at every step; at Rivoli you _débouche_ at once
from the gorge of the mountain into a boundless plain. The road is then on
a magnificent _chaussée_ the whole way to Turin, and every vegetable
production announces a change of climate to those coming from Savoy. Here
are fields of wheat, indian corn, mulberry and elm trees and vines hung in
festoons from tree to tree, which give a most picturesque appearance to the
landscape, and, together with the country houses, serve as a relief to the
boundless plain. The _chaussée_ is lined with trees on each side the whole
way from Rivoli to Turin; I observed among carriages of all sorts small
cars, like those used by children, drawn by dogs. These cars contain one
person each. They are frequent in this part of the country, and such a
conveyance is called a _cagnolino_. The Convent of St Michael, situated on
an immense height to the right of the road between Suza and Rivoli, is a
very striking object. The mountain forms a single cone and it appears
impossible to reach the summit except on the back of a Hippogriff:
E ben appar che d'animal ch'abbia ale
Sia questa stanza nido o tana propria.[75]
The castle seemed the very neat and lair
Of animal, supplied with plume and quill.
--Trans. W.S. ROSE.
TURIN, 14 August.
Turin is a large, extremely fine and regular city, with all the streets
built at right angles. The shops are very brilliant; the two _Places_, the
_Piazza del Castello_ and the _Piazza di San Carlo_, are very spacious and
striking, and there are arcades on each side of the quadrangle formed by
them. The _Contrada del Po_ (for in Turin the streets are called
_Contrade_) leads down to the Po, and is one of the best streets in Turin.
Over the Po is a superb bridge built by Napoleon. In the centre of the
_Piazza del Castello_ stands the Royal Palace, and on one side of the
_Piazza_ the Grand Opera house. The streets in Turin are kept clean by
sluices. The favorite promenades are, during the day, under the arcades of
the _Piazza del Castello_ and those of the _Contrada del Po_; and in the
evening round the ramparts of the city, or rather on the site where the
ramparts stood. The French, on blowing up the ramparts, laid out the space
occupied by them in walks aligned by trees. The fortifications of the
citadel were likewise destroyed.
In the Cathedral Church here the most remarkable thing is the _Chapelle du
Saint Suaire_ (holy winding sheet). It is of a circular form, is inlaid
with black marble and admits scarce any light; so that it has more the
appearance of a Mausoleum than of a Chapel. It reminded me of the _Palace
of Tears_ in the Arabian Nights.
In the environs of Turin, the most remarkable buildings are a villa
belonging to the King called _La Venezia_, and the _Superga_, a magnificent
church built on an eminence, five miles distant from Turin. In the Royal
Palace, on the _Piazza del Castello_, there is some superb furniture, but
the exterior is simple enough. The country environing Turin forms a plain
with gentle undulations, increasing in elevation towards the Alps, which
are forty miles distant, and is so stocked with villas, gardens and
orchards as to form a very agreeable landscape. From the steeple of the
_Superga_ the view is very fine.
In the University of Turin is a very good _Cabinet d'Histoire naturelle_,
containing a great variety of beasts, birds and fishes stuffed and
preserved; there is also a Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy, and various
imitations in wax of anatomical dissections. Among the antiquities, of
which there is a most valuable collection, are two very remarkable ones:
the one a beautiful bronze shield, found in the Po, called the shield of
Marius; it represents, in figures in bas-relief, the history of the
Jugurthine war.[76] This shield is of the most exquisite workmanship. The
other is a table of the most beautiful black marble incrusted and inlaid
with figures and hieroglyphics of silver. It is called the _Table of Isis_,
was brought from Egypt and is supposed to be of the most remote antiquity.
It is always kept polished. Among the many valuable pieces of sculpture to
be met with here is a most lovely Cupid in Parian marble. He is represented
sleeping on a lion's skin. It is the most beautiful piece of sculpture I
have ever seen next to the Apollo Belvédère and the Venus dei Medici; it
appears alive, and as if the least noise would awake it.[77]
Turin used to be in the olden time one of the most brilliant Courts and
cities in Europe, and the most abounding in splendid equipages; now very
few are to be seen. When Piedmont was torn from the domination of the House
of Savoy and annexed to France, Turin, ceasing to be the capital of a
Kingdom, necessarily decayed in splendor, nor did its being made the _Chef
lieu_ of a _Préfecture_ of the French Empire make amends for what it once
was. The Restoration arrived, but has not been able to reanimate it; an air
of dullness pervades the whole city. Obscurantism and anti-liberal ideas
are the order of the day.
I witnessed a military review at which the King of Sardinia assisted. The
troops made a very brilliant appearance and manoeuvred well. His Majesty
has a very good seat on horseback and a distinguished military air. He is a
man of honor tho' he has rather too high notions of the royal dignity and
authority, and is too much of a bigot in religion; but his word can be
depended on, a great point in a King; there are so many of them that break
theirs and falsify all their promises. He will not hear of a constitution,
and endeavors to abolish or discountenance all that has been effected
during his absence. The priests are caressed and restored to their
privileges, so that the inhabitants of Piedmont are exposed to a double
despotism, a military and a sacerdotal one; the last is ten times more
ruinous and fatal to liberty and improvement than the former.
I have put up in Turin in the _Pension Suisse_, where for seven franks per
diem I have breakfast, dinner, supper and a princely bed room. The houses
are in general lofty, spacious and on a grand scale.
[67] Francois Lamarque, born 1756, a member of the Convention, ambassador
in Sweden, prefect of the Tarn and member of the Cour de Cassation
(1804). He was exiled in 1816.--ED.
[68] Major Frye (who wrote the name Despinassy) certainly means
Antoine-Joseph Marie Espinassy de Fontanelle's (1787-1829), who was a
member of the Convention, voted the King's death and served in the
Republican army of the Alps. In 1816, he was banished and went to
Lausanne, where he died 1829.--ED.
[69] Pardoux Bordas (1748-1842) was a member of the Convention. Though he
had not voted the death of Louis XVI, he was banished from France in
1816 and did not return there before 1828.--ED.
[70] Antoine Francis Gauthier des Orcières (1752-1838) was elected to the
Etats Généraux in 1789, and, in 1792, to the Convention, where he
voted the death of Louis XVI. Later on, he was member of the Conseil
des Anoiena, juge au tribunal de la Seine and conseiller à la cour
impériale de Paris (1815). Banished in 1816, he returned to France in
1828.
[71] Jean Baptists Michaud, a member of the Directoire du département du
Doubs, and a member of the National Convention, voted the death of
Louis XVI and against the proposed appeal to the people.--ED.
[72] Jean Daniel Paul Etienne Levade (1750-1834), Protestant minister first
in England, then in Amsterdam, finally minister at Lausanne and
professor of theology at the _Académie_ of the same town.--ED.
[73] Countess de Boigne, in her interesting _Memoirs_ (of which there is an
English translation) abstained from describing her husband's career in
India; this lends additional interest to the information collected by
Major Frye,--ED.
[74] The manuscript has _Sennar_, a name quite unknown at Suza.--ED.
[75] Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, iv, 13, 5.--ED.
[76] This shield, now at the _Armoria Reale_, is not antique, but is
ascribed to Benvenuto Cellini.--ED.
[77] This statue of Cupid is not antique, and has been recently ascribed to
Michelangelo (Knapp, _Michelangelo_, p. 155.)--ED.